#[ suggested programs for the system; promotion ]

[misfitwashere]

August 24, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

AUG 25

The raucous roll call of states at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, as everybody danced to DJ Cassidy’s state-themed music, Lil Jon strode down the aisle to cheers for Georgia, and different delegations boasted about their states and good-naturedly teased other delegations, brought home the real-life meaning of E Pluribus Unum, “out of many, one.” From then until Thursday, as a sea of American flags waved and attendees joyfully chanted “USA, USA, USA,” the convention welcomed a new vision for the Democratic Party, deeply rooted in the best of traditional America. 

Under the direction of President Joe Biden, over the past three and a half years the Democrats have returned to the economic ideology of the New Deal coalition of the 1930s. This week’s convention showed that it has now gone further, recentering the vision of government that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s secretary of labor, Frances Perkins, called upon to make it serve the interests of communities.     

When the Biden-Harris administration took office in 2021, the United States was facing a deadly pandemic and the economic crash it had caused. The country also had to deal with the aftermath of the attempt of former president Donald Trump to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election and seize the presidency. It appeared that many people in the United States, as in many other countries around the world, had given up on democracy. 

Biden set out to prove that democracy could work for ordinary people by ditching the neoliberalism that had been in place for forty years. That system, begun in the 1980s, called for the government to allow unfettered markets to organize the economy. Neoliberalism’s proponents promised it would create widespread prosperity, but instead, it transferred more than $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. As the middle class hollowed out, those slipping behind lined up behind an authoritarian figure who promised to restore their former centrality by attacking those he told them were their enemies.

When he took office, Biden vowed to prove that democracy worked. With laws like the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats directed investment toward ordinary Americans. The dramatic success of their economic program proved that it worked. On Wednesday, former president Bill Clinton noted that since 1989, the U.S. has created 51 million new jobs. Fifty million of those jobs were created under Democratic presidents, while only 1 million were added under Republicans—a striking statistic that perhaps will put neoliberalism, or at least the tired trope that Democrats are worse for the economy than Republicans, to bed. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination convention suggested a more thorough reworking of the federal government, one that also recalls the 1930s but suggests a transformation that goes beyond markets and jobs. 

Before Labor Secretary Perkins’s 1935 Social Security Act, the government served largely to manage the economic relationships between labor, capital, and resources. But Perkins recognized that the purpose of government was not to protect property; it was to protect the community. She recognized that children, women, and elderly and disabled Americans were as valuable to the community as young male workers and the wealthy men who employed them.

With a law that established a federal system of old-age benefits; unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services, Perkins began the process of molding the government to reflect that truth. 

Perkins’s understanding of the United States as a community reflected both her time in a small town in Maine and in her experience as a social worker in inner-city Philadelphia and Chicago before the law provided any protections for the workers, including children, who made the new factories profitable. She understood that while lawmakers focused on male workers, the American economy was, and always has been, utterly dependent on the unrecognized contributions of women and marginalized people in the form of childcare, sharing food and housing, and the many forms of unpaid work that keep communities functioning. 

This reworking of the American government to reflect community rather than economic

relationships changed the entire fabric of the country, and opponents have worked to destroy it ever since FDR began to put it in place. 

Now, in their quest to win the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz—the Democratic nominees for president and vice president—have reclaimed the idea of community, with its understanding that everyone matters and the government must serve everyone, as the center of American life. 

Their vision rejects the division of the country into “us” and “them” that has been a staple of Republican politics since President Richard M. Nixon. It also rejects the politics of identity that has become identified with the argument that the United States has been irredeemably warped by racism and sexism. Instead, at the DNC, Democrats acknowledged the many ways in which the country has come up short of its principles in the past, and demanded that Americans do something to put in place a government that will address those inequities and make the American dream accessible to all.

Walz personifies this community vision. On Wednesday he laid it out from the very beginning of his acceptance speech, noting that he grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people, with 24 kids in his high school class. “[G]rowing up in a small town like that,” he said, “you'll learn how to take care of each other that that family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do, they may not love like you do, but they're your neighbors and you look out for them and they look out for you. Everybody belongs and everybody has a responsibility to contribute.” The football players Walz coached to a state championship joined him on stage.

Harris also called out this idea of community when she declined to mention that, if elected, she will be the first female president, and instead remembered growing up in “a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, and construction workers, all who tended their lawns with pride.” Her mother, Harris said, “leaned on a trusted circle to help raise us. Mrs. Shelton, who ran the daycare below us and became a second mother. Uncle Sherman. Aunt Mary. Uncle Freddy. And Auntie Chris. None of them, family by blood. And all of them, Family. By love…. Family who…instilled in us the values they personified. Community. Faith. And the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated. With kindness. Respect. And compassion.”

The speakers at the DNC called out the women who make communities function. Speaker after speaker at the DNC thanked their mother. Former first lady Michelle Obama explicitly described her mother, Marian Robinson, as someone who lived out the idea of hope for a better future, working for children and the community. Mrs. Obama described her mother as “glad to do the thankless, unglamorous work that for generations has strengthened the fabric of this nation.” 

Mrs. Obama, Harris, and Walz have emphasized that while they come from different backgrounds, they come from what Mrs. Obama called “the same foundational values”: “the promise of this country,” “the obligation to lift others up,” a “responsibility to give more than we take.”  Harris agreed, saying her mother “taught us to never complain about injustice. But…do something about it. She also taught us—Never do anything half-assed. That’s a direct quote.”

The Democrats worked to make it clear that their vision is not just the Democratic Party’s vision but an American one. They welcomed the union workers and veterans who have in the past gravitated toward Republicans, showing a powerful video contrasting Trump’s photo-ops, in which actors play union workers, with the actual plants being built thanks to money from the Biden-Harris administration. The many Democratic lawmakers who have served in the military stood on stage to back Arizona representative Ruben Gallego, a former Marine, who told the crowd that the veteran unemployment rate under Biden and Harris is the lowest in history. 

The many Republicans who spoke at the convention reinforced that the Democratic vision speaks for the whole country. Former representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) identified this vision as “conservative.” “As a conservative and a veteran,” he said “I believe true strength lies in defending the vulnerable. It’s in protecting your family. It’s in standing up for our Constitution and our democracy. That…is the soul of being a conservative. It used to be the soul of being a Republican,” Kinzinger said. “But Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party.” 

“[A] harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us,” Harris said. And she reminded people of her career as a prosecutor, in which “[e]very day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and said five words: ‘Kamala Harris, for the People.’ My entire career, I have only had one client. The People.”

“And so, on behalf of The People. On behalf of every American. Regardless of party. Race. Gender. Or the language your grandmother speaks. On behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey. On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with. People who work hard. Chase their dreams. And look out for one another. On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America.”

The 100,000 biodegradable balloons that fell from the rafters when Vice President Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president were blown up and tied by a team of 55 balloon artists from 18 states and Canada who volunteered to prepare the drop in honor of their colleague, Tommy DeLorenzo, who, along with his husband Scott, runs a balloon business. DeLorenzo is battling cancer. “We’re more colleagues than competitors,” Patty Sorell told Sydney Page of the Washington Post. “We all wanted to do something to help Tommy, to show him how much we love him.” 

“Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for this community,” DeLorenzo said.  

[coochiequeens]

“I did assault her and I will do it again,” he said. “And if I need to be 10 years in prison I’m happy to be 10 years in prison.” Says a man fled anyway.

The trans activist who threw tomato juice on a women’s rights campaigner during a free speech event in Auckland has been charged with common assault and appears to be fleeing from New Zealand authorities as a result.

Eliana Rubashkyn, also known as Eliana Golberstein and Eliana Rubinstein, is a male who identifies as transgender and intersex and uses “they/them” pronouns. On March 25, Rubashkyn attacked women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen during what was supposed to be a peaceful women’s rights demonstration. 

Keen, also known by her moniker Posie Parker, had arranged for a speaking tour of New Zealand centered around giving women the platform to express their thoughts on gender ideology. But she was forced to cut the tour short after being met with extreme aggression at her first stop in Auckland at Albert Park.

As Keen approached the bandstand in the park, where she was set to speak to a crowd of approximately 200 supporters, Rubashkyn dumped a liter of tomato juice onto her and her security detail. Videos of the incident have since circulated on social media, and Rubashkyn told a local news station that he was able to approach Keen because he lied about his identity and pretended to be a supporter of hers.

Following the event, Rubashkyn gave an interview where he claimed that he targeted Keen because “her words are blood because they are killing our people.” He continued: “That tomato juice represents the blood of the people she is trying to kill.”

Rubashkyn also addressed the crowd after Keen was escorted away from the park by police, and stated that he wanted Keen to be “full of blood … because she’s advocating for our genocide.”

Information on Rubashkyn’s charge was first reported by Newsable, which received a statement from Rubashkyn where he again claimed the assault and suggested he was comfortable facing justice.

“I did assault her and I will do it again,” he said. “And if I need to be 10 years in prison I’m happy to be 10 years in prison.”

But despite his words, Rubashkyn fled New Zealand shortly after being made aware that police were planning on issuing a warrant for his arrest on charges of assault.

His latest travel-related post suggests he has now left Australia and is en route to the United States.

A fundraiser has been launched to support Rubashkyn, citing support for a legal defense fund as well as “personal security needs.” It has since raised just over $1,300 as of the writing of this article. The fundraising campaign is currently under review by GiveALittle, and some on social media have noted it is likely against the platform’s terms of service to be fundraising for a known fugitive.

