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rioxramirez · 1 year

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FULL NAME: Reynaldo "Rio" Cesar Ramirez

CHARACTER INSPIRATIONS: Don Corleone (The Godfather), Eric Northman (True Blood), James Delaney (Taboo), Dwight Manfredi (Tulsa King)

FACE CLAIM: DJ Cotrona

GENDER: Male ( he/him )

SEXUALITY: Pansexual

AGE: 42/562

SPECIES: Vampire

OCCUPATION: Owner of The Glass Slipper Strip Club

LIVES IN: Sycamore Hills

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❝ Life begins at night. ❞

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PERSONALITY TRAITS

Positive: Observant ◇ Protective ◇ Passionate

Negative: Smug ◇ Machiavellian ◇ Resentful

INTEL

Their Priorities: Himself, his business (including anyone on his payroll), and anyone he may actually care about.

Muse’s soft spot: Sentimental things. Possessions that truly mean something to someone whether it be actual belongings, feelings, or memories.

Greatest strength: His calculated way of thinking and quick reactions.

Greatest vulnerability or weakness: His grudge holding and convictions (both of which he fails to see as a weakness), and anyone he may let on means anything to him. He can be protective to a fault.

Muse’s secret: WIP

Hobbies: WIP Things they love: His memories of family. His mentor. Pet Peeves: Those who try to bullshit him or blow smoke up his ass, aggressive customers with his employees, thieves, new age slang. PAST: Rio was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1460 to working class parents. He was the middle child of five children and none of them had much of a childhood, having to contribute to the household by working. As young as five years old, he was working at the harbor, starting out with simply helping fishermen, and as he got older, he was unloading the cargo from merchant and trade ships. Any free time was spent with family, having been taught that family was most important.

He was 18 when the Spanish Inquisition started and even though he was content with unloading ships, he was pulled into the movement by his uncle, who was one of the many priests involved. Rio was among those sent out to confiscate personal belongings from those the Inquisition was against as well as those who were going against the Inquisition. The ones secretly accepting of the religions they were trying to drive out while swearing allegiance with the Catholic monarchs. For several years, he took his job seriously, not just in loyalty to the King and Queen, but also in loyalty to his uncle. He wasn't about to make him look bad and he blindly bought right into the cause of the Inquisition without hesitation, no matter the devastation he brought on those he took from.

It took twenty five years for Rio's eyes to start opening up to how wrong it was, and for him to start joining those secretly supporting those being targeting. While he would appear to be persecuting, confiscating, and forcing religious conversions, he was really helping. Advising. Aiding them to get away. Allowing them to live without compromising who they were. Allowing them to live, period. He got away with it for nearly two years before he was caught, and he was turned in a dark and filthy cell by one of the Monarchs' advisors who seemed to successfully hide he was a vampire. Rio was released from imprisonment in the middle of the night before they could sentence him, but his maker left him to fend for himself. For weeks, he was in pure survival mode as each nightfall he worked his way around Europe. That was when he met the man who became his mentor. The vampire who took the time to teach him everything his maker should have.

The man kept him under his wing for centuries, the two of them eventually stowing away on a cargo ship to the Americas. Once Rio became more confident in himself and his altered life, they reluctantly parted ways with the promise they'd cross paths again eventually. It wasn't long before Rio really started to embrace the immortality he was given, using his seduction and manipulation skills to get who and what he wanted.

PRESENT: Today he's a long time residence of Los Santos as the owner of a successful strip club, constantly surrounded by beautiful people, and living a luxurious life. The kind of life he at one time so long ago would have never thought possible. He's become quite the business man and has all he could ever want, except someone to share it with. He rarely shares his bed and doesn't even really have anyone he could really call a friend. It's his own fault, being so careful not to become attached as they could only become a liability to him as a weakness. And Rio Ramirez can't show to have any vulnerabilities. It's just him and his business.

CONNECTIONS ◇ established and wanted

Established

Danny Whitechapel: Danny is Rio's sire who turned him in that dirty cell in Spain during the Inquisition, and then left him to fend for himself. Rio hasn't thought about his maker since meeting his mentor, and he doesn't really know who he is, so he isn't really prepared to see him again.

Amelia Alvarez: Amelia and Rio have hooked up at least a couple of times, neither of them really knowing much of the other. It started out as supposed to just being a one night stand, but they've been drawn right back to each other at least once more. She doesn't yet know he's a vampire and he's yet to catch on that she's a hunter.

Lucas Boyce: Lucas is actually one of the very rare few Rio sees as a legitimate friend. They connected the first time Rio went in to get some ink work done, Lucas being his tattoo artist. He keeps Rio grounded and the vampire isn't quite so broody when the hellhound is around.

Wanted

Any of his employees at the strip club.

Perhaps his mentor? Rio hasn't seem him in quite some time and is the only person he could trust since after being turned and left by his maker.

#santos.intro #rioramirez

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michaelcosio · 25 days

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Eleventh and Twelfth Defendants Plead Guilty in Large-Scale Sacramento Cocaine and Heroin Trafficking Conspiracy

March 30, 2024

by John Todd

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Maurice Bryant, 53, of Antelope, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to traffic at least 5,000 grams of cocaine and 280 grams of cocaine base, and Steven Hampton, 64, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty today to one count of possession with intent to distribute at least 500 grams of cocaine, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, Bryant and Hampton are among the 15 federal defendants arrested in 2021 and charged in a 45-count indictment for trafficking narcotics as part of a DEA-led multi-agency operation targeting cocaine and heroin traffickers in North Sacramento. Bryant was intercepted during wiretaps in 2018 and 2019 trafficking kilograms of cocaine and cocaine base and was arrested in possession of two firearms and a bullet proof vest. Hampton was intercepted trafficking cocaine, cocaine base, and heroin, and arrested in possession of 949 grams of heroin, 567 grams of cocaine, and 34 grams of cocaine base.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the California Department of Justice, the California Highway Patrol, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, and the Sacramento Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cameron L. Desmond is prosecuting the case.

Bryant and Hampton are scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, 2024, by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley. Bryant faces at least 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison and a $10 million fine. Hampton faces at least five years in prison and a maximum of 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The actual sentences, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

Five defendants have already been convicted and sentenced for crimes related to the conspiracy: Jason Tolbert, 45, of Sacramento; Charles Carter, 36, of Sacramento; Michael Hampton, 57, of Vallejo; Arlington Caine, 48, of Rio Linda; and Bobby Conner, 51, of Sacramento.

Five more defendants have pleaded guilty and await sentencing in April and May 2024: Andre Hellams, 40, of North Highlands; Jerome Adams, 56, of North Highlands; Dwight Haney, 52, of Sacramento; Tyrone Anderson, 43, of Sacramento; and Mark Martin, 63, of Sacramento.

Charges remain pending against the following defendants: Yovanny Ontiveros, 41, of Sacramento; Alex White, 61, of North Highlands; and Wilmer Harden, 52, of Elk Grove. The charges are only allegations; the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This prosecution is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. The Sacramento Strike Force is a co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations. The specific mission of the Sacramento Strike Force is to identify, investigate, disrupt, and dismantle the most significant drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) shipping narcotics, firearms, and money through the Eastern District of California, thereby reducing the flow of these criminal resources in California and the rest of the United States. The Sacramento Strike Force leads intelligence-driven investigations targeting the leadership and support elements of these DTOs and TCOs operating within the Eastern District of California, regardless of their geographic base of operations.

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xtruss · 1 year

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Dirty Politics: Chinese Balloons Conjure Past Confrontations Over Electronic Eyes In The Sky

— February 18, 2023 | Ron Elving | NPR

Gary Powers, accused of espionage over Russia in his U2 airplane, was tried in Moscow in August 1960. Powers endured months of interrogation, went through a Soviet show trial, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and served nearly two years before he was traded for a Soviet spy. Keystone/Getty Images

This month's sudden national fixation on flyover spy balloons from China is far from the first time "eyes in the sky" have caused confrontations between the U.S. and rival superpowers.

Espionage has been a feature of international relations throughout history, and spying has led to many conflicts over the ages. But aerial reconnaissance and high-resolution cameras have added a sense of violation that comes intolerably close to home and raises the stakes.

But we should remember that the U.S., while surely spied upon, has been the world leader in aerial reconnaissance through at least the last few generations of technology.

Francis Gary Powers was a household name in the America of the early 1960s. For at least some Americans, that name still evokes an era when the world seemed on the brink of nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Powers was an Air Force captain who had been recruited by the CIA in the mid-1950s as part of the "Second Weather Observational Squadron" that was supposed to be part of NASA but was in fact conducting overflights in search of Russian facilities producing ICBMs.

He was to conduct the last of a series of covert flights on May Day 1960, but his top-secret, high-altitude U-2 jet was shot down deep inside Russia. As the CIA had begun to suspect, the U-2 was no longer flying faster or higher than Soviet surface-to-air missiles could reach.

Russia initially announced the takedown without giving details, and the U.S. put out its story about a NASA weather mission that got off course. President Dwight D. Eisenhower personally repeated this falsehood.

But the Russians had a secret, which their Premier Nikita Khrushchev soon shared with the world. They had already found the wreckage of the Lockheed U-2 and captured Powers, who had ejected as his plane broke up. The Soviets displayed the American plane and its photographic equipment – and its pilot – to the world.

The evidence showed Powers' real mission had been to traverse the vast Soviet Union from its southern border with Pakistan to the Arctic Circle, eventually landing at a base in Norway. But he never got there.

Fallout From The Act and The Falsehoods

Eisenhower had been planning to hold a summit meeting with Khrushchev later in May 1960. Their meeting had to be cancelled, a major embarrassment to the Republican president and to some degree his vice president, Richard Nixon, who would be the party's nominee to succeed Eisenhower that fall.

The awkwardness of the U-2 fiasco also lent a certain credibility to the criticism leveled by the Democratic presidential nominee that year, John F. Kennedy. He and others had been trying to make the case that the Soviets, having launched the first satellite and then sent the first human into space, were winning the space race and undercutting U.S. military superiority.

Meanwhile, Powers was tried and convicted on espionage charges in the Soviet Union, then released in exchange for a U.S.-held Russian spy in 1962. Then in October of that year, another U-2 pilot took the pictures that showed Soviet technicians building missile launchers in Cuba and set off the most intense crisis of the postwar era.

Kennedy ordered a blockade and the Soviet ships delivering the missiles were turned back. It was widely considered the moment at which the world's two largest nuclear arsenals came closest to being used. From the Powers flight to the Cuban blockade, it all happened in the space of about 30 months.

Tensions in the South China Sea

More recently, in 2001 an American reconnaissance plane off the coast of China collided with one of the Chinese fighter jets that had been sent to intercept it. The incident took place in the South China Sea, about 200 miles east of Vietnam. At the time of the collision, the American aircraft was about 70 miles from Hainan, an island province of China and about 100 miles from a Chinese military base.

The Chinese plane that made contact went down and its pilot was lost. The American aircraft made an emergency landing on Hainan without having obtained permission to land.

There, the Chinese took the 24 U.S. service personnel who had been on board into custody. Ten days of negotiation resulted in the U.S. issuing two apologies, one for the collision itself and the death of the Chinese pilot and one for landing on Hainan without official permission. But the U.S. never acknowledged the aircraft had been engaged in surveillance or, as the Chinese described it, espionage.

The American crew members, who had spent their first minutes on the ground destroying equipment, instruments, documents and data, were held and interrogated but soon released, and the U.S. eventually got back the pieces of the damaged plane.

The lengthy negotiation and joint statement allowed both sides to save face. But the incident served notice that the Chinese Communist Party was aggressively guarding its turf and prepared to challenge the U.S.

Unlike the Powers U-2 incident, however, which led to a long decade of superpower tensions, the CP-3 episode was soon overshadowed by a greater crisis, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the subsequent "war on terrorism." While the U.S. used aerial reconnaissance extensively over more than 20 years of this struggle, none of the adversaries involved has been known to conduct the same kind of surveillance on U.S. territory.

That may be one reason the discovery of the Chinese balloon intrusion, and the subsequent hyper-sensitivity of the U.S. government to unidentified high-altitude objects, has had such an impact on Americans.

Technology Moves On

After the Powers incident, U.S. scientists and engineers at Lockheed's famous "Skunk Works" designed and built another generation of high-speed, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. The Lockheed SR-71would be christened the Blackbird. It would cruise at Mach 3+, more than three times the speed of sound, and it would provide all the overflight capabilities once promised by the U-2 and far more. It could literally outrun the surface-to-air missiles of its era.

The Blackbird had its first test flight in 1964 and dominated the category for a quarter century. But eventually both the U.S. and the Soviet Union and others were relying on unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites in orbit in space to provide surveillance of each other's military activities and movements without detection. One of the original 32 Blackbirds built now sits in dignified retirement at the new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C.

China, too, has surveillance satellites taking pictures of the U.S., but some believe their technology in this regard may not be state of the art. That has been proposed as a potential explanation for their use of balloons to supplement their surveillance and data gathering.

Suspicions of Foreign Designs Far Back in Diplomatic History

Even with two great oceans separating the U.S. from the rest of the world, Americans have long feared the designs of other nations. George Washington famously warned against "foreign entanglements" in his farewell address, and most of his successors in the presidency sought to keep such involvements as minimal as possible.

