#chance that they might do something. and there’s a few trump and blue lives matter flags. and it scares me. so fucking much. I’m sick of it

[nokingsonlyfooles]

“It’s my hope, Mr. President, that you listen to us, that you choose democracy over tyranny.” - Abdullah Hammoud, Dearborn Mayor and Voter

YES! I can't fuckin' believe the media accurately reported this as a protest and printed/publicized the words of the voters explaining why they did it. AND NOBODY HAD TO ATTEMPT SUICIDE! This is big and it could get even bigger! But it's a qualified bigness, because...

Walz, a major supporter of Biden’s reelection campaign, said Michigan’s “uncommitted” results were a healthy demonstration of democracy. “I think they feel passionate, as they should, about an issue we all care about,” Walz said, adding that he expected most protest voters would eventually return to Biden’s side in a likely November rematch with former President Donald Trump, who himself has struggled with college-educated voters and suburbanites in his ongoing Republican primary against former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. “I’m much more convinced there’s a chance bringing those folks home is much greater than bringing the ‘Never Trump’ folks back home,” Walz said.

Yeah. I know this song and dance. I've seen it happen in person, at protests, in reatime. They come out to "do voter outreach" and they're all smiles to start. "Yes! Please do continue to act upon your freedom of speech in a way I, an advocate for the status quo, find nonthreatening. Your feelings are valid, ha-ha! I expect nothing to change, and indeed I will act to change nothing, but good for you!" A few folks always believe the message has been received and quiet down, that's why they do it. But wait and see what happens to that smile when a few people start interrupting and yelling, "THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!"

At least this guy's willing to suggest Biden would pick up more votes by moving left than moving right, although I doubt he actually expects anything radical. A few more forgiven student loans or somewhat cheaper drugs aren't much of a problem, and that's leftist too! So we don't really have to worry about the ongoing genocide.

The thing is, if/when this picks up momentum and the DNC starts to think they might have to change something or lose, it will become something other than a positive demonstration of free speech. It'll be childish tantrum-throwing, pointless, uncivil, attention-whoring, astroturfed, counterproductive foreign interference, and whatever else sounds bad. If any of you out there in internet-land already feel threatened by it, you're probably saying that right now. (Go ahead and comment, you'll boost this with other people who think like you, and I might change some minds.)

And, if you are comfortable with it and want voters to do it instead of threatening to withhold votes from Biden in the general, check your privilege. Not every state offers this. Unless something changes real fast (at least, I THINK it hasn't changed, it's hard to do a search when "uncommitted" brings up SO MANY news articles about Michigan 😁), mine won't. I can't do this. I can't vote in a third party primary either. It'd be all blue or nothing. And neither of those things will get me any press, so I gotta keep talking. Maybe I'll motivate someone who can vote uncommitted! Or scare a politician! I still think I'm doing more good by staying alive, and I'm a bit distant from any property I might meaningfully damage (although I am open to suggestions that won't get me arrested and silenced), so this is the only thing I got that won't injure a human being.

Tumblr, no matter how you actually intend to vote, if you're not up for living in a two-party system where both parties think they can do a little genocide and stay in power, you have ways of making yourself heard. There are options beyond falling in line behind the lesser evil. Don't let anyone tell you there aren't. And when you start hearing "stop!" or "you can't!" that means you have something they want. A cessation of hostilities! Well, now you might be in a position to negotiate terms! Don't give up!

Please, please, please don't give up. There is so much to be done.

#us news #us elections #michigan primary #protest votes #protest #democracy #democrats #democratic party #palestine #genocide #resist #nonviolent resistance #uncommitted

[opinesandnettles]

How did we get here and how are we going to get out of this mess? (USA, 6/24/22)

That's a big question. But I do have a lot of little answers that lend to answering such a big question without being too reductive.

Our last chance to stop the backsliding into fascism was the vote in 2016. If you could have voted for Hillary Clinton and did literally anything else, this is your fault. Accept it. Breathe. I'll forgive you but you listen to the rest of this and take the advice without arguing about it.

Yeah, Hillary Clinton wasn't a great choice to be presented with, but she wasn't 1. A republican 2. Donald Trump specifically or 3. A Russian asset (which Trump and Stein were and are. Sorry. It was kinda obvious though.)

That Trump was a particular brand of awful does matter in terms of the current climate and the faster acceleration of fascism, but the specific issue we’re dealing with now leads back to the fact any republican won. (The the third party candidates can't win in the USA because of how first past the post voting works. Sorry this is the system, it's math, they're simply spoilers. In first past the post voting your job is to vote for the least worst one of the two frontrunning parties. We don't have alternative voting and I doubt we ever will. You must accept this.)

Because a republican won he got to do two specific things: Put three justices on the supreme court, and screw up royally the 2020 census so that it determined voting districts in favor of republicans. These two things are why things are not going to get better any time soon.

There won't be another census for 8 years and it's very unlikely that it will be carried out the way it's supposed to if republicans are in charge then. Which given the new districts is likely.

And those justices have to basically die before they get replaced. In the meantime they're practically unaccountable outside of impeachment which just isn't going to happen with the current or future congress, which because of the map is going to lean even harder towards republicans than it already did. (Which has to do with land allocation and population locations and a bunch of junk I don't want to get into today.) Anything that might fix issues with the maps will inevitably end up getting waved away by said justices.

In short: The republicans won. It’s over. It’s not going back to “normal”. Everyone else lost. 

Because republicans won in 2016 they gained more justices than even they thought they would. Mitch McConnell gave them one through sheer force of ass, one retired because he wanted a republican replacement, and one because RBG didn't have the sense to retire much earlier. They have six justices that are basically kings that can BS whatever they want and the only people who could maybe do something about it won't because... well, a bunch of reasons.

First one being that democrats are not rising to the challenge. They're a mix of not seeing the dangers, not caring, and actively okay with what's been going on. Sure, there's a few AOCs out there who have been on the bullhorn sounding the alarm early and often, but they're not the norm in the democrat establishment. All the establishment really seems to care about is money and their ideals are whatever wins enough votes from centrists. Most of them are rich and insulated from what's been happening to us poors. Except for the Kristen Sinemas and the Joe Manchins who are truly factually republicans in democrat skins (which is a huge part of why the paper thin dem majority in the Senate hasn't done much), most democrats of real influence are absolute short sighted fools and they're either waiting for their checks and retirement or don't get that their days of relevancy are coming to an end.

The second problem is Biden. He's not the worst dem president I've lived through, but he's pretty not great. He's killed a lot of goodwill from the blue wave folks by not keeping several of his promises and being a buddy to cops at a time where most of us have come to understand that cops are a mob legitimized by officials. These are largely problems of his own making, and there's more issues than I'm not listing, but what it boils down to that, at best, his vibe is more about keeping things from getting worse, not about making things better. And at this point in time we needed a president that would do everything in their power to fight the facist creep, not allow it to simmer. And yes, Congress was a bit hamstrug by DINOs and wouldn't pass his legislation, but the lack of executive orders and willingness to name and shame and fight for us is the real problem.

(Gas prices and price of living are not his fault, but that's another story and a reason to break up monopolies and other big businesses. Democrats have not been vocal enough about what's actually been going on I suspect because a lot of them are benefiting from the situation in one way or several. So republicans get to blame them for it when they're just as guilty and more-so. This happens a lot in the USA honestly. Moving on.)

America has a ton of debilitating long standing issues that got us here to today, but when the dust cleared after the 2016 election we had the major movers and shakers that we had to work with. Which means we became doomed to live under this breed of governance for at least the next 50 years if we're lucky and don't lose the right to vote all together (And looking at how republicans are acting around the electoral college... It isn't promising.)

So here we are. Now what?

Unfortunately the long term answer is vote. I know a lot of people turn their brains off when others say that, or they get very angry, but it's literally the only option outside of direct violence, which if you actually care about your people you should try to do everything to avoid violence. Your people will die in the greatest numbers not theirs. Don't be short sighted. Play the long game if you can, like republicans did. They won, right? So steal what wins. There were laws passed they didn't like so they waited and put people and tactics into motion until they got what they wanted. You can do that too, especially in local elections, (though perhaps not in the major ones for a while). And if you’re really stuck in a spot where your vote will never count the rest of us must pick up the slack.

As long as you can vote, wherever you can vote, early and often, vote for the least worst candidates in the viable parties, which honestly is going to be democrats most of the time like it or not. Over time, if you do this, the options will steadily get better and things will change. But it's a lifetime effort and there are no quick or easy answers. We’re starting back on the ground level because the rich and many of our elders failed us.

In the short term and in the event we can no longer vote/voting becomes compromised you 1. Take care of your own and whatever and whoever else you are able and 2. Be as annoying as possible to people in power. You should be as direct as possible while remaining as nonviolent as you can. While a lot of people certainly deserve guillotines violence will almost always only come back to bite you and will engender little sympathy for your cause. Remember you are playing the long game. Be as sly as serpents and innocent as doves. But be obnoxious as hell. Press at every nerve from every angle with a polite smile on your face. Because that’s what they did to us, and ultimately that tactic was far more successful than when they fired guns and beat people.

The media hasn't been mentioned here because they're mostly owned by billionaires and what does and doesn't get reported and how is suspect at best, so you can't count on their help here. And beware of astroturfing campaigns on social media. Tend to believe the little guy in a story over the big guy.

Vote as best you can, in local elections especially. Volunteer for school boards and ferret the fascists out from the bottom up. Shame them. Become thorns in their sides and heap hot coals on their heads. There's still way more of us than them. Work to gain back what we lost and more. Stay away from short minded people who think it's all hopeless and who tell you to give up. It's not too late and there is hope for a tomorrow, even if its for your granddaughters and not for you. And pray that they don't take even more of our votes away. Because they will if allowed. Don't allow it. The next couple of major election cycles are uphill, but the most critical. It’s not going to get easier from here.

#politics #current events #opinion

[sapphic-theatre-fan]

It’s not fucking fair

No child should have to have conversations with their parents about how some people might verbally or physically attack you for the color of their skin. Or that there’s entire groups of people dedicated to hating your existence

There shouldn’t be flags that mean “if you come near here, you’ll have hell to pay because I hate you for something you can’t control”

No one should be scared to leave their house because their neighbors might try something

No one should be scared to exist

#I’m sorry if none of this makes sense I wrote it at midnight on an impulse #anyways #sorry I’m just so fucking tired #I was talking with my dad about all of the attacks against Asian Americans and I just.... the possibility of someone I know being a victim #terrifies me. hell I wouldn’t be surprised if something happened to me #given ever since I cut my hair I don’t look as eastern Asian as I did before. but I’m not white passing at all. I’m pretty dark so there’s #still so many things that could happen. and when I go on walks I know that almost everyone in those houses are white. I know that there’s a #chance that they might do something. and there’s a few trump and blue lives matter flags. and it scares me. so fucking much. I’m sick of it #god I’m even scared to go back to school bc I know that there’s a bunch of trump supporters there. and I’m a pretty easy target if I’m being #honest. I just.... I wanna feel safe. #is that too much to ask for? #and I know that there’s people who have it worse than me but I just really felt like I needed to make this post #racism tw #homophobia tw #violence tw #ask to tag #z’s thoughts #okay to reblog #actually please reblog this #I’m scheduling this for the morning so people will see it

[sondepoch]

Silence Starts to Overflow (Venti x Reader)

Barbatos’s voice, whispering gently in the wind, stirs you from the slumber you were about to give into. How cruel, that you would allow yourself to pass without saying farewell to him.

MASTERLIST

Death isn’t quite the right word for it.

It would be more fitting to say that you’re passing—because passing is something that precedes catching, catching is something that precedes continuing, and continuing is something that precedes life.

Though to say that this state you’re in can precede life is a lie at best.

Where are you?

Barbatos’s voice, whispering gently in the wind, stirs you from the slumber you were about to give into.

How cruel, that you would allow yourself to pass without saying farewell to him.

The final remnants of your strength—the strength you’d been saving for a final, devastating blow against Baal, the strength you never got to use because Rex Lapis ambushed you first with an cataclysmic meteor—fly out from your fingertips in a single beacon of light that pierces the clouds as it broadcasts your position to the world.

Instantly, you feel the wind turn.

A smile crosses your lips at that. Channeling your Lumino into the sky so freely is a risky move, especially given that every archon in the area now knows where you are. You can already sense the familiar pulse of Geo and Electro growing closer as Rex Lapis and Baal doubtlessly venture back to you to finish the job, but, of course, Barbatos is faster.

Geo is slow, after all.

Electro is marginally faster, given the right medium.

Nothing, however, can trump the speed of Anemo.

Nothing but Lumino, though you suppose that will cease to exist with your passing.

“You’re a fool,” Barbatos whispers in that breathy, exhilarated voice of his. “Someone could have seen,” he says. “You’re lucky I was so close.”

Ah. It appears that he hasn’t seen your wounds yet.

Well, that’s not so bad. 

You allow yourself to relax as Barbatos gathers you in his arms at the speed of wind, holding you close against his chest as he rides a breeze of his own making into the sky. 

“There are less than a hundred gods left, now. You and I can keep a low profile these next few days and wait for the numbers to dwindle, and then we can start working together to…”

You say nothing as Barbatos continues.

To die like this, in the arms of your lover, the sound of his laughter in his ear and the element of his soul surrounding you...would be a peaceful death.

A nice death.

As Barbatos eagerly tells you about his fight against Beleth, you press your head deeper into his chest. You take a deep breath of his scent, the scent of cecilias and happiness and youth and freedom, and you begin to let yourself drift away, the strength of Lumino finally fading from your gnosis and from this world, and…

How cruel.

You can’t bring yourself to part from your lover just yet.

Not without a proper goodbye, at least.

“Barbatos,” you whisper, just strong enough to lift your head off his chest. “Barbatos, please.”

It’s at this moment that Barbatos looks, properly looks, down at you, and you can see the adrenaline of his victory sap from his expression, beautiful blue eyes turning from overjoyed to mortified in a single second.

“No,” he mutters when he sees how the light has already begun to fade from your eyes, the natural waves of Lumino that used to radiate off you so naturally now turned dim with your impending death. “No. No, this can’t—no, no. No. Please. No. No.”

Within a second, he has your back lain against a cloud, as if the stoppage of movement can do anything with your elemental energy so far dwindled. 

“Who—who did this—”

You smile gently. 

“It doesn’t matter.”

Baal isn’t an especially dangerous woman: you know Barbatos can defeat her; but if she’s managed to obtain an alliance with Rex Lapis, God of War, then the last thing you want is for your lover to attempt to avenge you and get himself killed just like you. Not when Barbatos is already so strong. Not when he already has a chance at becoming one of the Final Seven.

“T-This isn’t a time for—”

“Shh,” you whisper, reaching for his hands. The touch calms him. You channel what little power you have left into his hands, praying that he can feel it. Feel you.

“Tell me,” Barbatos says, tears beginning to build in those mesmerizing eyes. It’s hardly the time to be thinking about it, but this form that he’s chosen is truly beautiful: skin like porcelain, perfect and fine and untouchable, stunning dark blue hair, thick and nearly-black at every inch, and eyes that hold your entire world in them, blue and green and Barbatos. “I—please, they might still be around here. I can defeat them and give you their gnosis, and—”

You force yourself past your limits to lift an arm up to Barbatos’s chin. It takes all your effort to press a single finger against his lips, a wordless seal on the conversation. 

“You’re dying,” he whispers, the tears now spilling forth. “You’re—you’re—”

You press your finger against his lips again, silently asking him to speak not of your death, and the god breaks down next to you, sobbing loudly as he pulls you closer, now holding you in his arms instead of allowing you to remain flat on the ground.

It’s quite uncomfortable, actually.

Yet, you prefer the warmth of your lover’s arms to soft chill of the clouds, prefer the sensation of his salty tears spilling onto your hair, prefer the way you can savor the feeling of him a little bit longer this way.

“S-Sitri should be near here. I-if you can last just a little longer, he’ll be able to heal you and—”

Your heart falls. This must be karma.

“I killed Sitri this morning.”

The devastation in Barbatos’s eyes when you say that is more painful than the spreading darkness in your gut.

“Ph-Phenex might—”

“Sitri killed Phenex. He told me.”

The sound that spills past Barbatos’s lips at that is something between a wail and a whimper, a sob and a scream. It’s nothing like the beautiful music you’re used to hearing from his lips, and it hurts you to know that you’re the cause of this awful noise, this awful pain that will hurt him so much more than it can hurt you.

Though that’s the nature of this war, isn’t it? The very notion of thousands of gods, thousands of elements, all fighting against one another in an attempt to sit on one of the final seven seats in Celestia is something that can only occur with death, with sacrifice.

You and Barbatos were naive for ever thinking that both of you would be able to make it.

“Barbatos,” you say, cupping his cheek gently, admiring the silky softness of his skin because you know this is the last time you’ll be able to do so. “I want you to live.”

“Stop it,” Barbatos says. “Stop—stop talking like you’re going to—to—”

“To die,” you finish for him, and your hand falls from Barbatos’s cheek. You don’t have the strength to hold it up anymore. “But I don’t want you to die.”

“N-no, please, I—” Barbatos sobs, an ugly sound. “I don’t want to live in a world without you.”

“I want you to live,” you say, stubborn. “Live for me.”

“I don’t want to,” Barbatos whispers. “Not without you. S-so if you want me to live, please just try to—”

“I can’t.” Your smile is sad as you stare at him. “I can’t, Barbatos, but you can.”

“I don’t—”

“Take my gnosis.”

Your lover physically recoils at that, shock painted on his beautiful features before denial takes over.

“No,” he says, shaking his head furiously. “No, no, no. No. I won’t. I—you’ll only die faster without your—”

“Barbatos,” you say, wishing you had the strength to reach out and grab his hand. “Barbatos, for all purposes, I'm already dead.”

“No!” he shouts, and when he sees how you wince at that, he lowers the volume of his voice. “No, you’re—you’re not dead. You’re alive, you’re here, and you don’t have to—”

“I can’t control it if I die.” You turn your gaze from Barbatos to the sky, vaguely wondering what heavens are above the heavens. “But you can make sure you don't. Take my gnosis.”

