#Voting third party is a waste of time. It just makes the chances of winning smaller | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

heathersdesk · 6 months ago

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THIRD PARTIES IN AMERICAN POLITICS ARE POINTLESS AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL AND IF YOU VOTE FOR THEM IN 2024, YOU'RE A CLOWN

All right. Civics for Dummies from the American History nerd. Sit down. If any of you suggests voting third party anywhere near me between now and November, I'm going to throw chalk at you. And we're going to talk about why right now, so there's no more confusion.

The Electoral College makes voting third party the stupidest, most unproductive thing you can be advocating for right now.

To become president under the system we have now, you need to reach 270 electoral votes. It is physically impossible for a third party candidate to do that with two other parties at the table. It's not that it won't happen. It's that it CAN'T happen.

As long as we have the Electoral College, voting for third parties for president is a waste of a vote. You might as well stand outside of your polling place and piss on a wall, for all the good it does anyone.

There are two ways forward if you're tired of the way things are. You're not going to like either one of them because they're both hard.

1. Get rid of the Electoral College

2. Get rid of both of the parties we have and replace them with different ones who will do what we want instead of engorging themselves on our money like the corrupt, bloated ticks they all are.

Get rid of the electoral college?

You need a Constitutional amendment to do that. You need 2/3 of the states to hold a Constitutional Convention, then 3/4 of either the Conventions or the state legislatures to ratify and pass it.

Make the list right now. Go ahead. Find me 38 states that would pass an amendment to get rid of the electoral college, so you can vote for whichever socialist is promising you they can somehow get people in red states to listen to them without starting a civil war.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Y'all can't even agree on which socialist without a snowball's chance in hell of winning you expect people to vote for instead of Joe Biden in November!

You've had since October 7th of last year to come up with one and you haven't done it! It's over! Pack it up and call it a day! We don't have time for this! Start picking who you want to replace Biden in 2028, if we're not in the middle of a civil war by then.

Why do I keep saying that? Because I went through a Civil War phase and we've been checking the boxes off one by one for years now in how that war started. Down to states trying to remove the opposition candidate from the ballot in an election year.

Anyway, Constitutional amendment sounds too hard? We're going with the party dunk tank approach?

Cool. This is the one I actually think we could achieve in the next 20 years.

Before you can get a third party candidate to win, you need a party that has mass appeal that people would actually want to join, then have it usurp and replace an existing party. Then that party runs a candidate that could win in a national election. But at that point, they're not a third party candidate anymore.

Ever heard of a Whig? Seen one on a ballot? Exactly. We have a history in the US of ditching parties that have outlived their usefulness. It's been a few centuries, but at least there's a precedent for it.

I don't know if y'all recognize what you're looking at, but this is already happening within the Republican party. They've been infiltrated by fascists and foreign agents, and any Republicans who aren't down with their corruption are currently getting tossed out of the cuckoos nest. Republicans can't win elections through democracy anymore, so they're just going to get rid of democracy now.

WHEN THE LDS CHURCH STARTS TELLING YOU IT'S OKAY NOT TO VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS, Y'ALL NEED TO WAKE TF UP AND REALIZE THAT PARTY IS GONE NOW, AND IT'S NEVER COMING BACK.

So the Democratic Party is what we have left now, and they suck. We know they suck. They've sucked since Jimmie Carter, and even then the poor guy was in over his head. Their leadership is full of hypocrites and liars who are too busy taking Israeli PAC money, putting kids in cages at the border, letting Facebook engage in genocides across the globe, and banning TikTok to have a conscience. They squander every opportunity they have to truly fight back effectively against anything, and they're never going to change. I've lost all respect for Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. If they won't let go of power, it's time to take it from them. I agree with that sentiment 100%. I mean, I think it's better to primary the old guard, but y'all want radical change! So let's talk about it!

You want to usurp the Democratic party with another party? You need a well-funded coalition of people in every state, fully mobilized with quality candidates they can run locally, to get the ball rolling. That needs to go on for many years. It needs to be a party that attracts the disaffected from the left and right, and has a platform they all can agree on. What Republicans and Democrats won't do, this party would need to do. It would need celebrity endorsements. It would need to be something that the vast majority of Americans would pull out their wallet right now and give money to because they believe it's capable of change that will actually help them.

You want to replace the Democrat and Republican establishment with something better? You put it together correctly and it can be done. Like I said, I think y'all could get that done in the next 20 years.

You don't have 20 years?

Exactly! You're not getting any of that done before November! I don't care how hard you try.

Fastest amendment to ever be ratified was the repeal of Prohibition. 3 months and 10 days. This ain't that. No one wants to vote for your inexperienced socialist candidates as badly as they wanted to drink during the Great Depression. To give you some perspective, it took 41 years to pass the women's suffrage amendment. THAT'S a more realistic timeline.

As for forming a party... why do you think the opposition is doing a hostile takeover of the Republican party instead of forming their own and starting from zero?

Because it's easier and faster!

People on the left who are still talking about third parties in this country will literally do anything but build a coalition with those they consider morally inferior to themselves. But the problem is, they can't do anything with the microscopic group of people they consider to be morally acceptable. They can't pass an amendment to get rid of the Electoral College. They can't form an alternate party to replace the Democrats. They can't do a hostile takeover of the Democrats. They can't unite behind a single candidate and get them funded to win campaigns except in the bluest districts of blue states. And they're totally unprepared to take any idea they have on the road to the Midwest or the South where they'd truly have to deal with people who don't trust them.

All y'all have to offer is the same dysfunctionalism we already have.

There's no way forward into the future where you get the kind of policies you want AND to opt out of being in community with people you don't like. You have to pick a struggle. If you don't have the skill set and temperament to work with Democrats, you don't have what it takes to replace them either. You just don't. Not in this economy. Not in any economy. Not on this timeline or any other.

I don't care how much you don't like Joe Biden. That's who we're voting for in November because there's no one else. Y'all waited until Gaza was on fire for the umpteenth time to become a single issue voter, and you want all of us to jump off the cliff of the moral high ground with you?

Nah. I've decided I'm going to live through this.

I'm strategizing what to do if Biden dies in office and how to primary Kamala Harris as a potential incumbent in 2028. And if (God forbid) Trump wins, I'm picking out people at church who would hide me in their basement when the round ups start. Because I live in the purple section of Boise, surrounded by nothing but Klan members and neo-Nazis in the middle of the desert. It's nothing but Confederate wannabees for hundreds of miles in every direction.

When you're ready to get serious, you're welcome to join.

#election 2024 #joe biden #biden v trump #Republicans blow #Democrats suck #electoral college

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bulletsandbracelets · 3 months ago

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I’m sorry to say that this isn’t true. Voting smaller parties works outside of the US because those governments are not the US government. They have proportional representation, something that we desperately need but do not have implemented yet.

No third party president will ever win in the US without making their party into one of the major two parties. It is impossible. A contingent election means that if no candidate gets more than half of the electoral votes, the House of Representative chooses the president and our votes no longer matter at all. Each state gets one vote in this system. Guess which party has more states?

If a third party gets 40% and both other parties get 30%, the third party still loses. Because no House members are going to choose a third party over their own candidate.

So then we get into congressional votes. How do we get more third party candidates into congress? They have to run. And right now, no third parties even attempt to get into Congressional races because they are money sinks instead of fundraising opportunities. And they rely on a candidate who is familiar with the state and who has the time, and energy, to get on the ballot. Before we see third parties we need to see a form of proportional districts. Because in order to be elected, a third party would need to have a majority of the votes in a given area instead of just a proportion of them.

