#if he wins does that make dara the first lady?
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Raje Judkins answered some questions about the show. Filming spoilers for the show below:
Q: What part of the books should you be caught up on for the first season?
A: Depends on if you like to read something before you watch it or not.
Q: What are you finding most challenging about going from book to screen?
A: The hardest thing is the physicality of production. In the first book alone they go to more than 20 villages and cities. To try to do that is physically impossible for the show, so most of the work we don in the room is geographical, figuring how to condense the story and move it through places we can physically create.
Q: Do you have a favorite chapter from the whole saga? Mine is Veins of Gold.
A: So many. But Honey in the Tea is the one off the top of my head.
Q: We can’t wait to see Elayne, Aviendha and Min
A: Me either. Three of my favorites.
Q: Has any post-production work begun or does that not start until filming is completed?
A: Nope! We do it simultaneously. Before the corona hit, I was prepping 2 episodes, shooting 2 episodes, in post on 4 episodes and writing Season 2 simultaneously :-0
Q: Will there be a soundtrack? Who’s the composer?
A: Of course! David Buckley. Plus a few incredible musical guests we’ve already had.
Q: Are Min/Elayne in season 1?
A: The Wheel weaves as the wheel wills
Q: Are you going to merge Min and Elayne?
A: Hell no
Q: First moment you were speechless on set?
A: First time walking into Emond’s Field with my mom
Q: Is mat fluent in the old tongue yet?
A: We’ve had a couple cast members speak in it already and they NAILED IT
Q: Which character has your favorite costume so far?
A: Ooo this is tough. Probably Geofram Bornhald.
Q: How is the cast and crew weathering the pandemic?
A: Our team in Prague did an amazing job of getting everyone out and keeping them safe. And now everyone’s home and we all live on Instagram.
Q: Who is your favorite Forsaken?
A: Ahhh. I love the ladies. Graendal, Lanfear, Moghedien. And Ishamael holds a special place in my heart the more time I spend with him
Q: What’s been your favourite shooting location so far?
A: Slovenia! Spectacular stuff there
Q: Yes or no. Have you had to make any cuts be it a scene or character, that has been painful for you?
A: Yes.
Q: How are you planning to handle the visualization of the weaves? Any little tidbits?
A: We are trying to stay as true to the books as possible. I’ve been giving a bunch of VFX folks long diatribes about channeling, weaves, threads, earth vs. air, etc and they early stuff has started coming in. It looks FUCKING AWESOME. I screamed when Rosamund started channeling
Q: Similar to Them performing in an old Inn, what other iconic moment filmed stands out to u?
A: Rand and Tam walking through the Westwood
Q: Blink twice if Min is in season 1.
A: 😉😉
Q: Will Jeff Probst be one of the Aiel? Can you make some calls?
A: If he dyes his hair red 😉
Q: Which WOT book title best describes your self isolation experience?
A: A Memory of Light…
Q: Can we expect a trailer for the show anytime soon?
A: Probably not for a long while sadly.
Q: Can you guys do a big WoT Wed announcement during the hiatus to keep all us fans hyped instead of al
A: Yea! It would cheer us all up and we have some fun news
Q: Is Lan going to be as much or an absolute stud in the show as he is in the books?
A: You’ve seen @danielhenney right?
Q: If you were an Aes Sedai, what Ajah would you choose?
A: Such a good question. They all have merits but GREEN for the win. If only to hang with @priyankabose20
Q: Will we have to wait till season 2 to see any Aiel? (Other than Rand)
A: Nope. And the one you see will shock you. Hah. Amazon shouldn’t let me be on here when I’ve been cooped up for a week.
Q: RJ writes a lot of internal headspace stuff. What’s 1 hint on how the show will handle that?
A: That’s the biggest difficulty of any novel adaptation. Figuring out how to make the internal monologue come out clearly to the audience. A lot of the changes we make and stories we tell differently are designed to serve exactly that purpose – showing you what those characters internal monologues from the book are without them just saying it out loud in exposition
Q: Are you using taller actors to portray the Aiel, or camera trickery?
A: Trying to get tall folks. But I’m less concerned with height and more concerned with acting ability.
Q: Since JordanCon was cancelled, can we maybe get an extra treat next month?
A: Sure! What do you want?
Q: Do you have a favorite Wise One?
A: Avi
Q: How many trollocs do I have to take out to become a writing assistant?
A: Violence is never the answer
Q: What would you say the CGI to practical ratio is going to be?
A: Tring to do as much in camera as we possibly can!
Q: How are you handling sword forms and their names?
A: We have a for real sword master on the show who walks into every room and tests out everything as a weapon. He could most definitely kill me with any item in my office.
Q: How are the horses on set? Is Mandarb spectacular?
A: They are so great. Honestly I love our horses. Mandarb and Aldieb are downright sexy
Q: When will we get more casting announcements to hold us over?
A: I’ll try to get them to put out something soon. A lot of folks in all departments are affected by the state of the world right now though, so I can’t promise a timeline
Q: will we see the prologue from the Eye of the World on screen in season 1
A: You will hear that phrase
Q: What has been your favorite set so far?
A: Fal Dara!
Q: Please tell me you’ve cut Narg!!
A: Never!!
Q To what extent has Harriet McDougal been involved with the project?
A: She’s a consulting producer so she’s been out to Prague to the sets and reads all the scripts and sends me her notes on them. She and Maria are hugely helpful for maintaining the truth of the series and always keep me honest when it comes to things that change too much
Q: Is any aspect of the show still in development, or has it all stalled because of the virus?
A: A lot can be done virtually! I’m still doing VFX, editing and the Season Two Virtual Writers Room! And I can do it all in pajamas
Q: Will min, elayne, and avienda have to be combined into a single character?
A: Girl you crazy. I’m not going to combine huge characters like that. Maybe sometimes a minor character folded into a more major one to make better use of our cast but nothing nutso
Q: RJ created 1000’s of character. Given that did you feel the need to create new characters?
A: Anyone “new” is inspired by characters in the books or a number of characters combined. If we paid to cast all speaking roles in the book we could only afford to have a radio play
Q: So far, what is your favorite prop in the show?
A: Great Serpent Ring. We all want one.
Q: Will Loial portray the Ogier species, or will he be humanised for screen?
A: He’s an Ogier!
Q: How involved, if involved at all, is Sanderson in the writers room?
A: Brandon is hugely helpful. I talked to him before we started Season Two while he was in Prague to get advice and he reads all the scripts and gives notes. He’s incredibly thoughtful and understands the process of adaptation and what’s required from it. I feel so lucky to have him involved. I would have him do more if I could make him!
Q: What words of hope would you offer a fan afraid that the show will cut out a lot of content?
A: I genuinely think we are cutting less than most people think. When I see people ask questions like “are you cutting Min?” It blows my mind. I don’t know how you do an adaptation without some of these characters. I think it’ll be more of the smaller stories you’ll miss. We can’t have Rand and May (sic) travel to many many inns on their travels across the countryside for instance. It’s just not producible. So that will be more of what you miss I think, and the books always exist to read for that 🙂
Q: I think Bella is such an important character, will the same horse play bella through the series
A: We’ve already had to have two Belas. It turns out a horse for riding on film is not the same as a horse for pulling a cart and SHE MUST DO BOTH
Q: Can you please make sure you do a great job? Book are so great
A: This is are a really good idea
Q: Now you’ve met them, settle the score: who’s better with women? Rand, Mat or Perrin?
A: I think they’d all say it’s the other
Q: Will the show be understandable for those who didn’t read the books?
A: That’s the idea. If there are little things they don’t get though, luckily google exists
Q: Who is your favorite Aes Sedai in the books? And you can’t say Moiraine/Siuan or the Wonder Girls
A: So many rules. I honestly love all of them though (except Galina that bitch) Alanna Liandrin and Verin are probably my Top 3. And Siuan! There’s too many I love. Sheriam! Pevara!
https://www.wotseries.com/2020/03/22/show-runner-rafe-judkins-does-an-ama-on-instagram/
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Franny’s 30 Day Cover Challenge
Playlist
Franny’s 30 Day Cover Song Challenge: (categories are mostly from here, and here, with some from here, and a couple I made) in September 2020 one of her musician friends challenged her to do the thing and she was like “It seems like a fun way to show everyone what kind of music has influenced me as a musician, singer, songwriter, and just like, person. So I’m going to do it.”
In reality, she recorded most of them in 1-2 days to distract her from how sad she is because Wilbur hates her and he’s sad lmao
It helped a little.
(If you want me to drop the playlist she mentions in #24 let me know, I have it started I can finish it)
TW: mentions of Franny’s political beliefs so tw: politics, an allusion to suicide though the word isn’t directly used, mention of 9/11 and the subsequent invasions...nothing graphic with any of these triggers but worth a forewarning
Day 01 - A song that makes you happy
Honey Spiders by The Parlotones
“The Parlotones are this fantastic indie rock band out of South Africa. And I actually thought about doing their song, uh, Stars Fall Down for day sixteen, but I’m going with Honey Spiders for day 1. There were lots of Parlotones songs, I mean. Push Me to The Floor, We Call This Dancing, Should We Fight Back...but ah, Honey Spiders always puts me in a good mood.”
Day 02 - A song that helps you clear your head
Light of a Clear Blue Morning by Dolly Parton
“I grew up on Dolly, and it’s funny because for the longest time this song wasn’t really on my radar as much as it is now. But when I was twenty-two I was going through something really difficult, and my then-fiance now husband was abroad for work, so I was alone in our apartment and just. Really, profoundly sad and lonely. So I put on a Dolly Parton record and just laid on the bed and Light Of A Clear Blue Morning played and I had a good long cry and felt so much better after that. When I need to think about how to solve a difficult problem, or I feel overwhelmed, I just listen to that song.”
