#Rally greece

[zerotosixty]

Esapekka Lappi, Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanperä, Ott Tänak, and Sébastien Ogier — 2023 Acropolis Rally Greece

[bring-subaru-back-to-wrc]

HERE WE GO RALLY GREECE!

[scotty-bloke]

ford colin gif collection

🎥 from youtube

[dimalink]

Colin McRae Rally 2 – snow, sand and tea at the country house

For a long time, I planned to get to genre of racing games. Rally, for example. Or something like arcade racing to play. For diversity. I like such not complicated games like shooters. For example, second Quake. So, you walk and shoot. Complete a labyrinth. Or like a racing games. You ride. Make a turns from time to time.

To speed down in turns. Maybe, it is more about arcade racing games. So, I planned for a long time to reach racing games genre. Except shooters.

And this moment is here. First such game for me it is a rally style game. Colin McRae Rally 2. It is rather well designed and interesting racing game. With a different game modes. And very good about graphics. Even more to say – excellent. And very involving game process. And I make a race with mode single race. You have several tracks at your choice. Different. There is sands, Greece. There is snow, some northern country. There is Italy, or something like that. And several cars to select. And when you are on the race, to change view. Something like view from a hood, some aside, and more far view. More close view. It is very remarkable.

In such games, for a long time, already, developers know how to make a very cool and cinematic like a movie replays. This thing, already, looks like a movie. So, here we have a cool replay too. So, right after the race, you see how you do it. As a movie!

Racing tracks are interesting. You need to learn track. As labyrinth, something like this. To know what places you can go faster. And what place has a raw turn, or big turn. And what place you need to be more carefully. Car can go in aside. And rush into the bushes. And also, you can ride straight in a tree on some winter track. So, this game has lots of places, where you can go off the track! And this makes this game interesting. Also, it is not hard to play this game. And you can simply have some tracks during your weekend. To make a circle after circle. And do like this. For free time and relax, I do one more circle.

And it has a very cool and stylish game menu. It is a style. That’s for sure. And game at the very start, it has a movie intro. Such an intro, u know. Cool intro. Video. The way you need to drive in game. To make a cool turns. Sunlight straight into the eyes. Such a beautiful and epic frames. And this game is play like something that in this movie intro, same style. Full action. Good arcade level. It is goes dynamically and not boring at all!

Right now, I practiced in single race. I played in this mode only. For relax. But, game also has another game modes. Which I will try one by one! At this moment game gives you mass of emotions. A real rally! Emotions, drive. So, game has it. And, I repeat, that I even don’t try all game modes yet. And I all the time do one more circle. I drink a tea. And make a circle. So, it is excellent summer countryside retro weekend.

In some old times I played in first part. When it was just released. It was a new game in those times. I remember that. And I launch it. In those times. And I like a lot first part. And only one sad thing, that I have a disc with game only for one day. To play. To try it. New for me genre of rally racing games.

And now I start from second part. So, I think, I need to try first part again too. Game control is light and good. There is automatically transmission. Well, you can set a manual too. But, I play with auto. So, it is more easier.

Several times I try attack time mode. And, as idea, you are with yourself. With your ghost. As it named in a racing games. It is also rather nice things. Try to get a better result, than your previous best result. Make a circle. Make a second one. It is appearing at the track your ghost. And you try to make your result better. You have a competition with yourself. So, I spent some time in this mode too.

But, most of time, I pay attention to single race mode. I like, mainly, arcade racing games. With good graphics. Some diversity at the racing track. Cars. So, I ride with virtual wind. Who don’t like this games. Game makes a most positive impressions. From a very first meet. And ahead it is still a summer days. Country house. Retro gaming. And new game modes! Which it will so cool to try! But single race is really good! It is racing cool!

Playing little games. From time to time i like to play videogames. And write about it. Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.

WEBSITE: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html ITCHIO: https://dimalink.itch.io/ GAMEJOLT: https://gamejolt.com/@DimaLink/games

BLOGGER: https://dimalinkeng.blogspot.com/ TUMBLR: https://dimalink.tumblr.com/

[rallytimeofficial]

WRC, saranno 72 gli equipaggi al via dell'Acropolis Rally Greece

🔴 🔴WRC, saranno 72 gli equipaggi al via dell'Acropolis Rally Greece

Il tempo stringe verso la partenza dell’Acropolis Rally Greece, decima prova del WRC, e ieri è stato reso noto l’elenco degli iscritti, che si è “spostato” nuovamente su un numero decisamente alto. Nel dettaglio, giovedì 5 settembre, 72 equipaggi – provenienti da 31 paesi – varcheranno la rampa di partenza di Lamia, per misurarsi nei 15 percorsi speciali per una lunghezza totale di 305 chilometri…

[clamorybus]

do you ever think that greek feminist who made the og 'we are the daughters of the witches you couldn't burn' sign ever looks upon what she's wrought, and shudders

[bikerspiritmagazine]

To Greece Rally 2023 ξεκίνησε στα Γιάννενα με την Ημέρα Προλόγου

Το πολυαναμενόμενο Greece Rally 2023 ξεκίνησε θεαματικά σήμερα, με αναβάτες από όλο τον κόσμο να κατεβαίνουν στην όμορφη περιοχή της Ηπείρου για την πρώτη μέρα του αγώνα, τον λεγόμενο πρόλογο. Continue reading Untitled

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Yanis Varoufakis’s “Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism?”

