#nbc mob students

[honeynclove]

Giving the noble bell npcs faces ‼️‼️‼️ Shout out to Robin (long hair) and August (brown hair)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

glorious masquerade: final thoughts

I’ve received several asks requesting that I share my opinions on certain aspects of the event, so I’ve compiled and condensed all my major thoughts into one post! ^^

***Spoilers below the cut!!***

I think the setting of Fantasy Paris the City of Flowers is a really interesting one that provides a ton of unique locations and cool lore! From their stalls to Noble Bell Academy campus and its bell tower, to the local specialties and legends, and its jolly people… It’s such a charming place!

It was fun to see the dynamics of each group and learn miscellaneous facts about them through their banter. This is something that TWST has pretty much always excelled at doing, so I can’t say I’m surprised.

The touring the city highlights for me mainly revolve around Sebek being fucking ridiculous 😂 Insisting he isn’t hungry, trying to impress Malleus by answering a history question correctly, chasing the goat around, the coffee mix-up, trying to sit in Azul’s lap, constantly sobbing and shouting like a kid despite trying to be an adult… chsvsidnksne god, it’s so funny OTL

I wasn’t expecting more lore about Trein and his wife, but it was a really welcome surprise. You can tell just how much Trein cherishes the dates and the other memories he had with his beloved in the City of Flowers… ashbldbiyasdbiald AND THE NRC BOYS KIND OF TEASE HIM AND ASK HIM ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP 

Something else I really liked but wasn’t expecting was actual adult involvement in the story, even if it is pretty minimal. (It’s still a lot more than Crowley intervening.) Like, Trein actively tries to guide his students and he cries when he thinks they’re acting unbecoming. He genuinely cares for them and wants them to become upstanding gentlemen.

I was 100% anticipating RSA cameos ever since the event was pitched to us as a gathering of students from various magic schools. It was a treat to see Chenya and Neige show up and actually do something meaningful; their sacrifices really highlight the difference in values between RSA and NRC–and it shows just how much they cherish their friends, something the NRC boys have yet to fully embrace themselves.

I adored the plot twist of Rollo’s true motives and the contrast between the facade he puts up and how maniacal he is behind that cold mask. Rollo in general is just a really fascinating character to me.

NOT TREIN HAVING HIP PROBLEMS, NOT LILIA HAVING HIP PROBLEMS SDHABSIDASLIDASBIDAS

I’m not super bothered by Yuu not being involved in the main conflict; they did their part by helping the townspeople. Even if they are magicless (and thus unaffected by the crimson flowers), it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’d be helpful in combat or anything (being magicless does not ward the flowers off, it just means they don’t attack a person/they can touch a person without bringing them harm); Yuu would just be another body to protect as they ascend the bell tower.

The cutaway gag to Jack and Ace on NRC campus wondering what the symposium attendees are up to was AMAZINGLY TIMED. Ace saying he wished he was with them right now before the game goes back to Deuce having a not-so-fun time with the crimson flowers… That’s peak comedy right there.

I mentioned this before already, but this event showcases how resourceful the NRC boys can be, specifically in the use of their unique magic. They’re limited in what magic they can use to begin with since the crimson flowers suck it from them and become stronger as a result, so they’re forced into corners where they need to come up with creative solutions. For example, Epel uses the coffin conjured by Sleep Kiss to protect Riddle from making contact with the flowers. Ruggie and Jamil use their respective unique magic to get NBC mob students to do the fighting for them. Azul uses It’s a Deal to borrow Deuce’s Bet the Limit/Double Down in preparation for the battle he anticipates with Rollo at the top of the bell tower. It’s so masterfully done!

I also enjoyed seeing Sebek and Silver fight together. Despite how often they are at odds with each other with their personalities and general demeanors, they are perfectly coordinated in combat and their grueling childhood training comes in clutch here.

GARGOYLE-KUN 😭 I’M SO GLAD HE AND HIS FRIENDS CAME BACK

The NBC students and Gargoyle-kun are useful side characters that help paint a nuanced image of Rollo to us long before learning the truth of his dark machinations. They see him as such a good and reliable person, and cannot fathom that he would stoop so low, which makes the tragedy all the more bittersweet.

THE SSR CHARACTERS FOR THIS EVENT WERE ACTUALLY IMPORTANT. Every character gets their time in the spotlight, but I really liked that the SSRs actually played significant roles in the story (unlike in a lot of previous events, especially the ones involving an extensive cast of characters). Malleus actually leads the trio as their powerhouse, Azul strategizes, and Idia is there to emotionally shame Rollo/foreshadow the twist with his little brother. They actually earned their standing as the event SSRs, and their strong ties to the event story makes me feel more compelled to actually roll for them.

AZUL AND DEUCE’S UNIQUE MAGIC INCANTATIONS AAAAAAAAH

I’m not a fan of Malleus at all (and I’m still not; he continues to be my least favorite character by far), but he’s significantly more interesting in this event than in his other appearances. Most of this is due to the fact that he’s actually allowed to be in an active leadership position rather than sit around waiting for others to act on him or to him (as is the case for a lot of the main story).

I don’t like the moments where Malleus lashes out in anger, but I did appreciate the parts where he was a gracious and strong leader. He thanks his peers for volunteering to be decoys, he praises Sebek and Silver for their vigilance, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get to Rollo and stop him. Malleus realizes the threat that Rollo’s plot poses to his country (which is predominantly fairies, beings of magic), and he’s finally behaving like a true king to the Briar Valley, doing all in his power to save his people. This is admittedly very admirable of him (well, if I focus on the duty he has to his people rather than the petty personal grudge he has with Rollo).

I really want to see more complex aspects of Malleus’s character like this rather than the emphasis on his woe-is-me loneliness that so often occurs within the fandom and in the main story; however, this really isn’t different from what my opinion of him was prior to Glorious Masquerade. I have always known that I was dissatisfied with his general portrayal and that I wanted something more substantial to him. It’s just that the game is now finally getting around to providing the kind of Malleus content I was hoping for, but it doesn’t necessarily endear him to me or make me like him. This is just him meeting my bare minimum 😂

Malleus fanboying over meeting Gargoyle-kun though, that was 👌 Gargoyle is best boy.

ROLLO UNIQUE MAGIC????????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?? HELLOW???!?!?!?!?!?

Man. Rollo’s actions are so atrocious and unjustified but you also end up feeling so bad for him when you learn about his full backstory 😭 This is the kind of content I live for, characters and stories that make me think deeply about what drives them and why they act in the ways that they do.

Yo, Idia laying the verbal smackdown on Rollo????? Shaming him to hell and back????? AND DARN IT, Idia’s speech made me remember episode 6 and I started crying all over again OTL

THE GARGOYLE GIVING AZUL MALLEUS AND IDIA NICKNAMES AaAhHhHHHHHH AnD OFFERING TO LISTEN TO ROLLO’S WOES 🥺

THE NBC MOB STUDENTS BEING SO SWEET AND WORRIED ABOUT ROLLO????? ADMIRING HIM SO MUCH??????? GOD THEY’RE SO PURE AND INNOCENT THEY LOOK UP TO THEIR PREZ 

Rollo’s punishment is so ironic, but I think it’s perfect for his character. Living with the weight of his sins is worse than death itself for Rollo, someone who heavily internalizes guilt.

Aaaaaah, I love that Rook is super proud of Epel and how much he has grown up… asbhldilbasdbas and how he talks about telling Vil about it when they get back?? Pomefiore family for the win…

SILVER AND SEBEK TOSSING PEOPLE INTO THE AIR TO PRAISE THEM ASDKHABSILDLABISDBIASBD THAT WAS SUPER CUTE, AND I LIKE THAT IDIA SUFFERED FOR IT

The two rhythmic sections were cute! (GRIM SPINNING LIVES ON IN MY HEART FOREVER) Malleus, Idia, and Azul providing a song with lyrics in the second one caught me off-guard but it was super enjoyable and the vibes reminded me of a grand and somber opera.

Idia suffering is my bread and butter of his appearances cbjsvsjshwksns The way he just hides behind a pillar while his classmates praise him and he complains all the way up to the performance, trying to stave it off or to avoid it entirely… Relatable.

ROLLO AND MALLEUS SHARE A DANCE TOGETHER AT THE END????? I like how this is how they “reconcile”, it’s so awkward. LIKE. Malleus asks Rollo to dance with him, Rollo tells him to fuck off find another partner, and then Malleus guilts him into accepting by saying “Oh, are you really going to refuse an invitation from an HONORED guest?” AND THEN ROLLO PASSIVE AGGRESSIVELY DEMANDING MALLEUS’S HAND??? Hey, baby steps I guess 😂 (One of my friends was screaming about how the ending felt very “enemies to lovers” to them, but I was just excited for the prospect of Rollo’s return in the future!)

It’s interesting the way Malleus talked about being fearful of Rollo almost like it was a positive experience 😂 I guess that’s a novel feeling for the oh-so-great-and-powerful Malleus Draconia so anyone willing to approach him (regardless of their reasons for doing so) excites him. And that weirdly gives him a playful “rival” dynamic with Rollo, who still pretty much hates his guts cldbskxbjsmdkzh

… As expected, Yuu learned nothing in the City of Flowers which would help them find a way home 😂 I knew Crowley was full of bullshit.

I’m surprised that I like most, if not all, of the Groovies??? Usually I find event card Groovies to be kind of unappealing (*stares at Groom Ace*); I think the last one I was SUPER crazy for was actually Groom Idia… but the Maskquerade Groovies had a ton of atmosphere, nice lighting, fluttering fabric, and the boys just looking like they’re enjoying themselves. I do find it kind of odd that the background looks so empty for a dance (you’d think there’d be more people), but I can forgive that as the artists probably wanted to avoid clutter. The SSR Groovies were especially a treat; the lighting there is so heavenly and the detailing on each individual student is astonishing.

Overall, I really loved this event! I might even call it my favorite one so far!! ✨ I definitely appreciated its more serious vibes and how dark the story got. It was balanced pretty well with the light-hearted moments and worldbuilding, and a lot of characters had their time to shine. I’m hoping that we get more events with similar vibes to Glorious Masquerade in the coming future!!

