Neoliberals were rightfully performatively enraged when Trump enacted his racist Title 42 policy, but they want us to believe it’s somehow a different story now, when Biden does the exact same thing.

Biden is fundamentally altering the asylum seeking process so that it favors European refugees and asylum seekers, while punishing people from Haiti, Mexico and South & Central America.

To be clear: This is an unequal and deeply racist policy.

Joseph Robinette Biden is the undisputed Deporter-in-Chief (of Black and Brown people).

(source)

Additionally, blocking non-European asylum seekers does not and has never had anything to do with the evergreen, conveniently racist trope of “refugees bringing diseases.” That was racist when Trump did it, and it’s still racist when mainstream media and the Biden administration echo those exact same sentiments—if it were at all true, Biden wouldn’t have relaxed the Title 42 restrictions for Ukrainian war refugees, even as he was turning away thousands and thousands of Haitian war refugees.

Liberals told us, don’t worry they would push Biden left after the election. But they just went back to brunch, and now they’re the hypocritical sycophants telling us that we are “hurting” Biden by holding him accountable and reminding him of all his broken campaign promises.

Make no mistake: this is Biden tracking to the right before an election. He’s seeking the votes of “moderates” (aka slightly less racist Republicans) by showing that he can be every bit as tough on non-white immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers as any Republican. The only problem here is, Republicans are tracking Right and so are Democrats… so until this dynamic changes, it means we will always shift ever rightward on our immigration policies.

This is racist and it is wrong.

¡Tercer Título de SuperBowl de los Chiefs!

¡Tercer Título de #SuperBowl de los Chiefs!

Faltando 8 segundos, con un gol de campo, los Kansas City Chiefs derrotaron este domingo 38-35 a los Philadelphia Eagles y alcanzaron su tercer título de Super Bowl de la NFL. Con sus dos títulos, el quarterback de los Chiefs , Patrick Mahomes, iguala a John Elway y Peyton Manning y, con solo 27 años, se perfila como el gran aspirante a perseguir el récord de siete del recién retirado Tom…

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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on 30 April that US troops building a floating pier along Gaza's coast would have the ability and authority to open fire into the besieged enclave “to protect themselves,” putting into question US President Joe Biden‘s earlier claims that Washington would have “no boots on the ground” in Gaza. “[There will] be about 1,000 US service members operating a pier system off of Gaza. How many of them will have guns, Mr Secretary?” Representative Matt Gaetz asked the US war chief during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday. “Typically, all of the deployed service members carry guns, and they have the ability to protect themselves if challenged,” Austin replied. “Don’t you think that counts as boots on the ground? President Biden told the country that we were not going to have boots on the ground in Gaza,” Gaetz pressed Austin, to which he replied, “And we won’t.” “Okay, but you guys parse the distinction between ... Like when Americans think boots on the ground, they think Americans in harm’s way or engaged actively in a conflict. You guys seem to be sort of saying that boots on a pier, connected to the ground, connected to service members shooting into Gaza, doesn’t count as boots on the ground?” Gaetz continued. “It does not,” Austin replied, failing to explain the distinction. “If we’re gonna have people shooting into Gaza, we probably should have a vote on that, pursuant to our war powers,” the Republican lawmaker added.Last year, Gaetz introduced a War Powers Resolution legislation to end Washington’s illegal occupation of large swathes of Syria, arguing that US law had never authorized a military intervention in the country. The legislation was struck down a few weeks later in a 103-321 vote in the House of Representatives. US troops are building a $320 million “Joint Logistics Over The Shore” jetty system off the coast of Gaza to allegedly “ease the flow” of humanitarian aid into the strip. Biden announced the project nearly two months ago in response to Tel Aviv’s refusal to open border crossings into the enclave and blockades of aid convoys by Israeli settlers. Regional experts have warned that the floating pier could facilitate the mass deportation of Gaza’s population by sea.

