#Consul J

[dapling]

"And now, I'm having the time of my life!"

[npzlawyersforimmigration]

DHS Ends Humanitarian Parole for Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan Nationals: Key Implications Posted on March 27, 2025

https://visaserve.com/dhs-ends-humanitarian-parole-for-cuban-haitian-nicaraguan-and-venezuelan-nationals-key-implications/

#CHNVParole #USImmigrationUpdate #HumanitarianParoleEnded #DHSUpdate #ImmigrationPolicyChange #WorkPermitRevoked #I9Compliance #CHNVDeadline #DeportationRisk #ImmigrationAlternatives #EmployersAlert #AsylumOptions #FamilySponsorship #H1BVisa #TNVisa #O1Visa

http://www.visaserve.com

[youthchronical]

Draft List for New Travel Ban Proposes Trump Target 43 Countries

The Trump administration is considering targeting the citizens of as many as 43 countries as part of a new ban on travel to the United States that would be broader than the restrictions imposed during President Trump’s first term, according to officials familiar with the matter. A draft list of recommendations developed by diplomatic and security officials suggests a “red” list of 11 countries…

[memories-of-ancients]

Roman Military Diploma (discharge papers) for a soldier named Dassius, dated 88 AD

"The Emperor Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus, son of the deified Vespasian, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the eighth year, acclaimed "Imperator" seventeen times, having been consul fourteen times, censor for life, father of his country, has granted to the infantrymen and cavalry who are serving in five cavalry and two infantry companies, namely, the select Praetorian, the steadfast Gallic and Thracian, the Phrygian, the Sebastean, the Antian of Gauls and Thracians; the First Gaetulian cohort and the First Augustan Thracian cohort (which are in Syria serving under Publius Valerius Patruinus) and likewise to the men honorably discharged from these companies and cohorts who have served twenty-five years (their names are listed below), and to their children and descendants [to these the Emperor has granted] citizenship and the right of Roman marriage with the wives whom they had when citizenship was granted to them or, if any are unmarried, with those women whom they might marry later, with only one wife for each man. Dated on November 7 in the consulship of Manius Otacilius Catulus and Sextus Julius Sparsus [AD 88]. To the soldier Dassius, the son of Dasens, a Pannonian of the company of Phrygians commanded by Marcus Helenius Priscus. This copy has been checked against the bronze tablet posted at Rome on the Capitol on the left side wall of the Public Record Office."

from The J. Paul Getty Museum

[owens-bisexual-lighting]

She’s Just My Baby - Dr. James Wilson (blurb)

TW: miscarriage, slightly dark! Wilson, age gap, implied that reader was his patient when they met

“J-James…” she stuttered as she stumbled out of the bedroom to the living room where James was having a drink, watching something on the TiVo… she had went to bed early, just thought it was a hot flash from the pregnancy… she had awoken disoriented with blood down her thighs, her lacy night shorts lnow stained red.

As soon as James saw her, he ran to her. The sight of the blood down her legs made it clear what was happening as he helped her into the car. He tried to consul her but she was too disoriented and distressed to make out any words he said.

Almost a day later, she awoke in a hospital bed. She was still a bit out of it as she looked up at the person at her side, she saw her husband, Dr. James Wilson, in his lab coat and by her side, looking exactly how he did when they first fell in love.

“Hey” he said airily as he looked at her waking up, happy to seethe beautiful bright eyes of the younger woman again, for the first time in almost a day.

“Hey…” she said back.

“Do you know what happened…?”

“Lost the baby…?” She said, her tone distant, like she was trying to distance herself from the loss.

“Yes… and you lost so much blood. Your doctors are going to need to test for bleeding disorders.” James said in a very soft voice, like she was so delicate. He could see her vulnerability, even if she didn’t want to show it. He knew that right now, she was so physically and emotionally vulnerable.

“O-okay…” she said, holding back a sniffle.

James placed his hand on hers, a hand she hadn’t even realized was resting on her abdomen where the baby was supposed to be.

James��s mind was racing with all of the possibilities of what could have caused this… she was House’s patient now, but he didn’t tell her yet, her stay at the hospital was going to be a while and she was going to be put through the wringer. But, she didn’t need to know that right now. She just needed James by her side.

She was younger than him, he was 37, she was 25. He always wanted to protect her, from everything, even if she found his protectiveness over bearing and paternalistic. Here he was again, deciding what was best for her… he was her power of attorney and House was his friend. He knew House would cure her in between all the comments he would make about how he needed to bring her back to full health so ‘her and Wilson can go back to playing daddy and little girl in bed’ amongst the various other comments House made about ‘wife number four’ as he has constantly referred to her through all this.

After a few moments of pregnant silence between them, she looked at the hospital bracelet on her arm, “D-Dr. House…” she read out loud. “House is my Doctor…? Must be bad…” she said solemnly, but almost emotionless, she knew exactly what kind of psychological games House was about to use her as a pawn play with Wilson.

“Yeah he is… we just don’t know what caused it and your symptoms are odd for a spontaneous miscarriage which leads us to believe something more is going on,” James said, trying not to alarm her too much.

James always did this, always sugarcoated the truth… she didn’t even fight it in this moment and usually she would… she was just too weak

[girlactionfigure]

THURSDAY HERO: Aracy Carvalho

Aracy Carvalho was a Brazilian clerk working at her country’s consulate in Hamburg Germany who used her position to save German Jews and find homes for them in Brazil.

Born in 1908 to a German mother and a Brazilian father in Rio Negro, Brazil, Aracy was a bright child with a facility with languages. Besides Portuguese, her native language, she spoke German, English and French. As a young adult, Aracy moved to Sao Paulo. She married a German man with whom she had one child before separating in 1935.

With her multicultural upbringing, sharp mind and friendly personality, Aracy decided to go into the diplomatic field. She was appointed to the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg, Germany in 1936 and served as Chief of the Passport Section. Two years after her arrival in Germany, a horrific pogrom against Jews took place throughout Germany. November 9, 1938 became known as Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass.” Much more than glass was broken by the Nazi party’s paramilitary unit, helped by fervent members of the Hitler Youth as well as German civilians. Jewish homes, businesses, schools and hospitals were destroyed with sledgehammers, and 267 synagogues were burned to the ground. Many Jews were brutally murdered, 7000 Jewish businesses were destroyed. 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Jews across the country were thrown into despair and fear, and over the next few days 638 (or more) Jews committed suicide.

During Kristallnacht, Aracy sheltered a Jewish couple, Margarethe Bertel-Levy and her husband, in her small apartment. She then made arrangements for them to leave Germany safely, with most of their possessions. As the situation for Jews in Germany worsened, Aracy hid several other Jews. One of them, Gunther Heilborn, would later name his Brazilian-born daughter Aracy in honor of the brave young woman who saved his life. 

