#American Denials | A Bullshit

[xtruss]

SECRET PAKISTAN CABLE DOCUMENTS U.S. PRESSURE TO REMOVE IMRAN KHAN

“All will be Forgiven,” said a U.S. Diplomat, if the No-confidence vote against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan succeeds.

— Ryan Grim, Murtaza Hussain | August 9 2023 | The Intercept

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Former Prime Minister, during an interview in Lahore, Pakistan, on June 2, 2023. Photo: Betsy Joles/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The U.S. State Department encouraged the Pakistani government in a March 7, 2022, meeting to remove Imran Khan as prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a classified Pakistani government document obtained by The Intercept.

The meeting, between the Pakistani ambassador to the United States and two State Department officials, has been the subject of intense scrutiny, controversy, and speculation in Pakistan over the past year and a half, as supporters of Khan and his military and civilian opponents jockeyed for power. The political struggle escalated on August 5 when Khan was sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges and taken into custody for the second time since his ouster. Khan’s defenders dismiss the charges as baseless. The sentence also blocks Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, from contesting elections expected in Pakistan later this year.

One month after the meeting with U.S. officials documented in the leaked Pakistani government document, a no-confidence vote was held in Parliament, leading to Khan’s removal from power. The vote is believed to have been organized with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military. Since that time, Khan and his supporters have been engaged in a struggle with the military and its civilian allies, whom Khan claims engineered his removal from power at the request of the U.S.

The text of the Pakistani cable, produced from the meeting by the ambassador and transmitted to Pakistan, has not previously been published. The cable, known internally as a “cypher,” reveals both the carrots and the sticks that the State Department deployed in its push against Khan, promising warmer relations if Khan was removed, and isolation if he was not.

The document, labeled “Secret,” includes an account of the meeting between State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, and Asad Majeed Khan, who at the time was Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S.

The document was provided to The Intercept by an anonymous source in the Pakistani military who said that they had no ties to Imran Khan or Khan’s party. The Intercept is publishing the body of the cable below, correcting minor typos in the text because such details can be used to watermark documents and track their dissemination.

Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan made a visit to Russia on February 23 to meet President Putin for a two-day visit. Photo: Reuters

“The cable reveals both the carrots and the sticks that the State Department deployed in its push against Prime Minister Imran Khan.”

The contents of the document obtained by The Intercept are consistent with reporting in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn and elsewhere describing the circumstances of the meeting and details in the cable itself, including in the classification markings omitted from The Intercept’s presentation. The dynamics of the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. described in the cable were subsequently borne out by events. In the cable, the U.S. objects to Khan’s foreign policy on the Ukraine war. Those positions were quickly reversed after his removal, which was followed, as promised in the meeting, by a warming between the U.S. and Pakistan.

The diplomatic meeting came two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which launched as Khan was en route to Moscow, a visit that infuriated Washington.

On March 2, just days before the meeting, Lu had been questioned at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing over the neutrality of India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan in the Ukraine conflict. In response to a question from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., about a recent decision by Pakistan to abstain from a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s role in the conflict, Lu said, “Prime Minister Khan has recently visited Moscow, and so I think we are trying to figure out how to engage specifically with the Prime Minister following that decision.” Van Hollen appeared to be indignant that officials from the State Department were not in communication with Khan about the issue.

The day before the meeting, Khan addressed a rally and responded directly to European calls that Pakistan rally behind Ukraine. “Are we your slaves?” Khan thundered to the crowd. “What do you think of us? That we are your slaves and that we will do whatever you ask of us?” he asked. “We are friends of Russia, and we are also friends of the United States. We are friends of China and Europe. We are not part of any alliance.”

In the meeting, according to the document, Lu spoke in forthright terms about Washington’s displeasure with Pakistan’s stance in the conflict. The document quotes Lu saying that “people here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position (on Ukraine), if such a position is even possible. It does not seem such a neutral stand to us.” Lu added that he had held internal discussions with the U.S. National Security Council and that “it seems quite clear that this is the Prime Minister’s policy.”

Lu then bluntly raises the issue of a no-confidence vote: “I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister,” Lu said, according to the document. “Otherwise,” he continued, “I think it will be tough going ahead.”

Lu warned that if the situation wasn’t resolved, Pakistan would be marginalized by its Western allies. “I cannot tell how this will be seen by Europe but I suspect their reaction will be similar,” Lu said, adding that Khan could face “isolation” by Europe and the U.S. should he remain in office.

Asked about quotes from Lu in the Pakistani cable, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “Nothing in these purported comments shows the United States taking a position on who the leader of Pakistan should be.” Miller said he would not comment on private diplomatic discussions.

The Pakistani ambassador responded by expressing frustration with the lack of engagement from U.S. leadership: “This reluctance had created a perception in Pakistan that we were being ignored or even taken for granted. There was also a feeling that while the U.S. expected Pakistan’s support on all issues that were important to the U.S., it did not reciprocate.”

“There was also a feeling that while the U.S. expected Pakistan’s support on all issues that were important to the U.S., it did not reciprocate.”

The discussion concluded, according to the document, with the Pakistani ambassador expressing his hope that the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war would not “impact our bilateral ties.” Lu told him that the damage was real but not fatal, and with Khan gone, the relationship could go back to normal. “I would argue that it has already created a dent in the relationship from our perspective,” Lu said, again raising the “political situation” in Pakistan. “Let us wait for a few days to see whether the political situation changes, which would mean that we would not have a big disagreement about this issue and the dent would go away very quickly. Otherwise, we will have to confront this issue head on and decide how to manage it.”

The day after the meeting, on March 8, Khan’s opponents in Parliament moved forward with a key procedural step toward the no-confidence vote.

“Khan’s fate wasn’t sealed at the time that this meeting took place, but it was tenuous,” said Arif Rafiq, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute and specialist on Pakistan. “What you have here is the Biden administration sending a message to the people that they saw as Pakistan’s real rulers, signaling to them that things will better if he is removed from power.”

The Intercept has made extensive efforts to authenticate the document. Given the security climate in Pakistan, independent confirmation from sources in the Pakistani government was not possible. The Pakistan Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request for comment.

Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said, “We had expressed concern about the visit of then-PM Khan to Moscow on the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have communicated that opposition both publicly and privately.” He added that “allegations that the United States interfered in internal decisions about the leadership of Pakistan are false. They have always been false, and they continue to be.”

Top Left: Donald Lu, a Diplomat in Service and Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, waves toward media personnel upon his arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport on July 14, 2023, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Bottom: Pakistani Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan is seen in Ankara, Turkey, on July 6, 2023. Photos: Photo: Abhishek Maharjan/Sipa via AP Images (Left); Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images (Right)

American Denials

The State Department has previously and on repeated occasions denied that Lu urged the Pakistani government to oust the prime minister. On April 8, 2022, after Khan alleged there was a cable proving his claim of U.S. interference, State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter was asked about its veracity. “Let me just say very bluntly there is absolutely no truth to these allegations,” Porter said.

In early June 2023, Khan sat for an interview with The Intercept and again repeated the allegation. The State Department at the time referred to previous denials in response to a request for comment.

Khan has not backed off, and the State Department again denied the charge throughout June and July, at least three times in press conferences and again in a speech by a deputy assistant secretary of state for Pakistan, who referred to the claims as “propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation.” On the latest occasion, Miller, the State Department spokesperson, ridiculed the question. “I feel like I need to bring just a sign that I can hold up in response to this question and say that that allegation is not true,” Miller said, laughing and drawing cackles from the press. “I don’t know how many times I can say it. … The United States does not have a position on one political candidate or party versus another in Pakistan or any other country.”

While the drama over the cable has played out in public and in the press, the Pakistani military has launched an unprecedented assault on Pakistani civil society to silence whatever dissent and free expression had previously existed in the country.

In recent months, the military-led government cracked down not just on dissidents but also on suspected leakers inside its own institutions, passing a law last week that authorizes warrantless searches and lengthy jail terms for whistleblowers. Shaken by the public display of support for Khan — expressed in a series of mass protests and riots this May — the military has also enshrined authoritarian powers for itself that drastically reduce civil liberties, criminalize criticism of the military, expand the institution’s already expansive role in the country’s economy, and give military leaders a permanent veto over political and civil affairs.

These sweeping attacks on democracy passed largely unremarked upon by U.S. officials. In late July, the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Michael Kurilla, visited Pakistan, then issued a statement saying his visit had been focused on “strengthening the military-to-military relations,” while making no mention of the political situation in the country. This summer, Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, attempted to add a measure to the National Defense Authorization Act directing the State Department to examine democratic backsliding in Pakistan, but it was denied a vote on the House floor.

In a press briefing on Monday, in response to a question about whether Khan received a fair trial, Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said, “We believe that is an internal matter for Pakistan.”

Political Chaos

Khan’s removal from power after falling out with the Pakistani military, the same institution believed to have engineered his political rise, has thrown the nation of 230 million into political and economic turmoil. Protests against Khan’s dismissal and suppression of his party have swept the country and paralyzed its institutions, while Pakistan’s current leaders struggle to confront an economic crisis triggered in part by the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on global energy prices. The present chaos has resulted in staggering rates of inflation and capital flight from the country.

In addition to the worsening situation for ordinary citizens, a regime of extreme censorship has also been put in place at the direction of the Pakistani military, with news outlets effectively barred from even mentioning Khan’s name, as The Intercept previously reported. Thousands of members of civil society, mostly supporters of Khan, have been detained by the military, a crackdown that intensified after Khan was arrested earlier this year and held in custody for four days, sparking nationwide protests. Credible reports have emerged of torture by security forces, with reports of several deaths in custody.

The crackdown on Pakistan’s once-rambunctious press has taken a particularly dark turn. Arshad Sharif, a prominent Pakistani journalist who fled the country, was shot to death in Nairobi last October under circumstances that remain disputed. Another well-known journalist, Imran Riaz Khan, was detained by security forces at an airport this May and has not been seen since. Both had been reporting on the secret cable, which has taken on nearly mythical status in Pakistan, and had been among a handful of journalists briefed on its contents before Khan’s ouster. These attacks on the press have created a climate of fear that has made reporting on the document by reporters and institutions inside Pakistan effectively impossible.

Last November, Khan himself was subject to an attempted assassination when he was shot at a political rally, in an attack that wounded him and killed one of his supporters. His imprisonment has been widely viewed within Pakistan, including among many critics of his government, as an attempt by the military to stop his party from contesting upcoming elections. Polls show that were he allowed to participate in the vote, Khan would likely win.

“Khan was convicted on flimsy charges following a trial where his defense was not even allowed to produce witnesses. He had previously survived an assassination attempt, had a journalist aligned with him murdered, and has seen thousands of his supporters imprisoned. While the Biden administration has said that human rights will be at the forefront of their foreign policy, they are now looking away as Pakistan moves toward becoming a full-fledged military dictatorship,” said Rafiq, the Middle East Institute scholar. “This is ultimately about the Pakistani military using outside forces as a means to preserve their hegemony over the country. Every time there is a grand geopolitical rivalry, whether it is the Cold War, or the war on terror, they know how to manipulate the U.S. in their favor.”

Khan’s repeated references to the cable itself have contributed to his legal troubles, with prosecutors launching a separate investigation into whether he violated state secrets laws by discussing it.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party Activists and Supporters of Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan clash with police during a protest against the arrest of their leader in Peshawar on May 10, 2023. Photo: Hussain Ali/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Democracy and the Military

For years, the U.S. government’s patronage relationship with the Pakistani Corrupt Military, which has long acted as the real powerbroker in the country’s politics, has been seen by many Pakistanis as an impenetrable obstacle to the country’s ability to grow its economy, combat endemic corruption, and pursue a constructive foreign policy. The sense that Pakistan has lacked meaningful independence because of this relationship — which, despite trappings of democracy, has made the military an untouchable force in domestic politics — makes the charge of U.S. involvement in the removal of a popular prime minister even more incendiary.

The Intercept’s source, who had access to the document as a member of the military, spoke of their growing disillusionment with the country’s military leadership, the impact on the military’s morale following its involvement in the political fight against Khan, the exploitation of the memory of dead service members for political purposes in recent military propaganda, and widespread public disenchantment with the armed forces amid the crackdown. They believe the military is pushing Pakistan toward a crisis similar to the one in 1971 that led to the secession of Bangladesh.

The source added that they hoped the leaked document would finally confirm what ordinary people, as well as the rank and file of the armed forces, had long suspected about the Pakistani military and force a reckoning within the institution.

This June, amid the crackdown by the military on Khan’s political party, Khan’s former top bureaucrat, Principal Secretary Azam Khan, was arrested and detained for a month. While in detention, Azam Khan reportedly issued a statement recorded in front of a member of the judiciary saying that the cable was indeed real, but that the former prime minister had exaggerated its contents for political gain.

A month after the meeting described in the cable, and just days before Khan was removed from office, then-Pakistan Army Chief, Corrupt General Qamar Bajwa publicly broke with Khan’s neutrality and gave a speech calling the Russian invasion a “huge tragedy” and criticizing Russia. The remarks aligned the public picture with Lu’s private observation, recorded in the cable, that Pakistan’s neutrality was the policy of Khan, but not of the military.

Pakistan’s foreign policy has changed significantly since Khan’s removal, with Pakistan tilting more clearly toward the U.S. and European side in the Ukraine conflict. Abandoning its posture of neutrality, Pakistan has now emerged as a supplier of arms to the Ukrainian military; images of Pakistan-produced shells and ammunition regularly turn up on battlefield footage. In an interview earlier this year, a European Union official confirmed Pakistani military backing to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister traveled to Pakistan this July in a visit widely presumed to be about military cooperation, but publicly described as focusing on trade, education, and environmental issues.

