#Power Broker process

[elgaberino-mcoc]

White Vis, U.S. Agent, Mockingbird, Hank Pym, Julia Carpenter, and Wonder Man are all ranked on the @MCOCwishlist 

No matter who wins #SummonersChoice, there are a lot of good characters still waiting for @MarvelChampions' bright future

#WestCoastAvengers #AvengersWestCoast

#West Coast Avengers #Avengers #Vision #White Vision #U.S. Agent #John Walker #Hank Pym #Mockingbird #Wonder Man #Spider-Woman #Julia Carpenter #Arachne #recent rank #female Avengers #female Spideys #Pym science #power broker process #S.H.I.E.L.D. #Williams family

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The conservative movement is cracking up

I'll be in Stratford, Ontario, appearing onstage with Vass Bednar as part of the CBC IDEAS Festival. I'm also doing an afternoon session for middle-schoolers at the Stratford Public Library.

Politics always requires coalitions. In parliamentary democracies, the coalitions are visible, when they come together to form the government. In a dictatorship, the coalitions are hidden to everyone except infighting princelings and courtiers (until a general or minister is executed, exiled or thrown in prison.)

In a two-party system, the coalitions are inside the parties – not quite as explicit as the coalition governments in a multiparty parliament, but not so opaque as the factions in a dictatorship. Sometimes, there are even explicit structures to formalize the coalition, like the Biden Administration's Unity Task Force, which parceled out key appointments among two important blocs within the party (the finance wing and the Sanders/Warren wing).

Conservative politics are also a coalition, of course. As an outsider, I confess that I am much less conversant with the internal power-struggles in the GOP and the conservative movement, though I'm trying to remedy that. Books like Nathan J Robinson's Responding to the Right present a great overview of various conservative belief-systems:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/14/nathan-robinson/#arguendo

And the Know Your Enemy podcast does an amazing job of diving deep into right-wing beliefs, especially when it comes to identifying fracture lines in the conservative establishment. A recent episode on the roots of contemporary right-wing antisemitism in the paleocon/neocon split was hugely informative and fascinating:

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/know-your-enemy-in-search-of-anti-semitism-with-john-ganz/

Political parties are weak institutions, liable to capture and hospitable to corruption. General elections aren't foolproof or impervious to fraud, but they're miles more robust than parties, whose own leadership selection processes and other key decisions can be made in the shadows, according to rules that can be changed on a whim:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/30/weak-institutions/

Which means that parties are brittle, weak vessels that we rely on to contain the volatile mixture of factions who might actually hate each other, sometimes even more than they hate the other party. Remember the defenestration of GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy? That:

https://apnews.com/article/mccarthy-gaetz-speaker-motion-to-vacate-congress-327e294a39f8de079ef5e4abfb1fa555

Even outsiders like me know that there's a deep fracture in the Republican Party, with Trumpists on one side and the "establishment" on the other side. Reading accounts of the 2016 GOP leadership race, I get the distinct impression that Trump's win was even more shocking to party insiders than it was to the rest of us.

Which makes sense. They thought they had the party under control, knew where its levers were and how to pull them. For us, Trump's win was a terrible mystery. For GOP power-brokers, it was a different kind of a nightmare, the kind where you discover that controls to the the car you're driving in high-speed traffic aren't connected to anything and you're not really the driver.

But as Trump's backers – another coalition – fall out among each other, it's becoming easier for the rest of us to understand what happened. Take FBI informant Peter Thiel's defection from the Trump camp:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/12/silicon-valley-billionaire-donors-presidential-candidates/

Thiel was the judas goat who led tech's reactionary billionaires into Trump's tent, blazing a trail and raising a fortune on the way. Thiel's support for Trump was superficially surprising. After all, Thiel is gay, and Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, openly swore war on queers of all kinds. Today, Thiel has rebuffed Trump's fundraising efforts and is reportedly on Trump's shit-list.

But as a Washington Post report – drawing heavily on gossiping anonymous insiders – explains. Thiel has never let homophobia blind him to the money and power he stands to gain by backing bigots:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/12/silicon-valley-billionaire-donors-presidential-candidates/

Thiel bankrolled Blake Masterson's Senate race, despite Masterson's promise to roll back marriage equality – and despite the fact that Masterton attended Thiel's wedding to another man.

According to the post, the Thiel faction's abandonment of Trump wasn't driven by culture war issues. Rather, they were fed up with Trump's chaotic, undisciplined governance strategy, which scuttled many opportunities to increase the wealth and power of America's oligarchs. Thiel insiders complained that Trump's "character traits sabotaged the policy changes" and decried Trump's habit of causing "turmoil and chaos…that would interfere with his agenda" rather than "executing relentlessly."

For Trump's base, the cruelty might be the point. But for his backers, the cruelty was the tactic, and the point was money, and the power it brings. When Trump seemed like he might use cruel tactics to achieve power, his backers went along for the ride. But when Trump made it clear that he would trade opportunities for power solely to indulge his cruelty, they bailed.

That's an important fracture line in the modern American conservative coalition, but it's not the only one.

Writing in the BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller and Lee Hepner describes the emerging conservative split over antitrust and monopoly:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/is-there-an-establishment-plan-to

Antitrust has been the centerpiece of the Biden Administration's most progressive political project. For the left wing of the Dems, blunting corporate power is seen as the necessary condition for rolling back the entire conservative program, which depends on oligarch-provided cash infusions, media campaigns, and thinktank respectability.

But elements of the right have also latched onto antitrust, for reasons of their own. Take the Catholic traditionalists who see weakening corporate power as a path to restoring a "traditional" household where a single breadwinner can support a family:

https://www.capitalisnt.com/episodes/when-capitalism-becomes-tyranny-with-sohrab-ahmari

There's another reason to support antitrust, of course – it's popular. There are large, bipartisan majorities opposed to monopoly and in favor of antitrust action:

https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/Antitrust_Policy_poll_results.pdf

Two-thirds of Americans support anti-monopoly laws. 70% of Americans say monopolies are bad for the economy. The Biden administration is doing more on antitrust than any presidency since the Carter years, but 52% of Americans haven't heard about it:

https://www.ft.com/content/c17c35a3-e030-4e3b-9f49-c6bdf7d3da7f

There's a big opportunity latent in the facts of antitrust's popularity, and the Biden antitrust agenda's obscurity. So far, the Biden administration hasn't figured out how to seize that opportunity, but some Dems are trying to grab it. Take Montana Senator John Tester, a Democrat in a Trump-voting state, whose campaign has taken aim at the meat-packing monopolies that are screwing the state's ranchers.

The right wants in on this. At a Federalist Society black-tie event last week during the National Lawyer's Convention, Biden's top antitrust enforcers got a warm welcome. Jonathan Kanter, the DOJ's top antitrust cop, was praised onstage by Todd Zywicki, whom Stoller and Hepner call "a highly influential law professors," from George Mason Univeristy, a fortress of pro-corporate law and economics. Zywicki praised the DoJ and FTC's new antitrust guidelines – which have been endlessly damned in the WSJ and other conservative outlets – as a reasonable and necessary compromise:

https://fedsoc.org/events/national-press-club-event

Even Lina Khan – the bogeywoman of the WSJ editorial page – got a warm reception at her fireside chat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FwdAxOSznE

And the convention's hot Saturday ticket was "a debate between two conservatives over whether social media platforms had sufficient monopoly power that the state could regulate them as common carriers":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwoO7bZajXk

This is pretty amazing. And yet…lawmakers haven't gotten the memo. During markup for last week's appropriations bill, lawmakers inserted a flurry of anti-antitrust amendments into the must-pass legislation:

https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/fsgg-approps-bill-must-support-enforcers-not-kneecap-them/#

These amendments were just wild. Rep Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) introduced an amendment that would give companies carte blanche to stick you with unlimited junk fees, and allow corporations to take away their workers' rights to change jobs through noncompetes:

https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/118th-congress/house-report/269

Another amendment would block the FTC from enforcing against "unfair methods of competition." Translation: the FTC couldn't punish companies like Amazon for using algorithms to hike prices, or for conspiring to raise insulin prices, or its predatory pricing aimed at killing small- and medium-sized grocers.

An amendment from Rep Kat Cammack (R-FL) would kill the FTC's "click to cancel" rule, which will force companies to let you cancel your subscriptions the same way you sign up for them – instead of making you wait on hold to beg a customer service rep to let you cancel.

Another one: "a provision to let auto dealers cheat customers with undisclosed added fees":

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-118hr4664rh/pdf/BILLS-118hr4664rh.pdf

Dems got in on the action, too. A bipartisan pair, Rep Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep Lou Correa (D-FL), unsuccessfully attempted to strip the Department of Transport of its powers to block mergers, which were most recently used to block the merger of Jetblue and Spirit:

https://www.congress.gov/amendment/118th-congress/house-amendment/640

And 206 Republicans voted to block the DoT from investigating airline price-gouging. As Stoller and Hepner point out, these reps serve constituents from low-population states that are especially vulnerable to this kind of extraction.

