#battle of los angeles 2023

[urakenbomb]

credit: Kevin / 35mm_wrestling on twitter

[defenderoftheearth]

La bataille de Los Angeles 1942 : nouvel éclairage sur l'image originale

Alors que le président dormait à Washington, un énorme vaisseau spatial extraterrestre est apparu au-dessus de Los Angeles aux premières heures du 25 février 1942. Pearl Harbor venait d’être attaqué quelques mois auparavant et il y avait une véritable peur des raids japonais sur la côte ouest de l’Amérique. Mais c’était autre chose. À Culver City et Santa Monica, cet énorme objet est apparu dans…

[gloriousgwendolinechristie]

The Los Angeles Times has chosen Sandman Vs Lucifer for Epic Battle of the Year for their Envy Awards 2023!

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Ivan Campo - Dice Man 2011

Taken from the 2011 album 'What Went Wrong?', Dice Man is a song inspired by the 1970s book 'The Dice Man' by Luke Rhinehart. It tells the story of a man who decides to live his life and make decisions based on the roll of the dice.

Ivan Campo are a British indie-folk band that have been writing, recording, and performing music together for 20 years. In 2023 they released two singles: 'TIME' and 'Golden Hair' whilst they continue to record their next album - a collection of songs based on episodes of Rod Serling's 'The Twilight Zone'.

With their distinct sound of alternative folk, founding members, Adam Shaw, Ben Atha, and Will Rogers were introduced to a wider audience in 2010 when the television series 'Skins' used their song 'The Great Procrastinator' in Episode 1 / Season 4.

The group gathered more attention after Ben Atha was invited to go to Los Angeles in 2016 to play James Bond in the Epic Rap Battles of History YouTube series.

Their last album 'Season of the King' secured the band a 4th live session on BBC 6 Music, as well as a special appearance on prime time Spanish TV programme, Late Motiv, performing their Sherlock Holmes inspired song 'The Bloodhound and the Fox'.

"Dice Man" received a total of 65,7% yes votes!

Follow Ivan Campo here on tumblr! @ivancampomusic

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lois Beckett at The Guardian:

Attacks targeting American public schools over LGBTQ+ rights and education about race and racism cost those schools an estimated $3.2bn in the 2023-24 school year, according to a new report by education professors from four major American universities. The study is believed to be the first attempt to quantify the financial impact of rightwing political campaigns targeting school districts and school boards across the US. In the wake of the pandemic, these campaigns first attempted to restrict how American schools educate students about racism, and then increasingly shifted to spreading fear among parents about schools’ policies about transgender students and LGBTQ+ rights.

Researchers from UCLA, UT Austin, UC Riverside and American University surveyed 467 public school superintendents across 46 US states, asking them about the direct and indirect costs of dealing with these volatile campaigns. Those costs included everything from out-of-pocket payments to hire to lawyers or additional security, to the staff member hours devoted to responding to disinformation on social media, addressing parent concerns and replying to voluminous public records requests focused on the district’s teachings on racism, gender and sexuality. The campaigns that focused on public schools’ policies about transgender students often included lurid false claims about schools trying to change students’ gender or “indoctrinating” them into becoming gay. This disinformation sparked harassment and threats against individual teachers, school board members and administrators, with some of the fury coming from within local communities, and even more angry calls, emails and social media posts flooding in from conservative media viewers across the country.

In addition to the financial costs of responding to these targeted campaigns, the study revealed other dynamics, the researchers said. “The attack on public officials as pedophiles was one I heard again and again, from people across extremely different parts of the country: rural, urban, suburban. It speaks to the way that this really is a nationalized conflict campaign,” said John Rogers, an education professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the lead author of the study. The frequency with which both school board members and school superintendents were “being called out as sexual predators – it was really frightening”, Rogers said. Superintendents from across the country told the researchers how these culture battles had affected their schools, and cut into resources they would have preferred to spend on education.

