Art Aesthetic: Whimsical

really feeling this lyric today for some reason

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

hey if you're trans in the us i love you. hey if you're queer in the us i love you. hey if you're a person of color in the us i love you. hey if you're a woman in the us i love you. hey if you're disabled in the us i love you. i love you i love you i love you

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September 30th

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December 1st

alright alright alright. i want to get into the soldier, poet, king discourse because my controversial opinion is that gansey is not, in fact, the king But the poet. and adam is the king. and obviously ronan is, and forever will be, the soldier.

being the king, at its core, is about being driven by duty rather than desire. the king is practical sometimes to their own detriment. adam parrish is the king. adam is driven by duty — sometimes duty to others but also duty to himself to become someone he’s proud of — and he often ignores his true wants in favor of the practical, “right” choices. think of mr gray saying “adam parrish and his band of merry men” and maura responding that she would have said it was gansey’s band. but it’s actually adam who keeps the gangsey in line. it’s adam who can get gansey inspired to continue his quest by coming up with possible solutions out of thin air, it’s adam who keeps a watchful eye out for anyone who might be out to get them, and adam who makes the ultimate sacrifice to cabeswater to further the quest. adam would probably prefer to be the poet, but he sees the impracticality of it and chooses to accumulate success that is easily measured instead.

gansey is the poet through and through. he is the orpheus of the gangsey. he’s the one spinning the delightful tale of glendower and the hunt. by saying “what do you know about dead welsh kings?” he is inviting anyone who will listen into this story, this magic that he’s created/found. he is not always practical but he’s so charming that it doesn’t matter. he lives in a world of whimsy where things just want to be found and where he believes and leads other people to believe too. the real gansey is the poet not the king.

ronan is just. so. obviously. the soldier. the soldier is impractical but not in the same way as the poet — the soldier is reckless and does not think of the consequences before acting. ronan is fiercely protective of those he cares about and does not usually think before doing just about anything. he is angry angry angry. soldiers do what they want and are leaders in their own way, but they often lead with anger and feel as though their anger is a rebellion. ronan is the right hand man, the one who has to be held back but is ultimately the secret weapon. (be dangerous).

i will also say that the solider defends the king and the poet inspires the king and the king keeps everyone on track. ronan defends and would defend adam to the grave (“the choice was death or hurting adam, which wasn't much of a choice at all”), gansey does literally anything just to make adam believe or even just smile, and adam, as we’ve established, is the sensible one that is steering them all to success.

Max Verstappen = Megan Thee Stallion

3 minutes and 13 seconds of absolute nonsense. Don't take any of it seriously. We are all here for some good fun and giggles.

I did not think this (not so) little video would take me on such a ridiculous journey. I also never intended for it to be so norstappen focused either. But here we are!

Sourcing the clips for this took so long. I was determined to try and make every line make sense in some context. But of course this is impossible. I really tried though.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this crazy little project (and for anyone watching it now)! It is so appreciated (but next time please tell me to go touch grass instead). <3

Special thanks to @wisteriagoesvroom for talking me off the ledge of abandoning this whole thing, and to @rigmarole-07 for being my test subject and giving me great advice. <3

This is dedicated to the anons who were waiting on this! I hope you see this, anons, and that you like it. Your messages made me so happy, thank you. <3

Me when my answer in a Tumblr poll is in the majority: ahhh clearly a woman who knows what is a la mode... Finger on the pulse of society

Me when my answer on a Tumblr poll is in the minority: an uncommon mind... She stands apart from her peers