This morning, Jim Jordan hosted a Judiciary Committee meeting where he raked DOJ antitrust boss Jonathan Kanter over the coals, condemning the same merger guidelines that Zywicki praised to the Federalist Society:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7jxc8dp8erhe1q3wpndre/GOP-oversight-hearing-memo-11.13.23.pdf?rlkey=d54ur91ry3mc69bta5vhgg13z&dl=0

Jordan's prep memo reveals his plan to accuse Kanter of being an incompetent who keeps failing in his expensive bids to hold corporate power to account, and being an all-powerful government goon who's got a boot on the chest of American industry. Stoller and Hepner invoke the old Yiddish joke: "The food at this restaurant is terrible, and the portions are too small!"

Stoller and Hepner close by wondering what to make of this factional split in the American right. Is it that these members of the GOP Congressional caucus just haven't gotten the memo? Or is this a peek at what corporate lobbyists home to accomplish after the 2024 elections?

They suggest that both Democrats and Republican primary contesters in that race could do well by embracing antitrust, "Establishment Republicans want you to pay more for groceries, healthcare, and travel, and are perfectly fine letting monopoly corporations make decisions about your daily life."

I don't know if Republicans will take them up on it. The party's most important donors are pathologically loss-averse and unwilling to budge on even the smallest compromise. Even a faint whiff of state action against unlimited corporate power can provoke a blitz of frenzied scare-ads. In New York state, a proposal to ban noncompetes has triggered a seven-figure ad-buy from the state's Business Council:

https://www.timesunion.com/state/article/noncompete-campaign-raises-state-lobbying-18442769.php

It's hard to overstate how unhinged these ads are. Writing for The American Prospect, Terri Gerstein describes one: "a hammer smashes first an alarm clock, then a light bulb, with shards of glass flying everywhere. An ominous voice predicts imminent doom. Then, for good measure, a second alarm clock is shattered":

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-11-10-business-groups-reflexive-anti-worker-demagogy/

Banning noncompetes is good for workers, but it's also unambiguously good for business and the economy. They "reduce new firm entry, innovation by startups, and the ability of new firms to grow." 44% of small business owners report having been blocked from starting a new company because of a noncompete; 35% have been blocked from hiring the right person for a vacancy due to a noncompete. :

https://eig.org/noncompetes-research-brief/

As Gerstein writes, it's not unusual for the business lobby to lobby against things that are good for business – and lobby hard. The Chamber of Commerce has gone Hulk-mode on simple proposals to adapt workplaces for rising temperatures, acting as though permitting "rest, shade, water, and gradual acclimatization" on the jobsite will bring business to a halt. But actual businesses who've implemented these measures describe them as an easy lift that increases productivity.

The Chamber lobbies against things its members support – like paid sick days. The Chamber complains endlessly about the "patchwork" of state sick leave rules – but scuttles any attempt to harmonize these rules nationally, even though members who've implemented them call them "no big deal":

https://cepr.net/report/no-big-deal-the-impact-of-new-york-city-s-paid-sick-days-law-on-employers/

The Chamber's fight against American businesses is another one of those fracture lines in the conservative coalition. Working with far right dark money groups, they've worked in statehouses nationwide to roll back child labor laws:

https://www.epi.org/blog/florida-legislature-proposes-dangerous-roll-back-of-child-labor-protections-at-least-16-states-have-introduced-bills-putting-children-at-risk/

They also fight tooth-and-nail against minimum wage rises, despite 80% of their members supporting them:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/04/leaked-documents-show-strong-business-support-for-raising-the-minimum-wage/

The spectacle of Republicans in disarray is fascinating to watch and even a little exciting, giving me hope for real progressive gains. Of course, it would help if the Democratic coalition wasn't such a mess.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/14/when-youve-lost-the-fedsoc/#anti-buster-buster

Image: Jason Auch, modified https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antarctic_mountains,_pack_ice_and_ice_floes.jpg

CC BY 2.0

#pluralistic #trustbusting #antitrust #schisms #infighting #conservativism #millionaire on billionaire violence #jim jordan #lina khan #jonathan kanter #federalist society #trumpism #class struggle #labor

[probablyasocialecologist]

Hamas appears to have three goals corresponding to the short, medium and long term. In the short term, Hamas appears to have taken over 150 Israelis captive, and reports suggest around three quarters of those are military or security personnel. These hostages, Hamas hopes, will act as a shield against Israeli counterattacks and a bargaining chip to be traded for some of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails and in the ongoing neverending negotiations over the blockade on Gaza. In the medium term Hamas hopes to intervene politically in Israel, both domestically and within its surrounding network of relations with Arab states. Netanyahu’s bluster has correctly been judged to be lying on shaky foundations – his civil power grab has deeply polarised Zionist opinion both within Israel and internationally, and his alliance with far right provocateurs has not been universally welcomed. In fact that alliance may well become untenable now that Israel has suffered serious military losses while its troops were off chaperoning a bunch of fascist goons. There are echoes here of the 2006 attack on Lebanon when Israel found to its cost that soldiers accustomed to brutalising teenagers in the West Bank were less impressive when up against a rooted, disciplined and equipped resistance militia. Moreover, part of Netanyahu’s domestic political appeal within Israel is the promise of the so-called Abraham Accords, treaties normalising diplomatic and trade relations with the Israeli state signed so far by UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – but not, as yet, Saudi Arabia. This process had already been overshadowed by China’s surprise intervention earlier this year in brokering a treaty between Saudi and Iran to end the war in Yemen. And the reactions of the Gulf states have been noticeably cooler towards Israel than one might have expected. These peace treaties, for what they are worth, now seem dead in the water. But it’s the third long-term goal of Hamas’s intervention that is the most important. The ongoing and seemingly neverending humiliation of the Palestinians at the hands of Israel has been responded to. Hamas statements at the outset of the conflict, relayed on Al-Jazeera English (which has been invaluable – no wonder Israeli snipers murdered Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last year), emphasised that this was a general call for Palestinian resistance, and invited other groups and factions to join. This echoes Hamas’s earlier, much smaller, rocket attack on Israel in May 2021, which came in response to Israeli police outrages at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. As with this time, Israel was caught off guard when Hamas retaliated: its assumption had been that al-Aqsa was not in Gaza, therefore Hamas would not strike back. What we saw that year, flickering briefly, was a three-pronged Palestinian resistance movement comprising Hamas in Gaza (which has an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population), assorted militant groups in the West Bank, as well as Palestinians within Israel’s borders itself, who organised and delivered a one-day general strike. These glimmers of a new Palestinian resistance movement come as the old order, represented by Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas are despised, discredited and in their senescence. They have at best proved impotent at protecting Palestinians in the West Bank and at worst actively collaborated with the Israeli occupation. A new Palestinian resistance movement will need a new leadership, and Hamas are positioning themselves at the head of that.

#israel #palestine #gaza #west bank #hamas

[bonky-n-steeb]

I hate you, I love you

summary || Bucky hates you,.. but does he?

warnings || enemies to lovers. SMUT — dom!bucky, dom/sub dynamics, creampie, bucky’s vibrating fingers, choking, spanking. dirty talk, degradation, praise kink. petname (princess). PWP — MINORS DNI 🔞 if any of this makes you uncomfortable then please do not read!

I have decided to not do taglists anymore, so if you wished to be notified of my newest updates please follow @bonky-n-steeb-lib and turn on the notifications!

based on this ask :))

“Hey there handsome!” Bucky sucked in a breath the moment he heard your saccharine voice. He clenched his fists before turning around to face you. As expected, you had that smug smile on your face that he wanted to kiss away. no, wait, he meant wipe away. Yeah, he definitely didn’t want to kiss you, right?

“What are you doing here?” He asked through clenched teeth. You just pouted and shrugged nonchalantly. “I thought by now you would know that I’m here for the same reason as you.” You winked at him. Bucky was tired of your smart mouth, and he knew more than one ways to shut you up.

“Yeah right. You love getting on my nerves don’t you?” Bucky snarled back. You giggled and Bucky wondered how you managed to be so damn shameless. “No matter what you think, but the world doesn’t revolve around you buckaroo. I have some bad guys to catch, that’s why I’m here.”

Bucky had enough. It was as if something had snapped inside of him and he couldn’t hold back the beast anymore. He had tried to control himself for so long, but not anymore. In the blink of an eye, he had you pinned against the dilapidated walls of the old warehouse.

Your chest heaved as you panted and he was having a hard time holding himself back. The thread of his patience was wearing thin with every passing second. There was just something about you that made him lose control and go berserk.

Your eyes widened for a fraction of second, before your lips stretched into a smile. All this time, you were giving him hints of how badly you wanted him to fuck you, and this idiot never got them until now. And now that finally you were getting what you had craved for so long, you were happier than ever.

“Where is the broker?” Bucky has actually come here in the search of the power broker and had instead come across you. “If I knew where the broker was, I wouldn’t be dallying around in this filthy warehouse. The tip was fake, the broker never came here.”

