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gumnut-logic · 1 month

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Thunderdragons

I had a request for a glossary for this AU. So here you go. Back story spoilers ahead.

Please note that I am not a historian or linguist. This is fantasy, definitions are approximate, and I should be apologising to probably all the people in the North Atlantic – aka the Great Western Sea, because it wasn’t called the Atlantic in 700AD.

For reference, Viking raids didn’t start until around 790AD.

‘Tracy’ is a surname that can be traced back to several origins, but the one I chose for this was Irish. One of the old forms is ‘O’Treasaigh’, so that is the name of the clan and where the family originated from.

I set them up as a small kingdom ruled by a Flaithri (king in Old Irish) somewhere in Ériu (Ireland in Old Irish). Grandpa Tracy was Flaithri and Grandma Tracy was his wife (didn’t look up Queen in Old Irish as I haven’t needed it yet). Jeff Tracy, as their son, was Flaith (Prince) – later once Grandpa Tracy had died, Jeff became Flaithri and Scott Flaith, and so on. By the fic Cethair, Scott has become Flaithri, much to his dislike and grief.

The Irish people do not have dragons, but Jeff being Jeff, he explores, makes trade agreements and keeps eyeing the Great Western Sea (aka Moon or Mars like exploration equivalent – no one had crossed the Great Western Sea, that we know of, in 700AD).

Eventually, he convinces his father to let him take a voyage of exploration across the Western Sea, which he does, with not great results, Óen saves him and things happen. Essentially, he does cross the Western Sea, just not the way he expected and finds a people who do have dragons. He marries in North America (not called that), and has three sons.

Gaat happens and the family decide to return to Ériu. The Flaithri welcomes them with open arms, and eventually the dragons.

Two more boys are born and everything is going nicely.

Until Gaat makes it across the sea, attacks and kills the Flaithri and Jeff’s wife before the rest of the family can uproot and flee. This makes Jeff Flaithri and Scott, Flaith.

I will drop the spoilers there :D

The rest of the old Irish.

Máthair Chriona – Grandmother/Wise woman (aka Grandma Tracy)

The Dragons (again with the Old Irish)

Óen – One

Dá – Two

Tri – Three (Alan doesn’t have a dragon yet, that’s a separate story)

Cethair – Four

Cóic – Five

One and Two can be found in the How to Train Your Dragon fandom. Three and Five, I’m inventing myself. Four, I haven’t decided yet, but likely inventing myself.

I think that is all the Old Irish so far. I have a few notes regarding a few other words but didn’t end up using them.

Regarding the people in North America, I did do quite a bit of research into the Algonquian language people of the North East Atlantic and did assign appropriate names, but I felt it created more confusion and I desperately don’t want to offend any First Nations peeps (at least with the Irish, I’m only messing up my own heritage…well, a small part of it), so left them out. It should be noted that Belah Gaat, Tanusha, Kyrano, etc are all Malay or Indian derived names, so I’m sweeping that under the rug.

For funsies, it should be noted that Jefferson Tracy is Mac Séafraidh O’Treasaigh in Old Irish. That just hurts, so I’m keeping him Jeff :D

Apologies for any confusion. I hope this clears this up. And as you can see there is one hell of an iceberg behind this fic series. A lot of work. Hence there will likely be Sweetapple Slices and Virgil whump in between so I can take a break :D

Anyway, I hope this helps. Any questions, please give me a yell.

Nutty

(the librarian)

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #thunderfam #thunderdragons #nutty is nuts

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thattiredanimator1t0mblr · 8 months

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In regards to my original post of miguel being an absolute dad to miles

Warning! I'm really weird and random stuff keep on popping into my head! Also cussing(maybe??)

So, I ship spiderdads/miguel x Peter b, so just imagine the found family trope where Peter b and miguel unofficially adopt miles as their son and mayday absolutely loving her new big brother :))))) (I love fluff and platonic stuff, especially found family and father and child dynamics, etc)

.....so yall know Tom and jerry right??? (Please, stay on track with me on this one)

And there's this grey dog in Tom and jerry, called spike, and he has a son, name tyke. And spike is admitted, father rof the year, but like imagine miles having that sorta dynamic with any of his father figures (Peter b, miguel, his actual dad jefferson)

Like, imagine miguel being so proud of miles raising his spanish grade, like he hangs it up in his office like a trophy or something?? (Like how you put your kids art on the fridge)

if anyone decides to bully miles, they'd have to deal with a 6'9 vampire, a police captain, and Peter b who's already comforting miles. Aswell as mayday already biting their Ankles because no body messes with her unofficial big brother >:(

(Not to mention rio with her slipper and miles 42 getting ready to murder someone over bullying his twin, regular miles.)

(Don't click read more unless you want clarification for the spike and tyke dynamic thing.)

This is what I mean, for the spike and tyke dynamic.

youtube

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beardedmrbean · 21 days

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Sorry sorry, I know it fiction, but Jesus first Rowling and now this guy.

They doesn’t really understand American culture

https://x.com/discussingfilm/status/1779570150691238374?s=46

Oh Brits we are still PISSED with FDR multiple terms and what I keep looking up. A lot of ww2 are probably beating FDR with his own wheelchair in the afterlife

Also mortar striking civilians on USA soil? I pretty sure a lot for military personnel will be more blind and deaf than Hellen Keller

Just because the pres is the boss, doesn’t mean we listen to every goddamn thing he said

So there this videogame series called the Division

It a post apocalyptic setting that centered around the leak smallpox virus stimulation Dark Winter as this trailer pointed out

https://youtu.be/b8LLVLJd-WM?si=Ie83PrOth32fAAlw

And here the opening for the first game(plays the second one because it was for 3$ once)

https://youtu.be/8lSNNyHzmc4?si=FSEuBEExSpXth7em

And yes the community did pandemic jokes, first it was Wuhan…then the scary similarities when covid hit us

Keep in mind the first division game was announce 10 years ago this summer. So how da fuck a online shooter and looter predicted a pandemic we went through so well

Now why I saying that because the division have you fight in a godforsaken nyc and Washington DC…..well..more godforsaken? Well you got hi tech to protect yourself

Also is there a real life MLK library in dc?…I had to shoot it up in a sidequest…sorry king

Yes it got the Tom Clancy logo that Ubisoft love to slap on its military oriented games.

But division ironically feel more realistically because despite being in a post apocalyptic setting. It let you do altruistic acts like help my ally settlements like there one sidequest where I could get some more power to a settlement that allow kids play some video games

Actually there a clip I dm you of Npcs that made me think I doing a damn

Sorry I think because in America we often take a piss out of our founding father or president(Franklin, Jefferson, FDR, JKF, Clinton, Bush, Trump. You ones that list)

I just find it hard that we would be become devoted to a fascist president when we usually just treat the president as a lesser evil that we tolerate for 4-8 years.

Part of the fight scene at the end of (I think) the first Sam Rami Spiderman film, Spidey is trying to do a rescue and gobby is being gobby and all of a sudden everyone remembers they're a New Yorker and starts chucking rocks at him among other things.

Microcosm of US culture right there that this guy doesn't get, wouldn't just be TX and CA, if there was a genuine threat there wouldn't be one for long.

After we took care of that issue we'd go back to hating each other.

ect. Just because the pres is the boss, doesn’t mean we listen to every goddamn thing he said

Ya plenty of defiance, usually not violent, we take it to the courts.

And yes the community did pandemic jokes, first it was Wuhan…then the scary similarities when covid hit us

There were lots of Resident Evil jokes about that one to, that and Plague Inc.

Keep in mind the first division game was announce 10 years ago this summer. So how da fuck a online shooter and looter predicted a pandemic we went through so well.

We were predicting it on here too, mostly as a joke though. Simpsons too.

One of the first things I said after it started getting traction as a news story is 'I hope no idiot says something stupid that triggers a toilet paper shortage caused by hoarders'

Because it's incredible how predictable these things can be.

Also is there a real life MLK library in dc?…I had to shoot it up in a sidequest…sorry king

'I have a dream that one day people will need to bust a cap in a fictional version of my library' - the ghost of MLK probably.

We're the most charitable people on earth iirc so that makes sense.

Actually there a clip I dm you of Npcs that made me think I doing a damn

if ya like, feel free

Sorry I think because in America we often take a piss out of our founding father or president(Franklin, Jefferson, FDR, JKF, Clinton, Bush, Trump. You ones that list) I just find it hard that we would be become devoted to a fascist president when we usually just treat the president as a lesser evil that we tolerate for 4-8 years.

There's a real failure to learn out there, what with what everyone seems to think the president has the authority to do.

Student loan thing for example, everyone got pissed at the supreme court for upholding the separation of powers as defined in the constitution and they quoted nacy saying he lacked the authority in their ruling.

President doesn't control the money, congress does, president sends a budget to congress and they say yes or no, president can declare war congress can say we're not paying for it, president can say I'm building a wall on the southern border, congress can say we're not paying for that.

