#RUSSIAN HOUSEHOLD GODS

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

de Adder

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 8, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 09, 2024

Social media has been flooded today with stories of Trump voters who are shocked to learn that tariffs will raise consumer prices as reporters are covering that information. Daniel Laguna of LevelUp warned that Trump’s proposed 60% tariff on Chinese imports could raise the costs of gaming consoles by 40%, so that a PS5 Pro gaming system would cost up to $1,000. One of the old justifications for tariffs was that they would bring factories home, but when the $3 billion shoe company Steve Madden announced yesterday it would reduce its imports from China by half to avoid Trump-promised tariffs, it said it will shift production not to the U.S., but to Cambodia, Vietnam, Mexico, and Brazil. 

There are also stories that voters who chose Trump to lower household expenses are unhappy to discover that their undocumented relatives are in danger of deportation. When CNN’s Dana Bash asked Indiana Republican senator-elect Jim Banks if undocumented immigrants who had been here for a long time and integrated into the community would be deported, Banks answered that deportation should include “every illegal in this country that we can find.” Yesterday a Trump-appointed federal judge struck down a policy established by the Biden administration that was designed to create an easier path to citizenship for about half a million undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s advisors told Jim VandeHei and MIke Allen of Axios that Trump wasted valuable time at the beginning of his first term and that they will not make that mistake again. They plan to hit the ground running with tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, deregulation, and increased gas and oil production. Trump is looking to fill the top ranks of the government with “billionaires, former CEOs, tech leaders and loyalists.” 

After the election, the wealth of Trump-backer Elon Musk jumped about $13 billion, making him worth $300 billion. Musk, who has been in frequent contact with Russian president Vladimir Putin, joined a phone call today between President-elect Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky. 

In Salon today, Amanda Marcotte noted that in states all across the country where voters backed Trump, they also voted for abortion rights, higher minimum wage, paid sick and family leave, and even to ban employers from forcing their employees to sit through right-wing or anti-union meetings. She points out that 12% of voters in Missouri voted both for abortion rights and for Trump.

Marcotte recalled that Catherine Rampell and Youyou Zhou of the Washington Post showed before the election that voters overwhelmingly preferred Harris’s policies to Trump’s if they didn’t know which candidate proposed them.  An Ipsos/Reuters poll from October showed that voters who were misinformed about immigration, crime, and the economy tended to vote Republican, while those who knew the facts preferred Democrats. Many Americans turn for information to social media or to friends and family who traffic in conspiracy theories. As Angelo Carusone of Media Matters put it: “We have a country that is pickled in right-wing misinformation and rage.” 

In The New Republic today, Michael Tomasky reinforced that voters chose Trump in 2024 not because of the economy or inflation, or anything else, but because of how they perceived those issues—which is not the same thing. Right-wing media “fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win,” Tomasky wrote. Right-wing media has overtaken legacy media to set the country’s political agenda not only because it’s bigger, but because it speaks with one voice, “and that voice says Democrats and liberals are treasonous elitists who hate you, and Republicans and conservatives love God and country and are your last line of defense against your son coming home from school your daughter.”

Tomasky noted how the work of Matthew Gertz of Media Matters shows that nearly all the crazy memes that became central campaign issues—the pet-eating story, for example, or the idea that the booming economy was terrible—came from right-wing media. In those circles, Vice President Kamala Harris was a stupid, crazed extremist who orchestrated a coup against President Joe Biden and doesn’t care about ordinary Americans, while Trump is under assault and has been for years, and he’s “doing it all for you.”

Investigative reporter Miranda Green outlined how “pink slime” newspapers, which are AI generated from right-wing sites, turned voters to Trump in key swing state counties. Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, who studies focus groups, told NPR, “When I ask voters in focus groups if they think Donald Trump is an authoritarian, the #1 response by far is, ‘What is an authoritarian?’” 

In a social media post, Marcotte wrote: “A lot of voters are profoundly ignorant. More so than in the past.” That jumped out to me because there was, indeed, an earlier period in our history when voters were “pickled in right-wing misinformation and rage.”

In the 1850s, white southern leaders made sure that voters did not have access to news that came from outside the American South, and instead steeped them in white supremacist information. They stopped the mail from carrying abolitionist pamphlets, destroyed presses of antislavery newspapers, and drove antislavery southerners out of their region.

Elite enslavers had reason to be concerned about the survival of their system of human enslavement. The land boom of the 1840s, when removal of Indigenous peoples had opened up rich new lands for settlement, had priced many white men out of the market. They had become economically unstable, roving around the country working for wages or stealing to survive. And they deeply resented the fabulously wealthy enslavers who they knew looked down on them. 

In 1857, North Carolinian Hinton Rowan Helper wrote a book attacking enslavement. No friend to his Black neighbors, Helper was a virulent white supremacist. But in The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It, he used modern statistics to prove that slavery destroyed economic opportunity for white men, and assailed “the illbreeding and ruffianism of the slaveholding officials.” He noted that voters in the South who did not own slaves outnumbered by far those who did. "Give us fair play, secure to us the right of discussion, the freedom of speech, and we will settle the difficulty at the ballot-box,” he wrote.

In the North the book sold like hotcakes—142,000 copies by fall 1860. But southern leaders banned the book, and burned it, too. They arrested men for selling it and accused northerners of making war on the South. Politicians, newspaper editors, and ministers reinforced white supremacy, warned that the end of slavery would mean race war, and preached that enslavement was God’s law.

When northern voters elected Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 on a platform of containing enslavement in the South, where the sapped soil would soon cut into production, southern leaders decided—usually without the input of voters—to secede from the Union. As leaders promised either that there wouldn’t be a fight, or that if a fight happened it would be quick and painless, poor southern whites rallied to the cause of creating a nation based on white supremacy, reassured by South Carolina senator James Chesnut’s vow that he would personally drink all the blood shed in any threatened civil war. 

When Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861, poor white men set out for what they had come to believe was an imperative cause to protect their families and their way of life. By 1862 their enthusiasm had waned, and leaders passed a conscription law. That law permitted wealthy men to hire a substitute and exempted one man to oversee every 20 enslaved men, providing another way for rich men to keep their sons out of danger. Soldiers complained it was a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” 

By 1865 the Civil War had killed or wounded 483,026 men out of a southern white population of about five and a half million people. U.S. armies had pushed families off their lands, and wartime inflation drove ordinary people to starvation. By 1865, wives wrote to their soldier husbands to come home or there would be no one left to come home to. 

Even those poor white men who survived the war could not rebuild into prosperity. The war took from the South its monopoly of global cotton production, locking poor southerners into profound poverty from which they would not begin to recover until the 1930s, when the New Deal began to pour federal money into the region.

Today, when I received a slew of messages gloating that Trump had won the election and that Republican voters had owned the libs, I could not help but think of that earlier era when ordinary white men sold generations of economic aspirations for white supremacy and bragging rights. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[lilacliquors]

kinktober day thirteen: body worship

pairing: soldier boy x reader

word count: 328

notes: okay this isn't as smutty or kinky i will admit but oh my god i couldn't pass up the opportunity for this <3

no one had ever been this gentle with him before. he’d grown up in an unloving household, with a father who wouldn’t even raise a hand to discipline him. he spent his teen years in boarding schools, not caring for the rules. his young adult days were full of meaningless flings with various women. and once he’d gotten the v, and he was the poster child of american virtue and justice, he could have any woman he wanted. yet it didn’t satisfy him. after being set up by his own team and handed over to the russians, he thought he would die there, knowing that he’d never felt real love.

but then he met you. and everything changed, as cliché as it sounded.

he loved it when you handled him like this. you were both naked in bed, and you were on top of him, kissing every bit of skin you could reach. your lips trailed over his face, pressing soft kisses to his forehead, cheeks, and nose. you kissed along his jaw and down his neck, to his chest and over his heart. he tenses and shivered, one of his hands going to your hair to run his fingers through it. his breath hitched as you kissed down his abdomen, and you could feel his muscles tense again. you giggled, letting your nails trail over his thighs to gently scratch them.

“god, look at you,” you breathed, glancing up at him. “such a handsome man, my pretty boy.” you kissed lower, then took the tip of his leaking cock into your mouth, humming quietly.

he groaned and tilted his head back, his eyes shutting as you let your tongue flatten again the head.

he deserved this. he’d earned this. after years of torment and torture, of fake relationships and pr nightmares, finally he had someone who was worthy of him. finally he had someone who would take care of him.

he had someone who would worship him.

[undertheorangetree]

Under the God's Eye

Chapter Five- The Dinner

Summary- A family dinner results in an unexpected rendezvous.

Warnings- MDNI 18+ NSFW. Female reader. Titty sucking. Handjob. Vaginal fingering. Cunnilingus. Smut. Alcohol consumption. Allusions to drug abuse. Severe daddy issues. My bitter and intense hatred for Viserys Targaryen coming through in my writing. Discussions of bad childhood/neglectful parenting.

Author's Note- okay I’m done teasing now. Shout out to modern AUs for letting me use modern terms in smut without it sounding weird to me. Find the rest of this filth on AO3 link below!

Series masterlist

divider by firefly-graphics

She watches mildly distraught as Alicent flutters around the kitchen, murmuring to herself as she sets pots and pans on the stovetop, pulling out an absurd amounts of ingredients from the fridge.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" she asks for what she thinks is the fourth time, hand fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

Alicent looks up at her, blowing a wayward strand of hair out of her face with a tired smile. "I'm sure, sweetheart. Don't worry, Rhaenyra should be here within the hour to help me. You're on vacation, go and do something fun. I can handle it."

"I don't mind helping, really. Even if it's only until Rhaenyra gets here."

That earns her nothing but another thankful smile and a shake of her head before Alicent is ignoring her completely, mumbling about where she has left her biggest bowl. A part of her is worried that she's annoying Alicent but she still can't stop herself from asking. She looks frazzled, so much so that it is clear that she is not used to working in the kitchen like this. With her hair tangled in a messy red bun on the top of her head, she has a hard time imagining the Targaryen-Hightower household as a place known for nuclear family dinners. Not with the way Alicent seems absolutely wrought with anxiety.

"Oh, my love," Alicent calls out suddenly and she turns to find Helaena pausing on her way to the stairwell, an expensive looking Russian Blue cradled in her arms. Dreamfyre, she had learned the cat's name was, though she has only ever seen her in pictures on Helaena's phone. She is a reclusive little thing, spending most of her days basking in the sunlight in quieter rooms. Alicent waves Helaena over before jerking her head in her direction. "Take our dear friend here and tell her to enjoy being a guest. She's trying to be too helpful for a holiday."

Helaena huffs a laugh, adjusting her grip on her cat before holding her hand out to her, fingers grabbing at air like a child. "Come on then."

