#as if colonized Americans aren’t the ones leading these charges

[carewyncromwell]

Next Cinderella AU part ahoy!

Conical hats were actually considered very fashionable during the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. What’s fascinating, however, is how they evolved into two very distinct and oddly opposing styles of hat: the stereotypical “Pilgrim” hat and the pointed hat that witches are generally depicted wearing! Around the turn of the 17th century, the most stylish variation of black conical hat was called the capotain, which is a cone, but with a rounded top -- the hat McGonagall wears in that top sketch is one of these types of hats (her dress is based on this design, which also features a shorter version of the capotain). The hats were originally fashionable among both men and women, but over time, one group of women that was most associated with wearing them were Quakers, a branch of Christianity that broke away from the Church of England and advocated quite liberated views for the era, such as the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, and a refusal to involve themselves in war. They also passionately believed that one didn’t have to attend church in order to be close to God and that one could practice one’s faith out in the world by living and dressing modestly and being active in charity work. (To learn more about the history of how the conical hat evolved into our modern image of “the witch hat,” check out this awesome fashion history video on the subject.) As one can expect, Quakers and Quaker women in particular were not well-taken-to by a lot of European society, especially by the religious movement on the opposite site of the political scale in Britain, the uber-conservative, Bible-purist Puritans. Many of these same Puritan-types got very involved in hunting witches both in Europe and in the Americas (the Salem Witch Trials are a perfect example). But yes...if one looks up pictures of historical clothing for Puritan men and/or “the Pilgrims” (A.K.A. the group of Americans that colonized Plymouth, who were Puritans), they very often wore a variation of the capotain! Although it’s been theorized by historians that the capotains worn by Quaker women ended up being associated with sin and therefore witchcraft, similar hats were also worn by the men who persecuted them. The hats were worn by both sides -- victim and accuser -- and yet most of us today look at the capotain and immediately think “witch” exclusively. Talk about irony.

Greensleeves is often ascribed as being commissioned by King Henry VIII for his second wife, Anne Boleyn (even Six the Musical references this)...but it actually was written in the later half of the 16th century, when Anne’s daughter Elizabeth I was Queen. So yeah, that’s sadly just an old wives tale. But it is a lovely song! The melody for Greensleeves has been remarkably long-lasting, even being rewritten as multiple Christmas songs over the centuries, including the still popular What Child is This?, which was written in 1865.

Previous part is here -- whole tag is here -- Katriona “KC” Cassiopeia belongs to @kc-needs-coffee -- and I hope you all enjoy!

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Carewyn very quickly threw on her mother’s green-sleeved yellow dress and as many warm wool petticoats as she could before fetching her white horse from the palace stable. She rode up through the gate in exactly twenty-five minutes, to find Orion on his black mare waiting for her. Carewyn was ready to ask Orion if everything was all right, but almost as soon as they’d left the perimeter of the gate, Orion urged his horse into a fast gallop.

“Come, my lady,” he cried over his shoulder, “let us chase that horizon!”

Carewyn had to send her horse charging forward in its own gallop to catch up with him. They rode right through the market and then out of the capitol altogether -- they avoided the road that led toward the Cromwell estate, dashing eastward. They weaved in and out of the rolling snow-capped hills, riding beside and around each other. The freedom of riding alone was enough to bring some life back into Orion’s cheeks, and Carewyn despite herself soon found herself smiling.

When they came to a stop at the top of a hill close to the northern border, Orion looked out over the edge with a handsome, endless gleam in his eye, like that of a sailor looking out to sea. Carewyn once again prepared to ask Orion if he was all right...but once again, Orion dodged the question.

“Do you see that eagle, overhead?” asked Orion.

Carewyn looked up. She did -- it was a truly handsome golden eagle, gliding in a circle through the air over their heads.

“I’ve seen eagles just like that nearly every day, up and down the border,” said Orion. “Shall we see if we can ride fast enough to overtake it in flight? Could we take flight as birds do, without ever spreading wings?”

“Orion...”

Carewyn brought a hand gently down on his arm.

“I know there’s something wrong,” she whispered.

Orion looked at her, his expression losing most of its levity and becoming much blanker and more inscrutable again.

“I understand if you can’t tell me,” she insisted softly. Her blue eyes rested on her own hand on his arm rather than his face -- with the intense concern she felt, she didn’t dare expose them further by looking straight into his eyes. “And I truly don’t want you to feel like you have to tell me anything you don’t want to. Your secrets are your own, and I know you have a reason for them.”

Just as I have mine.

“I only...I can tell you’re running from something...maybe even the thing you’ve being running from, every time you’ve come to see me, all these weeks...and I don’t know what to do, to protect you from what you’re so afraid of. Please...tell me what I can do.”

Orion’s black eyes trailed over Carewyn’s face, rippling with many tiny flickers of emotion that were hard to properly identify -- pain? Affection? Anxiety? Evasiveness? Shame? Longing? Who knew?

At last the Prince of Florence brought a hand out to gingerly rest on top of Carewyn’s on his arm.

“Chase that eagle with me,” he said softly.

Carewyn looked up at Orion and then at the eagle overhead as it soared off toward the nearby woods. Then she gave him a small, sad smile and nodded.

“...All right.”

Dislodging herself from Orion, Carewyn steadied her grip on her horse’s reins and flicked them to make it gallop toward the woods.

“Well, come on, then!” she called over her shoulder with the strongest smile she could. “T’would be a shame if I out-rode you in a challenge you set yourself!”

Orion’s face broke out into a brighter, fond smile and he pursued her.

The two rode their horses down the hill and into the trees. Racing side by side, overtaking each other in their strides and then catching up again -- all while Orion smiled so fully and handsomely, and looked at her with such blazing midnight-black eyes -- was a joy that Carewyn had trouble putting into proper words. His expression was full of such silent, and yet unbridled joy -- free, in every sense of the word.

“You should be allowed to feel like that more often,” Orion’s words returned to her. “Free.”

You should be allowed to feel like that too, Orion, thought Carewyn. You deserve to feel this free all the time.

The two rode with speed until they’d finally lost sight of the beautiful golden eagle. Slowing their horses into a calmer trot, they then journeyed through the trees, enjoying the peaceful serenity of the chirping birds and the pools of sunlight scattered across the muddy, snow-dusted ground.

“I’ve never been out this far before,” Carewyn confessed, her almond-shaped blue eyes trailing over the interlaced branches overhead.

Orion looked at her out the side of his eye. “...This close to the border, you mean?”

“Yes.”

Carewyn caught a strange scent in the distance -- something vaguely like the fires she’d tend to back at the castle and the Cromwell estate.

“...Something’s burning...”

Orion nodded solemnly. “Bonfires. The Royaumanian and Florentine camps aren’t far from here.”

Carewyn looked at Orion, slightly startled. His gaze had wandered northward, but it was clear his mind was far from the trees his eyes were idly resting on.

“We’re near the war front?” asked Carewyn softly.

“Yes...” Orion glanced her out the side of his eye. “...Are you frightened?”

“No,” said Carewyn.

She looked through the trees in the direction Orion had been facing.

Jacob could be over there right now, she thought to herself. The idea of seeing her brother for the first time in nine years -- of hugging him again and seeing his relieved smile -- it made her feel like her heart was being squeezed.

Orion’s black eyes scanned her longing, but fearless face, before shifting back in the direction of the trees that obscured the path toward the war front.

“The scales are going to shift again, soon,” he whispered. He could feel Carewyn’s eyes on him again. “The two sides have constantly fought for dominance...lashing out ruthlessly and then retaliating, back and forth, until they’re forced to come to a stalemate, just to catch their breath. Then one lashes out again, and the precarious balance is thrown to the winds once more...”

Carewyn’s blue eyes rippled with concern. “Orion...is something bad about to happen, out there?”

Orion closed his eyes. His father claimed he needed him, in order to lead the Florentine army in the two-pronged attack on Royaume...but it wasn’t unlikely that the King might make do and find someone else to fill that role...

“Hopefully not,” he said softly.

Carewyn reached out a hand and took hold of Orion’s wrist. Orion looked down at her hand and then up at her face -- she had trouble looking at him, but he could tell her eyes were rippling with concern. His heart felt like it was suddenly being harshly compressed, just to fit inside of his chest.

You wish to protect me from what I fear...but what I fear, I should wish to protect you from.

The King’s words returned to his mind.

“When you make mistakes, the people you cherish, that you want most desperately to protect, pay the price!”

But how could he hope to protect Carewyn from the War and the cost it would demand? How could he hope to stop it, when his own father unknowingly would be sabotaging his efforts for peace? How could he live with himself, if he had to chain himself to the War the way the King had -- to fight against the Royaumanians he’d met and broken bread with as equals?

Orion took several deep breaths before speaking again.

“...My father wishes me to join him, at the front,” he admitted lowly.

Carewyn looked up, startled. “...Your father’s in the army?”

“Yes,” said Orion. “He’s...a high-ranking officer. He expects that I will follow his example and lead our ranks into battle.”

Carewyn considered Orion for a moment. “...You don’t want to.”

Orion’s eyes darkened significantly. “...I don’t want to.”

When Carewyn didn’t respond, he pressed on.

“My father believes that the War can only be ended through force -- that justice can be only brought about by utterly destroying our enemy. But...I cannot believe that. I grew up on the border between Florence and Royaume. The town I’m from is so close that one could hop easily from one to the other. It caused some tensions, yes...but it also made it so that at first meeting, or even third or fourth, you never knew what side of the divide a person was on. And so I found myself constantly thinking...what is it that truly separates us? Is it morality? Is it values? Humanity? And yet I don’t think either side can boast having any of those things exclusively. It instead all comes back to a mistake made fifty years ago -- a land dispute that ended more violently than it should have. So many people have died, all because of that...and because neither King has decided to be the better man and choose forgiveness over vengeance.”

Orion bowed his head, his eyes closing solemnly.

“...My father asked me to help him lead the army, in an upcoming attack on the enemy forces -- one that he believes could end the War once and for all. But...”

He exhaled quietly through his nose.

“...I couldn’t accept that burden...so I left.”

Carewyn didn’t respond. Orion scanned her face, trying to read her reaction, but it was proving difficult when she wouldn’t look at him.

Does she...disapprove? he couldn’t help but think. She did think he was Royaumanian -- she didn’t understand that he wanted to protect her brother, not prevent him from returning home...but how could he explain that to her, without...?

“I know that the War could end, if my father’s strategy succeeds,” Orion explained, trying to keep his voice level despite the anxiety he felt, “but this is only one strategy of hundreds, all of which have failed. And even if our side was victorious...however many lives I could potentially save by fighting, I would be snuffing out far more. I realize that this is my responsibility alone, and sometimes one must be willing to do what others will not, to reach their goal...but flowers bloom under sunlight and water, not blood. If we could avoid burning a forest to the ground, wouldn’t it then be easier to bring it back to life?”

“Yes...but if someone wants to set a forest ablaze, you have to act if you want to stop them.”

Carewyn’s response was very soft and solemn, but there was no anger or disapproval -- instead, to Orion’s immense relief, it sounded almost encouraging.

“If you believe that Royaume could make peace with Florence, then you need to speak out for it,” she said firmly. “If you see it and believe in it, that’s great...but you need to make others see and believe in it too, if it’s going to really come about. Talk to your father, make him see things as you do -- and if he isn’t able to, then...well, I’ll talk to Andre, and you and he can discuss it together.”

Her lips spread into a gentle smile and she gave his wrist a light squeeze.

“My own family may have profited because of the War, but the people of Royaume, the common man, would celebrate, if peace could come about without further loss. If Florence would also, then that’s a step in the right direction. There’s more than one way to fight for something...all it requires is enough courage to place one’s goal over whatever risks stand in their way.”

Orion stared at Carewyn for a long moment. As he did, the black of his eyes seemed to melt, gaining a warmer, softer light that resembled candlelight rippling in endless, dark water.

“...Carewyn...”

Before he could say anything more, however, there was a loud explosion in the distance. Carewyn’s horse reared back in terror, which in turn spooked Orion’s, and both Carewyn and Orion had to quickly calm their steeds.

“Whoa, whoa,” Carewyn whispered in her horse’s ear, “easy, boy...it’s all right...”

Orion stroked his horse’s mane with a slightly trembling hand, breathing in and out as he tried to steady his heart rate. He then looked at Carewyn with a more serious eye.

“...Perhaps we should make our way back to the valley. It’s not safe here.”

Carewyn looked northward through the trees again. “Do you think your father’s started the attack?”

“No. Coordinated attacks require both strategy and assignments, as well as the element of surprise. I’d say this is a skirmish between younger, less experienced soldiers -- and if so, it’s likely to run farther afield and cause damage outside the designated battlefield.”

Orion could see Carewyn still hesitating. Although there was no fear in her face, she seemed reluctant to leave -- likely thinking of her brother, more than the risk to her own safety...

After a brief flicker of uncertainty, Orion reached out a hand and took hold of Carewyn’s arm not unlike how she’d taken his earlier.

“From everything I’ve heard from you about your brother, I truly cannot see him not doing everything he possibly can, to look out for your well-being...including looking after himself.”

A second smaller explosion in the distance made Orion stiffen slightly, his fingers tightening that bit around Carewyn’s arm.

“...We should move out of harm’s way,” he said as levelly as he could.

Seeing the paleness of Orion’s face, Carewyn relented at once.

“Yes.”

Bringing a hand up onto Orion’s horse’s reins, she directed both of them around so they could start riding back out the way they came.

As they came around a cluster of trees, however, their attention was caught by the sound of the cry of an eagle and many snapping branches. Carewyn’s horse reared back again, just barely dodging a large clump of golden-brown feathers that collided sharply with the ground.

Carewyn once again rushed to soothe her horse. Orion quickly climbed off his horse and bent down to get a better look at what had fallen.

It was a golden eagle, just as brilliant as the one they’d chased into the wood -- perhaps even the same one. It was conscious, but clearly in pain when it tried to return to the air -- its left wing crumpled up against its side and covered in blood and what looked like grayish ash.

Orion’s black eyes narrowed.

“Gunpowder,” he said. “The poor creature’s wing must have been struck by a stray bullet.”

Once she’d successfully soothed her white horse, Carewyn likewise jumped off its back. She dashed over to Orion, hitching up the skirt of her mother’s gown as she went.

“Can you hold him?” she asked.

The eagle gave an angry-sounding cry, baring its sharp talons at both of them, and it tried to hobble away back into the air with its one good wing.

“I don’t think he wants our help,” said Orion.

Undaunted, Carewyn ripped off some fabric from her outer-most petticoat. “Well, he needs it, whether he wants it or not. Can you hold him, please?”

Orion looked at the eagle. Rather than try to grab it, he met the eagle’s eyes and tried not to blink. The eagle looked back at him with a piercing gaze. When Orion extended a hand, the eagle lashed out its talons again -- Orion withdrew, but didn’t flinch.

“Steady,” he said gently.

He waited a moment, keeping eye contact with the bird, and then tried again. This time he was able to move close enough to touch before the eagle lashed out with its claws again.

“Peace,” said Orion patiently. “We mean you no harm, feathered friend.”

Another loud explosion in the distance made both the eagle and Orion flinch.

“That one sounded closer,” said Carewyn, her voice faintly tense but as gentle as she could. “We need to be quick.”

The flames of his childhood home were returning to Orion’s mind despite his best efforts, and he shut them out as best he could, closing his eyes and breathing in and out several times. Once he’d reestablished his focus, Orion opened his eyes again.

The eagle looked from Orion to Carewyn almost critically. Finally, after Orion reached in for a third time, it let the Prince run a gentle hand over its back. Once the bird was calm, Orion then carefully extended its wing so that Carewyn could reach it.

“This will likely hurt him a little,” Carewyn told Orion. “Please hold him still, so he won’t fly away.”

Orion brought a hand around the eagle, which fidgeted and cried out indignantly, but did not claw or snap at them. With Orion holding out its wing, Carewyn was able to reach into its blood-soaked feathers and dislodge the bullet. The eagle gave an angry, pained cry, and Carewyn very quickly set about wrapping up the wound with the white fabric she’d ripped out of her petticoat.

“There,” breathed Carewyn, her red lips spreading into a smile. “That should help...”

The bird looked down at its wing, gingerly folding up against its side as it surveyed her with a very beady eye. With a soft click of her tongue against her teeth, she slowly extended an arm out, holding it very still like a branch.

“Climb on,” she cooed. “That’s it...”

The eagle peered Carewyn over, but after a long moment, it gradually scooted over and leapt up onto her arm. Its talons dug into the sleeve of her dress with strength, and it was heavier than Carewyn expected, but she with some difficulty just barely managed to hoist it up.

“Your talent with animals shines through again,” said Orion with a wry smile, clasping his hands lightly in front of him.

“You weren’t half bad yourself,” Carewyn said amusedly. She brought a hand gently along the eagle’s comb. “You’re a very handsome bird, aren’t you? You poor thing...”

“You there!”

Both Orion and Carewyn looked up in great surprise.

Striding through the woods toward them was a very tall middle-aged woman. She wore a black capotain hat and an old-fashioned black dress with a white ruff around the collar, and her graying brown hair was tied up in an austere looking bun under her hat. Despite her apparent age, her step was strong and her posture as straight as a general’s. 

“What are you doing here?” said the woman very sternly.

Carewyn stood a bit uneasily, thanks to the weight of the eagle on her arm, but she nonetheless straightened up, resting a hand on the eagle’s back almost protectively.

“We’re merely out riding, madam,” she said, not impolitely, but still confidently.

The woman peered down at both Orion and Carewyn with an eye almost as critical as the eagle’s had been as she crossed her arms. Her height made it so she towered over both of them with relative ease.

“Well, through your riding, you have trespassed on my land,” she said stiffly. “And it seems you’ve claimed something of mine.”

Her eyes flickered over to the eagle on Carewyn’s arm, taking in the makeshift bandage on its wing. The golden eagle gave a loud shriek -- the woman extended her arm, and it leapt the distance, landing on her arm instead. The older woman did not struggle to hold it up the way Carewyn had.

Carewyn blinked in surprise. “Then...he’s yours?”

“Do you have others, like him?” Orion asked curiously.

