#then i just love his love and loyalty for cesare (shocking i know)

[ducavalentinos]

Who was Gonzalvo de Cordova? Thank you.

Gonzalo de Córdoba was a Spanish general who served the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabelle I of Castille. He led sucessful military campaigns for them during the Conquest of Granada, and then during the Italian Wars, which earned him the nickname El Gran Capitán (the Great Captain.) He aided Pope Alexander VI in re-taking Ostia during the French invasion of 1495, against a man called Menaldo Guerra. In five days, Córdoba and his men were able to force to surrender Guerra and his men, taking them as prisoners. For that Alexander VI granted him the Golden Rose. In 1504, after the battle of Garigliano, where the French were defeated by the Spaniards, Córdoba was named Viceroy of Naples, governing it for four years with the full authority of a sovereign. And 1505, he conceded a safe-conduct to Cesare Borgia in Naples, later arresting and sending him to Spain. And here enters controversy. The action of Córdoba was seen as a diplomatic scandal by some contemporaries, since the document of a safe-conduct was regarded as having a significant worth in the world of politics of the time. To violated it was a gross offence and a dishonour to the man’s reputation. A debate started then, which continues to this day, with some trying to justify it, like Spaniard historian Zurita, or one of Córdoba’s own biographers, Manuel José Quintana. And others, like Paolo Giovio and Guicciardini, who absolutely had no sympathy for the Borgia family, much less Cesare himself, therefore had no reason to defend him, accusing Córdoba of bad faith. It is unclear if Córdoba had or not in his mind the intention of honouring the safe-conduct. Some scholars even question if a safe-conduct was indeed offered to Cesare, although today imo there’s more evidence pointing for that than against it. But it’s something we will likely never know for sure. The political conjuncture during this time was turbulent and intense. With different political aims, and lots of political maneuvers by all parties involved. Some modern scholars reasonably see in Córdoba’s safe-conduct a trap, meant to take Cesare to Naples, capture him and then send him over to Spain for the very beginning. Arguing he was seen as a serious menace to the ambitions of Córdoba in Naples, Pope Julius II concerning the Romagna, and the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. King Ferdinand in particular, had always saw the Borgias as a dangerous stronghold for his expansionists plans in Italy. Other scholars offer the possibility Córdoba either acted out on his own deliberate judgement in not honouring the safe-conduct after he allegedly found out Cesare was making plans to take back the Romagna, which needless to say would have incurred the rage of pope Julius II against him and his Sovereigns in Spain, or that he was pressured afterwards not to honour the safe-conduct by his Sovereigns and by the Pope, and to arrest and deliver Cesare to them instead. Whatever the case, this action truly seems to have bothered Córdoba until his final days. To the point that shortly after this happened, he apparently threatened one of Cesare’s men, Baldassare da Scipione, to give him the safe-conduct in question, which Scipione had in his possession, so that he could destroy it. And there’s another anecdote where Córdoba supposedly later admitted, with great regret, to have faltered with his word three times, and one of these times was with Cesare Borgia. As you can see anon, everything I know about him is connected to the Borgia family, more so with Cesare, so that I don’t know if that was what you wanted, but I hope it was somehow helpful. **This same Baldassare da Scipione, one of the men who remained loyal to Cesare until the end, was so outraged by this betrayal of Spain against his Duke, he actually put up a letter in public places, “for all of Christendom”, where he challenged to trial by combat any Spaniard who dared to deny: “Il duca Valentino non essere stato ritenuto in Napoli sopra un salvocondotto del re Ferdinando e della Regina Isabella, con grande infamia e molta mancanza delle fede delle loro Corone.” (“Duke Valentino had been detained a prisoner in Naples in spite of the safe-conduct granted him in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella, with great shame and infamy to their crown”.) No Spaniard seems to have taken up his challenge. Source: a letter by Luigi da Porto, March 16, 1510 in Lettere Storiche.

#anon ask #ask answered #i know the last part has zero to do with the question #but i couldn't help but to add it because in this blog we love baldassare da scipione even if we don't know much about him ok #first of all: his last name is cool and so close to scipio that it reminds me of ancient rome and THAT Scipio #then i just love his love and loyalty for cesare (shocking i know) #but most of all i love his drama #can you imagine him putting up this letter and basically calling to a fight whoever dared to deny the gross betrayal his lord suffered? #and then no spaniard daring to do so like lmaooo #i wonder if cesare heard of this and i would like to see his reaction to it too #<3

[writes-eat-sleep-repeat]

Life’s a Beach

Prompt: I Got out early Pairing: Spooky x Reader Requested: NO Warning/ notes: My first writing post. This has been in my head since season one. Had to let it out. Much more fluff than smut. You’ve been warned. Word Count: 1286 Summary: A simple explanation to what happened when Oscar got out and how he ended up at the beach.

It was 10:30 on a Monday morning; You were sitting around the kitchen table trying to study as your grandmother cackle annoyingly in the living room- just six feet away and far to close to allow you to concentrate- at the television from something stupid someone did on family feud. “ah ha ha ha” she continued. You poked your head into the other room and yelled over the show “HEYY GRAN CAN YOU”- DING DONG- The doorbell rang. You walked in and picked up the remote from where it lied next to her on the couch turning the volume down “-Keep it down please, please, please gran I’m trying to study”. You begged as you turned to go answer the door. You began to open the door at the same time your grandmother began to  yell causing you to turn around without even looking at who interrupted your morning “what you need to do is get you a nice young thing to help release all that stress you got backed up in you.” Your grandmother finished. “The only thing that is going to release my stress is understanding differential equations” you answered exhaustedly. You turned back to the doorway to see a body you hadn’t seen in a long time as your eyes slowly moved up the torso to the face you jumped back in shock slamming the door from the surprise. You’d know that face anywhere; Oscar Diaz; but he was known around freeridge to his gang and basically everyone else as one simple word ‘spooky’. Instantaneously you began to calculate the dates in your head. As far as you know he was doing an eight-year bid. So how is he standing in your doorway four years early. And why the hell is he here after refusing to answer any of your letters for an entire year. It’s not like you had dedicated your precious time to becoming the fulltime mother to ceaser while being in college and working fulltime after Oscar got snatched up by the cops for doing some dumb shit cuchillos had ordered. As the minutes passed your anxiety and curiosity got the best of you and you opened the door to find him still standing at the threshold. However, he now wore a look of annoyance in his face. His eyes lustfully raked you from bottom to top and back down in a way that made the biker shorts and sports bra you were wearing feel like thin lace. You crossed your hands over your chest instinctively. “how are you here? You asked. “I got out early” he responded. With a look of confusion to match. “Ok. Why are you here? probably would have been the better question.” You inquired raising one eyebrow quizzically. You noticed him being shifty and getting nervous before he realized his emotions was showing which he hated, he straightened up looking you dead in the eyes, face straight and replied, “I was looking for ceaser I heard he stays here sometimes”. “well you’re about an hour and a half too late. Its Monday morning and now 10:45 am.” You said looking as you looked down at your watch. “What do you think I don’t make him go to school? He’ll be back a little later and when I see him, I’ll let him know you’re looking from him” you said icily. As you tried to shut the door you felt a resistance knowing he stopped you. “yo, (Y/N) why you gotta talk to me like that. Aren’t you happy I’m out” He said? You could tell you bruised his ego. You and Oscar had been friends for your entire lives, literally, your moms where best friends who got pregnant around the same and that put you two together for everything. He was there for you when your moms and dad split and through her being in and out of rehab. Which is when you ended up with your grandmother to have a more stable household. Your dad who had decided leave freeridge thought he could raise your brothers but not you and agreed to let his mother raise you with no push back. You didn’t care, you loved freeridge being in freeridge and more than that you loved being with Oscar. You too were inseparable. As best friends and as your got older your love for one another evolved into something more, specifically around the middle of freshman year of high school. You were there for him when his dad got locked up, when his mom decided to stop being a mom. For as long as you can remember you would walk with him to drop cesar off to school and pick him up, help him with homework, cook. You remembered how you guys would go to the beach to just get away from all the troubles associated with freeridge. You were Oscars first stop when he got jumped into the gang….. as all of these memories came flooding back to you all at once like water from a damn that was being held together by duct tape broke loose. You glared accusingly at him and yelled. “four years- OK” he interrupted. “LET ME FINISH ASSHOLE- you yelled. “FOUR years you were gone, FOUR years I looked after YOUR brother like he was my own son, FOUR years I write your stupid as letters every week and for a whole year you basically ignored me. Do you think I have time to waste? You asked and you can tell your eyes had a wild look to them that was when you were unpredictable, and he knew it. He held his head down shyly, ashamed and embarrassed knowing you were right. “well can you at least have the human decency to explain yourself.  Or is cuchillos the only bitch you talk to?” That snapped him right out of whatever, he was feeling he squinted his eyes in that way that made you uneasy in your core and said, “don’t talk about her that way.” You really hated that blind sense of loyalty he felt to her. “fuck you and that bitch. Like I said I will let Cesar know where to find you when he gets home.” You were so angry Your entire body was on fire. You went to slam the door and felt the same resistance. “ what the Hell – your words thrusted back into your mouth with his tongue as he slipped one hand onto the nap of your neck gripping at your curly hair and the other went to the small of your back holding you firmly in place as he kissed you hard. Switching between sucking Nibbling on your bottom lip. And moving in sync with these motions down to your neck. You head swam with a heavy mixture of lust and gluttony and you just wanted more. Your phone rang forcefully knocking you out of this haze. And you pushed Oscar away. You both breathing heavily. “are you gonna pick up that damn phone” your grandmother yelled from the living room. You turned your head to the left to answer her and saw your car keys. Taking them off the hook you hand them to Oscar and tell him to get in the passenger side. “Where we going, mami?” he asked, hoping it would lead to finish what he started. “The Beach” was your simple replied. He thought about it and there is was that dimple. That smile you had fallen in love with all those years ago.

#oscar #oscar diaz #spooky #spooky diaz #oscar spooky diaz #omb #on my block

[straight-into-the-animus]

There Are Better Ways To Meet Than This (EzioLeo)

For @baddestchineseassassin‘s lovely prompt of EzioLeo and a 101 Dalmatians themed meeting. I’m sorry it took so long but I hope you enjoy!

Read on Ao3

Ezio liked dogs, really. Dogs were fine companions, cute and always ready to do something. The loyalty? Unparalleled. But that only applied to big dogs, great ones you could wrestle with.

Dogs like Claudia’s could get punted into the sun. It just wouldn’t stop yapping and he knew that but because he was such a good brother he had given the okay to pet sit Cesare while she was at a business conference for a week.

He lived in a comfortable apartment building that was very pet friendly and has its own animal residents, so Ezio didn’t need to worry too much about some angry tenant busting down his damn door in the dead of night. But this was getting to be ridiculous as he felt his pant leg being tugged on again while he was chopping vegetables.

