#i do consider virginia a southern state but you would not know it from the state of the nova grocery stores

[alliluyevas]

lot of okra haters in this world >:|

[deathsmallcaps]

Adam The Raven Cycle Headcanons

I think we all underestimate how much Adam’s rural poverty affects his looks and history, especially towards the beginning of the series.

1. Rural Appalachians often have mostly British ancestry. The British often have narrow mouths that are prone to overcrowding. This sort of problem takes money to fix. Therefore, Adam probably did not have nice teeth at the beginning of the series. He might be fixing it as an adult in college, but that really depends on how much money he has and/or is willing to throw at it right now. He may smile close-lipped a lot, or has the urge to cover his mouth with his hand. They might be yellowish, they might be crooked, he could have an under or overbite.

2. Adam most likely kept his hair really short for a good amount of his life, because lice. And/or, he had a mullet at one point, just because they’re good at keeping hair out of your face if done well, and keeps your neck warm when it’s cold. This practice likely changed once he entered Aglionby for fitting in purposes, but yeah. He may have mustache, if he can grow one (I don’t remember), because that’s very popular for young men in the South. And certainly taking scissors to it to ‘style’ it occasionally is cheaper than buying razors all the time. There’s a good chance he cuts all of his hair.

3. His hands are likely still calloused from all his jobs. It’s said in the books his hands are dry and cracked, and that he used to lick them to try and soothe them. Maybe he bought lotion once in a moment of ‘weakness’ (because he doesn’t want to waste money) and his friends top it off occasionally and hope he doesn’t notice it’s a different color or smell. Because he’s not going to buy more.

4. He’s either a huge neat freak or genuinely doesn’t know a lot about cleaning. That’s how you cope if you live in a trailer year round. You either keep everything as neat as possible, looking cleaning tips like a bored housewife. Or you leave crumbs and cooking scraps because having roaches in your kitchen is just a part of life.

5. I’m going to do some math, skip down to END OF MATH if you don’t care :/

Virginia’s minimum wage in 2012, when the books started being published, was $7.25. If Adam SOLELY used the money from his jobs for the reminder of his tuition ($18,423), that means he had to work 2,541 hours and 7 minutes a year to make that money. Let’s round that up to 2700 because he might need schoolbooks or food or occasionally pay for transportation.

Considering he has to make $18,423 a year, he’s skirting the next tax bracket pretty close *unless* he is working under the table. Since it’s already crazy that he’s doing this shit, let’s assume he’s working under the table. Because otherwise this gets even more miserable. In any case, if he needs to work 2700 hours to make it, he‘ll end up grossing $19,575.

Average American summer is about 8 weeks. So if transportation to each job is 45 minutes, including getting up and ready, etc, because of weather and iffy transportation options, and let’s say he’s working two shifts at two jobs, maybe eating lunch during work or transportation, that means if he allowed himself 6 hours of sleep a night during the summer, he would be ‘transporting’ 2.25 hours a day (I’m going to round it up to 2.5 to account for lunch and to make it easier), that’s a 15.5 hour day.

7 days a week times 15.5 hours times eight weeks is 868 hours, he’s made $6,293 out of the $19,575 needed. Leaving $13,282 to make.

Winter break is about 2 weeks in southern states like Virginia. A week for Spring. Three weeks. Assuming he can get similar hours at his jobs as he did in the summer, that’s 325.5 hours, and $2359.875. I’m going to round it down to $2359. So now he *just* needs to make $10,923 (lol).

Now, using those season break numbers, that leaves 41 weeks in a year for school. However, the average school week is 5 days, and school years in VA are 180 days. So if there never were any holidays and snow days, etc, school would take 36 weeks to complete.

In the interest of not going crazy, let’s work with the average school week of 5 days and say there’s 36 of those. I’m sure Adam worked holidays, but this will roughly amount to the same thing.

I think I remember Adam did early morning shifts and pulled 16 hours on the weekends during the schoolyear. So we’ll work that into his average school day.

Adam still needs to make $10,923. If he works 15.5 hours on a weekend day (using the same numbers as the summer calculations)(Saturday and Sunday that’s two days) for 36 weeks, that’s $8,091 out of the $10,923. That kid works to the bone. Leaving just $2,832 to make to reach that necessary minimum.

$2,832 comes out to about 390 hours and 37 minutes left needed to work. Let’s round it to 391.

That means if spread out over 36 weeks, he needs to work 10 hours and 52 minutes a week. Let’s bring it up to 11 hours.

The average high school day is 7.5 hours, including lunch. So that leaves 16.5 hours in Adam’s weekday.

HOWEVER. He still needs to do schoolwork. The average American teen spends 3.5 hours of time on schoolwork. I think Adam could probably power through it, and not really get distracted like ya girl but also it’s a private school and he’s taking all the hard classes. And hard classes like to pile shit on. So let’s go with 3.5 hours, every weekday. Yes he skips school for injuries a lot, maybe he gets more schoolwork done or job work done during that time. That’s harder to account for.

So that leaves 13 hours for non school activities.

He likely works in 2-3 shifts to cover the eleven hours each week, or maybe it depends on the week - maybe this week he has to work all 5 mornings, maybe the next week he works none. But let’s assume he splits it over all five days for averages sake. That means that 11 hours a week is 2 hours and 12 minutes a day (let’s bring it up to 15 minutes.). So 2.25 hours. Meaning he now has 10.75 hours left in the day.

Assuming transportation including getting ready and going to bed etc is as usual 45 minutes, that means he’s going to work, to school, to home every day. That’s another 2.25 hours. Now he has 8.5 hours left in the day.

Let’s assume he dedicates one third of his available weekday hours to friends. At 8.5 hours for non school non work non homework non transportation time, that means he spends 2 hours and 50 minutes with friends. Let’s round it to 3 hours. Because having fun with friends really does take that kind of time! And he’s really close with those peeps.

END OF MATH

That means he’s getting at most 5.5 hours of sleep on the weekdays.

I don’t remember if he works like this *throughout* all the first series’ books or just the first book. But your boy is tired as fuck. His skin is terrible. His eyebags have eyebags. He probably has a lot of wrinkles and grime under his nails. And he’s going to look even more haggard after ‘breaks’ and on Mondays especially.

I don’t remember how he affords that apartment in later books.

In any case, our boy does not look well at all.

6. This is going to fuck him up severely once he hits college too. I don’t remember if he got loans or scholarships or what. But even if he got a full ride, he’s going to be recovering sleep and health wise for years to come. He probably struggles to eat a salad sometimes. He needs to, for sure, but it’s so outside his taste buds’ usual range and his wallet’s usual range. And no one ever helped him figure out what dressing or vinaigrette made it tolerable for him. That boy has been living on canned food sales and ramen forever. He might get a meal plan and get sick from trying new foods or still act like he’s paying for each piece of food at the grocery store.

7. Very good chance he’s a coupon clipper and still has a little trouble convincing himself that he doesn’t need to buy 6 cans of beans just because they’re $5 all together. Instead of the just one can that he needs this week.

[sunflowerrex]

I need to talk about Helene.

I am struggling to come up with the words and the thoughts and I need to talk about this. I apologize for the length.

To preface, I am not a meterologist. I am merely a person who has taken several meterology class who is capable of reading those funky models that are put out by the NOAA. This being said, I follow severe weather to be able to update my friends and family on situations that could impact them. In this case, friends/family in Flordia, Atlanta, Tennesse and Carolina.

We all know of Hurricane Katrina, a catastrophe I simply do not have the words to describe the absolute clusterfuck of a situation and response that was given to the city of New Orleans. The floods that occured in Southern Appalachia carry the fullest of weight of the word to describe them, catastrophic. The states of Flordia, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennesse were all hit and also need support, however I am going to focus on North Carolina.

NCDOT has released a statement that "All roads in Western N.C are considered closed". Not just they are considered closed, they are gone. The roads are literally gone. Towns are destroyed, literally washed away. I won't get too personal with this post however I will say that I am still waiting for contact from several people within the impacted area. There is limited power, limited cellular service, basically extremel spotty and limited contact to the outside world.

I am keeping the descriptions of the damage minimal as it is simply hard to talk about.

I want to also say to please keep these areas in your thoughts. I know "thoughts and prayers do nothing", however holding these places and people in your hearts and having a mind open to supporting them however they need is so so so important. I know that some of these areas have people that have different beliefs and ideas than what you and myself do. I understand that entirely. I grew up on the border of appalachia and it is truly one of the most unique and wonderful places. The culture of this region is unlike anything I have ever experienced. There is a certain idea in most places of the country of who the people of appalachia are and how they are. There is a lot of history of this region that has had severe impacts on their views. Please try to look past any prejudices you may have towards this region when approaching their current situation.