Rubashkyn is originally Jewish-Ukrainian from Colombia, but currently lives in New Zealand. He has worked with the UN and as a Program Officer at ILGA World (the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association). Much of his origin story and gender identity has come into question after a March 28 Twitter space wherein Rubashkyn appeared incoherent at times while addressing a live audience for almost 8 continuous hours.

During the space, Rubashkyn made a number of anti-lesbian, racist, sexist, and violent remarks, including that trans-identified males were the “first victims” of the Holocaust.

“Trans women were the first victims of Nazism. Trans women were killed before the Jews were sent to concentration camps,” he said, continuing: “In the 1930s, Nazis relied on TERFs to promote hate… TERFs became holders of concentration camps for females. TERFs were quite instrumental in the system that the Nazis built for making more babies… to keep Nazi Germany growing.”

Rubashkyn claims to be Jewish and says he can speak fluent Hebrew, but seemed to be unable to understand a Hebrew speaker who challenged him on his assertion.

In addition to the marathon space, Rubashkyn also uploaded a video to his Twitter account in which he was seen sobbing while claiming there was a “trans genocide” occurring, and that “Nazis” were trying to murder him.

“I am so full of joy because I am trans, but I am so scared because they want to kill me. The Nazis, they are– they just really want to get you.”

The March 25 event was part of an international Let Women Speak tour hosted by British women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen. Keen has hosted rallies across the UK, USA, and Australia encouraging women to use her platform to speak about how gender ideology has impacted their lives.

While Keen’s events are often met with hostility, the New Zealand rally descended into violence so rapidly that it had to be cancelled before it could even begin. 

As she arrived at the Albert Park venue, Keen went live on her YouTube channel as she usually does to provide her supporters updates from the event. 

Immediately, the scene was chaotic as police did not appear to be present. Those watching from a distance through the YouTube stream were able to see Keen being led by her security though a braying crowd of trans activists. Once she managed to make it to the stage, Keen could immediately be heard expressing concerns about the lack of police presence. 

Keen and her supporters were quickly surrounded by an increasingly aggressive mob of trans protestors. The activists broke through established barriers, and didn’t take long before the decision was made to cancel the event and leave for the safety of all involved.

In addition to Keen having been assaulted by Rubashkyn, an elderly woman who had attended the demonstration in support of Keen was battered in the face by a male trans activist.

The woman, who is said to be in her 70s, was left with a darkly blackened eye after being both head-butted and punched in the face. Videos of the assault went viral on Twitter as multiple angles of the altercation between the elderly woman and the male trans activist began to leak in the aftermath of the rally.

[mariacallous]

The Israeli attack on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza in early April that killed seven aid workers with the U.S.-based aid group World Central Kitchen has ignited a fierce global backlash against Israel’s policies of engagement in the territory. The attack involved the successive firing of three missiles at three vehicles, driven by suspicions of a Hamas combatant’s presence within the convoy, according to reports.

In Israel, the event is being portrayed as an accident, “a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures,” as the Israeli military’s investigation team concluded. In humanitarian circles, it is seen as evidence of a culture that “treats Gaza as a free-fire zone with total impunity for gross attacks on civilians,” as Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International who served in both the Obama and Biden administrations, has suggested.

But for the discussion to be useful, it should progress beyond these immediate interpretations to examine the deeper cultural patterns underlying such incidents. Most crucially, it must scrutinize the shift in military policy and ethos that can be traced back to the Elor Azaria affair of 2016-17. Azaria was an Israeli conscript who was captured on video executing a wounded and immobilized Palestinian assailant in Hebron. The Israeli military prosecuted Azaria for manslaughter and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

While the case demonstrated the military’s commitment to its own ethical codes, it also sparked widespread protests from right-wing factions and a general backlash against military procedures. The army was accused of failing to support Azaria and creating a culture in which soldiers would hesitate to use force against Palestinian militants. To counter this claim, and from that point forward, the military began to announce the number of Palestinian fighters killed in its operations, demonstrating that its forces did not hesitate to engage.

Under the leadership of the military’s chief of staff, Aviv Kochavi, from 2019 to 2023, the killing-based criteria were reinforced. Kochavi’s goal was to remake the army into a “lethal, efficient, and innovative” fighting force—in other words, a death-generating army. He promoted this vision by enhancing the precision of weapon systems, improving the coordination between forces and intelligence, and increasing the rate of fire.

Kochavi’s directive for field commanders to assess, at the end of each combat phase, the number of enemy forces killed and objectives destroyed—rather than solely focusing on territorial conquest—signified a shift toward necrotactics, where the primary goal of military engagement is killing the enemy. Killing becomes not just an outcome of warfare but its principal aim.

The approach of using body counts as a metric of success has notably intensified during the current war. Soon after the Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli military began consistently reporting the number of Hamas fighters killed, echoing the way U.S. generals announced enemy fatalities during the Vietnam War—a scenario where traditional metrics for evaluating combat success are elusive, thus making the body count, rather than the strategic objectives achieved, the primary indicator of success. This was particularly evident as the Israeli death toll ticked up and the stated objective of dismantling Hamas appeared increasingly unattainable.

In fact, the military appears to have established a quantitative goal from the outset. According to the journalist Yuval Abraham in +972 Magazine, the Israeli army developed an artificial intelligence-based program named Lavender, designed to identify targets for assassination. This system tagged approximately 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza as suspected militants, marking their residences (and therefore their families as well) for potential airstrikes. The deployment of Lavender contributed to the deaths of around 15,000 Palestinians in the war’s first six weeks, according to the report.

By setting a numerical target, the Israeli military shifted from viewing outcomes as a measure of progress—like neutralizing the threat posed to Israel from Gaza—to making body counts the main standard. The trend has been reinforced by a pervasive adoption of the language of killing among military commanders. “Now we will go forward and kill them all,” Brig. Gen. Roman Goffman was quoted as saying just before the ground operation in Gaza began, in just one prominent example.

As Israel faces an impasse in Gaza, lacking a politically articulated exit strategy, the reliance on killing and its quantification as a metric for success becomes increasingly pronounced, leading to the erosion of operational constraints. This shift was evident in the recent raid at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which inflicted extensive damage to Gaza’s most crucial health care infrastructure. The hunt for Hamas members has, to a significant degree, become an end in itself, complicating the dynamics of the conflict and placing military objectives above political resolutions.

This shift provides some context for the tragic killing of the aid convoy team—though it makes it no less disturbing. Once one or two armed individuals were spotted in the convoy, their neutralization became a top priority, apparently eclipsing overarching strategic considerations—factors that should have been incorporated at the tactical level. Fundamentally, such a situation warranted an approach aimed at preventing civilian casualties, especially along a deconflicted route designated for humanitarian aid delivery and when no direct threat was posed to Israeli troops. Moreover, the overarching political rationale should have prioritized safeguarding humanitarian missions, given the potential repercussions for Israel’s global standing amid the crisis in Gaza.

Yet the events unfolded with a seeming obsession for lethal action, as vividly illustrated by reporting in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: Upon spotting a gunman or two, Israeli forces targeted three successive vehicles from the air. After the first one was hit, passengers moved to a second vehicle, which was then struck by a missile. And when the wounded were transferred to a third vehicle, it too was fired on. This appears to be a case of obsessive kill confirmation, overshadowing the principles of necessity, proportionality, and the sanctity of civilian life.

Hence, the fundamental issue extends beyond merely revising the rules of engagement or monitoring their application more closely, as such measures alone would prove inadequate to prevent future incidents. The problem also transcends the flawed assumption that every part of Gaza can be considered a free-fire zone where engaging Palestinian militants indiscriminately is justified. What is crucial is dismantling the prevailing culture that equates killing with military success.

Yagil Levy is a professor of political sociology and public policy at the Open University of Israel. His most recent book in English is: Whose Life Is Worth More? Hierarchies of Risk and Death in Contemporary Wars.

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

ROUND 2 MATCH 60

Saeran propaganda:

"He's a very gentle young man born into miserable circumstances who learns what freedom and autonomy mean to him after far too long of being everyone else's punching bag. He goes from desperation, subservience, and self-loathing to blind rage to become the biggest threat in the room, all in the name of self-preservation in an environment that wants to destroy him. But with a support system that challenges his programmed thought processes, he learns to see past the lies and coercion and begins his recovery journey with his beloved partner and dear twin brother. He loves flowers and knows most of their meanings (he WILL gift bouquets of them to share those captivating messages), he's an excellent chef, and he is an entirely devoted partner who sees his beloved MC as the light that helped guide him onto his path to recovery. He genuinely loves his MC in a way that the other characters of Mystic Messenger suggest transcends the notion of romance. He's ethereal; he's on a different plane of love. He is the very essence of love. He will risk his all... risk everything in the name of love."

Nakedtoaster propaganda:

“First off we love he/they icons. He's very silly but he's also extremely smart and sweet. They care about their friends deeply and they're always conscious of when a joke is going too far and needs to stop. He's so sweet and cute and it's so impossibly easy to make them blush theyre truly a dork. Also did you know if you create a ffxiv account you can play up to level 70 for free?!”

