#rev alberts

[iloveblogging2]

Just toxic rambles😍🥰

You love him.

Everything about him.

Even though he's mean to you.

Even though he hits you.

Even though he cheats on you.

Everyone knows.

They wonder why you're still with him.

Even thought it's an arranged marriage you can still leave.

But you feel in love.

Each time he cheats on you, you brush it off.

Everytime he is mean and insults you. You ignore it.

Every time he hits you. You deny the pain.

Why?

Because your in love.

He will change, you can make him change.

You'll quit your job and focus on the marriage.

You'll cut off all contacts with friends and just be the obedient and supporting wife.

You don't want a child but you know he will stay with you.

At least for a while.

You we're so happy when you got pregnant.

Though he didn't feel the same way

He finally found you attractive only for you to get fatter and for your stomach to enlarge.

To him you look disgusting.

The child will probably be disgusting like you.

You irked him so much.

In public he denies the fact he slept with you.

So how did you get pregnant?

You slept with someone else of course

Which just reduced your public image

When your water broke he just left you with the doctors.

To him, why should he see someone so disgusting give birth.

In the end your plan didn't work because the next day he filed for a divorce.

Gojo Satoru, Albert Moriarty, William James Moriarty, light Yagami, Griffith, Eren , Aquamarine Hoshino, Izana, Kisaki, anyone that comes in mind....

[plebbypebblepleb]

the little me kenma drawing right under my name is done by @six-eyed-samurai :3

the art done right next to my silly doodle in the top left is done by @gr3ase-g0t-h0ld :D

ART TAG!: #willy's silly billies!!

SENDING IN DRAWINGS REQUESTS!

as stated before, NSFW and suggestive art will not be completed :3

I WILL DRAW:

someone from my fandoms

basically anyone as long as I am provided with references (of the character if I do not know them/not on my fandom list), their personality and/or a pose reference! ←this goes for OCs too!!! I would love to draw your guys’ OCs!

SPECIFY IF YOU WANT A SILLY DOODLE OR IF YOU WANT A REAL DRAWING! comics will always be my silly little chibi artstyle! both will come out in a day or two (usually)

🩷🎀 ←this my emoji combo so sorry if I use it a lott :3

c.ai profile

lots of love!

-willow 🩷🎀

[blackrevell]

Kurt, darling, your undying trust in your combat buddies is adorable, but sometimes you should check twice. Not gonna lie though, I love this entire "jock vs nerd" dynamic they have between Bennett and Jago.

[asfaltics]

putterings, 494-492

  I prepared a discourse on a line overlooked not accustomed to logical processes a spluttering infrastructure of insignificant buildings, vestigial things, punctuation marks and at least a few years; no time for maybe even a rotation Such as these stand  

puutterings     |     their index     |     these derivations     |     20241106  

[commodorez]

Sometimes at VCF East you'll be hanging out with some former Commodore engineers after a talk, and Bil Herd will whip out some original internal schematics for the first concept of the Commodore 128, or Albert Charpentier will show off the framed die-shrink for making the MOS6567 Rev A VIC-II chip.

And it's just... a thing that happens. Because it's a Vintage Computer Festival.

[psalm22-6]

