#famous-leadership-quotes

[quotelr]

Don't let your past dictate your future,

Chris Mentillo, A True Tale of Horror

[thepersonalwords]

God didn't call me to kill me. He called me to glory and virtue. My body has dropped on His feet to follow me home no more. Who the son of God set free is free indeed.

Patience Johnson, Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder

[thearticlheaven]

Some Ratan Tata Most Famous Quotes For Inspiration

This article explores Ratan Tata's impactful philosophies, highlighting his thoughts on collaboration, facing challenges, and continuous learning. It also features a curated collection of motivational quotes that embody his legacy and wisdom.

[newsepick]

Ratan Tata's Impact on India - True Indian - Tribute to Sir Ratan Tata

From architectural marvels 🏛️ to ground-breaking business ventures 💼, Ratan Tata's impact on India is undeniable. Before leading the Tata Group, he studied architecture and designed architectural gems in Jamshedpur 💎. His philanthropic spirit shone through, with Tata Sons and Tata Trusts pledging Rs 1,500 crore to combat COVID-19 💪. He championed environmental sustainability 🌳, establishing the environment division at CII to support industry efforts. Tata's unwavering support for Indian startups, like Motopaws 🐶, fostered innovation and entrepreneurship 💡. A man of adventure ✈️, he obtained a pilot's license and co-piloted a Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter plane 🚀. His passing on October 9, 2024, left a profound legacy of vision, compassion, and innovation 🙏. News Card Contents: 👉 Who is Ratan Tata? 👉 His Passion for Architecture 👉 His Philanthropic Pursuits 👉 His take on Sustainability 👉 His Support for Startups 👉 A Licensed Pilot 👉 Tata: A Man Beyond Legacy For more news on the world of Business, check out Newsepick: https://app.newsepick.com

[vox-anglosphere]

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

Sir Winston Churchill

[compacflt]

If you want, and only if you want to, could you explain about making Logistics a big part of Ice's career path? Not only did fit so well with your Ice's characterization, it was just so neat I've made it my HC for Ice's career path.

yes!

I got REALLy deep into the defense policy weeds in this post so I’m putting a cut to save people’s dashboards

1. when i was rewriting chapters 8 &9 last winter i did literally the bare minimum of research about the current set of high-level officers. the commander of the pacific fleet at the time had previously been the director of pacific fleet logistics ordnance & supply. So that was easy to yoink. a proven chain of succession.

2. but also: it fit ice’s (or his alter ego admiral Kazansky’s) neat, orderly, effective, collected, strategic characterization. And as professional tactics go, there would be no better promotion for a high-level officer looking to take over the fleet than DFLOS. understand the fleet by the numbers, you comprehensively understand the fleet.

3. In terms of secret-keeping logistics, ice is supposed to be kind of the best. like, because of his logistical thinking, he & maverick get away with it. Or that’s how I would’ve written it if I were a little smarter. Obviously in practice a bunch of people find out so it’s not great. but the navy AS A WHOLE doesn’t find out.

4. The field of military logistics is rigorously bureaucratic, boring, soulsucking, selfdefeating, notoriously corrupt, and yet entirely necessary for the military to succeed at any level (in the very first draft of WWGATTAI i included a famous US marine corps maxim that most people have heard at some point: “amateurs talk tactics. professionals talk logistics.” but that was literally the only good thing about the original chapter 6 which got entirely rewritten a month after i published it). So logistics as a field of specialization fit in perfectly with my secondary character thesis that rising through the boring bureaucratic ranks of the Navy sucked all the humanity & will to live out of ice one day at a time.

a couple related interesting things that I’ve never talked about on this blog & might never get the chance to again:

a) ice canonically joins the navy as a fighter pilot & ends his career as a glorified bureaucrat. that sucks. obviously the struggle to rise in the ranks is a notoriously cutthroat, political, sleazy business (you do not get to the top of the United States Navy by being nice to people), but i would also not be the first person to say that—for exemplary officers—leadership is an EXPECTATION that can counterbalance someone’s natural drive to excel, if that makes sense. You get promoted because you’re good at something (flying), but you get promoted away from the thing you were good at. There is an extent to which you have to fight for a promotion—but there is also an extent to which commanders above you pick you for the job, suck you up along the pipeline. Loss of agency—a major major component of joining the military—does still apply to upper-level officers.

