#if they could reinstate slavery they would.

[tathracyn]

What I'm learning is that most of the executives in the entertainment industry want the ability to buy people as slaves to perform for them or die, and that puppeteering stolen corpses around on stage is an acceptable second choice

[catboygretzky]

Do I even want to know what happened in the last 24 hours 😭 I'm almost afraid to ask but I'm also insanely curious

You probably don't want to know but I'll tell you because you have no choice. This will be long and...awful. But there are sources so that's fun! Please keep in mind that this was all released within 24 hours on Thursday, September 20th, 2024 and that, unfortunately, I haven't mentioned everything.

But! The GOP was certainly having a wild one yesterday.

To start things off:

The first 'Big News' to break was about Mark Robinson.

For those saying 'who the fuck is Mark Robinson', he's the current (R) Lt. Gov of North Carolina that is running for Gov. Before yesterday, he was best known for openly hating LGBT+ and Jewish folks, being a Holocaust denier, being (forcefully) anti abortion, saying it was better when women couldn't vote, anti immigrant, hating the civil rights movement, etc, just being a hateful Evangelical nasty fascist. MAGA to his core. Trump has endorsed him, saying he should be cherished and calling him "MLK on steroids". (Robinson is Black).

So, yeah, that's bad enough right? Yesterday it got even worse. CNN released a report about some comments he made on a porn site forum 12 years ago, the most prominent being 'i'm a black NAZI'. He also commented that he wished slavery was legal and that he'd own a few, and called himself a 'perv' that used to 'peep' on women in public locker rooms when he was a teenager.

Also the tale as old as time that I'm sure you could guess when I mentioned 'GOP' 'loudly transphobic' and 'porn site scandal' - trans porn was a favourite of his. Because of course.

Also of course - the GOP hasn't taken him off the ticket, and he will continue to be the nominee for governor in North Carolina!

Read the article, there's more about him and the situation in general. Mind the warnings.

-

Now on to our favourite worm brained bear eating anti vaxxer conspiracy theorist, Robert F. Kennedy Junior! I'm putting this under a read more now.

The first thing to drop about him yesterday was the news of an investigation after he allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home 20 years ago. Now I bet you're thinking, wow that's bad! Unfortunately for RFK Jr yesterday got worse. It was then revealed that he (70) was having an affair with right wing journalist Olivia Nuzzi (31) after New York Magazine suspended her.

Everything I learn about RFK Jr I learn against my own will.

-

Saying goodbye to RFK for now, let's move on to Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida! This Matt Gaetz, with the botox if you didn't recognise him.

Scary lookin, right?

This isn't a completely new story (here's an article about how he alledgedly paid for sex with a minor) but new court filings were released yesterday alledging that he attended a drug-fueled sex party in 2017 with the 17-year-old girl at the center of the alleged sex trafficking scandal.

Sure is great to have such trustworthy men representing this country!

OKAY, on to the next.

-

This wasn't really breaking news because this is just Trump being Trump but he gave a speech at an ANTI ANTISEMITISM EVENT where he preemptively blamed the Jews for being the reason he'll lose this election, telling them they need to get their head checked if they vote for Harris (that's pretty much part of his stump speech by now though) and saying he'll reinstate his Muslim ban. White fascist blaming Jews? Wow, I did Nazi that coming.

-

I genuinely could go on, I really truly could.

Oh! Kamala Harris went on Oprah and it was really nice and not at all insane and she talked to the family of the first known victim of Trump's abortion ban and it was very touching. Trump's official social media then posted a clip of her talking about her gun and saying 'If somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot' like it was a snatch when in reality Republicans in the comments are saying 'actually, this would make me vote for her'. Thanks, Trump Team for the free advertising!

Misc:

Chris Rufo (known racist and anti immigration right wing activist) got revealed to have an illegal immigrant wife, and then got revealed to be a user of Ashley Madison (database where people go to cheat on their partners)(Robinson was also on Ashley Madison).

Jasmine Crockett during her thing and ripping white republicans to shreds. (idk this was just fun to me)

Actually Republicans and Project 2025 got ripped to shreds and shut down in general by multiple Congress members.

GOP is on the brink of causing a government shutdown, because of COURSE they are.

Cards Against Humanity sues SpaceX over “invasion” of land on US/Mexico border.

Anyway there's actually MORE believe it or not but I can't remember if it happened yesterday. Thank you for reading, I'm always open to discussing current events. I don't think it's a well known fact that I'm into politics because I don't talk about it on tumblr because people are kinda stupid. Anyway!

[nesiacha]

166 Years Ago, Empress Marie Claire Bonheur of Haiti Passed Away

Marie Claire Bonheur (1758-1858)

166 years ago, on August 8th (or August 9th, according to other sources) in 1858, Marie Claire Bonheur, the first Empress of Haiti at the time of its independence, took her last breath.

In anticipation of this post for the anniversary of her death, I had already created three portraits of revolutionary women from Haiti or overseas here: link.

Marie Claire Bonheur was born in Léogâne in 1758 into a poor but free family. Her education was provided by her aunt Elise Lobelot, who was a governess within a religious order. As can easily be imagined, at the time of her birth, Haiti, then called Saint-Domingue, was marked by cruel inequalities, the cruelty of the colonists, and the horrors of slavery.

She married Pierre-Lunic, a master wheelwright, but he died in 1795. It was especially during the Haitian Revolution that Marie Claire Bonheur would distinguish herself.

During the siege of Jacmel in 1800, during the conflict known as the War of Knives between Toussaint Louverture and André Rigaud, which led them to clash in Jacmel, Marie Claire Bonheur tirelessly helped the wounded and the starving. One of her notable actions was convincing Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who was then a lieutenant under Toussaint Louverture, to open the roads so that people in the city could receive more aid, such as food, clothing, and medicine while he was besieging the city. She was in the streets, tirelessly organizing meals, among other activities. She was considered a fighter and, above all, an effective nurse for the wounded soldiers.

In 1800, she married Dessalines, and they had seven children in total. However, she insisted on legitimizing her husband's children from previous relationships, including Catherine Flon, who is considered one of Haiti's four national heroines alongside Sanité Bélair, Dédée Bazile, and Cécile Fatiman.

After Napoleon sent an expedition to Saint-Domingue with the aim of reinstating slavery, Jean-Jacques Dessalines joined the insurgents fighting against the French soldiers. He surrendered to them as a strategy, only to fight them again, especially when the reestablishment of slavery was ordered. After the victory at the Battle of Vertières, following Haiti's restoration of independence, he proclaimed himself emperor, and Marie Claire Bonheur became empress.

When Jean-Jacques Dessalines ordered that the white inhabitants of Haiti, including children, be killed in 1804 (an episode I will detail very briefly in the next post, but let’s not forget that while this massacre was horrible and absolutely condemnable, we must also remember the atrocities committed on the other side against black Haitians before the Haitian Revolution and by Bonaparte's troops with shocking orders, whose executions remind us of the atrocities of Carrier’s drownings), Marie Claire Bonheur opposed it. Some say she fell to her knees before her husband to plead for the lives of the French in Haiti. She, along with other Haitians, saved white and French people.

