@elanabrooklyn / elanabrooklyn.tumblr.com
it's so fucked that they're keeping katie ledecky on land to keep winning olympic medals instead of releasing her back into the ocean
counterpoint: she was born in land-locked washington DC, therefore she is clearly a freshwater creature. release her into the potomac.
Since the Chesapeake is a tidal estuary with zones of fresh, brackish, and salt water that vary by season, Katie Ledecky is actually well-adapted for a range of salinities!
Seriously, this should take you less than 30 minutes and I'm going to give you all the links you need to do it.
Here are the rules about 501c3s and political campaign involvement:
Here are the things the Heritage Foundation is in violation of:
public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.
[...] voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention.
Here's the IRS page on how to file a complaint about a nonprofit:
Here's a direct link to download the PDF form 13909: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f13909.pdf
Here's a link to the Heritage Foundation's most recent filing with the IRS, which has their address and other info you may want to fill out form 13909:
1. Name: Heritage Foundation
7. EIN: 23-7327730
10. Date: the date you downloaded Project 2025 from their website
12. Description of alleged activities: Heritage Foundation is openly supporting political candidate Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and their political stance in direct violation of the Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention. They've published materials on Project 2025, their political agenda, and their support of Republican politicians and partisan policies on their website: www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/project-2025
13. Your name (do not make any jokes, use your legal name)
14. Your occupation (you can be as vague as 'unemployed' or 'retail worker' or 'customer service' or whatever the most vague version of your job title is)
15-18. Your address (yes, you should add your address, as this gives you legitimacy. If you're unhoused, put "unhoused" on line 15)
19. Your phone number (if you don't have a phone number put N/A)
20. Check the box for "I am concerned that I might face retaliation or retribution if my identity is disclosed" especially if attaching your name to this makes you nervous.
Instructions on where to email are at the bottom of the first page of the PDF. Save your filled-out form and attach it, along with Project 2025, and send the email. Keep all communication professional.
If enough of us do this, the bureaucrats at the IRS will note the quantity of complaints, making this a higher priority.
Fun Disgusting Fact: the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, was paid $622,489 in 2022. The next 11 highest ranking employees are all making around $200,000-$300,000 per year. They pour millions into lobbying. The Heritage Foundation can afford to pay taxes. Let's help them lose their tax-exempt status, shall we?
Why do I know this stuff: I work for a non-profit that gives money to other non-profits, so I deal with non-profits daily and regularly read their tax forms and IRS policies.
Kevin D. Roberts president. Barb Van Andel chairman.
Where my X-Men '97 queers at around here? I've been doing a series of podcasts with great minds in history and art to talk about this wonderful new animated series. Check it out at Graphic Policy Radio.
This latest podcast is covering episodes 3-6: Fire Made Flesh, Motendo, Lifedeath and Remember It with my Deep Space Dive co-host, education research consultant and former Shakespeare professor Sarah Daniel Rasher.
We’ve got:
Do you have any thoughts on the character of the Hate-Monger? I presume that him being Hitler in a KKK costume is linking the bigotry of Nazis to those who opposed civil rights?
Yeah, the Hate-Monger is not a particularly subtle symbol; Jack Kirby had Something To Say about racial hatred in all its forms, and as a "premature anti-fascist" (and WWII vet) himself, clearly shared in the view advanced by the advocates of the Double V campaign that Jim Crow was American fascism full stop.
The Hate-Monger (fyi, the original Hate-Monger is technically a clone/memory upload of Adolf Hitler created by Arnim Zola in yet another example of how HYDRA is 100% Nazi) is also an example of Jack Kirby's continual interest in the theme of hatred and mass hysteria and how demogogues can manipulate the masses.
We see this theme returned to again and again in Jack Kirby's Fourth World, with Dr. Bedlam's Paranoid Pill from Mister Miracle #3, or (as @elanabrooklyn has pointed out) Glorious Godfrey in The Forever People #3.
[ID: Three images. First is the cover of Fantastic Four Vol 1 21, showing The Hate-Monger", a white man dressed in purple robes shaped like Klu Klux Klan robes.
Next image is two panels from the same issue, showing the Fantastic Four walking down the street in civvies. Ben says, "Boy! If I ever got my hands on that Hate-Monger's scrawny hide, I'd really give him something to yell about!" Reed replies, "I know how you feel, Ben-but his type usually doesn't get very far in a free nation like ours!" Ben replies, "Oh no? What do you think that is, chum-- a PTA meeting??" Ben points at a crowd of people, some of whom are holding torches, crying "Long live the Hate-Monger! He'll clean up this country for us! Down with all foreigners! Down with everybody who disagrees with us! Hail to the Hate-Monger!"
