#one of the first great compromises in American history

[granonine]

Saturday Soliloquy: Politics

The day is half over, and I’m just now getting around to my Saturday post. Let me say at the outset that this post is NOT for or against any candidate. It’s about some principles I believe we have lost, or are losing, because of constant misrepresentation in the media. First, we hear constantly that we are a democracy. Defined, a democracy is a state run by the people. Every vote counts, every…

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Aita for lieing about my country of origin?

🇨🇦🥶 <- so I know it's me!

This is kinda stupid but a friend said it will start a bad habit of lieing, I'm taking advantage of the fact that because I'm white passing I don't get offensive immigrant questions and I just shouldn't have so let's see.

About a year ago I (24nb metis aka white and first nations canadian. Also native American but it's blurry. Its important later.) and my partner (24f white) went to walmart for groceries. I love the cold, have been raised in the cold temps of the Midwest my whole life and I have a autoimmune disorder which makes me much warmer than everyone else so despite it being 32° outside, I was in shorts and a t-shirt. My partner thinks I'm crazy and I have a bad habit of freezing her out but we compromise.

Obviously wearing a T-shirt and shorts when it's snowing outside gets some attention and this elderly white couple playfully asked how I wasn't frozen solid as some sweet small talk but I'm socially anxious and just blurted out that I was from Canada and this was nothing. They just laughed in surprise and nodded and went on. That was a lie and my partner playfully chided me for it. No, I'm not a Canadian immigrant and I was born in America but as you can see, my family has deep ties to Canada and my grandmother is a Canadian immigrant. Should I of lied? No but it was harmless, I panicked and I didnt want to explain a disorder or get too deep into conversation with strangers so I just said it and moved on. No harm done.

Flash forward to today where I, my partner and a mutual friend (23 ftm, white but reconnecting to his distant Cuban and carribean heritage. He identifies as "spicy white".) were talking in a group call about our families histories. One side of my friends family immigrated to America about 4+5 generations back from Cuba with the other from Scotland and Ireland and my partners family history is blurry but she knows they came from Scotland and Germany. My partner playfully brought up my lie from a year ago and the whole tone shifted. My friend got mad at me and brought up how his great great grandmother struggled in America because she wasn't white passing, she immigrated from a non-white country and people treated her horribly. I tried to bring up that both my grandmothers were natives and my immigrant grandmother also struggled with racism due to being first nations but he kept interrupting me saying that because I'm white passing and I picked Canada as a place I fake-immigrated from, I'm taking advantage of the fact that white old couple would treat me better than Mexican immigrants or middle Eastern immigrants.

Eventually the call ended and we side stepped the topic but tension is still present and I don't know how to feel now. Obviously I respect immigrants and i have a high amount of immigrant people in my family, not just Canadian/first nations but married in from Poland and Mexico. I know I shouldn't of lied but I feel like my friend is just being a bit chronically online right now and acting like I don't respect any immigrants. Ever since he started reconnecting, he's gotten more and more trigger happy with racist jokes, calling people racist for no reason and just all around... off. I totally get generational trauma and the pain of discovering your history around colonization and genocide but its getting weird. My partner says she didn't see the harm in my little, no pun intended, white lie but doesn't wanna be involved because she's white and this issue has some racist undertones. I don't know if this is just a symptom of his discovery surrounding himself and being in some very overly sensitive groups or I was truely being insensitive to even being passively racist towards other POC.

So, was I the asshole for lieing to some strangers that I'm from Canada just to not have to get too deep into why I wanna wear shorts in the snow like a weirdo?

What are these acronyms?

[fruitycutie]

Debate thoughts and quickie analysis!

The main reason Democrat and Republican debates have been historically frustrating is because it's always: Step 1: Republican makes outlandish, false claim about democrats or immigrants or what have you! Step 2: The Democrat responds with, "well no, actually, um" and doesn't actually face or address how INSANE Republican statements are in the first place. Step 3: The Republican, having already won, sneers the whole time and controls the conversation. This has been the case for 90% of recent american history. I am glad to see that that is NOT the case anymore. Kamala is actually doing really good, AND the moderators were on point, too. Like, for example, actually asking critical questions to both, and providing fact checks when Trump says that immigrants are EATING YOUR PETS, Substantiating that they already talked to the mayor of Springfield, Ohio and that there is absolutely no evidence found of something that- lets face it- is just one person's brain worms. It spread from one person's probably ill mind, and became a MAJOR REPUBLICAN POINT! It's that easy. And now it's completely gone because of course it is, its a total fabrication and in 2024 those don't fly anymore because we don't live in ignorance of Trump's strategies anymore. This whole thing just shows how desperate, vile and awful they are, that this is ALL they have after all. Honestly though, just seeing the people making bullshit up on the defensive is great! So I enjoyed the debate a lot. That being said, I want to talk about the fact that I was also pleasantly surprised. I expected it to be more 50/50, truth be told. I do think Kamala, like any other Dem, has a little bit of liberal syndrome - which is pretty standard for Democrats, it's just their bread and butter weakness, but she's definitely the best in that regard - which is why she's actually doing well! What do I mean by that? Well, it's simple. Democrats make this mistake of thinking that they're as equally left as Republicans are right - which is only a little bit, in this theory - and we can unite as a people, if we just try. Meanwhile, the reality of the situation is that the Democrats live in the real world, where people matter and policies affect them, while to be completely honest, Republicans live in the AI power fantasy where the Shadow Qabbal Border Tzar Trans Alien Prison Immigrants from Mexico are killing every aspect of the american dream you love and schools are where your Children transition by Force, you can trademark half of those buzzwords if you want. And you damn well know that if it were convenient for them, they'd include Jews in that, too. The point is, that is fundamentally not something you can compromise with. Because to compromise with something, it has to like, already exist in REALITY, right? And their ideas just don't. To summarize I guess, the main mistake Dems make is that they believe they'll get more of the Republican voter base if they move right slightly. BUT THAT NEVER WORKS!!! Because, the people voting for trump are ALL cultists, who are stuck up their own ass about emotional messaging and DO NOT care for empiricism, DO NOT care for results or outcomes, all they care about is being right that trump is their american savior. After all, as soon as Trump lost in 2020- a verifiable fact with NO room for empirical debate without changing the meaning of the word "lose", a shitstorm of false accusations about the election being stolen happened, the Capitol riot happened, not to mention even that Trump keeps promising that if he gets elected, nobody will have to vote again. Like - come on, it's so transparently fascism, to the point where even the most irrationally opposed to the term have to see it. You cannot reason or compromise with people like that, it's just not possible. Kamala has been better about this than all democrats up to her, easily, but she's still not perfect. And I hope this is completely understood by democrats going forward, if the Republican enstablishment doesn't change it's ways.

[girderednerve]

history details from vampire show i am thinking about

they changed louis' family business from indigo to sugar; i assume this is because synthetic indigo was available from the 1880s on, so the market for natural indigo crashed badly, but they wanted to preserve both louis' affluence & his family connection to the cash crops of the louisiana plantation. they could've gone with rice, i guess? but that doesn't have the same evocativeness, i think. like everyone heard that line ("capital accrued from plantations of sugar and the blood of men who looked like my great grandfather but did not have his standing") & had an instant image, right? rice doesn't have the same legacy, although it could've been interesting (started as a more incidental crop, then became a major commercial product in the latter 19th c.; actually, rice became a commercial crop after railroad construction in 1882, the same year indigo dye was synthesized)

i have probably said this before but i like that louis works in, loosely, the vice business; it leaves him with some interesting moral problems, i think. i hate the way that he talks about the enslaved people in his household (& elsewhere) in the books; i hate the terrible line in the '94 movie where he's burning down the plantation house & telling the group of enslaved people gathered at the doors that they're free (oh! will that do anything! well! no worries as long as you & by extension we don't have to feel bad about it!); but there are parts of that relationship to other people, as a business proprietor with immense control over their working conditions, that have to do with the compromises he ends up making about his own capacity for violence & predation. mostly this bullet point is about how much i hate that line in the movie, though

the shot on the street in front of his paris apartment with armand, where they kiss for the first time & there's a sign behind them for 'le dakar.' i have googled around for this & turned up nothing, so it is at least probably not a famous landmark? i might be stupid? but dakar is the capital of senegal, & one of its districts is the île de gorée, one of the most famous departure ports for the middle passage (this legacy was plausibly exaggerated for tourism reasons, per wikipedia? apparently sparked after the tv show roots, so probably familiar to american audiences? there is an internationally famous memorial to the victims of slavery there). there's a resonance there about journeys, departures, agency, memory; it's a lovely, well-lit scene. i'm not making a claim in particular & of course there are lots of other things that happened & are happening in dakar, i just thought about it

delighted by louis' delight in the modern, particularly photography. still gnawing on this one. but if we want to be nice, it's something he might share with lestat ("siri pause" lol) or something that armand enjoys (being rooted in the present, right). it's also a neat little reflection on artistic arguments about truth; probably there's something going on with the style of theater in the théâtre too? i don't know anything about postwar french theater but that sounds like it might be true? but anyway here we are, is a photograph art, is a photograph true; is this interview an admitted performance, is this interview true. especially after louis got caught in a lie in romania because of his albumen photograph. layers, we love them

[theworstfoundingfathers]

THE GRAND FINALE WHO IS THE TRULY THE WORST FOUNDING FATHER?

