#heather paton

[beatrack92]

Heather Paton 🇬🇧

[rubiatinctorum]

can i say something controversial. i don't see the point of discontinuing a shade of yarn and then coming out with another that's like two hex codes apart maximum. first you make green and then get bored of green so then you discontinue green but now you have no green. so you make emerald and then get bored of emerald but now you have no emerald. so you make evergreen and then get bored of evergreen and discontinue evergreen and then you make jade heather and discontinue that too and then you make pine and it's a good bloody thing i am making my blanket to match my sweater now and have all the yarn for it, because someday they'll discontinue pine and make something only slightly different but whatever that is isn't going to work for me for this the way pine does.

like like like LOOK. here are groups of four similar yarn colours. in each instance, three of them are discontinued, and the final one is available now. who knows for how long.

was it necessary to discontinue those other colours? does it make any fucking sense? i love some of the colours that are available now, my favourite colourway is one of them. but why the fuck does patons need to reinvent dark green, or dark blue, or bright pink, or dark red. why do they discontinue yarns that people liked and were used to and probably planned to get more of at some point. isn't it just a bit arbitrary

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Syria :: David Rowe

"If the United States was still going to be run by the competent next month, we would now be on the verge of destroying Russia as a competitor and letting Xi Jinping know how far he can go, along with ending the Iranian-backed opposition in the Middle East. The “authoritarian alternative to democracy” would be gasping for air. That may not sound “pretty” to political idealists, but since neither Nirvana nor Utopia is likely to be proclaimed in my lifetime, I damn sure prefer us to them.

Literally, the only thing that can now save Putin is the Orange Clusterfuck’s desire to surrender to his tender mercies and tear us apart because his sick, twisted psyche is so damaged by the fact civilized society saw him as the piece of shit he was born to be and left him with his nose pressed to a glass door that was never going to be opened to the likes of him. That we are expected hand this country over to traitors who campaigned on a promise to commit this destruction enrages me beyond my ability to put it in words."

[TCinLA]

+

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 8, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Dec 09, 2024

Late last night, the White House said in a statement that “President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners.”

Early this morning, the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad fell to armed opposition.

According to Jill Lawless of the Associated Press, the forces that toppled Assad are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a coalition of Islamic groups formerly associated with al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria and currently designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and the United Nations, although its leaders have tried to distance themselves from al-Qaeda.

President Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father to the Syrian presidency in July 2000, establishing a totalitarian dictatorship. In 2011, Assad cracked down on protesters who were part of the Arab Spring, sparking a civil war of a number of factions fighting Assad’s troops, which by 2015 relied on support from Russia and Iran.

That war has turned half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million (a little more than the population of Florida) into refugees and killed more than half a million people. With Russian and Iranian support, Assad managed to regain control of most of the country, with rebels pushed back to the north and northwest.

A stalemate that had lasted for years ended abruptly on November 27.

Iran and Hezbollah have been badly weakened by the ongoing fight of Israel against Iran-backed Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. On November 27, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire agreement that made it clear that Hezbollah had been tied down in Lebanon and that its ability to fight had been severely compromised. At the same time, Russia has been badly weakened by almost three years of war against Ukraine, and the Russian ruble fell sharply again in late November after additional U.S. sanctions targeted Russia’s third-largest bank, creating more economic hardship in Russia and undercutting Putin’s insistence that he is winning against the West.

When opposition forces began an offensive on November 27, they took more than 15 villages in Aleppo province that day. Journalist Lawless recounted a quick history of the next 11 days, recording how the insurgents swept through the country with little resistance, taking Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, on the 29th. The Syrian military launched a counterattack on December 1, but the insurgents continued to gain ground, and by December 7 they had captured Syria’s third-largest city, Homs. They announced they were in the “final stage” of their offensive.

Today, December 8, Assad fled with his family to Moscow, where Russian president Vladimir Putin has offered him asylum. As Nick Paton Walsh of CNN put it, “Without the physical crutches of Russia’s air force and Iran’s proxy muscle Hezbollah, [Assad] toppled when finally pushed.”

In Damascus, crowds are praying and celebrating, and opposition forces have liberated the prisoners held in the notorious Saydnaya military prison. More than 100,000 detainees are unaccounted for, and their families are hoping to find them, or at least to find answers.

