#I did choose the reference of him absolutely dead with withdrawals

[just-call-me-moran]

Is anyone else chronically on tumblr as well as an art major???? Like what do you mean I have an unfinished drawing of the doctor Gregory house sitting next to my bed staring at me… he’s been there for weeks. Staring at me. Judging me.

[brooklynislandgirl]

83. Have you ever wanted to have sex with someone but knew you couldnt for any reason? Why?

Once Bitten || Accepting

“No.”

The single word and the way she says it is both true and disingenuous at the same time.

She also doesn’t look up at Anakin as he quietly drops the question, all sharp edges and shot through with that specific kind of anxiety that is endemic to him, predicated on the experience of how other people treat him; either listening and completely disregarding his genuine need for guidance or clarification, or...ignoring him altogether and misunderstanding what it is he’s looking for. Anyone else, anyone not her, would have decided he wants to know out of some twisted sort of vengeance for the myriad questions she tends to ask at the most inopportune times. For the curiosity that sometimes eats her alive and knowing he won’t deny her an answer even if once given it isn’t nearly close enough to what she’s specifically trying to ask but is absolute truth all the same. It’s complicated. The way they dance around each other some days. Because they have to, because there isn't any other way to get by.

There is something very noble in his small acts of self-betrayal. In the way that he reaches into himself and pulls out parts of himself for her to examine. Turn this way and that under the bright light of scrutiny, see the lustre that exists in even the smallest kernel of his wishes. Which, she notes and not happily, have over the years dwindled down to a handful of sweet and simple things. How she hates that they have taken the rest from him. She wishes she could give them back to him. One by one. But she's just as powerless as he is. So tightly bound by rules that it's so hard to even breathe. The best she can do is to still herself. To carefully gather up the things she doesn't say and spread them out before him, let him pick and choose which he would like to keep.

Emerald shifts from dark to light and back again in a single flare when she finally looks up, dares to grace his visage with a questioning gaze. Brows knitted above her eyes. Mouth pursed just so. Makes the way the tip of her tongue probing the space between her upper teeth and the inside of her lip unmistakable for anything else. A thing she sometimes does when her thoughts become treacherously deep. When she's reluctant to divulge whatever she might find in them.

She's trod these paths that stretch out before winding back on themselves in an uncultivated mess of would-bes and mights with Anakin before. Usually under a controlled indulgence of alcohol and sugar that was only permissible under the auspices of a mission or investigation. And far, far away from the walls of the Temple. Similar but different now because the focus is on specifics about herself, about her reasonings behind it. And she's already put one foot forward with a single word. Turning back isn’t an option.

"No."

She begins again. She could ask him what his definition of sex is. They could set up artificial parameters, constructs that pass for qualification into this arena but it would hardly matter. Their only reference about it came from holovids and carefully hoarded novels, at least she thinks so. From sublimely ridiculous flower petals and wine, soft music and candle light to near animalistic acts of brutal sensuality, the only goal of which was to find release in whatever fashion it could be obtained. Expanded only by furtive whispers between clan-mates the few times they gather in leisure when they aren't being overseen by their Masters. Sex isn't explicitly forbidden by the dozens of codified rules of the Order but love is. It is attachment at its purest. Attachment is forbidden because it leads to fear and jealousy, to selfishness which is the root of all things in the Dark Side.

"To be honest? Sex doesn't interest me in the least. It's bio-mechanical, a simple physical act, instinctive enough that any animal can do it. The idea of it ~impractical, impersonal~ only for some kind of occasionally unobtainable gratification...just feels gross to me. For decades we have wrapped ourselves up in tunics and under-robes. Outer layers that swallow us whole and obscure our skin, make us one and the same, like a uniform. Not only do I not like the idea but also...it sort of scares me...to just strip down and use someone else for this purpose. 

“For years, I thought maybe it was because I might not be compatibly built, though eventually that myth was dispelled. But I still don't want to be groped and pawed at. To lay down and spread my thighs and hope that in those seconds and minutes I can derive some kind of pleasure with someone I wouldn't sit and eat with, whose name and face I only know in passing. That sounds like a nightmare to me, Anakin. I couldn't do it. Would rather go for self-gratification if it came down to it."

