#farmers rally

[todayworldnews2k21]

Farmers begin 'Delhi chalo' march, demand MSP law, justice for Lakhimpur victims

Farmers, led by Kisan leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, began a foot march towards the national capital on Thursday as part of their ongoing ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest. Around 100 farmers started the march from the Shambhu border. Explaining the decision, Pandher said, “We have been sitting here for the past eight months. In response to accusations that our tractors are modified,…

[struck-by-the-rain]

rh shrinky dink earrings batch 2 ready to be shrunk!!

[brewscoop]

Discover how the nation's #1 brewer, Anheuser-Busch, is championing American farmers with the US Farmed Certification! Learn how this initiative supports local agriculture, ensures high-quality ingredients, and boosts sustainability. Check out the full story on how these efforts are shaping the future of US agriculture.

[sayruq]

Close to four months since the conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas began on Oct. 7, 2023, participants in the demonstration in Hiroshima's Naka Ward called to "free Palestine." More than 50 people, including members of a citizens' group that stands daily in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome demanding an end to bloodshed and attacks, walked down Hondori street shouting "Stop the massacre" and "Ceasefire now" among other slogans. They then held a rally in front of the A-bomb Dome.

A farmer in his 30s from the Hiroshima Prefecture city of Shobara commented, "No matter how hard a day I have (here in Japan), it would probably seem like paradise to the people of Gaza. We must take action beyond calling for a cease-fire, to bring the occupation to an end." A woman from Algeria, which was under French colonial rule for 132 years from 1830, said she came to the event because she felt that Palestine was suffering the same fate as her country. Participants also voiced anger and questions about the Japanese government's decision to suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the Hiroshima City Council's lack of resolutions regarding a cease-fire and other issues.

[muted5ilence]

When the Farmer’s precious Livestock are being preyed upon by the Wolves

[head-post]

South Korean farmers protest dog meat ban

More than 200 South Korean farmers who breed and raise dogs for food held a rally outside the presidential office in the capital Seoul on Thursday, demanding the government cancel a plan to ban the controversial centuries-old practice.

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ruling party has introduced a bill that would ban the breeding and sale of dogs for food. Under the bill, those who are forced to close their businesses during the three-year grace period will receive monetary compensation.

Currently, more than 6 million South Korean families in a country of about 51 million people keep dogs as pets, and Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee are the owners of six dogs, including a retired guide dog and a rescue dog.

According to a Gallup Korea poll, nearly two-thirds of respondents oppose eating dog meat, and only 8 per cent said they had eaten it in the past year, up from 27 per cent in 2015. Joo Yeong-bong, who represents an industry group and led Thursday’s rally, said politicians had no right to shut down an industry or decide what people should eat.

Read more HERE

[solarpunksoup]

it’s hard because you weren’t meant to do it alone. you weren’t meant to be a self-sustaining eco-god who gardens all of your food and eats vegan and only shops at the expensive co-op, makes your own clothes and buys the bulk soaps, cans, organizes events and protests alone, makes flyers and sets up petitions, shows up to political rallies, bike everywhere and inform everyone in the world all on your own.

you were meant to carpool with friends, clip coupons together and have mending circles on Friday nights. you were meant to keep a small plot in a group garden that everyone tends to, and you rotate turns every week. you were meant to design the flyer that your friend hands out or say the speech that your boygirlfriend edited. you were meant to be friends with the public bus drivers and talk to the farmers who drop off that crazy new kombucha flavor at the co-op and be kind to Walmart cashiers. you were meant to meal plan together and crowdfund for families in need and read each other old poetry and contemplate manifestos together hungover at the local coffee shop on special treat sunday and then go to the beach and have awesome gay sex that night. not alone. not kidding.

find your people instead of making a different kind of work for yourself. doing it all alone has never been your burden to bear. you were meant to do it with friends.

[forkandknife]

I’m in a really fun and great time in my life where I am so exhausted I can barely get out of bed in the morning and only have the energy to lay on the couch most of the time but if I’m not doing things and I don’t have Plans for every minute of every day I feel like I’m going to explode

[heritageposts]

Namibian Presidency (official account), 13 Jan 2024

this comes after germany announced that they, in defense of israel, intend to intervene as a third party in the ICJ trial

in the official government statement, they argue that the accusations of genocide against israel "has no basis whatsoever," and declares themselves to be experts on recognizing genocide by virtue of the fact that they're the ones that committed the holocaust (yes, seriously)

small problem for our self-declared genocide experts though — it wasn't until 2021, over a hundred years after germany killed and enslaved tens of thousands of herero and nama people (in what is now present-day namibia), that the german state was willing to officially recognize that they had committed a genocide; a genocide where, about 80% of the indigenous population of the herero and nama people were wiped out, thousands were enslaved in concentrations camps (with death rates between 45 and 75 percent), and many hundreds medically experimented on.

