Wielding the stick of grandmotherly kindness.Ā (She/Her) Requests for money or fundraiser reblogs in my Asks will be reported as spam. I will also report your blog for spam if you do the same thing tagging me in a comment. If you actually know me and genuinely need help, you already know how to get ahold of me, and if we know each other well enough that a financial transaction is appropriate.
You can like the Tradwife aesthetic without actually, you know, giving up your voting rights, bank account and your 401K.
I just made a bunch of those Mason Jar salads that used to be A Thing on the Intarwebs. I often do it in the summer because I like salads in hot weather.
While making it, was I wearing a peasant skirt, my waist-length hair pulled back in a bandana and barefoot? Golly gee whilikers I sure was.
Why I can do that kind of homey, domestic thing and ENJOY it? Husband peeks into the kitchen, sees that I am making us lunch for the week and says, "Let me know when you're done so I can clean up."
So, skirts, long hair, being domestic? Yeah, I enjoy it.
I'm just not carrying the world while I am doing it and like... you know, get to be a legal person and all.
You don't have to give that up because you enjoy the aesthetic if you pick a PARTNER, honest.
Hereās something that pretty much no one on this website saturated in left wing misogyny understands:
If a black, MÄori, or Pacific Island person were to come up to me and say āyou should call the cops on black, MÄori and Pacific Island people when you see us in your historically white neighbourhood. Theyāre up to no goodā I would not call the cops.
If I were in the United States and a Latino person were to come up to me and say āyou should call ICE any time you see a Latino person. Weāre all illegal immigrants and our illegal immigration is ruining the United Statesā I would not call ICE.
If a gay person were to come up to me and say āif you see gay people kissing in public you should get your straight male friends to beat them up because gay people kissing in public is disgusting and pervertedā I would not tell anyone to beat them up.
If a disabled person were to come up to me and say āyou should vote for these candidates who want to take away our benefits because disabled people who use benefits are just lazyā I would not vote right wing.
If a poor person were to come up to me and say āif you see someone stealing food go get the manager because shoplifters are to blame for the prices you pay, despite what commie politicians are saying about āsupermarkets making a million dollars in excess profit every dayāā then if I saw someone stealing food, no I didnāt.
This is because I have morals. I expect men to have morals too. So frankly, I donāt give a single, solitary fuck what the women are saying. I donāt care if they all get together and pool their internet influencer money to commission a billboard in the middle of my city, or your city, saying āUnlike you dried up ball breaking career women, weāre all happily married.ā This system was set up by men, it was upheld by men, and every woman who has ever resisted it, from the suffragists to the second wave feminists to me with my refusal to date men before the South Koreans got famous for refusing to date men, has faced backlash from men. I donāt need a high five for not being like right wing antifeminist women; I need solidarity from left wing women as I navigate a world that blames my refusal to date men for the Western worldās deadly march to the right. Get on that instead of walking two steps behind left wing men and endorsing everything they tell you to endorse. Based on their behaviour, the only reason why they object to tradwives is because they canāt afford one.
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You'll doubtless want to turn this off in your Instagram...
Vie the NYT:
When Meta unveiled an artificial intelligence image generator called Muse Image on Tuesday, it came with a feature that let users create A.I. images based on peopleās Instagram photos.
Any adult with a public Instagram account was automatically opted in. Using the Meta AI app, the companyās stand-alone chatbot, other users could pull from āpart or all of your published photosā to create new A.I. images, the company wrote in a blog post.
āIn addition, people may be able to create content with your Instagram content using A.I. features at Meta,ā the company added.
Hereās how it works: On the Meta AI app, a user can tag a public Instagram account and direct the chatbot to create new A.I. photos based on photos from that personās account.
The privacy backlash was immediate. Along with automatically enrolling users in the feature, Meta didnāt notify people when their accounts were used to generate A.I. images.
Hundreds of users took to social media to decry the new feature, asking how they could opt out while criticizing the company for a lack of consent. One user said on social media that the feature was āa privacy landmine waiting to detonate,ā while others on Instagram shared templates for how to disable it.