“A tall gentle giant that somehow thrives at being both silly goofy AND incredibly brilliant. They're always #downtoclown and they have a good sense of humor but he's also attentive, caring and kind, likes to spend quality time chatting and having some deep conversation (if he thinks something upsets, he always checks in to make sure you're doing okay). They coded a complex text-based CRPG that responds in real time to player input, and eventually they got their own company. They're CEO and care about their company and employees, so much that he's really conflicted about selling the organization, because it feels like it's his baby (his words). He balances work, gaming and socialization in the server. In their route, they get adorably flustered but make sure to let the player know that they're into it and absolutely reciprocate, and after their ending (which is very emotionally charged and high stakes scenario) they literally go "Fuck it" and profess love to the player even though they haven't known each other for long, because they mutually relate and empathize with each other's struggles (player character also is in a tense work environment and trying to manage expectations). He has gorgeous pink hair that he lets the player braid, he won't lose any opportunity to promote the critically acclaimed MMORPG FFXIV, he's the sweetest cutest person, and perhaps most importantly, he looks great in cat ears headband <3”

[ekwolfwriter-blog]

Warning Writers and Artist

If you see this or something similar in your messages or asking about if your art uses AI or if you use AI for your fics, do not engage them directly.

There is someone going around that is outright accusing people of using AI for works of theirs and asking to prove it. Either through showing their process with a video but the platform they used or the programs and are just being pushy about it. And while it can feel tempting to answer, it is just to get to harass artist and writers into complying about AI in any works. And from a cursory glance, they seem be going after popular blogs/ artists/ or specific ships that are being asked to be questioned. (I will not name which ships as that is not my business but I will tag in ones I am familiar with).

As for the person that asked me this, I will be candid and say this: Asking someone if they use AI in their works is not conductive to ones time. I only have a cursory understanding of AI vs Human in the arts debate as I know there is a lot of discussions about it and yes, it is scary times because of the scraping of fics and art. I considers myself an artist/ writer, so I am a strong believer in human touch as being necessary for any artistic front. But the subject of AI tools is not something I know all details about and cannot provide an answer I would be confident I can provide a suitable answer to this conversation. Also keep in mind - Microsoft and/ google docs use AI for editing purposes or suggestions unless you turn it off, so make of that what you will. (Or if you have a plug in with AI that give a suggestion of what to write in some websites so there is that too).

But if you are the person that I have heard that is going around and asking people for proof of creation - it causing more headaches than good and asking for "proof of it" is also potentially harmful for showing this unnecessary proof. Such as exposing someones computer background information or anything on their computer or names on files linking actual real life people.

There are ways to make sure that art is not scraped - such as artist finding programs to prevent their images from being used for AI searches to writers using sites like Ao3 that offer locking works from getting scrapped from AI that at as guests that are not registered to the system. It is not prefect, but it is a start. If that is what you are looking to accomplish, then promote the good ways to prevent AI from scraping works from content creator and or finding new methods to promote human artist/ writers in fandoms.

Asking me if I use AI is not one of them. And no, I will not be proving myself or showing off my works for anyone's amusement to rile up drama. If you want to ask about my genuine thought process or ideas for fics and concerns if I use AI, ask in the comments below. Let's talk publicly about this.

Otherwise, I see this as just someone trying get me to cause drama before more content comes out for a certain fandom. And I don't have the time nor patience for people looking to cause issues because you are bored.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 24, 2024 (Saturday)

The raucous roll call of states at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, as everybody danced to DJ Cassidy’s state-themed music, Lil Jon strode down the aisle to cheers for Georgia, and different delegations boasted about their states and good-naturedly teased other delegations, brought home the real-life meaning of E Pluribus Unum, “out of many, one.” From then until Thursday, as a sea of American flags waved and attendees joyfully chanted “USA, USA, USA,” the convention welcomed a new vision for the Democratic Party, deeply rooted in the best of traditional America.

Under the direction of President Joe Biden, over the past three and a half years the Democrats have returned to the economic ideology of the New Deal coalition of the 1930s. This week’s convention showed that it has now gone further, recentering the vision of government that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s secretary of labor, Frances Perkins, called upon to make it serve the interests of communities.

When the Biden-Harris administration took office in 2021, the United States was facing a deadly pandemic and the economic crash it had caused. The country also had to deal with the aftermath of the attempt of former president Donald Trump to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election and seize the presidency. It appeared that many people in the United States, as in many other countries around the world, had given up on democracy.

Biden set out to prove that democracy could work for ordinary people by ditching the neoliberalism that had been in place for forty years. That system, begun in the 1980s, called for the government to allow unfettered markets to organize the economy. Neoliberalism’s proponents promised it would create widespread prosperity, but instead, it transferred more than $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. As the middle class hollowed out, those slipping behind lined up behind an authoritarian figure who promised to restore their former centrality by attacking those he told them were their enemies.

When he took office, Biden vowed to prove that democracy worked. With laws like the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats directed investment toward ordinary Americans. The dramatic success of their economic program proved that it worked. On Wednesday, former president Bill Clinton noted that since 1989, the U.S. has created 51 million new jobs. Fifty million of those jobs were created under Democratic presidents, while only 1 million were added under Republicans—a striking statistic that perhaps will put neoliberalism, or at least the tired trope that Democrats are worse for the economy than Republicans, to bed.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination convention suggested a more thorough reworking of the federal government, one that also recalls the 1930s but suggests a transformation that goes beyond markets and jobs.

Before Labor Secretary Perkins’s 1935 Social Security Act, the government served largely to manage the economic relationships between labor, capital, and resources. But Perkins recognized that the purpose of government was not to protect property; it was to protect the community. She recognized that children, women, and elderly and disabled Americans were as valuable to the community as young male workers and the wealthy men who employed them.

With a law that established a federal system of old-age benefits; unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services, Perkins began the process of molding the government to reflect that truth.

Perkins’s understanding of the United States as a community reflected both her time in a small town in Maine and in her experience as a social worker in inner-city Philadelphia and Chicago before the law provided any protections for the workers, including children, who made the new factories profitable. She understood that while lawmakers focused on male workers, the American economy was, and always has been, utterly dependent on the unrecognized contributions of women and marginalized people in the form of childcare, sharing food and housing, and the many forms of unpaid work that keep communities functioning.

This reworking of the American government to reflect community rather than economic relationships changed the entire fabric of the country, and opponents have worked to destroy it ever since FDR began to put it in place.

Now, in their quest to win the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz—the Democratic nominees for president and vice president—have reclaimed the idea of community, with its understanding that everyone matters and the government must serve everyone, as the center of American life.

Their vision rejects the division of the country into “us” and “them” that has been a staple of Republican politics since President Richard M. Nixon. It also rejects the politics of identity that has become identified with the argument that the United States has been irredeemably warped by racism and sexism. Instead, at the DNC, Democrats acknowledged the many ways in which the country has come up short of its principles in the past, and demanded that Americans do something to put in place a government that will address those inequities and make the American dream accessible to all.

Walz personifies this community vision. On Wednesday he laid it out from the very beginning of his acceptance speech, noting that he grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people, with 24 kids in his high school class. “[G]rowing up in a small town like that,” he said, “you'll learn how to take care of each other that that family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do, they may not love like you do, but they're your neighbors and you look out for them and they look out for you. Everybody belongs and everybody has a responsibility to contribute.” The football players Walz coached to a state championship joined him on stage.

Harris also called out this idea of community when she declined to mention that, if elected, she will be the first female president, and instead remembered growing up in “a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, and construction workers, all who tended their lawns with pride.” Her mother, Harris said, “leaned on a trusted circle to help raise us. Mrs. Shelton, who ran the daycare below us and became a second mother. Uncle Sherman. Aunt Mary. Uncle Freddy. And Auntie Chris. None of them, family by blood. And all of them, Family. By love…. Family who…instilled in us the values they personified. Community. Faith. And the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated. With kindness. Respect. And compassion.”

The speakers at the DNC called out the women who make communities function. Speaker after speaker at the DNC thanked their mother. Former first lady Michelle Obama explicitly described her mother, Marian Robinson, as someone who lived out the idea of hope for a better future, working for children and the community. Mrs. Obama described her mother as “glad to do the thankless, unglamorous work that for generations has strengthened the fabric of this nation.”

Mrs. Obama, Harris, and Walz have emphasized that while they come from different backgrounds, they come from what Mrs. Obama called “the same foundational values”: “the promise of this country,” “the obligation to lift others up,” a “responsibility to give more than we take.” Harris agreed, saying her mother “taught us to never complain about injustice. But…do something about it. She also taught us—Never do anything half-assed. That’s a direct quote.”

The Democrats worked to make it clear that their vision is not just the Democratic Party’s vision but an American one. They welcomed the union workers and veterans who have in the past gravitated toward Republicans, showing a powerful video contrasting Trump’s photo-ops, in which actors play union workers, with the actual plants being built thanks to money from the Biden-Harris administration. The many Democratic lawmakers who have served in the military stood on stage to back Arizona representative Ruben Gallego, a former Marine, who told the crowd that the veteran unemployment rate under Biden and Harris is the lowest in history.

The many Republicans who spoke at the convention reinforced that the Democratic vision speaks for the whole country. Former representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) identified this vision as “conservative.” “As a conservative and a veteran,” he said “I believe true strength lies in defending the vulnerable. It’s in protecting your family. It’s in standing up for our Constitution and our democracy. That…is the soul of being a conservative. It used to be the soul of being a Republican,” Kinzinger said. “But Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party.”

“[A] harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us,” Harris said. And she reminded people of her career as a prosecutor, in which “[e]very day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and said five words: ‘Kamala Harris, for the People.’ My entire career, I have only had one client. The People.”

