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yr-obedt-cicero · 2 years

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A recording of Hamilton's days following the duel

July 8th, 1804

Sunday morning, Hamilton walked with Eliza “over all the pleasant scenes” of the Grange estate, and returned home at noon. He read the morning service of the Episcopal church. The hours until evening were spent “in kind companionship” with his family. And at the end of the day, Hamilton gathered his children around him under a near tree, he laid with them upon the grass until it turned dark. [x] According to Alexander Hamilton Jr. in an interview; “Col. Smith, son in-law of John Adams, had dined with us, and the result of a conversation on the subject was a tacit agreement on my father's part not to fight.” [x]

July 9th, 1804

Monday morning, Hamilton left Eliza at the Grange and rode down to lower Manhattan, to his town house at 54 Cedar Street with his four eldest sons. After taking care of his urgent clients and affairs, he drafted his will.

Source — Library of Congress, Digital Collections. Alexander Hamilton Papers: Miscellany, 1711-1820; Hamilton, Alexander; Last will and testament

In the Name of God Amen! I Alexander Hamilton of the City of New York Counsellor at Law do make this my last Will and Testament as follows. First I appoint John B Church Nicholas Fish and Nathaniel Pendleton of the City aforesaid Esquires to be Executors and Trustees of this my Will and I devise to them their heirs and Assigns, as joint Tenants and not as Tenants in common, All my Estate real and personal whatsoever and wheresoever upon Trust at their discretion to sell and dispose of the same, at such time and times in such manner and upon such terms as they the Survivors and Survivor shall think fit and out of the proceeds to pay all the Debts which I shall owe at the time of my decease, in whole, if the fund shall be sufficient, proportionally, if it shall be insufficient, and the residue, if any there shall be to pay and deliver to my excellent and dear Wife Elizabeth Hamilton.

Though if it shall please God to spare my life I may look for a considerable surplus out of my present property—Yet if he should speedily call me to the eternal wor[l]d, a forced sale as is usual may possibly render it insufficient to satisfy my Debts. I pray God that something may remain for the maintenance and education of my dear Wife and Children. But should it on the contrary happen that there is not enough for the payment of my Debts, I entreat my Dear Children, if they or any of them shall ever be able, to make up the Deficiency. I without hesitation commit to their delicacy a wish which is dictated by my own. Though conscious that I have too far sacrificed the interests of my family to public avocations & on this account have the less claim to burthen my Children, yet I trust in their magnanimity to appreciate as they ought this my request. In so unfavourable an event of things, the support of their dear Mother with the most respectful and tender attention is a duty all the sacredness of which they will feel. Probably her own patrimonial resources will preserve her from Indigence. But in all situations they are charged to bear in mind that she has been to them the most devoted and best of mothers. In Testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my hand the Ninth day of July in the year of our lord One thousand Eight hundred & four.

Alexander Hamilton

Signed sealed published & declared as and for his last Will and Testament in our presence who have subscribed the same in his presence.

The words John B Church being above interlined.

Dominick T Blake

Graham Newell

Theo B Valleau

Source — Last Will and Testament of Alexander Hamilton, [9 July 1804]

According to John C. Hamilton, while he was executing it, a friend came in and related to him his fear of an intended fraud. Hamilton took him by the arm and said, “Let us walk past the counting-room of these people. Perhaps, on seeing us together, they may think it expedient to do you justice.” The expedient succeeded. [x]

In the afternoon, the regulations of the duel were finalized by Van Nass and Pendleton. [x] Hamilton wrote that Assignment of Debts and Grant of Power of Attorney would be placed on John B. Church. This was included in a list of seven items given to Nathaniel Pendleton. [x]

Know all Men by these Presents, That I Alexander Hamilton of the City of New York Counsellor at law, in consideration of one Dollar to me in hand paid by John B Church Esquire, (the receipt whereof is hereby acknowleged) have bargained sold assigned and conveyed and hereby do bargain sell assign & convey to the said John B Church all and singular the debts due owing and payable to me: which are specified in the schedule hereunto annexed to be by him collected and the proceeds applied first towards the payment of all and every the debt and debts which I owe to my household and other servants and labourers, and to the Woman who washes for Mrs. Hamilton—and secondly towards the satisfaction and discharge of certain accommodation notes made by me and indorsed by him and which have been or shall be discounted in and by the Manhattan Bank and the Office of Discount & Deposit of the Bank of the United States in the City of New York. And for this purpose I do hereby constitute and appoint him my Attorney to ask demand sue for recover and receive the said Debts and every of them and upon receipt thereof or any part thereof to make and give acquittances. In Witness whereof I have hereunto subscribed & set my hand and seal the Ninth day of July in the year of our lord One thousand Eight hundred & four.

A. Ham⟨ilton⟩

Source — Assignment of Debts and Grant of Power of Attorney to John B. Church, [9 July 1804]

The last remaining hours of the day were spent with his old Treasury protégé, Oliver Wolcott Jr., who later wrote; “Hamilton spent the afternoon & evening of Monday with our friends at my House in Company with Mr. Hopkinson of Phil’. He was uncommonly cheerful and gay The duel had been determined on for ten days.” [x]

July 10th, 1804

The following document is undated, but is theorized to have been composed or finished on Hamilton's last work day, Tuesday. Hamilton wrote a list of reasonings as to why he accepted the challenge;

Source — New York Historical Society. Alexander Hamilton statement on impending duel with Aaron Burr, undated, [July 10, 1804(?)]

On my expected interview with Col Burr, I think it proper to make some remarks explanatory of my conduct, motives and views.

I am certainly desirous of avoiding this interview, for the most cogent reasons.

1 My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the practice of Duelling, and it would even give me pain to be obliged to shed the blood of a fellow creature in a private combat forbidden by the laws.

2 My wife and Children are extremely dear to me, and my life is of the utmost importance to them, in various views.

3 I feel a sense of obligation towards my creditors; who in case of accident to me, by the forced sale of my property, may be in some degree sufferers. I did not think my self at liberty, as a man of probity, lightly to expose them to this hazard.

4 I am conscious of no ill-will to Col Burr, distinct from political opposition, which, as I trust, has proceeded from pure and upright motives.

Lastly, I shall hazard much, and can possibly gain nothing by the issue of the interview.

But it was, as I conceive, impossible for me to avoid it. There were intrinsick difficulties in the thing, and artificial embarrassments, from the manner of proceeding on the part of Col Burr.

Intrinsick—because it is not to be denied, that my animadversions on the political principles character and views of Col Burr have been extremely severe, and on different occasions, I, in common with many others, have made very unfavourable criticisms on particular instances of the private conduct of this Gentleman.

In proportion as these impressions were entertained with sincerity and uttered with motives and for purposes, which might appear to me commendable, would be the difficulty (until they could be removed by evidence of their being erroneous), of explanation or apology. The disavowal required of me by Col Burr, in a general and indefinite form, was out of my power, if it had really been proper for me to submit to be so questionned; but I was sincerely of opinion, that this could not be, and in this opinion, I was confirmed by that of a very moderate and judicious friend whom I consulted. Besides that Col Burr appeared to me to assume, in the first instance, a tone unnecessarily peremptory and menacing, and in the second, positively offensive. Yet I wished, as far as might be practicable, to leave a door open to accommodation. This, I think, will be inferred from the written communications made by me and by my direction, and would be confirmed by the conversations between Mr van Ness and myself, which arose out of the subject.

I am not sure, whether under all the circumstances I did not go further in the attempt to accommodate, than a pun[c]tilious delicacy will justify. If so, I hope the motives I have stated will excuse me.

It is not my design, by what I have said to affix any odium on the conduct of Col Burr, in this case. He doubtless has heared of animadversions of mine which bore very hard upon him; and it is probable that as usual they were accompanied with some falshoods. He may have supposed himself under a necessity of acting as he has done. I hope the grounds of his proceeding have been such as ought to satisfy his own conscience.

I trust, at the same time, that the world will do me the Justice to believe, that I have not censured him on light grounds, or from unworthy inducements. I certainly have had strong reasons for what I may have said, though it is possible that in some particulars, I may have been influenced by misconstruction or misinformation. It is also my ardent wish that I may have been more mistaken than I think I have been, and that he by his future conduct may shew himself worthy of all confidence and esteem, and prove an ornament and blessing to his Country.

As well because it is possible that I may have injured Col Burr, however convinced myself that my opinions and declarations have been well founded, as from my general principles and temper in relation to similar affairs—I have resolved, if our interview is conducted in the usual manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and throw away my first fire, and I have thoughts even of reserving my second fire—and thus giving a double opportunity to Col Burr to pause and to reflect.

It is not however my intention to enter into any explanations on the ground. Apology, from principle I hope, rather than Pride, is out of the question.

To those, who with me abhorring the practice of Duelling may think that I ought on no account to have added to the number of bad examples—I answer that my relative situation, as well in public as private aspects, enforcing all the considerations which constitute what men of the world denominate honor, impressed on me (as I thought) a peculiar necessity not to decline the call. The ability to be in future useful, whether in resisting mischief or effecting good, in those crises of our public affairs, which seem likely to happen, would probably be inseparable from a conformity with public prejudice in this particular.

Source — Statement on Impending Duel with Aaron Burr, [28 June–10 July 1804]

Hamilton ran into a family friend and client on Broadway, Dirck Ten Broeck, who reminded him that he had forgotten to deliver a promised legal opinion. Afterward, Broeck reflected with astonishment on Hamilton's reaction; “He was really ashamed of his neglect, but [said] that I must call on him the next day, Wednesday—(the awful fatal day)—at 10 o'clock, when he would sit down with me, lock the door, and then we would finish the business.” [x]

Hamilton wrote to Theodore Sedgwick, his friend of many years, who had been the channel of his most useful communications on the policy of the country; thus showing that, to the latest moment, his thoughts were upon that which had formed the leading topic of the Federalist—“the utility of the Union to the political prosperity of the whole American people.” [x] Since one purpose of the duel was to prepare to head off a secessionist threat, he warned Sedgwick against any such movement among New England Federalists.

Source — Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. Letter from Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 10 July 1804.

New York July 10. 1804

My Dear Sir

I have received two letters from you since we last saw each other—that of the latest date being the 24 of May. I have had in hand for some time a long letter to you, explaining my view of the course and tendency of our Politics, and my intentions as to my own future conduct. But my plan embraced so large a range that owing to much avocation, some indifferent health, and a growing distaste for Politics, the letter is still considerably short of being finished. I write this now to satisfy you, that want of regard for you has not been the cause of my silence.