The woman peered down at the bird on her arm with a look that was rather like a scolding, but still affectionate mother’s. “No -- he’s one of a kind. All the more reason why I’m pleased to see him safe, after coming so close to the enemy camp.”

The eagle bowed its head, its gaze flickering back over toward Carewyn and Orion. When another cluster of explosions rang out through the air, however, both the bird and Orion straightened up abruptly.

The woman looked northward, and then beckoned Carewyn and Orion after her with her hand.

“Come with me -- with the armies positioned just north of us and a band of Florentine bandits just south, the safest place at present to wait out this skirmish is my home.”

The woman introduced herself as the Baroness Minerva McGonagall. Carewyn felt like the surname was familiar somehow, but she couldn’t quite place it in her memory. Regardless, McGonagall led Carewyn and Orion out through the trees. Only once they crossed the perimeter of the trees and McGonagall gestured toward the valley below did Carewyn and Orion see her country estate. It was odd that they didn’t spot it sooner, for although the valley seemed to cradle the small chateau, it was a rather beautiful and open estate framed by a wrought iron gate. The property itself was made of aged brick and stone with stained glass windows and overgrown with ice-trimmed ivy.

After holding out her arm so that the eagle perched there could jump down on the railing beside the stone stairs that led up to the front door, the Baroness invited Orion and Carewyn inside. As stern as she’d first appeared, she actually was a very kind host -- after Orion and Carewyn’s horses were settled in her stable, she escorted the two into the dining hall, where she served them some rose water and ginger biscuits. Once inside the house, none of them could hear the explosions from the battlefield -- it was as though the walls cancelled out all sounds from outside even though they must’ve been so close.

Seeing that the Baroness had no servants to help her, Carewyn insisted on taking the dishes to the kitchen and washing them, so as to thank the older woman for her hospitality. Despite being reluctant to accept the help at first, McGonagall eventually accepted it, her lips upturned in a rather dewy smile as Carewyn left the dining hall.

“Your riding companion has a very kind heart, Your Highness,” she said, once Carewyn was out of earshot.

Orion’s black eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly.

“...You know me.”

"Naturally,” said McGonagall. “You do very much resemble your grandfather -- and your father as well, I expect.”

“You knew my grandfather?”

“We met once, a very long time ago,” said McGonagall rather curtly. “Your name would also be Cosimo, correct?”

“I am called Orion,” said the Prince, his level voice dusted with the slightest edge. “By both my lady, and otherwise.”

McGonagall’s eyes grew a little smaller. “She comes from the Cromwell family, doesn’t she?”

Orion’s eyes narrowed that little bit more, but he did not reply.

“I suspected it due to her eyes,” said McGonagall, “but with how gentle they were, I wasn’t sure.”

Her eyebrows rose over her narrowed eyes as she leaned forward slightly and rested her elbows on the table.

“You have quite a predicament before you, Orion,” she said dryly, interlacing her fingers beside her chin.

Orion clasped his hands on the table in front of him, considering the Baroness carefully.

“Yet you decided not to approach me about it until Carewyn left the room,” he said levelly. “Is it because you suspected I knew your true identity, and why your house has been so miraculously shielded from the War raging on your doorstep?”

McGonagall peered at Orion over her hands with something like wry amusement. “Florentines are generally more favorable toward magic than Royaumanians. And considering your grandfather shielded my family after my mother accidentally killed the King and we fled across the border...well, it would be in-character for you, especially.”

“And yet you returned to the land that the King of Royaume had died trying to claim?” asked Orion. “Why?”

McGonagall gave a dismissive shrug. “It was our home. Even if we had to cast and recast illusions every day to prevent anyone else from finding it again, that was a cost we were willing to pay. And one I’m still willing to pay today, to protect those who live here.”

McGonagall’s eyes were drawn to the hallway -- a young man with tanned skin and a sharp nose had just paused in the door frame of the dining hall. His arm was in a makeshift sling and wrapped with what looked like bandages made out of petticoat fabric. When Orion turned around, the young man stared him down with just as beady of a look as the golden eagle from before had.

“The skirmish has ended, Baroness,” the man said brusquely.

“I hope you haven’t determined that by casting any more transfiguration spells, my young apprentice,” said McGonagall with a slightly reproachful look.

The apprentice’s nose wrinkled sourly. “No. The explosions have just stopped -- they probably decided it wasn’t worth trying to fire their cannons blindly in the dark.”

“Very well,” said McGonagall. “Orion, you and Carewyn may leave when you wish. Though I would recommend you steer clear of the border. The bandits in these woods are Florentines, so I doubt they will harm you...but I cannot be sure how they would respond to a Royaumanian, especially one related to one of their wealthiest noblemen.”

Orion nodded. “I understand.”

“Make sure you bring her back to the palace safely,” said the apprentice, his eagle-like eyes still rather critical upon Orion. “It’s the least you can do, considering she doesn’t know the extent of the risk she’s taking, interacting with you.”

He swept down the hallway and out of sight, still holding his arm. Orion was a bit surprised that the Baroness’s apprentice knew where Carewyn worked -- but then, he recalled, he’d seen an eagle flying over his and Carewyn’s heads once, while they were walking through the market together, hadn’t he? Might it have been this man then, as well -- as it likely had, every time he’d seen an eagle while crossing the border?

McGonagall looked back at Orion, her expression a bit more solemn. “I understand your rationale behind not telling her of your identity, Orion...but remember -- deception is just like any magical spell. Even the most powerful ones in the world don’t last long.”

Orion bowed his head. “...I know.”

He knew none of this could last. He knew that once Carewyn knew who he was, everything between them would change, whether he wanted it to or not. He did think that Carewyn would understand -- he desperately hoped so -- but even so, it was sad to him, knowing that his happy times with Carewyn were doomed to be so fleeting...

“I just...want to enjoy my time with her as long as I can,” said Orion softly. “However fleeting it might be...even when it is over...at least then I can cherish the memory of those moments forever.”

McGonagall’s face grew a bit gentler, almost sympathetic. "I see...”

Carewyn returned at that moment, wiping her bangs out of her eyes with her arm.

“Orion,” she said, “it looks like the stars have come out.”

Orion looked out the window. The sky was dark with night and shining with stars.

“So they have,” he said with a soft smile. He turned to McGonagall. “Forgive me, Baroness...but might we sit in the valley outside your home for a short while, before we leave?”

McGonagall smiled. “Of course.”

Orion and Carewyn found a grassy spot in the crest of the valley where they could sit and look up at the stars. Upon learning that Carewyn hadn’t ever gone stargazing before, Orion lay back against the grass and pointed out each constellation above them to Carewyn in turn -- the hero Perseus, his enemy the Cetus, and his future wife Andromeda -- -- the divine twins, Castor and Pollux, otherwise known as a pair as Gemini -- and the queen Cassiopeia, which made Carewyn laugh, thinking of her friend, KC. Carewyn loved listening to Orion’s stories: the way he would vividly embellish every detail and go off on philosophical tangents in the middle was oddly endearing. After he told his first tale about Perseus, Carewyn was reminded of the Song of Roland, an epic about a similarly grand hero, and soon Orion would ask her to sing something in response to every story he told, however weak the connection was. When they reached Cassiopeia’s tale, Carewyn sang one of her favorite songs, Greensleeves.

“I have been ready at your hand To grant whatever thou would’st crave; I have waged both life and land, Your love and goodwill for to have.

Greensleeves was all my joy; Greensleeves was my delight; Greensleeves was my heart of gold, And who but my lady Greensleeves...”

As before, Orion found himself closing his eyes and relishing the feeling of Carewyn’s voice washing over him. At the end of this song in particular, however, when he opened his eyes, he found himself chuckling softly.

Carewyn raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Orion’s black eyes were sparkling like two miniature night skies as they ran over Carewyn sitting just below him. “It’s a lovely song, as always...but I have not ever seen my ‘star twin,’ so to speak, wearing green -- only ever black and blue. You, however...”

He took her hand so that he could extend her arm out like they were dancing, showing off the olive green sleeves of her dress.

“So it seems you are ‘my lady Greensleeves,’” said Orion with a wry smile.

“Oh, stop it,” Carewyn huffed, her cheeks burning as she withdrew her hand.

Orion laughed fully. It was the first time Carewyn had ever heard him laugh so openly before -- it was a soft sound in the back of his throat, like a chuckle, and yet so much brighter and warmer. Despite herself, Carewyn couldn’t fight back a full smile of her own. Her shoulder brushed up against Orion’s as she reclined back onto the grass, her body tilting slightly toward him as she looked up at the sky.

“...There’s a constellation called Orion, isn’t there?”

Orion smiled and traced the stars of the constellation with his finger. “Just there. Do you see his chest? And there’s his bow.”

“I see it!” said Carewyn excitedly. “His arm is arched back, right?”

“Yes -- he’s holding a club in his other hand. He was a great hunter, you see -- the greatest hunter, they say, aside from Artemis, Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt. Some say that he hunted alongside her. Others say she was his one and only love...and that she, likewise, never loved any other man, in all her days.”

When Carewyn didn’t respond, Orion looked down at her. She was considering the constellation very carefully, looking oddly deep in thought.

Orion tilted his head to look better at her face. “Your eyes resemble a dark pool.”

Carewyn looked up, startled.

“They’re so deep and mysterious, I hardly know what is within them,” said Orion. “Yet I would dearly like to know, if you were willing to share their contents.”

Carewyn’s eyes drifted back up to the sky uncomfortably.

“It’s just...I’m realizing that I don’t even know if Orion is your real name,” she murmured. “You said I could call you it...you did not say it was your name.”

Orion’s face became grimmer. His hands clasped over his chest and he too looked back up at the sky.

“...It’s not the name I was born with,” he admitted. “I chose the name myself, when I was young.”

The memory of the older boys at the workhouse shoving him, piling extra work on him, and mockingly bowing whenever he walked by rippled over his mind.

“Clear the floor for the Prince!”

“Why thank you, Prince Cosimo -- you’re too kind!”

“Does the mud add flavor, your Royal Highness?”

“When I was at the workhouse, my name...antagonized the other boys. So, to try to preempt the reactions, I started avoiding telling anyone my name. I would dread anyone ever asking.”

“Like when I asked you?” whispered Carewyn. Even though her eyes were averted, she was clearly very ashamed and upset.

Orion leaned against her slightly, offering her a gentle, reassuring expression. “No, Carewyn. I dreaded it when I had no answer I could give at all. It made me anxious...made me feel like I didn’t know who I was supposed to be...made it difficult for me to interact with much of anyone at all.”

He closed his eyes.

“But...after hearing the tale of the great hunter whose skill put him on the same level as a goddess...I decided that was who I’d be. I’d chase my dreams with just as much single-minded focus -- be just as free and strong of a man, by fighting the monster inside of myself.”

Carewyn looked up at Orion, her eyes rippling with sadness. “The monster inside of yourself?”

“Mm,” said Orion. “Mine is a frenetic beast. It makes it hard for me to think, act, or even breathe, when it’s particularly intense. It makes me question absolutely everything, including myself. It shouts so many things in my ears so loudly that I can’t move or react properly, and I have to break away from everything and everyone, just to silence it. Sometimes it even brings back bad memories that make the experience even worse.”

Carewyn was once again avoiding his eye, but it was largely because she was having trouble keeping her face stoic.

“...It’s terrible, when you feel like you can’t do anything,” she said lowly.

Orion didn’t speak. He wanted her to feel comfortable enough to continue -- after a silence, she finally pressed on.

“When Jacob first went off to War...I felt so helpless. So...alone. And worse...I felt like that’s how I should be. Like I should be alone, and empty, and cold, and in pain, when Jacob was off at War suffering, while I’m stuck here.”

Her eyes darkened.

“There are times when...I think I still should be. Sometimes...well, it’s all the time.”

She closed her eyes, exhaled heavily through her nose, and then looked up at Orion with a firmer expression.

“...But I know I can’t afford to sit around and feel sorry for myself -- not when I need to be strong, for Jacob’s sake. So I don’t.”

Orion’s black eyes softened visibly, rippling with empathy. “No...you certainly don’t.”

He paused. His eyes ran over Carewyn’s face, trailing through her hair hesitantly.

“Carewyn...” he said at last, very softly, “may I...?”

He swallowed.

“...May I rest my head, on top of yours?”

Carewyn’s face broke into a very sweet, tender smile.

“Of course,” she murmured.

Orion shifted over and, very tentatively, leaned back against the grass so that Carewyn’s head rested in the crook of his neck and his cheek rested against the top of her head. He closed his eyes -- she felt so warm...

“I...realize that the beasts inside of us are ours alone to face,” said Orion softly, “but...should you need a hunter to help you beat yours back...I will be here.”

Carewyn’s blue eyes rippled with emotion as she stared up at Orion’s face. Her red lips slowly turned up in a smile that was full of pain, and yet also fuller still of love.

“And I will always help you fight yours,” she whispered. “If you need me...I will fight for you.”

Orion’s expression cleared, losing all tension as a smile pricked at the corners of his lips. He breathed deeply, his heart slowing to a wonderful peaceful beat as he took in the smell of her hair. Carewyn watched his serene, handsome face, and she found herself moving into him that bit more, just to get a better view. For that moment, it felt like the whole world outside wasn’t there -- that the War and the palace and the Cromwell clan and everything she was and wasn’t didn’t even exist...and in that moment, Carewyn realized...

If she was ever truly free, she would want to love the man called Orion with all of her heart.

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #cinderella au #my writing #my art #carewyn cromwell #orion amari #minerva mcgonagall #talbott winger #katriona cassiopeia #gahhhh my precious carion!! #i love them so much #also yay talbott!! XDD #orion suffers from anxiety and (in this universe) PTSD #carey-bear suffers from severe depression and self-loathing #so yeah they both have their own inner demons :< #this part took WAY longer than I'd intended to write >> #hopefully the next part won't take so long to write/draw for XD; #but yay now they both know they love each other #now what are they going to do about the worsening war...? >3

[nightcoremoon]

weird opinion but christians aren't religious.

ok so like, jews generally follow god's rules, muslims follow allah's rules, hindus probably follow their gods rules, so on and so forth. and overall they do it out of faith; they do it because they want to honor the deity who loves them rather than because society forces them to.

granted the zionists and the radical extremists and the zealots do exist but as loud minorities and thus are statistical outliers & don't matter.

christians are... a different breed.

"if you aren't x branch and dont obey y rules you'll go to hell so we'll fucking murder you" is pretty much the main driving force behind a significant portion of christianity in history. the catholics, the protestants, the orthodoxy, all are built on a foundation of fear, anger, and hatred. it's shaped the way society developed; in the 4 nations that did the most genocidal imperialist colonialism- England, France, Spain, and Italy- a combination of convenient coastal locations, naval prowess, military tendency, christianity, and ultranationalism lead them down a path of missionaries, holding bibles in one hand and bloodstained knives in the other. the religion is inseparable from the culture and inseparable from the horrible things done in the name of their god, and the resulting cancers of society we feel today from the campaigns of slaughter. xenophobia. capitalism. savage barbarism via sensationalized capitol punishment. misogyny. queerphobia. gender fascism. classism. racism. all of these issues in the "civilized world" stem predominantly from those four nations and the disease ridden pestilent filth some call pilgrims.

here's something interesting:

there are less than 1 million rastafari in the world.

there are less than 5 million shinto in the world.

there are less than 25 million jews in the world.

there are less than 30 million sikhs in the world.

there are roughly 100 million african cultural religious adherents in the world.

there are less than 400 million chinese cultural religious adherents in the world.

there are about 500 million buddhists in the world.

there are about 1.1 billion hindus in the world.

there are about 1.2 billion nonreligious people in the world.

there are 1.6 billion muslims in the world.

and one final statistic

there are over 2.1 billion christians in the world.

the jewish count is a highball, rounded up, and includes several different definitions of jewish including people who are only one quarter. so for every single person who is even remotely jewish, there are more than 8 christians. for every hindu, there are 4 christians. for every atheist, agnostic, or "other", 2 christians. this frightening statistic should set off warning bells for everyone who is involved in a discussion about religion. and anyone who knows BASIC world history and can correlate data at all can probably piece together what I'm putting down.

now, I may be slightly biased here considering my eclectic religious beliefs. now, I personally believe that there is some primary force of energy that may or may not manifest itself as a humanoid being, that engineered the most basic laws of physics in the universe: atomic magnetism. as can be inferred by planck's constant and its implications, our universe is digital, written in binary. an electron either moves or doesn't move. there are no other options. so I genuinely believe in some form of intelligent design; whether it's a bearded guy on a cloud, some dude with six arms and an elephant for a face, just a big swirling pool of ectoplasm, or a big ol' plate of spaghetti and meatballs, something is out there that we are physically incapable of contacting from our plane of existence, just as a drawing on a piece of paper cannot reach out to interact with the world: a gif will move on its own but it will never acknowledge our existence, even if it could think by itself. and all the different mythologies of the world- egyptian, greek, norse, shinto, whatever- very well could be the agents of that unknown "god". perhaps anubis, ra, and bastet are just angels with animal heads that all of the peoples of ancient egypt saw and were like oh I guess this must be a god. maybe zeus and loki were the same person with a magic dick who fucked a bunch of animals in both greece and the scandinavian countries and spawned all of the horrible half-animal monstrosities that, idk, made vishnu think "well I have to kill that" and caused the biblical flood or something. maybe the jewish god gifted wisdom to siddhartha for sitting under a fig tree for 6 years through the angel pomona [roman goddess of fruit, had to google that one], so buddha gets his wisdom from demeter and is in nirvana right now right a step up from hades on yggdrasil the world tree keeping an eye on his charge persephone. any theory could theoretically be true but we ants of humans will never fucking know because we can't just point a telescope at the magellanic clouds and say "look, there's amaterasu with russell's teapot, and she's having tea with... *rubs eyes* lemmy kilmister??? wow I guess gods are real after all!" it's impossible to know the secrets of our universe because of the very restrictive nature of the universe itself. is it a circle? is it a donut? WE DONT FUCKIN KNOW.

we cannot know what religion is truthful.