She shudders almost delicately, but in a rare moment, she withdraws from him, from the conversation, possibly even from herself. Her elbows drew closer to her ribs, and she enfolded her hands into the bell sleeves of her robe, not unlike he's done a thousand times. There's no evidence that she's twitching in the sheltered dark, or plucking at the seams or herself but maybe the worst part of it is that she shrinks from him in the Force. Thins out like a wisp of smoke, more ephemeral than she can possibly be, closed off.

Her lips half purse. Hesitation. A lick of nervousness so ripe that as it sweeps up her spine and makes her flesh burn under its auspices, so too does it threaten to reach across the bond they have always shared that it might immolate him, too.

Her breath hitches despite how hard she tries not to let it, and she slowly sucks in her lower lip until it becomes nearly perforated by the points of her teeth, the mild pain of her own nip reminding her to let it go.

“There is...someone I want to...I want to make love with. And that’s the difference, isn’t it? It’s more than being naked. It’s slowly unwrapping so that inch by inch there are no more boundaries. There is already love and connection and an ocean of feelings recognised and never spoken of, but there. Known. Every attachment, fear, scar, beauty. Every hope and desire reciprocated, the act itself of delving into one another is because there’s already no separation but the physical. A lick or a kiss is only words made into touch. Finally surrendering to the passion and the need to join together is because we can’t stand to be two different beings, that it hurts NOT to be one entity, where you forget where one starts and the other ends.

“I can all but feel it sometimes, the trembling of a gorgeous, long fingered hand writing broken Huttese poetry across my skin. I can taste the suns and the salt on his skin, the sting of copper because of a tiny bit too indelicate bite. Or the way his bliss eases down into the back of my throat, the way he looks when he glances up from the apex of my thighs so careful, so afraid that something isn’t right because all we want to so is share this boundless joy. Of his hands on my hips, as I’m looking down at him through strands of my hair as we finally come to that moment, every question and desire we’ve ever had about to be answered and there’s no secrets, no walls, just the purity of us in the physical and in the Force and....” And she realises that as she speaks, she’s picturing it in her mind. So starkly vivid, so exact down to the smallest detail that he cannot possibly not share the image of it. And her face...falls. Eyes damp and crystalline with the horror of saying it out loud where she could be overheard, over-felt. Mouth parted in vague horror that makes her breath reedy sounding in the strangled way it comes out of her and the sudden disruption in the Force that can only be described as a panic so close to total systems-collapse.

“But..a.h.....ah... You know...you know the reason that can’t be, ever. We are Jedi and it isn’t permissible and ...uh.” To her credit she tries to recover herself, eyes darting anywhere at him while waves of shame and fright continues to roil through her.

“We...in the general term, of course. I wasn’t meaning you specifically...just...” Liar. She did mean him. Has always meant him. Cannot imagine anyone else she would share something so intimate with, or would want to, even across a thousand galaxies, spread out over the most infinite of time. And how can she even know he’d feel the same way? Anakin is sought after, maybe for all the wrong reasons, but the Republic loves him. Those few people he considers his closest friends, love him. If he wanted to...he could have whomever or whatever he wanted. “Well, I mean, you asked...and...” She suddenly finds herself praying to the Force, to her four moons, that she’s stricken dead right there on the spot before he can say a word and kill the dreams she has.

[writingsbfe]

The Game Princess - Jughead Jones III

The game made him crazy, but not as crazy as you did.

Gryphons and Gargoyles, referred to by those who played it as G&G, had taken Riverdale by storm. It seemed everyone was playing the illusive game, some even bringing it to real life. And honestly, the whole thing weirded you out. Those who played it did so religiously, abandoning the real world in favor of the game. It was like a drug, and everyone was always itching for their next fix.

Ethyl Muggs was jittery all through Spanish class, obviously not paying attention and tapping her pencil loudly on her desk next to you, withdrawal apparent. You weren’t very close to the girl, but you did know that she was one of the victims of the game.

Yes, you called them victims. It only seemed fitting, considering what it did to them.

Unfortunately, one of the latest casualties was your boyfriend, Jughead Jones. He’d said that he wanted to see what it was all about, figure out who the Gargoyle King was so he could end his reign. You had to watch as him and all of your friends got sucked into it.