A Meta spokesman said in a statement that private accounts and users under 18 were excluded from the new feature, which can be disabled āwith just a couple clicks.ā
āWe will take action against any content that violates our Community Standards,ā the company added.
What can I do about this?
The easiest way to opt out and protect your account is to set your account to private.
But if youād like to keep your account public, go into Instagramās settings and scroll down to the āshare and reuseā tab. In the sections titled āAllow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features,ā toggle the setting to āoff.ā
You can also change the A.I. settings for individual pictures and videos. Users cannot stop their audio, text and comments from being āreusedā by Metaās A.I., the company said.
I don't think it's unreasonable for our public officials to be expected to prove they're alive and not in a coma to be able to retain their office.
If someone were, as a random example, say hospitalized for over two weeks with no explanation, I think that should automatically trigger a special election to replace them.
If you're still able to do your job, then prove it. And if you're not, then you're actively obstructing democracy by not stepping down.
Which is to say, that if a public official were to pass away or into a coma, and their handlers choose to obfuscate that fact, this should be seen as intentionally obstructing democracy.
And there should be, you know, consequences for the people who would do such a thing.
Btw when they ask if you have questions some actual good options are stuff like āwhatās a typical day like in this roleā or āis this job open because someone is leaving or is this a new positionā
Another good question I stole from a reddit post that has really impressed all interviewers (two job offers!) is: "let's say you hire me and in a year you're thinking you made a really great choice. What will I have done to make you think that?"
It gets them talking about what they're looking for in the role, thinking about how you could fit it, and lets you end the interview getting to reiterate how good you would be for the role and how enthusiastic you are for it.
Be aware that there are questions they are legally not allowed to ask you (ādo you have a carā, ādo you have any disabilitiesā).
Be aware that they will use workarounds (ādo you have reliable transportationā, ādo you require any special accommodationsā).
Understand that you are under no moral or legal obligation to disclose this information, and be prepared to give them the ācorrectā answer. You can always respond to dishonest questions with dishonest answers.
You know what? Fuck it I'm adding more context. Sesame Street has talked about the topic of death more than once and it's done with such gentle carefulness without watering down or censoring the heaviness of the situations. It treats heavy subject matter with respect and dignity and has been for DECADES.
From the early 1980s:
To 2025:
Hell, they even cover the devastating heaviness of MASS SHOOTINGS without censoring or watering anything down.
They've been doing this for YEARS, and it's ALWAYS handled with dignity, respect, seriousness, understanding, and love.
Whenever I see people censoring words because it "might offend" someone or the big ad companies that are currently trying to run everything? I just want to say to them: "What? Is Sesame Street too mature for you?" Because really...what the hell are we doing.
I'm back with even more examples! Sesame Street once again to this day is out here handling extremely difficult subject matter with incredible care and respect. "We can't let kids learn about uncomfortable things!" Oh, really now? Even though they're things that happen in everyday life that they'll face one day at some point anyway? Interesting. Let's see what else this show has covered that people (for some reason) think should be avoided and hidden. Here's more on death of loved ones and greif:
Or how about when someone is put into the foster care system because their home isn't safe anymore and their needs aren't being met?
Maybe some discussions about group therapy/getting help and support?
Hey look! Here's a segment about gender expression vs taught expectation, including unlearning harmful biases and what to do when you hurt someone on accident because you didn't know it was wrong!
Look! The topic of race and diversity! The importance of unity and equity!
They even also have a more allegorical take on discrimination and being looked down on for who you are, featuring Big Bird. The conflict is about how he's not being let into a club because the one bird running the club personally decided he didn't want someone like Big Bird there.
Big Bird goes out of his way to keep changing parts of himself in order to "prove" he can fit into this club if he just changed enough. The truth comes out though, and there's nothing he can do to gain the approval of that bird. He will never be good enough in his eyes, and Big Bird starts to hate himself. His real friends see this finally put their feet down, emphasizing that you should never change yourself just to fit into one singular narrow idea someone else has.