Monday (October 2), I'll be in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab. On October 7–8, I'm in Milan to keynote Wired Nextfest.

Socialists have been hotly anticipating the end of capitalism since at least 1848, when Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto - but the Manifesto also reminds us that capitalism is only too happy to reinvent itself during its crises, coming back in new forms, over and over again:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/books/review/a-spectre-haunting-china-mieville.html

Now, in Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, Yanis Varoufakis - the "libertarian Marxist" former finance minister of Greece - makes an excellent case that capitalism died a decade ago, turning into a new form of feudalism: technofeudalism:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451795/technofeudalism-by-varoufakis-yanis/9781847927279

To understand where Varoufakis is coming from, you need to go beyond the colloquial meanings of "capitalism" and "feudalism." Capitalism isn't just "a system where we buy and sell things." It's a system where capital rules the roost: the richest, most powerful people are those who coerce workers into using their capital (factories, tools, vehicles, etc) to create income in the form of profits.

By contrast, a feudal society is one organized around people who own things, charging others to use them to produce goods and services. In a feudal society, the most important form of income isn't profit, it's rent. To quote Varoufakis: "rent flows from privileged access to things in fixed supply" (land, fossil fuels, etc). Profit comes from "entrepreneurial people who have invested in things that wouldn't have otherwise existed."

This distinction is subtle, but important: "Profit is vulnerable to market competition, rent is not." If you have a coffee shop, then every other coffee shop that opens on your block is a competitive threat that could erode your margins. But if you own the building the coffee shop owner rents, then every other coffee shop that opens on the block raises the property values and the amount of rent you can charge.

The capitalist revolution - extolled and condemned in the Manifesto - was led by people who valorized profits as the heroic returns for making something new in this world, and who condemned rents as a parasitic drain on the true producers whose entrepreneurial spirits would enrich us all. The "free markets" extolled by Adam Smith weren't free from regulation - they were free from rents:

https://locusmag.com/2021/03/cory-doctorow-free-markets/

But rents, Varoufakis writes, "survived only parasitically on, and in the shadows of, profit." That is, rentiers (people whose wealth comes from rents) were a small rump of the economy, slightly suspect and on the periphery of any consideration of how to organize our society. But all that changed in 2008, when the world's central banks addressed the Great Financial Crisis by bailing out not just the banks, but the bankers, funneling trillions to the people whose reckless behavior brought the world to the brink of economic ruin.

Suddenly, these wealthy people, and their banks, experienced enormous wealth-gains without profits. Their businesses lost billions in profits (the cost of offering the business's products and services vastly exceeded the money people spent on those products and services). But the business still had billions more at the end of the year than they'd had at the start: billions in public money, funneled to them by central banks.

This kicked off the "everything rally" in which every kind of asset - real estate, art, stocks, bonds, even monkey JPEGs - ballooned in value. That's exactly what you'd expect from an economy where rents dominate over profits. Feudal rentiers don't need to invest to keep making money - remember, their wealth comes from owning things that other people invest in to make money.

Rents are not vulnerable to competition, so rentiers don't need to plow their rents into new technology to keep the money coming in. The capitalist that leases the oil field needs to invest in new pumps and refining to stay competitive with other oil companies. But the rentier of the oil field doesn't have to do anything: either the capitalist tenant will invest in more capital and make the field more valuable, or they will lose out to another capitalist who'll replace them. Either way, the rentier gets more rent.

So when capitalists get richer, they spend some of that money on new capital, but when rentiers get richer, them spend money on more assets they can rent to capitalists. The "everything rally" made all kinds of capital more valuable, and companies that were transitioning to a feudal footing turned around and handed that money to their investors in stock buybacks and dividends, rather than spending the money on R&D, or new plants, or new technology.

The tech companies, though, were the exception. They invested in "cloud capital" - the servers, lines, and services that everyone else would have to pay rent on in order to practice capitalism.

