It’s telling that both Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais decided to end 2023 by releasing specials in which their comedy pivots to poking fun at the disabled. Could they be more obvious about finding new ways to punch down than targeting people physically unable to fight back?

In a false promise near the opening of his brand-new special and seventh for Netflix, The Dreamer, Chappelle boasts: “Tonight, I’m doing all handicapped jokes,” because “well, they’re not as organized as the gays, and I love punching down.”

Similarly, Gervais decides to have a bit of fun at how we’ve decided as a society to say “disabled” instead of “handicapped” and what that says about us, and suggests further in his special Armageddon, released on Christmas Day, that he’d mock Make-A-Wish kids if given the chance to make videos for them.

And, of course, both men take yet more cracks at the trans community.

Early in The Dreamer, Chappelle tells the audience trans people make him feel like he has to go along with them pretending, as if they’re method acting like Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman: “If you came here to this show tonight thinking that I’m gonna make fun of those people again, you’ve come to the wrong show,” only to keep going back on his word.

He says he hoped to “repair” his relationship with the LGTBQ+ community – by writing a play for them in which a black trans woman only identifies as the N-word to trip up liberals. He also jokes that if he went to jail in California, he’d identify as a woman so he could tell the other inmates to “suck my lady dick.”

But it’s all just jokes, right? Can’t we just take a joke? Have we lost our sense of humor? Or have they?

Earlier this month, we lost two pillars not just of the comedy community but of our American community writ, as Norman Lear and Tommy Smothers stood taller than most anyone and everyone else in television, standing up to the establishment and protesting the powers that be for the sake of civil rights and humanity.

Now we’re left with Chappelle and Gervais—two titans in terms of Netflix ratings and paychecks—who are fighting for… the right to utter slurs onstage and tell already marginalized people that their existence is a joke for reasons that are nearly impossible to divine. Especially when there’s so much in the world to talk about right now, that they’ve chosen anti-trans rights as their comedy cause célèbre is dispiriting. As Mae Martin said in their 2023 Netflix special, Sap: “Big multimillionaire comedians in their stand-up specials are, like, taking shots and punching down at a time when trans rights are so tenuous and slipping backwards.”

Lear and Smothers used their clout on TV to speak truth to power about America’s involvement in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, the hypocrisy of religion, racism, abortion, homosexuality and civil rights. While great trans comedians such as River Butcher and Jaye McBride resorted to releasing their stand-up specials straight to YouTube this year, which famous straight comedians can you recall sticking up for the rights of trans people in America?

It feels so frustrating to sit and watch comedians with the stature of Chappelle and Gervais devote so much of their time and energy to bullying the LGBTQ+ community when they could be doing anything else on stage. And then they have the temerity to question us, the audience, for not laughing with them.

For his part, Gervais willingly misdefines and misuses “woke” by suggesting, “if woke now means being a puritanical, authoritarian bully who gets people fired for an honest opinion or even a fact, then no, I’m not woke. Fuck that.” Is Nazism or transphobia an honest opinion that shouldn’t get you fired? He then claims in his closing bit that “all laughter’s good,” a concept that would be news to 2005-era Chappelle when he cut ties with Comedy Central precisely because he could hear racism in the laughs during a taping of Chappelle’s Show.

In his Grammy-nominated lecture to students at his alma mater, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, What’s In A Name?, Chappelle claimed: “The more you say I can’t say something, the more urgent it is for me to say it. It has nothing to do with what you’re saying I can’t say. It has everything to do with my right and my freedom of artistic expression.”

But that’s not comedy, either—much like Gervais’ admission in his special that as a university student, his idea of a joke was calling his mother and pranking her by saying he was hospitalized and potentially blind. Gervais said her mom could’ve had a heart attack, but in his mind, he remembers it now as “they could take a fucking joke, right?”

At least Sam Jay, in her 2023 HBO special Salute Me Or Shoot Me, wrestles with her conscience and moral compass over the use of certain words in her act and concludes that having empathy for others is key. “How do the rest of us get here? I don’t know… I’m not going to pretend that I have the answers,” Jay says, adding: “So we’re doing things like we’re policing words, but we’re not policing behavior.”

Anthony Jeselnik, who has built his comedy career on brandishing himself as an offensive caricature of a comedian, told fellow comedian and podcaster Theo Von earlier this year that too many stand-ups would rather get into trouble by saying the wrong thing instead of focusing on their job and saying funny things.

“People think — oh, as a comic your job is to get in trouble. But they don’t want to get yelled at. It’s like, it’s OK to make people mad, but they don’t want any push back. And I think that’s wrong,” Jeselnik said. “As a comedian, you want to make people laugh. This is a quote attributed to Andy Warhol that I love: ‘Art is getting away with it.’ You know, if you put out a special and everyone’s pissed, like, you didn’t get away with it. You know. You need to make everyone laugh that they’re like, ‘Yeah, he talked about some fucked up stuff, but we’re all happy.’ That’s art. Otherwise, you’re just a troll.”

Kliph Nesteroff, a comedy historian whose newest book is Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars, similarly told me last month that some while comedians see themselves sometimes as “philosophers” he believes they are “betraying their job description because you’re supposed to make people laugh, and philosophers are supposed to philosophize.”

