#volunteer for bernie

[thisiswhereikeepdcthings]

Bernard is the one who handles the spiders. Tim can handle many things, but spiders is not one of them

He can’t handle them *well.*

He, of course, protests this statement. C4 and swords stolen from his brother are perfectly acceptable solutions, Bernard

[bsaka7]

Where would you most like to visit in the world?

What’s your favourite memory?

When did you get into f1?

1) i really would love to go to Egypt... I was going to study abroad in Jordan pre-covid but it got canceled :(. I wrote a couple papers related to Cairo in school and would love, love, love to visit some day... test my godawful Arabic... etc. But I want to go like... anywhere... everywhere...

2) honestly... maybe my last robotics competition as a student... we lost in the like...the group stage finals I guess??? and I was like sad obv but it was also like... the culmination of something that I cared about so incredibly deeply and like a team of ppl I loved. nothing else comes close. it's hard to describe how much it mattered in like the world i inhabit now... I don't regret not going into engineering but like. Idk. I'll probably never love anything in that way ever again. That's pretty special.

3) summer 2021... roomie never around... was bored... started dts... watched a race... got hooked... nothing special. Needed something to be obsessed with lol. Missed sports.

[mesetacadre]

The anti-imperialism posting experience

🚩 read-parenti

I hate the US so fucking much you wouldn't believe. The CIA killed my grandfather for trying to organize a union in the british-owned textile factory. To this day they keep my entire continent poor.

🦝 genderqueer-bernie 🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣 follow

Hey OP I like this post but uhhhh

You're not the only one oppressed by neoliberalism

Middle class Americans got screwed over by Reagan

Corporate profits are at an all time high and we need solidarity more than ever

So instead of hating on Jessica from Idaho we should all work together against Power. Volunteer at a soup kitchen! Attend your local protests! Join the DSA!

#not ninjago #vote blue #progressive #social justice #sj #dsa

[infamousbrad]

Biden's "Dean Scream"?

A week and a half ago, I was convinced that "Biden had one bad debate performance" was going to be a 3-day story. But now I see why it wasn't. (I mean, aside from the fact that summer is Silly Season in US journalism.) How well do you remember Howard Dean's final run for the Democratic nomination?

Howard Dean was a "progressive" by the standards of his time, that is to say, slightly to the left of, say, Richard Nixon at a time when the post-Bill-Clinton center-right wing of the Democratic Party totally controlled the nomination process, and he was running on an FDR-liberal type platform.

And the press spent the whole time he was in the race asking him the same question over and over again, "Does this mean that you're angry at the 'Third Way' Democrats? I'll bet you're angry at Bill Clinton and the 'Third Way' Democrats? Governor Dean, why don't you say a word about how angry you are?" Because if he was still running against "militant centrism" in a post-liberal party, he must be angry, right?

But he really wasn't. I never saw him actually get angry that whole campaign. He was happy to have inspired so many volunteers, and proud of his plan to rejuvenate the state-party apparatuses in written-off "red states," and never not happy to talk to a reporter, any reporter. Which was all the proof they needed to show that he was not only angry, he was nefarious. Because they couldn't imagine any plausible reason why anybody would go to as much effort as he did unless they were genuinely angry.

After the New Hampshire primary, he stood up in front of a group of his campaign volunteers to cheer them on, and they handed him a defective microphone. So he screamed his cheers into the dead microphone, so the volunteers in the back could hear him over the din. But the press microphones? Worked. And he didn't sound excited, he sounded deranged. And I swear to God, 100% of the political press reported it as "Howard Dean finally reveals his inner anger," even though the video shows him grinning and smiling like a child on Christmas.

Why could nothing disprove the "Howard Dean is the Angry Candidate" theory before, why was evidence to the contrary taken as proof it was true?

Because it fit the pre-existing narrative.

Look, we have never not known that Biden's age was going to be a problem. Even as he was sweeping the primaries in 2020, it came up. That's where the "he knows he's too old, he's just reassuring older voters that the party is normal, he's going to step aside for Kamala Harris" rumor got started, remember that? No matter how many times Biden himself denied it?

And if there was any truth to it, there's no point to it now. She hasn't gotten any better at either of the president's jobs, not at public speaking nor at shepherding legislation, so unsurprisingly she polls even worse than Biden.

Should Biden be replaced because he's getting slower and more mumbly as he ages? Did Reagan? He sailed to easy re-election despite the fact he was visibly declining by the end of his first term, way faster than Biden is now. His White House Chief of Staff, Howard Baker, was, by all accounts, acting president for at least three years, making sure that the last person to talk to Reagan before he had to make a decision was the person Baker thought that Reagan would have agreed with if he could remember anything that was happening around him.

(It's not even the most extreme example in US national politics: look up stories about Strom Thurmond's last term in the Senate, which was full-on "Weekend at Bernie's.")

An entirely senile top official who put a good team into place before he sundowned can do a perfectly good job. And trying to replace him would just hand the election to Trump. So no, even if he were as tired and confused as the press and jealous Democrats are painting him, that wouldn't be a good reason to replace him, not at this late of a date.

(If the entire party apparatus had discussed this behind closed doors and agreed to set up, say, Michigan's governor Whitmer or Pennsylvania's governor Shapiro as an agreed-upon backup candidate in case something like this happened, and gotten it done no later than, say, spring of '23, we'd have a minimally plausible option. But we didn't, so we don't. The choice isn't Biden or someone better, it's Biden vs Trump or Trump unopposed.)