[tinyfantasminha]

So not to sound like a stalker but I saw your Top 4 Favorite Twst Boys tweet and... how are we feeling now that Jamil has Manipulated Mainsplained Manwhored some NBC boys into doing his bidding via Snake Whisper (I know what you are)(Jamil fan (affectionate))

SOBSOBSOBS JAMIL LOOKS SO SEXY WHEN HE MANIPULATES MAINSPLAINS MANWHORE OTL

Jamil and Ruggie using their UMs to make NBC students fight off the crimson flowers while consequently putting them in harm's way 👀 cunning little shits HAHAHA

Wouldn't it be rad if they used the NBC students as human shields to fend off the flowers 👀 displex let our villain boys act wicked and villanous like they deserve 😭😭

(reimagining it in a sexier way bc im sick and twisted) (rip nbc mob-kun)

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Two members of the Little Rock Nine — the group of Black students who in 1957 integrated the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School while being threatened by an angry mob — are blasting the Arkansas Department of Education over restrictions placed on an Advanced Placement African American Studies course set to be offered this year.

After Arkansas earlier this week said that the course, which remains in its pilot stage, would not be counted toward high school graduation credits, six schools said that they would still continue teaching the course. In the North Little Rock and Jacksonville North Pulaski school districts, officials announced that the course would count as a "local elective" instead.

The Arkansas Department of Education has argued that there is uncertainty as to whether or not coursework goes against an executive order signed earlier this year by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders that bars "critical race theory" from being taught in the state's classrooms.

In interviews with NBC News, Little Rock Nine members Elizabeth Eckford and Terrence Roberts spoke out against the state's actions.

"I think the attempts to erase history is working for the Republican Party," Eckford told the news outlet. "They have some boogeymen that are really popular with their supporters."

Roberts, who told the outlet that the group "suffered physically and emotionally" in the effort to integrate Central High, said that at a "bare minimum" laws prohibiting what students can and cannot learn shouldn't be on the books.

Roberts recounted that at some commemorations of the group integrating Central High, some have sought to shield the images of the angry mob incensed that Black students dared to believe that they could belong at the high school as well. He also slammed the prohibition of critical race theory — which is almost exclusively taught at a collegiate level — as "ridiculous."

The Arkansas Department of Education in a statement stood by its decision.

"Until it's determined whether it violates state law and teaches or trains teachers in CRT and indoctrination, the state will not move forward," the Department said. "The Department encourages the teaching of all American history and supports rigorous courses not based on opinions or indoctrination."

During a Thursday interview on Fox News, the Governor reaffirmed the decision of the Education Department and stated that she wanted schools to focus on "the basics of teaching math, of teaching reading, writing and American history."

"We cannot perpetuate a lie to our students and push this propaganda leftist agenda teaching our kids to hate America and hate one another," she said.

The AP African American Studies course was offered by Central High during the previous school year, and it will also be an option for students during the new school year.

One of the defining images of the civil-rights movement is a photograph of a then-15-year-old Eckford as she walked to Central High wearing sunglasses and holding her schoolbooks as she faced an angry mob.

Huckabee Sanders, who was elected to the Governorship last November after serving as White House press secretary under then-President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2019, is also a graduate of Central High.

[arom-com]

hi hope this is ok but i've seen sooo many of ur posts tagged as renbrand and i am ... perhaps .... a little curious .... would u like to tell me abt them !!!! 👀👀 (its ok if not ofc)

Ofc!! I sure have been tagging them a lot huh

The short version is that they’re my unhinged lesbian ocs stuck in a murder timeloop

Longer version is this:

(I am not going to be able to explain this in any way approaching coherent) (but I will try!!) (sorry in advance for the Wall of Text)

So RenBrand stands for these two:

Ren Hayashi (23, she/they) university student studying criminal psychology, abandonment issues out the wazoo, Going Through It

Brand Reitveld (26, she/her) local gang leader, Control Issues TM, definitely the cat in whatever cat-and-mouse thing they have going on

They’re in love — it’s not even remotely healthy.

Basically, through no fault of their own, they got stuck in a long-form time loop (days/months rather than strict 24h) that resets whenever one of them dies, which wouldn’t be too much of an issue? Except a) they’ve never met and don’t know they’re stuck together, and b) Ren keeps getting fucking murdered

Bc!! Ren’s psychology prof is running a secret cult (trying to turn his crim psy students into serial killers, it’s a whole thing, very cringe of him) so she gets killed for accidentally getting in the way a couple times (she doesn’t know about the cult), and then ofc starts investigating, which only makes it worse (I feel so bad for her but it’s also really funny, saddest most pathetic sopping wet oc I’ve ever created)

(Some of Ren’s deaths are also caused by Brand who’s like listen I don’t have a grudge against you or anything but you do keep getting my people killed so I have to eliminate the threat, no hard feelings! And Ren is like I am in abject misery)

(strangers to enemies to lovers except the strangers to enemies is a speedrun and the enemies to lovers is a slow burn)

The story they’re from is sort of a dark mystery-slash-romance (think nbc hannibal meets groundhog day, which is certainly a sentence), and it’s mainly centred around Ren and her corruption arc as she goes from “tired student just trying to finish her dissertation if it kills her” to “codependent mob-wife who kills first and asks questions later”

I’m obsessed with time as a narrative device, and especially time loops, because it can be used in such interesting ways!! And the interesting part about time loops to me is that they’re like,,,,, rube goldberg machines for character development? You only stick a character in a time loop when you need them to undergo a pretty drastic change without a proper catalyst, and it forces them to wear themselves down to their bones, to find the very essence of what they are, and then build themselves back up again into their ideal and purest form of self. (Of course, some people just use them as a tool for romance, but that’s boring!! Boo)

Usually time loops exist to make a character better, because they’re given some kind of epiphany that makes them the best and kindest version of themselves. (Alternatively, they can be used as the cosmic equivalent of a washing machine spin cycle if you’re writing horror) But what interests Me is the idea of using a time loop to make a character worse, which is what I’m doing to Ren (and to a lesser extent, Brand)

And it’s not just corruption for corruption’s sake, either! Ren, as she is, is miserable — she’s completely isolated, unable to achieve any of her goals, and ultimately ends up getting killed in an impersonal way for impersonal reasons — but once the loop begins and she gets her second chance, she starts to wear away at all her self-imposed barriers and boundaries until she can start making her own decisions and being an active agent in her own life. Of course, she’s not choosing to do good, but the best version of herself is not necessarily Good or Kind, it’s just Authentic.

Brand, on the other hand — because she has more support and isn’t as repressed — is experiencing the time loop less as a vehicle for character development, and more as a perpetual time travel fix-it (which is SO fun, having two characters get wildly different outcomes from the same experience). Her problems are more interpersonal rather than internal, so where Ren is using the extra time to understand herself, Brand uses it to understand the world around her (and is thus doing a much better job at actually solving the plot, we love a girlboss).

Brand’s conflicts are with her brother (who I can’t even Begin to explain without adding another thousand words to this post), and (as the leader of the local gang) with the police & the murder cult, which means that a lot of her loops are spent information-gathering (and murdering, dw abt it)

Personality-wise Ren is pretty quiet, she doesn’t like to ask for things which means she gets into miscommunications a lot (people not helping when she wishes they would, people helping when she doesn’t need it bc they think she just doesn’t want to ask), she’s a very “the only one you can rely on is yourself” kind of person, which isn’t exactly ideal for someone you’re stuck in a time loop with but at least it means she never gives up? She also doesn’t really care what people think of her — or rather, she does care, but she doesn’t let it stop her

Brand is suffering from a lethal combination of being the youngest sibling and simultaneously the eldest daughter, so she’s great at asking for help and using her resources but it means that she a) is a little entitled about it, and b) needs to feel like she has perfect control over everything or she’ll die. She’s very possessive and protective over things that she considers hers (hence murdering Ren for getting her people killed, it’s fine they get over it)

Renbrand also come equipped with two sets of narrative foils (Brand’s disabled ex-ballet dancer brother and his bodyguard/love interest, and the cult leader professor and his prized pupil who both hates and loves him for what he’s become) but the word count on this is already obscenely, embarrassingly long so I’ll talk abt them another day maybe

[crazy56u]

Time for another rousing edition of “I couldn’t watch the episode live last night, so here’s me watching it after the fact!”

Hot damn, no fucking around with cold opens today, we jump right into Ben getting punched in the face.

Ben went down like Glass Joe.

“Hmmm, Danny clearly has a concussion and doesn’t know where he is… …eh, a cold shower should fix his head.”

“I am jacked.” was 100% ad-libbed.

“Addison, what went wrong, last time it took, like, 10 minutes for us to start the episode, why are speeding up?”

Okay, just casually dump that at the amnesiac’s feet. “Look, Ben, I know you don’t remember, but you fucked up the code before leaping, so if you wanna bitch about why you aren’t home yet, turn around and look in the mirror.”

Okay, one thing I miss from OG Quantum Leap? They listed the date in the episode’s title for every episodes. I miss having dates.

Ben, slowly learning one of the big rules of the show: The person in charge of the leaps is not your friend.

“It’s hard to believe I’d leap into someone to help them win a fight.” I’m sorry, it’s, what, the third episode? How do you not get this yet?

And Addison chokes down the urge to swear.

Man, we’re just diving into the metaphors real quick today, huh…

“Heh. I always wanted a brother.” I swear to fucking God if Ben also has a dead brother he doesn’t currently remember.

Okay, I’m only 60% convinced Addison is telling the truth about Ben being an only child.

“You’re Danny Hill. The best damn fighter in the world.” What about Kid Cody?

…the brother fixed the match, didn’t he…

The announcer guy is a discount Ron Burgundy with that mustache.

“You’re in love with the champ’s girlfriend. I now no longer feel low-key jealous about earlier.”

“Okay, look, Addison, I can get you all that boxing shit, but for fuck’s sake, BREATHE.”

“We don’t know how long this will last.” If NBC ain’t stupid, there will at least be a second season… (fingers crossed)

Addison is cruising off of two hours of sleep and vending machine snacks. She is a college student.

I wonder what Ben’s opinions are on sitcoms…

I am doubling down on my theory that the date Ben is aiming for is the date Sam first entered the Accelerator Chamber.

…okay, so Ben was born after 1977, that’s good to know. Also, get fucked Sam’s String Theory.

Ah, there’s the handwave: because of the Windows 10 Update, Ben is now off the string.

No less than 10 leaps, but probably around 20. Translation: NBC dictates how much longer Ben has to go.

“Look, dude, we both know I suck, just delay the fight.” “If we do, the promoter will fuck us over. Shut up.”

Once again, a plot is caused the real estate woes.

“Look, if you beat me up, there won’t be a match!” “Like I care!”

I love how they just let him lea-

“Saved by the baby killer!”

What

“What did you mean ‘lose the gym’?” Yes, clearly the most important part of the last two minutes.

“Look, either tell me the truth, or I lose the fight. Ball’s in your court, bitch.”

You ran out of money eight months ago? And the bank didn’t fucking foreclose on you by then?!