Meanwhile, after Assad’s regime fell, the U.S. Air Force struck more than 75 ISIS-related targets in Syria. “ISIS has been trying to reconstitute in this broad area known as the Badiya desert,” a White House senior official told reporters. “We have worked to make sure they cannot do that. So when they try to camp there, when they try to train… we take them out.”

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan explained at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, that the U.S. will work to prevent the resurgence of ISIS. It will also make sure “that our friends in the region, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, others who border Syria, or who would potentially face spillover effects from Syria, are strong and secure.” Finally, he said, the U.S. wants to make sure “that this does not lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Speaking to the nation this afternoon, President Joe Biden announced: "At long last, the Assad regime has fallen. This regime brutalized and tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians." He called the fall of Assad’s regime a “fundamental act of justice” and “a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country.”

But it is also “a moment of risk and uncertainty,” the president said. He noted that the U.S. is “mindful” of the security of Americans in Syria, including freelance journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in 2012 and imprisoned by Assad’s regime. “[W]e believe he is alive,” Biden told reporters. “We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet.”

Biden noted that Syria’s main backers, Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia, could not defend “this abhorrent regime in Syria” because they “are far weaker today than when I took office.” He continued: “This is a direct result of the blows that Ukraine [and] Israel” have landed on them “with the unflagging support of the United States.”

In contrast to Biden’s comments, President-elect Donald Trump’s social media accounts took Russia’s side in the Syrian events. Noting that the insurgents looked as if they would throw Assad out, Trump’s account said that “Russia, because they are so tied up in Ukraine, and with the loss there of over 600,000 soldiers, seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years.” The account blamed former president Barack Obama for the crisis of 2011 and said that Russia had stepped in then to stop the chaos. The Trump account suggested that Assad’s defeat might be “the best thing that can happen to” Russia, because “[t]here was never much of a benefit in Syria for Russia, other than to make Obama look really stupid.”

“In any event,” the account continued, “Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”

In contrast to Trump’s focus on Russia, journalist Anne Applebaum, a scholar of autocracy, took a much broader view of the meaning of Assad’s fall. In dictatorships, she wrote in The Atlantic, “cold, deliberate, well-planned cruelty” like Assad’s “is meant to inspire hopelessness. Ludicrous lies and cynical propaganda campaigns are meant to create apathy and nihilism.” Random arrests create destabilizing waves of refugees that leave those who remain in despair.

Authoritarian regimes seek “to rob people of any ability to plan for a different future, to convince people that their dictatorships are eternal. ‘Our leader forever’” she points out, was the slogan of the Assad dynasty. But soldiers and police officers have relatives who suffer under the regime, and their loyalty is not assured, as Assad has now learned.

The future of Syria is entirely unclear, Applebaum writes, but there is no doubt that “the end of the Assad regime creates something new, and not only in Syria. There is nothing worse than hopelessness, nothing more soul-destroying than pessimism, grief, and despair. The fall of a Russian- and Iranian-backed regime offers, suddenly, the possibility of change. The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[nervousoctoberknits]

february wrap up!

spark cardigan, v neck sweater*, champagne cardigan, peggy sweater, 2x2 ribbed hat

*the pattern i'm using for this one unfortunately has a trash size range so the home sweater v neck has an Extremely similar look with a more inclusive size range

spark by andrea mowry

yarn: briggs and little regal in light brown heather, patons kroy sock in copper colors held double (colour combo blatantly copied from @birch.grove bc i fell in love with it)

she's done!! i'll make a full post with all my thoughts about this one once i get some pics wearing it

v neck sweater (with bonus luna for y'all 🐈‍⬛)

yarn: loops and threads heathered tweed in basil

this one is also done except i need to redo the neckline finishing bc when i folded it down i screwed up and it's slanted 😅

champagne cardigan by petiteknit

yarn: drops heart you 7 and drops kid-silk both in lemonade

using the pattern as a base but i'm knitting it off gauge and between sizes so. champagne-ish. i'm affectionately referring to this as my niall cardigan bc the goal is to wear it when i go see the show live on tour this summer. the colour is not my usual vibe but it fit my ✨️vision✨️ for tour.

peggy sweater by lene holme samsøe

yarn: briggs and little durasport in grey? idk the colourway name for this one

this one is on timeout bc i'm not certain i'm in love with how the texture looks in this single ply but this yarn was originally being used for a different sweater that i ended up frogging and i really just didn't want it hanging around anymore. just need a break from it to make a decision.

