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odysseus absolutely does present a threat to penelope if he perceives her as at all unfaithful, and i feel the unfairness of this, and i think people tend to undersell how much tension at least potentially exists between odysseus and penelope. but i'm also like. his reaction, all speculation aside, his actual reaction in the odyssey to her flirting with the suitors is delight, because he immediately ascertains that she is running a con. sorry that they're so in-sync in spite of the forces that try to drive a wedge between them, including their own misgiving hearts. sorry that they invented homophrosyne ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

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Happy Valentines Day!

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Commenting on the fact that Nathaniel had added a significant role for Mrs. Underwood in his fake version of the story, Bartimaeus said something like, I hope this has lessened your inner guilt and grief, and then added that he, of course, knew nothing about it.

The most ironic thing? He DOES know, and he literally does the same thing - he selects for us, the readers, only the best moments and facts from Ptolemy's life to give us the same hope for the world of his dreams, to make him the same sacred figure he sees.

Nathaniel knew very well that the most Mrs. Underwood did was to make tea and biscuits and then die. Bartimaeus knows that Ptolemy was a human being, with his own strengths and weaknesses. But when they have to tell their stories to the public, they deliberately put the people they love in the best possible light, so that others can see, hear, and feel what they loved and cherish about them.

And then Bartimaeus says he knows nothing about it. Liar.

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It was already two years ago, but I drew this Bartimaeus as a thank-you for a Twitter(X) user who once cosplayed as Bartimaeus using my character design. Amazing time difference. I was happy because it was my first time.

And this is today's scribble. Cats are lovable creatures that very naturally shift all responsibility to their owners, which is a bit like Nathaniel.

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All my blossoms that have waited to rise - Fauna96 - Hanno Ucciso l'Uomo Ragno: La leggendaria storia degli 883 (TV) [Archive of Our Own]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63229450

È la prima volta che riceve un tatuaggio da una persona che, tutto sommato, non conosce affatto. O che conosce molto poco. Perché c’è gente che sostiene di aver ottenuto fiori dopo una sola stretta di mano, ma sono casi più unici che rari, per non dire leggende metropolitane. Però, be’, lui e Mauro hanno vissuto un’avventura degna di quel nome, o no? È naturale che si siano lasciati un marchio di qualche tipo, anche se magari Max non si aspettava subito quel marchio. Ma d’altronde, chi ci ha mai capito qualcosa con quei cazzo di tatuaggi? Nessuno, ecco, e tantomeno Max.

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Sorry to Jean-boy and happy belated Traumatize Your Subordinates Valentine’s Day! Have another meme :3

Source:

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I really don't understand how "without getting kudos or comments a fanfiction author is going to assume that people who clicked their fic didn't like it" became a controversial take.

I don't know why some people think an author should imagine, or guess that people who click their fic enjoyed it it when nobody is telling them that.

If you're re-reading a fic constantly, or leaving it up in your tab so that it re-loads every day for a hundred days the author is not going to know that unless you tell them. They'd love to hear it. It would make their day.

And if you don't tell them you liked their fic, there's no reason for them to assume you did.

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im here thinking that mauro has never ever so much as expressd the slightest interest in women during the whole series? hello?? is it just me or he only ever expressed his interest in 1. making music 2. that weird little guy he was making music with. mauro i know what you are. i saw that wet cat look on your face when you told max to go get the girl

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billie joe armstrong is like…the definition of chaotic good. a prime example of this is the fact that one time at a green day concert this guy in the pit was harassing a young girl so billie stopped the show to help her. however, his way of doing so was to jump into the audience, dropkick the guy directly in the face, and then fight him in a crowd of screaming fans

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It’s the Count!

Details below the cut ‼️

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Rising from the dead to fix about 100 mistakes (and then of course notice some new ones)

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I actually drew 20 Everlarks (posted on instagram, cloud_starlight_) for Valentines but my phone won’t let me put all of them here so here’s my favorites. What they severely lack in quality they make up for in quantity </3

I drew for twelve hours straight, until 5:00 am. I think my stubbornness to finish 20 drawings in one day fried my brain and melted my cells. Oh, well!

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stai seguendo il festival? chi ti piace di più?

Sono una di quell'1% di Italia che non lo guarda direttamente: uso meme e racconti. Ma perché vengo da una famiglia che non ha sempre seguito poco e non mi è rimasta la tradizione 🤷‍♀️

Detto questo, dovrò recuperare la discografia di Lucio Corsi tanto per piangere un pochino ^^

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spin this wheel of hobbies

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𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐂𝐊 as 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐑𝐇𝐀𝐄𝐍𝐘𝐑𝐀 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍 & 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐇 as 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍

Looking at each other during Rhaenyra's wedding feast. HOTD 1.05.