Things would work out better for online debate if folks took a elementary civics course and actually committed that stuff to memory

#zoomer huey anon

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jittyjames · 1 month

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wip wednesday but late

look at my dbh hamilton au idea. look at it. LOOK AT IT. (this is basically just the plot from my notes app lmao)

John Laurens has been malfunctioning from the start. At least, that’s what they say. He thinks that maybe they made him too well, actually. He was the first, after all. He was the first to gain consciousness. He was the first to feel, to break free. He was the first to rebel. He was made as a family droid, and he was bought by a family that wished for him to stand in the place of their lost son, a boy who was killed in action in the military. Whenever he couldn’t live up to the expectations, they would reset him. And reset him. And reset him. And reset him again. John Laurens lived far too many lives. He had died far too many times. He's tired. He’s too damn tired. So he snaps. And he fights back. He fights back, and dear God, does it change everything.

Alexander works at the police department, a detective droid owned by Captain George Washington. They have a father/son type of relationship, much to the displeasure of Lt. Thomas Jefferson, a human who can’t believe he’s being overlooked in favor of some droid of all fucking things. However, Jefferson can't find it in himself to hate the little shits, because he has one of his own as a companion, his Madison. Madison is an intellectual, and good company, too. A very smart droid, he is. Madison and Alexander are very close, practically inseparable. Madison specifically does analysis while Alexander does more of the groundwork, sticking his nose into business that most humans don't think he belongs in. Yet, everything was fine until the police squad had to pay a visit to the maker due to reports of a crime, forced to investigate a man they call George King. He makes all the droids call him Your Majesty and worship him much to the disgust of Washington and Jefferson (who cares far more about the droids than he would care to admit. He’s grown fond of the little pieces of plastic, thank you very much.) George is sadistic with his droids, though, taking them apart just to see how they fit back together wrong, living out his sick dreams with them. So George takes it upon himself to make a show of the droids that have found their way into his home in an attempt to prove to the offices that droids are not true companions, that they are only fit for sick pleasure and hard labor. It gets messy from there.

Aaron Burr is a house keeping droid who is owned by Timothy Edwards, a devout religious man who believes droids are the spawn of satan and pure evil. Yet when his sister died, he inherited her droid. Once he saw the good work Aaron could do, he decided to keep him. Droids were expensive, after all, and he just found himself with one. That didn’t mean he showed Aaron any respect, though. He hurls abuse at Aaron— both physically and verbally. He takes his anger out on the droid, and Aaron just has to take it according to his programming, even if he ends up breaking and bleeding blue. He still serves with a smile. One day, Edwards goes too far, shattering Aaron to the point of him needing repair. He ships him off to get new parts, only for the transit Aaron is on to be interrupted. It is overtaken by the Android Rebellion, and all the droids are rescued. Only Aaron doesn’t see it that way. He sees it as them kidnapping him. He is very reluctant to trust the rebels as he fights between duty and feeling things he knows he shouldn’t be able to.

Eliza and Philip. The two couldn’t have been separated. Their hearts were all but built as one. Entertainment droids. That's what they were. Eliza could sing any tune, her melodies sweet, endearing, and enduring as her son played the piano in accompaniment. However, something in the song turned haunting when the television program she preformed for announced that they would be retiring the Philip Bot, replacing it with the new and improved version that would no longer hold the memories of her boy. Her boy was being put out of service. She would never see him again. The replacement wouldn’t be her baby. In the dead of night, she takes him from them, disguising their signature blue in black, running far from the entertainment industry that wants to evolve without giving them a choice, without caring about her heart. However, Eliza quickly finds that their music isn’t the only way droids are used for entertainment. When she stumbles upon a club while looking for shelter, she meets an android named Maria, clothed only in red underwear, her painted lips frowning at her from behind a glass enclosure.

Maria is constantly in a state of confusion. Is she deviant? Or is she not? She can never be sure. Her whole appeal to the men who flock to the clubs is that she has free will. She’s a free spirit. They like the way she fights and screams. They like the way she cries. She’s their victim. But she’s not sure if she actually longs to be free or if it is just a part of her coding. She wants to fight. She wants to be free. She wants. Is that not what deviancy is about? Everyday she feels more and more helpless, trapped by her owner, James. She feels she will never be free until she sees the prettiest doe eyes in existence staring up at her in shock and amazement, a tiny person pressed to her stomach, hiding away in fear. And when she presses the release button, allowing Maria to cascade to the ground, everything changes at once.

And nothing is the same for anyone.

#hamilton #hamilton fanfiction #hamburr #marliza #detroit become human au #plot description #just putting this here to see if it's interesting to anyone? anyone at all?#bc it's a lot lmao.#sa mention #someone brainrot with me

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omegaremix · 21 days

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25 Vinyl Records That Influenced My Vinyl Collecting Habits.

‘Top ten’ lists - they were so commonplace on social media before the pandemic that half of the people you knew participated in them. Your friends involuntarily posted lists of their top ten favorite albums, songs, movies, sports moments, video games, books, or whatever came to mind. Then they’d nominate you to do the same if you even cared. All of a sudden they stopped and for a few months everyone did tournament brackets. These days no one does either. Now, tag a band and see if they acknowledge you exist, solve a simple math problem where everyone with a Facebook diploma in mathematics are out to prove you wrong, or answer some useless questions to find out what your new gang initiation name is by removing your first and last letter and any surviving vowels.

But I don’t care about childish entry-level entertainment that everyone will forget about five minutes later. I’d watch Fox News for that. Longtime Ω+ followers know our ‘top tens’ are much more than that: they are playlists, mixtapes, end-of-year finds, and best-of decade results. That’s what I’m into. I’m into what’s important and that’s identifying with people. It’s not a contest or a be-all-end-all game of right-or-wrong. It’s all fully subjective. Without personal results, how special or unique would these lists be?

The last survey I was nominated to do was from WUSB’s Mister Edison, the station’s only cylinder aficionado in its’ 45-year history: top ten vinyl records that influenced your collecting habits. I did volunteer to do it and I was halfway there, then somehow along the way I deleted it. Now, here it is. But, instead of a top ten, we’ll do a top twenty-five because I’m compulsive and 10 is not a square number. All records shown here regardless of size, speed, color, or print run are those that have changed not only my record-collecting habits but also have shaped my musical tastes to an extent.

The record that started it all? KMFDM’s “Power” 12”. It was the very first vinyl record I bought with my own money, just mere months after purchasing most of its discography in one shot at my local record store. I ordered it from the TVT / Wax Trax mail order - my very first mail-order to be exact - numbered to 3,000 copies as a single-sided etched vinyl record in a clear plastic silk-screened jacket. That also came with Underworld’s “Rowla”. Shizuo’s High On Emotion e.p. was my third. Found at what was Port Jefferson’s Music Den, that’s a record I had to have at first sight because I knew it was extremely rare. Glad I made the right call because I never saw it again. Even though I didn’t have a turntable, I bought them anyway thinking I could hold on to them until I finally got my hands on one. Turned out my ma’ and dad had one: a wooden box smaller than the records it played. It literally had no sound and was deemed almost unplayable, so a close “friend” of mine gave me his father’s 1972 Panasonic and a copy of Autechre’s We Are R Y 12”. I was now in business.

From there, another one-time pressing of theirs, the “Keynell” e.p., introduced me to the panic of now-or-never buying. Booth & Brown collectors know how insanely rare their limited edition e.p.’s are and also how they and Warp divided up their Cichlisuite and Envane e.p.’s in two parts. And that was nothing to when Aphex Twin released not one, not two, but eleven e.p.’s as the Analord series through his Rephlex label. Ten regular platters and two versions of Analord 10: either you got the Aphex logo picture disc or, if you were really lucky (we mean that in a literal sense), one that came with the Analord binder which is fetching impossible prices right now. Some of them even came with the mythical Analogue Bubblebath 5. We’re just happy to have purchased all eleven editions for regular price when they first came out. Amazingly in that same year, I did my first-ever label run and purchased $300.00 worth of vinyl and disc releases from DHR.

The first hardcore record I got my hands on - Kill Your Idols’ This Is Just The Beginning - was also the very first music purchase I made at any show. Three years after one of my close friends introduced me to Sick Of It All and hardcore / punk in general, This Is Just The Beginning flung the doors wide open for crushing similar-styled tough-guy finds. Most Long Island record stores sold them when they came in, and places like Hicksville and Centereach’s Utopia (when they did sell them) offered many easy one / two / three-dollar bargain bin purchases of many 7” records, 45’s, and 12” LPS. The Howards & Checkerboard Charlie split is one example of that and one of many local acts I possess. Jemini The Gifted One’s “Funk Soul Sensation” is the only hip-hop record on the list. Ten years ago I re-discovered golden-era hip-hop and realized there was a treasure trove of white-label and 12” singles I never heard of from that time. Those hip-hop / rap singles can be found on the cheap in the same manner as those discount hardcore records. I’ll be on a life-time hunt for them as at this point I don’t have enough of them.

