#communication liberation does not have a logo

[beatingtheouijaboardallegations]

forever tired of our voices being turned into commodity.

forever tired of thorough medaocrity in the AAC business. how that is rewarded. How it fails us as users. how not robust and only robust by small small amount communication systems always chosen by speech therapists and funded by insurance.

forever tired of profit over people.

forever tired of how companies collect data on every word we’ve ever said and sell to people.

forever tired of paying to communicate. of how uninsured disabled people just don’t get a voice many of the time. or have to rely on how AAC is brought into classrooms — which usually is managed to do in every possible wrong way.

forever tired of the branding and rebranding of how we communicate. Of this being amazing revealation over and over that nonspeakers are “in there” and should be able to say things. of how every single time this revelation comes with pre condition of leaving the rest behind, who can’t spell or type their way out of the cage of ableist oppression. or are not given chance & resources to. Of the branding being seen as revolution so many times and of these companies & practitioners making money off this “revolution.” of immersion weeks and CRP trainings that are thousands of dollars and wildly overpriced letterboards, and of that one nightmare Facebook group g-d damm it. How this all is put in language of communication freedom. 26 letters is infinite possibilities they say - but only for the richest of families and disabled people. The rest of us will have to live with fewer possibilities.

forever tired of engineer dads of AAC users who think they can revolutionize whole field of AAC with new terrible designed apps that you can’t say anything with them. of minimally useful AI features that invade every AAC app to cash in on the new moment and not as tool that if used ethically could actually help us, but as way of fixing our grammar our language our cultural syntax we built up to sound “proper” to sound normal. for a machine, a large language model to model a small language for us, turn our inhuman voices human enough.

forever tired of how that brand and marketing is never for us, never for the people who actually use it to communicate. it is always for everyone around us, our parents and teachers paras and SLPs and BCBAs and practitioners and doctors and everyone except the person who ends up stuck stuck with a bad organized bad implemented bad taught profit motivated way to talk. of it being called behavior problems low ability incompetence noncompliance when we don’t use these systems.

you all need to do better. We need to democritize our communication, put it in our own hands. (My friend & communication partner who was in Occupy Wall Street suggested phrase “Occupy AAC” and think that is perfect.) And not talking about badly made non-robust open source apps either. Yes a robust system needs money and recources to make it well. One person or community alone cannot turn a robotic voice into a human one. But our human voice should not be in hands of companies at all.

(this is about the Tobii Dynavox subscription thing. But also exploitive and capitalism practices and just lazy practices in AAC world overall. Both in high tech “ mainstream “ AAC and methods that are like ones I use in sense that are both super stigmatized and also super branded and marketed, Like RPM and S2C and spellers method. )

[our-trans-punk-experience]

What does it really mean to be a "punk?" Is it a subculture? An ideology? Both? Something else?

It seems very interesting to me but I'm afraid that it'll turn into something where I have to sacrifice myself for the cause/scene/group or something. I'm not doing that. Period. I want to do stuff, you know? I want to fight. I want to make music. But I don't want to worship an idol of rigid Marxist analysis that asserts itself as the one true way of understanding our world as well as the one true moral framework. Not that I'm a big fan of morality anyways. I'm not joining The Christian Church 2.0. I'm not hanging with the bougie college kids who worship labor and workers.

I like anarchism because I want to do whatever I want. Period. It is a distinctly egoistic affair for me- think max stirner. That's not to say that I'm going to ignore critical theory stuff entirely (as I myself am a neurodivergent queer). I want to learn about the struggles of POC, queer people, neurodivergent people, et cetera so that I can resist against society and government. However, I don't want to be some kind of liberal politically-correct type that brings up their own identity in unrelated topics because they want to feel important. I'm not a twitter user.

I already know that I can do with concepts whatever I like. If I don't want to be "punk" then that's not going to stop me from being anarchist. People who feel the need to attach themselves to subcultures because they wanna feel correct and agreeable are fuckin' dweebs. What I want to know is what's in it for me. Why should I be "punk?"

OkOk tysm for being so engaged i love when ppl rlly are not afraid to grill me for information

1: Punk is a subculture, with a variety of politics in the scene, united by non-conformity and being anti-establishment / anti-authority.

2: You should in no way have to sacrifice anything about yourself, your style, or your politics to be punk. The whole idea is non-conformity so you do not have to meet any sort of criteria for style, music, or politics except the aforementioned [on a separate note i just answered an ask on punk politics, but could make another more in depth punk politics post on request].

2a: If someone on the scene gives you shit for enjoying showtunes and britpop alongside black flag and x-ray spex then that person is a wanker

2b: If someone in the scene gives you shit for wearing a battle vest with an mcr patch or a logo from a tv show you like alongside your eat the rich stitch-on then that person is a wanker

2c: if someone in the scene gives you shit for being punk in the "wrong way" then they are the one who doesn't understand what it means to be punk. they are, say it with me, a wanker

3: yeah dw, punk is not in any way synonymous w champagne socialist theory purists like you fear, its about action and small acts of resistance and mutual aid more than holding out on doing anything helpful bc it isnt a great communist revolution. we are the revolution

4: I like that you've done your reading. just as an aside.

5: yes I'd say esp nowadays (less so in the 70s) punk is a scene that has a strong focus on queer rights movement. The original punk focuses were more about class and race tensions, but as the subculture has evolved, the fight has become about standing up for anyone getting screwed over by the fuckers on top. you are in the right place for learning about the struggles facing multiple groups and how you can help them for sure

6: fear not, becoming a punk does not mean you have to join twitter

7: "I already know that I can do with concepts whatever I like." Good. You've got the hard part down already.

8: Your final point, on why you should be punk, has a bunch of different answers. Be punk bc its a great gender neutral term of address. Be punk because it'll make it easier for you to find cool ppl u get on with. Be punk bc we have good music. Be punk because DIYing your clothes is very rewarding. Be punk because it's an amazing community. Be punk bc tbfh you seem pretty punk already. You've sort of gone in reverse order to a lot of punks. You really have a good grasp on your own politics and philosophies, and you're clearly anti-conformist. If you want you can now work back into the music, the style, and immersing yourself in the subculture. We would love to have you

Do whatever you like, hope this was helpful

in solidarity :]

[littlequeenies]

Helena Harland, who runs World of Demri instagram account, has a blog at substack where she is publishing interviews she does to people who knew Demri. I asked for permission to share this entry about Demri's activism in here and she kindly allowed.

From her substack blog:

"Demri possessed a radical nature alongside immense charisma. She was a nudist, openly bisexual, modeled for several adult magazines like Penthouse and Hustler, and was unabashedly sexually liberated at a time where it was seen as taboo. She did not view other people with a critical eye, but rather embraced those who most would find “off-center”. Demri’s late mother Kathleen recalled a memory of driving 20 year-old Demri home one day when she suddenly started shouting “Mom, stop! Stop!” Kathleen stopped the car and Demri jumped out to her friend who had green skin, pointed ears, and pointed elf shoes. Demri said, “This is my friend, he’s an elf. Can we give him a ride?” Kathleen, who likely passed on to Demri her attribute of non-judgment and acceptance, gave the elf a ride as he and Demri squeaked and chirped at each other in their own elf language.

Demri’s uniqueness has always intrigued me, and I often wonder what her moral and political beliefs were, as well as what she would think of today’s political issues. The 90s were marked with many social justice issues like LGBT rights— specifically the AIDS crisis. I asked Amber Ferrano, a close friend of Demri’s what she thought about the AIDS epidemic at the time, and it can be beautifully summed up by this memory:

“Demri was bi. She loved everyone and judged no one. We went to shows in gay clubs and they were awesome. I loved that they handed out free condoms even for our crowd. AIDS was horrible at the time. I remember a few times when guys in full drag (with gloves on, mind you) put their hand out to shake and pulled back saying they had AIDS, but Demri went in for a kiss and a hug. People would make negative comments saying she had AIDS or hepatitis from drugs. She didn't understand why people were so mean. If she were here today she'd be on the frontline along with Layne.”

Demri was also visited in the hospital by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a subversive LGBT activism group that satirized traditional standards and gender roles by combining drag and religious imagery to their street performances. Kathleen said that they adored Demri, and the nurses would gawk at them on their way in.

To seek some more insight on Demri’s activism history, I reached out to Vivian McPeak, the founder of the Seattle activism group called the Peace Heathens, of which Demri was a member. The Peace Heathens were known for their annual Seattle Hempfests, and many Alice in Chains fans have likely seen this video of Layne Staley making an appearance at one in 1994. It is one of the few videos we have of Layne during that year, taken shortly after the release of Jar of Flies.

H: myself, V: Vivian

H: I was wondering what the core beliefs of the Peace Heathens are and how the organization  was conceived?

V: In 1988 I had this idea to start a street-level volunteer group composed of alternative culture folks to do good things in the name of the alt-culture, community service projects and benefit shows for righteous causes that got little support from the mainstream. I called it the Seattle Peace Heathens. I created this manifesto, and Yossarrian “Rex” Kelley did a logo graphic I put at the top of it. I plastered the paper fliers all over The Ave, at places like the Allegro Cafe, Espresso Roma, and The Last Exit. I started getting lots of calls from people excited about my crazy vision quest, wanting to learn more and get involved. We started having meetings in people’s homes that eventually got too large, and we moved them to Ravenna Park, where we turned them into potluck feeds that started attracting a homeless contingent. 

