#But thinking about this as a German this is huge

[doomdoomofdoom]

Okay so. European here. This is going to be almost entirely about relationships with the EU.

The damage the Trump Administration has done to his international relations is already massive. We can assume most of it is repairable once you have a sane president again, but for the time being? Fucked.

I don't know how much of this is discussed within the US, since there's plenty of internal catastrophes to focus on, so here's a brief overview:

Trying to claim Greenland (again) revitalized discussion about a shared european military, in case he actually shows up with force. This implies that several EU countries are not ruling out a military strike from the US.

The threats of tariffs mean that most countries are looking for alternative trade partners. I'm not an economist, but I'm assuming that Trump is risking cutting the US off from a majority of international trade. (This also directly benefits Russia: If Europe stops importing oil from the US, they'll need to get it elsewhere. Despite the war in Ukraine, Russia remains one of the worlds most prominent oil exporters.)

Trump's administration has hinted at calling back military personnel currently stationed in Europe, as well as leaving NATO. This would massively embolden Russia in their war, and potentially make NATO countries vulnerable to attacks. Zelenskyy has stated many times that Putin plans to expand past Ukraine. (By numbers alone, NATO still outweighs Russia in military spending and force, even without the US. However, the US has been an effective deterrent against Russia starting larger scale attacks. Even if they wouldn't win a war with NATO, any war means massive casualties.) theres also the question of the US actually siding with Russia in armed conflict, but at least for now that doesnt seem likely.

Trump's peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have been disastrous and, quite notably, did not include Ukraine. Flipping the aggressor is just the latest in a long row of trying to undermine Ukraine and let Russia take it. (German satire news outlet 'Postillion' published a headline akin to "Trump condemns Poland's attack on 1939 Germany" in response. I don't think I need to add more, other than that I almost believed it.)

Elon Musk has tried to take direct influence on the upcoming German Election. (Supporting the fascist party, of course.) That pattern will almost definitely keep repeating with other elections. Having the backing of the White House obviously heightens his influence and power.

The cuts and freezes in basically any foreign aid will have devastating effects in exploited countries, which will spread globally. A huge amount of effort is directed towards limiting the spread of diseases, for example. As we've been privy to learn, diseases do not respect borders. Other projects include funding education and infrastructure, so these places can recover their independence. The ripple effect of cutting these projects honestly can't be estimated at this moment. At least not by me, a guy on tumblr. (The CIA death squads are also a project, I suppose. We can keep that one frozen.)

The Vance Speech (this one needed its own section)

JD Vance (who still exists btw, I keep forgetting that), recently spoke at an International Security Convention, accusing Europe of democratic backsliding (an imax level of projection) and demanding they be more inclusive of their rightwing-extremist parties. For context, two german extremist parties (one technically considers itself "left" but it isnt, the other being the one Musk supports) were banned from attending the convention, as they were deemed risks to international security. He strongly implied that if extremist parties remained excluded in Europe, the US would cease cooperation. He also cited a recently annulled election in Romania as point of 'democratic backsliding'. Russia had ('allegedly') interfered heavily in the election to push a far-right candidate to victory. Additionally, he made clear that the US would not combat misinformation (which he called censorship), and therefore also would not stop Musk from interfering in elections as he pleased. For some reason he compared him to Greta Thunberg but failed to pronounce her name.

The backlash within the conference was massive. The speaker immediately after Vance, the german minister of defense, abandoned his script to directly push back against Vance. Do you know how badly you have to fuck up to make a german career politician (mid election campaigns!) abandon his script? Basically any speech the following day also expressed shock and indignation.

Ever since then, the EU has been carefully deliberating what their alliances and strategies without the US may look like. They've also put together another massive support budget for Ukraine. There's a lot of uncertainty now, since most countries want to continue good relations with the US, but under current leadership, that's an incredibly unpredictable undertaking. China has been pushing for stronger ties with the EU, clearly trying to benefit from the rift the US just caused.

