#But also no one voted for hugo??? :(

[itwaslegendary]

Since I’m not seeing many posts about what’s happening in Venezuela, I will make one myself. Please do not turn a blind eye to their ongoing crisis.

First I will put you into context, please note that all this information is taken from posts, threads and statements made by Venezuelans so I will hyperlink each one of my sources.

From 2002 to 2013, Hugo Chávez was the president of Venezuela. Not only did he ruin the country’s economy, imprison people and remove liberty of speech in the country, but he also changed the constitution, allowing unlimited reelection. His regime became a dictatorship disguised as a democracy. Here’s an entire page about this period. (And you can read more searching “chavismo”)

After his death in 2013, Nicolás Maduro took the presidency. Venezuelans started protesting and, as a response, they were repressed and killed, universities were burned down and Venezuela became massively poor, people lacked basic needs (supermarkets were empty, increasing famine and malnutrition), hospitals lacked resources and, consequently, illnesses spread and infant mortality rates increased severely.

This Sunday, July 28th, 2024, elections were held and Venezuelans voted for Edmundo González to be the next president of the country. Exit polls expected him to win the elections.

Later, the revealed results were that Maduro had won with the 51,2% votes, while Edmundo González had only 44,2%. But, as of right now, already 75% of the electoral records confirm that Edmundo González was, in fact, the chosen candidate, meaning that Maduro once again cheated on the elections. This is electoral fraud. This is not a democracy, this is a dictatorship.

Now, Venezuelans are protesting and the government are once again repressing them. Civilians are being persecuted, attacked and killed. Innocent people are being arrested. The government is cutting their communication and are planning on cutting the electricity next.

I urge you to check this thread on Twitter by @/postmortemria. Her account is full of information about Venezuela and their crisis, please check her posts and share them to spread the voice. Try to raise Venezuelans’ voices and donate to them if you can.

At the moment, there aren’t many ways to help other than speaking up, but under this tweet you can find many talented artists and commissions are their way to make some money to pay for basic human needs. If you can, think about commissioning a piece or donating to them.

In addition, here’s another tweet with information to donate to the people affected in the protests. They’re in desperate need of assistance so anything can help.

[jayblanc]

Further news on the Chengdu 2023 Worldcon Scandal

The more we know, the less honest the Hugo results look. And there's some questions about how the Chendgu 2023 Worldcon was organised.

First of all, the Numbers Don't Add Up. Literally.

Second, it appears that the Chendgu 2023 Worldcon might have been coopted by Chinese Publishing companies. And that their corporate promotion lists might have been used as voting slates. This comes after a game of musical chairs, relocation and alterations from the original winning bid organisation to a new holding company. I have asked Kevin Standlee, chair of the WSFS Marks Protecttion Committee, to clarify what due diligence was taken to protect the Worldcon and Hugo trademarks. (Information via Arthur Lia and other commenters.)

Third, Chinese fandom is also upset over this. Using carefully selected phrasing to express their displeasure at "unspeakable factors". (Via Ersatz Culture at File 770)

Finally Hugo Administrator Dave McCarty categorically declares that the Ballot was conducted properly. He also declines to explain any of the discrepancies, or explain the precise reason for the unexplained disqualifications. He also stated that those who had any further questions "can't understand plain English" and "are slow".

This all strengthens my concerns, and widens them to the possibility that the name of the Hugo Awards and the Worldcon was deliberately coopted by a publishing business group in China. There's the strong possibility that this means that an unfettered licence to the trademarks that protect the Hugo Awards might have slipped into the hands of people willing to abuse them.

I note that Saudi Arabia, Tel Aviv, and Uganda all have bids for future Worldcons.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 10, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 11, 2024

Former president Trump has always approached debates as professional wrestling events in which the key is not to explain policies or answer questions, but rather to demonstrate dominance over your opponent. In 2016 the Democratic nominee, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, had a hard time countering this strategy effectively because of the many expectations of what was appropriate behavior for a female presidential candidate. In 2020 and then again in the June 2024 “debate,” Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s stutter made it difficult to counter Trump’s scattershot attacks.

The question for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in tonight’s presidential debate was not how to answer policy questions, but how to counter Trump’s dominance displays while also appealing to the American people.  

She and her team figured it out, and today they played the former president brilliantly. He took the bait, and tonight he self-destructed. In a live debate, on national television. 

The Harris campaign began the day trolling Trump with a new campaign ad featuring the pieces of former president Barack Obama’s speech at the August Democratic National Convention that concerned Trump. “Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire”—the ad cuts to a photo of Trump in a golf cart—“who has not stopped whining about his problems.” Then a clip of Trump shows him complaining about Harris’s crowds, before Obama notes Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes,” complete with Obama’s hand motion suggesting Trump’s sizes were small. “It just goes on, and on, and on,” Obama says, before the ad shows empty seats and people yawning at Trump’s rallies.

“America’s ready for a new chapter,” Obama says to the overflow crowd cheering at Chicago’s United Center during the Democratic National Convention. “We are ready for a President Kamala Harris!” At the end, even Harris’s standard statement, “I’m Kamala Harris and I approved this message,” sounds like a challenge.

This morning, the Harris campaign began running the ad on the Fox News Channel. 

At the same time, they began running Philadelphia-themed ads across the city on billboards, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and on food trucks and taxi cabs, sidewalk art, and digital projections making fun of Trump’s fascination with crowd sizes. They showed, for example, a full-sized Philadelphia pretzel labeled “Harris” alongside a piece of one that looked like an upside down U labeled “Trump.”

The taunting might have been behind Trump’s demand for loyalty from Republican lawmakers this afternoon, telling them to shut down the government if he doesn’t get his way on the inclusion of a voter suppression measure in the bill to fund the government. The right has often relied on threats of government shutdowns to try to get their way, but such shutdowns are never popular, and even moderate Republicans are leery of launching one just before an election.

Nonetheless, Trump tried to lock them into such a shutdown, reiterating in a post this afternoon the lie that undocumented immigrants are voting in presidential elections. “If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET. THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO ‘STUFF’ VOTER REGISTRATIONS WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN—CLOSE IT DOWN.” 

Throughout the day, the Harris campaign placed posts on social media showing Harris looking crisp and presidential and Trump looking old and unkempt. And then, for ten minutes in the hour before the debate, the Harris campaign held a drone show over the Philadelphia Museum of Art showing campaign slogans and then turning the words “MADAM VICE PRESIDENT” into “MADAM PRESIDENT.” 

Hugo Lowell of The Guardian reported today that Trump’s advisors were concerned ahead of the debate about whether they would get “happy Trump” or “angry Trump,” worrying that a frustrated Trump would engage in the vicious personal attacks that turn voters off. They expressed relief that having the microphones muted when it was not a candidate’s turn to speak would prevent Harris from irritating him with fact checks and snark of her own. Conservative lawyer George Conway noted that it was “[i]nteresting how one campaign is extremely concerned about the emotional stability of its candidate, and how the other is not.”

Harris’s attacks on Trump, including her campaign’s subtle digs at his masculinity, appeared to have accomplished what they set out to. When the two came out on stage, he went straight to his podium, while she strode across the stage, moved into his space, held out her hand, introduced herself and wished him well: “Kamala Harris. Have a good debate.” He muttered in response, “Nice to see you.” Then she took her own spot at the podium. When the debate opened, it was clear that Harris was the dominant figure and that her opponent was “angry Trump.” He would not look at her during the debate.

In her first answer, Harris tried to set out both her own story as a child of the middle class and how she intended to build an opportunity economy for others, lowering food and housing costs and opening the way for more small businesses. It was a lot, quickly, and she looked a little nervous.

Then Trump spoke and it was clear he was going off the rails. His first comment was to suggest Harris was lying, and then to insist that his proposed tariffs will solve everything, although he has the way tariffs work entirely backward: they are paid by the consumer, not by foreign countries. As he followed with a long list of his rally lies, Harris started to smile.  

