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ramadhanseries · 6 months

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10th Taraweeh :

11th Para :- from 10½ Ruku of Sura Taubah till 1st ½ of Ruku of Sura Hood.

The various types of Munaafiqeen are mentioned.

1. Those who will never be forgiven because hypocrisy is a belief to them and their aim to disunite the Muslims.

2. Those who could be forgiven because hypocrisy to them is merely a habit and not a belief.

Then :-

1. Then the conduct of the true believers is noted.

2. There forgivable munaafiqeen associate with the true believers and the conduct of the true believers manifests itself.

3. Educating the masses will put an end to absenteeism from Jihaad.

4. Educating the people on strategies of war.

10. Surah Yunus (ALAYHI SALAAM).

Makkah – 109 Aayats.

This Surah in brief:

The main subject matter here is the invitation to Islaam.

The Surah states :-

1. ALLAH Ta'aala has made this Scripture a Book of Wisdom and as a favour HE delivered that message of Wahi (revelation) through the medium of a man from mankind itself. Yet some fools (i.e. Kuffar) instead of taking benefit from it they turn away saying that it is the ill-effects of sorcery;

2. The Kuffar refute the acceptance of the divine message yet when adversities afflict them they stretch out their hands at the very same door (of Divine assistance), but once the adversities vanish they become disobedient;

3. O disobedient ones! That life of the world which has beguiled you, is deceitful, and let it not turn you away from submitting to the Divine messages;

4. These Kuffar believe ALLAH to be the creator, sustainer and administrator of the world, yet;

5. They turn themselves away from practising on HIS :commandments;

6. While they themselves make allegations against the Qur'an, that it is a fake;

7. If these Kuffar do not abstain from belying the Qur'aan then display your disgust on them;

8. How can these Kuffar understand the Qur'aan-e-Hakeem when they are spiritually blind and deaf;

9. ALLAH is fully aware of our Qur'aan recitation as well as our other actions in life;

10. The righteous ones will not fear to appear in the high court of ALLAH;

11. One should not be grief-stricken by the abusive language of the antagonists of Deen;

12. Mention is made of the visitations of ALLAH. Observe how the enemies of Noah (ALAYHI SALAAM) and the enemies of the later Nabis were destroyed;

13. Mention is made of the visitations of ALLAH. Observe how Fir'oun together with his army were drowned because of harbouring enmity to Moosa (ALAYHI SALAAM);

14. O those addressed by the Qur'aan, do not doubt it;

15. Do not belie it by mere doubt;

16. Otherwise your resurrection will be the same as that of the past beliers;

17. O people we are not prepared to abandon our way (of truth) merely on the basis of your doubts;

18. He who accept the Qur'aan will benefit himself, otherwise the misfortune of his negation will be incumbent on him;

11. Surah Hood.

Makkah – 123 Aayats.

This Surah in brief:

The subject discussed here is the invitation towards Tawheed. The purpose of the revelation of the Book is to perfect the imbibing of Tawheed and seeking forgiveness for previous omissions.

10வது தாராவீஹ்:

11வது பாரா:- சூரா தௌபாவின் 10½ ருகூவிலிருந்து சூரா ஹூதின் ருகூவின் 1வது ½ வரை.

முனாஃபிக்கீன்களின் பல்வேறு வகைகள் குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளன.

1. பாசாங்குத்தனம் அவர்களுக்கு ஒரு நம்பிக்கை மற்றும் முஸ்லிம்களை ஒற்றுமைப்படுத்துவதே அவர்களின் நோக்கமாக இருப்பதால் மன்னிக்கப்படாதவர்கள்.

2. பாசாங்குத்தனம் என்பது ஒரு பழக்கமே தவிர, நம்பிக்கையல்ல என்பதால் மன்னிக்கப்படக்கூடியவர்கள்.

பிறகு :

1. பின்னர் உண்மையான விசுவாசிகளின் நடத்தை கவனிக்கப்படுகிறது.

2. அங்கு மன்னிக்கக்கூடிய முனாஃபிகீன்கள் உண்மையான விசுவாசிகளுடன் தொடர்பு கொள்கிறார்கள் மற்றும் உண்மையான விசுவாசிகளின் நடத்தை வெளிப்படுகிறது.

3. வெகுஜனங்களுக்கு கல்வி கற்பது ஜிஹாதில் இருந்து விலகியமைக்கு முற்றுப்புள்ளி வைக்கும்.

4. போர் உத்திகள் குறித்து மக்களுக்குக் கற்பித்தல்.

10. சூரா யூனுஸ் (அலைஹி ஸலாம்).

மக்கா - 109 ஆயாத்துகள்.

சுருக்கமாக இந்த சூரா:

இங்கு முக்கிய விடயம் இஸ்லாத்திற்கு அழைப்பு.

சூரா கூறுகிறது:

1. அல்லாஹ் தஆலா இந்த வேதத்தை ஞானத்தின் புத்தகமாக ஆக்கியுள்ளான், மேலும் மனிதகுலத்திலிருந்தே ஒரு மனிதனின் ஊடகத்தின் மூலம் வஹியின் (வெளிப்பாடு) அந்த செய்தியை அவர் அருளினார். இன்னும் சில முட்டாள்கள் (அதாவது குஃபர்) அதிலிருந்து பலன் பெறுவதற்குப் பதிலாக இது சூனியத்தின் தீய விளைவுகள் என்று சொல்லி விலகிக் கொள்கிறார்கள்;

2. குஃபர்கள் தெய்வீகச் செய்தியை ஏற்றுக்கொள்வதை மறுக்கிறார்கள், ஆனால் துன்பங்கள் அவர்களைத் துன்புறுத்தும்போது அவர்கள் அதே வாசலில் (தெய்வீக உதவி) தங்கள் கைகளை நீட்டுகிறார்கள், ஆனால் துன்பங்கள் மறைந்தவுடன் அவர்கள் கீழ்ப்படியாதவர்களாக மாறுகிறார்கள்;

3. கீழ்ப்படியாதவர்களே! உங்களை ஏமாற்றிய அந்த உலக வாழ்க்கை வஞ்சகமானது, தெய்வீகச் செய்திகளுக்கு அடிபணிவதிலிருந்து உங்களைத் திருப்பி விடக்கூடாது;

4. இந்த குஃப்பர்கள் அல்லாஹ்வை உலகை உருவாக்குபவர், பராமரிப்பவர் மற்றும் நிர்வாகி என்று நம்புகிறார்கள்.

5. அவர்கள் அவருடைய கட்டளைகளைப் பயிற்சி செய்வதிலிருந்து தங்களை விலக்கிக் கொள்கிறார்கள்;

6. அவர்களே குர்ஆன் மீது குற்றச்சாட்டுகளை முன்வைத்தாலும், அது போலியானது;

7. குர்ஆனை பொய்யாக்குவதை இந்த குஃப்பர்கள் தவிர்க்கவில்லை என்றால் அவர்கள் மீது உங்கள் வெறுப்பை காட்டுங்கள்;

8. குர்ஆன்-இ-ஹக்கீமை ஆன்மீக ரீதியில் குருடர்களாகவும், காது கேளாதவர்களாகவும் இருக்கும் போது, இந்த குஃப்பர்கள் எவ்வாறு குர்ஆன்-இ-ஹக்கீமைப் புரிந்துகொள்வார்கள்;

9. அல்லாஹ் நமது குர்ஆன் ஓதுவதையும், வாழ்க்கையில் நமது மற்ற செயல்களையும் முழுமையாக அறிந்தவன்;

10. நீதிமான்கள் அல்லாஹ்வின் உயர் நீதிமன்றத்தில் ஆஜராவதற்கு அஞ்ச மாட்டார்கள்;

11. தீனுடைய எதிரிகளின் தகாத வார்த்தைகளால் ஒருவர் துக்கப்படக்கூடாது;

12. அல்லாஹ்வின் வருகைகள் பற்றி குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளது. நோவாவின் எதிரிகள் (அலைஹி ஸலாம்) மற்றும் பிற்கால நபிகளின் எதிரிகள் எவ்வாறு அழிக்கப்பட்டனர் என்பதைக் கவனியுங்கள்;

13. அல்லாஹ்வின் வருகைகள் பற்றி குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளது. மூஸா (அலைஹி ஸலாம்) மீது பகைமை கொண்டதன் காரணமாக ஃபிர்அவ்ன் மற்றும் அவனது படைகள் எவ்வாறு மூழ்கடிக்கப்பட்டன என்பதைக் கவனியுங்கள்;

14. குர்ஆன் கூறும் நபர்களே, அதில் சந்தேகம் கொள்ள வேண்டாம்;

15. வெறும் சந்தேகத்தால் அதை நம்பாதே;

16. இல்லையெனில், உங்கள் உயிர்த்தெழுதல் கடந்தகால பொய்யர்களின் உயிர்த்தெழுதலைப் போலவே இருக்கும்;

17. ஓ மக்களே உங்கள் சந்தேகத்தின் அடிப்படையில் எங்கள் வழியை (உண்மையை) கைவிட நாங்கள் தயாராக இல்லை;

18. குர்ஆனை ஏற்றுக் கொள்பவர் தனக்கே நன்மை செய்து கொள்வார், இல்லையேல் அவரது மறுப்பின் துரதிர்ஷ்டம் அவருக்குப் பொறுப்பாகும்;

11. சூரா ஹூட்.