“Look, bro, you need to win the fight, or the mob’s taking my thumbs.” “But what if I don’t?” “I already punched two guys tonight, don’t make it three.”

“How did Ziggy miss this?!” Because you haven’t been letting her talk?

…so, does that mean Ben wants to leap into Voyager 2, or…

So, wait, is that the real reason Sam leapt into the Civil War? He fucking built up momentum like Mario doing a half-A press?

“Look, Ian, I don’t care if you are figuring out why Ben is leaping through time, he needs to know how to box!”

Let me guess. Janis is DDOSing Ziggy.

And Ian indirectly explains how Al helped Sam win his own boxing match.

“What’s wrong with my husband?” Boy howdy, you got a minute?

Daryl: The modern day Jesus

“I only showed up for exposition and sandwiches, byyyyyye…”

“Do you wanna milk that moment a little bit longer?” NBC still hasn’t given you guys more than 42 minutes a pop, man, no dice.

“You have a photographic memory.” Damn, Ben really is Sam…

Why is this Magic scene in Dutch angles?

So, basically, Ben is now watching a Punch Out LP.

“But I’m a righty, I can’t box like this.” “Tough.”

“Look, we need to take a break, you look like you are about to black out.”

Called it.

All Addison needs to do is chug Gatorade, let’s be real here.

Also called the DDOSing.

Ah. So is Beth in on what Janis is doing?

Is Janis about to beat up her mom?

So… is Janis’ evil plan… that she wanted to be the one to leap, and get Sam home?

Janis just drugged her mom, and Addison is straight up ignoring medical advice. Everyone is doing great.

Those sandwiches are probably warm and squishy now.

Uh oh, they forgot to account for the fact that Daryl would get arrested for punching people.

“We’re gonna get through this together. Now, please just calmly let these cops arrest you.”

Ben Song just straight up went ACAB, I am here for this.

“Look, either you get medical help for PTSD, or I am staying in jail forever.”

I feel like shit, because the second he said “Every time I close my eyes,” I had to fight against my brain to not think about Aerosmith.

Easiest way to be square on a bail: Violence.

If Ben loses, we riot.

Almost there, you just gotta get lucky now.

Ben got punched into a flashback, oh shit.

If they had the money, they would be blaring the “Rocky” theme right now.

So, why didn’t Ben leap yet?

“So, Ben, you might be leaping for a while.” “… … …okay, cool, but… …please take a break now and then.”

I love how they clearly dragged Magic down there to watch Real Housewives. I love this show.

Uh oh, happy times are over.

Janis just jailbroke the gummy bear handlink and is building her own Project. With blackjack. And hookers.

Meanwhile, Ben is getting hit on by a drunk guy in a bar.

Final thoughts: Not sure how I feel about Janis being outright confirmed to be the antagonist…

But besides that, this episode was great.

[bllsbailey]

Another Liberal Narrative Just Disintegrated in Vermont

The story flew under the radar since there were scant details. We also have many pressing domestic problems, but the war in Gaza was raging, and the Thanksgiving holiday was also around this time. It’s easy for this story to have slipped through the cracks. That didn’t stop liberal America from framing this shooting as the ‘Islamophobic Crime of the Century.’

In November 2023, Jason J. Eaton, 48, shot and wounded three students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont. The crime was investigated as “hate-motivated.” Nothing was confirmed, but Joe Biden commented on it, along with other Democrats, despite zero confirmation that Eaton was fueled by anti-Muslim rage (via Axios): 

— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) November 28, 2023

Jason J. Eaton, 48, the suspect arrested in connection with the shooting that hospitalized the three 20-year-olds, pleaded not guilty on Monday [Nov 27, 2023] to three counts of attempted murder. Eaton faces a potential sentence of life in prison over the charges, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a press conference on Monday [Nov 27].  "While we are waiting for more facts, we know this: there is absolutely no place for violence or hate in America," President Biden said Monday [Nov 27].  The big picture: Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad were publicly identified by their families as being the shooting victims via a post on X from the Institute for Middle East Understanding. 

Recommended

Meanwhile, Biden was mum about the death of a pro-Israeli protester in California, who got bashed in the head by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator. As it turns out, Mr. Eaton supports Hamas. Daniel Greenfield had a lengthy article debunking the Islamophobia narrative (via Front Page Mag) [emphasis mine]: 

“I’m heartbroken by yesterday’s senseless shooting of three Palestinian-American students visiting Burlington. We do not tolerate hate or Islamophobia in Vermont,” Sen Peter Welch tweeted.  “I do want to be clear that there is no question this was a hateful act,” Sarah George, the local State’s Attorney, claimed without evidence.  “In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad argued.  Anti-Israel groups convened a rally calling for the destruction of Israel.  “I stand here to stand with oppressed people who now fear for their lives just walking down the street here in Burlington,” Vermont Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman told the hateful mob.  A speaker at the hate rally with the antisemitic University of Vermont affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine blamed the shootings on Jews, calling them the “shameless monsters who enabled this” and denouncing “a crime of unspeakable racist hatred, a crime borne out of white supremacy, out of fascist, genocidal malice, a crime borne out of Zionism.”  All of these claims, along with many others around the shootings, were based on lies.  […]  In reality, Eaton supported Hamas. On December 6, Seven Days, a local news outlet known for breaking stories about local politics, revealed that Eaton had tweeted, “the notion that Hamas is ‘evil’ for defending their state from occupation is absurd. They are owed a state. Pay up.”  Responding to an article about a proposed ceasefire, he wrote, “What if someone occupied your country? Wouldn’t you fight them?” Local politicians were aware of this which is why in December a Burlington City Council resolution from Councilman Ali Dieng, an African Muslim immigrant currently running for mayor, trying to tie the shootings to an attack on Israel failed, and so did a resolution pushing the false claim that the students had been targeted because of their identity.  The latest Islamophobia hoax had fallen apart in Vermont, but still lingered nationally.  […]  This torrent of anti-Israel and pro-terrorist propaganda was based on absolutely nothing.  There was never a single shred of evidence that the men had been targeted. And the only basis for this claim that was ever cited was that two of the men were wearing ‘keffiyehs’ and speaking English and Arabic when they were shot. This entirely circumstantial information was amplified with feverish claims and rushed statements by elected officials, prosecutors and police.  The reality that has emerged is that Eaton was mentally unstable, left-leaning, opposed to America and supportive of Islamic terrorists. He was neither Jewish nor pro-Israel.  He had actually publicly stated his support for Hamas.  Eaton could not have known that the three Muslim men were going to walk past the house where he was living and it’s implausible that he would have had the time to plan such an attack.  The Muslim men were walking down the middle of a small narrow residential street with no street lights at night and Eaton would not have had enough time to realize the men passing by were Muslims, grab a gun, run out and shoot them. That’s even assuming that he had spent the whole evening by the window watching for incoming Muslims in an 87% white Vermont city.  Most likely, Eaton, suffering from an episode, stumbled out and opened fire.  Shooting four rounds at three men suggests this was not a planned mass shooting. He might have just as easily shot at anybody on the street or at nobody except the voices in his head. According to his mother and an ex-girlfriend, he had a history of violence and mental illness. 

Yikes. Many retractions are warranted, but you know that’ll never happen. The media has yet to fully repent for spreading lies about Russian collusion. This was a serious trip-up by the media, but the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas talking points were already baked into the cake. These rabid, antisemitic leftists were going to rally, call for Jewish genocide, and harass innocent Jews on the streets. This poured fuel on the fire, but the eruption of anti-Jewish hatred from the activist and professional Left was more grounded in Israel's existence and the IDF’s invasion of the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ heinous terrorist attack on October 7.

[lowcallyfruity]

Love the hcs you made for the nbc mob students but I gotta ask why one of them is in love with the most Bible thumping homophobic looking man /j /nsrs

HELP 💀💀💀💀

Honestly idk 💀💀 me and my friend started joking about the ship- but then, just like how we did with the NPCs… we got really attached to them- 💀💀💀 now I cannot stop the thinking about them ☹️☹️☹️

THEY LITERALLY HAVE THEIR OWN PLAYLIST. WE MADE THEM A PLAYLIST. IT IS CURRENTLY 1 HOUR AND 39 MINUTES LONG.

🥶🥶🥶🥶 we have also written 4 FANFICS about them 😔😔 I am literally obsessed with them….

THE BRAINROT IS STRONG.

Tbh the NPCS are now both like… semi-ocs… we created a whole story for them…

[the-eternal-diva]

Yeah I’ll just do my homework later

*my homework 3 hours later watching me binge B99*

[shannendoherty-fans]

People, September 9th 1991

High School Confidential

By Tom Gliatto and Michael Alexander.

Photos by Mark Sennett.

Beverly Hills, 90210 Gets Its Heat from a Dangerously Cute Cast of TV's Hottest New Stars CONFIDENTIAL MEMO: FROM: The Vice Principal TO: The Faculty, High School U.S.A. I'm sure I don't need to remind you what happened when we didn't prepare for Bart Simpson last fall. The school was flooded with rude, antieducational T-shirts. Some cows were had. Well, as a new school year gets under way, I believe we face another daunting challenge: Brace yourselves for Beverly Hills, 90210. That's the Fox drama about unworldly twin teens Brandon and Brenda Walsh (played by Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty), recent transferees from Minneapolis to the Hills of Beverly. There they struggle to assimilate into the fast-lane lifestyle of West Beverly Hills High School, where the kids come equipped with BMWs, call waiting and designer surfboards. In the process, the teens examine their emerging identities and the problems that adolescents everywhere face.

The show languished in the Nielsen ratings against Thursday powerhouse Cheers last year. But Fox had no replacement, so it stayed. While we were on summer vacation, new 90210 episodes began airing, and the show landed in the Top 20, becoming the most popular show among teenagers. To some extent, I take responsibility for having ignored 90210. I made the mistake of reading newspaper critics instead of my daughter's diary, and so I believed, as Howard Rosenberg sniffed in the Los Angeles Times, that the show was merely a "ZIP code for stereotypes and stock characters." Little did I know that this show would mesmerize teens by doing emotionally realistic shows that involved adolescent rebellion, alcoholic; parents, a breast-cancer scare and plenty of worrisome teen sex. "Most shows for adolescents," says 90210 creator Darren Star, "seem like they are written by 50-year-olds who think teenagers behave like 7-year-olds."