Jughead had asked you to stay out of it - not to play no matter what. You readily agreed - just because he was sacrificing himself to some game didn’t mean that you had to. You wished he would have stayed out of it with you, but he was far too stubborn for that.

“Here you guys go,” you passed Cokes to each of your friends seated around the game board. You hated being the Snack Mom and resented feeling so sidelined, but it was the best way you could keep an eye on your idiot friends and boyfriend.

“Thank you, Game Princess,” Cheryl popped open the can. “I promise to always protect you from the wargs whilst you sleep.”

“Whatever,” you sighed.

You didn’t remember when they started calling you ‘Game Princess,’ but now it was all they ever called you. You weren’t sure if it was a real character, or they made that up because you were dating the ‘master’ and always brought them food.

Looking at your watch, you didn’t hesitate to interrupt their game. “Jug, you ready to go?”

“Hold it, Game Princess,” Sweet Pea stopped you. “We still have to get past this tricky protection spell.”

“I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow,” you snapped. “Jughead. It’s nearly two in the morning and we have school tomorrow. Can we please leave soon?”

“Give me a few more minutes…”

“You said that three hours ago!”

Jughead stood up, pounding his fist on the table. The comparison you’d made between G&G and drugs earlier? Anger issues could be added to that venn diagram. “We need to get past this barrier and into the orc base! If we don’t, Toni’s deception spell might wear off and-”

“Fake! It’s all fake!” you cried, running your hands through your hair. “It can wait until tomorrow, but we have to get back to what’s real! This whole town has to!”

“You don’t understand!”

“Damn right I don’t understand!” Everything you’d been feeling from the past few weeks of watching your friends lose themselves to some game that nobody’s played in years bubbled to the surface. “I have to sit here, watching you all ruin yourselves! You said that you were playing this to find the Gargoyle King. We could be interrogating our parents, looking into the history of it, but no. I have to bring you guys food because you would forget to eat if I didn’t. I have to remind you all to drink water or you won’t because you’re so sucked into this! I’ve had to confiscate all of your pointy objects! And when Cheryl found that chalice, it didn’t go missing - I smashed it into a million pieces.”

“You did what-” He looked angry, which only made you more so.

“I’m trying to keep you asshats alive, Jug! I’m tired and I want to go home, but if I leave you here you’ll try teaching Fangs and Pea to fire an arrow again, and I’m not taking Hotdog to the vet again.”

He clenched his jaw, and you wished that you could drive it into his thick skull that you were right about this one. But on top of his stubbornness, he was riding on the high that the game brought, and there would be no changing his mind.

You picked up one of the pieces and threw it at the wall, everyone flinching at the surprisingly loud noise it made. “I’ll go wait outside,” you muttered expressionlessly, turning and walking out.

Jughead’s POV

He watched your retreating back, something inside him saying that he should go after you. But he looked back down at the game, and the players all waiting for him to continue narration. They already seemed over your outburst, and he peeled his eyes away from the bunker door as it shut.

“Alright,” he continued, rubbing his hands together. “You’re stuck outside the wall surrounding the orc base, and your failure to break through has alerted the orcs to your presence. They’re coming! Quick - you can either retreat and try again later, or stay and fight a match that will certainly end in your doom. Which do you choose?”

Cheryl hung her head in disappointment. “I guess we have to retreat.” The others groaned.

“Are we in agreement?” Jughead clarified.

“Yes,” Fangs said as the others nodded their head.

“The warriors retreat back into the forest, safely away from the orcs. They gather around to devise a new plan, when the elder whom Mistress Topaz helped earlier appears. He tells them that their only way to get inside the base, is-” He pulled a card from the deck, flipping it over. His blood instantly ran cold.

“What? What is it?” Toni leaned forward.

“Nothing,” he dropped the card as if it had burned his hand. “It’s nothing. Guys, we have to stop playing the game.” All of the elation he’d felt seconds ago turned to sobriety as fear laced his veins.

Sounds of protest arose from the group, but he ignored them.

“Where’s Y/N?” He stood taking his jacket off of his chair and putting it on quickly.