2x2 ribbed hat

yarn: craft smart neon acrylic in neon pink

current desk project in the most obnoxious colour i've ever knit with. not following a pattern for this one, just cast on 96 stitches and am going to knit 2x2 rib until i get to whatever length feels right and then figure out the decreases at that point.

[craftingcreature]

I have about 10” done of the classic cabled sweater. I’m using KnitPicks Simply Wool Worsted in “Winnie”and it’s so pretty! It’s hard to get a good picture because even in person it can look so different depending on lighting. I’d say it’s mostly gray with some warm beige tones in the heather that come out more in some lights. I also think this sweater is coming out the right size to fit me well, and I’m really excited about it!

(Pattern is “Patons Honeycomb Aran”)

[rovingwren]

This little guy was so much fun to make!!

Pattern is Grimus the Wolf by Freddy Goat crochet, as part of the Woodland Spring CAL! 🐺🩶🤍

He is 100% wool (Patons Classic Wool in Aran and Heath Heather) with wooden buttons for eyes and an embroidery thread nose

[yourreddancer]

Heather Cox Richardson  12.8.24

Late last night, the White House said in a statement that “President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners.”

Early this morning, the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad fell to armed opposition.

According to Jill Lawless of the Associated Press, the forces that toppled Assad are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a coalition of Islamic groups formerly associated with al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria and currently designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and the United Nations, although its leaders have tried to distance themselves from al-Qaeda.

President Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father to the Syrian presidency in July 2000, establishing a totalitarian dictatorship. In 2011, Assad cracked down on protesters who were part of the Arab Spring, sparking a civil war of a number of factions fighting Assad’s troops, which by 2015 relied on support from Russia and Iran.

That war has turned half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million (a little more than the population of Florida) into refugees and killed more than half a million people. With Russian and Iranian support, Assad managed to regain control of most of the country, with rebels pushed back to the north and northwest.

A stalemate that had lasted for years ended abruptly on November 27.

Iran and Hezbollah have been badly weakened by the ongoing fight of Israel against Iran-backed Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. On November 27, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire agreement that made it clear that Hezbollah had been tied down in Lebanon and that its ability to fight had been severely compromised. At the same time, Russia has been badly weakened by almost three years of war against Ukraine, and the Russian ruble fell sharply again in late November after additional U.S. sanctions targeted Russia’s third-largest bank, creating more economic hardship in Russia and undercutting Putin’s insistence that he is winning against the West.

When opposition forces began an offensive on November 27, they took more than 15 villages in Aleppo province that day. Journalist Lawless recounted a quick history of the next 11 days, recording how the insurgents swept through the country with little resistance, taking Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, on the 29th. The Syrian military launched a counterattack on December 1, but the insurgents continued to gain ground, and by December 7 they had captured Syria’s third-largest city, Homs. They announced they were in the “final stage” of their offensive.

Today, December 8, Assad fled with his family to Moscow, where Russian president Vladimir Putin has offered him asylum. As Nick Paton Walsh of CNN put it, “Without the physical crutches of Russia’s air force and Iran’s proxy muscle Hezbollah, [Assad] toppled when finally pushed.”

In Damascus, crowds are praying and celebrating, and opposition forces have liberated the prisoners held in the notorious Saydnaya military prison. More than 100,000 detainees are unaccounted for, and their families are hoping to find them, or at least to find answers.

Meanwhile, after Assad’s regime fell, the U.S. Air Force struck more than 75 ISIS-related targets in Syria. “ISIS has been trying to reconstitute in this broad area known as the Badiya desert,” a White House senior official told reporters. “We have worked to make sure they cannot do that. So when they try to camp there, when they try to train… we take them out.”

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan explained at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, that the U.S. will work to prevent the resurgence of ISIS. It will also make sure “that our friends in the region, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, others who border Syria, or who would potentially face spillover effects from Syria, are strong and secure.” Finally, he said, the U.S. wants to make sure “that this does not lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Speaking to the nation this afternoon, President Joe Biden announced: "At long last, the Assad regime has fallen. This regime brutalized and tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians." He called the fall of Assad’s regime a “fundamental act of justice” and “a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country.”