Even if a person votes differently than you, they do not deserve this. Even if a person has different monetary assets than you, they do not deserve this. Even if a person has morals and values that are so drastically different than yours, they do not deserve this. I have been seeing this idea that "they chose to live there" and "they didn't evacuate". There is so much more to these choices than we can comprehend unless we have been in their shoes. All I ask is that you hold spaces in your heart for these people, these communities.

If you are able to and wanting to help, here are some ways to help.

From a source who works at FEMA, after about 2 weeks support tends to taper off for disasters such as these. When these disasters occur- CASH IS KING. Sending goods during the first two weeks is going to take people off of other jobs to sort out received items, create more cluster to be dealt with, ect. After the initial clean-up is done, that is when the time to donate supplies will become extremely beneficial. Organizations will let it be known when they are available and ready to receive actual items and goods.

In person volunteers in the begining stages of clean-up is another valuable resource that often becomes overbearing at the start. A bunch of people rush in, cant be organized and used effectively, and then leave. IF you are able to access an area that has been impacted, WAIT until the call for help comes out. Just like with supplies, the call for volunteers will come eventually and at that point it would be extremely beneficial to volunteer.

An important note to make about donations: ensure that the organization is a reputable one before donating. During these sorts of disasters scams run rampant. Please make sure that your hard earned money is going to the right place.

Appalachia Voices: https://appvoices.org/helene-relief/

a list of resources to support and provide to those impacted

The 19th: https://19thnews.org/2024/09/hurricane-helene-how-to-help-women-children-lgbtq-communities/

a list of LGBTQIA+ organizations, diaper banks, reproductive and womens health locations within the impacted states.

Charity Navigator: https://www.charitynavigator.org/discover-charities/where-to-give/hurricane-helene-2024/

This is a great resource when ensuring that a charity is actually going to use the funds for the right thing and not as a scam.

North Carolina: https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2024/09/29/helene-flooding-north-carolina-donations-help

A list of places to donate to assist the state of North Carolina

Georgia: https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/hurricane-helene-how-you-can-help-with-storm-assistance-in-georgia/GV2OPU6GPVHNZGTFIQ6C4TX434/

A list of places to donate to assist the state of Georgia

Tennessee: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2024/09/29/how-to-help-hurricane-helene-flood-victims-in-tennessee/75443858007/

A list of places to donate to assist the state of Tennessee

Some other great organizations that are currently helping out the areas: The United Cajun Navy, Team Rubicon, World Central Kitchen

I have not yet found a list of sources for the states of Flordia, South Carolina, and Virginia directly however I will update once someone/myself makes one.

"Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

Please if you are able, be a helper.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, as someone who studies environmental disasters these sorts of issues weigh very heavy on my chest to begin with, then there is the added tons of the connection that the people I love and myself have to the region. I will get off of my soapbox now. Sending you all love.

[pub-lius]

i heard washington was willing to give madison a bureaucratic position should he fail the house race in 1789—what do you think his politics would’ve been like if he was a member of the executive?

This is a really interesting question!! I don't think it would be very different.

So, firstly, the reason Madison wasn't considered seriously by Washington was because Washington had learned through his war experiences that giving appointments based off of seniority was very crucial to not upsetting very influential people, which is why the War and State departments went to General Henry Knox and Thomas Jefferson respectively, and Hamilton was not the first contender for Treasury Secretary. Knox would later get upset whenever Hamilton was selected for assignments before him, further demonstrating the importance of seniority.

Madison, though we know him as the fourth president and a prestigious southern landowner, did not have that kind of reputation in 1789, obviously. In the 1780s, he was still a rising star, and didn't have a whole lot of publicity in his toolbelt. He served in state committees, but only had two national positions, in the Philadelphia Convention (which was temporary) and in the Confederation Congress (but he wasn't particularly important there). While Washington respected him greatly and Jefferson was his friend, he couldn't give him a major appointment, such as being one of his ministers, without offending SOMEONE.

To get into your question, I think his politics would really depend on what department he was in charge of. We can eliminate Treasury because he didn't have any economic qualifications, and while Washington was not aware of Hamilton's financial skills when he appointed him, he intimately knew that Hamilton could manage a department, including the financial aspects. Madison was not particularly managerial, so Hamilton was more qualified in that respect, even though their experience levels were the same in Washington's perspective. And ofc, James Madison didn't know shit about war (i mean, look at how the War of 1812 went. yikes!)

Source: His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis

So this leaves the State department and Attorney General. Personally, I think Madison would only really qualify for the latter, since the only diplomatic experience he had was within the United States with the natives. However, Madison was an accomplished lawyer and the largest legal issues at this time concerned the Constitution, which Madison was THE expert of, as the author of the Virginia Plan and the most influential Federalist papers (according to Ellis, Washington was aware of the authors of The Federalist, I don't see how this is possible, but it is to Madison's credit.

Source: The Three Lives of James Madison by Noah Feldman, His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis

Madison's legal career began with the defense of freedom of religion, which we can see in the Constitution, and consistently throughout his life. This is definitely a hill he'd die on, and he was very well educated on it. Basically, just look at the Bill of Rights ("which i wrote/the ink hasn't dried"), and you can see, for the most part, Madison's key beliefs. ACTUALLY i recommend reading the original draft of the Bill of Rights because you can get a more clear picture of what Madison believed should be specified in the Constitution.

Source: The National Archives

Ron Chernow is gonna get mad at me but i KNOW, I KNOW, that Thomas Jefferson was a major influence on Madison's views in the 1790s. "Well, Jefferson wasn't even in America when Madison betrayed Hamilton" I DONT GIVE A RATS ASS RON, EVER HEARD OF A FUCKING LETTER, YOU ANCIENT BITCH?! News flash, this isn't ancient fucking Greece, you can WRITE LETTERS TO PEOPLE IN FRANCE FROM NEW YORK IN 1790 YOU DUMB ASS. Anyway.

Jefferson was a political radical (shocker! he never stopped being absolutely insane), and he definitely pushed Madison. I talked about this in my post about their relationship, however, I want to emphasize that Jefferson did have a perceivable influence on Madison's opinions, and you can see it in their correspondence. And, yes, Jefferson was a manipulative person, but he was also a fellow Virginian who took states' rights very seriously. I think that was the most influential aspect on Madison, was that someone from his home state was in his ear telling him how much injustice was being done to people from his native region, and how he should be fighting back against that. When we see Madison in the executive, he quickly realizes why Washington and Hamilton and the other guys that were in executive positions during the Revolution were Federalists. He struggled so much in 1812, because you cannot wage a war on an united platform, and thats what he and Washington had in common.

It seems like, from this perspective, that if Madison were Attorney General, or even a Secretary, he'd have that realization sooner. I don't think so. If Hamilton, in his hypothetical, was not Secretary of the Treasury, maybe he would, and maybe he'd remain a Federalist, since it was Hamilton's financial plan that caused Madison's switch in political party, but if Hamilton was still Treasury Secretary, Madison would still switch. Hamilton's Report on Public Credit said "fuck you we need to fix this crisis, facts over feelings" to states' rights activists, and Madison and Jefferson took that as a personal attack.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

To wrap things up, Madison's core values would not change, and a position in the executive would give him more of a platform to implement them, and that might have affected the judicial reforms around the turn of the century, but I really don't think we'd see a huge jump. Thank you for your question!

[stevensaus]

Dear Associated Press: Trans People Are More Than Just A Procedure

It wasn't the headline of the Associated Press article -- "Appeals court takes up transgender health coverage case likely headed to Supreme Court" -- that startled me. It was the caption underneath the otherwise routine photo of people at a podium. "A federal appeals court is considering cases out of North Carolina and West Virginia that could have broad-ranging implications on whether individual states are constitutionally required to cover healthcare for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance." I was shocked. I'd not heard of any Medicaid or Medicare provider or state employee plan flat-out refusing to cover transgender folx. Was some insurance company actually being so openly bigoted? I read on; the first paragraph of the story repeated the same statement: "A federal appeals court is considering cases out of North Carolina and West Virginia that could have significant implications on whether individual states are required to cover health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance." It isn't until the next paragraph that you learn that the cases are just about state employee plans, Medicaid, and Medicare covering gender-affirming care.

The terms "transgender healthcare" and "gender-affirming care" are not interchangeable. I don't think I'm (just) being pedantic here.Because I remember Robert Eads.

