#chinese murdoch

[transformativeworksandcultures]

TWC 42: Fandom and Platforms [Special Issue]

Editorial

Maria K. Alberto, Effie Sapuridis, and Lesley Willard; Putting forward platforms in fan studies

Article

David Kocik, PS Berge, Camille Butera, Celeste Oon, and Michael Senters; "Imagine a place:" Power and intimacy in fandoms on Discord

Kimberly Kennedy; "It's not your tumblr": Commentary-style tagging practices in fandom communities

Axel-Nathaniel Rose; #web-weaving: Parallel posts, commonplace books, and networked technologies of the self on Tumblr

Sam Binnie; Using the Murdoch Mysteries fandom to examine the types of content fans share online

Gamze Kelle; How Covid-19 has affected fan-performer relationships within visual kei

Rhea Vichot; The expression of sehnsucht in the Japanese city pop revival fandom through visual media on Reddit and YouTube

Welmoed Fenna Wagenaar; Discord as a fandom platform: Locating a new playground

Sourojit Ghosh and Cecilia Aragon; Leveraging community support and platform affordances on a path to more active participation: A study of online fan fiction communities

Paul Ocone; Fandom and the ethics of world-making: Building spaces for belonging on BobaBoard

Amber Moore; Analyzing an archive of allyish distributed mentorship in "Speak" fan fiction comments and reviews

Jionghao Liu and Ling Yang; Censorship on Japanese anime imported into mainland China

Lin Zhang; Boys’ love in the Chinese platformization of cultural production

Matt Griffin and Greg Loring-Albright; Platforming the past: Nostalgia, video games, and A Hat in Time

Irissa Cisternino; Players, production and power: Labor and identity in live streaming video games

Symposium

Yvonne Gonzales and Celeste Oon; Public versus private aca-fan identities and platforms: An academic dialogue

Dawn Walls-Thumma; The fading of the elves: Techno-volunteerism and the disappearance of Tolkien fan fiction archives

Martyna Szczepaniak; The differences between author’s notes on FanFiction.net and AO3

Muxin Zhang; Fandom image-making and the fan gaze in transnational K-pop fan cam culture

Sabrina Mittermeier; "One day longer, one day stronger": Online platforms, fan support and the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes

Book review

Sebastian F. K. Svegaard reviews "Vidding: A history" by Francesca Coppa

Laurel P. Rogers reviews "Fandom, the next generation," edited by Bridget Kies and Megan Connor

Axel-Nathaniel Rose reviews "Mediatized fan play: Moods, modes and dark play in networked communities," by Line Nybro Petersen

Multimedia

Naomi Jacobs, Katherine Crighton, and Shivhan Szabo; Building the spear: A demonstration in faking and remaking real feelings for an imaginary work

Rachel Loewen; "Darkness never prevails": Doctor Who Covid-19 videos as keystones for pandemic engagement

[mabith]

I also love Sister Boniface Mysteries, series 3 was fantastic and I'm rewatching the entire show all over again and MFMM is one of my top shows as well! I actually haven't watched Father Brown, but I was considering it because I'm looking for more shows like Sister Boniface - what other detective/mystery shows would you recommend? :D

Father Brown was never amazing, but I think after Sister Boniface it just feels even worse, so I kind of wouldn't recommend it unless you have it on as background maybe (there are some fun side characters and Mark Williams is perfect in the role). In particular the moralizing is meh (Father Brown is all about letting the murderer go to the police themselves and repent and YAWN). The earlier seasons were better, I think, but now my mind is so taken up with Sister Boniface it's hard to remember.

The first seven or eight seasons of Murdoch Mysteries were quite fun (starts out in 1895). It features a lot of actual historical figures in random episodes, and the side characters are just so great. Good bit of humor, Murdoch is always inventing modern things decades ahead of schedule. There is also an annoying recurring pseudo villain and it seems to be a prerequisite that Murdoch is accused of murder most seasons.

There's a not-quite spin off related to it, Frankie Drake Mysteries, more in the vein of Miss Fisher and also set in Toronto but in the 1920s. Definitely nowhere near the same quality as Miss Fisher but some fun stuff especially in the first couple seasons.

Miss Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries was fairly fun as well. The mysteries were incredibly easy to solve, but it was a neat set up and I enjoyed the main character a lot.

The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries was a short-lived late-1990s show set in the 1920s, which I really liked. Only five episodes, but quality. Plus it's Diana Rigg.

Poirot is the classic, of course, and always a comfort watch for me. I mention out of acknowledgement that I am older than a lot of Tumblr. Of the newer Marple series, the first three seasons with Geraldine McEwan were good but if you're very familiar with Christie's works the cannibalizing of other stories and turning them into Marple stories can be annoying. The actress who succeeded McEwan just wasn't right for Marple at all and I stopped watching it (Miss Marple is a curious and vaguely menacing heron, the second actress was a field hockey coach).

If you're up for something in Chinese (with English subtitles) and not picky about historical accuracy in clothing, vehicles, etc..., Detective L is stupid fun (it's on free on WeTV and also Youtube but I think the Youtube one will have areas where the sound is cut). 1930s Shanghai, eccentric brilliant detective (and devastatingly handsome if you're into that), slightly dopier sidekicks, lots of humor. I honestly can't remember how the actual mysteries hold up, but every three episodes is one mystery arc and after ignoring the opening, previously on, etc... they're quite short episodes. You want to only watch up to episode 21 because they were banking on a second season which they did not get so the last three episodes are a cliffhanger and related to a wider mystery and who needs that. I'm a little biased because the lead actor is one of my favorite Guys, but I loved it.

The 2001 Nero Wolfe series was fun (another 1920s-30s), but I've also read all the original books so I'm not sure how much that makes a difference. No idea how it would feel to someone going in without knowledge of the books.

Bletchley Circle was an interesting one, far more harrowing than any of these others, and as you may gather I'm mostly into Fun Times.

For modern-set mysteries I'm quite devoted to Jonathan Creek.

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 1 INFO

Round 1 will be posted between Friday, November 10th and Thursday, November 16th. It will be split between 4 sets, each set being posted on a different day. There will be a total of 128 participants (32 participants in each individual set) divided in 64 polls (16 polls in each individual set). By the end of Round 1, 64 participants will make it to Round 2 while the rest will be sent to the Shadow Realm where their souls will be tormented for eternity. Each poll will last a week. As the sets are posted, I will link them below.

