Persons of Note Who Have Passed Away

[ProfX]

[carmenjonze]

Sorry if this is is a bit irreverent for the moment.



Long live the king.

I don't think it's irreverent.

I mean, I feel bad for her family members who are mourning her. People who actually knew her.

But to the rest of us, monarchs are symbolic, by design -- they're supposed to be symbols of absolute power. So IMO, their offices can take it.

Plus...I'm refraining for the moment on how worse-than-irreverent this particular empire has been to literally billions of people around the globe. Lol we don't have to get into that right now.

[carmenjonze]

Those puppies.

[carmenjonze]

I guess. They sound like the ultimate dysfunctional family.

A family full of hot messes since at least Henry VIII...

[carmenjonze]

I can’t imagine what it is like to live in that fishbowl.

When some time has pased, I'll post some true gems from Black Twitter supporting Princess Diana right now.

[carmenjonze]

For anyone not on Twitter: there is a very interesting, if temporary, solidarity that has cropped up between #IrishTwitter, Black Twitter and Asian (i.e. what the US would call South Asian) Twitter over the past day.

Usually, "Black Twitter" refers basically to African-American Twitter, which is a major cultural driver of Twitter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Twitter

But in this case, "Black Twitter" finally includes Black-African Twitter, British Caribbean Twitter, African- and Caribbean-immigrant in the USA Twitter, and Black-UK Twitter.

As it should. This is WHY people adopted the word "Black" in the 60s-70s to begin with...worldwide de-colonialism and anti-colonialism in conjunction with people of African descent in the world's most powerful country dismantling the same and related white-supremacist structures.

Anyway. It's also been really interesting to see who has chimed in agaiinst it: people like Jeff Bezos and the world's worst horseshoe Glenn Greenwald. :problem: And Carnegie-Mellon put out a statement condeming one of their professors, Uju Anya, who was unabashedly dancing on the grave.

Queen Elizabeth's death revives criticism of Britain's legacy of colonialism - NBC News

About - Uju Anaya, Ph.D.

I mean...Carnegie Mellon, named after two of the worst robber barrons in history, who came to power during post-Reconstruction.

Personally, I would not have said the things Prof. Anya said. But that's just me, and these same pearl-clutchers condeming her are the ones running around yelling about free speech and cancel culture and sjw and woke, in defense literally of neo-nazis.

Literally. Not an exaggeration.

[ProfX]

I mean, I feel bad for her family members who are mourning her. People who actually knew her.

Same.

But to the rest of us, monarchs are symbolic, by design -- they're supposed to be symbols of absolute power. So IMO, their offices can take it.

Well, first off, the U.S. kind of fought a war in 1776 to settle that issue. (Then there was that little war in 1812.) So we are no longer her subjects. Maybe people in Canada or Australia, or even more complex, the Bahamas, etc. might feel differently.

Secondly, it's now a constitutional monarchy. Any power the monarch has is almost entirely symbolic; they really don't reign anymore (unlike say, Saudi Arabia and its king). They are not the source of power (though they do advise Prime Ministers and others). So this goes both ways. On the one hand, she really wasn't in control of the British Empire when it did some of its worst shit throughout history. But on the other, the monarchy as an institution certainly helped legitimate some of that.

News channels have focused on her relationships to/with American presidents, of course on how Harry & Meghan are making themselves at home as new Americans, our bond during WW II, that sort of thing.

So yeah, I'm not her subject. If she walked into the room, I wouldn't bow to her. I really don't have to refer to her as her Majesty (as I see it). But of course she was a human being, and let me put it this way, not one of the worst on this planet. Of course, it's very easy to be noble and decent and kind when you live in a palace and all your needs are more than adequately met by servants. We have to be real about that; noblesse oblige is easy when all our needs are met and then some with luxury.

I see folks starting to criticize her and discussing her problematic legacy. Well, I have an opinion about that, but that too is cultural custom, that that stuff can at least wait a short bit of time while her family grieves. Timing aside, she can be criticized like any other person on this planet, and IMHO there's no reason eventually not to discuss that. It's fair. I might not jump in, at least not right away, but I understand the views of folks in places like India, Africa, Ireland, and elsewhere that once were under the Empire where the sun would not (supposedly) set.