I never met Robert; I did not know he existed until more than a decade after he died. I learned of Robert from the 2001 documentary "Southern Comfort" (YouTube, Wikipedia), which documents the his life... particularly its end. "Eads was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1996, but due to the social stigma faced by transgender individuals, more than twenty doctors refused to medically treat him on the grounds that taking him on as a patient might harm their practice. When he was finally accepted for treatment in 1997, the cancer had 'already metastasized to other parts of the body, rendering any further treatments futile.'" Robert was denied healthcare because he was trans. Robert was not denied gender-affirming healthcare. Robert was denied healthcare, and died as a result. It's hard to express exactly how strange this is to have to point out, because everywhere else in medicine, a particular type of procedure is not confused with healthcare for that entire group. For example, Henry County Medical Center in Tennessee is closing its OB-GYN unit and birthing center. That's bad, but you'd be surprised if that was reported as "Hospital stops providing pediatric care." "Pediatric care" and "elder care" refer to any healthcare provided to people of a particular age, not just conditions that occur when one is young or old. Likewise, "transgender healthcare" is healthcare administered to a person who is trans -- not just gender-affirming care. We live in a country where fellow American citizens are facing their rights being taken away on a nearly-daily basis. We live in a country where even Homeland Security says the threats AGAINST American LGTBQIA+ citizens BY Americans are rising and intensifying. We live in a country where Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), a sitting US Congressperson, openly wished for a "better society" where "quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung.” We live in a country where bigots are actively working to make LGBTQIA+ people count as less than human. And I am not fucking having it. It is not just a grammar thing. It is not a pedantic thing. It is the lives and health of Americans. The least the Associated Press -- and other news outlets -- can do is to recognize that trans folx are people, not just a type of medical procedure. Featured Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash Read the full article

[fredbydawn]

Just cuz I wanna be a bitch, here’s some especially stupid things an ex-friend of mine said that continue to rattle my brain:

When we would hang out I joke about us being “just two southerners” cuz they were from Texas and I grew up in Maryland. Now do I actually consider myself southern? No, but depending on how you look at it, Maryland is sometimes considered part of the south. My friend would say that I’m absolutely not southern. When I asked what they would consider a southern state I offered the Carolinas as examples and they said they didn’t think the Carolinas were part of the south either. I asked they what states they did consider southern and they said, and I quote, “any state below the Mason-Dixon line.” Now, I don’t know what kind of geography they teach in Texas, but for those otherwise unaware, the Mason-Dixon line is the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania (and also Delaware and what is now West Virginia, but you get the idea), the Carolinas both also being south of this line.

This friend also thought I was pretentious for knowing a handful of phrases in other languages. Now maybe this is just something my family does, but we tend to just casually use phrases from other languages in conversation. My dad will use Russian cuz he has a fascination with the Russian revolution (high keys he might be autistic but that’s a story for another day), my mom will use Yiddish or Hebrew cuz her stepdad growing up was Jewish and her two youngest siblings are also Jewish, and we all know at least a handful of phrases in French and Spanish. It’s not like I would be holding whole conversations in another language, but this ex-friend, who I once again feel the need to emphasize, spent 19 and a half years of their life in Texas, would be completely baffled by “mañana” and “mi madre” which they would chalk up to me knowing cuz ‘I could afford fancy languages lessons’ even though I had mostly just learned them from like Dora and library books as a kid. I was also just friends with kids growing up who were bilingual and who spoke Spanish at home, something evidently this friend didn’t do.

One time I was reminiscing about film photography, which I had taken as an art credit in senior year of High School, and they said “I always wondered how they got the pictures off the SD card before computers were invented.” To which, of course, I said, “Huh?” “You know the SD card.” “Yes,” I said, “the SD card that holds the pictures on digital cameras.” “Well how did they get the pictures off the SD cards on film cameras?” This person was 20 years old and thought that film cameras, which we’ve had since like, the Civil War, stored photographs on Secure Digital memory cards.

This friend was, and presumably still is, in college. They are taking a World Wars class for a History credit. One day they called me up to say “Hey, did you know that Franz Ferdinand was a real person and not just a band? And that his murder started World War 1? And that everyone blamed Germany for the conflict after the war?” And I said yes, I did know that. They asked how I knew that. Again, I don’t know what they teach in Texas, but at the risk of sounding like a northern elite or intelligentsia, I told them the truth, which is that I had learned that in 7th grade.

And you may be wondering, what is this ex-friend of mine going to college for, specifically. They are going to college to become an elementary school teacher.

[fearsomeandwretched]

"join Virginia and Texas in the discarded states" wait, I'm not American so I do get a bit confused by what people call the areas/groups of states, but Texas isn't South? What's it classed as? Genuinely curious now

I consider Texas its own thing and I think many Texans do as well. This is just my own personal opinion though as a southerner! I'm happy to answer questions, but I don't want you to get the idea this is like Fact you know. I mean obviously I think I'm right but I'm just one girl lol

I would consider Dallas and the area northern and to the east of Dallas southern, but the more western and southern you get the more it's just its own distinct culture. Texas is so interesting bc it is HUGE like it takes almost 12 hours to drive from one side to the other. So to the east it's surrounded by the south but also western states to the west and north. It also has so much immigration and Latino presence bc it's so close to Mexico and Central America. It's like in particular a hodgepodge of cultures

[stingslikeabee]

Most unrealistic ever but pls entertain me, Kay/Zed, if Six and Mel had a kid

send me a pair name and I’ll tell you what I think it would be like if they had a child . accepting

Name: Virginia Claire Drysdell (the girl is named: a) after a Southern state; b) incorporates the name of Claire so Six can be related to a version of her by blood; c) only has mom's last name because Six is deleted from the system, after all). Gender: Female. General appearance: Virginia looks more like Six on the surface level - particularly because she got his lighter hair and the blue eyes, but her overall build and height are closer to Melissa's (petite, delicate-looking, the type of girl one feels the need to instinctively protect). She looks like a perfect porcelain doll, which is something that astonishes both of her parents because they consider themselves 'damaged goods'; how the hell their DNA combined in such a breathtaking way is beyond words. Virginia has very expressive eyes and can appear timid, but she's not - the moment she smiles, it's all gone; her smiles are wide, sincere and luminous. Apart from a tendency to break bones more easily than the average kid, she's very healthy. Personality: The girl looks deceptively demure and reserved - while, in truth, Virginia is loud laughter, affectionate hugs and incessant exploration. The fact is that she just takes longer to trust strangers/3rd parties to show her true self before them, something both her parents are both very good at doing. However, she is faster to bond and connect given the absence of traumatic episodes going up, and is generally well-liked and a breath of fresh air in the room. Virginia has a soft, nurturing side for all the broken and shunned things - from birds with damaged wings to the kids without friends, she is usually first in line to offer them some light to all that darkness. Special talents: Virginia can read anyone's body language flawlessly - probably because her father was never too big on saying certain things aloud and her mother wasn't so much better in that department. As a result, Virginia is surprisingly perceptive and will often interpret anyone's mood or thoughts with ease despite no words being said. Six doesn't need to tell her things - she just knows. In fact, if the two of them are alone, they will not speak when communicating sometimes. Who they like better: It's a close tie, but it's a little bit more Six than Melissa; Melissa doesn't even resent not being the favorite parent - she loves that it's actually Six because he sincerely needs genuine affection in his life. It's probably due to the fact that Virginia grew up to be someone who is really compassionate, and her father looks like the type of person who could do with a hug very often. The fact that they understand each other so well without speaking up also feels very special for Virginia - but she also appreciates and enjoys Melissa immensely; if the girls are together, her bubbly nature matches her mom's energy perfectly, too. Who they take after more: It's more evenly mixed here - usually people who are familiar with both Six and Melissa will say that Virginia is Six for outsiders and Melissa for insiders; she may appear reserved and ever inquisitive when she doesn't know someone, but will yearn for physical touch, laugh and smile often when she's safe within a trusted circle. It's a nice balance of the outward personalities of her parents and the way life shaped them (careful secret agent and charming intelligence broker). Personal Headcanon: Knows sign language, morse code and basically lives for enigmas, puzzles and secret languages; Virginia loves that Six speaks a million different languages and she is passionate about knowing everything about others means of communication - while she doesn't get to know what her father did until she was old enough to grasp the meaning of the Sierra Program and what it did to him, the girl always enjoyed the notion of creating special channels of communication and made her own ciphers for notes for her parents or friends. Faceclaim: Grace McKenna.

[darkshrimpemotions]

Okay well if we're gonna do the history lesson, we gotta do it right because I feel like you missed the point a bit here.

The vast majority of the country has banned gay marriage at some point in some way, and revocation of these shitty laws is extremely recent even in states generally considered wealthier, more progressive, and more educated than Alabama.

I remember sitting in my childhood bedroom on my wheezing computer in 2011, crying as I watched a state senator from New York beg a room full of his straight colleagues to acknowledge his relationship with his partner, his family, as just as valid and important as any of theirs. And nobody thought they would listen until they did, and that was New York.

On the other hand, when the governor of Virginia in the last couple of years tried to pass anti-trans school policies throughout the state despite over 70% of the state being against it. Several of the state's largest school districts then flat-out said "no, fuck you, we're not doing that."