There's A LOT of different situations this can be an allegory for. Racism, sexism, homophobia, basically ANY form of exclusion is put on full blast in this 15 minute clip. Sesame Street can be both blunt and allegorical when approaching difficult topics, and it NEVER misses or looses the point.
It does an exceptional job in both styles of representation WITHOUT watering anything down. The more sanitized everything gets, the more radical Sesame Street is suddenly considered, hence why so many "particular groups" want it gone. Hmmm! I can only imagine why that could be, in this current political climate! (I'm being sarcastic)
When Sesame Street is suddenly labeled as "questionable" or "politically/agenda motivated" content...it says A LOT about where we currently are and who gets to decide what's "best" for kids or not. Don't fall for the censorship and topic-dodging excuses that are covered by the "But think of the children!!!" movement. Never fall for it, because you know which side you're on if you do.
Sesame Street proves kids can be taught and trusted with learning about these topics when it's handled with the right amount of understanding and care. It shows what all this "controversy" is all really about. What it's always been about, actually.
Don't fall for it, always side with Sesame Street.
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A scathing report released on the Fourth of July says the National Museum of American History downplays the role of the founders while empha
In a broadside posted to its website just as fireworks celebrating Americaās 250th birthday were lighting up skies on Saturday, the White House condemned the Smithsonianās National Museum of American History for what it said was a failure to celebrate the nationās heritage, arguing it had become a political tool intent on denigrating the American story.
The 162-page report, by the White Houseās Domestic Policy Council, represents a sweeping attack on the museumās presentation of American history. It is the latest step in the Trump administrationās campaign to pressure the Smithsonian into conforming to what President Trump has described as āpatrioticā history.
While the report concludes that the broader Smithsonian Institution ā which oversees 21 museums and the National Zoo ā āhas not met its obligations to the American people,ā it places particular blame on the National Museum of American History.
Titled āSaving Americaās Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institutionās National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage,ā the report accuses the museum of anti-white bias and of minimizing and distorting the nationās founding. Those actions, the report asserts, have shifted the museumās mission āfrom straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.ā
The museum, it says, āno longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit and discourage our citizens.ā
The report takes issue with specific exhibits, such as an 1840 statue of George Washington that includes a depiction of Hercules. The workās accompanying text describes āthe perceived courage of the American people.ā That language, the report says, ārefuses to affirm the exceptional courage of the American people.ā
But the reportās āmain concernsā involve what is not there.
Visitors today, it says, āwill find no major exhibit dedicated to Americaās founding era, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, other founding fathers, the Continental Congress, the pilgrims, the Puritans or major moments of the American Revolution.ā Instead, it claims, many founders are presented chiefly in terms of their connection to slavery.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian, Julissa Marenco, said, āFor more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so.ā
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The Domestic Policy Council, which wrote the report, is a White House group tasked with developing the presidentās domestic agenda and advising him on issues like education and health care. Its leader, Vince Haley, has spearheaded the administrationās commemoration of the nationās 250th anniversary, including Mr. Trumpās plan to build a 250-foot arch in Washington. Mr. Haley has also been credited with the idea for a patriotic sculpture garden known as the National Garden of American Heroes.
The Smithsonian has long been regarded as independent of the executive branch. But in an effort to have much greater influence on cultural matters in Washington, Mr. Trump has focused on the Smithsonian since March 2025, when he issued an executive order titled āRestoring Truth and Sanity to American History.ā
In that order, which calls on Vice President JD Vance to overhaul the Smithsonian with the help of Congress, the president described a ārevisionist movementā across the country that āseeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.ā
Mr. Trump has since announced that he was dismissing the director of the institutionās National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, calling her āa highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI.ā (The Smithsonian did not follow through ā publicly insisting it controlled personnel matters ā but Ms. Sajet resigned, saying in a statement that her decision served the institutionās best interests.)