“Cazzo, you stupid-” Ezio shook the animal off, giving him a stern look. “Cesare, I swear you are the only dog who doesn’t leave me alone. What’s your problem now?” A quick glance at the food bowl he had filled not even three minutes ago answered his question and earned a groan. “Did you even taste the food?”

Cesare simply licked his chops in response.

It wasn’t a bad day out, the sun beginning to set and the sky turning soft shades of pink and purple. The breeze was just enough that Ezio could get away with the white hoodie he generally donned as they went to the park a few blocks away. He was far from calm, though, having to reel in Cesare as he tugged on his leash constantly with no shame. Despite the less than peaceful circumstances, he couldn’t help but daydream more pleasant things in the future. How great would it be to get rid of this damn puffball? To stop choking on dog hair in his sleep? To actually sleep for-

There was a sharp tug that almost took his arm out of the socket, and Ezio could only hold on and pull taut as one thought went through his mind.

Fuck.

Cesare bolted ahead and Ezio could only hold on, trying to skid to a stop without ruining the soles of his boots. Far too late did he notice the green jacket and Golden Retriever right in the collision course.

“Hey! Move-!” Cesare slowed down a fraction of a second and Ezio took his chance to stop him, tugging sharply as they stopped in front of the frankly terrified looking man, though Ezio was a little too preoccupied with trying to regain his breathing that he didn’t take proper stock.

“Mio Dio, are you okay?”

“Yes, I- I’m sorry, this little towel rag just dashed off and I couldn’t control him. Mi dispiace.” Ezio regained his senses enough to look the other in his eyes and the first thing he saw was pretty eyes looking at him in concern. Right after that came freckles and the beginnings of a beard and hair like gold straw. God above, he was handsome and Ezio had to chase errant thoughts out of his mind.

“It’s quite alright.” The man gave a soft, almost reassuring smile. “Are you the, ah, owner of this little ‘towel rag’?” His smile turned into something almost impishly amused, and Ezio had to look down at the two dogs getting friendly.

“No, he belongs to my sister. I’m only dog sitting for the week.”

“Your sister is a very lucky woman to have a brother able to keep up with the dog’s legs.”

“Yes, mind telling her that when she gets back? It’d mean a lot.”

He chuckled lightly. “Of course.

“Great.” Ezio felt a smile start to grow before he began to feel a little uncharastically self-conscious. “I’m sorry again for any trouble this has caused.”

“No trouble at- oof!” He let out a puff of air as he connected with Ezio, knees and chests bumping. “I’m sorry, I-” Ezio quickly glanced down to see the red and yellow leashes of each dog wrapped around their legs like a present as the dogs got to know each other.

“Mona, please-!” 

“Cesare! Don’t you fucking-!” He cried out and in the middle of his plea Ezio toppled like a tower backward and the man fell on top of him. Ezio’s back hit the pavement and it knocked the wind out of his lungs for a second as the other struggled to break free. Dear God, it couldn’t get any worse than this as the blush started to run high on his cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, she generally doesn’t do this, are you okay?”

The only thing that he could answer came to his mind with zero filters as he squeaked. “Falling for me already? We don’t even know each other’s names.”

The man was shocked, and yes there were great concerns like the dogs and how they would get out of this, but all the blonde could do was give a disbelieving laugh at the whole situation.

“My name is Leonardo if you must know.”

“Ezio.” And with the goofily charming smile he received in return, Ezio knew he’d have to dog sit Claudia’s lovely rat more often.

I hope you enjoy! If you do I have a Masterpost here and more ideas for writings and prompts here, so feel free to request!  If you’d like to support me, I have a ko-fi here! Safety and peace!

#ezio auditore #leonardo da vinci #ezioleo #assassin's creed #my writings

[truthsuniversallyacknowledged]

Now I’ve Stopped Crying: Why The Game of Thrones Ending Sucked

I needed this to exist and it didn’t. So here it is, in no particular order: 

1. Violation of its own rules 

Westeros was loosely based off of Medieval/Renaissance Europe - the filming locations were exclusively European, and all manner of cultural ‘identifiers’ - clothing, political system, ethnicity of the actors/characters - followed that of Medieval Europe. The Red Wedding is based off a real Italian wedding, Jaime and Cersei resemble Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, a real set of incestuous aristocratic siblings, while Sansa and Joffrey also have their naming equivalents in the same family - Lucrezia’s brother, Gioffre, and his wife, Sancia. The High Sparrow is also similar to Savonarola, a religious fanatic in late Renaissance Italy, Braavos has clear parallels with Venice - I could easily continue. 

Naturally, there were cultural ideas from Medieval Europe which were clearly established in Game Of Thrones - the divine right of kings, bastardry, and discrimination towards women, foreigners, and various other minority groups - including the disabled. By pretending that Bran would have been keenly accepted not only by the aristocracy, but by the average peasant in Westeros, the plot is suddenly ignoring the framework within which the show has been operating. Throughout the show, there were two aspects a king had to have; either he could take the throne by force, requiring a large army or perhaps dragons, or he needed to be born in line - the right to the throne which has paramount to the entire series. One thing is ultimately clear; Bran as the King is jarringly wrong.

2. Compromising of characters

One thing Game of Thrones did exceptionally well is nailing politics; by the end of the series viewers had a clear understanding of the motives and principles of every character. But the ending D&D wanted would never have been allowed to happen with our set of characters around (perhaps this should have been a red flag that it wasn’t a good idea!) and so we watched as characters we’d known for years suddenly forgot who they were. Daenerys wanted to break the wheel and end suffering, and she sacrificed enormously because she wasn’t willing to take her dragons and burn the place down because that’s not the person she wanted to be - until the writers wanted her to be. I could have accepted that u-turn in character arc - if it was the only one. Jaime, after being almost killed by Cersei, finally, finally decided he’d had enough and made the choice to go to Brienne, which was the culmination of seasons and seasons of him slowly improving as a person and agonising over his feelings for cersei and his own identity. And then he just went “nah”. The Northerners, regarded for their strong loyalty, let Jon wander off into the wilderness and readily accept Sansa as their new ruler. Despite earlier reminiscing on her father’s words regarding how “the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives”, Arya decides to... be a lone wolf. on a boat.

But I’m barely getting started. Tyrion, a cunning political mastermind, not only became dumb as dog shit, but, having first-hand knowledge of the treatment of disabled individuals in Westeros, despite any ability they might have (not that Bran demonstrated ANY ability to lead well through the whole series - but I’ll get to that), he somehow didn’t see any problem with this plan. (Side note: if right to the throne and being disabled don’t matter, why couldn’t Tyrion be king?) 

Sam. Sam takes the whole goddamn cake. He is the one who discovers Jon’s parentage, and with a FULL UNDERSTANDING of how important it is. And he has watched Jon demonstrate bravery and courage and leadership time and time again - he is his best friend and strongest advocate. And so, when the time comes for him to fight for Jon: he suggests democracy? and then lets Bran take over without so much as a word in Jon’s defense? Pathetic. And so, so, wrong. 

3. “Who Has a Better Story than Bran the Broken?”

I could name a few. hundred.  We have been watching a series that clearly followed Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, and a long list of other political players, artistocratic families and usurpers - but from the very beginning, we have followed those two, always. To suggest that the entire direction of the series was some great practical joke, designed only for an oh-so-shocking plot twist, is so utterly contemptuous of us, their loyal audience. It’s also absurdly disrespectful to the story itself, which deserved a real ending. 

4, When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. 

Jon did neither. His end was a total cop-out - D&D didn’t want to kill him, but him winning would have been too predictable, so they formed a sheepish way out that they seemed to think was good enough. They were wrong. 

And as for Bran? He wasn’t. even. playing.

But this is a symptom of the biggest issue with this whole ending; avoiding predictability was more important to the writers than ending the story well. Having spent years and years watching an intricate story as it followed out its natural path, in accordance to the guiding principles of each character and they world in which they live, it’s no surprise that some audience members were bound to predict the ending. But we loved game of thrones not just for its plot twists, but also for its witty dialogue, deep and fascinating characters, and consistently captivating story - this ending had a whole lotta shock, and not much of anything else. 

5. Bran didn’t deserve it 

I already touched on why Bran would never have been accepted and how totally inconsistent his takeover was with, well, everything. But Bran isn’t at all kingly - he hasn’t demonstrated leadership of any kind, hasn’t participated in the politics of the kingdom yet still has no understanding of the everyday person, and also displays no compassion or empathy, particularly towards Meera.  He also didn’t see anything wrong with taking the throne from Jon, who not only deserved it according to the show’s framework but also deserved it in the eyes of the audience because he was, simply put, a good leader and a good person. 

We also never really got an explanation as to why Bran was Bran again - and i thought the Three Eyed Raven couldn’t take titles. This whole ending really doesn’t stand up to even mild scrutiny - evidence of the lack of thought which ruined one of the greatest shows of all time. 

6. What was the goddamn point? 

Why couldn’t Gendry be King? Or Tyrion? Why did it matter at all that Jon was Targaryen, or the rightful heir? Why did we bother watching Daenerys scheme for season after season if she was going to burn King’s landing anyway? Why did Melisandre bother to bring Jon back to life if he wasn’t going to be significant in killing the Night King or taking the throne? What the hell was the point of the white horse? 

7. An end to the post (hopefully I did a better job than they did)

I felt compelled to write this because I have yet to cease encountering people who think that this disgrace disguised as an ending was okay. And it truly upsets me that it was such a disservice to what was a truly fabulous show. 

But the last reason that this ending sucked has a silver lining; it was widlly wrong, and most of us knew it instinctively - before we really analysed it and argued about it (and it my case, composed overly long posts about it). And we knew it instinctively because we know this story - and maybe, like me, you weren’t sure what exactly to expect, but you knew it wasn’t this. We know this story, and we know the true ending - even if it’s only in our hearts. 

#gameofthrones #game of thrones #jonsnow #danereys targaryen #danereys stormborn #danereys #dnd #bran #brandon stark #branthebroken #iambroken #rant #ranting #rambling #salty #i am salty #longpost #tv #tvshow #got #arya #cersei #jaime #sansa #cersei lannister #jaime lannister #tyrion #tyrion lannister #sansa stark #lannister

[absinthehq]

ARC I, BLOOD BROTHERS

CESARE BONVENTRE’S FUNERAL

As the ruthless and abrupt death of Cesare -- the Bonventre patriarch -- leaves more questions to be answered than not, a hint of mystery is hidden in the air. In every conversation, people avoid the big elephant in the room: Did Cesare truly die by another’s hands or is it mere speculation? Either way. only a few know. 

But regardless of your connection to Cesare, the invitation to the funeral comes as a bittersweet reminder that death is the only certainty of life.. it comes for us all, even the most powerful ones.

