another down to earth Midwesterner

 William Dafoe walking through New York like he’s not one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and on top of that, he seems like a genuinely wonderful human being.

https://x.com/ComplexPop/status/1769814283452293236/video/1

A soprano

 https://x.com/GoodNewsMVT/status/1480319352243204098/video/1

A soprano was singing her 4th encore, "Sempre libera" an opera number that has a tenor part, a young opera student spontaneously joins her in song when he noticed there wasn't anyone else singing it

ike

On a freezing December morning in 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was reviewing budget proposals when his secretary nervously informed him that a 73-year-old woman named Mrs. Eleanor Mitchell from Abilene, Kansas—his childhood Sunday school teacher—was in the White House lobby asking to see him without an appointment, and instead of having staff politely redirect her, Eisenhower literally ran down the hallway, swept this elderly woman into a huge bear hug, and cleared his entire afternoon to have tea with her in the residence.

What makes this moment so breathtakingly beautiful is that Mrs. Mitchell had taught a scrappy young Dwight Eisenhower Bible verses every Sunday from 1907 to 1911 in a tiny church basement, making him memorize Proverbs and Psalms when he'd rather be playing baseball, and she'd written him letters throughout his military career—through both world conflicts, through his rise to Supreme Commander, through his election—always addressing him simply as 'Dwight' and reminding him that 'character matters more than rank.' Eisenhower told his staff that Mrs. Mitchell once made him apologize to the entire Sunday school class for being prideful after he'd bragged about winning a spelling bee, teaching him a humility lesson that shaped his entire leadership philosophy, and he'd never forgotten how she'd pulled him aside afterward and said, 'Dwight, you're going to do important things someday, but never let success make you forget where you came from or who helped you along the way.' During their White House tea, Eisenhower introduced Mrs. Mitchell to every cabinet member who passed by, saying with genuine reverence, 'This woman taught me everything that matters—respect this lady,' and she gently scolded him for not attending church regularly enough, which made the most powerful man in the world laugh and promise to do better. When Mrs. Mitchell left that evening, Eisenhower walked her personally to her taxi, kissed her cheek, and pressed an envelope into her hand containing a check for her church and a note: ‘For the place that built my foundation—thank you for seeing potential in a troublemaker farm boy. Your student always, Dwight.' What absolutely destroys you is understanding that Eisenhower commanded armies and led nations, but he never forgot the Sunday school teacher who taught him that true strength was moral courage, proving that the greatest leaders never outgrow gratitude and that honoring the people who shaped you when nobody knew your name is the most presidential thing you can do.

the trick

 “The technique of the big lie consists of two things. It consists first of making a charge against one’s opponents which is frightening and horrible and so extreme that nobody could believe that a decent person would make it if it were not true. Hitler explained this very clearly. He said that if a lie is bold enough people will think there is some truth in it because it would never occur to them in their own experience, to lie on such an exaggerated scale. The second part of the big lie technique is to keep repeating the lie over and over again, ignoring all proof to the contrary.”

-Harry Truman, 1952

equivalent

A man's ability to make decisions is equivalent to a woman's ability to be obedient. Both are necessary for a successful marriage.

behind the scenes with gentiles

 In his free time John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, liked to wake up around 5 in the morning, walk down to the Potomac River, strip completely naked, and go swimming. Every single day. This was a sitting President skinny-dipping in the river before breakfast as a personal routine.

There's a legendary story that a reporter named Anne Royall, who could never get him to sit for an interview, tracked him to the riverbank, sat on his clothes while he was in the water, and refused to move until he answered her questions. Historians think that specific tale is exaggerated, but the reason it spread is that the core fact is 100 percent real. Everyone knew the President was out there swimming naked in the Potomac. And the swimming isn't even the strangest part. Adams kept a live alligator in the White House. It had been left with him by his friend, the French war hero Lafayette, and Adams reportedly enjoyed putting startled guests in the room with it just to watch their reaction. He was also a relentless diary keeper who journaled almost every day of his adult life for around 68 years, leaving behind one of the most detailed personal records in American history, including his casual notes about, yes, the naked swimming. So the real John Quincy Adams: up at dawn, skinny-dipping in the Potomac, keeping a pet alligator to spook visitors, and writing it all down in a diary for nearly seven decades. That's a founding father's son, and a President.

breaking the trauma bond

 https://x.com/fem_mindset/status/2079480461747994822/video/1