#tIME TO ATTACK THE FIRE NATION LES GO

[sunskate]

2024 Cup of China November 22-23, 2024 Chongqing, China

G/F's FD is a misfire. skating right after Marjo and Zak whose FD is emotional highlighted how theirs is cold by comparison. for G/F to do well with this program, they'd have to be surgical in their precision, which they weren't today. i thought maybe their intention was to be exciting and edgy, but the new costumes are pretty conventional - hers is a regular skating dress. it emphasizes how their sensibility isn't daring. Lopareva/Brissaud do the edgy lane much better. so G/F eked out a FD win over LaLa by less than a point - LaLa had higher TES, but G/F won with skating skills

LaLa - i was already tearing up in the dance spin when she bends her head to his haha it's so interesting how the same move can be emotional again no matter how many times they've done it. in that way, they're the musicians among the dancers. the same song you love can make you feel things the 10th or the 100th time you've listened to it. they're going to need more fresh material for Olympic season, but for now, this is still working because they're leveling up in performance. they're so good at the big strokes - they understand how to build the program. but having the emotional depth and performance and skating ability to pull that off is what sets them apart

CPom - not their best skate, they still did very well, but that final bit of fire and attack and flow wasn't quite there today. they collided with Olivia and Tim during the 5 minute warmup, and even though it was Olivia who got knocked down, i kind of wonder if these nice people were shaken up more. Olivia and Tim also had a great skate, and the judges went for them more - CPom had higher BV and PCS, but S/D went ahead of them in the FD on their higher GOE

but CPom making the podium at both of their Grand Prix is a huge achievement. and doing both GPs in Asia with such a short turnaround is resilience and training. they're having an amazing season so far. so now a little break and some sleep before a push towards Nationals 🔥❤️

Olivia and Tim looking so good - really happy for them 😭 after some really rocky times and a lot of comments about it not working out (is TSL ever right about anyone's potential 😅) - Tim rising to meet Olivia and them having such good material is exciting

T/V - this tango program is very beautiful. they set such a high bar of difficulty and complexity with it, but i'm not sure it's entirely paying off - they have to be so perfect for the GOE to rain. like the mistake that dropped their score was so tiny compared to what they'd achieved to that point that it feels unfair. but there are a few moments in this where hitting the choreo exactly on the music would be huge, and they're a little bit off. so i hope we get to see it like that at Euros

Green/Parsons: this is a lovely program, but it feels too much on one level. if the energy is going to stay similar throughout, then emotionally it needs to be deeper, the flow more seamless, the skating more powerful or sharper to move up

Demougeot/Le Mercier: i'm not sure what happened at French Masters where it looked like they were getting dropped for Dupayage/Nabais- D/LeM are a far stronger team right now, and this was a good skate for them. glad to see them looking so assured. i didn't know this was a Benoit program, but it makes sense lol

Davis/Smolkin: this program is so strange how it has difficult and interesting elements, and then they'll do a bunch of stroking for half a lap to go into what looks like their most standard lift? i like the way the StaLi hits right at the drum beat from Kashmir at the start. Mark said she's playing Medusa - IAM doing another snake program lol though if you can't tell what it is from watching, is it working? in this field of stellar teams, i'm glad the scoring seemed restrained for them. though their PCS look really high, and at GP France this FD score would have had them in 3rd above R/A

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

How was Danton responsible for the 10th of August insurrection?

According to L’école révolutionnaire des Cordeliers (published both here and as chapter three of Danton: le mythe et l’histoire (2016)) by Raymonde Monnier, ”on August 10, Danton is a key person of the situation created through the insurrection.” As evidence for this, Monnier first and foremost lifts the following decree from the section of Théâtre−Français, signed by Danton on July 30:

The section of Théâtre-Français declares […] that the fatherland being in danger, all French men are called upon to defend it; that there no longer exists what the aristocrats called passive citizens, that those who carried this unjust title are called as much to the service of the national guard as to the sections and the primary assemblies to deliberate there. Signed: Danton, president. Anaxagoras Chaumette, vice-president. Momoro, secretary.

According to the memoirs of Chaumette, Danton was still in Paris on August 5. One day later, we do however find him in Arcis, signing a decree granting his mother a house, seemingly so she had something to fall back on was he to perish during the insurrection.

As for Danton’s role in the insurrection itself, he had the following to say about it during his trial held one and a half year later:

I am accused of having retired to Arcis-sur-Aube at the time when the journée of August 10 was being planned. To this accusation, I respond that I declared at that time that either the French people would be victorious or I would be dead. I ask to bring forward as witness to this fact citizen Payen. […] Pétion, leaving the Commune, came to the Cordelier Club. He told us that the tocsin would ring at midnight and that the next day must be the tomb of tyranny; he told us that the attack on the royalists was planned for the night, but that he had arranged things in such a way that everything would be done in broad daylight and would be over by noon and that victory was assured for the patriots. As for me, I only left my section after recommending to notify me would anything new happen. I stayed in my section for twelve hours straight, and returned there the next day at nine o'clock. This is the shameful rest in which I indulged, according to the report. Danton before the tribunal on April 3 1794, as reported in Bulletin du Tribunal Révolutionnaire

I had prepared August 10 and I went to Arcis, because Danton is a good son, to spend three days, say goodbye to my mother and settle my affairs, there are witnesses to it. After that, I was very much in evidence. I didn't go to bed. Although I was an official at the Commune I went to the Cordeliers. I told Minister Clavières, who came from the Commune, that we were going to start an insurrection. After having arranged all the operations and the moment of the attack, I lay down on the bed like a soldier, with orders to warn me. I left at one o'clock and went to the Commune which had become revolutionary. I issued the death warrant against Mandat who was in possession of an order to fire on the people. The mayor was arrested and I remained at the Commune following the advice of the patriots. Notes de Topino Lebrun, juré au Tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris, sur le procès de Danton et sur Fouquier-Tinville (1875)

On December 12 1793, Lucile Desmoulins wrote a long description over what she had experienced during the night of the insurrection four months earlier, a description where Danton gets mentioned multiple times:

After dinner [on August 9] we all went to D(anton’s). Her mother was crying, she was sad, her father looked dazed. D(anton) was resolute. [Lucile then goes out with Danton’s wife and mother-in-law for a while]. When I returned to D(anton’s), I found madame R(obert) and many others there. D(anton) was restless. I ran to madame Robert, I said to her “will they ring the tocsin?” “Yes,” she told me, ”but tonight.” I listened to everything and did not say a word. Soon I saw everyone arming themselves. C(amille), my C(amille), arrived with a gun!… O God! I sank into the ground, hid myself with both my hands and started to cry. However, not wanting to show so much weakness and say aloud to C(amille) that I did not want him to get involved in all this, I waited for a moment when I could speak to him alone, and I told him all my fears. He reassured me by telling me he would not leave D(anton’s) side. I have since found out that he exposed himself. […] No one in the street, everyone had gone home. Our patriots left. I sat down near a bed, overwhelmed, devastated, sometimes dozing off, and when I wanted to talk, I was nonsense. Madame D(anton) and R(obert) reasoned. D(anton) went to bed, he did not seem to be in a hurry. He hardly went out. Midnight was approaching. One came to search for him several times. Finally he left for the Commune. The toscin of the Cordeliers rang, it rang for a long time! Alone, bathed in tears, on my knees by the window, hidden in my handkerchief, I listened to the sound of that fatal bell. In vain they came to console me, this fatal night seemed to me to be the last! D(anton) came back. Madame Robert, who was very worried about her husband, who had gone to the Faubourg Saint-Antoine as a deputy through his section, ran to D(anton), who only gave her a very vague answer. He threw himself on his bed. One came several times to give us good and bad news. I thought I noticed that their plan was to go to the Tuileries, Sobbing, I told them I thought I was going to faint… In vain did madame Robert ask for news of her husband, no one gave her any. She thought he was marching with the faubourg. “Yes,” she said to me, “if he perishes I will not survive him! But this D(anton) who remains in his bed, he, the rallying point, if my husband perishes I will be the woman to stab him!” Her eyes were rolling. From that moment on I never left her side. What did I know what could happen? To know what she was capable of… We thus passed the night in cruel agitations. C(amille) came back at 1 o’clock, he fell asleep on my shoulder. Mde R(obert) who was next to me seemed to be preparing to learn of her husband’s death. “No,” she told me, “I can’t stay here any longer! Madame D(anton) is unbearable to me, she seems to be calm, her husband does not want to expose himself!” […]

Another diarist who mentioned Danton’s role in the insurrection was Scottish physician and travel author John Moore:

It is not to be imagiened however that [the insurrection] originated in an instantaneous resolution of the various sections of Paris: all had been arranged by a junto of men, of which Danton was supposed to be a leading member, and of whom the electors of the sections were the tools. A journal during a residence in France, from the beginning of August to the middle of December 1792 (1793) by John Moore. Diary entry August 22 1792.