The reason voting third party is useless and is a waste of your vote is because unless you are sure, in the near future, your party can overtake one of the main two, you have no chance of winning in the future. If you want to see more third party representation, then we need to be working on lobbying for changes that actually will allow that. And that work needs to be done between elections.

The frustrating part to me is that third parties, who would benefit from so much of this work, refuse to really talk about or fight for it themselves. I don’t think being unaware is an excuse. I think many of the leaders of these parties know exactly how ineffective their methods are. I just don’t think they care so long as they get their fundraising and publicity in every four years.

Again, speaking as someone with scrupulosity OCD and anxiety, this whole entire mentality of "if I vote for a presidential candidate, then I, personally am responsible for each and every bad thing they do" is essentially a form of catastrophic, polarized thinking. It's a super unhealthy way of thinking that leaves you unable to meaningfully navigate through life a lot of the time. And while you might feel morally clean, it's actually an incredibly dysfunctional way to live because you just won't take action when it could really matter, or the actions you do take don't actually have a substantial chance of changing things.

Like refusing to vote, or voting third-party even though you know the odds of a third party candidate making it are pretty much nil (or because you've convinced yourself it could totally work if Everyone Just - even though we all know there is no point in history when Everyone Just), that's dysfunctional behavior. There's no getting around it. It's dysfunctional behavior.

#politics #I’m really sorry #I might have an unjustifiably low view of third parties #but watching the Green Party ram their head against the same wall for decades #instead of fighting for actual effective solutions #has convinced me the work is going to need to be done by someone else

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sometimesiammybpd · 1 month ago

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i feel bad for not posting all the time. i just like. don't know what to say when it's not a longform post. i still don't reeeeeally know who i am, so yeah. anyways hi.

to put this bluntly, i quit my job a week ago. after trump won the election, i spiraled. because i was one of the mistaken leftists (i don't consider myself a leftist at ALL but it's the most fitting term here.) who believed kamala had such a fighting chance that there was no way in hell he would win . . . and then he did. when i went to bed on the 5th, i went high as shit because i knew i wouldn't be able to handle any of this. i was and still am right about that. but when i woke up on the 6th and saw he won the election (yes, i saw the outlets that were calling it for him before even 2 am that night.), i couldn't process it at first. and then it hit me about an hour after i woke up and i still couldn't process any of it. except the thought to quit my job.

and i'll be real, i don't know if it was more self-destructive or what i'm about to say. cause in the moment, i said i wasn't going to work under my boss anymore because he's a massive trump supporter and i was losing it. i know that's true but it's moreso the question of if it's a scapegoat-type excuse or a genuine excuse. that i don't know. but i quit. i no-called, no-showed and then didn't show the next day and was fired. and that was that. yeah, he blew me up. i fucked over people that i didn't want to fuck over. but it meant more to me than just "he's a trump supporter." i am trans. i am a woman. and he voted to take away my rights, cis women rights, immigrant rights, the right to criticize the government, the separation of church and state, and so much more. and while i do believe it's partially me trying to just ruin my life because of where i was mentally, i just. even hearing his voice makes me angry. because how can you be "supportive" of anything you say you are and then vote for him? you can't be supportive just when it's convenient for you. you can't take away someone's right to choose, vote for themselves, get divorced, etc., and then still pretend like you're the good guy. and that's my issue with this entire fucking situation.

yes, i am angry with the right. i will always be angry with the right. but i'm so much angrier with the left. because for starters, kamala wasn't a fucking democrat. she ran under the guise of being a democrat, but she isn't one. she's an old-school republican and it showed based on her policies and the way she handled her campaign. and yes, she's better than biden in a lot of areas (they're both fucking awful in terms of the stance on israel / palestine and don't get me started on that). but it's been proven that "i'm not biden" is not good enough. that "i might ask for a ceasefire as president" is not good enough. that camo hats, threatening to close the border like MAGA has been for decades, not addressing ANYTHING regarding the working class to actually help us like fucking proper student loan payment, raising the minimum wage, supporting getting rid of the electorial college (i love tim walz for that stance but i hate the harris campaign for making him back down), literally anything. i voted for kamala and it felt like a wasted vote. i was excited in the moment because it was my first presidental election i could vote in, but it felt wrong and felt like a wasted vote. i wasn't going to not vote or vote third-party. and i'll be honest, i'm afraid of what's to come. i'm afraid i'm going to get arrested for not being supportive of trump. i'm afraid if they find out i'm trans, i'll be arrested for that (i still do not pass at all. i actually look insanely masculine which i HATE). i'm afraid of my friends losing their rights and of the thought that we will never have another free election in this country as long as i am alive because of this election.

they're just fears, i keep telling myself. even though there most definitely will be a mass deportation attempt on day one. even though they've already started attempting to pass bills to give trump more freedom to do whatever he wants, including taking down who he considers to be political enemies. they're just fears. except i don't believe that and i have no hope left to be able to use to undo that. i don't want to be a pessimist in this. i know people will still fight. i know it's not over unless we give up. but the democrats don't seem to give a flying fuck as they're blaming fucking transgender people for THEIR LOSS. FOR THE MISTAKES THEY FUCKING MADE.

i'm gonna be real. i felt so hopeless on november 6th that i was ready to take my life. i didn't want to abandon my friends, but i didn't want to be here anymore. because how was january 6th not enough? i was 17 and watched that happen in REAL TIME. i was physically shaking and that was most genuine fear and anger i felt until now. i cannot fucking believe i have to live in a country where a convicted felon has more supporters than any other politician. where he IS GETTING TO BE PRESIDENT TWICE. i can only begin to imagine what it must feel like for anyone who trump SA'd.

i don't know. maybe in four years, democrats will finally LEARN and something good will happen. but even if we are able to get it back, who's to say we'll have a country in 4 years worth taking back? who's to say we'll have a world that's still worth fighting for? and i don't think anyone right now realizes how long it'll be before anything he puts in place over the next 4 years gets undone. keep in mind that losing RvW was his fault, but it happened AFTER he got out of office. that's how much he's already fucked up this country. we have collectively voted to give the 2-year old who can't stop shitting their pants to form a coherent sentence the keys to the car and letting them drive cross-country for almost half a decade.

i don't know. i don't want to talk about this anymore.

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dallasareaopinion · 2 months ago

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Vote Independent or third party, why?

From MSN article by Andrew Lisa: “Even so, the rich get richer with every presidential cycle while the middle class continues shrinking.”

This may seem like it could be taken out of context. It wasn’t, this is from an article talking about what Trump will do for the middle class, by the way, the article goes on to say:

“A second Trump presidency could affect middle-class finances through potential tax policy changes,” Pace said. “During Trump’s first term, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 offered limited benefits to middle-income earners and more extensive benefits to the wealthy and corporations. Similar future policies could result in minimal tax relief for the middle class and possibly larger budget deficits, raising concerns about future tax increases or cuts in essential services.”

In assessing the impact of the TCJA, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Brookings Institute wrote, “The 2017 tax law doesn’t help the middle class. The benefits of the law tilt toward the well-off both now and in the future, according to the distributional analysis of the Tax Policy Center. By 2027, benefits of the tax law flow entirely to the rich.”

