#public outrage against violence

[townpostin]

Sikh Community Protests Doctor's Rape and Murder in Jamshedpur

Demonstrators demand stricter laws to protect women across India Large-scale protest held outside district headquarters against Kolkata hospital incident. JAMSHEDPUR – The Sikh community in Jamshedpur staged a robust demonstration outside the district headquarters, protesting the recent rape and murder of a female doctor at R.G. Kar Hospital in Kolkata. A significant number of women joined the…

[ozzgin]

Yandere! Yakuza x Reader

I've been plagued by this idea for a while, so let me know what you think! This is just the character introduction. Your new landlord is a Yakuza boss, and his scary looking underling has been tasked to deal with your tenant needs! Although he didn't expect you to be this cute. And you didn't expect him to be this unhinged.

Content: female reader, violence, mentions of stalking

[Part 2] | [Yakuza Masterlist]

This was the last straw.

You're angrily stuffing your suitcase with necessities before the moving company arrives. Each glimpse around the cramped apartment fills you with outrage, as you're still heavily shaken from the events of last night. 

You first begun to suspect you might have a stalker when you found your outer lock with a fresh dent in it. You then picked a small scrap from the ground nearby and assumed it was leftover damage, but upon further inspection you discovered, disgusted, that it was part of your peephole. Someone must've fiddled with your door a fair amount. You tried to approach your immediate neighbors for help, but they either refused to answer your persistent knocks or downright scurried away when faced with your questions. They didn't want to deal with a foreigner. 

You tried to put it behind you. The police advised you to be cautions, as there was nothing else they could do without concrete evidence. And thankfully, you had several peaceful weeks following the incident. Last night you were suddenly awakened by faint scratches coming from your balcony. You groggily got up and wondered if your recently added bird feeder was attracting nocturnal visitors. You got up without turning on the light, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious animal. As you pulled the drape, however, you were met with the large frame of a man plucking your laundry in a hurry. 

A panicked scream erupted from the depths of your chest and you slapped the light switch, erratically searching for your phone. By the time you dialed emergency, the intruder had vanished. You were sobbing against the wall under the fake reassurances of the operator, eyeing the sliding door that had no lock. Had he wished, the masked man could've easily invited himself in. You were at the mercy of a lunatic and no one seemed to be impressed by your situation. 

No more. Ideally you'd go back to your home country and forget about your plans to build yourself a life in Japan. What were you even thinking? A lonely girl, low on funds, signing a contract to be relocated across the ocean for work. You barely scraped the first months of a mandatory year. 

You close your suitcase with a satisfying click and on your way out you wipe the table of all the newspaper clippings. You've been scanning the potential offers on the market. The ones within your budget, of course, which means you don't have to worry about being picky. Until you find a new place, your belongings can wait in storage. Dusty furniture is a better prospect than waking up with a pervert looming over you. 

By the time the clock hits evening hours, you're sipping on your iced coffee with a defeated sigh. Most of the cheap apartments seem to be given to locals. Not outsiders like you. At least they spared you of the false hopes and curtly told you to not expect any call back, so you can swiftly move on to the next circled address. You pull out the crumbled sheet of paper from your pocket. Reading over your list of crossed out lines like this deflates you greatly. At the very bottom lies your final hope: the ad you'd stumbled upon this morning was too good to be true and the realtor was available for viewing at any time, so you're almost certain it's some sort of scam. Yet you can't afford to skip it, can you? You stand up, pat your jeans and take a deep breath in. 

As you check your phone to confirm the location, you begin to doubt your decision. It's hard to believe no other potential renters have showed up. The apartment is in a convenient area, very close to public transport, at a great price, on what looks like a busy street. Isn't it the dream? So why? You glance around, examining the surroundings. The shops are bustling with people. You try to come up with possible explanations, when a deep voice startles you.

"You must be (Y/N), right? You sure are easy to spot."

You turn around to greet the person. Although the second you spot him, you take an unconscious step back. You'd expected a middle aged man dressed in formal attire with a shy bow and clumsy movements. The one standing before you resembles none of that. He's imposingly tall, with a muscular built and slicked back hair. You can discern the tattoos peeking out from under the rolled up sleeves. His face has multiple deep scars and you can only assume that the pale, discolored eye that's transfixed in one direction is a fake made of glass. One might call him handsome, if you're into the kind of appearance you see in documentaries about the mafia. 

"Y-you're the landlord?" You stutter, immediately covering your mouth and regretting your lack of tact. 

"Nuh uh, Boss sent me to deal with it." He flashes you a genuine grin, completely unperturbed by your offhanded implication. "I'm Daitou."

He continues towards the entrance and you follow behind, too awkward to back down now. He describes the living quarters with surprising enthusiasm. If you were to close your eyes and disregard his heavy Kansai accent, you could very well be convinced it's a professional real estate agent hard at work. 

"Excuse me for asking, but..." Once he finishes his marketing presentation, you cannot help the increasing anxiety. "What's the catch?"

"Huh?"

"For something like this to be so cheap...and no one else being interested...may I be frank and ask what's wrong with it? Please understand, I just left my previous apartment because of a stalker. I don't want to be packing again anytime soon."

"Well, isn't it obvious?" He searches your gaze for a moment, before gasping as if remembering something. "Wait, you're a foreigner, so I guess you don't know. Ah, that explains it." 

He lets out a hearty laugh, satisfied with his conclusion. 

"You didn't notice anything strange outside?"

You ponder his question before slowly shaking your head in denial. 

"Really? A bunch of heavily tattooed guys with family pins on their suits...This is a yakuza quarter. Our Family owns most businesses here. But lately we've had a lot of police on our backs, ya know? Bound to happen when the street is swarming with us. So Boss had this great idea - he's smart like that, ya know, I've never been the bright one - anyways, he suggested we rent some of our housing to regular civilians. Less suspicious that way." 

He crosses his arms and nods to himself proudly. 

"I myself think it's a great deal. You won't find anything cheaper for the kind of stuff you're getting. All you have to do is, you know, mind your business. If some weasel questions you, no Sir, you haven't seen or heard anything suspicious. That's all."

You can only stare wide eyed, somewhat taken aback by his honesty.

"Uh...Are you sure you were supposed to tell me all of this? I feel we're skipping some steps before admitting to organized crime."

Now it's his turn to consider your inquiry. 

"Probably not, but I'm not good with words. You look like a smart girl, so I thought I won't sugarcoat it. I'm sure you already know that if you leave and rat us out I'll be throwing your chopped up remains in the nearby river. Or would you want to be shipped home instead? I'm a nice guy like that, hehe."

You return a crooked smile and purse your lips in the process. You'd rather not learn the percentage of truth in his humor anytime soon. 

"You mentioned a stalker? I can guarantee you he won't follow here, miss. And if he's that dumb to wander on our turf, well, me and my guys always hang around the block. Leave him to me and I'll bring you his teeth in a box." 

"I-...Why teeth of all the things?"

"Just easier to pull out, ya know." He winks and reaches for his back pocket, revealing an old pair of pliers with childish delight. "See, I'm a bit of a handyman, so I always have some tools on me."

Strangely enough, you're not as terrified as you would expect from someone in your shoes. Certainly your knees are weaker when compared to your pre-encounter state, but there's something about his demeanor that doesn't feel malicious or threatening. Like conversing with an old friend at a pub. 

"Will I truly not get in trouble? You guys do your thing and I'm 100% not involved?"

"You have my word." And with that, as if closing the sale of his lifetime, he confidently slaps a stack of papers on the nearby counter and hands you a pen. "You already have my number, if anyone pisses you off just hit me up and I'll be at your service. Boss left everything to me."

No perverts and less of your monthly allowance going towards rent. Maybe it's your despair talking, but you've been persuaded nonetheless. You scribble your name in the designated field and shove the documents towards your new acquaintance. 

"Pleasure doing business with you, miss (Y/N)." He cheerfully dangles the keys before dropping them in your hand and heads for the door.

"Oh, is shipping included in the rent?"

He stops and turns to you, mildly confused.

"You said if I mess up you'll ship my remains home. Do I pay for the postage myself, or is that part of the monthly tax?" You ask with a cheeky grin. 

His eyes narrow in delight and you can tell he's greatly amused by your words. 

"Nah, consider it a gift from me. Gotta treat a lady nice, 'specially if it's a pretty one like you."

And with that, you're alone again. You look around the room, trying to visualize your new home. It's already getting dark outside. Now that you've had the situation explained to you, you can definitely see what Daitou meant. There's the occasional police officer patrolling the street, and plenty of men dressed in similar fashion walking in small groups. 

"And?"

Outside the building, a young man is leaning against the wall with a cigarette in his mouth. He seems to have been waiting for Daitou. 

"It's done. Some cute foreigner is moving in." He lifts an arm in a flexing motion, patting his bicep in a congratulatory manner. "Boss will be surprised, eh?"

"You're fucking with me."

"What? You wanna go back upstairs and check?" He responds, appalled. "Might've taken longer than expected, but I told ya I can manage!"

"Are you sure you didn't threaten her or something? I still don't know what Boss was thinking when he asked a nutcase like you to deal with the civvies." 

"Hey hey hey, I may not be all fancy speaking like you or Kazuya, but I'm not dumb. Matter of fact, she already signed the papers."

"I never said you're dumb. Just batshit crazy." The young man sighs and flicks his cigarette butt away, stomping on it.

"Let's go and tell the others."

[heritageposts]

The Grayzone has obtained slides from a confidential Israel lobby presentation based on data from Republican pollster Frank Luntz. They contain talking points for politicians and public figures seeking to justify Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Two prominent pro-Israel lobby groups are holding private briefings in New York City to coach elected officials and well-known figures on how to influence public opinion in favor of the Israeli military’s rampage in Gaza, The Grayzone can reveal. These PR sessions, convened by the UJA-Federation and Jewish Community Relations Council, rely on data collected by Frank Luntz, a veteran Republican pollster and pundit. [...] The Luntz-tested presentations on the war in Gaza urge politicians to avoid trumpeting America’s supposedly shared democratic values with Israel, and focus instead on deploying “The Language of War with Hamas.” According to this framing, they must deploy incendiary language painting Hamas as a “brutal and savage…organization of hate” which has “raped women,” while insisting Israel is engaged in “a war for humanity.” [...] Luntz’s Gaza war presentation puts his poll-tested tactics back in the Israel lobby’s hands, urging pro-Israel public figures to stay on the attack with incendiary language and shocking allegations against their enemies. In one focus group, Luntz asked participants to state which alleged act by Hamas on October 7 “bothers you more.” After being presented with a laundry list of alleged atrocities, a majority declared that they were most upset by the claim that Hamas “raped civilians” – 19 percent more than those who expressed outrage that Hamas supposedly “exterminated civilians.” Data like this apparently influenced the Israeli government to launch an obsessive but still unsuccessful campaign to prove that Hamas carried out sexual assault on a systematic basis on October 7. Initiated at Israel’s United Nations mission in December 2023 with speeches by neoliberal tech oligarch Sheryl Sandberg and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a recipient of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and speaking fees from Israel lobby organizations, Tel Aviv’s propaganda blitz has yet to produce a single self-identified victim of sexual assault by Hamas. A March 5 report by UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence Pramila Patten did not contain one direct testimony of sexual assault on October 7. What’s more, Patten’s team said they found “no digital evidence specifically depicting acts of sexual violence.”