Source: The Catholic Northwest Progress, 22 October 1920

Written by Rev. Albert Muntsch, S. J., for the Press Bulletin Service of the C. B. of the C. V. Catholic teachers are so often asked why the Church forbids the reading of Hugo’s “Notre Dame de Paris” (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and of “Les Miserables” that it seems worth while to set forth briefly the reasons of this condemnation. Both works are explicitly condemned, the former in a decree of July 28, 1834, the latter in one of June 20, 1864. Popular opinion ranks both books among the outstanding productions of world-literature. Those who share this view are frequently unable to give any reasonable ground for their admiration. They have heard others speak in glowing terms of the romances and have never formed an opinion based on close reading. Unfortunately, many books which have no literary or artistic value whatever thus achieve a wide reputation which all the opposition of sound criticism cannot restrict to sober limits. [. . .] "Les Miserables," a social romance, begun in 1848, was finished in 1862, and is an indictment against the existing order of society. The work glorifies opposition to the established social order, and though some of the characters are inspired by high ideals, the tendency of the work, as a whole, is revolutionary and unsound. It may be called a great Socialistic epic. There are of course eloquent pages in the book, and the social evils so mercilessly exposed, unfortunately weigh heavily upon large sections of every community. But this does not justify the tenor of the development of the tale. There is not only no need to spread a sentimental halo around an unfortunate mother like Fantine, from whom the first part of the story is named, but it is ethically wrong to do so. A moral transgression is always deserving of censure, and the writer who uses his literary art to ennoble wrongdoing is an enemy to society. His book ought to be branded as evil. As an illustration of the method employed by Hugo to belittle, and even to calumniate, as much as lay in his power, a sacred institution of the Church, we mention the strange and shockingly grotesque picture of religious orders in Part 11, Book 7, of “Les Miserables.” We read: “From the point of view of history, of reason. and of truth, monachism (the religious life), is condemned. . . . Monasteries . . . are detestable in the nineteenth century." In the same paragraph it is said that Italy and Spain are beginning to recover from the curse of monasticism, “thanks to the sane and vigorous hygiene of 1789 (the French Revolution).” The long eulogy of the bishop in the opening chapters of the book make this distorted and calumnious sketch all the more abominable. For unthinking persons may be led to believe that Hugo writes as a loyal son of the Church. No matter how one regards “the Index of Forbidden Books” drawn up by the Church, an unbiased mind will recognize the wisdom of the precautionary measures taken by her to safeguard the spiritual interests of her children. That promiscuous reading of pernicious literature has caused untold harm, no one can deny. A large amount of the irreligiousness of the modern world and the general looseness of morals may be attributed to the vicious productions of the press. Just now the works of Blasco Ibanez are widely advertised “with a great noise of tomtoms and circus paradings,” as one critic has well expressed it. But works like “The Shadow of the Cathedral” sow the seeds of anarchy and discontent among unthinking classes. To banish them from our people, or at least to restrict the sphere of their civil influence, is not an offense against art, but a high form of social service.

[peopleagainstprisonsaotearoa]

AUCKLAND — Defying Destiny: Day of Queer Power

Last weekend, Destiny Church escalated its attacks against the queer community in Auckland.

Destiny wants to drive queer New Zealanders back into the closet. PAPA won't let this happen.

We stood for queer liberation as No Pride in Prisons, and we stand for it now.

We're holding DEFYING DESTINY: DAY OF QUEER POWER this Sunday February 23 at 2pm at the Albert Park rotunda. All friends and allies of the community are welcome to join us. Let's show Destiny that they are a tiny, hateful portion of our population.

speakers

Speakers include:

Dr Emmy Rākete (PAPA),

Chlöe Swarbrick (Green Party),

Rev Muan Strickson-Pua (Tagata Pasifika Resource Centre),

and more.

demands

We will demand the government dismantle Destiny Church organisationally, deregistering all of Destiny Church's charities. We will demand that government agencies sign memoranda of understanding with Auckland Pride affirming that they will no longer refer people to Destiny Church front groups like Man Up. Finally, we will warn Destiny Church: queer people and those who love us are not defenceless victims who can be assaulted at will. We are here, we are queer, and we will stand our ground.

safety

We're prepared for the possibility that Destiny will try to show up. Trained volunteers will be present as marshalls, and we have a plan to keep our people as safe as possible. Travel in pairs or groups. Bring water, masks, and sun protection. Look out for a marshall if you need one.

We cannot let them force us back into the closet. We are stronger together than they'll ever be.

[intellectualbrotha]

Rev. Albert Cleage

[rat-detector]

Heyy umm can you remind me of that one place in Canada? What was it called? Like, Al-something. Albert? OOoohhh Alberta. (Wait is that the sound of a car engine revving?)

[dailyanarchistposts]

This past International Workers Day, otherwise known as May Day, I attended my local rally. The same old May Day groups were in attendance, Party for Socialist Liberation (PSL), Communist Party USA (CPUSA), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and a couple other single issue labor groups. The endless tedium of speeches aside, something strange stood out to me. Every group called for left unity in some way or another. “Unite as workers to crush capitalism,” was the exact quote from the young man in running shoes, jeans, and a bright red PSL shirt. I could have spoken up and made a scene, again, but I feel it is more effective to broadly address why this call for left unity is absurd especially considering the Marxist historical revisionism surrounding May Day. The success of May Day was directly because of the anarchist Haymarket Martyrs and the Marxist attempt to ignore this fact is one of the many reasons why left unity is never in the best interest of anarchists.