But even given how weak-sauce the argument that a few verbal slips and mutters mean that Biden can't perform the duties of the president is, I suddenly realize now why it wasn't a three-day story. Just like the Dean Scream, he handed them the proof they needed of something they've been saying for four years, long before it was true, and everybody loves being "proved" right. Because, as I always say:

Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug.

[smitethestate]

"If voting was worthless they wouldn't be trying to make it harder."

"If voting worked they'd make it illegal."

Okay these are both fun slogans but let's talk about what really happened here in the US.

First they made it so only white landowning men could vote. Then over the years other groups of people kept fighting for the right to vote and winning and the white landowning men were like "fuck well we can't defeat the masses outright on this so we'll just make a bunch of rules that make it hard for them to vote." And the oppressed masses fought against those too and won a bunch of gains on the issue like the Civil Rights Act.

So the powerful learned from their mistakes and made other, more subtle rules to make it harder to vote as the two parties battled back and forth to win the most power and influence and corporate donor money.

Republicans fought by making it as hard as possible to vote because they tend to win when less people vote, and especially when only the privileged with a lot of money and free time can manage it.

Democrats fought by trying to get more people to vote, but it's a bit more complicated than that. They're still beholden to wealthy corporate donors, so they can't just let pure democracy happen. They can't let real leftists become presidential nominees or allow real leftist policy like universal healthcare to pass. What they can do is convince you over and over to vote for the "reasonable" option under threat of Republican Hell so that you not only give them more power, but hand over your money and your time/energy to convince other people to give them more power and money.

Republicans benefit from the same kind of threat to their constituents, even as they're more blatant in their fight to stop people from voting.

The result is a system in which both the statements at the top of this post are true. If our voting system threatened to turn the US into a socialist utopia where the masses had all the power, they'd make it illegal. Democrats have never made a serious move to abolish the Electoral College. They absolutely mobilized to prevent even Bernie from becoming the Dem nominee. They'd do it again.

And you can see the same patterns in similar nations. Labor gained power in the UK only to become an anti-labor neoliberal party practically overnight. France elected a leftist government and Macron just went "nope."

But they're never going to make voting all the way illegal for just landowning men again, let alone make it outright illegal, because they know that would inspire the masses to rise up and make too much trouble again, and who knows what they'd lose? The current situation is working out great for them.

Meanwhile, of course Republicans want to make voting a certain amount of hard because they do want the most power, but even Trump probably knows better than to outlaw voting. At most he'd turn the US into a sham democracy like his idol Putin.

Which would of course suck, but the point it that the two statements up top are both essentially true but reductive.

Voting isn't worthless but those in power are never going to let us vote our was into a society that removes or even significantly reduces their power. You can maybe make things temporarily a little better or prevent them from getting worse for some people by voting.

But the problem is that people aren't just voting. They're voting and then telling themselves that they did their duty and using that as an excuse to do nothing else. Or they're voting and donating millions to Kamala in mere hours while GFMs for Palestinians and other desperate people stagnate. Or they're voting and giving all their attention, energy, and time to the two big party presidential candidates by volunteering or yelling at people on social media or both so all the money and power is funneled back into those who already have nearly all of it.

And nothing is left to actually fight for a better world.

I don't care to tell people whether to vote or how. It feels to me like a choice between a fast death or a slow one, which sucks either way. What pisses me off is that we're letting the powerful convince us to invest so much in them with this perpetual election season as the world circles the drain, and the most powerful know full well that this leaves us with too few resources to ever topple them from their thrones.

You're letting them pull your strings instead of breaking them. Things get worse every year and the longer we do this, the worse it's going to be for us all, and worse still for future generations. How long are you going to fight to slow down the train that's headed for the cliff instead of jumping off it while there's still time?

Don't scold me about voting on behalf of the train conductors hoarding all the train food. It's not a perfect metaphor ok but the point is fuck off and fuck this.

[tightjeansjavi]

♡ Barbie Girl ♡ | AU!Joel Miller x f! Reader

A/N: this was such a fun lil idea to pursue and I love the idea of Joel wearing pink just cause he knows how happy it makes Sarah ♡

~word count: 1.5k~

Summary: Joel, Sarah and Tommy go to the Barbie movie opening weekend

Warnings: none, lots of fluff, Joel is a feminist icon, soft dad vibes, Joel is a girl dad himbo, he’ll do anything to make his kid happy, Sarah is an icon on her own, Tommy is Tommy of course but he’s so himbo too, AU that takes place in 2023, Joel is a progressive dad, Sarah loves him for it, little bit of flirting with Joel and the reader, no age gap, some spoilers for the Barbie movie! (+18 for language) minors dni.

July 2023, Austin Texas

Joel Miller never would consider himself to be a ‘girl dad’ as the younger generation would refer to him as. He had to literally look up what the word ‘DILF’ meant when Sarah told him one day after school that all of the moms thought he was attractive. He had Google on speed dial just so he could feel like he was ‘hip’ again. 36 years old and he felt older than ever. Sarah was a big help of course and steered her dad in the right direction political wise. Her dad was a good man of course, but nothing made her happier than when she had his full support as a young woman. Before the Barbie movie came out, Joel and Sarah spent every weekend volunteering at a local women’s shelter. The bumper of his truck was decorated with women-empowering stickers including a sticker that said, ‘Abortion is Healthcare’ and ‘Women’s Rights Are Human Rights.’ He didn’t stop there of course. He also had a BLM sticker, ‘Dismantle White Supremacy’, ‘Eat The Rich’ and he still had a Bernie sticker front and center.