“And how do you know about the tip?” Bucky narrowed his eyes. “I have my informers.” You replied with a little shrug of your shoulders. Your calm attitude didn’t sit right with Bucky — he wanted you to burn the same way he did.

You gasped when Bucky’s cool metal fingers curled around your neck. It was an unexpected move, but it made you wet nonetheless. Bucky relished in the way your eyes widened a little. “You know that all I have to do is squeeze, right?” He whispered in your ear.

Bucky’s sudden commanding presence was turning you on more than ever. His hot breath was falling over your cheeks as you stared up in his crystalline blue eyes. Even in the dimly lit room, Bucky’s face looked prettier than ever. Your eyes traced down to his shapely lips and you couldn’t stop yourself from kissing him.

Bucky was spellbound and it took him a moment to process that you were kissing him, but once he came back on track, he didn’t hold back. He held you by your neck as he passionately kissed you. Your fingers curled in his blue jacket as you finally got the fix you so badly craved.

His kiss was bruising and overwhelming. His teeth nipped at your lips and his tongue soothed the burn. You thought you’d only ever read about such kisses in books, but for the first time, you were actually experiencing it. You actually whined when he pulled back, and this time, he smirked.

“Didn’t know you would turn into a pathetic mess with just one kiss.” His cruel words were arousing you even more. His lips were swollen and wet and you wanted to kiss him again. Instead, you pushed his head back by his short locks and began sucking little marks on his neck.

His grip over your throat suddenly returned and he pushed you back. He was quick to flip you over such that you faced the wall. He pressed his body to your back and pushed down your pants. “Now I have to fuck the brat out of you.”

His sentence was final like a law itself. You let out a surprised squeal when you felt his metal arm crack down hard on your ass. You were sure it was going to leave behind bruises, and you loved it. He spanked your other ass cheek too and a little ohmygod left your mouth.

“See, all you need is a little disciple and you start to behave. If you had been a good girl from the start, we wouldn’t have to see this day. But well..” Bucky managed to sound disappointed. He spread your legs and you heard the telltale sound of zipper and gulped with anticipation.

“Are you gonna be a good girl for me?” He murmured in your ear. You whimpered when he pressed his bulbous head to your sopping folds. He rubbed his head throughout the length of your pussy, getting it wet, before tapping on your swollen clit.

“Yes…”

Your voice was more of a moan as he entered you. You placed your hands on the walls as he pushed his length into you. He was thick and just his head was stretching you to your limit. He pulled back and pushed again until you took a little more.

Just when you guessed he had entered you completely, he thrusted harder and your eyes rolled back into your head as you realised he was longer than you’d expected. “Oh my god, Bucky!” You squealed when you finally felt his pelvis pressed against your ass.

“What? You haven’t taken a man’s cock before? Don’t worry, I’ll show you how a real soldier fucks.” His words were making you melt into a puddle of shame and arousal. His fingers were digging into the softness of your hips as he began fucking into you, hard.

His thrusts were relentless and animalistic, it felt as if he wanted to ruin you to your basest instincts and build you back up. You cried out when he went deeper as you pushed your hips back. He was ravenous, and you were going to make sure he was fed.

“What happened princess? Is it too much?” Bucky asked condescendingly when you cried out his name. The fact that he was fucking you within an inch of your life in an old warehouse and at the same time, calling you princess made your nerves light up.

It was indeed too much, yet you needed more. You snaked your hand below to rub your throbbing clit but Bucky caught it before you could bring yourself some relief. “Bucky please!” You pleaded. “Please what princess? I can’t hear you?”

In other circumstances, you would’ve hit him for all this patronising. But right now, you were loving the way he was putting you down. His actions and word were giving you a whiplash and all of it was making your knees week. He was showing you the pleasures of the heaven while dragging you down to hell.

He slowed down his hips and moved agonisingly slow when you didn’t reply. “I said I can’t hear you princess. You better not keep me waiting.” A shiver ran down your spine at his dark chuckle. “Buc…” you tried speaking but instead moaned out when he pushed into you painfully slow such that you felt each vein on his cock.

“Bucky please. Touch me.” You finally breathed out. “But I am touching you princess.” He squeezed your tummy for emphasis. You weren’t usually shy at all, but this whole situation was making you flustered. “Touch me… there.”

“Where princess?” Bucky sounded so clueless, you wanted to smack him. “Touch my pussy. Please!” That seemed to be the right answer as his metal fingers descended on your cunt. His cool fingers seemed to soothe your heated folds.

But you screamed out when the tips of his fingers started vibrating. “Bucky…!” You squealed when he pressed his vibrating fingers to your needy nub. “Isn’t this what you begged for? Now I am touching your needy little clit, ain’t I? Or do you need something more princess?” Bucky’s pace was still slow but his fingers were making you dizzy.

“Bucky… just..” your sentence was against cut short as your legs trembled. “I’m listening.” Bucky replied sarcastically. Your entire body was sweaty and your palms were clammy, and if it weren’t for Bucky pressing against you, you would’ve fallen down. In short, you were a mess.

“Fuck me harder Bucky!” You finally squealed out loud. “Now that’s my girl.” That was all you heard before Bucky resumed his fast pace. Your held on to the scraping wallpaper for your dear life as Bucky pounded into you.

“Yeah! Fucking take it! You begged for it like a naughty girl and now you’ll take it like one. Is this what you expected?” He was constantly spewing filth in your ear while you felt yourself getting close. “Look at how my cock is fucking splitting you. You’re so warm and soft, I don’t ever wanna fucking leave you.”

His hard thrusts and dirty words and vibrating fingers made your body sizzle as they combined into a whirlwind of pleasure and you couldn’t hold yourself back anymore. You pressed your face to the walls as you came in shocking bursts.

“I can feel you clenching around me - yeah, just like that. Squeeze me well princess. Don’t you fucking waste a single drop.” You soon felt Bucky come deep inside you and that added sensation only prolonged your orgasm.

You both sagged down as you twitched from aftershocks. Bucky held you on his lap as you panted wildly. You could feel his spend leaking out of you as Bucky pulled out. His fingers dipped back into your cunt and you convulsed on his lap. “Now that’s one well fucked pussy.” He murmured into your ear.

“You owe me $50!” You both jerked when you heard Bucky’s intercom roar to life. Your face burned with embarrassment when you realised that Bucky hadn’t shut off his comms. “What the fuck Bucky!” Even Bucky was shocked and looked genuinely guilty. “I’m sorry.” He looked at you apologetically.

“Don’t be sorry Bucky. You just earned me 50 dollars.” Sam chimed in. “I wasn’t talking to you idiot. And why did you listen? Also who is going to pay you that money?” Bucky barked through the comms. “Joaquin!” Sam looked giddy.

“Okay okay fine! You win!” Joaquin sounded disappointed. “What even was the bet?” You asked pulling Bucky’s comms close. “I said you’d go at it like rabbits on a mission and our boy here believed you’d be a bit more civil. Anyway, I win, as usual.”

“I’m going to fucking kill you two!“ Bucky cursed before crushing the small device. A moment passed as you just sat together before you spoke up. “Did you mean it?“ Bucky looked a bit shocked at your question, “Umm, no. Like they are my friend and I wouldn’t ever harm…”

“No Bucky. Not that!” He seemed even more confused when you objected him. “Did you mean it when you said you didn’t wanna leave me?” Suddenly realisation struck Bucky and he smiled. He pressed his forehead to yours as he said, “Yeah. Now you’re mine. And I’m never gonna leave you princess.”

#I hate you I love you #bucky barnes #sebastian stan #marvel #mcu #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x plus size reader #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes angst #sebastian stan x y/n #sebastian stan x you #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan smut #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes series #bucky barnes drabble #bucky barnes fanfiction

[teecupangel]

*Jumps through the window* Desmond after sacrificing himself is thrown into the time of Bayek (Maybe like a Yew Branches?). Maybe because of Issue technology or some bug of the Eye he becomes immortal and is know by the assassins as this hooded figure of the legends. There are record of people that saw him at the important moments for the brotherhood or is mentioned to give some forgotten knowledge or advice to people...... i just want people to think that Desmond is this badass figure in brotherhood history, when in reality he is sweating his ass and is full chaos mod.

*Jumps out of different window*

*stares at the only window in their room wondering how the hell nonny was able to fit thru that*

*rummages all over the blog for that specific ask that does have immortal!Desmond in it*

*search of immortal or mask does not yield the ask*

*ask for help from duckduckgo instead of tumblr’s sucky search bar*

Lo and behold!

Immortal!Desmond ask that I answered using sorta-kinda Outsider POV

He’s more or less deitified in that ask so it’ll be super funny to think that he’s making such a big impact in history and is known as an absolutely powerful figure and they all think he’s cool but, in reality, he’s flying by the seat of his pants.

Oh, don’t get him wrong.

He had sorta an idea of what to do.

