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dottie-wan-kenobi · 5 years ago

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A @batfam-christmas-stocking fic written for @renecdote!! happy holidays <3

----

Alternate universes suck so much. Tim has always known that, but he’s never really grasped it, not until he and Dick were forcibly thrown into one a week ago.

Gotham feels different, even though it doesn’t appear that way on the surface. The violence is more personal, less showy, and as far as they’ve seen, there are almost no super villains. Somehow, though, there’s more crime on the whole, every corner of every street host to pimps and drug dealers and traffickers.

Tim tries to fight it, tries to intervene, but Dick pulls him back. “We can’t risk it, you know that.”

He does. But that doesn’t make it easier. “They need our help,” Tim fires back, everything he’s ever been taught about bettering the world, the pressure of saving people, battering around in his mind.

“It’s not our world or our place,” Dick explains, and for all that he sounds apologetic, his eyes don’t stray away from the shadowy parts of the street where they can hear people being hurt.

Dick is a good actor, but Tim can read him like a book. He’s following the protocols put in place for dimensional travel, playing the I’m The Big Brother And I’m In Charge card, but he doesn’t like it anymore than Tim does.

The rules are what they are for a reason, and Tim knows that. Grudgingly, he lets Dick pull him away, go back to their own little shadowy corners. They sleep on cardboard they find in dumpsters, huddling up for warmth. In the mornings, they go to the local library, hoping to fill out some of their knowledge on this world, since no rescue or way out otherwise is forthcoming.

There, sitting at the outdated computers, they find out that Martha and Thomas Wayne are still dead. Bruce wasn’t 8 when it happened, though—he was 16. He got shot too, making it painful and difficult to walk or move in general. According to one interview from a few years before, he’s kept on bedrest a lot, and has been in and out of physical therapy ever since it happened, now fifteen years prior. When he’s not doing that, he’s campaigning for control of Wayne Enterprises and tweeting about coffee.

There’s no Batman. Not like how they know him, at least.

One day, Dick flirts with a cop and Tim pickpockets the man’s scanner, and they learn that whole case files, suspects and evidence all neatly put together, have been sent to the GCPD over the past six years. They never see anyone fly overhead, though. At first, they think it might be Babs, but when they try to look her up, Tim finds that she’s been locked up in Arkham for at least the last four years.

Neither one of them want to know why, so they just don’t look into it any further. “This isn’t our Babs,” Dick reminds himself, and Tim, too. But mostly himself. “She’s not .”

They share a look, and don’t have to say anything to know it’s time to compartmentalize. This Babs isn’t their Babs. This Bruce isn’t their Bruce. This world doesn’t have the Joker or Poison Ivy or any of them except Two Face and the Penguin. This isn’t their world .

“Come on,” Dick murmurs, sticking close to his side as they leave the library. As they head to their latest alley, they pass all kinds of drug deals and gang members beating the shit out of people. By the time they actually get to where they’ve been staying, they’re both so tense, one smartass comment from Tim is all it takes to snap them into an argument.

”I’m sorry,” Tim says after they’ve gone back and forth a few times, sounding hostile even to himself. “I’m so sorry I can’t see things the same way you do. I’m sorry I’m not perfect Dick Grayson , who always knows what to do without even having to think about it, who always does the right thing, who is totally fine letting all these people suffer, because it’s in the protocol!”

He doesn’t even believe his own words. Tim’s just upset, unable to handle living on the streets for a week in a universe where everything is unfamiliar and grim, lashing out against one of the only things he can control. Dick is all he has here—and spending that much time with someone, let alone one of his brothers, would be hard even in the best of circumstances.

Dick flinches, and Tim only has a second to feel bad before the flash of a reflection from a gun in the window above them catches his attention. He moves on instinct, stepping forward and trying to pull Dick down even as Dick tries to move towards the mouth of the alley, protective to a fault. The bullet hits Dick’s left shoulder with a sickening and familiar crack-thwack .

For a moment, everything is silent, slow motion. Dick sucks in a pained breath, stumbling back a few steps, and Tim hopes and prays the bullet hasn’t hit an artery.

And then Tim twists to face the mouth of the alley and books it towards him, jumping on the bastard and bringing him to the ground. He rips the gun away and lets all of his pent-up anger and stress out, punching and punching. It’s only Dick, gritting his teeth and clutching his shoulder, calling out his name that saves the guy’s teeth from actually being knocked out.

Panting and shaking with fury and adrenaline, Tim stands. “Are you okay?” He demands.

“Fine,” Dick replies. “We—we should go.”

“Yeah, okay.” But he bends down instead, patting the guy’s pockets until he finds what he’s looking for: a wallet. As he rifles through, searching for a driver’s license or state ID, he explains. “We need to know who he is. If he’s working for Harvey….”

They both shudder at the thought, but the truth is worse. The name is Italian, familiar to Tim from a bust a few years before. He’s one of Maroni’s men.

Another thing they learned during their hours of research at the library: seven years ago, Haly’s Circus came through town. Bruce Wayne didn’t attend, or more likely, couldn’t. Mary and John Grayson fell to their deaths, and once it became clear that little Dick Grayson, only eight years old, knew something about the murderers, he ran. He’s been missing ever since, and if he’s still alive, then the Maronis are probably still on the lookout for him. Tony Zucco, apparently, is still alive. Still working Gotham’s underbelly, terrorizing and murdering. The Dick Grayson native to this universe is a threat to them.

They probably heard me say Dick’s name , Tim realizes, tucking the wallet away in the man’s pockets. Which means he was shot because of me. Fuck.

----

Big brothers, Tim finds, are fucking heavy. Especially when they’ve been shot and are steadily losing blood. When they’re dead weight, fading in and out of consciousness. When they’re relying totally on Tim to drag the both of them to uncertain refuge in an unfamiliar city.

And Tim…he wants to be someone Dick can rely on. (Obviously, he already is, but his anxiety says maybe this is just who Dick is. Tim could be anyone and the situation would be the same. Still, it would be better for Dick if Tim was Damian, instead. Or Bruce. Or Donna. Or anyone but himself, really.) But more than anything, he wants someone who can help Dick, who can keep him alive. Living on the streets the way they are just doesn’t lend much in the way of medical supplies.

Tim drags Dick all the way to the clinic, based on a vague awareness that it exists here, too. When they get there, though, the building is obviously abandoned, Leslie nowhere to be found. Wherever she is, he doesn’t know, but he hopes she’s okay. He can’t think of a situation that would keep her from helping the people of Gotham. Still, he sets Dick up against the wall and breaks in, hoping for something useful, and finding nothing inside but rubble and evidence of homeless people using the space for shelter.

He goes back to Dick, feeling like the world is ending. They don’t have any first aid supplies, and even if they did, even if a first aid kit fell out of the sky right now and Tim could patch Dick up, it wouldn’t mean anything. This only happened because Tim wasn’t paying attention, wasn’t thinking to be careful. It could happen again. What does he do then?

What would Bruce do? Roy? Wally? Diana or Clark? Hell, Kon ? Any of them could help Dick so much more right now. More than Tim can or will ever be able to. And really, what good is Tim if he can’t even keep his brother alive?

Aware the thoughts aren’t helpful right now, he shelves them for later and looks back at Dick, cataloguing everything he sees like Bruce taught them to do. Dick’s still steadily bleeding out, and though that’s most concerning of all, Tim finds the only thing he can think about is how they don’t have clean clothes so Dick can walk around in something not soaked in blood.

With a strangled shout, Tim kicks the wall. It doesn’t affect him, much—thank god he’d been wearing steel-toed shoes when they were transported here—but the brief release feels good. Sort of. It’d be a lot better if he were still laying into the Maroni guy, if he’s honest.

“Tim,” Dick says, both reproachful and concerned.

“Shut up,” Tim replies, dragging his fingers through his hair. His mind is racing. He wants to go home so badly his chest aches with it.

Dick knows him well enough that he can sense what Tim is thinking. Slowly, he shakes his head. “No, Tim. No . We can’t.”

“Where else are we supposed to go?” Tim cries out. It’s a stupid idea, it’s against the protocol, and they’ve already talked about it anyway. They’d agreed it’s stupid and they can’t do it and moved on. But he can’t help feeling the impulse, especially now.

“Stephanie’s,” Dick shoots back immediately. But they both know it’s not possible—here, Steph is another face on the dozens of missing persons posters that litter the city. He realizes it a second too late, and stumbles over his next words. “Just, anywhere but there.”

Jason is dead, has been for years now. Damian doesn’t exist. Cass is in Star City with Dinah Lance. Luke and the other members of the Fox family have never lived in this Gotham. Duke’s parents are still alive—they recently moved to Blüdhaven, and took their young son with them. Harper and Cullen are nowhere to be found, but Tim tells himself that’s a good thing—it means they aren’t in the obituaries. Kate is overseas on a honeymoon with her wife. Half of the Titans and Justice League don’t seem to exist, and the ones that do wouldn’t step foot in this cesspit of crime and drugs.

‘Anywhere but there’ means nothing. Nowhere. There’s no place for them to go, no one who can or even would help.

The words, or maybe the thoughts that come with them, wear Dick out. He starts to fade again, eyes slipping closed, and that means Tim’s in charge.

And Tim? Tim wants to go home .

He grabs Dick, keeping him from sliding down the wall, throws his brother’s arm over his shoulder, and starts off towards the Manor with every ounce of determination he can muster.

----

Several hours later, when it’s dark and Dick is pale and mostly silent, barely keeping up, they make it home. Everything feels different: the security that allows them to get all the way up the drive (after only a little effort on Tim’s part), the trees oddly placed and the doors and shutters all painted a light blue instead of the rusty red he’s used to. It’s disorienting and upsetting. Home is supposed to be familiar and it’s not and he hates it.

Tim knocks on a side door that only family knows about, hoping against hope it won’t be Bruce that answers. He doubts it, but he’s positive he won’t be able to keep his composure in front of his dad. It’ll be a little easier with Alfred. Probably. In any case, Alfred is the better option of the two.

While they wait, Dick mumbles, “This is stupid.”

Tim presses his hand against the wound, trying not to be impatient. Trying not to feel sick with nerves. He doesn’t reply, knowing Dick isn’t really paying attention right now.

When the door finally opens, Tim could collapse with relief. Alfred stands there, one hand hiding his rifle out of their sight in an all-too-familiar pose, while the other holds onto the doorjamb. His hair is darker than Tim is used to, his face less wrinkled. He’s staring at them like they’re weird, strange boys, standing at what’s supposed to be a virtually unknown entrance to a private, secure home in the late hours of the night.

Blood covers Dick’s upper body and Tim’s hands, and they both look and smell rough. They don’t make a pretty picture, and Tim knows that, but there’s nothing he can do except get Alfred to let them in somehow. He’s been thinking about what he wants to say, what’ll appeal to Alfred’s compassion or curiosity or both. Please, help my brother before he loses too much blood. Please, don’t tell Bruce about this. Please, I’m so exhausted and I need a cup of your chamomile and a cookie and also maybe a hug or I’m going to explode.

What he says instead is, “ Alfred .” It’s a relieved sob, leaving him without permission, and Alfred’s shocked and confused reaction is much more noticeable than it should be. “I—we didn’t know where else to go. He’s hurt.”

There are more words on his tongue, an avalanche of them wanting to come out, but Alfred stops him there with a raised hand. He doesn’t put the rifle down, but he says, “Come in, then,” and opens the door wide enough for them.

Dick groans when Tim drags him up the steps. Blinking sluggishly at Alfred, he says, “Alf…?”

“Yeah, it’s Alfred. Come on, help out here a little bit. We’re just gonna sit down and hopefully get you patched up, alright, Dickie?”

“Hrn.”

Tim bites his lip at the Bruce noise, stupid tears stinging in his eyes.

He’s home. It’s unfamiliar. Dick is hurt. He’s in charge.

Now is so not the time to cry.

Alfred leads them to a nearby couch in a sitting room they’ve never used in all the years Tim’s known Bruce. Rifle still in hand, he seems much more unsure than their Alfred, who would’ve already had the situation on lock by now.

“We need a first aid kit, please,” Tim says. He glances at the weapon, and adds, “We won’t cause any trouble, I promise. I—I know this is probably super weird, but….”

But what? Tim can’t think of a way to end the sentence so he just doesn’t. Instead, he turns to Dick and starts pulling his brother’s shirt off, something they really should’ve done hours ago. While he uses the fabric to put pressure on the wound again, he hears Alfred moving around behind him.

If this Bruce is anything like theirs, a first aid kit shouldn’t be too far away. There’s one in every bathroom back home.

It’s not long before Alfred is back, shooing Tim away and setting a large first aid kit on the couch. His rifle is gone, but Tim knows it can’t be far. There’s no way this Alfred trusts them enough to not have it close at hand. “Do I dare ask what happened?”

God, it’s good to hear his voice. “My brother got shot,” Tim says, reverting to his natural instinct to reveal as little as possible. Normally Alfred is someone he can give a full mission report to, but Tim is just Tim right now, not Red Robin, and this is not his Alfred, so he’s going to keep his mouth shut up tight.

“Well, my word. You wouldn’t know it from looking at him.” And there’s that Alfred sass. It doesn’t make him laugh like it usually does—no, it just reminds him again that he isn’t actually home. “Care to explain more? Should I be concerned you were followed?”

Tim thinks on it for a minute, but really, there’s no way Maroni’s guy got up in time to tail them. The rest of the mob family have probably heard about them by now, but Tim isn’t too worried about it. He can’t find it within himself to be. All he can really think about is Dick, Alfred, Bruce. If coming here was a mistake after all. If they’ll ever make it home to see their Bruce and Alfred. Eventually, he says, “No. We weren’t followed.”

Dick groans as Alfred starts to prep the gunshot wound to get the bullet out. He sways a little, dizzy, and mumbles an apology when Alfred has to readjust him.

Alfred says, “Just hold as still as you can, and you’ll be alright.”

Hearing the tenderness in Alfred’s voice does something to Tim. This is Alfred , he thinks. He can help us with more than just this.

He blurts out, “It was one of Maroni’s men.”

“Sal Maroni?” Alfred sounds suspiciously uninterested, not even bothering to look away from his work. “The mob boss?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm. Alright, young man, I’m going to get this bullet out now.”

“Tim,” Dick grits out, reaching out his hand. Tim takes it, sitting down on the other side of his brother. He forces himself to watch as Alfred goes through the familiar motions. Dick doesn’t actually squeeze his hand that much, too used to this kind of pain, but Tim thinks maybe they both feel better having the lifeline.

He stays there until Dick is stitched up and accepts a dose of Tylenol—no matter how much Alfred gives them concerned looks and insists on something stronger, a Bat doesn’t take hard drugs.

Not quite huffing in exasperation, Alfred acquiesces and leaves Dick alone, sitting back against the cushions. Then he turns to Tim. With his hands on his hips and his sleeves rolled up, he’s honestly kind of intimidating. “Now you, young man,” he says.

“Um. What? I’m fine. I didn’t get shot, I don’t need anything.”

Alfred raises an eyebrow. Tim can out-stubborn almost anybody, even his other family members, but Alfred Pennyworth is not one of them. Everyone bows down to him.

Tim sighs and scoots a few inches away from Dick, and when Alfred shoos him all the way into the other corner, he goes. Surprisingly, the older man sits next to Tim, between him and Dick, and instead of reaching for the kit, he just. Puts a hand on Tim’s shoulder. Which Tim finds extremely weird, considering how British and physically distant Alfred is. Oh sure, he hugs them all. He catches them when they fall, he reassures them with arm pats and shoulder squeezes. But it’s unlike him to just... sit here and rest his hand on Tim’s shoulder, looking him in the face with an expression Tim finds he can’t read.

Not being able to read people, especially someone he knows so well, freaks him out.

Tense, Tim says, “What?”

Alfred is quiet for a moment, then asks, “Where have you boys been staying?”

Oh. Yeah, okay. He’s suspicious of them. Tim can understand why. “We have a place.” It’s a disgusting alley behind a pizzeria they can’t afford to eat at, scraping by with the last of the money they had on them when they were sent here, but it’s not a lie.

Alfred backs off, picking his battles and probably recognizing this one for what it is: unwinnable. He’s more than perceptive enough to read between the lines anyway, add up all the clues—their clothes are dirty, their hair greasy, and Tim knows he’s looking pretty gaunt. And considering how jumpy Tim is acting, it’s likely Alfred thinks they’re homeless. Which they are.

