#and keeping the south from winning the civil war

[moongreenlight]

Ptolemaea P. 1- Huntsman!Ghost x Runaway Princess!Reader

CW: BRIEF mentions of animal death, description of gore and violence, noncon implied. No smut yet.

Your kingdom was once powerful, revered by others for its political prowess and strong army, but it does not have the sway it once did. Hordes of wealth dwindled into something unrecognizable. Subjects growing poorer and more restless with only wormy apples and stinking meat and moth-eaten fabrics to barter at the market. War raging to the East, word of civil unrest in the West. Your father was left with few other options than to auction off what little possessions of worth he had left.

He was given four daughters, you, the youngest and the last to be married off. Sold like swine to the highest bidder with no consideration for character or condition.

All your other sisters went gracefully save for a few tearful goodbyes in the privacy of their quarters. Bowed heads pushed together, shaking hands clutching and grabbing at others for stability. Weeping softly for the loss of company, for the fate that awaited them, for the mystery of when you’d be reunited. Four, then three, then two, now one.

You’d been trussed up in your best dresses and jewelry. Made a spectacle of for a few days as suitors came and went from the great hall. Slobbering their way through promises of riches or alliance or armies in an attempt to win your father’s favor.

Their eyes were wild and hungry when they threw spare glances at you. Lecherous smiles showed sharp, clenched teeth. And each offer of an extra five men to an army or hundred gold pieces more than the last brought you closer to being shoved to their chests. A twine-wrapped packet of mutton scraps tossed to a pack of starving dogs.

It was a heavy feeling, sinking ever deeper as each new suitor strutted down the long walk toward you. Peacocking and vying for favor. You imagined it felt like watching the executioner approach the stand while you waited with your head laid on the chopping block.

You’d read your sister’s letters after they left. Poured over every word and learned of their new realities. Their dogs and horses slaughtered, gowns burned, all former possessions seized and thrown to the river to be replaced with tokens of their new kingdoms. Branded over their old marks like cattle in a trade. You noticed that as the weeks and months drew by, the letters became more and more censored. Stopped detailing the further horrors and discomforts they faced at the hands of their husband and opted to regale you with detailed descriptions of their gardens or their plans for children.

The same wretched sickness you felt when you read the letters ate its way into your belly as you watched the funeral procession of suitors and remembered the way your sisters’ neat, loopy writing slowly turned into something rushed and sloppy. You imagined the way it would happen to you.

Perfect cursive lettering that had been learned to you for years by a sour schoolmarm that rapped your knuckles with a ruler when you dawdled during your lessons shoved from your mind to make room for brainwashing. You sat on your hands and dug your nails into your palms until they bent backward to keep your attention away from the scream packing itself into your chest.

You were promised to a king from the South. Some larger country near the capitol that wielded far more power than your kingdom, even at its pinnacle. The new king brought to you from across the channel because of his surliness. You’d heard stories of him whispered among the maids. He was cruel and choleric by all accounts. Not to mention fat and old and ugly and impatient to produce an heir. Made it all but impossible for him to find a bride.

He brought lavish gifts with him to sway the vote. Chestfuls of diamonds and precious stones and gold that his men laid at your father’s feet. Thick furs, expensive perfumes, and silks in colors you’d only ever heard of for your mother. A new dress in his kingdom’s colors for you.

You were escorted from the room by your father’s guard when he began negotiating a deal with the new king. You’d tried to sink your slippers into the stone, tried to kick and scream your desperation for your father to reconsider. But you were thrown from the room. Dragged out under the armpits by knights whose armor shone so brightly you were able to see your teary, crumpled form on the floor reflected in their chest plates before the heavy door was snapped shut on your nose.

You heard your maids and the castle guards whispering after the new king left. Saw your mother gracefully swipe away a single tear after dinner when she kissed you goodnight. The new king’s guard would be by early the next morning to snatch you up. The narrative you knew to be true only confirmed further by gossip. Two or three days of showboating, a decision made, negotiations, and then the next sunrise another sister is plucked up.

So you waited until darkness was cast over the castle. Until you were certain your maids and the guards at your door had gone to their own quarters for a few hours rest. You made your escape barefoot and in your thin nightdress. Stole one of your mother’s new fur cloaks to help protect yourself from the bitter cold that had settled over the land. Padded down the winding halls and staircases until you were able to slip through the grand double doors of the front. Evaded the indolent guards that were no doubt sneaking a smoke or a nap in the garden and moved quickly down the path to the stables. Tacked your horse with a knight’s saddle and took off into the night.

It took no more than four hours for the castle to know of your absence. Your maid had gone to wake you up in the wee hours of the morning, pack a bag before you were picked up by your new husband, and all but flew to your father’s quarters to alert him of your empty bed. It wasn’t half six before both your father’s and the new king’s men were set out on the land in search of you. Horses and hounds kicking frost off the lawn as the sun rose.

You managed three days without capture. Traveled through the skirts of the forest. Slept for a few hours at a time huddled close to the belly of your horse wrapped in your fur cloak. Ventured into small villages and cities to see if you couldn’t convince a vendor to spare you a cup of soup or a stale loaf of bread. Heard snippets of the news of the nearest kingdom who’d lost their last princess and tucked your chin close to your chest on your ride out.

The deep woods were unforgiving. Thin, winding paths that connected kingdoms littered with wolves and marauders and hunters. It was safer to stick to the edges where trees were younger and light could still filter in. Moving West as long as you could with no real plan as to what the permanence of your situation could look like. Maybe find a city far enough away from your kingdom to settle. It was a half-cooked idea from the beginning, you knew that. Born out of fear and anxiety and bull-headedness. Freedom without direction was better than being forced into the arms of a man that would sooner cage you like an animal than see you leave.

So you followed the wood and the few slow-flowing creeks that were not dammed by slush or ice. Kept your head on a swivel and your guard up. Anyone you ran into was presumed foe, so you set a punishing pace to minimize the chance of an encounter.

–

It was an act of desperation when your father called on a huntsman. Needy for the power trade tied to the contract of your marriage and looking to stop the simmering of his people under him from boiling over. His guards had returned in couples every few hours to give him bad news. They’d sent ravens to ally cities asking them to look for you and still they’ve come up empty.

Ghost refused to meet with your father or the new king directly. Sent a tawny hawk with a scroll tied to its leg that detailed the conditions of his employment. Your father promised anything for the return of his youngest princess. The new king offered obscene riches and painted whores. And privately, in a post script penned in tiny font on the back of the scroll, he promised an opportunity for Ghost to lay with you after you’d produced an heir.

Ghost sent his hawk back a few hours later. His letter was short, only responding to your father like he couldn’t be arsed with the superficial promises of the new king. He requests ten gold pieces, some of your perfume, and a cutting of fabric from one of your dirtied gowns.

–

It’s the eve of your fourth day out before you run into trouble. Great plumes of thick black smoke alert you to either a brush fire or a village close off your side and it drives you further into the forest. You move slowly through the dusk, even slower as the light stops being able to filter through the dense leaves and branches. The ground is lost to darkness, and you’d already made the mistake of trying to stumble your way over the uneven terrain barefoot, so you opt to stay on your horse’s back until you find a clearing to settle in.

In the blanketed silence of the wood, it was easy to remember how alone you were. How defenseless. You cursed yourself every night for not swiping a kitchen knife or a hunting blade so that you had some security. Not that either would have done you much good, but it would have served to give you some peace of mind.

You were torn from your thoughts when you heard heavy footfalls in a thicket a few yards in front of you. Snapping of felled branches, two low voices carried to you on a breath of wind. You stopped your horse and tried to lay down close to its back, tuck your head in behind its big neck. You held your breath as the voices grew closer, tried to will your shivering muscles to still. But your horse is a massive beast; stark white and practically spotlighted by the faint light of the moon. It did nothing to hide you.

You weren’t sure if the men were poachers or thieves or member’s of the guard patrolling the area for you. It really didn’t matter because everything happened so fast. There was the distinctive thwack of an arrow burying itself in the tree just next to you. Bark exploded out like a bomb, grazing your cheek and spooking your horse. Somewhere in the chaos of the shouting of the men, and the hurried sounds of boots trampling crisp leaves and your lame sounding yelp of surprise, you were thrown from your horse. Sent crashing to the ground and landing so hard on your back that it knocked the wind out of you and left your vision spotted.

You would have cried out if you had any air left in your lungs. Your chest was burning. Legs weak and awkward from hours on hours of riding. All you could do was scramble back. Bury your fingers deep as you could into the semi-frozen earth and try to drag yourself away. Gasping for air, blinking away the flashes and pops of darkness that camouflaged your assailants.

You hit something hard, knocked your head on it in your rush and nearly went unconscious. It made your ears ring, adding yet another layer of distortion to your senses. A tree, probably. Or a boulder. You recoiled, pulling your knees to your chest and trying to make yourself small under the mass. Tried to make out where the footsteps and the muffled shouting were coming from. Your shaking hands felt clumsily along the ground, looking for anything you could use to defend yourself. A rock, a stick, a hard clump of mud.

There was a flurry of movement from a few yards in front of you, specifics of limbs or bodies lost to the inky darkness. And then your hands found something large and warm. Disturbingly so. Maybe a rodent or a stray animal caught in the crossfire. It takes two hands to lift the thing. You bring it closer to see if swinging the carcass of what could have been a hefty pest would provide you any defense.

Not an opossum or a raccoon struck down by an arrow. Not quite. It’s the head of a man. His face stuck eternally in a look of putrid shock. Mouth gaped wide, eyes bugging out, eyebrows shooting up to his hairline. He’s got a decent stump of what used to be his neck. Hot blood trailed down your wrists and arms and dripped onto your nightdress.

Someone was screaming. A tortured, twisted sound coming more and more clearly to you as you caught your bearings. The kind of mangled cry that tore its way up out of someone’s throat so ferociously that you were sure you could feel it in your own chest as well. The kind of scream that left your tongue bitter and filmed with iron.

You’re not sure where it’s coming from, but it’s loud. Almost deafeningly so. You wish it would stop. Wish whoever was making such a spectacle would realize the severity of the situation and pull themselves together for a moment so you could think. Maybe you’d find them and work together to get out of this mess. Get away from the forest and find your horse and get back on your path.