THOMAS JEFFERSON VS HENRY LAURENS

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, and philosopher who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Following the American Revolutionary War and prior to becoming the nation’s third president in 1801, Jefferson was the first United States secretary of state under George Washington and the nation’s second vice president under John Adams.

Starting in 1803, he promoted a western expansionist policy with the Louisiana Purchase and began the process of Indian tribal removal from the newly acquired territory.

Jefferson lived in a planter economy largely dependent upon slavery, and used slave labor for his household, plantation, and workshops. Over his lifetime he owned about 600 slaves.

During his presidency, Jefferson allowed the diffusion of slavery into the Louisiana Territory hoping to prevent slave uprisings in Virginia and to prevent South Carolina secession. In 1804, in a compromise on the slavery issue, Jefferson and Congress banned domestic slave trafficking for one year into the Louisiana Territory.

In 1819, Jefferson strongly opposed a Missouri statehood application amendment that banned domestic slave importation and freed slaves at the age of 25 on grounds it would destroy the union.

Jefferson never freed most of his slaves, and he remained silent on the issue while he was president.

Since the 1790s, Jefferson was rumored to have had children by his sister-in-law and slave Sally Hemings, known as the Jefferson-Hemings controversy. According to scholarly consensus…as well as oral history, Jefferson probably fathered at least six children with Hemings.

---

Henry Laurens (March 6, 1724 [O.S. February 24, 1723] – December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laurens succeeded John Hancock as its president. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and, as president, presided over its passage.

Laurens had earned great wealth as a partner in the largest slave-trading house in North America, Austin and Laurens. In the 1750s alone, this Charleston firm oversaw the sale of more than 8,000 enslaved Africans.

Laurens’ oldest son, Colonel John Laurens, was killed in 1782 in the Battle of the Combahee River, as one of the last casualties of the Revolutionary War. He had supported enlisting and freeing slaves for the war effort and suggested to his father that he begin with the 40 he stood to inherit. He had urged his father to free the family’s slaves, but although conflicted, Henry Laurens never manumitted his 260 slaves.

---

By popular vote, this final round will run for one full week

Please reblog so we can get the biggest sample size possible and figure who is TRULY the worst

[mariacallous]

The prospects of a united front preventing Donald Trump returning to power in the US looked a little bleaker this week.

Let’s be frank they weren’t great to begin with. To an outsider Joe Biden just seems to be too old to be a viable candidate. He doesn’t pas​s the first impressions test. Look at him and you do not see someone capable of serving another four years.

True, he won Michigan's Democratic presidential primary a few days ago– but he was hit by a significant protest vote from left-wing and Arab-American voters angry about his qualified support for Israel's war in Gaza.

And at this point that second cause for worry, and, frankly, panic kicks in.

The left urged registered Democrats to vote for the "none of the above" category to express their opposition to Biden's Israel policy – and about 100,000 did. Their votes represent a wider chunk of the electorate who could well stay at home or vote for minor Green or left-wing candidates and deny the Democrats key states.

In a deeply divided country with a warped electoral system that favours the Republicans, it does not take many voters abandoning the Democrats for Trump to retake power.

I wrote at the weekend about how the Trump example shows how hard it is to unite against a dictatorial threat.  People, or to be fair, many people, cannot put aside their commitments and ally with men and women they profoundly disagree with for the greater good of defending democracy.

On the one hand, they cry that Trump is a fascist and white supremacist. On the other hand, they refuse to use all available means to stop him. Mainstream liberals do not moderate their demands to win over wavering conservatives. The far left sees the Biden administration as its true enemy.

The history of the struggles against Nazism are highly relevant to the dilemmas and the dangers we face today.  

As Hitler began his rise to power at the end of the 1920s, the European far left was in the same place as a section of the modern US left.  

The threat of fascism was as nothing when set against its hatred of moderates.

 In 1928 the communist movement adopted one of the cruellest and stupidest policies in its history, which considering the history of Soviet communism was nothing more than a history of cruelty and stupidity was quite an achievement.

Partly because it helped Stalin in his internal power struggles in Russia, Moscow ordered all Europe’s communists to follow an ultra-leftist policy. They were told to denounce moderate leftists as “social fascists”, and fight them to the death.

Communism’s triumph was inevitable, the party line went. No compromise was possible with anyone who stood in history’s path. Reformists were opportunists and traitors. They were social fascists who were as bad as the Nazi gangs which were already gathering on Berlin streets.

Or perhaps they were worse….

For an argument that is still heard today held that, say what you like against them, at least fascists were honest in their way.

By contrast centre-leftists were traitors who had been “bribed by the bourgeoisie” to deceive the masses, as no less an authority than Lenin had said.

They were hypocrites who pretended to want change while watering it down. Nothing could be achieved until they were swept away.

When Stalin’s enemy, Leon Trotsky, who was hardly a moderate, warned that instructing left-wingers to fight other left-wingers was a sure way of allowing fascism to “ride over your skulls and spines like a terrific tank”, Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the German communist party, denounced him for his ‘criminal counter-revolutionary propaganda’.

The result was a disaster. The communists and socialists fought each other instead of the Nazis, making Hitler’s rise easier. Thälmann went along with Stalin’s categorisation of social democrats as “social fascists”  until actual fascists came to power in Germany. They taught him the difference by holding him in solitary confinement for 11 years at the Buchenwald concentration camp, and putting him before a firing squad in 1944 and shooting him dead.

Today there are plenty of Thälmanns who believe with absolute certainty that the discredited centrist mainstream is the enemy.

Here is a columnist on the Washington Post greeting the Michigan result

As I emphasised in my previous piece, his stance is absolutely fine in normal circumstances. US leftists are perfectly entitled to refuse to support the Democrats if Biden’s behaviour outrages them.

But surely only enormous levels of delusion prevent them acknowledging that Trump is a threat to democracy.  If he wins, the American republic may be so gerrymandered and its civil service so politicised that it will be a Herculean task to remove Trump and his successors. There are plenty on the US far right who cite the rigged democracy of Viktor Orban’s Hungary as their model and dream, after all.

The​ alternative is to build alliances and once again history is a guide,

Having seen that their previous policy of treating moderate leftists as Nazis had resulted in Hitler coming to power 1933, the geniuses running the Soviet Communist party decided on a U-turn. Henceforth communists were instructed to support “popular front” movements where everyone opposed to the fascist threat would be welcome.

Some of the most interesting US writers have reached back to the 1930s to find ways of dealing with Trump. In How Democracies Die the US academics Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt found an example in the little-known story of how fascism was stopped in Belgium in the 1930s.  

Belgium might have gone the same way as fascist Italy or Nazi Germany. In 1936 far-right outfits —the Rex Party and the Flemish nationalist party, or Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV)—surged in the polls, capturing almost 20 percent of the popular vote.

They challenged the historical dominance of three establishment parties: the centre-right Catholic Party, the Socialists, and the liberals.

The leader of the Rex Party, Léon Degrelle, was a classic far-right figure.  A journalist (like Mussolini, and so many other believers in simple solutions) he would go on to become a Nazi collaborator in the Second World War.

Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote that, “the Catholic Party, in particular, faced a difficult dilemma: collaborate with their longtime rivals, the Socialists and Liberals, or forge a right-wing alliance that included the Rexists, a party with whom they shared some ideological affinity.”

 Unlike the mainstream conservative politicians of Italy and Germany, who brought Mussolini and Hitler to power, or the mainstream Republican leadership who collaborated with Trump, the Belgian Catholic leadership declared that any deals with the far right could not be contemplated.

"Catholic Party leaders heightened discipline by screening candidates for pro-Rexist sympathies and expelling those who expressed extremist views. In addition, the party leadership took a strong stance against cooperation with the far right. Externally, the Catholic Party fought Rex on its own turf. The Catholic Party adopted new propaganda and campaign tactics that targeted younger Catholics, who had formerly been part of the Rexist base. They created the Catholic Youth Front and began to run former allies against Degrelle."

