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porterdavis · 1 year

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"A Test of Character"

Tom Nichols is a conservative writer who spent 20+ years as an instructor at the Naval War College, not a particular bastion of left-wing loonies. His article for The Atlantic is behind a paywall, but available for free if you subscribe to one of the magazine's newsletters, so I don't think it's totally out of bounds to reprint it here. It's a #long-read, but worth every second of your time.

(tl;dr -- we face a moral character test for the second time in seven years. We failed miserably the first time)

"Donald Trump went to CPAC and gave a speech that was, even by his delusional standards, dark and violent. Much of it was hallucinatory. Amusing as it is to listen to President von Munchausen and his many “sir” stories, Trump is the former commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces and the current front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024. He is as dangerous as ever to our democracy and to our national security.

But I also want to turn attention from Trump’s evident emotional issues to consider a more unsettling question: How, in 2023, after all we know about this man and his attacks on our government and our Constitution, do we engage the people who heard that speech and support Donald Trump’s candidacy? How do we turn the discussion away from partisanship and toward good citizenship—and to the protection of our constitutional order?

In the past, reporters have approached such questions gingerly, poking their head into coffee shops, asking for comments at rallies, and claiming to overhear conversations at gas stations, all in the service of trying to understand Trump voters. (Only The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper has ever managed to get anywhere in such interviews, and the answers he elicits are often terrifyingly dumb.) These respectful conversations with Trump voters have produced almost nothing useful beyond failed theories about “economic anxiety” and other rationalizations that capture little about why Trump voters continue to support a posse of authoritarian goons.

In 2016, Trump supporters could lean on a slew of hopeful arguments: Trump is just acting; he’ll hire professional staff; the “good” Republicans will keep him in line; the job will sober him up. All of these would be disproved over time. (It didn’t help that the alternative at the time was Hillary Clinton, for whom I voted but whose campaign was a tough sell to many people.) But by 2020, Trump, along with his enablers at Fox and other right-wing outlets, had created a kind of impermeable anti-reality field around the GOP base. This shell of pure denial defeated almost any argument about anything.

Media, flummoxed by having a sociopathic narcissist in the Oval Office, treated Trump like a normal political leader, and soon we all—even me—became accustomed to the fact that the president of the United States routinely sounded like the guy at the end of the bar who makes you decide to take your drink over to a table or a booth. When Joe Biden won, I hoped that this strange fever gripping so many Americans would finally pass. But the fever did not break, not even after January 6, 2021, and the many hearings that showed Trump’s responsibility for the events of that black day.

And now Trump has kicked off his attempt to regain office with a litany of lunacy. His speech at CPAC has been recounted by my Atlantic colleagues; John Hendrickson notes Trump’s return to the classics of grievance, and McKay Coppins describes how Trump has managed to become part of the typically boring CPAC kitsch.

But we shouldn’t mistake Trump’s gibbering for harmless political glossolalia. As Charlie Sykes said this morning, CPAC is “a serious threat masquerading as a cultic circus cum clown car,” and revealed “what a Trump 2.0 would look like.” This is a former president whose pitch included “I am your retribution.” Retribution for what, exactly, was left unsaid, but revenge for being turned out of office is likely high on the list. The Trumpian millennium turned into a tawdry four years of grubby incompetence and an ignominious loss. If Trump wins again, there will be a flurry of pardons, the same cast of miscreants will return to Pennsylvania Avenue, and, this time, they won’t even pretend to care about the Constitution or the rule of law.

Imagine an administration where we’ll all be nostalgic for the high-mindedness of Bill Barr.

Trump also reminded us that he is an existential menace to our national security. He reveled in a story he first told last spring—almost certainly a fiction—about how he informed a meeting of NATO leaders that he would let the Russians roll over them if they weren’t paid up. (Trump still thinks NATO is a protection racket.) He then fantasized about how easily a Russian attack could destroy NATO’s headquarters.

We’ve all cataloged this kind of Trumpian weirdness many times, and I still feel pity for the fact-checkers who try to keep up with him. But I wonder if there is any point. By now it should be clear that the people listening to Trump don’t care about facts, or even about policy or politics. They enjoy the show, and they want it back on TV for another four years. And this is a problem not with Trump but with the voters.

It is long past time to admit that support for Trump, after all that we now know, is a moral failing. As I wrote in a recent book, there is such a thing as being a bad citizen in a democracy, and we should cease the pretend arguments about policy—remember, the 2020 GOP convention didn’t even bother with a platform. Instead, anyone who cares about the health of American democracy, of any party or political belief, should say clearly that to applaud Trump’s fantasies and threats at CPAC is to show an utter lack of civic character. (I might say that it is no better than applauding David Duke, but why invoke the former KKK leader when Trump has already had dinner with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist who he seems to think is a swell guy?)

The man who bellowed and sweated his way through almost two hours of authoritarian madness is still the same man who instigated an attack on our Capitol (and on his own vice president), the man who would hand our allies to Russia if they’re behind on the vig, the man who thinks a free press is his enemy, the man who tried to wave away a pandemic as thousands and thousands of Americans died.

Stigma and judgment have a place in politics. There was a time when we forced people out of public life for offenses far less than Donald Trump’s violent and seditious corruption. We were a better country for it, and returning to that better time starts with media outlets holding elected Republicans to account for Trump’s statements—but also with each of us refusing to accept rationalizations and equivocation from even our friends and family. I said in 2016 that the Trump campaign was a test of character, and that millions of us were failing it. The stakes are even clearer and steeper now; we cannot fail this test again."

#tom nichols #the atlantic

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impetuous-impulse · 1 year

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Wellingtons Sieg: Aesthetically Pleasing or Populist Potboiler?

This is a post responding to @empirearchives on this question: "Was Wellington’s Victory popular in Vienna because of the quality of the music itself or because of the political context (Austrians celebrating the defeat of Napoleon)?” I examine the background of Wellington's Victory and its audiences in reference to Beethoven’s heroic aesthetic and in comparison to the Eroica. In my final paragraph, I also attempt to engage with this post by @diagnosed-anxiety-disorder. (Hi! I love your enthusiasm for classical music and Napoleonic history! It’s just that Idk how to socially interact djflskdjf,,,) WARNING: LONG.

To answer the question, Wellington's Victory—or, in German, Wellingtons Sieg—was entangled with its political context in the outset, so judging its popularity by separating its context from its aesthetic qualities is impossible. Let me touch on the political and aesthetic qualities of the piece in turn.

Wellingtons Sieg was comissioned by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel (aka. the guy who gave Beethoven his ear trumpets) for celebrating Wellington's success in the Battle of Vittoria. It was, further, made to be played on Mälzel's panharmonicon, which was a mechanical orchestra based off of barrel organ technology. At the very same time, real barrel organists would have been in the streets playing lowbrow pieces that celebrated Wellington, so the piece had common themes with the popular music of the day. Thus it is unsurprising that Beethoven wrote Wellingtons Sieg was "nothing but an occasional piece" [nichts als ein Gelegenheitsstück], but he did not mean it pejoratively; he was acknowledging its historicity.