You think that maybe it’s the head still clutched in your hands. You remember a cook telling you stories when you were young about how the chickens from the farmers used to be able to run around for nearly eight minutes after they’d been decapitated. You wondered if their heads still squawked after they were severed. You wondered if humans operated the same way. If this poor man’s body was stumbling around meters away in search of his head.

A big hand clamps over your jaw. Forced your mouth shut with such punch that your teeth clack together. You taste blood and you’re not sure if you’ve taken off the tip of your tongue. The screaming stops. It takes you a long moment to piece the situation together. Sat there huddled in on yourself, still gripping at the head and letting the thick blood dripping from its- his- neck sludge down your shins and pool at your feet.

You almost forget about the hand shutting your maw in your daze. Muzzling you with the bitter taste of iron and leather and the vice grip of a bear trap. You’d almost returned to your mind. Remembered that this was not a friendly situation and the body attached to the hand was likely not of pure intention. But you were jerked up by the scruff of your neck. Another strong hand fisting a good portion of the hair at your nape in the process. It lifted you clear off the ground, left your feet dangling inches above the earth. Shocked you enough to get you to let the head tumble out of your hands and back to the ground from where it had come.

You tried to cry out, but your voice was shot. Shredded by the dryness of your throat or the screaming or pure exhaustion. You clawed at the hands, but they were wrapped in thick leather gloves that branched up the arms of your captor. Tried to kick out, but they were wearing thick armor that deflected the force of your blow straight back up into your leg.

You yowled as best you could from under the thick covering. Clawed and grabbed at the air feebly until you were shook by the neck like a rag-doll.

“You’ll quiet or I’ll cut out your tongue and quiet you myself.”

#moongreenlight #moongreenlightwrites #cod mw2 #call of duty #cod x reader #141 headcanons #simon ghost riley #ghost cod #simon riley #simon ghost riley x you #simon riley x you #simon ghost x reader #simon riley x reader #ghost x reader #ghost mw2 #cod 141 #cod mwiii #cod mw3 #cod mwii #cod modern warfare

[areyoudreaminof]

and we kissed as though nothing would fall: A Helion x Lady of Autumn Playlist

It's a great day for being sad! Here's Helion x Lady of Autumn for you.

Of all the novellas and backstories, I know we all want this the doomed affair that lasted for centuries, and resulted in our favorite fox boy. There has to be so much hurt and longing still lingering there. This playlist goes through the range of emotions that I thinkk this heartbreak brought upon both Helion and the LoA. But I wanted there to be hope too. That soft kind of hope that these two can come back together to each other where they belong.

Listen Here! Lyrical deep dive under the cut.

Special dedication to my favorite Helion x LoA besties @spell-cleavers and @ablogofsapphicpanic

I've added a second link to the playlist above, as it seems that it does not show up on the browser, just mobile.

The One That Got Away-The Civil Wars Got away from me Before anybody has to bleed

Oh, if I could go back in time When you only held me in my mind Just a longing gone without a trace Oh, I wish I'd never ever seen your face I wish you were the one I wish you were the one that got away

A Record Year for Rainfall-The Decemberists

What's the use of all of this? It's to remember you in the entire 'Cause I'm watching it slip away And in the annals of the empire Did it look this grey Before the fall?

Falling Slowly-The Swell Season

Falling slowly Eyes that know me And I can't go back And moods that take me And erase me And I'm painted black Well, you have suffered enough And warred with yourself It's time that you won

Samson-Regina Spektor

You are my sweetest downfall I loved you first, I loved you first Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth I have to go, I have to go Your hair was long when we first met

Beloved Wife-Natalie Merchant

My love is gone Now my suffering begins My love is gone Would it be wrong if I should Surrender all the joy in my life Go with her tonight?

Such Great Heights-Iron & Wine

I am thinking it's a sign That the freckles in our eyes are mirror images And when we kiss they're perfectly aligned And I have to speculate That God himself did make us into corresponding shapes Like puzzle pieces from the clay

Skinny Love-Bon Iver

Come on, skinny love, just last the year Pour a little salt, we were never here My my my, my my my, my my Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer I tell my love to wreck it all Cut out all the ropes and let me fall My my my, my my my, my my Right in this moment, this order's tall

Hey Jupiter-Tori Amos

Sometimes I breathe you in And I know you know And sometimes you take a swim Found your writing on my wall If my heart’s soaking wet Boy, your boots can leave a mess

No Rest for the Wicked-Lykke Li

My one heart hurt another So only one life can't be enough Can you give me just another For that one who got away? Lonely I, I'm so alone now There'll be no rest for the wicked There's no song for the choir There's no hope for the weary If you let them win without a fight

No One's Gonna Love You-Band of Horses

Anything to make you smile You are the ever-living ghost of what once was I never want to hear you say That you'd be better off or you liked it that way And no one is ever gonna love you more than I do No one's gonna love you more than I do

I Need My Girl-The National

I am good, I am grounded Davy says that I look taller But I can't get my head around it I keep feeling smaller and smaller I need my girl I need my girl

Death With Dignity -Sufjan Stevens

Somewhere in the desert, there’s a forest And an acre before us But I don’t know where to begin But I don’t know where to begin Again, I've lost my strength completely, oh be near me Tired, old mare with the wind in your hair

The Greatest-Cat Power

Melt me down Into big black armor Leave no trace of grace Just in your honor Lower me down To culprit south

Heroes-David Bowie

Though nothing, nothing will keep us together We can beat them forever and ever Oh, we can be heroes, just for one day

And the shame was on the other side Oh, we can beat them forever and ever Then we can be heroes, just for one day

Taglist: @bookofmirth @bellatrixship @brieq @citruspearls @c-e-d-dreamer @damedechance @eyllweambassador @gaeleria @ofduskanddreams @highqueenmorrigan @hugeclearjellyfish @itsthedoodle @autumndreaming7 @kataravimes-of-the-shire @krem-has-a-mess @kingofsummer93 @lucienarcheron @octobers-veryown @andrigyn @mossytrashcan @witch-and-her-witcher @popjunkie42-blog @reverie-tales @rosanna-writer @separatist-apologist @secret-third-thing @lucienforhighking @thesistersarcheron @thelovelymadone @the-lonelybarricade @ultadverb @vulpes-fennec @velidewrites @vanserrass @wittyrejoinder @bagelfyre @xtaketwox @yazthebookish @wilde-knight @iftheshoef1tz @labellefleur-sauvage @carmasi @corcracrow @courtofthought @corvulpescompendium @tuzna-pesma-snova @cursebrkr @acourtdelaluna

Here is the link again. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/65pMS8WExB3Aywccg3CPn3?si=_R276WLATEWC9jUd1u4XWQ

#Spotify #loa x helion #acotar playlist project

[fictionadventurer]

I’m not from the US so I don’t know much about it, but someone once told me that the civil war was fighting for two different things. The north was fighting to end slavery and the south was fighting because they didn’t want the government to be able to dictate to them what they did with their property (the only problem was that the south saw people (slaves) as property).

How much of this is correct? Or is it a simplistic view?

It's complicated. There are a lot of historical forces--social, economic, religious, political, legal, cultural--surrounding the lead-up to the Civil War, and you can take as simplistic or as detailed a lens toward it as you'd like.

Before the war, the South did want to protect their property. Slavery in the territories became such a huge issue because slave owners wanted to be able to migrate to these new territories with their property, which included slaves. The majority of the soldiers who'd fought in the Mexican-American War had been Southern--were they going to be barred from the territories that they had fought and bled to win?

Of course, the North argued that people couldn't be property, and their insistence that slavery was evil only made the South get more defensive over it. At the end of the 18th century, a lot of Southerners believed that slavery was an unfortunate evil--not an ideal situation, but not one they could realistically do anything about. (What were they supposed to do with all these free blacks, for one?) But as the South got more defensive, they started to argue that slavery was a moral good, giving these slaves much better lives than they'd have in Africa, and allowing for a white upper-class that could devote itself to civilized culture rather than the rat-race of industry in the North. Their way of life, they believed, depended upon maintaining slavery.

So the war absolutely was about slavery, but the South considered it the main issue long before the North did. Secession started pretty much as soon as Lincoln was elected, because he'd been painted as a "Black Republican" who was going to free all the slaves as soon as he came into office. In his famous "A House Divided" speech, Lincoln argued that the long history of maintaining balance between slave and free states wasn't going to be sustainable. Because Southern slave owners wanted to be able take their slaves through the whole country, and wanted to get their slaves back if they escaped to freedom, either the nation had to abolish slavery or slavery would take over the whole nation--there was no middle ground that would be acceptable to either side. Because everyone knew Lincoln considered slavery a moral wrong, the South thought this speech proof that Lincoln was going to free all the slaves, so they seceded to protect their "states' rights".

The ironic thing was that Lincoln didn't believe he could free the slaves. He was a lawyer through and through, who held the Constitution as a nearly religious document. The Constitution explicitly protected slavery, so as much as Lincoln would have liked to end slavery, he didn't believe the president had the power to do anything about it--that was up to the states. Not long after Lincoln came into office--in an attempt to bring the seceding states back-- both the House and the Senate passed a constitutional amendment that would have explicitly prevented the federal government from interfering with slavery; the war was the only reason it never went to the states for the vote to make it official.

Once the war started, the North was very clear that the purpose was not to end slavery--it was to keep the Union together. Lincoln believed that the Constitution as written did not give the states the right to secede, and that doing so was traitorous and made the Constitution meaningless. Remember, a democratic-republican government had never been attempted on such a scale before; several other similar governments had fallen in recent decades. If this American experiment was going to succeed, the nation needed to prove that an elected government could maintain power even when there was disagreement among its citizens. The war couldn't be about slavery--the North had to bring the rebel states back into the fold and then solve the slavery issue through civilized legislative and judicial measures.

So the North was very careful not to make the war about slavery early on. Early in the war, the ardent abolitionist general John C. Fremont took over Missouri, declared martial law, and issued a proclamation freeing all the slaves. Lincoln was pissed, and he immediately reversed the order. Several border states in the Union still allowed slavery; if they thought the war was about ending it, they'd join the Confederacy, and the problem would get even bigger.

That view only began to shift after the war dragged on. After so much bloodshed, could the North really be okay with going back to pre-war business as usual, with the issue that had led to secession unresolved? Black soldiers were beginning to fight for the Union and showing immense bravery--could we let them fight for freedom and then send them back to slavery?

