Ahead of Eurovision 2024
I was listening to Eden Golan's song, Hurricane.
At first, it didn't seem to me like it stands out. I'm one of the people who prefers my Eurovision song less on the power ballad side of things, so this being in that genre...
But then I found myself haunted by the lyrics. By specific lines. Singing them to myself quietly, over and over again. I had to listen to the song again.
And it got to me, it really did, I haven't stopped listening to or singing it since, so I guess I needed to share a bit.
There's more than one hint that this is a song about mourning and survival. Lines like, "someone stole the moon tonight, took my light" can be interpreted in more than one way. But they become less ambiguous when combined with ones like, "holding on in this mysterious ride," when the mysterious ride we're all on is life itself. It makes it clearer that this isn't just a break up song. Then it becomes even more explicit with, "we shall pass, but love will never die."
The imagery in the videoclip is also telling, that ending when Eden is looking up, much like many do when talking to or thinking about a loved one that we have lost.
But the line that gets to me the most, the first one that took over my brain? "I'm still broken from this hurricane."
We all get what this song is about, in the wake of what happened here in October 2023, and since. And I am broken. So many Jews and Israelis are. As one survivor said (his words have haunted me first, then I heard them echoed in this song): "We are broken, but strong." That's exactly what the song is about, deeply feeling the pain and the tragedy, the loss, this impossible to accept grief, and still trying to find a way to live with it, to survive not just the horrors of a massacre, but the trauma that follows it as well.
The other line that affects me the most is directly related to this, "baby, promise me you'll hold me again." Because I have spent the last 5 months watching the news, seeing the funerals, and hearing people breaking down, as they say a variation of this to their loved ones, who are gone. Asking for a promise that can't be made, or fulfilled, and knowing that it can't, even as the request is being uttered. I hear their voices breaking around their words, whenever I listen to or sing this line.
The videoclip is also infused with imagery that's related to the massacre of over 360 people at the Nova music festival (and the kidnapping of 40 more from that scene), which is in a way very apt for music lovers. The images show dancers in what looks a lot like a nature party, just like Nova, and since the massacre happened when the music festival was meant to reach its peak, a long night of music and dancing climaxing around sunrise, that's exactly what we see, a move from the "moon light" throughout most of the videoclip, to the "sunrise" at the end.
But in the case of this "sunrise," Eden can smile, she can find comfort, she can sing a few words in Hebrew that reflect hope, about that little light that's left even when the moon's been stolen.
She's bringing the song to a beautiful, emotional closure.
Obviously, it can't be ignored that this is a re-write. The original song (which was called October Rain) was disqualified as "political."
You can read the original lyrics here. They're almost identical. I heard an interview with the song writers, who said they weren't even told what got their song disqualified, so they had to guess what the Eurovision Broadcasting Union had in mind, when they called an expression of our pain, and our strength at the face of that, "political."
I admit, I find it very hard to accept this disqualification. It's not like there isn't precendent for countries at the Eurovision expressing pain (including the kind originating from political circumstances) through their songs.
If you take the wildly popular Ukraine 2007 entry, the singer was quite obviously singing "Russia goodbye," with allusions to Russian interference in Ukrainian elections while wearing outfits reminiscent of Soviet uniforms. And that wasn't called political, because "Russia goodbye" was changed into gibberish that still sounds like it (and in recent performances, it was blatantly sang like that).
If you take the much talked about Croatia 2023 entry, it was about the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and also criticized Belarus' tyrant kissing Russia's tyrant's ass, by referencing the tractor that Lukashenko bought for Putin, while the band members played with military weapons and uniforms on stage. And that wasn't disqualified for being political.
If you take the Ukraine 2016 entry, that was explicitly singing about their pain over what the Russians did to the Tatar population in Crimea in 1944, with clear allusions to what Russians did when they invaded Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014. And that wasn't called "political" either.
Even this year, we have the entry from The Netherlands being political, with both the lyrics and videoclip referencing the borderless Europe (which IS a political issue, as Brexit, if nothing else, had made clear). I've seen people pointing out online that the song isn't political, because the whole borderless Europe thing is a metaphor for the singer's grief for his father/parents. I have no problem with that reading, but let's acknowledge that there could have been many metaphors for that, and he chose a political one.
So why is Jewish pain treated differently? Why is our pain labeled "political," when the metaphors for it in the songs aren't that, there are no specific political mentions of people or organizations in the song (unlike the Georgia 2009 entry, which slipped Putin's name into the song's title) in either version, when there are no political statements being made in the song, there's just expressing our pain, and trying to find a way to cope with it?
This WAS the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and expecting Jews not to write about it, not to sing about it, not to try to process it through art... Our pain is not political. It's human. When Ukraine won in 2022 with a song that wasn't originally political, but became one, as it was adopted by Ukrainians suffering from a war that they did not choose, but had to fight, singing it wherever they were displaced (I remember the winners, Kalush Orchestra, coming to Israel to sing it for and with Ukrainian refugees who found shelter here), I thought it was quite obvious, even for people who don't like politics at Eurovision, why the song won, and why everyone overlooked the fact that it was only partly based on its qualities as a Eurovision song. I don't expect Israel to win, I very much expect that, even as Israelis embrace this song about our pain during a war, that we didn't choose, but have to fight, and while hundreds of thousands of us are still displaced, we will get a lot of hatred, instead of understanding and sympathy. But I still have to speak up. I still have to point out that treating Israeli or Jewish pain differently is wrong.
(as a footnote, I wanna get ahead of the usual, "Why is Israel allowed to participate in Eurovision to begin with? It's not in Europe!" comments, while I haven't come across the same ritual for certain other Eurovision participants, like North African Morocco, just-as-Asian-as-Israel Lebanon, transcontinental {despite some of these countries only being considered European culturally, while geographically speaking, they're fully Asian} Georgia, Russia, Cyprus, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the one that's a continent all on its own, Australia. They all have the right to participate, because they all belong to the European Broadcasting Union. Just like Israel)
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Propaganda
Myrna Loy (The Thin Man, Manhattan Melodrama, Mr Blandings Builds his Dream House)—Started out a slinky silent screen vamp. Became a screwball lead who had a blast drinking, being married to William Powell, solving mysteries, and taking her dog everywhere in the Thin Man Movies. Broke our hearts in The Best Years of Our Lives and played a string of dream wives. Remained hot the entire time. Decades of hotness.
Gracie Allen (A Damsel in Distress, Honolulu)— The funniest woman who ever lived, she was the brains behind an absolutely brilliant radio show that she did with her husband George Burns. The radio show was later turned into a television show (which you can find on Youtube) but during the radio days, it was announced that Gracie would be running for President of the United States for the year of 1940. She was running for the Surprise Party, and refused a Vice President as, according to her, there would be no room for vice in her white house. Her slogan was "Down with common sense -Vote for Gracie Allen." [more about this beneath the cut]
This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.
[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]
Myrna Loy:
Myrna Loy excelled at playing coy women, so common in screwball comedies in the 40s. She batted her lashes, and shrugged with grace, and made her costars look like foolish heels next to her. She charmed with sneaky elegance, well-placed pouting, and repartee. Besides, she was sultry AF.
While Myrna certainly looked hot in some her earlier vampy exotic bad girl roles, I think shes hottest when her comedic chops got to be displayed. Her dry wit, comedic timing, and subtle facial expressions make her the queen of deadpan snark.
She's just very Mother
So beautiful and popular she was crowned Queen of the Movies in 1936, Myrna Loy was also an amazing actress. She's best remembered for The Thin Man and sequels, where she gets to show off her comedy skills, adding irresistible impish charm to her classic beauty and dancer's figure.
THE SASS
One of the few actresses who managed to successfully transition from silent to talkies, never won an Oscar but was at one time the highest paid woman in Hollywood. Advocated for better roles and pay for Black actors in the 1930s, so passionately anti-Nazi in the 40s she made Hitler's blacklist, spoke out against Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare, and advocated for fair housing in the 1950s and 1960s, all while being hot as fuck opposite William Powell, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy and a whole galaxy of the Hot Vintage Men Poll all-stars.
Cute as a button with so much RIZZ! She and whatsisname in The Thin Man are relationship goals.
She was literally called the Queen of Hollywood! She is so sassy and funny in the whole Thin Man series. Absolutely hot in those, and who doesn’t love a woman who can laugh? She had the sultriest gaze and that style! Also before she was a star she sat as the model for an iconic statue for a school (representing “Fountain of Education”).
the glamour!! the banter!! the comedy!!
She's got this cute kinda scrunched up face AND shes funny AND shes got a bangin body.
Gracie Allen:
Continued from previous propaganda: "We don't want to get rid of men entirely," Allen said, according to a story in the April 22, 1940, Indianapolis Star. "All we want to do is make them unconstitutional and keep them out of circulation, but have them handy when there's no place else to go."
On the Neutrality Bill pending in Congress: "If we owe it, let's pay it." On recognizing Russia: "I don't know. I meet so many people." On which political party she was affiliated with: "I may take a drink now and then, but I never get affiliated.""
She did have to drop out eventually, with World War 2 being on and all, but thousands of people still wrote her in anyway, even if the FDR won the popular vote in the end. (https://www.jsonline.com/story/life/green-sheet/2016/03/31/that-time-a-comedian-won-the-wisconsin-presidential-primary/84944806/)
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I see so many reflections today from different people: someone woke up from the explosions, some from a phone call, some woke up and saw hundreds of notifications from different telegram channels. It is still so unimaginably bizarre. I have no ability to put into words the feeling of your world falling apart and we didn’t even understand half of the danger that was surrounding us. We were so damn close to disaster with half of Europe believing that nothing good will come out of it.