This realignment toward the U.S. has appeared to provide dividends to the Pakistani military. On August 3, a Pakistani newspaper reported that Parliament had approved the signing of a defense pact with the U.S. covering “joint exercises, operations, training, basing and equipment.” The agreement was intended to replace a previous 15-year deal between the two countries that expired in 2020.

Pakistan’s Former Prime Minister Imran Khan leaves after appearing at the Supreme Court in Islamabad on July 26, 2023. Photo: Aamir Qureshi AFP via Getty Images

Pakistani “Assessment”

Lu’s blunt comments on Pakistan’s internal domestic politics raised alarms on the Pakistani side. In a brief “assessment” section at the bottom of the report, the document states: “Don could not have conveyed such a strong demarche without the express approval of the White House, to which he referred repeatedly. Clearly, Don spoke out of turn on Pakistan’s internal political process.” The cable concludes with a recommendation “to seriously reflect on this and consider making an appropriate demarche to the U.S. Cd’ A a.i in Islamabad” — a reference to the chargé d’affaires ad interim, effectively the acting head of a diplomatic mission when its accredited head is absent. A diplomatic protest was later issued by Khan’s government.

On March 27, 2022, the same month as the Lu meeting, Khan spoke publicly about the cable, waving a folded copy of it in the air at a rally. He also reportedly briefed a national security meeting with the heads of Pakistan’s various security agencies on its contents.

It is not clear what happened in Pakistan-U.S. communications during the weeks that followed the meeting reported in the cable. By the following month, however, the political winds had shifted. On April 10, Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote.

The new prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, eventually confirmed the existence of the cable and acknowledged that some of the message conveyed by Lu was inappropriate. He has said that Pakistan had formally complained but cautioned that the cable did not confirm Khan’s broader claims.

Khan has suggested repeatedly in public that the top-secret cable showed that the U.S. had directed his removal from power, but subsequently revised his assessment as he urged the U.S. to condemn human rights abuses against his supporters. The U.S., he told The Intercept in a June interview, may have urged his ouster, but only did so because it was manipulated by the military.

The disclosure of the full body of the cable, over a year after Khan was deposed and following his arrest, will finally allow the competing claims to be evaluated. On balance, the text of the cypher strongly suggests that the U.S. encouraged Khan’s removal. According to the cable, while Lu did not directly order Khan to be taken out of office, he said that Pakistan would suffer severe consequences, including international isolation, if Khan were to stay on as prime minister, while simultaneously hinting at rewards for his removal. The remarks appear to have been taken as a signal for the Pakistani military to act.

In addition to his other legal problems, Khan himself has continued to be targeted over the handling of the secret cable by the new government. Late last month, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that Khan would be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act in connection with the cable. “Khan has hatched a conspiracy against the state’s interests and a case will be initiated against him on behalf of the state for the violation of the Official Secrets Act by exposing a confidential cipher communication from a diplomatic mission,” Sanaullah said.

Khan has now joined a long list of Pakistani politicians who failed to finish their term in office after running afoul of the military. As quoted in the cypher, Khan was being personally blamed by the U.S., according to Lu, for Pakistan’s policy of nonalignment during the Ukraine conflict. The vote of no confidence and its implications for the future of U.S.-Pakistan ties loomed large throughout the conversation.

“Honestly,” Lu is quoted as saying in the document, referring to the prospect of Khan staying in office, “I think isolation of the Prime Minister will become very strong from Europe and the United States.”

March 7, 2022 Pakistani Diplomatic Cypher (Transcription)

The Intercept is publishing the body of the cable below, correcting minor typos in the text because such details can be used to watermark documents and track their dissemination. The Intercept has removed classification markings and numerical elements that could be used for tracking purposes. Labeled “Secret,” the cable includes an account of the meeting between State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, and Asad Majeed Khan, who at the time was Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S.

I had a luncheon meeting today with Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu. He was accompanied by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Les Viguerie. DCM, DA and Counsellor Qasim joined me.

At the outset, Don referred to Pakistan’s position on the Ukraine crisis and said that “people here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position (on Ukraine), if such a position is even possible. It does not seem such a neutral stand to us.” He shared that in his discussions with the NSC, “it seems quite clear that this is the Prime Minister’s policy.” He continued that he was of the view that this was “tied to the current political dramas in Islamabad that he (Prime Minister) needs and is trying to show a public face.” I replied that this was not a correct reading of the situation as Pakistan’s position on Ukraine was a result of intense interagency consultations. Pakistan had never resorted to conducting diplomacy in public sphere. The Prime Minister’s remarks during a political rally were in reaction to the public letter by European Ambassadors in Islamabad which was against diplomatic etiquette and protocol. Any political leader, whether in Pakistan or the U.S., would be constrained to give a public reply in such a situation.

I asked Don if the reason for a strong U.S. reaction was Pakistan’s abstention in the voting in the UNGA. He categorically replied in the negative and said that it was due to the Prime Minister’s visit to Moscow. He said that “I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister. Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead.” He paused and then said “I cannot tell how this will be seen by Europe but I suspect their reaction will be similar.” He then said that “honestly I think isolation of the Prime Minister will become very strong from Europe and the United States.” Don further commented that it seemed that the Prime Minister’s visit to Moscow was planned during the Beijing Olympics and there was an attempt by the Prime Minister to meet Putin which was not successful and then this idea was hatched that he would go to Moscow.

I told Don that this was a completely misinformed and wrong perception. The visit to Moscow had been in the works for at least few years and was the result of a deliberative institutional process. I stressed that when the Prime Minister was flying to Moscow, Russian invasion of Ukraine had not started and there was still hope for a peaceful resolution. I also pointed out that leaders of European countries were also traveling to Moscow around the same time. Don interjected that “those visits were specifically for seeking resolution of the Ukraine standoff while the Prime Minister’s visit was for bilateral economic reasons.” I drew his attention to the fact that the Prime Minister clearly regretted the situation while being in Moscow and had hoped for diplomacy to work. The Prime Minister’s visit, I stressed, was purely in the bilateral context and should not be seen either as a condonation or endorsement of Russia’s action against Ukraine. I said that our position is dictated by our desire to keep the channels of communication with all sides open. Our subsequent statements at the UN and by our Spokesperson spelled that out clearly, while reaffirming our commitment to the principle of UN Charter, non-use or threat of use of force, sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, and pacific settlement of disputes.

I also told Don that Pakistan was worried of how the Ukraine crisis would play out in the context of Afghanistan. We had paid a very high price due to the long-term impact of this conflict. Our priority was to have peace and stability in Afghanistan, for which it was imperative to have cooperation and coordination with all major powers, including Russia. From this perspective as well, keeping the channels of communication open was essential. This factor was also dictating our position on the Ukraine crisis. On my reference to the upcoming Extended Troika meeting in Beijing, Don replied that there were still ongoing discussions in Washington on whether the U.S. should attend the Extended Troika meeting or the upcoming Antalya meeting on Afghanistan with Russian representatives in attendance, as the U.S. focus right now was to discuss only Ukraine with Russia. I replied that this was exactly what we were afraid of. We did not want the Ukraine crisis to divert focus away from Afghanistan. Don did not comment.

I told Don that just like him, I would also convey our perspective in a forthright manner. I said that over the past one year, we had been consistently sensing reluctance on the part of the U.S. leadership to engage with our leadership. This reluctance had created a perception in Pakistan that we were being ignored and even taken for granted. There was also a feeling that while the U.S. expected Pakistan’s support on all issues that were important to the U.S., it did not reciprocate and we do not see much U.S. support on issues of concern for Pakistan, particularly on Kashmir. I said that it was extremely important to have functioning channels of communication at the highest level to remove such perception. I also said that we were surprised that if our position on the Ukraine crisis was so important for the U.S., why the U.S. had not engaged with us at the top leadership level prior to the Moscow visit and even when the UN was scheduled to vote. (The State Department had raised it at the DCM level.) Pakistan valued continued high-level engagement and for this reason the Foreign Minister sought to speak with Secretary Blinken to personally explain Pakistan’s position and perspective on the Ukraine crisis. The call has not materialized yet. Don replied that the thinking in Washington was that given the current political turmoil in Pakistan, this was not the right time for such engagement and it could wait till the political situation in Pakistan settled down.

I reiterated our position that countries should not be made to choose sides in a complex situation like the Ukraine crisis and stressed the need for having active bilateral communications at the political leadership level. Don replied that “you have conveyed your position clearly and I will take it back to my leadership.”

I also told Don that we had seen his defence of the Indian position on the Ukraine crisis during the recently held Senate Sub-Committee hearing on U.S.-India relations. It seemed that the U.S. was applying different criteria for India and Pakistan. Don responded that the U.S. lawmakers’ strong feelings about India’s abstentions in the UNSC and UNGA came out clearly during the hearing. I said that from the hearing, it appeared that the U.S. expected more from India than Pakistan, yet it appeared to be more concerned about Pakistan’s position. Don was evasive and responded that Washington looked at the U.S.-India relationship very much through the lens of what was happening in China. He added that while India had a close relationship with Moscow, “I think we will actually see a change in India’s policy once all Indian students are out of Ukraine.”

I expressed the hope that the issue of the Prime Minister’s visit to Russia will not impact our bilateral ties. Don replied that “I would argue that it has already created a dent in the relationship from our perspective. Let us wait for a few days to see whether the political situation changes, which would mean that we would not have a big disagreement about this issue and the dent would go away very quickly. Otherwise, we will have to confront this issue head on and decide how to manage it.”

We also discussed Afghanistan and other issues pertaining to bilateral ties. A separate communication follows on that part of our conversation.

Assessment

Don could not have conveyed such a strong demarche without the express approval of the White House, to which he referred repeatedly. Clearly, Don spoke out of turn on Pakistan’s internal political process. We need to seriously reflect on this and consider making an appropriate demarche to the U.S. Cd’ A a.i in Islamabad.

[noctomania]

Do not insult my intelligence

Zionists will try to pretend americans can't possibly understand what is going on in Palestine. That WE are the ones projecting. Fools, we see right through yalls bullshit because it's the same bullshit our ancestors pulled you fuckin numbskulls. Israel is just trying to do what settlers in "america" did to native americans. Only they are flopping so hard because they are trying to do what was done in the 18th century in the 21st century. It wasn't right then, it's not right now.

There is no justification for genocide. You cannot target civilians. You cannot target schools, hospitals, humanitarian aid. You cannot restrict humanitarian aid. You cannot deny people living on the land for thousands of years their homes. You cannot remove them from their homes. You cannot arrest them indefinitely without justification. You cannot greenwash Palestine. You cannot pinkwash genocide. You cannot hide your bloody hands by spewing lies. I can see and hear at the same time and I am no fool to your denials.

Israel must topple and Palestine will be free to self-determination and those who are capable of living alongside those with a different life can continue to do so in peace with equal rights for all. There is enough pie to go around. Palestinian freedom is not jewish expulsion. it is not antisemetic to criticize israel. it is not antisemetic to say free palestine. stop conflating things.

Some things you can do:

Daily clicks to help Palestinians

Donate to PCRF

Donate to UNRWA

[atyourmerci]

Gold wing, angel

meanloser!ellie X classpresident!r

CW: smut, MDNI, dom!ellie, sub!reader, v angsty, slight bondage, cunt slapping, fingering, cunnilingus, edging, orgasm denial, ruined orgasms, lite angel symbolism, no y/n, no pdor

A/N: actually surprised I finished a req (you all applaud me) this is inspired by “GOLDWING” by billie.

Ellie was a sick drug. Something not to be desired. She was the epitome of the allure of indulging in something you shouldn’t have, shouldn’t know, try at very least.

How did she get this way- who made her like this? Anger taken out through bodies of admission in an act of revenge. Taking back what was taken from her. Her pride regained by your submission.

You could have never fathomed the aggression the loser from AP American literature could obtain. You thought she’d beg on her knees for you. Worship your every move, starstruck by even getting the chance to touch you.

But she didn’t. She reveled in taking you off your high horse, got off on watching the student body president, proper and witty, utterly depraved by getting her cunt abused by a fucking moron.

-

98- A fucking 98, you did not deserve a 98 on the midterm paper. Your work was frankly sloppy, lacked comprehension. It made you ill knowing you were turning in something so lackluster with your name slapped across the front so proudly. The only thing that made you sicker was the thought of receiving special treatment- you had an image to uphold. You got to your position in this society from your own intellect, blood, sweat, tears and all. Kissing ass for a fucking 98 wasn’t in the cards.

The class began filing out as usual, like wild animals in a pack, shiny white teeth like daggers. Meshing together in their navy steam-pressed blazers, hair like defining fur, the only indication of individuality.

Except for her, sticking out like a sore thumb, the great big elephant in the room. Breaking many rulebook codes with her black nail polish, unkept hair to the standard policy, her white polo unbuttoned at the top two buttons that revealed her freckled chest. Despite her all around degenerate persona, she was irritatingly smart. Maybe if she had an ounce of charm she’d take your place.

With the rest of the class out of sight she stares at you. Not cutting off eye contact you both rise from your chairs you practically run to Mr. Stevens desk. The slap of two papers hit his desk, a 98 and a 90 shining in red sharpie ink on the white papers.

“I don’t deserve this,” comes out in unison, the sincerity in your voice cut open by the harshness in Ellies.

“Please one at a time, ladies.”

Before the words can even escape your lips Ellie rages, “I worked my ass off on this. I deserve better than a 90,” she spits out. “I know you can do better than this Ms.Williams, I expect more from you.” Ellie scoffs back at him, “this is bullshit,” she muffles but continues standing at his desk.

Mr.Stevens nods his head in your direction for your speech, you glance at Ellie with her arms now crossed, awaiting your protest. You brush off her insistence on staying and begin, “Mr.Stevens, I appreciate your grading and understanding my agenda for the midterm, but objectively this is sub-pare work. I think you may have given me someone else’s grade… maybe you mixed up my grade with Ms.Williams.”

