#but a lot of damage can be done between now and the general election and Labour arent in a rush to help trans people

[bibliophile-bi]

love hearing your prime minister say "we can't be bullied into believing people can be any sex they want, they can't. men are men and women are women, it's common sense" - it does wonders for your mental health when you're a young trans person trying to get a referral to a gender clinic with a 30 month wait list :))

#love it even more when your mum and sister tell you “not to worry” because he cant do anything #but a lot of damage can be done between now and the general election and Labour arent in a rush to help trans people #like im sorry that the prime minister isnt trying to invalidate you're entire fucking existence ill just stop worrying #i hate it so much here #why does the world hate us so much lmfao #bibliophile-bi #uk politics

[princeescaluswords]

Public vs. Private

There's an interesting discussion going on over on @elandrialore's blog that I think everyone should read, but I didn't want to derail the conversation any more than I already have, so I'm starting another post.

I think that a lot of the trouble we're having about fanfiction and other creative works and the criticism of said works comes from overreaching capitalism and the way it has contaminated all social interaction with the controlling concept of ownership. People believe that if they put the effort towards the creation of something it becomes theirs in perpetuity, which gives them the right to control how it is perceived, how it is reacted to, and how it is discussed. It is as if copyright -- which solely governs profit from intellectual work -- has metastasized into some universal and (hilariously) moral right to constrain how an audience experiences art.

As an old fogey, I partially blame the internet and technology. There used to be a pretty bright line between the Private -- actions which exist for which an individual is answerable only to themselves and the people they choose to involve -- and the Public -- actions which exist for anyone in the general mass of humanity who makes an effort to involve themselves. The rights of an audience member depend on the nature of the actions. To give a concrete example, if I am walking by a house where a person is playing the piano in the living room, and they are not doing it well, I should recognize it as a private action and keep my reaction to myself. If I walked up to the house, knocked on the door, and told the performer they sucked, it would be rude and crass. But if I am attending a concert, I am supposed to react, and I am free to react in a certain number of ways. I am able to clap or not clap, even boo if it is extreme, or write a report or comment evaluating the skill of the performer.

But on the internet now, we have people taking pictures of what they ate for dinner and sharing it with millions of people. We have parents sharing fights with their children on Facebook. In other words, we have people walking about the house, hearing the bad piano playing, recording it and sharing it with their ten thousand followers. The line between Public and Private has become blurred into near nonexistence.

Many of the arguments we're having about fanfiction today seem to me to arise out of people trying to apply mores about Private behavior to Public actions. (Make no mistake, by any definition, publishing a story on AO3 is a public act.) This is the basis of "don't like; don't read" or "I do this for free." Through the application of ownership to something it has never been before, they're trying to exert control.

It just doesn't work, and, more importantly, it's vital that it doesn't work. Public art serves a definite purpose in civilization beyond immediate pleasure, and for that service to be healthy, the audience has to be able to engage with it freely. You know how I know this? Minstrel shows.

In my profession, I work with a lot of music from the first half of the twentieth century, and minstrel music was very popular. Al Jolson is only the most well-known example. But it wasn't just done for profit. There were public performances of minstrel shows across the United States done by churches, by fraternal organizations, by schools. They propagated racists stereotypes absolutely, and they peddled a nostalgia for a United States that never existed so hard that it affected political elections. Yet, you won't see them today because eventually criticism of both the racism and the pseudo-nostalgia. Would it matter if the creators and performers of these shows -- not Al Jolson, but the ubiquitous local, said "don't like, don't read" or "we're doing this for free." No, and it shouldn't.

The idea that the creator has the expectation that they can perform a public act and control the reaction to that act is unbelievable and damaging in many ways. It leads not as they argue to the freedom of creators to create but to disconnection of the audience and the tyranny of the mob. No one, no one, posts a story on AO3 and doesn't want other people to read it, and so they will follow the trends that are popular, and without counterbalancing criticism, art becomes a tool of conformity rather than something that opens up experiences for an entire community. Again, because this ridiculous disclaimer remains necessary, no one is saying that an author can't create what they want and distribute it, but the audience, to be fully included, has to have the freedom to react to it, which the people who run AO3 recognize by having a comments section. How much effort the author put into it is irrelevant.

#fandom problems #fanfiction problems #fandom racism #fandom misogyny #fandom decadence

[asksoldieron]

SO-21: The Problem with Trolley Problems

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

No art, but I am working on it and I will add it retroactively. The eyes are letting me draw, just real slow.

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for Black Box (250|21) an instalment! Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

And so we come to the point! Well, one of many points, it's a long work. But this is one I'm going to hammer into the ground, because I think if people don't engage with it and understand it, bad things will keep happening. A person can get so used to there only being bad decisions, that they don't even look for good ones anymore.

I don't feel good about the gang doing a war crime, and you shouldn't either. I stacked the deck so you'd forgive them; not everyone is going to read from the very beginning and new readers may not trust me, so I pulled my punch. (You can blame my spouse for advising me to have mercy on you now, so you won't stop reading and run away.) You don't get a lot of humanizing interaction with the innocent tourist they assault, and Erik will, of course, forgive his family once he's able. They lay out their decision process for you, and it really does look like they're making the best decision with the information they have - but it's NOT a good decision. I don't want you to duck that.

And it doesn't matter that it's not. One-by-one, they make their peace with it, each for their own reasons. They even get Maggie to help, because she sees they're going to do it anyway, she can't stop them, and she doesn't want Erik to get hurt even worse. And they do it. It's done and they can't take it back, they can only move on from here.

Then we all find out John did the same thing, and why.

When he saw unknown numbers of innocent lives tied to the track, including children, John elected to throw the lever and run over Erik's family and autonomy. They're not dead, the damage isn't irreparable, but they sure are hurt. Likewise, Erik's family will throw that lever to save Erik's future physical and mental health, at the cost of his and an innocent stranger's ability to consent.

I've been planning this plotline since at least 2017 (My original inclination was to force people to compare the mass kidnappings of immigrant and Indigenous children to the Holocaust, but, uh, my focus has broadened out of necessity. Clearly.) , so I had no idea it would go up while my country of origin is trying to decide between one of two genocidal Presidents, but it has. Much like Maggie, I'm sitting here with the full knowledge that one of two bad things will happen, we will not be able to take it back, and we can only move on from there. And, to add insult to injury, she's got to listen to a person she respects explain why sexual assault is OK in this case, and try to square that up with her opinion of him in general. It's not even like he doesn't care, but it's the only thing he can see to do, so he'll defend it. And she'll let him.

Of course, these weren't the best decisions they could've made, but they would've had to take risks that could've ruined everything to get a better result. Neither John nor Erik's family feel secure enough to do that. They've been hurt enough. So (slight spoiler, but I won't go into it) John missed his chance to pick up Diane to help him, and the NDA rejected calling David back with little consideration.

It may not be obvious, but David was telling lies with purpose. He's trying to protect John and the Rainbows from people who could get them all killed. (Given how mad Milo and Ann get later, this is a valid concern.) If they called him back and he saw they weren't buying that Erik would be fine, he'd explain about the battery and try to take all the blame, even at the cost of burning his bridges with Hyacinth. Then the shopping bag with the info would've arrived and confirmed the nature of the damage. (As well as the decent odds that Erik would recover from it within a week, with better operating instructions to help.) But they didn't even give him a chance. It didn't seem worth doing.

When we have to solve a lot of trolley problems, we get used to the idea that someone is going to get run over and we're just deciding who. It's very difficult to reject the entire premise and find another way. While you're trying to take a third option, the trolley might run over someone you don't want to lose! So you pull the lever and move on to the next awful scenario. You're doing your best!

OK, but we sure are running over an awful lot of people. I do wonder how many more will die before the majority of voters decide the risk of a derailment is preferable to running over whatever's on the tracks. I mean, we're going ahead with the genocide. It's far away and we don't have to look at 'em dying, there is that. If it gets a little closer and both choices involve mowing down (more) immigrants on the southern border, will that do it? I'm really scared that it won't, and I could get confirmation on that during this election too. If we're willing to allow that, what's next? (I'm constantly gripping the edges of my seat and waiting to hear, "Well, both candidates are going to send all the trans kids to conversion therapy, so can we please focus on Roe v. Wade/the Supreme Court/healthcare/student loans/etc...?")

I think, I hope, there's a point where everyone will refuse to engage with "choose who" and refocus on "MAKE IT STOP." But we're not there yet. I don't know what happens when we get there, either. A lot of revolutions just rearrange the hierarchy and change the nature of who gets tied to the tracks. I don't want that, and I don't want this. Maybe, if my work survives, someone in the future will be in a position to make some better decisions, and stop the goddamn trollies forever.

So I keep writing and hoping like hell.

Future readers, if you're wondering how we knew it was wrong and did it anyway, I've tried to express that in capsule form with its own context. I hope you can understand, if not forgive, and go on from wherever you are too.

[Back to Site?]

#tin soldier and soldier on #instalment #engagement lounge #trolley problem

[gregolwman]

"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to." - Gandalf the Grey , the Lord of the Rings

It's been a long road. Getting from there to here. It's been a long time. But my time is finally near. Sorry, not sorry, but I couldn't resist. Soooooo... It's been a while huh? I know what I said about trying to post something before New Year and all that pizazz. However, I have been in a food coma and then got swamped with work so not have a lot of time to continue my award-winning trash-talking about what Star Trek Discovery could have done to be an interesting show. Therefore without further ado, let's crack into it.

Season 3: Internal Strife! One year has passed since the Klingon War and the Federation has fallen on hard times since Starfleet is at its weakest and there are plenty of sharks smelling blood in the water. The Orion Syndicate, with the secret aid of the Romulan Star Empire, created the Emerald Chain out of several Federation planets and associates by muscling in on their turf. Some people in the upper echelons of the government suspect foul play, as such President T'Rina sends Commander Burnham to investigate the situation and throws her lot with Cleveland Booker, a rogue element within the supposed idyllic lifestyle of the Federation. Eventually, Michael rejoins the Discovery's crew, but often butts heads with Captain Saru since neither of them has any idea how to get past their issues of trust and trauma, even if they come to respect one another. At some point, they are joined by Adira Tal, an inspector with the United Earth Probe Agency after some troubles on the Jovian Moons. Together they find themselves on an emergency trip to the secular world of Trill, where Adira is forced to deal with her past and the isolationist tendencies of the locals. We already know that one of Dax's previous hosts had interactions with the Federation during the 22nd and 23rd centuries so there is no reason for other adventurous symbionts not to do the same plus we can justify the death of Gray with the Klingon's attack on Starbase 1 or just the War in general, as such we have a lovely aesop of letting go of the past and living in the present and such. Anyways, besides that we also have a lost Vulcan colony that has been rediscovered following the Earth-Romulan War, it was thought that the entire place was glassed in nuclear fire. It is here where Michael uncovers a person from her past whom she hoped to never see again and where T'Rina's resolve is tested as whatever the colonists are hiding might be truly damaging to the Federation and Vulcans alike. Spoilers, it is the fact that Romulans and Vulcans can live with one another and complement each other's style of living under the right circumstances. Also, the person that Michael wishes to avoid is her mother, who was neglectful due to her grief and trauma to the point where Michael preferred to spend time with Sarek's family. Michael finally forgives herself and therefore the Georgiou hallucination that has been haunting her fades away as Burnham learned to move on, all the while Saru decides to take a leave of absence and return to his homeworld to help expedite the unification process between the Ba'ul and Kelpiens. However, not everything is going well for everyone as T'Rina gets impeached due to the Council losing confidence in her abilities to lead and the new President-Elect happens to be none other than the hawkish Laira Rillak, who is a Denobulan this time around since these guys barely got featured after Enterprise. The whole thing also benefited the Romulans since now they have more up-to-date information about their enemies without having to start another war.

Season 4: Honesty, not a lot has changed from the original format except that Gray is not coming back to life and Ruon Tarka is none other than former Captain Gabriel Lorca, who is now working with Section 31 after they went underground. Lorca's plan is quite simple as he takes advantage of the chaos happening around him and wants to undermine Starfleet since he is both petty and bitter about his imprisonment, he wants to push Laira to extremism, not unlike that of the Federation First party later in the timeline and also wants to get himself a new apprentice who happens to be the new Warrant Officer Cleveland Booker, who is quite rightfully angry at the resident hyper-advanced space whales for blowing up his planet and family. Hugh Culber, who got a very nasty case of having his back broken during season 1 because his Paul was having the mother of all mental breakdowns following his ill-advised augmentation with space tardigrade DNA, decided to become the onboard Counselor since he finally got over the fact that he spent most of season 2 in a medically induced coma and the break he took from dealing with his husband's bad decisions to deal with his own issues.

