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Kergland

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Shoutout to this absolute banger of a wikibox i made the first time i got hungover
He's got my vote
 
Bars Behind Bars: An Analysis of Trapped by Tupac Shakur

To this day, issues of systemic racism have risen in prominence as it becomes clear that the system to which thousands of black Americans have pledged their allegiance to, has not pledged allegiance to them. From this, one can see what drove Tupac Shakur, a victim of injustice brought upon due to his race, to bring light to these issues. Born to Afeni Shakur, a member of the Black Panther Party, Tupac had an intensely political upbringing, later learning to communicate these politics through music. In November 1991, six months after the beating of Rodney King by policemen received national attention, Shakur released an album directed towards mature audiences across America centered on problems faced by the black community. Under the MC name 2Pac, Shakur’s debut album 2Pacalypse Now became available to the public and from this, his debut solo single “Trapped” would become a hit. Throughout “Trapped”, the AABB rhyming format is used in several lines, which not only makes the song more rhythmic, but allows Tupac’s descriptions of hardship and discrimination easier for the listener to memorize. And while it appears to be a simple gangster song, “Trapped” is an insight into the mind of an aggrieved man who becomes victim to discrimination and tries to push back against racist power structures. In spite of it being controversial for the time, Tupac’s work remains a cultural touchstone, which sought to alert Americans of how the black community continues to suffer at the hands of oppression.

Giving the reader an insight into hardships black America faces, Tupac explores how black communities remain trapped in a prison of their own, as marginalization gives birth to hardships within their community. “You know they got me trapped in this prison of seclusion/ Happiness, living on the streets is a delusion”. Tupac uses contradictions to explain how the “happiness” of the glamorized life of a criminal which draws impoverished young men into crime masks the reality that their communities remain deprived and secluded by an authoritarian system “Nine-millimeter kickin' thinkin' about what the streets do to me/ 'Cause they never taught peace in the black community/ All we know is violence, do the job in silence/ Walk the city streets like a rat pack of tyrants”. Tupac’s technical lyricism is further emphasized as the AABB rhyming format is used, as a vivid image of black-on-black violence brought upon by poverty and gang warfare. But eventually, Tupac turns his attention towards an even greater force oppressing the black community, police brutality.

It can be inferred that Tupac, created “Trapped” as a message towards America as a whole, in an effort to speak against police brutality. A similar example of Tupac raising awareness of racism was when he sued the Oakland Police Department for 10 million dollars after being beaten and arrested for jaywalking. The lawsuit was settled for $42,000, but while the suit was ongoing, Tupac stated in a promotional interview for 2Pacalypse Now that “I just want my just reward that's all and I want the whole world to see it. That’s why I didn't take matters into my own hands, I had an opportunity to-I knew it was going to be on TV and say look, this is what happens in America". In “Trapped”, the fictional narrator of the song uses imagery to show how he “Can barely walk the city streets/ Without a cop harassin' me, searching me, then askin' my identity/ Hands up, throw me up against the wall, didn't do a thing at all”. With a vivid example of storytelling, Tupac shows how black Americans commonly fall victim to abuses of power at the hands of the police. And whether through music or through the courtroom, Tupac remained determined to change the nation’s political consciousness for the better.

In “Trapped”, Tupac establishes a need for black people defend themselves against police brutality by urging the listener to empathize with the narrator’s growing sense of anger against an abusive authority. “Sweated me, hunted me, trapped in my own community/One day I'm gonna bust, blow up on this society”. The use of repetition signifies how anger builds up in response to constant oppression and foreshadows how the character’s thoughts turn into action against the forces who oppressed him. “But now he's the Devil's friend, too late to be tellin' him/ He shot first and I'll be damned if I run away/ Homie is done away, I should've put my gun away”. In the last lines of “Trapped” Tupac’s revolutionary principles make themselves clear, with self-defense against police brutality being portrayed as a just action against an unjust system. With the audience looking at the narrator through a first person perspective, Tupac makes them empathize with his feelings of anger and later regret as he finds himself a fugitive of the law for the crime of defending his life.