Working in the diplomatic field, Aracy’s job required her to be apolitical. Brazil and Germany had a strong trade relationship, swapping Brazilian cotton for German industrial goods, and the president of Brazil, Getulio Dornelles Vargas, a ruthless dictator, did not want his diplomatic corps to do anything to alienate Hitler. Aracy was instructed to “unofficially” prevent desperate Jewish refugees from going to Brazil by giving them visas marked with J, and then denying them approval to travel. This was not acceptable to Aracy, whose moral compass overrode the instructions of her superiors. She quietly refrained from marking Jewish passports with the tell-tale J, instead issuing as many valid visas as she could to Jewish applicants, even those she knew were using forged passports. She also helped them financially so that they had enough money to start a new life once they reached Brazil. Aracy became known among Jews as the “Angel of Hamburg.”

Around this time, João Guimarães Rosa was appointed Brazil’s deputy consul in Hamburg. On his first day on the job he met Aracy and was soon entranced by the beautiful passport official, especially since there was something mysterious about her. Aracy seemed to be hiding something about herself, and as João got to know her and earned her trust, he discovered what it was. Initially he was shocked, but soon came to agree that she was doing the right thing, and developed enormous admiration for the brave young woman, who could get fired or worse for disobeying orders. They were married in 1940.

The political winds often shifted quickly during World War II, and by 1942 Brazil was no longer on the side of Germany and instead joined the Allied Forces. Aracy and João were recalled back to Brazil, where João became one of Brazil’s most celebrated authors who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967. 

In 1982, Aracy Carvalho de Guimarães Rosa was honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem. She lived quietly in Brazil until her death in 2011 at the advanced age of 102. “Passport to Freedom,” a miniseries about Aracy’s wartime heroism, aired on Brazilian television in 2021. 

For breaking the rules to save innocent lives, we honor Aracy Carvalho de Guimarães Rosa as this week’s Thursday Hero.

[random-fandom-chaos]

Guys guys guy

I BEGGETH OF THOU

GIVE FINANCIER COOKIE ANGST

UHH

SHES LIKE BEING IGNORED BY THE CONSUL OR TREATED AS LESS BY EVERYONE

(yes clotted cream noticed but it would be really angst if he noticed because he found her crying. She probably alwyas comforts him and I say that bitch is really detached from actual emotions. And so much things stressed her out.)

BWAAAHHH PLEASE J WILL GIVE U ANYTHING

MAKE IT AS ANSGTY AS U WANT I DONT MIND DARK TOPICS

[clandestineivory]

Can you write some hcs of Affogato Cookie x Clotted Cream Cookie?

Ofc honey (I’m so tired and I need this boost of creativity and confidence)

AffoClotted hcs

Summary: After making a secret alliance with the Créme Republic’s very own Consul, he now stays within Clotted Cream Cookie’s mansion. The two get a bit closer then expected. Hell, Affogato Cookie thought that this would give him an advantage to have a personal relationship with the Consul…but then he got attached as well and shit took a turn.

TW: Why is all of this just bickering, these idiots need to get a room and make out, too much tension for their own good, swearing, failed manipulation because Affogato is actually pathetic now, Clotted Cream gets internalized homophobia and hates it, Dark Cacao tries to abuse both (and fails)

Also personal hc that Affogato is pansexual and transmasc, and Clotted Cream is bi but fails to hide it

Whores istg /j (This was the thing I use to start all my drafts)

—

So, after Clotted Cream finds a completely vulnerable and pathetic ex-royal advisor, he knew that one, Affogato could be using this little alliance as a way to regain power, or two, he was actually really interested in living with the Consul and actually having a house again. Yeah, Clotted Cream realized that it was both.

During the meeting when Clotted Cream was first introduced to the Ancients, Affogato was with him, yet…preferred to stay on the airship for a bit longer. He actually had to be pried off of it by Financier because he was still genuinely nervous about seeing Dark Cacao and getting even more of a punishment because he showed his face to the King.

Luckily, when Dark Cacao saw Affogato, the oh-so heroic Consul shielded Affogato (begrudgingly, but he couldn’t show that) from any threats that the King of the Black Citadel wanted to enact on the ex-advisor. And don’t worry, Clotted Cream also defended Affogato’s sorry ass! Y’know the drill, saying that he was “reformed” and trying to become better under the eyes of the Divines! (Yeah, like Affogato believed in that dumb light stuff. Clotted Cream was also kinda coming up with stuff on the spot, but he managed to maintain that cool and composed demeanor for most of the time.)

I kinda forgot what else happened in the Cookie Odyssey so let’s actually get onto the silly ship part of it!

—

Clotted Cream practically begged Affogato to sleep in the guest room, but our dear little ex-advisor merely shook his head and had that bastard grin of his. So yeah, they were sharing a bed the entire time. Totally normal, I know. They were roommates after all… 😘

They bicker…a lot. Usually, Clotted is tryna settle the situation down, but as soon as Affogato says some kind of petty insult and has that TOTALLY charming rolled eyes, expect the ex-advisor to be picked up by Clotted Cream’s coat belts and practically thrown onto the guest bed. Awh, so sad… 😞 But don’t worry, because Affo sneaks back into the Consul’s room anyways and snuggles up to him. After all, keep your friends close, but your enemies closer~ (they HAVE to make out)

Clotted Cream is probably good at flirting (probably.) but when he’s around Affogato and the teasing cocky bitch whispers some kind of flirty joke, he can’t help but feel REALLY flustered, even though he tries his best not to show it, he’s really a nervous wreck.

The Consul gets a bunch of internalized homophobia, probably due to Elder Custard being a bitch and super toxic. Especially with the idea that an esteemed politician like him would be following all the rules and stuff about this kind of thing…

Affogato already saw the look on his face. Ah yes, that look of “Wait, is this right or am I just a fool?” kind of look. During one time when Clotted Cream had that look again while filling out paperwork on his desk, Affogato creeped up behind, took the Consul’s chin, and gently but teasingly pressed his lips against Clotted’s for a second, before smirking proudly.

“Well? Are you still getting those…frankly boring and negative thoughts, or are you too shocked by me?”

Clotted never said anything in that moment, his eyes wide and a deep blush appearing on his face. In that moment…well, I think he probably forgot, since it all happened so quick. But Affogato definitely remembered it. Of course he could recall the way the Consul pulled him closer, tugging on his hair and letting out a few breathy sighs as he did so.

…well, they certainly got a room, didn’t they?