Right-wing Catholics knew that they must ally with socialists and liberals they normally deplore in a popular front. And it worked. The far right was beaten.

I think popular front politics are essential. But they are not easy or even particularly principled. Go back to the 1940s and you find George Orwell was utterly repelled by communists and conservatives allying to stop Hitler

He looked back with mockery on

“The years 1935-9 were the period of anti-Fascism and the Popular Front, the heyday of the Left Book Club, when red Duchesses and ‘broadminded’ deans toured the battlefields of the Spanish war and Winston Churchill was the blue-eyed boy of the Daily Worker.”

To Orwell, the idea of covering up the crimes of communists for the sake of the greater anti-fascist good was horrific. But that was what the left of the 1930s did. And that was what the British and American governments did during the Second World War. Defeating Hitler came first. They were prepared to forget about the millions Stalin killed until the war was over.

It's a hard choice. But in the circumstances US progressives face, it is an obvious one. There is no argument against making every necessary compromise to prevent a second Trump term. You will have no right to protest, if you do not.

[alittlextrathatway]

Line: "And the saddest fear comes creeping in." Location: HGTV taping.

Alright time for a brand new AU universe.

You guys don't know it but I have an AU idea in my head for HGTV Brettsey for YEARS.

I am not throwing away my shot.

***

Sometimes Sylvie feels guilty about the lie she and Matt are perpetrating for the world, but then she remembers what it felt like to essentially be blacklisted from working and decides a lie is better than being homeless and starving.

Besides, this lie hurts no one but themselves. They're the ones who have to forego love lives in order to pretend to be an engaged home renovation power couple.

Their friends Severide and Stella introduced them years ago. Matt's business-partner-slash-ex had left him in the lurch. She sold him her half of the business, which was great, but she left him without an interior designer. Sylvie's ex and former best friend had taken all of her clients and run her out of town so she was an interior designer without any work.

She met Stella on her first night in Chicago while the latter was bartending at a firefighter bar named Molly's. Sylvie literally cried into her beer about her misfortunes and Stella was quick to help.

"You know, you're an interior designer with no clients and my husband's best friend is a contractor with clients but no interior designer. Maybe the two of you could help each other out?"

It was the suggestion that changed her life.

Kelly and Stella hosted a dinner to introduce her to Matt and they got along like a house on fire. Matt is funny, genuine, and thoughtful. The opposite of her ex. They also had similar visions for a few of his current clients. His design ideas for construction reflected her favorite interior spaces to decorate. Professionally speaking, they were a match made in heaven.

And their clients' feedback reflected that. As business grew so did their friendship. But since things went horribly wrong with Harrison and Hope, Sylvie promised herself never to mix business and pleasure. Matt felt similarly, considering his history with his own ex. Which meant, no matter how close they became or how her feelings evolved, they would always only be friends.

Even when the world and HGTV thought otherwise.

They hadn't meant to perpetrate a fraud but they got the offer for the tv show, signed the contracts, and then found out about a terrible misunderstanding.

HGTV thought they were married.

That was the real reason they wanted to offer them the show. They wanted half reality television and half home renovation. If they weren't married then the show would have been cancelled.

It was a shot in the dark that they would be picked up for a full season anyway. So, after a lengthy discussion, they went along with the story and decided not to fully correct their misunderstanding. As a compromise and an attempt to assuage their guilt, they told HGTV they were engaged instead of married.

By some miracle, they bought it.

And now, three years later, their show is still going strong and the American public thinks they're happily engaged and on their way to wedded bliss.

Only in Sylvie's wildest dreams.

Of course over the last three years, her pretend love for Matt Casey has become full blown, head over heels, unconditional love. Not that he knows that. She's pretty certain he's none the wiser.

"Cut!"

Sylvie's jarred from her thoughts by the sudden yell and shakes herself back to the present, taking in Matt's concerned face.

"Hey, guys," he requests, smiling politely. "Can you give us a second?"

The director nods and sighs tiredly. "Yeah, sure thing. Take five, everyone! When we come back we'll pick back up with the initial property walk through."

Once the crew has dispersed, Matt gently pulls her aside with a guiding hand on the small of her back. "Are you okay?"

She bites her bottom lip and idly spins her engagement ring, a habit she's developed when she's anxious. "That meeting we had with the network this morning..."

"I thought we said we weren't going to worry about that today?" He asks her, with a soft scolding stare.

"We say a lot of things, Matt, but that doesn't mean they're all true."

He snorts and chuckles at her, taking her left hand in his to stop her from twirling her ring. "We'll work something out."

"Work something out?" She says in a harsh whisper. "They want us to set a wedding date. A wedding date for our extremely fake engagement. A wedding date that will be used to market the renovation deadline of our future home that we're going to take on in the midst of all of our other clients and responsibilities."

"They'll compensate us appropriately so we can scale back our clients and focus only on our house. The workload will be fine," he assures her.

Okay, but that's not even the biggest part of her concerns! How is he so calm? How is he okay with marrying her, a woman he doesn't love? "Great, I'm glad to hear about the workload," she replies dryly. "Nevermind the huge wedding they want us to have, film, and then promote as a tv special. That's not a big deal at all."

He sighs and the sound comes off as hopeless and wistful all at once. His callused fingers grip her chin and lift her face until they’re eye to eye. Once he has her full attention, he brushes a loose tendril of hair out of her eyes and tucks it behind her ear. The gesture makes her stomach swoop in the most delightfully nauseating way.

Ugh, why does she have to be in love with her best friend and business partner? Why is nothing in her life ever straight forward?

"Look, I get it, no one wants you to marry a guy you're not in love with, least of all me. But we'll find a way to stall them. We've gotten pretty good at it over the last few years. We'll think of something. For now, though, let the network think they're gonna finally get that wedding special they've always wanted. It'll keep them off our backs for a little while at least."

She doesn't like his tone. He doesn't sound like himself. Not the flirtatiously playful version of himself he usually is when they're filming anyway. This is solemn Matt Casey. The one she sees most often when he’s stressed or anxious or in some sort of emotional turmoil.

He was fine until she let her fears get the better of her and got distracted during a heavy filming day. For his sake, she needs to get it together. She can sort out how to bury her feelings for Matt and get them out of this mess later.

"You're right," she says, taking a slow and soothing breath. "We'll figure out. We always do. I mean, whatever else our fans think we are, we've always been a great team." She smiles warmly at him, hoping the expression leaves her faith in the two of them on full display. From the day they met, he's been nothing but exceptionally good to her. Even if his feelings have never gone beyond platonic. "I don't see that changing anytime soon."

He squeezes her hand with an earnestly devoted look on his face that's too beautiful to be misread. "Not if I can help it. There's no one else I'd rather be partners with than you."

He means business partners. She knows he does, but is it terrible of her to internally swoon anyway? God, she's so screwed. How did she let this happen and how can she get out of it unscathed?

Matt Casey's going to break her heart and he'll never even know it.

[rabbitcruiser]

California was admitted as the thirty-first U.S. state on September 9, 1850.  

California Admission Day

California Admission Day is observed on September 9 each year. It commemorates the day California was admitted into the Union as the 31st state in 1850 after it was ceded to the United States by Mexico in 1848. California became one of the few states to become a state without first being an organized territory. California Admission Day is not a federal holiday. Rather, it’s a local observance in the state, which implies that businesses, schools, and government offices remain open. In times gone by it was celebrated with great pomp and ceremony with parades and pageantry. Though low-key now, the day still marks an important part of Californian history.

History of California Admission Day

The Mexican-American War began in May 1846 when the U.S. declared war on Mexico. American settlers who lived in the territory of California in Mexico revolted against the Mexican government in what is known as the Bear Flag Revolt. The Americans captured Sonoma, hoisted a Bear Flag in the area, and declared it the California Republic. On July 9, 1846, Navy Lieutenant Joseph Warren Revere arrived in Sonoma and replaced the Bear Flag in the territory with a United States flag. Lieutenant Revere officially declared California a possession of the United States. In February 1848, Mexico and the U.S. signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to end the war. This treaty meant that Mexico had to yield a large portion of its Southwest territory — including present-day California — to the U.S.

As of the signing of the treaty, California had a meager population that was not up to the 60,000-inhabitant benchmark a territory needed to achieve statehood. Earlier in January 1848, gold was discovered on the American River near Sacramento, and the territory witnessed a massive influx of immigrants looking for work and good fortune. Thanks to the Gold Rush, a huge increase in population and wealth followed, thus necessitating the need for civil government and local policies.

In 1849, Californians demanded statehood, and California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850. California joined the Union as a free, non-slavery state by the Compromise of 1850 in just about two years of the territory’s incorporation. Its first capital was in San Jose before it was moved to the city of Vallejo for lack of necessary facilities. The capital was later moved to Benicia, a small town, and subsequently to the riverside port of Sacramento in 1854.

