#They were a big part of him getting elected in 2016.

[cyarsk52-20]

girl I never watched a single episode so boycotting is no problem for me.

Dear

@JoeNBC

@morningmika

@Morning_Joe &

@MSNBC Y’all Are Absolutely Disgusting!!!!! sincerely, everyone who is like done with you like done done

They’re some nasty Trump dick riding bastards and thank goodness I never watched them. Turn the media off. Thoughts And low ratings. ain’t no prayers. Unless it’s prayers DOWN for their success

[di-kot-o-me]

Thoughts on Matt Gaetz and US Democracy...

"I'm a lawyer. Hearing that Trump nominated this pedophile thing to be the nation's attorney made my stomach hurt and it has not stopped hurting since.

I found myself in law school and I marveled at the ability of words and laws to shape justice. I was radicalized when I was supposed to be studying something but sat on my bed, my books ignored, transfixed watching Anita Hill explain why Clarence Thomas was a vile man unfit for the highest bench in the world.

I carry a copy of the Constitution in my purse. I have parts of the Declaration of Independence memorized. It sounds like poetry to me. It was written by a great mind (but a flawed man) writing a great idea.

America has always been an idea. (Aarons Sorkin said that in an episode of The West Wing, which I'm rewatching on HBO Max because I so need a real President now, and Jed Bartlet is better than most, even if fictional.) So far we have done a really shitty job of translating that idea into a reality. But we have never scrapped the idea.

But that's what we did on November 5. People are so offended by transsexuals, people with dark skin, women, and the cost of eggs being inflated by bird flu, that they're willing to give up on the idea. They went with a game show host and the prize he will award to America is hate, despair, racism, and fascism.

2016 Trump was hot garbage. But there were guardrails. He had a team that didn't so strongly resemble the Star Wars Cantina Band. There was Congress. There was SCOTUS. There was the fact he had to run for re-election. That's all gone. He outsourced the actual thinking about governing to the Heritage Foundation and they came up with a doozy of a plan. A fine blueprint for a Fourth Reich. AG Matt Gaetz will be a big part of that. But Trump's so chaotic he may go off script and make things even worse.

And I keep hearing in my head that line that Trump said. "I am your retribution." Trump is a man well acquainted with hate. His own siblings and parents despised him. He is thin-skinned, insecure, and bitter. And he spews out, without shame, who he hates. Taylor Swift, for pete's sake. Trump will give orders that hurt people he hates, and he will get actual pleasure, perhaps sexual pleasure, from watching people he hates suffer. There are names for those people. Biden. Obama. Harris. Clinton. You don't think they'll be exempt from retribution, do you? AG Gaetz will sign their death warrants.

There are no guardrails. Law should be a guardrail. Good lawyers should be a guardrail. That's all gone. Trump's at he head of the most powerful nation in the world, and he has nothing but hate as a motivation. He has no love for America or its people. It has provided him some good money and some adoration. But he's not capable of love, or honor, or even imagination. He is incapable of understanding the idea. He hasn't read the poetry. He doesn't have an American soul. I don't think he has a soul at all, TBH.

What does this mean? It means the Constitution in my purse is about to be a forgotten idea. It means that the fundamentals of this nation are about to be eviscerated. Things will be worse than we can imagine. People will die. Democracy will die. The nation will die. The idea will die. The poetry will die."

-PersimmonTea

[spaceguy44]

2024 US Election Post-mortem

I need to get my thoughts out about the election. I'll split it into a few main parts. (This will be long) 1. Why did Kamala lose/Trump win?

There's 2 main reasons for the result.

1. The biggest thing isn't that Trump gained a lot (he did somewhat), but that Kamala lost hugely. Kamala ran an "strong" but status-quo style center-lib campaign. This was not the right move to capture the electorate in today's America. It hasn't been since 2012. People at every part of the political spectrum have expressed disdain with the way establishment Democrats have run things. People want change! They have since 2008. Obama convinced everyone that he represented change. Hillary lost in 2016 because they didn't get that change after 8 years, and wanted something new no matter what. Biden did a good job in 2020 of being somewhat of a change candidate, but it was really COVID that allowed him to win. I do think Trump would've won in 2020 if it weren't for the pandemic. Kamala had momentum at first because she literally was "change." Biden was hugely unpopular, and people didn't like the return to liberal status quo, even if he did do more than even Obama to bring (domestic) left-wing policies to the forefront imo. Kamala represented hope at first that we could get away from the Biden that everyone hated, and bring in a whole new kind of politics and movement that would take us out of the neoliberal malaise that was the again Biden. What happened in stead was the establishment decided that there was a contingent of Americans that were allergic to left-wing politics, and they need to be captured.

THIS IS THE MAIN POINT OF FAILURE FOR BOTH HILLARY AND KAMALA. I do not believe there is a (large) population that is inherently right-wing, and another that is centrist, and another that is left-wing. I do think there are some that you could never convince one way or another, but it's just impossible that so many people could vote for Obama, and then turn around for Trump if people had some sort of weird internal political compass that they adhered to regardless of policy. No, Trump (and the right more broadly) MADE his base. This is the other reason Trump won.

2. Trump did make some gains, though I believe the right campaign from Harris could've overcome that. I think the Trump gains are more indicative of what Harris lacked. Kamala tried to adjust her campaign to match an electorate. Trump didn't give a fuck. He said what he wanted, and people liked that. They don't care about decorum. They don't care about "unity". They want someone they think will "fight" for them. People saw Kamala bringing in the Cheneys and just saw another neolib that would flake on any conviction to grab a vote. People don't want a policy. People want a candidate with conviction. Trump was also adept at playing on people's fears and insecurities. He MADE them into Trump supporters by playing on those fears. Harris did not try to make Harris supporters by playing on fears (at least enough). She was best with the abortion stuff, but that wasn't the issue that exit polls showed people care about. The top issue was the economy. Yes, "the economy" is objectively doing better if you look at the stats, but people don't feel like it because prices are still high despite the buying power of the dollar recovering (inflation was reduced!). People felt that because corporations kept prices at pre-inflation reduction levels. Harris briefly flirted with price capping, which would be the exact sort of populist policy that directly addresses people's fears/insecurities and breaks from the status quo that could excite a mythical "Harris base" that maybe existed for 2 weeks.

It's the same with immigration. Trump created a "big lie" about the border being in crisis, and played on the truly hurting average middle-American's insecurities. You have a population that is hurting for corporate consolidation destroying small local business, that has been devastated by opioids, and is seeing the towns and culture they grew up with decay and seemingly leave them behind. Are Trump's policies going to uplift them? Hell no! Does he talk to specifically them all and directly address their insecurities though? Absolutely. In stead of addressing these people (these are the ones on the red arrow map that's been going around), she accepted the lie about immigrants and rejected making any radical policy change from the system that threw middle America under the bus.

I should say I am literally living in a small rural city in a deep-red state, so I know what they're saying. These people aren't necessarily bigots. Some are, but I think most think they aren't. I think anyone can be prone to getting caught up in a hate movement if the right buttons are pressed, and Trump deftly presses those buttons. What needed to happen was pressing the right buttons to address their insecurities and fears that doesn't rely on hate and scapegoating. This is what I think Bernie Sanders does well in general polls, but there's too much movement within the Dems to preserve the liberal status quo. That needs to change or, the Dems die. LIBERALISM IS DEAD. We address the fears that made people Trump voters, or democracy dies! Here are 2.5 other smaller reasons: 3. Sexism, Racism, and Religiosity. I will not deny that these do play a part in certain parts of the electorate. However, I don't think they're insurmountable hurdles in a general election. I think Obama's campaign is proof of this. But we shouldn't deny that there are a significant portion that wouldn't vote for Kamala for purely bigotry reasons. Hell, I know some personally. But I do think it is a mistake to blame these for our failures. WE LEARN NOTHING OTHERWISE! 4. Believe it or not, but there's just a lot of people out there that just don't care or avoid politics all together. These people aren't bad or deficient, but they just don't include thinking about politics constantly as a part of their lives. They think about the election for a few days, and then get on with their lives for 4 years and tune out everything. Generally, these people are privileged, though there's also some that have been so hurt by our system and policies, that they tune out in pure nihilism about it all. These people vote on vibes, they vote based on what those they care about support, and many just sit out the whole thing. Voter apathy is definitely a thing, and it hurst especially the left imo. I do believe the majority of people would loath Trump's policies if they actually knew what they entailed, so this apathy only takes away from the left. 5. Kamala did NOT lose due to the Gaza protest. She might have lost a bit of support by not being an empathetic foil to Trump's "glass the whole strip" rhetoric, but I don't think it made a significant difference. And I'm gonna be real with y'all; Tumblr is mostly full of it if they think they can accomplish anything with a protest vote for Gaza. I learned this in 2016. That action won't do anything, and it's too risky when a literal fascist is on the other side of the ballot. Yes, I hate that Kamala did not oppose the current Biden policy of letting genocide happen, but Jill Stein/no vote can't pressure these people in the establishment without hurting their campaign financing. The votes are in, and 3rd party votes would not have saved Kamala.