But it is also “a moment of risk and uncertainty,” the president said. He noted that the U.S. is “mindful” of the security of Americans in Syria, including freelance journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in 2012 and imprisoned by Assad’s regime. “[W]e believe he is alive,” Biden told reporters. “We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet.”

Biden noted that Syria’s main backers, Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia, could not defend “this abhorrent regime in Syria” because they “are far weaker today than when I took office.” He continued: “This is a direct result of the blows that Ukraine [and] Israel” have landed on them “with the unflagging support of the United States.”

In contrast to Biden’s comments, President-elect Donald Trump’s social media accounts took Russia’s side in the Syrian events. Noting that the insurgents looked as if they would throw Assad out, Trump’s account said that “Russia, because they are so tied up in Ukraine, and with the loss there of over 600,000 soldiers, seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years.” The account blamed former president Barack Obama for the crisis of 2011 and said that Russia had stepped in then to stop the chaos. The Trump account suggested that Assad’s defeat might be “the best thing that can happen to” Russia, because “[t]here was never much of a benefit in Syria for Russia, other than to make Obama look really stupid.”

“In any event,” the account continued, “Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”

In contrast to Trump’s focus on Russia, journalist Anne Applebaum, a scholar of autocracy, took a much broader view of the meaning of Assad’s fall. In dictatorships, she wrote in The Atlantic, “cold, deliberate, well-planned cruelty” like Assad’s “is meant to inspire hopelessness. Ludicrous lies and cynical propaganda campaigns are meant to create apathy and nihilism.” Random arrests create destabilizing waves of refugees that leave those who remain in despair.

Authoritarian regimes seek “to rob people of any ability to plan for a different future, to convince people that their dictatorships are eternal. ‘Our leader forever’” she points out, was the slogan of the Assad dynasty. But soldiers and police officers have relatives who suffer under the regime, and their loyalty is not assured, as Assad has now learned.

The future of Syria is entirely unclear, Applebaum writes, but there is no doubt that “the end of the Assad regime creates something new, and not only in Syria. There is nothing worse than hopelessness, nothing more soul-destroying than pessimism, grief, and despair. The fall of a Russian- and Iranian-backed regime offers, suddenly, the possibility of change. The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world.”

[misfitwashere]

December 8, 2024 

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 9

Late last night, the White House said in a statement that “President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners.”

Early this morning, the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad fell to armed opposition.

According to Jill Lawless of the Associated Press, the forces that toppled Assad are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a coalition of Islamic groups formerly associated with al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria and currently designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and the United Nations, although its leaders have tried to distance themselves from al-Qaeda.

President Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father to the Syrian presidency in July 2000, establishing a totalitarian dictatorship. In 2011, Assad cracked down on protesters who were part of the Arab Spring, sparking a civil war of a number of factions fighting Assad’s troops, which by 2015 relied on support from Russia and Iran.

That war has turned half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million (a little more than the population of Florida) into refugees and killed more than half a million people. With Russian and Iranian support, Assad managed to regain control of most of the country, with rebels pushed back to the north and northwest.

A stalemate that had lasted for years ended abruptly on November 27.

Iran and Hezbollah have been badly weakened by the ongoing fight of Israel against Iran-backed Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. On November 27, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire agreement that made it clear that Hezbollah had been tied down in Lebanon and that its ability to fight had been severely compromised. At the same time, Russia has been badly weakened by almost three years of war against Ukraine, and the Russian ruble fell sharply again in late November after additional U.S. sanctions targeted Russia’s third-largest bank, creating more economic hardship in Russia and undercutting Putin’s insistence that he is winning against the West.

When opposition forces began an offensive on November 27, they took more than 15 villages in Aleppo province that day. Journalist Lawless recounted a quick history of the next 11 days, recording how the insurgents swept through the country with little resistance, taking Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, on the 29th. The Syrian military launched a counterattack on December 1, but the insurgents continued to gain ground, and by December 7 they had captured Syria’s third-largest city, Homs. They announced they were in the “final stage” of their offensive.

Today, December 8, Assad fled with his family to Moscow, where Russian president Vladimir Putin has offered him asylum. As Nick Paton Walsh of CNN put it, “Without the physical crutches of Russia’s air force and Iran’s proxy muscle Hezbollah, [Assad] toppled when finally pushed.”