The weekend that the Barbie movie came out, Joel had already pre ordered tickets for him, Sarah and Tommy as well who had multiple pink shirts for Joel to choose from. Sarah had insisted that they all had to wear pink and Joel would do just about anything to make his baby girl happy.

“Are ya sure your old man doesn’t look silly in this?” Joel gestured to his hot pink tee-shirt with a soft huff as he observed his appearance in the mirror.

“Dad, why do you think you look silly? Pink is totally your color!” Sarah responded with a genuine smile as she playfully placed the Barbie baseball cap on his mess of brown curls. “Do you or do you not feel Bonita?”

Joel stifled a chuckle, shaking his head as he fixed the cap on his head. “I feel Bonita.”

The drive to the movie theater consisted of listening to a Barbie inspired Spotify playlist off of Sarah’s phone. Joel and Tommy proudly knew every word to the Barbie Girl song of course. Once they arrived to the theater, Joel was awe-struck at the amount of people who were dressed in pink and he felt less self-conscious about his hot pink shirt when he saw numerous guys and dads wearing pink shirts as well.

At first he was confused when a group of women around his age said, “Hi Ken” to him and Tommy, and “Hi Barbie” to Sarah who immediately responded with a wave and, “Hi Barbie!” She gently nudged her dad with her elbow as he stood there blinking, mouth opening and closing like a fish. “Dad, you gotta say hi Barbie! Back.”

“Oh. OH! Shit, sorry sweet pea.” He cleared his throat under his breath before he raised his hand with a sheepish smile. “Hi Barbie!” He was looking right at you out of all of your friends. You were dressed head to toe in pink and you mirrored the same sheepish smile that he did. Joel turned to his daughter afterwards, cheeks feeling inflamed. “Did I do alright? So, I say that everytime someone says hi Ken?”

“You did great, dad! Yeah, so everytime a Barbie says, ‘hi Ken!’ You say, ‘hi Barbie!’, and when a Ken says, ‘hi Ken!’ You say, ‘hi Ken!’”

“Yeah, brother. It ain’t that hard.” Tommy chimed in and wrapped his arm around Joel’s shoulders and gave them a light squeeze.

“Shuddup Tommy.” Joel grumbled under his breath.

Your friends from your college days insisted that you join them to go see the new Barbie movie. At first you were against the idea until you read reviews and once you saw it was a movie that empowered women, you were all in. It was your idea in the end to dress head to toe in pink and you and your friends each had a comfort Barbie in your purses as well.

When you saw Joel Miller across the way looking confused as all hell when your friends said ‘hi Ken!’ You thought he was adorable for two reasons. One being he clearly was wearing pink to support his daughter and two, he looked proud of himself after saying ‘hi Barbie!’ To you and your friends.

“Now, that’s a real man if I’ve ever seen one!” Your one friend, Jessica excitedly whispered to the group as if she was back in her highschool days in the passing period hallways.

“Okay, but his brother? Jesus Christ, if I wasn’t married I would be all over that!” Avery chimed in with a giggle.

“How do you know that they’re brothers? They could be two dads taking their daughter to the movies.” You responded with a shrug as you pulled up the tickets on your phone.

“Nah, they look related and besides, the one with the baseball cap was looking right at you babe!” Jaimie commented with a small grin as she nudged your side gently.

“No, he wasn’t.” You responded with a light laugh and shake of your head.

“Girl, he looked like a blubbering fish when he saw you.” Your friends all affirmed.

Your friends were right on the money with that one. Joel Miller was doing his absolute best to check you out in the most respectful way he could while he was in the line for popcorn. Sarah of course caught the way her dad was looking at you, and she was determined to get him to muster up the courage to talk to you after the movie.

The movie was everything Sarah had imagined it to be. She laughed, she cried and Joel and Tommy had teared up during some of the scenes. Especially when Barbie and Ken travel to the real world and the first thing she experiences is being cat-called and objectified by men. The patriarchy was alive and well outside of Barbie land and as a straight, white man, Joel recognized that he and Tommy had an easy life compared to their female counterparts. This didn’t mean that they agreed with it. In fact, Joel and Tommy were fully against the patriarchal system.

Sarah found herself hugging her dad tightly as the credits rolled and he was gently smoothing down her curls and kissing the top of her head. Sometimes Joel felt guilty over the fact that Sarah no longer had a mother figure in her life, but it was moments like these that reminded him that he was just a dad doing his best for his kid who he loved so dearly. “I love you so much, baby girl. I’ll always fight for you. Okay, kiddo?” He whispered softly with his lips against her temple.

Sarah hugged him tighter. “I love you so much dad. Thank you for always being there for me.”

Tommy was tearing up again.

The three Millers took a selfie with the Barbie poster just outside the movie theater with their faces squished into the frame. The picture was being taken while you were standing outside of the women’s bathroom waiting for your friends. You watched as Joel struggled to get his phone at the right angle, so you took it upon yourself to go over and help. “Hi Kens, hi Barbie! Would you guys like me to take a picture of you?”

Joel already felt his cheeks begin to heat up. “Hi Barbie. That would be great if ya could. Can never get these damn angles right with this thing. I uh—I like your outfit. It’s very Barbie.” He commented softly.