And so his enemies and allies and loved ones gather around for a last goodbye. From afar, the paps and journalists are vying for some drama, and they might just get it.

TRIGGER WARNING FOR SHOOTING, GUNS & KIDNAPPING.

It’s the day of Cesare’s funeral. A widow and her children... and their loyal soldiers and enemies stand before the Dead King.

THE CHASE HAS JUST BEGUN.

It begins with a shot. And then, a shooting is happening in what was supposed to be neutral ground. Three Bonventre soldiers fall down, loyal and unarmed -- their corpses laid out on the floor.

Three Bonventre soldiers down, the whisper travels quickly.

A body falls to the floor. Nina Collins hides behind a tree, whilst one bullet scrapes Lucca Bonventre’s cheeks, causing everyone to panic. Matteo Bonventre demands everyone stay calm and down, but one of the armed men in black take Violetta Bonventre. The group attempts to cover Victoria Bonventre, but she’s taken by the same men who took Violetta, in screams that echo.

Everyone is in panic, whilst some are crying on the floor, the Bonventre’s soldiers that have been left have hands in their guns, ready to shoot at whoever’s their leader. Tears fill the eyes of those unsure, shock on the faces of loyal soldiers as they scramble for their guns.

There are four of them, five, or more… Nobody can really count. They’re swift in their moves, organized in their ways, and ruthless with their guns. “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!” Matteo shouts, lifting from the floor. It’s unclear who is Bonventre and who isn’t anymore.

AND YOU BETTER STAY CLEVER, IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE

Krishan Seth and Nina are holding their breaths, whilst Dai Ruogang has been badly wounded in the stomach and Krishan wants to aid him, but Nina manages to stop him before he gets shot. Rhys Fiori and Isabella Gonzalez are being held at gunpoint, and Catarina Álvarez is hiding alongside Ayla Karagoz and Angelina Thorne, whose ears are listening close. Sasha Kovalenko, Alex Kauffman and Zachary Welsh are hidden in the bushes, aiding Alex who has been badly shot on the shoulder. Carolina Leffon and Lola Wells hold one another, whilst Maya Gulati and Aidan Dougherty stand down, close to Matteo. Natalya Marakovna managed to escape swiftly through the woods.

A shout in Spanish and suddenly, one of the men takes their masks, coming closer to the Bonventre and Cesare’s casket. They’re only a couple meters away now.

“Your family for the throne,” he says, with a thick Mexican accent. He looks at Matteo, and suddenly Matteo realizes… It’s Thomás Álvarez, the same Mexican drug lord who had taken it upon himself to assure a loyalty between the Álvarez and the Bonventre would be forged. He’s Catarina’s father -- ready to take on the throne of the Bonventre. There’s a presence beside Thomás… It’s none other than Carlo DeLuca, standing with his gun pointed at Matteo. Several other men hold the guests at gunpoint. 

Ready.

Aim….

“Choose.”

He leaves, taking the Bonventre girls with him. Everyone watches in horror as the message is laid out before them in blood, spilled for everyone to see. Thomás and his men are off into the distance, before anyone notices, it’s over. 

WE’RE KINGS OF THE KILL & WE’RE OUT FOR BLOOD

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

Please post an IC self-para of your character’s reaction to the shooting. After that, feel free to plot amongst yourselves with the people your character has been paired with -- are they helping each other? Are they quietly standing? Did they get hurt? Beware that major plotlines that must be run by an admin. You’re welcome to post threads.

Only Matteo and Catarina recognize Thomás, who is the Mexican drug lord that made an alliance with the Bonventre, but has betrayed them on the day of Cesare’s funeral.

Carlo’s presence is recognized by anyone who has a connection to him -- but his presence is still a mystery to everyone IC.

If you need paragraph or plot ideas, come to the admins. We are here to answer your questions and thoroughly.

Please be mindful that Violetta and Victoria are being held hostage in an unknown location, and it’s up to Matteo and Lucca to save their lives. Suggestions OOC on how to save the girls are now in your hands. Plot it out!

WE WILL BE POSTING MORE PLOT DROPS.... SOON.

#absinthe:drop #absinthe:event #absinthe:admin #absinthe:drop001

[day0one]

5 years of hate  1 hr ago

At the first presidential debate of the 2020 election, President Donald Trump shocked many viewers when he was given an opportunity to condemn white supremacists but declined. The president then told the Proud Boys, an alt-right hate organization, to “stand back” and “stand by.”

While Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists was the talk of the debate, his decision to skirt the subject is precisely in line with how he’s historically addressed violence on the part of hate groups and his supporters: He emboldens it.

As far back as 2015, Trump has been connected to documented acts of violence, with perpetrators claiming that he was even their inspiration. In fact, almost five dozen people, according to reports from the Guardian and ABC News, have enacted violence in Trump’s name.

In 2016, a white man told officers, “Donald Trump will fix them” while being arrested for threatening his Black neighbors with a knife. That same year, a Florida man threatened to burn down a house next to his because a Muslim family purchased it, citing Trump’s Muslim ban made it a reason for “concern.” Then there are the more widely known examples, like Cesar Sayoc, who mailed 16 inoperative pipe bombs to Democratic leaders and referred to Trump as a “surrogate father,” and the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in 2019 that left 23 dead, where the shooter’s manifesto parroted Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants.

In some cases, Trump initially denounces the violence, but he often walks back such statements, returning to a message of hate and harm. Recently, he defended a teenage supporter who gunned down three people at a Black Lives Matter protest. And on Thursday, he refused to condemn the domestic terrorists who allegedly planned to violently kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Instead, he criticized Whitmer and fished for compliments.

Trump has continually failed to recognize what’s at the core of this violence: hate that’s been nurtured under a tense national climate that he has helped cultivate.

Trump’s campaign rallies have always been incubation grounds for violence, the sites where Trump spewed hate speech that encouraged physical harm against dissenters. And as president, he has used his platform to encourage violence against American citizens, whether via the police and national guard or militia groups. Just this year alone, Trump infamously made it clear that protesters — those out demonstrating against police brutality and systemic racism — should be met with force.

As much as the president and his supporters have to paint the picture that the cities and suburbs will burn in violence under a Joe Biden presidency, Trump is the one who has repeatedly proven that he has no interest in promoting peace.

Here is a timeline of Trump’s hateful rhetoric since 2015 and some of the moments when his supporters took heed.

2015: Trump officially announces his campaign for president and immediately employs rhetoric that suggests violence is the answer to opposition Trump officially announced his candidacy for president of the United States in June 2015 and wasted little time inciting fear and hate in his first speech. That year, critics argued that his language led to attacks on innocent bystanders, and in some cases, acts of violence were directly connected to Trump’s words.

June 16, 2015: When Trump announced his bid for president at Trump Tower in New York City, he made disparaging comments about Mexicans, comments that have been said to incite violence and hate toward immigrants for years to come:

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Even though his statement was almost entirely false, in the months following, Trump would defend the criminal threat of immigrants. “What can be simpler or more accurately stated? The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.,” he said on July 6, 2015.

August 11, 2015: Trump indirectly took aim at Black Lives Matter protesters, calling Sen. Bernie Sanders “weak” after Sanders allowed protesters to seize the microphone at a campaign rally. “I thought that was disgusting. That showed such weakness — the way he was taken away by two young women. … They just took the whole place over.”

Trump added, “That will never happen with me. I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if other people will. But that was a disgrace. … I felt badly for him, but it showed that he’s weak.”

August 19, 2015: Two Boston brothers invoked Trump when they were arrested for urinating on a homeless man and beating him with a metal pipe. While in custody, one of the brothers told the police, “Trump was right. All of these illegals need to be deported.” The 58-year-old Mexican man they assaulted was a permanent resident.

In response to the news that the Boston assault was inspired by his rhetoric, Trump did not denounce the violence, instead calling his supporters “passionate.” “I think that would be a shame. I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country. They want this country to be great again. But they are very passionate. I will say that,” he told reporters the next day.

On August 21, 2015, Trump backtracked a bit, taking a both-sides approach. “Boston incident is terrible. We need energy and passion, but we must treat each other with respect. I would never condone violence,” he tweeted.

October 23, 2015: After repeatedly being interrupted by protesters at a campaign rally in Miami, Trump warned he’ll “be a little more violent” next time when addressing protesters. “See the first group, I was nice. ‘Oh, take your time.’ The second group, I was pretty nice. The third group, I’ll be a little more violent. And the fourth group, I’ll say get the hell out of here!” he said. On video, the pro-immigration protesters could be seen being forcibly dragged out of the campaign event.

November 21, 2015: At a rally in Birmingham, Alabama, Trump demanded the removal of Black activist Mercutio Southall Jr. after he yelled, “Black lives matter!” Onstage, Trump exclaimed, “Get him the hell out of here! Get him out of here! Throw him out!” In a video captured by CNN, Southall fell to the ground as Trump made his statements and white men appeared to kick and punch him.

As security guards removed Southall from the rally, the crowd chanted, “All lives matter,” according to the Washington Post. Trump told Fox News the next day, “Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing. I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a troublemaker who was looking to make trouble.”

December 2015: The Trump campaign devised a strategy to address protesters who demonstrated at rallies. Instead of harming the protester, the campaign suggested they chant, “Trump! Trump! Trump!” until a security guard removes the protester. The campaign began playing an announcement of the plan at rallies in mid-December, which started with the line, “If a protester starts demonstrating in the area around you, please do not touch or harm the protester. This is a peaceful rally.” According to the Washington Post, attendees laughed when the announcement was played at a rally.

2016: At campaign rallies, Trump models the violence that he encourages by making a spectacle out of ejecting protesters At his large campaign rallies, Trump became notorious for yelling “Get ’em out!” at protesters who demonstrated, whether they stood there silently, held up a sign, or chanted. Though Trump often alleged that the protesters were violent, reporters found no evidence to suggest that protesters ever attacked Trump supporters inside any rally.

In 2016, Trump sharpened his rhetoric against Muslims, suggesting that the country must scrutinize mosques and newly arrived Muslim migrants. The year 2016 also gave rise to the chant that advocated for violence against then-Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton: “Lock her up!”

January 8, 2016: Rose Hamid, a 56-year-old Muslim woman wearing a hijab, was escorted out of a Trump rally after standing up in silent protest over Trump’s speech in which he said Syrian refugees fleeing war were affiliated with ISIS. Hamid attended the rally to show Trump supporters what Muslims are like (Trump had already called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in December 2015), and told CNN’s Don Lemon that the people sitting around her were “very nice” and “sharing their popcorn.”

But once the crowd “got this hateful crowd mentality,” as she was being escorted out, “it was a vivid example of what happens when you start using this hateful rhetoric and how it can incite a crowd where moments ago were very kind to me.” Hamid said one man yelled to her, “Get out! Do you have a bomb? Do you have a bomb?”