But that’s because he went to Altaïr first and Altaïr felt both sorry for the fact that he has no idea what to do and annoyed by the fact that he has no idea what to do so the two of them spent most of their time just planning Desmond’s next moves for the next 600 years or so. 

Then Ezio came along and Leonardo was able to make sense of all his ramblings about techs he and Altaïr sorta started and kinda finished.

Edward was purely by chance, and he will never let down the fact that Edward had found him by fishing him out of the waters while he went diving for treasures.

Okay. Haytham becoming an Assassin was intentional. Matchmaking was not his strong point and he always fucked that up so badly because all his meddling only made Haytham and Kaniehtí:io sorta-kinda hate each other. Bless Edward for being able to fix that.

Desmond was only planning to take a vacay for a bit. That’s why he joined Shay. Realizing that taking out the POE would be bad? Yeah. That was unintentional. Making Shay freak out because he was freaking out because that POE looked ready to just drop off its container like the little bitch that it was? Yeah… definitely not intentional. Desmond and Shay swore never to talked about that incident. 

In Desmond’s defense… He didn’t help Arno broker peace between the Assassins and Tempalrs. That was all Arno and his supporters. Desmond had been… preoccupied by de Sade’s writings to actually be of any help. Oh. Well, Desmond guessed he did take the Sword of Eden and beat Germaine on the head with it while Arno was busy with the negotiations and trying to pretend that he hadn’t been banging the new Grand Master of the Templar Order for years now. 

Desmond would like to stress that he didn’t provide council to the Frye Twins. Unless one counts “Noooo, don’t do that” and “Wh… why are you doing this? No, seriously… talk me through your thought process on how you got to this plan” and, Jayadeep’s favorite, “Uh-huh… and then?”. Desmond spent his entire time in London in Kenway manor, just chilling then Jayadeep would come barging in asking for his help because of the next Frye patented idea one of the twins have. They weren’t bad. It was just… Evie might pretend that she’s good at planning and she is. The twins just see the word improvise as ‘the first thing we think of which is usually the most chaotic thing we can think of’ and double-down on that.

Honestly...

Desmond was already dreading the shenanigans that will happen after he takes this timeline's Desmond Miles under his wings.

But fuck it.

He'd been winging this from the beginning and he'll continue to wing this.

And just...

Hope for the best...?

#so the first ask was more or less formal #i decided this ask #would sound more like #desmond rambling everything #to some poor soul #ask and answer #assassin's creed #desmond miles #teecup writes/has a plot #fic idea: assassin's creed #sorry i couldn't add bayek nonny :(

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The old New York Aquarium in the process of demolition, 1941.

Opened in 1896, it was described as having "a pungent and warm blend of age and familiarity and long affection and human scale, of busts of old singers and the flash of bright fish, of gloomy corners where one could neck with one's date, of being easy to get to and free, so that people could simply walk in as if it belonged to them." Robert Moses disagreed. He called it "an ugly wart on the main axis leading straight to the Statue of Liberty."

But he really wanted it gone to satisfy his imperial ambitions: a bridge on the site (Castle Clinton in Battery Park). When that plan was frustrated, he tried for a tunnel. He got neither. But the building was torn down, the animals and fish given to facilities in other cities, and the sea lions, temporarily, to the Bronx Zoo. Fourteen years later, another aquarium was built at Coney Island, but unlike the original, which was free, it charged a pretty high entrance fee. In his biography of Moses, The Power Broker (from which the description above of the old aquarium was taken), Robert Caro called the new aquarium Moses's revenge for not getting his bridge.

Photo: Jacob Harris for the AP

#vintage New York #1940s #Jacob Harris #NY Aquarium #Robert Moses #demolition #vintage NYC #aquarium #vanished NY

[colourful-jack]

Paper Talk Special: YOSHIHARA Rieko's interview (1989)

“Riki is an almost full-grown black panther”

YOSHIHARA Rieko has written in a wide variety of genres, from high-school stories to fantasy and science fiction. If there is one thing her characters, like Aki and Kacchan or Iason and Riki, have in common, it’s their impressive charisma. We had the opportunity to ask her more about Ai no kusabi in this interview.

Profile

Pen name’s origin: My birth name. My family name changed when I got married, so I thought “nobody would know it’s me!”.

Date of birth: October 4th, 1954

Blood type: B

Place of birth and residence: born in Fukuoka Prefecture, living in Kumamoto Prefecture

What made you send your manuscript to the magazine: It had been a long night…

1. What made you start writing Ai no kusabi?

I didn’t really… want to write about “pure love” in a science fiction setting (ah ah ah), because I wanted to write about an “encounter” than would not just be casual, the bonds it would create and the various feelings they would draw along.

2. Which character can you empathize with the most?

Probably Riki, as one could expect. Because, even though he has a sharp tongue and is quite mature, his way of thinking is fundamentally straight. Him running around struggling yet unable to act, because he’s caught between two feelings of different natures, makes him seductive, I like it.

3. What is your favourite scene? And what is a line you like?

My favourite, hmm… It would have to be the scene where Katze cries while stifling his voice. But I also cannot put aside the scene where Riki is kept waiting in vain in the rain by Guy… As for the lines, those would be “there’s no way I’m letting him die alone” or “you may be able to look the other way despite everything, but I… wouldn’t be worth more than trash if I did. I couldn’t go on living.”

4. Could you tell us about the creation process of the characters, like Riki and Iason? (size, weight, blood type, date of birth, etc.)

I had their personality roughly figured out, so I didn’t think about their finer characteristics, but…

Riki: Because he’s a slum mongrel, I pictured him as an almost full-grown black panther. Not frail, but slender and lithe. As for his appearance, his intelligence shines through the strength of his obstinate spirit, that’s all.

Iason: Since he’s an absolutely perfect member of the elite and the Black Market’s king, he should definitely be like the God of the Sun Apollo, but raised in the depths of the sea (or something). He’s shrewd and good-looking, incredibly proud, and wouldn’t collapse under any circumstances. Regarding his height, all things considered, he’s a head taller that Riki.

Guy: In my first draft, he was a tolerant and broad-minded herbivorous felid… that was my intention, but I wonder where and how things went wrong.

Raoul: His looks, intellect and handsomeness are on par with Iason’s. He has a sense of humour and, even more than Iason, nerves of steel.

Katze: Went from being raised in the slums to being a Furniture in Eos to being a broker on the black market. Putting aside the protagonists, he’s the one with the most dramatic life, so that’s probably why I gave him a tragic handicap, like being a scarface or being a man without manhood…

Kirie: Representing slum dwellers in their late teens, he’s overconfident and reckless. He has a very limited worldview, so he’s the most fragile yet also the most dangerous character.

5. Concerning the way you chose the characters’ names, you previously said you were “drawn to the “dragon” kanji”, were you fixated on something like that for Ai no kusabi?

This time I wanted to give them names that would fit their character, so… I gave Riki a name conveying “power” (riki is one of the few ways to read the kanji meaning “power”), I named Iason after a hero from Greek mythology, and Guy after the goddess of the Earth, Gaia, for his ability to embrace everything. But when you list them, they’re not consistent. All things considered, you could say they’re just far-fetched choices, ah ah ah…

6. Writing Ai no kusabi, what did you enjoy? What did you find difficult?

For the most of it, the story was ever changing with the characters’ feelings, so until I had reached the ending, I had fun worrying (somehow) while writing. Difficult things that would bring wrinkles to my forehead, I tend not to think too much about them.

7. A number of different types of Pet Rings appear in readers’ four-case mangas, but how do you picture them yourself?

No, well, when it comes to Riki’s, its basic image was something like Sun Wukong’s circlet. Looking at it like this makes Journey to the West quite salacious too… don’t you think?

8. Could you tell us your thoughts about the cassette adaptation?

I thought “Are you sure we can really do that?”… but when it became real, well, I mean, ah ah ah, what could I say? As you know, this work involves many human relationships, some violent lines, and it’s quite heavy on that. “How can we make all that fit in 60 minutes?” I wondered… When I heard the tape for the first time, it dawned on me that letters and voices are truly two completely different things, obviously. I wrote it, so it���s weird for me to say that, but I thought “can I really make Mr SEKI and Mr SHIOZAWA say those things?”… on the other hand, when I wondered what faces they made then, Tokyo felt so far away… So those were my thoughts. But everyone used their beautiful voice to give impassioned performances, so I’m very happy!

9. And lastly, what is June to you?

A breather between child rearing and house chores, a teatime friend… or something like that. (October 1989)

#ai no kusabi #yoshihara rieko #interview #小説june #間の楔

[prying-pandora666]

Mai Wasn’t Supposed to be Azula’s Friend

My headcanon is that child Mai wasn’t brought into the royal kids’ lives for Azula initially. Ty Lee was paired up to be Azula’s friend and Mai was an arranged bride for Zuko. It would make sense considering her family status.