They also advice to use different language for Democrat and Republican voters, which inadvertently provides one of the most succinct explanation of the difference between the two genocidal parties that I've ever come across:

To make their arguments stick, Luntz recommends pro-Israel forces avoid the exterminationist language favored by Israeli officials who have called, for example, to “erase” the population of Gaza, and to instead advocate for “an efficient, effective approach” to eliminating Hamas. At the same time, veteran pollster acknowledges that Republican voters prefer phrases which imply maximalist violence, like “eradicate” and “obliterate,” while sanitized terms like “neutralize” appeal more to Democrats. Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Donald Trump have showcased similar focus-grouped rhetoric with their calls to “finish them” and “finish the problem” in Gaza.

One of the slides, illustrating what language to use:

There are several more slides in the article. I recommend reading the whole thing, start to finish. One more thing I'd like to highlight though:

Luntz acknowledges Israel’s mounting PR problems in a slide identifying the most powerful tactics employed by Palestine solidarity activists. “Israelis attacking Israel is the second most potent weapon against Israel,” the visual display reads beside a photo of a protest by Jewish Voices for Peace, a US-based Jewish organization dedicated to ending Israel’s occupation of Palestine. “The most potent” tactic in mobilizing opposition to Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to Luntz, “is the visual destruction of Gaza and the human toll.” The slide inadvertently acknowledges the cruelty of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, displaying a bombed out apartment building with clearly anguished women and children fleeing in the foreground. But Luntz assures his audience, “It ‘looks like a genocide’ even though the damage has nothing to do with the definition.” According to this logic, the American public can become more tolerant of copiously documented crimes against humanity if they are simply told not to believe their lying eyes.

. . . full article on GZ (6 Mar 2024)

[rafescherie]

✮⋆˙ bsf!rafe coming to your rescue when you need him

warnings — mature contents; physical violence (fighting).

cherie's note —oh noooo save me bsf!rafe, oh noooo. decided to post this draft c: ! will definitely make a part two if anybody wants to read it. i love bsf!rafe being secretly whipped for reader trope ugh.

his knuckles threatened white with the way he aggressively gripped onto the steering wheel of his notorious black truck. it was half-past midnight, the tall man settling down for the night when his phone vibrated against his lacquered nightstand, revealing a phone call from you. this was not unusual — you and rafe cameron had been best friends for years, conjoined at the hip up until a few weeks ago when you had met your boyfriend. rafe hadn't liked him from the start — he was just another preppy kid from this side of the island, who never put in the work and complained when shit didn't go his way. since then, he had hardly spoken to you, tension spreading like a sickness between both of you — you hardly even greeted him when you saw him in public, and rafe knew he was the reason. the wall wedged between you both only further grew everyday.

the weeping in your broken voice shatters his fucking heart to pieces, strangled communication over your throat-swelling hyperventilation. you knew he would do anything for you, whether he was holding a grudge or not — the only person you could truly depend on, was rafe cameron. he was so helplessly whipped for you — he would go as far as killing for you, if it ever came down to it. his cold demeanor shattered immediately — he knew what he needed to do.

the anger boiling under the surface of his flesh hadn't subsided during the short ride, slamming the heavy metallic door of his huge truck shut with so much force it shook the vehicle. his steps up the driveway of this house were filled with fury, ready to start a fight with the first person he noticed even looking at you the wrong way. the music of the party hummed loudly outside of the residence, fading as the salty ocean breeze flowed through the otherwise quiet neighborhood.

and there you sat, perched lowly on the front steps of the porch — salty tears stained onto your flustered cheeks, eyes puffy from how hard you had been sobbing into your phone. you stood at his arrival, arms wrapping around yourself to insulate the warmth of your own body under your pitiful little dress. his arms wrapped around your shoulders, nose nuzzling into the fabric of his shirt. the cologne that clung to the material of his clothing sent a chill of comfort over your exhausted body, a wave of safety easing your nerves.

"you okay, sweet girl?" he asks softly, dark-blue eyes searching over your face for any sort of discomfort. his gaze flickered with something other than just concern — outrage and frenzy. a knot of rage tightened within his chest at the sight of your implausible little nod of reassurance. he kisses the top of your hairline softly, pulling away swiftly to step foot onto the wooden porch.

the house was packed — sweaty, drunken teens swaying to the beat of this pathetic playlist beaming through every room. he moved effortlessly through the crowd of people, heading towards the kitchen with one thing in mind — revenge. despite your whiny protests following him along, he was blinded by rage, bright red flooding his vision. your boyfriend wasn't going to get away with this. not again.

across the lavish kitchen, your boyfriend held a bottle of beer within his grasp — a smug look pressed across his face at the attention from his friends. had he not been drinking tonight, things could have been different — but he was a mean drunk, ego fueled by the torment he placed on those around him. this time, it had been you who had inevitably fallen within his crosshairs. rafe had figured it was only a matter of time before you fell victim, too.

rafe's steps towards him are strong and calculated. your boyfriend’s inebriated state of mind slows his reflexes, unable to recognize rafe approaching until he towered over him. the eldest cameron sibling's closed fist shot out like a bullet. the punch connected with his jaw, snapping his head to the side. pain bursted through his skull, sharp and disorientating, hardly enough time before rafe would throw another his way.

"piece of shit," rafe growls, his voice rough. his hands curled into fists, knuckles white with rage, "look at you — always so weak. just like i said you'd be."

your hand flies over your mouth, pure shock coursing through your veins at the sight. you felt bad — truly, you did. but it wasn't like he didn't deserve it — he did. your heart thunders against your chest, the rhythmic pounding almost in sync with the blows delivered to his face.

your boyfriend gasps, his chest tightening with the effort of breathing, but he didn't try to rise. his body felt like it belonged to someone else — someone weak, broken. he had no fight left in him, body hunched and bruised, face pale from the beating.

"you're pathetic," rafe sneered, wiping the blood from off of his own lip, as he took a step back. "look at you. poor excuse of a fucking boyfriend."

adrenaline surged through rafe's bloodstream, delivering one final kick to his ribcage before walking away. your boyfriend’s eyes, bloodshot and swollen, slowly lifted to meet yours, but there was no fire behind them. only exhaustion. only defeat.

you followed rafe out of the party silently, tears streaming down your cheeks. despite the chilly air across the ocean, rafe's body was warm with epinephrine, the rush only subsiding the closer he got to his parked vehicle. his jaw was clenched, the muscle ticking under his skin, but he held himself together, his voice low and steady as he helped you into the large truck. every movement was deliberate, careful, as though he was fighting the urge to snap, and yet, he didn’t let his frustration show beyond his tense posture. once you were settled, he stepped around the front, the weight of his anger still radiating off him, before sliding into the driver’s seat with a slow exhale.

the ride back to his house was silent — tension cutting the air like a razor blade. everything had happened so fast, the night becoming a blur the more you thought about it. still, sitting inside of rafe's truck once more, you felt at home. it hadn't become a realization until you sat perched in that stupid short dress, looking so damn pretty despite your running makeup, that you realized how much you missed this.

"thank you, rafe." you speak, breaking the silence. your voice is soft in comparison, offering genuine gratitude to your guardian angel. his free hand laid against his lap, bruised knuckles throbbing under his tanned skin — yet, he was more than happy he had come to your rescue.

"'course, pretty girl. told you i'd be there if you needed me."

[f1ghtsoftly]

All The Women’s News You Missed This Week

5/26/25-6/2/25

Greta Thunberg, along with 11 other activists, set sail this week for Gaza, intending to break Israel’s aid blockade. Women in Iran have begun defying mandatory head coverings en masse. Female fishmongers in Kenya organize against routine sexual coercion by fishermen. South Korean women speak out against leading anti-feminist presidential candidates in the aftermath of former President Yoon’s shock declaration of martial law. A Mother in South Africa who sold her daughter into sex trafficking receives a life sentence. The public rallies around a 10-year-old girl who died after sexual assault, and the subsequent delay in lifesaving healthcare, demanding better treatment for victims of sexual assault and those from lower castes. Taylor Swift regained control of her music, repurchasing her masters for a shockingly low $360 million sum. 

Stories marked with a * are my favorite, or the most impactful, stories of the week. 

Want this in your inbox instead? Subscribe here

Women’s Reproductive Rights: 

She Got an Abortion. So A Texas Cop Used 83,000 Cameras to Track Her Down. 

*Rohingya women coerced to use contraception in Bangladesh refugee camps

*Argentina used as a ‘testing ground’ for eroding abortion rights, warns Amnesty 

One death every seven minutes: The world's worst country to give birth  (Nigeria)

China student says college made her 'take off trousers' for period leave 

Women Resist:

Outrage in Kenya over detention of software developer 

Profiles in Courage: IRS vs. ICE? Melanie Krause Quit Rather Than Hand Over Your Tax Data for Deportations  (USA)

These women are defying Iran's hijab laws — despite fear of reprisal  

*City council of Poggibonsi, Italy awards honorary citizenship to Warisheh Moradi 

*The women of No Sex for Fish are survivors — but their survival is precarious  (Kenya) 

The transformation of women’s sports in Saudi Arabia is no mirage. Just ask the women

AOC viewed positively by more Americans than Trump or Harris, poll finds

*Climate activist Greta Thunberg and "Game of Thrones" actor Liam Cunningham join aid ship sailing to Gaza  

‘Empathy is a kind of strength’: Jacinda Ardern on kind leadership, public rage and life in Trump’s America (New Zealand/USA)

*These women helped bring down a president - now they say they feel invisible (South Korea)

*Mother of jailed Egyptian democracy activist hospitalized after resuming hunger strike

Nation’s Largest Black Feminist Gathering Heads to New Orleans  

Turkish Government to Women: Motherhood or Nothing

Violence Against Women and Girls: 

Mother who sold six-year-old daughter given life term in South Africa 

Suspect in South African student's murder killed in police shootout 

Women and girls ‘not safe anywhere’ as Darfur suffers surge in sexual violence 

Nigerian women forced into prostitution in Senegal 

*India anger over 10-year-old rape victim's death after alleged treatment delay 

Women’s Rights Group Warns Of Rise In Forced, Early Marriages In Afghanistan

Stories from women in Saudi Arabia’s ‘jails’ contrast the nation’s illusion of progress

Spread of sexual deepfake images created by generative AI growing in Japan  

Smokey Robinson files $500m case against rape accusers 

Of Interest: 

Tunisian women outraged by plan to allow notaries to finalize divorces

'No one voted to deport moms': Pro-Trump town regrets its choice

Denmark plans compulsory military service for women

How the Taliban is using law for gender apartheid, and how to push back

Arts and Culture: 

A look at Indian American life highlights communities across the U.S.  

