#promotion letters generator in excel

[gatheredfates]

POSES. It happened! ✨

I made a smaller post this morning, but I am super pleased to announce that Tumblr's moderation has approved SEAFLOOR as a Community! We're live, baeby!

If you don't know what a Community is, you can check out Tumblr's post about it here.

If you are interested in joining, I will copy/paste the information contained on the Community's pinned post in the read more below, as you won't see it otherwise (outside of joining). I'd like to kindly request that if you are already a member of the Community to not like this post (it just saves me doubling up) but please reblog it to spread the word!

Welcome to SEAFLOOR! This a Community run by myself, Sea (@gatheredfates), as an offshoot of the identically named Discord server aimed to contain both my personal projects and promote member-created content. If you would still like to keep up to date with my projects, interact with members of my community, and generally enjoy xiv content without the pressure of a Discord, this is the place!

This server has mandatory tags that MUST be used for spoilers. A general rule of thumb is the most recent patch/live letter is considered spoiler content and must be marked accordingly; as well as major spoilers for the most recent expansion. If it doubt, it always pays to tag. Please mind the following:

#dawntrail spoilers

#7.0. spoilers (will likely come into effect for 7.1 to differentiate from general Dawntrail spoilers, but you can tag for both!)

#liveletter spoilers

Much like my Discord, there are some house rules I want to put in place first for first-time users. Please familiarise yourself with the below. This post is pinned; you can't claim you haven't seen it. A lot of these are near-identical to the server rules, but I'll be no-less forceful in implementation if they are not adhered to.

If I'm being entirely honest, moderation past Community maintenance is something I do not want to engage with, so I will be intervening only when it is entirely necessary and will be harsh in my implementation. Therefore, if you don't think you can conduct yourself in a healthy, adult manner, do not join. Some of these rules may seem 'harsh' but are the product of me making clear boundaries in what I will expect, tolerate and foster. I will not hesitate to curate where I feel it is necessary.

I believe in the age-old phrase "Be excellent to each other," and that underpins every rule featured below. If in doubt, refer back to this mantra.

This Community is strictly 21+ only. This is to keep in line with my personal boundaries regarding minors. It's nothing personal, I just don't have time to moderate for a younger audience.

Common-sense rules apply. Do not break Tumblr's ToS, spoiler/content warm where appropriate and sensible, and don't be rude/harass people in the comments. Just because a rule isn't explicitly stated doesn't mean you have full reign to do the thing.

Intolerance (namely racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.) will not be tolerated. If you don't like it, the back button is free.

Due to this being a predominately XIV focused Community, dark themes will present due to subject manner explored in the game. I will not enforce mandatory tags/censors outside of patch/expansion spoilers; I just ask that people use their common sense and consider peoples' safety and mental wellbeing when posting work(s). If you do not warn appropriately or mock/ignore requests for things to be censored/warned, you will be removed.

As Communities are in their infancy, rules may be amended/adjusted to better fit this space's purpose as time goes on. While I will attempt to make these changes obvious, please check back on occasion just in case. "I didn't know," is not a valid excuse.

HOKAY, now that the serious of the rules are out of the way, you might be wondering to yourself, "Sea, what can be posted?" I'm glad you asked! ✨ First and foremost, as I do not encourage secular spaces, please make sure all content has originated from a public tumblr blog. I want to encourage people to reach out, interact and follow other people, not just stick to this space! Beyond that, I accept:

Screenshots (gpose), writing, art, think pieces and other xiv content created by members. You can tag these with #gpose, #writing, #art, etc.

Resource gathering similar to what is featured in the Discord server including resources, prompts, commissions, etc. You can tag these with #resources, #prompts, #WoLQoTD, #commissions, #other, etc. These do not have to be created by members in the community.

Event, character profiles, looking for content/rp/free companies and more! You can tag these with #events, #character profile, #lfc, #lfr, #free company, etc. These do not have to be created by members in the community.

Links to lodestone posts/dev commentary and other official posts provided they are tagged correctly. You can tag these with #lodestone.

Anything you've created in response to my projects! You can tag these as #sea's character questions OR whatever the event is at the time (for example, Down to Dawntrail posts can be tagged as #(count)down to dawntrail)! I will try to reblog anything that I am tagged in if the owner doesn't reblog it here.

Anything xiv related that isn't covered here but you think is in line with the spirit of this community and what I'm trying to foster. Please DM me if you're unsure.

[tomodchis]

07 27 ‘23 ( ✴︎ )  ‎ ،  ‎ after lucky hour is the debut mini album of south korean co-ed group dachi. title track bim bam bum is a refreshing love letter to fans of the all-too-known cute concept, while also bringing something new to the table. 

the album   ‎ ‎ ‎ ıllı ‎ ‎[ 🌈 ]    ‎♪ ҉     

bim bam bum would be released a whopping nine months after lucky hour ended, marking confusion from viewers. the show didn’t do terribly — seoyi got first place with 200 000 points and 130 000 votes, in fact — so what’s with the holdup? radio silence continued until mystic story announced their debut date on june 30th. fans complained to the company about wait time, but no statement has been made up to this point.

teaser rollout began almost immediately afterwards. it was all mainly group photos, save for short teaser videos that obscured the member’s faces like it wasn’t public information, but the reactions were mostly positive. despite the obvious connection in motifs and music score throughout the teasers — same background tune, similar dark hallways, replicated props — the videos seemed different in every single way. it would set the scene for the intro to dachi’s universe, (tomo)rrow.

the music video for bim bam bum, for lack of a better word, popped off the screen. every scene was a vibrant clash of textures and colours. locations from the individual teaser videos were all used: a flower garden, a corner store, a shopping mall, an abandoned outdoor pool, a candy diner. multiple forms of media were used as well, including water colour artwork, stop motion animation, and little cartoon avatars cutefully named the neighbourhood friends. 

bim bam bum became an inspiration for graphic designers, artists, and editors, with multiple trends coming out of the music video alone. this includes: editing your favourite character to the final chorus in a mograph-type style, creating templates based off of each mv location, and drawing the neighbourhood friends beside a character with a completely different aesthetic, like vincent valentine from ffvii.

despite the overwhelming positivity from the general public, dachi was met with intense hatred from kpop fans and obsessed akgaes. a burst in popularity came stalking, bitter comments about eun ‘breathing too hard into the mic’ despite performing live during every single performance, called a ‘quick cash grab by mystic story’, penchants for commenting on their looks for no reason, etc. they were compared to a multitude of other groups including itzy, weki meki, and nct dream, supposedly for having overlapping concepts. mystic story barely moved to protect dachi, only dishing out a statement after the promotional period passed.

speaking of the promotional period, dachi managed to bag one win during three weeks of music show stages. the now-beloved bside passionfruit was also promoted alongside bim bam bum, but didn’t earn a win. being up against big names definitely hindered awards they could have gotten, but one is better than none. 

overall, the album itself was a massive success. they solidified their role in the industry right at the beginning of their careers in dachi. whether you love them or hate them, bim bam bum will find its way to your playlist.

tracklist   ‎ ‎ ‎ ıllı ‎ ‎[ 💿 ]    ‎♪ ҉  

→ 01. . . bim bam bum

daring, colourful, cute. pushed against the boundary of trends and created something new. reminiscent of 3rd gen girl groups. 

02. . . blue orangeade

funky, cool, bright. best played during a long drive. highlighted the foolish nature of dachi.

03. . . like i do

sophisticated, fancy, bouncy. explored the synth aspect of dachi’s discography. certified deep-cut with exactly 8 fans.

04. . . passionfruit

chill, groovy, addictive. sounds like how it feels to drink iced tea. suits any type of weather.

05. . . skateboard

happy, breezy, calming. some real heavenly vocal moments from jeyeol. brought back real kpop excellency.

06. . . bahama

beachy, sweet, easy-listening. a song you can let play and always enjoy. perfect outro track.

styling   ‎ ‎ ‎ ıllı ‎ ‎[ 👒 ]    ‎♪ ҉  

the styling for this era was divided into two parts: the flowery costumes (top row) and the candy costumes (bottom row). 

the flowery costumes strayed the furthest from the original concept, diving straight into floral and natural aesthetics. the members were caked in makeup at all times, trying to balance the weight of heavy accessories and keeping a smile on their faces. chorong mentioned during an interview that the process of putting everything on was 3 hours for one music show, which she never wants to go through ever again. while the outfits were gorgeous paired with the stunning stage sets, it was a behind-the-scenes disaster.

the candy costumes are a fan favourite for many obvious reasons. not only do the outfits fit the album, but were much more comfortable. the 2000s influence directly mirrors the nostalgic feel of bim bam bum. they all wore tank-tops, graphic tees, baggy jeans, thick belts, and combat boots. some of the girls wore long dresses, thigh-highs, and skirts. each makeup look wasn’t even makeup, just charms stuck to their faces in a pattern. seoyi went viral for her butterfly charm look, and suddenly half the industry followed in her steps.

fashion team director choi narim explained why there was such a large duality, “dachi has been a sensation even before this satisfying debut. i knew they would be stars when i looked at the four of them. i thought to myself they must stand out from the rest, and i’ve succeeded, seeing all this media attention. big risks can mean even bigger victory in the world of entertainment.”