When discussing musical merit, the arbiter of a piece's aesthetic qualities are always its audiences. Austria in 1813 was a police state that censored anti-Royalist sentiments and lauded pro-Royalist ones, so Wellingtons Sieg, commemorating an Austrian ally's victory, would have inavariably been well-received in terms of aesthetics and political content. Laura Turnbridge, in chapter six of Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces (2020), points out that Wellingtons Sieg "premiered in the University Hall on 8 December 1813, at a charity concert in aid of Austrian and Bavarian soldiers wounded in the recent Battle of Hanau.” Turnbridge continues:

Wellingtons Sieg was enthusiastically received and played again and again, including at no fewer than five benefit concerts in which Beethoven participated, on 2 January, 27 February, 29 November, 2 December and 25 December 1814. At the first of these, at the Großer Redoutensaal, Beethoven played up the piece’s spectacular potential by having the French and British bands advance towards each other down long corridors on either side of the hall. The hall seated up to a thousand people and the orchestra was unusually large for these concerts, numbering 120 players, an aspect that Beethoven noted with glee in his diaries [...]. Beethoven attempted to add a further patriotic spin to the January concert, trying to arrange for a statue of the Kaiser, which stood in the hall, to be revealed from behind a curtain on being summoned by Zeus in his incidental music for Die Ruinen von Athen (The Ruins of Athens). The Russian Emperor Alexander and other leaders were invited to attend his academy on 29 November, which also included the Seventh Symphony and a new cantata, Der glorreiche Augenblick [...].

The sovereigns and soldiers that Wellingtons Sieg was made for certainly loved its aesthetic qualities, but said qualities had different qualifiers to our aesthetic preferences of Western art music today. This means the overtly political nature of Wellingtons Sieg makes it impossible to be judged by modern aesthetics. Nevertheless, it cannot be said Wellingtons Sieg was only popular with the public, for it was appreciated for its artistry, or at least for the composer behind it. In these contexts, Beethoven was lionised as much as Wellington, the subject of his piece. The following is from Nicolas Mathew, in his 2006 article "History under Erasure: Wellingtons Sieg, the Congress of Vienna, and the Ruination of Beethoven's Heroic Style”:

Shortly after attending the Akademie on 2 January 1814 while in Vienna, the Romantic poet and Beethoven fanatic Clemens Brentano, brother of Beethoven's friend and correspondent Bettina, sent his hero the “Vier Lieder von Beethoven an sich selbst" (Four Beethoven Songs to the Composer Himself) and an effusive, barely coherent covering letter. The third poem resounds with a confluence of archaic musical and military imagery, taking the transposition of Beethoven and Wellington, Leyer und Schwert [lyre and sword], as its central conceit. "Du hast die Schlacht geschlagen, Ich habe die Schlacht getont" (You have fought the battle, I have set the battle to music), it begins, eventually reaching this exhortative finale: Die Rosse entspann' ich dem Wagen Triumpf! auf Tonen getragen, Zieht mein Held ein, der Ewigkeit Pforten Rufen in meinen Akkorden, Wellington, Viktoria! Beethoven! Gloria! [I slacken my steeds from the chariot Triumph! Carried upon tones, my hero moves into the Gates of Eternity Summoned in my chords, Wellington, Victoria! Beethoven! Gloria! ]

There was more fanboying, but you get the idea. Nor was the popularity of Wellingtons Sieg limited to the Congress of Vienna—it was celebrated long after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1824, the highbrow musicians and music lovers who begged the increasingly reclusive Beethoven to put on a concert in Vienna (to combat the dominance of populist Italian opera) referenced only one of his compositions: "For years, ever since the thunders of the Victory at Vittoria ceased to reverberate, we have waited and hoped to see you distribute new gifts from the fullness of your riches to the circle of your friends.” Beethoven was evidently comfortable with the popularity his ode to Wellington’s victory earned, as he alludes to the piece when writing to Count Franz Brunsvik on 13 February 1814 about the progress of war: "no doubt you are delighted about all the victories—and mine also.” It is implicit that Wellington’s victory is also Beethoven’s triumph—while Beethoven's heroic image was constructed in Napoleon's Eroica, his heroic credentials are equally prominent in Wellington’s Sieg.

To me, the Eroica and Wellingtons Sieg are two articulations of the same heroic theme (regardless of how “bad” they sound). A. B. Marx, a Berlin critic that Beethoven admired, compared both works in a dialectical analysis. Aside from defending the unsutble tone painting of Wellingtons Sieg, he posited that Wellingtons Sieg was an external realisation of the internal Kampf-und-Sieg of the Eroica—two sides of the same coin. As Mathew puts it,

Wellingtons Sieg—with its fanfares and marches, its battle, its realism, its extrinsic historical derivation, its sheer explicitness—offers a perspective on the poetic content of the Eroica. By turning the Eroica toward the world—by providing a concrete realization of its guiding poetic idea, as Marx would have it—Wellingtons Sieg becomes a hermeneutic key, a kind of musical exegesis.

While Marx toned down the narrative foiling of the Eroica and Wellingtons Sieg in a later biography of Beethoven, he cannot deny that both works spring from the same heroic seed—Beethoven’s struggle-and-victory model of composition. Their popularity as of 1813 in large part came from its famous composer, whose name made it part of the Viennese repertoire. From an artistic perspective, rather than being partial to either side of the political conflict, Beethoven's heroic approach to music simply found the next Great Man to eulogise. In doing so, he transcended the “greatness” of both his subjects, a greatness that is only beginning to be deconstructed by scholarship.

It was only when the Napoleonic era grew increasingly distant that Wellingtons Sieg was seen as problematic by critics. Mathew points out that while there were mixed responses to the piece, it was a more than decade later that "contemporary critical misgivings about Beethoven's imitative music prompted a fully argued polemic against Wellingtons Sieg" (notably, Gottfried Weber's 1825 review of it in his journal Cäcilia, who Beethoven responded to with his profanity-laden quote). Weber’s opinion shaped musicology’s indictment of Wellingtons Sieg. It was certainly aesthetically pleasing to the shell-shocked veterans of 1813, and continued to delight highbrow and lowbrow audiences until political and musicological circumstances pushed it into obscurity. Finally, let’s face it—Wellingtons Sieg simply didn’t fit the image of apolitical, isolated artistry that Beethoven enthusiasts wanted to elevate him to, by conveniently forgetting that Beethoven had to eat too.

Serious analysis aside, here’s a hot take: I think Napoleon would have enjoyed Wellingtons Sieg a lot more than Beethoven’s famous works. According to the article @empirearchives has linked for us (a good starter guide), that man’s music taste was so out of line with what we think is the Western canon today! Paisiello certainly isn’t being revered as the Italian genius of the 1790s by the general public. And which average classical music enthusiast has heard of Jean François Le Sueur, much less broadcasted the music of Napoleon’s coronation on the radio? The musical hegemony of Beethoven, apparent sympathiser of Napoleon, has ironically shoved the pleasant, simple melodies and the opera that Napoleon liked out of the spotlight. And that was exactly the type of music a great number of Beethoven’s contemporaries liked—give Napoleon catchy motifs based on war marches, easy melodies, and some tone-painting, and he’s a happy audience.

I hope my response isn't too confusing and that it shed some light on the question. If you want any further sources or proper citations, please ask and I will reply accordingly!

#clickbait: accidentally wrote an essay on wellingtons sieg #ludwig van beethoven #napoleon bonaparte #classical music #congress of vienna #wellington's victory #to everyone whose posts i haven't read!! sorry!!! i'll catch up on them when i can ;;;;;

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theworstfoundingfathers · 1 year

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Who is the worst founding father? Round 3: James Madison vs Benedict Arnold

James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

During the early 1790s, Madison opposed the economic program and the accompanying centralization of power favored by Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton. Alongside Thomas Jefferson, he organized the Democratic–Republican Party in opposition to Hamilton's Federalist Party.

Madison was elected president in 1808. Motivated by the desire for acquiring land held by Britain, Spain, and Native Americans, and after diplomatic protests with a trade embargo failed to end British seizures of American shipped goods, he led the United States into the War of 1812.

By treaty or through war, Native American tribes ceded 26,000,000 acres (11,000,000 ha) of land to the United States under Madison’s presidency.

