TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

Sec of Defense

His mother comes out against him

https://open.substack.com/pub/meidastouch/p/trumps-secdef-pick-faces-devastating?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

For Thanksgiving week, how about another tale of a nonbinary colonial person, the first colonist born on American soil to found their own religion?

Jemima Wilkinson was born on a cherry farm in 1756 as a girl, the eighth child of Quaker parents. She was steeped in Quaker theology, but after some of her brothers got kicked out of Quaker meeting for training for military service and her sister was kicked out for having an illegitimate child, Wilkinson began dabbling in the teachings of the New Light Baptists, who had more of an individualistic bent. Then at at 24, Wilkinson had an illness, probably typhus from a navy ship that had recently come into port. After days of fever she either almost died and recovered with a different personality, or she did die and was resurrected as a genderless spirit, called the “Publick Universal Friend.”

Either way, the person formerly known as Jemima woke up and said they had a vision of going to heaven and getting a revelation from two archangels, who tooted horns and proclaimed, "Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone.” They:

“droppt the dying flesh & yielded up the Ghost. And according to the declaration of the Angels, the Spirit took full possession of the Body it now animates.”

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And from then on, for the rest of their life, they refused to be called by the dead name, and only answered to "the Friend" or “PUF” for short. Just three days after recovering from the illness/resurrecting, The Friend started preaching, railing against slavery, drinking alcohol, dipping snuff, and lacing one’s dress too tight, promoting celibacy, and foretelling fiery apocalyptic wrath when the end of the world came in 1780. And they preached that women should be obedient to God, not their husbands.

From evil practices abstain, and every other sin.

From drinking whiskey, brandy, rum likewise from Holland gin.

For it will make a rich man poor, an honest man a knave.

It will lay the rider in the ditch, The drunkard in his grave.

Old woman next to you I call Now take a friend's advise [sic]

Lay by your snuff case one and all

And throw away your pipes.

Your upper lip is always dubed

Your nose is tinged with red

You take a pinch in either hand

Then go to mixing bread.

Intemperance often shows itself

In dress as well as drink.

Young ladies this you know is true

And from it you should shrink.

But lacing tight is worse than all

Beware of such a curse

It injures health, produces death

Oh what can there be worse.

And they got a really neat looking seal:

The Quakers had female preachers, even traveling ones, and were not against people claiming to have a vision or two, but they could not tolerate that The Friend was commingling with the New Light Baptists, and kicked them out of meeting.

So they got together 23 disciples, mostly unmarried women, and they called themselves the Society of Universal Friends, basing their beliefs on Quaker theology but with a side of visions, prophecies and Godly feminism. The group invested in a plot of land in Genecca (Genesee) County in 1788, and at its peak 260 people were living there, mostly in single-female-headed households, with some adherents also taking up up androgynous dressing.

And The Friend kept to itinerant preaching around the North Atlantic colonies, where they collected new followers and also attracted attention, suspicion and accusations of of blasphemy: while The Friend would not claim they were the messiah, they wouldn’t deny it, either.

In Roxbury they were stoned and thrown out of town, and in Philadelphia, a mob attacked the meetinghouse where they were preaching with “stones & brickbats.” Prurient rumors spread, such as that the right-hand woman she traveled with was actually a man dressed as a woman.

“There are some among us who appear to believe that she was something more than human—the messenger of truth, divinely sent! Others paint her as a downright devil in petticoats—artful, abandoned, libidinous, and wicked,” noted Philadelphia’s National Intelligencer. (No one but The Friend’s followers seems to have respected their pronouns.)

Back on their plot of land, the Society made up the largest non-Native community in western New York. They lived in peace with the recently-displaced Seneca, interceded for the natives with the colonial government, and built a self-sustaining community with a grist mill, saw mill and everything. It didn’t last long, though, speculators bought the land out from under them and they were forced to move, buying land from the Iroquois Confederacy and relocating to Jerusalem, a town in Yates County, New York.