Before we begin, it is important to go over the events of the Haymarket uprising on May 4th, 1886. The first May Day was called for by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU) as the official first day the eight-hour workday in 1886. On May 1st 1886, between 30,000 and 80,000 laborers in Chicago refused to work in support of the eight hour day, which shut down the industrial zones. August Spies, a German-born anarchist and leading contributor to the newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung, was enthused by the unity and relative success of the eight-hour fight.[1] The McCormick Reaper Works’ solution, instead of meeting the demands of the workers, was to hire scabs. On May 3rd, 1886, striking workers from the McCormick Plant asked Spies to come down to the Southwest side of Chicago and give a speech to bolster morale. Minutes into Spies speech, the scabs began filing out of the plant and the McCormick strikers rushed to the gates of the factory. To protect the business and scabs, 200 police officers rushed in and beat the strikers with clubs and shot them with pistols. According to Spies, 6 strikers were killed including those that were shot in the back as they fled. Spies knew that the battle had been lost and returned to his newspaper office with the sound of screams and pistol fire still ringing in his ear.

That night, August Spies rushed into print several thousand leaflets urging workingmen to come to a meeting the next day, May 4th, at Haymarket Square.[2] The next day, the anarchists August Spies, Albert Parsons, and the Rev. Samuel Fielden spoke to a crowd estimated variously between 600 and 3,000. At around 10:30 PM as Fielden spoke, the police showed up despite the peaceful nature of the crowd. As they ordered the crowd to disperse, a bomb was thrown into the advancing officers, killing 6. The Police then opened fire on the anarchists killing 4 and some of the anarchists returned fire killing another police officer. The Police argued it was a conspiracy and eight influential anarchists were arrested, including Spies and Parsons, who were not present but had significant influence in the community. On November 11th 1887, 4 convicted anarchists including Spices, Parsons, Adolph Fischer, and George Engle were hanged. The state executions further enraged the broader community and would be the catalyst for the International Workers Day.

The Haymarket Uprising was internationally significant. During the funeral procession for the anarchists in Chicago, the historian Philip Foner estimates, between 150,000 and 500,000 people lined the streets in support. Both the American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor, although initially reluctant, supported the slain anarchists as heroes of labor. The Knights of Labor even published the autobiographies of Parsons, Spies, Fischer, Engle, and the anarchist who killed himself in prison, Oscar Neebe.[3] The London Freedom group argued “No event in the worldwide evolution of the struggle between socialism and the existing order of society has been so important, so significant, as the tragedy of Chicago.”[4] According to the historian Paul Avrich, pamphlets and articles about the case and autobiographies of the martyrs appeared in every language across the world. In Europe, over twenty-four cities boasted sizeable protests in support of the Haymarket Martyrs.[5] Famous anarchists like Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and Ricardo Flores Magón all attribute the Haymarket uprising to their radicalization. Moreover, it was not only Europe that celebrated the Haymarket Martyrs. The Times of London reported protests in Cuba, Peru, and Chile.[6] Mary Harris “Mother” Jones was in Mexico on May Day, 1921, and wrote that their May Day was expressly in honor of “the killing of the workers in Chicago for demanding the eight-hour day.”[7] More to this point, during a trip to Mexico in 1939, Oscar Neebe’s grandson was shown a mural by Diego Rivera in the Palace of Justice depicting the Haymarket Martyrs.[8] The international significance of the Haymarket Martyrs was undeniable in the hearts and imagination of all of the Left and is a significant element in the success of May Day.

The success of May Day internationally is thanks to the slain anarchists yet Marxist leadership intentionally omitted the significance of the Haymarket Martyrs to further purge anarchism from the historical record. In 1889, just a few years after the execution, the Marxist International Socialist Congress, who would later form the “Second International,” chose May 1st to celebrate international workers. However, nowhere in the Second International’s proclamation was the slightest mention of anarchism or the Haymarket Martyrs’ sacrifice for the eight-hour workday. The historian Philip Foner in 1969 therefore needed to write an entire book to remind the reader that other than pushing for the eight-hour workday, the secondary purpose of the establishment of International Workers Day on May 1st was to honor the Haymarket Martyrs. He argues “there is little doubt that everyone associated with the resolution passed by the Paris Congress knew of the May 1st demonstrations and strikes for the eight-hour day in 1886 in the United States … and the events associated with the Haymarket tragedy.” [9]

This slight against anarchists should come as no surprise considering the Second International broke with the First International Workingmen’s Association to exclude anarchists. The few anarchist members that refused to leave the Second International were barred from contributing. Member William Morris reveals, “expressions of anarchist ideas were often shouted down, and in one incident Francesco Saverio Merlino faced violence from the other delegates.”[10] The later Soviets were no stranger to historical revisionism either. Whether it is Stalin painting himself into pictures alongside Lenin or more typically painting out figures, like Trotsky, from the historical narrative. Famous member of the Communist Party USA’s central committee and founder of International Publishing, Alexander Trachtenberg, published the definitive “History of May Day” in 1932 and did not mention the word anarchism once.[11] Therefore, the Marxists of the Second international developed the May Day holiday to appropriate the international success of the anarchist Haymarket martyrs, while actively excluding anarchist thought from their sphere of influence.