Day 03 - Song you love from a band/artist you hate
Should’ve Been A Cowboy by Toby Keith
“Honestly, he’s called me a nasty lady to my face and I’ve called him a facist enabling pig to his, so I have no qualms openly saying I hate Toby Keith. That being said, Should’ve Been A Cowboy is one of the best country songs of the 90s, undeniably. I loved that song when it came out when I was thirteen, and I still love it.”
Day 04 - A song about drugs or alcohol
Whiskey Lullaby by Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss
“This is probably cheating, because my lovely best friend Daniel and I cover this a lot at Dara & Danny shows. But today look who I have! My friend Max from Seoul Hanoi’d! Max the Korean Scot who can’t hide his accent to save his life, so let’s see how it sounds in a Scottish accent.”
Day 05 - A protest song
Talking Vietnam Blues by Phil Ochs /// and Here’s to The State of Mississippi by Phil Ochs
“This one was hard because I. Fucking. Love. Protest music. I could have done a whole 30 days of protest music - wow, let me know if I should do that and give my husband a heart attack with all the twitter threats I’ll invite. Huh. Right, so I was going to do Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven by John Prine. But I decided to do two Phil Ochs songs because I don’t think Phil Ochs is talked about enough. It’s a shame we lost him so young. Ochs’ sardonic humor and honesty in his writing has influenced me as a songwriter deeply. When I write political songs, I don’t hold back, and it’s because of Phil Ochs’ writing that I have that courage. I’ve been singing Love Me, I’m A Liberal since I was in college with constantly updating lyrics. It was so hard to even choose which songs of his to do because for his fairly short career his songbook is lengthy and full of gems. I’m Going to Say It Now, Draft Dodger Rag, Spanish Civil War Song, I Ain’t Marching Anymore...I couldn’t pick one so I’m cheating and recording two.”
Day 06 - A song you wish you wrote
When I Think About Cheatin’ by Gretchen Wilson
“I will forever be pissed off that I didn’t write this song. I’m absolute trash for my husband, so it’s never -- I’ve never had to be in a situation to ever consider -- but this song gets me every time. It feels like I could have written it. Because we do spend a lot of time apart travelling for our work. And the sentiment expressed in the song is a little too real.”
Day 07 - A song in a language you don’t speak
Khattar by Khine Htoo
“This will either be a charming attempt to sing in Burmese or I’m about to offend a lot of people. Which, being a politically outspoken woman on the internet, I’m used to anyway. So. 1, 2, 3, okay here goes.”
Day 08 - A song by an artist no longer living
Phop Samnang by Sinn Sisamouth (inspiration)
“Haha, you thought I’d see the name of this category and not do a Sinn Sisamouth song? You were wrong.”
Day 09 - A song you want to dance to at your wedding
Devoted To You by The Everly Brothers
“I’m already married, so this was actually our first dance song at our wedding. Day three of our wedding, like the more Westernized wedding ceremony day. We had a three day long traditional Cambodian wedding and I felt like a princess. An-y-way!”
Day 10 - A song that makes you cry
Borrowed Rooms and Old Wood Floor by Emily Scott Robinson
“Unfortunately, Emily Scott Robinson and I aren’t related. Sad, I know, because she’s so talented. Almost her entire album Traveling Mercies is...sad as hell. The record reminded me of early Dolly Parton, and my second solo album. You know, all those sad-ass songs. The Dress is honestly the song that makes me the saddest but I can’t even listen to it without crying so.”
Day 11 - A song that you love hearing live
Prove My Love by Violent Femmes
“There is nobody I have seen in concert more than Dolly Parton, but Violent Femmes and George Strait come incredibly close. The Cranberries, the amount of times I saw them in the 90s and early 2000s...close fourth. Probably. The very first concert I dragged my husband to was a Violent Femmes concert, he was not prepared for how hard college me went.”
Day 12 - A song from before 1960
There Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth The Salt of My Tears by Libby Holman
“This song is from 1928. I came across it when I was in grad school and it’s, as the kids say, a bop.”
Day 13 - A song you think everybody should listen to
White Man’s World by Jason Isbell
“I think perspectives of people of color should of course take precedence in these conversations. But I find this song to be a good faith attempt of a white man coming to terms with the institutional racism and sexism in the world around him. And I think this song can be a useful tool to explain certain concepts of racial justice to ignorant but well-meaning folks. As a woman of color I think Jason Isbell did a great job not centering himself even though it was from his perspective. This song is great musically and necessary socially.”
Day 14 - A song from the 1970s
You’re No Good by Linda Ronstadt
“Linda Ronstadt is grossly underrated, that’s all I have to say here.”
Day 15 - A song people wouldn’t expect you to like
Racists by Anti-flag
“I mean, I’ve talked about how much I like punk in the past, and I remember a video of Seoul Hanoi’d doing Spanish Bombs at a San Antonio show made the rounds, but I don’t think I’ve talked about how much I like Anti-flag. People don’t expect me to like punk for some reason. But I agree with...everything punk music is all about.”
Day 16 - A song that holds a lot of meaning to you
Blue by LeAnn Rimes
“It’s silly, but I won a county fair singing competition with this song in high school and it really fueled my passion for music, that win. It’s also the first song Cornelius heard me go full Georgia on, with the yodels and all, at the little bar in my hometown on his first trip meeting my parents. The song doesn’t cut to my very soul ot anythin’, but it’s special to me.”
Day 17 - A song attached to a memory
Supernova by Liz Phair
“I remember buying Liz Phair’s Whip-smart album when I was eleven. And in college, when I was getting ready for dates with Cornelius in my dorm room, I would dance around to a CD I burned and wrote on it with a sharpie, ‘Pre-date Movie Scene Music.’ God, what was even on there? I’m about to expose myself as the most basic 1999-2001 bitch. I remember Head Over Feet, I mean, Alanis Morisette? I was a young woman in 2000, obviously I loved her. Mm, Dreams by The Cranberries...oh, Kiss Me, Sixpence None The Richer...yeah, anyway, Supernova was on there.”
Day 18 - A song from the year you were born
Call Me by Blondie
“...I can’t believe Call Me is as old as I am.”
Day 19 - A song that reminds you of someone you miss
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (yes, of course she does a cover with banjo)
“This was my late best friend Molly’s favorite hymn. And I sang it at her funeral at her husband’s request. Molly and I grew up together in the small town of Payne Lake, Georgia and Molly was the most devout Christian...but she was also the first person I came out to as bisexual when I was a teenager, and she said that Jesus taught her that love was the greatest commandment and that meant I was automatically twice as good at it as her. Her faith guided her every action but she never talked down on her two best friends - Dan(iel Maitland) and I for not sharing it. Molly was doing the whole emulate Jesus thing beautifully. I miss her every day and it’s been seven years. If you ever think that people won’t miss you...you’re wrong. All right, let’s see if I can get through this without crying.”
Day 20 - A song by an artist you discovered this year
Hello, Anxiety by Phum Viphurit
“I just discovered this quirky Thai-Kiwi singer and not to be dramatic, but he’s my favorite thing in the world right now.”
Day 21 - A song with a city or country in the title
Oh! Phnom Penh (track 20)
“This song was written after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and after people began to make their way to what was left of their homes, alone, or with what was left of their families. If you want to learn more about what that was like to actually live it, my cousin Reena Boran has a video interviewing her parents and paternal grandfather and uncle about it. Reena is a journalism student currently studying in London but she lives in Cambodia. Her mother is my aunt Malisruot, my mother’s youngest sister. The video is English subtitled on her channel, I’ll link it in the description box below.”
Day 22 - A song from the 1960s
To Sir, With Love by Lulu
“I didn’t actually discover this song until I heard it covered at a 10,000 Maniacs concert in the 90s. My friend Allison was standing next to me and I just started crying and she’s like ‘are you okay?’ and all I just blubbered out ‘My dad!’ For the uninitiated, my dad married my mom, who’d raised me alone until then, when I was six and he adopted me when I was eight. My dad didn’t have to adopt me, he didn’t have to call me his daughter, he could have just been like half of my friends’ stepdads and give me a place to live and nothing else. But my dad was my biggest supporter from day one. He convinced my mom to let me join the dance team and show choir instead of science club, he was the one that talked my mom down from probably killing me when they found out I was only studying music and not music and political science at NYU. I am who I am today because he is my dad. And this song just says everything I’ve always thought about him.”
Day 23 - A song from your childhood
Una Lacrima Sul Viso by Bobby Solo
“But Franny, aren’t you a Cambodian raised in the US? Yes, but you were fooled. My very white father is also an immigrant. He is from Switzerland and while he didn’t teach me to speak Italian and German growing up, he played German, Italian, and French records all the time. My parents often spoke to each other in French and I picked up some French but properly studied it starting in high school, and I didn’t study Italian until college -- and my German is still …. [points to a spot on the screen where she later inserted a card linking to a video on her cousin Köbi Framagucci’s YouTube channel titled ‘Can My American Cousin Speak German?’ where he tests her Standard and Swiss German speaking and comprehension]. But hell if I couldn’t sing every one of the songs from my father’s French, German, and Italian record before I knew what the words even meant.”
Day 24 - A song that gives you chill vibes
Glorify by Ivan & Alyosha
“Dan(iel Maitland) and I actually have an entire playlist on my Spotify accounts of songs to listen to to get us out of writers’ block. And one that I often will put on repeat and just absorb through my headphones with my eyes closed is a song called Glorify by Ivan & Alyosha. I think it touches on a lot of the themes I include in my songwriting. Christian mythology, the darker side of humanity, it often reminds me of what I love about songwriting. If you say please I might drop a link to that playlist.”
