#bona for president of the world

[miraclegyaru]

Bona from My Singing Monsters for president of the world

Hi, all i want to say is i want Bona from My Singing Monsters for president of the world. Proposals: Improve the economy of all the countries Make free Hatsune Miku concerts MSM (My Singing Monsters) free events Ending up racism And more things. Vote for Bona :3

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Steven Zeitchik

Those comments sparked a backlash at the time. But many liberal Jews in Hollywood, media and tech identified with her remarks.

To some non-Jews I talked to, today’s news was just a case of a tribal rooting interest not going our way. “Oh well, you’ll get the next one,” went their vibe. But when a Jewish leader this popular from a state so necessary gets passed over, it becomes more than just a matter of losing a round of identity-politics poker — it touches an existential nerve.

Some Jews have also noted that in choosing Walz, Harris was simply trying to stay away from raising Gaza as an issue. But outside of antisemitic projection, why would it do that? The idea that a candidate would automatically want to talk more about Israel simply because he’s Jewish raises ugly tropes of dual loyalty, or worse.

Wary of seeming killjoyish, some liberal Jewish Americans also sought to find a silver lining — at least now Jews wouldn’t be blamed for administration failures, they said. They cited The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg, one of the most eloquent expositors of the double standards applied to Shapiro, who in a recent piece expressed some reservations about what a Shapiro vice presidency would bring.

“Anti-Semitism conceives of Jews as clandestine puppeteers who control the world’s governments and economies, fueling political and social problems,” he wrote. “A Jewish vice president would provide the perfect canvas for these fevered fantasies — a largely ceremonial figure onto whom bigots could nonetheless project all of their conspiracies, casting him as the real power behind the Resolute Desk.”

Rosenberg has forgotten more about the history of antisemitism than most of us will ever know. But this train of thought has always struck me as self-defeating. The response to fears of prejudice can’t be, “Let’s hide the Jews to prevent us from finding out about it.” 

A Jewish vice president would have been important not only because it would have signaled the latest progress of one ethnic group in America as thrillingly as Harris’ candidacy does for Americans of Black and Indian heritage, but also because it would have drawn antisemites out from the crevices, shining Louis Brandeis’ disinfecting light brightly upon them.

(That Harris’ husband is Jewish, incidentally, should do little to quell the unease. Jewish affiliations are proof of nothing except the reminder of past justifications. It calls to mind those who several years ago said Taika Waititi’s Nazi comedy Jojo Rabbit couldn’t be antisemitic because Waititi was Jewish. It wasn’t antisemitic. But that wasn’t the reason.)

Walz is a solid candidate with a strong record of speaking out against antisemitism. Just this spring he told Twin Cities PBS that, “I think when Jewish students are telling us they feel unsafe in that, we need to believe them.”

But Walz’s pro-Jewish bona fides don’t mean the decision to put him on the ticket — or the reaction to his appointment — can’t also be shadowed with antisemitism. Both can be true.

And so here liberal Jews again find ourselves, hopelessly marooned between a belief that Democratic policies are fundamentally better for our interests and yet worried we are not welcome in our own home — feeling a gentle nudge that perhaps we might find ourselves more comfortable in another place but unsure, in the end, of where else to go.

[deadpresidents]

A Deadly "Peacemaker" and Unlikely Matchmaker: The Worst First Date Ever.

On February 28, 1844, Dolley Madison was far removed from her time as First Lady of the United States, but still held on to her spot as Washington's Greatest Hostess. She was the widow of a bona fide Founding Father, James Madison -- the 4th President of the United States and principal author of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights -- but he had left the White House almost 27 years earlier and died in 1836. However, Dolley -- now 75 years old -- remained a darling of the Washington social scene. Though she often struggled financially, Dolley Madison continued entertaining guests in the nation's capital and helped organize social gatherings around the city, acting as a sort of guest hostess wherever she visited and whenever she was invited -- and she was invited everywhere. Now, as the first auguries of spring began their awakening in-and-around Washington, D.C., Dolley helped plan a cruise down the Potomac River on the newly-built USS Princeton -- a showcase vessel for the United States Navy which happened to be one of the most advanced warships of its time. Nearly 70 years after the Declaration of Independence, Dolley Madison was still the life of the party and an ideal person to help plan a celebration aboard the USS Princeton, just as she'd been doing throughout the entire life of the young American nation.

[Dolley Madison, daguerreotype by Mathew Brady in 1848, four years after the Princeton explosion.]

Launched just six months earlier, the Princeton was the U.S. Navy's first propeller-driven warship and its Captain, Robert Field Stockton, was proud of his charge. A cruise to demonstrate the ship's speed, capabilities, and weaponry to the Washington elite would be advantageous to the Navy's growth and to Captain Stockton's ambition. Besides Dolley Madison and the Princeton's crew of 178 sailors, the ship welcomed over 350 guests, including dignitaries such as Secretary of State Abel Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Gilmer, Secretary of War William Wilkins, Postmaster General Charles A. Wickliffe, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and other diplomats and members of Congress. The most celebrated guest on the Princeton that day, however, was President John Tyler, who had also invited a young woman he had been romantically interested in, Julia Gardiner, and her father, David Gardiner, an influential New York lawyer and former State Senator.

Everyone on board the Princeton had underlying reasons for taking the cruise down the Potomac. For some, it was to see the Princeton for themselves. For others, it was because it was the place to be for politicians and diplomats on that February day. Some took the cruise for the opportunity to observe others, and some took the cruise in order to be noticed. The big draw, however, was a chance to see the Princeton's two large guns -- weapons so big and powerful that they were given their own names: the "Oregon" and the "Peacemaker" -- being fired. Both of the guns were impressive, but the "Peacemaker" was an amazing spectacle. At the time, it was the largest naval gun in the world. The ship was so new and the "Peacemaker" was so potentially devastating that, as of the day of the Princeton's cruise down the Potomac, the weapon had been fired no more than five times, according to Captain Stockton.

In February 1844, John Tyler was entering the final year of a contentious, controversial, and accidental Presidency. Elected as Vice President alongside William Henry Harrison in 1840, Tyler spent only a month in the Vice Presidency before President Harrison died in office. On April 4, 1841, Tyler became the 10th President of the United States, but his succession was not a smooth one. Harrison had been the first President to die in office and the Constitution was not specifically clear about Presidential succession. To many, including everyone in President Harrison's Cabinet, Tyler was still the Vice President and only assumed the duties of the Presidency, not the title or the privileges (such as living in the White House). At his first meeting with the men Harrison had appointed to the Cabinet, the Cabinet all but insisted that they would rule by committee and that Tyler had no more power or influence than, say the Postmaster General (which was a Cabinet-level position until 1971). Many Americans felt that Tyler was merely "Acting President," and that he was to defer to the will of the Cabinet on all issues.

Tyler vehemently disagreed and the manner in which he assumed office set a precedent that was followed by all future Vice Presidents and was eventually cemented into the Constitution. Tyler declared that he was not the Vice President or the "Acting President," but that Harrison's death had propelled him directly into the office of President of the United States to serve out the remainder of Harrison's elected term with the same powers and duties and privileges that come with the office. Tyler moved into the White House and, when his Cabinet balked at his assumption of power, he accepted the resignation of everyone but his Secretary of State, Daniel Webster (Webster eventually resigned in 1843).

President Tyler's troubles did not disappear once Harrison's hand-picked Cabinet departed or after Tyler settled into the Executive Mansion. The slavery question was tearing the nation further and further apart by the day. When Tyler won election in 1840 as Harrison's Vice President, he did so as a member of the Whig Party, but when it came down to Tyler's personal political ideology he was all over the political spectrum. As a younger man, he supported Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans and he supported Andrew Jackson during Jackson's first term before Tyler became a Whig. Upon his Vice Presidential nomination, there were questions about Tyler's Whig credentials, but the Whigs needed a strong Southern balance on the ticket and accepted Tyler. But now that General Harrison was dead, President Tyler's independence frustrated his party, which felt that he was not sufficiently Whiggish. With former President Andrew Jackson out of the picture and retired in Nashville, and with Whigs in control of Congress and the White House, the party attempted to establish another Bank of the United States. The Whig Congress pushed through a bill creating a new Bank of the United States, but President Tyler definitively broke ranks with the party that had nominated him for national office and vetoed the bill. Twice. So, just months after assuming the Presidency, Tyler was expelled from the Whig Party and remained a President without a party until he left the White House in 1845.