2. What happens now? What is a 2nd Trump admin like?Maybe this is a bit of copium, but I do think that Trump will still be overall very incompetent and unable to enact the worst of his policies. Terrible things will still happen (and I'll get to that later), but I think some of the catastrophizing is a bit overblown. Let's take the mass deportation policy for example. This would be a horrible campaign on the level of the worst historical genocides. He would need to create an ICE apparatus so large that it would rival the fucking gestapo. Just think of all the agents and infrastructure that would need to be developed to round up ~20million people and transport them to the border and detention facilities. There's no practical way to deport that many people. The logical end point is concentration camps. Yes, we have them already to an extent (I mean the euphemistically named "immigrant detention facilities"), but we don't have anything that could handle "mass deportation." Building the facilities, hiring the agents, buying the buses and trains, and executing the warrants all takes a lot of time and money. None of this goes unnoticed, and it won't go without resistance today. Congress still controls the purse, despite what the supreme court says about Trump's immunity to do whatever he wants. SCOTUS said he can't be prosecuted for committing a crime, not that he can break a constitutional rule. The margins are too thin in the new congress, and I genuinely do not think that he has the political tact to navigate around how much resistance he'll get. My main evidence for this is the border wall. He had all the support he needed within congress and his base to try to "build that wall." The GOP even controlled both branches of congress, and shutdown the government multiple times to try to get his way. They had a majority in the house his first 2 years. It meant nothing! He got a regressive tax cut passed, and that's about it. I know there's a lot of bullshit he can pull to push terrible things through, and he'll have ghoulish cronies that will be the actual brains behind things, but honestly, they're dumb as shit too. They're too evil for their own good. They will eat themselves alive through infighting and liberal resistance before they can start a genocidal campaign on American soil. That's not to say there will be some horrible things. Here's what I do think he'll be able to do: - Ban abortion nationwide either through the Comstock Act or SCOTUS. - Completely fuck up half of our federal institutions that keep us informed and safe (ie. dismantling or gutting of Dept. of Education, EPA, FTC, NSA, HHS, and more). - Allow for more religious integration into our public institutions like schools - Essentially turn our government into an oligarchy (or more of one than it already is) - Reverse gay marriage rights (overturning obergefell) and restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ in the public sector overall. - Exacerbate the Gaza genocide - Let Putin have his way with Ukraine - Royally fuck up the economy with Tariffs - Probably get us into some kind of overseas war - If he survives to the end of his term, I do think that our democracy will be incredibly fucked. Like, I think they'll be able to push through so many bullshit rules that we won't be able to come back unless an actual leftist populist makes huge rounds.

Overall, it's gonna suck, especially if you're LGBT in a red state. I think he'll also continue targeting undocumented migrants, but I doubt he'll be able to put together the infrastructure to genocide them. Yes, Hitler and his regime were incompetent too, but it was really the enabling act post-Reichstag fire that allowed for him to start pushing the policies that would become the holocaust. It was only at that point that he had no more resistance, and could order whatever he wants. We're definite not there yet with Trump.

3. What do we (the left) do now?Honestly, just stay vigilant, be active within your community, make connections (even with Trump voters), and don't give in to the despair. Once you're hopeless, it will only make it easier for them to keep winning. We fight against the fascists until the bitter end. The only endpoint of fascism is self destruction. I am a leftist, but I am not a revolutionary. I think armed action rarely leads to good outcomes, and history shows that. However, if we get a Reichstag fire moment or an enabling act moment, that's not the point to lose hope. If people start turning their neighbors into the gestapo-fied ICE, that's not the point to hide. These represent the time where politics should be abandoned, and an actual violent fight for freedom and liberty should begin. I pray we never come to that point. Hopefully, these next four years will look like a continuation of 2016-2020. We'll have a slow degrading of our rights, but if too many of those we all care about are hurt, we can come together and help to reverse it. I know things are super polarized and we all have our own little bubbles in society, but there comes a breaking point where too many people are hurt, and even the biggest MAGA head will have someone they deeply care about that is very hurt by Trump. This is my hope, though it unfortunately relies on things getting worse first before becoming better. 

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kevin Robillard at HuffPost:

In June 2015, former President Donald Trump infamously came down a golden escalator and declared himself the man who couldn’t be bought. “I’m using my own money,” Trump said in the opening speech of his presidential election campaign. “I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich.” Trump, who did self-fund large portions of his 2016 primary campaign, would return to this theme again and again. He would run against a field of more mainstream GOP politicians, each backed by super PACs filled with million-dollar checks from wealthy donors, and then against Democrat Hillary Clinton, who many voters saw as the embodiment of a moneyed class of Washington insiders. Now, almost a decade later, he is running as a candidate who is openly for sale. He has said he’ll offer plum jobs to major donors like Elon Musk, promised favors to oil executives, bragged to the wealthy about the tax cuts he can deliver and has even taken time away from his campaign to pitch a cryptocurrency project for his sons.

Americans can even buy DJT on the stock market, in the form of shares in the publicly traded holding company that owns his social media site, Truth Social. That company’s revenues are meager, with the share price hitting all-time lows, but it’s still being propped up by the former president’s loyal political fandom. “He just thinks he operates in his own world,” Fred Wertheimer, a veteran of decades of fights over campaign finance and government ethics, told HuffPost. “What he’s doing is incredibly brazen in both asking for large amounts of money and telling people what he’s going to do for them in return.” “Bottom line, I’ve never seen anyone do what he’s doing,” Wertheimer said. Trump’s campaign did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story. His new strategy may have created an opening for Democrats, if Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign can seize it.

[...] Trump’s image as an outsider/businessman, unafraid to upset political apple carts, powered his run through the 2016 GOP primaries. He took special aim at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the beneficiary of the outside group Right to Rise, which had stunned observers with its explosive fundraising. “They will be bombarded by their lobbyists that donated a lot of money to them,” Trump told a crowd in Iowa of his primary rivals, not long after his campaign’s launch. “Jeb raised $107 million, OK? They’re not putting that money up because it’s a wonderful charity.” Standing on a debate stage in Boulder, Colorado, that October, Trump decried how super PACs were corrupting his fellow candidates. “Super PACs are a disaster,” he said. “They’re a scam. They cause dishonesty. And you better get rid of them because they are causing a lot of bad decisions to be made by some very good people.”

Republicans who worked on the campaigns against Trump remember the message as particularly devastating, if not especially novel. Alex Conant, who was then the communications director for the presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), noted plenty of candidates had tried to run as outsiders taking on the establishment before, but said the tactic was far more effective for a New York real estate developer. “That was his most salient message in 2016,” Conant said. “He was a uniquely good messenger for it, because he was such an outsider, and it also kind of excused all the unconventional stuff — attacking John McCain, attacking Republican Party leaders. A more typical politician, if they were doing that, you would think they were idiots. For him, it was part of what made him so authentic.” In the general election, Trump relied more on outside groups and traditional fundraising than he did during the primary campaign. But as he took on a rival from a second political dynasty ― Democratic nominee Hilary Clinton, who was battling scandals about her email account and a trio of paid speeches she delivered to Goldman Sachs — he still ran as an insurgent.

[...]

‘Always Will Be A Con Man’

Despite his rhetoric, Trump did little to “drain the swamp” upon taking office. He failed to follow through on a promise to divest his business holdings. His hotel quickly became a gathering spot where those hoping to win Trump’s favor could also line his pockets. He appointed lobbyists to key government positions overseeing defense, trade and environmental protection. He took in up to $160 million from international business deals while he was president. “He has and always will be a con man who’s really only looking out for himself and whatever helps him to obtain power,” said Tiffany Muller, the president of the Democratic campaign finance group End Citizens United. “All his promises went out the window. Instead of draining the swamp, he brought the swamp to him and his properties and cashed in.”

Donald Trump and his supporters have long pushed the baseless refrain that “he can’t be bought.”

Well, I have some news that the MAGAdonians don’t like: Trump didn’t drain the swamp but expanded the swamp and has been bought by Super PACs to fulfill their agendas.

[centrally-unplanned]

In my previous post around "ignoring election victories as events-in-themselves" we were memeing about it being a subtweet of Richard Hanania, but as I mentioned at the end it really isn't. And for a bonus reason, he doesn't make that mistake! He has a very explicit theory about "why Trump winning itself won't change the party":

This is an argument, fair enough! But I think it is a pretty bad one. The intellectual journey for this is, imo, the way that Trump beat all of his challengers in the post-2024 environment. People seemed to copy his playbook, he had halfheartedly launched a failed coup, and yet none of it was enough to beat him. It made a lot of people think, "oh, this guy is magic. No one can replace Trump"

The key weakness of this reason is that, yeah, no one can replace Trump - because Trump still exists? He was president. And he is still running for office! That is, in fact, quite normal for how loyal followers work. For them nothing has changed, why would they change? Trump's coalition is definitely not as bright as Obama's coalition so he gets a more extreme version of it, but Obama is still getting glowing reviews and polls well almost a decade out from his presidency era from typical voters. People are naturally sticky this way, it is how we work.

There certainly is more to it - Trump's 2020 lie definitely gave him a sort of narrative throughput to justify extended support for example - but you really don't need more, because this factor goes away when Trump dies. Which he will, pretty soon. And meanwhile what Trump's core wants is probably not going to go away (particularly because it is pretty incoherent). The idea that they will simply be incapable of elevating someone else to the same position is extreme Great Man Theory Brain.

