#it is with great pains that i vote ro

[camelspit]

Both portraits by @dark-blue-diamond

[unsolicited-opinions]

I'd like to attempt to describe why I think we keep hearing such bizarre and biased commentary from US liberals/progressives on Israel. I'm going to go over some things that #jumblr already knows, but I want this to be accessible to anybody who is interested. I'm not trying to excuse anybody's views or comments - I'm tying to remind myself that while there's no shortage of antisemitism in these voices, there's more going on than just antisemitism.

First, I think it is important to note that these comments are coming mostly from younger folks. These folks want to be on the Right Side of History, and I love that impulse.

They want to believe that they would have protested the war in Vietnam. They want to believe that they would have marched with Martin Luther King Jr- and I love that impulse.

They have been sold a story that this is a similar instance where one side is unambiguously an aggressor and the other side is unambiguously a victim.

They believe this, I think, for a few reasons I can understand. One of these is Hamas' use of civilian shields.

Sinwar (Hamas leader), his predecessors, his allies, and his eventual successors all know they're fighting two wars simultaneously. One is the physical war against Israelis, the other is the PR war fought for the hearts and minds of decent human beings worldwide. By placing all military assets behind/underneath civilians, he ensures that every Hamas material/military loss is a PR victory. This continues to be incredibly effective, and it's not a mystery why. Even those of us who understand this tactic, even those of us who have seen it repeatedly are heartbroken to see the harm done to non-combatants. When people who don't understand this tactic see the same images and videos, they are understandably horrified and want it to stop. It looks to them like soldiers indiscriminately destroying civilian lives.

These optics are made starker by Israel's unquestionable material and military advantage. Young Americans see Israel as powerful, Hamas as weak, and want to root for the underdog, assuming that Underdog = Good Guy.

Racism in Netanyahu's government ensures that Israel loses this PR war

Israel, Israeli international media, and Israel's international allies are not effective at explaining this tactic and are not effective in expressing their shared horror. The efforts to make this case convincingly are rendered nearly impossible by the fact that Netanyahu's coalition government includes theocrats and racists with track records of dehumanizing Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims. That's the government giving orders to the IDF. Can we really be surprised when folks in the west see a connection between anti-arab rhetoric and violence which harms Arabs?

Israel's failure to remove these people from government is a tragedy. There seems to be no shortage of Israelis who detest Netanyahu and who protested his attempts to subvert the judicary to erode minority rights and to make it harder to fight his corruption- but there are still too many Israelis voting for parties in his coalition. I say this relating to the pain that the Israelis I know feel about this. I'm similarly humiliated before the world as an American in that nearly half the US electorate is okay with Trump, a racist, a rapist, and a demented demagogue who takes great pleasure in smashing democratic norms and coarsening/corrupting political life. The Israelis I know feel similarly about Netanyahu.

If I feel like it, I may continue this later. I would like to talk about semantic drift and the misapprehensions around terms like colonialism, zionism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.

Again, my goal here is to remind myself that despite the abundant antisemitism in the comments of many young Americans saying profoundly stupid things about Israel, they are motivated by more than just antisemitism, and that antisemitism is not their primary drive.

Understanding the roots of their views may help identify ways to help remedy and mitigate rising antisemitism.

[mtherhino]

One Side, Two Lives

Chapter Three

First Previous Next

Hello Brother Dearest!

Warning: mention of eating disorder, swearing, and Remus being Remus

What a wonderful morning. Not. Roman rolled out of bed, literally. He groaned as he got up from the floor and wandered around his room. It was early, maybe around four or something, he honestly couldn’t care too much. Being the ego really sucked sometimes, because if Thomas was feeling horrible and like he wasn’t worth anything, Roman might as well have caught a bad case of the flue. He had woken up with a sore throat and such a stuffy nose that he could barely breath.

“Why, just why must I be the ego?” Roman complained to no one as he messed with his already crazy hair. He sighed, guess I better go get some kind of medicine. He was so out of it that he didn’t even try to conceal his appearance to any others that might be up at that time.

He walked out of his room and lazily walked to the main room. Although the sides did have their own bathrooms and medicines, all of Roman’s was pain pills and and antidotes for different poisons. You’d be surprised what he finds on is adventures, Remus doesn’t exactly know the meaning of “harmless creatures”.

Because of this, their was a bigger medicine cabinet that was open to anyone, Logan made sure that this was put it to place a while ago when Roman came back from a a small adventure and was severely poisoned and out of medicine. To say that he gave some of the others a scare would be a bit of an understatement; though he didn’t really know any of this since he was out cold for the next three days.

When he got to the main room he was a bit surprised to see the anxious side sleeping on the couch curled up with his headphones still on. He was snoring softly and Roman, even sick, couldn’t help but smile at him. He’s like a little cat, so cute. Roman grabbed a blanket that was on one of the other seats and and carefully used it to cover the smaller side.

After that he went over to the cabinet and got the medicine labeled “ego boost”. He hated taking these, they weren’t supposed to lessen depression, they sorta just put Roman in a state of neutral at times like this, supposedly if he takes too many Thomas will think he can do literally anything, and that would be incredibly dangerous. He sighed as he took only half of the small pills, this should lessen his symptoms while still keeping his mental state the same.

After taking it he went back to his room and laid down in his bed. He needed to to get to work but he was just felt so dead right now, he could take a a little break right now right? Your so pathetic, can’t even work though a little cold?

“Shut up you asshole…” and Roman was out like a light.

He woke up a few hours later with a start when something large and stinky jumped on his bed.

“Who goes there?!” He said, a sword materializing in his hand. Not a second after two daggers met his sword.

“Hello brother dearest!” The owner of the daggers shouted. Roman squinted in his lightly dark room and made out the shape of an insane smile and green eyes. He groaned and flopped back onto his bed.

“Hello Remus.”

“What’s wrong Robro? Usually you start yelling at me already for being on your bed” Remus said in a concerned voice. Roman, who had previously had his arm draped over his head, looked up and saw that his brother had mud splattered on his shirt and pants, which was starting to get on his bed. Once again he groaned and without being able to think of a more polite way, he simply kicked his brother of his bed to stop any further damage to his sheets.

           “I’m sick Re, its not very fun” he complained to his brother. The green side was about to jump back onto the bed when Roman shot him a glare that could kill. Although he could probably get away from his brother in the state he was in, Remus decided to do the nice thing and snapped away his usual outfit leaving him in some shorts and a green tank top that had the image of a broken heart on it, after that he jumped back onto the bed and laid next to his brother.

           “Is this because of the debate from yesterday? Ego a little low bro?” Roman just gave a small nod to tell his brother he was right. He hated being sick, but he had to do something or else he would defiantly feel worse tomorrow, at least emotionally. He sighed as he sat up and walked over to his work desk, if he was a little wobbly he wouldn’t admit it.  He looked over the many projects he needed to finish but his mind could barely register any of them.

            “You know as much fun as it would be to see you fall on your face five times trying too work, I think you should sit down.” Remus said forcing his brother to sit back on his bed.

“I’m going to go grab you something to eat and if I find out you tried to work I’m hitting you in the head with my morning star. “ he said before he left his brother in his room.

He quickly rose up into the dark sides part of the mind palace and grabbed a couple of snacks. A bole of popcorn, a few juice boxes, two apples balancing on his head, and finally a stick of deodorant stuffed under his arm.

As he walked back to Roman’s room he was careful to avoid the others. He wasn’t afraid of anyone, he was creativity, one of the strongest sides, but he wanted to make a big appearance soon and he didn’t want to spoil that by one of the light sides seeing him.

Once he did get back to his brother’s room he saw Roman trying to sneak his way over to his desk to work. Not having any of this, Remus stuck out his foot and tripped him, summoning a pillow so that he wouldn’t hit his head to hard.

“I told you not to move, you’re sick and you’re not going to be good for anyone if you don’t take the time to get better.” Roman sighed in defeat and got off of the ground, though he was tempted to just lay there and fall asleep.

“Fine, you win Re, but what the hell am I supposed to do in the meantime? You know I hate doing nothing.” Roman said as he flopped on the bed.

           “Well you can start by eating,” Remus said, and just before Roman could interject he continued , “I know you haven’t eaten anything today so don’t even try to lie to me.” Roman faked offense, “I would never! I’m the heroic prince, I would never lie.” He said with a smile. Remus snorted at that.

“Yah, and I’m as strait as a ruler, we can do this all day Ro” he retorted. The siblings where used to small squabbles, it was just how they were, honestly it would be concerning if they didn’t get into some kind of argument already.

           After their little argument, they decided to have a movie day. Roman of course voted that they watch a Disney movie with a good bit of action, Remus on the other hand wanted to watch a horror movies with lots of gore. Compromising, they decided to to watch an animated DC movie of Remus’s choice that had enough people getting killed to satisfy him.

            They were having a fairly good time all in all,  but unfortunately for Roman it did not go unnoticed that he wasn’t eating much.

“I swear Roman if you don’t start eating more I will stab you in the gut, one time for every meal you missed.” Remus scolded his brother. Roman rolled his eyes saying that stabbing him wouldn’t be any better for his health, Remus said it would remind him to eat regularly.

“Look Remus, I know you worry about me and I worry about you, but I promise you I’m fine. I don’t go a day where a don’t eat something.” Roman said. It was true, after a very heated argument with his brother a few months ago Roman had made sure to eat a little something each day, even if that something was just a handful of grapes.

Remus sighed, “I know brother but with how much you go adventuring the little amount of food you eat might as well be nothing.”

“Hey, you go out adventuring as much as I do and you eat deodorant for breakfast.” And accidentally proving Roman’s point, Remus took another bite of his favorite flavor of deodorant before glaring at his brother.

“Maybe but you know I eat three meals a day even if those meals aren’t the healthiest. Come on Roman, I’m just trying to make sure you don’t accidentally hurt yourself.” Remus said with the softest look he could muster. Roman sighed in defeat, he hated making others feel bad and  being a burden on them. Maybe if he just played along he could convince his brother that he was doing better.

           “Okay ok, I promise I’ll do a better job of taking care of myself, what kind of prince would I be if I make others worry for nothing. Can we move on to a different conversation now?” Roman said starting to feel uncomfortable as they continued to talk about his flaws. Remus, sensing his twins discomfort smiled a smile that was a bit to wide and moved onto something else.