B) to that end, i am reminded of one quote from Todd Schmidt’s 2023 book “Silent Coup of the Guardians: US Military Elite Influence on National Security.” This is an Army training & doctrine commander speaking: “the military has a lot of two- and three-star senior leaders that were confident, charismatic commanders at the O-6 level. But that’s the end of the story. One in fifty, maybe one in a hundred, truly have what it takes to operate successfully at the strategic level and make a real difference for their service. The problem is that they all tend to think that, since they have stars on their shoulders, they’re the one.” —I’ve been writing ice as “The Chosen One,” the officer unicorn, for two reasons: one, it provides him cover for his illegal relationship (and also asks an interesting chicken-egg question: does he get away with his rlnship because he’s so good, or is he so good JUST to get away with his relationship?); and two, he’s “the chosen one” in canon, i.e. he already has four stars in canon: canonically he is not a mediocre officer. But most officers (cough cough maverick) are not cut out for high-level leadership.

C.) in Thomas E. Ricks’ book “The Generals,” Ricks argues that (at least in the Army) mediocrity in the general/flag officer ranks is unfortunately by design. In WWII, if you were a mediocre officer, you got relieved! You got fired! It’s part of why we won: merciless culling of the general officer ranks! But between WWII and Korea, officer relief began to be associated with shame & wasted resources. Mediocre officers got promoted anyways. The military elite pipeline sucks mediocrity up the chain of command. Ricks blames this issue for (at least the Army’s) shit leadership in every post-WWII war, including but most especially Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s no penalty for mediocrity. That in turn reflects on military strategy (mediocre strategists at the helm) & the outcome of every military foray (mediocre outcomes).

D) additionally. There’s a whole neverending debate in the field of civil-military relations (an extremely interesting field of study btw) about the corporatization of the military—lots of high-level talk over the years of “running the military like a business.” If you get kinda into defense policy like me (am i still antimilitary? Idk! but i CAN easily tell you i am against the navy’s littoral combat ship program! It sucks!) then you will know that the navy is struggling right now on a lot of different fronts (procurement [shipbuilding esp. is a disaster—ford-class carriers are under budget though 👍🏽], recruitment, theatre prioritization, general preparedness, readiness against major adversaries [China in particular]). Simply, the navy is pretty mediocre at the minute. I talk a big game about ice being COMPACFLT & SECNAV, but if those are true, & if he “exists” in our current timeline, or even canon timeline (COMPACFLT in 2020), then he’s complicit in a lot of why the navy is sucking ass right now. He didn’t do his job very well. LOL. So, because I love (especially my version of) ice too much to see his legacy suffer, I am stating for the record that my timeline is a different timeline where ice saves the navy from itself and fixes all its issues & solves all its problems & makes it the pride of the armed forces & the tip of the spear of American defense :) because I said so

E.) unrelated but important. It sounds obvious but it must be said. Ice dies on the job in TGM canon. To the extent that in earlier drafts of the script, not-his-sister-Sarah even points out to maverick that ice is still active duty, in the same breath as she tells him ice is sick again. (A wise move to remove that line.) ice does not resign his commission. Ice does not retire to spend time with his family at the end of his life. Ice dies as commander of the pacific fleet. He dies on the job; he dies FOR the job, bureaucratic as it is. If you were wondering why I wrote ice so dormantly suicidal, it’s because canon (i argue) has made it clear that—since the second ice signed up to be a fighter pilot during the Cold War to the second he died active duty—ice has ALWAYS been ready and willing to die for his honorable Navy career.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Will we never see the day the Harkles get what they deserve rumour tracking anon? I'm losing faith and I'm really tired. They are saved from all those scandals that demand their answer just with this one incident. I cannot anymore

I know, anon. It's really frustrating to see them keep getting away with it, almost as if they're constantly rewarded for bad behavior.

Some things that have helped me (bolding for emphasis to break up the giant chunks of text):

Taking breaks. Just walk away from it. A day, a weekend, a week. There isn't a whole lot happening in the BRF to counteract the Sussex shenanigans so Harry and Meghan are dominating the news There are no tiara or glam events. No tours/foreign visits. No projects being announced. 3 out of 7 senior royals are on medical leave and the ones who are working don't generate the same kind of headlines, attention, or coverage. Take a break from all this - maybe do a deep dive into another royal family or read historical books about the BRF (especially ones that pre-date the modern House of Windsor) or non-text books (like Angela Kelly's books or Chris Jackson's photobooks).