A lot of this buys into this notion of 4D Chess Mastermind Trump but for political charisma, but that is silly. He is a perfectly talented politician in some respects, a charismatic guy, don't get me wrong. But he isn't like a savant; he constantly does weird, alienating shit, and is much worse this campaign as his age is showing. There just isn't any big mystery to why he succeeded (beyond the inherent mysteries of all causation): he was famous and also very committed to being a big liar who gunned for the obvious Republican weaknesses. He was happy telling a motivated base he truly understood their nativist impulses, while promising mainstream Republicans normality and his commitment to things like abortion. Shockingly few Republicans were actually willing to just Come Out And Say It like he did - like really, you can find barely anyone in 2016 who does it.

And meanwhile, Trump is not a popular politician! He isn't at 50/50 because he ran a good campaign, he ran an awful campaign. He is just up against an incredibly unpopular incumbent in a world where incumbents in every country are losing every election. Nikki Haley would have easily done better. A big part of Trump's hand-picked down-ballot candidates doing badly is that he just chose fucking awful ones because he is a dumbass. They weren't awful because they were radicals; they were bad politicians, with ludicrous weaknesses and poor skillsets. What "magic" is there to capture here? The next leading Republican politician will likely do much better than him, unburdened by all his terrible baggage and off-putting behavior.

A next leader who will be leading a party that has now been shaped and molded into one far more comfortable with authoritarianism as a solution to policy gridlock. Maybe they won't value that! Fair, I think that is possible, and even likely. Most people are just generally decent people, and voters generally find this brand off-putting. But saying that it can't happen is complete folly. And we have a laundry list of leading Republicans who have openly embraced election denial to juice those odds, and voters who love to punish incumbents for this-or-that problem of the day.

IMO this is cope, building up Trump to be something far more special than he is. Voters just like authoritarian policies sometimes, and courting that isn't magic. It alas be that way.

[mariacallous]

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) is fond of responding to his detractors with a bit of advice: “Let your haters be your waiters when you sit down at the table of success.”

The Department of Justice now seems to have a few things to say about Adams’ success. In a 57-page, five-count indictment unsealed Thursday, federal prosecutors accused him of taking bribes from foreign nationals and doling out favors over a span of nearly a decade.

Others in his orbit have also been investigated by federal authorities, leading to several high-profile resignations this month — among them police commissioner Edward Caban and mayoral legal adviser Lisa Zornberg.

Adams said the charges were “entirely false” and “based on lies,” adding that he looks forward to defending himself.

“I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit,” he said.

Adams, a former captain with the New York Police Department, was elected mayor of the country’s largest city in 2021 on a pro-NYPD platform, and is seeking reelection in 2025.

The indictment paints a picture of a man who is comfortable accepting luxuries either for free or little cost, allegedly using fake paper trails and cash to conceal them, and performing various favors in return. It also accuses him of using a donation-matching program aimed at giving New Yorkers a stronger voice in local elections to steal some $10 million in public funds.

Here’s what we learned about the accusations:

Adams allegedly took a lot of money from Turkish nationals who believed he could be president someday.

Prosecutors say foreign nationals seeking favors from Adams funneled cash to his campaign through American citizens in a “straw man” setup.

A text exchange between a Turkish businessman and an aide to Adams provided insight into the deals:

“Fund Raising in Turkey is not legal, but I think I can raise money for your campaign off the record,” the businessman wrote. Asked how Adams would formally declare the funds as a campaign donation to comply with the law, the businessman responded: “He won’t declare it ... Or ... We’ll make the donation through an American citizen in the U.S .... A Turk ... I’ll give cash to him in Turkey ... Or I’ll send it to an American ... He will make a donation to you.”

The aide said Adams “wouldn’t get involved in such games” because it “might cause a big stink later on,” but promised to talk to Adams about it.

Adams’ texted his feelings about a different but similar proposal from another Turkish national.

“I don’t want his willing to help be waisted [sic],” Adams allegedly wrote.

At least one of the Turkish nationals believed Adams might be president of the United States one day, according to the indictment.

He was a frequent flier on a Turkish airline.

Adams either flew for free or for a heavily discounted rate on a Turkish airline owned in large part by the Turkish government, according to the indictment, which noted destinations included “France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary and Turkey itself.” He allegedly did so even when it was less convenient than other options, like transferring through Istanbul to get to France.

Prosecutors say the business class flights to India, taken with his partner in 2016, would have cost $15,000, but the couple paid less than $3,000 and accepted free upgrades. Another trip taken in 2017 with several companions would have cost $35,000 regularly.

An Adams staffer arranging flights for him in June 2021 told an employee of the airline to charge a price that was “somewhat real” because “we don’t want [the media] to say he is flying for free.”

Turkish nationals “further arranged for Adams and his companions to receive, among other things, free rooms at opulent hotels, free meals at high-end restaurants, and free luxurious entertainment while in Turkey,” the indictment stated.

Adams tried hiding his antics, but incriminating texts remained.

One exchange between Adams and a staffer stood out in the indictment. The pair were texting about another possible trip to Turkey in 2019.

“To be o[n the] safe side Please Delete all messages you send me,” the staffer texted Adams.

He texted back, “Always do.”

A staffer deleted texts during her FBI interview.

In November 2023, an Adams staffer submitted to a voluntary interview with the FBI. At one point, the indictment said, she “excused herself to a bathroom and, while there, deleted the encrypted messaging applications she had used to communicate” with Adams and his Turkish contacts.

Adams helped open a costly new skyscraper despite flaws.

Adams allegedly ensured that a 36-floor building that would serve as the new home of the Turkish consulate could open quickly, in time for a visit by the Turkish president in September 2021.

The New York Fire Department was concerned about dozens of defects with the building. But a top NYFD official wrote a “conditional letter of no objection” to the building, which he had never done before, and it opened in time.

He allegedly made other construction problems go away.

One of the straw donors, who was not a member of the city’s Turkish community, later texted Adams about a problem with the city’s Department of Buildings.

He is famous in Turkey, apparently.

One of the straw donors was a Turkish entrepreneur referred to in the indictment as “the Promoter,” who arranges events for wealthy and powerful people to meet one another. The indictment states that he was “hoping to leverage Adams’ considerable fame in Turkey to benefit the Promoter’s clients.”

Right after Adams won the 2021 mayoral election, the man suggested in a text message to another Turkish national that he intended “to go and talk to our elders in Ankara about how we can turn this into an advantage for our country’s lobby.”

According to prosecutors, Adams was living it up on his visits to the country. One trip included a stay at the Four Seasons, a yacht tour, a stay at a luxury beach resort, and a car and driver. He paid $720.

He ignored the Armenian genocide on its remembrance day.

As mayor, Adams did not make a statement on the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in 2022, allegedly on request from his Turkish contacts. Turkish nationalists continue to deny the systematic massacre that began in 1915.

A secretive 2025 Adams campaign event was allegedly filled with foreign nationals.

Prosecutors say Adams welcomed wealthy foreigners to a fundraising event in a Manhattan hotel which was billed as a climate-related event. A PowerPoint presentation was allegedly created to help hide the true purpose of the event, saying it was hosted by “International Sustainability Leaders” and had a ticket price of $5,000.

He told the FBI he forgot his phone password.

When the FBI executed a search warrant for Adams’ devices in November, they found his mobile phone to be locked. Adams claimed he’d recently changed the password from a four-digit number to a six-digit number — and forgotten it.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 5, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 06, 2024

The U.S. government continues to tighten the screws against Russian malign activity. This morning the Department of Justice announced an indictment charging Dimitri Simes for violating U.S. sanctions against Russia. Simes allegedly worked for a sanctioned Russian television station and laundered the money from his work. Simes advised Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. 

A second indictment charged Simes’s wife, Anastasia, with sanctions violations and money laundering through the purchase of fine art. 

The Justice Department also issued a grand jury’s superseding indictment against six Russian computer hackers. Five were officers in Russia's military intelligence agency; one is a civilian. The six are charged with hacking into and leaking information from, as well as destroying, Ukrainian computer systems. The hackers also attacked systems in European countries that support Ukraine and in the U.S.

The State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information on the defendants’ locations or their malicious cyberactivity.

The fallout from yesterday’s revelation that six powerful right-wing media figures were on the Russian payroll continues. One of the right-wing commenters referred to in yesterday’s indictment, Tim Pool, has pushed the idea that the U.S. is in a civil war, interviewed Trump on his podcast in May, and has been fervently against American aid to Ukraine. Today, he posted: “Upon reflection I now understand that Ukraine is our Greatest ally[.] As the breadbasket of Europe and a peace loving people we cannot allow the Fascist Russians to continue their crimes against humanity[.] We must redouble our efforts and provide and additional $200b at once[.]”

By this evening, though, he was making a joke of the news that his paycheck had come from Russia.

Notably, Trump posted on his social media site a rant that tied his own 2016 campaign to yesterday’s indictments, although the indictment itself did not do so. He accused “Comrade Kamala Harris and her Department of Justice” of “resurrecting the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and trying to say that Russia is trying to help me, which is absolutely FALSE.”

Vice President Harris is not in charge of the Department of Justice.

By tying yesterday’s indictments to his campaign’s involvement with Russian operatives in 2016, Trump might have been trying to suggest the story was old news, but it does highlight the parallels between Russia and right-wing operatives trying to get him reelected. Along with his colleague Donie O’Sullivan, Jake Tapper put it like this on CNN: “Today, the U.S. government is trying to peel back more layers of what officials say are massive and complex efforts underway to influence your vote in the upcoming election. One part of these alleged plots: replacing your average 2016 Russian social media bots with actual conservative Americans, right-wing influencers with a combined millions of followers, influencers promoted by Elon Musk, some visited by Republican politicians such as former president Trump.” 