Ozai may have even been trying to use Zuko as a bargaining chip here to increase his political power by brokering an engagement—as is tragically common amongst royals—to get Ozai in with the warden of the Boiling Rock (Mai’s uncle) and an important noble working in government (Mai’s dad Ukano). Remember he gave Ukano governorship of Omashu. Especially considering Iroh is a beloved general and has sway with the military, Ozai may have been looking to bolster support amongst the nobility to counteract this and secure power for himself.

However, we see that kid Zuko was shy and preferred the company of mom to kids his age. Total momma’s boy. He didn’t seem interested in playing with his sister or his future bride.

So when Azula and Ty Lee noticed Mai sitting alone and ignored in the gardens, they scooped her up and made her one of theirs.

This is why Azula and Ty Lee are the besties and Mai sometimes comes off as the third wheel. But really, all three became great friends, though Mai always still harbored a crush on the boy she was expected to marry someday.

Zuko always considered Mai to be Azula’s friend due to this, and although he intellectually understood he was expected to marry her someday, he didn’t really process or think about it since he was too young to truly grasp what that means and entails. Thus why he didn’t think about Mai or show any signs of missing her during his banishment. Mai, on the other hand, had it put in her head by her parents what was expected of her to further dad’s political career and being a kid she eventually did come to develop a genuine crush on Zuko.

So Mai never forgot, and when they met again on the way back to the Fire Nation, she was all too eager to finally act on her childhood crush and claim Zuko as her boyfriend as he’d always meant to be. Zuko, on the other hand, hadn’t even thought about it in so long that it took him a while to warm up to the idea, especially with so much else going on in his head and heart.

Eventually Zuko does come to care for her very much, only for them to tragically start having problems as Mai loves the version of Zuko he’s trying to be to please Ozai, the version of him she remembers. The person Zuko desperately still wanted to be.

The person he can no longer deny he isn’t anymore.

All the more reason Azula felt so betrayed and hurt when Mai and even Ty Lee chose Zuko over her.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #Zuko #Mai #Maiko #Azula #Ty Lee #Fire Hazard Sibs

[msmargaretmurry]

it was about your actual eldest daughter quinn cisswap fic :D

hahahaha thank you for clarifying <3 even though it would have been a delightful message either way

i'm so pleased to hear it though! i love her so much, i am slowly but doggedly plugging away at that fic in the precious free time i have and i am looking forward to hopefully one day share her with you and the five other people who are excited to read her story. also it's been a while since i wrote a female protagonist and it's been such a fun and interesting writing process digging into how the gender of it all does or doesn't change things.

anyway! have a little snippet of exposition!! <3

Technically, Quinn met Brady before they were fifteen. The elite hockey world is small, and they played with and against each other at various youth tournaments, but fifteen is when everything really started. Women in the NHL were no longer brand new, although still treated like a novelty — as if that’s ever going to change — but having girls in the national team development program was still in the experimental stages. After all, international competition was still strictly gendered. Someone had convinced the powers that be that if the best girls in the game were legitimately shooting for the NHL now, then it was good for the Americans to at least present the illusion of equal institutional support, the same way Sweden and Finland were doing. Can’t be falling behind the Europeans.

So the program wanted Quinn. Her parents, despite her years on boys’ teams and her tenuous commitment to Michigan, whose D-I hockey team did not historically include girls, had expressed some reservations about sending her off to live in an environment that was 90% teen boys before her sixteenth birthday. They were supportive, yeah, but they kept asking about special accommodations — a phrase that Quinn at fifteen loathed, feeling that it highlighted a difference between her and the boys that she would prefer for everyone to just forget about. But Brady, obviously, was also program-bound, and at a spring tournament in Wisconsin, Quinn’s coach connected Quinn’s parents with Keith and Chantal. Their dads already knew each other from years in the league: Jim behind the bench and in front offices, Keith on the ice. Both families familiar with the other from years of running in the same circles. The Tkachuks, it turned out, had a place in Ann Arbor while their boys were in the program, and they would be happy to let Quinn have the basement apartment, if some guaranteed parental supervision from a take-no-shit NHL veteran would put everyone’s minds at ease.

Brady, tall and gangly with his sweaty curls matted to his head, had watched the adults deliberating for half a minute, then turned to Quinn, stuck his hand out, and said, “Hey, how ya doing? That was a sick goal from the point your last game. Seriously, hell of a shot. I pointed it out to my dad and he was like, well, yeah, Brady, you could do that too if you didn’t have legs like spaghetti noodles. So I guess it’s gonna be leg day every day this summer.”

Quinn, once she had processed all of this, her hand still being shaken, had said, “Uh, yeah, looks like you could really use some work in that department.” Then she winced internally, because, yeah, great first impression on the kid whose parents were brokering her path to the NHL right at that moment. But Brady just laughed.

“So you think you’re gonna come to the program?” he asked.

Quinn nodded at the council of grown-ups. “If they let me, yeah.”

“They’ll let you. You’re too good not to go,” Brady said, so breezily assured that for a moment Quinn forgot why she had doubts. “It’s great. You’ll love it. My brother is there and he loves it. He says it’s not weird at all having girls around. I mean, like, obviously, we’ve got Nicky and Rach on our team right now and they’re great so I didn’t think it would be weird anyway. But Matthew says—” he laughed again, shaking his head “—he says, ‘just remember, you can hit them, but don’t hit on them, and it’ll all be fine.’” 

Despite herself, by this point, Quinn was grinning. “Sounds like a pretty good rule.”

“Yeah, he’s a knucklehead, but sometimes he pops out a gem like that,” Brady said.

“Brothers are usually knuckleheads.”

“True. Wait, hey.”

Quinn gave him a sidelong look, one eyebrow raised. He slugged her in the shoulder.

“Quinny, come here a sec,” her mom said, and that’s how Quinn wound up living in Brady Tkachuk’s basement for two years.

#ask #eldest daughter quinn hughes #hockey for ts #usually i'm so cagey about sharing from wips but it's gonna be so long until i have anything ready for posting........ #counting on u all to forget all of this by the time i finish the fic 😅

[elgaberino-mcoc]

BATTLESTAR has been added to the MCOC Wishlist

This long-running superhero got a bad start in poorly-advised stunts for publicity but earned a better name with Wild Pack, Secret Avengers, Ducky Dozen, and other teams over the years @MarvelChampions #MCOC #BHM #BlackHistoryMonth

#Battlestar #Lemar Hoskins #Bucky #Power Broker process #mcoc class science #Mercenary #Wild Pack #Secret Avengers #Ducky Dozen #Black #Black History Month #additions #recent rank #MCU #MCU phase 4 #patriotic #The Falcon and The Winter Soldier #Wishlist Cleanup

[clericofshadows]

cleric's oc factsheet

thought I would compile a quick list of my Mass Effect OCs, including my Shepards, with some basic facts/features about them. I'll be updating this randomly as I sculpt more characters, add more to my canon, and so on :) this is also in my pinned post!

Within Regis's and Nyx's canon, they do exist in each other's universes. However:

In Regis's canon, Nyx stayed a civilian engineer. He and Hackett reconciled before the events of ME2 and restarted their relationship. He's an Alliance contact for tech-related needs and is a strong war-asset for the construction of the Crucible.

In Nyx's canon, Regis never went to BAaT, learned biotics with Vikram, and still did his cybernetics education, which led him to also going to Omega with Vik. He meets Zaeed and enters a relationship with him, and he ends up meeting Kaidan on Omega three years before the events of ME1. He's an Alliance contact for terminus on-goings and also works as a merc with Zaeed if needed.

REGIS LUCIAN SHEPARD

Gender: Male (He/him)

Age: 32 (in ME1)

Birthday: February 9, 2151

Classification: N7 Sentinel

Rank: Commander (ME1); Admiral (Post-ME3)

Sexuality: Gay

Relationship: In a polyamorous relationship with Kaidan Alenko and Zaeed Massani

Quick Facts: Was at BAaT with Kaidan Alenko and has L2 implants. Been in a relationship with Kaidan since a couple of years after BAaT, and they met Zaeed on Omega three years before the events of ME1. Regis has an education background in cybernetics and implants and codes his own omnitool programs.

Notoriety: Butcher of Torfan

Morality: Mostly Renegade

Notable Events: Ashley and Kaidan both survive Virmire; Garrus, Grunt, and Legion perish on the suicide mission. Regis doesn't recruit Garrus in ME1 and recruits Liara last. Liara is not the Shadow Broker, but Regis's friend Wren is instead. Kaidan and Ashley start N7 training after Regis's death. They both obtain Spectre status before ME3.

NYX "PHOENIX" SHEPARD

Gender: Male (He/Him)

Age: 59 (in ME1)

Birthday: May 1, 2124

Classification: N7 Engineer, past Infiltrator

Rank: Commander (ME1); Captain (Post-ME1)

Sexuality: Gay

Relationship: In a polyamorous relationship with Kaidan Alenko and Steven Hackett

Quick Facts: First Contact War Veteran, obtained eezo exposure at an older age and subsequently developed biotics due to a genetic anomaly gained from Prothean experimentation on ancient humans. Nickname came from his ability to revive any old tech and equipment, and his penchant to get back up when all seems lost. Infiltrator during the FCW that targeted and assassinated key turian targets and stole information.

