#Jonathan Administration

[deadpresidents]

Is it true that bill clinton was a night owl and also had a really bad temper?

Oh yeah, President Clinton had a legendarily volcanic temper. There have even been moments in interviews or speeches where he gets annoyed and you'll see a flash of anger in his eyes, his face turns bright red, and he starts pointing his finger at whomever he's speaking with. Some of his former White House aides have written about his temper over the years and said it never lasted very long, but was pretty intense when it happened, and the only thing more uncomfortable was when he would get really mad at someone and he'd give them an icy stare and silent treatment. In his book All Too Human: A Political Education (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), George Stephanopoulos, who was a senior staff member in the White House during most of Clinton's first term wrote:

"When Hillary was angry, you didn't always know it right away -- a calculated chill would descend over time. [President] Clinton's anger was a more impersonal physical force, like a tornado. The tantrum would form in an instant and exhaust itself in a violent rush. Whoever happened to be in the way would have to deal with it; more often than not, that person was me. I guess Clinton figured that I could fix whatever problem was causing his frustration, and he must have sensed that I didn't take his temper personally. The trick was to have a kind of thin skin -- to understand that Clinton's didn't really yell at you; he yelled through you, as the rage passed through him. My job was to absorb the anger and address its cause."

You can see some hints of Clinton's volatile temper in this 2004 interview with Peter Jennings, this tense back-and-forth with Jerry Brown during a 1992 Democratic Presidential primary debate, and, most famously, throughout the deposition he gave to independent counsel Kenneth Starr regarding his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Believe it or not, another relatively recent President who had an explosive temper was Jimmy Carter. There are quite a few stories about Carter's icy glare and silent treatment when angry, as well as a borderline mean-spirited form of sarcasm when he was really pissed off. In his excellent biography, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), author Jonathan Alter wrote:

"Carter enjoyed oddballs but rarely suffered fools. His staff got used to the 'tells' of his annoyance or anger. A vein in his temple throbbed, and his jaw moved. Then came an uncomfortable silence and a stare from his 'icy blues,' enough to make one hide under his desk even though the Governor [Carter] never raised his voice. 'He can curl your hair when he wants to chew you out,' his close friend Bert Lance wrote. 'And he'll flash those eyes at you so brightly you'll need sunglasses.'"

[elias-magnussy]

uh- Elias?

i have... quite an unconventional favor to ask, but.

the institute is still hiring, yes? i htink i know someone who might be interested in a job?

-@not-qualified-for-your-bull

Yes, especially since we lost- hm.

I do appreciate employee recommendations, especially from someone with as much sense as you. I'll send a message down to HR, alright?

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A federal judge in Mississippi has blocked enactment of a Biden administration rule designed to prevent medical care from being denied to those seeking treatment related to gender identity or sexual orientation.

The lawsuit U.S. Southern District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. ruled on Wednesday was filed by 15 states, including Mississippi. But he said his injunction preventing the Biden administration from enforcing its rule would apply nationwide. His ruling is likely to be appealed.

On social media, the Human Rights Campaign proclaimed, “This is not over. All LGBTQ+ people should receive the health care we deserve and be able to make informed decisions about our own bodies.”

The Biden administration rule enacted earlier this year is designed to ensure those seeking medical care on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation are not subject to discrimination. The rule is supposed to cover entities receiving federal funds for the delivery of health care.

The states argued against being forced to provide gender-affirming care through Medicaid programs or through health plans for state employees. In addition, the states argued against private insurance companies being required to provide such care.

“Injecting gender identity into our state’s medical system is a dangerous pursuit of a political agenda from the Biden Administration,” Mississippi Attorney Lynn Fitch said in a statement. “Medical professionals should not be forced to provide gender transition surgeries or drugs against their judgment and hospitals should not be prohibited from providing women-only spaces for patients. I am proud to lead the multistate effort with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to stop the Biden Administration and push back on this reckless rule.”

The lawsuit is one of many filed by attorneys general and others objecting to the Biden administration interpreting Title IX to apply to banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and sexual identity. Congress passed, and President Richard Nixon signed into law, Title IX in 1972 to ban sexual discrimination.

In response to one of the similar lawsuits ruled on earlier in Louisiana, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said, “Every student … deserves to be safe. Every young person deserves protection from bullying, misgendering and abuse.”

Robinson added, referring to the earlier court ruling, “This is MAGA theatrics with the dangerous goal of weaving discrimination into state law.”

Mississippi has passed a state law prohibiting minors from receiving gender-affirming care even if it is recommended by physicians.

On social media, Gov. Tate Reeves said, “The Biden Administration attempted to undermine Title IX by dramatically reinterpreting its meaning to now apply to gender identity. Thankfully, a federal court judge has sided with Mississippi and other states who chose to stand up for women and defend Title IX as it currently exists.”

The lawsuit filed by Fitch and other attorneys general argued that their states could be penalized by the loss of federal Medicaid funds, for example, if they did not adhere to the rule.

In blocking the rule, Guirola cited the Chevron case where the U.S. Supreme Court recently said that federal agencies should not be given deference in their rules-making.

[nando161mando]

"Jonathan James Wisbey from Eugene, OR is a libertarian, christofascist larper. Wisbey used violence in his attempt to suppress our solidarity with Palestine. He fired into a crowd that included several children & at least one infant.

Link for context":

https://x.com/jwcroxton/status/1715908679961362710?s=20

[jrnerad]

Exclusive Interview: First Look at 2024 Honda Prologue Battery-Electric SUV

Honda has just pulled the wraps off its first dedicated battery-electric crossover SUV, and we’ll have all the details about it. Our special guest this week is Jonathan Rivers, who is manager of product information at American Honda. Host Jack Nerad had the chance to sit with him for a behind-the-scenes briefing at a secret location in Southern California. Honda is basing its first all-electric…

[afeelgoodblog]

Best News of Last Week - December 11

1. Biden administration to forgive $4.8 billion in student loan debt for 80,300 borrowers

The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it would forgive an additional $4.8 billion in student loan debt, for 80,300 borrowers.

The relief is a result of the U.S. Department of Education’s fixes to its income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

2. Detroit on pace to have lowest homicide rate in 60 years this year

A partnership to reduce Detroit crime is being praised with the City on pace for the fewest homicides in 60 years.

"This is the day we’ve been waiting for, for a long time," said Mayor Mike Duggan. The coalition which includes city and county leaders that Detroit Police Chief James White formed in late 2021 to return the criminal justice system in Detroit and Wayne County to pre-Covid operations.

3. Dog that killed 8 coyotes to protect sheep running for Farm Dog of the Year

Over a year ago, Casper was stacked up against a pack of 11 coyotes, and he overcame them all to protect the livestock at his Decatur home. Now he needs your help.

Casper, the Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dog, needs the public to vote for him to become the American Farm Bureau's "Farm Dog of the Year: People's Choice Pup" contest.

4. Shimmering golden mole thought extinct photographed and filmed over 80 years after last sighting

De Winton's golden mole, last sighted in 1937, has been found alive swimming through sand dunes in South Africa after an extensive search for the elusive species.

5. About 40% of the world's power generation is now renewable

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have released their first joint report to strengthen understanding of renewable energy resources and their intricate relationship with climate variability and change.

In 2022 alone, 83% of new capacity was renewable, with solar and wind accounting for most additions. Today, some 40% of power generation globally is renewable, due to rapid deployment in the past decade, according to the report.

6. Jonathan the Tortoise: World’s oldest living land animal celebrates 191st birthday

The world’s oldest living land animal - a Seychelles giant tortoise named Jonathan - has just celebrated his 191st birthday. Jonathan’s estimated 1832 birth year predates the invention of the postal stamp, the telephone, and the photograph.

The iconic creature lived through the US civil war, most of the reign of Queen Victoria, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, and two world wars.