The point is twofold: 1) no state's track record is clean when it comes to treatment of queer people, 2) state governments often do not give a shit what the people who elected them actually want, and 3) nothing is gained, accomplished, learned, improved, repaired, nothing meaningful is done when people engage in these keyboard warrior rants that scapegoat entire states full of people for national problems. Except to further stigmatize poor and rural people, of course.

You're not holding anyone accountable or responsible when you do this, don't fool yourself into thinking you are. All you're doing is misdirecting your anger at people with no power. Because--and I cannot emphasize this enough--the very states where conservatives have had the tightest chokehold for the longest are also the states where voter suppression, information suppression, single party/candidate ballots, and gerrymandering are most rampant.

There's actually no way to know for sure what the majority of voters in Alabama really think, because Alabama has decades of structural corruption geared toward locking anyone who might actually vote for progress out of the ballot boxes.

And no, people don't say fuck California or fuck New York or fuck Colorado in the same way they say fuck "insert impoverished southern state here." People don't treat the accents and clothing associated with those states' populations as synonymous with "uneducated regressive backwoods trash". People don't make classist, ableist jokes about how all Californians or New Yorkers are developmentally disabled due to inbreeding. People don't look at natural disasters or catastrophic failures of infrastructure in those states and say "well all those people who died deserved it for voting the way they did."

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

It looks like we’ll be getting heavy rain all day with chances of flash flooding. I think we’ll be fine where we are as far as flooding goes but I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose power.

Good thing my coffee is brewed and in hand. 😃

Sarah Vogelsong • virginiamercury.com

Youngkin declares state of emergency ahead of Tropical Storm Ophelia

So, yeah, this is why we have a state of emergency here in Virginia. Overnight we got a bit of rain, enough to have standing water in the yard, but we’ll be fine. I feel for folks in lower lying areas. The town of Staunton often has flooding issues. Here’s hoping everyone stays safe and dry today. 🤞🏼

Nathan Edwards • The Verge

Mastodon, the federated microblogging platform, has been updated to version 4.2, which comes with massive improvements to search and the web interface, particularly for logged-out and first-time users.

The tiny open source crew behind Mastodon continues to deliver excellent features and they do it right unlike Space Karen’s company.

While I wish some friends would leave the bird place I’m still extremely happy to have this space to share and have wonderful conversations with amazing people every day. ❤️

Paul Sutter • Space.com

The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a new term for it

This is pretty sad, isn’t it? I read this great piece in The Bitter Southerner a few years back that talked about a small town in Georgia Astronomers love because it’s so dark out there. 🌚

Joe George • Den Of Geek

The Star Trek Next Generation Story That Connects the Borg to The Original Series Crew

My question for Star Trek fans, do you love this or hate this?

I like it! 👍🏼

Vjeran Pavic • The Verge

Apple recently extended its deal for Qualcomm modems despite years of effort to develop its own — now we know why. According to a detailed report from the Wall Street Journal, Apple’s attempt to develop its own in-house 5G modem has been stymied by issues resulting from the iPhone maker underestimating the complexity and technical challenges of the task, and a lack of global leadership to guide the separate development groups siloed in the US and abroad.

This is a surprise to me. I can’t see it being because of the technical challenges. I could understand them saying “It’s just not ready.” But a technical challenge? Perhaps? 🤔

Joel Chrono • joelchrono12.xyz

This post was inspired by Rob Fahrni’s post, Saturday Morning Coffee. It has absolutely nothing to do with the content itself, but I got up, served myself a coffe, and wrote all this…

Hey! I inspired someone to write on their blog! That’s never happened before! It’s really wonderful and I hope Joel continues to write and bring us interesting content. Thanks for the love, Joel! ❤️

Ageist

I believe we’ve got retirement wrong. Hear me out. In the early 1990s, I attended my first business trip as a fresh-faced 23-year-old eager to make my mark in the world. I found myself at a workshop, listening to a speaker discuss the concept of retirement. At that age, retirement was a distant, almost foreign concept. Still, one statement from the speaker stuck in my mind: “People know to prepare financially for retirement but don’t know to prepare mentally.” He revealed a startling fact: mortality rates increase dramatically within the first three years of retirement. This revelation has stayed with me ever since.

Right. Do not retire and live like Blue Zone folks live. I actually love this idea.

Not retiring can take on different forms so go read the piece. Folks that know me know I want to write my own software if I ever achieve the financial stability to do it. I’ve considered doing part time work for someone like Starbucks just to socialize a bit. When we lived in Exeter I would frequent Exeter Coffee Company and hang out with a ragtag gang of folks. That’s living in my book. 👍🏼

Robert Harrington • palmerreport.com

What does it mean should Trump’s bail be revoked? First it’s important to recall he’s out on bail on four different felony charges in the first place. In other words, “out on bail” means he’s free and at liberty at the pleasure of four separate jurisdictions. If that bail is revoked in any of those jurisdictions, US marshals will be sent to wherever Trump is at the moment and summarily drag him out — in handcuffs — and take him to jail.

I know some people don’t believe a former President should be indicted of a crime much less be prosecuted or spend time in jail if convicted. I’m certainly not one of those people. TFG is a criminal and as such deserves a bit of time in the clank. 🚓

And, yeah, even at the risk of violence. If we allow certain people to get away with anything we don’t have a democracy or the rule of law. 🧑‍⚖️

Catherine Thorbecke • CNN

Alyssa Henry, the CEO of Square – a unit of Jack Dorsey’s fintech company, Block – will leave her post at the company next month.

I wonder if Jack plans to sell Block off to Space Karen so he can realize his everything app? 🤣

Valerie Ettenhofer • /Film

While you won’t find a “Joker” alternate ending available to view online, rumors about one persist thanks to a tidbit shared by filmmaker Kevin Smith on his “Fatman Beyond” podcast (via CinemaBlend). In a discussion of the film, Smith explains that he was told about a proposed original ending for the movie in which Arthur himself is revealed to be the Wayne family’s killer, and Bruce Wayne ends up in his crosshairs.

This would’ve been an amazing ending for Joker! The only problem with that is we couldn’t have sequels where Joker and Batman tangle.

I want so badly to see a Batman movie or series of movies that feature Joker exclusively. That may be too much to pull off so at the very least give us A Death in The Family in movie form. In Superman vs. Batman we get a glimpse of Robin’s — Jason Todd — armor in a glass case with Jokers writing on it. Great Easter egg.

Dave Rogers

The second night I was there, two more of our classmates joined us. One was a retired Air Force E-9 who’d worked in meteorology his whole career. The other is a highly trained engineer. Climate came up again, this time from the engineer. He’s convinced we can solve the crisis. Our host told him not to ask me, because he wouldn’t like the answer. But our Air Force friend was in my camp. It was interesting to me to listen to his take. Our views differ somewhat, but our conclusions are the same. It’s too late to avert a general collapse of civilization, likely before this century is out.

I like Dave’s writing a lot. He’s very open in what her shares and is extremely concerned with the state of the state of Florida. It’s a complete nightmare to live in if you’re an empathetic, caring, person. The GOP lead government doesn’t care about anyone or anything.

Dave’s take may seem a bit dark but I think he’s hit the nail on the head. We have screwed ourselves in the name of capitalism and investor return. And we’ve screwed future generations. 🤬

Bradley Brownell • Jalopnik

The United Auto Workers strike has expanded from three facilities to 41, as contract negotiations continue to slog on. Ford and the UAW have come together to form a tentative agreement, and while there is still a lot of work to be done, the union has chosen not to expand its striking efforts against Ford facilities.

Here’s an industry where we need radical transformation, now. I know the piece is about workers and I hope they’re able to negotiate and get what they need to survive and thrive.

At one point Detroit was a model of the middle class because of the automobile.

<img border=“0” src=“https://static.crabapples.net/troll-picking-nose.JPG" align=“right” alt=“Beware of Trolls.”/>

James Robins • defector.com

Musk’s life and personality, it turns out, is not so hard to contain. It is flat and shallow and open for all to read. The difficulty comes when Isaacson tries to impose some fabricated complexity on a not-very-complex man, and uses that illusion of knottiness as an excuse to paper over a much truer and more interesting story.

Space Karen isn’t the genius everyone thinks he is. He��s a bully who needs someone to smash his nose a few times so he’ll understand that treating people like crap has consequences.

Garbage human who managed to con his way into crap tons of money.

[sportsminorityreport]

Big winner of the national title game? SDSU? UConn?  I am going to say Temple.

Ok, we have a ton to unpack.

Prior to the game there was a lot of media speculation that San Diego State has absolutely earned their way into the Pac-12 by their tourney run.

Bullshit.  SDSU already made their way in to the PAC, because there are only 3 FBS programs in Southern California. 

And they are an annual bowl team in football and an annual tourney team in basketball.  

The PAC cannot afford to exclude them.  

Making the title game just gives the PAC more leverage in their negotiations.