[...] While disagreement, debate and dealing with angry parents are a normal part of local public school administration, the researchers noted, the political campaigns that schools have faced in recent years have been anything but normal. Many of them have been driven by “a small number of active individuals on social media or at school board meetings”, and fueled by misinformation. The school-focused campaigns, which started with claims that elementary and middle schools were harming white students by teaching critical race theory and later shifted to attacks on schools’ policies for transgender students, were nationally organized, with “common talking points” that could be traced back to conservative foundations and rightwing legal organizations, and were intensely amplified by rightwing media coverage, Rogers said.

Public schools across the US burned up nearly $3.2BN worth of money fending off right-wing culture war items such as book bans, anti-LGBTQ+ extremism, anti-student inclusion, and anti-racial equity policies.

See Also:

The Advocate: U.S. public schools lost $3.2 billion fighting conservative culture wars: report

[renthony]

Nov. 21, 2024:

The national furor in recent years around banning books on race and gender in public schools is intensifying as President-elect Donald Trump threatens to shut down the Department of Education, emboldening conservatives to end “wokeness” in classrooms. Battles over books in school libraries have become emblematic of the country’s larger culture wars over race, historical revisionism and gender identity. A new report by PEN America found book bans increased by nearly 200% during the 2023-24 school year, including titles on sexuality, substance abuse, depression and other issues students face in an age of accelerating technologies, climate change, toxic politics and fears about the future. Book censorship has shaken and divided school boards, pitted parents against parents, and led to threats against teachers and librarians. It is part of an agenda driven by conservative parental rights groups and politicians who promote charter schools and voucher systems that could weaken public education. The issue goes to the heart not only of what students are taught but how federal and state education policies will affect the nation’s politics after one of the most consequential elections in its history.

Read the rest from the Los Angeles Times.

[buffythecomicslayer]

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story

Release date: October 12, 2023.

Original cast members from the beloved TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reunite for an all-new adventure about connections that never die — even if you bury them. A decade has passed since the epic final battle that concluded Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV). The game-changing spell that gave power to all potential Slayers persists. With new Slayers constantly emerging, things are looking grim for the bad guys. Rebellious vampire Spike is working undercover in Los Angeles with his old pal Clem when he meets feisty, rookie Slayer, Indira, who wants Spike to be her mentor. Stakes intensify as Cordelia Chase emerges from an alternate reality where she alone is the Slayer, and Buffy Summers doesn’t exist. Cordelia enlists Spike’s help with a classic big bad terrorizing her world…his ex, Drusilla. Giles, Anya, Jonathan, and Tara also return, but through the years and the vastness of the multiverse, not everyone is who they used to be…

Writers: Christopher Golden, Amber Benson.

Starring: James Marsters as Spike; Laya DeLeon Hayes as Indira; Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia; Emma Caulfield as Anya and Anyanka; Amber Benson as Tara; James Charles Leary as Clem; Juliet Landau as Drusilla; Anthony Head as Giles; Phina Oruche as Olivia; and Danny Strong as Ghost Jonathan.

Also Featuring: Julia Cho as Ms. Bang; Josh Petersdorf as Kurgan; Juno Dawson as Miranda; Jessica Gardner as Amy Madison; Cheryl Umana as Zantina; Joshua McClenney as Rahim; Denise Pickering as Buzz; Glenda Morgan Brown as Esther; Jasmine Hyde as Althenea; and Michael Swan.

[iww-gnv]

Via the IWW Freelance Journalists Union:

Since April 2023, Ben Camacho has been entangled in a legal battle over the release of photographs of officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. The photographs were obtained through a Public Records Request, after Camacho filed a lawsuit and a court settlement ordered the photos be handed over. Following the release of the photos by Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, the City of Los Angeles filed suit against Camacho and SLSC, alleging that the public release of the personnel photos could compromise “sensitive” operations. The ongoing attempt to claw back these now public records is being made in violation of the defendants’ First Amendment rights. Now, another lawsuit has been filed, apparently to shift blame in the case. The Industrial Workers of the World Freelance Journalists Union stands in solidarity with Camacho, whose commitment to transparency in policing and government represents the core ethics of journalism: to inform the people and hold power to account. We call on Mayor Bass, City Attorney Soto and the City of Los Angeles to abide by the First Amendment by dropping these lawsuits immediately. Until then, we stand by the motto of the IWW: An injury to one is an injury to all!