""anyone who says that any one religion is more or less true than any other is a fucking moron, and if they're suggesting that White Western European Colonial Imperialist Protestantism is the one true faith, they're probably a fucking racist colonizer who beats his wife/sister and burns gays at the stake. and considering how that exact demographic is typically the one that murdered people for not converting to their religion, I don't think they have the intellectual non-deranged ability to make those logical connections.

again, I'm not saying that there AREN'T a lot of people of every religion who are evil assholes who contributed to mass genocide. israelites killed palestinians. shiites killed sunnis. hutus killed tutsis. danes killed geats. turks killed armenians. the ottoman empire has as much blood on its hands as the holy roman empire. germans who called themselves aryans but weren't actually aryan killed jews. but all of these tragedies were isolated incidents rather than repeated patterns over the course of two thousand years. not like christianity was and is.

just look at the United States, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia, & India's British Raj. Britain, France, Spain, and Italy, by extension Protestantism and Catholicism, are the shared factor between the long and bloody history fraught with massacring indigenous populations who wouldn't convert religions. native americans, indigenous canadians, latin americans but predominantly mexicans, the eastern chinese, coastal africans, aborigine aussies, indians- coastal coastal coastal. true the western chinese and the mongols/hunnu and xinjiang muslims haven't exactly been on civil terms and the silk road has always been a battleground and the middle east was already tenuous before murrica bombed them for oil but those happened in such a spread out area among asia which is FUCKING HUGE, MIND YOU! but also that's three high traffic places with massive diversity, it's human nature to have conflict, but not nearly to the same level as all of the shit christianity has done to the world. it's impossible to separate the religion from the cultures; victorian england without protestantism is just dirty people who die at 15 from having their 3rd child. italy without the catholicism is just grass and cheese. france and spain without religion are just kingdoms that fought wars with england for forever and now just make food that's one part delicious and three parts horrifying. religion is directly responsible for a significant portion of the evils those countries committed. one religion in particular.

they don't practice religion the same way as the rest do. they aren't faithful to their god. they don't follow his rules out of love but out of fear. they execute dissenters without a second thought, heresy they cry. they execute women and little girls for being free thinking or having sickness associated with mercury poisoning in the water, witch they cry. they slaughter men women and kids alike in the name of cramming their beliefs down the natives throats, we're chasing out the snakes they cry, we're bringing god to your godless people they cry, we're just civilizing you they cry. they shit in the streets and proudly display rotting corpses and leave the impoverished disabled and starving to die alone and whip their slaves and rape teenage girls and scrap in the streets while sopping wet with spilled ale over insignificant insults and stab people to death in the night and never even fucking BATHE, and they have the nerve to say the natives were uncivilized. the nerve. because hey. they read a magic book they stole from a culture who stole from another culture who stole from another culture, mistranslating each time from hebrew to greek to italian to english, and they think they're better because their skin is white.

christians never evolved. their mentalities have stayed the same. all thatms advanced has been technology. that's it. they're still the same evil disgusting degenerate bastards they always were. they just have the money they stole to buy stained glass windows, rosary beads, giant tacky metal statues, bigass robes, leather, and printing presses. and as time passed they used the money they continued to steal to buy cars and websites and radio stations and commit felony tax evasion and secretly molest children and line the pockets of the politicians.

all of their holidays are stolen from pagans anyway.

so fuck christmas. fuck easter. fuck lent. fuck the golden calf christian holidays that the tiny minded fragile snowflake conservatives lose their collective shit over because the pandemic response common sense stipulations won't let them buy the shit they can't afford with money they shouldn't have for people they don't even LIKE, all in the name of tradition, tradition! the rituals that worship something so much worse than satan or baphomet or pan or whatever: the dollar. they buy all the new shiny shit they can, at the expense of the chinese kids that the corporate pigs outsource to, buy the pine trees and the coca cola vunderbar and the fake mint corn syrup Js and watch the same shitty cookie cutter white supremacist hallmark fash movies and stuff their kids full of enough sugar to go into a goddamn coma when the african slaves who pick the cocoa beans will never get to know what actually being a kid will ever feel like because they're gonna die from falling into a combine harvester and be eternally forgotten to history and no christian will ever give a shit because they don't fucking care about what they don't see on their safe space news or hear on their safe space radio or read on their safe space social media. they think their worst sin is eating cheeseburgers so instead they'll go eat a mcchicken or chick fil a or an arby's chicken sandwich instead but not at popeyes because "that place is sketchy" and by that they mean they don't wanna eat where black people eat, that's why cracker barrel was so popular for so many white christians for so long because it had racially segregated seating until barely 20 years ago.

they don't love jesus. they love a paper doll they shove into their back pockets until every other sunday where they go to a fucking mall with a baptism waterslide and raise their hands like a bunch of dumbass weirdos and away to adult contemporary indie schlock with the word jesus pasted into a boring-ass hetero romance song, pat themselves on the back, then go to starbucks to scream slurs and misgenderings at 14 year old starbucks baristas who give them a cappamochalattechino instead of a fucking carmamochalattechino because you mumbled under the mask you didn't even fucking cover your nose with because you don't give a shit about the virus beyond how it inconveniences you.

they are horrible people who pretend to be good. until you suggest the slightest infinitely small inconvenience to them that would alter their holiday plans even the littlest smidge. then they would kill you if not for the police. don't get me started on them because you know by now what I'd say about those fuckers. but they'll gladly wear shirts about how they'll kill you. how they'll go back 200 years. how they'll murder you and watch you slowly suffer because their primate brains shoot a million endorphins when they watch things die by their hands because they never evolved a sense of empathy, compassion, or morality beyond how wearing a cross necklace will remove any of the consequences they will face in their afterlife.

they are horrible people who pretend to be good. unless you're gay or black or trans or Not Christian™ or mexican or disagree with them about politics economics sociology science technology music or movies. assimilate or die. assimilate or die. assimilate or die.

they don't deserve special treatment for their false idols.

they aren't better than jews or muslims.

they're worse.

so much worse.

and they should be stopped.""

-Nightingale Quietioca

save as draft arch draft bookmark draft where did I put my keys contra code kontra kode I need to remember this and copy it buzzwords keywords find it later please god tumblr don't bork on me this is good stream of consciousness repackage repackage change the words this is a great character study if I do say so myself thanks 3am me you're welcome 3am me

[clientmusic48-blog]

Based Upon Archaeological Evidence.

The Health Benefits of Dates Fruits

Dates are an extremely versatile fruit that provide the health benefits of dates fruits to your diet. Dates date back to the times of the Egyptians as well as the Romans.

Dates are belonging to Southern Africa, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Central Asia, South Africa, South United States, and also Asia. They were cultivated as early as 3500 B.C. Yet dates only became well-liked in the West with the finding of the fruit by Greeks, who used them for their celebrated gourmet dish "Hellenic preparing food". The fruit's attraction also expanded when Europeans delivered all of them back to Europe.

Dates involved Spain and afterwards were brought back to Europe. It was actually brought to England and also inevitably to the United States. It was merely in the 1700s that Americans began eating the fruit for its well-balanced health properties.

Dates are big and also difficult fruits, for this reason they appropriate for packing. Dates may be eaten raw, and also many especially when they are cut in quick or medium-sized parts, so they maintain all the health benefits of dates. Dates could be consumed dried out, cooked, or perhaps frozen.

Dates are abundant in blood potassium, fiber, and also vitamins. They could be used as a substitute for sugar. The good thing concerning dates is actually that you may consume all of them with virtually anything. No matter what sort of food you are mosting likely to place the dates on.

Dates are actually rich in minerals and anti-oxidants. They may help you slim down because they may inhibit the absorption of fat in the body. Also the heart is capable of soaking up the nutrients that are actually contained in dates. Dates likewise consist of monounsaturated fats, which are understood to lower cholesterol degrees.

Make sure you eat dates regularly. To enjoy the health benefits of dates you must always take one fifty percent of a date as component of your diet. If you would like to delight in the other benefits of dates, you can easily take one date along with some yogurt, honey, or even oats.

Dates are actually a really good source of fiber that may be made use of to avoid bowel irregularity. The thread will certainly create your stool softer, thus you may pass it easily.

Dates are actually a great source of potassium that may additionally assist in alleviating high blood pressure. They are actually additionally wealthy in the essential mineral calcium mineral. Calcium assists in developing bone tissue and also protecting against bone tissue diseases.

Dates are additionally wealthy in vitamin C that can easily assist you battle skin disease and likewise skin cancer cells. You can take in dates, which could be consumed completely dry or in their pure kind, and also they can assist secure your eyes.

Dates are actually abundant in vitamin E that may help you deal with against free of charge radicals that can lead to cancer cells. They are also excellent resource of magnesium mineral that can aid you relax. https://www.greendiamond.co/product/deglet-noor-dates/ is actually also good in harmonizing the blood glucose level level.

Dates are likewise a good resource of carbohydrate that can be used as a substitute for flour. Carbohydrate will permit you to eat less fats and as a result you may burn fat.

Dates Eaten Together With Fruits - Is it Even More Nourishing Than Dates Alone?

Folks of different grows older, who enjoy to consume clean fruits and additionally dates together with various other nutritious meals. As the benefits of fruits are actually amazing, there are actually plenty of people around that really love to consume fruits and dates as their beloved.

An amount of individuals ponder if dates are eaten in addition to fruits are a lot more healthy than dates consumed alone. The solution is a big indeed, however the truth is actually dates without fruits are actually not a lot more nourishing than dates with fruits.

Date and dates are actually consumed alone are much more wealthy in fats as well as fats than when they are mixed along with fruits. The high-fat material that is present in dates alone can be a problem for the body. The very best technique to prevent this issue is to possess dates as a primary part in your diet plan.

Dates are an excellent source of fibre, so date is a superb breakfast alternative. The thread in dates can decrease the risk of bowel cancer cells. Dates additionally possess the highest concentration of thread, matched up to every other meals readily available out there.

Lots of people think about if dates are consumed together with fruits are actually extra nutritious than dates eaten alone. The response is actually a large certainly, however the honest truth is actually dates without fruits are actually not more nourishing than dates with fruits.

Date as well as dates are consumed together with fruits have many benefits. Since dates are actually higher in thread, they can avoid irregular bowel movements as well as t here fore, the danger of colon cancer cells is actually lower. The high attentions of fiber in dates may be beneficial to our digestive device.

Dates eaten along with fruits are actually more healthy than dates alone. The high attentions of nutrients in dates, aid you absorb your meals quicker than usual. These chemicals and vitamins can help raise the health of your bones and also avoid you coming from establishing osteoporosis.

Dates and also dates consumed alongside fruits are certainly not a lot more nourishing than dates consumed alone. The very best factor is that you will certainly get the intended benefits without the disadvantages of consuming fruits and dates as a treat, only select the right combination.

Dried out Dates

The cultivation of dates has actually been actually opting for lots of years. Though dates may be eaten new, dull dates are very popular. Among the kinds of dates, Deglet Noor and Medjool are actually very popular for their terrific relish. They are referred to as the master of dates for their fragilities for their natural honey flavored preference.

People frequently fall in love with their organization, chewy candy kind. Taking in dates as a treat or using it as a taste enhancer increase the diet worth of the foods. They are frequently used in the recipe for prepping bread and also treats.

The getting of dried dates, can possess some culinary impact you would like to leave it. Dry dates are actually adaptable to be a portion of your morning shake, stuffed to work as a remarkable offering for the guests and also for you. For the incorporated sweet taste, dry out dates could be integrated in to pork as well as hen recipes.

You might be getting dates in bigger quantity as soon as you find the unique health benefits they deliver. Staying match and also strong needs to be actually a way of life priority. Preventing ailment is actually a vital consider living a full and vibrant life. The incorporation of healthy foods in to your diets may have significant health benefits. It works as a protective ingredient against a great number of illness. It is among the most ideal measures that you can take for living healthily.

PIAROM DATES Supplier is actually that the Dry dates help food digestion, as well as maintain the center as well as brain in the best purchase. They look after colon, prostate, bosom, lung, and also pancreatic against any kind of malignant assault. Dates can easily aid diminishing high blood pressure, soothe irregularity, prevent looseness of the bowels, and anemia comes up out of iron deficiencies. The dates could be an advantage for expecting women or an individual struggling with arthritis and taking a weight reduction diet regimen.

The method of mining of the dates includes placing an internet around the fruit that has actually developed in fibers in a significant lot of the plant branches. Dates that fall on the ground aren't used for excessive discoloration and also potential wasting. Dates that are increased in massive volumes are delivered for dealing in and also made ready for covering and packing.

Meanwhile, if dates are actually collected in small number, the dates from the stem, are actually kept on a holder and also kept under the drying process. This is one of the procedures that is actually embraced for improving clean dates in to dry out dates efficiently.

Need Our Service OrHave Queries ?

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[berniesrevolution]

IN THESE TIMES

We know what it’s like to be up against oligarchy in Hawaii. We’ve lived in a feudal society and a really unequal capitalist society throughout history.

Kaniela Ing knows a little something about Facebook, and not just because he’s a millennial. At 22, Ing (now 29) was elected in 2012 to the Hawaii state house, where he currently serves as Majority Policy Leader for the Democrats. In 2014, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg purchased 700 acres of beachfront property on land Native Hawaiians have gathering rights to. Then he built a wall around it, and sued local families to keep them out. Ing helped lead the charge from the state legislature for Native Hawaiians to reclaim their rights to that land, and Zuckerberg eventually dropped the lawsuits.

Now, Ing, a Native Hawaiian, is running to represent Hawaii’s first congressional district, with a critique of Facebook and other corporations that extends well beyond their CEOs’ real estate investments. In Washington, Ing hopes to curtail corporate power, and regulate Facebook and other major tech firms like utilities.

In These Times spoke with Ing by phone about Zuckerberg, the legacy of colonialism in Hawaii, democratic socialism and how to change the way Democrats think about economics.

Kate Aronoff: 

Tell me a bit about HI-01.

Kaniela Ing: 

This district that we live in is the urban core of Hawaii. It’s the city, and the rest of that island and everything else is in the second district. This district has a lot of high rises and a lot of visible poverty. The inequality is really stark. We have luxury condominiums popping up all the time—$20 million glass buildings going up to the sky, right next to Native Hawaiians and veterans living on the streets. We have the highest cost of living in the nation, but the lowest wages, adjusted for cost of living. Our salaries have been inadequate for years. We have a low unemployment rate that politicians like to brag about, at 2.5 percent. But that’s only because people are working two or three jobs. It’s a real struggle out here, especially for young people.

Myself, I pay $2000 a month for daycare and $700 a month for student loans. Between that and rent and milk costing $7 per half gallon, everything comes down to economics right now. It’s not that scarcity is a problem. Clearly the resources are here. It’s that working people just aren’t getting their just desserts. That’s what’s concerning to most folks. 70 percent of my classmates have moved away to the mainland to look for housing and opportunities. Now that I have a two year old, I want to ensure that he has a shot to make it here in Hawaii.

Kate Aronoff: 

Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, have been in the news a lot recently following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Could you explain how you came into contact with the him in your work as a state legislator?

Kaniela Ing: 

In 2014, Mark Zuckerberg purchased 700 acres on Kauai. That’s the island where they filmed Jurassic Park and Avatar. It’s beautiful, and his property was right on the shoreline. It turns out that on 17 acres of that land, Native Hawaiians had gathering rights that had been passed down from generation to generation. Rather than sitting down and negotiating how they can solve this conundrum, he went and sued these Hawaiian families who were of little means. Even if they were to win some kind of cash settlement, it would probably be less than what they would incur in legal costs. These lawsuits are the same mechanisms that sugar barons used to displace Native Hawaiians centuries ago. It created this huge uproar among Native Hawaiians and environmentalists.

So I went to the media and spoke my mind on the issue. I called Mark Zuckerberg a modern-day colonizer, and it made some international news. After a couple of weeks of these headlines and the two sides going back and forth, he dropped the lawsuit. We did win that battle. It’s still ongoing. There are no lawsuits anymore but they still haven’t gotten the land back, and Zuckerberg still has a wall built around his property. These Hawaiians are just looking to fish, or get to the beach. This issue has really brought some of the injustices we’ve been facing for years to the attention of the world.

Kate Aronoff: 

Could you say more about that, and the historic relationship between corporations and native Hawaiians?

Kaniela Ing: 

The first Western contact in Hawaii was Captain Cook. But shortly thereafter, a bunch of missionary families came to the island. Five families controlled our government and our economy—we call them the Big Five. They dealt in whaling and sandalwood and sugar and pineapple, and, now, tourism. Their face has changed—it’s not the same Big Five that it was 200 years ago—but it still exists. Alexander & Baldwin, two of the families of the Big Five, are a corporation now, a real estate investment trust. They’re the second largest landholders in Hawaii. They’re also the largest campaign contributors. They can make and break elections, so in some ways these families still do have economic and governmental control of Hawaii.

We know what it’s like to be up against oligarchy in Hawaii. We’ve lived in a feudal society and a really unequal capitalist society throughout history. Now we’re seeing that repeat. We have three men in American who hold more wealth than the bottom half—than 50 percent of the entire nation. And 82 percent of new wealth generated in 2017 went to the top 1 percent. It’s more stark than ever. Mark Zuckerberg is one of today’s oligarchs, just like on the mainland with Standard Oil and some of the other oligarchs in the past. Except now these guys have control over commerce, like Amazon, and communications, like Facebook. And that’s where it gets really dangerous for a democracy. It’s important that Congress act now and not rely on self-regulation by these monopolists.

Kate Aronoff: 

What do you think qualifies Facebook as a monopoly, and how would you hope to regulate it?

Kaniela Ing: 

Mark Zuckerberg calls Facebook a social utility. And if he’s admitting it’s a utility he should agree that it should be treated like one. The same goes for the internet in general, not just social networks but broadband connection. It’s a necessity now in the modern world, the way electricity was almost a century ago. There was way too much control by a few corporations that actually didn’t benefit the majority of the public. So the government took over lines and—at the very least—heavily regulated these monopolies to make sure that everybody had equal access to electricity. We’re going to have to do that for broadband generally, and we’re going to have to do that for social networks. Right now there’s nothing stopping someone like Zuckerberg from adjusting their algorithms to punish people with certain political views or certain companies. Arguably it’s already happening. A lot of independent news sources don’t have the same ability to reach their own followers that more corporate news sources do. That’s unfair.