Taylor Swift Shocker: Singer Buys Back and Will Reissue First Six Albums — Even as ‘Reputation (Taylor’s Version)’ ‘Can Still Have a Moment to Reemerge’ Later 

Margins to movement: How Mangai and Marappachi rewrote Tamil Nadu theatre history (India)

Museum Removes Māori Artist’s Work Inviting Viewers to Walk on New Zealand Flag 

As always, this is global and domestic news from a US perspective, covering feminist issues and women in the news more generally. As of right now, I do not cover Women’s Sports. Published each Tuesday.

[mariacallous]

Glad people are finally finding out that these Pro Palestine protestors are ratfuckers-by-design at best (and Republicans at worst) and that's why they support Trump:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/08/dnc-palestinian-gaza-protests/679524/

One month ago, an NBC News headline reported:

Protesters made a tiny footprint at the RNC in Milwaukee. Other than a modest daytime march on Monday afternoon, the first day of the Republican National Convention, there were virtually no protests over the event’s four days and nights.

Obviously, the story from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago is already proving different.

This is part of a pattern. Gather any large number of Democrats together, in almost any city or state, whether at rallies, fundraisers, or presidential appearances, and pro-Palestinian protesters will try to wreck the event. These actions have been building to threats of outright violence. Pro-Trump and Republican events, meanwhile, are almost always left in peace.

Of the two big parties, the Democrats are more emotionally sympathetic to Palestinian suffering. The Biden administration is working to negotiate the cease-fire that the pro-Palestinian camp claims to want. The administration has provided hundreds of millions of dollars of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. President Joe Biden’s terms for ending the fighting in Gaza envision a rapid movement to full Palestinian statehood.

By contrast, former President Donald Trump uses Palestinian as an insult. His administration moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. In 2016, Trump campaigned on a complete shutdown of travel by Muslims into the United States; Trump now speaks of deporting campus anti-Israel protesters. He has pledged to block Gaza refugees from entering the United States.

Trump wants to tell the story that he and his party will enforce public order. He alleges that Democrats cannot or will not protect Americans against chaos spread by extremist elements. The pro-Palestinian movement works every day to create images that support Trump’s argument. As a visibly annoyed Vice President Kamala Harris asked protesters in Detroit earlier this month: Do they want to elect Donald Trump?

Not all pro-Palestinian demonstrators are thinking about the election. Many seem driven by moral outrage or ideological passion. But for those who are thinking strategically, the answer is obvious: Yes, they want to elect Trump. Of course they want to elect Trump. Electing Trump is their best—and maybe only—hope.

To understand why, cast your mind back a quarter century.

In the election of 2000, Vice President Al Gore faced Texas Governor George W. Bush. Gore probably would have won in a straight two-way contest. But that same year, the progressive advocate Ralph Nader entered the race as a third-party challenger—and he pulled just enough of the vote to tip the Electoral College and the presidency toward Bush.

Nader later professed regret for running as a third-party candidate. But at the time, Nader understood exactly what he was doing. Defeating Gore and electing Bush was the intended and declared purpose of Nader’s candidacy. Nader detailed his logic in many speeches, including this one to the summer-2000 convention of the NAACP:

If you ever wondered why the right wing and the corporate wing of the Democratic Party has so much more power over that party than the progressive wing, it’s because the right wing and the corporate wing have somewhere to go: It’s called the Republican Party. And so they’re catered to and they’re regaled—like the Democratic Leadership Council, they’re catered to and they’re regaled. But if you look at the progressive wing … they have nowhere to go. And you know when you’re told that you have nowhere to go, you get taken for granted. And when you get taken for granted, you get taken.

To paraphrase his argument even more bluntly: If progressives caused the Democrats to lose the presidency in the election of 2000, then Democrats would take progressives more seriously in all the elections that followed.

Nader’s logic was not altogether wrong. In many ways, the post-2000 Democratic Party has shifted well to the left of where the party was in the 1980s and ’90s. But catering to the party’s left has cost Democrats winnable races, and with them, key priorities: The Iraq War and 20 years of inaction on climate change head the list of progressive disappointments since the 2000 election, and the list extends from there. Whether or not the shift was worth the price, Nader was neither ignorant nor deceived. He identified his goal and willingly accepted the risks for himself and his movement.

So it is now with the pro-Palestinian demonstrators of 2024.

They start with a fundamental political problem: Their cause is not popular. Solid majorities of Americans accept Israel’s war in Gaza as valid and fiercely condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks as unacceptable. The exact margin varies from poll to poll depending on how the question is asked, but when presented with a binary choice between Israel and the Palestinians, Americans prefer Israel by a factor of at least two to one.

The brute fact of those numbers makes it very difficult for pro-Palestinian activists to win elections. In this cycle, despite all the emotion stirred by the Gaza war, two of Israel’s fiercest critics in Congress lost their primaries to pro-Israel challengers.

From the point of view of any practical politician: If a cause is so unpopular that it cannot help its friends, why listen to its advocates?

The only answer to that question, again from the practical point of view, is the message of the protesters in Chicago: Maybe we can’t help you if you do listen to us, but we can hurt you if you don’t!

Think of it another way. Since the bloody attack by Hamas on October 7 and the Israeli response, pro-Palestinian protesters have marched and agitated all over the United States. They have occupied college campuses. They have impeded access to Jewish schools, businesses, and places of worship. They have posted impassioned words and images on social media.

Yet all of their militant action has barely budged U.S. policy. Arms, intelligence, and economic assistance continue to flow from the United States to Israel. U.S. military forces cooperate with Israel against Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Yemen. Although the U.S. has imposed restraint on some Israeli operations, Israel has mostly been allowed to fight its own war in its own way.

These were President Biden’s decisions, not Vice President Harris’s. But she was the second-highest-ranking member of the administration. If Biden’s deputy inherits Biden’s office, the message is clear: His administration’s record of support for Israel carried no meaningful political price. All of those street demonstrations and campus occupations will have amounted to so much empty noise. All of those articles arguing that Gaza explained Biden’s troubles with young voters would be exposed as ideological wishcasting.

If Harris wins, the pro-Palestinian movement will have lost.

If Harris loses, however, pro-Palestinian protesters can claim that they were responsible for her defeat. That claim might not be true—in fact it probably would not be true—but try disproving it. The pro-Palestinian movement would have at least some basis to argue: You lost because you alienated us.

If Harris wins, she may want to do something about the pro-Palestinian cause—for humanitarian reasons, for reasons of diplomacy and geopolitics, for reasons of Democratic-constituency management in particular congressional districts. But she won’t have to do it. She’ll know that the protesters tried to beat her, and they failed.

If Harris loses, however, future Democratic candidates will tread more carefully on Israeli-Palestinian terrain. Even if they privately doubt that the party’s position on Gaza explains anything truly important, they will be worried by advisers and donors who will believe it or who will want to believe it.

But what about Trump? Why aren’t the pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Chicago more fearful of Trump’s possible return to the presidency?

Although the pro-Palestine cause attracts support from progressives, it is not exactly a progressive cause. Americans associate progressivism with secularism, feminism, and gay-rights advocacy, among other causes. The Palestinian national movement, especially now that Hamas has effectively replaced the Palestine Liberation Organization as leader of “the resistance,” has become markedly religious, patriarchal, and socially reactionary. But it is also a movement fiercely opposed to American global hegemony—and that is its “anti-imperialist” appeal to Western progressives.

If you oppose American global hegemony, Trump is your candidate (as a long list of anti-American dictators have already figured out). Trump fiercely opposes the alliances and trade agreements that magnify American power and make the U.S. the center of a huge network of democratic, market-oriented countries. Trump’s “America First” bluster is actually a pathway to American isolation and weakness that will further remove American power from the world.

If you wish America ill, of course you wish Trump well. The far left and far right of U.S. politics may disagree on much, but they agree on that.

The protesters in the streets of Chicago are not acting aimlessly or randomly. The people on the receiving end of their protests would benefit from equal clarity. The protesters want chaos and even violence in order to defeat Harris and elect Trump. They are not ill-informed or excessively idealistic or sadly misled. They are not overzealous allies. They are purposeful adversaries.

The Chicago-convention delegates should recognize that truth, and act accordingly.

[technofeudalism]

"I was so proud of my 88- and 89-year-old parents for wanting to join yesterday's demonstration, and join the well-intentioned movement against oligarchy and fascism. It felt great to be surrounded by such an enormous number and broad range of strangers who all shared the same outrage towards the current administration. The shouts and horn-honking were very heartening. If nothing else, it showed how many of us there are.

At the same time, there was a strong contingent who enjoyed the camaraderie and performative aspect, but ironically reduced the sense that any real change might result. For example, the Harris "I'm Speaking" t-shirts celebrating her famous dismissal of Democrats warning she would lose the election if she didn't adopt a better policy on genocide and war crime. Or signs celebrating Cory Booker, who has a long history of Trump-like positions on AIPAC and public education. Or signs celebrating Joe Biden, whose climate policy centered around building more Tesla charging stations. To me this contingent lent the demonstration a defeatist undertone.

Two clues that this "anti-oligarchy" demonstration posed no real threat to oligarchy (or capital, militarism, or the police state) were that they were widely advertised and covered by oligarch-owned media, and at least in Tucson, there was zero police presence. Compare this to many demonstrations in recent years that actually have posed a threat to capital, militarism, oligarchy or the police state. Even when they are perfectly peaceful and organized by Jews, they are deemed "terrorist" and "anti-Semitic", met with instant and overwhelming police attacks and arrests, while being ignored by oligarch-owned media.

Democrats seem to be responding to Republican radicalism by attempting to re-frame themselves as the Conservative party, calling for the Republican changes to stop, and for a return to the "normalcy" of last year. This is obviously a losing strategy, supported only by a shrinking white middle class that still benefits from such "normalcy." This strategy proposed to simply recreate the exact conditions that led to mass disillusionment and the election of a Hitler-esque candidate.