Alternate Universe: No Reapers AU/Protheans nearly won but wiped themselves out in the process and leaving a few straggler Reapers alive.

Notoriety: Butcher of Torfan

Morality: Mostly Paragon

Notable Events: Does not recruit Garrus in ME1, saves both Ashley and Kaidan on Virmire. Kaidan becomes a Spectre after ME1 and Ashley is sent for N7 training.

WREN CLARKSON

Gender: Female (She/Her)

Age: 30 (in ME1)

Birthday: August 8, 2153

Classification: N7 Fury

Rank: Commander (ME1), Major (ME2)

Sexuality: Lesbian

Relationship: After a long time of pining, ends up with EDI

Quick Facts: Becomes the Shadow Broker under Regis's orders, effectively turning the Broker's resources into the Alliance's, making them a more fearsome power during ME3.

Notoriety: Hero of Elysium

Morality: Mostly Renegade

SETH NOMAD

Gender: Male (He/They)

Age: 35 (in ME1)

Birthday: December 27, 2148

Classification: N7 Paladin

Rank: Commander (ME1), Captain (ME3)

Sexuality: Asexual

Relationship: Doesn't have one currently

Quick Facts: Secondary Shadow Broker to Wren, works closely with Hackett to coordinate Alliance efforts within the network's capacity. Not a biotic but enjoys the Paladin classification due to their drone work.

Notoriety: Akuze Sole Survivor

Morality: Neutral-Paragon

ADRIAN SHEPARD

Gender: Male (He/Him)

Age: 58 (in ME1)

Birthday: April 21, 2125

Occupation: Pilot, Smuggler

Sexuality: Pansexual

Relationship: Bonding with Vikram T'Lara

Quick Facts: Twin brother to Atlas Shepard, Regis's father. Very laid back, casual, and cares little for formality. Met Vikram on an Omega run and after he ran into some trouble. Very good with hand-to-hand combat. Main residence is Earth. Tolerates Hannah Shepard and disliked her parenting towards Regis.

Morality: Neutral-Paragon

VIKRAM T'LARA

Gender: Non-binary (They/them)

Age: 841 (in ME1)

Birthday: June 1, 1342

Occupation: Former Asari Commando, Former Asari Cybernetic Engineer and Technician, current physician on Omega. Later joins the Alliance as a doctor after 2185.

Sexuality: Pansexual

Relationship: Bonding with Adrian Shepard

Quick Facts: Would have been the one to train Regis if it weren't for politics surrounding BAaT. Extremely powerful with biotics and is always willing to share their knowledge. Hates the current asari status-quo and finds their leadership and race to be stagnant.

Morality: Neutral-Renegade

#cleric's oc factsheet #regis shepard #wren clarkson #nyx shepard #adrian shepard #vikram t'lara #seth nomad

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2, post Lair of the Shadow Broker wrap up:

Liara invite to Normandy

-This was clearly written with a Liara romance in mind. Shepard pours drinks, Liara’s wearing a fancy dress, at the end Shepard sits on the bed and says “Come back soon”…

-If you aren’t romancing Liara, no one drinks the wine. Does Shepard just chug it back after Liara leaves?

-If you go renegade, Shepard acknowledges that Horizon was set up even as they (weakly) attempt to justify TIM’s actions

Shepard is not having a good time in ME2

Samara

-Samara’s been hunting Morinth for 400 years. Brutal for both of them.

-Samara says there are three ardat-yakshi alive that the is aware of.

Even in ME2, this isn’t true. You get a Codex entry immediately after this that says around 1% of asari are on the spectrum.

She might have meant ardat-yakshi with the condition severe enough to be banished to monasteries, but that seems unlikely. Surely in one of the calls to her daughters they would have mentioned some of the others there?

Basically, either Samara outright lied or her writer was working from a different script than everyone else.

-Shepard says asari don’t mention ardat-yakshi in literature or art. Samara says this is out of a desire to hide their existence.

I suspect that’s true on the government level. There’s probably some censorship going on. On an individual level, there’s no way every asari creator has collectively decided to never mention ardat-yakshi. If nothing else, they’re way to useful a source of drama to not utilize.

-Considering that ardat-yakshi are sterile, how have they stayed in the genetic pool?

I suppose it could be like sickle-cell disease. Shitty if you have the misfortune to have the active form, but there’s an evolutionary advantage of some kind as well – like how if you’re a carrier of sickle-cell disease, you’re less likely to get malaria.

-Samara says Morinth fleeing proves that she wants to keep killing.

While I’m skeptical of that – not wanting to spend the rest of your life in a monastery seems a good enough reason for me – this makes it sound like Morinth had already killed. Likely by accident, since the dangers of an ardat-yakshi manifest at puberty.

Her first partner, possibly. Or – as I’ve seen speculated – possibly Samara’s partner, for an extra layer of trauma for everyone.

-Samara insists that killing is addictive for ardat-yakshi. I’d like to know some more about how that works.

There are people who claim sex is addictive, but plenty of people manage celibacy just fine. Is that what we’re talking about, or something addictive like a narcotic?

And how the hell does killing make Morinth more powerful? Does she absorb the what, mental energies of those she kills?

-So Samara learned Morinth as an ardat-yakshi after she presumably killed someone. Fine.

How did she learn her other two daughters were ardat-yakshi? Is there some kind of test that can be performed?

If so, why wasn’t Morinth tested earlier?

I suppose Samara could have refused the testing – the classic “it can’t happen to my child” thought process, even if would spare everyone trouble in the long run.

If not, how were Falere and Rila confirmed ardat-yakshi? What, were they locked in a room with a condemned prisoner and forced to bond with the prisoner to see if the prisoner died or not?

Or were they banished to monastery since the condition is genetic, just to be on the safe side?

Thane

-Thane and I are not on the same page. He’s back to insisting he has no guilt for his assassinations because he’s just a tool and killed on reflex. Actions performed on reflex don’t account. Only actions you choose.

And we’re just going to ignore that Thane chose to accept the contracts to kill those people…?

Also, I take issue with not holding people accountable for what they do on reflex. If you kill people on reflex, you chose to let yourself get conditioned to do so and you chose to put yourself in a situation where it might occur.

-Also, this makes the hanar sound shady as fuck. A species where “it’s not murder if it’s a reflex” has a huge “take advantage of me” sign on their back. And the hanar did.

What else do the drell do “on reflex” that benefit the hanar?

-This is the second conversation that dances around Thane’s dead wife. It’s odd because it ends at a natural lead in for discussing her. Why draw it out so long?

Garrus

-Garrus is so cheated of dialogue. He had one conversation when he came onboard and that was it.

Getting his loyalty mission is also a short conversation. Just a couple of lines and investigate options that essentially reiterate what he said in your first and only dialogue with him.

Compared to the conversation for Samara’s loyalty mission, this is nothing. Why did the writers not want to spend time on Garrus? He’s a love interest!

Tali

-And Tali is also apparently on the “do not engage” list. I’m not getting anything more from her until her loyalty mission.

She’s also a love interest. This is ridiculous.

-Yes, I know this is because Garrus and Tali are returning characters from ME1. The writers probably didn’t know what else to do with them or wanted to make sure you fell in love with the new characters, so focused their attention on them.

I still think sidelining them was a poor choice. ME2 was intentionally written so new players could easily pick up the game; they wouldn’t know anything about Garrus or Tali. They’re also both aliens – would it have been that hard for the writers to come up with new points for them to discuss with Shepard? Have them discuss media, or political events or something.

-Considering that Garrus and Tali are both dextro, in universe they could probably file some kind of discrimination complaint. The writers only think levo characters are interesting.

#mas effect #mass effect 2 #mass effect 2 replay

[sindri42]

I wanna talk about Liara T'soni for a minute.

I know a lot of people, myself included, have sometimes dismissed her over the years as a kind of boring fallback. She's kinda cute, a little annoying, always just sorta there over the course of the series. As a romantic option she's nowhere near as bad as Ashley or Kaiden or Miranda or Jacob, but not nearly as cool as Garrus or Tali or Jack (YMMV on Thane and Samara). Maybe worst of all, the game itself treats her as the "default" since she's always available, never driven away from Shepherd regardless of your choices, and the only squadmate guaranteed to survive all the way to the end.

But recently I've taken a step back, tried to look past the disconcerting bioware body language animations and her mid-tier writing and voice acting and, just looking at the simple facts presented, Liara is one of the most Characters of all time.

When you meet her, Liara is 106, and has spent the past fifty years in Prothean ruins. Asari aren't considered adults until age 100, so in human terms she's a 19-year old who has been devoting every waking moment to archeology since she was ten. During that time she's developed a lot of theories about the Protheans, which have been largely dismissed by the scientific community, leading to her primary motivation at the start of the series being to Show Them, Show Them All! with a particular focus on Those Fools from the University.