“Thanks, Ken. I really like your baseball cap.” You responded with a genuine smile as he handed you his phone. You took a few steps back so that all three Miller’s would be in the frame. You took a few photos before handing him his phone back just as your friends were departing from the bathroom.

“Hey, Barbie? Before you go, my dad is way too shy to say it but he thinks you’re super duper pretty.” Sarah proclaimed without skipping a beat.

Joel was beet red now as he scrubbed a hand down his face, fingertips scraping across his beard. “Sarah! You can’t just—” He sighed with a nervous smile. “Okay, it’s true Barbie. I do think you’re super duper pretty. Cats out of the bag thanks to my daughter.” He gave Sarah a playful warning look and mussed up her curls.

“Well Ken, it’s your lucky day because I think you’re really handsome. Do you wanna see Oppenheimer with me next weekend?”

“I would absolutely love to go see Oppenheimer with you next weekend Barbie.” Joel didn’t hesitate to respond.

“It’s a date. See you next weekend, Ken.” You exchanged phone numbers before you made your way over to your friends who were waiting for you.

“This Barbie has a date next weekend!” You told your friends the good news and they all excitedly cheered for you.

As soon as Joel and Sarah got home, Sarah dug out her old box of Barbie’s and brought them down to the living room, while Joel had found all of the Barbie DVD’s that Sarah insisted he keep. They spent the rest of the evening playing with her Barbie’s and watching the Princess and the Pauper; Sarah’s all time favorite Barbie movie.

Tag list: @chaotic-mystery @saradika @cavillscurls @thetriumphantpanda @sinsofsummers @morning-star-joy @cupofjoel @dinsdjrn @korynnekorynne @kirsteng42 @last-girl @tessa-quayle (you will love this one)

Creator divider made by @saradika

Barbie divider made by @animatedglittergraphics-n-more

[batboyblog]

Thank you so much for your reassuring and well-informed takes on US politics! One thing that's worried me lately is the likelihood of Gaza protesters at the DNC and the inevitable media spin of "OMG DIVISION AND DISARRAY" - do you have any thoughts? I'm crossing all my fingers that the ceasefire deal currently under negotiation goes through and I'm terrified that these protests (esp if they're from dodgy antisemitic pro-Hamas groups as seems likely) could jeopardise that and Harris' chances.

I mean the media is gonna media, so who knows what they'll take away. Certain in 2016 they gleefully focused on a relatively tiny number of protests from disaffected Bernie supporters to blot out even Bernie himself endorsing Hillary

that said I think the counter narrative of the smooth hand off from Biden to Harris and that being unique and historic is just as likely to catch their attention.

and heading into the conversation the Gaza protest movement has gotten itself into hot water over the use of the Neo-Nazi "ZOG" and then doubling down and then more drama between black people and pro-Palestine posters has exposed a lot of racism

this all looks bad and is likely to color how the media wants to interact with any protesters.

On the ceasefire front, I doubt that any protests in America will effect that, President Biden remains optimistic about closing a deal next week, I hope he's right.

and basically we can't control what people do when it comes to protests or what the media decides they should focus on, we can only control what we do, the work we do, I was reading today that the Florida Dems have knocked on a million doors across the state to talk to voters, a million, so far! so if anyone is feeling stressed about the election, where ever you are, sign up to volunteer, every little bit helps, and the real life conversation you have with a voter will have WAY more of an impact than 30 seconds of headlines or video they see about any protests or disunity or whatever else, show people that Democrats are united, are fired up and we're not going back.

VOLUNTEER

[cadmusfly]

Tag Yourself: Unabridged Shitty Drawing Marshal of the Empire Edition

Yes All 26 Of Them + Bonus 2

drawn and compiled by yours truly, initial and probably inaccurate research assisted by Chet Jean-Paul Tee, additional research from Napoleon and his Marshals by A G MacDonnell, Swords Around A Throne by John R Elting and a bunch of other books and Wikipedia pages

captions under images

mike (Michel Ney)

- full of every emotion

- always has ur back

joe (Joachim Murat)

- it's called fashion sweetheart

- will not stop flirting

lens (Jean Lannes)

- bestie who will call u out on ur shit

- does not like their photo taken

bessie (Jean-Baptiste Bessieres)

- actually nice under the ice

- was born in the wrong generation

dave (Louis-Nicolas Davout)

- overachiever

- 20 year old boomer

salt (Jean-de-Dieu Soult)

- people think ur up to no good

- doesn’t cope with sudden changes 2 plans

andrew (Andre Massena)

- actually up to no good

- sleepy until special interest is activated

bertie (Louis-Alexandre Berthier)

- carries the group project

- voted most likely to make a stalker shrine

auggie (Pierre Augereau)

- shady past full of batshit stories

- will not stop swearing in the christian minecraft server

lefrank (François Joseph Lefebvre)

- dad friend

- in my day we walked to school uphill both ways

big mac (Étienne Macdonald)

- brutally honest

- won't let you borrow their charger even if they have 100%

gill (Guillaume Brune)

- love-hate relationship with group chats

- pretends not to care, checks social media every 2 minutes

ouchie (Nicholas Oudinot)

- needs to buy bandages in bulk

- a little aggro

pony (Józef Antoni Poniatowski)

- can't swim

- tries 2 hard to fit in, everyone secretly loves them anyway

grumpy (Emmanuel de Grouchy)

- can't find them when u need them

- complains about the music, never suggests alternatives

bernie (Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte)