I will here express but one sentiment, which is, that Dismembrement of our Empire will be a clear sacrifice of great positive advantages, without any counterballancing good; administering no relief to our real Disease; which is Democracy, the poison of which by a subdivision will only be the more concentered in each part, and consequently the more virulent.

King is on his way for Boston where you may chance to see him, and hear from himself his sentiments.

God bless you

A H

Source — Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, [July 10, 1804]

Hamilton then saw Judah Hammond, who was a clerk in AH's law office, where he drafted an elaborate opinion in a legal matter. Hammond later recalled that; “The last time General Hamilton was in the office was in the early part of July 1804, in the afternoon. I was the only person remaining in the office with him. The last thing he did there, in his professional business he did at my desk and by my side. Even the place seems sacred to my memory. The office was at Number twelve in Garden Street, opposite the Church Grounds. The building has been since removed. It was near sunset, the evening bright and serene. The setting sun approached the margin of the horizon, shedding his last rays on the beautiful objects illustrated by his departing splendours. At this closing of the day, when we love to linger in its pleasures, General Hamilton came to my desk, in the tranquil manner usual with him, and gave me a business paper with his instructions, concerning it. I saw no change in his appearance. These were his last moments in his place of business” [x]

According to John C. Hamilton; “—after waiting upon his faithful friend, Oliver Wolcott, at the close of an entertainment given by him, [...] made his last visit. It was to Colonel [Robert] Troup, the companion of his early years.” [x] For weeks, Troup had lain bedridden with a grave illness that Hamilton feared might prove mortal. When he dropped by to visit Troup, Hamilton did not mention the duel and overflowed Troup with medical suggestions;

“The General's visit lasted more than half an hour; and after making particular inquiries respecting the state of my complaint, he favored me with his advice as to the course which he thought would best conduce to the reestablishment of my health. But the whole tenor of the General's deportment during the visit manifested such composure and cheerfulness of mind as to leave me without any suspicion of the rencontre that was depending.”

Source — William and Mary Quarterly, Journal

Afterwards, Hamilton returned to his townhouse. Pendleton found him there and attempted to discuss with him and make a final attempt to dissuade Hamilton from his decision to delope during the duel. Nevertheless, Hamilton insisted he would fire in the air. When Pendleton protested, Hamilton indicated that his mind was made up; “My friend,” he told Pendleton, “it is the effect of a religious scruple and does not admit of reasoning. It is useless to say more on the subject as my purpose is definitely fixed.” [x]

At 10 p.m, Hamilton - even after already writing Eliza a farewell letter dated on the fourth - sat down in his study upstairs and took his quill once more to pen another letter but in favor of Anne Mitchell, Hamilton's cousin, and his largest supporter in his boyhood.

Source — A letter from Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, dated July 4, 1804. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Manuscripts Division.

My beloved Eliza

Mrs. Mitchel is the person in the world to whom as a friend I am under the greatest Obligations. I have ⟨not⟩ hitherto done my ⟨duty⟩ to her. But ⟨resolved⟩ to repair my omission as much as ⟨possible,⟩ I have encouraged her to come to ⟨this Country⟩ and intend, if it shall be ⟨in my po⟩wer to render the Evening of her days ⟨c⟩omfortable. But if it shall please God to put this out of my power and to inable you hereafter to be of ⟨s⟩ervice to her, I entreat you to d⟨o⟩ it and to treat ⟨h⟩er with the tenderness of a Sister.

This is my second letter.

The Scrup⟨les of a Christian have deter⟩mined me to expose my own li⟨fe to any⟩ extent rather than subject my s⟨elf to the⟩ guilt of taking the life of ⟨another.⟩ This must increase my hazards & redoubles my pangs for you. But you had rather I should die inno⟨c⟩ent than live guilty. Heaven can pre⟨se⟩rve me ⟨and I humbly⟩ hope will ⟨b⟩ut in the contrary ⟨e⟩vent, I charge you to remember that you are a Christian. God’s Will be done. The will of a merciful God must be good.

Once more Adieu My Darling darling Wife

A H

Tuesday Evening 10 oCl⟨ock⟩

⟨Mrs Ha⟩milton

Source — Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, [10 July 1804]

Hamilton descended from his study, and entered the parlor downstairs, there he found his son reading a book. Hamilton watched him pensively for a few moments, before he leaned over his book and smiled as he asked him if he would sleep with him. [x] The son in this story is Hamilton's fifth child, John Church Hamilton, who later recalled the same incident in an interview;

I recall a single incident about it with full clearness. [...] The day before the duel I was sitting in a room, when, at a slight noise, I turned around and saw my father in the doorway, standing silently there and looking at me with a most sweet and beautiful expression of countenance. It was full of tenderness, and without any of the business pre-occupation he sometimes had. “John,” he said, when I had discovered him, “won't you come and sleep with me to-night?” His voice was frank as if he had been my brother instead of my father. That night I went to his bed, and in the morning very early he awakened me, and taking my hands in his palms, all four hands extended, he said and told me to repeat the Lord's Prayer. Seventy-five years have since passed over my head, and I have forgotten many things, but not that tender expression when he stood looking at me in the door nor the prayer we made together the morning before the duel. I do not so well recollect seeing him lie upon his deathbed, though I was there.

Source — Interview with John Church Hamilton, reminiscences about his father.

July 11th, 1804

After Hamilton retired to bed with John uncommonly early, he awoke quietly at three o'clock the next morning. Hamilton reportedly had; “some imperfect sleep; but the succeeding morning his symptoms were aggravated, attended however with a diminution of pain. His mind retained all its usual strength and composure. The great source of his anxiety seemed to be in his sympathy with his half distracted wife and children.” [x] He soon awoke John and took his hands in his palms, “all four hands extended”, he spoke the Lord's Prayer, as John repeated after him. Afterwards he asked his son to light a candle, John asked him what was the matter and Hamilton had lied to him claiming that his little sister, Eliza Hamilton Holly, was ill and had been taken out of town. And that his mother had sent for him and that he was going out with Doctor Hosack. After the candle was lit he sat down and wrote a hymn which he had but just finished when Pendleton and Hosack called for him. The hymn was put in his will where it was found by his wife later on. [x]

Main sources:

Life of Alexander Hamilton, by John Church Hamilton.

The intimate life of Alexander Hamilton, by Allan McLane Hamilton.

Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow.

A Collection of the Facts and Documents, Relative to the Death of Major-General Alexander Hamilton, by William Coleman.

Four letters on the death of Alexander Hamilton 1804, David B. Ogden.

#amrev #american history #the duel #alexander hamilton #historical alexander hamilton #john church hamilton #nathaniel pendleton #judah hammond #theodore sedgwick #robert troup #oliver wolcott #elizabeth schuyler #elizabeth hamilton #history #txt #cicero's history lessons

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azspot · 1 year

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Among other things, Thomas’s text messages directed Meadows not to concede because “it takes time for the army who is gathering for [Trump’s] back,” and pressed for discredited attorney Sidney Powell to be “the lead and the face” of the Trump legal team. Thomas threatened to pull her political support if they were to “cave to the elites” by not working to overturn the election results. Thomas also alleged “Biden and the Left [are] attempting the greatest Heist of our History” and quoted a passage charging that the “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators” were being arrested and faced “military tribunals for sedition.”

Thomas also recently admitted she attended the January 6th “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse, though she said she left before Trump spoke. Early on that day, Thomas proclaimed on Facebook “LOVE MAGA people!!!!” and posted “GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU STANDING UP or PRAYING.” Thomas also signed a letter last December calling on the House Republican Conference to expel Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for working on the House January 6th Committee, which the letter called “an overtly partisan political persecution” engaging in “political harassment” and “demagoguery.” One month later, Thomas’s husband, Justice Clarence Thomas, was the Supreme Court’s lone dissent in its order rejecting Donald Trump’s bid to withhold documents from the January 6 panel.

#clarencethomas

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strapskinkstories · 6 months

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Mar 29 2024 - Where’s the content? WHERES THE FUNDING! WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF FUNDING!

theres been no new content because there’s a funding crisis. Provisional talks are in progress with an angel funder who might save strappyskinks from going belly up due to lack of funding.

That all said. One angel investor can’t float me forever.

See this? You can actually donate towards my clothing food electric internet phone and other things eligible to be paid from my disability trust account.

Before you ask: can gear come from the trust account?

Answer:YES! - Gear is classified either as clothing not otherwise specified or sensory therapy equipment not otherwise specified.

Ultimate dream is for this trust account to explode one day. How is it findoms can get a damn Lamborghini and have people constantly fill its tank and get them sushi and Starbucks when I can’t even complete one of my basic life goals Pay off the house so me and my caregiver can live in peace without worrying about busting ourselves or ending up out of runway to run the business. StrappysKinks is very much technically a business. Even though the product is free. I create content, written video and photographic as well as AI generated entertainment art.

All that content has *intrinsic value* that intrinsic value so you are all aware. Per video. The intrinsic value of an approximately 50 minute bondage video of Amateur/ProAm (I consider myself ProAm at the actual gear stuff. Still kinda amateur on the camera work cut me some slack, I’m working on zero funding right now! Read: out of pocket funding from my already paltry social security) costs pay per view $20.99 YOU PEOPLE HAVE OVER 50 OF SUCH VIDEOS FREE! That’s over $2,500 OF VIDEO CONTENT PER PERSON THAT IS FREE! 100 views would usually = $2,099 if I were running hard core PAY PER VIEW.

I don’t. Because I think paysites suck. And I also think JFF onlyfans all that sucks.

But let me continue. Then there’s my thousands of stories and now my anesthesia stories. Per document a story typically is about $1-$5 let’s just assume I’ve written 5000 stories and documents to keep shit simple. That is again $5000 of content PER PERSON THAT IS FREELY AVAILABLE. AS FREE AS GATDAMN LINUX! Now let’s talk about my image library. It’s on Flickr and spans 14,000 images. Typically a photo set in a paysite is like $10.99 so a little division aaaand the math comes out to… 466 image sets or a value of $4,660 PER PERSON FREELY ACCESSIBLE. It’s late. I can’t math right now. I’m too upset but when I just smash those numbers together and total them up you get. As a single viewer. If you access all of my social medias and my Flickr and use my XHamster. $15,000 of content FOR FREE!!!