But the peace didn’t last, in 1799 a magistrate judge riled up by some disillusioned followers attempted to arrest The PUF for blasphemy. But The Friend was a skilled horse-person and outrode them. Then an officer and an assistant returned to the homestead and tried to arrest The Friend, but the group of fired-up unmarried women attacked the men and tore their clothes off, which sounds like quite a scene.

The men retreated, then returned with a posse of about 30, breaking down the door with an ax, and threatening to haul The Friend away in an ox-cart to face trial. A deal was made for the PUF to appear in court, and they did. The judge ruled that blasphemy was not a crime, and even invited The Friend to give a sermon in court, not very separation-of-church-and-state. And The Friend went back to their land and traveling-preaching for another 20 years. The group lived communally, helped tend to soldiers in the Revolutionary War, and the world did not end in 1780.

After The Friend died in 1819, at age 67, the group did not last much longer, which a baked-in problem when you encourage celibacy. Though many other similar American attempted-utopia communities came after, perhaps somewhat inspired. Today the Publick Universal Friend and their lawman-and-gender-stereotype fighting community has been largely forgotten, but sounds like a good time while it lasted.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

[Larson, Scott, “‘Indescribable Being’: Theological Performances of Genderlessness in the Society of the Publick Universal Friend, 1776–1819.” Early American Studies 12, no. 3 (2014): 576–600

Hudson, David, “Memoir of Jemima Wilkinson, a preacheress of the eighteenth century; containing an authentic narrative of her life and character, and of the rise, progress and conclusion of her ministry,” Richardson and Dow, 1844]

Russia made new threats. On Nov. 28, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that he can target 'decision-making centers' in Kyiv with Oreshnik missile. He made sure to emphasize that Oreshnik can’t be intercepted, and it can be as destructive as a nuclear weapon. I can’t say that people that I know in Kyiv are too worried about this. We are close enough to Russia to know that its tactic is often to bully and intimidate, and that it tends to overhype its capabilities. Meanwhile, a recent poll by an independent pollster found that 39% of Russians think that a nuclear strike on Ukraine would be justified.

Zelensky appointed a new army commander. Zelensky appointed General Mykhailo Drapatyi as Ukraine's Ground Forces commander on Nov. 29. Drapatyi replaced Oleksandr Pavliuk who had served in the position since Feb. 11, 2024 after then Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi had been appointed commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces. Announcing the appointment, Zelensky said that Drapatyi “successfully organized the defense in the Kharkiv sector and disrupted the Russian offensive” but didn’t elaborate on the reason for the reshuffle.

Trump picked his Ukraine envoy. On Nov. 27, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump chose Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. As our journalists report, Kellogg is “not ideal for Kyiv but an acceptable and reasonable choice.” Kellogg has co-authored a peace plan that would freeze the front line in Ukraine, take NATO's accession off the table for an extended period, and partially lift sanctions imposed on Russia. Read more about him here.

Speaking of Trump, make sure to check out our story about the fate of frozen Russian assets under Trump.

Russia’s economy is experiencing turbulence. Russia's expanding spending on the war has fueled inflation, prompting Russia's Central Bank to hike its interest rate to the highest level since the early 2000s — 21% — to rein in consumer prices. The purchasing power of the Russian ruble hit the lowest point since March 2022. Here’s what it means for Russia.

Joe Rogan vs. Ukraine. Popular American conservative podcaster Joe Rogan lashed out at U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine during one of his recent shows. He criticized Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike with Storm Shadow and ATACMS long-range missiles deep into Russian territory. "Zelensky says Putin is terrified. F**k you, man. You f**king people are about to start World War III," Rogan said.

Well, Ukrainians didn’t hold back. We took to the streets of Kyiv and asked locals what they thought of Rogan’s comments. This might have been the first time when we had the “F” word in a story headline.