“And so, on behalf of The People. On behalf of every American. Regardless of party. Race. Gender. Or the language your grandmother speaks. On behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey. On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with. People who work hard. Chase their dreams. And look out for one another. On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America.”

The 100,000 biodegradable balloons that fell from the rafters when Vice President Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president were blown up and tied by a team of 55 balloon artists from 18 states and Canada who volunteered to prepare the drop in honor of their colleague, Tommy DeLorenzo, who along with his husband Scott, runs a balloon business. DeLorenzo is battling cancer. “We’re more colleagues than competitors,” Patty Sorell told Sydney Page of the Washington Post. “We all wanted to do something to help Tommy, to show him how much we love him.”

“Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for this community,” DeLorenzo said.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[simslegacy5083]

Not So Berry (Straud Descendants) Gen 9

Today's (9/6/2024) Episode: Mr. and Mrs.

Following their reception Luigi brought the Missus to a lounge on Mua Pel’am Island for a nightcap to start their intimate afterparty.

“Yeah, Dad’s feast was tasty, but did you see their faces when we started the dance? Worth all the practice to be sure, I mean I loved practicing too…”

Fortunately for the rapidly backtracking groom, a fan approached “Cyber Lu”, interrupting their conversation by begging for an autograph. While the self-centered star happily provided a personalized headshot for the excited young lady, Noemi sipped her drink with a self-satisfied smile.

He got so adorably thrilled by the attention, and his fans never bothered her. Well worth sending out a quick anonymous Luigi sighting via text. 

When the hubbub died down and their drinks were gone, Luigi grabbed Noemi’s hand, pulling her up to face him “So, Mrs. Lawbourne, are you ready for me to show you the real reason I brought you all the way out here?”

Judging by the look on his face Noemi decided she had a really good feeling about whatever he had up his sleeve “Oh, this sounds interesting” she replied, matching his excited grin with one of her own “lead on, Mr. Lawbourne”

So late at night, they met no other sims on the winding sandy path leading up to a large misty waterfall.

“Papa used to love bringing me here when I was a kid,” Luigi said over the soft roar of the falls. “He’d pack a lunch and we’d spend hours eating and splashing around. However, apparently, there’s a little crystal cave tucked away back there that’s famous as a venue for more “adult” rendezvous…”

At the suggestive waggle of his eyebrows she teased: “Are you sure we’re not being observed? We were just accosted by one of your fangirls.”

Luigi made a big show of looking over his shoulder and then carefully checking behind nearby rocks and bushes before tiptoeing back over to her and whispering: “It’s all good, I think we’re alone now” before pulling his squealing bride into the intimate gloom behind the curtain of falling water.

“Well worth it’s reputation!” Noemi said when they emerged sometime later “Reminded me of the best parts of that grotto where you proposed.”

“I’m glad you liked it” he replied “Now, as much as I’d love to stay and explore, I think we’d better get home and finish getting ready for our trip. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“If we must… but first, get over here” she teased “I think I forgot a little something I wanted to do in there when you distracted me.”

Back home, the couple temporarily split up. While Noemi did some last-minute honeymoon packing, Luigi uploaded the video footage from the wedding onto his fancy new video editing station and started some quick revisions.

He quickly found the large, specialized workstation much easier to use than his laptop. As he put the finishing touches on a quick promotional clip, he made a mental note to see what upgrades he could make to their everyday computer setups when they got back from their trip.

He’d maxed his programming skill ages ago and could overclock any PC easily. In addition, a full size, ergonomically correct, desktop system would help keep his carpel tunnel at bay. They were developing his videogame on a laptop and a tablet for crying out loud! “It’s settled… when I get back, we’re getting new computers - no excuses!” he declared to the empty studio before finishing up and heading off in search of his wife.

Luigi found Noemi in the bedroom, waiting for him once again, in an outfit he hadn’t seen her wear since before she got pregnant.

“I hope you haven’t hurt yourself again” she said, “because that would be very inconvenient.” Her crop leapt up to press his lips together before he could respond, leaving him to shake his head silently.

“Good boy. Now, to have a nice night, you’ll want to go put on the little present I left on your bedside table, and keep that pretty mouth closed until I tell you what to do with it. Understood?” Luigi nodded again, eager to see what his mistress had in mind to cap off their wedding night in style.

After “round two” the pair finally drifted off to catch a couple hours shut eye before catching the teleport to their honeymoon destination.

As he snuggled his wife close Luigi dreamed of their upcoming adventure. They’d talked about how much fun it would be to visit the park when they’d been “just friends” back in college and now they’d finally be doing it as husband and wife. He couldn’t wait to get started.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[contentment-of-cats]

Text from the Washington Post

DYING EARLY AMERICA’S LIFE EXPECTANCY CRISIS STRESS IS WEATHERING OUR BODIES FROM THE INSIDE OUT

By Akilah Johnson and Charlotte Gomez Oct. 17 at 6:00 a.m.

Link to article here - paywall warning. Use 12.io or other paywall buster.

Physicians and public health experts have pointed to one culprit time and again when asked why Americans live shorter lives than peers in nations with similar resources, especially people felled by chronic diseases in the prime of life: stress.

A cardiologist, endocrinologist, obesity specialist, health economist and social epidemiologists all said versions of the same thing: Striving to get ahead in an unequal society contributes to people in the United States aging quicker, becoming sicker and dying younger.

Recent polls show adults are stressed by factors beyond their control, including inflation, violence, politics and race relations. A spring Washington Post-Ipsos poll found 50 percent of Americans said not having enough income was a source of financial stress; 55 percent said not having enough savings was also a source of stress.

“We should take a step back and look at the society we’re living in and how that is actually determining our stress levels, our fatigue levels, our despair levels,” said Elizabeth H. Bradley, president of Vassar College and co-author of the book “The American Health Care Paradox.” “That’s for everybody. Health is influenced very much by these factors, so that’s why we were talking about a reconceptualization of health.”

The Washington Post’s efforts to gain a deeper understanding of how stress can cause illness, disability and shorter lives led to a once derided body of research that has become part of the mainstream discussion about improving America’s health: the Weathering Hypothesis.

Stress is a physiological reaction that is part of the body’s innate programming to protect against external threats.

When danger appears, an alarm goes off in the brain, activating the body’s sympathetic nervous system — the fight-or-flight system. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is activated. Hormones, such as epinephrine and cortisol, flood the bloodstream from the adrenal glands.

The heart beats faster. Breathing quickens. Blood vessels dilate. More oxygen reaches large muscles. Blood pressure and glucose levels rise. The immune system’s inflammatory response activates, promoting quick healing.

Once the threat passes, hormone levels return to normal, blood glucose recedes, and heart rate and blood pressure return to baseline. That’s how the human body should work.

Life brings an accumulation of unremitting stress, especially for those subjected to inequity — and not just from immediate and chronic threats. Even the anticipation of those menaces causes persistent damage.

The body produces too much cortisol and other stress hormones, straining to bring itself back to normal. Eventually, the body’s machinery malfunctions.

Like tree rings, the body remembers.

The constant strain — the chronic sources of stress — resets what is “normal,” and the body begins to change.

It is the repeated triggering of this process year after year — the persistence of striving to overcome barriers — that leads to poor health.

Blood pressure remains high. Inflammation turns chronic. In the arteries, plaque forms, causing the linings of blood vessels to thicken and stiffen. That forces the heart to work harder. It doesn’t stop there. Other organs begin to fail.

Struggling and striving It’s part of the weathering process, a theory first suggested by Arline T. Geronimus, a professor and population health equity researcher at the University of Michigan.

Geronimus, whose book “Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society” published in March, started out studying the health of women and babies as a graduate student in the 1980s, having been influenced by two distinctly different jobs she had as an undergraduate: one as an on-campus research assistant, the other as a peer companion at an off-campus school for teen mothers.

Stress is weathering our bodies from the inside out At the time, she said, conventional wisdom held that the Black community had higher rates of infant mortality because teen mothers were physically and psychosocially too immature to have healthy babies. But her research showed younger Black women had better pregnancy and birth outcomes than Black mothers in their mid- to late 20s and 30s.

For this, she was criticized as someone arguing in favor of teen pregnancy, even though she was not. Shaken but undeterred, she continued trying to understand the phenomenon, which meant better understanding the overall health of the community these teens depended on for help. As she studied those networks, she recognized “people’s life expectancies were shorter, and they were getting all these chronic diseases at young ages,” she said.

But she hadn’t come up with a name yet for what she was witnessing. That happened in the early 1990s while sitting in her office: “‘Weathering’ struck me as the perfect word.”

She said she was trying to capture two things. First, that people’s varied life experiences affect their health by wearing down their bodies. And second, she said: “People are not just passive victims of these horrible exposures. They withstand them. They struggle against them. These are people who weather storms.”

People seem to instinctively understand the first, but she said they often overlook the second. It isn’t just living in an unequal society that makes people sick. It’s the day-in, day-out effort of trying to be equal that wears bodies down.

Weathering, she said, helps explain the double-edged sword of “high-effort coping.”

Over the years, Geronimus widened the aperture of her research to include immigrants, Latinos, the LGBTQIA community, poor White people from Appalachia. She found that while weathering is a universal human physiological process, it happens more often in marginalized populations.

Regulation of cortisol — what we think of as the body’s main stress hormone — is disrupted. Optimally, it should work like a wave with a steep morning rise followed by a rapid decline, which slows until reaching baseline at bedtime.

But existing research suggests that is blunted by repeated exposure to psychosocial and environmental stressors, such as perceived racial discrimination, which flatten this rhythm.