I cannot continue as the American economy shoots disabled people in the foot and also screws over low income LGBTQ folks to produce content for free. Something has to change.

Either I have to shut down production. Whoa. Holy fuck.

I didn’t expect the outcry to be so intense. It wasn’t even outcry on Twitter.

The telegram group members went into total open outcry status.

Ok. So. Shutting down production is not an option.

Sustaining production at current funding levels is impossible. Especially considering I just lost $120 per month of government funds thanks to reckless cuts on food stamps and the affordable connectivity program being recklessly ended by a Congress that I can only politely describe as a pile of diarrhea dung from a deathly ill cow with mad cow disease.

So. This is not a tribute me. This isn’t a fucking pay up call.

This is a do me a favor.

Look at yourself in the mirror.

Think about how many times you’ve probably jacked off looking at my videos or photos. Then think about how much time money and gear it takes to make that entertainment material go from here to your screen. I want my 3000 something followers (as I am carbon copying this onto Twitter Etc as well) Do the following

1. Self reflect on your consumption of my media. You owe it to chip a dollar or two in if you’ve done so much as listened to a minute or two of my video. An average street musician gets a hundred dollars a day if they are in a good area. If you’ve watched my videos and you’ve done nothing not even liked them retweeted them or thought about donating them. Are you really being a sustainable consumer? Sustainable consumers support the creators who provide them content. If they can’t give financial support at the least hit the goddamned retweet button. It is not hard! One tap or click ffs!

2. ITS TAX DEDUCTIBLE! (Not sure if you can deduct for 2023 still. But you can deduct it on your 2024 taxes.) So instead of sending money to the fat cats at some national charity where the executives take multimillion dollar paychecks IM LOOKING AT YOU YA MOTHERFUCKERS AUTISM SPEAKS. WE DONT WANT A CURE RESEARCHED AND WE DONT NEED YOUR DAMN BIG HONKY TONK GALAS ON TV EITHER.

3. Realize that if funding doesn’t change in the next 20 days. Immediate cutbacks will begin and by 2026 StrapsKinks will entirely stop filming, photographing, producing AI art, and writing stories as all funding will be exhausted and instead of engaging in kink I’ll have to start selling off gear and computer equipment as we do last ditch efforts to make ends meet before ending up in a shitty apartment rental again or worse homeless. So yeah. Thanks everyone. Thanks for almost a decade of consume consume consume. All without giving back a damn dime. Hopefully this makes things start changing and before the first April 21 cutoff. If funding doesn’t increase by April 21 Twitter stories will permanently cease and the StrappysKinks website will be slated for destruction. If funding doesn’t increase by June gear purchases from Bronco and other planned vendors will be postponed and or canceled If by December funding does not increase there will likely be no further new gear acquisitions and if equipment breaks it won’t be replaced. If by January 2025 nothing changes. All Twitter accounts and the Tumblr will be deleted. The Flickr account will be deleted. The website will be erased in preparation for the October 2025 termination of the StrappysKinks services. At that time anyone who has my contact details will know me and those left in the community simply won’t. At that point I’ll just disappear off of social media and take all my stuff down.

Because guess what.

I’m not leaving $15,000 of content available for free if I go bankrupt. So sit down. Think about what you people are doing to small creators especially those with disabilities and think. Do you want to see StrapsKinks go bankrupt.

The fate rests in your hands folks. This is a publicly funded venture technically. Public funding from the federal and private……. Yeah that’s the problem. Nobody done fuckin stepped up to actually do the funding. Let’s hope this funder that is on the lines actually comes through because if he does his single round could set us back onto at least able to sustain current production even if it does mean slowing down gear purchases. That said. If new funding lines are not received by January 2025 *STRAPPYSKINKS WILL GO BANKRUPT*

#Sfw blog #funding crisis

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thaoworra · 8 months

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What creative, political, and liberatory possibilities emerge at the intersections of Asian America, Buddhism, and literature? This roundtable brings together five prolific authors—Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng, Tsering Yangzom Lama, Shin Yu Pai, Ryan Lee Wong, and Bryan Thao Worra—to discuss the cultural and spiritual influences in their work. In a panel conversation moderated by Chenxing Han, these writers will share how a wide range of Buddhist traditions—in conjunction with their Vietnamese, Laotian, Tibetan, Taiwanese, Korean, and Chinese heritages—shape their artistic practice and political commitments.

If you’re able, please join us in person at the Michigan League to welcome our guest speakers, who are visiting from Pittsburgh, New York City, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Vancouver, Canada. After the author readings and roundtable discussion, there will be time for audience Q&A followed by an informal reception and book signings. Please stay to enjoy light refreshments and to meet the authors one-on-one!

This event is sponsored by the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and co-sponsored by the Department of American Culture, the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies program, the Nam Center for Korean Studies, the Department of Comparative Literature, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, and the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies with local bookshop Booksweet organizing the book signings.

Panelists Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng is a writer and translator born in Việt Nam. Recent publications include Masked Force (Sàn Art), a pamphlet-catalogue on Võ An Khánh’s war photographs, and Chronicles of a Village (Penguin SEA), her translation of a novel by Nguyễn Thanh Hiện. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Jacket2, Modern Poetry in Translation and other venues. Currently studying at Stanford University, she has received support from the PEN/Heim Fund and the Institute for Comparative Modernities, among other honors.

Tsering Yangzom Lama’s debut novel, We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies, won the GLCA New Writers Award as well as the Banff Mountain Book Award for Fiction & Poetry. Tsering holds an MFA in Writing from Columbia University and a BA in Creative Writing and International Relations from the University of British Columbia. We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies is published in English in Canada, the United States, and India. Translations are available or forthcoming in French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Bulgarian, Tibetan, and Arabic.

Shin Yu Pai is currently the Civic Poet of The City of Seattle. She is the author of 13 books, and has received awards for her work from the Academy of American Poets, 4Culture, The Awesome Foundation, and Artist Trust. Shin Yu is host and writer of “Ten Thousand Things”—an award-winning, chart-topping podcast on Asian American stories. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and earned an MA in Museology from The University of Washington.

Ryan Lee Wong is author of the novel Which Side Are You On, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. He organized the exhibitions Serve the People at Interference Archive and Roots at Chinese American Museum, and has written on the intersections of arts, race, and social movements. Ryan holds an MFA in Fiction from Rutgers-Newark and served on the Board of the Jerome Foundation. He lived for two years at Ancestral Heart Temple and is the Administrative Director of Brooklyn Zen Center.

Bryan Thao Worra is a Lao American poet. With 20+ awards and fellowships, he is the author of 9+ books of poetry on the Lao American diaspora. He has presented at the Library of Congress, Poets House, Kearny Street Workshop, the Singapore Writers Festival, and the Smithsonian, and is the author of over 100 publications. He has documented Lao Theravada Buddhist temples in the US for over 15 years. His newest book American Laodyssey is forthcoming from Sahtu Press in Spring 2024.

Moderator Chenxing Han is the author of Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists; one long listening: a memoir of grief, friendship, and spiritual care; and over twenty articles and book chapters for both academic and mainstream audiences. She is a frequent speaker and workshop leader at schools, universities, and Buddhist communities across the nation, and currently serves as the Khyentse Visitor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan.

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toddsstash · 1 year

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truck-fump · 2 years

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Biden Fired The Architect Of The Capitol. But What About Other Trump Appointees?

New Post has been published on https://truckfump.life/2023/02/24/architect-of-the-capitol-trump-appointees_n_63e55eb6e4b02c25737506c2/

Biden Fired The Architect Of The Capitol. But What About Other Trump Appointees?

Ginni Thomas, Trump’s appointee to the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board, repeatedly lobbied Trump aides to overturn the 2020 election — and yet she still remains in her appointed position.

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seedkerlon · 2 years

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#Did airi donate us e d items how to#

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Some charities accept non-cash donations, such as clothing and household items. Schedule a Free Donation Pickup Find a Donation Drop-Off Location Donate Your Vehicle 1-800-SA-TRUCK (1-80) When you donate goods to The Salvation Army, those items are then sold at our thrift stores and the proceeds are used to fund our Adult Rehabilitation Centers, where those struggling with drugs and alcohol find help, hope, and a. They can also protect you from charity scams. (Only accepts items from Naval Academy graduates) These payment methods can help you keep record of your donations. Senior Librarian, The Library of Congress Airi carefully placed her precious rabbit next to her while she placed the other items back into her backpack until it was only a clear tub filled with supplies and a scrapbook in a purple-colored binder, on the front had 'My Family' scribbled on as legible a seven-year-old could make.

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Kiky and Kiyotaka soon go to meet with her, but Airi refuses to. More An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. They did not have much interaction until Episode 4 when Airi was pointed out by Suzune as the only person who did not volunteer to help Kiky prove Suds innocence. Senior Librarian, Smithsonian Institution They dont have much of a relationship, as Airi appears not to trust Kiky. Senior Librarian, The American War Library Donated items should include the name, and contact information of the donor. quality donations of second-hand items, sell these on to diverse local. Where To Donate Military and Military Related Items Copyright © Since 1988 Contact The American War Libraryīooks, Personal Histories, Personally owned military items, Photographs, Uniform parts and other military items can be donated to the following seven agencies for perpetual storage, display or for temporary loan to civic organizations. recording and measurement used to construct data, and the politics and processes.

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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Ginni Thomas, the wife of the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was accused of “undermining democracy” after it emerged that she emailed 29 Republican lawmakers in Arizona in her effort to overturn Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.

The Washington Post had previously reported that Ginni Thomas sent emails pressuring two Arizona Republicans to reject Biden’s win and choose their own electors.

On Friday, the paper said Ginni Thomas emailed 29 individuals.

Thomas’s involvement in Trump’s attempt to overturn his election defeat, including events around the deadly Capitol attack, has been widely reported.

That has focused attention on her husband, a stringent conservative who has not recused himself from election-related cases.

When Trump tried to deny the House January 6 Committee access to White House records, Thomas was the only Justice to side with the former-President. Texts from Ginni Thomas to Trump’s Chief of Staff were subsequently revealed.

Supreme Court Justices govern themselves in ethical matters. Activists and some Democratic politicians have therefore called for Thomas to resign or be impeached.