It also doesn't hurt that the show's male stars, Priestley and Luke Perry (who plays brooding loner Dylan McKay), are "to die for," as my daughter puts it. These two have each been receiving about 1,500 fan letters a week. So be vigilant: Surely some of these will be written by our students...during class! And I'm afraid that 90210 is only going to get bigger with our kids, if producer Aaron Spelling is to be believed. "I thought The Mod Squad and Charlie's Angels got a lot of publicity in their heyday," says Spelling, whose company produced those shows, "but it doesn't compare to this. It's crazy. We have merchandising coming out of our ears"—a complete line of T-shirts, beach towels, notebooks, etc. "And now these actors can't walk down the street!"

Or even streak through malls. You probably saw those alarming news reports about a frenzied mob of 10,000 fans that stampeded Perry when he appeared at a south Florida mall last month. "It's a little scary," says Perry. Scarier is the amount of time students will waste this fall discussing Luke. And Jason. And who is sexier. I provide some information on the two. Jason Priestley, 22, plays Brandon Walsh, a model of thoughtful level-headedness. In real life, however, the brown-haired, blue-eyed star, who started acting in commercials at age 4 and played an orphan on that very nice NBC sitcom Sister Kate, is no Oliver Twist. He likes dirt bikes, bungee jumping and is a chain-smoker (just about the whole cast puffs it up—but not on-camera). Vancouver-born Priestley likes to hang out in Las Vegas. As for his real romantic life, he was reportedly dating actress Robin (Doogie Howser, M.D.) Lively last spring, but it seems likely that now he is too busy for such dalliance;. He must be on the set 14 hours a day, five days a week. To avoid ever-present fans, Priestley says, "I look different from my character when I'm just walking around. I don't shave, I don't dress like Brandon."

On the show, 26-year-old Luke Perry (Brenda Walsh's boyfriend, Dylan) sports a leather jacket, dagger sideburns and a squint that spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e. Although he grew up and graduated from high school in Fredericktown, Ohio, he seems to have attended James Dean wise-guy classes. Perry, who played country-boy Ned Bates on the ABC soap Loving, entertains the 90210 cast by strutting around bare-chested making jokes. Does he have a girlfriend? "No. You know how I can get in touch with Linda Hamilton?" What kind of music does he listen to? "Tom Jones is awesome." Are he and Priestley ever mistaken for each other? "He's mistaken for me on his good days." And 90210, he says, is "the best show on television, except for Jeopardy!" We should act quickly, faculty, when we see any signs that Beverly Hills, 90210 is disrupting normal student activity.

How abnormal might things get? Consider: "It's almost like there are cults," says Brian Austin Green, 18, the North Hollywood High grad who plays the cutely dweeby David Silver. "Girls go to school the day after the show, and they actually become these characters. They say, 'Okay, today I want to be Dylan, you can be Brenda, you can be Brandon.' " Needless to say, students caught pretending to be TV characters should be brought directly to my office for detention. But you know, it might not be a bad thing if our students could show some of the good sense that the 90210ers display in coping with the pressures of fame and fortune. Jennie Garth, 19, who plays the very sexy, very blond, very snotty Kelly Taylor, is particularly admirable. The youngest of seven children, she grew up on a farm near Champaign, Ill., until her schoolteacher parents moved to Phoenix when she was 13. "Living in a small town and coming from a very tight and close family instilled a lot of standards that I need to live up to," says Garth, who just bought a home in Sherman Oaks. She also recently supplied her parents with the down payment for their new home, setting a splendid example for today's youth.

According to a tabloid that someone left in the faculty lounge, Memphis-raised Shannen Doherty, 20, a veteran of such wonderful shows as Little House: A New Beginning, is the only cast member to be accused of behaving like "a spoiled brat" on the set. But she maintains she is no such thing. "I think everybody gets in a bad mood," Shannen says. "You do not work 16-hour days and not start feeling it. But I have never thrown a tantrum. I've gotten upset on the set, but it's never been just to be a bitch. You have to stand up for yourself in this business. That was something I was told when I was 12 years old and working with Michael Landon."

As with about half the cast members, Doherty is in a relationship—in her case, a real-estate developer with whom she's exchanged commitment rings. "You really have to date a while before you decide if this is the person you want to marry," she says with Brenda-like candor. Almost sounds like the relationship could be a future 90210 plot. "The problems of young people have accelerated," says Aaron Spelling, "and so have their feelings and thoughts." The show, he says, has kept pace: Even with their Clearasil-perfect complexions and plump allowances, the students at Beverly Hills have encountered their share of problems. "We had the guts to make Luke Perry be a member of AA," says Spelling. "We had Jason, our star, drinking and driving. That's reality."

And, apparently, the adulatory fan mail often includes a sad dose of that reality. "I got a letter the other day from a girl who mentioned the show we did on parental drug abuse," says Perry in a rare moment of seriousness. "She wrote about catching her father freebasing in the basement. I get letters like that all the time, from people all over the country." Gabrielle Carteris (at age 30, she's 90210's oldest cast-kid), who plays Andrea Zuckerman, the bright student who comes from the wrong side of Rodeo Drive, remembers an encouraging close encounter in a grocery store. "One girl came up to me after we'd done the breast-cancer show," says Carteris. "She said, 'I went home with all my friends and we checked our breasts for lumps.' "

In conclusion: Maybe I didn't need to write this memo. Maybe things won't be that bad, even if every locker in every corridor has a picture of Jason, Luke, Shannen or Jennie in it. Perhaps our dear little school is more like West Beverly Hills High—at least the TV version—than I thought. That's what Ian Ziering, 27, thinks too. "The reality on the show pretty much mirrors the way life is all over, in terms of teenagers," says New Jersey—bred Ziering, who once did Fruit of the Loom underwear ads and now plays 90210's curly-headed jock, Steve Sanders. "There's a mystique about Beverly Hills. But that's not what keeps people tuning in. The show could have been Montana E-I-E-I-O." By the way, should any student pronounce his name "eee-an," correct him or her, please. It's "eye-an."

-- WHEN BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 PREMIERED last October, Highlights, the student newspaper at Beverly Hills High, ran articles mocking the school's TV counterpart, West Beverly Hills High. "They said that the show was a joke," says Jenny Brandt, 14, a sophomore at the 1,900-student school. But as the story lines improved and Jason Priestley and Luke Perry became stars, the jokes stopped, and Brandt found herself, like many of her pals, glued to the set on Thursday nights from 9 to 10 P.M. "No phone calls allowed," says Brandt. "Except during commercials." Hope Levy, a 17-year-old senior, has taken fandom a step further with her friends. "We have little handmade cards," she says, speaking from her mom's car phone. "They say you're a member of Club 90210." While some kids think the show treats them as snobby stereotypes, most agree with sophomore Jordan Rynes when he says, "It's like a soap opera for teens. The shows dealing with drinking and drugs are the most real—adults don't realize how accurate it is."

[honeynclove]

noble bell npcs (my beloved)

me n @localanimeidiot r attached 😨😨😨

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

thinking about noble bell college’s uniforms

In the story event Glorious Masquerade, the NRC guests fight fire lotuses/crimson flowers, which are depicted in battle like so:

As you can see, the flowers are in red robes. This design appears to be an intentional callback to the red robes of the worshippers that chant in the song Hellfire:

Idia comments that the fire lotuses/crimson flowers “wormed their way into some of the [NBC] students’ robes”. He then theorizes that there must be lingering magic in the robes which attracts the flowers, whether that magic is from the mages that once wore them or imbued in the cloth of the robes themselves. The latter is true of NRC’s ceremonial robes (and their dorm uniforms, as we learn in book 6).

Just looking by at the ceremonial robes vs the red robes, they’re similarly shaped—though of course NRC’s are much more elaborate, given that their school is larger, more prestigious, and likely received more funding. NBC’s robes are a plain solid color and appear to be longer in length (though maybe it just seems that way because the flowers are low to the ground??? It’s hard to gauge scale).

Since Idia brings up a potential comparison between NRC’s ceremonial robes and NBC’s red robes, I wonder if those red robes are NBC’s equivalent of ceremonial robes?? Like, is that what NBC students wear for important events or when they’re representing their school…? Because if that’s the case, I swear I didn’t seen any NBC mobs or the student council wearing it to receive their guests.

The only prominent red I see on their outfits looks too short to be the same red robes the flowers crawled into… It looks more like a shawl or caplet with a hood, and it’s not quite the right color (more maroon than red)… Maybe it’s the lighting?? It could be the same as the red robes, it could not be 😣 I’m not sure!

Something else I noticed is everyone seems to wear the same uniform except for Rollo, which makes sense given his position as student council president. Their school only has one prominent historical figure they look to, so that’s probably reflected in a lack of dorms. Azul likens Rollo’s position to the status of dorm leader, so it feels like a variation of a dorm leader uniform while the NBC mobs wear a more generic “dorm uniform”.

If these standard clothes and the red robes are two separate outfits, then I’d wager both are like NRC’s dorm uniforms and ceremonial robes respectively (ie NBC’s uniforms and robes are also infused with magic). So… uh… if that’s true, I wonder if Rollo’s skin crawls whenever he has to wear his school uniforms… 💀

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

12 killed, dozens wounded in weekend shootings across U.S. (NBC News) At least 12 people were killed and dozens more were wounded over the weekend in gun violence and mass shootings in five states. The shootings in Minnesota, Ohio, New Jersey, Georgia and South Carolina come amid a yearlong rise in nationwide gun violence and record firearm sales. It isn’t clear why the number of shootings over the last year has risen so dramatically. Experts have said the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on mental and physical health, social services and more are likely to have played a significant role.

Southern Baptist decline continues, denomination has lost more than 2 million members since 2006 (Religion News Service) The nation’s largest Protestant denomination continues to get smaller. There were 14 million Southern Baptists in 2020, according to a new report released Thursday (May 20) by Lifeway Christian Resources, which compiles official denominational statistics. That number is down 435,632 members since 2019 and 2.3 million from 2006, when the Southern Baptist Convention reached 16.3 million members. The biggest decline in the report was seen in baptisms, a key measure for the evangelical denomination. In 2020, baptisms were down by about half, to 123,160, the lowest number since 1919. Southern Baptists, long known for denominational infighting, have seen several high-profile departures of leaders in the past year, including Bible teacher Beth Moore, ethicist Russell Moore, and a number of Black pastors.

NYC mayor: Public schools will be all in person this fall (AP) New York City schools will be all in person this fall with no remote options, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday. The roughly 1 million students who attend traditional public schools will be in their classrooms with some version of the coronavirus protocols that have been in place in the current academic year, including mask wearing and COVID-19 testing, de Blasio said. “It’s time. It’s really time to go full strength now,” he said. The mayor said parents would be invited to visit their children’s schools starting in June to get “reacclimated” to the idea of in-person school.