era notes   ‎ ‎ ‎ ıllı ‎ ‎[ 🗒️ ]    ‎♪ ҉  

the era was almost-ruined by weirdos, yet pockets had an absolute blast. posts going viral left and right, unique lineup gaining traction, lucky hour fans coming back after their fav was eliminated, it was fun!!! too bad they had a part time job in blocking accounts

the birth of the first official solo stans… who else cried. ot4 pockets desperately tried defending the members from Everybody. multiple ppl were wrongfully accused of being akgaes, the largest account dedicated to lucky hour was exposed for being an eun anti…

the members were sooooo stressed out. especially seoyi, whose sudden leap into fame caused anxiety

their teaser videos were kind of a Hot Mess but made sense when the chaotic mv for bim bam bum came out

u already know a japanese artist drew gojo with the neighbourhood friends, spiking interest from anime fans. it’s hard to say if they actually tuned in, but promo is promo

dachi’s labelmates billlie also made an appearance. everyone filmed a tiktok dancing to passionfruit on billlie’s account, and pockets and belllie’ves thought the interaction between moon sua and eun was so adorable. eun was barely in frame, but moon sua guided her in, which caused eun to smile and bury her face in her hands

the music video for bim bam bum racked up 9.5 million views within the first week, shocking the fandom

seoyi was the very obvious star of the show. a different article about her would come out every day, talking about something so mundane like sleeping habits that she forgot she even said it. every camera pointed to her as she walked. she truly became the face of kpop for a good three weeks

impossible for all four of them to Not serve cunt. it’s almost contagious

jeyeol and chorong wrote bahama + eun and seoyi helped produce some parts of like i do!!! truly a talented group

after lucky hour is recognized as one of the most cohesive eps from 2023, with a pitchfork review of 8.2

[pub-lius]

Why don't you have any detailed posts about Steuben smh do better

AW FUCK NO MY REPUTATION!! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BE THE GAY HISTORY PERSON IF I DONT HAVE A DETAILED POST ABOUT STEUBEN!!!! i have to fix this...

Early Life

Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Baron de Steuben was born on September 17, 1730 in Prussia. He joined the Prussian army at the age of 17, so he got a real early start.

Note: I've written his name here as "Baron de Steuben", as this name is from a French record, however he is typically referred to as "Baron von Steuben", as "von" is the translation of "de" from French to Prussian, and they both mean "of" in English. I just wanted to clarify that for the sake of my own linguistically correct sanity

Steuben began his service in the French and Indian War (or Seven Years War if you're a dirty European) as a second lieutenant, and was then wounded at the Battle of Prague, a Prussian victory. Then, he joined General Johann von Mayer's adjutant and principle staff officer in a special detached corps.

Then, he was promoted to first lieutenant and wounded AGAIN at the Battle of Kunersdorf, which was a Russian and Austrian victory. He was then transferred to general headquarters as a staff officer in the position of deputy quartermaster (this is important!!).

He was taken prisoner when Major General von Knoblock surrendered at Treptow, and was released after a year in 1762. He was promoted to captain and then became an aide-de-camp to Frederick the Great, which is as metal as it gets. He joined the King's class on the art of war, where he learned even more super cool military leadership skills.

Life Between Wars

Steuben met St. Germain in Hamburg (a notoriously great place to meet people). If you aren't in the know like I clearly am, St. Germain would eventually be the French Minister of War during the American Revolution. They'd meet again in France when Steuben was serving as Grand Marshall to the Prince of Hollenzollern-Hechingen, and if that sounds made up to you, it's because you don't even know him like I do.

Steuben continued looking for military work, but those European assholes (the British, French, and Austrians) rejected my man for no good reason (probably because he was gay or something). It was during his stay in France where he heard of the rowdy Americans across the pond.

St. Germain introduced Baron von Steuben to Silas fucking Deane and Benjamin "Slim Shady" Franklin, but they weren't able to promise Steuben anything but some regurgitated American propaganda, since, by this time, they were already getting yelled at by Congress and Washington for allowing too many incompetent Frenchmen into the Continental Army. They told him that the only way he could assist in the American fight for independence would be to go to America and present himself as a volunteer to Congress (like Lafayette ended up having to do).

This obviously pissed off Steuben since he was actually experienced trying to get a job, because its not fun being an overqualified, unemployed gay man in 18th century Europe. But still, he settled for being a volunteer, and set out for America, his passage being paid for by the French government.

WHAT THE FUCK IS A KILOMETERRRRRRR

Steuben traveled to America with his Italian greyhound, Azor, and his two assistants, Louis de Pontiere (ADC) and Pierre Ettienne Duponceau (military secretary). They arrived in New Hampshire on December 1, 1777. They were almost arrested upon arrival because Steuben had a blond moment and mistakenly dressed them in red uniforms instead of blue. They traveled through Boston to York, Pennyslvania, arriving on February 5, 1778.

In Steuben's letter of recommendation, Franklin mistranslated Steuben's rank to "His Excellency, Lieutenant General von Steuben, Apostle of Frederick the Great", which made him seem way more distinguished than he was. As a result, he was presented a much higher rank by Congress.

Steuben was ordered to report to Washington's headquarters at Valley Forge, where he arrived on February 23, 1778, and was described by a soldier as "a perfect personification of Mars."

Steuben's good first impression also had an effect on Washington, who appointed him temporary Inspector General, and it was in this position that he had his largest impact on American history, and changed the course of the war

Why Every Army Should Have Gay People, An Essay by Publius

Baron von Steuben began his transformation of the Continental Army by writing training drills, overriding the regional trainings of the state militias into a unified and universal regimen. There was a significant language barrier, however, as Steuben originally wrote the drills in French, which were then translated into English by Duponceau, John Laurens, and Alexander Hamilton. Then, they were given to the brigade inspectors, who made the copies which were then copied to be delivered to each officer. There was definitely a more efficient way to do this, but you know. It was also Valley Forge.

General Washington's Life Guard and some men from each state (totalling around 120 men) were used as a model to show the rest of the army how they were supposed to go through the drills. As they trained and demonstrated the drills, Steuben was writing new ones, only a few days ahead, which is a massive time crunch. This was done intentionally to make the drills as simple as he could, so the training of the army was dispersed in a rapid, orderly fashion. This man was a genius, I can't emphasize it enough.

The officers in the British army, which was the standard for Americans in many respects, would allow the sergeants to drill the men, but Steuben said fuck that, I'm gonna do it myself. This made many American officers uncomfortable because the men developed a bond with him because of how talented he was (and the fact that he was funny and used profanity in multiple languages), and along with the fact that Steuben's office seemingly had no limitations, this caused them to complain to the big boss, Washington. To make them feel better, Washington issued orders on June 15, 1778 to govern the Inspector General's office until further word from Congress.

The reformed Continental Army showed off their swag on May 6, 1778 when they celebrated the news of the Franco-American Alliance, which impressed soldiers, officers, and civilians. More happy news came when Steuben was given his commission from the Congress as Inspector General, with the rank of Major General.

It was at the Battle of Monmouth when the new training of the Continental Army was able to take what would have been a losing battle for the Americans to a technical draw. Steuben was actually almost killed/taken prisoner (depending on the mood of the British) during this battle because he was wearing so many metals of honor that he glimmered in the sunlight, and was spotted by the British. He was fine, though.

General von Steuben went to Philadelphia in the winter of 1778-79 to write his book of regulations, referred to as The Blue Book. Lieutenant Colonel Francois de Fleury, a volunteer, assisted in writing it. It was with the assistance of ~Benjamin Walker~ and Duponceau that the blue book was translated into English, which is why we know Walker as being important! And the fact that he and Steuben totally boned! Anyway, Captain Pierre Charles L'Enfant was illustrated it, and the book was used all the way until 1814.

After the war

General von Steuben rejoined the Continental Army in April of 1779 to serve through the end of the war. He was an instructor and supply officer for General Nathanael Greene's southern army from the beginning of the southern campaign until Yorktown. Steuben commanded one of three divisions in the Continentals at Yorktown. He assisted in demobilizing the army in 1783, and resigned his commission in 1784, which is actually the latest I've heard of a Continental General resigning his commission!

Steuben continuously petitioned Congress for financial compensation for mesothelioma (not really) and fuck ass Congress only gave him a part of what he was owed, which was pretty typical. But! New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all gave him land grants, which he sold portions off to have enough money to live. So, he retired from NYC to his land holdings to live the remainder of his life.

Oh, and fun fact, Steuben was present at one of the riots in New York that Alexander Hamilton tried to stop, and they both had bricks thrown at them. It might have been the Cadaver Riots, but I could be wrong since I didn't feel like double checking.

Steuben never married, and instead lived with Benjamin Walker for a long period of time. He died on his 16,000 acre farm tract in the Mohawk Valley of New York on November 28, 1794.

Homosexuality

The source I used for this does not mention his homosexuality at all, but I'm going to, because the last thing you'll ever see me do is pretend like gay people didn't exist or are "unprofessional" to talk about in history.

If you say that Alexander Hamilton was gay, you have to say Steuben was, and vice versa. Rumors of homosexuality followed Steuben from Europe all the way to America, and play a large role in why he relocated many times, and never seemed to have a permanent home until the end of his life. This was a form of unofficial exile that many queer people faced in times where their existence was illegal. As soon as your name was associated with possible homosexuality, you couldn't get comfortable anywhere.

But von Steuben wasn't brought down by this, and you've gotta respect that. He threw elaborate parties starting almost as soon as he arrived at the Continental Army. If you're new to the amrev community here, this is what we mean by "flaming shot/pantless parties", because they had shots of liquor that they would light on fire, and in order to get in, at least part of your breeches had to have been missing. While straight men did attend these parties, the subtext in discussions about them seem to imply that they were also a gathering place for queer men.

These parties continued, and some familiar faces were there, such as Duponceau, Walker Hamilton, Laurens, and, later on, Charles Adams. However, I'm not going to speculate on who was fucking who, though it has been largely accepted by historians that General von Steuben and Benjamin Walker were lovers, and I personally think there is substantial evidence to support this when you align their personal correspondence with the close proximity they maintained throughout their lives.