Comedians may claim they can’t joke about anything anymore, but they joke about more now than ever before. The real problem with stand-up today is that too many comedians would rather kick people when they’re down, then lecture us on how we’re too sensitive for not laughing about it.

When Chappelle, Gervais or their acolytes have to incessantly explain that their jokes are just jokes, then they cease to be great comedians—or even comedians at all.

i am going to give the main piece of advice i have gleaned from myalmost 23 years on this earth and my time learning from incredible organizers, which i said to a friend as she discovered community for the first time in person

Let your love, your connection with community, your care, your passion radicalize you. This world can be cold and cruel, it's true. But we cannot cave to the whims of imperialism, to the whims of colonial violence, to the whims of capitalist oppression and individualism, to the whims of individualism constantly sewing divide as a result of these forces. (This outlook was taught to me through learning from Riot Diaz @juicyparsons, Reaux @reaux07 and Walela Nehanda [@itswalela] in the time I've known and interacted with their content and work online). These forces will us to become cold, uncaring, brutal, uncaring in the face of strife, suffering and violence. They make us go numb and they rely on such. (paraphasing Stefanie Kaufman-Mthimkhulu's posts on the way this is specifically weaponized in the genocide of Palestinians, Oct. 2023) You need to resist this. The boldest act we can have in this world is to love deeply, to feel deeply. we need to learn to connect with this world in a tangiable way to combat the disconnect we've become accustomed to. By connecting with each other, by loving each other in a way where we ACTUALLY support each other, share, collaborate, co-conspire). By learning to love radically again we can build such passion and compassion for the world that we cannot be blind to the suffering of each other. We need to do this urgently. The whole of humanity depends on it (All of the last passage was shaped by a mosaic of wisdom from all above mentioned organizers, along with Lacey Weekes of Idle No More London ON, Layla Staats, an Indigenous land defender who was on the front lines in Wet'suwet'en, Skyler Williams of 1492 Land Back Lane, Emunah Wolfe of @safeusesketches on instagram, Bangishimo Johnston of O:se Kenhionhata:ie, Andrewism on Youtube, and Noname, as well as my friend Ash and one of my students.

For those who are loveless or lack empathy, do not feel guilty. Care is just as powerful as love. Build care in your communities. Build connection. You are not broken and you can be radical too. Community is so deeply important to all of us, inclusing loveless people. Let yourself be embraced, encaptured in a web of people with experience both shared and vastly different. Listen to their every word. Let their kindness and words, and your joy in community radicalize you too.

Alzheimer’s Imagine Benefit Exceeds Expectations

The Alzheimer’s Association, the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s research, held its annual gala on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, with cocktails beginning at 6 p.m. at the Jazz at Lincoln Center. Formed in 1980 by Jerome Stone, the Alzheimer’s Association has raised over $80 million to date.

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The 250-person sold-out evening, attended by 250 people and costing $1,500 per ticket, was one of the most enjoyable of the year, featuring delectable food, a plethora of entertainment, and a meaningful program. Emcee Laurie Hernandez, a two-time Olympic medalist, and Alzheimer’s Association Celebrity Champion, introduced Ballet Hispanico, singers R.Q, Tek, Darren Criss, and Colton Ryan, and musicians Evan Drachman and Wan-Chi Su, who all made the evening a smash success.

Darren Criss and Coltan Ryan at the Alzheimer's Association Imagine Benefit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on October 25, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Lieba Nesis)

Wow. Hello. It gives me great "HOORAY" energy to say: 

Avalanche, my first studio album of Jennysongs in over a decade, is out today!

This record is a document of the shifting tectonic plates of my existence: love, loss, terrible sadness, profound joy, ancient wounds of my youth, and the endless possibilities of the universe (to say nothing of all the other universes) are all contained within. I am so proud of these songs and these recordings. I hope you'll find them worth the listening.

I'm extremely grateful to all of these folks for sharing their creative gifts with me and helping to bring this record into existence:

Josh Kaufman produced the album, shepherding each song with incredible care. He also played a great many instruments, and his wizardry on guitar, piano, organ, bass, and pretty much anything else he can get his hands on is unmatched. Also, he made me delicious eggs, and the importance of proper fortification for a long day in the studio cannot be overstated. What a guy.

D. James Goodwin engineered, mixed, and mastered the album, and brings the golden glow of warmth that pervades these songs. 

Matt Barrick played drums and percussion on the record, and did so with incredible feel and glorious tone. 

Gillian Pelkonen provided production assistance and absolutely impeccable vibes.  

Madi Diaz, Peter Silberman, Mikky Ekko, S. Carey, Christian Lee Hutson, Bess Rogers, and Tyler Demorest all cowrote songs with me that appear on this release; they're all also wonderful people I'm so thankful to know.

Josh Goleman took beautiful photographs during the recording process, and Lisa Czech took beautiful photographs in my home and around the wilds of Maine. 

The passionate folks of my new label home Yep Roc Records have been incredible partners on every step of the journey thus far (and they let me make gatefold jackets for the vinyl edition, wow wow wow). 

I can't believe this day is here at last.

I hope you enjoy Avalanche.