Now, on a warm day at the end of February 1844, Tyler was thinking about whether or not he would support the annexation of Texas. The President also thought of romance. In September 1842, Tyler's wife, Letitia, died in the White House after suffering a stroke. Tyler was still grieving when he began courting Julia Gardiner in January 1843. Tyler had met Julia while his wife was still alive, but he didn't become smitten with her until after his wife's death. Tyler and Julia kept their relationship guarded from the public and the President was even secretive about it to his (very large) family. Part of the reason for his reluctance to be open about his feelings was because Letitia had only been dead for a few months when he started dating Julia. However, a bigger reason was Julia's age. When they began dating, Julia Gardiner was just 22 years old. The 52-year-old President was wary about how his children (he and Letitia had seven children who lived to maturity) would feel about him dating a woman who was five years younger than his oldest daughter.

The age difference also worried Julia's family. Julia Gardiner was the daughter of David Gardiner, a wealthy New York lawyer and former New York State Senator. She was born in 1820 on an island in the Long Island Sound named after her family, and had everything that she wanted or needed while growing up on Gardiner's Island. Julia was beautiful and much in demand by the eligible bachelors of the East Coast. After meeting President Tyler, Julia first tried to reject his advances, but she was certainly intrigued by the powerful and charming Virginian. For his part, Tyler was madly in love with Julia and he first proposed to her in late-1843. Julia's mother did not approve of her daughter marrying a man 30 years older than Julia, so Tyler didn't get an answer. By inviting Julia and her father to accompany him on the USS Princeton, John Tyler hoped to show David Gardiner that he could impress the wealthy New Yorker and demonstrate that he could be a wonderful husband to Julia.

[Julia Gardiner Tyler, around the time of the Princeton explosion and her marriage to President Tyler, c. 1844]

••• Guests gathered at the Washington Navy Yard as ferries transported them across the Potomac River to Alexandria, Virginia, where the USS Princeton was anchored and ready for the afternoon cruise down the Potomac. As dignitaries boarded Captain Stockton's ship, they marveled at the size of the two guns on deck and examined every inch of the 164-foot warship. Music was provided by the United States Marine Band -- "The President's Own" -- and food was served below deck as the Princeton began its leisurely cruise down the Potomac. As guests explored the Princeton and watched the historic sites on both shores of the Potomac pass by, the massive "Peacemaker" gun was fired to the delight of everyone on the ship. The rounds fired by the powerful "Peacemaker" were capable of traveling up to three miles. As the warship cruised down the river the rounds that were fired were aimed at ice floes in the distance which were breaking apart as the afternoon sun warmed the Potomac. The cruise continued, with men mostly on the deck and pretty much all women below deck where food and drinks flowed freely, conversation was genial, and some of the guests were gleefully singing and clearly enjoying themselves.

When the Princeton reached Mount Vernon and George Washington's sprawling estate came into view, the ship fired another round from the "Peacemaker" in tribute the first President and then turned around for the return trip to Washington, D.C. The Princeton's passengers had gathered below deck for celebratory toasts and to listen to the impromptu singing concert taking place in the salon. At around 4:00 PM, some of the men requested a chance to witness the "Peacemaker" being fired again, but Captain Stockton demurred, telling the men, "No more guns tonight." However, one of the men who wished to see the "Peacemaker" fired once again was Thomas W. Gilmer, the man who had become Secretary of the Navy just 10 days earlier -- a man who just happened to be Captain Stockton's superior. Gilmer's wish was something akin to an order to Captain Stockton, so Stockton headed to the deck and had the gun prepared to be fired once more.

Many of the men began heading upstairs to witness the firing of the "Peacemaker" while the women mostly remained below deck and continued with their songs and conversations. President Tyler was heading up the gangway plank towards the deck when he was told that his son-in-law, William Waller, the husband of his daughter Elizabeth, was about to sing one of Tyler's favorite songs. Instead of heading to the deck, the President headed back into the salon and was handed a drink. Upstairs, men crowded around the giant "Peacemaker" for one last demonstration of its firing power.

On the deck, Secretary of War William Wilkins jokingly told the spectators, "Though I am Secretary of War, I do not like this firing, and believe I shall run!" before moving to the far side of the Princeton. The remainder of the guests were close to the "Peacemaker" and the big gun was ready to be fired. The Princeton was about 15 miles downriver from Washington, D.C. and two sailors took the final steps for firing the weapon.

Suddenly, at 4:06 PM, a massive explosion rocked the Princeton and the deck was obscured by white smoke and an eerie silence. President Tyler rushed up to the deck to investigate what had happened, but what he found was a horrific scene. The "Peacemaker" -- the largest naval gun in the world -- had exploded at the breech. The powerful explosion tore part of the ship's deck and the "Peacemaker" broke into red-hot pieces of iron that flew into the crowd of spectators. Nobody downstairs was injured, but the deck of the Princeton was a place of horror. Eight people had been killed and 17 were seriously injured, including Captain Stockton and Senator Thomas Hart Benton. As President Tyler reached the deck, the silence turned to anguished screams and confusion.

The President fought through the smoke and found that the toll was high. Secretary of State Abel Upshur was dead -- literally disemboweled by the blast. Navy Secretary Gilmer was dead. The Princeton's Commander Beverly Kennon and two Princeton sailors were dead. American diplomat Virgil Maxcy was dead. President Tyler's slave, Armistead, who had requested and been granted permission from Tyler to view the gun as it was being fired was dead. And, finally, David Gardiner -- the father of the woman that the President hoped to marry -- was also killed by the blast, his arms and legs severed from his body by the force of the explosion. A tearful President was devastated by the loss of two of his senior Cabinet members, and he headed back down below deck to notify the women about what had happened. With dozens of victims and witnesses screaming, crying, and/or in shock throughout the ship, there was an attempt to keep most of the passengers below so that they didn't see the gruesome scene on the deck.

[Secretary of State Abel Upshur and Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Gilmer, who were both killed by the explosion on Feb. 28, 1844.]

The smoke-filled deck of the Princeton was covered with blood, dismembered limbs, dead bodies, and stunned survivors, many of whom had been wounded by pieces of red-hot, iron shrapnel from the gun or pieces of human beings torn apart by the explosion. Throughout the ship, ears were ringing and people were rendered temporarily deaf by the sound of the blast. Below decks, the women who had accompanied the Princeton awaited more news from above, which quickly trickled downstairs. Someone yelled, "The Secretary of State is dead!" and the news did not improve. When Julia Gardiner found out that her father was among those who had been killed in the blast, she fainted -- directly into the arms of President Tyler. Dolley Madison, who had seen much in her 75 years -- during the War of 1812, she barely escaped the White House shortly before British forces captured Washington and burned the Capitol and the Presidential Mansion -- was certainly stunned by the tragedy aboard the ship, but she quickly did her best to comfort the Princeton's passengers who were shaken and distressed.

As the USS Princeton limped back to Washington, D.C., John Tyler comforted Julia Gardiner as best as he could. For the President, his pleasure cruise with the woman he hoped to marry and her wealthy father could not have gone worse. Now, David Gardiner was literally laying in pieces on the deck of the Princeton as Tyler -- who was also returning to Washington without a Secretary of State or Secretary of the Navy -- tried to console Gardiner's young daughter, but she remained unconscious until the ship arrived back in Alexandria, Virginia.

When the Princeton arrived at Alexandria, President Tyler physically carried Julia Gardiner from the wounded warship. On the gangplank, Julia finally awakened in the President's arms, and as she later said, "I struggled so that I almost knocked both of us off the gangplank. I did not know at the time, but I learned later it was the President whose life I almost consigned to the water." President Tyler had Julia taken directly to the White House where she spent the next few days recuperating under the watchful eyes of the President and his large family.