Ukrainians didn’t care what Europeans thought though, I personally saw news pieces about "Russia will take control of Kyiv" a lot later, somewhere in May, when Ukrainian military took control over the north of the country. And I’m so eternally grateful to every Ukrainian who made sure that all this "experts" sat in those flashy studios red from guilt. I’m grateful for my life, I’m grateful for our Ukraine. She persist. She is still the love of our lives. She’s hurt and devastated but she lives despite all the attempts to destroy her. Same as us. Somehow still here.
Yet I feel more detached from the western world than ever and I’m so fucking jealous of you all. It’s not even about the rockets or shakheds - somewhere along the lines you accept the fact that you may die in any moment - it’s about normal things like your Twitter feed that doesn’t look like a necrology, military terms that don’t make any sense to you, your city that doesn’t stop everyday to mourn the dead, you don’t feel guilty for trying to live a normal life while your classmate, who wanted to be a director, posts stories from the trenches. All of that and more. I’m not even entitled to my emotions because there always will be someone who says that my country is not suffering enough. I no longer react to comments like this as emotionally as I’ve done before but it is still so bizarre to see stuff like that from people whose countries have always been the one to inflict suffering on others.
I may sound mean or sarcastic or whatever but there is so much negativity inside of us that was put there by people like I’ve mentioned above that it is going to be released from time to time. "Your country shouldn’t exist", "Only 9 thousand killed", "You all are nazis/racist/zionists/any of the -ist terms" - yet you should always react in a constructive way because the moment you let your emotions go, you are the worst person on the planet. But who am I kidding, some people here do believe that we are. There is a thousand bad people with sketchy patches in a 40-million country and suddenly "That’s why I no longer support Ukraine". Well, honey, that means you never did. Because Syrian flags were quickly replaced with Ukrainian ones and just as quickly with Palestinian. It’s not about the "Support the oppressed", it’s "Anything to not feel guilty" because then you’ll find the reason to hate Palestinians, just as you did with us. If only you cared about the problematic shit happening in you country as much as you care about our political and social life.
But there are people who still are there for us. Countries that are still here. We may not say it as often but we are thankful. So very thankful for everything you’ve done and are doing for us. Thank you for hearing us and uplifting our voices.
Recently one of the most beautiful people here have lost her life defending me and you. She was always in my notes, always making sure that we didn’t feel uncomfortable even if she of all the people had all the right to be upfront about her thoughts and feelings. I don’t think I will ever get rid of the feeling of guilt. She was there while I wasn’t. She said to mourn her through anger. Anger towards the oppressor. Anger that should be directed into something useful: donations, sharing info, contacting your MPs and so on.
The soldier‘s death is not something out of ordinary during the war, it’s not considered a war crime but what if half of the army are civilians? Volunteers who left their homes to protect them. What if the soldier was a teacher, a poet, an actor, an IT-specialist, a scientist, what then? Isn’t it a tragedy? My country is loosing yet another generation of beautiful talented people and it makes my view of the future even darker.
But what can I say? I’m still here. My country still stands. Ukrainian air defence is doing everything possible and impossible to protect the lives of the civilians. Ukrainian military is still the only thing keeping us all alive. Heroes, titans, gods. Glory to them. Eternal glory to those who lost their lives defending Ukraine.
To Ukrainians: якось буде, прорвемся.
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Do you have any memories of what life was like in Russia during the 1990s (or stories from older people if you were too young)? I found out last year just how bad things were at that time, and I was horrified and angry, not just that conditions were allowed to deteriorate to that extent, but that the US media glossed it over as being worth it for “freedom.” I took a class on modern Russia as an undergraduate and what happened after the collapse of the USSR was just never mentioned.
I was a child/teen in the 90s. My parents shielded me from most of the awfulness, so I was just a kid with a whole lot of new exciting stuff coming out. The first commercials on TV (Stimorol, TV Park, Bank Imperial), Coca Cola and chocolate bars (we bought one Snickers bar for our family of 5 and divided it carefully), Santa Barbara.
I also remember that it didn't feel safe. When leaving the car, my dad would always take the side mirror and windshield wipers so that they wouldn't be stolen. Car lock was double and triple checked every time. Our dacha (summer cottage) was robbed several times so eventually adults stopped keeping anything remotely of worth there and locking the house at all - lest the door be broken down. Harvests were also sometimes stolen. Another thing from dacha I remember very well is the abundance of poppies we always had. I thought they just grew there naturally (they were very pretty), but later I found out that they were sowed by local junkies who later came around to collect seed pods.
Everyone I've ever talked to about the 90s who were adults at the time say it was the worst time. There was no money, no food in stores, no anything. People had to outright survive. Dachas were the hugest help in that, so everyone who had a patch of land would grow vegetables, get chickens etc. Even in the city, land patches by the houses were often used for that. I remember a few houses down the street where I lived kept chickens and goats in a boarded area behind the houses. (Note that houses were not private property, they held 10+ families.)
I had to wear ugly men's shoes as a teen because girl's shoes in size 40-41 were simply impossible to find.
My mother and father both worked at a state research institute and they didn't get any pay for months. My mom had a side hustle selling books that she bought from village book shops (hello state distribution), my father repaired cars and occasionally did long trips to the South to bring nuts, fruit and seed oil that could be sold here. I don't think I truly know the extent of what they had to do to raise two children in the 90s.
90s in Russia were absolute chaos.
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i feel like i've told this story before but it's still so funny to me that my grandfather had the entire family convinced long after his death that buying your kids new shoes for passover was an old and storied jewish tradition and not just something he most likely made up like basically my grandmother lost her parents as a child due to the whole being jewish in 1930s and 40s russia so her religious upbringing was pretty limited so when she got married and had kids and her husband was like "we have to buy them new shoes for passover it's tradition" she was like sure why not sounds real so my mom and her sisters grew up assuming it was real and they lived in a very homogenous suburb where they didn't really have jewish neighbours or classmates so there was nobody to correct them. and then when they grew up and had kids of their own three of them ended up starting families with gentiles so why would they know what is and isn't a real jewish tradition, and then the one who did marry an ethnically jewish guy married a guy who wasn't raised religious bc his parents were hardline soviet communists when he was a kid and didn't engage in anything religious so he didn't know anything either. it wasn't until like two years ago that i was with my mom and i went hey do we know anyone else who does passover shoes and she was like huh i don't think so so we googled it and found nothing and then started asking everyone we knew and the closest we got was people saying they did new shoes for rosh hashanah. by that point my grandfather had been dead for over 30 years. my grandmother still sends all of her daughters money every passover for new shoes. incredible
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“At the end of the 19th century, when slightly more than half of all working people were still engaged in agriculture and the nation’s population was still concentrated mostly in the Eastern states, the statistically and geographically average American woman would have been a 38-to-40-year-old white farmer’s wife with four or five children, living in southwestern Ohio. Like 98 percent of married white women in 1890, this “average” American woman did not work for pay outside her home. In addition to housekeeping, cooking, and child care, though, she probably performed a great deal of farm labor and may have sold eggs and butter to make a little cash.
She may also have been involved in local church work, or a temperance (anti-alcohol) group, or a ladies’ auxiliary of the county Grange, an organization that encouraged farmer cooperatives and agitated for farmers’ political rights. Our typical mid-continent woman was probably not an immigrant, but she might well have been the offspring of German or Scandinavian immigrants, the groups that had dominated the settlement of the Midwest after the Civil War. Her own daughter, coming of age in the 1890s and educated in a local township school, might have more opportunities than her mother. Unless she married a farmer, or her parents needed her labor at home, she could move to Chicago or some other large city and take up work in a factory, shop, or office.
This picture of the statistically average American woman and her daughter does not tell the whole story. In fact, the typical, if not the average, white American woman in 1890 was just as likely to be a young working-class woman--a Russian-Jewish or Italian garment worker in New York City, a Polish meat packer in Chicago, or an Irish domestic servant in Boston--as she was to be a farmer’s wife in Ohio or Nebraska, because immigration was changing the population so rapidly in 1890. The waves of British, Irish, and German immigration had ended in the 1880s. Now the immigrants, who arrived each year in the hundreds of thousands, came mostly from eastern and southern Europe--Russia, Poland, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, and Italy.
…The picture of women’s lives in the South at the turn of the century differed in several significant ways from that of their Northern counterparts. Southern society had been all but destroyed in the Civil War, along with Southern cities and much of the Southern landscape. Recovery had been slow and incomplete, and the South did not share the industrial prosperity of the North. Society was sharply divided along racial lines, and white racism had become steadily worse after Reconstruction ended in the late 1870s. Confined largely to jobs in agriculture, African Americans worked as laborers on vast cotton or tobacco plantations, or as sharecroppers, paying for the fields that they leased from white landowners with a share of their crops. Few black families owned farms of their own.
Although many black women dreamed of a life in which they could devote full time to family cares and household responsibilities, most had to work full days for white landowners or toil in the fields alongside their husbands in order to maintain even a minimum family income. The few jobs available to black women outside agriculture were in domestic service--working for white families--or in laundries, or in segregated mills and cigarette factories. Black families made enormous sacrifices to keep their daughters in school, with the expectation that they might become teachers or small-business owners. African-American parents could hope that the next generation of black women might escape sharecropping or working in white men’s houses, where they were subject to insult and frequently in danger of sexual assault.