ROUND 1A

Cinderella (Disney's Cinderella Animated) vs. Ella (Disney's Cinderella Live-Action Remake)

Hatsune Miku as Cinderella (Various Songs) (Vocaloid) vs. Hello Kitty as Cinderella (Hello Kitty no Cinderella)

Cinderella/Aschenputtel/Cendrillon (German/General European Fairytale Variant) vs. Vasilisa the Beautiful (Russian/East European Fairytale Variant)

Rhodopis (Greek Fairytale Variant) vs. Ye Xian (Chinese Fairytale Variant)

Hamupipőke (Hungarian Fairytale Variant) vs. Eun Ha Won (Cinderella with Four Knights)

Mireleh (The Way Meat Loves Salt by Nina Jaffe/Louise August) vs. Settarah (The Persian Cinderella by Shirley Climo/Robert Florczak)

Cendrillon (Otogi-Juushi Akazukin) vs. Leila Takashiro (Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri)

Hoshizora Miyuki / "Cure Happy" as Cinderella (Smile PreCure/Glitter Force) vs. Mofurun as "Mofurella" (Mahou Tsukai PreCure)

Giselle Lai (Cinderelle) vs. Isabell Heartwell (Cinder's Ball)

Cinderella (Grimms Notes) vs. Cinderella Mary Skelter)

Queen Cinderella Charming (The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer) vs. Ella of Maidenvale / Cinderella (The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani)

Eleanor / Cinderella (The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker) vs. Elegant "Ella" Herringbone Coach (Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison)

Vassa (Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter) vs. Vasilisa "Vasya" Petrovna (The Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden)

Cinderella (Fables) vs. Cinderella "Cindy" Baxter (The Sisters Grimm)

Mia Basile (Cinderella the Cat) vs. Rose Cinderella (Regal Academy)

Maria Aparecida "Cida" dos Santos Souza (Cheias de Charme) vs. La Cenerentola (La Cenerento Laossia La Bontà in Trionfo)

ROUND 1B

Ella of Frell (Ella Enchanted book by Gail Carson Levine) vs. Ella of Frell (Ella Enchanted movie)

Cinderellis (Cinderellis and the Glass Hill by Gail Carson Levine) vs. Danielle Whiteshore (nee de Glas) (Princess series by Jim C. Hines)

Imogen Keegan (Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke) vs. Jess Parker (The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy)

Cinderella/Prinzessin (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters & Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG) vs. Fairy Tail - Rella (Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG)

Cindy (How to Save Your Tail by Mary Elizabeth Hanson) vs. Cinderumpelstiltskin (The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka/Lane Smith)

Cinder Edna (Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson) vs. Cinderella (Cinderella Penguin, or, the Little Glass Flipper by Janet Perlman)

Cindy (If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy) vs. Elle Wittimer (Geekerella by Ashley Poston)

Bronwyn Murdoch (The Prince Who Loved Me by Karen Hawkins) vs. Sophie Beckett (An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn)

Ella (Cinder Ella by S.T. Lynn) vs. Cynthia "Cyn" Robinson (Cinders) (Sapphic Fairy Tales by Cara Malone)

Lucinda Jarvis (Grimm) vs. Queen Cinderella (10th Kingdom)

Sam Montgomery (A Cinderella Story) vs. Mary Santiago (Another Cinderella Story)

Katie Gibbs (A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song) vs. Cinderella (Cinderella 2021)

Cinderella (Bad Cinderella) vs. Ella (Happily N'Ever After)

Ella (The Glass Slipper) vs. Cinderella (The Slipper and the Rose)

Ashlynn Ella (Ever After High) vs. Threadarella (Monster High: Scarily Ever After)

Danielle de Barbarac (Ever After) vs. Popelka (Three Wishes for Cinderella)

ROUND 1C

Miss Piggy as "Lady Holiday" (The Great Muppet Caper) vs. CinderElmo (Sesame Street: CinderElmo)

Minnie Mouse as "Minnie-rella" (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) vs. Baby Gonzo as "Gonzo-rella" (Muppet Babies 2018)

Brittany Miller as Cinderella (Alvin and the Chipmunks) vs. Scrooge McDuck as "Scroogerello" (Ducktales)

Chuckie Finster as "Finsterella" (Rugrats) vs. Cinderella (Sabrina: The Animated Series)

Fella (Cinderfella) vs. Popeye the Sailor Man as "Cinderfella" (Popeye the Sailor man: Ancient Fishtory)

Betty Boop as Cinderella (Betty Boop: Poor Cinderella) vs. Cinderella (Swing Shift Cinderella)

Barbie as Cinderella (Barbie Dolls) vs. Yasmin as Cinderella (Bratz: Kids Fairy Tales)

Cinderella (Collector Plates) vs. Ella (Total Drama: Pahkitew Island)

Touya Kinomoto as Cinderella (Cardcaptor Sakura) vs. Saki Hanajima as "Cinderella-ish" (Fruits Basket)

Reki Kyan as "Cindereki" (Sk8 the Infinity) vs. Mettaton as Cinderella (Undertale)

Cinderella (Stand of Aya Tsuji) (Jojo's Biazzre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable) vs. Cendrillon (Persona of Sumi Yoshizawa/Violet) (Persona 5)

Cinderella (Once Upon a Crime) vs. Dulcie Hastings (nee Duveen) aka Cinderella (Murder on the Links) (Hercule Poirot series by Agatha Christie)

Scarecrow as "Scarecrowella" (D'Ocon Mumfie) vs. Ella Brown (Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix)

Princess Petra / Spinstress as "Spinderella" (Earth-423) (Marvel Comics) vs. Cinderella (Girl Genius Fairytale Theater Break: Cinderella)

Cendrillon (Cendrillon by Telephone) vs. Cinderella (Cinderella by The Cheetah Girls)

Harper Finkle as "Harperella" (Wizards of Waverly Place) vs. Morgan Philip (Disenchanted)

ROUND 1D

Cinderella (Dimension 20: Neverafter) vs. Cinders (Once Upon a Time in Space by the Mechanisms)

Linh Cinder / Selene Blackburn (The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer) vs. Cinderella (Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella 1997)

Carrie White (Carrie by Stephen King) vs. Cinder Fall (RWBY)

Cinderella (Into the Woods) vs. Cinderella / Princess Ella / Ashley Boyd (Once Upon a Time)

Cinderella (Kingdom Hearts) vs. Cinderella (Shrek series)

Cinders (Cinders) vs. Lucette Riella Britton (Cinderella Phenomenon)

Cinderella (SINoALICE) vs. Cinderella (TAISHO x ALICE)

Cinderella (Sid Story) vs. Rin Hoshiora as Cinderella (Love Live)

Aisling "Ash" (Ash by Malinda Lo) vs. Xing Xing (Bound by Donna Jo Napoli)

Clara (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire) vs. Ella Saturday (Witches Abroad) (Discworld series by Terry Pratchett)

Euphemia "Effie" Reeves (Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater) vs. Kate Kassell / Nate Ganymede (After the Ball)

Cinderella (Burn the Witch) vs. Shindou Rei (Boku wa Ohime-sama ni Narenai)

Cinderella (Cinderella Monogatari) vs. Haine Otomiya / "Seashore Cinderella" (The Gentleman's Alliance Cross)

Ghauri (Azure Striker Gunvolt) vs. Miyo Saimori (My Happy Marriage)

Ashley Vans (A Wicked Tale of Cinderella's Stepmom / I Raised Cinderella Preciously) vs. Cinciarell Winchestion (Don't Call Javotte an Evil Stepsister)

Cinderella (Blood Bank) vs. Itsumi Tachibana (You Are My Princess)

[best-tv-theme-song]

Polls will start to be posted within the next week or so.