Upon becoming president, Madison said the federal government’s duty was to convert Native Americans by the “participation of the improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized state”. In September 1809, Governor Harrison invited several tribes to a meeting in Fort Wayne. During the negotiations, Harrison promised large subsidies and direct payments to the tribes if they would cede the lands under discussion. Madison agreed to the Treaty of Fort Wayne, negotiated and signed by Indiana Territory’s Governor Harrison. In the treaty, the American Indian tribes were compensated $5,200 ($109,122 in 2020) in goods and $500 in cash ($10,900 in 2020), with $250 in annual payments ($5,450 in 2020), in return for the cession of 3 million acres of land (approximately 12,140 square kilometers) with incentivized subsidies paid to individual tribes for exerting their influence over less cooperative tribes.

Angered by the treaty, eventually hostilities broke between Shawnee leader Tecumseh’s followers and American settlers. Tensions continued to rise, leading to the Battle of Tippecanoe during a period sometimes called Tecumseh’s War. Tecumseh was defeated and Indians were pushed off their tribal lands, replaced entirely by white settlers.

Madison did not believe American Indians could be fully assimilated to the values of Euro-American culture. He believed that Native Americans may have been unwilling to make “the transition from the hunter, or even the herdsman state, to the agriculture”. Madison feared that Native Americans had too great an influence on the settlers they interacted with, who in his view were “irresistibly attracted by that complete liberty, that freedom from bonds, obligations, duties, that absence of care and anxiety which characterize the savage state”.

When Madison moved to Washington, D.C. in 1801, he brought slaves from Montpelier. He also hired slaves from other slave holders in Washington, D.C.. During Madison’s presidency, his White House slaves included John Freeman, Jennings, Sukey, Joseph Bolden, Jim, and Abram. By 1801, Madison’s slave population at Montpelier was slightly over 100. During the 1820s and 1830s, Madison sold land and slaves to repay debts. In 1836, at the time of Madison’s death, he owned 36 taxable slaves. Madison did not free any of his slaves either during his lifetime or in his will.

Benedict Arnold (14 January 1741 [O.S. 3 January 1740] – June 14, 1801) was an American-born military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defecting to the British side of the conflict in 1780. General George Washington had given him his fullest trust and had placed him in command of West Point in New York. Arnold was planning to surrender the fort there to British forces, but the plot was discovered in September 1780, whereupon he fled to the British lines. In the later part of the conflict, Arnold was commissioned as a brigadier general in the British Army, and placed in command of the American Legion. He led the British army in battle against the soldiers whom he had once commanded, after which his name became, and has remained, synonymous with treason and betrayal in the United States.

Historians have identified many possible factors contributing to Arnold’s treason, while some debate their relative importance. According to W. D. Wetherell, he was:

[A]mong the hardest human beings to understand in American history. Did he become a traitor because of all the injustice he suffered, real and imagined, at the hands of the Continental Congress and his jealous fellow generals? Because of the constant agony of two battlefield wounds in an already gout-ridden leg? From psychological wounds received in his Connecticut childhood when his alcoholic father squandered the family’s fortunes? Or was it a kind of extreme midlife crisis, swerving from radical political beliefs to reactionary ones, a change accelerated by his marriage to the very young, very pretty, very Tory Peggy Shippen?

#founding father bracket #worst founding father #founding fathers #amrev #brackets #polls #james madison #benedict arnold

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voskhozhdeniye · 4 months

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Global economic contours are shifting inexorably towards the countries of global south. The U.S. and EU markets are less important to China, relatively speaking, than are the growth markets of the developing world. And for the developing world, China is a more important partner than most others. Trade and investment flows have been trending in this direction for some time already, aided by initiatives such as the BRI as well as the recently launched Asian free trade zone - the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The growing interlinking of Chinese capital markets with those of Saudi Arabia and the UAE are creating the new pipelines for capital flow between China and West Asia. The consolidation of a Eurasian economic sphere, including the energy-rich nations of West Asia, is creating new opportunities for value growth and flow. Trade growth is being complemented by capital circulation by way of investment flows denominated in national currencies. The ability to trade OPEC oil with national currencies is enabling these nations to evolve away from dependence on the USD. Economic decentering is one feature of the collective west’s displacement anxiety. The reality that its claimed military preponderance is more rhetoric than real brings a “hard power” edge to these anxieties. These material factors are buttressed by deep rooted Manichaean frames in which racialised exceptionalism is ever-present. This is most pronounced in the Millenarian zealotry that underlies American exceptionalism. The idea of decentering is bad enough; it’s made all the worse as the new centres are found in the Orientals of the “near- and far east”. Against this backdrop, we can expect the transatlantic neocons to intensify their attempts to hang on to what’s left of western colonial hegemony and American primacy. The neocon playbook has been to generate regional instability whenever and wherever it feels threatened. This “divide and conquer” strategy has played out in numerous “colour revolutions” and “coups” over the decades; in short, regime change operations aimed at installing pliable regimes. Colour revolution risks across Eurasia are likely to intensify over the next few years. China’s President Xi was prescient last year when he warned Shanghai Cooperation Organisation members of these risks. Additionally, preparations for proxy wars in Asia, borrowing from the Ukraine 2014-2022 playbook, are also likely to continue, as I have previously described. The Philippines is being groomed, as is Taiwan. As the US and NATO face defeat on the steppes of Ukraine, NATO has set its sights on becoming a global military force; and that means it will continue to seek ways of asserting a presence in Asia. Its attempt to secure a foothold in Japan was rebuffed by the French, but this is unlikely to be its last attempt to turn the “A” in NATO from meaning “Atlantic” to meaning “Asia”. The transatlantic neocons have been decentred, economically and geopolitically. Five centuries of colonial dominance, coupled with seven decades of American Primacy are coming to an end. This is doubtless a discomforting experience. Antonio Gramsci once observed: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” Today, the monsters Gramsci spoke of are those that torment the collective west and its neocon political elite as they confront their anxieties of being displaced by a Multipolarity that is struggling its way forward. This is why the 2020s is the “decade of living dangerously”.

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oraclekleo · 2 years

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Kim Hong Joong (Ateez) "Love is a Battlefield" Reading

Hello and welcome!

I’m Kleo and I’m here to present some k-pop related tarot readings to you.

Disclaimer:

I would like to state that all these readings have a purely entertainment nature and their purpose is to bring some fun into my and hopefully yours lives. I have never ever met any of the idols / actors / celebrities in my readings, I don’t know them personally. Tarot reading isn’t an exact science and I can never guarantee any of it. Most of it is my intuition mixed with fantasy. Don’t take these readings seriously and don’t base any important decisions on tarot readings only, use your common sense.

If you wish to request a tarot reading, please read the pinned post on my profile first to see the instructions on how to request. I only do readings for idols / actors / celebrities of 18 years of age or older. Requests for readings including younger people will be automatically dismissed. If you feel uncomfortable with these tarot readings, do not engage in reading my posts. Thank you for understanding.

Reading Info:

Rating: 18+

Reading Type: Single - Couple

Requested: Yes - No

Deck: Tarot of the Divine

Spread: Love is a Battlefield

Questions:

Shining Armour (Their defence tactics)

Excalibur (Their contra attack tactics)

Achilles Heel (Their weak spot)

Abracadabra (The spell to crack their resistance)

Waterloo (How to defeat them)

Full Name: Kim Hong Joong

Stage Name: Hongjoong

Group: Ateez

Kim Hong Joong

(Hongjoong - Ateez)

Spread: Love is a Battlefield

Decks: Tarot of the Divine (Yoshi Yoshitami - 2020, Clarkson Potter / Publishers, New York)

Shining Armour (Their defence tactics) - Queen of Pentacles

When Hongjoong starts to worry he might fall in love at the wrong time, he might become as slippery as a snake. He will be constantly on the move, escaping from the one he has a crush on. He will keep himself busy and occupied in order to avoid thinking about the person who captured his attention.