Meetings started attracting as many as 70 people, mostly music culture and street culture folks - hippies, punk rockers, and an eclectic mix of just progressive, activism-type people. The thing that struck me most, though, is I would be approached by some very neat and clean folks who came on really strong, talking about how resourceful they were and how they were going to contribute all these things. I became very excited about these folks and what they might bring to the group. Then there was an entirely different contingent of absolute street people. These folks were often disheveled, unkempt; they might even have a distinct odor about them. At first, I was not sure what to think about these people, and I placed much of my focus on the other group of folks who seemed to have their shit really together.

The core values of the Seattle Peace Heathens were a commitment to service to society and others through volunteerism, basic counter-culture values of peace and love, Left politics such as social and environmental justice, and a commitment to the power of change through art (visual and music).

H: -It was said that Demri Parrott was a member of the Peace Heathens, do you have memories of her attending meetings or the Hempfests?

V: [I was closer with Layne, so I’ll tell the story of us meeting first.] I was at a hard rock club called the Prime Rib Palace in Totem Lakes, Washington and I struck up a conversation with a blonde dude with long hair and silver pants. We hit it off. He learned I was fresh from Hollywood and wanted to know all about the club scene there. He said his name was Layne, and he had a band called Sleze that was being renamed Alice in Chains. He gave me his number. He was the first person I developed a friendship after I moved to Washington State. A few years later, he invited me to his apartment in a big old brick complex above Eastlake. I met his lady Demri, a petite girl with a beautiful smile and sparkling eyes. I didn't know where to buy weed, and they told me I could get my weed from them. I am not really sure if they were dealing weed or if they were just helping me out, but they always had an eighth when I needed to buy one.

Around 1988 Layne had developed a heroin problem, and I had a cocaine one. I would pick Layne up and drive us to TUNA (Tuesday Night N.A.) at the Rendezvous on 2nd in Belltown, where a guy named Will ran the Narcotics Anonymous meetings. It was pretty much the rocker NA for the area. Unlike his rock persona, Layne was a quiet, almost shy person. He was sensitive and kind,in my experience. It was stunning watching the band climb to rock stardom. I loved their music and was impressed with the strength and power of his voice.

Demri was a bubbly, outgoing person. She volunteered for the Peace Heathens and helped at several of the benefit shows we produced at the famed OK Hotel, one of the only venues with all-age shows. She helped put up posters promoting the shows around town, and at the shows, she worked the merch table and helped us load gear in and out, even though she was a very diminutive person. She was sweet and kind and fearless. She resonated with the Peace Heathens's core belief that all of the various cultural sub-genres of the music/youth/alt-culture (punk, metal, hippie, Reggae, etc.) shared a common spirit and was essentially responding to the same mainstream desire for conformity and control. She believed in the benevolent act of helping others, which was central to the Peace Heathen identity.

I hope this provided some insight on the free spirited nature of Demri, and the ways in which she provided to her community and led with love and compassion. Big thanks to Vivian for taking the time to speak with me and tell me of all his cool stories, and to MemoriesOfDemri on instagram who pointed out the Peace Heathens sticker on Demri’s suitcase as well as provided the information regarding the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

Thank you for reading!

-Helena"

***

Thank you very much Helena for allowing us to share this story here!! Go and follow her on instagram or subscibe to her blog!

[eretzyisrael]

by John Levine

(DECEMBER 2, 2023 / NYP) Pro-Palestinian groups such as those who spread hate at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting this week, have been lavishly funded by the Rockefeller family’s main charitable arm.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has links to two groups the Israeli government designated “terrorist organizations,” a review of public records by The Post shows.

Founded in 1940, the famous clan’s $1.3 billion fund — where Justin, Wyatt and David Rockefeller Jr. sit on the board of trustees — has shelled out more than $2.6 million since 2018 directly or indirectly to at least six anti-Israel organizations, several of which openly celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on the Jewish state.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, whose logo was affixed to an ad promoting Wednesday’s rally, is a “fiscally sponsored project” of the nonprofit Alliance for Global Justice.

In August 2022, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave the Alliance $100,000.

Israel designated Samidoun a terrorist organization in February 2021 and Germany banned it last month.

Samidoun, founded in 2011, condemned the United Kingdom in 2021 for classifying Hamas a terrorist organization, and cheered the Oct. 7 terrorist incursion:

“The resistance is rising throughout occupied Palestine . . . confronting the occupier by land and air, taking control of Palestinian land, seizing occupation settlers and soldiers and launching thousands of missiles as Palestinian resistance forces fight to advance return and the liberation of Palestine,” Samidoun said on the day Hamas terrorists massacred more than 1,200 Israeli civilians.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has awarded at least $215,000 to Defence For Children International-Palestine, according to their website and IRS tax forms.

The Israeli government declared the group a terrorist organization in October 2021.

Undeterred, the fund issued a new $50,000 grant to the organization in 2022.

“This is unfortunately a case of reaping what one sows. They were probably fine with these rabid, lefty groups, protesting other people,” said City Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). “The lesson we all can take from this is that the woke left isn’t our friend.”

The fund gave at least $490,000 for “general support” to the Jewish Voice for Peace, according to public grant disclosures on their website since 2019.

Despite its name, the group is a notorious anti-Israel organization and a front for mainstreaming antisemitic ideas, critics say.

A Grand Central demonstration organized by the group in October led to more than 300 arrests.

“Jewish Voice for Peace is a radical anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activist group that advocates for the boycott of Israel and eradication of Zionism. JVP does not represent the mainstream Jewish community, which it views as bigoted for its association with Israel,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The group has been banned by Columbia University for repeatedly holding “threatening” campus events, the school said last month.

The fund has also donated at least $515,000 to the The Tides Center, earmarked specifically to support Palestine Legal, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, records show. The nonprofit trumpeted the Oct. 7 attacks as “one of the most significant acts of Palestinian resistance.”

“There is no equivalence – moral or otherwise – between Israel’s nearly eight decades of ceaseless colonial violence, and the resistance that it has engendered,” Palestine Legal said on Oct. 10.

“It’s the height of irony that the Rockefeller Foundation supports the anti-Israel, Soros-funded Tides Foundation and many other antisemitic Israel-bashing groups, that are now holding ugly, disgusting, vile Jew-hating displays at the Christmas Tree event at the Rockefeller Center,” said Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America. “Just desserts I say.”

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund also sent at least $710,000 to the Adalah Justice Project and $605,000 to the Middle East Policy Network (also known as Al-Shabaka).

Both organizations celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in public statements.

The fund defended the grants and noted that it donated to more mainstream Israel groups as well, such as J-Street and the The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

“We categorically reject any claim that our grantee organizations support, materially or ideologically, acts of terrorism,” said spokeswoman Sarah Edkins “Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion for people of all races, ethnicities, and genders is critical to our mission, and RBF is deeply concerned about indications of growing antisemitism.”

Edkins added, “The Fund’s only relationship with Alliance for Global Justice is as the fiscal sponsor for one grantee of our Sustainable Development program, South Bronx Unite.”

This article was originally published in the New York Post and can be viewed here.

[kendrixtermina]

Gaza is NOT totalitarian

One thing you always hear from Zionists or even unaffiliated random westerners who know little about the conflict as a reason why the war is, if not completely justified, then at least tragically unavoidable, is that Gaza is a totalitarian regime & they’re either all indoctrinated to hate Israelis, or get portrayed as passive victims with no agency that need to be „liberated“

But over the last weeks we have seen a lot of scenes of life out of gaza and i have also read many books & watched documentaries to further educate myself and there is just no trace of that anywhere.

No big posters of leaders in classroom, no symbols & logos everywhere, no political phrases in people’s everyday speech, many of the people in videos seem totally a-political & lament that their family had nothing to do with the resistance or the war. They spend more time talking about friggin olive trees and embroidery than politics.

You could glean a bunch about their culture from the videos – extended families live together in big shared houses, they are very affectionate with children, they value community, the sport they tend to be obsessed about is Football…

Saudi arabia, for example, bans booze, art, music & forces everyone to wear burqas – that’s just not the case in Palestine. There are woman doctors & journalists, a wealth of poets & painters. You can buy booze grown in the west bank. You see the occasional lady without hijab, like Bisan often has her hair out, which tells me the ones that DO wear it do so because they want to, which is their good right. There were several Christian churches apparently operating just fine inside Gaza, until Israel bombed them.

I heard that 4th way esoterism was influenced by Sufism which is an off-shoot of Islam, & seeing the religious mantras people cited I could see the relationship - they said stuff like they should trust in God's destiny, that God alone is enough for them etc. it has that same "accept what is & surrender to the universe, real strength comes from contact with divinity & then you need nothing else" vibe - though of course the esoterists believe less in a personal god & more in a panentheist "Unity Of Being". Ppl used to make a lot of bogeyman talk out of Islam meaning "submission" but now I think it's probably meant in a "surrender to the universe & accept what is" kinda way & that ppl ended up projecting the authoritarian character of Christianity onto it. Islam is alot more de-central & everyone does their own thing, innit? I remember that when Muslims hit a certain percentage in Germany they thought of introducing Islam classes to school (in addition to the Catholic & Lutheran classes they have - atheists & ppl of other religions get "ethics" instead which is basically moral philosophy) but one problem they ran into is that there's no central authority to get a course plan from. There is no such thing as a muslim pope. There are extremists who ARE authoritarian, like Saudi arabia (as there are of all religions; They're all the same, rly, it's probably down to some flaw in human brains) but that doesn't mean everyone's like that. You might pt down the authoritarianism there to Saudi Arabia being an absolutist monarchy...

(Of course, a lot of less educated westerners don’t know that the kind of extremism seen in the Saudis & Taliban is actually a fairly recent movement that was able to take over due to the ME being destabilized in the cold war… the area was once stable, organized & well-educated.)