With all of this in mind, all I can say is that I have no idea what season 5 will bring and the move from the 23rd century to the 32nd century was not a great plan considering that they could have just done all of the above to obtain the same results, but hey that's just Hollywood's desire to milk that cow for that sweet, sweet cash. Keep in mind that during season 3 they transition from the Enterprise Blues to the Origanl Sweaters, but with something more akin to what those guys at the Axanar production have in mind. Also, I have been noticing that a lot of my followers tended to be from the Dark Side of Tumblr, so I made the executive decision to start blocking anyone who didn't have anything posted on their pages and no titles. After all rule 190 of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition says "Hear all, trust nothing" and did I hear some things from those "followers" of mine that now I ain't trusting none of y'all without some proper IDs at hand.

This has been Greg for Owlman's Previously Owned Ideas. We do not advise you to let unknown people follow your profile unless you are into that kind of thing. We also do no refunds.

#ramblings #star trek discovery #sorry not even remotely sorry #scifi #who are you #why do i even bother

[gdgaribay498]

Deepfake technology are artificial intelligence synthesized fakes in which its purpose is to create realistic videos and audio. Deep fakes have raised significant concern about its potential and impact in our world. Due to its potential to manipulate and superimpose faces and audio onto existing videos and images, deep fakes create convincing yet false content. For a while now, deep fakes have been used in entertainment. For example, during the filming of Fast and Furious’ movie “Fast 7” actor Paul Walker died in a car accident. Deep fake-like technology allowed the filmmakers to shoot Paul Walker’s brother in a car and edit Paul Walker’s face on him, making it look like Paul Walker was actually there.

The technology behind the creation of deepfakes consist of computers or other machines learning algorithms and neural networks. From databases, algorithms are trained to analyze and learn images and videos to generate realistic facial expressions, movements, etc. Because deepfakes are created by a computer, people have the capability to create deep fakes and use them to spread misinformation. Going forward, deep fake videos have the ability to be used to spread misinformation, manipulate public opinion and potentially even damage individuals and organizations. Besides images and videos, fabricated audio is also raising concerns in the aspect that some of the synthetic voices are difficult to tell the real from the fake. Fabricated audio, as well as images and videos, can potentially be harmful due to privacy and security reasons. Similarly to how deep fake videos are created, deep fake audio is created by using a dataset of voice samples in which the neural network learns how to take that person’s voice and “paste” it onto another person. In today's time where social media is a main method for communication, it is important for users to know about deep fakes, and learn how to spot what is fake and what is real. Besides deep fakes, cheap fakes are a cheaper alternative to deep fakes, in which they are popular on social media.

As previously mentioned, to create a deep fake it takes artificial intelligence and algorithms to create realistic and convincing content. However, cheap fakes require basic editing or sometimes the editing is done for you. For example, Instagram filters or Tik Tok sounds can be considered cheap fakes. Just as how deep fakes are created by artificial intelligence and trained neural networks, to detect deep fakes the same method is used. The key is to train the neural network and algorithm to do what you train it to do.

As a country divided by religion, politics and other areas, it is extremely concerning for the potential of deep fakes. The ability for anyone to manipulate videos, images and audio is concerning because it can result in a serious spread of misinformation. Especially in today’s time where someone can post something on the internet, especially social media, a mass amount of people can see it in a short period of time. As journalists, the rise of deep fake creations should be concerning as well. Manipulated videos, images and audio can damage the credibility of news sources. Overall, deep fakes make it a lot more difficult for journalists to determine what is real and what has been manipulated. It is extremely important for journalists to be aware of new technology that can be altered, and always verify sources and fact check.

Generally, deep fakes are created by highly intelligent computers, therefore, whoever has access to deep fake technology can alter content regardless of where one lives. Countries like the United States, China and Russia are using deep fake technology and have been caught in creating content to manipulate elections. Deep fakes can hurt us by damaging reputations, spreading misinformation and destroying trust between the public and the media.

[besteyespecialist]

Lasik Eye Surgery In Ghatkopar, Lasik Surgery In Ghatkopar from Lasik Specialist - Dr. Jatin Ashar

Lasik Eye Surgery In Ghatkopar

LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) is the most commonly performed laser eye surgery to treat vision defects. Since the invention of eyeglasses, we are still on the path to lookup to new advancements for improving eyesight. Eyes being the most integral part of our five senses need attention to avoid any irreversible damage. Lasik Eye surgery was first done in 1988 and was approved in U.S. in 1999. So now it is widely recognized vision correction procedure across the globe.

Why we need Lasik?

Eye is a complex structure having Cornea (the clear covering on the front of the eye), Iris, Pupil and Retina being important components for vision. For clear vision, the eye’s cornea has to be in right shape, as cornea being the transparent structure of the eye, refracts the light on the retina to form an image. Sometime patients complain of blurry image is referred as a "refractive error." It is caused by a mismatch between the shape of the cornea (curvature) and the length of the eye.

Common eye defects are:

Myopia (nearsightedness)

Hyperopia (farsightedness)

Astigmatism.

LASIK is eye surgery that permanently changes the shape of the cornea. It is done to improve vision and reduce a person's need for glasses or contact lenses.

We have heard lot of stories how people wake up without Eye glasses and met up with accidents within the house itself because of their dependency? How vacations on beautiful beaches were ruined after they lost their contact lenses? If you have experienced any of these scenarios, you may be ready to give up on your glasses and move on to a permanent solution to your eyesight problems.

Lasik Eye Surgery is an elective procedure and does not need hospital admission as it’s a day care procedure. Lasik Procedure can help you to get rid of corrective eye lenses and eye glasses.

Who can undergo Lasik Eye surgery?

A complete eye examination is done by your doctor to check for stability of your eyes. Medical history of medications like Prednisone, cardarone, Accutane and imitrax contradicts Lasik Eye Surgery. Some conditions having hormonal changes like pregnancy also makes your eyes measurements different.

Various tests are done to measure the curvature of the cornea, the size of the pupils in light and dark, the eyes' refractive error, and the thickness of the cornea (to make sure you will have enough corneal tissue left after surgery).

A written consent is taken before the procedure. This consent confirms that you know the procedure's risks, benefits, alternative options, and possible complications.

An ideal candidate for Lasik Eye Surgery would be 18 years and above, does not have any accompanying autoimmune diseases, no hormonal issues and free from eye diseases like Dye eye, Cataract or Glucoma.

The LASIK Procedure

Eye surgeon prepares you for surgery by applying anesthetic eye drops. Lasik Procedure does not need general anesthesia and is done under local anesthesia with mild sedation.

This corrective procedure is of 30-40 minutes duration and done in three steps.

Bladeless Lasik

Mumbai Eye Care, Ghatkopar, is among the best LASIK Centers at Mumbai. We use the latest femtosecond / bladeless technology from Alcon, USA for performing LASIK. This technology assures high level of safety and precision. The bladeless LASIK performed at Mumbai Eye Care ensures better results by decreasing the chances of any flap complications. The recovery is very fast and most patients resume normal activities in just a day.

Advantages of this best LASIK technology of bladeless/ Femtosecond include the following-

Instructions after the Procedure

You may have burning, itching, or a feeling that something is in the eye. This feeling doesn't last for more than 6 hours in most cases.

The doctor may prescribe mild pain medicine and a sedative.

It is very important NOT to rub the eye after LASIK, so that the flap does not dislodge or move. For the first 6 hours, keep the eye closed as much as possible.

Call the eye doctor right away if you have severe pain or any of the symptoms get worse before your scheduled follow-up appointment (24 to 48 hours after surgery).

At the first visit after the surgery, the eye shield will be removed and the doctor will examine your eye and test your vision. You will receive eye drops to help prevent infection and inflammation.

Do not drive until your vision has improved enough to safely do so.

Other things to avoid include:

Swimming

Hot tubs and whirlpools

Contact sports

Use of lotions, creams, and eye makeup for 2 to 4 weeks after surgery

Recovery after the Lasik Eye Surgery

This procedure has a fast recovery rate, you might feel some temporary discomfort but it wears off with the local anesthesia. Complete healing and recovery may take few days to up to 6 months. Usually one surgery is enough but second surgery can be done to improve other eye defects. You might still need glasses after 45 years of age.

Long-Term Results

Ultimate aim of Lasik Eye Surgery is to have an improved vision. Most of cases show that one of the three defects (Near sightedness, Long Sightedness or Astigmatism) is corrected and you have to undergo second surgery for another defect.

Few cases may take longer time to heal and recover but Lasik Procedure definitely improves quality of life in long term. After one surgery, doctor can prescribe contact lenses or eye glasses for correction of other defects for example antireflective coating for sharper vision in night driving.

If you are sensitive to sunlight after LASIK, ask your eye doctor about prescribing glasses with photochromic lenses.

While the procedure has an excellent safety profile, LASIK complications can occur and may include infection or night glare (starbursts or halos that are most noticeable when you're viewing lights at night, such as while you're driving).

A small percentage of people need a LASIK endhancment or "touch up" procedure, a few months after the primary LASIK surgery to achieve acceptable visual acuity.

And you still will need reading glasses once you crosses your 40s, due to a normal age-related loss of near vision called presbyopia.

Important Reminder: This information is only intended to provide guidance, not a definitive medical advice. Please consult eye doctor about your specific condition. Only a trained, experienced board certified eye doctor can determine an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment.

To schedule an appointment with our experts for Lasik Eye Surgery In Ghatkopar, please call us at [phone], [phone] or visit our clinic at Address.

TAG : Lasik Surgery in Ghatkopar, eye specialist in ghatkopar rajawadi, cornea specialist in mumbai, Keratoconus Treatment In Ghatkopar, Pediatric Eye Care Clinic in Ghatkopar, Child Eye clinic in ghatkopar, cataract surgery in ghatkopar, Glaucoma Treatment In Ghatkopar, eye specialist in ghatkopar east, cataract surgery in ghatkopar, cataract treatment in Ghatkopar

#Dr. Jatin Ashar #eye specialist in ghatkopar rajawadi #Lasik Eye Surgery in Ghatkopar #Pediatric Eye Care Clinic in Ghatkopar #Keratoconus Treatment In Ghatkopar #eye specialist in ghatkopar #eye clinic in ghatkopar west

[gendercamp3]

The Greatest Guide To Sleeping Bags on the AT: Down Vs Synthetic For Warmth

Who hasn’t involved in these endless discussions? What have’s carried out and what have’s performed by supporting this female? I understand who has’t carried out much better than this female. This woman has’t done the right things in this political election. It was concerning honesty and that kind of factor. Official information here think that's what tallies in this election. These people are bad things. And however we understand you possess to feel them. Maybe the mom of all fire arguments, nonetheless, is the age-old synthetic as opposed to down sleeping bag case and hopefully help you receive to the base of thinking out which bag or comforter greatest accommodates you. My kid's rvs are likewise a massive follower of sleeping bag options, and the resting bag for my son is the greatest sleeping bag. Man-made: Rate A deciding variable for recreational campers on a budget is the considerable price difference between a down bag and a artificial bag. The synthetic cost may be the very most vital cost, and those along with the potential to make use of a lot less might not need to have to pay higher cost bags the second, third and fourth time around. But provided that the expense is reduced on the synthetic and the top quality is higher on the synthetic, one might not produce the appropriate option at first. With the raising level of popularity of trendy down jackets worldwide, that enchanting insulating undercoating that supplies comfort to geese, ducks and currently human beings is a hot asset. But does that imply that you won't be capable to acquire brand-new down coats at all? Maybe not, because these items are typically offered under various title varieties—but most of us wouldn't be surprised. Some brands, like Kestrel, have happen up with something also much more prominent and uncommon. And because of the demand, down is much more pricey. Now in December and January this is what folks state it can easily take - a pair months and a married couple of weeks to recoup. It can easily be easy. I am not pointing out that no one would get dismayed about this, I am stating that we have to have some variety of resolution to this trait right now, if this is going to get resolved or whether it is going to be done at some factor or you just desire a one method road. Traditionally, a down resting bag began at around $300. I got it because they generally keep me cozy in cold climate with the finest in rest hygiene, and I was capable to get quite close to my present sleeping bag without damaging a perspiration. I recognize there are actually a few that I merely don't possess, but not simply any bag, and one that does possess sky pockets is about 3x the measurements of my backpacking pillow case. However, the rate can easily differ depending on what’s occurring to the source of down internationally. This has actually to be gone over even more, along with each market being different. In the scenario of this scenario, we can aim to all the products that we have seen happening and we will have to look in order to see which ones we have helped make and have offered. On some of these new developments we are beginning to see some significant statements happening out this month that we will definitely be standing by for. In 2013, for example, a bird flu outbreak wiped out a sizable part of China’s down source, as a result bumping up the cost of down rest bags worldwide. Currently in December 2016, this cost growth was a massive reduce, due to a lack of brand-new arrivals, according to sources. On Monday, China additionally claimed it would no much longer offer resting bags without a unique covering, according to the Chinese information website Guizhou Daily. It’s worth noting that in the last few years, duck down has become an readily available fill in numerous bags, and is less expensive than goose down. The label duck has advanced to indicate one thing (though the latter is somewhat a secret), and one that's even more regarding survival than concerning quantity. Along with even more duck down in your pantry than goose down, you could utilize that duck up on a regular manner. Reduced fill-power duck down bags are currently readily available for under $200. The brand-new features include light-weight polyester coating lining, and nylon material coating coating, which decreases reduce on the bag's interior portion. Readily available coming from a wide array of suppliers, the bags happen in many various shades consisting of red, gold, and blue. The duck is offered in the observing shades: Gold, Gold Metallic Metallic, Pearl Grey and Blue.