January 23, 2016: At a campaign rally in Iowa, Trump, in describing the loyalty of his supporters, notoriously said, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) February 1, 2016: At a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump told the crowd that his security team informed him that there may be somebody throwing tomatoes. “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell out of them. I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. There won’t be so much of them because the courts agree with us,” he said.

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) February 23, 2016: At a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Trump said of a protester, “I’d like to punch him in the face.” As security guards escorted the protester out of the rally, Trump mocked him, saying, “He’s smiling. Having a good time.” He then reminisced about being able to get away with violence: “There’s a guy, totally disruptive, throwing punches. We’re not allowed to punch back anymore. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.” Trump also called the protester “nasty as hell.” CNN reported that the man did not appear to fight with the security guards taking him outside.

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) At the same rally, Trump would double down on his support for waterboarding, a banned interrogation method. “They said to me, ‘What do you think of waterboarding?’ I said I think it’s great, but we don’t go far enough. It’s true. We don’t go far enough. We don’t go far enough.” At a February 6, 2016, Republican debate in New Hampshire, Trump said he would “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding” if he were elected president.

February 27, 2016: Trump advocated for police state violence, lamenting how officers are afraid to do their jobs because America is “becoming a frightened country.” “You see, in the good old days, law enforcement acted a lot quicker than this. A lot quicker. In the good old days, they’d rip him out of that seat so fast — but today, everybody’s politically correct,” Trump said. “Our country’s going to hell with being politically correct. Going to hell.”

March 1, 2016: At a campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky, Trump repeatedly yelled, “Get out of here! Get em’ out of here! Get him the hell out!” to a group of protesters, galvanizing the crowd to chant, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” and physically shove the group of Black protesters. Trump continued: “Don’t hurt him! If I say, ‘Go get him,’ I get in trouble with the press, the most dishonest human beings in the world. If I say, ‘Don’t hurt him,’ the press will say, ‘Well, Trump isn’t as tough as he used to be!’ . ... So you can’t win.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) March 9, 2016: A 78-year-old white male Trump supporter punched a Black male protester being escorted out of a Trump campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The Trump supporter was recorded on video saying he enjoyed “knocking the hell out of that big mouth” and “Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him.” He was arrested and charged with assault a day later, though he attacked the protester directly in front of law enforcement officials.

Instead, at the time, law enforcement officials tackled the protester to the ground after he had been punched in the face.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCwibANHp6B/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading

Two days after the assault, Trump said such attacks on protesters were “very, very appropriate” and the kind of action “we need a little bit more of.” Trump called the protesters “very violent,” though multiple news outlets at the time reported that there were no documented cases of protesters inciting violence against Trump supporters.

March 10, 2016: At a Miami Republican Debate, Trump denied that his tone incited violence at his rallies and insinuated that the anger toward protesters was justified. “I will say this,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We have 25 [thousand], 30,000 people. You’ve seen it yourself. People come with tremendous passion and love for the country, and when they see protest — in some cases — you know, you’re mentioning one case, which I haven’t seen, I heard about it, which I don’t like. But when they see what’s going on in this country, they have anger that’s unbelievable. They have anger.”

He added: “We have some protesters who are bad dudes, they have done bad things. They are swinging, they are really dangerous … And if they’ve got to be taken out, to be honest, I mean, we have to run something.”

March 11, 2016: Trump abandoned a planned Chicago campaign rally after fights broke out between his supporters and protesters. Five people were arrested and two police officers were injured, according to the Chicago police. In a tweet, Trump blamed “thugs” for the chaos.

March 31, 2016: Three people who say they were assaulted at a March 1, 2016, Trump campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky, sued the then-candidate, alleging that he riled up his followers and encouraged violence when he repeatedly yelled, “Get ‘em out of here!” The group sued Trump for incitement to riot, and in April 2017, federal Judge David Hale ruled that their claim was valid since there was sufficient evidence proving their injuries were a “direct and proximate result” of Trump’s comments. “It is plausible that Trump’s direction to ‘get ‘em out of here’ advocated the use of force,” Hale wrote. “It was an order, an instruction, a command.”

Trump appealed the case, and in September 2018, a federal appeals court dismissed the protesters’ claims, saying that Trump’s words were protected under the First Amendment and did not “specifically advocate imminent lawless violence.” An attorney for the plaintiffs called the ruling “unprecedented” and “dangerous,” and a “free pass” for a candidate for public office.

July 2016: By July, the infamous “Lock her up!” chant in response to any mention of Hillary Clinton became a facet of Trump’s rallies and even the GOP convention. On July 19, at the Republican National Convention, the crowd chanted “Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!” as Chris Christie delivered a speech. At a rally in Colorado Springs on July 29, Trump, after resisting joining in on the chant at rallies, told the audience, “I’ve been saying let’s just beat her on November 8th. But you know what, I’m starting to agree with you.”

Trump’s comments came after Clinton spoke ill of him in her Democratic National Convention address. “You know it’s interesting. Every time I mention her, everyone screams, ‘lock her up, lock her up.’ They keep screaming. And you know what I do? I’ve been nice,” Trump said. “But after watching that performance last night — such lies — I don’t have to be so nice anymore. I’m taking the gloves off.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) But crowds and commentators didn’t stop at “Lock her up!” As the Atlantic reported, some called for Clinton to be “hung on the Mall in Washington D.C.” or “put in a firing line and shot for treason.”

December 2016: After Trump bullied then-Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly for months, Kelly came forward to allege that Trump’s social media manager was responsible for the many death threats she was receiving. “The vast majority of Donald Trump supporters are not at all this way,” Kelly said, according to the Guardian. “It’s that far corner of the internet that really enjoys nastiness and threats and unfortunately there is a man who works for Donald Trump whose job it is to stir these people up and that man needs to stop doing that. His name is Dan Scavino.”

2017: With Trump in office, white supremacists organize and are emboldened to march and protest in public; Trump also amplifies his attacks on the press In 2017, Trump sharply criticized the press, calling it the “enemy of the American people,” fueling hostility toward journalists that many say had led to violence. He also failed to condemn white supremacist and white nationalist groups that organized in Charlottesville, Virginia. The “Unite the Right” rally became a turning point for the nation, prompting many people to finally stop and question the impact of Trump’s rhetoric.

January 25, 2017: On the day the Trump administration instituted a ban against travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, a Muslim Delta employee wearing a hijab was physically and verbally attacked at JFK International Airport in New York. The perpetrator told the victim “[Expletive] Islam. [Expletive] ISIS. Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you,” according to ABC. On the campaign trail, Trump said he was open to the idea of closing mosques and creating a database of all Muslims in the US, consistently saying that Muslims were a “problem” and a “sickness.”

February 17, 2017: In what the New York Times called a “striking escalation in his attacks,” Trump tweeted that the news media is “the enemy of the American people.”

Trump had long blamed news organizations for misrepresenting his agenda and performance, but in February officially positioned the media as a key opponent. At a press conference on February 16, 2017, Trump strategically called the media “dishonest” and labeled reporting from outlets like CNN “fake news.”

Onlookers argued that Trump’s rhetoric toward the press led to violent attacks on reporters. As Jeff Guo reported in 2017, “Anti-media rhetoric has abounded since the election,” pointing to examples of physical hostility toward journalists at the time:

In West Virginia last month, Dan Heyman of Public News Service was handcuffed and arrested at the state capitol building for posing questions to Tom Price, the secretary of Health and Human Services. And in Washington last week, a reporter from CQ Roll Call was pushed against a wall by security guards for asking an FCC commissioner questions in the lobby of a public building.

July 28, 2017: During a speech to law enforcement officials in Long Island, New York, Trump encouraged police to be more violent when handling suspects and potential offenders:

“Now, we’re getting them [criminals] out anyway, but we’d like to get them out a lot faster, and when you see these towns and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said, please don’t be too nice. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over, like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody. Don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?”

In the 35-minute speech, Trump discussed his plan to fight MS-13 gang violence, calling the gang’s members “animals” who had “transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields.”

August 12, 2017: One of the clearest moments Trump refused to denounce violence, and thereby encourage it, to the country’s dismay, was when he equated the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, as part of a “Unite the Right” rally with the leftist protesters who demonstrated against them. During the rally, a Nazi sympathizer drove a car into a crowd of anti-racism counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. The evening before, on August 11, the neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups marched at the University of Virginia, carrying lit tiki torches and chanting anti-Semitic slogans, in response to the impending removal of a Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue.

As Tara Golshan reported for Vox, Trump’s very first response to the events in Charlottesville was to condemn violence on the part of many players, while initially refusing to even mention the presence of white supremacist groups. In a short statement issued Saturday evening, Trump said from his golf club in New Jersey, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. It has been going on for a long time in our country — not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.”

That same night, he tweeted condolences to Heyer’s family, but made no mention of who was responsible for the violence. Trump called for there to be “a study” to understand what happened in Charlottesville.

On the Tuesday following the weekend rally, Trump infamously said, “You had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides.”

The president also attempted to identify the “good people” in the sea of white nationalists that weekend: “You had people and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists. They should be condemned totally. [...] You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) September 22, 2017: At a rally in Alabama, Trump took aim at football players like Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and systemic racism. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’” he said.

In the following days, Trump underscored his disdain for the anthem protests:

Ultimately, Trump turned the NFL player’s silent protest about police violence into a debate about nationalism — becoming emblematic of how Trump would spin issues of racial injustice as an affront to American life, using it as a way to rile up his base (many supporters set fire to NFL team merchandise).

2018: Donald Trump still fails to condemn white supremacists at a time when hate crimes are on the rise Multiple studies released between 2017 and 2019 pointed to how hate crimes reached a high during the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. A report from the FBI found that hate crimes, especially against Muslims, increased by 5 percent in 2016 and were up 17 percent in 2017; in 2018, hate crimes reached a 16-year high, with a significant rise in violence against Latinos.

According to a 2019 report, counties that hosted a rally with Donald Trump as a headliner experienced a 226 percent increase in hate crimes. The report’s authors noted: “Trump’s rhetoric may encourage hate crimes.” At the middle point of his term, when confronted with opportunities to condemn white supremacy and ultimately attempt to unify the country, Trump declined to do so.

June 24, 2018: Amid his administration’s family separation crisis, Trump fanned the flames of anti-immigration sentiment. On Twitter, Trump tweeted rhetoric that justified his administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which featured ICE raids and migrant detention facilities. Between October 1, 2017, and May 31, 2018, at least 2,700 children were split from their families at the border. “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order. Most children come without parents ...” he wrote.

August 11, 2018: A year after the inaugural “Unite the Right” rally, organizers planned a second “Unite the Right” event, yet Trump still failed to condemn the hate groups by name. Ahead of the rally, he tweeted a rather numb statement against hate and did not acknowledge and condemn the people perpetrating the violence.