7. New enzyme allows CRISPR technologies to accurately target almost all human genes

A team of engineers at Duke University have developed a method to broaden the reach of CRISPR technologies. While the original CRISPR system could only target 12.5% of the human genome, the new method expands access to nearly every gene to potentially target and treat a broader range of diseases through genome engineering.

---

That's it for this week :)

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Conservatives are fringe outliers - and leftists could learn from them

The Republican Party, a coalition between Big Business farmers and turkeys who’ll vote for Christmas (Red Scare obsessed cowards, apocalyptic white nationalists, religious fanatics, etc) has fallen to its bizarre, violent, noisy radical wing, who are obsessed with policies that are completely irrelevant to the majority of Americans.

As Oliver Willis writes, the views of the radical right — which are also the policies of the GOP — are wildly out of step with the US political view:

https://www.oliverexplains.com/p/conservatives-arent-like-normal-americans

The press likes to frame American politics as “narrowly divided,” but the reality is that Republicans’ electoral victories are due to voter suppression and antimajoritarian institutions (the Senate and Electoral College, etc), not popularity. Democrats consistently outperform the GOP in national races. Dems won majorities in 1992/6, and beat the GOP in 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. The only presidential race the GOP won on popular votes since 1988 was 2004, when GW Bush eked out a plurality (not a majority).

But, as Willis says, Dems “act like it is 1984 and that they are outliers in a nation of Reagan voters,” echoing a stilted media narrative. The GOP’s platform just isn’t popular. Take the groomer panic: 71% of Americans approve of same-sex marriage. The people losing their shit about queer people are a strange, tiny minority.

Every one of the GOP’s tentpole issues is wildly unpopular: expanding access to assault rifles, banning immigration, lowering taxes on the rich, cutting social programs, forcing pregnant people to bear unwanted children, etc. This is true all the way up to the GOP’s coalescing support for Trump as their 2024 candidate. Trump has lost every popular vote he’s ever stood for, and owes his term in the Oval Office to the antimajoritarian Electoral College system, gerrymandering, and massive voter suppression.

Willis correctly points out that Dem leaders are basically “normal” center-right politicians, not radicals. And, unlike their GOP counterparts, politicians like Clinton, Obama and Biden don’t hide their disdain for the radical wing of their party. Even never-Trumper Republicans are afraid of their base. Romney declared himself “severely conservative” and McCain “put scare quotes around ‘health of the mother’ provisions for abortion rights.”

The GOP fringe imposes incredible discipline on their leaders. Take all the nonsense about “woke capitalism”: on the one hand, it’s absurd to call union-busting, tax-dodging, worker-screwing companies “woke” (even if they sell Pride flags for a couple of weeks every year).

But on the other hand? The GOP leadership have actually declared war on the biggest corporations in America, to the point that the WSJ says that “Republicans and Big Business broke up”:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-corporations-donations-pacs-9b5b202b

But America is a two-party system and there are plenty of people who’ll pull the lever for any Republican. This means that when the GOP comes under the control of its swivel-eyed loon wing, the swivel-eyed loons wield power far beyond the number of people who agree with them.

There’s an important lesson there for Dems, whose establishment is volubly proud of its independence from its voters. The Biden administration is a weirdly perfect illustration of this “independence.” The Biden admin is a kind of referee, doling out policies and appointments to its competing wings, without any coherence or consistency.

That’s how you get incredible appointments like Lina Khan at the FTC and Jonathan Kanter at the DoJ Antitrust Division and Rohit Chopra at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureat — the progressive wing of the party bargained for these key appointments and then played their cards very well, getting incredible, hard-charging, hyper-competent fighters in those roles.

Likewise, Jared Bernstein, finally confirmed as Council of Economic Advisers chair after an interminable wrangle:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-06-16-team-biden/

And Julie Su, acting labor secretary, who just delivered a six-year contract to west coast dockworkers with 8–10% raises in the first year, paid retroactively for the year they worked without a contract:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/14/statement-from-president-biden-on-labor-agreement-at-west-coast-ports/

But the Biden admin’s unwillingness to side with one wing of the party also produces catastrophic failures, like the martyrdom of Gigi Sohn, who was subjected to years of vicious personal attacks while awaiting confirmation to the FCC, undefended by the Biden admin, left to twist in the wind until she gave it up as a bad job:

https://doctorow.medium.com/culture-war-bullshit-stole-your-broadband-4ce1ffb16dc5

It’s how we get key roles filled by do-nothing seatwarmers like Pete Buttigieg, who has the same sweeping powers that Lina Khan is wielding so deftly at the FTC, but who lacks either the will or the skill to wield those same powers at the Department of Transport:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/dinah-wont-you-blow/#ecp

By refusing to stand for anything except a fair division of powers among different Democratic Party blocs, the Biden admin ends up undercutting itself. Take right to repair, a centerpiece of the administration’s agenda, subject of a historic executive order and FTC regulation:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

Right to Repair fights have been carried out at the state level for years, with the biggest victory coming in Massachusetts, where an automotive R2R ballot initiative won overwhelming support in 2020:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/13/said-no-one-ever/#r2r

But despite the massive support for automotive right to repair in the Bay State, Big Car has managed to delay the implementation of the new law for years, tying up the state in expensive, time-consuming litigation:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/26/nixing-the-fix/#r2r

But eventually, even the most expensive delaying tactic fails. Car manufacturers were set to come under the state right to repair rule this month, but they got a last minute reprieve, from Biden’s own National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who sent urgent letters to every major car manufacturer, telling them to ignore the Massachusetts repair law:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7bbkv/biden-administration-tells-car-companies-to-ignore-right-to-repair-law-people-overwhelmingly-voted-for

The NHTSA repeats the car lobby’s own scare stories about “cybersecurity” that they blitzed to Massachusetts voters in the runup to the ballot initiative:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

The idea that cybersecurity is best maintained by letting powerful corporations gouge you on service and parts is belied by independent experts, like SecuRepairs, who do important work countering the FUD thrown off by the industry (and parroted by Biden’s NHTSA):

https://securepairs.org/

Independent security experts are clear that letting owners of high-tech devices decide who fixes them, what software they run, etc, makes us safer:

https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2022/01/letter-to-the-us-senate-judiciary-committee-on-app-stores.html

But here we are: the Biden admin is sabotaging the Biden admin, because the Biden admin isn’t an administration, it’s a system for ensuring proportional representation of different parts of the Democratic Party coalition.

This isn’t just bad for policy, it’s bad politics, too. It presumes that if some Democratic voters want pizza, and others want hamburgers, that you can please everyone by serving up pizzaburgers. No one wants a pizzaburger:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/23/narrative-warfare/#giridharadas

The failure to deliver a coherent, muscular vision for a climate-ready, anti-Gilded Age America has left the Democrats vulnerable. Because while the radical proposals of the GOP fringe may not enjoy much support, there are large majorities of Americans who have lost faith in the status quo and are totally uninterested in the Pizzaburger Party.

Nowhere is this better explained than in Naomi Klein’s superb long-form article on RFK Jr’s presidential bid in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/14/ignoring-robert-f-kennedy-jr-not-an-option

Don’t get me wrong, RFK Jr is a Very Bad Politician, for all the reasons that Klein lays out. He’s an anti-vaxxer, a conspiracist, and his support for ending American military aggression, defending human rights, and addressing the climate emergency is laughably thin.

But as Klein points out, RFK Jr is not peddling pizzaburgers. He is tapping into a legitimate rage:

a great many voters are hurting and rightfully angry: about powerful corporations controlling their democracy and profiting off disease and poverty. About endless wars draining national coffers and maiming their kids. About stagnating wages and soaring costs. This is the world — inflamed on every level — that the two-party duopoly has knowingly created.

RFK Jr is campaigning against “the corrupt merger between state and corporate power,” against drug monopolies setting our national health agenda, and polluters capturing environmental regulators.