Bottom Series: If funds is strict and how a lot you devote is your major problem, a man-made bag or a reduced fill-power duck down bag is your ticket to outdoor convenience. The light in weight plastic and lightweight rayon lining makes it possible for the bag to pleasantly flex throughout an expansive assortment of body system spans and shapes. The leading concept of the bag is a basic one, along with pockets and removable cushioning on the outside and the foundation that expands for added convenience. Artificial: Heat to Weight Ratio The superiority of down’s coziness to body weight proportion is unparalleled. This has actually to do with how very easy it is to find a appropriate body system health condition that match this physical body position. The majority of cases, all the time, physical body temp in a meet is really simple to calculate in purchase to figure out the excellent temperature level for a given individual. However, cold, damp or dry out environments can easily minimize the suitable body system temp in many meets. That fill-power we stated above … yeah that’s where down sparkles. When speaking concerning how easy it would be to acquire brand-new software application to get began utilizing Python and other available source technology, say something like: "So my idea is that we'll perform it at a variety of degree. And we'll phone that process'maintenance job circulation'.". The objective is to develop that flow in a technique that is the very most simple – as simple as you can easily receive.

#winter sleeping bags #winter camping

[buyhouseez]

Newly Constructed Home

Purchasing a new home rather of a pre-owned bone comes with colorful sizable benefits. In the current casing request, new houses are priced veritably competitively with pre-owned houses, so except for those people who want an address with some history or who want to be in a distinct neighborhood that does not have space for any recently constructed, utmost individualities will do better with choosing a new construction house.

A considerable benefit that new construction homes have over pre-owned is the bond protection. guaranties are available when investing in a pre-owned house, but the protection is much more defined in duration and compass as compared to the guaranties on recently erected houses. guaranties on recently erected houses generally cover you for one time on introductory finishing and appearance particulars, five times on appliances and other mechanical particulars, and ten times on structural particulars. With a pre-owned house, a conventional bond is confined to one time on the whole lot.

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[eyesurgeryinghatkopar]

Lasik Eye Surgery In Ghatkopar - Mumbaieyecare

 LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) is the most commonly performed laser eye surgery to treat vision defects. Since the invention of eyeglasses, we are still on the path to lookup to new advancements for improving eyesight. Eyes being the most integral part of our five senses need attention to avoid any irreversible damage. Lasik Eye surgery was first done in 1988 and was approved in U.S. in 1999. So now it is widely recognized vision correction procedure across the globe.

Why we need Lasik?

Eye is a complex structure having Cornea (the clear covering on the front of the eye), Iris, Pupil and Retina being important components for vision. For clear vision, the eye’s cornea has to be in right shape, as cornea being the transparent structure of the eye, refracts the light on the retina to form an image. Sometime patients complain of blurry image is referred as a "refractive error." It is caused by a mismatch between the shape of the cornea (curvature) and the length of the eye.

Common eye defects are:

Myopia (nearsightedness)

Hyperopia (farsightedness)

Astigmatism.

LASIK is eye surgery that permanently changes the shape of the cornea. It is done to improve vision and reduce a person's need for glasses or contact lenses.

We have heard lot of stories how people wake up without Eye glasses and met up with accidents within the house itself because of their dependency? How vacations on beautiful beaches were ruined after they lost their contact lenses? If you have experienced any of these scenarios, you may be ready to give up on your glasses and move on to a permanent solution to your eyesight problems.

Lasik Eye Surgery is an elective procedure and does not need hospital admission as it’s a day care procedure. Lasik Procedure can help you to get rid of corrective eye lenses and eye glasses.

Who can undergo Lasik Eye surgery?

A complete eye examination is done by your doctor to check for stability of your eyes. Medical history of medications like Prednisone, cardarone, Accutane and imitrax contradicts Lasik Eye Surgery. Some conditions having hormonal changes like pregnancy also makes your eyes measurements different.

Various tests are done to measure the curvature of the cornea, the size of the pupils in light and dark, the eyes' refractive error, and the thickness of the cornea (to make sure you will have enough corneal tissue left after surgery).

A written consent is taken before the procedure. This consent confirms that you know the procedure's risks, benefits, alternative options, and possible complications.

An ideal candidate for Lasik Eye Surgery would be 18 years and above, does not have any accompanying autoimmune diseases, no hormonal issues and free from eye diseases like Dye eye, Cataract or Glucoma.

The LASIK Procedure

Eye surgeon prepares you for surgery by applying anesthetic eye drops. Lasik Procedure does not need general anesthesia and is done under local anesthesia with mild sedation.

This corrective procedure is of 30-40 minutes duration and done in three steps.

Bladeless Lasik

Mumbai Eye Care, Ghatkopar, is among the best LASIK Centers at Mumbai. We use the latest femtosecond / bladeless technology from Alcon, USA for performing LASIK. This technology assures high level of safety and precision. The bladeless LASIK performed at Mumbai Eye Care ensures better results by decreasing the chances of any flap complications. The recovery is very fast and most patients resume normal activities in just a day.

Advantages of this best LASIK technology of bladeless/ Femtosecond include the following-

Fully bladeless procedure. No blades used. Complete disposable, bar-coded single use cone used to deliver LASER

Latest and most advanced technology

Results are predictable and accurate

Procedure is customizable

A Femtosecond laser or microkeratome creates a circular flap in the cornea. Once the flap is cut, your vision becomes blurry and stroma of the eye can assessed.

An Excimer laser is used to reshape the stroma. This laser uses ultraviolet light to reshape corneal stroma, so that it would be able to focus the light on the retina more accurately.

After this ablation, corneal flap is laid back in place. A protective shield is placed over the eye and cornea is left to heal by itself without any stitches.

Instructions after the Procedure

You may have burning, itching, or a feeling that something is in the eye. This feeling doesn't last for more than 6 hours in most cases.

The doctor may prescribe mild pain medicine and a sedative.

It is very important NOT to rub the eye after LASIK, so that the flap does not dislodge or move. For the first 6 hours, keep the eye closed as much as possible.

Call the eye doctor right away if you have severe pain or any of the symptoms get worse before your scheduled follow-up appointment (24 to 48 hours after surgery).

At the first visit after the surgery, the eye shield will be removed and the doctor will examine your eye and test your vision. You will receive eye drops to help prevent infection and inflammation.

Do not drive until your vision has improved enough to safely do so.

Other things to avoid include:

Swimming

Hot tubs and whirlpools

Contact sports

Use of lotions, creams, and eye makeup for 2 to 4 weeks after surgery

Recovery after the Lasik Eye Surgery

This procedure has a fast recovery rate, you might feel some temporary discomfort but it wears off with the local anesthesia. Complete healing and recovery may take few days to up to 6 months. Usually one surgery is enough but second surgery can be done to improve other eye defects. You might still need glasses after 45 years of age.

Long-Term Results

Ultimate aim of Lasik Eye Surgery is to have an improved vision. Most of cases show that one of the three defects (Near sightedness, Long Sightedness or Astigmatism) is corrected and you have to undergo second surgery for another defect.

Few cases may take longer time to heal and recover but Lasik Procedure definitely improves quality of life in long term. After one surgery, doctor can prescribe contact lenses or eye glasses for correction of other defects for example antireflective coating for sharper vision in night driving.

If you are sensitive to sunlight after LASIK, ask your eye doctor about prescribing glasses with photochromic lenses.

While the procedure has an excellent safety profile, LASIK complications can occur and may include infection or night glare (starbursts or halos that are most noticeable when you're viewing lights at night, such as while you're driving).

A small percentage of people need a LASIK endhancment or "touch up" procedure, a few months after the primary LASIK surgery to achieve acceptable visual acuity.

And you still will need reading glasses once you crosses your 40s, due to a normal age-related loss of near vision called presbyopia.

Important Reminder: This information is only intended to provide guidance, not a definitive medical advice. Please consult eye doctor about your specific condition. Only a trained, experienced board certified eye doctor can determine an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment.

To schedule an appointment with our experts for Lasik Eye Surgery In Ghatkopar, please call us at  [phone], [phone] or visit our clinic at Address

Tag = Lasik Surgery in Ghatkopar, Lasik Eye Surgery in Ghatkopar, eye specialist in ghatkopar west, eye care ghatkopar east

#Lasik Surgery in Ghatkopar #Lasik Eye Surgery in Ghatkopar #eye specialist in ghatkopar west #eye care ghatkopar east

[lasikeyesurgeryinghatkopar]

Lasik Eye Surgery In Ghatkopar by Dr. Jatin Ashar

Lasik Eye Surgery In Ghatkopar

LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) is the most commonly performed laser eye surgery to treat vision defects. Since the invention of eyeglasses, we are still on the path to lookup to new advancements for improving eyesight. Eyes being the most integral part of our five senses need attention to avoid any irreversible damage. Lasik Eye surgery was first done in 1988 and was approved in U.S. in 1999. So now it is widely recognized vision correction procedure across the globe.

Why we need Lasik?

Eye is a complex structure having Cornea (the clear covering on the front of the eye), Iris, Pupil and Retina being important components for vision. For clear vision, the eye’s cornea has to be in right shape, as cornea being the transparent structure of the eye, refracts the light on the retina to form an image. Sometime patients complain of blurry image is referred as a "refractive error." It is caused by a mismatch between the shape of the cornea (curvature) and the length of the eye.

Common eye defects are:

Myopia (nearsightedness)

Hyperopia (farsightedness)

Astigmatism.

LASIK is eye surgery that permanently changes the shape of the cornea. It is done to improve vision and reduce a person's need for glasses or contact lenses.

We have heard lot of stories how people wake up without Eye glasses and met up with accidents within the house itself because of their dependency? How vacations on beautiful beaches were ruined after they lost their contact lenses? If you have experienced any of these scenarios, you may be ready to give up on your glasses and move on to a permanent solution to your eyesight problems.

Lasik Eye Surgery is an elective procedure and does not need hospital admission as it’s a day care procedure. Lasik Procedure can help you to get rid of corrective eye lenses and eye glasses.

Who can undergo Lasik Eye surgery?

A complete eye examination is done by your doctor to check for stability of your eyes. Medical history of medications like Prednisone, cardarone, Accutane and imitrax contradicts Lasik Eye Surgery. Some conditions having hormonal changes like pregnancy also makes your eyes measurements different.

Various tests are done to measure the curvature of the cornea, the size of the pupils in light and dark, the eyes' refractive error, and the thickness of the cornea (to make sure you will have enough corneal tissue left after surgery).

A written consent is taken before the procedure. This consent confirms that you know the procedure's risks, benefits, alternative options, and possible complications.

An ideal candidate for Lasik Eye Surgery would be 18 years and above, does not have any accompanying autoimmune diseases, no hormonal issues and free from eye diseases like Dye eye, Cataract or Glucoma.

The LASIK Procedure

Eye surgeon prepares you for surgery by applying anesthetic eye drops. Lasik Procedure does not need general anesthesia and is done under local anesthesia with mild sedation.

This corrective procedure is of 30-40 minutes duration and done in three steps.

Bladeless Lasik

Mumbai Eye Care, Ghatkopar, is among the best LASIK Centers at Mumbai. We use the latest femtosecond / bladeless technology from Alcon, USA for performing LASIK. This technology assures high level of safety and precision. The bladeless LASIK performed at Mumbai Eye Care ensures better results by decreasing the chances of any flap complications. The recovery is very fast and most patients resume normal activities in just a day.

Advantages of this best LASIK technology of bladeless/ Femtosecond include the following-

Fully bladeless procedure. No blades used. Complete disposable, bar-coded single use cone used to deliver LASER

Latest and most advanced technology

Results are predictable and accurate

Procedure is customizable

A Femtosecond laser or microkeratome creates a circular flap in the cornea. Once the flap is cut, your vision becomes blurry and stroma of the eye can assessed.

An Excimer laser is used to reshape the stroma. This laser uses ultraviolet light to reshape corneal stroma, so that it would be able to focus the light on the retina more accurately.

After this ablation, corneal flap is laid back in place. A protective shield is placed over the eye and cornea is left to heal by itself without any stitches.