Only one Supreme Court Justice has been impeached: Samuel Chase in 1805. He survived. But Chase was accused of “tending to prostitute the high judicial character with which he was invested, to the low purpose of an electioneering partisan” – a charge with strong echoes in the case of Clarence and Ginni Thomas.

The Post said that on 9 November, two days after the election was called for Biden, Ginni Thomas used “FreeRoots, an online platform intended to make it easy to send pre-written emails to multiple elected officials”, to send identical messages to 20 members of the Arizona House and seven State Senators.

The emails urged the Republicans to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure” and “fight back against fraud”.

On 13 December, the day before electoral college votes were cast, Thomas emailed 22 members of the Arizona House and one Senator.

That message said: “Before you choose your state’s electors … consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don’t stand up and lead.” It also “linked to a video of a man urging lawmakers to ‘put things right’ and ‘not give in to cowardice’.”

Proven fraud in the 2020 election is vanishingly rare. Regardless, Arizona Republicans pursued a controversial audit – which increased Biden’s margin of victory.

Ginni Thomas did not comment on the new Post report. Nor did the Supreme Court. Thomas has said her activism does not clash with her husband’s work.

Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, said: “We’ve now learned that Ginni Thomas’s role in pushing officials to overturn the 2020 election was significantly greater than we knew. Justice Thomas’s failure to recuse on cases about the 2020 election looks worse and worse. This undermines democracy.”

Pointing to Ginni Thomas’s position on the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board, to which she was appointed by Trump, CREW said: “Friendly reminder that Ginni Thomas has a government position and absolutely should not.”

News of the Arizona emails emerged in the aftermath of a dramatic primetime hearing staged by the House Committee investigating January 6. Responding to the hearing, Trump repeated his lie about electoral fraud.

Amid growing calls for a criminal indictment against Trump, Wajahat Ali, a columnist and senior fellow at the Western States Center, which works to strengthen democracy, tweeted: “Democrats should aggressively put pressure on Clarence and Ginni Thomas. You have an extremist conservative duo working the courts and the rightwing activist machine to overturn our free and fair election.”

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theculturedmarxist · 4 years

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The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has run a fascinating long report this week offering a disturbing snapshot of the political climate rapidly emerging across Europe on the issue of antisemitism. The article documents a kind of cultural, political and intellectual reign of terror in Germany since the parliament passed a resolution last year equating support for non-violent boycotts of Israel – in solidarity with Palestinians oppressed by Israel – with antisemitism.

The article concerns Germany but anyone reading it will see very strong parallels with what is happening in other European countries, especially the UK and France.

The same European leaders who a few years ago marched in Paris shouting “Je suis Charlie” – upholding the inalienable free speech rights of white Europeans to offend Muslims by insulting and ridiculing their Prophet – are now queuing up to outlaw free speech when it is directed against Israel, a state that refuses to end its belligerent occupation of Palestinian land. European leaders have repeatedly shown they are all too ready to crush the free speech of Palestinians, and those in solidarity with them, to avoid offending sections of the Jewish community.

The situation reduces to this: European Muslims have no right to take offence at insults about a religion they identify with, but European Jews have every right to take offence at criticism of an aggressive Middle Eastern state they identify with. Seen another way, the perverse secular priorities of European mainstream culture now place the sanctity of a militarised state, Israel, above the sanctity of a religion with a billion followers.

Guilt by association

This isn’t even a double standard. I can’t find a word in the dictionary that conveys the scale and degree of hypocrisy and bad faith involved.

If the American Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein wrote a follow-up to his impassioned book The Holocaust Industry – on the cynical use of the Holocaust to enrich and empower a Jewish organisational establishment at the expense of the Holocaust’s actual survivors – he might be tempted to title it The Antisemitism Industry.

In the current climate in Europe, one that rejects any critical thinking in relation to broad areas of public life, that observation alone would enough to have one denounced as an antisemite. Which is why the Haaretz article – far braver than anything you will read in a UK or US newspaper – makes no bones about what is happening in Germany. It calls it a “witch-hunt”. That is Haaretz’s way of saying that antisemitism has been politicised and weaponised – a self-evident conclusion that will currently get you expelled from the British Labour party, even if you are Jewish.

The Haaretz story highlights two important developments in the way antisemitism has been, in the words of intellectuals and cultural leaders cited by the newspaper, “instrumentalised” in Germany.

Jewish organisations and their allies in Germany, as Haaretz reports, are openly weaponising antisemitism not only to damage the reputation of Israel’s harsher critics, but also to force out of the public and cultural domain – through a kind of “antisemitism guilt by association” – anyone who dares to entertain criticism of Israel.

Cultural associations, festivals, universities, Jewish research centres, political think-tanks, museums and libraries are being forced to scrutinise the past of those they wish to invite in case some minor transgression against Israel can be exploited by local Jewish organisations. That has created a toxic, politically paranoid atmosphere that inevitably kills trust and creativity.

But the psychosis runs deeper still. Israel, and anything related to it, has become such a combustible subject – one that can ruin careers in an instant – that most political, academic and cultural figures in Germany now choose to avoid it entirely. Israel, as its supporters intended, is rapidly becoming untouchable.

A case study noted by Haaretz is Peter Schäfer, a respected professor of ancient Judaism and Christianity studies who was forced to resign as director of Berlin’s Jewish Museum last year. Schäfer’s crime, in the eyes of Germany’s Jewish establishment, was that he staged an exhibition on Jerusalem that recognised the city’s three religious traditions, including a Muslim one.

He was immediately accused of promoting “historical distortions” and denounced as “anti-Israel”. A reporter for Israel’s rightwing Jerusalem Post, which has been actively colluding with the Israeli government to smear critics of Israel, contacted Schäfer with a series of inciteful emails. The questions included “Did you learn the wrong lesson from the Holocaust?” and “Israeli experts told me you disseminate antisemitism – is that true?”

Schäfer observes:

The accusation of antisemitism is a club that allows one to deal a death blow, and political elements who have an interest in this are using it, without a doubt… The museum staff gradually entered a state of panic. Then of course we also started to do background checks. Increasingly it poisoned the atmosphere and our work.

Another prominent victim of these Jewish organisations tells Haaretz:

Sometimes one thinks, “To go to that conference?”, “To invite this colleague?” Afterward it means that for three weeks, I’ll have to cope with a shitstorm, whereas I need the time for other things that I get paid for as a lecturer. There is a type of “anticipatory obedience” or “prior self-censorship”.

Ringing off the hook

There is nothing unusual about what is happening in Germany. Jewish organisations are stirring up these “shitstorms” – designed to paralyse political and cultural life for anyone who engages in even the mildest criticism of Israel – at the highest levels of government. Don’t believe me? Here is Barack Obama explaining in his recent autobiography his efforts as US president to curb Israel’s expansion of its illegal settlements. Early on, he was warned to back off or face the wrath of the Israel lobby:

Members of both parties worried about crossing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Those who criticized Israeli policy too loudly risked being tagged as “anti-Israel” (and possibly anti-Semitic) and confronted with a well-funded opponent in the next election.

Corbyn, it seems, has found an unlikely ally in former US President Obama. In his new autobiography, he writes of the Israel lobby's power: 'Those who criticized Israeli policy too loudly risked being tagged as "anti-Israel" (and possibly anti-Semitic)' https://t.co/tKmy8q3Cws

— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) November 26, 2020

When Obama went ahead anyway in 2009 and proposed a modest freeze on Israel’s illegal settlements:

The White House phones started ringing off the hook, as members of my national security team fielded calls from reporters, leaders of American Jewish organizations, prominent supporters, and members of Congress, all wondering why we were picking on Israel … this sort of pressure continued for much of 2009.

He observes further:

The noise orchestrated by Netanyahu had the intended effect of gobbling up our time, putting us on the defensive, and reminding me that normal policy differences with an Israeli prime minister – even one who presided over a fragile coalition government – exacted a political cost that didn’t exist when I dealt with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, or any of our other closest allies.

Doubtless, Obama dare not put down in writing his full thoughts about Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the US lobbyists who worked on his behalf. But Obama’s remarks do show that, even a US president, supposedly the single most powerful person on the planet, ended up blanching in the face of this kind of relentless assault. For lesser mortals, the price is likely to be far graver.

No free speech on Israel

It was this same mobilisation of Jewish organisational pressure – orchestrated, as Obama notes, by Israel and its partisans in the US and Europe – that ended up dominating Jeremy Corbyn’s five years as the leader of Britain’s leftwing Labour party, recasting a well-known anti-racism activist almost overnight as an antisemite.

It is the reason why his successor, Sir Keir Starmer, has outsourced part of Labour’s organisational oversight on Jewish and Israel-related matters to the very conservative Board of Deputies of British Jews, as given expression in Starmer’s signing up to the Board’s “10 Pledges”.

It is part of the reason why Starmer recently suspended Corbyn from the party, and then defied the membership’s demands that he be properly reinstated, after Corbyn expressed concerns about the way antisemitism allegations had been “overstated for political reasons” to damage him and Labour. (The rightwing Starmer, it should be noted, was also happy to use antisemitism as a pretext to eradicate the socialist agenda Corbyn had tried to revive in Labour.) It is why Starmer has imposed a blanket ban on constituency parties discussing Corbyn’s suspension. And it is why Labour’s shadow education secretary has joined the ruling Conservative party in threatening to strip universities of their funding if they allow free speech about Israel on campus.

Disturbing to learn from this article that Labour backs threatening funding to universities to bully them into adopting the IHRA re-definition of antisemitism – a definition that protects Israel from criticism and would ban most forms of solidarity with Palestinians on campus

— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) December 8, 2020

Two types of Jews

But the Haaretz article raises another issue critical to understanding how Israel and the Jewish establishment in Europe are politicising antisemitism to protect Israel from criticism. The potential Achilles’ heel of their campaign are Jewish dissidents, those who break with the supposed “Jewish community” line and create a space for others – whether Palestinians or other non-Jews – to criticise Israel. These Jewish dissenters risk serving as a reminder that trenchant criticism of Israel should not result in one being tarred an antisemite.

Leading Palestinians warn: 'The fight against antisemitism has been increasingly instrumentalised by the Israeli government and its supporters in an effort to delegitimise the Palestinian cause and silence defenders of Palestinian rights' https://t.co/Shu1Z7XYM1

— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) December 1, 2020

Israel and Jewish organisations, however, have made it their task to erode that idea by promoting a distinction – an antisemitic one, at that – between two types of Jews: good Jews (loyal to Israel), and bad Jews (disloyal to Israel).

