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thecrownrp · 3 years

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THE KINGDOM OF SPADES PRESENTS . . .

one of the PRIVATE KNIGHTS, KIM SEOKMIN: a 28 YEAR OLD born on FEBRUARY 15TH, 1992. some may know them already but with a face like that, it’s hard not to admit they look a little like WOO DOHWAN. curious to know more? apparently, these are words they live by: “you come any closer and i will beat you to a pulp.” intriguing, aren’t they? only time will tell if they’re suited for knighthood or not.

LOOK A LITTLE CLOSER . . .

tw: death

1. BIRTH IN THE KINGDOM - NOBLE FAMILY

born to two VERY notable and beloved families of knights. he wasn’t necessarily ‘loved’ or ‘spoiled’ but he was raised as a STEREOTYPICAL rich only son would, only this type was because of the knights power. other royals were scared of his family. his parents were hard on anyone who dared to go against their son, even if he was in the wrong. growing up seokmin wasn’t a bully, but people knew not to mess with him. he was always on his best behavior, and had a handful of friends. he kept his studies up, but he did allow himself happy memories.

2. MET YURYE ( 1999 )

when yurye and his mother joined the kingdom ( 1999 ), his father was tasked to being the personal guard of the king’s mistress. this was an important job for his father and he took it very seriously. because they weren’t far in age, seokmin’s father and the king thought it would be best if the two bonded. this would make the oath even stronger when the time came for seokmin to become yurye’s personal guard. a year later yurye’s mother was killed on orders of the queen, ( chul poisoned her, to save himself and his sister. ). her death became a large weight on his father’s shoulders and he quickly went to try and find the person responsible. the queen pinned the death on sungchul’s sister and quickly put her to death.

seokmin’s father jinseok didn’t believe the ruling. it not only was too easy for them to find, and it didn’t feel completely right. so quietly behind the scenes jinseok began looking for clues, and finding holes in the story. ( to be continued… )

3. ENTER INTO KNIGHTHOOD AT 13 ( 2005 )

seokmin always knew that he would follow in his family’s legacy and become a knight. throughout his life, even before him volunteering had always been focused on training and learning different types of martial arts. he always trained on different tactics to keep the prince or princess that he was in charge of safe from any harm that would come to them. during his training he continuously made perfect marks in taekwondo, disarming, and his shooting. seokmin’s fighting style is a combination of TAEKWONDO and JUJITSU. he’s not afraid of harming another person if it means keeping yurye safe. he is able to quickly disarm an attacker and have them on the ground before they know what has happened. but he is also not afraid to take a bullet if he has to.

4. RISING IN THE RANKS ( 2007-2009 )

from the start to the finish of his training, the instructors only expected the best from him. being in a family with generations of knights, you’re expected to know all the rules and exactly how to behave. which he did, and he never disappointed them. his first two years of training went by like a breeze. it wasn’t any different then his home life was, other than his parents being the ones who were training him to become stronger, it was the training officers.

when he turned sixteen he shadowed countless knights to learn tips from as many knights as he could, when he wasn’t learning the kingdom’s map. during his training days he learned how to detect falsehoods (lying, disorder, and schemes) as well as focusing on even the smallest details. seokmin did so well during training he was immediately requested to begin his role of private knight once he turned eighteen for yurye.

5. MARRIED SOMIN [ NPC ] - KNIGHT ALLEGANCE/LOVE ( 2017 )

same scene repeats, my thoughts tangled underneath these sheets. turn out the lights and i won’t lie, i’ve got sinning on my mind.

from as long as he could remember he had always been promised to somin and her family. it was something that was expected to keep their bloodline strong. to always have knights carry on the line. so when the two families knew they were having children of opposite gender they promised each other that their families would unite. which they did. from a young age they knew they were promised to each other, so they always tried and get along. they fought like any child/teen would but they always stood by each other. through the years they grew a bond much greater than a bond a relationship would bring someone. they were like two halves of the same whole, and complimented each other well. when both seokmin and somin turned 25 ( 2017 ) they married. their marriage was just like their life before marriage, just now they had a title and shared a bed. this time was the happiest for seokmin. he had the love of his life, the job that he had dreamed of growing up. everything was almost falling into place too well.

6. DISAPPEARANCE OF HIS FAMILY ( 2019 )

you let your feet run wild, time has come as we all, oh, go down. yeah but for the fall, oh cause they will run you down, down till the dark….and way down we go.

in December of 2019 seokmin’s father gathered several of his friends and began planning a coup against the queen. when everything went down jinseok was very smart about every decision he made. when the coup obviously failed everyone went into hiding and burned every trace of their plans. but one member of this group didn’t follow through with the promise and plans. he took his plans and planted them to be found with someone else before fleeing the country. chef chen was the unfortunately the person that the person had chosen.

jinseok’s actions weren’t a surprised for his wife. it was revenge that he was seeking. it was the knight’s code. he had to make things right for the woman that he failed to protect. the first time he didn’t taste the food before she ate or drank something she died. now he was responsible for finding the truth. but he knew if he didn’t run, he would be jailed or worse. and very soon it would be proven correctly in their family’s eyes.

7. DEATH OF SOMIN [ OPEN PLOT ] ( 2020 )

if you must die, sweetheart die knowing your life was my life’s best part if you must die remember your life

somin was the only person besides yurye he had left in his life. every member of his family had gone into hiding, and to keep seokmin safe they cut off all communication with him. even though no-one knew the truth seokmin couldn’t help but feel a weight on his heart. but he still had somin, or at least he believed that he did. somin more times than not accompanied yanyu whenever she wanted to go out. right before valentines day somin needed to get some things for her valentine’s date with seokmin, she invited yanyu out with her to try and make her feel better after her father was sent to jail for the “coup”.

while out and about together somin was attacked and was killed. yanyu was distraught and was escorted back by a few knights. seokmin was told immediately. yurye even helped with not going out for a little while so seokmin could plan the funeral and somewhat try and mourn. but he really couldn’t. he felt the need to find who exactly took his love from him. but till this day he has no idea who killed her. but there is one thing that he suspects. he suspects the queen had some king of involvement.