She is known for saving those who would become known as the "orphans of Cap," Hortense and Augustine Javier, two little girls aged 8 and 5. They first lost their father in the massacre. A former black servant tried to hide and protect their mother and the two girls, but they were discovered on the fourth day, and the soldiers killed the mother. However, General Diakoué, a friend of their father, managed to save them and sent them to safety among former black slaves, who showed them great affection. Marie Claire Bonheur took them in in 1806 and moved heaven and earth to send them to France to be with their family. She succeeded, and the two girls were in France by 1810. They devoted their entire lives to expressing immense gratitude to the Haitians who saved them, and apparently, they and their family managed to have King Charles X in 1830 reward General Diakoué with the Cross of Honor.

When her husband Jean-Jacques Dessalines was assassinated in 1806, she refused the hospitality of Henri Christophe. The former empress lived in poverty until 1843 when she was granted a pension. In 1849, the emperor of Haiti, Faustin, wanted to increase her pension due to his admiration for her husband, but she refused. She died in poverty in August 1858 at the age of 100.

This woman, who had an extraordinary destiny, lived for at least a century. Her memory is very present in Haiti, and she left a great legacy alongside other Haitian women.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

You are aware that religion is a major part of people’s cultures and history right?

And what gives you the right to insult billions of people for their beliefs?

You are aware that sacrificing virgins to make the weather amenable to growing crops was a major part of people's cultures and history, right? You are aware that enslaving your neighbors was a major part of people's culture and history, right?

Aside from, what the fuck does this have to do with anything or justify belief in imaginary wizards, it's both an Appeal to Popularity, or Bandwagon, fallacy, and an Appeal to Tradition fallacy.

We stopped sacrificing virgins to the weather, we - well, the west - stopped enslaving people, and we're gradually surrendering belief in supernatural deities. If you're not willing to defend the resumption of slavery and virgin sacrifice on the basis of "cultures and history," you have no basis defending belief in mystical space creatures on the basis of "cultures and history."

May I also introduce you to evolution? Cultures evolve. And history documents those changes. Cultures that do not change go stagnant and die. And history is not a dogma on which to base freezing a culture in one point in time. You really want to see what that looks like? Afghanistan. North Korea.

And I guarantee you that whatever religion is dominant in any given culture overthrew a previous belief system, replaced an earlier culture. So, unless you're willing to unwind Xianity and Islam and reinstate the ancient Sumerian religions or Zoroastrianism, for example, neither you nor I believe a word you're saying. I'm calling full-on bullshit. Islam is notorious for having wiped out every trace of every culture it invaded and replacing it with Islamic supremacy.

Meanwhile, every culture disagrees on the nature of their gods. How many there are, where they came from, how they behave, what they want of humans. There are thousands of gods you don't believe in, without any guilt. All of you disbelieve each other's gods. I just agree with all of you.

So, if you want to play this numbers game, let's be scrupulously honest: there isn't a single religion anywhere in the world where there's more people who believe it than disbelieve it. Not one. Every single religion is a minority in all of humanity.

Religion comes from humanity's ignorance. We didn't have better explanations for the world and we resorted to magic because that was the best we could come up with at the time. But you don't rely on the Humoral Theory of the Ancient Greeks for your medical needs, so why would you rely on equally ignorant beliefs about magical space beings for your understanding of the world and the way it works? Isn't the nature of everything worth a better explanation than fables of magic written before people knew to wash their hands?

You're a hypocrite. Everybody in the world once believed that the Earth was flat, yet you wouldn't worry about a Flat Earther being "insulted." Millions of people believed in Zeus and the Greek pantheon, and many still do, yet you would never feel guilty while laughing at the jokes in Disney's Hercules. Why do you demand I meet a standard that you refuse to?

Not to mention, you come to me like this never worrying whether I might feel insulted. Why do you have different rules for others than for yourself? Why do I have to worry about the feelings of others, when you never have to worry about mine?

What gives me the right? The fact that being insulted is not an argument that defends unsubstantiated nonsense. Anyone can claim to feel insulted about anything simply by asserting it. That doesn't mean anything. All you're admitting is that you think feelings are more important than truth. I reject that.

Your beliefs are for you, not for me. Which means managing your fee-feez is entirely your responsibility, not mine. I will not manage your feelings for you just because you will not or cannot. And if you can't, that suggests a whole lot about the nature of your beliefs and how true they must be. Nobody feels "insulted" when someone disbelieves in gravity. Because gravity is real and doesn't need to be "believed" when it can be demonstrated.

I also have the right because religions are just ideas and people are allowed to criticize ideas. It's how we got better ones, like quantum physics and, you know, the Earth not being the center of the universe. Again, your religion is for you, not for me. Its rules are for you, not for me. I do not need to comply with the rules of your religion. What you're asserting is authoritarianism, which is something people use when their ideas are flimsy and unconvincing. When they can't make a compelling case, they simply threaten.

And I unequivocally reject it.

[agentrouka-blog]

I think this an interesting take i rarely see people bring up and its when dani leaves essos she’s essentially leaving it to ruin. Once the dragons are gone whats gonna stop the slavers from going back to use slavery again. Dani never created a stable system for the former slaves to remain free and the fact she’s using slavery to make her conquer of westeros possible

GRRM certainly showed us exactly that in Astapor. Slavery was reinstated almost immediately. Alongside the squalor and civil war and disease.

But that doesn't have to be the only story.

My suspicion is that when Dany fails to be the savior that the slaves of, say, Volantis long for, they will eventually take matters into their own hands.

"In Volantis, thousands of slaves and freedmen crowd the temple plaza every night to hear Benerro shriek of bleeding stars and a sword of fire that will cleanse the world. He has been preaching that Volantis will surely burn if the triarchs take up arms against the silver queen." (ADWD, Tyrion VI)

It is emphasized how the slaves outnumber the free five to one. And previously, GRRM phrased it a different way with regard to Craster.

"The wide world is full of people wanting help, Jon. Would that some could find the courage to help themselves. Craster sprawls in his loft even now, stinking of wine and lost to sense. On his board below lies a sharp new axe. Were it me, I'd name it "Answered Prayer' and make an end." Yes. Jon thought of Gilly. She and her sisters. They were nineteen, and Craster was one, but . . . (ACOK, Jon III)

Not that I support Mormont's victim blaming here. We know that Craster's daughters had reasons for staying trapped with him, and kinslaying is a major taboo beyond the Wall too.

But the inspiration taken from the story spun around Dany's actions in Slaver's Bay may well outweigh the reality of what happened, which would fit GRRM's theme on the power of storytelling beyond historical truth. And it may be we'll see a true revolution happen that is actually instigated at the bottom, not by an invader with their own selfish agenda.

[loominggaia]

Question: Why did Jelani keep slaves after becoming king? And shouldn’t the fact he kept slaves mean that Azura logically should have him on her shitlist?

That's a good question, but to explain it properly I have to talk about the history of Uekoro for a second.

In ancient times, the Matuzan cities we know today used to be totally separate kingdoms. Each had their own laws and cultures. Then, when Matuzu Kingdom rose to a Great power, all these little kingdoms were absorbed as cities/holds under its jurisdiction.