Rosa Luxemburg also actively excluded mentioning the Haymarket Martyrs, which prominent Social Democrat publications like Jacobin choose to publish to further marginalize anarchist ideas. In 2016, Jacobin magazine published Luxemburg’s “What are the Origins of May Day.” In this article, Luxemburg argued that in 1856, the Australian workers call for complete work stoppages in support for the 8-hour workday influenced the American and then International development of May Day.[12] She claims that the Australians call to action was the primary source of inspiration for The International Workers Congress in 1890. While this is most likely true, she does not mention anarchists at all in her story. Not only did Luxemburg choose to ignore the impact of the Haymarket anarchists, but Jacobin’s intentional publication of her work in 2016 illustrated this same interest in erasure. Therefore, it becomes clear that both the Communists and the contemporary Social Democrats reinterpret history in order to ignore the global impact of anarchism on the working-class.

This active historical revisionism from popular Marxists is what makes May Day speeches calling for “left unity” ridiculous. Let us, for a moment, ignore the legacy of anarchist oppression from the Soviet Union to Cuba. The fact that both the Second International to contemporary Marxists willfully ignore the centrality of anarchism to organized labor and the establishment of the eight-hour workday is ahistorical. The fact that they suppress anarchist history and call for unity on the day that anarchist ancestors gave their lives for labor’s cause is bullshit. The eight-hour work day was a compromise for the abolition of waged labor. Let us not compromise our principles again by unifying with Marxists that work to undermine us at every opportunity.

[1] August Spies, “The Dies are Cast!”Arbeiter-Zeitung (May 1, 1886)

[2] August Spies, “Revenge,” Arbeiter-Zeitung (May 3, 1886)

[3] Philip Foner, “Editor’s Intro” in The Haymarket Autobiographies ed. Philip Foner (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1969), 12.

[4] Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 436.

[5] Philip Foner, May Day (New York, NY: International Publishers, 1986), 45-46.

[6] Foner, May Day, 45-46.

[7] Dave Roediger, “Mother Jones & Haymarket”, in Haymarket Scrapbook ed. Franklin Rosemont, David Roediger (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2011), 213.

[8] Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 436.

[9] Phillip Foner, May Day, 42.

[10] William Morris, “Impressions of the Paris Congress: II,” Marxists.org (Retrieved May 4, 2022) https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1889/commonweal/08-paris-congress.html

[11] Alexander Thrachtenberg, “The History of May Day” Marxist.org (accessed May 5, 2022) https://www.marxists.org/subject/mayday/articles/tracht.html

[12] Rosa Luxemburg, “What are the Origins of May Day?” Jacobin, May 1, 2016 (Accessed May 2, 2022) https://jacobinmag.com/2016/05/may-day-rosa-luxemburg-haymarket

[legendstrauma]

Sloane “Foxglove” de Riva — Six Song Playlist

Event That Defines Your Character’s Past:

the fruits— Paris Paloma

"Devil", you call me, but seem to be enjoying The fruits of my labour that came to me too young

When he stole my virtue, I'm glad it seems to serve you

That I was born a daughter and not a son

How Your Character Sees Themselves:

Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?— Taylor Swift

If you wanted me dead, you should've just said

Nothing makes me feel more alive

Escapism— RAYE

Last night really was the cherry on the cake

Been some dark days lately and I'm finding it cripplin'

Excuse my state, I'm as high as your hopes

That you'll make it to my bed, get me hot and sizzlin'

If I take a step back to see the glass half full

At least it's the Prada two-piece that I'm trippin' in

And I'm already actin' like a dick, know what I mean?

So you might as well stick it in

How Others See Them:

Maneater— Nelly Furtado

She's a maneater, make you work hard

Make you spend hard, make you want all of her love

She's a maneater, make you buy cars

Make you cut cards, wish you never ever met her at all

Their Closest Relationships (Platonic or Romantic):

Teia— Platonic

Alibi — Sevdaliza

When I'm out of breath, she's my vitals

When I need to rev, she's my ride-or-die

When I'm out of faith, she's my idol

I just killed a man, she's my alibi

Viago— ???