[todaysdocument]

Receipt from Harnden and Company

Record Group 104: Records of the U.S. MintSeries: Correspondence and Records Used for Exhibition PurposesFile Unit: Records Loaned to the Mint of the United States in Philadelphia

HARDEN & CO'S

BOSTON, LIVERPOOL, LONDON, PARIS, HAVRE, ANTWERP,

AND NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, ALBANY, TROY AND BUFFALO

Package Express, Foreign Letter, and General Forwarding Office.

OFFICES.

Messrs. HARDEN & CO., No. 20 Water Street, . . . . . . LIVERPOOL.

" MACLEAN, MARIS & CO., No. 3 Abchurch Lane, . . . LONDON.

" EMERSON & CO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PARIS AND HAVRE.

SAMUEL HAIGHT, Esq., American Consul, . . . . . . . . . ANTWERP.

Messrs. J. & J. G. WOODWARD, . . . . . . . . . . . . . ST. JOHN, N. B.

Hon. J. LEANDER STARR, . . . . . . . . . . . . HALIFAX, N. S.

Messrs. J. B. SAZERAC & CO., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HAVANA.

" THOMPSON & CO., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ALBANY, N. Y.

" HARDEN & CO., 43 South Third Street . . . PHILADELPHIA, PA.

" HARDEN & CO., No. 3 Wall Street, . . . . . . . NEW YORK.

" HARDEN & CO., No. 8 Court Street, . . . . . . . . BOSTON.

ALEXANDER BLACK, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . . . CHARLESTON, S. C.

Bills of Exchange may be had at Boston Office, on England, Ireland, Scotland, France, and Antwerp, from 3 to 100. Collections of

Drafts, Notes, and Bill, and Purchases of Goods made as above.

MARKS AND NUMBERS

R. M. Patterson

Phil

FREIGHT, $

No. NEW YORK, July 9th 1884

Received of Geo Domingues

One. kg. Gold dust

Numbered and marked as in the margin, which we promise to forward by our

Express to Phil and deliver to as due tell

Agent, (loss by fire and perils of the seas expected.)

N.B. All parcels must be marked "HARDEN & CO'S EXPRESS" Harden and Co. or their Agent, will constantly

accompany, and have the exclusive care and custody of their Package Car, and will be responsible for the Goods carried in or

destined for it. The New Jersey Steam Navigation Company, and the Rail-road Corporations assume no liability therefor.

For HARDEN & Co.

[signature?]

[mariacallous]

Eric Adams wanted to see the world, to see it in style. But he wasn’t a rich man, just a former cop and rising politician in a largely ceremonial job, Brooklyn Borough President. Luckily for him, there were a number of benefactors who federal prosecutors say were ready to help him travel in a manner benefitting the position he was angling for: mayor of New York City.

According to a sprawling, 57-page indictment unsealed on Thursday, there was the chairman of a Turkish university; a promoter “whose business includes organizing events to introduce Turkish corporations and businesspeople to politicians, celebrities, and others whose influence may benefit the corporations”; and a senior official in the Turkish government, who, prosecutors say, “later steered illegal contributions and improper gifts to Adams to gain influence with and, eventually, to obtain corrupt official action from Adams.” 

Adams in the summer of 2017 went with his son and a staffer to Nice, Istanbul, Sri Lanka, and Beijing, flying business class the whole way. In October, he went again to Istanbul and Beijing, and then on to Nepal. Those tickets were, all told, worth $51,000. But he got it all for free. 

The relationship deepened from there, as Adams began to run for mayor in earnest. The Turks allegedly funneled money to his campaign through false entities, or “straw donors.” Accepting such donations is against the law — and Adams allegedly received public matching funds based on these contributions. Adams allegedly returned the favor, in part by pressuring the fire department to allow the opening of a $300 million, 36-story glass tower to house the Turkish consulate, just off of First Avenue and 45th Street, without an inspection and “in time for a high-profile visit by Turkey‘s president” — a diplomatic coup for a man who’s functionally a dictator.

Adams has vigorously denied all of the charges. And at least one Adams ally I spoke with in the immediate aftermath breathed a quarter-sigh of relief — this person was expecting even more, and more serious, charges. “It’s obviously not great but this is weaker than I thought it would be,” the source tells me.

But that exhale assumes that the federal charges against Adams begin and end in this document. They almost certainly do not, with at least four more federal probes reportedly targeting his inner circle and FBI agents searching the mayor’s residence shortly before the indictment was announced. It also assumes that the Turks were the only government to allegedly turn Adams into an unregistered foreign agent. That, too, could prove to be a dangerous supposition — especially given the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn’s pursuit of Chinese influence in New York. 

In the last four years, that federal prosecutor’s office alone has charged a dozen separate criminal cases of covert Chinese government interference in U.S. politics, business, and civil society. An aide to New York’s governor was indicted as a foreign agent on Sept. 3. An ex-corrections officer got 20 months for harassing an artist who lampooned Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Two more men were arrested for operating a secret Chinese police station out of the Manhattan headquarters of a group for expats from Fujian province. 

The examples spiral out from there.In July, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Robert Menendez, a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey, of taking bribes and acting as Egypt’s agent. In August, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged a hitman with trying to assassinate Donald Trump, allegedly on Iran’s orders. In September, prosecutors in Manhattan revealed an alleged Russian plot to funnel $10 million to MAGA influencers. This is a partial list. A snippet of a list, really. And all of these developments happened in just the last few months, just in and around this one metro area, where a wide array of foreign actors are looking to turn New York into something like Spy City.  

The 20 experts, officials, and activists I spoke to couldn’t agree on whether these cases represent a major escalation in this covert activity, an increase in Washington’s willingness to combat it, or both. But they all agreed that such efforts are widespread and being directed by countries across the globe. And while it might be tempting to speculate about what this says about the various foreign policy strategies in foreign capitals, the clear takeaway is that malicious actors around the world see America as pliable, and influence as something that can be bought on the cheap. In other words, the most disturbing part about these covert foreign pressure campaigns is what it says about our politics, our society. About us.

ONE OF THE MORE disturbing foreign influence cases to recently come to light begins 35 years ago, in Beijing. Yan Xiong was a student activist there, jailed for being part of the big Tiananmen Square protests. When he got out, he made his way to America, enlisted in the U.S. Army, and eventually served two tours as a chaplain in Iraq. By 2021, Yan was running for Congress in lower Manhattan. He could tell that something was off. He’d show up to candidate forums, and then wouldn’t be allowed to speak. He’d try to raise money, no dice. There was an old man who wouldn’t stop taking pictures of Yan’s campaign. Yan would go out to his driveway late at night and find a car there, headlights blazing. It was unnerving, but Yan was used to looking over his shoulder.