here's a good article from al jazeera which lays out the history of the genocide, and why germany's offer of "reparations" were met with disgust and anger in namibia

this part, in particular, is worth highlighting:

Today, German Namibians make up 2 percent of Namibia’s 2.5 million population but own about 70 percent of the country’s land, most of it used for agriculture. Multiple state-led efforts to legally restore ancestral land to Indigenous peoples by buying land from private farmers have only partially succeeded because it has proven too expensive for the state. Although the Namibian government sought to transfer 43 percent (15 million hectares) of its total arable land to landless communities by 2020, it has only succeeded in acquiring about three million hectares.

[redheadspark]

Here (Part Two)

Summary - Azriel stays by his mate's side, not knowing his family is rallying behind him to find out who attempting to kill his mate

Warnings - Mostly Angst

A/N - Part of the Ocean Eyes Series. I posted this as a sequel of Part One, which got insanely reactions! I am so glad you guys liked Part One and I hope you like Part Two!

Part Three Found Here

"What's the plan, Rhys?"

"I'm focusing more on my cousin's health and her life in the balance than dealing with her attacker."

"That's not where my head is,"

"Enlighten me then, Cassian,"

Cassian rolled his shoulders and eyed his High Lord as Rhysand was perched at his desk in his office, the sun setting over the rolling hills outside the River House, and the cooler air was blown onto the office with ease. Cassian leaned against the wall, his arms crossed and his head reeling with questions and scenarios that he wanted to figure out immediately. But Rhysand was remaining calm, too calm for the Illyrian Army Commander's liking. He considered the wounded Illryian who was asleep upstairs, his friend's mate, his family. Someone tried to hurt his family and take away his family, and Cassian was fuming from the inside out.

But he was also a changed Illyrian, just as Rhysand and Azriel were. They were all fathers now: Rhysand with Nyx, Azriel with Alec, and Cassian with his daughter Rose. His daughter, sweet and yet fiery Rose was a splitting image of her mother but had his infectious and playful heart. They all had offspring to protect and think about, no more rash decisions and acting out on a limb. The children had to come first, and Cassian was not willing to do anything that would bring his family harm. Azriel never did that himself, yet that led to Alec almost being killed as a toddler and Azriel's mate now in a bed upstairs hanging between life and death. Nesta would never let Cassian do anything like that, not just for Rose but for Nesta too.

Cassian was the one who found you first, sprawled on the forest floor bleeding from your wing and the arrow still hanging out of your wing. You both were out in the outline border of Velaris, Cassian getting a hunch that there were rogue beings there making their way across the border into Velaris territory. You on the other hand were meeting with some of the farmers and shopkeepers that lived in the cottages there to check on them and talk business in contributing to the Community Center.

Maybe it was fate that he was there and come enough to hear your scream out, but he knew your scream far too well from knowing you since you both were younglings. He flew towards the wail you let out, his heart hitting against his chest far too hard and thinking it was a trick of the mind.

Everything slowed down for him as he gathered you in his arms, you were out cold and the poison already working in your blood. He had to act quickly, time was of the essence, and your time was about to be snuffed out if he didn't get you help in time. 

"The marks on the arrow," Cassian stated, reflecting on the arrow that was piercing your wing and sicking out so harshly that it sickened him to rethink it again, "We need to know where they came from so we get a hunch as to who did this,"

"I already have a big hunch, and I got in contact with the very High Lord that I'm thinking," Rhysand hummed, his cooldemeanor was hiding the anger he had. Cassian raised a brow at him as Rhysand rang his thumb over his fingers back and forth, a tactic he would use when he was thinking deeply, "High Lord Beron has been notified and is coming tonight,"

"What?" Cassian asked in shock, standing up stiffly and no longer leaning against the wall. 

"He knows the utmost importance of this since it does involve my cousin…my fucking family," Rhysand said the last part in a low tone, not a growl but close enough, "We are going to meet at the Townhouse since I know both yourself and Nesta would rather not have the High Lord of Autumn Court in your home,"

Cassian snorted, then gave him a questioning look, "Does Elaine and Lucien know what happened?"

"Feyre reached out and told them to stay at their home here in Velaris for the time being. In fact, I don't want any of the Inner Circle going anywhere outside of Velaris until this is resolved once and for all. We either stay in our homes or at The House of Wind until I say so," Rhysand explained as his violet eyes looked out the window to see the last images of the sun still in the sky before it hid into the horizon.

