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homosexuhauls · 1 year

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Can you imagine if a white lesbian public figure brutally murdered two trans women in an interracial relationship and their black son? The headlines, the think-pieces, op-eds...we would never hear the end of it. It would be blamed on lesbian communities as a whole and the transmisogyny and white supremacy we obviously perpetuate on a daily basis just by existing. Cotton ceiling discourse would be back with a vengeance. There would be rallies and vigils, there would be calls to "Stand by your trans", there would be "#LWithTheT" marches. There would be a community in mourning, full of fury and hurt and self-righteous rage at the nasty lesbian aggressors who clearly caused this anti-trans hate crime. There would be no room for nuance and all lesbians would be painted with the "evil cis white dykes want us dead" brush. All of this would be seen as a completely acceptable and understandable response to a brutal act of anti-trans violence by a lesbian perpetrator.

So where is the noise? Where is the clamouring? Where is the sound and fury, when a famous white trans activist murders an interracial lesbian couple and their black son? I don't expect (or want) it to spark a radfem revolution, but why is the silence around the Dana Rivers murder case so deafening? Why does no one in the so-called LGBTQ+ community care enough to loudly and proudly mourn and celebrate these women and their son? Charlotte, Patricia and Benny deserve to be remembered. They deserve our sound and fury. Even if it's difficult, even if the optics don't suit your world views, we cannot ignore some injustices and claim to fight against others. The cowardly LGBT+ media organisations and charities covering their eyes and pretending that this act of violence never happened, they will happily call on lesbians for solidarity this pride month, despite showing no solidarity for a lesbian family slaughtered by an apparent member of our own "community". How can we call this anything other than a cover-up, or at the very least, deliberate and contrived ignorance?

Patricia Wright. Charlotte Reed. Benny Toto Diambu-Wright. Their lives were stolen from them on November 11th 2016. I can find no obituarities, and minimal mainstream media coverage of their murders. For many years, it felt almost as if their suffering had been forgotten. It has taken six and a half years for their murderer to be convicted and sentenced to life without parole, a sentence which Rivers will spend in a women's prison. Is this justice, or a pale imitation of such? Either way, I hope this family may finally rest in peace and power, and that their loved ones may begin to move forwards.

Pat and Char, as they were known to friends and family, are survived by two children. Patricia worked as a school teacher and deaf interpreter for schools, while Charlotte worked in a salon known locally for being trans-inclusive. Patricia was also an artist and talented actor, having considered a career in performing arts after high school. Charlotte had previously been a member of an all-female motorcycle club, which Rivers was also involved in. Both Charlotte and Patricia were also former regular attendees of MichFest, a feminist music festival which was closed down in 2015, following years of protests by trans women including Dana Rivers. 19-year-old Benny had just graduated high school and, according to his brother, hoped to become a nurse.

A victim impact statement was read out by Richard Wright, Patricia's younger brother, during Rivers' sentencing. I can't find the full text but much of the statement can be found in the Berkeley Scanner article below. Wright describes the impact of finding out that his sister and her family had been "assassinated in their own home" and the traumatising experience of searching for important paperwork at the bloodied crime scene that was once their home. According to Richard, Dana Rivers "chose her [sic] entitlement and narcissism over basic human decency" and "chose violence, cruelty, sadism and entitlement — over and over and over again." This is in reference to the length of court proceedings due to Rivers' changing pleas, as well as the brutality of the crime itself, which was carried out using guns, knives and arson. According to the judge, the murders of Patricia, Charlotte and Benny were "the most depraved crime that I’ve handled in the criminal justice field in 33 years."

No one but Rivers is responsible for these heinous crime, but all of us are responsible for ensuring history is not forgotten, and that the stories of those taken from us continue to be told. And when we tell their stories, in sound and in fury, we must ensure they do not fall on deaf ears.

"They were real people, not collateral damage...They deserve to be seen."

- Richard Wright's victim impact statement

For more information, see below:

#dana rivers #lesbophobia #lesbian feminism #femicide #lgbtq #radfem safe

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vavavadoom · 7 months

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"No!"

"No?" Kang laughed. "None who have lived may deny me."

"With your... tussles with the Avengers or Fantastic Four or... have you ever fought the X-men?... regardless, I have not interfered. When you claim to be conquering this time, I knew you to play, for you never moved against Doom, its rightful ruler and primary defender. Now you have defeated the Four. The game is done."

"Is this one of those 'no one defeats my nemesis but me.'?"

"I relish every defeat of Richards. He is a man born in need of humbling."

"Then why may I not remove him? He will be the key to accessing the Reed Consortium, or whatever title they have. And they have - well, you cannot possibly understand."

"You comprehend what I cannot? Dangerously close to an insult."

"Give me Richards."

"No"

"You are correct in one thing. I know you stand in my way at some point. Thus, I have counter-measures. Preparation is complete. You are a... friend is lacking, equal inconceivable... you are significant. There are few beyond myself with whom I can even converse. As such, I know you know I will not be denied."

"You may try."

Kang gestured and the world convulsed. Doom found his armor, his wards, his mental shields, his temporal girding all simultaneously under attack. Being - compressed. He heard himself scream. These systems had redundancies, but there was no where for the stress to go.