He doesn’t skip a beat, “I don’t mix up grades, you earned it. Now if you two will excuse me,” Mr.Stevens directs you both to the now empty hallway.

Ellie storms out with rage, cheeks flushed and lips pressed closely, you follow behind. “‘ms Williams’? the fuck was that?” Ellie presses in a scowl, words echoed in a bare hallway.

“Look I read your paper, I think you deserved better,” you retort in an attempt to soothe her. You cant seem to keep your eyes off her cupids bow, the contrast of soft pink lips against her tired skin.

“Oh thats fucking rich coming from ‘ms I don’t deserve my grade’ you’re pathetic,” she points, eyes thinning.

“Maybe if you weren’t such a bitch more people would like you,” you attempt, heat rising in your own cheeks, heart thumping roughly in your chest.

Ellies cruel disposition contorts into a grin, inching closer to your body, “you’re fucking him aren’t you? Ms. perfect sucking off the teach so she can stay on top?”

A power so foreign comes before you, using force to push your wrist into her chest, though she doesn’t budge, “shut up.”

She returns your aggression, pushing your bodies flesh up against the brick wall behind you, ripping the breath from your lungs. Your hands instinctively grip into her shirt. Her eyes are wild, as if she was surprised she’d taken it this far, or rather puzzled by the fact you haven’t broken your grasp.

You both pant from the intrusion, glaring, waiting- waiting for someone to cave.

Like a dog on a leash you dragged her in, pulling her by her fabric until her lips met your own. A depraved act, met with open mouths and wandering tongues. Hatred in its finest form, digging into her as if you’d ever thought of it. A subconscious desire pulled from the depths of your cravings.

Before true indulgence she pushes you off, taking a moment to look at your hazy disposition, drunk on delinquency, “don’t ever do that again,” she pants out. Taking her thumb she wipes the saliva from your bottom lip and takes off without your response.

-

Time after time you went back. You told yourself you’d stop, never talk to her again. Yet there the keys were in the ignition, a path that you knew like the back of your hand. Leading, controlling your own fate of defacement.

“Can you please just open the door,” you plead on her doorsteps, mind and body corrupted- to only be pleased by the mental games, the destruction in forms of submitting to her.

Strung up like an old doll long forgotten in the attic, bound wrist behind your back and ankles tied to the head of her bed, vulnerable and needy.

“What now? Use your fucking words,” Ellie remarks before spitting on your neglected cunt. Your body winces at the sensation of the hot liquid dripping down the pulsing flesh, “please I promise I’ll do whatever you ask.”

She hovers over your squirming body, carful to not give you the satisfaction. Gripping your jaw in her hand, “do you ever pay attention to what I tell you? You don’t deserve to come,” cocking her free hand back to lay a purposeful slap to your slick folds causing you to scream out from the blissful pain.

She lays another one into the already beat red skin, a cruel grin growing on her lips as she hears you enjoying it. “You’d let me do anything, wouldn’t you?” she asks glaring at your tucked in lip, eyes glossy. You nod back at her, signaling your approval for using your body as her personal vessel.

Somehow it was good enough for her, dropping down to your perked nipples and sucking it into her teeth as she uses her hand to cover your eyes. You’d learn very early on that you weren’t allowed to watch her use her mouth on you. In the odd occasion she’d let you have your cunt in her mouth shed have your face shoved in the sheets while she took you from behind. She never told you why- and you didn’t dare ask.

Your wrist wriggle behind your back as your chest arches into her mouth, hot and wet. You obsess over what it would feel like on your mouth again, most nights were spent only thinking of her mouth- foreign, an impenetrable fortress. You began to chase the chance of the feeling her again.

You feel as her mouth comes off of the swollen bud as she removes the hand on your eyes, “don’t look,” she says with no threat in her tone, but you don’t risk crossing her.

You shut your exhausted eyes, dropping your head back as you feel her wrap her arms around the meat of your thighs. She drags an antagonizing strip up your slit, jolting your body into the mouth.

She goes as slow as possible, providing as little pressure she can muster up to the swell of your clit, but from her slaps it wouldn’t take much. Your body akin to a fish gasping for air out of water, squirming under her touch. She digs her fingers deep into the flesh as a warning.

“If you ever want to come again Id advise you behave.”

“P-please,” you plead to her, legs shaking as you whimper her name over and over like a prayer.

“I said no, i swear to god I’ll ruin every fucking orgasm,” sliding her two fingers into your clenching hole she drives slow pumps as she returns her mouth to your clit.

Your face contorts in concentration, attempting to hold yourself back but you could only be held off for so long.

“Ellie- Ellie!” bursting at the seams, your body detesting her rules, letting the hot white cum coat her fingers. She only fucks you harder, faster through your orgasm. This is a game you weren’t to win, rather to allow herself to revel in your pain. She got off on destroying your mind, making it to where you can only be pleased by her punishment.

Ellie kept her word, working you up on the edge of finishing and stopping completely, laughing at your pathetic state, crying and begging to come.

Clipping your wings, she hung them on her walls as a trophy. Pleas echoing her room, come splattering her sheets, your lips chapped and neglected.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in NEXT THURSDAY (Apr 11) in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroehttps://cockeyed.com/lessons/viagra/viagra.html, then PROVIDENCE, RI (Apr 12), and beyond!

Steve Bannon isn't wrong: for his brand of nihilistic politics to win, all he has to do is "flood the zone with shit," demoralizing people to the point where they no longer even try to learn the truth.

This is really just a more refined, more potent version of the tactical doubt sown by Big Tobacco about whether smoking caused cancer, a playbook later adopted by the fossil fuel industry to sell climate denial. You know Darrell Huff's 1954 classic How To Lie With Statistics? Huff was a Big Tobacco shill (his next book, which wasn't ever published, was How To Lie With Cancer Statistics). His mission wasn't to help you spot statistical malpractice – an actual thing that is an actual problem that you should actually learn to spot. It was to turn you into a nihilist who didn't believe anything could be known:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

Corporations don't need you to believe that their products are beneficial or even non-harmful. They just need you to believe nothing. If you don't know what's true, then why not just do whatever feels good, man? #YOLO!

These bannonfloods of shit are a favored tactic of strongmen and dictators. Their grip on power doesn't depend on their citizens trusting them – it's enough that they trust no one:

http://jonathanstray.com/networked-propaganda-and-counter-propaganda

Bannonflooding is especially beloved of the food industry. Food is essential, monopolized, and incredibly complicated, and many of the most profitable strategies for growing, processing and preparing food are very bad for the people who eat that food. Rather than sacrificing profits, the food industry floods the zone with shit, making it impossible to know what's true, in hopes that we will just eat whatever they're serving:

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003460

Now, the "nothing can be known" gambit only works if it's really hard to get at the truth. So it helps that nutrition and diet are very complex subjects, but it helps even more that the nutrition and diet industry are a cesspool of quacks and junk science. This is a "scientific discipline" whose prestigious annual meetings are sponsored (and catered) by McDonald's:

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/05/my-trip-mcdonalds-sponsored-nutritionist-convention/

It's a "science" whose most prominent pitchmen peddle quack nostrums and sue the critics who point out (correctly) that eating foods high in chlorophyll will not "oxygenate your blood" (hint, chlorophyll only makes oxygen in the presence of light, which is notably lacking in your colon):

https://www.badscience.net/2007/02/ms-gillian-mckeith-banned-from-calling-herself-a-doctor/

When the quack-heavy world of nutrition combines with the socially stigmatized world of weight-loss, you get a zone ripe for shitflooding. The majority of Americans are "overweight" (according to a definition that relies on the unscientific idea of BMI) and nearly half of Americans are "obese." These numbers have been climbing steadily since the 1970s, and every diet turns out to be basically bullshit:

https://headgum.com/factually-with-adam-conover/what-does-ozepmic-actually-do-with-dr-dhruv-khullar

Notwithstanding the new blockbuster post-Ozempic drugs, we're been through an unbroken 50-year run of more and more of us being fatter and fatter, even as fat stigma increased. Fat people are treated as weak-willed and fundamentally unhealthy, while the most prominent health-risks of being fat are roundly neglected: the mental health effects of being shamed, and the physical risks of having doctors ignore your health complaints, no matter how serious they sound, and blame them on your weight:

https://maintenancephase.buzzsprout.com/1411126/11968083-glorifying-obesity-and-other-myths-about-fat-people

Fat people and their allies have banded together to address these real, urgent harms. The "body acceptance" movement isn't merely about feeling good in your own skin: it's also about fighting discrimination, demanding medical care (beyond "lose some weight") and warning people away from getting on the diet treadmill, which can lead to dangerous eating disorders and permanent weight gain:

https://www.beacon.org/You-Just-Need-to-Lose-Weight-P1853.aspx

Fat stigma is real. The mental health risks of fat-shaming are real. Eating disorders are real. Discrimination against fat people is real. The fact that these things are real doesn't mean that the food industry can't flood the zone with shit, though. On the contrary: the urgency of these issues, combined with the poor regulation of dietitians, makes the "what should you eat" zone perfect for flooding with endless quantities of highly profitable shit.

Perhaps you've gotten some of this shit on you. Have you found yourself watching a video from a dietitian influencer like Cara Harbstreet, Colleen Christensen or Lauren Smith, promoting "health at any size" with hashtags like #DerailTheShame and #AntiDiet? These were paid campaigns sponsored by General Mills, Pepsi, and other multinational, multibillion-dollar corporations.

Writing for The Examination, Sasha Chavkin, Anjali Tsui, Caitlin Gilbert and Anahad O'Connor describe the way that some of the world's largest and most profitable corporations have hijacked a movement where fat people and their allies fight stigma and shame and used it to peddle the lie that their heavily processed, high-calorie food is good for you:

https://www.theexamination.org/articles/as-obesity-rises-big-food-and-dietitians-push-anti-diet-advice

It's a surreal tale. They describe a speech by Amy Cohn, General Mills’ senior manager for nutrition, to an audience at a dietitian's conference, where Cohn "denounced the media for 'pointing the finger at processed foods' and making consumers feel ashamed of their choices." This is some next-level nihilism: rather than railing against the harmful stigma against fat people, Cohn wants us to fight the stigma against Cocoa Puffs.

This message isn't confined to industry conferences. Dietitians with large Tiktok followings like Cara Harbstreet then carry the message out to the public. In Harbstreet's video promoting Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and Trix, she says, "I will always advocate for fearlessly nourishing meals, including cereal…Because everyone deserves to enjoy food without judgment, especially kids":

https://www.tiktok.com/@streetsmart.rd/video/7298403730989436206

Dietitians, nutritionists and the food industry have always had an uncomfortably close relationship, but the industry's shitflooding kicked into high gear when the FDA proposed rules limiting which foods the industry can promote as "healthy." General Mills, Kelloggs and Post have threatened a First Amendment suit against such a regulation, arguing that they have a free speech right to describe manifestly unhealthy food as "healthy."

The anti-diet movement – again, a legitimate movement aimed at fighting the dangerous junk science behind dieting – has been co-opted by the food industry, who are paying dietitian influencers to say things like "all foods have value" while brandishing packages of Twix and Reese's. In their Examination article, the authors profile people who struggled with their weight, then, after encountering the food industry's paid disinformation, believed that "healthy at any size" meant that it would be unhealthy to avoid highly processed, high calorie food. These people gained large amounts of weight, and found their lives constrained and their health severely compromised.

I've been overweight all my life. I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 12. I come from a family of overweight people with the chronic illnesses often associated with being fat. This is a subject that's always on my mind. I even wrote a whole novel about the promise and peril of a weight-loss miracle:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781429969284/makers

I think the anti-diet movement, and its associated ideas like body acceptance and healthy at every size, are enormously positive developments and hugely important. It's because I value these ideas that I'm so disgusted with Big Food and its cynical decision to flood the zone with shit. It's also why I'm so furious with dietitians and nutritionists for failing to self-regulate and become a real profession, the kind that censures and denounces quacks and shills.

I have complicated feelings about Ozempic and its successors, but even if these prove to be effective and safe in the long term, and even if we rein in the rapacious pharma companies so that they no longer sell a $5 product for $1000, I would still want dietary science to clean up its act:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2816824

I'm not a nihilist. I think we can use science to discover truths – about ourselves and our world. I want to know those truths, and I think they can be known. The only people who benefit from convincing you that the truth is unknowable are the people who want to lie to you.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/05/corrupt-for-cocoa-puffs/#flood-the-zone-with-shit

[drdemonprince]

is it naive to think maybe a Trump second term won't be so bad? like is there any vision of the next four years and beyond where maybe things are okay

I do think that a lot of what he says is transparently fleeting bullshit he's not going to follow through on, doesn't believe in, and is only saying to get praise from his base, and that's been demonstrated many many times over the years. Like, he never started throwing people into prisons for burning the American flag or whatever. I don't want to minimize the horrors of what he has done in this country and what he could very well do, but I think the mainstream liberal narrative on Trump is to amplify the hell out of every out of pocket thing he says and does and to mine it for as much outrage and fear as possible while downplaying the numerous terrifying things that have already been happening all around the country under state-level Republican leadership, and ignoring just how much Dems are complicit in all of it. Like, will libs start complaining about kids in cages at the border again?? even though the cages never left, and Biden deported more people than Trump did??

The take away for me isn't necessarily that "things under Trump won't be *that bad*" but that things have already been exactly as bad as the Democratic Party has framed life under Trump to be. A lot of liberals exist in a permanent state of willful denial about the evils of this empire and Trump forces them out of pretending things aren't happening that already are, but they focus all the blame for it on him.

[artyandink]

the art of heresy forged 2022

SUMMARY: Modern day, 2022, and you have no clue what’s going on. You knew what you went through. You knew it was real, but why were there people trying to convince you that everything that happened to you wasn’t real. Hell, you called bullshit. But you get your chance to fight back when you get a call at your door.