8. SEOKMIN’S RAGE ( 2020-PRESENT )

seokmin knows that in life there is no such thing as coincidence. he knows that the queen is behind his wife’s murder. with her murder still unsolved seokmin’s rage only grows. with each passing day he mentally plots different ways he could get his revenge. but he knows that he can not allow his vision to get too clouded. he still has to protect yurye. yurye is the only thing in the world he has left. sadly, if he had to choose between keeping yurye safe, or finding the truth about his wife’s murder he would always choose keeping yurye safe.

#cwnfollow #cwn kingdom: spades #cwn rank: knight

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2istoliver · 3 years

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The Era of Misinformation Is Here To Stay

[Article extrated from THE INTERPRETER - THE NEW YORK TIMES]

By Max Fisher & Amanda Taub

This week alone, there’s a decent chance you’ve had at least one of these rumors, all false, relayed to you as fact: that President Biden plans to force Americans to eat less meat, that Virginia is eliminating advanced math in schools as part of a scheme to advance racial equality, and that border officials have been mass-purchasing copies of Vice President Kamala Harris’s book to hand out to refugee children.

All were amplified by partisan actors. But you’re just as likely, if not more so, to have heard it relayed from someone you know. And you may have noticed that these cycles of falsehood-fueled outrage keep recurring.

We are in an era of endemic misinformation — and outright disinformation. Plenty of bad actors are helping the trend along. But the real drivers, some experts believe, are social and psychological forces that make people prone to sharing and believing misinformation in the first place — and those forces are only on the rise.

“Why are misperceptions about contentious issues in politics and science seemingly so persistent and difficult to correct?” Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth College political scientist, poses in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It’s not for want of good information, which is ubiquitous. Exposure to good information does not reliably instill accurate beliefs anyway. Rather, Dr. Nyhan writes, a growing body of evidence suggests that the ultimate culprits are “cognitive and memory limitations, directional motivations to defend or support some group identity or existing belief, and messages from other people and political elites.”

Put more simply, people become more prone to misinformation when three things happen. First, and perhaps most important, when conditions in society make people feel a greater need for what social scientists call ingrouping: a belief that their social identity is a source of strength and superiority, and that other groups can be blamed for their problems.

As much as we like to think of ourselves as rational beings who put truth-seeking above all else, we are social animals wired for survival. In times of perceived conflict or social change, we seek security in groups. And that makes us eager to consume information, true or not, that lets us see the world as a conflict putting our righteous ingroup against a nefarious outgroup.

This need can emerge especially out of a sense of social destabilization. As a result, misinformation is often prevalent among communities that feel destabilized by unwanted change or, in the case of some minorities, powerless in the face of dominant forces.

If you are, say, a conservative American who feels a sense of lost control amid the pandemic and Mr. Trump’s election loss, then misinformation reframing it all as a grand conflict between patriotic true Americans and scheming social justice warriors can feel enormously reassuring.

It’s why perhaps the greatest culprit of our era of misinformation may be, more than any one particular misinformer, the era-defining rise in social polarization.

“At the mass level, greater partisan divisions in social identity are generating intense hostility toward opposition partisans,” which has “seemingly increased the political system’s vulnerability to partisan misinformation,” Dr. Nyhan wrote in an earlier paper.

Growing hostility between the two halves of America feeds social distrust, which makes people more prone to rumor and falsehood. It also makes people cling much more tightly to their partisan identities. And once our brains switch into “identity-based conflict” mode, we become desperately hungry for information that will affirm that sense of us versus them, and much less concerned about things like truth or accuracy.

(In an email, Dr. Nyhan stressed that it can be methodologically difficult to nail down the precise relationship between the overall level of polarization in society and the overall level of misinformation, but that there is abundant evidence that an individual with more polarized views becomes more prone to believing falsehoods.)

The second driver of our misinformation era is also upgraded by polarization: high-profile political figures who encourage their followers to go ahead and indulge their desire for identity-affirming misinformation. After all, an atmosphere of all-out political conflict often benefits those leaders, at least in the short term, by rallying people behind them.

And then there is the third factor: a shift to social media, which is a powerful outlet for composers of disinformation, a pervasive vector for misinformation itself, and a multiplier of the other risk factors.

“Media has changed, the environment has changed, and that has a potentially big impact on our natural behavior,” William J. Brady, a Yale University social psychologist, said.

“When you post things, you’re highly aware of the feedback that you get, the social feedback in terms of likes and shares,” Dr. Brady said. So when misinformation appeals to social impulses more than the truth does, it gets more attention online, which means people feel rewarded and encouraged for spreading it.

“Depending on the platform, especially, humans are very sensitive to social reward,” he said. Research demonstrates that people who get positive feedback for posting inflammatory or false statements become much likelier to do so again in the future. “You are affected by that.”

In 2016, the media scholars Jieun Shin and Kjerstin Thorson analyzed a data set of 300 million tweets from the 2012 election. Twitter users, they found, “selectively share fact-checking messages that cheerlead their own candidate and denigrate the opposing party’s candidate.” And when users encountered a fact-check that revealed their candidate had gotten something wrong, their response wasn’t to get mad at the politician for lying to them. It was to attack the fact checkers.

“We have found that Twitter users tend to retweet to show approval, argue, gain attention and entertain,” researcher Jon-Patrick Allem wrote last year, summarizing a study he’d co-authored. “Truthfulness of a post or accuracy of a claim was not an identified motivation for retweeting.”

In another study, published last month in Nature, a team of psychologists tracked thousands of users interacting with false information. Republican test subjects who were shown a false headline about migrants trying to enter the United States (“Over 500 ‘Migrant Caravaners’ Arrested With Suicide Vests”) mostly identified it as false; only 16 percent called it accurate. But if the experimenters instead asked the subjects to decide whether to share the headline, 51 percent said they would.