Day 25 - A song that’s your signature song
Long Gone Lonesome Blues by Hank Williams“Right, so I chose this instead of a Kitty Wells song or I Get A Kick Out of You (her being
featured on a 2005
recording propelled her career majorly) because if you’re familiar with me you might have seen a video that went around in like….2017? 2016? of Dan(iel Maitland) and I doin’ the song at our hometown bar in 2014. I posted it in response to some tweets because hoes mad when a WOC calls out racism and sexism in the Nashville music industry. ‘Bet she don’t even know Hank’, really? You think I wouldn’t know the history of one of the two music industries I work in? Please. Anyway, she knows Hank and nails the incredibly technical yodel -- the
most difficult
one in Hank’s songbook - in Long Gone Lonesome Blues. Mm...Lovesick Blues though, that also strikes fear into my heart. Anyway stay mad I guess?”
Day 26 - A song by your favorite band
Gun Shy by 10,000 Maniacs
“10,000 Maniacs was one of my favorite bands when I was in like 5th grade through 10th. I listened to them for a little while after Natalie Merchant left for a solo career, but the Natalie Merchant era was really what resonated with me the most. Gun Shy was a bit too advanced for my little 5th, 7th grade ears to really appreciate when I first discovered the album In My Tribe. Merchant’s voice -- because like, I don’t have a very conventional voice either, so her and Dolores O’Riordan really changed my entire perspective on what a woman’s voice can sound like in rock music. Um, yeah, so her voice more than the lyrics just wowed me. And as I got closer to graduating high school and especially in college I actually understood what What’s The Matter Here, Hey Jack Kerouac, and Gun Shy were talking about. Gun Shy...really became a significant song to me because...being born in 1980 I grew up in a relatively peaceful time. The Cold War was all but thawed by my tenth birthday. But I was getting ready to leave my then-boyfriend-now-husband’s apartment for class at NYU on the morning of 9/11. We stood in line for hours to donate blood. And then my government invaded two completely unrelated countries and jingoism and terrifying, fervent nationalism, and xenophobia just smacked me in the face. And friends of mine from high school were convicted to drop out of college and join the Army, and died, for an unjust, imperialist war, and suddenly Phil Ochs, John Prine, and Bob Dylan lyrics hit a lot different, and I understood what Gun Shy was really about.”
Day 27 - A song you hate by an artist you love
Mrs.Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel
“Paul Simon is one of my favorite songwriters ever, um, and I actually used to like Mrs. Robinson….until I got married and everyone sang it at me. It’s kind of my fault, I did choose to take my husband’s last name. And I leaned into it by making my social media handles all Mrs. Robinson...but still. Only play the song around me if you want to die.”
Day 28 - A song that a younger you would have loved
Mean by Taylor Swift
“I’m so genuinely glad that I am older than Taylor Swift. Middle school Franny did not need Taylor Swift to enable me and fuel my ego. Some of her singles, while not really 35 and 40 year old Franny’s cup of tea, young me would have played until my mother hid the record or cassette from me. Although - fuck if Tim McGraw didn’t immediately give my happily married ass flashbacks to my first love and make me bawl like a baby? Right, so when Speak Now came out and I listened to it, Mean, while not a song that adult me has listened to maybe more like ten times, I immediately thought ‘wow, I needed this song when I was in middle and high school.’ I could literally picture 7th grade me with my little guitar and my little cowboy boots my dad bought for me singing this at the talent show making eye contact with the kids who bullied me as if it was some kind of own when it’s not. I could still, almost thirty years later, name them if I really wanted. So, for 7th grade me, Mean by Taylor Swift.”
Day 29- A song that reminds you of your partner/spouse
ផាត់ជាយបណ្តូលចិត្ / Phat Cheay Bon'dol Chet by Sinn Sisamuth (translation) (female singer covering it) (modern, studio recording of a male and female singer dueting it) (a cool violin cover) (another female singer) (cool guitar cover)
Feat. some members of Seoul Hanoi’d. Andy Chaiyaporn (violin), Max Cho (piano), Jodie Batbayar (cello), Aisulu Niyazova-Li (percussion) and Franny has her guitar
“The song, lyrically, only reminds me of my husband a little bit. But Phat Cheay Bondol Chet has several memories with my husband attached to it. The first time he heard me sing in Khmer was at my mother’s house in Atlanta when I had him visit the first time to meet my parents. My mom had a little dinner party at our house to show him off, like Asian moms do when they think their daughter snags a good one, and I was hand washing the dishes while my mom and the other Cambodian parents were listening to Sinn Sisamuth records. I’ve always loved the song I’ll be showing y’all today, like I’ve always just stopped what I was doing and -- so it came on and I just started singing along without really being aware of it. And then at a different diaspora get together that summer, that song came on and I just kinda. Pulled him aside to the side yard of that person’s house to look at the stars with him and translated the song. It’s one of the Khmer songs he instantly recognizes now, so it’s special.”
Franny did NOT say in the video that college her 100% had him sit in the grass with her outside that person’s house, where nobody could see, so she could makeout with him
Day 30- A song by one of your favorite songwriters
Reincarnation by Roger Miller
Feat. Seoul Hanoi’d, done more in the style of the Cake cover
Also instead of singing the lyric “you’re a girl, I’m a boy” she goes “you’re a girl, so am I” because she doesn’t ever change pronouns, she just makes it gay because she is a bi-con
“Roger Miller, to me, is as important as Dolly Parton, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, in the American songbook. He’s not as talked about which is a shame because his discography is iconic. Getting to be a part of King of The Road was one of the highlights of my career.”
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Jade/Onyx Interview
@jade-ametrine
As the first people being interviewed, Onyx had little idea of what to expect from the new interviewer. He had only heard what his mentor and stylists had told the two of them as they were being pruned and perfected for the eyes of the Capitol. It seemed like she was a force to be reckoned with - something that terrified Onyx.
In his head, he was sure they were going to have a kind, sensitive soul like they had grown accustomed to over the past ten years of the games, but after their unexpected death last year, it seemed the Capitol had made some very different arrangements.
But he had Jade with him, and as long as they stuck to the plan, the two of them would be just fine. That’s what he tried to think as the two of them were marched over to the side of the stage.
The next part was a little bit of a blur for Onyx. All too quickly their names were being called out and they were parading themselves across the stage. Greetings were exchanged, and Onyx felt Dora’s warm, wet kiss against his cheek, but nothing else seemed to stick. He felt Jade’s arm, gently guiding him on to the sofa, and forced himself to pay more attention. He couldn’t afford to miss anything here.
“Now,” Dora said, clapping her hands together and fixing her eyes on Jade, “first things first - Jade, the one to watch - how does it feel to have secured that title two times over?” She leaned a little closer in anticipation.
“It feels correct.” Jade laughed, beaming out at the audience members that laughed along with her. “I mean, they can’t exactly put me right on the pedestal straight away but I really do love you all for voting that I’m the one you’ve all got your eye on!” Her wink to the camera’s was solely for those not in the live studio audience, Jade knew if she played effervescent and bubbly that The Capitol would see a side of her that wasn’t all about the training or the scores, she had to be likeable as well as skilled.
Dora gave a small gasp and waved her hand in the air, all but brushing off Jade’s answer entirely as she turned to Onyx and gripped his leg, giving it a squeeze. Onyx started, trying to maintain some sense of composure as the woman rounded on him.
“Does it bother you, being in Jade’s shadow throughout this whole process?”
Onyx frowned, looking from Jade to Dora and then back to Jade. Why would it bother him? He shook his head and cleared his throat, trying to keep his voice calm and even.
“Not at all. It’s hard to ignore how good Jade is at what she does, and I’m not about to complain about it either.”
Dora nodded her head sagely, letting go of Onyx’s leg and moving back in her chair.
“Yes, yes. “We’ve all been wondering what the exact nature of your relationship is.” She waved her hand around to reference the audience. “Is it merely platonic… or perhaps something more?”
Dora raised an eyebrow, her smile growing as the crowd began to cheer.
“We’re, uh…” Onyx gave Jade a sheepish smile. Their relationship had changed in immeasurable ways in the short time they had spent in the Capitol, with some of that blame falling on the Capitol’s shoulders - but Onyx knew they were referring to the almost kiss. His almost kiss. “We’ve known each other since we were kids. No one knows me better than she does.”
Onyx used this moment to take Jade’s hand in his, feeling rather like a schoolboy who was experiencing his first crush under the blinding spotlight of the Capitol.
“It seems stupid that I haven’t kissed her before now.”
Jade held Onyx’s hand tightly in hers, that feeling of anxiety that they could be separated rising in her again as she gripped his hand softly enough that it didn’t hurt but hard enough that he would feel it. If he was going to make a move she knew that now was the time he had to do it. With a practiced movement she rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes letting the Capitol’s anticipation build. Raising her head to look directly at the boy she’d known for so long, she felt her face beaming with adoration for him. Now she thought to herself. He has to do it now.
Onyx hated this. He would have preferred to do it anywhere except here. But they had little choice in the matter. Their ability to survive the games depended upon this moment, so he reached towards her, tracing the edge of her jaw before cupping her cheek with his hand. My Jade, he thought as he looked into her eyes, and all of a sudden the pressure from the Capitol melted away. Their lips brushed, softly at first, as though he was asking for permission, and then any pretence of control he had was gone as he kissed her again, and again, and again.