“What, you worried about her little blow-up earlier? She’s just letting off some steam - I’m sure you two will be-”

“No, Sweet Pea!” Jughead shouted, heart drumming in his chest as he picked up the card and showed it to them.

Kill the Game Princess.

“So?” Sweet Pea furrowed his brow. “It’s the game, and she’s not even playing. We just kill off her character.”

Cheryl, who had gone white, shook her head. “The Game Princess isn’t a character… That’s just a nickname we came up with for her.”

Jughead nodded. “Someone’s been watching us. Someone slipped this card in my deck, and that someone wants Y/N dead.”

Everyone was standing. “Let’s go get her.”

Your POV

You were standing outside the bunker, breathing in the chilly night air as you waited for his stupid boyfriend and your stupid friends to finish playing some idiotic but surprisingly dangerous murder game. Technically you could take his motorcycle and drive yourself home, but as pissed as you were, you weren’t going to leave them all alone. Hotdog didn’t need another arrow grazing his back.

You startled as the bunker door flew open, emerging Jughead and the others close behind.

“You’re still here,” he said, standing close to you and putting a hand on your arm. He looked you up and down as if checking you over.

“No shit, Sherlock.” You rolled your eyes. “What’s gotten into you guys? Did you finally finish?”

“We’re done with that game,” Jughead said, surprising you.

Your eyes widened. “You… are?”

“We’re burning that game, and every game in Riverdale. We’ll find the Gargoyle King some other way  but I’m not playing anymore.”

“What happened?” you asked, concerned.

“Someone’s threatening you,” Toni explained. “Now can we all go home?”

You froze, comprehending what she was saying. “What? How?”

“I’ll explain at home, but we need to go,” Jughead’s grip on your arm shifted as he led you over to his bike.

“We’ll head to Pop’s,” Cheryl said as Toni nodded. “We just need to talk about everything… Want to come?”

Fangs and Sweet Pea agreed, but Jughead said that he wanted to go back to his trailer and talk to you privately.

The ride home was quiet, as you thought to yourself. You weren’t overly concerned about being threatened - being a Serpent tended to put you in varying amounts of danger on a semi-regular basis, but it also granted protection.

Inside his trailer, you sat cross-legged on his bed. He sat across from you.

“Are you really done playing that game?” You broke the silence.

“Yes,” he assured firmly. “Absolutely.”

You nodded slowly. “What changed? When I left you guys were so engrossed in it that it almost felt like you thought it was real life.”

“We found a card in the deck.” He grabbed your hand. “The instruction on it was to kill the Game Princess.”

“So?” You asked. “I wasn’t playing, anyways.”

“There is no Game Princess. It was a name Sweet Pea made up for you because I was the game master.” The hand not linked with yours pulled his signature beanie off and ran a hand through his hair. “The game… It has a way of creeping inside you, of making you believe that what’s happening is real. I think that whoever put that card in there was hoping that we were in deeper than we were, and that we would - erm - actually do it.”

Your eyes widened, lips parting around a silent gasp. “You- would you have-”

“Absolutely not,” he shook his head, reaching forward to brush a strand of hair behind your ear. “I would never. But someone wants you dead; that’s what you should take away from that.”

You gave a low whistle. The room went silent. “When did our lives get so crazy?” You laughed. “I mean, serial killers are one thing, but murderous roleplay?”

He snorted. “How are you laughing?! You. Are. In. Danger.” He said each word slowly, trying to get you to understand.

“Then we better go investigate, huh?”

“A woman after my own heart,” he grinned, leaning in to kiss you.

[kaeltale]

Fanfic Writer Appreciation Day: Fic Rec Monster-List

Norse Mythology (not Marvel):

Sigyn's Saga (series) by Fialleril: Rated T, Graphic Depictions of Violence [Loki/Sigyn, Genderqueer Character, Friendship/Love, Innuendo] “Norse myth from Sigyn's perspective.”

riddles in the dark (series) by Fialleril: Rated G [Fenrir, Jörmungand, Hel, Character Studies, Metaphors, Riddles] “A series of metaphorical takes on Loki's three monster children, to the tune of riddles from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.”