The thing is, they had a very good reason to dismiss her "findings" (on top of the whole 'wait a minute this paper was published by a twelve year old' thing): she has absolutely no evidence. If you press her for details in the first game, there's not a single thing she can point to that would support her theories, except for the fact that there's not as much evidence as you would expect for anything else. It's just a feeling she got as a kid and ran with... which happens to be 100% correct. The girl had never even heard of a Reaper before Shepherd told her about the vision, but she was able to predict their entire playbook from raw intuition and a few piles of rubble. That's the archeological equivalent of when Nicola Tesla built a remote control toy boat a decade before anybody else figured out what a radio signal was. That's right: She's a Mad Social Scientist.

Looking at her background some more, yeah she's Pureblood which is weird among modern Asari, but on top of that her parents are both Matriarchs. And Benezia never had any other child in 800-some years, then spent more than a century with Aethyta, then disappeared the moment she realized she was pregnant? Combine that with how Liara has more raw biotic power than most asari ten times her age, and she's almost definitely got the recessive Ardat-Yakshi genes on one side... and she's a quarter krogan on the other.

Circling back around to her relationship with Shepherd, her idea of an ideal pick-up line is "I want to study your brain". She definitely looks at you as an irreplaceable scientific specimen, and I'm not entirely convinced that she doesn't decide to have sex with you just to ensure she can maintain convenient access to the shiny new dig site inside your skull? She probably publishes a new paper on her findings after every time the two of you "embrace eternity".

And when she loses Shepherd, when everybody else is finding various ways to mourn and start to move on... Liara pulls together the Illusive Man and Aria Motherfucking T'loak into a conspiracy to put together a godsdamned resurrection, declaring war on the Collectors and the Shadow Broker in the process almost as an afterthought.

#mass effect #liara #t'soni

[episodicnostalgia]

Star Trek, 106 (Oct. 13, 1966) - “Mudd's Women”

Production order #04

The Breakdown

Captain Kirk sees a small ship flying around that he doesn’t recognize, so he decides to play space-cop and harass it until it’s engines burn out; this results in the vessel’s destruction, while severely draining the Enterprise’s own reserves.  Apparently Kirk’s instincts are correct though, as the ship’s captain is revealed to be a shifty moustachioed tasteless-Irish-caricature, which (in accordance with 1960’s standards and practices) means he is also not to be trusted.  The individual’s name is Harry Mudd (initially going by the alias Leo Walsh), and a quick investigative hearing reveals that he’s a small time ex-con flying without a licence.  While this latest infraction is enough to convict him, it’s Mudd’s “cargo” that creates real complications.  You see, before he was interrupted by Kirk, ol’ Harry was in the process of transporting three TOTAL HOTTIES to some planet where they could find a husband.  These women aren’t just your average babes though, they are so hot that literally EVERY man on board is pitching a tent just looking at them (save for Spock).  Indeed, the men are so horny that they’re unable to form complete sentences; even the ship’s computer notices. 

So what’s causing every male crew-member to reach cartoonish levels of sexual arousal? Perhaps the women are Orions in disguise? Mind control probes? Telepathic manipulation?  None of the above. It turns out all three ladies are just taking pills that bring out their “full sexual potential”, and (as we know) men can’t be held accountable for their actions when in the presence of a leggy dame operating at 100% babe-fficiency. You see, normally each of these women are naturally HIDEOUS …which is to say they’re still gorgeous, but with no make-up, and perhaps in need of a slightly better skincare routine (at most).  Without the drug none of these gals would ever be able to catch a man on their own, since apparently the 23rd century has attained even more unrealistic beauty standards than the ones we presently have.

The rest of the episode follows kirk as he tries to negotiate with some miners for the crystals he needs to power the Enterprise.  Since kirk’s security measures are apparently non-existent, Mudd is able to remotely broker a deal with the miners, bartering his freedom in exchange for his mail-order brides (should Kirk refuse to let Mudd go, the miners would withhold the crystals etc).  Since the miners are all jonesing to get laid, they agree to Mudd’s conditions, leaving Kirk no choice but to play along.  From there things get more ridiculous as Eve (one of the ladies in question) runs off, presumably sick of lying/being treated like a piece of meat.  She quickly gets lost in a sand storm until Ben (the lead Miner) finds her, and brings her back to his place.  But when Eve’s beauty-treatment wears off, Ben is appalled by her slightly dry skin (as anyone would be).  Cue Captain Kirk, who shows up with Mudd just in time to clue everyone in about the truth of the future brides’ condition (using one of the pills on eve as a demonstration of Mudd’s ruse).  It’s only when Eve’s beauty is restored that Kirk reveals the pill had been swapped with a placebo.  We are told that the only thing Eve ever truly needed to be beautiful was the confidence to believe in herself, which doesn’t explain how her acne cleared up in mere seconds, but that’s all we’re gonna get.  This explanation is apparently good enough for her and Ben to talk things out from there, and presumably live happily ever after on a remote planet with no available marriage counsellors, or even other people.  Ben arranges to give Kirk the Crystals he needs to power the Enterprise, and everyone parts ways (except for Mr. Mudd, who will be handed over to the rightful authorities)

The Verdict

There are so many things to unpack in ‘Mudd’s Women’, and I certainly don’t expect to do a thorough job of it here, nor have I the interest. It’s clear that the intention behind this episode is to highlight something about inner-beauty over physical vanity, but it badly misses the mark while spewing forth one outdated stereotype after the next.  Most of the missteps are all pretty obvious, ranging from a depiction of women whose worth are all dependant on finding a husband, to the portrayal of leering men being openly regarded as nothing more than natural and unavoidable (Mudd all but invokes the phrase “boys will be boys”).  Additionally, Harry Mudd’s Irish brogue would almost certainly be regarded as offensive and in poor taste if this were made today, which is doubtless why Rainn Wilson opted to forgo that particular characteristic when he portrayed Mudd on ‘Discovery’.

I will concede that most episodes from a series filmed nearly 60 years ago are bound have some problematic elements, but some are more egregious than others, and ‘Mudd’s Women’ belongs in that categorization.  Perhaps if the episode had been more clever I might have given it points towards entertainment value and creativity, but even there I found the whole ordeal almost as dull as it was silly.  Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all.

½ a star (out of 5)

Additional Observations

This is the first time (according to production order) that we get to see Spock ‘n Bones verbally sparring, which is the only reason I didn’t give this episode a 0 star rating.

Uhuru’s still in gold, and the universe remains as-of-yet out of balance.

The Episode opens with kirk being like “We’re chasing a vessel because it’s suspiciously running away when we chase it”.  But like, who wouldn’t?  Do Starfleet vessels even have the authority to perform random searches of independent starships?  Perhaps they do and I’d just forgotten, but I’d just as easily chalk this one up to a case of “the writers were making it up as they went”.

Harry’s relationship with “his” women feels very human trafficky, which was apparently a concern raised by the studio when the script was put forth as a potential candidate for the pilot. This matter is addressed with several lines of dialogue which establish that each of the women are traveling with Mudd of their own volition, but I’d still characterize their relationship with him as suspicious, at best.

#star trek the original series #star trek production order #mudd's women #retro review #star trek review #Harcourt Fenton Mudd #harry mudd #star trek tos #star trek #captain kirk #james t kirk #spock #bones mccoy #60s tv series #60s tv #60s tv shows #classic television #THAT hasn't aged well #episodic nostalgia

[brian-in-finance]

Lawsuit Accuses Former Associate of Harvey Weinstein of Rape

A former model has filed a suit against Fabrizio Lombardo and Disney.

Fabrizio Lombardo, the former head of Miramax in Italy and a close associate of Harvey Weinstein, has been accused of rape in a lawsuit filed on April 6 in New York State Supreme Court. The suit was brought by Sara Ziff, a former model and the founder of the Model Alliance, an advocacy group for models and fashion creatives.

The suit alleges that Mr. Lombardo, assaulted Ms. Ziff in a New York City hotel in 2001 when she was 19.

Ms. Ziff is suing Mr. Lombardo, as well as Mr. Weinstein, Disney and its subsidiaries Buena Vista and Miramax, for abuse and negligence under the Adult Survivors Act. The A.S.A., which was passed in May 2022, extended, until November 2023, the rights of sex crime victims to bring civil claims that would otherwise have expired under the statute of limitations.

Mr. Lombardo — whom Mr. Weinstein once credited with saving his life and whose 2003 wedding involved Mr. Weinstein as his best man — often figured on the sidelines of the many stories about Mr. Weinstein’s predations on young women. He was named in the sexual harassment class action suit brought against the Weinstein Company and numerous related entities in October 2018. But this is the first time he himself has been accused of sexual assault in a court of law.

It is also the first time Ms. Ziff has spoken publicly about her own experience, despite being instrumental in helping others tell their stories of sexual abuse, specifically creating a help line for survivors at the Model Alliance.