Haaretz reports that officials in Germany, such as Felix Klein, the country’s antisemitism commissioner, and Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, are being allowed to define not only who is an antisemite, typically using support for Israel as the yardstick, but are also determining who are good Jews – those politically like them – and who are bad Jews – those who disagree with them.

Despite Germany’s horrific recent history of Jew hatred, the German government, local authorities, the media, universities and cultural institutions have been encouraged by figures like Klein and Schuster to hound German Jews, even Israeli Jews living and working in Germany, from the country’s public and cultural space.

When, for example, a group of Israeli Jewish academics in Berlin held a series of online discussions about Zionism last year on the website of their art school, an Israeli reporter soon broke the story of a “scandal” involving boycott supporters receiving funding from the German government. Hours later the art school had pulled down the site, while the German education ministry issued a statement clarifying that it had provided no funding. The Israeli embassy officially declared the discussions held by these Israelis as “antisemitic”, and a German foundation that documents antisemitism added the group to the list of antisemitic incidents it records.

Described as ‘kapos’

So repressive has the cultural and political atmosphere grown in Germany that there has been a small backlash among cultural leaders. Some have dared to publish a letter protesting against the role of Klein, the antisemitism commissioner. Haaretz reports:

The antisemitism czar, the letter charged, is working “in synergy with the Israeli government” in an effort “to discredit and silence opponents of Israel’s policies” and is abetting the “instrumentalization” that undermines the true struggle against antisemitism.

Figures like Klein have been so focused on tackling criticism of Israel from the left, including the Jewish left, that they have barely noted the “acute danger Jews in Germany face due to the surge in far-right antisemitism”, the letter argues.

Again, the same picture can be seen across Europe. In the UK, the opposition Labour party, which should be a safe space for those leading the anti-racism struggle, is purging itself of Jews critical of Israel and using anti-semitism smears against prominent anti-racists, especially from other oppressed minorities.

Extraordinarily, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, one of the founders of Jewish Voice for Labour, which supports Corbyn, recently found herself suspended by Starmer’s Labour. She had just appeared in a moving video in which she explained the ways antisemitism was being used by Jewish organisations to smear Jewish left-wingers like herself as “traitors” and “kapos” – an incendiary term of abuse, as Wimborne-Idrissi points out, that refers to “a Jewish inmate of a concentration camp who collaborated with the [Nazi] authorities, people who collaborated in the annihilation of their own people”.

In suspending her, Starmer effectively endorsed this campaign by the UK’s Jewish establishment of incitement against, and vilification of, leftwing Jews.

The aggressive purge of Jews from the Labour Party under the repressive rule of @Keir_Starmer marches on.

I haven't seen a sustained campaign of overt anti-Semitism quite like the effort of Labour centrists to create lists of Good Jews & Bad Jews and purge the latter. https://t.co/wVwnu47QJP

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 3, 2020

Earlier, Marc Wadsworth, a distinguished black anti-racism campaigner, found himself similarly suspended by Labour when he exposed the efforts of Ruth Smeeth, then a Labour MP and a former Jewish official in the Israel lobby group BICOM, to recruit the media to her campaign smearing political opponents on the left as antisemites.

In keeping with the rapid erosion of critical thinking in civil society organisations designed to uphold basic freedoms, Smeeth was recently appointed director of the prestigious free speech organisation Index on Censorship. There she can now work on suppressing criticism of Israel – and attack “bad Jews” – under cover of fighting censorship. In the new, inverted reality, censorship refers not to the smearing and silencing of a “bad Jew” like Wimborne-Idrissi, but to criticism of Israel over its human rights abuses, which supposedly “censors” the identification of “good Jews” with Israel – now often seen as the crime of “causing offence”.

Ok, we've now officially moved from Alice Through the Looking Glass into the Twilight Zone.

Ruth Smeeth, ex-Israel lobbyist for Bicom and a key player in outlawing solidarity for Palestinians in the Labour party, is the new CEO of free speech group Index on Censorship! https://t.co/UmHXbTQETS

— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) June 15, 2020

Boy who cried wolf

The Haaretz article helps to contextualise Europe’s current antisemitism “witch-hunt”, which targets anyone who criticises Israel or stands in solidarity with oppressed Palestinians, or associates with such people. It is an expansion of the earlier campaign by the Jewish establishment against “the wrong kind of Jew”, as identified by Finkelstein in The Holocaust Industry. But this time Jewish organisations are playing a much higher-stakes, and more dangerous, political game.

Haaretz rightly fears that the Jewish leadership in Europe is not only silencing ordinary Jews but degrading the meaning – the shock value – of antisemitism through the very act of politicising it. Jewish organisations risk alienating the European left, which has historically stood with them against Jew hatred from the right. European anti-racists suddenly find themselves equated with, and smeared as, fledgling neo-Nazis.

If those who support human rights and demand an end to the oppression of Palestinians find themselves labelled antisemitic, it will become ever harder to distinguish between bogus (weaponised) “antisemitism” on the left and real Jew hatred from the right. The antisemitism smearers – and their fellow travellers like Keir Starmer – are likely to end up suffering their very own “boy who cried wolf” syndrome.

Or as Haaretz notes:

The issue that is bothering the critics of the Bundestag [German parliament] resolution is whether the extension of the concept of antisemitism to encompass criticism of Israel is not actually adversely affecting the battle against antisemitism. The argument is that the ease with which the accusation is leveled could have the effect of eroding the concept itself.

The Antisemitism Industry

It is worth noting the shared features of the new Antisemitism Industry and Finkelstein’s earlier discussions of the Holocaust Industry.

In his book, Finkelstein identifies the “wrong Jews” as people like his mother, who survived a Nazi death camp as the rest of her family perished. These surviving Jews, Finkelstein argues, were valued by the Holocaust Industry only in so far as they served as a promotional tool for the Jewish establishment to accumulate more wealth and cultural and political status. Otherwise, the victims were ignored because the actual Holocaust’s message – in contrast to the Jewish leadership’s representation of it – was universal: that we must oppose and fight all forms of racism because they lead to persecution and genocide.

Instead the Holocaust Industry promoted a particularist, self-interested lesson that the Holocaust proves Jews are uniquely oppressed and that they therefore deserve a unique solution: a state, Israel, that must be given unique leeway by western states to commit crimes in violation of international law. The Holocaust Industry – very much to be distinguished from the real events of the Holocaust – is deeply entwined in, and rationalised by, the perpetuation of the racialist, colonial project of Israel.

In the case of the Antisemitism Industry, the “wrong Jew” surfaces again. This time the witch-hunt targets Jewish leftwingers, Jews critical of Israel, Jews opposed to the occupation, and Jews who support a boycott of the illegal settlements or of Israel itself. Again, the problem with these “bad Jews” is that they allude to a universal lesson, one that says Palestinians have at least as much right to self-determination, to dignity and security, in their historic homeland as Jewish immigrants who fled European persecution.

Keir Starmer needs to listen to the 'proudly pro-Israel' Americans for Peace Now. They reject the IHRA definition for 'weaponising' antisemitism and allowing 'McCarthyite witch hunts' of Israel critics. Only those living in a 'black hole' could support it https://t.co/mNCj0LqCky

— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) December 6, 2020

In contrast to the “bad Jews”, the Antisemitism Industry demands that a particularist conclusion be drawn about Israel – just as a particularist conclusion was earlier drawn by the Holocaust Industry. It says that to deny Jews a state is to leave them defenceless against the eternal virus of antisemitism. In this conception, the Holocaust may be uniquely abhorrent but it is far from unique. Non-Jews, given the right circumstances, are only too capable of carrying out another Holocaust. Jews must therefore always be protected, always on guard, always have their weapons (or in Israel’s case, its nuclear bombs) to hand.

‘Get out of jail’ card

This view, of course, seeks to ignore, or marginalise, other victims of the Holocaust – Romanies, communists, gays – and other kinds of racism. It needs to create a hierarchy of racisms, a competition between them, in which hatred of Jews is at the pinnacle. This is how we arrived at an absurdity: that anti-Zionism – misrepresented as the rejection of a refuge for Jews, rather than the reality that it rejects an ethnic, colonial state oppressing Palestinians – is the same as antisemitism.

Extraordinarily, as the Haaretz article clarifies, German officials are oppressing “bad Jews”, at the instigation of Jewish organisations, to prevent, as they see it, the re-emergence of the far-right and neo-Nazis. The criticisms of Israel made by the “bad Jew” are thereby not just dismissed as ideologically unsound or delusions but become proof that these Jews are colluding with, or at least nourishing, the Jew haters.

In this way, Germany, the UK and much of Europe have come to justify the exclusion of the “wrong Jew” – those who uphold universal principles for the benefit of all – from the public space. Which, of course, is exactly what Israel wants, because, rooted as it is in an ideology of ethnic exclusivity as a “Jewish state”, it necessarily rejects universal ethics.

What we see here is an illustration of a principle at the heart of Israel’s state ideology of Zionism: Israel needs antisemitism. Israel would quite literally have to invent antisemitism if it did not exist.

This is not hyperbole. The idea that the “virus of antisemitism” lies semi-dormant in every non-Jew waiting for a chance to overwhelm its host is the essential rationale for Israel. If the Holocaust was an exceptional historical event, if antisemitism was an ancient racism that in its modern incarnation followed the patterns of prejudice and hatred familiar in all racisms, from anti-black bigotry to Islamophobia, Israel would be not only redundant but an abomination – because it has been set up to dispossess and abuse another group, the Palestinians.

Antisemitism is Israel’s “get out of jail” card. Antisemitism serves to absolve Israel of the racism it structurally embodies and that would be impossible to overlook were Israel deprived of the misdirection weaponised antisemitism provides.

An empty space

The Haaretz article provides a genuine service by not only reminding us that “bad Jews” exist but in coming to their defence – something that European media is no longer willing to do. To defend “bad Jews” like Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi is to be contaminated with the same taint of antisemitism that justified the ejection of these Jews from the public space.

Haaretz records the effort of a few brave cultural institutions in Germany to protest, to hold the line, against this new McCarthyism. Their stand may fail. If it does, you may never become aware of it.

The fraudulent 'Labour antisemitism' controversy has empowered the most thuggish elements in the organised British Jewish community.