From then on, he continued to produce rally stories full of wild exaggerations and attack Harris with lies in what CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale called “a staggeringly dishonest debate performance from former president Trump.” "No major presidential candidate before Donald Trump has ever lied with this kind of frequency,” Dale said. “A remarkably large chunk of what he said tonight was just not true. This wasn't little exaggerations, political spin. A lot of his false claims were untethered to reality." As Harris spoke directly to the American people, growing stronger and stronger, Trump got wilder and angrier and told more and more crazy stories. 

And then, about ten minutes into the debate, Harris baited him. She invited the American people to go to one of his rallies, where “he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter, he will talk about ‘windmills cause cancer.’ And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.” 

Trump lost it. He defended his rallies, said Harris couldn’t get anyone to attend hers and has to bus in attendees (in reality, her rallies are packed and he is the one who reportedly hires attendees), and then, in his fury, repeated the lie about immigrants eating pets. When a moderator fact-checked that story, he fought back, saying he heard it on television.

And from then on, Harris kept baiting him while explaining her own policies directly to the camera, and he took the bait every single time. He ran down every rabbit hole and appeared unable to finish a thought. Notably, he refused to say he would not sign a national abortion ban and admitted that after nine years of promising one, he had no health care plan (he has, he said, “concepts of a plan,” and if they pan out, he’ll let us know in the “not too distant future”). 

He threatened World War III and repeated that the U.S. is “a failing nation.” He told a long story about threatening “Abdul,” the leader of the Taliban; in fact, the leader of the Taliban since 2016 is Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. In response to Harris’s statement that foreign leaders thought he was a disgrace, Trump answered that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who destroyed his country’s democracy and replaced it with a dictatorship, says he’s a good leader. New York Times columnist David French wrote: “It's like she's debating MAGA Twitter come to life.”

The debate moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC, asked solid questions and corrected the most egregious of Trump’s lies. But as he continued to interrupt and yell at Harris, they increasingly gave him leeway to do so. This meant he spoke more often and for more time than Harris; MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle reported that he spoke 39 times for a total of 41.9 minutes, to her 23 times for a total of 37.1 minutes. But the extra time did him no favors.

By the end of the evening, Harris had delivered a clear message about her hopes to move the country forward beyond years of using race to divide people who have far more in common than they have differences. She promised to develop an economy that will build small businesses and support a growing middle class, while protecting rights, including the right to make reproductive decisions without the intrusion of the state. And she showed the nation that Trump can be baited, that he lies freely and incoherently, and—perhaps crucially—that he is no longer the dominant politician in America.  

Immediately after the debate, the Harris campaign continued their demonstration of dominance. Harris-Walz campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon released a statement recapping Harris’s strength and Trump’s angry incoherence. She concluded: “Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”

Then things got even worse for Trump. 

Music phenomenon Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, telling her 283 million Instagram followers that she felt she had to because of Trump’s earlier reposting of an AI image of her seeming to endorse him. That, she said, “brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth. I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election.”

After explaining why she was supporting Harris and Walz and urging her fans to do their own research, Swift signed off: “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[secretmellowblog]

Les Mis French History Timeline: all the context you need to know to understand Les Mis

Here is a simple timeline of French history as it relates to events in Les Miserables, and to the context of Les Mis's publication! A post like this would’ve really helped me four years ago, when I knew very little about 1830s France or the goals of Les Amis, so I’m making it now that I have the information to share! ^_^

This post will be split into 4 sections: a quick overview of important terms, the history before the novel that’s important to the character's backstories, the history during the novel, and then the history relevant to the 1848-onward circumstances of Hugo’s life and the novel’s publication. 

Part 1: Overview 

The novel takes place in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, during a period called the Restoration. 

The ancient monarchy was overthrown during the French Revolution. After a series of political struggles the revolutionary government was eventually replaced by an empire under Napoleon. Then Napoleon was defeated and sent into exile— but then he briefly came back and seized power for one hundred days—! and then he was defeated yet again for good at the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

After all that political turmoil, kings have been "restored" to the throne of France. The novel begins right as this Restoration begins.

The major political parties important to generally understanding Les Mis (Wildly Oversimplified) are Republicans, Liberals, Bonapartists, and Royalists. It’s worth noting that all these ‘party terms’ changed in meaning/goals over time depending on which type of government was in power. In general though, and just for the sake of reading Les Mis:

 Republicans want a Republic, where people elect their leaders democratically— they’re the very left wing progressive ones, and are heavily outcast/censored/policed. Les Amis are Republicans.

Liberals: we don’t have time to go into it, but I don’t think there are any characters in Les Mis defined by their liberalism.

Bonapartists are followers of Napoleon Bonaparte I, who led the Empire. Many viewed the Emperor as more favorable or progressive to them than a king would be. Georges Pontmercy is a Bonapartist, as is Pere Fauchelevent. 

Royalists believe in the divine right of Kings; they’re conservative. Someone who is extremely royalist to the point of wanting basically no limits on the king’s power at all are called “Ultraroyalists” or “ultra.” Marius’s conservative grandfather Gillenromand is an ultra royalist.  Hugo is also very concerned with criticizing the "Great Man of History," the view that history is pushed forward by the actions of a handful of special great men like kings and emperors. Les Mis aims to focus on the common masses of people who push history forward instead.

Part 2: Timeline of History involved in characters’ Backstories

1789– the March on the bastille/ the beginning of the original French Revolution. A young Myriel, who is then a shallow married aristocrat, flees the country. His family is badly hurt by the Revolution. His wife dies in exile.

1793– Louis XVI is found guilty of committing treason and sentenced to death. The Conventionist G—, the old revolutionary who Myriel talks to, votes against the death of the king. 

1795:  the Directory rules France. Throughout much of the revolution, including this period, the country is undergoing “dechristianization” policies. Fantine is born at this time. Because the church is not in power as a result of dechristianization, Fantine is unbaptized and has no record of a legal given name, instead going by the nickname Fantine (“enfantine,” childlike.)

1795: The Revolutionary government becomes more conservative. Jean Valjean is arrested. 

1804: Napoleon officially crowns himself Emperor of France. the Revolution’s dream of a Republic is dead for a bit.  At this time, Myriel returns from his exile and settles down in the provinces of France to work as a humble priest. Then he visits Paris and makes a snarky comment to Napoleon, and Napoleon finds him so witty that he appoints him Bishop.

Part 3: the novel actually begins 

1815: Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by the allied nations of Britain and Prussia. Read Hugo’s take on that in the Waterloo Digression! He gets a lot of facts wrong, but that’s Hugo for you.

Marius’s father, Baron Pontmercy, nearly dies on the battlefield. Thenardier steals his belongings. 

After Napoleon is defeated, a king is restored to the throne— Louis XVIII, of the House of Bourbon, the ancient royal house that ruled France before the Revolution. In order to ensure that Louis XVIII stays on the throne, the nations of Britian, Prussia, and Russia, send soldiers occupy France. So France is, during the early events of the novel, being occupied by foreign soldiers. This is part of why there are so many references to soldiers on the streets and garrisons and barracks throughout the early portions of the novel. The occupation officially ended in 1818.

1815 (a few months after Waterloo): Jean Valjean is released from prison and walks down the road to Digne, the very same road Napoleon charged down during his last attempt to seize power. Many of the inns he passes by are run by people advertising their connections to Napoleon. Symbolically Valjean is the poor man returning from exile into France, just as Napoleon was the Great Man briefly returning from exile during the 100 days, or King Louis XVIII is the Great King returning from exile to a restored throne.

  1817: The Year 1817, which Hugo has a whole chapter-digression about. Louis XVIII  of the House of Bourbon is on the throne. Fantine, “the nameless child of the Directory,”  is abandoned by Tholomyes. 

1821: Napoleon dies in exile. 

1825:  King Louis XVIII dies. Charles X takes the throne. While Louis XVIII was willing to compromise, Charles X is a far more conservative ultra-royalist. He attempts to bring back something like the Pre-Revolution style of monarchy. 

Underground resistance groups, including Republican groups like Les Amis, plot against him.  

