#jefferson has my vote

[fwitolei]

GUYS

i don’t think anyone’s done this and I NEED SOMEONE TO DO THIS

ELECTION OF 1800 BUT IT’S TRUMP, KAMALA, AND RFK—

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Scientific American endorses Harris

TONIGHT (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, GEORGIA, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

If Trump's norm-breaking is a threat to democracy (and it is), what should Democrats do? Will breaking norms to defeat norms only accelerate the collapse of norms, or do we fight fire with fire, breaking norms to resist the slide into tyranny?

Writing for The American Prospect, Rick Perlstein writes how "every time the forces of democracy broke a reactionary deadlock, they did it by breaking some norm that stood in the way":

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-23-science-is-political/

Take the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, and the Reconstruction period that followed it. As Jefferson Cowie discusses, the 13th only passed because the slave states were excluded from its ratification, and even then, it barely squeaked over the line. The Congress that passed reconstruction laws that "radically reconstructed [slave states] via military subjugation" first ejected all the representatives of those states:

https://newrepublic.com/article/182383/defend-liberalism-lets-fight-democracy-first

The New Deal only exists because FDR was on the verge of packing the Supreme Court, and, under this threat, SCOTUS stopped ruling against FDR's plans:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/20/judicial-equilibria/#pack-the-court

The passage of progressive laws – "the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, and Medicaid" – are all thanks to JFK's gambit of packing the House Rules Committee, ending the obstructionist GOP members' use of the committee to kill anything that would protect or expand America's already fragile social safety net.

As Perlstein writes, "A willingness to judiciously break norms in a civic emergency can be a sign of a healthy and valorous democratic resistance."

And yet…the Democratic establishment remains violently allergic to norm-breaking. Perlstein recalls the 2018 book How Democracies Die, much beloved of party elites and Obama himself, which argued that norms are the bedrock of democracy, and so the pro-democratic forces undermine their own causes when they fight reactionary norm-breaking with their own.

The tactic of bringing a norm to a gun-fight has been a disaster for democracy. Trump wasn't the first norm-shattering Republican – think of GWB and his pals stealing the 2000 election, or Mitch McConnell stealing a Supreme Court seat for Gorsuch – but Trump's assault on norms is constant, brazen and unapologetic. Progressives need to do more than weep on the sidelines and demand that Republicans play fair.

The Democratic establishment's response is to toe every line, seeking to attract "moderate conservatives" who love institutions more than they love tax giveaways to billionaires. This is a very small constituency, nowhere near big enough to deliver the legislative majorities, let alone the White House. As Perlstein says, Obama very publicly rejected calls to be "too liberal" and tiptoed around anti-racist policy, in a bid to prevent a "racist backlash" (Obama discussed race in public less than any other president since the 1950s). This was a hopeless, ridiculous own-goal: Perlstein points out that even before Obama was inaugurated, there were more than 100 Facebook groups calling for his impeachment. The racist backlash was inevitable had nothing to do with Obama's policies. The racist backlash was driven by Obama's race.

Luckily, some institutions are getting over their discomfort with norm-breaking and standing up for democracy. Scientific American the 179 year-old bedrock of American scientific publication, has endorsed Harris for President, only the second such endorsement in its long history:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vote-for-kamala-harris-to-support-science-health-and-the-environment/

Predictably, this has provoked howls of outrage from Republicans and a debate within the scientific community. Science is supposed to be apolitical, right?

Wrong. The conservative viewpoint, grounded in discomfort with ambiguity ("there are only two genders," etc) is antithetical to the scientific viewpoint. Remember the early stages of the covid pandemic, when science's understanding of the virus changed from moment to moment? Major, urgent recommendations (not masking, disinfecting groceries) were swiftly overturned. This is how science is supposed to work: a hypothesis can only be grounded in the evidence you have in hand, and as new evidence comes in that changes the picture, you should also change your mind.

Conservatives hated this. They claimed that scientists were "flip-flopping" and therefore "didn't know anything." Many concluded that the whole covid thing was a stitch-up, a bid to control us by keeping us off-balance with ever-changing advice and therefore afraid and vulnerable. This never ended: just look at all the weirdos in the comments of this video of my talk at last summer's Def Con who are absolutely freaking out about the fact that I wore a mask in an enclosed space with 5,000 people from all over the world in it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EmstuO0Em8

This intolerance for following the evidence is a fixture in conservative science denialism. How many times have you heard your racist Facebook uncle grouse about how "scientists used to say the world was getting colder, now they say it's getting hotter, what the hell do they know?"

