#truth justin and the american way

[number1justincannellfan]

24,240 VIEWS????? WHO HAS BEEN READING THJS AND WHWRE ARE YOU COME TO ME I MUST DISCUSS MY HCS

[rainbowwwzo]

Yall should follow my other page dedicated to my current hyperfixation :333

[number1justincannellfan]

BYE THIS IS SO JUSTIN AND BAILEY CORE -

[jangillman]

"My family s0ld me to the industry when I was 14 years old and when ever wanted to complaîn, they never listened cuz all they cared about was the money. When I was with Diddy, I saw and did things which no kid should ever do nor see." Justin Bieber

"It was hard for me being that young and being in the industry and not knowing where to turn to. Everyone turnęd their backs on me, even my own family because all they wanted was the money. I saw things which any kid shouldn't see, and I did things which any kid shouldn't do because I had no choice.

What I went through in this industry, I don't wîsh that upon anybody. There are things in the industry that people don't wanna talk about because it'll reveal things which shouldn't be revealed. It's just so sîck because no one is willing to take the rîsk and say it. I've just decided to distance myself from this industry and heal cuz I'm still hũrt."

----Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber crîed while talking about his experience in the industry🥲‼️

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Inspired by the visual language of old Ray Bradbury and Stephen King paperbacks, Justin Metz created this illustration, which may be the first cover without a headline or typography in The Atlantic’s 167-year history. :: The Atlantic

* * * *

Trump suffers emotional break; media pretends it didn’t happen

September 9, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

Something remarkable happened in American politics over the last two weeks. A major party candidate for president suffered what can only be described as an emotional break or medical emergency that resulted in a sudden acceleration in the deterioration of his already deteriorating cognitive abilities and further loss of control over his delusional impulses. But you wouldn’t know it from reading the stories in the major media outlets—that are obsessing over horse-race polls and debate prognostication.

No, this isn’t just another rant about media coverage. We are at an inflection point: Either the media will meet the moment, or it will abandon the very democracy that creates the conditions that allow it to flourish. Whether the media meets that challenge is no longer our problem. It is a waste of emotional energy and precious time to worry about it. We have real work to do: That of convincing other Americans of the profound unfitness of Donald Trump and his unique threat to democracy.

Against all logic, decency, and common sense, the presidential race remains effectively tied (although Kamala Harris has the momentum, which is a good sign with less than 60 days until election day). Sadly, many Americans will vote for Trump because he is unhinged and out of control. He is an avatar for their anger. It is not a productive use of our time to focus on those voters.

But a substantial portion of the electorate remains undecided. Many say they don’t know enough about our current vice president to vote for her—although they are open to persuasion. Our target is the persuadable undecided voters and those who can’t bring themselves to vote for Trump but aren’t sure they can vote for Kamala Harris.

The media would be sounding the alarm with unremitting urgency in a world with a functioning press. But the media has concluded that it can generate more revenue by keeping the presidential race close. The believe that declaring one candidate to be an unfit megalomaniac at every opportunity would grow tiresome.

So, it is up to us. We must be warriors for the truth. And that means understanding what we have just witnessed over the last two weeks. Yes, it is unpleasant and enervating. We want to look away. That is what Trump wants. He wants us to be weary to the point of numbness and surrender. We cannot let that happen.

As soon as Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee, Trump began racist and misogynistic attacks unparalleled in the sordid history of American political campaigns. He questioned Kamala Harris’s racial identify and accused her of engaging in sexual acts to succeed as a politician. And then it got worse.

Heather Cox Richardson’s column on Saturday describes the increasing velocity of Trump's descent into madness over the last week, especially his speeches over the weekend. See September 7, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson. HCR’s column moved many readers to post Comments in the Sunday edition of this newsletter. HCR writes, in part,

But today’s speech struck me as different from his past performances, distinguished for what sounded like desperation. Trump has always invented his stories from whole cloth, but there used to be some way to tie them to reality. Today that seemed to be gone. He was in a fantasy world, and his rhetoric was apocalyptic. It was also bloody in ways that raise huge red flags for scholars of fascism. [¶¶] [Trump said,] “I better win or you're gonna have problems like we've never had. We may have no country left. This may be our last election. You want to know the truth? People have said that. This may be our last election…. It’ll all be over, and you gotta remember…. Trump is always right. I hate to be right. I’m always right.” [¶¶] Whatever has caused it, Trump seems utterly off his pins, embracing wild conspiracy theories and, as his hopes of winning the election appear to be crumbling, threatening vengeance with a dogged fury that he used to be able to hide.

I urge you to read HCR’s entire column for an exposition of Trump's weekend speeches.

But it gets worse.

After his Saturday speeches, Trump posted the worst fascistic, ugly, megalomaniacal threat ever made by an American politician. He threatened to prosecute his opponents if he wins the 2024 election:

CEASE & DESIST: I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation! Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON'T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.

To be clear, Trump is threatening—in advance—to impose “long-term prison sentences .. . . never before seen in this country” on lawyers, election officials, donors, voters, and politicians whom Trump views as opponents.

We must pause on the madness of Trump's threats. They are delusional. The election hasn’t occurred, and he is planning to jail people over fictional cheating. He is using fascistic threats to dissuade eligible voters and election officials from engaging in the election process by suggesting that they will be “sought out, caught, and prosecuted”—as if the legal system is his personal instrument of revenge.

The combined effect of Trump's speech and post on Saturday should have been a watershed moment for journalists covering politics in America. For most of Sunday, no major media outlet commented on the deranged nature of Trump's speech or his post. Mid-afternoon on Sunday, both the Times and WaPo had posted stories about the threats—in the politics section of their coverage. Apparently, neither outlet believes that overt threats of retribution over non-existent election fraud rise to the level of “general news.”

What did rise to the level of “general news”? New polling by the NYTimes, which claimed the race is effectively tied. Although the Times’s results put Trump slightly ahead in the margin of error, its results were an outlier. How did the Times respond to the fact that its results were inconsistent with the trend of polling? It declared that its poll was “high quality,” while other polls taken since the convention in the race were of inferior quality. “There simply haven’t been many high-quality surveys fielded since the convention, when Ms. Harris was riding high.”

So, on a day when Trump's preemptive threat to jail election officials for non-existent fraud should have been the lead story with 48 POINT FONT, the Times placed itself at the center of the universe by highlighting its poll and declaring that its outlier results were correct, and all other polls were inferior.

The Guardian, as usual, distinguished itself by calling out Trump's deranged behavior as its lead story. See The Guardian, Trump threatens to jail adversaries for ‘unscrupulous behavior’ if he wins.

Perhaps Monday will bring a wave of condemnation and attention that was beyond the capabilities of major media over the weekend. That would be a welcome development. But regardless of whether that happens, it does not excuse us from the task of raising the alarm about Trump's threat to democracy. While we cannot limit our message to the threat to democracy, neither can we normalize or dismiss it or look away.

If we do not convince Americans that Trump is the greatest danger to democracy our nation has ever faced, then every policy proposal designed to improve the lives of all Americans will be meaningless.

It is a tough task to focus on the threat of Trump and the promise of Kamala Harris. But here we are. We must do both. And we aren’t going to get the help we deserve from the media. We must be bold; we must be willing to step outside of our comfort zone; we must speak the truth in words of one syllable (or shorter, if possible).