1827-1828: Georges Pontmercy, bonapartist veteran of Waterloo, dies. Marius, who has been growing up with his abusive Ultra-royalist grandfather and mindlessly repeating his ultra-royalist politics, learns how much his father loved him. He becomes a democratic Bonapartist. 

Marius is a little bit late to everything though. He shouts “long live the Emperor!” Even though Napoleon died in 1821 and insults his grandfather by telling him “down with that hog Louis XVIII” even though Louis XVIII has been dead since 1825. He’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit. 

Marius leaves his grandfather to live on his own. 

1830: “The July Revolution,” also known as the “Three Glorious Days” or  “the Second French Revolution.” Rebels built barricades and successfully forced Charles X out of power.

Unfortunately, TL;DR moderate politicians prevented the creation of a Republic and instead installed another more politically progressive king — Louis-Philippe, of the house of Orleans. 

Louis-Philippe was a relative of the royal family, had lived  in poverty for a time, and described himself as “the citizen-king.” Hugo’s take on him is that he was a good man, but being a king is inherently evil; monarchy is a bad system even if a “good” dictator is on the throne.

The shadow of 1830 is important to Les Mis, and there’s even a whole digression about it in “A Few Pages of History,” a digression most people adapting the novel have clearly skipped. Les Amis would’ve probably been involved in it....though interestingly, only Gavroche and maybe Enjolras are explicitly confirmed to have been there, Gavroche telling Enjolras he participated “when we had that dispute with Charles X.”

Sadly we're following Marius (not Les Amis) in 1830. Hugo mentions that Marius is always too busy thinking to actually participate in political movements. He notes that Marius was pleased by 1830 because he thinks it is a sign of progress, but that he was too dreamy to be involved in it. 

1831: in “A Few Pages of History” Hugo describes the various ways Republican groups were plotting what what would later become the June Rebellion– the way resistance groups had underground meetings, spread propaganda with pamphlets, smuggled in gunpowder, etc. 

Spring of 1832: there is a massive pandemic of cholera in Paris that exacerbates existing tensions. Marius is described as too distracted by love to notice all the people dying of cholera. 

June 1st, 1832: General Lamarque, a member of parliament often critical of the monarchy, dies of cholera. 

June 5th and 6th, 1832: the June Rebellion of 1832:

Republicans, students, and workers attempt to overthrow the monarchy, and finally get a democratic Republic For Real This Time. The rebellion is violently crushed by the National Guard.

Enjolras was partially inspired by Charles Jeanne, who led the barricades at Saint-Merry. 

Part 4: the context of Les Mis’s publication 

February 1848: a successful revolution finally overthrows King Louis Philippe. A younger Victor Hugo, who was appointed a peer of France by Louis-Philippe, is then elected as a representative of Paris in the provisional revolutionary government.

June 1848: This is a lot, and it’s a thing even Hugo’s biographers often gloss over, because it’s a horrific moral failure/complexity of Hugo’s that is completely at odds with the sort of politics he later became known for. The short summary is that in June 1848 there was a working-class rebellion against new labor laws/forced conscription, and Victor Hugo was on the “wrong side of the barricades” working with the government to violently suppress the rebels. To quote from this source:

Much to the disappointment of his supporters, in [Victor Hugo’s] first speech in the national assembly he went after the ateliers or national workshops, which had been a major demand of the workers. Two days later the workshops were closed, workers under twenty-five were conscripted and the rest sent to the countryside. It was a “political purge” and a declaration of war on the Parisian working class that set into motion the June Days, or the second revolution of 1848—an uprising lauded by Marx as one of the first workers’ revolutions. As the barricades went up in Paris, Hugo was tragically on the wrong side. On June 24 the national assembly declared a state of siege with Hugo’s support. Hugo would then sink to a new political low. He was chosen as one of sixty representatives “to go and inform the insurgents that a state of siege existed and that Cavaignac [the officer who had led the suppression of the June revolt] was in control.” With an express mission “to stop the spilling of blood,” Hugo took up arms against the workers of Paris. Thus, Hugo, voice of the voiceless and hero of workers, helped to violently suppress a rebellion led by people whom he in many ways supported—and many of whom supported him. With twisted logic and an even more twisted conscience, Hugo fought and risked his life to crush the June insurrection.

There is an otherwise baffling chapter in Les Mis titled "The Charybdis of the Faubourg Saint Antoine and the Scylla of the Fauborg Du Temple," where Hugo goes on a digression about June of 1848. Hugo contrasts June of 1848 with other rebellions, and insists that the June 1848 Rebellion was Wrong and Different. It is a strangely anti-rebellion classist chapter that feels discordant with the rest of the book. This is because it is Hugo's effort to (indirectly) address criticisms people had of his own involvement in June 1848, and to justify why he believed crushing that rebellion with so much force was necessary. The chapter is often misused to say that Hugo was "anti-violent-rebellion all the time" (which he wasn't) or that "rebellion is bad” is the message of Les Mis (which it isn't) ........but in reality the chapter is about Hugo attempting to justify his own past actions to the reader and to himself, actions which many people on his side of the political spectrum considered a betrayal. He couldn't really have written a novel about the politics of barricades without addressing his actions in June 1848, and he addressed them by attempting to justify them, and he attempted to justify them with a lot of deeply questionable rhetoric. 1848 is a lot, and I don't fully understand all the context yet-- but that general context is necessary to understand why the chapter is even in the novel. Late 1848/1849: Quoting from the earlier source again:

In the wake of the revolution, Hugo tried to make sense of the events of 1848. He tried to straddle the growing polarization between, on the one hand, “the party of order,” which coalesced around Napoleon’s nephew Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who in December 1848 had been elected France’s president under a new constitution, and the “party of movement” (or radical Left) that, in the aftermath of 1848, had made considerable advances. In this climate, as Hugo increasingly spoke out, and faced opposition and repression himself, he was radicalized and turned to the Left for support against the tyranny and “barbarism” he saw in the government of Louis Napoleon. The “point of no return” came in 1849. Hugo became one of the loudest and most prominent voices of opposition to Louis Napoleon. In his final and most famous insult to Napoleon, he asked: “Just because we had Napoleon le Grand [Napoleon the Great], do we have to have Napoleon le petit [Napoleon the small]?” Immune from punishment because of his role in the government, Bonaparte retaliated by shutting down Hugo’s newspaper and arresting both his sons.

Thenardier is possibly meant to be Hugo’s caricature of Louis-Napoleon/Napoleon III. He is “Napoleon the small,” an opportunistic scumbag leeching off the legacy of Waterloo and Napoleon to give himself some respectability. He is a metaphorical ‘graverobber of Waterloo’ who has all of Napoleon’s dictatorial pettiness without any of his redeeming qualities.

It’s also worth noting that Marius is Victor “Marie” Hugo’s self-insert. Hugo’s politics changed wildly over time. Like Marius he was a royalist when was young. And like Marius, he looked up to Napoleon and to Napoleon III, before his views of them were shattered. This is reflected in the way Marius has complicated feelings of loyalty to his father (who’s very connected to the original Napoleon I) and to Thenardier (who’s arguably an analogue for Napoleon IiI.)

1851: 

On December 2, 1851, Louis Napoleon launched his coup, suspending the republic’s constitution he had sworn to uphold. The National Assembly was occupied by troops. Hugo responded by trying to rally people to the barricades to defend Paris against Napoleon’s seizure of power. Protesters were met with brutal repression.  Under increasing threat to his own life, with both of his sons in jail and his death falsely announced, Hugo finally left Paris.  He ultimately ended up on the island of Guernsey where he spent much of the next eighteen years and where he would write the bulk of Les Misérables. It was from here that his most radical and political work was smuggled into France.

Hugo arguably did some of his most important political work after being exiled. In Guernsey, he aided with resistance against the regime of Napoleon III. Hugo’s popularity with the masses also meant that his exile was massive news, and a thing all readers of Les Miserables would’ve been deeply familiar with.

This is why there are so many bits of Les Mis where the narrator nostalgically reflects on how much they wish they were in Paris again —these parts are very political; readers would’ve picked up that this was Victor Hugo reflecting on he cruelty of his own exile.  