TW: psychological torture, trauma, angst, smut, drinking, consumption of drugs, smoking, mentions of sex, blood, murder, gore, Ben (cause he’s an individual warning), derogatory remarks, gunfire, murder, killing, lots of it, it’s The Boys so be careful guys, really creepy shit, crack, literal crack

STW: fingering, Ben being Ben, degradation, explicit spoken detail, practically manhandling

A/N - divider by @chachachannah

Song Inspo: Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift

keep it quiet

NICARAGUA, 1983:

The sun hung low in the Nicaraguan sky, casting long shadows over the dense jungle. The air was thick with humidity, clinging to every leaf, every blade of grass, and every breath the small town's inhabitants took. A deep, unsettling quiet had settled over the place, punctuated only by the occasional call of distant birds or the rustle of leaves. The tranquility of the town was deceptive, however, masking the turmoil that had gripped the world beyond its borders.

In the heart of the town, a small news station buzzed with a rare energy. Reporters shuffled about, their voices tense, their faces drawn with concern. The camera lights were harsh against the evening gloom, casting sharp shadows on the walls of the makeshift studio. Outside, a handful of locals gathered, their curiosity piqued by the unusual activity. News had traveled fast, as it always did in small towns, and the disappearance of Soldier Boy was no exception. For the people of this remote corner of the world, the arrival of a famous superhero—however dire the circumstances—was an event worth witnessing.

Inside the studio, the main anchor, a seasoned reporter named Esteban Garcia, sat behind a worn wooden desk, straightening the stack of notes before him. His dark eyes were set with a determination that had been honed over years of covering stories that often blurred the lines between the ordinary and the extraordinary. But today, the story was unlike any other he had ever covered.

Esteban had been one of the first to receive the report that Soldier Boy, the legendary superhero and symbol of American might, had gone missing during a covert operation in Nicaragua. The details were still murky, shrouded in a haze of classified information and official denials. What was clear, however, was that the man who had once been invincible, the man who had been the living embodiment of strength and bravery, was now feared dead.

As Esteban shuffled his notes one last time, the door to the studio creaked open, and in walked a woman who seemed to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. Crimson Countess was a striking figure; her red hair, usually fiery and untamed, was pulled back into a tight bun. Her crimson suit, once a beacon of power and confidence, seemed to have lost its luster, the fabric dull and wrinkled as if it, too, had been drained of life.

She moved with a heaviness that Esteban hadn't seen before, her every step measured, her every breath labored. As she approached the interview chair, he could see the dark circles under her eyes, the way her hands trembled ever so slightly. This was not the Crimson Countess the world had come to know—the fierce, unyielding force that had fought alongside Soldier Boy for years. This was a woman on the brink, teetering between despair and the desperate need to hold herself together.

"Thank you for coming, Countess," Esteban said, his voice gentle but firm. He gestured to the chair opposite him, and she lowered herself into it, her movements slow and deliberate. "I know this must be an incredibly difficult time for you."

Countess nodded, her lips pressed into a thin line. For a moment, she seemed unable to speak, her throat working to push down the grief that threatened to spill over. When she finally did find her voice, it was hoarse, raw with emotion.

"Difficult doesn’t even begin to cover it," she murmured, her eyes fixed on some point in the distance, far beyond the walls of the studio. "I’ve… I’ve been through a lot with Soldier Boy. We all have. But this… this is different."

Esteban nodded, giving her the space she needed to gather her thoughts. The silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken words, with the weight of shared history and the looming specter of loss. Outside, the gathering crowd pressed closer to the windows, straining to catch even the faintest whisper of what was being said inside.

"He was… he is," she corrected herself quickly, as if to banish the thought of his death from existence, "the strongest person I’ve ever known. Indestructible, or so we all thought. To think that he could be… gone… it’s like waking up in a nightmare you can’t escape from."

Her voice cracked on the last word, and she closed her eyes tightly, as if that could somehow block out the pain. Esteban felt a pang of sympathy. He had seen many interviews like this before—family members of the missing, the grieving, the lost. But this was different. This was Crimson Countess, a superhero, someone who was supposed to be beyond the reach of such ordinary, human emotions. And yet here she was, broken in a way that no enemy had ever managed to break her.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Esteban asked softly, careful not to push too hard, but knowing that the world was desperate for answers. "Anything at all that you know?"

Countess opened her eyes and looked at him. For a moment, she seemed to be weighing her words, deciding how much to reveal, how much to hold back. Then, with a deep breath, she began to speak.

"It was supposed to be a routine mission," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "We’ve done this kind of thing a hundred times before—go in, neutralize the threat, get out. But something went wrong. I… I wasn’t there when it happened, I was in a different part of the field, but I spoke to him on the comms. He was… he was confident, as always. He didn’t think anything could go wrong."

She paused, swallowing hard, as if the memory of that last conversation was too much to bear. "But then we lost contact. Just like that. One minute, everything was fine, and the next… nothing. No signal, no word. Just… silence."

Esteban leaned forward, his brow furrowing in concern. "And you haven’t heard anything since? No communication from Soldier Boy or anyone else on the mission?"

Countess shook her head, her expression one of helplessness, an emotion she was clearly unaccustomed to. "Nothing. It’s like they vanished into thin air. The government’s been tight-lipped, as always. They’re saying it’s classified, that they’re ‘looking into it,’ but I know what that means. They think he’s dead. They just don’t want to say it."

The words hung in the air, heavy and ominous. Esteban could feel the tension in the room rising, the weight of the world’s expectations pressing down on this woman who had spent her life fighting battles that most people couldn’t even imagine. And now she was fighting a battle of a different kind—one that she had no idea how to win.

"What does this mean for you, Countess?" he asked after a long moment, his voice soft with understanding. "For the team? For the world?"

Countess looked at him, her eyes filled with a deep, abiding sorrow. "I don’t know," she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. "I really don’t know. Soldier Boy was… he was the heart of the team. The backbone. Without him… I don’t know how we go on."

The room fell silent again, the weight of her words sinking in. Outside, the crowd had grown larger, their faces pressed against the glass, their eyes wide with fear and fascination. They had come to see a superhero, but what they were witnessing was something far more profound—a woman laid bare, stripped of the armor that had always protected her, struggling to make sense of a world that no longer made sense.

Esteban knew that he had to tread carefully now. He could see how close she was to the edge, how fragile her composure had become. But he also knew that the world was watching, waiting for answers, for some kind of closure. He took a deep breath, choosing his next words with care.

"Countess," he began gently, "the world has always looked to people like you and Soldier Boy for strength, for hope. In times of crisis, you’ve been the ones to lead us, to show us that even the darkest times can be overcome. What would you say to those who are watching right now? To those who are afraid?"

Countess stared at him for a long moment, her eyes searching his face as if looking for something—perhaps a lifeline, perhaps an escape. When she spoke, her voice was stronger, more certain, as if she had found some small reserve of the strength that had always defined her.

"I’d say that fear is a natural response to the unknown," she said slowly, the words coming out measured and deliberate. "But fear can’t be the end of the story. Soldier Boy… he wouldn’t want us to give up, to let fear consume us. He’d want us to fight, to keep going, no matter how hopeless it seems."

Her voice grew steadier as she spoke, the words seemingly giving her strength. "I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I don’t know if Soldier Boy is… if he’s really gone. But I do know that he wouldn’t want us to stop fighting. He’d want us to keep pushing forward, to keep believing that there’s a way out of this, even if we can’t see it right now."

Esteban nodded, feeling a sense of respect for this woman who, despite everything, was still finding a way to inspire hope. "Thank you, Countess," he said quietly. "I know that wasn’t easy."

Countess managed a small, tight smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. "Nothing about this is easy," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper. "But it’s what we have to do."

As the interview drew to a close, Esteban could see the exhaustion in her eyes, the way her body seemed to sag with the weight of it all. He knew that the moment the cameras stopped rolling, she would retreat back into the private hell she was living, the grief and uncertainty gnawing away at her resolve.

"Do you think he could still be out there?" Esteban asked, unable to resist the question that had been on his mind since the beginning of the interview. "Do you think Soldier Boy could still be alive?"

Countess looked at him, her eyes filled with a quiet desperation. "I have to believe he is," she said softly, the words laced with a fragile hope. "Because if he’s not… I don’t know how we move on from this."

The camera panned out, capturing the room in its entirety—the small, stark studio, the gathering crowd outside, and the lone figure of Crimson Countess, sitting in the harsh light, her face a mask of controlled despair. The broadcast would soon be over, but the impact of her words would linger long after the screen went dark.

NOW:

“Whatever you’re experiencing, it’s not real.” Your shrink - you still didn’t know whether her name was Emily or Earhart - assured you, but you knew better. “Vought only wants to help you get better.”

“They’ve been so called helping me for forty fucking years.” You gritted out, your fingers gripping the chair you were sitting on. The maroon chair, with some fugly beige cushions in this fugly beige room. You hated it.

Fuck all.

She sighed, leaning forward. “You exhibit signs of anger issues and PTSD. Vought is merely facilitating your recovery and return to glory.”

“They’re fucking with my head!” You burst out, standing up abruptly, surging forward and grabbing her throat, your eyes turning black, gleaming with wisps of purple. “Tell me the truth.”

Tell me the truth. It resonated through Eleanor’s head, and her eyes turned the same colour as yours, her jaw going slack as she stopped resisting.

“You’re not crazy.” She whispered, her eyes wide and unfocused. “You never were.”

You let her go, and her eyes returned back to normal, a shaky gasp escaping her lips. You bent forward, trapping her between yourself and the chair.

“You tell anyone what I just did, sweetie,” You warned lowly, “and I’ll snap your neck by the time I next come in here.”

“Of course.” She whispered, her voice cracking.

You sat back down on the armchair, cracking a smile as you examined the fear in her eyes. Good. “Shall we continue?”

They’d gotten into some weird shit.

“Is he always gonna be doing that?” Hughie whispered to Butcher, watching Ben crush some medicine and snort it like it was nothing. They’d broken him out of his cryogenic capsule, and it’s safe to say that he was an incredibly pissed off individual. Understandably so.

“Just let ‘im, it ain’t killing us.” Butcher replied under his breath, and then snapped into suave gent action when Ben cleared his throat and looked up. “Everythin’ alright, there, guv’nor?”

“Gotta add another name to my kill list.” He cleared his throat again, grunting distastefully.

“One more?” Hughie asked, eyes widening slightly, but he recovered. “Uh, w-who is that - the one you want to kill - who?”

Ben grunted again, snorting up more crushed pills. “Tricky bitch, she is. Superhero by the name of Psyke, she was my co-leader and fuck buddy. Real tricky to get past. She can create illusions that you’ll fall for if you’re a dumb piece’a shit, and if she gets her hands on you, game over.”

Butcher crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. “And why’s that?”

“One, she’s hot as fuck. And a great fuck.” Ben chuckled, reminiscing the days. “Second, she’ll just whisper a command and you’ll do it no questions asked.”

“No problem, guv.” Butcher smirked confidently, but Hughie raised his hand. “Put your hand the fuck down, we ain’t in school.”

“Cocksucker.” Ben snorted - not recreational drugs this time - drinking his beer. “What is it?”

“Psyke, she… she’s impossible to get to.” Hughie revealed, scrolling on his phone. “Apparently she had a psychotic outbreak after you were put in the freezer in ‘83. Vought’s holding her for rehabilitation and therapy. Has been for forty years.

Ben saw the picture of the old newspaper, the title blaring in his face. ‘Psyke in Rehab for Violent Behaviour’, but no explanation. It told him one thing— that you must have known something was wrong.

And Vought imprisoned you for it, the bastards.

There wasn’t a world in which Vought would imprison their darling, their golden girl. Not unless she went rogue.

“That means she’s deep in a Vought facility.” Butcher smirked, glancing between the two others. “We get the team together, launch an attack on the cunts holdin’ her, we can get her out quick an’ easy.”

Ben’s protective instincts over you flared up when he thought of what Vought could’ve done to you. “She gets out unharmed, y’hear?”

“Loud and clear, guv. Not a scratch.”

Oh, fuck. You could go for one of those at the moment.

You were left on the ground, on your back, trembling. Your brain felt like it’d been stretched and then left to rebound against all four walls of your brain, close to turning into mush had you not been fighting the drug injected into your system with everything you had.

“She’s resisting.” You heard one doctor mutter to another, just as searing, white hot pain made the corners of your vision turn black.

And then they shaped into the nightmare land, taking over your vision until it was half reality half illusion, messing with your perception until you weren’t sure which was actually happening.

You could see Nicaragua.

The blood, being distracted by a legion only to find Ben being subdued by Novichok.

Fighting off every member of Payback, making them turn on one another with nothing but a hand on their shoulder and a persuasive whisper.

Getting hit with a cheap shot from behind, and both yours and Ben’s bodies were dragged across the dirt.

Only difference was that you were barely awake. Awake enough to see his unconscious face as they took him away and put him God knows where.

“Have we tried giving her a stronger dose?” A male doctor replied, the corners of your vision blinking from reality, back to nightmare, reality, nightmare, reality- nightmare—

Keys jangled. “We give her a stronger dose and she’ll go up in a stroke. Homelander wants her alive.”

“I don’t understand why, she’s a walking weapon.”

“Talking like I’m not there.” You rasped out, like you hadn’t spoken in a hundred years. A rough chuckle left your mouth as you shakily pushed yourself up, the pounding in your head still there but finding it easier to regain muscle control. “Ballsy move, especially for a couple of dickless scientists.”

You pointed at the lady. “You’re already dickless, so you don’t count.”

The two doctors looked between each other, getting more and more anxious as you found your feet, staggering towards them, almost shuffling, footsteps uneven.

“Uh, what are you-” They froze when you clapped your hands on their shoulders, leaning forward so you were speaking in their ears, your iris turning into gleaming purple mixed with black.