“Ok Ro, what have you been working on recently?” Remus said, he knew full well how much Roman like to tell about whatever project he was on. To his immense surprise Roman sighed heavily and flopped onto his back.

“I’ve got a few things that I’m exited to get working on, but currently I’m just feeling a bit overloaded with having to come up with whatever we’re doing in the next Sander Sides video” Roman complained. He only ever complained to his brother since he knew that Remus would figure out what was bugging him wether he told him or not.

           Remus considered this and walked over at Roman’s desk that laid on the other side of the bed. There were papers thrown everywhere on it and some of them had a small red x in the corner which he could only guess meant ‘scrap it’ considering his brother’s perfectionist mental state.

           I really need to help him work on his self esteem, the self conscious bastard. Remus thought to himself. Well, he couldn’t do much now, but maybe he could buy his brother a bit of time.

“Hey Ro!” He suddenly exclaimed, makingRoman jump a bit. “I’ve got a great news. I was planing for it to be a bit of a surprise but whatever. I’m going to introduce myself to Thomas in the next video!” That got Roman to pay attention.

“Really?! Heck yah! No offense to the others but things will be way more interesting with you around!” Roman was as exited about the idea as Remus. They always had to be careful with their meet ups because of the whole light sides and dark sides thing, but if Remus introduces himself to Thomas it would make a lot more sense if he just popped up in the lights sides area every now and then.

           “Of course things will be more interesting, its me where talking about” and just to emphasize his point, Remus plucked off his head and held it under his arms, wearing a smile the whole time. Roman gaged at the display and warned his brother about getting blood on his carpet, even though he himself had done so many a times. Once Remus screwed his head back on, literally, he sat down and explained that he was probably going to give Thomas a light  nightmare and then show up when he asks the others to appear to talk about the dream.

           Although Roman was not a fan of scaring Thomas in any way, it sounded like a fairly good plan. It would give reason for Remus to appear and Thomas was already having some trouble sleeping thinking about the missed call back and all.  

“Sound like a good plan brother, but Thomas is already having nightmares quite often so your probably going to want to make a move sooner than later before we discus the nightmare problem.” Roman said. Remus nodded a bit, understanding the reasoning.

           “Alright, he has to make some kind of video two days from now right? Ill just show up the night before so that he makes it a Sander Sides.”

“It’s going to be hard to pretend like we hate each other.” Roman said, the two have been putting up a charade of hatred for each other their entire lives, but it was a lot harder to act like you hate someone when you’re around them and just want to act like siblings.

“Yah, but it should be fine, it can’t be that hard to act like I want to kill you.” Remus said playfully, but he made a mistake in that moment, he shoved Roman in the ribs.

Roman hissed in pain and put a hand to his side. Remus pulled back, that was a really light hit, but he acted like his ribs are- Remus’s face turned into a scowl as he figured it out.

           “Roman…” Roman froze at his brother’s voice. Well, I’m screwed. He slowly turned to his brother with a nervous smile. Even though they were the same height Remus seemed to tower over him and Roman knew he was not getting out of this one. “Hey brother, something the mater?” Roman said, his voice shaking and still keeping up his smile.

“Did you get hurt and not tell me dear brother?” Remus said with one of his creepiest smiles.

            The two usually helped one another when they get hurt, so when either of them didn’t tell the other, someone got a very harsh scolding.

“Um, maybe? I just went for a walk in the imagination and got hurt a little bit”  Roman said rubbing the back of his neck.

“How badly?” Remus asked.

“Oh, not very badly, just a few broken ribs.” Roman answered looking anywhere but his brother. Remus, still smiling like a maniac, put his hands to his mouth, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath in.

“HOW IN THE WORLD ARE YOU SUCH A FREAKING IDIOTIC MORON!”  Remus yelled as he shook his brother back and forth.

“I thought I could handle it! I just fought the manticore chimera for a bit and got nocked into a wall. But after that I came right back and wrapped my ribs and got some ice so I’m fine now!” He stated as he tried to defend himself.

“That doesn’t mater you idiot! First of all, you shouldn’t have fought the manticore by yourself you asshole! Secondly you should have come to me when you got hurt! What if it hadn’t been a clean break and a piece had cut up your insides or something!”

“That’s not how humans work!”

“That’s not important right now! You should be resting for a lot longer than one day! Your sick and you have broken ribs! That is a very bad combo!”

“Look, I didn’t mean for things to go as badly as it did, I wanted to blow off some steam and I was off my game a bit.”

           Remus sighed heavily.

“Look Roman that’s not the point. How would you feel if I got seriously hurt and and didn’t tell you?” Roman thought about that for a second, he figured that he would probably scream at his brother for getting hurt for an hour of more.

“I guess I would yell at you until you couldn’t hear anymore.” Roman admitted. He thought that he could pull of the act to not make Re worried, but it looked like he failed at that as much as everything else in his life.

“Look, just, come to me when you have a problem. We both got issues and we need to deal with them. It’s better for us to put them out into the open instead of trying to hide them and us finding out later.”  Roman sighed and agreed with his brother.

“I get it, if I get hurt this badly again I’ll go to you for help” Roman said, crossing his fingers behind his back. “Can we move onto a different subject now, I could really use a break from real life for a while.”

“Not quite yet brother, you have to promise me you won’t be doing too much until your ribs are at least partially healed.”

“That’s going to take at least three weeks before they are completely healed!”

“Just get some medicine from Logan and take some of your ego pills, you’ll be good in a two weeks tops” Remus said.

“Maybe but we have to do a video before then remember, it was your plan.” Roman pointed out with an annoyed scowl on his face. Remus seemed to think that fact over a bit, then you could practically see the lightbulb appear over his head.

“What if I knock you out for most of the video?”

           Roman’s brain short circuited for a minute. “What?”

“Just listen. I could pretend to hit you in the head with my morning star and then you could just pretend to be knocked out for the rest of the video! You can get some sleep and rest while it gives me a more dramatic appearance, its perfect!” Roman did not think this was the best solution they could come up with, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to get Remus to change his mind.

“Fine, if you really think this is the best option.” Roman said. He couldn’t help but give a small smile when his brother lifted his arm in the air proclaiming victory as loudly as he could. The rest of the day the two went over the plan and Remus’s song to make sure everything went right. Roman smiled as Remus started singing  “Forbidden Fruit”, I guess having a manic for a brother isn’t so bad.

Finally! I been dying to start writing for Remus. I hope all the people with brothers or sisters could recognized the fear of getting in trouble with them. Well, that all for now humans, have a lovely day, bye!

Tag list

@lovelivingmydreams

[inevitable-anna]

Escape The Night S4X02 Spoilers.

Hello, I thought that I would do another one of these posts because the new episode comes out today and I really enjoy making them (when I don’t accidentally delete them). Warning spoilers below!

[[MORE]]

I love the Collector's voice, it sounds really nice.

I’m liking the new intro. Ro having a dragon toast her dumpling(?) is great!

"The mummy's mind is a blur of hate and revenge" Ohh, that's really not good!

Mortimer! Don't confront the Sorceress, who you saw murder a guard, about the evil things you saw her do! BECAUSE SHE HAS NO PROBLEM WITH STABBING PEOPLE!! Ya dum dum!

"You've such a sweet face. I'd like to do sick things to you.” Dammmnnn! I wasn't actually expecting her to say something like that!

"I need someone a little more fierce for my plans" For some weird reason, the 'fierce' bit reminds me of Ro's promo with the lion? I don’t know why?

Okay, I actually really jumped when the Pharaoh came running in!

"I'm not gonna be Captain Save-a-ho."

Bretman is stepping up! Go Bretman!

"I'm following them! I'm following them!" The way Ro follows the paw prints is so cute and funny!

Ohhh, who is this shady lady?

Gabbie: "Is this the Collector?"

Everyone: "No!"

Ohh, she's the Pharaoh's wife and queen, huh? Then we solved the mystery, she's the one who killed him!

"So, we gotta split up, which is always a great decision in every horror movie that's ever be made." I love Alex bringing up horror movie logic.

"So, I unfortunately, had to break a crystal for the better good of the group." SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER!! Sorry, I was channeling my inner Yzma for a second there!

"Mummy's return"? Well, didn't the whole group read the prayer/incantation to release him?

Rosanna and Destorm mimicking the picture is so funny because Ro is so short!

Destorm high-fiving Ro after mimicking the picture is so sweet! I still hope that they become friends!

Tim saying "Ugh! More puzzles? What's up with all these supernatural people and their love of puzzles, man?" Is hilarious!

Tana just got snatched 'like a wig off a drag queen!'

"I eat and I speak" if the images are, mostly, body related, would it be a mouth? Yep, a mouth!

I love Bretman! He's great!

Ro getting the rocks and saying 'here you go, Destorm' (in the confessional thing) only to look up and see the Pharaoh gives me major Velma vibes from 'Scooby Doo' when she loses her glasses and looks up to see the monster in front of her.

Ro got captured! :(

Destorm scaring Bretman by yelling "that's how you do it" is great.

Bretman is seriously stepping up! He's doing great!

15:10 GABBIE REFERENCED THE MEME!!!!

Oh! Put the glowy stick of lies on the Pharaoh's wife!

I love how they decided to test the Sorceress with the glowy stick of lies and the way she moves her arms, as if she's saying 'try me, b*tch'

Called it!

Why do they have to kill her? Can't they just prick her finger or something?

Wasn't actually expecting the Sorceress to go stab crazy on the Pharaoh's wife!

Gabbie: "Thanks, Sorceress" Justine: "Thank you" Sorceress: "Don't mention it." I love how Justine and Gabbie thank the Sorceress for murdering the Pharaoh’s wife.

The way the Sorceress waves at the group while covered in blood is great!

"So far, the weakest link to me, is everyone but me" Destorm! Rude!

Ro pleading her case as "I'm the team player, and I'm not coming for anybody. I'm just here to support everybody... and I really wanna get home. I have a fur baby at home. She doesn't have anyone else." I love her so much!

"I voted for Rose because I knew nobody would. And I wanted to just ruffle some feathers." Destorm! YOU ARE RUINING THE FRIENDSHIP THAT YOU AND RO COULD HAVE HAD!! I liked you up until now! Don't ruin it! And you got Rosanna's name wrong!

Poor Tana! Poor Justine!

WHAT THE HELL JOEY?!!? "Tana and Justine are in the challenge, I'm like, 'All right. Justine, we'll see you in a minute." THAT IS SO MEAN!!

