#bill schwarz

[duranduratulsa]

Now showing on DuranDuranTulsa's Horror Show...Slaughterhouse (1987) on glorious vintage VHS 📼! #movie #movies #horror #slaughterhouse #joebbarton #ripjoebbarton #sherryleigh #WilliamHouck #janehigginson #davefogel #billbrinsfield #jeffgrossi #jasoncollier #courtneylercara #LeeRobinson #jeanettesaylor #erichschwarz #donnastevens #vintage #vhs #80s #durandurantulsa #durandurantulsashorrorshow

#movies #movie #horror #slaughterhouse #joe b barton #rip joe b barton #sherry leigh #don barrett #bill brinsfield #jason collier #dave fogel #jeff grossi #jane higginson #joel hoffman #William Houck #Courtney Lercara #lee robonson #Jeanette Saylor #erich schwarz #Donna Stevens #jeff wright #vintage #VHS #80s #duran duran tulsa's horror show #duran duran tulsa

[2d-dreams]

some art abt shapes!!

[ID: Four digital drawings, with dark, grey-purple backgrounds, each showing different Flatland style characters, drawn as differen geometrical shapes with a single large eye. The first shows Pollux, a hexagon, floating, looking sad or tired with his eye partly lowered. He is wearing a small bowtie, and his left side, which we see on his right, is covered in lines of scars. The second shows Bill Cipher from the show Gravity Falls. Bill is first drawn in the same monochrome as the background, as a triangle with a hat, then as a colored yellow triangle, now with a bowtie and tall tophat. In both upraised hands, he holds blue fire, which is reflected on his sides and in his eye. The third shows Pollux's mother, Madelyn, in two different styles. In the first, she is drawn as a snake-like form, with no arms or legs, and only wearing a large church hat with a bow on it. In the second, she has arms visible, and is wearing a dress and looking upward. The last image shows two characters: Germs, a thin isosceles triangle, and Mr Square, who he is holding hands with while he waves. Mr Square has a round-top cane in one hand, and a tie. He is looking up at Germs with a caring, slightly worried expression. End ID.]

turns out the secret recipe to drawing women with limbs is giving them clothes. THANK YOU AL-FAM!!!!

#first to last: pollux - bill - mrs schwarz - germs & mr square #flatland #the arts of being #bill cipher #pollux codex #behold a limbed woman #described images #YAYY

[wheres-my-prize]

Here's the Harvey fic I promised :) I'll put a cut because she's a little lengthy

~**~

Emilia had died late last night. 5 hours ago, 4 in the morning, William and Charles came by to help bury her. Harvey hadn’t moved since then, hadn’t spoken a word all day. He sat and stared at the grave and tried to wrap his head around the situation. It was his youngest sister’s fault for saying he spent too much time with his wife, it was his boss’ fault for firing him, it was totally and entirely his fault for not saving her sooner — in fact, she wasn’t even dead. She couldn’t be. She’d come out of the house any second and scold him for sitting outside without a jacket in the middle of winter, and he’d gladly come back in with her. 

Three more hours pass and she still hasn’t come. They feel like nothing at all. William comes back over to tell him to go inside, for God’s sake. Harvey hardly realizes he’s there. 

The next time he’s aware of his surroundings he’s inside again, lying on their bed fully dressed. He doesn’t remember getting up, he doesn’t even register it in his mind. The only thing he can think about is how empty the house is. Emilia should be here, lying next to him, chastising him for tracking dirt on the floor, singing in the kitchen. He’s never been able to sleep on his back but he can’t stand to face the empty blankets to his right.

He’s awake again, the phone is ringing. It’s definitely still dark out, though he can’t tell how much time has passed. Instinctively he gets up to pick up the phone, but he finds himself completely unable to form a sentence. The phone stops ringing. He presses his palms against his eyes to try and stop the migraine he can feel coming on, but the attempt is fruitless. He slips his jacket over his shoulders and leaves the house to buy smokes for the first time in 10 years.

Harvey is standing in an alley and smoking. He can’t even recall the last time he did this. Surprisingly, leaving the house cleared his head a significant amount. He’s aware of his surroundings at least for the most part now. There’s two men standing on the porch of a business around the corner from him, talking loud enough for him to hear loud and clear.

“You know, this whole… ‘Depression’ nonsense is really getting to me, Dick. I mean, honestly…! The way I see it – if the ‘poor’ didn’t have the financial stability to survive, they weren’t working hard enough to deserve to be alive. Who are we to dispute God’s choice to save this country from the weak and lazy?”

Harvey stopped listening. His blood boiled, his vision went red. He could hear nothing more than his own heart pounding in his chest. Suddenly, everything was hazy again. He only got small snippets of consciousness, it felt like he wasn’t able to control his own actions, just watched as he moved independently of himself. He found himself walking back to his house, then standing in the same alley tightly gripping a knife he vaguely recognized. The man who’d been talking passed by him without paying him any mind, he was without the other person now. Harvey followed him, stalked him to a large house in a secluded area. The next thing he knew, he was standing by a river bank, covered in blood, pushing a very heavy bag into the water. He didn’t know where the knife was.

It was morning, Harvey was sitting on the bed again. He’s wearing clean clothes again, the knife is still nowhere in sight. It was nearly like nothing had happened, if not for the overpowering stench of blood. He stood to investigate the smell, it seemed as though every bone in his body was aching. 

Three weeks had passed since the murder– he’d decided he’d definitely murdered the man, though he couldn’t recall it clearly – and Harvey could not find a single reason to feel guilt about it. He was shocked, really, breaking the law with a clean conscience was very unlike him. His head was unusually clear, and after much sitting at Emilia’s grave and speaking to her aloud, he’d determined that it was in self defense and it was completely necessary that he defend his wife’s honor and memory against the man. The only regret he held was that he didn’t cause more suffering for the class that killed his wife. He hadn’t truly committed any crime in his own eyes.

Harvey was walking by the river, it was swarming with police officers. A bag had been dragged onto the bank. One of the men was holding the knife he’d lost. That night, he’d said goodbye to Emilia and left town without saying a word to anybody.

~**~

Harvey didn’t know where he was. He’d taken a train an hour out and was staying in a hotel. He’d hardly had the money to eat – not that he really had before, but it had gotten easier since only needing to find food for one person – and found that the only thing ever on his mind was how much he regretted leaving Emilia and how badly he needed to get revenge on everyone who had forced him to. He’d taken the blame all the way up to the imagined source, and decided somebody needed to bring down the authority of President Hoover, one way or another. Hoover was the one who prolonged the economic crisis, Hoover was the one who took his job from him, Hoover was the one who wouldn’t provide support when Harvey’s wife was in the hospital, Hoover was the one who needed to pay for his crimes. Not Harvey. 

The money problem was getting worse. He couldn’t eat anymore. He was at a pawn shop selling his wedding ring. He wasn’t totally sure why he couldn’t just let himself starve, it wasn’t like he had a home to go back to, or a wife, or a family, as soon as they found out what he’d gone and done. He knew, deep down, it was for the same reason why he hadn’t turned himself in to the police in the first place: he wasn’t done avenging Emilia. He needed to do more. He needed to ensure that the same fate wasn’t brought upon another man’s wife. He couldn’t die until he’d fixed the problem.

The owner of the shop had his back turned to Harvey, giving him some speech he hadn’t listened to a word of. Harvey’s eyes absentmindedly scanned the shop. His gaze fell onto a gun lying right out on the counter in front of him. It was a revolver, relatively small, .22 caliber, only around 10 years out of date. A million thoughts flashed through his head at once. Picking up the gun and checking quickly that the owner wasn’t looking at him, Harvey tucked it under his shirt and put his jacket on to conceal the silhouette. He picked his ring back up off the counter.

“On second thought… I don’t think I’m ready to sell this,” He interrupted

The owner’s eyebrows raised, he stopped talking and turned back to face Harvey again.

“Oh. Are you sure? Of course, we could–”

Harvey quickly nodded and made for the door, feigning intense emotion. Not that he didn’t genuinely feel upset to have nearly sold it, he simply had a mission to complete and no time to spare on extensive explanations or emotional outbursts.

~**~

After a few days’ travel across a few trains, gun and stolen bullets hidden deep within his suitcase, Harvey had arrived in Washington, D.C. His mind was clearer than it had been in weeks, his goal defined and within reach. Hoover was holding a rally, a place for rich supporters to celebrate his utter failure of a term. Harvey was completely disgusted by the concept, but excited by the chance to get an easy shot at him.

The convention was truly a marvel, like a trainwreck that was gruesome and impossible to look away from. The nicest suits Harvey had ever seen on people so visibly hedonistic and immoral. Everyone there looked at him with scrutiny, as though he were some sort of vermin with his tattered jacket and uncombed hair. He brushed them all off, it didn’t matter how they looked upon him now, when they’d all be distraught and horrified when they watched him leave. He wasn’t here to prove anything, he was here to make these men pay for what they’d done to his Emilia. That was all that mattered now.