Nevertheless, Yan was shocked when, in March of 2022, federal prosecutors revealed that he was being targeted by the Chinese government. The goal: to surveil and sabotage the chaplain’s long-shot campaign. “Go deep and dig up something. Right? For example, past incidents of tax evasion… if he used prostitutes in the past… if he had a mistress,” a member of China’s Ministry of State Security allegedly told a private investigator here in the U.S. If the private investigator couldn’t come up with — or make up — any dirt, the P.I. was encouraged to use other means to take Yan out of the race: “In the end, violence would be fine too.” 

In the end, Yan’s campaign netted him only 750 votes — not great, but 50 percent more than former Mayor Bill De Blasio received. The P.I. hired by the Chinese government never found any dirt on Yan, or physically attacked him. But the attempt to ratfuck Yan’s campaign continues to leave a wound. Yan’s getting ready to move for the fifth time in two years — in part “for safety, for psychology.” In August, prosecutors unveiled another layer to the alleged plot against him. The old man who’d been taking all those pictures? He was a former Tiananmen Square veteran, too — one who was now accused of working as an unregistered agent for Beijing. To Yan, he’s another “victim” of a regime that’s all-too-willing to extend its reach here. “It’s a tragedy, that’s my opinion,” Yan tells me.

And Yan’s case isn’t the only one in which there seem to be shadowy figures just out of frame. Shujun Wang, another longtime Chinese dissident, was convicted in late August of working as Beijing’s spy. The other day, I called his lawyer to ask about a member of the defense team, a man listed in court documents as a paralegal, who was, in fact, a Florida realtor, recently acquitted of rape. What was he doing there? Who was he? “He is nobody,” the lawyer answered.  

These influence campaigns by foreign governments, prosecutors allege, reach all the way down to the lowest levels of state and local government. Take Linda Sun, who started in 2012 as one of the more junior aides out of 200 or so in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office. The former beauty pageant contestant and Barnard grad, who had come to New York from Nanjing when she was a kid, put in the work as a liaison to the borough of Queens and the state’s Asian American community. She’d help connect constituents to government services, make appearances at Lunar New Year events, write up proclamations, and liaise with foreign consulates. Over the years, she gained leverage. Cuomo’s communications shop — described by one former colleague as “95 percent Caucasian” — relied on Sun to tell them how a state proclamation or press release might resonate in Asian communities.

“She did her job. She went home. Didn’t cause any trouble, never caused any drama. But in hindsight, [there was] a lot of trust in that particular position. Because when you ask her opinion about how something plays, we were asking how it plays in, you know, [the Chinese American neighborhoods of] Sunset Park and Flushing. Not how it played in Beijing,” that source tells me.

By 2015, Sun had a willing ear in Kathy Hochul, the new Lieutenant Governor, who was iced out of Cuomo’s inner circle — and eager to build up her own political constituency. Hochul made sure to attend Chinese American community celebrations and events to promote trade with Beijing. (A Hochul aide notes that she interfaced with all kinds of foreign officials, including a half-dozen such meetings just with the Canadians in 2016.) Sun made sure there were all sorts of meetings Hochul wouldn’t take, wouldn’t even know were offered. For example, prosecutors allege, when officials from the rival government of Taiwan tried to get together with Hochul in D.C. in mid-2016, Sun scheduled talks with Beijing’s representatives instead — and then bragged to the Chinese consulate about what she had done. Hochul began to be quoted favorably and often by Beijing’s official state news agency. Sun started to receive gifts from Chinese officials, prosecutors say: tickets to Carnegie Hall, then a wire transfer for $47,895 for travel expenses. 

As Sun’s responsibilities increased, her profile grew. She worked with legislators when Korean American nail salons were revealed to be serially underpaying their workers. She helped steer money to Asian American groups as threats to them rose during the pandemic.

By 2021, Hochul was governor. Sun had a bigger title, deputy chief of staff, and was displaying sharper elbows. “She felt very emboldened with making sure that there was a focus [on] protecting mainland China’s agendas,” State Assemblyman Ron Kim, who previously held Sun’s community liaison job, recalls. “That was universally understood, because when myself and other[s] carried certain resolutions to celebrate U.S.-Taiwan relations, I got calls from the governor’s office letting me know that the Chinese consulate is very upset with you, and they would prefer if I don’t do such resolutions again.” (Sun has pleaded not guilty to charges she acted as an agent of the Chinese government, and her attorneys declined to comment for this story.) 

This might seem arcane and sort of small-ball. Who cares if some local pol doesn’t issue a Taiwan proclamation? But it’s part of a strategy, says Bethany Allen, author of Beijing Rules, echoing the sentiments of several U.S. officials. “If this is done extensively, consistently, quietly across many states, many state capitals, many state governments, local governments,” Allen tells me, “it can shape the debate. Have a strong downward pressure on the things that China wants to quiet.” 

And it’s a strategy that Beijing is willing to pursue over the long haul — to influence people at the lowest levels of local government, and let those folks rise over time. Back when she was a reporter, Allen broke the news of a suspected Chinese spy in California who cultivated relationships from the political to the romantic with city councilmen, small-town mayors, and at least one Congressman. The spy’s true motivations weren’t uncovered until that Congressman, Rep. Eric Swalwell, was on the verge of joining the House Intelligence Committee and gaining access to some of the nation’s better-protected national secrets. (Swalwell denied any romantic relationship, and a House ethics panel decided to take no action against him after a two-year investigation.)  

Linda Sun’s case never reached that kind of crisis point. But her value to Chinese officials was clear. The wire transfers were in the millions by 2021. The Chinese Consul General in New York — a sharp, genial diplomat named Huang Ping — sent Nanjing-style salted ducks to Sun’s parents, a half-dozen at a time. According to one source, she started showing up with a fresh tan and a new, high-end handbag to every community event. “People were definitely talking about how she went from rags to riches overnight,” Kim tells me. “Her parents lived in a one-bedroom apartment… She was trying to get a mortgage to buy a condo in Flushing, and she could barely get that. But all of a sudden, now she’s living in a mansion.” And in a sweet vacation home, too. Around the same time Sun and her husband bought a $3.6 million home in Manhasset, New York, they also, according to prosecutors, purchased “an ocean-view condominium on the 47th floor of a high rise building in Honolulu, Hawaii, currently valued at approximately $2.1 million.”

SUN AND ADAMS ARE the first local officials to be charged with acting as agents of a foreign power. They probably won’t be the last, or even the last in New York. (“What you saw with the governor in New York, that’s going to be scratching an itch that tickles in a lot of different places,” Bill Evanina, who spent seven years as the federal government’s top counterintelligence official, tells me.) The place has long attracted spies and clandestine power brokers, and not just because of the UN, or Wall Street, or all the corporate headquarters. America’s best city is, not coincidentally, also its most diverse; more than three million of the eight million-plus people living here are foreign-born. Those diasporas are often of intense interest to the countries from which they spring, especially if the countries in question are ruled by authoritarians. The revolutionary movements that took down the Czar, the Chinese Emperor, and the Shah were all incubated overseas. 