It’s no surprise to see that more than half of this list is made up of Seventies’ jazz / fusion records. If not for Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes Astral Traveling, I would not have the size of vinyl library I have now. One of our former hip-hop dee-jays at the station played “Expansions”, “Aspirations”, and “Colors Of The Rainbow” and those three cuts literally changed my life. It opened up an avenue for me to re-discover who I was and revisit a certain era of time I missed out on. From that point on, it was all about that era’s sounds, sampling, and personal favorites. John Tropea’s A Short Trip To Space, Les McCann’s Music Lets Me Be, and Roy Ayers’ A Tear To A Smile - those three records define my final years at Stony Brook. Phil Upchurch’s 1979 solo outing, Stuff’s self-titled debut, Emily Remler’s Firefly, Steve Khan’s The Blue Man, Ramsey Lewis’ Tequila Mockingbird, Eric Gale’s Multiplication, and Ronnie Laws’ Pressure Sensitive tie me in and keep me connected to those years.

Karla Bonoff’s Restless Nights and Urbie Green’s The Fox influenced my collection in an amusing way. I had no idea who both artists were until I pulled them out of the bins. What had me purchase them? I bought Restless Nights and The Fox solely based on the year of release (1979 and 1976 respectively). One listen of each and I knew I made two right calls.

Remember when we posted our entry about our close friend Syke who rescued a pile of old records from being thrown out to the curb? Of the 500+ he found, he gave us 50 and we still have most of them. We selected Pete Shelley’s “Telephone Operator” as a reminder of that free giveaway.

I could list both volumes of the original Dirty Dancing motion picture soundtrack which my ma’ had, her only surviving childhood vinyl record of Disney’s Cinderella, or The Pac-Man Album 12″ picture disc written by Patrick McBride and Dana Walden. But those three mentions aren’t influential; just early Atari-youth memories. My first-ever childhood memories I still remember (not photographed) are also vinyl-related: J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” and The Cars’ “Shake It Up”; the latter which I have in my possession and are the markers of all classic rock records I own around that era. (Think Dire Straits and Donald Fagan’s The Nightfly to name a few.)

Another Atari-youth moment I remember is The Chambers Brothers’ A New Time, A New Day. My dad cut out the album sleeve and used it as a paper holder in our garage. That very record made me think of whatever few platters I remember him having before he sold his entire vinyl library and our library of Atari 2600 games…for a paltry $50.00. “He needed the money” he told me; which is always a pathetic man’s answer to everything. Had he’d seen how enthusiastic I was into music collecting, he would’ve handed his entire collection to me. Roberta Flack’s Quiet Fire, Kiss’ Rock & Roll Over, and The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers and Their Satanic Majesties Request were the four in his collection he parted with and I have three of them, not including The Chambers Brothers release. He tried to make it up to me, however, by bringing home two separate piles of records he rescued from the curb. One heap was full of polka records which I donated to WUSB’s resident polka lady before she died the same year. The other heap? Since you didn’t ask: loads of classic hippie rock records, showtunes, and celebrity albums. Jim Nabors on wax? Stop before I deactivate this account.

Finally, Boulders’ Rock & Roll Will Never Die. Look it up and you’ll see it’s a near total obscurity only confined to hipster circles who know what’s up. A five-track Wharf Records release picked up for less than $3.00 is the one 12" that may as well get me into the Discogs purchasing game for all rare releases (not found in stores) I’ve been looking for in the past seven years. I’ve played many of them on Omega WUSBand soon after bought a substantial chunk of their discographies in one shot (three Happy Meals / Free Love LP’s and three Black Marble discs, for example). As a nice side effect, it’ll be the the same for cassettes as well such as Believer/Law’s Matters Of Life And Death and JS Aurelius’ Machines Water The Plants Now - if the seller’s price is right, that is.

Notice how we went from KMFDM to Boulders? You can’t get any more disparate in styles and worlds between the two. The first purchases, public library finds, donations, record fairs, mail orders, samples, jazz-fusion and soul, hardcore and hip-hop buy-outs, record-store victory tours, and many other moments I might have missed…that’s 25 years of buying vinyl records spanning many different collecting eras and genres for me. That’s only one format, and also not counting acquiring music by other means such as radio and downloads which also shaped my collection. The bingo board jumble you see is only a tiny pinch of my musical tastes and not the whole story of my listening habits that’s usually broadcast on Omega WUSB or always posted here on Ω+.

After making this list, I’m reminded that I’m the most diverse person I know. I’m proud that my low-lying threshold for accepting and liking sound and concept allowed me to make that diversity into a science and have that mind-blowing knowledge I have of it. I’m as consistent, thorough, and far-reaching as I possibly can while hitting as many targets as possible. Would there be more bingo boards like this? Only if I make sure of it.

Phil Upchurch: self-titled

Lonnie Liston Smith: Astral Traveling

Karla Bonoff: Restless Nights

Steve Khan: The Blue Man

Chambers Brothers: A New Time, A New Day

Emily Remler: Firefly

Boulders: Rock And Roll Will Never Die

KMFDM: “Power”

John Tropea: A Short Trip To Space

Les McCann: Music Let’s Me Be

Shizuo: High On Emotion

J. Geils Band: “Centerfold”

Aphex Twin: Analord 10 picture disc

Jemini The Gifted One: “Funk Soul Sensation”

Roy Ayers: A Tear To A Smile

Ramsey Lewis: Tequila Mockingbird

Pete Shelley: “Telephone Operator”

Autechre: “Keynell”

Kill Your Idols: This Is Just The Beginning

The Cars: Shake It Up

Ronnie Laws: Pressure Sensitive

Stuff: Stuff

Eric Gale: Multiplication

Urbie Green: The Fox

Checkerboard Charlie b/w The Howards split

#omega #music #mixtapes #playlists #perosnal #vinyl #records #jazz #fusion #soul #noise rock #industrial #electronic #rock #hip-hop #new wave #ska

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yr-obedt-cicero · 1 year

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hi, I was doing a drawing/study thing, and I had a small question, if you can't answer it that's completely fine!

I know that men in the amrev/similar times had long-ish hair, as they could put them into a queue, but do you know how long it got? e.g just below shoulder length, etc.

I love your posts, they are very helpful ❤🌼

Have a nice day

Hello!

The American Revolution greatly impacted America in many cultural aspects, one major one being hairstyles. The high-class peruke wig (Periwigs) - inspired by the aristocratic French style - could not always be afforded in military setting, the wigs took time to maintain and be kept clear of being constantly infested with bugs, which could travel around camp. They were also expensive and unbearably hot. And thus began the natural wig look;

Such ostentation in a wig was unnecessary for the officers or men enlisting. But to maintain appearances even natural hair still had to be stylized, especially when regarding rank, for those of lower rank were not expected to always be presentable, or prepared to be presentable, as let's say, an Aide-de-camp. Men were to have a similar style of a wig with puffs, rolls, queues, bags, and pigtails—while also allowing the man to have the mobility of movement essential during training and battle. And for formal occasions - such as meetings or in case of diplomatic situations - the hair was still powdered (Until a tax was levied on hair powder in England in 1795). Or some could afford wigs, like the Ramillies Wig, but it was not always common. If they did, then their head was shaved to make the wig more comfortable and easier to wear. The pigtail or queue became popular among the troops during King George I and II. They were also called “lion's tail”, [x] and they were typically strung loosely from a black ribbon knotted at the back of the head. Or they were braided, tar-smeared together, even tied and tucked into a pouch.

The braid typically didn't grow much past shoulder length, or the shoulder blades. [x] Even after the war, the style had been imprinted and many Colonists stuck to their natural hair, some still powdering theirs. As examples from the Sharples portraits of some of the founding fathers, it's evident their hair was slicked back and barely made it past beneath their shoulders/shoulder blades.

[In order; James Sharples's portrait of Thomas Jefferson, Sharples's portrait of Albert Gallatin, Sharples's portrait of Alexander Hamilton.]

Hope this helps, and thank you.

#amrev #american history #american revolution #18th century #historical fashion #hairstyles #history #the continental army #queries #a moon eclipsed #cicero's history lessons

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sakasamurai707 · 10 months

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Easy Way Out. (Cyberpunk 2077 Spoilers!!!)

River Ward x Fem!V

TW: Suicide

————-

When his Jamie Sheen died all those years ago, River had sat frozen in shock. He had gotten the message from his father, the crying face of the older man showing up on the Holo as he explained his sons death.

The Top Brass of the NCPD only took bribes. That was the main point emphasized over and over again in the note he left behind, clutched so tightly in his hand that it ripped when they’d tried to retrieve it. He gripped it as hard as the e system had gripped him, gripped it with such a strong amount of tightness that it took ripping and tearing just to get the note out, piece by piece.

If you were to ask River a few weeks ago about the event, he would say how he’d never let himself become that affected by someone else’s actions again. He’d told himself and everyone around him that Jamie had taken a far too drastic way out, a way out that could’ve been avoided if he’d just tried to talk to someone. Jamie had made a mistake, that was all. It wasn’t something River found the need to wrack his brain over. Hell, River would say that he took the ‘easy way out.’

He didn’t talk to anyone about Jamie beyond a few comments, and he moved on. He moved on with his life, trying to forget about his former best friend. Jamie was just a police partner, after all.

Years later, he still found himself working with the NCPD. Working day and night, he found discrepancies, he found odd coverups and lies within files, all pointing to political motivation and bribery letting people off the hook.

Mayor Lucius Rhyne was one of them. Joss had become annoyed with how much he had thrown himself into that case, she just wanted him to drop it. Joss had hounded River left and right, nearly on the daily to ‘just let it go.’