மக்கா - 123 ஆயாத்துகள்.

சுருக்கமாக இந்த சூரா:

இங்கு விவாதிக்கப்படும் பொருள் தவ்ஹீதை நோக்கிய அழைப்பாகும். தவ்ஹீதை முழுமையாக உள்வாங்குவதும், முந்தைய தவறுகளுக்கு மன்னிப்பு தேடுவதுமே புத்தகத்தின் வெளிப்பாட்டின் நோக்கமாகும்.

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songbirdspells · 1 year

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Read Along: Ancient Greece A Political, Social and Cultural History by Sarah Pomeroy, Stanley Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. Long post, reminder that you can blacklist "songbird chirps" and/or "read along ancient greece book" to avoid these posts.

(Pg 2) "Though religion inspired much of architecture, literature, and even athletic competitions, which were held to honor the gods, Greek government and society often seemed to function in an entirely secular manner. Marriage, for example, was a purely civil affair, and divorce was not believed to distress the gods at all. The gods were nowhere and everywhere. Ideals of equality were preached by men who usually owned slaves and believed in the inferiority of women."

Thoughts: The quote "the gods were nowhere and everywhere" hits hard but no real use for it -Interesting that they list a lot of everyday aspects of life then say things are mostly secular. But makes sense in a way--humanity has remained roughly the same and some people make religion a part of every single thing and other people are the 'church on major holidays' sorts of people. Would like to see their source for this, though, as whether the original authors were religious or not seems to greatly affect their opinion. -The slave thing...yes. Noted a lot especially in literature about Athens life, Spartan life, agricultural, and mining operations. Just like now, philosophers tended to be wealthy men who ignored the people doing the actual labor. For some reason these authors then go on to quote those same slave-owning bastards with their hot takes on Greek labor with no caveats so that's fun.

(Pg 4-5) "Materials decay, and the soil of Greece is not good for preserving things. Accordingly, artifacts made of wood, cloth, and leather are rarely found. Metals fare better: gold and silver last almost forever; bronze is fairly durable, iron more subject to corrosion. Another material, virtually indestructible, is terra-cotta."

Thoughts: Survivorship bias is something to always be mindful of. Especially looking at what is surviving--it is all materials by and for rich people, who will not give us an accurate portrayal of day to day life of the Greeks, and will leave us holes in terms of every day worship practices. However, terra-cotta was extremely cheap and plentiful so possibly also explains the amount of surviving votive offerings with it.

(Pg 6) "The most common medium for writing in the ancient Mediterranean was papyrus"

Thoughts: rip people's grocery lists and burn books. But in seriousness, again, survivorship bias! We see such a small amount of how the majority lived and worshiped.

(Pg 9) "When all is said and done, what stands out about the Greeks is the great paradox: a single people, yet totally disunited and regularly at war with itself."

Thoughts: Why it's important to note geographical locations when speaking about rituals when possible. What happens in one polis may not happen in another. This is American-centric but it's very similar to how the states are set up. People from Alaska don't have much in common in day to day life with people from Iowa, but they're both American and statistically are going to hold similar religious beliefs. There is never going to be just one way to do things. Also explains the different holiday calendar due to differing climates and needs.

(Pg 15) "Water, the most precious natural resource, is scarce in Greece because there are very few rivers that flow year round, and few lakes, ponds, and springs"

Thoughts: Find that agricultural book again and look for references for wells. It could also explain the importance of libations above all offerings--they're giving a finite resource. Could also explain why even the gods give libations. One drought and I can promise everyone is religious as all get out. Also, remember the messages left at Zeus' temple and how snippy people got about the rain. It is likely connected, reference maps between those temples and location of rivers to ensure mental connection is correct.

#songbird chirps #read along ancient greece book

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mindnumbing-brain-candy · 2 years

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Suppose that everything going on in your head in twenty-four hours could be accurately recorded on videotape. Your night dreams and daytime fantasies, conversations with yourself and appeals to the gods, the music and memories that float about, and all the loony trivia that ricochets around in your mind.

Suppose all this material could be played in a theater—with multiple screens and a multitrack sound system. A pretty sensational show, I’d guess. MTV, X-rated video, Science Fiction Theater, Harlequin Romances, CD-ROM, and the National Enquirer combined couldn’t compete with what goes on behind the closed door of the secret side of our minds.

The operative word here is “secret.”

Public lives are lived out on the job and in the marketplace, where certain rules, conventions, laws, and social customs keep most of us in line. Private lives are lived out in the presence of family, friends, and neighbors who must be considered and respected, even though the rules and proscriptions are looser than what’s allowed in public.

But in our secret lives, inside our own heads, almost anything goes.

We alone are answerable for what we think and do when nobody else is around or involved. Categories of “fact” and “fiction” are irrelevant in here. Are dreams true? Is what you imagine accurate?

Inside these tight boundaries of flesh and bone is a borderless jungle in which clearings exist. In these open spaces, there may be an amusement park, a zoo, a circus, a library, a museum, a theater, or a landscape stranger than Mars.

We refer to ourselves in first person singular—“I”—but inside, it’s more like first person plural. Most of the time, my inner life seems like a ventriloquist act. A ceaseless dialogue between Me and my dummy. Oddly enough, the dummy is smarter than I am.

It seems as if my dummy and I have lots of company. There’s quite a crowd in here with us. A child and its parents. A wise old person. A mechanic, demons, a fool, a scientist, comedian, musician, dancer, athlete, magician, professor; a Romeo, censor, police officer, fire fighter, and multitudes more. The population of a small town inhabits the landscape of these disunited states of myself. And the town meeting is always in session.

I can fully relate to the occasional stories in the tabloids about multiple personalities. This is not news to me. In the best sense of the word, I run an asylum—a safe refuge—in my mind. And it’s not a problem. As long as I keep the shades drawn and the doors closed, and don’t let anybody loose, all is well. As long as I’m firmly in charge of my secret life, the world sees me as sane and functional. Am I? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Those who have closely considered the secret life—people like Freud and Jung—use metaphors to speak about the way we keep the secret life from causing chaos in personal and public life. They speak of “the gatekeeper,” “superego,” “monitor,” and “inner parent.”

My own metaphor is the Committee.

And my ventriloquist’s dummy seems to be the chairman.

I think of my committee as odds makers who say things like, “If you rob a bank, it’s ten to one that the FBI will get you, and you will end up in jail for a long time.” Or, “If you tell people you talk to God, they’ll think you’re religious, but if you say God talks to you, it’s ten to one they’ll think you’re crazy.”

Most of the time, most of us go around with our heads running full tilt doing the most amazing things, while we safely negotiate the obligations of public and private life. Much of what goes on in the secret life is not aberrational. Sometimes entertaining, it is often mundane and unexceptional—neither dramatic nor demonic. Just the necessary backstage maintenance operation of life where we sort out the contradictory material into piles of what works and what doesn’t, what’s useful and what’s not.

The French have a charming term for one aspect of the secret life.

La perruque. It means “the wig,” and is slang for a particular kind of disguise. It refers to what you do for yourself while apparently going about the job you are paid to do. If you are a typist working at your desk and you are in fact writing a letter to your lover on company time, this is la perruque. When you make personal calls from your office phone, do a little grocery shopping while out on company business, daydream, or even use your employer’s time to make a list of things to do over the weekend, it’s all la perruque —conducting your personal life under the guise of working at your job. It’s not stealing. It’s an acknowledgment that your public life, personal life, and secret life run concurrently and parallel. La perruque on the job is balanced by the time you think about work while you are on vacation.

The workings of a family include the secret life.

My oldest son is a man now. Thirty-two, grown-up. He knows about money, sex, love, work—success and failure. We have become peers in many ways.

We went out for a beer together recently, and he confessed to me things he thought and did behind my back when he was a kid. Then I confessed to him things I knew he was thinking and doing but didn’t do anything about because I couldn’t deal with them, having done the same or worse when I was his age. While playing the public role of parent, I was still secretly both a rebellious adolescent and a fearful child. La perruque —always the disguises.

Or consider this family secret.

The father of a friend died suddenly at eighty-two. My friend was an only child, himself divorced, and his own children lived too far away to come to the funeral. A lonely time.

The father was a solemn, humorless, literal-minded man who had been a mechanical engineer all his life. Not much imagination or affection. My friend respected his father, but the relationship was a formal and somewhat distant one. But now his father was dead, and the son was the sole heir to the estate.

The government thinks of an estate as money, stocks, bonds, life insurance, jewelry, and any other tangible item of value that can be assessed and taxed. But there is always all the other stuff—all the small things—the knickknacks—the odds and ends of a life. These are kept, sometimes hidden, in places where you would not ever trespass when your parents were alive. But now you must look. And make decisions about what to keep and what to dispose of. You are licensed by death to enter the antechamber of your parents’ secret life.

There is usually a drawer. Top drawer. In a bureau in the bedroom.

In this case, the father was an orderly man. At one end of his top drawer were all his socks, folded and sorted by color—black and brown. In the other end, several small boxes and a tobacco tin.