“I don’t want it,” Barbatos whispers, and his eyes shimmer with tears he’s trying to hold back. 

“Take it,” you say. “Take it and live. And remember me. And build a world where no one else needs to die like this.”

“I don’t care about anyone else,” Barbatos whispers, but his hand is on your heart, now. “I just want you. Please. Please don’t—”

“Take it.”

The power of Lumino comes to a peak as you allow the source of it to expose itself, raw elemental energy radiating off your body.

“Hurry,” you whisper. “Someone will come.”

“I-I don’t—”

Barbatos lets his hand grip the gnosis, but he can’t seem to bring himself to take it out from you. Doubtless, it’s because he knows that this gnosis is the only thing allowing you to cling to life—but for him to be able to absorb its power, he has to take it from you when you’re still alive. You need him to take it now. If you want to make sure he has the strength to become one of the Final Seven, this push is the only thing you can offer him.

“I love you.”

The words fall from your lips naturally, and the power of saying them—a power that inevitably rises because those three words, that declaration of your heart’s true sentiments, are the reason you’re able to get up every day, a power that gives and gives and gives and is the sole reason for which you live—sends you a final boost of strength.

You thrust your hand onto Barbatos’s and hold it. 

With the gentleness that only the shadow death can bring, you lift his hand, still closed around your gnosis, from your body. 

The second your gnosis is off of you, it binds to Barbatos.

You can see the power travel into his body: the power that manifested as Lumino in you being absorbed into his body as the tips of his braids turn bright at the edges, a beautiful blue as bright as the sky where the edge of Barbatos's hair was once nearly black. You can feel, then, as the gnosis amplifies his power: it happens in a shockwave that jolts your body, a shockwave that shakes you to the core with the original source of your power now gone.

“You…”

Barbatos stares down at you with wide and teary eyes. Where you seem mesmerized by his transformation, it seems that he’s horrified at yours. No doubt, just as the light entered him, it must be equally visible that it’s left you.

A chilling breeze draws towards you. You shiver under it. 

“Cold,” you mutter, and Barbatos instantly pulls his cape off to wrap you in it. Somehow, it does nothing to warm you up. The cold, it seems, originates from within.

“Stay with me,” Barbatos says, cradling you in his arms. He presses his lips to your forehead. “Stay with me, love. Stay with me. You can live through this, I know it, just stay…”

Ah. 

It’s so cold.

The chill that begins from deep inside you spreads, branching towards your fingertips and your toes and up your neck. With it comes a darkness, one that your power has always protected you from. Now, though, Lumino is weak. It stands no chance at being one of the Final Seven elements. You failed it as an archon. 

“...with me. Please. Please don’t go. Stay. Please. Please…”

You want to respond to him. You’ve never heard Barbatos sound so miserable, so broken. You stare up at him, trying to make your lips form the shape to words that will comfort him. 

You can’t seem to move your lips.

You can’t seem to move your eyes, either. 

Numb, you stare up at Barbatos, unblinking and unmoving. Your gaze is fixed on him, a darkness creeping in at the edges.

No, you think. No, stop. I want to look at him longer. 

The darkness doesn’t oblige. It creeps closer and closer, and a desperate fear begins to overtake you. Is this the last time you’ll see your lover? Why? How? How can that be? That can’t be right. You and Barbatos were supposed to win this war. You and Barbatos were supposed to survive this war. You and Barbatos were supposed to rule a nation together and save the world together and build a life together and—

Why is it all going away?

Stripped of the power of light that had always protected you, the darkness you’d always feared crawls closer. 

Stop, you think. Stop it. Don’t take him away. I want to stay. I want to stay with him. I don’t—

Despite the chilling cold that’s wrapped around all your body, you feel a tear fall.

I don’t want to die.

You hear something that sounds like a scream, but it’s so distant. It’s like a howl: monstrous and enraged and furious and terrifying, yet...familiar. Suddenly, you can’t figure out who this wailing reminds you of, but the thought of the person sends a strange sense of warmth to you. 

It’s nice, you think.

You can’t be quite sure what’s happening anymore. All you know is that it’s cold and dark, so horribly cold and dark. 

The howling sound grows louder. Vaguely, you feel something grip you, shake you, cling to you.

Something about you is instinctively soothed by the touch. Amidst all this cold and all this darkness, you think you can find comfort in this sensation. You know you shouldn’t like it—that the feeling of your body being shaken and clung to and howled and wailed at isn’t something you should like—but there’s peace in it. 

It’s a nice feeling.

It’s a nice feeling. 

MASTERLIST

Word Count: 2.3k

Notes: freedom sword come home

Comment & Like

I do not own the rights to Genshin Impact or any of the characters within it.

#Word Count: 2.3k #gender neutral reader #TW: DEATH #genshin impact #genshin impact venti x reader #genshin impact barbatos x reader #venti x reader #barbatos x reader #dying #reader dies basically #pre-canon #archon war AU #reader is a god #reader is gender neutral #veri sad venti

[liskantope]

A few tired thoughts on impeachment and Trump

So, impeachment. Or, to back up a bit, Georgia solidifying its new identity as blue-leaning background state, immediately juxtaposed with a violent insurrection, a public falling-out between the president and vice president (for the first time I think since 1832, and now extreme MAGA people want the VP’s head on a stick, final proof that they are truly part of a cult rather than just passionate about policy), calls to invoke the 25th amendment, and an impeachment, in barely more than a week.

I already wanted to write a post like a week ago putting some scattered thoughts into words, but more and more kept happening, and I got sort of burned out thinking about it all, and I’m actually quite tired now so I think this will come out fairly short (edit: as usual, it didn’t really).

I’ve had a lot of mixed feelings on impeachment and what the impeachment process is really about. Managed to express some of them on Facebook and have a helpful and enlightening dialog, amazingly enough. I’m still sticking with my resolution to mostly quit social media and certain YouTube channels once immediate political situations died down (which I had thought would be after the run-off elections but clearly the day-by-day developments are continuing until Inauguration Day), but at least that kind of exchange has been a decent enough note to go out on.

I think one of the main potential traps in this whole thing is assuming that what happened last Wednesday was a direct result of the speech Trump had immediately just made (although this Twitter thread I just saw makes some very good arguments that it was, so the epistemic status of this point is not very high-confidence). The case for impeachment was largely being framed as “speech on January 6th was a direct incitement of breaking into the Capitol building and threatening the lives of congresspersons and the VP -- look, he even used words like ‘fight’!”, and the NYT for instance put phrases like “Trump speech incites riot” in its headlines and news articles. This seems like a fairly easy argument for the other side to knock down. Trump never told anyone to be violent; he even used the phrase “peacefully and patriotically” at one point (though not the part everyone quotes); and phrases like “we fight like hell” are used with a non-physical meaning by politicians all the time (and particularly often by The Young Turks, who highlighted the phrase as “proof” of incitement!).

And at the same time, Trump was absolutely, devastatingly responsible for the travesty that happened, just not through the particular speech immediately preceding the event, but through weeks and months and years of meticulously (inasmuch as he does anything “meticulously”) grooming a cult following and weaving an alternate-reality narrative with an anti-democratic twist to it regarding the election, fanning flames and riling up the hardest inner core of his supporters to such an extent that now in retrospect it seems like something like Wednesday’s event was bound to happen. The post-election tantrum has actually disgusted me to my core in a rawer way than almost anything else he’s ever done (I know things like kids ripped from their parents and kept in detention camps is worse on a direct level, and this all speaks to my privilege, but I have a Thing about the meta-level sin of trying to mess with our self-correction and bring the presidency closer to a dictatorship), and as far as I’m concerned, a second impeachment is well deserved.

But to actually argue this requires invoking psychology and “social sense” or social intuition, and that catch with Trump -- one of the most fundamental themes of his behavior as a campaigner and president, in fact -- is that to effectively argue that anything he says is reprehensible requires analyzing these more subtle psychological effects and connections, while both sides tend to stick to interpreting his literal words which almost always can be interpreted on their face as meaning something much more innocuous. In these case there’s often a nudge-nudge-wink-wink or dog-whistling layer to what he says which both sides often refuse to actually investigate in arguments: anti-Trump people just insist that it’s sitting out there so starkly that no justification of its existence is needed, while Trump defenders entirely refuse to engage by saying to just look at the words he said in the most literal way possible. This has played out again and again and again for over five years; the incitement issue even just feels like the climactic final culmination of it. I’d like to see just for once a national debate over Trump’s recklessness where the two sides weren’t just talking past each other in this way.

But maybe I shouldn’t be thinking at all about what a substantive debate would look like, or seeing Trump punished on a basis of rhetoric that fully exposes how exquisitely and subtly profound his negligence as a leader and human being has been rather than arguing back and forth about a particular speech: as my friends have reminded me, impeachment proceedings are a purely political endeavor. For whatever reasons (tradition and propriety?) the congresspersons stand at podiums and give arguments but they aren’t particularly meant or expected to persuade. (Okay a lot of it is about the people watching and each of their political futures, I guess.) Maybe it doesn’t matter if none of the arguments are particularly strong ones. I’m biased against the idea of the proceedings being entirely political because it disgusts me and seems to betray the ideal vision of how Congress is supposed to work, but I imagine it’s reality (and certainly not the most disgusting or distressing aspect of reality right now).

I didn’t get a chance to catch much of the House debate this time around but I did listen to a lot of it during Impeachment Take 1 in December 2019. At the time I wanted to write a lengthy post detailing how pointless it all ways but it coincided with a sudden rush to grade my students’ exams in time for the holidays and so the post never happened. But it was really striking how almost interchangeable the Democrats’ speeches and the Republicans’ speeches were (it was almost perfectly divided along party lines as I recall), how often the same particular handfuls of phrases came out of almost every single congressperson in each sides’ arguments (I can’t remember the phrases now). It was almost as if each politician had cobbled together their speech by copying off the same model and rearranging a few paragraphs and orders of phrases. The little I saw of the speeches for Impeachment Take 2 in the House suggests that they were a little less uniform, but I doubt they were much more substantive.

Anyway, at this point all that really matters to me is for the Senate to vote to convict. I’m not too optimistic that this will happen and hope that the House politicians put enough emphasis on analyzing the likelihood of this when deciding to impeach, because the first impeachment didn’t actually seem to do much good and a second one might do more harm than good without actual concrete punishments coming Trump’s way as a result. But if they do, it will be as satisfying as possible a postscript to the whole humiliating debacle of the past four years as I can really ask for, outside of non-government actions like arrest and imprisonment.

#Our Current president #(hopefully my last time using that euphemistic tag) #maga cult #kids in cages #american government #impeachment 2019 #impeachment 2021 #young turks

[lady-literature]

what a lion cannot manage chp 2

dadmight here we gooo!!!

Ao3 | chp 1 | chp 2 | chp 3 | chp 4

Izumi’s home is a small place. Not suffocating or anything, but the town is too nosy for its own good and word travels fast. When someone new comes to town, it’s not long before everyone is talking about it.

The whispers of a man renting out the old cottage at the edge of town piques Izumi’s interest.

No one’s interacted with him much and he seems to keep to himself, but lack of information has never stopped the gossip mill from running before. He’s kind and polite from what the shopkeepers have seen when he leaves his house for food. That and he is, apparently, absurdly tall.

Besides the mystery of it all, there’s nothing really eye-catching about this particular rumour. Nonetheless, Izumi finds her ears pricking to attention every time he’s mentioned. Unbearably curious, despite herself.

***

For a while, the man seems like more of a ghost story than an actual person. Only showing up at the shops when they’re least likely to be busy. Only walking through town when he must.

Then, out of nowhere, it’s as if he can’t bear to stay in his rented house for anything other than sleep.

***

Toshinori has always been restless. Always moving and fighting and becoming

And here, hidden away in this sleepy town with no villains to fight or people to save, with a wound in his side that aches with every breath, he feels as if it’s clawing at his very skin.

He’s here to recover, far away from the action in Tokyo or Hosu or any place where he's actually needed so he won’t be tempted.

The doctors recommended he take it easy for six months. Mirai—Nighteye, he should say now—told him to retire.

As if that was ever actually an option.

Toshinori agreed to stay out of Heroing for two months, and that’s only because of the combined efforts of Torino and Recovery Girl and David.

He’s not even sure how David found out about it, what with him being on I-Island with Melissa (but Toshinori has a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with Nighteye). The trio were persuasive though, and Toshinori never stood a chance when David pulled his trump card: Melissa’s puppy dog eyes.

It’s nice that they care and worry, but Toshinori isn’t made for sitting still.

He’s restless and the phantom cries of victims he’s not there to save ring in his ears like bells as he tries to relax.

Finally, he decides enough. If he sits still for even a single second more he’s going to tear out of his own skin.

***

He’s been in town for perhaps two weeks (twenty-nine days since he defeated him, twenty-five since he’d woken up in a hospital bed, twenty-four since he realized he’ll never be the same) and it’s not enough time for him to be walking around as much as he is but he can’t help it.

He’s not staying cooped inside for two months.

Toshinori keeps to himself for the most part, stays on the outskirts of things like he normally does when he acts civilian.

Since the beginning of his career, he’s carefully kept Yagi Toshinori and All Might separate. Two different people as far as anyone outside a select few are aware. He’s gone years as unrecognizable from All Might and while he’s not quite worried someone will recognize him, old habits die hard, he supposes.

Even now, when he looks like death warmed over, there’s always a chance. He doesn’t normally stress about it so much, but he’d rather hide the fact that the number one Hero is hiding away in a tiny farming village along the coast. And that means not drawing attention to himself.

He’s only partially successful.

***

The first time Izumi sees him, he’s walking through the park.

She’s walking on her hands across the balance beam because she and Kacchan started taking gymnastics. (Kacchan wanted to take a combat class but was shot down by his parents until they could trust him not to attack another child with his newfound fighting skills. So Izumi got to choose their activity instead.)

The man is hurt. Badly. The heavy tang of blood hangs off him like a coat even from all the way on the other side of the park and she almost falls off the balance beam with the force of it.

But, what almost seems worse is that… underneath the smell of blood and pain and hurt, there’s only… him.

No lingering scent of others, of people who should care for him. Just the cinnamon earth of his own scent drenched in blood and the stale smell of strangers. Even humans, people who don’t purposefully scent their family and friends, smell like each other just by the nature of being close.

Izumi can’t imagine being that lonely. Can’t imagine living in solitude like that, with so many people around her and yet none who are close enough to touch and-

And, well. Izumi’s known around town for sticking her nose in places it doesn’t quite belong. She figures this is just much of the same if you think about it.

***

There are few people Midoriya Izumi has met that she didn’t like and fewer still who didn’t like her in turn.

If asked, Izumi will say this is because she is very good at making friends.

If asked, Katsuki will say it’s because she’s a goddamn freak.

(He won’t say so, because he’s not quite that articulate, but what he means is that there’s not a person dead or alive who can withstand the sheer strength of her will. Not a goddamn person on Kami’s green earth who can be near her for longer than a few minutes without being irreversibly changed.

It’s just a law of nature.

The sky is blue. The grass is green. Reality and the people within it bend to the desires of Midoriya Izumi.)

***

Toshinori has seen this girl running around town, normally with that loud boy at her side, but sometimes on her own. He’s heard about her more.

Everyone he speaks to seems unable to keep themselves from bringing her into the conversation.

She’s the one who plays chess with the elderly at the park, and who climbs up trees for kittens and always seems to be the first to look for runaway dogs. She reads to the younger kids at the library and helps out with craft activities.

He knows so much, Toshinori feels as if he’s already met the girl.

He continues to think that all the way up until he actually meets her and realizes he’s barely scratched the surface.

***

Izumi is good at patterns. Her mind is a bright chaotic whirl of thoughts and ideas and information at all times and it’s laughably easy to put it all together and find repetitions and relations.

Figuring out when the lonely man is going to be passing through the park again is no different.

He sits on that same park bench again, practically collapsing down onto it. His breath is short and his heart is pounding with the exertion of just walking. Izumi briefly wonders what happened to him. Then, she wonders why he’s pushing himself so much because that seems more pressing a matter.

She skips up to him and the smell of blood and pain is enough to make her dizzy but Izumi is determined, okay?

“Hello!” she greets brightly, hands clasped behind her back and smiling.

The lonely man startles. “Ah, hello?”

“Hello!” she repeats, “People call me Midoriya Izuku. Do you like checkers?”

“Uh…” The lonely man blinks, clearly taken aback. “Yes? Do you-?”

She hops a bit in place, excited. “Great! Come play with me!” she reaches up to grab his hand and tugs him over to the stone tables set up for the games. She’s very careful about the amount of strength she uses in that action, just like Nona taught her to be.

Normal little girls shouldn’t be able to throw around things twice their weight.

The lonely man moves easily, probably because he’s surprised by the action. He follows her though and that’s what matters.

He’s confused and a bit awkward at first which Izumi thinks means he doesn’t spend a lot of time around kids. Maybe he doesn’t know what to talk about. What do adults talk about? Her skulk normally talks about magic and whatever new creature has decided to snoop around their forest, so that's out. And he doesn’t smell like he’s a farmer.

So there goes most of her reference points for this kind of thing.

They’re four moves in and she can tell he’s trying to ‘let’ her win. Her ears flick in annoyance and she sets herself up for a move that will wipe him out in seven turns without taking any of his easy captures.

Maybe he likes Heroes? That’s what Izumi normally defaults to and it works most of the time. Who doesn’t like Heroes?

“Who’s your favourite Hero?” she asks, watching him move a checkers piece without even really thinking about it. He’s not even trying.

“Oh, uh,” he clears his throat. “I’m not really sure. I don’t… don’t really keep up with them anymore.”

Izumi blinks and tilts her head. She doesn't miss the ‘anymore’ part.