“Are you injured anywhere?”

Tim holds out his hand, his knuckles split and raw from earlier, and ignores how badly he’s shaking. Alfred takes his hand, and grabs alcohol wipes from the kit. He dabs at the wounds, glancing at Tim’s face like he’s expecting a reaction. And yeah, it stings a little, but he’s had much worse. This is nothing.

“Hmm.” Alfred moves Tim’s hand around, looking for other wounds, finding a few little cuts. “So your brother’s name is Dickie?”

“Dick,” Tim corrects. Bruce and Jason are the only ones who call Dick that usually, and Jason almost always does it because it’s his ‘little brother duty’ or something. The only reason he said it earlier is because he hoped it would be comforting. “Short for—”

“Richard, I assume.”

“Yeah.” Tim falls silent, trying to keep his hand still. When a few moments of silence go by, he looks up at Alfred, finding him making an expectant face. “Oh! Yeah, sorry. I’m Tim.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Tim. You seem to already know my name.”

Yeah. Shit. Unable to think of a lie beyond ‘you look like my grandpa’, Tim laughs nervously. “Lucky guess?”

Dick snorts. “You jus’ look like our gran’pa, that’s all. His name’s Alfred. Yours too, huh?”

Alfred doesn’t look convinced, but he goes along with it anyway. “Yes, mine too.” What an odd coincidence , he doesn’t say, but Tim hears it anyway.

It doesn’t take long after that for Alfred to finish up Tim’s knuckles. He offers to put some band-aids on, but Tim shakes his head. “No, no, I’m fine. Thank you.”

Dick gives him a look, and despite the fact that he’s still acting loopy, there’s a strength to it. Tim can tell what he’s thinking—that if the cuts weren’t on the knuckles, a very awkward place to put bandages, Dick would be insisting on it. Well, whatever , he thinks, resisting the urge to stick out his tongue. You’re not in charge right now anyway.

Alfred stands and looks them over for a brief moment, hesitation obvious in the way he pauses, inhaling deeply. Then, with determination, he says, “I will prepare you something to eat. Do either of you have any allergies I should be aware of?”

“Sulfites,” Tim says at the same time Dick says, “Shellfish. And pet dander.”

“Dick, man, I’m pretty sure they don’t have pets. And even if they did, pets aren’t allowed in the kitchen under any circumstances.”

“Oh yeah,” Dick says with a faint chuckle. “Forgot.”

“Mister Tim,” Alfred cuts in before Tim can reply. It’s unspeakably weird to be called Mister Tim instead of Master Tim, even though Alfred called him that for years. “Will sandwiches suffice?”

The thought of eating Alfred’s food—and even more than that, something they haven’t fished out of a dumpster—is drool-worthy. Quickly, he agrees, “Yes, that’s perfect. Thank you.”

Alfred nods and leaves, probably thankful to get the heck away from them for a few minutes. Once he’s gone, the brothers fall quiet, both a blessing and a curse. Not having Alfred asking questions that Tim has to evade is great, but it does give him the opportunity to keep freaking out.

What do they do next? Alfred might not let them leave while Dick is healing, and that means the chances of running into Bruce raise astronomically. Tim knows that he won’t be able to handle that. Not at all.

“Stop it,” Dick whispers, loud in the overwhelming quiet. “I can see your forehead vein from here.”

“Shut up. I’m trying to think.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.”

Tim sighs, letting the banter drop for a moment. “Look, I’m sorry you got shot. I know it’s not my fault,” he says, speaking over Dick’s immediate protest. “I know that. But I’m still sorry.”

“…Thanks. I’m accepting your apology but not your responsibility.”

“Duh.” Tim fiddles with his hands, satisfied but also knowing, in his heart of hearts, that it is in fact his fault and Dick is totally wrong. “I’m not sorry I brought us here, though.”

“Duh,” Dick repeats, sounding more than a little peeved. Not that Tim can blame him, really. If Tim and Damian had agreed to something, and then Damian went back on it… that’d be really annoying.

Still, that little brother duty Jason talks about means he has to defend himself. “Dick, we were gonna end up coming here anyway, don’t you see that?” He shoots to his feet and drags his hands through his hair, pacing in front of the couch. Despite his earlier flip-flopping, he’s sure now. This was the right decision even if it does suck a lot. “Where else could we possibly go? We don’t belong here. The only way we can get home is by ask—”

Tim cuts off immediately when footsteps echo down the hall. They sound different from Alfred’s, a third tap that sounds a lot like a cane.

This Alfred doesn’t use a cane. The only person who could is—

Both Dick and Tim tense as the doorway is filled up by Bruce freaking Wayne.

“Um,” Tim says.

Bruce looks different. Not just in the sense that he is, in fact, using a cane, but just. Everything. He looks younger, a neat beard covering much of his face. There’s barely any salt in it at all. The scars that litter the skin of his face and arms, mostly bare considering he’s wearing only a t-shirt and pajama pants, aren’t there. Worst of all, there’s no recognition in his eyes.

His sons have become strangers. But no, this man is not their father. Tim has to shout it at himself. He’s not! Bruce Wayne would never look at them like this. Especially not Dick.

Dick makes a noise, a small and sad little whimper, and Tim thinks, shit. Shit shit shit. Unable to do anything to help, Tim shuffles closer to him, hoping it’s enough to comfort.

“Who are you?” Bruce asks, moving further into the room. He says it casually, like this is a totally normal situation, but there’s steel there, too. Of course there is. This is Bruce Wayne. He doesn’t mess around, especially when it comes to strangers invading his home. And as much as that feels like a knife to the chest, that’s what they are. Strangers . The word lingers in his mind, leaving a bad aftertaste.

Tim gets the distinct feeling that the cane, for all that it serves to help Bruce walk, is a weapon. One this Bruce will have no issue using against them. “Um. We—we’re homeless,” he blurts out, trying to push the thought away. “And my brother got shot, so we came here looking for help. We’ll be gone soon, I promise. Don’t worry about us, this is just a one time thing, and we won’t tell anyone else. I know this is a house and not a triage center.”

Bruce is already looking at him like he’s an intruder, but at that, the man’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. Oh, right. That’s something the other—the right —Bruce would say. Has said many times. Because it’s something their Alfred has always said, and apparently this Alfred too.

Scrambling, Tim keeps going, pasting a fake smile on his face. “Alfred knows we’re here. He’ll be right back. It’s okay, we’ll just wait right here and not steal anything, so you can go back to bed. Goodnight.”

“Tim,” Dick bites out, obviously trying to communicate that he thinks Tim is being a weirdo, and that he’s doing nothing but tipping Bruce off to the fact that something is wrong.

“I’m freaking out, okay?” Tim exclaims back, curling and relaxing his fingers in an effort to control himself. It’s impossible, though—this is their dad , for crying out loud. Their dad, who they haven’t seen in a long time, not since before they were attacked as civilians and flung through the wormhole that deposited them here. Their dad, who Tim really, seriously needs a hug from right now.

Bruce comes closer, leaning against one of the two unused chairs. Where Tim tenses further, unsure of what he’s about to do or say, Dick relaxes. He’s really out of it now, the blood loss and medicine finally catching up with him. He’s blinking heavily and listing to the side. “Hand me that, will you?” He asks Bruce, gesturing to a throw blanket resting on the top of the chair.

Suddenly feeling very protective of Dick, Tim says, “I can—”

“No,” Bruce interrupts, the corner of his mouth curling up like he thinks this is funny. “I’ve got it.”

He grabs the blanket and walks over to the couch. Tim stumbles back a few steps to give him room. For a second, it seems like none of them breathe—but then Bruce leans on his cane like a crutch, bends down, and lays the blanket over Dick.

Tim has seen Bruce tuck people in before, usually Damian. All those times, he either didn’t care much, or a swirl of jealousy had tightened in his stomach. He can remember wondering why Bruce didn’t tuck him in. Why his parents never did it, why Mrs. Mac and all the nannies hadn’t either.

This time, his eyes sting with tears. He forces them back, biting the inside of his cheek.

Dick snuggles into the cushions behind his back, pulling the blanket tighter around himself. “Thanks, dad,” he mumbles, slipping off into a nap.

Bruce and Tim both freeze.

“Um,” Tim says, because something has to be said, this needs to be nipped in the bud and stopped right now before Bruce can ask anything. But really, the chances of Bruce Wayne not asking questions? Less than zero. And Tim’s brain is screaming, because what the hell could he possibly say to explain that ?

Alfred enters the room again before anything can happen, carrying a tray holding a few sandwiches. He sets it down on a side table before looking up.

“Oh,” he stops short when he sees Bruce, hands hovering above the food. “Master Bruce, I thought you were downstairs.”

“I was just doing some reading,” he waves off, but he can’t quite manage to sound casual. “Now… did he just call me dad ?”

Oh fuck , Tim thinks. Awkwardly, he laughs, “No! What? No, that’s ridiculous.” Seeing that this tactic isn’t working—Bruce and Alfred both have legendary ‘bitch please’ looks that go beyond the confines of time and space, apparently—he shifts gears. “I mean, okay, yes he did. But—but it’s just because you look like our dad! A lot like him, actually. Haha.”

Bruce and Alfred stare at him, concern building as he keeps laughing, spurred on by a week of non-stop stress and the pressure of being in charge— maybe , he thinks, this was a bad idea all along and we shouldn’t have come here and Dick was totally right. It’s only when his laughter turns to hiccuping sobs that either of them move, Bruce managing to grab his bicep in time before Tim can sink to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Alfred hurries to his other side, fretting, “Come on, young sir, just sit down now.”

They lead him to one of the chairs, where he collapses, his head in his hands. Dick is better at this—at leading, at interacting, at not breaking apart. It should all be the opposite: Tim sleeping off a GSW while Dick lies through his teeth as he explains what’s going on. Not that Dick would’ve gotten them into this situation, anyway.

“I’m sorry,” he sniffles, refusing to look up. They’re both staring at him again, clearly unsure what to do with a strange, crying teenager.

After a moment, Alfred says, “You boys say I look like your grandfather, and now Master Bruce looks like your father. By chance, what is his name?”

“Bruce Wayne,” Tim replies to the floor. “But… not him. A different one.”

“A different Bruce Wayne?” The confusion and curiosity is clear as day in Bruce’s voice, and Tim can’t help but snort a little.

“Yeah. Um, this is going to sound really crazy, but my brother and I are from a different universe.” He peeks at their faces, not surprised at all by the blatant disbelief he sees. “I can prove it.”

Alfred and Bruce share a wide-eyed look.“How?”

“I know you’re the one who’s been sending the GCPD all those case files. And before you say you’re not, you just said you were doing some reading. Downstairs. In the cave below this property, right? Back home, it’s called the Batcave and you’re Batman.”

“Go on, Mister Tim,” Alfred says after a moment. “We believe you.”

Relief crashes down on him and more tears slip out against his will. “I need your help. We need your help. We’ve been here for a week, and—and—and we have no idea how to get home. None. There’s no one else we can turn to, ‘cause the people who would usually help us either can’t or wouldn’t, since they don’t know us here. And god, this world is nothing at all like ours…. I just want to go home. I don’t know what to do. Please,” he begs, desperate. “I need advice.”

Bruce hesitantly sets a hand on Tim’s back, rubbing up and down in a motion that is, wow, extremely soothing. “We’ll figure this out, Tim. I promise you, Alfred and I will help you boys any way we can.”

Before Tim can ask if it’s just because they’re his sons in some other universe, Alfred clears his throat. “It may take some time, mind you. But you and your brother will need to stay here anyway, seeing as that wound needs time to heal. I can’t, in good conscience, let that happen out on the streets.”

Tim wants to refuse. Wants to say thanks but no thanks, you can put us up in a motel or something until everything is worked out. Wants to cry and cry and wake up from this nightmare. Instead, mentally and physically exhausted, he just says, “Okay.”

Both men are concerned by the response, he can tell. Though he isn’t looking, he can practically hear the silent conversation they’re having over his head. Then Alfred stands. “I will make up two of the guest rooms, then, sirs. Mister Tim, could you help bring Mister Dick upstairs?”

“Just set up one, we can share,” Tim replies. It’s late and he doesn’t want Alfred to have to do anything more than he’s already done. Than he’s already doing.

“If you’re certain….”

“I am. Thank you.”

He’s not gone for long, and thank god, because Tim can hardly stand to be alone with Bruce without spilling even more. He’s already said so much tonight, he feels empty and hollowed out, kind of like a balloon that’s been blown up only for all the air to wheeze out of it, leaving it sad and stretched. Holy shit, that metaphor. He needs to go to bed, and he needs a mattress instead of another cardboard box laid over hard cobblestone and concrete.

Shaking his head to stop his thoughts, he moves over to Dick and wakes him, a hand on his uninjured shoulder. “Dick, wake up,” he says a few times until his brother is blinking heavily at him.

“Wha’?”

“We’re gonna go upstairs and sleep. Come on, I’ll help you.”

“Hrn,” he says again, and this time, Bruce hears it. Tim glances at him, almost surprised to see the emotions on Bruce’s face. Apparently that’s a Bruce noise in this universe too, and it only helps to cement Tim’s story.

Tim helps Dick stand up, swinging Dick’s good arm over his shoulders. Together, they slowly ascend the stairs, something Tim is more than familiar with considering how many times something like this has happened at home. At the top, they meet up with Alfred, who takes them to a guest room that is thankfully unused in their version of the Manor.

Alfred helps Dick get settled into the mattress, his shoes and belt shed. “I could get you both some pajamas,” Alfred says when he sees the way Tim flops down, both of them still in battered, dirty, expensive chinos.

“We’re okay,” Tim says, aware that the only pajamas in the house must belong to Bruce and Alfred, and that neither size would fit them. He’s not sure he could handle it right now even if they did. “Thank you though. For…for all of this. It means a lot.”

Alfred graces him with a gentle smile. “Of course, young sir. I would like to think that your Bruce will appreciate this.”

He leaves, and then it’s just Tim and Dick. They’ve shared a bed plenty of times before, on nights when there was no one else around and they didn’t want to be alone. Dick was the one who taught Tim one of the best parts about having siblings: cuddles. Dick is a cuddle monster, but maybe tonight Tim won’t wake up being held protectively to his brother’s chest.

Under the covers, Tim stares at the ceiling. His mind refuses to shut off even though they’re finally somewhere safe. Somewhere he can sleep and not worry about what might happen when he’s not paying attention.

He feels a little better, now that there are actual adults in charge, who are going to help. Who can keep Dick from getting hurt again, especially from Tim’s carelessness. But it makes him miss home, just reminds him how far away he and Dick are from their real family. He’s curious, on some level, about this Bruce Wayne. He trusts him to take care of them long enough for them to return home. How long that’s going to take is a question, though, one that he thinks can probably be answered by: a long time.

It’ll be good for Dick, at least. Give him time to heal.

God, Dick shouldn’t have been hurt in the first place. But of course he did, and of course it was because of some dumb argument, because of Tim—

“’M not perfect,” Dick whispers, making Tim, who was certain he was asleep, jump. When he turns to look, he finds Dick’s eyes are closed. Squeezed shut. “’M not . I don’t know what I’m doing, Tim. I didn’t wanna come here ‘cause of the rules, and ‘cause it’s hard… hard to see them. ‘M lucky I getta sleep through it, I guess.”

“Dick—”

“I woulda done the same thing, okay?” And now he opens his eyes, meeting Tim’s head on. “This was the right choice. Coming here. Alfred gives the best advice.”

“Yeah.” Tim’s throat feels thick, the word hard to get out.

Dick reaches out his good hand and rests it on Tim’s cheek. “Thank you for bringing me here. You saved me. Now go to sleep,” he says, and then teasingly smacks him. “I can hear you thinking all the way from here.”

“You’re like two feet away,” Tim points out, but he tries to listen anyway. He closes his eyes, thinking maybe he will be able to rest. Dick is the best at comforting people.

“Shhhh,” Dick says, grinning. “Doesn’t matter. Sleep.”

“Yes, mom.”

“ Shhh !”

Tim laughs, and for the first time in a while, it’s real. He feels safe and warm and not alone, and while he can’t exactly say he’s happy right now, he’s a lot closer than he was just a few hours before.