Some of the people covering the war like Bisan, Plestia, Saleh etc. were normal instagrammers before, doing normal instagram things, not a hint of politics to be found.

I also recall this post by a gay ude saying that yeah it’s not super welcoming but there’s not really systematic persecution – your family might kick you out or quietly tolerate it while wanting nothing to do with it… so just like the more religious parts of the USA basically.

Also, I’d like to note that even if gaza WERE totalitarian, people in totalitarian countries don’t cease to be human and their lives don’t become worthless. Not everyone is a True Believer, most are just scared out of their mind. You need to read „Jugend Ohne Gott“, you need to watch „Das Boot“, you need to listen to stories of people who escaped from North Korea. Maybe if it’s easier to epathize with a fictional depiction, read 1984 or The Handmaid’s tale.

So, I consider myself German because that’s where I grew up & the only culture I have any emotional attachment to, but my parents are Cuban. Cuba is a fairly „soft“ totalitarian state in that dissenters are „only“ beaten & their job prospects ruined, not outright killed like in North Korea or under the Nazis, but even so, my grandma still rips up all papers before throwing them away because spies would go through people’s trash, and my parents needed to be told several times by friends that it’s OK to criticize politicians in public before they would feel comfortable riffing on then.chancellor Kohl.

Note, however, that people DID mock the Castros in private, among trusted family members. There are tons of jokes mocking them. Heck, even mocked Hitler behind closed doors – they used to call them Flüsterwitze („whisper jokes“) because if you say them out loud they shoot you. Just to illustrate how people trapped in totalitarian states are human.

Even in the early 2000s when I was still pretty young, I didn’t buy that it’s OK to kill Iraqis just because there is a Dictator. The citizens are victims, and unlike the leadership they are poor & can’t flee. What if someone invaded Cuba and killed all my cousins just to punish the bad guy opressing them? That din’t seem fair. They said I’d understand when I’m older but all I understood is what utter bullshit that war was.

We’ve heard so many Palestinians talking about their plight and there is hardly anyone speaking of repression or totalitarianism, including peole who left the country. (In stark contrast to Cubans, North Koreans or people who fled the Nazis, who don’t shut up about how much it sucked) There is not zero repression (like an incident where Hamas got Fatah-affiliated workers fired), but the same can be said of Israel or even the west – McCarthyism or the current withhunt against pro-palestine ppl.

Meanwhile we have that creepy song of Israeli children calling for murder, and many videos by Israelis saying they were indoctrinated. One person mentioned being outright told that arabs were their „enemy“, while two arab boys were sitting in her class. I also hear that many Israelis go most of their lives without even interacting with a Palestinian outside of military service.

So, yeah, I think it’s pretty clear who the indoctrinated ones are.

[dipperdesperado]

Hogwarts Legacy and the Limits of Liberal Allyship

Seeing the conversation around Hogwarts Legacy has confirmed my belief that the bandwidth of conventional American politics is so small, and can't encompass literally any action that challenges the status quo.

For those who don't know, Hogwarts Legacy (HL) is an upcoming AAA Western RPG where you play as a created character in the Harry Potter universe. It's gotten a lot of flak due to its ties to JK Rowling (JKR). She still gets money from anything in the Harry Potter IP due to her contract negotiations. The issue with JKR is that she doesn't believe that trans women are women. Due to this, a lot of folks, especially those in trans communities are asking people not to play the game.

The issue comes in when people are not only going to play the game but are loudly playing it. People revel in the fact that there are those who "are mad" that they're playing a game.

But, it's so much more than that. Just because people have such a strong affinity for Harry Potter, they feel like they can't help but play the game. While I've never really engaged with the IP, from what I do know, that shit did not age well in most regards.

The simple fact is, if someone from a community is like, "hey, can you not do this thing that enables people to harm me and people in my community"? Our answer should be yes. There should be no argument. Why is this an issue?

It's an issue because of the prevailing politics of the day. As I mentioned before, this is American-centric, but neoliberalism is worldwide, baby. It affects all of us.

In the liberal conventional thought around social issues, supporting marginalized movements and ideologies is only acceptable within a certain range of actions and contexts. It all ends up being performative, due to a very shallow, mostly aesthetic analysis.

Like, anything that makes them uncomfortable is too far, and any dissent from the community is asking too much.

While liberals see themselves as being more progressive than conservatives, it seems that the extent of their allyship is the yearly rainbow flag logo shit. Both groups inherently uphold the structures that exist (which cause the need for there to be such strong allyship in the first place.)

To bring it back to HL, if people want to play the game, I don't agree with it but like, I'm not gonna smack you over the head. It just proves the point to a great degree when they feel the need to not only buy it (instead of 🏴‍☠️), but to tell these folks that you're going to. They're upset because people don't seem to care about their issues, especially when a lot of LITERALLY genocidal things are happening to trans folks.

The whole thing just feels very scary. How many times do we have to go through historic moments before people start to see the patterns? I really hope that people start understanding that allies don't mean shit. Folks need accomplices.

If you want to know how to help, find those communities in your locality and get involved. Send them some bands, like the amount that you would've spent on the game if you were to buy it. Show up, in real solidarity. We have to protect each other. This kind of shit does not end well for marginalized people in general (bigotry will always try to envelop more and more people). Stay safe, and stand with your community. Here's a link to learn more.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Outraged Over Gaza, Protesters Show Left-Wing Divisions as Convention Opens (NYT) As Democrats gathered in Chicago on Monday, eager to project an image of a liberal movement fully united behind Vice President Kamala Harris, thousands of people marched a few blocks away, presenting a thorny counterpoint. For hours, protesters furious over the Biden administration’s support for Israel and its failure to end the war in Gaza held signs, chanted and pushed for Ms. Harris to break with the president on those issues. The loudest challenge to the opening day of the Democratic National Convention was coming not from Republicans, but from the progressive left.

Businesses Are Already Girding for Next Phase of the U.S.-China Trade War (NYT) If not for the trade war between the world’s two largest economies, Easy Signs would now be hiring dozens of workers at its factory in Allentown, Pa. It would be readying plans to build a second plant generating another 100 jobs. Based in Australia, Easy Signs manufactures banners and marketing installations for corporate events, using huge printers to press logos and slogans onto rolls of cloth. Its American business has been growing 70 percent a year. Still, the company is putting off an expansion. Its cloth signs are displayed on aluminum stands made in China. Those products are now subject to a series of tariffs reaching as high as 365 percent under a policy set in motion by former President Donald J. Trump and continued by the Biden administration in the name of protecting American industry from Chinese government subsidies. The costs of imported components could increase further should Mr. Trump win November’s presidential election and follow through on his threat to add a tariff of 60 percent or more on all Chinese goods, and 10 percent to all imports. “That’s definitely a scary concept,” said Andy Fryer, co-founder of Easy Signs. “The whole feasibility goes out the window.”

Not just for kids anymore: Adults turn to lemonade stands as side hustles (Washington Post) There was no ice at Giant. There was no ice at CVS. And Malia Blake was getting anxious. Her new side hustle, intended to help her climb out of debt, was inspired by a woman she saw on TikTok do this to pay for pharmacy school. It depended on four ingredients: ice, water, sweetener and lemons. Lemonade stands used to be only for kids who wanted to make pocket change during their summer breaks. Now people in their 20s and 30s around the country have started squeezing lemons to pay off bills. They set up stands at farmers markets, local festivals and concerts. Proprietors say it’s very profitable, but the business is extremely weather dependent and has gotten highly competitive. Blake, 26, said she has around $40,000 in debt from student loans, credit cards and a car. “The cost of living is kind of high and I have a lot of expenses,” said Blake, who lives in D.C. and works in corporate communications. “I’m constantly looking for ways outside of my 9-to-5 [job] to put towards my debt and my future. Lemons are cheap. I thought I could do this, too.” Blake says she makes $1,000 to $1,500 in sales per event. She sells her lemonade for $8 a cup and offers five flavors: watermelon, mango, strawberry, hibiscus and plain. It takes her about one minute to make a cup.

Phone taps, sabotage and an assassination plot: Is Germany in Cold War 2.0? (BBC) Holes mysteriously found cut in army base fences. An alleged plot to assassinate Germany’s top weapons manufacturer. Phone taps on a high-level Luftwaffe call. These aren’t storylines lifted from a 1960s spy novel but real-life events in Germany, this year. Not all of these events can definitively be blamed on Moscow, but Germany is on heightened alert for possible acts of Russian sabotage, because of Berlin’s continued military support for Kyiv. As a hot war rages between Russia and Ukraine, there are fears that Europe has slipped into a new Cold War. But what does a rekindled Cold War look like for Europe’s biggest economy and a country that was once itself cut in half by the Iron Curtain? The biggest bombshell dropped just last month when CNN reported that US officials had told Berlin of an alleged Russian plot to kill the chief executive of Germany’s biggest arms company Rheinmetall. The 61-year-old is, to use a crude term, a real “somebody”, particularly in a world where Nato countries are spending billions to re-supply Ukraine and boost their own security. Had a plot to kill him been successful, it would have sent shockwaves through the West.

Ukraine Strikes Bridges in Russia, Aiming to Entrap Troops (NYT) Russian troops defending a pocket of territory wedged between a river and the border with Ukraine were at risk of becoming encircled, military analysts said Monday, after Ukraine bombed bridges that are the only routes for resupply or retreat. In their counterattack into Russia, which has been underway now for nearly two weeks, Ukrainian troops quickly broke through thinly manned border defenses, fanned out on highways and captured towns and villages, initially pushing deeper into Russian territory. The bombing of bridges, in contrast, takes aim at land between the Seym River, the border and an area inside Russia already controlled by Ukraine, with the potential to entrap the Russian forces positioned there. Three bridges span this stretch of river, all now destroyed or damaged, according to statements released by the Ukrainian Air Force and to social media posts by Russian officials and military commentators. The potential encirclement of its forces in the area adds another challenge to a Russian Army caught off guard by Ukraine’s startling incursion over the border on Aug. 6.