California Admission Day timeline

1846

The Bear Flag Revolt

American settlers in California stage a revolt against Mexican authorities.

1848

A Treaty for Peace

The United States and Mexico sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to end the war between the countries.

1850

The Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 is signed and California is admitted as the 31st state to the Union.

1911

Adoption of the California State Flag

The California State Flag, based on the original Bear Flag, is adopted by the state legislature.

California Admission Day FAQs

Is California Admission Day a federal holiday?

California Admission Day is not a federal holiday. It’s a local observance in the state of California. Schools, businesses, and government offices remain open.

What are other names for California?

California is also known as ‘The Golden State, ‘The Land of Milk and Honey,’ ‘The El Dorado State,’ and ‘The Grape State.’

What is California famous for?

California remains one of the most popular destinations throughout North America. The state is especially famous for Hollywood, Disneyland, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Other unique landmarks in California include Coachella, Silicon Valley, the Wine Country, and Surf Culture.

California Admission Day Activities

Visit the Golden StateIf you’re a history buff, today’s the perfect day to visit California. Museums around California offer various resources and artifacts to help you learn more about the state’s rich history. Take a day trip or make a holiday of it and travel to more than one.

Enjoy the special eventsCalifornia Admission Day is observed with special events at schools, museums, and organizations throughout the state. Public officials often grant special addresses about its history and significance.

Take a trip to SonomaCalifornia Admission Day has been observed particularly in the Sonoma area since 1850. It would be nice to visit the area where it all began. Don’t forget to enjoy the state’s beautiful beaches, valleys, and mountains as you celebrate with them!

5 Fun Facts About California

Originally named “the Grizzly Bear State": California has renamed the Golden State from its initial name “the Grizzly Bear State” as the bears went extinct.

The state motto is ‘Eureka!’: The Greek word means “I have found it!” and alludes to the discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada.

Redwood is the official state tree: California’s official state tree is the redwood, as designated in 1937.

It’s called ‘The Grape State’, too: Over 300,000 tons of grapes are grown in California annually, and the state produces more than 17 million gallons of wine each year!

Blue jeans: In 1873 blue jeans were imported for miners from Europe, making San Francisco the first place in the U.S. where jeans were worn.

Why We Love California Admission Day

Becoming a recognized state in the U.S.This event celebrates the day California officially became a state in the U.S. It was a protracted struggle but thanks to the peace treaty that ended the Mexican-American War of 1848, it was a done deal.

A tribute to the war heroesThe struggle to acquire California as a possession of the U.S. was not an easy one. It took a war, diplomacy, protests, and legislation to make it possible. This day celebrates the memories of everyone who fought to make it possible.

The population boost that came with the Gold RushCalifornia’s low population would have hindered its prospects to become a state and admittance to the Union. Thanks to the Gold Rush, the territory was able to have the 60,000 inhabitants it needed to achieve statehood.

[thornfield13713]

Because @mllemaenad was kind enough to ask about my own Georgia after telling me everything I wanted to know about her Fallout protagonist Emily, and because it seemed rude to put this in the replies, I'm doing a full backstory post here, at least up to the current point in the story:

Georgia Cox was born in Liverpool, and came to America with her parents at the age of eleven, where they settled in New York. I was originally planning on having her as a born-and-bred New Yorker, but...honestly, in a game series so steeped in Americana, it felt a bit more manageable to play a character with a relationship to the concept a bit closer to my own. The Coxes were among the last legal immigrants to the United States, and if they hadn't been a white family from a historic ally, they probably wouldn't have made it, the pre-war world being what it was. The whole experience of immigration was pretty formative for a preteen Georgia, both in terms of the luck they'd had getting in and the number of others - many even literally from the same boat - who hadn't managed to do the same.

Her mother Shauna died a few years later, mostly due to the family's lack of medical insurance. Georgia's father always swore that it wouldn't have happened in the old country, and became rather embittered towards his new one in consequence. After that, he nearly lived for his daughter. A washed-up boxer reduced to throwing matches to get by, he was determined that his daughter should solve her problems with her words rather than her fists, and do well for herself that way. It put a lot of pressure on Georgia, even if he didn't intend it to. She was painfully aware that, so far as her father was concerned, her doing well and achieving that American Dream thing people kept talking about would justify his decisions in life so far, from immigrating in the first place to everything he had done since, every compromise, every thrown match. Her need to make her father feel like he'd done right, that it had been worth all the sacrifices it had made, ended up as the root cause of a lot of her decisions in later life - the most notable of those decisions being Sam Adams.

Georgia met Sam at university. She was in her final year at Boston University by then, having got in on scholarship and got herself into no end of student debt paying off the rest of it, studying political science and history with an eye on law school to follow. He was just starting out, an engineering student from a military family with a legacy of service dating back to the Revolutionary War and two older brothers both serving in the army, every single one of whom expected him to join the Army Corps of Engineers once he had his degree, even if he personally would rather be a civil engineer. They bonded over a few things: a shared passion for the Unstoppables comics, even if he was a Grognak fan and she preferred the Silver Shroud, and the pressure placed on them by families they loved, but who seemed determined to steer them down a path that neither one of them felt really all that suited for and weren't actually considering whether they wanted or not, because what they wanted was always going to be secondary to those familial pressures. They got together towards the end of Sam's time at university, while Georgia was in law school, after quite a lot of pressure from their respective friends to just give in and act on their 'obvious' feelings for one another. Neither of them being precisely the most emotionally aware people, they decided that their friends must have a point and started going out. Nate graduated and went into the army before they could figure out that, no, they were great friends but there was no attraction there whatsoever. Unfortunately, this was also the point around which they got married, mostly for the benefits - one of Sam's elder brothers had recently been killed in action, leaving his steady girlfriend he was planning to marry when he got back with nothing, and Sam proposed mostly out of fear that the same would happen with him and Georgia. Georgia said yes...mostly out of a sense that she was supposed to. He was a nice guy, she liked and cared about him a lot, they got on well, dating so far had felt like a comfortable extension of their friendship more than anything, and he was the only partner she'd had that her father even slightly approved of - it made sense. Love would come in time, she was sure.

For most of their marriage, they lived apart and barely saw each other. Sam was always with the army, and Georgia was trying to get a career started in Boston and had no interest in moving around to follow his postings. (His family disapproved of this almost as much as they disapproved of everything else about Georgia - an immigrant from a poor family in a rough part of New York whose politics were uncomfortably radical, having been brought up by a pair of old-school British Labour Party voters for whom American Democrats were uncomfortably right-wing.) They wrote to each other when they could, but rarely saw each other, and after the start of the Anchorage campaign, and the annexation of Canada that followed, their relationship became increasingly strained. They were both, at various points, unfaithful, though neither of them ever told the other about it.

Georgia started her career as a public defender, moved into private criminal defence after a few years, and sort of...drifted into civil rights work. She was more successful at the former profession than the latter, it must be said, as while you could sometimes get a defendant off on an apolitical charge, civil rights were...charged...in the pre-war world. She ended up bringing a few cases against Vault-Tec, in fact, for violations of labour laws, though never with very much success. She may also have run into the original Nick Valentine at some point, though if she did she doesn't remember him and they didn't get on, since she was involved in at least one lawsuit against the Boston Police. Like her historical namesake (yes, I chose 'Adams' for a reason, though I'm mostly basing this off the musical 1776), Georgia was obnoxious and disliked, with a firebrand temper, and generally regarded as a troublemaker by the local authorities, despite never actually managing to strike any sort of serious blow for justice. She kept at it mostly out of stubbornness, and by continuing to take criminal and civil cases just to keep the lights on, even as, over the years, she grew increasingly hopeless, depressed and cynical. This only worsened her obnoxiousness, driving away what few friends she'd been able to keep. It didn't help that she had a viciously sarcastic tongue and a very bad sense of when not to use it. Or, for that matter, that even if she wasn't a communist, she certainly had socialist leanings (social democrat, specifically, though most people didn't care about the details). She had already been using mentats as an every-now-and-again thing through college. She started using them more and more heavily once she was working. Never for trials, but often for preparation, even if it never quite rose to the level of addiction- or at least, not a level she would have considered an addiction, even if she got...tetchy...when she didn't have her fix.

Shaun was...an accident. And also- sort of a mess. It was the first time she and Sam had been able to spend his leave together in some years. Their relationship had never been particularly physical, but this time- something had happened recently, on the front, that meant that Sam was desperate for someone to cling to, and Georgia...was increasingly alone, and Sam had been her best friend once even if it had been years since they could talk the way they used to and, every time they were together, it felt like they were both badly playing roles in a joint performance of 'A Married Couple'. That night, though- they both felt shipwrecked, and they clung to one another. That was all it needed to be.