The plan was simple. The gun was hidden within a pocket sewed to the inside of his jacket. Hoover would walk up in front of the crowd and begin his speech. Harvey would weasel his way to the front – he was thin from not eating and quite tall, it would not be difficult – he would feign interest, emotion. He would reach into his jacket under the guise of going for a handkerchief, pull out his revolver. Shoot Hoover four times at point-blank range. Hoover would die, Harvey would be taken by police, tried for assassination, and would take the death penalty glady knowing that he’d avenged Emilia and was going to return to her. It was perfect, foolproof.

But, then… Hoover came in front of the crowd. Harvey looked the man who killed his wife in the eyes for the first time in his life. He couldn’t wait. He couldn’t risk it. He needed Hoover to die immediately, he couldn’t risk it. He was consumed by a blind rage, an unstoppable hunger for Hoover’s death, and he couldn’t wait. He couldn’t risk missing his chance to make them all pay.

Harvey pulled the gun from his pocket and shot four rounds at him. The speech ended abruptly. Screams rang out, cries of shock and pain. He was tackled by a security guard. His glasses broke when he hit the ground, glass flattened against his face and stuck deep into the skin and muscle under his eye. More guards piled on top of him. Everyone was yelling. His nose was pressed to the ground, his shoulder on top of it. He couldn’t breathe. He felt the gun pulled from under his body, felt himself being pulled to his feet. A man with very large hands grabbed him by the throat. Handcuffs were fastened around his wrists so tightly he could have sworn he was bleeding. He tried to turn his head to see if he’d hit Hoover, his head was forcefully snapped back into place. He was dragged from the scene into a police car. Everything was so damn loud.

~**~

Harvey was sitting in a prison. He’d been stripped of everything except for an undershirt and pants, he was freezing cold. The glass embedded in his face had caused his right eye to swell shut. It felt like he could feel every bruise on his body, and they were everywhere. There was an officer going through his suitcase across the room, and at least thirteen others, armed, with guns pointing at him. He didn’t know where he was, and he didn’t know if he’d succeeded.

He’d been interrogated what felt like a hundred times. He admitted to everything – the murder, the theft, evading arrest, assassination – nobody would tell him if Hoover was dead or not. It felt like they wanted more information, like he wasn’t telling them something he didn’t know he wasn’t telling them. One of the interrogation officers asked if he’d murdered his Emilia. He didn’t answer questions from that man anymore.

Harvey was sitting in a courtroom, he’d finally been given his clothes back. He was looking through his good eye across the room at his family. Why they’d chosen to come he didn’t know. Most of his siblings were looking anywhere they could that wasn’t at Harvey, like they couldn’t handle that their oldest brother had turned from such a sweet and caring man into a monster. They didn’t understand. His youngest brother, Calvin, looked up and met his gaze. Why his mother had ever decided that it was appropriate for a sixteen-year-old boy to watch his own brother be sentenced to death he didn’t know. Harvey offered a slight smile in his direction, he honestly felt bad that he had to be here. Calvin looked back down at his shoes without returning it. Probably for the best.

~**~

Harvey was found guilty of attempted assination, murder in the 1st degree, resisting arrest, and two counts of theft. He was sentenced to execution by electric chair. His mother weeped, the only upset person in the room aside from Harvey. He had failed completely and was going to die for it. Maybe it was for the best. He wouldn’t have been able to avenge Emilia in prison for the rest of his life. He’d done his best, and it wasn’t good enough. He didn’t deserve a second chance. Should’ve waited.

He was allowed a guarded meeting with his family before he was put back in his cell to wait for his execution. He didn’t want to meet with his family. He’d not been given a choice.

Mrs. Schwarz had yet to stop crying since he was sentenced. He couldn’t meet her gaze, nor could he respond to her angry questioning. William was the closest in age to Harvey, and he simply looked disappointed. Louise sat with her head in her hands. Minnie cussed him out upon entering the room and hadn’t said a single word since. Calvin was just staring at him. Calvin shouldn’t have been there. He was far too young to understand what was happening. He’d never completely recover from this. Charles said everyone thought he’d killed himself, asked him why he would ever do what he did. He didn’t respond.

~**~

Three weeks had passed since he’d spoken with his family. It was the date of his execution. He had to finally face the repercussions of his actions.

For his last day alive, Harvey was surprisingly unaffected.

The guards asked for his final meal. He told them he didn’t want any food, just a minute completely alone to speak with his Emilia. His request was denied.

He was strapped into the chair. His heartbeat quickened. He swore at himself internally, now really was not the time to get anxious.

There were people in the room. Hoover supporters, excited to see him get his comeuppance for challenging their precious worldview. His brother William was there, the rest of his family returned to their homes because they couldn’t afford to lose their jobs. There was a photographer who seemed young and inexperienced, his camera in hand, resting at his side instead of taking pictures. Not a single person he was happy to see in his final moments.

The man standing in front of the crowd was giving a speech he couldn’t bring himself to listen to about how wonderful of a man Herbet Hoover was. He was disgusted that such words would be spoken in his presence right before his death. He was too exhausted to say anything about it.

The speech finished. The speaker turned to give the executioner a look of approval. He moved out of the way so everyone could watch. This was it.

Harvey’s last thought was not about his own death, nor about the people in the room, nor about Hoover. Harvey Schwarz’s last thought was about his wife, Emilia, just as it was meant to be. He was going to return to her at last, and he'd never been happier.

~**~

#My blood sugar is QUITE high so I reckon I'm gonna go lie down but I hope u enjoy!! #I don't actually recall if this is good or not but I started crying at 3 am last night trying to finish it so it was sad then at least #don't listen to duffy I'm not paying anybody's therapy bills over this . my own therapist charges up the ass i don't have the finances (/J) #I prommy harvey isn't always this obsessive and weird he's just goin through it #okay that should be all #Harvey Schwarz #my writing

[reportwire]

St. Louis Bill Would Create Abortion, COVID-19 Services Grant Fund | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

St. Louis Bill Would Create Abortion, COVID-19 Services Grant Fund | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

click to enlarge Theo Welling A new bill introduced to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen would allocate over three million dollars toward reproductive health care access and COVID-19 treatment. A new bill introduced to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen would allocate over three million dollars toward reproductive health care access and COVID-19 treatment. Board Bill 61 would allocate $1.5 million…

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#abortion #abortion fund #Annie Rice #Arts #Board Bill 61 #Concerts #Culture #Elections #Events #Mallory Schwarz #Missouri #Missouri News #NEWS #Pro-Choice Missouri #Restaurants #RFT #Riverfront Times #Roe v. Wade #St. Louis #St. Louis News #St. Louis Riverfront Times #Things to Do in St. Louis

[garadinervi]

20x20 Italia-Canada II, Galleria Blu / Studio Luca Palazzoli / Dov'è la Tigre, Milano, 1979 [Studio Bibliografico Marini, Bari-Roma]

Feat.: Eva Brandl, Jean-Serge Champagne, David Graven, Judith Schwarz, John Heward, Suzy Lake, Alex Neumann, Michael Joliffe, Renee van Halm, Bill Vazan, Barbara Astman, Tim Clark Lynn Hughes, David Moore, et al. Exhibition: April 23 – May 19, 1979

#graphic design #art #catalogue #catalog #cover #galleria blu #studio luca palazzoli #dov'è la tigre #1970s

[eelhound]

"Elites of both parties have a deeply vested interest in preventing mobility for working people. Homeownership and childbirth are prioritized because both serve big business. None of it is about supporting a cultural desire for family. It’s about keeping people in debt and maintaining an economic status quo. Once you’ve bought a house, once you have kids, once you have student debt, your options to leave your job, start a business, move, or become free are limited. That’s why the government will tell you — or even force you — to have a child but won’t help with childcare.

They don’t want you to be able to work from home. They don’t want you to be free from the yoke of employer-based healthcare (which is hardly a handout as policies are becoming increasingly unaffordable). No. They want you in the office, with less free time than anyone in the free world. Because when people have time to think, to innovate, to start a business of their own without fear that they’ll get sick and go bankrupt from medical bills, they are no longer under corporate control. Without the threat of student debt and medical debt, how could they get you to join the military and fight in their wars? As Sparky Abraham of the Debt Collective puts it: 'Debt is a form of social control.'

Sound conspiratorial? Look at the evidence. Liberal lion Malcolm Gladwell, who has waxed poetic about how he loves to write his bestselling books from cafes, lectured normal folks to get back to work. 'What have you reduced your life to?' he asked the commuting masses. Democrats bragged about halving child poverty with the child tax credits, but despite being overwhelmingly popular, these policies quickly went back on the chopping block. We can’t let parents have enough money so that one can stay at home, or work one fewer job. The market demands a desperate labor force, not a happy one.