Then Trump fell back on the old trope that his opponents are communists, posting on his social media platform: “We are fighting true COMMUNISM in this Country. We have to save our Elections, our System of Justice, our Constitution, and our FREEDOM, but that can only be done after we win BIG on November 5th, and proceed to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” 

Economists for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. say that a Trump win in November would hurt the U.S. economy, while a Harris win—if she also gets Democratic control of the House and the Senate—would make it grow. 

Trump’s 2024 campaign is not at all about reality; it’s about a worldview. When asked at an event at the New York Economic Club “what specific piece of legislation will you advance” to make child care affordable, the 78-year-old Trump answered:

“Well I would do that. And we’re sitting down. You know I was somebody. We had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that because—look, child care is child care. It’s—couldn’t, you know, it’s something you have to have it—in this country you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to—but they’ll get used to it very quickly—and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have—I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about Make America Great Again, we have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it.” 

There is no specific legislation here, or even a grasp of the specific nature of the problem of paying for child care. What there is, apparently, is an argument that high tariffs will solve all of the nation’s problems. In the New York event, Trump called again for slashing taxes on the wealthy and insisted that new, high tariffs of 20% on all imports, and as much as 60% on Chinese imports, will end federal deficits and bring trillions of dollars into the country, although he is wrong about how tariffs work. 

Trump insists that tariffs are taxes on foreign countries, but they are not. They are essentially taxes on imported products, and they are paid by consumers. Trump’s running mate, Ohio senator J.D. Vance, recently tried to claim that economists disagree about whether consumers bear the cost of tariffs, but as Michael Hiltzik explained in the Los Angeles Times yesterday, economists agree on this.

When he was in office, Trump launched a trade war in 2018 by putting tariffs of up to 25% on $50 billion worth of Chinese products. The next year he added another set of 10% tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, and the next year he did it again, this time on an additional $112 worth of Chinese products. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation calculates that this amounted to an $80 billion tax a year on American consumers, costing the average household about $300 a year and costing the U.S. about 142,000 jobs.

There are reasons to use tariffs. They can be used to protect a new industry from cheaper foreign products until the new industry can compete, or to stop foreign countries from flooding a country with cheap products that destroy a domestic industry. When he took office, Biden kept those of Trump’s tariffs that protected certain industries.

Trump’s insistence that tariffs will solve everything is not about economics, it’s about pushing a worldview from the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, one embodied by the 1890 McKinley Tariff. “If you look at McKinley,” Trump told right-wing media host Mark Levin on Sunday, “he was a great president. He made the country rich.” In fact, McKinley (R-OH) pushed through the tariff named for him while he was in the House of Representatives from his position as a spokesperson for wealthy industrialists. They insisted that high tariffs were imperative to the survival of the country, that such tariffs were good for workers because they protected wages, and that anyone who disagreed was a socialist. But in an era without business regulation, industrialists actually kept wages low and used the tariffs to protect high prices that they passed on to consumers. 

In the late 1880s, the American people demanded a lower tariff, but when Republicans in Congress went to “revise” it, they made it higher. In May 1890, in a chaotic congressional session with members shouting amendments, yelling objections, and talking over each other, Republicans passed the McKinley Tariff without any Democratic votes. They cheered and clapped at their victory. “You may rejoice now,” a Democrat yelled across the aisle, “but next November you’ll mourn.” 

Democrats were right. In the November 1890 midterm elections, angry voters repudiated the Republican Party. They gave the Democrats a two-to-one majority in the House—McKinley himself lost his seat. Republicans managed to keep the Senate by four seats, but three of those seats were held by senators who had voted against the McKinley Tariff, and the fourth turned out to have been stolen.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[a-very-tired-jew]

Suffice to say this feels like 2016 again for me.

Many of us had said Hilary wouldn’t win against Trump then, and we said the same thing about Kamala.

Hilary was burdened by the fact that by 2015 the Clinton name was suffused in conspiracy. You couldn’t exist anywhere without some form of Clinton Conspiracy being present. Left, Right, Center, extremes… everyone had them. It didn’t matter how good Bill’s presidency was, the conspiracies were so prevalent and damaging that the writing was on the walls even before she was the official nominee. It was the “if she gets it, we’re fucked because of this”.

But the DNC chose Hilary because she was a safe candidate that they tried to sell as a good candidate. And arguably she was, if it wasn’t for all the baggage.

Kamala is Hilary 2.0. She doesn’t have the burden of Clinton dynasty level conspiracies, but she does come with the baggage of being the VP of the Biden administration. The current admin isn’t exactly the most liked and voter apathy and dislike can easily be exploited with a “weren’t things better under me?” by Trump (and they were because Presidential policies have an effect down the line, not immediately).

They tried to run what they thought was a safe candidate, and in the early days of her candidacy there was some talk that this was a bad idea. That just because she was younger didn’t mean she’d win. She didn’t have the benefit of being meme’d into the public consciousness like Biden did during the Obama years.

She didn’t have the benefit of being “not Trump” because she’s part of the current administration and Trump was a future possibility, not the now that voters dwell in. The now dictates that she and her policies were the issue if they were a continuance of the current administration.

She didn’t have the benefit of being “not Biden” because she’s just a safe continuation of Biden Presidency policies. None of these policies really made big splashes and many people are not aware of the benefits they have received from Biden’s term in office.

The gamble of a safe candidate of an honestly milquetoast presidency and a continuation of its policies did not pay off, and it’s exactly what many people were worried about.

To further elucidate this point, also think back to the 2016 election and the social aspects of the presidential campaigns and their candidates. As I said above, Hilary was burdened with the conspiracies about her and her family. Memes, jokes, and articles about her existed in a primarily negative stance, she had negative social capital. Conversely, Bernie had very positive social capital, very few negative memes and articles about him, and so many people wanted to vote for him across the political spectrum.

But he was not the “safe” candidate.

He was considered “risky” even though he polled better than Hilary routinely. Part of this is due to the differences in social capital.

Kamala’s campaign didn’t even have social capital until the debates.

Yes, there was some from previous years and we sort of knew what she did prior to being VP, but she wasn’t cemented in the public psyche. If there had been some effort to generate social capital over the course of the Biden administration then maybe there would have been a better chance. Biden’s campaign in 2020 benefited from his establishment in the public psyche through the memes about him during the Obama years. But we haven’t seen anything like that regarding Kamala at all. The only real meme to come out of the Biden admin is “Dark Brandon” and that’s it. As such, Kamala came into this race with negative social capital from her attachment to the current admin and its policies and no beneficial memes until it was too late.

Meanwhile, Trump has existed in the public psyche for over a decade and has a strong social media and meme presence. For as much negative social capital he has on one side, he has an abundance of positive on the other.

You can’t run a “safe” candidate against someone with Trump’s presence and social capital. You have to run someone on equal footing. If they had reran Biden and leaned into “Dark Brandon” there might have been a chance. If they had run Bernie there might have been a chance (yes, even with him being a Jew).

But Kamala? She was just a safe choice like Hilary was. All the warning signs were there and people pointed them out. But as it goes here in the States “If the Dems are so good, why do they lose so fucking much?” and it’s because they don’t listen. They only win when people are reminded how bad things are under right wing policies. They never listen to maintain their control or power because then they revert to outdated “safe” strategies that don’t work.

So idk if we’ll go full authoritarian government with no democratic future as Trump has wanted, but I do know we’ll repeat this in 8 years.

I’m tired as fuck as this pattern repeats so much that for once I’d like to not have a “I told you so” moment that didn’t come with a side of “we’re fucked”. But that’s the American experience for you.

[blackmoonlightexpress]

TTEOTM Creative Team: What else did they work on?

For those who are a bit underwhelmed by the summer drama options or still dreaming about TTEOTM! 😎

Kuk Kok Leung (Lead Director)

Kuk Kok Leung is a veteran director who started his career in Hong Kong's TVB. He's been nominated for the prestigious Magnolia Award and is known for wuxia and serious, warm-blooded historical dramas (he's adapted 7 out of 8 Jinyong novels). His works include...

Legend of the Condor Heroes (1983) as Assistant Director, with Felix Wong and Barbara Yung

The Duke of Mount Deer (1984), with Tony Leung & Andy Lau

Return of the Condor Heros (1983) with Andy Lau & Idy Chan

Legend of the Condor Heroes (2002) with Li Yapeng & Zhou Xun

Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (2003), with Hu Jun, Jimmy Lin, and Liu Yifei

Water Margin (2011), nominated for Magnolia Award

Cool Sword (2013), with Julian Cheung & Wallace Chung

The Patriot Fei Yue (2013), with Huang Xiaoming & Ruby Lin

The Stand-In (2014), with Wallace Chung

The General and I (2016), with Wallace Chung and Angelababy

He's also a frequent collaborator and producer on Johnny To films, including Election, Election 2, Mad Detective.

So you get the picture. He makes TV for men who are ready to bleed for their country. This all makes him a really interesting choice for TTEOTM (and tells you a bit about the ambition and creative vision of the producers), especially since all his more recent idol dramas were widely panned.