Excalibur (Their contra attack tactics) - 9 of Swords

Hongjoong might find himself trapped in his own catastrophic predictions which are based on his fears and not reality. He might intentionally try to chase away the person he’s slowly falling in love with, maybe even share all his disastrous predictions with them in order to make them believe that the relationship is doomed to fail.

Achilles Heel (Their weak spot) - 2 of Cups

Hongjoong’s weakness is his tender heart. Despite his inner insecurity, anxiety and reluctance to fully trust someone, his heart and soul are longing for their other half, for someone dear he could spend his days with. He needs to love and be loved in return. No matter how he might fight it, when the right person appears in his life, he will feel it, know it, and it will slap him in the face.

Abracadabra (The spell to crack their resistance) - 3 of Wands

The only way to crack Hongjoong’s shield of resistance is to stay motivated, persistent and be ready to meet all his fears and worries head on and dissolve them all one by one. Hongjoong might be difficult to build a loving and intimate relationship with (as he fiercely defends himself against it) but being honest and true and courageous and loving will melt the icicles around him and let his special person enjoy the warmth of his unconditional love.

Waterloo (How to defeat them) - XVI The Tower

The only way to defeat Hongjoong and make them fall for a person is to shake and bring to the grown all the anxieties and fears he has been fabricating in his mind. There’s a lot going on in his mind, there might be some buried traumas from the past, he’s likely highly insecure about other people and it will take him some time to fully trust someone but it’s nothing a sincerely loving heart couldn’t conquer. Be courageous, show him your sweet and unconditional love, make him trust you and discuss all his fears with him, making sure he understands none of them will ever apply to you.

Thank you for reading!

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m0tiv8me · 2 years

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Jumping on the #fitember Challenge hosted by @btchthatfightsbears First a quick reintroduction for anyone new to my blog. I go by m0tiv8me and have been a fitblr on Tumblr since January 2014…does that make me an OG?? Anyway that’s when I officially started getting serious about working out and eating better consistently and improving my mental and physical health. I thought I had it all figured out until about mid 2017.

That’s when my demons came in force for me and a lot of really tough hardships fell upon my family that I struggled to process and deal with. It threw me off my routine and eating habits and I backslid and battled heavy depression. I tried to restart my journey in 2018 but big challenges in my work life kept me in a mentally challenging place. I changed careers in 2019 and my mental outlook started to improve drastically. However my new job required a lot more travel than I was used to. I was accustomed to only working out at home and I found the long hours and constant travel really hard to try to do any type consistent workouts.

Enter 2020, we all know how that year went. Forced to be at home actually helped me get back into a bit of a rhythm with my workouts and I felt like I was once again starting to find consistency but the mental roller coaster that was the whole year left me feeling mentally drained and often defeated and hopeless.

By 2021 I started to lose interest in working out all together but still tried. A neck and back injury in the early spring put me out of commission for several months and by the time I was all recovered I had lost all drive to do anything. I spent the remainder of 2021 and first half of 2022 really working on my mental health, focusing on being grateful and thankful and working hard to calm my anxieties, fears and frustrations. I started lifting again in August and have been sticking with it and feeling good. After a month just trying to workout each day has begun to feel like too vague of a goal so I decided to join a challenge and set a small healthy habit goal for September.

My mini healthy habit goal for September (fitember)

A minimum of 100 push-ups and 5 minutes of planking each day. This will be in addition to any other type of workout I may do. If I feel like doing more I will but the goal is no less. I kicked off today by doing them first thing this morning. Day 1 = mission accomplished!

My unhealthy habit dump for the month will be sweets. I’ve fallen back into grabbing a cookie or some ice cream or other sweet treat for a snack and they just make me feel deflated and lacking energy so I’m kicking them to the curb for the month. When I do crave something sweet I’m going to drink some water instead.

So there you have it, you’re all caught up now will you join me in the #fitember challenge and pickup a new healthy habit and dump a bad one for the month?? @btchthatfightsbears has the all deets on her blog go check it out and let’s make September ROCK!!

#fitember #september #healthy habits #fitness challenge #fitblr #personal fitblr #about me #fitness #m0tiv8me

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loneberry · 2 years

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Dark Times

Business as usual. And yet we are closer to nuclear war than any time in my lifetime, probably any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. I’ve long said that the worse Russia performs on the battlefield, the higher the chances of nuclear war. That’s turned out to be true. Putin is backed into a corner. India’s Narendra Modi and China’s Xi Jinping, the two countries that are currently keeping Russia’s economy afloat, have given Putin the cold shoulder. Nobody likes to be on the side of a loser. Additionally, China has suffered a massive reputational blow as a result of their tacit support of Russia’s war. Russia’s support is daily dwindling.

Yes, the hasty move to annex Ukrainian territory is an act of desperation born of Russia’s humiliating defeat in the Kharkiv region counteroffensive. But it’s important to note that it would lay the groundwork for Russia to use nukes. Is Putin insane and stupid enough to actually use nukes? It is with great anxiety that I say: he might be. (Though I think the most likely scenario is that Putin will *threaten* to use tactical nukes to force concessions in Kyiv.) When Russia annexes Ukrainian territory, and the Ukrainian military tries to take it back, according to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, Russia would be justified in using nukes because they would consider it an attack on Russia’s sovereign territory. Of course the justification is a sham, but nonetheless, they are creating the legal framework for such maneuvers.

Yet the Ukrainians continue to exceed my expectations on the battlefield. Though I’m hardly a hawk, if I put on my realpolitik hat I’d say the only way to ensure their success is to continue to supply them arms. There is a great risk, though, that the supply of offensive weapons that can strike Russian territory would trigger an escalatory spiral--I have no easy answer on the question of whether countries should supply more advanced military hardware such as F-16 fighter jets, Gray Eagle drones, Patriot air defense missile batteries, longer-range missiles, and battle tanks such as the German Leopard 2 or the American M1 Abrams.

I once read a young Oxford philosopher who put the odds of nuclear war during our lifetime at 1 in 3. Those are not comforting odds. With the severing of lines of communication between China and the US after Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the chance of a Cuban missile-style crisis with China has greatly increased. I do think that the better Ukraine performs on the battlefield, the lower the chances of China invading Taiwan, though I still think it’s likely that Xi Jinping will do it before the end of the 2020s. The global chaos that would ensue will be an order of magnitude greater than the current war, especially since China would likely strike US Pacific military bases in Guam and Okinawa, essentially setting the stage for WWIII and a possible nuclear confrontation. Given the trade entwinement between the US and China, and the fact that 92% of advanced semiconductor production takes place in Taiwan, there would be an immediate global great depression unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Increasingly I feel the 2020s will be the worst decade of my lifetime, but actually, given the inaction on the climate front, the declension will probably just continue.

#war #politics #nuclear war #geopolitics #china #russia #ukraine

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breserker · 10 months

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mystery horror theater bre-thousand 1

because if i go on another movie binge without filling this out first i'll have defeated my own purpose

THE OTHER DAY i watched three filmmmsssssss if you can call it that -- Smile (2022), Day of the Reaper (1984), and Savage Weekend (1978). this is my first time doing this under a name and i guess i should give them number ratings but what i may rank very high might get me slaughtered on sight, you'll see what i mean

SMILE (2022) (TW: Suicide, self-harm, THE CAT DOES NOT MAKE IT)

At the behest of a friend, I jumped in to watch this movie -- I enjoy doing that, very little fucks me up and I like keeping an eye out for people horror-wise. Overall? It was incredibly good. It had the tense anxiety of Invisible Man (2020), where there's a lot of focus on the mental deterioration of a woman in a world that doesn't believe her, surrounded in a blanket of the first scene of Midsommar (2019) where it shows a pretty ugly side of certain traits of mental illnesses such as mania and psychosis. And it should, the main character works in a psychiatric emergency hospital, and does so to the point of detriment that I would call self-harm. I've been there, working so hard you wreck yourself, y'know?