In Damascus, crowds are praying and celebrating, and opposition forces have liberated the prisoners held in the notorious Saydnaya military prison. More than 100,000 detainees are unaccounted for, and their families are hoping to find them, or at least to find answers.

Meanwhile, after Assad’s regime fell, the U.S. Air Force struck more than 75 ISIS-related targets in Syria. “ISIS has been trying to reconstitute in this broad area known as the Badiya desert,” a White House senior official told reporters. “We have worked to make sure they cannot do that. So when they try to camp there, when they try to train… we take them out.”

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan explained at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, that the U.S. will work to prevent the resurgence of ISIS. It will also make sure “that our friends in the region, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, others who border Syria, or who would potentially face spillover effects from Syria, are strong and secure.” Finally, he said, the U.S. wants to make sure “that this does not lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Speaking to the nation this afternoon, President Joe Biden announced: "At long last, the Assad regime has fallen. This regime brutalized and tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians." He called the fall of Assad’s regime a “fundamental act of justice” and “a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country.”

But it is also “a moment of risk and uncertainty,” the president said. He noted that the U.S. is “mindful” of the security of Americans in Syria, including freelance journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in 2012 and imprisoned by Assad’s regime. “[W]e believe he is alive,” Biden told reporters. “We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet.”

Biden noted that Syria’s main backers, Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia, could not defend “this abhorrent regime in Syria” because they “are far weaker today than when I took office.” He continued: “This is a direct result of the blows that Ukraine [and] Israel” have landed on them “with the unflagging support of the United States.”

In contrast to Biden’s comments, President-elect Donald Trump’s social media accounts took Russia’s side in the Syrian events. Noting that the insurgents looked as if they would throw Assad out, Trump’s account said that “Russia, because they are so tied up in Ukraine, and with the loss there of over 600,000 soldiers, seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years.” The account blamed former president Barack Obama for the crisis of 2011 and said that Russia had stepped in then to stop the chaos. The Trump account suggested that Assad’s defeat might be “the best thing that can happen to” Russia, because “[t]here was never much of a benefit in Syria for Russia, other than to make Obama look really stupid.”

“In any event,” the account continued, “Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”

In contrast to Trump’s focus on Russia, journalist Anne Applebaum, a scholar of autocracy, took a much broader view of the meaning of Assad’s fall. In dictatorships, she wrote in The Atlantic, “cold, deliberate, well-planned cruelty” like Assad’s “is meant to inspire hopelessness. Ludicrous lies and cynical propaganda campaigns are meant to create apathy and nihilism.” Random arrests create destabilizing waves of refugees that leave those who remain in despair.

Authoritarian regimes seek “to rob people of any ability to plan for a different future, to convince people that their dictatorships are eternal. ‘Our leader forever’” she points out, was the slogan of the Assad dynasty. But soldiers and police officers have relatives who suffer under the regime, and their loyalty is not assured, as Assad has now learned.

The future of Syria is entirely unclear, Applebaum writes, but there is no doubt that “the end of the Assad regime creates something new, and not only in Syria. There is nothing worse than hopelessness, nothing more soul-destroying than pessimism, grief, and despair. The fall of a Russian- and Iranian-backed regime offers, suddenly, the possibility of change. The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world.”

—

[oughttobeclowns]

Review: My Fair Lady, London Coliseum

Review: My Fair Lady, London Coliseum Not sure this will leave many begging for more

Strong work from leads Harry Hadden-Paton and Amara Okereke can’t quite make this production of My Fair Lady work in the London Coliseum “I’ll never know what made it so exciting” For a musical considered such a classic, you don’t get many productions of Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady to the pound. The National’s revival with Martine McCutcheon dates back more than 20 years now (before my…

[wittyknitter-504]