Spend time pursuing a creative hobby. I find that doing something creative helps keep my mind from wandering to the Sussexes and the nothingness coming from the BRF too often. Some of my creative pursuits: baking and cooking new recipes, DIY and craft projects (I love going to Goodwill, thrift stores, and architectural salvage places for home decor and furniture. Also, I'm not saying you need to pledge allegiance to Catherine, The Princess of Wales in every aspect of your life, but I'm also not not saying that Kate's Ring is an excellent accent color for an end table), learning how to make craft cocktails (it was a pandemic thing), and organizing decades and decades of family photos.

What I also find a cathartic is fanfiction writing. I've had dreams of being a writer since I was Princess Charlotte's age but listen. I cannot stick to a plot for the life of me, because I always want to know "what happens next." But let me tell you. It is hugely cathartic to write a fanfiction novel where a Meghan-like evil witch gets everything she deserves and a Harry-like tortured prince is redeemed by the pure love of an ordinary American girl (okay, that one was pre-Oprah before we all learned how truly messed up Harry is) or where a revenge fantasy where a Harry-like spoiled brat loses everything when he treats his saintly Kate-like girlfriend abominably and when he tries to win her back, she's fallen in love with a Henry Cavill-like swashbuckling Real Man or where the Harry-and-Meghan-like entitled spoilt prince and his wife try to overthrow the saintly and universally loved heir but the Queen swiftly, immediately, justly, and properly handles them with eviction, termination, and worldwide embarrassment. You can do everything to your characters and you can make them suffer in a way the real Harry and Meghan may never.

Find trashier, more trainwreckier drama to get stuck in. Bravo, anyone? A new season of Vanderpump Rules has just started, Summer House is about to start, and two of the villains from OG Vanderpump Rules (Jax and Kristen) have a spinoff series that's about to launch.

Changing your perspective. There's a famous leadership quote about problem-solving: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. In other words, you have to take big things (big problems) one at a time, piece by tiny piece. So yes, the big "elephant" is that the Sussexes look like they have everything - they still have titles, they still have massive million-dollar deals, they've got the Olive Garden, the BRF isn't stopping their PR. But also look at everything they don't have anymore:

They can't use their HRHs.

Their RPOs were taken away.

Their royal charities and patronages were taken away.

Charles isn't paying them as much money, if he's even paying for them.

Everyone is blaming them for hastening Philip's and The Queen's deaths.

They were evicted from Frogmore Cottage.

It took six months for the palace website to add Prince/Princess titles to Archie and Lili but it was instanteous to change George, Charlotte, and Louis to "of Wales."

Charles calls them "Harry and Meghan" or "my other son and his wife."

The family doesn't want to be seen with or around them. Even Eugenie seems to have abandoned ship these days.

William isn't taking Harry's calls.

Lili doesn't have a webpage on the royal website.

Harry's military titles and honors have been revoked. All he has left is the merit-based rank he "earned" as an enlisted soldier. (Which is being generous.)

Their Spotify deal was cancelled early. (Scobie admits this in Endgame.)

No more social media birthday greetings/shout-outs from official royal accounts.

Nothing has come out of Netflix except a whinefest docuseries that no one has taken seriously. Everything they've pitched gets shot down and Meghan isn't getting the talent she wants for her movie.

The only awards they're getting are the ones that they pay for - no Grammys for Spare's audiobook, no Emmys or Golden Globes for their documentaries or the Oprah interview, no Pulitzers or Literary Awards for their books. No Nobel Peace Prize for their recordbreaking humanitarian aid work.

They got the knockoff Kennedys (William got the real ones).

Meghan isn't "in" with A-List Hollywood. The celebrities she's been namedropping haven't had commercial box office hits in at least a decade. She isn't hosting or presenting at award shows.

Meghan isn't getting the lucrative influencer sponsorships and merching she wants, which is why she papwalks in parking lots.

Their foundation is a joke and their philanthropy/giving is increasingly under scrutiny for things that don't make sense.