Think of Amazon: Varoufakis likens shopping on Amazon to visiting a bustling city center filled with shops run by independent capitalists. However, all of those capitalists are subservient to a feudal lord: Jeff Bezos, who takes 51 cents out of every dollar they bring in, and furthermore gets to decide which products they can sell and how those products must be displayed:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

The postcapitalist, technofeudal world isn't a world without capitalism, then. It's a world where capitalists are subservient to feudalists ("cloudalists" in Varoufakis's thesis), as are the rest of us the cloud peons, from the social media users and performers who fill the technofuedalists' siloes with "content" to the regular users whose media diet is dictated by the cloudalists' recommendation systems:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

A defining feature of cloudalism is the ability of the rentier lord to destroy any capitalist vassal's business with the click of a mouse. If Google kicks your business out of the search index, or if Facebook blocks your publication, or if Twitter shadowbans mentions of your product, or if Apple pulls your app from the store, you're toast.

Capitalists "still have the power to command labor from the majority who are reliant on wages," but they are still mere vassals to the cloudalists. Even the most energetic capitalist can't escape paying rent, thanks in large part to "IP," which I claim is best understood as "laws that let a company reach beyond its walls to dictate the conduct of competitors, critics and customers":

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Varoufakis points to ways that the cloudalists can cement their gains: for example, "green" energy doesn't rely on land-leases (like fossil fuels), but it does rely on networked grids and data-protocols that can be loaded up with IP, either or both of which can be turned into chokepoints for feudal rent-extraction. To make things worse, Varoufakis argues that cloudalists won't be able to muster the degree of coordination and patience needed to actually resolve the climate emergency - they'll not only extract rent from every source of renewables, but they'll also silo them in ways that make them incapable of doing the things we need them to do.

Energy is just one of the technofeudal implications that Varoufakis explores in this book: there are also lengthy and fascinating sections on geopolitics, monetary policy, and the New Cold War. Technofeudalism - and the struggle to produce a dominant fiefdom - is a very useful lens for understanding US/Chinese tech wars.

Though Varoufakis is laying out a technical and even esoteric argument here, he takes great pains to make it accessible. The book is structured as a long open letter to his father, a chemical engineer and leftist who was a political prisoner during the fascist takeover of Greece. The framing device works very well, especially if you've read Talking To My Daughter About the Economy, Varoufakis's 2018 radical economics primer in the form of a letter to his young daughter:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374538491/talkingtomydaughterabouttheeconomy

At the very end of the book, Varoufakis calls for "a cloud rebellion to overthrow technofeudalism." This section is very short - and short on details. That's not a knock against the book: there are plenty of very good books that consist primarily or entirely of analysis of the problems with a system, without having to lay out a detailed program for solving those problems.

But for what it's worth, I think there is a way to plan and execute a "cloud rebellion" - a way to use laws, technology, reverse-engineering and human rights frameworks to shatter the platforms and seize the means of computation. I lay out that program in The Internet Con: How the Seize the Means of Computation, a book I published with Verso Books a couple weeks ago:

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

[zerotosixty]

You need to believe in yourself, and that was the plan – when you start to drive and dream of the, let’s say, world championship or whatever. I feel I’m the best on gravel. But if everything is right, I can be the best on tarmac also.

— Kalle Rovanperä prior to the 2023 Acropolis Rally Greece

[apollosdaydreams]

Hello, can I request some smut of Lando Norris with rally driver reader??

Like something in the Monte Carlo rally after party or whatever you like 🤓

Lando Norris x driver!reader 

Warning: SMUT, MDNI, 18+ only, Unprotected sex- wrap it before you tap it.

Author's note: This is my first time writing smut, so sorry if it’s not good. I will try my best though!! And sorry I don't know much about Rally racing, so the rally part (and the drivers) will all be made up. I'm so sorry, so this will mainly focus on the after party!! Sorry for taking so long to get this uploaded, I was busy with the last two weeks in college and then finals and I finally had time to sit down and write. :) (Also in the mood board let's pretend she's not making lemonade.) 

The After, After, Party

The race went amazing, you were feeling like you were on top of the world. You are making history, as you are a female rally driver, making your childhood dreams come true and you have the most amazing, loving boyfriend ever. Lando Norris, a Formula 1 driver. Lando was able to come support you as he didn't have anything Formula 1 related. So here you both were in your hotel in Greece. Lando was standing in front of the mirror with just black boxers on, putting some hair product in. You were sitting criss-crossed on the counter in just a black lace thong and a matching black lace bra. You were also putting product in your hair. You weren't paying attention to Lando, as you were so focused on your hair that you didn't realize he was moving behind you until you felt his hands wrap around your waist. 

“You are so beautiful y/n.” He whispered into your ear while putting his chin on your shoulder. 