1862-1863: Les Mis is published. It is a barely-veiled call to action against the government of Napoleon III, written about the June Rebellion instead of the current regime partially in order to dodge the censorship laws at the time.

Conservatives despise the book and call it the death of civilization and a dangerous rebellious evil godless text that encourages them to feel bad for the stupid evil criminal rebel poors and etc etc etc– (see @psalm22-6 ‘s excellent translations of the ancient conservative reviews)-- but the novel sells very well. Expressing  approval or disapproval of the book is considered inherently political, but fortunately it remains unbanned. 

…And that’s it! An ocean of basic historical context about Les Mis!

If anyone has any corrections  or additions they would like to make, feel free to add them! I have researched to the best of my ability, but I don’t pretend to be perfect. I also recommend listening to the Siecle podcast, which covers the events of the Bourbon Restoration starting at the Battle of Waterloo, if you're interested in learning more about the period!

[klaus-littlestwolf]

PLEASE i need more mafia yandere klaus!! Or even elijah!

Mafia!Elijah Yandere NSFW

A stands for AFFECTION: how would they show affection?

•Elijah, like all Mikaelsons, is very much a gift giver

•He loves to see you in all of the latest fashions, he’s always dressed to the nines so he believes his Queen should be too

•You we’re quite confused how he knew your sizes when he sent you a dress to wear before your first date but you brushed it off

•Once you live with him you have the biggest closet in the entire house, as well as an extra closet just for your shoes

B stands for BLOODY: how bloody are they willing to get for their object of obsession?

•Elijah doesn’t need to get bloody, even when their business was growing before they began hiring men to do their dirty work it was always Kol and Klaus who did it, Elijah was much more the face of the company dressed in Armani and Hugo Boss, the one on the covers of magazines and doing interviews for the company press

•If Elijah is getting bloody it is only because someone took it upon themselves to hurt either his family or his Queen, in any case he is happy to take his time and make them suffer, however he is never willing to allow you to see him in such a way so he ensures he cleans up before he comes home

C stands for CRUELTY: would they ever hurt their object of obsession?

•Elijah’s rage, while very real, isn’t quite as present as his brothers, he learned to control himself a long time ago and he doesn’t allow for bursts of aggression, especially not around you

•Physically he would never harm you, however he makes you very aware of how easily it would be to harm your family, the family you haven’t seen since you ‘moved in’ with him and that usually keeps you under control

D stands for DARLING: would they cross their object of obsession’s limits?

•You and Elijah had a wonderful relationship, he had you under his control from the first date and you didn’t even know it

•He didn’t cross any kind of limit until 5 months into the relationship when you found out that you were pregnant (unless you call switching out your birth control a limit, then yes, he did)

•You found yourself moved into his home later that evening as he told you he couldn’t risk you or his child’s lives if he couldn’t be with you all the time, and while that was true, he mostly just didn’t want to risk you running away after seeing how incredibly possessive he became, the change on his face the moment you told him he needed to ‘take you to the clinic’ was terrifying

•You had assumed of course that this man, the most eligible man in New Orleans as he had been voted consistently for 5 years straight, would not want to ruin what he had for a women he had been with for not even half a year becoming pregnant with his child…you were wrong

•He could no longer risk you being on your own since you had even considered getting rid of his baby, you moved in whether you liked it or not and you found he had been planning for it for a long time

E stands for EXPOSED: how much do they expose their own feelings to their object of obsession?

•Elijah makes it very clear how he feels for you after only a few dates and you are blown away by his dedication

•You assume a man who basically lives at the office doesn’t get the chance to date and fall in love every day so you take it in stride and try to be as understanding as possible, he enjoys how loving and sweet you are, never once making him feel bad for any kind of emotion or memory he talks to you about which only makes him more dependent on you in his life and more willing to share his thoughts and feelings

F stands for FIGHT: how would they react to their object of obsession fighting back?

•While he finds your attempts at escape slightly humorous that you believe you could get away, it is also extremely annoying

•He is patient but his go to method to compliance is tying you to the bed and making sure you need everything done for you until you’re desperate to get up, usually resulting in you behaving so that you can move as you begin to go stir-crazy

G stands for GAME: do they think this is just a game?

•This is not a game

•This is Elijah’s family, and everyone knows how seriously he takes that. You are his Queen, carrying his son in your body, he will never let any harm come to you as long as he is breathing

H stands for HELL: what would be their object of obsession’s worst experience with them?

•Your worst experience with Elijah was probably the moment you were forced to move into his home

•The look on his face terrified you and you tried to calm him down and get away but he had ahold of you the second you turned around, carrying you to your room and sitting you down as he packed your bags with everything you needed to keep, asking you about a few things he was unsure of but not talking beyond that

•On the drive to his home he was on the phone with your landlord buying you out of your lease and having someone come in and trash everything left in there that you ‘didn’t need’. It was truly scary how this man could turn your life upside down so quickly and everyone just went along with it doing as he said…at least he let you keep your sentimental things

I stands for IDEAL: what are their plans for their object of obsession?

•You are to be his Queen

•He proposes quickly after moving you in and you’re aware of the fact that you can’t really say ‘no’ wanting your child to have a father and as much as you hate to admit it at first, you know Elijah would be a wonderful father

•You’re married a few weeks later in a lovely ceremony in their backyard which is like getting married in a forest full of twinkle lights, he make it special with the help of his sister and both Klaus’ and Kol’s fiancées

J stands for JEALOUSY: how they react when jealous? Do they get jealous?

•Elijah only got jealous once

•He visited you at work one day and you had been contracted to photograph a few male models, it was a completely normal thing in big cities but Elijah didn’t like that answer, however he controlled himself

•He made sure, as you changed the lens on your camera, that the men knew they would never work again if they didn’t stop their flirting with you and though they weren’t the smartest men in the world, they were aware of how powerful and influential Elijah Mikaelson is

K stands for KINDNESS: how they act around their object of obsession?

•He is always well behaved and kind from the moment you walk into his office

•Elijah is a master at controlling himself no matter what he’s actually feeling or wanting, he makes you comfortable, makes you feel safe around him

•He always wants you to be happy and loved, Elijah is never unkind to you except for the moments you either try to escape or fight back too hard

L stands for LOVE LETTER: how would they approach their object of obsession?

•You we’re a photographer for one of the magazines that was doing a story on his families corporate company, sent to take pictures of him in his office for the article. He couldn’t help but think you looked like you belonged here as he had you sit behind his desk and teasingly took a few photos of you in the penthouse office with a backdrop of the skyline looking simply perfect

•It was the moment he knew he had to have you, your smile lit up his entire world, a world that had been dark for some time since he and his brothers murdered his father and took the company that Mikael was floundering with and even long before that, you were a shining beacon that he knew he could never lose

•He asked you out immediately, getting your number and taking you to dinner that night. You were blown away by how detail oriented he is, everything was always perfect and he made sure to impress you every single time you were together, Elijah owned your heart almost instantly

M stands for MASK: how different are their public persona from their true selves?

•Elijah is the face of the company but he presents himself mostly as he really is, he is controlled and thoughtful, intelligent and quick witted

•People see him as a bachelor and a billionaire and while his personality isn’t very different from what he presents, people would never expect the reality of the company that is run under the company (even if that’s mostly run by Klaus)

N stands for NAUGHTY: how would they punish their object of obsession?

•Elijah would never physically harm you, especially since you’re carrying his child however you did try to escape a few days after he moved you into his home. You had been forced to stay there with security to watch you while he went to work and you had tried to sneak out while the guards thought you were in the shower

•You got to the corner of the street before you were carried back (as carefully as possible, none of the men wanting to risk Elijah’s anger)

•You we’re tied to the bed and that is where you stayed for the next 2 days, your new fiancée (according to the ring on your finger) tending to your every need which he actually enjoyed, getting to take care of you in every way until you assured him he didn’t have to worry about you getting away again

•He tried to make you understand how many people in the world would happily hurt you and his baby just to get at him or his family and you understood his urgency, you didn’t want anything to happen to your child either so you tried to do as you were told knowing escaping the house was impossible anyway

O stands for OPPRESSION: how many rights would they take from their object of obsession?