Ironically, Lincoln was only able to issue the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure. He still believed the president didn't have the power to end slavery--it's why the order didn't free any slaves in the Union. But slaves were an important resource in the Confederate war effort; men were able to go off and fight because they could leave their families and farms in the care of slaves. Slaves were being used for physical labor in army camps, freeing up the white men to do the actual fighting. By freeing the slaves, Lincoln was furthering the war effort by depriving the South of a vital resource--a legitimate use of his expanded wartime powers, with the added bonus of ending a horrible system of bondage. If the South hadn't seceded, such a measure wouldn't have been legal.

By the end of the war, the North was fighting to end slavery, and the South was desperately trying to spin the narrative to prove that it had been about anything other than slavery. But no matter how you spin it, the South seceded specifically to maintain slavery, and the resulting war was the only reason it was able to end.

#answered asks #history is awesome #presidential talk #this is still a bit simplistic and i'm not sure it makes sense #and it got a bit long-winded #but i hope it's not completely incomprehensible

[mariacallous]

U.S. President Joe Biden talked about democracy vs. autocracy a lot in his early days in office. This was an attempt to reinvigorate democracy as a source of American soft power. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was an opportunity to drive home the message of this new geopolitical challenge to surmount. The democracy summits were an attempt to build on Biden’s vision, even though they were flawed in their criteria of which countries to include. Nevertheless, the third democracy summit in Seoul has drowned in the fog of the Israel-Hamas war. The administration’s management of the crisis has acted as a wrecking ball on the framework it was trying to build. While the United States has repeatedly blocked attempts at a permanent cease-fire, China is appealing to the global south by acknowledging the Palestinian right to armed resistance at the International Court of Justice. Allowing the conflict to drag on will keep discrediting the United States, elevate the standing of China and Russia, and undermine the prospects of democracy globally. And current events in Egypt, a historic strategic partner to the United States, showcase the consequences of this inertia.

An initial commitment to democracy in the Middle East came from then-President George W. Bush. In 2005, pressure from Bush’s administration resulted in Egypt’s first competitive presidential election, marking a significant shift in its political landscape. (Before that date, presidents renewed their mandate through referenda.) This first election gave a new life to the first movement that defied then-President Hosni Mubarak’s grip over power, Kifaya (Arabic for “enough”). A new generation became politically engaged, and, according to V-Dem datasets, there was a rise in participation in independent political associations. This new generation led Egypt’s revolution in 2011.

Barack Obama’s speech at Cairo University in 2009 was a rare moment when an American president visiting an Arab country was warmly welcomed. He promised a “new beginning” with the Muslim world after the shocking invasion of Iraq by Bush’s administration. The peak alignment with America’s calls for democracy happened during the Arab Spring of 2011, when the youth in Tahrir Square agitated to overthrow Mubarak with Obama’s support.

When Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took power in 2014, he identified Egypt’s evolving civil society, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, as threats he needed to take down in order to avoid a fate like Mubarak’s. Sisi’s regime has been characterized by a crackdown on dissent, with civil society actors who align with Western values of human rights and democracy labeled as traitors. The United States has come under continuous attack by state-sponsored media as a sponsor of chaos in the region; this propaganda in turn has worked to discredit the Western model of democracy. Meanwhile, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s favorite dictator received little pushback from an administration that did not have democracy on its agenda.

Over the same period, relations with Russia and China have grown stronger. While Mubarak maintained a good relationship with Moscow, Russia’s presence in Egypt mainly came through grain exports and tourism. Since Sisi took power in 2014, Cairo’s pivot toward Moscow was highlighted by the agreement in 2015 for Rosatom to build the first nuclear power plant on Egyptian soil—one of Russia’s most critical strategic wins in the region. Egypt’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine involved a provisional agreement to supply rockets to Russia and refusing to block its airspace to Russian fighter jets. Sisi justified this stance when he met American House Intelligence Committee leaders in Cairo: “When the U.S. conditions some of its arms sales and shipments to Egypt, what do you really want me to do?”  (Jim Himes, the committee’s ranking member, recounted this interaction with Sisi in an interview with CNN.) The U.S. has, since Obama, been putting conditions to uphold human rights on its aid to Egypt, which is the second-largest recipient of U.S. military assistance after Israel. Although blocks on aid usually involve a small proportion of the $1.3 billion sent annually, China and Russia offer arms deals with no such strings attached.

Cairo, too, has been moving closer to Beijing over the past decade, with Chinese investments increasing by more than 317 percent from 2017 to 2022. Because of the growing Chinese maritime presence in Egyptian ports, Egypt anticipates substantial Chinese investments in the Suez Canal region. Besides rapidly growing trade with China, Egypt’s government has had its state media adopt a Chinese propaganda narrative, organized bilateral leadership programs with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and allowed for Chinese expansion in the telecommunications sector and cyberspace. Only faint liberal voices within the minimal independent media space challenged the Egyptian official narrative that has championed China as a model of autocratic economic development.

Enclaves of activists and civil society leaders in Egypt and abroad have continued to challenge the Sisi regime, primarily through social media, and to support all those oppressed and imprisoned by him. Their pressures began to yield some results after Biden took office. His administration extended a show of support by highlighting human rights abuses in Department of State reports and withholding a small portion of military aid. Although the United States refused to increase the amount of withheld aid as called for by international human rights organizations, this helped ease some pressure on Egyptian activists. In 2022, and ahead of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, and in an attempt to improve its image in response to the mounting U.S. pressure, Egypt  released a considerable number of political prisoners, the issued a national human rights strategy, and  establishmed a national dialogue between the regime and the opposition figures who remained inside Egypt. The results of these concessions were minimal, and some, like the human rights strategy and the dialogue, were merely cosmetic maneuvers. Nevertheless, they all happened after incoming U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken openly criticized the arrest of staffers from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) and Biden excluded Egypt from the democracy summits. Egyptian activists understood that any wins, however limited, could be achieved through U.S. support. This was particularly evident in campaigns to release high-profile prisoners like Alaa Abdel Fattah. The war in Gaza has severely compromised this premise.

The Biden administration’s backing of Israel and the repeated American vetoes used in the U.N. Security Council to prevent a permanent cease-fire have slashed the United States’ popularity in Egypt to 9 percent, compared with 46 percent for China, as shown in a survey by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The acute rise in anti-American sentiment is not the only result of what the public perceives as hypocrisy and double standards in America’s approach to the conflict. As shown by the survey, a more alarming consequence is the prevalence of distrust in the Western model of democracy and human rights, increasingly perceived as mere rhetorical tools deployed by the United States when human rights align with U.S. interest. Revealing the extent to which this view has been adopted by the public, in its latest release the most famous Egyptian rock band, Cairokee, sang about a double-faced America that doesn’t value Palestinian lives as opposed to those of “white angels.”

What about Europe? Can it pick up America’s slack? Europe once supported democracy and human rights in Egypt, as evidenced by the resolution issued by the European Parliament in 2022 urging EU member states to support a monitoring and reporting mechanism on grave human rights violations in Egypt. But once the war in Gaza began, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to support Sisi through financial aid packages to mitigate the refugee influx expected from Gaza—and to prevent new waves of migration to Europe.

Arab democracy and human rights advocates made it clear that they parted ways with the Western stance of support for Israel and stood firmly in solidarity with the Palestinians. As a result, human rights organizations have risked support from their partners in the West, and many have become even more isolated in their struggle under repressive regimes. For instance, Germany recently withheld funding for the anti-trafficking program of the Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA) as a punishment to its head of the board of trustees, the award-winning human rights defender Azza Soliman, for signing a statement calling for the end of the war in Gaza and supporting the boycotting of the occupation. In solidarity, EIPR stopped all cooperation with the German government. The only winners from the weakening of civil rights organizations in Egypt are the authoritarians.

China and Russia have positioned themselves very well to capitalize on these developments. They did not rely solely on their official statements and positions in support of the ceasefire  in the U.N. Security Council, which has already enhanced their image considerably with the Arab public, as detected by the Washington Institute survey. The China in Arabic account on the X platform exemplifies how China is seizing the opportunity to spread anti-American rhetoric. The account spreads pro-Chinese and anti-Western propaganda in Arabic to more than 580,000 followers.

Moscow is already cashing in on these gains by hosting Palestinian factions, including Hamas, for reconciliation talks. China sees in the conflict an opportunity to expand its geopolitical role in the region while the United States is bogged down with Iranian proxies in Syria, Iraq, and the Red Sea, and it reaps political wins from the Houthi Red Sea attacks, which spare Chinese vessels and crew members. But those who have gained the most from the anti-American sentiment are the autocratic regimes of the region.

Sisi is relieved to have secured his third presidential term through a sham election. He blocked his main rival, Ahmed Tantawi, from running, and sentenced him after the election to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a ban from running in parliamentary elections for five years. Instead of calling out such violations, Western pressures were focused on mitigating the effects of the war and having an active Egyptian role in the day-after scenario despite its internal vulnerabilities. Nationalist and religious rhetoric has prevailed, even among activists on social media.

The United States needs to move fast to restore its image globally. This requires promptly ending the devastating war in Gaza and adopting a fair and balanced approach to the Middle East conflict. Promoting democracy should be repositioned at the center of American foreign policy to counter the global rise in authoritarianism championed by China and Russia. In parallel, measures should be taken to nudge autocratic allies in the region toward political reform. Economic and trade incentives should be linked to structural economic and political reforms. Judicial reform and unequivocal implementation of the rule of law should be mandated to guarantee the long-term efficacy of economic aid packages, as well as to extend solid support to freedom fighters unwilling to relinquish their struggles for democracy.

Pundits have criticized the Biden administration’s autocracy-vs.-democracy framework as an impractical approach to the geopolitical contest with China. Yet democratization and upholding human rights remain essential soft powers. Autocrats like Sisi already prefer aligning with China, who absolve them from any commitment to human rights. With support for China growing, displays of hard power such as military showdowns and trade wars will become the main arenas for competition.

[racefortheironthrone]

I read somewhere that the Confederates intended to conquer Central and South America if they won the civil war, is that true? Would they be able to conquer these places? In addition to the Union, can any country or alliance in these regions prevent them?