Now the common media talk coming out today is that basically every conference should be looking at UConn.  The ACC, The Big 12, The Big Ten, even the PAC....

A longtime Big 12 realignment guy posted the following...

Now if you think about it, this one in particular seems ENTIRELY believable. 

UConn needs their basketball to elevate their football program into a better conference. Any move that kills their basketball dominance and doesn’t land them in an appropriate long term home (like moving to the PAC as suggested by a PAC reporter) is unlikely.

The Big 12 may be giving the ACC a run as the best basketball conference in America. 

And from the Big 12 perspective, there is no difference qualitatively between UConn and a 4 corner school.  

There are only like 5 blue blood basketball powers and UConn is one of them. UConn also gives the Big 12 access to the NYC DMA. 

The Big 12 TV partners are not in agreement that they would give more money to the Big 12 if they expand, but I guarantee you, there was no consideration of the Big 12 adding the NYC DMA.

The commissioner of the BIG 12 is actively working the realignment channels.  He is the rare commissioner who “gets it” when it comes to the importance of realignment strategies in the pallet of tools a commissioner should have.

This UConn to the Big 12 scenario is a believable premise.

Now the Big 12 isn’t going to just add UConn.

So who do you add with UConn...?  Drumroll please....

Temple. 

Why would you not add Philadelphia, the country’s #4 DMA?  Temple is generally solid in football and usually pretty good in basketball. Uconn needs a rival in Philadelphia and the ability to recruit that area in conference to maintain their dominance.

The Big 12 wants Pods and more media money.  A pod of  West Virginia, Uconn, Temple, and Cinncinati really works.

I know the Big 12 contract only has one of their media partners providing a budget for expansion and that technically they only have $20M per school to offer power conference schools --- which temple and UConn are not ---b ut this would amount to injecting relevance for the Big 12 in the nation’s number 1 and 4 media markets.  I think this is the kind of scenario the conference’s media partners would consider.

And you know what that does?  It has the potential to break the logjam that is preventing the Big 12 from further injuring the PAC-12 as the Big 12 leadership and at least one of their media partners wants to do.

I believe that Arizona may be willing to jump to the Big 12 or at least the Big 12 leadership seems to think so.  It is worth noting that Pac media folks who have talked to leaders at Arizona report that such a move is a hard “no”.  Arizona is staying in the PAC and will use their influence to hold ASU in the Pac as well.  There is a widespread belief that both schools are far, far too reliant on California students financially and academically and the relationship with Stanford, Cal, and Washington in terms of research and academics to burn this bridge with the state of California.

I think ASU’s and Colorado’s fans may want to go too, but I think their leadership is still strongly against the idea as a move out of the PAC would likely injure their ability to land research dollars and their academic reputations.  

Now that is in spite of the fact that ASU is pissed off at the whole conference for hating them over their leader’s support for former commissioner Larry Scott. Lots of anger both ways. 

Utah, I think is generally out on it, fans and leadership, although some of their fans clearly would love to be in a conference with BYU.

Now... that said, every day that the PAC goes without a reasonable media deal the larger the group of angry fans grows.  You can see a ton of historic movements of schools from conference to conference over the last 35 years where there were obvious roadblocks that suddenly disappeared overnight as the leadership finally relents to the constant pressure from boosters.  TAMU and finally UT to the SECare specific examples.

The 4 corner schools are obviously not going to join a conference with lesser economic status where travel is an estimated $5 M more expensive each year annually that contractually appears to only be able to offer them 20M per year unless ever other school in the conference voluntarily gives some of their media money away.

It is highly unlikely the Big 12 schools would do that. 

So why is the Big 12 still trying?  You need to answer that. 

That tells me that the four corners scenario is earmarked for more than the combined $80 M spelled out in the contracts.

My guess is that the freshly anointed national champion Uconn + Temple are also additions the partners are willing to discuss. 

(I personally think it is quite interesting that the PAC schools still are showing “theoretic solidarity” with the new goal now of making something like $6-7 million less than the Big 12 payouts being acceptable.  And that may be grossly understated.  

Previously the idea was to grudgingly trade off exposure courting Amazon and Apple instead of networks in order to make more money than the Big 12.  This seems to confirm the idea that association with the remaining academic and research spine of the PAC ---specifically Stanford, Cal, and Washington --- has a greater perceived value than a good chunk of the member schools’ sports media payouts.)

But it is entirely possible that the Big 12 is worried that the PAC will close a media deal and slam the door on a Big 12 raid before the Big 12 can capture the hearts of all of the 4 corner schools.   

The Big 12 may hear the realignment shot clock winding down.

In this instance, with UConn and Temple in,  they would only need to capture Arizona +1 PAC school to complete their pods.  That is a lot lower of a bar to hurdle than all 4 schools. 

(Now you want to blow some minds....? They may still miss on 3 of the 4 corner schools...Big 12 +Uconn +Temple + Arizona + Oregon? ... Oregon is unhappy... The thing is, that is a feather in the cap of the Big 12 short term, but this is actually a really survivable scenario for the PAC vs. a devastating loss of the entire 4 corner school block. 

 Now this scenario is not out of the realm of possibility, but it is unlikely.

Oregon has no president, making a move unlikely despite how much a powerful booster like Phil Knight might want... (disclaimer  Phil Knight is also a Stanford guy, so I may not know his actual desires). 

After reading and watching a lot of videos, I am inclined to believe none of the 4 corner schools will join the Big 12 if the Big Ten stays.  

And I think they are going to stay.

I think the bottom dwellers in the Big Ten recognize the only way to pull more money is to make Big Ten expansion viable is to pull in Amazon and Apple.  The Big Ten bottom dwellers are happy with their money and don’t want their content specifically relegated to streaming services, so they have blocked further expansion with Pac schools and frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if they are dragging roadblocks in to slow the appointment of the next Big Ten Commissioner to further cool expansion talk.

But UConn + Temple? It’s interesting when it theoretically shouldn’t be.

[superbdragoncollection-stuff]

I'll have to check out this film!

Fun fact, something people really really want to forget is that racism is way, way dumber than it seems, and way more arbitrary. Who was white and who was not was very much in the eye of the beholder. Not merely from country to country, in the US, it could vary from state to state. They had this thing called the One Drop Rule, where if you had X amount of black ancestry, even if you were snow-white, you were considered black.

Homer Plessy was the prosecution in the Supreme Court case Plessy vs Ferguson case that affirmed Jim Crow and segregation laws. Back then, there were first and second class street cars. Black people, no matter how rich, had to sit in the second class car. Plessy bought a first class ticket, and demanded to get into the first class car. He was mixed race. So mixed race in fact, he declared himself black to the conductor.

So the entire system of segregation that de facto persists to this day even if it is not in law, as the US is still as segregated today as it was in the 1950s, exists because of a man who the average citizen would not even view as black. THAT is how absurd this whole system is.

Here is a collection of runaway slave ads from before the US Civil War.

Notice anything? Literally all of them are descriptions of what most Usians would consider white people.

Further, the 1860 census of Virginia has data for white folks, native people, mixed race people, black people(those are the categories, I did not pick them). And yet there is NO such breakdown for the slave population, despite them being 1/3rd of the population.

Some of these descriptions, like "flaxen hair", could easily apply to the millions of Welshmen who lived in Pennsylvania in the 1850s, who just came over on the boat. The Fugitive Slave Laws allowed southerners to pursue slaves into free states, and fine anyone who helped those slaves. And consider, photos were rare in that period. So basically, if you were a white person, who'd never been south of France until you got the US, and you got caught by a slave catcher, they could haul you down south.

There is an 1890s novel, Iola Leroy, that depicts a man who appears white serving as an enlisted man in a black segregated unit. Black soldiers were segregated back then, with white officers. The titular protagonist, Iola Leroy, is a seemingly-white woman with a mother who was an escaped slave, while her rich southern father was not. Most of the family don't even know. She sees herself as a white southerner. She is in the process of telling northerners how great slavery is when slavers come to take her away, after her father dies. A man in the book says "ah, I know those folks when I see em", compliments Iola as a beautiful white woman, and is astounded when someone says Iola is not white.

This is how arbitrary the entire system is, and how slavery messes with your head. Race is not based in facts, logic, or truth. It is a fountain of lies meant to defend someone wanting you to do work and not pay you.

Slavery is not based in logic. NO ONE is safe. That is the real killer EVERYONE forgets. IT DOESN'T MATTER what color you are. IT DOESN'T MATTER who you are, or what you are. If your society allows slavery, EVERYONE is a target.

I finally got to watch Viften (Empire) and it’s such a fascinating movie. It was written by Anna Neye who also plays Anna Heegaard, a rich free black woman who’s dating the Danish governor of the island.

It’s sold as an absurdist comedy and I think there’s no other way to describe it. There aren’t any real jokes but you often end up laughing at the absurdity of it all.