“Most people do not want to spread misinformation,” the study’s authors wrote. “But the social media context focuses their attention on factors other than truth and accuracy.”

In a highly polarized society like today’s United States — or, for that matter, India or parts of Europe — those incentives pull heavily toward ingroup solidarity and outgroup derogation. They do not much favor consensus reality or abstract ideals of accuracy.

As people get more prone to misinformation, opportunists and charlatans are also getting better at exploiting this. That can mean tear-it-all-down populists who rise on promises to smash the establishment and control minorities. It can also mean government agencies or freelance hacker groups stirring up social divisions abroad for their benefit. But the roots of the crisis go deeper than them.

“The problem is that when we encounter opposing views in the age and context of social media, it’s not like reading them in a newspaper while sitting alone,” the sociologist Zeynep Tufekci wrote in a much-circulated MIT Technology Review article. “It’s like hearing them from the opposing team while sitting with our fellow fans in a football stadium. Online, we’re connected with our communities, and we seek approval from our like-minded peers. We bond with our team by yelling at the fans of the other one.”

In an ecosystem where that sense of identity conflict is all-consuming, she wrote, “belonging is stronger than facts.”

Continue

#misinformation #anthropology #psychology #sociology #digital world #politics #inspainthesame socialmedia identity

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wanderlust-and-road-dust · 5 years

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Prompt #20: Bisect.

Life and Death. Light and Dark. Like and Disdain. Everything has an opposite if you think about it long and hard enough. Divided cleanly down the middle. Sometimes if your language was kind enough, sometimes those divisions all had a similarity to each other. Point in case words starting with L and D.

F’nor liked to let her mind wander philosophically, meander and settle upon a random thought and expand upon it for no reason other than why not? Worst case scenario it would make for entertaining conversation when she chanced upon a stranger. Interesting to just open with no preamble into something more thought provoking than just, ‘How’s the weather?’. But this particular gem had tickled her fancy, with enough finagling she was sure she could take most opposites and make them fit the L and D parameter. Why? Why not. That was more or less just a passing curiosity to the greater wonder to language and that everything had an opposite. No middle ground.

Why was that? Boy and girl, adult and child, day and night. Was there anything that didn’t have an opposite? A universal constant that stood alone? Her thoughts held her completely in their own little world of pondering. She bumped into a roegadyn woman and mumbled an absentminded apology, not really paying her any attention. A wayward wool gatherer wandering whimsically through a crowd wending without worry.

Mountain and valley, star and planet, ocean and land. Was it just the way of things for everything to be made into halves? Truth and falsehood, short and tall, loud and quiet. She supposed there wasn’t an opposite for a cannon ball directly, though if she was a bit more flexible in her thinking the opposite of an artillery piece would be infantry equipped with melee weapons. Perhaps a wrecking ball? Instead of a free ranging weapon of death and destruction merely a big weight used for deconstruction. Hmm, that fit better.

Totally wrapped in the curiosity of language and clearly divided opposites F’nor wandered off into the westering sun. Which off course the opposite was East and moon.

#FFxivWrite2019 #my writing #F'nor Azril #this was lazy but I'm in a weird headspace #so I just took it easy today #sorry #no fancy title

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thehusbandmen · 5 years

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Stations of Passion, I.5

The Husbandmen, Stations of Passion. Book One, Chapter 5 [Go to Previous] [Go to First] [Go to Next]

Dinah, I’m sorry in advance.

With Cadence watching, Dinah collect herself in preparation, both mental and physical. As the hybrids’ caretaker during their time in Heritage, Cadence arranged for accommodations of all kinds for each of them, some expected and some seemingly trivial on the surface. Regarding Dinah, she’d guaranteed the following: food and board until Dinah’s discharge, clothing tailored specifically both for the Vaporeon’s physique and skills, a week’s preserved rations, a field bag to carry her belongings, a small sleeping bag roll that could affix to the strap of the field bag, a bit of spending money, and an artifact Cadence believed would benefit Dinah over her Squirtle.

The Vaporeon continued to inspect this artifact, what Trainers commonly called a ‘Held Item’: a trinket small enough to affix to a Pokémon in some way which had an effect on their abilities. The possibility of even doing so had only recently come into understanding, largely thanks to the Heritage Institute’s studies, and as Cadence bore a great enthusiasm to fostering the hybrids’ Pokémon halves, she’d decided to gift each of them something unique. Dinah slipped the single large long tooth of obscure origin, a RazorFang strung on twine, under her neck-frill and tied it around her neck. The Institute figure had described the obscure Held Item as being something that would help Dinah’s attacks buy her time in a fight, in the event she needed to defend herself. The Vaporeon appreciated the trinket, if even just for reassurance’s sake.

Despite the offer, Dinah had decided not to remain at Heritage. Over her leotard and fingerless gloves, she put on the lavender frock-coat she’d been given, hooded with a standing collar. By skipping the backmost belt loop, a PokéBall belt secured the ashen denim capris which dipped below her tail. Cadence had even provided her strapped gladiator sandals which could reasonably fit on her digitigrade feet. Presentable. Decent. No longer completely uncanny at a glance. She could work with this.

Nervous but excited as she and the scientist walked the corridors out to the main entrance, Dinah let out a breath she’d been holding onto. She smiled sheepishly when Cadence looked to her expectantly.

“It’s just. You’re like our Pokémon Professor, Cadence. I never got the chance to leave Ecruteak and collect badges in Johto. And I get to collect Kanto badges now. Provided Gym Leaders will give me the time of day, I mean.”

“Just... be careful, Dinah.” With a pause of permission, Cadence initiated a firm hug. “And don’t let the locals get to you. There’s more good ones than you think. Know all of you are welcome back here at any time. There’s plenty of room for all fifteen of you, if it ever came to it.”

"Thanks, Prof.”

Cadence smiled, warm and bittersweet, then winked at Dinah.

“Break a leg.”