General von Steuben is a figure that is very important to many queer people as a conspicuous queer man in history who had an undeniable impact on the course of American history. Portrayals of Steuben in media typically disregard this, however more and more biographers are discussing his homosexuality and the significance it plays in queer history. So, I'll end this post by saying this: Steuben is just as significant in American history as he is in Queer history, and it is irresponsible to pretend like he isn't.

Source:

National Park Service- Valley Forge

British Battles.com- Battle of Kunersdorf

George Washington's Indispensable Men by Arthur S. Lefkowitz

John Laurens and the American Revolution by Gregory D. Massey

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Anyway, thank you for giving me an excuse to talk about Steuben lol. I didn't previously know much about his life before the American Revolution, so I was very happy to learn. I actually bought a biography about him not long ago, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army by Paul Lockhart, but I haven't read it yet. If anyone has, pls let me know if it's good or not. After Massey and Chernow, I'm practically on my hands and knees begging for a male author to treat queer history seriously. Anyway, thank you for the ask! I'm going to go watch the george washington mini series for steuben content

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 5, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 06, 2024

Today the S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 of the biggest companies on U.S. stock exchanges, closed at a new record high of 5,354. The Nasdaq Composite, which is weighted toward the information technology sector, also closed at a record high of 17,187. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also up, but not to a new record. It closed at 38,807.

That notable economic news got very little attention, likely in part because there is so much else going on.

Most dramatically, House speaker Mike Johnson elevated Ronny Jackson (R-TX) and Scott Perry (R-PA) to the House Intelligence Committee, giving them oversight of the entire U.S. intelligence community and access to the nation’s most sensitive foreign intelligence. The Intelligence community includes intelligence from the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Space Force, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Department, the State Department, the Department of Energy (which oversees information about nuclear weapons), the Treasury Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.

It also oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and that oversight is likely a key reason Johnson put Jackson and Perry on the committee. 

A former Navy admiral, Jackson was Trump’s White House physician. Trump liked him enough to try unsuccessfully to promote him into the cabinet and within the U.S. Navy, and then to back him successfully for Congress after he retired from the Navy in 2019. In 2022 the U.S. Navy demoted him from admiral to captain after a 2021 report by the inspector general of the Defense Department showed he had “disparaged, belittled, bullied, and humiliated” his staff and abused alcohol on at least two occasions when he was supposed to be providing medical care to government officials.   

Perry is more problematic than Jackson. Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol that Perry played an important role in the plan to keep Trump in office after he lost the 2020 presidential election. She told podcast host Scott Lamar in October 2023 that Perry was “central to the planning of January 6,” and she has said repeatedly that Perry asked Trump for a pardon before he left office.

Federal authorities from the FBI seized Perry’s cell phone in 2022 as part of their investigation into the effort to seize the presidency; he is the only member of Congress whose cell phone was seized. Like Trump, who has attacked the FBI since then-director James Comey refused to drop the investigation into the connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian operatives, Perry has complained bitterly about the FBI’s investigation of him.

Now, Perry will be on the committee that oversees the FBI. In a statement, he said: “I look forward to providing not only a fresh perspective, but conducting actual oversight—not blind obedience to some facets of our Intel Community that all too often abuse their powers, resources, and authority to spy on the American People.”

Former director of the CIA General Michael Hayden wrote: “That’s unbelievable. Both of them. Intelligence Committee? God help us.” 

There is other news about the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election: yesterday Wisconsin attorney general Josh Kaul filed felony forgery charges against attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who planned the use of fake electors; former judge James Troupis, who managed Trump’s 2020 campaign in Wisconsin; and Michael Roman, a political operative who allegedly delivered the paperwork for Wisconsin’s fake electors to a congressional staffer to try to get them to Vice President Mike Pence. 

On January 6, 2021, after the document was delivered, Troupis texted to Chesebro: “Excellent. Tomorrow let’s talk about SCOTUS strategy going forward. Enjoy the history you have made possible today.” 

In Georgia, a court of appeals paused the case against Trump and his co-conspirators from proceeding until it rules on Trump’s appeal to disqualify Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis. It has tentatively set a hearing date for October 4, meaning that voters will not get to learn the outcome of the trial until after the election. If Trump is reelected, the trial will almost certainly not go forward. 

The federal criminal case against Trump for retaining classified documents is also stalled. Judge Aileen Cannon not only has put off hearings, she has added a hearing on June 21 to consider whether Special Counsel Jack Smith was properly appointed in the first place. She is revisiting a decision already decided in the affirmative in 2019 by the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals. She has also taken the highly unusual step of inviting three people not involved in the case to argue in that hearing: two will argue that the appointment is invalid, one will argue that it was done properly. 

Meanwhile, there were signs over the past few days of the deeply different party principles at the heart of the 2024 election. At an event to reach Black voters in what Julia Terruso and Sean Collins Walsh of the Philadelphia Inquirer described as “one of the whitest and most conservative parts of Philly,” Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL), who is Black, illustrated the grip of a fantasy idyllic past on MAGA Republicans. 

Donalds praised the Jim Crow era of American history—which was literally named for a vicious caricature of African Americans that helped to justify the lynching that characterized the period—because “during Jim Crow the Black family was together.” He blamed the Great Society programs of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, including civil rights and social welfare programs, for eroding family values. 

On the House floor, Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) urged Donalds to “check yourself before you wreck yourself.” Democratic National Committee chair Jamie Harrison was less poetic but more succinct. He wrote: “These fools have lost their damn minds….”

In the Senate, Democrats forced Republicans to vote on advancing a bill to protect access to contraception. Republicans threatened a filibuster, meaning it would take 60 votes to bring the bill forward. And so the measure failed by a vote of 51 in favor to 39 against (Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer of New York voted no so he could bring the measure up again). Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted in favor of the measure. All the other Republicans either voted no or did not vote. 

All the Republicans running for reelection this year voted no: John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Roger Wicker (R-MS). 

Some of them said they voted no because there was no danger that Republicans would attack contraception, claiming that Democrats were just “fear-mongering.” But in 2022, House Republicans overwhelmingly voted against protecting contraceptive rights, and in an interview last month, Trump said he was looking at restrictions on contraceptives before his campaign walked the statement back. Yesterday, in a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on “How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America,” a Republican witness, Dr. Christina Francis, chief executive officer of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) took the position that IUDs and Plan B emergency contraception constitute abortion and should be banned. In the Senate itself, Jodi Ernst (R-IA) has already proposed getting rid of Plan B.

A February 2024 poll showed that 80% of American voters said that protecting access to birth control was “deeply important” to them.  

For all their rhetoric about “America First,” MAGA Republicans are out of step with actual Americans. The Trump loyalists now in charge of the Republican National Committee also appear to be remarkably ill-informed about the country itself. Sam Brody, political reporter for the Boston Globe, noted yesterday that on their website promoting the Republican National Convention to be held in July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Republicans used a photograph not of Milwaukee, but of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[beautifulpersonpeach]

BPP, I've been watching the fights with yoongi solo stans and pjms and how people say you're a JM anti and remembered how your first posts on Tumblr was fighting against yoongi solo stans to defend JM 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I hope you're having a wonderful time with yoongi's tour

PS. some of us really miss your jikook posts 😉

*

Ask 2: I miss your jikook posts BPP. Has there been a jikook moment you liked recently? Do you still like jikook?

***

Hi Anon(s),

My favourite jikook moment lately has to be Letter, and the ~2 hour Jimin special Wlive that Jungkook shared with ~10 million people a short while ago.

Letter has been in constant rotation whenever I'm home - I really wish it were on Spotify. A friend of mine owns a restaurant and after hearing Letter at my place, he included Letter in the playlist he has running in the background to add to the ambiance of his restaurant. He told me recently that someone asked him who the singer was and he mentioned Jimin, and that another patron on another day recognized it to be Jimin, and that honestly made my day. Jimin's voice alone is calming, comforting, just simply beautiful. Combined with Jungkook's voice though, the song sounds even better. Their chemistry - in their interactions, in their sense of humour, in their dance and singing styles, heck even in the way they dress and their personal styling - their chemistry in every way is perfection.

Jimin is the Yin to Jungkook's Yang.

I hoped Jimin would talk more about including Jungkook on that project, but he didn't really. But Jimin also didn't have much time to promote in general so there's that. Here's to hoping we get more jikook collaboration on PJM2 and JJK1 later this year.

And Anon 1, I'd completely forgotten about those bloggers lmaooo. Thanks for reminding me. I checked in on a couple of them after seeing your ask and lol nothing had changed. Like I've been saying, people who become solos were always going to be that. There's nothing to be done for people who can't separate their egos from the personhood of the idols they claim to love, nor for people who can't check their impulse to mirror gross behaviours towards idols they claim to love. Life's too short to carry another pikin's wahala on my head.

I'm having the time of my life with Yoongi's tour going on btw. He's an excellent performer who has really come into his own. He is performing the songs he's written, composed, and produced, on a tour he's arranged from start to finish, that has received the highest critical acclaim both in Korea and internationally. Jimin saw it in him years ago and now it's reality.

*

I couldn't be prouder of this beautiful, complicated, and earnest man.

(Nobody compares. He's in a league of one.)

[weeklydrarryficrecs]

My Year in Review is Actually Just a Drarry Rec List (lol)

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

In the Shadow of Your Heart by lq_traintracks (lumosed_quill)

Summary

And thus began the very strange circumstance of their fake dating in public and real fucking in absolute secret. It was, with no comparison, the weirdest relationship Draco had ever been in – which was to say, it wasn't one. Rating: Explicit Word Count: 51881

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12282198/chapters/27917463

My Thoughts: This is one of those fics that had me (hypothetically) screaming from my rooftop over how amazing it was. Draco’s engaging voice kept the story moving and made the fic immensely comforting. This story is a cup of hot chocolate for the mind: rich, indulgent, and soothing.