Final image is from The Forever People issue three. It opens with a quote from Adolf Hitler- "That is the great thing about our movement-- that these members are uniform not only in ideas, but even the facial expression is the same!" This quote is shown over a crowd of white people, all with similar shadowed expressions, saying "Yessir! It's the truth! Glorious Godfrey is speaking the truth!" "He's voicing what's in our hearts!" "Tell it, Godfrey! Tell us how our pride is being attacked and dragged in the dust!" "It's the others, Godfrey! Those who don't think right!" "This is our world! Our workd! They have no right to meddle with it!" End ID]
It feels relevant to mention here that Billy Graham was a major source of inspiration for Godfrey in Kirby's work. The following quote, and even this information, is pulled from this fantastic article about Forever People issue 3 (x)
"Kirby was appalled at some of Graham’s apocalyptic sermons which — to Jack — were more calculated to instill fear than faith, and to stampede people into service of Graham’s causes. Jack called the foe [inspired by Graham] Glorious Godfrey, the name being a Kirbyesque pun. The comic book evangelist was “god-free” and also had some of the traits of TV pitchman Arthur Godfrey, though the main reference and the visual came from Billy Graham. Not evident in on the pages he drew was Jack’s belief — which he expressed on several occasions — that Graham and the president he counseled were both virulent anti-Semites. [sic]" - Mark Evanier, in a 2002 blogpost
The Nixon tapes revealed that Kirby was right about the anti-Semitism too.
Do you have any thoughts on the character of the Hate-Monger? I presume that him being Hitler in a KKK costume is linking the bigotry of Nazis to those who opposed civil rights?
Yeah, the Hate-Monger is not a particularly subtle symbol; Jack Kirby had Something To Say about racial hatred in all its forms, and as a "premature anti-fascist" (and WWII vet) himself, clearly shared in the view advanced by the advocates of the Double V campaign that Jim Crow was American fascism full stop.
The Hate-Monger (fyi, the original Hate-Monger is technically a clone/memory upload of Adolf Hitler created by Arnim Zola in yet another example of how HYDRA is 100% Nazi) is also an example of Jack Kirby's continual interest in the theme of hatred and mass hysteria and how demogogues can manipulate the masses.
We see this theme returned to again and again in Jack Kirby's Fourth World, with Dr. Bedlam's Paranoid Pill from Mister Miracle #3, or (as @elanabrooklyn has pointed out) Glorious Godfrey in The Forever People #3.
This is something I have not had any luck googling, but since you know about The Wire and election stuff, I was wondering about season 4. The season begins with the kids on summer break. After school starts, the Democratic primary occurs, followed by the off-screen general election, I assume in November & Tommy is acting as the mayor before Christmas, and looking to get Chris's bodies out of the vacants before the New Year. Don't campaigns run longer than that? Aren't primaries in the spring?
Regarding the election, the show did not quite follow reality. In the show, the Baltimore mayoral election happens in 2006 - but back then, Baltimore's mayoral elections were held in off-years, which is a terrible policy but sadly common in regions where machine politics dominate.* So the mayoral primary was held in September 2007, and the general election was in November.
However, in the Wire universe, Baltimore had its mayoral primary on September 12th, 2006, and then the general election on October 25th, with Carcetti beginning his term on November 6th.
*By which I mean no disrespect to Baltimore: NYC, which is no stranger to machine politics, also has its elections on off-years, and the result has been very low turnout (and I would argue a lack of democratic accountability and representativeness). If you want to know why Eric Adams could get elected in 2021, no small part of it is due to the fact that only 23% of NYC's registered voters turned out for the primary and only 21% for the general. (Compare this to 26.7% in 2020 for the primary and 62% for the general.)
LOL, I live in New Jersey and assumed that was normal. Would the political situation as depicted in The Wire count as machine politics? There is the whole thing about Nerise Campbell resenting Tommy for jumping the gun, when it was her "turn" after Royce stopped standing for reelection, but it also seems to just be very personal decisions and so forth. Tommy & Tony don't try to get any political bosses on-side, the former is shown making a somewhat futile ring-kissing to the ministers, and there are the instances of Watkins switching his support from Royce to Carcetti, and Davis soliciting a bribe for the same, but my (admittedly uninformed) concept of machine politics would be more organized than that.
Yes, it absolutely counts. You still get jockeying for power and personal beefs in machines - hell, the whole history of Tammany Hall is one long saga of people feeling like they didn't get their due, and it brought down mayors and party bosses all the time.
Where I think it gets a bit confusing is that sometimes you have machines where the organization happens at the level of elected offices (think Mayor Daley or the aldermen in Chicago, for example), sometimes you have machines where the organization happens at the level of party offices (the modern NYC machines tend to be run by the County Party chairs and the District Leaders, for example), and sometimes you have machines which are independent organizations (like the Society of Saint Tammany, which was not coterminous with the Democratic Party). So in the Wire, there are quite a few kinds of machine figures. In Season 2, Frank Sobotka talks about the "Muldoons who run the old line state" but doesn't explain what that means for the sake of the audience. In Baltimore parlance, a "muldoon" was a foot soldier for the machine at the local level who was responsible for distributing ballots and "walking around money" and organizing voter turnout - essentially equivalent to the precinct captains and block captains of Tammany Hall. The guy who hires Randy to distribute campaign literature on election day was a modern-day muldoon, albeit without the Irish last name that the term originally came from.