Wang Haiqi, Director & Action Director

We don't know too much about Wang Haiqi because TTEOTM is actually his directorial debut. He started his career in stunts and has worked as the action coordinator on Ashes of Love (2018) and Immortality (unreleased) alongside Luo Yunxi. He was also a stunts man/double in a bunch of Hollywood films, including Mulan (2020) and the Foreigner (2017) through the Jacky Chan stunts team.

He's responsible for most of the action/battle scenes in TTEOTM, and his experience working on films probably explains why the fight sequences are unusually cinematic for TV.

Luan Hexin, Art Director

Luan Hexin is a Magnolia Award nominated art director best known for Huanyu productions, including Story of Yanxi Palace, Winter Begonia, and Royal Feast. He's a serious art guy, as you can tell from this interview.

(Note: Huanyu is Bai Lu's management company. There is a rumor that Luan Hexin is part of Bai Lu's "dowry", but the parties have since clarified that Luan was brought in after she was cast.)

He's also an interesting choice, having never worked on costume fantasies before and better known for his authentic representation of the look and feel of bygone eras.

Huang Wei, Costume Designer

Huang Wei is one of the most sought-after costume designers working today, especially for xianxias. She started her career as a Vogue China editor and was in fact the person responsible for TTEOTM's Dunhuang-inspired aesthetics.

Her better known works include A Dream of Splendor (2022), One and Only (2020), Love O2O (2015), Back from the Brink (2023) as well as a bunch of highly anticipated dramas like Immortality and The Last Immortal. (The joke on Chinese internet is that there is an "expensive" vs. "cheap" version of Huang Wei costumes - her design can be much simpler on lower-budget productions.)

I'd like to think that after designing 40 mostly white costumes for Luo Yunxi in Immortality, she decided to go nuts on color with Tantai Jin.

Tsang Ming Fai, Makeup Designer

Tsang Ming Fai is a big name in the xianxia circuit. He and his team of “students" have worked on a large number of costume dramas, including Ashes of Love (2018), Love & Redemption (2020), Under the Power (2019), Noble Aspirations (2016), Sword of Legends (2014), as well as the... wait for it... unreleased Immortality and Luo Yunxi's currently filming drama Follow Your Heart.

He's sadly been receiving a lot of hate in fan circles over the heavy makeup in TTEOTM (which may or may not have been his call). What I do appreciate is his ability to help actors craft distinct characters with varied hair and makeup choices. For example you can distinguish between different Luo Yunxi characters and their personalities with Runyu's clean cut tie-back half ponytail (ethereal & straight laced), Tantai Jin's slightly brown hair, messy bangs and heavy eye shadow (dark & sickly), Chu Wanning's angular eyebrows and geometric hair puff (strict & proud).

He also excels at creating unusual, iconic looks even for side characters, e.g. Chen Yao's dark lipstick paired with gothic jewelry in Immortality and Chen Duling's retro updo in TTEOTM.

[menlove]

i am not trying to start a fight with the person that reblogged this on my dash. or get into it on the post itself. but.

i genuinely think this kind of sentiment is so... blind? i get where it's coming from, but it is incredibly privileged and blinded and i'm gonna go through why here

first of all, if your only problems with biden are that he's too old and moderate and "makes sucky choices from an array of sucky choices," do you actually care about these causes? or do you just care when there's a big scary red elephant slapped on them? because i don't know about you, but actively funding genocide, ignoring the 68% of americans that support a ceasefire (and 75% being democrats, the people who elected him), is not just a "sucky choice." when countries like italy sided with germany in ww2 during the holocaust, do you refer to that as having been a "sucky choice"? or do you refer to it as being complicit in genocide? let's not babytalk our way through this. he is complicit in genocide.

yes, trump absolutely does do all of these things. and he is scary. but you know what happens when he does these things? the news covers it. the left tears him apart. we KNOW about him saying these things and doing these things. meanwhile, biden is also still putting people in camps. what i just linked is to aclu. it details how the number of people in ICE detention camps has GROWN since biden has come into office. he issued an executive order in january 2021 directing the DOJ to "to phase out its contracts with private prison companies," but ICE was notably and purposefully left out of this. also according to this linked page on aclu, ICE detains 30,003 people each day as of july 2023. this is an INCREASE from january 2021 when that number was at 15,444 per day. under trump, 81% of people held in these camps were held in facilities owned by private prison corporations. under biden, this number has risen to 90.8%.

in january of this year, they cracked down even further on enforcement measures for illegal immigration. this is a statement from their administration. while they do have measures in here to support LEGAL immigrants, the entire focus of this page is how they are channeling EVEN MORE FUNDING to the detainment of immigrants and border security.

here's another article on the situation.

not to mention, literally all of the horrific laws that have passed in the last 3 years of his presidency with regards to abortion, trans healthcare, etc. and the clusterfuck that is student loan debt relief. these things are not necessarily his fault, i understand that, he is being blocked by other parts of the government. however, it goes to show you that he is functionally useless. all of these horrific things have happened under him anyway. what protection does a democrat president give us?

"we don't get to vote for the candidate we love. we get to vote for the one who won't actively kill american citizens."

bolded that actively for you, because that is exactly the problem. he IS killing american citizens. and american citizens are NOT the only people that matter. how are we more important than the thousands of palestinians he's had a hand in killing? why do they not matter? but to the point- he IS killing americans. y'all just don't care because he's not looking into the camera and saying "we should kill immigrants and trans people". he's just letting it happen anyway. he's enacting policies that let it happen. but it doesn't get NEARLY as much pushback or media coverage as trump, because he's a democrat. y'all stopped caring the second he stepped into office.

i voted for him in 2020, after i'd voted for the candidate i'd wanted in the primaries. i couldn't vote for clinton in 2016 because i was 17. but i would have. because i listened to y'all say over and over "vote blue no matter who" and that you SWORE you would push him further left by protesting and pushing back on his moderate and right wing policies. you didn't. you let all of this slide. and the second ANYONE even THREATENS not to vote you all started shitting your pants and even IN THIS THREAD started calling people fucking russian spies again.

if we cannot even THREATEN not to vote, they are NEVER going to change. but he is NOT the "lesser of two evils" here. he is just the quieter of two evils. there is a huge difference between those two things. and i'm sick and tired of y'all acting like anyone who doesn't want him in office is morally bankrupt and wants trump to be president. the answer isn't "grit your teeth and keep voting us further and further right". the answer is that this government is not working.

[darkmaga-returns]

Podcast Monday — What a Difference Eight Years Makes

28 October 2024 by Larry C. Johnson 54 Comments

In 2015 and 2016, Donald Trump swept to a surprise victory, in part, because of his shrewd use of traditional legacy and cable news media. I don’t think he ever turned down an interview request and the media gobbled it up because they never expected him to win.

In 2020, Trump faced serious opposition from the legacy media, who went out of their way to ignore his rallies. There is a growing consensus that Biden won 2020 thanks to a variety of shady election frauds, including stopping the count in key states so that the Democrat fixers could figure out how many ballots needed to be stuffed into the system to produce the votes Biden needed to win. He garnered more votes than Barack Obama’s 2008 tally and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 count. At the time, the establishment refused to entertain the reasonable argument that there was no way in hell that Biden was more charismatic or inspiring than Barack Obama.

Now comes 2024 and the media landscape has changed. Podcasts were not a big thing in 2020. Joe Rogan was just starting to emerge as a thing. Tucker Carlson was toiling away on Fox News. Today, both Rogan and Carlson are racking up huge numbers on the internet and the viewing habits of most Americans, especially those under the age of 40, have shifted dramatically. The vast majority of Americans are not watching legacy media or the cable news shows. Yet, the majority of political consultants are stuck in the past and still trying to use the old playbook.

Trump may be an old guy in terms of chronological age, but he still manages to keep his fingers on the pulse of the American zeitgeist. Hence his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. On YouTube alone, the Rogan/Trump conversation has more than 34 million views and counting. That is a larger viewing audience than CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC and FOX combined. The chiefs of those networks would kill their own mothers to get ratings like Rogan.

So, anyone want to take a guess as to why the Deep State and the owners of major social media platforms want to shut down podcasts and channels of people like me? They want to control the narrative, but they have lost control.

It is worth noting that the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post refused to endorse any of the Presidential candidates. The partisan reporters in those outfits howled with rage when the owners did not do as expected — i.e., endorse the mentally challenged Kamala Harris. Jeff Bezos, owner of the Post, put out an editorial today explaining his action. Here are the key parts:

[kai-anderson-whore]

He's a cult leader (part 4) (kai Anderson x fem reader series)

Summary:y/n moved back to Michigan after her college degree in music where she reunites with an old lover kai Anderson

Chapter warnings: jerk personal trainer, mentions of dismemberment, election night

(Previous chapter)

•¤❅¤•.•°˚˚°•..•°˚˚°•.•¤❅¤•.•¤❅¤•.•°˚˚°•. .•°˚˚

November 2016

Election night finally arrived something kai never shutted up about, driving you crazy, didn't want to vote for trump but kai convinced you to, you sat with winter watching the results, kai downstairs doing the same.

Your heart dropped when trump actually won, you wanted Hillary to win really if you didn't vote for him, maybe just maybe she would have won, you heard kai screaming "fuck you world USA, USA, U, S, A" you and winter shared a look of cringe, knowing her brother, your boyfriend will be running up those stairs to gloat.