Stress-induced high cortisol levels stimulate appetite by triggering the release of ghrelin, a peptide that stimulates hunger.

The interplay between elevated cortisol and glucose is especially complex and insidious, eventually leading to obesity, fatigue, cardiovascular disease, poor immune and inflammatory functions, higher breast cancer mortality rates and other metabolic disorders. Dysregulated cortisol also increases depression and anxiety and interferes with sleep.

Weathering doesn’t start in middle age.

It begins in the womb. Cortisol released into a pregnant person’s bloodstream crosses the placenta, which helps explain why a disproportionate number of babies born to parents who live in impoverished communities or who experience the constant scorn of discrimination are preterm and too small.

During the coronavirus pandemic, pregnant women experiencing stress endured changes in the structure and texture of their placentas, according to a study published this year in Scientific Reports.

The toxic stream can persist into childhood fueled by exposure to abuse, neglect, poverty, hunger. Too much exposure to cortisol can reset the neurological system’s fight-or-flight response, essentially causing the brain’s stress switch to go haywire.

Too much stress in children and adolescents can trigger academic, behavioral and health problems, including depression and obesity.

Stress can change the body at a cellular level.

The effects of relentless stress can be seen at the chromosomal level, in telomeres, which are repeated sequences of DNA found in just about every cell.

Telomeres are the active tips of chromosomes, and they protect the cell’s genetic stability by “capping” the ends of the chromosomes to prevent degeneration. (Think of the plastic tips of shoelaces.)

Researchers have discovered that in people with chronically high levels of cortisol, telomeres become shortened at a faster rate, a sign of premature aging. The shorter the telomeres, the older the cell’s biological age. Shortened telomeres cause a disconnect between biological and chronological age.

‘A societal project’ “I don’t think most people understand weathering stress. Stress is such a vague term,” Geronimus said. “But it still gives us a leverage point to get in there and see a more complex and more frightening picture of what it does to people’s bodies and whose bodies it does it to.”

Changes in seven biomarkers in cardiac patients during a 30-year period showed Black patients weathering about six years faster than White people, a 2019 study published in SSM-Population Health found. Research also found that Black people experience hypertension, diabetes and strokes 10 years earlier than White people, according to a study published in the Journal of Urban Health.

The impact of repeatedly activating the body’s stress response is called allostatic load.

Research has shown that Mexican immigrants living in the United States for more than 10 years have elevated allostatic load scores compared with those who have lived here for less than a decade, and a study of Ohio breast cancer patients published in May in JAMA Network Open found that women with higher allostatic loads — who tended to be older, Black, single and publicly insured — were more likely to experience postoperative complications than those with lower allostatic loads.

“The argument weathering is trying to make is these are things we can change, but we have to understand them in their complexity,” Geronimus said. “This has to be a societal project, not the new app on your phone that will remind you to take deep breaths when you’re feeling stress.”

So, in short, social inequality causes stress, leading to shortened telomeres and, in turn, premature aging, disease and early death.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Mike Ramsay

Published: Mar 7, 2024

Late last month, the public learned that the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) through its Equity, Anti-Racism & Anti-Oppression Department issued a teaching guide claiming the Canadian education system is “colonialist” and designed to uphold the dominant white culture. The document, entitled “Facilitating Critical Conversations,” specifies that “education is a colonial structure that centres whiteness and Eurocentricity and therefore it must be actively decolonized,” and “schooling in North America is inherently designed for the benefit of the dominant culture (i.e., white, middle-upper class, male, Christian, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, neurotypical, etc.)”. It adds that, “race matters—it is a visible and dominant identity factor determining people’s social, political, economic, and cultural experiences.”

While the school board has since temporarily removed the guide pending review after the Ontario Ministry of Education called it divisive, it is important that this thinking which has captured our school systems not be ignored. 

That this handbook was actually produced and distributed by the TDSB did not come as a shock to me, because, in my view, it is representative of what is taking place at other school boards right across Ontario. A reasonable question to ask is how all of this came about.

Having served as a trustee for 24 years, I would suggest it emerged because of the work of frontline activists who truly believe in their cause and that the system is stacked against racialized students. However, many others in leadership positions, who have other motives, simply see this as an opportunity to enrich themselves. They did this by pretending to address the activists’ perception of the issues.

As a Black trustee and past chair of a large school board (WRDSB), I often wondered what good could come from paying DEI consultants upwards of $500.00 an hour to teach kids that if they are white, the successes they experience are not due to personal effort. Meanwhile, racialized students are being taught that despite personal effort, their chances of success are diminished because society is racist and therefore biased against them.

The fact is that we have both white and racialized kids who are doing well academically. Conversely, we have white and racialized kids who are not doing so well. What I have found as a member of my board’s discipline committee is that the kids (from all backgrounds) who are not doing well usually have other issues that are at play, including, but not limited to significant behavioural issues that are impacting their ability to learn. However, you can’t tell this to the proponents of DEI, who have been busy organizing events to celebrate and take credit for the academic success of racialized students who I believe were, for the most part, never in danger of failing school in the first place. The credit should go to the parents and caregivers who worked and continue to work hard to encourage and support their children.

Thankfully, with the passing of each day, more and more people are beginning to question the need for school initiatives that are fixated on identity politics. They are coming to realize that certain aspects of DEI instruction can actually lead to greater prejudice and even harm, as highlighted in a recent study released by the Aristotle Foundation and authored by Professor David Haskell. 

Haskell’s report shows that DEI related to “anti-racism” education and its promotion of “white privilege” doesn’t make participants more sympathetic to disadvantaged Black people as DEI trainers claim, and can in fact make them more hostile toward poor white people.  

As he elaborates, “Teaching students about white privilege, a core component of the DEI curriculum, does not make them feel more compassion toward poor people of colour but can reduce sympathy [and] increase blame…for White people struggling with poverty.”

In light of Haskell’s overwhelming evidence, I feel school boards should be required to justify the expense and existence of DEI in their organizations. Moreover, if it is doing harm as his research shows, do we not have an obligation to use legislation to stop the practice immediately in our classrooms?

I would say we do. And that is why I agree wholeheartedly with parent Liz Galvin who recently told the Halton District School Board: “Trustees, when your equity and inclusion policies are used to generate administrative procedures by un-elected DEI proponents that contradict the aims and prescribed goals of said policy, then you have an obligation to insist that they be scrutinized, amended and or removed.” 

It seems straightforward, but the practice will not stop if it is left solely to the discretion of the Ontario NDP supporting majority which dominates most school boards.

This is where the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford comes in. Even though his government has made it clear through their 2023 Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act (Bill 98) that they want boards to be dead focused on tangible measurable learning achievement, rather than on faddish so-called “social justice” experiments, boards continue to double down on these DEI initiatives. I don’t know if the government is tiptoeing around the issue out of fear that the far-Left radicals entrenched in our education system will attack them. More and more parents and education workers from all backgrounds across our province are paying closer and closer attention to the damage being done. It is time for the Ford government to respond firmly and issue clear directives to boards to end these divisive practices.

==

You can tell it's a cult because they don't care about evidence.

The way to combat this is the same as combatting religion. You say, prove it. You're asking us to sink a tub of taxpayer money into your program. So, let's see your statistics. Let's see your before and after metrics. Let's see how you measured the success of your training program and the results. Let's see what we can expect for ourselves based on your success elsewhere.

They can't and won't. They'll instead morally brow-beat you with words like "white supremacy" and "danger" and "harm." Despite them making truth claims - that is, statements that are supposed to be taken as factually true - part of the scam is that they'll even claim that asking for this sort of evidence is itself part of the problem. This is the same tactic as a priest threatening you with hell to sell you salvation, or a salesman frightening you with murder and rape to sell you an alarm system.

At that point you say, so, no statistics, no metrics, no results, huh? And you invite them to leave.

[paxesoterica]

About Miorine’s Mother

Let’s start with what we definitely know (spoilers through Ep. 22)

It’s established that Miorine’s father is Delling, President of the Benerit Group, and the person responsible for placing Miorine as a trophy in Asticassia’s dueling games, and for ordering the attack on the Vanadis Institute that seemingly left only Elnora and Ericht Samaya alive; the scene then transitions back to the greenhouse with Miorine and Suletta.

Miorine had some tomato seeds with her during her escape attempt, which she places back in a container, and which we can infer are most likely the breed discussed below.

Miorine’s mother created a particular tomato breed, one that’s noted by Suletta (and later others) for being unusually delicious for tomatoes.

Miorine’s mother, unlike Suletta’s, is dead.

Miorine feels that her father is too controlling, interfering with her playing piano, what friends she could have, and even how her mother’s funeral was conducted.

Miorine’s room is her father’s former office, divided into two halves: one is a hydroponic garden, kept in careful condition, and thematically associated with the greenhouse where she grows tomatoes; the other contains her desk and bed, and is treated like a literal garbage dump.

Given gardening’s association with Miorine’s mother, and work/business’s association with her father, we can infer that the two halves are symbolically representative of her parents, and are treated accordingly (that Miorine also sleeps amid the trash of the Delling implies some rather sad things about her self-perception).

Belmeria was previously established as scientist who worked for Peil Technologies by managing the enhanced person program, improving the nervous systems of body doubles of Elan to be more resistant to damage from data storms.

Belmeria is a former colleague of Prospera, however the two have not seen each other since the Vanadis Incident (this is also the first time the Incident was implied to have occurred 21 years ago, which calls into question if Ericht, age 4, from the prologue = Suletta, age 17).