Many wondered aloud how there could even still be any Trump supporters, considering the violence he's doing to the people, institutions, and norms of the country and the world. This forgets that in order to support someone, you don't have to agree with everything they do. You only have to be tricked into believing that there are only two possible choices and that your person is better than the alternative.

I remind liberals what they were willing to overlook in order to display Biden or Harris bumper stickers and yard signs last year: record levels of poverty and homelessness, record deportations, record military budget, record fossil fuel profits, record transfer of wealth to billionaires, constant lies, and a literal genocide. All because "we have no other choice and this is better than the alternative." Not so different in mindset from the "incomprehensible" Trump holdouts.

Democrats and Republicans are not identical. But they are two factions of a capitalist/militarist/oligarchic/fascist ideology that stands for mass deportation, mass incarceration, mass poverty, mass transfer of wealth to billionaires, lobbying, ignoring public opinion, privatization of human needs, forever war, arms dealing, nuclear weapons, crime, segregation, apartheid, land theft, genocide, violent crackdowns on dissent, and putting fossil fuel profit above human survival.

It is one thing to oppose this capitalist/militarist/oligarchic/fascist ideology. It is another to say "I'm ok with this ideology, as long as I'm the beneficiary and someone else is the victim." The latter is the mantra of brainwashed American political cheerleaders of both major parties. But you will never stamp out fascism by insisting on no change of course for the defeated opposition party, no third party, no revolution. Stamping out fascism will probably require something more radical and bold, something that would dramatically improve people's worsening material conditions."

— Deerhoof / Greg Saunier

[beardedmrbean]

Columbia University students and Jewish advocates called on the Ivy League school Thursday to crack down on the scores of anti-Israel rioters who took part in a violent takeover of a campus library.

The elite Morningside Heights school has already handed down at least 65 interim suspensions to students who were part of Wednesday’s Butler Library chaos pending further investigation, a school official told The Post.

Another 33 individuals, including those from affiliated institutions, and an unspecified number of alumni were also barred from campus, the official said as Columbia faced pressure to take strong action against the agitators.  

“What happens the day after? We need to see serious consequences,” Joseph Postasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis told The Post, calling for “some Old Testament” justice.

“This happened during preparation for final exams — they don’t qualify as serious students,” he said of the rioters. “There should be harsh consequences — people were assaulted. Columbia needs to come down hard or this activity will happen again and again.”

Postasnik’s sentiment was echoed by the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, which said it was “dismayed at the violence, destruction of property and antisemitic acts by protesters” at the library, while still thanking the school for calling in the cops.

“We look forward to Columbia holding these students accountable for their actions so that the 99% of Jewish and non-Jewish students can do what they pay for — focus on learning.”

Officials vowed that any student or staff member who broke Columbia’s rules could expect to be held accountable.

“We will use the full scope of our disciplinary system, and have already suspended students involved,” it warned.

Dozens of masked thugs stormed the campus library in the afternoon as students studied there. The protesters committed acts of vandalism and injured two campus security guards in the melee, prompting the school to call in the NYPD hours later, administrators said.

While the NYPD arrested 81 rioters at Butler Library, the latest numbers of protesters suspended or barred from campus suggest many more rabble-rousers were involved.

In all, 62 women and 19 men were cuffed by NYPD cops and have since been released with tickets or summonses for trespassing or criminal mischief, law-enforcement sources said. Their identities were not released.

Four summonses were also issued to rowdy participants by Special Patrol Officers at the school, officials said.

Acting Columbia University president Claire Shipman put out a video statement Thursday morning condemning the “substantial chaos” caused by the mob, and hinting that “the disciplinary proceedings will reflect the severity of the actions,” but did not give further specifics.

Shipman said the disruptive protest forced some 900 students from the library reading room, many of whom left their belongings behind in the chaos.

She condemned the rioters for intruding on hard-working pupils whose studies were interrupted.

“It’s a big shame and a big offense to students who are trying to study for the finals. It’s an unbelievably considerate disruption that does frankly nothing for their cause,” agreed Natan Rosenbaum, 22, a junior studying American Studies.

He called the library break-in “completely inexcusable.”

“This is nothing more than sowing chaos and anarchy and I’m glad it was shut down,” he told The Post Thursday, praising Shipman for having the cops bust up the demonstration.

Elisha Baker, also a junior, called the mob’s actions “outrageous and unacceptable,” and said she was grateful for Columbia Public Safety officers holding the ground, despite being far outnumbered.

“I am looking forward to seeing any students involved disciplined for their behavior. There is no place for those actions on a college campus,” she said.

Although it was quiet on the Morningside Heights campus a day after the violent episode, Matan Barak, 22, an Israel Defense Forces soldier on vacation, said he feared further escalation was still possible.

“What are they waiting for? For something worse to happen?” he said of the university administration.

As for the protesters’ frequently repeated refrain of “free Palestine,” Barak said, “If you have never been in Israel, how could you cheer on a team you’ve never been to? If you’ve never seen a basketball game, how could you cheer a team you don’t know?”

He was incredulous that the students involved in the riot were allowed to remain on the rolls.

“Why do they still have people that go to school here that want to kill Jews? That’s what they want to do,” he said.

Columbia stressed it was quick to act when the mob stormed the library and was in line with protocols put in place in recent months.

Columbia has been locked in tense negotiations with the Trump administration over demands it take meaningful action to curb antisemitism on campus — which has erupted in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks that killed over 1,200 people.

President Trump threatened to yank around $400 million in federal funding if the school failed to comply, and in March Columbia agreed to adhere to many of the requirements in principle, chief among them forbidding mask wearing by students engaged in violations of university policies.

Nearly all of Wednesday’s rioters were wearing masks while flagrantly flouting the rules, and the university’s response will be something of a referendum on how strictly it intends to follow the newly implemented prohibitions.

University guidelines dictate officers can ask an individual on campus to briefly pull down their mask so they can be identified — with any refusal to do that and show a school ID possibly leading to a person’s removal from school grounds or even an arrest for trespassing.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the feds would be reviewing the visa statuses of those involved in the mayhem.

[ivystoryweaver]

3 Times Jake Lockley Tried to Kill You and 1 Time He Saved Your Life

Part 3 of 5 - Hands

previous || Miniseries Masterlist || Main Masterlist || next

Pairing: Jake Lockley x f!reader

Summary: Jake can't waste any more time or he will be the one who ends up dead...but killing you doesn't come as easily to him as he'd hoped

Word Count: 2.8k

Content: nsfw, mdni, more below the cut

Frottage, groping, choking, language, glove kink, dry humping, violence, murder, a surprise guest, not beta'd

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

He invaded your mind almost every second of the day.

Who was he?

Why was he toying with you?

When would you see him again?

You needed a drink. Several, in fact. So, for the first time since the night before Jake's first "attempt" on your life, you descended upon Chicago's nightlife with your friends. Your so-called friends anyway. You didn't feel incredibly close to anyone, but the girls provided a decent enough distraction for drinking, dancing and gossiping.

Tonight your dress reflected none of your typical classy air. The cut and fit of the outrageously tiny garment scandalously displayed the rage roiling inside you.

"If your father sees a photograph of you like this, he'll kill you," one of your bodyguards warned.

Kissing your teeth, you climbed into the awaiting car. "If I tell him how you just ogled me, he'll kill you."

That shut him up.

Still, he had a point. Your father liked to think he still had some sway over how you conducted yourself in public. Well, fuck him. Because of him, someone wanted you dead.

Someone you desperately craved to see again.

Three drinks and several dances later, the slightest bit of tension began to ease out of you. The flashing lights, thumping bass and strong alcohol blurred the worry and frustration, at least for the moment. Your two so-called friends and their hookups had already vanished.

Then you felt a gloved hand wrap around your bare arm as a warm body crowded in behind you.

"Dance with me," he breathed on your ear, gripping both your arms and pulling your back against the solid wall of his chest.

All the air rushed out of you - a wild, raging kind of relief confusing you. Danger surrounded you - it seemed to roll off him - but your lowered inhibitions had you rubbing yourself up against him before you could even remember to be afraid.

The rhythm of his body instantly matched yours, the two of you moving in delicious synchrony as he gripped your hips, corresponding to the heat and vigor of your grinding.

"I don't know you." Your head fell back onto his shoulder as your lips chased his ear, so he would hear you over the club's thump and roar. "I don't even know who's trying to kill me - not even your name."

Jake's smile teased the shell of your ear - his stubble temptingly tickling your flesh. Maybe he was growing his beard back out.

Pushing his hands down over the tops of your thighs, he spread your legs apart, as you danced up on him. Tracing his gloved fingertips back up your legs, he halted when he felt a gun situated in a thigh holster.

His cock, half hard already, stiffened against the curve of your ass. "You kept it," he rumbled into your ear, leaving the weapon in place. "Good girl." He then dragged his hands up over your hips to wrap securely around your abdomen, holding you almost like a lover would. "Did you have as much fun with the gun as you did the knife?"

Normally, you would have spat back a reply full of snark and cursing, but, the alcohol had smoothed your rough edges for the moment. "I had more fun this time," you admitted freely. "Fucked myself with it. Came so hard."

"Jesus," he whistled, grinding into you with obvious intention, while you gladly rubbed your barely covered ass up and down his length to the music's pulse. His hands crawled up to your breasts as he realized how far beyond his control he'd let you take him.

He'd never behaved so unprofessionally, allowing a mark to slip away twice, even encouraging you to protect yourself, with his own weapon, no less.

And now, probably walking right into a seductive trap, his cock hungry for a good fuck, tense and ready after images of you fucking your sopping cunt down on his gun filling his mind. He wanted you more than anything. No one had made him feel so out of control...well, ever.

There was no hiding what the two of you were doing now - with Jake groping both your breasts and thrusting wildly against you. Despite the debauchery around you - your own vulgar display was beginning to draw some attention.

"Not here," you said forcefully, shifting away from him, feeling the slightest victory that he seemed to really want you - to actually be distracted and overcome with desire.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Jake gripped your hand and led you to a much more secluded spot, darker, up against a wall. Not entirely private, but better.

Caging you in, the heat of his body trapped you there, sturdy thighs pressed against yours as he adjusted his hips to rut his cock up against your core.

You mewled out a whimper, your legs falling open for him.

All he wanted was to sink his teeth into the meat of your neck, suck his mark there and push into you until he came, just to get some goddamn relief, but he feebly held onto his last shred of self-preservation.

The air between you shifted drastically making you instantly regret pausing your dance out in the middle of the floor.