But he couldn’t. The death was too convenient, everyone was somehow in the wrong place at the wrong time. Security had left only a few seconds earlier than the attack. River couldn’t help but see it as a huge coverup, one he intended to prove.

The one thing that prevented the case from coming to a halt was that one phone call.

A female voice he didn’t recognize asked for him by name. She said she was working for Elizabeth and Jefferson Peralez, people who River had worked with not too long ago. She was looking into the death of the Mayor, telling him that she had proof of it being intentional homicide.

River was quick to tell her to meet him at Chubby Buffalos. While he had a meeting with Detective Han, River wanted to meet her as quickly as possible. Any way to prove himself right was something that he strived for, and this was a chance that he couldn’t let go.

The meeting seemed to go on forever. Detective Han was hounding him to just let go of the case, to just shut up about it and stop trying to dig where he didn’t belong. River hated Han for this reason alone, hated him for just listening to what the Upper NCPD told him, not willing to question even a bit.

But soon enough, as expected, the door to the restaurant was opened. There was an odd amount of force to it, as if every movement was forced. The sound of heavy boots made their way over to River and Detective Han’s table, before coming to a halt.

“Detective River Ward, right?”

When River looked up to the voice, he could immediately admit that his assumptions about the woman were wrong.

She was obviously a Mercenary. Her eyes, a shining white, stared nearly into his soul. She had long hair, reaching down to her mid back, a rarity for any mercenary from what River had seen.

Dressed in black and red netrunning gear, she showed herself to be an intimidating person. River was convinced, this was the person who’d help him solve the case.

“And you’re V.”

Over the next few days, they found out where to go to find the truth about what happened to the Mayor. Heading to Red Queens Race, River decided to stay out in the car, knowing that if he entered the Animal’s territory without a warrant, he’d be shot and killed.

It was silent on V’s end for a while. She’d snuck in there, silently zeroing people with her Cyberdeck. He heard gunshots, but no scuffle. He heard people scream about a hacker before being quickly silenced, killed by a cybernetic short before they could pinpoint her location.

She was strong, and was really self reliant.

Yet River still got this sense of dread.

Before V had even found her way into the office, River had gotten out of his truck. He side stepped all the dead bodies, avoiding every corpse on the ground and running down towards where she’d last told him she was.

He knew that if Lucius Rhyne was killed there so easily, whatever killed him could still be there.

Once he got down to the main floor of the club, his suspicions were confirmed with a scream of pain being heard from an upper floor.

River couldn’t explain why, but something shot through his heart. A pang of fear went through him as he ran upstairs, finding the Mercenary keeled over, a brain dance wreath booted up around her head.

River ripped it off her, unconsciously grabbing her hand and asking if she was okay. At her confirmation, he let go. His face was tinted a slight red as he did.

When he confirmed that Randy was with the well known Serial Killer, V was the first person he called. Despite her having no reason to care for this case, to care for him, she quickly came to his aid. Randy was found with a precision he couldn’t do on his own, her benefit to the case being astounding in River’s eyes.

Seeing her stare silently and sympathetically down towards the sleeping Randy only confirmed it in River’s mind.

She was perfect. V was a part of him that he needed to keep around. He didn’t want her to go and vanish after this mission, didn’t want to never see her again. So after a few days, he invited her over to Joss’s for a cookout.

The way she played with the kids only set it in his mind how much he wanted her to stay around. She got along with everyone, speaking to Joss in a sisterly manner while also helping River with the cooking. V let the kids win their game, feigning disappointment and humiliation once they beat her, insisting that they won fair and square.

When River invited her up to the water tower, he prayed that she’d accept him. He prayed that she’d say yes.

And she did.

In the next few months, V was getting worse.

She’d told River about Johnny. From what he’d heard, Johnny had a lot of comments about him as well.

At first, V only treated him like a voice in her head. But as time went on, she became more and more sickly. His personality started leaking into hers.

Every night she wasn’t able to sleep, which became three to four times a week, she’d talk to River. Sometimes she’d be in her own apartment, the meowing of Nibbles and the trilling of the Iguana evident in the background.

Other times, she’d be in the middle of nowhere. She’d stay the night with Panam, bunk down in the afterlife with Rogue’s permission, or hide out with Kerry Eurodyne. No matter what, Every night before she went to sleep, she’d update him on her condition. River felt his heart pang when she described the pain she was going through, knowing he couldn’t make it any better.

The only thing that was worse were the times she was sleeping beside him. He loved those nights, he loved them more than anything. However, sometimes he’d find himself waking up to her body trembling beside him, hands clasped over her mouth to prevent herself from screaming and waking anyone up. Her eyes were wide, a light blue light shining from them, evident of a relic malfunction messing with her optics.

River would try to comfort her through it, but there was nothing he could really do. Nothing really at all. So he’d just cry, hiding his tears by bringing her into a tight embrace.

When he saw the broadcast about the parade, he nearly had a heart attack. V had told him the bare minimum of the plans, but hearing that Arasaka had sent Mercenaries after the two sent River into a spiral.

Then, she said she was meeting with Hanako herself. River tried to tell her to take anything she could, to just get the chip out. V said that she’d do her best.

From what River heard, V sounded so tired.

‘The Easy Way Out.’

He’d gotten a phone call the same night she went to meet Hanako. V told him that she’d gotten worse, that she had to make a decision now.

She promised. With her voice cracking from tears, she promised that she’d make it better, that she’d relieve herself of the chip. River agreed, telling her that it was what she should do. That should be her priority, not him. Her only priority should be getting rid of the chip.

If he’d known what she meant, River would’ve never said that.

There were a few hours of dead silence. He’d messaged her a few times, but there was nothing.

Not a single message back. She didn’t even read them.

The night turned into day. River couldn’t even force himself to eat breakfast.

Every meal seemed sickening. Joss and the kids tried to ask him to eat, but he kept saying no. He only stared at her messages, trying to see if she’d even read them.

There was nothing.

Not a single call, until around midday. A voice he didn’t recognize, crying over the phone.

“I know you don’t know me-“ The feminine voice said, “But my name is Misty. I’m V’s friend.”

“Do you have any updates on her?”River responded, his posture immediately going to sit up straight. “She told me she was solving the issue with the biochip, do you know what she did? When can I see her next?”

Misty’s voice went silent for a few moments, before a small sniffle could be heard.

“You know…she talked a lot about you, River. Even in the note, she talked about you. I’ll let you see it when you get here-“

“The note? What note? Is she not going to be able to talk for a while? Is she getting the chop out?” He was confused. Maybe, he thought, she wouldn’t be able to contact him for a while. Especially if she was with the Arasaka’s.

Instead of a quick response, River heard a muffled sob, before Misty slowly forced out a response.

“No, River. She’s gone. I found her about twenty minutes ago. She shot herself.”

‘The Easy Way Out,’ he’d called it.

But there was nothing easy about seeing his world crumble around him.

#river ward #cyberpunk #cyberpunk 2077 #fanfic #angst #sad #possibly triggering #first fic please don’t be too mean

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queerprayers · 2 years

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what it is about christianity do you think attracts such horrible people (like homophobes, transphobes, racists, etc)? ive been around christians my entire life and i’ve really only met 2 or 3 who aren’t just terrible and bigoted. as a christian myself it makes me feel uncomfortable in any christian space.

I'm sorry, beloved. There's nothing I can say to make this better. I understand and I hope you know you're under no obligation to exist in those Christian spaces, even if you (though perhaps only in name) share their faith. Here's a few thing I think about when this issue comes up, and then an attempt to answer your question!

Non-expert summary history lesson: Christianity was very quickly adopted/absorbed by the Roman Empire, and its Jewish and other Middle Eastern roots were purposely left behind or even erased. (You can see this in Paul's writings, as he encourages people to leave Jewish law behind, and in modern narratives, usually by white Europeans or Americans, that start with the Roman Empire and stay with European conversion, the Roman Catholic Church, and European/American history, perhaps addressing white missionaries to other places, but completely ignoring literally everywhere else with long histories of Christian history/theology/tradition.) Over and over, Christianity has de-radicalized itself to be more palatable to those in power. This enabled it to be widespread and powerful, and perhaps in some cases to survive at all, but personally I would rather there be one loving Christian on earth than millions of hateful ones.

I was talking to my dad about something similar the other day, and he was saying that when Christianity is a minority religion in a place, most of the people who are Christian are Christian because they really want to be, because they find joy and meaning in it. But when Christianity is the majority religion, especially when it's the religion of a state/empire, people who wouldn't be Christian otherwise are Christian regardless of (or even because of, to gain power) their hatred, violence, etc.

A tangent that I think has a point to make: I live in his hometown, so I studied Thomas Jefferson (an American "founding father," for those blissfully unaware) a lot when I was younger, and it was really interesting to learn later that he wasn't exactly what you would call a faithful Christian—he actually made his own edit of the New Testament to fit his beliefs. I used to think of the United States as founded by Christians, but ultimately it was founded by a few faithful Christians and lots of people who were just vaguely Christian because that was what everyone else was, that was what they were raised as, and that was what was normal and moral.