“Kill each other.” You whispered, and the command resonated. The urge to pick up their pens and go postal overtaking them.

Kill each other.

Kill each other.

It went through their mind, body, soul. Clipboards flattering to the floor as their irises turned black and swirled with purple, turning to each other slowly. Teeth gritting, veins popping as the two doctors looked into each other’s eyes with pure hatred and a chuckle left your lips as you watched them click their pens and go straight for the jugular.

Over and over again.

“Sleep tight, bitches.” You muttered in satisfaction just as armed Vought soldiers burst in, two forcing you to your knees while two others went to check the tangled, lifeless bodies of the two doctors running rampant.

And you did that.

It felt amazing.

1980:

Mmh, fuck.

“Bet you’re so wet for me, pretty thing.” Ben chuckled against your lips as you stumbled back into the his hotel room, the rapid undoing of clothes not privy to the two of you as the curtains were wide open. Everyone in the street below could see the filthy way yours and Ben’s lips joined together over and over again, eyes closed but hands familiar with where they needed to go to make the other moan.

Ben separated from you to go and close the curtains, leaving the taste of whiskey on your tongue, still in his slacks from the press conference while he’d ridden you of everything but that delicious fucking lace you’d worn under your dress.

He’d been eyeing you all day in that thing, and all he thought about was having it off.

“Didn’t have enough after coming like a faucet on my cock this morning, hm?” He added, toeing his shoes off and working on his belt, his lips descending to your neck and leaving hot trails of kisses and rough sucks. “Nah, you didn’t.”

Your hands slid up his chest, and then one went down to palm him over his slacks, which had the vein in his neck popping, jaw tensing as his head fell back for a quick second.

Then he took control of the situation, tearing your panties off and throwing you onto the bed, the bra going with it as he sank two thick fingers knuckle deep in your pussy.

“Shit-” You gasped, arching off the bed, your legs widening instinctively as he set a brutally delicious pace, leaning forward to lick and suck at your nipple, biting and tugging at it with his teeth at his fancy.

Ben only laughed, manoeuvring your body how he wanted, rocking your hips in time with his fingers, hearing your moans, seeing your eyes roll back, knowing you were close-

NOW:

“TMI.” Hughie groaned, putting his hand out and shaking his head. “Really, dude. Ew.”

Ben frowned. “TMI- the fuck does that mean?” He thought for a second, then waved Hughie off. “Eh, I don’t give two shits.” Then he chuckled at the memory, nodding and hitching his shield higher on his arm. “Psyke, man. Best fuck you could ask for. She’d ride me like a damn champ, knows how to suck you off too. Had a mouth like a goddamn vacuum-”

“As much as I want to hear about your old buddy’s jerkin’ off talents, guv,” Butcher cut in with a wave of his hands as they walked, “we have half an hour to get in an’ out.”

“We’ll get her.” Ben assured, finding a Vought guard and slamming his shield into their face, successfully breaking their nose and making them drop, crumpling like a wet sheet of paper.

“Fuck you.” He added, sneering at the unconscious guard before trudging further through the halls, Hughie and Butcher keeping up right as the alarms blared red.

The moment they did, you - in your cell - smirked, finding an opportunity. The guards were about to restrain you, but you used their grip on your arms to knock them into each other, rolling out of the way and grabbing their handgun, shooting them both once each in the head before anyone could react.

You barely dodged a bullet (literally), jumping and spinning, whipping your leg around so your heel could connect with the side of one’s head, snapping it sideways and sweeping another guard’s legs out from under them, grabbing their head and snapping their neck.

All the guards were down, so you got up, looking at the massacre - the art - you’d created with a small smile on your face and an approving nod.

“Cocksuckers.” You muttered under your breath before shaking your head, clearing the corners of your vision of Nicaragua, induced by whatever shit they put into your system. Wasn’t the good shit either, it was bad shit.

You really needed a smoke round about now.

But now wasn’t the time, so you picked up the guard’s assault rifle and pocketed a few rounds, making your way through the clinically white halls with it held up, popping a few rounds through the heads of the guards you met.

Eventually, of course, all your rounds were depleted soon enough, and you resorted to using your hands (and not in the sexy way), Nicaragua threatening to take over your vision

“You can check that way, guv, she might be there.” A voice with an accent said gruffly, and when you looked around the corner, you saw a boot disappearing down a side corridor, and two other guys. You stepped up behind the smaller one, your bare feet silent on the cold floor.

With a sharp movement, you grabbed the smaller one’s shoulders, yanking him against you as your powers activated again, ready to strike. “Move a muscle and I tell this one to dislocate his own shoulder. Maybe break a leg.”

“What the fuck- I don’t wanna break a leg!” The dude held to you squeaked to the taller guy, who turned around, taking one look at you and smirking.

“Guv, we found ‘er!” He yelled, and a large red and brown boot stepped out, connected to a much larger body that you knew all too well. Only difference was that his hair was darker and he had a trimmed beard. Oh, you’d have fun with that - you mused, right as a grin spread on your face.

“Son of a bitch.”

©️ 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐤 / 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲’𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨

𝐈 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐝/𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝

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[dizzymoods]

During the Troubles, Civil Rights Leaders went to Ireland to learn about the plight of the Irish people and to support their fight against colonialism.

Standing on the success of their nonviolent principles which led to civil liberties here (to whatever degree the CRM was successful) and in their ignorance of the history of Ireland, they tried to get the IRA to adopt nonviolent, peaceful civil disobedience.

At the end of their tour of Belfast, where they learned the history and politics of Irish resistance, all of them come to the conclusion that here violence is necessary. The Irish have exhausted all other means including nonviolent ones. Even if some of the CRM leaders maintained nonviolence as paramount, they understood that certain exceptions must be made because — regardless of if they approve of violence or not — their job is to support colonized people and follow their lead.

There is a lesson here that we should apply to the Palestinian struggle.

I’ve seen people pearl clutch over seeing so many dead Palestinians as part of the colonial violence of the camera. This misses the point of why those images are being shared.

Last decade many Black americans, myself included, talked about the commodification of Black death. videos of state murder plastered on every news channel 24/7, going viral across social media platforms connected to the legacy of lynching postcards and gator bait. We demonstrated that those videos rarely got an indictment and only once a conviction. Many of the families of these victims of police murder made it clear they don’t want the image of their loved one to be of death. The reason why we share Michael Brown’s graduation photo instead of the photo of his corpse is because Lesley McSpadden demanded it. With all this in mind, we understand that in most cases the sharing of those images are antiblack.

The Palestinians do not have that history. The Nakba never happened, despite israelis calling this the second Nakba. genocide joe said 40 israeli babies were beheaded after it was found out that the story was some wingnut footsoldier’s lie, not even official israeli hasbara. It was like 2 weeks ago that genocide joe said the number of murdered Palestinians (at the time around 5,000 Palestinians were martyred — the number is now over 10,000) was a Hamas lie.

Linguistically there is no murdered Palestinian. All the headlines read “x amount of israelis killed and some palestinians died”. visually there is no dead Palestinian. official israeli hasbara is trying to flood social media with videos of patient-actors getting into place in Indonesian medical training programs to “debunk” the countless videos of martyred Palestinians.

The denial of the scale of israel’s genocide of the Palestinians is so bad that reporters in Gaza are holding dead children in front of press cameras because Palestinians do not die and are not murdered.

The profit motive of these images is actually in their absence. not their over saturation like with Black americans. The west needs israel as a destabilizing force in the middle east. The strategy of the western media then is to bury these images, to not give them a second of attention. So logically the Palestinian strategy is to proliferate these images to show just how horrifying israel’s crimes are.

Two things can be true at the same time; what works for you doesn’t necessarily work for me etc.

The other thing i’m seeing are liberal frameworks to understand genocide. Of particular ire is desirability politics. *jujubee voice* just say white supremacy.

Desirability is tertiary at best. israel is genociding Palestinians because they want control over Gaza and the West Bank (and Lebanon too). They are not genociding Palestinians because Palestinians are “undesirable.” They make Palestinians undesirable to justify taking their land. Talking about this psychoanalytic bullshit distracts from the primary reason for the displacement and mass murder of Palestinians: the taking of their land.

~*desirability*~ is just one way that israel tries to justify its crimes. Desirability is a circular logic that can only make sense once you manufacture its premise irl. It means nothing without the material conditions it claims are true. Its super easy to call someone an animal after you put them in a cage. It’s super easy to call a people dirty savages after you restrict their access to water. It’s super easy to call someone violent after you sequester them in small, barely livable spaces and stress them with bombings and check points.

It’s also — there’s a way in which opposition to something reifies the very thing that you oppose. Toni Morrison continues to beat everybody’s ass. What does it do when you see a baby with half a skull and say “this happened because she is undesirable”? Undesirable to whom? Not me.

Palestinians are not so passive as to oppose white supremacy and desirability. The Palestinian people are a proactive people. Palestine is the issue. Palestine has a people. Palestine has an ecology. Palestine has life. Palestine is life. Palestinians fight for life. life can neither exist nor blossom under white supremacy.

Any analysis that does not begin with this is a distraction. And distractions only benefit the colonizers.

[lamamasjamas]

A/n: I love bears. You cooked, you ate down, you are phenomenal. I love when things are sciencey and kinky at the same time.

Warnings: Smut stuff, fetish fanfic/read the tags, lots of story for some reason, (It's like I was thinking about this for a long time or sm crazy like that...), Miggy gains a shit ton of weight, and Peter is fruity

"Ursus Americanus... bitch..."

Lyla was matching Miguel's energy. She had a bottle of beer in her hand and was "sipping" it as they both sat in the lab in thought. She could have laughed at the way his head perked up and his eyes widened.

He liked the idea. Lyla wasn't sure he got the joke.

The American Black Bear, one of three bears that roamed the United States and parts of North America. It could climb with its sharp claws, just like Miguel, and it was strong as all hell, just like Miguel.

He was very drunk, as drunk as he could be with his extraordinary metabolic abilities.

"Yeah..." he mutters. He didn't think it through, as much as Lyla enjoys watching him make a fool of himself, she had half a programmed mind to tell him that the two points of similarity were not enough to justify the need to combine his DNA temporarily through an injection in order to stave off the probability of him growing extra limbs and pedipalps.

The suppressant was first tested by December. He was meticulous in choosing which gene sequences to add into the suppressor but... he got too lazy after a while. It was a mammal, omnivore, big and strong like he was.

What could go wrong?

Nothing did... for the first half of the year. He felt great, a little hairier than usual, which prompted compliments from you, a fellow lab rat that usually came in to work at the same times he did.

He always made sure to style his hair, showing off its sudden volumity. He loved when you ran your fingers through it while in the back of his mind, he was itching to ask you out.

Miguel never thought he would though, too afraid of bringing you down with him in his self-pity and depression. But that was before and now he felt amazing, he felt stronger, he was confident again.

By Summer he really started liking your attention, to an obsessive degree, a weird degree. He asked you out, finally getting the ball rolling from always being stuck in an endless loop of will they won't they.

Lyla had teased him about it being mating season, that the hormones were giving him a push to get down and dirty. Miguel thought that was bullshit. He just liked the way your skin glowed in the sun, or how your pussy tasted after you both had ice cream during your date.

Or how your panties smelled so good, especially after they were worn for the day-

He called extreme bullshit, even then. Miguel was in denial of the instincts his new body developed due to the change of seasons.

...

"Hyperphagia."

"...What?"

"It's fall-"

"So?"

"..."

The lab was covered in food wrappers and containers. The trash bin by the side filled to the brim with scraps, most of them licked and cleaned off of any food.

Lyla was watching him carefully, not saying a word when he had wandered outside of his lab at HQ to check up on things only to find himself in front of the cook, ordering a few too many items that was allowed for the other spiders because 'he was the boss, and it was a one-time thing'.

He was bulking. He liked to think he was bulking up muscle but... anyone can see the way it all went to his thighs, that his waist wasn't as narrow as before. His shoulders were softer. At first that had given him the appearance of "bulking" but after a while, when the slight double chin didn't disappear no matter how much he attempted to stretch his neck... it was apparent that he was gaining something other than muscle.

It was concerning. You were definitely... concerned.

It was certainly concerning when his belly was the first thing to make contact with you when you hugged, or when the three main activities anyone would see him do nowadays would be sitting, watching the monitors and sleeping. The latter two always being accompanied with the combination of eating something hearty and caloric.

It should have been worrying when he first started his daily bloats. He'd stuff himself with food so bad he was in a mood until he either digested the contents in his stomach or let some of the gas out in short or long belches, only to go to bed directly afterwards.

The sex was still good, sometimes even better from how well his mouth worked you over. It was a relief that he didn't seem to be insecure about his new state, but it was strange to see him be so ignorant of it.

Sometimes he'd roll in bed, his arms would wrap around either you or the pillow, what's closest to him at the time, and he'd squeeze it close. It would wake you up from how smothered you felt, the temperature suddenly rising between you both as his bulk was half on top of you.

The cuddling was fine, you liked the affection but when he was practically making your chest collapse from how heavy he was, you almost always had to slap his, now wobbling, wide back in order to take a full breath in.

You were alarmed, perturbed, troubled. It was bothering you how much he didn't seem to care. You sat on his desk, now cleared of his papers, as well as leftover food he had to spare, so that you and his assistant could have an intervention.

He glared at both of you, sitting in a tiny office chair you knew he didn't have before. You glance at it, narrowing your eyes and lifting a brow in question. Miguel just avoids your gaze.

He's been getting tired lately, more frequently and sporadically it seemed. It wasn't normal. Miguel was starting to sleep earlier and earlier in the day, as well as wake up later. If anything he should be well rested for the day but every two minutes his jaws would unhinge for a deep yawn.

Lyla starts again, bringing up a holographic image of a black bear and clasping her hands together as if she were explaining something to a child.