The knitting is complete on this gorgeous #tenstitchtwist #blanket available on #ravelry as a #freedownload by #frankiebrown It may be Wednesday, but here's #WiP ! I started in the center with 1 skein (223 yards) of #patons #classicwool #yarn in the colorway Bird of Paradise, followed by a skein (197 yds) of #lionbrand #wooleaseyarn in the colorway Heathered Grey, followed by the same yarn in the colorway Misty Blue, followed by Forest Green, then Black, Forest Green, then another skein of Patons Classic Wool in some miscellaneous shade of Blue, another skein of Lion Brand Wool Ease Heathered Grey, finished off with some purplish flavor of LB Woolease. Can you tell how much I love making these blankets? They're just so easy to make and the results are, tbh, breathtaking! I never thought of it until a friend's mom mentioned it, but is does sort of resemble the eye of a hurricane! This is what kept my nerves together throughout all this #HurricaneIda nightmare! The final step is going to be something I've never tried before: felting!!! I'm going to wash in hot water until it begins to felt and then machine dry it to complete the process... Watch this space.. #wittyknitter504 #knittersofig #knitsareforever #knitblr #knitstagram #knittingnotquitting #knittersoftwitter #knittersofravelry #guyswhoknit #menwhoknit #enbyknits #tricoteur #hombresquetejen #yarnaddict #tricotaddict #gaymaleknitter #gayguyswhoknit #tooglamforafilter (at Uptown - Carrollton, New Orleans, Louisiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTYQpd6rxtW/?utm_medium=tumblr

[tartanterrors]

GUYS.

HEATHER (@baycitystygian) HERE

SO I RECENTLY FOUND OUT THAT I’VE BEEN SAYING TAM PATON’S NAME WRONG THIS ENTIRE TIME (in three years of being a tartan terror I’ve always said “PATon” but apparently it’s “PAYton???”) AND I JUST REALIZED THAT IT RYHMES WITH MY NICKNAME FOR HIM.

SATAN PATON. PATON IS THE DEVIL CONFIRMED.

[loveandcyanide]

This is a hat I made from Ravelry I had to put on 7 points just to have it fit right and it’s a bit short but hey, that’s chil. I didn’t exactly make it with the right sized needles. Still it’s a really simple pattern so even beginners can knit it. All you need to know how to do is knit back and front and knit 2 together. This hat was made with cheep wool yarn. Patons Classic Wool in the color of plum heather if you wanna make one like mine.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Bill Bramhall

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 12, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

FEB 12, 2024

Today’s big story continues to be Trump’s statement that he “would encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) if those countries are, in his words, “delinquent.” Both Democrats and Republicans have stood firm behind NATO since Dwight D. Eisenhower ran for president in 1952 to put down the isolationist wing of the Republican Party, and won.

National security specialist Tom Nichols of The Atlantic expressed starkly just what this means: “The leader of one of America’s two major political parties has just signaled to the Kremlin that if elected, he would not only refuse to defend Europe, but he would gladly support Vladimir Putin during World War III and even encourage him to do as he pleases to America’s allies.” Former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark called Trump’s comments “treasonous.”

To be clear, Trump’s beef with NATO has nothing to do with money. Trump has always misrepresented NATO as a sort of protection racket, but as Nick Paton Walsh of CNN put it today: “NATO is not an alliance based on dues: it is the largest military bloc in history, formed to face down the Soviet threat, based on the collective defense that an attack on one is an attack on all—a principle enshrined in Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty.”

On April 4, 1949, the United States and eleven other nations in North America and Europe came together to sign the original NATO declaration. It established a military alliance that guaranteed collective security because all of the member states agreed to defend each other against an attack by a third party. At the time, their main concern was resisting Soviet aggression, but with the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Russian president Vladimir Putin, NATO resisted Russian aggression instead. 

Article 5 of the treaty requires every nation to come to the aid of any one of them if it is attacked militarily. That article has been invoked only once: after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, after which NATO-led troops went to Afghanistan. 

In 2006, NATO members agreed to commit at least 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP, a measure of national production) to their own defense spending in order to make sure that NATO remained ready for combat. The economic crash of 2007–2008 meant a number of governments did not meet this commitment, and in 2014, allies pledged to do so. Although most still do not invest 2% of their GDP in their militaries, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014 motivated countries to speed up that investment.

On the day NATO went into effect, President Harry S. Truman said, “If there is anything inevitable in the future, it is the will of the people of the world for freedom and for peace.” In the years since 1949, his observation seems to have proven correct. NATO now has 31 member nations.