…Western coastal states were especially attractive to Asian immigrants, though the influx of Chinese laborers had slowed to a trickle after the Chinese Exclusion Act became law in 1882. Filipino immigration increased significantly after the Spanish-American War in 1898, and by the end of the 19th century, Japanese immigrants had established substantial communities in California. Although the Chinese and Filipino immigration was at first mostly male, Japanese immigration was more evenly balanced between men and women.
The Asian groups tended to remain isolated from the larger, white society, which regarded their different physical characteristics, as well as their languages and customs, with deep suspicion and contempt. Like women in other immigrant cultures, Asian women remained more isolated and less assimilated than men, remaining homebound or working in restaurants, laundries, or small industries run exclusively by members of their community. Many new brides went straight from the boat to the farms of central California, where they picked fruits and vegetables alongside their husbands by day and cooked meals and cared for their children and living quarters the rest of the time.”
- Karen Manners Smith, “Woman’s World in 1890.” in New Paths to Power: American Women, 1890-1920
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Another Cover Up (Part 3)
Fandom: The Boys
Pairing: Soldier Boy x Fem!Reader
Summary: After Herogasm, Butcher, Hughie and Soldier Boy realise they might need more reinforcements. After doing more research, they discover the woman who was also injected with Compound V alongside Soldier Boy back in the 40’s. Everyone also thought she was KIA that day at Nicaragua. But if Soldier Boy was still alive… maybe she was too?
If you DO wish to be tagged for future updates, please let me know.
Tags: @msbadgirl @queenofspades20 @mimzy1994 @erinnkenobi @goldngguk @ateliefloresdaprimavera @roseblue373 @acarboni21 @sexyvixen7
Chapter Warnings: language, mentions of past trauma, nothing specific but implied sexual assault by a family member
A reminder: this story will not be entirely canon to the show.
Series Masterlist
You were sitting on the wiry mattress of Legend's guest bedroom he had given you to use. Hughie was sitting on the other side of the room, looking at something on his handheld device. He had called it a phone, but it wasn't like any phone you'd seen.
You guess this was something you had to get used to now. How advanced the world had gotten in the nearly forty years you were locked away... you'd been able to easily adjust throughout the years before Russia, but that was because you were living through it. You never woke up one day and everything suddenly changed, it was always gradual...
But Hughie... He was a nice boy, you'd decided. Honest and caring. He kept making sure you had what you needed, happy to talk but understood when to shut up... most of the time... but he was easy to be around. He never seemed to have a hidden agenda, which was always refreshing for a telepath.
Since coming back, you'd not had the best control of your powers. Being able to read a person's mind was easy, but before Russia you'd learnt to switch it off in a way. Only go into a person's mind if you chose to. But you'd been hearing everyone's thoughts and it was a painful migraine the past two days. So not all thoughts were clear to you, it felt like a hundred radio stations competing with each other. It was easier if you were seperate from everyone, or just one on one. You were however, quickly picking up some old tricks of the trade and able to turn it off when you focused hard enough.
He tried his best to not be judgemental. But with Ben... You've always understood that would be difficult for anyone.
Ben was... an acquired taste... and even then he was difficult to read. At least to those who didn't know him like you did. He always came across as this macho man's man. He'd kill you for saying it out loud, but he seemed more and more like his cunt of a father when he was like this. Someone he himself despised...
He's always played an unapologetically, gruff, ready to kill you, misogynistic man, but you knew he was never like that. Not really.
"Y/N, can I ask you a question?" Hughie asks, looking up from his phone.
"You just did." You respond curtly.
Listen, he may have been a nice kid, but that didn't mean you trusted him. Your headache didn't help either. So you weren't trusting of your abilities a hundred percent to accurately read people yet.
"Oh um..." he fumbled.
"Oh for fucks sake, what's your question?"
"Was Soldier Boy... Ben...," he corrects himself. He'd learnt very quickly you hated referring to your childhood best friend by his Supe handle. "Was he always so...?" He trails off unsure.
"So much of an Asshole?" You offer.
Hughie looks at you, as if to say he didn't want to be the one to say it, but you were right on the money.
"Pretty much yeah... after the V." You add.
"Not before?" He asks slightly confused.
You smile sadly.
"No... before Vought, before the labs, before the power and all the bullshit fame that came along with it... Ben was actually one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet."
You don't have to hear Hughie's thoughts to know he struggled believing it.
"Kid... you're scrawny and way more soft toned, but... you kinda remind me of him when we were kids..." you see a mixture of astonishment and offence on his face, causing you to break out in a belly laugh. "That wasn't meant to be offensive at all, Hughie!"
"I just, erm..."
"You can't see it, I know." You chuckle. "Ben plays his part pretty well... one could say too well." Your voice changes. "So fucking well he started to believe it himself..."
"How did you guys meet? They always said, 'Soldier Boy and Vivid have been friends since they were kids', but... I never really believed the true story."
"Let me guess; you were told we grew up on the streets of South Philadelphia and our father's worked together and mother's cooked together. Both had loving and supportive parents. Got each other through the tough times?" He nods. "You're a smart boy."
"Always seemed too perfect."
"It wasn't entirely wrong." Hughie raises his brows. "We grew up in South Philly, and we got each other through the tough times. But our parents hated each other." You chuckle. "Fuck, one time my father threw a brick through their front window. Our parents never wanted us to see each other, because growing up in the 1920's and 30's, girls and boys didn't play together. His father said it made Ben seem like a fairy, and I was a slut. Well... both our parents said that..."
"But they were your parents..."
"Hughie..." you scoff, "not everyone has great parents... ours were some of the worst." Your tone changes to one of sadness once again.
"We met when were seven." You find yourself willing to open up. "He was in a fight with this... tall and chubby twelve year old boy. Ben was holding his own, which was pretty impressive. But his father used to beat into him a lot. And when it wasn't him, it was his mother. So he had to learn pretty young how to block a punch. But this fucking kid... he got Ben onto the ground, was just... going for him. Pummelling into his face, his stomach.
But he kept breathing, he kept blocking. Got a few good hits in himself until the boy lifted him a bit and slammed his head into the pavement. He went to grab this baseball bat... I don't know why I thought I could do it, but I couldn't see this kid get hurt anymore, not when he was so dazed and now I know, concussed. But I ran in and snatched the bat from his hand, and I just started... hitting him with it."
"Wow..." Hughie breathed out, a look of awe on his face.
"I mean, I didn't get out unscathed, he was able to give me a shiner, but I just remember screaming at him... 'Leave him alone! Leave him alone!' And I kept swinging that bat. Eventually hit him in the head and he got knocked out. Headmaster finally came out and saw this seven year old girl standing over two boys with a bat in her hand. Concluded I'd done it to both and starting yanking me to his office to get the cane.
Ben, all concussed and shit, got himself up and started tripping his way after us, saying I was only sticking up for him. Headmaster claimed he was lying, so took the both of us for a caning. That was when we became best friends."
"That's really sweet actually." Hughie said with a soft smile.
"Yeah... we went through a lot together." You said with a far away look on your eyes.
"What about your parents?" He asks.
You looked at Hughie, and something told you it was okay to share your story with him.
"My mother was a bitch, and my father was a bastard." You say coldly. "Both our parents were strict Irish Catholics... my father... well he was never a friendly man, but he got too friendly with me... if you will..." you say, flashbacks of your father hovering over you in the dead of night.
"Y/N..." Hughie's voice is full or sympathy, his thoughts clouded with that and anger as he reads between the lines of what I'm saying.
"You know it happens a lot more than you'd think." You mutter, Hughie remains silent, letting you work your way through it as he notices your eyes beginning to water. "It took about a year of friendship before Ben or I would sneak into each other's rooms. Whenever we did, it was the safest I ever felt. Was in his arms. One time, I was coming back into my bedroom window and I found my father sitting on the end of my bed with the broom in his hand."
You swallowed as your throat tightened even more.
"He beat me black and blue... broke the broom... broke my arm... I was sixteen at the time. Ben had left school and was working in a factory, but he used to always pick me up from school. When I wasn't there for him to walk me home the next day, he snuck into my room that night. Saw my father and saw me, bruised and bleeding... so he killed him."
There's a heavy silence for a moment as Hughie processes the information.
"What about your mother? Did she know?"
I scoff scornfully. "Oh yeah. She fucking knew. She was glad it wasn't just her anymore." You go to grab a cigarette, quickly lighting it and taking a long drag.
"So what happened...?" Hughie prodded gently, wondering about the police.
"We ran away." You blow out the smoke from your lungs. "Lied about our ages. Ben joined the army, I joined nursing school. World War Two broke out, eventually the States joined and they found Ben to be experimented on. We wrote letters every day to each other and eventually my head nurse came to me and said I was to report to a General who had me be experimented on too. Ben had said he wouldn't do it unless I would and he was their only remaining candidate. So they did as he asked. And the rest is history."
There was a knock on the door, before Ben's broad shoulders filled the doorway as he makes his way into the room.
"What are you two doing in-" he cuts himself off as he looks between the two of you, seeing sadness and the sole tear on your face. He shoots an angry look at Hughie. "What are you doing?" His voice changes to one of anger directed at Hughie. He knew the only other time you cried was when you spoke of your parents.
"I uh-" Hughie struggles to find a way to say anything before you speak up.
"We were just talking, Ben." You say sternly, looking up to him. "Give the kid a break." You send a message to him.
Ben looks at you, seeing that you’re serious.
"Butcher got some food." He grunts out, giving Hughie a warning look before walking back out the door.
Hughie audibly swallows, but not controlling his thoughts.