Separately, we ran an op-ed by former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, responding to Rogan. Earlier, Kuleba extended an open invitation to Rogan to come on his podcast and have a conversation about Ukraine. He writes that he doesn’t expect Rogan to respond but still it’s important to reach out to people like him. “Rogan’s comments serve as a wake-up call for anyone who argues that figures like me shouldn’t ‘lower themselves’ by engaging with people like him,” Kuleba writes. “Whether you like Rogan or not, his audience represents a critical segment of the conversation, including Americans who voted for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and whose views will shape the future of U.S.-Ukraine relations. Ignoring that reality doesn’t make it go away. You can’t break the echo chamber by pretending it doesn’t exist.”

Tennessee Brando

https://open.substack.com/pub/meidastouch/p/tennessee-brando-on-a-country-music?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

According to some reports, the rebels are moving towards the center of Aleppo, with Assad's forces said to be retreating or abandoning their positions and leaving their equipment behind.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/elon-musk-is-playing-a-very-dangerous-game-with-donald-trump-and-hes-likely-to-lose/59047/

Jeff Tiedrich - the week in Stupid

https://open.substack.com/pub/jefftiedrich/p/this-week-in-stupid-november-30-edition?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=70k1h

The President of Georgia calls for Resistance Against “Constitutional Coup”

On November 28, President Salome Zurabishvili made a statement after meeting with the Diplomatic Corps and opposition members. She said the Georgian Dream’s decision to abort the EU accession process has finalized the “constitutional coup” after the rigged October 26 parliamentary elections. She called on the EU to hold new elections in Georgia. President also called on the opposition to unite and urged Georgian ambassadors, civil servants, police, and the army to stand by Georgian people today.

Zurabishvili said that the “illegitimate government’s” decision heralds the end of Georgian statehood, independence, and future, dragging it towards Russia. “Today, this illegitimate government has declared not peace but war,” Zurabishvili said, alluding to the Georgian Dream’s campaign promises of peace.

The President criticized the European diplomats for being “late in their assessment of the situation” and said she urged them today “to immediately take all the decisions that should have been taken in the past months and to help the Georgian citizens hold new elections.”

Zurabishvili called on all opposition members and CSO representatives to put aside their differences and pledged to stand by them as an embodiment of the “only remaining legitimate institution” as long as this unity holds. “Today, we need reasonable decisions made in coordination with each other,” she noted.

She issued a separate call to civil servants: “It is time to make your decision… It is time to think about the future you’re leaving your children.”

Addressing the Georgian Ambassadors abroad, Zurabishvili stressed: “We’ve already asked you once before: What are you doing today? Whom do you serve? What do you serve? Where are you? Can you imagine the absurdity you are living in? […] Russia will be here tomorrow if we don’t all raise our voices from wherever we are.”

“I want to address the police, the real police, the police that serves the state, you are nothing without the state. And your duty in this state is to protect citizens, not slaves, not Russians, not foreigners, not traitors,” she continued.

To Georgian soldiers, President Zurabishvili said: “I would like to address the army, whose hearts ache the most today because it cannot and should not do anything today. But it remains the most loyal to this country and is the most hurt by the return of this country to Russia.” She pledged to them, “Nobody will be able to take away our independence.”

The Russian Embassy in Sweden demands an investigation into all incidents of vandalism against it, according to enemy media

As TASS was informed by the Stockholm police, last night a UAV flew over the Russian embassy and dropped paint on the territory of the diplomatic mission.

The Swedish police responded with both ground based patrols as well as a helicopter, but were unable to locate the drone.

This is the tenth incident since May this year, the embassy reported.

There is no information regarding the colour of the paint that was used.

https://open.substack.com/pub/meidastouch/p/lol-fox-host-pissed-his-mom-watches?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
His own Mom wont watch his show and did not invite him to Thanksgiving

Guess they used up all their missiles Thanksgiving day