Thanks to this, Tupac’s debut single becomes a masterful example of storytelling and social commentary, which the listener can easily attach themselves to thanks to the song’s memorable rhythm. While being an accomplished musician, Tupac’s poetic ability also shines through strongly in “Trapped” as he teaches listeners across America how black people remain marginalized and forced into cycles of violence. And from this, discrimination becomes frequent in the form of police brutality, with Tupac urging his audience to resist against these abuses of power. While it may have been thirty years since the song’s release and twenty-five years since his death, Tupac Shakur’s work remains relevant as ever, as what he spoke against all those years ago sadly remains in the heart of American society. Despite this, Tupac’s legacy continues to prevail as his mission to speak against injustice wherever it stood, has made him a shining example for the activists of today.
 
For Want of a Ned
  • During the Siege of Pyke, Euron Greyjoy receives a vision of a wolf with wings casting him down, he realizes that the next Greenseer will be born to Ned Stark and kills him with an enchanted arrow
  • King Robert is obviously enraged and orders the mass execution of the Greyjoy line, sparing only Theon and Asha. Stannis is declared Regent-for-Life of the Iron Isles and raises the Greyjoy kids
  • Under Stannis and a more vengeful Robert, the Iron lords are more harshly punished for their rebellion, with Davos and Tygett Lannister being granted a lordship on the Isles
  • Having survived the siege, Euron assembles the remnants of the Iron Fleet and they sail away to Essos, serving as mercenaries
  • Catelyn faces multiple difficulties as Regent of the North due to her foreign faith and heritage along with raising Robb, Sansa, and the newborn Arya without Ned
  • Still grieving, Catelyn agrees to send Jon away to King’s Landing to serve as a squire under King Robert, he becomes a brother of sorts to the Crown Prince Joffrey
  • Catelyn is kidnapped by a conspiracy of Lord Rickard Karstark and other rebellious vassals as they try to make him the new regent and force Catelyn to marry him
  • The rebellion is countered by a royal invasion of the North with Manderly, Glover, and other Stark loyalist support, at the head of the invasion is Lord Petyr Baelish who has convinced Jon Arryn to allow him to join the war
  • The war faces little success until Littlefinger convinces the previously-neutral Boltons agree to join the invasion, the Karhold falls and the Karstarks are executed
  • To the surprise of everyone, Catelyn declares she will be marrying Littlefinger the two have a daughter named Alyane and Robb’s new dad begins pushing him to become a more ruthless leader
  • Stannis remains torn between serving as Master of Ships and Regent of the Iron Isles and is much slower to discover the truth of Cersei’s infidelity
  • After discovering the Baratheon records with Jon Arryn, Cersei poisons the Hand of the King, Robert then makes Tywin Lannister the new Hand of the King
  • Stannis is forced to flee to Dragonstone and order Theon and Davos to assemble the Ironborn, his wife and several lords have also converted to the Red God R’hollor widening the religious tensions
  • After Joffrey comes of age to marry, Robert Baratheon comes to Winterfell and Sansa meets her betrothed crown prince and her half-brother, Jon
  • The two return to Kings Landing to marry, they meet Renly at Riverrun who makes fun of Joffrey causing him to retaliate, the two become rivals
  • During the wedding, Robert is poisoned by Cersei and dies the next day, Joffrey is quickly crowned as the new King on the Iron Throne
  • His uncles declare themselves king as well, Stannis with the support of the Iron Isles and the Narrow Sea Lords then Renly rising up with support of the Stormlands and the Reach, with plans to quickly march on King’s Landing
  • Robb assembles the North, Edmund assembles the Riverlands (Hoster died early), and Kevan assembles the Westerlands behind Joffrey
  • Across the Narrow Sea, Daenarys Targaryen, exiled from her kingdom marries Khal Drogo of the Dothraki in a bid to restore the Targaryen dynasty and place her brother on the Iron Throne. Magister Illyrio Mopatis has arraigned that they be transported by Euron Greyjoy, Commander of the Iron Fleet. The Cheesemonger believes such an expedition will end in nothing but failure, to weaken the realm enough for his king to rise. Unbeknownst to him, the Crow’s Eye has anticipated this and has begun to manipulate events in his quest to drown the world in charnel fire as the people burn in the name of their God-King.
 