Anyway, I do like the Sex Pistols song, and I've caught myself singing it in my head a few times lately. So it's not like there weren't Britons, who were willing to challenge the monarchy with irreverence from the inside.

[Number6]

I don't think it's irreverent.

I mean, I feel bad for her family members who are mourning her. People who actually knew her.

But to the rest of us, monarchs are symbolic, by design -- they're supposed to be symbols of absolute power. So IMO, their offices can take it.

Plus...I'm refraining for the moment on how worse-than-irreverent this particular empire has been to literally billions of people around the globe. Lol we don't have to get into that right now.

The British Monarchy went from having power to becoming figurehead celebrities. When Princess Diana died, most Americans mourned for her because they felt a real connection with her. The media follows today's royals Harry and Meghan Markle and William and Kate Middleton.

While the idea of having American-style royalty is unthinkable in the U.S. but we are a nation of Anglophiles. We tend to identify with England more than any other country and we follow more closely what happens there. Of course, we have a history with England which helps explain this.

[carmenjonze]

The British Monarchy went from having power to becoming figurehead celebrities. When Princess Diana died, most Americans mourned for her because they felt a real connection with her. The media follows today's royals Harry and Meghan Markle and William and Kate Middleton.

While the idea of having American-style royalty is unthinkable in the U.S. but we are a nation of Anglophiles. We tend to identify with England more than any other country and we follow more closely what happens there. Of course, we have a history with England which helps explain this.

Yes and incredibly enough, it starts with a entire war to break free of their monarchy.

Part of the affinity is due to this country’s own penchant for ruthless, brutal colonialism, slavery, and empire which conservative whites got from the Spanish, Dutch, French, and British.

[carmenjonze]

Same.



Well, first off, the U.S. kind of fought a war in 1776 to settle that issue. (Then there was that little war in 1812.) So we are no longer her subjects. Maybe people in Canada or Australia, or even more complex, the Bahamas, etc. might feel differently.

Secondly, it's now a constitutional monarchy. Any power the monarch has is almost entirely symbolic; they really don't reign anymore (unlike say, Saudi Arabia and its king). They are not the source of power (though they do advise Prime Ministers and others). So this goes both ways. On the one hand, she really wasn't in control of the British Empire when it did some of its worst shit throughout history. But on the other, the monarchy as an institution certainly helped legitimate some of that.

News channels have focused on her relationships to/with American presidents, of course on how Harry & Meghan are making themselves at home as new Americans, our bond during WW II, that sort of thing.

So yeah, I'm not her subject. If she walked into the room, I wouldn't bow to her. I really don't have to refer to her as her Majesty (as I see it). But of course she was a human being, and let me put it this way, not one of the worst on this planet. Of course, it's very easy to be noble and decent and kind when you live in a palace and all your needs are more than adequately met by servants. We have to be real about that; noblesse oblige is easy when all our needs are met and then some with luxury.

I see folks starting to criticize her and discussing her problematic legacy. Well, I have an opinion about that, but that too is cultural custom, that that stuff can at least wait a short bit of time while her family grieves. Timing aside, she can be criticized like any other person on this planet, and IMHO there's no reason eventually not to discuss that. It's fair. I might not jump in, at least not right away, but I understand the views of folks in places like India, Africa, Ireland, and elsewhere that once were under the Empire where the sun would not (supposedly) set.

Anyway, I do like the Sex Pistols song, and I've caught myself singing it in my head a few times lately. So it's not like there weren't Britons, who were willing to challenge the monarchy with irreverence from the inside.

Well..she did preside over decolonization and independence all over the African continent, the ME. South Asian independence started slightly before she became Queen. But it did not end in 1947.

Like all decolonial struggles, it was bloody as the imposition of colonialism itself.

[ProfX]

Yeah, so why independence? The teaching of history is an interesting thing. We all know the official reason. Mean King George, "taxation without representation," the Boston Tea Party, how dare they put taxes on the tea of us colonists.

Quite a few historians noted the Britons banned the slave trade earlier than we did, in 1820. There were many American colonists who were worried if the Crown & Parliament banned the slave trade while we were still part of the Empire, ... well, there would go slavery. Also, there was some growing concern the Crown might make it harder for colonists to confiscate Native land. This definitely had something to do with the Revolution & Independence, but we don't talk about it.