It seems improbable that the media can continue to ignore Trump's descent into madness and megalomania. But it seems improbable that they have done so to this point. But let’s not invest emotional energy worrying whether they will. It’s up to us. It always has been. But the stakes are higher than they have ever been.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Malcolm Clark

Published: Jul 18, 2023

The LGBT movement is beginning to behave more like a religious cult than a human-rights lobby. It’s not just the Salem-like witch hunts it pursues against its critics. It’s also its flight from reason and its embrace of magical thinking.

This irrationalism is best illustrated by its recent embrace of the term ‘two-spirit’ (often shortened to ‘2S’), which in North America has been added to the lobby’s ever-growing acronym, meaning we are now expected to refer to – take a deep breath – the ‘2SLGBTQQIA+ community’.

The term two-spirit was first formally endorsed at a conference of Native American gay activists in 1990 in Winnipeg in Canada. It is a catch-all term to cover over 150 different words used by the various Indian tribes to describe what we think of today as gay, trans or various forms of gender-bending, such as cross-dressing. Two-spirit people, the conference declared, combine the masculine and the feminine spirits in one.

From the start, the whole exercise reeked of mystical hooey. Myra Laramee, the woman who proposed the term in 1990, said it had been given to her by ancestor spirits who appeared to her in a dream. The spirits, she said, had both male and female faces.

Incredibly, three decades on, there are now celebrities and politicians who endorse the concept or even identify as two-spirit. The term has found its way into one of Joe Biden’s presidential proclamations and is a constant feature of Canadian premier Justin Trudeau’s doe-eyed bleating about ‘2SLGBTQQIA+ rights’.

The term’s success is no doubt due in part to white guilt. There is a tendency to associate anything Native American with a lost wisdom that is beyond whitey’s comprehension. Ever since Marlon Brando sent ‘Apache’ activist Sacheen Littlefeather to collect his Oscar in 1973, nothing has signalled ethical superiority as much as someone wearing a feather headdress.

The problem is that too many will believe almost any old guff they are told about Native Americans. This is an open invitation to fakery. Ms Littlefeather, for example, may have built a career as a symbol of Native American womanhood. But after her death last year, she was exposed as a member of one of the fastest growing tribes in North America: the Pretendians. Her real name was Marie Louise Cruz. She was born to a white mother and a Mexican father, and her supposed Indian heritage had just been made up.

Much of the fashionable two-spirit shtick is just as fake. For one thing, it’s presented as an acknowledgment of the respect Indian tribes allegedly showed individuals who were gender non-conforming. Yet many of the words that two-spirit effectively replaces are derogatory terms.

In truth, there was a startling range of attitudes to the ‘two-spirited’ among the more than 500 separate indigenous Native American tribes. Certain tribes may have been relaxed about, say, effeminate men. Others were not. In his history of homosexuality, The Construction of Homosexuality (1998), David Greenberg points out that those who are now being called ‘two spirit’ were ridiculed by the Papago, held in contempt by the Choctaws, disliked by the Cocopa, treated by the Seven Nations with ‘the most sovereign contempt’ and “derided” by the Sioux. In the case of the Yuma, who lived in what is now Colorado, the two-spirited were sometimes treated as rape objects for the young men of the tribe.

The contradictions and incoherence of the two-spirit label may be explained by an uncomfortable fact. The two-spirit project was shaped from day one by complete mumbo-jumbo. The 1990 conference that adopted the term was inspired by a seminal book, Living the Spirit: A Gay Indian Anthology, published two years earlier. Its essays were compiled and edited by a young white academic called Will Roscoe. He was the historical adviser to the conference. And his work on gay people in Indian cultural history – a niche genre in the 1980s – had become the received wisdom on the subject.

Roscoe’s work had an unlikely origin story of its own. In 1979, he joined over 200 other naked gay men in the Arizona desert for an event dubbed the ‘Spiritual Conference for Radical Faeries’. It was here where he met Harry Hay, the man who would become his spiritual mentor and whose biography he would go on to write. The event was Hay’s brainchild and was driven by his conviction that gay men’s lives had become spiritually empty and dominated by shallow consumerism. For three days, Roscoe and the other men sought spiritual renewal in meditation, singing and classes in Native American dancing. There were also classes in auto-fellatio, lest anyone doubt this was a gay men’s event.

To say Hay, who died in 2002, was eccentric is to radically understate his weirdness. For one thing, he was a vocal supporter of paedophilia. As such, he once took a sandwich board to a Pride march proclaiming ‘NAMBLA walks with me’, in reference to the paedophilia-advocacy group, the North American Man / Boy Love Association. Hay also believed that gay men were a distinct third gender who had been gifted shamanic powers. According to Hay, these powers were recognised and revered by pre-Christian peoples, from Ancient Greece to, you guessed it, the indigenous tribes of North America.

For years, Hay had been experimenting with sweat lodges and dressing up in Indian garb in ways that would now be criticised as cultural appropriation. Despite this, Roscoe took Hay’s incoherent thesis – that gender-bending and spiritual enlightenment go hand in hand – and turned it into a piece of Native American history.

Unsurprisingly, given its provenance, Roscoe’s work is full of holes and lazy assumptions. To prove that two-spirit people combine the feminine and masculine spirits, Roscoe searched for evidence of gender non-conforming behaviour among the Indian tribes. The problem was that he had to mainly rely on the accounts of white settlers who had little understanding of Native cultures. And even when he didn’t rely on those sources, Roscoe still jumped to the wrong conclusions.

Take, for example, the case of Running Eagle, ‘the virgin woman warrior’ of the Blackfeet tribe, whom Roscoe was the first to label as two-spirit. As a girl, she rebelled against the usual girl chores and insisted on being taught how to hunt and fight. She became a noted warrior and declared she would never marry a man or submit to one.

Of course, none of this really means that Running Eagle was two-spirit, or that the tribe she hailed from was made up of LGBT pioneers. It merely shows that the Blackfeet were smart and adaptable enough to recognise martial talent in a girl and were able to make good use of a remarkable individual. Nevertheless, Roscoe’s description of her has become gospel and Running Eagle is now endlessly cited as an example of a two-spirit.

This is a mind-numbingly reductive approach. It’s based on the presumption that what we think of as feminine and masculine traits are fixed and stable across time and cultures. It dictates that no Native American man or woman who ever breaks a gender taboo or fails to conform to expectations can be anything but two-spirit. This is gender policing on steroids.

The two-spirit term also does Native American cultures a deep disservice. It assumes that 500 different tribes were both homogenous and static. As journalist Mary Annette Pember, herself Ojibwe, argues, it also erases ‘distinct cultural and language differences that Native peoples hold crucial to their identity’.

In some ways, it is entirely unsurprising that the wayward ‘2SLGBTQQIA+’ movement has fastened on to two-spirit, an invented term with a bogus pedigree. Far from paying tribute to Native American cultures in all their richness, it exploits them to make a cheap political point. Harry Hay and his fellow auto-fellators would be proud.

==

"Two spirit" is a great way of fabricating an interesting identity when you don't have one. And you can scream at people as "bigots," but without the guilt of lying about your great-grandparents being descendants of Sacagawea.

The fake mysticism goes along neatly with the notion of disembodied sexed thetans ("gender identity") which become trapped between worlds in the wrong meat bodies.