"Is that an order?" Cassian asked, Rhysand’s eyes shot back to his Commander.  Cassian, though tamer than he used to be when he was younger, was still reckless at heart at times. Something inside of him wanted him to find whoever did this and bring them pain. You were family to him, meeting him through Rhysand when he was a boy and considered him a brother of yours. His rational side was teetering to be pushed aside, and he was fine with it.

"I don't want another member of my family hurt, Cass. I consider you family, long before you became my brother-in-law. You need to think of your wife and daughter and that they need you," Rhysand explained to Cassian, seeing Cassian's eyes soften from the mention of Nesta and Rose, "We need to be smart about this, not reckless. I want you with me when we meet with High Lord Beron,"

Cassian hummed, knowing that Rhysand was right when it came to being reckless. He then gestured his head over to the doors that lead out of the office, "What about Azriel?"

"I don't want him anywhere else but with his wife, she's his priority now. And besides, I would rather not leave Azriel alone in the room with High Lord Beron. That's if Beron, or Autumn Court for that matter, did have something to do with this. He is not in the right frame of mind to be anywhere else," 

Cassian knew he was right about that too. The rage Azriel must be feeling at this moment, not knowing who in factharmed and attempted to kill his mate, must have been explosive. Cassian himself has been Azriel in such a way before, the anger that would fester deep down and be unlashed by either his shadows or his Truth Tellers. Cassian and strength behind him, but Azriel had something deeper.

Something more menacing.

"Alec is also staying here until his mother is well again, though he still doesn't know what precisely happened," Rhysand explained as he got up from his chair and walked around the desk to stand near Cassian with his arms folded in front of him, "I don't want Alec anywhere else but here, he's my nephew and he needs to be protected now more than ever. We all do, but epically him: someone is hunting his mother and father, and I won't let him become an orphan under my roof,"

"None of us want that, Rhys," Cassian reasoned with Rhysand, "He's secure and protected here with you and Feyre, and he's safe with his father, the safest he’ll ever be,”

"Which is why we need to be smart. For now, let's just focus on this meeting with Beron and making sure my cousin is comfortable and safe while she heals and come back to full health," Rhysand stated, then pausing as he gave Cassian a more cornered look, "How is Alec and Azriel now?"

"Alec's okay, he just misses his mother. As for Azriel…it's hard for him," Cassian confessed. Rhysand hummed and rubbed his eyes, already thinking of the next steps that were to come. The meeting tonight would be far too important, life-changing, and yet his cousin was still in the back of his mind and her health was his main concern. 

All he could do now was hold onto his Inner Circle, his family, so close in hopes they wouldn't slip away.

"Alright, buddy. Time for bed, okay?"

"Ok, daddy,"

Azriel softly smiled as he watched his son hop into the massive bed he was going to sleep in, the guest room that wasacross from where you were still sleeping and still healing. He left the door slightly open, being able to see you from where he was in Alec's guest room as Alec was settling into his bed. 

Alec was only told that his mother was sick, severely sick, and he was not able to see her.  Of course, it confused him at first, not understanding that he wasn't able to see his own mother since he had seen her sick before, but he knew better than to question his father.  Seeing Azriel looking worn down and defeated made Alec worry all the more. 

But Feyre was a step ahead, making sure he was well fed at dinnertime and kept him busy with his cousin Nyx until it was time for him to go to bed. Still, his mother was in the back of his mind, wondering what was it that made his mother so sick. He missed his mother, hugging her and hearing her voice telling him goodnight. Azriel tried his best to be present with Alec, but his son caught onto something that was hidden from him. 

Perhaps a trait he inherited from his father.

"Alec, I know this is different from what we're used to," Azriel explained to Alec, who was watching his father with his wide blue eyes as he was snuggled under the soft sheets of the bed, "But you are being such a trooper for going with the flow of it all.  I promise you that things are going to go back to normal soon, okay? As soon as momma is all better, we'll go back to our house and things will be back to the way they were,"

"Is it going to be forever?" Alec asked tentatively as he searched his father's tired eyes. Azriel felt a twinge of pain that his son was still kept in the dark, so speak, when it came to what truly happened to his mother. The last thing Azriel ever wanted to do was to lie to his son like this, to have that trust broken at any moment. 

"No, not forever, baby," He reassured Alec as he pushed the inky black hair out of his son's blue eyes, "This is not forever, I swear to you. You believe me?"

"Yes, Daddy," Alec replied, Azriel smiled at his son and leaned over to kiss the top of his head. He was about to leave his son to sleep, and as Azriel eased himself up from the bed, Alec spoke up again in a gentler tone. So gentle, that it sounded like the curtains were swaying in his room from the night breeze.