This was not, of course, always possible. As early as the administration of John Adams, the nation's second president, other nations were making every effort to enlist the aid of the fledgling republic or prevent its alliance with adversaries.

In 1798 the U.S. had its first real national scandal over three French diplomats who had code names corresponding to the last three letters in the alphabet. The so-called "XYZ Affair" came close to crashing the Adams administration and encouraged the rise of the first true "opposition party" in Congress.

Although the U.S. did not matter much in the global affairs of the 1800s, by the time of World War 1 the promise of American troops and armaments had the potential to decide the war. German submarine attacks on Atlantic shipping, including the passenger ship Lusitania, pushed American sentiment in one direction. But many German-Americans and Irish-Americans opposed entry into the war on the side of Britain.

As public opinion seemed unsettled early in 1917, a story emerged from British intelligence about a message supposedly intercepted between Germany and Mexico. Known as the "Zimmerman telegram," it described a plan by which Mexico would attack the U.S. if the Americans entered the European war against Germany. Mexico's reward would be the return of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, which had once been part of Mexico. The story provoked outrage and contributed to a rising sense that war was inevitable, and indeed Congress declared war that April.

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cyarskj1899 · 1 year

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About time. I wished that her involvement in other cases were looked into. If she’s capable of covering up for a murderer let alone three murderers, then God knows what other cases she was corruptive

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Former DA In Ahmaud Arbery Case Finally Gets A Court Date

The long delay for Jackie Johnson shows how race and privilege helps some people avoid accountability.

Keith Reed

Published6 hours ago

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It’s been almost three years since Ahmaud Arbery was chased, trapped and gunned down by three bigots with ties to local law enforcement over the offense of jogging while Black. Those homicidal racists have since been tried, convicted and shipped off to prison, likely for the rest of their lives.

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But months after the last conviction for his actual murder, one person who played a pivotal role by using her elected office to help the killers initially evade accountability is just now starting the process of facing her own accountability. Jackie Johnson, who was district attorney for Georgia’s Brunswick Judicial Circuit when Arbery was killed, will finally be arraigned Dec. 29. She will have to face a judge and enter a plea to charges that she violated her oath of office and improperly interfered with the investigation of Arbery’s killing by instructing Gwynn County cops not to make an arrest in the case.

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feetbucket2 · 2 years

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#clay figures

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just-call-me-johnny-archive · 2 years

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Your relationship with Dwight.

Where do I begin?

For reasons that may or may not be obvious, my attraction towards him didn't start until fairly recent.

We started out as enemies, of course, being as he was actively seeking to harm and wipe out the people that I had just come to know as family. The hatred only intensified when Chance came into the picture. In fact, it wasn't until then that we communicated.

Our first conversation was where I realized that he and I... weren't so different. And it was pretty terrifying seeing practically your own words thrown back at you. People only seek relationships to gain something, to take something. A sentiment that I'd held for most of my memorable life.

Then he went and spared my nephew after playing a card game. And I started to wonder. And that wonder turned into action when I spoke to him that New Years. We were both intoxicated (him being more so than myself) and he opened up to me just a very, very little but it was enough for me to see what I needed to.

Fast forward a little, I started to fall ill, memories started to resurface and I... attempted to take my own life. I survived of course, as I almost always do. Midge and I were visiting Dwight's base to check on my son/her Isteo and he noticed that I didn't physically look well. Because of... the situation some words were said that threw me into a panic attack which later resulted in a cardiac arrest and coma, and I was under his care.

As a spirit, I liked to mess around with him and his stuff and I couldn't really go beyond the ship anyways, so we spent a lot of time together in a way. I would make or leave him things; he would come check on me and talk to me through Hal (who could project my voice). I started to enjoy his company. I was not ready to admit that.

I was not ready to accept any feelings I'd had for a man who had hurt the people I love so deeply and thoroughly. Who cast aside his own son, leaving him with people who should have wished him nothing but harm. Thankfully, that didn't turn out to be the case.

Even then, I knew that it was wrong to feel anything but animosity for Dwight. But it was getting harder to ignore...

He was there for me when I woke up, would frequently make sure I was comfortable, would come play cards with me, and God how was I so fucking blind, slept with me a few times in the hospital bed after a nightmare.

To wrap this up, we didn't admit the feelings we'd been developing for each other until after Harmonia kidnapped me, killed me a few times, and Dwight and Chance came to rescue me. Dwight.... took an icicle to the torso that was meant for me. He told me that he loved me before- ahem- well anyways obviously he lived, At the time... I didn't think he would.

My son and I also had heart-to-heart about the situation afterwards.

And now, he's my boyfriend. I love him whole-heartedly and unabashedly. He's shown me what real, romantic love is supposed to be, what it means to have autonomy in a relationship. We know each other in and out, can tell each other anything and everything,

Most days I wonder why he's put up with me for so long. I'm still learning what it's like to be in a healthy partnership. Hell, to be healthy, period. Any other person would have just given up on me, but he has been patient and reassuring. Loving and comforting. Protecting.

And although he's plenty capable enough, I can't help but lay everything on the line to make sure that he, Leera, and the rest of our family are safe no matter what.

I'm so proud of the man Counselor's turned himself into and I wouldn't want him any other way. I will never forget what he's done, nor will I ever excuse it or minimize it. But I also won't underestimate the amount of growth he's gone through the past few years.

I'm happy to be his and happy to call him my own. And after so long of wishing for it, albeit in a more depressing manner, he's taken me over the stars.

#tw suicide mention #tw suicide attempt

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trini-trin-trin · 3 years

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Sharing this from a FB group that I am in. I was very moved by the article and felt affinity with the experiences shared. A really sweet read.

Here is the article if you don't want to click on the link (I know it is a little long, but well worth your time to read!):

The letter I received ten years ago was unsigned and bore no return address. Clearly its author did not expect, much less want, a reply. A message in a bottle, from no one to no one, that letter still remains the most bizarre form of communication. It asks nothing but to be read, promises nothing but to share a few facts and feelings, and, seeing that it must have been dashed off on a lined yellow sheet that seemed hastily torn out of a pad of paper, the author would not be surprised if, after skimming through it, the recipient decided to crumple and lob it into the closest dust bin.

The letter is one page long. One page is enough. The handwriting is uneven, perhaps because the author had lost the habit of writing in longhand and preferred the keyboard. But his grammar is perfect. The man knew what he was doing. I assume he was writing the note by hand because he didn’t want traces of it on his laptop, or because he knew he was never going to send it as an email and risk a reply. Now that I think of it, he probably didn’t care if it even reached its recipient, a local Bay Area reporter who had mentioned my novel about two young men who fall in love one summer in Italy in the mid-1980s. The reporter eventually forwarded it to me, minus its envelope with the postmark. It took no time to see that all the author of the letter was looking for was a chance to blurt out the words he couldn’t dare breathe elsewhere.

My book had spoken to him. His letter spoke to me.

So here it is: dated April 16, 2008.

I came upon Mr. Aciman’s book while on a business trip back East. Not the type of book I am normally able to read, so I bought a copy for the flight home. I think I’m glad I did.

You see, I was Elio. I was 18 and my Oliver was 22. Though the time and place were different, the feelings were remarkably the same. From believing that you are the only person who has these feelings, to the whole “he loves me – he loves me not” scenario, Mr. Aciman got it right. I was particularly impressed with the attention he gave to the morning after Elio’s and Oliver’s first encounter. The guilt, the loathing, the fear. I felt it too much. I had to put the book down for a while.

But in the end I was able to finish the book before we landed at SFO. Which was good, because I couldn’t take the book home. Unlike Elio it was I who married and had children. My Oliver died from AIDS in 1995. I’m still living a parallel life. My name is not important. His name was Dwight.

Instead, I kept the letter. I kept it for ten years.

What moved me was not just its sobering matter-of-factness or its hint of downplayed sorrow, but the associations it provoked in my mind. It reminded me of those short, clipped messages to loved ones, written by people about to be shipped off to the death camps who knew they’d never be heard from again. There is a chilling immediacy about their hurriedly scribbled notes that say everything there is to say in the fewest possible words — there wasn’t enough time for more, no smarmy pieties, no hand-wringing, no treacly hugs and kisses before the tragic end. It also made me think of the moving phone messages left by those who finally realized they were not going to make it out alive from the Twin Towers and that only their family’s answering machine was going to take their call.

“My name is not important,” he writes, almost as an apology for remaining anonymous; yet the author drops quite a number of hints about himself — hints he likely knows will stir his reader’s wistful curiosity to know what made him write the letter in the first place, what he hoped to accomplish, and if writing did indeed help. The letter itself allows us to see that he travels for business. We also sense that he probably lives in the Bay Area and that he travels not infrequently to the East Coast, since, as he writes, he is “back” in the East. And we know one thing more: that he simply needed to come out and tell someone that a man called Dwight had been his lover when the two were young. The rest is a cloud. We’ll never know more. Writing has served its purpose. We write, it seems, to reach out to others. Whether we know them or not doesn’t matter. We write to put out into the real world something extremely private within us, to make real what often feels unreal and ever so elusive about ourselves. We write to give a shape to what would otherwise remain amorphous. This is as true about authors as about those who want to correspond with them. Over the years, many have written to me either after reading or seeing Call Me by Your Name. Some tried to meet me; others confided things they’d never told anyone; and some even managed to call me at the office and, on speaking about my novel, would eventually apologize before bursting out crying. Some were in jail; some were barely adolescents, others old enough to look back at loves seven decades past; and some were priests locked in silence and secrecy. Many were closeted, others totally out; some were widows who felt a resurgence of hope if only by reading about the loves of two young men called Elio and Oliver in Italy; some were very young girls eager to meet their long-awaited Oliver; and some recalled former gay lovers whom they’d occasionally bump into years later but who’d never acknowledge what they’d once shared and done together when both were schoolmates and neither was married. All were keenly aware of living a parallel life. In that parallel life things are as they perhaps should be. Elio and Oliver still live together. And no one has secrets there.

Unlike Dwight’s lover, everyone who took the time to write to me did not withhold their names, but all had, at one point or another, withheld something very primal. They withheld it from themselves, from a relative, from a friend, a classmate, or colleague, or from a beloved who would never have guessed what troubled longings seethed below their averted gaze whenever they crossed paths.

Some readers wrote to tell me they felt that my novel had changed them, and given them new insights into themselves; some felt it was urging them finally to turn a new leaf in their lives. But some couldn’t go so far and, despite their perfect command of language, confessed lacking the words to explain why they were so moved by my novel or why they felt an unresolved longing for things they’d never considered or desired before. They were experiencing an upwell of emotions and of ungraspable might-have-beens that were asking to be reckoned with because they seemed more real than life itself, a sense of themselves that beckoned from an opposite bank they’d never known was there and whose potential loss now was a source of inconsolable grief. Hence their tears, their regrets, and the overpowering sense of being lost in their own lives.

And yet, they said, theirs were not tears of sorrow. They were tears of recognition, as though the novel itself were a mirror for readers to watch their own emotions laid bare before them. These responses made me aware that Call Me by Your Name does not call attention to anything readers didn’t already know, nor does it bring new truths or revelations; all it does is shed new light on things that were long familiar but that they never took the time to consider. It would be so tempting to say that they are reminded of their forgotten first loves; the truth is that all loves, even those that occur late in life, are first loves. There is always fear, shame, reluctance, and not a tiny dose of spite. Desire is agony.

Everyone who’s read Call Me by Your Name understands not only the struggle both to speak and hold back their truth but also the shame that comes whenever we want something from someone. Desire is always cagey, always secretive — we’ll tell everyone we know about the person we crave to hold naked in our arms, but the very last one to know this will be the person we crave. Same-sex desire is even more guarded and watchful, especially in those who are just discovering their sexuality. Awkwardness and desire are strange bedfellows at a young age, but shame and inexperience are just as paralyzing as fear when we watch them tussling with the urge to be bold. You’re torn between the raw horniness that makes you dream scenes you hope to forget as soon as you’re up and the scenes you pray you’ll dream again and again — if dreams are all you’ll have. Silence and solitude exact a cost that leaves us emotionally wrecked. At some point we need to speak.

So “is it better to speak or die?” asks Elio, the narrator of Call Me by Your Name, quoting words penned by the sixteenth-century Marguerite de Navarre in her collection of tales known as The Heptameron. Marguerite was the sister of King Francis I and the grandmother of Henry IV, himself the grandfather of Louis XIV, hence she was plenty familiar with court intrigue, gossip, and the risks of opening up to someone who may not welcome what’s in our heart and could easily make us pay for it. Not everyone who has written to me has dared to speak their hearts to those they loved. Some have sought silence — slow, lingering droplets of quiet desperation taken every night before bedtime until they realize they’ve been dead and didn’t even know it. Many have written to me with the feeling of having missed their chance when someone tethered his rowboat to their jetty and simply asked them to jump in. “Some sentence or thought on almost every page,” writes a reader, “triggers tears and knots my throat and chest. Tears well up in my eyes on the subway, at my computer at work, walking down the street. Perhaps I am weeping in part because I know that at my age there is virtually no possibility of experiencing anything remotely comparable to what Elio experiences with Oliver.” Someone else writes, “Reading Call Me by Your Name made me feel a love I never had.” A happily married 50-plus colleague took me aside and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been this much in love in my whole life.” “I'm 23,” tweeted someone else, “and have never felt such love, until I read Call Me by Your Name. I feel like I lived it.” “Elio and I are essentially the same age,” writes a teenage girl. “I have never really experienced his environment of the Italian summer…My experiences have only taken place halfway between nature and smog, however I have felt the same tension, fear, guilt and overwhelming love that you express perfectly through both Elio and Oliver…Finding myself in Elio was something I never expected and I’m positive that I won’t experience anything quite like it ever again. The first girl I ever loved remains…the only girl I have ever loved and though everything she and I shared…lives now as a secret between two friends.” “I finished reading Call Me by Your Name a couple of days ago,” writes someone else, “and wanted to let you know how much it affected me. It felt like a narration of my thoughts that I had systematically buried long ago.” And finally this from a 72-year-old: “I was fascinated by the idea of parallel lives where would I have been if I had gone with him, where would I be if I traveled alone? Maybe the point is just what do I do with the gift you have given me during the remainder of my life.”