Listen / buy / live laugh love: ffm.to/joyavalanche

Laura Harris, Shawn Hatosy, Josh Hartnett, Clea DuVall, Elijah Wood, and Jordana Brewster in The Faculty (Robert Rodriguez, 1998)

Cast: Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy, Elijah Wood, Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Christopher McDonald, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick, Usher, Jon Stewart, Daniel von Bargen. Screenplay: Kevin Williamson, David Wechter, Bruce Kimmel. Cinematography: Enrique Chediak. Production design: Cary White. Film editing: Robert Rodriguez. Music: Marco Beltrami.

Two premises are key to The Faculty: that adolescents see adults in authority as alien figures, and that high school is an instrument for instilling social conformity. The former has been the stuff of movies since Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955). The latter is in evidence today in the efforts of states like Florida and Texas to remake education along conservative ideological lines. Unfortunately, Kevin Williamson's screenplay and Robert Rodriguez's direction don't take either premise seriously enough to make more than a raucous but routine sci-fi/horror movie out of the material. The result is exactly as the Criterion Channel describes it: "The Breakfast Club meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers." John Hughes's 1985 movie put a Jock, a Brain, a Criminal, a Princess, and a Basket Case together in detention and explored the interaction of disparate high school stereotypes. The Faculty's misfit crew is a little more complex: Stan (Shawn Hatosy), the Jock, wants to quit the team, and Zeke (Josh Hartnett) is both Brain and Criminal: He concocts his own drug (unfortunately called "scat") in his lab, selling it out of the trunk of his car, and he has an off-the-charts IQ. Elijah Wood's Casey is bullied the way Brains typically are in teen movies, and Clea DuVall's Stokely is more of a goth-punk rebel than a Basket Case. Jordana Brewster's Delilah is an overachieving Princess, both editor of the school newspaper and captain of the cheerleading squad. They are joined by a New Girl, Marybeth Louise Hutchinson (Laura Harris), a transfer from Atlanta to their Ohio high school who comes complete with a somewhat cloying Southern accent. If The Faculty had kept its focus steadily on this group as they uncover the fact that their teachers have been taken over by an extraterrestrial organism, the movie would have had more coherence and suspense. Instead, it opens with the revelation that something is clearly causing the teachers and the principal to go mad and murderous. The principal (Bebe Neuwirth) is attacked in her office by the coach (Robert Patrick), and when she tries to escape, her way is blocked by a teacher, Mrs. Olson (Piper Laurie), who suddenly turns from meek to menacing. After missing work for a day or so, the principal returns as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, other teachers have been showing personality changes that begin to spread into the student body. It's not long before the movie begins to invoke the other half of its inspiration, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956; Philip Kaufman, 1978). Williamson, whose screenplay for Scream (1996) was full of allusions to other horror films, can't resist making the source for The Faculty explicit, so when his teenagers cite the movie themselves and use it as a guide to fighting the alien, The Faculty becomes too meta for its own good. There's enough to enjoy in the movie, including good performances by most of the cast. Hartnett is particularly good in the role of a guy who's embarrassed by his own intelligence. It's fun to see Jon Stewart, who plays a science teacher, in one of the acting performances he likes to make fun of. But when it comes to making good on its key premises and developing a real satiric edge, The Faculty has to be called a missed opportunity. 

History Goes to War in the Holy Land

Israel’s leading historian, Benny Morris, long exposed his country’s sins. Then he began to hold the Palestinians to account. His erstwhile admirers aren’t happy about it.

By Elliot Kaufman

March 29, 2024

The dogs of the neighborhood perk up to greet me at Benny Morris’s front gate in this middle-of-nowhere town in central Israel. The great historian, shaggy-haired, in T-shirt, open flannel and socks, has recently returned home from the U.K., where the barking did not cease.

He was there to debate a hard-line anti-Israel scholar and speak at the London School of Economics, where some students tried and failed to shut down his lecture with droning, preplanned slogans. “You’re actually quite boring,” Mr. Morris, 75, told them, at which point he was called a racist, doubtless in the expectation that he, a liberal, would be cowed by the slur. He wasn’t. “I’d rather be a racist than a bore,” he replied.

Mr. Morris was once the toast of the campuses. “I was sort of a symbol on the left,” he says on his back porch. “I don’t want to say ‘icon.’ ” If he won’t, I will. Mr. Morris was foremost among the “New Historians” who shook Israel in the 1980s and seemed to triumph in the 1990s with their revisionist accounts of the Arab-Israeli conflict. His 1988 book, “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-49,” was a landmark in Israel’s self-criticism and understanding. That same year, Mr. Morris spent 19 days in Israeli military prison for refusing to serve on reserve duty in the West Bank.

How did he go from there to the shouting match at LSE? To many on the left, Mr. Morris says, “I seem to have turned anti-Palestinian in the year 2000,” when Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Bill Clinton offered a two-state solution and Yasser Arafat rejected it. “I thought this was a terrible decision by the Palestinians, and I wrote that.” When the Palestinians, in response to the offer of peace and statehood, then launched a wave of terrorism and suicide bombings unlike any before it, Mr. Morris disapproved of that, too. “I began to write journalism against the Palestinians, their decisions and policies,” he says, “and this was considered treachery.”

Mr. Morris was suddenly out of step “because people always forgive the Palestinians, who don’t take responsibility,” he says. “It’s accepted that they are the victim and therefore can do whatever they like.” Mr. Morris doesn’t contest the claim of victimhood but sees it on both sides. “Righteous Victims” is the title of his 1999 history of the conflict.