Kang was impressed. He had expected the attack to succeed about 1.5 seconds before it began. While not versed in sorcery, he was proud of that part of it. Doom's resources had exceeded his estimations and margin of error. Yet a good planner might allow for such, and he had. It was not an explosion as much as an erasure. There was more left than he expected. Kang nudged the armor with his toe. Perhaps he should preserve some of the remains for-

"Argh!" Kang felt a ... dagger? No, a gun! ... press against his back, cm from his left kidney. Impossible! Nothing could penetrate his force field and -

"Doom said no. Now begone."

Kang felt the start of a slide. Doom had activated his own time panel -

"How..."

Doom fell to the ground on top of Reed. Luckily, his covert Doombot in the Baxter Building had been in range for the body swap. People always wondered if it was Doom or a Doombot but somehow never realized it could be both. Now without his armor, energies drained, skin and mental shields charred, he was spent. Literally body and soul. Feeling worse than naked, unmasked, he lost consciousness.

"What...?" Reed slurred as he began to climb back to consciousness. "Victor?" Where was Kang?

#DOOMreedWeek2023 #DOOM #Kang #Reed Richards

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exitiumhq · 2 months

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Wanting to apply but kind of also lost on who to even apply for loll I was thinking about Davina but I haven't played a char like that before so not sure I can do her justice. If not what are some most wanted faces?

we would love to have davina! we have a bunch of people playing canons for the first time or trying out new muses. so i say definitely go for davina. but if you wanna go for an oc as well, we'd love to see jonathan daviss, pedro pascal, brianne howey, antonia gentry, shioli kutsuna, joe keery, nychaa nuttanicha, ana de armas, christian serratos, oliver jackson cohen, tyler posey, crystal reed, poppy drayton, oscar isaac, jaina lee ortiz, priscilla quintana, meagan tandy, brenda song, danny griffin, teyonah parris, alva bratt, florence pugh, jon bernthal, diechan lachman, kate siegel, raymond ablack, fievel stewart, dominick fike, adeline rudolph, evan mock, kedar williams-stirling, jack falahee, or richard madden

#supernatural rpg #oc rp #town rpg #tvd rp #spn rpg #mature rp #small town rp #horror rpg #dark rp #new rpg #appless rp #lsrp #the originals rpg #legacies rp

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buffymuses · 2 years

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oiie!!! você encontrou meu blog de musings!! aqui você encontra de tudo um pouco e o que você não encontrar, sinta-se livre para me perguntar!!

eu sou a buffy e atualmente tenho três chars (@itskingsarabi, @damnhook e @thehowlcircs) legacies, aos quais contarei um pouquinho nesse post! ah, esse é meu blog principal, então se precisar mandar mensagem, combinar plots, prefiro que seja por aqui!

⋆·˚ 🦁 ﹒SARABI KING

Em nome da Excalibur, SARABI KING em seus 28 ANOS, jura seguir o legado de SIMBA E NALA durante a sua estadia na Academia dos Legados. Com a sabedoria concedida a ela, deve se manter caminho da luz enquanto conclui o MÓDULO III.

FC: Laura Harrier

Aniversário: 20 de setembro

Habilidade: Conexão com uma leoa

Ocupação: trabalha no departamento de Artistas e Repertório na gravadora Kings.

Inspos: Korra (The legend of Korra), Jean (Genshin Impact), Yoon Seri (Crashing Landing on You); Yor Forger (Spy x Family); Sakura Haruno (Naruto).

🦁 — i. about / ii. connections / iii. pinterest

⋆·˚ 🪝 ﹒ DAMIAN HOOK

Em nome da Excalibur, DAMIAN HOOK em seus VINTE E CINCO anos, jura reverter o legado de JAMES HOOK durante a sua estadia na Academia dos Legados. Com a sabedoria concedida a ele, deve se manter caminho da luz enquanto conclui o MÓDULO II.

FC: Song Kang

Aniversário: 31 de maio

Habilidade: Master of Puppets (ao ingerir uma gota de sangue de alguém, consegue manipular o corpo da pessoa. leia mais em sua bio!)

Ocupação: nas horas vagas trabalha junto de seu pai no Pirate’s Life.

Inspos: Vincenzo Cassano (Vincenzo), Ri Jeong-hyeok (Crashing Landing on You), Hidan (Naruto Shippuden), Damian Desmond (Spy x Family), Toga Himiko (Boku no Hero Academy), Xiao (Genshin Impact).

🪝 — i. about / ii. connections / iii. pinterest

⋆·˚ 🎪 ﹒ JIMMY “HOWL” HOWELL

Em nome da Excalibur, [JIMMY “HOWL” HOWELL] em seus [22] anos, jura seguir o legado do [CIRCO] durante a sua estadia na Academia dos Legados. Com a sabedoria concedida a ele, deve se manter caminho da luz enquanto conclui o [MÓDULO II].

FC: Anthony Turpel

Aniversário: 13 de outubro

Habilidade: Elasticidade

Ocupação: Equilibrista no Circo

Inspos: Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto), Gus Porter (The Owl House), Anya Forger (Spy x Family); Shoyo Hinata (Haikyu!!), Jake Peralta (Brooklyn 99), Reed Richards (Fantastic four).

🎪 — i. about / ii. connections / iii. pinterest

#⋆·˚ 🦁 ﹒ 𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗕𝗜 𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 #⋆·˚ 🪝 ﹒ 𝗗𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗞 #⋆·˚ 🎪 ﹒ 𝗝𝗜𝗠𝗠𝗬 𝗛𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗟

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nelliehart · 3 years

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♦ O chefe de cozinha do castelo de Illea procura a mãe de seu/sua filho/a.