[justinewt]

Meet Emily Holt - AS DUSK FALLS REWRITE OC

[AS DUSK FALLS - MASTERLIST]

Do not use my character without my consent thanks <3

warning: any arts and pictures you’ll see are not mine (I found them on pinterest) and I chose instagram model (insert actor)celeb used) to portray my oc, Emily is a character 100% created by me, Justine but the style of the bio has been inspired by (insert fic universe) wiki and bios made by director Guillermo Del Toro <3

words: 2k

EMILY CHARLOTTE HOLT bio by me

INFORMATIONS

DATE OF BIRTH: around late April 1980

AGE: In May 1998, Emily is freshly 18. She’s about about a month younger than Jay.

(Tyler is 25, so born sometime in September 1973; Dale is 21, born in mid-April 1977 – Dale and Emily are exactly 3 years and 1 week apart – and Jay is 18, born in around March 1980.)

ZODIAC SIGN/MBTI TYPE: Taurus/ISFJ

(headcanons for her family members: I feel like Tyler is ESTJ, so probably a virgo, Dale is ESTP/Aries and Jay INFP/Pisces)

SEX: Female 

NATIONALITY: American

ORIGINS: British (mainly)

OCCUPATION: High school Student at Bridgeley High (1994-1998, she graduated just a month before it all went down)

SKILLS: Horse riding and she was very handy, given she always wanted to work in the barn with her brothers

HOBBY: Horse riding, listening to music and hanging out with her brothers

CHARGES (if she was arrested/went to prison): Conspiracy (12 months of imprisonment); Complicit to burglary (class 3 felony) and guilty of 3rd degree burglary (3 years and 6 months of imprisonment); Complicit to hostage taking with no criminal intent, charged as Class 1 misdemeanour (6 months of imprisonment)

POSSIBLE TIME IN PRISON: minimum 5 years (if arrested, Tyler gets the death penalty if arrested, spends 14 years on death row before being executed in 2012, and if caught, Jay gets the same sentence but his death sentence is commuted to a life sentence without parole)

FAMILY

PARENTS: She’s the only daughter and youngest biological child of Sharon and Bear Holt

SIBLINGS: She has two older brothers, Tyler and Dale, and Jay, though they’re technically cousin.

RELATIVES: Brooke, her mother’s younger sister, Deceased. And unnamed paternal family members; mention of her deceased grandfather.

FRIENDS: Her best friend was the unnamed younger sister of Jessica (Dale’s crush)

EARLY LIFE: Emily was born in late April 1980, exactly 3 years and 1 week after Dale, and exactly one month after Jay, on the same day. So, when he was born and his mother, Sharon’s sister and Emily’s aunt died, and Sharon adopted him, she passed him as her daughter’s fraternal twin and raised her two oldest to consider him their sibling. While Dale and Tyler, their older brothers, grew up treating him as such, they both knew the truth, though Tyler, being older, was more aware of it. Emily was kept in the dark by her mother and learned about it way later.

Their brothers, Tyler and Dale, were respectively 7 and 3 years older than the “twins”. Both helped raising and caring for them, but essentially Tyler as most of the responsibility to care and protect his siblings fell on him as he was the eldest. Dale was very playful, and much more careless and tempestuous so Tyler also had to deal with him, on top of everything else, and was somewhat of a bully towards Jay, at some point using a BB gun on him. He teased him way more than he did Emily because when he did, Tyler would kick his ass (metaphorically speaking, or not), so he contented himself with making jokes. Sometime after Emily was born, Sharon let an almost 8-year-old Tyler hold his baby sister and it seemed to form some kind of bond already as he never forgot how she looked at him with her big eyes and smiled. He grew up to be very protective of his family but even more so of his sister, being on the contrary, quite distant and unaffectionate towards Jay, though he did care for him as well. But throughout their lives, he seemed to subtly, or not, make Jay understand that he cared more about Emily, as if he wasn't as much family.

Until she entered high school, Emily’s favourite brother was beyond the shadow of doubt, Tyler. He raised her and Jay since they were babies and kept Dale from teasing her, teaching her valuable skills, making her grow up to be someone very handy and skilful. She never realized that he felt some resentment and jealousy towards them still, but mostly towards Jay as he knew he wasn’t his biological brother and more or less subconsciously held it against him. He knew everything about his younger siblings, how they kept a squirrel as a pet when they were young, and he knew before she told anyone that she started liking grunge music when she was 11 or 12. For her 12th birthday, he got her the Nevermind album from Nirvana and a CD player, which she ended up sharing with Jay. He didn’t get such gifts for either of his brothers. She already idolized Tyler since she was a child, but he had officially become her favourite brother. At the time, and because she was too young to work, and they weren’t exactly rich, she wanted to find a way to get some money to get herself a pair of Converse, to do like Kurt Cobain so Tyler got her to help him fix things around the house and do chores and a month later, he came home with a box and gave her a pair of black converse, which she started wearing 24/7 at school.

She had a rocky relationship with her father and was quite scared of him for a while, mainly because he could get violent when drunk and hit their mother sometimes and would hit Tyler and Dale too when they got in the middle. But when she was younger, maybe 8 or so, he one day brought home some rabbit he had caught and she wouldn’t listen to him and sit down because she wanted to go play outside with Jay but also because she didn’t want to skin the animal, so he smacked her across the face, bringing her to tears and she ran off. She hid in the barn, in a corner, curled up and quietly crying, until Tyler, then 15-year-old, found her. He had a bruise on his cheek, and she cried even more and asked if he got hit because of her. He dismissed her worries and got her to come out and help him somewhere else on the property. At dinner, her father awkwardly apologised, coming up with excuses and empty words, talking a lot but basically saying nothing, and she just nodded, not really saying anything. She already didn’t trust her father, or feel safe around him, but she certainly wouldn’t after that. After that event, Dale would always crack jokes and used the fact that he was always teasing Jay to make her laugh. He very lightly teased her too but with Tyler watching her, he never went as far as he did with Jay. She was definitely Tyler’s favourite too. The first memory he had with her was her smiling at him as a baby, so he hated seeing her cry. He was as protective of his mother as he was of his sister. 

When she and Jay entered High school, they quickly found out how well-known their family actually was in that school, because all four Holt kids went there and the parents too back in the day. During their first year, Tyler was already 21 and very much working and Dale was already out of school, having dropped out about a year prior, and he would come pick them up everyday when Tyler couldn’t. Jay and Emily were in the same classes, so they were always together but as the freshman year went on, she made friends with other people in some of the classes they didn’t share, though always trying to include Jay in the group, but he went back to staying alone. By the end of the first semester, she had ditched her new friends and preferred to hang out with her brother, though she had kept one good friend, another girl from the group she hung out with and one boy that she liked. The two siblings began being isolated by their classmates. They would often call Jay a “weirdo” or “loser” and she would defend him. She acted exactly like Tyler did with their mom. She almost got into a fight with a couple of other kids at the school and after telling Tyler, he basically scolded her - more out of worry for her than actual anger - and told her not to get into any fights and not act like Dale, which for some reason made her want not to listen to him.