As Klein says, despite RFK Jr’s willing to say the unsayable, and tap into the yearning among the majority of American voters for something different, he’s not running a campaign rooted in finally telling the American public “the truth.” Rather, “public discourse filled with unsayable and unspeakable subjects is fertile territory for all manner of hucksters positioning themselves as uniquely courageous truth tellers.”

We’ve been here before. Remember Trump campaigning against a “rigged system” and promising to “make America great again?” Remember Clinton’s rejoinder that “America was already great?” It’s hard to imagine a worse response to legitimate outrage — over corporate capture, declining wages and living conditions; and spiraling health, education and shelter costs.

Sure, it was obvious that Trump was a beneficiary of the rigged system, and that he would rig it further, but at least he admitted it was rigged, not “already great.”

The Democratic Party is not in thrall to labor unions, or racial equality activists, or people who care about gender justice or the climate emergency. Unlike the GOP, the Dem establishment has figured out how to keep a grip on power within their own party — at the expense of exercising power in America, even when they hold office.

But unlike culture war nonsense, shared prosperity, fairness, care, and sound environmental policies are very popular in America. Some people have been poisoned against politics altogether and sunk into nihilism, while others have been duped into thinking that America can’t afford to look after its people.

In this regard, winning the American electorate is a macrocosm for the way labor activists win union majorities in the workplaces they organize. In her memoir A Collective Bargain, Jane McAlevey describes how union organizers contend with everything that progressive politicians must overcome. A union drive takes place in the teeth of unfair laws, on a tilted playing field that allows bosses to gerrymander some workers’ votes and suppress others’ altogether. These bosses have far more resources than the workers, and they spend millions on disinformation campaigns, forcing workers to attend long propaganda sessions on pain of dismissal.

https://doctorow.medium.com/a-collective-bargain-a48925f944fe

But despite all this, labor organizers win union elections and strike votes, and they do so with stupendous majorities — 95% or higher. This is how the most important labor victories of our day were won: the 2019 LA teachers’ strike won everything. Not just higher wages, but consellors in schools, mandatory greenspace for every school in LA, an end to ICE shakedowns of immigrant parents at the school-gate, and immigration law help for students and their families. What’s more, the teachers used their unity, their connection to the community, and their numbers to get out the vote in the next election, winning the marginal seats that delivered 2020’s Democratic Congressional majority.

As I wrote in my review of MacAlevey’s book:

For McAlevey, saving America is just a scaled up version of the union organizer’s day-job. First, we fix the corrupt union, firing its sellout leaders and replacing them with fighters. Then, we organize supermajorities, person-to-person, in a methodical, organized fashion. Then we win votes, using those supermajorities to overpower the dirty tricks that rig the elections against us. Then we stay activated, because winning the vote is just the start of the fight.

It’s a far cry from the Democratic Party consultant’s “data-driven” microtargeting strategy based on eking out tiny, fragile majorities with Facebook ads. That’s a strategy that fails in the face of even a small and disorganized voter-suppression campaign — it it’s doomed in today’s all-out assault on fair elections.

What’s more, the consultants’ microtargeting strategy treats people as if the only thing they have to contribute is casting a ballot every couple years. A sleeping electorate will never win the fights that matter — the fight to save our planet, and to abolish billionaires.

If only the Democratic Party was as scared of its base as the Republicans are of their own.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/16/that-boy-aint-right/#dinos-rinos-and-dunnos

[Image ID: The title page of Richard Hofstadter's 'Paranoid Style in American Politics' from the November, 1964 issue of Harper's Magazine. A John Birch Society pin reading 'This is REPUBLIC not a DEMOCRACY: let's keep it that way' sits atop the page, obscuring the introductory paragraph.]

[contemplatingoutlander]

That the Editorial Board of the premier U.S. newspaper of record is finally warning about Donald Trump is significant. As such, this is a gift 🎁 link so that those who want to read the entire editorial can do so, even if they don't subscribe to The New York Times. Below are some excerpts:

As president, [Trump] wielded power carelessly and often cruelly and put his ego and his personal needs above the interests of his country. Now, as he campaigns again, his worst impulses remain as strong as ever — encouraging violence and lawlessness, exploiting fear and hate for political gain, undermining the rule of law and the Constitution, applauding dictators — and are escalating as he tries to regain power. He plots retribution, intent on eluding the institutional, legal and bureaucratic restraints that put limits on him in his first term. Our purpose at the start of the new year, therefore, is to sound a warning. Mr. Trump does not offer voters anything resembling a normal option of Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, big government or small. He confronts America with a far more fateful choice: between the continuance of the United States as a nation dedicated to “the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” and a man who has proudly shown open disdain for the law and the protections and ideals of the Constitution. [...] It is instructive in the aftermath of that administration to listen to the judgments of some of these officials on the president they served. John Kelly, a chief of staff to Mr. Trump, called him the “most flawed person I’ve ever met,” someone who could not understand why Americans admired those who sacrificed their lives in combat. Bill Barr, who served as attorney general, and Mark Esper, a former defense secretary, both said Mr. Trump repeatedly put his own interests over those of the country. Even the most loyal and conservative of them all, Vice President Mike Pence, who made the stand that helped provoke Mr. Trump and his followers to insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, saw through the man: “On that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution,” he said.

[See more under the cut.]

There will not be people like these in the White House should Mr. Trump be re-elected. The former president has no interest in being restrained, and he has surrounded himself with people who want to institutionalize the MAGA doctrine. According to reporting by the Times reporters Maggie Haberman, Charlie Savage and Jonathan Swan, Mr. Trump and his ideological allies have been planning for a second Trump term for many months already. Under the name Project 2025, one coalition of right-wing organizations has produced a thick handbook and recruited thousands of potential appointees in preparation for an all-out assault on the structures of American government and the democratic institutions that acted as checks on Mr. Trump’s power. [...] Mr. Trump has made clear his conviction that only “losers” accept legal, institutional or even constitutional constraints. He has promised vengeance against his political opponents, whom he has called “vermin” and threatened with execution. This is particularly disturbing at a time of heightened concern about political violence, with threats increasing against elected officials of both parties. He has repeatedly demonstrated a deep disdain for the First Amendment and the basic principles of democracy, chief among them the right to freely express peaceful dissent from those in power without fear of retaliation, and he has made no secret of his readiness to expand the powers of the presidency, including the deployment of the military and the Justice Department, to have his way. [...] Re-electing Mr. Trump would present serious dangers to our Republic and to the world. This is a time not to sit out but instead to re-engage. We appeal to Americans to set aside their political differences, grievances and party affiliations and to contemplate — as families, as parishes, as councils and clubs and as individuals — the real magnitude of the choice they will make in November.

I encourage people to use the above gift link and read the entire article.

[edited]

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

Steddie Upside-down AU Part 30

Part 1 Part 29

Will feels cold here, huddled into the bleachers, surrounded by his best friends. He can feel something in his chest tugging, urging him to follow Eddie out of the gym and off to find Steve.

He doesn’t.

It’s weird, to feel this jittery being out of sight of two people he barely knows but feels inexplicably connected to. Will hopes they feel the same when they make it back. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if they make him go away.

Jonathan does that, sometimes. When he has to concentrate, or go to a shift at the diner, but with Jonathan, that means he has to be on is own for a few hours. Their tie is concrete – blood and love. With Steve and Eddie? He doesn’t know.

Will lets his gaze wander as his friend’s chat around him. His Mom is sitting on the first bench of the bleachers, everyone else organized in a wonky pyramid behind her. She’s chewing her nails, watching the door that Hopper, Eddie, and Eddie’s Uncle had gone through like they’ll be back any moment.

The school is quiet, his friend’s voices the only sounds, as they echo off the walls of the empty gym. Dustin is in the middle of explaining to El what a school dance is when Will realizes it’s too quiet.

He glances over to the corner, where Jonathan, Nancy, and Barbara were huddled before and sees no one at all.

“Where’s Jonathan?” It comes out of his mouth quiet, barely above a whisper, but Dustin stops mid-word to look around while Mom jumps up from the bleachers to do the same.