"No more games," he gruffly warned, gathering your wrists and pushing them over your head, easily holding them in place with one hand.

His free hand slid back down the length of your arm to the top of your breast, which you hoped he would fondle indulgently - instead, he shifted back up to wrap it around your throat.

Cold eyes bore into yours as his jaw twitched with something like apprehension.

"No," you quickly choked out before he squeezed.

Dark eyebrows arched and in his gaze, you saw the storm of conflict. But you were losing him.

"This ends tonight," he huffed, nodding once as if trying to convince himself as much as you.

Gone was the fire of your sensual dance. He wasn't getting off on this. He wasn't playing around. He was here to finish the job.

"P-lease..." you gasped, desperate for air, hating yourself for begging. Although, it actually worked. He eased off, if only a fraction. "I'm s-sorry," you whimpered, tears slipping out of your wild, terrified eyes. "I'm sorry about your brother. Please..."

Jake's jaw clenched as his eyes flashed with something unrecognizable. Maybe hesitation. Or doubt. "He was just a kid," Jake spat. "Your father is a monster."

You could try to struggle against his compact but strong frame. You could hope to signal your bodyguards that beneath the music’s roar and the dim lights, a murder was about to occur.

But you found that you wanted him to decide not to kill you.

"I know," you whimpered, nodding quickly. "I know what my father is. What he's done." Sniffling, you squeezed your eyes shut as fresh tears spilled over your lashes. "Do what you have to do if it will give you peace. But just decide." This life-or-death edging was pure torture. And you only hated yourself for how badly you wanted him. "Please don't do this to me anymore."

Suddenly, Jake's entire demeanor changed. His shoulders stiffened, body tensing as his dark eyes flickered all around you.

"There's someone here," he breathed on your ear, finally, officially removing his hand from your throat.

"It's a club - there are tons of people here - "

He shushed you, releasing your arms from over your head, pushing your shoulders up against the wall instead.

"Shit," he hissed. "They're here for me." His boss was apparently tired of waiting.

His eyes found yours. "I'm Jake." Wetting his lips, his eyes flickered down to your throat and back. "I'm...obviously I'm not going to kill you."

Reaching for your thigh, he patted the gun you had stashed there. "This loaded?"

"Y-yes," you stammered, reeling from...everything.

"Good. I'm going to lead them out of here," he explained. "They're after me because I haven't finished the job." He locked gazes with you again. "So they might be here for you too."

"Nice to meet you, Jake," you huffed with a slight pout, your usual fire extinguished by the emotional whiplash of the evening. "You're just a ray of fucking sunshine. Been a real pleasure."

Before he could fire back a protest, you grabbed his jacket and pulled him close. "My bodyguards are right behind you. You really are off your game."

Then you kissed him, hard. He tried to pry himself free, to assess the danger, but the heat of your tongue and the tangle of your fingers through the curls at the base of his neck made him forget this entire shit storm for a few heavenly moments - the taste of you more delicious than he could ever have imagined. You sucked his tongue so hard he almost lost his balance.

He finally broke the kiss, eyes darting wildly, trying to get his bearings.

"Kiss me again," you commanded. "My bodyguards think we're hooking up. They won't fuck with me, trust me."

Jake's chest heaved with desire and trepidation. His boss had definitely dispatched two men that Jake had spotted so far. "I'm not worried about those idiots. We have a much bigger problem."

"Where?" You gasped, your hands twisting hopelessly in his jacket, holding onto him as if you were afraid he would vanish again, leaving you afraid and weirdly sexually frustrated.

"My nine o'clock and eleven. Don't look."

You chewed on your lip, resisting the urge to do just that.

"Trade places with me," you ordered, "up against the wall. Let me hide you."

"It won't work - "

"Turn the fuck around, Jake," you commanded, your eyes flashing. "I don't think they've spotted you yet or we would be dead already." Jake quickly traded places with you, pushing his back up against the wall and dipping his knees as you practically climbed him.

A rush of air passed his parted lips as you pressed your breasts against his chest, draping yourself over him. "Trust me - they won't be looking at you - not while I'm wearing this dress."

You shifted your hips until you could feel his hard cock press against your core, right where it felt so good. If you were in this world of shit because of Jake, you might as well enjoy it.

"Now make them believe there's nothing to see here but my ass," you breathed on his ear, barely finishing your sentence before his gloved hands gripped your backside, pushing you down over his length as his mouth fused with yours.

Fuck. The seam of his pants caught on your clit, through the flimsy material of your lace thong. The roughness of the lace only added to the sensation, sending sparks of pleasure up and down your spine.

And his mouth, god. His lips were as soft as you imagined - predictably demanding, and the stubble of his chin scraped and tickled you deliciously. His tongue rolled hot in your mouth, luring you into a salacious tangle of breathing and sucking and tasting.

The rhythm your bodies shared on the dance floor quickly returned - two moving as one in a wild, writhing tangle.

Sucking his tongue, you moaned into his mouth, rubbing your clit over the outline of his tip with increasing vigor, fingers tangled hopelessly in his curls.

Jake could feel you chasing your orgasm - he knew he could make you come like this, but you might not understand the reality of how much danger lurked around you both.

He couldn't kill you now. He realized, as he tilted his head and flexed his forearms along the curve of your back - he didn't even want to kill you - not even for revenge. Not to hurt your father back or avenge his brother.

And not just to fuck you either. A fire burned in you - something rare and wild and beautiful and he didn't want to be the one to extinguish it. He understood now that he couldn't accept anyone else hurting you either.

You panted his name, tugging hard on his hair, your heated breath temptingly falling on his throat.

"I got you baby," he found himself murmuring. "You gonna come for me like this?"

"Fuck you," you gasped, but he heard no venom in your curse as your mouth sought his again.

His protective and survival instincts clawed through the hazy fog of lust, prompting him to tear his mouth away, touching his forehead to yours as your wild panting tickled his lips.

"They'll kill you," he gasped, pulling you into something of a protective hug. "They're not like me. They won't miss. They won't stop. We have to go. Now."

Shaking yourself out of your near-orgasmic state of bliss, you gripped his jacket once more, trying to think clearly.

"Isn't that what you want, Jake?" You asked him seriously. "For me to die? To hurt my father?"

You pushed hard on his chest, but he trapped your hands.

"Listen to me," he hissed. But he paused, swallowing hard as he regarded you, as if for the final time. "I'm going to lead them out of here - "

"Jake - "

"Use your weapon if you need to." He nodded over your shoulder. "Your closest bodyguard is maybe ten paces on your six. Walk straight to him and get out of here. Call your father."

"Jake, you can't - "

His mouth crashed into yours desperately, tasting your lips one at a time before he licked into your mouth hotly, folding you against his chest with one arm. His free hand gripped your jaw as he kissed you for one more indulgent moment.

Easing back, he stared deeply into your eyes before using his teeth to pull his glove off. He pushed it against your chest.

"Something to remember me by...or maybe play with." He managed a wink before brushing his fingertips over your lips.

You realized then that he'd never really touched you before - not without gloves on.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," he went on caressing your face - your chin, your jawline - raking his fingers over the curve of your cheek. "Now go. Don't get hurt because of me."

He tried to push you away, but you clung to him. "Jake...will I see you again?" You asked with trembling lips, your eyes darting over the handsome contours of his face.

He shook his head. "Not unless you want me to finish the job."

"You asshole," you seethed, gripping his glove in your hand before shrugging one shoulder, trying to pretend you didn't care. "At least I got a new toy out of it. Good luck not getting yourself killed."

With that, you turned on your heel and walked straight to your bodyguard, and away from the inept assassin named Jake.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Jake woke up in a warehouse on the south side of the city.

The night had started out well enough - getting to see you again - to touch you, kiss you...

But had turned bloody. Deadly. Apparently.

Jake hissed, feeling haphazard stitching feebly holding together the gash on his side, attempting to get a good look through his brand new black eye.

"Fuck," he hissed, realizing he'd missed a few hours. He blacked out after he left the club. And woke up here.

An empty beer bottle sat nearby - along with various other bits of trash from whoever partied or slept here last.

Jake noticed his reflection in the glass.

"I would've taken care of it," he offered up a protest to anyone who might be listening.

But he knew why his deadly alter fronted. It was them or him. Or you. They were after you as well, and it was his fault.

His sluggish mind finally registered what might have happened while he was absent from the body.

Jake grabbed the beer bottle, barking an accusation at his dim, distorted reflection. "Did you hurt her?"

Shit. Marc Spector did not fuck around. If you were a mark, he would finish the job if he thought the body was in real danger. He didn't come around often, not nearly as often as Steven, but he was probably the reason Jake was still alive after all these years.

"Answer me, Marc. Is she alive?"

Marc didn't answer. He never answered. He protected.

Jake should have sliced your throat the first time he grabbed you in that park. Saved himself the trouble.

No one was worth all this shit.

But if that were true, why was he panicking? He had to know.

So he would try to see you one more time. Then he would surrender the body to Steven and let him live in London like he wanted.

next

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Jake Lockley-Centric stories

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[phantoms-planet]

Barred Protection Chapter 8

Tw: depression and inmate violence (not graphic)

Masterlist

Batman knew it had to have been Daelus to leak the story. The man had asked to send a letter and then the very next morning Vicki Vale had a story out about the scandal? There wasn’t a chance of it being anyone else at that point. Part of him was mad about it, given that they weren’t ready to handle the aftermath, but the other part of him understood the desperation. Men in bad situations did stupid things trying to fix them.

News outlets had leapt onto the story like savage wolves. It was only hours before the world knew of Dealus’s actions and the true nature of his medicines.

Just as Bruce thought, there was a savage fight over ethics and human rights. The two loudest sides were the people claiming that using the medicine was complacent in torture and child endangerment, and the people claiming it was ableist and classist of anyone who agreed with the former group.

Bruce couldn’t fully agree with either of the points. He could never condone the treatment Danny had gone through, but he wasn’t blind to the suffering Ameliorate had abated. Just like most things in life, there was no black and white answer.

He really wished there was.

“B?” Dick’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. “How bad is it?”

“Hmm…”

“That bad?”

Bruce grunted again. It was worse than ‘that bad’. The Justice League was now being accused of not acting fast enough on a shady company, as if something like this was usually part of their duties.

Granted in hindsight they should have acted much sooner.

He let out a grumbling sigh before paging the League for an emergency meeting. They couldn’t go back and fix what happened but now they were going to mitigate the damage as much as possible. Though that ship might have sailed already.

With a swish of his cape, Batman went over to the zeta tube and in seconds he was up in the Watchtower.