lok was truly so crazy for being like yeah the season 1 villain is an allegory for maoism?? except he’s literally not a communist in any meaningful way bc he never once even mentions the issue of uh. class. and season 2’s villain is ostensibly a theocrat who exploits his religious/spiritual authority to exert neocolonial control over a recently independent territory/people but all he really wants is to fuse with the personification of chaos and plunge the world into darkness for ten thousand years. and season 3’s villains are an anarchist terror cell who do have clearly defined goals and advocate for proletarian rule but also they’re fucked up little sadist freaks who love chaos and torturing teenagers. and season 4’s villain is a fascist ethnonationalist dictator and she’s gonna be the ONLY character in the entire show to mention that the ostensibly independent city state where most of the show’s plot has taken place is literally a fire nation neocolony proxy state on stolen earth kingdom land. the famously anarchist character who values independent personal freedom and hates nothing more than being told what to do and telling people what to do is now the agent of said neocolonial state in the form of being the literal chief of police. who gives a shit about her arc as an abused disabled girl who fights to assert her power and autonomy while also learning to accept her own vulnerability around the people she loves, and how that narrative might be personally meaningful to many disabled people. she’s a cop now. oh, and the firstborn son of the pacifist monk who had to fight tooth and nail to assert his values as the sole survivor of the genocide against his people is now a military general, again, for the army of said neocolonial proxy state. the kid who was orphaned as a child and grew up on the street fighting to survive another day is helplessly stupid and naive and his only purpose is to chew the scenery in increasingly less funny, more obnoxious ways. if you were expecting the even remotely coherent politics of atla, a story fundamentally about the struggle to resist imperialist violence both as a target of it and from within the imperial core while grappling with your identity and the impetus to preserve your cultural heritage in the face of genocide, then you’re shit out of luck, because that show was made in the bush era, back when liberals protesting the iraq war and implicating americans in their role in upholding imperialist agendas was acceptable. but this is the obama era, so of course you can still deport people at staggering records and drone strike civilians and worship at the altar of capitalism, as long as you remember that reinforcing the status quo through implicit violence is good as long as you’re a queer disabled brown woman!!! more woman of color chiefs of police!!! more bisexual woman ceos!!!! more indigenous war profiteers!!!! more hot girl ethnostates!!! absurd fucking show…

<<Your Excellency, Mr. Minister, At this moment, as discussions are underway regarding the deportation of Armenians, I notice that there is a tendency to primarily attribute the blame to the governors-general and chiefs. I have the honor to bring to Your Excellency's attention the atrocities committed in the name of science... In December 1915, in Yerznka, under the orders of Tevfik Salim, the chief physician of the 3rd Army Corps, the contaminated blood taken from patients with spotted typhus was used as a vaccine on innocent Armenians condemned to exile without "activation." Such experiments are typically conducted on specific laboratory animals. As a consequence of those actions, many of the individuals subjected to the experiment became ill and died. Prior to the vaccination, they were deceived, being told that the vaccinations were administered as a preventive measure against typhus. The organizer of these experiments, Hamdi Suad, a professor of pathological anatomy at the Ottoman Medical University, published the results of his research in the pages of the "Medical-Military Newspaper of Constantinople," announcing that they were applied to those sentenced to death. However, I, your humble servant, witnessed everything and can attest that the subjects of the professor's deadly experiments had no other crime than being Armenian. These facts can be corroborated by Dr. Refet Bey, the chief physician of Yerznka Central Hospital, two Armenian doctors who worked with him, as well as Dr. Selaheddin Bey, the chief physician of the Yerznka Red Cross. Therefore, I, your humble servant, declare that in addition to political crimes, scientific crimes were also committed, about which I am prepared to provide full explanations.>>

Published in the "Türkçe İstanbul" newspaper on December 23, 1918, the author of the letter is the Turkish doctor-surgeon Haydar Jemal; let's not forget this name. He addressed the letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkey.

In the issue of the same newspaper on December 24, 1918, that is, the following day, another Turkish doctor, Selaheddin, wrote the following (let's remember him with kind words):

<<Yesterday, I was cited as a direct witness of several events in the open letter of surgeon Haydar Jemal addressed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Being aware of what transpired in Yerznka Central Hospital, I consider it a matter of conscience to elucidate this matter. In 1915, numerous Armenians who struggled to conceal themselves in Yerznka were chosen and treated as experimental subjects in the city's central hospital, subjected to microbiological experiments typically conducted on guinea pigs and rabbits. This is how numerous Armenians perished...>>

Here is also a third letter written by the same doctor, Selaheddin, but printed in another newspaper, "Alemdar", on January 8, 1919. Let's reflect on his name once more, with kindness in our hearts.

