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combinedmixture · 3 months

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Never have these ideological contortions been as conspicuous as during Israel’s war in Gaza. Liberal hawks often profess their commitment to human rights. Yet they haven’t called for ending a war that is killing more people per day than any conflict this century. They haven’t done so because, like their allies in the Biden administration, they are wedded to a narrative about the moral superiority of American power that this war defies. Liberal hawks want to preserve American primacy, which they associate with human progress. But Israel-Palestine reveals a harsher truth: that in much of the world, for many decades, the US has used its power not to defend freedom but to deny it. That’s why liberal hawks can’t face the true horror of this war. Doing so would require them to reconsider their deepest assumptions about America’s role in the world. [...] But there are many places, especially in the global south, that do not fit this story of American power producing moral progress. The story doesn’t account for the 62 times, according to the political scientist Dov Levin, that the United States intervened in foreign elections between 1946 and 1989, nor the fact that, according to Lindsey O’Rourke’s book Covert Regime Change, many of the leftist parties the US sabotaged had “repeatedly committed themselves to working within a democratic framework, and, in some cases, US policymakers even acknowledged this fact”. The story doesn’t account for US complicity in Indonesia’s killing of roughly 1 million alleged leftists in the mid-1960s or the CIA’s role in helping apartheid South Africa arrest Nelson Mandela. It can’t be reconciled with the Nixon administration’s decision to keep arming Pakistan’s war in what became Bangladesh when America’s own chief diplomat on the ground told them that the Pakistanis were committing genocide or the Reagan administration’s insistence on supplying weapons to President Efraín Ríos Montt, whom a Guatemalan court later convicted of genocide for his effort to wipe out his country’s Maya Ixil Indians. The story doesn’t explain the George HW Bush and Clinton administrations’ sanctions against Iraq, which the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in that country warned were “destroying an entire society” or the Obama administration’s participation in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ blockade and indiscriminate bombing of Yemen, which left 18 million of the country’s 28 million people without reliable access to food. Israel-Palestine is part of a darker history about the era of American primacy that liberal hawks celebrate and wish to preserve. For decades, the United States has used its unparalleled military might and diplomatic muscle to ensure that Israel can deny millions of Palestinians the most basic rights – citizenship, due process, freedom of movement, the right to vote – with impunity.

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pa3am · 6 months

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November CW activities

November 1st:

Silent Key Memorial Contest, it was only possible to make 7 qso,s just before they came to install our new smart-power-meter, and I had to power-down. RIP Klaas PA3AIK (SK Jan 5th 2009), my strict, but always friendly CW-mentor and radio-friend.

CWT contest, my first appearance in this type of activity, 33 qso's, some smooth qso's on 40 & 80, and lots of high-speed US stations on 20m. Exchange of name and CWops number, or in my case PA. Week 45 I joined again, 28 QSO's now, some more on 80m.

Preparing Cluster alarms (VE7CC) for the coming DX-expeditions.

New DXCC: TJ Cameroon, 7O Yemen,

AWARDS: Applied for WNTCM award, and worked my way through 117 QSO's in my log for SKCC Centurion award Application. Just a few days later the WNTCM award was send to me.

Next day, Confirmation of reaching the Centurion level, from today on, I will be PA3AM SKCC 18777C, as confirmed by Ron, AC2C 2748S in the function of SKCC Centurion Administrator. Next evening 3 QSO's with my new Centurion number.

QSL admin: Log & QSL 2022 up to date. Log 2023 to be updated. Lots of new things to handle in log like Aktio40, LOTW, SKCC route to Tribune etc.

As I had some interface problems with my Begali CW-Machine, I had to do a full HW/SW re-install. Everything works OK now and looking very good in combination with my Begali Travel Key. I want to use the CW trainer module to get my speed & quality up to next level.

Results Semi-automatic Bug evening from AGCW, Won by Guido HB9BQB, but good second place for:

#Silent Key Memorial #CWT #CWops #WNTCM #SKCC #Begali #CW machine

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goldtracing · 3 years

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The Tea Club TM

Forget the division of the world in East and West, North and South. One actual and very prominent one is between tea and coffee. Hence The Tea Club TM

Ironically enough, it was Russia and China that founded the whole thing. Ironic because it wasn’t and still never is a friendly gathering between friends. It was a get-together between two hostile neighbours with tensions palpable and just being semi-nice to each other because both sides could profit more from making peace than waging war. Tea time was therefore a time where they could lay aside differences, passive-aggressively sniping at each other or also musing about philosophy, literature and much more.