There are at least 500 more such letters and emails.

Some find themselves weeping at the end of the film or the novel, not for what happened long ago or for what did not and might never happen in their own lives but for what has yet to happen, for the terrifying moment when they too will soon have to decide whether to speak or die. This from an 18-year-old: “[Your novel] gives me hope that one day I will meet someone whom I desire so badly that I’ll actually find it in me to make a move, the way Oliver is that someone for Elio. Maybe my Oliver will also turn out to be someone that I realize I love as well as desire.” She was crying for a week, as was this 15-year-old young man: “I stopped reading…because I didn’t want [the book] to end, didn’t want the wounds that you caused me to close, I didn’t want to overcome, for some reason that I have yet to find out. I wanted to stay a wreck, emotionally and mentally fragile….My mother handed me tissues because she had never seen me cry like this. I had finished your book and ‘moved’ is too weak a word to express what your book had done to me. Here a week later and it is literally all I can think about, not my midterms coming up, but…Elio and Oliver and if it is better to speak or die. You answered questions I didn’t even think I had.”

Indeed, the whole novel seems to enable the outing of all manner of feelings, feelings from Elio’s relentless inward journey and obsessive self-examination that readers are invited to identify with. Through Elio’s unfettered introspection they too feel exposed and sliced open like a crustacean without a slough, now forced to look at itself in the mirror. No wonder they are moved. The mask that is torn off their faces is not just the mask that conceals same-sex desires from themselves and from others. Rather, it is the realization, through Elio’s voice, of what they truly feel, who they truly are, what they fear, what bears their signature, and what coy little shenanigans they go through to read others and hope to reach them. Some identified with some effusive sentences in my novel so much that they had them tattooed on their bodies. They even attach photos of these tattoos. People have also tattooed peaches on themselves!

But what moves most people — and this is as true now as it was when the novel first came out — is the father’s speech. Here he not only tells his son to nurse the flame and “don’t snuff it out” after his son’s lover has left Italy, but that he too, the father, envies his son’s relationship with a male lover. This speech tears away the last vestige of a veil between reader and truth and is a moving tribute to the irreducible honesty between father and son.

Most readers have written to me about the scene because the father’s speech rekindles the very difficult moment when they decided to come out to their parents — or, as is often the case with people 60, or 70 or older, it reminds them of the conversation they wished they’d had but never did have with their parents. This is the loss no one forgets and from which no one recovers after seeing Call Me by Your Name. It bears the very essence of that precious and life-defining might-have-been moment that never happened and never will.

Here is the speech:

“Look…[y]ou had a beautiful friendship. Maybe more than a friendship. And I envy you. In my place, most parents would hope the whole thing goes away, or pray that their sons land on their feet soon enough. But I am not such a parent. In your place, if there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, don’t snuff it out, don’t be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than we’d want to be forgotten is no better. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything — what a waste!...

“… {L]et me say one more thing. It will clear the air. I may have come close, but I never had what you had. Something always held me back or stood in the way. How you live your life is your business. But remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once. Most of us can’t help but live as though we’ve got two lives to live, one is the mockup, the other the finished version, and then all those versions in between. But there’s only one, and before you know it, your heart is worn out, and, as for your body, there comes a point when no one looks at it, much less wants to come near it. Right now there’s sorrow. I don’t envy the pain. But I envy you the pain.”

I received the anonymous letter sometime in early May 2008. At the time, I was staying at my parents’, because my father was suffering from throat and mouth cancer and was already in hospice care. He had refused radiation and chemotherapy, so I knew his days were numbered; though morphine was clouding his mind, he was still lucid enough to bandy a few quips about a host of subjects. He had stopped eating and drinking water because swallowing had become very painful. One afternoon while I was stealing a nap, the phone rang. A reporter I’d met in California had just received a letter, which she wanted to share with me. I told her to read it over the phone. After she’d read it I asked if she felt she could mail it to me. I wanted to show it to my father, I said, and explained he was dying. She felt for me. We talked about my father for a while. I told her I was trying to make it up to him these days, and that he too had been exceptionally easy to be with. How was it growing up with him? she asked. Tense, I replied. Always is, she added. Then the conversation ended, and she promised to mail the letter soon.

After hanging up, I got out of bed and went in to see him. Over the past few days, I had made a point of reading to him, which he liked a great deal, especially now that he was having difficulty focusing. But rather than read to him the memoirs of Chateaubriand, one of his favorite authors, and feeling buoyed by the letter I’d been read on the phone, I asked if he’d like me to read from the French translation of Call Me by Your Name, the galleys of which I had just received from Paris that very morning. Why not, since you wrote it, he said. He was proud of me. So I began to read from the very beginning, and soon enough I knew I was opening up a subject neither he nor I had ever broached before. But I knew he knew what I was reading and why I was reading it to him. This made me happy. Perhaps it made him happy as well. I’ll never know.

That evening, after the rest of us had dinner, he asked if I could continue reading from my novel. I was nervous about arriving at the father’s speech because I didn’t know how he’d react to it, though he was the kind of father who would have given that very same speech himself. But the speech was two hundred pages away still, and that would have taken many, many days. Perhaps I should skip some parts, I thought. But no, I wanted to read him the whole book. My father didn’t last long enough to hear the father’s speech. And when the letter finally arrived from California, he was already gone. His name was Henri, he was 93 years old, and he inspired everything I’ve written.

#andre aciman #CMBYK Book #call me by your name #cmbyn #elio x oliver

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robinsarm · 3 years

Text

Random Headcanons that materialize at 2 a.m. and don’t fit anywhere else

1) With the addition of Yun-Jin and The Trickster, I imagine the survivors wouldn’t be able to understand each other if it weren’t for the Entity. Much like the aura reading ability everyone has, the Entity puts sort of a filter in everyone’s head, giving them the ability to communicate in their own languages.

For example, if native English speaking Dwight were to talk to native Korean speaking Yun-Jin, regardless of if she knows any English or not, Yun-Jin hears Dwight speaking Korean and Dwight hears Yun-Jin speaking English.

I understand grammar and slang would make this kind of difficult to pull off, but Entity being all powerful could work around it I suppose.

(For Killers, it’s the same way)

2) Quentin is more put together than David King is. Yeah, he may be a bit tired all the time and he may have a caffeine/pill problem; both of those things stem from having to deal with a literal pedo. demon. When it comes to David, you can’t convince me that he doesn’t have any of the following: daddy issues, mommy issues, anger issues, commitment issues, and issues keeping a fetching job.

That being said, Quentin is the top in the KingSmith ship. (This is non-negotiable)

3) Feng Min’s comfort game is Solitaire. (like not on a computer, with actual cards)

4) Offerings are physical things that can be found around the realm. If they wanted to, survivors could run off to a random realm and find an escape cake resting on a bookshelf. However, the moment they retreat back to the safe area of their fire, whatever offerings they have turn into the six-sided tokens we see in-game. Same look and everything. All survivors need to do is toss the token into the fire before they go into a trial to apply it.

On the flip side, the same thing can happen to killers, but each of them has a specific space that will make the offering official. For example, Hillbilly has to take, say, a black ward into his old home for it to turn into a token.

(Offerings that come out of bloodwebs are always the six-sided token)

5) Killers hang out in their own realms usually, but there’s obviously some killers that don’t have their own realm. For those killers, I usually see them in these places:

Bubba: Switches from the Swamps to Coldwind and back. It really just kind of depends on who he wants to be around. If Hillbilly’s having a bad day and Hag also isn’t in the mood to see him, he’ll just hide out in a corner of one of the realms. Alternatively, he’ll queue up for more trials.

Ghostface: If he’s not stalking the survivors or researching other killers, he’s chilling in the Institute or Ormond. The Legion has a crack-head energy that he oddly enjoys being around; the Legion also doesn’t mind seeing him. Doctor and Ghostface both like to bounce ideas off each other. Doc is usually the one asking all the questions or giving all the suggestions. If both of those parties are annoying the hell out of Danny, he’ll leave and hang out with Amanda on the Game.

Blight: Hangs out in the chapel with Clown. Clown keeps his distance and sleeps most of the time outside of trials, so Blight isn’t much of a bother. If he’s not at the chapel, Blight is searching the forest, looking for his old workshop with all his notes.

Twins: Forest. Mother’s Dwelling specifically. Huntress enjoys playing with Victor and Charlotte likes the break from her brother. One of their favorite pass times is Huntress just throwing Victor as far as she can and waiting for him to run back. Victor loves it too.

Trickster: For the most part, hops from realm to realm. Since he’s been having trouble learning angles, Ji-Woon will visit each realm and practice throwing his knives like he’s in a chase. He’ll try and enter a realm when he knows the killer of said area isn’t there. Other killers like Clown, Plague, Freddy, etc. he doesn’t want to be around for obvious reasons. As for just relaxing, Ji-Woon will usually follow in Danny’s footsteps. The stealth killer doesn’t mind either. He’s been in the same place before.

#dbd #dbd headcanons #the trickster #yun-jin lee #I'll probably make more of these later

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joezworld · 3 years

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📂

What in the HECK happened with Scotsman, Dominion, and Dwight during the Great Gathering?!

(Also, since Dutchess of Hamilton has also been to the US during the 1939 NY World’s Fair, did she get involved?)

Warning - extremely long post below

So, first of all, Duchess of Hamilton never went back to the UK.

Duchess of Hamilton (6229) and Coronation (6220) had their nameplates swapped by the LMS when an engine was sent over to the US. 6229, in the guise of 6220, went to the US.

Streamlined locomotives were all the rage at the time, and railroads practically fell over themselves to get Coronation (as she was now known) onto press trains. The B&O railroad in particular was so impressed with her capabilities that they extended a formal offer of employment to her for service on their streamlined Royal Blue service. The LMS were surprised to get an offer to "purchase" their locomotive, but accepted nonetheless, as it meant a welcome infusion of cash in the dark days during the beginning of WWII.

Coronation fit right in with the Americans, having only been about a year old when she was sent to New York. Following the end of steam traction on the Royal Blue in the late 40s, (the B&O were early adopters of diesels.) she and her B&O coworkers found good employment on the New York Central, where she still runs to this day.

Since then, she's fully "gone native", marrying a J3 Hudson, (yes one of the streamlined ones) adopting both an American accent and three children, and being fully repainted to NYC silver by 1956. Flying Scotsman met her in Albany in 1970, and neither one of them recognized the other.

Actually, most UK expats don't recognize her, to the point where a common interaction is for her to be held up as an example of "look at her, she's integrated well into the US", only for the British engines to say "that's preposterous, she isn't English".

When it's pointed out that she's still obviously an LMS Coronation, the next response is usually screaming.

All that being said, she has no interest to come back to the United Kingdom, and wasn’t asked by the NRM anyways.

---------------

Second of all, the Great Gathering was... an event.

So, there are (officially) 6 preserved Gresley A4s.

Mallard - static, National Railway Museum (UK). Also an asshole.

Bittern - running, private owner, UK based

Sir Nigel Gresley - running, owned by a trust, UK based

Union of South Africa - running, private owner, UK based

Dwight D. Eisenhower - static (officially), National Railway Museum (USA)

Dominion of Canada - static (officially), Exporail (Montréal)

This is the official list, and for the first 4 engines, it's the truth.

However, things are a bit hazier on the other side of the Atlantic...

-----

So the thing that needs to be made clear right up front that in a sentient vehicle world, museums aren't like the NRM, where locomotives sit static for years on end, although obviously the English have museums like that because of course they do.

Rail museums in the rest of the world are much more like Colonial Williamsburg - a living history center staffed by volunteers who act out a prototypical setting from [insert decade here].

British Rail, being British Rail, didn’t know that and didn’t care.

4496, Dwight D. Eisenhower, having been named after the General-turned-President, had been earmarked for preservation by BR, and was summarily shipped off to the US National Railway Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In an entirely unintentional move, this donation MONUMENTALLY snubbed the Smithsonian, who refused to have any dealings with BR for decades, even for archival purposes. This, combined with the fallout from Operation Smash Hit, and the fact that the Smithsonian is Petty AF, meant that there was virtually no official trans-Atlantic cooperation between British and US museums for decades.

Dwight hit the shores of the US in 1964 New York City and was greeted by a marching band, a ticker-tape parade, and Presidents Johnson and Eisenhower, who were on-hand to personally make the engine a US citizen.