Two other contemporaries who attributed a leading role to Danton, albait much longer after the fact than Louise Robert and John Moore, are Billaud-Varennes and Garat:

After June 20, everyone was making small hassles at the castle, whose power was growing visibly: Danton arranged August 10, and the castle was struck by lightning. Mémoires sur la révolution ou exposé de ma conduite dans les affaires et dans les fonctions publiques (1795) by Dominique-Joseph Garat

Danton, one of the condemned in Germinal, as a member of the Convention, was admirable in his courage and resources in 1792 and 1793. He had made August 10.  Note written by Billaud-Varennes in the 1830s

Finally, Villain d’Aubigny also left a more detailed description of Danton’s handling of Antoine Mandat, the commander in chief of the national guards who started disobeying orders during the insurrection, in his Principaux évènemens, pour et contre la Révolution, dont les details ont été ignorésjusqu’à présent: et prédiction de Danton au Tribunal révolutionnaire, accomplie (1794):

I go down into the courtyard, I find citizen Dufresse there, who pulls me aside and says to me: I come from Danton, who, at this moment (around two o'clock in the morning), is at the Commune, to inform you that we have just discovered an infernal conspiracy against the people in favor of the court; that this conspiracy is about to break out; that Mandat, general commander of the national guard, is at the head of this conspiracy […], that during the agitation and confusion that such a discovery had necessarily thrown into the Council, Danton, fearing everything for the people in such terrible circumstances, had hastened to transport himself, with several members of the Commune, notably Rossignol , to the general staff, where Mandat was; that he had summoned him, in the name of the people, to follow him immediately to the General Council, to give an account of his conduct; that this traitor, believing himself certain of the success of his dreadful projects, and still unaware that his treason had been discovered, had had the audacity to reply to him that he did not recognize this so-called Commune, made up of factions and rebels; that he had no orders to receive from it, and that he only held his conduct accountable to that of honest people;  that Danton, throwing himself upon him and seizing him by the collar in the middle of his staff, said to him: “Traitor, it will force you to obey it, this Commune, which will save the people that you betray and against which you conspire with the tyrant... Tremble! your crime is discovered, and soon you and your infamous accomplices will receive the price!..." Danton and Rossignol take him to the General Council; he is questioned and shown the order signed and given by him to Carle to massacre the people. He turns pale!... he is forced to recognize it, to confess it... he is questioned about his connections with the tyrant and his court, about their projects, about the number of the conspirators... He declares that the Tuileries castle is filled with Swiss guards and all the supporters of the court; that everyone is armed, as are all La Fayette's friends; that the castle also contains a considerable quantity of munitions of all kinds; that, according to these confessions, Mandat had been placed in the custody of Rossignol and several other members of the Commune; but that Danton, who did not lose sight of the salvation of the people and the liberty of his fatherland for a single moment, had at that very moment given orders to all places where armed and insurgent people were to be found, to inform them of the treason plotted against them, and invite them to remain calm until daylight, in order to avoid falling into the traps that were set for them from all sides.

Within 24 hours of the successful insurrection, August 11, Danton also took serment as the new minister of justice (getting 222 out of 284 votes) which, in his biographer’s Norman Hampson’s (1978) words, ”suggests people believed he had taken a leading role.” Hampson does however also remain hesitant to state we actually know anything more concrete about Danton’s role in the insurrection — ”Nothing is known of what he actually did on the tenth, which has not stopped admirers from giving him a leading role or Mathiez to suggest he stayed out of the way.”

I’ve found an example of the first group Hampson’s is talking about in Danton: l’homme d’État. Centenaire de 1789 (1873). There, the historian Jean-François Robinet, besides bringing up the things already mentioned above, also includes the following part, but without including any sources… :

As soon as the possibility of overthrowing the throne and proclaiming the Republic had been demonstrated to him, Danton worked hard to assemble the military force which was to deliver the death blow to the monarchy. For this, he had put the Cordeliers battalion, which he had wrapped around his finger, into increasingly close contact with that of Saint-Marceau, commanded by Alexandre, and that of the Enfants-Rouges, Faubourg Saint-Antoine, commanded by Santerre. Moreover, he was their deputy, when the time arrived and through the ascendancy that he quickly gained over them, the body of the Marseille and Brest Federates, brought from the barracks of the rue Blanche in Cordeliers and placed, for the fight, under the command of Westermann, with the battalion of the Enfants-Rouges. At the same time, he chose the grievance which was to motivate the insurrection and which had to be high enough to legitimize it in the eyes of the greatest number, namely: the refusal, by the Legislative Assembly, to pronounce the forfeiture of the king which was voted on August 6. Finally, when the time for the fight came, that is to say in the night between the 9th and the 10th, "after having settled all the operations and the moment of the attack", Danton proposed in all sections, through his friends, most of whom were municipal administrators, the appointment and immediate sending to l'Hôtel de ville of commissioners with a mandate to “save public affairs”. He arranged the substitution of this new Council, or of the insurrectional group formed by all these delegates, for the old General Council, whose retreat was obtained by the intelligence he had in this assembly and by the direct action of Deforgues, one of his men, who served as master of ceremonies there.

On September 25 1873, a review of Robinet’s work was published in the journal La République Française. The reviewer declared himself scaptical in regards to Robinet’s take on Danton’s role in the insurrection, but him too without citing sources for his version of the story:

Your (Robinet) dantonist view of August 10 is nothing but a plan de pièce. If we had to stage this great day, we would proceed no differently from you: Danton summons the sections, Danton sets up the day, Danton directs the armed citizens, and we would even go so far as to have him ring the toscin of the Cordeliers with his own hand. This is the drama. But history shows something else. We see there that it was the section of Marché des Innocents which particularly and insistently requested a meeting of commissioners to draw up an address to the armies: we see there that it was as a result of the declaration of the fatherland in danger that the convocation of the sections and the appointment of the commissioners took place; we see that the commissioners gathered by the address to the armies did not find their mission up to the circumstances, and we do not see Danton in any of this. It was new commissioners (which did not include Danton's friends either, except for one, Fabre d'Eglantine), who, on the proposal of their committee, composed of Collot d'Herbois, Xavier Audouin, Chénier, Joly, Tallien and Mathieu, decided that an address for the forfeiture would be brought to the Legislative Assembly; it was Marie-Joseph Chénier (and not Danton) who wrote this address; it was the same Assembly which fixed the day for the taking up of arms, after having heard from the faubourgs Saint-Antoine and Saint-Marceau Huguenin and Lazouski (and not Danton); and if it was decided to march on the castle, it was the Brunswick manifesto which naturally gave birth to this idea in people's heads. Threatened with being decimated, the city wanted to have the king as a hostage. On the evening of August 9, it was decided in the sections that the tocsin would sound at midnight, but the commissioners who were sent to the Faubourg Saint-Antoine to agree one last time, resolved that they would only march in the morning, that 'we would form a surrectional council at Ilôtel-de-Ville, and this double resolution was taken on the proposal, not of Danton, who was not there, but of Xavier Audouin, who represented the section of La Fontaine-Grenelle. This is why Clavières came to warn the leader of the Cordeliers and why he went to bed. As for Danton signing Mandat's death warrant, we don't know what you’re talking about. The cordelier did go to Hôtel-de-Ville for a moment during the night as a substitute for the Commune prosecutor, and not as an insurgent, but he did not have a death warrant to sign. The order to take Mandate to the Abbey (there was no other) was given by the commissioners themselves when they had settled in the place of the municipality, and it was in the morning. This is what history shows. So, you say, Danton did not play any role on August 10? Yes he did, but far from seeing him as having a manifold and absorbing role, we believe on the contrary that his action that day was very limited. After having previously taken part in some of the preparatory measures, such as the distribution of cartridges, the barracking of the Marseillais at Cordeliers, etc, he hardly left his section, where he presided, on the 10th. We would even say that Danton's complete inaction at that time would in no way have surprised or offended us. He was too prominent, and even too hindered by his official functions, to fully act.

Robinet responded to the review in a long article with the title Le dix août et la symbolique positiviste(1873)

…If we take into account the decisive intelligence that Danton had in the Insurrectionary Directory, through Santerre, Alexandre, Westermann, Desmoulins and Legendre at least, and if we accept, according to the historians we have cited, that he attended its meetings, if we remember that he had a higher rank within the Cordeliers battalion, which put up such a good show at the Tuileries under Swiss fire, and where so many of his friends were; if we especially remember that before July 14, at the Jacobins, he had provoked the Fédérés present in Paris, already numbering four or five thousand, to take an oath not to leave the capital until liberty had been established and the wish of all the departments expressed on the fate of the executive power, and that the Fédérés, consequently, had, from the 17th, asked the Legistative Assembly for the suspension of the King and the indictment of Lafayette, in a petition written, it seems, by Anthoine de Metz then president of the Jacobins, and by Robespierre, it becomes difficult to deny, like La République Française does, that he had a part (and a most considerable part in our book) in the formation and the leadership of the armed force which made August 10.

But again, I’m having a hard time actually checking up any of these facts…

[empiredesimparte]

Warning, description of scenes of violence.

Emperor's office

Napoléon V: I thank you M. de Tour for your work, you must represent the Crown proudly now

Ernest, procuror: Naturally, Sire. If you allow me Napoléon V: Go ahead Ernest: The 8 suspects are currently being heard at the Paris Assize Court for homicide, attack on the security of the nation, attack on the person of Madame Mère, and criminal association

Napoléon V: What did the investigation show? Jeanne, Minister of Justice: Are you sure, Your Majesty? Napoléon V: Yes. Ernest: The imperial couple came out under the heckling of the demonstrators. They got into the car and were escorted by the police. The demonstrators gathered to corner the imperial car, and the group in front aimed at the vehicle with hand grenades.

Ernest: There were three explosions and the general confusion that this generated caused the crowd to flee. The windows of the surrounding buildings exploded, the imperial car was riddled and its surroundings were perforated in several places. Projectiles of all shapes and sizes were found. Most of the police officers escorting the imperial car died on the spot.

Jeanne: 7 people died on the spot and 11 died of injuries. 23 seriously injured and 66 injured. The police… have not been able to fully recover the bodies of two imperial guards.

Napoléon V: This is despicable.

Ernest: Yes, Your Majesty. The imperial car partially resisted the grenades, but it caught fire. The imperial couple were evacuated with the help of reinforcements. Some demonstrators filmed your parents on the ground, but the footage was censored by the authorities. Fortunately, this did not have time to spread on social networks.

Napoléon V: Thank God. How can one be so cruel?

Ernest: Human nature is cruel, Your Majesty. Otherwise, we would have no laws. Anyway… The suspects are all French, some had their faces covered during the attack. They are mostly young, between 20 and 40. There is even a young couple from Paris who had no previous criminal record. They did not throw the grenade but tried to throw paving stones at the imperial couple, still on the ground. Napoléon V: Let's take a break, shall we

⚜ Le Cabinet Noir | Château de Compiègne, 5 Floréal An 230

Beginning ▬ Previous ▬ Next

⚜ Traduction française

Napoléon V : Je vous remercie M. de Tour pour votre travail, représentez fièrement la Couronne

Ernest, procureur : Naturellement Sire. Si vous permettez. Napoléon V : Allez y. Ernest : Les huit suspects sont entendus actuellement à la cour d'assises de Paris pour homicide, atteinte à la sécurité de la Nation, attentat contre la personne de Madame Mère, association de malfaiteurs.