This means Uekoro used to be its own kingdom, and slavery was legal there. But when it was absorbed by Matuzu Kingdom, Matuzu said, "We don't like slavery in our great kingdom. You have to abolish it because you're making us look bad".

And Uekoro said "kiss my ass lol".

So in the end, they made a compromise: slavery was abolished for everyone in Uekoro...except the royal family. The Uekoran royal family (in this case, the Fanakas) could continue keeping slaves legally under Matuzan jurisdiction. To abolish slavery or not can only be decided by the Uekoran royal family, with a caveat: once slavery is abolished in Uekoro, it cannot be reinstated. This was part of the terms they agreed to with Matuzu Kingdom.

Slavery is a very longstanding tradition for the Uekoran royal family. Some family members throughout history disagreed with it, but they were not brave enough to be the ones to end it, because the rest of the family would have them by the throat. So, the old tradition continued in the palace while the rest of Uekoro progressed into more modern, sensible ways.

Okay, history lesson over! Now, on to your question...

As the Uekoran King, Jelani could certainly abolish slavery in his palace if he wanted to. Some of his relatives might be pissed, but the most dangerous and volatile of them (his mother) is dead, so it doesn't really matter.

However, Jelani carries a personal grudge against the palace slaves because of the way Itanya chose the Kaconenans over him. This "betrayal" cut him so deeply that it still hurts him decades later. His pain manifests as anger, and he takes his anger out on the rest of the palace slaves so that they may never "betray" him again.

Long story short, the palace still practices slavery because Jelani has emotional issues. See a freakin' therapist, dude...

During the 2 years they were together, Evan tried to convince Jelani to release his slaves many times. But it was a sensitive subject that made Jelani upset very quickly, so he was never able to push it too hard.

Azura, however...She has charisma and intelligence that Evan lacks. She successfully convinced Jelani to abolish slavery in his palace and replace all of his slaves with paid servants. This means that as long as Uekoro is under Matuzan jurisdiction, it can never reinstate slavery again. This was a huge historical event for the city, and Azura is credited for it.

Yes, as a slavekeeper, Jelani was on her shitlist. But Azura is too smart to just assassinate him and watch another slavekeeper take his throne...she went a hundred steps further and married the guy to influence his kingdom instead. Classic Azura move, honestly...

Evan does deserve a little credit though, because Jelani admits that it was his time with Evan that softened him up before he married Azura. Evan showed him what empathy and goodness looks like, Jelani respected him a lot, and wished to be more like him. So, I would say Evan and Azura both contributed. (Dr. Asha deserves some credit as well, because Jelani does mention that she's been counseling him through his grief about Itanya.)

An upcoming story pretty much opens with this scenario, so I don't feel like it's too spoilery. We'll explore this situation more when we get there!

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

[aho-dapa]

Tamlin x king of hybern

i dare you to make a ship fic out of this XD surprise me! Take me off guard! Make it sad, or toxic, or a surprise fluff! Go crazy!

Also I LOVE YOUR PFP, PENELOPE IS BEST GIRL!

#DeathIsTheOnlyEndingForAVillainess

TW: uh dark themes like corruption and what it takes to get there, vague dddne vibe

Okay okay so like any villain flavored ship, it can go three ways: horribly, tenderly, or both.

Horribly

Let's see, could go really dddne the way it could would Amarantha, mind break flavors, or even the slow corruption arc that's only painful (meaning Tamlin looses his sense of self completely)

Both

This is still a mind break corruption route, but if we used canon: since we never actually see the KoH until ACOMAF and he's described as someone plain in the books (please sjm I'm gonna start a petition to allow your villains to hot fr)

Let's have KoH infiltrate the Spring Court during ACOWAR as Just Some Guy who gradually gains the trust of the Spring Court and integrates himself pretty well in their daily life. Maybe he went there to see the situation and maybe even take down the Spring Court, but guess what? Hilariously, he doesn't even have to lift a finger. Feyre destroys it herself and not just the Spring Court, but also deals a devastating mental blow to Tamlin. This leaves him open to manipulation even especially if Lucien leaves with Feyre. Especially if he spirals into what we saw in ACOFAS where Rhys eluded to Tamlin not even protecting himself by keeping the manor unguarded.

Meaning that this gives the KoH plenty to time to literally be the sole person by Tamlin’s side especially if he can glamor himself or even has some new ability like the ability to possess people (which could explain his age and why he might be older than Beron).

Maybe it even goes so far that Tamlin begins to rely solely on the KoH and falls for him because he just wants to be cared for rn and no longer have to push himself to be someone he's not as the High Lord of Spring

Plot twist?? Maybe (in sjm's all fae but villains are carved by the Mother herself) the KoH was actually human and was the first to use the Cauldron to become fae and that's why he knew he could change Nesta and Elain. And that's why he just knows how to use it.

This would definitely add more layers of complication towards how Tam would eventually grow closer with him because I honestly think he could get to a point where he just wants to rest and be treated kindly so he could ignore what the KoH is doing in Prythian, but that he would have difficultly if he had to live with cruelty surrounding him (given that he's already moved to Hybern). So he would definitely hate it if the KoH didn't rule fairly or reinstated slavery.

Then again, KoH motives for this can be fleshed out into a manipulation tactic or wild, maybe the KoH still actually sees himself as human and is trying to destroy all the fae as like a weird moral excuse. Or it could be that the KoH had the Cauldron before this and actually had slaves as a cover where maybe all the slaves in Hybern are actually a super secret saiyan humans and are undercover to infiltrate courts and all lands because back during his time, humans couldn't move freely in the world without being a slave or subservient to the fae. But at that point, it's getting very conspiracy and ends up trying to excuse a lot for him so that Tamlin can actually have a relationship with him. Tbh, if the slavery thing isn't addressed, I could see Tamlin snapping out of it and in a very climatic battle where everyone thinks Tamlin's basically become the co-ruler of Hybern, he kills the KoH and just sobs over his body

Extra tragic if Tamlin doesn't feel like he can be forgiven and dies with the KoH

Tenderly

Okay so this would rework the KoH and give him an even more tragic backstory. Given that I already mentioned human KoH, what if it's actually where Amarantha and Clythia have been ruling Hybern for over a millenia. And using the KoH as a puppet king they crowned long ago after turning him fae in their Cauldron experiments. And then that neatly explains why Hybern killed all their human slaves before setting them free. They wouldn't want evidence of their world domination plan using human turned fae magically bound to them to get outside of Hybern.

The slave bargains they use on humans still goes over when they're Made fae, similar to how Feyre's bargain with Rhys is still intact after becoming fae. The only way to be free of the bargain is if the ones who made it die.

Of course, there's a limit to how many people they can control and they limit it to a very small group in Hybern.