She's pulled out of the kitchen unceremoniously, obediently following behind Helaena, though she can't help but look back at Alicent once more, still feeling guilty.

"I don't know why she doesn't just bring some of the staff with her," Helaena laments as they begin climbing the stairs, still hand in hand. "She insists that she doesn't need them on holiday, but then she plans some big dinner like this and all it does is stress her out."

Out of all of Alicent's children, Helaena is the one she can most see herself befriending. The sweetest, the most down to earth, less obvious when it comes to her family's massive wealth. But it is moments like this where the blatant difference between them is abundantly clear. Her home had never had so much as a maid, much less a whole host of staff. She can do nothing but nod dumbly, agreeing with her as they make their way to the second floor.

"You lost this," Helaena says as she opens Aemond's door, smiling at them both and looking incredibly pleased with her own joke.

"You're so funny," Aemond says, voice completely deadpan, not so much as looking up from the book he has open on his desk. She doesn't have to look at the cover to know it's a textbook as her own copy is still sitting on her bedside table in her apartment.

She grins. "I know."

Helaena leaves and she has no choice but to make herself comfortable on their now shared bed, propping the pillows up against the headboard and sitting back against them. Aemond continues reading and she takes the opportunity to really look at him, uninterrupted by his own piercing gaze. The long sharp planes of his face, the strong jut of his nose, the line of his cheekbones. The ever present tilt of his lips, as if there is some secret or joke he’s struggling to hide. Even from here, she can see the way his eyelashes curl against his eyelids, the light blonde of them near translucent. His hair is the same almost silver blond and, fleetingly, she wonders how much effort he truly puts into it. She has heard the sound of the hairdryer when he locks himself in the bathroom but has never seen any of the products he may or may not be using. Nor has she ever been permitted to enter, the door locked tight since their post shower run in.

But it's his eye that truly catches her attention. She's sat on his sighted side and she can see the brilliant blue of his real eye even from there, admiring the way it catches the afternoon light. Only the dilation of his pupil sets it apart from the prosthetic and she realizes now how pretty they are when he’s not glaring at her or attempting to stare her into submission.

She nearly jumps when he speaks, pulling her harshly out of her thoughts. "You'll meet my father tonight. And Daemon."

Read the rest here

Taglist- @backyardfolklore @docmartinis @watercolorskyy @barbieaemond @bellaisasleep @yentroucnagol @aemondsbabygirl @randomdragonfires @at-a-rax-ia @violetletovi @launotfound @helaenaluvr @solisarium

[beeehiives]

And They Were Roommates (´◡`)

Steve Harrington, who, after all the events with his friends dying and the Upside Down and the Russians and Vecna, finally decides he needs to get the hell out of Hawkins.

He wants to spread his wings, find a place where he can make a fresh start without the memories of this place hanging over his head.

Eddie Munson, who, despite his name being "cleared" by the government and the local police, has a shit reputation and a healthy hatred for small town malice.

He can't wait to get away, to a place where nobody knows his name and he can live without the constant threat on his life and psyche -- hopefully somewhere where he can find a community of people like himself.

One night while he's tired and a little hopeless, Steve offhandedly mentions his frustrations with finding enough money working at Family Video to move out of Indiana.

Eddie fully sits up. He's been saving up since he got his first stash to deal, and every time he makes a long weekend trip out to Indianapolis, he picks up a copy of the New York Times to thumb through the apartment listings.

"It was more like wishful thinking," Eddie says, eyes wild and full of promise. "Let's do it, Stevie. You and me."

Steve's been looking for the first chance possible, and with Eddie's charm, how could he refuse?

Robin prods at him, teasing that it'll be torture for Steve, who is definitely not developing a crush.

So, they stay for three more months, saving every penny possible and spending every minute they can with the kids, their friends and Wayne. They promise to call all the time, and Steve sternly tells Will that they expect to see him at NYU as soon as he graduates.

When the leaves green and the weather warms, Steve and Eddie pack all their shit into Eddie's van and leave at the break of dawn for New York City, everyone waving them off. Eddie's eyes get a little glassy, but Steve puts a warm hand on his shoulder and he's excited for the future all over again.

It's an eleven hour drive, but the two have grown so used to each other's presence that it flies by. They take turns driving, and whoever isn't driving gets to play the tapes they brought.

Eddie feigns disgust when Steve puts on Tears For Fears, but smiles to himself when Head Over Heels plays.

With the savings they have and the call they'd placed to the agent before leaving Hawkins, they sign a lease on a tiny apartment in uptown Manhattan.

They walk around, exploring the neighborhood and pointing out landmarks.

"We've got to eat breakfast there. Like, all the time. God, those pancakes smell great." (Eddie.)

"Does that convenience store have a cat in the window?" (Steve.)

They eat their takeout dinner on the floor of their new apartment, sitting closer than strictly necessary in the completely empty space. Their keys are between them, and they can't stop smiling.

The next day, they go out in search of jobs. Eddie finds work at a mechanic's shop in their neighborhood, Wayne having taught him his way around a car. He'll come home greasy and sweaty, but he'll also be coming home to Steve, so he couldn't really find it in himself to care.

Steve gets a job waiting tables at a diner in Hell's Kitchen, meaning he'll have to get up early, but that also means he gets to see Eddie's wild bedhead mane before he's taken a shower that morning, so he can manage.

They come back to each other at the end of their days, sharing the household chores and each other's time.

They miss the people back home, but they're also falling into the rhythm of a future they can't wait to see.

Part 2? ヽ(•‿•)ノ You said getting together part 2?

As always, feel free to submit a fic request via my profile :3

[hellfireloserclub]

"Honey, I never drive faster than I can see. Besides that, it's all in the reflexes."

This started off as a little thing for @thefreakandthehair spring prompt and ended up as this...

its also on ao3

Eddie was confused.

He often was these days, between the sometimes crippling pain and the faded brain fog from the pills to counteract it, it made the whole thinking and words thing sometimes a little difficult, the words would come out backwards, forwards and sometimes in the wrong order. 

And for someone who prides themselves in their ability to tell a good story it was debilitating. 

Oh, not that Eddie couldn't still jump on a table and make a spectacular speech if needed, it was more the fact he sometimes struggled to remember what day it was, or if it was his turn to pick up the rugrats.  

He didn't think he was doing bad for someone who was clinically dead for a good while. Although he took umbrage at Mike dubbing him, El, Max and Will his zombie army. 

Out of the four of them, he and El were the only ones that were technically dead. 

And Steve fucking Harrington of all people had been the one to drag him back to life, and out of Hell to boot. 

It wasn't fair, not only did he have to deal with the fact that Steve was actually a good guy, he had to deal with shared custody of the gaggle of children who had added themselves completely and utterly onto his very existence. 

And on top of that, he owed Steve a life debt.  

Hopefully, he would never have to cash it in because unfortunately for Eddie, he was enjoying having the other man around. Three years, countless hospital appointments together, and NDAs that made their friend circle increasingly difficult to add to, made it inevitable that the two of them had gotten close. And if he had developed a bit of a thing for the handsome reformed ex-jock? Well, that was between him and whatever god wanted to take him, he was pretty sure they just passed him around like a bad nickel.

 It was just as well that they already cast him out of the good god-fearing household of Wyatt Munson, because he was pretty sure he would get a beating for the impure thoughts he had about that their Harrington boy. It was just as well he hadn’t listened to anything his father had said to him since he was seven years old, or he was pretty sure he would have to be locked up a few cages down from old Victor by now. 

But circling back around to his first point.

Eddie was confused. 

He had been sure that he was supposed to be at Castle Harrington on this balmy sunny Friday evening, but it was quiet. Too quiet for the usual gathering of chaos that normally descended on Steve… or at least Steve's pool. 

He parked up, scanning the drive for bikes, and the street for any sign of the kids, but the only other sign of life was Steve's Beemer sitting in its designated spot under the gigantic tree. 

Had he gotten the wrong day? It wouldn’t be the first or the last time he had turned up at the completely wrong place on a wrong day, this was why he made lists, why he always had a pen and a notebook in his pocket, between his forgetfulness and brain fog and Steve and the deafness (that nobody seemed to notice but Eddie and Robin) they almost made a functioning human adult between the pair of them, at least if Steve remembered to put his glasses on.

Eddie was second-guessing himself now, were they supposed to be meeting at the arcade? Was it Hellfire at the Wheelers? Pulling down his sun visor he checked the notes pinned there to help keep track. Nope, he was supposed to be at Harrington's, Steve's spikey scrawl was clear enough. 

With trepidation he clambered out of his van and headed to the side gate, they always entered from the backyard now, because Steve would panic if anyone knocked at the front door. leftover trauma, adamant that the Russians were still out to get him. Eddie didn't want to point out they were hardly likely to knock. Steve was jumpy enough at the best of times.

He found Steve quickly enough, flicking through some sports magazines lying near the pool Not in it. Never in the pool alone, that was the rule, and they all stuck to it. Even if the danger was long gone, there was always a chance, always a fear that something would break through, and come back from the dead. After all, Eddie had, so had El. 

"Have the brats been ruptured?" 

Steve looked up, face brightening at the sight of him. And wasn't that a thing that Eddie loved to see, he was glad he was one of the precious few who got to see Steve's genuine smile. It really was a sight to behold, it lit up his tanned face, eyes sparkling behind the frames he hated but would wear because it wasn’t worth everyone who loved him nagging at him if he didn’t. 

"They're all the way in Utah, went to visit Suzie. She won an award or something." Steve shrugged, leaning over and grabbing Eddie a beer from the cooler beside him. Eddie could almost hear the 'they told you this, they told me this, but our brains don't work ' that Steve didn't have to say. 

Steve gestured for Eddie to come to join him, room on the lounge for two. 

Eddie and Steve spent a lot of time as just the two of them, the kids would run off and leave them behind, the fair, the lake… the kids wanted them there but on the periphery, close enough for just in case. It was just the way it was now. A phone call, just in case. Late-night drives, just in case. I'm here, we're here, it's fine. No danger, no code red.

 One at a time the older kids had moved on, Robin and Nancy to college and Jonathan back off to California with Argyle. 

It was just him and Steve now, a fact Eddie hadn't really lingered on too much with the kids keeping them on their toes. 

But soon it would be time for the kids to move on, lives bigger than the traumatizing confines of Hawkins. 

Soon it would be Steve and Eddie, Eddie and Steve, nothing to bring them together but the fact that they enjoyed spending time together. 

They both had money to fall back on now, so it wasn't a lack of funds that had them staying in the cursed town. Eddie was pretty damn sure that Steve's parents hadn't been home since Christmas, so Eddie figured Steve was still here for the same reason he was. 

The kids, and to make sure the damn gates stayed closed. 

"Was that this weekend?" He took a seat on the end of the chair taking the offered beer. 