Recently, Ken Klippenstein and Jon Schwarz at the Intercept broke news that on an earnings call, the president of Douglas Emmett Inc., a real estate corporation worth over $3 billion and based in Santa Monica, California, said a recession could be 'good' 'if it comes with a level of unemployment that puts employers back in the driver seat and allows them to get all their employees back into the office.'

A recession could be good? Employers back in the driver’s seat? That’s code for 'able to exploit their employees without their employees having any recourse.'

That’s the whole game. The reason so many elites hated the stimulus checks is not because they drove inflation. You see, they don’t tie the PPP checks for billionaires to inflation in the same way. Or Trump’s tax cuts for the rich, which added more to the deficit for absolutely no reason than anything that’s happened before or sense. And they aren’t talking about the supply chain crisis or the war in Ukraine, two key causes of inflation. 

No, they talk about spending because they don’t want working people to have options.

When working people have options, they can demand higher salaries. When workers have options, they can bargain for a bigger piece of a pie. This is why union organizing is so important. It gives workers, who individually have very little power, the power of collective bargaining, the power to withhold their labor together and force employers to share profits more equitably. In the golden age of labor, the 1950s and ‘60s, CEOs earned about 30 times more than their employees. Wanna guess what that ratio is now? It’s over 300 to 1. And this is while workers are working more hours with less to show for it.

COVID relief unexpectedly empowered labor, and now elites are trying to put a lid on it in whatever way they can: restarting student loan payments, canceling support for families with children, and intentionally driving up unemployment. 

We need to recognize this and use [the recent] student debt victory to continue to pull together as a community of working people and keep demanding more. In the richest country in the history of the world, education should be free. Yes, even for rich kids. Just like public high school is free for the rich should they choose to attend. Just like libraries. And the services of firefighters. 

It’s our country, and we get to make it work for us."

- Briahna Joy Gray, from "Debt is a Form of Social Control." Current Affairs, 15 September 2022.

#eat the rich #briahna joy gray #quote #quotations #economics #democratic socialism #working class #labor #labor unions #upward mobility #millennials #gen z #student debt #abortion #bodily autonomy #reproductive rights #debt #social control #student loans #capitalism #american culture #american politics

[kp777]

By C.J. Polychroniou, Noam Chomsky

Common Dreams Opinion

May 27, 2023

We live in a world facing existential threats while extreme inequality is tearing our societies apart and democracy is in sharp decline. The U.S., meanwhile, is bent on maintaining global hegemony when international collaboration is urgently needed to address the planet’s numerous challenges.

In the interview that follows, Noam Chomsky, our greatest public intellectual alive, examines and analyses the state of the world with his usual brilliant insights, while explaining in the process why we are at the most dangerous point in human history and why nationalism, racism, and extremism are rearing their ugly heads all over the world today.

C. J. Polychroniou: Noam, you have said on numerous occasions that the world is at the most dangerous point in human history. Why do you think so? Are nuclear weapons more dangerous today than they were in the past? Is the surge in right-wing authoritarianism in recent years more dangerous than the rise and subsequent spread of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s? Or is it because of the climate crisis, which you have indeed said represents the biggest threat the world has ever faced. Can you explain in comparative terms why you think that the world is today significantly more dangerous than it used to be?

Noam Chomsky: The climate crisis is unique in human history and is getting more severe year by year. If major steps are not taken within the next few decades, the world is likely to reach a point of no return, facing decline to indescribable catastrophe. Nothing is certain, but this seems a far too plausible assessment.

Weapons systems steadily become more dangerous and more ominous. We have been surviving under a sword of Damocles since the bombing of Hiroshima. A few years later, 70 years ago, the U.S., then Russia, tested thermonuclear weapons, revealing that human intelligence had “advanced” to the capacity to destroy everything.

Operative questions have to do with the sociopolitical and cultural conditions that constrain their use. These came ominously close to breaking down in the 1962 missile crisis, described by Arthur Schlesinger as the most dangerous moment in world history, with reason, though we may soon reach that unspeakable moment again in Europe and Asia. The MAD system (mutually assured destruction) enabled a form of security, lunatic but perhaps the best short of the kind of social and cultural transformation that is still unfortunately only an aspiration.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the MAD system of security was undermined by President Bill Clinton’s aggressive triumphalism and the Bush II-Trump project of dismantling the laboriously constructed arms control regime

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the MAD system of security was undermined by President Bill Clinton’s aggressive triumphalism and the Bush II-Trump project of dismantling the laboriously constructed arms control regime. There’s an important recent study of these topics by Benjamin Schwarz and Christopher Layne, as part of the background to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They review how Clinton initiated a new era of international affairs in which the “United States became a revolutionary force in world politics” by abandoning the “old diplomacy” and instituting its preferred revolutionary concept of global order.

The “old diplomacy” sought to maintain global order by “an understanding of an adversary’s interests and motives and an ability to make judicious compromises.” The new triumphant unilateralism sets as “a legitimate goal [for the U.S.] the alteration or eradication of those arrangements [internal to other countries] if they were not in accord with its professed ideals and values.”

The word “professed” is crucial. It is commonly expunged from consciousness here, not elsewhere.

In the background lies the Clinton doctrine that the U.S. must be prepared to resort to force, multilaterally if we can, unilaterally if we must, to ensure vital interests and “uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources.”

The accompanying military doctrine has led to creation of a far more advanced nuclear weapons system that can only be understood as “a preemptive counterforce capability against Russia and China” (Rand Corporation)—a first-strike capacity, enhanced by Bush’s dismantling of the treaty that barred emplacement of anti-ballistic missile systems near an adversary’s borders. These systems are portrayed as defensive, but they are understood on all sides to be first-strike weapons.

These steps have significantly weakened the old system of mutual deterrence, leaving in its place greatly enhanced dangers.

How new these developments were, one might debate, but Schwarz and Layne make a strong case that this triumphant unilateralism and open contempt for the defeated enemy has been a significant factor in bringing major war to Europe with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the potential to escalate to terminal war.

No less ominous are developments in Asia. With strong bipartisan and media support, Washington is confronting China on both military and economic fronts. With Europe safely in its pocket thanks to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. has been able to expand NATO to the Indo-Pacific region, thus enlisting Europe in its campaign to prevent China from developing—a program considered not just legitimate but highly praiseworthy. One of the administration doves, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, expressed the consensus lucidly: “If we really want to slow down China’s rate of innovation, we need to work with Europe.” It’s particularly important to keep China from developing sustainable energy, where it is far in the lead and should reach energy self-sufficiency by 2060 according to Goldman Sachs analysts. China is even threatening to make new breakthroughs in batteries that might help save the world from climate catastrophe.

Plainly a threat that must be contained, along with China’s insistence on the One-China policy for Taiwan that the U.S. also adopted 50 years ago and that has kept the peace for 50 years, but that Washington is now rescinding.There’s much more to add that reinforces this picture, matters we have discussed elsewhere.

It’s hard to say the words in this increasingly odd culture, but it’s close to truism that unless the U.S. and China find ways to accommodate, as great powers with conflicting interests often did in the past, we are all lost.

Historical analogies have their limits of course, but there are two pertinent ones that have repeatedly been adduced in this connection: The Concert of Europe established in 1815 and the Versailles treaty of 1919. The former is a prime example of the “Old Diplomacy.” The defeated aggressor (France) was incorporated into the new system of international order as an equal partner. That led to a century of relative peace. The Versailles treaty is a paradigm example of the “revolutionary” concept of global order instituted by the triumphalism of the ‘90s and its aftermath. Defeated Germany was not incorporated into the postwar international order but was severely punished and humiliated. We know where that led.

Currently, two concepts of world order are counterposed: the U.N. system and the “rules-based” system, correlating closely with multipolarity and unipolarity, the latter meaning U.S. dominance.

The U.S. and its allies (or “vassals” or “subimperial states” as they are sometimes called) reject the U.N. system and demand adherence to the rules-based system.The rest of the world generally supports the U.N. system and multipolarity.

The U.N. system is based on the U.N. Charter, the foundation of modern international law and the “supreme law of the land” in the U.S. under the U.S. Constitution, which elected officials are bound to obey. It has a serious defect: It rules out U.S. foreign policy. Its core principle bans “the threat or use of force” in international affairs, except in narrow circumstances unrelated to U.S. actions. It would be hard to find a U.S. postwar president who has not violated the U.S. Constitution, a topic of little interest, the record shows.

What is the preferred rules-based system? The answer depends on who sets the rules and determines when they should be obeyed. The answer is not obscure: the hegemonic power, which took the mantle of global dominance from Britain after World War II, greatly extending its scope.