October 18, 2018: At a rally in Montana, Trump celebrated Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte (MT), who body-slammed a reporter in May 2017, telling the crowd, “Any guy who can do a body-slam ... he’s my guy.”

Gianforte assaulted journalist Ben Jacobs after Jacobs asked him a question about the GOP health care bill. The Congress member ultimately apologized (after his spokesperson first denied the assault) and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. He was sentenced to a 180-day deferred sentence, 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management, and a $300 fine along with an $85 court fee.

As Jeff Guo reported for Vox in 2017, the assault revealed how the Republican Party, at Trump’s behest, has grown comfortable with verbal and physical violence against the press.

October 22-November 1, 2018: Cesar Sayoc, a Florida Trump supporter, mailed 16 inoperative pipe bombs to Democratic leaders, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton, who had been critical of Donald Trump’s presidency. Sayoc had been living in a van that was covered in photos of Trump and “decals attacking the media,” according to NBC News. Sayoc’s lawyers argued that Trump’s rhetoric fueled his actions and that Sayoc viewed Trump as a “surrogate father.” On August 4, 2019, Sayoc was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Trump first condemned Sayoc’s action but then walked back his condemnation. “In these times we have to unify,” Trump said. “We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”

As Vox’s Alex Ward reported, Trump had multiple opportunities to unite the country after Sayoc was detained, but instead blamed the media and Democrats for the anger that his supporters were acting out on.

October 27, 2018: An anti-Semitic terrorist murdered 11 worshippers and injured seven others at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Though the shooter criticized Trump for being a “globalist” who was controlled by Jews, many critics linked Trump’s rhetoric to the mass shooting. Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh wrote an open letter to Trump demanding that he “fully denounce white nationalism” before visiting a city in mourning. “For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement,” the letter said. “You yourself called the murderer evil, but yesterday’s violence is the direct culmination of your influence.”

Trump first lamented the shooting but then suggested that the victims should have protected themselves by having an armed guard inside the synagogue and distanced himself from the National Rifle Association when asked about his ties to the organization.

2019: Mass shootings and hate crimes connected to Donald Trump continue, while Trump lashes out at a group of newly elected congresswomen Instead of denouncing the white supremacy and hate that fueled mass shootings, Donald Trump highlighted mental illness as a key factor behind domestic terrorism. As Trump returned the campaign trail in an attempt to gain a second term, he targeted a new group at his campaign events — a group of young congresswomen of color, known as “the Squad.”

May 8, 2019: At a Florida rally, Trump turned the idea of shooting migrants and asylum seekers into a punchline. After a woman at the rally yelled “shoot them” in regard to immigrants, Trump said, “That’s only in the Panhandle, you can get away with that statement.”

Vox’s Aaron Rupar reported that Trump’s statement came a day after it was discovered that a border patrol agent said of migrants, “Why are we just apprehending them and not lining them up and shooting them. ... We have to go back to Hitler days and put them all in a gas chamber.”

July 14, 2019: Donald Trump attacked the group of congresswomen known as “the Squad,” saying on Twitter that they should “go back” to the “crime infested places from which they came.” Trump didn’t initially name the lawmakers whom he was attacking but it was clear he was directing his ire at a group of progressive then-first-term members that includes Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The women, who advocate for progressive policies, became the target of backlash and scrutiny.

Three days later at a Trump 2020 campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, the crowd repeatedly chanted “Send her back! Send her back!” directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom Trump began to single out from the Squad, which he described that night as a group of “hate-filled extremists.”

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms) Trump’s rhetoric toward Omar and the rest of the squad led to death threats and increased security for the women. In April, just hours after a man was charged for threatening to assault and murder Omar, Trump doubled down on his harmful lies about her at an event. The man told officials that “he loves the president” and “hates radical Muslims in our government.” In June, Tlaib read out a death threat she received that said, “The only good Muslim is a dead one.”

August 3, 2019: In one of the larger calamities of Trump’s presidency, a 21-year-old white man opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 people and injuring 22 others. As Alexia Fernández Campbell reported for Vox, the shooter drove more than 10 hours to the store to target Mexicans. Officials believe that the gunman was the author of a racist, xenophobic online manifesto that warned of a “Hispanic invasion” of Texas and echoed the president’s language, according to the New York Times. Trump responded to the shooting in a brief speech but “said nothing about widespread criticism of his own anti-immigrant rhetoric, which some say inspired the El Paso attacks,” Fernández Campbell reported.

August 5, 2019: A 39-year-old Montana man was charged with felony assault for choking, slamming, and fracturing the skull of a 13-year-old boy who didn’t take his hat off for the national anthem. The man’s attorney told the local newspaper that Trump’s “rhetoric” led to the violent act. “His commander in chief is telling people that if they kneel, they should be fired, or if they burn a flag, they should be punished,” the lawyer said, referencing Trump’s harsh words against athletes like Colin Kaepernick who protested for social justice.

October 1, 2019: A New York Times report stated that Trump, as part of his border security plan in early 2019, reportedly wanted to shoot migrants in the legs and keep them away from the southern border with a trench filled with water, alligators, and snakes. Trump also reportedly asked for a cost estimate for an electrified wall with spikes that could “pierce human flesh.”

November 1, 2019: A 61-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested and charged with a felony hate crime after allegedly throwing acid at a Peruvian American who was walking to a Mexican restaurant. The perpetrator accused the victim of being inside the country illegally asking him, “Why you invade my country?” and “Why don’t you respect my laws?” before attacking him. When police searched the perpetrator’s home, they found three letters addressed to Donald Trump. The victim suffered second-degree burns.

2020: Trump is explicit about the kind of violence he is willing to use against Black Lives Matter protesters. Meanwhile, Americans, particularly Black and Native Americans, are being ravaged by the coronavirus. As Black Lives Matter protests swept the country this summer following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a key thread running through Trump’s response was to call for and send in law enforcement officials — the National Guard, Secret Service police, local police, US Park Police and state troopers — who dressed in riot gear and used a variety of weapons from tear gas to rubber bullets. While he said violence was out of hand in cities, the protests were most peaceful, outside of escalation by police.

In fact, after the deployment of Department of Homeland Security agents in Portland in the summer, violent demonstrations increased from under 17 percent to over 42 percent, according to a report. Amid the unrest, Trump also repeatedly failed to identify and call out white supremacist agitators and counterprotesters who traveled to cities and towns and incited violence.

And throughout the country, Asian Americans faced violence due to fears about the coronavirus. Trump has repeatedly used a racist name for the virus, calling it the Chinese flu or the Chinese virus.

March 14, 2020: 19-year-old Jose L. Gomez stabbed three members of an Asian-American family, including a 2-year-old and 6-year-old at a Sam’s Club in Texas. According to the FBI’s report obtained by ABC News, Gomez said he attacked them because “he thought the family was Chinese and infecting people with the coronavirus.” Gomez was charged with three counts of attempted capital murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

In a report released in late March, the FBI warned that hate crimes against Asian Americans would surge (and were already surging) due to rhetoric that associated the disease with China and Asian American populations. Trump began calling coronavirus the “Chinese virus” early in the pandemic and defended his use of the phrase, despite many calls against it, saying, “It did come from China. It is a very accurate term.”

Catherine Kim reported for Vox that the phrase fits into Trump’s “pattern of xenophobia” and “pattern of deflecting blame.” After a week of anti-Asian rhetoric, Trump tweeted, “‘it was very important we protect our Asian American community’ (before othering Asian Americans — “they” and “us” — one tweet later) ... but the damage has already been done.”

On October 8, 2020, a few days after being released from Walter Reed hospital where he was treated for the virus, Trump released a video in which again he blamed China. “China’s going to pay a big price what they’ve done to this country,” Trump said.

May 29, 2020: Following the first weekend of social justice protests, Trump immediately threatened to shoot looters in Minneapolis, in a tweet thread that kicked off the tone that would dominate his reaction to the unrest in the following months. He called protesters “thugs” and said, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter flagged Trump’s tweet for “glorifying violence.”

As Katelyn Burns reported for Vox, a day later, “Trump tried to walk back the phrase on Twitter by claiming he meant that when looting starts, people end up getting shot.”

June 1, 2020: Police officers in Washington, DC, attacked hundreds of peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square with tear gas to make way for Donald Trump who traveled from the White House to St. John’s Church for a photo op. Before visiting the church, Trump delivered remarks in which he said, “If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” The remarks fit into Trump’s repeated call for “law and order.”

August 29, 2020: At an emergency operations briefing in Texas, Trump expressed interest in sending the National Guard to Portland to meet protesters with force.

“We sent in 1,000 National Guard, and that’s not even a big force. We could clean out — as an example, Portland: We could fix Portland in, I would say, 45 minutes.”

August 31, 2020: After 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake was killed by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests broke out across the country. The next day, a group of armed men including 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse from Illinois, showed up in Kenosha, saying they were there to protect property. Rittenhouse, a law enforcement enthusiast and a Trump supporter, shot and killed two people and injured another; he was later charged with murder.

Trump later appeared to justify Rittenhouse’s actions by saying he was acting in self-defense. At a press briefing, Trump told reporters, “I guess it looks like and he fell and then they very violently attacked him and it was something we’re looking at right now and it’s under investigation. I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed. But it’s under investigation.”

September 1, 2020: Before traveling to Kenosha, Trump said he was going to the city to show support for law enforcement. He did not visit Blake’s family or mention Blake by name. Instead, he said the officer who shot him must have “choked.”

Trump also said that law enforcement was ready to stop protests “very powerfully.” “As soon as they came in, boom, the flame was gone. Now maybe it will start up again, in which case they will put it out very powerfully,” he said.

Blake’s family and Wisconsin leaders feared that Trump’s visit would lead to more violence and destruction.

September 29, 2020: At the first presidential debate for the general election, when given the opportunity to denounce white supremacy, Trump spoke directly to a hate group, the Proud Boys, instructing them to “stand back” and “stand by.” In response, the Proud Boys instantly expressed gratitude and joy at being recognized by the president.

Days later, after receiving bipartisan criticism, Trump told Fox News that he condemns far-right hate groups. “Let me be clear again: I condemn the KKK. I condemn all white supremacists,” he said. “I condemn the Proud Boys. I don’t know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that.”

However, as Rolling Stone argued, there are multiple reasons to believe that Trump knows who the Proud Boys are, from his connection to Roger Stone — who has close ties to the Proud Boys — to the fact that Proud Boys regularly attend Trump rallies, with a Proud Boy co-chairman sitting directly behind Trump at a Miami rally in 2019.

October 8, 2020: Six men face conspiracy charges in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. As Vox’s Andrew Prokop reported, “the conspirators were in contact with a militia group based in Michigan — training in tactics and weapons with the group, and attempting to build an explosive device with a militia group member.” The men were reportedly angry about Whitmer’s coronavirus shutdown policies.