The Family Jewels — Marina & the Diamonds

Ooh, don't you find it strange?

Only thing we share is one last name

Did I beat you at your own game?

Typical of me to put us all to shame

Lucanis — Sloane’s Canon Romance

Early On: Training Season (Live from Royal Albert Hall) — Dua Lipa

Are you someone that I can give my heart to?

Or just the poison that I'm drawn to?

It can be hard to tell the difference late at night

Are you somebody who can go there?

'Cause I don't wanna have to show ya

If that ain't you, then let me know, yeah

'Cause training season's over

Later On: Silver Spoon— Erin LeCount

I stare at the house you were brought up in

All the photographs and door frames are wooden

I wish I'd known you when you were younger

Before lovers

'Cause I've changed my accent

And I gave a false name

I hope I throw a party

In a house of my own some day

A Major Fight Scene:

Von Dutch— Charli XCX

It's okay to just admit that you're jealous of me

You're obsessin', just confess it 'cause it's obvious

I'm your number one, I'm your number one

End Credits Song:

as good a reason— Paris Paloma

She asked me why I no longer try and waste my time

And I said, "Spite"

'Cause every time you are succeeding

There's an old man somewhere seething

And spite's as good a reason to take his power

When you hate the body you are in

Oh love, you're acting just for him

As he counts his gold and green in his ivory tower

Our fear it lines his pockets love

So take that rage and bottle up

And put a drop into his cup of wine

You don't need him, you don't need me

With that poisoned bottle, you'll be free

But be damn sure you don't mix it up with mine

Be damn sure you don't mix it up with mine

[sagehaleyofficial]

What is UP, my dudes? It's Tuesday again, which means it's time for another "#POSITALK with Sage Haley," a recap of all the top #poppunk related news of the week!

---

HERE’S WHAT YOU MISSED THIS WEEK (3.19-3.25.25):

NEW MUSIC:

MGK (Machine Gun Kelly) released a new rock single in tribute to his friend Luke “Dingo” Trembath titled “Your Name Forever.” Bring Me the Horizon's Oli Sykes, Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows and Synyster Gates, and Mod Sun are featured.

De’Wayne dropped his latest single “Biological,” following the previous single “Highway Robbery.” The song marks another track from the singer’s new era of music.

Waterparks collaborated with Dillon Francis and Albert Hype on their newly-released track “Forget.” The song is the first taste of Francis’ new project called Sorry My Love.

Fontaines D.C. shared a cover version of Bring Me the Horizon's “Can You Feel My Heart,” featuring a mash-up with Nirvana classic “Heart-Shaped Box.” They combined the tracks for Triple J’s Like a Version series.

The All-American Rejects revealed that they will soon release their first album in 13 years. Its first single, “Sandbox,” will arrive on streaming services on April 24.

Electric Callboy released an acoustic cover version of Linkin Park's classic single “Crawling.” Originally featured on the latter’s debut album Hybrid Theory, it was released on the former’s YouTube channel as part of a new covers series.

K-pop punk act Xdinary Heroes released their latest mini-album Beautiful Mind, featuring the title track “Beautiful Life.” The band is among the acts on the lineup for this year’s Lollapalooza Festival taking place in Chicago.

PUP collaborated with Jeff Rosenstock for their brand-new single “Get Dumber.” The new track is from their forthcoming album Who Will Look After the Dogs?, which arrives via Little Dipper/Rise Records on May 2.

Laura Jane Grace in the Trauma Tropes announced their new album, Adventure Club, which is due out on July 18 via Polyvinyl. The band previewed their next era with their latest single “Mine Me Mine.”

Evanescence announced their newest single, “Afterlife,” for Netflix’s Devil May Cry series. The show will hit streaming services on April 3, but the single will be released earlier this Friday.

TOUR ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Yungblud played a free show this past Friday at London’s Scala venue. The singer released his lengthy latest song “Hello Heaven, Hello” earlier last week.

Billed as The Spots, Frank Carter and the Sex Pistols played a secret show at The 100 Club in central London last Friday night. The performance prefaced their show at Royal Albert Hall last night for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Green Day announced that they will play a free show at Los Angeles’ Palladium today, which will be featured in their upcoming movie New Years Rev. The band’s members, Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt, all serve as co-producers on the project.

The Jonas Brothers announced the details of their Living the Dream Tour, which will hit stadiums in honor of the band’s 20th anniversary. Joining them for the shows will be The All-American Rejects and Boys Like Girls.