•You wouldn’t be able to work anymore however Elijah was willing to take you anywhere you want to go to photograph whatever made you happy which you found was almost better in a way, no one telling you what to do anymore, just photographing anything and everything that made you happy

•You only left the house in his presence but he did try to take you out a few times a week, though the life you had was completely gone the moment you admitted pregnancy and if you thought about it, it was completely gone the second you sat down in his office chair

P stands for PATIENCE: how patient are they with their object of obsession?

•Elijah is an extremely patient man

•He can wait for months or even years to get what he wants, especially from you

•He tries very hard to give you time to get accustomed to your new life, he wanted to ensure you were settled into it when his son was born

Q stands for QUIT: if their object of obsession died or escaped, would they ever be able to move on?

•Died: The only way that could happen was from someone with a grudge against his family coming after you and he would ensure that person and everyone they ever loved was slaughtered in the streets, as well as the security that let you die. It would become his obsession at the cost of all else

•Escaped: If you ever got farther than the driveway and somehow no one noticed until Elijah got home, every single man on their payroll would be looking for you, all of their security and all of the men that Klaus and Kol employ too and considering the type of people that work for his brothers (his name can’t be associated with men like that) let’s just say you wouldn’t be gone for very long

R stands for REGRET: would they ever regret harming their object of obsession? Would they ever let them go?

•Elijah would Never let you go

•You are the mother of his son, and if everything goes according to his plans, you would be the mother of several more children than that

•Elijah was even trying to convince Niklaus and Kol to give his children cousins to play with around the same age in the house, he thought it would give not just his girl but their girls as well reason to never try and run again

S stands for STIGMA: what made their yandere tendencies bloom?

•The moment he met you he was obsessed

•However the true moment he really became Yandere was when he came to pick you up for dinner and you were in your pajamas, wrapped in a soft blanket and eating ice cream, showing him a pregnancy test

•That was the moment Elijah had been waiting for, expecting for the last few months and the moment he put his plan into action of taking you home and making you truly his

T stands for TEARS: how would they react to their object of obsession crying/breaking?

•Elijah doesn’t want a ‘broken’ Queen, he just wants you to give in to your love for him and your new little family

•Crying however, he is on the ball for that one, Elijah expected tears as a pregnant women and he was prepared with tissues, your favorite ice cream and your favorite movies which made you cry harder as this man you wanted to hate so badly knew you better than anyone else in your life

U stands for UNIQUE: something different they would do compared to others yanderes.

•Something different about Elijah was the fact that he wanted you pregnant immediately

•You two began having sex on your second date, which was also planned, as he cooked you dinner himself in his home after clearing his brothers and staff out to ‘woo you’

•He realized however that that night was a waste when you were perfectly happy not using a condom since you were on birth control, his plan had been to pop a hole in the condom but this would change his plans a bit

•He surprised you at home the very next day with flowers and a teddy bear, happily telling you how much he had enjoyed your night together and how he wished you could have stayed over instead of gone home and once again you enjoyed a night together. He made a mental note of the birth control in your bathroom, what brand and the packaging, counting how far into it you were and coming back 2 days later, replacing it with nothing but sugar pills in a new package, changing them out every time you refilled the script

•Honestly it took longer to get you pregnant than he expected but by the time you noticed you were carrying his child you were 8 weeks along, Elijah being thankful he had been giving you vitamins in the food he made you when he realized how far along you were

V stands for VICE: what weakness their object of obsession could use against them?

•You realize quite quickly that Elijah will do anything for you if it’s good for the baby

•You know you will never get away from him and of all people, Elijah will not be the one to lose sight of you in public, but you are able to go outside and enjoy not being cooped up constantly as you read the baby books Elijah had gotten and proved to him that pregnant women need fresh air and sunlight

•After that conversation you actually convinced the eldest Mikaelson to make you a sunroom. It was built in the back yard of the house shockingly quickly and it became your happy place and a place Elijah felt safe leaving you alone as there was only one exit. It was completely glass and had a few couches and plants all over with a bookshelf filled with the books on your list that you had made for him to get you and your husband even put some butterflies in there to make you smile

•He bought a bigger couch than the first one he put in there upon realizing you were going to nap in there and also filled it with some blankets and pillows when you proved to love being in there when it rained, inviting him to join you for a storm once so that he could understand the peace that came with it and it was truly lovely

•The outside building became a place not just for you but for Klaus and Kol’s wives too who you bonded with fairly quickly and whether you considered it trauma bonding or not it wouldn’t matter, they could lean on each other and speak freely in there together which is something they all sorely needed

W stands for WIT’S END: would they hurt their object of obsession?

•Elijah would never hurt his Queen

•He had never hurt you physically and he never would apart from the sore wrists you had from being tied to the bed with him waiting on you hand and foot which made him quickly switch to silk bindings

X stands for XOANON: would they worship their object of obsession?

•Elijah loves every inch of you, he worships the ground his Queen walks on from the moment you met

•It somehow becomes more intense when you find yourself pregnant and continues to be every time you are pregnant with one of his babies

Y stands for YEARN: how long would they pine after their object of obsession before they snap?

•He was switching your birth control on your second night together so fairly quickly though he doesn’t take you until you’re pregnant several months later

Z stands for ZENITH: would they ever break their object of obsession?

•You eventually do give in to what your husband wants, it is towards the end of your first pregnancy especially since you know there will be more pregnancies

•You love your son from the first moment you found out you were pregnant and you hated suggesting going to a clinic to get rid of him, something you later admit to your husband that you only did because you were afraid he would abandon you, pregnant and probably without a job if you pissed the powerful man off, Elijah felt very relieved by that admission and you knew it

•You love Elijah, you had loved him since your third date and you knew that wouldn’t just go away, especially as the father of your child and soon to be children, giving into him especially for your babies, wanting your eventual 3 sons and daughter to grow up in a functional family unlike the one you had grown up in

•You we’re determined that your children would grow up in a family full of love, surrounded by their siblings and cousins, loving aunts and uncles, and a mother and father who loved not just them but each other because that makes all the difference

Elijah Mikaelson Masterlist

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review 32 – The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

This is the first book this year I picked up specifically and entirely because it got a Hugo nomination; I’d previously vaguely heard of it, but never in any detail and the title didn’t really grab me. Despite what an exercise in masochism the whole ‘read every nominee for best novel and novella’ turned out to be last year, I’m actually very glad I stuck with it. Not sure I’d actually vote for it – this years best novel slate is actually incredibly strong – but it was an absolutely lovely and just fun read.

As one might assume, the story follows the eponymous Amina al-Sirafi, infamous and legendary corsair, smuggler and general rogue plying the Indian ocean sometime in the 12th century. Dragged out of an obscure retirement by the aristocratic mother of a former crewman whose fate still haunts her, she is sent on a mission to rescue the crewman’s kidnapped (or runaway) child by the twin incentives of more money than she could ever spend on one hand and blatant threats to the safety of her own family on the other. From there, she puts her crew together, has an unfortunate reunion with her demonic not-technically-ex husband, makes a pact with an island of officious peris, and races to prevent a Norman warlock from seizing control of an ancient relic to make war upon God.

The setting is honestly the point of this as much as the actual plot or any of the characters are. The late medieval Islamic maritime world and the wider Indian Ocean trading networks are an incredibly rich milieu to sink your teeth into, and one the author’s clearly fallen wholly in love with. I can’t speak for their accuracy, but little details of life and flourishes of historical terminology drip off every page, and the whole thing sings with the amount of research that was put into it. It’s the vanishingly rare work of fiction with a list of further reading at the end that actually makes me want to go hunt them down.

Specifically placing it in the twelfth century is kind of interesting, in terms of placement in the Islamic Golden Age – long, long after political power became fully fragmented and the Islamic world was linked more by economic and cultural ties, in the midst of the Crusades in the Levant, but still a few generations before the Mongols sack Baghdad. I really don’t have any ideas or assumptions about te why here, it’s just centuries later than the voyage of Sinbad the book is clearly riffing off of, so it makes me curious.