Always keen to curry favor with the government, the Southern Pacific railroad had a job offer waiting for Dwight right alongside the Presidents and the parade, and when he accepted, he went off to Sunny Southern California - someplace so opposed to Britain the he fell in love with the place immediately and refused to leave!

The ladies may have also had something to do with it as well - while most engine classes fell into a typical 50-50 gender distribution, the SP GS-4 class was all female...

[Pictured above - one of 28 very good reasons to live in California if you're a single British steam engine.]

Dwight does not kiss and tell, but at his wedding in 1974, all 28 GS-4s showed up - and he was only marrying one of them!

Since the 70's, he's become a mainstay in California, having been repainted into Daylight Limited colors in 1969, and retiring from railroad duties in 1999. After that, he went into the movie business, and is currently the head of digital media development at Disney.

His wife Irene (SP 4437) is also an interesting figure as well - following in the wheelmarks of the great female locomotives before her, she had an eye for business and a Stanford education before she married her husband, and was an initial investor in multiple tech companies in Silicon Valley during the 70's and 80's, but stopped doing that after her investment in Apple proved very lucrative. In 1996, she was convinced by a few people in the Stanford Alumni association to invest in another tech startup, this one an "internet search engine" called Google.

So yeah, Dwight Eisenhower kept falling up and up and up all his life, and is now married to the richest woman in the world.

4489 Dominion of Canada was donated mostly by accident, having been forgotten in the back of Darlington sheds until 1966, when she was shipped off to the Canadian Railway Historical Society in Montreal.

As stated elsewhere, the Canadian Government considered any locomotive built in the UK to have UK citizenship, and therefore treated them as commonwealth citizens under existing Canadian law. (remember that Canada was still a colony at that time)

CN, the national rail carrier, was obligated to offer her a job under their charter, and she accepted, moving to Toronto to run intercity trains between Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.

Within two years she was displaced from those duties by the introduction of a new, shiny, jet turbine powered train, and was summarily demoted to local commuter runs in the Toronto suburbs.

Moving to suburbia did one thing more than anything else - expose her to the people who live there. They all had complaints, they all had problems, and they all had no idea on how to fix them.

Being a helpful sort, Dominion decided that she could help, and promptly ran for Toronto city council in 1974. She won, and has been a fixture in local Toronto politics ever since - she even got to be Chairwoman of Metro Toronto (the closest thing to being mayor because Toronto's governmental structure is weird) until 1998, when Toronto was merged with the surrounding area to create a massive new region.

Having then done everything there is to do in municipal Toronto government, Dominion went on to become the Chief Executive Officer of Metrolinx, the agency that controls almost all of the transit agencies in Ontario, because, as she puts it, "I'm still a commuter engine at heart".

She's now painted in the current GO Transit paint scheme, and still does commuter runs- which is really weird looking now that there are double deck commuter coaches in a push-pull configuration, with a Gresley A4 doing the pushing.

------

Now, I mentioned that those 6 were the only ones officially preserved - there were two unofficial preservations as well...

4486 Merlin was properly Shanghied - he was yanked off the docks in Southhampton by a cargo ship in August of 1965, and was spirited away to parts unknown.

Those unknown parts turned out to be South Korea. There, he was given citizenship by the US-aligned military dictatorship (Korean history is wild) and was employed by the State-run rail operator.

As the military government began a hardcore plan to increase their country's wealth and industrial output, rail lines were being built across the country, and Merlin was soon awarded a position on the fastest train in the network, the Seoul-Busan Saemaeul-ho.

Because of his experience in running high-speed express trains, Merlin not only became the public face of Korean high-speed rail, but also became an "honored elder" amongst the other Korean engines, a position he still holds to this day - as despite being over 70 years old, he still runs daily trains on the fast services, easily keeping time with the Korean schedules as well as training the new high speed trains, including the KTX sets. He's on his 24th boiler by now, and has more parts from Hyundai than Doncaster.

An additional fact - Merlin actually has had a linguistic effect on Korean railroading, as his strange amalgamation of an accent - a strong Yorkshire accent that tried to be Received Pronunciation for 30 years, mixed with almost 50 years of middle-to-upper-class Korean - has filtered down through the ranks of KoRail, because all of his students want to sound like him out of respect. Human British expats in Korea will occasionally hear a locomotive speaking in English, and the engine will sound like a Yorkshireman every time and the Brits cannot handle it.

---------

4495 Golden Fleece is the only A4 to preserve himself - he saw the writing on the wall in the early 60s, and hopped a car ferry to France at the end of 1962. From there, he bounced around Europe for a bit before making it to the United States in the late 70's.

Of the 8 surviving A4s, he's probably led the quietest life of all - he moved to Miami before it got nice, and basically got in on the ground floor of CSX when that merger happened in 1980. He's now the head of terminal operations for the Port of Miami, but he's generally kept a low profile - not even having a chance to meet Scotsman due to his time in Europe.

He's still in contact with Dwight and Dominion, and has no real bitterness over not being "famous" like they are - he likes the quiet, and still lives in a modest house in Boynton Beach with his long-term girlfriend.

----------------------

Soooo... the Great Gathering.

It was supposed to be a meeting of the 6 surviving A4s - a two year event held at the NRM in honor of the 75th anniversary of Mallard's record-setting run.

"Record setting" is a past-tense term here. While there have been no official runs, every single one of the Pennsylvania Railroad's T1 and S1 locomotives claim to have gone faster than 126 without meaning to, and numerous other locomotives on unofficial attempts done late at night on flat stretches of land across the country have hit 130+.

British Expats have also done better than 126 - Coronation claims to have hit at least 140 on a midnight mail train in 1980, and in Korea, Merlin claims to have hit 128 on a test train, although that was judged by timing mile markers as his speedometer wasn't functioning properly.

Problems arose before any of the engines had even reached the NRM, as Mallard's already sizeable ego had swelled to massive proportions, and several engines in the great hall were planning a justifiable homicide.

Then came the time restraints - none of the foreign locomotives were willing to uproot their lives and jobs for two years just to sit motionless in a shed. A two year exhibition was eventually negotiated down to a 6 month gala, much to the irritation and confusion of the NRM, who could not understand that the engines were still in service.

Then came the extra engines - Dwight and Dominion thought that the NRM knew about Fleece, and were quite insulted on his behalf when he wasn't invited - they threatened to not attend unless arrangements were made for Fleece to attend as well.

An utterly baffled NRM agreed, but also tore their record archives apart, as they knew that Fleece had been scrapped. The fact that his picture was plastered all over CSX's Florida Division website was all the more confusing as a result.

Meanwhile in Busan, nobody knew that Merlin had escaped the scrappers' torch and therefore did not invite him. He was only informed after K-Pop star Psy texted him from London to ask if he knew about the event, which was being advertised on television.

Merlin, having missed his friends from the LNER, decided that he would just crash the party, used some of his many vacation days, and took off for England on a cargo ship.

By sheer coincidence, all four foreign A4s hit the dock in Southhampton on the same day, and were delighted to see each other - especially Merlin, considering that everyone else had thought he'd died.

Meanwhile at the NRM, delight was not the word one would use. Befuddled, confused, shocked even, but not delighted. Their plans had revolved around 6 A4s, most of which wouldn’t be running - only to now discover that there were 7, all but one of which were functioning! (Mallard, the star of the show, was the odd one out, and it drove him crazy)

Then they got a phone call from their man at the docks saying that another one had showed up, looking like he’d driven out of a K-pop album cover, and they just gave up and started screaming.

Screaming is also what happened when the cavalcade of foreigners showed up in York - first of all, the quartet of new engines sounded nothing like they had when they left England.

Dwight had willfully unlearned his Upper Crust British accent by 1971, and had fallen deep into a California accent (quite similar to what Scotsman sounds like - coincidence? No.)

Dominion and Fleece hadn’t tried to unlearn their accents, but 40+ years of living in North America can really dilute the Britishness. It doesn’t help that Dominion has developed most Canadian vocal tics eh?

As stated above, Merlin has a weird fuckin accent, and now he speaks English with a strong Yorkshire accent, but will occasionally and without warning drop into a Korean/Yorkshire hybrid accent.

The screaming also happened because the NRM had wanted to repaint the duo trio! quartet?! into LNER garter blue, and were promptly informed that “we’re painted like this for work! Don’t touch it!” (the sole exception was Dwight, who hadn’t pulled a real train in 14 years, but he liked his Daylight Limited paint), so instead of the new arrivals showing up in LNER colours, they showed up looking like THIS:

Having their long-lost siblings show up looking and sounding like THAT had quite an affect on the A4s and the other NRM engines:

Bittern could not believe her eyes - to the point where she actually began making noise about seeing an optometrist

Union of South Africa almost backed through a wall

Sir Nigel Gresley was speechless for two days

Mallard was so angry that he actually chipped a tooth during one of his rants about “the impropriety of it all!!”

Evening Star laughed so hard that he managed to derail himself without moving

City of Truro almost cracked a piston from shock

Alycidon spent the entire gala coming up with more and more laser focused jabs at Mallard - who was so easy to fluster that the Deltic needn’t have bothered

Oliver Cromwell and Green Arrow made fast friends with the new arrivals, and spent the entire time learning ‘Americanisms’ to annoy the other engines with.

But what about Flying Scotsman? Where was he in all of this? He was generally considered to be the “leader” of the NRM fleet (much to Mallard’s annoyance), and was usually who the other engines turned to when things started getting out of control.

Did Scotsman calm things down? Like hell he did. The inmates were running the asylum from the moment that Scotsman saw the other A4s - more importantly saw Dwight - and immediately greeted them in flawless Californian.

This actually set off the building’s security alarm, as Flying Scotsman saying “DUDES! Wassup?!” caused such an uproar that the noise broke several exterior windows.

----

And all of this was in the first few days - there were six months left to go.

There was one railtour attempt. It was supposed to feature Bittern and Sir Nigel running in tandem, but instead featured Dwight and Merlin, mainly because Bittern wanted to see what would happen.

They exceeded the max speed limit for steam traction within 15 minutes, sparked a thorough investigation by the RAIB, and got all future steam powered railtours for the Gathering cancelled immediately.

On the plus side, the two engines did prove that it was still possible for a steam train to hit 100 safely.

One thing that baffled the other engines was the inordinately large number of people who turned up just to see Dominion, and the one person who kept turning up to see Fleece - it took a lot of explaining for them to understand that Dominion had been married three times, and had children (adopted) and grandchildren from all three marriages coming to see her. A similar amount of explaining was required to explain that Fleece’s girlfriend/partner wanted to see him too.

The normally chatty Dwight and Scotsman would suddenly clam up whenever Dominion and Fleece teasingly tried to ask about their love lives, something which wasn’t unnoticed by the other engines, but got similarly nowhere.

The answer to why they both shut the hell up was explained when a lot of shouting broke out in the yard of the NRM one day about a month into the exhibition:

Irene Eisenhower, not content to sit in California and count her billions, quickly grew bored without her husband, and decided to go to England and be with him. The fact that she definitely did not fit the UK loading gauge was never even a consideration, and so she just showed up in York on the back of a lorry, having informed no-one of her arrival, and content to just pay off the requisite people if a fuss occurred.

A fuss did occur, and it was only ended when Scotsman managed to convince the museum’s curator (who at this point in his life was regretting ever thinking of this damned gathering) that Irene was a ‘temporary donation’ to the museum.

[Scotsman, who definitely hid his Cali accent from museum staff the entire time, has one of the best poker faces in the world]

Dwight was overjoyed, and so was Scotsman, for initially unclear reasons. Then Irene managed to grab both her husband and Scotsman, dragged them behind a shed, and [THIS IS A PG13 HEADCANON] the both of [PG13]. Turns out that while Scotsman may have slept his way across the US a few times, he was actually ready to settle down with Dwight and Irene - they were a throuple way back in the 70s, and those passions haven’t faded. When Scotsman reluctantly left the US in 74, a lot of the reluctance was because of those two.

This bombshell of a revelation went over interestingly at the NRM. Some engines (Green Arrow) were happy for them, some were incensed (Mallard - although it was for anti-American reasons, not homophobic ones), and some were intensely curious about what was going on in the outside world (Bittern).

The ‘foreigners’ (as Mallard had taken to calling them), were deeply displeased at how their fellow engines were being treated - while a lot of them were ‘in steam’, some were not and might never be again, something they found abhorrent. Unable to do anything at that time, as the NRM was not a for-profit entity and therefore did not have anyone to bribe, (Irene’s solution to things is to throw money at the situation) the engines started talking about how life was different in the outside world - namely that engines were still working hard, even when they were over a century old and running on steam power.

This was of great interest to engines like Evening Star and (6220) Duchess of Hamilton, neither of whom were likely to be steamed again, and Bittern, who was growing more and more curious with each passing day. Dissent began to slowly build against the NRM curators, and the culture of the United Kingdom in general.

One thing the foreigners did try do something about was Ellerman Lines. The poor bastard had been sectioned to show his inner workings, much to the jaw-dropped horror of the foreign A4s, who made such a stink about it that he was moved outside the museum by NRM staff, who must have thought that the engines lacked object permanence or something, because that didn’t make it better!