Yet don’t think I am supporting Harris. Go back to the opening sentence… the rich get richer in every presidential cycle… the author may tend towards Harris, but the reality is for the last forty years or more the wealth gap has been shrinking, yet the stock market has gone up. So why does the gap shrink; because no one in either party actually fights for the middle class. Sure every now and then a bill gets passed that sounds good, but overall the working and middle class have absolutely no representation in Congress.

Why? Because the Democrat and Republican party has only one goal, getting elected and re-elected. So you hear quite a bit of talk every election cycle, but by the next cycle you need to hear the same promises again because nothing was done for you.

Tired of it yet? Obviously I have been for quite some time which is one reason I keep beating the same ole horse all the time, but hopefully one day people’s eyes and ears will open.

And Trump will raise your taxes indirectly with tariffs and Harris will do what all Democrats do raise your taxes to pay for benefits our government can no longer afford.

To me our government could afford the benefits by making the distribution more efficient, but don’t expect a Democrat to figure that out. Oh by the way, Musk’s efficiency idea though is not what I am talking about. He will just shut down the government and shift all benefits to a few billionaires and you will be holding one giant bag of nothing costing you a fortune.

People will say you are wasting your vote if you vote third party or independent. Ask them when wasn’t my vote wasted. Everything is getting worse, wealth gap, quality of education, social security needs work (fixable, but nobody in Congress wants to do what is best for you) and so on.

A republican or democrat will tell you some inkling of an idea or fact that sounds like they did something, but again the slow deterioration is still happening. If either was actually doing something, then things would change. And then they will say, it is not us, it is the other side. That should tell you right away, that the blame game is part of the problem. If people really wanted to do something they would overcome the other side and do better.

So be bold, be strong and vote for your interests. Find a third party or independent candidate and vote for them. Sure they probably won’t win, but once you make the first step it is easier to start looking for something better. And once we get out of the mindset we must vote for the duopoly or the lesser of two evils others will see it can be done. Just think if third parties receive larger numbers then other people will notice and eventually people with viable ideas will feel that might have a chance to make changes.

I will be writing in a name for President and the Senate race in Texas. And both are approved write in candidates so my votes should be counted. I am going to go over my precinct results to make sure at least one for each and possibly two since the better half has come over to the force and no longer votes for the dark side. Research all your available options in your area and see which of those come closest to your values. No one may be perfect, but seriously if you are holding your nose and voting for someone you don’t like because you feel you have to, start researching.

And don’t let people say the other side is so bad you have to vote for my side, stop right there, wish them well and go back to researching. The hyperbole is insane and not real and this election is going to be close so voting outside the duopoly will make a bigger impact because both parties will realize you have learned they don’t care a damn about you, but themselves.

VOTE! And check your precinct results, because you would have a very real and serious case if you know who you voted for and nothing shows.

Cheers

#2024 election #Trump #Harris #Democrats #Republicans #third parties

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tomorrowusa · 1 year ago

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Nothing in Ron DeSantis's Florida should surprise us any more. But that doesn't mean we should normalize the hate that is spewing from the state's Republican Party.

As Republicans become more desperate for power, they rely increasingly on their extremist base. Homophobia seems to be overtaking anti-abortion fanaticism as the prime way to energize that gradually shrinking base. And Florida has become ground zero for GOP homophobia on steroids.

A Florida Republican politician suggested that Pride images are “anti-Christian” hate symbols and called for the government to immediately “crush” Pride Month. Anthony Sabatini, who currently serves as the chair of the Lake County Republican Party, slammed Pride Month as “anti-American” and proposed ways the state government could effectively end LGBTQ pride celebrations. “There’s a great reset going on. And I say, well, if you look around, really, I think the great reset is a gay reset. I mean, if you look at Pride Month, that’s pretty much, like, the whole program,” Sabatini, who is running for Congress, said at an event. It is not clear when the event took place, but video of his speech was posted to Twitter on Friday by liberal activist Lauren Windsor. “We have to end Pride Month, okay?” Sabatini continued to applause from the audience. “We have to crush Pride Month. It has to go away.” “It’s time to crush Pride Month and the businesses that promote that toxic anti-American garbage.”

Quite frankly, it's Anthony Sabatini who is "toxic anti-American garbage".

Sabatini is running for US House from FL-11 and is preaching hate in a state that produced the Pulse Nightclub massacre.

Sadly, Sabatini is not an atypical Republican. Republicans have been trying to normalize homophobia nationally.

Republicans across the country are steadily making the U.S. more hostile to LGBTQ people, and Florida is leading the charge. State lawmakers have passed laws expanding “Don’t Say Gay,” banning discussions of personal pronouns in schools, and prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender on any public property. Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis earlier this month shared what is possibly the most bigoted ad ever for his presidential campaign. And it’s not just at the state level. The Supreme Court ruled in June that businesses can refuse to serve LGBTQ people, which has already spurred more discrimination. And on Friday, the House of Representatives passed a defense budget that bans the Department of Defense from flying Pride flags or reimbursing travel costs for service members who seek gender-affirming care.

The only way to keep hate-filled homophobic Republicans out of power is to vote Democratic. Being a lazy non-voter or wasting votes on impotent third parties with zero chance of winning elects Republicans. Not every Democrat may be 100% perfect but almost every Republican panders to the aggressive Trump-DeSantis homophobic agenda. Put Republicans in charge of legislative chambers and you get Florida.

It's necessary to be smart and persistent about defeating evil.

I Will Vote

#florida #lake county florida #republicans #don't say gay #the gop #anthony sabatini #ron desantis #homophobia #hate speech #lgbtq+#us house of representatives #fl-11 #pride month #register and vote #election 2024

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itsbenedict · 3 years ago

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I just finished hosting a 15-person game of Mafia for some friends. One tradition we have for these games is that every death is accompanied by some themed narration, so for my game I opted to spice it up with some art on top. Had to draw it real quick since I didn't know for sure who was going to die next until it happened.

The game's theme was "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", with the hidden subtheme that all the roles (stands) were named after They Might Be Giants (@tmbgareok) songs! A list of their powers, links to songs, and a recap of the game under the cut.

01) Mogis - 「Flo Wheeler」

02) TD260 - 「Working Undercover For The Man」

03) JGH27 - 「Good To Be Alive」

04) Raya - 「Stone Cold Coup D'Etat」

05) KK / Sahrimnir - 「Thinking Machine」

06) Spontaneous Combustion - 「The Statue Got Me High」

07) Leviwulf - 「Push Back The Hands」

08) DarkFalco - 「I Am Alone」

09) Deli064 - 「Doctor Worm」

10) Fedaykin - 「Letterbox」

11) Surge - 「I Am Alone」

12) Wikxen - 「Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head」

13) Minby - 「Where Your Eyes Don't Go」

14) Bel - 「(She Was A) Hotel Detective」

15) SnakeInABox - 「By The Time You Get This」

Bold roles were Jotunheim (Mafia), normal roles were Johnsburg (Town), and italicized roles were third parties. (Jotunheim is the realm of giants from Norse mythology! The mafia were, in fact, giants! And the town's job was to figure out who might be giants! And the two sides were Jo and Jo! JOKES!)

「Flo Wheeler」 was a town role with a power that was pretty dangerous to the user- if anyone happened to be watching or tracking when a kill took place at night, Mogis would look like they'd visited the target that night in addition to whoever actually did. It could potentially be used to catch a mafioso in a lie, but otherwise it was more of an obstacle for the town to overcome- a miller-type role.