It’s extremely honest about the horrors Danes put the black population through but thankfully it only shows it in quick flashes of art as seen in the trailer. I once watched a video where they explained why most women aren’t into slasher movies and why black people generally don’t rewatch movies about racism and slavery. It’s because the the horrors shown are very real fears and a fact of life so the only people who can really enjoy watching a woman get horribly murdered as entertaining are men and only white people can watch a black person getting whipped to death with cinematic lighting and have a fun night out. By showing the horrors in art they get to be clear about exactly what is going on without coming off as exploitative.

But it’s also very honest about the ways a society based on slavery fucks with everyone. Most of the servants at the manor are slaves except the cook who bought her own freedom years ago. She tells the housekeeper Petrine that some day she too will be able to buy her freedom and get her own slave. That’s right, the freed black people aspire to get their own slaves because that’s the sort of values a society like this instills in people. And Anna tries to be as nice as possible to her own slaves but doesn’t take her own success for granted and is more afraid of an uprising than her white lover and ends up doing some really horrible things to her slaves to keep them down.

It also touches on how people viewed being black or white back then. That it wasn’t all about skin colour but also status. That’s why all the white people treat Anna as one of them. She’s a rich, educated lady so of course she’s “white”. Even Anna express contempt at being called black because she doesn’t work in the field. The poor freed black people also call Petrine white because she dress and acts like a Dane. Not as in “you are pretending to be white” but as in you are white.

And hats off to the director Frederikke Aspöck. There’s a scene where a woman buys her freedom and they put on a symbolic slave auction where she gets up on the podium and bids on herself. All the white neighbors have come to witness it because it’s seen as this joyous day and they all clap, she’s offered to drink with them and she’s all smiles. The director managed to make the scene wholesome while highlighting the absurdity of it and all you can do is chuckle because what the fuck? The white people think it’s a good thing that she’s free but continue to keep and mistreat their own slaves, and she no doubt dreams of getting her own down the road. It’s very much depicted as institutionalized racism and not just “a few bad eggs”.

And I didn’t know where to put this but there’s a lot of interesting symbolism going on with Anna’s dresses. She always wears dresses that match the colors of the rooms she’s in, establishing her as fully part of the system, but as she begins to realize that the Danish state will never see her as fully equal her colors start to clash with her surroundings.

I watched it on Netflix and it has English subtitles so it should be somewhere for English speakers to watch if you feel so inclined.

[didanawisgi]

Martin Luther King Jr., Guns, and a Book Everyone Should Read

BY JEREMY S. | JAN 15, 2018

“Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 89 years old today, were he not assassinated in 1968. On the third Monday in January we observe MLK Jr. Day and celebrate his achievements in advancing civil rights for African Americans and others. While Dr. King was a big advocate of peaceful assembly and protest, he wasn’t, at least for most of his life, against the use of firearms for self-defense. In fact, he employed them . . .

If it wasn’t for African Americans in the South, primarily, taking up arms almost without exception during the post-Civil War reconstruction and well into the civil rights movement, this country wouldn’t be what it is today.

By force and threat of arms African Americans protected themselves, their families, their homes, and their rights and won the attention and respect of the powers that be. In a lawless, post-Civil War South they stayed alive while faced with, at best, an indifferent government and, at worst, state-sponsored violence against them.

We know the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of 1857 refused to recognize black people as citizens. Heck, they were deemed just three-fifths a person. Not often mentioned in school: some of that was due to gun rights. Namely, not wanting to give gun rights to blacks. Because if they were to recognize blacks as citizens, it…

“…would give to persons of the negro race . . . the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, . . . and it would give them the full liberty of speech . . . ; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.”

Ahha! So the Second Amendment was considered an individual right, protecting a citizen’s natural, inalienable right to keep and carry arms wherever they go. Then as now, gun control is rooted in racism.

During reconstruction, African Americans were legally citizens but were not always treated as such. Practically every African American home had a shotgun — or shotguns — and they needed it, too. Forget police protection, as those same officials were often in white robes during their time off.

Fast forward to the American civil rights movement and we learn, but again not at school, that Martin Luther King Jr. applied for a concealed carry permit. He (an upstanding minister, mind you) was denied.

Then as in many cases even now, especially in blue states uniquely and ironically so concerned about “fairness,” permitting was subjective (“may issue” rather than “shall issue”). The wealthy and politically connected receive their rights, but the poor, the uneducated, the undesired masses, not so much.

Up until late in his life, MLK Jr. chose to be protected by the Deacons for Defense. Though his home was also apparently a bit of an arsenal.

African Americans won their rights and protected their lives with pervasive firearms ownership. But we don’t learn about this. We don’t know about this. It has been unfortunately whitewashed from our history classes and our discourse.

Hidden, apparently, as part of an agreement (or at least an understanding) reached upon the conclusion of the civil rights movement.

Sure, the government is going to protect you now and help you and give you all of the rights you want, but you have to give up your guns. Turn them in. Create a culture of deference to the government. Be peaceable and non-threatening and harmless. And arm-less, as it were (and vote Democrat). African Americans did turn them in, physically and culturally.

That, at least, is an argument made late in Negroes and the Gun: the Black Tradition of Arms. It’s a fantastic book, teaching primarily through anecdotes of particular African American figures throughout history just how important firearms were to them. I learned so-freaking-much from this novel, and couldn’t recommend it more. If you have any interest in gun rights, civil rights, and/or African American history, it’s an absolute must-read.

Some text I highlighted on my Kindle Paperwhite when I read it in 2014:

But Southern blacks had to navigate the first generation of American arms-control laws, explicitly racist statutes starting as early as Virginia’s 1680 law, barring clubs, guns, or swords to both slaves and free blacks.

“…he who would be free, himself must strike the blow.”

In 1846, white abolitionist congressman Joshua Giddings of Ohio gave a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, advocating distribution of arms to fugitive slaves.

Civil-rights activist James Forman would comment in the 1960s that blacks in the movement were widely armed and that there was hardly a black home in the South without its shotgun or rifle.

A letter from a teacher at a freedmen’s school in Maryland demonstrates one set of concerns. The letter contains the standard complaints about racist attacks on the school and then describes one strand of the local response. “Both the Mayor and the sheriff have warned the colored people to go armed to school, (which they do) [and] the superintendent of schools came down and brought me a revolver.”

Low black turnout resulted in a Democratic victory in the majority black Republican congressional district.

Other political violence of the Reconstruction era centered on official Negro state militias operating under radical Republican administrations.

“The Winchester rifle deserves a place of honor in every Black home.” So said Ida B. Wells.

Fortune responded with an essay titled “The Stand and Be Shot or Shoot and Stand Policy”: “We have no disposition to fan the coals of race discord,” Thomas explained, “but when colored men are assailed they have a perfect right to stand their ground. If they run away like cowards they will be regarded as inferior and worthy to be shot; but if they stand their ground manfully, and do their own a share of the shooting they will be respected and by doing so they will lessen the propensity of white roughs to incite to riot.”

He used state funds to provide guns and ammunition to people who were under threat of attack.

“Medgar was nonviolent, but he had six guns in the kitchen and living room.”

“The weapons that you have are not to kill people with — killing is wrong. Your guns are to protect your families — to stop them from being killed. Let the Klan ride, but if they try to do wrong against you, stop them. If we’re ever going to win this fight we got to have a clean record. Stay here, my friends, you are needed most here, stay and protect your homes.”

In 2008 and 2010, the NAACP filed amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court, supporting blanket gun bans in Washington, DC, and Chicago. Losing those arguments, one of the association’s lawyers wrote in a prominent journal that recrafting the constitutional right to arms to allow targeted gun prohibition in black enclaves should be a core plank of the modern civil-rights agenda.

Wilkins viewed the failure to pursue black criminals as overt state malevolence and evidence of an attitude that “there’s one more Negro killed — the more of ’em dead, the less to bother us. Don’t spend too much money running down the killer — he may kill another.”

But it puts things in perspective to note that swimming pool accidents account for more deaths of minors than all forms of death by firearm (accident, homicide, and suicide).

The correlation of very high murder rates with low gun ownership in African American communities simply does not bear out the notion that disarming the populace as a whole will disarm and prevent murder by potential murderers.

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated 1,900,000 annual episodes where someone in the home retrieved a firearm in response to a suspected illegal entry. There were roughly half a million instances where the armed householder confronted and chased off the intruder.

A study of active burglars found that one of the greatest risks faced by residential burglars is being injured or killed by occupants of a targeted dwelling. Many reported that this was their greatest fear and a far greater worry than being caught by police.48 The data bear out the instinct. Home invaders in the United States are more at risk of being shot in the act than of going to prison.49 Because burglars do not know which homes have a gun, people who do not own guns enjoy free-rider benefits because of the deterrent effect of others owning guns. In a survey of convicted felons conducted for the National Institute of Justice, 34 percent of them reported being “scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim.” Nearly 40 percent had refrained from attempting a crime because they worried the target was armed. Fifty-six percent said that they would not attack someone they knew was armed and 74 percent agreed that “one reason burglars avoid houses where people are at home is that they fear being shot.”