Descrição: Richard é o filho do chefe de cozinha do palácio, então desde jovem frequentou o lugar para aprender o ofício. Em algum evento real importante (ainda está a ser decidido qual), onde vieram realeza de vários países, essa princesa de algum país distante veio com a família e ela e o Rick acabaram se apaixonando e se envolveram. Era para ser temporário, como um amor de verão, ficaram às escondidas, é claro (afinal, uma princesa e o filho do cozinheiro, né?) e então depois ela voltou para o seu país. Lá, ela descobriu que estava grávida mas nunca voltou para contar à ele. Então casou-se às pressas com algum príncipe e seguiu sua vida normalmente. Agora, ela voltou para acompanhar a seleção e eles se reencontraram, e a viu com uma criança (menino ou menina) que parece muito com ele. Sobre a idade da criança, eu pensei em no mínimo 10 anos porque imaginei eles se envolvendo bem novinhos, lá pros vinte e poucos anos. Porém, estou aberta à ideia de ter sido algo mais recente, porém não menos que uns 7 anos para não atrapalhar outros plots do meu char.

Possíveis idades: Ela precisa ter entre 32 e 35, porque ele tem 35. Função: Princesa de algum país (herdeira ou não) Sugestão de fcs: Emilia Clarke, Dianna Agron, Phoebe Tonkin, Gal Gadot, Blake Lively, Nikki Reed, Priyanka Chopra, Anne Hathaway, Rachel McAdams, Emeraude Toubia.

Antes de aplicar, por gentileza, entrar em contato com: @nelliehart

#rp br #rpg br #wc br #sem edit pq não sei fazer kkkk

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buckbylightning · 3 years

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steve rogers, jessica drew, victor von doom, jan van dyne and reed richards!

get drunk with: reed bc i rlly dont want to punch him but also im not a homewrecker D: make out with: jessica date: legally i have to put victor at least here or maeve wont be friends with me anymore </3 marry: janet who else <33 punch: that leaves steve to get punched sorry friend

send me five chars

#NUSH BELOVED #bisexualsam #ask game #mail #shut up dee

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osurp · 4 years

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𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐀-𝐅𝐄𝐈𝐑𝐀 ── 01h30min.

As luzes piscavam no ritmo das batidas da música eletrônica que soava por todo o campus, a festa de boas-vindas da OSU parecia estar ainda no começo mesmo que houvessem alunos e alguns funcionários já embriagados. O falatório demonstrava o quão envolvidos todos estavam… E vulneráveis. Tão desligados, ninguém percebeu as figuras estranhas que saíam do prédio principal aos risos, entrando em um carro e indo embora. O DJ contratado por um dos alunos se preparava para a próxima música que tocaria, quando todas as luzes se apagaram. Um enorme apagão que atingiu toda a universidade. Os alunos não se encontravam apenas na escuridão, como também no total silêncio até que veio a explosão de vozes se perguntando o que tinha acontecido. Tentativas de restaurar a energia foram feitas e nenhuma teve sucesso. Apenas meia hora depois as luzes voltaram na companhia de um barulho ensurdecedor de sirene se fez presente por todo o campus. Então a voz de um desconhecido se fez presente pelos alto-falantes que antes tocavam a música da festa. “Vocês acharam mesmo que iriam ter um início de ano tão calmo, tigers? Depois do que fizeram com a gente no ano passado decidimos dar o troco. Pegamos o precioso troféu de vocês e escondemos. Vocês tem até o amanhecer pra encontrar. Se não conseguirem só vão provar que são uns perdedores. Fomos bonzinhos e colocamos dicas em pontos específicos… E umas surpresas também. Tenham muito cuidado se não quiserem se sujar. Peace, suckers!” E desta forma deu-se início a tradicional gincana entre a OSU e a Columbus State Community College, uma competição amigável que resulta em prêmios para os alunos de ambas as universidades. Que vença o melhor!

INFORMAÇÕES OOC.

EXPLICAÇÃO:

A queda de energia terá uma duração de aproximadamente meia hora. O que não impede de os personagens usarem a lanterna do celular ou coisa assim para se localizar.

O retorno da iluminação da festa acontece junto ao som da sirene. Uma gravação dispara das caixas de som, substituindo o que antes era a música alta. Sendo feito o anúncio da caça ao tesouro.

A caça ao tesouro nada mais é do que recuperar o último troféu da temporada, símbolo do primeiro lugar da OSU frente aos adversários da Columbus State Community College. O que é uma questão de honra!

Essas pranks são bem comum entre os rivais: OSU e Columbus State Community College Só que naturalmente todos os personagens serão pegos de surpresa. É praticamente uma gincana que ocorre anualmente entre as rivais.

Em IC: Haverá dicas espalhadas por todo o campus. Elas poderão ajudar ou atrapalhar no processo. CUIDADO: Para que o seu personagem não se suje de tinta! *Tem várias armadilhas espalhadas por aí. Fica a critério de cada um escolher se o personagem vai ou não ser um dos alvos.

A primeira equipe a desvendar o enigma (encontrar a bandeira da OSU e o troféu) vai ter a vantagem de 500 pontos para o próximo evento! Boa sorte a todos.

A duração do plot drop é até o início da madrugada de DOMINGO, 23/08.