Tomorrow , he decides, settling down, I’m going to take a shower and eat a real meal. And then, then I can finally start figuring out how to get us home.

#bcs19 #tim drake #dick grayson #alfred pennyworth #bruce wayne #batfam #batfamily #batfam fic #fanfic #my writing #renecdote

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migleefulmoments · 5 years ago

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The Book Club: My Analysis

I just posted a long look at the ATOM analysis but I couldn't comment on their posts because it would have been too confusing. Here is where I will make comments to their analysis. As always my comments in parenthesis and italicized.

In this first post, notice that Abby isn’t looking for big themes and symbols-although she did catch the big ones- instead she is picking out single words and short phrases and drawing analogies to Darren. This is the literature version of cutting up an already short video into 1-2 seconds, slowing it down for drama and making it a gif. It’s how you distort the truth.

**********************************************

December 26, 2019 by this is a submission to ajw (X)

Submission from a friend (I posted my brief thoughts at the end). Major spoilers below. Scroll past if you haven’t read and don’t want to know.

First off, just in the note to the readers, I knew this book was going to be full of some good stuff.

Obviously, all interpretations are my own, after my first read through.

“A tale of magic follows a group of young fairies as they fight for acceptance in an oppressive world where magic is outlawed and despised. This story is very close to my heart, and writing it was the most challenging and emotional process I’ve experienced as an author to date. …… I hope it encourages and comforts anyone who may be fighting their own battle for acceptance and equality.”

Fairies= anyone feeling different or told they can’t be who they are, perhaps including the LGBT community? Hmm.. Close to his heart? What closer to his heart than the reality he’s living? (Yes, it is definitely the LGBTQ community. If you couldn’t tell from reading the story Chris says “For me, the magic in A Tale of Magic is an allegory for being gay.” and faires are the people who have magical abilities. This is a story he calls “close to my heart” because he is a gay man who grew up in a town that is now represented by Devin “the dunce” Nunes- so super fake-religious, judgemental and intolerant. He’s been getting mail from gay kids for a decade and he wrote a story to tell his truth and Abby is turning it into a story about Darren and the reality she has created for Chris to be living)

“If we want to change the world’s opinion it must be encouraged, not forced– and nothing encourages people like a good spectacle.”

Hmm… a spectacle? Sounds familiar. You can’t force anyone to believe anything, but it can be encouraged by opening your eyes to a good spectacle, like say a wedding, and realizing that it just doesn’t make sense if you open your eyes. Nuff said. (Except in this case Mrs. Weatherberry is saying they need to encourage people to accept magic not force them to and a good spectacle is the best way to encourage change. For this to be a reference to the wedding, Chris would have to be happy about the wedding).

One of the books that Brystal comes across is by Daisy Peppernickel. I think that speaks for itself. It’s clearly known that Daisy is a certain someone’s nickname, especially used by the part of his fans that believe in Daisy. (This is stupid. It’s a silly, British-sounding name- not a reference to Darren. I can’t imagine a Chris celebrating the fandom’s fetishization of Darren’s efferent movements by labeling it “Daisy”)

“.. each author’s cause of death was EXECUTED FOR CONSPIRACY AGAINS THE KINGDOM. … It was a graveyard for truth and an archive of people the Justices had silenced.”

Deleted tweets, accounts vanishing into thin air. This sounds a lot like the conspiracies against (str8) fandom. It’s no secret that people have been silenced. (yes, deleted tweets, accounts vanishing in thin air (what?) are exactly conspiracy against the fandom. Both Chris and Darren are super worried about a handful of fans in the Str8 fandom. You guys MATTER so much Chris included you in his book. He loves you, dudes).

“All the books in the secret room were written by people who felt and thought exactly like she did, by people who questioned information, who criticized social restrictions, who challenged the systems set in place, and who weren’t afraid to make their ideas known.”

Questioning information? Challenging the system? Not afraid to make their ideas known? Can’t think of anybody that might do that. (It’s almost like Chris was talking about all the brave people who push back against society’s unfair treatment of the disenfranchised and minority persons who are discriminated against whether that is because of their race, nationality, gender, age or income. I know for a FACT he was NOT talking about the cc fandom. who do not do these things for the better good of society but rather for their own needs. Chris was honoring people like Mrs. Weatherberry and MLK, Rosa Parks, Harvey Milk,, people who push boundaries to make positive changes for the good of all people. What you all do is petty and based not on genuine inconsistencies in the system but rather your own refusal to accept that you are wrong and have always been wrong.)

“Personally, I think life is way to complicated for anyone’s life to be set in stone.”

Even though D seems to be in a death sentence, there’s way more to life and his fate is not set in stone. C believes in his man, and knows he can overcome this. (Um what?)

“Sometimes as a survival method, fairies suppress their magic so deep within themselves that it becomes extremely difficult to reach it.”

This reminds me of D’s dudebro persona that he brings out. He’s suppressing himself so far that at times he’ll turn himself into a different caricature of himself. We all know Daisy is in there somewhere under the layers of D-bag. (LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. You mean when Darren is acting exactly like Darren? People are like onions, they have layers. Dude bro is one of Darren’s layers. Not understanding that Darren is who Darren proves that you aren’t are the one who isn’t actually paying attention. It’s so obvious )

“It’s very hard watching someone you love in so much pain.”

C watching the person he loves get knocked down over and over, he’s speaking directly from his own experience here. (How do you know this? Chris has never once suggested he finds life difficult right now or that he is in pain. It’s almost like you made it up)

“Horence had the misfortune of falling in love with a witch. … Naturally, such a relationship was forbidden, so for over a decade, Horence and the witch carried on a secret affair. When Horence’s soldiers discovered the relationship, the men betrayed their commander. They burned Horence at the stake and forced the witch to watch it happen.”

Using LGBT to equal ‘magical’ (As I’ve found countless references I haven’t even put in here) D fell in love with someone magical (gay), and their relationship was forbidden and secret. Once their secret was out, the team made D pay for it and C had to watch it all go down with nothing that he could do. (Except throw all his angst into his books ;) ) (Good job Abby- you got the most obvious allegory. The one that Chris acknowledged “For me, the magic in A Tale of Magic is an allegory for being gay.” The rest of your nonsense is silly- the secret isn’t out and nobody except Abby has ever suggested anyone is making Darren or Chris pay anything).

“We must pity the people who close to hate, Brystal. Their lives will never be as meaningful as those of the people who choose to love.”

The pathetic souls that do nothing but hate on C C and spread hate will never have as meaningful of life as those that chose to love and support our boys. (Um...I guess you don’t believe in coincidences but you believe in Karma. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. I am 100% positive that karma will get the people who don’t support cc. Both Chris and Darren have both denied a relationship and neither has ever suggested any of it is true).

“We all know how terrible keeping a secret can feel. Secrets are like parasites, the longer you keep them inside you, the more damage they cause.”

The longer D is force to stay closeted, the more damage it does to him.

“If we had had everything we wanted then, we might never have found what we needed now.”

This to me feels like C is actually a little bit thankful for the bumps in the road. He’s trying to look on the bright side. If things had always been easy for them, they might have taken it for granted. Everything they’ve been through has only made them stronger. If they can get through all of this shit alive, they can make it through absolutely anything. (What twisted mind writes crisscolfer so that Darren’s life is a living hell with literally nobody to trust or on his side except his one true love and his mommy and daddy but also Chris is happy to have been put through the “bumps” in the road? )

“She dreamed the fairy was repeatedly knocked to the ground by a ferocious monster in a fur coat and snowflake crown.”

The ferocious monster in a fur coat? Makes me think of another monster that wears a fur coat. Shade. (Chris is a vindictive dick when he writes?)

“You can stop pretending, Brystal. I know you’re aware of much more than you’re letting on.”

C knows that we know. He’s not living under a rock. (yes, this is exactly the kind of sentence anyone would add to make sure your fandom knows that you are on to them. I agree- Chris is sending you messages of support because though all of this, he’s worried about you).

“I don’t know about you guys, but I refuse to sit back and let a frosty old witch take Madame Weatherberry away from us.”

Frosty old witch= Obviously M (wait I thought Mia was the monster in a fur coat and crown? She can’t be all the villians)

“Do you guys know what your love languages are? Mine is quality time. It used to be physical touch, but that wasn’t working very well, so I had to change it. People are so picky about personal space and–”

C cherishes any quality time that he gets to have with D, since it’s not always available. (I can’t.... the 5 love languages are specific and about how you communicate with other people. You don’t pick a love language based on what is going on in your life.)

“Sometimes good people do bad things for the right reasons.”

I have this bookmarked, along with some other passages about the Snow Queen / Mrs. Weatherberry. I know that there’s /some/ significance around this, but I haven’t fully figured out exactly what all it symbolizes. I have a few ideas, but nothing really seems to line up completely to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it at some point! (The significance is that Brystal has to made a tough decision to do something that at first glance is reprehensible but is much more complicated than that. Sometimes- like in war- people do bad things for the right reason)

I think those are the big things that I’ve bookmarked. There’s so much more I could talk about, but I’m afraid it would start to not make any sense if I just started rambling, so I decided to go off of passages from the book and my thoughts on why I think they’re significant or tie into C C.

You can feel free to just keep this for yourself, or post it at a later date, or take pieces parts to post. Whatever you want!

********************

ajw adds: know I’ve been really bad about posting on the book. I saved this submission because I thought it was brilliant and a lot of great insights.

My opinion on the Madame W/Horence/Ice Queen? C is Madame W/Ice Queen and D is Horence. I too thought frosty old queen at first referred to m. But once the twist was revealed I’m convinced it’s c and his dual personality like the twins. He is a Gemini as he likes to remind us. It’s his struggle between being happy with the love he was blessed with and his desire to destroy for the people that have so gravely hurt them.

The quote above to think about most.

Sometimes good people do bad things for the right reasons

That’s him talking about their Pr life and I’d guess directly addressing the fraud in NOLA. He’s believed in d and he wants us to believe in him too. (No, it is just a plot point in a story about “good and bad” written for kids)

#crisscolfer #crisscolfer lol #darren criss #Chris speaks through ATOM #Book Club analysis

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sunlitroom · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on ‘The Beginning’

So - as with The Trial of Jim Gordon, I'm going to regard this episode as an extra, and do some meta as opposed to a full recap. My rationale is pretty much the same: this is an optional easter egg, and one that can easily be regarded as outside canon if desired.

Also - I found the deeper message, like that in The Trial of Jim Gordon, was so unpalatable it strained the show’s broader ideas and themes. So I’ve decided it’s not part of canon, for me.

Thoughts after the cut. Same disclaimer as with The Trial of Jim Gordon. I love the show. I tweeted like a maniac as episodes were airing, and got booted from Twitter. I want another network to pick it up.

However, my idea of meta is the old fandom one, which is critical analysis. If that’s not your thing, fine - but that’s what I’ll be doing here.

So, first things first.

I understand the rationale behind the time-jump, to an extent. The two extra episodes were just that - extra. One was spent on The Trial of Jim Gordon, which I have already been salty about in another post. This one was a sort of nod to the fans - offering Batman as a sort of reward. I’ve always been more interested in the story Gotham actually set out to tell, though, the story before Batman. The story of the city and its inhabitants. As such, I was always going to be less taken with an episode which was fundamentally mostly interested in giving us Batman.

But there were a couple of other issues that confused me. Gotham has always presented its own vision of the city, the characters. It’s shown it can be creative with canon, as well as adding its own ideas. Not only, for example, is their take on Oswald unique, but Fish Mooney – so pivotal in his development – only exists within Gotham’s universe. We got the Executioner and Cyrus Gold – yes, but we also got Nathaniel Barnes and Butch Gilzean, who had character and stories and lives all of their own.

I like that it thumbed its nose at Jim’s moustache. But go all the way with it. Yes, we know Batman’s coming. But if you want to continue to focus on Jim, and his wrestling with the notion of heroism – then just do that. Have the courage of your convictions. You can draw inspiration from the 60s series if you want, but you’re not shackled to it: Oswald doesn’t have to don a top hat and become 60s Penguin if you don’t want him to. The city doesn’t have to morph aesthetically into something we saw in the movies. You’ve told your own story. See it through.

That aside - the details.

The flash-forward was also a difficult ask because the story has been unnaturally cut short. Characters who were still wrestling with huge issues didn’t really get to address them in a truncated season and - as such - it’s sort of hard to accept where we find them now.

For example

We’ve seen Jim deal with several demons over the years. He has major issues with authority. His relationship with his father looms large. He wants to be a hero, but gets on better with the villains. He compartmentalises like crazy. He’s emotionally dishonest with others and himself. He enjoys playing dangerous games. He can’t resist a pissing match.

Am I to honestly believe that Jim has been entirely clean and pure in the interim? Why? Because the city was saved after near destruction? That’s happened before – he didn’t change. If anything, he’s more likely to have reverted to old habits once the crisis was over. Is he reformed because he’s a father now? Didn’t stop him killing Theo Galavan while Lee was pregnant.

Jim’s development was still very much in progress. As such, he feels unsatisfying here and - given what we know about him - you can’t help but feel he’s probably been up to his old tricks, but we’re just getting to see the sanitised surface of his life.

Lee likewise generally suffered quite a bit from the truncated season, and is good example of how the flash-forward doesn’t serve characters well.

In season 4, we saw her explore a darker side to her personality that the show has strongly and consistently hinted at since way back in season one, explicitly – when she says that Jerome’s confession of matricide thrilled her, and implicitly, when we wondered why the hell she was working in Arkham. We also saw her enjoy power in season 4. We saw her deeply committed to improving the lot of the residents in the Narrows, even if her way of going about it was short-sighted. We saw her shoot Sofia Falcone point-blank in the head in cold blood. We saw her, although many hated it, form an intense romantic relationship with Ed, where she seemed to find a fulfilment and recognition that she never found with Jim or Mario.

However, in season 5, the show clearly needed her to quickly step into the role of Mrs Jim and stepmother to Barbara. This meant becoming the angel at the hearth again, so it essentially erased those experiences, all that new characterisation.

As such, like Jim, she feels flat here – like we’re only getting to see a facade. She’s back in her old post of intermittently saying supportive things to Jim, and apparently quietly looking forward to him quitting his job. When she's bizarrely given the task of defusing the bomb, as Lucius the tech specialist stands by the side - it really only underlined that stripping her of all that history and characterisation meant that she doesn't really have a real role of her own in the wider workings of the city.

Now to the heart of my problem with this episode.

We’re told, without any explanation, that Oswald was sent to Blackgate shortly after reunification, and Ed to Arkham.

Now, to be honest, I find this fairly implausible. In all the rebuilding efforts, I doubt the authorities would have the will or energy to go back and rake over who committed what crime when the city had been abandoned by the government. And even if they did, both their actions – willingly manning the barricades (Oswald sustaining an injury when doing so), would have likely gone some way to mitigating everything else.

You could argue that it's for some nameless crime they committed later - but the show could easily have indicated that by throwing in a line about some heist or scheme they tried to pull off that ended up with them being put away.

Mayor James - ‘Oswald Cobblepot is getting released tomorrow’

Harvey - ‘Should have got 20 years for that stunt he pulled after reunification - not 10. So should Nygma.’

It didn't take the trouble to do that - so I'm left assuming they were sent away on the basis of crimes committed during the split.

However, this poses us with some problems both in terms of the plot, and more deeply in terms of narrative repercussions. Because if we are going to start to get persnickety about charging people with crimes they’ve committed, and then having them face actual consequences – well, we saw Barbara shoot loads of randoms in season 5. Going back not too far, Lee shot Sofia Falcone in the head. Going back further still, Jim murdered Ogden Barker and Theo Galavan, and was indirectly responsible for several deaths by inviting Sofia Falcone to town.

So – then – if we’ve decided that actually charging people and sending them to prison is now the done thing, why are we so selective with who’s punished? Gotham is a show with a million shades of grey. It gives its villains humanising back stories and motivations – but it ultimately still wants to punish a select few like it’s a black and white universe. You can’t do that when your good guys are equally tainted. Not unless you want to give off an unfortunate stench of hypocrisy, anyway.

Oswald flat-out asks Jim on the pier. I could have escaped this city. I chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with you and defend it. Why was I punished?

It’s telling that Jim never actually furnishes Oswald with any good answer to his question on the pier. Because - over the years - the show itself has never quite figured out how to answer this one. He can’t answer. What could he possibly say?

