#you cannot legislate us away and you cannot wipe us out while humanity still exists

[enbycrip]

EDITED TO ADD: Sources from the OP in the comments

[possumcollege]

The important thing to take away from the lives of people like Kissinger is that they aren't one-offs. He may have been a particularly perfect storm of narcissism, ambition, and cruelty but there are so many like him that just never make it into such advantageous circles. It can feel like a relief when one leaves us but their legacies become levers for those like him who are still among us, for the next Kissinger, the next charismatic figure who can play that great sucking vacuum of empathy off as an eccentric byproduct of rare intelligence that sees The Bigger Picture. He's a character that belongs in the "You missed the point by idolizing them" meme alongside Tyler Durden and Rick Sanchez. Their Big Picture is a self portrait and the world is just fucking wrong if it isn't one they got to make and control. It's Elon Musk, it's Mitch McConnell, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg. These are sociopaths, born on third base, working their way into positions of wealth and power on the coattails of luck and a couple successful ideas, gassed-up by the enthusiasm of other delusional rich people, and riding that wave straight to well-tailored hell as The Smartest Boy In the World.

The best thing we can do is mercilessly call these people out for what they are as often as possible. While that may do little to affect their status among the people who value cutthroat cynicism and Randian Ideals, it can certainly serve as a point of reference for legislators (if there are still any that actually attempt to represent human beings) if the next rising star tows a permanent comet's tail of well-documented lies, graft, failure, and public derision for having the gall to pretend they're anything but a well-fed bonfire of bullshit. Actual cow shit burns pretty well under the right conditions but given an alternative it's not what most of us would choose to cook with. The people who raise figures like Kissinger to power need to be reminded of that stink every single day of their lives. We may not achieve a Star Trek Socialist utopia by simply annoying the living hell out of politicians and the ruling class but if there is something these living voids of empathy truly deserve, it's an inescapable presence of people who actually value life marking them as a threat to continued human existence. Like a ring of mongooses harassing a snake. While a snake does have a right to live and eat too, it doesn't deserve to do so without resistance, or to kill off every creature that isn't helping it wipe all snake-eating creatures from the face of the earth.

They will play up our disgust as ignorance, as short-sightedness, as jealousy. While it can feel very cathartic to be petty, sarcastic, and hyperbolic, the best course of action may be to make sure the evidence of their harm never sleeps. They must be made to drag the corpses of their failures and their victims every day. Narcissists of this caliber will confidently do their damage right out in the open because in their hearts, they cannot be wrong. When called out they'll lie, or try to gaslight us by insisting we're foolishly mistaken or we're twisting their words. They must be fed a constant diet of resistance. Convincing them they're wrong or evil is likely impossible but their life force is constant validation. They suffocate without deference, admiration, approval, and sympathy. It's so vital to them that they preach to their followers a gospel of "flak is heaviest when you're directly over the target," that they're so heavily opposed because they're challenging the status quo, but every one of them requires that entrenched, incestuous, and concentrated network of privelige and exploitation to thrive. They need to be outnumbered, and the spark of their charisma smothered by reminding each other how selfish, cruel, and toxic they really are.

I'm sure there are people who mourn him for some endearing quality I've never seen. I wish those people peace. But more so, I hope a better, kinder, more just world learns to crush the dreams of people like Henry Kissinger before they get a chance so kill so many people.

In all seriousness, here are a few resources I think are helpful with regards to understanding just how thoroughly Henry Kissinger screwed the world over:

Kissinger by Behind the Bastards. This is a 6 part series done by the podcast Behind the Bastards, with the hosts of The Dollop on as guests. It's super funny and a very accessible foothold into understanding the scope of Kissinger's vast career.

Kissinger's Shadow by Greg Grandin. This book provides an in-depth analysis of Kissinger's tenure in the white house, covering both how he got into office, the changes he made in office, the policies he put forth, and their repercussions on the world.

ETAN's category on Kissinger. The East Timor and Indonesia action network has long been an outspoken critic of Kissinger's, and they've aggregated a lot of helpful articles here.

The Trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchins. While Grandin's book focuses less on the specificities of Kissinger's crimes, Hitchins has no such qualms and details each of them in depth.

I truly think understanding Kissinger, the way he thought, and the things that he did, are all indispensable when it comes to understanding the modern political climate and how foreign policy works in America and therefore, by necessity, in the world at large. The sheer amount of damage he was responsible for should never be underestimated.