In one little box, his U.S. Air Force insignia pins from his uniform and cap. In another, miscellaneous jewelry—tie tacks, collar stays, studs, some foreign coins, and three keys. The old man kept his deceased wife’s wedding ring in the original box from the jewelers, along with a lock of her red hair.

And in a flat cigar tin, wrapped in tissue paper, there were tiny teeth neatly glued to a card, with a date under each one in the father’s handwriting. Human teeth.

This find was a bit of a shock.

His father was the tooth fairy.

All these years he’d thought it was his mom.

Not all the family secrets are bad news.

- Robert Fulghum, maybe (maybe not)

#robert fulghum #maybe maybe not #second thoughts from a second life

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agape-philo-sophia · 2 years

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➝ Living a Principled Life 🔑

Principles are like motives and drives. It's at the beginning and foundation for how we live. Principles are axioms, the groundwork for our sense of what is most important to live by.

🌱 principle: beginning, origin, foundation, groundwork; first, foremost; chief, distinguished

Axiomatic

Many axioms that drive and motivate our behavior and how to live, we just accept and hardly think about to determine if they are valid or good to have. We just let them drive us in life. The axioms we accept are foundation for how we make other choices. If we're unaware of these foundational axioms and whether they stand true, then we haven't examined ourselves to really see if we're living a principled life or not. A valid principle is a true principle.

Validity

Our observations, along with other senses and the experiences we generate from within, get distilled into knowledge and abstract ideas that interconnect that knowledge in order to develop understanding or misunderstanding. Some of these ideas about how we try to make sense of things get placed as principles that drive and motivate our decisions and behavior.

But are those principles true, or are they false? Imagine speaking to someone and trying to create a common understanding. If a misunderstanding occurs, you are not on the same page. Similarly in life, if we lead ourselves by misunderstandings i.e. falsity, we can end up on a wrong path and page of life.

Integrity

Are we aware of the principles we live by? Integrating principles together provides a contrast to see if they are irrational, contradictory or inconsistent together. If so, something doesn't fit in how we live or behave and needs to be corrected in order to have an integrated philosophy for living.

This is part of what an examined life is about. We can engage in self-analysis, reflection, introspection, contemplation or self-examination to review and change ourselves for the better.

What happens when one contradicts the other? It means there isn't integrity, but disintegrity. It means we're not living the integrated life we could be. Allowing a contradiction or inconsistency to remain in our way of living -- in our philosophic system -- means we are living a disintegrated, disunited and disharmonious way of life that emanates from within the contradictory and confused internal state of who we are.

Falsity

We can use our conscious, willful and voluntary thinking to go deeper into rationally comprehending ourselves to correct the fallacies and biases that warp an accurate understanding of ourselves and reality. Then we can self-direct our path forward in awareness of what we are doing. Or we can ignorantly be unaware of ourselves as we involuntarily and automatically live from unconscious or contradictory motivations that build up without our awareness into an unconscious or subconscious misshaped philosophy that guides our way of life.

The various things we have been influenced and conditioned with -- from our environment, society, parents, media, etc. -- in our former or current unthinking way of living, have all been abstracted into interconnected or isolated ideas that have become part of our self-view and worldview.

Filtration

Contradictions and inconsistencies are detected when we look at much of the information or knowledge together. Filtration of cognitive errors and false information can't occur if we have no medium to filter against. Reality is the base medium to filter against at first, then ideas can be cross-examined for integrity.

As we correlate one idea to another, the errors can be detected as pieces clash and oppose. We can then verify which is correct, if either. When one is evaluated as being false, it can be filtered from our philosophical framework so as to not be included in our foundational drives and motivations in life.

Compass

Accurate, valid and true principles will guide us correctly in life. Moral principles learned from an objective appraisal of how actions and behaviors affect or harm others will serve as a compass for our decisions.

Truth is found in the objective reality, existence. We share that external objective reality in common despite our individual personal preferences, experiences and internal subjective realities that form our own map of the territory that is objective reality. But we all share that common root in the foundation of existence. We can all learn and live more principled lives in different ways that suit us, and also in common moral ways for all, if we want to, despite all being different and having different preferences.

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openheartfanfics · 2 years

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Newly Added Fics

June 25 - July 1, 2022

BRYCE X F!MC / F!OC

Bowling and Boogie - @peonierose ☁

Luna and Bryce spend some time alone going on a bowling date. Things turn a bit competitive. [Date]

ETHAN X F!MC

102 Days of Smiles - @genevievemd 📚 📷

[extended: wip] One post a day, for 102 days, with something that made our new bride smile.

As It Was - @jamespotterthefirst 📚

[mini: wip] All the times Ethan meets her exes throughout the years. [Ex Came Back]

Ch 3: The Lawyer

Breakfast in Bed - @peonyblossom 📷 ☁

Sadie has breakfast in bed.

Come Back...Be Here - @peonyblossom 📱

Ethan is away at a conference and Sadie misses him.

Cheap Thrills - @liaromancewriter ☁

An ordinary evening turns extraordinary with a special invitation. [Date]

Dirty Talk - @jamespotterthefirst ♥

Their workout session takes a steamy turn. [Getting Kinky; Talking Dirty]

Disunited states of Gilead - @coffeeheartaddict2 🎭 Ⓜ

Casey and Ethan’s reaction to the overturning of Roe v Wade both in a personal and professional context. TW: Deals with SCOTUS abortion access issue

Dr. Whodunnit: Crimes of Passion/Open Heart Crossover - @inlocusmads 📚 🛸

[extended: wip] A killer on the loose. A medical conspiracy. Nora and Trystan must combine their strengths with two doctors from Boston to unveil the ugly deals behind it all.

Ch 3: Rose, The Doctor And Discombobulation

Drained - @lsvdw-blog 🎭

Serena is having the day from hell and seeks comfort in Ethan, but perhaps she shouldn't have. [Fight]

Family Feud - @utterlyinevitable ☁

Caroline’s hiding from her father. [Domestic; Family]

Hiraeth - @gryffindordaughterofathena 🎭

An alternate turn of events during the maitotoxin attack seen through four different eyes. TW: Character Death Feat. Sienna Trinh, Rafael Aveiro [2.11; Illness; Confession]

Let’s Talk About Sex - @jerzwriter ☁ Ⓜ

When Casey came across this blank bingo card on a friend's social media post, she knew what they were going to do.

Little Rams - @potionsprefect 📷 ☁

The love for a toy never ages. [Domestic; Family]

Long Story Short - @genevievemd 📚

[mini: wip] The four times Ethan met Genevieve’s exes. (In chronological order). [Ex Came Back]

Ch 3: Should’ve Said No

Precious Time - @a-crepusculo ♥

In a room full of people, Ethan could only focus on one person. [Racy Thoughts]

Remember When - @openheart12 ☁

Ethan and Casey look back at their life. [Domestic; Family]

Seeing Red - @liaromancewriter 🦚

When Ethan receives a letter from Louise, he and Cassie have it out once and for all. [Fight]

Something Yellow - @parisa-kh ☁

Ethan is wearing an unusual accessory

The Suspicious Colleague - @potionsprefect 🦚

Someone suspects something.

ETHAN X TOBIAS

Broken Bones (Part 1) - @ofmischiefandmedicine 🎭

After being caught up in a moment of nostalgia, Ethan is quickly reminded that not all broken things can be fixed.

TOBIAS X F!MC

50 Days of Love - @openheartfanfiction 📚 📷

[extended: wip] Just 50 Days of Adelaide showing love to many different things.

Friends - @jerzwriter 📚 🛸 Ⓜ

[mini: wip] Tobias Carrick and Casey are the best of friends. They always knew better than to let that get “messy” by fooling around with each other, until that night….

Part 3: Let’s Make a Deal

You’re On - @jerzwriter ☁

Tobias needs his good friend Casey to help him pull off a fib, but is she willing to help? And, at what cost?

SUBMIT OPEN HEART FICS & WRITERS HERE

#open heart #open heart choices #open heart fanfics #open heart fanfiction #open heart fanfic #playchoices fanfics #bryce lahela #bryce lahela x mc #ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #tobias carrick #tobias carrick x mc #newly added fics

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afolderfullofstories · 2 years

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Deadcember Day 30: Broken

Definition of broken

1: violently separated into parts

2: violated by transgression: not kept or honored, a broken promise

3: subdued completely

4: disunited by divorce, separation, or desertion

5: Incomplete/ Being in a state of disarray; disordered

Amber stood as the press conference ended. The reporters kept trying to call out to her, to grab her attention but she ignored them. This was just a minor setback for GeneCo, nothing more. As long as the public didn’t find out what really happened, they could just get on with their lives.

“Sorella.”

Amber ignored him. That was easier. She headed to her office. She had a shitload of work to do and she needed to get it all done.

She had gotten through most of her work when Pavi decided to interrupt her for lunch. She muttered she was busy but he insisted.

“No one would blame you if you took the day off, sorella.”

“Why would I need to take the day off? I’m fine.”

Pavi just sighed.

Amber furrowed her brow at the news. They were reporting about the press conference and… She tossed the tablet aside. She continued her work.

When Pavi interrupted her once more, she didn’t do anything but sigh. He spotted the news on her desk and told her to ignore them. They were just being cruel.

“They’re not being cruel. They’re right.”

“Sorella, it’s-”

“Pavi, listen. I don’t know if you’re just bored or what, but I really have things to do. You can’t keep coming here to disturb me.”