You turned a deep shade of red, “Shut up.”  You softly said while softly putting your hand on his face and pushing him away. You then grabbed for your small makeup bag, deciding you didn’t want to do much makeup. You just put on some mascara and highlighter. Once you got done doing your hair and makeup you walked over to your suitcase, as you were too lazy to unpack all of your stuff, and grabbed out some lighter wash jean shorts, a white tank top with one of Lando’s button up shirts that you had stolen from him, with your white converse. Tonight's party wasn't something you had to dress fancy for, but you also didn't want to show up looking like you had just rolled out of bed. 

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

You have been at the party for a while now, Lando staying sober and having nothing to drink so he could drive you both back to the hotel. While you decided to have a couple drinks, just enough to get you tipsy. You were starting to feel the effects of the alcohol, usually you were shy and you didn't show much PDA, but with some liquid courage you were dancing with Lando to the music. You were leaning back into Lando, grinding your hips back into his hands on your hips guiding your body to rock with the music. You leaned back your mouth now under his ear.

“Lando.” You breathed out.

“Yes love?” He asked while moving his hands up to your waist. 

“I need you.” You said, then moving your mouth to kiss under his jaw. You felt his hands move back to your hips and grip them harder. “Please.” You added.

He didn't say anything but took your hand and led you out the door, you saw your teammate, Filip and his best friend Patrick. You waved shyly at them as Lando led you out. 

“They are definitely going to fuck.” Filip turned to Patrick. 

“Oh for sure.” Patrick said while laughing. 

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Lando used your body to close the hotel door, his hands couldn't get off of you, one on your waist and one on your jaw. One of your hands was on his chest while the other was playing with his belt. 

“Jump.” He whispered out. You slightly jumped and he grabbed the bottom of your thighs, before he left the door he made sure it was locked and that the "Do not disturb” sign was still out, once he did that he brought you over to the bed and softly threw you on the bed. 

You laid on your back, breathing heavily, your heart rate was rapid. Lando then climbed on top of you, smiling slightly. 

“God.” He breathed out. “You are so beautiful y/n.” He said.

You blushed, and slightly hid your face in embarrassment. 

He grabbed your hands and put them above your head, “Don’t hide from me, love.” He whispered in your ear with a smirk. 

You blushed even harder, and Lando chuckled at that. You then wrapped your legs around his torso to bring him in closer to you. He then used one of his hands to grab your face, slowly making out with you. Moving his hips against yours. You moaned at the friction, wanting more you started to move your own hips. You then both quickly started to take off your clothes, wanting to be close to each other. After a few minutes of some slow kissing, and touching each other he had reached for your thong. He then quickly pulled your thong off, you have moved your hips up to get them off faster. He then went for your bra clasp quickly removing it and throwing it to where the rest of the clothes were. He was still left in his boxers. You didn't think that was fair though so you decided to speak up about it. 

“It's not fair.” You pouted. “I'm all naked and you still have your boxers on.” You said while playing with the band of boxers. He smiled at you and quickly threw his boxers off. His cock hitting his lower stomach, he then grabbed it and lined it up to your pussy. Moving it up and down to tease you before he finally pushed himself fully inside. You then gripped his back, making small crescent-like shapes on his muscular back. He then began moving at a slow pace, making your eyes roll into the back of your head. 

“Faster.” You breathed out.

He smiled, but followed your wishes, as he began to speed up the pace. He could feel you tighten around him making him groan, which made you clench him tighter and let out a moan. Your walls clenched against him, your breath hitching with his every thrust. He was pinning your squirming body down. When his breath hitched, his head slowly fell back in pleasure. 

“I'm going to cum-” He managed to get out. Your breath hitched, clenching his harder, your soft hands trailing up and down his back. When you felt him release in you, he gasped out. Moving his hand to your clit, to help you finish. 

Your body began to tremble in pleasure when you finally felt release. You gasped out, Lando still pumping in and out of you. When you softly hit his V-line, telling him that it was getting to much, so he softly pulled out, Both of you gasping at the lost of being so close to each other, Lando had a smug look on his face, looking down at your pussy, your cummed filled pussy. 

He then quickly left to run to the bathroom, he came back with a warm rag to start cleaning you. You gasped at the feeling on the rag on your sensitive pussy. 

“I'm sorry baby.” He said. “I’ll try to be fast.” He quickly responded. He slowly went faster, still wanting to be soft with you. “Its ok baby.” you whispered. He smiled down at you, he had left to put the soiled rag in the bathroom. He lightly hit your thigh. “Come on baby, you need to use the bathroom.” He told you. You sat up and got out of bed, holding on to Lando for support, once you got done in the bathroom you headed back to bed and layed down. Lando quickly followed, pulling your body close to his. It didn't take you long to fall asleep. Lando then looked down at your sleeping face and smiled. 