By about halfway through it became obvious that was also a monster movie, and while I can see some people turning their nose at that, I think I really needed that aspect to follow through with the movie without feeling beaten down with misery and anxiety. The monster in question operates similarly to It Follows (2014) but instead of being passed on by sex it's passed on through sharing the trauma of witnessing a suicide. The monster itself reminded me a lot of BOB from Twin Peaks, there is a beautiful scene recreating BOB scaling the couch while smiling. It's then that I realized that the first person to die was named Laura. Yeah I see you...I see you...!!!

The theme in the movie is the chain of trauma passed from person to person and viscerally affecting those already with past traumas. I deeply enjoyed its execution and how this was a monster movie...I do wish, however, it ended a little bit differently. While the message that trauma never truly leaves you is there, I was hoping for a different, bittersweet ending instead of the bad end the movie provided. It felt tacked on or changed at the last minute. 4.5/5

DAY OF THE REAPER (1984)

buddy oh man oh MAN BUDDY IF YOU LOVE REALLY SHITTY INDIE HOME FILMS SHOT ON A SHODDY SUPER 8 CAMERA WITH THE WORST ADR DUBBING YOU'VE EVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE, with every treat a bad movie has to offer, THIS IS YOUR FILM and you can watch it FOR FREE on YouTube RIGHT NOW and then come back and punch me in the face. I was HOWLING with laughter. I got a friend also enthusiastic about bad movies to watch it and HE loved it TOO. i have to gather more people to watch this gem, and if you stick with it and think it's boring keep going because the conclusion is so wildly out of this world and so strangely done that it'll hopefully bring glee and joy to you too. CLEAR AND AWAY 5/5

SAVAGE WEEKEND (1978)

I was running out of steam by this point because laughing at Day of the Reaper put my lungs in a state, but this is a slasher from the years in between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. I've seen many many slashers that follow the tropes of horny teens boning it in woods (but strangely a white girl usually dies first! I donno where the Black guy trope comes from--but then they're rarely in these films ANYWAY so whatever). But here, it's a bunch of really messy adults with crossed desires, separation/divorcees not knowing what they want out of love at this point, horny adult looking for any tail they can get, et cetera. It honestly was a refreshing break from all of the giggly teen stuff--I'd be far and away more interested to see more like this in the future.

The editing was cut really quick in a lot of areas and the film's pacing at times makes it feel like a rushed project, it needed a finer tooth comb on both fronts. The quality wasn't great but I was pleased to see a flamboyantly charming Christopher Allport give the nasty queer bitch role his all. The twist was pretty meh, I wish there was more fallout action between Mac and the divorcee (just get nasty with it! it's the 70's let's go!) I might be interested to see this again but probably not, it gets this score just for the novelty of horny adults with horny adult problems in a slasher film: 3/5

#mystery horror theater bre-thousand #smile 2022 #day of the reaper 1984 #savage weekend 1978 #suicide cw #self harm cw #horror movies

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pamy92 · 1 year

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4 Dec 2022 | Asato Yuya 35th Birthday Event

Yuya’s birthday event has always been a special fan event that I look forward to in December each year since being his fan. I've participated my first birthday event in 2018, and the second in 2019.

Ever since the pandemic struck in early 2020, I have not physically met Yuya as borders closed to overseas travellers.

Although I have participated in several online fan meetings (2020 Photobook 1-to-1 Virtual Chat, 2021 Code 1515 ZOOM call), I am glad that border restrictions lifted somewhat this year so I could fly to Japan and participate in person AND on the actual birthday itself too!

~ 2nd Session ~

As I could not reach the venue in time for the 1st session, I only applied for the 2nd and 3rd session.

We had to report to the venue in two batches according to our assigned number (mine was 70) so I decided to chill at the nearby cafe with coffee to calm my anxiety.

When it was about time for me to head to the event hall, I confidently showed my Singapore identity card and I managed to head in with no issues!

The gifts were collected by the staff and taken away immediately to the back room, but I have no doubt that the gifts were safely received by Asaty.

At the start of the event, the MC reminded us of the house rules before calling Asato Yuya out from backstage.

I was bracing for myself to start crying but instead, his infectious energy brought a huge grin to my face and it made my cheeks hurt!

Assay came out in his bright green screen suit (lmao) which I found super amusing because I started thinking of what I can photoshop over the fabric oops!

① Cross-talk

Asaty and the MC had a little banter about his hoarse voice, and his birthday NicoLive broadcast the night before.

It was then cake time, and we all wished him happy birthday!

②Fan Q&A

The emcee had a list of questions shortlisted for this section. And the 1st question selected was his kanji of the year: 興 (which he forgot how to write and the MC had to come over to teach him how to write it.)

Question 2 was from an fan-friend of mine, “Which country would you like to visit? For myself, I would like to visit Australia and Singapore." --- Asaty said he'd like to visit Europe. And that although there were lots of museums, he is not a fine art person. He then demonstrated his short attention span looking at art. However, he said interactive museums like Zoos or Aquariums interest him more.

And to my surprise, my question was picked! "Asato-kun's English pronunciation is really cute. Please hold a conversation with the MC in English!"

MC: What time did you go to bed last night? Asaty: 3...o'clock! AM! MC: What time did you wake up? Asaty: 6...o'clock! AM! No more please!

At this time, the whole hall was laughing so hard because he was struggling to hold the conversation. Asaty then talked about how he loves translator apps, and when he was talking about the soccer match with his western uncle, his uncle was kind enough to write in English and provide a Japanese translation below each line to help him.

There were other questions asked but I could not remember them because I was already excited my question was picked.

③ Nintendo Switch with Asaty

After the Q&A session, it was game time. In the past, we used to play rock-paper-scissors and gesture games but this year it was Nintendo switch!

4 fans are picked by lottery to come up to challenge Asaty in each mini Mario party game. There were a total of 6 rounds or so.

Asaty shared that in the first session, he was defeated by his fans who were eager to thrash his ass in the game, and he told us to play nice because it was his birthday.

And some of the games were absolutely hilarious because Asaty is very vocal when he games, so he was jumping, shouting “Oi!!!!“ and staring at the daring fans who made him lose. I think this was the best segment they have ever done since I joined his birthday event! The chances of getting picked was about 15%, so many fans got to play!

On the 4th round, my seat number was called to join as the last player, and because I was kinda zoning out from the lack of sleep, my mind didn't register the Japanese number (70).

So I sheepishly scuttled to the front and was seated closest to where Asaty was standing, and took Birdo's game controller. Our game was quite hard and I didn't understand the game rule instinctively, so I started freaking out.

The patient staff was helping me throughout while I made all sorts weird distressed noises.

When I finally figured out the controls by accident, I shouted "oh my god!" when the face stretched - and Asaty snapped his head so fast to look at me.

Unfortunately I lost round 1 because I didn't realise that we were supposed to copy the sample face. I think Asaty sensed my distress and he offered to do round 2, saying that "It's too short! This game is hard!" Bless him!

I scored a bit better in the 2nd round but still got the lowest score, and the emcee ushered us back to our seats. I exchanged glances to silently thank Asaty with my eyes on my way back to my seat, but he was staring so hard (with a smile) instead.

④ Aisatsu (Greetings) Time

Before Aisatsu, there was also a lucky draw of an autographed event postcard for 5 lucky fans! Unfortunately I did not get picked.

Finally, to wrap up the event, Asaty gave a short thank you speech for us coming today, and that he was glad to celebrate his birthday with all of us this year.

The emcee then thanked Asaty and invited him to exit the hall, and he briefed us on the photo-taking session. All poses are assigned and we could choose 1 out of the 3.

Pose 1: Double peace sign

Pose 2: 35 pose

Pose 3: Finger hearts

I selected the 35 pose to commemorate his birthday!