One core foundation stone of the U.S.-dominated rules-based system is the World Trade Organization (WTO). We can ask, then, how the U.S. honors it.

As global hegemon, the U.S. is alone in capacity to impose sanctions. These are third-party sanctions that others must obey, or else. And they do obey, even when they strongly oppose the sanctions. One example is the U.S. sanctions designed to strangle Cuba. These are opposed by the whole world as we see from regular U.N. votes. But they are obeyed.

When Clinton instituted sanctions that were even more savage than before, the European Union called on the WTO to determine their legality. The U.S. angrily withdrew from the proceedings, rendering them null and void. There was a reason, explained by Clinton’s Commerce Secretary Stuart Eizenstat: “Mr. Eizenstat argued that Europe is challenging ‘three decades of American Cuba policy that goes back to the Kennedy Administration,’ and is aimed entirely at forcing a change of government in Havana.”

In short, Europe and the WTO have no competence to influence the long-standing U.S. campaign of terror and economic strangulation aimed at forcefully overthrowing the government of Cuba, so they should get lost. The sanctions prevail, and Europe must obey them—and does. A clear illustration of the nature of the rules-based order.

There are many others. Thus, the World Court ruled that U.S. freezing of Iranian assets is illegal. It scarcely caused a ripple.

That is understandable. Under the rules-based system, the global enforcer has no more reason to accede to International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgments than to decisions of the WTO. That much was established years ago. In 1986, the U.S. withdrew from ICJ jurisdiction when it condemned the U.S. for its terrorist war against Nicaragua and ordered it to pay reparations. The U.S. responded by escalating the war.

To mention another illustration of the rules-based system, the U.S. alone withdrew from the proceedings of the Tribunal considering Yugoslavia’s charges against NATO. It argued correctly that Yugoslavia had mentioned genocide, and the U.S. is self-exempted from the international treaty banning genocide.

It’s easy to continue. It’s also easy to understand why the U.S. rejects the U.N.-based system, which bans its foreign policy, and prefers a system in which it sets the rules and is free to rescind them when it wishes. There’s no need to discuss why the U.S. prefers a unipolar rather than multipolar order.

All of these considerations arise critically in consideration of global conflicts and threats to survival.

CJP: All societies have seen dramatic economic transformations over the past 50 years, with China leading the pack as it emerged in the course of just a few decades from an agrarian society into an industrial powerhouse, lifting in the process hundreds of millions out of poverty. But this is not to say that life is necessarily an improvement over the past. In the U.S., for instance, the quality of life has declined over the past decade and so has life satisfaction in the European Union. Are we at a stage where we are witnessing the decline of the West and the rise of the East? In either case, while many people seem to think that the rise of the far-right in Europe and the United States is related to perceptions about the decline of the West, the rise of the far-right is a global phenomenon, ranging from India and Brazil to Israel, Pakistan, and the Philippines. In fact, the alt-right has even found a comfortable home on China’s internet. So, what’s going on? Why are nationalism, racism, and extremism making such a huge comeback on the world stage at large?

NC: There is an interplay of many factors, some specific to particular societies, for example, the dismantling of secular democracy in India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi pursues his project of establishing a harsh racist Hindu ethnocracy. That’s specific to India, though not without analogues elsewhere.

There are some factors that have fairly broad scope, and common consequences. One is the radical increase in inequality in much of the world as a consequence of the neoliberal policies emanating from the U.S. and U.K. and spreading beyond in various ways.

The facts are clear enough, particularly well-studied for the U.S. The Rand Corporation study we’ve discussed before estimated almost $50 trillion in wealth transferred from workers and the middle class—the lower 90% of income—to the top 1% during the neoliberal years. More information is provided in the work of Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, summarized lucidly by political economist Robert Brenner.

The neoliberal assault is a prominent factor in the breakdown of the social order that leaves great numbers of people angry, disillusioned, frightened, and contemptuous of institutions that they see are not working in their interests.

The basic conclusion is that through “the postwar boom, we actually had decreasing inequality and very limited income going to the top income brackets. For the whole period from the 1940s to the end of the 1970s, the top 1% of earners received 9-10% of total income, no more. But in the short period since 1980, their share, that is the share of the top 1%, has gone up to 25%, while the bottom 80% have made virtually no gains.”

That has many consequences. One is reduction of productive investment and shift to a rentier economy, in some ways a reversion from capitalist investment for production to feudal-style production of wealth, not capital—“fictitious capital,” as Marx called it.

Another consequence is breakdown of the social order. In their incisive work The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett show a close correlation between inequality and a range of social disorders. One country is off the chart: very high inequality but even greater social disorder than expected by the correlation. That’s the country that led the way in the neoliberal assault—formally defined as commitment to small government and the market, in practice radically different, more accurately described as dedicated class war making use of whatever mechanisms are available.

Wilkinson-Pickett’s revealing work has been carried forward since, recently in an important study by Steven Bezruchka. It seems well confirmed that inequality is a prime factor in breakdown of social order.

There have been similar effects in the U.K. under harsh austerity policies, extending elsewhere in many ways. Commonly, the hardest hit are the weak. Latin America suffered two lost decades under destructive structural adjustment policies. In Yugoslavia and Rwanda such policies in the ‘80s sharply exacerbated social tensions, contributing to the horrors that followed.

It's sometimes argued the neoliberal policies were a grand success, pointing to the fastest reduction in global poverty in history—but failing to add that these remarkable achievements were in China and other countries that firmly rejected the prescribed neoliberal principles.

Furthermore, it wasn’t the “Washington consensus” that induced U.S. investors to shift production to countries with much cheaper labor and limited labor rights or environmental constraints, thereby deindustrializing America with well-known consequences for working people.

It is not that these were the only options. Studies by the labor movement and by Congress’s own research bureau (OTA, since disbanded) offered feasible alternatives that could have benefited working people globally. But they were dismissed.

All of this forms part of the background for the ominous phenomena you describe. The neoliberal assault is a prominent factor in the breakdown of the social order that leaves great numbers of people angry, disillusioned, frightened, and contemptuous of institutions that they see are not working in their interests.

One crucial element of the neoliberal assault has been to deprive the targets of means of defense. President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opened the neoliberal era with attacks on unions, the main line of defense of working people against class war. They also opened the door to corporate attacks on labor, often illegal, but that doesn’t matter when the state they largely control looks the other way.

A primary defense against class war is an educated, informed public. Public education has come under harsh attack during the neoliberal years: sharp defunding, business models that favor cheap and easily disposable labor (adjuncts, graduate students) instead of faculty, teaching-to-test models that undermine critical thinking and inquiry, and much else. Best to have a population that is passive, obedient, and atomized, even if they are angry and resentful, and thus easy prey for demagogues skilled in tapping ugly currents that run not too far below the surface in every society.

CJP: We have heard on countless occasions from both political pundits and influential academics that democracy is in decline. Indeed, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) claimed in early 2022 that just only 6.4% of the world’s population enjoys “full democracy,” though it is anything but clear how the sister company of the conservative weekly magazine The Economist understands the actual meaning and context of the term “full democracy.” Be that as it may, I think we can all agree that there are several key indicators pointing to a dysfunction of democracy in the 21st century. But isn’t it also the case that a perception of a crisis of democracy has existed almost as long as modern democracy itself? Moreover, isn’t it also the case that general talk about a crisis of democracy applies exclusively to the concept of liberal democracy, which is anything but authentic democracy? I am interested in your thoughts on these topics.

NC: What exactly is a crisis of democracy? The term is familiar. It was, for example, the title of the first publication of the Trilateral Commission, liberal internationalist scholars from Europe, Japan, and the U.S. It stands alongside the Powell Memorandum as one of the harbingers of the neoliberal assault that was gathering steam in the Carter administration (mostly trilateralists) and took off with Reagan and Thatcher. The Powell memorandum, addressing the business world, was the tough side; the Trilateral Commission report was the soft liberal side.

The Powell memorandum, authored by Justice Lewis Powell, pulled no punches. It called on the business world to use its power to beat back what it perceived as a major attack on the business world—meaning that instead of the corporate sector freely running almost everything, there were some limited efforts to restrict its power. The streak of paranoia and wild exaggerations are not without interest, but the message was clear: Launch harsh class war and put an end to the “time of troubles,” a standard term for the activism of the 1960s, which greatly civilized society.

Like Powell, the Trilateralists were concerned by the “time of troubles.” The crisis of democracy was that ‘60s activism was bringing about too much democracy. All sorts of groups were calling for greater rights: the young, the old, women, workers, farmers, sometimes called “special interests.” A particular concern was the failure of the institutions responsible “for the indoctrination of the young:” schools and universities. That’s why we see young people carrying out their disruptive activities. These popular efforts imposed an impossible burden on the state, which could not respond to these special interests: a crisis of democracy.