Azerbaijan raises alarm over Caspian Sea's 'catastrophic' shrinking (Reuters) Things are drying up between Asia and Europe. Really big things. According to the president of Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea is drying up at a worrying pace. In a meeting held on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev highlighted the sea’s “catastrophic” shrinkage, citing a decades-long trend of its waters slowly receding and the fact that rocks that were hidden under water just two years ago are now sticking out “a meter above the surface.” The Caspian Sea isn’t really a sea. It’s actually the world’s largest lake, though it is almost as salty as a sea. It’s steadily shrunk since the mid-1990s thanks to a combination of climate change-accelerated evaporation and the diversion of the Volga (Europe’s longest river) for irrigation projects.

Pakistan suffers internet slowdown as government denies setting up a national firewall (AP) People in Pakistan reported much slower internet over the past several days with some experts on Monday estimating its speed falling to less than half its usual capacity at times. The problem has affected millions of users, disrupting businesses and drawing nationwide complaints, while authorities have denied allegations that the installation of a national firewall was behind the slowdown. Since February, users have been either unable to use social media or allowed limited access following a governmental crackdown before the Feb. 8 parliamentary election. However, internet speed has now noticeably slowed down. Users are unable to quickly send emails or use the messaging service WhatsApp, with businesspeople and doctors saying it has negatively affected their daily work, particularly receiving statements and medical reports.

Contingency plans for the Taiwan Strait (Defense News/WP) It has become conventional wisdom among the halls of the United States government that China will launch a full-scale invasion of Taiwan within the next few years. And when that happens, the US military has a relatively straightforward response in mind: Unleash hell. Speaking to The Washington Post on the sidelines of the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ annual Shangri-La Dialogue in June, US Indo-Pacific Command chief Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo colorfully described the US military’s contingency plan for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan as flooding the narrow Taiwan Strait between the two countries with swarms of thousands upon thousands of drones, by land, sea, and air, to delay a Chinese attack enough for the US and its allies to muster additional military assets in the region. “I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities,” Paparo said, “so that I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.”

UN says a record number of aid workers were killed in 2023 and this year may be even higher (AP) A record number of aid workers were killed in conflicts around the world last year—more than half after the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7—and this year may become even deadlier, the United Nations said Monday. The 280 aid workers from 33 countries killed in 2023 was more than double the previous year’s figure of 118, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs known as OCHA said in a report on World Humanitarian Day. OCHA said this year “may be on track for an even deadlier outcome,” with 172 aid workers killed as of Aug. 7, according to a provisional account from the Aid Worker Security Database. More than 280 aid workers have been killed in the war in Gaza, now in its 11th month, mainly in airstrikes. The majority of them are Palestinians who worked for the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, according to OCHA. It said that “extreme levels of violence in Sudan and South Sudan “ also have contributed to the death toll both this year and last.

In Uganda’s chaotic capital, boda-boda motorcycle taxis are a source of life and death (AP) The young men perched on motorcycles looked dazed in the morning heat. But at the sight of a potential passenger, they furiously kick-started their machines and tried to outrace each other for the business. For tens of thousands of men in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, this is how to make a living. For others, the speeding motorcycles embody the city’s chaos as an essential but menacing means of transport. The motorcycle taxis, known locally as boda-bodas, are ubiquitous in East African capitals like Nairobi and Kigali. But nowhere in the region have boda-boda numbers been surging more dramatically than in Kampala, a city of 3 million people, no mass transit system and rampant unemployment. An estimated 350,000 boda-bodas operate in Kampala, driven by men who come from all parts of Uganda and say there are no other jobs for them. The boda-boda men, who operate mostly unregulated, have resisted recent attempts to dislodge them from the narrow streets of Kampala’s central business district, frustrating city authorities and underscoring the government’s fears over the consequences of angering a horde of jobless men.

Nearly half of world’s migrants are Christian, Pew Research shows (Religion News Service) The world’s 280 million immigrants have greater shares of Christians, Muslims and Jews than the general population, according to a new Pew Research Center study released Monday (Aug. 19). “You see migrants coming to places like the U.S., Canada, different places through Western Europe, and being more religious—and sometimes more Christian in particular—than the native-born people in those countries,” said Achsah Callahan, the study’s lead researcher. While Christians make up about 30% of the world’s population, the world’s migrants are 47% Christian, according to the latest data collected in 2020. The study found that Muslims make up 29% of the migrant population but 25% of the world’s population. Jews, only 0.2% of the world’s population but 1% of migrants, are by far the most likely religious group to have migrated, with 20% of Jews worldwide living outside their country of birth compared to just 6% of Christians and 4% of Muslims.

[queeryouthassemble]

[ID: Light purple square post, with all-caps white heading that reads "Liliana (she/they)" Below that, small black text reads "QYA head of racial justice." Oriented to the left of the page is a black italic quote from Liliana, which reads “Pride necessitates Black and Brown liberation. In the face of supremacy’s stifling gales, our foremothers weathered the storm and mastered its might without the master’s tools. And it is our responsibility as their descendants to continue their legacies and honor their sacrifices. For me, that starts by fighting for a collective vision to love and celebrate without limitation.” To the right of the page is an ilustration of Liliana, a Black nonbinary femme wearing a silk red headewrap and clear round glasses. They are drawn from the ankles-up, arms wide open with a large joyous smile on her face. They are wearing a white V-neck crop top with a blue jean slit skirt. They have a rose quartz bracelet on, gold hoop earrings, and gold, circular charm necklace. End ID]

[ID: A purple square post, with a white, all-caps heading that reads "meet the QYA heads." Below the heading is smaller, black text, centered on the page, that reads "This Pride, Queer Youth Assemble is spotlighting our amazing team heads, in a visual collaboration with QYA Art Consultant Jesse Young-Paulson (they/them). This project seeks to visualize our queer and trans youth fellows as they wish to be seen, and capture what pride and queerness means to them—the joy and community queerness fosters, the feelings of grief and vulnerability queer people are enduring, and the spirited resistance of LGBTQIA+ people. What does pride mean to you? Comment below!" On the bottom of the page are five illustrated people, positioned side-by-side next to the Queer Youth Assemble logo. End ID. ]

[ID: A purple square post, with a white, all-caps heading that reads "Liliana's Role". Below this is a smaller black text that reads "Liliana is Queer Youth Assemble's Head of Racial Justice. She leads the creation of projects to raise awareness of intersectional issues, along with informing QYA's practice to ensure inclusivity.". Below this is a white line, with a drawing of a frog holding a heart with the transgender flag on it and a curvy rainbow graphic under that. End ID.]

[jgmail]

The three discourses on the Indian world

By Juan Gabriel Caro Rivera

 I would first like to thank the organizers of this event for allowing me to participate in it. Specially the professor Alexander Dugin and Raphael Machado for invite it me to this important event.

 I would like begin this intervention say the rise of multipolarity implies the awakening of the great civilizations, both past and future, which today is taking place everywhere. Some of the poles of the multipolar world are already de facto tangible realities, as is the case of the United States, Russia or China. However, there are other poles that have not even been established yet, as is the case of our continent. If we want to become an independent pole, we must first carry out a process of conceptual decolonization of our vocabulary, which implies the deconstruction of the predominant discourses. Broadly speaking, there are three discourses about our continent:

 1)      The first discourse is that which has been traced from the West and which is expressed in liberal, communist and nationalist ideologies alike. For this Westernized discourse, Latin America as a whole is a territory without history that has not managed to modernize successfully and, therefore, to integrate itself to the benefits of globalization. Due to its historical defects, superstitions, myths and lack of rationalism, its peoples and cultures have been incapable of assuming modernization and progress. This discourse is common to both conservative and progressive currents that wish to impose the standards of European and American Modernity on our lands. Speeches such as that there is more territory than State or lack of rationalization of the economy belong to this modern and enlightened scheme. The main representative of this trend was Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, who established a disjunction between civilization and barbarism. By civilization Sarmiento understood the Yankee culture and its modern man, while he condemned as barbarism the Catholic Baroque culture of the Indians, blacks and gauchos of the continental peoples as residues of a bygone era, a culture belonging to the twelfth century.

2)      The second discourse on our continent is the one expressed by Hispanists, reactionaries, Catholics, Carlists and all the pro-monarchist and traditionalist Hispanic-American currents. For these currents everything that is perceived as noise or lack of history and modernity by the dominant ideological currents of the Enlightenment is rather considered by them as an expression of the traditions of the Hispanic-Lusitanian peoples. This current of thought considers that the Hispanic monarchy, its institutions and its geopolitical unity was destroyed by modern ideologies such as nationalism, liberalism and communism, all of them being equally guilty of eliminating the universal Catholic monarchy that had dominated this continent. This discourse, of course, is typical of the intellectual, juridical, traditionalist and monarchist elites who long to return to a past destroyed by the subsequent enlightened revolutions. This discourse is not the discourse of the people either, and the Logos of our nations does not shine in it.