Heritage, as it turned out, lay in the westernmost outskirts of Pewter City, tucked in a small chasm of the Silver Mountains. As Dinah walked off into town down the sparsely forested evergreen expanse, she couldn’t shake what Cadence had said. The idea of people being mad or disrespectful to her didn’t upset her. It was the likelihood most negative reactions to her would be fear. Her hand subconsciously went to Shelley’s PokéBall at her waist, but she quickly put both hands in her jacket pockets instead, and drew up her hood, and passed the entrance to Viridian Forest to the South heading North into town.

Her first order of business was a legitimate stock-up. Potions and PokéBalls. If she was serious about this task, she’d have to be ready. She swallowed hard and made herself enter the first PokéMart she could find. Fortunately, there weren’t too many people shopping, so she didn’t have to squeeze through a crowd, and she grabbed a hand basket and started collecting her purchase off the shelves of the small establishment. With no line, she only had to shove down her anxiety and step up to the clerk’s desk.

“PokéBalls, huh?” The young man with short black hair looked over the fistfuls of bottles and balls. “I’m going to need to see Trainer Registration for those.”

“T-- Trainer ID. I understand.” Stiffly, she produced her PokéGear from her pocket and flipped it open to present it with her eyes on the Gear rather than the clerk. Unsure how it would have gone to produce a human ID photo, she thanked abandon that the Prof had helped her update the ID Card and ID Number for her before she’d headed out. “Here you go.”

After what felt like a month, the clerk moved from skimming the screen information with one hand to skimming the basket to count items. He rang her up and snorted with a sarcastic smile.

“A Cosplay Trainer. I should have known. You must have a Water Type. Anyway. That’s gonna be P2700.”

Dinah put up her Gear a little too quickly in favor of her wallet, and she handed over exact change in the hopes of abbreviating the encounter as much as she could. When she handed it over, he zeroed in on her paws and put his other hand atop to hold hers in both in befuddled awe. She jerked it away in displeasure and he laughed, adding the items to a paper sack as he eyed her.

“That costume is super realistic. If you made that, you should be proud.”

Finding an out to the tension, she flew onto the falsehood and grinned, and gave him a thumbs up as she grabbed the bag from the counter before he could hand it to her himself.

“I sure am! Better believe it! Spent ten months on it! Thanks! --Bye!”

Upon stepping foot outside again, she immediately recognized that she’d forgotten her receipt, and that she should have asked the clerk for directions. She didn’t even look back to consider doing anything about it, and instead walked until she could find a decent botanical thoroughfare to take her mind off how badly it had felt like her first social encounter since The Enhancement had gone. As she walked, she stored her acquisitions and folded up the empty sack to put in her bag as well. The evergreen fenestration to her left reminded her of home, and she spaced out with an oblivious frown for some time.

Before she knew it, she’d wandered to the center of town, where a large amphitheater-like building with an arched copper roof imposed over the surrounding buildings. Suddenly, she understood that she’d gotten lucky as the path she’d taken was a straight shot to the Pewter City Gym. At the heart of the large weathered stone-hewn structure she could find the first person on her path to freedom: its Leader.

On bated breath, she entered the automatic sliding door and approached the lobby desk to a small appointment kiosk had been installed. Following its screen’s prompts to input the various numbers from her Trainer ID Card with the keyboard provided, she supposed not many people ran this sizable Gym. After hitting confirm on her application, it spat back an error message with her team highlighted in red outline: “Sanctioned Gym Battles require at least a two-on-two style battle. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later.”

One Pokémon. Her ears burned. It was First-Year League Rulebook fact. She felt like a child, and gnashed her jaw as she turned heel to walk away.

“Hey, stop! Wait.”

Dinah stopped and looked over her shoulder to see a dark-haired, well-tanned Trainer in an orange puffer vest, green polo, and khaki cargo pants walk out from the administrative hallway, and approach as he rubbed at his neck with a white towel. He couldn’t be older than her. From the start, she noticed a full set of six PokéBalls on his belt.

“I know. I’m leaving.”

The error hadn’t timed out off the screen quite yet, and he glanced over at it, then back to her.

“You misread me. How could I turn away such an exotic beauty? My name’s Brock. I’m the Leader here. I don’t have any more appointments this afternoon, and I would love it if you would occupy that time with a Gym Battle.”

She nudged her hood back and gave him a bewildered look.

“But I only have one--”

He threw up his hands imploringly.

“--And that’s just fine! Please say yes. I’ll count it as sanctioned, provided you fulfill other criteria as a substitute for the two-on-two rule.”

“Leaders are allowed to instate their own unique rules under their own Gym roof,” the mumbled, thoughtfully paraphrasing the League Rulebook. She squinted a moment and shook her head, then gave him an anxious but optimistic smile. “Yeah, I’ll bite. What did you have in mind?”

“I, wow. Wow.” He grinned a little to excitedly in awe, too smitten to really be sizing her up as he looked her over. “I know it’s a strange request, but could you not wear the jacket while we battle? Your... your everything has me stunned. If you beat me, you get a certified Pewter Badge.”

“And if you beat me?”

“Maybe I could steal a kiss?”

Dinah could only stare at him for a good bit, and the anticipation of her answer got him sweating. She bit at her lower lip and unzipped her frock-coat as a show of good faith, then extended a paw to shake on it, which he took with both his. Unlike with the clerk, she did not withdraw it in haste, and hesitantly let him appreciate the physical connection.

“The Gym floor entrance is down just this way.” He clasped her paw enthusiastically before letting go to lead the way. “You won’t regret it. But know, I won’t go easy on you, just because you have the one partner. Or because you’re so beautiful.”

She plastered a grimace into the best smile she could.

“...Bring it.”

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#vaporeon #pokemon #pokefic #pokemon fanfic #brock #brock harrison #pewter city #the husbandmen #anthro #furry #dinah pender #cadence #stations of passion

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4seasonsapothecary · 6 years

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Twin Flames

I recently got a question on this topic. Here is what I know about Twin Flames. Please feel free to comment what you think, have read or any further questions.