“Come on. You had to have a favourite at some point,” she insists. “Someone you looked up to and admired! And you can’t say All Might because, obviously. I mean, he’s my favorite but there are a bunch of other Heroes! Like Ectoplasm! Or Gang Orca! Or! Or! There’s even all those American Heroes? Like the Hulk! Or there’s Spiderman. He’s new but he’s super friendly from what people have seen! He goes around helping people even if it’s not villain related and just generally interacts a lot with everyone. There’s a lot about him on the American forums despite him being so concentrated on a small area. I would-”

Izumi stops, realizes she’s been rambling about nothing again and blushes. “Sorry. I get excited.”

The lonely man is quiet for a second and then laughs. It’s quiet and huffing and sounds a little like it hurts but it also sounds happy and that makes Izumi happy. She giggles too even though she’s not quite sure what they’re laughing at.

“All right,” he gives, raising his hands in surrender. “You’ve convinced me. If I must choose, I’d say I have a… fondness for Titania. She’s a little before your time but-”

“Oh! Titania the Strong? Or the Fairy Queen?” she asks because sometimes Heroes have the same name.  People reuse them or pay homage to someone they liked or carry on a legacy. There’s been an active Dread Pirate Roberts ever since the second generation of Heroes.

She tries to think if there are any other Titanias. Ones who stopped Heroing before she was born. She can’t think of any, but back when quirks first popped up and people started calling themselves Heroes they weren’t all that good at documenting them.

They’ve only just started to get better at that.

The lonely man stares at her in surprise and oh. Right. He doesn’t know.

Most people in town do, but he’s new. He doesn’t know of her fascination with Heroes or how her memory is near eidetic. The knowledge bank in her mind is massive and a large part is dedicated to Heroes (to their quirks, to the power they wield, to the ways they use them because it’s always best to have plenty of tricks up your sleeves).

“…The Strong. Young Midoriya, how do you-?”

“I like Heroes,” she says before starting to rattle off what she knows about the Hero. “Titiana wasn’t very well known outside her prefecture but those in it were said to love her. She saved a lot of people and interacted with civilians regularly on patrol. Personable and kind. If she didn’t confine herself to such a small area it’s likely she would’ve become quite popular even without a flashy quirk.” Izumi pauses, “She reminds me of my mom, actually. Only funnier. They say Titania liked to make jokes.”

The lonely man is quiet for a long moment as he moves another of his pieces into a position that makes him easy pickings. Izumi ignores it as she takes her turn.

He clears his throat, then, “She did.”

Izumi snaps up to look at him so quickly her neck cracks. Her eyes are wide and amazed as she looks at the lonely man. “You met her? That’s so cool!”

His lips quirk at the corners. “I did. She was…” he clears his throat again and it’s then that Izumi notices he smells… sad. That’s not what she wanted! “She was one of the best women I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

“Oh.”

Izumi feels bad now. She didn’t mean to make him sad. And he sounds like, like he misses her. Izumi’s heart breaks, just a little bit and she hops down from her chair to stand in front of him.

Did he used to smell like her? Is she why he stopped getting close to people? Did he lose her?

Izumi’s mind spins and spins and spins. She doesn’t know. Too many variables. She needs more data.

But not now.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad,” she says. “When I feel sad, I get hugs and it makes me feel better. But some people don’t like hugs so Mom says I’m supposed to ask first. And, and you’re sad and I think you need a hug so do you want a hug?”

“I- I don’t-” the lonely man looks flustered now. Wrong-footed. Izumi tries to smile at him reassuringly.

“Mom says I give the best hugs!” she encourages. “So I’m sure you’ll feel better.”

After a long moment, the lonely man softens. “Well I- I suppose a hug wouldn’t hurt.”

“Great!”

She has to stop herself from launching at him, wary of how he’s still hurt and smells of blood. She’s not quite sure where it is but she’s very careful of where she puts her hands and is careful not to squeeze too tightly.

After a few seconds Izumi asks, “Do you feel better now?”

“Yes,” he answers, like he’s surprised by their truth. “Yes, I do. Thank you.”

She nods, satisfied. “Good.” Then, she turns and barely looks at the board before clicking her piece in a series of jumps that takes out half his side and leaves her at his home base. “Queen me, please!”

The lonely man blinks, opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again and laughs. Then, he does as she asked.

***

They play four more games after that with the lonely man actually trying after his sound beating in the first round. Izumi even lets him win the third one.

They talk about random things, Izumi driving most of the conversation by bouncing around random topics and babbling aimlessly. The lonely man doesn't seem to mind too much, and comments on things whenever she pauses long enough for him to get a word in edgewise.

By the time Izumi has to go home for dinner, the lonely man doesn’t smell as sad and Izumi finds she really likes him. He even ruffles her hair before she goes scampering off into the woods. He flattens one of her ears unintentionally but she can forgive that. He can’t see them after all.

He’s also familiar in a way. Almost like Kacchan was familiar, but just a bit different. She’s not quite sure what it is, but he’s nice and friendly and Izumi likes him.

“Did you have a good day, sweetie?” Mom asks her when she gets back home.

Izumi smiles up at her with all her teeth and says, “Yeah! I made a new friend!”

***

Her lonely man introduces himself the second time she finds him.

He calls himself Yagi Toshinori but his name tastes strange on her tongue. Not quite a lie, but not a truth either.

Yagi Toshinori may be his birth name, but it is no longer the name that holds power over him, at least not completely.

Izumi calls him Yagi-san and wonders what he called himself for so long that it changed his very being.

***

It’s somewhere around week two when Yagi-san first coughs up blood around her. He was laughing, a sound she takes such joy in creating, when he suddenly began coughing. A second later, the smell of fresh blood, thick and heady, filled that air and Izumi nearly had a conniption.

They’re in the park and her worried exclamations and mother henning draw the attention of most, if not every, parent in the vicinity.

They’re all rightfully worried and it takes a while before everyone’s calmed down enough for him to give some story about a swollen throat and how it’s already being taken care of.

He’s lying about it, Izumi knows, but he’s uncomfortable and concerningly red from embarrassment.

She lets him get away with it this once.

The parents give him wet wipes and napkins and well wishes that he gets better soon to his utter surprise. Like he hadn’t expected to be given kindness so freely.

Izumi smiles as she waves them all away, thanking them for helping and thinking, not for the first time, how much she loves her town.

***

She goes home smelling like human blood that day.

It takes almost half an hour for Izumi to calm everybody down enough to explain what happened without worrying them more. And even after that, all her cousins (all at least a decade older than her and all starkly human thanks to the curse everyone will only mention in passing) crowd around her and fuss for hours.

She manages it with only resigned exasperation because they did the same thing when she killed the kelpies causing havoc in the lake last month. (She isn’t sure what the big deal was then and she’s less sure now. Killing supernatural threats is basically her— the skulk’s— job.)

***

She spends six hours that night researching diagnoses where patients coughing up blood is a symptom, and as a result, completely ignores her homework.

She doesn’t like a single word she reads.

(Kacchan yells at her the next day about it but they're both weeks ahead of the rest of their class. He’s really only upset because he can’t compare their answers for the physics homework.)

***

It’s a badly kept secret in the skulk that Izumi will be the next Matriarch.

It doesn’t matter that she’s the youngest or that she’s hardly fox-like at all. Because that’s not how skulks work. They’re not human royalty and it is not about lineage.

Foxes are selfish creatures.

They aren’t quite known for their loyalty, not when there are wolves of legend who will beat themselves bloody for their packmates. That doesn’t mean foxes aren’t loyal, it just means they’re craftier about it. Sneakier and cleverer than their brutish cousins.

(Secrets are more easily kept when fewer people know of them. Loved ones are safer if no one knows to go after them.)

Skulks are just as close and beloved as packs, and the one who reigns at the head of a skulk is not there on power alone, not like the wolves’ alphas.

A skulk’s head is chosen, not fought for. And Izumi has been marked thrice over, by Magic and Fate and her own choices as she grows from girl to woman. Izumi has the will of a leader, the heart of a mother and the ability to inspire all she meets.

Midoriya Izumi will one day rule the skulk, the forests, the whole of Japan.

There is no one else it could be.

***

Days turn to weeks and Izumi keeps tracking Yagi-san down whenever she can. Sometimes they sit and just people watch and other times she demands he play games with her, something that makes him sit down and relax because while she doesn’t know specifics, it’s obvious he’s badly hurt.

All those books she’d scoured say the same thing: that he should be taking it easy. Something he is not doing himself so she does it for him.

He’s also been getting thinner since she met him. Cheeks growing gaunt and limbs becoming bony, like he’s losing muscle mass. Izumi, once she notices, starts bringing him snacks whenever she can. Random things at first that he turns down half the time to her disappointment and frustration.

It must show on her face one too many times because after a while, he sits her down on their bench and explains in fits and starts about his condition. 

Yagi-san was badly injured and lost his stomach. He can’t eat like he used to and isn’t really hungry anymore. His lungs are damaged, which is why he coughs up blood and can’t breathe right.

He tells her a laundry list of trauma and Izumi listens but can’t quite help the horrified look on her face; she’s still too young to have learned to school her expressions.

“That’s… that’s awful,” she whispers, eyes trained on the part of his abdomen he kept gesturing to, the place of such horrific pain.

“It’s okay,” he reassures her and her eyes flick up to meet his. He’s smiling, something warm and wide and so familiar but can’t quite place. “I’m a tough one, my girl. I’ll be alright.” 

Izumi presses her lips together and lets him change the subject. But while he speaks, her mind is a whirl of plans and ideas and things she needs to do.

***

Her mom ‘accidentally’ runs into Yagi-san at the market one day.

(Things like that are never accidental for a fox, nevermind that her mom’s as human as Kacchan. She was born in a skulk and that makes her other in a way normal humans aren’t).

Yagi-san sees her first and his face lights up, “Little Izumi!” he greets.

She waves at him, head tilted back almost all the way as she grins up at him. “Hi Yagi-san!” she yells because he’s so tall. It must be hard to hear her, especially with his human ears. Those miss everything interesting.

His eyes turn onto her mom and he gets very red suddenly. Embarrassed and shy, like he was when she first met him. “Ah, apologies,” his hand rubs the back of his head, “You must be her mother.”

Mom smiles, but her eyes are studying him, flicking over his form, quick and analytical.

“I am, people call me Midoriya Inko,” her mom offers her hand. He shakes it. “You must be Yagi-san. It’s nice to finally meet the man behind the legend. Izumi talks about you a lot.”

Yagi-san looks delighted at that. “Does she?”

“Oh, yes. It feels like I already know you with how much she goes on,” she tells him then turns to Izumi. “And you’re right, sweetheart. He really is too thin.”

“Right!” Izumi exclaims, causing Yagi-san to startle. “That’s why I needed all those bentos! He doesn’t like to eat on his own, so I have to make him.”

After he’d told her about his injuries, she’d very carefully read and researched what one should do after a gastrectomy like his and came away with a thousand and one rules for eating he most definitely was  not following.

It made her more than a bit upset that he’s not taking care of himself like he should be. That he acts so cavalier with his health.

Her mom nods gravely, very serious. “Of course. It’s important to stay healthy.”

“See!” Izumi spins on Yagi-san who looks frozen in mortification, “Even Mom agrees and she’s always right.”

His eyes flick between them both for a long moment before his shoulders slump and he grins, small and wry at them both. “Well if two Midoriya women are telling me that, how can I hope to argue?”

Izumi grins with all her teeth because she’s won and you can’t spend excessive time around Kacchan without picking up some habits.

Mom and Yagi-san talk for a while longer, mostly probing questions from her mom disguised as boring grown-up stuff and small talk. Yagi-san answers them all correctly as far as Izumi can tell. He doesn’t lie once which is good because even if Mom can’t hear his heartbeat she knows how to tell when someone lies.

They leave that day with Mom’s stamp of approval and a skip in Izumi’s step.

***

Mom must have given some sort of signal because now Yagi-san can barely walk out of his house without being accosted by her skulk.

It must be really confusing on his end, all these random people coming up to him suddenly. Not all of them even look like Midoriyas because the townspeople still think there’s only half as many of them as there really are and they want to keep it that way.

They all come away liking him though, some enough to continue interacting with him regularly. Which is good, because he needs more friends. Though, Aunties Emi and Isami tease him so much she’s not sure he’ll ever stop being flustered.

(The best part though, in Izumi’s opinion, is that they all help her keep an eye on him. And, more often than not, they’ll place some sort of fruit or snack in his hands before running off and leaving him in confusion. Izumi laughs whenever she’s there for it to his utter confusion.)

***

Aoi plops down next to her on the couch one day, arm thrown over her shoulders and bright pink pixie cut hair tickling her cheek as she bumps her head into Izumi’s temple and hums lowly because it’s the closest her human vocal cords can get to purring.

Izumi’s classifying plant life for biology, something she normally doesn’t stop doing until it’s finished, but she looks away from them now because Aoi’s her favourite cousin. She’s never said so out loud because she'd rather die than hurt anyone's feelings, but the entire skulk knows anyway.

“He’s weird like you,” Aoi says with no lead-up or explanation.

Izumi grins as Aoi ruffles her hair because she understands immediately and takes that for the compliment it is.

***

Yagi-san touches her casually now. Ruffling her hair, guiding her with a hand on the shoulder, tugging lightly on her wild curls. It’s like he was waiting for permission or something.

It’s nothing she’s not familiar with. Her skulk does it all the time, both to scent mark and provide comfort, and Izumi spends most of her time invading Kacchan’s personal bubble for those same reasons.

Yagi doesn’t know about scent marking like she does because he’s human, wholy and cleanly even if Izumi can sometimes feel a nuclear reactor humming with all the energy hidden away in his chest. (And isn’t that just another reason he’s so strange? Izumi wonders what his quirk is sometimes, but never asks. She doesn't think she’d get the real answer if she did.)

He doesn’t know, and doesn’t seem like an overly touchy person but he touches her and it feels like when her mom pushes her bangs back and presses a kiss to her forehead. Affectionate and soft and Izumi can’t help leaning into every gesture like she’s starved for it.

***

The next day, Izumi greets him with a hug and he smiles that oh, so familiar smile and Izumi feels like she swallowed the sun.

***

The townspeople whisper, carefully outside of Izumi’s range of hearing for once, about the man she follows like a duckling and the growing bond everyone can see.

They were wary at first. They knew so little about this odd stranger.

But with Izumi running around him like a tiny, babbling dervish, unintentionally dragging him into every conversation she starts, it doesn’t take long for them to get a read on the man. It’s almost amusing how he had tried so hard to keep to himself only to fail the moment she crashed into his life.

A month and a half after he showed up, the townspeople can confidently say that Yagi Toshinori is good people. Earnest and kind in all the same ways Izumi is and uniquely awkward and well-meaning in others.

The townspeople whisper, and laugh, and can’t help but think how good it is that little Izumi’s found herself such a lovely father figure.

***

He asks her, one day, why she spends so much time with him when she has so many friends her own age.

The look she gives him makes him feel like he’s asked a stupid question. The words that come out of her mouth immediately after make him breathless.

“Because I like you,” she says as if it’s just that simple. As if Toshinori hadn’t spent decades interacting with people who only liked him because he’s All Might. As if this little girl, hidden away in this idyllic town, saying she likes him as Toshinori, isn’t the most important thing he’s heard in years.

“Ah,” is all he says to that and Izumi goes back to eating her popsicle, only now she’s unashamedly leaning into his uninjured side.

Something warm in his chest blossoms and Toshinori can’t help wondering what exactly he’s gotten himself into now.

***

She brings Kacchan to meet Yagi-san not long after that. She’d been waiting for her skulk to stop harassing him so much, so it had taken longer than she wanted.

Kacchan was starting to think she’s purposefully keeping things from him—which she is, but not this. And the things she is keeping are mostly not her secrets to tell anyway (not that it makes her feel any less bad for having them).

The two know of each other, of course. It’d be impossible for them not to know with how much she babbles at them both about the other.

Kacchan is… unimpressed at first. Loud and disrespectful and really just himself in a bad mood because he’s bad at meeting new people.

Yagi-san takes it all in stride even as her best friend swears enough to make a sailor blush. She can see he’s wondering why Izumi picked him, of course, because everyone does after meeting Katsuki.

She watches from where she’s lying along the top of the monkey bars as they circle around each other, curious and trying not to show it. That is, until Kacchan grows bored with that and starts challenging Izumi to ridiculous contests.

She sighs but accepts every one because, while Kacchan is indeed the self-destructively competitive one, he doesn't hold a monopoly on that trait within their friendship.

Yagi-san gets roped into playing referee and rewards the winner with head ruffles and blinding smiles. Well, he at least tries to. Izumi accepts the affection just fine but when he reaches for Katsuki, her best friend snaps his teeth at him the moment contact is made.

Yagi-san pulls back immediately, eyes wide, but Kacchan hadn’t screamed at the top of his lungs or exploded something so Izumi knows it’s all mostly for show.

She'll have to explain that to Yagi-san later.

***

There’s a saying, in Izumi’s family. A saying that falls from the lips of every fox in the world. A silent oath one whispers from the day they’re born with magic in their veins.

Shual Nephesh, serve thou for thyself.

There’s a duty every leader picks up when they are placed in power, but it is only foxes who truly carry its weight with them. A shimmering gem tied tightly around their throat, both great honour and deadly noose combined.

Matriarch, be thou for the skulk.

There’s no oath for a Hero to take. Nothing regulated or standardized besides the flimsy laws riddled with loopholes and flaws that Izumi could dance around with her eyes closed. So, she makes her own.

Hero, be thou for the people.

***

There is no new weight to her wrist, no new gemstone to tell of her Promise.

The shackle she wears like a badge of honor has been there for years already after all.

***

Two months come and go and Toshinori… stays.

Torino and David both called the day before he was planning to go back to Tokyo, to go back to being All Might, and they begged him to stay just a bit longer. Well, David begged. Torino yelled at him for ten minutes until Toshinori could get a word in edgewise.

After a long pause, Toshinori agrees, to all their surprise.

He wasn’t going to leave, even before they called to beg and he knows what the reason why is, even if he won’t admit it.

He’ll have to leave eventually. Sooner then he might like because he can’t just stop being All Might… but he can stay a little longer.

The world hasn’t fallen apart without him yet.