<<If we acknowledge that the government of the "Union and Progress" (let's also include Germany) never valued conscience, morality, honor, and all sacred values, one can easily grasp the guiding principle that led to inflicting so much suffering on Armenians. At that time, no one demanded accountability for the atrocities committed, and many believed that all of it would go unpunished. It was this mindset that led to such experiments with the spotted typhus vaccine being conducted in Yerznka... We possess ample evidence to substantiate the accusations we've made. It's noteworthy that despite the numerous speeches delivered, I refrained from publishing anything on this matter, while uninformed doctors surfaced in the press to deny rightful accusations. This circumstance compelled me to take up the pen. It's important to note that these individuals, who seek attention, are pandering to the crowd and resorting to sensational measures. If informed and authoritative figures take charge of this matter, justice will prevail. And in this case, there are also culprits involved in matters of deportation, pogroms, and plunder. Our doctors need not worry. The perpetrators have been identified. If there are those who wish to shield criminals, let them await the return of the government of the "Union and Progress" party. The truth will be established not through the publication of newspaper articles, but in the courtroom.>>

"A Shirt Made of Fire", Vardges Petrosyan (translated by metamorphesque)

All the names mentioned in the translated section are of real people. Similarly, the events described are based on real occurrences.

I've had this Dreaming The Proposal AU sitting in my drafts for a while. Then @voukkake comes out with this art and I figured it was time to brush off the dust and share what I'd written lol. This is seriously all I'm going to write so if anyone is interested I'm begging you to pick this up. I'm dying to read Dream awkwardly interacting with Hob's family (also @valiantstarlights suggestion that Betty White is Destiny?? ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT). Anyway...

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

Dream is about to be deported because his visa application has been denied. He is in the middle of a meeting with his lawyers when Hob, his secretary, pops in the room to inform Dream of a very important phone call and Dream comes up with the insane plan to marry Hob to keep his immigration status.

He gestures for Hob to come over and Hob, clueless, wanders into the room and stands next to Dream, who takes him by the arm and tugs him just a little bit further to stand awkwardly close.

Dream announces their engagement and Hob stands there, shell shocked and feels his mouth moving against his will. That yeah, they are getting married. They are in love, sure. It isn’t until they leave the office, following Dream back to his, that Hob’s brain seems to come back online.

“What just happened in there?”

Dream grouses, head down, already back to his work as if nothing happened. Like he didn’t just use Hob as a pawn in his scheme to get around his denied visa application.

“They were going to make Morningstar editor-in-chief.” Is all Dream says, disdain dripping from every word. He still hasn’t looked up.

Hob stands there, still as a statue. His head is swimming with words, with emotions. Anger, disbelief, betrayal… and a small tiny flicker of undeniable interest that he hastily stomps out.

He manages to put the pieces together rather quickly though, while Dream continues sifting through paperwork.

“This is illegal,” Hob manages to croak out, brows furrowing. 

“Oh, please. The government looks for terrorists, not book publishers.” Dream’s head is still down in his paperwork.

Hob blinks, taking a step up to Dream’s desk. “I'm not marrying you.”

“Sure you are.” Dream sets aside a stack of papers and finally gives Hob his attention. “Because if you don't, your dreams of ‘touching millions of lives with the written word’ are dead.” 

Hob’s jaw drops. That was a line, corny as it was, that he’d used in the panel interview for this job. Three years ago.

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

“Were you not in that room? I could get fined, I’ll go to jail over this. If you want me on this deal, you will promote me to editor.”

Without even glancing up from his phone, Dream scoffs.

“Absolutely not.”

“Well then I guess you’re screwed. Buh-bye.” Hob turns with a flourish and has to bite back a grin at how Dream splutters behind him and grabs him by the arm.

“Fine– fine! Editor.” His face seems to go through the five stages of grief. He drops his hold on Hob.