It was only at the sound of Dara clearing her throat that he moved away, wrapping an arm around Jade and choosing to pull her closer to him instead. He tried to focus on Dora, but all he could think about was Jade’s lips on his and how badly he wanted to kiss her again.
It was clear to Jade that Onyx was playing this moment for all that it was worth, but she couldn’t decide whether it was for The Capitol or for himself, she felt her cheeks flush with nervousness and excitement, her first real kiss, in front of all of these people. She wasn’t mad at the idea, but she didn’t want to give the Capitol enough time to notice that this was something completely new to her, she broke away and grinned into Onyx’s face, drinking in his happiness and letting it wash over her too.
“Oh!” Dora exclaimed, fanning herself vigorously with her hand. “I do believe we have a Capitol Exclusive!” She played up to the audience, joining in with their cooing and ahhing and pretending to blush.
Meanwhile, Onyx and Jade only had eyes for each other. Onyx couldn’t keep his goofy smile off his face as he looked at her, the noise of the audience becoming a mere murmur as his head spun at a mile a minute. He hadn’t always wanted to kiss her. There was a time where they were just friends. In fact, it was only in the run up to the Capitol that he had started to realise just how lost he really was without Jade. He couldn’t help but wonder if this would have happened if they hadn’t ended up in the Games.
“I’m getting all hot under my collar just looking at the pair of you.” Dora declared, pulling their gaze back to her as she continued on with the show. “I could sit here all day gushing about the pair of you, but alas, we have one more question before our time together is over.”
She paused for a moment, waiting for the crowd to settle down.
“Your training scores were very surprising to us. Getting a twelve must mean you did something right!” She gave a shrill laugh before turning her gaze to Onyx again, her face suddenly full of concern. “How did you feel when you saw your training scores?”
Jade knew that the question was coming but refused to balk at it, instead steeling herself with another smile and letting Onyx reply first, it was important to her that this was his moment to shine.
“You know,” he said, glancing over at Jade, “I think I went into that evaluation a little distracted. I mean, can you blame me?” His hand rested itself on Jade’s thigh as he laughed along with the audience, the movement feeling surprisingly natural to him.
“It was definitely a wake-up call.” He continued as the laughter died down. “Jade alone is a force to be reckoned with, of course, but I need to keep my focus if I want to make sure I can be there for her. That’s the most important thing for me.”
I was all that Jade could do to laugh in the right places along with the audience and respond with humility at Onyx fawning over her. What she wanted to do was tell everyone just how much Onyx could do and how dangerous he could be in a fight, but he was right, he could get distracted and it appeared that The Capitol were trying their best to distract the pair of them. Jade felt a sudden pang of panic in her chest as she realised what The Capitol had done to others before Onyx that she’d held dear. Her Mother, Her Father. Jade pushed through the doubt to answer calmly.
“I think that we're both caught up in each other. He gets so distracted.” Jade laughed and turned once again to the camera, “You know how it is, but I think that it focussed us both into realising that as long as we’re together we’ll win this and get to the other side, and back home.” Jade’s attention turned back to Onyx and she drank him in again. “I couldn’t do it without him.”
Dora sighed, she’d fallen for their plan hook line and sinker, they were star crossed lovers that had loved each other for all this time. They would be going into this together and nothing would tear them apart, not even the arena, not even The Capitol. The host held her hands to her chest and let out another sigh, only to be snapped from her revelry by a loud buzzer that made everyone jump including the tributes, audience and host.
“Oh--” Dora said, looking over towards one of the cameras. “Is that our time? Such a shame.” She ushered the two of them to their feet, her picture-perfect smile plastered on her face as she wrapped her bony arms around them.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to meet the two of you.” She gripped Jade’s arm, giving her a pointed stare. “And hopefully you’ll be following in your father’s footsteps any day now, hm?”
“You wish.” Jade hissed back, ripping her arm from Dora’s grasp. “You’re first on my list if I get out, watch your back Tales.”
Dora let out a little tinkle of a laugh and then turned to face the audience once more, the altercation all but invisible to the audience watching at home.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, please give it up for District One’s finest: Jade Ametrine and Onyx Feldspar!”
“I swear.” Jade growled as soon as they were out of view of the cameras. “We’re winning this, I’m coming back and I’m going to kick that bitch from here to kingdom come.”
As they began to make their way off the stage, clips began playing behind them of people they knew back home. Friends and family, the people they had trained with and danced with - even the local club owner had been taken in to be interviewed, all of them wishing Jade and Onyx the best of luck as they took their leave, the sounds of their friends well-wishes reverberating around them as their interview came to a close.
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Books - February 2020
Books read: The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White, The Chief’s Daughter by Rosemary Sutcliff, Dark Matter by Michelle Paver, and The Prisoner of St Kilda (non-fiction) by Margaret Macaulay.
Relevant waffle below the cut!
The Sword in the Stone - T.H. White
I have extremely mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, it’s a work of soaring imagination and eloquence, full of whimsy and humour and character, and White's profound love for the natural world is there in abundance. On the other, there's something about the narrative voice I never quite engaged with, and there are so many dry asides into the minutiae of knightly life (all those lists of the different sorts of hawks and hounds!! x__x), that picking it up again sometimes felt like a bit of a chore. Which explains why it took me about two weeks to get through it! The plan was to read the rest of The Once and Future King if I got on with this first part, but I'm putting it on the back-burner for now.
The whole subplot with King Pellinore and the Questing Beast was a delight, though. I could happily have read a whole book of that by itself!
The Chief’s Daughter - Rosemary Sutcliff (short story)
Another short piece, intended for younger readers (though as always, readily enjoyable for adults). Set in Bronze Age Wales, it centres on the titular chief’s daughter, who takes a great risk to help her friend, a captured Irish boy, and save him from being sacrificed to bring back the water of the spring that nourishes her tribe.
The female protagonist is unusual for Sutcliff. I liked Nessan: she was loyal, brave, and resourceful, in the best Sutcliffian style, and I rather wish this had been a full-length novel, or at least a novella, because I'd love to see more about how her friendship with Dara grew up.
Apart from that, all of Sutcliff's classic hallmarks are here: beautiful evocations of time and place, friendship across cultures, and an act of compassion proving to be the wellspring (har har) that saves the day in the end. (Maybe one to keep in mind for Yuletide or next Sutcliff Swap?)
Dark Matter - Michelle Paver
This is one for you Terrorites, if you haven’t read it already! It’s a wonderfully atmospheric ghost story - chilling in more ways than one. Honestly, it's worth reading for the setting alone. Paver's Arctic is so evocatively described, with all its beauty and savagery, making me long to visit while at the same time knowing I could never handle it. :P I love her reconstruction of a 1930s scientific expedition, too, and I'm keen to chase down some of the sources she mentions in the author Q&A at the end of my copy.
The characters are all well-drawn, particularly protagonist Jack, and I especially love the bond that grows up between him and Isaak the husky. <3
As for the ghost story, it's a good 'un. Paver mentions M.R. James as one of her favourite horror writers, and the Jamesian influence is definitely there. The suspense is breathtaking, with all the building layers of menace and mystery and isolation and suggestion, with things half-seen and half-heard. One of the reviews on the back cover says, "The ultimate test of a good ghost story is, surely, whether you feel panicked reading it in bed at midnight." Well, I read it mostly during the day, by the window with the wintry sunlight coming through, and I still got the heebie-jeebies, so I'd consider that a win!
The Prisoner of St Kilda - Margaret Macaulay
Before reading this, I only knew the basic facts about Rachel Erskine, Lady Grange. Married to a senior Scottish lawyer in the early eighteenth century, she tried to blackmail her husband into getting rid of his London mistress by threatening to expose his Jacobite connections. In response, he and his friends (including no less a personage than Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat - you knew he had to be involved somehow!) arranged to have her abducted and packaged off to the Highlands, where she spent the rest of her life being passed around the Hebrides, spending the better part of that time on the incredibly remote island of St Kilda.
It's an incredible story, a case of truth being stranger, and more outrageous, than fiction, and Macaulay tells it well, making this a compelling read as well as an informative one. She also does an admirable job of sifting through the various and extremely partisan sources, pointing out what makes them valuable as well as suspect, to come at a balanced account of the story of the Granges. In her hands, the lady herself becomes a figure deserving of our sympathy for her ruthless treatment, though with serious anger management issues that gave her a singular talent for making enemies.
My main criticism is that although the social and political context is well laid out, the book felt a bit short on the more personal details you might expect from a biography. Assuming the information still exists, I'd have liked to know a bit more about the Granges' earlier relationship, or Lady Grange's friendship with the minister of St Kilda and his wife, which is mentioned but never really delved into. I could also have wished for more information about their children, and about Fanny Lindsay, Lord Grange's mistress and second wife. Or more about Lord Grange scuppering his later political career by ranting about witches in Parliament! However, I can well understand why Macaulay might have chosen not to go there, to keep to the thread of the main story and not get bogged down in too much unnecessary fluff.
Macaulay also states that "Grange destroyed his wife's character so successfully that she has never shaken off the image of an unbalanced termagant," and to be honest, the book does little to redress the balance. Even the more sympathetic sources, like the letters from her children while they were still trying to keep the peace, suggest Lady Grange was - um - something of a harridan. There are flashes of more sympathetic traits: as well as her friendship with the minister, there's a mention of how she tried to alleviate the poverty of the St Kildans as best she could in her situation - but there's no mention of how. And nice little touches, like her picking up enough Gaelic to enjoy listening to the islanders' songs and stories, or asking the St Kildan girls to come and dance for her, are only mentioned in passing, or even relegated to a mention in the appendices. I fully understand that this might be inevitable, if the relevant sources are only fleeting themselves, but if it was possible to spend a bit more time on these things, it might have allowed us a glimpse of a more rounded personality. As it is, the book didn't do much to shake off my previous, relatively uninformed opinion that the Granges might not have been well-matched, but they rather deserved each other!