The bodies of Julia's father, the two dead Cabinet members (Secretaries Upshur and Gilmer), the Princeton's Commander Kennon, and the diplomat Maxcy remained on board the Princeton on the night of February 28th. The injured went to hospitals and homes around the capital city. The next day, Washington was in official mourning as the word of the tragedy spread and the signs of mourning -- black crepe hanging on the White House and other public buildings --were displayed. As Washington mourned, the bodies of Gardiner, Upshur, Gilmer, Kennon, and Maxcy were transported to the White House, where their flag-draped caskets rested in honor in the East Room. (It's safe to assume that President Tyler's slave wasn't awarded the same honors -- when the bodies were removed from the Princeton, they were all placed in magnificent mahogany caskets, except for Armistead, who was placed in one made from cherry. The President did reportedly give Armistead's mother $200.)

After two days of lying in state in the East Room of the White House, Gardiner, Upshur, Gilmer, and Kennon were transferred to St. John's Episcopal Church, where all of official Washington showed up to pay their respects at their joint funeral (Maxcy's family took his remains for a private funeral and burial shortly after his body arrived at the Executive Mansion). It was a solemn occasion -- one of the biggest tragedies to strike the United States up to that point, and a significant loss to President Tyler, both professionally and personally. Tyler was mourning two important members of his Cabinet, and the woman he hoped to marry was burying her father after he had been killed in the most gruesome manner imaginable on a cruise that Tyler had invited him to take.

The funeral started with an ominous and unfortunate signal: the firing of loud artillery across from the Executive Mansion could not have been a pleasant reminder to those who had survived the tragedy on board the Princeton a few days earlier. The bodies of Upshur, Gilmer, Kennon, and Gardiner were taken to Congressional Cemetery following the funeral and buried there, although Gardiner was later exhumed and reburied on Gardiner's Island in New York. After narrowly escaping death or serious injury on the Princeton a few days earlier, President Tyler found himself in danger once again as he left the funeral. Traveling through the busy streets of Washington in his horse-drawn carriage, the President's horses were startled by the crowds and bolted -- leaving Tyler helpless in a runaway carriage until a man bravely rushed out from a hotel entrance and helped stop the carriage.

••• Being comforted by President Tyler and his immediate family in the aftermath of her father's death changed Julia Gardiner's mind about marrying the much older President. Tyler had done everything possible to console her and make her feel safe in the days after the Princeton explosion. Later, Julia would write that, "After I lost my father, I felt differently towards the President. He seemed to fill the place and to be more agreeable in every way than any younger man was or could be." While the loss of her father was certainly tragic, John Tyler happened to be in the right place at the right time, and, in a strange way, David Gardiner's death may have helped spark the romance between the President and Gardiner's daughter. Several weeks after the Princeton tragedy, Tyler asked Julia's mother (who herself was nearly a decade younger than the President!) for her blessing to marry Julia and Mrs. Gardiner approved of the union.

Still, the marriage was not without controversy. The wedding took place on June 26, 1844, just a few months after the Princeton explosion. Julia and her family were still in mourning for Mr. Gardiner, so the wedding was solemn and low-key. Plus, the President's family -- particularly his daughters from his first marriage -- were reluctant to accept his new bride. After all, Tyler's first wife had died less than two years earlier, and Julia Gardiner was about the same age as Tyler's daughters; in fact, she was five years younger than Tyler's oldest daughter. One more unique aspect of the wedding was that this was the first time an incumbent President of the United States had ever gotten married while in office. Normally, it would be blockbuster social news, but the President's wedding was kept strictly private.

Accompanied only by his son, John Tyler III, the President and Julia Gardiner were married at the Church of the Ascension in Manhattan (which is still standing today, at Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street in Greenwich Village) on June 26, 1844. Very few people even knew that the President was in town until after the wedding when they heard the salute from the guns of warships in New York Harbor as he and his new First Lady departed the city (again, maybe firing the guns wasn't the greatest idea for this particular couple at that particular time?). According to one of the only eyewitness accounts of the wedding, published in The New York Morning Express the day after the nuptials, the bride was given away by her brother and and "robed simply in white, with a gauze veil depending from a circlet of white flowers wreathed in her hair." After the ceremony, the wedding party held a dinner at Lafayette Place before the President and Mrs. Tyler departed the city by steamer, staying the night in Philadelphia, before proceeding back to Washington on a special train the next day.

[The Church of the Ascension in Manhattan where President Tyler and Julia Gardiner were married on June 26, 1844.]

When President Tyler left office in 1845, he and his wife retired to Tyler's plantation in Virginia, Sherwood Forest. They had seven children (in addition to the seven surviving children from Tyler's first marriage) and remained happily married, despite the 30-year age difference between the husband and wife. In January 1862, the Tylers headed to Richmond for Tyler's inauguration as a member of the Confederate House of Representatives. Tyler was the only former President who did not remain loyal to the Union during the Civil War. On January 18th, the 71-year-old Tyler died in Richmond's Exchange Hotel, likely due to complications from a stroke and was buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery with Confederate honors. Widely considered a traitor in the North, official notice of Tyler's death wasn't given until 1915 when Congress finally erected a monument near his grave.

Julia Gardiner Tyler lived until 1889, but remarkably, as of 2024, one of President and Mrs. Tyler's grandsons is still living. With seven children (the last of which died in 1947 -- 157 years after John Tyler's birth!), the Tylers were blessed with a wealth of grandchildren and Harrison Ruffin Tyler (born in 1928) is still alive today (his brother, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., died in 2020). In the 1970s, Harrison Tyler purchased and restored his grandfather's beloved Virginia plantation, Sherwood Forest, and often spoke about his family's unique place in history until his health started to fail in recent years.

••• As for the USS Princeton, well, it never truly recovered from the "Peacemaker" explosion. Captain Robert Field Stockton was absolved of blame for the tragedy and went on to fame in California during the Mexican-American War (he has a city named after him near Sacramento), and later was elected a United States Senator from New Jersey. The Princeton participated in engagements in the Gulf of Mexico during the Mexican-American War, but its hull was found to be rotting after the war ended. It was broken up for scrap in Boston and the "Peacemaker's" twin gun -- the "Oregon" -- can be seen today on the grounds of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

[The "Oregon" gun from the USS Princeton, now on display at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.]

During World War II, a new USS Princeton was commissioned. A 622-foot-long aircraft carrier, the new Princeton engaged in action in the Pacific Ocean. On October 20, 1944 -- 100 years after the explosion of the "Peacemaker" during President Tyler's Potomac River cruise -- the modern Princeton was attacked by a Japanese dive bomber in the Leyte Gulf and 108 sailors were killed. Even the Princeton's descendants seem to be cursed.

[androgynealienfemme]

"Butch Code Limitations Feminism came to my rescue. I enrolled at UCLA for my junior year, which meant moving across town, leaving Pico, and leaving my buddies who worked for Pacific Telephone by day and drank by night. But my wardrobe of ties was now complete and I'd managed, with some Ivy League suspenders and a host of L.L. Bean blazers, to set my own butch style. I was working full-time in Watts and was finally within sight of my degree in social work. My career plans were clear. Like Cesar Chavez, I was going to save the ghetto. All I needed was a new bar and a new girl.

I found the former quickly enough by joining the softball team at the 7th Circle, a seedy little dive that despite its reputation as a "reds" (we're not talking politics) bar became my weekend home. Home was completed the night I met Gayle there and took her to my one-bedroom in the Fairfax district (later to become West Hollywood).

Doing the swagger thing at the Circle, I protected Gayle from unwaranted advances, threw a few punches to establish my territory, and refined the codes of Butch 301: honor your dyke buddies, it instructed, don't make it with a buddy's girl and expect to keep her friendship. Don't flaunt your one-night stands in your girlfriend's face -- make sure your friends don't either. Don't trust ki-kis (switch-hitters who flip-flopped from butch to femme depending on who they were trying to make). And above all, never let on if you find yourself sexually attracted to another butch.