Their "good deeds" are actually ulterior motives designed for maximum PR and celebrity bandwagons, rather than actually helping underserved communities.

There is actual, open, frequent speculation that their children aren't even real and that has to hurt as a parent.

The British press doesn't take them seriously.

They're a comedy punchline, and not just for satire. The Golden Globes made fun of them. The whole world laughed at them after the "car chase."

Harry's lawsuits aren't going well. He's now trying to relitigate a court finding so he doesn't have to pay his fines.

Elton John isn't flying them anywhere anymore. Oprah and Gayle have cut ties. Ellen DeGeneres seems disinterested. Tyler Perry noped out.

Harry's balding is atrocious. (I mean, really. In the overhead camera angles of The Queen's funeral, his bald spot jumps out at you from a mile away. Not even William's bald head stands out that much.)

They/Archewell bleed staff faster than a flesh wound.

Andrew -- ANDREW! -- still has a royal residence, still has RPOs, still gets papped with members of the royal family, still gets friendly press coverage (on occasion), still gets to wear/use some of his honors (like the RVO at coronation).

Eugenie got to have her own personal social media while Harry and Meghan got a "business" account.

The Sussex wedding was overshadowed by so much drama that still persists to this day (thanks for the Markle v Markle lawsuit, Sam!).

Spare made everyone realize Harry is as bad as Meghan and it's not all on her.

Harry's "Hero Harry"/Queen's Soldier PR persona has been completely and thoroughly shattered. Everyone knows it was just a publicity facade now.

Harry isn't even getting the "William's brother" edit anymore - that's now Mike Tindall.

They were erased from most of the Platinum Jubilee - their only official event was the service of thanksgiving. They didn't even get Trooping - Meghan had to arrange for a pap to take her picture to show us they were at Trooping.

They were erased from the Coronation - Harry got lumped in with the extended family (vs the line of succession, order of precedence, or working royals) and didn't get into any of the official programs, memorabilia, or portraits.

They've been shunned by most of British aristocracy - no invite to the Grosvenor wedding later this year.

No royal christening for Lili, and it's exceedingly more and more likely that the BRF hasn't met her yet.

The British media/press actually shows up and will be the first to defend the BRF against Sussex allegations when it really matters.

There are accusations of stolen valor against Harry because he seems to be supporting American military more than British military.

Harry's African charities, of which he is the figurehead, are in crisis with the discovery of SA and other allegations.

Supposedly Harry's role with BetterUp has been downgraded/demoted.

Invictus Games is going through some serious money issues. There's talk of cutting Harry and Meghan loose because they aren't/can't fundraise, and you know they won't go down swinging.

I'm sure there are more, but my point is that even though it looks like the Sussexes are getting away with things, they really haven't. after all, it's death by a thousand cuts...or eating an elephant piece by tiny piece -- it builds up over time.

Also I just realized that the Kate's Ring paint chip linked up earlier shows it being more of a teal or an inkier blue. It isn't - it's more of a cobalt blue or a royal blue.

[nordic-noire]

'The way out of the conflict is for Russia to leave Ukraine.'

[troutymouthwhisperhug]

━━━ CHAPTER SIX .ᐟ ⋆｡˚

as they arrive at spencer's house, they head to his room. spencer's room is a cozy haven, with playbills from various musicals and theater productions adorning the walls, interspersed with posters of famous physicists and inspirational quotes. the room is filled with a mix of school supplies, books, and personal mementos, creating a space that is both organized and warmly cluttered.

miles and spencer lay on spencer's king-size bed, while winston sits in the desk chair, which is turned toward them, busy on spencer's laptop creating campaign posters.

"how about 'step into my heart: vote miles for a journey of love'?" miles suggests, his voice carrying a hint of mischief.

spencer chuckles, their shoulders brushing. "not bad, but what about 'vote for miles: because every step counts'?"

miles pokes spencer's side playfully. "oh, come on, you can do better than that!"

spencer grins, retaliating with a tickle to miles' ribs. "oh, you think so?"

within seconds, the two are engaged in a full-blown tickle fight, laughter filling the room as they wrestle playfully. spencer's fingers find all of miles' ticklish spots, and miles squirms, trying to get the upper hand.

"okay, okay, i surrender!" miles gasps between giggles, finally managing to pin spencer's arms down. "you win!"