***

He does call into his agency, of course, and requests as much paperwork as possible be faxed to him.

He’s still restless and antsy and even if he’s not in the field there is plenty of administrative work that needs to be done as All Might. He’s been ignoring it for too long.

Rika, his manager of all things relating to All Might’s image, is no doubt having a fit about his abrupt and continued absence, but he can trust her. She’s no doubt handling the media circus with an iron fist and cunning mind like always. 

She doesn’t let him touch his social media accounts or anything really relating to PR, but she does send him a list of charities to choose from. He’s always like picking which ones to send donations to and make scheduled appearances at.

She also sends him a veritable mountain of things that need his signature, half of which are for merchandising and things like that.

He signs them all without looking.

He’s also faxed the backlog of Assistant Heroes—not ‘Sidekicks’, there were few words he disliked more than that old relic—applications that have piled up in his absence to sort through. Even with the rigorous standards themselves and what few Heroes All Might does have at his agency sorting through the applications before they ever arrive in front of him, there are still dozens that have piled up.

People who work with him have to uphold certain standards. That's something both him and Rika agree on. They can’t have some Hero with a lousy attitude associated with All Might. The press would have a field day with that kind of scandal and Toshinori can’t stand those types of people anyway.

The employees at his agency are held to a higher standard than others. It’s why it’s so prestigious in the first place. His Heroes have to be brave and kind and put the people first above all else.

They may not ever be pillars like him, but Toshinori will be damned if they aren’t beacons of good.

Toshinori is, was, and always will be, firm on this stance. 

He, of course, has to hide all that paperwork from Izumi—because that’s a thing she does now. Knock on his door and spends time at the cottage he’s renting. She does her homework at the kitchen counter while he keeps himself busy doing the less flashy sort of Hero work.

The problem is, she's a curious sort of child, and interested in most everything her eyes land on. She’s made a habit of poking her head over his shoulder while he’s sorting through sensitive documents, keen eyes dancing over the page, and scaring the shit out of Toshinori.

She stares at him with those all too knowing eyes as he scrambles to hide it from her. After the third time it happens she thankfully stops but there’s a contemplative look in her eyes that’s sure to give him stress headaches.

***

“What do you think he’s doing?”

Kacchan doesn’t look up from the math homework he’s checking for her. He also doesn’t ask who she’s talking about because there’s really only one person it could be. “Kicking ass, probably.”

“Kacchan,” she pouts from her place sprawled across his living room floor (they never hang out at her house, for all the obvious reasons). “Be serious.”

“I seriously think he’s kicking ass.”

“Aren’t you worried?”

Kacchan looks up to glare at her. “Why the fuck would I be? Izu, it’s All Might. He never loses. He’s fine, you goddamn bleeding heart.”

Izumi guesses he’s right. All Might’s never lost a fight. It’s what makes him so amazing. It’s just. There’s something at the base of her stomach that won’t let her let go of her worry. It’s been three months  without a single sighting.

That’s… unheard of.

“Stop moping!” he yells, the sugar-burnt crackle and pop of his quirk jolting her from her melancholy.

“Careful, Kacchan!” she shrieks. “You’re going to burn the paper.”

Kacchan snaps his teeth at her but there’s no real heat in it. It’s playful, or as close to it as he gets. “I am not! And stop slacking and check my fucking history worksheet, you freeloader.”

She sighs and flips back onto her stomach. “Yes, Kacchan. Of course, Kacchan. Anything for you, Kacchan,” she gripes fondly.

“And don’t you fucking forget it.”

***

“Young Midoriya?”

“Huh?” Izumi startles from her thoughts for the third time this game. Realizing what she’s done, she blushes and hides behind her hand of cards. “Oh! Sorry, Yagi-san. I can’t seem to focus at all today.”

He smiles, warm and bright. “Not a problem, my dear.” He sets down his hand, choosing instead to give her his full attention. “Something on your mind?”

“Yeah. Just… I’m worried, I suppose.”

He hums encouragingly. “About?”

She blows out a heavy breath. “It’s been three months since anybody has seen All Might.” Yagi-san’s shoulders stiffen. Talking about All Might always makes him uncomfortable but she needs to get this off her chest and he’ll listen. “He’s never disappeared like this before.”

Yagi-san coughs into his fist. “Ah, well. Perhaps he is doing undercover work?”

Izumi gives him a look like she thinks he’s being particularly thick. “He almost never does undercover work. He’s not suited for it and there’s plenty of underground Heroes who can do a better job. He normally respects that.” She pauses, thinks that over. “And even the few times he was recorded to be associated with undercover jobs, there had been plenty of credible sources saying he’d been seen doing small acts of heroics. Community service, charity work, helping people cross the street, things like that. But, right now, it’s practically radio silence. All Might’s never just,” she waves her hands helplessly, “cut himself off from the public before.”

Yagi-san blinks at her and, when there doesn’t seem to be an answer to that forthcoming, Izumi keeps going.

“I just- I can’t stop thinking maybe he’s hurt? Or that something has happened to him? Kacchan says I‘m worrying over nothing but sometimes I just get these feelings, right? Like there’s someone out there who needs my help and… and this is one of those times.” She huffs a humourless laugh. “But again, Kacchan says I’m being dumb because why would All Might need my help? I’m ten! What can I do?

“But I just keep thinking how Sir Nighteye is still in Tokyo and hasn’t said anything official about his whereabouts and David Shield is still in America and there’s just nobody else that All Might has to lean on, at least not to public knowledge, and if those two people aren’t there for him then who is?”

By the end, Izumi has to take a deep breath because she hadn’t breathed once while she word-vomited all her worries at him.

When she looks up, Yagi-san is staring at her with an expression she can’t really read.

Quieter, she says—because she’s never been able to leave well enough alone and if Yagi-san doesn’t understand then who will?— “He saves everyone, but who’s there to save him?”

Yagi-san laughs.

Not a mean one, not like he’s laughing at her, but more like he was so surprised by her that he can’t contain the sound. Uncle Kazuki did that sometimes. Probably because Uncle Hikaru is more than a handful and he made the mistake of marrying him, or so they say.

“You truly are one of a kind, my girl. I’ve never, in all my years, met someone with a heart as big as yours.”

Izumi blushes to the tips of her hidden ears at such a high compliment and picks up her cards just to hide behind them. “I think we should finish our game.”

He gives a quiet chuckle but picks up his cards. “Okay, okay. But, for the record, my dear?” Izumi looks up at him and finds him smiling at her, small and soft. “I think there’s a lot you could do to help him.”

***

He watches Izumi and Young Bakugou run around each other, playing some strange amalgamation of tag and marco-polo where Izumi’s blind folded and only allowed to use her hearing and sense of smell to sniff out her friend.

It’s quirk training made into a game, something ingenious only she could come up with.

Izumi is doing well at locating Bakugou, head swiveling in whatever direction he’s in despite the blind fold, but she keeps tripping over and running into things, paying too much attention to her friend and not enough to her surroundings.

She does eventually catch him, pouncing on his back and sending both of them to the ground. Toshinori smiles despite himself as it immediately transitions into a wrestling match.

Not for the first time since coming to this fantasy of a town, does Toshinori think wistfully of a world where things were different. If he didn’t need to hold up the world, if people were kinder, if the world was safer. If, if, if.

Toshinori wanted a family once, before he picked up all these mountains he should’ve climbed. He still wants a family—doesn’t think he’ll ever stop—but he’s practical enough to know it’s too late. To see it’ll never work out.

(He ignores the part of him that says it’s closer than he thinks. Ignores the way any thoughts of his future—the ones where he forgets he’s going to die in eight years at least—all have a child in them. A little girl with wild green hair and freckles and a heart big enough to cradle the world.

His mind ignores them, but his heart is soft and weak and tucks it all in his chest, safe and sound for those rainy days.)

***

Time skips along, as it’s wont to do.

Izumi dances into eleven years old with all the joy and brightness of a girl on top of the world.

Her magic grows more with each day and after the fourth time she comes home dragging some sort of creature behind her, the skulk starts whispering about having her begin training before the traditional fourteen years old.

She joins aikido at the suggestion of Yagi-san while Kacchan gleefully dives into kick-boxing after hounding his parents for three months. Izumi keeps up with gymnastics but Kacchan drops out to join the wrestling team.

It’s all vaguely concerning from an outsider’s point of view but it’s nice that he has an outlet.

For all that she’s growing up, Izumi is still much of the same. Still sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong and dedicating most of her time to helping other people, no matter how important the task, and staying at the top of her classes with Katsuki right next to her.

What little free time she allows herself is divided between all the people she loves. She’s busy, but she’s always been busy. Always right at the thick of things when they happen which is just how she likes it.

It’s the best three months of her life, a bright summer she enjoyed to the fullest. Her magic has been practically singing in her veins because, until she becomes a Hero, until she takes her rightful place at the top, as a Protector, this is as close to perfect as she’ll get.

That, of course, means it can’t last.

Because perfect things never do.

***

Yagi-san leaves, because he has too.

She’d known that for a while now. His job is important, even if she’s not quite sure what it is he does.

He always dances around the question when she asks. Saying he works in relation to an important agency that helps keep people safe. He’s always adamant of how much he loves it and she can see the wistfulness in his eyes sometimes. Like there’s places he wants to be other than here.

And so, Izumi resigns herself to watching him leave her. Braces herself to lose this growing, fragile thing in her chest she can’t put a name to.

He leaves the week after her birthday and she’s there at his house to say goodbye. She expects this to be the last time she sees him, she expects him to leave and not come back just like the father she never met and doesn’t want to.

What she doesn’t expect is for him to press a phone into her hand, a single number already programmed into it, and tell her he’ll keep in touch. She doesn’t expect him to get on his knees so she can look him in the eye as he Promises to visit, to come back, whenever he can.

She tries hard not to cry, because her lonely man gets so flustered when she does, but she can’t help it. She sobs and throws her arms around his shoulders, clinging to him because even with the Promise she knows it will be too long before she sees him again.

She has so many things she wants to tell him. So many things to say and do and none of the time.

His lips press against her forehead. “I’ll miss you, my dear girl.”

But, perhaps she’ll still get the chance. Just… later.

“I’ll miss you, too.”

***

Kacchan, Aoi, and her mom all gang up on her the following days, trying their hardest to cheer her up and get her mind off things.

Her mom makes her favorite foods and Aoi teaches her magic tricks she’s not supposed to learn until Nona officially begins her training and Kacchan only grumbles a little when she takes to clinging to him like a heartsick koala.

It’s the last one more than anything that makes her realize how worried they must be. How badly she must be moping for them to be so worried.

Kacchan may not actually care about how much she’s in his bubble, but he does like to complain about it, loudly and vocally. He’s really very mean and if Izumi couldn’t always tell when he’s lying she’s sure she’d never made it to being his best friend because she’d be crying too much.

But she’s worrying everyone and it’s not like she can’t text or call Yagi-san. He gave her the phone for a reason (though a whole new phone seems a bit much).

Izumi tries not to be so sad.

It only works a little.

***

Two days after Yagi-san leaves town, All Might saves thirty people from a hostage situation, rescues two potential kidnap victims and stops three robberies all before two in the afternoon.

Izumi sees the news articles almost immediately because even if she’s sad and breaks into tears every couple hours, she’s been keeping her ear to the ground about any sign of All Might for weeks now. There’s pictures and videos and stories of his escapades everywhere and all anyone is talking about is where he’s been.

Izumi finds a video of him, barely thirty seconds long, of him apologizing for his absence. Some official story that’s nothing but lies falling from his tongue because it had taken Izumi all of five seconds of hearing his voice before everything clicked.

Izumi is smart and clever and sees things no one else does and she can’t believe she’d been so blind.

All Might’s face smiles at her through the screen but Izumi can’t hear what he’s saying because all she can see are bright blue eyes. Bright, familiar eyes and a familiar smile and familiar laugh and and and-

And her lonely man is the number one Hero.

She closes her laptop and screams.

#bnha #my typewriter #wlcm

[things2mustdo]

I heard a family member make remarks on the ‘victims’ of Hurricane Florence, who knew well in advance the possible horrors which came crawling their way. But were those who decided to stay victims given the warnings? They also espoused, essentially, that rescue teams shouldn’t put their lives at risk for those who remained in harm’s way.

This brought me back to a conversation with a man who has been big on situational awareness in terms of avoiding assailants who aim to pierce your heart and rob you while you lie in a pool of your own blood. He asked this question about what one does when in a dark alley and you see a suspicious character coming your way? My response was something to the extent of whether or not I even had to be in the dark alley? That was his point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHq4dbQBa14

Now, I’m not remotely suggesting rescue teams avoid doing their job, but it did get me back to situational awareness and understanding the justice brought about when you are foolish enough to venture into a dark alley on the wrong side of town, or remaining in Florida when you damn well knew the potential risk involved.

That got me thinking about the recent political violence and acts of domestic terrorism caused by Black Lives Matter and Anti-Fascists. So, in regards to our contemporary state of the political and cultural arena, and what surely awaits us in the next US presidential election, here are some simple, basic tips about situational awareness and being prepared in case civil unrest breaks out.

1. Understand The Baseline Of Your Environment

Political rallies across the US demonstrate the capacity of violence and the willingness to assault in ruthless manners. Both men and women of more right-wing views have been assaulted, been threatened to be raped, have their families killed, get doxxed, have dead animals thrown at their living quarters, had their finances threatened, etc. It’s a goddamn nightmare on the more North Side of America than the South Side, where not everyone has a bamboo stick up their ass.

There are many great articles written on situational awareness. And that’s key: situation. The environment, in a general sense, has a baseline. It’s the basic overall feel and operation of that set area.

For example, you go to the mall. What’d you expect to see, generally speaking? People walking and talking, laughing and usually carrying a bag or two. It would, in this context, be out of the ordinary if an individual, dressed in all black, is quickly walking through a crowd while he has his hoodie on and hands in his pockets. It’s odd behavior. Same for someone moving nervously carrying a bag that does not appear to be bought at a store or, to add to that, he doesn’t have workman apparel. It’s out of the ordinary.

If I’m at a bank and someone walks in, sits in the corner for an unreasonable amount of time without engaging in any transaction and appears to not work there, I’m alert. Are his eyes moving around scanning for cameras, are his lips moving to suggest he’s counting something, is he in apparel which could perhaps more easily conceal a gun?

Same if I’m out sitting while enjoying coffee and an all-black car pulls in and just sits. Whether the engine is on are not does slightly change the degree of the potential threat of the situation. If it’s on, is it a quick getaway for a potential crime? And is it at night where there are fewer people and witnesses?

These are all pretty basic to practice, in my view. So it doesn’t help when everyone’s head is glued to their smartphones. Especially with women. They appear to be much less aware than men who themselves very much have this issue with their smartphones.

2. The Gray Man At Political Rallies

The concept of the Gray Man is simple: blend in. Do not create stimuli around you. Gray is often considered a very bland color. It’s boring, lifeless, moot. This isn’t to suggest wearing gray makes you undetectable, but the concept works well with this color.

Blend in so well to your environment that you essentially appear bland. But if you’re at a political rally, then you know anyone is a potential threat. Wearing a Trump hat or an American flag raises suspicion, creates stimuli from your political adversary, and now you are made. If you’re European-American, wearing a hat over your shaved head is a good idea in terms of lessening your presence because there is still widespread delusion about the reincarnation of literal Nazis.

People involved with BLM, AntiFa and other leftist gangs are already going to make assumptions about your character and will dehumanize you and engage violently. Perhaps lessening that delusion, if even possible, could potentially add to your safety and security, in some respects.

It’s not that one desires to give up their chosen headwear and so on, but weighing the pros and cons should be obvious if you wish to avoid conflict. Which, again, these days is hard to do.

3. Consider Your Neighbors And Conversation

Depending upon your living situation, if you’re in California, talking openly with your neighbors about politics in relations to conservatism, in a positive light, creates quite a stir of stimuli. And, given the next US elections are coming up, you’ve made an impression in their mind. If they believe you are a literal Nazi, you’ve coined a political adversary. If you’re in the deeper South surrounded by red-necks and American-loving Christians, chances are, from my observations, you’ll be less likely to be attacked for your political (or religious) views.

I personally despise having to sometimes lower my voice or take a quick glance around because I’m about to say something that might cause stimuli to a potential assailant. But, in these contemporary times, it’s up to you to decide what’s worth it and what’s not.

Conclusion

These are merely a few things of quality in regards to your safety and security. I’ve been quite observant. It’s not always intentional, but I’ve seen things and made assumptions (or had a strong thought about it) and turned out to be spot on.

Identity your adversary. Weigh in how much of a threat they are to you. Pay attention to who they know or talk to, then extend that person’s conversation partners and then extend it again. Leftist are ruthless, dangerous, hateful devils. And remember, if you ever see anyone wearing the hammer and sickel, then be even more alert.

Read Next: Being Situationally Aware Is A Matter Of Life Or Death

It is 7:30am on the day after Christmas in 2004. The sun is already up in the blue sky of the Andaman sea, and some rare tourists are walking on the main beach of Phi Phi island in Thailand. Most of the tourists are still sleeping, dealing with the usual hangover that comes with the traditional Christmas party.

The locals are busy preparing the long tail boats they use to cruise around the nearby islands. Some Westerners like me, who live here, fill and carry the diving tanks the scuba divers will use to explore the underwater reefs today.

In less than an hour, this idyllic landscape will turn into a dramatic nightmare and many of those people will die, crushed and drowned by the powerful wave of a tsunami coming from the Indian Ocean.

Was there a way to prevent that? Not more than preventing a hurricane in Florida or an earthquake in California. Scientists can predict it, multi-million dollar sensors can detect it, information networks can announce it through various media, but there is no way to prevent it from happening. But we can be more prepared than when I experienced this tsunami in Thailand. Governments and local administrations can invest in infrastructures to mitigate the potential risks and better inform the general public.