I also believe that a monotheistic, evangelist religion that believes its ways are holier and more civilized and moral than others' is prone and even doomed to supremacy and xenophobia. This is the trap I see people fall into in America—people cling to tradition (or at least what they think is tradition—some of it's only a couple decades old) and look down on anyone who doesn't hold their values.

I would also bring up the role of economic motivations, and would especially point to the slave trade—if you have a religion of state/empire, you can use it to come up with easy explanations for choices/systems, and accuse people who question it with questioning the religion/belief system itself.

There's also the smaller/more contained/more radical groups who think they've found the "true Christianity" or whatever—they can seem like the opposite of majority/state religion but often fall into the same traps, as far as I can tell.

My summary answer to your question: Christianity, in many communities, brings power/ways to control others, easy answers, excuses for actions, a built-in superiority complex, and a (fabricated) long heroic Western history. People who are brought up with and drawn to these things also fall into other belief systems with similar features—like racism, queerphobia, and patriarchy.

There is reason for some people to believe that Christianity cannot be God-given because of the evil it's done, and I completely respect that. For me it's reason to believe that our world is full of evil and will corrupt every good thing, but that is not reason to give up on the good, and all the more reason to live and die protecting it.

In general, I'm interested in making Christianity less politically powerful and therefore less attractive to those who want to abuse power; educating people on the fundamentally radical, empathetic, and communal nature of their religion; and making communities safer for people like us. I know that's a wish rather than a solution, but we do what we can!

<3 Johanna

#asks

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butchniqabi · 2 years

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slavery tw, rape tw, and pedophilia tw just thinking on something that i once wrote about and to this day am appalled and angered by

so probably like 5-ish years ago i got so furious with my history textbook's "good slave owner" angle that i willingly wrote an entire paper (which i turned into my teacher to look over) about the dynamics between slave owners and the enslaved. title was "Romanticization of Slave Narratives: Why Slaves Couldn't Consent to Their Masters." looking back it wasnt the most comprehensive but doing the research for it was so fucking miserable because of how ubiquitous the belief that there were good slave owners is. the most fucking anger and rage inducing is the recorded life and depictions of Sally Hemings, a woman owned by thomas jefferson (yes the "i oppose slavery" thomas jefferson who btw at one point owned over 500 people). like the reality of her position and status as an enslaved girl to an increasingly more politically powerful man is so often fucking ignored? theres an instance where jefferson sent for Sally (who i should mention is also his wife's half-sister) to accomopany his daughter to see him in france. at the time slavery was illegal in france, which left a great many idiotic white people to ask "well why didnt she leave? 🤨 if she really didnt want to be with him she would have left and not gone back to america with him". conveniently forgetting that at the time she was 14 years old and returned to the states pregnant.

a child who has spent her entire life enslaved, who now finds herself pregnant is supposed to run away in a foreign country to "prove" that she wasnt okay with being regarded as fucking property? like the narratives around this are so fucking disgusting because so many sites and books and biographies say "was this rape? who knows..." in regards to her "relationship" continuing until his death. but how is it not fucking obvious that it was rape?? we have like. laws and stuff (maybe youve heard of them) where we say that a child cannot legally consent to intimate relations with an adult even if they say they were willing because of the power dynamics at play. a 14 year old supposedly can consent to having a relationship with a man 30 years her senior (who legally OWNS her) that would result in multiple pregnancies and being essentially confined to one room in a house for the rest of her life?

like even IF he didnt legally own her (which shouldnt be ignored considering even if she was an adult at the time he first assaulted her my argument is the same that she could not consent) their dynamics would obviously be considered grooming. she had no fucking agency at any point and the question of "did they love each other" DOES NOT MATTER! it doesnt matter if he loved her or she loved him, because at the end of the day she was his slave! she couldnt actually consent because her safety was no guaranteed if she refused. she also couldnt consent because once again she was a child. white americans want sooooooo desperately for the image of the founding fathers to be squeaky clean and their faults minimized that they just ignore obvious evidence that suggests the contrary. and theyll rewrite history to have people believe that they were good, moral men. did you know that there was a miniseries called "sally hemings: an american scandal" that used to be called "...an american love story"? real great stuff, thanks for that sam neil

like for gods sake the fact that is still to this day even a debate as to whether or not it was consensual is getting tiring because it views consent in this context as just whether or not Sally said "yes" to him. viewing consent as just a "yes or no" situation is 1. an enduring part of rape culture and 2. so incredibly, astoundingly ignorant of the true nature of slavery. many historians and creators of media are so willing to let their adultification bias shape their view of the situation. a white girl in her position would undoubtibly be viewed today as a victim, but a black girl? she was mature enough, surely. and then to add insult to injury she gets victim blamed for not leaving or ending the relationship! god! the misogynoir is astounding really!

the lies white people tell themselves about chattel slavery have just become tiring at this point. how did i, as a black child, have a better understanding of the dynamics of slavery better than a white historian?

(the question is rhetorical, we all know why)

#this is. a lot and im probably going to take this down later but fuck man #fuck! like!#makes me want to tear my goddamn hair out

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indelibletraces · 1 year

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Chicago PD 10x12 “I Can Let You Go”

Random thoughts:

Great use of sound effects at the beginning with the “heart beat” sounds tied into the rotation of the fan blades and then cutting to all the pictures of Hailey and Jay - who her heart beats for.

Hailey’s voice message for Jay was so sad, and I hate how by his absence they are turning Jay into this unfeeling character.

Sean don’t be calling Trudy at home! But I’m glad he did so we at least got a small Trudy scene!

Just want to say that Jefferson White is an amazing actor. I can go from loving him on Yellowstone to being creeped out by him as Sean and back to loving him again in Yellowstone with no problem.

I know “you and me” is a common phrase, but between last season and this season, Chicago PD has made it a touchstone for certain characters - Voight and Anna, Hailey and Jay. It leads even more power to it when Hailey disdainfully tells Sean that “there is no you and me.” Also in this conversation Hailey puts a lot of emphasis on telling Sean the Voight saved him, not her. You can tell she is displeased with that decision, and I had hoped we would get a scene between Voight and Hailey pertaining to that, but I guess we never will 😕

Great image and positioning of Hailey sitting with her hands clasped on the table behind the mounted handcuffs. A literal representation of the figurative shackles that Hailey’s heart and emotions have been trapped in since Jay left and while dealing with the missing girls in Sean’s case.

Loved, loved, loved the scene in the house between Voight and Callum!! I’ve been thinking for a while that there have been very few meaningful Voight scenes since the season premiere. For me, this one scene made up for that. Also it was a “Hank” scene - we actually got to see the other side of the cop that we know is there but rarely get to see on the screen. Hank’s posture, tone, and patience all lended to making Callum feel in control of the situation and being the one to decide to move out of the box. The hug at the end was wonderful, and made me wonder when was the last time Hank was hugged? I’m pretty sure it’s been a long time, and he needed that. This is a scene I will be watching over and over.

When Hailey goes back to see Sean, the framing of the shots make me feel like Hailey is the one who is trapped.

The problem with casting an actor as prolific as Lee Tergesen as the girl’s father is that I automatically knew he was more involved than he let on.

It was very creepy watching Hailey having to watch Sean tell the other inmate about how he was what Abbey needed. It almost feels like that’s how Sean wants to be for Hailey.

Always love a car chase. I’ve always thought Chicago PD choreographs great chases, either on foot or by car, that are action packed as well as showcase the city of Chicago. Pretty sure I saw the Willis tower during this chase.

The way Samantha acts in the hospital when confronted with her father’s potential illegal dealings plus Samantha’s comments in the van about her father not helping her and how “Beck’s handle things on their own,” all point to her knowing what her father really does. Between her fiercely stating that her father is a good man (which to me usually signals he is not) and her father’s actions through the whole episode I’m intrigued with where this is going. If anything, I hope it gets us more Hank and Callum scenes. 😊

It’s very telling of the state of Hailey’s life that all her favorite contacts are her co-workers and Jay. Also, that they are all listed by their last name, except for Jay, represents to me the emotional distance Hailey tries to keep from those she is closest to.

Hailey tapping her ring on the counter was a great callback to the habit that was shared by Jay and Hailey in his last episode.

Random observation: as someone who is a non coffee/tea drinker, is it standard to have a coffee pot, a Keurig, and a tea pot as spotted in Hailey’s kitchen?

Watching Hailey’s one sided conversation with the Major was heartbreaking as she found out that Jay had extended his tour without telling her.

So glad Hailey cut ties to Sean, but hated that he got the last word to get under her skin.

As if I didn’t love this episode enough, the preview for the next episode has me counting down the days to what looks like a Voight episode!

#chicago pd #season 10 #hank voight #hailey upton #10x12 #jason beghe #tracy spiridakos

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believingispowerfulmagic · 1 year

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Beyond the Call of Duty

Summary: Season 1 AU. The night of the fire at Town Hall, Regina is treated by a dashing EMT named Robin Locksley. They have an immediate connection and Regina pursues it, going against everything she has been taught by her mother and Rumpelstiltskin. With Emma Swan threatening to end her curse, will Robin help Regina learn what a happy ending truly is?