That also means that they can put themselves in positions of power in their court without having the same risks as a ruler would. Like imagine the multiple assassination attempts and general inhumanization (hah) the KoH would have to go through for what seems like a literal eternity. And their the ones actually starting wars in Prythian and the reason why Hybern surrendered is because Clythia died and Amarantha is the younger sister and she definitely relied on her in their impossibly immortal lives (not before getting personal revenge on Jurian tho who definitely learns about the KoH)

Or Amarantha surrenders after Clythia's death because Jurian found out about the Cauldron and destroyed it into three pieces (like in canon but with it actually being broken not that it needs to stand on three legs) and the humans hid it from her

But Amarantha only discovers this after she kills Jurian and tries to bring Clythia back, effectively killing off the few people that know about the Cauldron

In this, Amarantha would be the main antagonist and she does eventually collect the othe pieces but conquers prythian and utm to find the last. She resurrects Clythia and Jurian (so that he can be tortured more) and they go back to their plan of world domination.

Maybe feylin happens or something else does but Tamlin does eventually takes sides with Hybern and becomes Amarantha's High Consort as the High Queen of Prythian while Clythia goes on to fulfill her childhood dreams of becoming Empress of the Continent.

(Also, kinda nice that the evil sisters always have each other's backs and will never betray each other and that's also what makes them a threat because no one can shake that foundation)

Eventually Jurian does tell Tamlin that the KoH is literally the oldest Cauldron Made Fae outside of Amarantha and Clythia. They scheme to set him free and they eventually kill Amarantha (with the help of literally everyone else).

But before that it plays out that Amarantha sends Tamlin back to Hybern after their wedding ceremony so that she doesn't have to worry about him (both for his life and so that he can't conspire against her) and so that she can secretly move the Cauldron back to Hybern where it's kept safe

But because Clythia and Amarantha are both not at Hybern, the KoH has a little room to act as he wishes. He acts on their orders and can never reveal his true personality but he does strangely enough do his best for Hybern and ruling its people because they've also been living under years and years of tyranny (through him). So when their not watching he can take steps to express some of his desires.

He married only once a long time ago to have a heir but Amarantha killed his child as punishment because he started doing little things that made the court question him. Basically the KoH has no hope for freedom and just lives like an actual puppet and has become somewhat desensitized to his surroundings.

But because Clythia died, Amarantha now is the only one who can actually control the KoH, so now the bargain that was placed on him forever ago is weakened. (Meaning Clythia needs to remake the bargain with the KoH to reinstate her control over him. But because neither Amarantha or Clythia have died of old age, they don't know that the bargain has weakened)

Cue the suspicions Tamlin begins to have about the KoH and Tamlin actually exploring Hybern and learning lore until he eventually finds the Cauldron slowly discovers the truth

He learns that Amarantha and Clythia are the oldest fae alive and can actually steal the powers of others but can only manage one at a time and they have to learn it again once they relinquish it. Amarantha used daemati abilities to literally take complete control over Prythian and even a young Rhys. That's also how she's able to completely control the KoH without anyone knowing because she can command him through her thoughts. She's fully had a leash on the KoH for so long that she feels okay with leaving him be because she can also harm his citizens (who he has somewhat grown attached too)

This would be a great way to actually flesh out Hybern and not have it just be a place of misery and oppression. Even Amarantha and Clythia know how to rule in ways that gives them power. Amarantha uses fear tactics but eventually plans on letting up when her rule stabilizes (even the Romans enjoyed brutality when it wasn't them actually experiencing it). Basically, the people are willing to suffer through a cruelty if they are content and will not endure someone incompetent with their needs. Meaning that the KoH's (forced) cruelty is not just because, it's about gaining and keeping power. Clythia had a great balance of this, while Amarantha prefers more violent tactics (which is also why she had all the slaves be killed instead of giving them up).

It's during this time that the KoH and the other puppet fae begin to hope for the first time for freedom, and the KoH eventually breaks a rule that set up by Clythia and Amarantha.

During this time, Tamlin and the KoH get close. Also, guilty pleasure, but they also have an affair because Tamlin is technically married to Amarantha but neither of them care about that (but they do have to hide it which is honestly the best part).

Eventually, Amarantha dies and Hybern stages a revolt as the KoH is no longer bond in a slave bargain.

Clythia is killed as well after more plot and the KoH eventually explains everything publicly utm. Amren can confirm he's a Made fae and he does eventually get redipped in the Cauldron to become human again. Maybe he stays immortal or maybe not.

Also maybe, to tie a little plot hole, they Made his appearance different as the original KoH (if he was an imposter instead of just a puppet king) and he changed back to what he originally looked like as a human once they both died??

Or it could even be that Hybern was originally a human kingdom before it was conquered by the Fae and the KoH was made a slave after Amarantha and Clythia conquered it with their father (?) the original KoH forever ago. And then that would add another layer that they basically deposed their dad.

This could tie into different endings where either the KoH abdicated and goes with Tam to the Spring Court, or they both fuck off and become wanderers, or the KoH stays the KoH (in a different body) and rules over Hybern peacefully (or enacts a council or does something else) and reclaims Hybern for humans (especially if we're going with the HC that the Treaty only works between Hybern and Prythian and the only current free lands for humans is below the Spring Court).

I'm personally biased to that the KoH was a human king who was conquered by the Fae and then Made Fae (which was forgotten to history) by Amarantha and Clythia after enslaving him into a bargain. That means that the KoH doesn't change his appearance and then reclaims Hybern for humans. And Tamlin rules with him while Lucien OR Feyre (or both who knows) can look after the Spring Court. Especially if it came down to the fact that the KoH can't leave his kingdom to anyone rn but Tamlin can.

It could also be a nice breather for Tamlin especially if he found the Spring Court to hold too many bitter memories for him and/or he doesn't feel like he could go back to the Spring Court as the same person he once was. Also Hybern could just feel more freeing to him personally because he's no longer has to play the part of High Lord with all the expectations of it. He doesn't have to contend with nobles about his status as a bastard that had been conceived on Calanmai outside of wedlock (which would actually make more sense than that all the nobles left because he was a warrior) and never feeling like he could mold himself into the fancy trappings of the spring court.

It would be interesting to have Tamlin see Spring as something eternally stagnant because the seasons don't change. Eternally beautiful and eternally brutal. The Spring Court could be filled to the brim with nobles and there fancy clothing and how Tam sees it all as a farce, as an excuse for cruelty (since i often base my Spring Court on France during the revolution). Maybe because he's spent centuries trying to change it but he never feels like he's making progress. Especially if the succession system is like canon. He couldn't refuse his title, and the nobles were stuck with him and he had to live in paranoia that someone would test the family magic he had to the Court itself and see if they could replace him. (They don't because of their potential fears).

I also like the idea of Tam being demi and genderfluid and just feeling stagnant like the Court itself with their expectations of him. And since I'm petty, I like to think evil Hybern is actually more nuanced and feels more free to Tam. He can remake himself there where no one is looking. He finally gets privacy to be himself. And that's what he found even while as Amarantha's High Consort.

Imagine he was given many of the expectations a woman would be given because his roles were switched with Amarantha. Even if she bears him children, he will be the one to raise them and with how he would have limited say on most things in her High Court.