If I remember correctly, the reason the group buried Justine alive was because she failed to save Andrea in her first challenge, so why is everyone so sure that Justine is going to win?

Tana: "she's gonna beat me.” Gabbie: "for sure, but we loved having you here." HOLY MUSICAL BATMAN!! WHY DOES NO ONE BELIEVE IN TANA!!!

Thank you, Ro! "I feel sad for Tana, seeing her doubt herself because she's really capable." Okay, at least one person believes in Tana!

"Justine, we love you. Tana, we love you, too" okay, at least, that was sweet.

"Flesh eating beetles" ...woah, those sound absolutely lovely!

Go on, Tana! You can do it! I believe you!

Go Justine! I believe in you too! You’re both so close!

Oh no!... Oh no!

"Mummy, stop! Bring me the jewelled key!" TANA JUST SAVED JUSTINE FROM THE PHARAOH! That's some really quick thinking! Good job, Tana!

"Okay, we'll get there" oh! Tana is so sweet! She just went and hugged Justine to comfort her!

NO! THAT'S NOT FAIR! THAT’S NOT FAIR!!

"I don't blame, Tana, and I know she didn't wanna do it, but I was like, 'Girl, this is not how it works.' This is... this is it. Like, you have to do this, or we both die." Oh no, poor Justine! This is heartbreaking!

"I hate this bittersweet feeling. Mummy, I just wanna go home." Oh, this is so freaking sad! That last sentence breaks my heart! I'm actually tearing up!

Justine trying to fight/stab the mummy is badass and sad! At least she was able to try and fight this time.

Justine deserves better!

Tana deserves better!

R.I.P Justine Ezarik.

First death - buried alive.

Second death-neck snapped by Pharaoh.

At least now the Collector doesn't have to worry about paying Justine the residuals she asked about? (I'm sorry! Trying to lighten the mood)

What! Why is the midnight clock at 12 already?!

"Okay, I need to breath." Oh no, Ro's panicking :( please someone hug her!

Yes! Tana is pulling her weight! You shouldn't have underestimated her!

So... Justine is in hell now. She deserved better!

Ro asking "Joey, where did she go?" Is so sad. Ro's face at 25:44 is heartbreaking! She has just found out that Justine is dead and that Justine is imprisoned in hell forever and you can see the pain and shock on her face. Looking at her, at this moment, actually hurts my heart because she looks so sad! Please please please, let Ro escape this season!!

"Just put it in the slot" "Hey... that's what she said" thank goodness for Tim and his sense of humour!

A coin? Oh! Is it a doubloon, you know, the pirate coins?

That fog outside the window doesn't look like a good thing! Is it pirates?

IT’S NOT PIRATES! DEFINITELY NOT PIRATES!! STRANGE BIRDMAN ALERT!

STRANGE BIRDMAN GOT ALEX!! I REPEAT! STRANGE BIRDMAN GOT ALEX!!

I’m really excited for the episode today! Please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts about this post or the new episode, I would love to hear them!

Have a great day! :D

[shirtlesssammy]

14x07: Unhuman Business

Then:

LaLaLa, this is not happening, LaLaLa

Now:

Uh, something seems to be wrong with my TV. Just Lucifer Nick blabbering on about his family and his regret for killing people that won’t help him find who killed his family.

At the bunker, Jack is not doing great, guys. Cas is attempting to heal him, but whatever is wrong with Jack is beyond his angel powers.

As the boys discuss their impossible situation, Jack falls to the floor, coughing blood and foaming at the mouth. They rush him to the hospital ASAP. 

Worried Dad Dean is HIGH MAINTENANCE, but I’ll forgive his overbearing ways. Jack is in deep trouble. First, the hospital just needs some basic data, like name and date of birth, both of which the Winchesters fumble on. Jack’s a Winchester you doofs! And I guess Jack is 18. And his dad exploded. Jack then collapses and the medical staff rush him to a room, Sam, Dean, and Cas by his side. 

(That framing tho)

God, my TV buzzed out again. Please stand by while I figure out WHY WE SHOULD CARE ABOUT NICK. He talks to a reporter and learns there was a cop, Frank Kellogg, who was patrolling Nick’s neighborhood the night his family died.

At the hospital, Jack’s tests results all came back negative. They’re going to have to run more tests. (Lol, I love how all of this is put in the vaguest way possible. Like not all tests are positive or negative, and what are they testing for?) The one thing they do know: His body is in complete systemic shutdown. (I read on Twitter the friendly reminder that you’re not a real hunter until you’ve died and come back again. Coolcoolcoolcoolcool.)

The brothers decide it’s time to explore other options: Rowena. Dean suggests calling her. Sam already did. (Samwitch! --my Saileen heart hates me every time I goof about this) (Natasha: SAME) The doctor walks in on the boys dressing Jack to leave. AND LET ME JUST FALL INTO A PIT OF EMOTION watching Cas put his coat on Jack.

ROWENA arrives as fast as she can (like, oof, there isn’t anything in this for her. She just showed up to help the Winchesters? Guh.) She thinks Dean is in trouble, but Sam reveals it’s really Jack, Lucifer’s son. Rowena’s out. Before she bolts though, Jack works his magic nougat ways.

Rowena breaks the bad news that without Jack’s grace, his nephilim body can’t sustain itself. Cas offers up his own grace to save him. I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING! As Ro is nixing that idea, Dean’s vision starts to blur and his hearing warbles in and out. 

Not sure what was happening in this next Nick scene. He’s weird around a woman in an alley. She invites him back into the bar (WHY?) (Natasha: WHYYYYYYYY?) and then he secretly pulls a knife. In a brief moment of clarity, he yells at her to get away and she runs. And for the record: the giant neon S stands for Satan.

At the bunker, Overprotective Dean brings Jack a sandwich and milk. PURE. Jack is packing up and ready to hit the road, live a little before he dies. I’M NOT DYING, YOU’RE DYING.

Dean gets some serious dimples of discontent after listening to Jack but he’s not disagreeing with the boy.

Sam and Cas AND Rowena are on the research train. Cas presides over a mountain of books while Rowena and Sam call everyone they think might be able to help the poor young wee nephilim.

Dean gets the updates. The books are a bust, but Sam talked to Ketch, who has tipped them off about a shaman who might help. Dean takes all this in...maybe? In actuality, Dean wavers in and out of focus again. Oh, Dean Bean. Cas offers to tackle the shaman lead and the Winchesters can stay behind to look out for Jack. Enter Jack, with backpack, ready for adventure! Dean and Jack are heading out, to Castiel’s disapproval.

A little while later, Dean and Jack pick up some burgers and Dean tosses Baby’s keys to wee Jack. It’s driving lesson time! There’s so much wrapped up in this scene: Dean’s stunted childhood, his incredible capacity to nurture, Jack’s hero worship. MY HEART is wrapped up in this scene. They ease out on the road and Jack gains confidence quickly.

Dean turns on some tunes and BTO’s “Let it ride” sets the mood. Classic rock is such an important aspect of this show, and we didn’t realize how much we missed it as a set piece until this scene of open road driving.

(I’ll confess that I spent the first viewing of this scene ready for Jack to pass out and the car to careen dramatically off the road. I’m glad it didn’t.)

Cas heads out to find Sergei the shaman but before he goes, he talks with Sam about Dean’s reaction to Jack’s illness. “He seems to be taking this particularly hard,” Castiel observes. Sam tells him that Dean feels bad for the time he spent wishing Jack a swift and painful death at the beginning of last season.

Heartbreaking dialogue alert:

Sam: He’s lost people. We’ve all lost people but…

Cas: This feels different. Losing a son feels different.

But stow away those emotions, friends, because it’s time to go back to fun!Dad Dean. They’re eating more fast food, pulled over on the side of the road. “I’m a driver!” Jack announces gleefully. Yes, bby. Dean suggests a bar with promising hook-up potential. (Me: flashes back to Dean’s “Last night on Earth” speech with Cas back in season 4...and like, all of season 3.) Jack’s got other plans.

Nick finds Frank Kellogg, brings up the bare facts of his case, and then pushes Frank inside and holds him by the throat. Time to chat.

By a tumbling, small river, Jack gets into Dean’s deepest emotions like he’s ordering an ice cream shake at a diner. While they fish, Jack casually brings up that Dean and his father went fishing and that it was one of Dean’s happiest memories of him. Dean tries to dissemble, but Jack’s sure as a rock. (Now, there’s been some discussion about whether this was meant to refer to John or Bobby. My vote’s heavily on John. Dean loved his father, was disappointed by him, and longed for many things he could never have at the same time. Fishing with John Winchester was probably a shocking circle of calm - a pool of stillness and peace.)

Jack tells Dean that he wouldn’t miss the big, showy things in the world. Instead, he’d miss more time with Dean and the other people in his life.

Dean BARELY holds it together, a quaver in his voice as he returns, “Who’d’ve thought time with me would make you sentimental?” Dean. Bean.

Meanwhile, Cas drives his adorable blue car to meet Sergei the shaman. He’s immediately enveloped in a circle of holy fire. Thanks, buddy.

Sergei lives in a pimped out trailer, with flowers painted on the exterior and lushly colored and patterned textiles draped all over the interior. He proposes a “recharging agent” for Jack - something to shock his system and derail the degeneration. He offers Cas archangel grace (purportedly from Gabriel) and a spell to activate it. And the cost is simply that the Winchesters will owe him a favor. Sounds like a hell of a price to me.

Meanwhile Nick beats the shit out of Frank Kellogg. We learn that Nick’s neighbor saw Frank leave his house the night of the murders and the cops made him cover it up. Frank confesses that he met a man named Abraxis outside of Nick’s house and the next thing he knew, he was covered in blood. Frank was possessed by a demon which is some crazy ass shit, right? Sigh. Nick kills Frank horribly anyway, in a scene that goes on for WAY too long.

WAY the fuck too long.

In a giant breath of fresh air, we get back to the bunker, once again full of TFW 2.0 and Rowena Our Queen. They hand Jack the grace and it enters his body as Rowena chants the spell. Lights flicker. Jack’s eyes glow golden again. It’s worked!

Jack stumbles and falls again, worse than before.

Cas chews out Sergei via phone call and Sergei defends himself by saying that “science is sometimes trial and error.” It’s...awfully reminiscent of Michael’s experimentation, yes? It also reminds me of real world experimental parallels - now and throughout history. In a word: yikes.