Why then, do some get away scot-free, while others are punished? Why, as Ed observes, do some get to make choices - while others never get the chance?

Jim and Lee are ‘heroes’ (arguably wandering into designated hero territory, at points). They're never going to face consequences for anything. Jim going on a self-pitying drinking binge doesn’t count - not compared to a ten-year stint in Blackgate or Arkham. Lee never expressed any remorse for Sofia.

As for Barbara, well Barbara is brought back into the heroic fold, too.

First and foremost, she’s offered moral redemption by bearing Jim’s child. Becoming a mother meant all previous sins were forgiven.

When we meet her here, we see now that she’s wealthy and powerful – playing a serious role in the city. It’s empowering in a way – but it’s also a means of re-affirming the established order and putting her back in her box. Remember that Barbara is from one of Gotham's elite families - and she's finally behaving like someone from an elite and wealthy family would do. To make her position clear - she’s explicitly placed in the same category as Bruce here in terms of her wealth and control of the city. I’m assuming that pregnancy also made magically clean whatever money she used to buy up the city when it was on its knees. She didn’t seem to have access to her parents’ cash before now - so she must have used her ill-gotten gains.

(I would argue that strategically buying up parts of the city post-reunification is screamingly Oswald, but like other chunks of his characterisation and storyline, it got sent Barbara’s way in season 5 in a bid to flesh out her character)

Last up, she’s not demanding a romantic relationship with Jim anymore, but they’re now forever safely tied in that context due to their daughter - there’s no mention of Tabitha, or casual mention of a new partner. Troublesome, restless Barbara, poor little rich girl – demanding of Jim’s time and attention, namelessly unhappy, and with a murky ‘past’ is now ‘fixed’ and neutralised.

Thinking about those brought into the fold necessarily asks you to think about those who were excluded.

Oswald might have roots in an elite family, like Barbara, but - crucially - he’s also one part poor immigrant (as well as all his many other markers of 'otherness'). He can’t escape this - we got his jangling east European music as soon as we saw him in this episode, and we were reminded of Gertrud when he said he would lay flowers on her grave as his first act after his release.

Ed’s background is unknown, but we can safely hazard a guess that there’s no moneyed upper-class upbringing there. He was also willing to step up when it counted, and was even used by those in power for their own ends during the break – but none of that counts for anything, apparently, and he finds himself in Arkham. You could argue that Ed is unwell, and needs to be in a hospital – but Arkham is not shown as a hospital in any meaningful sense in the show. It’s an oubliette, where you send those you just can’t be bothered dealing with. It doesn’t look any better here than we’ve seen it before. Why hasn’t anyone tried to improve it? Again, they don’t have to succeed - if you’re determined to stick to canon, but why not suggest that Jim or Lee or Lucius has at least tried to have conditions improved or an official review launched into treatment of inmates? It would go a long way to nodding to the long and complex histories these characters have. However things ended – Lee and Ed had a pretty intense relationship. They cared about each other. She can sleep at nights knowing he’s in Arkham?

Jeremiah might have been clever enough to win himself a scholarship and a way out of the circus – but it’s not enough to enable him to escape his past – either explicitly, when he was hunted down by his resentful brother, or implicitly – when he winds up in a similar situation to the other outsiders. Yes, Jeremiah might have been manipulating the situation – but he was still sent to Arkham and left vulnerable to casual abuse. Whether it’s intended or not, Jeremiah’s accusation of abandonment can be read more deeply. Bruce left town - but, just like Oswald and Ed, the city in general abandoned him.

Selina’s an example who, I would argue, reinforces that this moral order of the universe. She's always been depicted more ambiguously - capable of villainous acts, but tied to the heroes through her bond with Bruce. This is reflected in what we learn about her here. Like Jeremiah, she's been punished by Bruce's abandonment, but her grey heroic status means that she doesn't lose her freedom, despite living a life of crime.

So what picture are we painted of the city?

Aubrey James is back in charge - corrupt as Oswald ever was as mayor, but less competent. The city’s remains were picked clean by Barbara - it’s now seemingly largely owned and controlled by two scions of the city’s elite. The commissioner’s got more than one murder to his name. His wife has one attempted murder to hers - giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming that Sofia’s still in her coma. Arkham’s still a hellhole.

What does all that say? Like I said before, you can argue that this was the inevitable endpoint – but you’ve changed the story already, so that doesn’t wash.

What you’re left with is the outsiders comprehensively punished. You can sacrifice your chance at escape and an easy life in favour of standing shoulder to shoulder to defend the city, you can be unwell, you can be a victim – doesn’t count. No matter what you do – you’ll always be an outsider anyway. You can’t win for losing. Some are chosen, some aren’t. And if you’re not, tough luck.

So in this universe, why the hell not don a showy suit and your best hat and commit yourself to villainy? Go for it, I say.

(Yes - I’m aware this is more analysis than it warranted, and it really just wanted to say ‘look Oswald has a monocle and Batman’s here now!’ - but I felt the need for venting meta)

#gotham commentary

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weregonnaneedmorewhiskey · 6 years ago

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Social Media:Guilty in the court of public opinion. The problem with cancel culture and its toxic nature and why I have a major problem with it

DISCLAIMER: If you read parts of this and not the whole thing and type a “rebuttal”. Just save your time and don’t do it because you don’t the smoke

Ok before I start, I would like to say this. 1. If you are an ignorant person who cannot accept the opinions and thought of others then don’t read this. 2. If you don’t take the time to look at facts, then don’t read this. I don't have time for you and 3. If you are to crucify people then you can just go. I just gave you some warnings already so why is your ass still here?! Ok I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I think social media can be great in terms of communicating with others and making friends online and of course sharing memes and funny videos because those are fantastic. Social media can be great for displaying people’s interests and talents. I myself have a photography blog alongside this one and some people have made a career from social media. However like all good things, it has its ugly side. In the last year or so, a trend has appeared on social media and that's cancel culture. I myself have never taken part in cancel culture myself as I thought it was toxic, immature and petty in most circumstances. I'm definite that cancel culture will come to an end (hopefully this year) but for now, we have to deal with it on our timelines. Anything that is either taken out of context, blow out of proportion or is a simple mistake will face the court of public opinion. The social justice warriors of the internet, the holier than thou folks will decide your fate.

First and for most, we all need to remember that we are all human. We make mistakes and we learn from it. I am not better than the next person as I have made my fuck ups at the end of the day but we all grow and evolve. I have several problems with cancel culture. If a person makes a mistake or has made a mistake in the past, that does not give you the right to ruin them. By doing so you are no better than the person who’s made a mistake and you are ruining a person’s life. Prime example, Kevin Hart and the Oscars. Kevin Hart was forced to step down as the host for this year's Oscars ceremony due to some homophobic tweets from 2009. Whilst I believe that homophobia is wrong, Kevin has moved on from a tweet that he made almost a decade ago in which that comments probably wouldn’t have taken as seriously. Kevin has grown and evolved but the court of public opinion has forced him to step down from the role due to the mass controversy. If you are searching through old tweets from 2009, you clearly have an agenda to ruin a person’s life because you are blinded by your hatred and do not want to see someone have success. This role was an amazing opportunity for Kevin but because of this toxic era of being overly PC, it was taken away because people wanted to hold his past against him and not acknowledge his evolution.

Now let’s get to how cancel culture is effecting the legal system. We’ve all heard the term “innocent until proven guilty”. In terms of the legal system, this is still true but for social media, this isn't the cause. Cancel culture has pronounced people to be guilty into proven innocent. People are no longer reading the facts, they are immediate to jump to conclusion, therefor inspiring this title “guilty in the court of public opinion” This is extremely dangerous. Social media should have no influence in the judicial system WHATSOEVER unless the person has committed the crime on Instagram Live (a man who raped someone on Instagram Live was recently found not guilty, just letting you know. What a fucked up world we’re living in huh?). When it comes to a case, people need to look at the evidence that has been presented and not from outside influences especially if it turns out shock horror that the person is actually innocent and then they’ve been sentenced to 25 to life.

This leads perfectly leads into my next point. So if you've been on Twitter in the last 24 hours then you would have seen that Chris Brown was detained in Paris for several hours on a rape complaint. Now before I go into this and break this down, if you are expecting me to drag Chris and call him a piece of shit and xyz, you can stop reading this now because I’m happy to let you know that I am a fan of Chris and have been since his debut. Now when this report broke out, I immediately went and read the whole report because we look at facts in this household. As soon as I saw that the “accuser” had done an interview with Closer Magazine France and went to The Shade Room, I immediately raised an eyebrow because why would you go to a tabloid before going to the police? This rang some serious bells and red flags and reminded of another incident involving Chris.

Back in 2016, a woman went to TMZ to say that Chris had held her at gunpoint. Again if you were held at gunpoint, then why are you going to a tabloid? Eventually LAPD found out that this was a false allegation and Chris was released from jail and the charges were dropped. Another thought that popped across my mind is that “I don’t think Chris is that stupid to do something like with the amount of negative press he's had in career over the last decade and I can’t see him doing something like especially since he has a daughter who is his life and who has helped him grow up significantly” . Bear in mind Chris has not made a public appearance since October when he attended Diddy’s Halloween party and his public appearance are few and far between now within the last few years with Royalty in his life. He mainly stay at home or is on the road. Paris fashion week is the first public appearance from him in months.

The accuser then went on to Instagram to say that she was not raped by Chris and he was not even present at the club that it was claimed that they met. Several eyewitnesses also went to social media to confirm that the allegations were false and that Chris never had an encounter with this woman and that he has never been alone at one point during this Paris trip. (PSA can we you know go to the fucking police to give statements to prove someone is innocent or guilty instead of going to social media because you are screwing with someone’s livelihood here!). Of course the court of public opinion came and gave their two cents on the situation and they pretty much proclaimed that Chris was guilty without looking at the facts.

Now if you are about to say “well look at 2009?” Yes Chris made a mistake which I don't agree with but we also need to remind/enlighten ourselves that the Rihanna incident was A FIGHT and both parties were wrong. She should have not hit him and he shouldn’t have retaliated. (side note: can we hold women accountable of when they are abusive towards men because there is a serious gender bias when it comes to abuse in relationships and we need to remind ourselves both genders can be abusive). He has also evolved from that and showed genuine remorse for the situation. The majority of social media were on Chris’ side in regards to this situation and he was eventually released from police custody when the French police found out the accusations was false and issued an apology to Chris and told him that he was free to leave the country. Chris’ lawyer has said that he intends to sue for defamation of character rightly so and Chris has also gone to social media to deny the allegation. Chris’ situation sparks several different issues. The first being in regards to social media. It is extremely dangerous and toxic to contribute to a false narrative without looking at the fact especially with a charge as serious as rape and even more the silence upon it being revealed that accusations were false just shows how DISGUSTING people can be since many people wanted this accusations to be true.

This shows the type of world we live in that people WANT a woman to be raped all the expense of not liking someone. I cannot associate myself with people who think like this when they are actual rapists such as R Kelly who is yet to be charged for his NUMEROUS crimes against underage black girls despite concrete evidence and a tape but yet we can arrest Chris on a false accusation and several eyewitness and hotel footage to show that he didn't commit this crime? Kevin Spacey and Matt Lauer are also rapists who careers have ended but have yet to be charged for the crime despite once again having concrete evidence and eyewitnesses. The president of the United States is also guilty of sexual assault and is on a recording bragging about his crimes like its a badge of honour. Brett Kavanaugh is walking a free man despite also having concrete evidence and eyewitness confirming his crime. Asia Argento, a victim of Harvey Weinstein was discovered to be guilty of sexual abuse after a young man came forward about how he was abused by Asia as a teenager. Harvey Weinstein is awaiting trial for his numerous crimes. Why can't the court of public opinion keep the same energy they had for a man who was innocent for those who are guilty. Secondly in light of the Me too movement, to accuse someone of a crime as serious as rape is extremely dangerous to their career and their character, a person’s life can be destroy at the expense of an opportunist. Additionally to lie about rape is DISGUSTING! This is what stops ACTUAL rape victims from coming forward because we have people who lie about it and the true victims aren't taken as seriously as a result. I would also think in light of the Me Too movement and Surviving R Kelly, people would pay more attention to the facts now before we “cancel” people. Personally I think that if you lie about a offence as serious as rape, you should go to jail and get sued because you are evil and karma will come to you. What if this your brother or your son or uncle or dad etc who was being accused of this crime? How would you feel if everyone thought they were guilty because of a mistake they made a teenager that has nothing to do with what they were currently accused of? Just think about that for a moment.

To end this I think Chris deserves an apology, one of them being from Eve after her comments on The Talk and that he should not only sue the women who lied but should sue media outlets such as TMZ and The Shade Room for defamation of character and let's remember this: innocent until proven guilty and look at the facts (in this day and age we really need to do this)

Update: Malibu Dollface made a video pretty much explaining everything I feel about cancel culture. Please watch and support him because he’s amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah4ZfxTqT5s

#cancel culture #me too #chris brown #social media #blogger #blogpost

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narcisbolgor-blog · 7 years ago

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Was James Francos Oscar Snub Due to His Sexual-Misconduct Allegations?

Less than two weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times published an investigation in which five women accused James Franco of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior, leading many to believe that the prolific actor would be the next powerful Hollywood player in the #MeToo movement whose career would fall in atonement for his actions.

Was Francos Oscar snub this morning the first punishment?

The Times investigation coincided with the prime of Francos campaign for what had seemed to be a sure-thing Best Actor nomination for The Disaster Artist, in which he stars as Tommy Wiseau, the notorious director and star of The Room, widely believed to be the worst film ever made. (In a meta twist, Franco also directs the film.)

In fact, Franco was delivering an acceptance speech at the Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Comedy when a series of tweets went viral that criticized the actor for wearing a Times Up pin to the ceremony in support of victims of sexual abuse and harassment. Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco. Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis & that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old? read a tweet from one accuser.

(In response to the allegations, Franco has said: I have my own side of this story, but I believe in, you know, these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will, you know, hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much. And if I have to take a knock because Im not going to, you know, try and, you know, actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in it that much.)

At a time when repercussions for men accused of misconduct have come with a sharp swinging axe, it would be logical to assume the allegations torpedoed the stars Oscar chances.

In fact, voters affinity for Denzel Washington, whose nomination came as one of the biggest shocks Tuesday morning, may even be the biggest factor of all.

The truth is that its impossible to tell how, if at all, the allegations and Francos response affected Oscar voters and his nomination, let alone make a judgment as to whether his exclusion in the Best Actor category could be viewed as the Academy condemning his behavior at all.

When Tiffany Haddish and Andy Serkis announced that Timothee Chalamet, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Kaluuya, Gary Oldman, and Denzel Washington were the Best Actor contenders and not Franco, most pundits were shocked because the reasoning is more likely due to voters not warming up to his Disaster Artist performancenot because of any reaction to the allegations against him.

In fact, voters affinity for Denzel Washington, whose nomination came as one of the biggest shocks Tuesday morning, may even be the biggest factor of all.

When the Los Angeles Times story broke on January 11, voters had already been submitting their Oscar ballots for nearly a full week; voting began on January 5. When the story published, less than 48 hours remained before voting closed.

Who knows how many voters fill out their ballots early and how many wait until the last minute. But its highly likely that enough had submitted their choices and sealed his fate before the Times story broke.

Anecdotally, there were many voters who had already put Franco on their ballots, and regretted it.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a number of voters have expressed Franco remorse and wish they could have changed their votes in light of the new information. Yet, as The New York Times reported, another contingent of voters met the allegations with a shrug, feeling they were small potatoes, especially compared with the alleged misdeeds of, say, Harvey Weinstein, to name just one.

Plus there are those quick to point out that whispers of Francos unsavory behavior had been somewhat of an open secret, especially after a public controversy in which he was caught trying to arrange a hookup with a 17-year-old through Instagram DMs. It seems as if every awards body has already been willing to look past all that.

There are also those who were frustrated that the allegations against Franco are being sloppily aggregated under the banner of sexual misconducttheres a reason the Times headline includes the labored phrase inappropriate or sexually exploitative behaviorand therefore equated to the sexual abuse and assault other men are accused of, when the specifics of the allegations refer more to an abuse of power on set.

Of course, it is impossible to gauge how many down-to-the-wire voters there really were. It is likely that those 11th hour voters took the reports into account, not to mention how a nomination for Franco would play against the broader conversations that are currently being had in the industry.