You may have burning, itching, or a feeling that something is in the eye. This feeling doesn't last for more than 6 hours in most cases.

The doctor may prescribe mild pain medicine and a sedative.

It is very important NOT to rub the eye after LASIK, so that the flap does not dislodge or move. For the first 6 hours, keep the eye closed as much as possible.

Swimming

Hot tubs and whirlpools

Contact sports

Use of lotions, creams, and eye makeup for 2 to 4 weeks after surgery

Tags= Lasik Surgery in Ghatkopar, best eye specialist in Ghatkopar

#Tags= Lasik Surgery in Ghatkopar #best eye specialist in ghatkopar

[haltyoubillowychickenwing]

Kaitlin Bennett and Liberty Hangout

Kaitlin Bennett is considered the internet’s most hated conservative, lets talk about why.

Bennett Is a twenty-five-year-old white cisgender heterosexual female who is a strict catholic. She rose to fame in 2018 when her graduation photo included an AR-10 rifle. This was a means of activism and advocating for her rights to bare arms.

She gets clout and content from infiltrating spaces that are meant for activists who happen to have different beliefs than her. She interviews them and posts said interviews on youtube and on her website. I watch these videos and feel great shame for the amount of politically uneducated people. However, I doubt that they accurately represent the intelligence of the left due to editing.

In this photo, she is dressed as Elizabeth Warren, a woman who ran for president in the 2016 election. Bennett is joined by a black man dressed as a white cowboy. To explain Bennett’s costume, Warren had lied about being native american to get a scholarship for college. They ask, “if my costume is not okay, then what makes what Warren did ok?”

Bennett was using this controversial costume to make a point. I am white so I don’t know wether this would be offensive to native americans though I can say I wouldnt consider this cultural appropriation because it is not Bennett adopting the culture of native americans. This does, however, feed into the stereotypes and generalization of native americans, which is something Warren did not do. Regardless, Bennett’s action is a strong method of raising awareness for the injustice Elizabeth Warren has done for the native american people.

The black man’s name is Joel Patrick and he uses his costume to ask if it’s offensive to white people. His costume includes white powder with light foundation for makeup, and a stereotypical cowboy outfit. Theres a point in the video where Patrick asks a white woman if his costume is offensive. The woman says it would be different if it was a white person doing blackface. When asked why, the woman refers to white privilege and how her ethnicity has not faced the issues other ethnicities have. How I would put it is the depiction isn’t offensive because it doesn’t depict white people in a bad way. At the beginning of the video. Patrick introduces himself as Tom, Woody from Toy Story’s grandfather in non-negative way. This is not a canon character, however, it does draw the line between what I would consider a good reason to portray oneself as a race that is not their own and a bad one. If Patrick was dressed as any cowboy, things would be different. This is because it implies that all cowboys are white or that only white people can be cowboys.

This next picture is what really gets me though.

These are her “Columbus Day” twitter posts. Take a look.

These are screenshots from Bennett’s twitter page about how she celebrates “Columbus Day”. One thanks Christopher Columbus for civilizing the west, and the other shows her wearing some native american inspired makeup. I dont feel comfortable speaking out about the makeup since i’m not a native american but I can certainly mention the horrific depiction of native americans. It nearly compares them to animals that needed to be tamed. It is so unfortunate that she cant see the damage colonizers caused or the civility of native americans.

Next I’d like to talk about her twitter specifically the concept of her having a twitter page and what she uses it for. Through her tweets she has made it clear that she does not believe masks help us, that she does not believe she should get the covid vaccine, that she believes pride is about broadcasting gay sex to children, and that a case in which a white woman was killed by the police should’ve been as big of a deal as the death of George Floyd.

Bennett does not believe trans people exist. She believes only in XY or XX chromosomes. She also fails to recognize the possibility of someone being intersex. She refers to crocheted packers (for ftm trans kids) as something to “shove down that pants of an innocent young girl to make it look like she has a penis bulge” while there have been tweets about this specific size of packer and how it seems to be for infants (it is smaller than a chapstick), i’d like to argue a point of if a child is wearing a diaper, it wouldnt serve its supposed purpose. If I knew I was trans as a kid, I would’ve loved to have one of these as a reminder that even though I look like a girl, I’m a boy and I have a penis. If your child can understand the concept of being transgender, then they can understand if they’re transgender or questioning. It hurts me to see someone so concerned about livelihood of youth be so ignorant of one major cause of suicide all over the world.

She seems to have something against all liberals and somehow still calls them snowflakes. Her ignorance disturbs me. I feel bad for her and her stereotypical 50s household where she doesn’t cook and clean because she wants to, but because she thinks it’ll make for a stable household. Her views on women and how she calls herself a feminist is disappointing too. Maybe Ill add to this post tmr if it gets a lot of notes, but for now, please see my sources and visit these websites.

*the videos wont link properly so just search ‘college students have no morals’ on youtube for the video where Bennett desides that college student have no morals because they support trans people, ‘Elizabeth Warren goes to college’ on youtube for the elizabeth warren video, and ‘what the heck is this liberty’ on youtube for the packer video (all on her youtube channel, liberty hangout)*

Liberty Hangout on Youtube

Joel Patrick on Twitter

Kaitlin Bennett on Twitter (links are broken, ill fix later)

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

My friends and I occasionally play that made-up game called "Kerfuffle" - A bit like DnD but with everyday life tasks and not as nerdy (sadly :D). You pick a random politician, TV char., etc. and try to overcome some challenges in a way you assume they'd do it. Last time we played, I obv picked s.o. from ST - Joyce. That was when a random thought crossed my mind: If s.o. were to name each ST main character's greatest weakness/ strength, what would be the outcome? I immediately thought of you. :D

Ok, now that the election is over, and my anxiety has come back down to its usual “only a little high” status, it’s back to business here. This is an interesting question from my pal @sollody here. I’m not going to be able to go too much into depth given the breadth of the question here, but it’ll be a nice look at several characters. Perhaps this will result in requests for more in-depth looks at some of them individually. For the sake of having a defined meaning of “main character,” I am only going with characters who were in all three seasons and were directly involved in the action (sorry, Mr. Clarke). I will make an exception for Max, as she’s just too central to leave out.

The Party

Mike

Greatest Strength: Determination. Once he sets his mind on something, he does everything in his power to see that it happens. Do not try to come between Mike and his objective. God help you if you try to stop him when his objective involves Will or El.

Greatest Weakness: A lack of emotional intelligence. Mike reacts to his emotions as they come. There’s no apparent self-awareness, and this results in impulsive behavior that leads to negative outcomes for himself and his relationships. The feelings themselves aren’t the problem. Mike just doesn’t understand them enough to react appropriately.

Will

Greatest Strength: Quick thinking. I was tempted to mention his compassion, but really Will’s greatest asset is his mental acuity. Since season 1 he has shown an impressive capacity for quick thinking in stressful situations.

Greatest Weakness: Insecurity. Will has self-esteem issues resulting from not only the Upside Down situation, but also more mundane personal and family experiences. He worries about how people view him and fears that he’s being left behind. This leads to him keeping important things to himself, things nobody, especially a child, should be expected to deal with alone.

Lucas

Greatest Strength: Rationality. Lucas has generally been the member of the party with the most down-to-earth mindset. Regardless of all of the supernatural goings on, Lucas has tried to view things realistically. His approaches to the events of the series have typically been the most practical, skeptical, and grounded. Ironically, this actually does make him a good Winston, though I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell him this.

Greatest Weakness: Overconfidence. Lucas is very sure of himself, sometimes too much so, even when warned off by others. From being sure that El was trouble, to risking a beating from Billy, to thinking he’s some suave expert on women, Lucas has made trouble for himself and his friends. He doesn’t meant to, of course, and a lot of this may come from some desire to “be a man.” Lucas needs to learn to accept himself as he is.

Dustin

Greatest Strength: Curiosity. Dustin is always looking to learn more about anything and everything. Nothing is too weird or off-putting for him. His knowledge has come very much in handy for the Party, and this general attitude has led to him accepting the supernatural events in stride.

Greatest Weakness: Recklessness. Dustin, in his pursuit of satisfying his curiosity, or some other goal, can fail to see clearly obvious dangers. Find a strange creature? Raise it yourself. See a strange growth in the underground tunnels? Go get a closer look. Find out about a possible Russian base in the mall? Let’s go check it out! His goals are often admirable, but his approach is often foolish.

El

Greatest Strength: Adaptability. El has managed to escape a government facility, survive in the woods, and travel to unfamiliar locations despite her young age. While she has been somewhat dependent on her powers, she’s managed to accomplish some impressive feats for someone who hasn’t had anything close to resembling a normal upbringing.

Greatest Weakness: Ignorance. This isn’t the “you’re so ignorant!” meaning of the word. I mean it in the truest sense of the word: El just lacks a lot of information in life. Most critically, she’s emotionally and socially unaware. A lot of her schemas for relationships come from TV shows and what little she picked up from Mike in season 1. She’s gotten somewhat better as the seasons moved on, but there’s just a lot she doesn’t know. This had led to her being suspicious, angry, and possessive (specifically of Mike), harming her relationships with others.

Max

Greatest Strength: Acceptance. Max doesn’t unduly judge anyone. Her issues with Mike stemmed from his treatment of her. Aside from that, some light teasing aside, she was more than happy to accept the Party as her friends. She didn’t let Lucas’ race get in the way of their mutual attraction, despite knowing what Neil and Billy would think about it. She wanted to be El’s friend from the start, and, despite being harshly rebuffed at first, she accepted El when she sought Max out in season 3. It’s really a testament to how determined she is to not continue the cycle that Neil and Billy brought into her life.

Greatest Weakness: Family. Honestly, Max’s biggest drawback is her home life. She’s worried that she may end up going down the same angry, abusive road as Billy and Neil. She’s mistrustful, snarky, and blunt even when not worked up, behaviors she likely developed due to exposure to Billy and Neil. She also seems to still love Billy despite his abusive behavior. This sort of family dynamic can be very damaging (and it was probably just as harmful to Billy). Hopefully, Max’s found family serves to offset the harm done by her “real” family.

Older Teens

Nancy

Greatest Strength: Determination. It must be a family trait. Nancy is relentless, and she will get to the truth of the matter, one way or another. Nobody, and indeed no monster, will keep her from what she’s after.

Greatest Weakness: Egocentrism. Nancy can easily lose sight of how things impact those around her. Her desire to prove herself has left her somewhat blind to the difficulties other people face. She has trouble relating to people from other situations.

Jonathan

Greatest Strength: Compassion. Jonathan has sacrificed a great deal for his family, and he’s apparent done it without any noticeable resentment. His treatment of Will resembles the ideal that a lot of parents hope for in their kids (though in reality Mike/Nancy or Lucas/Erica is the more realistic outcome). Jonathan just wants those important to him to be happy.

Greatest Weakness: Social Awkwardness. Jonathan has a great deal of trouble interacting with other people. This likely stems from his family situation, as his father leaving left his family as pariahs of sorts, and it also left him having to be a sort of father figure when he should have been able to be a regular teenager.

Steve

Greatest Strength: Courage. Yes, Steve has been freaked out by everything, but that’s irrelevant. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the ability to feel fear and not let it control you. Steve has willingly put himself in harm’s way for the sake of others in all three seasons. The only thing that scares Steve too much to overcome is social judgment...

Greatest Weakness: Insecurity. Yes, our buddy, King Steve, has self-esteem issues. This is why he’s always trying to play himself off as a hotshot. He’s simply too afraid to just be himself. Sadly, it’s only when he lets this guard down that he’s at his best. He’s made some stride at overcoming this, and I’m hopeful that he continues this in season 4.

Adults

Joyce

Greatest Strength: Ferocity. Do I even need to explain this? Do NOT threaten Joyce’s loved ones, especially Will. Just don’t.

Greatest Weakness: Emotional Reactivity. When stress hits Joyce, she reacts hard. It’s perfectly normal, given the level of stress she feels, but it leaves her seeming “crazy” and makes it hard for others to understand what she’s trying to get across. As a result, her message, warning, etc. is lost and her credibility is damaged. In less serious occurrences, she instead just comes across as belligerent or annoying, even though she’s generally right about whatever she’s on about.

Hopper

Greatest Strength: Compassion. Hopper is at his best when he’s trying to protect others. Despite having worked to close himself off from the world after his personal trauma, Hopper still feels compassion. He probably never wanted to feel anything for anyone again (perhaps why he returned to a boring town like Hawkins), but when tragedy struck it brought out the best in him. Though, that brings us to his weakness...