“Jonathan?” she calls, eyes getting that same frantic edge that had finally started to dissipate.

“They’re probably just sucking face somewhere,” Dustin says, shrugging like it’s all no big deal.

Mike recoils. “No way!” he says, at the same time that El says, “no,” quietly, eyes downcast. Mike turns to her, brows furrowed. “Did you see them? Do you know where they went?”

El looks up, eyes big and sad in her face. “Yes,” she says, nodding slowly.

“Where?” Mike sounds a bit frantic. “Where did they go?

El answers with a word Will’s starting to hope he never hears again. “Demogorgon.”

Will feels a tremor running over his bones. He’s so cold, like all the warmth has been sucked out of the gym.

“No, no, no!” his Mom says, running a hand up through her hair, irreparably messing up her bangs. “What are they doing?”

“Helping,” El says.

His Mom groans. Will remembers Nancy’s plans shared around the table like they were the only logical next steps and feels his hands begin to tremble where they’re hanging between his knees. Just the thought of Jonathan coming face to face with the Demogorgon armed with nothing but a bear trap and a bat makes a cold sweat break out on the back of his neck.

Come on, we’re going to find a phone!” his Mom says, gesturing impatiently for them all to get up and follow her. El shrinks a little into Mike’s side at her erratic gestures, but dutifully gets up with the rest of them and follows her out of the gym.

Dustin helpfully points her toward the administrative office. She drags the phone over the lip of the front desk to get at the keys, punching them in by rote and listening to it ring and ring.

“Pick up, Jonathan,” she hisses furiously. If they all make it out of here, his brother is going to be grounded for eternity.

“What are they doing?” Lucas asks quiet enough not to disturb his Mom’s threatening over the answering machine.

“They were going to lure the Demogorgon with blood,” Will answers, just as quietly.

“Why would he be at your house then?” Dustin asks, in that know-it-all voice that makes bullies try to beat him up between one class and the other. “If they’re trying to help Steve, they’ll be at—”

“Steve’s house,” El says, frowning.

Will wants to shake her until what he wants to know falls loose. But there’s something fragile about her, like if someone raised their hand, she’d wilt like a dandelion in the summer sun.

His Mom turns around, still clutching the base of the phone to her chest. She looks manic, like when she’s worked a double at Melvald’s and drank a whole pot of coffee. “Do any of you know Steve Harrington’s phone number?”

Lucas elbows Mike in the ribs. “He’s your sister’s boyfriend. Isn’t he calling your house all the time?”

“He is not her boyfriend!” Mike replies hotly. “And I don’t know it!”

Privately, Will thinks Mike’s probably right. Steve didn’t mention Nancy once in all the time Will was with him. That doesn’t seem like boyfriend and girlfriend behavior.

His Mom is wilting in front of them. She sets the phone down with a clatter that makes El jump.

“We should go to his house,” Mike says. “We can’t just leave Nancy to do something stupid.”

“She’s fine, she’s with Jonathan,” Dustin says with a careless shrug, as if Jonathan is an action hero, and not some teenager with a baseball bat. Just like Steve. “Besides, she’s kind of a badass now.”

Mike opens his mouth, ready to retort when his Mom cuts over the conversation, voice raised. “No one is going anywhere!” she says. “None of you are leaving my line of sight until I hand you personally to each of your parents.” She doesn’t seem to notice the way El stoops her head and curls her fists. “I am not losing another kid tonight!”

She sits down in a chair in one of the chairs kids sit in to wait for the Principal to be free to doll out punishments, crosses her arms, and glares up at them until they all comply.

Will notices that El sits as far away from his Mom as possible. No one says anything else for a long time.

Part 31

[feasibilities]

Professional Perversions- Dr. Jonathan Crane x Psychiatrist!Reader ♟️

Warnings: Blackmail, Non-Con, Workplace Harassment, Degradation, Stalking, Dacryphilia, Oral Sex (F), Slapping, Overstimulation, etc. Author's Note: Jonathan is a villain so I wrote him as such. Read at your own risk!

Working at Arkham Asylum for the last 5 years meant that you worked with the criminally insane daily. You were a listening ear to the sadistic fantasies or childhood trauma of your patients. You also prescribed medication that they never bothered to take. More often than not, your patients were repeat offenders who were discharged far too early. You couldn’t understand why this kept happening and recommended institutionalizing them for longer periods. Your complaints fell on deaf, unsympathetic ears. Such is the nature of working for the state. You were at the mercy of bureaucracy. 

Your supervisor, Dr. Jonathan Crane, seemed to enjoy compounding the stress of your job. He was Chief Administrator of the asylum, so there was no way to bypass his antagonistic behavior. He would often assign you with assessing difficult, violent patients. Your medical notes on these assessments came back with harsh criticisms in red ink. He would never answer calls or emails from you, so you’d have to chase him down while he was doing his daily walkthrough. During weekly meetings, he would chastise you in front of your colleagues. It was the little things as well. He’d let the elevator doors close on you or reject your attempts to make small talk. Your days ended later than everyone else’s—and with you sobbing in your car. 

— 

Please come to my office as soon as possible. We have some important matters to discuss. 

Dr. Jonathan Crane 

Chief Administrator of Arkham Asylum 

555-9240

Dread pooled in your stomach as you read the email. What could you have done? Naturally, you assumed the worst—you were about to be fired. Being terminated from a government job would mean you couldn’t get hired anywhere else in Gotham. Jonathan obviously wouldn’t put in a good word for a prospective position. Wanting to get this over with quickly, you made your way to his office. Knocking politely, he answered you from behind the door with the gold-plated sign that read ‘Chief Administrator’.

“Come in.” He said plainly. 

You came in and looked around briefly. His office was luxurious compared to yours. His Ph.D degree hung on the wall above a mahogany shelf of awards and plaques. The chairs were plush and made of leather. The whiteboard was filled with equations that made no sense to you, adding to your feelings of inadequacy. 

“If you’re done gawking at my accomplishments, please take a seat.” Jonathan criticized. You quickly sat down and sighed in annoyance.  

“As you know, I have had some concerns about your competency regarding this job. Your patients haven’t shown any progress. They also continue to report suicidal or homicidal tendencies.” Jonathan admonished you, waiting for a response. 

“My competency is not the issue, but rather the competency of my superiors. Patients can’t progress if you discharge them prematurely. These people need help reintegrating into society. You cannot just throw them out onto the street.” You retorted, growing frustrated already. 

Jonathan’s eyes focused on you intently. You saw a faint smirk flash across his face before retreating back into the same sterile expression. 

“I follow the orders of my superiors. You can submit a complaint if you are dissatisfied with our procedures.” Jonathan countered. 

“As do I. I’ve submitted several complaints and nothing has come of them. You find the time to punish me for the smallest mistakes, but you couldn’t find the time to consider my input? Your competence, or lack thereof, is the reason why this hospital has the highest recidivism rate in the city.” You argued. 

Jonathan swallowed harshly and clenched his jaw. His stark blue eyes were filled with hatred. For you, this was payback for all the times he lambasted you. It was humorous that someone who was so critical of others couldn’t handle it when the shoe was on the other foot. You also had no problem filing a lawsuit for wrongful termination as you had a paper trail on him. You feared him no longer. 

Removing his wireframe glasses, he walked to the front of the desk and stood over you. Uncomfortably close, he stared down at you.

“Fear is such a fascinating feeling, isn’t it? You know that better than anyone.” He teased.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” You spat, growing tired of his odd behavior. 

“Every mental health professional that works here is required to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. You were asked what your biggest fear was—are you afraid of being stalked?” Jonathan explained, leaning in even closer. 

Sick to your stomach, you turned away from him and tears brimmed your eyes. He grabbed your chin and forced your gaze towards him. 

“Isn’t it so sick that someone knows your morning and nightly routine? Your favorite perfume? The kind of panties you’re wearing right now?” Jonathan remarked, getting off on your distress. 