“And You’ll publish my manuscript.” Hob throws in. In for a penny.

Dream’s brows narrow and he shakes as if he’s physically controlling the urge to stamp his foot.

“Sure. I’ll publish your hack manuscript.”

“Good.” Hob slips his hands in his pants pockets, staring at Dream, deciding on one last nail in the coffin.

“Now do it properly.”

Dream cocks an eyebrow. “Do what properly?”

“Propose. Like you mean it.”

Dream’s entire body seizes up, but he manages not to let it show, distracting himself by slipping his phone in the pocket of his expensive slacks and clasping his hands in front of him.

“Will you marry me?”

“No.” Hob, the arrogant bastard, is visibly biting back a smirk. “Say it like you mean it.”

Dream takes a long, steadying breath through his nose.

“Hob Gadling. Will you–”

“And get on your knees.”

Dream absolutely refuses to decipher the thrill that shoots through his body at Hob’s command. Instead he keeps his mask of irritation and indifference on as he scans the crowd around them. They are still outside the courthouse, and the concrete sidewalk is going to potentially tear Dream’s Hugo Boss black wool pants.

So he carefully lowers himself, scowling as the smirk on Hob’s face only widens as Dream slowly settles onto the ground.

Once he’s as comfortable as Dream’s going to get, he clears his throat.

“Hob Gadling,” he glares at his subordinate from under his lashes. “Will you fucking marry me?”

Hob curls his lips in mock consideration, looking up past Dream’s head. He rocks back on his heels and nods with a forlorn sigh.

“Okay.” He still hasn’t met Dream’s gaze. “Could've done without the sarcasm but it will do. See you at the airport tomorrow.” 

And turns and walks away, leaving Dream to fend for himself on the ground.

On this day, 11 July 1918, Jewish Ukrainian anarchist mechanic Simón Radowitzky escaped from the Ushuaia concentration camp on the island of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (content note: sexual violence). Radowitzky was serving an indefinite sentence for assassinating the chief of Buenos Aires police, who had ordered the Red Week massacre of workers during a May Day demonstration in 1909. Previously, Radowitzky had become a spokesperson for prisoners, and had led hunger strikes and protests. In retaliation, prison authorities first tried to torture him with sleep deprivation, then the governor and three guards raped him in 1918. This enraged the anarchist movement in Buenos Aires, which began a campaign for his freedom, and songs about him were sung in workers' meetings and assemblies around the city. In addition to the campaign, some anarchists decided to try to break out of prison, and used a smuggler's ship to rescue him. But after 23 days he was recaptured by the Chilean navy and returned to prison. He was eventually released in 1930, then deported to Uruguay. He was then deported from Uruguay for his role in the struggle against the dictator, so he travelled to Spain to join the fight against general Francisco Franco in the civil war. He survived the war, only to be interned in a concentration camp in France, after which he moved to Mexico, where he spent the remainder of his life, working in a toy factory and remaining active in the revolutionary movement. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8308/simon-radowitzky-escapes https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=660013872838498&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

Deporter-in-Chief

Karl Wolff

These are some facts and curiosities about Karl Wolff, a general of the Waffen-SS:

He was born on May 13, 1900.

Karl Wolff grew up in a prominent Darmstadt family. For two years he lived in Schwerte. Already in his early youth he wanted to become a soldier and an officer.

He completed his youth studies at the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium in Darmstadt and had a two-year preliminary training as a volunteer for the Nationale Jugendwehr (National Youth Army).

He joined the German army during the First World War at the age of seventeen, reaching the rank of captain.

He was demobilized in 1920 following the Treaty of Versailles.

 He became a banker, joining the Bethmann family bank in Frankfurt, where he underwent a two-year apprenticeship.

 In July 1922 Wollf was engaged to Frieda von Roemheld, whom he married the following year.

Drawn by the ideal of a reborn Germany after this economic crisis, Wolff joined the NSDAP in July 1931. His membership number was 695,131. His SS membership number was 14,235.

In 1933, after the Nazi Party came to power, Wolff became a full-time political party member and was promoted to SS-Captain to serve as SS military liaison officer to the German Army.