Several of the others were right behind him. He led the way to one of the meeting rooms to wait for everyone. Thankfully, and promptly, everyone filed in and took their seats.

Batman pursed his lips before starting. “As you all are aware, the news of what happened regarding Danny has been leaked to the public. There has been great backlash against the League for how slow we were to respond to this, as the news had put it, dangerous precedent for business affairs.”

There was a wave of complaints that filled the room. Batman held his hand up, having to wait several minutes before everyone got their outrage under control. “I am aware that this may be unfair, but it may also not be. We need to have our best public speakers at the press conference. Superman? I want you front and center. I will have a list of topics that are confidential at the moment as well as a few pre-written answers if a question stumps you. Diana, I want you to help him.”

“The two of you are the favorites of the public, they will be easier on you. As for everyone else: Danny is fully confidential. If anyone tries to get you to speak about him, you will answer with ‘The league has already made their statements on the matter’, is this understood?”

A chorus of yesses followed. Flash held up his hand. “What are we going to do with Ameliorate? We can’t let them keep selling medicine, can we?”

“Not as freely.” Bruce stated. “For the time being they are going to be put under suspension. No medicine can be sold unless it is necessary for survival, no patients can be seen under the same conditions. In the wake of things, I think it best if we employ teams on site of dispensaries and clinics to protect the people who need the medication to live. I don’t want protests to get violent with those people as the targets.”

“I agree,” Diana was sitting up straight as a rod, anger barely hidden. “But I also believe there shouldn’t be any more collecting from Danny.”

Another chorus of agreement and Batman held his hand up again. “No, we will not collect more from the boy.”

“Then what of the people who rely on the medicine to live?” J’onn asked, brows furrowed.

Batman didn’t answer as fast this time. He’d been thinking about it and frankly, the only solution he could come up with was synthesizing something that resembled Danny’s tears. He could have his kids help with it to make it go faster.

He let out a sigh. “I will attempt to synthesize the tears. We can’t just let people die without at least attempting this.”

---

Danny floated in the expanse of space lazily. He didn’t need to breathe and the cold didn’t bother him so he could spend as much time as he wanted up here. With earth so tiny below him all that happened felt so far away-

Not-not that anything had happened to him. Everything was fine. He was just…relaxing after a hard day at school, yeah.

“Danny?” He whipped around at the voice. The green skinned man was back and this time he was holding his hands up placatingly. “My name is J’onn, but you may know me as Martian Manhunter.”

Martian Manhunter? The man who’d been harassing him was Martian Freaking Manhunter?! Of course one of the people he dreamed of meeting was being a massive jerk, that was just Fenton luck. Danny turned to fly away but was stopped by a hand to his shoulder.

“Would you like to see my home?” And just like that he was reeled in like a fish.

J’onn changed the dreamscape to an alien world with strange architecture and beautiful views. When Danny started asking questions about anything and everything, J’onn patiently answered them.

He learned about how the society ran, J’onn’s former job, his family (a clearly sore topic), how his planet was destroyed. J’onn needed a moment after that one, Danny let him compose himself as he explored a little more. This was a dream come true!

Danny asked even more questions until he wore himself out and he changed the surroundings back to empty space.

J’onn floated in silence with him for a while. It was nice. Maybe…maybe J’onn was nice too.

“Can I ask about your family?” J’onn gently nudged.

Danny stiffened. Was this a trap of some kind? He watched the alien in front of him for a moment before snorting. No, this was genuine. So…Dany told him. About his parents hunting ghosts, his sister who wanted to be a brain surgeon and wanted to grow up too fast, and when he was out of things to say about them he started talking about Sam and Tucker.

It was like a weight was lifting from his chest. Their surroundings changed with memories that he brought up; showing the Nastyburger, his home, school, and before he knew it Danny was starting to cry.

He didn’t want to cry, he’d done so much of it, but he couldn’t help it. J’onn held him as he broke down with body-wracking sobs.

---

Diana had noticed how relaxed their ward had become. It seemed J’onn’s new approach was working at first, until tears started slipping from Danny’s eyes again.

She quickly grabbed a tissue and began wiping them away. The poor boy had been through so much and he wasn’t even close to being done, the least she could do was wipe his tears for him.

Minutes after Danny started crying J’onn was taking his hand from the boy’s forehead. He met Diana’s eyes. “He wanted time alone. I believe I have reached him on some level though. He showed me his family and friends.” Diana nodded in relief.

After what had happened three tries ago, none of them were sure Danny would let them help. Showing his family was a huge improvement. A second chance.

“I’ll go tell Batman.” She swept to her feet and made her way to the monitors, where Batman was watching closely. “Batman?”

“Hnn?”

“J’onn says Danny showed him his loved ones.”

“Good progress. Have him come debrief with me when he can.”

Diana offered him a small smile. “I will. Do we have progress on the G.I.W?”

Batman let out a much more frustrated grunt. It took him a moment to compile his thoughts but Diana didn’t mind. She liked that he thought before speaking. “There’s…not good news. Researching them I found a set of acts, the Anti-Ecto acts, that make what they’ve done, what they’re doing, completely legal as long as they can prove their specimens are ghosts.”

“How have we not heard of these before?”

“I don’t know.” Bruce was clearly very frustrated. She understood, he liked having everything under control and no unknowns. This was a very important unknown.

Diana set a hand to his shoulder. They both seemed to be thinking the same thing; the public was going to be just as upset hearing about laws that allowed the torture of a young child.

---

Despite what people thought, Daelus was not the one to spill about his operations. He had wanted that to go quietly. As if he would sacrifice his whole company in an attempt to get the bat to listen to him. It was laughable.

No, the letter he had sent was to his assistant. He wanted Carter to re-start the synthesizing of P’s tears.

They had tried for years with no success, but if they could manage it now maybe the company, and the people who needed their medication to live, could be saved.

Unfortunately he had received a letter back saying that everyone who was working on that project had been put under various forms of arrest, and that his methods had been leaked. Who had leaked it? He wasn’t sure. Everyone was under iron tight NDAs.

Either way Daelus’s company was as good as dead.

Grief didn’t even begin to explain how he felt. His whole life’s ambition was gone, his good intentions marred, his reputation so sullied it might as well have been dragged lower than hell.

To say he was reacting poorly was an understatement. Most days he couldn’t get up to brush his teeth, let alone go to the cafeteria to eat.

Not that it would be safe for him anyway.

He had been moved to an isolation ward since the last time he’d been around the other inmates they had…very violent reactions to seeing him. Daelus shuddered at the memory.

Did he think he deserved it? Well…maybe? He hurt a child, sure, but he had also helped so many people. Surely that mitigated some of the harm. And really, how else would he have gotten tears from P, especially at the volume they needed to produce to keep up?

Surely the result had pardoned at least part of the means.

Though Daelus was put out about the fact that he had done those things to a child. Maybe he should have found a better method. Maybe he should have had his scientists work harder on the synthetic version of his tears.

Maybe he shouldn’t have bought a person in the first place.

Maybe his company shouldn’t have been the only thing he cared about for so long.

A puff of air escaped his lips. Daelus couldn’t change what he had done. He wanted to, yes, but he couldn’t.

He wished he could see P again.

He wished he could apologize.

[eretzyisrael]

by Daniel Greenfield

Gov. Josh Shapiro attended an ‘iftar’ dinner at a mosque where an imam had previously declared that “Jews are the vilest people”, and announced a huge grant for the hate mosque.

The $5 million grant, described as the largest ever given to a Muslim institution, came only 5 years after the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Philly was forced to apologize for posting hateful Islamic sermons by an imam delivered at its mosque declaring that the Arabs were superior to all races, that Jews were the “enemies of Allah” and the “vilest of all people”.

The imam also appeared to call on Muslims to take over the world.

“By Allah, if faith had taken root in our hearts, things would have been different. We would have imposed the word of Islam upon the world, like those before us did,” Imam Abdelmohsen Abouhatab told the congregation at Al Aqsa.

He also quoted a Hadith describing the eventual Muslim extermination of the Jews.

The Al Aqsa Society, whose name is the Islamic one for the conquest mosque planted by the invaders on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, was created by a group of ‘Palestinian’ migrants out of Hebron, and had been previously in the news as part of the Fort Dix terror plot by six Muslim terrorists who had prayed at the mosque and even done free roofing there.

Even though the hateful sermons had been praised in person and featured online by the mosque, public outrage led mosque leaders to disavow them, declaring that “hatred against any group of people or religion will not be tolerated.”

But earlier this year, the Al Aqsa Society promoted a ‘Gala for Gaza’ featuring Holocaust denier Norman Finkelstein and Sheikh Mohammed Elshinawy whom the NYPD had described as an “acolyte” of the Blind Sheikh linked to the World Trade Center bombing and whose father had reportedly been an unindicted co conspirator in that same Islamic terror attack on America.

The NYPD stated that the sheikh had “made statements encouraging attendees to follow in the footsteps of Muslims who died while participating in violent jihad against non-Muslims” and that the FBI had investigated “Elshinawy for his possible role recruiting others to travel overseas to train or fight alongside extremist elements.” Elshinawy had reportedly responded to the Oct 7 atrocities by arguing “do not equate the violence of the oppressed with that of the oppressor”.

The mosque had also featured a video from Imam Omar Suleiman who had previously justified sex slavery and called for the destruction of Israel during an earlier conflict with Hamas.

[attheexactlyrighttimeandplace]

For the people who still think the colony of Israel has a right to defend itself:

They're not defending anything, they're just having fun killing:

Update 1 (17/10/2023) for the confused and sceptics :

Update 2 (10/22/2023): To add some context to this post following Reuters (direct link to article) attempt to verify the reality of the IDF Facebook post.

In fact, Reuters failed to verify anything: as the agency admitted in its article, its journalist "could not find the impostor's Facebook account or the publication on the platform social network".

They then contacted "a spokesperson for the IDF", who told them that " the Facebook post was not shared by one of its official accounts. He added there was only one official IDF Facebook page in Arabic that carries a verification tick "

A Reuters reporter also contacted"a representative for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, told Reuters the page was removed".

In this total absence of material evidence, and relying solely on the statements of these two sources which are the least reliable when it comes to commenting and sharing information and facts about the war against the Palestinians (the Israeli army is party to the conflict therefore It is biased and will protect its agents and soldiers- and Facebook has a history of censoring Palestinian content that could be used to document violence and help legally qualify zionist crimes).

Reuters came to this hasty conclusion:

Their main arguments are that

The Israeli occupation army never admitted to bombing the hospital and blamed Islamic Jihad, so it had no reason to celebrate.