Napoléon V : Qu'a donné l'enquête ? Jeanne, ministre de la justice : Êtes-vous sûr Votre Majesté ?... Napoléon V : Oui. Ernest : Le couple impérial est sorti sous le chahut des manifestants. Ils sont montés dans la voiture et escortés par la police. Les manifestants se sont rassemblés pour coincer la voiture impériale, et le groupe à l'avant a visé le véhicule avec des grenades artisanales.

Ernest : Il y a eu trois explosions et la confusion générale que cela a généré a fait fuir la foule. Les vitres des bâtiments alentours ont explosé, la voiture impériale a été criblée et ce qui l'entoure a été perforé en plusieurs endroits. On a retrouvé des projectiles de toute forme et de toute taille. Les policiers qui escortaient la voiture impériale sont morts sur le coup pour la plupart.

Jeanne : Il y a eu 7 morts sur le coup et 11 personnes sont décédées suite aux blessures. 23 blessés graves et 66 blessés. La police... n'a pas pu retrouver entièrement les corps de deux gardes impériaux.

Napoléon V : C'est ignoble.

Ernest : Oui Votre Majesté. La voiture impériale a résisté en partie aux grenades, mais elle a pris feu. Le couple impérial a été évacué à l'aide des renforts. Certains manifestants ont filmé vos parents à terre, ces images ont été censurées par les autorités. Heureusement, cela n'a pas eu le temps de s'étendre sur les réseaux sociaux.

Napoléon V : Dieu merci. Comment peut-on être si cruel ?

Ernest : La nature humaine est cruelle, Votre Majesté. Sinon, nous n'aurions pas de lois. Enfin... Les personnes suspectées sont tous français, certains avaient couvert leur visage lors de l'attentat. Elles sont pour la plupart jeunes, entre 20 et 40 ans. Il y a un même un jeune couple parisien qui n'avait pas de casier judiciaire par le passé. Ils n'ont pas lancé la grenade mais tenté de lancer des pavés sur le couple impérial, encore à terre. Napoléon V : Faisons une pause, voulez-vous

[kneedeepincynade]

The 25th of April has come and gone with all itscontradictions, and my mind can not but wonder what is left of those glorious days that many years ago? Very little or none at all. We liberated our homeland with such patriotic impetus that it is difficult to believe we are the same people in the same country of those heroes of old. Today, we have betrayed everything the liberation was for. We have allowed our nation to become occupier again, and we have allowed the fascists to rule again and intimidate again, we swapped the German occupier for the American one, we swapped the PNF for a fake democracy that serve the serve purposes of the old PNF, we change Dvce every 4 years but much like the first one, this rotating tyrants still do the work of the occupier, the same repression with different methods but with the same aims. But was it all for naught? Were all those deaths wasted? Was all that heroism, that courage, those sacrifices wasted? No, they were not! They did not die in vain! The partisans are an example for us. They have shown us that we can resist, that we can defy the occupation, that we can free ourselves! We live in bitter times, it's true, but we have the gift of courage and daring of our ancestors, the flame of liberation forever lit in our hearts waiting to become a fire that will burn this sistem and this occupation to the ground. While our colonial government, ever in service of Washington, spits on the legacy of liberation and our constitution, while this installed government aid genocide and imperialism abroad, while our occupying government send weapons and ammunitions to the fascist junta in kiev and to the criminals of Israel, we the people resist and will continue to resist!

But when was our liberation betrayed? When did we lose those ideals? What was the moment that we lost everything? It's difficult to answer, to pinpoint a moment in history or to put the blame on a single man or a single date. It was a process made of many dates and of many traitors, some share more blames than others, some didn't know they were betraying all they fought for, and some never fought for what they betrayed. However, if we want to try and find a beginning, I dare say that it was all when the fascists were pardoned, when what was supposed to be the Italian Norimberga didn't happen, when it was decided we didn't need de fascistization, thar was probably the moment it all fell apart. On that point onwards, all hope for independence was lost. We had become another pawn of American imperialism, another cushion state with the est, another bulwark of anticommunism, and of European submission.

But what has to be done now? What can we do to uphold the values of our resistance? What can we do to restore what was lost? It is a long road and it's impossible to have all the answers. But we can say where to start. We must oppose the occupation government in all it does. No lie must go uncontested. No action taken by the government left unanswered. No oppression left uncontested. There must be unity of purpose and action, not an easy task as it was proven time and time again by the behavior of many a reality but we do not have the right to give up, it is not our right to abbandon the fight for a new liberation and a new resistance!. We must form a unified vector of attack, a unified doctrine and a unified idea.

But most importantly, we must make sure that the forces of reaction do not appropriate the memory of the resistance. For decades, those who, by their actions, spit on the resistance and what it meant for our nation, appropriate the resistance and its memory, decades of allowing this have turned the 25th of April into a commemoration devoided of its meaning and of its original spirit. It as become a farce, a commemoration of antifascim by those who spit on antifascism in their daily life, a commemoration of resistance by those who commit the oppression that must be resisted.

Il 25 aprile è andato e venuto con le sue mille contraddizioni e la mia mente non può fare a meno di chiedersi cosa è rimasto di quei giorni gloriosi di tanti anni fa? Molto poco o niente. Abbiamo liberato la nostra patria con un tale slancio patriottico che è difficile credere che siamo lo stesso popolo, nello stesso paese, di quegli eroi del passato. Oggi abbiamo tradito tutto lo scopo della liberazione. Abbiamo permesso alla nostra nazione di diventare di nuovo occupata, e abbiamo permesso ai fascisti di governare di nuovo e di intimidire di nuovo, abbiamo scambiato l’occupante tedesco con quello americano, abbiamo scambiato il PNF con una finta democrazia che serve agli scopi del vecchio PNF. , cambiamo Dvce ogni 4 anni ma, proprio come il primo, questi tiranni a rotazione continuano a fare il lavoro dell'occupante, la stessa repressione con metodi diversi ma con gli stessi obiettivi. Ma è stato tutto inutile? Tutte quelle morti sono state sprecate? Tutto quell'eroismo, quel coraggio, quei sacrifici erano sprecati? No non lo erano! Non sono morti invano! I partigiani sono un esempio per noi. Ci hanno mostrato che possiamo resistere, che possiamo sfidare l’occupazione, che possiamo liberarci! Viviamo in tempi amari, è vero, ma abbiamo il dono del coraggio e dell'audacia dei nostri antenati, la fiamma della liberazione accesa per sempre nei nostri cuori in attesa di diventare un fuoco che raderà al suolo questo sistema e questa occupazione. Mentre il nostro governo coloniale, sempre al servizio di Washington, sputa sull’eredità della liberazione e sulla nostra Costituzione, mentre questo governo insediato aiuta il genocidio e l��imperialismo all’estero, mentre il nostro governo occupante invia armi e munizioni alla giunta fascista di Kiev e ai criminali di Israele, noi popolo resistiamo e continueremo a resistere!

Ma quando è stata tradita la nostra liberazione? Quando abbiamo perso quegli ideali? Qual è stato il momento in cui abbiamo perso tutto? È difficile rispondere, individuare un momento storico o attribuire la colpa a un solo uomo o a una sola data. È stato un processo fatto di tante date e di tanti traditori, alcuni condividono più colpe di altri, alcuni non sapevano che stavano tradendo tutto per cui avevano combattuto, e altri non hanno mai combattuto per ciò che hanno tradito. Ma se vogliamo provare a trovare un inizio, oserei dire che tutto fu quando i fascisti furono graziati, quando quella che doveva essere la Norimberga italiana non accadde, quando si decise che non occorreva la defascisizzazione, quello è stato probabilmente il momento in cui tutto è andato in pezzi. Da quel momento in poi ogni speranza di indipendenza andò perduta. Eravamo diventati un’altra pedina dell’imperialismo americano, un altro stato cuscinetto con l’est, un altro baluardo dell’anticomunismo e della sottomissione europea.

Ma cosa bisogna fare adesso? Cosa possiamo fare per sostenere i valori della nostra resistenza? Cosa possiamo fare per ripristinare ciò che è andato perduto? La strada è lunga ed è impossibile avere tutte le risposte. Ma possiamo dire da dove cominciare. Dobbiamo opporci al governo occupante in tutto ciò che fa. Nessuna bugia deve rimanere incontrastata. Nessuna azione intrapresa dal governo lasciata senza risposta. Nessuna oppressione lasciata incontrastata. Ci deve essere unità di intenti e di azione, compito non facile come più volte dimostrato dai comportamenti di tante realtà ma non abbiamo il diritto di arrenderci, non è nostro diritto abbandonare la lotta per una nuova liberazione e nuova resistenza!. Dobbiamo formare un vettore di attacco unificato, una dottrina unificata e un'idea unificata.

Ma soprattutto dobbiamo fare in modo che le forze della reazione non si approprino della memoria della resistenza. Per decenni, coloro che con le loro azioni hanno sputato sulla resistenza e su ciò che essa ha significato per la nostra nazione, si sono appropriati della esistenza e della sua memoria, decenni di narrazione incontrastata hanno trasformato il 25 aprile in uno commemorazione priva del suo significato e del suo spirito originario È diventata una farsa, una commemorazione dell'antifascismo da parte di coloro che sputano sull'antifascismo nella loro vita quotidiana, una commemorazione della resistenza da parte di coloro che commettono l'oppressione a cui bisogna resistere.

[matxrna-moved-blog]

“Wow I can’t wait to go attack the fire nation today,”

meme

toriel’s been hearing so much of this especially. “we must rise up and attack while we have the chance.” she’s grins. 

[rockislandadultreads]

Book Recommendations: National Reading Group Month

In honor of National Reading Group Month, here are some titles featured in our book club kits that you can check out to share with your own reading group! 

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

The Unreal and the Real by Ursula K. Le Quin

In this two-volume selection of Ursula K. Le Guin's best short stories - as selected by the National Book Award winning author herself - the reader will be delighted, provoked, amused, and faced with the sharp, satirical voice of one of the best short story writers of the present day.

Where on Earth explores Le Guin's earthbound stories which range around the world from small town Oregon to middle Europe in the middle of revolution to summer camp. Companion volume Outer Space, Inner Lands includes Le Guin's best known nonrealistic stories. Both volumes include new introductions by the author.

My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh

In the summer of 1989, a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, cauldrons of spicy crawfish, and passionate football fandom is rocked by a violent crime when fifteen-year-old Lindy Simpson - free spirit, track star, and belle of the block - is attacked late one evening near her home. As the dark side of this idyllic stretch of Southern suburbia is revealed, the close-knit neighborhood is irreversibly transformed.