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #kaniela ing #in these times #mark zuckerberg #facebook #monopolies #capitalism #DSA #Democratic Socialists of America #democratic socialism #socialism #progressive #progressive movement #Justice Democrats

[automaticpostinfluencer]

Tiger King on Netflix: 9 things you didn’t know about this weirdly addictive show

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness on Netflix is the weirdly addictive new documentary series that has managed to do the impossible: Temporarily distract a nation stressed out by dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. The seven-episode series, directed by Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, focuses on Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, and his Oklahoma exotic-animal park. As of Monday, it was the No. 1 show on the streaming network.

When the show begins, Joe has an impressive blonde mullet, a flamboyant wardrobe, multiple husbands at the same time, and a raging feud with Carole Baskin, the owner of a big cat sanctuary. All of that is as tame as a bowl of warm milk compared to what comes next. Every element in Tiger King gets weirder, and every personality who comes on camera has a secret, a compellingly weird event in their history, or dozens of each. Joe runs for president and governor, tries for a country-music career, makes bizarre videos suggesting his rival fed her missing husband to her tigers and so, so much more. 

Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic have a running feud that explodes in the Netflix series Tiger King.

Courtesy Netflix

There’s a strange comfort to be had in taking refuge in this specific brand of American craziness. For viewers self-isolating in their homes, it’s a reminder that the world was weird in so many varied ways before coronavirus. God willing and the creek don’t rise — it will one day get a chance to be that weird again.

Since the series was released on March 20, dozens of news stories and interviews have dug into the real people and events behind the show. Some spoilers ahead, but if you’ve already watched the series, read on for nine juicy tidbits that the show itself didn’t reveal.

That (mostly) isn’t Joe singing

In multiple episodes, Joe brags about his singing career, and songs such as “I Saw a Tiger” are heard. But anyone with ears can tell that the polished, country-music-veteran voice crooning the tunes doesn’t sound anything like Joe Exotic’s drawling speaking voice. Real musicians Vince Johnson and Danny Clinton were the real musical power behind Joe’s Milli Vanilli act. Johnson told Vanity Fair that they worked for free, thinking they’d earn fame from a reality show about Joe’s life. (Clinton died in October, TMZ reports.) The show’s directors, Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, told the L.A. Times that a fact-checker discovered that Joe did sing somewhat on certain songs, so they chose not to call him out on it in the show.

Don’t blame the tiger for that missing hand

In the first episode, Kelci Saffery, one of Joe’s employees, is seen immediately after being bitten by a tiger. Saffery chooses to have his hand amputated rather than undergo numerous operations, returns to work just five days later, and shows up throughout the show displaying a stump. Saffery has said from the beginning that he doesn’t blame the tiger, and though it’s not mentioned in the episode, the tiger was not put down. In a 2013 statement, Saffery said, “I broke protocol and stuck my hand in a cat cage instead of using the stick provided.” Actor David Spade interviewed Saffery in a video published March 27. “I just got complacent,” Saffery said about the injury. And the tiger didn’t pay the ultimate price for the bite. “(The tiger) wasn’t put down, we just moved it off of the park, off of display,” Saffery said.

John Finlay got his teeth fixed

David Spade, who’s admitted he’s obsessed with the show, didn’t just interview Saffery, but a number of other Tiger King cast members, including John Finlay, one of Joe Exotic’s romantic partners. Finlay was noteworthy on the show for only having a few visible teeth, but now he has full dentures and is almost unrecognizable. “It took a while,” he told Spade of his dental procedures. “But after I got ’em fixed the right way, they were perfect.” Finlay did tell Spade that he thought getting his teeth fixed was more painful than getting his 51 tattoos, and that the pink-shirt three-groom wedding seen on the show was all Joe’s idea.

Those alligators were famous

Tiger King is mostly about the big cats, although the reptile residents of the park have a sad storyline in one of the episodes when their enclosure catches fire. John Finlay told David Spade in his video interview that some of the alligators at the exotic-animal park came from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. He also said that working with the crocodiles and alligators was more dangerous than working with the big cats, in part because of the reptiles’ giant and threatening tails. Finlay also said that he’s not in contact with Joe Exotic at all, plans to get all the tattoos of Joe’s name covered up, and is engaged to a woman now.

Courtesy Netflix

That bungee-jump accident was even worse

John Reinke, former manager at Joe Exotic’s animal park, is shown many times putting on and taking off his artificial legs, and explains that he needs them because he was injured in a bungee-jumping accident. Like everything in Tiger King, that’s only half of the dramatic story. Back in 2010, Reinke explained his accident to The Oklahoman newspaper.  Not only did a pulley malfunction, sending Reinke tumbling 55 feet to the ground and crushing his legs, but he didn’t just land on the earth. He fell onto a 6-inch metal stake that pierced his colon and stomach, the paper reports, and was bleeding heavily. He later had more than 20 operations on his feet and legs.

Shaq is not Joe Exotic’s friend

Tiger King gets so weird that viewers might forget that NBA star Shaquille O’Neal briefly shows up in an episode. But on March 25, O’Neal said on The Big Podcast with Shaq that the two are not pals. He said he loves tigers and visited the park a few times but “had no idea all that stuff was going on.” He said he still loves the animals and has made donations to support them, but is not close to Joe Exotic. “I was just a visitor,” O’Neal said on the podcast. “I met this guy, not my friend, don’t know him, never had any business dealings with him.” And don’t go to the athlete’s house expecting to see big cats, though he could certainly afford them. “Do I own tigers personally at my house?” O’Neal said. “No.”

Petting the cubs has a dark side

Joe Exotic earns money by charging visitors to come to his exotic-animal park and take photos cuddling with the big-cat cubs. But directors and writers Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin told the L.A. Times that they never gave in and cuddled the the baby cats, especially after what they saw. “Most of the tigers we were around were subjected to abject cruelty,” Chaiklin said. “We saw babies being torn from their mothers and screaming. They’d get sick from being handled so much and get ringworm and mange. It was disturbing.”

Carole’s missing husband is still missing

A large part of the series focuses on Joe Exotic’s nemesis, activist Carole Baskin, whose husband Don James disappeared in 1997. Joe Exotic, who is now serving 22 years in prison for charges related to Baskin, claims over and over in the series that Baskin killed James and fed the remains to her big cats. On the website for Big Cat Rescue, her animal organization, Baskin refutes how she was portrayed in the documentary. “(The directors) did not care about truth,” she says. “The unsavory lies are better for getting viewers.” As for Don James himself, his disappearance remains a mystery. On Monday, Hillsborough, Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister even tweeted out a request for anyone with any leads in the case to call him.

Joe loves the publicity. Duh.

You couldn’t watch more than a minute of Tiger King and not realize Joe Exotic adores fame and publicity. Even though he’s now in prison, the directors told the L.A. Times that Joe knows the show has made him famous, and he’s overjoyed “He is absolutely ecstatic about the series and the idea of being famous,” Goode told the paper. “He’s absolutely thrilled.” And the directors aren’t buying Joe’s sudden change-of-heart. “He is in a cage and of course he’s gonna say that he now recognizes what he did to these animals,” Goode said.

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[biandlesbianliterature]

[image description: a graphic with a collage of the book covers listed below. The text reads “Lesbian & Bi Books: New In May!”]

Riptide Summer by Lisa Freeman (YA)

The year is 1973, and Nani is firmly established as one of the top girls in the State Beach lineup. She’s looking forward to a long, relaxing summer of days spent in the sun with her surfer boyfriend, and to secret nights with Rox, the lineup’s queen supreme. But when surf god Nigel breaks her heart, and Rox reveals a secret that tears their friendship—and the lineup—apart, Nani is left to pick up the pieces. If she can’t recruit new Honey Girls to the lineup, the friends will lose their reputation as the beach’s top babes. With the summer spiraling out of control, Nani starts to question everything she’s always believed about how to rule the beach. Maybe it’s time to leave the rules behind, starting with the most important one: Girls don’t surf. 

What the Mouth Wants: A Memoir of Food, Love and Belonging by Monica Meneghetti (Memoir)

The redefinition of family values as seen from the eyes of a polyamorous, queer Italian Canadian obsessed with food. This mouthwatering, intimate, and sensual memoir traces Monica Meneghetti's unique life journey through her relationship with food, family and love. As the youngest child of a traditional Italian-Catholic immigrant family, Monica learns the intimacy of the dinner table and the ritual of meals, along with the requirements of conformity both at the table and in life. Monica is thirteen when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoes a mastectomy. When her mother dies three years later, Monica considers the existence of her own breasts and her emerging sexuality in the context of grief and the disintegration of her sense of family. As Monica becomes an adult, she discovers a part of her self that rebels against the rigours of her traditional upbringing. And as the layers of her sexuality are revealed she begins to understand that like herbs infusing a sauce with flavour; her differences add a delicious complexity to her life. But in coming to terms with her place in the margins of the margins, Monica must also face the challenge of coming out while living in a small town, years before same-sex marriage and amendments to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms created safer spaces for queers. Through risk, courage and heartbreak, she ultimately redefines and recreates family and identity according to her own alternative vision.

The Gift by Barbara Browning (Literary Fiction)

In the midst of Occupy, Barbara Andersen begins spamming people indiscriminately with ukulele covers of sentimental songs. A series of inappropriate intimacies ensues, including an erotically charged correspondence and then collaboration with an extraordinarily gifted and troubled musician living in Germany.

Large Animals: Stories by Jess Arndt (Short Stories)

JESS ARNDT’s striking debut collection confronts what it means to have a body. Boldly straddling the line between the imagined and the real, the masculine and the feminine, the knowable and the impossible, these twelve stories are an exhilarating and profoundly original expression of voice. In “Jeff,” Lily Tomlin confuses Jess for Jeff, instigating a dark and hilarious identity crisis. In “Together,” a couple battles a mysterious STD that slowly undoes their relationship, while outside a ferocious weed colonizes their urban garden. And in “Contrails,” a character on the precipice of a seismic change goes on a tour of past lovers, confronting their own reluctance to move on. Arndt’s subjects are canny observers even while they remain dangerously blind to their own truest impulses. Often unnamed, these narrators challenge the limits of language―collectively, their voices create a transgressive new formal space that makes room for the queer, the nonconforming, the undefined. And yet, while they crave connection, love, and understanding, they are constantly at risk of destroying themselves. Large Animals pitches toward the heart, pushing at all our most tender parts―our sex organs, our geography, our words, and the tendons and nerves of our culture.

Tremontaine (Tremontaine Season One) created by Ellen Kushner (Fantasy)

Welcome to Tremontaine, the prequel to Ellen Kushner’s beloved Riverside series that began with Swordspoint! A Duchess whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; her husband’s dangerous affair with a handsome scholar; a foreigner in a playground of swordplay and secrets; and a mathematical genius on the brink of revolution—when long-buried lies threaten to come to light, betrayal and treachery know no bounds with stakes this high. Mind your manners and enjoy the chocolate in a dance of sparkling wit and political intrigue. Originally presented serially in 13 episodes by Serial Box, this omnibus collects all installments of Tremontaine Season One into one edition.

Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country: And Other Stories by Chavisa Woods (Short Stories)

Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country paints a vivid image of the bizarre characters that live on the fringes in America’s heartland. They don't do what you expect them to do. These aren't typical stories of triumph over adversity, but something completely other. It's "Murakami meets the meth heads" says National Book Foundation award winner Samantha Hunt. "Reader, you have never before seen anything like this." The eight stories in this literary collection present a brilliantly surreal and sardonic landscape and language, and offer a periscope into the heart of the rural poor. Among the singular characters, you'll meet: a “zombie” who secretly resides in a local cemetery; a queer teen goth who is facing ostracism from her small town evangelical church; a woman who leaves New York City once a year to visit her little brothers in the backwoods Midwest, only to discover they’ve been having trouble with some meth dealers and UFOs that trouble the area. In the backdrop of all the stories are the endless American wars and occupations, overshadowed, for these characters, by the many early deaths of their friends and family, that occur regularly for a whole host of reasons.

Pride & Joy: LGBTQ Artists, Icons and Everyday Heroes by Kathleen Archambeau

Stories of success, happiness and hope from the LGBT community Stories that comprise the best of LGBT history ─ Pride and Joy: LGBTQ Artists, Icons and Everyday Heroes tells the stories of queer citizens of the world living OUT and proud happy, fulfilling, successful lives. Diverse and global. Famous and unsung. There is a story here for everyone in the LGBT community who has ever questioned their sexual orientation or gender identity, or discovered it.

Award-winning writer and longtime LGBTQ activist Kathleen Archambeau tells the untold stories from diverse LGBT community voices around the corner or around the world. Not like the depressing, sinister, shadowy stories of the past, this book highlights queer people living open, happy, fulfilling and successful lives.

The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julie Ember (Fantasy YA)

Having long wondered what lives beyond the ice shelf, nineteen-year-old mermaid Ersel learns of the life she wants when she rescues and befriends Ragna, a shield-maiden stranded on the merfolk's fortress. But when Ersel's childhood friend and suitor catches them together, he gives Ersel a choice: Say goodbye to Ragna or face justice at the hands of the glacier's brutal king.

Determined to forge a different fate, Ersel seeks help from the divine Loki. But such deals are never straightforward, and the outcome sees her exiled from the only home and protection she's known. To save herself from perishing in the barren, underwater wasteland and be reunited with the human she's come to love, Ersel must try to outsmart the God of Lies.

[Warning for Seafarer’s Kiss: the villain (the God of Lies) is nonbinary and is the only nonbinary representation in the book.]

How To Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake (YA)

    Grace, tough and wise, has nearly given up on wishes, thanks to a childhood spent with her unpredictable, larger-than-life mother. But this summer, Grace meets Eva, a girl who believes in dreams, despite her own difficult circumstances.      One fateful evening, Eva climbs through a window in Grace’s room, setting off a chain of stolen nights on the beach. When Eva tells Grace that she likes girls, Grace’s world opens up and she begins to believe in happiness again.      How to Make a Wish is an emotionally charged portrait of a mother and daughter’s relationship and a heartfelt story about two girls who find each other at the exact right time.

Nico & Tucker by Rachel Gold (Fiction, NA)

The decision can’t be put off any longer. A medical crisis turns Nico’s body into a battleground, crushing Nico under conflicting family pressures. Having lived genderqueer for years, Nico is used to getting strong reactions (and uninvited opinions!) from everyone, but it is Tucker’s reaction that hurts the most. Jess Tucker didn’t mean to hurt Nico, but she panicked. And after the worst year of her life, she’s hanging on by a thread. Forget recovery time and therapy, she needs to put the past behind her and be normal again. But when her relationship with Nico becomes more than she can handle, she cuts and runs. In this riveting sequel to Just Girls, comes a love story about bodies, healing, and knowing who you really are.

Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms: Erotic Lesbian Fairy Tales edited by Sacchi Green (Erotica)

In this sexy anthology of fantastical short stories, women are no longer just damsels in distress. Instead, strong, passionate females race to the rescue of their female lovers in this new collection of erotic fantasy.

The stories within Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms are masterfully crafted to lead your mind down unexpected paths to your favorite fantasy adventure, from the classic fairy-tales of Little Red Riding Hood to Rapunzel to the modern marvel of Game of Thrones. They will wash over you in an epic sea of words meant to entice and embolden your inner princess, heroine, or both.

Enter a time where you may be abducted by bandits or seduced by witches one second and find your heart spellbound by a dryad the next. But be warned, gentle traveler! With this new, provocative collection edited by Sacchi Green, the stories may begin with “Once upon a time”, but they will leave you coming back, time and time again.

Rough Patch by Nicole Markotic (YA)

When fifteen-year-old Keira starts high school, she almost wishes she could write "Hi, my name is Keira, and I'm bisexual!" on her nametag. Needless to say, she's actually terrified to announce—let alone fully explore—her sexuality. Quirky but shy, loyal yet a bit zany, Keira navigates her growing interest in kissing both girls and boys while not alienating her BFF, boy-crazy Sita. As the two acclimate to their new high school, they manage to find lunch tablemates and make lists of the school's cutest boys. But Keira is caught "in between"—unable to fully participate, yet too scared to come clean.

She's also feeling the pressure of family: parents who married too young and have differing parenting styles; a younger sister in a wheelchair from whom adults expect either too little or too much; and her popular older brother who takes pleasure in taunting Keira. She finds solace in preparing for the regional finals of figure skating, a hobby she knows is geeky and "het girl" yet instills her with confidence. But when she meets a girl named Jayne who seems perfect for her, she isn't so confident she can pull off her charade any longer.

Rough Patch is an honest, heart-wrenching novel about finding your place in the world, and about how to pick yourself up after taking a spill.

Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin (Fiction)

Set in the post-martial-law era of late-1980s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile is a coming-of-age story of queer misfits discovering love, friendship, and artistic affinity while hardly studying at Taiwan’s most prestigious university. Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, this cult classic is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and major countercultural figure. Afflicted by her fatalistic attraction to Shui Ling, an older woman, Lazi turns for support to a circle of friends that includes a rich kid turned criminal and his troubled, self-destructive gay lover, as well as a bored, mischievous overachiever and her alluring slacker artist girlfriend. Illustrating a process of liberation from the strictures of gender through radical self-inquiry, Notes of a Crocodile is a poignant masterpiece of social defiance by a singular voice in contemporary Chinese literature.

Birdy Flynn by Helen Donohoe (YA)

Birdy Flynn carries secrets. There is the secret of Birdy’s dead grandmother’s cat. How the boys tortured it and Birdy had to drown it in the river to stop it from suffer-ing. There’s the secret of Mrs. Cope, the teacher who touched Birdy. The secret of the gypsy girl at school who Birdy likes. But she can’t tell anyone about any of these secrets. Because Birdy’s other secret is that while she fights as good as the boys, she is a girl, and she doesn’t always feel like a girl is supposed to. So Birdy holds on to her secrets and tries to become what others want, even it if means losing herself. BIRDY FLYNN is a beautifully nuanced and deeply felt portrayal of a girl growing up amid an imperfect family, and an imperfect world, to become the person she was meant to be.

Not One Day by Anne Garréta (Fiction)

Not One Day begins with a maxim: “Not one day without a woman.” What follows is an intimate, erotic, and sometimes bitter recounting of loves and lovers past, breathtakingly written, exploring the interplay between memory, fantasy, and desire.