"Hyperphagia is a disorder that increases appetite."

Miguel stares as the image of the bear changes between various sizes, the season was spelled out at the top to show the change in time. You watch intently with him.

"See how it gets bigger-"

Lyla glances at you from the corner of her eye, seeing you wince at her use of the term big. It was a heavy word, now used to an excessive amount around Miguel.

Peter loved to joke, not in a hurtful way, you just knew Miguel was sensitive to certain things. He referred to Miguel as big guy sometimes, he was the boss, he sent people on mission and his stature alone was in line with the definition of big.

But the word has been thrown around more frequently lately, often earning Peter or anyone to use the phrase a shake of Jessica's head and stifled laughter from the younger spiders.

It had gotten to the point in which almost everyone was calling him the big boss. It was irritating to him but irritating to you for a different reason.

Only you were allowed to call him big. If anyone else, Lyla. And you hated the way they didn't mean it in an affectionate way, in a loving way like you did.

Lyla clears her throat and continues; she has a tone of finality.

"You're putting on weight to hibernate, but you're not hibernating. You’re metabolism is slowing and if you keep this up you’re going to be double your current size by January."

The room was silent, then his stomach growls. He sits with his hands clasped over his grumbling stomach. He wasn't listening, he was already rolling his eyes and scoffing.

Then, it was like his snout twitched, directing his attention to the entrance of the laboratory.

His head turned so quickly away from you both that his cheeks jiggled. His body recoiled as he first attempted to stand. His hips dug into the arms of the chair, and as he stood it lifted off the ground slightly.

Your glare penetrated Peter's soul. He almost cowered if not for the way Miguel blocked you entirely, his bulky body waddling over to him to reach for the bag of two burgers and three trays of fries.

Miguel doesn't look at him, instead his gaze is entirely focused on the scent of grease emanating from the brown paper bag. He's noted that the more calories and more fat he consumes, the better he feels.

The unhealthier he can eat, the better. It was like dealing with a child at times. He'd refuse to eat his vegetables, making the excuse that he had already filled up with steak and potatoes, only to be sitting on the couch with his hand shoved down a bag of family sized chips.

Peter claps Miguel's shoulder, his fingers dig into the meat of it and squeezes. Peter avoids your gaze, the way you cross your arms and spit out his name in irritated greeting.

"I'm the delivery boy now, I guess..." Peter's voice lilts off into discomfort and awkwardness.

"Like a cheesy porno," you sharply respond. Miguel chuckles and sits down heavily, the platform wobbling and shaking as his ass met the plush seat.

Peter swallows thickly, he watches as Miguel finishes the first burger in two bites. Miguel pushes two fingers in his mouth, covered in grease and sauce.

His lips wrap around his fingers, and he sucks, his tongue swirls between them and he closes his eyes in bliss. Peter's gaze was on the way his fingers disappeared in and out of his mouth in repetition.

His body shook in a chill at the sound of Miguel's deep satisfied moan. Blood was starting to rush south, and his stomach was curling at the sight of Miguel's hand cradling the side of his gut as he downed a large soda.

"Oh god..."

Lyla had been informing you of Peter's sudden frequent appearances. Miguel was oblivious to it, Peter had always been nice, to an annoying degree, and his mind was mostly clouded in hunger anyway. If someone was willing to get food for him, he wasn't going to complain.

It was innocent, purely sexual. So Lyla says. Miguel had no idea though, which then prompted you to wave the situation off. Seeing it happen in front of your eyes, Peter attempting to hide the way he was drooling over your fat lard of a boyfriend and helping him become even larger was... daunting.

Your eyes landed on his hard on, peaking through his sweats. Peter’s eyes lifted to yours and he froze. You weren't angry, surprisingly. But there was a hint of determination in your eyes that he knew meant things were going to get complicated for him.

Your hand went up to caress Miguel's scalp, your body leaning over him to kiss his cheek. He leans into the touch and hums, seemingly forgetting that other people were in the room with him.

"Gonna go make dinner, ok?" you say sweetly, your mouth still pressing against his skin as you whisper to him intimately.

His stomach growls at the thought of your cooking alone. He tilts his chin up as you continue to massage the back of his head. His body slumps further into the back of the chair, his manboobs pressing further up his chest atop his swollen stomach.

Peter stands awkwardly. But he stays put. You imagine he was going to stay a while and watch, maybe even bring back some more food for Miguel to consume.

"It's early..." Miguel responds, his brow arching as he stuffs a hand full of fries down his throat. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and stifles a burp.

You glance up at Peter, your eyes narrowing the second you noticed his cock twitch at the sounds of Miguel chewing and swallowing.

"Making something special tonight, big guy."

You wipe Miguel's mouth clean before leaning in for a kiss. He merely purses his lips in order to reciprocate, his eyes gleaming at the possibilities of the evening.

You nod at Peter with a sharp look as you leave, ignoring Lyla's disappointed shake of her head as you walk out of HQ.

Seems like the intervention was for nothing.

---------------------

A/n: Where is this going you may ask? I have no idea... I like playing around with the idea that people get into kinks for different reasons. Sometimes your girlfriend starts feeding you more because she's trying to compete with your work husband.

[mariacallous]

A trove of leaked internal messages and documents from the militia American Patriots Three Percent—also known as AP3—reveals how the group coordinated with election denial groups as part of a plan to conduct paramilitary surveillance of ballot boxes during the midterm elections in 2022.

This information was leaked to Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), a nonprofit that says it publishes hacked and leaked documents in the public interest. The person behind these AP3 leaks is an individual who, according to their statement uploaded by DDoSecrets, infiltrated the militia and grew so alarmed by what they were seeing that they felt compelled to go public with the information ahead of the upcoming presidential election.

Election and federal officials have already voiced concern about possible voter intimidation this November, in part due to the proliferation of politically violent rhetoric and election denialism. Some right-wing groups have already committed to conducting surveillance of ballot boxes remotely using AI-driven cameras. And last month, a Homeland Security bulletin warned that domestic extremist groups could plan on sabotaging election infrastructure including ballot drop boxes.

Devin Burghart, president and executive director of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, says that AP3’s leaked plans for the 2022 midterms should be a warning for what may transpire next month. “Baseless election denial conspiracies stoking armed militia surveillance of ballot drop boxes is a dangerous form of voter intimidation,” Burghart tells WIRED. “The expansion of the election denial, increased militia activity, and growing coordination between them, is cause for serious concern heading into November. Now with voter suppression groups like True the Vote and some GOP elected officials targeting drop boxes for vigilante activity, the situation should be raising alarms.”

The leaked messages from 2022 show how AP3 and other militias provided paramilitary heft to ballot box monitoring operations organized by “The People’s Movement,” the group that spearheaded the 2021 anti-vaccine convoy protest, and Clean Elections USA, a group with links to the team behind the 2000 Mules film that falsely claimed widespread voter fraud. In the leaked chats, People’s Movement leader Carolyn Smith identifies herself as an honorary AP3 member.

AP3 is run by Scot Seddon, a former Army Reservist, Long Islander, and male model, according to a ProPublica profile on him published in August. That profile, which relied on the same anonymous infiltrator who leaked AP3’s internal messages to DDoSecrets, explains that AP3 escaped scrutiny in the aftermath of January 6 in part because Seddon, after spending weeks preparing his ranks to go to DC, ultimately decided to save his soldiers for another day. ProPublica reported that some members went anyway but were under strict instruction to forgo any AP3 insignia. According to the leaked messages, Seddon also directed his state leaders to participate in the “operation.”

“All of us have a vested interest in this nation,” Seddon said in a leaked video. “So all the state leaders should be getting their people out and manning and observing ballot boxes, to watch for ballot stuffing. This is priority. This goes against getting your double cheeseburger at mcdonalds … Our nation depends on this. Our future depends on this. This ain't no bullshit issue. We need to be tight on this, straight up.”

A flier using militaristic language shared across various state-specific Telegram channels lays out how this operation would work. With “Rules of Engagement” instructions, “Volunteers” are told not to interfere with anyone dropping off their ballots. If someone is suspected of dropping off “multiple ballots,” then observers are told to record the event, and make a note of the individual's appearance and their vehicle's license plate number. In the event of any sort of confrontation, they’re supposed to “report as soon as possible to your area Captain.”

“At the end of each shift, Patriots will prepare a brief report of activity and transmit it to [the ballot] box team Captain promptly,” the flier states.

The person who leaked these documents and messages says that these paramilitary observers masquerading as civilians will often have a QRF—quick reaction force—on standby who can “stage an armed response” should a threat or confrontation arise.

The goal of the “operation,” according to that flier, was to “Stop the Mules.”

“These are the individuals stuffing ballot boxes,” the flier says. “They are well trained and financed. There is a global network backing them up. They pick up fake ballots from phony non-profits and deliver them to ballot boxes, usually between 2400 hours and 0600 hours.” (This was the core conspiracy of 2,000 Mules; the conservative media company behind the film has since issued an apology for promoting election conspiracies and committed to halting its distribution).

Fears about widespread armed voter intimidation during the 2022 midterms—stemming from online chatter and warnings from federal agencies—never materialized in full. However, there were scattered instances of people showing up to observe ballot drops in Arizona. These individuals, according to the statement by the anonymous leaker in the DDoSecrets files, were not “lone wolves”—they were part of “highly organized groups who intended to influence the elections through intimidation.”

In one widely-publicized incident, two clearly armed people wearing balaclavas and tactical gear showed up in Mesa, Arizona, to conduct drop box surveillance. They were never identified, though a Telegram video on DDoSecrets shows AP3’s North Carolina chapter head Burley Ross admitting that one of them was part of his unit. Ross says that the individual was Elias Humiston, who had previously been conducting vigilante border surveillance. “I was well aware they were doing drop box observations,” said Ross. “I was not aware they were doing so in full kit.” Ross added that Humiston had since resigned from the group.

Seddon also addressed the “little incident in Arizona,” stressing the importance of maintaining clean optics to avoid scrutiny. “We had pushed for helping to maintain election integrity through monitoring the ballot boxes,” said Seddon, in a video message on Telegram. “We never told anyone to do it like that.”

The militia movement largely retreated from public view in the aftermath of the January 6 riot at the US Capitol in 2021. The high-profile implication of the Oath Keepers in the riot, which at the time was America’s biggest militia, thrust the broader militia movement into the spotlight. Amid intense scrutiny, stigma, and creeping paranoia about federal informants, some militias rebanded or even disbanded. But as WIRED reporting has shown, after a brief lull in activity, the militia movement has been quietly rebuilding, reorganizing, and recruiting. With AP3 at its helm, it’s also been engaging in armed training.

Election conspiracies have only continued to fester since 2022, and AP3 has been aggressively recruiting and organizing. Moreover, the rhetoric in the group has also intensified. “The next election won’t be decided at a Ballot Box,” wrote an AP3 leader earlier this year in a private chat, according to ProPublica. “It’ll be decided at the ammo box.”

“Every American has a right to go to the ballot box without fear and the authorities need to urgently learn the lessons of 2022—and the lessons contained in these documents—so they can prevent something even worse from happening in the coming weeks,” the infiltrator wrote in the DDoS statement.

[themuselesswriter]

Top, Bottom or Switch - Even Peters: American Horror Story Edition

You know how I do stupid shit when I'm left unsupervised? Here it is! lmao, enjoy and suffer.

Kai Anderson - Switch

He's a switch, he's the type of a guy who wants you to think he's in command but yell at him a couple of minutes and throw him on a bed and you will find him being a submissive b!tch, he'd whine about it, he'd try to take control but he won't try that hard, he has a name calling kink, and definitely a slapping and spanking kink. 

Kyle Spencer - Bottom

He's just too good and kind to be a top, he's the type of guy who would apologize for hours if he spanked you by mistake, and his whole zombification doesn't help his case since he became 90% more submessive because of it. 

Tate Langdon - Top

Leather kink, that's all I need to say. He's a top, he usually takes charge of things even when no one really asks him and even though he really messes things up, a terrible trait in life but definitely good in bed for him.

Austin Sommers - Bottom

That's a sneaky arse bottom for you! He's not confortational person, he needs lots of guidance in life (aka Belle Noire) he has a mommy kink, likes older people, a little cross dressing and being bossed around. 

Rory Monahan - Switch

He's a green flag, he's not afraid to show his vulnerability, he doesn't mind giving away control and taking control when needed, he's gentle and delicate, he tries his best to make the whole experience delicate, enjoyable and funny. 

Patty O'Furniture - Bottom

That's a bottom, in denial but definitely a bottom, he's into praise kink, tell him that he's worth something and he's game, and yes, I know Patty is a five minutes character but with that dance he did, he earned his spot here. 

Kit Walker - Top

He's a nice top, very autherarian, he's good at multi-tasking and he's not afraid to try something new and he almost never crosses boundaries, he's not a fan of spanking and bondage because he's traumatized but he does enjoy playing rough every now and then. 

Malcolm Gallant - Bottom 

That's a b!tchy bottom right there, he's into literally anything you throw at him, he's not afraid of experimenting, he's into pain play, leather, bondage, pet play, literally anything as long as you give him some attention. 

Edward Mott - Bottom

That's a bottom who tries to act like a top but fails misterably at it, he's an anxious bottom though, so his top would definitely need to take away his control so he could unwind and relax. 

Jimmy Darling - Top

Now although he doesn't mind switching position because he's so desperate for validation but he vibes top 97% of the time, he's not to be fully trusted as a top as he can get carried away sometimes, but like, he means well. 

James Patrick March - Bottom

I know what you guys think, but you wanna convince me that he wasn't the Countess's little play thing? Or that he wasn't really turned on by the idea of someone taking control of him and telling him what to do? He gives off Top vibes but really, he's a bottom. 