In My Sunshine Away, M.O. Walsh brilliantly juxtaposes the enchantment of a charmed childhood with the gripping story of a violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love. Acutely wise and deeply honest, it is an astonishing and page-turning debut about the meaning of family, the power of memory, and our ability to forgive.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned - from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town - and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

[lightdancer1]

A scene from the Age Reversal AU Idea

When Azula turned thirteen and was found kissing a girl her age, her grandfather had promised her a great reward. A gift, or so it was said, to mark her reaching the point of young womanhood and, she guessed rather bitterly, to see if she could be 'cured' by exposure to the hypermasculine world of soldiering. Lu had talked to her about this.

She'd gone to the war, Uncle Iroh's throw of the dice. The great Siege of Ba Sing Se. Lu had talked to her, told her of Uncle's hatred of their Secret, always spoken of portentously with the elements of whispers in the dark lit by fires conjured over a clenched fist. Uncle, Grandfather, Father. All of them disliked it but it was one of many things she shared in common with cousin Lu.

She'd gone to war at thirteen, and had spent the previous year at their side, witnessing the sights-sounds-smells-realities of siege war. Some of it, a surprising amount of it, was boredom and waiting. The challenge was the bits that were anything but boring. She had never imagined killing people before. In a year's time she'd killed twelve people and her dreams had gone from normal if with elements of dread at times to things that woke her up.

Uncle and cousin Lu never judged her for that. If anything there was a strange respect. Uncle had seemed to welcome her grudgingly and then two days into the siege she'd caught assassins sent by men with funny hats and stone gloves and had had her arm in a sling until a Waterbender healer had fixed it for a week after the fight. That had won her his respect (and she had heard angry words between cousin and Uncle that she did not understand then or later).

She had fought and killed, had learned much of war and what war truly was. Chaos, horror without parallel. Uncle and Lu took it in stride, and the discipline in the army was.....vicious. There were units called Marauders, going by names like Devastation, Murder, Destruction, Annihilation. Charming names, really. With names like that no wonder the Earth Kingdom fought.

Azula did not know that she was not the only one developing a quiet doubt, or what thoughts roiled through Iroh's head, nor that the first time Azula had saved his life he'd had second thoughts too late and had narrowly talked himself out of defying his father's will in this one thing. All she knew was her own doubts, the hyper-vigilance of the front. The sheer terror that was Earthbender bombardments. Their artillery didn't use gunpowder like the Fire Nation's but then it didn't need to. The Fire Nation needed metal shells the Earthbenders couldn't affect, as everyone knew Metalbending was a myth from the time of Salai and not something real, or at least something anyone more human than the long-dead Avatars could do.

Earthbenders threw great boulders with terrifying accuracy. The ruthless arithmetic of the Siege, attacks in silence and with the terrifying shouts of hundreds of thousands of throats. The roar of the guns.

She was there the day it all went wrong, when the sundial of time where her mother was there in life in more than letters and distant glances began to cast long shadows with the onset of twilight. Propaganda would claim it was Lu Ten's death that shook her Uncle but she was there, that day. She saw the artillery, saw it strike him, saw it. Felt warmth along her face and her mouth opened in a soundless wail of grief.

Uncle had not broken then, he had raged. Entire armies thrown into the maelstrom of the breakthrough. Eighteen rotations of bitter bloody fighting, her own role in it mechanical. At the last, the edge of the dagger's tip where the fight seemingly could have gone either way, Dai Li led a whole other set of columns as large as the ones eighteen hours of brutal fighting had just sawn through with unsustainable losses.

That was what did it. Numbers, a carefully baited trap, the fell genius of King Yong Le, one of the only Earthbenders in the Royal Family of the Earth Kingdom and the great war-king. So close, so tantalizingly close.....and then they escaped the trap and the Earth Army that had sought to close it battered itself on formidable Fire Nation defenses and canister fired over open shots and their attack turned into a gruesome stalemate.

Now this. Now she was seated beside her uncle, the dried blood of her cousin still on her face, staring into space. The greatest battle in the history of the war, the great triumph she was to be a part of. What had dear grandfather said, 'the sword and the hand that wields it?' The hand was dead.

What now, she wondered. Through the day and the night she expected an attack but the Fire Nation Army would withdraw in peace, Uncle sending her along with wounded veterans back and disappearing to parts unknown for a year and a half. She would return to a world that would alter unrecognizably, as ambitions nourished awaited her own return and proof that she still lived, even if Lu Ten did not.

[microcosme11]

Chateaubriand is happy about praise from Napoleon

On St. Helena Napoleon saw an article written by Chateaubriand that praised him, which was a pleasant surprise since Chateaubriand was a royalist who was very critical of Napoleon. Napoleon then said some nice things about him to General Montholon. Chateaubriand, hearing about it later, was flattered.

« Chateaubriand a reçu de la nature le feu sacré: ses ouvrages l'attestent. Son style n'est pas celui de Racine, c'est celui du prophète. Si jamais il arrive au timon des affaires, il est possible que Chateaubriand s'égare: tant d'autres y ont trouvé leur perte! Mais ce qui est certain, c'est que tout ce qui est grand et national doit convenir à son génie, et qu'il eût repoussé avec indignation ces actes infamants de l'administration d'alors.»

Telles ont été mes dernières relations avec Bonaparte.—Pourquoi ne conviendrais-je pas que ce jugement chatouille de mon cœur l'orgueilleuse faiblesse. Bien de petits hommes à qui j'ai rendu de grands services ne m'ont pas jugé si favorablement que le géant dont j'avais osé attaquer la puissance.

---

“Chateaubriand received the sacred fire from nature: his works attest to this. His style is not that of Racine, it is that of the prophet. If he ever gets to the helm of affairs, it is possible that Chateaubriand will go astray: so many others have found themselves lost that way! But what is certain is that all that is great and national must suit his genius, and that he would have rejected with indignation these infamous acts of the administration of the time.”

These were my last relations with Bonaparte.— Why should I not agree that this judgment tickles my heart with proud weakness. Many little men to whom I have rendered great services have not judged me so favorably as the giant whose power I had dared to attack.

— Mémoires d’Outre-Tombe, Tome IV, by François-René Chateaubriand.

portrait of Chateaubriand by Paulin Guerin

[mira--mira]

3 things:

the first, Le gasp. Did Madara gave Hashirama the necklace that Tsunade gave to Naruto? That's always been a headcanon of mine so it'd be super cool if that was the case for OoT.

the 2nd: I now have a mental image of Gai running laps around Konoha with Lee & Hashimada bellowing about youth, like he does. Ppl just assuming that they're his Genin team. Cue either Neji, Tenten or Kakashi hearing about it and going over to check what's happening.

Kakashi will gaze upon the matching jumpsuits and give up on life

Neji and Tenten will be offended that they've been replaced.

The 3rd: Hashirama learns of Kakashi's (or well anyones) distaste for the jumpsuits and innocently suggest that when he becomes Hokage he'll implement them as the official Shinobi uniform. Legwarmers and all.

Now that I think about it, the Gai's outfit it literally Kakashi's except green and w/ legwarmers instead of bandages. So it probably wouldn't be that different, but its still kinda funny.

How are people afraid of the Gunbai? Cuz they're not old enough to have seen Madara use it and since he's a ghost, shouldn't all portraits/pictures of him be gone. I mean I guess there's still the statue. But Madara's not weilding a fan in that one. Are students just told in the academy that the fan is bad or is it more like a cultural aversion to fans. If that's the case then are they afraid of the fan or just dislike it? Cuz its kinda implied that Gai panicked upon seeing the fan and opened the 6th gate, but that's a big reaction that would only be triggered by actual fear instead of disgust.

Sorry for the long ramble. I was just so excited to see Oot update that my words got away from me. Love your fic!

Warnings for slight spoilers, it's more background necklace stuff only in point 1 but just fyi in case it’s important to you!

1. Yes! I love that headcanon but this one has a slightly different history behind it. Madara did give it to him, but it's the necklace he inherited from his mother that his father gave her. This is bc in the "canon" history, Madara and Hashirama were never public about their relationship. The traditional Uchiha courtship necklace was incredibly recognizable (the magatama ie the big "comma" symbol on sage/indra/ashura's clothes) so Madara couldn't easily make him one. However, Tajima made the same necklace for Kou but it broke into its now-recognizable shape of today and she refused to wear any other necklace but that one, saying it was unique among all the Uchiha's (she also compared it to a dick when Tajima added the two beads on either side to make it look nicer, but that's bc Kou had a rather coarse sense of humor). Typically the mother's necklace is inherited by the oldest daughter but since Kou only had sons, it went to Madara and was one of the last things he had of her. It was his declaration of love to give it to Hashirama and, considering how vilified and demonized Kou was to the Senju, his own declaration to accept and wear it.

2. Oh you better believe they’ll run laps together! (edit: I realized this got buried in my drafts so Chapter 17 has already come out, so yes you predicted part of the future 😜) Hashirama will be little more proactive in his revenge so no stumbling upon them haha! And Gai already has plans to introduce the terrors to his genin team 😉

3. He’ll accidentally stumble upon Kakashi’s specific distaste of the outfit but you better believe once he finds, he’ll just happen to bring it up to Kakashi every once in a while just to see his reaction. 

The issue with the gunbai is it’s specifically associated with the Ghost of the Uchiha. Madara’s individual name got lost (only the elders, ninja with access to classified records, and certain clans remember it). But the “Ghost” was a bogeyman to Konoha, an evil, terrible man who was cursed with only hatred in his heart, who turned on the village and tried to destroy it. 

(In the full story, it also connects Konoha’s hatred of Kurama specifically (the monster the Ghost used to try and destroy the village) which will also be connected to one reason why the jinchuriki were always set up to be pariahs, and how by killing Madara, Hashirama’s deification as the God of Shinobi was complete, as well as another reason the Uchiha were separated and held at arms length which only worsened over time as the story became more and more mythologized and Madara’s past contributions as a founder were lost.)