The Witcher (games and/or novels):

No Monopoly on Altruism (WIP) by kinirohana: Rated G [Dettlaff/Regis, Drabble Sequence, Accidental Plot] “100 word drabbles for the rarest of rare pairs. Starting in the days where Dettlaff is resuscitating Regis after his dissolution by Vilgefortz.”

It Takes A Hansa by jikanet_tanaka: Rated T [Child OMC, Milva, Angoulême, Regis, Cahir, Dandelion, Geralt, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies] “In a kinder, better world, on a cold winter morning, Maria Barring's child is welcomed to the world by his exhausted mother and his overly giddy auntie Angoulême. Oh, and by his four dads. Overly self-indulgent AU where everybody survives, and Milva's kid gets to be raised by the most epic family of all time.”

Love and Rhetoric (series) by a_sparrows_fall: Rated E [Regis/Geralt, Hurt / Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Minor Character Death, Blood Drinking, Addiction, Withdrawal, Questionable translation of dead languages] “Geralt doesn’t want Regis to leave Toussaint. Not yet. They have unfinished business… if only they can both avoid the ghosts of their pasts.”

Blood Ties (WIP) by Dordean: Not Rated [Ciri & Regis, Friendship/Love, What if Ciri had other options, Minor Character Death, Hurt/Comfort, Long live the Queen] “’A grey pebble in the mill-cog of destiny. You, who spilled blood; you, who drank blood. The crossroads now lay ahead. What will you choose: freedom or power? To succumb to your fate - or to shape it? Safety of idleness, or courage: to act, to fight for who you are? You are at the crossroads. Choose.’ Ciri on the Path, Regis in exile; but that is not the end - for either of them.”

Unsaid by a_sparrows_fall: Rated M [Regis/Geralt, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Telepathic Bond, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Dialogue] “’And then he hears it. A voice in his head. Definitely not his own. A man’s voice: soft, scared, and just a little bit posh. Oh, dear, it says.’ A soulmate AU, where soulmates form a telepathic bond. Based heavily on the novels.“

Misethere by astolat: Rated E [Geralt/Emhyr, Consent Issues, Sex Pollen, Infidelity, War, Seduction] “Emhyr was looking at him for once, with a strange expression. ‘I have misjudged you,’ he said, sounding irritated actually: how dare Geralt surprise him. ‘I get that a lot,’ Geralt said.”

Young Wolves by dreadelion: Rated M [Eskel/Geralt, Friends to Lovers, Trans Male Character, Illustrated] “A collection of illustrated ficlets, showing Geralt and Eskel's friendship through the ages, from first meetings to best friends to something more.”

Absolution by Taricha: Rated G [Dettlaff & Anarietta, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Post-Blood and Wine] “Dettlaff keeps coming into Anna Henrietta's room at night, and she cannot find a way to make him stay away.”

Sherlock Holmes (BBC=Johnlock, ACD=Holmes/Watson):

Electric Pink Hand Grenade by BeautifulFiction: Rated E [Johnlock, Sickfic] “’If Sherlock's brain is a hard drive, then these attacks are an electro-magnetic pulse.’ Sherlock Holmes does not do anything by half, not even a migraine. It falls to John to witness one of the greatest minds he has ever known tear itself apart, and he must do his best to help Sherlock pick up the pieces.”

The Progress of Sherlock Holmes by ivyblossom: Rated E [Johnlock, John Watson/Mary Morstan, author chooses not to add other plot tags in order to not give the plot away, but if you are sensitive about difficult relationship issues, consider yourself warned] “’I had,’ he said, ‘come to an entirely erroneous conclusion, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data.’“

Within the Narrative by Dale Pike (yesiamTHATdalepike): Rated M [Johnlock, Angst, Tragedy, Comedy] [This fic was NOT written by Mark Gatiss. Beware of Fourth Wall Breaks, Sock-puppets, and a chaotic evil author who’s really chaotic good, but had to learn a hard lesson in social ethics] “Rated by Proper Dave to be his Fourth-Favourite-Sherlock-Fic of all time. A boring story, with certainly an element of comedy, about the stuff between the lines.”