3)      The third discourse on our continent does not belong either to the modern majority enlightened elites or to the minority and marginal traditionalist elites. This third discourse was created by a series of heterodox, baroque and popular movements that expressed the originality of the mixtures and manifestations of our peoples from their particular ethnogenesis to the present day. We could say that it is the language of the poets and writers who, through literary modernism, made the Logos of our continent speak. This third discourse is based on the thesis that the first discourse is false, but the second discourse is incomplete and it is necessary to search deeper and deeper in our imaginary or ethnic sense, understanding that the Logos of our people cannot be expressed by an elitist or nostalgic language. That is why literary modernism, represented by Rubén Darío, José Asunción Silva, José Enrique Rodó or José Martí, focused their attention on myths, stories, legends and pre-modern structures that sought to abolish progress, seeking to return to the archaic and mythical elements that had given birth to our ethnic groups. Thus it was necessary for modernist poets and writers to re-sacralize reality and overcome Western nihilism by going much further than the ancients: inspired by Nietzsche, they all proposed the superman as the conqueror of God and Nothingness. This last discourse is neither about the future (progressive) nor about the past (reactionary), but about the abolition of time and the opening to Eternity (the present). It is worth noting that Latin American modernism was contemporary to the Russian Silver Age and has many parallels with it, how, for example, the exploration of pagan themes and spirituality against the positivist and scientific world.

 If our continent wants to become a multipolar pole of the world, then it is necessary for us to take on the task of creating a new culture that can confront Modernity. Such a task has already been taken on by many of our thinkers and must be taken on by us today.

[gravitascivics]

JUDGING CRITICAL THEORY, XII

[Note: This posting is subject to further editing.]

Of late this blog has been reviewing the elements of critical theory.  In doing so, the blog has claimed that this leftist view has posed the most prominent challenge to the natural rights construct.  Natural rights view is currently dominant and mostly guides what civics classrooms present students in way of content.[1]  The challenging view, critical theory, has been around for ninety years in various forms, and is finally having some actual influence in the US and is generating reaction from certain conservative parties – e.g., consider Governor Ron DeSantis’ efforts in Florida.

         Even non-advocates of this view might consider a number of their arguments worth their consideration.  For one, many would sign up for instituting interactive instructional strategies as opposed to what one usually finds in classrooms, what critical theorists call a “banking” strategy.  In this, critical educators fall in line with progressive pedagogues who, for example, promote both open ended research and community involvement activities.  

What differentiates critical strategies from more mainstream progressive ones is that critical educators target their efforts almost exclusively to what they consider exploitive conditions.  In terms of clarifying this distinction, consider what critical educators claim their approach strives to accomplish:

The students – no longer docile listeners – are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher. The teacher presents the material to the students for their consideration, and re-considers her earlier considerations as the students express their own [a two-way influence]. The role of the problem-posing educator is to create, together with the students, the conditions under which knowledge at the level of the doxa [opinion] is superseded by true knowledge, at the level of the logos [reason].

Whereas banking education[2] anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality. The former attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality. [3]

 To distinguish themselves, as indicated by this quote, critical pedagogues claim they engage in “problem-posing.”

And as indicated earlier in the blog, the problems posed and studied arise from the oppressive realities that confront the students.  Included in this approach is to encourage students to form a solidarity with their classmates – fellow oppressed comrades.  Being action-oriented, this approach has a dual aim:  transforming the oppressive nature of the situation and having students become fully humanized as they interact with each other and deal with their plight.

         And central, according to critical pedagogues, is discourses – the powerful dialogues in which people engage.  Transformation toward liberation relies on words that communicate what the real world is and is to function in people becoming truly human.  It surely does not rest on sentimentality or as a tool to manipulate others.  Instead, it communicates humility, not arrogance.  Among its messaging, it states a faith in humankind, not an unrealistic faith, but one that comprehends and deals with the foibles and short sightedness people tend to employ.  

As part of this mode of communicating, the discourses should promote horizontal arrangements – a real equality – instead of vertical arrangements in social as well as political relationships.  To use common parlance, the process should lead to honest partnerships where true respect for others and their views are held.

         For part of the highlighted reality is an area’s history – its background – which includes how the structural realities of an area were formed and maintained.  In the current frame, what exists is that background’s product and includes the views entertained by the oppressed and the oppressors.  So, a major aspect of the transforming process is for the current generation to decode the situations that people experience.  And the educative effort is geared to see the real nature of how and why they became and are oppressed sans the manipulative language the non-liberated oppressor employs.

Paulo Freire describes the oppressor discourses as language that utilizes oppressive generative themes.  These themes deserve a bit of explanation.  “In the process of decoding, this analysis of meaning corresponds to the stage we call the ‘description of the situation,’ and facilitates the discovery of the interaction among the parts of the disjointed whole.”[4]  The aim is to discover the dialectic forces impinging on people’s well-being – the hows and whys in which they do so.

And even if one is tempted to get boughed down on the particulars – the specific people or things in situations – the focus needs to be on the whole – the abstract composite one confronts.  That is what is known as generative themes, and if oppressive, they are oppressive generative themes.  In that mode, liberating education has students and others inquire into people’s thinking about the realities they face, and their corresponding action – their praxis.  They need to replace the oppressive generative themes with liberating ones.

The oppressed need to leave behind their self-image as objects.  In its stead, they become subjects who are drivers of what becomes real.  That is, these students are to become drivers of what is to be; they, through their study and action, discover (1) their felt needs, (2) the abstractions embedded in the codification of the language that has veiled their reality, and (3) commence to communicate the totality of that reality.

As indicated in previous postings, this process is ongoing.  Its general gist is for those involved – which might include liberated, former oppressors – to introspectively inquire as to the reasons why they have been seeing reality as they have.  If possible, this can be assisted by the services of experts from the disciplines of psychology and sociology.  With this sort of help, an interdisciplinary approach should be maintained.

         Freire, on this score, writes,

 Once the thematic demarcation is completed, each specialist presents to the interdisciplinary team a project for the “breakdown” of his theme. In breaking down the theme, the specialist looks for the fundamental nuclei which, comprising learning units and establishing a sequence, give a general view of the theme. As each specific project is discussed, the other specialists make suggestions.[5]

 And with that Freire discusses another element of critical pedagogy, that being interdisciplinary analysis.  The resulting studies take on a thematic form that originates from the people and are directed at them as challenges they need to resolve.  Again, as earlier in this blog it was stated, what one sees here are processes of study-praxis-study, recurring cycles. They continue in this mode as people stake out different futures.

         To update this account, let this posting add another quote from the Freire Institute recently retrieved from the internet:

 People can be passive recipients of knowledge — whatever the content — or they can engage in a ‘problem-posing’ approach in which they become active participants. As part of this approach, it is essential that people link knowledge to action so that they actively work to change their societies at a local level and beyond.[6]

 And that is why this posting is entitled “Problem-Posting.”

[1] For this blogger’s more extensive argument concerning this point see Robert Gutierrez, From Immaturity to Polarized Politics:  Obstacles in Achieving a Federated Nation (Tallahassee, FL:  Gravitas Civics Books, 2022), available through Amazon.

[2] Banking education was explained in the previous posting. It basically refers to didactic teaching.

[3] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York, NY: Continuum Publishing Company, 1999), 62, emphasis in the original.

[4] Ibid., 86.

[5] Ibid., 101.  These teams, this blogger assumes, are organized at a national level for the recurring types of problems students identify with their self-analyzing efforts in the classroom.

[6] “Paulo Freire,” Freire Institute (n.d.) accessed March 26, 2023, https://www.freire.org/paulo-freire#:~:text=Freire%20developed%20an%20approach%20to,educational%20process%20is%20never%20neutral.

[sj-exercise]

Flat Freire and I took a journey around my neighborhood in Lakewood, Ohio and discovered this wonderful display of social justice! Not only does it support the LGBTQIA+ community with its bright rainbow coloration, but it’s labeled as an “emotional support” bench, which is something very prevalent in today’s culture of fostering emotional needs in education. Freire was very anxious to sit on the bench in order to sit with his emotions and feel supported and so was I! As an LGBTQIA+ individual, I also felt very safe in this neighborhood which is something Freire very much subscribes to for minority individuals. Also featured in this wonderful display of social justice was a garden labeled “free veggies” and an herb cart with a “black lives matter” logo atop it. Freire and I had a wonderful time wandering this little abode in Lakewood. As someone who believes very much in the philosophies and ideas of Maxine Greene, I think she would also greatly appreciate this display. She was very much a liberationist and humanist as an educator and part of that liberation involves self-actualization and believing in the student as an individual. Some students may identify as LGBTQIA+ and/or black, and that is an important part of student identity which we need to support and honor. Freire had a good time and I’m sure Greene would have too!

ZF

[captainbisexuelle]

MLK + Persuasion

Hello, radfems and gendercrits. I’d like to take the time today, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to discuss a big problem in our community— our debate and rhetoric skills.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a prolific writer and speech-giver, as well as practiced community organizer. He faced incredible social obstacles, and yet despite the hurdles, backlash, and the majority of the country disapproving of him, he managed to inspire millions and his words have passed into legend as some of the greatest in modern history.

How did he do this? What makes his speeches so compelling and hard to ignore? How did he consistently step up to a platform and win the ear of those otherwise indifferent?

He used rhetorical appeals. You may remember these from English class: Ethos, Pathos, Logos. There’s also Kairos and Telos, but those might have been skipped by your teachers.

Radfems and gender critical feminists have a massive Ethos problem. I don’t think I need to point out how most liberals just simply won’t listen to anything we have to say if it’s labeled as radical feminism. Framed as common sense, people usually agree with us. But the perception of our authority on the subject is in highly in question. People don’t trust us. It’s not something we can simply brush off as other people being ignorant or hateful of us. It’s a problem we have to combat.