One of the tenets of the Times Up movement is to put an end to a pattern of behavior that leaves women feeling preyed on, unsafe, and pressured by power dynamics on set. These are awful allegations, including one anecdote in which Franco removed a vagina guard while performing an oral sex scene with a young female costar. An industry purportedly emboldened to rectify decades of such brazen and boorish behavior would surely color their voting given that information.

Regardless of the reasoning for Francos snub, the Academy saved itself from an uncomfortable situationthe one the Critics Choice Awards, at which Franco won another Best Actor in a Comedy trophy, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where he was a nominee, found themselves in, with voting taking place before the allegations were made public.

Yet because of its visibility and influence, there is more intense scrutiny on the actions and decisions of the Academy, and the message those actions and decisions send.

A pall followed last years awards season when Casey Affleck kept picking up trophies even as past sexual harassment allegations made against the actor dominated conversation throughout his campaign, with Afflecks eventual victory at the Oscars deemed a cringe-inducing condoning or dismissal. The Academy would obviously have liked to avoid a similar narrative this year. (Already, it finds itself in the awkward position of whether to invite the actor to present at the ceremony, as is tradition with all the previous years winners.)

The Academy also took a historical stand following the Harvey Weinstein allegations and expelled him from the organization, the first time it has ever kicked out a member because of their personal behavior. (The only other time had been because a voter broke Academy rules about sharing screeners.) The decisiveness and power of that stand is no doubt tempered when an actor accused of sexual misbehavior is a nominee that very same year.

It resurfaces what was a loud critique, or at least hesitation, surrounding the Weinstein move: what is the line? There is an ever-growing number of members being exposed by the #MeToo movement who have engaged in sexual misconduct, abused their power, or were complicit in fostering an unsafe industry.

At the time, some cautioned against the slippery slope of litigating personal behavior, and others pointed to the hypocrisy of booting Weinstein while the likes of Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby, and Mel Gibson were still in. With so many other men implicated to various degreesformer winners Kevin Spacey, Dustin Hoffman, and Paul Haggis among themwhat happens now?

Its a complicated conversation with no simple conclusion. Francos exclusion from the Best Actor category might be owed to the allegations against him or they may be owed to the Academys taste; the Oscars are notorious for scoffing at comedy, after all, and Francos performance is purely that. But for many, it brings with it a sense of poetic justice at a time in Hollywood when justice and reparations are on the tip of everyones tongue.

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sickenoughsteve · 8 years ago

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2017: The Year White People Finally Decided To Stop Taking L’s

2017 is fucking wild. Minorities can’t catch a break.

Sure, the Migos are finally a household name. The hip hop community has been waiting for this ever since ‘Versace’ dropped in 2013. Mad props to Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff for finally getting their due.

Fine, yeah, they made a reboot of ‘24′ with Corey Hawkins as the lead. I’ll take it. Dude who played Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton running around at top speeds and shooting at terrorists is a win for black america, I guess.

Okay, yep, Barack Obama is spending the early days of 2017 kite surfing and giving no fucks on his billionaire homie Richard Branson’s private island. Virgin CEO and former POTUS making Joe Biden experience the highest levels of FOMO ever recorded and inexplicably unveiling a friendship nobody had heard of before is fire. Yeah, yeah, that’s cool.

Black people are doing okay... we’re racking up enough wins to get to the playoffs.

But it’s the other side of the Mulatto coin that I’d like to examine. The white side.

Check out these examples of white people (previously the takers of the most L’s) winning that simply can’t be ignored any longer.

Post Malone dropped a fire album

There are plenty of white rappers, and there are plenty of white rappers with fire albums. Some of these rappers even have multiple. Nothing new about white people rapping.

However, Post Malone — as is quite clear from the photo above — is not even close to being attractive. He’s not cute-ugly like Mac Miller, he doesn’t have fat guy swag like Action Bronson, he’s not in good shape like Eminem, and he’s not straight up good looking like G-Eazy. He’s just a regular ass ugly dude.

But I have to give it to the man for defying all odds in the Year of the Whites™

The Patriots won a Super Bowl in historic fashion and Tom Brady is officially the best football player - and potentially athlete - of all time

Tom Brady is pretty much a perfect human being, besides the one glaring fact about him that I don’t think any of us can pretend isn’t unlikeable...

He’s a grown ass man who wears UGG boots unironically. What the hell is going on with that, Tom?

(Oh, also he’s BFFs with Donald Trump. More on that later...)

Even Patriots Day, a movie centered around one of the most white/racist cities in the USA, was FIRE

Patriots Day was an incredible movie that made me wish I was from Boston for the first time in my entire life. You might ask, “Steve, why the hell are you railing on Boston? You already hated on the Patriots and now you’re talking about Marky Mark and Patriots Day? Have you ever even been to Boston?”

To which, I answer... yes I have been to Boston. it was humid and shitty and I was there for work and I hated it. But after seeing this movie, I fully get it. Beantown, baby.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is incompetent and trash but he is still out here talkin’ shit to the entire country DAILY

You can tell this man gets yelled at constantly. He’s like that dog at the kennel who’s been mistreated, so he doesn’t know how to trust anybody.

He swallows gum, which is incredibly gross (and dog-like), and he’s overall just really hate-able.

But is he taking L’s? Nah. He’s that guy you literally can’t argue with because he yells too much. Like, fuck this guy, but also... this guy is pretty damn good at publicly lying EVERY DAY. Trump should probably give this man a raise, honestly.

Some white folks convinced Steve Harvey it would be a good idea to pose shirtless

Black people, I know Steve is hard to fully support, but you know he’s still our guy.

White people, y’all are wrong for making Steve do this!

Damn smh.

They even made Kanye look crazy

Sure, he deleted all the Tweets referencing his love for Trump, but that was long after the damage was already done.

Kanye dyed his hair orange in solidarity with DJT, which is unprecedentedly wild for Kanye. A man who’s whole career relies on being wild!

Which leads me to...

FDT couldn’t get the job done

youtube

Just in case you needed proof that white people can’t lose... the above song was made in 2016... it should’ve been enough that YG and Nipsey Hussle made a song called ‘Fuck Donald Trump’ right before the election.

It wasn’t enough. We LOST.

Man, per usual I wrapped this thing up abruptly and will refuse to include much of a conclusion. But that’s what you get in 2017... sloppy work from Black men who are not used to losing.

Man, I miss 2015.

#donald trump #yg #white people #black people #white #black #2017

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itsfinancethings · 4 years ago

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New story in Politics from Time: The Ford Administration Rolled Out a Vaccine Program Right Before the 1976 Election. It Backfired—And Not Just Politically

For months, President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that a vaccine for the novel coronavirus may be ready by the end of the year, even as the nation’s top infectious disease specialist says early 2021 is more likely. Now, the New York Times has reported that the Trump Administration intends to speed up the process, with its eyes on a slightly earlier deadline: before Election Day on Nov. 3.

White House officials disputed the Times’ account, and researchers working on the specific vaccine cited as the likely candidate for emergency approval—one that is being developed by Oxford University and pharma giant AstraZeneca—said “it would be premature to speculate on that possibility.” This isn’t the first time Trump or his team has suggested a COVID-19 vaccine could come before the general election—Trump, for example, made a similar claim in the first week of August.

Some pundits, like David Axelrod, an adviser to former President Barack Obama, have accused Trump of being willing to sacrifice safety in the name of politics.

This is as predictable as it is disturbing. If @realDonaldTrump fast tracks a vaccine, bypassing critical safety steps so he can announce it before the election, who will have confidence in taking it?https://t.co/OLZT5BDc4o

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) August 23, 2020

Trump has shot back, suggesting that his political opponents are holding up research progress for the same reason; on Aug. 22, he tweeted that “The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd.”

This isn’t the first time a fast-tracked attempt to mass inoculate Americans has gotten political. The history suggests that if the White House rushes a vaccine rollout, it can risk losing credibility—not just for itself, but for the science as well.

In February of 1976, more than 200 recruits at Fort Dix military base in New Jersey came down with the flu. While some simply had the 1975-1976 seasonal flu, 13 had a new strain of H1N1, often called swine flu, that the CDC says was “similar” to the strain that caused the 1918-19 flu. One 18-year-old died. The outbreak sparked concerns of a repeat of that infamous pandemic, which scientists now know killed an estimated 675,000 Americans, or of the more recent 1968-69 pandemic, during which 100,000 Americans died and “$3.2 billion was lost in medical bills and working time,” TIME reported.

Unlike in 1918, the U.S. in 1976 had a way to stop the outbreak in its tracks: flu shots, developed for military use in the 1930s, approved for civilian use in 1945 and encouraged for all high-risk Americans since 1960.

But the Fort Dix cases involved a new strain of H1N1, so if a vaccine were going to be ready in time for the 1976-1977 flu season, production needed to start as soon as possible. Even though no major outbreak had yet begun, the government decided to put its weight behind the effort.

“We cannot afford to take a chance with the health of our nation,” then-President Gerald Ford said on March 24, 1976, when, per the CDC’s recommendation, he called for a $135 million program (about $615 million in 2020) to produce a vaccine and manufacture more than 200 million doses in time to inoculate all Americans for the winter flu season. The plan “was unprecedented in intended timing and in scope among American immunization efforts,” Richard E. Neustadt and Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg noted in The Swine Flu Affair, their 1978 evaluation of the program, which the incoming Health, Education and Welfare Secretary asked them to undertake.

But not everyone was sure the vaccine program was being launched for purely altruistic reasons. A year of celebrations to mark America’s bicentennial was in full swing. It was also a presidential election year, and while Ford had beaten challenger Ronald Reagan in the first five primaries and the Iowa caucus, it was still a tight race for the Republican nomination. In fact, Neustadt and Fineberg’s report points out that Reagan won the North Carolina primary the day before Ford’s announcement of the vaccine program. During hearings on the program that spring, Washington State’s Democratic U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson joked of vaccine recipients that the Administration “might have ’em vote at the same time,” and, TIME noted, “some legislators and doctors are wondering out loud whether the flu program is merely another symptom of election-year fever.”

Ford Administration officials took the position that—given that the vaccine was safe—the risk of an outbreak outweighed any concerns about politics. Not that it wouldn’t be politically beneficial: “Consider the outcry,” one White House aide was quoted as saying, “if with all that evidence the President had said no.” In April 1976, Congress swiftly passed emergency appropriations to make the vaccine for which Ford had called.

Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter

By July 1976, the vaccine was “only partially successful in clinical trials,” TIME reported back then, prompting scientists to reconsider the rollout. Among the roughly 5,000 volunteers injected with the still-being-tested vaccine, researchers found minimal side effects in adults, but high fevers in young people, leading Dr. Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, to backtrack on his initial support of the Ford program, and argue that only the highest-risk people should get the vaccine. Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the initial polio vaccine, argued it was safe and would reduce the virus’ spread.

By August, when Congress passed a bill officially authorizing the rollout, the effort was two months behind schedule, largely because of Congressional wrangling over whether vaccine-makers would be protected from liability related to the product. This delay would have serious consequences: In retrospect, a 2006 review of the CDC’s handling of the 1976 swine flu vaccine program co-written by David Sencer, the agency’s director back then, found that manufacturers’ demand for indemnification led the public to believe “there’s something wrong with the vaccine,” and so “every coincidental health event that occurred in the wake of the swine flu shot would be scrutinized and attributed to the vaccine.”

Clinics began offering two swine flu vaccines in October—a vaccine against swine flu and, for higher risk groups, a vaccine against both swine flu and the previous year’s flu. At that point, no other cases of swine flu had been confirmed since the Fort Dix cluster in February, but the government began offering free vaccines anyway, along with the slogan “ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVE, AMERICA.”

A poll showed that a little over half of Americans (53%) planned to get one, TIME reported in its Oct. 11, 1976, issue.

Howard Markel, director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, remembers getting the shot as a high school sophomore: “Everyone went to school gyms or large areas, and I remember vividly my mother making us go, and waiting in line, and saying ‘this is ridiculous.'”

But only a few vaccine-distribution centers were equipped on launch day. A Portland, Ore., health official told TIME, “We didn’t even know we’d received a batch until we read about it in the newspaper.” And the magazine reported that by November, only a quarter of the more than 200 million doses advertised had been manufactured.

Then, 35 mostly elderly people, in various parts of the country, died shortly after getting vaccinated. The government said there was no link between the deaths and the vaccines, but the news still dissuaded people from getting the shot. After the news of the deaths, the number of New Yorkers who showed up for a vaccine dropped from 21,000 to 7,500 a day, and nine states closed their clinics, TIME reported.

“If you immunize very large numbers of elderly people, inevitably some will have a heart attack the next day, so you have to prepare the public for such coincidences,” Fineberg, a co-author of the 1978 study of the public health response, later told the World Health Organization. “That wouldn’t have been a blip on the screen had there been a pandemic but, in the absence of any swine flu disease, these rare events were sufficient to end the program.”

Photographs of Ford (who had ultimately been successful in the primaries) getting vaccinated, like the one seen above, were circulated in an attempt to restore confidence in the vaccine program, but it was too late.

Election Day rolled around, and Ford’s tenure in office ended, for a host of reasons other than the flu-shot rollout. The mass inoculation program ended about a month later—but not before the public’s confidence was once again shaken, this time by reports of shot recipients being at a very slightly higher risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).

“The uptick was not directly caused by the flu vaccine,” Markel says, “but it was associated with it, so everyone came to the conclusion that the swine flu shot equaled Guillain-Barré.” (About one additional case occurred per 100,000 people vaccinated, according to the CDC, but most studies that have since evaluated a possible link between other flu vaccines and GBS have found no association.)

Markel also notes that the program’s failure happened to occur at a time when Americans’ trust in government was already in decline, following the Vietnam War, Watergate and the assassinations of the 1960s. The idea that the government would have botched the vaccine and still tried to capitalize on it for political reasons fit right in—whether or not it was true.

That confusion and distrust incubated in that time period lingered well beyond 1976. In a 2009 CDC fact-sheet about a vaccine for that year’s H1N1 virus, for example, two of the questions were about about 1976 and GBS. Today, at a time when unfounded anti-vaccine views are growing (even though vaccines are safe) and polls indicate distrust in the federal government’s management of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, that enduring doubt can be dangerous.

“Things like the small increased risk of GBS from the 1976 vaccine become…convenient for post-hoc justification of those pre-existing fears,” says Jonathan M. Berman, author of the forthcoming history of the anti-vaxxer movement Anti-vaxxers: How to Challenge a Misinformed Movement. “Later studies showed that there was likely no link, but already wary parents and anti-vaxxers see it as a justification for the fear.”

On the other hand, the 1976 controversy “does provide important lessons,” Berman argues. “When vaccination decisions appear politically motivated, it can undermine trust.”

The fact that even people who are not generally anti-vaccine are worried about the safety of a COVID-19 inoculation means it’s all the more important that a coronavirus vaccine is not rushed, argues Markel. “This is a very touchy issue,” he says, “so this [vaccine] has to be rolled out exactly right.”

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mastcomm · 5 years ago

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William Barr, Coronavirus, Harvey Weinstein: Your Friday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning.

We’re covering Attorney General William Barr’s challenge to President Trump, the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak, and good news in the fight against Australia’s wildfires.

‘Stop the tweeting,’ attorney general says

Attorney General William Barr said in an interview on Thursday that President Trump’s attacks on the Justice Department had made it “impossible for me to do my job,” adding, “I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody.”

Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized officials in the department and denounced a sentencing recommendation for his associate Roger Stone. Here’s a transcript of excerpts from Mr. Barr’s interview with ABC News.

Mr. Trump did not immediately respond on Twitter, but his press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said, “The president wasn’t bothered by the comments at all.” The attorney general had let the president know some of what he planned to say and is remaining in his job, a person familiar with the events told The Times.

Another angle: Critics of Mr. Barr dismissed his comments as mainly a way to deflect responsibility for carrying out Mr. Trump’s political wishes. “The tell here will be Trump’s reaction,” said Joe Lockhart, a White House press secretary under former President Bill Clinton. “If he doesn’t lash out, we’ll all know this was pure political theater.”

More than 1,700 medical workers infected in China

The Chinese authorities disclosed for the first time today that 1,716 medical workers had contracted the coronavirus and that six had died. The number of infected workers represents 3.8 percent of China’s overall confirmed infections. Here are the latest updates and maps of where the virus has spread.