First, the difference between a Twin Flame and a Soulmate. This is not the same thing. However, your twin flame can also be your soulmate.

Soulmate is someone who is your perfect mate. This can be a friend, lover or even family member. They help you grow. You can have many soulmates in your lifetime and multiple at one time.

It is common with soulmates that once you learn what you are meant to learn from them that you will part ways, as you will have outgrown each other.

Twin Flame is your perfect mirror. Twin flames are created when the soul is separated and split into two pieces. When this happens both halves become their own soul. Many believe this only happens when an older soul who has reach a higher level of consciousness.

You and your twin flame will not only see yourself in each other but you also see opposite flaws, traits and behaviors. (Perfect mirror)

Twin Flames are meant to be someone who calls you out on all the falsehoods in your life. To release all that serves you no purpose (small things.)

Twin Flames help you reach your higher goals by share subconscious and conscious knowledge.

Twin Flames true purpose is not just about passionate sex or an epic love story.

Things to remember:

It is common for one or both people to be fearful and run from the connection (sometimes more than once)

These relationships are typically intense, in both pain, passion and pleasure that they create.

With a twin flame, you have a feeling of knowing and connection.

Signs to look for:

1. Strange recognization (deja Vu)

2. You know that this person will play an important role in your life

3. The connection is immediate and intense

4. They make you feel "at home" and safe

5. You are able to be completely your true self

6. They make you a better person

7. Ying and Yang

8. You are finely tuned to each other's energies

9. A mirror of what you fear and simultaneously desire the most

10. No matter what you are drawn back to each other

11. One of you is more soulfully mature

12. You learn valuable life lessons when they are around

13. Multi-faceted connection(best friend, lover)

14. They don't try to change you (they help you achieve the best you)

15. You are truthful with each other

16. Both of you are driven to a higher purpose

#twinflames #soulmates #pagan

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justtrynakeepup · 6 years

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The great falsehood that was at the root of President Trump’s candidacy was that he was very strong and America was very weak. We were losing, having our jobs stolen, getting ripped off by allies, etc. We were supposedly awash in crime and illegal immigration, and the latter, we were told, contributed to the former. It was all untrue. We got a welcome reminder this week that both halves of that equation are false — Trump is weak and getting weaker by the day, while the United States has never been a basket case — and is regaining its strength in opposing Trump and Trumpism.

Trump cuts such a pathetic figure, so very desperate for approval from those who have always snubbed him. He still rants at the “elites” who never accepted him in polite society. “You ever notice they always call the other side ‘the elite’?” Trump asked at a rally in Duluth, Minn. “The elite! Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment than they do. I’m smarter than they are. I’m richer than they are. I became president, and they didn’t.” Actually, many of them are richer, have more tasteful homes and are smarter — and have no desire to bow and scrape before the crass Queens operator, even if he is in the White House.

Trump talks tough, but when criticism rains down, he blames others (the Democrats!) or lies that his hands are tied or that his predecessor did the same. And when he retreats, he pretends he never wanted what he implemented anyway. Because he does not know what he wants or what is in various legislative options, he cannot provide clear direction in Congress. The result was a lost vote on a hard-line immigration bill and two postponements (first until Friday, and then until next week) on a compromise that has no chance of passing the Senate.

Trump’s grasp of policy is so shaky that it’s far from clear whether he understands the current legal and logistical situation, the policy he tried to implement or the consequences of pulling the plug on what he tried to implement.

And this time, the damage done to him and the anti-immigrant cause that is foundational to his presidency and the new Republican Party of right-wing populists may be considerable.

#zero tolerance policy #zero compassion policy #family separation #family separation policy #donald trump #immigration #anti-immigration

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aster-draws · 1 month

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Tim buys Danny and his sister each a sandwich, directs him to kiss him somewhere not on the lips in case Jasmine Fenton’s watching from across the street and they need to keep up pretenses. He presses his lips to his forehead, and the point of contact is warm, in comparison to the cool, clammy air around them. It’s just a second, barely that, and it still has Tim melting into it.

Maybe he needs more platonic touch.

Chapter 5 for Better Halves (and other such falsehoods) my fake dating Dead tired fic is up, with more shenanigans, meet cutes, etc.

#my art #art #dp x dc #danny phantom #tim drake #better halves (and other such falsehoods)#dead tired ship #it’s not a real link pls don’t try and find it #if you get a virus because you type smthn random into your phone it’s not on me

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urbanwronski · 6 years

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Barnaby bunny blinks in the spotlight centre stage in our national political show, this week, as our Deputy PM shrewdly plays the victim in his marriage break-up while he muffs his special pleading self-defence for begging his Tamworth mogul pal, Greg Maguire, to be allowed to crash for six months at his millionaire mate’s luxury pad at mates’ rates.

So wrong; so unfair, Joyce pleads, leading his supporters in hand-wringing over how his private life is his own business, hoping the rest of us will miss bigger issues such as alleged abuses of public funds for travel and accommodation. He’s also punting on our confusing workplace exploitation and his abuse of power with an innocent, mutual, private affair.

It’s a captivating performance which helps divert the nation from the Turnbull government’s response to the Closing the Gap steering committee’s finding that the programme, launched after Kevin Rudd’s apology was effectively killed when Abbott ripped over half a billion in funding out of it in 2004- and cancelled an Aboriginal housing programme.

The policy, they report, has been “effectively abandoned” by extensive budget cuts since 2014. Turnbull’s response echoes his initial response to Don Dale; he fobs off the nation with another select joint committee inquiry which will seek how to “refresh the policy”; while holding a new inquiry into the issue of constitutional recognition.

As Jack Waterford, former editor of The Canberra Times writes, “The government has never narrowed the gap. At present rates, Aboriginals will remain the poorest, sickest, least employed and least educated group in the community 80 years from now – and still without a plan, as opposed to a vague hope and intention, to make it different.”