“Sorella.”

“What?”

Pavi sighed. “This is hard, sorella, I know. And you’re processing how you can. But being in denial like this-”

“I’m not in denial.”

“Sorella…”

“I’m not in denial, brother. I just simply don’t care.” Amber smiled. “It’s more than that. I’m actually relieved. So you don’t have to keep coming here to see if I’m alright. I’m fine. I’m happy.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Every word.” Amber stood. “So as much as I enjoy your company, brother. I really have work to do.” She gestured to the door.

Pavi just stared at her. He sighed and left.

* “Sorella, where are you going?”

Amber froze. Is he seriously going to be policing her every move? “To La Musica.”

Pavi’s brow furrowed. “Are you serious?”

“Yes.” She turned and headed to the door.

“How could you even think of going clubbing at a time like this?”

“A time like what?”

“You’re in denial. You’re clearly in denial and-”

“I’m not!”

“Sorella…”

“I just don’t care.”

“This bullshit is not-”

“I don’t care, Pavi! Who are you to tell me how I should feel?”

Pavi fell silent. “You don’t mean that, sorella.”

“I do. I don’t care that he’s dead. No. I’m relieved he’s gone. No one to argue with me. No one to tell me I’m fucking up. No one to act like a giant fucking asshole.”

“Clearly, you need time to process.”

“I don’t need time!” Amber took a breath. She wouldn’t let Pavi spoil her mood. “I’m glad he’s gone. And you don’t get to tell me how I should feel.” She left the house and headed to the car waiting for her.

Amber sighed. She wasn’t even angry at Pavi. She just couldn’t stand how he could sit there and expect her to be upset. Did he not remember how Luigi treated them their whole life? He ignored her their whole childhood then he was little more than an asshole to her; picking at her every insecurity to make her feel utterly worthless. And then daddy died and he just shut her out. And now she was supposed to act like his death was some big loss?

The car stopped outside La Musica. She couldn’t go in. If the press saw her… It would be the same debacle as the press conference. Plastered news, underground talk; the fucking ice queen of Sanitarium Island. Who were they to judge her? They didn’t know her, they didn’t know her life. Why should she have to play this part of grieving baby sister when she honestly didn’t care?

She opened the car door and went inside.

Amber slammed the news back on the table, cracking the screen. Why did everyone feel like they could dictate how she should feel? What did they want from her? To dress in black and look like she was in mourning the whole time. Ice queen. If she wasn’t grieving her asshole of a brother, maybe it was because of him and not her. It was because he was broken, not her.

She let out a cry of frustration.

The door opened.

She groaned. She could not deal with her brother right now.

“Sorella.”

“Brother.”

He looked at the tablet on the table then back at her. “I told you not to go out.”

“Since when do you care what the press says?”

“I don’t. But you seem to.”

“It’s just bad press for GeneCo.” She said dismissively.

“Sorella.”

“Please don’t, brother.”

He bit his lip, trying to find the right thing to say. “Sorella-”

“Brother, I mean it. I don’t want to hear this. Can you just accept that I’m fine? I don’t grieve him, I don’t miss him. And that’s that. I don’t need you bugging me everyday to feel the way you want me to.”

“I’m just trying to be here for you, sorella.”

Amber snorted. “Here for me? Then why weren’t you running around caring for Luigi as well?”

Pavi’s face fell.

Amber realized what she had said. “Brother, I hadn’t-”

A devastated look filled his face, barely hidden by the mask he wore.

“Brother, I didn’t mean-”

Pavi couldn’t say anything. He turned around and walked off.

“Pavi, wait!”

Amber couldn’t find her brother. The Genterns all swore he hadn’t left the house. But he wasn’t in his room. He wasn’t anywhere. Where was he? Why would he just disappear?

Oh.

She was an idiot. She headed to the roof.

Pavi was sitting on the ledge.

Her chest clenched in fear. “Brother?” She couldn’t breathe. Her heart pounded in her chest.

Pavi gave her a sideways glance, then back forwards. “I thought you wanted me to leave you alone, sorella.”

Her mouth was dry. “Pavi, please.”

He gave her another glance, “I’m not going to jump.”

Amber felt like she could breathe but the weight on her chest did not lighten. She sat next to her brother, her back towards the city. She took slow, careful breaths.

“I thought you didn’t care.”

“That’s not fair.”

Pavi scoffed.

“Why does this matter so much to you? Why do you care whether or not I grieve him?”

“Because I know you, sorella.”

Amber huffed. She turned towards her brother. She watched him just stare at the city, quiet. “Are you ok, brother?”

“I wasn’t here.”

Amber closed her eyes.

“I should have been here.”

“This is not on you brother.”

“I should have been here.”

“No.” Amber stood. “If that bastard wanted to selfishly leave, that’s not on you! And it certainly is not on me.” She took a choked breath.

“Sorella.”

“I’m going to bed.”

“Sorella!”

Amber audibly groaned when Pavi walked into her office once more. “No.” She warned.

“Sorella, last night-”

“No.”

“Sorella-”

“I said no!” Her chest heaved. She couldn’t deal with Pavi like this. She couldn’t stand the way his eyes shone as if he made some big progress with her.

“Listen-”

“No.” She took a breath. “There’s nothing to say, brother. You’re just going to be disappointed. My feelings haven’t changed.”

“Sorella, you can’t push away your feelings like this. Once it hits you-”

“I’m not in fucking denial! Why the fuck should I grieve that asshole? He has never once said a kind word to me. He has never treated me like his sister. He threatened to kill me every other day. Tell me, what about that should I fucking miss?”

“That’s just fratello. He-”

“No. Don’t make excuses for that bastard. He was an abusive asshole and that’s that. So no, I don’t fucking miss him and no matter how much you try to force me, I won’t miss him.”

Pavi finally listened. He left her be. He finally left her be. And then he stopped showing up to work. He didn’t bother with dinner or anything. Every night he was on that fucking roof. And she hated it. But she was the one who asked him to leave her be. And he had respected her wishes. And…

She was an idiot.

She watched her brother sit on the ledge once more. She sat next to him once more, back facing the city.

“I thought you wanted The Pavi to leave you alone.”

“I should have realized even though I wasn’t grieving, you would be.”

Pavi smiled sardonically and shook his head.

“I’m worried about you, brother.”

“Forget it. You didn’t want concern from The Pavi. You can keep your concern to yourself.”

Amber was quiet. “Are you angry with me?”

Pavi sighed, his body tense. “Forget it, sorella.”

“You are.”

“Not angry, disappointed.”

“Disappointed.” Amber scoffed in disbelief. She stood.

“Sorella…”

“What do you want from me, Pavi?”

“I’m sick of this. I’m sick of this, alright sorella? This bullshit our family loves to rely on. All this fucked up pretending, spewing how much we hate each other. I’m just done. I’m not doing this shit anymore. If we had stopped all this from the start, maybe fratello would be-” He cut himself off.

“This isn’t on you, brother.” Amber said quietly.

Pavi scoffed.

“This isn’t on you. He was the fucking asshole who chose to leave. He made the decision to abandon us. So you’d have to forgive me if I don’t fucking grieve him for that.”

“Sorella.”

“No. Don’t defend him. Don’t fucking defend him. He chose to leave. We just lost daddy. And he decided he wanted to pop out too.”

“Sorella, he-”

“No. I don’t want to hear excuses. I don’t want to hear reasons. No reason would be good enough for him to abandon us. None.”

“I’m angry too, sorella.”

“I’m not angry. Being angry means that this affected me. It doesn’t. I don’t give a fuck on what he chose to do. I don’t care.” She headed to the door.

“Sorella, please. Don’t go.”

Amber hesitated. She sighed and sat next to her brother.They just sat in silence. Finally Amber broke it. “I can’t grieve him. Because once I start…” She swallowed as her throat tightened. “Once it starts…” Her nails dug into her palm. “I keep replaying the last few months and I still can’t see it. I still can’t see the signs.”

“Sorella, don’t.”

“I keep replaying everything I’ve said to him and I can’t remember saying a single nice thing. We fought so much after daddy died and now I can’t even remember what for.”

“Sorella, this isn’t-”

“This is what you wanted right Pavi? This is exactly what you wanted.” She stubbornly rubbed her eyes. “You wanted me to grieve.”

“Si, sorella.”

“I can’t grieve. Once I go down that rabbit hole…” She swallowed. “I wonder what I could have done differently. He wanted GeneCo and I took it. Would that have changed anything?”

“Sorella, this isn’t on you.”

“And it isn’t on you either. He was a selfish bastard.”

“I miss him.”

“I don’t.” She paused. “I can’t.”

“Sorella, fratello was…he was in a dark place. I should have seen, I should have realized.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

Pavi’s shoulders shook.

Amber leant her head on his shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault.” Her eyes burned and she stubbornly forced it back. She wouldn’t cry for him. She wouldn’t grieve him. “He promised he’d back me up if I got clean. He promised he would support me.” A stray tear fell down her cheek and she swiped at it. “I hate him. I hate him so much.”

Her watch rang. Groggily she opened her eyes and picked up the call.

“Ms Sweet.”

“What is it?”

“Something happened.”

She looked at the time. It was well past midnight. “What is it?”

“I…You better come here.”