Greatest Weakness: Insensitivity. Perhaps ironically, Hopper’s weakness is the complete opposite of his strength. Hopper is a man who runs hot and cold. Which version of him that you get depends on his mood. If you get his bad side, prepare for harsh words, and perhaps harsher fists. This may help him get the job done at times, but it harms his relationships. He has a tremendous fear of loss, which results in him lashing out fiercely at those he cares for if they do something to that risks him losing them.

Ok, that’s the best I could come up with. I’d love to read other people’s thoughts on the matter.

#stranger things #mike wheeler #will byers #lucas sinclair #dustin henderson #eleven #max mayfield #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #steve harringrove #joyce byers #jim hopper

[rairii]

dumbassrights replied to your post “After the election fraud that happened in Bolivia was uncovered and...”

hey! are you bolivian? can you explain bolivians situation right now? everything i see is outsiders opinions and i know that i can't really trust that. if you can't, thats fine, thank you!

Hello! Yes I am Bolivian, though I currently live in a different South American country, but I’ve been keeping in touch with my family with WhatsApp and I try to keep up with the basic news from back home, so I think I can explain the basics.

The basic start is with Evo Morales, a cocalero (coca leaf grower) who became a politician and came to power as president in 2006. He’s the first indigenous president of Bolivia (he is Aymara), and when he came to power was widely seen as a game changer, destroying the oligarchical, upper white class hold on Bolivian politics. He was received with much fanfare, including from white leftists, who were keen on a president who would enact social reform and change and concentrate on helping reduce poverty and racism. I was too young to vote back then, but the majority of my family voted for Evo. He was... he was hope. It’s hard to explain. We thought it was the turning point. Finally, an indigenous president, someone who knew discrimination first hand and would be able to listen to the many indigenous peoples of our country. Someone who would fight imperialism, and the scars of colonialism.

He managed to do some good things. If I remember correctly, education spending and welfare spending increased, he increased the taxes on many companies, such as hydrocarbons, allowing the state to invest more and have less of a deficit. Bolivia also received an economic boom unrelated to his actions and policies (it had more to do with the price of minerals, since Bolivia is a mining country, and so on and so forth), so for a while poverty did reduce and the middle class grew. He also increased the number of indigenous and campesino (farmer/rural lands) representatives and their influence in politics.

However, as time went on, Evo’s party began to systematically remove any opposition they could, with many political leaders jailed for charges of tax evasion and the like. There is a lot of shady stuff going around that topic, and it’s too much to get into in a short explanation. It turned out that the party sought to remove any rising leadership, even within their party, that could threaten Evo’s dominance. His party also began to stack the legislative branch and pushing new judges through, setting up people who’d be grateful to him and thus legislate in his favor. While this was happening, MAS, the party’s social base, expanded their power and influence in other ways.

Now, the actual constitutional fuckery that angered a lot of leftists. He had the constitution rewritten in 2008 and it was approved in 2009, which had really mixed opinions from people, though I personally liked that he changed the name of “Republic of Bolivia” to “Plurinational State of Bolivia” to recognize the indigenous nations of Bolivia. The constitution maintained its two term limit for the presidency, but the thing was, he claimed that since there was a new constitution, his first mandate/government no longer counted, and he got it approved legally that he could run two more times again, which he did. Which like. What the fuck?

In the process, we began seeing cracks in his pro-indigenous, pro-environmental discourse. For example, he ignored and overulled the indigenous peoples of TIPNIS, a national park and indigenous territory, when they legally stated that they did not want a highway built through their lands, because it would bring in deforestation and cocaleros who are known for deforestation. He basically steamrollered over this, despite indigenous peoples of the TIPNIS walking all the way to the city of La Paz to make protests. He began to approve infrastructure projects that would destroy natural spaces, including hydroelectric dams that can and will flood Madidi, one of the most important national parks and biodeverse areas of Bolivia. And so on and so forth, he began to act in such a way that was at odds with the platform he ran, betraying indigenous peoples and Pachamama (mother earth) at every turn. He also never took any reasonable criticism in stride, blaming it all on American Imperialism.

However, because of MAS’ stronghold and no unity among the opposition, Evo ran two more terms after his first (including the third which really shouldn’t have been legally recognized), and he stated that after his third he wouldn’t stay in power.

If you guessed that he changed his mind or was lying, you’re right.

He called for a national referendum in 2016 for whether he should be allowed to run for a fourth term, but he lost the referendum, which voted “No”, though it was a narrow margin. And instead of respecting the will of the Bolivian people, he ignored it and pushed himself forward as a candidate for the next (these) elections, to the point that he pushed so that the Supreme Tribunal of Justice would rule that the constitution was inconstitutional (wtf) because it did not respect his right to reelection (wtf) and decided that no public office would have a term limit. I hope I don’t have to explain why that is just. A horrible decision for democracy. Term limits exist for a reason. It’s so no one person can get a stranglehold on power. After this it became clear to us that he had become enamoured with power, and was mainly seeking to establish himself in power indefinitely, which well, it pissed a lot of us off. It was heartbreaking too. To see someone we’d pinned our hopes on becoming... a dictator.

This finally brings us to three weeks ago, when the general elections were held. Now, in Bolivia, we have it so that any winner of the presidential elections has to have at least 10% points more than the guy in second place, or we go into a second round of elections between the higher scoring candidates. And as the official electoral authority reported throughout most of the counting process as results came in, Evo didn’t have the 10% lead needed to avoid a second round, and statistically even if the remaining votes were majority Evo, he wouldn’t be able to get the 10% needed. Also, the remaining votes were City votes, and the cities are in general, not Evo supporters anymore. Until at around 80% of all votes counted, the website and reporting of the electoral authority just. Stopped. It cut off. It cut off for 24 hours, during which the government first claimed that oh, it’d had some technical difficulties, and then (this part I actually don’t understand, so I’m paraphrasing what I maybe undersood) claimed that because some voting places had finished counting already, so they wouldn’t have two places reporting results, they stopped the main authority. Which like.

That’s really fucking fishy.

So people were really suspicious, and when the authority began reporting again those 24 hours later, reporting that oh, actually, Evo had won with the required 10%, a lot of people didn’t believe it. This smelled like electoral fraud. So people began gathering to protest because Evo shouldn’t have been running in the first place and now he wanted us to take this lie and swallow it.

Evidence came out over the next few days about electoral fraud: non-Evo vote ballots were found in trash bins, and the official databases of the electoral authority were found to have “irregularities” that all favoured Evo. People got pissed even as Evo claimed that it was imperialist forces and that the counts were all valid and legit and transparent. But the damage was done. Bolivians took to the streets in big numbers to protest and froze the cities, stopping transport and literally putting the cities in a standstill, only letting emergency services and food trucks coming to the supermarkets through so people could live. The protesters in the cities began to get threats, because Evo began trying to sell these protests as “the racist cities trying to stamp the rural vote”, from Evo supporters, that they’d shut the water supplies to the city off. Counter protesters began massing too. Clashes happened. Evo supporters were pushed out of the city of Cochabamba, but they set fire to the grasses around a city landmark and place of pride because they wanted to give a last fuck you. MAS supporters attacked hospitals that had protesters and even the doctors and nurses who weren’t supporting MAS. Photo and video evidence, and people coming forward, showed that the government was paying people to counter protest. The protesters were mostly non-violent, but there were clashes when the police wasn’t able to keep people separated. One mayor near Cochabamba was found to have paid two thugs to beat up protesters, to the point that one young man of 18ish was thought to be dead, and her hair was cut off and she was sprayed red - supposedly by protesters, but now there are cliams of people from her town that it was her own people that did it to make the protesters look bad. (My opinion? It could be either at this point, I don’t know). The protesters wore the Bolivian flag and called for democracy to be respected. The Evo supporters primarily wore the party flag, and got their hands on dynamite that they set off on streets to intimidate protesters. Protesters have died at the hands of Evo supporters - I haven’t heard of one case of dead Evo supporters. The police started to get unhappy, because they didn’t want to throw tear gas at the people protesting. To try and sweeten them, the goverment paid a bonus... but it turned out the bonus money was taken from the police officer’s pension. Police departments began to ... not sure if mutiny is the right word, but to defy the government, in several cities.

At first, people were pushing for a second round of elections, but when we realized that actually, legally, when there is fraud of a significant impact the elections have to be annuled and new ones held, and the people who did the fraud jailed, the movements began to call for new elections completely, with a new electoral authority that could be trusted.

In the meantime, the military was quiet and not sent out to repress anything even after the police began to rebel, with military subordinates presenting letters that they would not repress the people, while it was known that military high command is pro Evo.

While this was going on, the OEA, The Organization of American States, had issued from the start of the 24 hour blackout from the electoral authority that they had concerns about the election process. Evo ended up accepting an audit from OEA representatives, and said that he’d stand by their resolution. When they finally came out with a report saying there were serious irregularities in the election that cast it into doubt, he called it politically motivated, but did call for new elections...

Then the high commander of the military said Evo should resign so that the country can be peaceful again. And a few hours ago Evo presented his resignation to the presidency.

It’s not over by a long shot - we need to establish a transparent, trustworthy electoral process in record time and hold new elections, and people are afraid that Evo will take back his resignation, and Evo incited his supporters in his resignation speech - but we’ve managed to get this far after three weeks of non spot protests.

There’s a lot more going on, a lot of context I’ve skipped, on Evo, on the political opposition - including Camacho, a religious right wing religionalism whose gotten a worrying amount of support with the protests in reaction to Evo’s excesses - but so far, I am proud of Bolivia. We’ve not let a wanna-be dictator establish himself. Now we just need a good left wing leader to help build us up to the promise that Evo gave us, and to stand strong against right wing pendulum reactionaries.

I leave you with the protest chants that spread in Bolivia these past three weeks

Quien se cansa? Who gets tired? NADIES SE CANSA! NOBODY GETS TIRED! Quien se rinde? Who gives up? NADIES SE RINDE! NOBODY GIVES UP! Evo de nuevo? Evo again? HUEVO CARAJO! [Pun involving the word egg, which sounds like Evo, and a swear word that doesn’t have a translation]

#dumbassrights #bolivia #politics

[junetuesday]

sweetener - [sixteen]

Trial and Error

Pairing: Tom Holland x Female Reader - uni AU

Word Count:  ~7K

Warnings: smut, smut gone kinda wrong, alcohol/hangover mentions

A/N: some of the ~positions in this chapter kind of imply that the reader is of a similar height to tom so sorry if that bothers you! other than that pls enjoy as we all try to recover from that instagram story, hope everyone is staying safe and staying home as much as they’re able to ❣

Updates: dunno sorry i thought i had a schedule there for a minute but i lost it

Tom was very tired. So very, very tired.

Perhaps it had been a bad idea to go out last night, seeing as he was already knackered from work and lectures and training, but he and Harrison had gotten home from training and Adam said ‘we out tonight?’ and what was he supposed to say? No? To £1.50 pints? Of course not. So, now, here he was on Tuesday afternoon, not even that hungover but just tired, trying not to fall asleep in a lecture.

Apart from the fact that he’d nearly whacked his chin on the desk three times in the last ten minutes, though, his head drooping as he nodded off, he was pretty happy. He’d had a whole weekend with just you, which was nice, no interruptions or awkward interactions with housemates on the stairs, and you were now Officially Together, which was even nicer. He’d been a bit surprised when you’d brought it up on Friday night - but not in a bad way, he just hadn’t really thought about it. He wondered afterwards what he would have said if someone had asked him if you were his girlfriend, like Ruby had asked you. Yes? Probably? Maybe? No one had asked so it had never really occurred to him to put a label on your relationship, but when he thought about after he decided that if pressed he probably would have said yes.

In any case that was all cleared up now, “Facebook Official” and everything - he’d even told his mum. Well, that might be stretching the truth a little - he’d been on FaceTime to her on Sunday night and his brother Harry had come into the room and said ‘hey Tom how’s your girlfriend?’. It had been kind of hard to gauge his tone because he was shoving crisps into his mouth as he spoke, but it sounded snarky and Tom was fairly sure he had no interesting in actually hearing how you were and just wanted to tease him for having a girlfriend while simultaneously dropping him in it with their mum. Tom’s suspicions were confirmed when she looked directly into the camera with a high pitched ‘what? Who!’ and Harry promptly left the room, leaving Tom to murmur ‘um, well, uh…’ while he tried to think how best to explain your relationship. It wasn’t that he’d been actively hiding you from his family, he’d mentioned you in passing a few times to his brothers,but it just hadn’t really come up. Maybe he should have mentioned it before putting it on Facebook, but what was he supposed to do, just message the family chat like hey btw i have a girlfriend now? In the end he just said you were a friend of his housemate’s and that you’d met a couple of months ago, electing to skip over the part about how he already knew of you from work beforehand because that was quite embarrassing and not really something he wanted to share with his mother, and then he changed the subject and asked to see Tessa before making an excuse to hang up.