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 4

While trying to figure out how Jenny was the Fifth Doctor's daughter, the Nine suggested he might be her father or her mother.

The Nun once shot and imprisoned the Tenth Doctor on her TARDIS, using a psychic shroud to take on his appearance temporarily before "regenerating" into her own body.

The Eighth Doctor has traveled with both a Cyberman and an Ice Warrior before (albeit not at the same time).

Jasper and Stewart are a pair of Fledershrews (a type of bat) that took residence in the TARDIS. The Doctor considered them to be good friends.

The Doctor had at least one grandfather and seven grandmothers.

Horses can be cyber-converted.

The Seventh Doctor took Ace back in time to kill the would-be dictator as well, but they were also unable to go through with it.

At the same time the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby were dealing with goblins (24/12/2023), the Seventh Doctor and Ace were in a Los Angeles toyshop.

Wilfred Mott enlisted while he was still underage.

Orlando Bloom stars in Indiana Jones movie remakes.

Sam Jones knew what the Doctor's name is.

By some accounts, the Doctor removed his name from time, meaning only they and the Master (as well as anyone they later told) remembered it.

Ian Chesterton was taught how to ride a horse by Alexander the Great.

The TARDIS once dematerialized with a Nazi (played by David Tennant) half in, half out, leading to his incredibly gruesome death.

On Harmony, an idyllic planet, the locals harvested any visitors for food as the other animals had all died out.

Sometimes, the Doctor has worked to actively change history, like the time the Second Doctor tried to save Horatio Nelson from dying in the Battle of Trafalgar.

As the First Doctor regenerated into the Second, the TARDIS also somewhat regenerated, shrinking around fifteen centimeters.

River Song has eleven siblings such as Brooke, Stream, Lake, Creek, H-One, H-Two, O, etc. All of them are clones created by Madame Kovarian from River's DNA.

Speaking of River, she's been married to both Bernice Summerfield and Jack Harkness before.

Amy Pond was once mutated into an almost butterfly-like creature.

The Master does not like David Attenborough.

At one point, the most wanted criminal in the galaxy was the Master, and the Rani was second most wanted.

Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday was a Gallifreyan bedtime story the Eleventh Doctor recalled enjoying.

In this story, Rassilon would ask the Matrix daily: "Matrix, Matrix that sees over all, who has the power to make Gallifrey fall?" The Matrix would always respond with: "Only you, oh Rassilon. Only you, through the Eye of Harmony have that power." One day, the Matrix added: "Snowana the Fair, using the Keys of Doomsday, she has the power to destroy all of Gallifrey." Rassilon was greatly angered by this and banished Snowana to the wastelands, expecting her to die, but instead, she grew into Snow White. Selendor had created a great weapon that could be used to destroy cities and fashioned seven keys to it, one for each sin of the Time Lords. He gave one key to Snow White expecting her to get some revenge, but she instead ran away and created a force field around her and the keys. Selendor died of grief for his lost keys

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

[chessasubbiondo]

Chessa Subbiondo for Office Magazine NYC

Words by Sahir Ahmed

Photos by Lulu Syracuse

Interview Questions Below

 What is it like being in front of another photographer’s lens?

 I really do not enjoy having my photo taken, which I find is kind of an obviously common theme with photographers. I feel a lot more comfortable having someone I know take my photo. It is a very weird thing being a girl in 2023 while also trying to "put out" art. I really battle with cohesion between the two and I think that’s why my instinct is to refrain from showcasing myself. I’m still very unsure of myself, I am much more sure of my work. 

 Do you emulate the kind of vibe you aim to capture in your own photographs or meet in the middle?  Where’d you shoot this?

I think I definitely try and bring as much of me into a photo taken of me as possible, but it is also different because you have to respect the person who’s taking it as well. I’m not good at letting go of control and that’s what it feels like to have my photo taken. No photo taken of me will ever have the same “vibe” as my own work, but that’s cool, it shouldn’t.  We shot this around Los Angeles, basically all the area’s we grew up in. 

 How do you aim to dress when having your photo taken? Do you style your subjects the same? 