Perlstein points to other examples of this. For example, in the 1980s, conservatives insisted that the answer to the AIDS crisis was to "just stop having 'illicit sex,'" a prescription that was grounded in a denial of AIDS science, because scientists used to say that it was a gay disease, then they said you could get it from IV drug use, or tainted blood, or from straight sex. How could you trust scientists when they can't even make up their minds?

https://www.newspapers.com/image/379364219/?terms=babies&match=1

There certainly are conservative scientists. But the right has a "fundamentally therapeutic discourse…conservatism never fails, it is only failed." That puts science and conservativism in a very awkward dance with one another.

Sometimes, science wins. Continuing in his history of the AIDS crisis, Perlstein talks about the transformation of Reagan's Surgeon General, C Everett Koop. Koop was an arch-conservative's arch-conservative. He was a hard-right evangelical who had "once suggested homosexuals were sedulously recruiting boys into their cult to help them take over America once they came of voting age." He'd also called abortion "the slide to Auschwitz" – which was weird, because he'd also opined that the "Jews had it coming for refusing to accept Jesus Christ."

You'd expect Koop to have continued the Reagan administration's de facto AIDS policy ("queers deserve to die"), but that's not what happened. After considering the evidence, Koop mailed a leaflet to every home in the USA advocating for condom use.

Koop was already getting started. His harm-reduction advocacy made him a national hero, so Reagan couldn't fire him. A Reagan advisor named Gary Bauer teamed up with Dinesh D'Souza on a mission to get Koop back on track. They got him a new assignment: investigate the supposed psychological harms of abortion, which should be a slam-dunk for old Doc Auschwitz. Instead, Koop published official findings – from the Reagan White House – that there was no evidence for these harms, and which advised women with an AIDS diagnosis to consider abortion.

So sometimes, science can triumph over conservativism. But it's far more common for conservativism to trump science. The most common form of this is "eisegesis," where someone looks at a "pile of data in order to find confirmation in it of what they already 'know' to be true." Think of those anti-mask weirdos who cling to three studies that "prove" masks don't work. Or the climate deniers who have 350 studies "proving" climate change isn't real. Eisegesis proves ivermectin works, that vaccinations are linked to autism, and that water fluoridation is a Communist plot. So long as you confine yourself to considering evidence that confirms your beliefs, you can prove anything.

Respecting norms is a good rule of thumb, but it's a lousy rule. The politicization of science starts with the right's intolerance for ambiguity – not Scientific American's Harris endorsement.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/22/eisegesis/#norm-breaking

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Steve Brodner

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 24, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUL 25, 2024

Tonight, President Joe Biden explained to the American people why he decided to refuse the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination and hand the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Speaking from the Oval Office from his seat behind the Resolute Desk, a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, Biden recalled the nation’s history. He invoked Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence; George Washington, who “showed us presidents are not kings”; Abraham Lincoln, who “implored us to reject malice”; and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who “inspired us to reject fear.”

And then he turned to himself. “I revere this office, but I love my country more,” he said. “It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president.” But, he said, the defense of democracy is more important than any title, and democracy is “larger than any one of us.” We must unite to protect it. 

“In recent weeks, it has become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor,” he said. “I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition. So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation.”

There is “a time and a place for long years of experience in public life,” Biden said. “There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.”

Biden reminded listeners that he is not leaving the presidency and will be continuing to use its power for the American people. In outlining what that means, he summed up his presidency. 

For the next six months, he said, he will “continue to lower costs for hard-working families [and] grow our economy. I will keep defending our personal freedoms and civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose. I will keep calling out hate and extremism, making it clear there is…no place in America for political violence or any violence ever, period. I’m going to keep speaking out to protect our kids from gun violence [and] our planet from [the] climate crisis.”

Biden reiterated his support for his Cancer Moonshot to end cancer—a personal cause for him since the 2015 death of his son Beau from brain cancer—and says he will fight for it, (although House Republicans have recently slashed funding for the program). He said he will call for reforming the Supreme Court “because this is critical to our democracy.”

He promised to continue “working to ensure America remains strong, secure and the leader of the free world,” and pointed out that he is “the first president of this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.” He promised to continue rallying a coalition of nations to stop Putin’s attempt to take over Ukraine, and vowed to continue to build the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He reminded listeners that when he took office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably surpass the United States, but that is no longer the case, and he said he would continue to strengthen allies and partners in the Pacific. 

Biden promised to continue to work to “end the war in Gaza, bring home all the hostages and bring peace and security to the Middle East and end this war,” as well as “to bring home Americans being unjustly detained all around the world.”