Miorine’s mother died several years prior (Miorine’s appearance suggests it was during her pre-teen years, but that has not been confirmed).

Her mother’s body seems to be present at the funeral, as is Miorine, but the flashback shows Delling only as a distant figure.

Per an earlier meeting with Vim, Prospera had been promoted to CEO of Shin Sei Development 3 years prior to the show’s current time (so, around the time Suletta and Miorine would have been around 13-14, about 2-3 years after the promotion mentioned in Cradle Planet above). As a CEO in the Benerit Group, Prospera has been in contact with Delling for at least 3 years.

Prospera missed Suletta’s 10th and 12th (and beyond) birthdays; this is almost assuredly related to Suletta’s interest in birthdays, and may have have taken place during the same timeframe as Miorine’s mother’s death, though other than a coincidental timing, no other correlation has been established.

During the Plant Quetta Incident, Delling talks more about Miorine’s mother, revealing her name to be Notrette, and mentioning that the two had agreed to do whatever it took to ensure Miorine’s survival.

Whatever the cause of Notrette’s death, it apparently involved her and Delling separating so at least one of them was guaranteed to survive, and attempting to escape from something, though this is not elaborated on.

During the second opening, there’s a scene with a white-haired lady wearing a wedding band, sitting next to tomatoes a child’s hand is reaching toward. The most probable explanation is that this is Notrette, which would mean the child’s hand belongs to Miorine.

Prospera reveals to Miorine that the secret project she and Delling were collaborating on, Quiet Zero, was originally the brainchild of Notrette.

Prospera elaborates that Quiet Zero would take advantage of the data storm phenomenon to override and control Permet-based technology (essentially nearly all modern tech in the solar system). This prompts Miorine to derisively ask if her father was planning to become a god, as that’s what that level of control would entail.

Prospera does not elaborate on how Notrette, a botanist, would have conceived of this engineering project in the first place, nor how the two met.

Belmeria confronts Prospera about her daughter Ericht’s whereabouts, and Prospera explains that she transferred Ericht’s biometric data into the Gundam Lfrith (now known as the Gundam Aerial).

This affirms, in addition to the lack of contact between the two, that Belmeria, one of the few characters in the show established as having skills with bioengineering, was not involved with this, or any other projects Prospera had previously undertaken that would have benefited from Belmeria’s skillset.

Rajan affirms that Notrette was a botanical engineer, and her original vision of Quiet Zero was based on her knowledge of plant adaptation.

The mention of ‘survival’ also recalls what Delling had said at Plant Quetta about Notrette and he being focused on survival.

This article, incidentally, describes some fascinating facts about how tomatoes survive.

One of the main facts is that tomatoes have senses on par with humans, and have similar information processing capabilities, despite lacking a nervous system; as data storms damage Gundam pilots due to overtaxing their nervous systems, this fact may or may not come into play at some point.

The other main fact about tomatoes is that they have extra copies of their genes, allowing them to better adapt to environmental stress despite being unable to move from one place (this also may or may not prove relevant).

Rajan adds the detail that Notrettte’s death involved some sort of accident, for which Delling was presumably present.

Suletta learns that while genetically related to Prospera, she is not her biological daughter, and instead was duplicated from Ericht’s genes.

Suletta was born before Ericht’s human body died, meaning Ericht was around 8 y.o. at the time of death.

Ericht and the Children of the Coven refer to Suletta as a ‘key’ to raising Aerial’s Permet score data, and thus allowing Ericht to achieve freedom, but this is not elaborated on.

Suletta also exhibits Permet marks as a baby, seemingly with no pain, implying she’s at least resistant to damage from data storms.

Suletta relays the information she learned to her friends (and reiterates it for the audience).

While it is specified that Prospera transferred Ericht’s data into Aerial, it is never specified by either Prospera, Ericht, or Suletta who created the repli-children. As previously proven, it could not have been Belmeria, despite her being one of the few characters in the show with the necessary skillset.

Notrette, on the other hand, would have been alive and well at the time, and given her ideas applying plant survival strategies to humans for Quiet Zero, it’s not inconceivable that she would be capable of cloning a human.

Suletta mentions that Notrette’s tomato breed is named Anesidora, “she who sends gifts from the Earth”.

What Suletta does not mention is that ‘Anesidora’ is an epithet for three different Greek mythological figures: Gaia, Demeter, and Pandora. The first two are goddesses associated with the earth, which just re-affirms Notrette’s (and by extension, Miorine’s) connection with Earth and growing plants, but the latter is infamous for her association with a certain box (actually more likely a jar, but tomayto tomahto) that unleashed all manner of evils upon the world, while still retaining hope.

“I will always be attached to you, Miorine.” has an oddly clinical sound for what’s presumably supposed to be a loving message from Notrette left for her daughter.

It is also noteworthy that, in a show where every parental figure (with the exception of Nadim) has been shown to be flawed and, however inadvertently, had a negative influence on their child, Miorine’s view of Notrette seems a little too perfect, especially given her involvement in some form with Prospera, as well as little things like the possible Pandora reference and the oddly clinical message mentioned above.

It is my current theory that, if we don’t receive any major revelations about Notrette in the next episode, then we will by the end of the finale, and a continuation for The Witch from Mercury will be set up in which, with the likely conclusion of Prospera’s story, the focus will change from Suletta’s mother to the legacy of Miorine’s mother, Notrette, instead (and, incidentally, necessitating Suletta and Miorine resuming their protagonist roles).

[theinsidiousdice]

Welcome to Suterra University!

Suterra University, located underneath the southwestern deserts, is a school with a long and storied history. It opened its doors over 150 years ago, with a graduating class of only 200 women. Since then, Suterra has grown in leaps and bounds, extending further outwards into the cave system in which it was founded. Its location adjacent to an underground river keeps the campus cooler than the surface temperature would suggest, and, through the operation of a mechanism patented by Suterra's own Professor of Engineurgy Maxibel Rey, during the winter students can even expect snow!

Suterra opened in 1872 as an institute dedicated to the magical sciences. Its first chancellor, Belladonna Stacks, hand-picked every student and staff member herself - two of those original staff members, Aurora Bonhomme and Wenceslaus Lyrick, continue to work at Suterra to this day! As Suterra grew through the years, Belladonna Stacks retired and promoted her daughter, Strychnine Stacks, to chancellor, a position she still holds. Though Suterra has expanded and the faculty has (mostly) changed, the university still remains committed to the ideals upon which it was founded: that every young woman deserves a high-quality place to hone her skills with magic.

Today, Suterra offers many degree programs outside of the magical sciences, but the core BMS, MMS, and PhD programs remain the foundation of the university. Suterra even began accepting male candidates in 1993, though only for non-magical masters programs due to the inability of men to use magic. Nonetheless, even Suterra's non-magical programs are recognized worldwide for their rigor and challenge.

Students are encouraged to live on campus - with Suterra's world-class dorms and professional-chef-staffed dining halls, you'll never want to leave. (Commuting is discouraged due to the remote location of the school, though transport is provided to and from the university at the beginning and end of breaks via our giant turkey vulture, Haly'a. Tipping is not required but you can buy eggs to feed to Haly'a if you like.)

Current staff:

CHANCELLOR - Strychnine Stacks

PROVOST - Aurora Bonhomme

RECTOR - Wenceslaus Lyrick

DEAN - de Chiel Garner

ASST. DEAN - Emmerich Mendel

HEAD, RECORDS & DOCUMENTS - Quaternus Ryse

PROFESSOR EMERITUS, LANGUAGE - Laurel Hightower

PROFESSOR, ENGINEURGY - Maxibel Rey

VISITING LECTURER, KNOWN & UNKNOWN HISTORIES - Eulalia Marinos

PERMANENT ADJUNCT LECTURER, MATHEMATICS - Janet Paine

PERMANENT ADJUNCT LECTURER, METAMAGIC - Janet Paine

PERMANENT ADJUNCT LECTURER, CONJURATION - Janet Paine

...

(the list continues further down the page.)

[runawaysiren940]

I believe that it’s still happening under a new name, such as monarch programming. It is possible that many women have been manipulated and brainwashed into conforming to a patriarchal system through this type of programming. Isn't it strange that the music industry often promotes songs that suggest women should focus on satisfying men sexually? And putting their needs first? But we rarely see this being precipitated for men. We don’t see male musicians promoting other men to focus on female pleasure and their needs. They usually promote themselves to men. That they need to sleep around with multiple women and treat them like trash. Take SZA's song "Snooze," for example. When you analyze the lyrics, it becomes clear that the song is simply glorifying male sexual pleasure worship. Continuously listening to such songs can potentially influence individuals to act out the messages portrayed in the music. Here’s a good post explaining it better https://www.instagram.com/p/C2dnlfGNYzV/?igsh=Z2xiNm05eHdmanhi

And here's a good video explaining what monarch programming is https://youtu.be/w4gzVepfjZU

I know this stuff sounds crazy, but I believe this makes the most coherent explanation for the current state of the world today.

It would be nice if you could give me feedback on the links I sent you on this post. You don’t have to believe everything I’m showing you just considered thinking about it.

I don't think it's crazy; a lot of conspiracy theories are based on truth but get distorted, or are later revealed to be true. However, the video you sent didn't have any listed sources, and doesn't seem like a reliable source + the instagram post didn't reveal anything either. I think that the patriarchy and it's influence can be subtle and deeply ingrained in everyday life- but it's so omnipresent around the world, I don't see a point in the use of mind control or alteration to push those goals.