Despite these criticisms, I did rate the book a lot. It's good history, and a good read too. (Also made me want to read Kidnapped again - it’s been a couple of years. I’m pretty sure Lady Grange is referenced too, either in it or Catriona.)
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Four Seasons Meme: Mughal Women of History
For @parlegee! Gulbadan Banu, Ruqaiyya, Arjumand Banu/Mumtaz Mahal, and Jahanara behind the cut
GULBADAN BANU
Spring
the circumstances of his/her birth | favorite (or least favorite) family member | first word | happiest birthday | gender swap au
Of all Humayan’s brothers, Ghafur causes him the least trouble. True, his oldest brother is almost fifteen years older, and more a father than the faint memory of the great Babur; but such obedience is still remarkable. Hindal, Kamran, and Askari all demand more and more of their brother, but Ghafur is content to be left alone with his studies.
Humayun asks, once, if it doesn’t sting to be the son of a conqueror with no land of his own; his brother, however, only smiles insolently. “You might be ruler of the world, brother,” he says, “but I am master of the thousands that I discover in my books.”
Summer
fantasy | love language of choice | a pet or other animal companion| the decoration of their bedroom| fusion au
From afar, the ladies of the Emperor’s household can only be identified from each other by their colors of their veils--and the nature of the daemons that trail after them. Hamida bears a stoat, stern and reliable; Bega Begum manifests a crowd of butterflies that obey her beck and call. Gulbadan--well, Gulbadan’s is wasted on her, so her sisters-in-law tease; she is so much more often to be found tucked away in the library rather than the gardens. But on the rare occasions when she can be coaxed into the sunlight, her pheasant’s coat catches the eye and ensnares the mind--and Gulbadan, absent-minded, only plucks another of its fine feathers to use as a pen.
Fall
the one person/cause/ideal they would sacrifice everything for| storms| nightmare | the lie(s) he/she has told | hero/villain reversal au
The father she creates for her nephew is sure and self-assured, his mistakes nothing more than amusing stories. Jalal loves him, she knows; he asks her to repeat his favorite tales again and again, until she thinks she will tire of it. Gulbadan refuses to feel guilty for it. The Humayan-who-isn’t might be concocted of lies, but at least they are pretty ones, but the love he feels for his son is sincere--and shared by Gulbadan herself. Her heart is clear, her lips admit to no crime, and her nephew content: and nothing else concerns her.
Winter
haunting | tarot | then and now | gods and mortals | reincarnation au/historical era swap
There are times when Gulbadan wonders if she has not been been born to the wrong era: that instead she should have been better served looking back at this great deeds from afar. Certainly she goes out of her way not to interfere with her nephew’s reign other than to give what advice she was—and what good can that do? But when, on her deathbed, she confides this secret shame to Jalal, he protests.
“I look ahead always, Aunt,” he reminds her. “But only because I have you to look behind: How was I ever to rule if you did not keep me from repeating the mistakes of our past?”
That, at least, is something. She closes her eyes and slips into death.
RUQAIYYA
Spring
the circumstances of his/her birth | favorite (or least favorite) family member | first word | happiest birthday | gender swap au
Jalal is her husband, yes, but more than that, he is the one constant companion from her childhood. Of course she has always known they must wed, even if it made both their hearts sink; but that has never meant they cannot be friends. If anything, their alliance and agreement is even more important—the empire of Babur stretches forth before him, and it will take both their efforts to protect it.
Ruqaiyya must wed, for a woman cannot hold the destiny of an empire in her hand alone—but if she must, she is grateful it shall be Jalal.
Summer
fantasy | love language of choice | a pet or other animal companion| the decoration of their bedroom| fusion au
Ruqaiyya does not love, not as others do.
Not for her the way of poetry or sighs; not for her kisses or caresses. When they are alone, Jalal treats her as chastely as he does his sisters, and she would have it no other way. What she offers him in return is the sharpness of her mind and the keenness of her judgment: the strength to make the sacrifices he cannot make alone. Perhaps he knows it, perhaps not: but to be suffered in silence is the nature of her love—not towards her husband, but rather the power he commands.
Fall
the one person/cause/ideal they would sacrifice everything for| storms| nightmare | the lie(s) he/she has told | hero/villain reversal au
“Are you my mother?” Khurram asks, and a thousand half-truths crowd into Ruqaiyya’s mind.
I ought to be, is an option, and In every way that matters, but what comes out is: “Yes.”
Khurram nods in satisfaction, and she thinks that will be the of it; but the next time Jagat Gosain is permitted to see her son and picks him up impetuously, Khurram wails and stretches out his hands to Ruqaiyya instead.
Jagat Gosain’s face pales, but she can say nothing against the Empress. A pity for the poor girl, but compared to what Ruqaiyya hopes to create: a successor for Jalal, whose sons shall secure the Empire forever? Any number of lies is worth it.
She only wishes she could believe this herself.
Winter
haunting | tarot | then and now | gods and mortals | reincarnation au/historical era swap
When it’s time for the board to announce their decision as to next CEO, there is only one choice possible: Jalal, of course--more photogenic and popular by far. Ruqaiyya understands this.
But in the same vein, when the vote for COO must be made-- the second-highest ranking officer, and the silently acknowledged power behind the throne--Ruqaiyya expects only to hear her name.
She is not disappointed; she never is.
ARJUMAND BANU
Spring
the circumstances of his/her birth | favorite (or least favorite) family member | first word | happiest birthday | gender swap au
When Arjumand grows up, she swears she’ll be just like her aunt.
“Impossible task!” pronounces Nur Jahan herself. “Unless you learn some manners, you wild thing. Watching swordfights and whooping at elephants--what prince will have you then?”
So Arjumand tempers herself, learns to embroider and smile prettily; to peer as keenly at documents as does her aunt. Only this she cannot bear: to slip her spouse certain potions and herbs to send him into a happy stupor.
“It contents him,” says Nur Jahan. “It’s for the best.” For the empire, perhaps--what country would not prosper with Nur Jahan’s steady hand at the helm?--but not Khurram. Never Khurram.
“I think,” says her aunt, when Arjumand is sixteen, “that I have underestimated you, my dear.” So she has said before; so all her enemies quake to hear.
Arjumand beams with delight.
Summer
fantasy | love language of choice | a pet or other animal companion| the decoration of their bedroom| fusion au
Khurram showers her with gifts, but Arjumand returns them all only with silence.
A better bargain that it seems at first; during the day, her husband is surrounded by flatterers and flunkies, who chatter like mynahs of what he can do for them. The nights he spends with her (most, if she’s honest) should, she judges, should instead offer some degree of peace. Besides, its her presence he craves, steady and faithful, unwilling to leave his side, no matter what comes -- should they face even exile, even intrigue, even the anger of the aunt Arjumand had once adored.
She speaks her devotion in such a way; and Khurram, sensitive to all she does, hears.
Fall
the one person/cause/ideal they would sacrifice everything for| storms| nightmare | the lie(s) he/she has told | hero/villain reversal au
Arjumand is her aunt’s creature, and so she will remain.
She learns to use her wiles to win her whatever she desires; she learns to wheedle and whine when she does not get her way. She looks at Khurram, and, as pleasing as she finds him, knows she deserves better. Nur Jahan, approving, agrees.
Arjumand smiles and simpers and steals away to confess all her aunt. And when, one by one, all Jahangir’s sons fall, she waits to see which shall be the victor she will wed.
Winter
haunting | tarot | then and now | gods and mortals | reincarnation au/historical era swap
All she wants is not to be forgotten.
The world thinks she insists on a memorial unlike any other; and who would begrudge a dying woman the the money her husband must spend to fulfill her wish? But what she wants is to be more than a faint memory that Khurram reflects on with mild indulgence, a cipher her children barely recall. To have them share stories of what she did and what she looked like would have been enough: but, she supposes, the palace of the Taj will do well enough.
In this way, at least, her spirit will survive.
JAHANARA
Spring
the circumstances of his/her birth | favorite (or least favorite) family member | first word | happiest birthday | gender swap au
Jahanara is born into love. She realizes only later that not everyone is so fortunate, but so she is. She is the second child born of the pleasure her parents find in each other: her sister Hur-al-Nisa not quite a year her senior, and the two of them coo to each other from their cradles until, one day, when she is barely two, Jahanara finds the bed next to hers empty, never again to be filled with her sister’s body.
Jahanara is born into love, and at first knows only joy; but all too soon, learns what it is to mourn.
Summer
fantasy | love language of choice | a pet or other animal companion| the decoration of their bedroom| fusion au
Her rooms are furnished more elegantly than any other woman’s; such is the privilege of an Emperor’s beloved daughter, and, later, another’s favorite sister. They are perfumed with foreign scents, brought from faraway lands, patterned with delicate rugs; heavy gold trinkets are gathered in chests to the side. The stuff of every woman’s dreams--and she would give it all up in an instant, if only to see Mother, or Dara, just once more again.
Fall
the one person/cause/ideal they would sacrifice everything for| storms| nightmare | the lie(s) he/she has told | hero/villain reversal au
In her nightmares, Mother watches her with empty eyes.
“I left you with one task, Jannu,” she whispers; and Jahanara’s mouth opens, to protest that she could not know that Roshanara and Aurangazeb would turn against Father, that Dara would prove such a fool, that Jahanara herself would join him in the end.