Case in point: the Campaign Against Antisemitism effectively calls for Professor David Feldman to keep quiet or be sacked. https://t.co/QWvNg84c2E

— JamieSW (@jsternweiner) December 4, 2020

Once, the “bad Jews” have been smeared into silence, as Palestinians and those who stand in solidarity with them largely have been already; when social media has de-platformed critics of Israel as Jew haters; when the media and political parties enforce this silence so absolutely they no longer need to smear anyone as an antisemite because these “antisemites” have been disappeared; when the Jewish “community” speaks with one voice because its other voices have been eliminated; when the censorship is complete, you will not know it.

There will be no record of what was lost. There will be simply an empty space, a blank slate, where discussions of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians once existed. What you will hear instead is only what Israel and its partisans want you to hear. Your ignorance will be blissfully complete.

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potteresque-ire · 5 years

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On the Hong Kong Protests

2019-08-17

I rarely talk about myself here, but I’m a Hong Konger, born and raised. I moved to the US a long time ago, but the city will always be my home.

I’ve been following the news there closely these two months. I haven’t slept well. I’m perpetually stressed. I’m both sad and happy, both frightful and hopeful.

Sad and frightful because of what the protests have come to. The violence, the sheer rage and animosity burning on the streets. Watching where tear gas and rubber bullets land every week is a strange way to revisit childhood memories, but here I am.

Happy and hopeful because Hong Kongers are finally standing up to what believe in. Hong Kongers, in my mind, have always been somewhat apathetic when it comes to politics, perhaps because they’ve never had much say in their fate. They've been mostly quiet--until now.

They roar.

I’m with the protestors. They are fighting for self-determination, for the freedoms they were promised in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration (which led to the return of the former British crown colony to China in 1997), for the transparency and true social order--one that was borne out of respect for the rule of law and not of oppression, state-sponsored violence or white terror--that had made the city such a beautiful, phenomenal place to live.

I’m posting this because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has turned on its propaganda machine in full force, and I feel obliged to say something about what I know.

What a turbo-charged CCP propaganda machine means is this: many of you will be faced with what Hong Kong and Taiwan see every day--a massive influx of social media posters who are on CCP’s payroll, whose task is to push a script written by the CCP. A script that is mostly fictional, filled with half-truths and lies. The script on Hong Kong has evolved into this: the Hong Kong protestors are violent rioters who lack popular support and above all, are terrorists and separatists. These terms are chosen to make the Western world withdraw their sympathy. They’re also designed to further fan the hatred between mainland Chinese and Hong Kongers, to ensure that the former would see what’s going on in Hong Kong as something nefarious, rather than an outcry against the ills of their common rule. To fuel the nationalist sentiment that has been propping up the mainland regime as its economy deteriorates.

Tactics of these paid social media posters include: dumping multiple posts in a thread, often repeated messages that make little sense beyond swear words and nationalistic battle cries, which quell any reasonable discussions; making death- and doxxing- threats, especially if the target is a Chinese speaker; claiming freedom of speech as they spread lies and attack their opponents, knowing that Westerners treasure their freedom of speech and are wary of trampling upon it especially when it comes to the voice of foreigners, so they get to be the loudest and drown out rival opinions. (Australians may know that this tactic has moved beyond social media: pro-Beijing supporters have physically attacked peaceful rallies in support of the Hong Kong protests, to the praise of the Chinese embassy). The meeker ones would insist that Westerners lack understanding of the situation; who are you to know what’s going on in Asia? The internal affairs of the vast People’s Republic of China? They claim that they, who’re Chinese like the Hong Kongers and Taiwanese possessed by their government, have first dibs on the truth.

Please remember this: the truth is the one thing these posters don’t have. News in the People’s Republic of China is completely censored, to a degree perhaps unimaginable for most in the West. Media outlets in China have not reported at all about the anti-extradition bill movement that had started the Hong Kong protests, about the massive but peaceful demonstrations that had only gone unheard, about the many lies the government has told before and since (the extradition bill hasn’t been withdrawn; “being dead” is not a legal term), and above all, the unprecedented police brutality that have caused the young protestors, angry and terrified, to retaliate as a means to defend themselves, knowing that the local police is now part of the CCP political machine (the Hong Kong government is officially no more than a puppet) and is working with the mafia, both local and from China, to hunt and beat protestors down (Note: Hong Kongers do not carry firearms).

Western reporters at the scene have called the situation chaotic, a mayhem, but I’d like to emphasize this: the protestors have, so far, not looted one shop; their targets have remained singly focused on the locations and people that they saw as symbolic of those responsible for the betrayal of Hong Kong, as snitches working on CCP’s orders. The chambers of the Legislative Council (equivalent to the Congress / Parliament; they didn’t even touch the library). The HK police and its headquarters. The “ghosts”, as locals call them: police / soldiers sent from the mainland dressed in Hong Kong police’s uniform (such that CCP can deflect accusations of interference); fake reporters who’ve mingled among the protestors to take photos for later identification and arrests. This laser-focus may not hold for long: police officers have increasingly been spotted donning the attire of protestors to stir up emotions and excess violence, even plant evidence in the protestors’ belongings (caught on live feeds). The “reporter” from the mainland who was beaten up at the airport last week, who has since been hailed as a hero in Chinese state media and Chinese social media cycles, is very likely such an example of CCP's attempt to destroy the protests from within. Mr Fu drew the ire of the protestors because he possessed the same blue “I love HK” t-shirt worn by a group of thugs who’d beaten up protestors several nights before, thugs who appeared to be of the same crop as those who’d attacked subway passengers indiscriminately on July 21st with the implicit blessing by the police and several prominent pro-Beijing figures. Global Times, the state propaganda tabloid, later claimed the man works for them--hence his “reporter” status--but the man didn’t own a press pass. Many have since suspected, from his unusual behavior leading to his “detainment” and beating by the protestors (he wore the fluorescent vest worn by reporters, then claimed to be a tourist, then tried to run away), that his presence was planned with the intention of making the protestors fall into CCP’s script of acting like violent rioters in front of the international press--and it worked. The incident was widely reported.

The beating was wrong, and the protestors had willingly chosen to fall into the trap. But were their suspicion, their rage and fears completely unfounded? The clip has gone viral with the push from Chinese-sponsored social media posters as evidence of the protestors’ brutality. What about the context?

Related to this, please consider: a powerful weapon that CCP has, that Hong Kong and most countries do not, is the sheer number of people at its disposal. People it can coerce, bribe, brainwash, and unleash onto Facebook and Twitter etc, derail conversations and force opinions their way. Social media is, by definition, run by the masses. CCP has the masses.

So, please, please don’t be led by the mass when reading news surrounding the CCP, and now, Hong Kong. Please doubt the things you hear on social media, even if the voice seems the loudest, even if it seems to be the majority. Even if its English is perfect. Even if it claims to originate from Hong Kong--Westerners are not trained to detect the subtle difference in language use between the two places, but speaking as an observing Hong Konger, pro-CCP posters playing Hong Kongers in social media threads are very common occurrences. Go through the facts. Watch videos longer than a few seconds that capture the context. Think. Do not trust anyone. Do not trust me.

Please choose a reliable news source. New York Times (US) and The Guardian (UK) have been following Hong Kong’s protests closely from the start. TIME magazine has also done some in-depth coverage: its latest Asia edition presents a decent summary of the root causes of the protests. Also of note: the majority of Hong Kong’s local press, such as the English-speaking South China Morning Post (SCMP), have been bought out by capitalists affiliated with the CCP (SCMP is owned by Alibaba). Outlets from Taiwan and South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia etc.) are often CCP-friendly as well for similar reasons. These outlets aren’t as outwardly pro-CCP as the Chinese state-run People’s Daily or Global Times, but they can be very skewed, if not lying, when the actions of CCP itself come to focus.

For those who’d like to watch the happenings live, relatively free from the filters by news agencies and their political agenda, here’s a link. Videos will appear whenever events and live feeds take place:

https://ncehk2019.github.io/nce-live/

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you’ll consider following the news of Hong Kong, listen to what the people are fighting for and judge for yourself where you stand. Yes, it’ll look ugly at times. Yes, you’ll see the protestors act rashly, out of anger and fear and despair. You’ll see them make mistakes, do things that make you frown, think they’ve gone too far. And if you’re planning to travel there, their actions may cause major inconveniences. I hope you’ll still choose to stand with them--do you know they've actually gone out and apologized for their behavior in the airport? Visited the subway station where the police had fired tear gas and cleaned up the toxic residue? Would rioters or terrorists do that?

The protestors are up against one of the most brutal and inhumane regimes in modern history, and they have no leaders, no precedence, no army, no funds, no backing of any kind other than popular support, other than a pure and simple faith that their actions will defend their homes and future. This isn’t a regime they can vote out in the next election. This isn’t even a regime with which they can have a conversation or make humble demands (the Five Demands of the protestors are almost laughably simple). The path the protestors have taken these two months has been made one step at a time; they’re learning, feeling their way out of the dark as they go. Because the movement is largely driven by social media, people like myself with a command of the local language can sometimes catch a glimpse of how the decisions unfold; it’s messy and loud and fascinating. It’s an experiment on direct democracy.

Do I agree with the protestors’ every action? No. But they’re the ones fighting the fight; they're the ones showing the strength, the courage that my generation, and the generations before me, didn’t have. They’re fighting because older generations like my own saw every warning sign of CCP’s encroachment but didn’t do enough, say enough. For me, one of the most heartbreaking photos of the protests was shot on July 1st, of a graffiti on a pillar in the trashed Legislative Council: it’s you (the government) who taught me that peaceful demonstrations are useless. This was a lesson they learned; this is a lesson many Hong Kongers have learned this summer. And most of these protestors have to face this knowledge so young; 700+ have been arrested so far, most in their late teens and 20s (youngest: 13). Rioting carries a sentence of 10 years; now that their “crimes” have been escalated to terrorism and treason, one can only imagine how horrific their sentences will be, the treatment those arrested are facing, even now, in detention before the trial. This is the price they’re willing to pay, for the right to self-determine, for the freedoms that should’ve been theirs all along. And the only way they can “win”, if their victory is only that the last cry of Hong Kong can be heard before CCP clenches its throat (which it will undoubtedly do), is if the West pays attention to what’s happening.

Please do. Please help.

香港加油。天佑香港。

God bless Hong Kong.