Wargasm were revealed to be the headlining act for next month’s Emo Nite in London. The performance will take place at Steel Yard on April 11 before the band’s appearance at Slam Dunk Festival.

OTHER NEWS:

Hardcore band Gel announced they disbanded immediately, citing allegations against their guitarist Anthony Webster. The band was set to open up for Spiritbox on their U.S. tour with further appearances planned at Coachella and supporting Volbeat.

___

Check in next Tuesday for more “Posi Talk with Sage Haley"!

[team-zug]

My wooden railway mid sodor railway engines customs (so far)

Hey guys, so the 3 years I always wanted to make a mid sodor series, and I always wanted to make customs of them, so I began to make Albert, Jennings, Altas, and kind of. But I only was able to finish Albert but I used a paper face for him and I say kind of Jim it's because I tried to cut off the body from the running board but u couldn't get it off and i wasn't happy with my altas, so I Abandoned the whole idea until 2 weeks ago I wanted to try again so I took my old oliver that I tried to make jim out off and I made it into Jerry or Gerry but I like calling Jerry so there. Then I decided to give Jennings a face that is made out of airdrying clay, same with Jerry, and then I decided that I would finish Altas and I'm warming up to my model of him then I also give Albert a new face and I finally made Jim and I'm so happy how he turned out. So who is your favourite model I made so far and I'm in the process of making Tim and I have plans to make John soon.

All these characters are from the RWS (kind of) (c) Rev W Awary.

[anniekoh]

elsewhere on the internet, the american shitshow

Feckless Dems need ‘a Navalny, not a Newsom by Will Bunch (Philadelphia Inquirer, Mar 11, 2025)

The California governor, in the first episode of his new podcast, asserted that he agrees with the political far right that transgender women competing in women’s school sports is “deeply unfair.” It was arguably as problematic, maybe more so, just who Newsom welcomed to his first podcast — in what felt like a clear effort to reveal the governor’s inner Joe Rogan to young white dude-bros who voted for Donald Trump in 2024. That guest was Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder who never met a conspiracy theory about COVID-19 or stolen elections that he didn’t like, who believes our universities are “islands of totalitarianism” and recently called the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “not a good person,” tied to the “big mistake” of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Newsom even released a picture of him smiling with Kirk, like the two men had just shot an endangered rhino or something.

...

One online comedian posted that when it comes to the fate of the republic, the Republicans might be the mass shooters but the Democrats are the hapless Uvalde cops, standing around and doing nothing. Democracy may or may not survive these next 46 months, but these sellouts on the left side of the aisle have no future, either way.

Defunded evangelical aid groups are reaping what the religious right sowed by Marci Hamilton (Religion News, Mar 10, 2025)

In a meeting at the White House on Wednesday (March 5), white evangelical Christians, who have for decades enjoyed billions in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development for their overseas missions, were told by Trump administration officials not to expect a reopening of the flow of funds, The Washington Post reported the following day. The Post said the administration officials passed the turn of events off as a positive for their faith. “’Do you want the country to get credit for foreign aid, or do you want the Creator to get the credit?’ asked Albert Gombis, a State Department political appointee,” according to the story. The leaders in the room were flabbergasted. “‘Some of us looked at each other in disbelief,’” the paper quoted one attendee saying. The fact that these groups got an audience to explain the cuts is testimony to their unflagging support for Trump in both his campaigns for the nation’s highest office.

...

The alliance with the GOP was not just about money. Yes, they wanted to allow taxpayer funds to pay for their Christian schools, but they also wanted to control the government’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people, women, and children. Unable to win the culture war by example or argument, they sought to do it by co-opting the government... Central to this campaign was destroying the U.S. Supreme Court’s establishment clause doctrine, which holds that taxpayer funds can’t be paid directly to religious institutions. This is nearly accomplished: This term, the court is set to decide whether a public charter school can be Catholic, a case that would have been unimaginable even 10 years ago. 

Competitive authoritarianism: This Is Going Even Worse Than Steven Levitsky Expected by Benjamin Hart (NY Mag, Mar 3, 2025)

Earlier this year, Levitsky and Lucan A. Way published an essay in Foreign Affairs titled “The Path to American Authoritarianism.” (They wrote almost all of the article before January 20.) Levitsky and Way focus on “competitive authoritarianism,” a concept they have explored for more than two decades. Under competitive authoritarianism, aspiring autocrats acquire power through legitimate elections, then stack the deck in their favor by rewarding corrupt allies, seeking revenge on their enemies through lawsuits and harassment, and cowing mass media. (Sound familiar?) ... When democracy is under threat, you don’t just say, “Well, the polls say … My focus groups say bread-and-butter issues are better.” You’ve got to defend the Constitution, man.