Bracket list under the cut!

UPDATE: LIST CANCELLED

*Starred shows have multiple theme songs or I have combined shows in a franchise in an effort to include as much as possible. These will have preliminaries built-into their polls on the first round. This is how it works: 1. all of the songs will go into a poll together against one other show; 2. the COMBINED votes for those songs will determine which show wins that poll; 3. only the top voted song for that show/franchise will move on, if the show has won the poll. (If you are confused it will make more sense when we start, I promise!)

The 100

30 Rock

9-1-1*

The Addams Family

Adventure Time*

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

All That

The Amazing World of Gumball

American Dragon: Jake Long

Animaniacs

Arcane: League of Legends

Arrested Development

Arthur

Assassination Classroom*

Austin & Ally

The Backyardigans

Barney & Friends

Barry

Batman*

Bear in the Big Blue House

Ben 10*

Better Call Saul

Beverly Hills, 90210

The Big Bang Theory

Big Time Rush

Bill Nye the Science Guy

Black Sails

Bluey

Bob the Builder

Bob's Burgers

BoJack Horseman

Bones

Boy Meets World

The Brady Bunch

Breaking Bad

Bridgerton

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Buffy the Vampire Slayer*

Captain Planet and the Planeteers

Charmed

Cheers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Choo Choo Soul

Code Lyoko

Codename: Kids Next Door

Cold Case

Community

Cory in the House

Cowboy Bebop

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend*

Criminal Minds

CSI*

Cyberchase

Danny Phantom

Daredevil

Dawson's Creek

Death Note*

Desperate Housewives

Detective Conan

Dexter

Dexter's Laboratory

Diff'rent Strokes

Digimon*

Doctor Who*

Dora the Explorer

Downton Abbey

Dragon Ball*

Dragon Tales

Drake & Josh

Ducktales*

ER

Ever After High

The Fairly OddParents

Firefly

The Flintstones

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Fraggle Rock

Frasier

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Friends

Fringe

Full House

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood*

Futurama

Game of Thrones

George Lopez

George of the Jungle

Gilmore Girls

Glee

The Golden Girls

Good Omens

Gravity Falls

Grey's Anatomy

H2O: Just Add Water

Hannah Montana

Hannibal

Happy Days

Hawaii Five-0*

His Dark Materials

Horrible Histories

House, M.D.

How I Met Your Mother

How It's Made

Hunter × Hunter

Huntik: Secrets & Seekers

I Dream of Jeannie

I Love Lucy

iCarly

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Jeffersons

Jeopardy!

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*

Jonas

Justice League

Kim Possible

The Last of Us

Laverne & Shirley

Law & Order*

LazyTown

The Legend of Vox Machina

Leverage

Lilo & Stitch: The Series

Little Einsteins

Lizzie McGuire

Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies

The Love Boat

M*A*S*H

Mad Men

Madoka Magica*

The Magic School Bus

Malcolm in the Middle

The Mandalorian

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Merlin

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Mob Psycho 100

The Monkees

Monster High

The Muppet Show

Murder, She Wrote

Murdoch Mysteries

My Babysitter's a Vampire

My Hero Academia*

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

The Nanny

Naruto*

NCIS

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

New Girl

NFL (various network themes)*

Ninjago

The O.C.

The Office

One Day at a Time*

One Piece

Only Murders in the Building

Orange Is the New Black

Ouran High School Host Club

The Owl House

Parks and Recreation

The Partridge Family

Phil of the Future

Phineas and Ferb

Pinky and the Brain

Pippi Longstocking

Pokémon*

Power Rangers

The Powerpuff Girls

Pretty Little Liars

The Price Is Right

The Proud Family

Psych

Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure

Reading Rainbow

Reba

Red Dwarf

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Riverdale

Rugrats

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

Sailor Moon

Sanford and Son

Saturday Night Live

Schitt's Creek

Scooby-Doo*

Scrubs

Seinfeld

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sesame Street

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Sherlock

The Simpsons

Smallville

Sofia the First

Sonny with a Chance

The Sopranos

Spider-Man

SpongeBob SquarePants

Star Trek (instrumental themes)*

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Stargate*

Steven Universe

Stranger Things

Succession

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody*

Suits

Taskmaster

Ted Lasso

Teen Titans

Teen Wolf

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teletubbies

That '70s Show

That's So Raven

Theory of Love

Thomas & Friends

Tokyo Ghoul

Total Drama

Totally Spies!

Transformers*

True Blood

The Twilight Zone

Twin Peaks

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

VeggieTales

Veronica Mars

Victorious

Voltron: Legendary Defender

W.I.T.C.H.

The Walking Dead

WandaVision*

Welcome Back, Kotter

The West Wing

Westworld

What We Do in the Shadows

The White Lotus

Wild Kratts

Winx Club

The Wire*

The Witcher

Wizards of Waverly Place

Wonder Pets!

Wonder Woman

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

The X-Files

Xena: Warrior Princess

Yellowjackets

Yu-Gi-Oh!*

Yuri on Ice

Zoboomafoo

Zoey 101

[thegayestofagendas]

I fucking love Murdoch Mysteries so much.

Just a show that's not afraid to have fun!

Not afraid to show kindness in an unkind world!

Not afraid to show acceptance and love and compassion and willingness to learn in a world that tries so hard to stop it.

Margaret flipping so fast from "I am afraid of this Chinese food I've never eaten" to "this is delicious you should try it!" is everything to me.

George's respect towards Wu Chang once he gets to actually talk with him.

Idk I just think that s7e16 is actually really fun.

There are just many genuinely just fun™️ episodes and we need more shows to look into having fun alongside telling the stories. And we need historical fiction that shows that how we got the today's world which is more accepting, loving, and hopeful involves people who were back when the world wasn't. Idk. I just get emotional.

Again I know there's plenty of stuff they didn't handle so well, but for all they didn't do that well, the show really brought something good in this world.

[fictionalcanadianshowdown]

Meilin "Mei" Lee is from Turning Red, an animated flim. She is a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian from Toronto who turns into a red panda when she experience strong emotions due to a hereditary curse.

George Crabtree is from Murdoch Mysteries, a tv show on CBC. He is a young constable who's eager to be a detective like Murdoch, but lacks the formal education to do so. Murdoch admires his enthusiasm, openness to new ideas and loyalty, but is frustrated by Crabtree's inability to grasp some of the more elusive scientific concepts

[epithet-beloved]

I heard brief mention of an "Uncle Ramsey" in a previous imagine, care to expand?