Amber furrowed her brow and agreed. She got dressed and headed outside. She froze at the GeneCops surrounding the area. “What’s going on”

“Ms Sweet.” The GeneCop greeted. He looked at her with pity in his eyes.

“What’s going on?” Her heart pounded. Something was wrong. She headed to where the GeneCops had gathered.

Someone grabbed her. “Stay back Ms Sweet. You shouldn’t see this.”

Her mouth was dry. “What’s going on?” She repeated.

“We need to talk.” Again the same pity.

She pushed past him. She pushed past the other GeneCops who tried to stop her but she ignored them. She stopped cold. She saw the blood first. Her chest tightened. There was an accident. Someone fell. It was just one of the GeneCo employees. It- She saw the familiar suit partially covered by a blanket; torn and bloody. She couldn’t breathe. She stepped forward. Someone grabbed her and tried to pull her back but she just pulled away. She approached the body, her limbs heavy. Her hand shook as she reached for the blanket. Her halting breaths tasted the iron in the air. She pulled down the blanket.

She gave a cry and staggered back. Her legs were weak and she fell on her ass.

Her brother’s eyes stared blankly at her. She could only numbly stare at her brother’s cracked open skull as blood and brain matter pooled below it. She couldn’t move.

Hands tried to pull her away. She couldn’t fight them. She just numbly let them lift her to her feet. Her legs shook. They tried to pull her back but she numbly pushed them away. She staggered forward. She removed the rest of the blanket revealing her brother’s body, twisted and broken and-

“Sorella.”

She blinked and realized she was on the roof. The same roof where her brother had-

“Where were you?”

“That night.” She said weakly. And she remembered. She remembered how Pavi had arrived at the scene and even though he wanted to see what happened; he saw her sitting numbly on the ground and he held her and comforted her and- “He could have slipped.”

“Maybe.”

“Why are they so sure? He had alcohol in his system. He could have been drunk and slipped and-”

Pavi sighed.

Because people who slipped seldom land with their feet first. That was the coroner’s answer. It was so cold, so clinical. And she could do nothing but numbly mimic it. “Report it as a heart attack.” But there were too many witnesses who were paid off. People still talked.

Only the tabloids dared print it. The major news sources were in their pockets. But the tabloids were enough. Headlines on whether they were covering up Luigi’s death. Whether it was murder to secure her position in GeneCo. Or sometimes they stumble upon the truth: whether the Ice Queen’s coldness drove her brother to kill himself. “It’s not fair.”

“Sorella?”

“It’s not fair he gets to leave and we have to deal with this.”

“I know.”

She looked at her brother then away. “You know I…you know I…” Why was it so hard to spit out that stupid word. “...love you right, brother?”

Pavi sighed and took her hand in his. “Si sorella.”

She squeezed his hand. “He knew that too, right?” She choked out.

Pavi was silent.

A choked sob escaped her lips. She gripped her brother’s hand tighter in an effort to stifle her tears.

“You do know I have bones in that hand, right, Sorella?”

A choked laugh escaped her lips. She hadn’t meant it. But once she started, she couldn’t stop. And it was better than crying. This hysterical laughter was better than bawling her eyes out.

“I wasn’t being funny.” Pavi said, an amused look on his face.

“You’re smiling.”

Pavi huffed out a laugh and turned back towards the city; his hand still holding hers.

“I will never leave you, brother. I swear.”

He pulled back his hand. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

She grabbed his hand once more. “I won’t.” Her voice fell quiet. “Promise me the same.”

“How am I supposed to-”

She felt his eyes on her but she couldn’t look at him.

“I will never choose to leave, sorella. That much I can promise you.”

She just leant on her brother’s arm, feeling his hand in hers. She closed her eyes and took in a breath. One day at a time. That’s all she could do. She would take it one day at a time.

#Deadcember #Deadcember 2021 #Day 30 #Broken #repo! the genetic opera #Amber Sweet #Pavi Largo #TW: suicide

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teronsrickman · 2 years

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27.02.2022 I don't like to talk about it. Because we can spend hours horrified by human hatred and the stupidity of the authorities of any country. It is possible for an incredibly long time not to understand why all this is and for what, when there are other huge problems in the world that require attention and mutual assistance. I'm tired of talking about it and being afraid to tears. War is Hell on Earth. And Nuclear War is the End of the World. Therefore, I just wish ALL good peaceful people the strength to survive all this. Be brave, smart and strong for yourself, for your loved ones, for your people and for the people of the whole world. For the sake of the world. Don't kill people, lay down your weapons, please! Violence does not solve anything, it is only destruction. I want to believe that society is not so stupid, rotten and disunited as to kill each other, to collapse and destroy the world because of hatred, avidity, greed, anger and pride, for the sake of invented senseless goals. I am Russian and I DO NOT WANT war. My family doesn't want war. I have friends in Ukraine. I have friends in different countries and I don't want them to die. Many Russian families in Ukraine. War and violence in our time is a disgrace. PLEASE HEAR! Adequate Russian people do not want war. Please don't hate us. We are not evil, we are the same ordinary people who want a quiet life without bloodshed. But this peaceful life is taken away from us by the government and people who are subject to government propaganda. A lot of brave people are trying to resist this, but our native state is fighting against its people, against us. We cannot change president's decisions. We try, but again they(government) try to torture and kill us. Please support world peace, and do not incite even more hatred for the people who are in captivity in their government. Hate breeds hate. I love adequate kind people, from any country, any gender, any race, any nation, any orientation. I am Russian and I AM NOT THE ENEMY. WE ARE PEACEFUL PEOPLE, WE ARE NOT YOUR ENEMIES. I'm scared to even write this, because we can't criticize the government, it's punishable. I'm scared for good people in Ukraine, I'm scared for good people in Russia and all over the world. Please carry these thoughts further, stop hatred and war!

#art #no war please #no war #russia #ukraine

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royalpain16 · 3 years

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A Brief History of Princess Diana’s Fiery Family

HADLEY HALL MEARES

JUNE 29, 2021 4:04 PM

According to Tina Brown’s The Diana Chronicles. Indeed, the role of the aristocratic family of Diana, Princess of Wales, for centuries has been that of royal disrupter. This legacy stretches to the 14th century, with their disputed ancestor Hugh Despenser’s alleged torrid affair with King Edward II and Despenser’s eventual brutal execution. Clever, charming, and fiery, much like Diana, her ancestors learned how to play the royal game—and then ripped up the rule book.

“Nearly 300 years on, my father would talk about him with an ashamed, resigned chuckle,” Charles, Earl Spencer, writes in The Spencers: A Personal History of an English Family of the mercurial family blackguard Robert Spencer (1641-1702). While the second earl would secure the Spencers’ status as political power players for centuries, he was also “cunning, supple [and] shameless” with “a restless and mischievous temper, a cold heart, and an abject spirt.”

Sunderland’s ascendancy began in the 1670s when he orchestrated King Charles II’s secret pact with England’s traditional enemy, France. Securing large payments from the French king and court for Charles II and himself, Sunderland was rewarded when he was appointed secretary of state.

After double-crossing Charles II’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, Sunderland cleverly insinuated himself with new King James II. He converted to Catholicism to appeal to the very Catholic king, and became one of James II’s closest advisers. But the king, though he valued the brilliant man’s diplomatic skills, was fully aware of Sunderland’s duplicity.

James II finally dismissed Sunderland from service in 1688, and he was later exiled. But in December of that year, James II was deposed by the Glorious Revolution, bringing his daughter Mary and her husband, William, Prince of Orange, (with whom Sunderland had conspired) to the throne.

Again in favor, he was rewarded with the post of Lord Chamberlain before retiring from public life in 1697. “Too much cannot be said of his talents,” one historian noted. “Nor too little of his principles.”

The Boss: Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough

The daughter of Parliamentarian Richard Jennings and his scandalous wife, Frances, the passionate, brilliant Sarah (1660-1744) started out as a maid of honor in the court of James II. She became the most powerful woman in England, through her magnetic control of the future Queen Anne, a comparative dullard who worshipped her and perhaps became her lover. (You may remember their relationship from the 2018 movie The Favourite, in which Rachel Weisz played Sarah.)

For Sarah, her friendship with Anne was a way to advance her family and her liberal Whig politics, which she shared with her equally powerful husband, the military hero the Duke of Marlborough. “I hated tyranny by nature,” she wrote in one version of her memoir, according to Ophelia Field’s The Favourite: The Life of Sarah Churchill. “I thought mankind was born free, & if Princes were ordained to make their subjects happy; so I had always in me an invincible aversion to slavery, & to flattery.”

In 1700, Sarah arranged the marriage of her distant relation Charles Spencer, the future Third Earl of Sunderland, with her favorite daughter, Anne. Over the next 44 years, she would shape the family fortunes—and gift them with their famed auburn-tinted locks.

According to The Favourite: The Life of Sarah Churchill, with Anne’s accession to the throne in 1702 Sarah reached the peak of her power, racking up virtually every important post in Queen Anne’s suite, dictating cabinet appointments, and encouraging the ire of satirists.

But cracks would soon begin to appear. Queen Anne was naturally inclined to support the royalist Tories and was encouraged in these leanings by a new favorite named Abigail. A vindictive Sarah became a master propagandist, leaking insinuations about their relationship to the press, and allegedly threatening to blackmail Anne over the contents of their highly charged correspondence.