“I'm the luckiest guy on the planet.” He said while closing his eyes. 

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

It would be greatly appreciated if you could like, comment and reblog!!

© 2023 on tumblr apollosdaydreams do not translate/remake/repost my works on any platform without authorized permission.

[gabessquishytum]

Human au/Immortal throuple idea!

Hob and Dream are best friends but Hob has a secret. He has been in love with Dream his whole life. But as far as he knows, Dream is only interested in women.

In fact, when Hob meets Calliope in a college course, develops a crush and invites her out for drinks, he sees the exact moment Dream falls in love with her. He watches it happen and feels his heart break again. Because Calliope is amazing. hob already knows it. But what can he offer either of them?

So Hob encourages Dream and Calliope to date, and pretends it’s fine. Dream has had flings before but this time, Hob knows it is serious. Still he hangs out with them all the time. More than he should, but Hob can’t ever turn them down when they invite him out. Their other friends joke about Hob being their constant third wheel.

After a year, Dream proposes and Hob helps throw them an engagement party. And Dream and Calliope both jokingly fight over who gets Hob as their best man. They share.

But Hob is at his limit. He had tried to quiet his heart but it’s just too painful to be so in love. And as long as he is in their lives, he knows he will never get over them. So quietly, Hob puts in an application for a grad program in the states, as far away as he can get. He doesn’t have the heart to tell them, not when they’re so excited for their future. He doesn’t want to ruin their happiness.

The day of the wedding, hob is heartbroken but so happy to see them happy. He means every word of his speech, where he tells the crowd how well matched they are, and how they are his best friends. He hugs them goodbye. Even if they don’t know it’s goodbye forever, he tries to memorize those last moments. And then as Dream and Calliope depart for their honeymoon in Greece, Hob shuts the door in his packed up apartment and hops on a plane.

Dream and Calliope don’t hear from Hob on their trip—but they assume he wants to give him space. But when they get back, they find a letter from Hob waiting. Hob tells them he has loved Dream for years but he knows his feelings aren’t returned. He tells them that he is not angry and that he knows Calliope will make Dream so happy. He admits that he loves Calliope too. He tells them to take care of each other but that he needs to move on and he is sorry but this is the only way he could think to do it. If he saw them he knows they would have been able to talk him out of it.

Dream falls to pieces. He calls Hob over and over but Hob has changed his number. He has deleted his social media. Hob doesn’t want to be found. Calliope is stunned by her own heartbreak. And she’s never seen Dream like this.

Their first year of marriage is rocky. Without Hob’s joyfulness Dream drags Calliope into depressive spirals. Without his gentleness, they grate on each other’s nerves. They realize how much Hob had been the glue that helped them work. Their sex feels more like fighting for dominance than making love. Calliope is sure Dream resents her for Hob’s leaving. And sometimes he spits at her that she is right, he does. It’s clear something is missing. Now they realize not only have they lost Hob, they’re on the verge of losing each other.

Calliope, because she is a queen, finally sits Dream down to talk about Hob. He tends to fly into a rage or collapse into sadness at the mention of Hob’s name these days. But she makes him talk to her about him. About their friendship. And slowly they realize that not only did they depend on Hob, but they might have been in love with him too.

So there is only one thing to do. They have to track Hob down and convince him to give them a chance. But how will they find him when he is determined not to be found? And if they find him, what if he has already moved on?

Oh I love it!!! 3 dumbasses is the only thing better than 2 dumbasses.

I'm imagining that they rally all their friends and family to try and track Hob down. Calliope's sisters put out feelers around Europe, Death contacts all of her colleagues in the medical field, and Delirium has the amazing idea to get in touch with their brother Destruction (now know as Ollie) who also disappeared at one point and knows the best places to go to track Hob down. With a plan of action and hope in their hearts, Dream and Calliope's relationship actually settles into something more like it used to be. They feel united and they finally start to comfort each other instead of fighting.

Ollie's work pays off and he tracks Hob down studying for his PhD and living in the middle of bumfuck, nowhere. He's changed his name and even altered his appearance slightly - long hair tied back in a ponytail, beard sleek and neat around his jaw. Ollie sends the information to Dream and he and Calliope are on the first flight out to the nearest airport.

Hob is... not mad that they tracked him down. He's fucking lonely and he misses his two best friends, and he's not sure if he made the right decision. Never getting to see them hurts even more than seeing them in love. When they show up on the doorstep on his trailer he's so relieved he could cry.

Calliope smacks him on the chest, hard enough to make him stumble, and she says a lot of thing that mainly boil down to "I'm so mad that you didn't even give us a CHANCE to love you." And Dream is all teary eyes and trembling lips, holding onto Hob’s sleeve like he's going to just disappear into thin air. Eventually they all go inside, and Hob makes tea. Just like he always used to.