Crucially, NATO acts not only as a response to attack, but also as a deterrent, and its strength has always been backstopped by the military strength of the U.S., including its nuclear weapons. Trump has repeatedly attacked NATO and said he would take the U.S. out of it in a second term, alarming Congress enough that last year it put into the National Defense Authorization Act a measure prohibiting any president from leaving NATO without the approval of two thirds of the Senate or a congressional law.

But as Russia specialist Anne Applebaum noted in The Atlantic last month, even though Trump might have trouble actually tossing out a long-standing treaty that has safeguarded national security for 75 years, the realization that the U.S. is abandoning its commitment to collective defense would make the treaty itself worthless. Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholtz called the attack on NATO’s mutual defense guarantee “irresponsible and dangerous,” and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines our security.”

Applebaum noted on social media that “Trump's rant…will persuade Russia to keep fighting in Ukraine and, in time, to attack a NATO country too.” She urged people not to “let [Florida senator Marco] Rubio, [South Carolina senator Lindsey] Graham or anyone try to downplay or alter the meaning of what Trump did: He invited Russia to invade NATO. It was not a joke and it will certainly not be understood that way in Moscow.”

She wrote last month that the loss of the U.S. as an ally would force European countries to “cozy up to Russia,” with its authoritarian system, while Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) suggested that many Asian countries would turn to China as a matter of self-preservation. Countries already attacking democracy “would have a compelling new argument in favor of autocratic methods and tactics.” Trade agreements would wither, and the U.S. economy would falter and shrink.

Former governor of South Carolina and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, whose husband is in the military and is currently deployed overseas, noted: “He just put every military member at risk and every one of our allies at risk just by saying something at a rally.” Conservative political commentator and former Bulwark editor in chief Charlie Sykes noted that Trump is “signaling weakness,… appeasement,…  surrender…. One of the consistent things about Donald Trump has been his willingness to bow his knee to Vladimir Putin. To ask for favors from Vladimir Putin…. This comes amid his campaign to basically kneecap the aid to Ukraine right now. People ought to take this very, very seriously because it feels as if we are sleepwalking into a global catastrophe…. ” 

President Joe Biden asked Congress to pass a supplemental national security bill back in October of last year to provide additional funding for Ukraine and Israel, as well as for the Indo-Pacific. MAGA Republicans insisted they would not pass such a measure unless it contained border security protections, but when Senate negotiators actually produced such protections earlier this month, Trump opposed the measure and Republicans promptly killed it. 

There remains a bipartisan majority in favor of aid to Ukraine, and the Senate appears on the verge of passing a $95 billion funding package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. In part, this appears to be an attempt by Republican senators to demonstrate their independence from Trump, who has made his opposition to the measure clear and, according to Katherine Tulluy-McManus and Ursula Perano of Politico, spent the weekend telling senators not to pass it. South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, previously a Ukraine supporter, tonight released a statement saying he will vote no on the measure.

Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News recorded how Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) weighed in on the issue during debate today: “This is not a stalemate. This guy [Putin] is on life support… He will not survive if NATO gets stronger.” If the bill does not pass, Tillis said, “You will see the alliance that is supporting Ukraine crumble.” For his part, Tillis wanted no part of that future: “I am not going to be on that page in history.” 

If the Senate passes the bill, it will go to the House, where MAGA Republicans who oppose Ukraine funding have so far managed to keep the measure from being taken up. Although it appears likely there is a majority in favor of the bill, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tonight preemptively rejected the measure, saying that it is nonstarter because it does not address border security.  

Tonight, Trump signaled his complete takeover of the Republican Party. He released a statement confirming that, having pressured Ronna McDaniel to resign as head of the Republican National Committee, he is backing as co-chairs fervent loyalists Michael Whatley, who loudly supported Trump’s claims of fraud after the 2020 presidential election, and his own daughter-in-law Lara Trump, wife of Trump’s second son, Eric. Lara has never held a leadership position in the party. Trump also wants senior advisor to the Trump campaign Chris LaCivita to become the chief operating officer of the Republican National Committee.

This evening, Trump’s lawyers took the question of whether he is immune from prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election to the Supreme Court. Trump has asked the court to stay last week’s ruling of the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals that he is not immune. A stay would delay the case even further than the two months it already has been delayed by his litigation of the immunity issue. Trump’s approach has always been to stall the cases against him for as long as possible. If the justices deny his request, the case will go back to the trial court and Trump could stand trial.  