In the period before Florida adopted its “shall issue” concealed-carry laws, the Orlando Police Department conducted a widely advertised program of firearms training for women. The program was started in response to reports that women in the city were buying guns at an increased rate after an uptick in sexual assaults. The program aimed to help women gun owners become safe and proficient. Over the next year, rape declined by 88 percent. Burglary fell by 25 percent. Nationally these rates were increasing and no other city with a population over 100,000 experienced similar decreases during the period.55 Rape increased by 7 percent nationally and by 5 percent elsewhere in Florida.

As you can see, Negroes and the Gun progresses more or less chronologically, spending the last portion of the book discussing modern-day gun control. It’s an invaluable source of ammunition (if you’ll pardon the expression) against the fallacies of the pro-gun-control platform. It sheds light on a little-known (if not purposefully obfuscated), critical factor in the history of African Americans: firearms.

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I highly recommend you — yes, you — read Negroes and the Gun: the Black Tradition of Arms.

And I’ll wrap this up with a quote in a Huffington Post article given by Maj Toure of Black Guns Matter: 

https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/huffpo-maj-toure.jpg”

[chaosintheavenue]

Fallout Protagonist Survey- Initial Results!

There were 761 responses to the survey, which is more than twice reach than my previous surveys have had combined. Wow. Another huge thank you to all who took part!

Proper results drawing comparisons between different protagonists will be out soon, I just thought it would be interesting to compare these results to my previous general OC survey. You can find the results of that here. I feel like overall, the results of both were pretty similar, with some of the same patterns showing up in both datasets.

So, let’s get right into it...

Game:

Courier Six: 308 Sole Survivor: 254 Lone Wanderer: 114 Vault 76 Resident: 27 Chosen One: 23 Vault Dweller: 22 Prisoner (Van Buren): 8 Warrior (Tactics): 4 Initiate (BoS): 1

I was amazed at how many we got for the final three! I literally only added the option for BoS for the sake of completeness gdfdsg.

Gender:

Cis female: 349 Cis male: 193 Nonbinary: 87 Trans male: 58 Trans female: 32 Agender: 9 Genderfluid: 8 Transmasculine: 7 Female, unknown if cis or trans: 6 Genderqueer: 5 Questioning: 2 Aaand the list of those that got one answer: demigirl, intersex, bigender (demiwoman and demiman), neutrois

Species (at the end of their storyline):

Human: 637 Ghoul: 53 Synth: 38 Cyborg: 6 Another type of mutant: 4 Vampire (confirmed or possible): 3 Half-Ghoul: 3 Super Mutant: 3 'Altered' human: 2 The one list: Plant human, ZAX AI, human-nightstalker hybrid, alien

Race or ethnicity:

White: 460 Hispanic or Latine: 201 Asian: 107 Black: 86 Native American: 62 Others, including unspecified mixed race: 8

Born in the United States:

Yes: 670 No: 85

(I separated the next two questions this time around, purely because that one Georgia answer that I couldn't definitively place as country or US state irked me that much lol)

State of birth:

California: 115 Washington DC: 84 Massachusetts: 79 Nevada: 62 Arizona: 39 Oregon: 24 Maryland: 23 Texas: 20 West Virginia: 17 New York: 16 Washington: 14 Virginia: 11 Utah: 8 New Mexico: 8 Colorado: 7 Michigan: 7 Maine: 6 Ohio: 6 Illinois: 6 Idaho: 5 Montana: 4 North Dakota: 4 Tennessee: 3 Louisiana: 3 Connecticut: 3 Pennsylvania: 3 Oklahoma: 3 North Carolina: 3 Alabama: 2 Minnesota: 2 Mississippi: 2 New Hampshire: 2 Rhode Island: 2 New Jersey: 2 Georgia: 2 Missouri: 2 List of ones: Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, Florida, Alaska, Wisconsin, Delaware, Nebraska, Wyoming

I had to leave out answers giving a general region rather than a specific state for the sake of the map, unfortunately. Also, even though Canada was annexed by the US in the Fallout universe, I've still counted it as a separate country.

Non-US country of birth:

Canada: 25 UK: 10 Russia: 8 Mexico: 8 France: 4 China: 2 Iceland: 2 Japan: 2 Ireland: 2 Australia: 2 Eastern Europe generally: 2 Philippines: 2 List of ones: Poland, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Southern Europe generally, Lebanon, Guatemala, Greece, Denmark, Bermuda, New Zealand, Ghana, Italy, Hong Kong, Turkey, Spain, Argentina, Norway, Portugal

Sexuality:

Bi or pan: 403 Gay or lesbian: 163 Straight: 102 Ace: 84 Demi: 7 Questioning: 4 Queer: 2 List of ones: aro, grey ace, omnisexual, achillean, sapphic, and... robosexual

Primary approach to solving problems:

Diplomacy: 337 Combat: 172 Stealth: 130 Technical skills: 122

Combat style:

Small guns: 326 Melee: 120 Energy weapons: 112 Big guns: 97 Avoid combat: 47 Unarmed: 35 Explosives: 23

Karma:

Good: 307 Very Good: 189 Neutral: 155 Changes during storyline: 66 Very Evil: 23 Evil: 20

And finally, companion preferences:

One at a time: 331 Multiple at a time: 312 Travel alone: 118

-

Next, it’s time to start formulating and testing hypotheses! A few ideas I already have are...

Companion travelling preferences are influenced by the mechanics of the companion system in the game a character comes from

Courier Six is more likely than other protagonists to identify as anything other than cis

Male Sole Survivors (presuming that they are taking the role of 'Nate', a veteran) are more likely to be combat-focused, and female SoSus ('Nora', a lawyer) are more likely to rely on diplomacy (general idea is whether or not the pre-made backstory of the SoSu has had a significant impact, or people are more likely to just do away with it in favour of their own story)

The Lone Wanderer is more likely than others to be a Ghoul (this one's purely because I've seen a lot of people turn their LWs into Ghouls)

(this one was suggested by my brother, and I'm not fully sure where he got the idea, but it would be really cool if a correlation did turn up) Characters who definitively spent time in a Vault (Vault Dweller, Lone Wanderer, Sole Survivor and Vault 76 Resident) are more likely to favour a diplomatic approach than others

If anyone has any more ideas they’d like to see, please let me know, and I’ll let you know if it’s feasible or not. The analysis I’m most familiar with is the ANOVA, which work best with hypotheses that can be phrased like ‘X group is more (or less) likely than Y group to have Z characteristic‘, but I’ll consider any ideas you may have!

[oh-mother-of-darkness]

Hello. I am, as you know, an American. I turned eighteen in 2014, voted in my first presidential election in 2016, and voted in my second presidential election last week via early voting in the state of Texas. 

I’m reflecting right now on the difference between those experiences. This is going to be a very self-indulgent essay. 

The 2016 election was in my third and final year of undergrad at Texas A&M University. At the time, I was living with a roommate who grew up in a town of 2,000, all of them members of her church. I loved her very much, but she was the most sheltered person I’ve ever met. 

I was only a few years ahead of her. My home growing up was deeply liberal about many of the things that counted, but deeply conservative on equally important things. For me, leaving for college was a radicalization speed-run.

I, a good Memphis girl, moved to Texas and encountered for the first time in my life white homogeny and everything that comes with it. I made most of my friends at A&M through a Christian orientation camp that I attended, then worked at. I went to school at a history department that was overwhelmingly male and war-obsessed. 

My second semester, I was randomly sorted into a writing seminar on the American Civil War and Reconstruction. There were eight other students in that class, all of them Texans. By day two I had gotten into a open fight with one of my classmates after he used the phrases “one of the humane parts of slavery” and “the secession declarations are moving and beautiful appeals, if you read them,” and “well I’m not going to criticize my own state.”

We got into at least one yelling match per week from that point forward. It was a formative experience for me-- not just him but the seven other students that took his side every time because they just couldn’t conceptualize anything outside of their own experiences, and frankly, I couldn’t either. 

It rocked my world to be surrounded by people who told me, among other things, that their high schools flew the Confederate battle flag or Lee was their all time role-model (because he actually didn’t want to secede! He didn’t believe in it, but Virginia did, so he put his own qualms aside and served his country, and that’s what we all have to do). I ran a survey once by knocking on every door in a dorm hall and asking the two people inside why the Civil War happened. 

I feel like you can guess the most common answer I got. Only two said slavery. Six didn’t know what the Civil War was. 