These diasporas also can wield outsized power in local politics, too. New York’s election laws are so labyrinthine and complex, with elections held on off-years and on strange dates, that they’re practically designed to keep people from voting. (Ron Kim has 115,000 people living in his district in Queens, for example; fewer than 3,200 of them voted in his contested primary race, which is the only race that matters in a one-party town.) So if any one group gets behind a single candidate, or gins up turnout, or dumps in a lot of money, it can swing an election. Kim faced off against a primary opponent backed by a well-known local community leader who is openly supportive of the Chinese Communist Party. They each poured more than $600,000 into that tiny-turnout primary race. “I felt this was a clear effort to get a political seat for a person who is loyal to their agenda,” Kim says. “This isn’t about lawmaking in [the state capital of] Albany, but it’s about being the power broker of Flushing that will give them credibility and access.”

This is all happening in a place where the politics are — there’s no other way to put this — corrupt as fuck. The five federal investigations reportedly swirling around Adams and his closest associates involve everyone from the police commissioner to the schools chancellor to his top fundraisers to a pair of deputy mayors. Adams’ immediate predecessor, de Blasio, dodged indictment for violating campaign finance laws, but not by much. After leaving office, former mayor Rudy Giuliani took money from a North Korean gangster and then worked with a man he admitted was likely a Russian spy. Long Island’s George Santos was expelled from Congress after less than a year; he recently pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud. One of Santos’ bigger Republican critics on the Island, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, was just exposed for giving Congressional jobs to his lover and his fiancée’s daughter. 

You get the idea: plenty of politicians with their hands out; elections practically designed to be swayed by small groups; those small groups susceptible to foreign infiltration and pressure, because they’ve all got family back home. “New York would be at the top of the list in terms of foreign governments, foreign regimes wanting to target,” says Casey Michel, author of the newly published Foreign Agents. “Especially New York City. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the major investigation into a municipal authority as a target of potential foreign influence is Adams.”

So let’s talk about the mayor. Adams has been ducking corruption allegations — and playing diaspora politics — for more than 15 years. According to the New York Times, a grand jury in July issued subpoenas related to Adams’ ties to six different countries: China, Qatar, South Korea, Israel, Uzbekistan, and, of course, Turkey. In his role as Brooklyn Borough President, Adams attended almost 80 events connected with Turkey, and at least 50 more celebrating China. Some of those events actually upset his Turkish government contacts, according to the indictment. In 2016, a Turkish official told Adams that a community center he used to visit “was affiliated with a Turkish political movement that was hostile to Turkey’s government… If Adams wished to continue receiving support from the Turkish government, Adams could no longer associate with the community center. Adams acquiesced.”

Adams also met multiple times with Huang Ping, the Chinese Consul General who prosecutors later identified as Linda Sun’s handler. And the politicking seemingly continued overseas. Adams took 13 separate trips to Turkey and China, which is a lot of travel to those two specific nations, considering borough presidents don’t really have foreign policy roles. “It’s totally appropriate,” he said after the first of the trips to China, in 2014. “I’m not going to be a MetroCard borough president — I’m going to be a passport borough president.”

City Hall won’t say what all of the trips were for. (They didn’t respond to requests to comment for this story.) The alleged purpose of the Turkey trips, at least, is now less murky after the indictment’s release.When it comes to the others, here’s what we can say for sure: We know that one of Adams’ China travel partners, his longtime Asian community liaison Winnie Greco, had her former campaign office and several of her homes raided by the FBI. We know that Greco and another Adams crony met separately in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, with the man later indicted for operating that secret Chinese police station out of a Fujianese expat society in Manhattan. We know that Adams and Greco appeared onstage at a gala for that charity — the American Changle Association, named for a famed neighborhood in Fuzhou — shortly before it was exposed as a secret police front bythe New York Post. We know Adams was with Association bigwig Lu Jianwang days before Lu was arrested in the secret police affair. We know, thanks to local news outlet The City, that 121 workers at the New World Mall in Queens, the site of Greco’s 2021 campaign office, made donations to Adams of precisely $249 each, one buck below the limit for eight-times public matching funds. Several donors said they were reimbursed in cash, or had no idea they had been listed as contributors at all. This has all the hallmarks of illegal straw donations, as Adams’ team surely knows.One Chinese billionaire who gave money to Adams (and hosted his 60th birthday party) recently pleaded guilty to such charges. 

MAYBE ALL OF THESE connections were on the up-and-up. Maybe Adams’ trips to China and extremely odd donations from his campaign office in Flushing were no more nefarious than the 70-plus flag-raising ceremonies for various countries he’s attended in his two-and-a-half years as mayor. Maybe it’s an accident of scheduling that Huang Ping, the Chinese Consul General, asked him to blow off a banquet with the Taiwanese president and Adams wound up doing just that. Adams may have rubbed elbows with people who were later indicted as foreign agents in groups like the American Changle Association, where voters gather for an old-country meal or speak in their parents’ dialect. There’s hardly an elected official in New York who didn’t make such a visit, or get his picture taken at some point with Huang. Of course they did. Huang was a gregarious, effective, charming diplomat. He may be accused of secretly handling alleged agents like Linda Sun, but chatting up local politicians was most definitely Huang’s job.  

You don’t have to be some kind of simp for Beijing to find this kind of criminalization of foreign influence a little hypocritical, given all the governments the U.S. helped overthrow in the past century. You’re not necessarily an abolish-the-police type if you think the feds have gone overboard in their hunt for Chinese agents. “We’re not China. We’re supposedly a free country, and the government should take more care in prosecuting and, in turn, persecuting people,” John Liu, a state senator from Queens, tells me. This is personal for him. While he was gearing up to run for mayor more than a decade ago, the FBI ran a sting on him and his donors, part of a straw-donor probe he says was oh-so-subtly named “Operation Red Money.” They did find some straw donors, and a top aide did go to jail. But Liu himself was only fined $26,000 — proof, he says, that the whole investigation was overheated. Nor is it a one-off. Liu points to cases like Baimadajie Angwang, the cop accused of spying for China, only to have the charges dropped without explanation. By that time, the NYPD had fired him. “You know what? It wouldn’t be so bad if the government pursued these cases, made them as visible as they intentionally make them, and actually had a pretty good record of success,” Liu says. “It bothers me that there’s no accountability of any kind. You know, the government does this, and it doesn’t matter how many lives are ruined [or] the impact on the wider community.” 