In response to the FBI’s investigation, Trump demanded that Whitmer thank him. Trump also chastised Whitmer for the very thing that the conspirators targeted her for — taking action against the spread of a deadly virus.

In a livestream address, Whitmer said that Trump gives “comfort” to those who “spread fear and hatred and division.” She pointed to Trump’s comments at the presidential debate and called him “complicit”:

Just last week, the president of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two Michigan militia groups. [...] Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action. When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit.

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Best Dog Training Sites | Check This Out

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Best Dog Training Sites | Check This Out

Don’t bring your dog as this is a people only presentation 22 Aug 2017 3:04:46pm Click here for additional information on the Canine Good Citizen™ Award.  Electronic training involves the use of an electric shock as an aversive. Common forms are collars which can be triggered remotely, or that are triggered by barking, fencing that delivers a shock when a dog wearing a special collar crosses a buried wire, and mats that can be placed on furniture to deliver a shock. Some aids deliver an aversive such as a spray of citronella when triggered.[61] The use of electric shock aversives for training dogs is the subject of considerable controversy. Supporters claim that the use of electronic devices allows training at a distance and the potential to eliminate self-rewarding behaviour, and point out that properly used, they have less risk of stress and injury than mechanical devices, such as choke chains. Opponents cite the risks of physical and psychological trauma associated with incorrect or abusive use.[62] PURINA.COM.AU Force-free trainers Facebook © 2018 ^ Jump up to: a b Millan 2010, p. 87. Yuri Kravchenko /Shutterstock.com Apartment Dogs Lifestyle Training for Pet Dogs Web: www.positiveresponse.net.au Once you’ve assumed your role as pack leader, all you will need is consistency and the natural techniques taught by Bark Busters to reinforce and strengthen the bond between you and your dog. Bark Busters dog trainers can show you how to transform a “problem dog” into a happy lifelong buddy… Back to Top 23/07/2018 Water Bottles Dogs often have very little control over their environment. We decide when to feed them, when to walk them and when to play with them. Research tells us that animals who have control over their environment are happier and healthier. If we can give our dogs choices it… 23 Aug 2017 1:13:01pm 5 Pack Leadership Techniques To check availability of Urban Basics Course in Carindale (only available in Carindale) click here.  To enrol in Urban… read more Teaching Boundaries – All About Animals TV Show Episode 4 Dog Training Canberra Puppy factories Related services Tools Free Veterinary Services EFTPOS  Where and when: Saturdays at the Scout Hall on Pye Road in Balhannah

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Advice + Education Dog Obedience School – Tranmere Restricted breed dogs Quote of the Day EFTPOS  Log In Broken Hill Aggressive toward people Greeting guests calmly $230 Researchers have described several reasons why the dominance model is a poor choice for dog training.[71] First, a relationship based on dominance is established to gain priority access to scarce resources, not to impose particular behaviors on the less dominant animal,[72] so the dominance model is irrelevant for most of the behaviors that people want from their dogs, such as coming when called or walking calmly on a leash.[71] Second dominance-submission relationships, once established, are constantly tested and must be regularly reinforced.[73] Thus people, particularly children and the elderly, may not be able to retain their rank and are at risk of being injured if they attempt to do so.[71] Third, dominant individuals gain priority access to resources, but only while they are present, establishing dominance over a dog does not guarantee its behavior when the dominant individual is distant or absent.[71] Illawarra Shelter 05 Dec 2017 9:58:00am Here are some handy tips to train your dog using positive reinforcement. If you practice regularly and give ongoing positive rewards, your dog will improve her manners. Remember, practice makes perfect! You can find more training videos on our Youtube channel. Rottweiler Sale KID 7: But then I’m happy that these puppies are going to change someone’s life. Professional Puppy Training Classes Dog Training Melbourne A collar and lead is needed for your dog on the first night In this class, pencils have been replaced with coloured balls and books with wooden obstacles. Plus, the students are a bit furrier than usual. Okay, so teaching puppies might not look that serious but what they’re learning is actually really important! Emma is amazing!!! � Couldn’t recommend highly enough! Our little Phoebe is already different in all the right ways! � Sign up  With my new puppy Max out of control, I was so exhausted, frustrated and sleep deprived that I didn’t know what to do. 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26 labor heroines you should know for Women’s History Month

Women’s History Month is celebrated in order to promote the significant contributions women have made to the labor movement and beyond that are often left out of the history lessons taught in our classrooms or promoted in society.

The following women are just some of the major players who have had a major role in the fight for equal rights, who made (and are still making) history by exposing horrible labor conditions and acted to change them, and inspired a generation of activists and leaders today.

*the following is adapted from the Zinn Education Project*

1. Louise Boyle

Photographer Louise Boyle is best known for the images she captured, documenting the devastating effects of the Great Depression on American workers. In 1937, at the height of a wave of labor militancy, Ms. Boyle was invited to photograph the living and working conditions of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union members from several Arkansas communities. Her provocative recording depicted courageous people linking their futures together despite devastating poverty, physical hardship, and brutal police-endorsed reprisals. Most portray African American farmers in their homes, at union meetings and rallies, or at work with their families picking cotton. Boyle returned in 1982 to rephotograph some of the people and places she had documented earlier.

2. Hattie Canty

A Las Vegas transplant in rural Alabama, legendary African American unionist Hattie Canty was one of the greatest strike leaders in U.S. history. Her patient leadership helped knit together a labor union made up of members from 84 nations.  During her time as an activist, she saw first hand how the labor and civil rights movements were intrinsically linked: “Coming from Alabama, this seemed like the civil rights struggle…the labor movement and the civil rights movement, you cannot separate the two of them.”

3. May Chen

In 1982, May Chen helped organize and lead the New York Chinatown strike of 1982, one of the largest Asian American worker strikes with about 20,000 garment factory workers marching the streets of Lower Manhattan demanding work contracts. “The Chinatown community then had more and more small garment factories,” she recalled. “And the Chinese employers thought they could play on ethnic loyalties to get the workers to turn away from the union. They were very, very badly mistaken.” Most of the protests included demands for higher wages, improved working conditions and for management to observe the Confucian principles of fairness and respect. By many accounts, the workers won. The strike caused the employers to hold back on wage cuts and withdraw their demand that workers give up their holidays and some benefits. It paved the way for better working conditions such as hiring bilingual staff to interpret for workers and management, initiation of English-language classes and van services for workers.

4. Jessie de la Cruz

A field worker since the age of five, Jessie knew poverty, harsh working conditions, and the exploitation of Mexicans and all poor people. Her response was to take a stand. She joined the United Farm Workers union in 1965 and, at Cesar Chavez’s request, became its first woman recruiter. She also participated in strikes, helped ban the crippling short-handle hoe, became a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, testified before the Senate, and met with the Pope. She continued to be a political activist until her death in 2013, at the age of 93.

5. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn once said, “I will devote my life to the wage earner. My sole aim in life is to do all in my power to right the wrongs and lighten the burdens of the laboring class.” In 1907, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn became a full-time organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World and in 1912 traveled to Lawrence, MA during the Great Textile Strike. She became “the strike’s leading lady.”

6. Emma Goldman

In 1886, year after her arrival from Lithuania, Emma Goldman was shocked by the trial, conviction, and execution of labor activists falsely accused of a bombing in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, which she later described as “the events that had inspired my spiritual birth and growth.” A born propagandist and organizer, Emma Goldman championed women’s equality, free love, workers’ rights, free universal education regardless of race or gender, and anarchism. For more than thirty years, she defined the limits of dissent and free speech in Progressive Era America. Goldman died on May 14, 1940, and buried in Forest Park, Illinois amongst the labor activists that first sparked her life’s work as an activist. Throughout her career, she fought against the corporate powers that tried to dehumanize the people that worked for them: “Still more fatal is the crime of turning the producer into a mere particle of a machine, with less will and decision than his master of steel and iron. Man is being robbed not merely of the products of his labor, but of the power of free initiative, of originality, and the interest in, or desire for, the things he is making.”

7. Velma Hopkins

Velma Hopkins helped mobilize 10,000 workers into the streets of Winston-Salem, NC, as part of an attempt to bring unions to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The union, Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America-CIO, was integrated and led primarily by African American women. They pushed the boundaries of economic, racial and gender equality. In the 1940s, they organized a labor campaign and a strike for better working conditions, pay, and equal rights under the law. It was the only time in the history of Reynolds Tobacco that it had a union. Before Local 22 faced set-backs from red-baiting and the power of Reynolds’ anti-unionism, it gained national attention for its vision of an equal society. This vision garnered the scrutiny of powerful enemies such as Richard Nixon and captured the attention of allies such as actor Paul Robeson and songwriter Woody Guthrie. While it represented the workers, the union influenced a generation of civil rights activists.

8. Dolores Huerta

Before becoming a labor organizer, Dolores Huerta was a grammar school teacher, but soon quit after becoming distraught at the sight of children coming to school hungry or without proper clothing. “I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children.” In 1955, Huerta launched her career in labor organizing by helping Fred Ross train organizers in Stockton, California, and five years later, founded the Agricultural Workers Association before organizing the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez in 1962. Some of her early victories included lobbying for voting rights for Mexican Americans as well as for the right of every American to take the written driver’s test in their native language. A champion of labor rights, women’s rights, racial equality and other civil rights causes, Huerta remains an unrelenting figure in the farm workers’ movement.

9. Mother Jones

Marry Harris “Mother” Jones made it her mission to stand up for the rights of the children who worked in factories and mills under horrible conditions in the early 1900’s. “I asked the newspaper men why they didn’t publish the facts about child labor in Pennsylvania. They said they couldn’t because the mill owners had stock in the papers.” “Well, I’ve got stock in these little children,” said I,” and I’ll arrange a little publicity.” On July 7, 1903, Jones began the “March of the Mill Children” from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt’s Long Island summer home in Oyster Bay, NY, to publicize the harsh conditions of child labor and to demand a 55-hour work-week. During this march she delivered her famed “The Wail of the Children” speech, even though Roosevelt refused to see them.

10. Mary Lease

“Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street.” These words, which eerily echo some sentiments today, were spoken more than 120 years ago by Mary Lease, a powerful voice of the agrarian crusade and the best-known orator of the era, first gaining national attention battling Wall Street during the 1890 Populist campaign. As a spokesperson for the “people’s party,” she hoped that by appealing directly to the heart and soul of the nation’s farmers, she could motivate them to political action to protect their own interests not only in Kansas but throughout the United States. “You may call me an anarchist, a socialist, or a communist, I care not, but I hold to the theory that if one man as not enough to eat three times a day and another man has $25,000,000, that last man has something that belongs to the first.” Mary spent most of her life speaking out in favor of social justice causes including women’s suffrage and temperance, and her work reflected the multifaceted nature of late nineteenth-century politics in the United States. Many female leaders today, such as Elizabeth Warren, still fight against Wall Street and the 1% as inequality has reached exorbitant levels.