"You can't always help who you fall in love with, kid." You sigh heavily. He looks at you, shame on his face at being caught out. "Pfft, please... you're the not the only one who thinks he's a piece of shit. Trust me... he can be. He prefers people to think it... sometimes even I wish I didn't care for him considering what he's done to me, but... I'll always remember that seven year old boy." You take the last drag of the cigarette, wishing it was something stronger, before you put it out in the ash tray.
"I'm just not... used to how volatile he can be." Hughie says.
"Yeah... it takes some getting used to. But deep down... he's a big softy." You shrug softly.
"You've never been more with him?" He asks softly, knowing Ben has supe hearing. "More than friends?"
You look up at him, knowing the sadness was filling your face. You lick your lips, a tick you picked up from Ben when you were young.
"No. I've never told him how I feel." You swallow once again.
"He's pretty blind for a Supe." He offers gently as a way to cheer you up. His sweetness kind of works on you.
"Thanks, kid." You say as you walk over and pat him on the shoulder. He gives you a small smile. "You're one of the good ones. I hope you and Annie can work it out."
His face quickly morphs into one of shock. "How di-"
You cut him off with a tap to your temple and a grin on your face. "Remember?"
~~~~~~~~
"What other leads do we have on Mindstorm?" Butcher posed the question to the group around the dining table, but was clearly aimed at Ben and yourself.
"I know he bought some cabins back '81." Ben answers around a mouthful of burger.
"Cabins?" Butcher clarifies.
"Yeah, Mindstorm was always pretty paranoid." You say. "Wanted safe houses"
"Do you know any of the locations?" Hughie asked, pulling his phone across the table to him.
"I know a few in the state. He was starting locally." You said, eyeing him tapping away at his phone with his thumbs with slight confusion.
"I never understood why he bothered telling us locations. It's like the dumb fuck never understood the point of a safe house." Ben snickers. "But he only gave me a few in surrounding states."
"Let me get a pen, I'll write them down." You offer as you move to get up to search for a pad and pen.
"No need, Y/N." You look at Hughie, knowing it'd be hard for him to remember all the locations. He only wiggles his phone at you. "I'm writing it in a note on my phone."
You can't help the slight widening of your eyes in that same confusion from earlier before looking at Ben. You don't know what for... support in knowing you don't understand what is happening maybe?
"You're what?" You finally voice your confusion.
"Technology has come a long way, Y/N/N. They got GPS, internet, weefee, blue toes. All kinds of crap." Ben says with a very clear sense of self confidence.
You look at him even more confused.
"You made those words up." You narrow your eyes at him.
"I did not. Hughie, tell her." Ben gestures to you.
"I mean.. he got them half right..." Ben glares him. "Wifi and Bluetooth, but yeah, he's right. Technology has come a long way."
Ben and you give Butcher and Hughie the locations you can remember, before deciding Butcher would go out tomorrow and start scouting.
"Do you care for some company, Butcher?" You ask.
You don't expect a positive response, but just put out the idea because you didn't want to spend another day in the house where Ben was screwing Legend's staff. Luckily for you, Butcher doesn't disappoint.
"Um..." he looks to Hughie, seeing a small hopeful look on his face. "Yeah... yeah a'right."
"Leave bright and early?" You suggest.
"Sounds good to me, love."
Part 4
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Round 2, Poll 7
Blakiston's Fish Owl vs Pinyon Jay
sources under cut
Blakiston's Fish Owl
"He’s fluffy and he FISHES by WADING but he’s an OWL"
Classified as Endangered by IUCN, this is due to a double-whammy of habitat loss and low breeding success. The habitat this species prefers are riperian (riverside), old-growth forests. They need access to rivers which remain unfrozen in winter, and nest in large, hollowed out trees. These owls naturally have a low survivorship rate, only succeeding around 25% of the time in fledging a full grown chick. They also do not nest every year, and sometimes only have a single egg per attempt.
Blakiston's fish owl is revered by the Ainu peoples of Hokkaido, Japan, as a Kamuy (divine being) called Kotan koru Kamuy (God that Protects the Village). In Russia, they used to be considered a source of food by the Evens people of northern Siberia, and were hunted by the Udege peoples of Primorye due to their high fat content. This practice has fallen out of favor, however.
Pinyon Jay
Pinyon Jay get their name from their diet- seeds from pinyon pine, which they'll pull from the still green cones and then stash for later in various places. This behavior results in sprouting pinyon wherever the stashes have been forgotten. Because this species is so dependent on these pines, they'll almost always nest in areas where the pinyon crop was good the year before so they've got plenty of seeds to raise their kids on.
Pinyon Jay are seriously monogamous. One study I read for work found that when a nest fails (often a reason for bird divorce), pinyon jay will stay together as a pair and try again- even if they fail multiple times! One example of extreme monogamy was an instance where a female pinyon jay was removed from the flock (for an undisclosed reason), and her male found another mate within the breeding season. When she was returned to the flock, she immediately sabotaged the new nesting attempt and her mate still returned to her side! Serious Monogamy
Pinyon Jay live in huge flocks, which can range between 40-500 members! Most jay only tolerate having their kids around the next season, while pinyon jay are likely to live within their flock their whole life.
They sound like you told someone to mix a jay and a squeaky toy, I mean come on that's so perfect.
Images: Owl (Ian Davies)
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March also felt like it took forever, which I think is due to spring break taking up half the month and work being therefore slow. And yet it feels like a good month, all the same. I got a good ways further with the novel I’m working on, at least for me, put my Easter tree up last weekend, and had a few productive Leaving The House adventures. And one that, while productive, was just kind of a crappy day, but that’s how these things go, I guess. The art show mostly made up for the rest of it. Also, there is now sunshine, some days! And the trees are blooming!
I also read a lot, as always, including one great book and a handful of pleasant surprises, and I managed to get rid of seven reading copies, which feels unusually high. Had a handful of duds too though, including three books that I was really, really hoping would be better, even if I mostly finished them. The dithering I predicted last month didn’t materialize, thank goodness, or at least it limited itself to hour-long bouts after I’d finished something.
About halfway through the month, I realized I’d only read female authors and I decided that hey, it’s Women’s History Month, why not see if I can get through the whole month with only female authors?! This did not happen, but only by accident. One of the books I picked up was actually by a Two-Spirit person, but I’m still counting the challenge completed because really, the goal was not to read men. It wasn’t a hard challenge for me, and might actually have made picking books a little easier, but it’s not something I want to do all that regularly. Maybe next March?
Of course, I’m cheating a little on the challenge because I’m, like, 12 pages into Episode Thirteen because I had to read something on my commute tonight and I didn’t want to wait any longer. I’ve had the book out from the library for a week and a half and it’s going to be due back in the same length of time. My system doesn’t issue fines for late books anymore, but I still like to return books when I’m supposed to.
Also on my TBR for this month: Amina Al-Sirafi, coming from the library on Tuesday, the company ARC for Tasting History by Max Miller, and We Don’t Lose Our Class Goldfish by Ryan Higgins because I was so good about Not Men that I didn’t even read picture books. Don’t have any other plans, but hopefully some of the books “in process” at the library actually go into the system. I’m first in line for most of them.
And now without further ado, in order of enjoyment…
Diary of a Misfit - Casey Parks
Shortly after Casey comes out to her family, she learns that her grandma grew up friends with a trans man. Her need to learn more about him brings her to a reckoning with her own family and childhood.
8.5/10
🏳️🌈 subject (trans man), 🏳️🌈 author
warning: homophobia, misgendering, rape, drug abuse, child abuse
The Magician’s Daughter - H.G. Parry
Biddy’s magical guardian is in trouble and she must leave her island home to protect him (and magic, generally).
7/10
warning: incarceration, mentions of torture
The Librarian of Burned Books - Brianna Labuskes
Three women in the ‘30s and ‘40s find their lives altered by censorship and war.
7/10
Jewish MC, 🏳️🌈 MCs (lesbian), Jewish secondary characters, 🏳️🌈 secondary characters (gay)
warning: Nazis
Lent - Jo Walton
Brother Girolamo wants only to bring Florence closer to God, but he’s hampered by something greater than any sin.
7/10
🏳️🌈 secondary character, 🇨🇦
League of Dragons - Naomi Novik
Napoleon is retreating across Russia but Laurence and Temeraire learn he has greater plans than a mere next stand.
7/10
British-Asian secondary character, 🏳️🌈 secondary character, disabled secondary character
Island Time - Georgia Clark
The laid-back Kellys and the on-the-go Lees are spending a weekend on a remote Australian island. Then a volcano erupts and they’re forced to confront themselves. Dramedy.
7/10
🏳️🌈 main characters (lesbian, bi, gender-questioning), fat main character, Chinese-American secondary characters, Indigenous Australian secondary character, 🏳️🌈 author, #ownvoices
Backpacking Through Bedlam - Seanan McGuire
Alice and Thomas have reunited but they’ve got a few more adventures to get through before their happy ending.
6/10
🏳️🌈 secondary characters (lesbian, sapphic), Korean-American secondary character, 🏳️🌈 author
A House With Good Bones - T. Kingfisher
Sam’s back home for a bit and Something Is Up with her mom. The surprise racist painting is just the beginning….
6.5/10
fat protagonist
warning: racism, some fat-shaming by bad people, bugs
A Man and His Cat, Vol. 2 - Umi Sakurai
The further adorable adventures of Kanda and Fukumaru.
6/10
Japanese cast, Japanese author, #ownvoices
The Keeper's Six - Kate Elliott
Esther’s son has been kidnapped. He’s also the local Keeper, important in the interdimensional network. Getting him back is going to be more complicated than expected.