RAMSEY AS YOUR UNCLE

synopsis… headcanons about Ramsey being like an uncle to you (going off from the fatherly slim headcanons)

ft. ramsey murdoch, california slim (mentioned), zora salazar (mentioned)

tags… familial headcanons, ramsey wants to be cool so bad, comfort headcanons, fluff

word count… 318

a/n… we weren’t sure if you wanted the same mod to write these but I'm apparently the ceo of writing ramsey on here now (that's a joke) so enjoy !!!! ✧🦇

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 SO. Ramsey as an uncle.

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 If we’re making this branching from the fatherly Slim headcanons, then he will proclaim to be your uncle proudly and extremely loudly whenever he can (mostly to piss off Slim)

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 If not; it’s still the same. He’s like your cool dad that wants to be cool so bad but is actually a little embarrassing.

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 If you’re also an artist, it’s 100% guaranteed he’ll be absolutely on board if you ever wanna draw with him or trade art. He loves sharing his passion!

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 You’re definitely getting very cool art of your OCs for a (100%) discount

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 If you need art supplies that are a bit more… Expensive, he’s got you covered. He can make gold, he’s basically the cool single uncle with a load of money he spoils you with.

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 He’s also not really the type to involve you in his work; he definitely does NOT want you to end up with Zora after you. 

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 He’s stressed enough already being the only one running from her. Please he’d get a heart attack.

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 Incredibly supportive of anything you want to do! Even if it doesn’t sit right with someone else (Slim)

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 Unless whatever you want to do was pitched by Slim then no. Because it’s probably a bad idea.

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 I’m sorry they just have beef

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 Although Slim may be a father figure to you, he’s still not great with emotions; but worry not! Ramsey is slightly better.

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 If you ever need comfort, rest assured you can definitely go to him. He’ll listen to you and, if needed or wanted, gives you advice to navigate through any problem you might be having

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 If you just need comfort? Ramsey is absolutely doing anything to cheer you up.

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 He gets you Chinese takeout for dinner (if you like it, if not he just buys you your favorite food), draws with or for you, watches shows or movies with you…

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 He cares for you a lot! 

𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 He’s your cool uncle after all

[darkmaga-returns]

By Patricia McCarthy

“You’ve got to take responsibility for what happened in your administration.”

Oops!  The above quote may be Kamala Harris’s most devastating, grievous error in her sit-down with Bret Baier last night.

We can be sure that those words escaped her mouth before she realized what she was saying.  She was referring to the transgender surgeries that may have taken place during the Trump administration even though the former president opposes such mutilations for what is clearly a mental disorder.  With that quote, she admitted that she and Biden are indeed responsible for

(1) The horrific withdrawal from Afghanistan.

(2) The mind-numbing, tragic consequences of their open border.  At least ten million migrants have entered the country unvetted, thousands of criminals among them.  Sex- and human-trafficking has exploded as a result.  So has crime across the board.

(3) The war in Ukraine — millions lives lost there.

(4) The Hamas attack on Israel, due to their obvious anti-Israel bias.

(5) The irresponsible spending that gave us the highest inflation in decades.

(6) The evisceration of our military with DIE and transgenderism.

(7) the gift of billions of dollars to Iran that has funded the subsequent terrorism against Israel.

(8) The lawfare unleashed on Trump, all of it manufactured out of whole cloth to take him off the board.

(9) The weaponization of the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA, etc. that has led to peaceful protesters being imprisoned for exercising their First Amendment rights.

(10) The fact that Joe Biden is owned by the Chinese Communist Party — he owes his wealth to them.

(11) The administration’s disastrous response to the hurricanes.

By her standard, Harris must “take responsibility” for all of the above.

Harris was pathetically unprepared for this interview, even though it was she who wanted it.  She probably does not ever watch Fox News and has avoided that outlet based on hearsay.  She likely knows that it is owned by the Murdochs and assumed that Baier would be appropriately submissive and agreeable.  He could have been, as he is not a Trump-supporter.  Many of us blame him for calling Arizona for Biden at 9:00 on Election Night 2020.  That was a very anti-Trump thing to have done.  Many Trump-supporters stopped watching Fox News after that.

[veryrealimagination]

The apartment that Ogden drove him to wasn’t completely without his touch. William Murdoch remembered starting the day back in 1899, before George accidentally hit him and somehow sent him into a future unlike what he would have thought. Julia a narcotics undercover officer instead of the Doctor she was destined to be. George Crabtree beyond his constable days, but not without a cost. He wasn’t the happier version of himself. His personality was jaded. Murdoch hated that he came out like that in the current time.

Small bits of art and pictures lined one of the walls. His eyes immediately found familiar, yet different faces. Liza and himself, it must have been right after he proposed. There was an engagement ring on her finger. He likely saved up for months to give that to her. A few more with the two. He then found one with himself and Liza standing behind a smiling, even younger Llewellyn with bright lights behind them. Oh, how that was surprising. Even in this time, they became his guardians. He figured there would be family that they weren’t able to contact in the previous time before that would have taken him. Or Miss Marks yet again. Then, he saw a picture of all of the Marks family and realized that something had happened again to pull him away. A copy of custody paperwork was framed next to that picture and one of the young man’s graduation. As last time, she had perished before he reached that milestone, and he was instead holding one of her pictures in her place.

There was one with him and Jasper, surprisingly. He must have met him more neutrally than the previous time. One with him and Susannah, which looked to be when she discovered her sickness. Although, the part that lived in this time told him that she got herself treated and was still Mother Superior over the other women. There was one of his family when they were younger and a little more happy. He had forgotten how his mother looked.

Breaking off from the memories that threatened grief, he looked around the rest of the room. The couch was hideous, but it reminded him of the one that they had brought to the room prior. A small table in front of it, and a television in front of that. Oh, if Tesla could only see it, how flat and large it was. Turning it on using a button on the bottom of it, he found colour instead of the black and white they barely managed to make work. He turned it back off again, not wanting to see whatever was being shown.

At least, he could tell that the current version of himself and his original had some of the same hobbies. There was something being broken down on a table. Tools were carefully lined up on a towel, but they weren’t put away. Curious, he shrugged off his jacket and sat it aside before sitting down and poking at it. An hour went into two hours before someone started placing warm things near his hand. A mug filled with tea, some sort of soup, a mixture of vegetables and pork.

He looked up to see a Llewellyn that he was not prepared for. A less stressed, more carefree, version of the man he was used to dealing with, in clothes that he looked much more relaxed in, with glasses that were barely on. A part of his original version was the constable life, and the events he had been through, but he didn’t see any sign of that right now. He wondered what he was doing instead of his path last time. “You didn’t answer your phone,” he criticized, “And you were completely absorbed in the screening device that I was able to walk in the apartment, make your tea, turn on Degrassi, which you hate, and stare at you for several minutes before I got hungry and got out the Chinese.”

William turned to the TV and there was a show with teeners, and the boy on there looked incredibly familiar to him. He grimaced at it before reaching for what had to be a remote and changed it. There was a person talking about a celebrity. Changed it again and it was people in a bar. He kept going to Llewellyn’s amusement until he found something with a brightly coloured frog. “Not in the mood for gossip today,” he said. Hunger starting to reveal itself, he took a sip of the tea and found it to be something he was unfamiliar with. It was, however, good, with a sweet flavor that he thought was expensive. “So, what have you been doing today?”