Rough background for Fantasy American worldbuilding idea

  • The Fisher Prince of the Isles discovers the New World, a heavily forested and mountainous land with a pleasant coastline
  • The Fisher Prince returns home, does a bit of fratricide, becomes The Fisher King, and claims the New World under his kingdom
  • Colonists from across the Old World settle in the New World in four waves, based on Albion's Seed by Fischer (religious and scholarly Puritans, industrious and businesslike Quakers/Dutch, aristocratic plantation-owning Cavaliers, backcountry ruffian Scotch-Irish)
  • These waves segregate into four provinces each ruled by their own governor: New Morgan, Chauken, Arcadia, Galloglas (names WIP)
  • Gunpowder, horses, and alliances with rival tribes allows them to beat back the aborigines near the coast
  • 300 years after the New World is discovered, a revolution happens in the Isles which sees the Insular royal family massacred and replaced by a theocratic Commonwealth
  • The colonies become separate independent republics with the exception of the Puritans
  • The Cavaliers under the rule of a Imperator who takes the name “Leviathan” elected through parliament absorb the other independent colonies through conquest and diplomacy
  • The Leviathan then declares war on the Puritans and by extension, the Commonwealth, winning thanks to the support of Old World kingdoms
  • The Leviathan declares his intent to step down, leading to rising political tensions in the merchant-dominated republic
  • After a series of short-ruled Imperators, Not!Andrew Jackson rises to prominence by bumbling his way through petty political feuds, building an aristocrat-peasant-military alliance
Other Stuff:
  • Magic maybe exists but is acknowledged as something powerful and dangerous by all cultures
  • There is a not!Incan Empire out in the mountains beyond the not!Applachians, maybe Not!Andrew Jackson's adopted native son does smth there
  • Cool American megafauna still exist and Appalachian fearsome critters are real
 
Fear and Hatred, Malice, Madness, and Loathing

1969-1973: Richard Nixon/ Spiro Agnew (Republican)

def. Eugene McCarthy/ Ralph Yarborough (Democratic), George Wallace/ Curtis Lemay (American Independent)
def. Edmund Muskie/ Nicholas Katzenbach [replacing Thomas Eagleton] (Democratic), Ralph Abernathy/ Lyndon LaRouche (Solidarity)

1973-1973: Richard Nixon/ Spiro Agnew (Republican)
1973-1974: Spiro Agnew/ vacant (Republican)
1974-1975: Spiro Agnew/ Nelson Rockefeller
(Republican)
1975
-1977: Spiro Agnew/ vacant (Republican)
1977-1978: Eugene McCarthy/ Howard J. Samuels (Democratic)
def. Spiro Agnew/ John G. Schmitz (Republican), Roger MacBride/ Joe Vogler (Movement '76), Ralph Abernathy/ Dan Fefferman (Solidarity)
1978-1981: Eugene McCarthy/ Howard J. Samuels (Independent and Democratic)
1981-1985: Eugene McCarthy/ Billy M. Davis (Independent with Republican and Solidarity support)

def. Howard J. Samuels/ John Glenn (Democratic), Spiro Agnew/ Pat Buchanan (Truth, Justice, the American Way)
 
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SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM

1877-1877:
disputed between Rutherford Hayes/ William Wheeler (Republican) and Samuel J. Tilden/ Thomas Hendricks (Democratic)