Irene Eisenhower, who was beginning to get really sick of the nonsense that the NRM called preservation, (Scotsman was not in running condition, and had been hastily reassembled mid-overhaul in order to be cosmetically ready for the event, and let’s not forget poor Ellerman Lines) elected to bring the event to a close on her own after only three months. She did this by eventually putting her immense wealth to good use, and called for a haulage service to rescue the engines from the NRM without the knowledge of the museum staff. Aside from the A4s, she also took Ellerman Lines, Scotsman, and Bittern (who had asked to go) with her, and only bothered to inform Ellerman and Bittern - she was not about risk Scotsman having another “think of England” moment and staying.

The haulage firm was efficient and the cargo ship was waiting, so the engines were in international waters before the NRM opened the next morning.

Much swearing occurred in England that day, and the NRM’s image has yet to fully recover from the PR story that they had sold Flying Scotsman (and Ellerman Lines) to a reclusive American billionaire.

Privately though, the NRM does not care, as that story is a lot better than “Someone stole our engines and we’re not allowed to get them back because as it turns out we’re slaveowners, so no international court will help us.”

Also, despite their multimillion dollar “donation" from the I. Eisenhower Opportunity Fund, they still haven’t been able to fully pacify their engines, all of whom have somehow gotten the idea that they should be running in main line service like they live on Sodor or something...

--------

Dwight, Scotsman, and Irene all live happily together in the sprawling Eisenhower estate in Malibu. Irene is currently lobbying the California state government to legalize polygamy, with moderate success.

Ellerman Lines, after a lot of therapy and a full rebuild, is now working on a short line in Wyoming. He likes the scenery.

Bittern followed Dwight, Irene, and Scotsman to Los Angeles, and used her ‘connections’ (Dwight) to get a supporting role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Since then, she’s gotten several roles based on her own merits, including an Emmy nomination for Best Guest Appearance in a Comedy.

Merlin spent a few months in LA before he went back to Korea. He is very thankful that he was able to reconnect with his brothers and sisters, and that his homeland has good internet, as he video calls his family across the Pacific almost every day.

Golden Fleece still lives a quiet life in Florida, but finally decided to tie the knot, and married his girlfriend in 2017. The ceremony was supposed to be quiet, but Irene Eisenhower has no idea what that word means.

Dominion of Canada continues to baffle non-local trainspotters when she runs commuter trains into Toronto. She is now a great-grandmother.

7 years later, and the term “Great Gathering” is still a forbidden phrase in the back rooms of the NRM.

#ask response #long #really long #I wrote this for like me and two other people at most #national railway museum #flying scotsman #Headcanon #ttte #ttte adjacent #bittern #mallard #train headcanon #locomotive rights headcanon #extremely specific headcanon #headcanon

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96thdayofrage · 3 years

Text

In December 1941, a few days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into World War II, a Detroit mother named Sylvia Tucker visited her local Red Cross donor center to give blood.

Having heard the “soul-stirring” appeals for blood donors on her radio, she was determined to do her part. But when she arrived at the center, the supervisor turned her away. “Orders from the National Offices,” he explained, “barred Negro blood donors at this time.”

“Shocked” and “grieved,” Tucker left in tears, later penning a letter of protest about the whole ordeal to first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Today, this discriminatory blood program and African-Americans’ determined opposition to it are long forgotten, despite the fact that a few scholars, including Spencie Love, Susan E. Lederer, Sarah E. Chinn, and myself, have explored the topic.

Don’t let yourself be misled. Understand issues with help from experts.

This history is worth remembering. It provides an antidote to facile, feel-good stories about the “Good War,” stories that scholars such as Michael C.C. Adams and Kenneth D. Rose have long refuted but that live on in museum exhibits, blockbuster films, best-selling books and war memorials.

The story of how blood got desegregated also reminds Americans that, as novelist Ralph Ellison wrote nearly a half-century ago, “The black American �� puts pressure upon the nation to live up to its ideals.”

Historian Robin D.G. Kelley puts it more broadly: “The marginal and excluded have done the most to make democracy work in America.”

In an age of resurgent racism, Ellison’s and Kelley’s words are especially important and timely.

‘A tremendous thing’

The Red Cross Blood Donor Program began in early 1941 – and went on to collect blood from millions of Americans that the military shipped to soldiers fighting overseas.

“If I could reach all America,” asserted General Dwight D. Eisenhower at the end of the war, “there is one thing I would like to do – thank them for blood plasma and whole blood. It has been a tremendous thing.”

Tremendous indeed: The blood program saved many lives. But it also initially excluded African-American donors like Sylvia Tucker. When it did accept them, in January 1942, it did so on a segregated basis.

Never mind that scientists saw no relationship between race and blood and that one of the world’s leading authorities on blood banking at the time, and the director of the Red Cross’s pilot blood program, was an African-American scientist named Dr. Charles Drew. Never mind that Nazi Germany had its own Aryan-only blood policy or that America’s principal rhetorical war aims concerned democracy and freedom.

To what extent military commanders segregated blood in the field was, during the war and afterwards, a matter of some debate. Officially, at least, the distinction between bloods remained in place for years. It was not until 1950 that the Red Cross stopped requiring the segregation of so-called Negro blood. And it was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that Southern states such as Arkansas and Louisiana overturned similar requirements.

A forgotten civil rights struggle

In one internal memorandum, the Red Cross called its donor program democratic, since “the point of view of the majority … ” – which its leaders assumed demanded blood segregation – “must be taken into account in a democracy.”

But many blacks and their allies had a very different idea about democracy, one that required all citizens be treated equally and without regard to race. They fought tirelessly throughout the war years to make that idea a reality, not simply in the military, in the workplace and in Hollywood films but also in the blood program.

These many battles constituted a nascent, surging, and, today, too-often-overlooked civil rights struggle that helped pave the way for the more famous movement of the postwar years.

Nearly all the major civil rights organizations of the day, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the March on Washington Movement and even the upstart Committee (later, Congress) of Racial Equality, made changing blood policy a top priority. One statement from a group of the nation’s most prominent black leaders put it this way:

“In justice to what we know to be the practically unanimous sentiment among Negroes in America, we affirm the need for alteration of the segregated blood plasma policy.”

Black newspapers, enormously popular and important at time, also protested blood segregation and exclusion, regularly featuring front-page stories, boldface headlines and blistering editorials on the subject.

In January 1942, for example, the African-American weekly the Cleveland Call and Post published an “editorial in rhyme”:

“The cross of Red, that burned so bright

In fire, storm and flood

Is now the crooked Nazi sign

That spurns a Negro blood!”

Wide-ranging activists

Activism on this issue extended well beyond these traditional places.

Labor unions, Christian and Jewish groups, local interracial committees, scientific organizations and the New Jersey State Legislature all spoke out against blood segregation.

The Communist Party of Cuyahoga County in Ohio held a rally of 3,500 people, condemning blood policy as “Barbarian Hitlerism.”

An interracial group of precocious junior high schoolers at Harlem’s Public School 43 tested (with the help of their science teachers) the blood of a black student and of a white student. Finding no difference, they wrote an article in the school paper, made and distributed hundreds of posters, and held a public meeting – all in opposition to the Red Cross policy.

The most widespread form of protest, however, came from thousands of ordinary African-Americans who refused to donate blood and money to the Red Cross.

While roughly 10 percent of the U.S. population at the time, blacks made up less than 1 percent of all blood donors.

African-Americans contributed generously to the Treasury Department’s Defense Bonds: It is not a lack of patriotism that explains their halfhearted response to blood drives. The reason was a determined opposition to race-based exclusion and segregation.

Expressing these feelings best was a high school student from Cleveland named Geraldyne Ghess. Her poem appeared in the local black newspaper:

Had I wealth, I’d burn it all;

Not one cent for the Red Cross call.

Our money is good … our blood is bad.

But, still that shouldn’t make us mad.

Are they afraid they’ll all turn black?

Is that why our blood they lack?

Their skins are white as snow … it’s well.

Their souls are tarnished, black as hell.

In the end, this wide-ranging activism may have failed to democratize the blood program fully – at least during the war.

But African-Americans did – in the end – force the Red Cross to include them as donors.

Full-fledged integration, which took a few more years, owed everything to their work.

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gifted-burnout-archive · 4 years

Text

Jim’s Best Friend

Part Seven - Booooze Cruuuuise

Word Count: 3107

Author’s Note: Ack! So, loving updating this. Should point out that from now on, the storyline drifts from the actual show’s plot. Characters will be a little different, since it’s more my interpretation of events and how they would react, but I’ll try my best to keep it all as consistent as possible.

WARNING: discussion of same-sex relationship in a sort of dated way, kinda? Like, the chapter takes place in 2006. Doesn’t reflect my feelings at all, just so you know.

January, 2006.

After you had spent you holiday season alone, mostly watching reruns of Frasier or making out with strangers at Poor Richard's on New Year's Eve, with Pam and Jim both disappearing off to see family back home, you were glad to be back in the office. You were glad to be back at your desk, with your friends, even if everything was different now.

Even if Jim was in love with Pam, and you were actively helping him achieve his goal of telling her how he feels.

Not to break Roy and Pam up, you reminded yourself as you walked into the office on Wednesday, wearing the same clothes as the day before. You sat down at your desk, and Dwight took a moment to, very loudly, sniff the air between you both.

"You've been smoking again... And you had sex with someone." He stated rather loudly, and you held your head in your hands.

"On a work night Y/N? Tut, tut." Jim teased, and you rolled your eyes, logging onto your computer. "I thought you stopped smoking the year I got here?"

"Who was the lucky guy?" Pam asked over Jim's afterthought, and you looked over at her.

"Like I would kiss and tell..."

"Oh no, Y/N don't tell me he works in the building." Pam looked dead serious, and you let out a laugh.

"They do not... and it was a one time... Three time, thing Pam. No chance I'm getting back into a relationship any time soon." You assured her, and your hand ran absentmindedly over your side, the bruises Brian had caused finally healed.

"What, because some unemployed twerp ended things with you?" Dwight scoffed, and Jim's head snapped to face his other desk mate.

"Shut it, Dwight." He warned, and Dwight looked between the three of you.

"I don't think you should be allowed to keep secrets in the workplace." He folded his arms, and you glanced over your computer.

"The people who need to know, know, Dwight. You are not someone who needs details on my love or sex life." You said with a shrug, dialling your first number of the day as an email popped up on your screen.

Dunder Mifflin Retreat Announcement Today!!! 11 am. - M. Dawg.

Michael has been hinting at the retreat for a week or so, asking people to pack the most bizarre array of items that it made Jim, Pam and you all laugh out loud when you all read it together at lunch last week.

"Hi there, this is Y/N from Dunder Mifflin. I was wondering if I could talk to you today about you existing order with us? Perfect!" You spoke on the phone, and began your day of sales. Your day had been so productive that by eleven, you had eight closed sales, and you walked into the conference room with a grin on your face and and skip in your step.

"Doesn't someone look happy all of a sudden? What happened to hangover fighting, walk of shame looking Y/N from this morning?" Jim teased you as you entered the conference room, sitting yourself down beside him. Pam sat up the back with Roy and the warehouse guys.

"I, Mr Halpert, have made eight sales this morning alone. I honestly think today might be the day to beat your record." You said, the twinkle in your eyes causing Jim to sit up straight.

"I'd like to see you try." He said, cocky in tone. Jim was the best sales person on the floor, and his record for sales in a day was 17, with the average sale being around $500 each. So, beating the goal meant not only did you need to get 17 plus sales, but make at least $8500 to beat the record. It wasn’t likely, but you liked to tease Jim when you could.

"Morning, my wonderful employees." Michael strolled into the room, taking a seat at the head of the table. A thin blonde woman followed him in, taking a seat at the table, and as she glanced around the room the pair of you locked eyes. Yours widened, you looked down quickly, and she flushed bright pink. Jim watched the whole thing as Michael tried to build up suspense, and after a few flicking glances between you and the woman that sat in front of him, he very slowly pieced it together.

"... Did you?" He mouthed, and you gave him a confused look. You glanced back over at her, and Jim nudged you again. In defeat, you nodded, and Jim's eyes widened.

"... Brenda here is from corporate, ready to hear me talk leadership but uh, first... The retreat this year is..." Michael drummed on the table. "A harbour cruise across Lake Wallenpaupack!" Michael announced, adding after a few beats. "A booze cruise."

"But it's January..." Stanley pointed out, and Michael slowly descended into his ramblings once more as Jim scribbled on a notepad, folding the note and addressing it Pam. Oscar handed it to Meredith to handed it to Kelly who handed it to Pam, who glanced over at you and Jim. She glanced down, unfolding it and crumbling it up the minute she read it, shocked.

"Y/N and Brenda?" She mouthed, and Jim nodded fast, and she started to laugh.

"What's so funny Pam?" Michael looked up, and Pam coughed.

"My bad Michael, keep going." Pam insisted, sending a wink your way as you put your head in your hands.

—

"So..." Jim sat in the chair, with Pam to one side and you on the other. He spoke with a stupid grin on his face, and he and Pam looked over at you expectantly. "Y/N seems to have made a little oopsie."

"In my defence, I didn't know who she was before I..." you started, groaning. The night before had been interesting to say the least. At least Jim and Pam seemed cool with it, you had never really discussed it before that point.

"What was that Y/N? Three times?" Pam giggled uncontrollably, and you looked straight at the camera.

"Please understand, despite the fact that I may be the only one in this office who got laid last night, I may never live this down... And can I just say, for the record, Brenda is very good looking."

"You slept with someone from corporate, Y/L/N." Jim teased, and Pam reached over prodding at your leg.