- always talks about their other friendship group

- most successful, nobody knows how

monty (Auguste de Marmont)

- does not save u a seat

- causes drama and then lurks in the background

monch (Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey)

- last to leave the party

- dependable

morty (Édouard Mortier)

- everyone looks up 2 them literally and figuratively

- golden retriever friend

jordan (Jean-Baptiste Jourdan)

- volunteers other people for things

- has 20+ alarms but still oversleeps

kelly (François Christophe de Kellermann)

- old as balls but still got it

- waiting in the wings

gov (Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr)

- infuriatingly modest about their art skills

- thinks too much before they speak

perry (Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon)

- low-key rich, only buys things on sale

- “let’s order pizza” solution to everything

sachet (Louis-Gabriel Suchet)

- dependable friend who always brings snacks

- lowkey keeps the group together

cereal (Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier)

- unnervingly methodical and precise about fun

- will delete your social media after u die

vic (Claude Victor-Perrin)

- loves spicy food but can’t handle it

- says they're fine, not actually fine

Bonus!

june (Jean Andoche Junot)

- chaotic disaster bisexual

- will kill a man 4 their bestie

the rock (Géraud Duroc)

- keeps a tidy house

- mom friend with snacks

[possessionisamyth]

Since the most popular posts are being extremely useless and defeatist when it comes to the presidential election, I'm reminding you of the democratic primary. If you absolutely do not want to vote for Biden, here are your other options, and you have to VOTE and SHOW UP for your state primary to push them forward.

Marianne Williamson is running for the Dem Primary. Here is her site leading to her stances on current issues.

https://marianne2024.com/issues/

Dean Phillips is also running for the Dem Primary. Below is his website. Click on the Priorities tab on the right to see his stances on the issues.

https://phillips.house.gov/

Robert F Kennedy Jr. is running as an Independent. Click on the Policies tab on the upper left to see his stance on the issues.

https://www.kennedy24.com/

Cornel West is running as an Independent. Click on the Platform tab on the upper right to get his stance on the issues.

https://www.cornelwest2024.com/

Here is the schedule for the primary by state for 2024 so you know when to hit the ballot box.

https://www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/2024-primary-schedule/

The US Government has always been a shit show. Due to Biden winning 1 election already, everyone who has already secured their democratic seat will be pushing for him to win a second term. That's what being incumbent means. The primaries will look like how they did when Bernie was running against him. The news will not be on any of these people's sides, and they will be showing as little of them as possible to ensure a Biden win.

If you are a USA citizen of voting age and all you've been doing is reblogging/making posts about how no one should vote for Joe, maybe take the next step and READ up on the other options. If you actually don't want Joe or Trump to win this next election, you need to pick a candidate from these links to hype up. You have to start being their voices in places where people don't watch the televised news. You can even volunteer your time to do phone calls for them to spread the information.

If your entire blog is only never vote, or never vote for Joe, then yes you are not helping the problem. You are making things worse when we literally have time to try for another option. Be angry. Be pissed, but do some footwork for people you want in office in addition! This is actually how you shift things and send a message.

[harry-sussex]

This was, no joke, the best moment of my entire life. I have been waiting so long for this. I never thought it would happen.

I had originally planned to volunteer with the UK branch of my job today, but when I saw the announcement, I knew I had to do this instead. I decided to get dinner at the pub, Dog and Duck, last night to look inside and try it out - I got bangers and mash and some fish (sans chips) as an appetizer, and it was legitimately so good. I also tried the Timothy Taylor’s Landlord Beer – you can see William in the photos from today right behind the tap. My server’s name was Bernie, and you can see her in some photos with William and Kate today too – tiny woman, short gray hair cut into a bob.

I set earlier alarms this morning but due to the time difference / jet lag, I didn’t make it here until 10am. I popped into a Tesco Express on the way to grab some flowers at @avidroyalfan’s advice – yellow of course, the brightest bunch I could find.

I made it over to the area around the pub and there were barricades and policemen everywhere. There was also a black Range Rover parked at the far end of Frith Street – the street they mentioned in the press release yesterday. It thought it was mildly crowded when I got there, but it didn’t even begin to compare to the crowd that had gathered closer to their arrival.

I really had trouble picking where I was going to stand – I didn’t want to be behind anyone, I just wanted to be up against the barricade, but given that the crowd was so relatively sparse on Frith Street (as opposed to right across from the pub on Dean Street) when I got there, I wasn’t sure they were going to come my way. I was also praying that I’d be on Kate’s side of the road if they came by – you guys know I love William, but if I had a chance, this once in a lifetime chance, I needed Kate. I went with my gut, a little further down the road than where the crowd at the time had started to assemble, so I could be right against the barricades. From the moment I got to the barricade, I was literally shaking, and I am not exaggerating – you can see it in one of the videos.

I passed the time talking to some lovely people – some of whom planned to be there and some of whom happened to stroll by. I met a lovely woman, Cath, who took tons of photos without me even asking – she just saw how excited I was and took the photos to send to me. Another woman named Teri did the same – just out of the kindness of their own hearts. Those are most of the photos you guys are going to see – I took a bunch while Kate was walking around, but I didn’t want to put my own camera in her face if she was standing right in front of me.

I stood for more than four hours start to finish and I do not regret it in the slightest. I thought a lot about what I was going to say to her if I had the chance – I’ve thought about it so many times over the years, but what could I really say that would summarize more than 10 years of pure admiration and adoration in 30 seconds or less? What could I – an American in London all the way from New York – possibly say to the UK’s next queen to tell her how much she’s meant to me for all these years?