Over the years, many more nations have joined the club.

Iran and India are both regulars here and are very welcome because both Ivan and Yao have good connections to them. Neeraja is more of the calm sort that causes the conversation to go in the direction of mathematic much to Ivan’s delight and Yao’s aguish. Drinks his tea heavily spiced. Yao sometimes drinks chai as a form of courtesy, but would rather stick to his own tea rituals. India knows this.

While Darya is also very old, she is more of a whirlwind type of person compared to the other elder nations. Especially in the present day, she is heavily involved in politics, in such ways that cause tensions to be continuously high. As such, she is a sort of unregular regular of the club. When she does attend, then the rumour mill starts spinning wildly. Tends to give out fruit candies along with tea. She has the habit of holding a candy or a sugar cube in her mouth while drinking tea.

She also sees to it that she invites Morocco whenever she can. While Samira is of a more composed demeanour, her entertainer persona comes out when it comes to having tea. Yao doesn’t approve of antics such as pouring tea from over a metre in height and Kiku is mortified by how sweet her tea is. However, they all do agree that mixing mint with green tea is very refreshing.

Sometimes, Yemen also attends, and the others don’t agree on whether to dread his visits or look forward to them. At least, when he does attend, they make sure he doesn’t make the tea. Because he his brew is so high on caffeine, that it leaves most of them with jitters.

Vietnam sometimes pops by with her strong preference for green tea made out of fresh leaves. Warry of Yao as she is, she still has long conversations about literature and mythology with him. Sometimes, she catches up with Ivan. Chung Lien is still communist in many way and there is a brittle sort of camaraderie between them.

Some other less, frequent attenders would be Japan and Mongolia. Kiku prefers to drink his tea on his own – to him, the tea ceremony is an intimate act, and there are few nations with whom he would perform it and even fewer that would have the patience with it. When he attends, he never serves and also gets the occasional glare from Yao.

Sarnai is tolerated. That is because she has either bad blood with the other attendees, or is insignificant. While her reign did usher in progress and a few golden ages, Yao, Ivan and Kiku remember the violence of her conquests all too well. Besides, she salts her tea. That is a Mongolian tradition the others detest.

When it comes to tea lovers, England must be mentioned. However, he isn’t a craved for guest. Most of the others have a bone to pick with him, especially because of how condescending and amoral he was during his Empire days. Arthur knows this, and therefore drags Australia or New Zealand or South Africa along to act as intermediators and sooth ruffled feathers whenever he joins in. Darya has joked that he could be baited with tea, Arthur knows he can be baited with tea. While other nations do add milk to their tea, Yao finds this as something worth critiquing in England. Once, China even yet so far as too add lemon juice to the milky tea.

Jack only attends when Arthur makes him come with him, and the same goes for Elenore. They both hold idly chit-chat with the others, with him often grating nerves, and her soothing them. Pierce attends favourably when Arthur isn’t around – he occasionally gets invited by India or Russia. While is also on the boat of black tea and milk, he prefers rooibos. Only with honey and nothing else – people have had to suffer broken bones for approaching his cup of rooibos with sugar. Also always has rusks with his tea, much to the astonishment of everybody else.

Austria is a religious member of The Coffee Club TM but every now and then, he visits The Tea Club TM. He has a weird fondness for herbal teas, most of which stem from plants in his own forests. If it isn’t that, then it is black tea with a sizable shot of rum. Both of these habits result in many raised eyebrows. Yet he welcome because he isn’t part of the NATO and has permanently resigned himself to being a diplomate. He has sharp wit that is more subtle than England’s. Yao finds his jokes about death to be in very bad taste while Ivan most ends up roaring with laughter.

Another religious member of The Coffee Club TM would be Germany. Yet every once in a blue moon, he has an East Frisa phase where he has abnormally strong tea-cravings and therefore must attend. It is almost always a surprise. While he and Russia regard each other with suspicion, Ludwig often gets roped into very pleasant conversations with China or Japan or even Egypt.

Egypt and Turkey are the more nondescript members of the club for the most part. Both of them are rather quiet, and only attend it together. Are very generous when it comes to tea with all the Sacred Hospitality. Therefore they prefer to have tea outside the club in a closed circle of guests or business partners. Besides, Turkey has a greater preference for coffee.