Happily for the PM, there is a distraction. Poor, rich, white, boy, Barnaby, a lad who enjoyed a privileged upbringing, a St Ignatius College Riverview private school boy, – one of Sydney’s most expensive schools – who at home could roam Rutherglen an 1821 hectare farm estate, a New England University accountancy graduate who loves to play the battler from the bush is now acting hard done by. It’s all about soliciting free accommodation; favours from a mate.

Not only is BJ the victim of a marriage break-up, he hasn’t broken any rules, he wails. He didn’t ask to be put up free, he claims, contradicting the story his millionaire mate Greg has given The Daily Telegraph and put about the town.

Ex-wife Natalie dents BJ’s victimhood a tad revealing to Miranda Devine that her former husband is a serial philanderer. Whilst he may be “a hard pooch to keep on the porch“, to quote Hillary Clinton, he “always comes back”. Worse, he told the nation of his separation four days before he could face his wife. And he has to tell her Vikki is expecting a boy.

Not all of Joyce’s mail is from fans either. “Somebody sent this letter to my office today,” he guffaws to Fairfax’s David Robson last year. “It ran like this: ‘I don’t know who’s a bigger c…, you or Trump. But I think you win.’ And that was it!”

Nat’s no longer a fan either. Neither are many Nationals, including Veteran Affairs Minister, Michael McCormack who may have a crack at the leadership himself at Monday week’s party room meeting. Iain Macdonald, The Nationals’ attack dog, in senate committees an easy rival for Joyce’s fan mail award, tells Barnaby to take a back-bench seat.

Liberals call for Joyce to resign, while Labor’s leader, Bill Shorten, says neither Joyce nor Turnbull are fit to hold power.

“One way or another, Barnaby’s cactus. It’s just a matter of when.” says a senior National who tells The Saturday Paper‘s Karen Middleton that traditional National Party supporters are likely to be “extremely unhappy” – especially women.

A third of those who backed Joyce in December’s by-election no longer support him, according to a ReachTel poll last Tuesday night; fifty per cent believe that he should resign either from parliament or go to the back bench. A petition to demand his removal from his New England seat has received almost 7000 votes in five days, says The Herald Sun.

Happily, despite polls which suggest his electoral popularity is now down from 65% of the primary vote to 43%, a quarter say they’d be more likely to support him after his affair. Clearly, Barnaby still has a few mates left around the place.

Mates? ‘Mates don’t pay for things when they’re helping other mates out,’ Barney gargles in Question time. And they return favours. In a moving mateship tribute, the nation learns that Greg also does very well out of putting up public servants as Pork-barrel Barnaby moves a whole government department to New England to boost his local vote.

In true Nationals’ fashion, a mob of rugged if not roughshod individuals, whose contempt for bureaucracy matches its war with science and the environment, Barnaby decided to relocate the Australian Pests and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) from Canberra to Tamworth. It’s a cheap pork-barrel at a mere $26 million when you compare it with $10 billion for Joyce’s Inland Rail boondoggle which will never turn a profit either but which is also a nifty source of pork.

Joyce’s plan lacks cost-benefit analysis and is entirely off his own bat. Most of his work is like that. The Inland Rail, is really not that much of an exception. It’s all going brilliantly, of course, apart from those who work in the APVMA, including scientists who can’t or won’t leave Canberra. One in five positions are still unfilled.

Twenty regulatory scientists plus 28 staff members, with a total of 204 years’ service, left the agency between July and February, Fairfax reports in a staff exodus which has halved the authority’s approval rate for new products meeting. “Required timeframes” plummeted from 83 per cent in the September quarter to 42 per cent in March 2017.

It’s the worst rate in history says Monsanto pesticide industry leader, CropLife’s CEO, Matthew Cossey who warns of billions of dollars of lost farming revenue. He urges a return to Canberra. But he’s just a key corporate stake-holder.

At least APVMA boffins can count on food and shelter. Enter Barney’s flash mate Greg with his modestly named Quality Hotel Powerhouse, a pub which gratefully receives $14,700 spent by the APVMA relocation fund, money it controls to accommodate the wayfaring strangers whose business will help turn Tamworth’s (and Greg’s) fortunes around.

The APVMA invites an advisory committee of 20 odd to stay, reports ABC Saturday AM. Of course, as public servants, all are parched and on the tooth and primed for wining and dining. My, how they enjoy a welcome dinner of prawns with kimchi, truffle oil risotto, New England lamb and sticky date sponge; great value at $80 per head. Our shout.

The APVMA won’t divulge the total bill. Could it be an on water into wine matter? Greg’s joint is only one of several Armidale accommodation providers used by the regulator, a APVMA spokesman sniffs. “We don’t have a preferred provider”. The Neoliberal “provider” tag went feral long ago; instead of community support we buy and sell each other.

In a reverse planning move akin to putting the wings on an aircraft as it taxies down the runway, the committee, made up of APVMA and department of agriculture staff, as well as peak industry bodies, meet to work on the relocation plan.

The mad monk, Tony Abbott once buttered up Barnaby as “a great retail politician”, an MP who ranted about $100 lamb roasts resulting from a price on carbon. The term means a politician whose strength lies in cultivating his own popularity with his electorate. Coming from fellow egomaniac and walking three-word slogan, it means nothing but, alas, it’s stuck.

Every talked-up populist-capitalist running dog has his day, however, and Turnbull almost steals Barnaby’s thunder in a show-stopping finger-wagging in a new role as parliament’s head prefect or moral policeman on Thursday. The PM holds a special presser to scold Barnaby for leading a fluffy young bunny astray and to ask him to consider his position.

During intermission, Turnbull censors the ABC again – but no biggie. Happens all the time. The Guardian Australia reports “ABC News management has been in crisis meetings for two days” after the PM courageously attacks the articles in question time before getting Fifield and Morrison to join him in penning formal letters of complaint to management.