A few months later, Georgia's law firm finally folded. It had been coming for a while - she'd never made very much money or been very successful as a lawyer, despite a talent for courtroom rhetoric that even her opponents admitted and the sort of charisma that gets you past all the red skill checks (obnoxious as she could be interpersonally, she was one hell of an orator) - but it was still an awful blow. Finding that she couldn't get work anywhere else did not help. There were a few reasons for that: her reputation for troublemaking, her difficult personality, the fact that she was pregnant and would have to take time off for maternity leave soon and also it was...sort of discouraged for women to keep working after having children, even if some (Barb Howard, for example) still did...and possibly a few quiet words in the right ears on the subject of her political beliefs, which...she'd been on the wrong end of enough court cases and was cynical enough about the government to be labelled a Communist even without her genuine radical politics coming into it.

This was around the time that Sam came home, and the family moved out to Sanctuary Hills on a combination of his veteran's benefits and money borrowed from Sam's parents. The move did not help Georgia's depression. If anything, it made it worse - she was a city girl, born and bred, and the suburbs were stultifying. Worse still was how smugly delighted her in-laws were that she was finally 'settling down a bit' now that she was pregnant. That it was a difficult pregnancy did not help - she was thirty-five, and there were complications. Shaun's birth was difficult, and medical advice afterwards was that they should not try for another child.

So, around a decade into their marriage, Sam and Georgia were learning how to live together for the first time, and it was- it wasn't going well. They were good roommates, but they had both changed a lot since they had been college best friends, and their respective issues meant that they were having a lot of trouble connecting. Sam wanted to pretend everything was fine, that his wartime experience and the horrors of the Annexation had never happened, to bury himself in suburban normalcy and, once he'd settled in a bit, maybe get that civic engineering job he'd wanted all along. Never mind that he still screamed in his sleep and had a wicked case of untreated PTSD. Georgia was sunk in depression that had only worsened after Shaun was born, and was having trouble mustering up the energy to feel very much about anything - it was like she was sleepwalking through life. Even signing up with her old enemy Vault-Tec seemed...sort of inevitable at this point. She'd lost, she'd been beaten, so why not just...let it happen. Hand her a spade and bury her, why not? She was done.

And then, of course, the bombs fell.

[houseofpurplestars]

"...the remarkable transformation of Frank’s home state from populist radicalism to a now familiar brand of right-wing lunacy. While this provided much amusement and a certain amount of enlightenment, it was also made-to-order product for Democratic Party loyalists, who were spared from self-examination."

"...we are provided with a full tour of recent political history. Frank takes us through the Clinton administration’s consolidation of the neoliberal approach: scandalously punishing poor African Americans with welfare reform and the Drug War, forcing the country to unwillingly ingest NAFTA, and maintaining Reagan-inspired anti-union statutes. Frank then shows how the Obama Administration carried on these themes, maintaining an obsession with Ivy League meritocracy that masked a craven commitment to putting corporations first. All this is capped by the bank bailouts, which Frank characterizes as “Clintonism on monster truck tires,” engineered by the same crew of Goldman Sachs alumni who set the system up to fail in the mid 90s.

For Frank, the central defining tendency of the modern Democratic Party is its domination by “professionals,” the highly-credentialed, data-driven Best and Brightest that Obama stuffed his cabinet with. For such people, “a great coming-together of the nation’s educated is the obvious objective of political work,” and “compromise” becomes the goal rather than the concession. Affluent liberals see themselves as concerned with “inequality,” but they have little interest in actually readjusting the balance of wealth in society.

Frank is particularly concerned to rebut the standard Democratic defense: that what looks like surrender to the wealthy is actually pragmatism, necessitated by the viciousness of Republican opposition."

[smoothdp]

Willy DeVille - Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl

Critic Robert Palmer wrote about him in 1980, "Mr. DeVille is a magnetic performer, but his macho stage presence camouflages an acute musical intelligence; his songs and arrangements are rich in ethnic rhythms and blues echoes, the most disparate stylistic references, yet they flow seamlessly and hang together solidly. He embodies (New York's) tangle of cultural contradictions while making music that's both idiomatic, in the broadest sense, and utterly original." In a 2015 interview, Bob Dylan suggested DeVille should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Said Dylan, "(DeVille) stood out, his voice and presentation ought to have gotten him in there by now." Critic Thom Jurek said about him, "His catalog is more diverse than virtually any other modern performer. The genre span of the songs he's written is staggering. From early rock and rhythm and blues styles, to Delta-styled blues, from Cajun music to New Orleans second line, from Latin-tinged folk to punky salseros, to elegant orchestral ballads—few people could write a love song like DeVille. He was the embodiment of rock and roll's romance, its theater, its style, its drama, camp, and danger."

His sometime collaborator Mark Knopfler said of DeVille, "Willy had an enormous range. The songs he wrote were original, romantic and straight from the heart."

Thom Jurek wrote about him after his death, "Willy DeVille is America's loss even if America doesn't know it yet. The reason is simple: Like the very best rock and roll writers and performers in our history, he's one of the very few who got it right; he understood what made a three-minute song great, and why it mattered—because it mattered to him. He lived and died with the audience in his shows, and he gave them something to remember when they left the theater, because he meant every single word of every song as he performed it. Europeans like that. In this jingoistic age of American pride, perhaps we can revisit our own true love of rock and roll by discovering Willy DeVille for the first time—or, at the very least, remember him for what he really was: an American original. The mythos and pathos in his songs, his voice, and his performances were born in these streets and cities and then given to the world who appreciated him much more than we did."

Singer Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band said about him, "He had all the roots of music that I love and had this whole street thing of R&B – just the whole gestalt ... He was just a tremendous talent; a true artist in the sense that he never compromised. He had a special vision and remained true to it."

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

By Thomas L. Friedman

Opinion Columnist

Every so often there is a piece of legislation on Capitol Hill that defines America and its values — that shows what kind of country we want to be. I would argue that when it comes to the $118.3 billion bipartisan compromise bill in the Senate to repair our broken immigration system and supply vital aid to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel, its passage or failure won’t define just America but also the world that we’re going to inhabit.

There are hinges in history, and this is one of them. What Washington does — or does not do — this year to support its allies and secure our border will say so much about our approach to security and stability in this new post-post-Cold War era. Will America carry the red, white and blue flag into the future or just a white flag? Given the pessimistic talk coming out of the Capitol, it is looking more and more like the white flag, autographed by Donald Trump.

Barring some last-minute surprise that saves the compromise bill, a terrible thing is about to happen, thanks largely to a Republican Party that has lost its way as it falls in lock step behind a man whose philosophy is not “America First” but “Donald Trump First.” “Trump First” means that a bill that would strengthen America and its allies must be set aside so that America can continue to boil in polarization, Vladimir Putin can triumph in Ukraine and our southern border can remain an open sore — until and unless Trump becomes president once more. Our allies be damned. Our enemies be emboldened. Our children’s future security be mortgaged.

Today’s G.O.P. bumper sticker: Trump First. Putin Second. America Third.

“The United States has for some time ceased to be a serious country. Our extreme polarization combined with institutional rules that privilege minorities makes it impossible for us to meet our international obligations,” the political theorist Francis Fukuyama remarked on the American Purpose website. “The Republican Party has grown very adept at hostage holding. … The hard-core MAGA wing represents a minority within a minority, yet our institutional rules permit them to veto decisions clearly favored by a majority of Americans.”

Alas, though, while the current dysfunction of the Republican Party can explain why this particular legislation is likely to fail, how we came to this awful moment is a longer, deeper story.

This emerging post-post-Cold War era is a real throwback to the kind of dangerous, traditional great-power competition prevalent in the Cold War and World War II and most of history before that. Unfortunately, we have arrived at this moment with too many elected officials — especially in the senior ranks of the Republican Party — who never experienced such a world and with a defense-industrial base woefully unprepared for this world. Believe it or not, President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has had to spend hours of valuable time each month searching the world for 155-millimeter shells for the Ukrainian Army because we don’t have enough.

That’s crazy. And it is particularly crazy at a time when three revisionist powers (Russia, China and Iran) are each simultaneously probing every day to see if they can push back America and its allies along three different frontiers (Europe, the South China Sea and the Middle East). They probe, individually and through proxies, to see how we react — if we react — and then probe some more. In Putin’s case, when the time seemed right, he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Because of generational change, most of America’s political elite today grew up in the relatively benign Pax Americana post-Cold War era, 1989 to 2022” (when Putin invaded Ukraine), “and they have lost the habit and the knack of thinking about global politics in military terms,” the U.S. foreign policy historian Michael Mandelbaum told me. “Very few members of the elite today have served in the military.”