Israel is viewed as “all-powerful vis-à-vis the Palestinians,” he says. “But as we see it, we are surrounded by the Muslim world, organized in some way by Iran, and the West is turning its back on us. So we see ourselves as the underdog.” Try that on a college campus. “Now, the Palestinians are the underdog, and the underdog is always right, even if it does the wrong things,” he says, “like Oct. 7.”

The West hasn’t reckoned with Oct. 7. Not the massacre itself, which is at once too hard to fathom and too easy to condemn, but the broad support for it among Palestinians. “They were joyous in the West Bank and Gaza Strip when 1,200 Jews were killed and 250 were taken hostage,” Mr. Morris says. Palestinian support for the atrocities has remained constant, at over 70%, in opinion polls.

Mr. Morris tries to see it from their point of view: “700,000 Palestinians had become refugees as a result of Israel and its victory in ’48. They’d been living under occupation since ’67. I understand their desire for revenge and to see Israel disappear or very badly hurt.”

But that’s too easy. “In addition to those history-based grievances, there is Muslim antisemitism, terrorism and a level of barbarism, which for Israelis felt like more than revenge for bad things we’ve done,” he says. “It was a sick ideology and sick people carrying out murder and rape in the name of that ideology.”

Mr. Morris stresses the costs of that Palestinian decision. “There was never destruction like what has happened in Gaza over the past five months in any of Israel’s wars.” In 1967, “Israel conquered the West Bank with almost no houses being destroyed,” he says, “and the same applies in ’56 in the Gaza Strip, and the same applies in ’48. Israel didn’t have the firepower to cause such devastation. This is totally new.”

He doubts the scale of the suffering will move Palestinian nationalists. “Probably they’ll look back to Oct. 7 as a sort of minor victory over Zionism and disregard the casualties which they paid as a result,” he says. That’s the historical pattern.

“Not only has each of their big decisions made life worse for their people, but they ensure that each time the idea of a two-state solution is proposed, less of Palestine is offered to them,” Mr. Morris says. “In 1937, Palestinians were supposed to get 70% of Palestine or more.” The Zionists were willing to work with the plan, but the Arabs rejected it and chose violence. “Then, in 1947, the Palestinians were supposed to get 45% of Palestine,” with much of Israel’s more than 50% comprising desert. The Zionists accepted the partition, and, again, the Palestinians chose violence.

“And then in the Barak-Clinton things,” in 2000, “the Palestinians were supposed to get 21%, 22% of Palestine.” Instead they launched the second intifada. “Next time,” Mr. Morris predicts, “they’ll probably get 15%. Each time they’re given less of Palestine as a result of being defeated in their efforts to get all of Palestine.”

Mr. Morris says 1947 was the best chance for peace, but the Arabs instead tried to block and then crush the new Jewish state. Though they came to see the war as the nakba, or catastrophe, and as the final stage of a Zionist invasion, at the time “they thought they were going to win,” Mr. Morris says. “They have a problem explaining to themselves why they lost the war with twice as many Arabs as Jews—100 times as many if you include the Arab states.”

One day, Mr. Morris admits, the Palestinian strategy could work. “Somebody coming from Mars would say, ‘The Arabs have the numbers. They have the potential for much greater economic and military power, so they’re going to win here if they persist in their resistance.’ ”

Mr. Morris lets that hang in the air. “And yet, one never knows,” he says. “Unusual things happen here. Peace might also break out, which would be even more unusual.”

Especially now. “Over the decades,” Mr. Morris says, “left and center in Israel were willing to go for a two-state solution.” Oct. 7 has accelerated the process of convincing those Israelis they were misguided. “Israelis today don’t want to look at the two-state solution. Most Israelis fear Hamas would take over the West Bank”—a fear Mr. Morris says is amply justified by Hamas’s popularity—“and that it would be a springboard for attacks on Israel, as the Gaza Strip was.”

If Oct. 7 pushed Israelis further away from a deal, “internationally, Oct. 7 put the two-state solution back on the table,” he observes. “It had been removed from the table. Nobody cared about it. Nobody talked about it. Now it’s back on the agenda.”

Thus Mr. Morris says the massacre worked. “The terrorism told the international community that a solution must be found, otherwise this will keep going on and on.” As if to punctuate his point, the sound of distant Israeli bombing in Gaza makes its way to us. “But,” he says, “I don’t think anyone can impose a two-state solution, because the Arabs don’t want it and the Jews don’t want it.”

It wouldn’t work, anyway. “Palestinians might tactically agree to a two-state solution, but it would never be enough for them. Because they need more territory than the West Bank and Gaza, especially to absorb refugees from Lebanon and Syria. They’re too big.” They would also need Jordan, as he advocated in “One State, Two States” (2009), or the rest of Israel, as they have always demanded.

The Oct. 7 attack also succeeded by undermining Israeli-Saudi rapprochement, Mr. Morris says, but Iran shouldn’t get away with that. “Israel should have used this war to destroy the Iranian nuclear project, and I hope we still will. But this guy, [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, is incompetent,” he says. “I don’t know if the word ‘weakling’ is right, but he’s cowardly in relation to taking big decisions.”

Mr. Morris adds that “Western public opinion over the past 20 years has gradually seen Israel in Netanyahu’s image, which has cast a pall over the Jewish state.” Israel has suffered a “major turn” in global public opinion, he says, “and it’s largely, in my view, because of Netanyahu.”