And individuals can be better prepared to deal with the consequences of natural events. The people who tragically died on this island were not different from any other people on this planet. As a matter of fact, a vast majority of them were young and relatively fit. They didn’t survive for only a handful of reasons, mainly:

lack of situational awareness

lack of appropriate mindset

lack of physical skills

The situational awareness and appropriate mindset are mainly due to the fact that, when we are on vacation on a tropical island, the last thing we want to think about is the remote possibility of a tragic event of any kind. If the place is nice and sunny, if the locals are friendly and smiling, we quickly feel safe and let our guard down. No pickpockets, no fire, no mugging, no earthquake, no car crash, and therefore no need to pay attention to any precursor sign, no need to keep our valuables and documents with us at all times, no need to have a look at evacuation routes, fire exits, etc. In other words we quickly become complacent when everything looks like paradise.

But this lack of situational awareness and appropriate mindset was only one side of the coin for the many fatalities that occurred that day in Thailand. One of the main culprits was the lack of physical skills. Many people didn’t survive simply because they didn’t have the physical abilities to deal with what happened to them and around them.

Some were not comfortable in the water and couldn’t swim across the strong current that the wave and the obstacles created. The event only lasted a few minutes but the water raised quickly and submerged the lowest part of the island.

Some were not able to hold their breath for a few seconds. When the wave hit the hotels and guesthouses near the beach, most of the rooms were submerged very rapidly, but not for very long. Surprise and panic killed a lot of people in their rooms.

Some were not able to hold on to fixed objects for more than a few seconds. The current was strong and being able to hold on something, or even better to climb onto something, was a good way to increase the chance of surviving.

Some were not able to run away and climb a hill or a stairway. For those who were on the beach and saw the wave coming, the proper action was to sprint and find high ground. Reaching the highest floor of a hotel or one of the nearby hills was a good way to avoid the full force of the tsunami.

Some were not able to push away heavy objects. Entrapment was one of the major risks in this event. Many people drowned because they lacked the necessary strength to move away the objects that the current pushed onto them.

The Western world tends to rely heavily on tools to make our life easier and tools to make it safer. Instead of dealing with the weather, we use tools to make it more bearable (A/C, heater, umbrella, raincoat, sunscreen, etc). Instead of moving in this environment, we rely on tools (a car or an ATV instead of walking and running, a canoe or a boat instead of swimming). We easily blame the lack of protection that can get us injured (“I cannot walk/run without shoes”, “I cannot float without a flotation device”, “I will fall and break my skull if I don’t wear a helmet”, etc).

Tools are fine and make our life more enjoyable most of the time, but what if? What happens when we don’t have them? That’s where skills and physical abilities make plenty of sense. Every one of us, regardless of age, gender and race should be able to do at least the following things:

sprint for at least 100 yards/meters in order to get out of danger (collapsing building, wild fire)

climb over a wall or fence at least shoulder high (to escape an angry pitbull or a group of thugs)

carry for at least 10 yards/meters someone of 3/4 of your size and bodyweight (to save someone from an immediate danger)

swim at least 100 yards/meters without stopping and float at least 10 minutes with no aid or support (to get out of a dangerous zone and wait for a rescue vessel)

walk 5 miles in an hour (to reach a gas station when you run out of gas and you cannot call for help)

perform some basic self-defense techniques (striking, grappling) to react appropriately in a mugging/rapping/life-threatening situation

hold your breath for at least one minute while walking/moving at a slow pace (to escape the toxic fumes of a building on fire)

crawl for at least 30 yards/meters to seek cover (active shooter situation) or rescue someone (a child hidden under a car, or someone trapped under or inside something)

If you think that any of those abilities is way beyond your limits, it’s maybe time to reconsider your priorities in life. Being self-sufficient and prepared doesn’t mean relying on tools—it’s knowing that you can deal with dramatic circumstances to the best of your abilities. Tools come in handy when you have physical limitations (age, injuries, illness) but they shouldn’t be the first line of defense.

Having some regulations that require a floatation device in every hotel room in Thailand will not save any life if the next tsunami in the region happens in South Korea. Use your body and your brain. They are the original tools, and you have them with you all the time!

Read More:  How To Improve Your Situational Awareness From One Minute Of Effort Per Day

[bumblegum-cherrypop]

✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

Black Lives Matter

Fuck the 'All Lives Matter' because while that's true, people seem to have forgotten just what "ALL LIVES" means.

Black Lives Matter

I'm white, I'm british, I'm privileged.

I'm not one of you, but I STAND with you. I HEAR you. I FEEL your pain. I SUPPORT you.

Black Lives Matter

So what if our skin color isn't the same? So what if they're heritage is different to ours? We are all human and no one deserves to be treated as less. Under the skin, we are all the same.

Black Lives Matter

Not all cops are bad. But not all cops are good. We know this. Why aren't we doing more to change this? The bad cops out way the good, marring the perception. The good is there, buried in the bad. Think of it this way: you get good eggs and you get bad eggs. Does one bad egg mean all eggs are bad?

Black Lives Matter

2020 is a year that should never have been. And yet here it is. 2020 is full of upheavals that we thought we were finally beginning to overcome. 2020 is the year we should all take a stand against injustice. 2020 is the year we all need to open our eyes. 2020 is the year we need to listen.

Black Lives Matter

Pride Month is more important than ever. It's a month for the LGBTQ+ community but this year it stands as more. We've fought for so long and so hard to get where we are with LGBTQ+. People have been fighting longer still for equality for all races and ethnicities and minority groups. Pride is about more this year. Pride is about supporting everyone. Pride is about being able to be who you are without the threat of your life on the line.

Black Lives Matter

Why are we standing for a president who is throwing gasoline into the fire? Why are we standing for a president who has said violence will be used? A president who let people have their hair cuts, their meals out, without a gun being raised, but allows INNOCENT PEOPLE to be gunned down in a movement for what is right instead of what is privilege? A president who acts without thought, without care? A president who thinks the only people who are people are people who look like him? A president not defending the very people he swore to be a person for all Americans to look to? The same guy allowing American citizens to be shot, gassed, beaten and arrested for excersizing their rights to protest?

Bringing the National Guard to attack protestors, actively not listening to his people because they aren’t his views - holding a bible upside down...

Sorry America but that sounds an awful lot like a dictatorship

Black Lives Matter

How many innocent lives have to be taken before voices are heard? A 10 year old was maced by a police officer for merely being in the rallies with her family. A man was shot while carrying his baby. Medics in the field working to help the people being shot at, gassed and brutally attacked by all manner of police transport and weapon (riot shields count as weapons) - when the very act of shooting and attacking medics is a WAR CRIME. DC issuing a blackout with thousands going missing. Police turning a blind eye to white men attacking protestors but turning on the protestors for defending one another.

Is this the kind of world we want to live in?

Black Lives Matter

2020. Over 100 years since WW1. 70 years since WW2. And yet the brutality and the regime being seen is close to Nazi. Is this the world we want to live in?

Black Lives Matter

No one person is more important than another. No one race is more important than another. No one group is more important than another. No one ethnicity is more important than another. No one. Equality should be a human right not a law passed. But that's not what we have. Instead we have a duty to stand and fight for what is right.

Black Lives Matter

In the USA, women got their voices heard in 1920. 100 years ago congress ratified the 19th amendment and women could vote. 100 years ago this year. This time, it's time equality is found. This time, Black Lives should be seen as lives and not targets.

The matter is different. Equality is not a law or an amendment that can be designed or altered. But peace can only go so far before we take to the streets to demand our voices heard, that justice be delivered.

The sword of Damocles is swinging, and this time it’s close to falling. Destruction of property and looting won’t do anything but make it worse - protest, but don’t destroy the very country you try to save, the country built on the backs of slavery.

Black Lives Matter

No matter how small, or how big your platform is, it's your job to spread the word, get the message out, and do everything you can to show support to the Black Lives Matter movement. Not just for George Floyd, but for the countless other lives taken by police brutality.

You might not be able to join the protest. It might be too dangerous to go out and be there. But there are other ways.

Black Lives Matter

Remember the song in Pocahontas? The lyrics to ‘Colors of the Wind?’

You think I’m an ignorant savage / And you’ve been so many places / I guess it must be so / But still I cannot see / If the savage one is me / How can there be so much that you don’t know? / You don’t know...

You think you own whatever land you land on / The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim / But I know every rock and tree and creature / Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people / Are the people who look and think like you / But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger / You'll learn things you never knew, you never knew

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers / The heron and the otter are my friends / And we are all connected to each other / In a circle / In a hoop that never ends

How high will the sycamore grow? / If you cut it down / Then you'll never know / And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon / For whether we are white or copper skinned / We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains / We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still / All you'll own is Earth until / You can paint with all the colors of the wind

I’ve highlighted the bits I see fit the situation - let me know if any of it doesn’t fit now. A movie about the white colonization of America and its Natives, a song written to that almost specifically, fits almost painfully today in the horror movie that is 2020.

How about the lyrics of ‘Speechless’ from Aladdin 2019?:

Here comes a wave / Meant to wash me away / A tide that is taking me under / Swallowing sand / Left with nothing to say / My voice drowned out in the thunder

But I won't cry / And I won't start to crumble / Whenever they try / To shut me or cut me down

I won't be silenced / You can't keep me quiet / Won't tremble when you try it / All I know is I won't go speechless

'Cause I'll breathe / When they try to suffocate me / Don't you underestimate me / 'Cause I know that I won't go speechless

Written in stone / Every rule, every word / Centuries-old and unbending / "Stay in your place" / "Better seen and not heard" / Well, now that story is ending

'Cause I / I cannot start to crumble / So come on and try / Try to shut me and cut me down

Let the storm in / I cannot be broken / No, I won't live unspoken / 'Cause I know that I won't go speechless

Try to lock me in this cage / I won't just lay me down and die / I will take these broken wings / And watch me burn across the sky

Hear the echo saying I won’t be silenced / Though you wanna see me tremble when you try it / All I know is I won't go speechless

Or ‘Strangers Like Me’ from Tarzan?

Something is familiar / About the strangers like me

Or ‘Circle of Life’ from Lion King? ‘I’ve Got a Dream’ from Tangled? ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ from the Jungle Book? ‘How Far I’ll Go’ from Moana? ‘Go the Distance’ from Hercules?

Just to name a small few of the songs that ring true - and if the fact that this is just the DISNEY songs, which are meant for more entertaining purposes isn’t a little disturbing, I don’t know what to say. Why is it these songs hit harder, when they aren’t intended for this situation? Because of the messages behind the lyrics. The song fits where the lyrics ring true.

Black Lives Matter

Those standing against the protests, siding with Trump and claiming he’s a) doing a remotely good job, or b) that the protests shouldn’t be happening (in which case, I dread to think the kind of person you were raised to be), then take a moment to THINK.

What if George Floyd, Keith Childress, Betty Jones, Kevin Mathews, Michael Noel, Michael Lee Marshall - just to name a few

What if any one of these innocent victims to brutal murders could have held the cure for cancer either in their DNA or their heads?

Think of it this way; what if the next POC you see, you meet, had the cure for cancer? You wouldn’t kill them then, would you? But what if you shot them and killed the one chance of a cure?

The same goes for everyone of every race of every ethnicity - but right now it’s the Black Lives that matter most. We won’t be equal until we are all treated the same. So if you’re going to shoot a person because of the color of their skin, you can shoot me first because I would give my life if it meant saving the life of the person that bullet was really meant for.

Together we stand. Divided we fall.

Black Lives Matter

My PMs are open if you need to talk, if you want places you can go to support the movement, or want advice on how you can help.

🤎BLACK LIVES MATTER🖤

✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

#blm protests #i stand with you #we are all human #black lives fucking matter

[megrimlocke]

How We Are All Going to Die Laughing

The other day, I was looking at a post made by one of my favorite internet comic artists.  The guy used to be something I’d read in the army newspapers, next to the adds for cheap TVs at the post exchange, but these days it’s mostly a facebook feed I occasionally read.  The artist and writer behind “PVT Murphy” (though these days Murphy’s a sergeant, I’m aging after all it seems) was annoyed at Facebook showing him a shopping page offering what amounted to white nationalist (US neonazi, if you prefer) paraphernalia.

Now, I pointed out that this was what the robot had concluded he wanted to see, and honestly none of us should be surprised by this.  Military members lean right, and in the age of Trump this means that radicalization is around every corner- though for the record it always has been.  In some insidious ways with a cancer of racists and bigots among our ranks, sure, I know because being gay I was targeted by a few myself, but also in more subtle ways.

I once watched a man scream at some Iraqis who were emptying a waste bin nearby, screaming that they didn’t get him, because he’d been the target of an IED attack two hours prior.  Those men had no way in hell of having anything to do with it, but the guy that hit us got away free and the trash guys looked like someone he could defiantly vent his feelings of helplessness and victimhood upon in a vain effort to reclaim his power.  I’m not condoning it, I’m just saying that sometimes the path to prejudice isn’t paved with propaganda and privilege.

I have every faith in the artist who draws PVT Murphy himself, but if you attract the attention of a lot of white supremacists, then probably the robot is going to conclude that you might want to look at some of the things that all the people who like your posts are looking at.  Hence the shop page that offered a wall pinup of a templar knight preparing to smite the saracen to defend (white) Christendom with a few crass remarks about Islam written on it.

Now I explained, in truncated terms, how the robot made this call.  The artist wasn’t excited about this explanation, and in fairness no one is excited about the black mirror showing them something ugly, it’s almost like an automated attack.  But the machine was really just trying to be helpful.  It wasn’t programmed to be sensitive to racial issues, and certainly the people who took out the add didn’t take that into their considerations.  It identified a pattern and arranged the delivery of data that conformed with its instructions based upon the data input.

Now, some right wing dude decided to join in this discussion to point out that the robot didn’t know what it was talking about, included the terms “lib” and “snowflake” in his post, and suggested that if the robot had any idea who he was it wouldn’t keep showing him liberal content- after all he always used the laugh react on it.  I pointed out this part as well, but I’d like to go into a deeper analysis for this discourse.

The right, and perhaps a lot of people using the reacts on facebook, has decided that you can use the laugh react to express a dismissive chuckle to the words of others.  I think this has several sweeping, problematic implications.

First, the people using the internet are using it to each other, and are either unaware of the robots they share the internet with or ignorant regarding how they function.  The robots do not interpret Laugh as a dismissive gesture.  The data they gather from this is that you were paying attention to something and decided to put a reaction on it.  The Laugh react is not a downvote on reddit, the robot, innocent little helperbot it was made to be, assumes you are amused by the thing you clicked on, and so endeavors to further tickle your funny bone.  In short, it’s your good-natured wholesome friend who doesn’t understand the difference between you laughing with liberals and laughing at us.  It thinks we’re all friends.

This leads to the second problem.  If you are a conservative and you do not care to be bothered with leftist posts, then using the laugh react doesn’t help you at all.  It further engages you with the content that annoys you.  The stuff that caused you to try and put on your dismissive “ha ha tawdry communist drivel” mid-atlantic aristocrat voice is going to keep appearing.  If you’re the sort given to conspiracy theories (and you are my bro, you still hate Hillary for the pizza thing), you might draw the conclusion that you are being targeted by leftist internet operatives, spamming your feed with leftist propaganda.

The truth is you’re spamming yourself with leftist content because your socially clueless helpful robot pal is gonna go out and find more things for you to laugh at.  You’re not special or important enough for leftist internet operatives to target your facebook feed with propaganda attacks, and you have damned yourself to an experience on facebook in which you are bombarded with annoying or even blood-boiling content.  All of this guidance, by the way, is equally applicable to left leaning users of the laugh react as a dismissive gesture.

What this does is contribute to people’s paranoia.  It makes them believe that an enemy that doesn’t exist is trying to get into their heads.  It fills their electronic lives with incendiary content that makes them angry and it encourages them further to continue to have generally unproductive electric arguments with people that they disagree with, leaving them exhausted by a brain full of cortisol.

Personally, I think the Left’s electric sin is more to do with our frankly superior witticisms (sorry Right, you invented and stuck to Nobama, you’re just not witty) and the craving so many of us seem to have for delivering that sick burn one-liner so cutting and succinct that it stops the conservative dead in his rhetorical tracks seems to consume online political discourse on the left almost as aggressively as call-out culture does when arguing among our own.

In the effort to sell us more things by pandering to our professed passions, the capitalist internet has created an electric rage engine that wraps you into one heated argument after another among people who are not listening to one another and who are learning to disengage from hard discussions.  This last part is so dangerous to our democracy.

To be clear, I’m not lamenting the death of compromise specifically.  There can be no compromise on the income gap, healthcre, free elections, or the rights of people who are darker in skin than I.  But the electric rage engine makes it difficult to even have conversations about these things in the real world, and if you’re not talking to the people you disagree with face to face in the here and now, your chances of finding compromise are precisely zero percent, nevermind actually changing their views.

Have you noticed yourself having conversations with people that could just be copy pasted almost word for word off the tumblr where they “informed” themselves about this topic?  I’ll bet that you have.  Or else, more dangerously, you have begun to avoid having such conversations at all with people.  Have you ever been in a discussion turned friendly debate with your friend and realized after a few moments that the debate isn’t suddenly so friendly?  I’m willing to bet it’s been a while, so much so that you might even be shocked if it happens.

People like to go on about how fraught the holidays can be because of how politically charged family dinners can be, but I can’t remember such an experience within the past ten years.  No throw down arguments, no discussions about the merits of one tax policy or another- we can’t even seem to discuss weighty matters with people who are blood kin anymore unless we already know they agree with our own views- and thanks to the electric rage engine, we can know, in precis, what their views are and what we think about them as a result long before we ever think about what to put in our covered dish.  The opportunity for someone stepping into a landmine social or foreign policy issue at family and social gatherings has been eliminated, and with it the ability of the dinner table to serve as a place for families to reach consensus by resolving their arguments.  We don’t talk politics with people who disagree with us in the real world anymore, we all just avoid it and spit our venom on the internet, achieving nothing but our mounting unhappiness and dislike for one another.