The enthusiastically researched and real-feeling setting does sadly kind of stop with the characters. Amina is sincerely religious and comfortable with the supernatural in a way that feels much more fitting than the vast majority of fantasy protagonists, but in every other sense she is clearly written to be relatable and sympathetic to an assumed audience of modern liberals. (Near-)Queernorm settings are great, but does jar with the fixation on historical grounding a bit. (The whole beat where dragging a runaway bride back to their family and decades older rich fiancee is unfortunate but for their own good until it’s realized they’re trans also kind of feels like a parody of a certain kind of identity-focused liberalism).

Between this and the Radiant Emperor duology I’m definitely rediscovering a real love for historic low fantasy. The research burden is immense but it’s hard to beat the actual past for making a world that feels lived in and real, and provide the vital sense that there are a thousand other stories happening just out of shot. The complete lack of generic-western-fantasy magic and monsters is also nearly as appreciated as the lack of castles and earls.

Which is good, really, as if you ignore the setting there isn’t really much to chew on here. To an extent this seems deliberate – the story is trying to be a pulpy, larger-than-life swashbuckling adventure, what with the getting dragged out of retirement for one more big score and the getting the band back together and the cackling 1.5-dimensional villain trying to make himself as unto god. In the main it absolutely succeeds at this (though the introduction of a generous and competent pirate captain who lends Amina a ship and a spirit-cutting magic sword out of nowhere at the end of the second act does strain things a bit). It does end up feeling a bit like using the most gorgeous, lusciously details stage in the world for a bunch of puppets to act out a pantomime, though – Amina is basically the only character in the entire story that feels like a person instead of a cartoon. They are, at least, more amusing cartoons than not. Raksh the murderous but cowardly ambition-seeking incubus husband was a highlight.

All in all, a very fun, page-turning read. I’m looking forward to the sequel.

[doyouknowthisactor]

By "roles" I mean playing a different character, and in a different piece of media; someone playing one character across a franchise only counts as one thing for the purposes of this poll, as does playing multiple characters in one franchise/piece of media

Below are some of this actor's roles. Please only check after voting!

Mulan 1998 as Li Shang (speaking voice)

Mr. Robot as Whiterose

Jurassic Park franchise as Dr. Henry Wu

Gotham as Hugo Strange

Wong also won a Tony for his role in the play M. Butterfly. He is the only actor to receive a Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Clarence Derwent, and Theatre World award for the same role.

More roles

[booksandchainmail]

Hugo Best Novel Finalists 2024

I've read all 6, so here's my impressions and loose ranking. The numerical ranking is only approximate for now, I'm going to pin it down once we get closer to voting closing. I could see the top two books switching places, or any rotation within books three, four, and five.

The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajra Chandrasekera This was one of my top books of last year and one of my own nominations. It's a very strange book, twisty and creative, and left me with a lot of thoughts, particularly about how it handles government. I appreciated the mishmash of worldbuilding, all sorts of things that felt incongruous next to each other but somehow fit together. It also felt more literary than most sff novels? I am not normally deeply noticing of language, but I kept coming back to individual turns of phrase here. All books should have a 50-page chapter in the middle where the protagonist wanders through a neverending surrealist prison land.

Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh Another of my nominations, this is a more straightforward exploration of, essentially, the deradicalization of someone raised in an authoritarian military camp. I respect how this book lets Kyr be awful, be completely convinced she is correct, and be defensive and lash out when confronted with her home's issues. I think the ending stumbles a bit, but really I mostly wanted this book to be much, much longer and have Kyr's character arc spread out more. Also, the choice of title and epigraph is excellent.

Translation State, by Ann Leckie Not much to say here, it's a new book in the Imperial Radch universe, I read it when I came out so don't remember detail. I liked the different intersecting plotlines, and particularly the Presger merge-and-devour adolescent instinct

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty This one I hadn't read before but enjoyed. I don't know how deep I'd say it is, but it's fun, a good classic adventure story with a putting-the-crew-back-together plot common to heist narratives. It benefits a lot from its setting: my main takeaway was that the Indian Ocean in medieval times is a criminally underused setting for any kind of nautical/swashbuckling/adventure story.

Witch King, by Martha Wells I read this one when it came out, and remember liking it a lot. The two intertwined narratives, set centuries apart, worked well for me to let the backstory unfold to inform the main plot as it progressed. I think I preferred the backstory narrative? But that might be due to also having the present narrative, since my favorite part was seeing how the echoes of relationships are still going on centuries after we get to see them form

Starter Villain, by John Scalzi I did not like this. I had some criticism last year for Scalzi's Kaiju Preservation Society, on the grounds that it was fun but not substantive enough for an award. But at least with that one I enjoyed reading it! My main thought while reading Starter Villain was "Well, at least it's short." I think my main problem with this is tonal: it doesn't commit enough to the over-the-top goofiness of "guy inherits his uncle's supervillain empire" and keeps trying to ground it in what an actual secretive genius billionaire pulling strings behind the scenes for his own nefarious purposes might look like, but then any attempts to actually be serious with the grounded stakes and world established kept running into the fact that it also featured sentient cats and talking dolphins! Also, I couldn't stop noticing that the protagonist talks the same way as the major supporting characters, which is the same way the protagonist talked in KPS last year

[christian-oc-tournament]

Please vote based on the picture AND the description!

Hugo Mallory [Portal/ Half-life OC @thefinaljediknight]

A college intern trapped in Aperture Science as GLaDOS begins her reign of terror. He's an engineering major with blind luck and Snark on his side, who refuses to be thrown by the alarming amount of OSHA violations he keeps encountering. Hugo's also gullible enough to fall for "can you find me some elbow grease?" repeatedly, but he means well.

Ilumi [Myth @kazeharuhime]

One of the Myth Doctor's most powerful subjects, Illumi has an appearance like cobalt glass and can manipulate light how she pleases. She can create illusions, use light beams, turn invisible, and, seemingly unrelatedly, even phase out of tangibility entirely. Such power comes at a steep cost though. If she overexerts herself, she can begin to disintegrate. Luckily for her though, one of their recent captives-turned-Myth is a healer who can reverse the effects and stop her from disintegrating. Unluckily, this healer is a child and her healing abilities are very taxing to use. Still more unfortunately, others need the healer's abilities too to reverse negative effects, making little Fay's ability a precious commodity. Despite this precarious position, however, Illumi enjoys using her abilities to mess with people, hide when she needs to, or disguise herself. She doesn't often push herself past the point of no return, so she can still pull pranks on people pretty comfortably. If she gets to the point of breaking a sweat, however, that's when things can get dangerous. Disintegrative effects can also occur under high emotion accompanied with stress, though it usually has to be coupled with exertion to get to a dangerous level. Her primary job is to search for new test subjects, wandering through the woods in search of lost travelers or disguising herself and luring people away from nearby villages. She is usually never alone, though; the rest of her troupe is often not far behind.

[cctinsleybaxter]

I plan to read all of these at some point so your vote will only (maybe) affect timing. you love button though; you love to click and then type up propaganda for which one i should prioritize :-)

[zvaigzdelasas]

[The Hill is US Private Media]

Earlier this year, The Hill published an Op-Ed I wrote that was titled “Puerto Rico’s political status, an issue of national security.” In that piece I presented a series of events to stress and relate the political future of Puerto Rico, its importance to the U.S. national security needs and how foreign powers push their agenda through the pro-independence movement within the island.

This past June, the United Nations Decolonization Committee met to discuss the issue of Puerto Rico at the request of Cuba. That body also passed the 41st consecutive resolution asking for the island’s self-determination and independence, with complete disregard of the will of its residents, who are US citizens. I tried to set the record straight by submitting a written and oral statement but the representative of Cuba had other plans. My statement blew the Cuban representative’s mind that led to an interruption rampage. Somehow my statement[...] made him forget that he was not in Cuba and that the UN is a place where different points of view are supposed to come together in order to encourage a thorough discussion of the issues pressing the world. I can attest that this wasn’t one of the UN’s best moments. 

