Long live these words. Words are not who we should fear.

accessible activism activists advocacy advocate advocates affirming care all-inclusive allyship anti-racism antiracist assigned at birth assigned female at birth assigned male at birth at risk barrier barriers belong bias biased biased toward biases biases towards biologically female biologically male BIPOC Black breastfeed + people breastfeed + person chestfeed + people chestfeed + person clean energy climate crisis climate science commercial sex worker community diversity community equity confirmation bias cultural competence cultural differences cultural heritage cultural sensitivity culturally appropriate culturally responsive DEI DEIA DEIAB DEIJ disabilities disability discriminated discrimination discriminatory disparity diverse diverse backgrounds diverse communities diverse community diverse group diverse groups diversified diversify diversifying diversity enhance the diversity enhancing diversity environmental quality equal opportunity equality equitable equitableness equity ethnicity excluded exclusion expression female females feminism fostering inclusivity GBV gender gender based gender based violence gender diversity gender identity gender ideology gender-affirming care genders Gulf of Mexico hate speech health disparity health equity hispanic minority historically identity immigrants implicit bias implicit biases inclusion inclusive inclusive leadership inclusiveness inclusivity increase diversity increase the diversity indigenous community inequalities inequality inequitable inequities inequity injustice institutional intersectional intersectionality key groups key people key populations Latinx LGBT LGBTQ marginalize marginalized men who have sex with men mental health minorities minority most risk MSM multicultural Mx Native American non-binary nonbinary oppression oppressive orientation people + uterus people-centered care person-centered person-centered care polarization political pollution pregnant people pregnant person pregnant persons prejudice privilege privileges promote diversity promoting diversity pronoun pronouns prostitute race race and ethnicity racial racial diversity racial identity racial inequality racial justice racially racism segregation sense of belonging sex sexual preferences sexuality social justice sociocultural socioeconomic status stereotype stereotypes systemic systemically they/them trans transgender transsexual trauma traumatic tribal unconscious bias underappreciated underprivileged underrepresentation underrepresented underserved undervalued victim victims vulnerable populations women women and underrepresented

Suddenly it's 1969 and we need Crosby, Stills & Nash.

No one in Washington is taking my call.

President's Day ~ February 17, 2025

The trashing of American democracy before our very eyes.

The illegitimate Shadow Government of T/usk continues to lock itself into power.

Excerpt from the NYT: The White House shields the work of Musk’s team, letting it skirt open records laws.

In October, Elon Musk preached the message of government transparency during a presidential campaign rally he held in Pennsylvania in support of Donald J. Trump, suggesting that nearly all government records should be made public. But Mr. Musk's cost-cutting initiative, better known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, appears to be heading in the opposite direction.

The White House has designated Mr. Musk’s office, United States DOGE Service, as an entity insulated from public records requests or most judicial intervention until at least 2034, by declaring the documents it produces and receives "presidential records".

Katie Miller, an employee for the efficiency initiative, said on X that Mr. Musk’s office "was reorganized under the Executive Office of the President” and was now “subject to Presidential Records."

That designation has a special legal meaning under a law called the Presidential Records Act. The law shields from the public all documents, communication trails and records from the president, his advisers and staff until five years after that president leaves office.

That law still requires presidents to keep a broad set of written materials created or received by them while executing their duties. Nonetheless, presidents can also dispose of their records after getting a written approval from the archivist at the National Archives, whom a president can remove from office.

On Friday, Mr. Trump fired the nation’s archivist, Colleen Shogan. No cause or reason was cited, Ms. Shogan said in her LinkedIn page post announcing her dismissal.

In the rearview mirror.

How We Resist an Authoritarian Takeover

"What Is Authoritarianism and Autocratic Rule?
An authoritarian system of governance, which Project 2025 threatens to impose, includes:"

• Highly concentrated centralized power.
• Severely limited individual rights and freedoms.
• Repressive state control and violence targeted at specific population groups.
• Purging of dissent and ending political pluralism.
• Weakened separation of powers.
• Full central control and manipulation of administrative institutions, staffed with partisans and weaponized for political purposes.