Familial video calls aside though, he’d had a nice weekend, and though it was only Tuesday he was already looking forward to the next one. Not just because he was tired and wanted a lie in, but this Friday was Valentine’s Day. He’d never really been bothered about it so he hadn’t even realised it was coming up, but once he did Tom wondered if your “talk” would have happened this week anyway, regardless of the Liv/Harrison situation, and not even because of the actual holiday itself, but because of the night out. Valentine’s Day at the SU had a traffic light system - wear red if you’re taken, green if you’re single, and yellow if...well, Tom wasn’t really sure what yellow was for. Maybe? Proceed with caution? Anyway, you probably would have ended up having the conversation about your relationship status before the party, because it would have been extremely awkward if you’d turned up in different colours. Now, however, you both knew you’d both be wearing red, so that was good to know - that is, if you ended up going out. You hadn’t talked about your plans yet, whether you’d go out like on a proper date, or stay in, or go out with everyone else. Tom didn’t really mind what you did, as long as he got to see you at some point, so he figured he’d speak to you about it later and see what you wanted to do.

For now though, he really needed to concentrate on this lecture. He was trying, he really was, only it was really quite boring and his eyelids were really heavy suddenly, and the lecturer’s voice sounded really far away…

aaaCHOO!

Tom’s head snapped up at the sound of the person next to him sneezing, his body jerking as he was startled back into consciousness. This was hopeless, there was no way he was going to be able to stay awake for the rest of the lecture if he didn’t do something to distract himself. The lecture content itself was clearly not interesting enough to keep him alert and awake, so he decided to see what you were up to instead, and you replied after a minute or two.

nm just back from lectures, watching a movie with liv and mads x

Oh cool what movie x

Even without knowing what movie you were watching, Tom was certain that he’d much prefer to be on your sofa watching TV, instead of sitting in this uncomfortable chair in a cold lecture hall. That was basically all you’d done all weekend, though obviously without your housemates - which was for the best, because it would have been really awkward if they’d been sitting there when the episode of Friends where they get a free adult TV channel came on and you’d asked him if he watched porn and he’d nearly choked on his tea. He’d just said ‘sometimes’ and then asked if you did before taking a big sip of his tea to try and look nonchalant (which was a mistake because it was still too hot but he wasn’t going to choke again on the same drink so he just let it burn his mouth and throat and nodded casually when you also said ‘sometimes’).

Bend it like Beckham lmao x

Arent you in a lecture rn x

Ahh a classic. Yeh i am but

Tom paused, considering how to finish that sentence. But now I’ve just remembered you talking to me about porn and it’s distracting ?? Hmm, no, probably not like that.

its really boring and im tired so i keep falling asleep 😴x

Okay, better, now stop thinking about it. He wasn’t even really sure what “it” was, just the general idea of you and porn, and porn-related activities, and things he shouldn’t be thinking about in a lecture.

Early night for you tonight x

Oh dear. That didn’t help, because now he was thinking that you were right, he probably would be in bed quite early - but would he be sleeping? Probably not, and he did not need to be thinking about what he’d be doing instead right now.

Tom checked the clock on the wall, pretending to be reading the lecture slides on the screen below it. Only twenty minutes left…

Want me to pick you up on the way home and we can go straight to bed? x

He debated putting a 😏 on the end, or maybe even a 😉, but ultimately decided against it before hitting send. You were supposed to be coming over to his later that evening anyway, but now he couldn’t really think of a reason to wait any longer than was absolutely necessary. Plus this way maybe you would actually get an early night, which wouldn’t be a bad idea considering he had to play rugby the next day.

Sounds like a plan. When do you finish x

20 mins x

He hoped you were on the same wavelength and understood that he didn’t actually plan to go to sleep at 4:30 in the afternoon (though he could use a nap, but he could do that after). He’d find out in half an hour or so, he supposed, he just had to stay awake until then.

It turned out to be a lot easier to stay awake once he had something else to think about besides what his lecturer was talking about, so soon enough Tom was texting you to say he was on his way, and then again to say he was parked on your street. He debated going to the door, but he decided that it was probably best if he didn’t just in case Liv saw him and wanted to hurt him just for being friends with Harrison.

“Hey!”

Your voice as you opened the passenger side door made Tom look up from his phone, slightly startled as he was waiting for you to text back and wasn’t expecting you to just appear out of nowhere.

“Oh- hey,” he reached over to grab his bag from the passenger seat so you could get in, tossing it into the backseat as you shoved your own bag into the footwell.

You smiled once he turned back to face you, reaching across the car to touch his cheek as he leaned over to give you a kiss hello.

“You look nice,” Tom said when you pulled back, settling back into your seat and putting on your seatbelt.

“Oh,” you looked down at your outfit, then over at Tom. “Thanks.”

It wasn’t a particularly exciting outfit, just jeans and a slouchy knitted jumper, but it was cute - or maybe that was just you, it was hard to tell. In any case it was time for Tom to stop admiring you and start driving, the drive between your houses passing quickly as you talked about your day so far.

“Oh crap,” Tom muttered under his breath as you walked up to the front door. His curtains were still closed, and he remembered then that his room was a complete mess.

You weren’t meant to be coming over until later on, so when he’d woken up late he’d just jumped in the shower in the hopes it would relieve his hangover, shoved on the cleanest clothes he could find, and ran out the door. So, instead of stepping back to let you in once he unlocked the front door, he went in ahead of you and went straight to his room to assess the damage. Besides the closed curtains, unmade bed, and wardrobe doors flung open, his open gym bag and workout clothes were on the floor, the towel he’d used after his speedy shower before heading out on top of them. In his semi-conscious state this morning he hadn’t been able to find said towel, so the one he’d used this morning was draped over the back of his desk chair. He was wearing the jeans he’d worn out last night, so at least they weren’t on the floor, but the shirt he’d worn was, as well as the pyjama bottoms he’d slept in, complete with boxers inside them, sitting very visibly right in the middle of the room. A couple of cider cans and the tub from the Pot Noodle he’d had for dinner littered his desk, and the bag he’d brought to yours on the weekend was open at the end of his bed, its contents spilling onto the floor. Fantastic.

“Sorry,” he mumbled as he quickly gathered all his clothes up into a pile and shoved them into the wardrobe. “D’you want a drink or anything?”

“Nah, I’m good,” you shook your head as you took off your jacket, setting it and your bag down by the door as it swung shut behind you.

“Okay, uh…” Tom trailed off, trying to fit his bags into the wardrobe and get the doors closed before everything started tumbling out. “Wanna put something on TV?”

“Umm… I dunno, is anyone home?”

“I don’t think so?”

Operation Wardrobe was mostly successful, in that the doors didn’t completely shut but nothing was falling out, so Tom considered that a win and moved on to straightening his duvet.

“Eh,” you laughed with a shrug. “Why bother then, we’re not going to watch it are we?”

“...yeah, fair enough.”

Deciding that his bed would do as it was and the curtains should probably remain closed, Tom moved towards you, his hands finding your waist as you pulled him closer by the collar of his jacket until your lips connected in a hurried kiss.

Guess you were on the same wavelength.

“I thought you were tired,” you smirked against his lips as he guided you across the room until your back was against the wall, his body pressed to yours.

“Well,” he sighed as he wiggled out of his jacket, your hands pushing it off his shoulders and down his arms. “I was, but I’ll persevere.”

Tom reached for the hem of your jumper as your lips reconnected, his fingers brushing over your waist as he pushed it up.

“Oh right, okay,” you giggled when you separated again for him to pull your jumper off over your head. “Well done, must be hard for you.”

Well, something was hard, if not the act of staying awake. What was vexing him at present, though, was how many layers you were wearing. Your coat and jumper were gone, but you still had a vest top on, tucked into your jeans - and was that a belt? A belt?! You had boots on too, plus whatever underwear you had on - what a nightmare - well not a nightmare, obviously your underwear wasn’t a nightmare, but--

Tom’s thoughts were cut off by you grabbing his face and kissing him again, and that was enough to get him to just get on with it. Your hands shifted from his cheeks to his shoulders and down his chest as he pulled your vest free. His tongue eagerly exploring your mouth, he kissed you more firmly before he stepped away to pull his hoodie and t-shirt off over his head. You followed suit, taking your vest off and dropping it on top of your jumper, then bending down to take off your boots while Tom kicked off his trainers.

His hands on your waist guided you towards the bed once you straightened up, one darting out to stop himself falling on top of you as you landed on your back on top of his crumpled sheets. Kissing as you went, you shuffled up to the top of the bed, you on your back and Tom beside you, leaning over you. Your legs tangled together, your fingers brushed through the back of his hair as he kissed down your neck and onto your chest, his lips following the line of your bra strap. Things started getting more complicated when he passed your collarbones though, and he realised that this was not your standard bra.

A pretty teal colour, your bra had complicated looking straps going across the tops of your breasts, just above the cups. The band was deeper than normal too, a sort of mesh lace covering your ribs almost down to your waist. After briefly pausing to consider whether to follow the cup or the strap (he chose the strap) Tom continued his line of kisses onto the centre of your chest, sucking and nipping at the skin in between your breasts. Your chest rose under him as you took a deep breath in, letting it out in a contented sigh as he lifted his head to look at you.

“This is fancy,” he ran his fingers over the thin strap decorating the top of your breast. “Did you wear this to uni?”

“No,” you shook your head, your chest moving under his hand as you laughed. “Bit much for a lecture, I think.”

You watched his hand as his fingertip trailed down between your breasts and along the underwire as he chuckled.

“Yeah, maybe.”

If you didn’t wear it when you went out, did that mean you changed into it just for him?

“What do you think, though?”

“Hmm?” Tom hummed, looking up to see you gesturing to your chest.

Were you actually asking what he thought of your bra? Or maybe just your boobs in general? It was more likely that you meant the bra, but either way the answer was the same.

“Oh, yeah, uh,” his eyes returned to your bra, like he even had to think about his reply. “Very nice.”

“Thanks… you know you’ve seen this bra before, actually.”

“Oh?”

Tom felt like he should probably look at your face instead of your chest while you were talking, but then you were talking about your bra, so many it was okay if he kind of went back and forth between them.

“Yeah, you know that Snapchat I sent you?”

“Ohh right, yeah.” Now he thought about it, it was actually kind of familiar, though if he was honest he had been more focused on the fact that you had sent him a picture of yourself in your bra than on what the bra itself looked like. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“You’re welcome,” you laughed again, a cute little laugh that didn’t really match up with the way your hand on the back of his neck pulled him into a kiss.

Tom shifted more on top of you as the kiss deepened, your hand slipping into the back pocket of his jeans to keep his body close to yours as you sucked on his bottom lip. Your other hand was still playing with his hair, your fingers twisting in the curls as he moved to kiss your neck.

“You know it’s funny actually,” you tilted your head to the side as you spoke, a gentle smile in your voice. “I didn’t mean to send that to you.”

…

…….

You what?

“Hmm?” he said instead, his face still buried in your neck but his eyes wide open.

“Yeah.”

That’s not helpful, who was it meant for?

Tom pulled back slightly, shifting to the side and resting his weight on one arm while he waited for you to expand.

“I was sending it to the girls and I just clicked on you too by accident.”

“Oh right… okay.”

He wasn’t really sure why you were telling him this now, or at all really, but if that’s all you meant then that was okay, right? It wasn’t like you meant to send it to another guy. Besides, that was ages ago, things were very different now. Like, if he’d found that out a few weeks ago he probably would have been a bit more freaked out because he had taken that snap as a sign that you were into him, so finding out that it hadn’t been meant for him at all would have kind of shattered that idea. As it was though, he had more than enough evidence now that you were into him, so it didn’t really matter too much now.

“Did you not think the caption was a bit weird?” you spoke again, taking him out of his thoughts and back to the present. “Like, why would I tell you I got this in the sale?”

“Oh, uh,” This is embarrassing - though not more embarrassing than sending a semi-nude to the wrong person. “To be honest, I didn’t read the caption.”

“You know what, that’s fair enough,” you laughed. “I’m glad I sent it anyway.”

“Me too.” Wait that sounds weird- “I mean not just because, like, obviously it’s always nice to see boobs-”

“Well yeah-”

“But it kinda like, you know-”

“-got things going?”

“...yeah,” Tom nodded, a smile growing across his face because yeah, that’s exactly what it did.

You were smiling too, and then before he knew it you were kissing again, his body shifting over yours. He kissed down your chest again, moving down the bed as he went, planning to take off your jeans - and his own, because they were feeling uncomfortably tight right now.

“Oh yeah, I was gonna say-”

Fighting the urge to sigh, Tom just looked up at you from where he was kissing the soft skin just below the band of your bra.

“-you know the other day when you said you wanted to try like, spanking or whatever-”

“Oh, I, uh-”

“- I was just wondering if there, you know, wasanythingelseyouwantedtotry?”