In the lead up to the American Civil War, one of the key arenas of conflict between pro- and anti-slavery forces in the United States was the expansion of slavery. For reasons having to do both with the agricultural impact of intensive cotton cultivation on soil fertility, the impact of rising demand for slaves, and the need to maintain political equilibrium in the U.S Senate, pro-slavery advocates believed quite strongly that slavery had to keep expanding or it would die out.

Students are probably most familiar with the debates over the extension of slavery into western territories of the United States that touched off conflicts over the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and so forth, but there was a good deal of political conflict over the expansion of American slavery southward especially in the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The most prominent example of this is the Mexican-American War, which was seen by anti-slavery Northerners as a war waged in order to conquer more southern territory for slavery, and which would see conflict between the "All-Mexico" movement that sought the US annexation of all of Mexico versus the Wilmot Proviso's efforts to exclude slavery from the territories gained from Mexico.

However, there were also a series of attempts by pro-slavery southerners in the mid-19th century known as filibusterers to overthrow Caribbean and Latin American governments by force in the name of annexing them to the United States as slave territories and future slave states. Many of these efforts had support from pro-Southern presidential administrations:

in 1849, 1850, and then again in 1851, there were the Cuban expeditions of Narciso López which sought to overthrow the Spanish and establish a slave state. A lot of very prominent southerners, including the Governor of Mississippi, were involved in these filibustering campaigns - and even more prominent southerners were approached but decided not to join. While López managed to land troops twice, he was never able to gain local Cuban support against the Spanish and ended up getting executed in Havana.

In 1853, William Walker attempted to conquer Baja California and Sonora, and declared these territories to be the Republic of Sonora, but was forced to withdraw by the Mexican army.

In 1854, there the infamous Ostend Manifesto, a document that tried to justify a U.S invasion of Cuba in the event that Spain refused to sell Cuba to the United States. This document leaked and caused a huge political scandal.

Most famously, there was the 1855 filibuster of William Walker, who succeeded in overthrowing the government of Nicaragua with a private army. Declaring himself to be both commander of the army and preaident of the new Republic, Walker re-established slavery and was able to win U.S recognition in 1856. However, Walker's ambitions grew larger than his grasp and when he attempted to invade Costa Rica, his forces were defeated and the governments of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala allied together against what they saw as a hostile regime, and together with the Costa Ricans invaded Nicaragua in 1857, forcing Walker to flee the country.

In addition to these attempted campaigns, there were a number of proposed efforts that didn't come together or were called off - after his involvement with the López affair in 1850, Quitman of Mississippi made preparations for an invasion of Cuba in 1854 with support from the Pierce Administration, but abandoned their efforts due to fallout from the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

While the Confederacy was generally too busy with the American Civil War to pursue military conquest to their south, there were some exceptions to the rule and certainly there were major forces within the Confederate government who planned for southern expansion in the event of Confederate victory. For more on this, see:

The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire: 1854-1861.  Robert E. May. (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1989.)

Colossal Ambitions: Confederate Planning for a Post-Civil War World. Adrian Brettle. (Richmond: University of Virginia Press, 2020).

#history #u.s history #slavery #filibusters

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 29: Eyes Without Pity

Hello and welcome to my rewatch of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds! Despite being entirely about Alfred Hitchcock and not fantasy novels, this post contains massive spoilers for the series The Wheel of Time, from book 0 to book 14. If I could spoil books -2, -1, and 15 through 17 I would, but spoiler alert: They're never going to happen. Very sad.

This chapter starts with a wolf icon, which is a reflection of all of the new wolf powers that Perrin is going to be unwillingly developing this chapter. It's pretty straightforward.

Perrin exchanged glances with Egwene. She stuck her tongue out at Elyas’s back. Neither of them said anything. The one time Egwene had protested that Elyas was the one who wanted to go around the hills and he should not blame them, it got her a lecture on how sound carried, delivered in a growl that could have been heard a mile off.

Elyas is going above and beyond in terms of trying to keep these two kids safe, but he's yet another dude who is completely biting Egwene's head off. Girl puts up with way too much crap in this first book. And way worse in the next book. Thank goodness it'll be her turn to be awful in book three I guess.

“We’re wasting time,” he said, starting to stand, and a flock of ravens burst out of the trees below, fifty, a hundred black birds, spiraling into the sky. He froze in a crouch as they milled over the trees. The Dark One’s Eyes. Did they see me? Sweat trickled down his face.

More corvid slander, but I'll take it because they're about to be genuinely terrifying in a book filled with a lot of competition.

Elyas shook his head. “In the Borderlands I’ve seen sweeps with a thousand ravens to the flock. Not too often—there’s a bounty on ravens there—but it has happened.” He was still looking north. “Hush, now.”

It would be absolutely hilarious if one of the reasons that the Blightborder was constantly expanding was that the removal of carrion eaters from the ecosystem encouraged the exact kind of unnatural ecologies that thrive in the Blight.

Abruptly a fox burst out of the trees, running hard. Ravens poured from the branches after it. The beat of their wings almost drowned out a desperate whining from the fox. A black whirlwind dove and swirled around it. The fox’s jaws snapped at them, but they darted in, and darted away untouched, black beaks glistening wetly. The fox turned back toward the trees, seeking the safety of its den. It ran awkwardly now, head low, fur dark and bloody, and the ravens flapped around it, more and more of them at once, the fluttering mass thickening until it hid the fox completely. As suddenly as they had descended the ravens rose, wheeled, and vanished over the next rise to the south. A misshapen lump of torn fur marked what had been the fox.

A list of the Shadows' most competent servants:

Semirhage, for sending a super continent into civil war and coming closest to making Rand undo existence

Graendal, for almost winning the Last Battle single-handedly

These ravens

A second-to-last-place tie between virtually everyone else

Belal

Thank you I will not be taking notes.

Think, if you want to stay alive. Fear will kill you if you don’t control it.

Good advice, Elyas. Sadly, completely wasted on these two, as Perrin's fears never come close to killing him and Egwene's uncontrolled ones are entirely post-traumatic and not really her fault.

Moving in a stumbling trot, Perrin exchanged a glance with Elyas. The man’s yellow eyes were expressionless, but he knew. He said nothing, just watched Perrin and waited, all the while maintaining that effortless lope.

On the one hand, Elyas really doesn't seem to appreciate that this isn't the time. On the other hand, he's the only person who makes Perrin take any steps towards his personal growth, so it's hard to be that mad at him for it.

The wolves had no notions of time the way men did, no reasons to divide a day into hours. The seasons were time enough for them, and the light and the dark. No need for more. Finally Perrin worked out an image of where the sun would stand in the sky when the ravens overran them from behind. He glanced over his shoulder at the setting sun, and licked his lips with a dry tongue. In an hour the ravens would be on them, maybe less. An hour, and it was a good two hours to sunset, at least two to full dark.

I just love stuff this whole sequence. I don't have much to say about it, it's all just... grim and tense. Everything feels hopeless and I know for a fact that things are going to be all right.

Perrin looked at Egwene again and blinked away hot tears. He touched his axe and wondered if he had the courage. In the last minutes, when the ravens descended on them, when all hope was gone, would he have the courage to spare her the death the fox had died?

This is an interesting semi-recurring issue in Perrin's arc, one that kinda steps on Rand's toes and clashes with a few things; his having to learn the things that aren't his calls to make, whether it's marrying off his staff or deciding when to put someone out of their misery. It's something that could have been a better character beat if it had been focused on instead of his refusal to take responsibility, but like I said it's just weirdly clashing with that instead.

I think it's an artifact of the fact that the three ta'veren boys were originally going to be one character, maybe? Perrin was clearly the grab bag choice for overflow, either because Jordan had an intermediate step of trying to do two ta'veren before realizing even that was too much or because once he did the split he wanted to do three and didn't notice how the third leg of the tripod was shorter than the others.

Safety, that’s what. We made it, you bloody fools. No raven will cross that line . . . not one that carries the Dark One’s eyes, anyways. A Trolloc would have to be driven across, and there’d need to be something fierce pushing the Myrddraal to make him do the driving. 

Thanks for telling them that salvation was on the way, Elyas. The terror they felt being completely unnecessary is clearly very funny to you!

“A stedding,” Elyas roared. “You never listen to stories? Of course, there hasn’t been an Ogier here in three thousand odd years, not since the Breaking of the World, but it’s the stedding makes the Ogier, not the Ogier make the stedding.”

I believe this claim of Elyas's, since this particular stedding probably has the best documented history of the uninhabited one. It does make me wonder though why this one was overlooked the whole time. It was empty in Hawkwing's day when the population crisis wasn't anywhere near what it is now, and it's good enough land for the Ogier to work.

No questions. Not now. No explanations. Not ever. But a small voice taunted him. But you would have done it, wouldn’t you?

I'm trying so hard to not be unfair to Perrin, so let's just leave things at "Dude obviously cracked under the stress of their situation", but like... Jeez bro. It's a fucked up thing to think, even under the stress.

Artur Paendrag Tanreall, Artur Hawkwing, the High King, united all the lands from the Great Blight to the Sea of Storms, from the Aryth Ocean to the Aiel Waste, and even some beyond the Waste. He even sent armies the other side of the Aryth Ocean. The stories say he ruled the whole world, but what he really did rule was enough for any man outside of a story.

Is this another story having grown in the telling or early installment weirdness? In the established canon, the fleet that Artur sent to Shara never accomplished anything, which is really the more sensible outcome of a naval assault on an incredibly defensive nation. But it's been a thousand years and Shara's such a mystery that people definitely could believe it. I'm just not sure if Jordan believed it at the time too.

Artur Hawkwing died the very day the statue was finished, and his sons and the rest of his blood fought over who would sit on Hawkwing’s throne. The statue stood alone in the midst of these hills. The sons and the nephews and the cousins died, and the last of the Hawkwing’s blood vanished from the earth—except maybe for some of those who went over the Aryth Ocean.

Ishamael must really love these cruel ironies. He can be a real Bysshe!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #perrin aybara #elyas machera #egwene al'vere

[sirmephy]

A dying mans promise (pmatga)

Im not good with writing- im trying to improve so please any creative criticism is more than welcome-

Cold was a term no one would use when it came to the hellhole the netherworld was. Lava everywhere, hot stone pastering the ground and a hothead of a ruler.