SOBRE AS EQUIPES:

Esse evento vai dar início as competições internas na OSU! O que significa que esses serão seus colegas de equipe. Como isso vai funcionar e demais detalhes vão ser disponibilizados na segunda-feira!

As cores das equipes correspondem a bandeira de Ohio.

Os treinadores são os líderes da equipe, o que não significa que eles não possam escolher outra pessoa do time para liderar. Seja essa primeira “MISSÃO” ou as próximas.

DETALHES SOBRE A PRANK:

Fica a critério de cada um fazer o personagem ser um dos alvos ou não. Durante a caça ao tesouro é possível que alguém fique sujo com tinta, por exemplo, com as cores do time da universidade rival.

PONTUAÇÃO:

A pontuação acontecerá por meio de interação! Usem a criatividade: Pode ser por chat, SMS, turno ou até mesmo POV. O que for mais confortável para vocês! Para diferenciar uma equipe da outra recomendamos que usem a tag (de acordo com o grupo du char): #OSU:VERMELHO #OSU:CINZA #OSU:AZUL.

TABELA PONTUAÇÃO:

TURNO / SMALL: 15 CHAT: 5 POV: 10 SNAPCHAT: 5 EDIT: 5 SMS: 1

DIVISÃO DAS EQUIPES:

EQUIPE VERMELHA: Brielle “Elle” Alkaev, Francesca “Frankie” West, Bianca Cornelia Hatheway, Marina Rossetti Delacost, Aurora “Rory” Laffayette, Levi Du Lac, Jared H. West, Mike Johnson, Sebastian “Bash” Barnes Anderson, Victoria Nimue, Austin Schwart. Kenna Reyes. TREINADOR: Mael griffin. (12 alunos + 1 treinador ).

EQUIPE CINZA: Cassius Skylar Lafayette, Archibald “Archie” Harvey O’Connor, Vincent Loren, Adora “Addy” Banner, Alanna B. Campbell, Hadley Howard, Cheryl Rockholt, Khaleo Reed Cooper, Nora Aube Fauvel Hozier, William Lecter. Ian Banner. Dahlia Song. (12 alunos + 1 treinador). TREINADOR: Eric Phillip Harden.

EQUIPE AZUL:Teresa Adelaide Bochard, Debra Ellen Rhodes, Madeline “Maddie” Laffayette, Roxanne Belaware, Maggic Nathaniel Russell, Keith Collins, Joseph Mckinley, Ethan Williams, Richard “Dick” Hammer, Gwen Nguyen-Lýnn. Casey A. Traynor . (10 alunos + 1treinador).TREINADOR: Christopher “Chris” Carter.

#plot drop 1 #evento #desculpe o atraso :(#os novos personagens já estão nas equipes!#eventos

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theeepymagi · 4 years

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Bang-Marry-Kill With My Fandoms

I'm playing a game of Bang, Marry, Kill with myself and my favorite fandoms, here we GOOOOOO! Oh btw I'll be giving reasons why ok seeya

Adventure Time

Bang - Susan Strong - Absolute hot beef

Marry - Finn Mertens - Cute boy with a good sense of humor and lots of emotions

Kill - Ricardo - Nothing to do with romance, just killing Ricardo will make The Land of Ooo safer

Dark Souls Bosses

Bang - Asylum Demon - Thicc. Just thicc. I have nothing else to say.

Marry - Chaos Witch Quelaag - Beautiful spouse that also scares off burglars due to her spider legs

Kill - Gaping Dragon - Pure fear for the dragon

Team Fortress 2

Bang - Spy - You know how Hulk says he's 'the strongest there is'? Well Spy is the suavest there is.

Marry - Heavy - Shown to be caring and protective for his family in the comics. A great husband that wants to make sure his loved ones are safe. That's wholesome.

Kill - Pyro - Sorry, but I don't want to wake up as a charred corpse the night after the honeymoon.

Marvel (Comics)

Bang - Wolverine - He beef

Marry - Reed Richards - Probably the most responsible character in Marvel. Depends on the writer, but he does tend to think ahead and consider the consequences of his actions.

Kill - Bruce Banner/Hulk - Ow oof ouchie my bones are broken thanks Hulk for breaking my bones

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cinemamablog · 5 years

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The Devils and Me

What was my biggest priority after moving to Los Angeles in the summer of 2016? Sure, I interviewed right away to earn a steady paycheck, but that wasn’t at the top of my To Do list. Oh no, my twisted priorities tend to put two things at the top of any list: movies and food. And in this case, I had my heart set on seeing a very special, censored, and often banned movie for the first time: Ken Russell’s the Devils.

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I bought the tickets to the screening before even setting foot on California soil that June. I told my husband, Adam, and roommate, Kris, that my plan was set in stone: we were going to see the Devils. Adam was an okay sport and Kris at least acted enthusiastic, since I rarely did him wrong when choosing what oddities we would watch next. (We worked through the Criterion boxset of Jacques Demy movies and laughed through Bogdanovich’s Paper Moon together in my duplex.)

The day finally came and I drove the three of us out to West Hollywood. We parked in a residential neighborhood and walked to the theatre on Fairfax. Once inside, I sat down with an embarrassingly big grin on my face, as I do when I’ve been anticipating a movie.