Dream and Calliope get on either side of Hob and twine themselves around him like vines on a trellis. They need his support and strength to allow them to grow. And they feel awful that they never even realised just how important he was. He should have been an equal partner in their relationship from the very beginning. And now they have him back, they're both practically trembling with want. They need to show him that they want him to come back and be with them always!

Meanwhile Hob is just trying to work out if this is just a wonderful dream come true... or if his two loves are really crowding him up against the wall and kissing every inch of him they can reach?!

[mariacallous]

Europe’s center of political gravity is veering to the right.

Center-right and far-right parties are set to take the largest number of seats in Sunday’s European Union election in the most populous nations: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland.

France led the rightward lurch with such a crushing victory for the far-right National Rally that liberal President Emmanuel Macron dissolved France’s parliament and called an early election. Early results suggested the National Rally would win some 32 percent of the vote, more than twice that of the president’s party.

“The president of the Republic cannot remain deaf to the message sent this evening by the people of France,” National Rally’s President Jordan Bardella told his supporters at the Parc Floral in Paris.

In Germany, the center-right is cruising to a comfortable victory, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) coming second and beating Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Socialists into third place.

Voters across 27 nations have voted over the past week to select 720 members of the European Parliament, who will serve over the next five years. Their first main role with be to approve or reject the main candidate for Europe’s top job: president of the European Commission.

In a Continent that has sought to exorcise the ghosts of fascism for eight decades, the scale of the presence of far-right will be one of the hottest topics of conversation.

Even though they are highly unlikely to be able to coordinate as a unified group inside the European Parliament — thanks to divisions on topics such as Russia — they will still be able to influence the overall direction of the EU, on everything from immigration to climate policies.   

Collected together, the radical right parties would theoretically represent the second biggest bloc in the Parliament — being on track to come first in France and Italy, and second in Germany, the three biggest and most important countries in the 27-nation bloc. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing party secured the most support, projected to be about 28 percent.

The far-right is also expected to win in Hungary, and picked up five more seats in the Netherlands. The center-right was comfortably first in Greece and Bulgaria.

The single most ominous warning signal for the future of the EU is France, given the scale of the far right’s win over Macron. All eyes will now be on whether France’s populist wave can maintain its momentum through the impending parliamentary elections and on to presidential elections in 2027 — where a victory for far-right leader Marine Le Pen would threaten to throw the whole EU into turmoil.

The official winner of the evening looks set to be European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen whose center-right European People’s Party will still make up the single-biggest bloc in Parliament. 

With early projections showing the EPP will secure about 181 out of the 720 seats in Parliament, the center right will be the dominant force but can hardly govern alone as it will be miles from an absolute majority in the chamber.

The main challenge for von der Leyen in the coming days and weeks will be whether she can strike a deal with the traditional centrist parties — the socialists and liberals — to build a majority of 361 or more in the Parliament.

“Today is a good day for [the] EPP. We won the European elections, my friends. We are the strongest party, we are the anchor of stability … Together with others we will build a bastion against the extremes from the left and from the right. We will stop them!”

Her supporters replied with chants of “Five more years.”

In all, the three big center groups look set to have just over 400 seats. That means von der Leyen’s reapproval will go down to the wire, because she will be rejected if only about 10 percent of lawmakers from the main parties rebel against their party lines. The rebellion rate is normally higher.

This raises a big question of whether she will need to fish around for other allies, ranging from the Greens to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy.

Von der Leyen’s center-right is quick to reject the xenophobia and euroskepticism of the far right, but it knows its voters share the same concerns on the cost of living, migration and a sense that Europe’s traditional core businesses — manufacturing and farming — are being strangled by green regulation.

Staking out its ground in the culture war over the EU’s identity, the EPP opened its EU election manifesto with its commitment to Europe’s “Judeo-Christian roots.”

[rainbowsky]

GG and DD and queer representation

As some of you might be aware, Greece has finally legalized same sex marriage. This was very exciting news!

I had an ask related to the Greek marriage equality debate and had begun drafting a response but ended up getting sidetracked, and by the time I got back to this post marriage equality had already won.

I figured I'd finish this response because it covers some ground that newer turtles might find useful (and because I hate leaving things like this unfinished).

@rozanthi asked: Πιστεύετε πως οι χελώνες βοηθούν η δυσκολεύουν τους ggdd στην σημερινή πραγματικότητα;

Hi rozanthi!