Header Art generated by Wombo Dream.

35 notes - Posted July 1, 2022

#4

A Pocket Full of Stones by waterwings

Summary:

A curse is spreading through the wizarding world, erasing memories of the war. Harry Potter is on the case! Where Draco is the DMLE’s most wanted dark wizard and Harry is the private investigator tasked with bringing him in. It goes as well as one might expect. Rating: Explicit Word Count: 67983

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36210718/chapters/90265783

My Thoughts: This fic is so beautifully written. The prose, at times, reads like a Greek epic, poetic and larger than life. Draco, a consummate Dark wizard, glides through the story, captivating Harry (and me). This version of Draco is fascinating and horribly beautiful. Draco and all the characters drew me more and more into the story. It was so hard saying goodbye to this world at the end of the fic. I hope everyone reads this story! 

Header Art generated by Wombo Dream.      

38 notes - Posted August 26, 2022

#3

Life Lessons by bixgirl1

Summary

On the cusp of a promotion, Harry needs a little help with his image. Enter Draco Malfoy — who doesn't really do that, Potter — to whip him into shape… and make him feel things he hasn't for a very long time.

Featuring: odd jobs, surprising chemistry, lots of accidental kissing, the Prophet living up to type, owls exhausted by the carrying of dirty letters, a secret no one can talk about, a merry band of Slytherins (none of whom really approve), and an enchanted mirror (who really, really does). Rating: Explicit Word Count: 68378 

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19090108/chapters/45353227

My Thoughts: I absolutely loved the letters in this fic. Each letter had great pacing and captured the characters' voices so well. The "My Fair Lady" aspect and a fabulous Draco made the fic so much fun to read! Header Art generated by Wombo Dream.  

40 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

#2

Loverboys by corvuscrowned

Summary 

As post-war violence and tensions rise, it seems as if there’s no hope to unify the wizarding world. Except, maybe, a manufactured relationship between resident Saviour Harry Potter and known purveyor of the Dark Arts Draco Malfoy. (The fact that they detest each other is beside the point. But as Draco’s unrelenting mind games begin to wear him down, Harry has to remind himself that it’s all fake. The relationship is fake. The affection is fake. The pet names, the romance — even the engagement photos are fake. But there’s something in Draco’s kiss that might just be real. Word Count: 84196

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35143108/chapters/87553033

My Notes: This fic has excellent pacing, and the growth of Harry and Draco's relationship is quite satisfying. I was particularly intrigued by this post-War world's social issues and dynamics. This fic has a good mix of politics, romance, and erotic elements that make it strong. 

40 notes - Posted January 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

What We Pretend We Can't See by gyzym

Summary:

Seven years out from the war, Harry learns the hard truth of old history: it’s never quite as far behind you as you thought. Word Count: 131086

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9794657/chapters/21995357

My Thoughts: Oh my god, what a fantastic fic. I feel healed, refreshed, and reborn after reading it. Draco's dialog had me laughing alone in my room, and Harry's ruminations had me rethinking my life. This story's approach to adulting up (or more like watching your friends become adults while you're trying to figure things out) is truly gold.

115 notes - Posted June 10, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[usafphantom2]

The SR-71 was always supposed to be called the SR-71 (strategic reconnaissance); the part of the Air Force that the SR-71 flew under was SAC , which stands for Strategic Air Command.

General Curtis LeMay was the man who ruled over (SAC) he was Chief of staff of the Air Force from 1961 to 1964 ( when you have four stars, you’re just called General) . He was terrific at his job, perhaps a bit overzealous. His idea was to reward his people with spot promotions. Even if you were years below the zone, if you were doing an excellent job for SAC, you could be promoted early, as my father, Butch Sheffield, was to Major at the age of 31.

LeMay received his fourth star in 1951 at age 44; LeMay became the youngest American four-star general since Ulysses S. Grant.

After President Kennedy‘s tragic assassination, the new President Lyndon Johnson was advised about the A-12. (A for article, or Ark-Angel )12 it was primarily intended for the overflying of the Soviet Union. So, it had to remain a top-secret airplane. However, the aircraft was never flown over the Soviet Union that we know of. Because when the U-2 was shot down on May 1, 1960, the United States pledged not to fly over the Soviet Union again. Johnson decided that we needed to tell the public something about the A-12 but not the whole story. Instead, he announced that an A-11 was being introduced.The A-11 was the name of the A-12 before the last modification. The A- 11 did not exist.

This February 1964 announcement led to the YF-12s being quickly flown from Area 51 down to Edwards Air Force Base in California. They were flown down so quickly that they had to beat the Press down to Edwards. The heat from the YF-12 turned on the sprinkler system in the hanger! The YF-12 was the interceptor version of A-12.

Then on July 25, 1964, President Johnson made another announcement.

At the time, The Air Forces version of the A-12 was called the RS-71, but Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay preferred calling it SR for Strategic Reconnaissance. The designation was changed right before Johnson’s announcement, but the press materials couldn’t be updated in time. When LBJ called it the SR-71, the media speculated he’d misread the name, forcing the service to rename the plane after its Commander in Chief mistake.

President Johnson did not mix up the name.

The truth is Curtis LeMay had convinced President Johnson that this was a better name… the SR 71. So, for many years, there has been this fictitious tale going around that President Johnson had dyslexia and switched the letters from RS to SR. That is not true at all! He read the news release just as it was written and modified by General Curtis LeMay. So that’s the rest of the story.

Written by Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[space-ship-earth-crew]

Just finished the excellent 4th season of the science fiction television show For All Mankind, helmed by Ronald Moore. (screen writer for Star Trek The Next Generation) It is basically an alternate universe that begins when Russia lands the first man on the moon, and 2nd woman, taking the lead in the Cold War by coming across as the most progressive nation. This means America must double down even harder, investing billions more in the space race than what we are familiar with in our real timeline.

Because the new timeline sees Earth collectively spending more money to explore rather than prepare to wage the next World War, we see incredible tech advancements that lead to things like mass production of electric cars in the 1980s and improvements in space travel that can carry humans to mars faster than the 3 months it would take us. There is also improvements of international relations, with Russia and America close space partners, along with a very unlikely 3rd partner; North Korea.

This is one of the really beautiful things about this show. The North Koreans are befriending and finding common ground with Americans, being part of a cooperative on Mars that brings them much closer than they are on Earth!

Ronald Moore has stated that For All Mankind is an exercise in imagining how we get to Star Trek. Here is an excerpt of an interview he did for Collider in which he discusses this.

https://collider.com/for-all-mankind-season-4-ronald-d-moore-star-trek/

“We certainly talk about it thematically as the Star Trek prequel, like, how do you get to the optimistic kind of world that Star Trek lives in? You know, that kind of future. And that matters to us. Like, Star Trek posited this amazing future that we all kind of want to be a part of, but how do you get there? And so the show set out to sort of lay out the groundwork of how you get there.”

During my childhood, I sat through doomsday sermon after doomsday sermon at church, making me depressed about our fate. But through the advancement of technology, new visionaries came into being, showing US our potential of preventing doomsday to build a brighter future. Elon Musk came on the scene and revolutionized space travel, making me hopeful the masculine side of our being could inspire US to explore rather than wage the next world war, bringing a future like Star Trek closer to reality! And incredibly, Elon Musk shares the vision of For All Mankind and Star Trek, devoting his company Space X to making humanity a multi-planetary species, bringing plans for a permanent settlement on the moon and Mars closer to reality.

This is the progressive side I always hoped would win the race for our future. Elon’s Dream gave me freedom to travel America in the most amazing electric car I’ve ever had, and now he’s helping our species find freedom to travel the stars, so we can build a future and a starship without World War hell, before techno utopian heaven, visualized in the Star Trek timeline.

So please help me understand this! Among many of his progressive accomplishments, what is the intelligence and reason behind Elon Musk using the power of his social media platform, to empower Trump’s MAGA base, by promoting conspiracies like Pizzagate, and replacement theory, while restoring the megaphone of Donald Trump and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones? Why is Elon egging along the religious extremist right wing outrage machine, feeding grievances of those who can’t wait for civilization’s end, & think Trump is sent by God to guide US towards the battle of Armageddon? 🤔 It just tears me up inside that this could be happening! Cognitive dissonance of the worst kind is not how we get to Star Trek! 😣 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/star-trek-stars-sign-letter-934197/

We can’t empower end of the world religious extremism and expect to explore Mars for very long.

#ForAllMankind #ElonMusk #StarTrek #Trump

[todaysdocument]

Letter from Colonel Edward Hallowell to General Truman Seymour

Record Group 94: Records of the Adjutant General's OfficeSeries: Regimental and Company Books of Civil War Volunteer Union OrganizationsFile Unit: Regimental and Company Books of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment (Colored)

This item is a copy of a letter sent by Colonel Edward N. Hallowell to General Truman Seymour concerning the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina. It is located in the volume of letters sent by the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry.