"Daddy, is momma gonna be okay?"

Azriel could have cried then, seeing his son watch him for an answer. Azriel never wanted this for his family, the fear of losing someone he loved and another person he loved was filled with fear and worry. Alec was only four years old, far too young for something like this to happen in his life. Nothing could prepare him for this: consoling his son and hoping that his wife would pull through. 

Alec needed his mother, Azriel knew that deep down. There was no greater bond than Alec's bond with his mother, it was thick and filled with so much happiness and love. Inwardly, Azriel wanted that himself with his mother, and he did have that in the blink of a moment when he was young.  To see his mate give that same love to his son was beyond rewarding.

Now his son, looking at his father with worry in his young eyes, was asking about his mother.

"Yeah…yeah she's gonna be okay," he reassured Alec. He had to give Alec hope, the hope that his mother would be herself again. Although he had very little hope, he would at least give some of that hope to his son. He leaned down and kissed his son one more time, "Get some sleep, okay? I'm gonna check on momma and come back to you, I love you,"

"I love you too, Daddy," Alec replied, then curled into the bed under the sheets as Azriel moved away. He felt like he needed to be in two places at once: with Alec and with you. Although you were sleeping and till healing, Alec needed you and needed your warmth. Azriel wished he could change it all, make you all better so you can hold your son. Yet as he watched Alec fall asleep, facing the window with a look of peace on his face, Azriel could breathe a bit easier. 

He kept the door into the guest room open slightly, mostly in case Alec needed him as he walked silently across the hall into the room where you were in. Still asleep, facing the empty chair where Azriel was perched for the past few hours, the moon shining into your room to cast a bluish light along your still wounded wings. Azriel could even see the moonlight shine through the thin membrane of your wings, showing the veins and the damage from the Ash Arrow.

But the way you were snuggled against the body pillow, head against the soft pillow, and your long hair draped over your shoulder, you looked more peaceful than you did earlier when Azriel found you. Azriel sat down on the chair, taking in a long breath as he held his hands together in his lap and watched you. Your deep breathing, the softness that was now slowly coming back along your skin and your cheeks thanks to the medicine from Madja. 

"I might be talking to myself here, but I hope you can hear me," Azriel said aloud in the room, his voice sounding a bit raw as he watched you in earnest, "But I need you to pull through and get better. I….I don't think I can do this without you. I won't have the strength to, no matter how hard I'll have to try. I need you, our son needs you. He needs his momma, and I…I don't wanna do this alone and without you."

He might have sounded silly since he was talking alone in the room, but then again he needed to get it off his chest. Bottling up all his fear that he's had for the past few hours, would have suffocated him. The only person he was ever safe to unload his feelings, to be open and exposed therapeutically, was the one who was asleep in front of him and unable to be fully present with him.

"I'm sorry I failed you and couldn't protect you," Azriel admitted, sinking a bit in his chair as he was fiddling with his fingers, Clutching them together tightly and refusing to let them go, "I promised you when we were mated that I would protect you, keep you safe and never let anything happen to you. I broke that promise, and I know I can never repair that,"

He thought that if you were awake, you would reprimand him for being hard on himself. Azriel could even hear it clearly in his mind, your kind voice scolding him for being immensely harsh towards himself. You've always helped him out of his moods and insecurities, including what he does and how he takes care of others around him. Azriel thought back to a talk that he had with you when Alec was still a young infant, he was voicing his worry about taking care of his family and if he was doing enough. 

He needed you to bring him back to the light, and not have him hide in the darkness.

Azriel reached out and took your hands in his own, feeling the coolness of your skin and yet how soft they were. Healways loved your soft hands, a soothing balm against his calloused and scarred skin. He leaned down and kissed the back of your hand, his lips along your skin had you shift in your sleep and hum.

"Sleep and come back to me, come back to us. Your son and I need you more than anything, so I need you to get your strength and open those eyes for me when you're ready. I'm here when you wake up, I promise.  I love you more than life itself, more than my own life, and if I could trade mine for yours then I would in a heartbeat. Just gather your strength, we'll be here waiting for you," Azriel proclaimed to you and your sleeping form.  He did speak the truth: he would trade his life for yours since at times he felt you had more good for the world than he ever did.

Azriel cannot picture a world without you, without any of your beautiful traits or your tender heart. 

Azriel heard it, almost like a whisper, as he was dead asleep with Alec cradled in his arms in the spare guest room.  His arms were tucked around his son, who was snuggled against his father and snoring softly. It was so soft, like a breeze, which didn't disturb the Spymaster at first.