Mexican parents clean reopening schools where thieves took even toilet doors (Reuters) Wiping away dust from bookshelves and mopping grimy floors, teachers and parents across Mexico are sprucing up vandalised schools ahead of the nationwide reopening on June 7. Mexico has kept state schools shut since March 2020, when students and teachers abandoned them after the coronavirus pandemic triggered the first nationwide lockdown. Since then, between 40% to 50% of all Mexican schools have reported vandalism or theft, according to trade union officials. Alfonso Cepeda Salas, secretary general of the National Educational Workers Syndicate trade union, or SNTE, told newspaper Excelsior last week that power lines, computers, screens, and even doors to toilets have been stolen. "We come to support the school so that everything is clean for the return of children to classes," said Rosa Miron, one of several mothers cleaning a school in Mexico City.

Why you may see a NYPD motorcade in Sao Paulo's streets (AP) Stunned by the swirl of red lights and blaring sirens, confused pedestrians who spot a New York City Police Department motorcade screaming down the streets of Brazil's biggest city may need a second to get their bearings. Behind the spectacle is a group of Brazilian fans obsessed with one of the world's most recognizable police forces, whose hobby is refurbishing NYPD cars and motorcycles, inspired by nostalgia for cop movies and shows such as "Law & Order." "To tell you the truth, it creates some confusion sometimes," said Fabio Denzin, who owns not just a Ford Crown Victoria painted as a NYPD car, but also a van and motorcycle. "People even think that it is the real police from New York on patrol, as if they came to Brazil to help the local police."

EU calls for probe after plane diverted to arrest journalist (AP) Western leaders decried the diversion of a plane to Belarus in order to arrest an opposition journalist as an act of piracy and terrorism. The European Union and others on Monday demanded an investigation into the dramatic forced landing of the Ryanair jet, which was traveling between of the bloc’s two member nations. The airline said Belarusian flight controllers told the crew there was a bomb threat against the plane as it was crossing through the country’s airspace and ordered it to land in the capital of Minsk. A Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane. Raman Pratasevich, who ran a popular messaging app that played a key role in helping organize massive protests against Belarus’ authoritarian president, was on board and he and his Russian girlfriend were led off the plane shortly after landing. The plane, which began its journey in Athens, Greece, was eventually allowed to continue on to Vilnius, Lithuania. Western leaders forcefully condemned the move. A group of the chairs of the foreign affairs committees of several Western countries’ legislative bodies called it an act of piracy. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the plane’s diversion was “shocking,” while Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called it a “state-sponsored terror act.” (Washington Post) European leaders on Monday agreed to impose sectoral sanctions on Belarus and to bar E.U. airlines from flying over the country’s airspace, dealing a potentially crushing blow to the economy. E.U. leaders asked the bloc’s foreign policy team to draw up a list of targeted economic sanctions to impose “without delay," and said that the country’s national airline would be barred from the European Union.

Turkey’s drones (Foreign Policy) Poland become the first NATO member to purchase Turkish drones, Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Saturday. The contract for 24 armed Bayraktar TB2 drones is due to be signed by Polish President Andrzej Duda when he travels to Turkey next week. The sale underlines Turkey’s status as the world’s fourth largest drone producer and comes after its unmanned aircraft were seen as crucial in securing victory for Azerbaijan in its war with Armenia last year.

India virus death toll passes 300,000 (AP) India crossed another grim milestone Monday of more than 300,000 people lost to the coronavirus as a devastating surge of infections appeared to be easing in big cities but was swamping the poorer countryside. India’s death toll is the third-highest reported in the world, accounting for 8.6% of the nearly 34.7 million coronavirus fatalities globally, though the true numbers are thought to be significantly greater. From the remote Himalayan villages in the north, through the vast humid central plains and to the sandy beaches in the south, the pandemic has swamped India’s underfunded health care system after spreading fast across the country.

Samoa’s first female leader locked out of her own swearing-in ceremony (Washington Post) The first woman elected prime minister of Samoa showed up for her swearing-in ceremony on Monday to find her opponents had locked the doors to prevent her from taking office. Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and her followers pitched a tent on the statehouse lawn, where she took the oath of office instead. The bizarre scenes capped six weeks of election turmoil that escalated into a constitutional crisis over the weekend as Mata’afa’s fierce rival refused to cede power. “This is an illegal takeover of government,” Mata’afa said Sunday of the efforts to keep her from office. “Because it’s a bloodless coup, people aren’t so concerned or disturbed by it.” “Samoa is a young democracy,” said Iati Iati from Victoria University of Wellington. “What you have then is a number of institutions whose power has not been accurately defined, so you have the head of state pushing the limits of his power, you’ve got the speaker coming in with his, you’ve got the courts asserting their power and you’ve got the prime minister saying he won’t listen to the courts.”

Regret (CJR) Ronen Bergman reports, for the New York Times, that some Israeli officials privately now regret the decision to bomb the building housing the AP’s offices last weekend. “In light of the international furor over the airstrike, some high-ranking officials in government and the military now call it a mistake, arguing that Israel needs the media to be open to hearing its version of events, and the bombing made that harder,” Bergman writes. “One official said that while the airstrike was justified militarily, the doubters had been right, and the harm done to Israel’s international standing outweighed any benefit from destroying the Hamas equipment” officials say was inside the building [and which everyone except the Israeli military denies was present].

Before Rage Flared, a Push to Make Israel��s Mixed Towns More Jewish (NYT) Years before the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Lod erupted in mob violence, a demographic shift had begun to take root: Hundreds of young Jews who support a religious, nationalist movement started to move into a mostly Arab neighborhood with the express aim of strengthening the Israeli city’s Jewish identity. A similar change was playing out in other mixed Arab-Jewish cities inside Israel, part of a loosely organized nationwide project known as Torah Nucleus. For decades, hard-line Israeli nationalists have sought to shift the demographics of the occupied West Bank by building Jewish settlements, undermining the prospect of a two-state solution to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With West Bank settlement firmly entrenched—about 450,000 Jews now live among more than 2.6 million Palestinians—Torah Nucleus supporters see Israeli cities as a new horizon. Most of the world considers Jewish settlements in the occupied territories a violation of international law, but this was an attempt to create change within Israel’s recognized boundaries. And many cast it as the new Zionism.

For Gaza shop owners, building back could take years (Washington Post) Naji Dwaima’s family is known as “the watch family” in Gaza. On Sunday morning, he sat on a folding chair and stared at the spot where his watch store used to be. It was buried under 12 stories of rubble, destroyed by Israeli missiles. Gaza was already one of the poorest corners of the region. Before the coronavirus and airstrikes hit, an estimated 80 percent of the population relied on international aid, according to Oxfam International. Youth unemployment, estimated at 50 percent, was perhaps the highest in the world, the group said. More than 525 businesses were damaged or destroyed in the fighting, the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor estimated, including at least 50 factories and hundreds of small businesses, the backbone of Gaza’s commercial life. Rebuilding those will take international aid and the willingness of owners to start over. Dwaima, 46, said he came to sit by his ruined shop in part because he didn’t know, after 26 years of 13-hour days, six days a week, how else to spend his time. “This is as much my home as my home,” he said. “All of my impressions, all of my dreams are attached to this place.”

Volcanic eruption, ensuing chaos kill at least 15 in Congo (AP) Torrents of lava poured into villages after dark in eastern Congo with little warning, leaving at least 15 people dead amid the chaos and destroying more than 500 homes, officials and survivors said Sunday. The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on Saturday night sent about 5,000 people fleeing from the city of Goma across the nearby border into Rwanda, while another 25,000 others sought refuge to the northwest in Sake, the U.N. children’s agency said Sunday. Goma ultimately was largely spared the mass destruction caused by the volcano’s last eruption in 2002. Hundreds died then and more than 100,000 people were left homeless. But in outlying villages closer to the volcano, Sunday was marked by grief and uncertainty.

Pope to Vatican’s own media workers: Who reads your news? (AP) Pope Francis challenged the Vatican’s own media employees Monday to essentially justify their continued work, asking them how many people actually consume their news in a critique of the office that costs the Holy See more than all its embassies around the world combined. Francis appeared to use the occasion to lay down the gauntlet at a fraught financial time for the Holy See. Facing a major pension funding shortage and a projected 50 million euro ($61 million) deficit this year, Francis has ordered salary cuts from 3% to 10% for Vatican employees, both lay and religious. In his visit with media employees, he said their work was good, their offices nice and organized, but that there was a “danger” that their work doesn’t arrive where it is supposed to. He warned them against falling prey to a “lethal” functionality where they go through the motions but don’t actually achieve anything.

[bountyofbeads]

The Last Time Democracy Almost Died

Learning from the upheaval of the nineteen-thirties.

By Jill Lepore | Published January 27, 2020 February 3rd Issue| The New Yorker | Posted February 2, 2020 |

The last time democracy nearly died all over the world and almost all at once, Americans argued about it, and then they tried to fix it. “The future of democracy is topic number one in the animated discussion going on all over America,” a contributor to the New York Times wrote in 1937. “In the Legislatures, over the radio, at the luncheon table, in the drawing rooms, at meetings of forums and in all kinds of groups of citizens everywhere, people are talking about the democratic way of life.” People bickered and people hollered, and they also made rules. “You are a liar!” one guy shouted from the audience during a political debate heard on the radio by ten million Americans, from Missoula to Tallahassee. “Now, now, we don’t allow that,” the moderator said, calmly, and asked him to leave.

In the nineteen-thirties, you could count on the Yankees winning the World Series, dust storms plaguing the prairies, evangelicals preaching on the radio, Franklin Delano Roosevelt residing in the White House, people lining up for blocks to get scraps of food, and democracies dying, from the Andes to the Urals and the Alps.

In 1917, Woodrow Wilson’s Administration had promised that winning the Great War would “make the world safe for democracy.” The peace carved nearly a dozen new states out of the former Russian, Ottoman, and Austrian empires. The number of democracies in the world rose; the spread of liberal-democratic governance began to appear inevitable. But this was no more than a reverie. Infant democracies grew, toddled, wobbled, and fell: Hungary, Albania, Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia. In older states, too, the desperate masses turned to authoritarianism. Benito Mussolini marched on Rome in 1922. It had taken a century and a half for European monarchs who ruled by divine right and brute force to be replaced by constitutional democracies and the rule of law. Now Fascism and Communism toppled these governments in a matter of months, even before the stock-market crash of 1929 and the misery that ensued.