Instead she tries to divert what she can of the blame. “If you had lived,” she tells Mother, “none of this would come to pass.”
Mother does not argue; Mother cannot argue with that. Instead she leaves, as she always does, and Jahanara is left behind, as ever, with only the ache of loneliness in her abdomen.
Winter
haunting | tarot | then and now | gods and mortals | reincarnation au/historical era swap
One of the gifts her father receives from visitors is a deck of cards: some painted with figures entirely unknown to her, and some as unpleasant as they are striking. They are used to foretell the future, Father explains as he allows them to examine them; but surely it must be meant only for others, Jahanara decides. None of those strike her with anything like familiarity or truth.
Save, that is, for that which features a woman enthroned, crown upon her head, scepter loosely held in her hand. The Empress, the ambassador translates, and Jahanara smiles with satisfaction.
#history#mughal history#gulbadan banu#ruqaiyya#arjumand banu#mumtaz mahal#jahanara#four seasons character meme
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To understand what the Trump administration is thinking about separating families and locking kids up at the border, you have to understand Stephen Miller’s foundational political belief: It’s better to stir controversy, at any price, than it is to engage constructively.
The architect of Donald Trump’s immigration policy and the White House’s resident troll, the 32-year-old White House senior policy adviser believes it’s good to “trigger the libs,” so to speak, with “the purpose of enlightenment.” To Miller, working constructively across the aisle isn’t as useful as “melting snowflakes.”
To Miller, there’s no reason to moderate a view or a policy, especially not when it comes to his deepest passion: immigration restrictionism. It’s subject he was passionate about even in high school and one over which he bonded with former boss, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, a longtime immigration hardliner. It’s no wonder, then, that Miller designed the initial version of Trump’s travel ban, barring people from several majority-Muslim countries from entering the US for 90 days, and refugees for 120 days.
As Republicans are beginning to call the Trump policy of separating children and parents at the border utterly cruel, Miller’s response is a reminder that not only does he not care, the cruelty is by design. “No nation can have the policy that whole classes of people are immune from immigration law or enforcement,” Miller said in an interview with the New York Times. Enforcing that policy was a “simple decision.”
The popularity of the family separation policy is plummeting, and conservative pundits and politicians are jumping ship en masse. Even Trump administration officials who supported the separation policy in early 2017 are now attempting to pretend such a policy doesn’t exist.
Miller’s strategy of “melting snowflakes” might be his most deeply held belief. But on family separation, it’s divided the right and pushed the left back into the activist square.
My colleague Dara Lind has a terrific explainer on the family separation policy:
As a matter of policy, the US government is separating families who seek asylum in the US by crossing the border illegally. Dozens of parents are being split from their children each day — the children labeled “unaccompanied minors” and sent to government custody or foster care, the parents labeled criminals and sent to jail.
Per Lind’s research, between October 1, 2017, and May 31, 2018, at least 2,700 children have been split from their parents.
Family separation isn’t based on any law, and such policies may have had their origins in previous administrations — as Lind pointed out, the law addressing unaccompanied children was passed in 2008 and signed by President George W. Bush. But while Trump administration officials argue that they’re simply “doing their jobs,” videos released by Border Patrol of young children and women being kept in cages are causing an uproar across the country.
BREAKING: Border Patrol @CBP just gave us this video of the detention facility we toured yesterday in McAllen, Texas. We weren’t allowed to bring in cameras, or interview anyone. To be clear: this is government handout video. pic.twitter.com/Zjy80qIZFZ
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) June 18, 2018
Some conservative personalities have attempted to provide cover for the administration, arguing that cages aren’t cages, for example.
But overall, Trump’s White House is receiving significant pushback from conservatives, including members of Congress with high profiles within the right, and even pastors on Trump’s evangelical advisory board. Former first lady Laura Bush wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post calling for a “more moral” answer to the problem of illegal border crossings, while Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) told CNN that Trump could “stop this policy with a phone call,” adding, “If you don’t like families being separated, you can go tell DHS stop doing it.”
Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) called the policy “horrible,” adding this message to Trump: “This is not a right or left issue. This is right or wrong. This is what it takes to be the leader of the free world. This is what it takes to be the leader of a free country.”
In a Facebook post, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) wrote of the policy: “Family separation is wicked. It is harmful to kids and absolutely should NOT be the default U.S. policy. Americans are better than this.” And Sasse pointed out that while “some in the administration have decided that this cruel policy increases their legislative leverage … This is wrong. Americans do not take children hostage, period.”
It’s that final point that’s received significant pushback — that children are being used as leverage to force Democrats to agree to a border wall or another form of immigration restriction. (Per a White House leaker: “The thinking in the building is to force people to the table.”) Even former Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly said that the Trump administration “will not win on this one.”
The government should know how bad this looks and how innocent children are actually suffering. That kind of scenario is unacceptable to most Americans as exemplified by former First Lady Laura Bush’s withering criticism. https://t.co/F4PKL00xLS
— Bill O’Reilly (@BillOReilly) June 18, 2018
The Trump administration hasn’t really tried to win the public conversation on family separations. As conservative writer Ross Douthat pointed out on Twitter, the policy didn’t begin with a public discussion or explanation for separating young children from their parents, or by making the case to Congress for more family detention facilities. It started by taking kids from their parents first and attempting to assuage demands for legislation later.
You can’t say “we’re being forced into this” if you didn’t make any effort to sell the public and Congress on the alternative system before you chose this one. And the fact that the Trump WH doesn’t do normal salesmanship/policymaking, bc incompetence, is an insufficient excuse.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) June 18, 2018
That’s not a bug within the Trumpian system, it’s a feature of Stephen Miller’s approach. It’s also similar to the approach of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who agreed publicly with Miller in 2016 about the purported “massive problem” of immigration and who said Sunday on ABC’s This Week: “I don’t think you have to justify it.”
Miller’s reason for being in the White House and in politics is immigration restrictionism. When he joined the Trump campaign in 2015, conservative polemicist and immigration hardliner Ann Coulter tweeted, “I’m in heaven!”
And nothing has changed since 2015. As Miller told Breitbart in May, he believes the border with Mexico “is the fundamental political contrast and political debate that is unfolding right now.”
But Miller has no interest in convincing the opposition of the correctness of his views. Like he did in high school and in college at Duke University, he simply wants to enrage. As National Review columnist Dan McLaughlin told me, this follows his boss’ style of political discourse. “A hallmark of the Trump approach to politics is the assumption that politics is all about activating emotional reactions, not persuading anyone to change their mind.” In short, “triggering the libs.”
Republicans are trying to win the 2018 midterms. For members of Congress, that includes motivating the base — but it’s also about winning over moderates and independents too.
The Trump-Miller approach plays well with Breitbart readers and immigration restrictionists. But it’s not turning out to be hugely popular among Republicans. In the first Quinnipiac poll on children being separated from their parents at the border, voters oppose it 66 to 27. And though Republicans support it 55 to 35, that’s incredibly low in comparison to Republican support for, say, Trump himself.
Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway distanced herself from the policy, telling Meet the Press that “nobody likes this policy.”
FULL INTERVIEW: @KellyannePolls joins #MTP in an exclusive interview and says, “As a mother, as a Catholic, as someone with a conscience… I will tell you nobody likes this policy,” on the issue of family separation at the border.https://t.co/FBm12m7lI4
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 17, 2018
It’s no wonder, then, that faced with such opposition, members of the administration not named Stephen Miller have resorted to arguing that the family separation policy isn’t a real policy at all. (This was before saying a day later that children taken away from their families by that “nonexistent” policy were being well-treated.)
But despite the linguistic gymnastics, the fundamental policy remains unchanged, as does the political strategy. The outrage and hoopla around the cruelty of the policy is the whole point. Even if the strategy backfires in the fall midterms, Miller’s game — drive the outrage, refuse to retreat — will remain the same.
Original Source -> Stephen Miller believes in controversy as political strategy, even if it means jailing children
via The Conservative Brief
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New Post has been published on https://www.monkeyandelf.com/full-transcript-former-attorney-general-eric-holder-and-uber-general-counsel-tony-west-on-recode-decode/
Full transcript: Former Attorney General Eric Holder and Uber General Counsel Tony West on Recode Decode
On this special edition of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Tony West and Eric Holder joined Kara onstage at the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign event in San Francisco to talk about the current spate of sexual harassment allegations and the subsequent fallout, plus the ongoing legal challenges that still exist for Uber. West is Uber’s new general counsel, and Holder is the attorney general who investigated Uber’s company dysfunction.
You can listen to the entire interview in the audio player below. We’ve also provided a lightly edited complete transcript of their conversation.
If you like this, be sure to subscribe to Recode Decode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Overcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Kara Swisher: Recode Radio presents Recode Decode, coming to you from the Vox Media podcast network. Hi, I’m Kara Swisher, executive editor of Recode. You may know me as an undercover Uber driver, my alias is Sarah Kwisher, but in my spare time I talk tech. You’re listening to Recode Decode, a podcast about tech and media’s key players, big ideas and how they’re changing the world we live in. You can find more episodes of Recode Decode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play Music or wherever you listen to podcasts, or just visit recode.net/podcast for more.
Today we’re going to play an interview I conducted at an event hosted by the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign in San Francisco. I talked to former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder and Uber General Counsel Tony West about everything that has happened at Uber in 2017. Let’s take a listen.
Thank you so much. I like your whole thing about allies and power, but I’ve got to say, you really just should be in power.
Tony West: I agree with that.