"that's what i thought," spencer teases, their faces close, both of them breathing heavily from the playful exertion.

winston rolls his eyes and suggests, "um, how about 'miles: your voice, your choice'?"

miles and spencer exchange a glance before bursting into laughter again. "too formal, chewy," spencer says, still giggling.

"yeah, way too formal," miles agrees. "we need something catchy but still cool."

"okay, okay," winston sighs, resigned to being the voice of reason amidst their playful antics. "how about 'miles ahead: your future, our vision'?"

"that's better," spencer nods. "it's got a nice ring to it."

miles grins. "i like it. but let's take a break and regroup."

"good idea," winston says, stretching. "i could use a snack."

miles and winston head to the kitchen to help themselves to some snacks while spencer lays on the bed, texting his group chat with lola, frankie, and shay.

in the kitchen, winston looks at miles. "you know, you and spencer have always been flirty, but today it seems... different."

miles sighs, opening a bag of popcorn. "i don't know, winston. it's complicated. we've always been like this, so i'm not sure if he likes me like that at all."

winston, the only person who knows that miles has liked spencer since middle school, says, "i think he really likes you, man." grabbing a few of san pellegrinos from the fridge, he continues, "you should just go for it."

miles hesitates. "it's not that simple. what if it ruins everything?"

"it won't," winston reassures him. "you guys have something special. don't let fear hold you back."

miles takes a deep breath, nodding. "maybe you're right," he says, but deep down, he feels unsure. his face betrays his uncertainty, and winston sees this.

"hey," winston says gently, "just take it one step at a time. you've got this."

"when did you get so wise?" miles jokes.

they head back up to the room with a bowl of popcorn and some san pellegrinos. as they walk in, miles throws a drink at spencer and spencer catches it and miles suggests, "you know what would earn us some serious votes? a pool party."

spencer perks up, liking the idea. "yeah, that could work. we could invite the whole school."

miles sits back down, setting the bowl of popcorn between them, and stares at spencer, thinking about the conversation he just had with winston.

spencer notices. "what?"

"nothing," miles says, shaking his head. "just thinking about the pool party idea."

"it's a great way to engage with the students and showcase miles' leadership skills," winston nods in agreement.

"exactly," miles says, already envisioning the event. "plus, who doesn't love a good pool party?"

"and you know what else would be a hit? my cupcakes!" spencer says. "i can bake a bunch and pass them out at the party. people will vote for miles just to get a taste of them."

miles couldn't contain his excitement. "my mouth is already watering! you're a genius, spencer!" he reaches over, pulling spencer into a warm embrace.

spencer is taken aback by the suddenness of the gesture, but he melts into the embrace, his heart racing with a mixture of surprise and delight.

for a moment, they remain locked in the embrace, the world around them fading into insignificance as they savor the warmth of each other's presence.

as they pull away, their eyes meet, and they smile awkwardly.

winston watches them, a mix of fondness and frustration in his eyes. for years, he's witnessed the unspoken connection, the shared laughter, and the way their eyes light up in each other's presence.

yet, he also senses the hesitance, the unspoken fears that hold them back from fully embracing what they could have together. winston wants nothing more than for miles and spencer to realize the depth of their feelings before it's too late.

he wants them to acknowledge the undeniable chemistry that crackles between them. as he watches them share a smile, winston makes a silent vow to do whatever he can to get them together.

"okay, lovebirds. let's focus," winston says, breaking the moment. "we need to plan this party and get the word out."

"right," spencer agrees, pulling himself together. "i'll start working on the cupcakes."

"and i'll handle the invitations," miles says, glancing at winston. "we'll make this the event of the year."

winston nods, already brainstorming ideas. "let's do this."

[jewishvitya]

I got called naive for my views, because someone interpreted them as "what if we all stopped fighting? 🥹" but that's not what I'm trying to express.

When people in Israel talk about peace, it usually means Palestinians accepting their fates as occupied and expelled people. Refugees living their lives in diaspora without hoping to return, people in the West Bank and Gaza not fighting back anymore. They pretend this would mean our soldiers won't be "forced to" kill anyone anymore. It's still the mentality of Golda Meir's famous quote - "We can never forgive the Arabs for making us kill children."

This is what I perceive as "what if we all just stopped fighting." And it's not a solution to anything. There's no justice there.