There was a policeman right in front of me – his name was Thompson – who was subtly dropping hints about what was going on. He couldn’t say much but he did hint at the time we could expect them to arrive – about 12:45pm. He ended up pretty close – he told me that he got randomly assigned to the event today and that he (and basically the entire police force) would also be at the coronation. He also confirmed that they would be walking down Frith Street, where I was, though he wouldn’t hint at which of them was going to be on my side of the street.

By the time they arrived, the crowd had literally quadrupled – maybe even more. People were on the rooftops and hanging out of windows. Very few of them had flowers. Businesses let people go on their steps to get a closer view. A helicopter was circling above for security. There were policemen and RPOs everywhere. I thought William and Kate were going to drive right up to the pub but instead they walked from the far end of the street – I suppose because they took the tube. Speaking of the tube, that’s the exact line I took this morning. That’s also where the (absolutely enormous) press pack was assembled.

I could tell when they arrived, even though I couldn’t see them right away, because the roar of the crowd and the sound of dozens of cameras clicking said everything I needed to know. As I was a bit further down the street, I didn’t get the greatest view, but it didn’t matter – you could see Kate from a mile away. That jacket was bright in and of itself but she literally glows. There’s just an inherent radiance about her that cannot be explained unless you see it in real life – she’s ethereal in photos, but they don’t even begin to do her justice. She’s radiant. Also, you can see that her hair is perfect no matter how far away you are. As they turned the corner to get to the pub, I was able to crane my neck a little bit to see them get closer to the door, and I saw The Hand with my own two eyes. William placed his hand on Kate’s lower back to guide her inside – we’ve seen photos millions of times, but seeing it with my own two eyes was unreal. Completely surreal.

They spent far less time inside the pub than I would’ve thought (unless time was flying because I knew they were coming), but again, you could hear them come out the door just by virtue of the roar of the crowd. Thompson the policeman then told me that Kate was coming to my side of the street. I thought I was shaking before – nope, not even remotely compared to how I was when I heard that she was coming my way. I saw William first across the street – he went through relatively quickly but I could somewhat hear him saying “nice to meet you” over and over, shaking hands, laughing, the usual. He’s huge – I always knew he was tall but he’s massive, tall and broad. You could tell from twenty feet away - he’s huge. At one point, I literally blurted out “he’s not wearing blue!” once I saw the brown coat. He was on the side of the road that had more people, and he moved along at a solid pace - it’s definitely true that Kate is a chatter, no wonder they gave her the side of the street with fewer people. She would’ve been outside for 3 hours if she was greeting the amount of people on William’s side. He’s honestly such a good sport – he was shaking hands, standing on his tip toes and craning over the barricades to greet as many people as possible. I could very clearly see the faces of the people looking directly at him – you can tell they absolutely love him. Such genuine smiles. The pure adoration and happiness in their eyes said everything one needs to know – those people absolutely love him like their own.

When Kate turned the corner from the pub towards where I was standing, I swear to god my heart jumped right into my throat and my stomach dropped. God, she’s beautiful. Like I knew this, it isn’t news, the entire world is perfectly aware that she’s one of the most beautiful women on the face of the earth…. but she still managed to stun me anyway. She’s radiant. Absolutely gorgeous.

Somewhere along the way, as she moved down the line of people in my direction, it occurred to me that I was legitimately going to meet, or at the very least greet, Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, after all this time, after so many years… I am not exaggerating when I say I was physically shaking. You can see it on my face in the photos even as she approached, before she came near me – I wasn’t panicking, I was just in awe. I’ve always known she was real of course, but she’s… actually real? Do you know what I mean?

She was moving so slowly compared to William – I swear he was already 75% of the way through his side of the crowd by the time Kate got to me. That’s when I really noticed that she is just so chatty – I didn’t notice her just greeting someone and then moving on quickly. She was so engaged. Every single person I could see was like entranced by her very presence - she’s literally such a vision. It’s not just me, it’s not just us – people are completely fascinated by her.

And then.

She came closer and closer – as I was on her left, I could see the ring. It’s huge – like, it’s big on camera, but the thing is enormous. I could not believe for the life of me that she was right there. I made sure to stick the flowers out enough and stand up straight and believe me when I say I didn’t have to remind myself to smile or make eye contact – I could literally feel myself beaming (right before she got to me):

When she came over, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Before I knew it, Kate was reaching to shake my hand and saying “nice to meet you” and I literally still cannot believe it. I handed over the flowers and I said to her:

“It’s nice to meet you, I just wanted to tell you that I have admired you for so long and that I also studied Italian Renaissance art history just like you did.”

When I said that I admired her, she said “oh, thank you!” as I continued to ramble about the art. She was still holding the flowers. I cannot believe that there are so many pictures of Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales holding bright yellow flowers that I got for her while smiling ear to ear – she handed them off before she moved onto the next person, so she is definitely smiling at me in those photos.

She then asked me if I liked studying art, and I said of course – she responded “me too!” After that, she asked me if I used it in my career, and I said no (which I don’t) but my master’s was a passion project. She then asked where I flew from (the accent, I guess) and I told her that I came from New York. She said that it was such a long way to come and that she was surprised at how many people have traveled so far for the big weekend. She touched my arm so sweetly for like the quickest second; she then said that it was going to be such a big event and that she was looking forward to joining the celebrations and that it was going to be good for everyone.