By 1937 he was an SS-Gruppenführer and considered third in command of the entire SS (after Himmler and Heydrich).

He was a rival to Heydrich. This competition was accentuated by Himmler. However, at this point his friendship with the chief of the RSHA Heydrich was at its height, with whom he helped certain parties in conflict with Nazi party doctrine, including some Jews, to leave Germany.

As was later revealed in the 1964 trial, during the early part of World War II Wolff was probably "Himmler's eyes and ears" in Hitler's headquarters.

After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Wolff fell out of favor with Himmler.

When Italy surrendered to the Allies, from February to October 1943 Wolff became the Higher SS and Police Leader of Italy, and served as the Military Governor of northern Italy.

In April 1945 Wolff, without Hitler's knowledge, negotiated the surrender with the Allies of all German forces operating in Italy (Operation Sunrise).

As soon as he was released from prison in 1949 by the allies he was brought before a German court and sentenced to four years in prison, but in reality he only spent one week there, thanks to the support of the leaders of the US OSS

In 1962 he was tried again for having taken part in the deportation of 300,000 Jews to the Treblinka camp, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison; he was released after six years for health reasons.

He died in 1984.

Sources:

Military Wiki: Karl Wolff

Wikipedia: Karl Wolff

I DON'T SUPPORT NAZISM,FASCISM OR ZIONISM IN ANY WAY, THIS IS AN EDUCATIONAL POST

Rajvinder Kaur and her husband Randhir Singh are spending what could be their last few weeks in Canada, fighting their imminent deportation back to India.

Their demand for refugee status was rejected despite claims they are the victims of political violence in their native Punjab region in northern India.

"We've been through a nightmare in India, including the arrest and torture of my husband," explains Kaur, a former village chief in a region where ethnic tensions between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs are common.

Kaur says he was arrested and tortured by internal security police on suspicions he offered shelter to radicalized Sikhs seeking independence in the disputed region that straddles the Indian and Pakistani border.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

This isn’t really a question but more of a musing, but after years of holding it off, I’ve finally started watching tlok and I have to say, while the show has its good moments (the first avatar’s backstory was fascinating and fun to watch), I feel like the show pales way too much in comparison to atla. I’m having trouble believing and please correct me if I’m wrong, that this was the same team who pulled off ATLA.

Im not calling out tlok for being the worst, but at the same time I’m just shocked is all. It had so much potential. Is there some kind of explanation why it feels like it’s a shadow of what ATLA was?

no you're absolutely right. compared to atla, it is shocking how deeply, noticeably flawed it is. as far as i know, some of the writers stayed to work on korra and some changed. i know that korra struggled with network constraints more so than atla did, which is why every season feels more self-contained with the exception of books 3 and 4, which were ordered together. iirc, initially book 1 of lok was meant to be a standalone miniseries, and when another season was ordered, they had no desire to extend book 1 into an overarching narrative, and instead decided to use book 2 as an opportunity to deconstruct book 1, which only sort of worked. (book 2 barely works as a season of television, let alone a deconstruction of its former, somewhat more coherent season.) however, the explanation of "nickelodeon fucked them over" will only get you so far, since the politics of lok are markedly worse in every way.

the way i see it, if atla is very obviously a bush era text, lok is an obama era text. for american liberals who opposed the bush administration's invasion of iraq, resisting us imperialism from within the imperial core had not been so trendy since the vietnam war. atla presented a quite radical text, condemning colonialism, imperialism, and genocide and promoting direct revolutionary action against oppressive governments, that also had the benefit of being very topical and of its time. however, lok was created during obama's years in office, which were marked by progressive neoliberalism, more covert modes of exerting us imperialist power (think obama's staggering record of drone strikes and deportations), and a very heavy emphasis on the importance of identity politics.

lok is a very liberal text, in which centrism, capitalism, and progressive social values are celebrated by the narrative. lok is more ostensibly feminist, as women of all ages and relationships between those women are foregrounded, but even though i do love many of those female characters very deeply (i would never deny how much korra/korrasami means to me, as much as just seeing milves, i love milves), it is a type of girlboss feminism that in its celebration of capitalism, fails to meaningfully, materially condemn patriarchy. (look at this female chief of police! women can do anything a man can do, including being an agent of state violence! yaasss queen exert your power over the working class in your colonial city!) i think it's very difficult to create an excellent, coherent narrative if the politics of the show leave a bad taste in your mouth at best, and actively defile the legacy of its predecessor at worst.