11. Clara Lemlich

“I have listened to all the speakers, and I have no further patience for talk. I am a working girl, one of those striking against intolerable conditions. I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in generalities. What we are here for is to decide whether or not to strike. I make a motion that we go out in a general strike.” These were the words of  Clara Lemlich, a firebrand who led several strikes of shirtwaist makers and challenged the mostly male leadership of the union to organize women garment workers. With support from the National Women’s Trade Union League (NWTUL) in 1909 she lead the New York shirtwaist strike, also known as the “Uprising of the 20,000”. It was the largest strike of women at that point in U.S. history. The strike was followed a year later by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that exposed the continued plight of immigrant women working in dangerous and difficult conditions.

12. Luisa Moreno

Luisa Moreno, a Guatemalan immigrant, first got involved in labor activism in 1930 at in Zelgreen’s Cafeteria in New York City, when she and her co-worker protested the employer’s exploitation of its workers with long hours, constant sexual harassment, and the threat, should anyone object, of dismissal. Hearing that workers would picket the cafeteria, police formed a line on the sidewalk that allowed customers to pass through. Luisa, in a fur collar coat, strolled through the cordon of policemen as if she was going to enter the cafeteria. When she was directly in front of the door she pulled a picket sign from under her coat and thrust it in plain view, yelling, “Strike!” Two burly policemen grabbed her by the elbows. They lifted her off the sidewalk and hustled her into the entrance way of a nearby building. She came out with her face bleeding and considered herself fortunate that she was not disfigured. Moreno spent the next 20 years organizing workers across the country. Her story serves as a reminder of just how dangerous the conditions were in those days to simply make one’s voice heard, but her bravery helped change those conditions for the better.

13. Agnes Nestor

“Any new method which the company sought to put into effect and disturb our work routine seemed to inflame the deep indignation already burning inside us. Thus, when a procedure was suggested for subdividing our work, so that each operator would do a smaller part of each glove, and thus perhaps increase the overall production—but also increase the monotony of the work, and perhaps also decrease our rate of pay—we began to think of fighting back.” This reminiscence by Nestor described how the oppressive conditions of the glove factory pushed her to take a leading role in a successful strike of female glove workers in 1898. Soon she became president of her glove workers local and later a leader of the International Glove Workers Union. She also took a leading role in the Women’s Trade Union League, serving as president of the Chicago branch from 1913 to 1948.

14. Pauline Newman

Pauline Newman, a Russian immigrant, began working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1903 when she was thirteen years old. Finding that many of her co-workers could not read, she organized an evening study group where they also discussed labor issues and politics. Newman was active in the shirtwaist strike and the Women’s Trade Union League. She became a union organizer for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) and director of the ILGWU Health Center. “All we knew was the bitter fact that after working 70 or 80 hours in a seven-day week, we did not earn enough to keep body and soul together,” she said.

15. Lucy Parsons

On May 1, 1886, Lucy Parsons helped launched the world’s first May Day and the demand for the eight-hour work day. Along with her husband, anarchist and activist Albert Parsons, and their two children, they led 80,000 working people down the Chicago streets and more than 100,000 also marched in other U.S. cities. A new international holiday was born. Parsons went on to help found the International Workers of the World, continued to give speeches, and worked tirelessly for equality throughout the rest of her life until her death in 1942.

16. Frances Perkins

On March 4, 1933, Frances Perkins became the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. Having personally witnessed workers jump to their death during the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Perkins promoted and helped passed strong labor laws to try to prevent such atrocities from ever occurring again.

17. Rose Pesotta

When Rose Pesotta arrived in Los Angeles in 1933 to organize employees in the garment industry, the workforce of which was 75% Latina, the local leadership of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), consisting of mostly white men, had no interest in organizing female dressmakers, feeling that most would either leave the industry to raise their families or shouldn’t be working in the first place. On October 12, 1933, a month after Rose Pesotta arrived, 4,000 workers walked off the job and went on strike. Their demands included union recognition, 35-hour work weeks, being paid the minimum wage, no take home work or time card regulation, and for disputes to be handled through arbitration. The strike ended on Nov. 6 with mixed results, but the workers gained a 35-hour workweek and received the minimum wage. Although not a complete victory, the message sent was a powerful one. What Rose Pesotta knew all along was now clear to the garment bosses and her male union counterparts; women, specifically women of color, should not be discounted. When it came to the demands of dignity and respect, these workers would not be ignored.

18. Ai-Jen Poo

When Poo started organizing domestic workers in 2000, many thought she was taking on an impossible task.  Domestic workers were too dispersed–spread out over too many homes. Even Poo had described the world of domestic work as the “Wild West.” Poo’s first big breakthrough with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) happened on July 1, 2010, when the New York state legislature passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. The bill legitimized domestic workers and gave them the same lawful rights as any other employee, such as vacation time and overtime pay. The bill was considered a major victory, and the NDWA expanded operations to include 17 cities and 11 states.

19. Florence Reece

Florence Reece was an activist, poet, and songwriter. She was the wife of one of the strikers and union organizers, Sam Reece, in the Harlan County miners strike in Kentucky. In an attempt to intimidate her family, the sheriff and company guards shot at their house while Reece and her children were inside (Sam had been warned they were coming and escaped). During the attack, she wrote the lyrics to Which Side Are You On?, a song that would become a popular ballad of the labor movement.

Song Lyrics

CHORUS: Which side are you on? (4x)

My daddy was a miner/And I’m a miner’s son/And I’ll stick with the union/‘Til every battle’s won [Chorus]

They say in Harlan County/There are no neutrals there/You’ll either be a union man/Or a thug for JH Blair [Chorus]

Oh workers can you stand it?/Oh tell me how you can/Will you be a lousy scab/Or will you be a man? [Chorus]

Don’t scab for the bosses/Don’t listen to their lies/Us poor folks haven’t got a chance/Unless we organize [Chorus]

20. Harriet Hanson Robinson

At the age of 10, Harriet Hanson Robinson got a job in textile Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts to help support her family. When mill owners dropped wages and sped up the pace of work, Harriet and others participated in the 1836 Lowell Mill Strike. Later as an adult, Harriet became an activist for women’s suffrage and would recount her mill work experience in Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls. In her book, Harriet concludes: “Such is the brief story of the life of every-day working-girls; such as it was then, so it might be to-day. Undoubtedly there might have been another side to this picture, but I give the side I knew best–the bright side!”

21. Fannie Sellins

Fannie Sellins was known as an exceptional organizer that also made her “a thorn in the side of the Allegheny Valley coal operators.” The operators openly threatened to “get her.” After being an organizer in St. Louis for the United Garment Workers local and in the West Virginia coal fields, in 1916 Sellins moved to Pennsylvania, where her work with the miners’ wives proved to be an effective way to organize workers across ethnic barriers.  She also recruited black workers, who originally came north as strikebreakers, into the United Mine Workers America. During a tense confrontation between townspeople and armed company guards outside the Allegheny Coal and Coke company mine in Brackenridge on August 26, 1919, Fannie Sellins and miner Joseph Strzelecki were brutally gunned down. A coroner’s jury and a trial in 1923 ended in the acquittal of two men accused of her murder. She is remembered for her perseverance and bravery.

22. Vicky Starr

“When I look back now, I really think we had a lot of guts. But I didn’t even stop to think about it at the time. It was just something that had to be done. We had a goal. That’s what we felt had to be done, and we did it,” said “Stella Nowicki”, the assumed name of Vicki Starr, an activist who participated in the campaign to organize unions in the meatpacking factories of Chicago in the 1930’s and ‘40s.

23. Emma Tenayuca

“I was arrested a number of times. I never thought in terms of fear. I thought in terms of justice,” said Emma Tenayuca, born in San Antonio, Texas on Dec. 21, 1916. Later, she would become to be known as “La Pasionaria de Texas” through her work as an educator, speaker, and labor organizer. From 1934–1948, she supported almost every strike in the city, writing leaflets, visiting homes of strikers, and joining them on picket lines. She joined the Communist Party and the Workers Alliance (WA) in 1936. Tenayuca and WA demanded that Mexican workers could strike without fear of deportation or a minimum wage law. In 1938 she was unanimously elected strike leader of 12,000 pecan shellers. Due to anti-Mexican, anti-Communist, and anti-union hysteria Tenayuca fled San Antonio for her safety but later returned as a teacher.

24. Carmelita Torres

On Jan. 28, 1917, 17-year-old Carmelita Torres led the Bath Riots at the Juarez/El Paso border, refusing the toxic “bath” imposed on all workers crossing the border. Here is what the El Paso Times reported the next day: “When refused permission to enter El Paso without complying with the regulations the women collected in an angry crowd at the center of the bridge. By 8 o’clock the throng, consisting in large part of servant girls employed in El Paso, had grown until it packed the bridge half way across. “Led by Carmelita Torres, an auburn-haired young woman of 17, they kept up a continuous volley of language aimed at the immigration and health officers, civilians, sentries and any other visible American.”

25. Ella Mae Wiggins

Ella Mae Wiggins was an organizer, speaker, and balladeer, known for expressed her faith in the union, the only organized force she had encountered that promised her a better life. On Sept. 14, 1929, during the Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, NC,  Textile Workers Union members were ambushed by local vigilantes and a sheriff’s deputy. The vigilantes and deputy forced Ella Mae Wiggins’ pickup truck off the road, and murdered the 29 year-old mother of nine. Though there were 50 witnesses during the assault and five of the attackers were arrested, all were acquitted of her murder. After her death, the AFL-CIO expanded Wiggins’ grave marker in 1979, to include the phrase, “She died carrying the torch of social justice.” Also a song-writer, her best-known song, A Mill Mother’s Lament, was recorded by Pete Seeger, among others.

26. Sue Cowan Williams

Sue Cowan Williams represented African-American teachers in the Little Rock School District as the plaintiff in the case challenging the rate of salaries allotted to teachers in the district based solely on skin color. The suit, Morris v. Williams, was filed on Feb. 28, 1942, and followed a March 1941 petition filed with the Little Rock School Board requesting equalization of salaries between black and white teachers. She lost the case, but then won in a 1943 appeal.

from 26 labor heroines you should know for Women’s History Month

#26 labor heroines you should know for Women’s History Month

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CHAPTER (7) MEETING OF THE CREWS                                    

Hours later Prince and Aisha arrived at Lord Jamal house. Several men standing around on guard dress in Black Gucci suits sporting automatic weapons with Italian shoes with earpiece in their ears to received communication. Pacing on the grounds of the house. Jamal lives in a modest life style. Not too out spoken but well guarded. A mix between Black Cesar and the Brady bunch. Jamal house decorated inside with old red oak with the latest in modern monitoring equipment over the grounds and inside the house. Jamal knows that even thou he is retired he didn’t forget old enemies still out there waiting for him to slip up. Inside the house its fashion in old redwood furniture, Texas Style. On the walls hung pictures of the Old Black Movie Stars and Musicians. Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Hazel Scott, Billy Stewart, Billy Paul, the O’Jays, the Temptations, and the famous Moments. Jamal liked his old time crooners and the great Jazz players. Louis Armstrong is one of his best Jazz players.