You’d said the last part in one quick go, the words running into each other, leaving Tom blinking up at you as he played them through in his head at half speed. Once he’d worked out what you’d said though, he still didn’t know what to say, because he definitely had not expected you to say that.

“Erm… uh… I don’t know…”

“Oh. Okay, never mind-” your voice went quieter, your face turning slightly as you looked away.

“No, like, it’s just - I can’t think of anything right now, but I’m sure - can I come back to you on that?”

Your eyes met his again, and your face relaxed into a small smile as you nodded.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Cool.”

He waited a moment to see if you had anything else you wanted to say, but you just ran your fingers through his hair and said nothing, so he took that to mean he could continue. He pressed a few more kisses to your stomach before unbuckling your belt, undoing your jeans and pulling them down your legs once you lifted your hips to help him get them off. He swallowed as he tossed your jeans onto the floor, not taking his eyes off your underwear - a thong that matched your bra, barely covering any of you. That settled it, you definitely changed into different lingerie just for him - and that knowledge made it even hotter. Like, you looked amazing regardless, but knowing that it was for him? On purpose? You purposefully dressed like that for him? Yeah, that made it ten times better.

“C’mere,” he murmured, leaning down to wrap his arms around you and rolling you both over so you were on top of him.

You ground down onto him as you kissed, his hands squeezing your ass as you arched your back, rubbing yourself along his length through his jeans. He grunted as your lips left his, instead scattering kisses down his neck and chest as you moved down his body. Soon you were kneeling on the bed between his legs, sucking small purple marks onto the pale skin just above the waistband of his boxers. He was so focused on that that he didn’t even notice you undoing his jeans, until you were pulling them and his boxers down, his hard cock springing free and falling heavily against his stomach.

Tom watched as you licked along his length, sucking him into your mouth when you reached the top. He groaned when you bobbed your head, your cheeks hollowing around him. Your fingers curled around the base of his cock, following behind your lips as they slid up and down his length. You swirled your tongue around the tip as you came off him for a moment to breathe, your hand continuing to move up and down smoothly. After a moment you dipped your head again, taking him back into your mouth a little at a time. Your mouth felt so good around him, so warm and wet, and Tom was just thinking that he’d quite like to reach between your legs and feel something else warm and wet except he couldn’t really reach just now, when it occurred to him that maybe he did have an answer for you.

“Hey…” he muttered, not sure how to begin.

“Hmm?”

Tom closed his eyes for a second, his jaw tensing when you hummed around him. “I thought of something.”

You lifted your head, your hand still moving as your mouth left his cock. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, um,” What’s the best way to say this? Just say it, I suppose. “I dunno, you could like… sit on my face.”

“Hm…” you tilted your head thoughtfully. “What, while I…”

You trailed off, nodding towards your hand around his dick.

“Yeah… if you want.”

You hummed again, your hand still pumping slowly while you mulled it over. After a moment though, you stopped and nodded, sitting back on your heels.

“Yeah, okay.”

You moved aside while Tom took his jeans off, but when he lay back down you stayed kneeling beside him on the bed. He said your name questioningly, looking at you uncertainly.

“...you okay?”

“Yeah,” you nodded, but didn’t move. “I dunno, it’s just like - it’s very exposing, isn’t it…”

He didn’t really know what to say to that - he’d gone down on you loads of times, so he didn’t really see what the difference was, but there obviously was a difference to you.

“Oh, well,” he sat up a bit, propping himself up on his elbows. “I mean you don’t have to-”

“No, it’s not that,” you cut him off, shaking your head. “It’s just… like I want to but…”

Tom stayed quiet, just watching you have this debate with yourself because it didn’t really seem like it actually had very much to do with him at all.

“D’you mind if I leave my pants on? Like, obviously you can move them to, you know, get at stuff, but like, I dunno-” you sighed, sounding exasperated with yourself. “I know that doesn’t really make sense, I just feel like it would make it easier for me to put my butt in your face.”

He couldn’t help but snort at that - not so much at the idea but just the way you phrased it. You laughed too, only a little more nervously.

“Yeah, ‘course,” he nodded, trying to make his expression more serious. “Whatever makes you comfortable.”

You nodded back, slowly at first but then more decisively.

“Yeah… yeah, okay. Sorry, I’m being weird.”

“Nah you’re fine, don’t worry.”

Tom sat up more, touching your cheek gently as he kissed you. Your lips moved tentatively with his at first, but it didn’t take long before you got back into it. Your fingers wound their way into his hair as he gripped your waist, your body shifting to climb back on top of him.

“Oh right, yeah,” you stopped suddenly, shaking your head with a chuckle. “Other way.”

Both of you laughed as you shuffled on the bed, turning around and swinging your leg over his chest. Tom held your hips as you moved back, until you were right in front of his face. He couldn’t see what you were doing, obviously, but he could feel your body over his as you leaned down, wrapping your hand around his length again. He had a brief moment of panic when he realised that when he pulled your thong aside everything was going to be upside down compared to what he was used to, but then he felt your mouth envelope his cock and he figured he’d just work it out as he went along.

Kneading your ass cheeks firmly as he spread them apart, Tom pressed a few teasing kisses to the wet patch in the centre of your underwear. Your body twitched slightly at the contact, but you didn’t stop what you were doing, so he assumed that meant he was good to continue. With one hand he pulled your thong to the side to expose your pussy, wet and spread open right in front of his face. He wrapped his arms around your body and pulled you that last bit closer, onto the flat of his tongue as he ran it through your folds. Your body still felt a bit tense, but you moaned around him when he traced circles around your clit with his tongue, so that was a good sign, right?

You both carried on like that for a little while, him eating you out while you sucked him off. Sometimes Tom found it kind of hard to concentrate on what he was doing because of what you were doing, but other times you stopped and his cock was just sort of sitting there in your hand while you moaned and pushed back onto his tongue, so he figured the same thing was happening to you so it was alright. Your thong kept trying to move back between your legs though, and he was trying his best to keep it out of the way with his face but eventually he had to pull one hand away from its very important task of squeezing your bum to move it properly.

Holding your underwear aside, he went back to massaging your clit with his tongue. Your mouth tightened around the tip of his cock as you whimpered before you lifted your head, your hand still working his length as you came off him with a wet pop. Tom grunted against your pussy as you started to grind against his face, his fingers digging into your bum as he guided your movements. He could feel the tension in your body building, your thighs tensing -- until your grip on his cock loosened, your hip movements faltered, and you pulled away from him.

“Ugh, sorry,” you groaned, climbing off him when he let his arms fall away from your body and onto the bed.

“What, what’s wrong?”

“I dunno,” you whined as you turned around, crawling back on top of him and straddling his hips. “I just feel like… like I can’t concentrate? I don’t know, I think I just prefer doing one at a time, there’s too much going on.”

“Okay,” Tom just nodded; there wasn’t really much else to say to that.

“Sorry…”

“No, don’t-” he switched quickly to shaking his head. “I know what you mean and like, if you’re not into it then what’s the point, you know?”

“Okay,” You nodded as he shrugged, but your expression remained uncertain. “Still… sorry.”

“Seriously, it’s fine - now we know.”

“Now we know,” you giggled as Tom reached for your hands where they rested on his chest, tugging on them to bring you close enough for him to kiss you.

His hands caressed your body as his tongue roamed your mouth, reaching around to undo your bra - or at least, that was his plan. When he got there, however, he felt way more clasps under his fingertips than he was expecting. He tried his best to keep kissing you as he worked his way through them, but after he’d undone three and it didn’t seem like it was any closer to coming off he had to stop, muttering a frustrated sorry against your cheek.

“Oh, right,” you pushed yourself up, reaching behind you to undo the last couple of clasps. “Yeah, it’s got like five things, sorry.”

All Tom could think was why though? Why make it so complicated? But he didn’t say that, instead he said:

“No worries. What about you?”

You were just leaning down over him again, presumably about to resume kissing him when he said it, and he instantly regretted it when you stopped and tilted your head in confusion.

“What?”

His only explanation was that your habit of starting full on conversations during sex must be rubbing off on him - why else would he interrupt you when you were on top of him with only soaked thong between you? Why didn’t he just let you carry on? It was too late now though, he’d just have to continue and hope it paid off.

“Is, uh, is there anything you wanna try?”

“Oh,” you straightened up again, sitting up straight in his lap. “Hmm.”

Tom watched you thinking, nibbling on your bottom lip contemplatively, and he was beginning to wish he’d just waited to ask you another time before you spoke.

“I’ve never done it standing up, that could be fun…”

Then he really wished he hadn’t said anything, because frankly he was way too tired for that, but you had tried his thing, so it only seemed fair that he try yours.

“Okay.”

“...okay?” you repeated, looking at him questioningly.

“Okay,” he nodded. “Wanna try?”

You seemed to consider for a moment, before shrugging with a casual ‘sure’. You crawled off him and you both got to your feet, your knickers soon finding a home on the bedroom floor.

“So like, how do we… do this?”

“Um, right,” Tom thought for a second, before placing his hands on your hips and guiding you so your back was against the wall, your arms instinctively looping around his neck. “And then I guess if you like,” - he moved one hand down to your thigh - “lift your leg?”

You did as instructed, his hand holding the back of your thigh firmly as you hitched your right leg up to his left hip.

“Erm…right...” he looked back and forth between your face and his dick, now sort of pressed between your abdomens, as you bit your lip to try and stifle the giggle that was threatening to burst out of your mouth.

Hmm.

Tom bent his knees slightly, using his free hand to try and position his cock at your entrance. You lifted up onto your tiptoes, using your hands on his shoulders to steady yourself, and that did help a bit. He was able to push inside you, but beyond that he didn’t really know how to go about this. The way your bodies fit together meant that he couldn’t really thrust into you properly - he tried, but it just didn’t really work, and you were still on your tiptoes which didn’t seem sustainable, especially because you were standing on one leg and only staying upright because you were pinned between him and the wall.

“Um-”

“Hmm…”

“This isn’t working, is it?”

Looking between your bodies, your leg wrapped him and your breasts pressed to his chest, he really, really wanted to say it was working, but the truth was it just wasn’t. “Maybe if I lift you up?”

“Pardon?” you laughed, a bewildered expression on your face.

“Like,” Tom squeezed your thigh where it rested on his hip. “Do that but with your other leg.”

You just stared at him for a moment, blinking once, twice, three times before you spoke.

“No.”

“Why not?” He couldn’t help but laugh at your flat tone, the confused smile still frozen on your face.

“Because you’ll drop me.”

Tom opened his mouth to say no, he wouldn’t drop you, but in all honesty he couldn’t say that with 100% certainty. He wouldn’t mean to, obviously, but he was tired, and what if he did drop you? Surely that would be worse than… whatever this was.

“...fine,” he said instead, helping you bring your foot back to the ground before he stepped back, cock slipping out of you in the process.

“What if I bend over the bed?”

“... yeah, that could work.”

And lo, it did work. With you bent over the edge of the bed and him behind you, Tom gripped your hips as he thrust in and out of you steadily. Your hands grabbed fistfuls of the sheets, pushing back to meet his thrusts, and it wasn’t long before he could feel himself getting close, the tension inside him built up after so long spent with your mouth around him and your pussy in his face. His fingers trailed across your hip as he reached around to touch your clit, a grunt passing his lips as he felt your walls twitch and clench around him as you straightened up to give him better access.

“Fuck-”

You turned your head to kiss him, all breathless moans and probing tongues into each other's mouths. Your body twisted as you leaned into the kiss, making Tom’s cock slip out as he moved to thrust into you again.

“Fuck,” he groaned again, more out of frustration than pleasure this time. He went to reposition himself at your entrance, but stopped when you breathed his name.

“Hang on…d’you wanna just...do it normally?”

He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before he nodded.

“Yeah, okay, sure. Sorry.”

You straightened up and turned around properly, your arms wrapping around his neck. “S’okay-”

“I’m just tired and-”

“Seriously, it’s fine-”

“- I’m a bit hungover and-”

“Tom.”

The way you said his name finally made him shut up, assertive but still quiet, gentle.

“You’re fine, it’s fine. That last one was good, I’m just being awkward because I want to kiss you.”

“Oh.”

That was all he had time to say before you kissed him, as if to demonstrate your point - and honestly, you made a really solid argument. So much so that the two of you fell back onto the bed, barely breaking apart as you lay down and he pushed back inside you, your legs spread wide beneath him. Plus, it was nice to be lying down and back in his comfort zone, kissing your neck as he thrust into you, your fingers tugging at his hair, your legs wrapping tightly around his waist--

“Wait wait, stop-”

You both froze as someone came into the house, slamming the front door closed behind them.

For fuck’s sake are you fucking joking?!

Tom kept his face buried in your neck, but he could feel you holding your breath until you heard either Adam or Harrison (he was trying not to think too much about whoever it was) going straight up the stairs. He felt you exhale once an upstairs door banged shut, your hips bucking up as you sighed.