He shrugged, getting out his own food. The soup he chose was different, as was his meal. Something with egg, he assumed. “Mostly studying. Finals are coming up and I want to pass so I don’t have to sink any more in for this degree,” Llewellyn said, “I wasn’t working today, so mostly just at the library for everything I could get my hands on.”

The detective nodded. He hoped that he would be right on what he was planning. He was going to have to search the apartment for everything he could find out about this William Murdoch. Was it wrong he hoped there was a diary of sorts? “After getting the degree for German, you’re going to expand your Russian?” The soup, a strange red one, was being gulped down. He flatly stared until Llewellyn put it down. “Did you forget to eat again?”

“I ate,” he protested.

“You also had lunch?” he asked. There was a finger to stop him from adding more, but it folded once he started thinking about it. “That’s what I thought. Two soft pretzels in between breakfast and now isn’t enough for you.”

It was an old complaint that rolled in his ears and was swallowed with the soup. There was much chomping before he could continue. “Bachelor’s in Russian, then working on dual Mandarin and Cantonese before hitting Korean, but I don’t think I need a bachelor’s in that. Mainly an associates, a fair amount of people can translate Korean easily. There’s a couple of others I want to look into.”

“What about Arabic, or Farsi?” Oh, where had those languages come from? He knew of maybe one person that practiced Islam during his time at Station House 4, and they spoke English with a mere tinged accent. Nothing in their native tongue, he found out. His first thought had been French, as he thought it was still somewhat highly used among the population. At least among Quebec and the outer lands.

A shake of the head. “I take those, I’m going to get Intelligence and Military recruitment on me,” he said, “They already were persuading several of the people in foreign language programs to switch to Arabic, at least. I heard rumors about a couple of others that are gaining attention. I think even my Russian associates got some interest.”

What would Russian be getting interest for? He didn’t like that. Terrence Meyers floated in his head. “Find something safer. French is still needed.”

He shook his head. “Oh, no, no no no. After hearing you whisper things to Liza, I am still scarred,” he said.

“After hearing…” He frowned, as that had not been one of the languages he said he knew, and turned to the young man. “You know French already?!”

He smiled to deflect. “Since primary.”

Murdoch growled, which was a warning sign as Watts jumped back before he was caught in a headlock. “Get back here!”

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (14-20 Apr 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

nothing long! not really a lot of reading at all this week tbh

💖💖 +163K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Appetite (the_deep_magic) - The Eagle of the Ninth: Marcus/Esca, 13K - very satisfying incubus fic

Too many men on the ice (imperfectcircle) - Original Work, Hockey: Himbo Bisexual/Neurotic Gay, Himbo Bisexual/Grumpy Bisexual, endgame Himbo Bisexual/Neurotic Gay/Grumpy Bisexual, 18K - just DELIGHTFUL! Sunshine himbo hockey player meets stressed doctor - they make it work but himbo's grumpy teammate might cause some friction? Luckily polyamory is there to save them all!

The Chase (saltandbyrne) - TW: Sterek, 10K - reread, fave - fun, deliciously filthy & wonderful omegaverse chase/claim

Think I'm Finally Clean (fuck_me_barnes) - MCU: Stucky, 4.6K - reread, fave - "In which sub Bucky wishes for rougher handling by normally gentle dom Steve, and gets probably more than he bargained for."

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Beyond Paradise - s1, e1-6; s2, e0-3

Ghosts (US) - s3, e6-8

Murdoch Mysteries - s16, e8-13

QI - series S, e14; series U, e1-3

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "The Last Stand" (s21, e15)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Nighttime Ecstasy" (s16, e15)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

⭐ Worlds Beyond Number - A County Affair ep1 "CRIME-a-doodle-doo!"

⭐ Worlds Beyond Number - A County Affair ep2 "FAIRmageddon!"

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for A County Affair ep1: "CRIME-a-doodle-doo!"

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for A County Affair ep2: "FAIRmageddon!"

The Sporkful - Alyse Whitney Brings Big Dip Energy

Throughline - The Union Strike That Changed The History of Flight

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Reppin our Weird Hometown Traditions

⭐ Hit Parade - We Want It That Way Edition

WikiHole - March Madness (with Rory Scovel, Natasha Leggero and Sabrina Jalees)

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Showgirl Magic Museum

Welcome to Night Vale #246 - A Story about Him

⭐ Switched on Pop - Berlin's Hottest Club is Rico Nasty & Boys Noize

99% Invisible #578 - Anything's Pastable: Eat Sauté Love

Vibe Check - Death and Taxes

Better Offline - How A Chinese Glycine Manufacturer Went Viral ft. Louise Matsakis and Tianyu Fang

It's Been a Minute - An argument for the art of whistling

Ologies with Alie Ward - Columbidology (PIGEONS? YES) Part 1 with Rosemary Mosco

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Hot Ones And Conan O'Brien

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - How to make the best show about New York with John Wilson

Wiser Than Me - Julia Gets Wise with Ina Garten

Throughline - Ralph Nader, Consumer Crusader

Today, Explained - The great American squatter panic

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Late Night

⭐ Song Exploder - War "Low Rider"

Endless Thread - Green Memes

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Fallout And What's Making Us Happy

Short Wave - An 11-Year-old Unearthed Fossils Of The Largest Known Marine Reptile

Dear Prudence - My Wife’s Bipolar Diagnosis Is Creating A Rift in Our Marriage. Help!

⭐ Strong Songs - "Heart of Glass" by Blondie

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Judith Butler

Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #12: Prisoner's Dilemma

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep12 "Prisoner's Dilemma"

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

The Monkees 50 [The Monkees] {2016}

Exzavion Powells

HARDC0RE DR3AMZ [Boys Noize & Rico Nasty] {2024}

Boys Noize

"Low Rider" [War] radio

[tomorrowusa]

The richest 1% flaunt their excessive wealth by polluting on the rest of us. These mega wealthy individuals have been dubbed "the polluter elite".