The Constitution actually forbids Americans from holding ANY titles of aristocracy or nobility. We don't ALLOW any officeholder to also be a Marquis, Baron, Count, Viscount, or whatever else. (Not unless Congress votes to allow it.)
https://constitution.congress.gov/brows ... /clause-8/

BTW, did you know Allan West is now a Knight Templar?
https://www.israel365news.com/274451/go ... in-israel/

Somebody call QAnon! (Remember, the Templars were ended because of heresy, though this is supposedly now a different order.)



Pretty wild, eh? He can do it because right now he doesn't hold any office.

Anyway, I agree with Zowie. We may have gotten rid of traditional European aristocracy and estates, but our neo-aristocrats are now celebrities, so-called "titans of industry" like Musk or Bezos, and political dynasties like, ugh, the Trumps. And no, those folks don't even often have any noblesse oblige to show for it.

[Drak]

I saw the Queen in person when I was a kid. She came to our city and we were let out of school to go check it out. Me and my school friends walked from school all the way downtown and watched her get out of her motorcade and wave at everyone. We were pretty close. Too bad we didn’t have cell phones back then.

[carmenjonze]

Her country also presided over the…let’s call it the colonized-to-commonwealth-country pipeline.

Like 20th segregation in this country, most people on RFL and our friends’ parents were born in these years, and our friends from these countries were born into these circumstances and conditions.

For people our age with living parents from, say, the Windrush era, we’re not even a generation away from them.

Ms. Marvel dealt with this, and made it an underlying theme of the whole story. Though, British colonialism got something of a free pass in the effort to simply tell a story about a family still traumatized by Partition.

So the continued colonization she presided over is much closer than it may appear.

[ProfX]

When I was in the Bahamas, I watched the changing of the Guard.

Now as you say, decolonization didn't all happen in the 40s. The Bahamas became independent in 1973.

But they still do this to, as they say, "recognize their roots". (The ceremony started in 1958).

http://www.caribbean.com/cgi-bin/cms/pa ... d/178.html

"After years of British rule, The Bahamas gained independence from Great Britain on July 10, 1973, but the country continues to observe some British traditions. The Queen is still the head of state, represented by the Governor General, driving is on the left and cricket and football (soccer) are popular sports. The Changing of the Guard is also a tradition with British roots from the colonial period."

Now, it's not exactly the same as what you see at Buckingham Palace, but it's clearly similar. And they still do it.

So it's interesting. The British Empire supposedly transitioned from Empire to Commonwealth. What remained part of the Commonwealth were now not merely colonized, imperialized underlings.

What is still officially in the Commonwealth?
https://www.royal.uk/commonwealth-and-overseas

Canada and Australia ... Bahamas, Belize, Grenada ... Jamaica, New Zealand ... Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu ... St. Chris and Nevis .. St. Lucia. (Ehhh just saw a TV graphic ... this is probably undercounting.)

Is it all a picture of happy benevolent and cheery fellowship today? Debatable. Almost all of these countries are nominally and politically independent, but they still recognize the monarch as sovereign. We get into questions of neo and post-colonialism.

And as for big arguments even in the Isles themselves, see: Northern Ireland. There's an uneasy peace there since 1994. For now. BTW, particularly since Brexit, the Scots are sorta starting to chafe again too. It's weird that the UK still wants to be head of its Commonwealth, but it just doesn't want to be part of the rest of Europe/the EU.

[Libertas]

Saw this as to the death of the Queen...








I guess I am an old soul liberal.

[ProfX]

It's kind of a caricature on both sides.

Not even the most radical Jacobins or Thomas Paine even argued entirely for that.

The Terror gave us Edmund Burke, the father of conservativism, and then the French brought back the Napoleons. Revolutions, reactions, humans are funny.

I've also seen plenty of liberal criticism of her, though some are holding their tongues, if only for now.

Ya know, liberals and small-d/small-r democrats and republicans got rid of many monarchs after the Enlightenment, but then proceeded a century or two later to put various kinds of autocrats and dictators into power by other names. It's weird, we throw out wine in old bottles, then end up serving ourselves the same shit in new ones. Many places got rid of their Emperors, but kept their Empires.

There are worse things than keeping them around as symbolic figureheads, which Britain and Sweden did. Then the nutty Spaniards brought theirs back, as a figurehead too.

[carmenjonze]

When I was in the Bahamas, I watched the changing of the Guard.