"Yeah, left this morning, they're gonna call in a bit to check in, it’s not that I don’t trust Lucas and Mike’s driving, but…" 

“It’s not the same as you driving them, Yeah I get it, our little birds are ready to fly Stevie, we must let them cast their wings into the great unknown.” he pulled Steve in with one arm while pointing his beer at the sky, it took everything in him not to turn to look at Steve, who’s breath he could feel warm and inviting on his cheek.

“Is it bad that I’m kind of enjoying the silence?” 

"I can go? Not like it takes two of us to babysit negative amounts of brats" Please don't send me away. Something in Eddie was worried that Steve only kept him around because of the kids, the voice that sounded an awful lot like his father nagging at the back of his head saying that he was the reason that the family had fallen apart, he was too much, always too much. 

Eddie dropped his arm from around Steve's shoulders, already missing the feeling of him as he moved away.

Steve's smile faltered, "If I hadn’t wanted you to come over, I wouldn't have left you a reminder under your sun visor," 

"If the kids aren't here why did you?" He searched Steve’s face for answers, knowing that whatever he wanted to say wouldn’t be what came out of his mouth, it never was, Steve Harrington was good at hiding the truth under layers of something else, and it might fool the others but Eddie could see right through it. 

" Because believe it or not Eddie, I like spending time with you, and it would be nice to do it without worrying if Henderson is trying to shotgun my beer.” is what he said, but it sounded a lot like ‘don’t leave me’ to Eddie.

************

It was almost ten, and Eddie still hadn't left, and to his surprise, they hadn't run out of topics to talk about. Steve was currently fussing with the messy pizza they had made, trying to work out how to get the thing to fit on the shelf in the oven. 

Eddie could help, could, being the important word. He wasn't going to; it was far too amusing to watch Steve's domestic struggles. 

The phone rang, and Steve nodded for Eddie to answer. 

"It'll be the kids" He explained as he finally maneuvered the pizza onto the tray, only partly covering himself in tomatoes and cheese. Eddie did as he was told, only feeling slightly strange at answering the phone in someone else's house.

"Harrington house, who's calling?." 

"We've been gone a day, and you already got your feet under the table?"

"Hello to you too Red." Eddie smiled as he heard the gaggle of munchkins gathering around the phone. 

"Eddie?" That was Mike. "What's he doing at Steve's?"

"Told you so. I knew you didn't need to ring his apartment but nobody listened to me " 

That was Lucas, he sounded more and more like Erika the longer they spent together. 

"Nobody likes a know-all Lucas, and that's what you sound like right now."

"Whatever Micheal, some of us just aren't oblivious to the world around us"

The sound of Will's laughter in the background made Eddie's heart sing. It was good to hear, especially when it was at Mike's expense, it might have been frowned upon to have favorites, but Will was quickly becoming a contender, especially now he was becoming more and more outgoing, it made Eddie happy that he could at least make a difference in one of his sheep' life. And it wasn’t as if Eddie could call him out on his questionable tastes when the object of his own affection was standing in the middle of the kitchen wearing an apron that stated he was the world's best mom.

After a scuffle for the phone, Lucas came back on the line.

"Is Steve there ?" 

"I'm not good enough for you Sinclair? After all the things we've been through, I'm hurt." 

"Do you want to hear about Suzie and Dusty Bun or what ?" 

Eddie turned around to yell for Steve to hurry the hell up because, it didn’t matter that the kids were nearly nineteen now or that Suzie was very much an active part of all their lives, whenever Dustin was near his girl he turned into an idiot. 

Eddie didn’t need to yell Steve was already at his side leaning in to get as close to the receiver as possible, his hand reaching up wrapped around Eddie's to hold the phone in place. Warm fingers pressed into the back of his hand, and it was as if it had hit him with a bolt of lightning, the casual touch wasn’t new, but this felt different. All night Steve had been casually touching him, a hand on his lower back as they maneuvered around the kitchen, feeding him bits of pepperoni as he had attempted to stretch the doe how Argyle had shown them in a doped-up haze the last time he had been over. Now Steve was running his thumb over the knuckles of Eddie’s fingers where they held the receiver, and no matter how much Eddie wanted to hear what the kids had to say, he wasn’t able to concentrate on anything but the feeling.

"Come on then, should we be worried?" 

Absolute chaos broke out on the other end of the phone, and Steve laughed at his kids' shouting, holding the phone away from the two of them to escape the sound. He rolled his eyes fondly, before pulling the phone back towards them, stepping closer as he did so. Eddie wouldn’t be able to tell you what the kids had said to them even if you held him at gunpoint. Steve was too close and his mind had gone completely off on its own, trying not to think about how Steve was resting his thigh between Eddie’s leg as he lent inwards, and how Steve’s free hand was playing with the hem of Eddie’s vest top, almost absentmindedly. 

It was a relief when the buzzer went on the oven and Eddie excused himself to go save the food. 

******

"Kurt Russell would totally get some." 

Eddie rolled slightly to the side so he could look at Steve's face in the flickering light of the television. 

At some point they had ended up lying on the floor, the effects of Argyle's other parting gifts making the world seem lighter when their feet were on the sofa and their backs on the stupidly fluffy rug. 

Steve had acquired big trouble in little China for them to watch for the tenth or maybe eleventh time. Perks of managing the video store, deeming it a cinematic masterpiece. Eddie wouldn't have gone that far, but there were definitely perks to re-watching Steve's current favorite movie. 

Mainly Kim Cattrall and Kurt Russell.

Eddie appreciated them both, it wasn't like he could hide that part of himself, not after his mouth had moved of its own accord in the hospital. 

That fuzzy brain fog that came with his meds really didn't help the brain word filter, at any point Wayne could have cut in and shut him up about the handsome knight that had saved him from a hell dimension, but apparently, his uncle had the same mischievous streak he did and enjoyed watching both Steve and Eddie squirm, it hadn't been like either of them could escape the confines of their hospital beds. 

He knew Wayne would have stopped him if he thought Steve knowing was dangerous, and Wayne may be a man of few words, but he was a good judge of character, and he would never have let him wax poetic if he didn’t think Steve was safe, that Steve was at least an ally. So the fact that he had outed himself in a drugged-up medical haze to the notorious ladies' man and ex-king of Hawkins High, and Wayne hadn’t stopped him? It spoke volumes for Steve as a person, it kind of made it considerably worse that Eddie had developed this complicated web of feelings for him in the meantime.

But more and more Steve would come out with things that made Eddie question the fabric of his own reality. And bring into scrutiny his one-sided crush on the straightest man he knew (other than Hopper and who knows what happened in Russia during desperate times and all that) Steve said things that sometimes made Eddie stop and think, an offhand comment about some celebrity in a magazine, or the infamous time he let slip that he knew of Eddie's favorite queer club in Indy. 

But Eddie didn't want to force anyone's hand, it wasn't for him to assume or make someone out themselves. 

But maybe his one-sided crush was oh so much worse, and actually on someone who could like him back… and just didn't? 

Eddie wasn't sure if it was the brain fog or the weed that had him analyzing, but he was sure that Steve had moved closer Almost on top of him again now they had rolled to their sides. And Steve was very much not watching the television, his eyes were fixed on him. 

"That almost sounds like you want to fuck Jack Burton Stevie?" He had aimed to make it sound like a joke, but his voice faltered making it sound more like a question. 

Steve moved quickly, sometimes Eddie forgot he could do that, it had been a long time since either of them had run for their lives or done any sort of sports, but Steve was clearly still working out, he slung his leg over Eddie and pinned him down by the shoulders, leaning in close, and the fucker was grinning. 

“Just listen to the ol' Porkchop Express and take his advice on a dark and stormy night, alright?” Steve started monologing in a way that was so damn reminiscent of Eddie’s own style he was almost touched, “When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your head up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye, and asks you if you paid your dues;” Steve lent forward, and Eddie almost saw god as Steve’s hips pressed down towards his own, but Steve either didn’t hear or ignored the gasp that escaped him, really leaning into quoting the movie. “you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that:” Steve was practically nose to nose with him now, Eddie had to go cross-eyed to focus, the smell of the weed was heavy between them, Steve’s breath was ghosting on his lips as he spoke "Have you paid your dues, Jack? Yes, sir, the check is in the mail.”

Neither of them could remember what day of the week it was but the lunatic could recite the entire opening of the damn film they were watching word for word, it shouldn’t be as hot as it was, but Eddie was above everything else a nerd. 

Then the madman laughed, swinging back to break the trance that he had captured Eddie in, but not removing himself from where he straddled Eddie. It was on the way to becoming a problem. A problem that Steve was probably going to become aware of sooner rather than later.

“Not answering my question sweetheart?” he somehow asked when he got the blood to re-direct to his brain.

"I mean, jock action heroes are more your thing, so maybe not Jack Burton. But Snake Pliskin? One of us wouldn't be walking for a week after." Steve didn't even look embarrassed, like admitting he would fuck Kurt Russell wouldn’t get him murdered if he muttered it in the wrong place.  

Although Eddie was one to talk, he was currently the one with a lap full of another man.

Plucking the joint from behind Eddie's ear where he had placed it for safekeeping (Steve's rug had a habit of eating anything left unattended, the shag pile was great for getting lost in when you were stoned. The one on the floor not the one on Steve's chest, although Eddie had wondered on more than one occasion if it might have the same effect.) Steve went to light it again wriggling around while he tried to find the lighter in his back pocket. 

Suddenly the position they were in became dramatically different to any other time they had found themselves lying like this, it was loaded with something almost thrilling. Like the anticipation in line for a rollercoaster, or the thrill of waiting for the headline to perform.

Eddie really really wanted to kiss Steve. 

And he felt Steve had orchestrated a master plan to get him to this point, the note, the weed, the goddamn pizza and the fact that he was lying on his back with Steve straddling him like the opening scenes of some skin vid. 

Steve hadn’t moved away, the trail of his fingers along the shell of his ear was almost deliberate, like Steve was testing the water. The two of them never really shy away from the other's touch, but this was more, Eddie could feel it. 

"I don't think I've got the jaw structure to be Kurt Russell babe." 

Steve moved the hand from his ear down to his jaw, stroking the scarred skin that ran across it with his thumb, Steve's pupils were dilated and Eddie was sure now it was from more than just the purple palm tree, it was pure want; it was desire. It was everything that Eddie had been feeling for the better part of the last three years. 

Brain fog be damned, Eddie couldn't take it anymore, he placed his hands on Steve’s hips and pulled.

Steve came willingly, it only took a moment for his lips to find Eddie’s, searching them out with laser precision, hands moving up to twist into Eddie’s hair and pull. There was no way that Steve missed that groan, to be fair Eddie wasn’t sure who it had come from, too busy sinking into the feel of Steve pushing his way past his lips with his tongue and pressing him further into the rug. 