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“Epitaphs for democracy are the fashion of the day,” the soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, dismally, in 1930. The annus horribilis that followed differed from every other year in the history of the world, according to the British historian Arnold Toynbee: “In 1931, men and women all over the world were seriously contemplating and frankly discussing the possibility that the Western system of Society might break down and cease to work.” When Japan invaded Manchuria, the League of Nations condemned the annexation, to no avail. “The liberal state is destined to perish,” Mussolini predicted in 1932. “All the political experiments of our day are anti-liberal.” By 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power, the American political commentator Walter Lippmann was telling an audience of students at Berkeley that “the old relationships among the great masses of the people of the earth have disappeared.” What next? More epitaphs: Greece, Romania, Estonia, and Latvia. Authoritarians multiplied in Portugal, Uruguay, Spain. Japan invaded Shanghai. Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. “The present century is the century of authority,” he declared, “a century of the Right, a Fascist century.”

American democracy, too, staggered, weakened by corruption, monopoly, apathy, inequality, political violence, hucksterism, racial injustice, unemployment, even starvation. “We do not distrust the future of essential democracy,” F.D.R. said in his first Inaugural Address, telling Americans that the only thing they had to fear was fear itself. But there was more to be afraid of, including Americans’ own declining faith in self-government. “What Does Democracy Mean?” NBC radio asked listeners. “Do we Negroes believe in democracy?” W. E. B. Du Bois asked the readers of his newspaper column. Could it happen here? Sinclair Lewis asked in 1935. Americans suffered, and hungered, and wondered. The historian Charles Beard, in the inevitable essay on “The Future of Democracy in the United States,” predicted that American democracy would endure, if only because “there is in America, no Rome, no Berlin to march on.” Some Americans turned to Communism. Some turned to Fascism. And a lot of people, worried about whether American democracy could survive past the end of the decade, strove to save it.

“It’s not too late,” Jimmy Stewart pleaded with Congress, rasping, exhausted, in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” in 1939. “Great principles don’t get lost once they come to light.” It wasn’t too late. It’s still not too late.

There’s a kind of likeness you see in family photographs, generation after generation. The same ears, the same funny nose. Sometimes now looks a lot like then. Still, it can be hard to tell whether the likeness is more than skin deep.

In the nineteen-nineties, with the end of the Cold War, democracies grew more plentiful, much as they had after the end of the First World War. As ever, the infant-mortality rate for democracies was high: baby democracies tend to die in their cradles. Starting in about 2005, the number of democracies around the world began to fall, as it had in the nineteen-thirties. Authoritarians rose to power: Vladimir Putin in Russia, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Jarosław Kaczyński in Poland, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Donald J. Trump in the United States.

“American democracy,” as a matter of history, is democracy with an asterisk, the symbol A-Rod’s name would need if he were ever inducted into the Hall of Fame. Not until the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act can the United States be said to have met the basic conditions for political equality requisite in a democracy. All the same, measured not against its past but against its contemporaries, American democracy in the twenty-first century is withering. The Democracy Index rates a hundred and sixty-seven countries, every year, on a scale that ranges from “full democracy” to “authoritarian regime.” In 2006, the U.S. was a “full democracy,” the seventeenth most democratic nation in the world. In 2016, the index for the first time rated the United States a “flawed democracy,” and since then American democracy has gotten only more flawed. True, the United States still doesn’t have a Rome or a Berlin to march on. That hasn’t saved the nation from misinformation, tribalization, domestic terrorism, human-rights abuses, political intolerance, social-media mob rule, white nationalism, a criminal President, the nobbling of Congress, a corrupt Presidential Administration, assaults on the press, crippling polarization, the undermining of elections, and an epistemological chaos that is the only air that totalitarianism can breathe.

Nothing so sharpens one’s appreciation for democracy as bearing witness to its demolition. Mussolini called Italy and Germany “the greatest and soundest democracies which exist in the world today,” and Hitler liked to say that, with Nazi Germany, he had achieved a “beautiful democracy,” prompting the American political columnist Dorothy Thompson to remark of the Fascist state, “If it is going to call itself democratic we had better find another word for what we have and what we want.” In the nineteen-thirties, Americans didn’t find another word. But they did work to decide what they wanted, and to imagine and to build it. Thompson, who had been a foreign correspondent in Germany and Austria and had interviewed the Führer, said, in a column that reached eight million readers, “Be sure you know what you prepare to defend.”

It’s a paradox of democracy that the best way to defend it is to attack it, to ask more of it, by way of criticism, protest, and dissent. American democracy in the nineteen-thirties had plenty of critics, left and right, from Mexican-Americans who objected to a brutal regime of forced deportations to businessmen who believed the New Deal to be unconstitutional. W. E. B. Du Bois predicted that, unless the United States met its obligations to the dignity and equality of all its citizens and ended its enthrallment to corporations, American democracy would fail: “If it is going to use this power to force the world into color prejudice and race antagonism; if it is going to use it to manufacture millionaires, increase the rule of wealth, and break down democratic government everywhere; if it is going increasingly to stand for reaction, fascism, white supremacy and imperialism; if it is going to promote war and not peace; then America will go the way of the Roman Empire.”

The historian Mary Ritter Beard warned that American democracy would make no headway against its “ruthless enemies—war, fascism, ignorance, poverty, scarcity, unemployment, sadistic criminality, racial persecution, man’s lust for power and woman’s miserable trailing in the shadow of his frightful ways”—unless Americans could imagine a future democracy in which women would no longer be barred from positions of leadership: “If we will not so envisage our future, no Bill of Rights, man’s or woman’s, is worth the paper on which it is printed.”

If the United States hasn’t gone the way of the Roman Empire and the Bill of Rights is still worth more than the paper on which it’s printed, that’s because so many people have been, ever since, fighting the fights Du Bois and Ritter Beard fought. There have been wins and losses. The fight goes on.

Could no system of rule but extremism hold back the chaos of economic decline? In the nineteen-thirties, people all over the world, liberals, hoped that the United States would be able to find a middle road, somewhere between the malignity of a state-run economy and the mercilessness of laissez-faire capitalism. Roosevelt campaigned in 1932 on the promise to rescue American democracy by way of a “new deal for the American people,” his version of that third way: relief, recovery, and reform. He won forty-two of forty-eight states, and trounced the incumbent, Herbert Hoover, in the Electoral College 472 to 59. Given the national emergency in which Roosevelt took office, Congress granted him an almost entirely free hand, even as critics raised concerns that the powers he assumed were barely short of dictatorial.

New Dealers were trying to save the economy; they ended up saving democracy. They built a new America; they told a new American story. On New Deal projects, people from different parts of the country labored side by side, constructing roads and bridges and dams, everything from the Lincoln Tunnel to the Hoover Dam, joining together in a common endeavor, shoulder to the wheel, hand to the forge. Many of those public-works projects, like better transportation and better electrification, also brought far-flung communities, down to the littlest town or the remotest farm, into a national culture, one enriched with new funds for the arts, theatre, music, and storytelling. With radio, more than with any other technology of communication, before or since, Americans gained a sense of their shared suffering, and shared ideals: they listened to one another’s voices.

This didn’t happen by accident. Writers and actors and directors and broadcasters made it happen. They dedicated themselves to using the medium to bring people together. Beginning in 1938, for instance, F.D.R.’s Works Progress Administration produced a twenty-six-week radio-drama series for CBS called “Americans All, Immigrants All,” written by Gilbert Seldes, the former editor of The Dial. “What brought people to this country from the four corners of the earth?” a pamphlet distributed to schoolteachers explaining the series asked. “What gifts did they bear? What were their problems? What problems remain unsolved?” The finale celebrated the American experiment: “The story of magnificent adventure! The record of an unparalleled event in the history of mankind!”

There is no twenty-first-century equivalent of Seldes’s “Americans All, Immigrants All,” because it is no longer acceptable for a serious artist to write in this vein, and for this audience, and for this purpose. (In some quarters, it was barely acceptable even then.) Love of the ordinary, affection for the common people, concern for the commonweal: these were features of the best writing and art of the nineteen-thirties. They are not so often features lately.

Americans reëlected F.D.R. in 1936 by one of the widest margins in the country’s history. American magazines continued the trend from the twenties, in which hardly a month went by without their taking stock: “Is Democracy Doomed?” “Can Democracy Survive?” (Those were the past century’s versions of more recent titles, such as “How Democracy Ends,” “Why Liberalism Failed,” “How the Right Lost Its Mind,” and “How Democracies Die.” The same ears, that same funny nose.) In 1934, the Christian Science Monitor published a debate called “Whither Democracy?,” addressed “to everyone who has been thinking about the future of democracy—and who hasn’t.” It staked, as adversaries, two British scholars: Alfred Zimmern, a historian from Oxford, on the right, and Harold Laski, a political theorist from the London School of Economics, on the left. “Dr. Zimmern says in effect that where democracy has failed it has not been really tried,” the editors explained. “Professor Laski sees an irrepressible conflict between the idea of political equality in democracy and the fact of economic inequality in capitalism, and expects at least a temporary resort to Fascism or a capitalistic dictatorship.” On the one hand, American democracy is safe; on the other hand, American democracy is not safe.

Zimmern and Laski went on speaking tours of the United States, part of a long parade of visiting professors brought here to prognosticate on the future of democracy. Laski spoke to a crowd three thousand strong, in Washington’s Constitution Hall. “laski tells how to save democracy,” the Washington Post reported. Zimmern delivered a series of lectures titled “The Future of Democracy,” at the University of Buffalo, in which he warned that democracy had been undermined by a new aristocracy of self-professed experts. “I am no more ready to be governed by experts than I am to be governed by the ex-Kaiser,” he professed, expertly.

The year 1935 happened to mark the centennial of the publication of Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” an occasion that elicited still more lectures from European intellectuals coming to the United States to remark on its system of government and the character of its people, close on Tocqueville’s heels. Heinrich Brüning, a scholar and a former Chancellor of Germany, lectured at Princeton on “The Crisis of Democracy”; the Swiss political theorist William Rappard gave the same title to a series of lectures he delivered at the University of Chicago. In “The Prospects for Democracy,” the Scottish historian and later BBC radio quiz-show panelist Denis W. Brogan offered little but gloom: “The defenders of democracy, the thinkers and writers who still believe in its merits, are in danger of suffering the fate of Aristotle, who kept his eyes fixedly on the city-state at a time when that form of government was being reduced to a shadow by the rise of Alexander’s world empire.” Brogan hedged his bets by predicting the worst. It’s an old trick.