The White House also issued an ultimatum to turn over Smithsonian records or face potential budget cuts. In response, the Smithsonianās secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch III, reasserted the institutionās independence but said materials had been submitted in an effort to be ātransparent and open.ā
Some 62 percent of the Smithsonianās annual $1 billion budget is derived from federal sources, including funds directly appropriated by Congress. The Trump administration proposed cutting the Smithsonianās budget by about 12 percent in the 2026 fiscal year, but Congress has maintained the institutionās federal funding.
Saturdayās report summons the specter of a funding withdrawal, citing how the presidentās executive order directed Mr. Vance to work with the Office of Management and Budget to āprohibit expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy.ā
Without specifying the exact remedy, the report says that āthe president has a duty and obligation to seek reforms of the Smithsonian.ā
The report criticizes the museum for viewing ātraditional patriotic narrativesā with suspicion or contempt. It says the museum endorses illegal immigration and advocates transgender issues, while it focuses on Christianity as āan instrument of conquest, exclusion or cultural erasure,ā rather than its āconstructive roleā in āshaping the nation and its freedoms.ā
It takes particular aim at the museumās director, Anthea M. Hartig, saying she has advanced āan ideological agenda contradictory to the museumās founding purpose of fostering patriotism.ā
The story the museum tells, the report says, āis not one of āthe victory of freedom and genius of our countryā but one of regret, tragedy and shame.ā
Ms. Hartig did not respond to a request for comment.
The report immediately drew pushback from some in the historical profession, which has sharply criticized Mr. Trumpās efforts to enforce his view of history.
Sarah Weicksel, the executive director of the American Historical Association, the countryās largest group of history scholars, questioned the reportās claims that the museum neglects the nationās founding and its founders.
āThe museum has extraordinary objects that tell the history of the Revolution, including the newly restored Gunboat Philadelphia,ā she said, referring to a Revolutionary-era warship. āVisitors also encounter George Washington, his leadership prowess and the American Revolution in āThe Price of Freedom,āā another exhibition.
But some conservatives commended the report.
āThe National Museum of American History is the tip of the iceberg,ā said Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation who has called for Mr. Bunchās dismissal. āItās not the only museum that erases our history and our heritage ā all the other museums do. We have to go back to celebrating our country and its great achievements.ā
The report, which contains more than 30 pages of footnotes, also criticizes an exhibition called āMany Voices, One Nationā that it claims tries āto convince visitors that illegal aliens are entitled to citizenship, voting rights and ābelongingā in America.ā
And it criticizes an exhibition that closed in November 2025, āThe Electric Dr. Franklin,ā for what it says was too heavy of an emphasis on Benjamin Franklinās connection to slavery, including his ownership of slaves, and not enough on his work as an abolitionist.
The report comes as the Smithsonian faces potentially significant turnover in its governing Board of Regents, a 17-member panel that includes Democratic and Republican elected officials as well as nine citizens.
Mr. Bunch has led the Smithsonian since 2019, and his relationship with the White House is, at best, strained. He has enjoyed the support of the board in asserting that the Smithsonian is independent.
But the museum is working with a diminished board since the terms of two Smithsonian trustees ended in March. Their replacements have yet to be named as Mr. Trumpās efforts to gain control of the institution have slowed that process.
Over the past few months, the Smithsonian managed to avoid further confrontations with Trump officials, perhaps because it made tweaks like altering some wall text and because the president was focused on matters like the war in Iran.
But the new report makes clear that the White House is fed up with the Smithsonian.
āThe serious concerns raised in this report are not about a few exhibits or a few controversial labels,ā the report says. āAs it stands today, it would benefit most Americans, especially parents bringing their children for a tour, if the Smithsonianās flagship history museum had a label at every entrance that reads: āWarning: the exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who donāt want you to love your country.āā
I would actually make the argument that the heart of the problem here is not either about fans, as the article claims, or production companies being exploitative cowards, as some of the comments are claiming. The heart of the problem is the increasingly eroding privacy we are seeing in the modern age.