The butch code was obviously a limited worldview. I grew bored. I didn't need a twelve-step program to see the ravages of alchol on the faces of my sage butch mentors. i didn't then agree with my generation about marching in the streets against our country's war (I'd spend the sixties in the cloister and in Pico; I didn't even know where Vietnam was). I had no political consciousness, but I was frustrated pissed off. I wanted being queer to mean more than spending my life in a bar.

On October 3, 1970 I walked into my first homosexual meeting. I hadn't heard about Stonewall, but I knew I was in the right place. A stone butch name Carole sat at the head table, and the whole room buzzed with talk about "religion and the homophile." Six months later, I succeeded and Carole as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis and opened the first center in the city. History had surged forward. By that time we talked about "gay rights."

One day I found a leaflet crammed in the mailbox of our DOB Center. It was from another organized group of gay girls, the Lesbian-Feminists. I'd heard about them through the dyke grapevine. No one knew what their name meant, they were reported to be "weirdos," and they were known to hang out at a center for women. This sounded ominous, but the leaflet gave an address and said, "All women welcome." I decided queer unity must prevail; I would visit their territory.

Feminism and the Butch Closet It was not love at first sight. Listening to my "sisters" that first night was one of the most disorienting experiences of my life. These women forbade use of the word girl. No one flirted with anyone. No one even asked my name, much less noticed my new wing tips. The Lesbian-Feminists did nothing but talk for five hours. And they weren't even discussing an outing or anything tangible. They were spouting some convoluted religious. It had to be religious, because they were all intensely righteous. I thought I knew about the religions of the world, but this was a new one. Apparently it was also very ancient, because one of them proclaimed their "matriarchy" was as "old as history itself."

By midnight I was convinced I'd received the wrong information. These girls weren't lesbians. There were no butches. Many of them looked vaguely feminine, in the hippie style of the day. A clunky sandal seemed to be their shoe of choice, but none of them wore makeup. I knew no bona fide femme would go out in public without makeup or heels.

Concluding that they were some kind of crackpot sect, I rose to leave. As I stomped across the wood floor, enjoying how the chains on my boots clanged through their meanderings, the one called "Radical Rita Right On" shouted at me, "What kind of lesbian are you?"

-“Butches, Lies, and Feminism" by Jeanne Cordova, The Persistent Desire, (edited by Joan Nestle) (1992)

[adz]

"you have to vote for harris, even you starry-eyed socialists" hmmm hang on let me find my wincing emoji. i cant find it. oh well,

"Harris lacks Biden’s longstanding foreign policy bona fides — the president has often declared himself a Zionist and has remarked that without Israel, there’s not a Jew in the world who is secure. But as vice president, Harris backed Biden’s overall approach toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reiterated the administration’s commitment to Israel’s security. During the 2020 election, Harris pledged that a Biden-Harris administration would continue unconditional military aid to Israel despite potential disagreements with the Israeli government." (x)

[blowflyfag]

WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION MAGAZINE :  JANUARY 1996

Remember the Name… and You Will… GOLDUST 

By Vince Russo 

If you’ve ever been to the corner of Hollywood and Vine, you know exactly what I’m talking about. As darkness blankets the sky and the warm glow of the moon filters the earth below, they all crawl out from under the marble stars. Who they are, or WHAT they are, I have no idea! Hollywood’s children–I guess. Green hair, purple hair, HIGH, STIFF hair, kabuki makeup, black lipstick and pierced EVERYTHING! They claim to be the “real” stars of Hollywood. Not the fictitious celluloid legends that are born and eventually die on the big screen, but the living, breathing souls who inhabit that sacred boulevards of Tinseltown. They’re the unknown stars of the street that literally “live to be seen.”

Goldust. Hollywood. In his mind, he is unquestionably the greatest star that the world has ever known. He has seen all the “so-called” legends come and go, but none–NONE–even come close to the glamor, the glitz, the grace of… SSSSSSSSSSSSS, GOLDUST. Fact or Fiction? You have to make the call yourself–but not until this editor throws his two movie stubs in! 

Will Goldust be successful in bringing his legend to the World Wrestling Federation, or will he simply be a box-office bust? That is the question that both moviegoers and Federation fans across the country are asking. However, in order to come up with the ending of this movie, you first need to see–AND UNDERSTAND–all of the scenes that precede it. 

Act 1–In the opening, you must first understand that Goldust is indeed a MAN. Not a man wanting to be his Aunt Edna, but a real, true, bona fide MAN! Based strictly on his appearance, many of you reading this column have called him many things–from a Liberace wannabe (who chooses to have long, golden hair rather than the stiff, hairsprayed pompadour look) to the president of the “To Wrong-Fu, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, Fan Club!” Do you understand what it is that I’m trying to say? I mean, I’m saying it in the nicest way that I know how! Goldust is neither of those things. He IS a MAN! A 100 percent male Caucasian! 

Act 2–So then, if he is a man, then what type of man is he? Good question. I like to explain it by saying that Goldust simply has a SEVERE case of “Hollywood on the Brain.” If you understand that, then you will have a much better hold on his outrageous personality. Granted, on the surface it appears that he may be a few stars short of Hollywood Boulevard, but according to him, not only does he have it all together but that star-studded street isn’t even big enough to carry his precious star! So, now if you understand the first two acts–MAN with HOLLYWOOD ON BRAIN–we should be able to go on. If not, go back and study the lines! 

Act 3–OK, so now we know he is a MAN with HOLLYWOOD ON BRAIN–BUT the mystery remains: Can he wrestle? Well, based on his In Your House premiere where he slew the “villain” Marty Jannetty and his “Battle of the Legends” match where he edited out Savio Vega, I would have to say that I give his wrestling ability rave reviews! The MAN with HOLLYWOOD ON BRAIN can PERFORM! Don’t be fooled by the golden locks, Mr. DeMille. Once Goldust rips off that bleached blond hairpiece, he becomes a ruthless, vicious actor–or wrestler. He’s menacing, evil–what every big-screen bad guy WANTS to be! He punishes his opponents in much the same way that Siskel and Ebert punish B-rated films! He literally TAKES NO PRISONERS. In my opinion, the Survivor Series will be no different. Bam Bam Bigelow may simply serve as just one of the “projects” on the 14K road that leads to the inevitable Goldust BLOCKBUSTER!

Conclusion–I’m one who hates to give away endings, but in this case I will. In the opinion of this editor, Goldust will soon be wearing yet even more gold! He may not have yet reached “leading man” status here in the World Wrestling Federation, but the Intercontinental Championship may be only a few scenes away. 

Lights, camera, action–remember the name–AND YOU WILL–GOLDUST!

[greensparty]

Krist Novoselic's new band The Bona Fide Band

Last week saw the live debut of Krist Novoselic's new band The Bona Fide Band in Aberdeen, WA, the birthplace of Krist and Kurt Cobain's band Nirvana.

To back up for a minute, Krist is running for President of his new political party the Cascade Party (another story altogether, but he's trying to get a legit third party going and he's running for president in order to do so...even though he doesn't want to be president). The party needs to get the word out as being a bona fide party, so to do so, he formed a band to play around WA state, The Bona Fide Band featuring Krist on bass and accordion. Also featured in the band is drummer Mark Pickerel (Screaming Trees and some of the recordings he did with Cobain and Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan appeared on Nirvana's With the Lights Out box set), Seattle guitarist Kathy Moore, and vocalists Jillian Raye and Jennifer Johnson (both of whom performed with Krist in Giants In The Trees and the supergroup 3rd Secret).

The Bona Fide Band

At this particular show, they performed mostly Giants In The Trees and 3rd Secret songs, but they also did a covers of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World" (which Nirvana covered on MTV Unplugged) and Shocking Blue's "Love Buzz", which Nirvana covered on their debut album Bleach. The song was dedicated to Cobain's sister Kimberly, who was in the audience. I hope the band releases a new track or two on Bandcamp.

The video above is the performance of "Love Buzz" on June 21, 2024 in Aberdeen, WA.

[dallasareaopinion]

Dear MAGA, what happens next?