The person whom they would all regard as a heretic would be America. Not because of his love of coffee, rather because of his addiction to ice tea. And because of the Southern tea culture – brew the tea with sugar in a pot so that the sugar caramelises and adding lemon juice to it. All in all resulting in a concoction that has twice as much sugar as Coke. However, Kiku has a photo of Alfred drinking tea British-style in an upper class restaurant in Manhattan. Alfred denies everything and many suspect that photo to be photoshopped anyhow.

The Coffee Club TM is here and here

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expatimes · 4 years

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Trump to limit 2021 US refugee admissions to 15,000, a record low

The US State Department has notified Congress the United States anticipates resettling 15,000 refugees in the United States during the fiscal 2021 year, a record low number.

The government estimate, required by US law, is a reduction from a ceiling of 18,000 in fiscal 2020 and comes as President Donald Trump has sought to turn refugees into a political issue to help his re-election bid.

The actual number of refugees admitted by the US tends to be lower than the annual ceiling and under Trump administration policies was fewer than 11,000 in 2020, also a record low, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.

Speaking at a campaign rally on Wednesday night, Trump warned a large crowd of supporters that his Democratic rival Joe Biden would open US borders to refugees and asylum seekers.

“Biden will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp,” Trump said to boos from his supporters in Duluth, Minnesota.

Supporters of US President Donald Trump booed refugees and shouted 'Lock her up' about Representative Ilhan Omar on as Trump encouraged them during a campaign rally at Duluth International Airport in Minnesota on September 30, 2020.[Leah Millis/Reuters]

Minnesota, a key swing state in the presidential election, has the largest Somali population in the US and is home to Representative Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American who came to the US as a child under asylum and was elected to Congress in 2018.

Trump's supporters shouted chants of “lock her up, lock her up, lock her up” directed at Omar.

Facebook announced on September 30 it had removed 15-second Trump campaign advertisements that tied the admission of refugees to coronavirus infections without basis in fact.

The advertisements had featured video images of Biden talking about border security and warned he would increase refugee admissions from Syria, Somalia and Yemen.

“We rejected these ads because we don't allow claims that people's physical safety, health or survival is threatened by people on the basis of their national origin or immigration status,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

Sub-Saharan Africa holds more than a quarter of the world's refugees- Trump has moved to limit refugee admission to the United States, Biden says he will increase those allowed in [File: Ben Curtis/AP Photo]

The State Department notification cited the coronavirus pandemic as a primary reason for the reduction in refugee admissions.

“The president's proposal for refugee resettlement in Fiscal Year 2021 reflects the administration's continuing commitment to prioritize the safety and well-being of Americans, especially in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” the State Department said in its notice to Congress.

The Trump administration has adopted a range of policies to prevent and discourage immigration to the US, driving a sharp reduction in the number of refugees admitted. The number of refugees resettled to the US in 2016, the last year of the Obama administration, was nearly 85,000.

Meanwhile, the number of refugees worldwide has increased dramatically in the last 10 years. Nearly 80 million people have been forced from their homes by conflicts and persecution, according to the United Nations and other agencies.

Trump administration policy has been to keep refugees in camps and work to secure their return home “to rebuild their lives, their communities and their countries”, the State Department said.

Gregory Maniatis, director of the Open Society's International Migration Initiative said in a tweet Trump has promoted “anti-refugee hysteria”.

BREAKING: In the dead of night, Trump told Congress the US will accept 15,000 refugees (max) in the fiscal year that starts today — fewest ever. Reagan welcomed as many as 159,252, George HW Bush, 132,531.

It's the last gasp of his anti-refugee hysteria.https: //t.co/WGB1InE8WB

- Gregory A. Maniatis (@gmaniatis) October 1, 2020

Representatives of Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, faulted the administration for failing to consult with Congress on setting the refugee ceiling before the end of the fiscal year as required by law.

“The administration's violations will bring our refugee program to a halt, leaving thousands stranded abroad with their lives at risk,” Nadler said.

“This time, refugees - including many who served alongside our troops - will be the victims of the Trump administration's lawless approach,” Nadler said in a statement issued September 30.

Timing of the refugee announcement is tied by a 1980 refugee law to the budget, or fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30 of the following calendar year.

#world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=11286&feed_id=8365

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peonycats · 1 year

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MISC ART DUMP 3

I tripped over and remembered I actually have a bunch of drawings saved up for larger posts that never came to fruition so have them while they’re within my brain attention span (alot of this shit dates back to 2021 or even 2020 so thats why its so uggo)

from top to bottom, left to right:

Belarus (chillin)

Iran, Afghanistan (Two greatly contrasting viewpoints)

Yemen, bby Oman (Oman got his ass beat by one of Saudi Arabia’s bros and Yemen got conscripted rip)

Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia (this is so ancient please don’t look at it)

Tarquinia/Etruria (No idea how accurate the colors are, but I do remember basing the jewelry after actual artifiacts)

Central African Republic/Centrafique (Centrafrique was meant to be a man originally, and this was one of the first drawings I did to try and redesign her!)

Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan (Jfc south sudan is yuge)

Malawi (Still not 100% happy with her design, but I still like this!)

Rwanda, Burundi (A Rwandan tourism twitter account liked this)

India, Afghanistan (Fatality)

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miyuecakes · 1 year

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🇸🇾🇾🇪🇮🇶

#hws syria #hws yemen #hws iraq #aph syria #aph yemen #aph iraq #hetalia #hetalia ocs #ヘタリア #my art

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al-nava-sexy-revolutionary-mind · 7 years

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If you vote(d) for #Democrats or #Republicans, you support #WarMongers and their #evil people-#killing war-mongering. 🖕 #MakeAmericaGreenAgain (#MAGA): If you're #AntiWar, vote for the anti-war @greenpartyus and #JoinGreen/ #GreenEnter. 🌻 #DemExit + #GOPExit = Join the #GreenParty or be #Independent. ________________________________________ Repost @an0n_ch3f_ch3v0 ・・・ 🇺🇸🔥As George #Orwell said, #wars are not meant to be won, they're meant to be continuous. No matter who you #vote for and what you thought about them, they're all #corporate controlled puppets, including #Trump. #War never changes, and war is all about reaving! George HW #Bush attacked Panama, Iraq and Somalia. Bill #Clinton attacked Bosnia and Kosovo. #GeorgeWBush attacked Afghanistan and Iraq. Barack #Obama attacked Libya, Somalia and Yemen. And now Trump, despite heavily critizing Obama for removing Ghaddafi from power, is now on the verge of attacking Syria, Russia, China AND North Korea! Every empire in human history has fallen, and the #UnitedStates is no exception to this rule. Wake up people and stop #voting for #politicians who #bomb other countries to oblivion! 🔥🇺🇸

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robotsforcake · 7 years

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Yanked this off fark, it's not mine:

Author is on twitter as @suitedjustice

I’ve been working on a project to summarize Trump’s first 100 days, but there’s just so much of it that I’ll have to post it in 10-day blocks. I tried to be as crisp as possible here, as again, there’s a lot to work with. If I missed anything substantial, let me know. Also, if you like this, let me know and I’ll post days 11-20 when the time comes.

Day 1: Reads 16-minute inauguration speech he falsely claims to have written himself. In that speech, inadvertently quotes movie villain Bane from Batman. Announces the Alt-Right’s theme of America First as policy and philosophy. Cites American ‘carnage’, without going into detail as to what that might entail. Falsely claims it stopped raining when he began to speak. Passes over long-time inauguration parade announcer Charlie Brotman, replacing him with no one. Six journalists are arrested while covering the inauguration and charged with felony rioting. Trump signs emergency order increasing mortgage costs for first time home buyers.

Day 2: Climate change data on White House website scrubbed. Trump calls National Park Service Director Michael T. Reynolds and orders him to produce photos showing a more crowded inauguration. He lies to the press about the size of the crowds at his inauguration, then complains when the press calls him on that lie. Gives speech at CIA headquarters. Brings along a claque of staffers unrelated to the CIA to cheer and clap at his words. Later claims he received the “greatest standing ovation since Peyton Manning won the Super Bowl.” Protocol calls for government employees to remain standing until the president asks them to sit Outgoing CIA director, John Brennan, calls the CIA speech “a despicable display of self-aggrandizement.” Claims to hold the all-time record of Time magazine covers at “14 or 15.” He has been on 11 covers. Richard Nixon holds the actual record with 55 Time covers. Hillary Clinton has 22 covers.

Day 3: Spokesperson Conway announces Trump won’t be releasing his tax returns regardless of the state of his IRS Audit. She claims that the people don’t care about Trump’s taxes. Conway also introduces the concept of lies as “alternative facts.”