“It’s taken over 20 years to process this,” she said in an interview in advance of filing the suit. “I couldn’t even talk to anyone about it for the first few years, let alone imagine taking legal action.” When the A.S.A. was passed, however, she said she began to reconsider.

Efforts to reach Mr. Lombardo were unsuccessful. Disney did not respond to emails and phone calls requesting comment.

Imran H. Ansari, a lawyer for Harvey Weinstein, wrote in an email: “Certainly Mr. Weinstein had no control over any alleged conduct by Mr. Lombardo, nor would he have any reason to know what Mr. Lombardo was doing nor where Mr. Lombardo was at the time that Ms. Ziff alleges she was raped. As such, Mr. Weinstein firmly denies that he has any liability for the alleged conduct of another.” (Mr. Weinstein was sentenced to a combined 39 years in prison for sex crimes in New York and Los Angeles.)

According to the lawsuit, Ms. Ziff met Mr. Lombardo in 2001 when she was considering becoming an actress; her agents brokered the meeting. Mr. Lombardo later invited her to a screening of a Miramax movie and said it would be a chance to meet Mr. Weinstein, then at the height of his power in Hollywood.

After the screening, the lawsuit says, Mr. Lombardo invited Ms. Ziff for a drink at the Mercer and said both Mr. Weinstein and his brother, Bob, would be there. When Ms. Ziff arrived, Mr. Lombardo brought her to a penthouse suite, with no one else present.

The lawsuit says that after making advances and being told by Ms. Ziff she had a boyfriend, Mr. Lombardo “pivoted her around onto the bed on her back,” lay on top of her and raped her.

“Ms. Ziff was in shock and lay in the bed, frozen. Mr. Lombardo fell asleep. Ms. Ziff woke up early the next morning, confused and alone in the hotel room. She walked home to her apartment, took a long shower, and cried,” the suit reads. The suit also says Ms. Ziff did not speak about the rape to anyone at the time. A few years later she told a fellow model, Caitriona Balfe (now an actress), about the assault.

Ms. Balfe confirmed that Ms. Ziff had told her about the rape during a fashion show season in Milan around 2005.

Ms. Balfe said she and Ms. Ziff never thought about making it public. “We were so young, and the crazy thing is as models we were being put in these really compromising situations all the time, and you just kind of accepted them,” Ms. Balfe said.

Now 40, and the mother of a young daughter, Ms. Ziff acknowledged that while her experience may have shaped her decision to go into advocacy and become the public face of models’ rights, she herself had been reluctant to do what she helped other models do.

“I feel more comfortable focusing on the discussions around policy,” she said. She and the Model Alliance are currently working on a new bill, the Fashion Workers Act, which focuses on regulating management agencies in order to prevent these abuses from happening. Co-sponsored by State Senator Brad Hoylman, the bill was introduced in the New York state legislature last year and will be reconsidered during the upcoming legislative session, after it was not passed the first time.

However, Ms. Ziff said, she had spent the last decade talking to other survivors, and in helping other people, she began to feel it was “the responsible thing” to come forward.

“I’ve been very anxious about it and at times wondered if I even want to go through this process,” she said. “I’ve spoken to other people who’ve gone through it and every single one of them says it’s a nightmare. But no matter how much I’ve tried to ignore it or minimize it, this is not my burden to hold.”

In 2017 Ms. Ziff filed a report with the New York City Police Department, though it did not lead to any charges. That was the year Mr. Lombardo was accused by four women, including the actress Asia Argento and the model Zoe Brock, of being Mr. Weinstein’s enabler — and employed by Miramax in part for that purpose. Mr. Lombardo emphatically denied the allegations in an interview with The New York Times.

Mr. Lombardo never appeared in court during the class action suit, and it was later settled as part of the Weinstein Company bankruptcy filing.

“I’ve always been frustrated by the fact that those people seem to escape any kind of accountability,” Ms. Ziff said. She said that when the A.S.A. was passed, she remembered going to the bill signing with the governor and with other women she had come to know over the years who had spoken out about their abuse and trauma.

“It felt like here was a real sense of possibility that perhaps we could do something about what happened,” she said, “even if it happened a very long time ago.”

Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014. In this role she covers global fashion for both The New York Times and International New York Times. @VVFriedman

New York Times 7 April 2023

Remember… I’ve spoken to other people who’ve gone through it and every single one of them says it’s a nightmare. But no matter how much I’ve tried to ignore it or minimize it, this is not my burden to hold. — Sara Ziff

#Tait rhymes with hat #Good times #Sara Ziff #Lawsuit #New York Times #7 April 2023 #Twitter

[hollytanaka]

Today is the anniversary of the U.S.'s military invasion of Panamá, which occurred on December 20, 1989.

Julio Yao writes in the article "Legacies of the U.S. Invasion of Panama":

On December 20, 1989, former president George H.W. Bush ordered the invasion of Panama. The U.S. 82nd Airborne division pummeled Panama City from the air, as U.S. soldiers from the 193rd Brigade clashed in the streets with troops from the Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) and the Dignity Battalions, a militia of workers and campesinos. Thousands of civilians were caught in the crossfire as the heavily populated El Chorrillo neighborhood was set ablaze. By the time General Manuel Noriega surrendered on January 3, 1990, 23 U.S. soldiers and 314 PDF troops had been officially killed in the fighting. Civilian casualties were estimated in the thousands. According to an independent investigation by former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, as many as 7,000 people may have been killed. Mass graves were uncovered after U.S. troops had withdrawn, and over 15,000 civilians were displaced.

Despite the civilian body count, no Panamanian government since has authorized a commission to investigate the killings that took place during the foreign military aggression. No administration has attempted to demand reparations from the United States, nor filed a lawsuit against the United States before the International Court of Justice at the Hague.

Over twenty two years later, the U.S. “Christmas invasion” of Panama is being lost to memory, yet its legacy lives on in profound ways that continue to shape both domestic and foreign policy in Panama.

[...]

Panama’s tendency to submit to U.S. policy has resulted in a foreign policy devoid of independence. For example, Panama is one of the few countries in the world that has not established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, though it maintains relations with Taiwan in accordance with “checkbook diplomacy.” The U.S. government has prohibited Panama’s gestures toward diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Guided by this protectorate concept and right-wing policy, Martinelli’s administration [(2009-2014) had] offered its unconditional support to Israel and withdrawn all backing for Palestine. It [had] distanced Panama from the Central American process of regional integration, withdrawn from the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), and increased ties with France and Italy’s conservative former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was blackmailed by Italian arms company Finmeccanica into brokering a corrupt bilateral security agreement with Panama in which Panama was overcharged for military hardware, including helicopters, radar, and mapping systems. It signed a free trade agreement with the United States and Canada, and [had] given natural resources to foreign corporations, especially mining companies, including Vancouver-based Bellhaven Copper and Gold, Ontario’s Aur Resources, Toronto’s Inmet Mining, and New York’s Dominium Minerals Corporation. All of these actions [were] fully aligned with the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States.

This was, after all, the ultimate goal of the 1989 U.S. invasion. At a meeting on December 10, 1985, four years before Bush ordered Operation Just Cause, then U.S. national security adviser John Poindexter met with Noriega with several U.S. demands: (1) Panama should allow the training of Nicaraguan Contras in the Canal Zone; (2) PDF troops should invade Nicaragua to justify U.S. aggression toward Nicaragua’s Sandinista government; (3) Panama should help dismantle the Contadora Group, a regional initiative to resolve the military conflicts that were destabilizing Central America; and (4) Panama should consent to continued U.S. military presence in Panama.

[...]

The move [of the invasion] destroyed Panamanian sovereignty and the PDF, dismantled security structures, reformed the political system, and returned power to the old oligarchy. This paved the way for new forms of foreign domination, and the Panamanian people continue to suffer its legacy.

More Resources to learn about Panamá's Invasion:

Julio Yao's "Legacies of the U.S. Invasion of Panama," NACLA (March 22, 2012).

John Lindsay-Poland, Emperors in the Jungle (Duke University Press, 2003).

The documentary The Panama Deception (2002) on YouTube

The documentary INVASIÓN (2014)

Stephen Kinzer's chapter "You're No Good," in his book Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq (Times Books, 2007)

___

Photo Credits & Description: Images taken on the morning of December 20, 1989, when various parts of the capital city were under US military control | Images from Panamá Vieja Escuela or (@PaViejaEscuela on Twitter).

#panama #operation just cause #u.s. imperialism #imperialism #central america #history #latin america #martinelli is a piece of shit btw #my mom used to work for him before he became president #and she confirmed he's a major dick #on top of being a zionist neocolonial vendepatria #and yao's article is a bit too pro-noriega for me imo #like the batallones de digndad were death squads #not just militias of workers / peasants #like they were terrorizing people who were already living in misery #but i digress #just recognize that most panamanians hate noriega but also understand this invasion was overkill