There's no need to butter up anyone about leaving european allies. The Trump Administration already started the process.

I do still believe that these relationships can be repaired in the future under new leadership. But what kinds of damage will be done until then, I honestly don't want to imagine.

But I don't want to fully doompost. (ironic, huh.) The EU has moved closer together in response to these developments, which will be crucial in dealing with Trump on a global level. Strengthening bonds with other countries (like Canada) is on the table, too. We also have quite a bit of experience with unhinged autocrats, both historically and currently. That is part of what made Vance's speech so insulting. We're far from perfect at it, believe me. But we've done it before, we're doing it now, and we'll keep doing it as long as necessary. Just like Trump's US influences all of the world, all of the world also influences Trump's US. And hopefully more and more of his subjects become finally disillusioned. Ideally, you guys depose him asap. After all, he who saves his country, violates no law, right? (for legal reasons i am not advocating for murder. there are plenty of other ways to get rid of a king-president.)

You know, something almost universally uncontroversial in American politics since basically world war 2 is being opposed to the Russian government as long as it remains undemocratic and ruled by a dictatorial single party rule.

How we achieve that and whether or not that makes us hypocrites and whether or not and how we wish to make peace with the government of Russia have been pieces of contention, yes. However, people on both sides of the political extremes as well as those in the middle in the United States of America can usually agree that Vladimir Putin is bad. He is horrible. We cannot agree with what he’s doing. He’s a thug, he’s unstable, he’s a dictator.

But President 47 has chosen to pretend like the war in Ukraine was the Ukrainians’ fault and apologize for his dictator buddy. A war that Putin started and has caused his own people to suffer for greatly. Russia is physically running out of men. In addition to killing thousands of Ukrainian civilians, Putin is throwing his own draft aged male citizens to their deaths constantly. For no justifiable reason. And President 47 is blaming Ukraine for that. The country working in self defense that was invaded by an idiot dictator for no justifiable reason who is throwing his own citizens into a meat grinder to feed his own ego.

This has me goddamned furious if you couldn’t tell. Not only is he trying to butter us up for potentially abandoning our European allies, not only is he blaming an invaded people for the war being forced upon them, but he’s further trying to align himself with dictators.

I hope to god that the republicans and 47 supporters with enough of a spine to speak out against this today keep speaking out against this in the future because this is unacceptable behavior from every corner of the political spectrum in this country. This is infuriating and unacceptable on so many levels.

[kittyprincessofcats]

ICJ Ruling

Okay, let's get into this.

First of all, I get the frustration at the court not ordering a ceasefire. I was disappointed and frustrated at first too, since a ceasefire was the biggest and most important preliminary measure South Africa was requesting - and of course we just all want this horror to finally end for the people in Gaza. So I get the frustration and disappointment, I really do.

However, I do think this ruling is still a major win for South Africa, Palestine, and international law as a whole and here's why:

The court acknowledged that it has jurisdiction over this case and completely dismissed Israel's request to throw out the case as a whole. It will now determine at the merits stage (that will probably take years) whether Israel is actually commiting genocide.

The court acknowledged that Palestinians are a "distinct national or ethnic group and therefore deserving of protection under the genocide convention". Pull this out next time someone tells you "there's no such thing as Palestinians, they're all just Arabs".

The court acknowledged very unambiguously that "at least some" of Israel's actions being genocidal in nature is "plausible". South Africa has a case, officially. Israel is accused of genocide, in a way the ICJ deems "plausible", officially. This is huge. (And seriously, how freaking satisfying was it to hear all of those genocidal statements by Israeli politicians read out loud and used as justification for this rulling?)

The court might not have ordered a "ceasefire" in those words, but they did order Israel to "immediately end all genocidal acts" (which includes killing and injuring Palestinians) and submit proof that they actually did. How are they going to comply with this ruling without at least severly reducing or changing what they're doing in Gaza?