I have a young colleague at work, maybe 25, who demonstrated the ability to just promptly end a discussion last week.  Now it was a nonsense discussion and in fairness the participants had gotten into trolling him for kicks, saying a blue shirt was green on purpose or some other nonsense, I don’t remember the particulars.  But what I do remember vividly was the ease and efficiency with which he was able to simply end the discussion, how disengagement came so very naturally to him.  I despise the phrase “agree to disagree” because it means that the argument hasn’t been resolved, but it is at least a sign that there was actual thought going on between participants.  No such gesture here.  My colleague put down the conversation and simply went back to his work with all the ease with which you might put down your phone when you decided you were done arguing with someone, and the ability to do this in realspace chilled me to the bone.

Moreover, there is a certain epistemological nihilism that has arisen among us, suggesting that no one can truly know anything because the sources of information, with whatever omissions or biases they may possess, are a matter of consumerist choice rather than objective fact.  We can’t agree on what is real anymore because if you dislike someone’s account of events, you can simply get someone else to present a more palatable story and declare the other people liars.

If you don’t like what you read on NBC, you can simply tune to Fox to hear it told in a way that you choose to consume, often playing to your appetite for validation rather than your need for actionable information.  We like feeling right, and the consumerist information economy has identified that as a means to get our attention long enough to upload some ads along with our news video of choice.

If the very identity of a person can be expressed by a computer algorithm and 4 or 5 hundred clicks across news articles, think pieces, and shopping pages, how easy will it be for the people who do understand how the machines work to begin influencing who we are?

In closing, I think every single one of us is developing a progressively more toxic relationship with the internet, particularly when it comes to political discourse, and I think that if we aren’t especially careful our ability to simply shut down and switch off, while healthy on the web, is going to begin invading our lives in the waking world in insidious ways that will hurt our ability to function as a cohesive society. I think that the marketing robots and the very act of making a profile and posting to it things that are important to you are dangerous influences on our sense of identity, and that by wrapping our sense of identity in the ideas and products that we consume in such a contrived, calculated fashion that we are restricting our ability to be flexible in our thinking, making us less able to get along with one another.  

I’ve been on a soft departure from Facebook for a good while now, making it my loose rule to stick to messenger and instagram because I like indulging my vanity but for the most part I want to be interacting with people directly and not selling myself for likes when I use these things.  Real attention from real people  is much much better.  

In 2020, I invite you to join me in kicking facebook or your own social media vice altogether and bringing our political lives and our debates back into the real world so that we can practice and re-acquire the skills of persuasion and discussion; not as a cynic call to begin trying to convert every conservative we can find, but for the sake of a political discourse that serves as less of a battleground with immovable ideological fortresses and more of a crucible in which the useless can be burned away and useful consensus and meaningful, mind changing-discussions can be had once again.  We cannot afford to keep unsubscribing from one another if our democracy is to survive. (<- leftist witticism addiction in demonstration)

[astonjones]

HOLY SHIT IS THAT [ JESSE WILLIAMS ]?! Oh, wait it’s just [ ASTON JONES ]. Damn, [ HE/HIM ] looks good for [ 30 ], good thing that they’re [ PANSEXUAL/PANROMANTIC ], I might have a chance. I hear that they call them the [ PUBLIC DEFENDER ] of the [ NORTHSIDE ]. I guess that’s because they’re [ STRONG ] and [ COMPASSIONATE ]. But I don’t think a lot of people know that they’re also [ WORK AHOLIC ] and [ FOCUSED ]. I can’t wait to see what kind of trouble [ M ] will bring.

[[ trigger warning: childrens’ death.]]

00. Other Tidbits

Born and raised on the Northside.

Mother died in a car accident when he was three.

Father remarried when he was five to the woman he recognizes as his mother because she raised him.

(Step)Mom is mayor and used to practice corporate law and was a defense attorney. Dad is a moderately successful jazz musician who has rarely will come back to Riverdale from tour.

Went to Boston University for pre-law and U of M for law school, doing his clerkship with a judge in Boston and working with a non-profit for two years before coming back to Riverdale when the District Attorney, who was a family friend died. Took the DA job before realizing how the system was made to fail the Southsiders.

Was heavily involved in his mom’s campaign for Mayor and still runs a lot of her business for her and helps maintain family appearances in the trying times.

Reconnected Jackie St. James at one of his mother’s fundraisers and campaign parties as their families had been acquaintances prior to him leaving Riverdale.

While building his career in Riverdale, he continued to court, Jackie but because of the age gap between them, he never got in the way of her exploring and living a fun life.

After a few years of dancing around each other, the finally started dating and recently Aston asked Jackie to marry him.

Currently, they are living together at his place, while construction is being done on their future home, as a wedding gift from Jackie’s parents.

01.  basics

Full Name: Aston Martin Jones

Nickname: As, Ast, Ash, Ace

Sex/Gender: Cis-Male

Birthday: October 20, 1988

Age: 30

Astrological Sign: Libra

Occupation: Public Defender

Spoken Languages: English and Spanish

Sexual Orientation: pansexual / panromantic

Birthplace: Riverdale, MA

Relationship status: Engaged to Jackie St. James

02. physical traits

Hair Color/Style: Dark brown, black, kept short or often shaved completely especially in the summer.

Eye Color: Color changing. Green/Grey/Blue

Face Claim: Jesse Williams

Height: 6'2 / 188cm

Weight: 175lbs / 79kg

Tattoos: none.

Piercings: none.

Unique Attributes: freckles that cover the bridge of his nose and cheeks, more prominent in the summer. Slight dimples in his cheeks when he smiles.

Defining Gestures/Movements: Almost has a resting prick face. When he is lost in thought,

Posture: Straight, ridged and formal unless around someone he trusts or can be casual around.

03. personality traits

Pet Peeves: People who are rude for the sake of being rude. People who yell at customer service employees. Anyone who supports Trump or thinks BLM is a terrorist organization. Anyone who says “All Lives Matter”. People who talk for the sake of hearing their own voice. People who would rather remain ignorant and spread their ignorance around rather than ask questions or get the facts. Showboating, nepotism, narcissism, and elitism. Senseless violence and hotheads. People who talk with food in their mouth and general bad manners.

Hobbies/Interests: Plant hoarding/Plant care. Activism and fighting injustices. Volunteering at animal shelters. Cooking.

Special Skills/Abilities: Fairly decent cook. An artist, with a particular talent for drawing and painting.

Likes: good music, good food, good people and good company. Also really likes his new Roomba that doesn’t have a name yet.

Dislikes: See pet peeves. Also, pineapple on pizza. Food that is too spicy. The color orange. The smell of vanilla.

Insecurities: Not being good enough to help anyone. Not living up to his family expectations and pressure to help carry the load of the put on to their family. Recently, also his age or seeming like someone trying to obtain a young trophy wife in Jackie. Though he knows she is not a trophy, he can’t help but notice the way people will look at him at the club.

Quirks/Eccentricities: Can be a real diva and be a little much when it comes to house plants.

Strengths: Compassion and deep caring for everyone around him.

Weaknesses: He can be obsessive and overly consumed by things – especially when it comes to work matters or something that makes him happy. Aston has been described more than once as being like a dog with a bone. Unable to allow anyone to question or criticize his mom and her job as mayor.

Speaking Style: Articulate, and concise due to his job. Due to his job, he can’t afford to be careless with his words, or else it could cost someone their life.

Temperament: Calm and collected.

04. family & home

Immediate Family: Miles Jones (Father), Sierra Jones (Step-Mom), Mercedes Jones (half-sister)

How do they feel about their family? He absolutely loves his family.

How does their family feel about them? All good things, one would hope.

Pets: A lot of house plants and a Roomba as well as a dog that Jackie picked out at the animal shelter that she refused to stop pouting about until they could bring it home.

Where do they live? A custom house design and built by his architect grandfather.

Description of their home: [ HERE ] [ HERE ] [ HERE ] [ HERE ] 

Description of their bedroom: [ HERE ]

05. this or that

Introvert or Extrovert?

Optimist or Pessimist?

Leader or Follower?

Confident or Self-Conscious?

Cautious or Careless?

Religious or Secular?

Passionate or Apathetic?

Book Smarts or Street Smarts?

Compliments or Insults?

Pajamas or Lingerie? Naked

06. favorites

Favorite Color: black, brown, yellow.

Favorite Clothing Style/Outfit: for work suits, after work sweats, hoodies and athletic wear.

Favorite Bands/Songs/Type of Music: Hip-hop, jazz, R&B,

Favorite Movies: Remember the Titans, The Pursuit of Happiness

Favorite Books: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness

Favorite Foods/Drinks: All foods and drinks.

Favorite Sports/Sports Teams: Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots

Favorite Time of Day: Sunrise

Favorite Weather/Season: Warm weather and Spring

Favorite Animal: All animals

07. miscellaneous

Fears/Superstitions: Normal ones that come with being a Christian and having a Mama who would put the fear of God into you if you didn’t go to church every Sunday or thank God every night for your many blessings.

Political Views: Liberal Democrat.

Addictions: Working on cases. Can never really let go of a case, especially ones that involve disadvantaged Southsiders of color and undocumented citizens.

Best School Subject: Art and History

Worst School Subject: Math.

School Clubs/Sports: Chess Club, AV Club, Basketball, Football, Baseball, Mock Trial, Model UN.

How does he get money? Works as a Public Defender in Riverdale. Also has family money.

How is he with technology? As decent as a man in his 30′s can be.

08. past & future

Fondest Memory: When his dad would come home from tours during the holidays and they would all go to see Mercedes and her group perform. Also, the day that he asked Jackie to marry him and she said yes.

Deepest, Darkest Secret: Feels a lot of guilt over his privilege and often thinks about just casting everything away, selling it all and giving it to the NAACP. Often also feels smothered by the pretenses his family has to keep up in order to save face in times of crisis.

Dream Vacation: Somewhere tropical.

Best thing that has ever happened to this character: Being able to become someone who could help.

Worst thing that has ever happened to this character: Losing an immigration case where two kids were involved. The parents were deported and the kids were put into the system. A few weeks later, Aston read in the paper that the kids had been killed by their foster parents.

What do they want to be when they grow up? An artist. Aston has always had a fondness for painting and drawing but as he grew older, he realized that it wasn’t a logical career choice and his father only really left room in their family for one artist.

Perfect Date: His wedding day.

#[[ ooc: gotta repost it for a new blog ]] #gdhqintro #about

[kingdomofkitten]

Rant on Disney’s New Star Wars Blu-Rays

So, this is a touch out of the blue, I suppose. But I found enough time to sit down and write about this, so I figured I might as well get to it.

I also know the combination of Disney and Star Wars tends to cause some....friction, amongst people. Please, let’s not turn this into a brawl of Star Wars fans. This isn’t about how George Lucas felt betrayed, or Rian Johnson killing the series, or that anyone who hates the Sequel trilogy is a Trump supporter, or whatever the hell. Please don’t do that. In fact, let us join in unison. Why? Because no matter if you’re for or against Disney’s Star Wars films, if you happen to support this, there’s a decent chance you’re getting royally fucked over.

I was over at my local Target, just killing time (I had sent my dog to get cleaned up, and would need to pick her up in a few hours), and went over to the movie section. Not really looking for anything in particular, just up for browsing. And then I spotted this.

That looked a bit interesting, so I opted to look a little closely. Turns out, it seems Disney themselves (under Lucasfilm) decided to re-release all the Star Wars films they own on Blu-Ray. Presumably to hype up The Rise of Skywalker, which will be coming out in about 2 months from now. At first, I thought that sounded cool! Now all three trilogies can live under one roof! Plus, the cover design for all the films (including Rogue One and Solo, as you can see) are nice and consistent overall.

Then I decided to look at the back of one of them. Ya know, just to see what kinda cool new extras they would include.

I-wait...wait, is...is there no extras? Wha, that can’t be right, what does that sa-

.....deadass?

So, yeah. No bonus features on the Blu-Ray disc. Just on the digital copy....so, if you don’t download that copy in time, tough shit, you just get the movie.

Now, I’m sure some of you are thinking, “well, that’s probably for the Original and Prequel trilogies. They probably just couldn’t get extras ready in time.” Except I double checked.

Please pardon the crumpled up paper quality, apparently no hi-res scans of the backs are available as of now. But yeah, if you look closely, this The Last Jedi Blu-Ray has the exact same thing. No extras on the disc itself, just on the digital copy. Now, here’s the thing. I own the movie on Blu-Ray already. I know, some of you are weeping for me, I never claimed to be a role model. But let’s take a look at that back cover, shall we?

Hold on, there are extras here! A documentary, deleted scenes, commentary, even an Andy Serkis thing! And yet....none of that is in this new re-release? I’m sorry? And you can’t make the argument that Disney couldn’t have gotten the extras ready in time, they released this film already! They couldn’t have just taken the existing Blu-Ray disc, slap a new label on it, and call it a day? They could’ve done that with all four of the Disney Star Wars films so far, and yet they decided to leave them baren.

But okay, I hear some of you going, “well, that’s The Last Jedi, how about some REAL Star Wars films, like Revenge of the Sith? Surely these are all one needs, then.” Well, let’s go back to that first pic, shall we?

Firstly....not sure if you noticed, but Revenge of the Sith and The Last Jedi kinda look very similar here, so you might make a mistake there, and buy TLJ instead. Wocka wocka. :3

But secondly, notice something in the corner? Right next to The Force Awakens? Lemme zoom in for ya.

That is the Star Wars Complete Saga Blu-Ray set 20th Century Fox put out a couple of years ago. There have been a few re-releases of it over the years, sometimes with more stuff, sometimes with less, but as far as I know, it’s still in print. This contains the films from The Phantom Menace, up to Return of the Jedi. Not sure if you can read the sticker, but it has “over 40 hours of extras”. Speaking as someone who has that set, I cannot confirm it, as I haven’t dived into all of the extras, but I would not be surprised. While the movie discs themselves are relatively sparse on extras, they still HAVE some, mainly commentaries by the cast and crew. But if that’s not enough, alongside the six movies, there are THREE discs dedicated to just bonus features. One with behind the scenes material for the original trilogy, one with behind the scenes material for the prequel trilogy, and one full of documentaries and spoofs of Star Wars. Yeah, they went as far as to include PARODIES of the franchise in their big box set. The set was made to where you can dive into the saga, and also get a bunch of added goodies for the hell of it. All for a hundred bucks.

Now, I’m sure some will argue, “well, that’s a premium set kind of thing! This is more budget releases, meant for those who can’t afford that kinda set.” Well, let’s put that to the test. How much are each movie going fo-

JEEZUS

The fuck kinda budget release is that?! For just a movie, I’d expect...I dunno, $5? But okay, fine. That’s the price they want to go with, that’s okay. Now, like I said, that big box set, with the original 6 films is about $100, not including tax. So, let’s just put the prices for those six in. We’ll just round the price to $23, to be fair.

So, the price of those six barebones movies in total, not including tax?

$138.

Again, not including tax. You are quite literally paying more for less here!

My advice, if you want the whole series, get the Complete Saga set, and see if you can find the regular releases of the Disney films. As far as I know, all of those are still in print, and if you know where to look, you can get great deals on them. The big kicker about that? The Complete Saga set was made by 20th Century Fox...who, if you remember, Disney owns now. So if you buy that set, you’re giving them money, AND getting bang for your buck! It’s a win-win scenario, and I don’t understand why Disney didn’t get that!

I don’t speak as a major Star Wars fan. I mostly acquired the movies from my family. But I speak as an average consumer. Disney, I don’t give a shit what you’re doing to that world in a galaxy far, far away. But when you start bordering on scamming people, THAT is where I draw the line. People, no matter where you stand on these films, if you decide to buy one of these things...you’re probably being ripped off. Even for a company as stereotypically evil like the Magic Kingdom itself, this is just fucking gross.

P.S. I am aware there is a possibility that the original trilogy ones may have the original Theatrical versions, as opposed to the Special Edition versions with Greedo shooting first, and all that CGI, that’s on the Complete Saga set. If that’s the case, then to die-hards, MAYBE I can see a reason to buy these, but....again, to an average consumer, does that really add much? I don’t really think so.

#disney #star wars #blu ray #rant

[luffyasksandanswers]

// “hi, I’m not from the US” ask set ALL OF THEM YOU COWARD. ALL OF THEM. YOU REBLOGGED THAT MEME NOW COMMIT. GIVE ME MY STALKER KNOWLEDGE. GIMME. OR MEET ME IN THE PIT.

“hi, i’m not from the us” meme - @fearllacy //Bruh, you curious George xD! But dare is a dare and me not want to the coconut pit D: so here we go!

1. favourite place in your country?

Summer cottage, a place to escape the hectic city life *thumbs up*

2. do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad?

Toss me with a shoe because of my unecological thinking but I do like to see new places and cultures  so whenever there is a chance, I try to travel abroad. 

3. does your country have access to sea?

We are the land of thousand lakes buuut we also have sea around us, a lot in the south! so we can escape to Estonia xD 

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

Praised Karelian Pasty and Kalakukko here! otherwise our food is pretty much either stolen from Sweden or colorless/tasteless xD 

5. favourite song in your native language?

Me revealed some of them hier :>

6. most hated song in your native language?

Spent the yesterday browsing around Youtube xD and results are täällä

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

Wow, this is a thing I’ve never thought about it so this should be something to be asked from my mates because they know better which words I repeat nonstop *laughs*  Hey, how about teaching you fellow buddies a few Finnish words?

- Juoksentelisinkohan?  (=I wonder if I should run around aimlessly?)Never heard anyone say this but I think it’s very amusing word in general xD 

- Lohikäärme = dragon Simply put so but if you write “lohi” and “käärme” separated, you get salmon and snake. In other words the translation could also be salmonsnake,kinda makes sense, kinda doesn’t *laughs*

- Pöpelikkö

= ThicketRarely used word for a forest/growth that is hard to walk through, maybe in spoken language means more like “in middle of nowhere” or at least that’s how I use that word ::D  

Bonus: lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilasThe longest officially approved finnish word monster. In english it would beAeroplaneshowerturbinemotorhelpmechanicnoncommissionedofficerstudent. 