But it was also distinct, not the sound of the curtains fluttering next to the bed or the very soft ticking of the clock on the fireplace mantle.  This was a shutter of a whisper, and it was calling his name.

Azriel…..Azriel….

His shadows hummed, licking along Azriel's arms as he stirred a bit in his sleep. Alec was thankfully a deep sleeper and stayed in slumber, even though his father was feeling the sensation not just with his shadows but in his mind. It was a familiar voice, so familiar that maybe it was a trick of the mind as Azriel took in a long breath. But he heard it again, a pinch louder and his name being called out as if the source was so far away.  Fighting through a fog that was thick and almost recognizable.

Azriel…Azriel…

Azriel was still asleep, but it was becoming more alert as the voice was getting a bit louder now in his mind. It was no longer a dream, it was something else, something familiar to him.  So familiar like coming through the front door of the small little cottage where he lived, or flying amongst the cloud with his wings stretched. Even the familiar touch of your lips against his own made him feel safe.

But he finally heard it, and his eyes shot open on high alert.

Azriel….I'm here…

It was you, your voice, speaking through the bond.

You were awake.

To Be Continued….

A/N - Part three?!?! Let me know if you want a part three!

Tagging - @valeridarkness @impossibelle @acourtofbatboydreams @prettylittlewrites @fxckmiup @sizzlingstarlightsky @iluvyewman-blog @masbt1218 @a-courtof-azriel @homeslices @zanzie @topaz125

[halfmaskshadow]

This might make sense to no one except me because I played AOC before BOTW, but in my headcanon Master Kohga is underwhelming and goofy and overdramatic and easy to beat on purpose

Like because of AOC it’s canon that the Yiga were once 1. fucking terrifying and 2. much more prevalent. It’s also canon that Master Kohga can and will redeem himself upon seeing the devastation caused by Ganon worshippers

Master Kohga has been around for at least a century and presumably longer, so it’s no stretch that he might become disillusioned with the world the Yiga are trying to form. But he was raised by the Yiga, so obviously any doubts he has have to be wrong, right? It’s only when he sees his worshippers/employees/family be threatened or killed by the very force he wanted to bring about that he realizes the true cost

In AOC he has a very convenient, very human seeming enemy to point at and team up against. In the BOTW timeline, he’s won. Calamity Ganon is free, millions are dead, there’s not enough food to go around, the royals are gone, he has loyal foot soldiers to feed, and he’s supposed to make the situation worse. No sane person is going to want to do that!!

But what can he do? He has no allies and no easy enemies to rally against beyond the very being they had just fought so hard to summon. The natural solution? Become so utterly incompetent that he fails to destroy the world any more. Ohh nooooo!!! We don’t have enough bananas for the winter!!! Well, I guess that the blademasters responsible for burning down orchards and killing farmers will have to go get some more :) Well now that we know Link’s alive we’ll need to dedicate all our troops to catching him instead of murdering civilians or whatever. What a shame :)

Of course he can’t be too obvious, otherwise the other Yiga will catch on. It was a gradual process that happened over the century Link slept. And now that he’s been dumped in a giant pit he doesn’t even need to try to fight the swordsman!! He’d much rather check out that glowing rock over there than teleport up to the surface, thank you very much

[master-john-uk]

11th December 2024.

What a magnificent sight! Around 500 tractors took part in a rally in Central London as farmers protest against the governments new tax changes.

I was not in London today, but as I was driving towards Sevenoaks just before 8am this morning I stopped and showed my support as a convoy of around 25 tractors en-route to Westminster passed in the opposite direction.

[royaltysimblr]

Ophelia of Lausanne, Queen of Windenburg (1620-1673) - Part 6 - Early Revolutionary Years

Despite the alliance with Almeria and their generous trade agreements which improved the economic situation in Windenburg, the people were angered by a Jacoban marriage. The people believed that Ophelia had been behind the marriage and blamed her for corrupting the Royal Family. In 1654 revolts against the gentry began known as the Flour Rebellions. Due to famine, farmers couldn’t pay their landlords and were falling behind on their rent. The Gentry did not relent and were met with angry hostile mobs which burnt country homes across the kingdom. Ophelia advised her husband to support the gentry against the peasants, but instead, James listened to the peasants on the advice of his favorite, the Duke of Berkeley. The gentry was forced to lower their rent in favor of the peasants in 1655. 