In fact, this wording might actually be more appropriate for a genocide (vs a war), as author and journalist Ali Abunimah notes on Twitter:

He's completely right. Israel lost today, by overwhelming majority (I mean, 15 to 2? I heard people predict the rulings would be very close, like 9 judges vs 8, but instead we got 15 to 2 (and even 16 to 1 on the humanitarian aid). Holy shit.) The court disimissed almost everything Israel's side of lawyers said, while acknowledging that South Africa's accusations are "plausible".

And this is important especially because of Mr Abunimah's second tweet there^. Because the question is, where do we go from here?

This ruling means that Israel is officially /possibly/ commiting genocide and that should have huge international consequences. The rest of the world now HAS to take these accusations seriously and stop arming and supporting Israel - and if they won't do it on their own, we, the people, have to make them. This is THE moment to rise up all around the world, especially in the countries most supportive of Israel (the US, the UK, Germany): Protest, call your representatives and demand a ceasefire and an end of arms deliveries to Israel.

We now have a legal case to back our demands: If Israel is, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" commiting genocide, then all of our governments are, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" guiltly of aiding in genocide. And we need to hold that over their heads and demand better. We need to do that right now and in huge numbers. Most politicians only care about themselves and saving their skin. We have to make them realize that they could be accused of aiding in genocide.

(As a German, I'm thinking of Germany here in particular: After South Africa's hearing, our government dismissed their case as having "no basis" - how are they going to keep saying that now that the ICJ officially thinks otherwise? Over the last months, people here have been arrested at protests for calling what's happening in Gaza a genocide. How are the police supposed to legally keep doing that now that the ICJ has officially deemed this accusation "plausible"? I used to be scared to use the word "genocide" at protests or write it on my protest signs - not anymore, have fun trying to arrest me for that when the ICJ literally has my back on this one 🖕🏻.)

So yeah - don't be defeatist about this, don't let Israel's narrative that they "won" (they didn't) take over. This might not be everything we wanted, but it's still a good result. Don't let what the court didn't say ("ceasefire"), distract you from the very important things that they did say. Let this be your motivation to get loud and active, especially if you live in any country that supports Israel. Put pressure on your governments to not be complicit in genocide, you now officially have the highest international court on your side.

[princesskkfish]

A gift for @tapakah0 fjajrhjabebjjeq

is 3am and I am too tired to see if I missed anything ;~; so sry if it looks a bit funky

Context under the cut idk djabejajbanw

And Ig Hodd and Cass are also in this too in the little picture *shrugs* ok bye bye ima go to bed and pass out now

*runs away* djabrjajbdnajjw

[gar-a-ash]

One of these dogs marked in the store tonight. If you guessed the fluffy young man who's just entering puberty...

...you'd be wrong.

[michameinmicha]

Rereading a book ive read several years ago is always so weird. Like i had like the vaguest memory of a plot and maybe a few vibes? and rereading doesnt bring back everything but i have a few things that make a !! Go up in my brain?

[itwoodbeprefect]

i finally did it! i rewatched starsky & hutch a body worth guarding! and i've decided it's still not a favorite, but it does have a lot of cute little moments to it, and "you wanna catch a criminal? GET the fascists!" is just a wonderful thing to hear any time anywhere. solid middle of the road episode for me, i think

[running-in-the-dark]

I'm watching the new Sad Boyz episode and Jarvis has been talking about Fall Out Boy for thirty minutes and I'm juuust. not enjoying it

[ego-sum-arbor]

I’d like to think that I’m getting better at not overthinking my art and worldbuilding, but I’m haunted by a short story I read recently, set in Britain loosely during the early middle ages, that featured stoneware as an ordinary utilitarian material. This should be a flavor detail that gets immediately forgotten because it isn’t important. Unfortunately, I am me and happen to have some very particular subject specific knowledge. Stoneware probably hasn’t been invented in Europe yet!!!! If it’s late enough maybe we have stoneware or proto-stoneware being made on the continent, but that’s in like the 1200s and doesn’t translate into low status usage in Britain!!!! Stoneware won’t be made there until the 1690s!!!!! What you want here is earthenware! Earthenware!