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

I probably told this before but I’m not a bloodline finn, my biological roots are in China (but I’ve spent practically my whole life here so my soul is very suomi perkele saunaan ja torille xD). As imaginable, this causes awkward situations because people get misunderstood or assume things right away but well whoopsies happpen as long as no one makes a number about it, it’s all ok ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best?

Revealed #lifegoals här!

10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language?

Maybe the most heard sweard word is the finnish version of F-word  [x]Frankly spoken I don’t like or use it because it’s like the C-word and dunno, sounds weird when people love to repeat loudly a word that literally means woman’s genitals :D Nah my favorite swearword is “Perkele” because when you are angry you can feel the power in the R-letter.  But I actually use “Helvetti” (=hell) the most, no idea how it happened but anyway, if it’s not “PERRRKELE” then it’s “EI HELVETTI” *laughs* last time I swear like mad was when I had to assemble a furniture at work xD

11. favourite native writer/poet?

Tove Jansson adoration here :>

12. what do you think about English translations 

I have to admit I’m not familiar with translated literacy D: wait no I lied! I’ve read 2 Moomin books in english but don’t remember paying attention to the translation, only thing that was confusing first was the names in english because there wasn’t any expalanations to the names of the (random) side characters xD

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

We finns love icy waters but we have another tradition that is a dank meme. I mean TORILLE!! which basically means finns rush to the local market places if we win hockey championships or are good in any other sports. I think it’s a global jokebut yeah finns are trash for getting national recognision. Just mention us anywhere outside the borders and transmit that info to Finland and you can hear and see people hyping it like mad and I am not sure if other countries do this too in such extreme ways xD  

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

One thing that makes watching the finnish tv boring is that they literallt recycle the celebrities which means same faces in almost every fame teledrama or shows and practically everywhere you go or channel surf, you’ll see them and then even tabloids need to write nonstop about their slighest moves.  It is good to be ecological but if there is an actor that needs to shove their face everywhere no matter what and they try to keep their fame in every way, it just doesn’t work plus this might be stereotyping but in those “finnish versions” of big shows, finns are somewhat stiff and don’t go like “yeehaw WOHOO \o/” the same way like in the original shows  so it sometimes looks like they try too hard to be like the original or they are just “forced” to be superhyper. 

Another reason I don’t watch much finnish series is that the articulating is bad or then there is something wrong with the audio or it’s just my bad hearing but the actors tend to speak very very quietly so you have to put volume on if you want to hear anything on the telly and then your ears get rekt and wasted because when the commercials (which are louder than the normal speech) comes, the sound is even louder [x] just like when you open your computer and forgot the volume is at maximum and whe Windows start music suddenly appears. 

I bet there are good finnish movies too that are high quality and I personally enjoy the game shows (quiz like thingies) but in general, nah :p 15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?

Another thing outsiders maybe don’t understand but finns love to queue and freebies and an ultimate example is that usually if a new shop opens up, people can start to queue a long before the grand opening. Funniest thing is that free buckets are the most queued thing and why not because they are useful xD

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?

Maybe my favorite finnish stereotype is that finns love personal space [x] It is a national joke that if there is a bus stop, finns don’t stand next to each other (well in the capital and big cities maybe) but they have at least 2 meters distance xD 

17. are you interested in your country’s history?

Frankly spoken nah, I mean I liked to hear my grandparents’ stories about the life when they were younger and how my both grandfathers had to see the wars but in general nah, because well we’ve been owned by Swedes and Russians and had a civil war.  

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

I’m originally from the Eastern Finland that has its dialect  and people distinguish it easily. Especially now that I’ve lived outside my hometown during studies and work, people tell that they hear strong dialect although I only use it in the person pronouns *eyes emoji*

19. do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem?

Blue is a nice color so thumbs up for that! Well can’t say I’m a fanatic finn but of course it sounds nice to hear the anthem on telly [x]

20. which sport is The Sport in your country?

Hockey is probably where Finland is the most successful but we also like football (duh, everyone likes) but we suck at that so bye FIFA dreams xD you know about that Phil because I ranted about it last summer XD

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be?

SALMIAKKI and that free bucket *laughs* 

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

There are many things very well in Finland, like everyone gets a free basic education and natural disasters such as earthquakes are very rare so it’s quite safe. 

What am I ashamed of? Well frankly spoken we are way too soft on criminals in my opinion so our country should fix the law system so that the criminals would get rougher and longer punishments for rough crimes. 

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?

I think beers, wines and long drinks are in now? 

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country?

Sweden! It’s a common joke that we are so jealous of Swedes being better people and succeeding in everything and of course in our jokes swedes are the dummies. I think Scandinavian countries do that about each other like Finland vs Sweden, Iceland vs Denmark and Sweden vs Norway *laughs*

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country?

But I am born in another country xD Nah no, I wouldn’t change a thingblue eyes would be cool but finns tend to burn in the sun and I enjoy the summer I’m happy like this :p 26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

The latest news about Finland in American media must’ve been that when Trump misunderstood the forest defense thing and said something like Finns are so diligent they rake their forest floors [x] but the truth is that we don’t because our climate is different. Of course we have forest fires too but they are much much smaller than in California. 

27. favourite national celebrity?

I fangirled Antti holma here, he handsome, he funny, he has a podcast  :> 

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites?I think a couple of mountains exsist [x] but more rivers and thousands of lakes! I like the lakes, since I’ve spent most of my summers at our summer cottage near the lake. Actually never been in the north but I’d love to go on a roadtrip someday to see them!

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?

We beat Sweden and Russia so no one shall mess with our smol country! :p

Fun fact: There is a guy named Simo Häyhä, a sniper who is said to be killed more than 505 men during the 1939–40 Winter War [x]

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

We have a multicultural family tree, relatives from France, Germany, Sweden, Japan and so on :)! 

#reply #thanks #fearllacy #shishishi ! (meme/ask reply) #captain went elsewhere ! (OOC) #mun things (personal) #//YOU VERY WELCOME ME TACKLED LE DARE!!! #long post #lel got carried away whoopsie xD #It's already midnight so brain and writing might be potato so I'll fix this up tomorrow if needed xD

[patriotsnet]

Who Gives More To Charity Republicans Or Democrats

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-gives-more-to-charity-republicans-or-democrats/

Who Gives More To Charity Republicans Or Democrats

Republicans Give Less In Democratic

Who LIES More- Republicans or Democrats?

Whether Republicans lived in a red county or a blue county affected their giving, the study found. Republican donors tended to give less in Democratic-leaning counties.

One theory was that taxes tended to be higher in counties where a majority of residents were Democrats. Republicans had less to give, and they were not persuaded to give more to reap a bigger tax deduction.

A second hypothesis is that donors do not necessarily have confidence in giving when their beliefs are not shared or the institutions they are giving to might support causes that are not theirs.

If Im a Republican and only in the minority, my preferences are not held in common or high regard, Dr. Christensen said. When theyre in the majority, they feel they can share their wealth this way.

Republicans Vs Democrats: Where Do The Two Main Us Political Parties Stand On Key Issues

After an impeachment, a positive coronavirus test and an unforgettable first presidential debate rounded out the final months of Donald Trumps first term, it seems fair to say the past few years have been a roller-coaster ride for US politics.

On November 3, Americans will decide which candidate will win the 2020 presidential election, sparking either the beginning, or end, for each nominee.

But how does it all work?

Well, the US political system is dominated by two main parties the Democrats and the Republicans and the next president will belong to one of those two.

Just how different are their policies?

Heres what you need to know, starting with the candidates.

Republicans Give More To Charity Than Democrats But Theres A Bigger Story Here

November 3, 2018; New York Times

The political differences between Republicans and Democrats dont play out solely at the ballot box; they also predict how likely people are to donate to charity. This finding from a newly published research project reflects a key difference, one tied to political affiliation, about how our nation should take on critical social issues like homelessness, poverty, and health care. The data also suggest that in times of political strife, both parties supporters pull back, making problem-solving harder.

Using voting and IRS data for the residents of 3,000 counties across the nation, the four-professor research team found, according to the New York Times, that counties which are overwhelmingly Republican report higher charitable contributions than Democratic-dominated counties, although giving in blue counties is often bolstered by a combination of charitable donations and higher taxes. But as red or blue counties become more politically competitive, charitable giving tends to fall. The full study was recently published in the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

Importantly, the study did not find that in Republican counties, private funds replaced public funds so that social services were equally supported.

Don’t Miss: Snopes Trump Republican Dumb

Elected Officials Seen As Out Of Touch In Us France And Uk

Nearly two-thirds of Germans say the statement elected officials care what ordinary people think describes their country well. However, fewer than half of those surveyed in France, the U.S. and the UK express this opinion.

The share of Germans who say elected officials care what ordinary people think has risen precipitously since 2018, when only 44% held this view. In France, too, the share saying elected officials care has risen 9 points . Indeed, all partisan groups in France studied registered an increase in the percentage who say this.;

In the UK and U.S., however, the share who say elected officials care about ordinary people has remained largely unchanged since 2018, although it has risen in the UK among those who identify with Conservative Party and decreased among those who identify with the Labour Party. Today, Conservatives are more likely to say elected officials care than are Labour Party supporters. Those who have a favorable view of the Brexit Party are also more likely than those who have an unfavorable view of the party to say elected officials care what ordinary people think .;

Partisan identity colors opinion about whether elected officials are seen as caring in each of the countries surveyed except for Germany. For example, in France, about two-thirds of those who identify with President Emmanuel Macrons party En Marche say elected officials care, compared with fewer than half of supporters of the Socialist Party and the Republicans .

Republicans Winning Money Race As They Seek To Take Over House In 2022

The National Republican Congressional Committee announced Wednesday that it had raised $45.4 million in the second quarter of 2021, the most it has ever raised in three months of a non-election year, as Republicans seek to take over the House in 2022.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.

Also Check: Did Trump Call Republicans Stupid In 1998

Can A Religious White Republican Party Survive

The partisan gap between black and white voters is the most durable and powerful split in modern American politics. Soon after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he remarked, I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come. He wasnt wrong. Afterward, the Republicans courted racist white voters by opposing school and housing integration.

Among white people, religion is the most stable and important determinant of party choice. But the way religion shapes party attachment has changed. Today, the best way to sort the population of white voters is not by which religion they belong to, but by how religious they are.

Among white Americans:

else

Religious

The number of religious white Americans is plummeting. In the long term, that spells disaster for Republicans. I dont think the Republican Party right now has a sustainable business model, said Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University.

The party knows this. Or at least it should. After Republicans lost the 2012 election, the party leadership commissioned a report on how to move forward. One answer was clear: appeal to nonwhite and less conservative voters. But in the years since, the Republicans led by Mr. Trump have doubled down on white identity politics and seem to believe that their path to a majority is through gerrymandering, voter suppression or attempts to skew the census.

Recommended Reading: Do Republicans Or Democrats Give More To Charity

Democrats Tend To Have A Lot More Anger And Negativity In Their Rhetoric According To Them If You Support President Trump Well Then You Are A Racist And A Nazi

They generally seem to be out to get someone making things more personal.; Why are they so afraid to use the facts to reinforce what they want to do? Its agenda first then find or make up facts to support the rhetoric.

If they cant beat you at the polling booth, they try and beat you in court and thats just a great example of something thats not a pleasant experience. And not quite working in the long run. They keep getting overturned.

Recommended Reading: Democratic Controlled States

Democrats Or Republicans: Who Has The Higher Income

In the end, many people assume Republicans are richer based on these figures. Although, this is only a look at the richest families and politicians in America though. In everyday American households, it seems that Democrats have a higher mean salary. Its true that many of the wealthiest families in the country are contributing to Republican campaigns. On the contrary, families registered as Democrats have higher annual salaries than Republicans, statistically speaking.

These findings still have some loopholes in them, of course. For instance, the data was collected over the last 40 years or so. Moreover, it is only based on the most recently collected information. As you know, demographics are constantly changing. These figures may have been affected as well. There is also a margin of error with every type of data collection like this. So, what do you think? Who is richer? Democrats or Republicans?

The Political Force Of Michael Bloombergs Tactical Charity

Conservatives & Christians are Far More Charitable than Bleeding-Heart Liberals & Athiests

Reddit

In his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has already spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, more than that of the major Democratic candidates combined. But, ironically, focusing on his immense campaign budget underrates the impact of Bloombergs money on his chances. Just as important is the political force of his charitable giving.

Traditionally, presidential nominations have been than by grassroots mobilization. Bloomberg may be able to gin up some public support through campaign ads and Tammany Hall-style politics, but in the inside game, it would seem he is at a disadvantage. He has never run for national office, has supported Republican candidates, and was himself a Republican.

But politics in America is increasingly organized around institutions reliant on big-donor philanthropy. Candidates, local and state parties, advocacy organizations, think tanks, and many foundations are in a constant scramble for money. Few leaders of these organizations will want to offend a man whose personal wealth makes their entire operating budgets look like a negligible rounding error.

Don’t Miss: Percentage Of Americans That Are Republican

If A Party Gets What It Wants In The Pursuit Of Delivering Something Most People Want Most Of The Time So Be It

Theres nothing morally wrong with being the party of corporate interests. Theres nothing wrong, for that matter, with viewing politics as the preserve of the few, not the many. Whats wrong is lying about it. Whats wrong is treating the opposition as if it does not have a legitimate claim. Whats wrong is setting off a conflagration of white-power fury that consumes nearly everything, even the republic itself, in order to slake a thirst for power. The day Joe Biden decided to run for president was the day this white-power fury burned through Charlottesville, screaming, Jews will not replace us. That day, according to published reports, is the day Biden chose to fight to restore the soul of America.

Maybe hes full of it. Maybe Biden and the Democrats dont really believe what they say when they talk about everyone being in this together. Thats certainly what the Republicans and their media allies believe. A critic said Thursday that we can expect to see from Biden lofty rhetoric about unity, while acting below the radar to smash norms to implement the Left-wing agenda. The same day, a Times reporter asked the White House press secretary why the administration has not offered a bipartisan fig leaf to the Republicans, given the president putting so much emphasis on unity. Maybe the Democrats dont mean what they say. Maybe its just politics-as-usual.

Not All Parties That Employ Populist Rhetoric Are Opposed To Liberal Democratic Principles

Greeces Coalition of the Radical Left, more commonly referred to as Syriza, is one of the only major parties of the radical left in the west to favour populist over pluralistic rhetoric.

Though an overwhelming majority of western parties described by ParlGov as liberal and conservative are likely to be positive towards ethnic minorities, the same cannot be said for their attitudes towards immigration.

You May Like: Leader Of The Radical Republicans

Are Republicans More Ethical Than Democrats

It is easy to be cynical about the corrosive effects of power. ;No party has a monopoly on corruption and misuse of public office.; Yet cynicism is not the same as wisdom.; Such every day cynicism helps Democrats escape from the uncomfortable moral challenges posed to big government advocates by the slew of scandals erupting in Washington.;

What we are seeing involves systemic flouting of the law by Democrats, from elected and appointed officials to unionized bureaucrats, who have targeted ordinary citizens because they are political opponents, riding rough shod over our rights to free speech, assembly, freedom of the press and equal application of the law.;

There has not been abuse of power on this scale in this baby boomers lifetime.; This is beyond the ordinary, and ordinary cynicism will not suffice.; The debate over whether our President is guilty of active abuse, leadership by example, or incompetence is important.; But it is not the most important thing going on.; The problem is far larger than the Oval office, and will extend past this presidency unless there is significant government reform.

New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman daydreams of what he and fellow liberals could accomplish ruling America with all the powers of the Chinese Communist Party.; Republican politicians, no matter how power hungry and narcissistic, know that is a nightmare.; Their followers know that is a nightmare.; Democrats do not.;

Democratic Party Enters 2021 In Power And Flush With Cash For A Change

The Democratic National Committee has a roughly $75 million war chest, raising the partys hopes of keeping power in 2022 and accelerating a Democratic shift in the Sun Belt states.

After years of flirting with financial disaster, the Democratic Party entered 2021 not only in control of the White House, the House and the Senate but with more money in the bank than ever before at the start of a political cycle.

The Democratic National Committee will report to the Federal Election Commission on Sunday that it ended 2020 with $38.8 million in the bank and $3 million in debts, according to an advance look at its financial filings. In addition, there is roughly $40 million earmarked for the party, left over from its joint operations with the Biden campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. This gives the Democrats a roughly $75 million war chest at the start of President Bidens tenure.

This is a number that is unimaginable, said Howard Dean, a former party chairman.

Party data, resources and infrastructure undergird candidates up and down the ballot, and Democratic officials are already dreaming of early investments in voter registration that may accelerate the political realignment Democrat are hoping to bring about in key Sun Belt states.

We had to juggle who we were going to pay, Tom Perez, who until earlier this month was the chairman of the D.N.C., said of the early part of his tenure, which began in 2017.

Recommended Reading: Did Trump Say Republicans Are Stupid

Americans Are Especially Likely To Say Politicians Are Corrupt

This report examines peoples trust in government and satisfaction with democracy, as well as their attitudes toward elected officials and political reform.

For this analysis, we use data from nationally representative telephone surveys of 4,069 adults from Nov. 10 to Dec. 23, 2020, in the U.S., France, Germany and the UK. In addition to the survey, Pew Research Center conducted focus groups from Aug. 19 to Nov. 20, 2019, in cities across the U.S. and UK . We draw upon these discussions in this report.

Here are the questions used for the report, along with responses, and the survey methodology.

As they continue to struggle with a public health crisis and ongoing economic challenges, many people in the United States and Western Europe are also frustrated with politics.

A four-nation Pew Research Center survey conducted in November and December of 2020 finds that roughly two-thirds of adults in France and the U.S., as well as about half in the United Kingdom, believe their political system needs major changes or needs to be completely reformed. Calls for significant reform are less common in Germany, where about four-in-ten express this view.

Trust in government has also increased slightly in the UK, although while it has risen among supporters of Prime Minister Boris Johnsons Conservative Party, is has actually declined among those who identify with the opposition Labour Party.

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Save this story for later.