You could’ve died of humiliation as you stared up at him. You finally understood why he treated you so poorly—it was a front to hide his obsession with you. During those contentious moments, he wasn’t thinking of how “incompetent” you were. Obscene images of you bent over his desk or you touching yourself in the shower were there. To his benefit, he caught you in the shower one night when you left the shades open. You realized why you found a soiled handkerchief in the bushes the next morning. 

“Why me? What could I possibly do for you?” You croaked, trying not to provoke him. 

“Everything I could ever want.” Jonathan divulged, brushing his thumb against your lips and smudging your lipstick. 

You started thinking of your escape plan. Maybe kick him in the balls and run? Stab him with one of his expensive pens? Before you could take action, he bent down and kissed you deeply. You tried to pull him away, but to no avail. His plump lips caused that familiar twinge in your lower stomach. He ran his large hands up your stocking-covered legs before stopping at your garter belts. He kneaded the exposed flesh there, earning an unintended whimper from you. This emboldened him as he moved his lips to your neck. 

“T-this isn’t right.” You sputtered as you tried to ignore the moisture between your legs. 

“You want this. You always have.” He whispered, moving his hand up further. Your body’s response to his actions made you question your sanity. Jonathan suddenly pulled you up from the chair and laid you on his desk. He undid your garter belts with an almost surgical precision. Hiking up your dress, he stared at the black lacy panties that adorned your cunt. He pulled the material aside and studied the glistening of your arousal. You had the perfect opportunity to claw his eyes out and bolt out of the office. However, you sat there wanting him to finish what he started. 

Jonathan ran his nose down your thigh as he took in your scent. Sliding the lacy material aside once more, he began flicking his tongue against your sensitive floret. Not being able to look away, you took in the visual of your despicable supervisor going down on you. His gaze was no longer sterile—it took on a marked concupiscence. Suddenly, you felt him press his face into you. He sucked harshly, causing you to moan loudly. He buried his nose in the trimmed tuft of your pubic hair. 

“Stop it.” You pled, knowing you wanted the opposite. 

Disregarding your objections, he slipped two fingers inside of you and curled them upwards. Pumping his fingers steadily, another low groan came from him as he reveled in the sapidity of your juices. You yanked at his hair to stop him before you came. You were much too late. You let out an untamed moan as Jonathan watched you fall apart. Your vision went white as your orgasm sent shockwaves through your body. He lazily lapped at your clit as you came down from your high. Removing his fingers, he put them in your mouth. You mindlessly suckled on them. 

“The human mind is so malleable, isn’t it?” Jonathan said. Your humiliation ran deep at his words. You were like putty in his hands and you resented it. He began removing your dress while you looked away from him. Tears started to fall from your eyes as you knew what was to come. Jonathan groped your breasts through your bra and placed your hand on his clothed crotch. His erection was beginning to hurt as he had it since you walked in his office. You felt him throb in your palm. 

“You look so beautiful when you cry. All those times you spent sobbing in your car really did something to me…” Jonathan divulged, undoing your bra and taking in the sight. 

“You don’t have to do this. Just fire me, please.” You agonized. 

“Shhh.” Jonathan hushed you. 

“Don’t hush me. I’m not a child.” You complained. 

Jonathan took a ball gag from his pocket and put it on you. Laying you back on the desk, Jonathan yanked your hips towards him until you were flush against his. Unbuckling his pants, he pulled himself out and sighed in relief. Pre-ejaculate oozed from the tip and he was red hot to the touch. You were astonished at his size. You blinked away tears thinking of the pain you were about to experience. You tried to scoot away before he snatched you back. Growing tired of your insolence, he slapped you roughly. 

“Behave.” Jonathan warned. A searing burn was left on your cheek. Sliding into you, he started thrusting with bestial force. Your breasts moved with each thrust as Jonathan lost himself in your pink depths. Wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible, you decided to play his game. You started rubbing your clit fervently and trying to moan his name through the gag. Noticing your reaction, Jonathan pinched your nipple harshly and deepened his thrusts. You mewled at the sensation. 

“This is all you wanted, didn’t you? A good screwing?” Jonathan hissed, watching white slick cover his shaft. You nodded and breathed heavily as you came once more. Skin hitting skin, the squelch of your arousal, and your desperate whimpers were like music to his ears. As much as you hated him, you couldn’t deny how gorgeous a fucked-out Jonathan looked. His face was twisted in pleasure, eyes fluttering closed occasionally. His taut lips pursed intermittently to hold back moans. 

His thrusts started to stagger as he approached his climax. Pulling out, ropes of seed shot onto your torso. An audible groan of pleasure finally left his throat. He made sure to smear droplets of it against your entrance. You recoiled at the thought of getting pregnant by him. He would have you forever. 

“Let’s savor this moment, shall we?” Jonathan smiled, pulling out his phone. Tears welled up in your eyes as he snapped pictures of your body. Holding your throat tenderly, he took one last photo of your face. Those pictures would be kept for his personal collection—and for blackmail if you ever decided to quit. You painstakingly got dressed and bit your lip to hold back sobs. A silent exchange of glances happened between you and Jonathan before you walked out of his office. 

[fuckmycrane]

Testing — Dr. Jonathan Crane.

— CW: 18+, smut, noncon! (DNI if uncomfortable 😴), fisting, slight spit kink, Crane using medical language? Rubber gloves! | word count: 2k!

— a/n: I don't know how to tag! This came to me before bed the other day. SUPER GRATEFUL AND FOREVER IN LOVE WITH @pictureinme for beta-reading this! I love you so much pookie 💌.

A shiver runs down your spine as Dr. Crane's camera on the tripod flashes red— an ominous light that warns your humiliation is being recorded.

Your legs are stretched out wide on the cold metal table, chained to the bars on each side, strains reserved for patients in the consulting room who refuse to be sedated. Reserved to those who will involve to be a problem to Dr. Crane, your boss. Hands above your head, your fingers curl around the wire he used to tie your wrists together. Too tight, it felt like a punishment. The blood circulation was slow, causing them to feel numb.

He had to improvise, the sedative he administrated in your morning coffee was a mild dose, enough to keep you knocked out for at least 40 minutes— enough for him to drag you to his private laboratory, undress you, and tie you up. 

Reaching inside the pocket of his pristine lab coat, Crane brings the voice recorder to his mouth, clicking the thick button and twitching in excitement at the mute sound of the tapes rolling inside the device.

“October 14th, 2001,” He speaks, looking at you from behind his thin glasses. “Test subject is awake now, they appear to be responding normally. I will be monitoring them for the next few hours to ensure continued stability. Will report any significant changes in behavior immediately.” 

Clicking the button again, Crane returns the recorder inside his pocket, approaching you with cautious steps— similar to a predator looming over its helpless, little prey; even his eyes hold that harpy gaze. Cold and relentless, your body shivers in fear. The same fear he thrives on, the same fear that makes his blood circulate and sends an excited beat to his heart. 

Your mouth opens but before a sound comes out he raises her hand in a shutting motion, to which you surprisingly obey in response. “Don’t even try,” he warns you, reaching for a tiny box on the tall desk next to your bed. “This experiment is happening either way.” 

Sliding the blue rubber glove over his right hand, Jonathan stretches it, letting it snap with a loud sound. His eyes never leave your face which is a remarkable show of professionalism, taking into consideration your lack of clothes, and the awkward, obscene position. Standing next to you, his index finger traces from your knee to your hip, relishing the way your body squirms uncomfortably. Grasping the recorder once more, he turns it on before leaving it next to the box where he retrieved the gloves from, returning his attention to you.

“Subject internally rejects light physical stimuli,” He repeats the action, going from knee to thigh over and over, the rubber sliding smoothly from the cold sweat of fear that grants your body a soft glow. “Their body appears to be affected by the fear and anxiety. Mild sweating, constant twitching.”