The president reminded people how far the nation has come since he took office on January 20, 2021, a day when, although he didn’t mention it tonight, he went directly to work after taking the oath of office. “On that day,” he recalled, “we…stood in a winter of peril and winter of possibilities.” The United States was “in the grip of the worst pandemic in the century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” But, Biden said, “We came together as Americans. We got through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous and more secure.”

“Today we have the strongest economy in the world, creating nearly 16 million new jobs—a record. Wages are up, inflation continues to come down, the racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years. We are literally rebuilding our entire nation—urban, suburban and rural and tribal communities. Manufacturing has come back to America. We are leading the world again in chips and science and innovation. We finally beat Big Pharma after all these years to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors…. More people have health care today in America than ever before.” Biden noted that he signed the PACT Act to help millions of veterans and their families who were exposed to toxic materials, as well as the “most significant climate law…in the history of the world” and “the first major gun safety law in 30 years.”

The “violent crime rate is at a 50-year low,” he said, and “[b]order crossings are lower today than when the previous administration left office. I’ve kept my commitment to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court of the United States of America. I also kept my commitment to have an administration that looks like America and [to] be a president for all Americans.”

Then Biden turned from his own record to the larger meaning of America.

“I ran for president four years ago because I believed…that the soul of America was at stake,” he said. “America is an idea. An idea stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world.” 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” he said. “We are all created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. We’ve never fully lived up to…this sacred idea—but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.

“In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America’s future. I made my choice…. “[O]ur great vice president, Kamala Harris… is experienced, she is tough, she is capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.

“Now the choice is up to you, the American people. When you make that choice, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin hanging on my wall here in the Oval Office, alongside the busts of Dr. [Martin Luther] King and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez. When Ben Franklin was asked, as he emerged from the [constitutional] convention…, whether the founders [had] given America a monarchy or a republic, Franklin’s response was: ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’... Whether we keep our republic is now in your hands.” 

“My fellow Americans, it’s been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years,” President Biden told the American people. “Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as the president of the United States, but here I am.

“That’s what’s so special about America. We are a nation of promise and possibilities. Of dreamers and doers. Of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things. I’ve given my heart and my soul to our nation, like so many others. And I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people. I hope you have some idea how grateful I am to all of you.

The great thing about America is, here kings and dictators do not rule—the people do. History is in your hands. The power’s in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith—keep the faith—and remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there is simply nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. So let’s act together, [and] preserve our democracy. God bless you all and may God protect our troops. 

“Thank you.”

And with that, President Joe Biden followed the example of the nation’s first president, George Washington, who declined to run for a third term to demonstrate that the United States of America would not have a king, and of its second president, John Adams, who handed the power of the presidency over to his rival Thomas Jefferson and thus established the nation’s tradition of the peaceful transition of power. Like them, Biden gave up the pursuit of power for himself in order to demonstrate the importance of democracy. 

After the speech, the White House served ice cream to the Bidens and hundreds of White House staffers in the Rose Garden.

And when the evening was over, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden posted an image of a handwritten note on social media. It read: “To those who never wavered, to those who refused to doubt, to those who always believed, my heart is full of gratitude. Thank you for the trust you put in Joe—now it’s time to put that trust in Kamala.” 

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mx-heinous]

So I Wanna Talk About Jefferson

If he ever shows up, I think he would be such a petty bitch cuz LOOK

He's like, if California and Oregon had a rebellious kid that absolutely hates their guts. Typical child of divorce. Keep in mind that this is his official flag, and it's practically screaming, "Hello, backstabbers :)"

California (begrudgingly) has main custody while Oregon gets weekends.

Just straight up declares himself the 49th state. The thing that gets me here is the fact that he literally just... seceded every Thursday. Ah yes, what a perfectly normal mundane activity to schedule.

Jefferson: Wha'd'ya mean I can't go to the meeting?! It's Thursday, so I'm a state!

California: Seceding weekly does not legally make you a state

Jefferson: I don't have to listen to you! You're not my dad >:(

And when they were going to vote on whether to make him a state, goddamn Pearl Harbor of all things happen.

[mammon-reblogzz]

oh

IF I GO MISSING YOU KNOW WHERE I AM

[cmfr7423]

hamiltons "the election of 1800" is so fucking funny to me like

people: "how are you voting?"

hamilton, glancing from side to side: "it's quiet uptown..."

people: "hammy how are you voting"

hamilton, stepping away: "ITS QUIET UPTOWN..."

man knows he's gonna cause issues™️and he's TRYING TO AVOID IT BUT MY GOD THE CHAOS IS SO TEMPTING AND-

"Thomas Jefferson has my vote."