She began to act as Jay’s protector at school and it emboldened her, she was more rebellious, and it reflected in her relationship with her dad. She started to test his limits, which was probably not the best idea as he would get mad and try to hit her, but she often managed to dodge and run away, Tyler and Dale getting hit in her place, which she felt bad for. She began to think Tyler hated her because she realized he was more distant. In the beginning of the second half og her freshman year of high school, she met again a boy who was in the friend group she had temporarily joined in her first year, but he had developed a crush for her. She reciprocated his feelings and they shared a kiss. He asked her out and one week-end, Emily lied, saying she was going for a girl's pajama party as her best friend's house when really, she was going to the arcade with her boyfriend. The next morning, Sharon told Tyler to go get his sister and when he got to Emily's friend house and she wasn't there, he asked to use the landline to call his mom and told him. Sharon told him to drive around town and come home. He came home half an hour later and she was already there, getting scolded in the kitchen because she didn't want to tell them where she was the night before. At some point, she stood up because she wanted to leave, and accidentally yelled back at her mom and her dad got angrier. He swung his arm in her direction and upon dodging him, she fell against the fridge, curled up, her arms up in front of her face, eyes widened and her whole body shaking like a leaf.

Tyler and Dale got inbetween her and their dad and got hit in her place. Later, she told Tyler where and who she was with the night prior and told him she was with a guy from school. He told her not to lie and she admitted that he was her boyfriend. Dale heard and got worked up knowing a boy "touched her" and she yelled that nobody touched her and it took Tyler shoving him to make him shut up. One day at school, Dale came to pick up his siblings and he saw Emily come out of school with a boy. When she crossed his gaze and saw him, she put a distance between her and the boy but he now knew who her boyfriend was. He walked up to them and beat him up bloody. He was arrested and because he wasn't yet 18, he was sent to juvenile detention. She wouldn't talk to Dale for months after that, and didn't speak to him during the three months he spent in juvie. The boy was transferred to another school and wouldn't talk to her anymore, telling her her brother was a "fucking psycho". By the end of their second year of high school, as they turned 16, Jay dropped out and she really was alone now. She had her best friend left and that was about it for the next two years of high school.

Then, in May 1998, the events of the game happened. She wasn’t supposed to be involved in their plans, but she refused to stay behind, and Tyler agreed to let her come along, on the condition she did exactly as he said.

[AS DUSK FALLS - MASTERLIST]

Published (09/25/2024) by Andrea

[girlactionfigure]

Seventy-six years ago, he disappeared.

Unable to find the truth regarding the disappearance of their son, his parents died by suicide, overdosing on pills two days apart in 1979.

To this day, his disappearance is still a mystery.

Raoul Wallenberg — whom the UN called “the greatest humanitarian of the 20th century” — risked his life to save the life of strangers he did not know, yet "he was not himself saved by so many who could have done so," according to Professor Irwin Cotler, the chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.

Wallenberg, called the Hero of the Holocaust, disappeared on January 17, 1945.

The Peace Page has written about Wallenberg before, how he is believed to have issued more than 10,000 protective passports and saved as many as 100,000 Jews, but like many individuals, he has many stories. The Peace Page will continue to update readers with new or additional information, when relevant, to continue to share awareness so their stories are not forgotten.

"Born a Swede, Raul Wallenberg is remembered as a (honorary) citizen of the world. He is an honorary American, honorary Canadian, and honorary Israeli. He was the first individual to ever receive honorary Australian citizenship," according to the Library of Congress.

He also received a U.S. education as an architect from the University of Michigan. He became an honorary citizen of the United States due to the efforts of House Representative Tom Lantos who was saved by Wallenberg in Hungary in 1944, according to the Library of Congress.

Today, January 17, 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said:

“Today, we honour Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat in Budapest in the 1940s who put himself in harm’s way to save tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from persecution and death during the Holocaust."

“Mr. Wallenberg was a true humanitarian and hero, who led an important rescue effort that saved more Jews from the horrors of the Nazi regime than any other individual, organization, or government," Trudeau said. "A man of incredible bravery and courage, he went to great lengths to provide special protective passports – Schutz-Passes – to thousands of Jews, saving them from deportation to concentration camps. Mr. Wallenberg also created a network of safe havens operating under the protection of the Swedish flag, offering refuge to Jews fleeing persecution."

"Wallenberg, a non-Jewish Swedish diplomat, was a beacon of light during the darkest days of the Holocaust, and his inspiration remains so today. Prior to his arrival in the Swedish legation in Budapest in mid-July 1944, some 440,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported to Auschwitz in 10 weeks — the fastest, cruelest and most efficient mass murder of the Holocaust. Yet Wallenberg rescued some 100,000 Jews in Hungary in the last six months of 1944, demonstrating that one person with the compassion to care, and the courage to act, can confront evil, prevail and transform history," according to Cotler.

"He recruited 350 volunteers, rented 32 safe houses covered by diplomatic immunity, organised vital supplies of food and clothing, and issued thousands of “letters of protection”, official-looking documents that had no legal authority but were widely accepted by Hungarian and German officials, often with the aid of a bribe," according to the Guardian.

Despite the threats on his life, Wallenberg continued to try to help as many people as he could.

He even received a veiled threat from Nazi Adolf Eichmann. According to PBS' American Experience:

"In December 1944, the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg attended a small dinner party in Budapest; also at the table was the Nazi Adolf Eichmann. The two men were in Hungary on opposing missions: Wallenberg was there to rescue Jews; Eichmann was there to kill them. Their conversation was barbed. The war was almost over, Wallenberg pointed out. Why didn't Eichmann give up his task? Eichmann replied that he would do his job until the very end so that when he walked to the gallows he would know he had successfully carried out his assignment. The Nazi added that Wallenberg wasn't immune from danger, even a neutral diplomat, he warned, could meet with an accident."

Wallenberg did not know then that it wasn't just the Nazis, who were threatened by him.

In 1945, he was invited to the Soviet military HQ.

"He was last seen leaving Budapest by car to meet Soviet military officials in Eastern Hungary," according to American Experience.

That was January 17, 1945.

"He disappeared into the Gulag, with the Soviets first claiming that he died of a heart attack in July 1947, and then subsequently changing their story to claim that he was murdered — also in July 1947," according to Cotler.

"His family have never received an official explanation for his detention, although suspicions he was also spying for the Americans, and his connections with some senior German politicians – he negotiated his humanitarian mission with, among others, Adolf Eichmann – have been suggested," according to the Guardian.

Last year, Marie von Dardel-Dupuy, the niece of Wallenberg, said, “I want specific answers to specific questions . . . He was a great man who wasn’t afraid to do the impossible. He deserves for us to know what happened to him. His story is unfinished – the mystery must be resolved. There are still so many closed doors, and we must have help in opening them.”

"What happened to Wallenberg is not clear, but a Swedish-Russian working group in 2000 concluded that Russia had not proved that Wallenberg died of a heart attack (or through execution) in the Lubyanka Prison in 1947 as had been suggested by Soviet officials during the 1950s," according to the Library of Congress.

Trudeau said, "Tragically, Mr. Wallenberg disappeared after he was arrested by Soviet forces near the end of the war. While his fate remains unknown, his legacy lives on. In honour of his heroic efforts, countless awards, monuments, institutions, and anti-racism campaigns now bear his name."

"We must always stand up to hatred and racism," Trudeau said. "With compassion and courage, we each have the power to make a difference in the lives of those around us.”

[Photo from the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights]

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

[project1939]

200 Films of 1952

Film number 161: Breaking the Sound Barrier (aka, The Sound Barrier)

Release date: Dec 6th, 1952 

Studio: London Film Productions/British Lion Films 

Genre: drama 

Director: David Lean 

Producer: David Lean 

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick, John Justin 

Plot Summary: J.R., a wealthy British airplane manufacturer, helped design a jet engine that makes breaking the sound barrier possible. A brilliant test pilot is chosen for the first flight, but he is also J.R.’s son-in-law. J.R.’s daughter Sue is frantic with worry over her husband’s safety, and she cannot understand why his life must be put into such danger. 