♪ You can't do the time, therefore you didn't do the crime ♪

「Working Undercover For The Man」 was a third-party role working for the Speedwagon Foundation to perform a threat assessment. TD could win with the town, but could win and leave early if he could guess all the names or powers of every other stand in the game. He could scan a name every night, to help that along.

♪ Planning midnight raids / On our unsuspecting fans / While the roadies rig / The video surveillance van ♪

「Good To Be Alive」 was a spin on the usual town doctor role- normally, a doctor can target a player and prevent their death if they would die that night. But... JGH couldn't actually prevent deaths- just fake it. The dead would become ghosts, who couldn't vote and couldn't be killed but were still allowed to talk as if they were alive.

♪ Hello leg / such a shaky leg / Just barely more than decoration ♪

「Stone Cold Coup D'Etat」 was a third party with an unusual win condition. They had to recruit a certain number of people to a private side-chat- and then make sure all those people got killed. Plus, she could redirect anything that happened to her at night to her recruits. If the recruits figured out what she was doing and got rid of her, they'd get a boost to their power.

♪ The bark now commands the trees / The queen is overruled by the bees ♪

「Thinking Machine」 was a town role with a mysterious purpose that didn't seem to make much sense at first. Sah would get, every morning, a strange series of numbers and letters of uncertain origin. It was information, somehow, but how to use it?

♪ Tape has brightening arm connect (Wait, that didn't make sense.) / Self-paint lever itching does! (That made even less sense!) ♪

「The Statue Got Me High」 was a mafia power. As the song describes, the victim is enthralled by the monolith and forced to obey its commands, until their eventual death. That is, Spont could recruit a player to the mafia, but they'd die one night later- and if he wasn't careful, he could die and his recruit would flip back.

♪ And now it is your turn (your turn to hear the stone and then your turn to burn) / The stone, it calls to you (you can't refuse to do the things it tells you to) ♪

「Push Back The Hands」 was a passive ability that caused anything that would happen to Levi- a nightkill, an execution, some other power- to be delayed by one day, giving him some time to react. He'd be told who it was that targeted him, so going after him as mafia was risky.

♪ Screeching tires but never a collision / Endless day without a sunset provision ♪

「I Am Alone」 was a weird one. See, DarkFalco, who was mafia, didn't have a stand as such. She was the stand- and she was the stand of Surge, who was town. They were linked together in everything, meaning the mafia had to work to keep Surge alive on top of their own people. She could send messages to Surge at night to mess with him, though.

♪ Before you fire I should inform you / One of us is a double ♪

「Doctor Worm」 had no real special abilities. His ability was to be pretty good at playing the drums, a power that had absolutely no relevance in a game of Mafia.

♪ I'm not a real doctor, but I am a real worm I am an actual worm ♪

「Letterbox」 was a mafia ability that let Fedaykin pick another player, and offer that player a chance to deliver a private message to one other player of their choice. He could see the "secret" communications, though, and once per game he could edit the message before delivering it.

♪ I'll never know what you'll find when you open up your letter box tomorrow ♪

「Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head」 is a classically mafia ability, but in the hands of a town player: the ability to force another player to vote for another. Normally the manipulated person isn't allowed to say what happened, but there was no such restriction here- confusion's no good for the town.

♪ Memo to myself: do the dumb things i gotta do: Touch the puppet head ♪

「Where Your Eyes Don't Go」 let Minby pick someone else to watch him at night. If anyone visited him to target him with an ability, the person he designated would be told the names of those people. A nasty trap for the mafia, as long as Minby doesn't pick a mafioso to share the information with.

♪ Where your eyes don't go, a part of you is hovering / It's a nightmare that you'll never be discovering / You're free to come and go / Or talk like Kurtis Blow / But there's a pair of eyes in back of your head ♪

「(She Was A) Hotel Detective」 was a very powerful town role- Bel was the cop, and could scan another player's alignment at night, plus track or watch them. Except... not directly. She couldn't scan players- she could scan hotel rooms, and if other players didn't check into the hotel at night or give up their room numbers, her information was useless.

Here are the room numbers, in order: Levi (1) Snake (2) JGH (3) TD (4) Spont (5) Sah (6) Deli (7) Fed (8) Minby (9) Falco/Surge (10) Raya (11) Wikxen (12) Mogis (13).

(Oh, and Thinking Machine's codes were actually encoded versions of her results, and Sah would get a weaker version of her power if she ever died.)

♪ She's got her ear to the walls / And she's tappin' the calls / If you've got a secret, boy / Forget about it! ♪

「By The Time You Get This」 imbued its wielder with the incredible powers of... an estate lawyer! Which meant Snake could leave a will behind when he died, naming another player and casting a vote on them from beyond the grave the next day.

♪ By the time you get this note / We'll no longer be alive / But our skulls are smiling still / At the thought of things to come ♪

So! Here's how it all shook out.

Day 1: The first day is always kind of a tossup, since no one has any information yet, and everyone's just trying to verbally stir the pot. Levi soft-claims his role right out the gate, warning town not to try targeting him or else. Mogis is executed, casting a vote on himself to save the town the trouble of dealing with Flo Wheeler.

Night 1: Spont uses the statue to recruit Wikxen, at the same time that Wikxen forces Snake to vote for Levi. So, now the usually-scum power in the hands of town is in the hands of scum for real. Bel scans room 3, and learns that its occupant is innocent. Raya recruits DarkFalco, and accidentally recruits Surge alongside her, to her surprise. JGH tries protecting Levi, to test if his claim was a bluff.

Day 2: Levi tries to push JGH on the basis of having targeted him last night, but everyone agrees to wait and see if Levi actually dies first. Votes circle around Wikxen and Raya for suspicious-seeming defensiveness on Day 1, and ultimately, when it seems like Wikxen's about to be executed, a small group of players flip their votes at the last minute and vote Raya out while she's asleep and can't defend herself. Rude! She was poised to win the game for herself and the town, since she'd convinced Falco that the mafia would benefit somehow if they were all recruited.

Night 2: The mafia kills Minby- and Minby opts to tell have Fed watch him, wasting his power. Lucky for town, though, Bel happens to scan room 8, confirming Fed is mafia since he volunteered his room number. Wikxen's coat contains a furnace where there used to be a guy.

Day 3: Wikxen forced Snake to vote for J, making him look bad- but Sah begins sharing his bizarre results from Thinking Machine, and Bel confirms that they're a log of her detective power. Then she points out that Fed is mafia, and the town falls in line behind the accusation with Sah to confirm.

Night 3: Spont uses the statue to recruit Bel, to keep any more problematic scans from ruining them. Bel, before being recruited, scans room 10, though- and now the town knows there's something funky with Falco and Surge, because Sah gets the results and knows what they mean. Due to their mismatched alignments, though, the encoded version is still misleading, so there's wiggle room. TD scans Spont and learns his role name.

Day 4: Spont concocts a daring scheme. He has Bel lie and claim to have received an incriminating result on him- so that Bel will be caught in said lie when Sah produces his own results. The plan is to frame Bel, who's a dead girl walking anyway, and clear Spont's name going forward. But the town talks themselves into explaining away the contradiction- even when TD reveals Spont's stand name, and Spont denies it outright and claims 「Combustible Head」, a fake vigilante (town nightkiller) role instead, the town explains away that, too. After a few more people claim, TD260 has completed his mission- his correct guess wins him the game and he leaves. Spont cleverly excuses himself by claiming that TD lied about his role to get him to claim his "real" one. Afterwards, the town ends up executing Deli064 instead, for some reason- poor Doctor Worm!