Most ghosts coudnt quiet care less about it, most happy to somewhat live a life downhere. Being close to those they knew from back then, before it all went south. A familiar feeling of warmth.

Yet their peace was something a preticuar fire ghost coud not let be, he attacked, attacked and attacked the living ones whenever it would be possible- whenever he could. Everything he had would be used against the ones he despises most. And this was what most ghosts hated here, they could not refuse thier leader, some helped out of the loyalty they had left while others simply feared his moodswings.

If one would ask them as to what their leaders goal was, they would simply say that losing once simply didnt do the trick, other that their leader was simply that insane to think he would win sometime soon. In trues most knew that that yellow kid - the so called hero - would keep them from anything close to an achievement.

Those who questioned the leader were often simply burend to a crisp anyway - yet some stuck close, even able to get somewhat of an civil answer from the fire ghost, that being simply because he deserved it.

But was that what he realy thought, or just a desperate cry for attention...

“If you keep starring at it, it might go up in flames. Not like this plan will work out”, negative was a good word to describe the female ghost but not the best, a realist who observed rather than attacking would be the more fitting describtion.

Why she could do so, talking to him like she wanted, without being burned, it was simple, he despised her enough for what she could do to him. He knew that she knew that he would never lay a finger on her, it kept his slime boiling, yet he was all bark and not bite when it came to her.

“If you aint here to help get out, this”, he gestured towards a small modell of the roundhouse, “will work! And that yellow pest will finally be gone!”

“Oh? So just another failure in the making”, she hummed, floating over, taking a seat on the throne, starring at his red eyes with a calmness he could not understand, not grasp.

“Maybe something would work, if a certain someone would actually help!”

“Im good thanks”

“Then dont spit on it, if ya aint doing your work!”

“So? is it hurting your ego?”

“NO!”

“Yes”

...

“What do you want Via?”, arguing with her would be pointless.

“Cant i come here?”

“Thats not what I- ugh”

“Use words Tray”

“You-”

“They dont have faith, in this”, she gestured at the so called plan, “you know this-”, she flew over, hovering close to him, hugging him from behind, “and so do I”

He shrugged her off, growling as he turned, “woman if you aint helping, get, lost”, this he spat at her, his eyes burning with passion and...

distant sadness.

“you used to be more than willing to help me with all of the planning”, he grinned, studying his claws, “ what happened to you? Got scared now that you are dead? Lost interest now that you consider the war lost?”

“...”, her eyes wander over the others features, studying him, “this is not good to you- not to anyone, neither living nor ghost, why not just... giv-”

“Dont”, he looked away, knowing what she wanted to say.

“Give it up Tray. You will never beat that kid, he will stop you every single time your pathetic ass goes up there to gain something out of your reach”, her arms now crossed over her chest, eyey slightly glowing as she kept talking, “you just hurt others who have no business in it! All because you think you are better than them? All be-”

“SHUT UP”, fire rose around the ghosts fists, clenching them at his sides, breathing quicken and some tears sparkeling in his eyes - how he hated being this emotionall with her -, “I AM THE LEADER! THIS WAR IS OVER WHEN I SAY IT IS!”

“Like a child who lost a bet”, she mused, challenging him, “You are a sore looser.”

“LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING YOU ARROGANT WOMAN”, he coulndt call her names, it felt wrong, even now, “I WILL WIN THIS, I ALREADY AM, THEY- THEY WILL NEVER FORGET ME, AND I WILL DAMN WELL KEEP IT LIKE THAT. THOSE PATHETIC FOOLS DONT EVEN NOW WHAT HAS YET TO AWAIT THEM!”

Tears now flowing down his cheeks betrayed him, o how irronic his name was- he breathed uneven but didnt back away from her. She was a ghost off his past that he coundt get rid off- that he didnt want to get rid of.

“YOU KNOW WHY I DO ALL THIS?! DONT YOU-”, he barked inches away from her face, “YOU ALWAYS DO; ISNT THAT RIGHT? GETTING A KICK OUT OF IT, KNOWING HOW YOU PULL AT MY STRINGS, PRESSING ME ON AND ON FOR ANGER, JUST LIKE YOU DID WHEN WE WERE ALIVE”

 “I WISH”, her raised voice stoped him, has he ever heard her raise it, “I DONT KNOW ANYTHING ANYMORE- CANT SEE WHAT YOU THINK OR HOW YOU ARE, ALL I SEE IS THE PAIN THIS ALL CAUSES YOU!”

A heavy silence hugged them, pressing for something that would defuse the situation. She knew it was her who had to speak first, giving him something to grab onto.

“Do- do you really think you need to prove yourself to them? Betrayus”, his full name, when has she last called him by it, “please- I ju-”

“I just dont want to be forgotten...”, he floats over to her carefully, not sure what this all was or why, but she still did the same as always, making him question himself, feel something he feelt not worthy off, “I do this, the attacking the planning to, to not end up in another shadow, folowing the promise i made to myself, to you- to all of them.”

“Promise”, she whispered the word as if it was an echo, seeking anything in his eyes that would help.

“You know...when we sat in that room with those god forbidden machines i swore one thing-”, he chuckled and finds her eyes again, taking in a deep breath “I saw you die before my eyes, I had survived the first shock - baerly- everything hurt and I will never forget seeing your limb body in the other chair, all of you had gone before me...”, this times his tears feel silently, his arms hugging around his waist “I swore to make them pay- to make them always remeber what had happened...who we are, who I am

Its been long since i felt actual hatred towards that yellow kid, he is simply a reminder off it all- a shadow- that refuses to die. I know i will likely never win in any of this, but it wont stomp out the fire that keeps me going- god how cheesy-”

This time she smiled, taking him back, it has been a while since she last smiled- a kiss carefully placed on the leaders cheeks is enough for him to melt into her arms, leaning against her body, seeking the connection they once- no still had. A sense of savety taking over.

#betrayus #pmatga oc #pmatga betrayus #pmatga #lord betrayus #betrayus spheros

[scriobh-an-iontas]

And now that you've answered that, why not sit back and enjoy a brief history of the American Revolution:

First, the Seven Years War happens. It's mostly thought of as having been fought in Europe, but a campaign (not that kind) is also fought in North America. It is called "The French and Indian War" by the locals.

Britain wins the war against France, and subsequently gets the rights to all land east of the Mississippi river.

Colonialists start moving onto native land, probably with a lot of aggression and arrogance. This is ok so far as Britain is concerned, because they assume that the colonialists can play nice with the natives.

That is not the case. As such, the natives push back against them. 500+ colonialists die during this conflict.

Britain realizes that the colonialists CAN'T play nice and forbids them from going west of Appalachian mountains. Troops are sent to enforce this. Taxes are raised to support the troops, levied mostly on the colonies because they're the reason this mess exists at all.

Wealthy Land / Business Owners get frustrated by Britain imposing its will on the colonies and disallowing them from spreading West. Sure, taxes are bad, but it probably wasn't the little folks paying the lion's share of them, except insofar as the fees associated with them are concerned, but you pay sales taxes, so you know that heavy toll already.

Unhappy working class colonialists don't like paying those extra fees, like any USAmerican doesn't like, but this dislike is further stoked into unhappiness via propaganda until war is inevitable.

France, convinced by wealthy colonialists, backs to revolution as a "fuck you" to Britain ("We can't have land in the Americas? Fine. You don't get your precious colonies, either")

America is born! If you're a wealthy white man you're free to do whatever! Otherwise you can fuck off.

Imperialist conquest of the continent begins in earnest ("but really it's just our Manifest Destiny to control the whole continent so it's alright").

+++++

Ultimately, if they don't benefit the wealthy, any establishment of rights in USAmerica regarding a disenfranchised group only happens after massive civil disruption.

Said rights are never seen as good by the establishment, only as the necessary price for keeping/restoring the peace.

For Example:

The north fought the civil war to keep the south in the union. The south fought the civil war to keep their slaves.

If Lincoln hadn't been killed and his VP hadn't bungled things as much as he did, there would be no amendment regarding slavery, it would be a purely legislative matter, not a constitutional one.

This means that, if Lincoln lived, we'd need to worry about republicans overturning anti-slavery laws too, in addition to everything else.

#american revolution #America #usa #founding fathers #Tax the rich #eat the fucking rich #eat the rich #manifest destiny #the big lie #imperialism #colonialism #westward expansion #north america #seven years war #french and indian war #thirteen colonies #original colonies #taylor polls

[girljeremystrong]

25 favorite books of mine for @kerrycastellabate ❤️ 

1.       WE RIDE UPON STICKS by quan barry

about a girl’s high school field hockey team from salem, massachussetts which in 1989 is on a mega winning streak. might it be because the team members have pledged themselves to the dark forces in order to get to state? it’s so fun and the characters are all incredible.

2.       WE BEGIN AT THE END by chris whitaker

the plot isn’t easy to summarize but this is a thriller and a very very good one at that. it’s goto ne of the best characters ever: duchess “the outlaw”. there’s a murder and a murderer on the loose and old friends and sweet siblings and it’s truly a great book.

3.       THE INDEX OF SELF DESTRUCTIVE ACTS by christopher beha

this as close to succession as a book can get. Sam is a sport statician, he gets involved with a rich new york city family. this book is amazing, so much happens and all the characters are great.

4.       THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE by abi daré

adunni is a fourteen-year-old nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. she’s determined to find her voice. incredible story and so sweet and uplifting and beautiful. i have gifted this book time and time again. i love it.

5.       THE ART OF FIELDING by chad harbach

about henry who gets recruited by mike to play baseball at college and they become very good pals while henry becomes better and better and mike understands his life less and less. great team antics great plot great characters not too much baseball.

6.       DOMINICANA by angie cruz

ana is a fifteen year old girl living in the dominican republic who dreams of moving to america. again this is a very sweet and powerful story. ana is an incredible character that i love so much.

7.       I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS by maya angelou

a wonderful memoir about her childhood in a southern town. this is a classic and i love it. It’s joyful and sad and wonderful.

8.       NOTHING TO SEE HERE by kevin wilson

moving and uproarious novel about a woman who finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with remarkable and disturbing abilities (they spontaneously combust when they get agitated). great and fun and very sweet.

9.       CONJURE WOMEN by afia atakora

a sweeping story that brings the world of the south before and after the civil war vividly to life. spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives of three unforgettable women. “magnificently written, brilliantly researched, richly imagined.”