This is “very different from the Cold War era, when most of our policymaking elite were people who experienced World War II,” added Mandelbaum, the author of the forthcoming book “The Titans of the Twentieth Century: How They Made History and the History They Made.” “Now, after 30 years of the post-Cold War era, Joe Biden is one of the few remaining leaders who was a policymaker during the Cold War — and issues of grand strategy and the management of great-power competition are no longer a major part of our public discourse.”

Trump, like Biden, grew up in the Cold War, but he spent a lot of it contemplating his wealth rather than contemplating the world. Trump’s instincts, Mandelbaum noted, are really a throwback to the interwar period between World War I and World War II, when a whole segment of the elite felt World War I was a failure and a mistake — the equivalent today of Iraq and Afghanistan — and then approached the dawn of World War II as isolationists and protectionists, seeing our allies as either hopeless or leeches.

As for House Speaker Mike Johnson, I wonder how often he uses his passport. I wonder if he has a passport. He is one of the most powerful people in America, following in the footsteps of both Republican and Democratic speakers who advanced our interests and made us strong in the world for decades. So far, he seems to care only about serving Trump’s interests, even if that means playing extremely risky games with foreign policy.

Meanwhile, many on the left emerged from this post-Cold War era with the view that the biggest problem in the world is not too little American power but too much — the lessons they drew from Iraq and Afghanistan.

And so who will tell the people? Who will tell the people that America is the tent pole that holds up the world? If we let that pole disintegrate, your kids won’t grow up in just a different America; they’ll grow up in a different world, and a much worse one.

After Ukraine inflicted a terrible defeat on the Russian Army — thanks to U.S. and NATO funding and weapons — without costing a single American soldier’s life, Putin now has to be licking his chops at the thought that we will walk away from Ukraine, leaving him surely counting the days until Kyiv’s missile stocks run out and he will own the skies. Then it’s bombs away.

As the Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman reported, the ammunition shortage in Ukraine “has already led to an increase in Ukrainian casualties. … The shortage of weaponry is also having an effect on the willingness of Ukrainians to volunteer for military service. The mounting pressure on the Kyiv government is part of the explanation for the public falling-out between President Volodymyr Zelensky and his commander in chief, Valeriy Zaluzhny.”

If this is the future and our friends from Europe to the Middle East to Asia sense that we are going into hibernation, they will all start to cut deals — European allies with Putin, Arab allies with Iran, Asian allies with China. We won’t feel the change overnight, but, unless we pass this bill or something close to it, we will feel it over time.

America’s ability to assemble alliances against the probes of Russia, China and Iran will gradually be diminished. Our ability to sustain sanctions on pariah nations like North Korea will erode. The rules governing trade, banking and the sanctity of borders being violated by force — rules that America set, enforced and benefited from since World War II — will increasingly be set by others and by their interests.

Yes, America still has considerable power, but that power led to influence because allies and enemies knew we were ready to use it to defend ourselves and help our friends defend themselves and our shared values. All of that will now be in doubt if this bill goes down for good.

Remember this week, folks — because historians surely will.

[loopy777]

I just read your fic "Stainless Steel Sleuth" and I loved it. The ATLA series leans itself so well to noir themes and settings im surprised it isnt done more in the fandom. And the idea of setting it in the real world in a time period that would resemble the one in ATLA, what with the 100 year war being WW2 in a way, that was genius. We need more ATLA in the real world type settings. Have you ever though of like an idea for a "ATLA in the real world" story that was still somewhat following the plot of the show? You know like war and the avatar and whatnot.

Thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed it, as figuring out how to translate the Fire Nation's war into something in the real world was the biggest headache for that whole project. XD

What's tricky about any attempt to translate AtLA to a real world setting is mapping the cultures. It's easy to make the Air Nomads into Tibet, and the Water Tribes have a variety of Arctic cultures that can be chosen as a reasonable representation (@mostly-mundane-atla has a lot great information blogged for that). But the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom can be problematic. For a WW2 setting, especially, it's tempting to make the Fire Nation into Japan and the Earth Kingdom into China. But I think the Fire Nation has too much Chinese influence for that to be satisfying, especially since Mai's character design draws so much from tropes of the 'Chinese Girl' and she's the star of that story.

Hence my vague compromise in the backstory where Ozai is leading his own rogue state that mixes followers from Japan, China, and other nations in the area. I did align him with Japan's imperial war of conquest, since they were the active would-be imperial power of the time, but otherwise did a very precise dance centered on Manchuria.

And I do, in fact, have another AtLA AU set in the 'real' world! Getting this Ask prompted me to port my Wild West AU over to AO3. That's a little less real, though, in that I use Steampunk technology and make the mythology around Geronimo into fact, but I still brought in as much history as I could. It was also easier to map, since it was all contained within American cultures. Despite being a short story (and a sequel), this one actually does directly adapt some of AtLA's plot, but mostly just the finale. That choice was a practical one, as it let me cram in the most amount of favorite characters.

It's entirely likely I'll do more writing in this vein, since I like modern history and I like playing in AUs, and I don't see any reason to rule out something with a more classical Aang-led plot. I would never just replicate the plot beats of the AtLA cartoon, but if we allow for something like my Traitor's Face fic where I allowed myself to do a lot of original storytelling, then that's entirely possible.

That said, neither of my 'historical AU' projects were meant to be 'historical AUs.' They ended up that way because I love drawing on history when I can, but I started with the intention of writing a Detective Noir and a Western, classical pulp stories whose look and feel carried down the ages from when those kinds of stories were first being told. I love pulp fiction (despite never seeing the movie "Pulp Fiction"), so that will probably drive my next attempt to bring AtLA into the real world.

Of course, I share that love with AtLA itself. "The City of Walls and Secrets" is fully a Noir tale, and everyone agrees "Zuko Alone" doesn't even try to pretend it's not a Western. So maybe I'll end up doing a 80's Coming Of Age comedy-drama just like "The Beach," although how I'd fit Aang's quest into that, I have no idea. ;)

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Take one look around our world and at the church. A need for a new reformation is evident in the church, which then has consequences on the culture as a whole. We must return to the Bible as our absolute authority.

Whether it’s liberalism, evolutionism, Gnosticism, Mormonism, Islam, New Age, moral issues (e.g., abortion and gay marriage), or the age of the earth, these are all ultimately battles over the same issue.

In 2 Corinthians 11:3, the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, warns us about this ever-present danger: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

Paul in essence is warning Christians that Satan will continue to use the same method on us as he did on Eve: Satan will try to seduce people away from a simple devotion to Christ and his Word.

To understand this better, we need to go back to Genesis 3:1: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say . . . ?’”

From the beginning, the battle has been over the authority of the Word of God. The first woman, Eve, followed by her husband, Adam, gave in to the temptation not to take God at his Word. Instead, he relied on his human reason to determine truth.

Because Adam was the head of the human race, his rebellion plunged the entire human race into sin. All his descendants inherited a sin nature that refused to take God at his Word and instead made human reason their supreme authority.

This battle against God’s Word has manifested itself in every era of history.

Paul faced skeptics on every side, who questioned the clear proclamation of God’s Word. In its early centuries, Christianity fought several challenges to the authority of the Scriptures, including Gnosticism, which taught that man was his own god. Modern issues like the age of dinosaurs or carbon dating are merely new manifestations of age-old attacks on God’s Word.

Human reason has replaced God’s Word, and compromise has crept into the church. This is now reflected in an increasing number of church leaders becoming soft on gay “marriage,” etc.

A reformation is needed again to call the church to take God at his Word from the beginning—starting in Genesis.

In the sixteenth century, the sale of indulgences by the church, for forgiveness of sin and release from the pains of Purgatory, marked a climax in the elevation of human thinking above God’s Word. The monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church, challenging indulgences. This act sparked a debate about the ultimate authority of the Bible above the church, and it essentially began the Reformation.

Others joined this reform movement. The Western world was dramatically changed, as Bibles and tracts were printed on the new presses and thus biblical truths were disseminated widely. In fact, until recent decades, much of the West was still heavily influenced by the Reformation and its call to take God at his Word.

The battle against God’s Word never ceased, however, as a series of men and events sought to undo the positive effects of the Reformation. Behind these attacks was an effort to make human reason supreme and steer people away from the authority of the Word of God. It was another manifestation of Genesis 3:1.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the attack against the Bible intensified. New speculation about the age of the earth and the evolution of life raised questions about the accuracy of the Bible. The core issues can be seen in the Scopes trial—said to be the most famous and culture-shaping trial in history (other than the trial of Jesus).