7/10
Jewish main character, Jewish secondary characters, 🏳️🌈 secondary characters (phallic, non-human genderfluidity), Japanese and other East Asian secondary characters
warning: discussion of slavery and the trafficking of people
Tauhou - Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall
A genre-blending look at Indigenous female resilience across continents and time.
5/10
Maori and Coast Salish cast, 🏳️🌈 characters (sapphic), Maori-Coast Salish author, #ownvoices, 🏳️🌈 author
warning: residential schools, racist systems, internalised fatphobia
British Columbiana - Josie Teed
An awkward millennial gets a winter internship in a gold rush ghost town.
5/10
🇨🇦
warning: racists, gaslighting, social anxiety
Picture Books
Quackers - Liz Wong
Quackers lives by a pond and all his friends are ducks, so he must be a duck too. Meow?
DNF
Shanghai Immortal - A.Y. Chao
Work for the King of Hell? Check. Thwart a jewel heist? Check. Babysit a mortal? Check. Or … not, if Lady Jing’s impulsiveness gets in the way. Out in October.
Chinese cast, Chinese-Canadian author, #ownvoices, 🇨🇦
Currently reading
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen - KJ Charles
The day after Gareth ruins his chances with a charming stranger, he finds himself elevated to an estate in the country. Unfortunately (or not), there’s a very familiar smuggler in the area.
🏳️🌈 protagonists (phallic)
Episode Thirteen - Craig DiLouie
A ghost hunting show gets to be the first to investigate the most haunted house in America.
🇨🇦
Stats
Monthly total: 12+1
Yearly total: 37/140
Queer books: 4
Authors of colour: 2
Books by women: 11
Authors outside the binary: 1
Canadian authors: 2
Off the TBR shelves: 4
Books hauled: 1
ARCs acquired: 5
ARCs unhauled: 7
DNFs: 1
January February
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Dana Summers
* * * *
LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
April 11, 2024
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
APR 12, 2024
When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed a joint meeting of Congress today, he tried to remind lawmakers of who Americans are. “The U.S. shaped the international order in the postwar world through economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power,” he reminded them. “It championed freedom and democracy. It encouraged the stability and prosperity of nations, including Japan. And, when necessary, it made noble sacrifices to fulfill its commitment to a better world.”
He explained the bigger picture. “The United States policy was based on the premise that humanity does not want to live oppressed by an authoritarian state, where you are tracked and surveilled and denied from expressing what is in your heart and on your mind,” he said. “You believed that freedom is the oxygen of humanity.”
Keenly aware that MAGA Republicans have rejected the nation’s role in protecting freedom and democracy and are standing between Ukraine and U.S. aid, Kishida said: “The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations.”
“Freedom and democracy are currently under threat around the globe,” he said. “Climate change has caused natural disasters, poverty, and displacement on a global scale. In the COVID-19 pandemic, all humanity suffered. Rapid advances in AI technology have resulted in a battle over the soul of AI that is raging between its promise and its perils. The balance of economic power is shifting. The Global South plays a greater role in responding to challenges and opportunities and calls for a larger voice…. China's current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan but to the peace and stability of the international community at large.”
In the midst of all this dramatic change, Kishida said, “the leadership of the United States is indispensable. Without U.S. support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow?” he asked. “Without the presence of the United States, how long before the Indo-Pacific would face even harsher realities?”
He noted that Japan has pledged $12 billion to Ukraine and “will continue to stand with” the vulnerable country. In this fraught hour, he said, “[t]he democratic nations of the world must have all hands on deck. I am here to say that Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States. You are not alone. We are with you.”
As Kishida gently warned lawmakers that the United States is abdicating its role in world affairs by its apparent abandonment of Ukraine, Russian forces last night destroyed the largest power plant in the Kyiv region. U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A. Brink reported that “Russia last night launched more than 40 drones and 40 missiles into Ukraine…. The situation in Ukraine is dire; there is not a moment to lose,” she wrote.
House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) surely knows the situation in Ukraine is dire; he has held up U.S. aid for six months. The Senate passed a national security supplemental bill that would provide aid to Ukraine back in February, but while Johnson has said he would bring the supplemental bill to the House floor, where it will certainly pass, somehow it has never been the right time.
American refusal to support Ukraine is causing global concern. When British foreign secretary David Cameron came to the U.S. this week, he not only met with lawmakers and State Department officials, but also traveled to Florida to meet with former president Trump at Mar-a-Lago in hopes of persuading him to support additional U.S. military aid to Ukraine. That Johnson refused to meet with Cameron when he returned to Washington, D.C., the next day suggests that Cameron’s effort achieved little.
Johnson is facing pressure from extremists in his conference like Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene who oppose aid to Ukraine and who are threatening to challenge his speakership if he brings the bill to the floor of the House. Those extremists fired another shot across his bow today when they blocked a law to extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after Trump urged them to kill it.
When the measure failed, security expert and former Trump administration official Miles Taylor wrote: “The House’s failure to renew FISA is *BAD.* If these powers lapse, it would be like blind-folding U.S. spies and tying their hands behind their backs as they try to protect Americans from China, Russia, terror groups & beyond. Get it together, Congress.”
To enable Johnson to ignore the extremists if it means getting aid to Ukraine, Democrats have thrown Johnson a lifeline, if only he will use it. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) suggested today that Democrats would vote against a challenge to Johnson’s speakership, keeping him in place. Jeffries said: “If the speaker were to do the right thing and allow the House to work its will with an up or down vote on the national security bill, then I believe there are a reasonable number of Democrats [who] would not want to see the speaker fall as a result of doing the right thing.”
But instead of actually doing the people’s business and passing a measure the White House, Pentagon, and a majority of Congress think is vital to our national security, MAGA Republicans appear to be consumed by the effort to get Trump back into the presidency.
Today the House Rules Committee got a new chair as Michael Burgess (R-TX) took the reins from Tom Cole (R-OK). Burgess will oversee his first hearing on Monday as the committee meets to examine six bills that appear to be designed to feed the Republicans’ culture wars by denying the secretary of energy’s power to establish new energy conservation standards. Those bills are the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act,” the “Liberty in Laundry Act,” the “Clothes Dryers Reliability Act,” the “Refrigerator Freedom Act,” the “Affordable Air Conditioning Act,” and the “Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act.”
Johnson is also in on the act. He is scheduled to visit Mar-a-Lago tomorrow to promote a bill to prevent noncitizens from voting. This is purely political theater: it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Trump seems eager to push the idea of “election integrity” to bolster his lie that the 2020 election was stolen and the 2024 election will be too, evidently trying to chum up distrust of American elections.
Under its new co-chairs, Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Trump loyalist Michael Whatley, the Republican National Committee last week sent out a robocall to voters’ phones saying that Democrats committed “massive fraud” in the 2020 presidential election and that “If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled out by someone who isn’t even an American citizen.” This is a straight-up lie, of course—Trump and his loyalists have never produced any evidence for their accusations and lost more than 60 court cases over it—but Trump clearly intends to make it a centerpiece of his campaign.
While Republicans are pushing the Big Lie, in The Bulwark today, conservative commentator Mona Charen noted that Ukraine president Volodomyr Zelensky this week warned the U.S. that Ukraine will lose the war against Russia’s aggression if it does not get U.S. aid.
“Putin seems to have pulled off the most successful foreign influence operation in American history,” Charen wrote. “If Trump were being blackmailed by Putin it’s hard to imagine how he would behave any differently. And though it started with Trump, it has not ended there. Putin now wields more power over the [Republicans] than anyone other than Trump…. [T]hey mouth Russian disinformation without shame. Putin,” she said, “must be pinching himself.”
LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
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It always baffles me how daft and stupid people that vote democrat are. Me personally? I live in Texas and I vote Independent. Unless I'm faced with a choice of a literal psychopath or an asshole I don't really like all that much. Which in the last Governor race, it was one such case. Similarly, when it comes to voting for president I feel the same. I'd sooner vote Independent or write in something then vote either side unless it was like the last 2 races. Which was literal tyrant wanna be warhawks (Clinton & Biden) or Orange man.
What's more, the ability of people that vote democrat to turn a blind eye to actual facts. Take this tweet, which for the most part is pretty tame, and then the replies, which I will address.
Now, First and foremost, I will not make the claim that Trump paid back all his loans. However, I find it suspect all of a sudden, after his run at president where he became the most villainized man in history second only HITLER (because Auth Leftists are morons that can't condemn genocidal communist dictators) that "We are investigating every grain of sand in his life to destroy this person who supposedly wronged us". Ok.....so why now all of a sudden? Oh right because now we need him out of a presidential race. Got it.
Ok so now to the replies.
Most of these can be summed up with one reply. "Banks and Lenders assess property values, and will send someone or several someone's in order to make a value judgement of an asset or property before giving out a loan.
However to answer Kit, No he has not been found Guilty. He has been pressed by a judge (Unilaterally) that RAN on burying Trump. That was what she RAN ON. No investigations. No facts to go off of. Just "Elect me and I will destroy this man and everything he has". And again only after he got into office. Prior to that he was the golden child of NY.
We call that a conflict of interest and she should be disbarred for it.
To Proud-Democrat I repeat. HE DID NOT PERSONALLY ASSESS THE PROPERTY VALUE YOU MORON! The banks and lenders 100% did.
To Rae & American Woman Same thing as above. Literally exact same thing as above.