I'm also a personal fan of soft Tam and just letting him become even softer. In this way, he likes helping the KoH but he doesn't want to rule. Of course they're equals, it just tastes different because Tamlin no longer has to be forced into those expectations. He likes the idea of raising his children instead of spending his days debating with nobles on policies. He likes the idea of tea parties and gossip and things typically feminine in comparison to his peers. Basically, he's just very genderfuck.

basically I wanna see Tam in some historical irish dresses and running barefoot in the rain

Uhhhhh, so I rambled there uh

Hope you enjoyed me spiraling because now I'm definitely planning on writing the tender part of this journey

[anthonybialy]

Aging Biden Not Much Worse

A ghastly liar whose appalling ideology inflicts tremendous harm on the nation and this world has had a high quantity of birthdays.  Joe Biden is older than you, almost certainly by percentage.  Take comfort in knowing he was a jerk when he looked like the photo on his driver’s license.

Biden would’ve sucked as president in 1988.  Does that make today feel more bearable?  The observable decline began in law school, where the incumbent began flaunting his fondness for filching the work of others.  A thorough phony got derailed like his beloved Amtrak by plagiarism, which was a hobby he began in law school.

Present depressed primary followers should’ve remembered why even Michael Dukakis was more plausible.  The technical village elder repulses for reasons beyond a scandal too mortifying even for career politicians, namely demonstrably woeful results.

Biden was a dreadful moron during the Nixon presidency.  Age is about 17th on the troublesome issue list with a expert inflation creator and putzing leader.  The truly frightening moments during his regrettable moments speaking in public aren’t when he’s shrouded in mental fog: it’s what he believes during those rare glimpses when he’s coherent.

Fossils who suffer from memory issues sometimes show who they were before losing sharpness.  In Biden’s case, he lashes out over his own shortcomings.  A full-time yapper’s disheartening speeches would be incoherent either way.

A hoary ideology is worse than the geezer who adheres to it.  Biden’s obtuse take on human nature was discredited since even before he entered politics.  

Our president is consistent.  Biden has been a prick in every decade.  An empty life spent being fully unpleasant is reflected in results, which is why he despises them.  The educated dunce’s obsession with letting graduates learn to duck responsibility is partly ideological, but he’s deeply committed personally to unaccountability.

It’s tough to understand others without doing what they do.  The president has no idea.  Empathy might help if he possesses any, so forget it.  Biden put the practice in law.  Those few sketchy years before running for the Senate showed his connection with commoners.

An ostensible president’s struggles with words and thoughts has been reflected in his personality long before the traditional quitting age.  Nastily nonsensical political takes aren’t something he unveiled at his 80th birthday party.  The simpleton-in-chief’s deterioration was only partially in effect when he calmly and rationally claimed Mitt Romney was hellbent on reinstating slavery.

Every single thing Biden has ever believed has been proven wrong.  If he claims the Sun will rise tomorrow, count on perpetual darkness.  Biden eclipses common sense.  The presidential cretin’s decrepitude didn’t just start when he entered his ninth decade.  Anyone who’s endured the misfortune of hearing him speak before he somehow ascended to the government’s highest office can testify.

The president’s lickspittles wish they could preserve his awful ideas without having to deal with the awful person.  Amateurish professional political scientists are unable to change the status quo despite claiming to be good liberals.  Aside from the irony that alleged upheaval aficionados have gotten everything they’ve wanted while holding power, they just don’t have anyone new to sell anciently terrible notions.

The 2020s are the decade where emboldened elderly show they’re still capable of being power-hungry inept fools leading particularly woeful cults.  As a result of their dedication to refusing to release the grasp on authority, this is shaping up to be the worst election possible.  It’s not just because their combined ages sound made up.  The alarming number is 159 counting the miserable challenger’s pending joyless birthday.

Terribleness is bipartisan.  There would’ve been dreadful consequences for America if Trump had commandeered the Republican Party 36 years ago despite having no principles aside from wanting to boss around people.  The only upside would’ve been getting this horrendous bout out of the way so we wouldn’t still be dreading another root canal of a term.  Saddam Hussein would presently be residing in a palace in Kuwait too gaudy for everyone except Trump.

I simply can’t believe an all-time nitwit is diminishing.  It’s not a far fall.  Biden has always been wrong about everything even before he lost count of how many grandchildren he is.  Pop-Pop has always wanted American power invested in the IRS, not the Defense Department.  As a throwback, he was wrong about how to win the Cold War and resisting Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts.  A supreme failure got the dreadful policies he wanted just like he would’ve in the previous century.

Biden helpfully illustrates why being president is not necessarily an accomplishment.  Conservatives who hope to diminish executive power can at least thank him for showing why concentrated power is frightening.  Biden’s sole contribution is making that goal more likely.  Of course, the doltish head of state is only helpful inadvertently.  You’ve seen the consequences of his deliberate attempt at assistance, and Americans remain more broke than when he decided to make everyone rich.  

The real president will continue to be marionettists who are as bad at manipulating their ostensible boss as they are leaving Americans alone.  The pushy scheme of furtive will editors revolves around keeping their figurehead in place.  He cooperates, sort of.  For someone loath to work, Biden won’t retire.  That’s because he’s never tried hard.

[yourreddancer]

Heather Cox Richardson on the Southern Strategy

October 29, 2022 (Saturday) HEATHER COX RICHARDSONThis week, news broke that as a guest on the right-wing Real America’s Voice media network in 2020, Republican candidate for Michigan governor Tudor Dixon said that the Democrats have planned for decades to topple the United States because they have not gotten over losing the Civil War. According to Dixon, Democrats don’t want anyone to know that white Republicans freed the slaves, and are deliberately strangling “true history.”

Dixon’s was a pure white power rant, but she was amplifying a theme we hear a lot these days: that Democrats were the party of enslavement, Republicans pushed emancipation, and thus the whole idea that Republican policies today are bad for Black Americans is disinformation. 

In reality, the parties have switched sides since the 1850s. The shift happened in the 1960s, and it happened over the issue of race. Rather than focusing on party names, it makes more sense to follow two opposed strands of thought, equality and hierarchy, as the constants.

By the 1850s it was indeed primarily Democrats who backed slavery. Elite southern enslavers gradually took over first the Democratic Party, then the southern states, and finally the U.S. government. When it looked in 1854 as if they would take over the entire nation by spreading slavery to the West—thus overwhelming the free states with new slave states—northerners organized to stand against what they called the “Slave Power.”

In the mid-1850s, northerners gradually came together as a new political party. They called themselves “Republicans,” in part to recall Jefferson’s political party, which was also called the Republican party, even though Jefferson by then was claimed by the Democrats. 

The meaning of political names changes.

The new Republican Party first stood only for opposing the Slave Power, but by 1859, Lincoln had given it a new ideology: it would stand behind ordinary Americans, rather than the wealthy enslavers, using the government to provide access to resources, rather than simply protecting the wealthy. And that would mean keeping slavery limited to the American South.

Prevented from imposing their will on the U.S. majority, southern Democrats split from their northern Democratic compatriots and tried to start a new nation based on racial slavery. They launched the Civil War.

At first, most Republicans didn’t care much about enslaved Americans, but by 1863 the war had made them come around to the idea that the freedom of Black Americans was crucial to the success of the United States. At Gettysburg in 1863, Lincoln reinforced the principles of the Declaration of Independence and dedicated the nation to a “new birth of freedom.” In 1865 the Republican Congress passed and sent off to the states for ratification the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ending enslavement except as punishment for crime (we really need to fix that, by the way). 