Day 4: Spanish language option on White House website scrubbed. Conway reverses herself and says that Trump will release his taxes once his IRS audit is complete. After lying about inauguration crowd sizes on Day 1, Press Secretary Spicer says “…our intention is never to lie to you.” Spicer claims hiring freeze will halt “dramatic increase” in government employment. Number of federal employees at the beginning of Obama’s terms, 2.77 million; towards the end, 2.66 million. Spicer declines to give the current unemployment rate when asked by a reporter. Trump bans aid to international health organizations, including the World Heath Organization, if they mention abortion. Claims he will cut all regulations on businesses by 75%, that the remaining 25% will be just as strong about protecting the people as before the cut. Claims to have “received many awards on the environment.” The only award that can be verified is a Trump golf course that received one in 2007. In 2011 the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection cited the same golf course for several environmental violations. At a meeting with lawmakers, Trump repeats the false claim that between 3 and 5 million illegal voters made him lose the popular vote. The initial evidence he cites is the anecdote of a 59-year-old golf pro and German citizen, Bernhard Langer, who Trump claims saw a lot of Latin faces in a polling line in Florida. Reporters reached the golf pro’s daughter on Langer’s cell phone. She said “He is not a friend of President Trump’s, and I don’t know why he would talk about him.” An attempt to sue Trump under the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause begins.

Day 5: Retroactively declares his inauguration day, January 20, 2017, the National Day of Patriotic Devotion. Revives the Keystone XL and Dakota Access crude oil pipelines. The Badlands National Park Twitter account goes rogue and begins to tweet global warming stats and other scientific facts. It is shut down. A few other National Park accounts begin to follow suit out of solidarity. White house imposes a freeze on grants and contracts from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, prohibits employees from speaking to the press or on social media. Slaps a similar gag order on US Department of Agriculture scientists. Press Secretary Spicer says Trump’s 306 electoral votes were the most won by a GOP president since Reagan. But after Reagan, George HW Bush won with 426 electoral votes. Spicer calls prospective Attorney General Sessions record on voting and civil rights “exemplary.” Says Sessions “has fought very hard for voting rights, civil rights and on areas of minority rights.” Sessions was considered to be too racist for a federal judgeship in the 1980’s. As a US Attorney, Sessions prosecuted 3 black activists for hand delivering, rather than mailing a small number of absentee ballots. Sessions also called a fellow US Attorney “Boy.” Spicer repeats Trump’s lie regarding 3-5 million illegal votes during the election, citing non-existent “studies and evidence.” A member of the House and a Senator introduce a bill that would prevent the president from launching a nuclear first strike without a congressional declaration of war. A short time after a Bill O'Reilly episode touching on Chicago gun violence airs on Fox, Trump threatens to send federal troops into Chicago. Chicago’s murder rate in 2016 failed to put it in the top 10 US cities.

Day 6: Expands media and social media gag orders to include US Departments of Commerce, the Interior, Transportation and Health and Human services. Trump issues Draft Order designed to reopen CIA.-run “black site” prisons. These secret overseas prisons detained and tortured terrorism suspects for years, before being shut down by President Obama. Trump claims that intelligence officials have told him that torture “absolutely” works. George Orwell’s classic book 1984 hits #6 on Amazon’s bestseller list. Trump tweets that he will be asking for a “major investigation into VOTER FRAUD.” When confronted on ABC with the fact that the Pew reporter he was citing regarding voter fraud said there was in fact no voter fraud, Trump claimed the Pew reporter was “groveling.” Claims that two people were shot in Chicago during Obama’s farewell speech. Police reported no shootings in Chicago on that day. In the same interview, says “We ended up winning by a massive amount, 306.” In terms of electoral votes, Trump’s win ranks 46th out of 58 elections. Says “They say I had the biggest crowd in the history of inaugural speeches.” Estimates for crowds at Trump’s speech are 80% below those of Barack Obama’s in 2009. Says “We have spent as of one month ago 6 trillion dollars in the Middle East.” From 2001 to 2014 the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan–the latter country is in South Asia–cost an estimated $1.6 trillion. Says “You had millions of people that now aren’t insured anymore.” Some 20 million people have gained health care coverage because of the Affordable Care Act. He signs directive to build border wall with Mexico, reiterates that Mexico will pay for it. The deepest channel of the Rio Grande river serves as the US-Mexico border for 1255 miles, longer than the distance from New York City to Orlando, FL. The river is known to change its course rather frequently. Signs another directive increasing detention centers and Border Patrol staff. Signs another directive that threatens to cut off federal funds to cities that don’t actively and vigorously pursue illegal aliens. Another order cuts U.S. funding to the International Criminal Court by 40 percent. The U.S. currently gives zero funding to the International Criminal Court. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club doubles membership fees. His hotel business reveals plans for a major US expansion.