At both the state and the national level, today’s Republican party in the U.S., which has abandoned its past role as an authentic parliamentary party, is seeking ways to gain permanent political control as a minority organization, committed to Orban-style illiberal democracy.

The solution was evident: “more moderation in democracy.” In other words, a return to passivity and obedience so that democracy can flourish. That concept of democracy has deep roots, going back to the Founding Fathers and Britain before them, revived in major works on democratic theory by 20th century thinkers, among them Walter Lippmann, the most prominent public intellectual; Edward Bernays, a guru of the huge public relations industry; Harold Lasswell, one of the founders of modern political science; and Reinhold Niebuhr, known as the theologian of the liberal establishment.

All were good Wilson-FDR-JFK liberals. All agreed with the Founders that democracy was a danger to be avoided. The people of the country have a role in a properly functioning democracy: to push a lever every few years to select someone offered to them by the “responsible men.” They are to be “spectators, not participants,” kept in line with “necessary illusions” and “emotionally potent oversimplifications,” what Lippmann called the “manufacture of consent,” a primary art of democracy.

Satisfying these conditions would constitute “full democracy,” as the concept is understood within liberal democratic theory. Others may have different views, but they are part of the problem, not the solution, to paraphrase Reagan.

Returning to the concerns about decline of democracy, even full democracy in this sense is in decline in its traditional centers. In Europe, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s racist “illiberal democracy” in Hungary troubles the European Union, along with Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party and others that share its deeply authoritarian tendencies.

Recently Orban hosted a conference of far-right movements in Europe, some with neo-fascist origins. The U.S. National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC), a core element of today’s GOP, was a star participant. Donald Trump gave a major address. Tucker Carlson contributed an adoring documentary.

Shortly after, the NCPAC had a conference in Dallas, Texas, where the keynote speaker was Orban, lauded as a leading spokesman of authoritarian white Christian nationalism.

These are no laughing matters. At both the state and the national level, today’s Republican party in the U.S., which has abandoned its past role as an authentic parliamentary party, is seeking ways to gain permanent political control as a minority organization, committed to Orban-style illiberal democracy. Its leader, Trump, has made no secret of his plans to replace the nonpartisan civil service that is a foundation of any modern democracy with appointed loyalists, to prevent teaching of American history in any minimally serious fashion, and in general to end vestiges of more than limited formal democracy.

In the most powerful state of human history, with a long, mixed, sometimes progressive democratic tradition, these are not minor matters.

CJP: Countries in the periphery of the global system seem to be trying to break away from Washington’s influence and are increasingly calling for a new world order. For instance, even Saudi Arabia is following Iran to join China and Russia’s security bloc. What are the implications of this realignment in global relations, and how likely is it that Washington will use tactics to halt this process from going much further?

NC: In March, Saudi Arabia joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It was followed shortly after by the second Middle East petroleum heavyweight, the United Arab Emirates, which had already become a hub for China’s Maritime Silk Road, running from Kolkata in Eastern India through the Red Sea and on to Europe. These developments followed China’s brokering a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, previously bitter enemies, and thus impeding U.S. efforts to isolate and overthrow the regime. Washington professes not to be concerned, but that is hard to credit.

Since the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia in 1938, and the recognition soon of its extraordinary scale, controlling Saudi Arabia has been a high priority for the U.S. Its drift towards independence—and even worse, towards the expanding China-based economic sphere—must be eliciting deep concern in policy-making circles. It’s another long step towards a multipolar order that is anathema to the U.S.

So far, the U.S. had not devised effective tactics to counter these strong tendencies in world affairs, which have many sources—including the self-destruction of U.S. society and political life.

CJP: Organized business interests have had decisive influence on U.S. foreign policy over the last two centuries. However, there are arguments made today that there is a loosening of business hegemony over U.S. foreign policy, and China is offered as the evidence that Washington is not listening to business anymore. But isn’t it the case that the capitalist state, while always working on behalf of the general interests of the business establishment, also possesses a certain degree of independence and that other factors enter into the equation when it comes to the implementation of foreign policy and the management of foreign affairs? It seems to me that U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba, for example, is evidence of the relative autonomy of the state from the economic interests of the capitalist classes.

NC: It may be a caricature to describe the capitalist state as the executive committee of the ruling class, but it’s a caricature of something that exists, and has existed for a long time. We may recall again Adam Smith’s description of the early days of capitalist imperialism, when the “masters of mankind” who owned the economy of England were the “principal architects” of state policy and ensured that their own interests were properly served no matter how grievous the effects on others. Others included the people of England, but much more so the victims of the “savage injustice” of the masters, particularly in India in the early days of England’s destruction of what was then along with China the richest society on earth, while stealing its more advanced technology.

Some principles of global order have a long life.

There should be no need to review again how closely U.S. foreign policy has conformed to Smith’s maxim, to the present. One guiding doctrine is that the U.S. will not tolerate what State Department officials called “the philosophy of the new nationalism,” which embraces “policies designed to bring about a broader distribution of wealth and to raise the standard of living of the masses” along with the pernicious idea “that the first beneficiaries of the development of a country’s resources should be the people of that country.” They are not. The first beneficiaries are the investor class, primarily from the U.S.

The very same individual might make different choices as CEO of a corporation and in the State Department, with the same interests in mind but a different perspective on how to further them.

This stern lesson was taught to backward Latin Americans at a hemispheric conference called by the U.S. in 1945, which established an Economic Charter for the Americas that stamped out these heresies. They were not confined to Latin America. Eighty years ago, it seemed that at last the world would finally emerge from the misery of the Great Depression and fascist horrors. A wave of radical democracy spread throughout much of the world, with hopes for a more just and humane global order. The earliest imperatives for the U.S. and its British junior partner were to block these aspirations and to restore the traditional order, including fascist collaborators, first in Greece (with enormous violence) and Italy, then throughout western Europe, extending as well to Asia. Russia played a similar role in its own lesser domains. These are among the first chapters of postwar history.

While Smith’s masters of mankind quite generally ensure that state policy serves their immediate interests, there are exceptions, which give a good deal of insight into policy formation. We’ve just discussed one: Cuba. It’s not just the world that objects strenuously to the sanctions policy to which it must conform. The same is true of powerful sectors among the masters, including energy, agribusiness, and particularly pharmaceuticals, eager to link up with Cuba’s advanced industry. But the executive committee prohibits it. Their parochial interests are overridden by the long-term interest of preventing “successful defiance” of U.S. policies tracing back to the Monroe Doctrine, as the State Department explained 60 years ago.

Any Mafia Don would understand.

The very same individual might make different choices as CEO of a corporation and in the State Department, with the same interests in mind but a different perspective on how to further them.

Another case is Iran, in this case going back to 1953, when the parliamentary government sought to gain control of its immense petroleum resources, making the mistake of believing “that the first beneficiaries of the development of a country’s resources should be the people of that country.” Britain, the longtime overlord of Iran, no longer had the capacity to reverse this deviation from good order, so called on the real muscle overseas. The U.S. overthrew the government, installing the Shah’s dictatorship, the first steps in U.S. torture of the people of Iran that has continued without a break to the present, carrying forward Britain’s legacy.

But there was a problem. As part of the deal, Washington demanded that U.S. corporations take over 40% of the British concession, but they were unwilling, for short-term parochial reasons. To do so would prejudice their relations with Saudi Arabia, where exploitation of the country’s resources was cheaper and more profitable. The Eisenhower administration threatened the companies with anti-trust suits, and they complied. Not a great burden to be sure, but one the companies didn’t want.

The conflict between Washington and U.S. corporations persists to the present. As in the case of Cuba, both Europe and U.S. corporations strongly oppose the harsh U.S. sanctions on Iran, but are forced to comply, cutting them out of the lucrative Iranian market. Again, the state interest in punishing Iran for successful defiance overrides the parochial interests of short-term profit.

Contemporary China is a much larger case. Neither European nor U.S. corporations are happy about Washington’s commitment “to slow down China’s rate of innovation” while they lose access to the rich China market. It seems that U.S. corporations may have found a way around the restrictions on trade. An analysis by the Asian business press found “a strong predictive relationship between these countries’ [Vietnam, Mexico, India] imports from China and their exports to the United States,” suggesting that trade with China has simply been re-directed.

The same study reports that “China’s share of international trade is rising steadily. Its export volume… rose 25% since 2018 while the industrial nations’ export volume stagnated.”

It remains to be seen how European, Japanese, and South Korean industries will react to the directive to abandon a primary market in order to satisfy the U.S. goal of preventing China’s development. It would be a bitter blow, far worse than losing access to Iran or of course Cuba.