And this is why I hate Democrat voters. And before someone goes on some tirade about "Republican Voters". Bruh. Conservatives typically HATE Republicans. They just hate Democrats more. And honestly aside from people that still get all of their news wholesale from Fox and nothing but Fox, Most Conservatives would probably sooner vote Independent with a viable candidate. And other people might go, "WELL WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER LAWS TRUMP BROKE!". Idk. Let's look at them shall we?
Accused of trying to steal the election. Except everything he did in that process was legal. He asked if there was anything that he could do. Up to and including asking his VP which electors to pick. Funny fact it is legal for a state to have different sets of electors. It happened during the Nixon years. Of which helped him win. Those rules have never been changed even now. And what's more, there WAS fraud. How much? We don't know. And we likely won't know until 10-20 years from now when the people that claim there is none will go, "OH well it's good there was fraud so Orange man stayed out of office....causing us to go to war with Russia, China, Iran, etc, etc, etc."
Accused of assaulting a woman over 20 years ago. Possibly over 40 years ago. Now let me be clear. Could this have happened? Sure. Did it? We have no idea. And 20-40 years is too long ago to have a decisive verdict on it. (Which brings me to another point which is the legality of the charges. So aside from statute of limitations, american citizens are allowed a right to a trial, by a jury of their peers. However, those peers must be impartial. NY is ANYTHING but impartial. They could bring charges of assassination through ninja skills on a foreign leader and NY would STILL CHARGE HIM just to do it.)
Quid Pro Quo. So the only evidence they had that this supposedly even happened was more or less ONE GUY. This man state that TRUMP expressly stated that he did not want a quid pro quo. HOWEVER, that man also believed Trump DID IN FACT want one, despite saying exactly to the contrary. What's more, let me remind all of you, Joe Biden, did that EXACT THING as VP to protect his financial asset of a son at a Ukrainian Energy company he had no business working at the board of. (1:30 Is the start of the segment.)
So all in all. MOST of the things Trump was accused of doing were outright false, or falsely placed on him. And it's because he was a human molotov cocktail. He didn't want any new wars. He wanted to bring more soldiers back from the Middle East. The Economy was GREAT. We were bringing jobs back to the US, and we had Remain in Mexico. Which was GREAT legislation. And it said, "If you are coming to the US for "Asylum" and you pass through another county on the way here you have to stay in THAT country until you can legally get processed.
Whereas now, DEM VOTING residents of NY are being told they are going to pay Billions to house, feed, and process illegals. When their own state is crumbling under the weight of its own corruption.
Which brings me to this point. Both sides need to talk about when there side is doing wrong. And most of the people I know that vote Rep very much DO talk about when their guys do wrong. The issue is that people that vote Dem seldom actually do. It's always, "Your side did X" and then when anyone else says, "OK but you side did Y and that's worse", We all get greeted with, "I don't care because at least he's not right wing. He could kill kids for all I care. I don't actually care what he does so long as it furthers my sides ideals".
And therein lies the issue. Democrats and their primary voters DO NOT GIVE A F*CK about morals. Because they have none. It's a very much "At all cost" mentality. And often based on LIES. Because if there is one thing Dems are great at, it's manipulation of information. The "Silver Tongued Devil" as it were. That's pretty much them. The founders of the KKK. The opposition to Civil Rights. And the Party of Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton who said they were mentored by a clansman. The parties never flipped. They just became better liars.
(This post is in no shape or form endorsement of the Republicans. Because frankly speaking that party and it's primary voter faction has its own issues. But this post isn't about them)
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Please reblog the story of a 17 year old Maria from Mariupol, who survived the “filtration camp” in russia.
Translation below⬇️
https://twitter.com/currenttimetv/status/1521121931474481153?s=21&t=to0LLMkMPW2FZV4p8ffd4g
“This filtration camp wasn’t a settlement. Is was just a column of cars. There were hundreds of cars before us, and behind us too. We weren’t allowed to leave the car.
They were always watching us, who does what, where and how. Everything that people do in their lives, we had to do inside of the car. It was very difficult. We had sore feet and the whole body was aching. We spent two full days and two nights in our car, just like other people.
We were told that filtration is for those who are 14 and older. My sister is 12. She stayed in the car. Mom couldn’t walk at the time, so they didn’t care about her. It’s good that she wasn’t at the filtration. She couldn’t have endured this, she could’ve been very scared of the things that we heard.
When dad and I went to the filtration, I understood that it will be very difficult for me. How could I forget about Ukraine?
I will never forget this conversation between two soldiers. “What have you done with those who didn’t pass?” “Shot 10, didn’t count after that. Not interesting”
They left me in the first room, in this filtration cabin. They took my documents, scanned them. They scanned my fingerprints and checked my phone.
There, in that room, there were 5 men - 5 armed soldiers. I was alone and I was very scared. It was difficult to stand straight, and then one of the soldiers, the one who was lying on the mattress, said:
“I don’t like this one - there’ll be more women later, we’ll find something”
They decided they don’t like me and let me go. Well, they just shoved me out. And they didn’t let me wait for my father. They said, “If you passed, you must go”.
We’ve been waiting for dad for 40 minutes.
Later, when we left the place, we were told to go to Berdiansk [an occupied Ukrainian town]. When we got there, dad told us about his filtration.
The questions were unpleasant. Not just about the government, Ukraine, the whole situation. Who he is and what he plans to do next.
There even was a question “What if I cut off your ear? What will be next?”
We don’t know why they asked these questions.
And when they saw there’s nothing on his phone, not even a sim card, started asking who he is and pushing that question. They wanted to get something out of him. And they didn’t like what he said. They started hitting him, then hit him on his head. He says he doesn’t remember what happened next. He regained consciousness outside.
When we were going from Berdiansk to Zaporizhzhia [a city under Ukrainian control], we passed 27 posts. Every post was the same. At least they didn’t ask us about filtration anymore. Probably, the filtration was important there.
When we saw the flag, the blue and yellow flag, we couldn’t believe our eyes. Dad said it’s to early to be happy. That this could be another provocation and we must be silent. We need to be patient, just a little longer.
When it was our turn, they said “Good afternoon, your documents, please”. Dad was silent, showed them the car quietly. We were afraid this might be another filtration camp, where people fall into this trap in a minute.
But when they saw the address in our documents and started asking us “Mariupol? How is it? What horrors have you been through?”, we knew it’s our people. We knew we’re on our land, because the occupant could never speak Ukrainian this beautiful.
We saw their chevrons, we saw their uniforms. And we knew, yes, we are on our land.
Even the sky was different. It was clear. There wasn’t this dust that gets up and remains in the air because of explosions.
We got this hope, that we can go back to our life. That we can live again. We really deserve that after all these horrors. We wanted to live very much”
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Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday.
People who are in love get fewer colds.
On average, 12 new-borns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
By 2050, about half of the world’s population will be short sighted.
A zoilist is someone who gains pleasure from finding fault.
Women who snore are more likely to struggle to orgasm.
About one person in twenty can't visualise images in their head.
Until 1899, the list of official diseases at the Royal College Of Physicians included nostalgia.
In 2002, actor Vin Diesel saved an entire family from a burning car wreck.
The annual awards ceremony of the UK porn industry is called the SHAFTAs.
According to a recent study, procrastination can be a sign of poor physical health.
750,000 tons of cigarette butts are dropped on the ground around the world each year.
The phrase ‘pipe dream’ originates from the fantasies induced by smoking opium.
Many Japanese bathrooms have a button that, when pushed, plays the flushing sound to mask the sound of you doing your ‘business’.
A single share of Coca Cola stock that was purchased in 1919 for $40, would be worth $9.8 million today.
To try and be a better person, Tolstoy wrote a list of rules for himself that included, “Visit a brothel only twice a month.”
Scientists have observed male bottlenose dolphins masturbating by wrapping a live eel around their penis.
A 99 year old man divorced his 96 year old wife after having been married for 77 years because he discovered an affair she had in the 1940's.
In 2014 Margaret Loughry won the Northern Ireland lottery jackpot which consisted of £27 million. She donated 26 million of it to her own hometown to help transform it into a tourist destination.
In 2013, a man in Michigan whose house was set to be demolished, switched his house numbers with his neighbour. The demolition crew never realised until it was too late.
A 2009 study found James Bond has had ten times as many lovers as the average British male has in a lifetime, with a doctor reporting that, “the likelihood of him having chlamydia is extremely high.”
The African Union intends on having a single, continent-wide currency modelled after the euro. The most popular proposed name for the currency as of right now is the afro.
Edward 'Boy' Jones was known in the Victorian era for getting caught breaking into Buckingham Palace when he was 14 years old and stealing Queen Victoria's underwear.
In 2013, the 'Breaking Bad' team were offered $75 million to produce three more episodes after the final season concluded, which was estimated to be more than their earnings in 5 years. They declined.
The Hanover Country School Board in Virginia tried to ban ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ in 1966. When she heard about this, author Harper Lee sent a letter to the school board asking if they were literate and offered some money to enrol them in first grade.
In February this year, at an art exhibition in Russia, a security guard ruined a painting worth $1 million by drawing a pair of eyes on it with a ballpoint pen because he was "bored". It was his first day on the job.
In 2012 a man sued Pepsi after he found a mouse in his Mountain Dew. However, Pepsi fought and won the case. They knew the can was 74 days old and could prove that any mouse would have easily dissolved in Mountain Dew after 30 days.
How do farmers party? They turnip the beets.
Sadie Renee Johnson from Oregon started a wildfire in 2013 in order to give her bored firefighter friends some work, except that it spread to 206 square km and cost nearly eight million dollars and two months to bring under control.