Sooner or later Donald Trump is going to pass away. He may live until 90 or 100 or 79 who knows. Yet it is inevitable, we all pass away.

And when he does, what happens next?

Sad to say probably not much or way too much. What most people outside the MAGA world realize is this is a cult of personality. There will not be an immediate successor. And different people will try to jump in and claim the leader of MAGA mantle, but sadly it will be very sad moments for quite a few people. Don Jr. may get some play, there are a few Senators and Representatives having sold their soul to Trump will try to claim a leadership role. Overall though the people who follow Trump will move on, to what is a bit scary, but they will move on.

Trump is a dynamic personality and no one will be able to duplicate what he has going on. This will leave us in quite a strange world. Think about Russia for a moment if you will. Putin rose to power as a young person. He took over Russia and has had years to consolidate whatever it is he has consolidated. Trump is not young. Even if he wins a second term most likely there will not be much of a life afterwards.

Sure Biden is barely making it through coffee much less a campaign and every Democrat needs to figure something out by the Convention, yet the Trump world is staring down something completely different and hence the future of the Republican Party.

MAGA’s every waking moment is an obsession of Trump. So much so they cannot realize there is a world beyond theirs and that there are people who just don’t like Trump. In some ways they have an argument when they say 80 million people didn’t vote for Biden, yet what they don’t realize is that Biden received 80 million votes because quite a few people don’t like Trump. They cannot comprehend this reality. There is a slight difference between voting for someone or against someone. To this day I say Trump won in 2016 because quite a few people voted against H. Clinton. I think there are quite a few people that agree with that conclusion, but that is water under the bridge as is 2020. Unfortunately Trump convinced MAGA world that bridge never existed and he won.

Since the Republican Party has pretty much gone all in on Trump, what happens next for the Party? Sure Christie and Halley tried to separate themselves possibly for a post Trump world, who knows. Too many Republicans though cannot see beyond the tip of their noses to realize there will be a world without Donald Trump someday or more likely have chosen to ignore this fact to survive in the current environment.

Going back to 2016 I was thinking the Republicans were in better shape than the Democrats, they had quite a few candidates vying for the Presidency, many were relatively young, all had Republican bona fides, and I presumed this was going to be a tough bunch to crack for the Democrats. The Democrats didn’t have any strong candidates and what was worse they seemed bound to fulfill a self destructive course by nominating Clinton. It goes back to them being clueless elitist liberals. They are still in that same predicament. Biden is just a place holder for now. They do not have a strong developing leadership core that I have noticed like I thought the Republicans had in 2016. Then Trump ran roughshod all over them and proved they were all weak. This weakness has become even more obvious with the massive acquiescence of the party leadership towards Trump.

We are in quite the pickle as they say since post Trump the Republican Party may go into different directions with some type of hard right party with quite a few people vying to be the dear leader and some moderates trying to put back the pieces of some traditional Republican nonsense. As mentioned before the Democrats do not have outstanding people waiting in the wing so what happens next?

It is a bit bleak by the above description, yet sometimes when things get a bit wacky someone comes along and rallies the troops. Or we are going to see quite a period of uncertainty and our leadership on the world stage is going to come under serious attack from Russia China Iran and a few other countries.  And our allies will suffer a bit by our floundering around internally.

The 1 percent will try and consolidate more money and power in the possible leadership vacuum, but their power grab will not be productive for our country, our allies, and the world overall so hopefully someone with some values will find a way to pull us back to a more constructive course. I do not run around with blinders on that we will find a savior who will keep all the wolves at bay. Reigning in the madness we have let take over will take a concerted effort by quite a few people, yet those people do exist. Will they be given the chance?

Yet for today, the question is what does MAGA world do post Trump?

[echo-s-land]

@unhonestlymirror i need to go to sleep

This was halfly popularize

Let's start off with Angyalistan and Užupis, since I don't have anything to add to what you already know about them x)

+only thing I added is the infinity symbol under Angyalistan's bc I felt like it+had to find a way to nod to the concept of horizon/infinity

Next are Mùnegu (Monaco in Eng, Italian, and everyday life French, Monègue in older French, Mónegue in Occitan) and Andorra (Andorre in French):

Mùnegu:

while she indeed depends on France for military defense, she's very much capable and doesn't rely on him for everything! (dammit!) - she's quite rich (altho the fact she doesn't have many citizens must help)

seem to have a relationship with the Holy German Empire, Spain Kingdom and Italian kingdoms but it made my head hurt with how much dates there are) - gained independence from Genoa in 1247, independence from Holy German Empire in 1524 and becomes a protectorate of the Spanish Kingdom until 1641 where Mùnegu becomes a protectorate of the French Kingdom, then becomes a protectorate of the Sardinia Kingdom from 1815 to 1860. In 1918, becomes a sort of protectorate of France anew

During WW2 scared to be invaded by Italians, went to ask (then Vichy) France what to do to which France replied 'just let them'. So Mùnegu was occupied by Italians in 1942 and then by German in 1943. Helped to deport Jews

christian, catholic (freedom of religion for the people, but the State is still catholic)

abortion became legal (2019) but it's still a mess so the women are encouraged to go to France, Italy or another country where it's legal and less of a mess

Speaks Monegascan/Monegasque, French, then Italian (and English for business ofc)

tried to draw her more 'classy' and organized (?) I still haven't understood the purpose of the hairstyle she canonically has

Andorra:

Actually much more closer to Spain (and Portugal), part of the Iberian Peninsula

For an old reason, both French's government representative (nowadays, the President) and the bishop of Urgell in Catalonia in Spain are ruling over Andorra as co-prince (since 1607)

Has been around since at least the X-XI century

got annexed by the French Empire from 1812 to 1814

His territory has remained unchanged since 1278

Speaks Catalan, then Spanish and Portuguese and then French (but less)

He wasn't invited to the Versailles Treaty so he was officially at war with Germany between 1914 and 1958

during both World Wars and their aftermaths was used as a way to cross the French-Spain border by lots of different people for different reasons (deserters, nazis, Jews, Spanish people fleeing Spain...)

Abortions are illegal (so you have to go to France or Spain to have them)

christian catholic

legend says that Charlemagne gave Andorra a charter

(+Andorra is in the middle of nowhere in the Pyrenees)

is to France and Spain what Liechtenstein is to Switzerland - but they care less about him than Switzerland can care about Liechtenstein

Aigues-Mortes:

It's kinda hard to talk about Aigues-Mortes because the micronation was created in 2011 but the city has been around for several centuries

'Aigues-Mortes' literally means 'Dead Waters' (reference to the fact there are several ponds and swamps in Aigues-Mortes and around the city. The bodies of water stay still)

In 1248, Louis IX named the city 'Bona per Forsa' ('Good despite fate'?) after the inhabitants' request but the name Aquae Mortuae, later Aigues-Mortes will stay

After the Revolution in 1789, the city changed its name to 'Port Pellier' but once again, the name didn't stick around

August 1893: 'Italian slaughter.' (7 deaths, 50 injured, not a single culprit will be sentenced). Biggest slaughter of immigrants in French contemporary history

More about the micronation now!: motto can be translated as 'Love thy neighbor and steal/drink their wine!' - says her religion to be 'Catalcoolisme' ('Catalcoholism'; play of word between 'Catholicism' and 'alcoholism' I suppose); worship rosé (type of wine)

Was created when two friends got drunk (drinking rosé, ofc)

Looks up to Monaco; wants to become like Monaco (hence why she tries to dress up with the same type of clothes Monaco dresses with (classy) and why I made her dyed her brown hair in blonde)

has the French south accent!