~A. Ham

[leohtttbriar]

Letters from an American

H. C. Richardson (Oct 24)

[...] And then there are the Republican voters, some of whom are abandoning the MAGA Republicans who are now openly embracing fascism. Today, Republican state senator Rob Cowles of Green Bay, Wisconsin, who has served for almost 42 years, announced he would vote for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. David Holt, the Republican mayor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, also indicated he would be casting his ballot for Harris. In 1880, when the Democrats went off the extremist cliff, voters forced it to move to the center. In 1879, after the bitterly contested 1876 election, voters gave Democrats control of Congress. So convinced were Democrats that the American people backed their determination to overthrow Reconstruction, they refused to fund the government unless Republican president Rutherford B. Hayes pulled the federal government out of the southern states. (They also tried to get a federal pension for Confederate president Jefferson Davis.) “If this is not revolution,” Civil War veteran House minority leader James A. Garfield (R-OH) said, “which if persisted in will destroy the government, [then] I am wholly wrong in my conception of both the word and the thing.”  Observers had expected the 1880 election to be a romp for the Democrats, who reiterated their demands in their party platform, but voters backed Garfield’s defense of the country and of Black rights and elected him to the White House.  The unexpected loss prompted the Democrats to toss aside their former Confederate leaders and shift toward the northern cities. For president in 1884 they backed former New York governor Grover Cleveland, who had broadened Black appointments to office and desegregated the New York City police force, and who had worked closely with New York Assembly minority leader Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, to reform the worst abuses of the industrial system. Cleveland won with the help of significant numbers of crossover Republican voters, dubbed “Mugwumps,” thereby securing the roots of the modern Democratic Party.

[kingofpeacows]

Things I'd do if I wrote star trek in this day and age (bc AOS was mid)

More blatant Queerness- it's not only normalized but also expected to do things like use pronouns in introductions

That being said, Jim and Spock are a married couple by the movies and boyfriends during the series. It's not even stated explicitly, but they're so clearly in love and show affection (more than they do in canon if that's possible) that it's undeniable. It's confirmed when Kirk yells "Thats my husband!" Dramatically at someone.

Chekov is trans and slowly transitions throughout the series until he reaches his end goal. No jokes are made about this because its normal.

The time travel episodes/movie would be so much funnier: Someone gets gender norms of the time wrong and does something society deemed weird at the time (Spocks wearing a dress), Kirk skipped his history lessons and tried to chat up a local in the 1980s by asking if they voted for Jefferson or Cotesworth, Sulu spoils the future because he gets excited and infodumps about something he saw.

McCoy is 10000% sluttier than in canon.

Kirk and the Gorn captain are friends.

Someone makes a reference to vine and calls it ancient entertainment.

As a comedic point, Kirk is considered mediocre looking by most humans, but HELLA FINE by every other species.

Kirk and the Gorn captain are friends.

Sybok got therapy and is a regular part of the plot.

McCoy has weekly calls with his daughter that the crew joins in on.

[englandamericaitaly]

Hey, Hartfans! This week, we're going to take a look at an enemy I always wanted to make for Danny. It's actually one of his classmates! Introducing Jeff Jefferson. He's on the basketball team at Casper High, and he's part of the photography club! But Jeff has a secret... he knows Danny's secret! After catching Danny change one day, Jeff decides to blackmail Danny into getting him a date with Paulina as Phantom. When that falls through, Jeff tells everyone Danny's secret... but no one believes him because he has no proof. Eventually, some of the other students even start to think that Jeff is Danny Phantom because he has blond hair and green eyes! From then on, Jeff makes it his goal to to capture evidence that Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom and becomes Danny's first human enemy!

(^The text is part of the entry and should be included on the voting page, pls)

You KNOW he would, though... 

Here’s my entry for Round 4 of @phandomphightclub And yes, I tried extra hard to make “Jeff” look like both Danny and Wes lmao. 

Also, lmao, Freakshow who? Valerie who? 