And you were right, kai came sprinting up those stairs, entering winters bedroom a face full of cheetos black eyeliner over his eyes and a Donald trump hair style, you couldn't help bit laugh as winter kept a serious face, kai plopping on his sisters bed with a smile.

"Did come on here to rub it in" winter growled shoving him telling kai to get out, kai just sat there unphased, raising his pinky, winter interlocking hers with his.

"I'm just scared" she sighed kai leaned closer a little "everyone is" he replied you stood there observing, you were scared to, you didn't know what will happen, as for the cult we already have three members, ivy, Gary and Jack, tomorrow kai is recruiting another member Harrison a personal trainer.

You stood from the bed, tiredly striding to bed, "where you going" kai asked you shook your head, "bed kai wash that muck off your face before you have a bad breakout" you sighed leaving the siblings to talk.

Entering yours and kai's bedroom, fishing out an oversized t-shirt that belongs to kai, finding his old flannel he wore when you had first met, smiling recalling the memory.

Stripping from your clothes and throwing the flannel on having a cigarette out the window calming your nerves, "you okay?" Kai asked entering the bedroom now clean and showered not smelling of cheetos, "I'm fine kai" you sighed taking another long drag of your cigarette.

Kai was only in his boxers his big arms wrapped around your waist "you know I always thought you were so hot when you smoked and wearing my clothes" he mumbled against your shoulder, you smiled at his compliment.

"I know you tell me all the time" you chuckled taking another drag of your cigarette, kai hummed against your neck leaving a trail of kisses along your skin, sending you shivers down your spine, "what time you got your PT at?" You asked flicking the last of your cigarette away.

"Near closing time" he shrugged "wanna come with?" He smirked as you turned to face him, "why so you can watch me do squats" you teased, kai instantly got hard at the thought of you in the gym, "well yeah" he shrugged laying your body on the bed.

"I'll think about it" you giggled as kai kissed along your neck "right mister not tonight I need to be up early I have to teach some kid the guitar" you Said before anything went further not that you didn't want it to, of course you wanted to but if your late the kid kicks up a fuss.

"Mind if I tag along" kai asked knowing how much you disliked the kid since he thinks your not 'Eric Clapton good' which wasn't hard to say "Sure I need someone to restrain me from hitting a kid" you chuckled pecking his lips before getting tucked into bed.

Kai wrapped an arm around you pulling you closer to him, "goodnight" you hummed your eyes closed, legs tangled together, "goodnight y/n" he mumbled into your hair.

The next morning you were woken up by your alarm, kai was already up and getting dressed, "morning" he smiled as you lifed your tired body off the bed.

"I really can't be bothered with this kid today" you groaned flicking through your phone picking out a song to start your day, finally settling on 'dani california' by red hot chilli peppers.

Fishing out your clothes picking a pair of ripped mom jeans and one of kai's shirts, applying light makeup and throwing a beanie on along with your docs.

"Ready to go?" You ask kai who nodded holding your guitar case, as you unlock your car, kai placed your guitar in the back seat of your car before slipping into the passenger side.

You turned your heater on and the radio, singing along to 'space oddity' by david bowie "this is ground control to major tom" you belted out driving to the kid you had to teach house.

"Remember at that halloween party in college you dressed as ziggy stardust and genuinely thought you were bowie" kai chucked, you cringed at the memory.

"Don't remind me what was I thinking then the next party we went to we dressed as bowie and jagger in the dancing in the street video" you laughed, "that's right" kai recalled.

Soon enough you made it to the house of your student, kai got your guitar handing it over to you, making it to the front door giving it a knock "y/n hello, Bradley is in his room come in I'll tell him you have arrived" the mother Julia said allowing you and kai inside.

"I hope you don't mind I brought my boyfriend over with me" you smiled Julia was fine with it, you liked Julia just not her son who thought he was better than everyone for a 14 year old boy.

Julia excused herself to alert her son you had arrived, you and kai sat on the sofa waiting on Bradley, "hi y/n" Bradley entered the room with his acoustic guitar in hand.

"Hey Bradley so have you been practicing the song we been working on?" You asked he wanted to learn an easy song once he had learnt the easy chords off by heart then once he had felt comfortable with a few songs move to harder things.

"Yeah but I kind of want to learn a new song" he said "Alright how about we play love me do first then move on" you suggested Bradley nodded his head getting ready to play the song same as you

After the session you and kai had about two hours to spare till his pt session or in other words (his recruitment for world domination) making your way back home changing into some appropriate gym attire, but kai wanted to 'warm up' before you both went anywhere making you both a little bit late.

Finally making it to the gym kai wore a green sweatshirt with a grey gym top underneath along with black joggers, you wore your black gym leggings with a peach colour vest and a black sports bra underneath with a zipper.

"Kai?" The personal trainer said walking up to us "hey" kai said extending his hand out to the man "Hey Harrison wilton they assigned me to be your trainer" shaking your boyfriends hand, "I requested you" kai said, you stood there awkwardly as the men conversed.

"Really?" Harrison asked. "Yes".

"Wow that's awesome did someone recommend me" Harrison went on to ask, you really wanted to start this session now bored of the conversation.

"No no i-i saw you out on the gym floor you look strong" kai said shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Oh cool, but I mean there are bigger guys here, if that's the kind of workout your looking for" Harrison said, making you roll your eyes, "no no I mean you could move a dead body if you had too" you almost hid your face at kai's choice of words, knowing his plans for the future.

"I just meant you look... strong" kai said Harrison flashed a smile saying "okay well thank you".

"Oh I brought someone over if she could get a pt aswell" kai asked placing an arm over your shoulder "Yeah erm I think one of my colleagues are free right now" Harrison said walking off to find his colleague.

"I swear of I get one of those jerks who keeps looking at my ass or boobs I'll kill him" you groaned looking around the place noticing there are barely any woman workers.

Harrison came back with this buff guy who was already eyeing you up "this will be your trainer today" Harrison said to you, saying hi to the guy and telling him your name you both went off to do your own thing.

"So what your goals we'll start with that" the guy who's name you forgot eyeing you up like dinner on a plate,

"World domination" you joked shaking your head "I don't know my boyfriend invited me here last minute so haven't really thought of goals" you shrugged.

"How about a leg workout first?" The guy suggested to you, agreeing getting on the leg press machine working your legs as hard as you can.

You did notice your trainer staring at your ass, you let out a small smirk but not saying anything, "so your boyfriend the guy who Harrison is working with" he asked you nodded, "Yeah he's hot ain't he" you smiled looking at kai who was doing weights with Harrison talking away.

Kai eyes were on you, already sending a smirk your way but a glare to your trainers, "are you gay?" Harrison asked further along in the conversation they were having pulling kai's eye's away from yours.

"see this is what I'm talking about, labels, diversity starts with d, I, v, which is also the first three letters of divide, gay, bisexual, transgender, these are labels created by the leftist they wanna split us apart create special interest groups that put themselves over the greater good of the community" kai paused in his lecture that Harrison was invested in.

"A man with no lable has an elegance to only what is right" kai finishes "Wow your a lot smarter than most of the other guys that come in here, what kind of work do you do?" Harrison asked as kai picks the weights back up.

"Computers, coding, I guess they're called app developers now I dig it, it let's me work from home, I Don't say moneys ever been my thing, I was kinda a freak when I was a kid" Harrison took the weight off kai again as he continued to speak.

"You know y/n you could have a real man" your trainer said as you did squats with a weight on your shoulders, you rolled your eyes in annoyance with your trainer constantly hitting on you, "I have a real man" you huffed setting the weight down "and this is over for today" you panted..

"And if you look at me like that one more time I'll Gooch your eyes you" you hissed

Now walking over to Harrison and kai your douchbag trainer by your side, "try not to be intimidated" Harrison said as you were in earshot from them

"That's normal" you knew kai was talking about himself to make Harrison feel like kai should be someone to look up to.

"Listen I like pussy" kai then said you were now infront of the men eyes shot open at his bold statement "everything okay" you smiled your trainer talking to someone else "her one especially" kai sent you a wink as you wiped the sweat off your forehead "okay well I'm going to shower I'll see you in a bit" you said leaving the boys to god knows what.

In the car driving home was silent you didn't have the radio on for a change "how was your session" kai asked you let out a sigh "fine apart from the fact the trainer is a complete dick" you said the trainers words bugging you.

"How what did he do" kai asked a hand on your thigh as he drove the car, "he kept looking at my ass and tits and he said something about you" you whispered the last part "like what?" Kai then went on to ask "like I could have a real mean instead of you" you said.

"I told him you are a real man and that if he ever looks at me like that again he won't be seeing anything else" you mumbled laying your head on the headrest further.

"Good" kai said continuing to drive back home. Your mind dreaded the night knowing your legs would be in pain from exhaustion from the workout.

A few weeks later you did return to the gym with Harrison as your new trainer when kai didnt go to the gym, you had a phone call from kai to pick him up from the gym a bit past closing time, odd you thought but went anyway to see the horror of your future unfold.

Now in a motel room bathroom, sitting on the sink as kai instructed Harrison how to dismember your old trainer, your mind was foggy, kai was acting like this was normal, you heard the front door open then the bathroom you frozen seeing a woman enter.