There’s no question there’s been overreach, including horror stories of Chinese Americans interrogated by the FBI, seemingly for no reason at all. “We should absolutely oppose any effort by any foreign government to undermine our American society, our way of life, our democracy,” says Rep. Grace Meng, who hired Linda Sun when she was in the State Assembly and now represents a large part of Queens in the U.S. Congress. But “there’s a lot of fear right now in the Asian American community,” she adds. “Every day, young, professional Asian Americans are really scared that these harmful stereotypes are being fueled… [by] questions that are asked only of us.”

As overzealous as some prosecutors may have been, though, and as ugly our recent turn toward anti-China and anti-immigrant politics, there are too many of these foreign influence cases, tied to so many different outside actors, to brush off. A former Republican Congressman is under indictment for covertly working for Venezuela’s dictator. A major Trump fundraiser pleaded guilty to doing the same on behalf of the Chinese and Malaysian government officials, in a case so weird and sprawling, a member of the Fugees wound up with a foreign agent conviction as part of it. Things are so bad, the guy that’s supposed to be leading the investigations into these cases in New York — the head of the state’s FBI counterintelligence division — was himself sentenced earlier this year to federal prison for doing the bidding of a sanctioned Russian oligarch. The MAGA crowd can whine all they want about the #resistance obsession with “Russia, Russia, Russia.” Folks on the political left can roll their eyes at what feels like a Trumpy obsession with Chinese influence, or another red scare. It takes a kind of willful blindness not to see a pattern here. Liu, for one, called on Adams to resign after prosecutors unveiled their indictment which showed just how deep the mayor’s ties to Turkey went.

“This isn’t a Republican problem or a Democratic problem — it’s completely bipartisan,“ Michel tells me. “And as we’re now seeing, it’s not just one level of government these regimes are targeting. It’s everyone.”

For half a century, the American government hardly bothered to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires influence-peddlers to disclose their overseas clients, at least. That changed after the 2016 election, when Trump recruited the O.G. of scummy foreign lobbying, Paul Manafort, to run his campaign and publicly begged for a dictator’s help to win. The Department of Justice went on to prosecute Manafort and so many others — from the Russian troll farm to the white-shoe law firm Skadden, Arps — for breaking that law. Brandon van Grack, who oversaw many of those prosecutions as head of the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit, says the apparent surge in cases we’re seeing, eight years later, is a result of that 2016 wake-up call. He credits “greater resources and tools to identify and disrupt those influence operations than an increase in the operations themselves,” adding, “Foreign influence is not novel.”

It’s not exactly dying down, either. A few years ago, you might have thought that prosecuting folks like Manafort would at least serve as a warning shot. The sheer range of regimes trying to influence the 2024 election paints a different picture, and I don’t just mean the fact that Manafort is a free man and doing Fox News hits from the Republican convention. “I would say that a couple things are true in this specific situation. Yes, there are more investigations, because there are allowed to be. And I think our adversaries are more brazen than they have ever been,” Evanina, the former counterintelligence chief, tells me. 

There’s a good argument that the number of prosecutions isn’t even the right metric to gauge foreign influence. Registering as an overseas lobbyist — dodging a FARA charge — that’s the easy part. More than 1,000 foreign principals have done so since 2016, spending more than $5.5 billion to whisper in lawmakers’ ears. At least 90 former members of Congress have registered since 2000 to push another government’s agenda. Scores of U.S. generals and admirals have taken jobs with foreign governments in the last decade, with Saudi Arabia alone hiring 15 retired flag officers. Biden talked in 2020 about banning former officials from lobbying for foreign powers. It was just talk.  

The Supreme Court in recent years has radically raised the bar on bribery cases, and functionally removed any restrictions on campaign spending. That’s allowed Americans closely aligned with foreign governments to make enormous investments in shaping U.S. policy. The best known of these are the lobbyists pushing the agenda of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who gave over a million dollars to the now-convicted Sen. Menendez, even after he was indicted, and spent millions more on successful primary campaigns to knock out two of Israel’s few critics in Congress. None of this violates any laws. But maybe that’s beside the point. The real foreign influence scandal, Michel tells me, is how much of it is “perfectly legal.” 

If you’re mad at outside actors for exploiting America’s system, don’t be. The United States is still the world’s biggest power; of course every other nation is going to try to pull us in their direction. Try directing your anger a little closer to home. All of these politicians on the take, we voted for them. The bullshit China or Iran pumps out on TikTok? It’s downright factual compared to the nonsense we Americans push one another. And if you think a guy like Eric Adams is an outlier with his, shall we say, open-minded approach to campaign finance and outside influences, allow me to introduce you to the Republican nominee for president and his inner circle. The Congress we elected has bottled up nearly every attempt to close these foreign-funding loopholes. The campaigns we supported went along with the Supreme Court’s decision to make elections a feeding frenzy. This is a choice. Collectively, we made it.

IN THE HOURS AFTER Linda Sun and her husband were charged as Chinese agents on Sept. 3, Gov. Hochul urged the U.S. government to expel Sun’s alleged handler, Consul General Huang Ping, and a State Department spokesperson claimed that Huang had “rotated out of the position.” Yet on the night of Sept. 5, at Manhattan’s storied Plaza Hotel, Huang Ping appeared onstage at the China Institute’s $2,500-per-ticket Blue Cloud gala, looking rather dapper in a well-tailored tuxedo. Pictures were posted to the consulate’s website two days later. “Consul General Huang Ping is performing his duties as normal,” read a statement sent out to reporters.

A few hours after he was indicted, Huang’s longtime interlocutor Eric Adams promised to do much the same. “My attorneys will take care of the case, so I can take care of this city,” he said. “My day to day will not change.” 

[mouthwilloing]

Polle Says ... Captain Curly Mocktail + Painkillers !

⟣ self indulgent !! you know we gotta do him man he's the blog theme ... this is in honor of the IDs being released on fangamer . this one goes out to you orion 🫡🫡 ⟢

Name

Orion Carling , Curly , Astro , Caelum , Castor , Indus , Sterling , Altair , Grant , Clint

Pronouns

he / him , hx / hxm , co / cos , star / stars , space / spaces , astro / naut , astro / astros , voy / age , gal / axy , ⭐ / ⭐s , 🛰️ / 🛰️s , 🚀 / 🚀s , ☄️ / ☄️s

Age

adult (35-45)

Species

human

Gender

masc , transgender , demiboy , paraboy , stargender

Attraction

aromantic , asexual , bisexual , pansexual , alloplatonic

Role

Aegir , Anesthetic , Consul , Filterer , Proferian

Likes

cooking , travel , nighttime , stargazing , dogs

Dislikes

arguments , unnecessary conflict , discourse

Interests

space , psychology , animals

Personality (simple)

easygoing , bit of a worrier , caring , indirect , lighthearted , whimsical

Faceclaims

1 ⟡ 2 ⟡ 3

Moodboard

Typing Quirk

spaced punctuation , slightly formal , lots of elipses , doubled punctuation , i -> ii , j -> jj

Signoffs

🚀⭐ , 🌙🧑‍🚀 , 👽🚀 , 🧲🚀 , ☄️🌙

Favorite Song

First Love/Late Spring - Mitski

[manylittleguys]

Hi! We're a plural sideblog from Theta's main account. This blog is meant to be a safe space for us, away from our main account where we are not openly plural. I (Arachne) made this blog for the rest of us just to talk about being plural, ramble a bit about our origins or our interests. Just whatever comes to someone's mind. We are a fictive heavy system.