Because there weren’t paintings/statues of the Ghost (except for VotE which...I think is actually a bit of a controversial piece for Konoha tbh, and the Uchiha’s secret mural) the only thing that really stuck to symbolize him was the gunbai. This is a very American-centric perspective and I will be the first to admit isn’t a perfect parallel by any means but the kind of fear/hatred most of Konoha and especially ninja have towards the gunbai/Ghost can be thought of like the Red Scare panic. The “paranoia” point isn’t quite met but that kind of visceral hatred and fear over something that they’re told to fear and hate but don’t actually have first hand experience is similar. I also think it could work as a kind of dark reflection of the Will of Fire ideology. If you’re not someone who would sacrifice everything for the village and endure relentlessly...are you going to betray the village and become the next Ghost? That’s not a vocal belief in Konoha, but more something that’s kind of implied by the black/white mentality that nationalism kind of inspires. The emotion is only towards gunbai in particular, but the culture around fans in general and them being “too similar” has created an aversion to all fans esp in the ninja clans. Tenten has a small tessen (an iron hand held fan) but it’s something that very clearly marks her as clanless to other shinobi because no clan ninja would own one. 

All of this to say, when Gai first saw the gunbai unexpectedly the years of being taught this explicitly and implicitly kicked in and he reacted. It was a panicked instinct and if he weren’t the amazing man we know and love seeing Madara with the gunbai and definitely knowing their connection, other ninja in Konoha would find it perfectly reasonable for him to then try and attack Madara.

I hope this clears things up, I felt I got a bit rambly in the middle!

[miserablesme]

The Les Miserables Changelog Part 7: 1987-1997 American variations

Hello, everyone! This is the latest edition in my attempt to chronicle all of the musical and lyrical changes which the show Les Miserables has undergone over the years. This time, we're going through the production-specific differences between the official 1987-1997 libretto and the US tour and Broadway productions of the era.

Compared to the West End production, American ones took far fewer liberties relative to what was in the libretto. For the most part, they stuck with what they were told to do. This makes the variations that did crop up all the more fascinating, and I think they are absolutely worthy of a post. Without further ado, let's get started!

Second National Tour

1988-1991

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first US production to feature any variation from the 1987 libretto. The only one I'm aware of: the original "Got a number on his chest" becomes "Got a brand upon his chest" prior to "The Attack of Rue Plumet". This would later be applied to other productions after the costumes were slightly tweaked so that Valjean now has a generic bar on his chest instead of the number "24601". Similarly, it seems as though this production may not have had the normal number for some reason?

Broadway and Third National Tour

Everything from this point downwards refers to these two productions, which seem to have been very much connected as they tended to make the same changes around the same times.

Circa 1988-1989 version

During the "On Parole" segment of the prologue, as Valjean takes his flight a voice can be heard shouting "Stop that man!" I suppose it makes sense that someone would send an alert about his presence, though it sort of distracts from Valjean's high note.

Much like the West End production at the time, these production changed the order of lines in "At the End of the Day". Usually the lines go as follows:

What is this fighting all about?

Will someone tear these two apart?

These productions instead put them in the following order during this timeframe:

Will someone tear these two apart?

What is this fighting all about?

I honestly have no clue what exactly is the purpose of swapping those two lines; nothing seems changed at all in spirit or meaning.

After "Red and Black", Gavroche now whistles prior to announcing General Lamarque's death.

That's literally it... everything else sticks to the libretto.

Circa 1989-1991 version

This is almost identical to the preceding version. One difference: a little joke has been added to the "Waltz of Treachery". Instead of just singing "Let's not haggle for darling Cosette", Thenardier pauses for quite some time, singing: "Let's not haggle for darling... Cosette".

Circa 1991-1994 version

"At the End of the Day" is now in its official format. However, the "Stop that man" line, Gavroche's whistle, and Thenardier's forgetfulness are all still present.

Circa 1993-1994

This variant was only used on Broadway, seemingly not the US tour. It is very close to the 1991-1994 version, with a few differences.

The first difference, which draws on the 1992 UK tour and then-current West End variations, can be heard in "The Runaway Cart". Officially these were the lyrics spoken by townspeople:

Look at that

Look at that

It's Monsieur Fauchelevent

Don't approach

Don't go near

At the risk of your life

He is caught by the wheel

Oh the pitiful man

Stay away

Turn away

There is nothing to do

There is nothing to do

This was the UK tour variant:

Look at that

Stay away

You'll be crushed by the cart

Don't approach

Don't go near

It'll fall on you too

Oh my god, who is that?

It's Monsieur Fauchelevent

He is caught by the wheel

Oh the pitiful man

There is nothing to do

The US productions at this point almost used those lyrics:

Look at that

Stay away

You'll be crushed by the cart

Don't approach

Don't go near

At the risk of your life

Oh my god, who is that?

It's Monsieur Fauchelevent

He is caught by the wheel

Oh the pitiful man

There is nothing to do

Interestingly, the lyrics are identical to their revised form except that the original "At the risk of your life" is maintained instead of "It'll fall on you too". Perhaps the producers thought the scene was more suspenseful without a rhyme scheme?

Regardless, the remainder of the number plays out as was in the libretto, not using the UK tour and West End variants.

Now, prior to "Red and Black" the little sting introduced in the UK tour (and soon added to foreign language productions) is also audible in the Broadway show. To quote myself from Part 5 of this blog:

"If I’m not mistaken, this musical addition was placed in to account for a change in staging. Originally the number began with the barricade set sliding off-stage, revealing the ABC cafe set behind it. However, around the time of this tour the blocking was adjusted. Now, the turntable instead revolved at the beginning of this number, revealing the ABC cafe set on the other end of the turntable and allowing the barricade set to double as the walls of the cafe. I believe the opening sting was added to allow time for this slightly more elaborate staging."

Gavroche no longer whistles before announcing General Lamarque's death.

Circa 1994-1997 version

Used in both the tour and on Broadway, this version is the first time the US tour production actually diverges from the libretto to a significant extent. It uses the changes added in Broadway in 1993, along with some others.

The "Stop that man" line is still present in the prologue.

The 1993-1994 version of "The Runaway Cart" is still used.

Thenardier continues to forget Cosette's name during the "Waltz of Treachery".

The sting before "Red and Black" continues to play.

Calling on the UK tour and West End production, after "Night of Anguish" the instrumental "Drink with Me" tune has been removed. In its place, instrumentals of "A Little Fall of Rain" have been put in, as they already had been in the UK tour and the West End production.

Everything goes as expected right up until the epilogue. The official "And lead me to salvation" was replaced with "I'll lead you to salvation", which had already been used in the Australian and UK tours.

Circa 1997 version

This version (which was seemingly only used for a few months, if even that long) is almost identical to the previous one, with one significant difference. Drawing on the UK tour and the West End production, a sequence in "Lovely Ladies" was totally redone. Instead of the official libretto scene between sailors and prostitutes:

(SAILORS - simultaneously with prostitutes' lines)

Lovely lady, fastest on the street

Wasn't there three minutes

She was back up on her feet

Lovely lady, what you waiting for

Doesn't take a lot of savvy just to be a whore

Come on lady, what's a lady for?

(PROSTITUTES - simultaneously with sailors' lines)

Lovely ladies, lovely little girls

Lovely ladies, lovely little ladies

Lovely girlies, lovely little girls

We are lovely, lovely girls

Lovely ladies, what's a lady for?

There's this exchange between a prostitute and a pimp:

(PROSTITUTE)

God I'm weary, sick enough to drop

Belly burns like fire

Will the bleeding ever stop?

(PIMP)

Cheer up dearie, show a happy face

Plenty more like you here

If you can't keep up the pace

(PROSTITUTE)

Only joking, dearie knows her place

Side note: I only have evidence of this variant being used on the Broadway show, from January 1997. I have no idea if it was ever used in the US tour; the latest audio of the tour pre-official libretto change that I have is from December 1996, and it still uses the original lyrics.

And... that's it. See what I mean when I say the American productions didn't diverge that much from the libretto?

That just about sums this part up! If I missed anything feel free to let me know, as my goal is to create a changelog as thorough and complete as possible. I plan on making more parts in the near future covering all the changes that have been made in the show up until this day (discounting concerts). Any feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

As a side note, both for this project and my own enjoyment, I want as complete a collection of Les Miserables audios as possible. I already have most of what’s commonly circulated, but if you have any audios or videos you know are rare, I’d love it if you DMed me!

Until the turntable puts me at the forefront again, good-bye…

[ellie-belmayne]

nina dobrev . cis woman . she/her . well would you look at that , if it isn’t eloise ‘ellie’ belmayne wandering around glenview ! the thirty one year old has been in town now for a month. from what i remember , they’re known for being a little bit melancholy, but don’t let that sway ye’ , they’re also fairly passionate too ! must be why they’re known as the fighter . in fact , they’re known to remind people of grace le domas from ready or not. as far as i know , they knew poor katie balmayne , in fact i hear that they were her sister way back when. i wonder how they’re coping seeing all these familiar faces again …

hello everyone! i’m jay, and i’ll be playing eloise belmayne! here’s a little bit about her.

born and raised in glenview, eloise and katie were the youngest of the belmayne family. they have an older sibling as well.

the twins always had that ‘twin thing’ going on. they could finish each other’s... sentences, sandwiches, you name it. they used to play tricks on their parents when they were kids, pretending that they were each other, even taking tests for each other in school. eloise really defined herself by her relationship to katie, who she saw as her other half.

while school wasn’t necessarily the priority for ellie, she enjoyed her time there, mostly because it was a way for her to be around other people. especially kenny. kenny was her first in a lot of ways... and she loved him deeply and passionately with her entire being. when he proposed to her, it was the happiest day of her life.

all of that changed when the fire nation attacked katie was found dead in the woods, gutted. earlier that day, ellie had a sinking feeling in her stomach, as if the world were going to end. she ignored it in the morning, when her breakfast made her feel sick. she ignored it later that afternoon, when she and katie got into a fight. she ignored it that night, when they went to the woods. it wasn’t until the next morning that she understood what that feeling was. the world might not have ended, but ellie’s did. katie was dead. murdered.

her entire life changed after that. she moved to london with kenny, but things just didn’t feel right. she had too many questions about what happened; ellie couldn’t move on from her loss and didn’t feel like a whole person without katie. eventually, she broke things off with kenny.

she stayed in london for a while, unable to go back home without feeling like she was somehow doing something wrong and desecrating katie’s memory. she came back a little before the wedding to try and gather herself and get used to being in town before the wedding happened... but she’s not sure she’ll ever be used to being back here.