The film started with an absurd and funny tone. Or at least, I thought it was funny. It can be hard to tell if a movie is actually funny or just earnest at repertory screenings, because film bros laugh at everything. Unfamiliar with this obnoxious ritual, I laughed along with them as Oliver Reed threw a crocodile through a window. (To be fair, that scene still reads hilarious to me.) As the film progressed, it retained its absurdity, but took on a Crucible-esque critique of injustice and religious hypocrisy. The chuckles grew more subdued and less frequent. Oliver Reed burned at the stake and Vanessa Redgrave’s deranged and horny nun treasured his charred femur. I loved it.

Adam didn’t like it, Kris was neutral, and I was over the moon to have such a perfect introduction to the riches of film at my fingertips. (At least, in comparison to Iowa.) It was my second Ken Russell movie (the first was Tommy) and my first Oliver Reed movie and now I’m in love. I like to pretend we named Baby Oliver after him.

One year later, when the theatre closed due to allegations of sexual misconduct, I wasn’t terribly upset at the loss of the space. (Though I did have a membership that needed cancelled.) Besides the gross behavior behind the scenes, I always had to park up to half a mile away for a free parking spot and the rigid seats felt worse than any school’s desk. But more importantly, I felt disappointed that my haven had hurt people. Women who, like me, thought they found a space to enjoy film with like-minded people in a city of millions. Everything felt warped and twisted, like a dream that starts out lovely and turns into a nightmare. Why do men have to ruin everything?

Regardless, I cherish the memories I made at repertory screenings, whether watching midnight movies like Multiple Maniacs and Lemora with Kris or enjoying a quiet Sunday morning to myself at The Silent Treatment. Now that I’m a mother, going to the theatre at all proves difficult, but one of my long term dreams is to host a screening series wherever I live. I have a lot of ideas for themes, and someday I’ll probably share them here, but for now I’ll just recall the rush of seeing The Devils for the first time, embarrassing grin and all.

The Devils is now streaming on the Criterion Channel.

Recommended reading:

Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of the Devils, by Richard Crouse

#personal

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excelsiorfics · 2 months

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A Day at the Park

Date: 06 Feb 2022 Author: kitausuret Rating: Gen Word Count/Status: 1606, complete Dynamic: Franklin Richards & Sue Storm & Reed Richards, Reed Richards/Sue Storm Characters: Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Franklin Richards, Venom Symbiote Tags: Slice of Life, NYC, Alien Cultural Differences

Summary: Trying to learn something more about the alien symbiote dropped off to them by (or, perhaps ripped off of) their longtime ally Spider-Man, Reed decides to take their guest along on a little trip to the park with his wife and their young son. In giving it a little bit of freedom, he's hoping to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding it... and hopefully, understand it a little bit better, too.

#rating: gen #uni: 616 #team: fantastic four #char: franklin richards #dyn: franklin richards & reed richards #tag: slice of life #length: 1k to 5k #status: complete #category: one-shot #rel: gen #char: reed richards #char: sue storm #char: venom symbiote #dyn: franklin richards & sue storm #dyn: reed richards/sue storm #tag: family bonding

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biofunmy · 4 years

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How Chase Bank Chairman Helped the Deposed Shah of Iran Enter the U.S.

One late fall evening 40 years ago, a worn-out white Gulfstream II jet descended over Fort Lauderdale, Fla., carrying a regal but sickly passenger almost no one was expecting.

Crowded aboard were a Republican political operative, a retinue of Iranian military officers, four smelly and hyperactive dogs and Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the newly deposed shah of Iran.

Yet as the jet touched down, the only one waiting to receive the deposed monarch was a senior executive of Chase Manhattan Bank, which had not only lobbied the White House to admit the former shah but had arranged visas for his entourage, searched out private schools and mansions for his family and helped arrange the Gulfstream to deliver him.

“The Eagle has landed,” Joseph V. Reed Jr., the chief of staff to the bank’s chairman, David Rockefeller, declared in a celebratory meeting at the bank the next morning.

Less than two weeks later, on Nov. 4, 1979, vowing revenge for the admission of the shah to the United States, revolutionary Iranian students seized the American Embassy in Tehran and then held more than 50 Americans — and Washington — hostage for 444 days.

The shah, Washington’s closest ally in the Persian Gulf, had fled Tehran in January 1979 in the face of a burgeoning uprising against his 38 years of iron-fisted rule. Liberals, leftists and religious conservatives were rallying against him. Strikes and demonstrations had shut down Tehran, and his security forces were losing control.

The shah sought refuge in America. But President Jimmy Carter, hoping to forge ties to the new government rising out of the chaos and concerned about the security of the United States Embassy in Tehran, refused him entry for the first 10 months of his exile. Even then, the White House only begrudgingly let him in for medical treatment.

Now, a newly disclosed secret history from the offices of Mr. Rockefeller shows in vivid detail how Chase Manhattan Bank and its well-connected chairman worked behind the scenes to persuade the Carter administration to admit the shah, one of the bank’s most profitable clients.

For Mr. Carter, for the United States and for the Middle East it was an incendiary decision.

The ensuing hostage crisis enabled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to consolidate his theocratic rule, started a four-decade conflict between Washington and Tehran that is still roiling the region and helped Ronald Reagan take the White House. To American policymakers, Iran became a parable about the political perils in the fall of a friendly strongman.

Although Mr. Carter complained publicly at the time about the pressure campaign, the full, behind-the-scenes story — laid out in the recently disclosed documents — has never been told.