The Scopes trial of 1925 was not really about the teaching of evolution, as is commonly believed, but a deliberate ploy by the American Civil Liberties Union to put Christianity as a whole on trial. Even though the prosecution lawyer William Jennings Bryan was a great Christian statesman, he let the Christian faith down by not standing on God’s Word concerning the book of Genesis. For example, he was unable to give an answer about Cain’s wife, allowed the possibility that the earth is millions of years old, and didn’t accept the days of creation as literal days.

The trial marked a symbolic turning point in Christendom and American society which impacted the church everywhere. The world’s media reported that Christians were not taking God at his Word (in Genesis), and also that they could not adequately defend it.

The failure of the church to stand on God’s Word has brought devastation to countless lives. Just one example is the once-prominent evangelist Charles Templeton. While in seminary, he was taught to believe in an evolutionary timetable, including millions of years, which eventually led him to reject God’s Word and write a book called “Farewell to God.”

Compromise about biblical authority in Genesis 1–11 has made the church so weak that the Bible no longer impacts the culture as it once did. This has largely occurred because human reason was allowed to invade the church and push aside God’s Word.

A new reformation is needed. It’s time for a new generation of reformers to stand up and call the church back to trust in God’s Word where it is most under attack—the history of Genesis 1–11. We need to call people to turn away from the opinions of fallible mankind and stand firmly on the entire Bible.

It’s time that believers made their voices heard, nailing Genesis 1–11 on church doors and secular buildings across the world! We need to take God at his Word and return to the “simplicity that is in Christ.” Then we can watch the power of God’s Word transform lives and influence the culture. – Ken Ham

[krysmcscience]

Full view here!

What happens when a human has to travel around on a ship full of Impostors? Probably shenanigans. And drama. And hot sexy times.

Anyway, this is the main 'crew' in Breach, a story I've been slowly plodding away at for a few months now. The human on board isn't actually properly introduced to the entirety of the crew until halfway through the story, and a majority of said crew is mostly only talked about before that point, but I wanted to pin their designs down, so...here they are, I guess!

Character and story details under the cut, if you're interested~

The actual main and secondary characters are in the middle, so even though the narrative doesn't actually refer to anyone other than Red by color (since the story is only tangentially Among Us-related), I'll be listing them that way first. Aside from the main human, all names are assumed identities, as Impostors don't actually have names, or even words for anything due to the way they communicate with each other (even the term 'Impostor' is an in-universe Among Us joke gone horridly wrong). Their pronouns are also mostly suggestion, rather than any legitimate preference, as they have almost zero concept of gender.

Mains:

Blue, Qīng Summers (he/him) - Chinese-American goofball who ran away from his family to avoid being pushed into their marketing business, Qīng was on his way to a colony college on Titan when the research vessel he hitched a ride on was attacked. Having unwittingly gotten the attention of the alien infiltrator on board by admitting he thought Impostors were "kinda hot", rather than being killed, Qīng was instead dragged onto the infiltrator's ship in secret for some "fun", only to kick his captor in the dick(?) and make a break for it. Though he evaded most of the crew's notice during the ensuing chase, he was soon caught by the lead security officer, brought somewhere safe after some awkward dealings with the ship's captain, and quickly assured he would be returned to human society. As said security officer is incredibly kind, considerate, and attractive as fuck, Qīng is as of yet unsure if he wants to return at all. He is optimistic, a hopeless romantic, and wears his emotions on his sleeve; he often comes across as silly, and doesn't handle problems well. He enjoys parkour and dancercise, collects sci-fi B-movies, and has a deep fascination for all things alien - Impostors in particular, because he's a fukken xenophile.

Red, Jasper "Red" O'Floinn (he/him) - Lead security officer on the ship, Red was initially slated to become an infiltrator, with his scores outstripping the vast majority of his peers. However, he was caught in the middle of a secret drunken affair with a human, something seen as incredibly shameful for his species, and was rendered ineligible for field work just before assignment. He was only able to get his current position (years later) with help from his childhood friend, and while he still goes out in secret to illicit xenophilia clubs, he fully expected to never get involved with humans beyond the occasional one-night stand. Finding Qīng on board, and having to protect him both from the infiltrator who abducted him and the malevolent captain who would happily torture him to death, changes that very quickly. Red is as of yet unsure if this is a good thing, as while he would love to be in a proper relationship with a human, it would put him in a terribly compromising position, given that his species is currently at war over humanity's encroachment into their territory. Red is very practical and calm, and keeps his opinions and emotions mostly to himself; he is well-known for his ability to settle conflicts between others, and strives for fairness and compassion above all else. He enjoys farming and landscaping, often drawing out plans for his home territory in great detail, and finds Earth history to be fascinating.

Secondaries:

White, Daniel "Ghost" Fulton (he/him) - Front line infiltrator of the ship, and the reason Qīng is on board, Ghost is (usually) the best of the best at what he does: blending in with human research and military crews, and then quickly slaughtering them all before they can reach Impostor territory. Unfortunately, he is very much ruled by his passions, and has some xenophilic leanings he's been repressing all his life, so not only do his kills tend to be vicious, but hearing Qīng express an attraction for Impostors gave him some very stupid and awful ideas, which were not helped by the fact that Ghost is less than great at taking 'no' for an answer. Case in point: Ghost would be willing to sleep with just about any human, but especially Qīng, and has slept with nearly every single member of his crew, outside of Red (who has zero interest in other Impostors), the captain (who wants something deeper than mere casual flings), and Red's childhood friend (who has actual standards, thank you very much). Ghost is generally laid-back, and incredibly confident; he is widely seen as a flirt and a jokester, and has unshakable loyalty towards those he cares for. He enjoys fashion, often designing his own clothes, and is equal parts enamored with and derisive of the paranormal; his own nickname is a tongue in cheek reference to that conflicted interest.

Yellow, Marisol Quinto (she/her) - Communications expert and Red's childhood friend, Marisol is the only reason Red managed to get a job on an infiltrator ship at all, and has spent much of her life building her skills, career, and social network. Initially, she wanted to use her keen understanding of human language, cyphers, and coding from within her home territory, with the expectation that by the time she and Red were assigned together, they would already be in the process of starting a family like they promised each other years prior. Unfortunately, Red being caught with a human sort of dashed that expectation, and with a hormonal disorder that leaves her less than appealing to other Impostors - and thus unlikely to have a family - Marisol decided to instead accept a ship-bound position. Concern and care for Red brought her to eventually assist him in getting more respectable work, and though she is still bitter about being blindsided by his xenophilia, she won't out his ongoing indiscretions to their crew. She hopes he'll change his mind about her, and can't help being suspicious of whatever is going on between her best friend and the weird human that Ghost smuggled on board, but she tries her best to stay positive and focus on doing what she loves. Marisol is social to the extreme, and a mother hen to everyone on the ship; she is the go-to person to spill woes to, though she guards her own secrets jealously, and tends to shut down when she feels lonely. She enjoys cute things, especially clothing, and loves gardening, with sunflowers being her obvious favorite.

Purple, Shio Musashi (they/them) - The First Infiltrator, and now prime captain of the infiltration fleet, thanks in part to a great tragedy that befell their clan, Shio has cultivated a great hatred towards humanity throughout the course of their life. This hatred has swelled to the point of them refusing any field assignment that would require consistent interaction with humans, and intentionally forgetting just about everything they were forced to learn about Earth and its people. Shio enjoys watching humans suffer, and upon being informed of Qīng - the first breach on a ship under their command (supposedly), and a breach that only Ghost, Red, and Marisol were aware of so far - they chose not to eject him, refusing to allow Qīng such a quick death. Mistakenly believing that Red hates humans as well, especially since his secret attraction had long since ruined any chance of him becoming an infiltrator, Shio offered him a deal: that in exchange for Red's silence on the breach, leaving the crew none the wiser, Red would be allowed to keep Qīng in private for "stress relief". Shio is as yet unaware that Red only accepted the deal to protect Qīng (with the added intent of getting him home safely), and thus they later allow Qīng among the crew proper in order to better witness his "suffering". Shio is, in a word, intense - to other Impostors, they are stern but fair, and viciously protective of those they're close with. To humans, they are callous and ruthless, going out of their way to ensure pain and suffering. Shio's career takes up the majority of their time, with their family-oriented priorities taking up the rest, but they enjoy making games of things, and thus have a penchant for making (perhaps ill-advised) deals for fun and occasionally profit. They especially like games and deals that lead to human misery, which plays a very large part in their affection for Ghost, who openly goes along with their whims.