What I'm talking about is ending occupation, ending Israeli violence not just by laying down weapons but dismantling the system that necessitates them fighting back, and correcting what we can. Israel has so much power, it practically orchestrates the conditions here.

Israel basically imposed Hamas on Gaza, nurtured it to divide Palestinian leadership, and now every Palestinian person is expected to condemn them before they get to talk about losing their families. They're identified with Hamas by force - both by this game of "condemn them" and by being given no other path to resist. Pushed far past what any group of human beings would tolerate, in conditions that make radicalization inevitable, and then branded as evil and violent by nature because they respond like every single group of occupied people responded before.

If Israel wanted to, it could start a process of deescalation. It could find actual solutions in conversation with Palestinians, instead of "sign this, we'll control your borders and resources but you'll technically be a country, and btw we take all the good farm lands and you get the rest - oh, you don't want to! See, you never wanted peace!"

But as long as Israel is a colonialist ethnostate, the tools it uses match that. And I know no oppressive force ever just let go of the power they held. That's why I encourage people to talk about this and support Palestine. Political pressure. Hopefully the violence Palestinians are suffering can be stopped. Maybe the violence necessary to end this can be minimized too, I don't know.

So I guess my position isn't "what if we just stopped fighting," it's "what if the whole concept of a colonialist ethnostate was dismantled." If this sounds like the result won't be Israel as we know it, well, I guess it won't be. But Israel as a state is immoral and discriminatory by nature. You can't create a country that enforces an ethnic majority and prioritizes that group, treating the existence of another ethnic group as an existential threat, and not have that be sliding fast in the direction of fascism. "Us vs. them, their very existence is a threat to ours" is pretty much a one-way ticket.

Framing the question as "we have the right to live in our ancestral homeland" is misleading. The real question is "do we have the right to expell other people from their homeland." And we never had that right.

[quotelr]

Be humble: have the courage to speak the truth.

Ken Poirot

[thepersonalwords]

It is not your duty to run from the devil but resist him and he will flew from you.

Patience Johnson, Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder

[motivateandinspiretoday]

Calvin Coolidge Words of Wisdom #like #freedom #subscribe #facts #love...

Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States, is often associated with the ethos of persistence encapsulated in his famous quote about pressing on. He emphasized that persistence and determination were more important than talent, education, or genius in achieving success. Coolidge believed that unwavering effort and resilience in the face of challenges were the keys to overcoming obstacles and achieving long-term goals.

His perspective was shaped by his personal life and career, which included enduring personal tragedies and navigating the complexities of political leadership. Coolidge's advocacy for pressing on reflects his belief in the power of perseverance as a defining trait of character and success.

[prettyvintageafternoon]

Daily reminder that the anti-abortion position will never be a feminist, left-wing or progressive position, and the pathological need of pro-lifers to tokenize minorities and certain experiences that we have needs to be studied.

First off, I find it very funny that an organization known for having its white members engage in physical violence, trespassing and digging in the trash for fetal remains is now trying to lecture black women about intersectionality with regard to pregnancy and childbirth.

Reproductive justice is both a term and an ideology that black women specifically came up with in order to acknowledge how race and economic class play a role in reproductive access and decisions. The fact that an organization run and represented by white people pretending to be progressive is trying to check the women who came up with an actual progressive framework of beliefs to better represent their own interests is hilarious to me.

Second, PAAU is not a progressive organization. Its founder, Terrisa Bukovinac, is on the board of the Leadership Institute, a politically conservative training organization, and has gone to events hosted by the Heritage Foundation - a right-wing conservative think tank helping to drive anti-abortion legislation around the country by supporting conservative Republican politicians in various ways.

You even have members of this organization like @secularprolifeconspectus on Tumblr who will do interviews with people like Sebastian Gorka, who has had ties to the Order of Vitéz - a Hungarian order of merit which allied itself with Nazis during WWII.

(BTW, the IRONY of spending time talking about how Planned Parenthood is rooted in eugenics while talking about how conservatives are so much nicer than leftists to someone who has ties to a Nazi-sympathizing organization. Ma'am... 😬)

Then again, @secularprolifeconspectus also likes to spread lies like Abortion Pill Reversal™️, which isn't real, and repeats quotes from Abby Johnson, the famous anti-abortion activist who had two abortions and said that the police would be smart to racially profile her black sons in the wake of the Black Lives Matter Protests of 2020 following George Floyd's murder. 🙃

@secularprolifeconspectus has me blocked, but I'll just say this.