KS: I’m the CEO of my company. I boss around men all day long and it’s totally enjoyable, including my two poor sons who have to put up with it. Anyway, I am well known as a grumpy old lady who makes life hard for mostly white young men of Silicon Valley.
Eric Holder: That’s good.
But now I’m moving on here, I’m expending. In any case, we’re going to start by talking about this idea of allies. But I do … it’s really hard for me not to start with the fact that you’re both involved with Uber, which is probably one of the most toxic cultures I’ve ever seen in my … And I was there …
TW: You know, he was involved with Uber before I was involved with Uber.
That’s true.
EH: I’m the fixer, remember?
I’m going to preface that, that it’s not your fault, that it’s not your fault but now it’s your responsibility.
TW: That’s right, that’s right. That’s right.
But I don’t say that lightly. I don’t say that lightly because I literally have been covering the internet since Al Gore invented it, and by the way he did. He was there at the beginning. I’ve been covering tech for 25 years in Washington, when the internet was first made commercial.
I want to first start talking about Uber, because I think … The reason I want to talk about it, because it does represent the quintessence of all that is horrible about the male white culture of Silicon Valley. Let’s start with Tony: Why the hell did you take this on? What do you hope to accomplish? Because I’m going to start by saying, you put out a … I have so many questions. Glutton for punishment seems to begin with it, but you started out with a really great memo that Johana Bhuiyan, who’s in the audience, who covers Uber and other transportation issues for Recode, wrote about.
We got the memo, we published it. It was a really tough memo on what the legal situation at Uber should be right now. I think it was long and damning and about some standards. Can you talk about it a little bit? Because I want to talk about … because this goes to the heart of dealing with sexism and sexual harassment and all kinds of other issues there.
TW: Kara, it’s nice to be here.
EH: I don’t know, Tony, I think we’ll see. We’ll see.
[To Holder] I’ve got some questions for you.
EH: Thanks.
TW: No, look, I think a lot of questions, good questions … The reason I wrote the memo is because it needed to be written. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, my first day, my first official day on the job, we announced a data breach that had occurred a year before. It had not been reported to affected parties.
So my first official day I spent on the phone talking to a number of state regulators, state AGs, FTC commissioners, saying, “Hi, my name is Tony West. I’m new. By the way …” And over that weekend I began to really get into — because this was the day before Thanksgiving, actually — and then over the weekend I began to try to get an awareness of some of the legal issues. Early that next week I learned about some practices that a component of our security department had been engaged in, which involved human surveillance for competitive intelligence.
Look, I’ve been in public sector, I’ve been in private sector, you don’t have to be a well credentialled lawyer to look at that and say, “What the hell is this?” So when I learned about it, I talked with Dara, who said, “What the hell is this?” I wrote a note to the security team, who was at that time, just that day, had now been reporting to me because the person who had led that team had been terminated as a result of not disclosing the breach.
I said something very simple, which is that first I am actually very proud to be at Uber. Notwithstanding all of the things that you’ve said, which I think there’s ample justification for a lot of what you said, but I am very proud to be at Uber. They are incredibly talented people, incredibly dynamic environment, doing what I really do believe is going to change the future of work and the way that we think about how people and things move. Absolutely groundbreaking.
I said that in my memo, but what I also said was, I’ve also learned some things. I’ve learned, and it’s reaffirmed to me that I made the right decision, but what I’ve also learned are some things that disturbed me. Not disclosing the breach is one, this human surveillance for competitive intelligence is another.
I said, “Look, we don’t need to do that.” That’s not who we are, we’re better than that. We have better technology, we have better people. We have a better product. We don’t need to follow people around to gain competitive intelligence. Everything we have to do as a company has to rest on three things: It has to rest on transparency, integrity in everything that we do and accountability.
I want to talk about this because in this case, spying on Lyft and things like that …
TW: No, no, no, no. I’m being really specific. Actually following executives.
Right, I know. I’m aware. What I’m talking about is, because it led the legal department … this is what I want to get into, is these structural systems that are in place at these companies that create situations that are not just spying on people, not just hacking, but really systematic inability of the legal departments to really protect people at these companies, especially women. That’s what seems to have happened at Uber. It’s not just women who work at Uber, it’s women who ride Uber, all kinds of things that they’ve been up to that have been really disturbing.
I want to talk to both of you about … And Eric, you did the Holder Report, which chronicled all kinds of problems there, which were myriad, which I wish you would release because I think people should see exactly the extent of the toxicity so we can understand it. But let’s talk about where you … We’ll get to the idea of male allies. I think human allies is the way I look at it. But what can legal departments do to do this? Because I think that a lot of the problems at Uber had to do with the aggregation of responsibility by the lawyers there who did this, who were in a place to say, “No.”
We broke a story about an executive at Uber who was carrying around the medical file of a rape victim in India in order to try to prove that she wasn’t raped. Which was appalling, that he was holding onto a criminal file in this thing. The lawyer at Uber did not get it away from him when they were aware of it. Lots of things like this. Can you talk about the responsibilities of the legal department to protect especially women? Because every time it seemed like there was some issue around women and the rights that were abrogated by the previous management there.
EH: Okay, well, you have to understand, I don’t have …
Because in general the legal department …
EH: Let’s talk generally, because I don’t have the ability to release the report. I think as attorney for the company there’s only so much I can say about what it is that we did.
Right, [email protected] is fine. Or Signal. WhatsApp is encrypted.
EH: Yeah, that won’t get me in any trouble. But what I think …
Your name could be “Shmeric.”
EH: Who’d know, right?
Yeah. No, I don’t know who you are.
EH: I think legal departments have to be empowered. They can’t be ignored. They also have to understand that there’s a responsibility, a particular responsibility I think that lawyers have in the context of an organization, whether that’s in government or it’s in the private sector. It’s in the same way that the justice department occupies a special place within the executive branch of the United States’ government. We are the watchdogs.
Right, when it works properly.
EH: Yeah, when it works properly, yeah.
I’m referring to Trump, just FYI.
EH: I wasn’t even going to go there, but …
You did on Twitter.
EH: But tonight I was going to be nice.
All right. Okay, fine. Please don’t. Wouldn’t you rather be tired and winning? Talk about the role of lawyers, because I think that’s what I’m talking about, where the roles are. Because again, the New York Times today had another story off of Ronan Farrow’s story about the complicity of lawyers, of PR people, of the media, everybody in this. So I’d like to get to that idea of how you create systems, where especially lawyers to me are the watchdogs of that.
EH: I think lawyers, given the training that we have, the place that we are supposed to occupy in these entities, that we are the ones who should be responsible for, I think, more than maybe another body of people, the development of appropriate cultures. We are trained in the law, we’re supposed to know the way in which things are to be done. We know what the rules are supposed to be like. We should be, again, within the appropriate context, we should be the enforcers.
To the extent that we detect issues and problems, it is our responsibility not only as members of the corporation, but as lawyers, to bring to the attention of the appropriate people problems, issues. Not only with regard to specific people and specific incidents, but also with regard to culture. To the extent that we identify cultural issues that are having a negative impact on the entities that we are a part of, we have the responsibility of surfacing those things. But it is also the responsibility of management to listen to those lawyers. It shouldn’t be difficult for lawyers to bring to the attention of management those concerns. You shouldn’t be penalized, you shouldn’t be seen as a problem if you are raising those issues.
Who do you think your constituency is, Tony? Throughout your career, not just at Uber, but who do you imagine it is? Is it the law or is it the people you work for?
TW: I think it’s both, actually. I think it’s both. I think because the law at its best is manifested in the way people interact with one another, so clearly it’s both. You asked the question, why did I take this job? Actually, the opportunity to do just that, to be able to have the impact of helping to put in place processes and systems that actually work well to protect both people, whether it’s women or people of color, or frankly riders and drivers. That was an incredible opportunity to me.
That’s really my constituents. But you know, the constituency group that you’re also speaking to, I think Eric rightly says, is management, and you had a broken system.
Often that’s the case. It’s not just there but a lot of places.
TW: No, a lot of places, but it was particularly broken, I think in all fairness. I mean look, I would not have taken this job and I would not have taken this challenge if I did not believe that A) Dara Khosrowshahi was committed to real change, and B) that it was actually possible. Because so many of the issues that Uber suffers from are self-inflicted.
[ad]
One of the things that always struck me, and especially, again, I recommend reading another New York Times’ piece called … It’s about complicity. One of the things that strikes me, as lawyers, that I’ve noticed is, they always say for example in Hollywood, they don’t have money, enough money to … They don’t seem to have money to pay women to tell stories, they have money to shut them up. They certainly can pay them off. They can do nondisclosure agreements. They can do very difficult ways not to talk about things. Talk about the nondisclosure thing, because that to me has been one of the poisons of this whole system, is that women are paid not to say anything.
I think I was the one who told Uber about someone you hired that had sexual … Not when you were there, but I actually called Travis and said this person was under investigation for sexual harassment. He was like, “What?” He didn’t know because they’d been passed on like a contagion from one company to the other. Can you talk about that issue around nondisclosure? Again, I’d like that report as soon as possible. But why does that persist, that idea of nondisclosure? As women know, telling stories has been the power of #MeToo. As people of color know, the telling of the stories, as gay people know, the telling of the stories is where the power resides. Why as lawyers do you continually keep writing these fucking things? Explain it. Explain it, how does that change? How does the law change so that people are allowed to tell their stories without this complicity, where people get to move along and pay people off, essentially?
EH: For the record, I’ve never written a nondisclosure agreement in my career. It’s particularly …
Actually, just David Boies, but go ahead.
EH: It’s particularly bad in government, as I see now.
Yeah, with the Congress right now.