God, Steve had orchestrated this whole night with the precision of one of Eddie’s campaigns and Eddie was putty in his hands, hands that were currently exploring the shape of him, sliding over his hips, his ass his…

Eddie broke the kiss, sliding his mouth to Steve’s cheek, then across to his ear.

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"What are we doing?"

"I have no idea." Steve pulled back enough to look down at him, and Eddie got a moment to appreciate how damn disheveled the other man looked with his glasses all smudged and askew, hair a mess and lips bruised from kissing. I did that.

"So you don't do all this with all your friends?" Eddie joked. 

"My friends consist of my ex, her boyfriend… Whatever Argyle is, a lesbian and a bunch of school kids… if you're talking about being stoned and having a life-changing moment while lying on the floor, that happens surprisingly frequently for such a dynamic group of people. "

"Steve…" 

"If you're talking about this…" Steve nudged his nose against his cheek "This is just for you."

"So I'm special?" 

"Mmm hu," Steve mumbled into his cheek, lips ghosting his skin, before his hand reached around to Eddie's back pocket and grabbed the pen from it, ripping the lid off with his teeth he lent back down and grabbed at Eddie’s wrist pulling his hand above his head and holding it in place. A shiver ran through him, and yeah Eddie would unpack that later, but for now, he watched as Steve traced the line of the worst of the bat bites on his arm down to the point where they had given him a blood transfusion in the hospital.

Steve signed his name next to the mottled skin, before reaching up and kissing the inside of his elbow. “Did you know you called yourself a vampire in the hospital when they gave you my blood to save you?”

“You did what now? I did what now?” Eddie had no recollection of this at all.

“I told Wayne you wouldn’t remember, I told Wayne a lot of stuff over the last few years,” Steve released his grip on his wrists, letting Eddie move to hold him. “I told him back then you were special and I couldn’t lose you, and I’m telling you now Eddie, You’re special, and I want to keep you… If you’ll have me.”

Eddie pulled him closer, taking Steve’s face in his hands, scanning for the lie, the unsaid things that Steve Harrington didn’t say, he couldn’t find anything. 

“Hope you’re up for a trip.”

“What?”

“I'm getting that chicken scratch you call a signature tattooed on, I’m not forgetting this.” Eddie grinned and pulled Steve in for another kiss.

Eddie Munson was confused. But not about this.

They might be battered and broken, but together they at least made a fully functioning human and that was enough.

[dasketcherz]

do you have any dad michael son gregory headcanons because your art for them is genuinely so so cool like omg… it all looks so good they are so cute in your style

OH MY GOD I'M GLAD YOU ASKED HOLLUP [PULLS UP MY DAD MIKE/SON GREG HC LIST]

greg absolutely secretly looks up to mike's skill set as an artist. he loves to watch him doodle, mike is the type who'd feel conscious when someone watches him draw but,,, he grew to not mind and got use to greg watchin him draw. he can tell the kid is observing and absorbing what he can learn from simply watching him do art.

^^^ with that in mind, Mike often does catch Greg drawing too, when the lil guy is very proud of his work, he shows it off to him. Mike is very encouraging that he keeps up at it cuz he genuinely thinks the kid is doing great.

^^^ As i established in the previous ask, Greg loves to give art gifts to ppl he cares about. He does the same for Mike, especially in special occasions like father's day, or his birthday and whatnot. Mike displays them either in his room or by the fridge, he is very proud of his son's creative efforts!

Mike is not the best cook out there, you can hardly entrust the kitchen to him without him setting it on fire but he tries his best to do a decent job at making pulled pork recipes ever since he found out it's Greg's favorite.

Greg loves to collect all sorts of cute and silly plushies, anytime he spots any when they stroll across a shop or smth he's so ready to persuade Mike to let em buy it for him. It doesnt take a lot of effort to really, all he has to do is stare up at mike with puppy eyes and Mike knows the drill, he sighs and then painfully pulls out his wallet every time. it's worth it tho, it's for the kid

It's always like a russian roulette who wakes up earlier than who in the morning. Sometimes its Mike, sometimes its Greg. Mike usually preps breakfast, well...as best as he could perform the basics. He's shown the ropes to Greg at some point cuz even tho Greg's a kid, Mike acknowledges that he's capable. Greg's a fast learner, if he does a specific task so often enough, he gets good at it eventually. Its a lil funny tho cuz Greg almost does breakfast better than Mike at times. Greg has some fun making Mike's morning coffee for him, he appreciates it a lot. He thinks it's really sweet, he always affectionately ruffle Greg's morning bed hair as a gesture of thanks.

They have a swear jar in the household. No further elaboration needed i think.

Mike drives a motorcycle bike that used to be owned by his mom. Every time he tells Greg he's headin off somewhere for a quick errand, the lil guy insist he wanna come along solely cuz he wanna ride the bike as well. He enjoys being on the bike, he thinks its hella cool and he feels like flyin, he has to always promise Mike he'll behave just so he lets him come too.

They absolutely love movie nights as a hang out time. They both love watching movies, they just have a good time checkin out any film that peaks their interest. Having fun lil discussion bout it during or after watching and all that. Mike is amused when Greg has a lot to say, he just lets the lil guy share his thoughts bout it.

Whenever Mike gets a call that Greg got into another fight at school and it's often cuz other kid bullies got in Greg's nerve [especially if it's them insulting his guardian to his face] or cuz he tried to defend other kids from being bullied, Mike is so ready to throw hands with said kid bully's parents to defend Greg back. Theyre always on each other's side first and foremost.

When one of them catch the other still up in the middle of the night, the instant thought they have is "cant sleep?" presumably cuz the other most likely had another nightmare. It has happened so frequent, they just came to understand that tryin to pass the time doin other things is often the other best thing they can do to doze back to sleep. They had done plenty of things to pass the time at moments like it : be it watch another movie, draw together, just stargaze outside by the front porch etc etc. They appreciate the other for keepin them company. They've grown to try makin sure they never feel so alone anymore the best they can, cuz they arent anymore when they have each other.

[ausetkmt]

At President Trump's rally in Tampa last week, a familiar face made it back in the national news. Maurice Symonette, also known as Michael the Black Man, was front and center in a crowd hurling invective at CNN reporter Jim Acosta, waving a "Blacks for Trump" sign.

Symonette has been a regular at Trump rallies all over Florida and as far away as Arizona. Just last month, he popped up at the U.S. border to appear in a video with disgraced sheriff-turned-pardoned-Senate-candidate Joe Arpaio.

All that national exposure raises an obvious question: Who is paying the bills for Symonette, a former member of Miami's murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, to represent "Blacks for Trump" at Trump rallies? 

Since Blacks for Trump isn't a registered political organization with the Florida Division of Elections or the Federal Election Commission, there are no public records of any donations funding the group's operations.

It seems unlikely Symonette is fronting the cash for his travel himself because he filed for bankruptcy this past May. In federal court records, he reports that he's unemployed, generates no income, and has $0 in the bank. He also says four banks have staked claims on $2.9 million worth of property around Dade County. 

So how is he getting to Arizona and Tampa to stand behind Trump on national TV?  Reached on his cell phone, Symonette declined to discuss his group's financing. "You guys are horrible racists," he said. "You are lawbreakers and you're mean... God is going to punish you horribly."

Throughout the '80s, Symonette — then known as Maurice Woodside — was a devoted follower of Yahweh ben Yahweh, a charismatic preacher who wore white robes and called himself the Messiah.

Federal prosecutors later accused Yahweh, whose real name was Hulon Mitchell Jr., of ordering his followers to murder at least 14 people, including random white vagrants who were massacred as an initiation rite.

Symonette was charged in federal court along with Mitchell and 15 other followers in 1990; while the cult's leader was later convicted of 14 charges of murder conspiracy and served nearly two decades in prison, Symonette and six other cult members were acquitted.

In the decades since, Symonette has been charged with crimes including grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane, and threatening a police officer, but has never been convicted. (He does have a pending case on a municipal ordinance charge in Hollywood after police showed up to a really loud party he threw.)

Since Trump's election, Symonette has carved out an unlikely new niche as one of President Trump's most visible African-American supporters. He has a knack for getting prime placement directly behind Trump and has handed out hundreds of his "Blacks for Trump" signs.

They advertise his website, which is full of conspiracy theories about Cherokees running the U.S. banking system. (Really.)

Symonette was even featured at a Miami Trump rally that prosecutors later alleged had been funded by Russian nationals looking to disrupt the election.

Symonette filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on May 16, listing Washington Mutual, Homecomings Financial, HSBC Bank, and Indymac Bank as his creditors; each institution laid claim to one of four houses. Three are in North Miami-Dade County, and one is near Kendall.

In court docs, his only listed assets are clothing, watches, various household items, and a pool table. He does say that his live-in girlfriend, whom he doesn't identify by name, provides him with $2,000 per month.

Could that money from his significant other cover Blacks for Trump's various trips around the country to support the president on TV? Symonette wouldn't discuss that with a New Times reporter. 

Instead, he spoke at length about his belief that the banking system is corrupt. He added that "Trump being the president is the greatest blessing we have ever had."

In his bankruptcy case, he's repeated those allegations about the banking system being crooked to Judge Laurel M. Isicoff. He's also repeatedly sought to change hearings that overlapped with Trump events. Symonette suggested the scheduling conflicts are a sinister plot to keep him away from the spotlight at Trump rallies.

"Creditors know that I have a rally in Arizona on July 25 and deliberately set the hearing on that date to cause me and my musical band to miss the performance and the rally with the bus we rented," he wrote in a motion filed the same morning as the Phoenix rally. "The creditors overheard that at the house we are disputing... and set that hearing on the same date just to harm me."

That motion was denied, as was another he filed on July 30, just before Trump's Tampa rally. "As founder of Blacks for Trump, (I) have rented vans to go to Trump's rally. We need to make the country aware how the banks (FOREIGNERS FROM THE EAST) are illegally taking WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE'S houses away."

Maurice Symonette's story is baffling, to put it mildly. Symonette, who also goes by the name Michael the Black Man, somehow went from being part of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult to getting acquitted of murder charges himself to being a staple at Donald Trump's presidential rallies all over the country. Even among the rogue's gallery of rodeo clowns and Bond villains who make up Trump's core cadre of supporters, Symonette might legitimately be the weirdest person hovering around Trumpworld

.