[mcondance]

no like y'all rlly don't understand. burr’s journey with hamilton is insane. from burr’s initial reluctance to even associate himself with hamilton.. to their "friendship" — which wasn't even a friendship at all, the two could barely stand each other. to burr's jealous introduction of him in "a winter's ball" after washington brushed him off to speak to hamilton.. "how does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore, go on and on, grow into more of a phenomenon, watch this obnoxious, arrogant, loudmouth bother be seated at the right hand of the father... but hamilton still wants to fight, not write". burr is clearly upset that washington chose this unpredictable brat over him. his confusion at hamilton's insistence to fight.. the double meaning of "not write / right". their relationship is a thinly veiled rivalry at best, and a long history of hatred at worst.

hatred on burr's side, at least. i don't think hamilton even knows the hate that he caused to fester in burr's heart, i think he sees it all as another game, another mountain to climb, another challenge to conquer. he sees it as fun; burr sees it as anything but. while hamilton sees them as friends, burr sees hamilton as the man who has everything he wants, but takes it for granted. burr hates hamilton from the beginning, though he tries to hide it.

it's there from the beginning, from his introduction of alexander. we as the viewer don't know their history, so we take it as a regular introduction, just the way it was written. but then the introduction changes; he's a bother, he's arrogant, he's a bastard, he's a whoreson. the introduction's tone becomes angrier, whether burr realizes it or not.

in scenes where burr and hamilton jest with each other, there's an obvious energy imbalance. like i said, hamilton sees burr as a friend, and burr sees alexander as anything but. perhaps the festering envy and hatred influences burr's interactions with hamilton, makes him see hamilton as a threat while hamilton sees him as a friend.

that's another problem, i think. i think burr knew hamilton didn't take him seriously. burr is fully aware that he is just another joke to alexander, that the best he can do for him is help him with the constitution. he knows hamilton does not see him as an equal. hamilton sees him as a scared man, a man who’s too weak to take what he wants.

and when hamilton votes for "thomas jefferson, his enemy, a man he's despised since the beginning" for those reasons, burr cannot handle it. how dare hamilton make him into a joke again? how dare hamilton think he knows him? how dare hamilton, of all people, tell him that he has no beliefs?

how dare hamilton belittle him once again.

everything that was building up throughout the play— remember, burr’s focus in “washington on your side” was standing up to hamilton’s mouth, because of his personal reasons, not like jefferson and adams — comes to a head. the festering hatred eats him up and leaves a shell of a man, or rather, he becomes hatred. burr becomes rage.

he is a man who’s watched someone he deems as irresponsible and unworthy take everything he feels he deserves from him. he is a man who’s tried to befriend and mentor this brat, only to become his lesser. he is a man who has finally snapped. when hamilton utters the words “jefferson has my vote,” burr is defeated. once again, hamilton has snatched something away from from him, for a reason hamilton believes is right, for a reason burr sees as hamilton taking him for a fool.

alexander does not take burr serious. burr is tired. he’s tired of being treating as lesser by a man he sees as lesser. he finally cracks.

[sexygaywizard]

So as the person who created the Miku/Vriska poll and thus saw everyone's tags and comments about it I thought I would do a little write-up about it bc I thought that that it was pretty interesting.

A lot of people have accused me of rigging the poll (no idea how I would do this) or having biased followers-- however I did blaze the post specifically so that it would get outside my own circle of followers and thus be more fair.

For the first two or so hours of the poll, there was about a 60/30 Miku/Vriska split which was a lot heavier than I expected. After the blaze got approved (on the 3rd hour) the gap started to close, and the 4th and 5th hour were probably the closest it ever got, with the results at one point being 54/46, an 8 point lead for Miku. However, as the post started get more and more popular, around the time of it hitting 5k notes, Miku went back farther into the lead as the post spread around people farther and farther away from my own circle.

The poll ended at having around 6k notes (I was asleep so I'm not sure exactly, but I'm judging based on what it was when I fell asleep and when I woke up). The poll received 29,882 votes with 59% (~17,630 votes) for Miku and 41%(~12,251) for Vriska. For reference, the official poll run by @lutzlig for Vriska/Bayonetta that was happening at the same time received 33,249 votes and had around 5k notes at time of finishing. The Miku/Bayonetta poll where Miku lost 46% to 54% received 46,172 votes and had somewhere under 4k notes at time of finishing.

From what I saw in the tags and comments, the motivations for voting for either character were generally: • The character was more nostalgic to them (they had known of the character longer than the other one) • They felt the character had more personal influence on their life • They liked/identified with the character more • They liked/identified more strongly with the character's fandom

The reasons people voted for Vriska specifically were: • They felt her popularity/iconic-ness was more specific to Tumblr • They felt Homestuck/Vriska had a greater cultural impact on Tumblr • They felt Miku was a more recent occurrence in Tumblr culture • They felt that her level of controversy was more accurate to Tumblr's reputation and identity • They felt Miku didn't have a personality • They incorrectly identified the poll as a "sexywoman" poll and did not think Miku was sexy