Night 4: The evidence vanishes from Bel's charred and smoking chair- because JGH tries to protect her at the same time the mafia are killing him! Bel is a ghost now, and the town never finds out her alignment.

Day 5: Bel not dying poses a problem for the mafia, because Spont was supposed to prove his own innocence by pretending to kill her! The mafia tries to misdirect by having Bel lie again, claiming to scan room 10 when she actually scanned room 6, Sah. Ultimately, though, the town is able to coordinate behind killing Surge and Falco, which- because they're linked- is a compromise option that both parties are happy with (when perhaps they shouldn't be).

Night 5: Since Bel is technically dead, Spont recruits again, grabbing Sah and removing the threat of scans entirely. If he'd recruited Snake instead, they'd have won on the spot, since only his will-vote prevented them from winning instantly due to outnumbering the town. We move on to a somewhat redundant...

Day 6: It's now down to five players- Spont, Sah, and Bel vs Levi and Snake. The mafia technically outnumber the town, but Bel's vote doesn't count, and Sah's going to burn the next night- so the town can still win by forcing a tie and then using Snake's By The Time You Get This power to place a vote on Spont. But that's if they can figure it out and get on the same page, and... they don't. There's no way there could be three mafia still alive, so the mafia are able to sow total confusion and ultimately get the town all voting for Bel... who's a ghost, and can't vote or be executed, which the town doesn't know because JGH died before he could fully explain. The execution defaults to Snake, and the mafia win the game.

#mafia #they might be giants #tmbgareok #jojo #jjba #benedict art

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stabbystiletto · 3 years ago

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Sooooo kuro got 5th in the popularity poll (the web version) and i feel like he is the most popular character so i'm wondering

If maybe people who had a second favorite. That they were concerned wouldn't place at all. Maybe only voted for their second instead of their first...?

Like maybe theoretically they voted everyday for a character that was actually just a second or third favorite just to help boost their numbers. And maybe they used multiple devices so they could vote more than once daily.

And maybe they sent a link to the poll to their big sib with instructions on how and who to vote for 😶 (not that i, y'know, would ever do anything like that 😅😅😅😏😏😏😶😶😶😎😎😎)

But I mean if a lot of people did that it would definitely explain kuro's ranking lol 😆

Don't get me wrong they're all great characters so I'm sure whoever did get the #1 spot is also great but i dunno it's just surprising lol 🤔 (maybe i feel just a little bit guilty but you know what i had a character i just wanted to see place. I would have been so happy if he got even the #10 spot even though i know it's not gonna happen 🥲 i feel like i voted for a third party candidate, not only did i waste my vote on someone who was never gonna win but by doing so i took votes away from a candidate who actually had a chance lololol 😣)

Also dont take this that seriously lol mostly I'm just curious what all the results are!! This is the first time I've participated in one of these and it's kinda exciting lol 😆😆😆

I thought if sloth pair didn't get the top 2 spots it'd be greed pair but licht was #4 on the mail in votes?? I wonder if the greeds are gonna be #1 on the web and sloths #1 on the mail in votes? (I mean i feel like that makes sense, on the web you could vote A BUNCH of times so you could more freely vote for a secondary character, while mail in votes you had a very set number, like 1 or 2 for most people, so i think there'd be more pressure to make sure you voted for your absolute #1 favorite chara. don't know if that makes sense or not but whatever lol)

And if they're splitting up the votes for the results how are they gonna do the clear file? Probably combine them huh 🤔🤔🤔 I'm just excited to finally see it lol 😆

#servamp #shitpost lol 😆#don't mind me lol just rambling on and on lolololol 😅😅😅#i got so invested in this poll lol 😅 i even sent it to my sis #'vote for this guy!!'#'which guy??'#'the only one i frickin draw!! 😣😣😣'#'i think I'm gonna vote for this other one 😏' 'YOU SHUT THE HELL UP 🤬🤬🤬'#🤣🤣🤣😅😅😅#siblings are jerks 😐#i mean she voted for the right character in the end so all's well that ends well lol 😎😎😎😆😆😆#ooof this was a long ass post woops lolol 😅😅😅#also maybe people just got tired of voting for kuro lol after all this was the second popularity poll #like 'we get it he's popular let's put someone else up front'#duuuuuude what if gear or youtarou break the top 3 🤣🤣🤣#probably not but still lol i could kinda see gear doing it #i think he could get top 10 at least?

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yournewapartment · 4 years ago

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In all seriousness, what do you think voting 3rd party this election will do? Is it really worth trying when only the 2 idiots actually matter? Will it be just as useless as voting for Spongebob? Should I just not vote at all?

Please DO NOT vote third party this election!

I’m all for voting third party, but this is not the election for that. This is the election to get out there and get excited for Joe Biden. He’s not perfect. He’s not progressive in the way that I want him to be. He’s a straight white male when, frankly, we deserve better. But in this current political climate, there is no way in hell a third party candidate will win. As you’ve acknowledged, America is stuck in a two party cycle for the foreseeable future. I remember a coworker of mine trying to tell me that “I was the problem” for not voting for Jill Stein in 2016, a fucking pivotal year in the fucking history of our democracy. I love Jill Stein, but she didn’t stand a sliver of a chance, and he knew it! And he voted for her anyway to “stick it to the man”.

Unfortunately, voting third party will become synonymous with throwing your vote away this election, much as it was this past election. It’s terrible, but it’s true. You’re not cheating the system or sticking it to the man. You’re wasting your voice. I’m sorry that your voice only has the two options, but that’s the corner we’ve backed ourselves into. We’ve gotta get out before we can make any permanent changes.

Let’s revolutionize after we get a Democrat back in the White House. Let’s demand change at a greater level after we’re back to some semblance of normalcy. Now is the time to vote for Joe Biden. If you can’t get excited for him, get excited for Kamala at the very least. She’s smart and motivated and makes the democratic ticket better in so many different ways. I hope she holds Biden to the standard he needs to be held to. I hope she makes us proud, but I have faith that she will bring out his progressive side.

Trump is pure evil and deranged and America will not survive another four years of him! 210 thousand people have already died due to his negligence. If you’ve watched any of the debates you must have seen his determination to make a mockery of everyone and everything that is not himself or his family. He’s a sociopath! He doesn’t care about you or me or even Malaria his own wife! She’s awful too, btw.... He is pathetic and a literal sociopath and everyone who stands with him is an enabling, spineless shitstain of a person. Period the end!

Please vote Biden. Do it for America. Just... please.

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bogleech · 11 months ago

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No harm reduction? Huh, let's see... Well, if everyone who cares about human life wastes their vote in protest, it will definitely have the hideously ironic effect of handing the country on a silver platter to the party that will help kill thousands to millions more Palestinians, since they make it well known that they intend to, all while they go after a lengthy list of other groups of people they want to either kill or simply strip of more and more rights. These are the people who think miscarriages should be tried as manslaughter cases for fuck's sake. These are the ones who chose to respond to 9/11 by massacring places nobody involved in 9/11 even actually came from. Those are the guys who take over again as long as they just beat the stupid fucking Blue Team, the only team physically large enough to even compete in the same race.