Crane’s finger ventures to the inside of your thigh, raising goosebumps on your skin. An eternity passes until he finally comes in contact with your mound, pressing it softly with his fingerpad. The uneasy pressure makes you choke a sob, a sob that isn’t acknowledged by the doctor. Lower, he begins to circle your clit in slow, methodical circles. The sensation makes your legs tense, instinctively try to close them but are not allowed to do so, thanks to the restraints. Crane watches you with an unamused expression, noticing how lost you are in distress to notice how his leg twitches slightly at the sight of such a pretty face denying the pleasure. The pressure over your clit increases but the pace stays the same, giving you a similar feeling of breathlessness and dizziness. He knows what he is doing, how couldn’t he? Such a brilliant mind, such skilled fingers… he knows.

Closing your eyes shut, your brain shortcuts for seconds, trying to reject the pleasure that Jonathan’s ministrations provide— you shouldn’t, succumbing isn’t an option. Tears silently trickle down your flushed cheeks, embarrassed by your own natural body response. The slick is slowly but surely building up in between your legs, and it’s just a matter of time for Crane to notice it. You wish you could scream, curse him, damn him, and send his soul to hell— but it’s difficult to even breathe. The confusing mix of fear and innate pleasure clouds your common sense.

“Patient is responding correctly to clitoral stimulation,” His deep voice snatches you from your internal battle, snapping your eyes open and finding those same blue eyes that you grew accustomed to, watching you as if you were a mere lab rat. “But, they appear to be having a moral conflict.” 

Perhaps you are. 

When he stops his circling over your clit, a sigh of relief escapes from your lips, but you are disgusted by the sting of disappointment that your body sends you; The ease doesn’t last long, as his finger slides between your folds, gathering the slick and bringing back to your clit briefly. 

He inserts a finger, unhurriedly. He has all the time in the world— it is not like you are leaving anyway. Jonathan breaks the eye contact and focuses on opening you up carefully; It’s easy to read he is not doing it because he is scared of hurting you, it is because causing you pain in this state will lower his experiments. The pace of his digit mimics the one he created before, methodical. Everything about him appears premeditated. Curling his index finger, it takes him around eight seconds to locate your G-spot, rubbing it with expertise and ease; “It appears to be a considerable amount of lubrication,” He continues speaking to the recorder, speeding up his movements slightly. “Corporeal response is positive, the experiment is going as planned”

Planned. That word strikes a cord inside your hazy mind. So he already intended to do this.

A second finger joins, spreading you, but not in a painful way. In fact, the remorse falters, as the pleasure begins to build, strong and hopeless to avoid. Repeating the same curling motion, Jonathan’s hand twitches when he hears the first moan of the evening. It’s weak, but something like that will never go unnoticed. 

“Patient is showing vocal responses after two fingers, vaginal stimulation is going as expected.” 

A wave of heat starts to crumble the last bits of your will, he knows what he is doing— the bastard fucking knows. A new set of tears swell up in your eyes, falling without you doing much to stop them. A meek sob that breaks into a choked moan catches the doctor’s attention, his rosy lips curling into a wicked smile. This is probably the first time you had ever seen Crane smile. Your cunt and his fingers work together to create an obscene wet sound, smearing it all over your labia and printing it with fire and fear in your mind.

A third finger prods outside your aching hole, threatening; When it joins the party, that same stretch comes back— once again not uncomfortable.

“Three fingers have been inserted now,” Crane says, his voice faltering at the end of the sentence. “The patient shows no signs of pain nor discomfort”

Faster, his fingers are going faster now. Three fingers plugging in and out of you without any hint of mercy or consideration. You dare to bend your neck, a sick need to watch his hand invading you, only to find his hand soaked. Involuntary, your cunt clench around his fingers, something that also was noticed.

Expecting him to talk again to the voice recorder, only to encounter a quicker pace, your back arches, the cold laboratory bed suddenly too cold for the boiling temperature of your body. A cloud of guilty pleasure numbs your brain— unable to register the fourth finger peeking at your pussy.

The intrusion hurts, the current lubrication not enough to save the painful stretch. Jonathan notices this, an expert in reading body language; “In response to the fourth finger, the patient has experienced slight pain. After a quick thought, I have come to the conclusion that the rubber gloves inhibit the vagina lubrication to be sufficient.” 

Removing your fingers from your cunt, you watch with half-lidded eyes how he practically rips the glove off his hand, almost frustrated. Returning his now bare fingers to your poor hole, a mewl escapes your lips when he returns three fingers, humming at the clear difference of sensations.

His fingers, his skin is a whole different sensation than the damn rubber. His pinky finger sneaks in again, but your pussy clenches, making the intrusion painful again. Crane huffs in annoyance, bending over and hovering over your crotch, gathering saliva in his mouth and spitting right in your pussy. The action, which perhaps holds strictly experimental intentions, is so perverted it makes your stomach flutter— erotic, that was erotic.

You find Dr. Crane spitting on your pussy erotic.

“Fucking finally,” he whispers.

In no time, and thanks to the skin-to-skin contact, the penetration is easier, for him at least. Four fingers slide in and out effortlessly, as your legs begin to shake, and the tight knot in your lower region threatens to snap.

“You are not allowed to come,'' his stern voice is like a fork scraping against a porcelain plate— dominant and authoritarian. “Hold it, or there will be consequences.”

The promise of a punishment for disobeying is even scarier than the possible consequences, causing you to nod and succumb to his wishes— although you don’t have much choice.

His other hand, which had been fidgeting around ever since his touch over your skin started, approaches your clit dangerously, pressing his thumb on the swollen nub, reminiscing of the circles he did an hour prior, this time tighter— faster.

His actions are lewd, definitely illegal— your noises are lewd, definitely unwilling. Your body thrashes over the metal, yanking the restraints with little success to lose them. The rational instinct screams at you to move, fight— but the overwhelming sensations act like a drug. His fingers curl in an odd position, and before you can react, his thumb slides in.

Fitting his whole hand inside your poor, stretched, wet hole. 

He moves his hand slowly, testing the waters. This is the crucial part of the experiment, one false move and everything will be extremely painful to you.

Torturing your clit, Jonathan uses the lubrication and his saliva to move his hand, keeping his fingers straight and still— ignoring the uncomfortable erection straining against his slacks. 

“The experiment has been a success. The patient has been able to fit my hand inside them. There are no signs of pain, discomfort, or physical rejection—” His voice shakes slightly, as if he was fighting to keep composure the same way you fought the pleasure that his unwanted touch gave you.

That's when the real thing begins.

Crane’s hand curls into a fist, making you moan louder. How can something so twisted feel so good? Lowering your watery gaze, the borderline pornographic view of being fucked by your boss’ fist sends you to a frenzied state. He keeps forcing his fist inside you, uncurling his finger lightly every now and then just to add a new sensation. 

“Good…” He pants, biting his lower lip. “Come. You can come now.”

And you do. Oh, you do. 

His hand assaults your pussy, stretching it beyond limits and giving you the most mind–blowing, earth–shattering, painful orgasm you had ever experienced in your life. Your clit burns from the rough treatment, and something whispers in the back of your drowning mind, that even if you manage to see the light of another day if Crane decided to let you go; you will never find something as pleasurable as what he just did.

To you. To your body. To your mind.

The realization, the crude reality— breaks the thin veil of lust. Crying, sobbing, screaming— the voice you seemed to have lost while he experimented with you finally came back. 

Jonathan wipes his wet hand with his lab coat, reaching for the recorder. His black shoes click on the white tiles of the consultation room as he approaches the camera, clicking the «play» button off, the red light winking at you before disappearing.

Until next time. 

Dr. Crane licks his lips, his cold blue eyes glistening with morbid excitement. His hand trembles when he brings the recorder to his lips, piercing your soul with those orbs just like he pierced your body and dignity with his fist.

“The experiment was a success.”

[deadpresidents]

Is it true that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have an uneasy relationship?