-- The Treaty of Bethesda, End of the Crisis of 1877 --

1877-1879: David Davis/vacant (Independent)
1879-1885: John Schofield/ Zebulon Baird Vance (Independent with Republican and Democratic support)

def. none
def. Wade Hampton III/ John Newman Edwards (Redemption), John McAullife/ various (Workingmen's), Henry Adams/ Thomas Tipton (Liberal Republican)
1885-1889: John Schofield/ Leland Stanford (Independent with Republican and Democratic support)
def. Thomas Tipton/ George D. Wise (Liberal), Ignatius L. Donnelly/ Oliver Hudson Kelley (Anti-Monopoly), Philip Van Patten/ Albert Parsons (Workingmen's), Henry Adams/ Denis Kearney (Chartist)
1889-1893: John Schofield/ Zebulon Baird Vance (Independent with Republican and Democratic support)
def. John M. Palmer/ James Z. George (Liberal), Thomas Ewing Jr/ James Weaver (Grange), Henry Adams/ various (Chartist), Philip Van Patten/ various (Independent backed by Socialist groups), Henry Watterson/ Benjamin Tillman (Independent backed by Redeemer groups), Henry S. Olcott/ Thomas Edison (New Enlightenment)
1893-1895: John Schofield/ Rufus W. Cobb (Independent with Republican, Democratic, and Chartist support)
def. Algie Martin Simons/ Thomas E. Watson (Popular Movement), Uriah S. Stephens/ various (Reform), Thomas Edison/ various (New Enlightenment)

-- The Revolution of 1895, End of the Schofield Regime --

Timeline of the American Dictatorship
American Interregnum between Hayes and Tilden -> David Davis (one-term civilian president) -> John Schofield (brief military dictator) -> Frederick Funston -> Jacob H. Smith backed regime
 
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THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE

Presidents of the United States of America:
1989-1993: George H.W. Bush/ Dan Quayle (Republican)

def. Michael Dukakis/ Lloyd Bentsen (Democratic)
1993-2001: Paul Tsongas/ Jay Rockefeller (Democratic)
def. George H.W. Bush/ Dan Quayle (Republican), Ross Perot/ James Stockdale (Independent, dropped out endorsed Tsongas)
def. Steven Forbes/ Phil Gramm (Republican)
2001-2005: Paul Tsongas/ Rick Lazio (Concord Coalition)
def. Gary Bauer/ Jim Bunning (Conservative), Ron Paul/ Jo Jorgensen (Libertarian)

A Call to Economic Arms said:
America is greatness. It is the pursuit of excellence and the fulfillment of human capacity. America is not the casual acceptance of economic decline and social disintegration. We must have leadership that is committed to world pre-eminence in the strength of our economy, in the cohesion of our society, and in the quality of our environment. To accept anything less is to do violence to the two centuries of our history. America is not just another country. It is not just another place. It is the embrace of fundamental human values that define what man can become. America is "We The People" as respectful keepers of the sacred trust that was forged by the blood and hardships of those who came before us. America has been bequeathed to us. It is a living heritage meant for us to preserve and then bequeath to other Americans, yet unborn and yet proven to be worthy.

Today, that heritage is under attack.
Its restoration is the great challenge of our generation.
This is the mandate to which we must now attend.
 
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Yuh yuh ay yuh
Richard Nixon played a massive role in integrating fascist exiles into american politics by appointing them as republican party's white ethnic outreach
Yuh
 
2020-2026: Joe Biden/ Kamala Harris (Democratic)
def. Donald Trump/ Kari Lake (Republican)
2026-2032: Kamala Harris/ Alan Grayson (Democratic)
def. Steve Daines/ John James (Republican)
2032-2040: Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh/ James Delahunt (Republican)
def. Anthony Arnold/Heidi Yang (Democratic)
def. Marina Harr/W. Lisa Kolaja (Democratic)
 
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