See, the same will still happen if every single last supporter of any possible third party turns out to vote, because that is how minuscule their voter bases are. They have never even built a fraction as many members in positions as high as the big two. If we got a green party president it would mean nothing because there aren't enough green party seats in our Senate to out-vote the GOP or DNC on a single issue. The very inclusion of third party options on the ballot is barely more than a gesture the two dominant ones allow to make it look like they're good sports. That's the hopeless situation we've been in since before my parents were born.

And what you're bizarrely suggesting here is that if we allow the right wing to win by a landslide, the Right Wing who band together in armed militias *in 2023* looking for an excuse to shoot immigrants, the right wing that thinks transgender people are walking sex crimes that eat babies, the right wing that *overwhelmingly* sides with israel more feverishly than everyone else put together, you believe, apparently, that the Democrats will see these bloodthirsty animalistic sadists win a massive victory and decide to be nicer more compassionate people next time, rather than just move more to the right to try and compete for the same votes.

But the fact of the matter is.....Biden's support of Israel isn't actually the Democrat party's stance. Most of it fought him on it and there are still plenty fighting. The Republican party approves of it entirely, except that it thinks Biden was too soft and should have paid for a whole lot more of it. His own side primarily wants a permanent ceasefire. They will have zero chance to push for one if a rightoid beast-thing takes the white house.

You don't know better just because you feel you're some sort of impartial outside observer. You get an incomplete and carefully curated view of our political climate through social media. You evidently have no idea how it really is here and what options anyone actually has to fight anything. ONE of them, one little easy one, will be to make sure that when the Republicans and Democrats put up their respective effigies for the presidential vote, people at the very fucking least rob the more radical side of a victory and unfortunately there is only one viable way to do that unless we can tear down and replace the entire system in the next eight months. Hop to it I guess !!!

Your hearts in the right place which is a black and white disgust for genocide and war that every single person should hold, but unfortunately half of this country actively loves those things and giving just one vote to their closest opponent, even one who's guilty of some of the same evil, is quite often the only tool available to *begin* any processes of limiting their influence.

I know the US government acts like a corporation but it’s not.

Not voting isn’t the same as a boycott. Because you can’t bankrupt a government by not voting. All you get by not voting is less control over what the money is doing.

The money comes from taxes, not voting. Abstaining from voting does nothing to reduce the governments ability to get money and spend it on shit.

So yes, sometimes you vote to reduce harm because not voting WILL NOT REDUCE HARM.

It’s not a boycot. Abstaining doesn’t take power from the government. It just reduces the number of people they feel answerable to.

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shesclearlya3 · 4 years ago

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Class Fight (p.3)

pairing: teen!dandy mott x teen!reader

word count: 3,559

warnings: language, jealous dandy, slightly au!dandy, all characters are 18

part 1 part 2

You led Dandy into your bedroom, gently clicking the door shut as to not alert your mother. She trusted you, but the motherly instincts couldn't be helped when it came to safety with boys. Dandy glanced around your room, having not been up here since you were in elementary school. He noticed you still had the teddy bear he gifted you in fifth grade when you fell and scraped your knee so severely it required stitches.

You wasted no time, turning around as he took a seat on your bed, "I need an explanation from you!" you said, giving him a glare as he smirked at you. "Dandy, why are you causing fights with my friends?"

"You two really are friends, then?" he asked, very pleased with your answer. "I don't see us coming to an agreement with what I have to say."

You crossed your arms, your glare worsening as Dandy just smirked at you. You tried not to be distracted by the fact he was starting to grow into his looks, and you were beginning to notice. "That's not fair."

"Of course it isn't, but neither is life, y/n." he shrugged. "I don't regret what I did. I never liked Jason, we're rivals by default."

You frowned, "What are you talking about?"

Dandy stared at you, wiping his hands on his clean pants. "You don't remember the story? The Deans and the Motts were business partners before we were born. Jason's father stole ideas and were selling them someplace else. Ended up losing the lawsuit after my father found out. Not long after, your grandfather helped grow our business, and eventually yours."

Of course, how could you forget such an essential detail in your family history? It was only ingrained in you since birth. Despite the temporary setback, the Deans found their fortune in cars. Frozen foods weren't their strong suit, it seemed.

"Jason isn't his father," you defended him, coming to take a seat next to Dandy. "That's not fair to him."

"And I'm not my father," Dandy countered. "I go way back with Jason, y/n. Neither of us ever liked each other, and not for reasons due to our parents. He's a stuck up, spoiled brat."

You thought it was funny that Dandy, of all people, could call another person a spoiled brat. You knew he changed plenty since you were kids, but he was always the one kid in the entire grade who had a tantrum once a day in each class.

"It's not fair to me!" you said, springing back up. "I don't pretend to like everybody, Dandy. However, I don't want my relationships to suffer because two of my friends hate each other. If Jason had ulterior motives I have yet to see them!"

Dandy laughed loudly, and you found yourself with the same unamused expression as before. He didn't falter at your glare, instead grinning widely and standing up, easily towering over you.

"y/n, I don't talk to a lot of people. You know that." he approached you, and you stood your ground, feeling your legs become jelly at his close proximity. "And because of it I hear everything that is said in that school. If I wasn't concerned about you, I would have punched the shit out of him just for the shoes he was wearing yesterday."

"What about what I want?" you questioned, causing him to arch an eyebrow. "I never said I was interested in him. If he thinks something is going to come out of this, he's wrong."

Dandy nodded, smiling at you. You felt chills run down your spine as his eyes twinkled with curiosity. "I like your attitude. You always knew how to take care of yourself."

You nodded slowly, swallowing the saliva pooling in your mouth. "I guess you taught me a thing or two growing up."

The silence between you was deafening. You noticed Dandy's jawline was more pronounced than you remembered. Dandy realized your lips were fuller than before.

"y/n, I want you to promise me that you'll come to me if you change your mind." he said, and you could hear the genuine concern in his voice. "I don't trust him, but I trust you."

You nodded; however, any thought of Jason was pushed to the back of your mind.

Dandy smirked at you and took a few steps backward. "I'm afraid I have to go."

You blinked, realizing that he had you where he wanted you. You glared at him as he headed to your door before turning to look at you.

"You're still not going?" he asked, a rather smug look upon his face as he wiggled an eyebrow at you.

Before you could answer, Dandy walked out your door. You heard him descend the staircase, with a farewell to your mother, then the front door shut.

You sat on your bed, hand clutched to your chest as you silently begged for your heart to stop beating so fast. Your mother had appeared in your doorway after a few minutes, and she was grinning ear to ear.

"y/n, you still have time to make the dance." she gave you a knowing look before leaving.

You stared at yourself in the mirror across the room. You did have a few dresses with the tags still on them that would pass nicely as a formal gown.

"He wants me to go," you muttered to yourself. Dandy had been dressed nicely, but he always was. He was also soaking wet.

"But Jason might be upset.. But I'm mad at him too," you groaned, plopping down on your back. "What do I do?"

"You get the hell up and stop moping around!" you screamed, kicking your legs as Winter posed in the doorway, grinning at your reaction.

"Why are you here!?" you stood up, still panting from the scare.

"I started feeling better yesterday. Oh yeah, your mother called me and said you were having a crisis. So here I be!" she walked in the rest of the way, pulling a suitcase behind her.

"What is that?" you asked, your voice stern as she knelt on the floor, unzipping the bag. It was filled with makeup, professional kits like you were about to appear on television.

"Your plans canceled, so you're coming with me. I never got a date and with Zoe having a date, I'm not being the third wheel."

You watched her set up and realized this is why you were friends. Partying was okay on some occasions. You rarely went to school dances, to begin with. This was your Senior year. How often in the future would you get the chance to just let loose for a night?