"Harrison who's that" she asked pointing to the body half cut up in the bath "my old boss" he gulped she then turned around to you and kai "and who are they".

"Someone to believe in" he stated.

[unnounblr]

There's supposedly over 161 million registered voters in the U.S., in 2024 (it was 168 million in 2020, apparently about 7 million people died or got taken off the registration, which might be voter suppression) a total of about 141 million votes have been counted for both Harris and Trump so far.

And there's millions more citizens who are eligible to vote but have never been registered.

Trump won the popular vote by about 5 million this time, but there's still about 20 million people on the voter rolls who evidently aren't part of the Democrat+Republican totals. Those 20 million (and, votes are still being counted, so the final total might be less, though I did round the Trump total up to 73 million and the Harris total up to 68 million, for my convenience) either didn't vote (at least for the presidency) or voted third party.

Since the electoral college is what decides who the president is, though, it does depend on where those 20 million live. And I'm doing this on my phone, and don't have the time or energy to do that statistical breakdown for every single state, how many registered voters per state vs. how many people did or didn't vote in that state.

Harris got about as many votes as Clinton in 2016, maybe a few million more, Trump got about as many votes as he got in 2020, if a little less.

A lot of the swing states that went for Trump, did have Abortion initiatives and other progressive initiatives on the ballot, many of which passed, and a few of them supposedly had local elections that went blue, even when the counties themselves still went for Trump, or the district voted for a republican for a congressional seat.

And, like, that's odd, honestly. Like, a possible explanation is that, progressive voters turned up, voted for a democratic mayor or state senator or governor or abortion rights or whatever, then left all the federal selections blank. Because while state legislatures and governors can't actually do a lot about foreign policy, they can, in fact, do things to people in their states and cities.

But for that to be true it would require a big difference between the vote totals for Trump+Harris in those states and the vote totals for those down-ballot races, and. There doesn't seem to be, at first glance? It seems like otherwise democratic voters, or voters who voted for progressive ballot initiatives. Voted for Trump anyway. And 20 million registered voters just didn't turn up.

And, to be cynical for a moment? It isn't like the Israel/Palestine conflict started on October 7th. Palestinians have suffered wrongdoing by the government of Israel since the modern state of Israel's founding, and Israel has had better weaponry and American support for a very long time and they've definitely dropped bombs before. And they've also had the illegal settlements in the West Bank for years.

And all of that was also already true in 2020, and Biden supported Israel back then too. His political stance on Israel didn't change between then and now. Biden already said he would never support Medicare for all, or single-payer healthcare, everyone knew he was moderate/conservative, right-wing, on a lot of issues. Biden in 2020 had some support from some "never Trump" Republicans who endorsed him as well.

And Biden could be associated with Obama and Obama's handlings of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as Obama's VP. And the U.S. armed forces who actually answered to Obama were the ones doing war crimes and drone and missile strikes for that.

But it seems like Biden was able to get away with it and get 10 million more people to vote for him, very possibly, because he was a white guy. The same complaints had a harder time. Sticking.

Its not like nobody had complaints about the Biden campaign's mismanagement. His history of gaffes, the time he was in a basement and nobody saw him for weeks.

Then again, maybe Biden just got lucky that Covid happened, and Trump clearly and obviously mismanaged it. And Harris, in turn, got associated with the slow economic recovery from Covid, lead by the Biden Admin, and with all the wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine that Biden evidently didn't do well enough resolving.

Wars that, again, had already been happening, going back to when Putin's Russia annexed Crimea back in 2014, and, again, the very long history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. But I guess people don't care as much when it isn't in their news feeds or their social media timelines.

...Honestly. The thing that gets me about the popular vote totals is that. Trump went from 63 million in 2016, to over 74 million in 2020, and he's still at almost 73 million now.

So, yeah, there's 20 million people who didn't vote this year, aside from the millions who aren't registered, but. 10 million more people voted for him than voted for him the first time he won.

And. That's a lot scarier to me, in all honesty.

"I don't want to see anyone blaming abstaining voters for this!"

Of course you don't. The entire idea of abstaining was that you could pretend this didn't involve you. Not getting blamed was more important to you than doing any kind of damage control, more important than protecting any of the people you said you wanted to protect. And in this moment, I don't really care what you want. Of course, this isn't entirely your fault. Of course other people made this worse. But if you're going to pretend you had nothing to do with this, forgive me if I ignore you.

[cheepuppp]

Digital Citizenship and Political Engagement: A Double-Edged Sword

Social media was supposed to revolutionize politics, right? Platforms like Twitter and Facebook promised to give power back to the people, connecting us directly to our leaders and each other. And, in some ways, they delivered. Today, hashtags spark global movements, politicians bypass the press to speak directly to voters, and viral memes turn political gaffes into public debates. But here’s the catch: it’s not all sunshine and democracy. Like most things in life, the reality of digital political engagement is way messier and way more interesting.

The Good: Social Media as a Game-Changer

First, let’s give credit where it’s due. Social media has absolutely transformed how politics works. Take Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, for example. Whether you loved or hated him, you couldn’t ignore him and neither could your Twitter feed. Trump’s tweets weren’t just soundbites, they were a direct line to millions of voters, shaping public opinion in real time. As Enli (2017) points out, his “authentic outsider” vibe on social media made him seem relatable to supporters, and that relatability translated into votes.

But it’s not just about big names. Grassroots movements like Malaysia’s Bersih 2.0 also used social media to mobilize support and demand electoral reform. Johns and Cheong (2019) describe how Bersih activists used Facebook and Twitter to bypass traditional media censorship, rallying people with emotional posts and hashtags. That “networked affect” those raw, viral moments created a sense of shared purpose that brought thousands into the streets.

The Bad: The Dark Side of Digital Citizenship

Of course, there’s a flip side to all this. Social media is great at amplifying voices, but it’s also great at creating echo chambers. Algorithms feed us what we want to see, which is fantastic for keeping us entertained but terrible for meaningful political discourse. Instead of healthy debates, we get polarized shouting matches where everyone thinks they’re right, and no one’s actually listening.

And let’s not forget misinformation. Remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Facebook data was weaponized to target voters with political ads designed to manipulate their choices. It’s a stark reminder that while social media feels empowering, it can also be used to exploit us. As Choi and Cristol (2021) point out, true digital citizenship requires more than just access, it demands education, critical thinking, and inclusion.

The Meh: Low-Cost Engagement

Then there’s the issue of “low-cost” political engagement. Retweet a hashtag, like a post, or share a petition, and boom you’re a political activist, right? Not exactly. Bode (2017) calls this the “gateway behavior” of political engagement. It’s a great start, but if all we do is click buttons, are we really making a difference? Hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter or #MeToo can create massive awareness, but the real question is: do they lead to action? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It’s complicated.

Personal Reflection

If I’m being honest, I’ve definitely fallen into the trap of slacktivism. It’s so easy to retweet a catchy hashtag and feel like you’ve done your part. But over time, I’ve realized that real political engagement takes more effort. During the last election, I used Instagram stories to share voter guides and info about local candidates, and it felt more impactful than just liking someone else’s post. Don’t get me wrong, social media is powerful. But it’s just a tool, and how we use it makes all the difference.

Conclusion

Social media has changed the game when it comes to political engagement, for better and worse. It’s made politics more accessible, allowing people to participate in ways that were unthinkable a decade ago. But it’s also created new challenges: echo chambers, misinformation, and slacktivism. As digital citizens, we need to go beyond the surface. Retweets and likes are great, but real change happens when we take those online conversations offline. The power is in our hands, literally.

References

Bode, L. (2017). Gateway Political Behaviors: The Frequency and Consequences of Low-Cost Political Engagement on Social Media. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117743349

Choi, M., & Cristol, D. (2021). Digital citizenship with an intersectionality lens: Towards participatory democracy-driven digital citizenship education. Theory Into Practice, 60(4), 361-370. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2021.1987094

Enli, G. (2017). Twitter as an arena for the authentic outsider: Exploring the social media campaigns of Trump and Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. European Journal of Communication, 32(1), 50-61. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0267323116682802

Johns, A., & Cheong, N. (2019). Feeling the Chill: Bersih 2.0, State Censorship, and “Networked Affect” on Malaysian Social Media 2012–2018. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118821801

[sometimesiammybpd]

i'm worried and nervous.

i don't want to make this stupid politically or whatever because tumblr right now is the only space i have that ISN'T that, but i can't keep it in my head. it's almost 5 am for me and today is election day. the big day between trump and harris. and it's so conflicting and depressing and scary and all the emotions. i voted for harris the first chance i got because i obviously am a very left person politically. and no, i don't support her in the slightest. the only good policy that she's made note of that i am in full agreeance with is the legalization / decriminalization of marijuana nationally. whether she actually means to do anything about that or if it's a typical political false promise designed to get her into office but also be something she had no point had any intention of acting upon is to be seen . . . assuming she wins.