 The way I dress historically changes all the time but I think I’m getting the hang of narrowing it down. I always look back at things I wore a few months ago and question why I thought that was a good choice. I think the best way to beat this is to try and emulate as much simplicity as possible in a general sense, nothing too trendy etc. This of course depends on the occasion, depends on the photo, etc. I don’t know, I dress myself a lot differently than the people I take photos of. I want my subjects to appear family brand ecom esc. “Boring” clothes, minimal patterns, sportswear, etc. When I am given the freedom to dress the people I shoot I don’t want the clothes to be the focus ever.  

 What subjects are you drawn to shooting? Do they mirror similarities with yourself?

 Not at all, I don’t think I’m moldable enough and typically the people I am drawn to shoot are. If I could go back in time I would have no tattoos and would grow my hair long with no stylized cut what so ever, stuff like that. I like when someone looks like they could be from anywhere, there’s no time or location stamp on them. 

 Do you feel like your photos emulate the same energy that you do? 

 I don’t think so but it depends on the day. The photos I take look intentionally set up and often the subjects are posed pretty purposefully. It depends on the person I’m shooting, everyone kind of has their go to face or pose, it’s interesting to watch. I always love when I do catch something natural though, everyone looks they’re best when they’re not aware of being perceived. I feel very awkward in front of the camera and I tend to instinctively hide my face or tilt myself in the directions I’ve practiced in the mirror since I was younger that I think “look best”. Whenever someone shows me a photo myself I didn’t know was being taken I always like it a little more.

[urakenbomb]

credit: Rob Bishop on twitter

[alexturner2005]

“Violist Caroline Buckman was among the musicians invited by Paul McCartney to participate in a secretive Los Angeles recording session in 2022, unaware it was for the final Beatles song to be released 18 months later, titled Now and Then. Buckman died of cancer before learning what she was working on, but her friends and family are thrilled she was part of it.” …“When she recorded that session with McCartney, she'd been battling breast cancer for five years. She'd struggled through chemotherapy, and a pharmaceutical regimen, but, Bisharat said, she never complained. ‘She was still upbeat,’ he said. Less than a year later, she was gone. She died in L.A. on March 5, 2023, at age 48. People mourned her as a daughter, a musician, sister, partner, friend. One final line, however, was etched only belatedly into her epitaph: For four minutes and eight seconds, the length of one improbable song, Caroline Buckman was a Beatle.”

You guys may recognize Caroline as a member of TLSP's string quartet 💔

[rjzimmerman]

Trailer for the documentary, "Bad River."

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

A small Native American reservation in northern Wisconsin is home to the “Everglades of the North,” a vast wetlands on the shores of Lake Superior, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world. The tribe that lives there, the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians, has fought to protect its homeland, and the wild rice beds that are a cornerstone of tribal culture and their food supply, since before the reservation was established in 1854. 

“Bad River” focuses on the latest chapter in that fight, a legal battle to get an aging crude oil pipeline removed from their reservation. The film, which was awarded Best Documentary at the Environmental Media Association Awards in Los Angeles on Oct. 26, premieres on Peacock on Nov. 1.

Easements on a dozen parcels of land for the 71-year-old Enbridge pipeline expired in 2013. The Canadian pipeline company has been trespassing on tribal land for more than a decade and erosion along the pipeline’s route poses a “real and unreasonable risk” that could cause the pipe to rupture, according to a 2023 federal court ruling. 

Enbridge has dismissed concerns of a potential spill, saying safety “is the very foundation of our business.” The company, which continues to operate the pipeline, is seeking state and federal approval to reroute the line around the reservation. 

Inside Climate News reporter Victoria St. Martin spoke with Mary Mazzio, the film’s producer, writer and director, in the lead up to November—Native American Heritage Month—to hear more about the film, the tribe and what she feels the Bad River Band can teach others about environmental protection. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

[hooked-on-elvis]

Spring, 1968: Elvis and Bobby Dick, a local Los Angeles musician member of the rock band The Sundowners. Bobby's band was a support act for The Monkees on their 1967 Summer Tour and his band also opened gigs for megabands such as The Rolling Stones and The Who in the 60s/70s. In these pictures, Elvis and Bobby were in front of the office building on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, where Elvis had a meeting with Steve Binder about the upcoming NBC TV Special (Singer Presents Elvis A.K.A '68 Comeback Special).