The tension between the people and the King calmed down, but the nobility enraged. By 1656 most of the nobles left court, deserting the royal family, signaling the start of a rebellion. In February of 1656, Parliament assembled in the presence of the King and stated their grievances. Ophelia was at her husband’s side when he dissolved parliament at Windslar Palace and did not install a new government. Following the dismissal of parliament, James was warned that the Duke of Dartmouth, the Duke of Kinghorn, and the Earl of Franklin would raise an army in Witham. To prevent this, James ordered their arrest the same day, however, he failed and the trio had already fled the capital. 

The failure to capture the three noblemen marked the beginning of the Windenburg Civil War. The Duke of Dartmouth gathered hundreds of Windenburgian Noblemen and Politicians in Witham to raise an army and overthrow the king. Fearing for their family’s life, James and Ophelia fled Windenburg and sought refuge in Glencraig. During this time Ophelia spent time secluded in her chambers with her children and grandchildren. Ophelia rarely left Glencraig Castle, fearing an assassination or kidnapping. 

From February to May, cities across the country declared their allegiance either to the noblemen or to the King. James gathered his forces at Glencraig, with the Duke of Berkley organizing his militias. James gathered supplies from Royalist strongholds such as Coventry and Devonshire, while cities like Roxburghe and Newhaven refused to offer the king ammunition. As both sides began to gather supplies from cities around the country, Ophelia was sent to the continent to raise money for the royalists. Ophelia spent a year and a half abroad at several royal courts championing the royalist cause. Ophelia was able to convince her son-in-law, the Prince of Brichester, to lend two thousand troops to their cause. 

By the summer of 1656, both sides were marching toward each other with armies around the size of 15,000. It was inevitable that the armies would clash, resulting in the Battle of Whitfield. A cavalry led by the royalist Duke of Canterbury defeated a revolutionary army of 1500, approximately twenty miles north of Windenburg. Throughout the early summer, the Royalists defeated the Revolutionaries in several skirmishes and small battles. 

Beginning in the summer, Windenburg became a center of political tension, with protests in favor and against the war. A peaceful rally in favor of the war was met with violence as the Royal Guard fired upon the crowds. Hundreds of people were imprisoned and a curfew was imposed upon the city. James and his troops marched toward Windenburg which was in the hands of the Earl of Coldwell, a neutral force in the war. James along with an army of 4,000 marched toward Windenburg where the Earl handed the city over. For the next year, James remained in Windenburg while armies led by his close advisors, the Duke of Berkley and the Earl of Queensbury consolidated power in Southern Windenburg.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Wuerker, Politico

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 30, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Oct 31, 2024

On Friday, October 25, at a town hall held on his social media platform X, Elon Musk told the audience that if Trump wins, he expects to work in a Cabinet-level position to cut the federal government.

He told people to expect “temporary hardship” but that cuts would “ensure long-term prosperity.” At the Trump rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Musk said he plans to cut $2 trillion from the government. Economists point out that current discretionary spending in the budget is $1.7 trillion, meaning his promise would eliminate virtually all discretionary spending, which includes transportation, education, housing, and environmental programs.

Economists agree that Trump’s plans to place a high tariff wall around the U.S., replacing income taxes on high earners with tariffs paid for by middle-class Americans, and to deport as many as 20 million immigrants would crash the booming economy. Now Trump’s financial backer Musk is factoring in the loss of entire sectors of the government to the economy under Trump.  

Trump has promised to appoint Musk to be the government’s “chief efficiency officer.” “Everyone’s going to have to take a haircut.… We can’t be a wastrel.… We need to live honestly,” Musk said on Friday. Rob Wile and Lora Kolodny of CNBC point out that Musk’s SpaceX aerospace venture has received $19 billion from the U.S. government since 2008.

An X user wrote: “I]f Trump succeeds in forcing through mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit—there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy…. Markets will tumble. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy. History could be made in the coming two years.”

Musk commented: “Sounds about right[.]”

This exchange echoes the prescription of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, whose theories had done much to create the Great Crash of 1929, for restoring a healthy economy. “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” he told President Herbert Hoover. “It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living

will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.” 

Mellon, at least, was reacting to an economic crisis thrust upon an administration. Musk is seeking to create one. 

Today the Commerce Department reported that from July through September, the nation’s economy grew at a solid 2.8%. Consumer spending is up, as is investment in business. The country added 254,000 jobs in September, and inflation has fallen back almost to the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%. 

It is extraordinarily rare for a country to be able to reduce inflation without creating a recession, but the Biden administration has managed to do so, producing what economists call a “soft landing,” rather like catching an egg on a plate. As Bryan Mena of CNN wrote today: “The US economy seems to have pulled off a remarkable and historic achievement.” 

Both President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris have called for reducing the deficit not by slashing the government, as Musk proposes, but by restoring taxes on the wealthy and corporations. 