[setaflow]

I haven't gotten very far in Starfield yet but looking back it's kinda hilarious that I basically went to the character creator and I guess subconsciously decided "I'm gonna make her the exact opposite of my CP2077 character" right down to them having the exact opposite hair color.

[lightningfilledsaber]

saw someone unironically call jjba "unproblematic" and I'm fucking screaming laughing over it. one of the main characters allied with a literal nazi. say what the fuck you want about jojos I'm not gonna pretend like there's not a lot of good things about it but uh. that's a pretty significant problem in the fucking series. just sayin

[fuckableelementspoll]

From my brother

Beautuifufl!

Unfortunately Darmstadtium is in section 1 and Tennesee in section 4 so they would have to be semifinalists to compete, but I may just run this one for fun!

Now i need to figure out what a tennessee is

[farawayfromthemoon]

cmon Berlin you can do better 🥲

[foldingfittedsheets]

The dog I think of as My Dog was picked up from the shelter when I was about 16 and he was six months old. He was a cattle dog mix, which at the time was really uncommon in our area.

We were only getting a dog because my mom was worried about home invaders which was a bit insane as we were out in the country and we’d left our German Shepherd down in Arizona with my dad for complicated reasons.

I turned the corner and saw him. Instant connection. He was curled up dozing, all blue and white freckles with red ears and feeties. His clipboard said “SLY” in huge red letters. I called it softly and he opened his eyes, ears perking. He roused to sleepily amble toward me, lick my fingers, then go lay back down.

My mom joined me in dismay, seeing the love dripping off of me. She hadn’t wanted a puppy but it was clear which dog we were going home with.

Sly was a monstrous puppy. Fans of cattle dogs will be unsurprised to learn he was exceedingly clever, mischievous and Bored a Lot. It turned out his name hadn’t been Sly. It was Billy. But I think we all know why a huge red warning had been applied to his kennel. We named him Sly anyway.

My mom doesn’t remember threatening in earnest to bring him back but it happened. Sly loved to chew. He had no interest in fetch or most toys but he adored chewing. I lost headphones, backpack straps, and pillows to his voracious teething. We tried to dissuade him. He just learned to chew when we weren’t looking. Then one day, clever but not smart, he set his teeth to a plugged in cord and electrocuted himself. He was fine, just really startled!

Thus ended the chewing, forever.

He wouldn’t even pick up toys. He was fully convinced having things in his mouth was only a matter of time before they turned on him. He’d run after a ball at dog parks, grab it in the euphoria of the chase, then immediately spit it out.

He was still a lot of dog and my moms rumblings about his poor behavior led me to join 4H with him. My friend Lia was in with her spaniels so I had an in. We did twice weekly training in obedience and showmanship.

That was it. Sly transformed into the best dog. From a bored unmanageable puppy he became a partner, ready to work on whatever we needed to work on. He learned buckets of commands, eager to please. Sit, down, wait, stand, front, back up, shake, roll, heel. The only thing we could never convince him to do was speak. His bark was reserved for Danger.

We went to compete in the county fair together, entering obedience trials and dog show portions.

The instructions are clearly stated before obedience testing. A dog must stay sitting for two minutes when told to stay, and three minutes for laying down. If our dog broke we were not supposed to speak to reissue commands, simply wait quietly.

It was us in a line with five other dogs. He passed the sitting part just fine. The down one was longer and a wretched golden retriever broke. But then his trainer pulled out a ball and started trying to redirect him with it. The other dogs watched with interest but stayed down. Sly started up. He desperately wanted to herd the golden back into place.

With elbows off the ground he froze, realizing his mistake. His head whipped to me. In silence, I swept my arm down in the nonverbal command for down. He dropped obediently and watched me fixedly for the rest of the time. I think he could feel my disappointment.