“For life is too short to submit to reading poorly written books and sleeping with women one does not love.”

Anne Garréta, author of the groundbreaking novel Sphinx (Deep Vellum, 2015), is a member of the renowned Oulipo literary group. Not One Day won the Prix Médicis in 2002, recognizing Garréta as an author “whose fame does not yet match their talent.”

Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman (Romance) (only $1.99!)

Small-batch independent yarn dyer Clara Ziegler is eager to brainstorm new color combinations--if only she could come up with ideas she likes as much as last time! When she sees Danielle Solomon's paintings of Florida wildlife by chance at a neighborhood gallery, she finds her source of inspiration. Outspoken, passionate, and complicated, Danielle herself soon proves even more captivating than her artwork... Fluffy Jewish f/f contemporary set in the author's childhood home of South Florida.

Queer Women Books Out This Month!

See more lesbian and bi women new releases at Women in Words, or more queer new releases at Lambda Literary.

If you liked this post, consider supporting FYLL and the Lesbrary on Patreon at $2 or more a month to be entered to win a lesbian/queer women book every month, as well as getting exclusive Lesbian Literature 101 updates! 

Or buy us a coffee on ko-fi as a one-time donation!

#queer books #lesbian books #long post

[nehrwho]

Why The Kohinoor is Historically and Morally Indian

This is the fifth time that the Kohinoor Diamond is being mentioned officially on the international grapevines rather than lone Indians remarking upon it half-heartedly. Needless to say, the issue has split mindsets from within India, Indian-origins and Indians as well as the mildly irrelevant opinions of those without. Honestly, I’d been waiting eagerly for this international incident to happen, as perversely dramatic as it sounds. The greasy, smooth-sailing relationship between Britain and India these days often means that the former are not slyly pinched in remembrance of their colonial past, whilst white Americans are pinched all the time for similar reasons. 

naughty conquerors! one more time you enslave a race you'll go to bed with no diamonds!!!

The reasons we’ve failed to ask for it as often as we deserve to are plentiful. The current Indian government states that Nehru, whilst initially asking for the return, had said later it was not worth it as it would only irritate the already sensitive British-Indian relationship (more on this later). Another remains that the British response to any question relating to the return of stolen goods or colonial reparations has always been “nope.” In 2013, David Cameron spoke possibly the most decisive words he has uttered in a decade and said “it is going to have to stay put.” Eloquent.

Why does it matter?

This has been the question I’d been faced with the most from almost every angle. English, Indian, and American. Why does the Kohinoor matter, since its exchange had happened over a hundred and fifty years ago? The wise, wise fellows who take the trouble of a Google search also informed us pompously that the actual value of the Kohinoor was only around 200 million USD, which when compared to the ballooning value of the Indian GDP is merely a blow into the balloon from a pair of asthmatic lungs. Furthermore, the browner of these cynical members of the Internet point out that it would have absolutely no point in India, as the upkeep of our museums are apparently atrocious and hence it was not worth risking an international incident over it.

Firstly, for those disinclined to symbolic value and only prefer the cold hard values of money; let it be known that England charges 25 GBP for entry into the Tower of London and hence the exhibits of the Jewel House that include the Kohinoor. In terms of rupees, that’s about Rs 2400, and in ringgit, RM 140 at the current exchange rate. There are about 2.8 million visitors to the Tower yearly as of 2015, and a simple calculation leads to the icy monetary fact that the tourism department makes around 700,000,000 GBP (Rs 66, 783, 000, 000) yearly in regards to the Tower – give or take. Now, although of course the Tower doesn’t merely consist of the Kohinoor it is the biggest, shiniest and most attractive diamond in the crown – hence, no tourist would leave before gawking at it. It is certain that even at a far cheaper ticket price, the Kohinoor in India would attract a much larger proportion of tourists (and a larger number because let’s face it, our population multiplies like rabbits) both from within India and from international waters; hence in a handful of years it would far exceed its’ monetary value.

Is it a package deal?

Now for those who account for symbolic profit rather than physical, let it be known the high proportion of Indians in the U.K. Add to this the thousands of Indian foreign-students, their visiting families, and those who have achieved a long term visa. Let’s say all these people go to the Tower to look at the Kohinoor. Essentially, they’re paying the aforementioned 25 GBP to look at something that would have belonged to their country all along. Even more brutal, it is literally a symbol of colonialism – taking another country’s prized jewel, slapping it on their crown, and making the citizens of that country pay to look at it. Of course, most people’s thoughts aren’t of needless injustice when they first clap eyes on the twinkly one, and rather along the lines of “wow shiny” and “move aside, odorous fellow,” however I like to think that at the backs of our minds the sentiment still resides.

Historically, it is Indian

The primary argument from those who disapprove of the jewel being returned is that ‘it was gifted.’ However, if one traces the history of the jewel, it was not gifted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh as is commonly thought but rather given by his son, Maharaja Duleep Singh. What difference must it make? Perhaps the British had forgotten or switched the Indian names as they were so oft fond of doing, the fact remains it was still legally gifted. See, the difference is that Ranjit Singh had died ten years before the taking of the diamond, and when his son had given up the diamond to the victorious British army – he was twelve or so years old. An actual child, who was separated from his mother and exiled to England where he was Anglicized in the most stereotypical manner possible. Furthermore, the ‘gifting’ was part of military confiscation to reimburse the British Empire for the expenses they had wrought by conquering Punjab (must be difficult, being an Empire…). So not only was the diamond taken from a child-ruler, it was taken after the British had taken over Punjab, hence as a war spoil. If the Koh-i-noor seized in this manner is considered ‘gifted,’ I suppose there shall be no more complaints about bullying in schools, only lovely reports of children ‘gifting’ their lunch money to others.

If the Kohinoor was a diamond tossed around the world like a political pass-the-parcel, I’d at least somewhat understand a historical claim to it by Britain. However,  the first mention of the Kohinoor was from an ancient Sanskrit text where it was referred to by another name, and was transferred from the Rajas of Malwa to the Emperor of Delhi in 1304, hence there is no record of it originating anywhere other than India. It then changed hands throughout the succession of Mughal kings, mentioned by Babur, Aurangazeb and the likes. The Afghani Taliban had also requested the diamond, claiming it was Afghani – yet the Persians had only taken the diamond in 1739, and after the ruler’s assassination it fell into the hands of Ahmad Shah Durrani (the founder of modern Afghanistan). After the Kohinoor was returned to the aforementioned Ranjit Singh in India, the British had possibly set their blue eyes upon it; popular history was rewritten and the crown is a 109 carats heavier. Thus, the tracing of the antiquity of the diamond gives no doubt as to the origin of it, changing hands outside the country/empire only once other than the infamous British acquisition. 

Morally, it is Indian

Note that I haven’t written: legally, it is Indian. Truly, it isn’t ours by law; if that had been the case, we would have been exhibiting it at exorbitant rates for decades. Legally, it was given to the British as mentioned before, and little Duleep Singh had even been taken to England for the presentation (where, incidentally, Queen Victoria fawned over his eyes and pretty teeth). However, if you look at it with a pinch of perspective, do you recall what was also legally British at the time? India. It’s always been common knowledge that the winners write the laws and at the time, the Empire soldiers had been the victors who wanted the big shiny rock. So take it they did, with all the legal certificates, pomp, and circumstance involved. Thus when they finally were ripped out of the scene a century later, they conveniently produced aforementioned certificates. Accordingly, India was returned to the Indians, minus some ancient buildings and structures, self-confidence, resources, wealth – and the Kohinoor.

Look at this fine piece. Do NOT blame Vicky in the slightest.

Legally, it remains British. But until India clawed its way to independence in 1947, the country and its people were also technically British. Slaves were legal in 1840s America. Harijans weren’t allowed in temples in 1920. Laws will not change without argument and negotiation, and in this case whilst we have no legal claim, we do possess a moral and historical assertion to the diamond from which one could build up a sizeable campaign and argument.

Outcome

Will the Indian government truly try to get it back? In this scene of toadying and wishing for oily international relations with Britain, I’m not sure. However, ‘international goodwill’ isn’t actually an argument for not trying to return the jewel to its’ native ground. Recently, the ruling government had said the efforts weren’t pursued due to Jawaharlal Nehru’s mention of it possibly causing tension. The difference is this: time. Nehru had been at the forefront of the independence movement for decades and had been a major component in Britain losing it’s wallet. If Nehru had gone back to ask for the crown jewels it would have caused extreme international hostility – and even he had initially requested its return. India and Britain’s liaison at the moment is probably as good as it’s going to get: now is the time to challenge it, before they conveniently ‘forget’ they had ever colonized us and that the British Raj was ever a thing.

What Raj!? Raj Mehta? Raj Kulkarni!?

What else could it bring? Perhaps civil unrest, if states argue over where to display it. Perhaps Pakistan or Afghanistan may try to claim it again, leading to further tension. However, relinquishing the diamond to one of those countries would be highly unlikely. Tourism, obviously. The immense Indian population, a majority of which would not have travelled to England would certainly come to see the jewel as would citizens of other, closer countries. Even if India displays the Kohinoor at a lower price of entry than the Tower of London (as it should), the revenue would far exceed the value of the diamond itself. Furthermore, taking the Kohinoor off the British crown would possibly be part of a hair-of-the-dog remedy for colonial hangover.

I suppose all this is tentative and predicted, however – we need to get Cameron to go from “it’s going to stay put” to “oh, take it then you buggers,” not to mention the reaction of the Crown. Nevertheless, this has just been a hashing together of why the jewel is undoubtedly Indian, something even the Royal family understands. There is a ‘curse’ on the diamond after all - “He who wears this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God, or a woman, can wear it with impunity.” Queen Victoria had written that the diamond was only to be put on the crown of a ruling Queen, the Queen mother, or any female monarch on the throne or beside it.  

So much for ‘native superstition.’

#kohinoor diamond #indian politics #colonialism

[topdoctor41-blog]

Persian Rutab - Iranian Rotab Mazafati

The Health Benefits of Dates Fruits

Dates are an extremely versatile fruit that provide the health benefits of dates fruits to your diet. Dates date back to the times of the Egyptians as well as the Romans.

Dates are belonging to Southern Africa, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Central Asia, South Africa, South The United States, as well as Asia. They were actually grown as early as 3500 B.C. Yet dates simply became well-known in the West with the finding of the fruit by Greeks, who used all of them for their popular connoisseur dish "Hellenic preparing food". The fruit's recognition additionally expanded when Europeans delivered all of them back to Europe.

Dates pertained to Spain and then were reminded Europe. It was brought to England and also inevitably to the United States. It was merely in the 1700s that Americans began eating the fruit for its own healthy and balanced health residential properties.

Dates are actually big and also tough fruits, thus they are suitable for packaging. Dates may be consumed raw, and a lot of particularly when they are broken in short or medium-sized items, so they maintain all the health benefits of dates. Dates can be consumed dried out, cooked, or maybe iced up.

Dates are actually abundant in potassium, thread, and also vitamins. They may be used as a substitute for glucose. The beneficial thing regarding dates is actually that you can eat all of them along with almost just about anything. No matter what sort of meals you are going to place the dates on.

Dates are wealthy in minerals and also antioxidants. They can easily help you reduce weight given that they can inhibit the absorption of excess fat in the physical body. Also the soul can absorbing the nutrients that are actually had in dates. Dates likewise consist of monounsaturated fats, which are actually recognized to lower cholesterol amounts.

Be sure you take in dates regularly. To take pleasure in the health benefits of dates you must always take one one-half of a date as part of your diet. If you desire to enjoy the various other benefits of dates, you can take one date along with some natural yogurt, honey, or even oats.

Dates are actually a really good source of thread that may be utilized to stop irregular bowel movements. The fiber will definitely produce your feces softer, thereby you can pass it simply.

Dates are actually an excellent resource of blood potassium that may also assist in dealing with hypertension. They are likewise rich in the vital mineral calcium mineral. Calcium mineral helps in constructing bone tissue and avoiding bone tissue ailments.

Dates are actually likewise abundant in vitamin C that can easily assist you combat skin disease as well as also skin cancer. You may consume dates, which could be eaten dry or in their clean form, as well as they can assist guard your eyes.

Dates are abundant in vitamin E that can help you deal with versus free of charge radicals that may lead to cancer. They are additionally good resource of magnesium mineral that can easily aid you rest. Magnesium mineral is likewise really good in harmonizing the blood sugar degree.

Dates are likewise a great source of carbohydrate that could be utilized alternatively for flour. Starch is going to enable you to consume far fewer fats and thus you may reduce weight.

Dates Eaten Along With Fruits - Is it Extra Healthy Than Dates Alone?

Folks of different ages, who love to eat clean fruits and additionally dates in addition to various other nutritious meals. As Greendiamond conducted of fruits are actually outstanding, there are actually many people out there who adore to eat fruits and dates as their favorite.

A lot of individuals question if dates are actually consumed along with fruits are more nutritious than dates consumed alone. The response is a significant certainly, yet the fact is actually dates without fruits are actually not much more healthy than dates with fruits.

Date and dates are actually eaten alone are much more wealthy in fats and calories than when they are actually combined along with fruits. The high-fat information that exists in dates alone could be a concern for the body system. The very best method to avoid this concern is actually to possess dates as a main component in your diet plan.

Dates are actually a really good resource of fiber, so date is actually an outstanding breakfast choice. The thread in dates can easily reduce the danger of digestive tract cancer. Dates likewise possess the best focus of fiber, reviewed to any other food available out there.

The majority of people think about if dates are actually consumed along with fruits are actually much more healthy than dates eaten alone. The response is a significant certainly, yet the reality is actually dates without fruits are certainly not a lot more nutritious than dates with fruits.

Date and also dates are eaten along with fruits have lots of benefits. Given that dates are actually high in thread, they may prevent constipation and also therefore, the threat of colon cancer is lower. The high attentions of fiber in dates may be good for our gastrointestinal body.

Dates consumed along with fruits are actually extra healthy than dates alone. The high attentions of nutrients in dates, assist you assimilate your meals faster than standard. These enzymes and also vitamins can easily help raise the health of your bone tissues and also avoid you coming from cultivating osteoporosis.

https://www.greendiamond.co/product/ajwa-dates/ and dates consumed alongside fruits are actually not much more nourishing than dates consumed alone. The most ideal trait is that you are going to acquire the preferred benefits without the disadvantages of consuming fruits as well as dates as a treat, merely pick the appropriate mix.

Dried out Dates

The farming of dates has been actually selecting hundreds of years. Though dates can be eaten fresh, dull dates are actually very popular. Among the type of dates, Deglet Noor and Medjool are very popular for their wonderful appreciate. They are actually named the master of dates for their delicacies for their natural honey flavoured preference.

Individuals often fall for their agency, chewy goodie style. Taking in dates as a snack food or even utilizing it as a flavor enhancer enhance the nutritional market value of the recipes. They are actually commonly utilized in the dish for readying breadstuff and puddings.

The purchasing of dried out dates, can easily have some cooking result you want to get out of it. Dry dates are actually adjustable to be a component of your early morning shake, crammed to act as an outstanding offering for the visitors in addition to for you. For the added sweet taste, dry dates can be combined right into pork and chicken foods.

You might be acquiring dates in bigger volume once you discover the varied health benefits they give. Staying match and sturdy needs to be actually a lifestyle top priority. Preventing health problem is actually a necessary consider living a total as well as vibrant life. The unification of healthy foods items right into your diet regimens can possess comprehensive health benefits. It performs as a defensive substance against many illness. It is just one of the most ideal measures that you can take for staying well.

Even more is actually that the Dry dates aid digestive function, and keep the heart and human brain in the appropriate order. They take care of colon, prostate, bosom, lung, and also pancreas versus any malignant strike. Dates may assist diminishing blood pressure, alleviate bowel irregularity, prevent looseness of the bowels, and anemia comes up out of iron deficiencies. The dates can be a perk for expecting women or even someone struggling with joint inflammation as well as taking an effective weight loss diet plan.

The procedure of mining of the dates entails putting a net around the fruit that has actually grown in hairs in a large number of the tree divisions. Dates that lose on the ground aren't used for severe discoloration as well as potential putridity. Dates that are actually expanded in huge volumes are actually transported for handling and made ready for wrapping as well as packaging.

On the contrary, if dates are collected in handful, the dates coming from the stalk, are actually gone on a holder as well as kept under the drying out method. This is just one of the methods that is adopted for enhancing fresh dates in to dry out dates successfully.

Need Our Service OrHave Queries ?

Address Green Diamond International S/B (1007167-M) No.14, Jln bpp 8/2, Bandar putra permai, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia Contact Details 0060389399582 Green Diamond International S/B (1007167-M) No.14, Jln bpp 8/2, Bandar putra permai, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia Monday 10:00-20:00 Tuesday 10:00-20:00 Wednesday 10:00-20:00 Thursday 10:00-20:00 Friday 10:00-20:00 Saturday 10:00-20:00 Sunday Closed

#Best Dates Fruit #Buy Dates Fruit #Sell Dates Fruit #Dates Fruit Benefits

[heartguilty48-blog]

Modest Cold Weather Hardy Traits In Date Palms And Also Supporter Palms.

The Health Benefits of Dates Fruits

Dates are actually a functional fruit that supply the health benefits of dates fruits to your diet regimen. Dates go back to the days of the Egyptians and also the Romans.

Dates are native to Southern Africa, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Central Asia, South Africa, South The United States, as well as Asia. They were planted as early as 3500 B.C. Yet dates only ended up being well-known in the West with the finding of the fruit through Greeks, who used them for their renowned gourmet dish "Hellenic preparing food". The fruit's recognition also expanded when Europeans brought all of them back to Europe.

Dates concerned Spain and after that were reminded Europe. It was actually offered England as well as ultimately to the USA. It was just in the 1700s that Americans started taking in the fruit for its own healthy and balanced health properties.

Dates are actually huge as well as hard fruits, therefore they agree with for packing. Dates could be consumed raw, as well as many particularly when they are broken in quick or medium-sized parts, so they retain all the health benefits of dates. Dates may be consumed dried out, prepared, or even frozen.

Dates are wealthy in blood potassium, fiber, as well as vitamins. They may be utilized as a substitute for sugar. The benefit about dates is actually that you can easily eat all of them along with almost anything. No matter what kind of food items you are actually visiting put the dates on.