After Michael the Black Man turned up at a Tampa-area Trump rally last week and led anti-press chants, it's worth taking note of all the bizarre places he's materialized since becoming a prominent Trump supporter:

1. At the original October 2016 Trump rally where he first popped up on TV:

Conservative Twitter is abuzz this afternoon with a trending hashtag: #BlacksForTrump. The spark is clear: Thousands have retweeted photos from Trump's rally in Lakeland, Florida, this afternoon showing a small group standing directly behind the Donald while enthusiastically waving "Blacks for Trump" signs. "Blacks are for Trump and the left can't stand it," writes @LawlessPirate, with another pic of the sign-waving man wearing a shirt reading "Trump & Republicans Are Not Racist." So who is this new face of Trump's elusive black support? He's none other than Michael the Black Man, also known as Maurice Woodside or Michael Symonette, who has made waves in Miami in recent years with protests against the Democratic Party and rallies for the GOP. He's also a former member of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, which was led by the charismatic preacher Hulon Mitchell Jr., who was charged by the feds in 1990 with conspiracy in killings that included a gruesome beheading in the Everglades. Michael, along with 15 other Yahweh followers, was charged for allegedly conspiring in two murders; his brother, who was also in the cult, told jurors that Michael had helped beat one man who was later killed and stuck a sharpened stick into another man's eyeball. But jurors found Michael (and six other Yahweh followers) innocent. They sent Mitchell away for 20 years in the federal pen. In the years that followed, Michael changed his last name to Symonette, made a career as a musician, started a radio station in Miami, and then reinvented himself as Michael the Black Man, an anti-gay, anti-liberal preacher with a golden instinct for getting on TV at GOP events. He's planned events with Rick Santorum and gotten cable news play for bashing Obama. Since 1997, he's been charged with grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane and threatening a police officer, but never convicted in any of those cases. 

2. At a Trump rally in Bayfront Park in Miami just before the election: 3. At a rally allegedly organized with the help of Russian agents:

A federal grand jury filed charges against 13 Russian nationals [in February 2018] for allegedly stealing identities, wiring money overseas, and staging a small series of flash mobs to help tip the 2016 election in Donald Trump's favor. It's unclear whether the social media campaign had any actual impact on voting, but the FBI alleges Russian money indeed affected one small group of Miamians who unknowingly used Russian cash to pay for supplies for an unnamed rally the September before the presidential election. There still seem to be online traces of that Moscow-funded rally. Only one publicized, pro-Trump rally appears to have taken place in the Miami area — #LatinosConTrump in Doral at 1 p.m. September 11, 2016. The event was pitched as an "anti-media" protest outside the town's Univision offices. The national group Latinos With Trump created flyers for the rally and noted that virtually all of Miami's most prominent pro-Trump groups — Cubans 4 Trump, Hispanas for Trump, Latinas for Trump, and the official Miami Trump Volunteers — would attend.

4. At a 2017 Trump rally in Phoenix, per the Washington Post:

And so it was Tuesday night before a crowd of Trump supporters in Phoenix who had come to watch another show. There was the president, whipping up the wildly cheering crowd, and then there was Michael the Black Man, chanting just beyond Trump’s right shoulder in that trademark T-shirt. The presence of Michael — variously known as Michael Symonette, Maurice Woodside and Mikael Israel — has inspired not only trending Twitter hashtags but a great deal of curiosity and Google searches. Internet sleuths find the man’s bizarre URL, an easily accessible gateway to his strange and checkered past. The radical fringe activist from Miami once belonged to a violent black supremacist religious cult, and he runs a handful of amateur, unintelligible conspiracy websites. He has called Barack Obama “The Beast” and Hillary Clinton a Ku Klux Klan member. Oprah Winfrey, he says, is the devil. Most curiously, in the 1990s, he was charged, then acquitted, with conspiracy to commit two murders.

5. With noted racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio at the U.S.-Mexico border just last week:

Via our sister paper Phoenix New Times:

Former sheriff Joe Arpaio filmed a video at the U.S.-Mexico border with a former Florida cult member who goes by the name Michael the Black Man. In the video posted on Thursday, Michael has his arm around Arpaio as the ousted former sheriff promotes his improbable race for Arizona's open Senate seat during a visit to the border fence in Naco, Arizona. Michael was a follower of the Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, a black-supremacist religious sect in Florida. In 1990, the feds charged Michael and over a dozen fellow cult members with conspiracy related to brutal murders in Florida. Alongside Arpaio and Michael in the video is an independent Senate candidate in Massachusetts, Shiva Ayyadurai, who shared the live video on Twitter. Born in India, Ayyadurai is a scientist and MIT graduate who claims that he invented email. He began his Senate campaign as a Republican before switching to run as an independent. Ayyadurai’s campaign uses the slogan, “Defeat #FakeIndian Elizabeth Warren,” as a derogatory jab at his Democratic opponent. “First of all, I’m from Massachusetts, so of course I’m supporting this great guy,” Arpaio says of Ayyadurai in the video. “He’s gonna win.” Michael says, “We’re at the border right here, between Arizona and Mexico.” He turns to Arpaio to ask if he has anything to say to the camera. The aging former sheriff brings up his law enforcement background. “It’s great to see the border again; I haven’t seen it in a while,” Arpaio says. 

If you've got any info on who's paying Symonette's travel bills to Trump rallies, email [email protected] or [email protected]

For a second, Donald Trump seemed to be backing off his vitriolic attacks on the free press. After five journalists were massacred at the Annapolis Capital Gazette, Trump briefly toned down his slurs. He even invited New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzburger to the White House to clear the air. But it didn't last.

Trump quickly returned to his Stalinist, enemies-of-the-people label for journalists and then lied about his meeting with Sulzburger to insist that truthful reporting is "fake news." Those insults have a real effect, and that fact was never frighteningly clearer than at Trump's rally last night in Tampa, where an unhinged-looking mob screamed insults and waved middle fingers at journalists, particularly CNN's chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

The scene left many political watchers deeply shaken, including Acosta:

Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018

But most national press watchers didn't notice who was right at the center of that mob hurling invective at Acosta and his colleagues: Yep, it was Michael the Black Man, AKA Maurice Symonette, a former member of Miami's murderous Yahweh ben Yawheh cult who once faced charges of conspiring in the group's murders.

That's him with his instantly recognizable "Blacks for Trump" sign:

.@Acosta is trying to do a stand-up at #trumptampa and the crowd is booing and chanting “CNN sucks” behind him. pic.twitter.com/XiULajB1Li— Emily L. Mahoney (@mahoneysthename) July 31, 2018

Symonette has been a mainstay at Florida Trump rallies and over the past year has popped up at other Trump-linked events around the nation. Just last week, he flew to Arizona to film a video at the border with disgraced former sheriff Joe Arpaio. Trump's staff regularly gives Symonette front-and-center seats where he waves his black-and-white sign on national television.

Here's some background on Symonette from New Times' earlier reporting on him:

He's also a former member of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, which was led by the charismatic preacher Hulon Mitchell Jr., who was charged by the feds in 1990 with conspiracy in killings that included a gruesome beheading in the Everglades. Michael, along with 15 other Yahweh followers, was charged for allegedly conspiring in two murders; his brother, who was also in the cult, told jurors that Michael had helped beat one man who was later killed and stuck a sharpened stick into another man's eyeball. But jurors found Michael (and six other Yahweh followers) innocent. They sent Mitchell away for 20 years in the federal pen. In the years that followed, he changed his last name to Symonette, made a career as a musician, started a radio station in Miami and then re-invented himself as Michael the Black Man, an anti-gay, anti-liberal preacher with a golden instinct for getting on TV at GOP events. He's planned events with Rick Santorum and gotten cable news play for bashing Obama. Since 1997, he's been charged with grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane and threatening a police officer, but never convicted in any of those cases. 

In other words, he's exactly the kind of guy you might not want to drive into a blind rage at journalists who are just trying to do their jobs. Yet there he was in Tampa, right in the middle of the crowd screaming at Acosta — who, incidentally, took time to talk to the crowds who were so angry with him:

After each live shot, @Acosta would walk down and politely talk to the people who just heckled him. He talked to one group for at least 15 minutes. pic.twitter.com/J26nlxfD6k— Christopher Heath (@CHeathWFTV) August 1, 2018

There are two safe bets on this topic going forward: Trump won't stop throwing insults at the media, and wherever the president is whipping up that anger, Michael the Black Man will probably be there with his signs, happily taking the bait.

[everythingisconstant]

Sobiesław "Gromsko" Kościuszko <headcanons p.1>

some headcanons about my polish fella, because he's so underrated!!!

! this part's about his pre-army life

tw: drugs, mention of relative's death, slight angst?? i dunno

Gromsko has been raised in a traditional polish household, around 90's.

He didn't have the best grades at school, I would even say that he was barely passing.

But anytime his mom gave him that worried look he promised her that his grades will get better. And they did. For a while.

Because, look, he was way much insterested in playing football with his frends and drinking beer and smoking cheap russian cigarettes in some abandoned places so his parents wouldn't find out.

Last thing on Earth he wanted was his mom to find out about smoking, really. And not because of the punishment.

"Sławciu! Why do I smell cigarettes on you, boy? Oh God, I already told you about how this is..."

Gromsko loved that woman so much, that he didn't want to dissappoint her. He didn't want to see that sadden look in her eyes.

"I know, I know. We were at that one friend's house and you know how much his dad is smoking. The smell got all over me."

"Mr. Ziemianowicz? Ah, right... I heard that he got diagnosed with lung cancer, no wonder why..."

"Baby, I found this lighter in your loundry, please don't tell me that..."

"Mamo, don't worry about that. We've been just making a campfire with the boys after school."

"Ah, right. Just be carefull out there, okay?"

Gromsko loved that woman so much, that when she died, his whole world fell into tiny pieces.

He was 17 at that time and without any support from his alcoholic father, or from anyone else, young Gromsko found comfort in drugs.

In result, he never graduated high school. He was an empty human shell, feeling nothing but numb.

At some point, Gromsko forgot about everything, even about his mom that he loved so much. Especially about mom.

One time, when he has been high as f^ck, almost uncontious, he was hallucinating. What he saw that day was a great hussar, a soldier with wings.

He don't remember much from that night, but one thing for sure: he cried a lot.

That hussar influenced him so much, Gromsko don't even know why, but he decided to change his life.

He went to rehab, quit drugs and joined the army.

He even got some tattoos for his first paycheck. Some patriotic stuff ("Polska Walcząca" tattoo!) and that hussar on a horse as a symbol of his change, inner healing.

And most important, his favourite piece, even it's the most simple. Gromsko got in in memory for someone special, to never ever forget about them again.

To never forget about his mama, not again.

[thegamingcatmom]

A thought....

So you ever know those situations where there's a song that a person listens to, and they just DONT realize the lyrics until much later

Just like the lyrics are subtle enough to not catch the meaning for some but for others in the know 👀 Just watching the person sing along unknown to what the real meaning of the song they're singing about is,

Or kinda like an innocent child singing along to some popular song, but that song has a bunch of innuendos, but they don't know about such things yet.