There's some people in the comments saying "fandoms have always been like this" and others saying "No, it's worse than it was." And both are to some extent right. Fans (or at least a small percentage of fans, and the larger a fanbase gets the larger a group this will describe) have always been Like That; but they did not always have the level of access to creators and actors that they have now.
The notion that a performer needs to be constantly available to public scrutiny, that their personal information should by default be available to any rando with google, is pretty new. It used to be that actors would only be expected to engage with the public on limited, specific, and controlled occasions, usually with security provided. Now they're being asked to rawdog exposure to the mob 24/7 on their own.
(Also, production companies have always always always been exploitative cowards, just to get that straight; reading the biographies of literally any actress from golden Hollywood years makes that clear. It's just, again, more public now.)
There has also been a negative feedback loop as fandoms come to realize that the constant access they have to creatives increases their leverage and power. It did not use to be the case that this was so; fandoms pre-internet largely worked under the assumption that they didn't really have any meaningful way to contact or influence the publication houses. Even if they sent a letter or a campaign of letters, they wouldn't even know whether the letters were being received or read unless the publishing house chose to respond. So, without that expectation of access, the drama usually stayed internal. Nowadays, with constant immediate feedback from creators and publishers, fans are ever more incentivized to act out to try to push an agenda, get attention, or just vent whatever is going on in their lives onto a face contractually obliged to be friendly to them.
One does wonder if it is yet another instance of people who feel powerless having an effect any way they can. Doesn't make it OKAY. Just... one wonders.
You can like the Tradwife aesthetic without actually, you know, giving up your voting rights, bank account and your 401K.
I just made a bunch of those Mason Jar salads that used to be A Thing on the Intarwebs. I often do it in the summer because I like salads in hot weather.
While making it, was I wearing a peasant skirt, my waist-length hair pulled back in a bandana and barefoot? Golly gee whilikers I sure was.
Why I can do that kind of homey, domestic thing and ENJOY it? Husband peeks into the kitchen, sees that I am making us lunch for the week and says, "Let me know when you're done so I can clean up."
So, skirts, long hair, being domestic? Yeah, I enjoy it.
I'm just not carrying the world while I am doing it and like... you know, get to be a legal person and all.
You don't have to give that up because you enjoy the aesthetic if you pick a PARTNER, honest.
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Peeling off the broken breastplate of a stoic knight who only fights and never speaks, just to realize thereās nothing in there. Not metaphoricallyāthe armor is literally empty. It doesnāt appear to affect him. If the armor stays mostly in the shape of a knight, he just gets back up to keep fighting. But with the chest plate off he just sits there, equally impervious to curiosity as I reach up into the cavity where his body mightāve gone. Stubbornly, no answers are found anywhere in there.
So I forge him a new breastplate and on the inside, because I know he has plenty of room, I put a little pocket. Not big enough to hold anything functional of course. Just a little extra piece to see what heāll do with it.
He comes back next time with some grievous injury to his nothing, presumably from the massive shredded gash across his thigh plates. He sits and waits. I fix it for him. He is still nothing in there. I decide to add a drawing on the inside, of the type of beast I imagine could rend metal into scraps with a single blow. He puts it back on. He no longer moves as if he is injured.
Over time the interior of the knight becomes decorated with whatever odds and ends I could think to attach to the inside of a guy whoās got room to carry it. What really gets me is that he never removes any of it. Never requests a change. Not even when I installed a curtain rod for a small tapestry, or a bud vase to carry roses for his beloved, or an accordion folder for letters. He didnāt say a word for any of the many, many drawings of mythical beasts that now fight forever inside of his shell.
There are plenty of other forges. Iām not entirely sure why he keeps coming back here anyway. Weāre pretty popular, but he could get his armor fixed a lot quicker (and with fewer ridiculous modifications) literally anywhere else. I asked him if I could get a look at his nothing again. He flipped up his visor and nodded his head so I could take a look. It was the same as it had been, filled with drawings and trinkets and weird little fixtures Iād put in there. I asked if he was annoyed by it, or liked it, or felt anything at all, but he literally only ever says nothing, so Iām not sure why I asked.