Collective Intros: + anyone's signoff tag info. if not provided, they likely use their name as a signoff (if they use one at all) and no tag

Core System: the main body of the system, folks who aren't part of sidesystems

Arachne, Administrator & Collective Archivist. it/she. #The library spider

Theta, Host. they/them. #thetaposting

Deadpool, Prosecutor, fictive. any, go crazy, have fun with my pronouns. no you do not have permission to call me by my name. #red. should be dead. no redemption

Wolverine, Anger Issues Holder, fictive. he/him (subject to change) no you do not have permission to call me by my name. #yellow clawed man. posts exclusively in orange text

Boo, introject. they/them (will change) #the cabinet maggot. posts exclusively in purple text

Eddie Brock, fictive. he/they ("they" ONLY when referring to Venom and Eddie collectively while using Eddie's name exclusively)

Venom, introject. it/they ("they" ONLY when referring to Eddie and Venom collectively while using Venom's name exclusively)

Sherlock Holmes & John Watson, introject. he&/they& (While being technically separate in headspace, they& are incapable of fronting separately and wish to be referred to as a unit) #The Holmes Siblings Are Speaking And You Will Listen

Mycroft Holmes, fictive. any "masculine" pronouns (no opinion) #The Holmes Siblings Are Speaking And You Will Listen

Eurus Holmes, introject. any pronouns (feminine preference) #The Holmes Siblings Are Speaking And You Will Listen

Gregory House, introject. he/him

The Archivist(s), introject(s). they/any (only "They" when reffering to multiple Archivists)

The Pantheon: Sidesystem of Doctor Who fictives. They mostly keep to the innerworld as of late. collective he/they/it, although if any of them decide otherwise they'll bring it up. Collective tags: #🟦⏳, #the doctor speaks

Montessori Sidesystem:

J, Protector/Caretaker, fictive. he/they/it. #Cowboy Dad

Anoitos. he/she. #anni cherub

Dipper, fictive. he/they

Mabel, fictive. she/her

Link, frequent fronter, Chef & Rationalizer, fictive. they/he. #💚🗡️

Micheal Distortion, introject. it/we (you refer to Micheal alongside yourself). #living arcade carpet

A Major Sidesystem: SCP Foundation fictives. collective tags: #a major system, #🦖🤠

Francis W, frequent fronter, Gatekeeper, Consul, fictive. he/they

Apollo, Caretaker, noncanon fictive. he/him

Ukulele, Gunslinger & Auxiliary Gatekeeper, fictive. they/them

Alto (signs posts with "A.Clef" and variations), fictive. they/it/toy. #Gay Horror Music Man

anyways, we're still not 100% clear on our complete origins, but we support endo/non-traumagenic systems. not going to have a collective DNI, but don't be rude, and we block liberally.

- Arachne

Edit: any headmates who do not front or use this blog have been removed from this list and/or will not be added until they do, even if they are referenced by other headmates.

[numberonetacostan]

It’s been awhile, huh? Anyways I have a headcanon for Taco and a silly idea I thought with her and Pickle

Tacos favorite genre of literature would be Mystery cause I feel like she’d love to try and figure out the mystery and get so excited when she gets it correct (or yelling at the MC to figure it out already)

I had an idea for a fic that goes like this. Tacos asleep on the couch when Pickle walks in to play video games and spots her. Instead of simply walking away or waking her up, he gets a blanket and gently lays it over her body. He slightly smiles before silently booting up the game consul, gabbing two controllers and starts up Spector Spotter. He lays the extra controller near Tacos feet and starts playing. 5 minutes pass before Taco wakes up. She internally panicked at her being so close to a person she hurt and him seminally not noticing her. She curls up into a ball, paralyzed with fear before being intranced with what Pickles playing. After a minute or two she finally noticed the controller at her feet by accidentally kicking it, unsure of what to do or say she looks at Pickle, confused. He looked over at Taco, locking eyes with her for a moment before looking between the controller and her before getting back to his game. Taco stared at him dumbfounded before slowing picking up the controller to start playing. Neither of them spoke a word to the other.

That’s it, hope your doing well loomy ^^

Hiya Mushy!!!^^ I am doing pretty well, thank you!!! <3 Thanks for calling me by my name!!! I love my name ;). Welcome back, and thank you for submitting your hc!!!!

You're so right, my observant, smart little cookie she is X3!!! I bet she'd get some nice gratification when she figures it out early!!^^ Also she would totally threaten to spoil book endings for people who annoy her. But the MC not getting it would piss her off lmao!! She could not get through most Scooby-Doo episodes without shouting at the television.

TACO ASLEEP ON THE COUCH I DON'T NEED TO READ THE REST IT'S A 10/10 /j. Well not /j about the 10/10 part /j about the not reading it part because I did read it. And it's so very cute!!!!! Pls take my hc that her arms retract on their own when she's asleep she auto-loafs every time. He tucks her in AAAAAA!!!!!! /vpos. And her being so very nervous to see Pickle but then they wordlessly enjoy a gaming session together!!! Please please it's like 3am and no one else is up. They're in their own little world. They're not best friends, but they're okay <3.

[youthchronical]

Plan to Return Russian Diplomats to U.S. Poses Espionage Risk

As it moves to transform U.S. relations with Russia, the Trump administration is talking with Moscow about readmitting potentially scores of Russian diplomats into the United States after years of expulsions. But the good-will gesture, which would be reciprocated by Moscow, could be a kind of Trojan horse, experts and diplomats warn, as the Kremlin is likely to dispatch spies posing as diplomats…

[eretzyisrael]

by Moshe Phillips

Dozens of Palestinian Authority diplomats around the world celebrated the Oct. 7 massacres, according to a new study. The revelations have important implications for anybody concerned about the prospects for Middle East peace.

The study was undertaken by GnasherJew, a group of British Jewish investigative journalists, and reported by The Jewish Chronicle based in London. GnasherJew is best known for exposing the antisemitic remarks made by Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of Britain’s Labour Party.