"What? Oh, how are we all feeling about the booze cruise?" You repeated the question asked, playfully swatting away the hands of your friends. "It's going to be an absolute disaster, and I ready for something, anything, to become a more pressing issue than my sex life."

—

Marching onto that boat on Friday night with the rest of your office would ultimately lead to one of the worst nights of your life, although you didn't know it yet. You went in with good intentions, and a warm jacket over the nice blouse you had chosen to match your jeans. Low heels, hair down, you looked nice, and it seemed like a few people noticed.

Well, Brenda noticed.

"You look good, Y/N." She said quietly, falling into step with you behind Roy and Pam... And Jim and Katy. Despite Jim's confession about Pam at Christmas, he still brought along his casual girlfriend, though you decided not to question his choices too much.

"Can we... Can we not do this here?" You asked quietly, and her face fell. "No, I mean..." you sighed, and led her quickly away from the rest of the team. "I've enjoyed last few nights, but I... It's not something I talk about at the office, and I mean... It was a hookup." You tried to explain, and Brenda just shook her head.

"No, I get it, I guess. Not exactly the thing you chat about with your colleagues, is it? Does anyone..."

"Jim figured it out, then Pam. They don't spread rumours though..." You assured, and she raised an eyebrow, gesturing to the camera.

"Do they?" She asked, and you looked towards the camera.

"Could you guys cut?" You asked politely, gesturing the sign as you spoke, and the crew disappeared inside to film Michael and the rest of the office, catching a final shot of you and Brenda in what looked like a much more heated discussion.

The inside of the ship was much rowdier, with drinking and party games having begun, with the aid of Captain Jack. Michael looked bummed out by the bar, nursing a glass of something unknown, Meredith was doing the limbo, and Jim sat with Pam, Roy and Katy at a table.

"You guys, it's like we're in high school and we're at the cool table." Katy said with a grin, and Roy laughed. Pam and Jim shared a glance, but said nothing. "Right?" She smiled, and Roy laughed out a soft 'yeah'. "Pam, were you a cheerleader?" Katy asked, and before she could answer, Roy stepped in.

"No, she was total little Miss Artsy Fartsy in high school. She wore the turtleneck and everything." Roy said through chuckles.

"That's hilarious!" Katy smiled, and Jim sat forward.

"It's not hilarious but-" Jim mumbled, making Pam smile a little before Roy took over the conversation.

"Where'd you go to school?" Roy asked Katy.

"Fisher Bohara."

"Piss la who cares-a? We played you." Roy looked over, shocked, and leaned forward a little. "You-you really look familiar... You cheered for them, didn't you?"

"Mm, no." Jim said, glancing over at Katy.

"Yes, I did!" She laughed, and clapped her hands together. "A-W-E. S-O-M-E. Awesome, awesome is what we are, we're the football superstars. A-W-E-" Jim glanced over at Pam, who shook her head along with Katy's chant, and just her smile blocked out the conversation their significant others were having.

Within twenty minutes, Katy and Daryl were cheering on Roy as he took a snorkel shot. Pam walked over from socialising with Phyllis and Stanley, beer in hand, and Roy turned round to her with a drunken smile.

"Come on Pammy! Come on!" He urged, offering her the snorkel, and she shook her head with a smile.

"No, I am not doing that." She said, Daryl quieting her with cheers as the tequila arrived. She leaned down to chat with her fiancé, who sat at the booth, looking flustered, and starting to cheer on Daryl. "Why don't we find a quieter place to hang out?" Pam suggested, and Roy looked over.

"You know what, I've just got to wait for Daryl to do his shot. Just a minute. Come on Daryl! Daryl!" Roy promised, but Pam sighed, and she scanned the room, making eye contact with Jim and he nodded, the pair grabbing their coats and heading upstairs to the top deck.

"It's getting kind of rowdy down there." Pam said as they got up onto the roof, pulling her jacket sleeves over her hands, the sharp January air sending a shiver down her spine.

"Yeah... Daryl, Daryl, Daryl." Jim chanted, the pair sharing a quiet laugh.

"Sometimes I just don't get Roy." Pam admitted, her back against the railing, arms folded over her chest. Jim gave her a look that just said 'well', and she shrugged. "I mean, I don't know..." They shared a smile, both understanding what was being said without needing it explained aloud. Pam bit her lip. "So, what's it like dating a cheerleader?" She asked, a playful tease.

"Oh, um." Jim said, and he stopped, not quite knowing what to follow that up with. His smile faded, and so did Pam's.

"I'm cold." Pam said after a few moments of silence, and Jim stayed still, exhaling through his nose and closing his eyes. He had blown it, he could have said something and he just... Didn't. Pam walked back inside, and Jim decided to wait a while more.

"I don't know what is so hard to understand here B! We had fun, but it was just fun." The voice caught Jim's attention, and he looked over the railing to see Y/N and Brenda below. He knew not to listen in, but as the camera crew came over and began filming, Jim continued to eavesdrop.

"You said you wanted more last night!" Brenda snapped back, pacing. Y/N let out a visible sigh.

"And I didn't mean it. Look Brenda, I just got out of a long term thing, I told you at the bar it didn't end great. I'm not ready for a new relationship." Y/N tried to defend herself. Brenda stumbled a little, and lifted a drink to her lips. It seemed the rather quiet corporate employee was a loud drunk.

"So you're not going to date me because some asshole slapped you once?" Brenda spat, and Y/N shook her head.

"I'm going to get you some water. You're clearly drunk and emotional and I am not going to talk about my abusive ex with someone too intoxicated to stand." Y/N said slowly, walking out of frame. The camera panned back to Jim, who took a moment.

"We should go find her..." Jim said quickly, rushing down the stairs to find you ordering a glass of water and three shots from the bar. "You alright? Water and vodka don't usually mix." Jim said with a nervous laugh, and you glanced over.

"Tonight has not been good Jim. No fun at all. I missed party games and time with you guys because of..." You took a shot. "I slept with them... three nights in a row. Now they think we're a couple and..." you sighed, making sure to not reveal Brenda's 'agenda' while surrounded by drunk men at the bar.

"I would tell you anything more than a one-night stand is a bad idea but you seem to know that already." Jim took one of the shots, tipping his head back and scrunching his face as he swallowed. "It all just sucks..."

"Yeah it does..." you responded, and the pair of you couldn't help but laugh a little.

"... boat is an analogy for the workplace. Like, if it was all sinking down, who would you save?" Michael a voice rose over others at the bar, where he stood with Roy and Captain Jack, the latter shaking his head as he turned to look at you and Jim.

"Ok, suppose your office building's on fire. Jim! Who would you save?" He asked, and you watch Jim's eyes immediately look over at Pam, still sat at his booth with Katy.

"Uh- the customer... Customer is King." Jim said with a smile, taking the third shot and downing it.

"Not what I was looking for, but a good thought." Michael said, drink in hand.

"He's just sucking up." Captain Jack responded, shaking his head. Roy threw an arm over his shoulder, slurring his words as he spoke.

"When you were in the Navy, did you ever almost die?" Roy asked, hiccuping afterwards, and the Captain nodded.

"Oh yeah, yeah." Jack said, and Jim gave you a nod before walking away. "And I wasn't thinking of no customer, I was thinking of my first wife, yeah. The day I got back on shore I married her." Roy nodded, and pushed off Jack, stumbling the way Jim went. You followed, pushing past Roy and stopping as you saw Jim turn to the camera.

"You know what? I would save the receptionist... I just, wanted to clear that up." He said, and with a nod to you, he headed over to talk to Pam.

"Hey everyobdy, um, could I have your attention for just a second? Would you listen to me for a second?" Roy was stood on stage, holding onto the microphone he spoke into for balance. "Um, we were up at the front, and we were talking about what's really important and, um... Pam, uh... I think enough is enough." He gulped, and your eyes went straight to Jim. "I think we should set a date for our wedding. How's June 10th?" Roy announced it, and Pam's face lit up at the exact moment Jim's fell.

Jim walked up onto the brig, finding Michael cuffed to the railing by zipties. In an attempt to give a motivational speech to the team, he had panicked the rest of the passengers, claiming the 'ship was sinking', and now, he stood in the cold. Jim sauntered over, resting on the railing and looking out, slipping on his gloves.

"What happened to you?" He asked, fixing his scarf next.

"Captain Jack has a problem with authority." Michael scoffed.

"Oh right, 'cause you announced that his ship was sinking?"

"Yeah! He just totally lost it. If you ask me, he caused the panic." Michael defended himself, and the pair just sighed, looking out over the black water.

"What a night." Jim said eventually.

"Well it was nice for you, your friend got engaged."

"She was always engaged."

"Roy said the first one didn't count." Michael said quickly, and Jim nodded his head.

"That's... Great." he said softly, his vision focused on a point in the dakrness. "To tell you the truth, I... Used to have a big thing for Pam." Jim admitted. Whether it was the drink, or the fact that when Michael wasn't acting like an asshole, he was actually cool, Jim didn't know. "So.."

"Really, you're kidding me." Michael looked mildly surprised. "Y-you and Pam? Wow... I would have never put you two together, you really hid it well. God!"

"What do you mean?" Jim asked, and Michael shook his head.

"Always thought you were more interested in Y/N... I usually have a radar for stuff like that." Michael shook his head, processing the information. "You know I made out with Jan-"

"Yeah, I know. I know..."

"Yep... Well, Pam is cute." Michael stated, and Jim felt a sad smile take hold of his expression.

"Yeah... She's really funny and- and she's warm and she's just... Anyway." Jim shook it off.

"Well, if you like her so much, uh, don't give up." Jim looked over at Michael in surprise.

"She's engaged." Jim reminded.

"Pfft... BFD! Engaged ain't married." Michael said with a raise of the eyebrows, and Jim exhaled with a smirk.

"Huh."

"Never, ever, ever give up." Michael's words stuck with Jim, and put a smile on his face. The camera panned, and watching from the shadows was Y/N.

You held a drink in your hands, regarding the interaction with a little smile. It wasn't often you saw Michael so himself, but you missed it. His bravado gone and his heart in the right place, Michael was a good person.

And as the ship docked that night, you got into a taxi and headed home, with no intention of hooking up with Brenda, and a little more hope in your soul.

Tags: @imsuperawkward

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officialyourdailyinspiration · 3 years

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The Amazing Story of 'O Holy Night'

Declared 'unfit for church services' in France and later embraced by U.S. abolitionists, the song continues to inspire.

The strange and fascinating story of "O Holy Night" began in France, yet eventually made its way around the world. This seemingly simple song, inspired by a request from a clergyman, would not only become one of the most beloved anthems of all time, it would mark a technological revolution that would forever change the way people were introduced to music.

In 1847, Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure was the commissionaire of wines in a small French town. Known more for his poetry than his church attendance, it probably shocked Placide when his parish priest asked the commissionaire to pen a poem for Christmas mass. Nevertheless, the poet was honored to share his talents with the church.

In a dusty coach traveling down a bumpy road to France's capital city, Placide Cappeau considered the priest's request. Using the gospel of Luke as his guide, Cappeau imagined witnessing the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Thoughts of being present on the blessed night inspired him. By the time he arrived in Paris, "Cantique de Noel" had been completed. Moved by his own work, Cappeau decided that his "Cantique de Noel" was not just a poem, but a song in need of a master musician's hand. Not musically inclined himself, the poet turned to one of his friends, Adolphe Charles Adams, for help.

The son of a well-known classical musician, Adolphe had studied in the Paris conservatoire. His talent and fame brought requests to write works for orchestras and ballets all over the world. Yet the lyrics that his friend Cappeau gave him must have challenged the composer in a fashion unlike anything he received from London, Berlin, or St. Petersburg.

As a man of Jewish ancestry, for Adolphe the words of "Cantique de Noel" represented a day he didn't celebrate and a man he did not view as the son of God. Nevertheless, Adams quickly went to work, attempting to marry an original score to Cappeau's beautiful words. Adams' finished work pleased both poet and priest. The song was performed just three weeks later at a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Initially, "Cantique de Noel" was wholeheartedly accepted by the church in France and the song quickly found its way into various Catholic Christmas services. But when Placide Cappeau walked away from the church and became a part of the socialist movement, and church leaders discovered that Adolphe Adams was a Jew, the song--which had quickly grown to be one of the most beloved Christmas songs in France--was suddenly and uniformly denounced by the church. The heads of the French Catholic church of the time deemed "Cantique de Noel" as unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste and "total absence of the spirit of religion." Yet even as the church tried to bury the Christmas song, the French people continued to sing it, and a decade later a reclusive American writer brought it to a whole new audience halfway around the world.

Not only did this American writer--John Sullivan Dwight--feel that this wonderful Christmas songs needed to be introduced to America, he saw something else in the song that moved him beyond the story of the birth of Christ. An ardent abolitionist, Dwight strongly identified with the lines of the third verse: "Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother; and in his name all oppression shall cease." The text supported Dwight's own view of slavery in the South. Published in his magazine, Dwight's English translation of "O Holy Night" quickly found found favor in America, especially in the North during the Civil War.

Back in France, even though the song had been banned from the church for almost two decades, many commoners still sang "Cantique de Noel" at home. Legend has it that on Christmas Eve 1871, in the midst of fierce fighting between the armies of Germany and France, during the Franco-Prussian War, a French soldier suddenly jumped out of his muddy trench. Both sides stared at the seemingly crazed man. Boldly standing with no weapon in his hand or at his side, he lifted his eyes to the heavens and sang, "Minuit, Chretiens, c'est l'heure solennelle ou L'Homme Dieu descendit jusqu'a nous," the beginning of "Cantique de Noel."