Side note: Having once had a loved one’s body try to shut down in the ICU with no discernible cause...this episode really did hit home for me. It’s so easy in fiction to have a magical healing ability, and so much harder when there’s no explanation, no quick cure, and treatments that have your doctors crossing their fingers. I feel for all these dudes, and the doctors as well, is what I’m saying.

Anyway, Cas is pissed, and vows to smite Sergei’s ass if Jack dies.

For Vengeful Science

At Frank’s house, Nick prays to Lucifer and begs him to come back. In the blackness of the Empty, what looks like the Empty entity morphs into being and its eyes glow Lucifer-red. Well, fuck. (I’m actually excited to see the Empty again, but I am quite displeased about Lucifer.)

In the bunker, TFW mourns Jack’s rapidly failing condition. Rowena counsels them to stay by his side, for death approaches on swift wings.

Root Beer Quotes:

He’s sick, his name is Jack Kline, his father exploded.

Samuel, I thought we were beyond this.

Well, if it’s grace he needs, he can have mine.

Eyes on the road.

This is the best day ever!!!

Born with a wheel in your hand, huh?

Life isn’t all these big, amazing moments. It’s time together that matters.

Life - all of it - is a risk.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[luckbandit]

Dead Man Slims

Summary: where exactly did the guests go when they died? (Sorry, this is long)

***

JC didn’t know what to expect when he walked into the bar. In fact, he didn’t even know how he got there in the first place. He was dead, wasn’t he? The Hippie moved his hand to the side of his chest and felt his own cold blood bleed through his shirt and jacket. But he felt no pain, and when he checked, no pulse. It was true, then. That crazy clown lady actually stabbed him to death. But if JC is dead, how is he here? And what exactly is “here”?

It was then when the Hippie decided to look around. “Here” was apparently a bar. With a place for the bartender and tables and chairs scattered around the place. It looked like any normal bar except for one detail. It was empty. JC was the only living thing in the place. As he walked further in, he spotted the middle table, a big circular one with eight cushioned chairs surrounding it.

‘For eight guests’, JC realized. He approached the table and sat down. He leaned back and looked around the room.

“Alright”, the Hippie said to himself out loud, “I could get used to this. Could use a drink though.”

Just as requested, I bottle of beer appeared on the table in front of him. JC took a sip and smiled. Now he waits.

***

Roi was the next one to stumble in, and unfortunately the JC was not that surprised. The Daredevil wasn’t exactly the most useful to the group, so it was only a matter of time. Roi looked around in confusion before landing his eyes on the Hippie.

“JC?”, he asked in confusion, “How are you-? Where are-? Am I dead?!”

“Apparently so if you’re here”, JC replied nonchalantly. He gestured for Roi to come sit next him. The Daredevil obliged and JC offered him a bottle of beer, which he took hesitantly. Roi took a big sip and continued with the questions.

“So where are we?”

“Honestly, I think we’re in Limbo.”

“Limbo?! Then how do we get out of here?!”

“My guess is that in order to leave, our friends have to defeat the Carnival Master”

“And if they don’t?”

“I-“, JC paused, “I don’t know”

The two dead sat in silence for awhile, then the Hippie noticed two puncture wounds on his friend’s neck with black veins spreading down from it.

“Is- is that a snake bite?”, he asked Roi. The Daredevil’s hand immediately went to his wound.

“Oh. Yeah, it is”, he replied, now trailing the black veins with his fingers, “I guess I should probably catch you up on what you missed, huh?”

JC took a long sip from his drink, “That would be great”

***

The Super Spy walked in next (once again, to no one’s surprise) with bruises all around her neck and green veins all around her face from the poisonous gas. Roi couldn’t help but stare.

“Yeesh, what happened to you?”, he asked.

Teala gave him an unreadable expression as she approached the table, “Do you want the short story or the long one?”

JC tossed her a bottle, “Long please”

Teala caught it with a little smile and sat down, immediately going into her tale. The Super Spy didn’t even ask where she was. It was pretty obvious by now.

***

Doors opened once again and the person who came through was not who they were expecting.

“Matt?!?!”, the trio gasped. The Detective was probably the last person they expected to come here, especially this early. Matt looked at the three and sighed, “I’m dead, aren’t I?”. He was bleeding from his stomach and the side of his head, with bruises along his neck like Teala. The Detective sat down without a word, and told them what they haven’t been alive to witness.

When he finished, Matt looked at the Hippie.

“JC, I am so sorry”

“No worries, it’s fine”

“It’s not fine! You’re dead because I wasn’t fast enough!”

“It’s not your fault that Safiya is a big risk taker. Oh, and I’m not mad that you voted for me either”

“...How did you know that?”

JC chuckled, “I didn’t”

***

By the time Colleen came, it was routine. The latest dead would catch up the others of what happened, and maybe share a drink or two. But the others couldn’t help but cringe at all the holes in the Disco Dancer that were made when the living guests shoved her into the Maiden of Madness. Harshest death by far.

After Colleen finished her recap, the group suddenly heard the sound of a harp.

“What was that?”, Teala asked

“Must be the harp of Lazarus”, JC realized, “Colleen did say that they found the second coin”

Roi suddenly gasped and pointed at Matt, “Guys, look!”

They followed the Daredevil’s gaze, and were shocked as well. The Detective’s wounds were healing themselves! The blood started to clot itself up while the bruises on his neck faded. Another sound of the harp and Matt looked at his hands, only to find that he was fading too! But while his friends were scared and freaking out, Matt was calm, relieved even.

“I knew it”, he muttered, loud enough for the others to hear.

“Knew what?!”, Colleen demanded, but it was too late. Because with another sound of the harp, Matt was gone.

***

“So you’re saying that the Lazarus harp had the power to bring one of us back from the dead and you chose Matt?”, Colleen tried to summarize.

Safiya nodded, “Yes, that’s exactly what I was saying”. The Investigative Reporter was another big surprise. She was another strong player, so to see her here left everyone a bit shocked. Sitting in Matt’s old seat, Safiya looked at where Willie stabbed her and said, “That was unfair. I thought I was gonna last longer, maybe even survive”

“We all did”, was Teala’s response, and honestly, the Super Spy spoke for all of them.

***

Ro was always an emotional person. So when she walked in to find all her dead friends sitting there, the Jet Setter couldn’t help but burst into tears.

“I’m sorry”, she choked out”, I’m so so sorry. I- I didn’t want any of this to happen! I-“, she got cut off by a sudden group hug from the others.

“Ro, it’s ok”, Safiya said.

“Yeah, none of this was your fault”, Colleen added.

“You were a fighter, and you still are”, Teala said.

“So don’t drag yourself down just because of something you couldn’t control”, Roi advised.

Ro smiled through her tears and JC patted her back, “Come on”, he said, “Let’s go sit down” they pulled away, and the Jet Setter joined them at the table, trying to get used to the fact that she’s dead, and that the stab wounds the witches gave her will never go away.

***

The entrance to the bar swung open for one last time, revealing one very confused Record Producer.

“The hell?!”, Manny said upon seeing his six dead friends in front of him.

“Hey, Manny!”, Colleen called, “Come join the party!”

Manny hesitantly went over to the table and sat down, “Have you guys been here the entire time?” When Ro nodded, his jaw dropped, “Why didn’t Matt tell us?!”

Safiya shrugged and and Roi asked, “So...status update?”

[kirstymcneill]

Effective Activism in a Time of Coronavirus: what are we learning six months in?

This post first appeared on Global Dashboard on the 8th of July 2020.

Nothing I’ve read has captured our times and our task better than this essay from Western States Center ED Eric K. Ward: “leading in easy times is, well, easy. But these times are not them”. Leading in difficult times is unbelievably hard, but we will all be better at it if we share what we’re learning and invite others to challenge our thinking and contribute their own. In that spirit, here are the four things that I think are emerging as lessons about effective activism in a time of coronavirus.

In a fight between a rewind and a revolution, revolution’s gonna lose

My timeline is still going nuts for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s powerful “Message from the Future”. The bit that gives me pause comes in at the 3 minutes mark, “the world’s leading climate scientists told us we had 12 years left to cut our emissions in half, 12 years to change everything”. It was released, of course, before the coronavirus crisis, but the pandemic has given prominence to a similar rhetoric elsewhere.

Here in the UK, for example, the Build Back Better coalition argue we are in a similarly transformative moment: “let’s not go back to normal … what we do next could change everything”. And the crisis has seen a new lease of life for the slogan “we won’t go back to normal when normal was the problem”,  first used in protests in Chile towards the end of 2019 but now turning up everywhere from graffiti in Hong Kong to the fridge doors of activists to university research programmes.

That positioning is understandable – many of our missions face an existential threat from climate change and the need to dismantle white supremacy and racism could hardly be more urgent. But it is precisely because the stakes are so high that we have to focus on winning big rather than talking big.

How should we respond to the evidence that many people are absolutely desperate for a “return to normal” and not sure if they’d like to change very much, never mind “everything”? Roger Harding’s essay here charts that the crisis has seen a big spike in demand for nostalgic television and music, and it may not be an accident that the BBC’s coming of age drama Normal People is the breakout success of lockdown. If what’s happening in popular culture is any guide, people want to look back before they move forward. We need to accept that in a fight between a rewind and a revolution, revolution’s gonna lose.

Likewise, publics may not recognise the two separate worlds that Arundhati Roy charts so beautifully in her “The Pandemic is a Portal” essay. In Roy’s telling, we are faced with “a gateway between one world and the next” and the choice before us is whether we “choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us” or whether we “walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it”.

I wonder how many people see the pandemic in quite this way, with a clear delineation between the old world ‘yesterday’, the crisis ‘today’ and the recovery ‘tomorrow’. Some may also see today’s pandemic as merely what journalist Ros Wynne-Jones called “a grim dress-rehearsal” for the emergencies to come. For that constituency there will be a real premium on immediate strategies for securing recent gains, starting with the list George Graham lays out here.

Fighting campaigns that can deliver immediate and tangible change isn’t a substitute for bolder transformation, but it is a necessary precursor to it, because strategies which confuse a public appetite to build back better with one to build back completely different just aren’t going to attract a big enough base. As one union organiser told me, “there’s no point asking people to trust you to organise a revolution if you can’t get a microwave in the staff canteen”.