The last thing I said to her was “also, I ate in the pub last night because I heard you were coming!” and she responded with “oh that’s great, how was the food?” It was legitimately fantastic – I told her so – and she said that they would have to come back and try it when there were fewer people around.

It was then time for her to get moving so I just said “it was so nice to meet you” again and she said “nice to meet you, have a nice day!” Right before she moved on and as she was saying goodbye, she handed off the flowers and went on her way.

The whole thing lasted maybe two minutes, but I will remember it for the rest of my life. Her eyes are so green and she’s just so stunning up close and I just cannot believe she was that close to me and that we were able to talk and she is everything I have ever dreamed she would be and more. Just so sweet and gorgeous and engaged in what we were talking about – she didn’t just say “hi” and “bye,” you know? She listened to what I said and responded back without generalities… everything I ever dreamed of and more. I thought I couldn’t love her more – I do now. She has made my entire day and my entire life and I will literally never forget the vision of Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, Catherine Elizabeth, someone I have adored for more than a decade, standing in front of me.

I am so happy I could cry. I was stunned after - literally could not believe what just happened to me. Take a look at the video below - you can see part of our conversation and then just the pure shock at the end. My hands were literally shaking.

Once the shock wore off, I did in fact cry. They say never to meet your heroes – why not? How could you go wrong meeting someone you have idolized when that someone is Kate?

[vampireghostlawyer]

i doubt i will ever be optimistic about american politics, but as someone who has volunteered for walz and met him in person, this is probably the first time i have ever felt actual hope for a politician besides bernie. As a minnesotan, i'm sad to see him go, but i'm also excited to see him bring some of mn's progressivism to a national scale.

[darkmaga-retard]

Kevin Barrett

Sep 19, 2024

I should know something about politics and madness. Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly have both questioned my sanity on national television. But they and other mainstream purveyors of partisanship may be the crazy ones. Below are my thoughts on that subject. For a different take, listen to Jim Fetzer push back against my criticism of some of his work on Sandy Hook, and opine on politics and madness, when he sits in for me on Revolution Radio this Friday September 20 noon to 2 pm Eastern—click on Studio B. (Please note that I am traveling this week and doing fewer broadcasts than usual.)

Can politics drive people crazy? Or do crazy people naturally gravitate to politics? And do psychopaths, who are not crazy but just evil, deviously manipulate the craziness of politics and its partisans?Those are among the questions raised by the latest alleged Trump assassination attempt. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, apparently spent the night in the bushes outside Trump International Golf Club last Sunday, then took a potshot at the ex-president and fled when Secret Service agents returned fire.

Routh was, shall we say, “political.” Substacker Eugyppius writes:

As we would expect from a crazy person, Routh’s political allegiances show no clear pattern. He claims to have supported Trump in 2016, but he didn’t vote in that election. Later he turned on Trump and used his Twitter account to express support for Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard, to deride Biden as“sleepy Joe,” and to advocate for Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy in the 2024 Republican primary. All the while he appears to have made various small donations to Democratic organisations.

The war in Ukraine pushed Routh over the edge. He flew to Kiev with ambitions of fighting the Russians, but because he was in his mid-fifties and mentally unstable, the International Legion turned him down. He responded by styling himself as a military recruiter working to fly under-occupied Afghans to Europe to defend Ukrainian democracy. Of course, he did not recruit anybody. What he did do, was set up a creepy protest tent at Independence Square in Kiev, which he called the “International Volunteer Center” …

[littleharpethcrossfit]

Sunday, 8 September, 2024

It was another beautiful cool afternoon. Just perfect.

Class was at 1 PM.

Warmup #1

Big Shane led us in his routine of flexibility exercises.

Warmup #2

Sit-Ups

You chose One

100 Partner Med-Ball

50 Solo Med-Ball

30 GHD's

Strength

Deadlifts

Warmup Reps..........10..........5

Work Reps.....2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2.....All 80 to 90%

Bernie/Shane=315 Ed=290 Herb/Smoothie/Dana/Dyer/Chris=245 Tim=240 Britt=205 Cheri/Sue=145 Shannon=95 Sabrina=85 Esther/Linda/Alicia/Jackie/Coach/Allison and perhaps others=did it but no posting.

WOD

Partnered

Tag-Team 1 At A Time.....Run/Row/Bike

Work At Same Time On Exercises

Advance when Both Finish

For Time

4 Rounds

Run/Row-ski/Bike

200/250/500

THEN..........100 Pull-Ups

4 Rounds

Run/Row-Ski/Bike

200/250/500

THEN..........100 Thrusters.....(65/45/35)

4 Rounds

Run/Row-Ski/Bike

200/250/500

Dana*/Sue=18:01 Bernie**/Shane**=18:28 Sabrina=19:26 Ed/Tim*=20:13 Herb*/Smoothie=21:40 Shannon=22:12 Dyer/Britt=26:11 Chris/Alicia/Jackie/Linda/Coach/Linda/Esther/Allison=did it but were posting shy. Cheri=left early

Cool-Down

Barbell Curls (65/45/35)

10 / 10 / 10

Notes:

Especially noted attendances:

Allison Strnad (Games announcers often called her "STRAND"), Jackie by bicycle, Dyer (has missed for weeks), Esther (thought she was coaching but showed up wearing CROCs), Chris (you never can be sure), and Sabrina for 2 consecutive days.