Day 7 14 minutes after Fox News calls Chelsea Manning an ungrateful traitor who called Obama a weak leader, Trump tweets that Chelsea Manning is an ungrateful traitor who called Obama a weak leader. Entire US State Department senior management team resigns. All were career foreign service officers who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Infowars, who reported that the murdered Sandy Hook 1st graders were paid actors hired by the anti-gun lobby, and that the Air Force is purposefully creating deadly tornadoes in the Midwest, is granted White House Press credentials. Trump tweets that Mexico should cancel the upcoming summit with the US if they don’t want to pay for the wall. Enrique Pena Nieto, president of Mexico, our close ally, cancels his planned trip to Washington. Trump proposes a 20% tax on goods coming from Mexico. Sellers will increase their prices by 20%, which will be paid for by the US consumer. In Philadelphia Trump says that “the murder rate has been steadily – I mean, just terribly increasing.” Data provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows a record downturn in violent crimes, with fewer occurring in 2016 than in every other year since 1979. Trump orders his new administration to publish a weekly list of crimes committed by immigrants. The idea is not new. The German newspaper Der Stürmer had a feature known as the “Letter Box”, which encouraged the reporting of Jewish illegal acts in the 1930’s and 40’s. “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for awhile,” -Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s closest adviser. In an interview with Sean Hannity, Trump says that he doesn’t consider waterboarding to be torture. In April of 2009, Hannity agreed to be waterboarded for charity, but has yet to follow through on the offer. Trump draft proposal will ban immigration and to the US from Muslim majority countries Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia. Muslim majority countries Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and the U.A.E. will not be on the banned list. These five countries are where Trump has business interests.

Day 8 Trump signs ban on Muslims from the 7 countries from traveling into the US. Announces that persecuted Christians will be given priority over Muslim refugees. A screenshot is revived of Mike Pence’s deleted December 2015 tweet stating “Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional.” Dick Cheney says Muslim ban “goes against everything we stand for and believe in.” By a margin of 42% to 39%, Trump voters believe that it would be okay for him to use his private email server for official business. George Orwell’s 1984 hits #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list. Trump tweets that he has another source for his oft-debunked claim of millions of illegal votes - Gregg Phillips, who has made claims that the Department of Homeland Security hacked the 2016 US election at Obama’s request, and that Israel was the culprit for the DNC hacks. Three paragraph White House statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day makes no mention of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust. White Supremacist publication the Daily Stormer praises Trump on this statement for daring to reject “Jewish science fiction” about the Holocaust.

Day 9 Donald Trump calls Vladimir Putin from the White House. Steve Bannon, former publisher of radical right wing website Breitbart, is granted a regular seat at National Security Council meetings. Sample Breitbart headlines include Data: Young Muslims in the West Are a Ticking Time Bomb, and Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy. In 2013, Bannon told a writer for the Daily Beast, “I’m a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal, too. I want to bring everything crashing down.” The Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will no longer have regular seats on the NSC. Some legal permanent US residents are being stopped from reentering as they return from visits or studies abroad. The Muslim ban will also keep Oscar-nominated director Asghar Farhadi from attending the Oscars. Referencing an article on how the ban will include green card residents, former KKK Grand Wizard and current racist icon David Duke tweets, “Greatest. Year. Ever.” Protesters flood JFK International Terminal in New York, demanding that detainees there be allowed to go free. More protesters assemble at airports in Denver, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, LA, and Washington DC. Dozens of lawyers show up at various airports to work pro bono to free detainees there. New York judge issues a temporary injunction halting deportations nationwide from Trump’s ban. Similar rulings follow in Virginia, Massachusetts and Washington State.

Day 10 The US Department of Homeland Security says it will comply with judicial orders not to deport detained travelers affected by Trump’s ban. The DHS reverses itself and announces it will defy the court orders, potentially provoking a constitutional crisis. According to White House sources, Top Trump policy director Stephen Miller tells government employees that the public is behind Trump’s ban, and to ignore the hysterical voices on TV. While at Duke, Stephen Miller worked closely with White Nationalist Richard Spencer–the man who was recently punched in the face on air while explaining the Alt-Right, provoking debate amongst the Left as to whether or not it’s okay to punch a Nazi. As chaos and protests continue at airports in the US and around the world, Trump tells reporters “It’s not a Muslim ban. We were totally prepared. It’s working out very nicely. You see it at the airports, you see it all over. It’s working out very nicely.” Trump issues a statement saying, “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting,” Earlier in the day, Rudy Giuliani, adviser to Trump, told a reporter, “I’ll tell you the whole history of it. When he first announced it, he said 'Muslim ban.’ He called me up, he said 'put a commission together, show me the right way to do it, legally.’ ” A petition calling for Trump to be prevented from making a state visit to the United Kingdom picks up over 600,000 signatures, Once a petition passes the 500,000 threshold, the matter must then be debated in the UK Parliament.