As part of the Republicans’ plan to take the country back to the era before the 1930s ushered in a government that regulated business and provided a basic social safety net, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expects to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. 

At a closed-door campaign event on Monday in Pennsylvania for a Republican House candidate, Johnson told supporters that Republicans will propose “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” if they take control of both the House and the Senate in November. “Health-care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda,” Johnson said. Their plan is to take a “blowtorch to the regulatory state,” which he says is “crushing the free market.” “Trump’s going to go big,” he said.” When an attendee asked, “No Obamacare?” he laughed and agreed: “No Obamacare…. The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.” 

Ending a campaign with a promise to crash a booming economy and end the Affordable Care Act, which ended insurance companies’ ability to reject people with preexisting conditions, is an unusual strategy.

A post from Trump last night and another this morning suggest his internal polls are worrying him. Last night he claimed there was cheating in Pennsylvania’s York and Lancaster counties. Today he posted: “Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before. REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES. Law Enforcement must act, NOW!” 

Trump appears to be setting up the argument he used in 2020, that he can lose only if he has been cheated. But it is increasingly apparent that the get-out-the-vote, or GOTV, efforts of the Trump campaign have been weak. When Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and loyalist Michael Whatley became the co-chairs of the Republican National Committee in March 2024, they stopped the GOTV efforts underway and used the money instead for litigation. They outsourced GOTV efforts to super PACs, including Musk’s America PAC.

In Wired today, Jake Lahut reported that door-knockers for Musk’s PAC were driven around in the back of a U-Haul without seats and threatened with having to pay their own hotel bills if they didn’t meet high canvassing quotas. One of the canvassers told Lahut that they thought they were being hired to ask people who they would be voting for when they flew into Michigan, and was surprised to learn their actual role. The workers spoke to Lahut anonymously because they had signed a nondisclosure agreement (a practice the Biden administration has tried to stop).

Trump’s boast that he is responsible for the Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion is one of the reasons his support is soft. In addition to popular dislike of the idea that the state, rather than a woman and her doctor, should make decisions about her healthcare, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision is now over two years old, and state examinations of maternal deaths are showing that women are dying from lack of reproductive healthcare. 

Cassandra Jaramillo and Kavitha Surana of ProPublica reported today that at least two pregnant women have died in Texas when doctors delayed emergency care after a miscarriage until the fetal heartbeat stopped. The woman they highlighted today, Josseli Barnica, left behind a husband and a toddler. 

At a rally this evening near Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump said his team had advised him to stop talking about how he was going to protect women by ending crime and making sure they don’t have to be “thinking about abortion.” But Trump, who has boasted of sexual assault and been found liable for it, did not stop there. He went on to say that he had told his advisors, “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them.” 

The Trump campaign remains concerned about the damage caused by the extraordinarily racist, sexist, and violent Sunday night rally at Madison Square Garden. Today the campaign seized on a misstatement President Biden made when condemning the statement from the Madison Square Garden event that referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” They tried to turn the tables to suggest that Biden was calling Trump supporters garbage, although the president has always been very careful to focus his condemnation on Trump alone. 

In Wisconsin today, when he disembarked from his plane, Trump put on an orange reflective vest and had someone drive him around the tarmac in a garbage truck with TRUMP painted on the side. He complained about Biden to reporters from the cab of the truck but still refused to apologize for Sunday’s slur of Puerto Rico, saying he knew nothing about the comedian who appeared at his rally. 

This, too, was an unusual strategy. Like his visit to McDonalds, where he wore an apron, the image of Trump in a sanitation truck was likely intended to show him as a man of the people. But his power has always rested not in his promise to be one of the people, but rather to lead them. The pictures of him in a bright orange vest and unusually dark makeup are quite different from his usual portrayal of himself.

Indeed, media captured a video of Trump’s stunt, and it did not convey strength. MSNBC’s Katie Phang watched him try to get into the truck and noted: “Trump stumbles, drags his right leg, almost falls over, and tries at least three times to open the door…. Some transparency with Trump’s medical records would be nice.” 

The Las Vegas Sun today ran an editorial that detailed Trump’s increasingly obvious mental lapses and concluded that Trump is “crippled cognitively and showing clear signs of mental illness.” It noted that Trump now depends “on enablers who show a disturbing willingness to indulge his delusions, amplify his paranoia or steer his feeble mind toward their own goals.” It noted that if Trump cannot fulfill the duties of the presidency, they would fall to his running mate, J.D. Vance, who has suggested “he would subordinate constitutional principles for personal profit and power.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

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Yaa Asantewaa was an influential Ashanti queen at the beginning of the twentieth century who remains a powerful symbol today. She was a skilled farmer before ascending to the title Queen Mother in the 1880s.