Jeff Pfister - Top 

He gives off rich white boy jerk vibe who doesn't have the emotional depth to be a bottom or a switch, also he seems a bit too invested in this whole "alpha male" bullshit, therefore, I deem him a not very good top. 

And of course, we can't let this go without some science and science charts

[island-in-the-shadows]

Sometimes, I really start to think about the high-society stiff upper lip bullshit the Cattons were raised on. Farleigh's literally yelled at for deigning to express his grief because those are "American emotions." It's something that adds to Farleigh's otherness and another of the reasons that I realllly just want Farleigh to stay away from it all. He's honestly too good to have who he is stomped on and killed beyond recognition if he keeps trying to fight his way back to it.

And then I think how it affected both Venetia and Felix. We know Venetia falls a little outside of the guise but she can still exhibit some control. Based on what she told Oliver she held it together at Felix's funeral more than Oliver did. And though she's severely distressed during that hilariously ghoulish lunch, she's still keeping relatively subdued. Imagine having to subdue all of your feelings all of the time. Because they are being watched always and everything is a reflection on them and their parents and the privilege into which the family was born or into which they married.

Imagine what that level of emotional self-denial does to a person. Any person. And specifically what it would do to children. Is it any wonder that so many things are subtextual and that the only things done or said explicitly in any way are done or said by Oliver?

There's many issues and many negative things we could pick apart of the Cattons but this is one in which they harm themselves. And in harming themselves they harm others, including the people they love the most.

[thelastomnitect]

I HAVE A FANCOMIC CONUNDRUM

Hey, Voyagers!

I'm Omni, your favorite Robot-American, TTRPG Creator & Artist buddy... aaaand Im in a bind.

So, for those of you in the know, Ive been really enjoying making fancomic works lately, and its been very rewarding (Check out my Helldivers 2 Fancomic "Gentry Dolaan Aint No Fascist" if youre interested in what I've been cooking!). So much so, that I am also working on a Space Marine Fancomic/Webcomic (working title: "BROTHERS: a Tale of Treachery and Doom"), and I'm really excited about it. Ive been doing tons of art and planning for it behind the scenes, and it's a story I think will be really fun to tell and read! I've been a huge fan of the Warhammer setting since I was young, and Narrative campaigns like The Taros Campaign, Siege of Vraks & The Badab War sit on my bookshelves next to my copies of some Horus Heresy books & my Gaunt's Ghosts Omnibus. Its definitely a loveletter to this hobby and setting I've loved for so long...

...BUT...

Games Workshop (the owners of the "WARHAMMER 40,000" IP and the creators of the Tabletop Miniature game) is a terrible company. For a very abbreviated list of their bullshit... - Games Workshop can be overly litigious towards fan creators (a few years back, they went on an absolute spree of issuing cease-and-desist/takedown notices on tons of fanworks in preparation of the launch of their WARHMMER+ streaming service, primarily to prevent competition to their in house animations. It's either directly destroyed or had a crazy chilling effect on many amazing fan projects, such as Bruva Alfabusa's amazing "If The Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device" which has been discontinued, or gorgeous animations like THE EXODITE or ASTARTES, both of which were bought up, taken off of youtube and forced onto their premium Warhammer + service behind a paywall. The creator of ASTARTES has already suffered a great deal at the hands of hackers stealing their youtube channel, and since their purchase by GW and move to Warhammer plus has been dead silent, and the EXODITE suffered immensely during its production. And with a new Warhammer TV series in development, and the success of SPACE MARINE 2, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that kind of aggressive legal gatekeeping behavior again soon...) - They abusively price & market their products (they have the single highest priced miniatures in the entire wargaming hobby, frequently rely on FOMO events and bundling [even for rules and important items the community HAS to buy], relentlessly overprice in several regions across the world, and intentionally price gouge their books and rules, all while taking down any free access to any of those rules at the first given opportunity. There is no reason a single, unassembled and unpainted, mono-pose 32mm miniature should be priced at $45 dollars. That's insane.) - They have done so much damage to the Wargaming Hobby Community in their time (They are basically the EA of the Wargaming hobby. They drive medium sized wargames out of the market under walls of money, advertisement and litigation, create walled content gardens that discourage players from leaving them, have set terrible standards in the larger hobby like a lack of free-to-download rules & denial of third-party miniatures at their tournaments, and have gone so far as to literally not even call their hobby wargaming but the "WARHAMMER Hobby", so players dont accidentally stumble across the rest of the industry. Its BAND-AID bandage levels of market crushing brand power, and they abuse it constantly to the detriment of the entire hobby. Again, its basically the same level of industry damage as Activision or EA have done to the videogaming world). ... so yeah, again, I LOVE the setting & the world, and I've had a long standing relationship with the wargame property itself, but GW has a deathgrip on the franchise. Truth is, I dont want to steer more people towards them, or lose all the work I put into this webcomic project because GW's legal team is feeling a little overly litigious in advance of some new Netflix show or videogame or edition release.

HOWEVER, I have other options. Games Workshop doesn't corner the market on Space Marines with big pauldrons and dramatic flair. I COULD just set "Brothers" in a more creator friendly IP... like ONE PAGE RULES's GRIMDARK FUTURE setting, and without too much effort. While there would be some differences, it would still be the same tale of stoic battle brothers contending with isolation, dogma, and struggling with the concessions needed to survive in a hostile place. Hell, their super-human gene-sculpted super soldiers are literally called BROTHERS, so it's... kinda serendipitous, to be real with you. The folks at OPR are much smaller company and have infinitely better business practices. They market their products in a much more responsible and ethical manner, sell both 3d-printable miniature files and pre-printed miniatures themselves, their games are all miniature agnostic and well designed, and frankly, they actually give a damn about their fan creators. They even run Fan Creator Competitions (I just joined a Writing Jam they hosted a few months back! It was a blast), and give free miniatures and huge discounts to the winners. Generally speaking, they are the kind of tiny company I actually could see myself patronizing and supporting, amybe even working with at some point, and they are far closer to the way I'd prefer to see the wargaming industry develop in the future (I am NOT sponsored by OPR, by the way. Just wanted to make that clear. I wouldn't turn it down, not gonna lie, but as of time of this post, I've no support from either GW or OPR) And I know Im not the only one who's been making these calculations when working on their fan works. Bruva Alfabusa has moved on to working with friendly IPs, like their awesome World of Darkness series "Hunter: the Parenting" series, while the Exodite's creator has completely pivoted into working on their own grimdark IP, "PROJECT MORNINGSTAR", which is well worth a look, btw. The issue I face is that while I vastly prefer supporting OPR's GRIMDARK FUTURE and them as a company, I originally started this project as a 40K fanwork. And I know that, for all its many flaws, Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 brand name carries a lot of recognition and fandom power, and it's setting has a lot of personal meaning to me. OPR is growing and it's got a really passionate fandom, but its only a fraction the size of GW's juggernaut, and while I'm not creatively tied to either setting atm, I'd be a liar to not at least acknowledge and respect the sheer fandom gravity of the Warhammer 40,000 IP. And fancomics can live and die on the size and relative energy of their fanbases.

So that's my Conundrum.

Do I continue along the path I was already on and make this fancomic a WARHAMMER 40,000 story, facing the fact I'd basically be advertising for a company I hate and risking that if I ever managed to garner a big enough fanbase the GW legal might just pop in and shut me down, all in exchange for brand recognition? Or do I take a chance on my personal principles, set it in OPR's GRIMDARK FUTURE, tell the same story I was already excited to tell and support a company and a game that I actually think is worth talking about, but risk the smaller community and less passionate fanbase not being enough to get the fancomic off the launchpad in the first place?

I'm genuinely soul searching here, Voyagers. And I want your opinion.

The truth is, I know which way I want to go, but what do you think? If youre a creator / fan / artist / player / hobbyist of WARHAMMER 40,000, WARHAMMER, ONE PAGE RULES GAMES, GRIMDARK FUTURE, WARGAMING, FANCOMICS, FANWORKS, SCIENCE FICTION, or even just read your way through all of this and wanted to give me your opinion (thank you, by the way, that's incredibly kind of you) what do you think? PLEASE, tell me your thoughts and feedback in the comments. And, for anybody who got this far, thank you for reading this. Seriously, I appreciate you. See you out there, Voyagers~

-The Last Omnitect

[sniperct]

"Let's keep in mind where this started. October 7th, Hamas terrorists massacred over 1400 Israelis and took prisoners. Iran, or, Israel's ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental, getting its hostages back, fundamental, and ending the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But the expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute, fundamental necessity for the United States to have the steady leadership there." (Tim Walz)

Great, apparently the most we can get from the Democrats is blatant genocide/Nakba denial ("this started on Oct 7th [instead of ~76 years ago]") and the promise of american loyalty to israel's Manifest Destiny-esque colonial expansion fueling even more genocide in Palestine and now Lebanon (with other forms of ongoing warfare in Syria and Yemen). Damnation to all Republicans (no exceptions) and any Democrats who endorse genocide like this. We deserve better.

You're not going to find a person who's (currently) capable of actually winning the presidency or vice presidency who doesn't back Israel at least in part. There's 80 years of diplomatic and imperial bullshit.

Probably not until 2032 at the earliest, assuming AOC or someone like her wants to run and there's no guarantee she makes it out of the primary.

The US should have cut them off a long time ago.

[usaigi]

Ashen Wolves + Jeritza Modern AU HCs

Ashen Wolves in my fic (read it, it's funny) I couldn't fit everything in putting it all here

Yuri

Works at the bar Abyss (which has a secret BDSM dungeon in the basement)

Lives in a punk house with the others and unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) the only one responsible enough to pay rent

Everything else is a gamble. Will they have electricity this month? Water? Eh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“Hey wanna go out? I know a place” (takes them to the health food dumpster that tosses out perfectly good packaged food) 

“Am I scared of twink death? Please.” 

SWer out of necessity, sends most of the money he makes back to his disabled mom

(TW human trafficking mention) Yuri's father met his mother, a young poor vietnamese women. He promise he'd take care of her give her a better life in UK. Yeah right. Due to everything, she's extremely traumatized and unable to work.

Because of his and his mother's trauma, extremely protective of the most vulnerable in his community(women, children, immigrants, pwMI) 

Balthus

New Jersey represent 🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅

Italian-American. Always correcting everyone on how to actually pronounce Italian words

Got into a tinyyyy minor disagreement with the mob and, in short, he owes them like gazillion dollars

Half-ass faked his death (so much party city fake blood) and is hiding out in Europe

He wears a fake mustache and puts on a fake Italian accent whenever he's in public

Sells drugs to the Garreg Mach kids. 

“Balthus get a job.” “I have a business” “Isn’t that why you had to leave the States?”

The only one not to have a room. He sleeps on the couch (he had an air mattress. Had.)

Constance

In the late 1800s/early 1900s, her ancestor founded Nuvelle Inc., a pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation

Her great-grandfather publically sided with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War since he was in support of Basque Independence. Later assassinated by the fascist government in retaliation 

Later, Constance's grandfather got backstabbed by his board and fired from the company

Her family was in denial about the whole thing and desperate to keep up with the appearance of wealth and continue to spend a lot of money. By the time Constance was born, they was in loads of debt

(tw suicide mention) Lost her mother in an accident. Then her father committed suicide, leaving Constance an orphan by 13.

Used the little inheritance she had to go to Garreg Mach and pretend everything was ok. Would lie anytime someone asked about her home life. Was forced to drop out at 16 because she ran out of money. To embarrassed to ask for help, she lied to everyone and told them she was going to study in the states

Yuri found her sleeping on a bench and took her in. Offered to buy her a ticket home until she finally admitted she lost everything and has no home to go back to

Dumpster drives at Garreg Mach for designer clothes. Ridiculous how much these rich kids (Hilda) toss out

Hapi

Romani :) 

Ran away from home when she was a teenager to “see the world.” Unfortunately, got taken in by some questionable people 

Cordelia found her and just felt so bad for her :( “oh no, a poor brown girl in need of help.” Offered to take her in and promised to help her get back home

Bullshit.

Finally able to run away and flee the country. She meets Balthus and Yuri because they were dumpster diving at the same spot. 

She and Constance have this thing of getting naked and howling at the full moon each month

Emile Jeritza

Born into a religious cult in good old USA 🇺🇸 His father was the cult leader and had multiple wives. 

His mother had a child from a previous relationship. Despite having numerous half-siblings, Emile was only close to Mercedes. She was the only one who didn’t scold him for crying and having “feminine” feelings after all

One day, his mother and beloved sister disappear. He never even got to say goodbye.. 

unbeknownst to him, when his mother and sister left they were fleeing for their lives. His mother immediately started to fight for custody of him but she was not an American citizen (while Emile and dad were) and she was trying to take him back to Europe

When Emile found out about what his father did, he… 

On the run from the FBI :) 

The wolves know about his history but fuck his dad, mofo had it coming. 

Yuri was standing behind Jeritza at the store when he saw Jeritza didn’t have enough money for food and cat food. He told the cash register to put the sandwich back. Yuri bought him the sandwich. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A taxonomy of corporate bullshit

Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

There are six lies that corporations have told since time immemorial, and Nick Hanauer, Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen's new book Corporate Bullsht: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America* provides an essential taxonomy of this dirty six:

https://thenewpress.com/books/corporate-bullsht

In his review for The American Prospect, David Dayen summarizes how these six lies "offer a civic-minded, reasonable-sounding justification for positions that in fact are motivated entirely by self-interest":

https://prospect.org/culture/books/2023-10-27-lies-my-corporation-told-me-hanauer-walsh-cohen-review/

I. Pure denial

As far back as the slave trade, corporate apologists and mouthpieces have led by asserting that true things are false, and vice-versa. In 1837, John Calhoun asserted that "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually." George Fitzhugh called enslaved Africans in America "the freest people in the world."