A look at Pete Buttigieg’s time as mayor

The experience that he gained as the leader of South Bend, Ind., is a central part of Mr. Buttigieg’s pitch to be president, while his rivals try to sow doubts about whether he is prepared for the Oval Office.

His record in trying to turn the Midwestern city around has also been challenged by some residents and activists, particularly on problems facing black residents.

Our correspondent traveled to South Bend to learn more about how Mr. Buttigieg, 38, governed and grew over his eight years in office.

Yesterday: Elizabeth Warren criticized Michael Bloomberg after video emerged of a lecture he gave 12 years ago in which he linked the 2008 financial crisis to the end of a discriminatory housing practice.

Dueling misjudgments by the U.S. and Iran

A nine-month period that shook up the already tense relationship between the two countries began with the Trump administration’s escalation of sanctions and ended with Washington and Tehran in a direct military confrontation.

A team of our reporters has traced the path to last month’s violent standoff, finding a story of miscalculations by both sides.

Yesterday: The Senate voted to require that President Trump seek congressional authorization before taking further military action against Iran, a mostly symbolic measure that lacked the support needed to override a promised veto.

If you have 20 minutes, this is worth it

A glimpse of the coastal future

An estimated 600 million people worldwide live on coastlines — hazardous places in an era of climate change. The Times examined how two metropolitan areas, Manila, above left, and San Francisco, are handling rising sea levels.

Will they try to hold back the waters or move people away? Their decisions could offer crucial lessons for coastal cities around the world.

Here’s what else is happening

Billions diverted for wall: The Pentagon said it would devote $3.8 billion that Congress had designated for other purposes to building a wall at the southwestern border.

Harvey Weinstein’s defense: A lawyer for the former Hollywood producer told jurors at his rape trial that he was the victim of an “overzealous prosecution” and that his accusers had engaged in consensual relationships with him.

Australian fires controlled: The wildfires that began in September and consumed millions of acres are finally out in most of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, emergency services said today.

The Weekly: The latest episode of The Times’s TV show is about the police crackdown on protesters at a university in Hong Kong last year. It premieres today on FX at 10 p.m. Eastern and will be available on Hulu starting Saturday.

Snapshot: Above, the German city of Dresden in 1945, the year it was bombed by the Allies. On Thursday, Germans commemorated the 75th anniversary of the devastating attack, which a resurgent far right has used to promote a revisionist history of World War II.

News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself.

Modern Love: In this week’s column, how a woman’s worst date became her best one.

Late-night comedy: The hosts watched as President Trump and Michael Bloomberg traded insults. “This is crazy,” Trevor Noah said. “Two mega-rich dudes dissing each other in the most personal way. It would be like if a rap battle was on CNBC.”

What we’re listening to: This episode of “The New Yorker Radio Hour.” Sam Sifton, our food editor, writes: “I enjoyed listening to Hilton Als talk about Louis C.K.’s return to the stage, and about how it might have gone differently, had Louis attempted art and not commerce.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Take time this weekend for stuffed shells.

See: Two paintings of Napoleon, one wearing Timberlands, are on display at the Brooklyn Museum. It’s a face-off between two visions of the political power of art, our critic Jason Farago writes.

Read: In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’ve listed works of fiction from each of the 50 states that explore matters of the heart.

Smarter Living: There are good ways and bad ways for colleagues with different circadian rhythms to work together. Here are some tips.

And now for the Back Story on …

Reporting on the coronavirus

Donald McNeil, a science reporter for The Times, is part of a team covering the spread of the virus. This is a condensed version of a conversation about his observations and concerns.

What do we know, and what don’t we know, about the coronavirus?

In the beginning of every epidemic, there is the fog of war.

I’d say we’re still in that fog. We know this virus is much more transmissible than SARS or MERS. We don’t know if it’s quite as transmissible as the flu. We know it can kill people. We know it’s not nearly as lethal as MERS or SARS.

One of the things we don’t know is what the Chinese aren’t saying. We know that they’re reluctant to let in outside experts and wouldn’t share samples of the earliest cases with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When you ask scientists, “What’s your fear for the Big One, the pandemic that’s going to kill us all?” — not that there is a pandemic that’s going to kill us all — but if you ask them that, they say, “Flu.” They worry about some new flu, bird flu or swine flu, that’s highly lethal but becomes very transmissible between humans. I know only one or two scientists who have said, “You know, I also worry about coronaviruses being the Big One.”

I don’t want to raise alarm that this is the Big One. But this is a new, scary and confusing one, and we don’t yet know how far it’s going to spread and how many people it’s going to kill.

What do you think about the public’s reaction to your reporting?

I’m always trying to figure out: Am I being alarmist, or am I not being alarmist enough? I was too alarmist about H5N1 back in 2005, the bird flu. I was not alarmist enough about West Africa and Ebola in its early days. All previous Ebola outbreaks had killed a few hundred people. That one killed 11,000.

A big part of my beat is debunking the panicky stories. It actually consumes almost as much of my time as reporting does.

I try to spread truth instead of panic, even if it takes me a little longer to get it right.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you Mark Josephson and Kathleen Massara provided the break from the news. Alex Traub wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the post-impeachment President Trump. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Facebook reaction button symbolized by a heart (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • The Visual Investigations team at The Times will be answering questions, live and on-camera, today at 10 a.m. Eastern.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/william-barr-coronavirus-harvey-weinstein-your-friday-briefing/

#Event

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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Fans Can't Get Enough Of The Latest Black Clover

SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE LATEST EPISODE OF BLACK CLOVER, PLEASE STOP READING NOW. THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS A LOT OF SPOILERS. LIKE, IT'S MOSTLY SPOILERS.

Last week's action-packed installment saw Yami take on Marx, Owens and Charlotte, all three of them possessed by elf spirits due to Patry's resurrection spell. Our main boy Asta is still in the base of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, and he's witnessing some of the "reincarnations" himself as members of the Royal Knights are also going elf. And knowing Black Clover, I doubt this ominous turn of events is going to slow down anytime soon, so let's just dive right in to the newest episode!

Yami's Black Magic has clashed with Charlotte's Briar Magic, and after seeing the rubble that lays before her, Charlotte is impressed that Yami, a human, was able to master magic like that. He managed to save the town and his slash even cut through one of her wrist gauntlets, so Charlotte pulls a classic "WE'LL MEET AGAIN, SPIDER-MAN" and retreats for the time being.

Yami bursts from the rubble and it's clear that some of those stones probably landed on his head.

Sol and Yami make light conversation (aka Yami yells and Sol argues back), and Yami tells her to go save citizens. Meanwhile, in the prison, we see many have also been possessed by the elves, and Gueldre Poizot, former captain of the Purple Orcas, views this as the perfect time to escape. He quickly runs into Revchi, who you may remember from the first episode. Back then, he was a creepy jerk trying to steal Yuno's grimoire, but he got taken down by Asta. Now he's...well...still creepy. Points for consistency, I guess.

We learn that Gueldre is responsible for Revchi's facial scars and giving him that classic Harvey Dent skin care routine. Gueldre is like "Dude, that was all your fault and everyone hated you," and honestly, knowing what I know about Revchi, I don't doubt it. I hate Revchi and he's been in Black Clover for, like, eight minutes tops.

They throw shade at each other until they bond over a mutual hatred of Asta, who either defeated or aided in the defeat of both. Aww! Remember Asta's speech from a few episodes ago about being able to bring people together? He truly works wonders!

They're soon confronted by an elf-possessed magic user and Gueldre immediately tries to reason with him, but this powerful stranger isn't having it. And so Revchi and Gueldre, the ultimate team that absolutely no one asked for, join forces to take this stranger down. Gueldre uses his invisibility magic to cloak the both of them, and Revchi follows up with a magic-sealing chain creation attack. Due to that quick victory, Revchi asks aloud "Is this my ticket out of obscurity?" and he may as well turn to the camera and beg to be the show's main character.

Gueldre and Revchi, now buds, walk away as the action returns to the Midnight Sun base. Luck and Ben are staring menacingly at their non-elf'd partners. They then embrace and this episode is just full of best friends. But this is a less-than-nice hug and Luck attacks Noelle, who still can't believe that Luck has gone bad. Elf Luck misses and before he can try again, he has his magic stopped by Kirsch's cherry blossom magic. Kirsch tells Noelle that they need to prepare for combat, despite the fact that Luck is a Black Bull and beating up your teammates is usually seen as unsportsmanlike.

Regardless, Luck is now powerful enough to break through both Noelle and Kirsch's magic. And things don't look too much brighter on Asta's side of things, as Raia, who they just beat up, is now fighting fit. Raia casts a dark magic and a light magic attack...

...And Asta is stunned that someone can cast magic of two different attributes at the same time. Mereoleona blocks Raia's spells and tells Asta that THIS is why his dream of uniting everyone is foolish. All the elves want to do is hurt them. And just when it seems like the fight against Raia is hopeless... a possessed Rill bursts through the ceiling to ruin the odds for the good guys some more. Raia refers to Rill as "Lira" and their reunion, like Luck and Ben's, is also not quite heartwarming.

Lira asks about Asta in the same way that every Black Clover hater has:

Raia and Lira team up to take down Asta, Mereoleona and Zora...

....and things get even worse when three more possessed Royal Knights join the fray. But before Asta and Zora come up with a proper retreat plan, Mereoleona throws them out of the room and announces that she's going to kill all of the elves.

As the episode ends (No Petit Clover this time), we're left wondering two things: 1) Mereoleona is cool. She's been the MVP of this arc. But is she gonna be able to take on five resurrected elves at once? What's her plan? I'm not doubting her, because, as the last few episodes have shown, it's best not to doubt Mereoleona, but I just wanna know what she's got in mind.

And 2) Just how widespread is this resurrected elves thing gonna be? In the last episode, it seemed like about half the main cast was getting possessed, but those numbers appear to be more lopsided with every new episode. And the preview for the next episode doesn't improve the protagonists' chances. The death of Julius, the Wizard King, was huge, but the resurrection of the elves and the damage that they cause might be an even bigger event.

Asta getting thrown aside by Mereoleona is giving me real "Luffy tries his best during Marineford but in the end he's not really ready for this stage of combat yet" vibes. I'll have to see how this arc wraps up to see if the two storylines are truly comparable, but it's nice knowing that there are some forces that Asta just isn't ready to tackle yet. Makes the narrative more intense.

Anyway, let's see what Y'ALL thought about it!

The villain used ritual magic to turn all your friends into genocidal elves? That sounds like some... Bad Luck pic.twitter.com/MlQXgMgYPA

— Peter Fobian (@PeterFobian) August 20, 2019

the new Black Clover intro is too fire

— Lee (@CaprisunStraw) August 20, 2019

Rill makes friends everywhere lol

— Gauri Gautam (@MisS_sOULeaTER) August 20, 2019

That episode of Black Clover was crazy!

— Lance Scott (@Lance_Scott25) August 20, 2019

Black clover is so gooood

— basstronaut (@ItssJul_62) August 20, 2019

Weekly Black Clover is great tweet

— cye (@Cyrokx) August 20, 2019

i'm already ready for next week!!!!

— David Gonzalez (@Dgonz45) August 20, 2019

I can't believe I have been sleeping on Black Clover all this while ????????. Now I have almost 100 episodes to watch.

— High Chief Obi (@Waffirian_) August 20, 2019

— Robert Sta-Ana (@PxndaLoL) August 20, 2019

What did you think of the latest episode? Let us know in the comments!

------------------------------

Daniel Dockery is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. You should follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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frogbutane57-blog · 6 years ago

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We Ranked Every TV Musical Event, Because of Course We Did

Now Playing

Julianne Hough and Aaron Tveit Share Their Favorite Grease: Live Moment

This weekend, Fox will grace us with another live musical event in the form of Rent-- one of the most celebrated musicals of all time. Broadcast networks have taken on other popular titles, from Grease and The Wiz to Sound of Music, all with varying degrees of success.

Sometimes the live musicals have embodied the fun and glitz that's supposed to come with such a production, while others have failed to find a way to connect with the broadcast audience. What is it that makes a musical television event successful? It might be hard to pin down, but TV Guide has tried to figure it out by ranking the musical events that have come before. What ended up being No. 1? Scroll down to find out!

Julianne Hough in Grease Live, Mary J. Blige in The Wiz Live, and Carrie Underwood in Sound of Music Live

10. Dirty Dancing

Sometimes cashing in on nostalgia backfires, and it's usually when people try to recreate perfection. The original Dirty Dancing is an iconic classic that is still watched and beloved by millions. So when ABC tried to remake it, it was impossible to find people who shared Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze's on-screen chemistry. Abigail Breslin and Colt Prattes didn't even come close, bless their hearts. At the end, we felt dirty, like we had cheated on one of our oldest loves rather than basking in its glory. It was just painful.

9. A Christmas Story Live!

There were a lot of issues with A Christmas Story, ranging from technical issues to the fact the original film was not a musical, so the songs that were created felt forced on a story that people already love. If it's not broke, don't fix it, producers. It was a good idea in theory, but it just didn't get pulled off in the actual execution.

Twitter Showed No Mercy to A Christmas Story Live!

8. Peter Pan Live!

Honestly, this isn't really NBC or Allison Williams' fault. It's the fact that Peter Pan the musical is a very different entity from the cartoon and story so many grew up with. The musical and original book really played up Peter's and the Lost Boys' mommy issues and is actually kind of creepy? The NBC production stayed faithful to that, but the cognitive dissonance was too much for many people to bear. And if anyone can explain to me what Christopher Walken was doing for three hours, I would be eternally grateful, because I am still so confused.

7. The Passion

Religious musicals are always going to be tough (though it can be done — just scroll down), and Tyler Perry's take on The Passion felt like an extra long church sermon rather than being entertaining and uplifting. They tried to make it fun by introducing modern day songs into the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but is that really what you want on Palm Sunday? Hoobastank and crucifixions just don't mix well together. It ended up being more cringeworthy than fun, but it was almost bad in a really enjoyable way.

6. Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again!

Rocky Horror had a lot of the same issues as Dirty Dancing, just better executed. It wasn't even live so it made us wonder: Why are we doing this? We can just watch the perfect original and call it a day. While the choice to have Laverne Cox as Dr. Frank-N-Furter was inspired, it still didn't seem worth a three-hour investment. Nor did it add anything else to the conversation so many years after the original debuted.

Here's What You'll Love About Fox's The Rocky Horror Picture Show Reboot

5. Sound of Music Live!

Welcome to the OG musical event! Sound of Music Live! proved what was capable with these type of things, and its ratings success paved the way for everything else on the list. Carrie Underwood was delightful as Maria, but the production left a lot to be desired when it comes to comparisons to the original. Yes, that feels like an impossible standard, but as the first was one of its kind, it's hard to compare it to anything else. It was a really great first effort, but now we know that we can do way better.

4. Hairspray Live!

Hairspray Live! gets a lot of points for casting, to be honest. Kristin Chenoweth! Ariana Grande! Harvey Feinstein! They bridged a lot of gaps between hardcore Broadway fans and today's pop culture generation, even though we'll say the John Travolta and Zac Efron movie was more enjoyable (and the original Broadway cast recording will always be tops). Still, Hairspray Live! understood the most important tenant of a live musical, and that's to make it fun! It wasn't perfect, but you still had a good time watching.

3. The Wiz Live!

The Wiz Live! was really cool because it introduced to the musical to a new generation. Unlike Peter Pan where people expected something else, people went into The Wiz at least knowing it wasn't exactly like The Wizard of Oz, even if they hadn't seen the iconic Diana Ross and Michael Jackson film from the '70s. The acting was great and the songs were so fun, which made watching it a delight. Have we mentioned that enjoyment is the key here?

Tears, Cheers and GIFs: The 20 Best The Wiz Live! Tweets

2. Grease: Live!

When it comes to entertainment value, nothing can top Grease: Live! Plus, it came with the bonus of Aaron Tveit in short shorts. The musical stayed true to the one that everyone knows and loves, and the live element made it that much more daring as the cast and crew raced through the Warner Bros. lot to create a full experience not only for the live audience, but for everyone watching at home as well. The reason the musical lands at No. 2 is because, well, as classic as Grease is, it is still problematic AF and keeping a line like, "Did she put up a fight?" in 2016 is still cringeworthy.

1. Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert

Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert pretty much had it all — an all-star cast, a recognizable property executed with great technique and a visually stunning performance. And it was rewarded with the Primetime Emmy for Variety special (plus a handful of other noms), making it the most decorated of all the musical events so far (though, Grease Live! also won some below-the-line trophies as well). Honestly, did you think they could go wrong with Mr. Butter Voice himself John Legend at the center with the ridiculously talented Sara Bareilles at his side? This is how you get the best of all the worlds and make a smash hit.

Rent Live! premieres Sunday, Jan. 27 at 8/7c on Fox.

Source: https://www.tvguide.com/news/tv-musical-events-ranked-rent-grease-sound-of-music/?rss=breakingnews

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kartiavelino · 7 years ago

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Asia Argento: Fast Facts to Know About Anthony Bourdain’s Girlfriend

Anthony Bourdain—world-renowned chef, best-selling author, and Emmy-winning TV host—has died at the age of 61. According to CNN, Bourdain’s cause of death is suicide by hanging. He was found unresponsive in his hotel room in France by his good friend, fellow chef Eric Ripert. The two were reportedly working on a new episode of CNN’s Parts Unknown. Bourdain leaves behind two ex-wives (including MMA fighter Ottavia Busia), an 11-year-old daughter (Ariane), friends, colleagues, and his girlfriend Asia Argento, who he’s been dating since 2016. Here’s what you need to know about Asia Argento and her relationship with Anthony Bourdain: 6Asia Argento is an Italian actress, director, model and activist. Asia Argento hails from Rome, Italy and wears many hats as an actress, director, model and activist. According to the late Bourdain, Argento has been in the business since she was a child. Bourdain told People Magazine about Argento in a 2017 interview: “She’s been in this circus since she was nine. She knows so much more about so many of the things that are important to me—music, books, film, the technical aspects of film, and just the weird state of celebrity, being somebody that people come up to. That’s something she’s dealt with a lot longer than me. I was 44 before that started happening. Whereas, it’s been like that for her since she was a kid.” Bourdain added in a separate People Magazine interview last month: “She comes from generations of filmmakers on both sides of the family. She’s a really accomplished director and writer along with being a longtime actress and a real sponge for culture, music, literature. So she’s enormously helpful and inspiring.” Argento’s movie credits include 2002’s “xXx,” in which she co-starred along with Vin Diesel, 2005’s “Land of the Dead” and 2006’s “Marie Antoinette.” She also appeared in the final season of the TV series Mafiosa. 5Asia Argento was among the many women who accused Harvey Weinstein of rape. Asia Argento and Harvey Weinstein pictured in 2004 Asia Argento was one of the many who came forward to speak out against Hollywood serial rapist Harvey Weinstein. Her allegations against the fallen entertainment mogul were that he forced oral sex on her. Argento stated in an interview with Ronan Farrow for the New Yorker that she was 21 years old when Weinstein allegedly raped her in 1997 at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on the French Riviera. She said Weinstein came into the hotel room with a bottle of lotion and wearing only a bathrobe. After asking her to give him a massage, Argento claimed Weinstein forced her to give him oral sex as she continued to tell him to stop. Argento explained, “I was not willing. I said, ‘No, no, no’ … It’s twisted. A big fat man wanting to eat you. It’s a scary fairy tale.” She said she eventually began to fake enjoying the oral sex hoping that would get Weinstein to stop. Her film Scarlet Diva was actually about her encounter with Weinstein, Fox News reported. When Argento first made the rape allegations against Weinstein (who has denied the claims), her boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, publicly voiced his support of her. At the time that Argento came forward, Bourdain tweeted, “”@AsiaArgento I am proud and honored to know you. You just did the hardest thing in the world.” .@AsiaArgento I am proud and honored to know you. You just did the hardest thing in the world. https://t.co/i2Lsb6h5vU — Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) October 10, 2017 According to The Independent, Bourdain, amid his “early, outspoken support for the #MeToo movement” cooked Thanksgiving dinner last year for Argento and two other of Weinstein’s accusers, Rose McGowan and Annabella Sciorra. It was an honor to cook for this meeting of the minds @AsiaArgento @rosemcgowan @AnnabellSciorra pic.twitter.com/5UoOl1Xhux — Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) November 25, 2017 “It was an honor to cook for this meeting of the minds,” he captioned the photo, which all three women shared on their respective social media accounts. McGown called the evening “magical,” the Independent reported. In all, 86 women have so far accused Weinstein of rape. 4Bourdain and Argento had a long-distance relationship, but it worked for them. Best Emmys ever pic.twitter.com/x0ykxGT3di — Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) September 10, 2017 Anthony Bourdain and Asia Argento made their first appearance together in September 2017 at the annual Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Due to their crazy and equally demanding work schedules, Bourdain and Argento had a long-distance relationship, but it appeared to work well for them. Bourdain, who spends about 250 days a year shooting his CNN show Parts Unknown, told People Magazine that he made it his mission to make time for Argento, as well as his 11-year-old daughter Ariane (with his ex-wife Ottavia Busia). Bourdain split his time between living in New York (to visit his daughter) and Italy (to visit his girlfriend, Argento). Argento reportedly lives in Vigna Clara, which is north of Rome. She and Bourdain both love to work, which is something they had in common. Bourdain explained to People, “We both work a lot and we’re both away from home a lot so we’re both circus freaks in the same circus—or different circuses I guess. He continued, “I’m a person who likes being busy, I need a project always. I’m not a person, obviously, who’s happy being idle for too long. I like waking up with things to do. I have a restless, creative mind.” In a separate interview with People, Bourdain noted, “This woman likes to work. She is strong, independent, creative, and needs to have an obsession, needs to make things … I think we’re both relieved by the fact that we both respect each other’s work. Nobody’s ever going to say, ‘Oh, but you promised we were going to go to the beach.’ No, you get a gig, that’s it. Work first.” 3Asia Argento was previously married to filmmaker Michele Civetta. Prior to her relationship with Anthony Bourdain, Asia Argento was previously married to Emmy-nominated film director Michele Civetta, the founder of the company Quintessence Films. The couple wed in 2008 and divorced in 2013. Civetta’s directing credits include commercials for big brands such as Coca-Cola, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Martini & Rossi. He also worked with a number of big celebrities, including Yoko Ono, Carrie Fisher and Lindsay Lohan. He even worked with his ex-wife Argento, directing her music video “Ours” in 2013. According to IMDB, Civetta also directed Argento in a 2017 thriller called “The Executrix.” 2Asia Argento has two children from previous relationships, one with her ex-husband, director Michelle Civetta, and another with Italian singer Marco Castoldi (aka “Morgan”). Asia Argento has one child with her ex-husband Michele Civetta, a son Nicola Giovanni Civetta, who was born in 2008. Prior to her marriage with Civetta, Argento had a daughter with singer Marco Castoldi, also known as “Morgan.” Argento and Castoldi’s daughter, Anna Lou Castoldi, who was born in 2001, is already a working actress and is known for the movies “Misunderstood” (2014) and “Shadow” (2017). Argento’s daughter is named after her sister Anna Ceroli, who died in a motorcycle accident in the 1990’s. 1Asia Argento released a statement about Anthony Bourdain’s death on Twitter and reportedly shared a cryptic message on Instagram hours before the sad news was announced. Asia Argento spoke out following Anthony Bourdain’s shocking death from an apparent suicide on Friday. She said in a message posted to Twitter, “Anthony gave all of himself in everything that he did. His brilliant, fearless spirit touched and inspired so many, and his generosity knew no bounds. He was my love, my rock, my protector. I am beyond devastated. My thoughts are with his family. I would ask that you respect their privacy and mine.” pic.twitter.com/dB1s994Znf — Asia Argento (@AsiaArgento) June 8, 2018 According to People Magazine, about three hours before the news broke of Anthony Bourdain’s apparent suicide, Argento shared a cryptic message to her Instagram story. The story included a photo of herself wearing a ripped t-shirt that read “F**K EVERYONE.” She captioned the post, “You know who you are.” The story has since been deleted. http://feeds.gossiponthis.com/~r/gossiponthis/~3/L_XBqOCj7VE/ The post Asia Argento: Fast Facts to Know About Anthony Bourdain’s Girlfriend appeared first on My style by Kartia. http://www.kartiavelino.com/2018/06/asia-argento-fast-facts-to-know-about-anthony-bourdains-girlfriend.html

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njawaidofficial · 7 years ago

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Why It’s Crucial For Time’s Up To Keep Intersectionality At The Forefront

https://styleveryday.com/2018/03/29/why-its-crucial-for-times-up-to-keep-intersectionality-at-the-forefront/

Why It’s Crucial For Time’s Up To Keep Intersectionality At The Forefront

Clockwise from left: Susan Kelechi Watson, Yvette Nicole Brown, Lupita Nyong’o, Honoree Lena Waithe, Honoree Tessa Thompson, Sonequa Martin-Green, Edwina Findley Dickerson, and Honoree Danai Gurira attend the 2018 Essence Black Women in Hollywood Oscars Luncheon in Beverly Hills.

Leon Bennett / Getty Images

When the sexual assault reckoning hit Hollywood after the tremendous fall of Harvey Weinstein, it was clear the industry was on the precipice of a moment. What wasn’t clear was how long that moment would last — or how intersectional (or not) it would be. Concerns were raised after the first set of black actors to speak out about being sexually harassed did not get the same reception or justice some of the white actors received. But as the Time’s Up initiative announced itself at the top of 2018, with a diverse group of powerful women in Hollywood leading the charge, the possibility of a truly intersectional and effective movement appeared on the horizon. The question now is how to make sure the progress made by this feminist crusade actually benefits everyone.

Emmy winner Lena Waithe believes it’s key that black women of color have had a fair seat at the Time’s Up table so they’ve been able to speak up about the unique obstacles they face and play a role in determining strategy. “We’re actually talking about these issues,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I think that’s the difference.” At the same time, Waithe knows there needs to be real results. “We’ve got to fix it. It’s not enough just to talk about it. I don’t want to just wax poetic on panels or red carpets. It’s like, what are we doing to change things?”

Attendees at the 19th Annual InStyle and Warner Bros. Pictures Golden Globe afterparty on Jan. 7. Top, from left: activist Tarana Burke, actors Michelle Williams, America Ferrera, Jessica Chastain, Amy Poehler, Meryl Streep, and Kerry Washington. Bottom, from left: actor Natalie Portman and activists Ai-jen Poo and Saru Jayaraman.

Tara Ziemba / AFP / Getty Images

The women involved with Time’s Up spent much of this past awards season getting the word out about the initiative on red carpets. These appearances have shown just how inclusive the group is, with black women like Waithe, Kerry Washington, Shonda Rhimes, Tessa Thompson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Rashida Jones at the forefront when the initiative made its first big splash at the Golden Globes. That night, nearly all women in attendance wore black in solidarity with the mission. Several women walked the red carpet with activists of color as their guests — giving them a media platform they often don’t have access to — while others used their moments onstage to highlight the issues they were fighting to change. It was a monumental show of unity from actors to not only end sexual assault and harassment but to call for pay equity and job fairness as well. These issues impact all women heavily, but are always more devastating for women of color.

But now that they’ve made their inclusive mission clear, what can be done to make sure those most impacted by unequal systems get the help they need? The legal defense fund created by Time’s Up to support women dealing with sexual harassment, which is now in the millions, was a strong first show of action. So is the role the initiative is playing in holding Weinstein and his alleged enablers accountable, though it’s worth noting that most of his victims were white women. Perhaps additionally getting behind a mainstream case that involves more black victims, like Jerhonda Pace — who accused R. Kelly of abusing her when she was a minor and has publicly stated his victims feel left out of the #MeToo movement — would be an effective next step. Mainstream Hollywood cases aside, the defense fund also intends to help those from other industries who are taking legal action against their sexual abusers. And while the group is committed to making sure women in need get access to that fund regardless of their race, it could prove beneficial to prioritize some cases involving black women each year to make up the economic difference that exists among women of different races.

Publicizing outreach toward black women would go a long way toward building trust again, because historically black women have been left out of these efforts. Amanda Seales, an actor on HBO’s Insecure, told BuzzFeed News, “Intersectionality has really never been at the center of mainstream feminist movements in a real way. So I would like [Time’s Up] to keep in mind that it’s time to put that at the center.”

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Dear White People star Ashley Blaine Featherson echoed Seales’ thoughts, noting that the concerns of black actors need to be heard and acknowledged. “I think that sometimes we feel that we’re not being seen, and I think that we just have to talk about it and be open and transparent,” she said. “And more of us also need to tell our stories and demand to be heard.”

When Oscar winner Octavia Spencer confided in her costar Jessica Chastain about her pay history in Hollywood, she ended up getting offered five times her salary for their upcoming film. During a panel at Sundance in January, Spencer said, “I told her my story and we talked numbers and [Chastain] was quiet, and she had no idea that that’s what it was like for women of color.” Chastain didn’t only listen to Spencer, but believed her, and then used her status, thanks in part to her white privilege, to help Spencer.

Chastain tweeted about the situation, saying, “[Spencer] had been underpaid for so long. When I discovered that, I realized that I could tie her deal to mine to bring up her quote. Men should start doing this with their female costars.”

Chastain took a risk when she demanded the studio pay Spencer as much as they paid her, and luckily it worked out for them. It’s the kind of action more men in Hollywood should be initiating, said the Molly’s Game lead. And it’s not a wild request since some men are already doing it. Emma Stone, who was the highest-paid female actor in 2016, has shared that she requests her male costars take pay cuts so their salaries would be more equal. “That’s something they do for me because they feel it’s what’s right and fair,” said Stone in an interview with Out magazine. “That’s something that’s also not discussed, necessarily — that our getting equal pay is going to require people to selflessly say, ‘That’s what’s fair.’”

Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain attend the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

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Thompson cited Spencer’s and Chastain’s actions when describing the kind of work that needs to continue to keep the Time’s Up initiative intersectional. “That was collaboration,” she said. “It’s important because as women so often we are siloed off, and kept separate, that when we enter these spaces together, we hold each other accountable and we really hold each other.”

During her Oscars acceptance speech for Best Actress earlier this month, Frances McDormand talked about accountability in the form of inclusion riders, a contract that requires a certain level of diversity on set. It’s something Ava DuVernay has been doing for years with her Oprah Winfrey Network drama Queen Sugar, for which she purposefully only hires women directors. It’s something that Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan also vowed to do on all projects produced by his company, Outlier Society, shortly after McDormand’s call. Increasing the number of production companies committed to honoring inclusion riders should be on any intersectional agenda in the industry.

What it really comes down to is this: More Hollywood juggernauts need to be willing to stand up for their fellow actors to a much greater extent than they have in the past. For example, when Passengers actor Aurora Perrineau filed a police report against Girls writer Murray Miller for sexual assault, the series’ showrunners, Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, released a joint statement defending Miller, essentially calling Perrineau a liar. Dunham apologized after Miller’s lawyers admitted they were not honest about Perrineau trying to extort Miller. There are also the numerous actors who didn’t acknowledge Rose McGowan’s initial Weinstein claims years ago, or who still continue to work with Woody Allen despite Dylan Farrow’s accusation that he sexually abused her as a child.

Actor Yvette Nicole Brown attends the 49th NAACP Image Awards.

Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

Yvette Nicole Brown, who most recently starred on the short-lived ABC sitcom The Mayor, told BuzzFeed News that everyone involved with Time’s Up must be willing to take risks for the greater good if the initiative wants to succeed: “If you’re speaking up for what’s right, you’ll end up on the right side of history. And sometimes you need to take a hit. Look at Colin Kaepernick. He’s taken a hit, but he’s getting the word out. So sometimes the cause needs to be greater than your personal gain. So that’s how you do it. You stand up and you go: This isn’t right.”

The leaders of the Time’s Up campaign have made it clear that inclusive justice is the goal. In a recent panel on the matter at the Makers Conference, Jones said, “I think everybody here and everybody in the movement kind of acknowledges that there is no change unless you bring every single person along who has spent time being marginalized, harassed, assaulted. … Intersectionality is the hub, it is the absolute centerpiece of everything that we do.” It’s now up to them to create results that support that mission. Whether that’s by demanding equal pay for their costars of color, or refusing to work with those who have sexual assault or harassment allegations against them (until they have been exonerated) regardless of the race of the accuser, or using a majority of the defense fund for minority groups — it’s time to move things forward.