somehow, for how bat-shit, off the walls crazy donald trump has become, his cult's feelings about him are the same as they were in 2016 or 2020. and yeah, it's not surprising. but it doesn't make it any less terrifying. the man has promised to be a "dictator on day one." a literal fucking dictator. he's promised to do a mass deportation on day one, regardless of the person's immigration status. half the shit he's promised is out of project 2025 (which legitimately has a part in it about how donald trump should not acknowledge his involvement with the project as it'll be better for his chances of winning). and y'know, being fearful over my friend's lives because they're afab and there's a 50% chance that by the start of next week, it could be determined that they'll lose their right to vote and choose. that their lives will no longer be in their control. and of course i have to mention LGBTQ+ rights too as that applies directly to me. and there's trump's endless threats about arresting or killing anyone who protests him or his regime. tell me all you want that he's not actually going to be able to do these things. go ahead. i won't believe you because he has already proven he will do whatever he feels necessary to get what he wants. look at what happened on january 6th. the "day of love" he refers to all the time. the day of love where people died. where his followers tried to hang his fucking vice president because he wouldn't do something he had no power to do. a day of love that was hyped up for months with trump promising his followers he'd be marching down pennsylvania avenue with them. well, except for the part where he wasn't. where he was on his phone and twitter and watching the rampage happen from the safety of being anywhere else. how this race is an even fucking split is beyond me. the man shits himself at rallies. he's worse off than biden at times mentally and somehow everyone on the right is conveniently not battling an eye.

i fully believe in the idea that within trump's first two years in office (again), they will invoke the 25th, remove him, put vance in his place, and then REALLY start their "reshaping" of the united states. and keep in mind, on the biggest issue that isn't happening in the us, they both are fucking awful and disgusting. kamala plays it neutral while very much still supporting the sending of weapons and aid to israel while trump outright is telling netanyahu to not go for a ceasefire and promising to even encourage him to be more aggressive and dangerous once in office. i think they both shouldn't be allowed in office based on this alone. however, and i hate this take so much but it's unfortunately true, voting for kamala at least ensures that should she win, you'll have the right to protest against her administration and against her policies. trump's made it clear how he'd respond.

all of this shit scares me because i am not even 22 yet and after the next few days, i might lose what's left of my country. i might lose my freedom or be arrested or worse. my friends might be arrested or worse. they'll lose their rights. and because people are so ignorant and stupid that they believe above all else that kamala didn't do enough as vp . . . who is literally just the tiebreaker, basically, they are voting for trump. and because he'll get as racist as possible, the reasoning is also that she is choosing to be black when she isn't, she isn't allowed to run because she's not a real citizen, and more. i want to live to see this country survive. i don't want donald trump in office, but it all feels so fucking hopeless. it's really hard to keep myself calm knowing that one option would turn the united states into a modern day nazi germany (trump wanted hitler's generals after all).

if you're as stressed as i am, get off social media for the day. stay away from the news and do whatever is your favorite hobbies or activities. put yourself in your own world where for even just a little, none of this has to matter. don't stress about where the polls are at and how close it is. the polls cannot tell you anything at this point other than that it's that close. everything else is as estimate or a guess.

*puts hand out* grab my hand. we'll tackle this together. because election season as a whole is a bitch. but election day is worse. so much worse. i got adventure time on the tv and a bong with a shitload of weed. we'll get through it :)

[tomyo]

Genuinely, the 2020 presidential election was one of the most stressful days I’ve ever experienced. I didn’t sleep for days and couldn’t go 2 minutes without checking the results. I live in a liberal state but the days leading up to the election brought out tons of trump flags on trucks and there was a group vigilantly waving MAGA flags for HOURS non stop outside the polling center because I went there and watched them and watched the appalling amount of people honking in support. Like a lot of people I had sent in my ballot already but there was an absolute panic about that because mail in boxes where being destroyed, set on fire, and stolen. During the red mirage I went hysterical and scared my mom from how unstable I was acting. Months later she told me I was right about it all and saw what was coming as we watched the insurrection live feed.

I say this one because I cannot express enough how relieved people felt by the news, within minutes of it being locked in that Trump lost my friends heard pots banging in the streets. I never was big in Supernatural but Destiel being canon was so joyous in part because it felt like the first time in months we could enjoy something again. On top of everything else, that summer had also been the George Floyd protests as well as a lot of people pushing back pretty hard on following social distancing.

Destiel is one of the few things I can remember from 2020 that didn’t deal with people’s livelihood and there was something wonderful about a classic tumblr fandom getting its goofy glory when we were the kind of space they saw as the problem. The rainbow haired SJWs they made fun of in 2016 got the most dry, unsalted ship win as Trump lost.

It feels like a lot of us intentionally blocked out how dark and traumatic that time was which I think is why it’s all the more important to remember to push even harder than last time because there’s the possibility Trumpers are going to be more aggressive this time and we don’t need even the possibility of him back in office.

People who try to analyze what happened on Tumblr on November 5th, 2020, often really overstate how much it was actually “about” Supernatural. As someone who has never been in the supernatural fandom ever but dID join in on the hysterical destielposting—it was really more about the stress of the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.

The two biggest Youtubers I’ve seen try to dissect “what happened that November 5th” in video essays both weren’t American—- and I think that explains why they both tried to explain the hysteria primarily via analyzing the Supernatural fandom/the original show, rather than through the lens of the election. And while those videos are cool, valid, informational, and make lots of really well-considered interesting points— I can tell you that me and almost all my mutuals had literally no knowledge or interest in the fact that “oh supernatural had made nods at the ship in the past but the creators were adamant that I wouldn’t be canon” or etc etc etc etc. the first time I learned about any of that context was way later, watching videos where people claimed that fandom history context (that I did not know anything about) was the actual reason for the hysteria.

But the reality is that people latched on to the Destiel stuff because it was a piece of big useless inane zero-stakes fandom news in a time when we were desperately waiting for serious high stakes election news. We were latching onto a “positive “ piece of inane stupid fandom news in a time of great stress, with all the desperation of a drowning man who latches onto whatever piece of wood will keep him afloat.

The core of the hysteria was that Americans (who make up a huge chunk of tumblr’s userbase) were currently glued to their laptops watching the live presidential election vote counts come in. These vote counts were taking an extended amount of time due to the pandemic causing high numbers of mail-in ballots, resulting in a constant state of Election Day Stress for multiple days straight.

This was also during the height of the Pandemic. People had predicted Trump’s presidency would be bad; no one had predicted it would be this apocalyptically bad. No one had predicted pandemics and lockdowns and hospitals overflowing with bodybags. remember Trump spreading Covid lies and conspiracies?? There were so many Qanon conspiracies about democrats being Satanic child traffickers who had to be put to death, and coup threats were mounting from the right wing side. It seemed like this election was a choice between ‘centrist democrat’ and “apocalyptic right wing conspiracy theory authoritarianism,” in the midst of pandemic conditions that people feared would never ever improve— and it seemed like a close election.

Another major point was that Trump voters were more likely to be antimaskers/Covid deniers, while Biden voters were more likely to take the pandemic seriously— so Biden voters were more likely to send in mail-in ballots instead of risking the in-person voting crowds, which meant their ballots would take much longer to count. And so, in many state electoral vote counts, it would initially seem like Trump was very far in the lead— only for Biden to slooooowly build up an agonizingly small lead as the mail in ballots came in, and then defeat Trump at the very end.

So you’re just watching these news sites giving live election updates, refreshing the page every 2 minutes to see if you’re going to live under a spineless centrist democrat or a literal Qanon Dictatorship. And then you go on tumblr to distract yourself, and there’s more election posting, and more agonizing over the votes, and more stress and despair—-

And then it’s been days and we’re right at the crucial tipping point where it’s anyone’s game and the next few hours will determine whether Trump will win, so you need to keep your eye on the vote count, because the next hours will determine the future of the pandemic and your country and your plans for your entire life—

And then stupid Destiel becomes canon! And it becomes canon in the silliest way possible!

If Destiel had become canon at any other time, it would have been a big goofy tumblr celebration? But we wouldn’t have gotten the insane explosion of hysterical interaction.

The entire core of it was the contrast between the inane meaningless stupidity of fandom news vs the actual stressful election news you wanted to hear! It really is best conveyed in that meme where Castiel says “I love you” and Dean indifferently responds with a piece of important election news.

It’s about the contrast between the low-stakes inanity of fandom and the massive life-destroying stakes of a terrifying election. There really was no reason it had be Supernatural specifically, except that Supernatural was a thing everyone knew basic things about from dashboard osmosis— it could’ve been any other equally huge silly fandom ship news about a ship everyone *knew of* but might not necessarily be invested in (ex. Stucky becoming canon, Johnlock becoming canon, Kirk/Spock becoming more canon somehow, etc etc etc.)

I think it’s true that people who weren’t paying agonizingly close attention to the American election news got swept up in it, and that non American Supernatural fans also were extremely excited for purely fandom reasons — but the entire reason it blew up to an unprecedented degree was because of that core of stressed out terrified Americans glued to their computers watching election results and suddenly receiving stupid fandom news instead, and deciding to just hysterically parodically hyper-celebrate this absurd useless zero-stakes news.

I think it was also all elevated by the fact that, as I said before, this happened at the crucial “tipping point” of the election where the next few hours would determine the winner. The fact that Biden began to slowly develop a lead in the hours after made it feel, hysterically, as if the hours after Destiel became canon was somehow the turning point where he began to win; so celebrating Destiel felt like celebrating that slow turn towards victory.

The tl,dr is that it’s so important to Remember the Fifth of November …..in preparation the inevitable hysteria that will happen in the presidential election on November 5th of next year. XD. Personally I’m rooting for Johnlock or Frodo/Sam to somehow become canon in the eleventh hour right before the democrats win