“Okay, carry on.”

He did as he was told and began to move again, thrusting into you. Your moans were quieter now, more restrained, which was a shame, but he’d take what he could get. You bit your lip as he shifted, his arms bracketing your head as he quickly built up speed until he was pounding into you. One hand still tangled in his hair, you slipped the other between your bodies to rub hurriedly at your clit.

“Oh fuck, please,” you whimpered, looking up at him slack jawed and glassy eyed.

“M’gonna - fuck - gonna come,” Tom grunted, feeling your walls clenching and squeezing his cock as he thrust into you as deeply as he possibly could.

Your fingers in his hair tightened, urging him to dip his head to kiss you. You moaned into his mouth as he obliged, your body jerking under his as you came. He kept thrusting into you as he came moments later, his own moans mixing with yours in a hurried, passionate kiss, your hips rutting together as you both rode out your highs. The kiss grew softer as the rhythm of your hips began to slow, until your tongues were lazily dancing together as you ground together slowly.

“Yeah,” you chuckled breathlessly when you finally pulled apart. “We should have just done that to begin with.”

Tom just laughed in reply, scattering kisses across your cheek and down your neck onto your shoulder as he caught his breath. His body was feeling very heavy now, every ounce of tiredness he’d felt earlier coming rushing back after that burst of energy and hormones, and suddenly all he wanted to do was sleep.

“...you’re kinda squishing me a bit, Tom.”

“Hmm?” he hummed, his face nuzzled against your cheek until he replayed your words in his head and understood what you were saying. “Oh! Sorry-”

You unwrapped your legs from around his waist so he could roll off you, before crawling out from underneath him and searching for your underwear on the floor. Tom watched from his spot on the bed as you rummaged through your bag, pulling out a clean pair of knickers and the pyjamas that he’d lent you over the weekend. He just nodded sleepily as you said something about going to the bathroom, taking his dressing gown off the back of the door and tying it around your body before you left the room.

He didn’t think he’d fallen asleep, but it only seemed like a moment later when the door swung open and you came back in, and surely you hadn’t been that quick?

“Someone in there,” you explained when he looked at you in surprise - so maybe he hadn’t fallen asleep, you actually had just come straight back.

Tom nodded again, but this time he sat up, blinking furiously in an attempt to get his eyes to stay open. He couldn’t exactly go to sleep right that second, he was too naked and sticky, so while you hovered by the door waiting for the bathroom to be free he set about cleaning himself up and finding some clean underwear. It was only another minute or two before you both heard the bathroom door open, footsteps going across the landing, and then another door closing.

“Right, be right back.”

By the time you came back for good, Tom had changed into a fresh pair of pyjamas, put something on the TV, and shook out his duvet, and was lying under it all warm and cosy and trying to stay awake at least until you got into bed too.

“Are you actually going to sleep?” you asked as you slipped in under the covers beside him.

“Not like, properly,” he mumbled, turning onto his side holding his arms out for you to wiggle into. “M’just, m’gonna nap… jus’ for a minute…”

He was sure you didn’t believe that - he didn’t believe it either - he’d probably wake up in three hours not knowing who he was or what day it was. He didn’t get to hear whether you had anything to say about it though, because he fell asleep almost immediately, his breathing turning deep and even in your ear in seconds.

⋘ FIFTEEN | SEVENTEEN ⋙

TAGLISTS:

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#tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland fic #tom holland fanfic #tom holland imagine #tom holland blurb #tom holland headcanon #tom holland smut #tom holland fluff #tom holland uni au #tom holland series #student! tom holland

[creek-cryptid-deluxe]

A Warning, dear reader:

this post will not be our usual fare in regard to Very Serious Subjects™, those posts in which I address the subjects with both levity & the gravity it deserves for the purpose of conveying an important message or information but in a way that is entertaining to read & digest. I'm sorry but I just can't muster it & if you read, you will understand why.

Everything I am about to put into this post is absolute fact. You have my permission to share because people need to hear what happened, but I do ask that if this leaves tumblr you block out my name. I am a very private person who uses this blog as a safe place to vent & I'd like it to stay that way please. However I understand stories like these should be heard.

Here we go.

Last night (Nov 3) my dad & I went to the park we always go to so I can hunt Pokemon & he can walk the dog. Since it involves long distances, I have to be in my wheelchair and with it already being dark (as it often is when we go) I plan to just park by a mural that is back off of the sidewalked running trail & conveniently between 2 Pokestops & a few streetlight style trail lights. Because... safety.

We are in front of the main playground, right at the parking lot, getting situated (poop bags, drinks, pokemon, ect) when 2 trucks pull up. 10 kids get out who look to be about 17-19, no masks, and a small dog that I immediately notice doesn't have a leash. Now my city has VERY strict leash laws. If your dog isn't on your property or at a designated dog park, they must be wearing a leash for their safety & the safety of other dogs. There are huge signs about it everywhere. So I keep an eye on this dog.

It gets closer. Closer. Nobody in the group of teens has noticed. Suddenly this shit BOLTS at my dog and starts VICIOUSLY attacking her leg. Now this dog looked to be a large chihuahua mix while my dog is a lab dane mix, but the thing is, we've experienced a dog attacking mine before & my sweet doofus just thinks they are playing as the try to rip her apart.

So my dad is kicking this little dog in a manner that will just separate them & I scream "YOUR DOG IS ATTACKING MY DOG! COME FUCKING GET IT!" All 10 of these "kids" run over & grab the dog & say 'Sorry' in a flip way.

Me: This is why leash laws exist. For the safety of all the dogs. If you can't be bothered to put your dog on a leash, don't bring it to the fucking park because the next animal it attacks unprovoked might not be as kind as my dog.

Kids: Lady your dog could have killed our dog! She's 11 years old & your dog probably provoked her. You need to show some respect!

Me: Kid, your dog literally charged over to attack my dog from about 5 yards away while my dog was just trying to pee. Additionally, you have done nothing to earn my respect so go fuck yourselves. I'm sure your parents would be super proud that you endangered a family pet because you're too lazy to use a leash.

Kids start to advance closer toward me: All you uppity cripples need to learn your place & learn to respect your betters because when Trump wins if you don't, you'll be exterminated!

Me shaking but trying to maintain composure: If you genuinely believe that, then I'm sure your parents weep for the 3 brain cells that you all apparently have to share. Fucking pathetic ignorant bigots. Get the fuck out of here before i call the cops.

They got back in their cars but as I drove to my spot, with my dad & dog, I was met with jeers of 'worthless cripple', 'uppity cripple needs a lesson', 'you're only alive because we can't exterminate you useless leeches yet'

My dog refused to venture more than 20 yards from me while my dad (his behavior during this is a whole other thing) walked her until their cars left.

All of this because their dog attacked my dog without being provoked & was unleashed.

Now I consider myself very strong & capable despite my body kinda being an unreliable dumpster fire. Like I said, I regularly go to this park at night & have never felt unsafe. But last night, as these 10 young adults advanced on me, all I could picture was a pack of hyena circling a wounded gazelle. For the first time in my life, I realized exactly how venerable I was.

Even after they left, any time someone was approaching I jumped.

Unfortunately this is going to get worse no matter the election results.

If he loses, they will be furious that their supreme leader has lost & will lash out in accordance with the violence he openly encourages & condones. Eventually it will stop, but it will probably take awhile & the damage will be serious.

If he wins, they will take that as a green light to do whatever they want for the next 4 years while he spouts his rhetoric of hate & violence.

I am privileged enough to live in a town in Texas that is generally very accepting & liberal leaning because we have one of the top art & music colleges as well as a second college. But for the first time, I am scared. Somewhere inside I know that if I give in to that fear & stay home that they win. But if I go out & end up attacked not only do they win, but my daughter loses. I can't risk that.

This is what living in "Trump's America" currently means. Being afraid to leave my home because I am a visibly disabled woman.

#disabled life #chronic illness #chronically ill #disability #disabled #ehlers danlos syndrome

[intelligencebites]

The Fight Against Domestic SELF-Radicalization in the U.S.

“Self-radicalization refers to the phenomenon wherein individuals radicalize by consuming extremist literature but have few, if any, formal ties to any terrorist organization.” (Lawfare 2016) 

In the past when America has dealt with active shootings, violent hate crimes, and lone wolf terrorist attacks that were domestic in nature; we typically saw individuals who were mentally disturbed, or had previous violent tendencies and encounters that were well documented (despite the lack of attention to them), or a hate group which were on the fringes of society. We cannot and should not diminish or lower the horrific nature of some of the attacks perpetrated by some of those people and groups, but fortunately or unfortunately they were events that law enforcement, the legal establishment and American society as a whole felt able too, penalize and rationalize why it likely happened.  However, what we see currently in our society now, is an uptick of primarily ONLY violent crimes, an increase of hostile and unbelieving perceptions of mainstream establishments by everyday people, and the downright autocratic slant of some political parties in recent years, has created a TIPPING Point in our American society that we have to drastically fight our way back from before we are reshaped into something much worse than what we saw after the civil war.  

To be quite frank the fact that 74 Million or more people voted for the losing President and supported the majority of his rhetoric is more telling than ANYTHING that has happened before or after the most recent election. I’m not a political person, I’ve always worked for “a-political” organizations such as the U.S. Military, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Central Intelligence Agency, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and although each of us who work in those organizations have our own personal and private beliefs, most of us believe that what we do in those organizations is BIGGER than all of us and that the Service that we provide is what keeps AMERICA safe and free.  However, with that said I am not blind to the reality that people generally gravitate to the interests and people which they most feel comfortable with overall. Security-wise we are facing a threat from forces that previously were forced underground after the civil rights changes and updates of the 60′s through early 80′s. Something has changed to make over half of the majority demographic in this country feel less safe and less entitled to the freedoms they were born into. Maybe it’s a social behavioral problem at its root, but for the purposes of this “Intelligence Bite” (blog) and the profession I have carved out for over the last 26 years, it is the THREAT of violence that seems inevitable and what we have to prepare for and fight against.  

Below are a few ACTIONABLE STEPS we recommend people do to pull ourselves off the radicalization wagon. 

1. Be aware that when you use social media there is an entire opposition force within  adversary countries such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, who have the capacity, motive and intent to covertly influence your perceptions of another group of people of whom you may or may not agree. 

This is dangerous because say a person doesn’t quite understand BLACK LIVES MATTER (BLM), they grew up in the early to late 90′s thus they did see the civil rights struggle firsthand; they believe that the fact we had a Black President is indicative that the civil rights struggle is pretty much over, and that overall those Black Americans who protest inequality missed the memo on the 44th President. Those factors about a person can easily be seen and understood by the groups that users join, the threads users read, and the posts that users make. So then that Foreign Troll throws gas on the fire and digs into a RED line psychological area that you (the user) care most about.. such as “Post: BLM was founded by Marxist and they hate America”; thus the easy assumption is All people who fly under the BLM banner MUST hate America. 

Looking at this critically, even if you are a “Marxist” it doesn’t automatically mean you Hate America; also BLM to most Black Americans has nothing to do with Marxist philosophy or ideology, and I’d wager that the majority that support and believe in the movement know nothing about the political roots of its founder real or unreal. The POINT is, that what may have been a guy or a girl on the fence and minding their business about BLM, suddenly they are emotionally and politically involved. Thus, one by one, this causes damaging rifts between everyday people, damaging rifts between political parties, and damaging rifts within the fabric of our Democracy. 

2. Research the people and institutions that mean so much to you. 

This is a fairly direct and simple one, before we pledge ourselves to a way of thinking that makes us feel most comfortable. Please learn where the information came from, and if possible learn about the person(s) and groups/organizations that you support. A lot of the time people react off of emotion, which may lead to them following a group or person that is often many times less than scrupulous and not really the kind of person an average American would want to be affiliated with overall. Thinking and living critically and with purpose is the key to seeing the truth, for whatever it may be. There is no ONE source of information that has all the answers, go through at least TEN sources and then see how many out of SIX of those sources seem to say the same thing and then consider what the opposing sources say and if they make sense in the larger scheme of things. Once that’s the done, then get the opinion of someone you trust. Then make a decision about what you read.

What we ask above in our actionable steps is easy but it is not normal and thus likely very difficult. However we at S3 GSG feel it is part of the solution to keep Americans from SELF-radicalization and future catastrophe.  S3 Global Security Group CEO - Bobby L. Sheppard  Mr. Sheppard has spent over 25 years serving in the National Security Community beginning in law enforcement and then over 15 years with the intelligence community. Mr. Sheppard is the CEO of S3 Global Security Group LLC and the Physical Security-As-A-Service start up Malwork.com. 

#radicalization #capitol riot #saveamerica #national security #violent extremism