ultimately, while lok does have its moments, characters, and scenes worthy of praise, very few episodes in the show overall are free of its political cynicism and clunky writing. if i brought up every facet worth critiquing i'd be here all day (and i already have plenty in my #lok crit tag), but you are not wrong to consider it a shadow of what atla was. the very venture was doomed to fail. and while i have often considered how i would rewrite lok to make it a coherent extension of atla, the fact of the matter is that atla works best as a self-contained story. it was lightning in a bottle that could not be recreated, and even if lok had been given the proper resources and planned for accordingly, atla was a product of its time, and trying to ignore this fact only leads to a failed attempt to revive its bloated corpse. over and over again.

On the eve of Tisha B'Av 1941, Nazi SS Chief Heinrich Himmler received approval for 'The Final Solution' to carry out the mass extermination of European Jewry.

One year later, on the eve of Tisha B'Av 1942, the Grossaktion Warschau (Great Action) began with the deportation and murder of the majority of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Over the next two months until Yom Kippur, approximately 260,000 Polish Jews were rounded up and packed into cattle cars to the Treblinka extermination camp, where they were murdered in the Nazi gas chambers.

Tisha B'Av is the day we remember the destruction of the temples in Jerusalem and many other calamities in Jewish history. While throughout the year we should celebrate and appreciate all that we have, on this day in the Jewish calendar, we mourn what we've lost. In so doing, we may appreciate what we do have that much more.

Rabbi Benjii

People not from the UK are making posts congratulating us on our good fortune that Johnson has resigned, and lamenting that their democracy doesn't work as well as ours. I need you guys to understand some things:

He's got about three months left in government before he goes. He only resigned because people weren't going to stop walking out until he did, not because he admits he was wrong and deserves to go. He might use those three months to fuck up as much as possible before he leaves, because he resents that he has to go. Sure, he SAYS no new policies before he fucks off, but he also said he didn't know Chris Pincher was a serial groper, and that he didn't flout the rules during lockdown, and a million other things he's lied about to Parliament's face.

During these three months, he gets to have a big wedding party at the Prime Minister's estate, to make up for the one he supposedly didn't get to have during lockdown. Is this being paid for with public money? It really wouldn't surprise me if the answer was yes.

A lot of the people in his party want him out right now, but there's literally no system in place to force him out, because he narrowly won a confidence vote last month, and the rules of his party say he can't be challenged again until next June. He only said he'd go in three months because the party was planning to vote for new executives who'd then be able to change that rule, in theory. (Also, because he thinks he's the new Winston Churchill, and being remembered as the Prime Minister whose entire party walked out on him doesn't fit with his internal narrative. He's already broken the record for most resignations in a 24-hour period, by quite a lot.)

Whoever takes over is guaranteed to be just as evil, only they'll look more professional while doing it, and most of the UK media is unapologetically right-wing, so they'll help spoon-feed the 'government back in honest and competent hands' narrative to the whole electorate. They'll make out that Johnson was the reason everything is broken, when their party has been systematically defunding the health service, social services, the justice system, the welfare system, etc. for the past twelve years. The political party isn't changing, just the Douchebag-in-Chief.

Slight shred of optimism: there are two camps within the Conservative Party, and the more moderate one is anti-Johnson. So hopefully there'll be an easing off of insane policies like 'lets deport asylum seekers to Rwanda' and 'let's have a trade war with the EU because we don't like extra paperwork at the Irish border', assuming the people responsible for those policies are sacked (please, god).

But some very damaging laws have already passed, and I doubt any of them will be repealed. And a moderate Tory is still a Tory.