Just imaging MC hearing a song she really likes but she never realized the lyrics to the song are rather-

Spicy and sings along, whether quietly or just belting it

How would the sisters react?

-📚

I think most of us have been in that situation before, especially with the innuendos, LMAO.

...Oh god, this reminds me-

STORYTIME:

Back when I was still in school (which means ages ago), I would listen to this song here on repeat. I really liked the dancing. I still do. 😅

The beat is fire too. 🔥😎

ANYHOW-

We went to this school camp where we stayed for a week or so and, one evening, our English teacher went like "why not make things more interesting" or smt. I don't quite remember what he said, but he had us brainstorming ideas for how to spend the evening.

Fun.

Anyhow-

The boys ended up on an impromptu catwalk, strutting like they were in a fashion show. It was hilarious.

As for us girls-

Well, we hit the dance floor - choreography and all. Now guess which song my clueless ass suggested? 😅

(This one´s censored, mind you. I had no idea there´s another version out there. 💀)

In my defense: My English was nowhere near as advanced as it is today. How was I supposed to know what all that shit meant?? I was just vibing. 😭💀

With that said:

I can defo relate and I think MC can too, lmao.

IN HER DEFENSE-

Like me, she´s a clueless baby. Not her fault the only music one can find in this household is from bands and singers she´s never heard of in her life. Probs because they speak an entirely different language. Sounds like Russian or smt...

Well, who cares. The beat is damn catchy.

In fact, it´s so catchy that our girl ends up listening to it over and over, until she knows the lyrics (somewhat) by heart.

...I think y´all know where this is going:

Before she knows it, MC finds herself singing along, blissfully unaware of what the lyrics actually mean...

.

.

.

MC, wearing headphones: *preparing dinner, nodding her head to a song that she´s singing along to*

Kate: *hesitantly rounds the corner because she can´t believe what she´s hearing (coming out of MC´s mouth as well as the headphones - superhearing and all, remember?)*

MC: *still happily singing along (or trying to)*

Kate: *slowly takes a seat at the kitchen island behind MC, propping her chin as she watches it all unfold, utterly entranced*

MC: *starts to lightly move her hips to the rhythm now*

Kate: *...definitely entranced now, a wolfish grin slowly starts spreading*

MC: *continues to give Kate a show without realizing*

Tanya: *rounds the corner, her leader-bells ringing like crazy at the absolute filth that floods the house (again: superhearing)*

Tanya: "What is the meaning of-"

Kate: "SHHH!"

Tanya: "...Excuse-"

Kate: *points to a dancing and singing MC, blissfully unaware of what´s going on behind her*

...

Tanya: *slowly takes a seat next to Kate, drawn in like a moth to a flame, the real reason why she´s come here already forgotten*

MC:

Tanya & Kate:

Irina: *rounds the corner*

Irina: "Can someone tell me what the hell-"

Tanya & Kate: "SHHH!"

Irina: "..."

Tanya & Kate: *point to a still dancing and singing MC*

Irina: *takes a look*

...

Irina: *immediately regrets coming here...but draws closer anyway because, for some strange reason, she just can´t.look.away*

MC: *sings a particularly filthy line, adding some extra sway to her hips as she does*

Tanya & Kate: 🫠

Irina: *crosses her arms, raising her eyebrow in a mix of utter disbelief and...something else*

MC: *continues to give them a show that gets more intense as time goes on, just vibing and all*

Tanya & Kate: 🥵❤️‍🔥

Irina: *has taken a seat by now, arms still crossed as she leans back, feeling much like a witness to a horrible accident...and something else*

MC: *cooking becomes a distant memory as she´s really starting to feel it now*

The Unholy Trinity:

(Kate´s the one on the right cause she´s the only one who deliberately puts herself through the trauma of ingesting human food on a regular basis.)

Eleazar: *rounds the corner, only to skid to a stop when his eyes land on-*

MC: *uses her wooden spoon as a microphone*

...

Eleazar:

Also Eleazar, once the initial shock has worn off: "...Fascina-"

The Unholy Trinity: "SHHH!" (Irina is a lot less aggressive about it though)

Eleazar: *wisely shuts his mouth and comes to stand next to the sisters, crossing his arms as he observes the human acting in a way he´s never seen before*

MC: *sings one of those particularly filthy lines again, playfully swinging the wooden spoon in a slapping motion*

Tanya & Kate: 🫠❤️‍🔥

Irina: 🫣

Eleazar: 🧐

Also Eleazar: *takes out a notebook and starts taking notes*

Carmen: *rounds the corner, looking absolutely appalled-*

Carmen: "What is-"

The Unholy Trinity & Eleazar: "SHHH!" (Irina & Eleazar are a lot less aggressive about it though)

Carmen: "...What-"

The Unholy Trinity & Eleazar: *point to MC*

MC:

Carmen: 👁️👄👁️

MC: *starts twerking*

Carmen: *Spanish mom mode activated*

Carmen: *begins to stomp over-*

The Unholy Trinity & Eleazar, trying to stop her:

MC: *slowly calms down as the song comes to an end (for the umpteenth time)*

The Denalis: *still wrangling*

MC: *begins to turn around, still humming along and dancing to herself*

The Denalis: *go eerily still, frozen as they wait for the inevitable to happen (meaning: MC catching them in a less than flattering pose)*

MC: *claps eyes on-*

The Denalis: "..."

MC: *screeches like a banshee as she throws the wooden spoon into the air out of sheer shock at seeing the whole ass family in the kitchen*

The Denalis: "..."

MC: "WHAT THE F-"

Carmen: "Mi amor."

MC: "...fluff."

Carmen: *nods in approval*

MC: *takes off her headphones, muttering under her breath as she recovers from her near heart attack*

The Denalis: "..."

MC, throwing them an accusing look: "...What are you all doing here??"

Irina, still hanging onto Carmen´s arm: "...We live here, mortal."

...

MC: *...fair point, however-*

MC, dread slowly starting to creep in: "...And how long have you been here?"

The Denalis: "..."

MC: "..."

Tanya, hanging onto Carmen´s other arm: "Oh...not too long, dear."

MC: *dies inside because that was a lie if she ever heard one...Tanya has never called her 'dear' before either*

MC: "Oh...well, that´s...that´s that then...yeah."

The Denalis: "..."

MC: "..."

Kate, still hanging onto Carmen´s leg: "...Interesting choice in music, by the w-OW! Hey! What did I say??"

Carmen: "Lo sabes exactamente, Katrina." (You know exactly, Katrina.)

Kate: *grumbling under her breath as she rubs the back of her head*

MC: "Oh, uh...thanks? It´s...it´s a good song."

The Denalis: "..."

MC: "...Nice beat and all."

The Denalis: "..."

MC: *awkward coughing*

...

Eleazar, still lovingly holding onto his wife´s midsection from behind: "Allow me the question: How would you describe the impact this peculiar piece of art has on your state of mind as well as your bodily sensations?"

Carmen: *closes her eyes in utter despair because she loves her husband but...god dammit-*

MC: *repeats the sentence multiple times in her head, hoping it will make sense at some point (it doesn´t)*

MC: "...What?"

Kate, always happy to translate: "He wants to know if you feel like fu-"

Tanya & Carmen: "KATRINA!"

Kate: "What?? I was trying to help-"

Carmen: *untangles herself and starts pushing everyone towards the kitchen entrance*

Everyone: *various protests of different nature*

Carmen: "No quiero oírlo. Afuera. Todos ustedes." (I don´t want to hear it. Out. All of you.)

MC: *still processing what just happened*

Carmen: *already halfway out the door before she stops and turns around again*

Carmen: "...Mi amor?"

MC: "...Huh?"

...

Carmen: "I know Tanya hasn´t started on your training yet, but you might want to consider going with a different song for your next kitchen performance."

MC: *blinks at her in confusion*

Carmen: *gives a loving smile and a wink before leaving out the door*

MC: *stares into nothingness for a moment, still processing recent events*

...

MC: "Wait...what training?"

.

.

.

Okay so-

Writing this kinda felt like I was laughing at my own joke for about 95% of the time, but-

I HAD SO MUCH FUN WITH THIS. 😭

Honestly, out of all the shitposts I´ve done so far, this one takes the fucking cake, imo. 💀

Also, in my search for the filthiest, most unhinged Slovak song I could possibly find and which also comes with a beat that slaps (like MC did that wooden spoon), I stumbled upon a few that I ended up really liking:

JEBE - Rytmus (the one MC listens to here - I fucking love that beat 😎)

Cítim vôňu lesa - Emily & Justice feat. Mark Voss (this one´s a mix between English and Slovak - I think it´s fire ❤️‍🔥)

Vdaka ti - AZGART (this one actually gives me goosebumps - there´s something so soothing about it 🥰)

I´ll leave it to y´all to look up the lyrics. 😉

.

.

.

Thanks a lot for your ask! 💋

[darkmaga-returns]

I am sick and tired of all the constant lies. The Biden Administration blames Trump for its $1.8 trillion deficit. The interest expenditures will be about $1 trillion alone. Now, if you just accept that at face value, you are part of the problem when the United States will crash and burn. This makes it sound like tax revenues have declined. In 2020, the last year of Trump’s presidency, the total tax revenues collected were $3.42 trillion. In 2023, the revenues taken in from taxes was $4.4 trillion. And the U.S. government now estimates its total revenue will be $5.49 trillion for fiscal year 2025.

According to Forbes, if we confiscated 100% of the top 10 wealthiest people, we would get $1.5 trillion, but that still will not eliminate the deficit. It would destroy all of those companies, create huge unemployment, and wipe out our countless pension funds. But hey, they are the problem. It is never the politicians who are off to rob others and hand it to you to buy your vote. It’s be honest. Socialism is corruption because the politicians have to promise you something to buy your vote. They no longer know how to run for office without promises to steal from one class TO HAND TO ANOTHER. There is no such thing as efficient and proper management because government is the answer to everything, even climate change. According to their top experts, the climate would never have changed if we had paid more taxes.

Since the war with Russia began in February 2022 during Biden’s Administration, he has pushed for a total of $175 billion to create more billionaires in Ukraine than in America. Interestingly, $106 billion directly aids the government of Ukraine, while the balance funds “various” U.S. activities associated with the war in Ukraine, namely overthrowing the Russian government and surrounding countries and ensuring the future of our politician’s investments will be profitable. This is never documented or fully explained.  Thus, Ukraine accounts for about 10% of Biden’s deficit. But that, too, is Trump’s fault.

Come on! It’s all Trump’s fault for not raising taxes back to 94% as they were for World War II, 91% for the Korean War, and 70% for the Vietnam War. If we look at the accumulative interest expenditures and war, about 80% of the national debt has been for playing policeman of the world. This has NEVER benefited the people. If you refuse to pay the taxes they impose WITHOUT representation, as it was in 1776 since they, too, represent only their own self-interest, you go to prison. This is freedom?