[mariacallous]

Can a video game teach you to resist disinformation?

The U.S. government certainly thinks so: In May, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), the government agency tasked with countering foreign disinformation, released a request for proposal offering $1 million for “an evergreen game in a sandbox platform, with an existing fan base, in which participants play a game that builds cognitive resilience to authoritarianism and promotes democratic norms and values.” The call for a sandbox platform refers to open, multiplayer game spaces such as Minecraft, Roblox, or Fortnite, which allow players to build forts, explore virtual worlds, experience short stories, and share experiences. This request is asking for proposals to use creative mode in Fortnite (or a similar platform) to design a custom game experience—only instead of being fun, it is meant to train people to resist Russian disinformation.

It’s an intriguing way to combat an existential challenge for democracy. Can play undermine lies more effectively than speech does? There is a lot about this idea that is compelling, but there are just as many reasons to be skeptical.

The GEC’s idea certainly has some validity. It wants to leverage the emerging field of prebunking—the art of making people aware of disinformation before they encounter it—to help build media literacy skills and contribute to online safety. This is a process that researchers call “inoculation,” which treats disinformation like a virus: You need to train your psychological immune system, so to speak, to learn how to identify and reject bad information. Researchers have suggested different methods for this, ranging from a very literal metaphor of exposing people to “weakened” forms of common disinformation up to complex media literacy training intended to prepare people to identify disinformation on their own.

Using games as part of the battle over information isn’t new. The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism has an entire project devoted to understanding the role of video games in what the U.N. calls “countering violent extremism.” Late last year, the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency—which, like the GEC, is empowered to combat foreign disinformation—sponsored research into foreign political interference that uses video games. And the European Journalism Observatory has highlighted video games, specifically, as a vector for disinformation during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

So, the GEC is addressing a serious problem with global implications. And the sandbox anti-disinformation proposal is not the only video game program that the agency is funding. As Aftermath reports, it is also offering $250,000 for a program at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine that will use the process of building an esports team and hosting an esports tournament to provide “counter disinformation/conflict resolution training to confront foreign propaganda and disinformation in competitive online gaming spaces.” While these sums may seem high, a typical “indie” game (one that is not developed by a major studio) can cost a million dollars or more, and so-called AAA games (such as Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, or Call of Duty) can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop.

One challenge that inoculation programs face is establishing success conditions. After all, how do you know when someone is successfully protected against disinformation? There is no good answer for this yet—we can design experiments and surveys to measure how messages are being accepted or rejected by a population, but—like other preventative measures—success is negative. You know the program worked if you don’t see people repeating disinformation, rather than knowing it worked because some tangible finish line has been crossed. It is a problem requiring constant vigilance. In that sense, the GEC’s call for an evergreen (permanent) game to counter disinformation is aligned with broad aspects of disinformation research.

But is a game the best way to do this? For decades, games studies have adopted an argument put forth by Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga in the 1930s: Games and play are essential to civilization, because they (however unintentionally) teach children how to socialize and move within rules-based systems in a mirror of society.

Building on those ideas, media theorist Ian Bogost coined the term “procedural rhetoric” in the 2000s to argue that video games instruct players to view the world through a certain set of rules and to discard others—even when trying to “break” a game system, he argued, players are still learning how rules and games work. If one accepts this line of argument, then it would naturally follow that an effort to design a game to inoculate against disinformation has the potential to be highly effective.

There are some problems with this approach. The research into so-called serious games, which are games intended to do something other than entertain, suggests that they are the most effective when they are also fun to play. This is a bit of a contradiction, since a serious game is not made with entertainment as its primary purpose, and that is reflected in the GEC’s call. There is no mention of the evergreen game being fun for its players. The agency, understandably, is focused on the outcomes of the game, not the game itself. But making serious games fun is a hard challenge that researchers are still working on, and without it, the effectiveness of any serious game will be limited.

The fun challenge has plagued efforts to use video games to do achieve goals in foreign policy, statecraft, and human rights since the start of the 21st century. Games such as the International Committee of the Red Cross’s LifeRun (2020) or 11 Bit Studio’s This War of Mine (2011) try to cultivate in players a concern for civilians in warfare. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah released Special Force (2003) so players can battle against Israeli soldiers in South Lebanon, and Fursan Al-Aqsa (2022), places players in the shoes of a Palestinian student who seeks revenge on the Israeli soldiers who tortured him in prison. Fursan is available on Steam, an online video game marketplace used by players around the world that (relevant for the GEC grants) also restricts sales in Russia and Belarus due to sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Militaries have used games for propaganda, too, from America’s Army (2002) to China’s Glorious Mission (2011). Some of these games went nowhere. (Hezbollah, for instance, did not make a fun game.) But others, such as America’s Army, endured for decades because they were fun—and that game became fun by abandoning some of its more serious pretensions as new editions were published.

While it is clear that the GEC is drawing on a large number of precedents, ideas, and projects, is there evidence that any of it works? After studying the Red Cross’s LifeRun game, which seems to be a close analog to the GEC’s call for proposals, scholar Jolene Fisher concluded that there are structural limits to what these games can be expected to do, given their small distribution and limited scale. In a recent report, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace observed that initiatives to support local journalism and media literacy education were far more effective at undermining disinformation than statecraft or counter-messaging, but the former are also much more difficult to fund, implement, and scale.

Bogost, the media scholar, reflected in 2018 on his experience trying to make “persuasive games” and concluded the concept was more promise than delivery. “It was emotion and novelty that drove much of the interest in this work,” he wrote, not concrete or supportable projects. It could be that games are just an accessible channel to do this work compared to more effective methods.

There are broader issues with the GEC’s plans, too. I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on the U.S. Army Esports (USAE) team, an effort launched in 2018 in an attempt to use esports to bolster years of flagging recruitment. The U.S. Defense Department certainly seems to be convinced that the team has been effective in growing its recruiting pipeline and boosting morale, however controversial it may be. But it also does not release data to support its claims of effectiveness, and in 2023, the Army announced a major overhaul of the recruiting process due to multiple consecutive years of missing enlistment goals. If the USAE is effective at growing recruitment, that growth was hard to see. (The service claims that it is on track to meet a much lower recruiting goal in 2024).

I wasn’t alone in observing the limited effects that games on influencing thinking. A couple of years ago, games scholar Philip Hammond observed that decades of U.S. military influence on video games has coincided with declining recruiting and less public trust. If games can persuade people, it’s hard to see how.

This does not mean that such programs are a failure, nor does it mean that the GEC’s program is futile. Rather, it indicates that, as Bogost cautioned, we should be clear about the gap between promise and delivery, and mindful of where that gap emerges.

The GEC’s success in persuading social media companies to moderate away Islamist extremist content on their platforms (the most effective way to counter disinformation, according to researchers) suggests that it sometimes can do this work effectively. After all, while the growing presence of extremists in video games is a real concern, it is the community and discourse around games where that extremism tends to emerge, not within the storylines and play of the games themselves.

Games scholar Sky LaRell Anderson calls these conversations “extraludic narratives,” and in studying them found that they form an important basis for building communities around sharing gameplay experiences. Such a dynamic leaves open the potential for the GEC’s sponsored esports team in Ukraine to influence some of those narratives about Russia, or even to cultivate a community of resistance against Russian narratives in Ukraine’s Esports spaces. But researchers find this dynamic hard for outsiders to understand in real time, much less to intentionally shape beforehand. Governments just aren’t cool, and the USAE’s own engagement scandals point to the many scenarios where government sponsorship might be a poison pill.

The GEC has experienced this with its other efforts to counter disinformation. Its successful campaign to contain Islamist disinformation online, when applied to countering Russian disinformation, resulted in the center being subjected to unfair, partisan attacks by far-right politicians in the United States. Republicans in the House of Representatives tried last year to block the center’s budgetary reauthorization, falsely claiming that it targeted conservatives for censorship. Embattled Rep. Darrell Issa disputed the need for a counter-disinformation agency and claimed that the GEC had no successes to justify its budget despite the agency’s successful work countering disinformation.

The dishonest nature of these attacks points to a difficult political environment emerging for the agency. It could be the case that sponsoring games and gaming events is all that the agency has left if platform governance has become closed off by toxic right-wing politics. The GEC is a meaningful organization that treats the threat of disinformation with the appropriate seriousness.

But if politics prevent the agency from responding effectively to disinformation in the venues where it can be the most effective, it is hard to blame it for trying something else. Still, we should be cautious and keep our expectations in check: As unfair as the right-wing attacks on the agency are, and as hard as it works to address disinformation globally, those same attacks will also be carried over to the teams and games the agency sponsors.

Even in an ideal environment, there would be modest expectations for such a small program, but those may be impossible to meet. Disinformation is ultimately a political challenge, not a technical one, and the politics of disinformation in the United States have already tied the GEC’s hands. It’s just not clear how this political problem can be solved with a video game.

[hellyeahscarleteen]

"The Internet can be a risky place. There are endless feeds filled with posts that contain graphic sexual and violent content, glamorize eating disorders, encourage self-harm or promote discriminatory and offensive diatribes. People often share too much personal information with a too-public audience that includes cyberbullies and strangers with ill intent. And they also risk losing time: by spending hours online, they might miss out on experiences and growth opportunities that can be found elsewhere. These problems are particularly acute for children and teenagers, and new laws that attempt to protect youth from the Internet’s negative effects have their own serious downsides. Scientific American spoke with experts about the best evidence-backed ways to actually keep kids safe online.