My Rating (out of five stars): ***¾  

This is an early David Lean film made just a few years before he became a superstar with The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago. This is a much smaller and simpler film than those, and if you hadn’t told me Lean directed this, I don’t think I would have guessed. Overall, this was enjoyable, and it definitely had its thrilling moments, but my main problem with it was the balance between the thrilling moments in the air and the family drama on the ground. (some spoilers!)

The Good: 

Ralph Richardson as John/J.R. His performance was very moving. For the first ¾ of the film, it was easy to believe he was just a cold unemotional man with a laser focus on work. As the plot unfolds, it slowly becomes apparent that it is absolutely not the truth. The script lays most of the burden to communicate this on Richardson, and he runs with it. 

Ann Todd as Sue. I immediately liked her- she wore very little makeup throughout, she had a wit about her, she was pretty in a fresh appealing way, and she didn’t completely succumb to the “Hollywood Good Wife Syndrome.” She caught a case of it, for sure, but thankfully it wasn’t deadly.  

Nigel Patrick as Tony, Sue’s test pilot husband. He was dashing, charming, and very likeable. 

The highlight of the movie was all the exciting flying scenes. There were several of them, and most were either real or highly convincing. They were edited and paced well to draw you in and keep your eyes glued to the screen. 

There were lots of real locations used and actual flying footage. It didn’t feel like a soundstage film. 

The orchestra in the background was fantastic. I enjoyed the score as well, but the orchestra itself sounded so beautiful I had to remind myself a couple of times to actually watch the movie and not just listen to it. 

The emotional complexity of J.R. As I mentioned when I discussed Richardson, I think the actual heart of the movie is this story arc. Because of Richardson’s performance and the delicate way it was written and shot, it was very affecting. 

The traumatic plot twist about 1 hour and 20 minutes in. I did NOT see it coming, and when it did, I kept writing “No! No! No!” in my notes. It was a very brave choice to make at that particular time within the film. In most films an event of this kind would either happen near the beginning or near the end. There was still 35 minutes of runtime in this. I give that plus marks for the uniqueness and audacity, and I think it ultimately made the film more powerful. 

I liked the relationship that developed between J.R. and Tony, his son-in-law. The way they became close tugged at my heart-stings, and yet the film never really veered toward the sentimental.

The Bad: 

Erasing Chuck Yeager from history! Now, I am no aviation expert, but even going into this film, I could have told you that American Chuck Yeager was actually the first person to break the sound barrier. How did I know that? From a movie, of course! 1983’s The Right Stuff! 

The film had a difficult time explaining why breaking the sound barrier was important. It seemed very hesitant to talk about the Soviets or Communism, or anything to do with the military. That was frustrating, especially when Sue was desperately trying to understand it herself. 

This movie was a mixture of a family drama and an adventure/thriller, and it didn’t work as well as it could have. The balance between the two was off for me- I think too much time was spent on family stuff, and not enough on the actual flying. I appreciated that it didn’t just half-heartedly cram in a little bit of family stuff, which is what most adventure films do, but it may have swung too far to the other side. 

Wow, the movie certainly believed baby boys were better than baby girls! It was deemed hugely important that Sue give birth to a boy.  

Women in the film were minimized in other ways- all of them were housewives who worried while the men went off to do important manly things. HOWEVER, this film gets a lot of points for making characters like Sue and Jess fairly well rounded. Neither of those women were just sweet little pushovers. Sue also appeared to have been in the Service at some point.

Oh god, more East Asian racism! It’s thankfully been quite awhile since this kind of “humor” has reared its disgusting head in my 1952 watchlist, but this was one of those horrible “Chinaman” jokes told for “comedic relief.” The less said, the better. 

There was a pretty clunky scene that used Sue as a conduit for the probable aeronautic ignorance of the audience. It briefly became an educational film that spelled things out like a mini-lecture on what the sound barrier actually was, the requirements for breaking it, and the dangers of doing so. It was helpful for me to have some things explicitly explained, but as a scene it felt awkward and contrived. It also seemed dubious that Sue would've been totally ignorant of this.

[swordsandarms]

just saw someone calling harwin strong a racist and classist, and that he deserved to die because he beat incelcole, who we all saw provoked harwin. funny how they pretending that every single character of except for a few like dany, arya....jon are all classist like that. but they doesn't have any problem with supporting those character. asoiaf tumblr is a safe heaven for hypocrites like these people

Don't know how it comes I got this ask since I post HOTD rarely, but all too excited to repeat the ever gospel truth of fandom: people love having discovered virtue signaling and throwing around random "woke" words in confusing/inappropriate context to make characters Problematic TM Vs Oppressed TM.

But was Criston Cole in any way relevant as being Dornish, and were the Dornish more than grossly orientalised southern Europeans, the constitutional rights that literally no one else in feudal Westeros has would protect him from the government, not from the Justin... uh, I mean the Strong.

Crying a river cause this conservative glorified law enforcement representative got caught being hit on camera. He's a "cop" who believes in "keeping the old order", you would hear of him on the news as the kind who'd kill POC and homeless people in the streets and get paid leave in the year of our Lord 2k23, with crowdfunding for his legal fees hosted by the female fascist American group of Moms for Liberty presidented by 21st century Alicent Hightower. Shut up about his POC/low class cards that don't even exist lmao.

[number1justincannellfan]

[rainbowwwzo]

Shout out to the unfinished tjataw essays lying around in my other blogs drafts

[kennyomegasweave]

8 Shows to Get to Know Me

The rules seem pretty simple, just to list 8 shows to get to know me. Some people have explanations and some don't so we'll see.

I was tagged by @negrowhat.

Teen Wolf (2011-2016, 2023) Okay, I'm not necessarily proud of this one, but it was my favorite show when it was on for it's five seasons and I unironically loved the movie this year. Did it have LOTS of problems? Yes. Do I care? No. Scott McCall is one of my favorite characters of all time. Derek Hale was a flop his entire life and I loved him for it. I legit have two arrow tattoos cause of this show dammit, lol.

Shameless (2011-2021) I'm ghetto white trash. I come from two lines of Slavs and American poor. I will always love it. Was it outlandish? Yeah. Did it show some real ass shit? Yeah. Did I cry at it more than once? Yeah. Did Ian and Mickey getting married heal my heart? No, but it was very nice to see. I legit live in my childhood home on the southside. I am a gay with bipolar. I am technically on probation right now. I don't think I need to say anymore.

OZ (1997-2003) I started watching this show way too young. It was the most ridiculous, dramatic, ain't shit, had no business show. And yet I still own the DVDs and made my best friend start watching it. She's mad as hell at it, but she agreed to watch it knowing she would be mad as hell. And she's now the one being like "fuck we can watch another season, I hate this fuckass show but I want to watch." A win is a win.

Generation Kill (2008) Yes, the American military complex is bad af. But this show is funny as fuck. It didn't hesitate to show these dudes are just regular ass dudes. There was no hero worship. My bestie and I still quote it to each other all the time. Plus the HBO War fandom was amazing back in the day. So many good edits and fics.