[turtletotem]

Betrothed

Behold, @ikeracity‘s Cherik fic reward for winning a Star Bright party challenge! Prompt was "I never knew it but apparently I'm heir to the throne and have been betrothed to you since I was three" -- came out as something close to a Princess Diaries AU + arranged marriage! (Also on AO3.)

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"But why should I have to marry him?" Charles wailed, knowing he sounded like a petulant toddler instead of a nearly-grown-man of sixteen, but feeling helpless to stop it. He'd felt helpless quite a lot lately, ever since the prime minister of the obscure little nation of Genosha showed up at his door and told him he was now their king.

"I mean, technically you wouldn't exist if not for him, so it's the least you can do," said Raven, and sucked frappe foam through her straw with an amazingly obnoxious noise. Sprawled against the sofa at one end of his dressing room—he had a dressing room now—Raven looked completely at ease in the rich royal surroundings, which she ought to be, having grown up in them. Lady Ravenna Evangeline Penelope Margaret Mystique Darkholme was Charles's newly-discovered first cousin, and the single best thing to come out of all this mess.

"What do you mean, I wouldn't exist?" Charles said as his stylist staff—he had stylist staff—continued zipping and buttoning him into a sinfully expensive tuxedo.

"No one told you? Erik Lehnsherr's parents saved your dad's life. They were on their way to the hospital to have Erik when they saw your dad being hustled into a van by terrorists. Erik's mother—Erik's pregnant, in labor mother—fought them off with her handbag. So your dad promised that their child would marry his heir and become prince consort of Genosha."

"Well, that was ever so nice of my father," Charles said. "To give his eldest child away in marriage before I was even born."

"To be fair, even after you were born, no one really expected you to be heir to the throne. Brian was supposed to get married and have legitimate children at some point."

Which, Charles supposed, was why no one had ever bothered to tell him his father was not just from Genosha, but king of Genosha. No one had ever bothered much with Charles anyway, unless they needed a punching bag. At least now that he'd moved to this ridiculous palace in Genosha, Charles would never have to see his stepfather again.

"But this whole marriage idea is barbaric." He was wailing again. "The Lehnsherrs deserve a reward, certainly, but can't we just give them money? A lot of money? As much money as they want? Instead of making me marry some strange guy I've never met? I mean, it's lucky I'm even open to marrying a guy at all, what if my father's heir had been straight?"

"Sexual attraction isn't a required element of an arranged marriage anyway," Raven shrugged. "And same-sex marriage has been legal in Genosha for over a century—honestly it was never not legal, but it got made explicit… yeah, over a hundred years ago now. And Erik's not gonna be some strange guy you've never met. You're meeting him now! By the time you get married in two years, you'll be old friends."

Charles made a face, and Raven laughed, handing off her empty coffee cup to a passing staff member and unwrapping the cookie she'd bought with it.

"This is just how it works for royalty, Charles," Raven said, a little more seriously. "Sucks that you weren't able to grow up with the idea, but it is what it is."

"You're royalty, do you have a betrothed lurking somewhere?"

"I'm not royalty, I'm nobility. If you kick the bucket without an heir, then I might end up royalty. Until then, my parents know I'd scratch their eyes out if they tried to arrange my life for me." She grinned, all teeth.

"Oh, so it's all right for me, but when it's your life—"

"I don't mean it's all right for you! Just that this is how it is, whether you like it or not."

"Yeah? And what if I just refuse to do it? Then what?"

"Then probably they won't let you be king after all and you'll have to go back home to your mom and stepdad."

Charles's face crumpled in disgust.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Raven said, and shoved her entire cookie in her mouth.

Charles made a frustrated whining noise. "But it's so wrong! For someone else, someone who's dead now even, to decide who I should marry? Who I have to spend the rest of my life with, and tough luck if I ever fall in love with someone else?"

"Close your eyes, Your Majesty," murmured a stylist, and brushed powder over his face, making him sputter.

"Raven, what if Erik's terrible?" Charles said as soon as his face was free again. "What if he's mean and selfish and greedy? What if he's like Kurt and just out for himself? What if he's some narcissistic jerk who's going to make my life miserable? What if he's stupid? There's nothing morally wrong with being unintelligent, but I don't think I could stand it, Raven, being trapped all day every day with a stupid person, I'd go mad—I don't mean to sound vain, but it's no use pretending I'm not bright, my test scores—"

"You haven't even mentioned 'what if he's ugly,'" Raven said, sounding amused.