#pie speaks for hong kong

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radlydias · 4 years

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(VIRGINIA GARDNER, CIS FEMALE) - Have you seen LYDIA RADCLIFFE? LIDDY is in HER SOPHOMORE year. The ENGLISH MAJOR is 21 years old & is a PISCES. People say SHE is GENTLE, POLISHED, GLOOMY and PARANOID. Rumors say they’re a member of HASTINGS. I heard from the gossip blog that SHE HAD AN AFFAIR WITH HER SENIOR YEAR ENGLISH TEACHER WHICH RESULTED IN A PREGNANCY. THE BABY WAS ADOPTED TO HIDE THE SCANDAL.

tw: teen pregnancy & adoption

hello ! my name is bea and i’m super excited to be here! please let me know if you are interested in plotting with my wee babe lydia. i’m eager to see what she gets into here at yates. i tried to keep this intro short and sweet, liddy is a new character for me so i’m sure i’ll post more things as i develop her further!

there was never a time when lydia didn’t know that after high school she would be attending yates university. she was raised in vermont by two wealthy alumni, a legacy family in the making. her entire schooling career was preparing her for the day she would walk through the yates courtyard as a student.

she’s always had a passion for reading and writing. as a little girl she would stay up late, snuggled up with a good book. she would hide herself in her closet with a flashlight reading the iliad, shakespeare, and harry potter.

it was no surprise when she entered school that she excelled in english. throughout middle & high school she won several awards for her poetry, short stories, and literary essays. she’s showed her work at conferences across the country and spent a summer interning at the library of congress, an honor usually reserved for college students

another joy liddy found in childhood was her love of playing the piano. it seemed to come natural to her, though it probably helped that she had one of the best piano teachers in the city, and a desire to practice whenever she could. as she got older, her parents encouraged her in her craft, but it was always treated as nothing more than a hobby and nothing to pursue as a career. lydia tended to refer to it as her guilty pleasure.

her senior year, lydia found herself caught up in something she never expected. she was used to spending a lot of time with her english teachers. the english classroom was her second home. but this time she realized she was developing feelings for her teacher, and it turned into a secret affair they were able to keep under wraps until disaster struck. (**as a side note, i just wanted to throw in that lydia was eighteen at the time of the affair)

about a month before graduation, lydia discovered she was pregnant. she was terrified, but she was in love. in her perfect world, she’d put off college, she’d run away with her love and her baby and read dickens to her child in her garden and be happy. but of course...she knew that was never an option. because the love of her life was married and had a life of his own, and she had expectations to meet and a family image to uphold. teen pregnancy and a torrid affair was absolutely out of the question.

her parents were horrified to learn of lydia’s wrongdoings. after graduation, she was hid away from the world, whisked away to an aunt’s house in another state to have the baby in secret. her parents told their friends that she was taking a gap year to study abroad in various historical sites & libraries across europe.

after her daughter was born, she was promptly adopted by a family her parents found. the entire transaction was very discreet. without her parent’s knowledge, lydia quietly asked the family to send her a letter every year with a few details of her daughters life as long as they didn’t mind, and they agreed.

with the pregnancy kept under wraps, lydia was easily accepted to yates the following fall, and her freshman year was invited into the hastings society due to her literary and even musical accomplishments.

lydia has had a bit of trouble finding herself again after the affair and the baby. besides for her hormones being thrown for a loop, she lost a great love, and she was in a new place without her old friends or comforts.

she has a job in the library which is one of her favorite places on campus. she doesn’t really need to work as her parents are funding her college experience, but she likes spending time there.

she’s changed quite a bit since her ordeal. the girl who once cared about nothing but her scholarly pursuits was left back in high school. she still feels the weight of needing to please her parents, but she’s trying to find more of herself too. she knows she has to be someone beyond studying. she wants to branch out, she wants to have fun. she’s just afraid of opening herself up again for the first time since her pregnancy. but deep down, she truly is a happy, passionate young woman.

tldr; lydia is a big fat book nerd who got knocked up by her high school english teacher and took a gap year to have the baby before yates. heartbroken & hormonal, she now longs to explore new things and maybe stop being so boring.

wanted connections

friends - give my sweet baby some pals! people she trusts. people that give her new experiences. sometimes she’s a tad bit gloomy since her high school scandal, so i’d love some people that can break through her shell. some close friends, acquaintances, literally anything.

romantic - lydia is bisexual, but she doesn’t entirely know it yet. she’s explored that side of her, and i’d love for her to be able to do that at yates. that being said, i’m open to all types of romantic relationships for her here !!

roommate - i’m not sure if the hastings dorms are singles or doubles or beyond, but i’m open to the idea of lydia having a roommate or two!

coworkers & classmates - maybe anyone she works with at the library, or sits next to in class, etc.

anything!! we can brainstorm! i’m open to all types of interesting connections & drama hehe.

#*: ･ﾟ∙ * ⁕ about ⦀ before I walk away against my will #yatesintro

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filmnoirfoundation · 5 years

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#NoirCityHollywood returns to the Egyptian Theatre today with a triple feature, starting at 5:00 p.m: M (1931); M (1951); and the FNF restoration of EL VAMPIRO NEGRO (1953), based on Fritz Lang's 1931 M. FNF prez and Noir Alley host Eddie Muller in person! Festival details at http://bit.ly/2vHKd2O M (1931) 1931, Janus Films, 99 min, Germany, Dir: Fritz Lang Peter Lorre is unforgettable as serial killer Hans Beckert, preying on children and whistling “In the Hall of the Mountain King” as he works. When the ensuing police crackdown proves bad for criminal business, all of Berlin’s underworld joins the manhunt for Beckert. This classic crime thriller was Fritz Lang’s first sound film, as well as the director’s personal favorite. 35 mm!

M (1951) 1951, Superior Pictures, 91 min, USA, Dir: Joseph Losey The Hollywood version of Lang’s 1931 classic, about a child murderer simultaneously hunted by police and criminals, trades Berlin’s streets for those of L.A.’s Bunker Hill circa 1950. David Wayne gives a heart-rending performance as the killer, supported by a veritable character actor’s Hall of Fame: Howard Da Silva, Luther Adler, Steve Brodie, Raymond Burr, Norman Lloyd, Walter Burke and Jim Backus. Featuring a nerve-wracking and brilliantly filmed climax inside the famed Bradbury Building! New DCP Restoration!

EL VAMPIRO NEGRO THE BLACK VAMPIRE 1953, Argentine Sono Films, 90 min, Argentina, Dir: Román Viñoly In this stunning reimagining of Lang’s classic “M”, Olga Zubarry (Argentina’s Marilyn Monroe), plays a chanteuse and single mother who is sole witness to a child killer stalking the streets of Buenos Aires. Will her daughter be the next victim? Featuring stunning cinematography by Aníbal González Paz. A major cinema discovery presented in a new DCP Restoration!

M (1931) in German with English subtitles.

M (1951) print courtesy of the Library of Congress.

EL VAMPIRO NEGRO in Spanish with English subtitles. DCP restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with the Film Noir Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Charitable Trust (Golden Globes).

Special Ticket Prices: $15 General, $13 Members. No vouchers.

#m 1931 #m 1951 #el vampiro negro #peter lorre #fritz lang #joseph lang #david wayne #román viñoly barreto #Olga Zubarry #aníbal gonzález paz #hfpa #egyptian theatre

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jewish-privilege · 5 years

Link

"I cannot be anti-Semitic alone." That's the declaration captured on video of a performer at last month's Conflict Over Gaza conference, an event held at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and co-sponsored by several UNC entities and departments, including the Chancellor's Global Education Fund.

"Let's try it together," rapper Tamer Nafar tells the audience before his performance, inviting them to sing. "I need your help. I cannot be anti-Semitic alone." "Don't think of Rihanna when you sing this, don't think of Beyonce - think of Mel Gibson. I'm in love with a Jew/Oh/I fell in love with a Jew/Oh/Her skin is white and my skin is brown, she was going up up and I was going down." The raw video was taken by filmmaker Ami Horowitz and shared exclusively with the ABC11 I-Team. Horowitz, based in New York, posted that clip and other anti-Semitic exchanges he said he experienced while visiting the campus the weekend of March 22 on his YouTube page. "I heard there was a conference going on about the conflict in Gaza, and my initial assumption was that it was going to be a hate fest against Israel," Horowitz tells ABC11. "When I went there, that is what I found, but what I did not expect was for it to evolve into open anti-Semitism." "You expect these attitudes from Neo-Nazis and white nationalists, but you don't expect these attitudes in the halls of academia and the halls of Congress," he said. The conference, titled Conflict Over Gaza: People, Politics and Possibilities, was officially sponsored by the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies. The event's website lists more than 30 co-sponsors ranging from UNC School of Law to the Rotary Club of Raleigh. The three-day event's description explains that the conference "will shed much-needed light on the current realities in the Gaza Strip, giving participants a deeper understanding of the context of these realities and offering concrete options that can better the lives of Gazans. The conference also highlights Gazan culture-music, films, food, and art-to showcase the beauty that goes along with the challenges of life in the Gaza Strip." The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, moreover, says on its website that it "supports events that increase awareness of the history and cultures of the Middle East and Muslim civilizations, and values diverse perspectives that promote dialogue and understanding. Events listed here originate from a variety of campus units and community organizations. The listing of an event does not constitute endorsement of or agreement with the views presented therein." ...ABC11 reached out to UNC about the conference. Citing Horowitz's YouTube video, UNC Global sent the following statement: This video was produced by an individual who attended the "Conflict over Gaza" conference and recorded discussions with a number of attendees who were unaware he was taping their statements. The content was heavily edited, and the product as presented does not provide context as to the questions and the full, complete answers given. Moreover, we do not believe this video represents the spirit of scholarship at the event. The conference brought together internationally recognized scholars and professionals from NGOs, think tanks, and academia to address a range of topics about Gaza from different viewpoints. The sponsors supported the event as an educational opportunity, and this video misconstrued the breadth of discourse that took place during the panels. Our University is united by students, faculty, and staff from more than one hundred countries and represented by a diverse range of perspectives, traditions, and faiths. Diversity is an intrinsically vital part of shaping dialogue that can address complex issues, and we uphold a commitment to fostering a welcoming environment to people from all backgrounds. Conferences such as this are organized by scholars who have academic freedom to develop the programming and invite their selected speakers and performers. UNC Global supports faculty in hosting these conferences without endorsing the beliefs of speakers or performers. ABC11 again reached out to UNC Global, sending them the raw, unedited version of the performance. The organization referred ABC11 back to the original statement, with emphasis on the final paragraph. Late Thursday evening, Duke sent a response to ABC11. "We want to be very clear: antisemitism is one of the great scourges of modern life. Its resurgence, as demonstrated by the worldwide increase in hate crimes and incidents, is deeply troubling and should be of great concern to any civil society," said a joint statement from Duke University President Vincent E. Price and Provost Sally Kornbluth. "Whether it occurs on our campus, in our community, through graffiti, rallies or concerts, in conference rooms or courtrooms, we must all speak out forcefully against actions and statements that target and threaten members of our Jewish community. On our campus and beyond, the lines of politics, trust, activism and civility cannot become so blurred that we lose our commitment to mutual respect. We must guard against the danger that our passions obscure our common humanity, and we must remind ourselves that what injures any one of us injures us all." On Friday, UNC Interim Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz issued the following statement: A performance during a recent conference held on our campus contained disturbing and hateful language. Like many members of our community, I am heartbroken and deeply offended that this performance happened. I stand steadfast against Anti-Semitism and hate in all its forms. The Carolina spirit is not about hateful language that divides us, but about civil discourse that advances ideas and knowledge. We must continue to aspire together to that ideal. Several members of the Triangle's Jewish Community sent letters to both UNC and Duke leaders critical of the conference and its roster of speakers. In a letter posted online, Hillel North Carolina writes: "North Carolina Hillel is disappointed that the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies' "Conflict Over Gaza" conference featured speakers who demonized Israel for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and included too few perspectives from scholars who could have provided balanced context and multiple viewpoints on this challenging subject. Organizers missed the opportunity to convene a rich, educational forum that the UNC and Duke communities deserve." Beth El Synagogue in Durham, meanwhile, wrote to administrators ahead of the event that "Beth El members have been troubled by the recent uptick in antisemitic acts which have occurred at Duke, UNC, and around the Durham-Chapel Hill area. In addition to this, while criticism of Israel is, of course, legitimate and important in a democratic society, portraying Israel only as an oppressor and Palestinians only as victims functions to demonize Israel, and neither leads to constructive dialogue nor advances rigorous academic thought." ...Unrelated to the conference, Guskiewicz on Wednesday alerted students and faculty that "university Libraries officials found several anti-Semitic posters on bookshelves and tables in Davis Library." "I am extremely disappointed and appalled that anyone would write these abhorrent messages and direct them toward members of our Jewish community," Guzkiewicz added. "This behavior conflicts with the University's long-standing commitment to fostering an environment where all students, faculty and staff can be free from harassment." Hillel North Carolina also wrote a letter to students that added more details to the posters: "The fliers include references to 'an evil Jewish plot,' and the missive, 'do everything you can to fight the silent covert Jewish attempt to enslave and kill good Americans.'"