Then you have figures like Burrell and Valchek who are both political operators and civil servants, who do political favors for elected officials in exchange for patronage jobs, budgetary allocations, and promotions.
Then you have elected officials like Royce, Watkins, and Clay Davis who exert political power through endorsements and ticketing and political favors in exchange for campaign finance and other forms of quasi-legal bribery, which in turn pays for the "muldoons."
Do you have scary movie you like to watch around Halloween?
I'm a wuss when it comes to horror, so I usually let my friend @elanabrooklyn curate the choice of movies.
Ooo is this an invitation to share suggestions?
I'm a repeat guest on the Progressively Horrified Podcast when its time to cover Hellraiser movies.
But I have a real love of 70's horror and got to speak on that at the Criterion Collection podcast. In fact Season of the Witch (1972) by George Romero was one of the best movies I saw in 2020.
My favorite horror film though is NOT autumnal at all. It's for Mayday. It's The Wicker Man 1973 (it is the only version I will acknowledge)
Those are both excellent choices. While I remember it, what about A Field in England?
Oh i've never heard of it!
Do you have scary movie you like to watch around Halloween?
I'm a wuss when it comes to horror, so I usually let my friend @elanabrooklyn curate the choice of movies.
Ooo is this an invitation to share suggestions?
I'm a repeat guest on the Progressively Horrified Podcast when its time to cover Hellraiser movies.
But I have a real love of 70's horror and got to speak on that at the Criterion Collection podcast. In fact Season of the Witch (1972) by George Romero was one of the best movies I saw in 2020.
My favorite horror film though is NOT autumnal at all. It's for Mayday. It's The Wicker Man 1973 (it is the only version I will acknowledge)
@elanabrooklyn and I covered the Venture Bros finale movie!
So we have a poster, a teaser, even a release date! Are you pumped for Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart ?
Yes we are! @racefortheironthrone and I are gearing up to be able to record a podcast on it soon after it airs. I really hope the show can get the send off it deserves and I'm very hopeful and excited. So make sure you are subscribed to Graphic Policy Radio wherever you listen to podcasts!
Sorry for the slow response to your ask, I am rarely on tumblr. I'm on Bluesky now at Levin is my handle there. Plus still on the twits etc
In this dark sapphic noir, hitman-for-hire Thirteen finds herself seduced by an angelic patron and a devilish investor. Suddenly, she has a real chance at turning around her dead-end life – but which woman will be the one to lead Thirteen out from rock bottom: Saint, or Witch? Dreams, or Ambition? Angel, or Devil?
This comic was first released at Shortbox Comics Fair 2022.
Here’s the latests.
On Junk Filter I got to explain how Hair Metal Is Good Actually (and also camp) with deeper dives in to RATT, Cinderella, Kix, Crue and why the genre isn’t really a genre at all.
Then on CrossFade: the Dueling Albums Podcast we deep dive in to Def Leppard’s Hysteria and Cinderella’s Long Cold Winter, two albums with completely different takes on radio-friendly late 80s rock.
Hello,
I am writing to encourage you to cancel your subscription to the New York Times, in light of their consistently aggressively biased, irresponsible, and shoddy reporting on trans issues and stacking of their op-ed section with transphobic voices.
This is not a new problem, but it’s one that the NYT has compounded and doubled down on over the last few years. The open letter published yesterday is a remarkably civil overview of the issues with their reporting and the material harm that reporting has done; it doesn’t even touch on the op-ed stuff, which is absolutely vile. The NYT’s official response was to dismiss the signatories–including hundreds of NYT contributors and thousands of readers and other media professionals (including me)–as “activists” working at odds with the NYT’s nominal goal of journalistic integrity. The next day–today–they headlined their op-ed section with a defense of J.K. Rowling, who has done more to misinform and stoke the fires of transphobia–in both practice and official policy–than any other public figure, comparing her “persecution”–being correctly identified as transphobic–to that experienced by Salman Rushdie, and repeatedly misgendering trans men as women.
As a former journalist, I consider the NYT’s reporting on trans issues unconscionable; as a trans person, I find it incredibly scary. NYT articles–ones misreported to an extent that has triggered open criticism from major medical organizations–have been used to justify some of the most aggressive anti-trans legislation this and last season. That the “paper of record” has decided to advocate for our dehumanization puts the dignity and lives of people like me in active jeopardy, and regardless the quality of their other work, I don’t think there’s a conscionable way to continue to support them. Yours, Jay Edidin