Reuters journalists conveniently ignore the timeline. The IDF message welcoming the bombing of the Baptist hospital in Gaza was published immediately after the attack, while the controversy over the perpetrators of the attack began a few hours after its deletion.

Until the controversy, no one wondered who was behind the attack. The zionist army has always publicly assumed its crimes: it even ordered (according to the clerics who were in charge of the administration of the hospital) on several occasions the hospital to evacuate, knowing perfectly well that it was impossible. It was only when outrage became widespread that western media, including Reuters, began to question the origins of the strike. There's a post on Tumblr that pulls together the subtle changes in headlines to make it seem like Israel never took credit for the attack (even though it destroyed different 2 floors of the hospital a few days before the biggest attack).

There are other videos on Mohammed El Kurd's Twitter account showing the zionist army celebrating its strikes. There are videos on social media of zionist soldiers humiliating prisoners in their custody, so gloating on social media is not a new practice for them.

There is no reason why they should not celebrate what they consider a victory: their ministers have already publicly and clearly stated that civilians who do not leave northern Gaza, whatever their reasons, will be assimilated to Hamas fighters. So everything is consistent; in their minds, hitting innocent and defenseless civilians is legitimate and they are happy about it.

On its Twitter account, the Israeli military removed a video that purported to prove that Islamic Jihad carried out the attack, but ultimately did not prove its claims. So they also have a habit of deleting their own content when they realize that it exposes them more than it helps them.

Other journalists (Al Jazeera uses its own images: it is the only media that remained in Gaza and they filmed all the attacks, information from Channel 4) and independent experts on weapons of war and geolocation worked on the question of identifying the perpetrators of the bombing of the hospital. So far, their preliminary conclusion is that the Israeli military's claims do not match the facts and material evidence on the ground.

Full details of this debate are on the X/Twitter accounts of Lowkey and Mohammed El-Kurd (look for posts made on October 17).

2. I don't really know how Facebook/Meta works: I never had an account on it (I mean I never used it properly: I opened an account years ago, exclusively to follow the activity of a group that I was part of in life but closed it after a few weeks without interacting beyond a few likes), but on Twitter you can hide the checkmark.

Even if the checkmark cannot be hidden, there is nothing in the Reuters "report" to indicate that the Zionist army does not maintain multiple accounts - some with checkmarks and some without - and does not delete accounts that are not officials when it does not suit their interests.

They have a history of spreading fake news: from rumors about 40 beheaded babies, to accusing Palestinians of bombing themselves, to creating fake documents to accuse Hamas of planning attacks on primary schools while manipulating parents by buying YT ads shown during videos aimed at children to improve their image damaged by their violence with families, and to justify the harm they do to the children of Gaza.

I'm only making this long argument because Lowkey and Mohammed El-Kurd deleted the tweets I reposted and I think they shouldn't have done so. I understand why: it actually seems like an insignificant speck in an ocean of real crimes, but I personally consider it symbolic and indicative of the true and greater zionist project: genocide.

Genocide in international law is based on proof of intent to destroy a group, and the zionist army's mocking Facebook post establishes beyond doubt that nothing is accidental on the zionist side, everything is premeditated and based on their superiority complex over the Palestinian people.

[hesbuckcompton-baby]

Underrated historical pieces (for when you're looking for recommendations)

I don't know if it's just me, but historical movie rec lists have become supersaturated with the same few titles lately (yes I have seen Hacksaw Ridge, yes I have seen Little Women, leave me alone) - so I thought I'd come up with a shortlist of my own! Below the cut are a few titles I haven't seen anyone talk about anywhere NEAR enough in my opinion, in case you need something new to watch!

Summerland (2020), dir. Jessica Swale

Summerland is set in Devon, England during the Second World War, and follows Alice Lamb as she is forced to take in Frank, a young evacuee boy, against her will. As their relationship develops, Alice learns to open herself up to others, and her budding friendship with Frank leads her back towards another relationship she thought was lost forever. If you're looking for an LGBT period drama - THIS ONE RIGHT HERE!!! Alice Lamb, you are my favourite grumpy lesbian academic. Seriously though, this movie is so so lovely - definitely a good one if you're looking for a happy-cry.

This is England (2006), dir. Shane Meadows

This is England follows Shaun, a young boy struggling to fit in in 1980s England, who finds support and friendship among a gang of local skinheads. At once gritty and sensitive, it provides a personal look at the darker side of British culture and the process of indoctrination into racist ideologies. This movie arguably receives the attention it deserves within the UK, but falls into the underrated category everywhere else. Despite being almost 20 years old, it remains alarmingly relevant, and every single member of the cast puts in an incredible performance. (I'd recommend checking for content warnings before giving this (or its subsequent TV shows) a watch)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018), dir. Mike Newell

Set in the aftermath of the Second World War, this movie follows writer Juliet Ashton as she travels to the island of Guernsey to meet a group of locals who found solace in her book during the Nazi occupation. However, as she grows closer to the group, she begins to uncover the tragedy at their core. This is such a perfect comfort movie. Every character is so so lovely, and honestly I've wanted to visit (/live on) Guernsey since the first time I watched this. It's a really wonderful watch, and sheds a nice insight into the experiences of the Channel Islands during WW2, which isn't something I've seen covered in other films set during this period.

Small Axe (2020), dir. Steve McQueen

Small Axe is an anthology series documenting the lives and experiences of London's West Indian population as they struggle through and fight against racial discrimination. I feel like the hype for this show died as soon as the year's awards season finished, and that's a CRIME. Britain's history of racial activism is generally overlooked in popular media, and this series did a wonderful job of showcasing both the pivotal and personal events that shaped the experiences of the Windrush generation. My personal favourites from this series were Education and Mangrove, but every episode is unique and well worth the watch.

Detroit (2017), dir. Kathryn Bigelow

In Detroit, public outrage is sparked when a police raid is carried out against black patrons of a local club, which grows more violent as the night progresses. This movie is terrifying. Every performance is excellent and harrowing, but Will Poulter's in particular has stuck with me since I first watched Detroit because it's just horrifying to watch. It's intense and brutal, but an important representation of the kind of violence that acted as a catalyst in the American civil rights movement.

Gosford Park (2001), dir. Robert Altman

Gosford Park follows a group of 1930s English aristocrats as they gather at a country estate for a weekend of socialising. However, when a member of the party is murdered, suspicion is cast upon everyone, and illicit secrets begin to come to light. Think Downton Abbey with murder. But then again, both were created/written by Julian Fellowes, so it makes sense. Almost painfully British, Gosford Park is a quick and clever indictment of the English upper classes that is thoroughly entertaining the whole way through.

Alias Grace (2017), dir. Mary Harron

Alias Grace follows Irish immigrant Grace Marks as she sits down with a doctor to attempt to recall the details of a murder she was accused of committing a decade prior. Based on Margaret Atwood's fictionalised retelling of a controversial, real-life case, this series offers an interesting insight into the oppression of Victorian working-class women, and the enduring cultural fascination with female violence. It's been a few years since I watched this show, but GOD I was so obsessed with it, so it's definitely time for a rewatch. Sarah Gadon is an absolutely brilliant lead, and Grace's recounting of events will leave you forever wondering what truly happened in this story.

Pride (2014), dir. Matthew Warchus

Set amidst the 1984 miners' strikes, Pride follows a small LGBT group from London as they raise money to support a small Welsh mining town, whose lives are badly struck by Thatcher's threats to close the mining pits they have built their lives around. Through their efforts, the group finds an unlikely community of supporters, breaching social barriers to lift each other up in times of hardship. Evidently I believe in saving the best for last, as Pride is definitely my personal favourite on this list - hell, it's one of my favourite movies EVER. Surprisingly niche despite its excellent cast (Andrew Scott, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton - to name a few), this movie is just utterly wonderful, and I guarantee you will spend the entire time either grinning or sobbing - trust me, I always do.

(not-so-subtle letterboxd plug, but for anyone interested, I've compiled a larger list of movies about British history HERE)

[mariacallous]

Recently, Planned Parenthood released a statement on the Oct. 7th attacks and the broader conflict between Israel and Palestine. Their statement condemned Hamas’s attacks on civilians, and specifically condemned sexual assaults committed against Israeli women during the violence. They also noted how thousands of Palestinian women and children had been killed in Israel’s counteroffensive, stated the need for Palestinian women to maintain access to reproductive and maternal healthcare, and condemned both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

The social media reaction to such a balanced and empathetic statement? Furious, unrelenting anger.

The statement was quote-tweeted thousands of times by social media users outraged by the statement. Planned Parenthood was accused of spreading Israeli propaganda, ignoring Palestinian deaths and fabricating rape claims, and enabling genocide. These outraged users aren’t conservatives who always oppose Planned Parenthood—they’re progressives furious that an organization they normally support put out a statement they hated. Now there are calls to end donations and Planned Parenthood staffers are fighting with donors. Their own employees, affiliates and organizers are making public statements against them.

This outcome was predictable to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of social media dynamics. And it raises an obvious question—why release a statement at all?

Metastatic social justice

It’s actually quite common for organizations and activists to get into hot water these days by addressing areas outside their expertise. Trans activists in Vancouver loudly insisted there can be no Trans Liberation without Palestinian Liberation, which caused pushback all over Canada. Two years ago, New York City’s Pride organizations courted controversy by excluding LGBT police officers from the city’s Pride parade in the name of racial justice. There are YIMBY housing organizations taking a stand on abortion rights and climate organizations demanding a Federal Job Guarantee.

There’s a common theme here. Organizations that appear to be single-issue advocacy groups are increasingly commenting and taking stances on issues outside of their narrow focus. Activism is becoming more global in nature—if you are an activist for one cause, you’re expected to speak up about all causes now. It’s not enough to ‘stay in your lane’, you need to be protesting and advocating for all forms of social justice. Pro-choice advocacy is now part of your racial justice non-profit. Jobs packages are in your environmental bills. Your LGBT organization has a stance on ‘Defund The Police’ and your housing group has a stance on Israel/Palestine. Social justice is metastasizing.

This phenomenon has happened on the right as well—see the NRA transitioning from being a somewhat non-partisan group to essentially being an arm of the GOP—but it’s especially striking in the current progressive movement. There’s a real sense in which NYC Pride is no longer an LGBT advocacy organization, but rather an overall progressive social justice organization. That may sound like an exaggeration, but they kicked out a gay organization (the Gay Officers Action League) to accommodate another form of social justice. It’s the internal logic behind a LGBT Pride march excluding LGBT people.

This also explains the online fury at Planned Parenthood. Their statement was thoughtful and balanced, but deviated from the dominant and overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian progressive narrative. Their donors expect them to advocate not just for progressive goals in women’s health, but progressive goals everywhere.