The richest 1% of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66%, with dire consequences for vulnerable communities and global efforts to tackle the climate emergency, a report says. The most comprehensive study of global climate inequality ever undertaken shows that this elite group, made up of 77 million people including billionaires, millionaires and those paid more than US$140,000 (£112,500) a year, accounted for 16% of all CO2 emissions in 2019 – enough to cause more than a million excess deaths due to heat, according to the report. For the past six months, the Guardian has worked with Oxfam, the Stockholm Environment Institute and other experts on an exclusive basis to produce a special investigation, The Great Carbon Divide. [ ... ] The Oxfam report shows that while the wealthiest 1% tend to live climate-insulated, air-conditioned lives, their emissions – 5.9bn tonnes of CO2 in 2019 – are responsible for immense suffering. Using a “mortality cost” formula – used by the US Environmental Protection Agency, among others – of 226 excess deaths worldwide for every million tonnes of carbon, the report calculates that the emissions from the 1% alone would be enough to cause the heat-related deaths of 1.3 million people over the coming decades. Over the period from 1990 to 2019, the accumulated emissions of the 1% were equivalent to wiping out last year’s harvests of EU corn, US wheat, Bangladeshi rice and Chinese soya beans. The suffering falls disproportionately upon people living in poverty, marginalised ethnic communities, migrants and women and girls, who live and work outside or in homes vulnerable to extreme weather, according to the research. [ ... ] “The super-rich are plundering and polluting the planet to the point of destruction and it is those who can least afford it who are paying the highest price,” said Chiara Liguori, Oxfam’s senior climate justice policy adviser. The twin crises of climate and inequality were “fuelling one another”, she said.

The Top 1% may be bad, but the Top 0.1% are proportionately far worse.

The report says this is bad news for the climate on multiple levels. The extravagant carbon footprint of the 0.1% – from superyachts, private jets and mansions to space flights and doomsday bunkers – is 77 times higher than the upper level needed for global warming to peak at 1.5C. The corporate shares of many super-rich are highly polluting. This elite also wield enormous and growing political power by owning media organisations and social networks, hiring advertising and PR agencies and lobbyists, and mixing socially with senior politicians, who are also often members of the richest 1%, according to the report.

By owning large media entities, they exert great influence on public policy by manipulating the news narrative. We're looking at you Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk.

They want to distract you with irrelevant trivia rather than let you focus on their complicity in the problems they themselves perpetuate. Culture wars and glib irrelevancies like "but her emails!" and "Biden's age" are components in the toolkit of the climate-denying industrial complex.

[blackbird-brewster]

came to ur acc bc christmas day has been horrible and depression has been off the charts. saw this right when i needed it!!! can u bless the world with some of ur jemily hc’s? like just about their domestic life together ? ❤️

-tjj

Hey friend! I'm so sorry today has been rough. Hopefully you can go home and relax later. Just try and take care of yourself until then. I'm giving you a big hug right now! You're amazing and I'm very proud of you. Here is one of my fave headcanons that I don't think has ever been posted on tumblr before!!

Jemily +Food Deliveries

Jemily just hanging out in their underwear binge watching Netflix and eating junk food on their day off. Ordering Chinese so they never have to leave the house. Curled up on the couch yelling at the TV about how unrealistic the cop shows are but secretly loving Rizzoli & Isles and watching episode after episode and screaming "you love each other!" And generally being adorable and getting into tickle fights when one is hogging the blankets

The pizza guys fight over who gets to deliver the pizzas to their condo whenever there's a late night weekend order because they always answer the door in their underwear and maybe a tshirt or an open button down

It had just been an accident the first few times they did it but then they do it on purpose cause they usually get free shit with it. Like bra and boy shorts and oops here's some free breadsticks.

"Jayje, did you ever notice that we never got charged for that forty dollar order last week?"

"Forty dollars for what?"

"From Pisano's? When we had the munchies at eleven when we were marathoning Murdoch Mysteries?"

"Oh, well, duh, Em. You were just wearing a half buttoned shirt with no bra and bikini briefs when you answered the door. I would have spotted you forty bucks too"

Emily makes a game of it to see how many times she can get free food and how little she can get away with answering the door in. Tank top, no bra and some lacey somethings. Free dinner!

And JJ just rolls her eyes like "don't forget soy sauce this time!" And the delivery boy throws in like 20 packets and an entire box of fortune cookies

One time she answers in a towel so tiny it doesn't even wrap around her body, she has to hold it in front of her and the delivery guy from the Thai place is so flustered and Emily is like "well I don't have any hands to take that..." And she looks behind her like "JJ, come take the food!" And JJ comes around the corner in an over large tshirt hanging on one shoulder and it ends at the top of her thighs and her hair is all messy (even though they'd literally just been laying on the couch, they both have that just fucked look) and the delivery guys brain is totally short circuited and he hands them the food and stumbles away even though they were supposed to be paying cash and Emily says "thank you" and the guy kind of mumbles "no, thank YOU; really"

The local eateries try to curb that financial black hole by sending women delivery people and it. Doesn't. Work. Bc even the women are just like 'ummm hai! 😍"

20-35% of all the local food places money is from their own employees paying for the privilege of delivering to the Prentiss-Jareau household

And you can tell when they've actually been fucking because Em is rubbing her wrists where new welts have appeared and she has claw marks down her back when she turns around to get the cash and her hair is ACTUALLY disorderly and she only pays when she's flustered. So the delivery boys actually hope they've been having sex because Em tips really well

One time she tips $100 on a #30 order and the guy tries to give it back to her and she just dreamily closes the door in his face. And they get bonus tips if they say  Ms Prentiss instead of Mrs or Miss or ma'am. And they all have her number memorized so when she calls to place an order they fight for the phone

JJ answers the door half dressed and dangling a pair of handcuffs from one hand. They just get too tied up (literally) and leave the door unlocked with a note that says "leave the food on the table no change needed" and the delivery person is like "umm okay" and comes in and hears JJ screaming for mercy in the bedroom so he drops the food takes the cash and bolts

They send Christmas cards to their favorite eateries for putting up with their antics.

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 2 INFO

Round 2 will be posted between Wednesday, November 29th and Tuesday, December 5th. It will be split between 4 sets, each set being posted on a different day. There will be a total of 64 participants (16 participants in each individual set) divided in 32 polls 8 polls in each individual set). By the end of Round 2, 32 participants will make it to Round 3 while the rest will be sent to the Shadow Realm where their souls will be tormented for eternity. Each poll will last a week. As the sets are posted, I will link them below.

ROUND 2A

Cinderella (Disney's Cinderella Animated) vs. Hatsune Miku as Cinderella (Various Songs) (Vocaloid)

Cinderella/Aschenputtel/Cendrillon (German/General European Fairytale Variant) vs. Ye Xian (Chinese Fairytale Variant)

Hamupipőke (Hungarian Fairytale Variant) vs. Settarah (The Persian Cinderella by Shirley Climo/Robert Florczak)

Cendrillon (Otogi-Juushi Akazukin) vs. Mofurun as "Mofurella" (Mahou Tsukai PreCure)

Giselle Lai (Cinderelle) vs. Cinderella (Grimms Notes)

Queen Cinderella Charming (The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer) vs. Elegant "Ella" Herringbone Coach (Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison)

Vasilisa "Vasya" Petrovna (The Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden) vs. Cinderella "Cindy" Baxter (The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley)

Mia Basile (Cinderella the Cat) vs. La Cenerentola (La Cenerento Laossia La Bontà in Trionfo)

ROUND 2B

Ella of Frell (Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine) vs. Cinderellis (Cinderellis and the Glass Hill by Gail Carson Levine)