But what was he trying to hide? Simple, for the Cuban representative, the truth is inconvenient. Its ties with China and Russia are publicly known and widely reported. The Wall Street Journal, in June 20, 2023, wrote “Beijing Plans a New Training Facility in Cuba.” This is something that the Cuban representative did not want on the UN record. But why would China want to establish a military training facility in Cuba? Maybe for the same reason, the Chinese wanted to buy what used to be Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico but couldn’t. [...]

In June 2023, Francisco Urdinez wrote for the [US industry thinktank] Wilson Center, “At the OAS, where China is an observer, an analysis by George Meek showed that between 1948 and 1974, the United States influenced 75 percent of the 297 roll-call votes. That influence has clearly diminished. Between 2001 and 2021, countries in which China has displaced the United States economically were 26 percentage points less likely to vote in alignment with Washington than other member states.” This clearly represents a shift in political power because of ill conceived policies that fail to recognize the importance of U.S. leadership in Latin America.[...]

It is important to remember that the involvement of foreign powers and interests in Latin America is not new. In 2011, the subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence of the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing on Hezbollah in Latin America — Implications on U.S. Homeland Security, and received the testimony of Ambassador Roger F. Noriega, former US Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OEA) and stated, “Hugo Chaves hosted a terror summit of senior leaders of Hamas (supreme leader “Khaled Meshal), Hezbollah (unnamed “chief operations”), and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah) in Caracas on August 22, 2010. That extraordinary meeting was organized at the suggestion of Iran,… In addition to the summit, operatives from other countries gathered in Caracas to meet with these terrorist chieftains.”

These are but a few indications that Puerto Rico’s political status may have a significant impact on U.S. security and foreign policy interests. The island’s current political status is not sustainable and when it comes to an end there will be only two options: it either becomes a state, thereby ensuring a strategic U.S. presence at the crossroads of the Americas, or it becomes a sovereign country which would be tantamount to ceding the island to our adversaries. The longer Congress takes to act on Puerto Rico’s political status, the greater the likelihood of the latter outcome.[...]

[The Author] José Enrique Meléndez-Ortiz, Esq., LLM., is representative at large in Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives.

"Puerto Rican Independence is a Russian-Chinese-Iranian Plot" now a mainstream narrative being pushed among self described progressive media by sitting politicians [22 Oct 23]

[saintlethanavir]

✨ The second to last Romance Option Showdown is here✨

Choose between the beautiful and enigmatic Lilith, the mysterious Seneca, the stoic Red, and the sweetheart Hugo! Only one can make it into our game and YOU get to decide who!

Vote through this Google form and also throw a question Umbria's way while you're at it for her Q&A, which is also in the form ✨

Beyond Blood is a visual novel game in development by myself and @thecoffeerain all about life in the small fictional town of Melrose, New York. It's full of all types of supernatural creatures and may be the center for an apocalypse, as it goes. You can find more info about the game by going to our game Dev blog @angelbunnygames or looking through the Beyond Blood tag here on Tumblr.

[warningsine]

Venezuelan security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday at protesters challenging the reelection victory claimed by President Nicolás Maduro but disputed by the opposition and questioned abroad.

Thousands of people flooded the streets of several neighborhoods of the capital, chanting "Freedom, freedom!" and "This government is going to fall!"

Some ripped Maduro campaign posters from street posts and burned them.

AFP observed members of the national guard firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, some wearing motorbike helmets and bandannas tied over their faces for protection. Some responded by throwing rocks back.

Maduro, 61, attended a meeting Monday at which the National Electoral Council (CNE) certified his reelection to a third six-year term until 2031.

He dismissed international criticism and doubts about the result of Sunday's voting, claiming Venezuela was the target of an attempted "coup d'etat" of a "fascist and counter-revolutionary" nature.

But opposition leader Maria Corina Machado later told reporters that a review of voting records available so far clearly showed that the next president "will be Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia," who took her place on the ballot after she was barred by Maduro-aligned courts.

The records showed a "mathematically irreversible" lead for Gonzalez Urrutia, she said, with 6.27 million votes to only 2.75 million for Maduro.

The elections were held amid widespread fears of fraud by the government and a campaign tainted by accusations of political intimidation.

Pollsters had predicted a resounding victory for the opposition.

In the early hours of Monday, the CNE said Maduro had won 51.2 percent of votes cast compared to 44.2 percent for Gonzalez Urrutia.

The opposition cried foul, prompting Attorney General Tarek William Saab to link Machado to an alleged cyber "attack" seeking to "adulterate" the results.

'Another fraud' 

The outcome sparked concern and calls for a "transparent" process from the United Nations, United States, European Union and several countries in Latin America.

The CNE has not provided a detailed breakdown of the result.

Allies including China, Russia and Cuba congratulated Maduro.

Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old former diplomat, on Monday acknowledged the deep discontent in society with the CNE results and vowed that "we will fight for our liberty."

Machado assured Venezuelans that "the leaders of the world" are validating the results, and called families to turn out Tuesday for "popular assemblies" nationwide to show support for a peaceful transition of power.

Nine Latin American countries called in a joint statement Monday for a "complete review of the results with the presence of independent electoral observers."

The US-based Carter Center, one of a few organizations allowed to bring observers into Venezuela, urged the CNE to immediately publish detailed polling station-level results.

Brazil and Colombia also urged a review of the numbers while Chile's president said the outcome was "hard to believe."

Peru recalled its ambassador and Panama said it was suspending relations with Venezuela.

Caracas hit back Monday, saying it was withdrawing diplomatic staff from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay for "interventionist actions and statements."

'Bloodbath' warning 

Independent polls had predicted Sunday's vote would end 25 years of "Chavismo," the populist movement founded by Maduro's socialist predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chavez.

Maduro has been at the helm of the once-wealthy oil-rich country since 2013. The last decade has seen GDP drop by 80 percent, pushing more than seven million of its 30 million citizens to emigrate.

He is accused of locking up critics and harassing the opposition in a climate of rising authoritarianism.

In the run-up to the election, he had warned of a "bloodbath" if he lost.

Ballots were cast on machines that sent electronic votes directly to a centralized CNE database.

The machines printed out paper receipts that were placed in a container and counted by hand as a backup measure meant to be open to public scrutiny.

The opposition had deployed about 90,000 volunteer election monitors nationwide.

Economic misery 

Sunday's election was the product of a deal reached last year between the government and opposition.

That agreement led the United States to temporarily ease sanctions imposed after Maduro's 2018 reelection, rejected as a sham by dozens of Latin American and other countries.

Sanctions were snapped back after Maduro reneged on agreed conditions.

Venezuela boasts the world's largest oil reserves but has seen severely diminished production capacity in recent years.

Most Venezuelans live on just a few dollars a month, and endure biting shortages of electricity and fuel.

Economic misery in the South American nation has been a major source of migration pressure on the southern border of the United States, where immigration is a major presidential election issue.

(AFP)

[azeriairis]

Remember my Post where I posted that the Brutus in the line where Victor Hugo compares Javert to Brutus and Vidocq may have been Lucien Bonaparte? yeah I've changed my mind. I now think it may be Lucius Junius Brutus. (Link to the post I mentioned Here)

Lucius Junius Brutus (not to be confused with his alleged* Descendant Marcus Junius Brutus, the Brutus who helped orchestrate the plot to kill Julius Caesar) is the legendary founder of the Roman Republic. *I say Alleged because the Junia Gens, and particularly the Junii Bruti branch which Marcus Junius Brutus is a part of, claimed they were descendants of the Lucius I'm talking about here, but there isn't anything to actually prove the connection.

I'm going to go into who he is according to Legend, be aware that this is almost certainly at Mythologized, at least to some degree, and he also possibly didn't exist at all, but the story would've probably still been well known to Victor Hugo. That's below the cut, Trigger Warning Brief Mentions of Rape and Suicide.