Thereās not much room left in his nothing now. When he comes back for repairs Iāve had to fix my own foolish additions. Some of these pieces are intricate and irritating to repair, but I fix them anyway. It feels wrong to take any of it away from him now, even though Iāve been rudely encroaching on his nothingness to the point where itās barely even there. How he squeezes his nothing back into a body so full, Iāll never understand. But itās a game to me now, finding a spot not yet filled and putting something there. A dark part of me wonders if he ever gets filled up completely, if whatever sorcery holds the nothing-knight together may break, and it will all clatter unceremoniously to the floor.
When he hands me his breastplate yet again, it is so shockingly disfigured that I wonder if being made of nothing has somehow kept him alive. No ordinary knight could sustain such injuries. So I fix it. And he waits, unmoving, in a quiet corner of the forge. Itās like heās watching, even though I know the reading glasses I put inside his helmet were just for fun. Iām careful to put it all back exactly the way it was when he last left. Thereās no room to add more this time.
He examines the breastplate, and pauses before putting it back on, like heās looking for something. Is he worried about the fit? But it suits him just as it always did. He calmly points to a little space, about an inch, between a miniature shelf and one of many pockets. Thereās nothing there. I ask him whatās wrong, and again he points. Itās the most emotion Iāve ever seen from him, and itās barely anything at all. I take it to mean he wants something there.
I spend some time engraving a little snail in the gap. He watches, as much as nothing can watch. When Iām finished he holds the breastplate, but he doesnāt put it on right away. I ask him if somethingās still wrong. He says nothing, and puts it on. I tell him I canāt add anything else. Even if he could ask, thereās no room left.
Next time he comes back, thereās nothing wrong with his armorāhe lets me check to make sure. I ask him what heās doing here. Out from one of many pockets, he retrieves a tiny rusted knife. Itās in miserable condition, barely worth saving. I tell him I could make him a nice new one, but Iāll fix it if he likes. He puts it away and reaches around to find something else, a needle and thread. Better condition, but Iām not a sewist and I tell him as much. He puts them away. He then retrieves a little twisted piece of wax paper. I open it. Itās candy. I ask if I can eat it. He says nothing. I eat it. Itās flavored with cinnamon. Iām surprised he let me take it.
He keeps bringing me candy now. His armor is the most laborious to repair out of every client my forge serves, but itās my own fault so I canāt complain. Sometimes he keeps me company while I work. I wonder if he is trying to tell me something when he hands me mints. I wonder again at the lemon lozenges. He stares at me when I eat, as much as nothing can stare.
One day he brings me a little jar of honey. I thank him, I tell him Iāll save it for dinner. He watches me work, he puts his repaired armor back on, and he stays. My shift passes slowly, and when I finally pack up to leave itās dark outside. He follows me out of the forge. I ask him where heās going. He points to the jar in my hand. I ask him if he wants to watch me eat it. He says nothing, but the nothing-knight clearly wants something, so I open the lid and dunk my finger in the honey. I try not to get any on my chin. He stands there, inches away, watching me try to consume this jar of honey without a utensil. It tastes like clovers. About half the jar is left when Iāve finally had enough of pretending to be a bear, but he doesnāt move to leave.
I ask if heās going to follow me home. He says nothing. I tell him he can if he wants to. Again, nothing. I start walking, and he follows at my side. I know heās not going to say anything ever, so I fill the silence. I tell him Iām grateful for the sweets, I tell him about how his various components are made, I tell him Iāve never met anyone made of nothing before. I tell him itās a rare opportunity for a smith to work so much on the inside of something. He says nothing. I tell him again how much I like the candy.
It occurs to me that maybe filling me with sugar is as close as he can get to filling someone elseās empty armor with trinkets. Iām not sure if thatās really why he does it. I tell him I donāt have room to be filled with anything on the inside, not like him. Iām not a container for much besides food. He offers me another piece of candy. Maybe he likes containing something, the way I like to feel full. Maybe itās nothing at all.