An authoritarian system is autocratic when unrestrained power is held by a single individual, such as the president, elevated by a cult of personality. An autocratic president:

• Personally controls the administrative branch and neutralizes or removes congressional and judicial oversight.
• Uses the federal bureaucracy as an instrument of personal will.
• Acts free from any checks and balances.

Modern autocratic rulers come to power through elections. Autocrats consolidate their power by:

• Claiming they embody the will of a unified people.
• Maintaining the shell of democratic institutions, but hollowing them out from within.
• Using existing laws to gradually dismantle the foundations of democratic structures.
• Undermining future elections to remain in office indefinitely.

Without democratic, accountable institutions to implement our policies and enforce our rights, we cannot build the just society we envision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"My name’s Donovan. Irish. Both sides, mother and father. I’m Irish, you’re German.
But what makes us both Americans? Just one thing. One, one, one. The rule book.
We call it the Constitution and we agree to the rules. And that’s what makes us Americans.
It’s all that makes us Americans, so don’t tell me there’s no rule book and don’t nod at me like that, you son of a bitch.”

---- Tom Hanks, “Bridge of Spies” (2015)

__________________________________________________________________________

NEW YORK - "Hamlet" was chosen as the greatest poem of the millenium in the New York Times Magazine millenium review!

LONDON (Reuters) - William Shakespeare was picked as Britain's "Man of the Millennium" by a poll of BBC radio listeners!

ENJOY . . . Chosen as the greatest poem of the millenium, Hamlet endures.

ENJOY . . . Who is the "Greatest Fictional Character in World Literature and Legend" - - one guess.
With the Austen lover's link.

ENJOY . . . Back issues of our features, indexed by subject on the front page, and on current feature pages.

ENJOY . . . Programme notes from the NFT's Branagh Retrospective, now added off of the Hamlet page.

ENJOY . . . Gertrude and Claudius, a book by John Updike, explores the new King and Queen.

ENJOY . . . Shakespeare in Less Than 10 Minutes Review of a video of restorations of the earliest surviving silent Shakespeare films
from 1899-1911.

ENJOY . . . Director Michael Almereyda's film "collage" of a knit-hatted Ethan Hawke as a Gen-X slacker. Our review of his Hamlet is here.

Almereyda does Denmark as a corporate prison.
From the New York Times: Two Fortinbrases and the Ghosts of Hamlets Past. Added: The New York Post museson performing Hamlet.

ENJOY . . . Glimpses of genius. In praise of HAMLET: Kenneth Branagh's film version captures the soul of Hamlet.

Also find on the Hamlet Page an interview with Kenneth Branagh
and an account of the London benefit screening of Hamlet, at which Branagh appeared.

ENJOY . . . The New York Times review of "Discovering Hamlet" a short film which documents Branagh's early take
on the stage role under the direction of Sir Derek Jacobi.

ENJOY . . . Kenneth Branagh's interview at his NFT Retrospective, as conducted by the Guardian newspaper.
Complete text, and complete Questions and Answers now available.

ENJOY . . . The films " Onegin" and "The End of the Affair" open with reviews, interviews, and photographs.
Fiennes has been searching for Pushkin's anti-hero Eugene Oneginfor some time.

USING THE DAILY TELEGIRAFFE

FRONT PAGE News/ The Good Bits

SHAKESPEARE in PERFORMANCE

THE HAMLET PAGE

links/LINKS

What's Up: STAGE

What's Up: BOOKS

What's Up: MUSIC

What's Up: FILM

Fictional Characters

What's Up: ART

Today's Special

Sure We Thank You

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The Daily Telegiraffe is a non-daily non-dairy publication for art and commentary,
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Featuring What's Up and From The Front Office. Celebrating over 20 years.
If you can believe that.

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