Yet when I ask about the Netanyahu position that is now drawing President Biden’s ire, the determination to invade Hamas’s last stronghold in Rafah, Mr. Morris’s answer is instructive. “The Israeli public, myself included, thinks that we’ve begun the job and we must finish the job. We must destroy Hamas, and that will include taking Rafah,” he says. “In this, Netanyahu is right and in this, most Israelis agree.”

Perhaps Mr. Biden has misread Israelis. “If you like Cicero, think of Carthage,” Mr. Morris says. “Hamas must be destroyed after what it did. We can’t allow that on our southern border, in addition to having Hezbollah on our northern border and Iran, God knows where—we just can’t.”

Mr. Morris prefers to see the Palestinian movement on its own terms. Thomas Friedman’s writing in the New York Times about the Palestinian “dream of independence in their homeland in a state next to Israel” earns a chuckle. “I think the Palestinians regard the Zionist enterprise and the state of Israel which emerged from it as illegitimate, a robber state,” Mr. Morris says, “and that the Jews have no right to it. This, I think, all Palestinians believe.”

The real conflict “boils down to whether the Jews were right and had the right to come here and settle here and establish a sovereign state,” he says. “It’s not so much about Israeli behavior at any given point in time.”

Mr. Morris made his name exposing the dark side of Israel’s founding, but at the end of the day, “I’m a Zionist—I use the word,” he says. “I believe that the Jews had a right to establish a state here. The Arabs had a right because they were indigenous here, and the Jews had a right because they were here many, many years before the Arabs and always looked to this land as theirs.”

He puts Israel in context: “The Arabs had Arabia, and then another 24 states which emerged afterward. And the Jews have this little sliver of territory which used to belong to us. There’s something fair about that,” no matter how often it is denounced as a world-historical injustice.

While “most of the Arabs up to the 20th century understood that this had been the Jews’ land,” Palestinians have radicalized in their denial of Jewish history. “When Clinton mentioned the ancient Jewish temple at Camp David in 2000, Arafat said, ‘What temple?’ ” Mr. Morris recounts. “He basically argued there was no connection of the Jews to the Holy Land at all.”

This is also the claim today from Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat’s successor, who told the United Nations in 2023, “They dug everywhere and they could not find anything.”

Mr. Morris will criticize the Palestinians in moral terms, but he isn’t sure he knows what’s in their interest better than they do. When I ask what a true friend of the Palestinians would advise, he is conflicted. “A true friend might say, ‘Stop killing Israelis and you’ll get a deal and you’ll get the West Bank,’ ” he says. “But maybe a true friend, another one, would say, ‘The West Bank isn’t really enough for the Palestinians. The Jews stole Palestine from you. Just fight on, lose as many people as you can, kill as many Israelis as you can. You’ll ultimately get the rest.’ ”

When I ask what a true friend of Israel would say right now, Mr. Morris doesn’t hesitate. “Finish off Hamas,” he replies.

Even if one has problems with Israel—occupation, settlements?

“Get rid of Hamas.”

Mr. Kaufman is the Journal’s letters editor.

please please go check out this fic

i didn't write it, but all the kudos to the author they're actually amazing. you can't help but get so invested in the story and they are such a wonderful writer, pls go support this talented person!!

Shocking absolutely nobody:

Chappelle opens the special by telling a story about visiting Jim Carrey while he was shooting the 1999 film “Man on the Moon,” where the actor famously went method on set while portraying comedian Andy Kaufman. Dave recalls being “very disappointed” that he spent the day speaking to Carrey pretending to be Kaufman, ending by saying, “That’s how trans people make me feel.”

He then addressed the controversy surrounding his anti-trans material, saying, “If you guys came here to this show tonight thinking that I’m going to make fun of those people again, you’ve come to the wrong show. I’m not fucking with those people anymore. It wasn’t worth the trouble. I ain’t saying shit about them. Maybe three or four times tonight, but that’s it. I’m tired of talking about them. And you want to know why I’m tired of talking about them? Because these people acted like I needed them to be funny. Well, that’s ridiculous. I don’t need you. I got a whole new angle coming. You guys will never see this shit coming. I ain’t doing trans jokes no more.”

He then said he was going to transition to joking about “handicapped” people instead because “they’re not as organized as the gays. And I love punching down.”

A few minutes later, Chappelle revisited the topic, saying, “To be honest with you, I’ve been trying to repair my relationship with the transgender community cause I don’t want them to think that I don’t like them. You know how I’ve been repairing it? I wrote a play. I did. Cause I know that gays love plays. It’s a very sad play, but it’s moving. It’s about a Black transgender woman whose pronoun is, sadly, n***a. It’s a tear-jerker. At the end of the play she dies of loneliness cause white liberals don’t know how to speak to her. It’s sad.”

Later, he quipped, “God forbid I ever go to jail. But if I do, I hope it’s in California. Soon as the judge sentences me, I’ll be like, ‘Before you sentence me, I want the court to know I identify as a woman. Send me to a woman’s jail.’ As soon I get in there, you know what I’mma be doing. ‘Give me your fruit cocktail, bitch, before I knock your motherfucking teeth out. I’m a girl, just like you, bitch. Come here and suck this girl dick I got. Don’t make me explain myself. I’m a girl.'”