Mr. Rockefeller’s team called the campaign Project Eagle, after the code name used for the shah. Exploiting clubby networks of power stretching deep into the White House, Mr. Rockefeller mobilized a phalanx of elder statesmen.

They included Henry A. Kissinger, the former secretary of state and the chairman of a Chase advisory board; John J. McCloy, the former commissioner of occupied Germany after World War II and an adviser to eight presidents as well as a future Chase chairman; a Chase executive and former C.I.A. agent, Archibald B. Roosevelt Jr., whose cousin, the C.I.A. agent Kermit Roosevelt Jr., had orchestrated a 1953 coup to keep the shah in power; and Richard M. Helms, a former director of the C.I.A. and former ambassador to Iran.

Charles Francis, a veteran of corporate public affairs who worked for Chase at the time, brought the documents to the attention of The Times.

“Today’s corporate campaigns are demolition derbies compared to this operation,” he said. “It was smooth, smooth, smooth and almost entirely invisible.”

Records of Project Eagle were donated to Yale by Mr. Reed, the campaign’s director. But he deemed the material so potentially embarrassing to his patron that Mr. Reed, who died in 2016, stipulated that the records remain sealed until Mr. Rockefeller’s death. Mr. Rockefeller died in 2017 at the age of 101.

Some of the information may embarrass others as well. Hawkish critics have often faulted Mr. Carter as worrying too much about human rights and thus failing to prop up the shah.

But the papers reveal that the president’s special envoy to Iran had actually urged the country’s generals to use as much deadly force as needed to suppress the revolt, advising them about how to carry out a military takeover to keep the shah in power.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Carter did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Mr. Carter at the time of the crisis was not immediately available.

After the hostages were taken, the Carter administration worked desperately to try to free the captives, and on April 24, 1980, authorized a rescue mission that collapsed in disaster: A helicopter crash in the desert killed eight service members, whose charred bodies were gleefully exhibited by Iranian officials.

The hostage crisis doomed Mr. Carter’s presidency. And the team around Mr. Rockefeller, a lifelong Republican with a dim view of Mr. Carter’s dovish foreign policy, collaborated closely with the Reagan campaign in its efforts to pre-empt and discourage what it derisively labeled an “October surprise” — a pre-election release of the American hostages, the papers show.

The Chase team helped the Reagan campaign gather and spread rumors about possible payoffs to win the release, a propaganda effort that Carter administration officials have said impeded talks to free the captives.

“I had given my all” to thwarting any effort by the Carter officials “to pull off the long-suspected ‘October surprise,’” Mr. Reed wrote in a letter to his family after the election, apparently referring to the Chase effort to track and discourage a hostage release deal. He was later named Mr. Reagan’s ambassador to Morocco.

Mr. Rockefeller then personally lobbied the incoming administration to ensure that its Iran policies protected the bank’s financial interests.

The records indicate that Mr. Rockefeller hoped for the restoration of a version of the deposed government.

At the start of the Iranian upheaval, the papers show, Mr. Kissinger advised Mr. Rockefeller that the probable conclusion would be “a sort of Bonapartist counterrevolution that rallies the pro-Western elements together with what was left of the army.”

Mr. Kissinger, in a recent email, acknowledged that the prediction “reflects my thinking at the time” but said “it was a judgment, not a policy proposal.”

But Mr. Rockefeller evidently continued to advocate for some form of restoration long after the shah fled Tehran.

As late as December 1980, Mr. Rockefeller personally urged the incoming Reagan administration to encourage a counterrevolution by stopping “rug merchant type bargaining” for the hostages and instead taking military action to punish Iran if the hostages were not released. He suggested occupying three Iranian-controlled islands in the Persian Gulf.

“The most likely outcome of this situation is an eventual replacement of the present fanatic Shiite Muslim government, either by a military one or a combination of the military with the civilian democratic leaders,” Mr. Rockefeller argued, according to his talking points for meetings with the Reagan transition team.

An heir to his family’s oil fortune, Mr. Rockefeller styled himself a corporate statesman and personally knew many White House officials, including Mr. Carter. He had known the shah since 1962, socializing with him in New York, Tehran and St. Moritz, Switzerland.

As Tehran’s coffers swelled with oil revenues in the 1970s, Chase formed a joint venture with an Iranian state bank and earned big fees advising the national oil company.

By 1979, the bank had syndicated more than $1.7 billion in loans for Iranian public projects (the equivalent of about $5.8 billion today). The Chase balance sheet held more than $360 million in loans to Iran and more than $500 million in Iranian deposits.

Mr. Rockefeller often insisted that his concern for the shah was purely about Washington’s “prestige and credibility.” It was about “the abandonment of a friend when he needed us most,” he wrote in his memoirs.

His only advocacy for the shah, Mr. Rockefeller wrote, had been in a brief aside to Mr. Carter during an unrelated White House meeting in April 1979.

“I did nothing more, publicly or privately, to influence the administration’s thinking.”

Yet the Project Eagle papers show that Mr. Rockefeller received detailed updates on the risks to Chase’s holdings, and that even his aside to Mr. Carter in April had been planned out the previous day with Mr. Reed, Mr. McCloy and Mr. Kissinger.

Over lunch at the Knickerbocker Club in New York, Mr. Carter’s special envoy to Tehran, Gen. Robert E. Huyser, told the Project Eagle team that he had urged Iran’s top military leaders to kill as many demonstrators as necessary to keep the shah in power.