The last week of the semester, my class read a collection of recorded oral accounts of freed slaves during Reconstruction. My nemesis told me that he “didn’t realize black people actually had it bad.” At the same time, I was struggling with my sexuality, my relationship to my religion, my relationship with my parents, and a handful of newly-diagnosed but long-existing mental illnesses. I wasn’t having fun. 

Over the next three years, I tried my hardest to humanize the people that said disgusting things about minorities, poverty, and me personally. I barely won on that one, and I’m actually really proud that I did, even if it took me a few years. I can trace the biggest change in me directly to my nemesis from the history department, the kid that made me so mad that I started arguing back. I was too scared to do that before. 

By 2016, I was in full existential spin-out-- a very suddenly liberal kid fighting my whole family, all of my classmates, and most of my friends in an explosive political climate, the first I had ever participated in. 

I voted by Tennessee absentee ballot in 2016. On election night, I ordered takeout for me and my roommate, who I knew had voted red. Confident, like pretty much everybody, that Clinton would win, I was trying to show her that I didn’t hate her. She went to bed after dinner, also so certain that Clinton would win that she didn’t bother to stay up. 

I sat in front of my laptop sewing a birthday present for a friend (Kenza, actually), while the votes came in. I wasn’t super alarmed when the map turned red. I just figured the blue states hadn’t finished counting yet. 

The map didn’t get any bluer. By 1am, I knew what was about to happen. They called it an hour later, while I was sobbing on my floor. I threw up in the bathroom out of pure anxiety. I got two anonymous messages telling me the asker was going to commit suicide. Neither of them responded to my replies. I don’t actually know what happened to them. 

I remember riding the bus to class the next morning and distinctly seeing that most of the racial minorities there had swollen eyes from crying. The girl with the pride stickers all over her laptop didn’t show up that day, and I’m kind of glad she didn’t, considering the way some of our classmates in the back were loudly talking about “the gays.” Hope she’s okay.

My roommate came home completely unaware that Clinton lost. I was crying in my room when that happened. I remember showing her a demographic map of who voted which way. She got visibly upset when she figured out what races how. I think she really did feel guilty. 

That Thanksgiving, one of my cousins tweeted, “I can’t wait to go argue with my liberal cousin today. The wins. Keep. Coming,” an hour before he walked into my house. Inauguration day was January 20, 2017. I decided to go to law school a week later, the day the president signed the Muslim ban. That’s when I figured out for the first time just how much power the courts have. The last three years have only enforced that. 

I got angrier and angrier during law school, egged on by a few friends but more than anything just... finally conscious of exactly how the American system works and exactly who’s behind it. I still live in Texas, farther west now, and I’m working my first legal job. I’m going to be a licensed attorney next week. 

I went back and forth for months about how this election was going to shake out. I knew there wasn’t going to be an overwhelming red majority this time, but my big fear was an election close enough that the Supreme Court could take it. That fear doubled last month, at RBG’s death. 

I was hoping for a blue enough victory on election night that there wouldn’t be a week of uncertainty, but that was unlikely, and it didn’t happen. I obsessively refreshed my election map all of Wednesday and Thursday, aware that at least some states would flip after mail-in ballots came in, but unsure which would. 

Again, my great fear was a blue victory held down by only one state. Given (I would say “any” chance here, but I don’t mean “any” chance because genuinely jurisdiction or facts or legal merit don’t matter to the Supreme Court) an opportunity to make one (1) decision that hands over a red election, please know that a conservative supermajority would take it. I cannot emphasize enough how true that is and how important it is for all of us to grasp that. 

Watching Georgia flip was one of the best experiences of my life, and it’s a little hard for me to articulate why, but I’m going to give it a shot here. I’m southern. I’m from the South, and for this conversation it’s really important that I’m from Memphis, a black city and a center of black music and culture. 

When people think about the South, they think of the white South, and on some level, they should. It is absolutely essential to understand the white South in order to understand American history. Let me be 100% clear here. That is not a good thing. American majority history is not good. We are not a good country. 

It’s near-impossible to understand why that’s true without knowing exactly what happened in the white South and exactly what is still happening there now. With that, however, is another truth that most folks don’t get. 

The SouthTM is white and needs to die. The South as it actually exists is partially white yes, but it is also everyone else that lives here, particularly black folks. Southern culture is black, not white. Georgia flipped because the people that have always, always been there finally got to crack apart the conservative machine holding the South hostage. 

That’s amazing. It’s fucking mind-blowing. I watched it happen at 3:30 in the morning days after Election Day, and holy shit holy shit, Georgia flipped. Atlanta won. Holy fucking shit. 

I would be terrified right now if only Georgia flipped, because SCOTUS would have found a way to throw out a few thousand votes. Inevitable. Absolutely certain on that one. 

With a few states of buffer, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I really do think it’s over. 

I came home after work on Friday and immediately went to sleep because I hadn’t really done that since Tuesday. I woke up at noon today, checked the map, checked my messages, and saw what happened while I was gone. After that, I went back to bed until 5:30pm. I’m really just getting up now, after most of 24 hours asleep. 

I don’t know if I would say that I’m happy right now, but I am overwhelmingly relieved. I’m under no illusions that a Biden victory will solve everything, but I also do think this is a real thing to celebrate. I’ll take suggestions on how to celebrate right now, actually, since I’m finally awake. 

I’ll be angry forever, I think, but this is a good thing, and I’d like to enjoy it. If you’re happy right now, hey, tell me about it. I’ll be thrilled with you. I want to hear it. Congrats to all of us. Love y’all. 

[gaybabeyjailbreak]

Taxes on unrealised capitals isn't a benefit, there's no guarantee said tax money will go into the budget for socialist policies and not just further arm budget for israel, that's a no.

The median house price in the USA is 410 000 dollars, a 25000 for only first time buyers is nothing. Even if we take the lowest price on the market, a median of 143 thousand in west Virginia, this still isn't a substantial enough. If this is a policy supposed to help anyone, it fails, because the poorest class still does not have enough money to buy houses with this supposed boost, and it doesn't do anything to tackle the cost of living crisis or help with homelessness. That's a no.

The ban on abortion has been under a democratic president for the past 2 years at least and he still has not done anything to codify it, I highly doubt the VP who cannot commit to an answer about whether or not she'll actually codify it or if she'll help stop the backsliding of trans rights would do something about roe v wade. I would not consider a policy the candidate is uncommitted to making as a valid one for the exercise, but we'll consider it a conditional (1) just because I'm nice.

Term limits and nominations for scotus are not beneficial policies to the US populace. And the only context of this being good for the us populace because the court is currently majorly republican won't get resolved because we do not know what form the supposed reform will have and how long it would let the justices remain on the seat, and it is not set to occur as the court is the body that will interpret how the law will actually function and you're delusional of you think the court will want to strip it own power willingly. Additionally if the terms outlast the presidential candidate who encouraged the reform and the house actually commits to it, it can be very easily amended by the opposing party once they get to power again. Improbable, but most importantly not a beneficial policy, so no.

The current democratic government of the Us is already fascist, it already is committing genocides with other fascist governments, and is using nationalistic language (strongest military in the world to protect ua from the enemies of the us) and othering (Said other beings russia, China and the middle east.). This is not a beneficial change, this is a weak appeal and scaremonger for other white liberals who are comfortable under democrats. Not a policy.

Congratulations your final score is (1). Feel about that as you will.

It would be less evil for you white people who do not experience unconditional systemic oppression from the state you're living in. It is pesser evil to you because you're considering yourself as the prime affected target of this election.

It is not lesser evil to the black impoverished class which gets killed by the police regardless of the president's color, gets denied proper healthcare and gets overlooked in policies because the poor class is disproportionately poc. Just this election the democrats campaigned on policies beneficial to the middle class alone. It's not lesser evil to people coming into the state from the southern border, who get actively put into camps (not imaginary ones like the blue maga likes to fearmonger will spawn if trump gets to power) and which Kamala wants to make worse to appear more competent than Trump. It's not lesser evil to Arab americans having their families killed in the middle east by the current democratic president and a promise from the candidate to continue said killing. A candidate that was explicitly told in Detroit by a political leader of the Arab community "Families of arab Americans are being killed by Israel and we want you to promise to stop it" only to then say at the DNC "I will support the right of Israel to defend itself." Anyway, it's not lesser evil to native Americans whose treaties and agreements get disregarded under both parties, whose land still gets stolen and exploited despite the treaties, and who still have blood quantum's enforced upon them to systemically eradicate their communities and take their land.

There is no left leaning party in the USA, the democrats are centrist right at best, they do not represent the interests of leftist and socialist people. It is a fallacy to present the democratic party as in any way beneficial to the people, because the only people who will fall to that are white moderates who do not like to think about politics deeper than buzzwords during elections, as we have seen. Compared to them, the republicans at least cause the lazy liberals to organise somewhat with the actual left to do something, because at least the red fascist do not pretend to be your friends.