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todaysdocument · 5 years

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“Act of August 10, 1846 [An Act to Establish the Smithsonian Institution],” 8/10/1846

Series: Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789 - 2013. Record Group 11: General Records of the United States Government, 1778 - 2006.

James Smithson, an English scientist who had never visited America, donated funds to the United States to establish a scientific and cultural institution. After ten years of debate, Congress passed this legislation establishing the Smithsonian Institution as a charitable trust. The law provided for the construction of a building housing a museum, a chemical laboratory, a library, an art gallery, and lecture rooms. Congress awarded the Smithsonian the authority to gather the government's scientific and artistic works into one collection.

#archivesgov #Smithsonian Institution #Smithsonian #James Smithson #1800s #1840s #1846 #August 10

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thatsmrfantastic-archived · 5 years

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BASICS

NAME: Dr. Reed Theodore Richards HOUSE: Hufflepuff POSITION: Charge Nurse, Healer at Hogwarts AREA OF STUDY: Anatomy & Medicine WAND: 16 inches long, made of reed wood (ironically), flexible, Thunderbird tail feather core. Reed wood is associated with scholarship and knowledge. Reed wood people are good with words, and steadfast in their beliefs. They are deeply rooted and extremely flexible. Reed wood people should trust in their ability to adapt to new situations without ever losing sense of who they are. Wands with Thunderbird tail feather core’s are difficult to master, like the bird’s their tail feather’s are from. However once bonded with the witch or wizard they have chosen, wands like these have a unique attribute like Thunderbird’s to pre-emptively sense danger. They have been known to fire curses on their own in protection of the wizard or witch they are bonded to when sensing other dark wizards and other malicious supernatural dangers nearby. PATRONUS: Sea Lion. A symbol of imagination and creativity that may be hidden to the castor. Sea Lion patronuses were thought to mean the wizard or witch should pay more attention to their talents and see their own self worth. Sea Lion’s in some cultures were also thought of as innately happy animal spirits that showed trust and integrity. That the person has an inner strength and compassion that was often overlooked at first.

BIOGRAPHY

Reed was the son of a great American Wizard (Nathaniel Richards) and British witch (Evelyn Richards) both of whom worked for the Magical Congress of the United States of America’s and Ministry of Magic (respectively) in the Department of Unidentifiable Magical Objects. However both of them were involved in a national government classified incident where they came into contact with a series of objects they were unable to both properly identify and/or contain. Evelyn lost her life in the incident which led to Reed’s father, Nathaniel, researching the magical properties and sciences of time that eventually had him accused of malpractice and endangering/exposing a minor wizard to forbidden spells and wares. When Reed was 5 years old his father was sent and committed to Azkaban prison for his madness and reckless endangerment of both muggle and magical people’s lives.

Taken under wing as a child then by close family friends, from Manchester, the Grimms, Ben and Reed became fast friends and practically brothers. At 9 years old Reed wrote and published a best selling book at Flourish and Blott’s called The Uses and Limits of Science in the Magical World which applied muggle based theories with magical equations and earned him quite the reputation among the wizard academic society in Britain.

The two both received their Hogwarts letters and attended school together. Because of how intelligent Reed was, everyone automatically assumed he’d be sorted into Ravenclaw when miraculously, the Sorting Hat’s voice rang out

“ HUFFLEPUFF! ”

As Ben was sorted into Gryffindor and he and Reed slowly began to drift apart, not entirely but enough for Reed to feel lonely...he found himself then alienated by the other Hufflepuffs. He wasn’t....particularly touchy feeling or enjoyed talking to others about....what was going on inside his head and so he spent most of his days in the library, reading, by himself. He’d never had any other friends except for Ben, and with how busy he was with Quidditch these days, he just spent a lot of time with his books.

Until he met another boy, by himself, in the library. Victor von Doom, a Slytherin student and pureblood like Reed, was from a family dedicated to the Dark Arts. While he wasn’t particularly fond of Reed he found the other boy always popping up, where ever he went. And talking to him and studying together soon became routine.

At the end of third year, Ben and Reed clear the air and the two reconnect. Fast forward, by the start of Fourth year oddly, Reed is confused as to why Victor now doesn’t talk to him and why he’s been avoiding him. Ben introduces him to fellow students and friends of his Susan and Johnny Storm (even if Johnny annoys the heck outta Ben sometimes) and the four of them seemed to become a tight knit group that everyone admired for their camaraderie and closeness. There wasn’t anything Reed wouldn’t do for them, especially Susan, who he admittedly had feelings for at the time.

During his education at Hogwarts he took an interest in helping out in the hospital wing, alongside another boy Stephen Strange. The two ultimately seemed to be neck in neck for an apprenticeship after school, however Stephen’s fascination with the flow of Time and it’s studies took him elsewhere academically and Reed quickly found he had a knack for mending bones, limbs and tissue.

In his seventh year he received a letter from Victor, saying he wouldn’t be returning to school. Thoroughly confused, Reed travelled to his family’s estate in Latveria where the entire mansion furniture was covered and empty, as if not a soul had ever lived there. The only remaining resident, it seemed, was a black cat with green eyes, that wore a collar with the name “Omen” engraved into the tag. A word of foreshadowing impending good fortune or doom.

After graduation, Reed went on to take an apprenticeship with the school physician and then spread his wings becoming a nurse/intern with St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. There he worked his way up to a Senior Healer and spent many years working with those that suffered severe mental trauma at the hands of the dark arts and other forbidden spells. He was recently offered a permanent position at Hogwarts as the Charge Nurse, taking over for the Matron that used to teach him and thus, full circle, returned to the school he spent so many years and good memories in to help children, like him, that were just looking to find their way.

RANDOM FACTS

Reed once performed a spell in a duel that turned all his bones and skin tissue to a plasticity, stretchy type texture. This was his first visit to the infirmary ward in school and ultimately what got him interested in magic and medicine in the first place. Because of this he got the nickname “Stretch” in school.

Reed’s a private person, for the most part. He’ll talk your ear off about just about anything but if he talks to you about his memories of his family or any particular one ‘feeling’ he has -- you’re someone very special to him.

He visits his father once a year in Azkaban. He’s tried to make him as comfortable as possible in the past but his father has repeatedly said the only thing that would make him happy is if Reed continued his alchemy experiments, something Reed won’t do.

Reed’s pansexual. He’s had feelings and dated both men and women over the years. Still second on Rita Skeeter’s list of the Wizarding World’s most eligible bachelor’s. She’s dubbed him “Mr. Fantastic”.

Since his first book he’s gone on to publish many others and give seminars about the mind and magic, science, astrology and biochemistry.

He’s comfortable financially and gives to charities like St. Mungo’s Fund for those victimized by the Cruciatus Curse.

He started a small private school in London for wizards and witches called The Future Foundation of Magic

Reed’s favorite muggle show is Star Trek. Also anything space related is an easy way to get his eyes to light up and interest piqued.

He drives an enchanted 1957 red chevy bel air coupe to and from work. During the school year Hogwarts puts him up as he has to be available on site for any emergencies. Omen can be found on his desk or on the beds with a patient if they scratch him behind the ears and worship him enough.

It doesn’t matter who you are or your parents were, if you’re hurting he’ll try to help.

CONNECTIONS!

Prior (but not yet claimed): Benjamin Grimm, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, Victor von Doom, Stephen Strange.

open for plotting - if you’d like to be a part of this group too go see @astrobrave‘s page for details!!!!

#Hogwarts Verse ;; a FANTASTIC magical AU timeline.#reed richards ;; that’s ‘mister’ fantastic

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