After the war, as southern Democrats organized to reinstate white supremacy in their states, Republicans in 1868 added the Fourteenth Amendment, giving the federal government power to guarantee that states could not deny equal rights to American citizens, and then in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteeing Black men the right to vote. They also established the Department of Justice to defend those rights. But by 1871, white Republicans were backing away from federal protection of Black Americans.

Democrats continued to push white supremacy until 1879, when former Confederates took over Congress and threatened to destroy the government unless the federal government got out of southern affairs altogether (it’s a myth that the army left the South in 1877). Voters turned so vehemently against the former Confederates trying to impose their will on the nation’s majority that national Democrats began to shift away from their southern base, which dominated the southern states. In 1884 they ran New Yorker Grover Cleveland for office and won. 

For the next fifty years, both national parties would waffle on race, trying mostly to ignore it.

But World War II changed the equation. Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt had begun to offer some economic protections to Black Americans with the 1930s New Deal, but Black soldiers coming home from the war demanded true equality. The blinding of Black veteran Isaac Woodard in 1946 by South Carolina law enforcement officers woke Democratic president Harry S. Truman up to the need for equal protection of the laws. 

Unable to get civil rights laws through Congress, Truman worked to desegregate federal contracting and military installations. Immediately, racist southern Democrats, led by South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond, broke away from their own president to form their own short-lived “Dixiecrat” party backing racial segregation. 

Then, in 1954, Republican Dwight Eisenhower put Earl Warren, the former Republican governor of California, at the head of the Supreme Court. It promptly used the Fourteenth Amendment to declare the segregation of public schools unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. It seemed both parties had come around to supporting racial equality.

But white supremacists in the South responded to desegregation by attacking their Black neighbors. So in 1957, with a bipartisan vote, Congress passed a civil rights act to protect Black voting. Thurmond launched the longest filibuster in U.S. history to try to stop it.

Republicans who hated the government’s postwar regulation of business saw an opening to get the Dixiecrat contingent on their side. In 1960, The Conscience of a Conservative, published under the name of Arizona senator Barry Goldwater, called for getting rid of the business regulation and social safety laws passed since 1933, and claimed that the Supreme Court’s protection of civil rights was unconstitutional.

When Democrat John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, he gave a rousing inaugural address promising to bring freedom to the world but, afraid of alienating southern Democrats, didn’t mention race at home. World War II veteran James Meredith promptly decided to test just how committed to human rights Kennedy actually was. Meredith sued for admission to the University of Mississippi, and when the courts ruled the state had to admit him in 1962, Kennedy had to choose between the northern wing of his party that supported civil rights, and the southern racists. Pushed by his brother and attorney general Robert, Kennedy backed Meredith’s registration with federal troops. 

Republicans already mad at business regulation now worked to pick up the white supremacists who had backed the Dixiecrats and who, by 1964, were attacking Black Americans and their white allies as they tried to enroll Black voters. In 1964, Republicans ran Goldwater for president on a platform calling for slashing federal power and empowering the states to run their affairs as they wished. Goldwater lost the election, but Strom Thurmond publicly switched parties, and Republicans picked up the five states of the Deep South (as well as Arizona) for the first time since Reconstruction.

Democrats, meanwhile, went all in on racial equality. Kennedy had come around to calling for civil rights legislation, and after his assassination, his successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, pushed hard first for the Civil Rights Act of 1964—which Congress passed while FBI agents were searching for three murdered civil rights workers in Mississippi—and then, after law enforcement officers in Selma, Alabama, attacked voting rights advocates as they crossed a bridge named for a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Democrats had become the party of equality. But the votes for the civil rights laws had been bipartisan, and it was not at all clear that the Republicans wouldn’t also back civil rights. After all, Goldwater had gotten shellacked when he made common cause with white supremacists. 

But in 1968, Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon knew he had a hard fight ahead of him. He figured he needed to pick up the old Dixiecrats, who were now politically homeless. He went to Thurmond with a quiet promise not to use the federal government to protect Black rights in the South in exchange for his support. This “Southern strategy” worked. Thurmond publicly backed Nixon.

From then on, white supremacists made up a key part of the Republicans’ base, and the party increasingly pushed on old racial themes—Ronald Reagan’s welfare queen, for example, or George H.W. Bush’s “Willie Horton” ad, or the trope of “makers” and “takers”—to keep them on board. 

The parties had switched positions over equality and hierarchy. Since 1964, Republicans have always won the majority of the nation’s white vote, while Democrats rely on Black voters, especially Black women. And that is the actual true history of how it happened that a Republican candidate for office, representing a party that once defended civil rights, made white power rants on public media.

[whereareroo]

FOCUS ON THE FACTS



WF THOUGHTS (9/24/24).

For reasons that I’ll keep to myself, I was recently reading about the death of John Adams. He was one of the Founding Fathers, and he was our second President.

The article included some famous quotes from Adams. Here’s one of them: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

What would Adams say about our 2024 presidential race? I’m sure he would be focused on the following FACTS:

1. Only one candidate has filed for bankruptcy six times.

2. Only one candidate was required by a court to close his personal charity, and pay $2 million in damages, because he illegally used charitable funds for his own purposes.

3. Only one candidate was required by a court to close the sham private university that he created, and pay $25 million in damages, because he defrauded students.

4. Only one candidate has at least 12 close personal allies who were recently convicted of crimes. Eight of them have been sentenced to prison. The group includes his personal lawyer, two campaign lawyers, three top advisors, his campaign chairman, his deputy campaign chairman, and the CFO of his business organization.

5. Only one candidate appears on a videotape saying that, because he is famous, he can grab women by their private parts.

6. Only one candidate has been found civilly liable, to the tune of $88 million plus interest, for defaming a woman that he sexually assaulted.

7. Only one candidate has been convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records, to hide payments to a porn star, as part of a scheme to violate campaign finance laws and commit other federal crimes. The sentencing is set for November 26th.

8. Only one candidate was on the losing end of every court case- -all 62 of them- -that challenged the results of the 2020 election.

9. Only one candidate continues to claim that the 2020 presidential election was wrongly decided.

10. Only one candidate refuses to say that he supports Ukraine in the war against Russia

11. Only one candidate regularly expresses his admiration for dictators like Putin of Russia, Kim Jung Un of North Korea, and Xi Jinping of China.

12. Only one candidate supports the North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate, a self-identified Black Nazi, who has spoken fondly of slavery and who is openly antisemitic, openly homophobic, and openly misogynistic. The North Carolinian contender has praised Hitler, is a Holocaust denier, and has supported reinstating slavery.

I’ll limit my list to 12 facts. You probably get the point. I could easily list dozens of additional facts.

Let me borrow some language from Adams and speak to voters who dislike Trump but have questions about Harris. Kamala may not be the candidate of your “wishes.” Your “inclinations” might point away from her. She may not be the object of your “passions.” Despite all of that, you can’t ignore the facts. Based upon a mountain of facts, it is clear that Trump does not belong in the White House. It’s that simple.