This tactic never went away. Children sent to work in factories are "perfectly happy." Polluted water is "purer than the water that came from the river before we used it." Poor families "don't really exist." Pesticides don't lead to "illness or death." Climate change is "beneficial." Lead "helps guard your health."

II. Markets can solve problems, governments can't

Alan Greenspan made a career out of blithely asserting that markets self-correct. It was only after the world economy imploded in 2008 that he admitted that his doctrine had a "flaw":

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/greenspan-admits-flaw-to-congress-predicts-more-economic-problems

No matter how serious a problem is, the market will fix it. In 1973, the US Chamber of Commerce railed against safety regulations, because "safety is good business," and could be left to the market. If unsafe products persist in the market, it's because consumers choose to trade safety off "for a lower price tag" (Chamber spox Laurence Kraus). Racism can't be corrected with anti-discrimination laws. It's only when "the market" realizes that racism is bad for business that it will finally be abolished.

III. Consumers and workers are to blame

In 1946, the National Coal Association blamed rampant deaths and maimings in the country's coal-mines on "carelessness on the part of men." In 2003, the National Restaurant Association sang the same tune, condemning nutritional labels because "there are not good or bad foods. There are good and bad diets." Reagan's interior secretary Donald Hodel counseled personal responsibility to address a thinning ozone layer: "people who don’t stand out in the sun—it doesn’t affect them."

IV. Government cures are always worse than the disease

Lee Iacocca called 1970's Clean Air Act "a threat to the entire American economy and to every person in America." Every labor and consumer protection before and since has been damned as a plague on American jobs and prosperity. The incentive to work can't survive Social Security, welfare or unemployment insurance. Minimum wages kill jobs, etc etc.

V. Helping people only hurts them

Medicare will "destroy private initiative for our aged to protect themselves with insurance" (Republican Senator Milward Simpson, 1965). Covid relief is unfair to people that are currently in the workforce" (Republican Governor Brian Kemp, 2021). Welfare produces "learned helplessness."

VI. Everyone who disagrees with me is a socialist

Grover Cleveland's 2% on top incomes is "communistic warfare against rights of property" (NY Tribune, 1895). "Socialized medicine" will leave "our children and our children’s children [asking] what it once was like in America when men were free" (Reagan, 1961).

Everything is "socialism": anti-child labor laws, Social Security, minimum wages, family and medical leave. Even fascism is socialism! In 1938, the National Association of Manufacturers called labor rights "communism, bolshevism, fascism, and Nazism."

As Dayen says, it's refreshing to see how the right hasn't had an original idea in 150 years, and simply relies on repeating the same nonsense with minor updates. Right wing ideological innovation consists of finding new ways to say, "actually, your boss is right."

The left's great curse is object permanence: the ability to remember things, like the fact that it used to be possible for a worker to support a family of five on a single income, or that the economy once experienced decades of growth with a 90%+ top rate of income tax (other things the left manages to remember: the "intelligence community" are sociopathic monsters, not Trump-slaying heroes).

When the business lobby rails against long-overdue antitrust action against Amazon and Google, object permanence puts it all in perspective. The talking points about this being job-destroying socialism are the same warmed-over nonsense used to defend rail-barons and Rockefeller. "If you don't like it, shop elsewhere," has been the corporate apologist's line since slavery times.

As Dayen says, Corporate Bullshit is a "reference book for conservative debating points, in an attempt to rob them of their rhetorical power." It will be out on Halloween:

https://bookshop.org/a/54985/9781620977514

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/27/six-sells/#youre-holding-it-wrong

[camaro-and-smokes]

The Family Values Program

The first chapter of a dystopian au we've been writing together with @aggressiveviking is finally online!

Warnings: None. Tags: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - No Upside Down, Arranged Marriage, Developing Relationship, Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, Developing Friendships, Denial of Feelings, Internalized Homophobia, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Domestic Fluff, Forced Cohabitation, Mutual Pining Misunderstanding, Sexual Tension, Unrequited Crush, or so they both think, Closeted Gay Billy Hargrove, Steve Harrington Has a Bisexual Awakening, Other tags to be added

Summary: When society started to decline, morals deteriorate and disease wiped almost one fourth of the population in the United States, The Family Values Program (TFV) was launched—the last beacon of hope for the betterment of the American people.

Steve had thought he wouldn't need to join TFV thanks to his dad's riches, whereas Billy had done all he could to ensure he would be one of the few accepted to it, for his father's sake—hoping desperately to turn twenty-five before being matched and thus age out of the program.

So, when they got the message from the Matchmaking Service of a successful match, neither of them knew what to expect—and how badly wrong it had gone.

To Steve, finding out that he was matched with a man by mistake was just one problem. The more pressing one was his upcoming twenty-fifth birthday a week from now, effectively aging him out of the program. If their match was revoked, Steve would be cast out of the TFV zone, with a promise from his father for no financial support. Steve couldn't let that happen.

Read in full on AO3 >> (snippet under the cut)

:::::::::::

Billy Hargrove had one simple goal in his life - to age out of the Matchmaking Service. He only had one more year to go before he could be officially free and there was nothing his father could do about it, not even blame him because it wouldn’t be Billy’s fault. It was just dumb luck.

Being part of the TFV program had been the singular goal and regret that his father held. The Family Value program - a government-enforced and regulated family life. A man and a woman. A family. Idyllic, the way they showed it in movies, the way it was supposed to be before society had started to crumble. At least that's how they said it was. 

It happened more than 30 years ago - the decline of culture and the end of moral values. The concept of marriage had lost its meaning, and it led to broken families, broken people, and broken values. It had been the catalyst for more than just personal tragedies. Billy’s father had been a victim of it as Neil Hargrove wouldn’t forget to remind everyone. An upstanding man, who wanted nothing more than to lead a good upstanding life, and take care of his wife and kids. He had been betrayed by his wife, who broke their family like it meant nothing.

Billy knew it was a load of bullshit, the bruises on his ribs proved it even now. His father was far from the person he pretended to be, who he imagined himself to be. It was true that his mother was a bitch for leaving, but it wasn’t because she left Neil, it was because she left Billy with Neil. How hard would it have been to just take him with her when she packed her bags and ran out? How much more would it have cost her? Billy doubted that she had even thought about that - she had only thought about herself. Because that’s what people were conditioned to do in those times.

Crime rates had been steadily increasing, so much so that law enforcement couldn’t keep up. With the increase in crime, death followed shortly. Diseases became rampant, a modern plague had wiped nearly one-fourth of the population of the United States. It was said that it was a biological weapon, meant to be sold - a simple exchange of death for money - but it spread without control, without a way to stop it. 

At the peak of the horrors and tragedies, The Family Value program was launched - the last beacon of hope for the betterment of the American people. All efforts and resources were poured into making that campaign a success. Whole cities and towns were confiscated, and all citizens evacuated elsewhere as the program was established, as the walls were built, as the TFV centers were built of solid concrete in the center of it all, to last for centuries ahead as the beacon of light to the people, as the first step to order and prosperity. 

The Matchmaking Service was the tool, the weapon that the government built to fight against the decay of society. The concept of the program was simple - to preserve and nurture the value of a healthy family, and the Matchmaking Service was what made it possible. Every person was encouraged to sign into the program with the promise of a good easy life - a home provided by the government, steady jobs - but not many were able to pass the heavy vetting process. Only the people who could prove they held family values close to their heart were qualified to be accepted into the program - the people who had a passion for living a good, honest life, who stayed in school, followed the law, and most important of all, had never had a marriage that had been broken.

Neil Hargrove did not qualify. And neither did his new wife Susan Mayfield. She had a broken marriage of her own - a messy divorce. Their kids however still had a chance, and while Susan simply wished a better life for her daughter Max, Billy’s father had steadily developed an obsession fueled by anger and bitterness. He was simultaneously doing his best to push Billy into being the perfect candidate for the TFV program, while at the same time, he was furious that he never had been given that chance himself. He didn’t forget to remind Billy of it.

Billy wanted nothing more to be done with all of it. 25. That was the age of the cutoff from the program. All legal adults could apply for the Matchmaking Service as soon as they turned 18. Once they had been approved into the program they only needed to wait to be matched at random with the person of the opposite gender who was going to be their life partner. No backing out, no second attempts - it was very simple, fail to do so and you were out of the program, permanently. But while the process wasn’t that complicated, the random matching of people had one little flaw. Some people ended up aging out of the system before they were given a match.

Neil Hargrove had made Billy sign up as soon as he could with no regard for what Billy wanted to do with his life. Not that Billy ever shared that with his father. He also didn’t share the fact that he harbored no attraction to the opposite sex… Something that Billy had no way of exploring living under his father’s roof and which he would never get to explore if he got matched with a partner in TFV program.

At the very start, Billy had been living in dread, every day waiting for that horrible message that marked the culmination of his father’s efforts and the end of Billy’s freedom for good. But then… the years were passing by and no message came through. A calm washed over him as the time grew near. He had been in the system for almost 7 years and there had been no match. For the first time in his life, Billy dared to dream. Perhaps life wasn’t as unfair as he had thought it was. Perhaps he would finally be given the freedom he deserved after almost 25 years of hiding, of pain, of fear… Maybe things were going to work out—

And as if in a cruel twist of fate the message came right when he had stopped expecting it.

Billy’s stomach dropped as he read the words written bold and bright on the screen of his com device while his hand shook.

Congratulations, it’s a MATCH!

He felt like he was going to throw up, his heart sinking into his stomach. Billy had hoped never to see the official message from the Matchmaking Service… but here it was. Mocking him, like a bad punchline to a joke, like everything else in Billy’s life.

He tried to take a deep breath but he only managed to choke as he pressed the button to read the rest of the message. The content of it was like a prison sentence. Not only had he been matched, but he was being relocated — Billy had known that could happen but he had been sure it could never happen to him. The location marked on the top read a town named Hawkins… in fucking Hickville Indiana . 

Billy wanted to cry.

+

“Sign up to the program, Steve, or live outside your very privileged comfort zone for a very painful ten years. I am tired of trying to help you.”

Yeah. Those were Steve's father's last words before he had given Steve his ultimatum: time until Steve's twenty-fifth birthday to find a place of his own to live in and his trust fund locked for an extra ten years, only to be released to Steve's control when he turned thirty-five. He'd be stuck with the low life of society for the next ten years, trying to get along on a minimum wage from some shitty job.

Unless he got with the piece-of-shit program his parents held in such high regard.

If he did as his father told him to and signed up for The Family Value program, allowing the Matchmaking Service to choose him a wife by his twenty-fifth birthday, the trust fund would be released in his control on his twenty-sixth birthday. Which would be more tolerable to live with, considering his spending habits. And okay, other habits too...

He didn't shy away from living a full bachelor's life. Women lining up in front of him, allowing him to pick the cherries from on top. Since he'd been trusting in having all the money he'd ever need at twenty-five, he hadn't really thought on commitment . He would've bought a nice condo somewhere, lived on his own fund, and then chosen a life partner at his own pace. As late as possible, preferably.

Steve was a few months shy of twenty-five, the cut-off age for the program. He was sure that given some more time, he wouldn't have had any issues finding a match for himself. He could've just picked the prettiest one in sight. But the only one he'd really liked had been Nancy. She would've been nice to have a family with. He'd actually considered having kids with her. They would've had a nice life... Yeah. Until she broke up with him and swore never to come back.

And in all honestly he really didn't want to go with some one-night stand.

So, he was bitter. “You need to grow up, Steve. I am doing this for your own good.” Yeah, blah blah, as if. It wasn't like the money in the fund was his dad's. It was all basically interest on interest on the 5000 dollars he'd invested in the fund when Steve was born. Steve could've paid that back to him on the first day he would've controlled the fund.

But now he really didn't have any choice. Maybe he could live with a woman who he didn't get along for one year. Hopefully. And at least he'd have some control over the location and the style of the house, amenities, and so on. He would go with the largest available, his father could pull some strings to ensure that. He wouldn't have to move out of his home town and he could stay close to all his already matched friends and so on. If he had to tolerate a stranger, he might as well do it in style. And he'd have someone to cook and keep the house clean for him and decent pay to get along for a year. Maybe they could agree with the missus that when he had the fund, they could live separate lives while still married and she'd be as free to do whatever she wanted and see whoever she wanted and he'd cover her expenses from the trust fund.

Steve shook his head as he lay down on his bed and stared at the popcorn ceiling of his room. “Fuck the values,” he grumbled to himself the same night he signed up and hoped that the service would work quickly.

And it did, just a few weeks before his birthday.

Congratulations, it’s a MATCH!

Steve let out a sigh as he read the full message on his com device. Yes, his dad had come through with his promise to help with the living arrangements. A house with three bedrooms, four baths, and a swimming pool. It was a tolerable price for one year of... something. Not utter misery, hopefully.

Steve moved his most important stuff to the house the following day. The rest could be hauled over later. Not that he really had that much though, just a wardrobe full of tailor-made suits and shirts for his new job, ironically, at the management of the Matchmaking Service, and some other things for daily life.

He strolled around the already decorated and furnished house, nodding agreeably at the chosen materials, plush couches, and the large dinner table with a glass chandelier above it. On the second floor, he inspected the room that had been transformed into his home office, the junior bedroom, and finally the master bedroom. He took in the view that spread under the hill the house was on from the floor-to-ceiling windows. Closer were other houses like his and further, a busy city center and the concrete fences that kept the area separated from the second-class society somewhere in the distance. 

Yes, he could live with this.

On the second day, he had pretty much settled in and was all the more content with the surroundings. He'd spend his last free day before the start of his new job just taking it easy and getting to know his match. He'd been informed that she was on her way and would arrive right about… now.

He was having a late breakfast at the dinner table when he heard the front door opening. He got up, took the bunch of roses he'd bought just for this moment in his hand, and walked to the foyer. 

And he stopped dead in his tracks, very much not happy and very, very confused.

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