Pathos is the appeal to emotion. A lot of people, even women themselves, haven’t been socialized to care about women or empathize with the pain we go through. However, radfems somewhat utilize this in giving examples of suffering. I think this is most effective when talking to other women in order to get them to realize our common experiences unify us. Phrases like imagine you’re a girl from x place, visual aids of menstruation huts, and visceral anecdotes of FGM are all examples of pathos.

The one thing radfems/GCs have in spades in Logos. This is the appeal to logic, the use of statistics and facts to support your argument. These are the Factfems doling out incredible posts refuting inaccuracies and straight up lies. This is probably how most people on here peak, since it’s the most often and strongest form of argument radfems/GCs employ. But we can’t rely so heavily on only one rhetorical appeal.

Kairos is a little bit more complicated as a concept. It’s the appeal to timeliness. It’s MLK orchestrating a peaceful march in Birmingham, knowing there will be police backlash, knowing he and others will get arrested, and then sitting in jail and writing letters about the situation. It’s discussing a matter when it is timely and relevant. The Women’s March on Washington, for example, is a great time to have a speech about women’s participation in political life. University sororities are good places to discuss campus sexual assault. PTAs and mom groups might be a good place to discuss the dangers of unnecessarily medicating children and child-rearing without gender roles. But MLK didn’t just react to events going on, he instigated them in order to force a national conversation.

Telos is an appeal to purpose. This is a Call to Action. What is the goal of the speaker? What does the writer wish to communicate to the reader?

Some of you might accuse me of saying this is a call to tone down our rhetoric or be nice to our oppressors. I assure you it isn’t. It’s a call to strengthen our rhetoric. Being persuasive is the bare minimum if we want to achieve our goals. We are correct. But if people don’t want to listen to us, if we don’t move them emotionally, they won’t be around to hear the facts. We must use these tools in conjunction with each other. 

I recommend reading these and thinking about what makes them strong, effective pieces:

Letter From a Birmingham Jail

Eulogy for the Martyred Children

[quasi-derivative]

Rainbow Capitalism

A Short Analysis

[here's an essay explaining the reason that rainbow capitalism is bad and harmful to Pride, hope you enjoy]

One of Capital's greatest abilities is to metabolise and corrupt everything it touches, in order to perpetually grow and spread. This is epitomised by its appropriation of Pride and the LGBTQ+ community. It's easy to picture what I'm talking about. As soon as the 1st of June comes around, corporations don their rainbow flags and buzzword slogans, in order to show the world that they too support LGBTQ+ rights. These changes vary in scale — Skittles completely changed its packaging (to black and white, since "only one rainbow matters during pride") while Instagram colours the pride related hashtags as a rainbow. However, whether these changes are big or small, they represent corporate pandering and appropriation of a complex movement and community. The weight of capital effectively crushes any complex emotional or historical cause into something one-dimensional from which it can extract profit.

A few years ago, I went to a pride festival with friends. Looking back, I'm only just realising how corporatised it was. While there were stalls from charities, there were also some from local businesses and political parties. Although I did not fully realise it at the time, it is obvious now that behind the pro-LGBTQ+ gesturing there lurks the powerful force of the profit motive. Now, some may hold the corporate inclusion of LGBTQ+ symbols as a good thing that spreads awareness of the movement — to an extent, this is true. However, upon closer analysis, this falls apart.

The appearance of rainbow capitalism correlates precisely with the acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in wider society. That is to say: companies only started showing support once it became socially acceptable for them to do so. This began in the 1990s, when being queer was slowly becoming more accepted, but became common after gay marriage had been legalised in the early 2000s.

This is a two-fold phenomenon. First, it exemplifies the pandering of companies to the LGBTQ+ community. The show of support (a show, it is not legitimate support) is done in order to convince queer folk to buy their products. Since queer people could now hold higher paying jobs (employment protections, etc.), their purchasing power increased — the so called 'pink dollar'. And so, by capitalistic design, the corporations jumped at the opportunity to make money.

Second, it shows that companies have no real intention of supporting LGBTQ+ rights. As always, it is important to remember that profit is the motive. In the 70s or 80s, such a show of support would have been awful for business, since the majority of people did not support queer folk. However, in the modern day, companies can adopt Pride related messaging freely, since the profit lost from angry conservatives is outweighed by the influx of money from liberals and progressives. In fact, some companies even donated money to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians, a practice that goes unnoticed since they put up the facade of progressivism in order to placate any suspicion and resistance.

Corporations (and the rich people who run them) have the power to create huge change — if they wanted to. They have incredible amounts of money, which could be used to fund non-profits and other organisations that materially affect the lives of LGBTQ+ people and youth (Trevor Project, Mermaids UK, etc.), as well as protect the civil rights of the community (most notably the ACLU). If they wanted to, corporations could contribute vastly to these causes and create real good in the lives of countless people. However, they won't. Instead, they are content with espousing rhetoric without tangible support. This does nothing but maintain the status quo: the companies make money, and the LGBTQ+ community continues to face rampant discrimination, both individual and systemic. The pride flag logos and other rainbow capitalist tropes serve only to hide this.

Above all this, however, hangs the issue of cultural erasure. The dilution of Pride into an amorphous commodity without nuance harms the very culture of the queer community, and gradually dissolves its history into a set of tokens and images. We know this commodification perfectly well, it exists as I have laid out above and, conversely, as the adoption of commodities to represent pride (drinking iced coffee = being queer, etc).

As Pride increasingly becomes an event, it is easy to forget the real, dangerous, life-and-death struggle for equal rights under the law that brought us to this point. Struggle and protest and rioting against a discriminatory system is what Pride commemorates. Not consuming product. It should be about the revolutionary fight against oppression in our past, present, and future, and not an event co-opted by the capitalist system.

While the portrait I have painted above seems bleak and hopeless, we are not completely powerless. Although the final way of countering and removing this practice is the overthrow of our capitalist system in favour of socialism or communism, in the present we can still create change. This is best done through with-holding our money from large anti-LGBTQ+ corporations where possible, while educating ourselves on anti-capitalist thought and practice, and pressuring companies and politicians to create substantial change.

[whitehotharlots]

Old democrat vs. new democrat

You might remember during the 2016 election, when a surprising amount of coverage was afforded to the fact that Hillary Clinton kept hot sauce in her purse. Her affinity for capsaicin was held up as proof that she was “down” with the black community, and so you should vote for her instead of that guy who very selfishly supported the Civil Rights movement back when she was knocking doors for Goldwater.

This was mocked on both the left and the right. The mockery shook Hillary so much that she discussed it in her wretched election postmortem What Happened, explaining that there was a conspiracy to say that she didn’t actually hot sauce which was just a complete lie, she actually totally loves it, and ergo we need to institute laws that will prevent internet posters from questioning a powerful woman’s lived experience in regards to spices.

Of course, as always, she missed the point. No one doubted that she actually kept hot sauce in her purse. That’s fine and meaningless. No one who is not insane care about that in the slightest. The point was that enjoying hot sauce does not relieve a powerful politician from their role in engineering mass incarceration, using the execution of a mentally disabled black man as a political stunt, gutting welfare, and/or ginning up fear of a nefarious race of dark-skinned Superpredators.

Hillary was old school. That’s what most of her establishment supporters liked about her. She confused aesthetics with substance, but she was at least genuine about her aesthetics. We don’t got that no more. 

Post-Hamilton, post-Russiagate, post-Trump, liberal preferences are divorced from those of their voting base even on the most superficial of levels. It’s like when the Pistons changed their jerseys in the mid-90′s to that godawful aquamarine color with a flaming horse as their logo and all their fans kept wearing the old school stuff. The community is not being held together even within the symbolic realm. 

Think about how Mayor Pete would try to craft such a narrative in 2024. He’d first sign a McKinsey-brokered contract with the folx at Tabasco, under the conditions that Tabasco cut employee pay by 20% and divert all pension funds into Raytheon stock. Also, this isn’t a dealbreaker, but if you could consider fixing prices in Argentina that would really help us beat down the competition we’re facing from one of your competitors--don’t worry, we can get you some subsidies to make up the difference. 

Then, instead of offhandedly mentioning his preference for the bold taste of Tabasco Brand Sauces during an interview, he’d stage something. He’d be walking into a high school auditorium and then, oh no, his backpack opens and out falls several bottles of Tabasco sauce, including their amazing new Extreme Garlic flavor! 

Pete would shuffle conspicuously toward his mark, look at the camera instead of toward the bottle, and say “oh my, it looks like you all know what my favorite condiment is: just like the Tabasco corporation and all their fine products, this campaign is going to ‘Turn Up the Heat.’” 

The crowd goes wild. Twitter users become viciously angry at those who believe the event to have been either spontaneous or staged. And whatever evangelical public school abolitionist who happens to be leading the GOP will see his poll numbers rise by 2 points. 

[coppicefics]

Masked Omens: Week Seven, Part One

[Image Description: Image 1 - A simple rendition of the Masked Singer UK logo, a golden mask with colourful fragments flying off of it. The mask has a golden halo and a golden devil tail protruding from either side. Below, gold text reads ‘Masked Omens’.

Image 2 - A page from the Entertainment section of the Capital Herald, dated 6th February 2021. Full image description and transcript below the cut. End ID.]

Read the fic here! All news stories and events are entirely fictional; real names of people (with the exception of image attributions) and places are used only for context. No affiliation is implied, and no disrespect is intended by the use of their names in this work of fiction.

[EDIT: With thanks to HolRose/@hasturswig for spotting that I had overlooked the sad passing of John Noakes, who originally appeared on this page!]