The Founding Fathers believed that we would always have presidential candidates with extraordinary integrity and extremely high moral character. They never imagined that the voters, or a political party, would let a scoundrel run for president. John Adams must be rolling over in his grave. What happened to America? What happened to the voters? What happened to our political parties? How did we create such a mess?

More than ever, in 2024 voters must disregard their wishes, inclinations, and passions. They must look at the facts. Good decisions are always based upon facts. This year, the facts say that there is only one candidate who can be trusted with the keys to the White House. Trust is the issue in 2024. If you’re leaning towards the candidate who has shown that he cannot be trusted, you’re being influenced by factors that are detached from the facts. You’re on dangerous ground when you disregard the facts.

[lboogie1906]

General Jean-Jacques Dessalines (September 20, 1758 – October 17, 1806) Reviled for his brutality yet honored as one of the founding fathers of Haiti, was second in command under Toussaint L’Overture during the Haitian Revolution and was the general who emerged after L’Overture’s capture to lead the insurgents in declaring Haitian independence on January 1, 1804.

He was born enslaved in the French colony of Saint Dominque. Born to Congolese parents, he was originally given the name Duclos. He adopted the surname Dessalines after the free Black landowner who purchased him and from whom he escaped. He was treated harshly as an enslaved and violence became a way of life that marked him throughout his military and brief political career contributing both to his success on the battlefield and to his downfall.

He was a quick study under L’Overture earning the nickname “the Tiger” for his fury in battle. His military skill and leadership were vital to L’Overture’s success in capturing the Spanish-controlled eastern half of the island, L’Overture made him governor of the south.

When he proclaimed Saint Dominque’s independence, he chose the name Haiti for his country, the name used by the island’s aboriginal inhabitants. He had himself appointed governor “for life.” He changed his title to emperor and crowned his wife, Claire-Heureuse, empress. Fearing a French resurgence and the reinstatement of slavery that would accompany it, he ordered the massacre of approximately 5,000 of the island’s white men, women, and children declaring “I have saved my country. I have avenged America.” It was a move that two of his most influential generals, Alexandre Pétion and Henri Christophe, could not countenance and one that spoke to the growing political instability of the new government.

He met a violent death at the hands of his lieutenants when he was ambushed; his body was dragged through the streets before it was dismembered. The example of the Haitian Revolution and leaders such as L’Overture has become both an inspiration and a warning about the “possibilities and dangers of revolution.” #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[bewoken]

not even being political (side wise) about this but the way trump supporters act is actually scary. he’s a politician. NONE of them, no matter what political party they’re in, deserve the kind of following that trumps getting. wearing bandages in solidarity to a messed up assassination. dedicating weddings to him and completely covering your trucks in his face. it’s weird.

i would never do that for a politician bc they are a politician. they are not for us, they’re for their wallets. they’re eventually gonna do something i don’t like and im not gonna let myself fall into that trap of liking someone in the media and then them turning on me. (ie. sanders and the things he’s said about israel/palestine, same with aoc and also some things she’s said about ice and immigration.)

even if trump was on the left of everything, id still think it was weird how devoted his followers are. he could say anything and they’d cheer. he could say he’s reinstating modern day slavery in the U.S. and most of his followers wouldn’t have any problem with it bc he said it, but if biden or a democratic candidate said the same thing, they’d burn him to the ground.

it’s just a little concerning. it’s giving cult.

[hukkelberg]

last major thought is our main master of whisperers in asoiaf varys playing chess to serve his end goal of reinstating targaryen rule w (most likely fake) aegon, former prince rhaegar's son who miraculously survived somehow (rest assured any "mistake" varys makes in series resulting in the baratheon-lannister family being fucked was def on purpose), and pen supporting dany bc she sees the writing on the wall wrt the current state of westeros, the state of her family (esp if they were fucked over by the baratheon-lannisters), potentially the position the bridgertons are in, and even the apocalyptic threat rapidly approaching if you want to include the white walkers element by having pen as a prophetic character. part of asoiaf that the show doesn't focus on as much is how dany giving birth to her dragons brings magic back into the world (it had been slowly dissipating w the death of the last dragon pre-series) which is why a lot of the mains begin developing previously dormant magical abilities. the shapeshifting is already at least tangentially related to magic so pen having prophetic dreams (esp as a character known for seeing things other ppl don't) would be fitting. pen would also be able to vouch for the bridgertons if she were serving under dany considering their connection to the baratheon-lannisters would leave them in iffy territory w a targaryen ruler. idk how much you care about the magical aspect so ignore the rest of this if you don't lol. the other main magical aspect that could easily be included and would help w gathering info would be pen being a warg/skinchanger. they can temporarily assume control of animals' (and potentially another person's, if they're powerful) minds which allows them to see through their eyes and control their actions. in other words pen could literally be a fly on the wall, v useful. this may also prove influential in terms of the dragon riders' connections w their dragons in asoiaf but it hasn't really been explored yet bc dany, as an exile, has received no formal education on dragons and so has been forced to just wing it/figure it out for herself the whole time. that's part of why tyrion, who knows the most about dragons, is seeking her out in the 5th book - he knows he could be useful and he's in a dire position considering the crown is hunting him down and he was sold into slavery. this also has pen vibes imo. anyway shutting up now and ty for indulging me - bridgerton makes me sad sometimes bc pen is my girl and ik on a different show she would be having a great time committing war crimes </3 (3/3)

ooh the position of the bridgertons -- do you think edmund died in the war? cuz i can't imagine him getting that involved in the rhaegar lyanna business, but perhaps they involved him. the reach is very strategic. there must be a lot of politicking he was involved in--i always got the sense he was much more integrated into society than anthony, who barely participates and only out of pride and duty.

I was thinking about warging! idk how much you know about the chronicles of narnia, but narnia, the country, when ruled by the four pevensies, was primarily a country of talking animals surrounded by countries of people to the south and east (we don't exactly know what's to the west and the north is populated by giants, witches and an assortment of creatures). there's a really good fic series (the stone gryphon on ao3) about the pevensies in england after their return, but it builds a spy network (rat and crow) controlled by susan and edmund which is made up almost entirely of birds and spiders and flies and so on. very small, unnoticeable animals. the idea of a spider listening in on conversations is ludicrous to the rest of the countries in the world of narnia, despite them knowing it's a place filled with talking animals which possess a decent level of intelligence, which gives edmund and susan (and peter and lucy) a very good advantage over the rest. I don't know if that's possible here, as i imagine warging is very taxing on the body, but something like it would be very fun for pen

[areyouafraid]

ive said this before but as someone who's read a lot abt cults it does always bug the shit out of me whenever people brush over the fact that the manson family were white supremacists as if it was an irrelevant piece of information. white supremacy was at the core of charles manson's beliefs. the entire reason he orchestrated the tate & labianca murders was because he thought it would instigate an apocalyptic race war. i dont really remember the specifics bc its been a long time since i read helter skelter but iirc he believed there would be a race war wherein black people would kill most of the white people (save the family, because manson was preparing them for the apocalypse) and then manson would reinstate slavery. it was obvious from the crime scenes that the family were trying to pin the murders on the black panthers. manson fed into fears amid the american civil rights movement that there would be a "white genocide". the people who joined with him more likely than not already believed something like this. they didn't just join a cult because manson was nice. i wish i could say i didn't understand why people would hesitate to call a crazy murderous rapist and cult leader a racist but i can think of a few reasons. i kinda hate to admit that for a long time i wondered why the LAPD dicked around so much on the manson murders. i knew the LAPD were fucking evil but why would they deliberate for so long? why would supposed purveyors of justice not care about solving such brutal and senseless murders? these were murders that left crime scenes so violent that hardened homicide detectives had to step off of the property to throw up. but now i think back and i think that they were likely content to assume or to let people assume that it was black panthers who had committed the murders. there arent a lot of other answers that make sense to me

[damacbycavalli]

Kanye West to buy conservative social media platform Parler

After getting locked out of Twitter and Instagram for antisemitic posts the rapper formerly known as Kanye West is offering to buy right-wing friendly social network Parler shortly.