10.   A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by john irving

eleven-year-old owen meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in gravesend, new hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. owen doesn't believe in accidents. wonderful story about friendship and destiny. i love this book.

11.   HOMEGOING by yaa gyasi

this book follows generation after generation of descendants of two half sisters born in different villages in 18th century ghana. they go on to having very different fates and so do their children and their children's children. it’s a modern classic! it’s perfect.

12.   BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by evelyn waugh

tells the story of charles ryder's infatuation with the marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. enchanted first by sebastian, then by his doomed catholic family. it’s wonderful and wistful and beautifully written.

13.   BELOVED by toni morrison

sethe was born a slave and escaped, but eighteen years later she is still not free. she has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of sweet home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. it’s perfect it won every big award because it’s incredible.

14.   ALL THE KING'S MEN by robert penn warren

tells the story of charismatic populist governor willie stark and his political machinations in the depression-era deep south. i don’t know but i love this book. it’s a classic and it’s written so well and the story is compelling and i keep recommending it.

15.   SALVAGE THE BONES by jesmyn ward

hurricane katrina is building over the gulf of mexico, threatening the coastal town of bois sauvage, mississippi, and esch's father is growing concerned. this all takes place across 12 days before, during and after hurricane katrina and it is a truly amazing book. a must read! a modern classic.

16.   EVERYWHERE YOU DON'T BELONG by gabriel bump

claude, a black boy from the south side of chicago whose parents both left when he was a child, so he was raised by his grandmother and her friend paul. love this book, its characters and the way it’s written, and especially its dialogues.

17.   THE PROPHETS by robert jones jr.

bout the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a deep south plantation. isaiah was samuel’s and samuel was isaiah’s. very sad and very maddening, but beautiful.

18.   THE FUNNY THING ABOUT NORMAN FOREMAN by julietta henderson

when 12-year-old norman’s best friend jax dies, he decides the only fitting tribute is to perform at the edinburgh fringe festival as a comedian. his mum sadie will do anything to help him. ooh this is so sweet, it’s adorable and so fun and delightful!

19.   INFINITE COUNTRY by patricia engel

elena and mauro are teenagers when they meet, their blooming love an antidote to the mounting brutality of life in bogotá. once their first daughter is born, and facing grim economic prospects, they set their sights on the united states. beautiful story and very well written.

20.   THE SWEETNESS OF WATER by nathan harris

in the waning days of the civil war, brothers prentiss and landry—freed by the emancipation proclamation—seek refuge on the homestead of george walker and his wife, isabelle. the walkers, wracked by the loss of their only son to the war, hire the brothers. so unexpectedy gorgeous.

21.   BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY by quan julie wang

a beautiful memoir about an undocumented childhood. my favorite book of 2022. magnificent, perfect, sweet, sad, joyful. i love it with all myself.

22.   REAL LIFE by brandon taylor

almost everything about wallace is at odds with the midwestern university town. but over the course of a weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with a straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses. i love this. this author is so good at building up characters.

23.   MILK BLOOD HEAT by dantiel w. monitz

incredible collection of short stories. left me wanting more but at the same time they are perfectly crafted and beautiful.

24.   HOMELAND ELEGIES by ayad akhtar

truly incredible book, one of the best i’ve ever read. part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque adventure — at its heart, it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.

25.    THE LOVE SONGS OF W.E.B. DU BOIS  by honorée fanonne jeffers

this is the story of ailey and her ancestor’s journey in america through centuries, from the colonial slave trade to our days. we meet ailey when she is a child and watch her grow up, until the moment when, as a college graduate, she embarks on a journey to uncover her family’s past. a wonderful epic story spanning centuries. loved the character of ailey.

#THIS GOT OUT OF HAND #book recs #kerrycastellabate

[komododad1]

The 1960 U.S. presidential election was one of the most contentious of the post-war era in the Black Sun continuity. The Democratic and Republican Parties struggled to regain power, the Socialist party fought to continue its agenda of radical reform, and the American party sought to "save America's soul."

Vice President Jacob Olson pledged not only to continue his predecessor's agenda of economic and social reforms, but to also a more aggressive foreign policy against the provocations and expansionist aims of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and their varied allies and minions. Despite a precarious and contentious start to his presidency from his narrow electoral victory, Olson's navigation of multiple crises at home and abroad would lead to him being re-elected in 1964 with the highest threshold that the Socialist party had yet to receive.

Kennedy family scion, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., aimed to restore the Democratic Party's national viability after years in the political wilderness - caused by the disastrous wartime presidency of Huey Long. Polls showed him highly competitive in the weeks before election day. While failing to win the White House in 1960, Kennedy offered one of the stronger Democratic showings since 1940. He would be re-elected to a third term in his senate seat in Massachusetts in 1964 despite a Socialist wave that accompanied President Olson's own re-election. In 1968, Kennedy would stage a stunning comeback, finally winning the presidency as candidate for the new National Union party - formed from a merger of the moderate remnants of both the Democratic and Republican parties after the disastrous 1964 presidential election.

California senator Richard Nixon was seen as his party's best hope at maintaining relevance. The Republicans had been struggling after conservative rebels formed the American Party during the 1948 election in protest against President Thomas Dewey's more liberal policies. Nixon not only struggled to stake out a distinctive position amid the crowded field of candidates and ideologies, but also failed to match the more powerful charisma of both Olson and Kennedy - made especially noticeable during the first ever televised presidential debates. Nixon would narrowly lose re-election to his senate seat in 1962, which effectively finished his career in national politics. His final press conference has become well known for his embittered comments to reporters: "you don't have Nixon to kick around any more..."

Indiana senator William E. Jenner was seen as the great white hope of American conservatives. Virulently anti-Socialist and willing to keep quiet on civil rights in order to get support from the South, he promised a "return to normalcy and tradition for all Americans." Though Jenner offered a surprisingly strong showing, he came no where close to victory, even with running mate Strom Thurmond attracting significant support in the South. He was only just barely able to win his home state of Indiana - with the Olson coming a close second. Jenner chose not to seek re-election in 1964, facing a increasingly difficult electoral map. A socialist candidate would gain his seat that same year. Jenner largely disappeared from politics from that point on, returning to the private sector for the rest of his life.

#furry #furry art #alternate history #alt history #democratic socialism #socialism #alternate timeline #alt timeline #alternate universe #alt universe #anthro #anthro art #furries #worldbuilding #conworld #alternate election #lore #Black Sun #KD's art #KD's writing

[cindyssouthkoreanlitblog]

10 interesting South Korean novels

The Vegetarian - Han Kang 

“Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether.” (good reads)

Love in the big city- Sang young park 

“Love in the Big City is the English-language debut of Sang Young Park, one of Korea’s most exciting young writers. A runaway bestseller, the novel hit the top five lists of all the major bookstores and went into nine printings. Both award-winning for its unique literary voice and perspective, and particularly resonant with young readers, it has been a phenomenon in Korea and is poised to capture a worldwide readership.” (good reads)

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki - baek se-hee 

“Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her - what to call it? - depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgmental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends, performing the calmness her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal. But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a yen for her favorite street food: the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like? Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a twelve-week period, and expanding on each session with her own reflective micro-essays, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions, and harmful behaviors that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness. It will appeal to anyone who has ever felt alone or unjustified in their everyday despair.” (good reads)

The Investigation - Jung Myung lee 

“Fukuoka Prison, 1944. Beyond the prison walls, the war rages. Inside, a man is found brutally murdered. What follows is a searing portrait of Korea before their civil war, and a testimony to the redemptive power of poetry. Watanabe Yuichi, a young guard with a passion for reading, is ordered to investigate a murder. The victim, Sugiyama, also a guard, was feared and despised throughout the prison and inquiries have barely begun when a powerful inmate confesses. But Watanabe is unconvinced; and as he interrogates both the suspect and Yun Dong-ju, a talented Korean poet, he starts to realize that the fearsome guard was not all he appeared to be…” (good reads)

The Hole - Hye young pyun 

“In this tense, gripping novel by a rising star of Korean literature, Ogi has woken from a coma after causing a devastating car accident that took his wife’s life and left him paralyzed and badly disfigured. His caretaker is his mother-in-law, a widow grieving the loss of her only child. Ogi is neglected and left alone in his bed. His world shrinks to the room he lies in and his memories of his troubled relationship with his wife, a sensitive, intelligent woman who found all of her life goals thwarted except for one: cultivating the garden in front of their house. But soon Ogi notices his mother-in-law in the abandoned garden, uprooting what his wife had worked so hard to plant and obsessively digging larger and larger holes. When asked, she answers only that she is finishing what her daughter started.” (good reads)

Human Acts - Han kang 

“In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho's best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.” (good reads)

The Good Son - you-jeong jeong 

“Early one morning, twenty-six-year-old Yu-jin wakes up to a strange metallic smell, and a phone call from his brother asking if everything's all right at home - he missed a call from their mother in the middle of the night. Yu-jin soon discovers her murdered body, lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs of their stylish Seoul duplex. He can't remember much about the night before; having suffered from seizures for most of his life, Yu-jin often has trouble with his memory. All he has is a faint impression of his mother calling his name. But was she calling for help? Or begging for her life?” (good reads)

The Plotters - kim un-su

“Behind every assassination, there is an anonymous mastermind--a plotter--working in the shadows. Plotters quietly dictate the moves of the city's most dangerous criminals, but their existence is little more than legend. Just who are the plotters? And more important, what do they want?

Reseng is an assassin. Raised by a cantankerous killer named Old Raccoon in the crime headquarters "The Library," Reseng never questioned anything: where to go, who to kill, or why his home was filled with books that no one ever read. But one day, Reseng steps out of line on a job, toppling a set of carefully calibrated plans. And when he uncovers an extraordinary scheme set into motion by an eccentric trio of young women--a convenience store clerk, her wheelchair-bound sister, and a cross-eyed librarian--Reseng will have to decide if he will remain a pawn or finally take control of the plot.