ā
I didnāt edit this even a little bit. Thanks for reading!
Either people need to learn how to tell the difference between an āIām sorryā that takes direct responsibility and an āIām sorryā that signifies sympathy, or Iām gonna start responding to unfortunate information with a solemn nod and a āSympies,ā because I am tired of receiving a āWhy? It wasnāt your faultā every time I try to vocalize compassion.
It's year 13?! Hereās the AO3 link if you want to see all 13: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1968099 (including me talking about playing the long game, of creating new systems, giving yourself time to rest, and the importance of meetings)
Hereās the tumblr tag if you prefer to stay on this site: https://potofsoup.tumblr.com/tagged/happy%20birthday%20steve/chrono
Anyways, thank you everyone who encouraged me to do this even though I'm not really in the MCU fandom anymore. (I hear Sam and Bucky are currently on the outs? Well I made them talk to each other again here. :P) This is done especially in memory of @rubynye, who passed away this year, and who I miss deeply. She was an eternal friend and perennial encourager of my July 4th comics, from the very first one. <3 Love you and miss you.
Sorry Steve ended up doing most of the talking, but it felt like a Steve year, because it's time to fight back.
Also, at one point I was going to set this by the Reflecting Pool, and had planned an extended analogy about how the Reflecting Pool has always needed maintenance against the sinking ground and the hot sun, but Trump is the first to (a) make it worse, and (b) refuse to own up to the mistakes, and (c) post National Guard to arrest anyone who tries to touch it. [quick reflecting pool history timeline] But then there's the heat wave and I'm like "the boys are staying inside this year." :P
Sorry this year's is more hastily done than usual -- I just finished my Asian American Citizenship comic a few days ago, and haven't really been thinking Captain America thoughts.
We'll see what next year brings!
(and remember to Vote AND! Sometimes I feel bad that I'm not doing enough, but then I remind myself that doing something half-assed is better than doing nothing. Sure, phone calls count for more than emails to my senator, but an email is better than nothing, so I need to get out of my own damn way and send that email instead of feeling bad that I'm not calling. Voting is going to be extra hard this year so good luck!!!)
Maybe this was just how my family did things growing up but when I was a kid and we saw a lady with chin hairs or a small chest or large feet or a broad shoulders weād say āitās rude and mean to pick apart someoneās appearanceā and mind our own damn business.
Apart from being reductive, transphobic, and anti-woman, all this ātransvestigatingā nonsense is just plain bad manners, and I think we should say that more
š¦ Ā If the FoundersĀ dropped their 27 grievances today, itād probably be labeled as ātoo political.ā Don't get me wrongāthe Founders were deeply flawed, and the Declaration of Independence was written with explicitly racist language. Even so, for the world's oldest constitution, many of the grievances they identified have striking similarities to the abuses of power we see today.
š¤ š Here are some of the things the Founders would have disagreed withā¦Ā
š The deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, even when elected officials objected. The Founders argued there should not be āStanding Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.ā (Grievance 12)
šø Using emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs on imported goods. The Founders argued the government shouldnāt impose ā...taxes on us without our consentā (Grievance 17 & 18)
š§ Selling off federally protected land to oil companies and incentivizing the exploitation of clean water sources for AI Data Centers. The Founders fought against those who ā...plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our peopleā (Grievance 25)
š³ļø Pressuring elected officials to overturn election results like in the 2020 election. The Founders fought against those who ā..refuse for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise...ā (Grievance 7)
Letās just say if the Founders came back today, theyād have a lot of questions about America at 250.
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researching the history of education in japan and learning that, preāMeiji Restoration, peasants/commoners formed their own schools to become educated because it was the best way of fighting tax fraud.