For his opinions with no gatekeeper legally known as Ye, the acquisition of Parler would give West control of a social media platform and a new outlet. Who will listen, the question is?

To support free speech by having looser rules and moderation even among the new breed of largely right-wing, far-right and libertarian social apps that purport, there is no clear roadmap to growing it beyond a niche platform chasing crumbs left by mainstream social media, Parler’s user base is tiny and with competition only increasing for the relatively small swath who want to discuss politics online of mostly older people.

Things may get even more complicated for Parler, if Tesla CEO Elon Musk goes through with his planned purchase of Twitter. Including reinstating the account of former President Donald Trump he would like to loosen Twitter’s rules and content-moderation efforts. Musk has already made it clear that’s because. 

Sites like Parler, Gab and Trump’s Truth Social could end up losing users because they felt it was constricting to their political views or because they were kicked off return, who left Twitter either if the libertarian and far-right users.

The acquisition should be completed in the fourth quarter, but the price and other details were not disclosed, Parlement Technologies, which owns Parler, and West said Monday. 

Via Parliament’s private cloud and data center infrastructure Parliament Technologies said the agreement includes the use of private cloud services.

Last month to form Parlement Technologies Parler restructured its business, which it said aims to become the “world’s premier free speech technology infrastructure and platform.” 

The company wants to provide services to other niche sites that are often deemed too extreme for mainstream tech companies to support, this means that rather than running a single platform such as Parler. 

The deal with West was not yet in the works when the company was restructured and the two transactions are separate, a Parliament spokesperson said.

Over antisemitic posts that the social networks said violated their policies Ye was blocked from posting on Twitter and Instagram a week ago. 

Making an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON, in one post on Twitter Ye said he would soon go “defcon 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”, according to internet archive records.

The COVID-19 vaccine the “mark of the beast” and called slavery was a choice Ye has also suggested. At his collection at Paris Fashion Week earlier this month, he was criticized for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt.

Ye said in a prepared statement “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves”. 

According to Data.ai, which tracks mobile app usage from other conservative-friendly platforms like Truth Social, which are tiny as well compared with mainstream social media sites, Parler has struggled amid competition. In the U.S. for the first half of this year Parler had an average of 725,000 monthly active users. 

In the first half of 2021 that’s down from 5.2 million. In the first half of this year overall, including people outside the U.S., Parler still failed to reach the 1 million mark.

According to Data.ai, despite launching just in February and only on Apple devices, Truth Social, meanwhile, had 2.4 million monthly users during the same period. 

The market research firm said Gettr, another right-leaning platform, which launched in July 2021, is ahead of both Parler and Truth Social with about 3.8 million monthly active users.

During its most recent quarter none of them came close to Twitter, which reported that it had a daily average of about 237.8 million active users. At mainstream services such as Twitter and Facebook, but they have failed to attract users in large numbers, many of the right-wing platforms emerged from opposition to the content-moderation restrictions.

Part of that reason may be that most people don’t actually want to discuss politics online. One-third of tweets sent in the U.S. are political in nature, but these are mainly sent by a small subset of mostly older people, according to the Pew Research Center. 

They produce nearly 80% of all political tweets, according to Pew, while Americans ages 50 and older make up 24% of the U.S. adult Twitter population. If the rapper is serious about growing Parler’s user base this is the audience Ye’s Parler would have to be courting.

Until 2020 it didn’t start picking up steam but in August 2018 Parler launched. Earlier that month it was kicked offline in January 2021 over its ties to the deadly insurrection in the U.S. Capitol. Parler announced a relaunch a month after the attack. It returned to Google Play last month.

In a prepared statement George Farmer, Parliament Technologies CEO who is married to conservative activist Candace Owens, said that “This deal will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech”.

Source: Kanye West to buy conservative social media platform Parler.

[theshedding]

Junteenth huh?

There is no good "God" that ever has nor ever will "free" anyone from slavery. In particular, everywhere that slavery has been performed around the globe over the last 600 years, its termination has been due to MAN and her/his works and sacrifice(s) to terminate it. Furthermore in each case, (other) men have opposed that freedom at every turn and proposed new and found ever clever ways to reinstate the institution using the same people...and/or people ethnically adjacent to those groups (e.g. England, France, U.S., Spain, etc.). 

So no, "God" is not interested in anyone's abolition; and any credit to God (Euro-centric or* Afro-centric) is definitionally a false attribution" to ending slavery.

____________ 

Here in the US: 

On 6/19 in 1865, the Black enslaved in the state of Texas were notified by Union Civil War soldiers about the abolition of slavery. This was 2.5 years after the final Emancipation Proclamation which freed all enslaved Black Americans. #Juneteenth   

But Slavery continued...and in 1866, a year after the amendment was ratified, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina began to lease out convicts for labor. This made the business of arresting black people very lucrative, thus hundreds of white men were hired by these states as police officers. 

Their primary responsibility being to search out and arrest black peoples who were in violation of ‘Black Codes’. Once arrested, these men, women & children would be leased to plantations or they would be leased to work at coal mines, or railroad companies. The owners of these businesses would pay the state for every prisoner who worked for them; prison labor. 

It’s believed that after the passing of the 13th Amendment, more than 800,000 Black people were part of that system of re-enslavement through the prison system. The Amendment declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (Ratified in 1865) 

It says, “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude could occur except as a punishment for a crime".⁉️⁉️ Lawmakers used this phrase to make petty offenses crimes. When Blacks were found guilty of committing these crimes, they were imprisoned and then leased out...to the same businesses that lost slaves after the passing of the 13th Amendment. This system of convict labor is called peonage. 

The majority of White Southern farmers and business owners hated the 13th Amendment because it took away slave labor. As a way to appease them, the federal government turned a blind eye when southern states used this clause in the 13th Amendment to establish the Black Codes. 

@AfricanArchives

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Give praise where praise is due. This Juneteenth we recognize the actual sacrifice of human beings to fight a system of slave labor, dehumanization and financial exploitation throughout US history until present-day. Not someone's skewed perception of a "Good God" or "spirit"...lest we forget all lessons learned. 

 Happy Juneteenth.