Corsica:

was ruled by Genoa from 1284 to 1755 (fought for independence from 1729 to 1755). Became a Republic until France annexed Corsica in 1769

several historical ties with (what is nowadays) Italy

Got a bad reputation bc of FNLC (National Liberation Front of Corsica) mostly. From 1974 to 2014, the nationalist group bombed (public buildings, banks..), made several armed robberies, as well as aggravated assaults and murders/assassinations against French symbol and government and advocated for independence + presence of organized crime

renowned for her beauty

bonds with Breizh over France+luxury tourism destroying their lands and their languages dying out

otherwise doesn't have any ill intention toward continental French people (if you're respectful with her, she'll be respectful with you)

is known to have a strong sense of community/family

isn't going to scream at every opportunity she gets that Napoleon (Napoleone Buonaparte) was Corsican but she's never going to forget it+little pride

wants more independence from France but numbers show that Corsican people do not wish for full independence

occupied by Italy and Germany during WW2; first French territory to be freed

mainly catholic

Frioul:

Already talked about him!

he's the one where you have to have a permit to wear flip-flop lol

Drink respect women juice everyday

insolent but never insulting

doesn't like the heat (he is a bit tan because he is in the south of France but tries his best to stay in places where there's no sun) (most than likely carries a mini-ventilator around and stays indoors+carries a sunshade/parasol outside)

Prankster with calm energy

hates unnecessary commotion/noise (also hates the necessary one but understand it)

has the French south accent!

Was Naple's at first (until the XIVth century where he went from Frenchman's control to Frenchman's control; until he eventually became part of France)

Micronation since 2011

Saugeais:

Created in 1947 as a joke by a prefect and a hotelier (in a abbey?)

at the border with Switzerland

anthem is written in old patois/dialect which France can barely understand

it seems like the dialect has been dying since the last century so I don't know if he can still speak it? Probably has an accent

organizes a sport competition every year (mountain biking, kayaking, running..)

Dracystan and Anthophilia are next! They were both created in 2020 so I made them quite young+They were the only newly micronation that had enough personality for me to work with them - which means France has about 20+ children (but they're 1 or 2 dimensional? kinda ghosts? how would they (not having a defined identity) be portrayed in hetalia/how can they be personified)

Dracystan:

does a lot of clean-ups and gardening; carries gardening and clean-up tools around

any person loitering will be sanctioned/sentenced to remove stinging nettles with their bare hands. it's the law

loves fairy tails! It is said that Once upon a time, the king of Dracystan turned into a frog

gave him frog pins (+ didn't draw it here but he has a frog hat, you know the ones!)

being honest, i thought about The Little Prince while drawing him so that's why he got a scarf and a fox on his overall-

Anthophilia:

SYMMETRY. insects love symmetry, Anthophilia loves insects, so she wears symmetrical clothes and keeps her hair symmetrical too + you can't see it since I didn't color but she's wearing nails polish (orange-red-black-red-orange on each hand))

particularity cares about bees, but also butterflies, bumblebees, birds, nectarivore mammals...

[reasonandempathy]

The Onion is the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events. Rising from its humble beginnings as a print newspaper in 1756, The Onion now enjoys a daily readership of 4.3 trillion and has grown into the single most powerful and influential organization in human history. In addition to maintaining a towering standard of excellence to which the rest of the industry aspires, The Onion supports more than 350,000 full- and parttime journalism jobs in its numerous news bureaus and manual labor camps stationed around the world, and members of its editorial board have served with distinction in an advisory capacity for such nations as China, Syria, Somalia, and the former Soviet Union.

...

The Onion’s journalists have garnered a sterling reputation for accurately forecasting future events. One such coup was The Onion’s scoop revealing that a former president kept nuclear secrets strewn around his beach home’s basement three years before it even happened.

...

This is the fifteenth page of a convoluted legal filing intended to deconstruct the societal implications of parody, so the reader’s attention is almost certainly wandering. That’s understandable. So here is a paragraph of gripping legal analysis to ensure that every jurist who reads this brief is appropriately impressed by the logic of its argument and the lucidity of its prose: Bona vacantia. De bonis asportatis. Writ of certiorari. De minimis. Jus accrescendi. Forum non conveniens. Corpus juris. Ad hominem tu quoque. Post hoc ergopropter hoc. Quod est demonstrandum. Actus reus. Scandalum magnatum. Pactum reservati dominii

I fucking love this. Also, did I miss the Free Speech Warriors/Absolutists talking about this? I can't find them. I even checked, and I can't find Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, or Steven Crowder talking about this or mentioning it at all.

[sa7abnews]

The Irony of Republicans’ ‘Tampon Tim’ Insult

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/09/the-irony-of-republicans-tampon-tim-insult/

The Irony of Republicans’ ‘Tampon Tim’ Insult

Even before the official announcement that Tim Walz would be named the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket, the Internet churned out a cacophony of clips and quips reflecting his progressive bona fides. As Minnesota governor embracing a gaggle of children at the bill signing for free school breakfasts and lunches. As folksy dad joking with his daughter, a vegetarian, about whether turkey is meat. (According to Walz, “In Minnesota, turkey is special.”)

Amid these, a corresponding, more crude moniker arose: Tampon Tim. This time, an apparent conservative dig referencing Walz’s support for a 2024 state law that requires all Minnesota public schools to provide menstrual products in bathrooms.

There is an element of deja vu in the timing. Nearly nine years ago to the day, on August 8, 2015, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump hurled an insult at then-Fox newscaster Megyn Kelly: he accused her of having “blood coming out of her wherever” when he thought her debate questions were unfair. At the time, I wrote here at TIME: “Period jokes are a dime a dozen, Donald. Half of the American electorate–indeed, half the world’s population–copes with menstruation. But for those who live in poverty, lack of access to menstrual health care is more than a punch line.”

Now nearly a decade later, periods have become a mainstream public policy priority. Far from being mocked or maligned, “menstrual equity” is an agenda that enjoys broad bipartisan support across the country. So far, 30 states have eliminated state sales tax on menstrual products (also known as the “tampon tax”), including a law signed last year by the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. Minnesota is one of 28 states committed by law and/or budget to providing menstrual products in schools, joined by states with Republican leadership like Georgia, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Utah.

In fact, in 2018, Trump himself signed the first-ever federal menstrual access requirement into law—the First Step Act, a 2018 prison and sentencing reform package that mandates menstrual product provision in federal prisons. In 2020 he went on to sign the CARES Act, which made it possible for the first time for employees to use their Flexible Spending Account allowances to buy menstrual products with pre-tax dollars.

As for the latest round of name calling, it seems the aspect of the Minnesota law that has conservatives most agitated is its language: the law states that pads and tampons must be available to “all menstruating students” and “in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12.” A failed attempt to amend the bill to only name “female restrooms,” did not keep it from passing as is with bipartisan support. Among its Republican supporters, Rep. Dean Urdahl remarked, “Just talking with my wife and family members, they felt like it was an important issue I should support.”

And it really should be that simple. Policies that address the economic burden of menstruation, and that acknowledge the educational value of treating period products as basic school supplies, have proven to be a popular and common sense reform—at home and abroad.

As a matter of political gamesmanship, zeroing in on any issue that implicates reproductive health, menstruation among them, is a risky gambit for Republicans. Poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans support reproductive rights and turn out to vote on the issue. In her role as Vice President, Kamala Harris has taken up the discussion around menstrual literacy and data protection as it pertains to abortion, for example. With Gov. Walz as a champion for fighting period poverty, it is a drum the ticket is wise to beat.

And finally, as Walz reminds us—anyone who thinks that period jokes are appropriate or funny is just plain, well, weird. 

[tomorrowedblog]

Friday Releases for May 24

Friday is the busiest day of the week for new releases, so we've decided to collect them all in one place. Friday Releases for May 24 include Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, My Oni Girl, Dark Times, and more.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the new movie from George Miller, is out today.

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

My Oni Girl

My Oni Girl, the new movie from Tomotaka Shibayama, is out today.

A shy teenage boy’s inability to say no is tested when a headstrong girl drags him on a mystical journey amid summer snow to find her missing mom.

The Garfield Movie

The Garfield Movie, the new movie from Mark Dindal, is out today.

Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt), the world-famous, Monday-hating, lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – scruffy street cat Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) – Garfield and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining Vic in a hilarious, high-stakes heist.

Solo

Solo, the new movie from Sophie Dupuis, is out today.