Now as you say, decolonization didn't all happen in the 40s. The Bahamas became independent in 1973.

But they still do this to, as they say, "recognize their roots". (The ceremony started in 1958).

http://www.caribbean.com/cgi-bin/cms/pa ... d/178.html

"After years of British rule, The Bahamas gained independence from Great Britain on July 10, 1973, but the country continues to observe some British traditions. The Queen is still the head of state, represented by the Governor General, driving is on the left and cricket and football (soccer) are popular sports. The Changing of the Guard is also a tradition with British roots from the colonial period."

Now, it's not exactly the same as what you see at Buckingham Palace, but it's clearly similar. And they still do it.

So it's interesting. The British Empire supposedly transitioned from Empire to Commonwealth. What remained part of the Commonwealth were now not merely colonized, imperialized underlings.

Yes the process has been very slow on the islands.

For instance, I thought I'd posted this in LGBTQ Rights thread but Antigua and Barbuda only in July of this year rescinded the colonial-era sodomy law imposed by the British.

Antigua's ban on same-sex acts ruled unconstitutional - BBC

The infamous Section 277 in India was only struck down 4 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_377

There are SO many examples like this, just around British impositions of anti-LGBTQ laws, alone.

[carmenjonze]

Also, it was revealed today, secondhand by this journalist at WTAE, that Dr. Uju Anya, who just got the smackdown from a university named for some really nasty eugenicists :problem:, is the daughter of refugees of the Biafra and Nigerian Civil War. The British supported Nigeria during Biafra, if anyone even remembers what "Biarfra" was.

__________

Marcie Cipriani
@MCipriani_WTAE

NEW: CMU Professor Dr. Uju Anya, explained to me why she wished Queen Elizabeth II excruciating pain: “I am the child and sibling of survivors of genocide. From 1967-1970, more than 3 million civilians were massacred when the Igbo people of Nigeria tried to form the independent

https://twitter.com/MCipriani_WTAE/stat ... 8420170752

__________


From my POV, what Dr. Anya said about Queen Elizabeth II is not something I would say, personally. I'm not even for the death penalty for THIS country's most venial, murderous white supremacists. I generally do not celebrate the death of others, but that is my personal position.

That said, I think for most people in the US, "Biafra" is just another sh#thole-country episode, like Uganda a couple years later, or the Derg in Ethiopia a few years later than that. Then we get USA For Africa and Band Aid, amid the height of anti-Apartheid protests, singin' that the greatest gift all of then will get this year is life. :problem: yeah well there are a horde of reasons for that; f. you.

Then homegirl ran around in stolen South African blood diamonds in her crown, as we all type on cobalt-enabled digital devices. :problem:

The levels of how colonialism -- including our own, including colonialism by Black Americans in Liberia -- has ravished an entire continent, and multiple continents...

This idea that the colonized are supposed to respect the colonizers, that the segregated are supposed to respect the segregators, that we're supposed to respect their dead when these same people do not respect us while alive...Hall & Oates said it better than I ever could. I can't go for that. No-eeoooh.

Somebody on Twitter ripped Carnegie-Mellon's open hypocrisy on this, whereas they evidently gave a free pass to some white supremacist also employed there.

__________

Dr. Verstynen
@tdverstynen
Just so we are clear, CMU only found one of these tweets from an employee’s private account offensive enough to issue a statement.





https://twitter.com/tdverstynen/status/ ... 5698566145

__________

[ap215]

Former Braves pitcher who retired to become police officer dies in crash on way to 9/11 event in NYC

ATLANTA — A former Atlanta Braves pitcher, who retired to become a police officer, died Sunday in a car accident on his way to a Sept. 11 anniversary event in New York.

Anthony Varvaro graduated from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police academy in 2016. He was married to his wife, Kerry, and they had four children.

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/lo ... 5d2ec0144c

[ap215]

Marsha Hunt, 1917-2022: An Appreciation of One of Hollywood’s Genuine Heroines

The death of actress-activist Marsha Hunt this week is a historical watershed and a personal loss. Marsha was one of the last living actors who began her movie career during the Great Depression in 1935. She became part of a now vanished Hollywood, initially at Paramount then at MGM, that bound contracted talent to studios with artists having little to no say over their choice of roles and careers. Nevertheless, she thrived in the studio system by becoming somewhat less than a genuine movie star and more of a consummate professional actress.