The endless train of academics were also called upon to contribute to the nation’s growing number of periodicals. In 1937, The New Republic, arguing that “at no time since the rise of political democracy have its tenets been so seriously challenged as they are today,” ran a series on “The Future of Democracy,” featuring pieces by the likes of Bertrand Russell and John Dewey. “Do you think that political democracy is now on the wane?” the editors asked each writer. The series’ lead contributor, the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce, took issue with the question, as philosophers, thankfully, do. “I call this kind of question ‘meteorological,’ ” he grumbled. “It is like asking, ‘Do you think that it is going to rain today? Had I better take my umbrella?’ ” The trouble, Croce explained, is that political problems are not external forces beyond our control; they are forces within our control. “We need solely to make up our own minds and to act.”

Don’t ask whether you need an umbrella. Go outside and stop the rain.

Here are some of the sorts of people who went out and stopped the rain in the nineteen-thirties: schoolteachers, city councillors, librarians, poets, union organizers, artists, precinct workers, soldiers, civil-rights activists, and investigative reporters. They knew what they were prepared to defend and they defended it, even though they also knew that they risked attack from both the left and the right. Charles Beard (Mary Ritter’s husband) spoke out against the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, the Rupert Murdoch of his day, when he smeared scholars and teachers as Communists. “The people who are doing the most damage to American democracy are men like Charles A. Beard,” said a historian at Trinity College in Hartford, speaking at a high school on the subject of “Democracy and the Future,” and warning against reading Beard’s books—at a time when Nazis in Germany and Austria were burning “un-German” books in public squares. That did not exactly happen here, but in the nineteen-thirties four of five American superintendents of schools recommended assigning only those U.S. history textbooks which “omit any facts likely to arouse in the minds of the students question or doubt concerning the justice of our social order and government.” Beard’s books, God bless them, raised doubts.

Beard didn’t back down. Nor did W.P.A. muralists and artists, who were subject to the same attack. Instead, Beard took pains to point out that Americans liked to think of themselves as good talkers and good arguers, people with a particular kind of smarts. Not necessarily book learning, but street smarts—reasonableness, open-mindedness, level-headedness. “The kind of universal intellectual prostration required by Bolshevism and Fascism is decidedly foreign to American ‘intelligence,’ ” Beard wrote. Possibly, he allowed, you could call this a stubborn independence of mind, or even mulishness. “Whatever the interpretation, our wisdom or ignorance stands in the way of our accepting the totalitarian assumption of Omniscience,” he insisted. “And to this extent it contributes to the continuance of the arguing, debating, never-settling-anything-finally methods of political democracy.” Maybe that was whistling in the dark, but sometimes a whistle is all you’ve got.

The more argument the better is what the North Carolina-born George V. Denny, Jr., was banking on, anyway, after a neighbor of his, in Scarsdale, declared that he so strongly disagreed with F.D.R. that he never listened to him. Denny, who helped run something called the League for Political Education, thought that was nuts. In 1935, he launched “America’s Town Meeting of the Air,” an hour-long debate program, broadcast nationally on NBC’s Blue Network. Each episode opened with a town crier ringing a bell and hollering, “Town meeting tonight! Town meeting tonight!” Then Denny moderated a debate, usually among three or four panelists, on a controversial subject (Does the U.S. have a truly free press? Should schools teach politics?), before opening the discussion up to questions from an audience of more than a thousand people. The debates were conducted at a lecture hall, usually in New York, and broadcast to listeners gathered in public libraries all over the country, so that they could hold their own debates once the show ended. “We are living today on the thin edge of history,” Max Lerner, the editor of The Nation, said in 1938, during a “Town Meeting of the Air” debate on the meaning of democracy. His panel included a Communist, an exile from the Spanish Civil War, a conservative American political economist, and a Russian columnist. “We didn’t expect to settle anything, and therefore we succeeded,” the Spanish exile said at the end of the hour, offering this definition: “A democracy is a place where a ‘Town Meeting of the Air’ can take place.”

No one expected anyone to come up with an undisputable definition of democracy, since the point was disputation. Asking people about the meaning and the future of democracy and listening to them argue it out was really only a way to get people to stretch their civic muscles. “Democracy can only be saved by democratic men and women,” Dorothy Thompson once said. “The war against democracy begins by the destruction of the democratic temper, the democratic method and the democratic heart. If the democratic temper be exacerbated into wanton unreasonableness, which is the essence of the evil, then a victory has been won for the evil we despise and prepare to defend ourselves against, even though it’s 3,000 miles away and has never moved.”

The most ambitious plan to get Americans to show up in the same room and argue with one another in the nineteen-thirties came out of Des Moines, Iowa, from a one-eyed former bricklayer named John W. Studebaker, who had become the superintendent of the city’s schools. Studebaker, who after the Second World War helped create the G.I. Bill, had the idea of opening those schools up at night, so that citizens could hold debates. In 1933, with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation and support from the American Association for Adult Education, he started a five-year experiment in civic education.

The meetings began at a quarter to eight, with a fifteen-minute news update, followed by a forty-five-minute lecture, and thirty minutes of debate. The idea was that “the people of the community of every political affiliation, creed, and economic view have an opportunity to participate freely.” When Senator Guy Gillette, a Democrat from Iowa, talked about “Why I Support the New Deal,” Senator Lester Dickinson, a Republican from Iowa, talked about “Why I Oppose the New Deal.” Speakers defended Fascism. They attacked capitalism. They attacked Fascism. They defended capitalism. Within the first nine months of the program, thirteen thousand of Des Moines’s seventy-six thousand adults had attended a forum. The program got so popular that in 1934 F.D.R. appointed Studebaker the U.S. Commissioner of Education and, with the eventual help of Eleanor Roosevelt, the program became a part of the New Deal, and received federal funding. The federal forum program started out in ten test sites—from Orange County, California, to Sedgwick County, Kansas, and Pulaski County, Arkansas. It came to include almost five hundred forums in forty-three states and involved two and a half million Americans. Even people who had steadfastly predicted the demise of democracy participated. “It seems to me the only method by which we are going to achieve democracy in the United States,” Du Bois wrote, in 1937.

The federal government paid for it, but everything else fell under local control, and ordinary people made it work, by showing up and participating. Usually, school districts found the speakers and decided on the topics after collecting ballots from the community. In some parts of the country, even in rural areas, meetings were held four and five times a week. They started in schools and spread to Y.M.C.A.s and Y.W.C.A.s, labor halls, libraries, settlement houses, and businesses, during lunch hours. Many of the meetings were broadcast by radio. People who went to those meetings debated all sorts of things:

Should the Power of the Supreme Court Be Altered?

Do Company Unions Help Labor?

Do Machines Oust Men?

Must the West Get Out of the East?

Can We Conquer Poverty?

Should Capital Punishment Be Abolished?

Is Propaganda a Menace?

Do We Need a New Constitution?

Should Women Work?

Is America a Good Neighbor?

Can It Happen Here?

These efforts don’t always work. Still, trying them is better than talking about the weather, and waiting for someone to hand you an umbrella.

When a terrible hurricane hit New England in 1938, Dr. Lorine Pruette, a Tennessee-born psychologist who had written an essay called “Why Women Fail,” and who had urged F.D.R. to name only women to his Cabinet, found herself marooned at a farm in New Hampshire with a young neighbor, sixteen-year-old Alice Hooper, a high-school sophomore. Waiting out the storm, they had nothing to do except listen to the news, which, needless to say, concerned the future of democracy. Alice asked Pruette a question: “What is it everyone on the radio is talking about—what is this democracy—what does it mean?” Somehow, in the end, NBC arranged a coast-to-coast broadcast, in which eight prominent thinkers—two ministers, three professors, a former ambassador, a poet, and a journalist—tried to explain to Alice the meaning of democracy. American democracy had found its “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” moment, except that it was messier, and more interesting, because those eight people didn’t agree on the answer. Democracy, Alice, is the darnedest thing.

That broadcast was made possible by the workers who brought electricity to rural New Hampshire; the legislators who signed the 1934 federal Communications Act, mandating public-interest broadcasting; the executives at NBC who decided that it was important to run this program; the two ministers, the three professors, the former ambassador, the poet, and the journalist who gave their time, for free, to a public forum, and agreed to disagree without acting like asses; and a whole lot of Americans who took the time to listen, carefully, even though they had plenty of other things to do. Getting out of our current jam will likely require something different, but not entirely different. And it will be worth doing.

A decade-long debate about the future of democracy came to a close at the end of the nineteen-thirties—but not because it had been settled. In 1939, the World’s Fair opened in Queens, with a main exhibit featuring the saga of democracy and a chipper motto: “The World of Tomorrow.” The fairgrounds included a Court of Peace, with pavilions for every nation. By the time the fair opened, Czechoslovakia had fallen to Germany, though, and its pavilion couldn’t open. Shortly afterward, Edvard Beneš, the exiled President of Czechoslovakia, delivered a series of lectures at the University of Chicago on, yes, the future of democracy, though he spoke less about the future than about the past, and especially about the terrible present, a time of violently unmoored traditions and laws and agreements, a time “of moral and intellectual crisis and chaos.” Soon, more funereal bunting was brought to the World’s Fair, to cover Poland, Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. By the time the World of Tomorrow closed, in 1940, half the European hall lay under a shroud of black.

The federal government stopped funding the forum program in 1941. Americans would take up their debate about the future of democracy, in a different form, only after the defeat of the Axis. For now, there was a war to fight. And there were still essays to publish, if not about the future, then about the present. In 1943, E. B. White got a letter in the mail, from the Writers’ War Board, asking him to write a statement about “The Meaning of Democracy.” He was a little weary of these pieces, but he knew how much they mattered. He wrote back, “Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.” It meant something once. And, the thing is, it still does. ♦

______

Published in the print edition of the February 3, 2020, issue, with the headline “In Every Dark Hour.”

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[classicfilmfan64]

Yes, his autograph is part of my character Actor autograph collection. I found this extensive biography online.

Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor in films, radio, theater, and television.

Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian-Jewish immigrants, the first of three children.

According to newspaper interviews with Stander, as a teenager, he appeared in the silent film MEN OF STEEL (1926), perhaps as an extra, since he is not listed in the credits.

During his one year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he appeared in the student productions The Muse of the Unpublished Writer, and The Muse and the Movies: A Comedy of Greenwich Village.

Stander's acting career began in 1928, as Cop and First Fairy in Him by E. E. Cummings, at the Provincetown Playhouse. He claimed that he got the roles because one of them required shooting craps, which he did well, and a friend in the company volunteered him. He appeared in a series of short-lived plays through the early 1930s, including The House Beautiful, which Dorothy Parker famously derided as "the play lousy".