Bobby talked about meeting Elvis. You can watch the interview on Youtube (Skip to 40:48). I recommend you take your time. ♥

Bobby said he was so nervous he was shaking and didn't ask Elvis the meaningful questions he really wanted answers for - about Elvis' choice of music in the 60's being so out of character for him and why he weren't doing recording better songs. Instead, Bobby says he looked more like "a babbling idiot" because he was starstruck, and didn't say much of what he truly wanted to. Funny. Those pictures surely don't look like Bobby was nervous at all.

Sadly, Bobby Dick passed away in March 27, 2023, at 76 years old, after a battle with cancer. Rest in peace, Bobby. ♥

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Biden should support the UAW

On September 22, I'm (virtually) presenting at the DIG Festival in Modena, Italy. That night, I'll be in person at LA's Book Soup for the launch of Justin C Key's "The World Wasn’t Ready for You." On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine.

The UAW are on strike against the Big Three automakers. Biden should be roaring his full-throated support for the strike. Doing so would be both just and shrewd. But instead, the White House is waffling…and if recent history is any indication, they might actually come out against the strike.

The Biden administration is a mix of appointees from the party's left Sanders/Warren wing, and the corporatist, "Third Way" wing associated with Clinton and Obama, which has been ascendant since the Reagan years. The neoliberal wing presided over NAFTA, the foreclosure crisis, charter schools and the bailout for the bankers – but not the people. They voted for the war in Iraq, supported NSA mass-surveillance, failed to use their majorities to codify abortion rights, and waved through mega-merger after mega-merger.

By contrast, the left wing of the party has consistently fought monopoly, war, spying, privatized education and elite impunity – but forever in the shadow of the triangulation wing, who hate the left far more than they hate Republicans. But with the Sanders campaign, the party's left became a force that the party could no longer ignore.

That led to the Biden administration's chimeric approach to key personnel. On the one hand, you have key positions being filled by ghouls who cheered on mass foreclosures under Obama:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/06/personnel-are-policy/#janice-eberly

And on the other, you have shrewd tacticians who are revolutionizing labor law enforcement in America, delivering real, material benefits for American workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/06/goons-ginks-and-company-finks/#if-blood-be-the-price-of-your-cursed-wealth

Progressives in the Biden administration have often delivered the goods, but they're all-too-often hamstrung by the corporate cheerleaders the party's right wing secured – think of Lina Khan losing her bid to block the Microsoft/Activision merger thanks to a Biden-appointed, big-money-loving judge:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

These self-immolating own-goals are especially visible when it comes to strikes. The Biden admin intervened to clobber railway workers, who were fighting some of the country's cruelest, most reckless monopolists, whose greed threatens the nation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/dinah-wont-you-blow/#ecp

The White House didn't have the power to block the Teamsters threat of an historic strike against UPS, but it publicly sided with UPS bosses, fretting about "the economy" while the workers were trying to win a living wage and air conditioning for the roasting ovens they spend all day in.

Now, with the UAW on strike against the monopolistic auto-makers – who received repeated billions in public funds, gave their top execs massive raises, shipped jobs offshore, and used public money to lobby against transit and decarbonization – Biden is sitting on the sidelines, failing to champion the workers' cause.

Writing in his newsletter, labor reporter Hamilton Nolan makes the case that the White House should – must! – stand behind the autoworkers:

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/whose-fault-is-it?

Nolan points out that workers who strike without the support of the government have historically lost their battles. When workers win labor fights, it's typically by first winning political ones, dragging the government to the table to back them. Biden's failure to support workers isn't "neutral" – it's siding with the bosses.

Today, union support is at historic highs not seen in generations. The hot labor summer wasn't a moment, it was a turning point. Backing labor isn't just the moral thing to do, it's also the right political move:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

Biden is already partway there. He rejected the Clinton/Obama position that workers would have to vote for Democrats because "we are your only choice." Maybe he did that out of personal conviction, but it's also no longer politically possible for Democrats to turn out worker votes while screwing over workers.