‘Don’t mourn, organise’ is the wrong mantra for our times. We need to do both

I’ve written before about the work we’ve been doing to defend aid and development in the UK. It’s good work – innovative, strategic and delivered with discipline. I’m proud of it, and of our success in defying political gravity to maintain support for aid in the face of sustained attacks. We have, however, just suffered a huge defeat, with the Prime Minister choosing to abolish our world-leading development department in the middle of the biggest humanitarian crisis for 100 years and on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the “great generation’s” Make Poverty History campaign.

It isn’t hard to see what is going on here. A ‘new front in the culture war’ is opening and it’s increasingly clear that “retoxification” is not a by-product of the strategy, it is the strategy. At the end of 2019 I felt that identifying models that could galvanise but not polarise was the core strategic campaigning question of the decade, but I now feel it’s a much more insistent one that should dominate our summer.  

Professor Tim Bale’s excellent research into the divergent attitudes of voters, activists and political leaders shows where we are headed, at least in the UK. The voters who have ‘lent’ their votes to the government on the basis of values alignment and economic competence are going to start peeling off fast as soon as furlough ends, unemployment climbs and the government’s reputation for economic competence takes a battering. At that point, this research implies, there’s no strategy available to the government other than dialling up the cultural campaign. We can expect to see more, and not less, of “the war on woke” and an increased push from the ‘Britannia Unchained’ generation in the cabinet to do away with regulations and protections.

If that analysis is right, activists have a strategic choice to make and only a matter of weeks to make it: are we here to win a culture war, or to end one?

Of course we need to spend this period re-strategising, including asking ourselves the question campaigners most hate to answer, but need to: if you’re so smart, how come you’re getting beaten so badly? But more than that, we need to give ourselves the time to mourn what we have lost.

We have literal grieving to do – for all the people who have died before their time, the pain compounded by the knowledge that structural racism and poverty have done as much damage as biology here. And we have grieving of the more abstract sort to do too – the kind of coming to terms with loss we all need to do when something we truly value, not just desire, has gone.

The Collective Pyschology Project’s “This Too Shall Pass” report gives us a toolkit for how to grieve but it is actually earlier work by its founder Alex Evans that tells us why activists have to learn to grieve. If we don’t work through denial, anger, bargaining and depression properly, we’ve no hope of getting to acceptance and, therefore, to a place where we can see clearly what our next move should be.

I’ve written elsewhere about the power of Andrew Tenzer’s “The Empathy Delusion” report but his latest research, “The Aspiration Window” should also give activists pause for thought. If we, like our colleagues in communications, also score highly on a sense of personal agency, that can be a tremendous source of resilience and optimism in normal times. It is, however, a recipe for burn-out and guilt in these times. We have to accept we can’t campaign our way out of a pandemic, and we can’t always beat overwhelming political odds.

“Don’t mourn, organise” is the wrong mantra for now. Let’s do both.

Think global, act local has come of age – but we need to buttress it

Many of us have spent many years desperately trying to generate a sense of global citizenship, recognising that global problems need global solutions, but global solutions need global constituencies to push for them. The pandemic has helped illuminate that like nothing else in our lifetime – and events like the Global Citizen #TogetherAtHome concert have given our sense of interconnectedness a public expression.

While some governments have pushed a sense of national exceptionalism (and certainly benefitted in the short term from a ‘rally around the flag’ effect), there’s actually limited evidence that people are identifying particularly fervently with the nation state, despite its prominence in everything from paying our wages to dictating when we can get a haircut.

Instead, counter-intuitively, we seem to be feeling simultaneously more local and more global than ever before. This will be welcome news for community organisers and internationalists alike, but we shouldn’t take it for granted that this feeling will be permanent.

Here in the UK, British Future’s Sunder Katwala’s careful reading of the polls throughout the crisis gives him a cautious optimism – we feel that we are likely to come out of this crisis more connected and kinder than we went into it, but this effect is much more pronounced about people with whom we have direct social contact. The more we know people, the more we trust them, and the street or estate where we live is now full of people we newly know.

Likewise, findings from the team at the Neighbourly Lab suggest a new sense of connection is powerful at a micro-local level, but it will need permanent infrastructure to be instituted quickly if the new neighbourliness is to be maintained. “The Moment We Noticed”, from the Relationships Observatory, makes a similar case, pointing to how “ten million willing citizens have chosen to spend at least 3 hours a week caring for one another” and inviting us to consider what we can do together to sustain new relationships into the future.

Both reports also contain some interesting watch-outs about what might happen when we move from the ‘honeymoon’ to the ‘disillusionment’ phase that is often seen in the aftermath of an emergency, and encourage us to recognise that communitarian feeling is often rather fragile and dependent on a sense that others are doing their bit.

Certainly our thinking when we put together the “#OurOtherNationalDebt” essay collection was that a focus on repaying those who’ve made an outsized contribution (or paid an outsized price) at this particular time was more likely to command sustained public support than anything that felt like a reheat of long-held pre-pandemic positions. Society might have changed a bit but in general it’s still the case that we quite like the people we’ve got to know, but we’re also alert to any signs of free-riding or, worst of all, queue-jumping.

Elsewhere in Europe, the European Council on Foreign Relations call both the idea that there has been a sudden surge in belief in an expanded role for the state and one in nationalism “illusions that could lead European governments to fall foul of public opinion as they plan the recovery”. Instead, they show “that the overwhelming majority of people want more EU cooperation”, but recognise that this is motivated more by a sense of wanting collective insurance than a rejuvenation of a sense of common ideals.

At the same time, the OECD predict that it’s at least possible that global aid flows will be maintained or even increase in coming years, pointing to some successes in securing debt relief, multilateral funding for Gavi and an increase in support for humanitarian efforts.

Part of what is going on here is the public’s sophisticated understanding of the coronavirus – that the experience might be universal, but it is it not uniform. We understand that there are people in precarious employment in every country, parents struggling to put food on the table in every country, children trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide in every country. Lockdown and school closures in particular have been near-universal experiences, but their effects have been far from uniform between countries or inside them. People get that both local neighbourliness and multilateralism can provide particular protections, mitigating catastrophe and smoothing out vulnerabilities a bit.

Support for both local mutual aid efforts and international solidarity efforts is, in other words, conditional. We instinctively feel the local and the global are the right levels to deal with different elements of the pandemic and its effects, but we want to be sure everyone is pulling their weight, and we’re getting enough out of it for what we’re willing to put in.

That means we need to be planning now for campaigning infrastructure that can turn the new neighbourliness into the new normal, while helping people draw connections between their new local involvement and the need for active citizenship at a national and global level.

The Dignity’s Project’s research on the mutual aid movement suggests there are foundations already in place, but activists will need to be careful not to over-interpret the data, with 57% of respondents saying “mutual aid groups like mine have nothing to do with politics”.

So if we want people to move towards more active civic involvement, to make what the New Citizenship Project calls the big shift “from consumer to citizen”, we need to introduce the idea of political activism as something that sits in service of, and not in a separate realm to, people’s individual moral choices and willingness to muck-in locally.

The new National Health Team is one attempt to operate at these three levels – individual, local and political. The coming months are likely to see a flowering of these kinds of efforts, as we increasingly recognise that none of individual behaviour change, local volunteering or traditional advocacy-led campaigning will be enough on their own.

An imperfect message that gets heard is better than a perfect one that doesn’t

The social change sector globally is currently producing a large number of really superb messaging guides around coronavirus and there are some brilliant research projects on the go about attitudes about everything from climate change to regulation to social security. The challenge for our movements is whether we can do enough with the insights once we have them.

Two barriers present themselves. The first is that research which shows how to communicate for one purpose (for example, to shore up support for aid, in the case of our Public Insight 2020 project) will not necessarily be widely adopted by people with a brief to communicate for another important purpose (for example, recruiting donors or promoting an organisation’s brand). That’s not just the case for international issues – the tension plays out around storytelling efforts on domestic poverty too. Organisations with enough marketing budget or media reach to make a dent in public opinion are, almost by definition, also likely to be delivering frontline services under the extraordinary pressure of rising demand and falling income.

Meanwhile, many of the organisations which are nimble enough to internalise the insight lack the reach to make it count. Across our fields we’ve got a lot of money being spent crafting narratives no-one is going to hear. It’s time to get much more serious about thinking about our routes to market when we embark on insight work and we need to be willing to pay for the distribution as well as the design of the messages.

Serious strategic communications efforts cost money – and mobilisation efforts which can actually leverage the latent political power of the people who agree with your message even more so. At Save the Children we’ve introduced a strong organising flavour into our campaigning work (as Tom Baker lays out here) and in the Aid Campaign we’ve focused on building local ‘power postcodes’ groups in the places that matter most. We will be spending the summer thinking about how to scale that work.

While it’s massively welcome that we’ve seen a big uptick in the amount of insight work big NGOs and funders are investing in, it’s all pretty academic if we’re not overlaying it with an understanding of political geography and overlaying that in turn with investment in local power.

We are only six months into the coronavirus crisis and don’t yet know when – or how – it will end. What we do know is that activism is unlikely to be what speeds our exit from the crisis, but it is the single biggest determinant of whether that exit is equitable. This moment demands our best ever work and we won’t do it without plans to deal with the biggest strategic challenges in front of us. This list of four may be incomplete, but it’s where I think we should begin.  

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/politics/a-different-kind-of-freshman-marks-pelosis-new-majority/

A different kind of freshman marks Pelosi's new majority

It wasn’t exactly a mic-drop moment. But when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi abruptly ended a conversation as a freshman lawmaker no longer seemed to be listening, it showed just how far the Democratic leader and the new majority have to go in getting used to each other.

A lot has changed in the 12 years since Pelosi last ran the House.

The California Democrat is finding a freshman class whose members seem more eager to lead than be led. Part of a younger generation of lawmakers, mostly women and minorities, they bring perspectives and expectations different from some who have walked the halls for decades. A few, like New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, carry their own starpower in real-time on social media.

Their willingness to question the protocols of Congress is exposing Pelosi’s leadership team to high-profile stumbles. Leaders could not hold their majority in line on a routine procedural vote last week. And this week, a debate spilled into the open over a leadership plan for a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and Islamophobia largely in response to remarks made by Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar.

“So, we have some internal issues,” Pelosi acknowledged Wednesday during a private caucus meeting.

It was during that behind-closed-doors session that another newly elected Democrat, Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, stood to speak about the resolution, according to those in the room.

Hayes wanted more input on the process. Others worried that their legislative agenda had drifted way off track. Some questioned why Omar’s actions were being singled out when others — namely President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress — had repeatedly made offensive comments on race and religion.