Chappelle also said the attacker “had a knife that identified as a gun” and “I triggered them because I had done LBGTQ [sic] jokes and it turns out this fella was a ‘B.'” He also joked that, knowing the attacker was bisexual, he “could have been raped.”

According to this site, Chappelle's net worth is $70 million. A more timely comparison to the below screenshot would be Forbes' Celebrity 100 Earnings list that had him at #98 (for $35 million) as of 7/15/2018.

The Jewish World War I Hero: Benjamin Kaufman

His right arm shattered, Ben threw grenades with his left hand.

Benjamin Kaufman was a Jewish World War I hero who received the Medal of Honor for his exceptional bravery on the battlefield.

Born in 1894 to Russian parents, Ben grew up in Brooklyn, the youngest of nine. He lived in a tough neighborhood, and had to learn to fight. “Unless you could fight in East New York in Brooklyn at that time, you just didn’t have a chance,” Ben later said.

Ben became a talented boxer. He was kicked out of high school for breaking the football captain’s nose, but enrolled in a different high school and excelled, earning a scholarship to Syracuse University. In college, he couldn’t stop fighting and finally left to become a professional baseball player.

In 1917, Ben joined the army and and was assigned to the 77th Division, 308th Infantry, Company K. The 77th had the largest number of Jewish soldiers, and still holds the record for the most number of languages spoken in any military division in modern history. Ben quickly became a sergeant, but refused officer training because he didn’t want to leave Company K. He was so popular with his men that he became known as “best top kick” – slang for First Sergeant – in the U.S. Army.

When Ben faced anti-semitism, he would go out of his way to do something nice for the offender, often winning over his enemy with kindness.

Ben’s unit was sent to France in March 1918.  It didn’t take long for Ben to show his heroic mettle. In one of his first battles, his unit was being attacked with toxic gas. The men were hiding in small dugouts. When one dugout collapsed under heavy fire, a soldier was trapped underneath the rubble. Ben took off his bulky gas mask so he could save his comrade. At this point, a shell exploded right in front of him, partially blinding him. Ben refused medical help but was taken against his will to a hospital. As soon as he could, Ben borrowed a uniform and headed back to his unit. Ben was threatened with court-martial for leaving the hospital without authorization but ultimately was allowed to return to the front.

On October 4, 1918, while serving in an advance detail in the Argonne, Ben and his men came under heavy attack. Two of his men were wounded by German machine gun fire but were unreachable. Ben’s right arm was shattered when he was struck by a bullet. Despite his injury, Ben continued advancing on the enemy, throwing hand grenades with his left hand. He reached the German position and captured an enemy soldier. Ben managed to transport the German prisoner to the American line. He revealed the location of the German army before fainting from loss of blood. The information Ben relayed enabled the American army to continue moving forward.

In recognition of his bravery in battle, Ben was awarded the Medal of Honor – the country’s highest military decoration – on April 8, 1919. The citation said, “He took out a patrol for the purpose of attacking an enemy machinegun which had checked the advance of his company. Before reaching the gun he became separated from his patrol and a machinegun bullet shattered his right arm. Without hesitation he advanced on the gun alone, throwing grenades with his left hand and charging with an empty pistol, taking one prisoner and scattering the crew, bringing the gun and prisoner back to the first-aid station.”

In addition to the Medal of Honor, Ben received nine international awards for bravery, including the prestigious Croix de Guerre.

After the war, Ben became an active civic leader in Trenton, NJ. He directed many organizations including Disabled American Veterans, Jewish War Veterans, and the National Legion of Valor. At age 48, he tried to enlist to fight in World War II, but was rejected due to his age. He died at age 86 in 1981.

For serving his country with great distinction, we honor First Sergeant Benjamin Kaufman as this week’s Thursday Hero.

Bodywork often switches between "global" and "local" techniques to achieve its goals. We must do the same when caring for our society. The Atlantic recently had two articles about a "dark triad", one of individual personality traits, and one applied to national politics. They are remarkably co-related to a healthy global/local strategy for all.

Advice on how to identify and avoid Dark Triads in local (individual) relationships:

"The traits to look for are self-importance, a sense of entitlement, vanity, a victim mentality, a tendency to bend the truth or even openly lie, manipulativeness, grandiosity, a lack of remorse, and an absence of empathy. Probe for these characteristics particularly when on first dates and in job interviews." [Know that these traits are most prevalent in political and entertainment fields, with a healthy scattering of CEOs. Dark triad traits are least prevalent in professions that involve caring for other people.]

From the global (national) perspective:

"The U.K. is now an object lesson for other countries dealing with a dark triad of deindustrialization, degrowth, and denigration of foreigners. Having offshored industry in favor of finance, its economy wasn’t resilient.

The British government pursued a policy of austerity, fretting about debt rather than productivity or aggregate demand. In the past 30 years, the British economy chose finance over industry, Britain’s government chose austerity over investment, and British voters chose a closed and poorer economy over an open and richer one. The predictable results are falling wages and stunningly low productivity growth.

The resulting erosion in living standards made the public desperate for something to blame. Blame-seeking conservatives spotted bogeymen abroad. Brexit cut off the economy from further growth and set the stage for a rolling political circus."