Crackling with action and filled with unforgettable characters, The Plotters is a deeply entertaining thriller that soars with the soul, wit, and lyricism of real literary craft.” (good reads)

Lemon - Kwon yeo sun

“In the summer of 2002, when Korea is abuzz over hosting the FIFA World Cup, nineteen-year-old Kim Hae-on is killed in what becomes known as the High School Beauty Murder. Two suspects quickly emerge: rich kid Shin Jeongjun, whose car Hae-on was last seen in, and delivery boy Han Manu, who witnesses Hae-on in the passenger seat of Jeongjun's car just a few hours before her death. But when Jeongjun's alibi turns out to be solid, and no evidence can be pinned on Manu, the case goes cold. Seventeen years pass without any resolution for those who knew and loved Hae-on, and the grief and uncertainty take a cruel toll on her younger sister, Da-on, in particular. Unable to move on with her life, Da-on tries in her own twisted way to recover some of what she's lost, ultimately setting out to find the truth of what happened.” (good reads)

The Old Woman with the Knife - Gu Byeong-mo 

“At sixty-five, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named Deadweight, to keep her company. There are expectations for people her age--that she'll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin. Double-crossers, corporate enemies, cheating spouses--for the past four decades, Hornclaw has killed them all with ruthless efficiency, and the less she's known about her targets, the better. But now, nearing the end of her career, she has just slipped up. An injury leads her to an unexpected connection with a doctor and his family. But emotions, for an assassin, are a dangerous proposition. As Hornclaw's world closes in, this final chapter in her career may also mark her own bloody end.” (good reads)

[dhaaruni]

On this 159th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, I return to this quote by Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln: 

Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.

Frederick Douglass was at times very critical of Lincoln but he was also a very pragmatic man, and understood that in order for emancipation to come about, Lincoln had to win the election of 1860 and keep the Union together, which meant Lincoln had to publicly stake out positions that Douglass profoundly disagreed with such as voicing willingness to ship slaves back to Africa or constrain slavery to the South instead of abolishing it altogether. And then, on January 1, 1863, Lincoln kept his word, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all enslaved persons in the country, including in the Confederacy. 

To his credit, Lincoln also seems to have been radicalized by the war, publicly declaring in his second inaugural address in 1864 that the death and destruction wrought by the Civil War was divine retribution to the U.S. for possessing slavery, that God may will that the war continue "until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.”

I think something President Lincoln and President Obama have in common is that they’re both better men than they were permitted to be by the confines of their times. Barack Obama is a very shrewd politician, but is also an idealist, especially in comparison to Michelle, who’s the consummate realist. He ran on hope and change, and spoke of a unified America in his victory speech in Chicago, while some people across the country were lynching and burning scarecrow Obamas in anger at his ascendency to the country’s highest office.

Obama tried to do good for the country, he sacrificed a whole lot of political capital to pass the Affordable Care Act, which has saved countless lives and livelihoods to this date, and America rewarded him by handing Republicans power at the earliest opportunity. If I remember correctly, Congressional Republicans were literally given a pamphlet when Obama took office that they were to obstruct him at all costs. 

I also genuinely respect that after his presidency, Obama took the effort to better himself on a personal level, attending therapy and couples counseling with his wife, and working through his issues with masculinity, ironically in a podcast with Bruce Springsteen. I love Obama’s podcast with Springsteen because that was one of the first times I’ve seen men, especially wealthy powerful men, really take ownership of their flaws and failings as individuals, husbands, and fathers. 

My point is, neither Lincoln nor Obama are perfect presidents or men or husbands, but like Douglass said of Lincoln and like Ta-Nehisi Coates said of Obama, they were better men than their times allowed. Over a century after Douglass’ death, Coates wrote of Obama, 

And I also knew that the man who could not countenance such a thing in his America had been responsible for the only time in my life when I felt, as the first lady had once said, proud of my country, and I knew that it was his very lack of countenance, his incredible faith, his improbable trust in his countrymen, that had made that feeling possible.

And, if Douglass were still alive, I think he’d concur. 

#history #personal #abraham lincoln #barack obama

[fictionadventurer]

"The only Civil War alternate history worth caring about is, "What if they fixed the sewage issue that was contaminating the White House water supply and killing presidents?""

May I also propose: What if Robert E Lee did not resign from the Union army (maybe Viriginia didn't secede) and quickly leads the Union to victory?

I went through a stretch where I listened to a bunch of different talks by historians who discussed Robert E. Lee's military strategy, and based on the evidence, I'm not sure that putting Lee in charge of the Union army means a quick victory. During the early part of the war, he was known as "Granny Lee" for his slow and cautious tactics, and he got a lot of criticism (and a nickname I can't remember) because he had his soldiers using shovels more than guns--focusing on digging entrenchments rather than going after the enemy. If he'd been in charge of the Union army, he may have just been one more commander who frustrated Lincoln with his slowness.

However, Lee did have very aggressive tendencies once the war got going. He went on the offense much more than necessary and lost a huge percentage of his soldiers. (His tactics were actually remarkably similar to Grant's.) It's possible that if he were in charge of the Union army, with its much greater manpower and resources, he'd have taken a much more aggressive stance from the start and been more proactive in going after the Confederates. Yet it's equally possible that Lee, as a Southerner, would have been reluctant to take up strategies that would harm the South and would thus have gone easy on them.

We also can't forget that the Union only managed to win the war once Grant was able to coordinate multiple attacks across multiple fronts. Robert E. Lee spent almost the entire war in Virginia. He was aware of the effects his actions had on the wider war effort, but he was still a largely local commander. I'm not sure a man so loyal to his one state would be able to widen his focus enough to effectively coordinate a nationwide war effort.

In this alternate universe, I think Virginia not seceding (which is the only possible way Lee would have stayed with the Union) would have a much greater effect than having Lee at the head of the army would. (For one thing, West Virginia wouldn't exist as a state). Virginia has a significant amount of land, provided a decent amount of manpower and officers, and was the site of the Confederate capital--right on D.C.'s doorstep. A Virginia in the Union would leave Washington D.C. in a much safer position throughout the war, which could have significantly altered the strategy of both sides.

However, if we assume that circumstances align to make the final part of the premise--a quick Union victory--possible, it would probably just mean the continuation of slavery. The North entered the war aiming to save the Union, not end slavery. The South left to continue slavery, but there was no reason the North had to go to war to end it; they'd spent decades trying to resolve the issue in Congress and the courts, and they could keep trying to do that--so long as the South stayed part of the Union. But after the war dragged on so long and killed so many, they couldn't go back to business as usual--this war would have to end slavery, or else they'd be right back where they started, and all this bloodshed would have been for nothing.

Lincoln was only able to issue the Emancipation Proclamation because of his expanded war powers; if the war doesn't drag on long enough to justify such an action, it's much harder to end slavery. With a slaveholder at the head of the army, it'd be even harder to make the end of slavery a condition of peace. As terrible as that long and bloody war was, it did have the effect of making the end of slavery the only acceptable option for the Union; a shorter, quicker war would likely have failed to resolve the slavery issue, and that'd be an entirely different type of tragedy than the one we got.

#answered asks #history is awesome #presidential talk #(i guess it still counts as that) #(i mention lincoln) #this is much vaguer and more rambly than i wanted but it'll have to do #the talks i listened to mostly compared grant and lee which was fascinating #and it was hard not to go off into tangents about trivia here

[thestarsarelaughing]

Another Country (1985)

Get there if you can – W H Auden Scattered comrades, now remember: someone stole the      staffroom tin Where we collected for the miners, for the strike they      couldn't win, Someone stole a tenner, tops, and then went smirkingly      away. Whoever did it, we have wished you thirsty evil to this      day: You stand for everything there was to loathe about the      South – The avarice, the snobbery, the ever-sneering mouth, The lack of solidarity with any cause but me, The certainty that what you were was what the world      should be. The North? Another country. No one you knew ever      went. (Betteshanger, Snowdown, Tilmanstone: where were      they? In Kent.) "People" tell us nowadays these views are terribly unfair, But these forgiving "people" aren't the "people" who were      there. These days your greying children smile and shrug: That's      history. So what's the point of these laments for how things used to      be? Whenever someone sagely says it's time to draw a line, We may infer that they've extracted all the silver from the      mine. Where all year long the battle raged, there's "landscape"      and a plaque, But though you bury stuff forever, it keeps on coming      back: Here then lie the casualties of one more English Civil      War, That someone, sometime – you, perhaps – will have to      answer for.

- Sean O’Brien, in Jubilee Lines, ed. Carol Ann Duffy.

#look sometimes you read a poem and feel compelled to pass it on #for the times that were and the times that are and the time we're living in #poetry #Sean O'Brien #strikes #solidarity #miner's strike #1985 #Another Country #industrial action #the north south divide #inequality #history #doomed to repeat it

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #118 (Year 3/Week 14):

My 3rd re-watch of Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean’s magnificent, all-male epic and the movie that Steven Spielberg had seen more than any other film. It’s so grand that the nearly 4 hours spectacle opens with 4+ minutes of orchestral music prelude on a dark screen and includes an ‘intermission’.

It got me to realize that most all movies (maybe because of the economics of movie-financing) always show deference to authority; The influences they represent, whether government, military, religion, civil powers, or simply ‘the big man’, the rulers are always accepted as masters.

🍿  

The Garden of Words, my second anime ever, and coincidentally also my second by Makoto Shinkai (After ‘Your name’). A melancholy and poetic story about a 15-year-old aspiring shoe-maker student who keeps meeting a woman skipping work on a park bench at the beautiful Shinjuku Gyo-en gardens during the raining season. Gorgeous visuals of nature and rain.

The Wikipedia page for this film is nearly as long as the one for Obama!

🍿

3 more terrific debut films by young female directors:

🍿 For some unclear reasons, I’ve seen a large number of Parisian high school dramas recently. Spring blossom is one of the best. A gentle drama of a shy 16 year old girl who falls in love with a 35 man she sees outside a local theater.

And like Quinn Shephard’s ‘Blame’, it’s twice as impressive, because it was written by the talented Suzanne Lindon when she was only 15, and she directed it and starred in it before she was 20. Je l'adore! 8/10.

🍿 The Hive, my first film from Kosovo. Another on my growing list of “Debut films directed by female filmmakers”. The “first film in Sundance Festival history to win all three main awards – the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award and the Directing Award – in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition”. Based on a true story, it tells simply but touchingly about a war widow who started a small business, making homemade Ajvar and empowering the women in her village. Highly recommended. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. And of course, reminiscent of the Macedonian documentary ‘Honeyland’. 8/10.