The reasons people voted for Miku specifically were: • They felt she was overall more "iconic" and well-known worldwide • They recalled more specific memes about her (Miku at the grocery store, Thomas Jefferson Miku Binder, "Miku made Minecraft," etc) • Miku has an older internet presence • They did not know who Vriska was • They disliked Vriska as a character • They disliked Homestuck as a whole • They felt as if she had been wronged in the Bayonetta poll (sometimes specifically by Vriska fans sabotage)

Overall I felt the thing that had the strongest amount of impact on Miku winning the poll was simply that Miku was popular, well-liked, and well-known. I saw many tags of "I don't know who this grey bitch is" or "idk who that is but it's clearly homestuck and I hate homestuck" or even "I had heard of Vriska but this is the first time I've seen what she looks like-- so she clearly can't be that iconic." Whereas I got literally two comments out of the thousands of tags and comments that didn't know who Miku was. By virtue of Miku being basically whoever and whatever you want her to be, she's entirely uncontroversial. And well, any of us who've been here long enough know about vriskourse.

Personally I felt that they were both deserving in their own ways-- Miku was the tumblr woman we needed but Vriska is probably the tumblr woman we deserve.

[brb-on-a-quest]

Well im back now and I have found my history notebook (debating whether I should throw it away but I did a good job decorating it)

so. @igotthisaccountunderduress let me tell you about Aaron Burr.

Aaron burr was an orphan raised by an uncle, went to lawschool, stopped lawschool to fight under benedict arnold (ha. ha. ha. this really shouldn't be that funny but it is -> benedict arnold was a traitor from US to British ppl). He got appointed to George Washingtons personal military cabinet before both men realized they got a long like stray cats (not very well at all) and Burr was transferred to some other not-as-important dude.

Then him and hamilton got Beef (very famously) but this kind of all started when Burr beat out Hamiltons Father In Law in political stuff and then FIL beat out Burr during the next thing so things are all dandy.

And then he got in as vice president under jefferson. How this worked back then (doesn't now) is that whoever got the Most Votes is now in charge and whoever got second most votes is now VP.

As you can imagine this doesn't lead to really great coworker dynamics especially if you and ur boss/vp are like so opposite. Like when Thomas Jefferson was VP to president John Adams, Adams hated Jefferson so much that he didn't let Jeffy have a say in anything. Like thomas Jefferson did one thing once in all the two terms John Adams was in charge I think, idk, it was something rediculous.

But anyway, all this to say, Aaron Burr is now vp under jefferson. And as you can imagine, they do not get along well (Jefferson accused burr of 'secret dealings'). but their differences are mainly due to opposing beliefs on whether we should support or rewrite the constitution fo the united states.

Anyway, time for reelection, Burr doesn't get enough votes for either presidency or VP and he decides to try and get governership of New York where he was actually really popular.

Remember how hamilton didn't really like him becus of burr's political campaign against his FIL? Hammy decides to send a rediculous amount of irl subtweets (derogatory letters) against Burr to get him to lose.

Burr takes this very personal and challenges Hamilton to a duel, stepping from across New York to New Jersey. This is because, although duels were outlawed in both places, penalties were less severe over the border.

Now take this next part with a grain of salt bc it comes direct from the history prof.

Duels were common; but they were never usually fatal. Essentially it was like lukewarm Christians going through the motions on a sunday in church. A lot of the stereotypes still apply. Two people back to back, walked a x amount of feet, turned around and would usually shoot upward or otherwise shoot to miss the target.

Burr was not one of those people. Alledgedly, he told Hamilton he meant to kill him and he didn't care wether hamilton would try to shoot him or not. No one's sure whether hamilton was like "haha bet" and tried to kill him or whether he was like shooting up in the air as the practice usually went. Either way sum of that was Burr: 1 (unharmed), Hamilton: 0 (very much shot due to Burr's word, and died the following day).

Aaron Burr... idk if he didn't think this through but he's now considered a murderer for challenging Hamilton to an agreed-upon duel. So he runs to join his new BFF who is secretly in the pay of pain and wants to take over the US napoleonic style. Burr gets *to into it* to the point BFF turns him into Jefferson. He gets cleared.

he then gets involved with the Essex Junto, an organization in New England, tries to help the secede from the entire country (New England hated US before it was cool to) and then he did the same thing again somewhere in the middle west (I forgot where, sorry Dr. W). He gets away both times because even though Jefferson hates Burr's stupid guts, John Marshall is head of the supreme court (John Marshall also hates Jefferson sees this as a very innocent way to undermine him) and Marshall creates the definition of reason that we still have today that basically says Burr gets off scot free twice because we're not at war so there's no enemy for Burr to be helping.