Marsha’s career was derailed by the Blacklist, a perfidious period of American history that has been endlessly chronicled and misunderstood. Never a Communist or radical, she was a forthright liberal who refused to accept her voice being marginalized by the endemic sexism and politics of the period. Marsha was the final survivor of the Committee of the First Amendment, an action group of film actors, directors and writers founded by screenwriter Philip Dunne, actress Myrna Loy, and directors John Huston and William Wyler. Members of the group flew to Washington D.C. on October 27, 1947 to protest the HUAC hearings investigating so-called subversive Communist influence in the motion picture industry. From a public relations perspective, the group’s involvement backfired and many people in the group subsequently had to seek political cover. After the pamphlet “Red Channels” was published in June 1950, naming Marsha and 150 other artists, journalists and writers by falsely portraying them as subversives who were manipulating the entertainment system, she had a great deal of trouble finding work in Hollywood.

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/mars ... 235368225/

[carmenjonze]

Marsha Hunt, 1917-2022: An Appreciation of One of Hollywood’s Genuine Heroines

The death of actress-activist Marsha Hunt this week is a historical watershed and a personal loss. Marsha was one of the last living actors who began her movie career during the Great Depression in 1935. She became part of a now vanished Hollywood, initially at Paramount then at MGM, that bound contracted talent to studios with artists having little to no say over their choice of roles and careers. Nevertheless, she thrived in the studio system by becoming somewhat less than a genuine movie star and more of a consummate professional actress.

Marsha’s career was derailed by the Blacklist, a perfidious period of American history that has been endlessly chronicled and misunderstood. Never a Communist or radical, she was a forthright liberal who refused to accept her voice being marginalized by the endemic sexism and politics of the period. Marsha was the final survivor of the Committee of the First Amendment, an action group of film actors, directors and writers founded by screenwriter Philip Dunne, actress Myrna Loy, and directors John Huston and William Wyler. Members of the group flew to Washington D.C. on October 27, 1947 to protest the HUAC hearings investigating so-called subversive Communist influence in the motion picture industry. From a public relations perspective, the group’s involvement backfired and many people in the group subsequently had to seek political cover. After the pamphlet “Red Channels” was published in June 1950, naming Marsha and 150 other artists, journalists and writers by falsely portraying them as subversives who were manipulating the entertainment system, she had a great deal of trouble finding work in Hollywood.

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/mars ... 235368225/

A victim of the original "cancel culture," and a classic case of how conservative whites will even destroy the lives other whites in a heartbeat, if they think it will eliminate competition.

I don't ever want to hear any person whining about cancel culture until they've read about the commiebaiting and blacklisting by conservatives, in Hollywood, entertainment, and academia.

RIP Marsha Hunt.

[ap215]

Miami Dolphins senior vice president Jason Jenkins dies at 47

MIAMI -- Jason Jenkins, the Dolphins' senior vice president of communications and community affairs, died suddenly in the hours before Miami's game Saturday against the Eagles, the team announced. He was 47.

The community pillar had worked with the Dolphins since 2009 and is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/344 ... ns-dies-47

[ap215]

Rapper PnB Rock Dead at 30 After Being Shot During Robbery

The music world has lost one of its own following an armed robbery in Los Angeles.

PnB Rock, the rapper behind the songs "Selfish" and "I Like Girls," reportedly died on Sept. 12 in a shooting at a Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles restaurant in South Los Angeles, law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times.

https://www.eonline.com/news/1345980/ra ... ng-robbery

[ap215]

William Klein, who helped revolutionize photography, dies aged 96

American photographer William Klein, who made his mark with imagery of fashion and urban life, has died in Paris aged 96, his son Pierre Klein said in a statement Monday.

Klein, whose striking depictions of the restlessness and violence of city life helped revolutionize photography, died “peacefully” on Saturday, the statement said.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... es-aged-96

[ap215]

Former UFC fighter Elias Theodorou dead at 34; MMA community mourns

Former UFC fighter and “TUF Nations” winner Elias Theodorou has died.

Theodorou died Sunday after a battle with cancer. Sources who knew Theodorou confirmed his death to MMA Junkie after various reports surfaced online. He was 34.

https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/lists/uf ... tuf-cancer