When Pelosi addressed her, Hayes turned to walk away. Exasperated, Pelosi said if Hayes wasn’t going to listen, the conversation was over. She set down the microphone.

Hayes later told reporters that she didn’t realize Pelosi was talking to her. But, she said, she’s ready to speak up again, every time she needs to.

“I don’t want to wait two years before I raise my voice,” she said. “I know that looks different or feels different to people. … But I didn’t come here to just sit quietly and fall in line.”

Hayes said, “I don’t mean that to be disrespectful. But the people in my district deserve a voice. These are important decisions.” She added, “A new crop of freshmen, I guess.”

Every new majority has its growing pains. GOP Speaker John Boehner never really figured out a way to control the tea party Republicans who ultimately forced his retirement. And Pelosi’s predecessor, Republican Paul Ryan, called it quits rather than try to do much better.

Pelosi, who made history in 2007 as the first female speaker, has always been seen as a particularly strong leader. She fended off attempts to topple her return this year, and her stock soared among some Democrats as she took on Trump during the 35-day partial government shutdown.

But Pelosi faces a changed media environment that is rapidly chronicling every move of the historic freshmen class in real-time and a president in the White House eager, with his GOP allies in Congress, to capitalize on the divisions. Trump tweeted Wednesday about the resolution debate, saying it was “shameful” Democrats wouldn’t take a stronger stand against anti-Semitism in their conference.

Democrats also returned a veteran leadership team, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who, along with up-and-comers, have made no secret of their interest in Pelosi’s job. They are responsible for setting the floor schedule and counting the votes, and share some responsibility — and blame — for the leadership’s early pitfalls.

While Democrats had a larger majority 12 years ago, the caucus was not as racially and ethnically diverse the first time Pelosi was speaker. There was a sense Wednesday among Democrats that Pelosi and her leadership team may have underestimated the anger and opposition that a resolution dealing only with anti-Semitism would inflame among progressives, who now include the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress.

Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., a freshman liaison to Democratic leaders, said Pelosi is juggling several dynamics. Managing the social media and instantaneous reaction that turned the issue “into this massive explosion … is one of the biggest challenges,” she said.

In fact, it wasn’t Pelosi’s idea to put forward the resolution on anti-Semitism, according to those familiar with the situation. They and others spoke about private conversations on condition of anonymity.

But after fielding some 100 calls over the weekend from other lawmakers, some proposing it as a response to Omar’s comments about Israel, Pelosi agreed to the idea and suggested they broaden the resolution to include a rejection of anti-Muslim bigotry. Omar is Muslim-American and faces criticism, including by GOP lawmakers, and public threats.

The early drafts, though, went too far for some lawmakers, but not far enough for others. Jewish lawmakers, in particular, preferred the more narrow approach to anti-Semitism. Others wanted a more sweeping statement against other forms of racism and bigotry that, as Clyburn put it, was “anti-hate.”

After Wednesday’s session, Pelosi pivoted, shelving the issue that had already drained Democrats of much of their focus on the week’s agenda.

“This is a distraction,” said Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., who made similar remarks during the private session. “We came in promising a rigorous agenda for the people.”

Others, though, said Democrats needed to remind Americans, and others, of the dangers of anti-Semitic tropes. Omar last week suggested the Jewish state’s supporters are pushing lawmakers to pledge “allegiance” to a foreign country.

“It’s important for us to have this conversation and for people to understand the history,” said Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif. He faced his own run-in after Ocasio-Cortez tweeted about his views in what would have been seen as a rare display of intra-party disagreement.

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., said Pelosi is adroit at being able to “adapt to the reality once that reality becomes clear to her.” He added, “We don’t have a perfect leader, but she’s doing an excellent job.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive who is allied with Ocasio-Cortez and others in the new class, said, “I don’t agree with Nancy Pelosi on a number of things, but I understand that she knows more about how the system works than I know.”

Khanna added that the freshmen have brought “great energy and great voice, but ultimately Washington is still about getting things done, and Nancy Pelosi understands power.”

[prideguynews]

Gay Iraqi Ghazwan Alsharif of “From Baghdad to the Bay” enjoys his liberty putting on an American flag turban. Image: Courtesy “From Baghdad to the Bay”  

Gay Iraqi Ghazwan Alsharif’s story about his journey to liberty has been a ten years in the producing. Up coming 7 days, Bay Region audiences will have the opportunity to see the award-successful documentary “From Baghdad to The Bay.”

The documentary, by award-successful unbiased filmmaker Erin Palmquist, who is the director, cinematographer, and producer, will be screened at movie festivals in Mill Valley, Oakland, San Francisco, and Palo Alto on pick out dates Oct thirteen-21.

“I am thrilled, joyful, [and] fired up,” explained Alsharif, 47.

He’s been happy with audiences’ responses at previous screenings previously this 12 months and the 3 awards it is garnered so considerably.

Palmquist, 41, is a straight ally and Oakland resident.

“It is a surreal working experience to have arrived at this milestone,” she wrote to the Bay Region Reporter in an email job interview. “Considering the fact that we premiered, we have seen viewers impacted in profound means.”

The documentary follows Alsharif via his struggles, likely from his loved ones and countrymen to aid the U.S. armed service as a translator throughout the Iraq War. His choice puts his loved ones in great hazard. Finally, it still left him ostracized from them and his region, leading him on a journey to set up a new daily life as a refugee in the U.S.

Possibly one of the most dramatic times in the movie is when Alsharif was imprisoned for 75 times soon after getting accused of espionage by the exact same armed service he was supporting. The reality was the only solution he held was that he is gay.

Alsharif was saved by Colonel Bobby Nicholson of the 4th Infantry Division of the U.S. Military, for whom he served as a translator. In the movie, Nicholson shares his story about vouching for Alsharif and receiving him out of solitary confinement in Iraq.

Alsharif came to San Francisco as a refugee in 2008.

He met Palmquist for a one-hour job interview that turned into a ten years-lengthy journey for the two of them that culminated into the sixty eight-moment movie.

The documentary was supported by individual donations and grants alongside with some own funding, and many volunteers, wrote Palmquist, who has not accomplished the final accounting.

“Ghazwan’s tenacity and his perception in himself had been the features that impressed me to see it via to the finish line,” wrote Palmquist. “In telling a story as challenging and traumatic as Ghazwan’s, it is not astonishing that the procedure has also been layered with problems and sacrifice.”

The documentary focuses mainly on Alsharif’s working experience doing the job with the U.S. armed service, his time getting detained, and his struggles starting off daily life anew in San Francisco. It wasn’t the goal of Alsharif or Palmquist to include things like his sexual orientation in the telling of the story due to the risk, but circumstances modified their perspective.

A 12 months soon after Alsharif came to the “gay mecca,” headlines commenced to arise about the torture and murders of mainly gay Iraqis in 2009. The news prompted him to do some thing remarkably unconventional for LGBT Middle Jap individuals at the time — he spoke out and grew to become visible.

In 2015, Alsharif and other Iraqis spoke to the Bay Region Reporter about daily life before the tumble of Saddam Hussein’s regime with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The “Never Ask, Never Explain to,” way of daily life for LGBT Iraqis was considerably diverse from the severe realities of daily life for them only a couple several years afterwards with the rise of anti-American and anti-gay sentiment and the Islamic Condition of Iraq and Levant. Their stories echoed LGBT and human legal rights experiences about what was taking place to gays in Iraq and unredacted U.S. Condition Section experiences from 2009 launched by WikiLeaks.

Funding problems caused Palmquist to stick to Alsharif’s journey much longer than initially expected.

“This permitted for he and us to mature into a place in which we could not omit this sort of an important portion of who Ghazwan is, as perfectly as definitely witness the journey that he has traveled to be in which he is currently,” she wrote.

Alsharif praised Palmquist’s capacity to capture his struggles, daily life, and identity in the documentary. It touches on his pain getting separated from his youthful son, who life with his ex-spouse in England, and adopting a new homeland. He grew to become a U.S. citizen in 2014.

He’s come to be a chef, showing on the Foodstuff Network’s “Guy’s Grocery Video games,” and a 7 days in the past started off his new placement as govt chef at the California Academy of Sciences.

In August, his son came to pay a visit to him for the very first time since they had been separated following his divorce from his spouse. His son stayed with him for forty times.

“I was battling from depression, battling to endure this city, battling to know the society, to get a career, to establish a career,” explained Alsharif. “I did try out to do silly things to myself beforehand when I experienced depression listed here, but I was solid more than enough to feel in myself and transfer on.

“Now, I’m wanting at myself and how happy I am to be big and prosperous,” he ongoing.

Palmquist echoed Alsharif’s hope that audiences are impressed and locate the bravery within on their own. But she also hopes to “challenge people’s perceptions and paradigms” about “human legal rights, immigration legal rights and LGBTQI legal rights, to what it implies to be Arab and gay, as perfectly as the armed service working experience” and spark discussions.

“San Francisco is Ghazwan’s property and he has contributed so much to this city,” wrote Palmquist. “It is definitely amazing to be sharing his extremely important story with the community local community.”

The documentary can be seen at these festivals: Oct thirteen at 2 p.m.: Mill Valley Film Competition in San Rafael. Oct fourteen at 2:fifteen p.m.: Mill Valley Film Competition in Mill Valley. Oct seventeen at six p.m.: Arab Film Competition in San Francisco, with an soon after-occasion at Slate Bar. Oct 19 at 5 p.m.: Arab Film Competition in Oakland, with an soon after-occasion at Double Common. Oct 21 at 4:30 p.m.: United Nations Affiliation Film Competition in Palo Alto.

For a lot more information and facts and to see the trailer, pay a visit to http://www.frombaghdadtothebay.com.

Romanian anti-LGBT constitutional referendum invalidated The simply call to protest the polls labored for Romanian LGBT advocates.

An initiative to constitutionally ban exact same-sex relationship unsuccessful to garner more than enough votes to transfer any further in the political procedure, in accordance to a news release from OutRight Action Global.

Only twenty percent of registered voters forged their ballot throughout the vote Oct six-7, instantly voiding the referendum, which wanted at minimum 30 percent to be valid.

The evaluate was passed by the country’s parliament in September and was backed by a ruling by Romania’s Constitutional Court docket. Even so, a 7 days before the vote the court docket ruled Romanian exact same-sex couples ought to have the exact same loved ones legal rights as straight couples on September 27.