Queer As Folk (2000-2005) Okay this show did not hold up well at all. What with the, you know, main relationship that we all loved and rooted for being Brian (29) and Justin (17). But we didn't have anything else back then okay! I still love this show, but maturing is watching it and realizing Ben and Michael were the best couple, Melanie was never wrong and should have left Lindsay, Lindsay was bisexual and needed therapy to stop being dickmatized by her gay best friend she never got to sleep with because he's a gay man, Justin also needed therapy for so many reasons like so many, and Brian needed to like just stop just stop in general.  Also, it legit took 5 YEARS and Justin also almost being killed for Brian to say "I love you" and we all just celebrated that like it was the greatest thing despite it taking FIVE YEARS. Again, it was all we had. But I still love how it showed gay people having sex and enjoying it and not really much shame or whatever. And the "admit the truth, you love him" speech is something I STILL quote for my ships to this day. Like it was very "we're here, we're queer, get used to it" and that was AMAZING for 14 year old baby gay Clyde.

South Park (1997-Present) It's ain't shit to it's core. It's hilarious. It's still my humor. I've been watching since season 7. Sometimes I don't agree with the takes, but lots of times I do. And when it's not even trying to have a take it's just straight funny. When I'm in a low cycle, I put it on and can at least get some laughs, which is hard to do when I can't even get myself to shower and leave my house.

South of Nowhere (2005-2008) Okay. Listen. I'm a gay lady. I wasn’t really coming to terms with it in my teens, despite having a whole ass friend I was having sex with despite being like THIS MEANS NOTHING THIS IS NORMAL IT'S NORMAL TO GET NAKED WITH YOUR HOMIE RIGHT and then she moved and I gay panicked and didn't return her calls ever and ignored her on myspace, then this show came out and I was like ...oh. Oh I see. So yeah. The N had a show about a teenage lesbian realizing she was a lesbian cause she fell in love with her out bisexual friend. And then they had a relationship! And they stayed in it! And like they had sex and it was normal and fine and just yeah. This show meant a lot to me.

TharnType (2019-2021) Honestly I haven't had this show for very long personally but it is one of my favorites. I've watched it twice in less than a year. It's a hot ass mess. It's perfect. It's problematic and toxic and everything I love. Type is on that "I can hit my bitch" gay energy from back in the late-00s, which is bad don't get me wrong, but it's so delicious to watch because he's just so small, angry, and hopelessly in love. He really got the D one time ONE TIME and stayed gagging for it for the REST OF HIS LIFE. That is amazing. That is art. If you can't see how that's not the greatest thing you've ever seen, I'm sorry I can't help you. Techno remains my favorite friend in all of the BL shows I've watched now because everything he did, EVERYTHING, was gold. Lhong was BATSHIT INSANE and it was the greatest thing I've ever witnessed. My bestie has ZERO interest in any of my "gay Thai shows" but she has said she will watch this one with me because "it sounds ridiculous and it's just gonna make me mad, but you already have me watching OZ and that makes me mad so let's do it." Plus it's got "her boy" Mew. It's amazing. I'm making my straight bestie watch it and I am already so ready to watch her watch this show. I even liked the sequel. Type and Techno were really out here like IS HE CHEATING ON YOU WITH THIS GIRL like Tharn was not a whole ass homosexual who already had the convo back in college about trying pussy once and going ew. He really put on a fire fit to scare off a woman claiming his GAY man. Amazing. How could anyone hate this show. I don't understand. lol

Tagging: @whitehinagiku, @maibpenrai, @yourrescuemission, @ohnegroplease

[cyarsk5230]

The hip hop community owes Megan the biggest apology and I want it LOUD.

As Tory Lanez heads to prison, hip-hop needs to have a conversation about accountability

Hip-hop should be embarrassed by its silence as Megan Thee Stallion was publicly maligned

Justin TinsleyAugust 8, 2023

After months of delays, which included swapping his legal team and attempting to remove the judge who presided over his case, rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the July 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion. 

In December 2022, Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was found guilty on three felony counts — assault with a semiautomatic handgun, possession of a loaded, unregistered firearm, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. Prosecutors had requested Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Herriford sentence Lanez to 13 years in prison, while the rapper’s legal team asked that he be given probation or no more than three years.

After the sentencing, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón thanked Megan Thee Stallion, born Megan Pete, for her bravery. 

“Over the past three years, Mr. Peterson has engaged in a pattern of conduct that was intended to intimidate Ms. Pete and silence her truths from being heard,” Gascón said. “Women, especially Black women, are afraid to report crimes like assault because they are too often not believed. I commend Megan Pete for her incredible bravery and vulnerability as she underwent months of probing investigation and court appearances where she had to relive her trauma, and the public scrutiny that followed. This case highlighted the numerous ways that our society must do better for women.”

While Lanez’s sentencing marks the end of this saga (well, until his probable forthcoming appeal is decided), this moment also illuminates another uncomfortable reality. The hip-hop community should be deeply embarrassed by the way it conducted itself during this entire ordeal. After all, the response to the shooting furthered decadeslong rhetoric about misogyny and violent masculinity that have permeated hip-hop for generations.

Related Story

Megan Thee Stallion deserves peace. But like many Black women online, she isn’t getting it.Read now

Making matters worse, disinformation is a valuable currency these days. Perhaps it’s always been, but with the influx of social media, disinformation now isn’t just inaccurate, it can be deadly. 

Disinformation campaigns have had books about actual U.S. history removed from shelves. It’s been a critical tool to prevent commonsense gun laws. And disinformation is why a former president of the United States can rally millions of Americans behind him on the campaign trail as federal indictments pile up in multiple states and Washington. And disinformation allowed many to believe Lanez was the victim of a witch hunt, while Megan Thee Stallion feared for her safety and suffered from anxiety and depression. 

But sadly, Megan Thee Stallion isn’t unique. 

A study conducted by the Institute of Women’s Policy Research revealed that nearly a third of all women will experience some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime. For Black women, that number is more than 40%. Complicating things even further are the factors that prevent many Black women from reporting their abuse: mistrust of police, protecting perpetrators, shame. Megan Thee Stallion was no different.

Jason Armond/Getty Images

After Lanez allegedly attempted to pay Megan Thee Stallion and her former friend Kelsey Harris $1 million to keep quiet, Lanez tormented Megan Thee Stallion through his music. When she sat down with broadcaster Gayle Kingon CBS Mornings in April 2022 for an interview, Lanez released a video for his song, “CAP,” in which he chopped horse legs in a not-so-subliminal taunt. Rapper DaBaby, a once frequent collaborator with Megan Thee Stallion, and Lanez reportedly attempted to “ambush” her while she was on stage at Rolling Loud in Miami in 2021, violating the protective order she had against Lanez. 

Lanez and his defense attorneys accused Megan Thee Stallion of lying — while also insinuating Harris was the actual shooter — but the jury didn’t buy it, rendering a verdict in less than 10 hours. Not even the embarrassing displays from Lanez’s father outside the courtroom, blaming entertainment agency Roc Nation for Lanez’s cowardly actions, could distract from what happened and what led to that moment. 