Sarah was finally forced to vacate her royal apartments in 1711, but she was not down for the count. A brilliant businesswoman, she became the richest woman in England, according to Field, controlling her Spencer grandchildren with promises of money and power. Centuries before the modern Diana and Prince Charles wed, Sarah even attempted to marry her favorite granddaughter—Lady Diana Spencer—to the broke Frederick, Prince of Wales, with a promise of 100,000-pound dowry. The plan fell through.

But not all her grandchildren were willing to be manipulated by their formidable matriarch. Sarah claimed her equally tough granddaughter Anne “[deserved] to be burnt,” and she disinherited her grandson Charles, Fifth Earl of Sunderland, which prompted him to write her:

As for putting me out of your will…I neither expected or desired to be in it. I…assure Your Grace that this is the last time I shall ever trouble you by letter or conversation. I am Your Grace’s grandson, Sunderland.

Sarah’s letter back was brutal. “You end that you are my grandson. Which is indeed a very melancholy truth…had you not been my grandson, you would have been in as bad a condition as you deserve to be.” Fitting words from a woman immortalized by Alexander Pope thusly:

Sixty years the World has been her Trade, The wisest Fool much Time has ever made. From loveless youth to unrespected age, No Passion gratify’d except her Rage.

The Star: Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire

From the start there was something special about Georgiana (1757-1806), the coddled daughter of John, First Earl Spencer and his wife, Margaret. The captivating teenager married the sophisticated William, Duke of Devonshire, in 1774, and quickly became a sensation in London’s highest circles. “[The Duchess of Devonshire] effaces all,” Horace Walpole wrote, according to The Devonshires: The Story of a Family and a Nation. “Her youth, figure, flowing good nature, sense…and modest familiarity, make her a phenomenon.”

Georgiana soon found her cold, older husband was not nearly as interested in her as everyone else. Luckily, she had many talents with which to amuse herself. She set fashions of the day, developed her own haughty way of speaking, known as the “Cavendish drawl,” and became dear friends with Marie Antoinette, according to Amanda Foreman’s The Duchess. She was also a successful novelist, and an amateur scientist.

But it was Georgiana’s brilliance as a Whig operative that would turn her into a target of the press. Constantly brainstorming with her friend, George, Prince of Wales, and political soulmate Charles James Fox, she hosted countless summits at her home. Georgiana was, she later wrote, “in the midst of the action,” seeing

“partys rise and fall—friends be united and disunited—the ties of love give way to caprice, to interest, and to vanity…”

Georgiana also worked essentially as a campaign manager for Whig candidates. During the 1784 election she bravely canvassed the street for Fox, charming Londoners with her common touch. “During her canvass,” Walpole wrote, “the Duchess made no scruple of visiting some of the humblest of electors, dazzling and enchanting them by the fascination of her manner, the power of her beauty and the influence of her high rank.”

According to Foreman’s The Duchess, there were rumors Georgiana kissed men in exchange for votes, leading to scurrilous cartoons distributed by the Tory opposition. “You have almost unavoidably amassed a great deal of useless trash—gathered weeds instead of flowers,” Lady Spencer wrote Georgiana. “You live so constantly in public you cannot live for your own soul.”

Her mother was worried about more than bad press. The hard-partying Georgiana was one of a long line of Spencer gambling addicts. She also had a laudanum dependency, and a scandalous ménage à trois arrangement with her husband and the disreputable Bess Foster. Calamity struck in 1792, when Georgiana became pregnant by the future Prime Minister Charles Grey and was banished from the country for a while.

Georgiana returned to her husband and children two years later. For the remainder of her life she battled ill health, but continued her role as a political operative, aware of what she could have been. “Would I were a man,” she mused to Sir Philip Francis. “To unite my talents, my hopes, my fortune, with [Charles James Fox’s], to make common cause, and fall or rule.”

From the start, the Spencer legacy laid heavily on John Spencer’s (1924-1992)

shoulders. As a child he was constantly cowed by his genealogically obsessed, brutal father, who considered him an intellectual lightweight. “He used to dread the train journey home [from boarding school],” his son, Diana’s brother Charles, writes. “He would hide in shadows of the train carriage, hoping his father had forgotten to collect him.”

But by the 1940s, John’s heroism as a captain in the Royal Scots Greys during World War II, and his tall, good looks and simple charm made him a most eligible bachelor. According to the documentary When the Spencers Met the Monarchy, he was even once looked at by the palace as a suitor to the future Queen Elizabeth II.

Instead, in 1954, Queen Elizabeth II (whom he served as an equerry) attended his wedding to heiress Frances Roche at Westminster Abbey. The couple had four children—Sarah, Jane, Diana, and Charles (another son, John, died shortly after birth). They were a mismatched pair, he rather dull and she vivacious, but John was reportedly blindsided when he discovered Frances was cheating on him. “How many of those years were happy?” he later said of his marriage. “I thought all of them until the moment that we parted.”

After the dissolution of his marriage, John became Diana and Charles’s primary caregiver and developed what Lord Glenconner once termed “an unfortunate raw sausage look.” Although he was stiff and old-fashioned, he attempted to be an involved father, and Diana was determined to be his “comforting angel,” according to The Diana Chronicles.

In 1975, John’s fortunes turned when his curmudgeonly father died, making him the Eighth Earl Spencer. According to Andrew Morton, he also inherited a 2.25-million-pound bill for death duties as well as 80,000-pounds-a-year running costs for Althorp, the family estate in Northamptonshire. He also found a helpmate to run Althorp in the fascinating Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, whom he married in 1976 without even telling his children. “We weren’t invited. ‘Not grand enough,’” his daughter Sarah quipped to a reporter at the time.

Despite the flippant tone, John’s betrayal would cause a deep rift in the family. A severe stroke in 1978 caused him to become frail and even more distant from his children. “He was one person before and he was certainly a different person after,” Princess Diana said, according to Morton. “He’s remained estranged but adoring since. If he comes and sees me he comes and sees me, if he doesn’t he doesn’t. It’s not my problem anymore. It’s his.”

The Rebel: Frances Shand Kydd

Frances Ruth Roche (1936-2004) wasn’t from as noble stock as the Spencers, but her family was far richer. Her father Maurice, fourth Baron Fermoy, was a conservative politician and a “terrible bottom pincher,” Lady Glenconner says in The Diana Chronicles, while her wealthy mother, Ruth, was a scheming, incurable snob and great friend of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

It was Ruth who encouraged a teenage Frances to marry the much older John Spencer, despite her tender age. “When you meet someone at the age of 15 and get engaged just five months out of school at 17, you can look back and ask, ‘Was I adult?’” she asked years later. “I sure thought I was at the time.”

The couple cultivated a farm at her family home of Park House in Norfolk, but Frances was quickly disillusioned with life in the country as a young aristocratic mother. “I’m so bloody bored with opening village fetes,” she told a friend. It was no wonder that the fiery Frances wanted more. “She was very attractive and blonde and sexy with such joie de vivre and fun about her,” a friend told Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles.

By the 1960s, Frances escaped to London more and more. She also started having an affair with a married bon vivant named Peter Shand Kydd. In 1967, she separated from John and left her two youngest children with him. “The biggest disruption was when Mummy decided to leg it. That’s the vivid memory we have—the four of us,” Princess Diana later told Andrew Morton.

Frances fought for custody of the children but lost to John, partially due to her own mother, Baroness Fermoy, who testified against her. Social outcasts, the Shand Kydds eventually moved to the coast of Scotland, and their warm household was a refuge for her children when they were allowed to visit. “Diana and I adored it for its wild beauty and the fun we had on the sea, lobster potting and mackerel-fishing,” Charles Spencer recalls.

Frances counseled against her youngest daughter’s marriage to Prince Charles, seeing too many parallels to her own first marriage—including her mother’s encouragement of the match. According to Brown, after voicing her concerns, Diana said, “Mummy, you don’t understand. I love him.” Frances replied, “Love him, or love what he is?” To which Diana asked rhetorically, “What’s the difference?”

The Grande Dames: Barbara Cartland and Raine Spencer

Perhaps no writer influenced generations of British romantics—including Princess Diana—more than Barbara Cartland (1901-2000). The author of 723 books, Cartland had, in the words of Brown, a “penchant for pink, her meringue coiffure and false eyelashes,” which betrayed a steely, snobbish character that was tough as nails.

Cartland would pass both her strength and outrageousness on to her daughter Raine (1929-2016), whom she raised to be, in Brown’s words, a “social monster baby.” Not only did she nab Gerald Legge, Ninth Earl of Dartmouth, but she also forged a career as a conservative politician, becoming the youngest person to ever serve on the Westminster City Council.

“She never took any prisoners, and never took no for an answer,” a friend recalled.

In the early 1970s, Raine set her sights on the divorced John Spencer. “She wanted to marry Daddy; that was her target and that was it,” Princess Diana recalled. According to sources, “Acid Raine” alienated the children and old friends. She also took the reins of Althorp, allegedly selling off family treasures and decorating it in her and her mother’s garish style.