CJP: More than a couple of centuries ago, Immanuel Kant presented his theory of perpetual peace as the only rational way for states to co-exist with one another. Yet, perpetual peace remains a mirage, an unattainable ideal. Could it be that a world political order away from the nation-state as the primary unit is a necessary prerequisite for perpetual peace to be realized?

NC: Kant argued that reason would bring about perpetual peace in a benign global political order. Another great philosopher, Bertrand Russell, saw things rather differently when asked about the prospects for world peace:

“After ages during which the earth produced harmless trilobites and butterflies, evolution progressed to the point at which it has generated Neros, Genghis Khans, and Hitlers. This, however, I believe is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.”

I don’t presume to enter those ranks. I’d like to think that humans have the capacity to do much better than what Russell forecast, even if not to achieve Kant’s ideal.

#noam chomsky #c. j. polychroniou #existential threat #climate change #nuclear war #neoliberalism #global economy #u.s. foreign policy #authoritarianism #education

[scotianostra]

29th August 1999 saw the death of Lew Schwarz, the Scottish TV scriptwriter.

Lew was born in Glasgow on April 16th, 1926, the son of an optician, and educated at the St Aloysius Jesuit College, graduating to the Holyrood Secondary Modern School.

On leaving school he took a job at the Clyde shipyards as a riveter. In 1944 he joined the RAF as a flight engineer and flew Lancaster bombers over Germany. After the war he returned to Scotland, furthering his education at Glasgow University before moving to London in the 1950s. There he took on a job as a taxi driver, married Margaret Glen of Airdrie, and in due time fathered three sons and two daughters.

It was while driving his taxi that Schwarz sold his first few comedy gags. Always a fan of radio-show comedy, he sent his samples to Richard Murdoch, then starring with Kenneth Horne in Much Binding In The Marsh, The Forces Show, and other prominent BBC series. Murdoch bought them, thus starting Schwarz on a career which would soon spread from spare time to full time.

It was through his taxi-driving that Schwarz encountered Spike Milligan, writer and star of The Goon Show. They got to chatting about comedy and Milligan invited Schwarz to come up to the office he and some writer friends used as a base. This was situated over a greengrocer's shop in Shepherd's Bush, not far from the BBC Television studios. Schwarz was delighted to meet Milligan's partners in laughter: Eric Sykes, Johnny Speight, Ray Galton, and Alan Simpson, all great names in comedy creation

Joining the group as a gag writer, Schwarz was taken on as a partner by another big name in comedy, Eric Merriman. Together they wrote their first TV series, Great Scott - It's Maynard! This starred two popular stand-up comedians, Terry Scott, who frequently played an overgrown schoolboy, and Bill Maynard, not yet the chunky character he would become. The show mixed short sketches with situation comedy, aThe Charlie Drake Shownd was a great success. In the 50′s he also wrote episodes of

Lew went on to write a host of other shows, The Army Game, Mess Mates and The Dick Emery Show in the 60′s as well as scripting 3 episodes of The Andy Stewart Show.

In the 70′s he wrote scripts for Harry Secombe, Dave Allen and Norman Wisdom, as well as writing for Carry on Laughing and the popular sitcom The Liver Birds, which Schwarz originated with Carla Lane. Schwartz also penned some mainstream drama like Crown Court, Crossroads and an episode of Space;1999.

Closing his comedy career teaching creative writing at an adult educational college, Schwarz wrote a book, The Craft of Writing TV comedy. He summed up his career thus: ''Writing comedy for television is a very serious business.''

#scotland #scottish #scriptwriting #Writer #comedy #television

[coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe]

Lucifarians: A Family Forged: Bios (1980) Helah Weiss / Hel Lucifarian

"Ya puttin' me to sleep over here, bud."

Name

Full Legal Name: Helah Tamar Weiss

First Name: Helah

Meaning: Means 'Rust' in Hebrew.

Pronunciation: HEE-la

Origin: Biblical

Middle Name: Tamar

Meaning: Means 'Date palm' in Hebrew.

Pronunciation: TAHM-ahr

Origin: Hebrew, Georgian, Biblical, Biblical Hebrew

Surname: Weiss

Meaning: From Middle High German 'Wiz' or Yiddish 'Vais' meaning 'White'.

Pronunciation: VIES

Origin: German, Yiddish

Ring Name: Hel Lucifarian, Sloth

Commentary Nickname: The Sloth, The Human Sleeping Pill, Sleeping Beauty

Nicknames: Hel, Tammie

Titles: Miss

Characteristics

Age: 24

Gender: Female. She/Her Pronouns

Nationality: American

Ethnicity: White (1/2 Greek, 1/2 German)

Birth Date: December 20th 1956

Sexuality: Bisexual

Religion: Jewish

Native Language: English

Known Language: English, Greek, German, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian, American Sign Language, Polish

Relationship Status: Single

Astrological Sign: Sagittarius

Entrance Music: 'Cat's in the cradle' - Harry Chapin (1974-)

Voice Claim: Angie Harmon

Geographical Characteristics

Birthplace: Atlantic City, Atlantic County, New Jersey, USA

Current Location: Unknown

Hometown: Atlantic City, Atlantic County, New Jersey, USA

Appearance

Height: 5'4" / 162 cm

Weight: 150 lbs / 68 kg

Eye Colour: Gray

Hair Colour: Dark Auburn

Hair Dye: Bangs Dyed Light Blue

Body Hair: N/A

Facial Hair: N/A

Tattoos: (As of Jan 1980) 6

Piercings: Ear Lobe (Double, Both)

Scars: None

Health and Fitness

Allergies: None

Alcoholic, Smoker, Drug User: Social Drinker, Smoker

Illnesses/Disorders: None Diagnosed

Medications: None

Any Specific Diet: None

Relationships

Allies: Skull Lucifarian, Ven Lucifarian, Bel Lucifarian, Pat Lucifarian, Cas Lucifarian, Eve Lucifarian, Syd Lucifarian, Gorilla Monsoon

Enemies: Moolah, Wendi Richter, Freddie Blassie, Hulk Hogan, Bob Orton, Mr Fuji, Paul Orndorff

Closest Confidant: Thalia Weiss

Mentor: Levi Weiss

Significant Other: None

Previous Partners: None of Note

Parents: Levi Weiss (56, Father), Thalia Weiss (55, Mother, Née Stavros)

Parents-In-Law: None

Siblings: Moses Weiss (33, Brother), Sarah Schwarz (30, Sister, Née Weiss), Nathan Weiss (27, Brother)

Siblings-In-Law: Rachel Weiss (32, Moses' Wife, Née Roth), Reuben Schwarz (29, Sarah's Husband), Naomi Weiss (26, Nathan's Wife, Née Prinz)

Nieces & Nephews: Samuel Weiss (12, Nephew), Miriam Weiss (9, Niece), Adam Weiss (6, Nephew), Leah Weiss (3, Niece), Daniel Schwarz (9, Nephew), Judith Schwarz (6, Niece), Eden Schwarz (3, Nephew), Hannah Weiss (6, Niece), Gideon Weiss (3, Nephew)

Children: None

Children-In-Law: None

Grandkids: None

Wrestling

Billed From: Hellview

Trainer: Skull Lucifarian

Managers: Skull Lucifarian

Wrestlers Managed: None

Debut: 1974 (WWF Debut: 1976)

Retired: N/A

Wrestling Style: Submission Artist

Stables: Daughters of Darkness (1974-)

Teams:

Eternal Rest (Skull & Hel)

Lavender’s Blue (Ven & Hel)

The Dream Team (Bel & Hel)

Blue & Gold (Pat & Hel)

Total Knockouts (Cas & Hel)

The Purely Insane (Hel & Eve)

The Phoenix & The Phantom (Hel & Syd)

Regular Moves: Roundhouse Kick, Diving Crossbody, Diving Elbow Drop, Suicide Dive, Step-Up Enzuigiri, Springboard Clothesline, Tilt-A-Whirl Backbreaker, Sitout Suplex Slam, Slingshot Somersault Senton, Naptime (Arm Trap Swinging Neckbreaker)

Finishers: Dirt Nap (Arm Trap Triangle Choke), Lullaby (Fireman's Carry Dropped Into A Knee Lift)

Refers To Fans As: The Slothful, The Slothful Ones, The Apathetic, The Apathetic Ones

Heel or Face: (As of Jan 1980) Heel

#L.A.F.F #Lucifarians: A Family Forged #Lucifarians #Lucifarian #original character

[duranduratulsa]

Now showing on DuranDuranTulsa's Horror Show...Slaughterhouse (1987) on glorious vintage VHS 📼! #movie #movies #horror #slaughterhouse #joebbarton #sherryleigh #donbarrett #WilliamHouck #janehigginson #davefogel #billbrinsfield #jeffgrossi #jasoncollier #courtneylercara #LeeRobinson #jeanettesaylor #erichschwarz #donnastevens #vintage #vhs #80s #durandurantulsa #durandurantulsashorrorshow

#movies #movie #horror #slaughterhouse #joe b barton #don barrett #William Houck #sherry leigh #bill brinsfield #dave fogel #jason collier #jeff grossi #jane higginson #joel hoffman #courtney letcara #lee robinson #Jeannette Saylor #erich schwarz #donna stevens #jeff wright #vintage #VHS #80s #duran duran tulsa's horror show #duran duran tulsa #vantage point #Spotify

[2d-dreams]

im kinda stuck in a bad school pc midclass but i wanted to make flat-art

#bill cipher #fanart #flatland #flatland 2007 #paul schwarz the hexagon #the geometrical figures might be gay

[schwarzth]

hi, my name is mels

i write stories, any as long as theyre not too weird 😭

requests r open!1!!!1

a bit about myself

ive liked tokio hotel since 2015, they're getting popular again 🧎‍♀️

I absolutely love love love bills style I think it's incredible and unique!!

my favorite songs by tokio hotel are reden, on the edge, ich bin nicht ich, sacred, beichte, and lass uns hier raus😈!

bill is my favorite, my second favorite is gustav

bill in 2003 reminds me of a fairy cus hes so adorable.

everytime i listen to schwarz it doesn't sound like bill to me.