Burr finally accepts that he is now a persona non grata and fucks back off to NY where he marries a second widow for money (again) and she divorces him on the grounds of adultery. This divorce finally is finalized on the day Aaron Burr dies.

[best-tv-theme-song]

Polls will start to be posted within the next week or so.

Bracket list under the cut!

UPDATE: LIST CANCELLED

*Starred shows have multiple theme songs or I have combined shows in a franchise in an effort to include as much as possible. These will have preliminaries built-into their polls on the first round. This is how it works: 1. all of the songs will go into a poll together against one other show; 2. the COMBINED votes for those songs will determine which show wins that poll; 3. only the top voted song for that show/franchise will move on, if the show has won the poll. (If you are confused it will make more sense when we start, I promise!)

The 100

30 Rock

9-1-1*

The Addams Family

Adventure Time*

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

All That

The Amazing World of Gumball

American Dragon: Jake Long

Animaniacs

Arcane: League of Legends

Arrested Development

Arthur

Assassination Classroom*

Austin & Ally

The Backyardigans

Barney & Friends

Barry

Batman*

Bear in the Big Blue House

Ben 10*

Better Call Saul

Beverly Hills, 90210

The Big Bang Theory

Big Time Rush

Bill Nye the Science Guy

Black Sails

Bluey

Bob the Builder

Bob's Burgers

BoJack Horseman

Bones

Boy Meets World

The Brady Bunch

Breaking Bad

Bridgerton

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Buffy the Vampire Slayer*

Captain Planet and the Planeteers

Charmed

Cheers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Choo Choo Soul

Code Lyoko

Codename: Kids Next Door

Cold Case

Community

Cory in the House

Cowboy Bebop

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend*

Criminal Minds

CSI*

Cyberchase

Danny Phantom

Daredevil

Dawson's Creek

Death Note*

Desperate Housewives

Detective Conan

Dexter

Dexter's Laboratory

Diff'rent Strokes

Digimon*

Doctor Who*

Dora the Explorer

Downton Abbey

Dragon Ball*

Dragon Tales

Drake & Josh

Ducktales*

ER

Ever After High

The Fairly OddParents

Firefly

The Flintstones

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Fraggle Rock

Frasier

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Friends

Fringe

Full House

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood*

Futurama

Game of Thrones

George Lopez

George of the Jungle

Gilmore Girls

Glee

The Golden Girls

Good Omens

Gravity Falls

Grey's Anatomy

H2O: Just Add Water

Hannah Montana

Hannibal

Happy Days

Hawaii Five-0*

His Dark Materials

Horrible Histories

House, M.D.

How I Met Your Mother

How It's Made

Hunter × Hunter

Huntik: Secrets & Seekers

I Dream of Jeannie

I Love Lucy

iCarly

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Jeffersons

Jeopardy!

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*

Jonas

Justice League

Kim Possible

The Last of Us

Laverne & Shirley

Law & Order*

LazyTown

The Legend of Vox Machina

Leverage

Lilo & Stitch: The Series

Little Einsteins

Lizzie McGuire

Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies

The Love Boat

M*A*S*H

Mad Men

Madoka Magica*

The Magic School Bus

Malcolm in the Middle

The Mandalorian

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Merlin

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Mob Psycho 100

The Monkees

Monster High

The Muppet Show

Murder, She Wrote

Murdoch Mysteries

My Babysitter's a Vampire

My Hero Academia*

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

The Nanny

Naruto*

NCIS

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

New Girl

NFL (various network themes)*

Ninjago

The O.C.

The Office

One Day at a Time*

One Piece

Only Murders in the Building

Orange Is the New Black

Ouran High School Host Club

The Owl House

Parks and Recreation

The Partridge Family

Phil of the Future

Phineas and Ferb

Pinky and the Brain

Pippi Longstocking

Pokémon*

Power Rangers

The Powerpuff Girls

Pretty Little Liars

The Price Is Right

The Proud Family

Psych

Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure

Reading Rainbow

Reba

Red Dwarf

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Riverdale

Rugrats

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

Sailor Moon

Sanford and Son

Saturday Night Live

Schitt's Creek

Scooby-Doo*

Scrubs

Seinfeld

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sesame Street

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Sherlock

The Simpsons

Smallville

Sofia the First

Sonny with a Chance

The Sopranos

Spider-Man

SpongeBob SquarePants

Star Trek (instrumental themes)*

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Stargate*

Steven Universe

Stranger Things

Succession

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody*

Suits

Taskmaster

Ted Lasso

Teen Titans

Teen Wolf

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teletubbies

That '70s Show

That's So Raven

Theory of Love

Thomas & Friends

Tokyo Ghoul

Total Drama

Totally Spies!