The Ayatollah, as he was mocked at Goldman Sachs, the PM succeeds in suppressing Chief Economics Correspondent Emma Alberici’s heretical analysis of how tax cuts to business don’t stimulate jobs or growth. One in five don’t pay tax for the past three years at least. Those who do, moreover, pay a seventeen per cent tax rate, on average.

Naturally, Qantas CEO, the silver-tongued leprechaun, Alan Joyce, is quick to grab ABC Radio’s ruling class megaphone to defend his company’s non-payment of corporate tax for nine years. He argues it is legitimate under rules that allowed it to carry forward losses from previous years. His words immensely cheer our aged pensioners on $671 a fortnight.

Workers on the minimum wage of $18.29 per hour are also heartened to learn that they’ve helped QANTAS to clock up its tenth tax-free year while Joyce’s salary nearly doubled in one year to reach $24.6 million in 2017. Can we afford the $65 billion, Alberici asks cheekily. Or could it be better spent on health, education and pensions?

She dare not mention raising the minimum wage or putting some of the money back into Aboriginal housing.

Above all, Alberici joins other economics writers in putting the lie to Treasurer’s Scott Morrison’s hoax that lowering tax rates makes us more internationally competitive when it comes to attracting investment. Now he and Matthias Cormann are promoting the falsehood that company taxes have to be cut or workers won’t get wage rises.

Before Trump cut US corporate tax earlier this year, the rate was 5 to 9 percentage points higher than our own. Yet Australian companies still preferred to invest in the US rather than Ireland, where the corporate tax rate is less than half ours (12.5 per cent), or Singapore (17 per cent). The truth is that many factors beyond tax rates guide investment.

Alberici’s piece is pulled because ABC management says it doesn’t meet editorial standards. Whilst ABC finds no inaccuracies in the articles, in the opinion of Director of News, Gaven Morris, “it sounds too much like opinion”.

Did Morris miss Chris Uhlmann’s opinionated reporting of SA’s power blackouts, wrongly blaming the Labor government’s reliance on renewables? The same lie is reprised this week in ABC previews of its SA election coverage.

All of Uhlmann’s factually incorrect SA blackout articles remain up, moreover, but, amazingly, it takes the ABC only 48 hours to remove accurate and factually correct reporting because it is unpalatable to the government of the day.

Alberici’s views are in line with leading economists including at The Australia Institute and at Treasury. Greg Jericho in The Guardian protests that she’s said nothing that many other writers haven’t been saying regularly. But as Mal’s new pal Donald Trump would say, a leader doesn’t need fake news or expert opinion to spoil his policy-making.

A calculated strategy of funding cuts, a constant stream of derogatory remarks from Liberal attack dogs, has crippled the ABC’s independence. Lest we forget, these attacks include Home Affairs Protector, Peter Dutton, and his “one down many to go” gibe at ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s dismissal.

Gibes and taunts add to the pressure of direct protests whenever The ABC holds government too much to account. Now Turnbull’s virtual appointment to Managing Director of pal Michelle Guthrie, who says her former 14 years career with Rupert Murdoch does not maker her a hatchet woman, the national broadcaster has become a Liberal trumpet.

Soon we will have a tabloid ABC with commercials, devoted to car crashes, stabbings, how hot or how cold the weather is for the year and endless relaying of superficial USA political news and shootings, which can then be knocked down to the highest bidder as requested by the Liberal Party’s key think tank and policy unit, The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).

Turnbull, like his predecessor, aims his performances to the tabloid media. We saw Turnbull play huckster and shyster early. Now he adds his strait-laced Presbyterian minister routine knowing it will get full coverage in The Daily Telegraph. The moralising, holier-than-thou Reverend Mal (Turnbull 2.0) emerges this week in the midst of the Barnaby barn dance.

Thursday, Mal swoops right after Barnaby’s Aint nobody’s business to ban all Canberra office Rock ‘n Roll, along with jiving and swiving. Canute-like, he vetoes all sideways samba, jazz or jelly roll; sex between all ministers and staffers.

“Turnbull bans sex”, MSM wags say. No more fornicating, fraternising or horizontal folk-dancing between ministers of the crown and their underlings. Loins are to be girded at all times. To show he’s serious about ending the funny business, he’s put his bonking prohibition into the Ministerial Code of Conduct, every Cabinet Minister’s bible.

It’s risible but then it’s meant as a show of authority. Nobody in Canberra believes that the Code of Conduct carries any weight. Shorten says it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. Perhaps it will work if staffers keep it between their knees.

Fawning is still in, of course, as is flattery and obsequious devotion; essential to any staffer’s tenure. These are transferrable skills. Moguls, miners, anything in uniform, bankers, think tankers and lobbyists are still to be lusted after.

Equally, business big and small -like the US Alliance- is there to be serviced. But ministers and minions must, at once, stop bonking each other, especially “that stubborn bastard with rhinoceros hide”, as a senior Liberal calls Barnaby.

“If you want to be in power, you can’t afford to fuck around,” is how a real PM once put it. Sadly, Mal is no PJ Keating.

Compounding his ludicrous finger-wagging, the PM makes himself look even more inept, ineffectual, absurd, by calling out Joyce publicly for his predatory behaviour as well as his poor decision-making in his affair with Vikki Campion, his staffer. Worse, the lubricious leader of The Nationals, “the family values party” has got Ms Campion in the family way.

By Thursday, after trying a Kamasutra of new positions on the Joyce affair, Turnbull turns chaos into catastrophe when he blasts Barnaby with both barrels in a public bollocking of his own deputy, unique in Australian politics.

After the” private matter” position; the even trickier “not his partner” defence. Not his partner?

Women across the nation, including Campion, who is carrying Joyce’s fifth child, are cheered to hear her status reduced to a casual shag, a quick roll in the hay; as meaningless and ephemeral as a politician’s promise. Even Playboy bunnies had contracts. But what “those women” of Australia will hear from the PM on Thursday is even more alarming.

“My wife ironed my shirts this week… does that make her staff?” responds deep Andrew Broad, Nationals MP for Mallee.