"His looks are hardly the most significant thing," Charles said stiffly. "It's much more important that he be a good companion, a good partner, and a good co-ruler for Genosha." His bottom lip trembled, but he held it together while the stylists finished tweaking him and left, before the words burst out of him. "Oh, Raven, what if he's hideous? What if I'm trapped with him forever and I can't even stand to look at him?"

"What if he can't stand to look at you? None of this was his idea either, you know. Oh, Charles, I didn't mean it!" Raven cried when Charles gave her a horrified, near-tearful look. "I was just teasing! Come here." She folded him into a tight hug. Raven was like that; the first thing she'd done when they met was hug him. Charles wasn't used to hugs, but he'd already decided he liked them, at least from Raven.

"Charles, listen to me," Raven said. "You are adorable. You are sweet and clever and good and full of love, and Erik Lehnsherr is lucky as hell to get you. If he doesn't appreciate you like he should, you divorce his ass and tell the prime minister and the whole cabinet to do whatever they dare about it. You hear me?"

Charles sniffled, wiping away the tears Raven's hug had squeezed out, and nodded. "I hear you."

"Good. Now let's go introduce you to this guy and see if he deserves you."

"It's not about whether he deserves me," Charles said as Raven tugged him out the door and down the corridor, past museum-quality oil paintings and crystal statuettes. "It's about the fact that a marriage arranged without any input or consent from the couple themselves is a human rights violation! It's about the fact that when we marry I'll still only be eighteen years old and that's an insane age to make a lifetime commitment! It's about the fact that Erik's mother doing one heroic deed almost twenty years ago doesn't mean her son will make a good ruler! It's about the fact that the heart cannot be legislated and sexual compatibility is important in a marriage and I don't want to marry Erik Lehnsherr—"

He stopped dead as Raven opened a door, revealing the young man within, and a very tiny internal Charles-voice said very sheepishly, Never mind.

Erik Lehnsherr—and so it had to be, there was no one else in the room—was absolutely gorgeous, with the whip-thin grace of a hunting cat and the cheekbones of a god. He had intense, enigmatic eyes the grey-blue color of a winter sky, and he was using them to stare at Charles just as speechlessly as Charles was staring at him.

Raven pushed Charles ahead of her into the room. "Charles, this is Erik. Erik, this is Charles. Good luck."

And she backed out of the room and closed the door.

"Raven, come back—!"

Charles's wasn't the only voice who had said the words. Startled, he turned back toward Erik, who had a hand extended toward the door as if to pull Raven back into the room.

"Do… you know Raven?" Charles asked.

"Of course I know Raven, we've grown up together." Erik continued staring at him, and it was hard to say whether he looked annoyed or terrified. He shifted his feet awkwardly and scratched at his dark auburn hair. "Um, hi. I'm Erik." He put out a hand.

"Charles." He tried not to visibly react as Erik shook his hand, tried not to let on that the most beautiful person he'd ever seen was touching him. "I wish I'd grown up with Raven, she's much better company than my stepbrother. How did you… why…?"

"King Brian was basically my godfather," Erik said, a shadow of grief passing over his face. "I've spent as much time at this palace as I have at my own home, being trained and educated for the day I would help rule the kingdom… For a while I was afraid I'd have to marry Raven, until the council confirmed you come before her in the succession."

"Afraid? Don't you like her?"

"Oh, I like her very much, but she's not…" Erik's cheeks reddened. "I mean, she's a girl, and I prefer… um…"

"Oh, good!" Charles couldn't help bursting out. "Me too!"

"Really?" Erik's smile, Charles thought, changed his whole face, transforming him from an incredible chiseled artwork into a real person, slightly odd and awkward and imperfect and wonderful. Charles blushed and looked away.

His gaze landed on a chessboard, on the table in front of Erik, and he belatedly realized that was what Erik had looked up from when Raven opened the door. "Oh, do you play?"

"I'm head of the team at my school," Erik said with shy pride. "Sometimes I could even beat Brian. Do you? Play chess, I mean?"

"I'm head of the team at my school," Charles said, unable to keep from laughing. "Or I was. Now that I live in Genosha, I might end up competing for your spot."