We failed.

But the judge came up to us afterward as I was petting him and said, “I was so impressed your dog knows nonverbal commands, and that other dog was so distracting! Let’s retest with the next batch.”

I was thrilled and Sly was steadfast, staring unblinkly at me for the full three minutes with utter determination. He won blue ribbons in obedience and got later best in breed since there was no other cattle dogs.

[galsinspace]

I hope it's okay if I add some stuff here I've been thinking about, if not just shoot me a message and I'll delete it.

I think a huge part of all of this is a misunderstanding of racism as a whole. We have to understand that human "races" are not a biological reality, they are imperfect categories that can never fully account for the complexity of humanity.

People have tried to come up with clear definitions, from blood quantum laws to more recently pseudoscientific DNA tests. But I think to understand the concept of race, it makes sense to look at history:

US-American racism is defined by slavery, laws designed to categorise people into Black and White. This was what was relevant to enforce the desired social order so it's what race was.

I'm German, and I always notice that US-Americans don't really get that Nazi Germany wasn't really obsessed with the idea of being White: it's just not a term the Nazis used much! Because race science is always defined by context. The categories of Black and White weren't of much use to the Germans because that's not the racism they cared about, there weren't enough Black people in Germany for the seperation from them to be a main concern. That's why the concept of "Aryan" was invented, to define the racial categories the Nazis worked with.

But "Aryan" doesn't just mean White. Of course in a way it doesn't mean anything because it's not a real thing, it's originally an indoiranian linguistic term, the Nazis just took it and used it for their made-up racial categories. But it's not the same as the American understanding of White!

It didn't matter that my grandma had blonde hair and blue eyes, she was legally defined as Not Aryan because she had a Jewish grandfather. She did not have an "Aryan certificate" and one of the few things she ever said about her childhood was that they made sure to teach her in school that she wasn't worth anything. It didn't matter that by some categories she'd be White and therefore impervious to racism because that's not the system that was used, that concept of race is not universal.

I think it's imperative to understanding racism that we understand that racial categories are made up based on what society wants to enforce.

And in Nazi Germany, the two main categories people cared about where Aryan and Jewish. That was what Nazi race science revolved around. They had other categories, Aryan had many sub-categories that were more based on looks, "Nordic" was the most desirable flavour of Aryan: blonde and blue-eyed. But my grandma wasn't that because she was immutably sorted into another race.

(Later in life she always referred to bleaching your hair as "Nording it up". She had a dry humour like that.)

My point is: Racial categories are defined by whatever racism is en vogue. Ethnicity is a lot more complex than that, it involves origin, upbringing, culture, religion... And then there are older words like people, singular, a people. Or tribe. None of these categories are things that can be clearly assigned to every person in every case, I think we always have to keep in mind the complexity of self-identification and externally imposed groups. But most of all we have to keep in mind that human races are very fake, even while racism is very real.

"Hey, I saw some of the Jews I don't like discussing the concept of Judaism as an ethno-religion, which I am biased against, so I came to you, a Jew who I do like, so you'll validate me."

I am so tired.

Judaism is an ethno-religion. There's nothing wrong with that. When we accept converts it's a long process and it's a kind of adoption into our group.

Short version is, Judaism is older than the modern categories of race, ethnicity, and religion. Our relationship to all these categories is going to be complicated. We're not going to contort ourselves to fit into whatever one box you think we're allowed to occupy.

[roxy-writes]

virgin!konig x reader smut

virgin!konig who humps you fast and hard when he finally gets his cock inside you. it’s red and twitchy, and huge too. you knew he had to be packing, but you didn’t expect his cock to be that…overwhelmingly big. that being said, once he pops the tip in you need a second to adjust before you tell him he’s allowed to push in further, and poor konig is using every drop of self control he has to keep from pounding the shit out of you.