Imogen Keegan (Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke) vs. Cinderella/Prinzessin (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters & Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG)

Cinderumpelstiltskin (The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka/Lane Smith) vs. Cinderella (Cinderella Penguin, or, the Little Glass Flipper by Janet Perlman)

Cindy (If the Shoe Fits by Julia Murphy) vs. Bronwyn Murdoch (The Prince Who Loved Me by Karen Hawkins)

Ella (Cinder Ella by S.T. Lynn) vs. Queen Cinderella (10th Kingdom)

Sam Montgomery (A Cinderella Story) vs. Katie Gibbs (A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song)

Ella (Happily N'Ever After) vs. Ella (The Glass Slipper)

Ashlynn Ella (Ever After High) vs. Danielle de Barbarac (Ever After)

ROUND 2C

Missy Piggy as "Lady Holiday" (The Great Muppet Caper) vs. Baby Gonzo as "Gonzo-rella" (Muppet Babies 2018)

Scrooge McDuck as "Scroogerello" (Ducktales) vs. Chuckie Finster as "Finsterella" (Rugrats)

Popeye the Sailor Man as "Cinderfella" (Popeye the Sailor Man: Ancient Fishtory) vs. Betty Boop as Cinderella (Betty Boop: Poor Cinderella)

Barbie as Cinderella (Barbie Dolls) vs. Ella (Total Drama: Pahkitew Island)

Saki Hanajima as "Cinderella-ish" (Fruits Basket) vs. Mettaton as Cinderella (Undertale)

Cendrillon (Persona of Sumi Yoshizawa / Violet) (Persona 5) vs. Cinderella (Once Upon a Crime)

Ella Brown (Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix) vs. Princess Petra / Spinstress as "Spinderella" (Marvel Earth-423)

Cinderella (Cinderella by The Cheetah Girls) vs. Harper Finkle as "Harperella" (Wizards of Waverly Place)

ROUND 2D

Cinders (Once Upon a Time in Space by the Mechanisms) vs. Linh Cinder / Selene Blackburn (The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer)

Carrie White (Carrie by Stephen King) vs. Cinderella (Into the Woods)

Cinderella (Shrek) vs. Lucette Riella Britton (Cinderella Phenomenon)

Cinderella (TAISHO x ALICE) vs. Rin Hoshiora as Cinderella (Love Live)

Aisling "Ash" (Ash by Malinda Lo) vs. Ella Saturday (Witches Abroad) (Discworld by Terry Pratchett)

Euphemia "Effie" Reeves (Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater) vs. Cinderella (Burn the Witch)

Cinderella (Cinderella Monogatari) vs. Miyo Saimori (My Happy Marriage)

Ashley Vans (A Wicked Tale of Cinderella's Stepmom / I Raised Cinderella Preciously) vs. Itsumi Tachibana (You Are My Princess)

[mariacallous]

Donald Trump is running again for President in 2024, as he announced from Mar-a-Lago last night, but some Republicans who were his biggest supporters are all but rejecting him this time around. In particular, platforms like Fox News and the New York Post, which once buttressed Trump and his false claims, have made a nearly hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. “Election denial, as the midterm results have just shown, is not a political winner,” Susan B. Glasser writes, and, since last week’s elections, “the Murdoch media empire has embarked on a remarkable we-told-you-so campaign hitting Trump.” But a divided Republican Party is exactly what brought Trump to power—should we assume this time will be different? As Glasser asks, “Is losing really a bigger sin for Republicans than harassing women, blackmailing foreign leaders, or seeking to remain in power by calling forth an angry mob to attack Congress?” It’s a chilling question.

Almost exactly a year ago, on November 18, 2021, I went to interview Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago. In the second of two conversations, which totalled more than three and a half hours, for a book about his White House years that I wrote with my husband, Peter Baker, the former President had little to say about his agenda, past or future, and a lot of grievance to share. Regardless of the question, Trump often turned it back to a rant about the “rigged election” and the faithless betrayal of Republicans, such as Mitch McConnell, a “disloyal son of a bitch,” “schmuck,” “stupid person,” and “stiff” with “no personality.”

That same week, Trump had been publicly criticized by the Fox News chairman, Rupert Murdoch, for his backward-looking obsession with 2020—a political loser, Murdoch warned. When we pointed out Murdoch’s comments to Trump, the ex-President snapped back. “I disagree with him one hundred per cent,” Trump said. “I don’t speak to him.” When we noted that Trump did, in fact, bring up that election a lot, he was defiant. “I always will,” he said.

Murdoch, as it turned out, was prophetic. Election denial, as the midterm results have just shown, is not a political winner. It’s hard to think of a time in American politics when looking to past grievances rather than the future ever has been. But Trump, on this at least, has also been true to his word. Unrepentant and determined to stay his course, results be damned, Trump has repeated his lies about 2020 over and over again. It’s likely that, as he promised, he always will.

On Tuesday, just after 9 p.m., Trump surprised no one by announcing that he was running for President again, in a long ramble of a speech from the Mar-a-Lago ballroom that leaned heavily on anger, grievance, lies, and the grandiose braggadocio that is his trademark. Most of the speech could have been cut and pasted from one of Trump’s 2016 campaign rallies: the evil migrants storming over the border, the craven foreign countries ripping us off, the epidemic of drugs and crime on “the blood-soaked streets of our once-great cities.” His own reign, so unfairly cut short, had been the greatest of eras. Look at what a hellscape America under Joe Biden has become.

Given the recent unpleasantness of the midterm elections, Trump was a bit lighter than might have been expected on rants about the 2020 election that he lost. In fact, he never even mentioned his defeat, referring only to “the Pause,” as if his time out of the White House were a little vacation, a short respite at Mar-a-Lago. He did, however, manage to float a whole new conspiracy theory about the Chinese and how they might have done something to hurt him in the 2020 race. “Just sayin’,” the ex-President offered by way of explanation. And he promised to “bring back honesty and trust in our elections.” The reference was oblique, but so what—his audience knew what he meant, and cheered.

The real surprise of the evening came forty minutes in, when even the former President had started to seem a bit bored by the clichés spilling forth from his teleprompter, and Murdoch’s Fox had had enough. After Trump started asking his audience, “Remember Angela Merkel?,” the plug was pulled. No more live, uninterrupted propaganda for Trump from the network that, more than any other, had fuelled his political rise and shaped his Presidency. Sean Hannity and his guests would talk about the speech rather than actually show it.

Trump should have been braced for this unkindest cut of all. And, indeed, for the past week, ever since Republicans’ unexpectedly poor showing in the midterm elections, the Murdoch media empire has embarked on a remarkable we-told-you-so campaign hitting Trump. The New York Post, Murdoch’s tabloid and formerly one of Trump’s biggest boosters, savaged the ex-President with a cover depicting him as “Trumpty Dumpty.” In Murdoch’s flagship Wall Street Journal, the editorial board asserted flatly, “Trump Is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser.” On Fox, Republican guests blamed him for defeats in key races, and the network captioned their appearances with cutting chyrons like “Democrats See Trump as Easiest to Beat,” which ran hours before Trump’s Presidential announcement.