The irony of pretending to care about the interests of black people while rubbing shoulders with far-right political figures and reposting words from racist white women but also being confused as to why leftists don't like you is very telling.

Third, the information posted is wrong. It's very convenient that PAAU is "worried" about maternal morality in the DMV area when the U.S. states with the highest maternal mortality rates are Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina (CDC, 2023) - states with higher concentrations of black people that are also dominated by white, conservative political leadership which puts anti-abortion legislation in place. The DMV area is actually lower in comparison to these places, yet PAAU conveniently ignores that im order to paint a false narrative.

Source: Which states have the highest maternal mortality rates?, USA FACTS

Fourth, I also find it very funny that "progressive" pro-lifers have the audacity to accuse organizations run by minorities of hijacking progressive principles when that's all pro-lifers do by...

Using terms like "Abortion Industrial Complex" after anti-war advocates have been discussing the Military Industrial Complex for years

Acknowledging how finances and money plays a role in people choosing to get abortions but only every criticizing pro-choicers for supporting abortion access (*and conveniently never holding the very conservative anti-abortion movement accountable for the policy-making role they play in making people not want to have children in the first place)

Saying that abortion access is a part of Big Pharma, when forcing women to have children they don't want literally creates another patient pool for Big Pharma to subsist off of

Arguing that affordable healthcare, housing and clean water and nutrition - things that pro-choice activists have spent years advocated for (*and that conservative pro-lifers have spent years voting against), somehow cannot co-exist with abortion access

So yeah, removing abortion access from people who want it will never be progressive, and the fact that pro-lifers still try to tokenize minorities (and chastise us when we don't support their worldview) shows how little they actually care about those of us people of color.

[wejustvibing]

just read that george quote about the w15 being designed around “lewis’ wishes” and “hopefully it will translate into lap time”????

lmfao ah yes the famous leadership qualities of *checks notes* taking absolutely zero responsibility or accountability and pointing fingers

this man is a joke, good luck to merc 💀

😭 he's just making sure his ass is covered either way. please respect the hustle of a true leader

[haggishlyhagging]

The summer after the [1988] election, the National Organization for Women met in Cincinnati, just three weeks after the Supreme Court's famous Webster decision restricting women's right to an abortion, and just as the Bush administration was applauding the court's historic retreat from reproductive choice. Some NOW delegates, weary of what they saw as an endless round of betrayals of women by both political parties, proposed the convention talk about forming a third party, one that would, among other causes, champion women's equality. The motion passed unanimously.

The press, which generally ignored NOW conventions, exploded with outrage, anger, and derision. "Not NOW—It's Time for Consensus, not Conflict," ordered the Washington Post's Outlook editor Jodie Allen in an opinion piece. "Somebody has to say it, Molly Yard [NOW president], shut up." As for the rest of the NOW leadership, the editor ordered, "[R]ework your act or bow off the stage." The dozens of other editorial temper tantrums were little different. Some sample headlines: "NOW Puts Her Worst Foot Forward," "NOW's Fantasy," and "NOW's Flirtation With Suicide." Newsweek warned that "the shrill voices of NOW" could destroy the pro-choice movement and quoted an anonymous attendee of the conference, who supposedly said, "I wish we could take out a contract on Molly Yard." (Given that the conference gave unanimous support to the third-party proposal, this dissenter's identity is something of a mystery.)

In its overheated response to the proposal, the press managed to get the story all wrong. They accused NOW president Molly Vard of foisting the third-party idea on the convention delegates, but grass-roots delegates came up with the proposal in a workshop, proposed it, and passed it—while a startled NOW leadership stood and watched. The leaders, in fact, had proposed a much more modest work-inside-the-party plan; Yard had only suggested calling for gender balance on the two parties' slates. And these delegates were hardly the "rabid radicals" that the media conjured: because it wasn't an election year for NOW's leadership, many longtime activists and members from the more liberal East and West coasts had stayed home. The delegates dominating this conference were midwestern, middle American women; in fact, an unusually large proportion of them had joined NOW for the first time that year. Further, their resolution didn't even call for a new party—only for "an exploratory commission" to consider the possibility of having one. And the party the delegates wished to consider wasn't even, as the press had dubbed it, a "woman's party"; the delegates defined it broadly as a human-rights party that would confront racial inequality, poverty, pollution, and militarism, too.