That is, when an official told you, a rice farmer, that you owed more taxes than you really did, it was very useful if you were good enough at math to know he was lying (and could prove it) and if you were good enough at writing to write a letter to your government defending your case.
all of which is to say it's crazy that mega-corporations are now pushing education to be "what if you paid us whatever we tell you to for the rest of your life and never do math or write anything ever again"
As we meditate upon and consider the now 250-year-old words of Thomas Jefferson this weekend, consider also the "classically American" meals that many of us will be enjoying --besides the inevitable hot dogs, hamburgers, and buffalo wings, there will also undoubtedly be three additional items on the cookout menu: french fries, macaroni and cheese, and vanilla ice cream. Which neatly brings us back to Thomas Jefferson --or more accurately, another member of the household at Monticello.
Meet James Hemings, the very first French-trained American chef. Born enslaved in 1765, Hemings was the son of wealthy planter John Wayles and his concubine slave Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings --the second of six siblings. Wayles also had an older daughter, Martha Wayles, who would later become Mrs. Martha Jefferson --making James Hemings the half-brother of Martha Jefferson. (The youngest of James's siblings, Sally, certainly merits an entire study of her own, but we'll circle back around to her story.)
In the aftermath of the Revolution, in 1784, Jefferson was named by the brand-new nation as America's Commerce Minister to France. He brought James (now 19 years old) with him, and for the next five years James studied under some of the greatest chefs in all of Paris. During this time Jefferson paid Hemings an actual wage, also ensuring that James learned French. In that time Hemings was apprenticed to different pastry chefs and other masters of the trade, including one chef of a prince. He eventually earned the title of chef de cuisine in Jefferson's kitchen, preparing and serving dishes to many diplomats and other guests. Among the many dishes he mastered were "macaroni pie;" forerunner to what would become macaroni and cheese, as well as "snow eggs," which led into what would one day be known as vanilla ice cream.
In 1789 France abolished slavery and Jefferson expressed worry that James might at some point demand his own freedom, but Hemings surprised everyone by pursuing no legal action and returning to Monticello with Jefferson when his time as Commerce Minister was up --bringing with him all his accumulated culinary knowledge. Jefferson continued to pay James, employing him during the brief time the United States government operated out of New York. Hemings was the chef for the critical June 20, 1790 dinner (i.e., "the room where it happened") where Jefferson famously mended fences with Alexander Hamilton and agreed to establish the District of Columbia as the permanent capital of the new nation. After the Constitution took effect, James also accompanied Jefferson to Philadelphia while that city served as the capital. However Pennsylvania had by this time also abolished slavery and instituted a policy of freeing any slave in the state for more than six months. The Washingtons had already figured out an end-run around this policy (see Lesson #123 about Oney Judge for more about how well that worked out for them), and Jefferson, faced with a similar situation with James Hemings, eventually worked out a contract agreement with the young man in which he would be freed after training up a replacement chef at Monticello. Hemings agreed and passed on all of his accumulated knowledge to his younger brother Peter, who was also literate in both English and French. In 1793 James set out from Monticello as a free man, ready to embark on his own career as a master chef.
Unfortunately despite his master-level credentials James's life didn't exactly open up with endless possibilities; he journeyed back to Europe for a time and then returned to Philadelphia where he worked as a cook, and then eventually to Baltimore where he worked in a tavern. Several times James returned to Monticello but never lingered for more than a few months at a time. He never married nor had children, and pointedly refused Jefferson's offer of working as the White House head chef when he became President in 1801. He returned to Baltimore but inexplicably died by suicide in November of 1801 at the age of 36.
As you enjoy your french fries, vanilla ice cream, and especially your macaroni and cheese this summer, take a moment to thank the young man who ensured that these dishes found their way to America.
(Once again as an artist I was frustrated by the absence of any actual images of James Hemings that I might reference --one popular internet search result is an unattributed painting frequently said to be of Hemings and also of George Washington's enslaved chef Hercules Posey but is in fact neither man. I ended up inventing this likeness, imagining Hemings with the described light-skinned Senegalese features of his mother Betty and also depicting him as a very young man --looking out on uncertain horizons and wondering just where this new life in France is going to lead him. To that subject I just have to gush about the outstanding work by my fellow artist Ronald Jackson and the creative --yet respectful-- way in which he depicts Hemings.)
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