[supergirl-fanfiction]

No Greater Pain

Lena Luthor x Reader

Part 2 to Cheater

Requested by Anon

You are still hurt with what Lena did and you keep on ignoring her. Lena keeps on trying to get you back. One day Kara was affected with red kryptonite and attacks you.

(Y/N)- Your Name

Warnings- Language, Fighting/More like Torture, Death, Angst, Mentions of Blood and Alcohol

A/N- I broke my own heart with this

It had been a week since that night. You tried your hardest not to think about it and about all the feelings it had caused to awaken inside of you. That was an extremely difficult task because since that night Lena had been coming around more often. She would spend hours outside of your door begging you to let her explain herself, apologizing to you, and making all kinds of promises to you. You ignored it all to the best of your abilities but you could feel yourself slowly starting to want to hear her out. You still loved her even though you wanted to hate her. Maybe you should give her a chance to explain herself. If you let her explain herself maybe you could get some kind of closure and you could move past this part of your life finally. You sigh and shake your head.

"You're a dumbass. You should just file a restraining order and be done with this. Completely wipe your hands clean of her, but nooo that would be too simple wouldn't it. God why do I do this to myself." You mumbled talking to yourself as you took out your phone and typed in her number by memory. You could feel your hands begin to shake as you sent her a quick text telling her to meet you at Noonans at 1:00pm so she could explain herself and that if she was even 1 minute late then you would leave and she would be throwing away her one and only chance. You got a response back almost immediately telling you she would be there. You didn't send anything back. You just locked your phone and went to get ready for the day. You took a quick shower, got dressed, grabbed your camera, and left. Today was an amazing day for photos. Fall had just begun and all the leaves began to change colors. The sun shining down gave an almost angelic effect to the trees. It brought a small smile to your face. Fall had always been your favorite season because of the beauty that came with it. You had only been taking pictures for about 30 minutes when Supergirl herself had landed in front of you. You smiled at her and waved. You had always loved and supported Supergirl. She may have been more of a newer superhero but you thought she had been doing an amazing job keeping National City safe. Yet, something was different about her. She didn't smile or wave back at you like she always did with all the citizens. Instead she was glaring at you and her hands were curled into fists. Her whole body was tense, like one wrong move would make her snap. You began to feel nervous and decided it would be best if you just turned around and walked away. You had barely taken a step backwards before she was in front of you, her hand wrapped around your throat. You could barely breathe and you began to try and kick her even though you knew it was a wasted effort. The few people that had been around began to yell. Supergirl took one look at the people around her before taking off her hadn't still wrapped around your neck. You were terrified. You began to cry and try to beg her to just let you go.

"Oh, you want me to let you go. Ok." She had a sadistic smirk on her face as she then let you go. You opened your mouth to scream but nothing could come out. Your fear had ripped the breathe from your lungs. Right before you hit the ground she caught you by the ankle. You felt something break as her grip tightened and she let out a laugh as a scream finally ripped its way out of your mouth.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Humans are just so fragile."

"Wh...why are y..you do...doing th..this to m..me?" You managed to get out through your sobs. She just smirked down at you and didn't answer. Instead she just took off into the sky with you again. This time she took you out into the middle of nowhere. There was no one around to come save you. She dropped you down onto the ground carelessly causing you to land weird on your arm and you felt multiple breaks. You screamed out in pain as she laughed sadistically at your pain.

"I love hearing you scream in pain. It brings me joy." She titled her head to the side slightly as she looked at you.

"Now what to do with you? There are just so many options its hard to chose just one." You tried to scoot away from her but due to your injuries she had already caused it was almost impossible. She looked you up and down and then just smiled. It was terrifying. It wasn't her normal sweet Supergirl smile. No this one was filled with hate and anger. You saw her eyes begin to light up and you felt the fear take over your whole body.

"Wait please no don..AHHHHHHH!!!" You screamed out in pain as she used her laser eyes to burn you. She didn't do enough to kill you but every single one of your nerves were on fire. You couldn't get anything out. You couldn't beg for her to stop or for her to leave. The pain was all consuming and you could feel yourself drifting in and out of consciousness as Supergirl continued to torture you. You have no idea how long it went on until it finally stopped. You had burns from your chest down to your legs. bruises were covering every inch of your skin, you had lost count of all the broken bones you had, blood was flowing out of your body from multiple different places, and you knew that there was more damage than you could ever imagine. You heard people yelling and screaming. Then you heard Lena.

"(Y/N)! NO! NO! NO!" She ran over to you collapsed onto her knees beside you.

"Please god no. (Y/N) please just hang on. Just for a little bit ok. Just until we cannot you to the DEO. They can save you alright. Just please don't leave me please." You could hear her beg and even though every single minuscule movement hurt you forced yourself to turn your head to face her and reach out your hand to her. She carefully held your hand in hers and you could see the tears the were flowing like a river down her face. You gave her a small smile.

"Its ok Lena. You'll be ok." You rasped out before having a coughing fit. She shook her head causing some tears to fly off her face.

"We didn't even get to talk (Y/N) so just... just hang on beca....because I cant...I cant lose you. Not now not ev..ever." You felt your heart break just a little bit as you saw the pain in her eyes. You didn't want her to be haunted by her mistakes after you were gone.

"Its ok. I for...forgive y..you Le...Lena. I lo..love you st..still. For...forev...forever and al....always." You managed to get out before letting out one last shaky breath and the light drained from your eyes. Lena let out the most horrific pain filled scream anyone had ever heard before.

"NO! NO! (Y/N)! YOU CAMT LEAVE ME! PLEASE! SOMEONE PLEASE! HELP ME!" Alex came over and laid a hand on Lenas shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Lena." She whispered out. Lena shook her head before standing up and shoving Alex away from her.

"I never want to see you or Kara or any of you ever again." Lena said emotionlessly. Alex's jaw dropped and she tried to say something before Lena glared at her.

"If any of you try to come see me or talk to me I will kill you. I will show you just how much of a Luthor I truly am." Lena walked away after that. She couldn't stand to be around any of them anymore. She buried herself in her work and alcohol. The only time she had left her office was to attend your funeral. After that day she locked herself away from everyone and made a promise to herself that she would never love anyone else for as long as she lived because her heart would forever belong to you.

[macaroni-rascal]

Could you wax poetic about Kaetlyn Osmond’s skating?

There are so many things that I enjoy about Kaetlyn Osmond’s skating: her running edge, the height and length of her jumps, her perfect, textbook landing positions, how she grows over the season, her (often under appreciated) spins, her spread eagle, the musical touches in the choreography, the commitment, etc. 

All of this is what makes the 3-time Canadian champ, the 2018 world champ, and the owner of every colour of Olympic medal, so special:

I always laugh at the fact that at her very first senior worlds in 2013, she had such an amazing outing and the BESP uncles already clocked that she would one day become world champion. It just makes my heart happy.

She came out strong, finishing 8th at her first worlds, not to mention being in 4th after the short program! Not too shabby at all. Let’s also not forget she won Canadian Nationals her first year as a senior.

Despite injuries she also won nats the next year before sochi, where she would earn her first Olympic medal, silver in the team event. Her short program that year to big spender is an all time favourite of mine. She had her best performance of the program during the team event; it had the coolest step sequence, such interesting movements, like a twizzle right into an illusion spin, or the catch foot twizzle moment where she ends it in a sort of biellmann position? It was an excellent program and it really highlighted how well Kaetlyn shines and has this very strong sort of old-time show girl quality.

I always loved this quote:

“Growing up, I’ve always been the biggest fan of being the center of attention. I always wanted to show off… I even tried doing dance when I was younger and being on the ice with another person. Nope, nope, I have to share the spotlight then. Don’t like that.”

Girl after my own heart. 

She just owns the ice, I love that she makes direct eye contact and there is this obvious fire in her eyes almost like she is challenging anyone to not pay attention to her while she’s skating. She is captivating.

From a technical perspective, just in basic skating skills, she is wonderful. I think she was one of the most complete/well rounded skaters we’ve had in recent years. She skates with her legs, has excellent posture, clean edges, excellent knee bend, etc. Not to mention her speed and power across the ice is unbelievable, a few pushes and she’s across the rink, it’s amazing to watch. 

I think especially now with the IJS, skating programs can get repetitive and the step sequences, with all their requirements, can be clunky and slow and Kaetlyn has lovely, fast, interesting, and powerful step sequences that are a joy to watch. I truly believe she is a 6.0 skater in an IJS world, she attacks her step sequences rather than going through the motion and her musicality just heightens that.

Her spread eagle.

That’s it, its very lovely and I enjoy it a lot.

Now her jumps! 

Her jumps.

We will forgive the flutz (because 98% of the ladies has one, sigh) and the slight-ish-maybe pre-rotation she gets on her flip. No one else has speed into jumps quite like her, and she has such speed that she can sometimes get a little off axis in her jumps, but that was something she worked a lot on, the control she has in the air in the Olympic season was stunning.

Her speed and power OUT of the jump is something I have always admired about her. 

I’ve talked about it before, but Kaetlyn is the perfect example to why learning to jump from your legs rather than with your arms is so vital for technique and longevity in the sport. It is definitely what helped her be able to come back, and come back so very strong.

Look how she just steps up into the jump, doesn’t swing her arms back to propel herself forward, she gets unbelievable height and distance (I’m convinced it was one of, if not the, largest double axel in the ladies field for the past decade or so), not to mention the tight air position and just LOOK at the edge she has, AND HOLDS, out of the jump! Her back is straight, her shoulders are open, she doesn’t break at the waist at all. It’s pure textbook.

I adore how Kaetlyn holds her edge out of jumps, I am not a fan of cluttering a program just for the sake of putting in an empty and poorly done transition -- it is, in fact, much harder to land on a deep edge and hold that edge than it is to quickly just step out of a jump into something else.

Not to mention, she holds this edge, changes edge, then goes right into a spin. 

Also, let’s take a moment for this short program, it was the perfect vehicle for her and I am so glad she kept it for the Olympic year, I have watched this short program an enumerable amount of times and have yet to get sick of it.