I'm sure everything has mellowed over the years since Clinton left office, but they absolutely had a frosty relationship. They had issues dating back to when Clinton was Governor of Arkansas and Carter was still the incumbent President and they seemed to pick up where they left off once Clinton was in the White House.

In fact, there was tension between Carter and his four immediate successors (Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43). While most former Presidents of the post-World War II era have largely avoided criticizing the incumbent Presidents, Carter was often very candid about certain policy or political issues after leaving office. Carter's work around the globe with the Carter Center was also sometimes seen as influencing or interfering with White House initiatives or events for several different Administrations.

As Jonathan Alter wrote in his excellent 2020 biography of Carter, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO):

Carter traveled to more than 140 countries after leaving office -- returning to several of them more than a dozen times -- and he said he always kept the State Department apprised of his trips. But the notifications were often pro forma, as if he merely had to check a box before going off on his own. It was no secret that Carter was not a member in good standing of the ex-Presidents' club, in part because he never accepted their code. The unwritten rules aren't complicated: former Presidents are expected to build their libraries and at least try to hold their tongues about the incumbent, not complain -- as Carter often did -- that the policy is wrong or they are underused by the President. No one sitting in the Oval Office likes the idea of a freelance Secretary of State. At the same time, five of the six Presidents who succeeded Carter (all except Reagan) recognized the usefulness of his vast knowledge and high-level contacts. The challenge for them was managing their high-maintenance predecessor. When Carter was President, he took care to cultivate relationships with his living predecessors -- Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford -- and he welcomed their support on China, the Panama Canal, and other issues. After leaving office, he got along exceptionally well with Ford, who joined him on several post-Presidential projects. Ford and Carter promised that each would deliver the eulogy if the other died first. Ford did, and Carter remembered him warmly at his funeral in 2006. George H.W. Bush believed the Ford-Carter bond "set a wonderful example of cooperation and friendship" between old rivals. Carter's successors were a different matter. He said he had "okay relations" with the Bushes -- especially George H.W. Bush -- and Donald Trump in his first two years. It was the Democratic Presidents, Clinton and Obama, whom he found "cooler and more aloof." No one who watched their interactions over the years would be left to wonder why.

Regarding that relationship between Carter and Clinton, Alter also wrote:

During the 1992 Presidential campaign, the tensions between Carter and Bill Clinton of a dozen years earlier resurfaced. "People are looking for somebody who is honest and tells the truth," Carter said in a remark that took on added meaning because it came amid the first national stories of Governor Clinton lying about sex. Clinton, for his part, worried that Carter's failures as President would rub off on another southern governor and hurt his chances. After the election, Clinton wouldn't take Carter's calls. He finally handed him off to Warren Christopher, his transition director and choice for Secretary of State. "Chris" quickly grew tired of Carter, too, and fobbed him off on his undersecretary, Peter Tarnoff. Carter felt snubbed. Clinton's basic problem with Carter was that he too often crossed the line from expressing his views on a subject to saying the President "should" do something. Carter admitted later that while he didn't intend to be personally critical, "I may not always have succeeded.".... ....As Carter moved around the world, the Clinton White House had no confidence that he would limit himself to his assigned mission without making concessions that the President never approved. The White House knew that Carter understood that recalling a former chief executive like some errant ambassador was difficult if not impossible, which meant that he could hog glory and operate outside the President's control. This happened twice in 1994 [in North Korea and Haiti], a year that was simultaneously the peak of Carter's success as a peacemaker and the nadir of his forty-year relationship with Clinton.

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

Signers include:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan,Betty McCollum, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, James McGovern, Mary Gay Scanlon, Raúl Grijalva, Pramila Jayapal, Joaquin Castro, Delia Ramirez, Henry Johnson, Greg Casar, Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Nydia Velázquez, Ayanna Pressley, Jonathan Jackson, Barbara Lee, André Carson, Jamaal Bowman, Summer Lee, Veronica Escobar, and Ilhan Omar.

If any of these are your Congresspeople, call to thank them!

If your Congressperson isn't listed here, call to say you want them to support a ceasefire.

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

[sidekick-hero]

(steddie | gen | 1.2k | tags: feelings realization (not his own), Kas!Eddie (flashback), smoking weed together, boys in love | @steddielovemonth prompt: Love is what makes you brave | AO3)

Eddie never claimed to be smart. It was not for nothing that it took him three tries and a very lenient high school administration - thanks to Hawkins' very own apocalypse - to graduate from high school.

It's not that he's dumb. It's more that he has what his uncle calls a scatterbrain. It's hard for him to focus on anything outside of the things he's really passionate about, like DnD or metal or fantasy. So it's not really surprising that he realizes that Steve is in love with him weeks after he's fallen for the boy himself.

And oh boy, did he fall for Steve Harrington. Hook, line and sinker.

It's new and exciting and scary. It takes up all the space in his head, and just as he read Lord of the Rings so many times that he can recite Aragorn's battle speech at the Black Gate, Eddie now spends all his time and energy learning everything there is to know about Steve Harrington.

He begins to pay attention to what people say about Steve and even more to what's said between the lines. He learns a lot by finally listening to all the times Dustin talks about Steve, which is often, singing his praises in his own, unique Dustin way.

Eddie focuses on what he can learn about Steve from the stories the others tell about a time when Eddie wasn't part of this weird little group of misfits and heroes, and collects all the clues like he's Sherlock fucking Holmes and Steve is his Moriarty.

Like how Robin and Steve have all these jokes from their Scoops days, even though they only really became friends later, during their run-in with the Russians. Yet Steve was willing to bait them into beating him instead of Robin, sacrificing himself so she could be spared before they ever established their platonic soul mateship.

It fits with the story Jonathan told him once, when they were smoking pot with Argyle, about Steve running back into a house with an honest-to-God monster in it to help Nancy and him fight it. And that was after Steve had come to Jonathan to apologize for their fight, even though he had reason to suspect that his girlfriend was cheating on him with Jonathan.

It's like puzzle pieces clicking together in Eddie's head.

At first, they don't fit with the things Steve tells him while they're out by the pool, sharing a joint and just talking. Steve goes on about all the times he was a coward, how he never stood up to his father or the bullies at school, even when he thought they were going too far.

But the things he says start to make sense to Eddie when Steve starts talking about how he only ditched Tommy and his other asshole friends because of Nancy. Because she made him realize how shitty he had become for fear of falling out of line and losing his status and his so-called friends.

Steve would never say he was brave.

But Eddie knows the truth.

Eddie knows that Steve is brave for the people he loves.

Love makes Steve brave.

And Steve loves fast and hard.

Once those two things become a certainty in Eddie's mind, other things fall into place.

Vecna sent him back to his friends as a spy, but they saw right through him, so he attacked them. He was faster and stronger now, thanks to whatever spell he was under, and he was vicious. They weren't his friends, they were the enemy. If he didn't kill them, they would kill him.

It makes him remember something he mostly tries to forget because it still hurts. It still fills him with shame and guilt. But now he thinks back to those weeks when he was under Vecna's control, a puppet dancing to his master's will.

Vecna had saved Eddie's body from dying when Dustin and the others thought he was already dead, but it came at a price.

Steve, the self-sacrificing idiot, managed to trap himself and Eddie in a room away from the others, his trusty nail bat at the ready. They faced each other, both ready to attack, to fight until one or both were dead.

And then Steve dropped the goddamn bat.

"I'm not going to fight you, Eddie. This isn't you. This isn't the guy who gave the outcasts and the nerds and the geeks a safe haven in the middle of the hell that is high school for them. This isn't the guy who decided to fight for a town that abandoned him and hunted him because he was different."

Steve took a step closer, so close that Eddie could see the flecks of green and gold in his hazel eyes.

"This isn't the guy who gave his life to save Dustin and buy us more time."

Warm hands closed around his own, clenched into fists and ready to strike, and cradled them gently.

"You saved us, Eddie. Because you are good. Because no matter how cruel the world was to you, you never stopped being kind." Another step towards the monster with his friend's face, but Steve never faltered, never hesitated.