Presently, exact same-sex relationship isn’t really legal in Romania. The region decriminalized homosexuality in 2001, in accordance to the Equality Index.

LGBT Romanians take pleasure in some legal protections.

Dwelling Dems urge reversal on new exact same-sex spouse visa plan Democratic leaders in the Dwelling of Associates have urged reversal of a new plan that denies loved ones visas to the exact same-sex domestic partners of diplomats posted in the United States and gives all those previously in the region 3 months to marry or eliminate their visas.

In an Oct 5 letter to Secretary of Condition Mike Pompeo, a lot more than a hundred Democratic Dwelling members urged him to reverse the plan, stating it “sends the incorrect information that the U.S. is not welcoming of all individuals.”

The plan adjust, announced in a July twenty memo, was to “assure and boost equal treatment method,” in accordance to officers.

It went into effect Oct one.

The plan affects a lot more than just diplomats serving in the U.S. and Us residents serving abroad. It also affects all those who work for the United Nations, the Entire world Bank, North Atlantic Treaty Corporation, and other groups, noted the New York Times.

A senior administration official talking anonymously to the Times and Washington Article explained that one zero five families at the moment in the U.S. are affected by the modified plan, fifty five of whom are connected with global corporations.

“The United States must sustain its moral leadership on all human legal rights issues, like all those influencing LGBTQI individuals,” the associates stated in their letter.

Bay Region Democratic Associates Ro Khanna (San Jose), Barbara Lee (Oakland), and Jackie Speier (San Francisco/San Mateo) signed onto the letter, which was spearheaded by Consultant Brad Schneider (Illinois).

The associates pointed out that “only 26 nations — a mere thirteen percent of U.N. member states — make it possible for exact same-sex couples to marry.”

They lifted worry about the department’s failure to acknowledge that a the greater part of nations about the environment really don’t make it possible for exact same-sex domestic partners to marry. On top of that, they expressed worries about the policy’s effect on U.S. diplomats, as many nations provide reciprocal visas. They argued the new plan could put many U.S. diplomats at risk, opening them up to likely retaliation.

“Denying visas to exact same-sex partners of overseas diplomats and U.N. officers is a discriminatory reversal of a plan that acknowledged that not all exact same-sex couples about the environment have the liberty to marry and unfairly targets LGBT families,” gay Consultant Mark Takano (D-California), told the Article.

Takano urged the administration to reconsider a “risky and bigoted plan.”

LGBT advocates also expressed their worries about the new plan following its enactment.

Hyung Hak “Alfonso” Nam, president of U.N. Globe, which represents LGBT staff members at the United Nations, explained he is anxious about partners of diplomats who arrive from nations in which some individuals could be vulnerable to prosecution. He explained it will produce obstructions for couples thinking about a putting up at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

Samantha Electric power, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., tweeted her objection to the new plan, calling it “needlessly cruel & bigoted.”

There would be a “restricted exception” for diplomats who arrive from nations in which exact same-sex interactions are illegal on a situation-by-situation foundation, in accordance to Condition Section associates.

The point out office commenced issuing visas to domestic partners of exact same-sex diplomats in 2009 less than former Secretary of Condition Hillary Clinton. Former secretaries of point out John Kerry and Rex Tillerson ongoing the plan.

The plan wasn’t extended to single heterosexual couples.

Obtained global LGBT news tips? Call or send out them to Heather Cassell at Skype: heather.cassell or oitwnews@gmail.com.

From Baghdad to The Bay Teaser from Erin Palmquist on Vimeo.

The post Gay Iraqi’s story hits Bay Area film festivals appeared first on PrideGuy - Gay News, LGBT News, Politics & Entertainment.