Alone On the Water by Mad_Lori: Rated G, Major Character Death [Johnlock, Euthanasia, Deathfic, Love Confessions, Grief] [VERY IMPORTANT: TAKE THE TAG WARNINGS SERIOUSLY] “Sherlock Holmes never expected to live a long life, but he never imagined that it would end like this.”

Albion and the Woodsman by Glenmore: Not Rated [Johnlock, Parentlock, Drug Use, Depression, walking around the world] [Mary Is Not Good] “Post Series 3. Sherlock and John are devastated after Mary Morstan makes her final moves. Sherlock relapses at the crack house, John walks around the world ...and a lot happens in between. Parentlock, in the good way.”

Since First I Saw Your Face (WIP) by Stavia_Scott_Grayson: Rated M [Holmes/Watson, Friends to Lovers, Victorian Sherlock Holmes, Pining, Resolved sexual and romantic tension - eventually, Victorian Attitudes] [non-fictional characters, historical references and events] “During the Great Hiatus, Holmes, studying in Tibet, reflects on his first meeting with Dr John Watson.”

Mass Effect:

Red Streak (WIP) by ThunderheadFred: Rated E, Major Character Death [Fem!Shep/Garrus, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Canon, First Contact War] “During the surrender of Shanxi, ex-Marine Hannah Shepard agrees to parley with the fleet captain of the invading turian Blackwatch. Two decades later, Hannah's daughter Jane lives in the shadow of that infamous truce.”

Pretty Taste For Paradox by ThunderheadFred: Rated M [Fem!Shep/Mordin, ASMR, Angst, Romantic Friendship, Asexual Relationship, Slow Burn] “After being resurrected by Cerberus, Shepard is a raw nerve, a stranger in her own skin. Why else would the never-ending nattering of Professor Mordin Solus send a shiver down her spine?”

Dragon Age:

The Strongest Force and Tempering Justice (two-part series) by WritingByNight: Rated M [Fem!Hawke/Anders, Fem!Hawke/Justice, Angst/Romance, OT3] “Hawke never did give the impression that crazy was her turn-off. - A short post-game tale of love and madness.” and “Justice said he disapproved of the obsession with Hawke. He did not say he disliked her.”

An Apostate? Me? by Sarah1281: Rated T [Fem!Hawke & Carver, eventual Fem!Hawke/Anders, Humor/Parody] “Emma Hawke has never been the most subtle or sane of apostates, much to the annoyance of the brother that can only watch in amazement and horror as she stumbles her way from refugee to noble to champion in a city as bizarre as she.”

Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux):

The Chain Unbroken by inkblottales: Rated T [Erik/Christine, Romance/Suspense] “Erik is the architect of his own destiny - or so he thinks. Will Christine breach his defenses? Will the enemies who wish to destroy him succeed?”

Naruto (oh gawd, this list is going way into my past...):

How & Why by randomsomeone: Rated M [Gaara/Sakura, Romance] [This was the first fanfic I ever read that really stuck with me] “A psychological war gets completely out of control. Lust doesn't cut it and love doesn't just happen, so how else can it work?”

[bayleafpaprika]

Oh my fucking god, people on this site do not learn...

What’s true:

Biden ordered the Syrian bombing, is getting lash back from Dems - ABC News

Related to Syria, Biden’s keeping troops in Iraq longer. - Defense One (I’m not sure if this entails sending in more troops or not, I couldn’t find anything definitively.)

Biden has not made an official decision on Afghanistan: “In 2009 as vice president, he lost an internal administration debate at a crucial juncture in the war; he argued for reducing the U.S. military commitment to focus mainly on countering extremist groups, but President Barack Obama decided instead to vastly increase troop numbers to 100,000.“ During the campaign, Biden made withdrawing troops but keeping a counterterrorism force. HOWEVER, “Senior U.S. officials have asserted for months that the Taliban has fallen short of its Doha commitments, and although the administration’s review is ongoing, arguments for extending a troop presence beyond May 1 are considerable.” - AP News

What’s false:

The $15 minimum wage: The Senate ruled against it (”could not include the policy under budget reconciliation” or whatever) and Biden’s choosing to move the COVID-19 relief package forward without it instead of having relief stalled any longer. - NBC News, CNBC (I’m sorry, but wanting to get a relief package through quicker is not “giving up.” No Dem is giving up on the $15 minimum wage, whether they believe in it personally or not. Also, getting a $15 minimum wage passed is Congress’s job. What the fuck do ya’ll think, that Biden’s not going to sign that bill once it’s on his desk???)