The pile-on was not, of course, confined to Murdoch and his employees. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump’s former adviser and confidant Chris Christie was reportedly cheered by Republican governors when, at their annual meeting, he gave a rousing speech that trashed Trump for dragging down the Party in three consecutive elections. Mike Pence, who went through personal and ideological contortions that are the stuff of political legend in order not to break with Trump, spent the day hawking his new memoir. The book tour has forced him to admit, however reluctantly, that even he had to break with Trump over the matter of the pro-Trump mob trying to kill him on January 6th.

It was a rare convergence of bipartisanship in American politics. How unusual, after all, is it in these divided times to see Republicans agreeing with Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont who said the other day, “As an American, the idea of another Trump campaign and all of his lies and divisiveness and his efforts to undermine American democracy is an absolute horror show. . . . On the other hand, I got to say that as a politician who wants to see that no Republican is elected to the White House in 2024, from that perspective, his candidacy is probably a good thing.”

Forgive me, though, if I’m not persuaded yet. Throughout the Trump years, there have been so many moments when dumping the Don seemed entirely possible, until it didn’t: the “Access Hollywood” tape, the Helsinki press conference with Vladimir Putin, the “perfect” phone call to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky that resulted in Trump’s first impeachment, the crazy mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and Trump’s second impeachment. Why, it’s fair to ask, should this time be any different? Is losing really a bigger sin for Republicans than harassing women, blackmailing foreign leaders, or seeking to remain in power by calling forth an angry mob to attack Congress?

The week since the midterm elections has underscored an important but often overlooked fact about Trump: it was the Republican Party that made him President and it will be only the Republican Party that can kill him off politically. General-election voters—that is, Democrats and independents—have made clear over multiple elections what they think of Trump. They don’t like him. Never have, never will. He’s lost the popular vote twice, by millions. He’s dragged down candidates in the 2018 midterms, the 2020 general election, and now in the 2022 midterms. It’s the G.O.P. that has continued to support and enable him. In primaries this year, Republican voters repeatedly chose Trump-anointed, election-denying extremists in competitive primaries as their nominees—flawed candidates such as Mehmet Oz, in Pennsylvania, and Herschel Walker, in Georgia, who came up short where their more conventional Republican opponents might not have. And Republican officials, including Trump skeptics like Mitch McConnell, then went ahead and endorsed those Trumpian nominees anyway, and spent millions of dollars promoting their candidacies. Trump led Republicans down the path of electoral folly; they didn’t have to follow.

Sure, there are some reassuring signs that self-preservation, if nothing else, might finally cause Republicans to forgo the chance at another four years of Trump. But a divided Republican Party is actually very much in Trump’s interest right now. It’s exactly how he came to power in the first place, beating out a field of seventeen other G.O.P. candidates in the 2016 primaries. They did not unite behind a single rival to defeat Trump then, nor are they likely to do so now. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis—already anointed “Ron DeSanctimonious” by Trump—is being set up as Trump’s logical successor, a sort of Trump without the baggage. Polls since the midterms suggest DeSantis has gained ground with Republican primary voters beyond his home state. But Trump remains the clear leader in national surveys—including a new Politico/Morning Consult poll out on Tuesday, which had Trump leading DeSantis, forty-seven per cent to his thirty-three per cent. And there will be plenty of other Republicans who run, once again setting up a situation in which the anti-Trump vote is splintered. Pence, in book-tour mode, gave every appearance of running. Even Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State who was Pence’s rival in Trump-era obsequiousness, said on Tuesday that he would not step aside just because Trump is officially in the race.

“We’re going to bring people together. We’re going to unify people,” Trump said at one point in his speech Tuesday evening. It might have been his biggest whopper of the night. Still, there has been a surprisingly bipartisan consensus this week about the advisability of Trump running again: Democrats and an increasing number of Republicans now seem to agree they’d prefer that he not do so. Sixty-five per cent of Republicans in that Politico/Morning Consult poll, in fact, said they didn’t really want Trump to run again in 2024. But so what? He is running, and their lack of enthusiasm for Trump never stopped them from voting for him before.

Donald Trump does not care if they don’t like him. He does not care if you call him a liar, a cheat, a fraud, and a huckster. But, as the past two years have shown, he is willing to do anything, including blow up the foundations of American democracy, if you declare him a loser. ♦

[jasonsutekh]

The A-Team (1983-7)

A group of unjustly accused fugitives take jobs saving civilians, stopping mob bosses, and beating on thugs while evading government persecution.

 Possibly the main benefit that made this series so well known is the strong main characters who each have an asset that they specialise in but are also complex and family oriented in their own ways. Many of their adventures involve progressive subtext like worker unity and ousting official corruption which still apply just as well today.

 Naturally there are some plot points which require the audience to suspend their disbelief like how the team rarely seem to be hit by anyone shooting at them despite the frequency of it and the amount of times the antagonists lock them up with a bountiful pile of mechanical or building equipment for them to use in their escapes. The stories get a little formulaic after a while with only the odd example where it breaks away or the series transitions to a narrative structure.

 Fortunately the fifth season changes the formula to a more ongoing story which is refreshing. There are also occasional guest stars to add variety and amusement, including a surprising crossover with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1964-8). One of the main appeals of the series is how satisfying it is to see the plans unfold and the heroes get one over on the superficially stronger opposition.

 The downside to the change in structure for the fifth season is that they’re all more allied with the government who have displayed wanton corruption and incompetence for the previous four seasons. There are also some elements that are less acceptable in more enlightened times, like Hannibal dressing up as a Chinese man which he mercifully only does once, and “Mad” Murdoch, although in spite of his bizarre behaviour it’s not necessarily as bad a representation as one would expect from the 80s.

 6/10 -Just a cut above average-

 -B.A.’s first name is Bosco, though it’s rarely mentioned.

-The character Amy Allen was quickly dropped from the show after asking for more lines and involvement with the fights.

-The show achieves PG rating because even though there are many fistfights and shoot-outs, they team don’t kill anyone.

[la-semillera]

Valentine Schlegel & Iris Murdoch

JUNIO

Negra y blanca urraca de una pintura china

vuela lentamente como un helicóptero

en nuestro friso estival.

La noche apenas atenúa las horas del día,

largos, rojos y transparentes tallos de rosas enarcados por flores

y abejas que, curiosas, por ellos trepan.

- Iris Murdoch, en A Year of Birds, Chatto & Windus/Hogarth Press, Londres, 1984. Con ilustraciones de Reynolds Stone. Versión de Jonio González.

JUNE

Black and white magpie from a Chinese picture

Flies slowly like a helicopter

On our midsummer frieze.

Night scarcely dims the daylight hours,

Long red transparent stems of roses arch with flowers

And with the curious clambering of bees

- Je dors. Atelier de Valentine en Sète, 1965.