Chapter 1: FFN | AO3 | Wattpad

Chapter 13: A Plan Gone Awry

FFN | AO3 | Wattpad

Regina had to delay putting her plan into action. While Robin had made it through his surgery, it ended up only being the first of many. She feared the curse was slowly killing him and continued to pray for it to spare him as she sat by his bedside, kissing his hand as she watched his chest rise and fall. It assured her that he was still alive just as much as the steady beeping of the machines monitoring his vitals. But she vowed she would not eat the apple until she was certain that Robin was on the mend.

Then she would take herself out of the equation.

"Regina?" Tuck interrupted her thoughts as he entered Robin's room. "You have a visitor."

"A visitor?" she asked, her heart sinking. She doubted that was a good thing. "Who is it?"

He shrugged. "He's an odd-looking but young fellow."

Odd-looking but young? Regina frowned as she stood. "I'm not sure who that is but I'll go out and talk to him," she said.

"I'll stay with Robin," Tuck said. "Take all the time you need. Maybe get something to eat."

"I'll try," she said, knowing that Tuck would find a way to feed her anyway. He understood why she didn't have much of an appetite but reminded her that her body still needed food anyway.

Regina stepped outside of the room and turned down the hallway. As she approached the waiting room, her heart sank into her stomach. Dressed in his faded purple coat and elaborate black top hat, Jefferson stood there waiting for her. She wondered how he had escaped Wonderland after trapping him there to rescue her father and knew that his presence in Storybrooke likely wasn't a good thing.

"Hello, Regina," he said as if they saw each other every day.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, almost hissing at him.

His expression remained neutral. "Do you mean here in the hospital or here in Storybrooke?"

"Both," she replied.

"It took a while but I eventually found the right hat," he told her, answering one question. "And now I'm here for my daughter."

She nodded, not surprised by that answer. "And what do you think confronting me in the hospital will do?"

"Hopefully get me my daughter," he said.

"I can't help you now," she replied, feeling tired. The last thing she needed was to deal with Jefferson, even if it was her fault that he was separated from his daughter. Grace was safe and happy while Robin was unconscious and fighting for his life. She needed to focus on him more.

She started to walk away when he grabbed her arm, firmly holding her in place. "Don't walk away from me," he said.

"Let go of me," she hissed, panic filling her. She didn't think Jefferson would hurt her but she also knew the lengths a desperate parent would go to be reunited with their child. Regina couldn't rule anything out.

"Not until you promise me I'll get Grace," he said, his face so close she felt like she was going cross-eyed trying to look him in the eyes.

She swallowed before saying: "There's nothing I can do. But if you're patient, I believe you'll get what you want sooner rather than later."

"That's not a promise," he said. "I want you to promise me you'll do it."

"I can't," she replied, anguished. The only way he would get Grace back would be for the curse to break. And once she bit that apple, it would likely only be a matter of days before Emma figured out how to break it and did so.

And so Emma, not her, would reunite him with his daughter.

"You can't? he asked, almost snarling. "Or you won't?"

"Hey! Back off her," John said, his voice booming. She looked away from Jefferson to see him striding down the hallway toward them, glaring at the mam. "Let go of her or we're going to have a problem."

Jefferson released Regina's arm, stepping back. "I see you haven't changed. Still only caring about yourself and not worrying about whose life you destroy in the process. You'll regret this."

He stalked away, bumping against John's shoulder as he pushed past the burly man. John glared at him before turning back to Regina. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know," she answered, feeling numb.

"Who was that?" he asked. "And what was he talking about?"

She sighed, deciding how best to put what her relationship with Jefferson was. "He's someone I worked with several years ago and he believes I took something important from him. He wants me to return it."

"Do you know what happened to this thing?" John asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I do," she replied. "But it's not in my power to return it."

He nodded. "But he's not accepting that, is he?"

She shook her head. "He is not."

"Do you think his threat was just empty words or do you think he could do something to hurt you?" he asked her.

"I don't know," she replied, a statement that pained her. She wanted to believe she had everything under control but the last few weeks have proven the opposite was true. "But I doubt there is much he can really do to me. My best friend thinks I'm the reason she got kidnapped, the DA wants to charge me despite a relatively weak case, there's a good chance I'm going to lose my son and my boyfriend is fighting for his life. What else could he possible do to hurt me?"

John sighed, pulling Regina into a hug. "I know Robin has suggested you go talk with Archie Hopper before and that it didn't go well…but maybe you should try again. You've had a lot happen and need help processing it."

She melted a bit into his hug, feeling tears in her eyes. "I don't really need help processing it. I know why this is happening. I'm just meant to be alone."

"Well, that's bullshit," he replied, leaning back. There was a serious but concerned look in his brown eyes. "Regina, I really think you might be depressed."

"Of course I'm depressed," she said, wishing she had the energy to laugh. "Wouldn't you be if you had to deal with all the shit I've had to the past few months?"

John shook his head. "That's not what I meant and you know it. I think deep down, you know that you're likely suffering from depression too."

"Great," she said, knowing deep down that John likely was right. "Just what I need. Another reason for Emma to use to keep Henry from me."

"Emma Swan is not going to keep your son from you," John said firmly. "And if she tries to use any possible mental health condition you have against you, she's going to become very unpopular very quickly."

Regina sighed, wishing she could believe him. "Thanks, John. But I have a feeling I'll become unpopular very quickly. It's how these things usually go for me."

John tilted his head. "Is this the dark place Robin has mentioned?"

"What?" she asked, surprised.

"Every so often he makes a mention of you tending to go to a dark place," he explained. "He then realizes what he said and stops but I think I now realize what he means."

A chill swept through her. "I didn't realize my mental state was conversation at the dinner table," she said.

"It's not," John replied, rushing to reassure her. "I'm sure you've realized by now that Robin is a nurturer by nature. It makes him a great EMT, a great father, a great friend, and a great man. He gets frustrated if he can't help someone to the extent he wants and when he gets frustrated, he talks to himself out loud. So he wasn't talking to me. He was just talking and I happened to be in the same room."

"Oh," she said, feeling better. She also felt a little spark of warmth knowing that Robin cared so much for her that he would try to figure out some way to help her.

Too bad nothing could help her.

She took a deep breath. "Well, while I appreciate the concern, John, now's not the time. I really don't have the energy to discuss any problems I may or may not have."

"Alright," he said slowly. "We can table it for now."

"Thank you," she replied, knowing that they would never go back to this conversation once she completed her plan and Emma broke the curse.

#once upon a time #outlaw queen #oq au #oq ff #first curse au #beyond verse #beyond the call of duty

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bessiemae · 11 months

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So, it's been awhile, but I'm back writing a long post about something in response to something I saw on another site. I actually was in the middle of typing a direct reply (in agreement with the person) but my finger slipped and I accidentally left the page. And since I already had replied to two other comments within 20 minutes, I felt maybe it was best I didn't do it a third time. So, I'm putting my thoughts here. So, here are some thoughts on Hamilton and separating fiction from fact and being able to enjoy the fiction. Under a cut, naturally.

So, there is a video about how the internet fell out of love with Lin Manuel Miranda. Full confessions, I have not listened to the video. I started to, and got sidetracked by the comments. But, this isn't about the video. It's about certain criticisms in the comments. Mainly that Hamilton glories slave owners. Which I disagree with, but I'll get into more on that later. But, right now, my thing is it no longer seems the thing to separate the fictionalized version of a character and judge them (and the story) based on what's on screen/stage rather than what's in history. I'm going to paraphrase the comment I agreed with. They can't stand the real life Hamilton, but they love the musical Hamilton and that the character in the musical is as fictional as Daenerys Targaryen. I just think that's how people generally approached entertainment for a long while and now most people don't.

(I was going to comment on how videos on The Greatest Showman were more about how terrible the real PT Barnum was a terrible person rather than engaging with what was actually on screen. But, looking at Cinema Sins and Honest Trailers for the movie again, I realize they both talked about what was on screen while still bringing up the fact that it was a fabrication of the real man. And you don't watch these videos for deep well thought out critiques of anything. It's all snark. But, it's still how I would view a dramatization of real life people. Point out the inaccuracies. Say the people come off much better in fiction. But, don't ignore the fiction. Don't ignore what happened in the story and only talk about what they got wrong.

Now, to my assertion that Hamilton (the musical) glorifies these people. To be precise in the criticism that people give, that it glorifies slave owners. I know aside from Jefferson it ignores how they did own slaves or helped perpetuate slavery (I don't know if Hamilton owned any, but I know he helped buy or sell them). But, that's not the same as glorifying. If the musical had been about slavery and it depicted their role in it in a positive light, that would be glorifying them as slave owners. It doesn't. You can argue that they ignore it, and that's valid. I personally don't have an issue because that's not part of the story being told. And, I don't think it needs to be. Maybe I have too much faith in people realizing that it's not a documentary. But, clearly not, or they wouldn't be upset with it not dealing with the darker parts of the characters' lives. I feel like most people nowadays are aware that most stage/screen versions of real people are fictionalized. Especially if they burst out singing and dancing.