⑤ Phototaking

We were ushered row by row outside the hall to wait for our turn to take photos with Asaty. We had to sanitize our hands before taking the letter paper of the pose we want.

I already knew what I wanted to say to Asaty, and rehearsed it a million times in my head. It really felt like I was going to meet a long-lost friend, rather an Oshi, so I wasn't as nervous as my first meeting in 2018 (I was so scared back then).

When the girl went up first in front of me, I could watch their conversation and got really nervous. I distinctively remember watching her and how she interacted with Asaty, it was a very polite conversation.

When she was done and Asaty watched her leave before turning his attention to me, I gave my biggest wave and shouted "Long time no see!"

I remember his eyes going wide and he leaned forward, almost off his seat, "Pame-chan?!" he asked as if to confirm and as I nodded my head, he gave the biggest grin, replying "Thank you!" and his smile was so blinding!

Pamy: Long time no see! *waves wildly* Asaty: *eyes widen* Pame-chan?!! Pamy: Un! Long time no see! Asaty: *breaks out into the happiest smile* Thank you!! Staff: 35 pose please! Pamy: *holds up 3 fingers in left hand, 5 in right* Staff: No no, just 5! Asaty: *turns over to check* I do 3, you do 5! Pamy: OH!! Sorry! Staff: 📸 Pamy: (in English) I'm coming for the 3rd part! Asaty: Ah! *nods nods* Thank you! (I found out a few days later through the fan waiting behind me that Asaty pretended to understand my English, oof! That was brutal!) Staff: Okay, time is up! Pamy: *gets up and walks off* Your English conversation was super cute just now haha~! MC/Staff: *laughs* (walks off the photo venue) Asaty/Staff: YOUR POLAROID!!!! Pamy: OHHH! Thank you!!! Eheh! Asaty: *laughs and waves*

I then waited at the lobby for a fellow fan (our first time meeting), and we went for tea to wait for the next session to start.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

~ 3rd Session ~

My seat was 34 this time round, so I was in the third row! The programme was largely the same as the 2nd session, and the MC reminded us of the house rules before ushering Asaty out.

① Cross-talk

This time, Asaty changed into a dark navy suit with a turtle-neck sweater, and his hair was slicked back. He did a twirl and asked if we liked this outfit choice, and it felt very formal.

During the cake session, Asaty finally took a bite of the strawberry and a huge forkful of cake. It was really funny to see him stuff his face.

I think the cake ended up being too sweet so he had to ask for water to wash it down.

I can't remember what they spoke about during the cross-talk. But I do remember that he spoke about how he has been in Tokyo for 16 years, that he considers himself more of a Tokyoite than Okinawan.

② Fan Q&A

My question didn't get picked for this round unfortunately, and some of the questions he answered were covered in previous years' events - eg. his parents wanted to call him "Tokiya" but it only stuck around for 2 weeks before they changed it to "Yuya".

③ Nintendo Switch with Asaty

This time round, Asaty selected all the princess characters (Princess Peach, Rosalina and Daisy) while he played as Birdo (who annihilated him in Session 2) It was super funny because he got thrashed by his fans again, some of them had super aggressive gameplay!

In one game, it was some tank shooting game and one fan blasted his tank non-stop, and ended his game within seconds. We were all laughing so hard because she was brutal.

Because all the fans didn't hold back, Asaty was literally shouting: "Oi! Daaaaisy!! Oi!! Peeechy!! Oi! Rosalina!!"

My two Asaty fan-friends got lucky and could play with him again for the 3rd session!

④ Aisatsu time

Before Asaty gave his thank you speech, he drew five lucky numbers to receive the autograph postcard. Again, maybe my lucky streak has worn off and I didn't get picked but I got to watch him interact with the lucky fans!

When he hands over the postcard, he bows at his fans and really stares at them (with a smile) in thanks. It was really cute to watch! Again, thank you Mama Asato for bringing up and reminding Asaty to thoroughly appreciate fans.

Asaty gave his thank you speech, and thanked us for supporting him till now.

⑤ Phototaking

Once again, we were ushered out of the event hall row by row for the phototaking. I was in row 3 so I didn't have to wait long.

I selected the finger heart pose this time round because it looked cute.

Pamy: Asato-sensei, Thank you for teaching me Japanese! *deep bow* Asaty: 😆 Thank you! Staff: Finger heart pose please! Staff: 📸 Asaty: *leans over the Covid splash screen with serious look on face* Thank you very much for everything as always! Pamy: I'll support you from abroad! Asaty: When did you return back? Me: 2 weeks ago… (**I must have heard him wrongly because he shook his head) Asaty: No, when are you returning back? Staff: Okay, time is up! Pamy: Soon! I'll support you online okay! (Asaty was really scrambling to talk as I got up to take the polaroid and leave.) Asaty: Be careful when you return back okay? Pamy: *turns back to wave* I will! Asaty: 😊👋🏼

(** Return in Japanese, depending on the speaker could either mean return to Japan or in my instance return back to Singapore, so I misheard and the staff was also listening to our conversation so I panicked.)

I read in many fan accounts (and also observed with my eyes) that Asaty will watch your back as your leave.

So I turned and gave him the wildest wave and he smiled dazzlingly and waved back.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Summary:

It's really been such a long time since I last saw Asaty in person, and I forgot how tall he was. His happy energy just spreads out when he smiles, and I really felt he was genuinely appreciative of his fans, especially those that stuck around for years.

I could recognise his regulars, and those who attended multiple sessions. Another fan was telling me unlike Rin Rin's birthday event (that you have to ballot for and they book a even bigger venue which made it very formal), Asaty's event was about 100-odd fans and has a more friendly-feeling.

Because of that, I'm grateful that a smaller event meant a cosier one, which we get a chance to play games with Asaty and also chat with him a bit.

I myself did not expect him to remember my name, maybe "Singapore fan" might jog his memory, but he caught me by surprise because I didn't have to even say my country or my name.

He remembers.

As he does to all his fans.

It was really an unexpected surprise, and something that I will remember for a long time.

Happy 35th Asaty!

#asato yuya #yuya asato #asato yuuya #安里勇哉 #pamyinjapan

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 years

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[via Scott Horton]

* * * *

The GOP is rapidly embracing autocracy and white Christian nationalism as its rallying cry. That rightward drift is anxiety-producing and creates the understandable urge to look away. We cannot do so. However painful or revolting it is to watch the descent of the GOP into madness and hate, if we hope to defeat the anti-democratic forces animating the Republican Party, we must be clear-eyed about the threat the party poses to American democracy.

We must be explicit in naming and describing the threat. We must identify and defeat every foot-solider and sympathizer who promotes or excuses tyranny and white nationalism. If we do so, we will preserve democracy. We can win. We will win. But only if we fight from a position firmly rooted in reality. From that vantage, let’s look at the GOP’s latest flirtations with white nationalism and despotism.

The influential and ultraconservative Conservative Political Action Conference is holding its latest meeting in Dallas, Texas. (Where else?) CPAC’s two keynote speakers are Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump. Both are wannabe dictators, though Orbán has made more progress towards that goal than Trump.

Orbán promotes an ugly brand of politics based on hate and racial superiority (for whites, of course). He has recently said that Hungarians “do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” causing one of his cabinet members to resign, saying Orbán’s remarks were “a pure Nazi speech worthy of Goebbels.” He blames much of the world’s troubles on George Soros—an attack line that is a dog-whistle for antisemites. Indeed, he went so far at the CPAC conference to claim that “a Christian politician cannot be racist” because . . . well, because they are Christian. And like the Nazis, Orbán has led a national crusade of discrimination against LGBTQ people.