Alright so brief summary of the legendary story of the creation of the Roman Republic is as such (focusing on Lucius Brutus):

The King Tarquinius Superbus was kind of a shitty king and nobody particularly liked him, his second son Sextus (the name just means 6) Tarquinius raped a Noblewoman by the name of Lucretia. Lucretia then killed herself due to the trauma.

People were let's just say not very happy about this. Lucius was at the time the Tribune of the Celeres, and also the Nephew of the King, and was one of the people who took the lead in the upset, he gathered the Curate Assembly to vote to depose the King (Which is apparently something they had the authority to do). They deposed the King, and the Royal family was exiled.

Lucius was then voted one of the two consuls, and in his position helped establish some of the central systems of the new Roman Republic.

Why the fuck do I compare him to Javert?

Well eventually a conspiracy was formed among members of the upper classes to bring back the monarchy. Among the Co-conspirators were Lucius's sons Titus and Tiberius. When the Conspiracy was found out Lucius ordered all of them to be executed and stayed to witness the execution of his sons (well technically it was Lucius Brutus and Lucius Collatinus (Collatinus was the husband of Lucretia and also Co-consul with Brutus) who ordered the execution together).

And you know what? In my book that's a Javert thing to do. Javert's commitment to enforcing the law is canonically such that he'd throw his parents into jail if needed, I don't think executing his kids for committing treason is that far of a stretch for his character. Like prioritizing his duties over everything else is already a thing with his character, this is just taking it to a somewhat greater extent.

There's other stuff with him, but honestly it doesn't matter as much

[billspotts]

The Missing Link of the July 28th Election

The night of the July 28th election, hundreds of thousands of people saw the actas, and not only the opposition’s witnesses who kept copies.

What follows are three stories that break the silence: two from PSUV electoral witnesses and one from a community leader from the chavista grassroots. We’ll call them Karla, Daria, and María Eugenia.

Karla

Karla extends her arm and shows an acta from July 28. She searched frantically through the folders and papers piled on the living room table in her apartment, on Venezuela’s central coast. She had stored it so carefully that she forgot the exact spot where she placed it the morning after the election, after having served as an electoral witness for PSUV at a voting center in the city of La Guaira.

“This is the fifth election I’ve worked as a PSUV witness. I’m a registered party member and a spokesperson for the UBCH (Units of Battle Hugo Chávez, a grassroots PSUV organization) in my area,” she says, waving the tally sheet like a white flag seeking a truce.

For Karla, everything she’s achieved is linked to her involvement with the Bolivarian Revolution. She graduated from the Misión Ribas—an early government program to expand the access to high school education—and kept studying thanks to Misión Sucre, a similar program to grant access to university-level education focused on a social agenda. Karla then moved from an overcrowded annex, to the apartment where she now lives, also provided by the Venezuelan government. She has worked for a decade in the public sector, at a ministry-affiliated organization.

She believed these elections would be no different from the others—that they would win and celebrate, collect the tally sheets and deliver them to the local electoral coordinator, conduct the audit, and be done. But that’s not what happened.

“After noon, it turned into a hateful day, full of odd tension. In my voting center, Maduro won by a few votes. But in La Guaira the opposition wiped us out. The other PSUV witnesses were posting the numbers in our WhatsApp group, and it was unbelievable. They beat the hell out of us.”

Then, CNE announced in its first bulletin that Maduro had won “irreversibly” with 51% of the votes. “How did we win?” Karla asks. “This is crazy. Chavismo always wins in La Guaira, and this time it didn’t happen.” She keeps asking herself questions. “Why do I feel so sad if we won?” “Why wasn’t there even a hint of celebration?” “Why, if we won, did they erase the WhatsApp evidence and forbid us, the witnesses, from talking about the election day?”

She asks out loud as she smooths the wrinkles in the tally sheet, without success. Karla believes that the country’s economic crisis was caused by international sanctions and the opposition. “But I also know that on our side, we’ve made plenty of mistakes, which is why so many people didn’t even want to vote. Filling that 1×10 list cost me blood, sweat, and tears,” she says, referring to the list of voters that PSUV required his witnesses and grassroots to complete.

In the weeks leading up to the election, she attended meetings with the regional PSUV leadership, where they were warned about alleged “destabilizing plans by the opposition.” Karla and others were told to “stay alert” and protect Maduro’s votes because the opposition had a plan to disrupt the tally, and that would be solved by showing the tally sheets.

Around 2:00 p.m. on election day, the coordinator at her center told everyone that “by orders from above,” they would only print one tally sheet per table, not one for each witness. Karla complained because she hadn’t been told this by the party, but the coordinator reminded her that they were on the same team and that she shouldn’t be foolish.

“But I refused. I wanted my tally sheet and for the opposition guy to get his, too. Because I’m chavista, but I don’t cheat. They (the party) had told us that having these sheets was the most important thing. That’s why I fought for the one from my table. Now they’re telling me that if I want to, I can throw it away. How can I be happy when I struggled to get that tally sheet and no one cares about it?”

She also didn’t like that, even though there were no voters at her center after 3:30 p.m., they kept it open until almost 6:00 pm. She remembers everything from that day. The vote count began, and her table’s tally sheet was printed at 7:12 pm. The opposition witnesses refused to leave until the data was transmitted. The machine technician said the transmission was slow, and people outside the center began pressuring them. After 9:00 p.m., they were told that the transmission had been completed successfully, and the WhatsApp group told them to go home.

That’s what she did. She went to bed with a headache, convinced they had lost the election. But when she woke up, she saw her WhatsApp groups flooded with messages saying they had won. “But no one was happy. There were lots of complaints directed at the grassroot leaders, the public employees…”

Another question haunts her:  “If we won, why were they demanding loyalty from us and reminding us that we don’t have official property documents for the apartments we’d been given? I thought: these people are making fools of themselves. Now, the ones who really didn’t vote for PSUV are going to hate us even more. That’s why I say it’s a victory filled with sadness and disappointment.”

Karla searched for the tally sheet from her table on the website where the opposition posted the ones collected by their witnesses. It’s identical to hers.

And again, what if…  

“If they uploaded the tally sheet where their candidate lost, and I know it’s real because I have it here, why should I doubt, or think that the others they uploaded are fake?”

She no longer knows what to think, though there’s one thing Karla says she’s sure of: people’s will must be respected because that’s what living in a democracy means.

“I don’t want to live in a dictatorship, even if I’m a PSUV member. I can be with PSUV, but I don’t think it’s right not to respect the votes of those who went out to vote. Everyone here knows I was a witness, and that’s why my neighbors look at me strangely, like I did something wrong. That’s why I don’t even want to keep the tally sheet at home anymore, because no one from PSUV has come to ask for it. If this is proof of the opposition’s cheating, if that alleged hacking really happened, why aren’t they coming to those of us who were witnesses to clarify this once and for all?

[whilereadingandwalking]

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher is a delightful, irreverent take on fairytales with a delightful dry wit, compelling world-building, and un-put-down-able narrative. Marra is the youngest of three sisters. The oldest was married to the prince of the Northern Kingdom—and came home unrecognizable in a coffin. The 2nd oldest is married to him now, struggling through endless pregnancies and awful abuse. Marra has been stored away in a convent, but she knows that if her 2nd sister dies, the prince will come for her next. And no one is going to try and save them but her.

This book reminded me of all that I love most about fantasy, reminding me of Seanan McGuire's own play with fairy tales. Nettle & Bone has everything: a grumpy witch, a chicken with a demon inside of her, a Goblin Market, and a bone dog, to name just a few. I loved reading a fairy tale adaptation featuring a woman near my age. The way characters from the start appeared later on, the way small clues and tricks reemerged, was all so well done. (Also, when she mentioned her fairy tale inspiration in the afterword, I was completely gagged. In a pleasant way.) I devoured this one with a happy, sumptuous richness, delightful, emotional, and fun. It has my personal Hugo Award vote!

Content warnings for animal death, domestic abuse, miscarriage, and cannibalism, sexual assault mentions