They always say to tax the rich. As I said, if you take ALL the assets of the top 10 billionaires, you would NOT eliminate this $1.8 trillion deficit. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. They changed the definition of who the rich are. Before World War II, the definition of the rich was $5 million, while a Cadillac was $600.  They began to raise it to $250,000 a year, but then it was clarified as “household” income.

So, if you and your wife combined were at $250,000, you were that horrible, evil, greedy rich person they need to shake upside down to get every penny in your pocket. Don’t worry. It’s for God and Country and the lifestyle of members of Congress who work so hard to figure out if there is something else they can tax.

Once upon a time, it was theorized that if the government borrowed, it would be less inflationary than printing. But those days are gone. That is when it was illegal to borrow against government debt. Today, debt is just money that pays interest the same as it was during the American Civil War.

If we add each year the total interest expenditures, you will see that generally, about 70% of the national debt is based on just interest, as we will reach $1 trillion this year. Guess what? China holds about 10% of the US national debt, so interest is going to China, but it does not stimulate the US domestic economy. We should stop borrowing, for it would be cheaper and less inflationary if we just printed to cover the deficit rather than borrow. Then, capital will lend to the private sector, and we will see a huge economic boom. Things have changed in economics – it is about time we recognize Keynesian Economics has failed.

[misfitwashere]

November 8, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 9

Social media has been flooded today with stories of Trump voters who are shocked to learn that tariffs will raise consumer prices as reporters are covering that information. Daniel Laguna of LevelUp warned that Trump’s proposed 60% tariff on Chinese imports could raise the costs of gaming consoles by 40%, so that a PS5 Pro gaming system would cost up to $1,000. One of the old justifications for tariffs was that they would bring factories home, but when the $3 billion shoe company Steve Madden announced yesterday it would reduce its imports from China by half to avoid Trump-promised tariffs, it said it will shift production not to the U.S., but to Cambodia, Vietnam, Mexico, and Brazil. 

There are also stories that voters who chose Trump to lower household expenses are unhappy to discover that their undocumented relatives are in danger of deportation. When CNN’s Dana Bash asked Indiana Republican senator-elect Jim Banks if undocumented immigrants who had been here for a long time and integrated into the community would be deported, Banks answered that deportation should include “every illegal in this country that we can find.” Yesterday a Trump-appointed federal judge struck down a policy established by the Biden administration that was designed to create an easier path to citizenship for about half a million undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s advisors told Jim VandeHei and MIke Allen of Axios that Trump wasted valuable time at the beginning of his first term and that they will not make that mistake again. They plan to hit the ground running with tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, deregulation, and increased gas and oil production. Trump is looking to fill the top ranks of the government with “billionaires, former CEOs, tech leaders and loyalists.” 

After the election, the wealth of Trump-backer Elon Musk jumped about $13 billion, making him worth $300 billion. Musk, who has been in frequent contact with Russian president Vladimir Putin, joined a phone call today between President-elect Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky. 

In Salon today, Amanda Marcotte noted that in states all across the country where voters backed Trump, they also voted for abortion rights, higher minimum wage, paid sick and family leave, and even to ban employers from forcing their employees to sit through right-wing or anti-union meetings. She points out that 12% of voters in Missouri voted both for abortion rights and for Trump.

Marcotte recalled that Catherine Rampell and Youyou Zhou of the Washington Post showed before the election that voters overwhelmingly preferred Harris’s policies to Trump’s if they didn’t know which candidate proposed them.  An Ipsos/Reuters poll from October showed that voters who were misinformed about immigration, crime, and the economy tended to vote Republican, while those who knew the facts preferred Democrats. Many Americans turn for information to social media or to friends and family who traffic in conspiracy theories. As Angelo Carusone of Media Matters put it: “We have a country that is pickled in right-wing misinformation and rage.” 

In The New Republic today, Michael Tomasky reinforced that voters chose Trump in 2024 not because of the economy or inflation, or anything else, but because of how they perceived those issues—which is not the same thing. Right-wing media “fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win,” Tomasky wrote. Right-wing media has overtaken legacy media to set the country’s political agenda not only because it’s bigger, but because it speaks with one voice, “and that voice says Democrats and liberals are treasonous elitists who hate you, and Republicans and conservatives love God and country and are your last line of defense against your son coming home from school your daughter.”

Tomasky noted how the work of Matthew Gertz of Media Matters shows that nearly all the crazy memes that became central campaign issues—the pet-eating story, for example, or the idea that the booming economy was terrible—came from right-wing media. In those circles, Vice President Kamala Harris was a stupid, crazed extremist who orchestrated a coup against President Joe Biden and doesn’t care about ordinary Americans, while Trump is under assault and has been for years, and he’s “doing it all for you.”

Investigative reporter Miranda Green outlined how “pink slime” newspapers, which are AI generated from right-wing sites, turned voters to Trump in key swing state counties. Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, who studies focus groups, told NPR, “When I ask voters in focus groups if they think Donald Trump is an authoritarian, the #1 response by far is, ‘What is an authoritarian?’” 

In a social media post, Marcotte wrote: “A lot of voters are profoundly ignorant. More so than in the past.” That jumped out to me because there was, indeed, an earlier period in our history when voters were “pickled in right-wing misinformation and rage.”

In the 1850s, white southern leaders made sure that voters did not have access to news that came from outside the American South, and instead steeped them in white supremacist information. They stopped the mail from carrying abolitionist pamphlets, destroyed presses of antislavery newspapers, and drove antislavery southerners out of their region.

Elite enslavers had reason to be concerned about the survival of their system of human enslavement. The land boom of the 1840s, when removal of Indigenous peoples had opened up rich new lands for settlement, had priced many white men out of the market. They had become economically unstable, roving around the country working for wages or stealing to survive. And they deeply resented the fabulously wealthy enslavers who they knew looked down on them. 

In 1857, North Carolinian Hinton Rowan Helper wrote a book attacking enslavement. No friend to his Black neighbors, Helper was a virulent white supremacist. But in The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It, he used modern statistics to prove that slavery destroyed economic opportunity for white men, and assailed “the illbreeding and ruffianism of the slaveholding officials.” He noted that voters in the South who did not own slaves outnumbered by far those who did. "Give us fair play, secure to us the right of discussion, the freedom of speech, and we will settle the difficulty at the ballot-box,” he wrote.

In the North the book sold like hotcakes—142,000 copies by fall 1860. But southern leaders banned the book, and burned it, too. They arrested men for selling it and accused northerners of making war on the South. Politicians, newspaper editors, and ministers reinforced white supremacy, warned that the end of slavery would mean race war, and preached that enslavement was God’s law.

When northern voters elected Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 on a platform of containing enslavement in the South, where the sapped soil would soon cut into production, southern leaders decided—usually without the input of voters—to secede from the Union. As leaders promised either that there wouldn’t be a fight, or that if a fight happened it would be quick and painless, poor southern whites rallied to the cause of creating a nation based on white supremacy, reassured by South Carolina senator James Chesnut’s vow that he would personally drink all the blood shed in any threatened civil war. 

When Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861, poor white men set out for what they had come to believe was an imperative cause to protect their families and their way of life. By 1862 their enthusiasm had waned, and leaders passed a conscription law. That law permitted wealthy men to hire a substitute and exempted one man to oversee every 20 enslaved men, providing another way for rich men to keep their sons out of danger. Soldiers complained it was a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” 

By 1865 the Civil War had killed or wounded 483,026 men out of a southern white population of about five and a half million people. U.S. armies had pushed families off their lands, and wartime inflation drove ordinary people to starvation. By 1865, wives wrote to their soldier husbands to come home or there would be no one left to come home to. 

Even those poor white men who survived the war could not rebuild into prosperity. The war took from the South its monopoly of global cotton production, locking poor southerners into profound poverty from which they would not begin to recover until the 1930s, when the New Deal began to pour federal money into the region.

Today, when I received a slew of messages gloating that Trump had won the election and that Republican voters had owned the libs, I could not help but think of that earlier era when ordinary white men sold generations of economic aspirations for white supremacy and bragging rights. 

—

Today, when I received a slew of messages gloating that Trump had won the election and that Republican voters had owned the libs, I could not help but think of that earlier era when ordinary white men sold generations of economic aspirations for white supremacy and bragging rights.

[shallowseeker]

I just wanted to say that I love how you talk about John? I noticed in the scene where Cas is resurrected, there's not only a coffin in the background but a deer head with horns. Do you think that this is a John motif? The absent father.

Thank you. I think people have warmed to my John fascination, maybe.

I'm not SUPER fresh on this motif in my head, but thank you for pointing this out... think I'll watch for this symbol more often now.

//

So, yeah. You're right! I think this ep (5x01) is one of the earliest times Cas gets flanked by the horned God symbol... I agree it's a John motif, though this is by no means a symbol unique to John.

I think its appearance here dovetails nicely with Cas's enhanced expectations post-Fall (like healing Bobby, for example).

///

Re: horned symbols.

I think most of the characters get associated with this horned-God symbol at various times, especially the hunters when they're hunting.

If memory serves, there are a lot of ram horns, deer horns, goat horns, bull amulets, sitting on bull couches (99 Problems & Tombstone come to mind).

///

But I can think of a few instances where Cas gets flanked very prominently with father-god-horns. Even when he's feeling pretty powerless, like in Reading is Fundamental.

///

Cas also seems prominently associated with Foreign Gods at times, perhaps because, at heart, he is a "Protector from a different family," like a Spouse.

Cas's Buddhist symbols fit nicely with the idea of a "Prince Deciding to Fall into Lower Class/Mortality."

///

But horns.

We see John with father-horns when he's watching over Sam and Dean in s1:

John even has other motifs of protectorship, like THE CHAIR. He sits in this chair as his family sleeps, watchful to the point of unhinged paranoia.

///

But the idealized father-God is supposed to worship and protect the family he loves, not become a Tyrant. He should be a Servant, nourishing the family and adoring/worshipping the ones he's supposed to protect.

(Which is sort of... the whole deal with the angels and their mission, really.)

HESTER: When Castiel first laid a hand on you in Hell, he was lost! For that, you're going to pay. HESTER walks towards DEAN, intending to KILL. Cas gets in between HESTER and DEAN. CASTIEL: Please. They're the ones we were put here to protect.

Or even Naomi: "Our mission was to protect what God created. I don't know when we forgot that."

///

He should be willing to bleed for them, not just demand their blood for the Greater Good/War Effort.

VS.

(Think of Aslan in C.S. Lewis's stories, letting his mane be shaved to protect his loved ones. That's the ideal.)

///

As for absent fathers. Yes, I think that swirls around John and the horned-god symbols. Of course.