The faux-populism of the Republicans' Trump wing has killed that strategy. As Naomi Klein writes in her new book Doppelganger, Steve Bannon's tactical genius is to zero in on the areas where Democrats have failed key blocks and offer faux-populist promises to deliver for those voters:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

When Democrats fail to bat for workers, they don't just lose worker votes – they send voters to the Republicans. As Nolan writes, "working people know that the class war is real. They are living it. Make the Democratic Party the party that is theirs! Stop equivocating! Draw a line in the sand and stand on the right side of it and make that your message!"

The GOP and Democrats are "sorting themselves around the issue of inequality, because inequality is the issue that defines our time, and that fuels all the other issues that people perceive as a decline in the quality of their own lives." If the Democrats have a future, they need to be on the right side of that issue.

Biden should have allowed a railroad strike. He should have cheered the Teamsters. He should be on the side of the autoworkers. These aren't "isolated squabbles," they're "critical battles in the larger class war." Every union victory transfers funds from the ruling class to the working class, and erodes the power of the wealthy to corrupt our politics.

When Democrats have held legislative majorities, they've refused to use them to strengthen labor law to address inequality and the corruption it engenders. Striking workers are achieving the gains that Democrats couldn't or wouldn't take for themselves. As Nolan writes:

Democratic politicians should be sending the unions thank you notes when they undertake these hard strikes, because the unions are doing the work that the Democrats have failed to accomplish with legislation for the past half fucking century. Say thank you! Say you support the workers! They are striking because the one party that was responsible for ensuring that the rich didn’t take all the money away from the middle class has thoroughly and completely failed to do so.

Republican's can't win elections by fighting on the class war. Democrats should acknowledge that this is the defining issue of our day and lean into it.

Whose fault is a strike at the railroads, or at UPS, or in Hollywood, or at the auto companies? It is the fault of the greedy fuckers who took all the workers’ money for years and years. It is the fault of the executives and investors and corporate boards that treated the people who do the work like shit. When the workers, at great personal risk, strike to take back a measure of what is theirs, they are the right side. There is no winning the class war without accepting this premise.

Autoworkers' strikes have been rare for a half-century, but in their heyday, they Got Shit Done. Writing in The American Prospect, Harold Meyerson tells the tale of the 1945/46 GM strike:

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-18-uaw-strikes-built-american-middle-class/

In that strike, the UAW made history: they didn't just demand higher wages for workers, but they also demanded that GM finance these wages with lower profits, not higher prices. This demand was so popular that Harry Truman – hardly a socialist! – stepped in and demanded that GM turn over its books so he could determine whether they could afford to pay a living wage without hiking prices.

Truman released the figures proving that higher wages didn't have to come with higher prices. GM caved. Workers got their raise. Truman touched the "third rail of American capitalism" – co-determination, the idea that workers should have a say in how their employers ran their businesses.

Co-determination is common in other countries – notably Germany – but American capitalists are violently allergic to the idea. The GM strike of 45/6 didn't lead to co-determination, but it did effectively create the American middle-class. The UAW's contract included cost-of-living allowances, wage hikes that tracked gains in national productivity, health care and a defined-benefits pension.

These provisions were quickly replicated in contracts with other automakers, and then across the entire manufacturing sector. Non-union employers were pressured to match them in order to attract talent. The UAW strike of 45/6 set in motion the entire period of postwar prosperity.

As Meyerson points out, today's press coverage of the UAW strike of 2023 is full of hand-wringing about what a work-stoppage will do to the economy. This is short-sighted indeed: when the UAW prevails against the automakers, they will rescue both the economy and the Democratic party from the neo-feudal Gilded Age the country's ultrawealthy are creating around us:

https://doctorow.medium.com/the-end-of-the-road-to-serfdom-bfad6f3b35a9?sk=207d6afdb89b0351b92233cc3318ab94

There's a name for a political strategy that seeks to win votes by making voters' lives better – it's called "deliverism." It's the one thing the Trump Republican's won't and can't do – they can talk about bringing back jobs or making life better for American workers, but all they can deliver is cruelty to disfavored minorities and tax-breaks for the ultra-rich:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/10/thanks-obama/#triangulation

Deliverism is how the Democrats can win the commanding majorities to deliver the major transformations America and the world need to address the climate emergency and dismantle our new oligarchy. Letting the party's right wing dominate turns the Democrats into caffeine-free Republicans.