During the lead-up to Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles in 1981, what to do with the clownish Cartlands became a national conversation. According to Brown:

Alexander Chancellor, the editor of The Spectator, wrote an editorial in which he called for a special Act of Parliament to ban Raine and her mother from St. Paul’s Cathedral, adding, “For it would be more than a little unfair on everybody if these two absurdly theatrical ladies were permitted to turn a moving national celebration into a pantomime.” Diana was so afraid the pantomime might indeed take place, she pressed for stratagems to blackball Cartland.

In the end Raine was invited but her mother was not. This would not be the most awkward Spencer wedding—that prize would go to Charles Spencer’s first wedding in 1989, where Diana scolded Raine for her rudeness to their mother. “If only you knew how much we all hated you for what you’ve done, you’ve ruined the house, you spend Daddy’s money and what for?” she hissed.

For her part, Raine would tire of being the scapegoat for the Spencer dysfunction. “I’m absolutely sick of the ‘wicked stepmother’ lark,” she said, according to Kitty Kelley. “You’re never going to make me sound like a human being, because people like to think I’m Dracula’s mother.”

Surprisingly, Diana would come to agree. Toward the end of her life, she grew close to her stepmother, whose no-nonsense advice she came to admire. However, it appears there was no love lost between Diana and her former favorite writer, who would quip of the royal breakup, “Of course, you know where it all went wrong. She wouldn’t do oral sex.”

The Role Model: Lady Sarah McCorquodale

Born in 1955, Sarah Spencer was the oldest, and wildest of John and Frances Spencer’s brood. Reckless and salty from an early age, Brown writes that she was kicked out of boarding school and rode her horse into her grandmother’s living room. “Sarah always had to be the best at everything,” a friend recalled. “The best car, the wittiest put-down, and the best dress.”

She also had a constant shadow in her youngest sister, Diana. “I idolized my eldest sister and I used to do all her washing when she came back from school. I packed her suitcase, ran her bath, made her bed—the whole lot. I did it all and I thought it was wonderful,” Diana told Morton.

In 1977, Sarah, who had suffered from anorexia, according to Brown, met Prince Charles at Ascot. The two began dating, and it was Sarah who introduced Diana to the prince during a shooting party at Althorp (“I’m cupid,” she’d later quip). “I remember,” Diana later said, “feeling desperately sorry for him that my sister was wrapped around his neck because she’s quite a tough old thing.”

But Sarah’s romance with the prince would soon end. She made the mistake of talking to reporters. Not only did she reportedly confess to having “thousands of boyfriends,” she also disparaged Charles as a hopeless romantic. “I wouldn’t marry a man I didn’t love, whether it was a dustman or the King of England,” she said. “If he asked me I would turn him down.”

This cardinal sin would cause Sarah to be promptly frozen out, with Charles reportedly informing her, “You’ve just done something extremely stupid.” And so, only three years later Charles would begin to court the blossoming Diana. Perhaps there was a hint of jealousy in her alleged counsel to a despondent Diana to not pull out of the wedding over his relationship with Camilla: “Bad luck, ‘Duch. Your face is on the tea towels so you’re too late to chicken out.”

#princess diana #lady diana spencer #the spencers #the spencer family #a brief history into princess Diana's fiery family

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warsofasoiaf · 4 years

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Would freeing the Tsar and his family before they were murdered affected the outcome of the Russian Civil War? I lean towards “no” since the White Army still had serious problems like low popular support, incompetent commanders, etc. Nicholas couldn’t fix those especially since he himself was very unpopular, and literally couldn’t win a war to save his own life.

I agree. The Whites were incredibly disunited in purpose, and the democratic Kerenskyites and other anti-monarchist parties would not want Nicholas II returned as the head of state, and that likely would have caused further factional schism.

What the Whites lacked was unity, they needed a unified command structure to be able to successfully prosecute the war, and that would have meant finding a solution that the factions would live with. Given the Kornilov Affair and other hardliners who wanted to reverse democratic reforms even of the token Duma that Nicholas II was forced to accept, I don’t see that as being likely.

That isn’t to say that the war couldn’t have gone weirder though. I could see for example, the SR Komuch successfully pressing further with the Czechoslovak Legion that would embolden further anti-Bolshevik action and stymie the Reds, leading the White to consolidate their geographically dispersed forces and causing widespread Bolshevik disunity as Trotsky increasingly brought the hammer down on suspected deserters and informants.

Thanks for the question, Yoda.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#history #russian civil war #submission

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the-ghost-of-rusty-shackleford · 3 years

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Hey guys, so here’s a begging post of sorts. I’m a queer neurodivergent fiction writer, I’ve been writing for years and just a couple years ago I started a patreon where for over a year I posted a story every month. Then pandemic hit and I got burned out and couldn’t write much. I’m finally getting back on my feet and posted my first story in a while. Problem is, I’ve lost several of my patrons due to the lack of posting. My other job is I’m a caregiver which doesn’t pay that much so it would mean so much to me if any of y’all were to sign up. If you do you’ll receive PDF copies of all of my stories to date. But hey! Get this, my stories are also all free to read online, I know money is tight all around, if you can’t afford to pay I still would love for you to find something you love here. I write all kinds of stories across a range of four different settings. These Disunited States: My flagship project, an alt-history setting where the Confederacy is overtaken by slave revolt to become a new revolutionary republic. These stories explore the roots and costs of American Imperialism and the idea that history has not tended towards justice but it’d sure be nice to imagine if it did. Contemporary Creepy: Sometimes horror, sometimes magical realism, this setting is all about the magic, the wonder, and the terror of the modern world. Fans of Stephen King or Neil Gaiman inquire within. The Dusty Sea and Beyond: A bronze age fantasy setting delving into philosophical and mythological concepts with the goal of reimagining the myths of our ancestors in a world that did not fall to kings and tyranny. A mythological world of cautionary tales and myths of great heroes and wizards for fans of classical stories, and old school sword and sorcery but have always wanted some that wasn’t quite so sexist and classist this one’s for you. World of Beleren: My D&D setting turned to storycraft, I use this mostly for fun little slice of life stories or pulp adventurers ala Conan the Barbarian but with they/them pronouns. Similar to Dusty Sea but with elves and dwarves and all the classical fantasy trappings overlayed with modern anachronisms.

#shameless self promotion #short stories #patreon #fantasy #Alternate History #horror fiction #magical realism

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ramadhanseries · 1 year

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தமிழில்....

10th Taraweeh :

(11th Para :- from 10½ Ruku of Sura Taubah till 1st ½ of Ruku of Sura Hood)

The various types of Munaafiqeen are mentioned.

1. Those who will never be forgiven because hypocrisy is a belief to them and their aim to disunite the Muslims.

2. Those who could be forgiven because hypocrisy to them is merely a habit and not a belief.

Then :-

1. Then the conduct of the true believers is noted.

2. There forgivable munaafiqeen associate with the true believers and the conduct of the true believers manifests itself.

3. Educating the masses will put an end to absenteeism from Jihaad.

4. Educating the people on strategies of war.

10. Surah Yunus (ALAYHI SALAAM).

Makkah – 109 Aayats.

➖This Surah in brief:

The main subject matter here is the invitation to Islaam.

➖The Surah states:

3. O disobedient ones! That life of the world which has beguiled you, is deceitful, and let it not turn you away from submitting to the Divine messages;

4. These Kuffar believe ALLAH to be the creator, sustainer and administrator of the world, yet;

5. They turn themselves away from practising on HIS :commandments;

6. While they themselves make allegations against the Qur'an, that it is a fake;

7. If these Kuffar do not abstain from belying the Qur'aan then display your disgust on them;

8. How can these Kuffar understand the Qur'aan-e-Hakeem when they are spiritually blind and deaf;

9. ALLAH is fully aware of our Qur'aan recitation as well as our other actions in life;

10.The righteous ones will not fear to appear in the high court of ALLAH;

11.One should not be grief-stricken by the abusive language of the antagonists of Deen;

12.Mention is made of the visitations of ALLAH. Observe how the enemies of Noah (ALAYHI SALAAM) and the enemies of the later Nabis were destroyed;

13.Mention is made of the visitations of ALLAH. Observe how Fir'oun together with his army were drowned because of harbouring enmity to Moosa (ALAYHI SALAAM);

14.O those addressed by the Qur'aan, do not doubt it;

15.Do not belie it by mere doubt;

16.Otherwise your resurrection will be the same as that of the past beliers;

17.O people we are not prepared to abandon our way (of truth) merely on the basis of your doubts;

18.He who accept the Qur'aan will benefit himself, otherwise the misfortune of his negation will be incumbent on him;

11. Surah Hood.

Makkah – 123 Aayats.

➖This Surah in brief:

The subject discussed here is the invitation towards Tawheed. The purpose of the revelation of the Book is to perfect the imbibing of Tawheed and seeking forgiveness for previous omissions.

10வது தாராவீஹ்:

(11வது பாரா:- சூரா தௌபாவின் 10½ ருகூவிலிருந்து சூரா ஹூத் ருகூவின் 1வது ½ வரை)

முனாஃபிக்கீன்களின் பல்வேறு வகைகள் குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளன.

1. பாசாங்குத்தனம் என்பது அவர்கள் கொண்ட நம்பிக்கை என்பதாலும், முஸ்லிம்களை ஒற்றுமைப்படுத்துவதே அவர்களின் நோக்கம் என்பதாலும் மன்னிக்கப்படாதவர்கள்.