"The U.S. has a different menu of problems from the U.K.’s. But here too, politicians are navigating an industrial sector in structural decline, a political left that is often skeptical about the virtues of economic growth, and a political right that is organized in part around hating foreigners. Enemies of progress can criticize the legacy of industrialization, productivity, and globalization. But the U.K. shows us what can happen when a rich country seems to reject all three. Rather than transforming into some post-economic Eden of good vibes, it becomes bitter, flailing, and nonsensical."

And finally, some ways to turn it around. From the individual article:

"The characteristics of a Light Triad include faith in humanity (trusting in people’s fundamental goodness), humanism (believing in the dignity and worth of each person), and a Kantian adherence to the idea of universal moral law (in this context, refusing to objectify or instrumentalize others). Compared with the 7 percent that are dark, Kaufman finds that fully 50 percent of his international population sample qualify as Light Triads, and that the average person has more light than dark personality traits."

I believe Joe Biden and Kamala Harris exemplify the Light Triad traits far more than any of the Republican politicians, who all seem to cluster their policies around the Dark Triad traits, both individual and nationalistic.

"The Sociopaths Among Us—And How to Avoid Them" By Arthur C. Brooks

"You’re bound to come across the “Dark Triad” type of malignant narcissists in life—and they can be superficially appealing. Better to look for their exact opposite."

And

"How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe"

By Derek Thompson

"Britain chose finance over industry, austerity over investment, and a closed economy over openness to the world."

(Thanks Barbara Sharp)

she finally did it .... I organized my refreshed muse page HERE. eventually I'll have a full bio page for them all but to have this finished is a lil victory ok. like for a lil starter from one of my new bbs. will come to you for which muse! ♡

miles lin | fc: derek luh | professional soccer player

aspen fields | fc: isabel may | waitress & student

bailey fields | fc: asa germann | drummer

chloe yate | fc: alva bratt | student

javier alvarez | fc: ferenando lindez | model

nuray demici | fc: meltem akçöl | student & ice skater

emilia correa | fc: valentina zenere | dj

arlo zimmermann | fc: sean kaufman | bass player

minhee choi | fc: bae suzy | fashion influencer

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Aurora Cycle - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Nari Kim/Zila Madran Characters: Zila Madran, Nari Kim (Aurora Cycle) Additional Tags: Domestic, Late Night Conversations, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Comfort Food, Nari Kim has ADHD, Zila Madran needs a hug, Mentioned Finiamo De Karran De Seel, Mentioned Scarlett Jones, Mentioned Tyler Jones, Sleep? Who's she?, english is not my first language, I wrote this instead of going to sleep at a decent hour, Author Is Sleep Deprived, I'm honestly not completely sure of what this one shot is, but i like it, so now it's yall's problem too, Both Zila and Nari have big feelings, Nobody is ready to share Summary:

Zila wakes up in the middle of the night and decides getting to work on Tyler's boots may be a good idea.

Nari has a light sleep.

Hi I’m an 8th/9th grade teacher and I’m looking to buy some new books for my classroom and you seem to be reading a lot of YA recently!! Would you mind sharing some recommendations you think are uh appropriate for me to purchase through the school? You seem to read a lot of fantasy/sci fi/romance which is a lot of what my kids like 🥰 thanks!

YA fantasy/scifi and romance! Yessss I can!

I just finished Legendborn by Tracy Deonn and started it's sequel today and it was AMAZING. Highly recommend. It's a King Author + magic retelling, Black Main Character written by a Black Author and done SO WELL because duh, own voices. It's dark academia fantasy and such a killer debut novel FOR SURE. And it's got a the classic YA love triangle and some romance thrown in too. Plus February is Black History Month, great time to support BIPOC authors 💜 (Duolgoy)

Scythe by Neil Shusterman is a YA SciFi dystopian and its SO GOOD. It's a story about how in the future, death no longer exists. The only way a human can die is by being gleaned, aka murdered, by the Scythes. They are trained to deal out death to those who deserve it and contain the human population in the most humane way possible. Yet, there is lots of betrayals and power plays and double crossings happening between those in power of the Sycthe organization. And yes, a very cute side plot romance here too (Trilogy)

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong. It's a YA Paranormal Urban Fantasy. It's actually like the YA verison of one of my favorite adult series of hers and it's set in the same world with little Easter eggs connecting the series. But can be read as a standalone trilogy. It follows Chloe discovering she is a necromancer and thrust into this supernatural world and all that comes with it, including a werewolf love interest and the classic YA love triangle and romance. Still so good honestly too. (Trilogy)

This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab. It's a YA Dark Urban Fantasy that basically explores the overall themes of how humans can be the monsters too. It's SO GOOD. Basically 2 kids of powerful men on either side of a war that is destroying their city, must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake.... and while one is human, one might be something else entirely 👀 Literally it's so good. And yes, it does end up having romance too (Duology)

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. It's a YA Paranormal fantasy story about a gay trans boy who while trying to get his family to accept both his gender and his powers (the men are traditionally spirit guides and the women are healers), accidentally summons a ghost, who then refuses to move on. And yes, its got a VERY sweet and cute romance here too. Plus own voices trans rep (Standalone)

Illuminae Files by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman. A YA SciFi Trilogy where it's one of the most unique formats of crafting a story I've ever read. It's told through a series of files and emails and transcripts and it's SO FUN. It follows the story of Kady and Ezra and the journey they go on after their tiny space mining colony was attacked and destroyed. And oh yeah, they had just recently broken up but they Still love each other 😏 and what in the AI happens in this book too! Lol (Trilogy)