Over the past three years, hip-hop artists have largely remained quiet about the shooting. Megan Thee Stallion’s peers have either been slow to admonish Lanez, have continued to work with him, or have been reluctant to defend her. Record executive Rick Ross, who initially called out Lanezfollowing the shooting, eventually reconciled with him and invited Lanez to his car show last year. While performing the song “Litty Again” at Rolling Loud Portugal in July, Meek Mill yelled “Free Tory Lanez!” to the crowd. During the trial, DJ Akademiks published court documents and cast doubt on the validity of Megan Thee Stallion’s account to his large audience. Even rap’s biggest superstar, Drake, made light of the shooting last year on “Circo Loco,” insinuating that Megan was fabricating the entire ordeal. 

Perhaps the only rapper to publicly call out Lanez, and stand by his words, is Bun B. “We have to protect our Black women, and any Black man that doesn’t feel the same way is not my brother,” the UGK legend said in December 2020.

Related Story

Megan Thee Stallion’s Instagram Live marinated on my psycheRead now

Much of the conversation about the shooting and what precipitated it was fixated on who Megan Thee Stallion was romantically involved with — not why Lanez decided it was the best course of action to reportedly tell her, “Dance, b—!” while pulling the trigger multiple times. In September 2022, DaBaby claimed he was also sleeping with Megan on his track “Boogeyman” rapping, “You play with me, that s— was childish / The day before she say that Tory Lanez shot her, I was f—ing on Megan Thee Stallion / Waited to say this s— on my next album / Hit it the day before too / But I kept it playa, I ain’t say nothing ’bout it.”

Megan Thee Stallion appeared to respond to DaBaby’s blatant display of play for attention by saying she controlled her body — not Lanez, DaBaby or any other man. The irony here is that sexual relationships have historically been used as badges of honor in hip-hop, largely by men. In Megan Thee Stallion’s case, her personal life was being used as a vehicle to discredit her account of the shooting.

There are countless instances when men seek out the validation of other men, and women, particularly Black women, are the targets. That’s precisely what happened in this case, and the result is one of the ugliest stains on hip-hop’s history — though its past treatment of women is unfortunately littered with similar examples. Hip-hop has never held itself accountable for frequently disrespecting women (not to mention LGBTQ+ people), because what’s accountable isn’t always best for business.

We all watched Megan Thee Stallion have to defend herself — all while she was still grieving the losses of her great-grandmother and mother, who died within weeks of each other in 2019 (Megan said she and Lanez initially bonded over both of them losing parents). Her father died when she was 15. It was almost too much for Megan to bear. 

“I don’t wanna be on this earth,” Megan Thee Stallion said during her testimony at Lanez’s trial. “I wish he woulda shot and killed me if I knew I would go through this torture.”

Her music reflected the same sentiments. “They keep sayin’ I should get help / But I don’t even know what I need,” she rapped last year on the aptly titled track “Anxiety.” “They keep sayin’ speak your truth / And at the same time say they don’t believe.”

It wasn’t until Lanez’s phone conversation with Harris while he was in jail became public that many finally began to accept what Megan has said since August 2020: Lanez shot her, and he knew he shot her.

In her victim impact statement, Megan told the court she had “not experienced a single day of peace” since the incident occurred. “He lied to anyone that would listen, and paid bloggers to disseminate false information about the case on social media. He released music videos and songs to damage my character and continue his crusade.”

Megan concluded, “For once, the defendant must be forced to face the full consequences of his heinous actions and face justice.”

Related Story

‘Logged In’: Megan Thee Stallion and Tory Lanez trial continues; Jamal Bryant tells how to get Black men to attend churchRead now

Lanez’s sentencing is some semblance of justice. Mainly for Megan, who endured the torture of public scrutiny, confronted Lanez in court, and withstood multiple delays in his sentencing. 

Lanez’s life and career are on an indefinite pause. And while there is a necessary, generations-long critique of the criminal justice system and how it has preyed on Black men to be had, Lanez is guilty of a violent crime. That’s his story. That’s his reality. That’s his legacy.

Nevertheless, hip-hop’s story, reality and legacy of this saga is far from over. Hip-hop culture changed the course of history and inspired every corner of the globe. Still, when it comes to its treatment of women, hip-hop still has a lot of work to do. Women such as rapper Dee Barnes, music producer Drew Dixon, and more aren’t just survivors of abuse at the hands of powerful men such as rapper and producer Dr. Dre and record executive Russell Simmons. They represent accomplished journalists and talented executives who have had to unfairly juggle the realities of their passions and the sharp, stinging legacies of their abuse. Whether that happens with Megan Thee Stallion is anybody’s guess.

Hip-hop should be embarrassed by its conduct during this incident. It should be ashamed it largely remained silent and allowed a Black woman to be publicly maligned. Whatever conversations are had now and in the future, here’s hoping it’s rooted in the truth — no matter how uncomfortable. That’s the only way conversations can become actions and eventually tangible change.

Loving hip-hop and critiquing it isn’t just a necessary part of the culture. If the genre is to survive another 50 years, then there’s no other option.

Justin Tinsley is a senior culture writer for Andscape. He firmly believes “Cash Money Records takin’ ova for da ’99 and da 2000” is the single most impactful statement of his generation.

Sent from my iPhone

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

A reflection on last week.  :::  April 10, 2023

Robert B. Hubbell

             Tonight, I offer a reflection on last week—and a suggestion about how we must respond. We went into last week expecting the news to be dominated by Trump's arraignment. It was—until the GOP-controlled legislature in Tennessee expelled two young Black Representatives for protesting briefly in the well of the assembly. We then received the report of Pro Publica outlining the manifest corruption of Justice Thomas by Texas millionaire and Hitler memorabilia collector Harlan Crow. And then Judge Kacsmaryk issued a thinly disguised religious fiat banning mifepristone for women across America.

         Each of the above events demonstrates the GOP’s efforts to achieve its goals by breaking the democracy that guarantees their liberties in the first instance. But we must now add to the sad litany a new item—Governor Greg Abbott’s pre-emptive announcement that he will pardon a Texas man convicted of murder after a jury trial. At trial, the defendant was able to present his argument that he acted in self-defense. The jury rejected that claim and voted unanimously to convict him of murder.

         Why does Abbott believe that he is justified in pardoning the murderer even before appeals have been heard? Abbott is, after all, substituting his judgment for that of the jurors who heard the evidence first-hand. Abbot believes the defendant is innocent of murder because he killed a “BLM” protester.

That’s right: Governor Abbott has established a new rule that laws do not apply equally to people protesting police killings and right-wing extremists who are upset by the protests. In a single act, Abbott has altered the law in Texas, demoted protestors demanding justice to second-class status, and told Texas jurors that their voices do not matter when MAGA extremists are on trial. In short, “self-defense” is a MAGA “get out of jail free” card under Greg Abbott’s reign in Texas.

         Together, these four instances illustrate a strategy the GOP learned from Trump: If the democratic system does not produce the result you want, then break democracy to obtain a different result. That is what the Tennessee legislators did to Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, that is what religious zealots did to all Americans, that is what monied interests did in bending the Supreme Court to do the bidding of the privileged and elite, and that is what Greg Abbott has done in summarily overturning a jury verdict that flies in the face of the facts.

         We have been confronting this asymmetry from the very moment Trump announced his bid in 2016, and it has worsened over time. As Democrats toil within the system to forge compromises over competing policies, Republicans break the system to get their way. They simply ignore it (McConnell on Merrick Garland’s nomination), they deny it (outcomes of elections), they falsify it (fake electors), they rig the judicial system to guarantee assignment of cases to a sympathetic federal judge (Kacsmaryk), and they attempt to stop its operation through violence (J6).