After completing all three verses, a German infantryman climbed out his hiding place and answered with, "Vom Himmel noch, da komm' ich her. Ich bring' euch gute neue Mar, Der guten Mar bring' ich so viel, Davon ich sing'n und sagen will," the beginning of Martin Luther's robust "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come."

The story goes that the fighting stopped for the next twenty-four hours while the men on both sides observed a temporary peace in honor of Christmas day. Perhaps this story had a part in the French church once again embracing "Cantique de Noel" in holiday services.

Adams had been dead for many years and Cappeau and Dwight were old men when on Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden--a 33-year-old university professor and former chief chemist for Thomas Edison--did something long thought impossible. Using a new type of generator, Fessenden spoke into a microphone and, for the first time in history, a man's voice was broadcast over the airwaves: "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed," he began in a clear, strong voice, hoping he was reaching across the distances he supposed he would.

Shocked radio operators on ships and astonished wireless owners at newspapers sat slack-jawed as their normal, coded impulses, heard over tiny speakers, were interrupted by a professor reading from the gospel of Luke. To the few who caught this broadcast, it must have seemed like a miracle--hearing a voice somehow transmitted to those far away. Some might have believed they were hearing the voice of an angel. Fessenden was probably unaware of the sensation he was causing on ships and in offices; he couldn't have known that men and women were rushing to their wireless units to catch this Christmas Eve miracle.

After finishing his recitation of the birth of Christ, Fessenden picked up his violin and played "O Holy Night," the first song ever sent through the air via radio waves. When the carol ended, so did the broadcast--but not before music had found a new medium that would take it around the world.

Since that first rendition at a small Christmas mass in 1847, "O Holy Night" has been sung millions of times in churches in every corner of the world. And since the moment a handful of people first heard it played over the radio, the carol has gone on to become one of the entertainment industry's most recorded and played spiritual songs. This incredible work--requested by a forgotten parish priest, written by a poet who would later split from the church, given soaring music by a Jewish composer, and brought to Americans to serve as much as a tool to spotlight the sinful nature of slavery as tell the story of the birth of a Savior--has become one of the most beautiful, inspired pieces of music ever created.

From "Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas" which may be purchased here: https://www.zondervan.com/9780310873877/stories-behind-the-best-loved-songs-of-christmas/

#Christmas Hymn #O Holy Night #The Amazing Story of 'O Holy Night'

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Mass Effect: Best Star Trek References and Easter Eggs

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Look, it’s not exactly a secret that Mass Effect has a little Star Trek in its DNA. It’s a franchise all about assembling a crew comprised of humans and aliens as you explore the furthest reaches of space and try your best to romance a few of those humans and aliens. It’s safe to say someone on the Mass Effect development teams watched an episode or two of Star Trek.

So while Mass Effect is, in some ways, a giant tribute to Star Trek and several other notable sci-fi works, there are a few ways that the Mass Effect games reference Star Trek that you may not have spotted unless you’re a hardcore Star Trek fan who also explored the furthest reaches of Mass Effect‘s galaxy.

From suspicious lines of dialog to familiar voices, these are some of the best Star Trek references and Easter eggs you’ll find in the Mass Effect trilogy.

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The Borg and The Geth

As a race of networked AI who utilize a “hivemind” system and have to deal with the occasional dissenter, there are clearly similarities between Mass Effect‘s Geth and Star Trek‘s Borg that can’t be ignored.

Having said that, some fans have pointed out that the designs and philosophies of the Geth could also be a nod to Battlestar Galactica‘s Cylons. It should also be noted that Mass Effect‘s Reapers are often treated as a mysterious galactic threat similar to how the Borg were described in early TNG episodes.

The Thorian and Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan’s Ceti Eels

In Mass Effect, you’ll encounter a sentient plant known as a Thorian. If this almost slug-like creature with the ability to use painful spores to control people’s minds seems oddly familiar, that’s likely because it’s almost certainly a reference to the Ceti Eels that Khan used to control people in one of Star Trek 2‘s most memorable scenes.

In fact, there’s a memorable moment in Mass Effect when Fai Dan shoots himself after ignoring a Thorian order to kill Shepard. It’s an almost exact recreation of a Wrath of Khan scene in which Captain Terrel uses a phaser on himself after disobeying Khan and the influence of the Ceti Eels.

Cerebus and Section 31

In Star Trek: Deep Space 9, we learn there’s a special section of Starfleet known simply as Section 31. They’re kind of a “wetworks” organization that has operated with and without Star Fleet’s support over the years. Through it all, they claim to promote “security” through whatever means necessary.

The Cerebus group in Mass Effect serve a similar purpose, with the biggest difference being that Cerebus has long been a kind of “splinter” group that operates independently to protect human interest (allegedly) on a galactic scale whereas Section 31 did seemingly operate with Starfleet’s support (at least for a time).

The Normandy’s Poker Table

While it’s a bit of a shame you don’t really get to do much with the poker table on the Normandy, the fact there’s a poker table so prominently featured on a spaceship has to be a callback to the poker table frequently used by the Enterprise crew in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Actually, TNG‘s poker table was such an important part of the ship (at least to key members of the crew) that it was even the centerpiece of the final scene in TNG‘s last episode, “All Good Things…”

Kenneth Donnelly is (Accidentally?) a Scotty Tribute

As a spaceship engineer with a heavy Scottish accent, it’s easy to assume that Mass Effect‘s Kenneth Donnelly was designed to be an obvious homage to Star Trek‘s Montgomery “Scotty” Scott.

However, Mass Effect level designer Dusty Everman has previously stated that the similarities between those two weren’t planned from the start and really only came to life as the result of voice actor John Ullyatt’s performance choices and a bit of coincidence. Actually, Everman (or someone convincingly posing as him once upon a time) stated that Donnelly’s accent was based on his wife’s love of Ewan McGregor and that the original plan was for female Shepard players to be able to romance him.

“Yes! Exhilarating, Isn’t It?”

One of Mass Effect‘s better Star Trek references happens when Shepard warns a Krogan that the area around them is collapsing and the Krogan replies “Exhilarating, isn’t it?”

The same line is spoken by Christopher Lloyd in Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock under spiritually similar circumstances. Lloyd even portrays a Klingon in the film, and the Krogan have been called a Klingon-like race.

Various Star Trek Actors Voice Characters in the Mass Effect Franchise

If you’ve ever wondered just how much Star Trek influenced Mass Effect, look no further than Mass Effect‘s voice actor cast list.

Marina Sirtis, Armin Shimerman, Keith Szarabajka, Dwight Schultz…the Mass Effect cast is packed with actors arguably best known for their roles in various Star Trek series and films. Michael Dorn (who famously portrayed Worf in Star Trek: TNG) even voices a Krogan in Mass Effect 2.

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“This is… it’s green?”

While visiting the Dark Star lounge, Mass Effect‘s Commander Shepard receives an alien drink and remarks “This is… it’s green?” The line is a clear callback to a Star Trek: TOS episode called “By Any Other Name” in which Scotty picks up a strange bottle and makes the same comment.

In fact, Data says a similar line in the TNG episode “Relics” while pouring a mysterious green drink for…Scotty.

Mordin Solus and Data Have Similar Taste in Music

Mordin Solus’ love of music isn’t just one of the best Mass Effect companion’s most loveable attributes, it’s an apparent nod to Data: the also hyper-intelligent, also slightly detached Star Trek: TNG character who also loves to sing.

Actually, Solus and Data seem to share an appreciation for Gilbert and Sullivan as the two sing the duo’s greatest hits in their respective series.

“Goodbye Little Wing” and Deanna Troi

Matriarch Benezia isn’t just one of the more memorable side characters in the original Mass Effect; she’s another one of those characters in the Mass Effect franchise you may have not realized was voiced by a Star Trek alumni. Yes, Benezia is played by none other than Deanna Troi actress Marina Sirtis.

Best of all, there’s a moment in the first Mass Effect when Benezia says “Goodbye little wing, I have always been proud of you” shortly before dying. It’s an odd phrase that might make a little more sense when you realize that Troi’s mother was always calling her “little one” in TNG.

“When Your World Seems Hollow, We Help You Touch the Sky”

This one has to be in the running for the honor of “most obscure” Star Trek reference in any Mass Effect game.

In Mass Effect‘s Bring Down The Sky DLC, there is a radio shack located between two fusion torches. Go inside it, and you’ll find a log filled with unused radio promo spots. The script for one of those spots reads “If you are feeling hollow, we can help you touch the sky.” What is that supposed to mean?

Well, it seems to be a nod to a Star Trek: TOS Season 3 episode called “For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky.” In that episode, an old man living atop a mountain tells the Enterprise crew “the world is hollow and I have touched the sky.”

The Systems Alliance Logo Looks Very Familiar…

Mass Effect‘s Systems Alliance is an Earth coalition responsible for representing the interests of humans in Citadel space. There are obviously many organizations in several notable sci-fi works with similar responsibilities, but there’s little doubt that the Systems Alliance is intended to refer to Star Trek‘s Starfleet.

In fact, the Systems Alliance logo bears a strong resemblance to the Starfleet logo from later Star Trek series and films. It’s not exactly a 1:1 copy, but it’s impossible not to spot the similarities once you start looking for them.

“Karora is Essentially a Great Rock in Space”

You’ll find another surprisingly subtle Star Trek reference in Mass Effect 2 when you request more information on a planet named Karora. The Normandy’s computer will inform you that “Karora is essentially a great rock in space, tidally locked to Amada.”

As it just so happens, Spock describes the Regula planet that the Enterprise crew encounters in Star Trek 2 as “essentially a great rock in space.” Maybe the wording is common enough to be a coincidence, but given all the other clear Star Trek references in Mass Effect, it feels like an intentional tribute.

The post Mass Effect: Best Star Trek References and Easter Eggs appeared first on Den of Geek.

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snowbellewells · 3 years

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Ship Game

I was tagged by both @thisonesatellite and @spartanguard in this game, and I’m very glad they did! (Sorry it took a while to get my response posted.)

Movie/TV ship questions, no repeats, answer with a gif.

1. First ship

(This was well before I understood what “shipping” actually was, but I was all about Dr. Mike and Sully getting together at last!)

2. First OTP

(Though I may not have realized it at the time, back in my Dawson’s Creek days, I can only imagine that my preference for enemies-to-friends-to-lovers came from Pacey’s and Joey’s fighting laced with chemistry that eventually became one of my favorite tv relationships ever.)

3. Current fave ship

Could I have really put anything else?

4. Your ship since the first minute

Lucy Preston and Wyatt Logan (from the very first “Ma’am” and that sly nod) Pretty much I shipped this whole show and almost every character from the first moment - I’m still bitter that’s “shipped” in the past tense!

5. You wish they had been endgame

They were such a well-matched pair, and such a lovely little family unit with his little girl Jenny. One Tree Hill had a lot of couples they enjoyed, but I was always bummed these two didn’t remain a couple.

6. You wish they had been canon

I’ve never given it up, they were the first ship that inspired fanfiction I actually posted for others to read, and even when I no longer watched the show I still wished they would end up together someday. I blindly ignore all who argue this fact. I shipped Morgan and Garcia very deeply and personally, no matter how many people told me they were just friends and there was nothing romantic between them.

7. Most of the fandom hates, but you love

I could not get it to show me a Hooking Utensil (Rogers and Sabine) gif - I don’t know what I was doing wrong. I also don’t know how truly “hated” they are, but as long as I remembered that Wish!Hook/Rogers was not “our” Hook, I found them a completely adorable possible couple.

8. You don’t even watch the show but you ship them anyways

I loved Poldark at first, but it got SO sad and depressing that I may never finish it... All the same Dwight and Caroline became my favorite thing about it. I just loved their two characters, how their differences complemented each other, and the couple they became together.

9. You wish they had a different storyline

I may have come to ship Captain Swan with all my heart, but I will never not be shattered by Graham’s death and wonder what might have been...