Louisiana Governor Flexes Power to Police New Orleans, Defying Local Preferences (Bolts Mag, Feb 2025) by Delaney Nolan

he heavy police presence was the result of an emergency declaration by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry in the wake of the New Year’s Day truck attack that killed 14.  The executive order authorized Landry to bulk up the presence of Louisiana State Police (LSP) within the city of New Orleans, and to “compel the evacuation of all or part of the population,” using whatever route, mode of transport, and destination he chooses. With a signature, Landry gave himself the authority to “control the movement of persons” within a certain area, making sure to note that he might need to set up “emergency temporary housing” for unhoused people camped near the stadium.  On January 15, Landry used those powers to send LSP officers out to forcibly displace unhoused residents of New Orleans’ downtown encampments, bussing over 100 people to a then-unheated warehouse miles away, under threat of arrest. By the time the Super Bowl rolled around, the encampments were empty. Instead, swarms of officers from the LSP and other agencies roamed the Quarter, walking in clumps of five or six down Bourbon Street. At each intersection, knots of camo-clad Louisiana National Guard soldiers toted semi-automatic rifles, becoming a spectacle of their own: Some tourists posed near the officers for pictures, while others hurried past under the floodlights, clutching their cocktails.

And a bonus from 2024

How does Trump embody Latter-day Saint values? (Dec 2024)

After some thought, here are some LDS principles I think Trump follows or exhibits that make him feel so right to so many American Mormons:

Patriarchy: Trump clearly has little use for women holding positions of authority. Similarly, the LDS Church gives women very little institutional authority, having all-male leadership both at the general and local level. While Trump and the Church obviously disagree about rules around sex, they agree that women are the attractive objects who are responsible for it.

Prosperity gospel: Trump is wealthy. He may have driven many businesses to bankruptcy, but he at least has the appearance of having a lot of money. ... The Church spends a lot of money to make temples look fancy in ways that echo Trump’s love of plating things with gold.

[mannlibrary]

Lorenzo Langstroth unvarnished

Lorenzo Langstroth, 1890. From Langstroth on the hive & honey bee, rev. by Dadant. 1892.

December 25th, Christmas Day, is a day for sharing and giving. It also happens to be the birthday of a man known as the father of American beekeeping: Lorenzo Langstroth, born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1810. With both happy occasions in mind, Mann Library is pleased to announce a resource that we’re pretty sure students of beekeeping and its history will find a wonderful gift: a fully digitized, searchable copy of Langstroth’s handwritten personal journal. Where a researcher would have once had to make an in-person trip to our special collections reading room to attempt a deciphering of Langstroth’s (infamously difficult to read) handwriting, the journal is now freely available (and actually readable!) as both a digitized version of the original work and in a transcribed form as part of the online Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Page from "Journal on matters relating to bees, etc.," unpublished manuscript, Lorenzo Langstroth 1852-1895. in the special collections of Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University.

For those not yet fully in the know, Lorenzo Langstroth looms large in American beekeeping history thanks to discoveries and inventions he made as a self-taught apiarist, innovations which essentially revolutionized the 19th century practice of beekeeping in North America and facilitated its development into the profitable industry of today. His guide on beekeeping, The Hive and the Honeybee, was first published in 1853 and remains in print even today.  Langstroth’s story is also poignantly notable for a reason that you don’t have to a be a beekeeper to appreciate deeply: his struggles with debilitating depression, which stymied many of his professional endeavors. While working intermittently as a pastor and teacher when his mental health allowed, Langstroth found constant, life-affirming inspiration in the bee world he observed closely through the prism of the hives he kept for most of his adult life.

The history of beekeeping stretches back to prehistoric times, but when Langstroth patented his movable frame beehive in 1852 it created a worldwide revolution in the practice of keeping bees. On this page of his journal, we see the exact moment—the “aha” moment—that Langstroth landed on his brilliant insight: the significance of applying the concept of "beespace" to design hives that allow easier harvesting of honey than possible in earlier hive structures. The rest, as they say, is history.