The phobic response from the press corps and members of the political establishment—who, from the president to the Democratic National Committee chairman to the governors of Maine and Michigan, provided a bountiful supply of condemnatory quotes—was even more ludicrously out of proportion when one recalls that half of the last forty-nine presidential elections have all been three-party elections, seemingly without damage to the American political process. No editorial writers proposed taking a contract out on John Anderson or Barry Commoner when they made their third-party bids just eight years earlier. (It might also be pointed out that the Republican party itself began life as a third party and elected Lincoln in a four-party race.) That an almost timidly worded proposal could generate such fury stunned NOW leaders. "I mean, normally we have to really work for the press to pay even the slightest attention!" a baffled Eleanor Smeal, former NOW president, says. "For the president of the United States of America to mention the NOW resolution [in a TV interview] is unfathomable, incredible! . . . The only thing I can conclude is that many of the powers-that-be are worried."

The hail of disdain poured on NOW's third-party proposal achieved its aim: extinguishing the spark of an idea before it had a chance to spread. Leaders of one women's rights organization after another rushed to the public podium no prove their personal distaste for the women's party—often in ladylike language. Kate Michelman, executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, even called reporters while she was on vacation to say that she opposed the third-party plan, because she didn't want the many "friends" of women in the GOP and Democratic parties "to feel like we're going to abandon them." This was a far different response from 1980, when feminist leaders used the third-party card to force the Democratic party to support a full women's rights agenda: they threatened then to endorse independent candidate John Anderson if the Democratic party didn't put the ERA, abortion rights, and child care on its agenda.

The intense mockery that the third-party idea provoked should have tipped off women in politics to the equally intense insecurity such taunts concealed. Smeal was probably right; the powers-that-be were worried. The political establishment had to deride NOW's proposal as "cockeyed" and "silly" because it was in fact neither— it was credible and threatening. After all, of all the battles that Bush faced in the '88 race, it was the candidate's successful combat against the gender gap that his advisers singled out as the "major accomplishment" of his campaign. "Is it all over for white males?" asked veteran newsman David Brinkley, floating the question nervously on the air as he anchored NBC's television coverage of the 1988 Democratic national convention. Political commentator George Will returned a gaze of equal consternation and replied, yes, it did seem they were witnessing "the eclipse of the white male." Behind them, a Democratic podium was awash in a sea of white male faces—but that hardly mattered to the two male pundits.

By the close of the decade, it didn't require an overactive imagination to sense the anger and alienation of the majority of American women—first cheated by the Reagan administration, then shut out of the 1988 presidential campaign and finally demoralized by the Webster decision restricting abortion. Women's anger was, in fact, surfacing in spectacular ways in the national polls. A 1989 Yankelovich Clancy Shulman survey found that a majority of women believed both the Democratic and Republican parties were "out of touch with the average American woman." And who did they believe was "in touch"? A majority of women cited the following three groups: NOW, the leaders of the women's rights movement, and feminists. When analyzed by age, the Yankelovich survey results painted a grim picture indeed for the future status of the Democratic and Republican parties: younger women in the poll identified the least of any age group with the traditional parties—and the most with feminist groups and leaders. Among women twenty-two to twenty-nine years old, only 36 percent believed Republicans were in touch with the average woman; on the other hand, 73 percent of these young women said NOW was in touch with their needs. The youngest women, sixteen to twenty-one, weighed in with the most overwhelming figures—83 percent of them believed NOW spoke for them.

By the close of the decade, women could have constituted an immensely powerful voting bloc—if only women's-rights and other progressive leaders had mobilized their vast numbers. But in the 1980s, the backlash in the Capitol kept this historic political opportunity for women in check—with a steady strafing of ostracism, hostility, and ridicule. The women most discouraged by this bombardment, understandably, were the ones in closest range. And so, just as the middle American women at NOW's midwestern convention were ready to take action, many of their female leaders in Washington were running for cover.

-Susan Faludi, Backlash: the Undeclared War Against American Women