[page number] 13 Head Quarters 54th Regt Mass Vols Morris Island S. C. Nov 7th 1863 To His Excellency John A. Andrew Governor. As yet no official information has been received in regard to the fate of Capts Russel and Simpkins, and we are obliged to drop their names from the rolls. Therefore respectfully suggest the following promotions and appointments. Major Henry W. Hooper. To be Lt. Col. vice E. W. Hallowell promoted Capt George Pope to be Major vice H. W. Hooper promoted 1st Lieut James L. Higgman to be Captain vice C. J. Russel missing in action since July 18th 1863 1st Lieut R. H. L. Jewelt to be Captain vice W. H. Simpkins missing in action since July 18th 1863 1st Lieut James W. Grace to be Captain vice George Pope promoted 2d Lieut David Reid to be 1st Lieut vice J. L. Higgman promoted 2d Lieut Edward B Enurein to be 1st Lieut vice R. H. L. Jewett promoted 2d Lieut Ezekiel Gaulbert Tomlinson to be 1st Lieut. vice James W. Grace, promoted Sergt Daniel G. Spears of 24th Regt Mass to be 2d Lieut, vice David Reid promoted Charles W Duren of 24th Mass to be 2d Lieut vice E. B. Emerson promoted Commission for Mr Dunn to be sent to care of Brig Genl T. G. Stevenson I prefer not to make any other appointments until I learn more of the character of the applicants Very Respectfully E. W. Hallowell Col 54th Mass Vols Head Quarters 54th Mass Vols Morris Island S. C. Nov 7th 1863 Brig Genl. T. Seymour Comd'g U. S. Forces Morris S. C. Genl, In answer to your request that I furnish a report of the part taken by the 54th Mass Vols in the late assault upon Fort Wagner, I have to state, During the afternoon of the 18th of July last the 54th Mass Vols Col R. G. Shaw commanding landed upon Morris Island and reported at about 6 o'clock P.M. to Brig Genl. G. C. Strong. Col Shaw's com- [command][page number] 14 mmand [command] present, consisted of a Lieut Col of the field, a Surgeon, Adjutant, and Quartermaster of the Staff. Eight Captains and Eleven Subaltern officers of the line, and six Hundred enlisted men. Genl Strong presented himself to the Regt and informed the men of the contemplated assault upon Fort Wagner, and asked them if they would lead it. They answered in the affirmative. The Regt was then formed in column by wing, at a point upon the beach, a short distance in the advance of the Beacon House. Col R. G. Shaw commanded the right wing and Lt. Col. W. W. Hallowell the left. In this formation, as the dusk of the Evening came on, the Regt advanced at quick time, leading the column, the enemy opened upon us a brisk fire, our pace now gradually increased 'till it became a run. Soon cannister and musketry began to tell upon us. With Col Shaw leading, the assault was commenced. Exposed to the direct fire of cannister and musketry and as the ramparts, were mounted, to a like fire on our flanks, the havoc made in our ranks was very great. Upon leaving the ditch for the parapet, they obstanitly [obstinately] contested with the bayonet our advance. Notwithstanding these difficulties the men succeeded in driving the enemy from most of their guns, many following the enemy into the Fort. It was here upon the crest of the parapet that Col Shaw fell; here fell Capts Russel and Simpkins; here were also most of the officers wounded. The Colors of the Regt reached the crest and were then fought for by the enemy. The State Flag then torn from its staff, but the staff remains with us. Hand Grenades were now added to the missels [missiles] directed against the men. The fight raged here for about an hour, when compeled [compelled] to abandon the Fort the men formed a line about 700 yds from the Fort under the command of Capt Luis Emilio, the 9th Captain in the line, the other Captains were either killed or wounded. The Regt then held the front until relieved by the 10th Conn Regt, at about 2 o'clock A. M. of the 19th. The assault was made upon the South Face of the Fort. [full transcript at link]

[destalva25]

#OnThisDay

28th November 1820, Friedrich Engels was born in Barmen.

I have happily survived my 71st birthday and am, all in all, healthier and stronger than 5 or 6 years since. If I go on till 1900 — though I don’t know, whether this would be a blessing or the reverse — I shall, i hope, still witness all manner of things. 

Engels' reply to Adolph Sorge's letter, 6 January 1892.

🎉 Happy Birthday Fred 🎉

Background explanations:

1. Friedrich Engels shows his interest in books. He spent his time and grew up with them, then for the next few years he expanded his knowledge to write some poems and short tale story. One day, according to his father's letter to Engels' mother, he was stressed because he found books about the story of knights in the 13th century on Engels's desk and often fearful for his excellent boy.

2. Engels was forced by his father to leave school and go into the family business. His (firm) partnership with Ermen's family in Manchester was gross and even his father tried to reduce his political activities with lot of a clerk's job, making him frustrated and angry.

3. Engels joined military service as one-year volunteer in Guards Foot Artillery and was soon promoted as a Bombardier. His experiences at military service were very useful for him to lead and fight in the insurrections. He was also an expert on military knowledge and wrote a lot of essays about it. No wonder in the future Marx and his friends called him "General".

4. His meeting with Marx changed everything. Citing from Henderson, in the past he had been disillusioned by successive idols - Hegel, Strauss, and Feuerbach - but now he had found a dynamic leader to whom he was faithful for the rest of his life.

5. Engels loves equestrial so much. He owned his own hunting horse and joined Cheshire Hunt. His activities make Marx worried about him. Marx warned him through his letter to not take too many breakneck jump and don't believe if the cavalry is the specialty in which Engels will be of the greatest service to Germany. The irony is, soon after his letter, Engels did fall from his horse and got injured.

6. The journey must be over. Engels died on 5th August 1895. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered off Beachy Head, Eastbourne.

[une-sanz-pluis]

Hi, what exactly did the royal charter excluding the Beaufort family from the throne say?

Hi! So in February 1407, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset requested that the act legitimatising him and his siblings be confirmed by Letters Patent, which he duly received. At the same time, the royal charter that legitimised the Beauforts was modified by the insertion of the words excepta dignitate regali ("except to royal dignity"). I believe the royal charter is in the Parliament Rolls of Medieval England which I don't have access to but a 19th century historian published a transcription:

Be it remembered, that on Tuesday the fifteenth day of Parliament, the Chancellor, by the King's command, declared how our Holy Father the Pope had, in reverence of the most excellent person of the King, and of his honorable uncle the Duke of Guyenne and of Lancaster, and of his blood, enabled and legitimatized Sir John de Beauford, his brothers and his sister, and that therefore our Lord the King as entire Sovereign of his Realm of England, for the honour of his blood, wills, and hath of his full royal power enabled and of his own proper authority made the said John, his said brothers and sister, muliers, and also pronounced and published the ability and legitimatization according to the form of the King's charter thereof made. The which charter was read in full Parliament and delivered to the said Duke, father of the said John, and his said brothers and sister, the tenor of which charter ensueth. Richard by the grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, to our most dear cousins the noble men, John the Knight, Henry the Clerk, Thomas 'Domicello,' and to our beloved the noble woman Joan Beaufond 'Domicelle,' the most dear relatives of our uncle the noble John Duke of Lancaster, born our lieges, greeting, and the favour of our royal majesty. Whilst internally considering how incessantly and with what honours we are graced by the very useful and sincere affection of our aforesaid uncle, and by the wisdom of his counsel, we think it proper and fit that, for the sake of his merits, and in contemplation of his favors, we should enrich you (who are endowed by nature with great probity and honesty of life and behaviour, and are begotten of royal blood, and by the divine gift are adorned with many virtues,) with the strength of our royal prerogative of favour and grace. Hence it is, that, yielding to the entreaties of our said uncle your father, we do, in the fullness of our royal power and by the assent of Parliament, by the tenor of these presents empower you, who as it is asserted suffer from the want of birthright, (notwithstanding such defect, which, and the qualities thereof, we take to be in these presents sufficiently expressed) to be raised, promoted, elected, assume, and be admitted to all honours, dignities, [except to the royal dignity] pre-eminencies, estates, degrees and offices public and private whatsoever, as well perpetual as temporal, and feodal and noble, by whatsoever names they may be designated, whether they be Duchies, Principalities, Earldoms, Baronies or other fees, and whether they depend or are holden of us mediately or immediately, and to receive, retain, bear, and exercise the same as freely and lawfully as if ye were born in lawful matrimony, and you and every of you do restore and legitimatize : any statutes or customs of our realm of England to the contraiy thereof made or observed (which we consider to be herein fully expressed) in anywise notwithstanding. (Source: Samuel Bentley, Excerpta Historica, Or Illustrations of English History (1831))

Wars of the Roses historians generally credit this addition to Henry IV, historians of Henry IV to Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury who was no Beaufort fan and in a powerful position during this time due to Henry IV's illness.

[politicsareimportante]

So The Grammys Happened 2 Days Ago

And I have two things to say. This is normally a politics-only blog, but this is relevant to politics.

I didn't watch the Grammys, but a lot of my peers were talking about it yesterday, so I watched some clips.

Some people spoke or showed their support for Palestine. Boygenius, a rock band, wore ceasefire pins. Annie Lennox called for a ceasefire during her performance. Some people at the Grammys had earlier signed the Artists4Ceasefire letter and/or released pro-Palestine statements. I believe Lucy Dacus, a member of Boygenius, is very active on social media in advocating for Palestine.

So yes, people whose job is not politics can make political statements. I do think if you have millions of followers and a devoted fanbase, it is your responsibility to speak out during this time! Multiple genocides are occurring right now! How can a person with such power in the eyes of the media and their fans, stay silent? A single post supporting Palestine from one of these extremely famous people would drive millions of people to also start speaking up for Palestine.

Annie Lennox's statement got cut off, and then it was completely covered up by Taylor Swift's album announcement. I don't think it was Taylor Swift's intention to cover up Annie Lennox's call for a ceasefire. However, since she is a self-proclaimed feminist, one would think that she would use her massive media presence and influence to speak out for Palestine, which is very much a feminist issue. She seems to only speak about things when she is affected, and this is similar to all the other white feminists who are still buying Starbucks and staying quiet. Many people have already said this so many times, but you should be speaking out right now. Don't call yourself a feminist if you're staying silent. Don't call yourself a good person if you're staying silent.