...

But these controversial policies aren’t the only way to promote online safety. Other legislative actions that are less focused on censorship, along with clear content guidelines and better social media design, could help. Plus, digital safety researchers and psychologists agree that getting families, schools and young people themselves involved would make a big difference in keeping kids safe.

Digital privacy legislation is one alternate policy path that might shift the online landscape for the better. “If people’s data is treated with respect in ways that are transparent and accountable, actually, it turns out a whole set of safety risks get mitigated,” says social psychologist Sonia Livingstone, who researches children and online media at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

A comprehensive data privacy bill could require social media companies to disclose when user data are being collected and sold—and to obtain consent first. This would help users make better choices for themselves, Livingstone says. Limiting the data that tech platforms amass and profit from could also help block the proliferation of algorithms that emphasize increasingly extreme content in order to hold social media users’ attention. Additionally, privacy legislation could ideally enable users to request the removal of content or data they no longer want online—potentially protecting kids (and everyone else) from their own short-term choices, Alvord says.

Beyond privacy, national guidelines for social media sites could help. Livingstone and Alvord suggest that a content rating system like those used for movies, TV shows and video games might help young people avoid inappropriate content—and allow families to set firmer boundaries. Design features that let users block others and limit the audience for specific posts allow kids and teens to take the reins of their own safety—which is critical, says Pamela Wisniewski, a Vanderbilt University computer scientist, who studies human-computer interaction and adolescent online safety.

Parental controls can be appropriate for younger kids, but teens need the chance to exercise autonomy online, Wisniewski says. Such freedom lets them engage in some of the Internet’s positive aspects: civic engagement opportunities, community and educational resources, identity exploration and connections beyond one’s own social bubble. To ensure these benefits are accessible to all, youth should be directly involved formulating regulations and safety strategies, Wisniewski adds. As part of her research, she holds workshops with teens to involve them in co-designing online safety interventions. Though this program, called Teenovate, is in the early stages, some ideas have already emerged from it. Among them: social platforms could provide “nudges” that would ask users to think twice before sharing personal data and prompt would-be bad actors to reconsider personal requests or bullying behavior."

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 18, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 18, 2023

Reporters at ProPublica have uncovered yet more news about the right-wing network of wealthy donors who have supported Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. According to Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski, and Brett Murphy, in January 2000, on a plane flight home from a conservative conference, Thomas complained to Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL) about his salary. He warned that if lawmakers didn’t give Supreme Court justices a pay raise, “one or more justices will leave soon.”

After the trip, Stearns wrote to Thomas that he agreed “it is worth a lot to Americans to have the constitution properly interpreted.” Stearns immediately set out to pass legislation separating the salaries of Supreme Court justices from the rest of the judiciary, and then raising pay for the Supreme Court justices alone. But the top administrative official of the judiciary, L. Ralph Mecham, in June 2000 wrote to then–chief justice William Rehnquist to suggest that this was the wrong approach for this “delicate matter.”

“From a tactical point of view,” Mecham wrote, “it will not take the Democrats and liberals in Congress very long to figure out that the prime beneficiaries who might otherwise leave the court presumably are Justices Thomas and Scalia. The Democrats might be perfectly happy to have them leave and would see little incentive to act on separate legislation devoted solely to Supreme Court justices if the apparent purpose is to keep Justices Scalia and Thomas on the Court. Moreover, the fact that Representative Stearns is a conservative Republican may not help dissuade the Democrats and liberals from this view.”

Mecham distinguished between Republicans he thought of as “liberals,” and those, presumably like himself, Rehnquist, Thomas, and Scalia, who were pushing “to have the constitution properly interpreted.” By this, he meant those who wanted the concept of “originalism” to undermine the federal government’s regulation of business, provision of a basic social safety net, promotion of infrastructure, and protection of civil rights, principles on which “liberal” Republicans and Democrats agreed.

Although the extremist faction has now captured the Republican Party, as late as 2000 there were enough “liberals” in the Republican Party that members of the extremist faction worried they could not enact their chosen program. So they must have the Supreme Court. Stearns told the ProPublica reporters that Thomas’s “importance as a conservative [as they called themselves] was paramount…. We wanted to make sure he felt comfortable in his job and was being paid properly.” 

About this time, wealthy Republican donors began to provide Thomas and his wife Ginni with expensive vacations and gifts. Ginni went to work for the Heritage Foundation, making a salary in the low six figures. Yale law school professor George Priest, who has joined Thomas and billionaire donor Harlan Crow on vacation, says that Crow “views Thomas as a Supreme Court justice as having a limited salary. So he provides benefits for him.”

That is, a Republican billionaire donor “provides benefits” for a Supreme Court justice who voted in favor of—among other things—the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision that reversed campaign finance restrictions in place for over 100 years, permitting corporations and outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections, and the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act protecting minority voting rights in the United States. 

The determination of wealthy Republicans to control our political system for their own economic benefit is now matched on the other side of the political equation by religious voters hellbent on overthrowing democracy to impose their religious will on the American majority.  

After voters in Republican-dominated states have tried to protect the right to abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion, antiabortion forces are trying to stop voters from having the right to decide the matter. They are trying to prevent voters from signing petitions to put such measures on ballots. 

Steven Aden, the chief legal officer of the antiabortion group Americans United for Life, told Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly of Politico: “Because we believe that abortion is truly about the right to life of human individuals in the womb, we don’t believe those rights should be subjected to majority vote.”

Breaking faith in democracy has led us to a place where the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination is openly praising dictators, trying to join the United States into a rising global authoritarian movement based in the idea that democracy, with its focus on equal rights, is destroying traditional society by getting rid of patriarchy, racial hierarchies, and heteronormative society.  A Fox News poll released over the weekend showed that 3 in 10 Republicans agreed that “things in the U.S. are so far off track that we need a president willing to break some rules and laws to set things right.”

Today, Pope Francis undermined that argument when he said in a landmark ruling that Roman Catholic priests can bless same-sex couples. While this is not the same as the sacrament of heterosexual marriage, the Vatican’s doctrinal office said this is a sign that God welcomes everyone. 

Pope Francis has tended to ignore the rise of right-wing extremism in the U.S. church but now appears to be defending his message that the church should be tolerant and welcoming in the face of the growing intersection of religion and authoritarianism. Last month, he relieved from duty Bishop Joseph H. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who has vocally supported right-wing politics and openly revolted against the Pope’s positions. 

There is a strong economic reason to reinforce the idea of democracy, as well. After forty years in which a minority worked to push tax cuts and deregulation with the argument that they would promote investment in the economy, the Biden administration quite deliberately has used the government not to prop up the “supply side,” but rather to bolster the “demand side.” Despite the history that showed such a system worked, economists and pundits warned that Biden’s policies would dump the U.S. into a terrible recession. 

The 2023 numbers are in, and they show exactly what the U.S. Treasury under Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen predicted: inflation has dropped significantly, unemployment is at a low 3.7%, the economy grew at an astonishing 4.9% in the last quarter, and the stock and financial markets are at or near all-time highs. 

The economic news is tangible proof that a government that serves the majority, rather than a wealthy few, works.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alex Kaplan at MMFA:

The social media and messaging platform Telegram is allowing numerous QAnon and far-right channels to monetize their content on the platform with revenue from its newly launched advertisements program, a Media Matters review has found.

In late February, Telegram’s CEO and founder Pavel Durov announced that the company would be launching advertising on the platform, “allowing channel owners to receive financial rewards.” Specifically, owners of public channels with over 1,000 subscribers would receive “a 50% share of the revenue Telegram earns in connection with the number of valid impressions of sponsored messages displayed in eligible channels you own” — an arrangement the platform has called “one of the most generous reward systems in the history of social media.” Ads are described within the app as “help[ing] the channel creator.” [...]

As for where these advertisements are winding up, a Media Matters review found them running in nearly three dozen QAnon-affiliated and far-right channels, suggesting that the owners of these channels have financially benefited from the new feature. These include multiple channels associated with QAnon figures and shows such as Nicholas Veniamin, Jacob Creech (known online as “Clandestine”), “Pepe Lives Matter,” John Sabal (known online as “QAnon John” and “The Patriot Voice”), “StormyPatriotJoe,” “Enoch,” “TheStormHasArrived17,” “Shadow of Ezra,” Paul Fleuret (known online as “Absolute1776”), Jeffrey Pedersen (known online as “intheMatrixxx”), David Hayes (known online as “Praying Medic”), Jordan Sather, X22 Report, Patriot Streetfighter, Woke Societies, and Zak Paine. The review also found a channel called “Q NEWS OFFICIAL TV #WWG1WGA” with advertisements.

[...]

Outside of QAnon, far-right figures who have promoted white nationalism, anti-Muslim rhetoric, and/or Holocaust denial — Vincent James Foxx, Laura Loomer, Stew Peters, Nick Fuentes, and Keith Woods — also had advertisements on their channels. Other far-right figures and entities had advertisements on their channels as well, including Patrick Byrne, Sidney Powell, David Clements, and former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, who have pushed election denial; Sherri Tenpenny and Larry Cook, who have pushed anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories; conspiracy theorists Roger Stone and Karli Bonne; conspiracy theory channels Disclosure Hub and “Covid Truth Network”; and Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, who played a key role in QAnon’s early spread.

Telegram coddles far-right extremists and QAnon conspiracists with its new ads program that allows monetization of their content.