#tokio hotel #bill kaulitz #tom kaulitz #georg listing #gustav tokio hotel #gustav schäfer #2000s nostalgia #tokio+hotel #2000s #y2k

[hauntnowpod]

Hey ghouls,

It's Monday again, which means it's time for our 4th and final cast announcement for season three.

May we present... 

The inimitable Marnie Warner, who is back as Eulalie's sister, Parker. What would this haunting even be without the sibling drama?!! Marnie Warner is a Chicago based theater and voice actor. You can hear her in podcasts across all genres, including Hit the Bricks, H.G. Wells Has His Regrets, Morland P.I, Where the Stars Fell, and Two Flat Earthers Kidnap a Freemanson. When not doing theater-type things, she’s probably reading, going out for breakfast, or looking at cats on the internet. For more information, visit her website at marniewarner.carrd.co/

Mihai Matei joins us this season as Cemetery Ghost and Poltergeist 4. Mihai is a London based VA whose hobbies include DnD, games and cycling. Find Mihai on Twitter @MihaiMateiVA

Natalie Hunter, returns as one of the voices of The Apartment! Natalie Hunter is a voice actor, singer, and screenwriter, and works as a research administrator by day. She is passionate about storytelling, the ocean, her cat Luna, and coffee. Find Natalie online at nataliehunter.carrd.co

Nick Mercer joins the haunting as FF House Ghost 1 and FF House. Nick Mercer is a voice actor and audiobook narrator with an incredibly versatile narration style, ranging from “friendly, positive guy next door” and “intelligent, articulate professional.” His background prior to voiceover includes Theatrical Performance, Music Production, Sales, and Education. Nick lives in North DFW with his beautiful – and genius – wife Corrie , their daughter Zoey, and their two dogs, Maisie and Loki. When he’s not firefighting or performing voiceovers, Nick loves watching anime, playing D&D, and platinuming FromSoft titles.  Find Nick online at NickMercerVO.com

Paul H. Rollins is back as Nick, the gruff brute-squad member of You Haint Seen Nothin' Yet. Paul is a musician, aerosol artist, and cat caretaker with a M.S. in Microbiology.

Ray O'Hare joins us this season as Bill, McMansion, and Longfellow's ghost. (Oooh, there's that morbid Victorian poetry, huh?) Ray has over 20 years of professional stage experience, and as a voice actor has appeared in video games, animation and audio drama. He lives in the Boston area with his wife and daughter, and past jobs include toy demonstrator for FAO Schwarz, historical reenactor, and graveyard tour guide.

Roanna Cruz joins us this season as Poltergeist 5! Roanna is a bilingual Filipino American voice actor based in Los Angeles. Whether it's a commercial, animation, game, or audio drama, she just loves collaborating on productions and having fun in the recording booth! To learn more about her, visit RCruzVO.com.

Sian Luxford joins us this season as Professor 1! Sian Luxford is an actor based in Sydney, Australia. After working in screen acting for over two decades, Sian decided to take the leap into voice acting in 2023, and quickly fell in love with it. Sian is thrilled to be joining the amazing cast of The Way We Haunt Now. Find Sian online at sianluxford.com

Sneha Kumar joins us as E. Drawing Ghost 3 and the Airport Gate Attendant. Sneha Kumar is a voice actor who has been in the field since 2018. She mostly focuses on character work, but is always interested in diving into other areas of voiceover work. Along with being a voice actor, she is also a singer, self-taught dancer, a cosplayer, and currently attends Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for sound design. She is very excited to be a part of the cast and deliver a wonderful performance! Find Sneha online at https://skumarvoice30.wixsite.com/sneha-kumar

We're so delighted Tal Minear is returning as Myrtle, who's GOING to make the rest of You Haint Seen Nothin' Yet think about the consequences of their actions, dammit! Tal is a SoCal based voice actor, sound designer, and fiction podcast producer. They're the creator of Re: Dracula, Sidequesting, What Will Be Here?, and several other productions that can be found hiding under rugs and around corners. Tal can be heard in audio fiction shows such as Tales of the Echowood, Mayfair Watcher's Society, Deconstructive Criticism, and more. Find them online at talminear.com

Tarek Esaw joins the haunting this season as Poltergeist 3! Tarek Esaw is an Arkansas-based voice actor with a background in theatre. When they are not drowning in schoolwork or struggling at their 9-5, you can catch them at a D&D session or binging horror movies. Their voice can now be heard in the audiodramas Among the Stars and Bones as Hudson Desha, Tales From the Fringes of Reality as Sparrow, and the upcoming animated pilot Myths in Manhattan as both Julius and Pour. Find them on Twitter: @TarekEsawVO

Tim Lowe is back as our weird and wonderful radio host, Jon Harker, who, hmmm.... no.... spoilers. You'll just have to listen to find out. Tim is a podcaster and voice actor who has appeared in numerous shows. He regularly hosts Minds at Yeerk and has made several guest appearances on shows such as Judging Book Covers and Panelology. He has appeared in a variety of shows such as The Lafresian Chronicles, Tunnels, and Haunted Hell House of Horrors. He can be found on Twitter @Remobware which he will be more than happy to explain if you tweet at him.

Trenton Butt joins us this season as E. Drawing Ghost 1. Trenton Butt is a twenty-one year old voice actor, finishing their final year of college while also pursuing voiceover at the same time. They have been featured in various award-winning video games, indie animations, and trending podcasts, as well as being a published author. When not in the booth, they can be found either bothering their dog Letty, or playing video games. Find Trenton online at trentonbuttvoices.com

And that's it, folks. That's our slate of ghosts, ghouls, haunted humans, and show-within-a-show characters for season three.

I'm pretty sure this cast is the best one there is to be found in the void, and I can't wait to show you what we've created... sometime this month. 

Yours ghoulishly,

Courtney

#audio drama #audio fiction #crowdfunding #fiction podcast #podcasters of tumblr #horror #the way we haunt now #ghost story #haunted

[the-arts-of-being]

the ask game! for any oc

💛- how many languages does your oc speak? what language(s) are they learning, if any?

🍰 - what is/are your oc's favorite sweets)/ dessert(s)?

🤔- what are some of your oc's quirks/ mannerisms?

Long post ahead ::3 Answered for Pollux mostly with some other characters sprinkled in for one.

No art this time, sorry. Might reblog with some later !

💛- Pollux is the only character where this answer is interesting, ignoring Cy who is a self insert and speaks/is learning everything that I speak or am learning.

Pollux's family from his father's side are immigrants from another region of Flatland, hence the odd last name "Schwarz" that sticks out from between "Campbell", "Carver", "Smith" etc. Schwarz just sounded cool, there is no actual reference nor reason there. I do not think that they speak German or anything - German and English don't precisely exist in Flatland.

But different languages do exist, though mostly have been assimilated or only differentiated by their sound, and Pollux knows some of his family's mother tongue, though Hunter is much more fluent and Madelyn learned a bit of it to impress him. Pollux possibly quite regrets not learning more of it. Might know some bits of old dead tongues and ways of writing because he loves history! On that topic, he probably talks very awkwardly, more so than originally depicted, because he really loves those ancient styles and they mess with how he talks.

He also learns [post-TAoB] English and many Planiturth languages, also learns or helps create Exwhylian/Ypwherenian/Zetwhatian and other dimension's languages, and Thought Beyond Words for communication with those languages he doesn't know. He especially likes to learn old languages even now, even if that means older than time - would be funny to see the lil guy suddenly speak in the eldritch whispers of Voidspeak.