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[nervousoctoberknits]

january wrap up!

i wasn't sure how i wanted to handle this blog so idk if i'll do updates every month or just as i finish projects or something else entirely but we'll start here for now!

these are the main projects i'm currently working on (links to ravelry pattern pages).

spark cardi, v neck sweater*, afterthought-everything sock tube, musselburgh hat

*the pattern i'm using for this one unfortunately has a trash size range so the home sweater v neck has an Extremely similar look with a more inclusive size range

spark by andrea mowry

yarn: briggs and little regal in light brown heather, patons kroy sock in copper colors held double (colour combo blatantly copied from @birch.grove bc i fell in love with it)

this was a languishing wip with just the sleeves and bottom body ribbing done for like...3 years? decided at the beginning of january i wanted it done and off my needles so i've been powering through. just ~2" of the shawl collar left to go! might end up being a gift for my mom if it fits her bc she really loves this one. this was my first experience with steeking and it went perfectly fine, probably mostly thanks to the v rustic briggs & little yarn.

v neck sweater

yarn: loops and threads heathered tweed in basil

i've knit this sweater in this same yarn once before (in black, it's in my profile pic) and i wear it alllllll the time so decided i needed a second one. i sized up for this one bc i thought i wanted an even more oversized fit but i'm not 100% yet on if that was the right call. worst case it'll be a cozy sweater i don't wear out or my mom will get another new sweater out of it lmao

sock tube

yarn: london house yarns sparkle sock in baubles

this was a new year's cast on while i was still feeling festive and it's been my desk/meeting knitting. finished the tube on jan 31st so now it'll probably wait until i decide what contrast colour heels, toes & cuffs i wanna add. i'm thinking white but i don't have a plain white sock yarn in my stash rn so 🤷🏻‍♀️ no rush to finish these tho.

musselburgh hat by ysolda teague

yarn: knit picks elixir in grenadine

this is now gonna be my desk project. i needed something small and simple to work on while i spent my dad's birthday with him near the end of the month and i had an weird amount of this yarn that i wasn't totally sure what to do with so. my first musselburgh! just gonna knit to whatever length i can get with the 2 balls of yarn i have

[idleleaves]

Yet Another Hat (tm). Pattern is Cloud Catcher; it was given to me as a gift on Ravelry and I’ve knit it twice in two weeks. It’s clear, easy to follow, and makes a beautiful hat.

Yarn is Diamond Galway Heather... I tried it out as a replacement for the Patons Classic Wool I’m falling out of love with and so far so good.

[there-is-no-barrier-between-us]

New In: Bootlegs

Video

American Idiot:

Broadway: February 19th, 2011 with John Gallagher Jr. as Johnny, Michael Esper as Will, Van Hughes as Tunny, Rebecca Naomi Jones as Whatsername, Billie Joe Armstrong as St. Jimmy, Libby Winters as Extraordinary Girl, Jeanna de Waal as Heather, Gerard Canonico, Jennifer Bowles, Brian Charles Johnson, Jason Kappus, Aspen Vincent, and Alysha Umphress (mp4)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s:

Broadway (VOB)

Audio

Be More Chill:

Off-Broadway (Signature Theatre): July 29th, 2018 with Will Roland, George Salazar, Stephanie Hsu, Jason Tam, Katlyn Carlson, Lauren Marcus, Gerard Canonico, Tiffany Mann, Britton Smith, and Jason Williams (m4a, untracked)

Moulin Rouge:

Boston: July 10th, 2018 with Aaron Tveit as Christian, Karen Olivo as Satine, Danny Burstein as Harold Zidler, Sahr Ngaujah as Toulouse-Lautrec, Tam Mutu as Duke of Monroth, Ricky Rojas as Santiago, and Robyn Hurder as Nini (m4a, tracked)

My Fair Lady:

March 21st, 2018 with Lauren Ambrose as Eliza Doolittle, Harry Hadden-Paton as Henry Higgins, Norbert Leo Butz as Alfred P. Doolittle, Diana Riggs as Mrs. Higgins, Linda Mugleston as Mrs. Pearce, Jordan Donica as Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Manu Narayan as Zoltan Karpathy, and Allan Corduner as Colonel Pickering (m4a, untracked)

Masterlist is under “Broadway Bootlegs” // Message me to trade or for a gift