The journal Langstroth kept is a treasure for several reasons. It provides fascinating insight into pivotal moments of beekeeping’s technological history. It is, as well, an intimate view of resilience in face of sometimes devastating mental health challenges. And last but really not least, in the comments and pet peeves that Langstroth also recorded in his ongoing notes-to-self, his off-the-record writing offers a more mundane but no less instructive tour through the day-to-day concerns—from keeping bee hives productive to the vexing challenges of protecting trade secrets and securing patents for promising new discoveries in a timely way—that would have been top-of-mind for any aspiring agricultural entrepreneur of the 19th century.

Page from "Journal on matters relating to bees, etc.," unpublished manuscript, Lorenzo Langstroth 1852-1895. in the special collections of Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University.

The online availability of Langstroth’s journal in both its handwritten and transcribed form has been a work very long in the making. When early 20th century entomologist Everett Franklin Phillipps joined the Cornell faculty 1924, he made it his mission to establish one of the world’s most important collections of beekeeping materials—now known as the E. F. Phillips Collection at Mann Library. Recognizing the importance of one of this collections’ gems—the Langstroth journal—for the beekeeping field, Phillips began the painstaking process of transcribing 600 pages of its cramped, highly slanted script—rendered even more illegible by the frequent ink bleed-through from other pages—into easily readable typescript. The project remained unfinished at the time of Phillips passing in 1951, and others took up the work intermittently over the following decades. But it wasn’t until the epic pandemic-era national lockdown of 2020 that intrepid collections specialist Betsy Elswit finally found herself with the time needed to finish transcribing of the journal's final 200 pages.  Thanks to this heroic work, a browse through the work on the Biodiversity Diversity Heritage Library today provides a look at Langstroth’s original writing with a side-by-side view of transcribed, machine-readable text.  Thank you Betsy! And thank you, Reverend Langstroth, for persevering through the inspirational highs and deep lows of life to impact the practice of beekeeping so profoundly, and to leave us such a rich record of such remarkable scientific observation and personal achievement.

And with that, we leave you with our best wishes for a good, hope-filled winter holiday season!

[blackknightax]

Back to my shorts, in this one, she interacts with Toadman. Here I show that she knows of the events of megaman 4 but no details.

Tempo dashed through farmland and around fields. She's not used to being in the rural areas, especially areas where the GPS in her visor doesn't help her. Luckily, she knows one thing, what Toadman's mobile station looks like. Once she finds it, she comes to a screeching halt. “Tempo please. No need to kick up dust.” Toadman said welcomingly. “Sorry, I saw you station too late to slow to a stop. Anyway, here's your seeds! Whacha growing here?” Toadman takes the seed packets from her and explains “well just some basics. Wheat, barley, potates. Ect.” He walks over to the field. She asks a question “Toady… do you ever question your purpose? Like what you're for? Especially after the Wily incident? I know very little about it, no one wants to tell me… but…do you?” Toadman looks to her, and he hops to her and hugs her. “Tempo… you're not gonna get more from me about the incident. If you really want to know more, you'd need to talk to Ring… he's the only one of us who can talk about it. But let's look at your question.” He let's go and does a come here motion as he starts to put holes in the ground for seeds. “I, was built as an agricultural robot. I plant seeds, I water in mass, and I fertilize soil. That's what I was built to do. Why I look like a toad I have no idea.” He throws seeds into the holes he made and starts covering them up. “When Dr. Albert Wily threatened Father and Kalinka, my rain generating missile, the rain flush, was modified to create acid rain, and I was changed into a combat robot.” He starts creating the rain flush by wiggling his hips side to side. “Since it has changed back and I'm back on the farms. But I'm still looked at in fear due to my short stint as a robot master. Some people still see Wily's combat robot. Does this mean that's all I am?” Tempo had been letting him talk, but she answered “well no, you're not that guy anymore. You're Toady, my brother Toadman, a man who loves plants and agriculture and, for some reason, dislikes Snakeman. You're gonna water these crops with your water missile, and it'll also fertilize the ground and end a short-lived famine.” The rain flush fires, and he throws Tempo an umbrella. She quickly puts it up to protect her engine from the rain. “And there's the answer to your question. You are whatever you decide to be. But I have a feeling this isn't about just purpose. If you're looking at expectations, I'm afraid I'm not the one to ask.” He puts his arms out as if basking in the rain. “The only advice I have for that is, learn to love who you are and ignore what people think you should be. That's how you stay happy.” Tempo smiled “Thanks Toady. That really helped. I'd better get going.” She revs her engine, and Toadman tells her “glad I could help. You get going. It was nice to see you.” She looked back “It was good seeing you too. See ya later! Bye!” She dashed away, and he shouted “Bye!”