---

🍰- Pollux loooves anything he can bake. Well, except most normal types of cake. He prefers stuff like tres leches, cheesecake or flan over regular cake. He loves those! He also loves making them. While he'll gladly eat a slice of birthday cake or one or two cookies, I think he really prefers things with some moisture to them. Crunchy or dry things sadden him. He's a chocolate chip cookie enjoyer too. But I don't think he's fond of adding fruit to desserts unless its blueberries.

Bill isn't my oc but I gotta note that this guy considers pieces of drywall, entire handfuls of specifically powdered sugar, and gasoline as "desserts".

Madelyn loves anything with strawberries [sadly Pollux can't stand them] and possibly the same cake preferences as her son. Hunter thinks sugar will rot your beak.

Lastly, Marianne actually really enjoys just fruit of any sort with unhealthy amounts of chamoy. Yeah she's the kind of girl that eats flaming hot takis like her life depends on it.

---

🤔- Haven't thought of this much, considering they're. Literally just. Shapes. I figure that Pollux isn't great at talking- he tends to try to talk too fast or say many things at the same time or accidentally misuse words because he's attached to old language styles. So that's one thing. Also, when he's alone or nervous he likes to repeat words that sound nice to him, or the letter x (remember he loves how it sounds?) or just clicking. Even now that he can speak with words, sometimes he mumbles things to himself in Flatland's language, that nobody knows anymore except for him, so chirping and stuff.

He also tends to keep his hands clasped together because having them hanging around feels weird, or when he's using his cane, he'll have one hand holding the arm that's holding the cane. Also avoids eye-contact. (Oh and I don't know where to put this, but he's ambidextrous. Why not? Guy's pretty much a demigod)

#asks #the arts of being #long post #all text

[fpp64]

All time best album 100

1. Chuck Berry - Chuck Berry Is On Top (59)

2. Wes Montgomery - The Incredible Jazz Guitar (60)

3. John Coltrane - Giant Steps (60)

4. John Lee Hooker - Don't Turn Me From Your Door: John Lee Hooker Sings His Blues (63)

5. Grant Green - Idle Moments (65)

6. Miles Davis - Nefertiti (67)

7. Quarteto Nôvo - Quarteto Nôvo (67)

8. The Doors - The Doors (67)

9. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love (67)

10. The Beatles - The Beatles (68)

11. The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society (68)

12. The Beach Boys - Friends (68)

13. Blood, Sweat And Tears - Child Is Father To The Man (68)

14. John Hartford - Housing Project (68)

15. Andy Pratt - Records Are Like Life (69)

16. Frank Zappa - Hot Rats (69)

17. Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority (69)

18. The Band - The Band (69)

19. Nina Simone - Nina Simone And Piano! (69)

20. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left (69)

21. Fairport Convention - Liege And Lief (69)

22. Bob Dylan - New Morning (70)

23. Jimmy Webb - Words And Music (70)

24. かまやつひろし - "ムッシュー" かまやつひろしの世界 (70)

25. The Who - Who's Next (71)

26. Gil Scott-Heron - Pieces Of A Man (71)

27. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (71)

28. Aretha Franklin - Live At Fillmore West (71)

29. The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St. (72)

30. Jesse Ed Davis - Ululu (72)

31. Bobby Charles - Bobby Charles (72)

32. Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything? (72)

33. Eric Justin Kaz - If You're Lonely (72)

34. Terry Callier - What Color Is Love (72)

35. Bobby Womack - Understanding (72)

36. Al Green - I'm Still In Love With You (72)

37. George Jackson - George Jackson In Memphis 1972-1977 (09)

38. Donny Hathaway - Live (72)

39. Bill Withers - Live At Carnegie Hall (73)

40. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (73)

41. Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information (73)

42. Marcos Valle - Previsão Do Tempo (73)

43. Little Feat - Dixie Chicken (73)

44. Frankie Miller - Frankie Miller's High Life (74)

45. Brinsley Schwarz - The New Favourites Of... (74)

46. Brian Protheroe - Pinball (74)

47. Bruce Cockburn - Salt, Sun And Time (74)

48. Kenny Rankin - Silver Morning (74)

49. Tamba Trio - Tamba (74)

50. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live! (75)

51. John Martyn - Solid Air (75)

52. Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah (75)

53. Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today (75)

54. Leroy Hutson - Hutson (75)

55. Johnny Guitar Watson - Ain't That A Bitch (76)

56. Antônio Carlos Jobim - Urubu (76)

57. Azymuth - Aguia Não Come Mosca (77)

58. Ivan Lins - Somos Todos Iguais Nesta Noite (77)

59. Taj Mahal - Brothers (77)

60. Jorge Ben - A Banda Do Zé Pretinho (78)

61. Lô Borges - A Via Láctea (79)

62. Joe Jackson - Look Sharp! (79)

63. NRBQ - Tiddlywinks (80)

64. Joni Mitchell - Shadows And Light (80)

65. Steely Dan - Gaucho (80)

66. Van Morrison - Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart (83)

67. Fred Frith - Cheap At Half The Price (83)

68. The Police - Synchronicity (83)

69. Ben Watt - North Marine Drive (83)

70. Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen (85)

71. Milton Naschimento - Miltons (88)

72. Lenny Kravitz - Let Love Rule (89)

73. XTC - Oranges & Lemons (89)

74. Paul Weller - Paul Weller (92)

75. G. Love And Special Sauce - G. Love And Special Sauce (94)

76. Ron Sexsmith - Ron Sexsmith (95)

77. Cassandra Wilson - New Moon Daughter (95)

78. Tony! Toni! Toné! - House Of Music (96)

79. UA - FINE FEATHERS MAKE FINE BIRDS (97)

80. Stereolab - Dots And Loops (97)

81. Caetano Veloso - Livro (97)

82. Elliott Smith - XO (98)

83. Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham - Moments From This Theatre (99)

84. Badly Drown Boy - The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast (00)

85. Common - Like Water For Chocolate (00)

86. BONNIE PINK - Let go (00)

87. paris match - typeIII (02)

88. CARNATION - LIVING / LOVING (03)

89. Steve Winwood - About Time (03)

90. Luis Alberto Spinetta - Para Los Arboles (03)

91. Metheny / Mehldau - Metheny / Mehldau (06)

92. Domenico - Cine Privê (12)

93. Diggs Duke - Offering For Anxious (14)

94. D'Angelo & The Vanguard - Black Messiah (14)

95. Prince - HITnRUN Phase Two (15)

96. Ryley Walker - Primrose Green (15)

97. Ian Lasserre - Sonoridade Pólvora (17)

98. Kurt Rosenwinkel - Caipi (17)

99. Sam Gendel - 4444 (18)

100. Catbug - Slapen Onder Een Hunebed (21)

#music #all time best album

[rjalker]

all the tags I have saved to a notepad so far for @accessible-flatland-art so I don't have to type them all out every single time.

The tags for mobility aids and stuff only get added to art that specifically shows the mobility aid so it's easier to search for them.

please copy and paste the image description into the original post when you get the chance no credit needed please also feel free to add in more details likes names or pronouns or fix any mistakes i made

described images, described art, Flatland, Flatland art, Flatart,

Flatland a Romance of Many Dimensions Flatland Illustrations

The Color Revolt, Configurationism, Circularchy,

Flatland anatomy

Stylized form, Literal form,

Flatland animals Flatland rabbit Flatland bees

Flatland technology

A Square, A Sphere,

memes, Flatland memes, Family Trees

Comic

Flatland OCs, Original characters, Flatland original characters,

Character reference

Disabled characters, Neurodivergent characters, Physically disabled characters, Blind characters, Characters with mobility aids, Characters with canes, Characters with walkers Characters with swimmers Characters with glasses Characters with wheelchairs, Characters with chairs Characters with sleds Characters with crutches, Characters with rollators, Characters with scars Characters with facial differences

Werestars, Stellanthropes,

The Arts of Being The Breaking Point Flat Dreams Flatterland

Esther Flat Dreams Nora Vigenere

Pollux Codex, Madelyn Schwarz-Carver Hunter Schwarz Michael the Misogynist Pentagon Providence, Nature, Providence and Nature

A Shape Oblisi Liam Cy Frau Line A Son of A Square Lily Cipher, Ruth Galton Liz

Hauntlight the Irregular Line Cenotaph the rabbit daemon

Flyssa of Ib-Wa Dearg of Ib-Wa Lieutenant Kellite the Configurationist Grandna Tuokeli

Vikki Line, Victoria Line, Lee Line, Jubilee Line,

Bill Cipher, Gravity Falls, GFcrossover, The Mosaic

Video, autoplay, GIF, Autoplay WIP animation Unnamed Animation 001 Animation

Flatland Merch Art you can buy Art you can print

Art templates