Here's the rest of the ask(s) rozanthi sent.

rozanthi asked: Sorry l put my question in English and not in Greek by mistake. Do you thing that turtles benefit or harm ggdd in today's sircumstansies, reality. I apologize if in someway l offended you with my question about turtles and ggdd. Maybe that is the reason why you didn't answer. But you see, in my country(Greece) these few last months, a debate is going on in our parliament about voting to make political marriage between people of the same gentre legal. There has been a lot of fight and tension from our church and people with no manners or Shane minds. I asked you that question because l support ggdd as a couple in a relationship as barriors of a message as pioneers of something important for China to accept. And l wanted to know how much public support in the form of turtles help them along or make it more difficult. Here as more we support homo. homosexuality we bring thanter and more hate. In February we will know if we made a baby's step in out parliament. Support your ggdd in any way you see tat you really help them and not making it worse on them. They need support Ln the most gentle delicate way. Thank you for baring me.

First of all, it's OK to send me an ask in another language. Don't apologize for feeling better able to express yourself in your first language. I can always machine translate and ask for clarification when I feel I'm missing something (and the asker can clarify if I get anything wrong). Although I think you've done an adequate job of communicating your question here in English.

Second, as I've said many times, people should never read anything into whether I answer their ask or not. It's almost always just a result of me picking easier/quicker questions to answer.

Now, to address the ask.

Your question reflects some misconceptions/misunderstandings about GGDD's situation and about what turtles represent. Some of the topics you're discussing here are not directly related, and I'm going to try to break them down into their component parts for you.

The first and most important thing I can say to you is (and this is really, really key to understanding GGDD and understanding what turtles are in China):

GG and DD are not representatives of the queer community, and turtles are not a political movement.

Quite the contrary. I think it's fair and accurate to say that GG and DD, and by extension turtles, actively take steps to avoid being seen as part of a political movement, queer movement, protest movement or human rights movement.

(In fact, unfortunately many turtles are actually not particularly LGBTQ-friendly, don't support queer rights or gay marriage, and don't even consider GG and DD to be gay/queer. Many believe GG and DD are only 'gay' for each other, which is homophobic and a reflection of poor sex education).

It's essential for their own safety that GG and DD are not seen as political movement in China, or as figureheads of the queer rights movement. The Chinese government and even a sizable percentage of the public at large tend to take a very dim view of anyone who tries to organize and rally around subversive political causes.

Especially the current government, which is very repressive and has been rolling back LGBTQ rights and freedoms and cracking down on queer orgs, shutting down LGBTQ outreach organizations, etc. Pride events and large public gatherings are treated as disruptive protest movements, and have been banned.

There are queer male turtles in China who actively avoid openly identifying as turtles in order to protect the fandom from being seen as a queer rights movement.

Turtles are a fandom and are categorized and treated that way both by turtles and by passersby. Just a fandom of 'cute young girls' clowning over some handsome boys they ship together.

It's important that it stays that way. GG and DD cannot be seen as leading a movement, they cannot take on the role of leading a movement, and many turtles would likely not even support such a movement.

That's not because GGDD are queer, by the way - although under the current government queerness is becoming in some ways more restricted and frowned upon at least from an official perspective - it's because political movements are frowned upon*.

*That's not to say that Chinese people don't organize or protest around certain causes, but those causes tend to be more municipal or limited in scope. Broader political movements - especially ones that appear to stand against the policies of the current regime - are generally very quickly quashed.

That's also not to say that GG and DD aren't hugely inspiring to queer people all over the world, because they are.

GG and DD do not even present themselves as queer.

This is important to keep in mind. GG and DD are closeted, and are assumed by the public at large to be straight single men. 'Eligible bachelors'. This is a double-edged sword, but ultimately it protects them and protects their careers. Top stars are a lot more marketable if there's a perception of romantic availability, and relationships - even relationship rumors - can have a massively negative impact on a star's career.

Even straight married stars hide their relationship status and present themselves as single for this same reason, and straight married celebrity couples - even ones who are out as being married - who attend industry events will often pretend not to know each other in public (sound familiar?).

Coming out as (or being outed as) married or in a relationship is viewed as career suicide, and a star's numbers, opportunities and popularity will plummet. Not always, but usually. Producers and backers know what sells, and married stars just don't sell as much as hot singles do. Fans will pursue stars that appear to be single, and drop them when they marry or come out with a relationship.

Heteronormativity means the vast majority of people in China will assume GG and DD are straight, and GG and DD will not 'correct' them on that. Quite the opposite, they go along with and even at times might say or do things that help feed the perception that they're straight.

There are almost no LGBTQ public figures in China, and those who are out are not top stars.

As international fans, what we do and think doesn't matter much.

Things that happen in the international fandom are largely irrelevant to people in China, and are almost never going to have any impact whatsoever on GG and DD. What we think about them and what they represent to us is of little consequence to their careers.

For example, the ongoing i-fan debate about colored light banners is a bit of a wank because nobody in the international fandom is ever likely to be at an event where we would have to make decisions about what color of light banner to bring. Our thoughts about colored light banners are utterly irrelevant to the fandom in China.