The Capital Herald - Saturday, 6th February 2021 Entertainment, page 15

Top left: Grasswater redo rumoured Will anybody tackle the ‘cursed’ adaptation? [Image Description: The ‘w’ in ‘Grasswater, ‘h’ in ‘the’, and ‘o’ in ‘adaptation’ in the above headline have been circled in pencil. End ID.] It's been nearly a decade and a half since the critically-acclaimed adaptation of Sir Thomas Parsett's The Grasswater Affair flopped into cinemas, and rumours are once again circulating about a possible reboot. The first attempt at transferring Parsett's magnum opus to the big screen was released in 2009 after a series of setbacks to the production process. Among the calamities that befell the set were a fire in the wardrobe department, an overdose requiring producers to recast the lead role of Fabian, and a bout of food poisoning that halted filming for over a week. There were whispers, among the more superstitious, that the film was cursed. By the time The Grasswater Affair was finally released, the delay had whipped the original book's fans into a frenzy of anticipation, and excitement over the forthcoming film actually pushed the 19th-century novel into the bestseller lists for the first time in the weeks before the release. Early reviews were promising, and the good press only fed the hype machine. But the crowds that packed into cinemas to watch it emerged disappointed; while the reasons they gave for their disappointment varied wildly, everybody from casual viewers to die-hard book lovers seemed to find it lacking in some aspect or another. It deviated too far from the source text, while adhering precisely to the minor details that didn't matter; it featured a young actor fresh out of drama school, rather than the promised household name; it lingered too long on shots of the actresses' bosoms, and the key object that proved key to the plot was left entirely out of focus in the background of a crucial early scene. While, naturally, some audience members enjoyed it in its own right, it never became either a blockbuster hit or a cult classic, and it still boasts a lowly 2.9 stars on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and 24% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This being the case, it might be hard to understand why rumours continue to circulate about a revival of The Grasswater Affair, or what might make this time different from the many, many other occasions when such a story has surfaced on the internet. The first question is easily answered by a look at the thriving community of Parsett fans who adore the original novel – and, indeed, the rest of the series The Grasswater Affair is part of. Following first Fabian, and then various other heroes, through a sort of alternative 19th century underpinned by magic and other fantasy tropes, it's been hailed as a masterpiece – and it's aged surprisingly well despite the shift in society's views and tolerances since its publication. The first novel sees Fabian locked in a battle of wits with his somewhat older rival, Rafferty, as they seek to make their fortunes in a society rife with danger and – worse – scandal. As for the second question, the recent rumours have an extra ring of truth to them thanks to the attachment of an actual name – writer-turned-showrunner Noel Garmin is said to be in talks about the project. Having adapted several of his own books for the small screen, could he now be turning his famed respect for written source material to a film or series based on Parsett's masterpiece? If he does, book fans can expect to be very pleased with the result. Garmin was asked about his upcoming projects at a recent convention panel, and his answer, while enigmatic, seemed promising.“Well, I've got to write some books, at some point! But I do also want to work on some more TV, it's a fascinating way of telling a story and it's still quite new and exciting for me. Perhaps I could tell one of my favourite stories, one that I didn't originally write. I'm actually talking to some people... We'll have to see. Hopefully I'll have news for you soon.” Hopefully you will, Noel. Hopefully you will. CITRON DEUX-CHEVAL Top right: Summer’s operatic offerings Last of Glyndebourne festival announcements [Image Description: The apostrophe and ‘s’ of ‘summer’s’ and the ‘t’ of ‘operatic’ in the above headline are circled in pencil. Below the headline is a short, wide picture of a theatre auditorium with red curtains. Small text over the bottom of the picture reads ‘Photo: Gabriel Varaljay | Unsplash’. End ID.] Opera fans are in for a treat this summer, as Puccini's Turandot returns to Glyndebourne Opera House. The venue in Lewes is renowned as the home of great opera, and Turandot is a favourite no matter where it's performed, so this combination of the two is a perfect match. Throw in popular young tenor Jeremy Wensleydale – most recently seen on ITV's The Masked Singer - performing the role of Calaf, and it's a performance guaranteed to impress. The play follows Calaf as he sets out to win the hand of the titular princess. Each suitor is asked three riddles, and failure means instant death. But answering three riddles is not enough to win the heart of Princess Turandot, and Calaf strikes a desperate bargain; if she can guess his true name by daybreak, she may put him to death regardless. If she fails, the marriage goes ahead. It's an interesting method of courting, to be sure, but the opera has enchanted and delighted audiences for many years now. And, if nothing else, who can resist an opportunity to hear 'Nessun Dorma' live? Glyndebourne members can book tickets now for dates between 25th May and 22nd June; remaining tickets will be available from the 18th of April. Turandot is the latest title to be announced by the opera house and completes their summer season's line-up. There will also be performances of Cosi Fan Tutte, Tristan and Isolde, Il Turco in Italia, and an array of concerts and other events. The Glyndebourne Summer Festival is always a highlight of the arts scene in the middle of the year, but there are events all year round. Currently, the opera house is a stopping-point for a touring production of Romeo & Juliet, which has already passed through the Chichester Festival Theatre and will then go on to Colchester, Ipswich, Cambridge, Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds. The show is a daring new interpretation of the age-old Shakespearean tragedy, fusing music and dance with the familiar story, and a full review will appear in the Capital Herald on Thursday. From the middle of February, Romeo & Juliet will be replaced at Glyndebourne with a more traditional #approach to La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi. The music of La Traviata may be familiar, even to audiences unfamiliar with the story, as it was rather liberally plundered for inspiration by Donato Lovreglio in 1865. Of course, that does assume a familiarity with Lovreglio - but if you find yourself humming along during your first attendance, that might very well be why. Incidentally, for more opera and classical music trivia, you might find my recent book, Inside Opera, worth a read - especially if you need to brush up on your cultured conversation points before you visit the opera house this summer. EDWARD BIGGS Inside Opera, by Edward Biggs, is published by Byker Press and is available now in all good bookshops. #Hardback RRP ￡9.99/€11.99.

Centre left: Capital Herald scoops NMA Star-studded ceremony honours news greats [Image Description: The ‘H’ of ‘Herald’, ‘A’ of ‘NMA’, and ‘t’ of ‘star’ in the above headline are circled in pencil.] The 2021 News Media Award ceremony took place on Thursday evening at a glamorous event held in the Mayfair Room at the Connaught Hotel, Mayfair. While many of the attendees are more used to operating the cameras than parading in front of them, they rose to the occasion with great aplomb, rubbing shoulders on the red carpet with some of the most famous entertainers in the UK who'd come to add their own special touches to the ceremony. It will come as no surprise to learn that Trevor McDonald, Natasha Kaplinsky, and Naga Munchetty were in attendance, as were Tom Bradby and Dan Walker. But the attendee who really got heads turning was Carmine Zugiber, notorious for attending very few events on UK soil. Although she's normally out in the field, she's been based in London for the last couple of months, covering the political beat for News World Weekly in Uriel Scrolle's absence, and it seems she couldn't resist the opportunity to collect her awards for Best Combat Coverage and Outstanding Field Reporting in person. Wearing a glamorous Ligur gown in striking red to match her hair, she paused on the red carpet to exchange words with some of those less fortunate reporters covering the event. “I don't know what to do with myself, with nobody shooting at me!” Zugiber joked. “Where's my bulletproof jacket?” The ceremony featured a performance of 'Messy (If I Want To Be)' by rapper P-White, who also presented an award for Entertainment Columnist of the Year to the Capital Herald's very own Citron Deux-Cheval. Another of the Capital Herald's staff writers, Edward Biggs, was nominated in the category of News-Adjacent Achievement for his 2020 trivia book, That Guy From That Thing. While the award, presented by Dame Angela Crowley, eventually went to News World Weekly's Donald Eath for High Score: A Study in Arcade Machines, Edward did get a chance to meet Dame Angela and exchange a few words. “She said I shouldn't feel discouraged, as she didn't win anything at her first awards ceremony either – and she wished me every success with my new book, which has just come out,” said Biggs of the star. “Hopefully, next year, I'll be bringing home a trophy too.” At the end of the night, as the winners and losers drifted home, the presses were already roaring into action to print the morning's papers. The news never stops; there was precious little time for the winners to enjoy the warm glow of appreciation, and no time at all for the less successful nominees to lament their losses. But at the end of the day, the whole industry could sleep safe in the knowledge that the work we do is valuable, and valued. MARY HODGES

Bottom left: Blue Peter garden party ‘22 Celebrating 10 years in show’s new location [Image description: The ‘B’ and ‘e’ of ‘Blue’ and the ‘h’ of ‘show’ in the above headline are circled in pencil. End ID.] The BBC has announced that it will be holding a party for former Blue Peter presenters, guests, and viewers in 2022. Held in the Blue Peter garden in Salford to celebrate ten years since it was relocated from London, the party is expected to provide an opportunity for Blue Peter presenters, past and present, to mingle and let their hair down, as well as catching up with some of the guests who've appeared on the show over the years. Former presenters such as Adam Young, Katy Hill, Radzi Chinyanganya, Anthea Turner, Gethin Jones, Pat Maputi, Yvette Fielding and Konnie Huq can expect an invite, of course, as can the current team of Lindsey Russell, Richie Driss, Mwaka Mudenda, and Adam Beales. But the former guests are an even more varied bunch; everyone from Idina Menzel and Sir Chris Hoy to McFly and Tim Peake could be invited, to say nothing of the hundreds of farmers, bakers, teachers, parents, and kids who've taken part in the show. While the party is quite a long way off yet, the BBC are already hard at work figuring out a lottery system that will allow them to give every viewer an equal chance to be invited to the party. Register your interest now on the Blue Peter website to make sure you don't miss out. SARAH JEUNE Ad, bottom right: [Image Description: A black background with a dark-grey crown resting on it. There are smudges of a lighter colour on the background. Above the crown, graffiti-style text reads ‘P-White’. Below it, written as if in chalk, are the words ‘Chalkdust tour’, underlined as if in chalk. Beneath it, a red bar reading ‘New dates added’ covers the words ‘Sold out’. Below that is the web address ‘www.chalkdust-tour.com’. Tiny writing in the bottom right hand corner reads ‘Photo: Zach Angelo for ProChurchMedia | Unsplash’. End ID.]