In the late 1900s, Howard Hughes bought an entire casino named Silver Slipper just so that he could tear down their neon sign. It was visible from Hughes' bedroom and apparently it was keeping him up at night.
In 1988, a woman named Jean Terese Keating disappeared while awaiting trial for drunkenly killing a woman in a car crash. She was arrested 15 years later after bragging at a bar about having gotten away with the crime.
In 2012, a nineteen year old teen secretly lived in AOL's headquarters for two full months in California. He ate free food, used the gyms and showers and even slept in the conference room while working on his own startup.
And, finally, a quiz. What does this list of acts have in common? Loose Ends, Doug E. Fresh, Steely Dan, Lee Dorsey, Otis Redding, Sly & The Family Stone, Hall & Oates, The Turtles, The Detroit Emeralds, The Monkees, The Emotions, Sly Stone, Funky Four + 1, Johnny Cash, Syl Johnson, The Fatback Band, Eddie Murphy, Run DMC, Cymande, The Commodores, Bo Diddley, The Real Roxanne, Five Stairsteps, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, Jefferson Starship, Gregory Abbot and Cerrone. If you know the answer, well done! Keep it to yourself!
Okay, that’s enough information for one day. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.
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At 4 p.m. on the dot Tuesday afternoon, as scheduled, UConn women's basketball legend Diana Taurasi took a seat in front of a USA Basketball backdrop and stared into the camera with a signature gigantic smile.
Taurasi, 40, is still going strong at every elite level of basketball.
But for the first time in 18 years, Sue Bird was not sharing the backcourt and wasn’t within earshot as members of the U.S. women's national team gathered for a four-day minicamp in Minneapolis.
“Sue and I pretty much talk every single day, whether it's a text or something stupid someone said and she sends it to me and we laugh over that,” said Taurasi, who teamed with Bird, her former UConn teammate, to win five Olympic gold medals. “We're always communicating. It was weird. It was strange getting here and not having Sue. Usually right now we're having coffee and talking for about three hours, then we'd have dinner and we'd have another coffee and talk for another two hours. When your best friend is not on the team anymore, it is a little bit strange. I'll have to find someone else to bug.”
Taurasi also is one of the few public figures to have been in constant contact with longtime Phoenix Mercury teammate Brittney Griner, who decided not to participate in this week’s Team USA minicamp. Griner was detained in Russia on drug charges in February 2022 and sentenced to nine years in prison, but was returned to the U.S. as part of a prisoner exchange that made international headlines in November.
“It was a situation that I thought wasn't going to happen,” Taurasi said. “I'm not a person that lives in this fake world of optimism. I knew how serious everything was. I lived in Russia for 10 years. I know how serious these things are there. ... I really thought it was going to be a long time before I got to see my friend again. Every single day, we suffered and hoped that she would be back. Not until I saw her did I really believe it. Just to see her smile, just to see her free, was really emotional for everyone.
"And we knew at the same time, even as she got into that plane and we got to Phoenix, there was going to be a whole new set of challenges, a whole new reality, a whole new way of living life for BG. All I can say is that every day she's in a great place. She's so thankful to be home. She has so much admiration for all the people who pushed and helped and made sure that we got her home. It's a work in progress but it's just amazing to see her at home with her friends and family. The one thing that has never left BG is the ability to make people happy, and to make them smile. I'm just so glad she's home with her family and her friends.”
Taurasi and Griner, both former No. 1 draft picks, have been teammates with the Mercury since 2013. They won Olympic gold together in 2016 (under Geno Auriemma) and again in Tokyo (under Dawn Staley).
“We just have a special relationship where we can connect on a different level, which is, for both of us, really nice,” Taurasi said. “I've never had a friend go through this. So I think for everyone involved, it's a situation that's very particular and very strange. But BG always finds a way to find lightness in everything. Yeah, we've had probably too many jokes that I can't share, too many stories that I can't share. But just happy she's home. We talk all the time.
“We're both in Phoenix. We both live there full time. So we've hooked up a couple times. We chat on the phone, text. This morning, she texted me, 'How's camp going?' She wants to be part of this like no one else. So she'll get there eventually. She'll find her footing.”
Bird retired after the 2022 WNBA season. Taurasi, who turns 41 in June and will be 42 before the 2024 Paris Olympics, shows no eagerness to walk away no matter how difficult the preparation for games and seasons has become.
“As I look at you guys, I know some of us are a little bit on the older side,” Taurasi said to a Zoom media audience. “It's a daily grind. It's something I've focused my whole life on, to be as healthy as I can be, to be on the court, to make sure I'm available to my kids and my family. It's been something that the last four or five years has really consumed my life, to do everything possible in order to be on the court. I continue to do that now. It's something that I find as a challenge and I like to do it. And we'll go from there.”
Taurasi won three consecutive NCAA championships at UConn before going on to become the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer.
“Since I stopped playing in Russia [in 2017], I've had to reorganize the way I look at my basketball career,” Taurasi said. “When you're playing year-round you're kind of just always in shape and you're just in that constant going from team to team, always being in shape. And when you settle down and you just play the WNBA, the offseason is long. You really have to plan it out and see the times where you can really push yourself, and times when you have to look in the mirror and say, 'I need to backtrack a little bit.' So it's an ongoing journey. It's a great process. You learn a lot about yourself and how committed you are. Because when you're not on a team, you could easily not do it. You could easily just go to happy hour instead.”
Taurasi has not yet signed a contract for the 2023 season.
“I expect to,” she said. “That's something I've said for a long time, that finishing my career in Phoenix is something I have a lot of respect for and something that I want to do. But you never know what can happen in this world, right? As we've seen in the last couple of weeks, anything can happen.”
Asked if she would take less money to create cap flexibility for the Mercury, Taurasi said, “Yeah, I don't know about that. I'm not one to take less money. I don't know about you guys.”
Taurasi said he recently met Mat Ishbia, new owner of the Mercury and the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. She averaged 16.7 points last season, her 18th with the Mercury.
“Last season, for a lot of reasons, nor here or there, I didn't feel like I brought the best version of myself,” Taurasi said. “I feel like there were glimpses of days where I was like, oh, this is still pretty easy. And there were days where I was like, I'd rather be somewhere else. This is just another challenge for me, approaching this season with a different mindset. I'm excited about that.”
Taurasi famously shouted into the TV cameras, “See you in Paris!” after winning Gold with Team USA in Tokyo. The Paris Olympics are July/August of 2024.
“USA Basketball is a very special organization,” Taurasi said. “I've been a part of it since 1998 when I started playing under-18's. I played through college. It's been a part of my basketball career as much as the WNBA, as much as playing overseas. It's something that I've always taken great respect in playing. It's always been a big honor. And any time I'm asked to a camp, I'll drop everything to try to come if I'm physically ready, and ready to go.”
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Saturday 8.. March 1840
4 50/..
11 55/..