         There have been scattered calls for Democrats to employ similar tactics. Indeed, some are calling for the federal government to ignore Judge Kacsmaryk’s order if it is not stayed by the 5th Circuit or the Supreme Court. To state the obvious, to do so would amount to “breaking democracy” simply because we don’t like the result. We must not give in to the temptation to adopt the GOP’s anti-democratic tactics. We must fight our battle of resistance from within the walls and ramparts of democracy if we have any hope of saving it.

         The truth is that the rule of law continues to exist in America today because one of America’s major political parties remains committed to upholding that rule—despite the efforts of the other party to destroy it. If both parties feel emboldened to ignore the rule of law, our democracy will be gone. All that will be left is a contest of brute force in which dark money will substitute for violence.

         I do not believe we will reach that point. I have faith that Democrats will do the right thing despite legitimate feelings of anger, hurt, and despair. In each of the four situations described above, there is a democratic path forward to correct the result. It will not be easy, and we may not succeed entirely. But so long as we have a path forward, we should not set aside our great charter and the laws that give it life. It has endured for more than two centuries during equally trying times; we can make it through the present challenges, as well.

+

[from comments]

Overall, MAGA Republicans are revealing who and what they are. During the mid-terms, Democrats pushed back against an anticipated red tsunami and vastly outperformed expectations. Perhaps the ongoing MAGA performances will convince even more voters to shut them down.

Jessica Craven's latest post in "Chop Wood, Carry Water," celebrates many recent victories. She also writes that the two Tennessee lawmakers who were expelled can run in the special elections for their seats, and if they win, they cannot be expelled again. As for the other ugly instances cited here, I can sympathize with the anguished plea, "what does it take?" that most of us uttered during the long years of the Trump regime. Read Jessica Craven's post from today to understand that there are reasons for optimism.

https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/extra-extra-april-9th

We are being forged by fire to get as tough as our opponents and as clever. We already outnumber them. We are inspired by the courage of Ukrainians in their fight for their democracy and their lives. We are inspired by the heroes of our own Civil Rights movement that is ongoing. We are inspired by the turnout of the Israeli populace and even its military members that caused the Netanyahu regime to blink. We are being called upon to dig deep, stay tough and committed and resist even though we are tired.

Tomorrow is another day. Let's get on with the work.

[Gary S.]

[orlissa]

January reading summary

My one New Year’s resolution this year was to read fifty books in 2023–that would mean 4.17 books per month, just for fun math’s sake. In January, I managed to finish nine. Okay, that’s a bit of a fib, because two of these nine were started back in 2022, and one was read twice (once when I translated it, and once when I proofread the manuscript, but I’m gonna count those too). Still, it’s a pretty strong start. Anyway, I thought I’d do like a monthly summary of my reads, partially to motivate myself, and partially just to review to books I read, because we Leos thrive on attention. So, January reads, here we go:

Richelle Mead: The Indigo Spell/The Fiery Heart/Silver Shadows/The Ruby Circle – I read these right after each other (I started The Indigo Spell on December 31), as a part of my Vampire Academy re-read I started early December, so they kinda bleed together in my mind and I’m not even gonna try and write separate reviews of them. Truth is, I like 75% percent decided to read Bloodlines because I wasn’t ready to let go the Vampire Academy world yet after finishing Last Sacrifice–I just needed more Rose and Dimitri. Sure, there were things I liked in Bloodlines beyond their cameos, like the new magic system, the theme of rebellion against oppressive structures, dealing with parental trauma, and I especially enjoyed the whole re-education sequence in book five (there are very few things more terrifying than psychological torture, and the whole storyline of Sydney not giving up and fighting against it was absolutely fascinating). Still, I couldn’t get into the characters as much as I did with the original series, and, let’s be honest here, the last book sucked. The plot was all over the place, and the author basically fridged two women for a fanservice twist within a storyline with a hamfisted outcome (I mean, as a fan I was very much serviced, but it could have been done in a better way).

John Gwynne: The Hunger of the Gods – This was my translation project, so one of the books I started last year and the book I read twice from this list. As for the book itself… So, it’s a Viking-lore inspired epic fantasy (second in a trilogy) with a huge cast, where warring factions are allying with gods to gain power over the continent called Vigrið. Is it something I would have chosen to read for myself? No, it had way too much blood, eye-gouging, disfigurement, and child abuse in it for my taste (extensive facial scaring of characters has always made me squeamish). Was it objectively a good book? Yeah, sure. There is a wide range of interesting and diverse characters with depth, an exciting plot, and remarkable worldbuilding. Do I manifest the editor stepping on a Lego? Yeah, that too, because on the textual level the book had some issues that had me wanting to rip my hair out. But if you are into hard-core bloody fantasy and Norse lore, yeah, I definitely recommend it.

George Takei – Justin Eisinger – Steven Scott – Harmony Becker: They Called Us Enemy – I read this one in preparation for a course of mine which I won’t be teaching after all. Still, no regrets here (I mean, I’m sad I won’t get to teach this class, but I’m not sad that I read this book). So it’s George Takei’s memoir about his family’s time in internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII, while also dealing with the impact that time had on his later life, in a graphic novel format. It’s poignant and heartbreaking and honest, and really helps to put this segment of American history into perspective.

Ali Hazelwood: The Love Hypothesis – I read this book out of morbid curiosity, because I’ve seen how divisive it is (having started out as a Reylo fic, the author talking about how her agent is feeding her tropes, etc.), and honestly, I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Sure, there were icky parts, like it took actual willpower not to try to equate the main characters with Reylo/the actors, and not to try to match the supporting cast to the… well, to the Star Wars supporting cast (which I really needed to do, because I don’t like the new Star Wars, and although he has my absolute respect as a human being, I do not find Adam Driver attractive at all), the author sometimes really went overboard with the “OMG, what an actual giant the male lead is”–gushing, the sex scene had some questionable lines/metaphors, some of the side plots had a distinct fanfic crowd-pleaser feel (like Malcolm and Holden, who I’m pretty sure were originally Finn and Poe, going from “vaguely aware of each other’s existence” to “in a stable, have met the parents, banging like rabbits relationship” in like three days), and the ending was definitely rushed. However, on the other hand it was a fun little rom-com with a witty language and some commentary on sexism and sexual harassment, and although I’m not in STEM, the quips about academia and PhD candidacy really, and I mean really resonated with me. I’m definitely going to read more of the author’s stuff.

Brodi Ashton – Cynthia Hand – Jodi Meadows: My Imaginary Mary – I’m a big fan of The Lady Janies-series, but I’ll be the first one to say that they seem to be running out of steam. Sure, I know this book wasn’t even the original plan – they wanted to do one with Marie Curie, but they had to scrap that idea for some reason, so instead we get Mary Shelley and Ada Lovelace –, but still, in some aspects this book falls really… flat. While in the previous books the fantasy element felt like an integral part of the world, here it’s just… there, just thrown in, and the whole “fae godmother” introduction is just lazy writing (literally, a character just appears, brings one protagonist to the other, introduces them to each other, tells them she is their fae, not fairy, godmother, and she is now going to teach them magic. Just like that, in medias res, deus ex machina, and all that jazz). At the same time, Pan is sweetheart, the pop culture allusions are a stroke of genius, and the whole discourse about what is life is nice. So, yeah, the style is great, the message is great, but the plot is meh at best.