In most of the world, an audience would recoil in horror at remarks that explicitly invoked the Nazi ideologies of antisemitism, racial superiority, and discrimination against LGBTQ people. Not at the CPAC convention in Texas. Orbán received multiple standing ovations as he delivered remarks that could have easily been delivered in Nazi Germany in 1935. See The Independent, Fresh from furor over ‘Nazi’ speech, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban welcomed by American conservatives.

Notably, no Republican politician has condemned Orbán’s remarks. Instead, they are lining up to speak at CPAC. Other speakers comfortable sharing the podium with a “Nazi-curious” dictator include Trump, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, and Sean Hannity. No surprises there.

The despotic yearnings of CPAC are not an aberration. They have become part of the GOP DNA. Charles M. Blow addresses this trend in his column in the NYTimes on Thursday: Opinion | The Republican Party Is the Anti-Democracy Party. Blow notes that The Heritage Foundation (self-described as “the most influential conservative group in America) is actively promoting the idea that “America is not a democracy,” but a “republic.”

While that statement is a truism (there are no pure democracies in the world), The Heritage Foundation uses the term “republic” to mean “white nationalist patriarchy.” Strong words, I know, but here is what The Heritage Foundation wrote in 2020:

“America is threatened by an egalitarianism that undermines the social, familial, religious, and economic distinctions and inequalities that undergird our political liberty.”

That passage deserves re-reading. The Heritage Foundation claims that America is threatened by “egalitarianism.” What?! Egalitarianism is defined as “the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.” So, the Heritage Foundation is against “equal rights and opportunities for all??

Yes, it is! The Heritage Foundation goes on to say that “inequalities undergird our political liberty.” Re-read the preceding phrase—twice! It is breathtaking. In that phrase, “our” can only refer to the privileged, white elite that has ruled America since its founding. For The Heritage Foundation, “our political liberty” is based on “inequality.” Unbelievable.

So, the two leading Republican advocacy groups are actively promoting a white, Christian nationalism that is antithetical to the declaration that created America: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . .

If we can get past the grievance mentality that Trump manipulates to his advantage, the positions embraced by CPAC and The Heritage Foundation are repugnant to most Americans. We need only articulate that truth in a way that resonates with their inherent belief in the American promise of equality. If we can do that, we have a fighting chance to turn the GOP’s message of hate against its most ardent promoters. The victory in Kansas points the way.

ROBERT HUBBELL.SUBSTACK.COM :: The GOP reveals its true colors.

#signage #nazis #protest #GOP #authoritarianism #Corrupt GOP #anti-democratic #Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

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forever-animated · 2 years

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Sorting out my feelings about the TDP news from SDCC...

Okay, I’ve slept on it and given it some time to sink in. Here’s my attempt at a post about my feelings in regards to TDP S4. Just a warning ... it’s gonna be a novel. And perhaps a little critical. Probably. Bear with me, because this is really rough.

(And yes, I have accidentally seen some of the spoilers of the first episode from Cartoon Universe’s Twitter, but I’m not sure whether I want to know it all before November. You know? So please don’t spoil in the replies, OK?)

So I’ll be the first to admit that I was conflicted with how TTM ended at first. Like, it was a real downer for me as a hardcore Rayllum shipper. (My husband and I had started watching TDP in the summer of 2020. I was going through really bad anxiety at the time because of the pandemic and moving states, so Rayllum had really become my comfort ship.)

Post TTM I was a little upset, and perhaps a bit bitter about how Rayla handled things. (Although it did kinda make sense based on her state of mind at the end of the comic.) But I tried to cheer myself up through theory crafting what S4 could look like based on the limited information we had. I knew there’d be a time skip. I figured this would probably be a few months to a year. And I figured we’d start of the new season with Callum searching for Rayla. I really couldn’t see him just moping around the castle the whole time. Nah, this guy jumped off a CLIFF for her. No way in hell he’d just let her go, right?

So the other day when we got the Inheritance short story, I was a bit surprised to see that not only had Callum gone back to the castle post TTM, but he had been there for months, it seemed. Like I really thought he’d be out there searching for her, or maybe the story would mention that he tried searching for her for weeks and returned defeated, unable to find her. But that wasn’t mentioned - so I can only assume that didn’t happen. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Then comes the news that it’s apparently been two years. Not only since Rayla left. Apparently Viren’s been dead this whole time?

I talked about this with my husband as soon as the news came in, and we were kind of on the same page about how conflicted we were. Here’s a few reasons why this two year time skip is concerning, in no particular order:

1. So much has probably happened in the universe of TDP within these two years, especially with Zym returned to the Dragon Queen. There’s so much we’ll need to be caught up on, and we already don’t really know too much about how this world works. So the writers are really going to need to put in the work to explain / show this all. And do extra work on the top of that to get the audience caught up. I feel like it’s kind of a shame that we don’t get to see all those changes / developments as they happen.

2. Rayla and Callum have been separated for two years. Let that sink in. If you were annoyed at Rayla’s decision in TTM and really didn’t like the separation, this time skip is just going to make that worse. Like, for me personally, I’m not a big fan of angst in relationships. Mainly because I’ve seen stuff like this done so poorly in shows in the past. You’ll have characters in a healthy relationship who talk things through and work out their conflicts in a healthy way, only to upend this by bringing in some contrived conflict - secrets that the characters hide from each other, a prolonged separation, a dumb misunderstanding that no one bothers to correct, etc. This is what really bothered me about Captain Swan in the sixth season of Once Upon a Time. What made that one especially aggravating is that we the fans knew that there was going to be a Captain Swan wedding episode in that season. We knew these two were going to reunite, work through their conflict, and get married. So why were the writers dragging this out? Going back to TDP, this two year time skip wherein Rayla and Callum have been separated makes me nervous for similar reasons. We know they’re going to have to reunite at some point. And yes, they’ll get back together. So why are we doing this? And how long is it going to take? Is there a good story reason that this needs to happen? Or is it just pointless angst and drama from characters that, up until this point, were in a pretty healthy relationship and had made great strides in being honest with each other and letting each other in? I really hope we’re going somewhere good with this, but I just can’t shake this nervous feeling.

3. Soooo, Viren’s been dead for two years? Really? That raises so many more questions. I assume Claudia would have had to cast some sort of preservation spell on his body. We haven’t established that magic in-universe, but it could be explained away easily enough. What bothers me though is the implications that this has on the other characters. What was Bug-avos doing this whole time? Was Claudia really attempting to bring her father back from the dead for two whole years? Has she ran into Rayla? Speaking of, if Viren was dead, then why the hell was he in that whole realm between life and death? And doesn’t that upend Rayla’s whole reason for leaving? Like, we knew that Rayla was right and Viren was alive when we read TTM. So we understand why it’s important that he’s found. But now we find out that Viren actually wasn’t alive until now, two years after TTM. So like, Rayla was wrong, and she was just being paranoid? As my husband pointed out, that just makes the fact that she left Callum so much worse. Because it was literally for nothing.

4. Viren being dead for two years also gives me major, “Ha! Didn’t see that twist coming, did ya?” vibes. And after Once Upon a Time, I kinda hate these kinds of twists. For contrast, The Owl House has “twists”, but handles them in such a way that there is a lot of foreshadowing and, if you’re paying attention, you’re able to figure it out WAY before the characters do. So the tension and suspense comes not from the twist itself, but the audience’s anticipation in having the characters discover the twist and react to it. I personally love that. I don’t like twists just for the sake of surprising the audience - especially when they make little logical sense. I realllllly hope that’s not what TDP is doing. Maybe it was really thought out and I’m just being paranoid.