To quote Ryan Bradley:

“She’s the best female jumper in the world, one of the best jumpers, period, in the world.”

Just look at this combination! I love her flip-toe so much. One thing you will often see with skaters (see eteri skaters especially) is that they really have to check between jumps: they will land, break at the waist, and sort of reset their bodies to enter into the next part of the combo or the sequence. Kaetlyn Osmond, however, makes her combinations one complete movement from start to finish.

Look how, before she has even landed (!!) the flip, she is already opening up, bringing her free leg back so that her phenomenal knee bend can just spring her back up into the air while her free leg picks in for the assist. Zero hesitation, zero check, zero issue.

Breaking a the waist? KO don’t know her.

The power she has, in and out of those jumps, is just unmatched. 

This is such a beautiful example of her technique, and why seeing off ice training is so interesting! It practically looks like she is levitating up into the air: weightless and ethereal. Look how quickly she gets into her air position, feet tight together, all coming from her legs, she isn’t wearing her shoulders for earrings and isn’t tilting her chin upward for momentum. I highly recommend checking out the other off ice jumps in the gif set I linked to, it’s very telling who is jumping from their legs and who is not.

(Also moment of appreciation for Ravi chilling in the corner like the king he is, I love you Ravi Walia)

I just admire her perseverance so much! To come back from two horrible injuries, one of them a broken leg while on the ice and only only come back, but to come back stronger and better than before, is just amazing.

Not only did she get all her triples back, she also improved her skating skills, and her interpretation. She is just a lovely lovely soul.

I mentioned briefly how much I loved how she grows over the season, I highly recommend watching black swan from skate canada and then watching olympic black sawn -- it is like night and day and really shows her growth, commitment, and excellent.

She came back, not only helped Canada towards a team gold medal, but won herself an individual medal (although I still 100% believe that if everything was scored properly, and backloading hadn’t been allowed to such an extent, she should have won and 100% deserved the gold medal, but alas) and then turned right around and went to worlds, skated her long program with an ankle injury, and ended up setting herself up for a medal.

Who knew it would end up being gold?

I remember her saying that after she did her final jump in her long program at the 2018 worlds, she saw Ravi jump and clap from the other end of the rink right before she went into her step sequence and how she said that was the first time she had ever seen Ravi do that in her entire career of him as her coach.

I love that so much because I remember also jumping for joy the second she landed that last double axel.

Here is an incomplete list of some of my favourite moments in Kaetlyn Osmond programs, complete with hyperlinks:

During the choreo sequence in black swan, when she flicks her hands out during the spiral sequence right on the music

Her arm movements in this spin right when the music booms in sous le ciel de paris/milord

This spread eagle in la boheme

This entire step sequence 

Nothing but love for the cutest world champion there ever was:

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Drug companies defend vaccine monopolies in face of global outcry (Washington Post) Abdul Muktadir, the chief executive of Bangladeshi pharmaceutical maker Incepta, has emailed executives of Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax offering his company’s help. He said he has enough capacity to fill vials for 600 million to 800 million doses of coronavirus vaccine a year to distribute throughout Asia. He never heard back from any of them. The lack of interest has left Muktadir worried about prolonged coronavirus exposure for millions of citizens of Bangladesh and other low-income nations throughout Asia and Africa who are at the back of the global queue for shots. Drug companies have rebuffed entreaties to face the emergency by sharing their proprietary technology more freely with companies in developing nations. The companies are lobbying the Biden administration and other members of the World Trade Organization against any erosion of their monopolies on individual coronavirus vaccines that are worth billions of dollars in annual sales. The fights over vaccine supply are not just over a moral duty of Western nations to prevent deaths and illness overseas. Lack of supply and lopsided distribution threaten to leave entire continents open as breeding grounds for coronavirus mutations. Those variants, if they prove resistant to vaccines, could spread anywhere in the world, including in Western countries that have been vaccinated first.

Colorado marks latest mass tragedy after 10 killed (AP) A shooting at a crowded Colorado supermarket that killed 10 people, including the first police officer to arrive, sent terrorized shoppers and workers scrambling for safety and stunned a state that has grieved several mass killings. A lone suspect was in custody, authorities said. The attack in Boulder, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Denver and home to the University of Colorado, stunned a state that has seen several mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting. Monday’s midafternoon attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.S., following the March 16 shooting that left eight people dead at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

COVID-19 strikes Brazil’s Congress as third senator dies (Reuters) A third senator has died of COVID-19 in Brazil, raising questions around precautions taken in the country’s Congress where as many as one-in-three lawmakers has been infected with the virus devastating Latin America’s largest nation. Senator Major Olimpio, a former policeman who backed and later fell out with far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, was declared brain dead on Thursday by doctors at a Sao Paulo hospital where he had been in intensive care for three weeks. Brazil has become the epicenter of the pandemic, with by far the highest current daily death toll anywhere in the world. “People are very scared, and they are afraid to go to work,” said Silvio Ribas, a press secretary for Senator Lasier Martins, a 78-year-old politician who was released from hospital on Thursday after two weeks fighting COVID-19. At least 145 of the 513 members of the lower house have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past 12 months, along with 31 of 81 senators, according to a survey by news portal Poder360.

Spain hopes number of foreign tourists will rebound to half pre-pandemic level this year (AP) Spain hopes the number of foreign tourists visiting its sun-kissed islands and picturesque villages can rebound this year to half pre-pandemic levels, Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said on Monday. “Maybe the ideal goal is ... to get half of the tourists we had in 2019. This, for the industry, would be an achievement,” she said in an event held by Europa Press news agency. In 2019, Spain had the world’s second highest number of foreign visitors at more than 80 million. This plummeted by more than 80% to 19 million tourists in 2020, the lowest level since 1969, as a result of the travel restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic. Tourism accounted for around 12% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 and one job in eight.

Court orders French celebrity magazine to pay homeless man €40,000 (Le Parisien/France) Since its founding in 1949, the iconic French weekly Paris Match has published countless photos of the rich and powerful—and every now and then, a paparazzi shot might cost them. Last week, instead, the magazine was ordered to pay serious money to a homeless man for running a photograph of him without his permission. A court in Nanterre, west of Paris, ordered Paris Match to pay 40,000 euros to the man for running his picture. “Everyone, no matter their degree of celebrity, their wealth, their present or future occupation, has a right to privacy and enjoys exclusive right over their image which allows them to oppose its use […] without prior authorization,” the court wrote in its decision. The photo, published without the man’s consent in January 2018, showed the unnamed 48-year-old smoking crack cocaine on a metro platform in the French capital’s 18th arrondissement. Unlike other people in the photograph, his face was unblurred, the daily Le Parisien reports. Alerted by friends who recognized him in the Paris Match article, the homeless man sued the magazine: In May 2019, the magazine was ordered to pay him 10,000 euros in damages, but failed to remove the photograph from its website and app, resulting in an additional 30,000-euro fine last week. Le Parisien quoted the man as saying that he used some of the money to “help out friends” and that he now may be able “to get [his] wife and children back.”

Merkel Seeks Four-Week Lockdown Extension in German Setback (Bloomberg) Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed keeping German lockdown restrictions in force for another four weeks after Covid-19 cases rose beyond a level that may prompt government action to avoid health-care overload. The plan would extend and slightly tighten existing curbs through April 18, according to a chancellery draft seen by Bloomberg. Merkel and regional government leaders will discuss the proposals on Monday during talks on how to proceed with the lockdown amid an upward curve of infections in Europe’s biggest economy.

Russia’s top diplomat starts China visit with call to reduce U.S. dollar use (Reuters) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began a visit to China on Monday with a call for Moscow and Beijing to reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar and Western payment systems to push back against what he called the West’s ideological agenda. Lavrov, on a two-day visit to China, is expected to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart at a time when both countries’ ties with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden are badly strained. U.S. and Chinese officials on Friday concluded what Washington called “tough and direct” talks in Alaska, while Russia’s ambassador arrived back in Moscow on Sunday for consultations after Biden said he believed President Vladimir Putin was a killer. Russia is also braced for a new round of U.S. sanctions over what Washington says was its meddling in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which Moscow denies. Speaking to Chinese media before the start of his visit, Lavrov said Moscow and Beijing were compelled to develop independently of Washington in order to thwart what he said were U.S. attempts to curb their technological development. “We need to reduce sanctions risks by bolstering our technological independence, by switching to payments in our national currencies and global currencies that serve as an alternative to the dollar,” Lavrov said, according to a transcript of his interview released on Monday. “We need to move away from using international payment systems controlled by the West.”

Turkey’s turmoil (Foreign Policy) U.S. President Joe Biden joined with Europe to condemn Turkey over its decision to annul its ratification of an international treaty on preventing violence against women. Turkey’s exit from the treaty, known as the Istanbul Convention, brought thousands to Turkey’s streets in protest of the move. Turkey was one of the initial signatories and the first nation to ratify the convention. In a White House statement, Biden called the action “deeply dissappointing” and a “disheartening step backward.” The Turkish presidency released a statement on Sunday saying the convention had been “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality.” Turkey’s currency was also rocked on Saturday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired central bank governor Naci Agbal. The Turkish lira fell 15 percent against the U.S. dollar after the news broke.

In Myanmar’s hinterland, army uproots ethnic Karen villagers (AP) In the jungles of southeast Myanmar, the army was shooting and otherwise oppressing civilians long before last month’s military coup. This largely unseen repression continues even now. In the country’s remote southeast, an army offensive has driven as many as 8,000 ethnic Karen people to flee their homes in what aid groups say is the worst upheaval there for nearly 10 years. They’re now living in the jungle, with fears growing for their health and security, and no prospect of an early return. This crisis in the borderlands has been overshadowed by the deadly crackdown on the mass movement protesting the military’s takeover of power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. But it also is a reminder of the brutal force Myanmar’s army has long used against civilians, and in particular the country’s ethnic minorities.

Think Covid’s Messed Up Your Travel Plans? Try Getting Into China. (NYT) Leave your partner and children behind. Quarantine for up to a month. Get inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccine from China, if you can find one. And prepare yourself for an anal swab. For the past year, people trying to go to China have run into some of the world’s most formidable barriers to entry. To stop the coronavirus, China bans tourists and short-term business travelers outright, and it sets tough standards for all other foreigners, even those who have lived there for years. The restrictions have hampered the operations of many companies, separated families and upended the lives of thousands of international students. Global companies say their ranks of foreign workers in the country have dwindled sharply. At a time of strained tensions with the United States and other countries, China is keeping itself safe from the pandemic. At the same time, it risks further isolating its economy, the world’s second-largest, at a moment when its major trade partners are emerging from their own self-imposed slumps. Other countries have their own travel restrictions, though few are as tight.