I literally cannot find a source on the current administration bombing Somalia unless they’re referring to this car bombing, which Al-Shabaab (a fundamentalist jihadist group) claimed responsibility for. - CNN

Biden on Yemen on 2/4/2021: ”President Joe Biden announced today that the United States will end support for Saudi-led offensives in Yemen, citing a war that has “created a humanitarian and strategic catastrophe” in what is the poorest Arab country.“ - PBS Frontline

Biden paused Raytheon sales - Defense News (2/5), Seeking Alpha (2/23) (Let me know if I’m wrong because I cannot find anything newer on this.)

What’s Shaky:

While it’s not $2000, Biden has repeatedly stated that he’s dead set on $1400 for a third round of stimulus, but is open to negotiate where the income threshold is. The House is in the process of passing the entire package today, which includes $400 weekly unemployment checks, billions in funding for vaccination and testing, billion for state, local and tribal government relief, etc. (The Biden administration isn’t willfully withholding checks to starving people, ffs.)

Biden did open another tent facility for migrants on the Texas border and he did receive backlash from AOC for one for children specifically, BUT: “Yet while critics on both the left and right were quick to accuse the White House of hypocrisy, advocates saw the move as an understandable, if less than perfect, step toward safely housing the growing number of unaccompanied minors in its care amid the ongoing pandemic.”From our perspective, influx facilities are certainly not ideal, but it is so much better than a child sitting in a camp in Matamoros or a child being cramped in a Border Patrol facility,” said Jennifer Podkul, vice president of policy and advocacy at Kids in Need of Defense, a pro bono legal service provider for migrant and refugee children.”

What I’m trying to say with all of this is can we please stop spreading shit like this around without fact-checking? Biden’s bombing of Syria? Absolutely go after him for it! Biden not upholding his promise to pull out of the Middle East? Yes, speak up about that! But recognize what going on when people on the internet take something true, mix it with bad faith takes and lies, and try to sell you the whole shit platter as gold.

[rustyh706151-blog]

Anambra: Godfathers Futile Dance

Godfatherism is dead and buried in Anambra State. It can never resurrect. Never! Anambra State is the heart of Igbo people, who are known throughout the world for their republican nature. It is in our DNA to abhor godfatherism. Having lived with the evil of godfatherism from 1999 to 2006, when self-styled godfathers unleashed violence and mayhem on our state and raided our treasury with impunity, nothing on earth can make our people succumb to it again. Whether godfatherism can be malignant like that of Chief Chris Uba or benign, like Peter Obi’s, it is absolutely unacceptable. Evil is evil, no matter the name it is given.

This explains why the emergence of Tony Nwoye on Sunday, August 27, as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming November 18 gubernatorial election in our state has been widely greeted with ridicule. Nwoye is suspected to be a stooge of Prince Arthur Eze, a moneybag, believed to be bankrolling him. Nwoye received 2, 146 votes to dust Senator Andy Uba, who came second by scoring a miserable 931 votes. Of course, this is the end of the APC in the state. Many of us foresaw this tragedy and warned against it. Now, the chicken has come to roost.

As if the APC outing last weekend was not disastrous enough, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) followed the same godfather trajectory in choosing Oseloka Obaze as its flag bearer in the gubernatorial contest of November 18. Though the legitimacy of the primary election has become doubtful, following the withdrawal of people like Senator Stella Oduah, ex -Transport Minister, John Emeka and Hon Linda Ikpeazu as well as the strong petitions by 22 out of the 36 members of the PDP Caretaker Committee in the state led by Professor ABC Nwosu, who alleged grave irregularities, Obaze won an unbelievable 672 votes to defeat Dr. Alex Obiogbolu. who managed to get an insignificant 190 votes. There was no joy anywhere over the PDP primary outcome. Why? Obaze is suspected to be a mere front for ex-Governor Peter Obi. Obi, it is alleged, is determined to have a third term by all means possible, and so landed on his Secretary to State Government (SSG), after finding in Governor Willie Obiano, a hard nut to crack.