“you can keep going.” you tell him, and he’s just so excited, trying not to cum on the spot. he’s not even halfway in and you’re already thinking about how he’s so deep in you. you know there’s gonna be a bulge in your stomach from how big he is.

once you tell him he’s allowed to start moving, he breaks. his thrusts are sloppy, messy, and so fucking desperate. he’s already addicted to the way your hole wraps around him. he’s babbling in english and german, each word punctuated by powerful thrusts. you’re making the prettiest sounds, and it makes it hard for him to hold back. you can tell he’s not going as hard as he can, and you want it so bad.

you beg him to go harder. to let go and fuck you how you know he wants to. and it turns out, all it takes is a simple “bitte?” muttered from you in his native language, for him to lose control. you didn’t think he could go much faster, but you were so wrong. he’s moaning loudly. his cock is rubbing up against that soft spot inside you, the one that drives you crazy. before you know it, you’re cumming so hard your vision flashes white.

it doesn’t take long after that for you to feel him spill inside of you, filling you to the brim with his release. the feeling makes your eyes roll to the top of your head. he doesn’t pull out even after he’s rode his orgasm out, letting all the aftershocks rush through him. “can we stay like this for a while?” he asks, his voice hoarse and tired.

“mhm…” you mumble, about to pass out in his arms. as your eyes close, you look up and see konig’s large figure raising a hand to brush your cheek with his fingers, and you drift off quickly.

[redeyerhaenyra]

Konïg discovering his size kink

Summary: Konïg discovers how much he likes how big he is compared to you

Warnings: Guess what! Smut. It's just smut. Size kink (duh), Doggy, Google translate German (I'm sorry 😭), Konïg being a bit of a himbo, afab reader, there is one time at the end reader is referred to as a girl in German, but honestly there's no other mention of readers gender so I hope the nonbinary pals will also be able to enjoy :D, let me know if I've missed anything

Notes: Reader is written as smaller than Konïg but he's so huge that anyone of any size can enjoy this!

The way I'm always so ready to talk about size kink

Especially with Konïg omg!!!

6'10 giant he really is my King

Anyway

I think Konïg's size kink didn't actually manifest until you

Sure he's not blind, he knows how he towers over everyone else

But it's like, it was never a part of his sex life till he was having sex with you

Like it just never occurred to him

But then, with you, it suddenly all made sense

He had you in doggy, fucking you on his thick cock in deep, steady thrusts

In this position he'd a chance to really observe how much bigger he was than you

Normally, when you two fucked, he'd be so entranced watching your beautiful face he'd have no interest looking anywhere else

Oh but now.. now he could see

How the plush skin of you hips spilled between his big hands, how they were fully enveloped by them

How he could so easily pull you back and forth, spearing you on his cock like you were nothing more than a fleshlight

A low grunt caught in his throat, dick twitching as the realisation of oh, he liked how much bigger he was than you

He liked it very much

Konïg leaned over you, pulling you further into his lap as he squished his whole body around you

He's so all-consuming, every sense is filled with him and him alone

He moans open-mothed in your ear, and licks up your neck

"Scheiße, ich hatte nicht... nicht gemerkt, wie sehr ich deine Kleinheit mag, Schatzi. Do you like it too? Ja..ja.. das wette ich, ja.." (Fuck, I did not.. not realise, how much I liked your littleness, honey.. I bet you do..)

After you and he cum, he finally notices how hard your poor litle muschi tries to keep all his cum inside, but it just can't help to let some leak out and dribble down your thighs

Makes sure to give it a little soothing thankyou kiss

Takes a moment to tell your pussy how proud of it he is, taking such a big cock in such a little hole, such a trooper

Cuz like, I know his dick is big!!! I know it!!!!!

It's proportional, shall we say 😭 your cunny working overtime so Konïg makes sure to show his appreciation to it

"Mein Gott, ich weiß nicht wie du das machst, work so hard for me, all of your strength goes into fitting my dick inside you, ja? Ja.. because you're so little, my tiny, tiny mädchen.." (My god, I don't know how you do it)