My second point is unrelated to Palestine, but I do think it is relevant to our society and politics. White mediocrity is rewarded over Black excellence, every single time. This especially affects Black women. I say Jay-Z's statement about how Beyoncé has won the most Grammys, but never the Album of the Year award. Let me be clear, I am very critical of Jay-Z and Beyoncé, because they are billionaires, and both are remaining silent during this genocide, but this was a true statement. Beyoncé's awards are mostly in "urban" categories. Despite having some albums that not only changed the game, but also had a great cultural impact (and were just great albums), has never won the "big" Album of the Year award. She has a lot of awards, but I think Black women in general are just snubbed for this "major" awards. I looked it up, and the last time a Black woman won Album of the Year was 1999. 25 years ago.

Midnights, by Taylor Swift, was a good album, at best. SOS, by SZA, was a great album. SOS should have won. And there is a history of white artists winning awards over Black artists! Renaissance, by Beyoncé, lost to Harry's House, by Harry Styles. Yes, Harry's House has some fun songs, but Renaissance absolutely blew it out of the water. And there are so many more examples. And yes, I understand that the Grammys Awards are not as prestigious as they seem, but still! This is not just an issue with music, but in society. A Black person working at a company could be doing twice as much work as a white person but the white person would get the promotion. And it's so frustrating to see this! People of color, especially Black people, especially Black women, always have to give 110% to even be acknowledged, but a white person could come along with any mediocre effort and would get rewarded over the person giving 110%. Often in competitive industries for awards, I see the sort of idea that "you just shouldn't go if you don't like it" but a person should be able to go and compete. They should be able to go, and still criticize it.

And yes, SZA won other awards, but she did deserve that Album of the Year. She was very gracious and said that she didn't need it, and I do think she was excited to just be there. However, people of color also always must be "grateful" and "gracious" because they aren't given the same sort of slack that their white peers are. BTS, a Korean band, posted a video of them losing at the Grammys and they got commenters telling them to "go back to Korea" (yes, that is racist). I believe Drake once criticized the Grammys and he was called ungrateful by so many. In the comments under the video of Jay-Z's statement, there were quite a few people saying that he should be grateful for what he has, and that he was arrogant and entitled.

And yes, there are plenty of white artists/people whose work is not given proper recognition. However, this post is to discuss the racism towards people of color.

At the end of the day, the Grammys is just not that important. However, it exemplifies how Black people are treated in our society.

I don't really have a good conclusion to write, and I know that this post is way different than my normal posts. I apologize for this long, very different-than-normal post. I just wanted to share these thoughts.

*Some of these artists who I listed may be problematic; I don't know much about them besides hearing their music. If one of the artists I listed positively/said they were a victim of racism has done problematic behavior, I do not support that behavior. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that they either spoke out/are a victim of racism.

[blowflyfag]

WWF RAW MAGAZINE: OCTOBER 1998

is Austin the Greatest of all time?

by Kevin Kelly

FOR EVERY man who has won the World Wrestling Federation Championship, there should be virtual reverence. There is no greater pinnacle in the industry of professional wrestling, sports-entertainment or whatever you want to call it. From Buddy Rogers to Kane, no champion’s reign should be taken for granted. They’ve done what few others can ever claim. They were World Wrestling Federation Champions. But of all the greats who have held the title, who’s the best of them all?

I know that this is going to be a subject of debate and perhaps strong opposition in the “Letters to the Editor” department… but that’s fine. Any discussion of “who is the best?” at anything is purely speculative, unless those being compared meet face to face. But speculation has merit if it’s backed up with fact.

I’ve shortened the list of all-time greats to the six champions many consider to have had the most impact. The six to be considered are Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin. All six are certain first-ballot Hall of Famers who have held the title on more than one occasion and were with the title than without. The obvious omission is the Undertaker, but he would still be the Phenom whether he had ever won the Federation Championship or not.

To me, Bruno and Backland were identical. Both were mirror images who reflected the times, but as wrestlers go neither was perfect. Both fought a slew of enemies from foreign lands and persevered despite evil managers conjuring up obstacles and new foes along the way. Both had one fatal flaw, however. Sammartino was very one dimensional as far as his attack strategy. Despite his predictable brawling style, he had a flair and he could make everyone in the crowd feel his pain. Backlund was just the opposite. Blessed with technical genius, the Minnesota native was cursed with a rigid personality.

In 1984, the regional promotion grew worldwide and Hulk Hogan was the centerpiece, Himself a symbol of the wretched excess that was the decade of the 80s, Hogan was by far the worst wrestler ever to be crowned Federation Champion. However, he had a multitude of charisma and “Hulkamania” was the rallying point with his act and unfortunately, whether it was his fault or the company’s, his character never evolved. Despite his faults, Hulk Hogan’s impact was so strong that some casual fans still think he’s Federation Champion, despite the fact that he is many years removed from his last reign.

From there, champions with impact were neither good or bad, but shades of grey. Bret Hart wore the Federation Championship belt on five separate occasions, but perhaps he is best remembered for turning against his fans before leaving the company in disgrace in late 1997. The “Excellence of Execution” was globally the most popular champion ever, but perhaps never shook off the loss he suffered in the Ironman match at WrestleMania XII.

[(From left to right) Bret Hart was never able to shake off his loss to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XII. During his reign, Shawn went from living his “boyhood dream” to telling fans to “Suck it!” By far the worst wrestler to be crowned champion, Hulk Hogan had the charisma to make him a marketing success at the time.]

The man Hart lost to began his championship era by talking about his “boyhood dream.” By the end of his third reign, Shawn Michaels was telling people to “Suck it!” HBK certainly evolved while wearing the gold and always elicited a very strong emotional response from the crowd–be it positive or negative. Shawn didn’t care whether you liked him–he just wanted you to care. Michaels knew he was the man and his “Kliq”, which evolved into D-Generation X, certainly had a prominent role in behind-the-scenes politics as well. Just as with the fans, he didn’t care whether the office liked him or not–as long as they did things his way.

That brings us to Stone Cold Steve Austin, who has gained the most recognition as Federation Champion since Hulk Hogan. Whether it’s the cover of TV Guide, a plethora of appearances on MTV or half-time at the Super Bowl… wherever you go, you see Stone Cold Steve Austin. As a matter of fact, Austin has sold more merchandise than any other Federation Champion–past, present and, most likely, future. He is the closest thing to a cultural phenomenon since Elvis Presly. But unlike every other champion on this list, the King–who was disliked by older Americans–there is one thing that separates Stone Cold Steve Austin and, in my opinion, raises him slightly above the rest.

Quite simply, it’s universal appeal. Every former champ had a segment of the fans who didn’t care much for him. In some areas of the South, Hulk Hogan would be booed out of the arenas. In more hardcore climates, the “Sexy Boy” was jeered. In fact, many blame Shawn’s loss of the Federation Title at the 1996 Survivor Series on the New York fans for getting on him so badly. Bret Hart was always more popular in foreign countries than in the United States. Both Sammartino and Backlund were regional champions, despite their long reigns at the top of the Federation.

Put your finger anywhere on the map and that part of the world loves Stone Cold Steve Austin. His cross-cultural appeal, I think, can be attributed to his fundamental work ethic, his defiance of authority and the belief that he is a true tough guy. In the 1950s, John Wayne movies were popular all over the globe, despite cultural and linguistic differences. Why? He killed bad guys and didn’t take crap from anybody. You don’t need to understand English to get that.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin’s popularity can be attributed to his cross-cultural appeal, his defiance of authority (e.g., stunning the owner!) and the complete honesty with which his character is presented.]

Stone Cold Steve Austin has never changed. He has, does and always will flip middle fingers at the crowd and his boss. His language is offensive to the more refined and his rampant “adult beverage” consumption makes network executives and the Federation’s owner cringe. Perhaps it’s the complete honesty with which his character is presented that contributes to his appeal. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine us thinking that all former champions on this list were entirely good. That outdated, naive way of thinking went out the window when Austin 3:!6 opened up his first can of whoop-ass.

Certainly those omitted from this list of all-time greatest are going to be topic of controversy and debate. But I doubt that anyone will deny the impact Stone Cold Steve Austin has had. He is the greatest Federation Champion of all time, in my opinion. Does the man who beats the man become the next “greatest”? Perhaps. He just better find a way to command the respect and admiration of everybody who pays to see him.

[tanadrin]

After uniting the Hamaran-speaking states in western Altuum, the prince Ghwailan engaged in a program of prestige-building that included promoting the Hamaran language and literature; to that end, he brought to his court Khnimor ja Damras, the renowned polymath, and charged him with creating a native orthography for the Hamaran tongue, to replace the clumsily adapted southern letters that were until then used in the (rare) production of Hamaran-language documents.

Khnimor set about the task with enthusiasm; he tried first a logographic system (as most aspiring lettersmiths do); finding it clumsy, he then tried a syllabic system, then an alphabetic one. He was determined to create for Ghwailan a system of surpassing usefulness and elegance, and he was something of a perfectionist. Eventually, he decided that he needed to embark on a program of study to understand the nature of sounds in language at the most basic level. He spent years studying phonetics, comparing the orthographies of various languages, and producing and discarding one system of writing after another.

Finally, at the end of this project, he produced what are called now the Khnimoran Lettters. They were an attempt to create a writing system capable of phonemically representing every language in the world, or at least every language Khnimor knew of. Individual symbols, which were clearly distinguishable but quick to write, could be composed together to indicate place and manner of articulation, voice, and other features; and by the study of basic elements, one could learn to represent hundreds of unique sounds.

Unfortunately, the result was not especially useful for Hamaran, and Ghwailan had become incredibly irritatd with Khnimor's perfectionism; he charged a different court official with implementing a basic spelling reform, and Khnimor's letters were never used in Hamara, or anywhere else in his lifetime. The linguists of the south rediscovered the letters a generation or two later, however, and found them an excellent basis for a phonemic orthography, for use in the study of languages; over time, they became the scholarly standard in Nebressa, Sayyedhu, and many other places for phonemic representation of languages, and the basis for more elaborate systems of phonetic representation.