It's really easy to lose sight of that as an international fan, and get so caught up in and wrapped up in our own ideas and arguments and debates that we forget that nothing we say do or think really has any relevance to GGDD's lives.

Our support for their projects and merchandise and brands, our subscriptions to platforms to view their dramas, our movie tickets, our fan support when they travel internationally... these things do have an impact on them and do matter, but the opinions and political ideas that we might discuss and debate here on Tumblr or even on Twitter are highly unlikely to ever reach their circle or directly impact them, whether positive or negative.

There are some notable exceptions to this. Making candy out of nationalistic posts - particularly posts about events of national mourning or major political significance - is unwise and could potentially backlash on them. More about that in this series of posts from Pie.

I talked about some of the other harmful things we should be avoiding in this post.

But the idea that anything international fans might do or say as turtles might negatively impact GG and DD is - for the most part - not a reflection of reality.

There are valid reasons to believe GG and DD value turtles and take strength from our support.

This fandom has been around for 6 years, and in all that time GG and DD have never sought to shut it down. Other dating rumors, CP, etc. have been shut down over the years, but turtles continue to be the top CP in China and the fandom is constantly growing.

GG and DD have been caught on camera many times reacting positively to turtle light banners.

LRLG rumors - which many turtles believe hold a lot of credibility - have repeatedly depicted GG and DD as enjoying our support, and have at times directly expressed GG and DD's appreciation and gratitude to turtles for our support.

Despite the fact that this fandom is hugely controversial among GG and DD's solo fans and even among some passersby, GG and DD and some of their associates continue to regularly feed us candy. This is something that simply would not happen if we didn't have GG and DD's support.

If we believe BJYXSZD, then it only follows that turtles would mean a lot to GG and DD.

There is a fine balancing act between GGDD and turtles, where we show our support and they feed us, and we all try to keep things light and fly somewhat under the radar.

But turtles aren't 'under the radar at all'. Turtles are an incredibly active, vibrant, loud fandom in China, with big events and public charity work and fan activities and banners and billboards, etc. etc. However, they manage to fly under the radar because they're 'just fans'. They're not a political movement and they're not troublemakers. They're just a bunch of fans having fun together.

They also fly under the radar by being seen as a crazy fringe group, a bunch of deluded clowns. They are underestimated and dismissed because of this, which protects GG and DD.

A lot of turtles wear that proudly because they know that they're acting as a shield for GG and DD. Turtles make it possible for GG and DD to get public support for their relationship without having their relationship outed. Turtles take all the hate and ridicule that's piled on them, so that they can show GG and DD they're loved and supported.

This is one of the things about turtles that is most beautiful and powerful. Turtles stick their necks out every day to support and protect GG and DD.

I talked about that in more detail in this post.

I hope this helps give some context about queer issues as they relate to GG and DD, and to the turtle fandom as a whole. While many people inside and outside China support GGDD and are inspired by them and view them as queer icons, the way they are framed and discussed will differ wildly between the Chinese and international fandoms, and what is said outside of China won't have much of an impact on GGDD. That's for the best.

For my thoughts on the politics of all this, please see this post.

[ewrthings-race-repair-repeat]

Mitsubishi Evolution rally car

[rallytimeofficial]

Luca Hoelbling corona un traguardo importante all’EKO Acropolis Rally Greece 2023

🔴 🔴 Luca Hoelbling corona un traguardo importante all’EKO Acropolis Rally Greece 2023

Una gara dura, incerta, costellata di episodi imprevisti, ma non per questo meno affascinante, ha caratterizzato il ritorno di Luca Hoelbling nel FIA World Rally Championship avvenuto lo scorso weekend in occasione del 70° EKO Acropolis Rally Greece, una delle competizioni più celebri del Mondiale Rally. (Iscriviti gratuitamente al canale Telegram di Rally Time per ricevere le notizie sul tuo…

[rubberizer92]

🔥 Prepare to immerse yourself in the vibrant debut of Latex Legends League Season 5 – #LLLSeason5! 🔥 Get ready for a journey filled with allure, temptation, and the artistic flair of Greece's own Mark. An artsy soul at heart, Mark eagerly awaits his moment in the spotlight in our Latex Legends League!

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🏆 With his captivating allure and boundless creativity, Mark stands poised to conquer the latex arena and represent Greece with pride in Latex Legends League Season 5. His artistic soul and eagerness to shine make him a true standout among contenders.

🗳️ It's time to rally behind Mark and cast your votes on Instagram, Threads, Tumblr, and X! Let's propel this artsy virtuoso toward the zenith of latex immortality and witness his reign as a true Latex Legend!