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circumswoop · 7 years

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Is the Interregnum a Grave?

Peaceful transfers of power are boring by definition. Unfortunately, we’ve never had another kind, until now. Inaugurals and counter-inaugurals always bypassed each other without incident, unless you consider the occasional riff of pepper spray incidental. As it’s usually one group of recidivists handing off to another, how could such a transfer ever be peaceless?

Presidents and their wives, always to the manner either born or raised, hang out with each other during inaugurals, incoming and outgoing. There will be four former presidents at the Trump ceremony, five if George HW Bush plans a surprise skydive. (He could drop in a wheelchair held softly aloft by baby blue balloons, and then be rolled jovially away by security.) This is the licensure of the always-in-power, the ability to feel camaraderie with your replacement, whether or not he (it is always he) humiliated you in public. It’s the most exclusive club in the world, with provided airspace both preferred and elite. There are no cucks in tuxes. Meanwhile, there are presidents-elect yet to be born, and it is not too late to abort them all.

Obviously, one of the five living ex-presidents, and one of the four to attend, will be Barack Obama, whose election eight years ago settled a lowkey war between MySpace and Facebook, or so we thought: look which one is still here, being awful. Obama’s ascent overlapping with the descent of Top 8 culture is probably just me, but I remember the two months between Election and Inauguration Days presenting as forever young, not instantly iconic but worse: instantly idyllic. I’m not gonna tell you how old I was then, but I had a Martine Rose haircut. I was always drunk on one of two things, cheap vodka or soft white power. Still in the running-around phase of my learned liberalism, I anticipated the Obama presidency with a kind of guileless nightvision, blowing out my spectral range. I knew he was already top five presidents, easy, let alone top 8.

Sooner than you can say “drone strike”, that presidency is over and I’m sitting here with a buzzcut that I fear is trendy, reading about the Xiang River Storm and the Red Army Faction, trying not to treat radicalization as merely a way to get through whatever this is, this diastema between waiting to die and waiting to be brought back to life. Maybe that one Netflix series that looks like either a deep FKA Twigs video or a vintage HBA show really did nail what’s going on in the country, this sense of loitering in an unmade bed while outside the air turns green with breathed disgust.

[Stent]

The word “interregnum”, in the aggregate, means pause, interval, suspension--or in one iteration, the distance between discovery and detailed understanding. In the original English version (always worth checking out!), that distance was 11 years between the execution of Charles I and the accession of his son Charles II. In U.S. presidential politics, it was about 70 days before this year, when a majority of everyone freaked out, flatlined, did some modern Movements to try to enter another dimension and then, failing, collapsed into circular contemplations of self-harm. 70 days? More like 70 times 7, which is either the number of times Jesus told his entourage to forgive up to, or the number of “counter-terrorism” strikes the Obama administration(s) authorized in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya. I forget which!

What even is a peaceful transfer of power when the best we probably ever had soothed us partially by making his murder softcore? (My friend made a joke once about Klaus Kinski sounding like a really good cotton candy flavor—it’s like that but in reverse.) Where is the virtue in a proportional scale of human rights? Is it a redundancy covered by the most perennial of all insurances? During downtime, where do our hearts beat? Where is the sound? Will we live? Is life even a quality worth having?

[Stent]

Sometimes, when I drink too much, I pass out but am aided back to consciousness, in little rivulets, by concussive symptoms of withdrawal. Half melodic/half thrash, I moan and writhe. It sounds pretty but it’s not, because all that’s happening is I’m waiting to throw up. I guess I feel like I’m about to throw up, only for four whole years. Don’t even talk to me about eight.

I believe Obama is not a good man but possesses goodness, and I guess I feel bad writing that out loud despite stanning for him the entire time in loyal opposition to his record. Now he’s being replaced by his absolute antithesis, in optics and in credentials, a man who may not be wholly evil but who possesses evil, who puts on its underthings late at night and capers ghoulishly in the mirror; who will sneak into your room and place his hand squarely in the middle of your pillow to see if it’s warm. I truly believe the evil Trump possesses is not despotic but the petty, flesh-crawling kind that smells of talc and sewer, the desperate grasp of the night sweat. For all his fame and millions legit or forged, he sure is resentful.