Simon (Théodore Pellerin) is a rising star in Montreal’s drag scene performing lively disco pop numbers weekly at his local club. Friendly with his fellow drag queens and supported by his sister, who delights in designing increasingly elaborate and beautiful costumes for his act, Simon vibrates with the passion of his adopted artistic community. When he meets Oliver (Félix Maritaud), the alluring new recruit at the club, their irresistible chemistry sparks an electric romance and a fulfilling creative collaboration. Their dynamic is mesmerizing and tender until Oliver’s dominant instincts and destructive behavior jeopardize Simon’s space in the spotlight. Simon has plenty of experience with tempestuous personalities – his mother, a bona fide opera diva, is back in his life after years on the road – but can he get out from under the shadow of their influence?

ATLAS

ATLAS, the new movie from Brad Peyton, is out today.

Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez), a brilliant but misanthropic data analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence, joins a mission to capture a renegade robot with whom she shares a mysterious past. But when plans go awry, her only hope of saving the future of humanity from AI is to trust it.

Dark Times

Dark Times, the new album from Vince Staples, is out today.

[writer59january13]

Vice President Elect Alexandria Ocasio Cortez - 2024

Uncertain if my one man pep rally appeals to thee most amazing, daring, grueling... youngest aspirant to restore Earth in the balance predicated upon uncomfortable truth. The old geezer here would be over the moon if ye desired, and received majority votes to usher desperate legislation to mitigate dire planetary dilemma, thus whim what might seem far fetched brainstorm, could help aright (with leftist support) precariously perched world. Methinks ye would be dynamic force to implement apropos measures.

Vice President Elect Alexandria Ocasio Cortez - 2024

Circa...approximately eight days shy of one month following her thirty fifth birthday October 13th, 2024

AOC became the second most powerful female within American political realm amazingly enough to grace

the hallowed halls of the White House,

as the second-highest officer in the executive branch

of the U.S. federal government

and youngest demoiselle ever to assume as right hand woman of commander of chief

within Oval Office amidst landslide victory among competing candidates ousting current establishment incumbent,

elected to serve United States

despite being neophyte,

she received most

votes of any contender since founding of Democracy to assume modestly furnished Capitol Hill - Washington District of Columbia

most powerful post within the United States

immediately electrifying North America

with her megawatt smile

crackling, snapping, and popping with positivity, integrity, energy...

Deafening applause swept across nation upon ascending dais prior

to uttering one word, she immediately wowed darling of the hour received standing ovation

across greensward donned bajillion crowd

cheering, imploring, pumping... green sleeved fists acclamation

action speaking decibels

louder than words bowed

young lady brought to genuine tears, asper bona fide accreditation

understandable that newly minted ma'am felt proud

to stride rite, (an air of modest confidence) did enshroud, sans an angelic halo augmenting as optimistic words heard aloud heralded sincere charming, intimating,

radiating... no frills accustomation

as if pledging troth to every citizen (inclusive every flora and fauna) vowed

to steer ship of state toward ecologically, environmentally, essentially...activation

away from fossil fuels shifting energy consumption vis a vis alternate modalities sow rejuvenation plowed

back into Earth prioritizing monied allocation

(dollar amount well worth wads of investment) actualization, where future generations will be grateful to dead recent forebears for gift endowed

worth more than fine spun gold regarding preservation of Gaia, how Homo sapiens adaptation

made existence for all creatures great and small.

Upon clinching nomination as First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) said Millennial Puerto Rican political wonk served as the U.S. representative for New York's fourteenth congressional district since 2019, as a member of the Democratic Party, she exhibits even handedness among all living things divided into five kingdoms:

animal, plant, fungi, protist and monera, even SpongeBob SquarePants

gifted healthier allowed

populace to breathe easy and rest assured quality of life for billions (ushering universal family planning), despite tense adjudication,

especially when linkedin with nuclear warheads disavowed, but eventually jump/ kickstarted synergistic administration.

[peakwealth]

Two French Words to Start the New Year

Cairo, 2008

I read with predictable dismay that the word 'telephone' has become archaic, that it is no longer in common use to designate the mobile devices which our lives are tethered to. I should say: which have pretty much upended life on Earth as we knew it. The fact that I still try and de-tether myself from the smartphone (reluctantly adopted and sparingly used), shows how far I have drifted from the mainstream. In my mind telephones are devices with a rotary dial and a receiver you pick up when the bell rings. Or rang. I only have to say, or think, the word receiver and I can feel it in my right hand. It is even better in French where you have a 'combiné' which you need to 'décrocher' to answer the call.

The term combiné goes right back to the early days of telephony where the machines were wooden boxes with a mouthpiece and a separate earpiece hanging from a spring-loaded hook (crochet), connected with a cable. Picking up the earpiece (dé-crocher) activated the device or, in later years, produced a dialing tone. Eventually someone had the brilliant idea of combining the two bits which gave us the all-in-one … combiné of which the smartphone is a distant relative. Even late models of the grey standard-issue French telephones featured an additional earpiece, allowing a second person to listen in on the conversation. Ah!

What hasn't changed is that people still shout into their devices. But now they do so in the street, on the bus, everywhere. I will never get used to it.

Standard French telephone as issued by the PTT around 1980.

*************************************************

2. While the second word can also be considered an anachronism, it is more complicated and leads me further afield. From my early days in journalism I recall the uniquely French term ministrable (apt or qualified to become a government minister) or, one step up, présidentiable (someone who has what it takes to be a country's president). While lacking a precise equivalent in English the words always came up during post-electoral horse-trading when government posts had to be filled or 'awarded'. Or when a presidential candidate had to be agreed on in France or elsewhere.

Who was ministrable and who wasn't, especially if a senior cabinet position was up for grabs? Who could look forward to having an official black limousine idling in front of his or her door?

To be ministrable, a candidate had to have the right connections, suitable standing and political profile. Of course a lot of backroom dealing and party politics went into the selection process. That never changed. But as I recall it, being ministrable required a definite element of probity, bona fides and respectability. That went without saying, or at least it was supposed to.

As I look around today, I see ever more politicians rising to power, often absolute, who, to put it politely, do not meet this basic criterion. They are not adequate to the high office and the responsibility they shoulder. They would never have been ministrable, let alone présidentiable in a functioning democracy.

Much of the problem is of course in those last two words: functioning democracy. In ever more countries democracy is misfiring. When part of the electorate does not feel served well by the constitutional order, previously stable democracies lurch towards ungovernability or plebiscitary autocracy. Look at what happened in Argentina with the election of Javier Milei or in mild-mannered Holland with Geert Wilders. Look at the populists clamouring for Donald Trump to seek a new mandate as president of the United States. Anxious and inebriated with disinformation, voters can no longer be relied on to make prudent choices. Or elections yield increasingly unworkable results, as has been happening in Spain.

Trump may be the most blatant example of this electoral derailment, but the world is now full of leaders, elected or not - and in many instances it seems increasingly irrelevant - whose dramatic lack of qualifications and bona fides should have been visible from afar. Indeed they were visible from afar: Vladimir Putin's evolution from an almost accidental Russian president to a war mongering dictator didn't happen overnight. He was first elected almost 23 years ago.

Once the inadequate are in office, they are not inclined to leave. Uninterested in peaceful coexistence, they aim for conquest, crushing the opponent.

The consequences are horrific: warlords with private or public armies declare war on each other or decide, in broad daylight, to invade their neighbours' territory.

Next thing you know, million-dollar killer drones and missiles are flying in all directions and body bags, black or white depending on the provider, cover the floors of bombed out hospitals.

******************************************

>>The norm of non-aggression that for decades undergirded global order is fraying.>>

This quote is from the International Crisis Group (1). The ICG is not just any old think tank, it is more of an action tank, focused to resolving conflict and promoting peace. Unlike the grand institutions of the United Nations, with their own buildings in Geneva, New York, Nairobi or New York, the ICG is housed in an anonymous office suite on the Avenue Louise in Brussels. Founded in 1995, it has become the premier non-governmental hub for diplomacy in the world. But with global belligerence on the rise for the last ten years or so, the ICG is facing an uphill struggle - soberingly so. Warfare is in again, deadly conflict is an option. Humans are dispensable.