If tories said they detest SNP there would be hell on…..double standards again in Scotland…Scotland is institutionally dived and that’s thanks to chief mammy and her cult

The Tories detest not just the SNP but the whole of Scotland. They hate the devolved nations. They treat us with nothing but utter contempt. I think it's perfectly reasonable for the First Minister to say she detests the Tories. The Tories have killed over 300,000 people due to their incompetence, they introduced the rape clause which forces women to prove they were raped if they want access to additional child support, they refuse to have any responsibility for asylum seekers and want to deport them to places where they'd be in danger, their decisions in the past few weeks brought a wrecking ball to an already ruined economy, they have exacerbated inequality and made the Cost of Living crisis worse, and they are asset-stripping the NHS - all while making themselves and their friends as rich as possible. I've had enough of Tory pearl-clutching about the word 'detest' when you have a Scottish Tory leader who's answer to an innocent "What would you do if you were Prime Minister for a day?" question was: "Tougher enforcement against g*psy travellers" Scotland isn't institutionally divided - It's the UK is fracturing and you have people who have a positive progressive vision for Scotland on one side, and the Tories (and Labour/LibDem) on the other.

A OTP thing that always gives me a great deal of satisfaction and entertainment value:

Elizabeth, after seeing Darcy's and Wickham's chance meeting:

Allowing for the common demands of the game, Mr Wickham was therefore at leisure to talk to Elizabeth, and she was very willing to hear him, though what she chiefly wished to hear she could not hope to be told, the history of his acquaintance with Mr Darcy.

Elizabeth at the Netherfield Ball:

In vain did Elizabeth endeavour to check the rapidity of her mother’s words, or persuade her to describe her felicity in a less audible whisper; for to her inexpressible vexation she could perceive that the chief of it was overheard by Mr Darcy

Elizabeth in conversation with Mrs Gardiner, who is trying to talk to her about the low odds of Jane encountering Bingley in London unless he goes out of his way to see her. Elizabeth's response:

“And that is quite impossible; for he is now in the custody of his friend, and Mr Darcy would no more suffer him to call on Jane in such a part of London! My dear aunt, how could you think of it? Mr Darcy may, perhaps, have heard of such a place as Gracechurch Street, but he would hardly think a month’s ablution enough to cleanse him from its impurities.”

In a later conversation about Mrs Gardiner not wanting to think ill of Wickham as "a young man who has lived so long in Derbyshire," Elizabeth replies:

“Oh, if that is all, I have a very poor opinion of young men who live in Derbyshire; and their intimate friends who live in Hertfordshire are not much better.”

Elizabeth's first impression of Lady Catherine, Darcy's maternal aunt:

When, after examining the mother [Lady Catherine], in whose countenance and deportment she soon found some resemblance of Mr Darcy, she turned her eyes on the daughter, she could almost have joined in Maria’s astonishment at her being so thin and so small.

Elizabeth after the first proposal and Darcy's letter:

“But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one [Wickham], and offended by the neglect of the other [Darcy], on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away where either were concerned.”

Elizabeth upon returning to Hunsford with the letter:

Elizabeth could but just affect concern in missing him [Colonel Fitzwilliam]; she really rejoiced at it. Colonel Fitzwilliam was no longer an object. She could think only of her letter.

Elizabeth upon hearing that Darcy hasn't spoken crossly to his housekeeper in her 24 years at Pemberley:

Elizabeth listened, wondered, doubted, and was impatient for more. Mrs Reynolds could interest her on no other point.

<3

On February 23, the Biden administration published a “notice of proposed rule making” to refuse asylum to migrants who did not first seek protection in the countries they traveled through to reach the US southern border. The change effectively resurrects Donald Trump’s asylum ban, rendering nearly all applicants ineligible for protections.

Even with the low bar for reform set by the Biden White House, the announcement is a betrayal. It’s a cruel, needless decision that will cause harm and suffering to thousands or perhaps millions of people seeking survival in the United States. The United States received over 202,000 asylum affirmative applications in 2022 alone, plus another 68,300 defensive claims from migrants in deportation proceedings.

Biden’s asylum ban appears to be another instance of the Democrats’ cherished strategy of losing to the Republicans by implementing slightly weaker versions of the latter’s policies. But the bipartisan war on migrants points to a more profound crisis, indicating the destabilization of the conditions that, for decades, have structured the uneven movement of capital and labor across the US border.

(continue reading)