5. So like, what has Rayla been doing this whole time? I said in my S4 predictions that I doubted she’d find Claudia and Viren because she literally had no leads and nothing to go on besides her vision in TTM. So that seems to be true - considering Viren hasn’t even been alive this whole time. So what in the world has Rayla been doing? She has no family to go back to. Are we supposed to believe she’s just been aimlessly wandering Xadia this whole time? We’ll probably have to get some sort of episode that brings us up to speed on what she’s been doing this whole time. But I honestly can’t even being to fathom it because she literally has nothing to go on and no one to travel with. (Unless she got captured by someone not long into her journey and they’re waiting to reveal that. I’d honestly be ok with that development, because it would make her more sympathetic. It’s not purely a matter of her abandoning Callum for two years. She wouldn’t have been able to return to him if she wanted to.)

6. This time skip also has an unintended consequence of making us miss out on some character / relationship development - which IMO, is what the show does best. (Yes, the world and plot is interesting, but I’m here for the characters above everything else.) So we’re going to miss out on seeing Amaya and Janai’s relationship grow. Apparently they’re an established couple now. So much for fun development of an interesting LGBTQ ship. Don’t get me wrong - I’m glad we have them and that they’re together now. But I would’ve liked to see it happen in real time on the show, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way. There’s probably other characters who’ll get off-screen development as well. And yes, that’s all well and good, but like ... I wanted to see it happen, y’know?

7. Lastly, with a two year time skip, there’s going to be a lot that needs to be explained. Which means the first few episodes are probably going to be very exposition heavy. I’m just hoping the writing doesn’t feel too clunky here. Like, “As you know, Callum, you’ve been high mage for two years and it’s been two years since Rayla’s been missing...” You know. That kind of writing.

Okay, so now that I’ve gotten that out of the way - here’s some more positive thoughts to balance it out.

1. The animation looks awesome. Gone is the choppy frame rate of season one. Loving the micro-expressions and little details on the characters and their faces. Bravo Wonderstorm!

2. Callum’s design! Not sure about the hair. But I love the outfit. And he’s still the same loveable dork he was. <3

3. A two year time skip does give the potential for a truly romantic reunion between Rayla and Callum. That’s what I’m most hoping for. I want them to be like, “Wow, you look older!” Maybe she can tease him for his new haircut. Please Wonderstorm - do NOT drag out their separation or make their reunion terribly angsty. It’s been TWO years. We need this. <3

4. I’m excited to see everyone else’s updated designs as well. Soren, Ezran, Zym. I can’t WAIT to see what they look like.

That’s it for now. But I’m sure this won’t be the last post from me. Now I’m going to try to figure out if I want to read the spoilers or not. (And don’t get me started on how I feel about them showing that episode at SDCC. I was annoyed about the TTM leak, so you can probably guess how I feel about this.)

Anyway, I really want to hear from you guys. Do you agree with any of my misgivings? Want to reassure me? Think I’m dead wrong?

#tdp #the dragon prince #tdp season 4 #tdp s4 #tdp sdcc #tdp through the moon #tdp spoilers #tdp season 4 predictions #rayllum #callum #rayla #tdp critical #i’m worried #but trying to stay positive #I want this to be good #and I want to have faith

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magicalblerdpenn · 2 years

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So my anxiety plus yet another poetry rejection had me feeling pretty defeated today. In order to cheer myself up, I decided to rewatch Jingle Jangle, a beautiful Christmas musical that I've seen three times since it came out in 2020. It's about a down and out inventor who rediscovers his own magic with the help of his granddaughter and daughter. This time around, one bit of dialogue stood out: I know about losing things. But the magic isn’t just in what you lost. Its in what you still have."

This, along with two different versions of the movie's opening number "This Day" gave me hope again. Yeah, I've gotten a lot of poetry rejections, but the fact that I even wrote the poems at all is fucking magical. My comeback as a poet should not be defined by publications but by the fact that I came back to the art form I love and learned to see it and myself in a new light.

I'm stubborn as hell y'all. Even if I have to put my rejected poems together in one book, even if I have to revise them a third & fourth time, I'm getting them published someday. And that someday will be THE day, "This Day" that I have been working towards for so long.

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#tp babbles #tp writes #jingle jangle #feeling hopeful #Youtube #penn's poetry musings

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abeyyabhishekh · 1 year

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Watch "Albatross | Bachau | 2020 |" on YouTube

बचाउ मलाई, म आफैं संग बोलिरहेछु, म आफ्नै रचनामा भुली रहेछु, म आफ्नै कल्पनामा डुबी रहेछु!!

This non-mainstream masterpiece sums up the mental demons one has to face in life that suffocate one from within, and no matter how hard you try to escape, they keep coming back. Pulling us to the core of miseries and hopelessness, yet fighting back and defeating the mental afflictions remains the only choice for those suffering.

Kudos to Albatross! 🤍

It is true that many people struggle with mental demons that can feel overwhelming and suffocating. These demons can take many forms, including depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, and more. They can make us feel trapped, hopeless, and alone.

However, it is important to remember that these mental demons do not define us, and that there is always hope for healing and recovery. It may take time and effort, but with the right support and resources, it is possible to overcome these challenges.

Some steps you can take to fight back against mental afflictions include seeking professional help, practicing self-care, building a support system of friends and family, challenging negative thoughts and beliefs, and finding healthy ways to cope with stress and emotions.

Remember, you are not alone in your struggle, and there are people and resources available to help you on your journey towards healing and wellness.

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#Youtube

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theworstfoundingfathers · 1 year

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Who is the worst founding father? Round 2: James Madison vs Patrick Henry

Note: Sorry another long one ahead.

James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

By treaty or through war, Native American tribes ceded 26,000,000 acres (11,000,000 ha) of land to the United States under Madison's presidency.

Upon becoming president, Madison said the federal government's duty was to convert Native Americans by the "participation of the improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized state". In September 1809, Governor Harrison invited several tribes to a meeting in Fort Wayne. During the negotiations, Harrison promised large subsidies and direct payments to the tribes if they would cede the lands under discussion. Madison agreed to the Treaty of Fort Wayne, negotiated and signed by Indiana Territory's Governor Harrison. In the treaty, the American Indian tribes were compensated $5,200 ($109,122 in 2020) in goods and $500 in cash ($10,900 in 2020), with $250 in annual payments ($5,450 in 2020), in return for the cession of 3 million acres of land (approximately 12,140 square kilometers) with incentivized subsidies paid to individual tribes for exerting their influence over less cooperative tribes.

Angered by the treaty, eventually hostilities broke between Shawnee leader Tecumseh's followers and American settlers. Tensions continued to rise, leading to the Battle of Tippecanoe during a period sometimes called Tecumseh's War. Tecumseh was defeated and Indians were pushed off their tribal lands, replaced entirely by white settlers.

Madison did not believe American Indians could be fully assimilated to the values of Euro-American culture. He believed that Native Americans may have been unwilling to make "the transition from the hunter, or even the herdsman state, to the agriculture". Madison feared that Native Americans had too great an influence on the settlers they interacted with, who in his view were "irresistibly attracted by that complete liberty, that freedom from bonds, obligations, duties, that absence of care and anxiety which characterize the savage state".

When Madison moved to Washington, D.C. in 1801, he brought slaves from Montpelier. He also hired slaves from other slave holders in Washington, D.C.. During Madison's presidency, his White House slaves included John Freeman, Jennings, Sukey, Joseph Bolden, Jim, and Abram. By 1801, Madison's slave population at Montpelier was slightly over 100. During the 1820s and 1830s, Madison sold land and slaves to repay debts. In 1836, at the time of Madison's death, he owned 36 taxable slaves. Madison did not free any of his slaves either during his lifetime or in his will.

Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.

The actions of the national government under the Articles of Confederation made Henry fear a strong federal government, and he declined appointment as a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He actively opposed the ratification of the United States Constitution, both fearing a powerful central government and because there was as yet no Bill of Rights.

A slaveholder throughout his adult life, he hoped to see the institution end but had no plan beyond ending the importation of slaves.

#founding father bracket #worst founding father #founding fathers #amrev #brackets #polls #james madison #patrick henry

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