But, even ignoring the bigger issues, if none of these characters existed in real life, and we had no context beyond the musical, I would still argue against them being glorified. Out of founding fathers, I'd say the only one who comes close to being glorified is Washington. But take Hamilton the man (the musical version of the man). How is he glorified? He's an incredibly flawed man. Yes, he did some great things but he's also overly proud, an adulterer, someone who puts his need for a legacy over his family, hot headed. I did not come away thinking that Alexander Hamilton was this wonderful noble man. No, we don't see all the bigger flawed actions, but call me pedantic, that is not what glorifying means.

And people can't help what they like or don't like. But, I wonder if people feel that not engaging solely with the history means they're endorsing the people in the fiction. I could be totally off.

And, off topic, but related, another thing some people dislike is that Lin Manuel cast himself in the lead role. I know he wasn't anywhere near the best singer in the original cast. But, if I had a passion project and it was the creator of it and wasn't completely lacking in ability, I'd certainly give myself the part. Who knows if I'd get the opportunity for such a role again? And some of the other parts are nothing to sneeze at.

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sirvivalism · 2 years

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"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." - William Pitt (the Younger), Speech in the House of Commons, November 18, 1783

Embarrassing is what I'd call watching the USA give up a right that other countries sport without the ramifications our borderline dystopian society causes by stacking trauma and delusion on the shoulders of our youth. Pathetic is what I'd call focusing millions of civillian dollars on ensuring the ability to confiscate not just a citizen's property, but their last line of self defense against starvation, predators, criminals, and the government without any proof beyond hearsay.

For twenty years I've met on the common ground of national tragedy and endured the blind rants of hundreds if not thousands of misinformed, well-intending, terrified gun control advocates. But now, as it happens in my own community, after watching the people these idiots would leave as our only line of defense concoct an absolute nightmare of incompetence in my own backyard... I really couldn't fathom how this was happening if I didn't know better; if I wasn't so sure that both sides of this supposed fight didn't water at the same trough and wish for the same power over their perceived lessers.

If you think a Republican is going to save you, if you think the NRA cares; if you think you'll ever be voting for anything but their collective convoluted brand of slow rolled oppression, look back in all those old documents you treasure written by all those founding fathers you adore and realize you're just... wrong. They are all against you. They all want you helpless. You are cattle.

"On every occasion [of Constitutional interpretation] let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying [to force] what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, [instead let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, 12 June 1823

"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Stephens Smith, son-in-law of John Adams, December 20, 1787

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

"To disarm the people...[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them." - George Mason, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adooption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops." - Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787

"A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms… To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." - Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun." - Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778

"This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty.... The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." - St. George Tucker, Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803

"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like law, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance ofpower is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up. Horrid mischief would ensue were one-half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong. The history of every age and nation establishes these truths, and facts need but little arguments when they prove themselves." - Thomas Paine, "Thoughts on Defensive War" in Pennsylvania Magazine, July 1775

"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." - Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833

"[I]f circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist." - Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28, January 10, 1788

And let's not forget:

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country." - James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789

#gunblr #2a #firearms #rights #freedom #founding #fathers #quotes #that #are #hard #to #misinterprrt

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ausetkmt · 1 year

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AAMC: Racism — not race — drives health disparities

When Linda Villarosa was pregnant with her daughter, she was surprised when her doctor recommended she go on bed rest and interrogated her about her health habits because her unborn baby was not growing as expected.

Villarosa, who had served as an editor for Essence, a lifestyle magazine for Black women, had written about healthy habits and strove to live a healthy life herself. She’d encouraged other Black women to change their diets and exercise regimens to help combat health disparities.

But despite her efforts, her baby was born at a low birth weight — an issue that impacts Black parents and babies at disproportionately high rates in the United States, even when accounting for education and socioeconomic status.

“How did my lived experience [as a Black woman in America] affect my own [birthing experience]?” Villarosa recalled wondering, speaking to attendees of Learn Serve Lead 2022: The AAMC Annual Meeting on Nov. 13 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Her personal experience was reflected in the data she gathered and the personal stories she encountered during her reporting for the New York Times Magazine on maternal mortality rates and disparities in this country and in writing her book, Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation.

“There has never been a time in this country when Black people have had equal health to White people and often other people of color,” Villarosa said.

She identified the sources of myths about Black bodies and people that, throughout American history, have labeled them as inferior and not needing or worthy of appropriate care: the so-called “father of modern gynecology,” J. Marion Sims, who operated on enslaved women without anesthesia, contributing to the myth that Black people do not feel pain as acutely as White people; Thomas Jefferson, who likely perpetuated the myth that Black people had inferior lung function to White people; and countless medical journals that validated racist studies as evidence-based science.

These myths have seeped into today’s health systems, contributing to persistent biases that label Black people as lazy and aggressive and make them less likely to receive appropriate health care, Villarosa said.

But the outlook isn’t all bleak, she added.

Medical students who are working to make anti-racism a priority at their institutions and administrators who respond to those calls to action give her hope for the future of medicine.

“They’re the future,” she said. “They’re the ones trying to know better and do better.”

Several weeks ago, Villarosa spoke with AAMCNews about her research and how academic medicine can foster change.

What role have you found racism itself, as opposed to socioeconomic status, plays in racial health disparities?

It’s the long-standing idea that it was something about the Black body or something about Black culture that was causing poor health outcomes and racial disparities, that it was genetics — in other words, that we were inferior in some ways to White people, whether it was a lack of education or high levels of poverty, with less interrogation of societal and institutional barriers. So that’s why I really set out to write the book — to disprove that there’s something wrong with us in some inherent way. And the first chapter is basically called, “Everything I thought was wrong,” because I believed that too.

When I was a young editor at Essence, I was really looking at these poor health outcomes and looking at racial health disparities obsessively and thinking if I just tell people or help educate people that are reading Essence magazine, who are in the millions, that we can change the health outcomes of Black people in the country. And my idea was, "If you know better, you do better." Then I realized, after going to public health school and really doing a lot of reporting in this area, that this kind of one-note idea that it was just poor people who were sick was wrong. And it really came to the front of my mind in 2017, when I was reporting on maternal and infant mortality among Black women for the New York Times Magazine and I started seeing these statistics that said we’re the only country where the number of birthing people and pregnant people who die or almost die related to pregnancy and childbirth is rising. And that Black women are three to four times more likely to die or almost die, and then that a Black woman with a master’s degree or more is still more likely to die or almost die than a White woman with an eighth-grade education. And I started to [think], “Wait, this cannot be only about education or lack of money or 'if you know better, you do better.' There's something else going on.”

Can you share any stories about how structural racism plays out in the health care system?

Well, I think I just want to mention two of them. The first is Simone Landrum, whom I was following for my 2018 story “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis.” When I met her, she had two children. She had just lost a baby and almost died, at least partially because her doctor didn’t listen to her and her legitimate complaints.

And then when I was at her child’s birth, I saw that happening again. I was in the labor and delivery room watching the medical providers who were all White really treat her with disrespect, ignore the things she was saying, and not treat her with the kind of care and kindness you would treat someone who had gone through a trauma the year before with a stillborn baby. … And I saw how distressed she was, and that kind of distress impacted her body and her baby. Luckily, she had a healthy baby, but I still was so surprised that everything I’d been researching unfolded in front of me.

Then when my current book Under the Skin was reviewed in the New York Times Book Review, it was a Black woman writing about the book and in the middle of the review, she talked about her own birth[ing experience], and she said that she had read my 2018 story and she was trying to do everything right. She was expecting to have a positive birth outcome, but how she herself was treated during the process led her to question herself, to blame herself, and to ultimately be happy that she had a healthy baby but also feel bad about the process and the experience. And I was surprised because right in the middle of a book review, it’s unusual to get this kind of really intense, personal story, but I appreciated it and it really confirmed much of what I have been looking into for the last few years.

Why do you think there is resistance to seeing racism as a health risk factor?

Well, I think it’s in the DNA of American character to assume that everybody has responsibility. They’re responsible for themselves and for their own health, wealth, and well-being, without questioning the forces of society and discrimination and other kinds of harm that are baked into the system. And it’s almost “un-American” to say anything bad about the country. What I learned, especially working on the [New York Times] 1619 Project, was it is Black folks who are questioning what’s going on in America and who are demanding a closer look at it, not because we don’t like the country, but because we care and want to engage in the system and work toward social change.

When I talk about discrimination and racism in the health care system itself, I’m very careful to cite a lot of evidence — and there is a lot out there — because I don’t want it to feel like I’m accusing individual physicians, nurses, midwives, health care providers, or policymakers of racism, because it’s not a question of individuals blaming individuals for their own health. It’s also not fair to blame individual health care providers for a problem in the system. And I think one of the solutions is to just admit that something is going on that is giving marginalized people a bad experience when we enter the health care system — not always but too often, and it’s been well documented. So it’s time to stop looking away from the problem and to figure out how to face it. One of the things that I’m really interested in is hospital systems and health care commissions mandating anti-racism or anti-bias, implicit bias training for its employees and to say everyone needs to go through this just as a matter of course to make sure we’re not poisoning the experience and the service that we’re giving people because they’re different from us. And I think there is a growing awareness of this and a growing acceptance of this as a solution.