10. Fave ship that are endgame

I can’t imagine anyone who has watched BBC’s Musketeers would find Constance and D’Artagnan to be anything but couple goals. <3

Tagging: @whimsicallyenchantedrose @donteattheappleshook @laschatzi @stahlop @elizabeethan @itsfabianadocarmo @xhookswenchx @kmomof4

#tag game fun #shipping tag game

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alexsmitposts · 3 years

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The Nasty Truth About America’s Love Affair with Narcissism and Self Pity

Column: Society Region: USA in the World

📷There is a saying, “the crazy people have taken over the asylum.” They did that in the United States in 2016, a nation ruled by grifters, petty criminals and the delusional.The sane and decent became the “silent majority” as the not just America but the world learned that the darkness of the American soul depicted so often by Hollywood is not fiction at all and that a reality TV actor had tapped into a cesspit of sewage that has seeped into every American community.Then came 2020.By sheer luck along and, yes, the votes of 81 million Americans lucky enough to survive voter suppression and intimidation financed by a worldwide organized crime cartel, the insane are now out of power.The new “captain’’ of America’s “ship of state” may well, however, have something on his hands worse than the Titanic. The Titanic had the courtesy to actually sink while America, under this analogy, drifts lifelessly along.Extremism is big money in America, climate denialism, race hatred, social discord and civil war, hate is both a product and an addiction.It is also one of America’s biggest businesses. There would be no social media, no Google, no news organizations, no underbelly of device driven ecstasy, without fear and hate being marketed like cigarettes and CBD gummies.Roots of America’s Politics of Fear and Hate 2.0American extremism is not the result of poverty or oppression. It originates among the privileged, the “haves” who adhere to insane beliefs driven by boredom and generalized dissatisfaction at lives the rest of the word would envy, overpaid jobs, gas guzzling cars and trucks and fast food laden with fats and poisonous additives.If you asked many millions of Americans to define “reality,” their brains would grind to a halt. Reality is based, not on experience or observation but on “beliefs” and strongly held “opinions” which are invariably those scripted for them.Beliefs and opinions untested by the feedback loop of life has created a generation of Americans who are, essentially, living in a video game. This makes Qanon a AI program.Collective delusion has become the norm for many, and by “many” we mean up to 150 million lost souls, caught in an RPG game or, for some, a “first person shooter.”What does it make those who play? But then we have seen all this before, just without a population softened up to this degree by chaos theory conditioning. Some background:The Roots of Fascist AmericaIn 1940, Adolf Hitler was Time Magazine’s man of the year. The parents and grandparents of Trump’s supporters, following Huey Long, Gerald L.K. Smith, Father Coughlin and Charles Lindbergh sought to establish a “whites only” America based on the German model with carefully selected military leaders run by Wall Street pulling the strings.There is something magical, even today, about being “white folks.” That magic originated in the 18th and 19th centuries with the “Sturm and Drang” movement. Extremes of emotion and subjectivity were exalted above rationalism.Childish temper tantrums became a philosophy and eventually a political movement.The movement, which failed in Europe, found fertile ground in the United States in a society that increasingly defined itself though ritualized slavery and degradation and oppression of “coloured races.”This was a society built on the genocide that wiped out millions of indigenous peoples with the survivors now living on “reservations.”Imagine land where nothing grows, and no one could live. This is an “Indian reservation.” From time-to-time oil is found or minerals or there is a need to build a pipeline. Then even the worst land on earth is taken away.This was done in South Africa. It was done in Rhodesia. It used to be called “colonialism.”By the 20th century there were no indigenous people left to imprison. America then turned to warring against the freed slaves and millions of “undesirable” European immigrants, Catholics and Jews in particular.Curiously, this war was centered on banking issues, blocking trade unions, sustaining child labor and controlling farm prices. This created the alignments that

exist today, the strong tie between Wall Street and homegrown extremism built of bigotry and race hatred.You see, too many of the undesirables that fled autocratic Europe found that the long hand of international banking that maintained serfdom for millions, even in supposedly advanced Western Europe, had institutionalized the same in the United States under the guise of representative democracy.Leading the way was the resurgent Ku Klux Klan.By the 1920s national membership was estimated at over 8 million. Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and a dozen other northern and western states were governed by Klan controlled politicians who used the state militias and National Guard as a private army and local police as armed enforcers.Behind it all, the banks that brought Hitler to power and the American corporations that made millions financing Nazi Germany’s war machine, General Motors, Dupont-Remington, Lockheed, Alcoa and General Motors.Even Hitler Would Cringe…The new American revolution, driven by Donald Trump and his televangelist backers, is the result of as social anthropologists note, generations being allowed to live the life of spoiled children, steeped in narcissism and self-pity.The events of January 6, 2020 and how it tied to many American religious leaders has emptied churches across the US, with millions finding themselves humiliated with having followed “false prophets” in support of hatred and tyranny. From Salon:“…these religious figures (Trump’s powerful televangelist backers) and the institutions they led (have become) hyper-political, the outward mission (has)seemed to be almost exclusively in service of oppressing others. The religious right is not nearly as interested in feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless as much as using religion as an all-purpose excuse to abuse women and LGBTQ people. In an age of growing wealth inequalities, with more and more Americans living hand-to-mouth, many visible religious authorities were using their power to support politicians and laws to take health care access from women and fight against marriage between same-sex couples. And then Donald Trump happened.Trump was a thrice-married chronic adulterer who routinely exposed how ignorant he was of religion, and who reportedly — and let’s face it, obviously — made fun of religious leaders behind their backs. But religious right leaders did not care. They continually pumped Trump up like he was the second coming, showily praying over him and extorting their followers to have faith in a man who literally could not have better conformed to the prophecies of the Antichrist. It was comically over the top, how extensively Christian right leaders exposed themselves as motivated by power, not faith.”Jerry Falwell Jr., who introduced Donald Trump to America’s evangelical Christians, is himself an enigmatic figure.Falwell is typical of America’s religious leaders and stories such as this, from Fox News, are daily fodder for Americans:“Jerry Falwell Jr. allegedly played games with his wife Becki where they’d rank Liberty University students, they most wanted to have sex with, according to one pupil who claimed to have been intimate with Becki.The ex-student — who claims Becki initiated oral sex with him 10 years ago — told Politico that she bragged about playing the sex-ranking game while walking around the Virginia campus with her evangelical-leader husband.‘Her and Jerry would eye people down on campus,’ the former student of the conservative school told the outlet.Social Engineering Through PandemicAnyone who really lives in America will make this perfectly clear, this country has turned into a lunatic asylum. Our previous president told us COVID was a hoax, allowed over 40,000 from China enter the US while the threat of COVID was well known and turned his back while, today’s figure, 570,264 Americans died. Experts now cite that Trump was personally responsible for over 400,000 of those deaths. He is quite simply a mass murderer.Do remember that only 900 died in Australia. Canada lost 23,000. 35 died in Vietnam. 440 died in

Cuba.One might wonder how a Hitleresque figure such as Donald Trump could have millions of followers while the legal mechanisms in the US are amassing evidence for both criminal and civil prosecutions which quite probably will never come to bear.Groundhog Day, an Unending NightmareLet me tell you how I began my morning. As a journalist and intelligence briefer, I review incoming material, both open source and private intel. The big story overnight involves a revelation on a religious talk show involving theories on COVID 19 and vaccines.The show is by Jim Bakker, an important religious leader and political advisor. In 1989, Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison for mail and wire fraud but served on 5 of those years. He has stolen tens of million of dollars from his congregation to support a wild and lavish lifestyle of utter debauchery.In this area, he is typical of America’s evangelical Christian leaders.The guest on Bakker’s show was Steve Quayle. I know Quayle as an advisor to President George ‘W’ Bush on Middle East affairs. I know of no qualifications for this post.I do know of Quayle. After 9/11 he approached my staff in Amman, Jordan offering them generous payments to “launder” otherwise sourceless intelligence on Iraq into the Bush White House to justify an American invasion of that nation.Two million people died, maybe many more, due to fake US intelligence on Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found.Groundhog Day TwoLet us take the clock back a few years. I remember traveling to Kentucky, then and still a very backward area of the country, in 1956 to visit relatives. This was a presidential election year, and my father was working for Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic candidate that was opposing Dwight Eisenhower.Even I, at a fairly young age, was flabbergasted at the dinner table discussion that day as my “hillbilly” relatives expounded on their political opinions and version of historical fact. This is how they laid it out:We should support “Ike” because he killed Hitler personally after storming Berlin. They described a sword fight. What they described reminded me of the death of the Sheriff of Nottingham played by Basil Rathbone in the 1938 film Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn. They then went out to describe how the US beat both Russia and Germany who were at war with the US. It seems Russia did not fight Hitler at all but was actually Germany’s ally. My father, a reasonably educated person and longtime friend of Russia, found this somewhat disturbing. Next, we heard about how “godless communists” were going to take away our freedoms and destroy our standard of living. I might remind you that my relatives in Hazard, Kentucky had no electricity or plumbing. One of my cousins lived in an abandoned car parked in a slag field.During that trip, we visited my grandfather, a retired coal miner. He lived in a shack covered with tar paper along a railroad track. I loved my grandfather.Life Lessons Do not Come Over the InternetOver the next 60 plus years, I had shared tea with farmers in Vietnam, military veterans living in a small shack in the Khyber Pass and everything from heads of state to struggling farmers all over Africa and the Middle East. None would have guessed that there are Americans that live in not just utter poverty but steeped not only in delusional ignorance but far worse than that.A current obsession with American “conservatives” is the fear of being overrun with transexuals, who, according to many, represent a threat to our freedoms. I have never met a transsexual. From what I understand, up to 10,000 currently serve in America’s armed forces.Back during the 1960s when I served with a Marine combat unit in Vietnam, we probably had no transexuals, only gay or “homosexual” Marines and Navy. Absolutely nothing was thought of it as these individuals invariably served with honor and courage.They existed in significant numbers.Today aging “conservatives” who avoided military service in Vietnam continually harp about saving the rest of us from “homosexuals in the military.”Voting and

“Jim Crow”Let us take another look at efforts by the Hitleresque racists and bigots to save the rest of us from ourselves, against our will of course. In Georgia, the legislature recently passed a law that makes it a felony to offer water to someone waiting in line to vote.Water is an issue because, in Georgia and many GOP (Trump’s party) run states, polling places in areas where people of color vote have been closed causing day long lines. In 2020, volunteers offered food and water to those who would otherwise have either collapsed or left without voting. Now offering food and water can lead to being executed by racist police, quite literally, or spending 5 years in prison.In 2020, voters in many key urban areas were threatened by armed neo-Nazi militias or openly threated in emails from Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, organizations deemed terrorist in Canada and now citied by the US Department of Justice as trying to overthrow the US government.In January, during a US Senate runoff election in Georgia, 364,000 voters were challenged by the GOP in Georgia as “illegal.” All of them were African American. All 364,000 were qualified to vote and their votes were eventually counted, giving Georgia two Democratic US Senators.The Federal Elections Commission is now investigating that this effort to rig the Georgia senate elections was secretly financed by illegal contributions from members of organized crime.Groundhog Day ThreeI live in a rural and primarily Republican area. I parked my car less than 30 feet from the door of a polling place, a local church, and voted in less than 3 minutes with no lines or ID check.In order to limit mail voting, Trump ordered mail sorting machines destroyed with sledgehammers and over 40,000 mailboxes picked up and junked as scrap metal. Mail service in many cities simply ended. One letter I sent to Washington DC from Michigan took 45 days to arrive.Hundreds of millions of pieces of mail, starting in late September 2020 simply disappeared, not just votes but government checks, Christmas presents and medications from pharmacies sent to Veterans.All of this was not just publicly known, things are far worse than that. Those who so many decades ago believed the United States fought Russia in World War Two, would raise children and grandchildren with no respect for human rights, no understanding of democracy, no ethical norms nor any remote understanding of right or wrong.This is the reality for those living in America, a reality that those who watch America from afar through the distorted lens of Google Corporation and the press, can never fathom.Ah, but things are so much worse than that. It is not just having spent 4 years with a president who told us you could cure covid by drinking bleach or eating flashlights. It gets worse.Groundhog Day FourA few days ago, former Trump advisor Cirsten Welcon claimed that President Biden had been paid billions of dollars by China to let them test their newest “weather weapons” on Texas. Power outages there, now attributed to corrupt backroom deals by Republican politicians, led to many deaths and considerable suffering.Little did any of us know of the role of the magic Chinese weather machines.In another vignette, it has been a years since Trump advisor and televangelist Kenneth Copeland stood before a television audience raving like a lunatic. He then pursed his lips and blew at the television camera, the “wind of god” which he claimed destroyed COVID forever.This effort by Reverend Copeland, who has millions of followers and a vast financial empire, led President Trump to announce that COVID 19 was going to disappear.ConclusionSome would like to believe that the institutionalized insanity of America’s right is restricted to the “Untermensch” substrata of rural poor whites. However, for decades now, the most radicalized and extremist elements of America’s society, the most ignorant, the most warlike yet cowardly, have gained control of the US military through service academies which espouse their conspiracy theories.With the onset of Trump, they gained much

more than a foothold in American politics, they now control many states “lock, stock and barrel,” and are involved in not just voter suppression but a general quashing of human rights and free speech.The door to this turn of events began well into the 19th century. Laws, still on the books, are now being employed against Donald Trump, from CNN:The Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump that cites a little-known federal statute that was first passed after the Civil War.The complaint, filed Tuesday by Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, accuses Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers of violating the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act. The lawsuit accuses them of inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election.These same extremist elements and calling them “extremist” insults al Qaeda and ISIS (banned in Russia) who are moderate in their beliefs and practices in comparison. These statements might sound extreme in themselves were it not for so many Americans, religious and military leaders, members of government and business leaders calling for wholesale murder of their political opponents citing their personal communication with a non-corporeal authority they said is “god.”Americans hear this all day every day, the emails are unending, TV networks like Fox, OAN or Newsmax say little else, and that message is carried not just through media but lawn signs dotting the countryside.Hundreds of thousands of American homes are festooned with paraphernalia espousing murder of public officials and their families. Americans see it every day driving to work. What they ask themselves when they see things like this is how many others hold these beliefs but keep it to themselves?What if academics wrote papers on the issues, we discuss here? What if the BBC produced a documentary? Would things get better? The problem dates back not just generations but centuries.It is not a moral problem; it is not a political problem. It is one of degeneracy. At some point we may be required to reassess our definition of sentience.

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