In respect to the International Phonetic Alphabet, the Khnimoran Letters have some deficincies. They cannot represent some very fine phonetic details: they do not indicate relative features like "less rounded" or "more rounded;" they do not distinguish different kinds of release, or syllabicity; linguolabial sounds cannot be represented, and taps, flaps, and trills are all written with the same symbols. Some of these limits are down to the more limited aspirations of Khnimor, who was not trying to create as detailed a phonetic scheme of representation as the International Phonetic Association of our own world; others, due to limits in languages known to him and to later scholars--clicks and implosivs were known to Khnimor, but not complex tone systems.

The core symbols of the Letters are meant to be easily recognizable and quick to write. The consonants are abstract, being largely unrelated to their meaning; the vowels, however, are loosely based on a representation of where they are in the perceptual vowel space, represented as a two-dimensional grid. The primary features represented are place of articulation (bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, postalveolar, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, and glottal) and manner of articulation (plosive stop, implosive stop, click, lateral click, ejective stop, nasal, tap/trill, fricative, ejective fricative, lateral fricative, approximant, and lateral approximant). A place or manner symbol can stand on its own for any sound of that class. Additional marks can distinguish voicing (unvoiced, voiced, breathy voiced, creaky voiced), or features like labialization or palatalization.

The current standard of the Khnimoran Phonemic Alphabet (as it is now called) is maintained by the University of Presh, lightly altered and slightly extended. The main KPA chart shows the base symbols and ligatures for regularly encountered combinations; marginal or impossible groupings are omitted. The version shown here adds the specifically voiced forms of the consonants to show where the voicing diacritic is usually positioned, and the vowels in both their short and long forms. Rounded vowels are marked using the labialization sign.

Khnimoran Letters (consonants)

Khnimoran Letters (vowels)

The most commonly encountered diacritics, shown below, are labialization, palatalization, velarization, and pharyngealization (shown above the main character); aspiration and nasalization (shown below), and additional voicing marks (here, creaky, breathy, and unvoiced).

[nordleuchten]

24 Days of La Fayette: December 23rd – Presley Neville

Presley Neville (1756-1818) came from a wealthy and prominent Virginian family that had senior members serving with George Washington during the French and Indian War.

Presley was born on September 6, 1756 in Winchester, Virginia. He was the only surviving son and oldest child of General John Neville and Winifred (Oldham) Neville. The two had married on August 24, 1754. The family moved from Frederick County in Virginia to the outskirts of Pittsburgh in about 1775. Despite this, the men fought in the Virginia line of the Continental Army and not in the Pennsylvania line.

Neville was one of La Fayette’s earliest aide-de-camps when he joined the Marquis’ staff in December of 1777. The early months of his service were unremarkably but we have a number of letters that he copied for La Fayette. But things soon became rather more exciting.

In October of 1778, La Fayette desired promotions for his aide-de-camps, but out of the four men he recommended, only his two American aide-de-camps, Edmund Brice (day 1) and Neville received promotions. George Washington wrote in a letter to Henry Laurens on October 30, 1778:

“To George Washington from Henry Laurens, 30 October 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 17, 15 September–31 October 1778, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, pp. 647–649.] (06/07/2023)

When La Fayette planned to return to France for the first time since joining the army, he requested that Neville would be permitted to accompany him. He wrote to Washington on January 1, 1779:

This letter will be delivered to your excellency by Mr. Nevill may aid de Camp whom I beg you to favor with a leave of absence for joining me in France. Besides the affection I have for that gentleman, I also think this voyage may forward the public good as he will be intrusted with those dispatches Congress is going to send. (…) I also intreat your friendship not to forget writing to me, and if you grant the leave I solicit for Mr. Nevill his arrival with letters from you will make me extremely happy.

Gottschalk, Bill, editors, The Letters of Lafayette to Washington,1777-1779, The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1976, p. 73.

Washington granted La Fayette’s request and he then told friends like Hamilton that Neville was joining him in France. He even wrote the Comte de Vergennes on May 23, that he was expecting three American and one French officer. The only problem; Neville never did leave America, and La Fayette was not aware of this fact.

Washington wrote to La Fayette on March 8-10, 1779:

(…) I have not had the Letters returned to me by Majr Neville, who I am told (but this is no excuse) is indisposed at Fish-kill (…)

“From George Washington to Major General Lafayette, 8–10 March 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 19, 15 January–7 April 1779, ed. Philander D. Chase and William M. Ferraro. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, pp. 401–405.] (06/07/2023)

The postscript of the same letter reads:

I have this moment receivd the letters which were in the hands of Majr Neville; accompanied by yr favors of the 7th & 11th of Jany. the Majr himself is not yet arrived at head Qrs; being, as I am told, very sick (…)

This is quite the peculiar statement since La Fayette himself was severely indisposed in Fishkill prior to leaving America – and Neville’s luck was far from improving over the coming months.

La Fayette wrote on June 12, 1779 to Washington:

I don’t know what is Become of Cle. Nevill and the Cher. de La Colombe. I beg you would make some inquiries for them, and do any thing in your power for theyr speedy exchange in case they have been taken.

Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 2, April 10, 1778–March 20, 1780, Cornell University Press, 1978, p. 278.

Washington replied on September 30, 1779:

Colo. Neville called upon me about a month since and was to have dined with us the next day but did not come, since which I have not seen him nor do I know at this time where he is. He had then but just returned from his own home & it was the first time I had seen him since he parted with you at Boston. It is probable he may be with the Virginia Troops which lye at the mouth of Smith’s Cloves abt. 30 mile from hence.

Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 2, April 10, 1778–March 20, 1780, Cornell University Press, 1978, p. 315.

Neville served for a time as lieutenant-colonel in the 8th Virginia Regiment. He became a prisoner of War on May 12, 1780 after the Fall of Charlestown together with John Laurens. He was quickly paroled and finally exchanged in May of 1781. La Fayette instructed the Chevalier de La Luzerne on June 20, 1780:

May I presume to ask you to convey a million compliments to Monsieur de Marbois and to find out if the son of Colonel Neville, called Lieutenant Colonel Presley Neville, my former aide-de-camp, is among the prisoners?

Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 3, April 27, 1780–March 29, 1781, Cornell University Press, 1980, p. 57.

La Fayette also wrote to Nathanael Greene on November 10, 1780:

I have a Request to Make, My dear Sir, Which is extremely interesting to me. Young Nevile, My aid de camp, a Captain By Commission, and a Lieutenant Colonel By Brevet was taken as a Volonteer at Charlestown. The General has told me that you was invested with full Powers to treat for the Southern Prisoners. Nothing, May Give me a Greater pleasure than to have My poor Nevile out of the Scrape which his zeal and Bravery have thrown him into. I was thinking of writing to him, But upon Recollection Believe it More advantageous to his exchange that No Notice Be taken of him till he has obtain’d his freedom.

Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 3, April 27, 1780–March 29, 1781, Cornell University Press, 1980, p. 224.

Neville was not permitted to leave the city of Philadelphia as part of his parole. But when La Fayette was himself in Philadelphia, the two men met and the Marquis was more determined than ever to get his “favourite” back. He consulted Washington on this matter on December 9, 1780:

I have found here Lt. Clel. Nevill my old aid de camp. He came with Gal. Woodfort to Newyork. It is said that Gal. Lincoln’s aids have been exchang’d and that it is generally the case with aids de camp to Gal. officers actually in our service. I warmly desire to have him. I am told Cornwallis has no powers to treat those matters. Can you, my dear general, think of some method to get him out which it is proper for me to take? I am more than ever puzzled, my dear general, to know what to do.

Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 3, April 27, 1780–March 29, 1781, Cornell University Press, 1980, p. 254-255.

Washington replied to La Fayette on December 14, 1780:

It would add to my pleasure if I could encourage your hope of Colo. Nevilles exchange. I refused to interest myself in the exchange of my own aid. Genl. Lincoln’s were exchanged with himself, and upon that occasion (for I know of no other) Congress passed a resolve prohibiting exchanges out of the order of captivity.

Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 3, April 27, 1780–March 29, 1781, Cornell University Press, 1980, p. 259.

After his exchange in May of 1781, Nevill returned to serve as La Fayette’s aide-de-camp during July of 1781 – until he was captured again. La Fayette wrote on August 12, 1781 to Nathanael Greene:

I May add that Clel. Nevill and Mr. Langhorne Being prisoners, I Have No aid de Camp But McHenry and Washington, But I am willing to give up My interest to your wishes, and McHenry's Remaining Some time with me is owing to an other Circumstance.

Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 4, April 1, 1781–December 23, 1781, Cornell University Press, 1981, p. 319.

The details of Neville’s second capture are unknown. He was released sometimes in 1782 and as far as I can tell never returned to serve under La Fayette. Instead, he married Nancy Morgan, the daughter of General Daniel Morgan in 1782 and they moved with their family to a house known as Woodville about six miles west of Pittsburgh. Their home was situated on the banks of the Chartiers Creek and Neville’s father lived on the opposite site of the creek. Around 1794 he served as inspector for the Allegheny County militia. His county also saw a great opposition to the Act repealing, after the last day of June next, the duties heretofore laid upon Distilled Spirits imported from abroad, and laying others in their stead; and also upon Spirits distilled within the United States, and for appropriating the same, better known as the act that raised taxes on alcohol distilled within the United States. Both Presley Neville as well as his father General John Neville found themselves the victims of attacks and threats during the Whisky Rebellion. It did not help much that Neville was the agent for procuring whiskey for the army.