Dates are actually abundant in minerals as well as anti-oxidants. They can help you drop weight given that they can inhibit the absorption of excess fat in the physical body. Also the center is capable of taking in the nutrients that are consisted of in dates. Dates also have monounsaturated body fats, which are actually known to reduced cholesterol amounts.

Be sure you eat dates regularly. To enjoy the health benefits of dates you must constantly take one fifty percent of a date as portion of your diet regimen. If you intend to take pleasure in the various other benefits of dates, you can take one date along with some natural yogurt, natural honey, or even oatmeal.

Dates are actually a good source of fiber that could be made use of to prevent bowel irregularity. The fiber will certainly make your feces softer, therefore you may pass it simply.

Dates are a really good resource of potassium that can also assist in addressing high blood pressure. They are also wealthy in the vital mineral calcium. Calcium aids in building bone tissue as well as protecting against bone diseases.

Dates are likewise rich in vitamin C that can assist you combat skin disease and likewise skin cancer. You may consume dates, which could be consumed dry or in their true kind, as well as they may aid safeguard your eyes.

Dates are wealthy in vitamin E that can assist you deal with versus free of charge radicals that can lead to cancer. They are actually also really good source of magnesium that can easily assist you unwind. Magnesium mineral is likewise good in harmonizing the blood sugar level.

Dates are actually additionally an excellent resource of starch that may be used alternatively for flour. Carbohydrate will certainly enable you to eat fewer calories and consequently you may slim down.

Dates Eaten Alongside Fruits - Is it Even More Nourishing Than Dates Alone?

People of different ages, that enjoy to consume clean fruits and likewise dates in addition to various other nutritious foods items. As the benefits of fruits are actually incredible, there are actually a lot of people out there who love to consume fruits as well as dates as their preferred.

A number of individuals ask yourself if dates are actually consumed in addition to fruits are even more nutritious than dates eaten alone. The solution is a major certainly, however the truth is actually dates without fruits are actually certainly not a lot more nutritious than dates along with fruits.

Date and also dates are eaten alone are actually much more abundant in fats and also calories than when they are actually mixed along with fruits. The high-fat information that appears in dates alone may be a complication for the body system. The greatest means to prevent this trouble is actually to possess dates as a main component in your diet plan.

Dates are actually a really good source of fiber, so date is an exceptional morning meal alternative. The fiber in dates may reduce the risk of bowel cancer cells. Dates also possess the highest possible concentration of fiber, matched up to some other food readily available in the marketplace.

Many people wonder if dates are actually consumed along with fruits are much more nourishing than dates eaten alone. The answer is a big of course, yet the honest truth is actually dates without fruits are actually not more healthy than dates along with fruits.

Date as well as dates are eaten alongside fruits possess many benefits. Given that dates are higher in thread, they can stop irregular bowel movements and hence, the danger of colon cancer cells is actually lesser. The higher focus of thread in dates could be good for our intestinal body.

Dates consumed along with fruits are more nourishing than dates alone. The high focus of nutrients in dates, help you assimilate your meals much faster than common. These chemicals as well as vitamins can easily assist improve the health of your bone tissues and avoid you from cultivating brittle bones.

Dates as well as dates consumed alongside fruits are actually certainly not much more nourishing than dates consumed alone. The greatest factor is that you will acquire the preferred benefits without the negative aspects of eating fruits and dates as a treat, only pick the appropriate combo.

Dried out Dates

The growing of dates has been going with hundreds of years. Though dates may be consumed fresh, dry dates are actually incredibly popular. One of the sort of dates, Deglet Noor and Medjool are incredibly popular for their excellent appreciate. They are named the master of dates for their delicacies for their honey seasoned preference.

Folks typically fall for their company, crunchy goodie kind. Consuming dates as a snack or utilizing it as a taste enhancer raise the dietary value of the foods. They are actually frequently made use of in the dish for prepping bread and also desserts.

The purchasing of dried out dates, may have some culinary effect you intend to get out of it. Dry dates are versatile to be a portion of your morning smoothie, stuffed to work as an excellent offering for the attendees along with for you. For the included sweetness, dry out dates can be integrated in to pork and chicken dishes.

You may be buying dates in larger volume as soon as you find the assorted health benefits they offer. Staying Greendiamond guide: improving MEDJOOL DATES Factory and solid needs to be actually a lifestyle concern. Stopping ailment is actually an important factor in residing a full and vibrant lifestyle. The unification of healthy and balanced meals into your diets can easily possess substantial health benefits. It functions as a defensive element against numerous health problems. It is just one of the most ideal actions that you can take for residing well.

Much more is that the Dry dates aid food digestion, and also keep the soul and also brain in the correct purchase. They maintain bowel, prostate, bosom, bronchi, and also pancreatic versus any kind of cancerous attack. Dates can easily assist reducing high blood pressure, ease constipation, protect against diarrhea, and aplastic anemia arises out of iron insufficiencies. The dates may be an advantage for expecting women or even a person struggling with arthritis and also taking a weight management diet plan.

The procedure of mining of the dates entails positioning an internet around the fruit that has developed in fibers in a significant amount of the plant branches. Dates that drop on the ground aren't made use of for harsh discoloration and also possible spoilage. Dates that are grown in massive quantities are transported for dealing in as well as made ready for wrapping as well as packing.

On the other hand, if dates are collected in few, the dates from the stem, are kept a tray as well as kept under the drying process. This is among the processes that is used for completely transforming new dates into completely dry dates properly.

Need Our Service OrHave Queries ?

Address Green Diamond International S/B (1007167-M) No.14, Jln bpp 8/2, Bandar putra permai, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia Contact Details 0060389399582 Green Diamond International S/B (1007167-M) No.14, Jln bpp 8/2, Bandar putra permai, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia Monday 10:00-20:00 Tuesday 10:00-20:00 Wednesday 10:00-20:00 Thursday 10:00-20:00 Friday 10:00-20:00 Saturday 10:00-20:00 Sunday Closed

#Best Dates Fruit #Buy Dates Fruit #Sell Dates Fruit #Dates Fruit Benefits

[arcticdementor]

The Paths Ahead

Author Sarah Hoyt gives four scenarios for the not-too-distant future:

1. “Pie in the Sky”:

In this scenario people set themselves free.  At some point, they get tired of the disaster porn the media is feeding them and get out of their basements, and look around to realize that no, we’re not all dying like flies, there are no bodies on the streets, the hospitals are so far from overwhelmed that doctors and nurses are choreographing dance numbers in the hallways, all while grandma’s cancer gets worse, and mom goes without heart surgery because the government closed the hospitals, to make way for a surge of COVID-19 deaths that never happened.

Then people get angry and jam the streets and start screaming and yelling and refusing to be arrested. They, in fact, become the America Hong Kong thinks we are.

The governors, in terror, realize they’ve gone too far, and lost all plausible cover.

If this happens soon enough, it will be tight this winter, but not outright famine.  If this happens soon enough, and Trump realizes it (if he has a talent, it is reading people) he puts the blame squarely where it belongs.  He denounces “governing by “experts”” and does a 90 degree turn and tells us how we were fooled.  And what the media and the DNC (BIRM) did to the country, all to put their spokeszombie in charge.

…

In ten years, from a happy, prosperous America starting to colonize space, we look back at this moment of utter insanity and say “yeah, but without it, the breakage of the old institutions would have been slower, more painful, and we’d have ended up in a more centralized and less free society.”

2. “It Could Be Worse”

As the lockdown extended into July in some places, and the other places were far from normal, as the obviousness mounted of shortages, and that those who had presumed to tell us what to do were not only wrong but criminally so, unrest started to happen.

The fourth of July was bad across the country, as the nation woke to what had happened in Sacramento, and there was a brief attempt to demonize “militias” which had worked so well under Clinton.  But while horrified by the events shown on TV, America as a whole had listened to the media for the last time. So the attempt had the opposite effect.  One on one, neighborhood by neighborhood, neighbors started talking, organizing. At least in the functional parts of the country, this resembled more a mutual aid society.  “Oh, your computer needs a part my dead computer might have.” and “I see little Timmy has outgrown his shoes. Well, since they still won’t let thrift stores happen and clothing stores are having supply issues, let me see if I have a pair Billy wore only for a month before his growth spurt.”

…

As cold hits and  the personnel to man power plants isn’t always available — the authorities are still being paranoid about colds and there are union rules — even those who are self-sufficient pass some very cold nights.  Media’s dramatization of homeless freezing in the streets is shrugged off by a population that is scrambling for the next meal (having money doesn’t mean there’s food you can afford.) Strangely a lot of the homeless clean up. More than freeze or starve? Who knows. It’s not like the media covers those.  There are also some brutal crimes, some food riots, neighborhoods perceived as “rich” under siege by those who wish to redistribute.  No one knows how many. The media makes it sound like “they’re coming for you next, and you must elect socialists to save you.”  The socialist rethoric is now strident.  You’re fairly sure 2020 has lasted a lifetime. Your doctor is still only sporadically in, as your local government takes sudden panics over “infection.” And you know damn well that grandma wouldn’t have died of her cancer if she’d had some chemo. She was only in her early seventies, too, and you were counting on her for babysitting.

When the famine hit in the rest of the world, including parts of Europe, most people didn’t even notice.  They noticed the push at the border. They noticed politicians talking about the brotherhood of man and how we should open our borders and ship all our food abroad.  In a leaner — literally — and more food-anxious population this goes over like a lead balloon.

Which is probably why all hell breaks loose when the election results come in and the international socialists won.

…

They don’t recommend you teach your kids about the winter of 20-21 until they’re mature enough. They leave it to you to decide what mature enough is, but for most people it’s just before franchise. Which is now 21 in most states and restricted in the way each state decided.

…

Most states agree that you’re an adult after you served in the army or have been married for 3 years with at least one child.  SSM?  Well, some states allow it. Cut your cloth to fit your pattern. You might have to immigrate to another state. Yes, it’s a pain now a days. But that’s the result of sending power back to the states and disempowering the out of touch feds.

Whether the fiddly bits of the person you marry are unlike yours or not, devolving to local rule means Mrs. Grundy has a say.  The Karens didn’t go away. But instead of policing you for compliance with mask policy or compliance with the latest SJW command, after the boog the Karens want you to know you should be married, faithful and living a life just like everyone else.

We never go social credit or intrusion by the state. But we find out the tyranny of our neighbors is just as strong.

Oh, the boog was brief but horrible.  Between it and increasing economic disorganization, we lost more people and wealth than we could afford.  The US is a young country. Neighborhoods are full of children. Most of the children are either homeschooled, or schooled in neighborhood-arranged schools so the parents can go to work.  Admission to college (rare) or trade school is by merit exam. No one collects data on the race of the applicants. They seem representative of the area it’s drawn from.

But college or trade school come after the army.  Mandatory for men. Voluntary for women.  Strangely no one complains women aren’t given combat posts, by and large (there are exceptions.  The beast is always hungry), probably because serving in the army has a real chance of dying.  People joke about it, nervously, as “have two and one for the war.”  Most people have more, simply because they remember the twenties and how the elderly with no support network …  well, most of them didn’t starve. But it wasn’t pretty.

3. “Cry Havoc”

It was around June the rocket went up.  No one was quite sure what caused it, because it didn’t happen in JUST one place, but seemed to happen everywhere in the space of a week.

…

Someday when there is enough leisure and money somewhere to study the matter, someone will discover the true, first trigger to armed insurrection.

Was it when New Jersey, for the upteenth time blocked a protest and started arresting protestors?  Was it people protesting the closure of their local hospital being shot on by state guard in another state?  Was it the food riots in Chicago? Or the subway riots in New York City?

Figuring it out is more complicated because the media never reported these until it was everywhere at once.  People woke up one morning to find out the nearest large-ish city was burning, there were shots nearby, and large, angry mobs in the street, and your nearest highway was bound to be blocked.

They did the sane thing and hunkered down, this time for cause, turned on the TV — mostly showing governors assuring people everything was all right — and waited for things to calm down.

They didn’t.

…

We are in the tenth year of the rebellion.  You’d think it would have burned out by now, but there is just enough coherence and order to keep food on the table — sort of — most places.

Yes, the US army has engaged, but no one is even sure on what side.  The answer is probably “on all”.  We believe they are trying, most of all, to restore peace, except there is very little left.  And a conventional army always has trouble with guerilla warfare.

Ordinary Americans still live, through this.  Those who can work from home, if home is in a safe place and they can find a market for their work.  And you remember how you hit the net during a snow storm, to find out what streets were safe to drive on? Same thing. Only it’s with gunfire and explosions as the risk.  Informal networks, both of neighborhood and on line also communicate when food is available and where.  You might even be able to find your local doctor, who is often operating way outside his specialty and with no materials but is better than nothing.

The possibility of driving to the grocery store and finding yourself in the middle of a pitched battle is always there.

…

There are rumors of a force marching on Washington DC to capture it and make some sort of order. Some people say it is the US military itself. Other people… well, reports vary.

Orders are given periodically purporting to come from the government, but since everything comes through informal networks, it’s impossible to be sure.  We thought they had a network just for this?

This can’t go on forever.  Right now, what’s happening is people leaving places they feel are hostile to join either family or their ideological brethren.  That too is an order of sorts. The population is choosing territory.

4. “The Boot”

It started with Winnie the Flu, and looking around and wondering why everyone else had gone mad.  Shockingly even a lot of people who were smart and whom you’d have considered rational and freedom lovers went all in on the side of the lockdown, and swore it was all justified, even though the rules made no sense and most of them had nothing to do with disease.

…

BUT the few people who screamed about this were dismissed as “denialists.”  Apparently denialists of the end of the world.

And the government band played on.

And the two weeks turned into a month and a half to three months lockdown, destroying businesses, livelihoods, lives, and disrupting many supply chains including those for food. The fact people were confined in the house, watching TV 24/7 and that TV was non stop doom porn didn’t help.  It never occurred to anyone that if TV could dramatize everyone under 80 who died, it was because there were so few of them.  Instead people panicked.

…

There was a “temporary” lockdown in November and in the all vote by mail the left party won a stunning victory that might or might not have more votes than logical or plausible.

But people were too scared, some of the virus, some of the already precarious conditions. Too busy trying to find food.

The unlocking in December was trusted-people first.  And in the aftermath — because the virus was so bad, you see — strict tracking of every citizen was instituted. Strict social credit too.

Want to keep a blog, or talk on your phone more than peer-to-peer one person at a time? Your social credit has to be perfect.

No one knows how many people died the winter of 20/21 or how many by famine and how many by bullet.  Many a hunter in the woods, accidentally uncovers a mass grave, but if he knows what’s good for him, he doesn’t talk, and when the police who track the phone he must carry later ask what he saw, if he knows what’s good for him, he saw nothing.  With a few years of staying silent, he might be trusted again.

And he has to be trusted. Everyone does. Otherwise buying necessities is impossible. They’re so scarce anyway.  And having a job is a privilege. Receiving your dole if you don’t work is a privilege too.

…

If you manage to kill someone important on camera, you just sealed a death warrant for everyone you know. And the viewers, if they’re smart, will forget.

Periodically, if the rulers sense something particularly unsettled, they might lock down an entire region. It’s always a “virus.”

After 2028 they stopped bothering with the elections.  We don’t know why power changes sometimes, only that the new face shows up on TV and nothing changes.

But we’re living. More or less.  Most people live.  We’re told people abroad aren’t that lucky.  of course, no one not cleared has gone abroad in a long time.

Maybe some day someone will rebel in the name of freedom again, but food is so scarce, and even talking of how things used to be will get your ration card pulled.

#sarah a hoyt #read the whole thing

[bentonpena]

No, the UFOs or 'unidentified aerial phenomena' in those grainy Navy videos probably aren't aliens

No, the UFOs or 'unidentified aerial phenomena' in those grainy Navy videos probably aren't aliens http://bit.ly/34Z8Yo3

A group of videos, including one published by The New York Times in 2017, shows US Navy pilots baffled by mysterious objects in the sky.

The Navy this week confirmed that the footage showed real "unidentified" objects.

A Navy spokesman told The Black Vault and Vice that his organization designated "the objects contained in these videos as unidentified aerial phenomena," or UAP — a term typically used by the military instead of UFO.

Neither term, however, suggests that the objects in question were extraterrestrial in nature.

Scientists who search for signs of extraterrestrial life say videos like these don't prove that aliens have visited us or that these unidentified objects came from space.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In 2017, The New York Times published a story that chronicled an in-air interaction between US Navy pilots and a strange object near San Diego.

The pilots had snagged footage of an oblong flying object with their F-18's gun camera on November 14, 2004. The object appeared dark against the bright daytime sky before "suddenly and instantaneously accelerating to the left, out of view of the [camera] sensor at what appears to be an unprecedented velocity," the video narrates.

That video was one of three instances in which Navy pilots caught an unknown aerial object on camera; the latter two videos were both recorded on January 21, 2015, giving rise to speculation that they depict the same object.

On Wednesday, Joseph Gradisher, the Navy's spokesman for the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, confirmed that his organization designated "the objects contained in these videos as unidentified aerial phenomena."

Read more: The US Navy has finally confirmed that mysterious videos showing pilots spotting UFOs are genuine after years of speculation

The term UAP has been widely adopted by government officials in place of UFO, or "unidentified flying object."

Gradisher released the statement to The Black Vault, a civilian-run archive of government documents, and later Vice, the first time the Navy has publicly addressed the contents of these videos.

John Greenwald, curator of The Black Vault, told Vice that he "very much expected that when the US military addressed the videos, they would coincide with language we see on official documents that have now been released, and they would label them as 'drones' or 'balloons.'"

But that was not the case.

"They went on the record stating the 'phenomena' depicted in those videos is 'unidentified,'" Greenwald said. "That really made me surprised, intrigued, excited, and motivated to push harder for the truth."

But just because the Navy has classified these objects as "unidentified" doesn't indicate that they are extraterrestrial in nature. (Former members of the military have said glitches in the pilot's heads-up display are likely to blame, rather than aliens that happen to float around only Navy fliers who have newer radar systems.)

Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, previously told Business Insider that just because a flying object couldn't be identified didn't mean it was alien.