This type of activist mission creep risks stunting the progress on the core issues that social justice advocates care about.

The downsides of missions creep

The urge towards mission creep comes from a reasonable place. If you care so deeply that you spend your free time (or your career!) as an activist for a particular issue, the odds are that you also have strong feelings on many other issues. You’re also likely to live in a bubble of activists and people who think like you, and so your conversations professionally and socially may often center around all sorts of political issues. But as an activist it’s important to remember that most people you’re trying to reach are not like you and don’t think like you.

The typical voter is over 50 and does not have a college degree. They also don’t think about politics all that much. They are far, far away from the mindset of a typical activist. And when they do have political opinions, those opinions are far more varied and haphazard than a committed political partisan would guess. I think a few minutes scrolling the twitter feed of the American Voter Bot is invaluable to understand how voters think. This bot takes real voters and profiles them in brief tweets. While some look as expected—a Democrat who supports gun control, for instance—many look like this:

Most people are a confusing mix of demographic signals, issue positions and partisan identification, and they rarely fit squarely within one political tribe. That’s the danger of turning a single-issue advocacy group into a generalized progressive messaging group—you’ll end up alienating a far wider group of potential allies than you realize.

If Issue Group X declares loud progressive positions not just on Issue X but also on gun control, abortion, Palestine, Medicare For All, trans rights, free trade and school prayer, they won’t attract a large diverse group of people who care about Issue X. They’ll end up attracting a narrow slice of progressive activists who are ideologically pristine enough to agree with them on every issue.

The ultimate result of activist mission creep is that your issue ceases to be something that people across the ideological spectrum can work together on. It becomes coded as a red tribe vs blue tribe issue, gets swallowed by the general culture war, and progress grinds to a halt as partisan warfare starts.

The most likely outcome of Planned Parenthood voicing an opinion on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is not that they make any difference at all towards that conflict. It’s that they alienate their own supporters with differing views on Israel/Palestine. They’ve undercut their own ability to make progress on reproductive care and reproductive rights for no gain.

One thing at a time

None of this is to say that individuals shouldn’t care about many issues at once—they obviously should. And general purpose ideological organizations can and should tackle many policy areas. But it’s a poor strategy for single-issue groups to try to become general purpose organizations. There are real benefits to staying in your lane.

One example of a movement that has done a reasonable job at this is the pro-housing YIMBY movement. While there are some instances of YIMBY groups straying from their purpose, for the most part they’ve done a good job staying narrowly focused, and that that focus has allowed them great success.

YIMBYism is a far more ideologically diverse movement than many people realize. There are conservative YIMBYs, neoliberal YIMBYs, Democratic YIMBYs, libertarian YIMBYs, and many left or socialist YIMBYs (although in true socialist tradition, some want to break away from the YIMBY label and create a sub-label PHIMBY). This isn’t just a feel good story about how conservatives and liberals can be friends—this has a real impact on YIMBYs getting things done. It’s part of why you see both Republican and Democratic officials at the local level working towards YIMBY solutions in different cities, and why those solutions can often pass without bitter partisan warfare. It’s why the YIMBY Act in Congress had Republican and Democratic co-sponsors. It’s why YIMBYs are scoring victories in blue states like California and red states like Montana.

This sort of thing matters. YIMBYs are a big tent and they’re getting things done. It’s hard enough to make real change happen on a single policy or a single issue. Whole movements try for years and still sometimes fail. Single-issue groups trying to address every issue at once aren’t going to succeed. The urge towards mission creep is strong, and too many groups are weakening their core strengths to address problems they can’t solve. Single-issue organizations shouldn’t burden themselves with having the answer to every question, with having a stance on every issue, and with having to be all things to all people. It’s ok not to comment. It’s ok to stay in your lane and just work on one problem. It’s ok to try to change the world just one issue at a time.

[fafodill]

Soooooo viewer discretion is advised here because the music video I want to share with you is graphic. As in : the day it got aired, it was cancelled after a few hours in France because of public outrage. So please don't watch it if you don't feel like it, take care or yourselves first ! Basically it's a music video/short movie about bullying.

And I love this music video and I also can't help but think about Snape and the Marauders. A little context first :

It's a song from the french group Indochine, a notably quite politically engaged group going back to the 80s. They've been singing songs for the missfits, the leftist, the LGBTQ+ people for decades. And this particular song is about not fitting in, being misunderstood, being different. In the video, the boy is hinted at being queer (gay maybe) and he's getting heavily bullied for it. The video is graphic as shit. Like when you think it can't get worse, it does, and it encapsulate, to me, the utter violence of what school can be for victims of bullying. I've been there myself and the day I saw this video, years ago, it spoke to a hidden, visceral part in me. It's really fucking good. I felt so seen and in my guts, I know Snape would too.

The way everyone is blindfolded, absolutely aware of what's happening but merely looking/ignoring/recording the atrocities is amazingly portrayed. Also the violence of the authorities not believing the victim when it's absolutely obvious they did nothing wrong.

And when I look at this now, I think about Snape. I think about the crushing loneliness of the world being against you just because you exist, of the ever increasing cruelty of your assailants. And honestly the boys bullying him have HARDCORE Maraudeurs vibes to me. And I'd love to hear your opinions, fellow Snape fans ! I know maybe some of you relate to Snape because of this as well, so maybe this could be cathartic for you too. But take care of yourselves !

Also for any Snape hater wanting to come here and argue that he fought back, he wasn't all innocent, blah blah blah, I don't care. This is about relating to and understanding the years of abuse we know he suffered from as a very socially excluded young person, leading to him almost dying once and being choked and SAed in public.

[whencyclopedia]

XYZ Affair

The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic incident that occurred in 1797-98, involving diplomats from the United States and Revolutionary France. Amidst rising tensions between the two nations, President John Adams sent envoys to Paris to negotiate a treaty, only to find that the French would not open negotiations unless the US paid a bribe. This helped to incite the Quasi-War.

The affair came at a time when the concurrent French Revolution (1789-1799) was already creating divisions within American politics. The nationalist Federalist Party – of which President Adams was a member – was horrified by the violence of the French Revolution and wanted to move the United States away from France's sphere of influence. To do this, they sought to foster closer political and economic ties with Great Britain, which they viewed as the natural ally of the US. This caused outrage amongst the rival political faction, the Democratic-Republican Party (Jeffersonian Democrats), who believed that closer ties with Britain would only undermine republicanism in the United States. At the same time, the French Republic viewed the budding relationship between the US and Britain as an act of aggression and authorized attacks on American merchant vessels in late 1796.

In 1797, President Adams sought to resolve the issue diplomatically and sent three envoys to France. These envoys had expected to be received by the French foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord; instead, they were met by three French intermediaries (referred to in coded dispatches as agents 'X', 'Y', and 'Z') who insisted that the United States pay a large bribe in order to meet with Talleyrand and begin negotiations. When this became public knowledge in the US, it inflamed public opinion against the French, leading to increased support for Adams and the anti-French Federalists. Rising Franco-American tensions led to a brief, undeclared naval conflict called the Quasi-War (1798-1800), as well as the passage of the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts (1798).

Background

In 1778, the Kingdom of France signed a Treaty of Alliance with the fledgling United States. The American Revolutionary War had been ongoing for three years, and the Americans had time and again proven their resilience and determination in battle against the British; however, it was clear to all that the American rebellion would falter if they did not receive support from a European power. France was happy to oblige, seeing that a victory in America would humiliate and weaken its rival, Great Britain. France provided the Americans with arms, ammunition, uniforms, troops, and ships, and it turned the war into a global conflict by threatening the valuable British colonies in India and the West Indies, forcing Britain to spread its military resources thin. French soldiers and ships proved vital to the decisive American victory at the Siege of Yorktown, the engagement that solidified American independence. Certainly, the French contributed greatly to the ultimate American victory and succeeded in striking a blow to British prestige in the process.

But such a war came with a monstrous cost, and France soon found itself drowning in debt. Attempts to tackle the problem failed, and France's economic misfortunes blossomed into a revolution. News of the Storming of the Bastille in July 1789 was sweet to American ears, as was the proclamation of the First French Republic three years later. Americans were jubilant that their French brothers-in-arms were following their lead and casting off the shackles of monarchism, with Thomas Jefferson and his supporters even welcoming the new French Republic as "our younger sister" (Wood, 182). But then came the violence: the September Massacres, the trial and execution of Louis XVI, and the start of the Reign of Terror made the streets of Paris slick with blood and plunged the young French Republic deeper into chaos. Under the new Jacobin regime, hundreds of thousands of French citizen-soldiers swept into Europe, vowing to deliver liberty and equality at the point of a bayonet. The French Revolutionary Wars were soon underway as the great powers of Europe – Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain among them – took up arms against the French.

Even now, the French Revolution had support in the United States, with men like Jefferson believing that a little violence was the price to pay for liberty. They believed that the 1778 Treaty of Alliance was still in effect and urged the Washington Administration to offer support to their sister republic. However, President George Washington was reluctant to offer any such support. He knew that doing so would risk antagonizing Great Britain, with whom relations were already low, at a time when the United States was completely unprepared for war. Instead, Washington issued a Proclamation of Neutrality on 22 April 1793, in which he promised to keep the United States out of the French Revolutionary Wars. The following year, his administration negotiated a deal with Britain – the controversial Jay Treaty, ratified by Congress in 1795, created stronger economic and political ties between Britain and the United States. While this achieved the goal of the Washington Administration and the Federalist Party of avoiding another war with England, it outraged the Jeffersonian faction of Americans (Democratic-Republicans), who still wanted to support France and feared that the treaty placed the US too closely within Britain's sphere of influence.

Jay Treaty

John Jay (Public Domain)

The French Republic itself was also incensed by the Jay Treaty, which it interpreted as a British-American alliance. The French felt especially double-crossed because they believed the 1778 Treaty of Alliance was still in effect and had been expecting American support. They retaliated in 1796 when French privateers began attacking American shipping in the British West Indies. Within the next year, nearly 300 American merchant ships were captured, their crews often subjected to maltreatment; in one instance, the French tortured the American captain of the Cincinnatus with thumb screws to get him to confess that he was carrying British goods. Amidst these rising tensions, Washington, who was preparing to leave office, recalled James Monroe as ambassador to France, feeling that Monroe was too pro-French. In his place, Washington sent Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a hardline Federalist from South Carolina; but when Pinckney arrived in Paris, the French refused to even receive him. This was how matters stood when John Adams was inaugurated as the second US president on 4 March 1797 – a discontented pro-French faction on American soil, and an aggressive French Republic looking to assert its will.

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