On December 10, 1819, shortly after his father’s death, Neville’s son Morgan Neville addressed himself to Thomas Jefferson with a particular interest:

The Motive for my present communication, must plead my Excuse for intruding upon you, & the history of your Life, is a pledge to every American, that the humblest request will be attended to.

I am the Representative of the late General D. Morgan of Virginia, to whom Congress presented a gold Medal for the battle of the Cowpens. This descended to me as the eldest male Grandchild of this officer. Unfortunately, a Bank, in which the Medal was deposited, was last year robbed, & this with many other valuable articles belonging to me, was taken. I have lost all hopes of recovering it, as I have reason to believe that one of the Robbers threw it into the St Lawrence: I leave it to you, sir, to judge of my mortification since this event.

I have determined to petition Congress, through my friend, the honorable Henry Baldwin, to pass a Resolution authorizing me to have one struck at my Expense; as my situation however, at present would not permit me to take advantage of such a resolution, without having the original Die, I have written on the subject to Mr Gallatin, & to the Marquis de la Fayette, whose Aid de Camp, my father the late General Presley Neville was, in “77. Since writing to these gentlemen it has occurred to me that, as the Medals voted by Congress were executed under your direction, you might be able to assist me with your advice; if I be not mistaken you employed on that occasion three artists; Duvivier, Dupré, & Cateau. My Grandfather’s was executed by Dupré. Any information which you may have the goodness to give me as to where these dies were deposited; whose property you consider them; the possibility of my procuring the one I want, & what course I ought to pursue, will be most gratefully acknowledged by me. By gratifying me with a reply to this communication, you will lay me under a most serious obligation.

“Morgan Neville to Thomas Jefferson, 10 December 1819,” Founders Online, National Archives, [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 15, 1 September 1819 to 31 May 1820, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018, pp. 276–278.] (06/07/2023)

[minervacollegiate]

So where does Matpat tie into this?

Matpat is the mastermind of DR: Minerva Collegiate. Absolutely he killed all those people.

Minerva Collegiate was conceived of before The Detective was decided on as the game’s mastermind, but truly it couldn’t have worked with any other character. As soon as he was decided upon the entirety of the game’s plot was designed around his character and motivations. He has become the absolute star of our friend group as a result - those who went through Minerva Collegiate have an incredibly special attachment to him that simply can’t be explained.

To clarify, this is Matthew “The Detective” Patrick, the character Matpat played in Escape The Night, but as the line is always a bit blurred here this obviously extends to the main man himself as well. None of the characters nor their writers are remotely normal about him. ESPECIALLY hit Detective writer @lazarus-harp, who is honestly one of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met in general. 

Matpat, if you’re ever reading this by some miracle, just know that you mean so much to such a niche group of people and it has permanently changed our bond and the trajectory of our lives.

Did you say he’s a murderer?

As written in Minerva, Matthew Patrick is an only child for whom loneliness and seeking approval are defining traits, despite the fact that he grew up in a relatively normal household. He found growing up that excelling in school and following rules got him lauded by his parents and teachers, and developed a fixation on gaining that approval and love, as well as a generally black and white view of the world. 

In high school, he found himself drawn to drama club, and in desiring companionship and the approval of his peers, generally loved keeping an audience focused on him. He wanted to be adored, and became a people pleaser - learning everyone’s names, sitting amongst all the cliques and generally doing everything he could to be liked by as many people as possible. Despite this, he found it hard to form deep relationships that lasted.

In a bakery in college (while studying criminal justice, psychology and theatre), he met Rosanna, who would become his best friend and favorite person. She would eventually be the one to introduce him to Joey, although the two at first wouldn’t get along due to Mat’s jealousy issues. Following a particularly bad first meeting, Mat joined the police academy and busied himself with training. Eventually, Ro would coax Mat into hanging out with Joey again, and while they weren’t particularly close, he eventually considered him a friend.

By the time Mat received the status of Detective, however, Joey would disappear. Unbeknownst to Mat, this is when the events of ETN seasons one and two take place. Mat continued investigating Joey’s disappearance outside of his own work hours, taking the situation extremely personally and finding himself unable to let it go.

Mat worked for two years with the police before eventually being called in for a promotion - signing on to Minerva Collegiate’s own task force. Unbeknownst to him, this position would entail much more untoward things than he was prepared for.

Because students in Minerva Collegiate were under a lot of pressure. Often, gruesome incidents would pop up. Murders, suicides, and disappearances were known to happen, and Mat’s role was effectively to cover them up. It was said, after all, that the entire school and everything it stood for would be in jeopardy if the truth were to be made public, so discretion was key. As much as Mat hated hiding the truth, especially from the families of the missing or dead, he had little choice. And, eventually, it would be clear where many of those students ended up… underneath the grounds of Minerva Collegiate, as part of their experiments to create soldiers of hope. 

Eventually, Mat would receive a letter from the long-missing Joey Graceffa, one that initially raised some eyebrows. But Mat couldn’t resist the allure of mystery, especially not once Rosanna showed up to his house with the same note. Together, they ventured to Everlock, unaware of just how drastically their lives would change in the next few hours. The beginning of the night was magical, getting to pass the hours around a campfire, at a carnival, with seven new friends and two old ones. It was short-lived, however, as the night soon plunged the ten newcomers into a horrific death game, where they were forced to vote each other into challenges in which one of the two people voted in would perish. Mat, unwilling to die for a mission he believed he hadn’t signed up for, knew he had to do whatever it took to survive, even if he was hard-pressed to admit that cutthroat fact to himself. He took on the persona of a Boy Scout: kind, remorseful, and always on top of puzzles. Knowing, of course, that if he even got one vote, there was a chance he could go in, and if he picked the wrong people to fight for him, potentially killed. To make matters worse, they only had until sunrise before the entire town is destroyed, and everyone in their group with it.

Halfway through the night, Mat’s strength was put to the test. When asked who the strongest in the group was, it was obvious that Manny, the Record Producer, surpassed everyone by leagues. Knowing this, and already suspicious of Joey for having invited the group to a town where they would be expected to die, Mat tried to throw the other two under the bus when it came time for voting. With the pressure on, Joey confessed that, after he had died the year prior, a group called the Society Against Evil had approached him with a deal. If he managed to save Everlock, he would be able to save his own life. The girls in the group were swayed by the story, and Mat bitterly slammed down his detective badge before being forced to enter the challenge with Manny.

Mat’s death was brutal, the first of the executions to be witnessed live by the rest of the team. In his dying moments, he begged his friends to look for the Lazarus coins. An hour and a half later, it became clear that the group had heeded his words, finding enough coins to bring back one of their fallen. Mat was, to put it simply, indebted to the group, flabbergasted that they would choose him out of any of the other people that had died that night. Mat had loved every person in the group, but those who remained, who had brought him back from the dead, had a special place in his heart. The deaths of Safiya, Rosanna, and Manny were all ones that prodded deeply at an oversensitive heart, especially when Mat was told in no uncertain terms that he may be deemed expendable to the group due to having already died. Despite the odds, however, Mat does manage to free Everlock, leaving himself, Nikita, and Joey as the survivors of that night.

That should have been the end of things, but it wasn’t. It turns out that Joey had recovered an artifact with the power to bring lost souls back from the dead, and, obsessed with this new mission, Mat joined the Society Against Evil in the hopes that he could revive everyone that was lost to Everlock. During that year, Mat had been branded with the Society’s symbol, belittled, and trained to be one of their soldiers. It was painful work, but he gritted his teeth through it, knowing that at the end of it all, he would be happily reunited with the people he now considered to be his best and only friends. But when the day of the rescue mission arrived, Mat was barred from participating, forced to hang out on the sidelines due to the portal to purgatory closing earlier than anticipated. To make matters worse, when he was finally allowed entry as a “guardian angel”, Mat failed to save the person he was trying to protect, watching in horror as a monster advanced to kill her. By the end of the night, they’d all but finished what they’d started. Two people had entered the portal, and two people had left it.

Poisoned by grief and despair, Mat left the Society Against Evil and quit working as a detective altogether, returning to the only place he could think to go: Minerva Collegiate. This time, he worked as a researcher in the underbellies of the school, with his cover-up position being a humble attendance secretary. It was a nice job. He got to interact with students, had the position of the moral support, the shoulder to cry on, when the disciplinarians got too out of hand. But over time, the role weighed on him. How could he possibly commit these heinous acts for the greater good, when he knew what organizations looking out for the greater good were really like? The Society Against Evil hadn’t really cared about any of their agents or the lives they were sacrificing. Over time, Mat grew more and more disgusted with himself, until one day, things reached a breaking point.

The global Tragedy was raging on, and Minerva Collegiate had been officially shut down. However, underground, the staff was working harder than ever to create an army of talented soldiers. And one day, Mat saw his chance. In a fit of impulsivity, he managed to tip one of the students off to what they were really being trained for. After that, the uprising couldn’t be stopped by anything. When the students fought back, it was bloody. Most of the students died, with only three surviving, but thanks to Mat, they had managed to capture fourteen staff members (and one innocent that had somehow snuck into the fray). In the two years that followed, Mat and these three students would plot their revenge: a killing game simulation fashioned after the very ones that had characterized the Tragedy.

It was decided that Mat would control the mascot from the outside, granting him a role similar to Junko Enoshima in the original killing game. The three students would enter the program themselves: two posing as students in the class, and one as a staff member, all for the express purpose of torturing those people who had once tortured them. And Mat himself designed an AI, a student in his likeness to infiltrate the ranks as well.

Maybe it wasn’t a good plan. Maybe it wasn’t what they needed. Maybe it wasn’t even what they wanted. But it was a plan, wasn’t it?