Ed (can you believe it ??) gave the pre-WOD explanation. He musta done a very clear description because almost everyone was observed doing the WOD correctly without stupid questions.

The management has a short break in medical appointments, so we are excited to announce that we will host a Thursday WOD and wine tasting September 12. An additional treat is that Dr. Allison Strnad has volunteered to be your Guest Coach. Please spread the word and plan on attending, and bring a friend.

Thursday September 12

[triviallytrue]

is running for (local) office something that ever appeals to you? Would you consider it, why/why not?

i mean, i don't want to categorically rule it out. but:

i have a career (software engineering) that i like and am good at

i am not much of a people-person, and while i don't think i'm completely inarticulate when i talk, i'm certainly much more convincing when i write

i like the attention that i get anonymously online a lot more than the attention i would get in person

which isn't to say that i'm completely politically inactive, i mean i vote in every election and i've gone to protests and (briefly) phonebanked for Bernie in 2020, and i've done a bit of volunteering that could be construed as political if you squint at it

maybe if AI takes all the programming jobs i'll run for office on the Butlerian Jihad party platform

[redjennies]

real leftism is when you tell people to volunteer at soup kitchens if they want to make a real difference. real leftism is internet posts telling you to vote. real leftism is not dividing the left. real leftism is hostile to anarchists, communists, socialists, and Bernie Bros. real leftism is palatable to Democrats. real leftism is not radical and it is not threatening. real leftism fights fascists but does not own weapons. real leftism does not advocate self-defense. real leftism does not want to overthrow the state. real leftism puts its trust in the system. real leftism believes that the US government just needs a little tweaking. real leftism has no principles and stands for nothing. real leftism has no history, no writers, no organizers, no martyrs. real leftism is not mutual aid but charity. real leftism is paternalistic faith-based soup kitchens where the privileged can go to feel like they helped the less fortunate before kicking them back out onto the street.

[stele3]

Israel has finally gone pro with their psyops, in reponse to what I can only describe as a truly incredible campaign on behalf of Hamas and the Houthis. Whoever is doing psyops for Hamas and the Houthis is amazing, I haven't seen so much processed material being reblogged by legitimate users on my dashboard since Bernie Sanders was running for president.

No surprise, then, that the article names Russia as being a force behind the anti-Israel technological front. They have reclaimed their place as the best in the psyops world.

According to eight different sources active in the worlds of intelligence, technology, online influence and public diplomacy, Israel was ill-equipped for the social media war that erupted on Black Saturday. This resulted in a "credibility crisis" that has, from Jerusalem's perspective, hindered the Israel Defense Forces' ability to act against Hamas on the actual battlefield. Though initially conceived in military terms as a solution to intelligence and psychological warfare needs, sources say the system is currently being operated by a governmental office. The reason: concerns in the defense establishment over operating a "political" technology. According to sources knowledgeable about Israel's public diplomacy efforts – "hasbara," as it is termed in Hebrew – the system is intended to counter what they and researchers termed a well-oiled online "hate machine" systematically pushing out anti-Israeli and pro-Hamas disinformation, misinformation, October 7 denialism, as well as blatantly antisemitic content. These messages were aided by technologically backed campaigns from forces in Iran and even Russia. Together, sources say, these campaigns were not only undermining Israeli efforts to report on Hamas atrocities, but also undercut the rationale behind the war and the IDF spokesperson's credibility – specifically among younger audiences in the West. Only on Monday did the Israeli Shin Bet reveal that Iran was operating at least four fake channels across Israeli social media as part of its psychological warfare and influence operations aimed at Israel. Among them was a fake online network previously revealed by Haaretz that also helped amplify Hamas videos from the October 7 attack and has since worked to incite the Israeli public on issues linked to the war. ...

The first hour of the war revealed how hopelessly unprepared Israel's defense establishment was for handling social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and even messaging apps like Telegram, as the internet (and Israeli society) was flooded with videos filmed by Hamas documenting their own atrocities. Israeli high-tech workers and firms immediately stepped up to fill the void: As part of a volunteer "war room," technology for mapping social media platforms or even facial recognition abilities were developed not for influence but to help identify terrorists and find hostages, to name but two examples. However, as time passed and the actual war intensified, these passive abilities proved to be only half of the battle: Israel also had active needs and lacked the ability to push out information. Sources say the defense establishment – specifically the intelligence community – discovered there was a "dire national need" for influence to counter Hamas' information warfare, amid genuine widespread destruction and death in Gaza. The goal was to counter what sources said were inauthentic efforts to delegitimize Israel online: bad faith moves that researchers say have also enjoyed algorithmic support from social media platforms. Since the start of the war 100 days ago, Hamas has led a massively successful public communications campaign, which sources describe as a "PsyOp" - 0r a "psychological" influence operation. Alongside the terrorists who infiltrated Israeli communities on October 7, Hamas also brought along "reporters" to broadcast live from within the kibbutzim. Since then, semi-official communication channels – the most successful of which is Gaza Now, which has millions of subscribers on Telegram – have become the go-to source for information from Gaza, documenting the Israeli attacks from the ground. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit was found to be limited in its ability to actively counter this seemingly endless flow of visual materials being pushed out by Hamas and its proxies. Furthermore, as time passed, Israelis found that these propaganda efforts were also being amplified across social media by various pro-Palestinian users, including many who were acting in good faith.

Emphasis mine.