Dozens of towns isolated by flooding in Australian state (AP) Hundreds of people have been rescued from floodwaters that have isolated dozens of towns in Australia’s most populous state New South Wales and forced thousands to evacuate their homes as record rain continues to inundate the country’s east coast. Around 18,000 people had been evacuated from flooding in New South Wales by Monday and emergency services feared up to 54,000 people could be displaced with rain forecast to continue until Wednesday. A year ago, vast swathes of New South Wales had been charred by unprecedented wildfires following years of drought that gripped most of the state. Some of the same areas were now being by inundated by one-in-50-year and one-in-100-year rain events. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said up to 38 parts of the state had been declared natural disaster areas. “I don’t know any time in our state’s history where we have had these extreme weather conditions in such quick succession in the middle of a pandemic,” Berejiklian told reporters. “So, they are challenging times for New South Wales.”

Israel revokes permit of Palestinian foreign minister (Washington Post) Israel on Sunday revoked the VIP permit of the Palestinian foreign minister after he returned to the West Bank from a trip to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Israeli and Palestinian officials confirmed. The move appeared to be Israeli retaliation for Palestinian support for the ICC’s war crimes investigation against Israel. A Palestinian official said Foreign Minister Riad Malki was stopped Sunday as he entered the West Bank from Jordan through the Israeli-controlled crossing. Malki’s VIP card was seized, the official said. Losing the VIP status makes it harder for him to move through Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank, and traveling abroad will require Israeli permission. The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced earlier this month that she was opening an investigation into possible war crimes by Israel committed in the occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip.

Small, cheap spy satellites mean there’s no hiding place (Economist) In the middle of last year, Ecuadorians watched with concern as 340 foreign boats, most of them Chinese, fished just outside the Exclusive Economic Zone (eez) around their country’s westernmost province, the Galapagos Islands. The law of the sea requires such vessels to carry gps-based automatic identification systems (ais) that broadcast where they are, and to keep those systems switched on. Some boats, however, failed to comply. This regular radio silence stoked fears that the boats concerned were sneaking into Ecuador’s waters to plunder its fish. Both local officials and China’s ambassador to Ecuador denied this, and said all the boats were sticking to the rules. In October, however, HawkEye 360, a satellite operator based in Virginia, announced it had detected vessels inside Ecuador’s eez on 14 occasions when the boats in question were not transmitting ais. HawkEye’s satellites could pinpoint these renegades by listening for faint signals emanating from their navigation radars and radio communications. HawkEye’s satellites are so-called smallsats, about the size of a large microwave oven. They are therefore cheap to build and launch. HawkEye deployed its first cluster, of three of them, in 2018. They are now in an orbit that takes them over both of Earth’s poles. This means that, as the planet revolves beneath them, every point on its surface can be monitored at regular intervals. Quilty Analytics, a research firm in Florida, expects the number of radio-frequency (rf) intelligence satellites of this sort in orbit to multiply from a dozen at the beginning of January to more than 60 by the end of next year.

Whoopsie, container overboard (Wired) Since November, at least 2,980 containers have fallen off cargo ships in the Pacific Ocean, in at least six incidents that have outfitted Davy Jones’ Locker with stocks of vacuum cleaners, frozen shrimp, some Kate Spade swag and more. Rising imports and bad weather have led to the above-typical cargo losses, as the 2,980 lost in the past few months is over twice the annual amount lost from 2008 to 2019. Bad weather is the main cause: the Essen attributed its 750 lost containers to “heavy seas,” the Eindhoven lost 260 containers after a blackout in the middle of a storm, and the Apus lost over 1,800 containers in gale force winds and large swells, one of the worst losses ever.

[theriveroflight]

Fanfiction Year in Review

@miabrown007 *glares* guess I have nothing better to do with the remaining 20 minutes of my 2020

1. list of completed fics

Miraculous Ladybug: this daydream is dangerous, Red and Gold, leave you the dust (my loves), In Pursuit Of, paralyzed, changing my face (calling it fashion), everybody wants somebody (except me), fox and turtle, kill 'em with a kiss, Drafts & Drabbles: ML Discord CAM, Intertwined, SFRSFH, Forgetting Animosity, Tracing Names, like a striken bird, reaching the south, mademoiselle française et le prince de crève-coeur, Support, headed straight for the castle, Divided and Conquering, Momentum, footfalls echo in the memory, there's no sacrifice that i won't make, Rebound, Take a Spin, heart eclipsed by the dark (tiniest of sparks), at the end of the world (you're the last thing i see), life makes love look hard, Reflection, take my hand? (hold on tight), legacy (planting seeds in a garden), my heart's been borrowed (yours has been blue), Of Costumes and Trickery, A Herculean Effort, young and reckless, make up for the silence, Checkmate, tell me everything (maybe i'll believe), been through it all, carry on (we're almost there), falling apart to half-time, testament inscribed in sand, generosity, like the darkness is the light, to face unafraid, loose bolt of a complete machine, the courage of my convictions, the only thing you wanna do (mwah), still hurts underneath my scars, best kept secret (biggest mistake), the truth of a thousand lies

RWBY: come take a walk on the wild side, Learning to Love Differently, (more than) a single flake of snow, turn our futures upside down, should we fall to darkness, your star's still in the sky, sunrise in my heart, no greater sadness, like we dream impossible dreams, seasons change but people don't, you're something out of a dream, Part of the Pack, one in ten thousand, due north, together we go (to travel through snow), no second chances, promise me this, don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you

Other: i could write it better than you ever felt it (Warriors), spark envy in your irises (Sanders Sides/LAOFT), one two three (Legend of Korra), this pain would(n't) be for evermore (National Treasure)

2. number of words written

231871 according to ao3 stats, have more words written sitting and waiting to be finished/published

3. most popular

by kudos: everybody wants somebody (except me) at 145

by hits: headed straight for the castle at 2877 but it IS a multichapter. second most is kill em with a kiss at 1868

4. personal favorite

probably Momentum - see my top 5 here

5. favorite scene

gonna have to go with Marinette's realization from "loose bolt of a complete machine"

And when she searches herself…well, it’s true. Somehow, she managed to convince herself that there was something where nothing was.

A mirage.

Dissolving around her in smoke like one of Rena Rouge’s illusions.

Marinette can see clearly, but at what cost?

And what is she seeing? What’s the answer?

What will she find if she looks?

She looks. She looks. And she finds the truth, at long last.

There is no kindling for a spark to take to. There is nothing to burn. There will never be a spark that sets her on fire.

The realization feels like fear. The realization feels like she’s being struck by lightning — and she remembers what that feels like from an akuma attack, even with the Miraculous shielding her.

It feels like relief, most of all, and she wants to cry with some strange combination of happiness and fear rising in her like a wave.

6. a fic/scene that challenged you

one in ten thousand - a special challenge due to the 100 word restriction

7. a line you're proud of

I've written so many, but...from "sunrise in my heart"

But now a new dawn is awakening inside of her, sparking inside her heart and mind. She has more than enough light now, and she doesn’t need to hide all the darkness in the devoid white and ice blue she wore.

8. a touching comment

I really like analysis comments. can't pick out one in particular because I've received so many :cnpanic:

9. something that inspired your writing

the @miraculousfanworks discord server

10. proudest accomplishment

nanowrimo 2020 - I wrote 28k for @noirequin 's Spin the Record challenge and I'm still editing it & such but! this is promising stuff

11. writing goals for 2021?

(reach) 100 Miraculous Ladybug fics! and maybe get 50 RWBY fics but that feels more ambitious to me for w/e reason even though I have 32 more for Miraculous and 29 more for RWBY

not gonna tag anyone for this one but anyone who wants to do it can!

[lightdancer1]

A scene from the hypothetical Avatar Azula story

Long Feng had taken for granted his status as master of the Earth Kingdom now that the old monster was dead and Kuei the Bear-King had taken his place. The new Earth King had made life still more convenient in the wake of the death of Avatar Kuvira and then the horrors of the Siege of Ba Sing Se, at least for Long Feng and for Long Feng that was all that mattered.

And then a year ago the Fire Nation's Palace had been obliterated without a trace. There were all kinds of rumors about that, about the evident return or awakening of the new Avatar. The cycle predicted that the Avatar would go to the Fire Nation next, and the world had looked at this prospect in dread.

That had been a low-edge panic at the edge of the world. Only gradually had the Dai Li been able to piece together the total scale of the catastrophe and the reality that it meant left them, frankly, speechless. The Avatar had literally been born as one of the Fire Nation's own Royal Family, and evidently tortured and indoctrinated by the two most recent Fire Lords.

Long Feng, a connoisseur of humanity's more malevolent arts of power, admitted that this sounded about right while merrily seeing no problem with his own actions, for what was good for Long Feng was good for the world.

And then new reports followed, a Firebender Avatar riding a golden dragon that spat lightning, an Avatar who'd bested a Fire Nation assault on the Southern Water Tribe, then an ambitious marauder force attacking Kyoshi Island. An Avatar whose first act of power had been to unleash a storm within the Fire Nation Palace that obliterated it and struck with great vengeance and furious anger against those she deemed as targets.

A being who had reduced a Palace to rubble for what were no doubt amateurish things next to the powers he had at his own disposal.

For the first time in his life, Long Feng began to wonder if what was good for Long Feng was good for anyone besides Long Feng, and he knew something he had dealt before the death of Yong Le but had forgotten since the old Earth King had fallen. Fear, genuine and unrelenting and stark.

His eye twitched and for a time the government of Ba Sing Se nearly ground to a halt as he began to fear his own shadows and to take the first steps down a path that would find him more overbearing and erratic than he had already been. The slightests gusts of wind could make him jolt....and in Ba Sing Se a decree nominally from King Kuei outlawed the color silver. A few merchants' heads rolled when they protested an otherwise-obvious point, but Long Feng could not afford to waste sentimentality on the disposable.