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While the U.S. State Department, The New York Times, and J Street keep telling us that the P.A. opposes terrorism and wants to live in peace next to Israel, the statements made by the P.A.’s own representatives around the world say otherwise.

The investigators reviewed hundreds of social-media posts by more than 30 senior P.A. diplomats in the days following Oct. 7. Here’s a sampling of what these P.A. officials wrote about the most horrific mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust:

• Great Britain: Rana Abuayyash, consul at the P.A.’s mission to London, posted an image of an Israeli flag morphing into Adolf Hitler.

• France: Hala Abou-Hassira, the P.A. ambassador to Paris posted: “Israel bears full responsibility.” His colleague Nadine Abualheija tweeted: “A colonial state is not an innocent victim when its victims resist genocide.” Another P.A. diplomat in Paris, Jamila Hassan Eragat, wrote: “Don’t judge a group of people for rising up against their oppressors … violence is necessary for decolonisation.” 

• Spain: Khaldun Almassri of the P.A. mission in Spain shared a painting of people dancing with flags of the Palestinian Liberation Organization on Oct. 7. 

• Cyprus: “Palestinians broke through with so much excitement,” the official Facebook account for the P.A. embassy in Cyprus announced.

• Mozambique: The P.A. ambassador in Mozambique, Fayez Abduljawad, posted a graphic that read: “If you are silent when Israel kills Palestinians, remain silent when Palestinians defend themselves.”

• Guinea: Thaer Abubaker, the P.A. ambassador to Guinea and Sierra Leone, wrote on X (Twitter) that the Oct. 7 slaughter was “heroic” and that “liberation is the goal of every fighter who risks their life for the sake of freedom and jihad for God’s path.” He also accused America’s secretary of state of being “a Khazar Jew” and charged Jewish immigrants to Israel with bringing “scabies and contagious diseases to Palestine.”

• Zimbabwe: Manar Alagha, a P.A. diplomat in Zimbabwe, posted a video on Facebook of Israelis fleeing the Nova music festival concert grounds, adding the slogan: “Here to victory!”

• Ivory Coast: An official at the P.A.’s embassy in the Ivory Coast, Khattab Bayyari, showed a graphic of a terrorist paraglider and added the caption: “You are the soldiers of Allah in the field.” He also posted a photo of a man with a sign displaying an anti-Israel vulgarity.

• Japan and South Korea: The P.A.’s ambassador to Japan and South Korea, Waleed Siam, wrote on X/Twitter: “Zionism is really curse on all humanity,” and added, for good measure, that Israelis “have yet to find proof of their imaginary temple.” (Asked by the Jewish Chronicle about those messages, Siam replied: “I have Semitic origins myself.”)

• Turkey: The P.A.’s consul general in Istanbul, Hana Abu Ramadan, circulated a hate cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a devil with horns.

• United Nations: Khuloussi Bsaiso, a P.A. diplomat at the United Nations, distributed a Middle East map without Israel that had the slogan, “Palestine as it should be.” 

• European Union: Hassan Albalawi, the deputy head of the P.A. mission to the European Union, called the Hamas massacres “heroic.” Adel Atieh, the P.A. ambassador to the European Union, hailed the terrorists as “the people of the mighty,” who are fighting for “freedom and breaking tyranny.” Another P.A. diplomat at the European Union, Lema Nazeeh, wrote on X that the Hamas invasion was “decolonisation in tangible terms,” a day of “dignity and triumph.” 

And because no review of Palestinian Arab antisemitism is complete without a dose of old-fashioned religious bigotry, it’s worth noting that Salman El Herfi, the former P.A. ambassador to South Africa and France, who is now a top adviser to P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas, posted a medieval Christian image next to a photo of a mother and child in Gaza with the caption: “The pain of the Mother is the same as it was 2,000 years ago. The same killer.”

The P.A.’s diplomats around the world are the “best face” of the Palestinian Arab cause. They are the P.A.’s most articulate and urbane spokespeople. They wear suits and ties; they speak the best English. One would imagine they would be the most concerned about appearing “moderate” in the eyes of the wider world.

Yet here they are—the P.A.’s most sophisticated officials—openly celebrating the mass murder, gang rapes and baby-burnings of Oct. 7. That tells you all you need to know about their alleged interest in peace with Israel.

[empirearchives]

Citizen Cooks in the Age of Napoleon

Excerpt about the role of cooks in France after the abolition of culinary guilds, and how they navigated a world which demanded for them to find new ways to stay relevant and prosperous. From Defining Culinary Authority: The Transformation of Cooking in France, 1650-1830 by Jennifer J. Davis:

French cooks sought new sites upon which to rebuild the authority of culinary labor. Throughout the early nineteenth century cooks increasingly adopted scientific terms to demonstrate their reliability and profound knowledge of the culinary arts. Such language communicated the author's education and distinction, just as an appeal to an elite patron had done in the 1660s and referral to a cook's professional expertise had done in the 1760s. The rhetoric and institutions of scientific knowledge also provided a means of distinguishing men's work from women's in the post-revolutionary era. During the early nineteenth century, cooks' claims to scientifically valuable savoir-faire rested on three crucial points of culinary innovation: food preservation, the improved production of bouillon, and gelatin extraction.

As these processes left the realm of traditional knowledge and became sites of scientific inquiry by tradespeople and amateurs alike, cooks sought to maintain authority in this arena by including scientific terms and theories in cookbooks, advertisements, and government petitions.

Two factors encouraged cooks' claims to scientific knowledge during this era. First, when Napoleon Bonaparte took the reins of government as first consul in 1799 and established himself as emperor in 1804, he raised medical doctors and academic scientists, Idéologues, to positions of political prominence. From these posts, the Idéologues subsidized experiments and inventions deemed useful to the nation and encouraged the popularization of science in the public sphere through state sponsorship of exhibitions and print forums. The Idéologues particularly supported research related to food preparation and preservation that might benefit France's armies and navies, with obvious benefits for professional cooks. Many cooks presented their particular techniques to the government during this time, seeking both financial recompense and public acclaim. Second, a voluntary association closely allied with the Idéologues' vision, the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale (Society for the Encouragement of National Industry), provided a forum in which formally trained scientists, politicians, merchants, artisans, and curious educated men might unite to address questions that inhibited French science and industry.

Together, these men sought to develop a more coherent program for industrial advancement than any one group could achieve independently. The society explicitly sought to join scientific knowledge to artisanal practical expertise, recognizing that each group had strengths that would benefit industrial development. This association invested heavily in three diffuse projects that eventually infused the most basic culinary processes with scientific awareness: new methods of food preservation to benefit the nation's armies and navies, new methods of stock preparation to sustain the nation's poor, and new methods of extracting gelatin from bones to improve hospital and military diets at little added expense.