Tertiaries (left side):

Orange, Cam Ngo (she/her) - Inventory manager and general spitfire, Cam knows barely anything about humans other than that she Does Not Like Them - humans have hurt a lot of people she cares about. Mostly no-nonsense, which puts her somewhat at odds with the more playful crew members on board (chiefly Ghost), and a bit of a bully to whoever she doesn't like (chiefly humans), though she has a secret heart of gold that only those who earn her approval get to see.

Green, Verdell Dubois (they/them) - Persistence infiltrator and the second most social butterfly on the entire ship next to Marisol, Verdell is all about learning everything they can about everyone around them. They don't necessarily care if what they learn is accurate, either, because they also thrive on drama; something they often drive Cam up the wall with. While they're not as efficient of an infiltrator as Ghost, Verdell is better at actually gaining the trust of their targets long-term, as they are quite adept at reading a room. They are also not vicious about their kills, as they have no personal beef with humans - although the one they love was badly wronged by rogue human soldiers, Verdell isn't the type to blame an entire group for the actions of a few rotten individuals.

Black, Daruk Varma (he/him) - Security officer, and Number One Human-Hater on board, Daruk takes his job very seriously, which means any human in his sights has to die posthaste. His entire clan and territory was destroyed by rogue human soldiers shortly before his career assignment, leading Shio to snatch him up for their crew in solidarity, and the two have been fast friends ever since. Qīng's presence on board the ship is a source of great fury for Daruk, as various things keep preventing him from killing the "threat" - said things range from Qīng's incredible running ability, to Ghost playing one of his stupid pranks right in the middle of the damn hallway, to Daruk's very own superior officer, Red, who is absolutely fucking Qīng on the down-low, Daruk has zero doubts about it. Putting that aside, he and Verdell bicker constantly thanks to an ongoing rivalry, the source of which Daruk cannot determine for the life of him, as he actually quite likes Verdell and would much rather kiss them instead.

(Verdell and Daruk get marginally longer bits than the other tertiaries, as they have more impact on certain story beats than the others.)

Tertiaries (right side):

Brown, Alondra Novar (she/her) - Chief engineer, Alondra is shy and reclusive, but cheery and sweet once someone gets her talking. Outside of her two usual tagalongs, of which she is the unspoken leader, Ghost is the most adept at getting her out of her shell, as she finds his confidence bolstering for her. She is very outspoken about the family she wants to have, though she is an oddity in that she explicitly wants a willing human host for her young. This is odd because carrying Impostor young to term is, without exception, fatal to the host, and absolutely no human would want to do it outside of being completely suicidal.

Navy, Derya Lagunov (she/her) - Backup infiltrator and very much the strong, silent type, Derya is not so much shy as she is a supportive listener. She finds talking to be a hassle, and doesn't like the feel of it, anyway, so much of her communication is either through contact (the means Impostors use to 'speak' to each other), or a mix of sign language and written word (when she has to deal with humans). Though she is not shy, and likes social interaction just fine, Derya takes a very long time to open up to others, as she is an intensely private individual.

Teal, Tawoos Hafeez (they/them) - Security officer and self-appointed wingman/bodyguard, Tawoos revels in the safety and happiness of others. This has earned them a very close friendship (sometimes with benefits) between Alondra and Derya, and a consistent stream of invitations to literally anywhere Ghost or Verdell can scheme up at a moment's notice. As their general temperament is similar, Tawoos gets along well with Red, and has great respect for his ability to resolve conflict.

(Yeah, I know Navy isn't a canon color, and Teal isn't either and could just as easily be Cyan, but whatever, don't at me, bro.)

Extra fun tidbits before I go sleep:

Humans are accidentally but also kind of on purpose colonizers again (whoops)

Technology is powered by god magic so I don't have to explain too much sciencey shit

"God" is a very tired college student who rapidly ascended over the course of one semester and "fixed" a bunch of shitty Earth things three centuries before the story starts, but also they're still technically...around? Everywhere??? It's a whole thing and yet also barely mentioned at all XD

There are other aliens but they only get brought up just long enough to make it clear that Impostors are chill with every other species except Humans, Specifically

Earth is called Terra now, and pretty much everyone hates it, but all the people in charge thought the change would be "unifying" so now it's Official

Turns out the only thing unifying about Terra is the vast majority of humans thinking it's stupid and getting offended when anyone calls them "Terrans"

When infiltrations first started and weren't yet deadly (or even dangerous), humans made a bunch of dumb jokes and pop culture references about it, which of course included Among Us

The jokes stopped being funny when whole crews started mysteriously dying out and the only message humanity got from the culprits more or less boiled down to 'fuck it, we guess we're Impostors, then :)'

Human civilians are almost never harmed, and even Impostors who don't like humans will try to help them get back to their own kind; human researchers and soldiers, however, are a whole other ballpark (i.e. totes fair game for Murder Time)

Humans still have not made any meaningful contact with the Impostors - only the xenophiles have managed it, and they ain't talkin', cuz if they talk they lose out on all that sweet, sweet alien D and tentacles

Xenophilia fetish clubs are called host clubs, because anyone not in the know - Impostor OR human - would get two wildly separate ideas about what a "host club" should be and thus think nothing of it

Red was never actually referred to as "Red" until Qīng came along, and Qīng initially called him that for lack of anything else to call the Big Security Dude With Red Bandana + Tentacles; it pretty quickly sticks because Red doesn't care and Qīng thinks it's cute

There are other Impostors on Shio's crew, of course, since ten people does not a crew make, but these ten are the only ones important to the plot, lol

The crew normally wear safety suits, all in white, like typical human crews; there are some customization choices made for the sake of aesthetics, of course (Red has a red bandana, Marisol has a sunflower brooch, Ghost has Slimer stickers in inappropriate places, and so on...)

Impostors are a tribal society from deep inside Charon but because of magic they are also technically spacefaring; they are everywhere in the Oort Cloud

Aaaand an Impostor's form is determined at birth by their host and some hosts are Basically Dragons :)

Sleep time now

[theworstfoundingfathers]

Who is the worst founding father? Round 5: Thomas Jefferson vs Henry Clay

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Following the American Revolutionary War and prior to becoming the nation’s third president in 1801, Jefferson was the first United States secretary of state under George Washington and then the nation’s second vice president under John Adams.

Starting in 1803, he promoted a western expansionist policy with the Louisiana Purchase and began the process of Indian tribal removal from the newly acquired territory.

In confidential talks with French consul Joseph Létombe, Jefferson attacked President John Adams and predicted [he] would serve only one term, encouraged France to invade England, and advised Létombe to stall any American envoys sent to Paris by instructing him to “listen to them and then drag out the negotiations at length and mollify them by the urbanity of the proceedings." This toughened the tone that the French government adopted toward the Adams administration.

Jefferson lived in a planter economy largely dependent upon slavery, and used slave labor for his household, plantation, and workshops. Over his lifetime he owned about 600 slaves.

During his presidency, Jefferson allowed the diffusion of slavery into the Louisiana Territory hoping to prevent slave uprisings in Virginia and to prevent South Carolina secession. In 1804, in a compromise on the slavery issue, Jefferson and Congress banned domestic slave trafficking for one year into the Louisiana Territory.

In 1819, Jefferson strongly opposed a Missouri statehood application amendment that banned domestic slave importation and freed slaves at the age of 25 on grounds it would destroy the union.

Jefferson never freed most of his slaves, and he remained silent on the issue while he was president.

Since the 1790s, Jefferson was rumored to have had children by his sister-in-law and slave Sally Hemings, known as the Jefferson-Hemings controversy. According to scholarly consensus…as well as oral history, Jefferson probably fathered at least six children with Hemings.

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Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 elections. He helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the “Great Compromiser” and was part of the “Great Triumvirate” of Congressmen, alongside fellow Whig Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun.

[Clay and his family] initially lived in Lexington, but in 1804 they began building a plantation outside of Lexington known as Ashland. The Ashland estate eventually encompassed over 500 acres (200 ha), with numerous outbuildings such as a smokehouse, a greenhouse, and several barns. Enslaved there were 122 during Clay’s lifetime with about 50 needed for farming and the household. 

In early 1819, a dispute erupted over the proposed statehood of Missouri after New York Congressman James Tallmadge introduced a legislative amendment that would provide for the gradual emancipation of Missouri’s slaves. Though Clay had previously called for gradual emancipation in Kentucky, he sided with the Southerners in voting down Tallmadge’s amendment. Clay instead supported Senator Jesse B. Thomas’s compromise proposal in which Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, Maine would be admitted as a free state, and slavery would be forbidden in the territories north of 36° 30’ parallel. Clay helped assemble a coalition that passed the Missouri Compromise, as Thomas’s proposal became known. Further controversy ensued when Missouri’s constitution banned free blacks from entering the state, but Clay was able to engineer another compromise that allowed Missouri to join as a state in August 1821.