If shooting over the heads of demonstrators failed to disperse them, “move to focusing on the chests,” General Huyser said he told the Iranian generals, according to minutes of the lunch. “I got stern and noisy with the military,” he added, but in the end, the top general was “gutless.”

Mr. Rockefeller had his own special envoy to try to help the shah: Robert F. Armao, a Republican operative and public relations consultant who had worked for Mr. Rockefeller’s brother Nelson, the former governor of New York and former vice president.

Mr. Armao became one of the shah’s closest advisers, and after Nelson Rockefeller died at the start of 1979, he reported to the Project Eagle team at Chase nearly every day for more than two years.

“Everybody had the hope that there would be a repeat of the 1953 events,” Mr. Armao recalled recently, referring to the American-backed coup that restored the shah the first time he fled.

When the shah’s rule became untenable at the start of 1979, the State Department first turned to David Rockefeller for help relocating the Iranian monarch in the United States.

“Not large enough for my very special client,” Mr. Reed wrote to a Greenwich, Conn., broker who had offered two estates priced at around $2 million each — about $7.4 million today.

But while the shah tarried in Egypt and Morocco, an Iranian mob briefly seized the American Embassy in February. Diplomats warned that admitting the shah risked another assault, and Mr. Carter changed his mind about offering haven.

Mr. Rockefeller refused to deliver this bad news to the shah, afraid that it would hurt the bank by alienating a prized client.

“The risks were too high relating to the CMB position in Iran,” he responded, referring to Chase Manhattan Bank, according to the records.

Instead, Mr. Rockefeller scrambled to find accommodations elsewhere — first in the Bahamas, and then in Mexico — while strategizing with Mr. Kissinger, Mr. McCloy and others about how to persuade the White House to let in the shah.

During a three-day push in April, Mr. Kissinger made a personal appeal to the national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and a follow-up phone call to Mr. Carter. Mr. Rockefeller buttonholed the president at the White House.

And in a speech, Mr. Kissinger publicly accused the Carter administration of forcing a loyal ally to sail the world in search of refuge, “like a flying Dutchman looking for a port of call” — the seed of what became a “who lost Iran” campaign theme for the Republicans.

Mr. McCloy flooded the White House with lengthy letters to senior officials, often arguing about the danger of demoralizing other “friendly sovereigns.” “Dear Zbig,” he addressed his old friend Mr. Brzezinski.

Finally, in October, Mr. Reed sent his personal doctor to Cuernavaca, Mexico, “to take a ‘look-see’” at the shah.

He had been hiding a cancer diagnosis. The doctor, Benjamin H. Kean, determined that the shah needed sophisticated treatment within a few weeks — in Mexico, if necessary, Dr. Kean later said he had concluded.

But when Mr. Reed put the doctor in touch with State Department officials, they came away with a different prognosis: that the shah was “at the point of death” and that only a New York hospital “was capable of possibly saving his life,” as Mr. Carter described it at the time to The Times.

With that opening, the Chase team began preparing the flight to Fort Lauderdale.

“When I told the Customs man who the principal was, he almost fainted,” the waiting executive, Eugene Swanzey, reported the next morning.

The plane’s bathroom was malfunctioning. The shah and his wife hunted in vain for a missing videocassette to finish a movie. And their four dogs — a poodle, a collie, a cocker spaniel and a Great Dane — jumped on everyone. The Great Dane “hadn’t been washed in weeks,” Mr. Swanzey said. “The aroma was just terrible.”

When Mr. Reed met the plane on its final arrival in New York, he recalled the next day, the shah seemed to be thinking, “‘At last I am getting into competent hands.’”

But as he checked the shah into New York Hospital, Mr. Reed was circumspect.

“I am the unidentified American,” he told the inquisitive staff.

Mr. Reed, Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Kissinger met again three days after the hostages were taken.

“Noted was the feeling of indignation as being high and nothing useful to say,” read the minutes.

The White House said the shah had to depart as soon as possible, but Project Eagle continued.

“The ideal place for the Eagle to land,” Mr. Reed wrote to Mr. Armao on Nov. 9, forwarding a brochure for a 350-acre Hudson Valley estate.

A week later, Mr. Rockefeller personally urged Mr. Carter in a phone call to direct the secretary of state to meet with the shah about “the current situation.” Mr. Carter did not and the shah soon departed, for Panama, then Egypt.

Only after the death of the shah, on July 27, 1980, nine months after his landing in Fort Lauderdale, did the Project Eagle team shift to new objectives. One was protecting Mr. Rockefeller from blame for the crisis.

Over roast loin of veal and vintage wine at the exclusive River Club in New York, Mr. Rockefeller and nine others on the team gathered on Aug. 19. Amid discussion of a laudatory biography of the shah by a Berkeley professor that the team had commissioned, some warned that a Rockefeller link to the embassy seizure would be hard to escape.

Why was the shah admitted? “Medical treatment/DR recommended,” one said, using Mr. Rockefeller’s initials, according to minutes of the dinner. “This association cannot be ignored.”

But Mr. Kissinger was reassuring. Congress would never hold an investigation during an election campaign.

“I don’t think we are in trouble any more, David,” Mr. Kissinger told him.

The hostages were released on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 1981, and a few days later Mr. Carter’s departing White House counsel called Mr. Rockefeller to inquire about how the release deal affected Chase bank.