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Events from 29 July when the Israeli Navy stormed the Freedom Flotilla al-Awda hijacked and diverted it from its intended course to Gaza to Israel. ***** The last leg of the journey of al-Awda (the boat of return) was scheduled to reach Gaza on 29 July 2018. We were on target to reach Gaza that evening. There are 22 on board including crew with US $15,000 of antibiotics and bandages for Gaza. At 12.31 pm we received a missed call from a number beginning with +81… Mikkel was steering the boat at that time. The phone rang again with the message that we were trespassing into Israeli waters. Mikkel replied that we were in International waters and had right of innocent passage according to maritime laws. The accusation of trespassing was repeated again and again with Mikkel repeating the message that we were sailing in international waters. This carried on for about half an hour, while Awda was 42 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza. Prior to the beginning of this last leg, we had spent two days learning non-violent actions and had prepared ourselves in anticipation of an Israeli invasion of our boat. Vulnerable individuals, especially those with medical conditions, were to sit at the rear of the top deck with their hands on the deck table. The leader of this group was Gerd, a 75 year old elite Norwegian athlete and she had the help of Lucia a Spanish nurse in her group. The people who were to provide a non-violent barrier to the Israelis coming on deck and taking over the boat formed 3 rows – two rows of threes and the third row of two persons blocking the wheel house door to protect the wheel house for as long as possible. There were runners between the wheel house and the rear of the deck. The leader of the boat Zohar and I were at the two ends of the toilets’ corridor where we looked out at the horizon and informed all of any sightings of armed boats. I laughed at Zohar and said we are the Toilet Brigade, but I think Zohar did not find it very funny. It was probably bad taste under the circumstances. I also would be able to help as a runner and would have accessibility to all parts of the deck in view of being the doctor on board. Soon we saw at least three large Israeli warships on the horizon with 5 or more speed boats (zodiacs) zooming towards us. As the Zodiacs approached I saw that they carried soldiers with machine guns and there was on board the boats large machine guns mounted on a stand pointing at our boat. From my lookout point the first Israeli soldier climbed on board to the cabin level and climbed up the boat ladder to the top deck. His face was masked with a white cloth and following him were many others, all masked. They were all armed with machine guns and small cameras on their chests. They immediately made to the wheel house overcoming the first row by twisting the arms of the participants, lifting Sarah up and throwing her away.  Joergen, the chef, was large to be manhandled so he was tasered before being lifted up. They attacked the second row by picking on Emelia the Spanish nurse and removed her thus breaking the line. They then approached the door of the wheel house and tasered Charlie the first mate and Mike Treen who were obstructing their entry to the wheel house. Charlie was beaten up as well. Mike did not give way with being tasered in his lower limbs so he was tasered in his neck and face. Later on I saw bleeding on the left side of Mike’s face. He was semi-conscious when I examined him. They broke into the wheel house by cutting the lock, forced the engine to be switched off and took down the Palestine flag before taking down the Norwegian flag and trampling on it. They then cleared all people from the front half of the boat around the wheel house and moved them by force and coercion, throwing them to the rear of the deck. All were forced to sit on the floor at the back, except Gerd, Lucy and the vulnerable people who were seated around the table on wooden benches around her. Israeli soldiers then formed a line sealing off people from the back and preventing them from coming to the front of the boat again. As we entered the back of the deck we were all body searched and ordered to surrender our mobile phones or else they will take it by force. This part of search and confiscation was under the command of a woman soldier. Apart from mobile phones, medicines and wallets were also removed. No one as of today (4 August 2018) got our mobile phones back. I went to examine Mike and Charlie. Charlie had recovered consciousness and his wrists were tied together with plastic cable ties. Mike was bleeding from the side of his face, still not fully conscious. His hands were very tightly tied together with cable ties and the circulation to his fingers was cut off and his fingers and palm were beginning to swell. At this stage the entire people seated on the floor shouted demanding that the cable ties be cut. It was about half an hour later before the ties were finally cut off from both of them. Around this time Charlie, the first mate, received the Norwegian flag. He was visibly upset telling all of us that the Norwegian flag had been trampled on. Charlie reacted more to the trampling of the Norwegian flag than to his being beaten and tasered. The soldiers then started asking for the captain of the boat. The boys then started to reply that they were all the captain. Eventually the Israelis figured out that Herman was the captain and demanded to take him to the wheel house. Herman asked for someone to come with him, and I offered to do so. But as we approached the wheel house, I was pushed away and Herman forced into the wheel house on his own. Divina, the well known Swedish singer, had meanwhile broken free from the back and went to the front to look through the window of the wheel house. She started to shout and cry “Stop! Stop! They are beating Herman. They are hurting him”.  We could not see what Divina saw, but knew that it was something very disturbing. Later on, when Divina and I were sharing a prison cell, she told me they were throwing Herman against the wall of the wheel house and punching his chest. Divina was forcibly removed and her neck was twisted by the soldiers who took her back to the rear of the deck. I was pushed back to the rear of the boat again. After a while the boat engine started. I was told later by Gerd who was able to hear Herman tell the story to the Norwegian Consul in prison that the Israelis wanted Herman to start the engine, and threatened to kill him if he would not do so. But what they did not understand was that with this boat, once the engine stopped it can only be restarted manually in the engine room in the cabin level below. Arne, the engineer, refused to restart the engine, so the Israelis brought Herman down and hit him in front of Arne making it clear that they will continue to hit Herman if Arne would not start the engine. Arne is 70 years old, and when he saw Herman’s face go ash colour, he gave in and started the engine manually. Gerd broke into tears when she was narrating this part of the story. The Israelis then took charge of the boat and drove it to Ashdod. Once the boat was on course, the Israeli soldiers brought Herman to the medical desk. I looked at Herman and saw that he was in great pain, silent but conscious, breathing spontaneously but shallow breathing. The Israeli Army doctor was trying to persuade Herman to take some medicine for pain. Herman was refusing the medicine. The Israeli doctor explained to me that what he was offering Herman was not army medicine but his personal medicine. He gave me the medicine from his hand so that I could check it. It was a small brown glass bottle and I figured that it was some kind of liquid morphine preparation probably the equivalent of oromorph or fentanyl. I asked Herman to take it and the doctor asked him to take 12 drops after which Herman was carried off and slumped on a mattress at the back of the deck. He was watched over by people around him and fell asleep. From my station I saw he was breathing better. With Herman settled I concentrated on Larry Commodore, the Native American leader and an environmental activist. He had been voted Chief of his tribe twice. Larry has labile asthma and with the stress all around my fear was that he might get a nasty attack, and needed adrenaline injection. I was taking Larry through deep breathing exercises. However, Larry was not heading for an asthmatic attack, but was engaging an Israeli who covered his face with a black cloth in conversation. This man was obviously in charge. I asked the Israeli man with black mask his name and he called himself Field Marshall Ro…..Larry misheard him and jumped to conclusion that he called himself Field Marshall Rommel and shouted how can he an Israeli take a Nazi name. Field Marshall objected and introduced himself as Field Marshall ? Ronan. As I spelt out Ronan he quickly corrected me that his name is Ronen, and he Field Marshall Ronen was in charge. The Israeli soldiers all wore body cameras and were filming us all the time. A box of sandwiches and pears were brought on deck for us. None of us took any of their food as we had decided we do not accept Israeli hypocrisy and charity. Our chef Joergen had already prepared high calorie high protein delicious brownies with nuts and chocolate, wrapped up in tin foil to be consumed when captured, as we know it was going to be a long day and night. Joergen called it food for the journey. Unfortunately when I needed it most, the Israelis took away my food and threw it away. They just told me ”It is forbidden” I had nothing to eat for 24 hours, refusing Israeli Army food and had no food of my own. As we sailed towards Israel we could see the coast of Gaza in total darkness. There were 3 oil /gas rigs in the northern sea of Gaza. The brightly burning oil flames contrasted with the total darkness the owners of the fuel were forced to live in. Just off the shore of Gaza are the largest deposit of natural gas ever discovered and the natural gas belonging to the Palestinians were already being siphoned off by Israel. As we approached Israel, Zohar, our boat leader, suggested that we should start saying goodbye to each other. We were probably 2-3 hours from Ashdod. We thanked our boat leader, our Captain, the crew, our dear chef, and encouraged each other that we will continue to do all we can to free Gaza and also bring justice to Palestine. Herman, our Captain, who managed to sit up now, gave a most moving talk and some of us were in tears. We knew that in Ashdod there would be the Israeli media and film crews. We will not enter Ashdod as a people who had lost hope as we were taken captive. So we came off the boat chanting “Free Free Palestine” all the way as we came off. Mike Treen, the union man, had by then recovered from his heavy tasering and led the chanting with his mega-voice and we filled the night sky of Israel with Free Free Palestine as we approached. We did this the whole way down the boat into Ashdod. We came directly into a closed military zone in Ashdod. It was a sealed off area with many stations. It was specially prepared for the 22 of us. It began with a security x-ray area. I did not realise they retained my money belt as I came out of the x-ray station. The next station was strip search, and it was when I was gathering up my belongings after being stripped that I realised my money belt was no longer with me. I knew I had about a couple hundred Euros and they were trying to steal it. I demanded its return and refused to leave the station until it was produced. I was shouting for the first time. I was glad I did that as some other people were parted from their cash. The journalist from Al Jazeera Abdul had all his credit cards and USD 1,800 taken from him, as well as his watch, satellite phone, his personal mobile, his ID. He thought his possessions were kept with his passport but when he was released for deportation he learnt bitterly that he only got his passport back. All cash and valuables were never found. They simply vanished. We were passed from station to station in this closed military zone, stripped searched several times, possessions taken away until in the end all we had was the clothes we were wearing with nothing else except a wrist band with a number on it.  All shoe laces were removed as well. Some of us were given receipts for items taken away, but I had no receipts for anything. We were photographed several times and saw two doctors. At this point I learnt that Larry was pushed down the gangway and injured his foot and sent off to Israeli hospital for check-up. His blood was on the floor. I was cold and hungry, wearing only one tee-shirt and pants by the time they were through with me. My food was taken away; water was taken away, all belongings including reading glasses taken away. My bladder was about to explode but I was not allowed to go to the toilet. In this state I was brought out to two vehicles – Black Maria painted gray. On the ground next to it were a great heap of ruqsacks and suit cases. I found mine and was horrified that they had broken into my baggage and took almost everything from it – all clothes clean and dirty, my camera, my second mobile, my books, my Bible, all the medicines I brought for the participants and myself, my toiletries. The suitcase was partially broken. My ruqsack was completely empty too. I got back two empty cases except for two dirty large man size tee-shirts which obviously belonged to someone else. They also left my Freedom Flotilla tee-shirt. I figured out that they did not steal the Flotilla tee-shirt as they thought no Israeli would want to wear that tee-shirt in Israel. They had not met Zohar and Yonatan who were proudly wearing theirs. That was a shock as I was not expecting the Israeli Army to be petty thieves as well. So what had become of the glorious Israeli Army of the Six Day War which the world so admired? I was still not allowed to go to the toilet, but was pushed into the Maria van, joined by Lucia the Spanish nurse and after some wait taken to Givon Prison. I could feel myself shivering uncontrollably on the journey. The first thing our guards did in Givon Prison was to order me to go to the toilet to relieve myself. It was interesting to see that they knew I needed to go desperately but had prevented me for hours to! By the time we were re-x-rayed and searched again it must be about 5 – 6 am. Lucia and I were then put in a cell where Gerd, Divina, Sarah and Emelia were already asleep. There were three double decker bunk beds – all rusty and dusty. Divina did not get the proper dose of her medicines; Lucia was refused her own medicine and given an Israeli substitute which she refused to take. Divina and Emelia went straight on to hunger strike. The jailors were very hostile using simple things like refusal of toilet paper and constant slamming of the prison iron door, keeping the light of the cell permanently on, and forcing us to drink rusty water from the tap, screaming and shouting at us constantly to vent their anger at us. The guards addressed me as “China” and treated me with utter contempt. On the morning of 30 July 2018, the British Vice Consul visited me. Some kind person had called them about my whereabouts. That was a blessing as after that I was called “England” and there was a massive improvement in the way England was treated compared to the way China was treated. It crossed my mind that “Palestine” would be trampled over, and probably killed. At 6.30 am 31 July 2018, we heard Larry yelling from the men’s cell across the corridor that he needed a doctor. He was obviously in great pain and crying. We women responded by asking the wardens to allow me to go across to see Larry as I might be able to help. We shouted “We have a doctor” and used our metal spoons to hit the iron cell gate to get their attention. They lied and said their doctor would be over in an hour. We did not believe them and started again. The doctor actually turned up at 4 pm, about 10 hours later and Larry was sent straight to hospital. Meanwhile to punish the women for supporting Larry’s demand, they brought hand cuffs for Sarah and took Divina and me to another cell to separate us from the rest. We were told we were not going to be allowed out for our 30 minutes fresh air break and a drink of clean water in the yard. I heard Gerd saying “Big deal”. Suddenly Divina was taken out with me to the courtyard and Divina given 4 cigarettes at which point she broke down and cried. Divina had worked long hours at the wheel house steering the boat. She had seen what happened to Herman. The prison had refused to give her one of her medicines and given her only half the dose of the other. She was still on hunger strike to protest our kidnapping in international waters. It was heart-breaking to see Divina cry. One of the wardens who called himself Michael started talking to us about how he will have to protect his family against those who want to drive the Israelis out. And how the Palestinians did not want to live in peace…and it was not Israel’s fault. But things suddenly changed with the arrival of an Israeli Judge and we were all treated with some decency even though he only saw a few of us personally. His job was to tell us that a Tribunal will be convened the following day and each prisoner had been allocated a time to appear, and we must have our lawyer with us when we appear. Divina by the end of the day became very giddy and very unwell so I persuaded her to come out of hunger strike, and also she agreed to sign a deportation order. Shortly after that possibly at 6 pm since we had no watches and mobile phones, we were told Lucia, Joergen, Herman, Arne, Abdul from Al Jazeera and I would be deported within 24 hours and we would be taken to be imprisoned in the deportation prison in Ramle near Ben Gurion airport immediately to wait there. It was going to be the same Ramle Prison from which I was deported in 2014. I saw the same five strong old palm trees still standing up proud and tall. They are the only survivors of the Palestinian village destroyed in 1948. When we arrived at Ramle prison Abdul found to his horror that he his money, his credit cards, his watch, his satellite phone, his own mobile phone, his ID card were all missing – he was entirely destitute. We had a whip round and raised around a hundred Euros as a contribution towards his taxi fare from the airport to home. How can the Israeli Army be so corrupt and heartless to rob someone of everything? Conclusion We, the six women on board al-Awda, had learnt that they tried to completely humiliate and dehumanise us in every way possible. We were also shocked at the behaviour of the Israeli Army especially petty theft and their treatment of international women prisoners. Men jailors regularly entered the women’s cell without giving us decent notice to put our clothes on. They also tried to remind us of our vulnerability at every stage. We know they would have preferred to kill us but, of course, the publicity incurred in so doing might be unfavourable to the international image of Israel. If we were Palestinians it would be much worse with physical assaults and probably loss of lives. The situation is therefore dire for the Palestinians. As to international waters, it looks as though there is no such thing for the Israeli Navy. They can hijack and abduct boats and persons in international water and get away with it. They acted as though they own the Mediterranean Sea. They can abduct any boat and kidnap any passengers, put them in prison and criminalise them. We cannot accept this. We have to speak up, stand up against this lawlessness, oppression and brutality. We were completely unarmed. Our only crime according to them is we are friends of the Palestinians and wanted to bring medical aid to them. We wanted to brave the military blockade to do this. This is not a crime. In the week we were sailing to Gaza, they had shot dead 7 Palestinians and wounded more than 90 with live bullets in Gaza. They had further shut down fuel and food to Gaza. Two million Palestinians in Gaza live without clean water, with only 2-4 hours of electricity, in homes destroyed by Israeli bombs, in a prison blockaded by land, air and sea for 12 years. The hospitals of Gaza since the 30 March had treated more than 9,071 wounded persons, 4,348 shot by machine guns from a hundred Israeli snipers while they were mounting peaceful demonstrations inside the borders of Gaza on their own land. Most of the gun-shot wounds were to the lower limbs and with depleted treatment facilities the limbs will suffer amputation. In this period more than 165 Palestinians had been shot dead by the same snipers, including medics and journalists, children and women. The chronic military blockade of Gaza has depleted the hospitals of all surgical and medical supplies. This massive attack on an unarmed Freedom Flotilla bringing friends and some medical relief is an attempt to crush all hope for Gaza. As I write I learnt that our sister Flotilla, Freedom, has also been kidnapped by the Israeli Navy while in international waters. BUT we will not stop. We must continue to be strong to bring hope and justice to the Palestinians and be prepared to pay the price, and to be worthy of the Palestinians. As long as I survive I will exist to resist.  To do less will be a crime. • A version of this article appeared in 21st Century Wire.com http://clubof.info/