LINK: A Look Into The Awards Season Black Hollywood Has Created For Itself

LINK: Women In Hollywood Say Frances McDormand’s Oscar Speech Is A Complicated Call To Action

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eelgibbortech-blog · 7 years ago

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Like many news stories of late, this one started with a tweet from the president. On September 27, Trump fired off an accusation that Facebook had always been against him. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded later that day with his own post, writing: “Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump. Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like. That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like.”

Both of them are wrong.

Over time, social networks start to develop their own reputations based on generalizations about who uses each network and what they tend to share. LinkedIn is tailored for the wealthy professional. Twitter serves witty media figures. Even if these interpretations have some truth to them, it’s hard to back them up or refute them. Look no further than Facebook, which has become a homebase for conspiracy theorists, great aunts, politically active friends from college, and over 2 billion people in between. At this point, users can portray Facebook any way that suits them.

But are these stereotypes really accurate?

Using Newswhip, a new social media monitoring platform, I was able to analyze the top-performing links since September 1 across four major social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. My goal was to dig deep and examine if our general preconceptions about social media networks were correct.

Does one political party dominate Facebook? Is Twitter a media echo chamber? Has LinkedIn become the best place for thought leadership? And is Pinterest really free of any controversial content? Read on to find out.

Facebook: Do liberal or conservative outlets reign supreme?

Plenty of people get their news from social media. According to Pew research, 45 percent of all U.S. adults do so via Facebook. The issue, though, is how one defines “news.” While both sides of the aisle continue to be upset about bias and favoritism, Newswhip data suggests content from conservative media outlets is more popular on Facebook than content from liberal outfits.

Since September 1, thirteen stories generated at least 1 million Facebook interactions; five came from conservative sites, one came from a liberal site, and the remainder lacked any overt political affiliation.

Facebook has no systemic bias against Trump or conservative content. It’s also clear that Facebook isn’t surfacing all ideas with equal weight, contrary to what Zuckerberg implied in his post last month. This may not be intentional, but the platform’s algorithm and user demographics have allowed fringe right-wing sites like Conservative Tribune and American Military News to go viral over established news outlets.

As TechCrunch writer Natasha Lomas points out, “Facebook’s business benefits from increased user engagement, and made-up stories that play to people’s prejudices and/or contain wild, socially divisive claims have been shown to be able to clock up far more Facebook views than factual reports of actual news.”

Takeaway: All users should be wary of filter bubbles. But judging by this data, the biggest filter bubbles are shaded red.

Twitter: Is it really a media echo chamber?

Until I looked in Newswhip to see which stories generated the most tweets, I had never heard of the Korean boy band BTS. Secretly, though, they’re the biggest thing on Twitter right now. Of the top eight links with the most shares on Twitter, five are about BTS. The top result, which has received almost 400,000 tweets, is just a link to the group’s album on Apple Music. I’m no K-pop scholar, so I’ll leave the BTS analysis to someone more qualified. But from a social media lens, the unusual results can tell us a lot about Twitter: The platform has a deep identity crisis.

Twitter has always struggled to find its niche. While all other major social networks constantly grow, Twitter actually lost 2 million active users earlier this summer. After the announcement, Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser wrote, “We’re not overly concerned by this trend, as we have always believed Twitter to be a niche platform.”

Niche is the key word there. Twitter is definitely a place where media professionals can pat themselves on the back while complaining about the death of journalism. It’s where high-quality stories from major publications like The Atlantic, the BBC, and The New York Times regularly take off. But the platform has also been co-opted by trolls, bots, propaganda machines, and the guy in the Oval Office.

These forces are all competing for a finite amount of attention among the 150 million or so daily active users. As a result, a number of different communities have emerged. If you have something interesting to say to a particular community, then there’s potential here. It’s just hard to pinpoint which niches are primed to grow, which is why there’s room for K-pop sensations to thrive. And GoFundMe pages. And a GIF of a Google Doodle.

Takeaway: Twitter has become a niche platform, which limits the ability of brands and publishers to go viral if their content doesn’t fall under certain categories or focus on certain topics.

LinkedIn: The true home for thought leadership?

LinkedIn has always had the potential to be a powerful content-sharing platform, but it’s never been able to compete with Facebook. It’s currently the social platform best known for thought leadership, which still counts for something. As the go-to center for professional advice and commentary, LinkedIn has reserves of evergreen content that attract a high-earning audience.

Per Newswhip, the top-performing stories have close to 50,000 shares. Some offer a lot of tips and tricks for the workplace. You can get insights about job interviews and life goals. There’s also an emphasis on hearing from executives, which presumably can give you a roadmap for how to be a successful leader. (There’s a little news mixed in, like this Forbes piece about Michael Dell’s hurricane Harvey relief fund, which was shared over 43,000 times.)

This level of engagement puts LinkedIn well below Facebook and somewhat behind Twitter and Pinterest. The way the platform functions has led to an unusual dilemma. All users have the option of publishing content natively, which could cannibalize the impact of an external article or video link. Richard Branson, for instance, posts some of his musings directly to LinkedIn but links to others published on the Virgin website. Bill Gates does the same thing, alternating between LinkedIn and his personal blog. You get the sense that influencers aren’t sure when to share natively and when to link to an external website.

All social networks want to prioritize native content since it keeps users engaged inside their walls. But when Facebook ramped up Instant Articles, it did so with a monetization model. In addition to selling ads, Facebook made it clear that news publishers were the intended users of Instant Articles. On LinkedIn, individuals just publish native blog posts.

For now, there’s arguably more upside for influencer posts than articles from media companies. Publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN use LinkedIn to distribute their content, but they mostly include links related to business news, the economy, and personal finance. Compare that to Facebook or Twitter, where the same publications can post everything they create and generate higher engagement. Until that dynamic changes, LinkedIn will continue to be a more powerful tool for thought leadership than for typical content distribution.

Takeaway: LinkedIn is a great platform for established influencers to communicate with an audience. But media companies and brands may have better luck elsewhere if traffic and engagement are their top goals.

Pinterest: Is it the only social network free of controversy?

In September, Pinterest officially crossed the 200 million monthly users mark–a nice milestone for a social platform that has seen consistent growth in mobile searches and international users. Pinterest now boasts a bigger user base than Twitter and LinkedIn. What’s really remarkable about these upward trends is Pinterest has been able to drive increased engagement while avoiding almost all controversial content.

The top pins of September and early October include links to student awards, tips on painting your kitchen, and lots of recipes for everything from red velvet cheesecake to cinnamon sugar pumpkin bread. Eleven pieces of content had at least 40,000 pins, and 27 links had at least 25,000 pins.

If there’s any nit to pick here, it’s that Pinterest is a home for content that looks and sounds the same. It’s confined to a few main categories without much variance. For example, a lot of the successful food bloggers use a similar tone to introduce their recipes. Same goes for the high-quality photography and short videos of their food. So it’s hard to tell what makes one recipe get more engagement over another. As a result, it might be harder for a newcomer to thrive on Pinterest over the sites that already have a loyal audience.

But in a polarized social media landscape, Pinterest has emerged as a safe space, where recipes for pumpkin bread and apple pie doughnuts can overpower any slanted coverage of the NFL’s national anthem protests.

Takeaway: Even if you know what you’re going to get, it’s nice that there’s a place you can go online to look at hot cakes instead of hot takes.

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oldguardaudio · 7 years ago

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Rush Limbaugh Explains -> Why Donald Trump Survives and Thrives

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Nov 29, 2017

RUSH: So why does Donald Trump still have his job and all the leftist media titans, entertainment titans, are dropping like flies? Simplest reason is people like Donald Trump. They relate to Donald Trump. They appreciate Donald Trump. As compared to people like Elizabeth Warren, who is a phony and is angry all the time. And everybody on the left is angry and outraged all the time.

The American people — this is something the swamp is never gonna understand, no matter how many times you tell ’em face-to-face. The American people — and by that I’m talking about Trump supporters, the majority of people. The reason Trump still has his job today and is in no danger of losing it, people in the establishment, in Washington, do not realize how angry the American people are and how angry they have been at the one-sided nature of the media.

The abject double standards and unfairness. The total mistreatment of a harmless individual, Melania Trump, who hasn’t done anything to anyone. They mock, they laugh at, they make fun of, they try to hurt and harm. While on the other end of the scale they lift up and praise Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren, and any other hypocrite leftist female. There is never any introspection. There is never any investigation. There is never even a negative word or suspicion about people on the left who a majority of Americans view as incurring great damage and harm on this country.

The people inside Washington of both parties, of all media, Never Trumpers, half-baked Trumpers, Trump supporters, if you’re in Washington, even though you might think you know, I don’t think people there understand how long this anger has raged. And it’s real. They don’t understand the deputy of the perception of the rigged game that the media and the Democrat Party are running. They don’t get how angry these people are at members of their own party who don’t stand up to it, who cower at the first sign of obstruction or objection from the media. It’s a combination of frustration and anger and rage that is all completely legitimate.

And Donald Trump stands up to it and swats it all away like they’re a bunch of insects and flies, enjoys it and smiles is not affected, is not taken off his game, is not misdirected by any of the usual things the media and the Democrats do to take out Republicans, to destroy them. Trump welcomes the assaults and he promotes them and he tweaks them and he encourages them.

You know, people that don’t watch the news the way you and I do — let’s take yesterday, as an example. I don’t think people who casually absorb the news — can you absorb the news casually? Let me rephrase this. I don’t think people paying scant attention to the news beyond headlines the way we watch the news understood the impact of yesterday.

The Senate meets with Trump. Reports after the meeting were glowing. You probably don’t know this. Trump met with the Senate yesterday. What you probably know is that Chuck and Nancy were outraged and didn’t show up to a meeting with Trump. What you also don’t know is that Trump wins in that scenario. Trump caused that scenario. A simple tweet from Trump.

Oh, and that’s why they really hate him, by the way. They hate that he tweets and they hate that his tweets are effective. And they’re doing everything they can to try to make those tweets ineffective, and they can’t. They don’t have anybody on their side that can use Twitter anywhere nearly as effectively as Trump does. And they think they have all the entertainment stars and all the experts and the paid professional media consultants, and they can’t come up with anybody who can even compete with Trump on Twitter.

So the Senate meets with Trump. Reports after the meeting were glowing, glowing about Trump, what a great meeting it was, how much progress, so much so that the Senate passed the tax reform bill out of committee. People paying attention to the news believe that the tax bill is dead in the Senate because the Senate hates Trump. The stock market hit a new high.

The Congressional Black Caucasians are getting frustrated with the Democrat Party generally for not doing anything about John Conyers. The Democrat Party’s trying to circle the wagons around Conyers. Congressional Black Caucasians got together to try to come up with a way to get rid of him because they understand that as long as Conyers and Franken are given a pass and are allowed to stay in office, that they are hamstrung in going after Trump, which they so desperately want to do.

More elected Democrats are outed for bad behavior. Another Democrat retired. That would be Luis Gutierrez. After Chuck and Nancy bail on the meeting with Trump over the government shutdown and the budget, Trump goes ahead and has the meeting. There’s a photo-op. There are two empty chairs, one to each side of Trump. Trump is sitting there in the meeting in the Cabinet Room, he’s smiling, everybody’s having a great time, but there are two chairs that are vacant, Chuck’s chair and Nancy’s chair.

After the Democrats have a little childish hissy fit over a tweet that outed them as the leftists they are, Trump tweeted the truth, another reason he’s loved and appreciated. He tweeted that Chuck and Nancy, they don’t care about a government shutdown. All they want is open borders for more illegal immigration to come in so they can be eventually registered as Democrats. Trump calls them out. They harrumph, harrumph, and they fail to show up, claiming that the president is not worth their time. Trump wins.

This does not cause his supporters angst. It causes them to appreciate him even more. The world got to get another dose of Fauxcahontas yesterday. Elizabeth Warren was allowed to circulate and fan out there under the radar but out of the blue in an otherwise unremarkable White House ceremony, Trump focuses attention on Elizabeth Warren again, and now the media is focusing on this whole claim of hers that she is one thirty-second Cherokee. She’s never had any proof of it, other than the reference to her high cheekbones.

One leftist was overheard saying, “Ah, this Elizabeth Warren story, this is old, it’s been around forever.” Yeah, but now it’s different, because she’s now been branded by Donald Trump. Ask Little Marco. Ask Crazy Bernie. Ask Lyin’ Ted. Ask Crooked Hillary what it means to be branded by Trump. Elizabeth Warren is forevermore now Pocahontas. Forevermore now, Elizabeth Warren is a phony. Forevermore Elizabeth Warren will have questions eternally circulating and surrounding her over her honesty and legitimacy of her supposed genealogical trace.

Trump expertly outed the credibility of her claim to be one thirty-second Cherokee right as the agency that she started is unraveling. And this is another huge story. What is happening and what is being learned about, this Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that Elizabeth Warren established under Dodd-Frank and is now under the control of Donald Trump.

And I think one of the reasons Elizabeth Warren and the Democrats are so outraged about this is because with Mick Mulvaney over there going through things, we’re gonna find out what kind of fraud and abuse has gone on. And we already know that money laundering has been taking place. We already know that this Consumer Protection Bureau has been levying fines against financial institutions, and then with the money collected from the fines, giving it to left-wing activist groups. There’s gonna be more like that discovered. Donald Trump supporters stand up and cheer!

People inside the Beltway never see it because the Drive-By Media doesn’t even cover it. They don’t want to see it. They don’t want to see Trump supporters cheering because their objective for over a year has been to separate Trump from his supporters. They have failed miserably. A judge ruled for Trump. And the only way the judge could rule, if the Constitution still matters, that Trump gets to name his director at that bogus and untethered slush fund called the consumer financial protection board started by Pocahontas.

North Korea drops a bomb. Well, they launch a missile. And everybody, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! This thing could hit the East Coast!” Trump says, “We’ll take care of it.” Obama would have never said it. Hillary would have never said it. And whatever either Obama or Hillary would have said in this circumstance with North Korea would not have been comforting. Obama and Hillary would have promised more of the same, which is what led to the Norks being able to launch that missile that could hit the East Coast.

Sarah Sanders tweeted… After CNN said harrumph, harrumph, we’re not attending the White House Christmas party Friday, Sarah Sanders said, “Christmas comes early! Finally, good news from @CNN. They’re not coming to our party!” Trump supporters applaud. Trump supporters laugh. Trump supporters cheer. Trump supporters can’t get enough of it.

“U.S. Third Quarter Growth Revised to Three-Year High of 3.3%,” as predicted by me yesterday. Third quarter growth, 3.3%. We never saw that with Barack Hussein Obama, and when Trump pledged 3% or greater, they mocked him and made fun of him and said it wasn’t possible and it was delusional to think it! Even though in the eighties we routinely had 6% growth. We’re headed back in the right direction, and Trump supporters know it, and they applaud it. Gross domestic product grew at a 3.3% annual rate. Consumer spending (the biggest part of the economy) grew 2.3%.

You want to hear some stats on the economy to explain to you why Donald Trump still has his job and Matt Lauer and Harvey Weinstein and Charlie Rose don’t? The stock market is at an all-time high. Those three guys have been trying to talk down the economy to the benefit of the Democrat Party. Job openings: All-time high. Unemployment rate, U-6, is the lowest in 11 years! Consumer confidence: 17-year high. New home sales: 10-year high. New home average price an all-time high. Federal manufacturing: 24-year high.

There is a Trump economy. It is a rebound. There is a surging, growing economy.

The stock market was at 18,000 one year ago. Do you realize this? On Election Day, the stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 18,000. This week, it looks to surpass 24,000. Which leads to a question: Would John McCain or any other Republican really torpedo this by trying to torpedo tax reform? Answer: Yes. Another reason why Trump’s voters love and support him because they’re fully aware that Trump’s opposition encompasses people in his own party, people Trump supporters have voted for in the past and are angry. Simply put, there isn’t a reason for Trump supporters to be mad at him. It’s just the opposite.

Rush Limbaugh Explains -> Why Donald Trump Survives and Thrives Rush Limbaugh Explains -> Why Donald Trump Survives and Thrives Nov 29, 2017 RUSH: So why does Donald Trump still have his job and all the leftist media titans, entertainment titans, are dropping like flies?

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