Vikki and Barney are split up because of their madly passionate affair and she is promoted out of his office, twice, but they were not partners because they were not living together. Turnbull expects us to accept that?

Ducking and weaving, a desperate PM channels his inner Bill Clinton, (aka Slick Willie), to redefine a dangerous liaison to save his own bacon. Barnaby, he argues, did not have a partnership with that woman, his former staffer, Vikki Campion.

The PM needs to dodge responsibility for breaking the Ministerial Code of Conduct in promoting Campion, Joyce’s paramour to a couple of plum jobs to get her out of Joyce’s office to hide a rapidly all-consuming scandal.

Someone clearly thought a tricky definition was a winner. At least the Joyce debacle has helped expose the process by which Ministerial assistants are appointed and promoted out of fealty, fear and favour rather than any qualification for the job. Advisers are thus both partisan and beholden to their bosses. You see it in the quality of their advice.

Monday’s circus establishes a catchy reality TV show format: “So you think you’re a partner?” Will Team Malcolm’s cunning plan to unhook Vikki and Barney get the PM and his government off the hook? By Thursday, Newspoll will need something stronger. Cue strong leader, moral guardian of the national flock: Turnbull lowers the boom.

“Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having an affair with a young woman working in his office,” the PM scolds. “In doing so he has set off a world of woe for those women, and appalled all of us. Our hearts go out to them,”

So sayeth The Reverend Mal, at a special Barnaby-barrelling press conference, Coalition shot-gun divorce combo.

The PM’s excoriating sermon; his moralising, judgemental excommunication is too little, too late and too low. He stops short of dismissing him as deputy which ABC News 24 reminds us is something he cannot do. Secret agreement stuff.

At least Joyce’s had his bat and ball taken off him before he’s sent home. Barnaby won’t be acting PM when Turnbull treats coal-mining, non-tax-paying – at least for the last ten years – CEO of multinational Glencore to a five-day junket to the US. Joyce will take a week’s leave “to consider his position”.

Considering her position also will be Julie Bishop who is abroad at the moment but who has sent messages letting it be known that she could fly home at once if need be. Perhaps she could console Barnaby; coach Cormann by emoji?

Hearts do go out but not all, like the PM’s, appear to be worn on sleeves. Consternation erupts. Mark Kenny and other Turnbull toadies rush to praise the new, resolute and decisive PM but even Kenny concedes Mal’s ban is empty.

Barnaby Joyce calls an extraordinary conference to call out his boss for his “inept and unnecessary” attack on Friday.

Unnecessary? Paul Bongiorno notes, wryly, the PM gifts Joyce with a unique opportunity to show who is truly in charge.

Turnbull’s public rebuke and call for Barnaby to resign helps highlight the Nationals’ power. The Turnbull government’s subservience, if not its impotence, lie in its 2015 secret Coalition Agreement, whereby Turnbull secured the Prime Ministership by capitulating his own political ideals in favour of Joyce’s right-wing Abbott political agenda.

Others sniff hypocrisy. Others deplore the public blaming and shaming. Imagine if Goldman Sachs were to call out Turnbull for the $500 million it is reported to have cost the banking firm to settle out of court in 2009 after HIH collapsed taking many small investors with it after buying an overvalued FAI due in no small part to Turnbull’s dud advice.

Some may even ask is Turnbull still has no knowledge of logging when he was chairman of a company in the early 1990s whose Solomon Islands’ subsidiary was described as having some of the worst logging practices in the world.

Turnbull flits to Tasmania; seeks the high moral ground by going to water. He appears later on ABC energetically talking up the twelve great projects of the Tamar Estuary Water Management Task Force. Pity BJ is no longer water minister.

A nation is caught on the hop. For three years, our carefree, sun-drenched continental island home has thrilled to the rhythms of Flash Mal ‘n Barnaby bull-dust’s bush-bash band. They do all the old Tony Abbott standards as laid down in their secret coalition agreement but, suddenly, something’s up. Mal thinks he can pick a fight with Bulldust and win?

Is the band breaking up just over Barney’s latest dancing partner, Vikki? Slugging wildly at each other out the back of the outback country hall that is our national parliament, Mal and Barney our two Coalition band-leaders trade haymakers. Neither is in what you could call tip-top condition. Neither could fight his way out of wet paper bag.

The stoush lasts three days. Then a press release of a kiss and make-up saturates media mid-Saturday. Ominously, Scott Morrison, who couldn’t tell the truth about Reza Berati’s 2014 murder on Manus Island is sent on to ABC Insiders, Sunday to proclaim a “frank” clearing of the air but the PM has not walked away from his earlier comments. Nor has Barnaby Joyce who is quoted later in media reports saying he has nothing to apologise for.

Why the big bust up? The boys got the band back together in Tamworth only last December. New hats and boots, too. Will Barnaby Joyce survive a Nationals’ leadership spill. The signs are ominous. Yet, even worse are the portents for a Turnbull government which has been unable to deal with a matter it knew was coming at least six months ago.

The spectacle of the public spat; the utterly inept handling of Joyce’s affair with a staffer and of Turnbull’s moral denunciation and his patently impractical ban on sex between minister and staffer can only serve to highlight how rapidly his government is unravelling.

The PM is taking twenty Aussie tycoons to the US for five days. They can talk rich man’s stuff; Cayman Islands; investment portfolios; things he’s really into. Not politics; certainly not people. Perhaps they will also form a cheer squad while he begs Rupert Murdoch to give him one more chance. One thing is certain. The Barnaby brouhaha will not have died down on his return and the damage it has caused will be permanent.

One way or another Barnaby’s cactus. The Turnbull government may be, too. Barnaby bunny blinks in the spotlight centre stage in our national political show, this week, as our Deputy PM shrewdly plays the victim in his marriage break-up while he muffs his special pleading self-defence for begging his Tamworth mogul pal, Greg Maguire, to be allowed to crash for six months at his millionaire mate's luxury pad at mates' rates.

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