“Worked out very well,” Mr. Rockefeller told him, according to his records. “Far better than we had feared.”

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The day before the uncommonly deadly Camp Fire ignited near Chico, California, meteorologists were warning of unprecedented dryness from heat, winds, low humidity, and lack of precipitation. California was a tinderbox.

Since then, the monster fire has ripped through 140,000 acres, laid the town of Paradise (population 26,000) to waste, and destroyed more than 10,000 structures. This makes it the most destructive wildfire California has ever seen. Yet the human toll has been even more stunning: At least 56 people have died in the flames (with over 200 still unaccounted for), making it the single deadliest wildfire in state history.

The dry, windy conditions throughout California mean Southern California has also been at extreme risk for fires. On November 8, the Woolsey Fire sparked in Ventura County and then swept into Los Angeles County, torching a total of 98,300 acres and killing at least three.

Fire experts and climate scientists say the wildfires have certainly been made worse by climate change. “If Northern California had received anywhere near the typical amount of autumn precipitation this year (around 4-5 in. of rain near #CampFire point of origin), explosive fire behavior & stunning tragedy in #Paradise would almost certainly not have occurred,” climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote on Twitter. And the long-term projections for future shifts in precipitation and heat are bleak: California likely has many more dangerous wildfires in store.

“[Wildfires] will be part of our future … things like this, and worse,’’ Gov. Jerry Brown said at a Sunday press conference. “That’s why it’s so important to take steps to help communities, to do prevention and adaptation.”

Local news reporters, residents, photojournalists, and scientists have been sharing images from the ground on what was left in the fires’ wake. There will be a lot of healing and rebuilding to do after these tragedies. Here’s what the situation looks like on the ground.

A rescue worker lifts a cadaver dog at the remains of a mobile home park destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California on November 14, 2018. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images San Francisco firefighters dismantle a burned mobile home in Paradise, California on November 14, 2018. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

As harmful to health and distracting as the smoke is, it’s what the smoke embodies–the painful and tragic loss of life, homes, communities, and place–that weighs the most. #CampFire pic.twitter.com/fpm8ovQQAS

— E. Joaquin Esquivel (@ejesquivel) November 14, 2018

The Gold Nugget Museum is shown totally demolished by the Camp Fire on November 13, 2018. Martha Mendoza/AP Images The San Fransisco skyline is obscured by wildfire smoke and haze on November 12, 2018. Eric Risberg/AP Images A couple embraces while searching through the remains of their home in Paradise, California on November 12, 2018. Noah Berger/AP Images Smoke lingers through the valley near Skyway in Chico, California on November 11, 2018. Mason Trinca/The Washington Post/Getty Images

The Camp Fire burns in the hills on November 11, 2018, near Oroville, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Power lines rest on cars that were burned by the Camp Fire on November 10, 2018 in Paradise, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Yuba and Butte County sheriff deputies carry a body bag with a deceased victim of the Camp Fire on November 10, 2018, in Paradise, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A firefighter looks down as a the wall of a burning home in Paradise, California falls next to him on November 9, 2018. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images A California Highway Patrol vehicle mans a checkpoint along Highway 32 as the Camp Fire burns in the area on November 9, 2018. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A burned car is seen off Mulholland Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains on November 14, 2018. David McNew/AFP/Getty Images A section of Mulholland Highway was completely destroyed. Taken November 14, 2018. David Crane/Digital First Media/Los Angeles Daily News/Getty Images

The Santa Monica Mountains are blackened by the Woolsey Fire near Malibu, California on November 14, 2018. David McNew/AFP/Getty Images Roger Kelton searches through the remains of his mother-in-law’s home in Agoura Hills, California on November 13, 2018. Jae C. Hong/AP Images A family returns to the remains of their home to find family photographs on Busch Drive in Malibu, California on November 13, 2018. AFP/Getty Images Firefighters work to contain the Woolsey Fire near Malibu, California on November 12, 2018. Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto/Getty Images A firefighting DC-10 drops fire retardant the mountains in Malibu, California on November 11, 2018. Richard Vogel/AP Images

Firefighters battle a flare up of the Woolsey Fire in West Hills, California on November 11, 2018. September Dawn Bottoms/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Satellite imagery shows the Woolsey Fire burning west of Los Angeles, California on November 11, 2018. DigitalGlobe/Getty Images

Was just sent this video from the Seminole Springs mobile home park in Malibu. Most got out with “just the shirt on their backs.” Now they’ve lost count after seeing more than 100 structures destroyed by the #WoolseyFire. : Eric Videgain pic.twitter.com/HH2lOefzkh

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) November 11, 2018

These are the remains of a beachside luxury home along the Pacific Coast Highway community of Point Dume in Malibu, California, on November 11, 2018. Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images This photo taken on November 11, 2018, shows a charred cactus field in Malibu, California after the Woolsey Fire swept through it. September Dawn Bottoms/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images A wildfire burns at the Salvation Army Camp on November 10, 2018 in Malibu, California. Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images A helicopter drops flame retardant chemicals on the wildfire on November 10, 2018, in Malibu, California. Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images A table and chairs stand outside a destroyed home in Malibu, California, on November 10, 2018. Reed Saxon/AP Images Embers falls from burning palms as flames close in on a house at the Woolsey Fire on November 9, 2018, in Malibu, California. David McNew/Getty Images

Original Source -> Photos: what California’s lethal wildfires look like on the ground

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