Erik's smile widened. "You're welcome to try. Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're the king. And my betrothed. And—" But he didn't finish that sentence, just got redder in the face, and turned to reset the chess board.

So Charles sat down with the young man he was being barbarically forced to marry, who was not stupid, not ugly, not any of the things Charles had feared he would be, and played chess far into the night.

[progressivejudaism]

Parshat Noach:   We Need to Learn to Talk to Talk to One Another

Rabbinical Student Joshua Gischner, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, delivered to Temple Beth Am, Monessen PA on Oct. 20, 2017  / 1 Hesvon 5778 

Here is an excerpt from the Huffington Post from right after Hurricane Harvey hit:

“The United Orthodox Synagogue of Houston [...] [was] flooded by several feet as Hurricane Harvey dropped record rainfall on the city in late August. [...] The building took in 4 to 5 feet of water [...] All the rooms were affected, including the main sanctuary, classrooms and the rabbi’s office.  Prayer books and Bibles had fallen off shelves and were soaked.  Chairs were toppled.  The Torah scrolls had been taken out of the building before the storm hit, but water had crept close to the ark where the scrolls are typically kept ― missing it by inches. [...]

Harvey made landfall near Texas’ Gulf Coast on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, eventually dropping 40 to 65 inches of rain in parts of southeast Texas. The storm claimed the lives of at least 50 people across eight counties and caused billions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses, and places of worship” like Rabbi Barry Gelman’s community.

The rabbi told Huffpost, “We’ve been focusing ever since the flood on being positive and first helping people through the initial stages of this, which is very complicated. You walk into your home and see 1 or 2 or 5 feet of water, and stuff is ruined. It’s paralyzing and demoralizing.” (source)

"בַּיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֗ה נִבְקְעוּ֙ כָּֽל־מַעְיְנֹת֙ תְּה֣וֹם רַבָּ֔ה וַאֲרֻבֹּ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם נִפְתָּֽחוּ׃"

“...Bayom hazeh, niv-ku kol-mayanot tehom rabah v’arubot hashamayim niftachu.”

“On that day, all of the fountains of the great deep burst apart, and the floodgates of the heavens broke open.”

(Gn. 7:11)

Earlier, I read from parshat Noakh: the Torah’s account of a disastrous, ancient Flood which was sent by God. The Flood wiped out everyone and everything in its path in order to destroy those who were evil.  Is it possible to make connections between God’s destructive power in this account, and with contemporary natural disasters?  If so, does our tradition teach us that in mid-September, it was God who sent a 7.1 magnitude earthquake to Mexico City?  Was it because of evil behavior?  Is God responsible for the wildfires currently raging in California? [The same fires which destroyed our beloved URJ, Union for Reform Judaism, Camp Newman]  Do Californians deserve this wrath?  Did God send Hurricanes Harvey and Irma?  Did God displace Texans, Floridians, and Puerto Ricans; many of whom are still without power and food? Is God responsible for the fact that they are being used as a political tool by our lawmakers?  My mom’s colleague Dr. Sharita, her parent’s live in Saint Martin.  Their roof was ripped off by Hurricane Harvey and their home was further devastated by Hurricane Irma. (Pause) Are they bad people?  (Aside to congregation) I can assure you that they are not.

No.  This theology makes me feel very uncomfortable.  It makes me uncomfortable because I cannot believe that an all-powerful, compassionate God would wipe out Their children- especially because they are (make air quotes) “evil,” because isn’t evil subjective.  Especially when our tradition views the word “chet” or “sin,” not as an egregious and despicable act against Divine law, but as a misstep.  I believe that Avinu Malkenu, our loving Parent and Sovereign, understands that we can always do a little better, because we’re only human.  But also, didn’t God produce a rainbow at the end of the story as a sign of a brit, a Covenant, that this sort of destructive power would never happen again in response to the (make air quotes) evil ways of human beings?  

How can one really determine what evil is anyway?  In a galaxy far far away, Darth Vader is most often viewed throughout the Star Wars movies as an evil dictator bent on control of the galaxy.  But his story isn’t that simple.  Remember, when he takes off his mask before dying, he dies as one of the good guys.  Vader made a mistake, a huge mistake but still a “chet” or a misstep, when joining the Dark Side.  In the Star Wars films, throughout other fantasy stories, and in the Noah Account, evil is evil because the bad guys don’t know how to empathetically work with the good guys.  Noah is righteous, everyone else is evil.  But I suggest that there is more depth and complication in the background of our myth.  Perspective is key, and reality is different from fantasy.  Assuming that this story is somewhat based on human nature, I cannot believe that all of the people who were destroyed in the Flood were (use air quotes) “evil.”  I think that the supposed evil people wiped out in the Flood more closely reflect who we consider evil people today.  Think about our broken political system.  Evil exists on whichever side of a political or social spectrum that you do not identify with.  I propose that this same phenomenon of miscommunication, is the evil that propels God in the Noah story to destroy humanity.