As the Queen Mother, Asantewaa held many responsibilities, including being the Gatekeeper of the Golden Stool. The Golden Stool is an emblem of the Ashanti kingdom, cultural system, and power.

In 1896, the Ashanti peoples began to rebel against the British presence in their lands and the British attempt to construct the “Gold Coast” colony. To retaliate, the British captured and exiled Asantehene Prempeh I, King of the Ashanti, and Asantewaa’s grandson Kofi Tene, who was also a powerful leader. The British removed the king and other Ashanti leaders to the Seychelles Islands in an effort to acquire the Golden Stool.

While remaining leaders within the community debated on how to best respond to the British threat, Asantewaa held her ground and rallied the troops. Her leadership and passion led to her role as Commander in Chief of the Ashanti army. In turn, the Anglo-Ashanti wars’ fifth and final war against the British became known as the Yaa Asantewaa War of Independence (or the War of the Golden Stool), which began on March 28, 1900.

That conflict began when British representative Sr. Frederick Mitchell Hodgson sat on the Golden Stool. Since the Stool was not a throne, when Hodgson’s act became known, Yaa Asantewaa led the rebellion.

To inspire the leaders of her community, Asantewaa proclaimed that if the men of the kingdom would not defend the people, then the women would rise to the challenge. This both invigorated the men and challenged traditional gender roles. She led the rebellion and became an image of strength and resistance. Unfortunately, she was captured during the rebellion and exiled to Seychelles, where she died in 1921.

Yaa Asantewaa remains a powerful reminder due to her impactful actions in both empowering her people and in tactics against the British army. In August 2000, to commemorate her influence, a museum was opened in her honor in the Ejisu-Juaben District of Ghana. Similarly, there is an achievement award titled the “Nana Yaa Asantewaa Awards” (NYA) which honors women who uphold the values and leadership of Asantewaa.

•••

Yaa Asantewaa fue una influyente reina Ashanti a principios del siglo XX que sigue siendo un símbolo poderoso en la actualidad. Fue una granjera muy hábil antes de ascender al título de Reina Madre en la década de 1880.

Como Reina Madre, Asantewaa tenía muchas responsabilidades, incluida la de guardiana del Banquillo Dorado. El Banquillo Dorado es un emblema del reino, de el sistema cultural y el poder de los Ashanti.

En 1896, el pueblo Ashanti comenzó a rebelarse contra la presencia británica en sus tierras y contra el intento de los británicos de construir la colonia “Costa Dorada”. Para contraatacar, los británicos capturaron y exiliaron a Asantehene Prempeh I, rey de los Ashanti, y al nieto de Asantewaa, Kofi Tene, que también era un líder poderoso. Los británicos trasladaron al rey y a otros líderes Ashanti a las Islas Seychelles en un esfuerzo por adquirir el Banquillo Dorado.

Mientras que los líderes restantes dentro de la comunidad debatían sobre cómo responder a la amenaza británica, Asantewaa se mantuvo firme y reunió a las tropas. Su liderazgo y pasión la llevaron a ocupar el puesto de comandante en jefe del ejército Ashanti. A la vez, la quinta y última guerra de las guerras anglo-ashanti contra los británicos se conoció como la Guerra de Independencia Yaa Asantewaa (o la Guerra del Banquillo Dorado), la cual comenzó el 28 de marzo de 1900.

El conflicto comenzó cuando el representante británico, Frederick Mitchell Hodgson, se sentó en el Banquillo Dorado. Dado que el Banquillo no era un trono, cuando se conoció este acto de Hodgson, Yaa Asantewaa lideró la rebelión.

Para inspirar a los líderes de su comunidad, Asantewaa declaró que si los hombres del reino no defendían al pueblo, las mujeres estarían a la altura de enfrentarse a este desafío. Esto fortaleció a los hombres y desafió los roles de género tradicionales. Ella lideró la rebelión y se convirtió en una imagen de fuerza y ​​resistencia. Desafortunadamente, fue capturada durante la rebelión y exiliada a Seychelles, donde murió en 1921.

Yaa Asantewaa sigue siendo un poderoso recordatorio debido a sus impactantes acciones tanto para empoderar a su pueblo como también por las tácticas contra el ejército británico. En agosto del 2000, para conmemorar su influencia, se abrió un museo en su honor en el distrito de Ejisu-Juaben en Ghana. También existe un premio titulado “Premios Nana Yaa Asantewaa” que honra a las mujeres que defienden los valores y el liderazgo, tal y como lo hizo Asantewaa.