Jamal has African pictures and statues hanging on the walls in the study. Great Kings and Queens along with the great Prince, Princess, and great Military generals of the past wars. Jamal love to study military history and generals. Jamal has pictures of great CEOs of business. Jamal study various interest guiding him when he made a decision in business and war. Black had groom Jamal to take his place in business and he mentor him well! Teaching him everything, he knew about the streets so he would be well rounded in business and science. He pushed Jamal to finish school once he sparked the interest and in turn, he pushed Aisha to finish school and received her license in Law and business management along with her squad of hit women. Jamal had the idea of a team of international killers to take Black Sunday to another level to compete internationally with the backing of his old friend the Don. Chino has taken over for his brother running the Gambino Organization and he has allied himself with Black Sunday.

Prince sees Jamal as he entered the study along with Aisha who rushed towards Jamal, held him tight in her arms, and kissed his cheeks. “Peace Aisha. Peace Prince.”

“Peace to the beloved Jamal.” they both greeted each other. “My condolences Jamal.”

“Thanks brother.”

As Prince and Aisha look around several heads of Black Sunday stand up around the long table saying, “peace to the God.”

“Great everyone is here,” Aisha said. “Good evening gentlemen. This is an unfortunate time for us. Our beloved leader has been killed in an ambush by the Zetas Cartel operating in Philly. Their man in charge over here is Miguel. Like I said this is unfortunate time for us but we have to have this meeting. Let’s sit down.”

Seven noted members of Black Sunday from the New York and New Jersey organization are present for the emergency meeting and on the phone. Jamal has debuggers on his phone for security reasons. ordinarily they wouldn’t hold a meeting like this in order for the Feds to monitor their meeting and phone conversations but because of Mr. Black death and the it went down unexpected all heads agreed to hold this before the funeral giving Aisha and Jamal time to grieve after.

Big Moe, Pretty Tony, Big Saul, Frank Nitti. New York East side. Preacher and G. Lou. Reggie Bonds, Little Dino, and Melos. Along the wall sat Aisha’s hired killers Red, Carmen, Fatima, Karen, Asia, China, and a new member Shahada. All the women are dress to kill with flawless outfits. The men had a hard time keeping their eyes off Asia. The Asian sister is ready to die for with long legs and a big ass. Her dress fitted her like a glove hugging all the right places. Asia has the most softness touch and her lips made a brother wonder. Her breast stood out like missiles. Asia eyes are a light ocean green with her long dreads. Asia like the Afro centric look growing up in East L.A. Compton. All the women were train by Jamal and Aisha in case of drama on the home front towards Mr. Black but he wasn’t expecting it to come now that he was out of prison and home. They protected him while Jamal was in prison with Wise during the Spanish Tony wars and Hakim betrayal. Mr. Black’s lawyer is present during the meeting. He knew all about the business. Mr. Allan who has been war council for the organization. Along with Aisha, they handle all the illegal and legal businesses. Mr. Allan and Mr. Black go back to the original Black Sunday bosses.

“Everybody sit down. Jamal and Aisha you have my condolences for Mr. Black death. We go back for years and there wasn’t anything he didn’t inform me about concerning the business and private business. He worried about this occurring and he made arrangement for the both of you.” the members around the table looked shock and puzzle trying to figure out what arrangements.

“I know you’re wondering who is going to step up and run the operation now. Jamal his wish was for you to continue with your life as it is now but I know he deeply wanted to have you take charge! I went up to see Shine and Nate and they would like for you to come out of retirement. I knew some of you thought Prince would step up but that wasn’t his desire for you at this time and we’re in agreement if Jamal steps up!”

All eyes looked towards Prince and then to Jamal. The team liked Prince but Jamal is their dude. Everybody for Jamal to step up and run Black Sunday said ‘I.’ Jamal looks towards Prince and Aisha.

“My brother I…” and before he could get the words out…

“I do,” Prince said and hit his fist against his heart signaling his approval. Then placing his gun on the table saying, “My life and death go hand and hand Black Sunday!”

Each and every man and women in the room said the same oath of loyalty to Jamal. The voices over the phone sang out the same and congratulating Jamal. Wise and Trigger stands off in the back ground whispering. The vacation is over back to work.

“Another round of business and this is for Aisha and Jamal. Everyone knows Black loved you two. He left you all his holdings and fifty one percent of all his business outside of Black Sunday. Investments with controlling stocks! He left this letter to be read by the both of you giving instructions concerning a personal matter so can you ladies and gentlemen please excuse yourself from the room for just a few moments?” Everybody rose and excused themselves from the room with wonderment on their minds.

“What’s going on?” everybody whispered.

“Aisha this is for you two. First let’s run the video recording.” as the recording starts to play Mr. Jimmy Black sit at his desk smoking his cigar.

“First let me tell you my real name. It’s William Heart and I know this is a shock to you both. I wanted for so long to tell you both I loved you and your mother and we were together up until Aisha was born but we kept it a secret because of her mom and my life style. But after the tragic death of my sister and best friend caught up by my enemies, I knew I couldn’t endanger your mom or you both for my selfish desires. And I couldn’t have the best of both worlds. Not at that time in the drug wars back then and I was too involved for them to let me get out without any scars. So I hid my secrets and stayed away from you all to keep you and your mother safe! You guys thought of me as your godfather Mr. Black. Jamal was too young to fully remember and you were just a baby so you look at me as your mom friend. Aisha Jamal I am your father. Your mom understood my decision and she agreed it was for the best for everybody. My life style and the danger it brought being around me and we couldn’t have that. All this

[ducavalentinos]

Why don't you like Sarah Dunant's novels about the Borgias? Being as you are a Borgia expert/fan, I'd like to know your opinions on this 2 novels, 2 novels which were hugely popular some years ago and have been praised by some Borgia historians.

Ok, so I just want to start this by saying that I haven’t read the second volume and given what @margarettudor told me about it, it doesn’t sound like something I’d want to read tbh. So this is gonna be only about the first volume: Blood&Beauty.I mean, it’s not suprising that these novels were hugely popular and praised by Borgia historians anon, given that Dunant backs their narratives about the Borgia family. Especially about Lucrezia. Dunant clearly sees Lucrezia like most, if not all Borgia historians do. It’s something that plagues Borgia historiography if you ask me. The flawed idea that the only way to rehabilitate Lucrezia’s terrible reputation, is to deny any association with the “crimes” of her family. To press hard that she was just a victim, and she never did anything wrong, ever. If Cesare and Rodrigo are usually the epitome of bad traits, Lucrezia is the epitome of good traits. Which not only is just as dehumanizing as portraying her as evil, but completely ignores the times she was living in and how she was raised, it also doesn’t match with the little evidence we have about her.She was not the poisoner of the Renaissance, (although according to a letter of Giulia Farnese, she was quite good and passionate about chemistry.) But she certainly wasn’t a passive victim either. She received the same education her brothers did, she spoke 5 languages, she had that well known Borgia allure that she deliberately used to her and her family’s advantage, and she definitely had the same mind for politics and diplomacy they had. Rodrigo and Cesare seemed to have trusted her the most with their political affairs. And then shockingly she also shared with them familiar flaws such as: callousness, shallowness, and selfishness.So coming back to Dunant’s book, to see her portraying Lucrezia as this sweet innocent girl, who is incredibly gullible and easily shocked by any imorality lool, who just wants to love and be loved, but her family, most notably her creepy, cruel brother keeps getting in the way is absurd quite honestly. Lucrezia wouldn’t have survived as long as she did if she was truly like that. And then how Dunant presents Cesare and Lucrezia’s relationship as one-sided, as Cesare being the one who is obsessed with his sister is unreal. And that has nothing to do with my shipper feelings for them. I don’t need them to be incestuous on every piece of media, especially considering they were not like that in real life.I do need however, that their relationship be a close and honest one, with mutual feelings and trust because that was pretty much the case. It is a hopeless task to keep trying to separate Lucrezia from her brother and his scheming. If there is one thing that is clear about the Borgias, is Lucrezia’s extreme closeness and loyalty towards her brother and vice-versa, and how that remained true until the very end. No matter what happened. It poses as a big obstacle for Borgia historians who are keen on the St.Lucrezia narrative and it puzzles them too, (which can be quite amusing when you read it ngl) but it is what it is. Lucrezia adored her brother, and he adored her, their complicity was such that it seems even Rodrigo was occasionally bothered by it. By all accounts they were each other’s favorite sibling, possibly because they understood each other best and had similarity in character. We don’t see that same closeness between her and Juan for example. But apart from the Lucrezia’s business, Dunant’s characterizations of the Borgia family as a whole felt dull to me. They are essentially pinned down into tropes? or the same ol’ stereotypes if you will, you have: Rodrigo, the likeable, ambitious schemer, Cesare, the-sometimes-charming-but-mostly unlikeable, dark and heartless scheamer, and then you have Lucrezia, sweet innocent lamb who’s just a pawn. There is no complexity, no depth with these characters, and mind you the whole Italian Renaissance was a complex period, full of grey areas, which it’s one of the things I love about it. You have these people who had no problem slaughtering their way to the top, even if it included their own family members, but who were also big patrons of the arts and humanities. The Malatesta family is a good example of that. Also the Baglioni to an extent. So I needed that complexity and that grey area, and it wasn’t delivered imo. It’s that simplistic portrayal of the family. After a while, it gets tiring.Those are the reasons why I’m in the opposite side of liking this book I guess. And it’s not to say is utter trash, because it isn’t. Dunant is a good writer, she has a way with words. I think that’s also why her novels were so well-received, and there are worst Borgia fiction out there. In the end I think it’s a matter of personal taste and how you perceive the Borgia family. I respect Dunant’s view, (although I find it dishonest and presumptuous how she says what she wrote is as close to real life as possible.) But my view on the family is a different one, I don’t believe neither one of them were good people™. But that doesn’t mean they were evil. Far from it. All three of them had qualities and flaws, all three of them were capable of good and bad things, and that’s what gets lost more often than not in both fiction and history. They were better/different at some things, and no worst than their contemporaries at other things. That’s what I try to find wherever I read fiction about them: balance, complexity, humanity. It is a hard task to be sure lol, but sometimes I get lucky. I hope this bible of an answer makes sense for you anon and I hope you read this before tumblr goes down lol, any other questions, feel free to ask! :))  

#anon ask #ask answered #borgia thoughts #house borgia #lucrezia borgia #lucrecia borgia #cesare borgia #césar borgia #rodrigo borgia #i really tried to be as succinct as articulate as possible #but you know #maybe i failed? #lool #anyways