🍿 Rye Lane, a cute new rom-com about two young black South London strangers who meet at random and spend the day getting to know each other. Fresh and original.

🍿  

My 7th by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki. Every time I watch another of his movies, I get elated. There is nobody who make movies like him, he’s one of a kind. The man without a past, the second of his “Losers” trilogy, opens with a cinematic gut pinch and doesn’t let go until the end. My favorite of all his films so far?...

The trailer. 9/10.

🍿    

The Hollywood Reporter Critics put out a new list of their ‘50 best films of the first 21 years of the 21st century’, and I decided to go through the ones I haven’t seen yet.

First was Far from Heaven, my 4th tragedy by Todd Haynes. A precursor to his masterful ‘Carol’, this is another Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama of oppression and unrequited desire in middle class America of the mid 50′s. Drenched in luminous colors over all (except of the scenes of illicit dangers, in the gay bar and black cafe), and accompanied by another expansive score, it’s a devastating tale of the price of conformity. The husband who can’t control his homosexual urges, and the wife who falls for a black gardener are doomed, and their lives will be shattered. The poor players had simply nowhere to go. 8/10.

🍿 

‘Today I learned’ about ‘Elite Panic’ describing the “behavior of members of the elite during disaster events, typically characterized by a fear of civil disorder” and the shifting of focus away from disaster relief towards implementing measures of "command and control".

New order, my third memorable film by Mexican auteur Michel Franco (after the terrific ‘Sundown’ and the disturbing ‘April’s daughter’) describes a society collapsing, the exact moment when the shit finally hits the fan, when the riots on the TV screen cross over and knock on your door. It’s a brutal and unforgiving story, ugly, violent and without any sentimental sympathy. Shocking anarchy escalates quickly when the pressure gets too much.

When the revolution comes down, it will bring some serious bloodshed. No wonder the greatest boogieman the ruling class warns us all about is “Class Warfare”. The most distressing film of the week - 9/10!

🍿  

To catch a thief, Hitchock’s romantic thriller. The Good: Grace Kelly on the French Riviera, the ultimate glamour of the lifestyles of the rich and famous at Cannes and Nice, Hitchcock’s first (?) use of helicopter shots and modern car chases. The Bad: The genre roles & sexual politics of the husband-seeking unmarried young woman would not fly today.

I watched it solely because of this clip.

🍿 

2 with Brigitte Fossey (of ‘Jeux interdits’):

🍿 “...The square is mine!...”

I forgot that she played the grown-up Elena in Cinema Paradiso, one of Ennio Morricone’s most popular movies. And yes, without his magnificent score, the 3-hour long nostalgic trip to the heart of cinema, would not be half as enjoyable.

The question that was not well-answered was: Why did he not bother to visit his mother for 30 year? (Re-watch).

🍿 The happy road, a mediocre 1957 children comedy about 10 year old American boy and French girl, who escape from a Swiss boarding school, and hitchhike to Paris. Directed by and starring Gene Kelly, falling for the girl’s mother. 3/10.

🍿    

Inside, the new Willem Defoe survival thriller. He’s an art thief who breaks into a hi-end NYC penthouse of a wealthy art collector, intending to steal 3 paintings by Egon Schiele. But the security system traps him inside, and he’s unable to escape for many months. Captivating hi-concept and one-trick film, but a bit too long. 6/10.

🍿    

...”Never forget how much he loved you, Kubo”...

After being seriously obsessed with everything ‘Coraline’ all of last year, Adora moved on to Laika Studio’s next stop-motion animated story Kubo and the two strings. A Japanese-inspired action story about a one-eyed Samurai son who creates magical origami figures from his 3-stringed shamisen. But it was as if all the pretty parts were combined by an AI-engine. 4/10.

I will introduce her next to ‘The Iron Giant’, and ‘Isle of dogs’.

🍿    

First watch: The green room, one of the last few François Truffaut films I haven’t seen yet. In it, he plays a somber 1920′s journalist obsessed with death who builds a shrine to everybody he had lost. I love his human directing style, but this was a confusing mess. 2/10

🍿    

RIP, Ryuichi Sakamoto X 2:

🍿 In remembrance of his passing I started re-watching Bertolucci’s ‘The Last Emperor’, but to be honest, I got bored after 30 minutes; I blame the less than HD version of my pirated copy. So maybe I’ll try it another time.

Instead, I went back to my of favorite ‘Black Mirror' episodes, and the only one he composed the score for, Smithereens. It was directed by the same man who did my other cherished story ‘Hated in the nation’, and was also about online media frenzy that spirals out of control. This ‘Tyranny of the Screens’ parable received mixed reviews, because it wasn’t futuristic enough, but for my money it is a tense thriller on par with the best of them. 10/10.

Sakamoto’s dark score is subtle and minimal. You have to strain to notice it. Perfect!

...”This is my last day!”...

🍿 Psychedelic Afternoon, a 2013 animated short, featuring David Byrne, and released to raise money for children who survived the 2011 tsunami.

🍿  

‘Mad men’ is one of the few TV-shows I've seen, and I’ve seen it 3 or 4 times (including once last year). “Hazel” of YouTube ‘Dream Dimension Productions’ analyzes one “Perfect Scene” from Season 3 finale “Shut the door, have a seat”.

A terrific breakdown, which got me to watch it again, together with a few more.

Extra: Her ‘Netflix has a content problem’, which I also agree with, as I was attempting to avoid 90% of all their content.  

🍿   Talk to her, my 3rd unsatisfying film by Pedro Almodóvar (after ‘All about my mother’ and ‘The human voice’). A twisted story about two unappealing men who befriend each other at a clinic where they both care for comatose women. His editing choices and scattered direction, constantly focusing on unrelated detail in every scene turned me off. Some artistic perversions (like a silent film clip of a tiny man entering a giant vagina) notwithstanding. I guess I’m not a fan. 4/10.

🍿   2 more by Noah Baumbach (both with Adam Driver):

🍿 The last film I saw this week was also the best one:

I started watching the new Adam Driver dinosaur fantasy ‘65′. but it felt so stupid the moment Adam Driver opened his mouth, that I had to switch it off within 5 minutes. Instead, I turn to Marriage Story again. An absolute masterpiece, so painful and so true, for all divorced couples and parents of children of divorce. (That 10 minutes long scene at the apartment was raw! - Screenshot Above). 10/10 deservedly and without any reservations. 

(And now I must see ‘Two for the road’!)

🍿 (Actually, I ended up with his uneven While we’re young, which didn’t measure up to that. The milieu of hipster millennial poseurs and Brooklyn wannabe documentary filmmakers was uninteresting, and I also can’t stand Ben Stiller.)

Still I will look for the rest of his movies I had missed.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

[mysteriesatthecoffeeshop]

Old Green Eyes and other Lores from the Chickamauga Battlefield

(Note from our hosts: We apologize for the quality of Episode 1 of our podcast - we are new to this and have since increased in quality and decreased in awkwardness. Thank you)

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The Chickamauga Battlefield is located in the northern part of Georgia in a city called Fort Oglethorpe. If you ask around, locals will describe the area as "beautiful" and "serene" during the day, and I agree! During the summers - I recall looking out on the lush rolling fields, watching the tall grass sway with the wind. The sky is the brightest of blues, the sun is shining bright, but the canopy of trees keeps you tucked away from it's rays. The battlefield has some of my best memories.

The name "Chickamauga" is Cherokee in origin. The land originally belonged to a smaller branch of the Cherokee Nation known as the Chickamauga Tribe. Although there are many variations of the word Chickamauga - some historians believe that is comes from the word "Chicamaco" meaning "dwelling place by the water" - water, referring to the Chickamauga Creek (two short tributaries of the Tennessee River that run north and south) . However, many believe that the word actually means "River of Death". (Which is honestly very accurate as you will soon find out)

With the amount of people that come to battlefield to sight see (or you know - catch pokemon because every grave stone/ monument is a pokestop) It's hard to believe that this is (basically) a large graveyard that once was covered in the blood and corpses of soldiers. Evidence of a battle that is deep rooted in the history of the south. On September 20th 1863 - the last cannonballs were shot. The Confederacy had won after three hard days of hell on Earth. It was considered the first major win for the confederacy but it came at a cost - The Confederacy had 18,454 casualties while the Union had 16,170 casualties.

Note: Casualties = killed, wounded, missing, or captured

The Battle of Chickamauga was considered the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War (for the number of casualties) right after The Battle of Gettysburg.

So yeah the battlefield is hella haunted, and if you were to ask anyone from the area if they had any stories - most of them will.

My dad for instance - told me that there was a time in his life where he had to drive through the battlefield at around 4-5am every morning in order to get to work. Now, my dad doesn't scare easily at all, nor is he one to make up stories. According to him, shadows can be seen walking or dashing across the road, even if you have your high lights on.

Remember how I said earlier that there was a a canopy of trees there? Well because of that - it is pitch black at night and I have definitely been spooked a couple of times driving through (okay - it's not hard to spook me. Jump scares, no matter what it is, will always get me).

Another incident that had happened within my family was when my niece was about two or three years old. My sister in law and her mother decided to take her for a stroll in the battlefield. It was a beautiful day and they wanted to get some fresh air. This would be my niece's first time going to the battlefield as my sister in law and brother had just moved back home from being stationed in North Carolina. As they strolled past one of the open fields my niece began to giggle. This was odd to my sister in law as my niece was asleep in the stroller with a pacifier in her mouth just a few minutes prior. She brushed it off only for her to giggle again a few minutes later. She asked her what she was laughing at and the toddler's response was "Mommy. Look at all those silly people. They're so silly. They're all falling down." She lifted up her arm and pointed her her little finger out to the empty field. My sister and her mother high tailed it out of there. There was no way for a toddler to know or even understand what went on there, not to mention there had been no talk of the battlefield prior to this event. Could it be that she was watching a ghostly replay of civil war soldiers dying on the battlefield?

There are also other known beings in the battlefield other than shadows and apparitions:

Old Green Eyes The Lady In White The Headless Horseman Bodies in the Bloody Pond Another note to add is that the Civil War was not the only occurrence of death in the area:

So, does Chickamauga earn the name "River of Death"? Are these beings actually out there or is a whole city of people just seeing things? Find out more by listening to Mysteries At The Coffee Shop on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more!

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This article was written by: Chalena K.

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