"Okay." you shrugged, and Winter gave you a knowing smirk.

You were excited until you arrived at the school in Winter's car.

The rain had since stopped, and she dragged you to the entrance of the school as couple upon couple poured into the double doors. You were nervous now, knowing that both Dandy and Jason were probably already inside. You weren't supposed to come tonight.

"y/n! It's fine, babe," Winter said, holding your hand as you finally kept pace with her brisk walking. "We'll have a good time."

"It's not really us I'm worried about," you replied, and Winter had a look on her face that told you she already knew what happened. Your mother.

"If it helps Jason is supposed to have a date tonight. Which means he's not your problem right now."

"It's so embarrassing.. Everyone knows about the fight, and people won't stop staring!" you said, glaring at a group of Junior girls who were watching you from a corner. They quickly diverted their eyes, and Winter scoffed as she pulled you into the gymnasium.

It was decorated nicely, a live band already taking stage as kids piled in and found empty seats, many running over to the food to get first dibs. Kyle and Zoe have yet to arrive.

You found a table, sitting down and taking a quick glance around. Your heart stopped when you saw Jason arrive with his arm looped with Madison Montgomery, the most popular girl in your grade.. and the entire school. They fit together almost too well.

"You weren't kidding," you commented to Winter, who shrugged.

"I know my gossip, y/n," she said.

It wasn't long before Kyle and Zoe joined you. Zoe was ecstatic at the sight of you, pulling you into a hug and whispering that she was happy you decided to come. It made you feel good.

You had sat back down, pulling a ballot from the small pile on the table. You completely forgot about Homecoming King and Queen nominations.

Boys:

Jason Dean

Kyle Spencer

Matthew Nylund

Dandy Mott

You paused, glancing across the room to see Jason staring directly at you. You immediately looked away, reading the girls' list.

Girls:

Madison Montgomery

Zoe Benson

Natascha Langdon

Violet Harmon

You pushed the ballot aside, already knowing who you were voting for. You were relieved your name wasn't on the list. It was funny; Dandy and Jason always seemed to be selected for nomination. As far as you knew, Jason won once.

Winter nudged your arm, and you looked at her with an arched brow. She nodded towards the dance floor where Zoe and Kyle were dancing and asked if you wanted to join her.

"In a bit," you replied. Winter smiled, nodding in understanding before standing up and pushing her chair in.

You avoided making eye contact with Jason, who was also dancing with Madison. Everyone already seemed to be having a good time. You were just observing, debating on if you truly wanted to be here or not. It seemed like a good idea at first, but now you remembered why you always felt so out of place.

You jumped when someone pulled out Winter's chair, and you breathed a sigh when Dandy sat down, already smirking as you glared at him.

"You did decide to show up," he commented, a rather accomplished look on his face.

"I wouldn't look too excited. Winter came over and convinced me to go." you said, only lying a tiny bit. Dandy picked up your forgotten ballot, his eyes reading over the names before setting it down. His eyes were sparkling, but you were positive it wasn't from seeing his own name.

"Who are you voting for?" he asked casually, also looking around the packed gymnasium, also looking very out of place. There was just something about the Mott family genes that stood out from everyone else.

"I think Zoe and Kyle deserve to win together," you shrugged, and you saw Dandy's lips twitching. "You voting for yourself?"

Dandy shrugged, a smile now touching his lips. "I haven't decided yet. I've never asked to be Homecoming King."

You chuckled, seeing Winter talking to a boy you didn't recognize. Zoe and Kyle were getting something to drink as the band started to play a slow song.

Dandy watched you quietly, his eyes flickering from Jason Dean to your face. He stood up, watching you look at him with interest and almost longing for him not to leave your side.

"Would you dance with me?" Dandy asked, holding his hand out to you.

You didn't hesitate to take it, almost embarrassingly so. Dandy didn't smirk or make a sarcastic comment. Instead, you walked hand-and-hand to the floor, turning to face each other as Dandy placed a hand on your waist. It brought back memories of you being children, both of your mothers having enrolled you in dancing lessons. You were never paired with Dandy, which he would have appreciated a lot more. He was forced to dance with the girls who could never get it right, causing him to throw a fit and claim he was the best dancer in the whole world.

The thought made you smile, shaking your head as Dandy watched you, wondering what was on your mind. You looked as beautiful as he had ever seen you, and you've always been attractive.

You were unaware that the kids were staring at you, some of them whispering the latest gossip, while others were either jealous or unwilling to admit they thought you two looked cute together. Zoe and Winter were giggling, sucking down their fruit punch with Kyle.

Jason had taken a seat next to Matthew while Madison went to the bathroom for a touch-up. Matthew was smirking, eating a plate full of cookies, while Jason did his best not to stare at you.

"I thought she wasn't coming?" Matthew teased him, sticking an entire cookie in his mouth.

"She wasn't," Jason responded sourly, crossing his arms.

"It sounds to me you've been rejected," Matthew grinned.

"y/n wouldn't lie," Jason said defensively, "Her plans were probably just canceled. It's fine, I'm thinking of asking Madison out."

Matthew rolled his eyes, knowing perfectly well he was jealous as fuck.

Dandy enjoyed having you in his arms, and you felt the same. You laid your head on his chest, and you completely forgot all the dancing couples and people around you. There was a safety that came with being around him that you couldn't exactly pinpoint why that was.

The song had ended, and you unwillingly pulled away from Dandy's warming embrace. The band immediately jumped into a fast-paced song. He wasn't pleased about this, but he was quick to pull you out of the way when a mob of screaming girls nearly stormed the stage.

"Y/N!" You gasped when Winter ran and gave you a hug, giggling wildly in your ear. "Watch out, someone spiked the punch- BYE!"

You stumbled over your feet as the boy with a rather interesting mustache whisked her away, both giggling hysterically as Dandy helped you keep your balance.

"Your friend is interesting." Dandy commented, a slight smile on his lips. He'd tolerate anyone you truly cared about.

"Yes she is," you sighed, finding yourself intertwining your fingers with Dandy. He kept his cool, wanting to give Jason Dean a middle finger to the face.

You had both eaten and got some punch, talking and ultimately enjoying yourself. You were thrilled you decided to come now, feeling like you weren't going to be alone the rest of the night. You danced with Zoe, while Kyle sat awkwardly at the table with Dandy for a break. Zoe whispered in your ear that Winter will be gone for the rest of the night before you both giggled.

In the middle of Jailhouse Rock, Principal Harmon grabbed the microphone, causing the boy band to lose their rhythm and many kids to boo.

"Alright, alright, its time to collect the ballots for King and Queen! Five minutes to get to your tables, complete the ballots, and then the Senior Student Committee will come around to collect them."

You followed Zoe back to the table, taking your seat as Dandy was folding his ballot. He handed you the pencil, and you almost hesitated as you filled it out. A part of you did want to vote for Dandy, but who would you pair him with? Madison Montgomery has tried digging her nails into him many times. Zoe would be a good fit, but she deserved to win with Kyle. Natascha openly despised him, and Violet probably hated that she was even nominated. Her disposition wasn't exactly sunny.

You ended up voting for Zoe and Kyle like you originally intended. Dandy peeked over your shoulder and seemed pleased with your nomination.

The ballots were quickly collected, and it took another fifteen minutes to accurately count them. The band hadn't returned to the stage. There was a lot of chattering about who voted for who.