So it is with some trepidation that I read their outlook for 2024.

"Can we stop things falling apart?" they ask to begin with.

"Worldwide, diplomatic efforts to end fighting are failing. More leaders are pursuing their ends militarily. More believe they can get away with it."

They recall how attempts at peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians petered out a long time ago. The Oslo peace accords, all that, long gone. Politicians lost interest, they looked the other way.

In trying to explain why the use of force has become so hard to contain, the group points to some underlying causes:

Rising global instability (in an era in "flux") .

"Political dysfunction and seesawing" in the United States.

"The collapse of the West's relations with Russia and China-U.S. competition."

Looking ahead to 2024, the International Crisis Group is far from upbeat. Faced with reckless belligerence in many parts of the world, it finally advocates compromise ("better than protracted warfare") and concludes that "peacemaking today is mostly about stopping the worst."

_________________________________________

(1) https://www.crisisgroup.org/global/10-conflicts-watch-2024

[ruminativerabbi]

Looking Forwards/Looking Backwards

For the last three months now, I have basically written about nothing other than the situation in Gaza and the impact that situation is having (and continues to have) on daily life in Israel. As a result, I haven’t focused overly on the slow deterioration of things on this side of the ocean as our own nation grapples with issues that, each in its own way, could end up proving just as fateful for our nation as the effort to decimate Hamas will surely be for Israel.

It's hard to know even where to start. The shocking image of the presidents of three of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning all (including the Jewish one) being unable to bring themselves unequivocally to condemn calls for genocide directed against Jewish people as outside the limits of bona fide free speech on campus was bad enough. But that dismal spectacle has focused the nation’s headlights on our university campuses in general, which experience has been infinitely more upsetting. And the picture that has emerged is both terrifying and sickening: a portrait of schools, including some of our most respected institutions of higher learning, that have lost their moral compass entirely, that have descended into an Orwellian mirrorscape of reality in which traditional values are ignored, only radical extremists are granted a voice, and racism directed directly against Jewish students is considered both legitimate and, when dressed up smartly enough in anti-Israel vitriol, even virtuous. And then there is the rising tide of anti-Semitism outside the academy in all fifty states, a phenomenon that will feel eerily and deeply disconcertingly familiar to anyone possessed of even a passing acquaintanceship with Jewish history. And then, on top of all that, we are about to plunge full-bore into a presidential election in which the winner will undoubtedly be a member of a party that has room in its Congressional ranks for overt anti-Semites and/or Israel-haters. So I apologize for not writing more about our American situation lately. I do want to keep writing about Israel, but I will also try to find time to write about these United States and the future of the American enterprise as we move into 2024.

I wanted to begin writing in a positive vein, if possible even optimistically. And so I thought we might begin, in that traditional Jewish way, by looking forwards by looking backwards and focusing on a time in our nation when the citizenry was united, when respect for our leader was basically universal, and when coin of the realm was optimism, confidence in the nation’s destiny, and hope in the future. Yes, it’s been a while. But, speaking candidly, what’s two hundred years between friends?

As we exit the time machine, the president of the United States is James Monroe. Later on, he would become a high school in the Bronx (the one from which my mother graduated in 1933) and a housing project. But, in 1820, James Monroe was a man, a politician. And his story is beyond instructive.

In those days, we had Election Month rather than Election Day: in a predigital world that was also pre-electric and pre-electronic, voting took place in 1820 from November 1 to December 6. All alone on the ballot was James Monroe, the incumbent candidate of the Democratic-Republican Party. Because his was the only name on the ballot, Monroe won in all twenty-two states. It’s true that Monroe was not the first to run for president unopposed (that would have been George Washington, who ran unopposed both in 1789 and in 1793), but Monroe was the first to do so after the passage of the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, which set in place the rules for presidential elections that we more or less still follow. He was also the last American President to run unopposed. Can you imagine the nation fully behind its elected leader? The man didn’t come out of the blue, however.

In his own way, Monroe personally embodied the American past such as it was in 1820. He served as a soldier in the Continental Army under Washington. He studied law under Thomas Jefferson. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress that ratified the Constitution. He had been our ambassador to France and he served as governor of Virginia. Then he decided to aim higher and he ran for president in 1816 and won. And then he ran again in 1820 and this time not only won, but received every electoral vote cast but one—and that naysayer, one William Plumer, was actually a so-called “faithless elector” who defied the election results in his state of  New Hampshire because he apparently wished to ensure that Washington would forever be the sole American President to be elected unanimously by the Electoral College.

So we had at the helm a leader who had won the confidence, more or less, of the entire American people. As noted, this was Monroe’s second term of office. In 1816, he beat Rufus King, the Federalist candidate, and he beat him soundly, getting more than double the votes King got. And now that he had proven himself in office, he put himself forward as candidate for a second term. No one chose to run against him. The split of the Democratic-Republican Party into the parties we know today was still in the future. The nation was at peace. And it was fully unified behind a proven leader.

At the time and since, these years were and are called the “Era of Good Feeling.” The War of 1812 had been won. The nation was prosperous and at peace. The great debate about slavery that led eventually to war had yet to begin in earnest. (Indeed, the nation had formally outlawed the slave trade in 1807 and this was widely thought of—at least by abolitionists—as a first step towards eradicating slavery totally. That that didn’t happen—and would probably never have happened other than in the way it did happen—was, of course, unknown to American voters at the time.) There seemed to be endless possibilities for expansion to the West.

I first became interested in this stretch of American history several years ago when I read Daniel Walker Howe’s masterful What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815–1848, for which the author won the Pulitzer Prize in History. It’s a doorstopper of a book, coming in at just over 900 pages. But it is truly fascinating, a work of history distinguished (this is so rare) both by its author’s mastery of his subject and also by his great skill as an engaging author able to keep readers’ interest as they wade through material that the author surely understood would be unfamiliar to most. He paints a complex picture of a nation in its adolescence, one reminiscent in many ways of the nation today but with the huge difference that the native optimism that once characterized American culture was in its fullest flower in the 1820s. The belief that the Revolution had not solely ended with an independent United States, but had actually transformed the world by demonstrating the possibility of living free, of citizens living lives unencumbered by the will of despots and fully able to chart their own course into the future by using their own hands to wield their own tools, thus to fashion their own destiny—that distillation of the American ethos as freedom resting on a bedrock of decency, morality, and purposefulness was enough to bring the entire nation to support the man who, in the minds of all, served as the physical embodiment of that ideal. And that is how James Monroe came to run unopposed and to be elected by the entire electorate speaking as one.

How bizarre that all sounds now! Most people in the throes of crochety old age tend to idealize their adolescent years. Nations do that too. But there’s more to that thought than pathos alone. The hallmark of adolescence is fantasy unencumbered by restrictive reality—and that is true of nations as well as individuals. Nobody told the citizenry in the 1820s that they were “just” dreamers, that it could never work out as planned. And, yes, they were blind to many social issues that we now find it hard to believe they passed so blithely by—the slavery issue first and foremost, but also the harsh and terrible treatment of native Indian peoples, the degree to which women were denied a place in public life, the restrictive higher educational system to which only white males (and, generally speaking, only wealthy ones at that) were admitted. Yes, that’s all true. But the nation was also possessed of a deep, abiding sense of its own destiny. And, in the end, that’s what mattered.

It didn’t last. The nation grew up. The forced dislocation of countless thousands of native Indians from the lands they had farmed and occupied for centuries, the ongoing nightmare of slavery, the inability of the nation to keep from splitting in two and the unimaginable amount of blood that was spilt to put it back together—the resolution of all those issues was in the future when James Monroe was in the White House. And the foundation upon which his administration rested—the good feelings of the so-called “Age of Good Feelings”—was sturdy enough to support the weight of a nation.

As we embark on the 2024 Presidential election, this all seems so far away, so foreign, so unattainable. Maybe it is. Or maybe the right national leader, ideally one who has waded through Daniel Walker Howe’s giant book, is waiting in the wings to rescue us from ourselves. I suppose we’ll all find out soon enough!

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