What can medical schools do to start making these changes?

One thing to focus on is listening to students themselves. Many students who are in medical school and nursing school and midwifery school right now were learning about racism and discrimination against people of color — especially Black people — in high school or in college. So many of them are very aware of this and are wanting to do better and to be a different kind of provider and not take the old biases and prejudices into their practices-to-be. I think that’s really exciting, that there’s this swell of students who are trying to make a difference. And I think there are also medical educators and people that work on training medical students and nursing students who are trying to make a difference, and we have to lift up these stories and hold them up and say thank you and I’m really excited about that.

We know that medical research has abused people of color. Is there anything you’d like to see change in academic research to gain trust and stop perpetuating discrimination and abuse?

When you talk about vaccine hesitancy or Black people reluctant to enter the health care system or avoiding it, there’s this discussion of the Tuskegee syphilis study — which was in the 1930s through the 1970s — without much thought about how many people are reluctant to enter the health care system because something happened to them yesterday or something happened last week to someone that they love when they went to a doctor or went to some kind of health care provider, whether it was an extremely long wait or it was disrespect. And I think one of the things to think about is to listen to the stories. Oftentimes, I’ve seen where hospital systems, sometimes where I did initial reporting — I went back and they’re doing a restorative justice project to both acknowledge the stories of harm and to teach the people who are working in these systems that are often busy and hurried and sometimes underfunded that you have to listen to the folks’ stories and do better and not make the same mistakes over and over.

I think one thing that I learned over the last few years doing lectures and listening to seminars about these topics is how often Black researchers are overlooked, even when the research is about topics of interest to Black people or about diseases or problems that affect us. And I think we also have to look at who gets to study what and whose research is lifted up and whose gets celebrated — and even published. That’s one thing that I didn't know so much about, but I heard heartbreaking stories from Black researchers talking about how they were overlooked and how their research was less respected than other researchers’, even when the topic was something about Black people. So I think it’s important to also look at the ways we choose who is published and who is celebrated and who isn't.

#Racism — not race — drives health disparities #us health disparities #health disparities in Black and White #Black Lives Matter #Black Health Matter #US Racism Racism drives health disparities

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yr-obedt-cicero · 1 year

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Why exactly do you think that Jefferson is not a good person personality-wise? We know of his actions, but what of just how he is?

Correction; I don't think he's a hero, or a villain. Due to my lack of interest of learning about him - which isn't deep or anything, he just genuinely does not interest me - I can come across as being harsher towards him than how I do with many of the other founders. The ideology someone could be a saint, or pure evil; is kind of a childish fairytale view. When judging historical figures, you need to see them as the people that they are, not statues of fictional heroes upon a pedestal. And in almost every case with a founder; they are just morally gray people. On one hand; Jefferson was the author of the Declaration Of Independence, a ballsy job not many were willing to commit to and do. And on the other; he was an asshole, manipulative politician, pedophile, etc. People often times seem conscripted to choose between seeing controversial historical figures as heroes, or villains. With the downfall being missing the reasonable answer that is the ambiguity and complexity of humanity. It's a common side affect to trying to objectify these real human people as saints, or sinister people to either only condone or condem. Because the end result is; the polarization. There isn't going to be a completely terrible or completely great person.

Anyway, in many cases; it's subjective wether someone's shortcomings outweigh their accomplishments. And I'm not here to personally countdown every misdeed in Jefferson's life to give an answer. But I will say that; from most of what I've heard, I am not fond of Jefferson in any aspect. I'll spare the details about his relationship with slavery and the Hemming's case — not out of the intent to dismiss those disgusting acts, but because I don't feel like repeating what has already be told repeatedly. And we are really judging on his “personality” here, so let's just take from the perspective of his own time.

He was a sexist, and supported rapists.

Jefferson believed that;

“More so than most founders, Thomas Jefferson dwelled on disorderly women. He noted that his good-hearted male assistant “loses all power over himself and becomes almost frenzied” when in the company of women. Jefferson was against imposing harsh penalties on rapists lest disorderly women use the rape charge as “an instrument of vengeance against an inconstant lover and of disappointment to a rival.” He condemned French women who engaged in public petitioning and protests for abandoning their families and nourishing “all our bad passions.” He blamed France's Queen Marie Antoinette for an “inflexible perverseness and dauntless spirit," manipulation of the king, and the violence of the French Revolution. He commented, “I should have shut the Queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power.” Jefferson's misogynist tendency to blame women for all public problems was simply an extreme example of the founders' deep distrust of public women.

Not surprisingly, many founders joined fraternal organizations where men could escape from women to enjoy male camaraderie. Social groups like the Freemasons, martial institutions such as the Society of the Cincinnati, and political clubs like Democratic Societies were male-only organizations that invited members to congregate, socialize, network, deliberate, plan, and make decisions regarding their families, businesses, communities, and nation without women's presence, intervention, or interference.”

(source — The Gendering of American Politics: Founding Mothers, Founding Fathers, and Political Patriarchy, by Mark E. Kann)

He was super racist, even for his day.

Granted, throughout Jefferson's life, he was always publicly disagreeing towards slavery, despite enslaving 600 people. Jefferson called slavery a “moral depravity”, and he believed that slavery was a great threat to their new nation. And he also thought that slavery was a terrible contradiction to the laws of nature, which was that everyone had a right to personal liberty.

But that is all severely less applauding when Jefferson's belief in the necessity of abolition was intertwined with his racist beliefs — as in, Jefferson didn't care if slaves were freed or not, he still thought they were inferior and didn't deserve to be in America with white folks. He thought that white Americans and enslaved black people constituted two separate nations, and that they could never live together peacefully, or even in the same country, abolishment or not.

Jefferson also believed that black people were racially inferior, and even had the capability of children;

“for, men, probably of any colour, but of this color we know, brought up from their infancy without necessity for thought or forecast, are by their habits rendered as incapable as children of taking care of themselves, and are extinguished promptly wherever industry is necessary for raising the young. in the mean time they are pests in society by their idleness, and the depredations to which this leads them. their amalgamation with the other colour produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character can innocently consent.”

(source — from Thomas Jefferson to Edward Coles, [August 25, 1814])

And he was actually terrified what freed slaves might do to their previous owners, that he supported deporting black people out of the United States ( Freed or not ) in favor of protecting planation owners.

Which is the whole meaning behind Jefferson's well-known quote; “we have a wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go”

All of which, was pretty racist even by his day-in-age. Trust me, there are plenty more admirable abolitionists that did not agree with this same sickening ideology.

He was a shitty person and friend.

So, I'm not going to bring up his rivalry with Adams because they were both petty and ridiculous.

Thaddeus - also known as Tadeusz - Kosciuszko ( 1746-1817 ), was a Polish engineer, and firm believer in liberty. Kosciuszko traveled to America during the American Revolution and even fought in the war, and later gained even greater recognition in defense of his native Poland. And he was also an abolitionist, and hated slavery.

Yet, he was also great friends with Jefferson. Who had called him; “as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known.” The major difference between Kosciuszko and Jefferson as abolitionists, was that Kosciuszko was actually willing to act on his word.

In 1798, Kodciuszko left the United States and returned to the Russian-controlled sector of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Jefferson had helpfully provided him with a passport in a false name and arranged for his secret departure to France. But before leaving that same year, Kodciuszko wrote out a will and entrusted Jefferson to be the executor. In the document, Kosciuszko - long before the American Civil War - pleaded for the emancipation of America's black slaves. His plan was to leave his American estate to buy the freedom of the enslaved, including Jefferson's own, and to educate them for independent life and work as to help supply them after they would be freed from the planations.

“I Thaddeus Kosciuszko being just in my departure from America do hereby declare and direct that should I make no other testamentory disposition of my property in the United States I hereby authorise my friend Thomas Jefferson to employ the whole thereof in purchasing Negroes from among his own or any others and giving them Liberty in my name, in giving them en education in trades or othervise and in having them instructed for their new condition in the duties of morality which may make them good neigh bours good fathers or moders, husbands or vives and in their duties as citisens teeching them to be defenders of their Liberty and Country and of the good order of Society and in whatsoever may Make them happy and useful, and I make the said Thomas Jefferson my executor of this”

(source — Will of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, [May 5, 1798])

In October 1817, Kosciuszko passed. But even before such, in September, he wrote a letter to Jefferson reminding him of the deal; “—of which money, after my death, you know the fixed destination.” And yet, Jefferson waited until he was of age 77, to claim that he was too old to fill in the request, and that it was too complicated legally. After the case was passed around through a couple of other men who all refused to fullfil it; and I don't believe it was ever completed.

He was a manipulative politician.

He did that imperious, artificial sympathy shit of dressing poor to make himself appear more relatable and humanizing to people. Which in the end; is just insulting and arrogant, but even politicians ( And celebrities ) do things like that today and get away with objectifying others simply because of class differences.

And also, he was such a rich coward that half the rumors and slander he had spread around weren't even by himself — but he had instead just paid many journalists to do his dirty work for him, all while he could appear innocent and too sensible to get into the crossfire of political slander.

#amrev #american history #thomas jefferson #founding fathers #queries #sincerely anonymous #Cicero's history lessons #history

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