[End of transcript]

[toku-explained]

The Swordsman of Time

SSSS.Dynazenon: I'm excited for this. I didn't blog my thoughts on SSSS.Gridman, as I hadn't finished the original back then, but suffice to say it's an excellent series. Let's get started. Major characters; Asanaka Yomogi, whose working part time; Minami Yume, rumoured to be asking guys out only to ditch them. Characters they hang out with; Yomogi hangs around with Awaki, Nazumi, Ranka and Kaneishi, and works with Inamoto-san at the convenience store, Yume spends time with Mei. Gaumu appears briefly. Yomogi seems to be interested in Yume after hearing the rumours. Asugakawa Chise is sat at Yamanaka Koyomi's house, she's ditching school and he's unemployed. Yomogi runs into a starving Gaumu and gives him food, Gaumu feels indebted to him, identifying himself as a Kaiju user. Items start floating. Yomogi dislikes Kamijo, a man his mother seems to be dating, discarding and offer of money, Yume has a deceased sister, Kano, and finds a pair of interlinked black and white Venus charms. Yomogi keeps running in fear from Gaumu, and runs into Yume, who asks to meet him that night. Yume doesn't show, but Gaumu finally catches up to him and decides as payback he'll find her for him. He starts berating her for breaking promises, Yomogi arrives at the scene and she confirms she was tricking him, and that something is wrong with her. At this point the Kaiju Charbandes appears. Gaumu is unable to control it, and pulls out an item. A wire mesh figure appears and reaches out to the three of them, then at Chise and Koyomi watching nearby, capturing Koyomi. The 4 captured find themselves in individual cockpits, communicating via screens. Gaumu identifies DynaZenon, and the figure resolves. After some combat lead by Gaumu, they stop what looks like a final attack by converting to DynaRex. After defeating the Kaiju, Yume reiterates that there is something wrong with her.

Heroes' Odyssey: We start a look at Battle in Hyperspace.

Saber: Rintaro tells Mei he will fight with Touma, but he needs to deal with some loose ends with Sword of Logos first, his face hardens when he leaves. Master Logos seeks a book kept in Northern Base, and is now prepared to have the Ryoga and Reika eliminate the other Swordsmen. At Northern Base they decide Rintaro is probably attempting to identify the traitor, but they can't get into Southern Base, however Yuri can take Touma via the route Tassel took. Rintaro follows Reika to the room Sophia is held, able to listen in and confirm she's there, apparently the boon they want from Sophia has the secret of creating humans. As Touma and Yuri arrive at Southern Base, Rintaro reports Reika's treachery to Master Logos, who instead reveals his goal and that he disposed of the sages. Rintaro, distraught, intends to stop him, but is blocked by Ryoga, who uses Ocean History to become Durandal. Durandal's abilities disorient Rintaro, and start affecting Touma as he enters Southern Base. Touma find Durandal and a beaten Rintaro, and becomes Elemental Dragon. Touma is able to instinctively dodge Durandal's strikes by becoming the Elements, though isn't aware of it directly, forcing Durandal to use Rintaro as a hostage, leading Touma to surrender. Rintaro is distraught that the cause to which he has dedicated his life to is a lie, and tells Touma to destroy Sword of Logos rather than worry about him, but admits immediately he didn't mean it. Promising Rintaro that they will rebuild Sword of Logos, he surrenders Rekka and the Books, but when Durandal steals them by his powers and prepares to kill Rintaro anyway, Saikou interferes, allowing them their opening to escape, but Durandal teleport stabs Touma. Kento breaks into Sophia's cell and reveals his identity. As Yuri fights, Rintaro changes as well, Touma handing him Elemental Dragon, which overflows his water powers allowing them to escape. They get Touma to Northern Base, and while Yuri can heal him with time, they're sitting ducks without the barrier. Which is when Sophia reveals her presence there once more.

Zenkaiger: Vroon clarifies that he never met the Isao and Mitsuko rumoured to have been at Ijirude's lab, and has no idea what they looked like. Kaito and Yatchan now feel worse about their disappearance, with it now sounding more likely they're gone, but Kaito decides to ask how Vroon got there from Kikaitopia. Bokkowaus is furious about the escaping Worlds, and Ijirude goes to seek a remedy, while Barashitara goes to attack. Vroon takes them to where he entered Kaito's works via the Parallel World Gate, but before they can do much Sushi World appears. Kaito is distracted as they fight, and so him and Zyuran get pressed into Sushi together. The others make a plan to save them by luring out Sushi World via their own Sushi. Kaito and Zyuran talk about Kaito's parents, and Zyuran admits he's lost his own parents. The trap for Sushi World works, but Barashitara arrives. Secchan let's Kaito know they're in trouble, and Kaito attempts to change but accidentally uses the Kyuranger Gear, triggering luck that breaks a nearby fire hydrant that sprays them away. After arriving they change, and the Zenkaiser/ZebakiZyuran nigiri handles Sushi World while the rest fight Barashitara. After the victory it's time for Dai Sushi World, which presses the mecha into sushi before they can combine. Kaito uses the Ryusoulger gear and RyusoulKen to free them, and after a double ZenkaiOh finish liberates Sushitopia, Zenkaiser tries to force Barashitara to take him to Tojitendo, but the gate forces him back. The team make plans for the future, as does Ijirude.

Episode of I-Doll: Marketed as Episode 12.5, the production of this special was a stretch goal for the post-series crowdfunding campaign to repair the suits. Originally released in the bonus disc of the Dogengers Special Box, it airs now for the first time on TV. Having to go by the raw due to this not being subbed. As per the last episode, Eboshi Musha's face covering floats through the air towards where the cast are currently. Just as Tanaka and Yuki rejoin the heroes, Tanaka realises he left the 3 sofubi up the hill. Yabai Kamen is annoyed about being made to wait and attacks, the heroes go to face him while Yuki goes to wait near the toys. Rookie uses Memories Mode, but when the cloth lands on the sofubi it's power fades, as Insurgent and Doll both come to life, along with the third figure Great A. The first hero on the Galaxy Great series featured in the YABAI comic, the figure has always clearly represented him. Great A picks up Yuki and runs off with her when Insurgent tries to attack him, Tanaka barely seeing this as Ohgaman deals with Yabai Kamen, and they find Yuki and the Sofubi gone, only Eboshi Musha's face covering. Tanaka runs off searching, while Ohgaman lectures Yabai Kamen. Insurgent and Doll catch up to Great A and Yuki, and Insurgent it prepared to seriously attack Great A, but Yuki interrupts, understanding Great A is a hero, and hugs the I-Doll pair, explaining Great A complete with 70s or 80s esque show footage and a theme song. He does keep surprising Doll by getting close. There's some discussion, I think the I-Doll pair are scared of seeing Tanaka again, and before the talk is finished, Shaberryman appears, excited to meet Great A, but forced to fight as he's a Kaijin, Great A and Insurgent fight Karamis while Doll sort of dodges them. While Great A finishes the Karamis, the I-Doll pair have more or less dealt with Shaberryman. Tanaka, still no closer to finding Yuki, is called by Ohgaman, who drops some advice before they question Yabai Kamen, rather forcefully. Great A uses the YABAI comic to teach the class about himself, then while focusing on Shaberryman with help from Yuki notices the I-Doll pair arguing, and has Yuki listen to his movie soundtrack, and Insurgent has some break down, and then Shaberryman starts doing some narration that seriously pisses off Doll until Great A interrupts and grabs Yuki. Tanaka arrives at the school to find Great A holding Yuki, now wearing a face mask with AHK on it. While Tanaka recognises him as Great A, he introduces himself as Shaberryman #2, and makes some villainous posturing about kidnapping Yuki and the dolls, leading Tanaka to change into Rookie to face him. However, Rookie is no match for Great A, easily beaten down as the I-Doll pair watch, eventually reverting to Tanaka. Great A turns to leave, stopping when Tanaka calls out, climbs up and swears to save I-Doll, charging as himself, while thoroughly outmatched refusing to give in, and Yuki encourages the I-Doll pair that Tanaka is strong. As the battle continues, Yuki appears as "Dark Castle" but quickly discards it after Tanaka and Great A are both just confused. Insurgent and Doll join her, before both attacking Great A, they tell Tanaka how important he is to them, and grant him their power once more, Rookie Memories Mode being born again. After a brief battle Rookie lands the final blow, and Great A congratulates him on being a hero as he returns to a doll. Insurgent and Doll were able to return to their full forms, but Insurgent tells Tanaka to keep his distance before she hugs him and returns to doll form, as Doll does. Yuki tells Tanaka it's time to return home. Shaberryman escaped while the I-Doll pair were encouraged by Yuki, having to slip out if his armour to do so, and reflects they'll need a new source of power now, though it looks like something got in him armour. Yuki gives everyone (including Yabai Kamen) tickets to the amusement park, and while they're there Tanaka sees the 3 dolls encouraging him once more. Next week, Nice Buddy.

As a side note, excited for all the announced projects, but we've got a wait for them.