In 1932, Stander landed his first credited film role in the Warner-Vitaphone short feature IN THE DOUGH (1932), with Fatty Arbuckle and Shemp Howard. He made several other shorts, the last being THE OLD GREY MAYOR (1935) with Bob Hope in 1935. That same year, he was cast in a feature, Ben Hecht's THE SCOUNDREL (1935), with Noël Coward. He moved to Hollywood and signed a contract with Columbia Pictures. Stander was in a string of films over the next three years, appearing most notably in Frank Capra's MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936) with Gary Cooper, MEET NERO WOLFE (1936) playing Archie Goodwin, THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN (1937), and A STAR IS BORN (1937) with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.

Stander's distinctive rumbling voice, tough-guy demeanor, and talent with accents made him a popular radio actor. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was on The Eddie Cantor Show, Bing Crosby's KMH show, the Lux Radio Theater production of A Star Is Born, The Fred Allen Show, the Mayor of the Town series with Lionel Barrymore and Agnes Moorehead, Kraft Music Hall on NBC, Stage Door Canteen on CBS, the Lincoln Highway Radio Show on NBC, and The Jack Paar Show, among others.

In 1941, he starred in a short-lived radio show called The Life of Riley on CBS, no relation to the radio, film, and television character later made famous by William Bendix. Stander played the role of Spider Schultz in both Harold Lloyd's film THE MILKY WAY (1936) and its remake ten years later, THE KID FROM BROOKLYN (1946), starring Danny Kaye. He was a regular on Danny Kaye's zany comedy-variety radio show on CBS (1946–1947), playing himself as "just the elevator operator" amidst the antics of Kaye, future Our Miss Brooks star Eve Arden, and bandleader Harry James.

Also during the 1940s, he played several characters on The Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda animated theatrical shorts, produced by Walter Lantz. For Woody Woodpecker, he provided the voice of Buzz Buzzard, but was blacklisted from the Lantz studio in 1951 and was replaced by Dal McKennon.

Strongly liberal and pro-labor, Stander espoused a variety of social and political causes and was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. At a SAG meeting held during a 1937 studio technicians' strike, he told the assemblage of 2000 members: "With the eyes of the whole world on this meeting, will it not give the Guild a black eye if its members continue to cross picket lines?" (The NYT reported: "Cheers mingled with boos greeted the question.") Stander also supported the Conference of Studio Unions in its fight against the Mob-influenced International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Also in 1937, Ivan F. Cox, a deposed officer of the San Francisco longshoremen's union, sued Stander and a host of others, including union leader Harry Bridges, actors Fredric March, Franchot Tone, Mary Astor, James Cagney, Jean Muir, and director William Dieterle. The charge, according to Time magazine, was "conspiring to propagate Communism on the Pacific Coast, causing Mr. Cox to lose his job".

In 1938, Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn allegedly called Stander "a Red son of a bitch" and threatened a US$100,000 fine against any studio that renewed his contract. Despite critical acclaim for his performances, Stander's film work dropped off drastically. After appearing in 15 films in 1935 and 1936, he was in only six in 1937 and 1938. This was followed by just six films from 1939 through 1943, none made by major studios, the most notable being GUADALCANAL DIARY (1943).

Stander was among the first group of Hollywood actors to be subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1940 for supposed Communist activities. At a grand jury hearing in Los Angeles in August 1940—the transcript of which was shortly released to the press—John R. Leech, the self-described former "chief functionary" of the Communist Party in Los Angeles, named Stander as a CP member, along with more than 15 other Hollywood notables, including Franchot Tone, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Clifford Odets, and Budd Schulberg. Stander subsequently forced himself into the grand jury hearing, and the district attorney cleared him of the allegations.

Stander appeared in no films between 1944 and 1945. Then, with HUAC's attention focused elsewhere due to World War II, he played in a number of mostly second-rate pictures from independent studios through the late 1940s. These include Ben Hecht's SPECTER OF THE ROSE (1946); the Preston Sturges comedy THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK (1947) with Harold Lloyd; and TROUBLE MAKERS (1948) with The Bowery Boys. One classic emerged from this period of his career, the Preston Sturges comedy UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948) with Rex Harrison.

In 1947, HUAC turned its attention once again to Hollywood. That October, Howard Rushmore, who had belonged to the CPUSA in the 1930s and written film reviews for the Daily Worker, testified that writer John Howard Lawson, whom he named as a Communist, had "referred to Lionel Stander as a perfect example of how a Communist should not act in Hollywood." Stander was again blacklisted from films, though he played on TV, radio, and in the theater.

In March 1951, actor Larry Parks, after pleading with HUAC investigators not to force him to "crawl through the mud" as an informer, named several people as Communists in a "closed-door session", which made the newspapers two days later. He testified that he knew Stander, but did not recall attending any CP meetings with him.

At a HUAC hearing in April 1951, actor Marc Lawrence named Stander as a member of his Hollywood Communist "cell", along with screenwriter Lester Cole and screenwriter Gordon Kahn. Lawrence testified that Stander "was the guy who introduced me to the party line", and that Stander said that by joining the CP, he would "get to know the dames more" — which Lawrence, who did not enjoy film-star looks, thought a good idea. Upon hearing of this, Stander shot off a telegram to HUAC chair John S. Wood, calling Lawrence's testimony that he was a Communist "ridiculous" and asked to appear before the Committee, so he could swear to that under oath. The telegram concluded: "I respectfully request an opportunity to appear before you at your earliest possible convenience. Be assured of my cooperation." Two days later, Stander sued Lawrence for $500,000 for slander. Lawrence left the country ("fled", according to Stander) for Europe.

After that, Stander was blacklisted from TV and radio. He continued to act in theater roles and played Ludlow Lowell in the 1952-53 revival of Pal Joey on Broadway and on tour.

Two years passed before Stander was issued the requested subpoena. Finally, in May 1953, he testified at a HUAC hearing in New York, where he made front-page headlines nationwide by being uproariously uncooperative, memorialized in the Eric Bentley play, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been. The New York Times headline was "Stander Lectures House Red Inquiry." In a dig at bandleader Artie Shaw, who had tearfully claimed in a Committee hearing that he had been "duped" by the Communist Party, Stander testified,

"I am not a dupe, or a dope, or a moe, or a schmoe...I was absolutely conscious of what I was doing, and I am not ashamed of anything I said in public or private."

An excerpt from that statement was engraved in stone for "The First Amendment Blacklist Memorial" by Jenny Holzer at the University of Southern California.

Other notable statements during Stander's 1953 HUAC testimony:

- "[Testifying before HUAC] is like the Spanish Inquisition. You may not be burned, but you can't help coming away from a little singed."

- "I don't know about the overthrow of the government. This committee has been investigating 15 years so far, and hasn't found one act of violence."

- "I know of a group of fanatics who are desperately trying to undermine the Constitution of the United States by depriving artists and others of life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness without due process of law ... I can tell names and cite instances and I am one of the first victims of it. And if you are interested in that and also a group of ex-fascists and America-Firsters and anti-Semites, people who hate everybody including Negroes, minority groups and most likely themselves ... and these people are engaged in a conspiracy outside all the legal processes to undermine the very fundamental American concepts upon which our entire system of democracy exists."

- "...I don't want to be responsible for a whole stable of informers, stool pigeons, and psychopaths and ex-political heretics, who come in here beating their breast and say, 'I am awfully sorry; I didn't know what I was doing. Please--I want absolution; get me back into pictures.'"

- "My estimation of this committee is that this committee arrogates judicial and punitive powers which it does not possess."

Stander was blacklisted from the late 1940s until 1965; perhaps the longest period.

After that, Stander's acting career went into a free fall. He worked as a stockbroker on Wall Street, a journeyman stage actor, a corporate spokesman—even a New Orleans Mardi Gras king. He didn't return to Broadway until 1961 (and then only briefly in a flop) and to film in 1963, in the low-budget THE MOVING FINGER (although he did provide, uncredited, the voice-over narration for the 1961 noir thriller BLAST OF SILENCE.)

Life improved for Stander when he moved to London in 1964 to act in Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards, directed by Tony Richardson, for whom he'd acted on Broadway, along with Christopher Plummer, in a 1963 production of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. In 1965, he was featured in the film PROMISE HER ANYTHING. That same year Richardson cast him in the black comedy about the funeral industry, THE LOVED ONE, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, with an all-star cast including Jonathan Winters, Robert Morse, Liberace, Rod Steiger, Paul Williams, and many others. In 1966, Roman Polanski cast Stander in his only starring role, as the thug Dickie in CUL-DE-SAC, opposite Françoise Dorléac and Donald Pleasence.

Stander stayed in Europe and eventually settled in Rome, where he appeared in many spaghetti Westerns, most notably playing a bartender named Max in Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. He played the role of the villainous mob boss in Fernando Di Leo's 1972 poliziottescho thriller CALIBER 9. In Rome he connected with Robert Wagner, who cast him in an episode of It Takes a Thief that was shot there. Stander's few English-language films in the 1970s include THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT (1971) with Robert De Niro and Jerry Orbach, Martin Scorsese's NEW YORK, NEW YORK (1977), which also starred De Niro and Liza Minnelli, and Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979).

Stander played a supporting role in the TV film Revenge Is My Destiny with Chris Robinson. He played a lounge comic modeled after the real-life Las Vegas comic Joe E. Lewis, who used to begin his act by announcing "Post Time" as he sipped his ever-present drink.

After 15 years abroad, Stander moved back to the U.S. for the role he is now most famous for: Max, the loyal butler, cook, and chauffeur to the wealthy, amateur detectives played by Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers on the 1979–1984 television series Hart to Hart (and a subsequent series of Hart to Hart made-for-television films). In 1983, Stander won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

In 1986, he became the voice of Kup in THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE. In 1991 he was a guest star in the television series Dream On, playing Uncle Pat in the episode "Toby or Not Toby". His final theatrical film role was as a dying hospital patient in THE LAST GOOD TIME (1994), with Armin Mueller-Stahl and Olivia d'Abo, directed by Bob Balaban.

Stander was married six times, the first time in 1932 and the last in 1972. All but the last marriage ended in divorce. He fathered six daughters (one wife had no children, one had twins).

Stander died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California, in 1994 at age 86. He was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

[a-wandering-fool]

You know the story. Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandman was maligned and became the mainstream media’s object of derision because he has the audacity to stand there with a smile on his face as a Native American activist banged a drum inches from Sandmann’s face.

He stood his ground, and for that became the poster child for white privilege in the rhetoric of the media and social justice warriors. Initial reports blamed Sandmann for being part of a mob that surrounded and tried to intimidate the drum-banger, described in the media as a “Native American Elder.”

(more…)

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Glad to see an update on this case