and we are to be off again in 3 hours (at 5 a.m.) – vid Schnitzler vol. 1 p. 691 his mention of the Carte de Mr. Lapie of Russia good – lay down on my mattresses in my chalat (having taken off my gown and handkerchiefs) at 2 50/.. expecting to be called at 4 ½ - so much bit under my chin, that was sometime before I could fall asleep but I think I slept about an hour+ till A- called me and I jumped up at 4 50/.. – no water – no anything .:. ready in 10 minutes and waited impatiently – at last by ding of pother got us off from Wiazowskayaand its cockroaches at 5 ½ - gave the woman a 30kop. silver piece = 1/05 with which she seemed very well satisfied –
5 ½ to 9 10/.. Wiazowskaya to Staritskaya 25
9 27/.. to 11 40/.. S- to Tschernoy Jars (gorod) 21
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tho’ we had only 25v. to go, it took us 3 40/.. hour snowing all the way, and cold wind driving the snow about us, and in at the top of the kibitka on the off (A-‘s) side – very cold – R-12° dehors said Gross iin the courtyard on the snow on leaving W- but it was sheltered from the cold wind, and lying under the buildings – great deal of snow on our road already a little drifted in places so that we could seldom go out of foots’ pace – Staritskaya a village – the cottages thickly covered with snow – very wintry picturesque – Station house a good cottage of 2 rooms one (left) nice little warm room with oven-stove, and, bright live embers in it, and looking very comfortable – our courier had left his cap and shube there .:. I withdrew and all our people and soon took possession – wattled farm-yards and sheds and the loghouses (some neat good little cottages) plastered up with mud in the seams of the loss – did not see a church – 8 minutes in trotting till we got out of the village and yet we seemed to leave a still further length of street to our left – wrote the above notes as we drove off – very cold work writing
my fingers’ ends ached with the cold (being obliged to take off my little fir mittens to enable me to hold my pen) – R-11 ½° lying on the in-driven snow in the corner of the kibitka in the draught from the off (A-‘s – west) side – never had R- so low before in our kibitka – our hands and feet were very cold when we reached Tchernoy Jar Tchernoï Jar (bord nord.) (Black bord, rive, or bank vid. Schnitzler i. p. 602) we had had hardly met or passed one person on the road, and the snow falling made the atmosphere so thick we could scarce see a 12 yards before us – on alighting George said the courier de poste had gone 2v. forwards and then returned – so thick he could not find his way – no road – all snowed up and very few guide – or road-posts this way – A- and I had tasted nothing since last night – glad of breakfast but 1 ¼ hour before we could get the Semovar to boil – our little room the least we have ever been in – about 3 yards square and about 2ft. to 2ft. 6in. of one side taken up by stove and bedstead – the woman raked up the braise, in the stove – but still R stood at only 8 ½° of heat, and the little door opposite the single wind (single glass) opening into the little anteroom exactly opposite the outdoor, made our little room cold – tho’ the little door like all the inner doors (and outer doors, too, of cottages) hereabouts is low shutting against a threshold 7 or 8in. or more above the floor, like ancient doors with us – the reason is plain – to keep out the draught of cold air from under the door along the bottom of the room – Had George in to know if we could go one – he said the weather was no clearer outside the town (nice little village-like town – see no church) but the [?] (drivers) would go if I liked – the next stage 30v. thought they could get there by midnight – but then we must go 31v. farther for Goatschewskay a mere village – nothing but isbas – it would be difficult for us to sleep there – but a good government station at Vetlaninskaya a 2nd stage from here – It was now after 2 – no use in being 8 or 9 house sin going 30v. and then being obliged to go 31v. farther – stay all night here – off to look at a good house near where travellers usually go to sleep – the house empty – the people were at dinner in a smaller house the kitchen-house on the other side the courtyard – went there 6 good looking better sort of peasants and the lady of the house and her 2 women cooking dinner and serving the plats from the stove oven in the little place (kitchen) adjoining – carême – (lent) manger maigre – fish tchee (soup – cabbage and fish instead of cabbage and meat soup) – some cold salted salmon and lastly blinis (blēēnys) the sort of little thickish wheat flour pancake the size of the inside of common English dinner plate – sat down for a minute or [2] and tasted all [?] to their great amusement – agree for one good room at 1/. per day – dinner at ./50 each – and came kibitkas and all settled here at 3 1/3 – heated by 2 poches, 3 doors, 3 windows, single glass as very general of late – one room about 5 ½ yards square – the board-walls painted a yellowish darkish green with a festoon of flowers over each door, and 3 scripture pictures St. John Baptists
SH:7/ML/E/24/0037
head on a tray-table a young man holding it (left hand) by the hair, and right leaning on a long large broad sword with cap and fur-lined handsome shube on (meant for Herod?), and 2nd angel and [?] Abraham going to slay his son – and 3rd Daniel in the lions’ den (8 lions – an angel over man (like Daniel himself) with book (bible) in his hand in the clouds – and from top of wall the king and 2 turbaned [?] looking down upon Daniel) – the ceiling an 8tagon of a lightish blueish green with a medallion in the middle (a woman feeding 2 swans a circular medallion surrounded by garland of roses, marigolds, panseys [pansies], forget-me-nots, and something else – the medallions a tree in full leaf with [nosegays] of flowers lying by – a tree full of white apples – a tree in full leaf with vines with [ripe] blue grapes by it, and a parcel of naked small trunks of trees – sundry garlands on the pannels round the skirting board 2ft. high – the doors same light green as 8tagon of ceiling, and the ogee bevils of the 3 tier of door pannels red – 2 tables and 6 chairs – offered to bring canapés for us to sleep on – but we declined them – used to put our mattresses on the floor – ‘tis now 5 10/.. – slumbered and [?] our 1st stage this morning and the 2nd Read Russian grammar and Schnitzler 1. from p. 121 to 145 till 11 ½ - the post courier has been delayed here the last 3 nights if I rightly understood our courier – we to be off at 6 a.m. tomorrow if possible – but cela depend – if more snow falls in the night we shall have enough of it – no Volga –no na Volga – since Sarepta – would rather be here than there – may live less well, but shall be warmer – the single windows there and German stove that got quite cold during the night were starvation – R10 ¾ on my table now at 5 20/.. p.m. Reading Schnitzler and looking at maps till dinner – tea and cotelettes de passion, and Blinnys (the pancakes) over at 8 20/.. – then read article Tchernoï Jar in the Geography dictionary de la Russie – inquired if the fortifications were still kept up – yes! still standing but not much attended to – very few soldiers – shall pass the Kremlin tomorrow morning – to stop a minute en passant – the lesser salt lake 40 versts from here 1 little town 20v. from here en route and a little village close upon the lake – Lac Yelton perhaps 100 from here - then reading till now 9 55/.. – when at Tzaritzine should have tried to see the site of the ancient Bulgarian city Soumerkente, and on the island formed by the Achtouba on the other side the Volga interesting remains of Saraie city and palace of Batou [Batu] Khan – vid. these 2 articles in the Geography Dictionary of Russia –
Battle of the Calca (Chalka government of Nijegorod?) which delivered Russia into the hands of the Tartars, 1226. vid. Geog. Dict. ii. 263. article Tchernigof and see article Calmouks – la famoux [?]-Khan was grandson of Batou [Batu] Khan had just written so far at 10 35/.. snowy windy cold day – fair towards evening – found my cousin gently come at breakfast lay down at last night at 11 55/.. A- and I-
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Meeting with Oleksy Arestovych, alias "Valerian", the president's man who calms Ukrainians
This informal adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky has one foot in military intelligence, another in psychology, and his eyes riveted to those of the Ukrainians. His mission since the beginning of the invasion: to reassure the population.
On his YouTube channel, which is followed by 1.6 million people, on television and on the networks, Oleksy Arestovych explains the policies of Voldymyr Zelensky's government in Russian on a daily basis. LP/Olivier Corsan
By Christel Brigaudeau
December 5, 2022 at 06:31
On the stalls of souvenir shops in Kiev, you can find, between the indispensable yellow and blue flags, fake identity cards to slip into your wallet, in the name of the stars of the past and the stars of today. You can choose between Master Yoda, Bruce Lee and Volodymyr Zelensky. And next to them, the calm face of a forty-year-old with dark eyes, unknown to Europeans: Oleksy Arestovych.
This informal adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, a military intelligence specialist, has been one of the faces of the war since 24 February. He is the embodiment of the Ukrainians' stainless optimism, which continues to surprise the world after ten months of conflict.
On his YouTube channel, followed by 1.6 million people, on television and on the networks, Oleksy Arestovych explains the government's policy every day in Russian. He comments on the movements of the frontline and anticipates what will happen next.
His deep, calm voice, similar to that of a doctor faced with a delicate case, has become his trademark. As for the purpose of his speeches, it can be summed up in two words: Ukraine will win.
He is nicknamed "Valerian", a plant with anxiolytic properties
While a majority of his listeners are Ukrainian, "about 40% live in Russia," says Arestovych. I try to get them out of the bubble of disinformation they are in.
"Oh, how he annoys me! I can't stand hearing him say that everything is going to be fine... But he calms my grandmother: she tells me that his voice lulls her, no matter what he says. It helps her to overcome the stress", says this young woman I met on Maïdan, the large square in the centre of the capital.
In Kiev, the charmer has earned a nickname: "Valerian", after this plant with anxiolytic properties, which is used to make herbal teas.
Other memes mock his tendency to be approximate in his prophecies. Caustics have published a 2-3 hryvnia (Ukrainian currency) note in his likeness to mock his predictions that better days will come "in two, three weeks", or "two, three months".
“Convincing people to behave rationally”
He does not want to rub it in the face of the population. "I tell it like it is, even when it is unpleasant. For example, I believe that Mariupol cannot be reconquered by military means. Many people know this but keep it to themselves. I say it," he insists, sitting down to a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.
His phone is flashing. He receives messages after each of his videos, but even more so when he does not post any. "If I don't communicate for six hours, people start to worry," says Arestovych, who, as in his videos, speaks without batting an eyelid, his gaze fixed on the camera below his circumflex eyebrows.
His deep, calm voice has become the trademark of his videos. DR / ApeironSchool
The man in the brown jumper (a variation of the khaki shirt) continues: "It's the same with President Zelensky. Even if people have got used to the war and know what to do, they need to hear it. They only stay calm if they understand exactly where we are going and how. It is a daily struggle to convince people to behave rationally. Victory will come to those who don't get carried away by emotion.
Discreet about his activities for the army, of which he is still an intelligence officer, the man is more forthcoming about his ambition to play a leading role, after peace, in political life.
A mandate would add a line to a tortuous CV: apprentice comedian, science graduate, military, blogger, psychologist and founder of a school of psychology and communication, briefly member of a far-right nationalist party... Which of these successive hats suits him best? He answers: "I am a complex man. And not particularly modest, he insists on his ability to "always be ten steps ahead".
He wanted Zelensky to leave Kiev
Arestovych won ears with two rigorously accurate predictions: Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, and then Moscow's plan for a full-scale invasion. The adviser concedes mistakes. "I was one of those who suggested to the president on 24 February that he should leave. I thought we couldn't keep Kiev. He told me the first time: no, and the second time: never say that again.
On 24 February, following the president, Arestovych took the floor, charged with drawing up the military situation. The aim of his speeches did not change afterwards: "To keep the psychological course of victory. I don't even want people to imagine what the world would look like in case of defeat, or an unsatisfactory 50-50. No. " It's like a warrior's dream, in short.
In agreement with other observers, Oleksy Arestovych predicts that the country will have a difficult winter months, with several rounds of massive strikes on the country's infrastructure. "It will be hard but not insurmountable."
What's next? Victory, of course, after "five new victorious counter-offensives, including two this winter". The adviser expects a return to calm in mid-summer 2023, "within two or three months". Obviously.
The rest of the road will be much steeper, he thinks, convinced that the real trouble will start when the guns fall silent. It will be necessary to put back on its feet a democracy and an exsanguinated economy, and to treat an entire population of post-traumatic shock. "It will take 200,000 shrinks to help the country," predicts Arestovych.
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