Transformers*

True Blood

The Twilight Zone

Twin Peaks

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

VeggieTales

Veronica Mars

Victorious

Voltron: Legendary Defender

W.I.T.C.H.

The Walking Dead

WandaVision*

Welcome Back, Kotter

The West Wing

Westworld

What We Do in the Shadows

The White Lotus

Wild Kratts

Winx Club

The Wire*

The Witcher

Wizards of Waverly Place

Wonder Pets!

Wonder Woman

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

The X-Files

Xena: Warrior Princess

Yellowjackets

Yu-Gi-Oh!*

Yuri on Ice

Zoboomafoo

Zoey 101

[syphoni]

Burr: “Hey Hamilton, We’re still friends right?”

Hamilton: “yes”

Burr: “We’re cool, Right”

Hamilton: “mhm.”

Burr: “okay, so that means you don’t have a problem with me, right?”

Hamilton: “yes”

Burr: “so will you vote for me to become-“

Hamilton: “Jefferson has my vote.”

Burr: “how does Hamilton an arrogant-“

[deadpresidents]

Did Alexander Hamilton really endorse Jefferson over Burr as portrayed in the Hamilton musical?

Yes, Hamilton absolutely did endorse Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr for the Presidency in 1800 -- and pretty much in language as direct as we hear in the play. In a December 24, 1800 letter to Gouverneur Morris, Hamilton wrote:

"Jefferson or Burr? -- the former without all doubt. The latter in my judgment has no principle public or private -- could be bound by no agreement -- will listen to no monitor but his ambition; & for this purpose will use the worst part of the community as a ladder to climb to perman[en]t power & an instrument to crush the better part. He is bankrupt beyond redemption except by the resources that grow out of war and disorder or by a sale to a foreign power or by great peculation. War with Great Brita[i]n would be the immediate instrument. He is sanguine enough to hope every thing -- daring enough to attempt every thing -- wicked enough to scruple nothing. From the elevation of such a man heaven preserve the Country!"

Ever the shit-stirrer, Hamilton helpfully closed his letter to Morris by adding, "Make any discreet use you think fit of this letter."

And, just in case that letter got lost in the mail or Gouverneur Morris didn't get the point, Hamilton wrote another letter to Morris two days later (December 26, 1800), emphasizing that:

"...as the least of the two evils...Jefferson ought to be preferred to Burr.

I trust the Federalists will not finally be so mad as to vote for the latter [Burr]. I speak with an intimate & accurate knowledge of character. His elevation can only promote the purposes of the desperate and proflicate. If there be (a man) in the world I ought to hate it is Jefferson. With Burr I have always been personally well. But the public good must be paramount to every private consideration. My opinion may be freely used with such reserves as you shall think discreet"

So, yeah, that definitely happened and you can see why Burr might have felt disrespected.

[shannonselin]

A Foot-Race. Caricature of the Presidential election of 1824 by David Claypoole Johnston. Cheering citizens watch as John Quincy Adams, William Crawford and Andrew Jackson stride toward the finish. Henry Clay stands on the far right, hand on head, saying, “D–n it I cant save my distance – so I may as well ‘draw up.’”

The United States presidential election of 1824 was decided by the House of Representatives after none of the candidates won a majority of the electoral vote.

The election would determine the successor to President James Monroe, who was finishing his second term. There were five candidates. Three of them – Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House of Representatives – appear in Napoleon in America. The other two candidates were General Andrew Jackson and Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford.

Since the Federalist Party had ceased to exist, all candidates were members of the Republican Party. There were differences among them on issues such as the tariff, internal improvements and slavery, but the election was also a personality contest.

Unable to gain enough support, Calhoun withdrew from the presidential race before the election. He stood for vice president instead. In general, Adams was supported by the Northeast section of the country; Jackson by the South, West and mid-Atlantic; Clay by parts of the West; and Crawford by parts of the East.

Voter turnout was low. None of the candidates won a majority of the electoral vote, so the names of the top three candidates were submitted to the House of Representatives, in accordance with the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. Clay threw his support behind Adams. On February 9, 1825, the House elected John Quincy Adams as president with the support of 13 states. Seven states supported Jackson and 4 supported Crawford.

Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State in the new administration. Clay was accused of making a “corrupt bargain” with Adams. Both men denied the charge. Adams was inaugurated on March 4, 1825 (see my post on the inauguration).

This was one of only two times the House has chosen the winner of the presidential race. The other was in 1800, when Thomas Jefferson won.

For more details, see "The Presidential Election of 1824."