"If you see something in the air that you don't understand, and you're the guy in charge of the Air Force, you want to know what that is," Shostak said. "It doesn't have much to do with aliens, necessarily. Despite more than a half-century of this, the really good evidence that we're being visited still has failed to surface."

There are many reasons aliens probably haven't visited us

Shostak said he's skeptical for a few reasons of any claims Earth had been visited by aliens.

For one, distances in space are mind-bogglingly vast. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, for example, is leaving our solar system at a clip of 38,000 mph. If the probe were aimed at Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to Earth besides the sun that might harbor a planet capable of sustaining life, it'd take nearly 75,000 years to reach that system. (It's roughly 4.24 light-years away.)

What's more, humans have been sending radio signals into space that indicate our status as intelligent galactic denizens for only the past 80 years or so. These signals are arguably the only way anyone else out there would even know to come looking in our quadrant of the Milky Way.

"The only way they would know is to pick up, for example, signals from our transmitters — television, radio, radar, all that stuff," Shostak said. "But those signals have been going out only since the Second World War."

That means only extraterrestrials within a certain distance would have any chance of making it to Earth by now.

Read more: Smart aliens might live within 33,000 light-years of Earth. A new study explains why we haven't found them yet.

"If they're more than 35 light-years away, there hasn't been enough time for our signals to get to them, and for them to decide, 'Well this is worth the money to go down there and fly around,'" Shostak added. "Because they can't go faster than the speed of light, and they probably can't go the speed of light."

Within 50 light-years or so, there are only about 1,400 star systems.

"That sounds like a big number, but it's a very small number if you're looking for intelligent beings," Shostak said. "Unless they're the next star system over, which is statistically rather unlikely."

If aliens are here, 'they're not doing anything'

An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, of course, but there's just no proof that aliens have ever visited us, Shostak said.

In nearly all credible reports of UFO sightings, there's no interaction with the witness (aside from claims of alien abductions, which evidence suggests are hallucinations caused by episodes of sleep paralysis and possibly abuse).

"They're the best house guests ever — because if they're here, they're not doing anything," Shostak said, adding: "They send a huge fleet of spacecraft, preferably shaped like dinner plates, just to fly around and get people agitated but otherwise not to do a thing. It is a little odd that aliens would come hundreds and hundreds of light-years to do nothing."

Imagine, Shostak added for the sake of comparison, if European colonizers had sailed to the Americas but never interacted with indigenous Native American tribes: "They don't try and take any of their land, they don't bring any disease, they don't do anything; they just sort of walked around at the fringes of their settlements, leading to puzzling sightings, but that's it."

As for the military-verified UAPs in the Navy videos, Shostak said those peculiar sightings were most likely the result of an upgrade to the 1980s heads-up-display technology. That upgrade happened — probably not coincidentally — just before the pilots spotted the anomalies in those screens.

The technology allows pilots to "see" in radar, but sometimes those pings result in false tracks that don't belong to any object and are simply the result of a system glitch.

"As anybody who uses Microsoft products knows, whenever you upgrade any technical product, there are always problems," Shostak told Space.com in May.

SEE ALSO: An alien hunter explains why extraterrestrial visitors are unlikely — despite the US government's UFO evidence

DON'T MISS: Scientists use this formula, called the Drake equation, to explore the chance we'll make contact with intelligent aliens

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How Area 51 became the center of alien conspiracy theories

Tech via SAI http://bit.ly/2ZZpEbV September 18, 2019 at 05:45PM

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[bharatiyamedia-blog]

Ocean Swimming Causes Pores and skin Modifications: Research

http://tinyurl.com/y5v62akf SATURDAY, June 22, 2019 (HealthDay Information) — The inhabitants of micro organism in your pores and skin adjustments if you swim within the ocean, probably rising your threat of an infection, researchers report. They collected samples of pores and skin micro organism from the legs of 9 folks earlier than they took a 10-minute swim within the ocean, after that they had air-dried utterly following their swim, after which six and 24 hours after their swim. Earlier than swimming, all of the members had completely different communities of pores and skin micro organism (pores and skin microbiome) from each other. However after swimming, all of them had related communities on their pores and skin, which had been utterly completely different from their before-swim communities, the examine confirmed. Six hours after swimming, the members’ pores and skin microbiomes had began to return to their pre-swim state, and had been far alongside in that course of 24 hours later, based on the analysis. It was slated to be introduced Saturday on the annual assembly of the American Society for Microbiology, in San Francisco. “Our information show for the primary time that ocean water publicity can alter the variety and composition of the human pores and skin microbiome,” mentioned lead writer Marisa Chattman Nielsen, a Ph.D. scholar on the College of California, Irvine. “Whereas swimming, regular resident micro organism had been washed off whereas ocean micro organism had been deposited onto the pores and skin,” she defined in a gathering information launch. The examine was prompted by earlier analysis displaying a hyperlink between ocean swimming and infections, and by excessive charges of poor water high quality at many seashores, which may result in pores and skin infections, ear infections and gastrointestinal and respiratory sickness. “One very attention-grabbing discovering was that Vibrio species — solely recognized to the genus degree — had been detected on each participant after swimming within the ocean, and air drying,” Nielsen mentioned. The Vibrio genus contains the bacterium that causes cholera. Six hours after swimming, Vibrio had been nonetheless current on a lot of the members, however 24 hours after swimming, just one participant had them. “Whereas many Vibrio aren’t pathogenic, the truth that we recovered them on the pores and skin after swimming demonstrates that pathogenic Vibrio species may probably persist on the pores and skin after swimming,” Nielsen mentioned. The fraction of Vibrio species detected on the swimmers’ pores and skin was greater than 10 instances higher than the fraction in ocean water, suggesting Vibrio has a particular affinity for attachment to human pores and skin, based on the researchers. They famous that pores and skin is the physique’s first line of protection in opposition to contaminated water. “Latest research have proven that human pores and skin microbiome performs an necessary position in immune system operate, localized and systemic illnesses, and an infection,” Nielsen mentioned. “A wholesome microbiome protects the host from colonization and an infection by opportunistic and pathogenic microbes.” Analysis introduced at scientific conferences must be thought of preliminary till it’s printed in a peer-reviewed journal. — Robert Preidt Copyright © 2019 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: American Society for Microbiology, information launch, June 22, 2019 !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '428750600651790'); fbq('track', "PageView"); Source link

[republicstandard]

We're All Mad Here: In Defense of Julius Malema

The clouds arranging themselves outside of our windows draw closer to our houses as we collectively batten down our hatches. The storm begins to brew. In relation to security and locking oneself away from the outside world, that may as well be the case for most white South Africans in the modern day. Fortifying their homes with tall, spiky fences and placing their location of residence as far away from Bantus as possible, it’s not surprising this is their way of life. I wouldn’t suggest anything else to them when most can’t speak any other language than Afrikaans. For those who can speak English, are adults, and have the passports, visas, and money to move, please go ahead with it. It’ll be better for both the European and African inhabitants of the Sub-Sahara.

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As the expropriation of land without compensation is proposed to take place, the water boils for non-indigenous South Africans trapped within the nation’s borders. They can’t jump ship when there’s no place for them to head, as Afrikaans is a language almost exclusive to their state. There’s a bit of the Afrikaner language spoken in Namibia, but due to the country having such a small white minority, there’s no destination to reside in which verbal communication will be established comfortably. Besides, the Afrikaners would still be living with people of African descent, which isn’t preferable when there’s the entirety of Europe to look forward to, except for Turkey.

South Africa, being the country with the worst and most punishing affirmative action laws on the entire planet, is going forward with its plan to seize and steal farmlands from white agriculture workers. The nation is committed to its own defeat. As the Afrikaner and Anglo farmers will be replaced with low-skilled black state-servants, so will the country’s profits decrease.

The Afrikaner rights group AfriForum, a community dedicated to protecting descendants of Dutch settlers within South Africa, have on numerous occasions spoken out against the racial discrimination European South Africans face by the oppressive African National Congress’s ruling of post-apartheid government. Yet, they haven’t pointed to the prominent issue as to why any of this is allowed to happen in the first place. That root cause is diversity. Ethnic diversity wasn’t an issue when the Khoisan people were the predominant population of the region, it was that the Bantus from the north west brought with them a hurricane of destruction and tribal warfare.

Issues arose when European settlers founded the country, and as natural expansion met resistance, the Bantus, the Dutch, and the British went to war with one another. From there on, the country’s history was painted with nothing except violence and bloodshed. It has always been diversity which has been at heart with the state’s downfall, spiraling lower and lower as the years passed by like wind.

South Africa wasn’t even classified, nor thought of as a country, prior to European interference in the lower portion of the African continent. Bantus were not even present at the time of the colonization of the cape. It is therefore impossible for the farmlands to have been "stolen" from the Bantu people. To the African National Congress, they simply see it as unfair that particular groups get ahead of others in life, as opposed to being built upon merit and intelligence. It’s no way to reward hard work by shunning those who do and giving unearned respect to those who refuse to participate.

So, what does this have to do with Julius Malema’s role in South Africa’s failed democracy? Well, no democracy is rightful, not one, but that doesn’t mean it has to be as bad as South Africa’s. This is the worst democracy in the world to spawn from one of the worst countries in the world; don’t lie, we all saw this one coming. To track the course of reforming democratic to revolutionary socialism, we need to give the Economic Freedom Fighters a closer examination, at least closer than what most nationalist ideologies will consider pondering.

The Economic Freedom Fighters are bent on nationalizing South Africa’s industrial services, agricultural resources, media outlets, and means of production. the EFF first appear to be a typical Marxist-Leninist party. Where the EFF stand out is in their persistence of demanding white land be shifted over to black control; with a guns blazing approach to handling the situation. Wanting black South Africans to hold a proportionate percentage of land as to their percentage of the national population boils down to the desire for a South Africa where the country’s racial minorities don’t feel like the majority, in charge of the banks and government spending. It’s the same line of thinking applied to Germany’s Jewish population during Adolf Hitler’s reign over the European ethnostate. Although matters are often phrased incorrectly, the scenario the white minority are facing is a result of past colonialism getting the better of them at the expense of developing the Netherlands or the United Kingdom.

This, of course, doesn’t mean the present-day Afrikaners responsible for misadventures of their ancestors. The country as a whole has grown self-aware enough to realise the two genetically distinct populations -blacks and whites- aren’t meant to live together. For one to be so much in control of the nation’s vital resources and financial property is to allow them to lead the flock. Money is what impoverished peasants leap for, and as long as it’s in the hands of the country’s white minority, issues will arise between the state’s two major populations.

It’s not as simple as saying ending apartheid was a mistake. It makes more sense to say that the instant the different races came into contact, racial rationalists policies should’ve been implemented immediately. The African National Congress has no intention of changing the way South Africa is today, as they have shown from their reign of power over the past 24 years. Nothing has happened of any noteworthy measure aside from making life more miserable for the state’s two major populations. In the current situation of the state, even if a bad change is to be made, at least there’s the opportunity that any promised set of policies will work better for the country than the laws and social policies functioning in the present.

Why seize the farms when you can just establish separate racial territories? It would be better for South Africa to abandon the hopeless idea of a rainbow nation and instead make South Africa an all-black ethnostate, free from the burdens of diversity. In the the same way, the Netherlands and the UK should follow suit. This way, blacks will own one hundred percent of the farms and agricultural resources without interference from white, Indian, or Asian influence in the economy. Another way of going about this process of land reform is to transfer all private property into public property so that anyone can work on any select farm at any given time, allowing for profit to be produced on everyone’s ends with a maximum wage installed. If this is not the way things go down, if it truly ends in civil war, it’d be a happier fate than to continue living in a country which not only refuses to love you for who you are, what group you are, but despises your every waking second of life for nothing more than your genetic presence.

Most Westerners are, in fact, less sane than Julius Malema. Not only because they view the African National Congress as a hearthstone of progressivism, but because they perceive the way South Africa’s being managed now as somehow better than its management in the past. Julius Malema is a competing candidate against the ANC and the Democratic Alliance, with economic and social changes promised for the future of South Africa when he takes hold as a leader of its new government. The average American won’t see past the generic images the party has been painted to be, while in actuality, it’s received over three million votes in the 2016 election from people who wish to reform the current class structure within the state. It is a risk to run this chance, but at this point, anything alternative to rule under the ANC seems desirable to the Bantu majority.

Out of all the political parties running in the general South African elections, it appears Freedom Front Plus deserves to win on a platform of a positive push forward for Afrikaner nationalism, the establishment, and preservation of Volkstaats, outlawing affirmative action programs and campaigning for true equality. There’s also the Pan-Africanist Congress, which is a strict advocate of black nationalism for South Africa’s future, and an Afrocentric variant of socialism.

Julius Malema isn’t advocating for the rights of oppressed whites because he isn’t white. He’s black. No black man or black woman should ever be asked to fight for another race’s rights and survival, to ask so much is an insult not only to them but to their beloved race. It is an insult to ask any white man, any white woman, to think of supposedly burdened racial minorities, to suggest they put their own interests below that of those who look, sound, and think nothing like them. It is for every race of people to care for their own people and think only of helping their kind out, not to dedicate oneself to activism for another nation or another ethnic group outside of theirs. There will always be supremacists just as much as there will always be theft, disease, and famine. Yet, when a traitor is found within one’s group, caring for those they shouldn’t, that’s when nature has been corrupted through indoctrination and is most likely a result of a deep, darkened self-hatred for one’s own flesh and blood.

If supposed “white privilege” does exist in the West, then it is not only a good thing but something a society should consider taking pride in. These societies’ indigenous people are white, so the idea that white privilege may exist is only further justification as to why non-whites shouldn’t be there. If racial supremacy does exist, it should only be utilized as a means for pushing out those not of the liberated race.

I can’t say I agree with Julius Malema on everything, far from it. It appears that he is the only runner for the presidency who appears to have an actual chance of winning. The Democratic Alliance, I doubt, will change much, if anything at all. Though a despot, he’s much less psychopathic than the white Westerners who perceive diversity as “vibrant” and “enriching,” that view diversity as though that’s what makes America great, as opposed to the actual demographic who made it great when it still was, the nation’s white founders and immigrants from Europe. Most Americans view racial segregation as a bad thing. Racial nationalism, and separation are somehow linked to fascism, in the mind of most. In truth, authoritarianism is forcing different people to be together when they wish to walk down alternate roads. Are most Americans and Westerners in general not supporters of mass rape and genocide? The population of Sweden certainly is, to the point where they’re paying fortunes to import more and more rapists from the third world into what was otherwise once a nice, quiet, Nordic country. This process of enrichment also increases homicide, so it’s not just an acceptance of murder; it’s large payments for it, almost as though apologism for rape and slaughter are a part of the new Swedish tradition.

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If most Westerners are against white nationalism, then it’s only reasonable to state most Westerners support genocide, as they’re for worsening racial conditions for an indigenous group of people who have never colonized a country in their life. They’re in support of lowering standards of life and literally paying for rape as much as their wallets allow them. Just because nobody directly proclaims they’re pro-rape, doesn’t mean they aren’t. They’re still supporting -paying for and voting for- policies which amount to the same.

No matter where the Economic Freedom Fighters take South Africa, it must be better than its current condition. For better or for worse -and worse is definitely a possibility, I admit- at least they’ll take the country somewhere in the long run, opposed to nowhere in its present state.

from Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine https://ift.tt/2vSrQFh via IFTTT

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[theculturedmarxist]

[Angry Dalek Sounds]

I really enjoy documentaries. I figure they’re rather like the snackfood of intellectual stimulation--tasty, bite-sized, but not exactly the foundation of a healthy scholastic diet. They’re certainly no replacement for reading or dedicated study, but they can often serve as a good introduction to whatever you happen to be interested in. Youtube happens to be a treasure trove of documentaries, industry and university talks and lectures, and repository for all sorts of historical material. You can find some really fascinating things there if you look hard enough.

Usually I’ll pop something on while I’m playing one of my map painting or excel spreadsheet simulators, partially as white-noise, and also as sort of a passive-learning tool. Mainstream docs on this or that often hit on the same points or cover the same big events, so they don’t require constant attention. I go about my business subjugating Schleswig-Holstein or planet-cracking Ceti Alpha Five, keeping an ear out for an interesting tidbit to zero-in on before going back to whatever I’m doing. Lately, the subject of interest has been World War 1.

The Great War isn’t something that really receives a great deal of attention in American curricula. In part, I would guess that it has to do with the marginal (though apparently decisive) combat role America played in the war. For most of the struggle, it’s a European conflict, with most of the fighting around the periphery of Central Europe, with relatively small-scale conflicts elsewhere in the globe. America’s large Irish and German immigrant populations confused war-time sympathies, and American industry was more than happy to profit by its declared neutrality. The US had started to dabble in Imperialism at the time, but while the “Wild West” was increasingly settled, it still had plenty of internal space to subdue and commodify. I think the US was also becoming aware as well that the sort of self-contained national markets that Imperialism represented were increasingly obsolete in the face of so-called “Free Market” Capitalism. In short, it’s not nearly as romantic or glorious or straight forward as the second World War and its clear good-versus-evil mythology.

After absorbing several dozens of hours of WW1 documentaries, however, I can’t help but suspect that there’s a more sinister motivation to its de-emphasis.

The saga of the first world war is one of almost unmitigated horror. Countries that had known peace within their borders for generations were suddenly thrust into a modern, industrialized war, armed with the cutting edge in killing machinery, and directed with military tactics and traditions that would have been outdated even in Napoleon’s time. World War Two is exciting by comparison. There’s rapid and frequent movement, changes in borders and battle lines measured in the hundreds or thousands of kilometers, and actions and encounters rich with dramatic thrills. The previous war is marked by monotony of the most horrid kind. At its open, the Great War too experienced significant movement, but this quickly comes to an end when the new machinery of war is brought to bear. Machine guns and a seemingly endless supply of heavy artillery severely checks any sort of attempt at movement. Battalions very quickly start to see casualties of anywhere from 75-100%. Trench warfare wasn’t the plan, it was a hasty improvisation as millions of hapless fools were lead triumphantly to their deaths by old fossils ignorant of any and all of the facts of modern warfare.