And I really wasn't kidding about it being a uniquely written book and yet somehow the audiobooks are just as well done too lol

Warcross by Marie Lu. A SciFi YA Dystopian Novel that is basically like an emersive video game. It follows our main character as she becomes lowkey a spy and bounty hunter. Yes, it's got romance and betrayal and plot twists and rainbow hair and constant reminders that nothing is truly as it seems. And it's so good. (Duology)

As always, make sure you look up content warnings. I didn't list them here this time. But these are all scifi/fantasy YA novels that include a fun romantic side plot that I've LOVED when I read them. Hope this helps and thanks for asking! I have more I can suggest too of course

by Joe Kaufman

A prominent educator and activist in South Florida will be removed from two committees associated with the Broward County School Board, after officials learned of her ties to radical Muslim groups and promotion of antisemitism. The decision came after her connections to Islamist organizations and her own promotion of antisemitism were brought to their attention by this author.

Officials will remove Naima Khan-Ghany from her seats on the Broward County School Board Diversity and Human Relations Committees, at the end of June.

‘In light of what has taken place,’ Khan-Ghany’s duties have been ‘put on hold,’ and come July 1st, she will no longer be affiliated with either committee and will be replaced by other appointees.

Janysse Edouard, the Executive Secretary of School Board member Dr. Jeff Holness stated, on June 6th, that “in light of what has taken place,” Khan-Ghany’s duties have been “put on hold,” and come July 1st, she will no longer be affiliated with either committee and will be replaced by other appointees.

For over seven years, Trinidad-born Naima Khan-Ghany has served in different capacities within the Broward County School Board, most notably on the Diversity and Human Relations Committees, the latter of which she chairs. Through much of that time and well before, she has affiliated with several Islamist groups, many of which are extensions of international terrorist entities.

Khan-Ghany has worked with the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which, in July 2014, co-sponsored a Miami rally where event goers repeatedly chanted “We are Hamas” and “Let’s go Hamas.” She has worked with the South Asian terror-linked Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and spoke at a 2015 banquet for ICNA’s social services division, ICNA Relief. She has been photographed with ICNA Relief USA’s Government Affairs Coordinator Syed Ammar Ahmed, who once joked about threatening to blow up a school, and ICNA Relief USA’s COO Abdul Rauf Khan, who has used his social media to target Jews and gays.

Two ideas.

One, I’ve taken to calling this shape, The Minotaur.

Which I noticed sounds like “minute door”. It would be interesting if DoorDash began as a pun like Minitdoor or something. That’s like an evil corporation from a sci-fi movie.

Secondly, I had one of those thoughts waking up for a plot line that’s like, I think someone said about Charlie Kaufman that there’s only 12 script ideas in the world and Being John Malkovich was the 13th?

So, the idea is that the lungs cannot feel pain. And this guy, he’s got this disease where his lung tissue is stretching out in his sleep until it becomes like loose cellophane bags that can’t open and contract anymore. But he has no idea, because the lungs can’t feel pain. He just feels more tired. So, the lungs can only send panic signals to his brain by waking him up with obsessive thoughts. So, he begins to become more and more obsessed with this girl and convinced he is in love, but really, it’s just his lungs deteriorating. And we, the audience, know it the whole time.

The story is just this paranoid hypochondriac nightmare where viruses cause benign neurotic symptoms, and organs are like kidnapped hostages trying to sneak messages to the outside world, and all the symptoms of depression are actually horrifying diseases, and all our thoughts are just total misunderstandings of this ancient pantheon of intra-body language, that causes this guy to become insane before he dies of a weird illness. And we know it. We see it all. All the anatomical animations and found footage.

It’s like the opposite of the idea that our ailments are psychosomatic. It’s the other way around. Our body is the origin of all our neurotic behavior. A whole movie about that on every level. Like, Capital. Haha. How TV wasn’t mind control, but body control. And about how the whole 21st Century is in a state that requires massive physical violence to survive, but everyone has acquiesced.

I love presenting my actual thoughts as if they were just funny movie ideas.

@jamtland tagged me in a meme (huzzah!) so let's DO this shit.

Last song: HYPERVESSEL by Nocti, which is a 90s remix of Strawberry Crisis from Touhou 3.

Current obsession: trying to clean my apartment and get it in order because it looks like a bomb went off (to me at least. i try to be very organized and keep things very tidy. i have a very low tolerance of prolonged mess in my personal space and so much is disorderly rn)

Last film: it was either twilight (i watched it for the first time and had LOTS of opinions about it) or who framed roger rabbit (which also watched for the first time), both of which with friends who were like bRO HOW HAVE YOU NOT WATCHED THESE FILMS YET!!!!

Currently reading: I am both reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau (it's my book i have in my bag and i read parts of it while i am waiting around) and Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman. both are going Slowly since I've been insanely busy lately.

Currently watching: new season of jujutsu kaisen (my other main fandom rn. okkotsu rules). been also rewatching/listening to full metal alchemist: brotherhood while i get my apartment in order tagging. @hws-lceland @aphpuffinchild @losnordiquitos @spaceman-spaetzle as hetalia people i have interacted with enough that i feel comfortable tagging. also pals @keepin-it-regal and @vesper-tilionidae too.