So why do our modern floods and natural disasters come?  It is tempting to use tragedy to explain the ways of God in dealing with human faults.  Many religious responses to tragedy “assume that God is the cause of our suffering, and [they] try to understand why God would want us to suffer.  Is it for our own good, or is it a punishment we deserve, or could it be that God does not care what happens to us?  [...] [People are] left either hating [them]selves for deserving such a fate, or hating God for sending it to [them], when [they] did not deserve it.”

Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” asks us to think of another approach.  He writes “Maybe God does not cause our suffering.  Maybe it happens for some reason other than the will of God. [...]  Could it be that God does not cause the bad things that happen to us?  [...] Could it be that ‘How could God do this to me?’ is really the wrong question for us to ask?"  (”When Bad Things Happen to Good People, pp. 34-35)

So what is the right question to ask?  I think that our answers can be explained by viewing the Flood Account side-by-side with the Tower of Babel story, which also appears in this week’s parsha.  The Tower of Babel narrative is the Jewish version of a myth where people build a tall tower so that they, according to many of our commentators, could rebel, resort to idolatry, and rule the human race (On parshat Noach, The Book of Genesis Commentary by Judaica Press Books of the Bible, ed. Rabbi Moses Feinstein, p. 135).  Both the Tower of Babel and the Flood stories can be viewed as metaphors for how we communicate with one another, or really how we don’t communicate with one another. 

I propose that the “evilness” of the individuals before the Flood, really was just miscommunication among people.  Humans in the story, as humans do now, do not know how to talk to one another, unlike the builders of the Tower of Babel who use their one language to work together for an evil purpose.  Instead of sending a flood this time, God forces them to each speak different languages, thus making it impossible to communicate and complete their horrendous project.  Today, we live with a direct parallel in the fact that although we can speak the same language, our divisiveness has made it nearly impossible to work together making it seem like many of us do speak different languages.  And if you notice, many of those who do speak the same language, in the sense that they are like-minded, have been hard at work at creating their own evil Tower of Babels in the form of inhumane legislation, divisive and despicable words, and actions bent on hurting others.  In our evil world of “alternative facts” and “fake news” we must work to speak the same language and build a very different kind of Tower, while not being afraid to condemn baseless hatred when someone is threatened.

I am not suggesting that recent natural disasters are a merely a Divine Response to this problem of miscommunication, but I am suggesting that we need to learn to talk to one another.  Although, it will not necessarily stop floods and earthquakes and fires,  it will help us to rebuild, and possibly stop extreme weather challenges, terrorism, mass shootings and other catastrophes.  Learning each other’s languages will help us to rebuild bridges and roads, provide food and water to those in need, and help bereaved families.  In the aftermath of tragedy, talking to one another will help us to build a better world with love.

That is what the rainbow represents.  God puts this symbol in the heavens, to teach us that seeing the humanity in every last person is key to making a world that we can all be proud of.  

“אֶת־קַשְׁתִּ֕י נָתַ֖תִּי בֶּֽעָנָ֑ן וְהָֽיְתָה֙ ל��א֣וֹת בְּרִ֔ית בֵּינִ֖י וּבֵ֥ין הָאָֽרֶץ׃ ”

“Et-kashti natati be’anan v’hayta le’ot b’rit banai uvein haaretz”

“I placed my rainbow in the clouds, and it will serve as a symbol of the Covenant,” the brit, “between Me and the earth.”  

(Gn. 9:13)

Notice the past tense.  “Et-kashti natati be’anan” “I placed my rainbow in the clouds.”  The beautiful rainbow, a reminder to see every human being as created in the Image of God, was present the entire time.  And that rainbow still smiles down on us, especially when met with a disastrous storm.  (The Ramban on Gn. 9:13, The Book of Genesis Commentary by Judaica Press Books of the Bible, ed. Rabbi Moses Feinstein, p. 123)