When the Dems allowed the Child Tax Credit to lapse – because Joe Manchin insisted that poor people would spend the money on drugs – they killed a program that had done more to lift Americans out of poverty than anything else. Today, American poverty is skyrocketing:

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4206837-poverty-made-an-alarming-jump-congress-could-have-stopped-it/

Four million children have fallen back into poverty since the Dems allowed the Child Tax Credit to lapse. The rate of child poverty in America has doubled over the past year.

The triangulators on the party's right insist that they are the adults in the room, realists who don't let sentiment interfere with good politics. They're lying. You don't get working parents to vote Democrat by letting their children starve.

America's workers can defeat its oligarchs. They did it before. Biden says he's a union man. It's time for him to prove it. He should be on TV every night, pounding a podium and demanding that the Big Three give in to their workers. If he doesn't, he's handing the country to Trump.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/18/co-determination/#now-make-me-do-it

[mcgnagallsarmy]

Top 10 Spuffy fics I’ve read (Oct 2023)

All the Way Alive by violettathepiratequeen [PG-13]

Rewrite of "All the Way." AKA an episode that was so RIPE with unfulfilled potential. Because this is the last one in S6 where everything was still all sweet and soft between them…

Blackout by bewildered [NC-17]

The lights have gone out in Los Angeles - and when they come back up, Buffy is there in front of Spike, saving the day and reawakening his hopes. When the unwinnable battle against the demon army is finally won, Spike has the opportunity to win back Buffy’s trust—and perhaps even her love—on an evil-fighting, life-sharing road trip across America. Can he tick all the boxes to get back in her good graces? Or will he end up alone in the dark again?

Cold Comfort by scratchmeout [NC-17]

Buffy’s burning up. Spike has a solution.

Come Back to Me by honeygirl51885 [NC-17]

One call can change everything. It can jump start your heart or it can send your whole world crashing down around you. A newly corporeal Spike musters up the courage to call Buffy. They slowly rebuild their relationship over the phone lines, him in California fighting alongside Angel and her in London establishing the new Slayer central. Phone calls and letters sustain the onetime lovers, while they fight against the forces of evil on two separate continents; all the while counting down the days until they can meet again in person. Things change when tragedy strikes and Buffy is gravely injured. Not willing to let another moment slip through his fingers, Spike sets off for England to care for his Slayer. Is he only there to offer support? Or, could their newly rekindled relationship finally be ready to break through the surface?

Husky by Holly [R]

The Finn family farm has a crappy harvest ahead, but Buffy's too busy with her new boyfriend to care. Who can blame her?

It's a Wonderful Spike by Lady Emma [R]

After Spike (William Pratt) wishes he had never been born, an angel (Cordelia Chase) is sent to earth to make Spike’s wish come true.

Keepsakes by violettathepiratequeen [PG-13]

Spike is fated to pop up at random moments in Buffy's life, with only a short window of time to guess what she most needs right then. And Buffy's just trying to figure out why she isn't more weirded out by it.

Startlingly Moral by acekoomboom [PG-13]

Buffy never told her mom she's the slayer, so she never left town to live as Anne in L.A. When Spike comes back to town with Drusilla in tow, there's a perfect excuse already sitting around to explain for her mom why her life is so strange… Buffy's in a band. Aka a truce fic, rock band style.

Tension by The Danish Bird [NC-17]

It's not even been a month since she buried her mom, her sister is a glowing ball of energy and now Glory knows about that too, and instead of staying to fight, like a proper Slayer should, she's running away in a Winnebago where all she can do is sit and wait for the fight to catch up to her anyway. No wonder Buffy is feeling so tense. But hey, if the world is ending anyway, maybe it's not so bad to agree to that massage Spike is offering. After all, it's just an innocent back rub, right? Just a short smutty oneshot set in the season 5 episode Spiral. It could even be almost canon-compliant… if you squint.

Voices in the Woods by honeygirl51885 [PG-13]

There’s something in the woods.