And yeah, the absent father-protector motif works for Cas a lot too. But my fave motif for Cas is actually the concept of the mythological Artifical Husband. This is the husband who springs from the Cosmic world to step in and carry out "Fatherly" duties in the New Household.

Cas's coat represents the artificial materials that he sprung from, also representing the role Dean wants him to live with him as. (Note: Dean wasn't alone in this. Cas really zones in on the co-Father role in 10 and beyond.)

There are Russian tales I like for this, too - I like the idea of Cas's overcoat representing his and Dan's mutual longing FOR a spouse,. The coat embodies both the idea of the Artificial Husband and the royal/kingly/soldierly/spousal nature of Cas's motifs.

At first, the Artificial Husband is "not real," but he "becomes real" through the mortal's longing for him, causing him to undergo a transformational change. ("You changed me, Dean.")

The Artificial/Divine Husband undergoes a "Civilizing Process" initiated by the Mortal Spouse, and that's how he becomes a proper Cosmic Spouse. (Cheekily, this is why Chastity the sex worker was named Chastity. Aside// I think too of Enkidu/wildman becoming Civilized through sex with a sex priestess in Epic of Gilgamesh. The idea of mortal = virginity has perhaps become warped over time because there's some evidence to suggest that it wasn't rooted in "being untouched" so much as it was about youth/growth/new experiences/springtime.")

Cas becomes "more human" through his connection to Dean. We see this with the mark of the handprint representing humanity.

///

Cas also embodies the Animal Bridgegroom. This motif comes across as early as Pamela, who gets her eyes burnt out because she can't look at Cas.

I think it even works in s6, when Bobby and Sam urge Dean to reveal Cas's true nature and mechanations, ultimately culminating in them working with Death to kill Cas.

Then Cas becomes the Lost Husband, fleeing from Dean, and Dean has to go through many Purgatory trials and seek out new supernatural allies in order to reach him.

"When Cas first laid on a hand on you in Hell, he was Lost!"

Cas gets Lost a lot. Lost in battle, lost in war, lost in paranoia and overprotective overpreparedness, dead again, lost memory, lost sanity...

Don't even get me started on how "recognizing each other" and "amnesia" swirl around Dean-Cas with regard to the divinity-humanity marriage motif. Or how Dean's dubious consent loss/loss of free will/inhibitions gets him spirited away by Hell-Kings and Cosmic Darknesses.

So, yeah, I think there's a lot of mileage for Cas as "absent father," but there's even more mileage for him as the Lost Husband.

[unhonestlymirror]

Jan Długosz:

"They say that during the civil wars that broke out first between Marius and Sulla, and then between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great and their successors, they left their ancient places of residence and their fatherland in the confidence that all Italy would perish in mutual extermination. Together with their wives, livestock and household members, the Lithuanians came to vast and deserted spaces accessible only to animals, almost constantly exposed to burning frosts and called “forests” by writers, to the northern country, which they, by their father’s and ancient name (Italy), called Litalia(nowadays, due to some change, it is called Lithuania by the Poles and Russians), and they gave the tribe the name Litalov, adding only the letter “l” in front, which the Italians still add today in their folk language. Before accepting the true faith, they revered the same shrines, the same gods and celebrated the same sacred rites and festivals that existed among the Romans when they were pagans, namely: the sacred fire, which the Romans superstitiously maintained continuously, and in Rome Jupiter the Thunderer, [...] also the forests, which they considered sacred and which to touch with iron were considered wicked and disastrous, for everyone who touched them with iron and raised a hand to them, the cunning and crafty Satan, with God's permission, struck them in the hand, eye, leg or another part of the body [...]"

N.B. This obviously can not be true because Lietuva/Litva means "the country of rain" from the word "lyti" and, well, 500 Romans who got used to the luxury of Italy would not choose absolutely barren, deserted and undeveloped lands to emigrate to... which means Lithuania and other Baltic tribes were quite nice to live in back then. :D but I still find this funny.

[tonesurvivor]

music tag game :))))

(put your music on shuffle and list the first 10 songs + tag 10 people)

ty @yellebarkstocks for tagging me ᕙ(‾̀◡‾́)ᕗ

damage gets done - hozier & brandi carlile (i love this song sooo much. it's so upbeat- perfect for the morning or driving w the windows down, yknow?)

three movements from petrushka: i. russian dance - khatia buniatishvili/igor stravinsky (gorgeous little piece, khatia is great, i am prancing along in those weird little leather shoes that the berries and cream guy has)

lust. - kendrick lamar (another 10/10 summer song, it just sounds like when it gets super hot outside. only 5 minutes but feels waaaay longer for some reason and i love it so much. also great for when you're high lmao)

a temporary high (acoustic) - aurora (god- aurora has been my favourite artist for a very long time. now it's more of a top 3 situation with chappell & billie, but she's always up there and i'll never forgive myself for not realizing she was at the same convention i was until it was too late. that shit was devastating. anyways!! this song is beautiful, especially this acoustic version)

xxx. (feat. u2) - kendrick lamar (C L A S S I C. i don't think i'd be able to forget the lyrics if i tried, i've listened to it waaaaay too much)

say anything - girl in red (crying. this reminds me of early high school so bad :') aaaaaaaa)

el cuarto de tula - buena vista social club (another classic. love this shit. this song has never been skipped in my household idc if i play it too muchヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪ it's long asf tho)

eleanor rigby - the beatles (it's september now. listened to this song and it's september now. i want to know who was on the violins in this because BOY DO THEY HIT)

jingle bell rock - bobby helms (honestly not mad at this. jingle bell rock = #1 christmas song, fight me)

blazed (feat. pharrell williams) - ariana grande (shiiiiiiit. haven't listened to ariana in a hot minute- did i forget this song existed? yes. is it really fucking catchy? oh yeah.)

tagging @unknownteapot @lilac-hecox @sage-lights @notthatalex @alanabanana @dthclws @bellqmione @poppyfamily @babychosen @devils-reign ( ˘ ³˘) <3

[pretordh]

The Russians completely destroyed the Tavrian Chersonesus in Sevastopol, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

This is reported by "UP. Life" with reference to Evelina Kravchenko, a senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

The researcher told about this at the III International Forum of the expert network of the Crimean Platform . She emphasized that the Russians are destroying original architectural monuments and erecting new buildings in their place.

"Now negative processes are taking place with the only monument of world importance, which we managed to nominate and include in the list of monuments in Crimea - Chersonesus Tavriysky ," said Evelina Kravchenko.

It is noted that in 2015-2016, the developers fenced off the archaeological remains located on the surface: towers, walls and columns with viewing platforms. Later, an amphitheater was built on the site of the ancient citadel, and it carries a load of about a ton on the original structure.

In addition, a significant part of the found artifacts was taken to Russia: frescoes, dishes, household items and icons. After that, the construction of the archaeological park "New Chersonese" began on the site of the remains of the necropolis.

"The Russians did not know anything about the geological situation at this place, so they began to remove the soil on the territory with ordinary excavators. Somehow they dug up an ancient spring there, so everything flooded ," shared Evelina Kravchenko.

Now, in fact, a new city has been built on the site of the archaeological remains. The archaeological park covers old finds, and a number of excavated objects were gradually moved and rebuilt elsewhere.

What's more, the Russians built St. Volodymyr's Cathedral where the settlement used to be. It is consecrated by the Moscow Patriarchate and subordinate to it.

What is known about the Tavrian Chersonesus

The ancient city of Chersonesus Tavri (translated from ancient Greek - "the city of the Sun God Horus") is located on the territory of the Heraklion peninsula of Crimea. This is the largest monument of Byzantium in the world.

Chersonesus existed 900 years before the creation of the Eastern Roman Empire. It was built in the 6th century. to n. is.

This historic city was one of the local centers of the Hellenic civilization, which originated in the Northern Black Sea region and later spread to Asia Minor and the Mediterranean.

The first archaeological park in Ukraine was created on the basis of Chersonesus Tavriyskyi. It is an object of cultural heritage of Ukraine.

On June 23, 2013, at the 37th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Cambodia, Chersonesus Tavri and its choir (agricultural district) were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

After the occupation of Crimea by Russia, it became impossible to preserve the integrity of Chersonesus Tavriyskyi. In 2015, the Russian army poured concrete over the site of an ancient manor on Cape Chersonese. Until now, the occupation authorities are constantly destroying the historical monument and looting it.

[dea-thynote]

Death note au but its just the original light switching places with the parody love note light after he tripped on air. The worst part is that, the yagami household is currently being surveillance and now L is confused with how Light is acting.

I just watched love note, parody of death note and light yagami from love note was so innocent 😭 he's both smart, cause he's a valedictorian, and also not, because he struggled with pronouncing death and misunderstood it as someone's name.

This is how I imagined it. The original light comes back home and notices that there aren't any people in the house. He opens the lock and goes to his room and notices that his tell if someone went in his room were all triggered. So in turn he avoids talking to ryuk and lays down on his bed. Ryuk tries to talk to him, but after not getting a response, he gets annoyed. Light tries to get up but then seemingly tripped on air (ryuks fault) and bashes his head on the floor.

This gets the attention of watari, L and Soichiro and they waited for a few moments and light seems to not be moving. Worried, soichiro gets up to immediately call the ambulance but was stopped by L who notices light moving, groaning and gets himself up. After Light finally seems to recollect himself and notices the blood, he screams and panics. And goes downstairs or to the bathroom to get a first aid kit. After bandaging up his banged up head poorly he sighs in relief and says "phew, that could have gone worse. I'm really glad that I didn't hurt myself too much from falling, who knew the floors were slippery!" And smiles before skipping to his room and opening a porn book lmfao.

(I just imagine that L would be thrown off because this does not check out his profile for kira. Since light yagami seems... childish. But I would imagine that love note light might slip up about panic because he can't see his diary (death note) anymore and he has a SISTER?? uhhhh okay.)

Back to love note, similar things happen, Ln! Light trips on air, not because of ryuk- the floors is just that slippery! He forgot he just waxed the floors before he went out! And gets his head bashed onto the floor. Again, love note watari, L and soichiro saw it. And L was like "uhh... case solved?" Of course, watari disagrees and urges soichiro to call an ambulance.

(Im debating whether or not watari actually calls the ambulance after soichiro and L argue again and Light is sent to the hospital. OR watari notices him moving and stops their arguing to look at the cameras)

Og! Light finally wakes up and almost glares at ryuk before remembering the cameras. He just sighs and complains about how he the floors are really.... slippery. And walks casually to the bathroom where he bandages himself. He goes back to his room and lays down, and ignores ryuk, it seems that the god of death is spouting nonsense about puppies and him getting mad for him throwing them to a wall. That's when he hears a knock and its... a Russian accent? From his sister? Now that's suspicious. What are you planning, L?