This principle of possession preoccupies me way more than any argument abt what he’ll do or won’t do. I don’t think even he knows, because his particular evil seeps and blocks alternately. The incredible contradictions of Obamawere his possessions, or weights if you will—he always seemed genuinely capable of empathy while slaughtering innocents all the livelong day. He neither delivered himself from the crypto-corporate Medici who made him nor ever once laid off the deport button, yet in his healthcare and LGBQT approvals he probably freed more slaves than anyone since FDR or Lincoln, the two socialist presidents. Obama always knew what he was doing, whether those acts were faithful or egregious. Trump’s maniacally nonlinear behavior cinches at least one truth about him: that he knows not what he does. His evil is tinnitus-like, and has too many mixed messages to adequately receive. All he hears, understands, and emits is noise.

[Stent]

So we are left with the vape trail of a president who was “good for a neoliberal”, an introspective, Marilynne Robinson-loving father figure, inspo for dreamers trying to turn into dream leaders, kids growing old with blogging histories and classroom allergies who consented to his sway and cadence as proof of love, even if it was denatured or abusive. Nobody ever sold the lie of liberalism better than Obama, bc the way being lied to feels spinily, spinnily good as long as everyone’s a little bit in on it never felt so good.

One of the great belletristic disputes of the 1990s, albeit a passive-aggressive one, was between Andrew Sullivan and Tony Kushner on purposes of politics: shd politics relieve anxiety (Sullivan) or misery and injustice (Kushner)? How you answer outs you as either a liberal or a leftist, but if your arrival at the right answer took eight years then maybe Obama is to blame. Maybe the center-left is an industry of death, of lullaby and stalling and overprescription.

[Stent]

Leo Bersani’s essay “Is the Rectum a Grave” is a model of sacred rage, as opposed to average anger. Published in October 1987 at the peak, or nadir, of the AIDS crisis, it quotes MacKinnon, Dworkin, and Foucault and documents a society “that at once celebrates and punishes pluralism”, one that has “no political need to save or protect any homosexuals at all” and that is given a finishing sadistic edge by the family in Arcadia, Florida who set fire to a house wherein three hemophiliac children were believed to be infected with HIV. Bersani argues that anti-loving and hatred are synchronous, but more often the latter hides its head in the former. He also begins the essay with the funniest lede ever, defiantly unburied: “There is a big secret about sex: most people don’t like it.”

I believe the Trump presidency is already the greatest moral crisis in America since AIDS. No reflection on the Cold War and spies slipping in and out of closets or consciousness would be complete without a contagion—one to which, in Bersani’s words, the only necessary response is rage (not anger). Wraiths of the Weimar working class would not provide a better remonstration for Trumpism than the bags of bones the Reagan administration(s) put out with the trash. Reagan and Trump are compared almost as often as Trump and Hitler, but not often enough—a new eighties is more likely than a new thirties simply because the eighties were the most American decade, and the thirties were conducted in a Europe that blew its own head off rather than look in the mirror ever again.

Trump tweeting a picture of his handshakes with Ronald and Nancy was way more of a message than his tweeting days later about Nazi Germany—the Trump family, for all their leopard-killing, vacuity-shilling horrors, are decadent directly from the Me Decade. Trump the paterfamilias has lived in the American imagination since at least Marla Maples went in the New York Post in 1990 and said sex with Trump was the best she ever had. Others reference the 1979 Wayne Barrett cover feature for the Voice as prequel to a decade.

Either way, by the time he gave Kevin McAllister directions to the lobby in his, Trump’s, own hotel in Home Alone 2 (1992) the deal was closed: Trump was the first name that came up when anyone talked about riches. America and its imagination will never get over the 1980s, and if there’s any shrewd or non-shriveled wisdom that can be gained from Trump’s senescent rise it should be that America has still never really gotten over AIDS. Fascism feared by anyone with a pulse, let alone one that’s only intelligible in their left wrist, is better detected in viral terms. It can only by stopped by a contagion mentality, by the kinds of education and mobilization the social agents of AIDS provided and to some extent pioneered. Bersani named, as its essential crisis of care, “the general tendency to think of AIDS as an epidemic of the future rather than a catastrophe of the present”. All you have to do to diagnose whatever age we’re in is find/replace AIDS with Fascism. There is a big secret abt power: everyone likes it.

#trump #aids #fascism #interregnum #inaguration

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