In some cases it was literally a meat grinder. Waves of men would be sent “over the top” only to be mowed down by automatic weapons, and then churned over and over into rancid bits by high explosives. Artillery bombardments would continue for hours, sometimes days, with the only recourse being to dig as deep and secure a bunker as possible, and hope that some unlucky shell didn’t bury you alive within it. The unlucky soldiers would spend months under this constant strain, getting only a few days of leave a year, if they received any at all. There really is no overstating the pandemonium, the absolute hell of the fighting in the first world war.

The most monstrous fact about it was the complete, the absolute indifference to the suffering of the common soldier by the aristocratic bastards that engineered this abomination. At a loss for any alternative, suicidal charges were ordered again and again and again that won little to nothing, and at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. The British general Haig or Germany’s military dictator Ludendorff never visited the front lines they commanded. They “lead” from the rear, ordering hundreds of thousands to die in the mud while they were insulated far from danger. British, French, German, Turkish, even American--all sides dumped men by their hundreds of thousands into stupid, pointless fighting. Millions would die from the fighting, from the privations of war, from disease, and some even from the unending misery of the front lines themselves. 

Even when the horrific novelty of modern warfare became apparent, the wealthy and aristocratic classes stopped at nothing to induce their “countrymen” to violence. Propaganda was relentless and omnipresent. Photos were doctored or fabricated outright. Tales of brutality, whether true or not, were disseminated through every medium. Those that refused to fight were murdered by military cadres. In the US, those that spoke out against the war were imprisoned. Even the end of the war is testament to the effect of the social control at the time. Instead of directing their wrath at the “leaders” that did everything to make sure this war came about, the bereaved peoples of Europe blamed one another for “starting it.” Never mind that the war had been brewing for decades, never mind that millions of their sons and brothers and fathers were turned into pulp because of the whims of their own detached, insulated, privileged classes, never mind all those that profited from the war and the unprecedented human misery it created, petty nationalist vengeance was the result, precipitating an encore of even larger and more terrible a scope less than fifty years later.

The terrific truth of the first world war is that it is an unmitigated indictment of all the forces that created it. Nationalism, military alliances, racial hatred, aristocracy, social privilege, militarism, Imperialism, Capitalism, are all essential elements in the formula for this unprecedented crime against humanity. World War One illustrates the insanity of the detached, insulated bourgeois and aristocratic classes, and the total disregard for the humanity, much less the well being, of the working classes. In peace time, workers are valued at least as a source of labor power, disposable, but essential. In war time, workers are stripped even of that much. The automation and mechanization of warfare magnifies the value of the machine and diminishes the value of the man. In Napoleon’s day, personal valor, human ability and courage, and an individual’s skills still had value and an effect in influencing the outcome of battle. Shooting a rifle or gun required training and discipline and even a certain amount of education. Today, anyone that has picked up an Xbox controller can operate a drone. Cities can be wiped out by even the most ignorant with the press of a button. It doesn’t matter which side of the trench one falls under, in today’s warfare warm bodies only exist to absorb ordinance, and the ones profiting from it aren’t particular about the who or how or why.

We’re reaching a terrifying historical precipice. Technology has rendered most people superfluous, both in the “peace time” economy, and on the battlefield. The bourgeoisie, as remote and insulated as they are, are not completely ignorant either of history or of contemporary circumstances. They know we are heading towards a crisis on multiple fronts. Ecological and environmental disasters are already apparent. The diminishing rate of profit is already playing havoc with the global economy. Tensions are stoked and rise daily between the US, Russia, and China, the three great contenders for Superpower of the 21st Century. They are unwilling to take any of the steps necessary to solve these problems because their fortunes rely on the circumstances which create them. As tensions build internationally, they’re also building domestically, in practically every country on the planet. The rich grow richer with every passing day, and subsequently the poor grow increasingly impoverished. As the billions of the working class demand more, the vanishingly few of the wealthiest bourgeois become ever more tight-fisted. At a certain point, it will either have to be released, as it was with Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 30s and 40s, or they’ll have to swing, and wherever the blow falls, it’ll strike the working class the hardest.

I do not believe that warfare is some essential element to the abstract spook of “human nature.” Warfare has real, material bases for its existence and conduct. World War 1 was a result of the Imperialism of the age reaching its absolute bounds. The world was spoken for. Everything that could be claimed and colonized was claimed and colonized. The Great War was the ultimate result of over three-hundred-years of European economic, domestic, and military policy. Economics then were not as we imagine them today. The British, French, and Russian empires weren’t just extensions of the so-called Nation-State, they were largely self-contained economies in direct competition with one another. They functioned both as markets for the “mother nation,” but also as exclusion zones from which competing empires were barred. Imperialism wasn’t some haphazard or insane project of racists, but an economic necessity in an age when production and wealth were tied directly to the number of people able to produce, and the surface area available upon which to produce. When there was no longer any “unclaimed” territory up for grabs, the only apparent way for one nation to surpass another was to depossess them of their colonial assets. World War One was inevitable so long as the logic of Imperialism held sway.

Imperialism as it existed then went out of style in the 20th century, in favor of American-style “free market” economics. Like the slave masters of old, states began to realize that it was easier and more profitable to rent slaves than to own them. However, while Imperialism and Post-Imperialism both represent distinct phases, they are both essentially Capitalist in their function. The limit is no longer geographical, but dictated by “the market.” As long as it has room to expand, Capitalism is able to function with a semblance of stability and order. Once a market reaches saturation, when there is no where left to expand to, when the impoverished reach their maximum level of exploitation, when there is no longer any wealth free to capture, it inevitably experiences a crisis (or crises) of variable severity. The longer the peace, the more there is at stake, and the more there is at stake, the more terrible the conflagration when it finally comes.

Capitalism is facing a crisis whose severity dwarfs those experienced in the 20th century. If history repeats itself as is so frequently said, then the inevitable conflict towards which the global capitalist apparatus is rushing promises to be one of unprecedented scope and incalculable misery. Unless the working class is able to recognize the danger and organize itself domestically and internationally, it could very well make Passchendaele look like Piccadilly.

#World War 1 #Communism #Socialism #documentaries #history #bourgeois #working class #prognostication #/leftypol/ #economics #Capitalism

[benchgenderstudies]

The Empathy for Necrophiliacs Out of A Case Of Confederate Incest:

A Gender Professional's adventurous survey and discussion about Steven Pladl's Incestual Indoctrination of his daughter

 by Michael Bench

<Submitted to the Oregonian> 

It's the evening of April 12th ; less than a week after hearing about the stalled media reports of a father daughter couple arrest. Tonight their bodies are lifeless. Their childs' body is lifeless and Katie's stepfather is dead. Where we start with this story is Steven Pladl's selfish , reckless gratifications and the results of living for himself. About 20 years ago his now exwife Alyssa had a first child. They were young reckless teens having unprotected sex without the means to support pregnancy. Who was more reckless I don't know. Alyssa was pregnant at age 17 and gave up this child to adoption. That child was Katie. She's less than two hours dead right now.

 Approximately 18 years later, Katie sought out her biological parents and was invited by Steven Pladl, her father, to move in. This time unprotected sex also seems to have occurred  and in a situation no sex normally occurs. No innuendo can shield a father's lusts from taking their full social disgust to opportune sex with his daughter. She is/was cute, mind you. And, now there's a nearly warm Steven Pladl's body offering a welcome tight pucker for any Necrophiliacs that are into his type.

 Just tonight I was on social media reminding the blogosphere of my disappointment in conservatives who weren't advocating for this antiscience traditional confederate example of family values. Do Americans  living against science have an obligation to notice genetics? Is incest a rally of free speech against evolution? It was a love child (as Fox called it) made in conservative heaven and they wanted nothing to do with it.

  Only 2 days and 45 minutes ago I had sent emails to ACLU and the Judges of Henrico County, VA citing a very simple point that consenting adults are not owed to state law biasing toward or against religion. Only 2 days and 45 minutes ago , I was led to believe any female voluntarily marrying their father would have to be convinced love was real. Shee would have to be equally into him; consenting adults have a right to their decisions. Would Sarah Palin defend them? No; She wouldn't shoo the arm of state law out of a marriage of one man and one woman. She wouldn't rail against Trump's use of celebrity video prostitutes either. He owes the national government $12,400 in taxes if he filed a joint return. Terms of marriage are terms of taxation.

 This evening I see that love is a "not". Steven Pladl's love was as transient as his interest in a reputation. He is believed to have killed his wife-daughter, his grandson-son, his daughter's stepfather and himself; traveling from North Carolina to New York. If a guy is going to have a child with his daughter, lets be sure he understands it’s a symbol of commitment both tragic and karmic that he better damn well support her like any other wife. A consenting daughter, that is. These aren't ideals I craft, I'm more dusting off what advocacy Charlottesville supremacists would take no white pride for. When I decided to take the defense on behalf of religious freedom from Evolution, be sure you understand I'm okay with the southern confederates polluting their gene line into crosseyed idiots. I didn't put them up to it. I didn't tell Katie to go see her father of all people for a hot beef injection. These are the type's of details to send Katie's mom straight off for divorce.  In North Carolina , two generations of the (Pladl) females didn't demand condoms. The conditions of stupidity are undereducated sexual maturity skills. What do Necrophiliacs feel about this? I wondered.  How similar do they feel this is to Josef Fritzls abuse of his daughter. It really did now turn to abuse.

  There's still these bodies around and leads us to our survey: Texting local Necrophiliacs:

Is Steven Pladl a good piece of ass? If you were going to judge this situation, How would you react to the opportunity to get on this fresh piece of meat?

Reacting to what you know about Stephen Pladl : What pickup line best expresses your opinion of this situation?

 A: There is something broke in you. I think we can both agree we have irreconcilable differences and  I'll hate fuck you.

 B: Dahmmmn you freaky, I can top your bottom all rot long.

 C: Well, Usually I 'd let you mourn your wife and kids but I guess since YOU KILLED THEM I'll ask for your blessing for marriage over your shoulder. I've been on a dry spell since they installed cameras at the local cemetery. Something monogamous of yours just fell onto the road.

 D: No way. If I were ever going to pole you, It would be with a fishing gaff right out of your mom before you did anything else stupid.

 Now why would I ask this? Superficially Necrophiliacs are our litmus test of decency. Has Steven Pladl done something to his identity so awful not even a necrophiliac would get on his pudd?  Now, the deeper issue… approximately 7 inches deeper into his chilling colon. Inmate equality. Normally sexual activity is not allowed between inmates. We know these inmates are making each other their pleasure domes. Unfortunately , tonight I have sympathy for incarcerated necrophiliacs that have had no good luck getting at the shiv victims. Or worse, maybe inmate corpses are just too fresh. I don't know the fetish.

As a guy looking for the very top federal offices, I see this as a moment to look out for the little guy. To bring around just a little bit of happiness and affection out of this tragedy. Wouldn't you agree Steven Pladl treats women nothing more than an orifice of pleasure? It's Karmic. The exception case feeds the exception cases.

 And where affection is not: When I contacted Henrico court, Virginia, I was not asking to discuss anything with Steven Pladl. Katie was left in jail while Steven was out on bail. Hasn't this girl been abandoned once already? I called for her release well after her freedom was already secured. It was a fresh story retelling dated material; her jailers ignored she had a child to take care of and a husband no matter how society felt about it. The state was neglecting the child and discriminating against her.  She wasn't looking to reconnect for a new boyfriend and simultaneously she had very little biological inhibition to regard Pladl as her father. Just products of the good ol boy environment not caring a damn.  Recklessness created this entire scene. I type of recklessness that no necrophiliac can share blame for. The crimes of the living southerners against each other made footprints past a step too far. The charges as well: We have murderers in the court system pleading down to jaywalking. IS that who should be free, really? Warrants by Henrico seemed fully ignorant of the outcomes of incarcerating only Steven Pladl while Katie would be locally weighed down with childcare. Her flight risk was low.

 Four things I'd like to see come of this:

I 'd like the wedding party of surviving adoption family members to be detailed about the entire situation of Katie's seeking out her parents to her deathbed. Televised interviews.

 Second, If daughter and father somehow find cause to consensually start a relationship.. despite the fact I call this Incuban Fetish related… and genetically incompetent… that a functional relationship has emotional fairness no matter who the partners are.

 A scorn of conservatives for only playing the easy field for anti science and not protecting one man-one woman marriage. Distinct failures include Trump, Pladls and the ambivalence to cashing in on 'gay mental illness' by regulating the fashion model anorexia industry. Even when republicans have creationist means on their side they're too lazy to regulate for good purposes.

 Finally, the medias attention to this story was delayed to an umpteenth degree so seriously compromising that it may have led to this extreme series of reactionary steps to undo what Steven came to believe was a mistake. Sex is not a mistake. Born children are not mistakes. Asking your daughter to marry you is not a questionably hazy intent.

 Tonight Steven Pladl killed people to save his reputation. Tonight lives ended. To Pladl, they were only objects in his kingdom of wants. Had Steven truly 'brainwashed his daughter' into physical relations,  this case would truly adhere to my definition of Incuban Fetish.  In the very same as-yet-unpublished article , I divulged a similar ego/narcissism disorder known as "Pharaoh Hex".(2014) When you see homicide suicides by males concerning their families, it tends to be an episode of lack of control.

A lawyer firm partner gets pushed out, he feels out of control of his reputation. The double murder suicide of Wrestler Chris Benoit was captioned by his suicide not indicating preparedness to leave this Earth. With him he took 'his familial possessions".

Benoit was regarded as having serious brain damage from his wrestling career. We can suspect Steven Pladl might also have some problems. After all, make no hesitations to wonder if he thought this was normal and how. Was he molested? Does he have some form of undisclosed derangement that only white people get? Fox news went so far as to call the birth a "love child", such a mitigating sympathy press that Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics would not.

 It's now exactly 3 days after we first read about Steven Pladl and Katie Pladl. They're dead sooner than initial press reaction has had its time. I found purpose to write this article in caution to other parents who have an abnormal affinity for your daughters or sons. I will hope that you have more sense than tarnish the family unit relationship. If for some reason your adult children go along with it; like a funny roleplay of incest; I hope you see it's not innocent. Can it be all that bad to reenact from the porn movies online? the people in your family are more than role play characters. Using them for your wants is not what families do. A family of enemies nurtured to hatefuck each other will most likely abuse each other in other ways. That closes to wonder if Katie Pladl is a dead now or dead later case. Will Steven plays the father card too often in disagreements? As disagreements do happen; a control issue that started as recklessly as forgetting to pull out has now killed her. What else might've happened that would've killed her? He was capable of murder for his own means. He'd go so far as to kill two of his children and an adult and that’s what we know.

 So keep the body fresh and lets have an inmate lottery

[healthandfitnessrecipes-blog]

Elective Surgeries on Fridays Are Safe: Study - Drugs.com MedNews

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=216

TUESDAY, Oct. 18, 2016 -- People having elective surgery on Fridays are no more likely to die than people who undergo procedures any other weekday, a large Canadian study suggests.

Prior studies have shown a higher risk of death among patients opting for surgery on Fridays, the authors behind the new study said. One British study found a 44 percent increase in death risk among patients who had surgery on a Friday as compared to a Monday.

Canadian investigators wanted to determine whether this "weekday effect" was real. Are surgeons who operate on Fridays less experienced? Does that inexperience translate into worse outcomes?

The researchers examined close to 403,000 elective, daytime surgical procedures performed by nearly 1,700 different surgeons at Ontario hospitals over a 10-year period -- from 2002 to 2012.

"Yes, surgeons who operate on Friday are less experienced than those that operate on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday," said Dr. Luc Dubois, the study's lead author. "But they're also less experienced on Monday as well," he said.

Dubois is an assistant professor at Western University in London, Ontario.

"It really looks like the senior surgeons are kind of cherry-picking the middle days of the week," he observed.

Dubois suspects that surgeons know if they operate on a Friday, they may be providing post-operative care over the weekend.

However, patients' risk of death within 30 days of surgery was similar, no matter what weekday the procedure took place, the new study found.

"It means that people are getting consistent care across the week," Dubois said.

As for Friday surgery in the United States? Dubois said it's hard to extrapolate the study findings because the American and Canadian health systems are different.

But Dr. Keith Naunheim, a St. Louis-based surgeon who serves on the board of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, cites reasons for optimism.

The U.S. patient safety movement over the past decade has led to numerous improvements, he said. These include improved staffing levels on weekends and pre-surgical "time outs" to assure that the right patient is having the right surgery on the right part of the body, he added.

What's more, Naunheim said, the Canadian and U.S. systems really aren't that different.

"I think we might see the same thing here in the U.S.," said Naunheim, who's also chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Saint Louis University Medical Center.

The study findings were published Oct. 17 in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

The "weekday effect" is well known but less studied in the United States.

Preliminary research reported at a 2013 meeting of the American College of Surgeons looked at a separate but related phenomenon -- dubbed the "weekend effect." It found patients having appendix removal on a Saturday or Sunday were no more likely to experience complications after surgery than those who had the operations on a weekday. However, weekend patients faced hospital charges that were more than $400 higher, the study found.

The Canadian researchers accessed data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, a nonprofit medical data repository. It contains information on hospital care and physician services provided to every patient in Ontario, Dubois said.

The project was supported by a grant from the Academic Medical Organization of Southwestern Ontario.

The study examined 12 surgeries, all commonly performed on an elective basis and typically requiring at least a two-day hospital stay. These included procedures on the esophagus, kidney, pancreas, colon and liver, as well as hip, knee and aortic valve replacements.

Surgeon experience was highest on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with an average of 19 years in practice, the study found. It was lowest on Mondays and Fridays, averaging 16 years.

Median annual procedure volume also varied by day of week. It was highest for surgeons who operated on Tuesdays and lowest on Fridays, the findings showed.

The risk of patients being admitted to the intensive care unit was slightly higher on a Friday than a Monday, the study found.

But risk of death within 30 days of surgery was no greater for surgery on a Friday than other weekdays.

At least in Ontario, "I think the takeaway for patients is that if you show up on a Friday, you're going to be OK," Dubois said.

And thanks to stricter pre-operative processes and nurse-to-patient ratios, Naunheim believes Friday surgeries in the United States are as safe as any other day of the week.

"I think you should be confident you're getting the best care possible," he said.

More information

Preparing for surgery? Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

© 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted: October 2016

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