House Republicans Pressuring Democrats To Return Donations From Ocasio

House Republicans’ campaign arm on Monday launched a website calling on a number of vulnerable House Democrats to return campaign donations from progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The website, dubbed “Socialist Give Back,” comes after Politico reported last week that Ocasio-Cortez donated $5,000 to a number of House Democrats. The;National Republican Congressional Committee;highlighted the Democrats who have returned the donations, including Rep. Chris PappasChristopher Charles PappasNew Hampshire Republican Matt Mowers jumps into key House race, setting up 2020 rematchTop Democrat: ‘A lot of spin’ coming from White House on infrastructureFormer Trump aide announces run for New Hampshire House seatMORE .

Ocasio-Cortez’s Courage to Change PAC donated to the New Hampshire Democrat on March 29, but Pappas’s campaign returned the funds, citing a clerical error.

Other House Democrats who returned the campaign cash include Reps. Conor Lamb , Elissa SlotkinRonald James KindGOP sees Biden crises as boon for midterm recruitmentDemocrats fret over Trump-district retirements ahead of midtermsMORE .

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Chris Hayden told Politico last month that the campaign arm was appreciative of Ocasio-Cortez’s efforts, adding “due to a miscommunication, some transfers were made in error, but that has been addressed.

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans In California

Democrat Or Republican: Whos More Charitable

J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing

Lay belief suggests that Democrats are more charitable than Republicans because of a more community-minded orientation. However, surveys of giving show that Republicans give more to charity than Democrats, though the charitable giving also includes religious organizations. A careful reading of the evidence precludes strong conclusions.

A recent study by WalletHub;compiled charitable giving data from different states. When combined with state-level political identity data from the American National Election Studies;a simple analysis was conducted. A simple regression suggests a positive association between charitable giving and being a Republican. You can find your state in the graph above.

This simple analysis, however, does not tell the whole story. Understanding charitable giving by Republicans and Democrats is more complex than portrayed in this graphic. My colleagues Karen Page Winterich at Penn State and Yinlong Zhang at UT-San Antonio conducted a series of controlled experiments to investigate this issue. The study published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing;can be downloaded here:

Specifically, the study showed:

Overall, Democrats and Republicans are equally likely to be charitable.

In another study, we created two descriptions of âChildrenâs Advocatesâ. They started with the same introduction, but had two different descriptions, one republican-oriented and another democrat-oriented:

versus

[tatooedlaura-blog]

Something from nothing

This third series reads as follows:

Shattered … Desolation … Determination … Us and Ours … Ratty Towels … The Sleepover … Skinner and the Punch … Oregon ... Impossibilities

@today-in-fic ... and thanks to @13starbuck42 for reading it, fixing it, encouraging it :)

&&&&&&&&&&

The Nyquil held him until around 4am, when he began looking for her in his half-dazed stupor of sleep, arms roaming, running into cold sheets and empty pillow. Stumbling from the bed, eyes stuck together, he wandered, shivering, out to the living room, following phantom Scully trail. Finding her in the dark, sitting in the overstuffed chair by the window, he wondered for half a second if she was asleep but her head turn towards the sound of him kicking the couch leg told him otherwise, “hi.”

“Hi. What are you doing awake?”

“I got lonely. Why are you out here?” Turning the chair with her in it so she faced him as he sat down on the coffee table, he finally noticed the exhausted, dull blue eyes, the puffy, red-rimmed lids, and reaching over to grip her knee, “you haven’t slept yet, have you?”

Head still resting on the wing of the chair, she shook a ‘no’ at him, “I’ve had a little on my mind.”

“I haven’t. You should really try that liquid green nightmare. I don’t remember dreaming a damn thing but it leaves a wicked whiskey and roadkill aftertaste.” Wiggling forward as much as he could, he rubbed her shoulders, “is it the baby or the chip in my neck that’s bothering you most?”

The look she shot at him should have knocked him off the table and onto his ass but he held steady, didn’t blink, “you know about the chip?”

Nodding, “I set off the metal detectors at the airport. I told them I had been shot on duty years ago and Skinner had already gone through the line so he didn’t hear.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Why didn’t you tell me when you found it, ‘cause I was a little busy having a meltdown that you were pregnant and I’d almost left you behind to frolic the universe on the mother ship.”

“I was busy panicking that you nearly left me, elated you came home, scared sick I was pregnant, freaking out about your ‘meltdown’ and I was not about to add another layer of ‘you’re not going to believe this shit’ on top of everything else.”

“Then what are we arguing about?” Leaning forward to catch her lips in a kiss, “and I will never forget you actually said ‘freaking out’.”

Nowhere near ready to joke about anything, “I saw it in the tub last night. Why would they do that to you?”

“They prefer us a matching set, I guess.” Reaching over to pull an afghan across his shoulders, teeth chattering in the chill, “will you come back to bed with me so we can talk and you can keep my feet warm at the same time?”

Instead of answering, she held his gaze for an infinite amount of time, pupils wide in the dark. Finally, he moved his hand to hers, waiting until she took it, pulling her up next to him, holding her fingers while they walked the green glow of the hallway back to bed.

Settled, cocooned in comforter, blankets, knit and wool, “I’m going to put the chip discussion on hold until sometime tomorrow, maybe, or never, but since I woke up, I’ve come up with a theory about our tiny Earthling. Would you like to hear it?”

“How did you form an idea in two minutes when I can’t even slow my brain enough to remember how to make toast?”

“I’ve had a little sleep which trumps your ‘I’ve been up for three days’ and besides, my mind apparently processes a lot of shit coming down from a Nyquil high. Who knew.” Finding her hand under the covers, twining fingers and brushing knuckles, “my theory is now fully formed, I just have a few timeline questions first.”

Scully, her head half buried in pillow, nose nearly touching his, “I can’t promise anything. Remember, I can’t make toast.”

“You found out you were infertile about two years ago and you had the tests after that, right?” Seeing her nod, he continued, “then you went to Africa and touched the ship, which you stated brings things back to life, heals things … do you see where I’m going with this?”

She had a vague idea but her brain was mostly still crying for sleep. She shrugged her confusion and he moved on.

“You weren’t tested again before we started our IVF, correct? You just went on what you were told two years ago, which should have been correct.”

Now she stopped him, tired mind still managing to remember basic anatomy and biological science, “regardless, the human body cannot just make more eggs. What we are born with is what we have. They were all taken out and I was left with nothing. None, Mulder … a big fat zero.”

Her eyes slipped shut, desperate to sleep, desperate not to talk about this anymore for the moment. Mulder, however, being Mulder, rubbed his nose over hers, lips barely brushing as he continued, “we both know there is a very good chance those assholes who took you left one or two eggs behind or maybe that ship kicked your body into high gear and did some weird alien fuckery to you and managed to get your body to make more eggs. I’m not going to question that. I just know that by how far long you are, we made this small human being on your mother’s back porch, hammock-style, on that last really warm Thursday we had. There was Cool Whip on chocolate pie and you ate the Cool Whip and left me the pie and what was possibly the best meatloaf I’ve ever eaten and collared greens that you ate for me because I will never eat anything named collard green. We were very much alone and very much aware and very much not artificially inseminated.”

Hoping she was still listening, “this is our baby, Scully, and I’d change my mind about the existence of your God before I change my mind about that.

Her head had dried out two hours ago but her heart ached like she could cry for another three days, “tell me more.”

“You were only in Oregon a few days ago and this kid wouldn’t be the size you’re telling me if it had just happened. I went into that ship voluntarily and you got kicked back out; Skinner couldn’t get in at all. They only allowed previous abductees through and it didn’t want you. You were already pregnant and from my guess, not useful to them anymore. We made this kid the old-fashioned way and I’m going to scream it from the rooftops just as soon as I take a nap and you get some sleep.”

And he let this idea stew there, in the deep recesses of gray matter, while he waited, memorizing fathomless blue, bloodshot red and flecks of gold.

It was a tiny inhale, expansion and contraction of chest that made him hold his own breath before the softest whisper reached his ear, her lips barely moving, “you think this baby is truly ours?”

“I think this baby is truly ours.”

She kissed him hard, running into his mouth in desperate belief, putting all her faith in a theory that shouldn’t and couldn’t exist in her universe as she’d known it ten minutes earlier, “I don’t know what to do.”

“Trust me.” As he haphazardly and messily rolled her over, he snuggled up close behind, hand on her belly, lips on her neck, “and go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

&&&&&&&&&

It was a restless morning for her, legs moving, turning, rolling, occasional twitching spasms giving Mulder inevitable future bruises. At times, however, the rains grew heavy against the window and over the roof, lulling her to stillness with the comfort of white noise. Mulder watched her lying on her back, eyes fluttering, long eyelashes brushing against alabaster cheeks, wondering if staying was worth it … they could go, run far, live quietly on the ocean, live secretly in the mountains, live safely on their own island.

He could protect his family better there than he could in a two-bedroom walkup in Georgetown.

As he began drifting towards a 10-hour nap, he wondered how in the world he could take the entire family with them.

Hunger drove him from bed eventually, the light through the blinds a diffused dark grey color, time determination only possibly by first, then second glance at the clock on the microwave. It said 2:11 but he had to stop and wonder if that was am or pm, then, realizing it didn’t really matter to his stomach or hers, he began defrosting containers of vegetable soup courtesy of Maggie and her need to send food home with them because, as she aptly put it, she sometimes forgets that she doesn’t have to cook for 15 people every damn day.

He then heated the oven, made biscuits and just before the oven timer went off, heard the slide of stocking feet across tile floor. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw her, eyes still at half-mast, hair puffed from pillow and bath the night before. Quilt trailing behind, she stood there, wrapped awkwardly, blinking, “was it a dream? I can’t tell.”

Deciding to remove the biscuits before forgetting about them, he then turned, wrapping arms around her, bulky quilt and all, “not a dream.”

Mulder gave it a second, then pulled back slightly, saw her eyes harden a little, glitter with an idea she thought he might like and he waited, remembering once again that that look was one of several million things he loved about her, “then I am having a thought.”

“Share over soup? I’m starving and you are probably two minutes from falling down from lack of food.”

“Soup, please.”

&&&&&&&&&&&

By four that afternoon, she had ordered a portable ultrasound machine, convinced the Gunmen to help her with bloodwork, made a shopping list the breadth and width of Montana and finally took a deep breath, “we can’t trust the hospital, Mulder, I won’t. I’ll do ultrasounds here and keep tracks of the baby’s growth. I will go to a new OB every few months, whose name we will never mention, by the way, and I’ll keep my own records to make sure they match up with the doc’s so I can refer to them later and trust them.”

Mulder, unsettled at her settled-in paranoia stated as fact, shifted her slightly so her elbows weren’t digging into his thighs at such a terribly painful angle and he could lean more comfortably back on the arm of the couch, “I think you have officially become more paranoid than me and that’s saying something.”

Jaw set in determination, she tucked the blankets around them tighter, the draft moving through the apartment making her colder by the minute, his warm chest against her back the only think keeping her from piling on another layer, “I’ll take it as a compliment.” Hands cupping his knees, head twisting to look up at him, “we are this kid’s best hope and I’m not going to let this one down.”

Finally more relaxed than he’d been in a week, not wanting to start another deep discussion about unnecessary guilt, he kept his rebuke light, “you didn’t let the last ones down either but we’ve probably let Skinner down seeing as we never called off work today.”

“Ask me if I care.”

“Do you care?”

“Not in the slightest.” Handing him the remote control as a particularly strong burst of wind rattled the windows, “I only plan on moving from this couch to get the industrial size bag of Peanut M&Ms from the cupboard in about an hour.”

“I like a woman with a plan.”

#msr #post-requiem #angst #metal detectors and mother ships #cold drafts and M&Ms #xf fanfic #xfiles fanfic #my writing #Life part 3 series

[graesays]

Grae Reviews: Frank Turner - Be More Kind

It’s been a while since I reviewed some music, and that’s mostly because I review stuff that I like. That’s a problem when a lot of modern music is (to be as charitable as possible) utter horse shit. Thankfully the folk rock scene has provided a lot of gold over the last few years so it would have taken a lot for me to not like new music from one of the genre’s best, Frank Turner. That being said, I wasn’t expecting to be hit so strongly in the feels by such a politically charged work.

Frank Turner is obviously no stranger to the political tune. This year is the 10th anniversary of his album Love, Ire & Song. The title track of which is very overtly political (as is it’s re-releases 2nd disk track called ‘Thatcher Fucked The Kids’). This new album however manages to simultaneously step it up a notch and mellow the message out. Adopting a more “mainstream” sound that may well be too much for those who think Frank peaked with England Keep My Bones. Like I said in the sub-title though, this album struck a chord with me, and that is probably just a personal reaction but hey, this blog is all about my personal reaction to things, so lets run down the album track by track.

Don’t Worry - Mental health is a running theme of this album. Frank has said in interviews that he drew on his experiences undergoing CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) in his songwriting and this song does a good job of conveying this overarching state of mind. That said, it’s not the best example, we’ll get there in a bit.

1933 - This is the obligatory return to the Frank Turner that fans of his earlier work will be most satisfied with. If you’re gonna discuss politics in 2018 there’s two topics that are gonna dominate any writings, Brexit & Trump. This is the Brexit rant, comparing the closing of borders with the rise of fascism in the build up to World War II, and a very well done one at that with some top notch lyric writing (“well I don’t know, what’s going on anymore, the world outside is burning with a brand new light but it isn’t one that makes me feel warm”).

Little Changes - THIS is the best ode to mental health treatment on this album, and the most overt references to the methods behind CBT (“the big things stay the same until we make little changes”). I love this song in particular because it’s so upbeat, which fits well with a topic that unintentionally frightens so many people because of the stigma attached.

Be More Kind - The title of the album (and obviously this track) is based on a Clive James poem that Frank read in US magazine 'The New Yorker’ “I should have been more kind. It is my fate. To find this out, but find it out too late” Another overarching theme of this album is the idea that empathy and compassion is dying in the face of the dark turn our politics is taking lately and that rather than engaging in tribalism, we should be setting an example to be better to others. It’s not often that I describe a song as beautiful, but this one more than deserves that label, and is by far and away my favourite song on the album.

Make America Great Again - So we’re talking politics again and this English americophile is giving probably the friendliest Fuck Donald Trump message ever committed to tape. This is a serious topic executed in a very tongue in cheek manner, as the lifted Ramones chord progression ('Bonzo Goes to Bitburg’ if you were wondering) and the ironically un-ironic ending chorus key change (the scourge of the indie folk rock scene!). A good natured, playful fuck off is the best kind of fuck off though and I do have a big soft spot for this song, even if it has caught the ire of some old school Frank Turner fans.

Going Nowhere - Well someone got a girlfriend between records didn’t they? I joke, this could easily be a song about platonic friendship, and that is a sentiment that I can completely sympathise with in fairness. This one is pretty much a collection of cliches to describe how he’s got his friends backs. The most prominent of which is best described by Frank’s labelmate (and another favourite musician of mine) Beans on Toast “any song that has the line 'in there like swimwear’ in it deserves to be number 1!”.

Brave Face - No album of this genre is complete without a stadium singalong anthem, and this is the song that fills that quota. That joke I made earlier about Going Nowhere being a romantic song is probably best applied to this song in fairness. Best demonstrated with the chorus “Make me a promise, That when the world ends, You’ll kiss me, And you’ll hold my hand, And then we’ll get through this, Whatever happens, One look at your brave face, Makes me a braver man”.

There She Is - Frank teamed up with Charlie Hugall, a collaborator with Florence & The Machine in the making of this record, and this song is probably the most striking example of his influence. Plus it’s the third track in a row that’s about a girl, and while that theme would probably get repetitive by now in the hands of a lesser artist, Frank manages to pull it off though and while it’s probably one of the less memorable songs on the album, it’s by no means bad.

21st Century Survival Blues - Hey old school Frank Turner fans? Feeling isolated with the change in direction? Well I’ve got some good news, here’s something that would actually fit in well on 'Sleep is for the Weak’! Following on a similar theme to Brave Face, how the narrator and his partner will be fine in the middle of the apocalypse as long as they have each other, the new theme is blended well with some old school Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls musicianship and is another standout from the 2nd half of the album.

Blackout - This was the first single from the album and don’t get me wrong, I like it, but it fails to live up to the hype (solely in this authors opinion). It’s a lament about Frank himself stepping away from political themes after his interviews about his personal political beliefs got him death threats, and how he should step out of his comfort zone. Which he has done with this record in more ways than one. As said, it’s not the best on the album, but by no means does that suggest that I think the song is in any way bad.

Common Ground - The theme of this one is pretty much explained in full by it’s title, that we should look more for what we have in common, rather than what separates us. specifically that we should build bridges. Frank’s music has a knack for forcing the audience to think for a minute and this one definitely manages that. The latter songs on this album lack the catchiness of the earlier stuff, but if you’re after the introspection that you’ve come to expect from Franks last few records, this is where you’ll find it.

The Lifeboat - Just when you think the upbeat tone of the album takes a backseat for a moment in the penultimate track, which describes a sick world and a sick society that should be left behind. You get hit with a 180 degree turn to describe the leaving behind and defeat of a toxic world. Another chance for a slow introspection as we start to wrap up the album.

Get it Right - This song tackles a matter that actually means a lot but never gets mentioned in polarising times, it’s ok to admit you’ve changed your mind on something, and holding your hands up is preferable to continuing down a dangerous path just for the sake of saving face. Frank delivers most of this one standing alone with his acoustic guitar, a one on one conversation with the listener until we hit the end and a bit of a stadium singalong to sign off on.

This might just be me, but the topics Frank touched on in this album seriously hit home, and did so to the point where I might actually consider this my favourite of his albums. I’ve always been a fan of about 3 or 4 songs off previous albums so to have 9 or 10 songs I love on one album is incredible in my mind. Is that because he went 'mainstream’? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I’m letting my own circumstances dictate how I digest this music, but isn’t that what you’re meant to do? To be honest, I’m probably putting too much effort into justifying why I love an album by one of my favourite artists in a genre I’ve grown to love over the last few years (and not just because it’s one I’m active in, honest!). All I need to say is that I love it, and I hope if you decide to check it out that you do too.

#album #frank turner #music #review