"Please come back to us. Dustin needs you. Mike and Lucas need you."

Steve's arms wrapped around him, pulling him into their warm embrace, holding him tight as Steve said directly into his ear, "We need you, Eddie."

It hit Eddie right then and there, lying on the grass in Steve's yard with the pungent smell of the finished joint still in the air and the warmth of Steve's body seeping into his own where they touched from head to toe.

He never thought about it before because it couldn't have been. Steve had only known him a few days before the bats got him. And besides, he had been mooning over Nancy at the time, hadn't he?

But Steve risked his own life to get Eddie back. He could have killed Eddie, probably should have. Instead, Steve bravely stood his ground and reminded Eddie of his own humanity. Of all the love in his life and in his heart.

Steve falls hard and fast.

Love makes Steve brave.

Steve had only known Eddie, really known him outside of high school gossip, for a few days, but he risked his life to save Eddie.

Clumsy with the lingering effects of the weed in his body, Eddie turns his head to look at Steve, who's still staring up at the starry night sky. He takes in his profile, the sharp jaw line, the strong nose, the full lower lip. Steve is beautiful. He's good and kind and bitchy and secretly a giant dork. And he...

"You love me."

Eddie doesn't mean to just blurt it out, a thought that only formed a few minutes ago, but he's never been known for his brain to mouth filter and holy shit, Steve Harrington loves him.

Startled, Steve tears his eyes away from the stars to look at Eddie instead, his lovely hazel eyes wide as they search and hold Eddie's.

"I know," he finally says, leaning in even closer as if they were sharing a secret. "What gave it away?"

Instead of answering right away, Eddie bridges the infinitesimal gap between them and kisses Steve.

"I make you brave." At Steve's questioning look, Eddie adds, "Don't worry, you make me brave, too."

Before Steve can ask any more questions that Eddie's weed-addled brain couldn't answer anyway, he captures Steve's lips in another kiss before bravely rolling on top of him and showing him just how much Eddie loves him, too.

[steveyockey]

While visiting the Majdanek concentration camp I, at that time a still fervent Zionist, had a strange revelation which I still cannot explain. While standing in the gas chamber—the walls covered in scratch marks and the hauntingly soft blue stains left behind by so many administrations of Zyklon B—it occurred to me: there was nothing ontologically evil about the perpetrators, nothing ontologically righteous or defeated about the victims; their fates were contingent on history. If this, even this, was contingent, then there must be something about the structure of the world that made it so.

When the Zone of Interest cuts to the Auschwitz of the present day, this memory rushed to the surface. That scene—long and wordless—seems to suggest that our contemporary atrocities will one day receive a similar memorialization, that such memorialization always sanitizes atrocity by placing it firmly in the past, even as we continue to live in a present it created; that we are, in turn, already sanitizing our own atrocities in the present. Even that, most chillingly, the Polish workers, like the Polish servants at the Auschwitz homestead, will continue to polish and clean Höss’s trophies. Höss and the Nazis may have lost the war, but present events make clear that their ideology lives on, polished up.

As the film ends with a cut to black, Mica Levi’s score fills the void: an ostinato of screams and trudging strings. The screams continue to pitch up, more voices added, a cacophony of screaming, and still the trudging line: history continues as one single catastrophe.

Walter Benjamin wrote that "Marx says that revolutions are the locomotive of world history. But perhaps it is quite otherwise. Perhaps revolutions are an attempt by the passengers on this train – namely, the human race – to pull the emergency brake.” The train: a resonance he could not yet have known. Unlike other concentration camps, the Nazis did not have time to destroy Majdanek prior to their retreat from the rapidly advancing Soviet forces. The bulk of the camp is not only intact, but theoretically still operational. The brake has not been pulled. Can you smell it? We’re in the zone of interest. We never left.

[lexirosewrites]

this initial slick sunday thought is about elementary school librarian A!Eddie & his big giant workplace crush on 1st grade teacher O!Steve

A!Eddie always loved the libraries of his life. school libraries were a haven and a safe space for freaky kids like him. librarians never sneered at him as long as he was quiet, respected the books, followed the other rules of the library, and always returned his books on time. when summer rolled in w the Indiana heat the Hawkins Public Library was air conditioned while the trailer wasn't, there was a free guitar class every week in the summer, the summer fun reading event always kept him busy when he wasn't running around Hawkins' woods with his friends, the book sales always were cheap at the public library, and the librarian at Hawkins Elementary had a small fund for students who needed a dollar or 2 more at the annual scholastic book fair so everyone was able to get something from the fair. when he decided to drop out & get his GED after his 2nd try at senior year the local library helped him get the books he needed to study & when he passed the GED test the workers all encouraged & helped him to apply to library science programs around the country. when it came time for him to get specific with his library science degree he thought about the librarian of Hawkins Elementary who was sweet & made reading fun & always made sure he got to take something home from the book fair & didn't tolerate bullies

so when he graduates he returns to Hawkins after the elementary librarian Mrs Clarke calls him to inform him she's retiring & she'd personally recommend him for her job if he was interested in taking it. eddie begins his work as the new Hawkins Elementary librarian before school gets back into session. he decorates the library for back to school as well as more permanent fixtures for the year i.e. 2 dragons made out of many pages from books beyond saving are guarding the doors while a Cerberus made out of clay one can find at a craft store guards the check out counter computer. he puts up new posters about library rules & posters about reading. he stocks one of the drawers of the checkout counter with fun erasers & bookmarks for whenever a kid checks out a book for the first time or returns a book on time 5 times in a row, if they return books on time 20 times in a row he has a secret basket of goodies (small candies, more fun erasers, tiny plastic dinosaurs, tiny skateboards & cars, spinning tops, & kaleidoscopes) tht he'll bring out of his office & the kid will get to choose 3 different things from it. he makes plans about how to decorate the library for halloween & the winter holidays & even valentines day.

the monday before the first day of school the administration sends out an email inviting everyone on the elementary school campus to the cafeteria around one for a pizza party as a final hurrah before it's time to rlly dig their heels as a staff into the process of getting the hallways & their classrooms school year ready. eddie gets to see tht the old guard of teachers he'd been expecting weren't around anymore at least not in the numbers he remembered, the principal had retired when he was a junior in high school so that didn't surprise him but it was disoriented to see only 3 faces tht he could recognize as teachers from when he was in elementary school. these 3 teachers groan playfully at him abt truly being old now tht there r officially 4 new staff members who were their former students. he gets to meet these other former students, A!Chrissy is now the music teacher & Eddie recognizes her from his second failed senior year as the next in line to become cheer captain, O!Robin he recognizes as well from the various band kid parties he'd sold at once or twice & she's one of the 5th grade teachers, he's surprised when the two tell him they're newlyweds who got back from their honeymoon in time for school, O!Jonathan he'd sold weed to directly & he's now the kindergarten teacher, A!Nancy is one of his mates & she works for the Hawkins Gazette while the 3rd of their little throuple B!Argyle is the owner of the pizza shop tht gladly made the pizza party happen at a discount. he chatting idly with ppl & everyone is very excited to meet their new librarian. then, he meets a gorgeous omega who arrived to the pizza party late. it isn't someone he recognizes from school, the omega is just slightly taller than him, has big sparkling hazel eyes, beauty marks like constellations, & a pair of pouty pink lips. to top it all off he smells like sunshine in the summer & apple juice. sweet & warm & comforting. he introduces himself as Steve Harrington, one of the 1st grade teachers.

idk what else happens, except it's all very cute & PG while on school grounds. but once Eddie gets up the nerve to ask to court Steve & he brings Steve back to his trailer after a successful fourth date............ eddie learns tht Steve's pussy tastes like apples too

you can’t do this to me when i just accepted a teaching job and have already convinced myself that i’ll manage to find a way to steddify this experience too!!!😩

i need librarian eddie and first grade teacher steve to be soft and sweet with each other and then i need steve to be bred full of his pups