Against this background, I was elated, like most people in Anambra and beyond, to read Hon. Emma Okafor’s "No to Peter Obi’s stooge" published in The Sun of August 25, 2017. Full of facts and elegantly written, the article will for long remain one of the most memorable and patriotic write-ups by an Anambra politician. It highlights a seeming attempt by Obi to pull wool over the eyes of Ndi Anambra. The sole reason Obi is believed to have, five years ago, brought Obaze back from the United States, where he was a career diplomat, was to succeed him. Towards the end of his eight-year tenure, however, Obi did not consider Obaze fit enough to be Anambra governor in spite of his serving as SSG. So, he settled for a little known lawyer Chinedu Idigo, widely described as his "in-law." Ndi Anambra would not have Idigo for obvious reason. The lot then fell on Willie Obiano, the former executive director of Fidelity Bank.

Like the common Nigerian politician, Obi denies that he is seeking a third term under the pretext of having Obaze this time as our next governor. One priest recently described Obi’s denial as pharisaic. The Pharisees were, in the times of Jesus, known for extreme hypocrisy. Thus, Christ criticised them more severely than any other group. He actually used such a strong expression as "you brood of vipers" (Matthew 12: 34) to refer to them, adding: "How can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."

Okafor’s "No to Peter Obi’s stooge" could not have come at a better time. It was published a few days after a weighty allegation that Nwoye has signed an agreement with Prince Arthur Eze to share the state’s monthly revenue allocation with him if elected governor. Nwoye has debunked the allegation, but it is doubtful that many people care a hoot about the denial.

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for Anambra people to believe Peter Obi’s denial that Obaze is not a front who would be reigning while he (Obi) is ruling. Differently worded, it seems to most people that Obi may be among Nigerian politicians who see politics as nothing other than business, despite his Pharisaic pretensions to the contrary. Joe Martins-Uzodike, his Commissioner for Information, who remains his dedicated ventriloquist, has stated in some interviews on Radio Odenigbo here in Anambra State that the only condition his principal would make peace with Governor Obiano is that the latter reimburses the N7bn (!) Obi allegedly spent on his election in 2013.

To prove that they mean business, they always bring out documents to show that Obi did sell his house in Abuja to raise funds for Obiano’s election. We have never been shown Obi’s house in Abuja that was sold for as much as N7billion. And all the proceeds were invested in Obiano’s election! Apart from the fact that Ndi Anambra take the story with a pinch of salt, it is embarrassing that Obi himself never tires of telling it even before educated people, like bishops. Why has it not occurred to him that this story could be of interest to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)?

If Obi’s supporters could have the temerity to claim that he spent a whopping N7billion of his personal money on Obiano’s election in 2013 and are demanding full reimbursement, he could well demand more than N20billion from Obaze if elected in 2017. After all, inflation has spiraled and the naira exchange rate worsened drastically since 2013, making N7billion of 2013 worth over N15billion of today. Obi may well add interest rate to the amount spent on Obaze’s election.

Okafor has made a profound point by asking Obi to recognise that Anambra people do not follow leaders blindly. Ndi Anambra support their leaders only when they are doing the right thing, but fiercely resist them when they act unwisely. Hon Okafor cited the example of how Peter Obi’s opportunistic defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 led to the drastic loss of market share by Hero beer in the Anambra market, a position now lost to Life lager produced in Onitsha by Nigerian Breweries.

Another example of how our people distance themselves from politicians when they head in the wrong direction is Dr. Chris Ngige, the present Minister of Labour and Employment. Ngige became a folk hero when he engaged in a titanic fight against the so-called godfathers of Anambra State. Our people supported him every inch of the way because he was fighting for them. But things have gone kaput now. It is now awful to see Ngige with Andy Uba and Tony Nwoye share the same platform. NdiAnambra are bitter.

Peter Obi is no longer dancing but limping politically. It is a sorry spectacle. The market is over. Godfatherism belongs to a distant past in Anambra State. Obi is reading the tealeaves too late.

•Nzeribe, until recently a manager with Keystone Bank, wrote from Onitsha, Anambra State.