EH: Right. I didn’t even know that this thing existed until the last couple of weeks. That there’s a fund that allows congressmen, some of whom were my biggest tormentors, Blake Farenthold, that fat guy from Texas, has got about $80,000 to keep quiet some inappropriate conduct that he had with a female …
80,000 tax dollars, but go ahead.
EH: $80,000 of our money. From my perspective, I don’t particularly like the notion of hiding things like that. Real progress is made by the exposure of negative conduct and then what happens to address that conduct. Having said that, there may be victims who for a variety of reasons do not want to have exposed the issues that are the subject of the nondisclosure agreement. Although more often than not my suspicion is it is the person with power who is saying, “I will only settle if there is a nondisclosure agreement.”
From my perspective, shining light on problems is the way you solve problems. But it requires a certain degree of bravery for victims to come forward and tell their stories. That’s a societal problem. It’s always interesting to me that it’s difficult for a woman to talk about a sexual assault in the way that a guy who is assaulted by a stranger in a bar, something like that, that’s a relatively easy story to tell. So why do we as a society make it more difficult for women to tell their stories?
Misogyny, but go ahead.
EH: Yeah. No, no, no, there’s a huge amount of that. There’s a culture thing that we have to change there. It always struck me that when I was a judge and when I was a U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., if a man hit a man, no question, you try that case, that’s an assault. A man hits a woman with whom he has a relationship, and then there’s all kinds of things.
Protect, allegedly.
EH: It becomes a much more difficult thing to adjudicate, to bring into the system. That’s a societal thing that we have to get at, where women are the victims. They should be not differentiated because of their gender, you’re just a victim. You’re just a victim and we need to hear your stories.
What about you and the nondisclosure thing? Then I’m going to talk about allies. About nondisclosure, where does that go? Because I think to me that is the absolute tool of tyranny among people, as much as they say, “I’m helping you by not letting you talk about your story,” you’re not doing anyone any favors by not allowing them to do that.
TW: I think that’s right, but I think that you do have to, in all of these kinds of case, approach it from the perspective of the victim. I think that has to drive the analysis, and where that flows, I think. I don’t think you … I’ve always believed that sunshine is the best disinfectant, and you never see progress in the law, you never see progress in society, when you’re using the law as something to cover up, a blanket to cover up certain things. It’s always much better if you … This is why we have open courts, this is why we have public courts, this is why it’s important. Yet, I still think at the end of the day you want to make sure, in the do no harm kind of approach, that you’re approaching those kinds of issues from the perspective of the victim.
All right, I want to finish …
EH: One thing I think we have to really … I agree with what Tony said, but I’m kind of getting back to what I said before. We’ve also got to get to the place where there can’t be shame, there can’t be an issue in being a victim. Why is it so hard — and it is hard and women who do it have a great deal of courage — in the society as we have constructed it? Why is that the case? Why is that the case?
I actually don’t, I don’t think a lot of victims are as ashamed. I think they are bullied into being ashamed. You know what I mean? I think that’s really … and because when you say, “I’m going to make it easier for you.” I think the media has kind of had it and is starting to publish these stories, as long as they can get contemporaneous assertions that these people said. I mean, the Roy Moore thing is a perfect example of that, is that these women said their stories, they didn’t wait. They had some off the record, some on the record. Now the women who are called liars by him are now coming out with even more. Like, “We’ve had enough,” despite the fact that they’ve been bullied and threatened and everything else, those sorts of things.
Let’s finish up talking about allies, we’ve only got just a few more minutes. One of the things I’ve also noted that I think is really interesting is most of the stories that have come out just recently around sexual harassment and everything else have been written by women.
All the best stories on racism and issues have been written by people of color. Most — Ronan Farrow, a gay man — who understand and empathize and have had enough of this and understand that. How do you think of yourself as allies? Because I think that it’s a critical issue, in that it’s not women’s rights, it’s human rights, it’s everybody’s rights. How do you get that empathy into the dominant culture, which is a white male culture?
Now, they talk about the idea of using VR, for example. That a policeman could watch a thing and know what it’s like to be a young black man. I don’t think you can do that because it’s a lifetime of fear. I don’t know how you do that without putting in a chip, a fear chip, into someone’s brain. How do you think about that? Because you’re both prominent men of color, how do you then use your power that you have as men, for example?
TW: There’s a real … You have to be intentional. You have to be very intentional and very cognizant. But I will say, one of the things that this whole experience as we’ve seen it unfold over the last several months has really brought home to me. Look, I’m someone who has really spent my entire life very committed to these issues, being intentional about how I recruit and who I hire and making sure that women are at the table. Raised by a phenomenal woman, my mom, who’s in the audience, Peggy West, somewhere. I grew up with strong women. Grew up with strong women and really cared about these issues.
I have to say, it was both disturbing and enlightening to come to the realization that I did not fully appreciate just how pervasive sexual harassment and sexual assault is. I think therein, you turn that into what that means is that for so many of us, we’re kind of like, it’s like air. This is the norm. What was so shocking, or so disturbing, is that for so many women this is the norm, but there’s nothing normal about it. There’s nothing normal about that. So then the question is, “Okay, then what do you do with that realization?” For me, it begins with really listening, not just hearing the stories. I do think one of the things I do fear is that when we hear the stories, and you hear so many and you start hearing the numbers, that people become numb to that.
That does concern me. But really, hearing and internalizing the universality of it, so then that becomes an opportunity to notice. To notice patterns, to notice how our language, how our behavior, how the systems and structures and paradigms in which we operate actually reinforce these power differences, which lead to sexual assault and sexual violence. Then, it’s incumbent upon those of us who can to act. Whether you’re in a position where you can act on policy or you can act in the C-suite or you can act in any way that you can.
It is remarkable that so many … everyone in Silicon Valley, and they’re just the Silicon Valley ones, every woman has a story, or six, or 10, from micro-aggressions to something more serious, and every good man was shocked. It was, “I can’t believe that, Kara.” I think it’s either, women weren’t talking about it or they weren’t listening or nobody was asking. It’s a really interesting thing.
Eric, I’m going to finish with you on this idea, bring it to a national level. It feels hopeless on lots of levels. With Roy Moore, you’ve got Trump and the Oval Office, a long list of issues around sexual harassment. How do you look at it? Are you hopeless right now? How does that change when it seems like, “Oh good God, they’re going to elect that horrible monster in Alabama, we’ve got the president here on these issues.” How do you look at where it’s going?
EH: First off, my wife is from Alabama and she used to say that in Alabama they always said, “Thank God for Mississippi.” I fear that if he’s elected, people in Mississippi will be saying, “Thank God for Alabama.” That’s how bad it could be.
I think we have here a potential inflection point that we’ve got to hold onto and we have got to make it work for all the positive things that I think it can potentially give to us, but we should not be too optimistic. Just because it’s there doesn’t mean that it’s going to lead to something that’s lasting and that’s positive.
There is, I think, the need for action, but I also think that we cannot underestimate, you all cannot underestimate the power that you have. If you don’t think that you have power, you think about the power … Trump got inaugurated and that was … We all drank, I was drunk. But you think about the power of that march the next day. The next day, all those women, my wife and my two kids had the hats with the things on, the power of …
Did you have the hat?
EH: The hats were there. There’s pictures of me in the hat though you’ll never see those. But the power that …
Signal.
EH: ?
Signal.
EH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The power that was exhibited that day and the power that has also been seen as women have gone to congressional offices, senators’ offices, congressmen’s offices, as they were in the process of trying to take ObamaCare apart. We have, you have, power. That power has to be used.
I’m old enough to remember that the people, united, focused, energized, stopped a war. Nixon didn’t stop the Vietnam War because he thought the military objectives had been met. That war was stopped because people were focused and said, “We’re not going to have it.” There was the loss of public support.
This inflection point that we have has to be something that galvanizes people, and in particular women, in particular women. In Virginia, boy, we saw women power there. Where in the election three, four weeks or so ago, women ran who said, “I’m sick of what’s going on. I’m going to run for office,” and women won. I think women can lead us to a better place with the power that they have, with the power that you have, but you’ve got to use that power. It’s not enough to yell and scream at the television watching MSNBC, Fox, CNN, whatever. You can’t … You know, just read the newspaper. What is it that you’re doing? What are you doing to make this better?
On that note, we’re over time. I want a promise from each of you of something you’re going to do. What are you going to do at Uber? I’m going to hold you to it.
TW: I have a whole long list.
But what’s the one thing you’re going to do as a male ally of the women?
TW: The one thing that … One of many things that I’m going to do is set an unambiguous tone at the top of intentionality in bringing women into every single significant decision that we make at that company.
Right. One good thing that you have going for you is that it’s an extraordinarily low bar, and we’ll talk about that later. What about you, Eric? And then we’ll finish. I want a bigger thing from you.
EH: Well, as the chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, I’m going to … Yeah. I’m going to make sure that we’re going to have a fair census in 2020 and fair redistricting in 2021. And we’re going to throw out of office these … these idiots who have passed these laws who have perpetuated these systems that are anti women, anti people of color. I think that we can do this. We saw it in Virginia in 2017, we’re going to do great in the midterms in 2018, and then we’re going to put a new president in 2020. That’s more than one thing but I’m going to be successful at the NDRC, that’s my one thing.
All right, we should all make promises like this. I’m going to … I’m going to announce my new formation of the Militia Etheridge in The Castro. Get it? You can all join. But we should all make promises. I really appreciate … I started to give you a hard time but not really, sorry not sorry kind of thing. We really appreciate you as allies but as human beings, not just as male allies but as humans. Thank you.
EH: Thank you. I can’t blame you.
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