2. பாசாங்குத்தனம் சொல்வது வெறும் பழக்கமே தவிர நம்பிக்கையல்ல என்பதால் மன்னிக்கக்கூடியவர்கள்.

கூறுகிறார்:-

1. பின்னர் உண்மையான விசுவாசிகளின் நடத்தை கவனிக்கப்படுகிறது.

4. போர் உத்திகள் குறித்து மக்களுக்குக் கற்பித்தல்.

10. சூரா யூனுஸ் (உங்கள் மீது சாந்தி உண்டாகட்டும்).

மக்கா - 109 ஆயாத்துகள்.

➖இந்த சூரா சுருக்கமாக:

இங்கு முக்கிய விடயம் இஸ்லாத்திற்கு அழைப்பு.

➖சூரா கூறுகிறது:

1. அல்லாஹ் தஆலா இந்த வேதத்தை ஞானத்தின் புத்தகமாக ஆக்கியுள்ளான், மேலும் மனிதகுலத்திலிருந்தே ஒரு மனிதனின் ஊடகத்தின் மூலம் வஹியின் (வெளிப்பாடு) அந்த ச��ய்தியை அவர் அருளினார். இன்னும் சில முட்டாள்கள் (அதாவது குஃபர்) அதிலிருந்து பலன் பெறுவதற்குப் பதிலாக இது சூனியத்தின் தீய விளைவுகள் என்று சொல்லி விலகிக் கொள்கிறார்கள்;

5. அவர்கள் அவருடைய கட்டளைகளைக் கடைப்பிடிப்பதிலிருந்து தங்களைத் திருப்பிக் கொள்கிறார்கள்;

6. அவர்களே குர்ஆன் மீது குற்றச்சாட்டுகளை முன்வைத்தாலும், அது போலியானது;

7. குர்ஆனை பொய்யாக்குவதை இந்த குஃப்பர்கள் தவிர்க்க மாட்டார்கள் என்றால் அவர்கள் மீது உங்கள் வெறுப்பை காட்டுங்கள்;

11. தீனுடைய எதிரிகளின் தகாத வார்த்தைகளால் ஒருவர் துக்கப்படக்கூடாது;

14. குர்ஆன் கூறும் நபர்களே, அதில் சந்தேகம் கொள்ள வேண்டாம்;

15. வெறும் சந்தேகத்தால் அதை நம்பாதே;

16. இல்லையேல் உங்கள் உயிர்த்தெழுதல் கடந்த கால விசுவாசிகளின் உயிர்த்தெழுதலைப் போலவே இருக்கும்;

18. குர்ஆனை ஏற்றுக்கொள்பவர் தனக்கே நன்மை செய்வார், இல்லையெனில் அவரது மறுப்பின் துரதிர்ஷ்டம் அவருக்குப் பொறுப்பாகும்;

11. சூரா ஹூட்.

மக்கா - 123 ஆயாத்துகள்.

➖இந்த சூரா சுருக்கமாக:

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fonzy26 · 4 years

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Donald Trump vs. Napoleon by Tanya Tilwani

Animal Farm is a novel written by George Orwell that expounds about equality, inequality, corruption, tyranny, and control. The story brings us back to time when Russia and the Soviet Union were under Communist Rule. This political satire uses animal characters with great resemblance to famous political figures during this period. One of the characters was a tyrannical, power-hungry pig named Napoleon, who represents Joseph Stalin, an autocrat who presided over the Soviet Union. The story centers on Napoleon’s tactics against another pig named Snowball, for supremacy in Animal Farm. Snowball is a systematic and imperative leader, portraying a role with the likeness of Leon Trotsky, a man of wisdom and integrity. George Orwell magnifies snowball as the animal most qualified for the job. With Napoleon’s manipulative ways, he sold a big lie that Snowball was the enemy that caused all the problems on the farm. With his devious acts and clever words, all the animals were convinced that snowball was a traitor, and Napoleon was believed to be the hero out to save the farm from eternal damnation.

Soon after Napoleon gained victory as their supreme leader, he went on betraying his fellow animals due to his inflated ego and power-hungry mind. He started conniving with humans who are viewed as the enemies of the animals on the farm. He went on breaking other rules like wearing clothes and drinking alcohol, to name a few. In the end, Napoleon became a controlling and manipulative liar who betrayed the whole farm. He changed the phrase “All animals are equal” to “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." He also twisted the slogan "Four legs good, two legs bad." to "Four legs good, two legs better." This story is so timeless that it could apply to the president of the United States of America. It is known to all how Donald Trump sowed disunity, division, and racialization during his term. America, once the land of freedom that used all its might to promote equality and democracy, suddenly lost its dignity and grace in the hands of a leader that promoted white supremacy. Trump capitalized on the line: Make America great again, it has been four years, and that remains to be seen.

Both Trump and Napoleon promised a lot of things they could not deliver. For instance, Napoleon promised to reward the animals for all their hard work but gradually sided with humans and forgot all his promises. During the start of the campaign Trump promised to make America great again, projecting himself as a savior or an antidote to all the problems America is facing. He claimed that America belongs to Americans, referring to white Americans as the rightful owners and residents of the country. By sowing disunity among Americans, he manipulated and undermined people of color, immigrants and minorities in favor of white Americans. With his four-year term coming to an end, he barely kept any of his promises during his presidential campaign. The Americans have not seen the Mexico wall, they have an unresolved financial crisis, and many families are left homeless. With all the chaos, we may have to rename it the Disunited States of America.Like Napoleon, Trump is scared to lose his leadership, so he uses all means available to scare his citizens. He says that without him, they would be in danger from the Chinese job-stealers, Muslim terrorists, Mexican drug dealers, crooked Hillary, and sleepy Biden. Napoleon did the same by telling the animals that the evil humans are still out there and orders that defenses be built. As the two tyrants remind their followers of these alternative facts, Trump fans and the animals remain in fear and continue to support the enemy. (Russo, 2017)

Napoleon is a brainy antagonist who uses effective propaganda to lure the animals to his side. Throughout the story, Squealer served as Napoleon's speaker every time Napoleon does something bizarre, which the animals begin to question. He convinced the animals that Napoleon was doing what was best for the farm. One common lie was to blame it all on Snowball. Trump is often caught red-handed, but he has political machinery standing by him, denouncing any wrongdoing and blaming it on his predecessor Barrack Obama. He blames him for the rise of the number of immigrant families, the financial crisis, the economic slowdown and the setbacks of the national healthcare. (Milbank, 2018)

With all the facts and scientific data at hand, Trump showed complete disregard for the safety of the American people by downplaying the danger that the coronavirus poses to the entire population. He said that this is just like an ordinary flu outbreak and there is nothing to worry about. Due to this misinformation and reckless handling of the pandemic, America remains the nation with the most significant number of coronavirus cases. He went to the extent of discouraging people from wearing masks to protect themselves. With his false bravado, he makes them feel invincible and fear nothing. Napoleon, on the other hand, always instilled a culture of fear. Using dogs to scare other animals helped him stay in power for a long time. All the animals on the farm were convinced that humans were the enemies when in fact, he connived with them to gain more power and control over all the animals on the farm.

In conclusion, both Napoleon and Trump betrayed their supporters and manipulated them into thinking they would not survive without them. They made a string of promises but failed to deliver to their constituents. It even came to a point when Napoleon bent all the rules to fit his needs. He neglected his loyal followers like Boxer and many others, which led to health problems and over-fatigue. Just like any other animal on the farm, Boxer was not honored for his hard work. In fact, when he was falling ill, Napoleon had ordered for his slaughter. Everything Napoleon said was a lie to keep him in power. Animal Farm never became successful as he promised it to be. It is undeniable how Trump uses all his might to stay in power. Just like Napoleon, for Trump power, ego, and greed come first. We have witnessed numerous incidents on how the justice system works when a white man is a casualty compared to African Americans and the Hispanic race. To protect the rich taxpayers, Trump scrapped the health care bill put in place by his predecessor because it guaranteed equal benefits and care to every social class be it rich or the homeless. Just recently, he was caught in a fiasco, attacking his rivals and challenging the results of the elections to stay in power. The greatest lesson to be learned is to look at all angles when choosing our leaders. Let us not be swayed; by a few good deeds done in front of us is not enough. A background check of a leader’s track record is a must before giving them our vote. After all, our present choices are entirely responsible for our future state.

Milbank. (2018, January 9). President Trump is a pig. In the best sense of the word. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-trump-is-a-pig-in-the-best-sense-of-the-word/2018/01/08/ N.A (2020, August 18). Animal Farm at 75 ‘still as relevant as ever’. Retrieved from: https://theday.co.uk/stories/animal-farm-at-75-still-as-relevant-as-ever Owen, L. (2016, September 21).

Trump is Napoleon, not Hitler. Retrieved from: https://www.news-leader.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/09/21/trump-napoleon-hitler/90816386/

Russo, J. (2017, May 9). Animal Farm’ Perfectly Describes Life in the Era of Donald Trump. Retrieved from: https://observer.com/2017/05/donald-trump-george-orwell-animal-farm/ Spinner, S. (2020, September 5). Life on the Animal Farm. Retrieved from: https://yaledailynews.com/sjp2020/2020/09/05/life-on-the-animal-farm/

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