You hadn't been paying attention to the table directly behind you. The girls who had been staring at you when you had arrived had been talking about you and Dandy. Dandy was listening, his hands clenching at the awful things they were saying about you. He was doing his best to not cause a scene on your behalf. It was bad enough he and Jason both had bruising that was a constant reminder to the students what already happened.

All the nominees had to go stand on the stage. Zoe looked uncomfortable, but you gave her a reassuring smile, which seemed to ease her mind. Winter sat next to you, and you gave her a questioning look. She only grinned and waved you off. Dandy stood next to Jason, both boys beat up but as handsome as ever.

Principal Harmon announced Madison as the Queen. She gushed while he placed the crown on her head, and the elderly receptionist placed a bouquet of roses in her arms. She beamed at the crowd, waving as if she were pure royalty. You and Winter clapped unenthusiastically, but you knew deep down Zoe wouldn't take it too hard.

"And for the King," Mr. Harmon said, opening the envelope. The silence was awkward, and you could feel the tension in the air. "Oh no-"

Mr. Harmon glanced around, his eyes settling on the student committee kids who only shrugged, nodding their approval.

"Well it seems we have a tie," he continued, scratching his head. "Dandy Mott and Jason Dean."

There was a ripple of laughter and disbelief as students yelled for a recount. Dandy was smirking, but Jason didn't look the least bit amused. Madison was pouting.

".. This has never happened in my twenty years of being principal," he said awkwardly into the mic. "Where do we go from here?"

"I back out," Dandy announced proudly.

"Oh! That was easy!" said Mr. Harmon, "In that case, I present to you, King Jason Dean!"

The crowd roared as he placed the crown on Jason's head. He smiled sheepishly, briefly meeting your eyes as Dandy and the others walked off the stage. Zoe and Kyle hugged, both smiling in good humor. Dandy sat beside you as Jason and Madison started their dance to Frankie Valli.

"That was kind of you," you whispered to Dandy.

"It's nothing, I could care less about winning."

Dandy put his arm around the back of your chair until their dance was over. They took a few pictures before the band returned back to the stage, promising a few more slow dances to all the couples before the night was over.

Winter gasped when Jason approached your table; Madison running to her friends and fawning over her flowers and tiara. He ignored Dandy entirely, focusing only on you.

"Could I have a word?" he asked kindly, offering his hand to you.

You nodded, feeling Dandy tense by your side. You placed your hand on his leg under the table in reassurance before taking Jason's hand, following him to the dance floor. You realized at that moment that you knew where your heart belonged.

"I was surprised to see you tonight," Jason said, bringing you in close.

"My plans didn't work out. Winter talked me into coming." you laughed nervously, and he smiled at you.

"I'm happy you came, we don't have many of these left, you know," he chuckled.

"I'm happy I came too," you replied before looking at him. "I'm sorry about everything."

Jason frowned, raising his eyebrows as he spun you around. "Why are you sorry?"

You shrugged, "I've known Dandy my entire life. He's very protective of me and I wish you two never got into that fight." You made your point by glancing around at the few people trying to catch glimpses of you.

"It's not your fault, y/n," Jason said in disapproval, "It was a misunderstanding, Matthew isn't the sharpest tool in the shed and doesn't think things through when he speaks. Mott just heard the worst of his ignorance."

"Well, I think it's safe to say it won't be happening again," you said, watching as Madison came back from the hallway, pouting at the sight of you. "I think Madison really likes you."

Jason glanced back, a smile on his face. "Is it too much to admit now I really like you too?"

You smiled shyly, "That's very sweet of you."

Jason nodded, "I think it's clear who you really like, and he's very lucky," he said, now watching as Dandy stared at the pair of you.

"Yeah.." you agreed, almost liking the jealous looks being thrown your way. "I hope we could still be friends."

Jason was pleased to hear that, and he promised to call you sometime after the song ended. You watched as he walked to Madison, whose eyes lit up at the sight of him. You quickly walked back to your table, pulling up Dandy, who was surprised by your urgency.

"Did he say something?" his nostrils flared, looking as if he was about to murder someone.

"Nope," you said before cupping his cheeks and pulling him down to meet your height. You kissed him deeply, and you heard Winter say, "Holy shit!" while Zoe squealed with her mouth full of cake.

Dandy pulled away, his hands on your waist as he blinked in surprise. You grinned, pulling him towards the doors as the group of girls watched you with their mouths hanging open.

"Sorry for your loss!" you chirped at them, smiling sweetly as Dandy followed you in a daze.

School drama just does not change.

taglist: @daisychainsinknots

#dandy mott imagine #dandy mott x reader #ahs imagine #ahs freak show #american horror story

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somethingusefulfromflorida · 3 years ago

Text

13 Keys to the White House: 2024 prediction (as of August 15, 2021)

Midterm gains: false, the Republicans are going to sweep the House

No primary challenge: probably true, no Democrat with a future would dare to challenge Biden or Harris

Incumbent seeking re-election: probably true, Biden has indicated he's going to run again even though he'll be 82 at the time

No third party: too soon to tell, we won't know how the Libertarians/Greens fare until 2023 at the earliest

Strong short-term economy: too soon to tell, who knows if we'll be in recession in 2024?

Strong long/term economy: probably false, inflation is rising and Republicans are threatening to let us default on our national debt, so things are looking bad going forward

Major policy change: false, Biden hasn't done shit, and if he doesn't do shit NOW he won't be able to do shit after the Republican dominated midterms

No social unrest: too soon to tell, it will depend on how bad things get between now and 2024

No scandal: too soon to tell, all eyes are on Biden, but there's no telling what he'll do

No foreign/military failure: FALSE, Afghanistan is going down in flames, tens or hundreds of thousands of civilians are going to die when the Taliban takes over, it'll be the worst humanitarian crisis in the planet

Foreign/military success: probably false, withdrawing from Afghanistan was supposed to be a huge success, but the last 20 years have been pointless.

Charismatic incumbent: false, Biden wasn't charismatic in 2020, he's not gonna magically gain 20 or 30 percent more approval going into 2024

Uncharismatic challenger: true, none of the Republican challengers resonate with anyone outside their base, Trump or DeSantis or Cruz or Cotton or anyone else

Democrats need 8 true to hold power

Republicans need 6 false to retake power

1 is definitely true

2 are probably true

4 are too soon to tell

2 are probably false

4 are definitely false

Republicans are almost certainly going to win in 2024 unless Biden pulls a rabbit out of his ass and magically reverses course in the next 15 months; things are in flux now, but come November 2022 they will be set in stone.

Key 1 is a lost cause because of partisan gerrymandering; the Republicans will take the House by force, though they'll likely lose the nationwide popular vote

Key 2 is probably safe because it would require a challenger to get 33% of the vote, and I just don't see that happening against a sitting president

Key 3 is true as of right now, but could easily flip false for any number of reasons. Biden ran on the unspoken promise that he was a transitional president and would step down in 2024, but Kamala Harris isn't more popular than he is (in fact, she's less popular), so the Democrats have painted themselves into a corner; either it's an old old old man or Hillary Clinton 2.0

Key 4 is beyond Biden's control; over the last century, third party candidates have gained traction about every 10 years, once every 2 or 3 election cycles. They did well in 1968, 1980, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2016, so 2024 is up in the air.

Key 5 could go either way, I don't know enough about economics to make any informed predictions

Key 6 is more nuanced; the creator of the 13 Keys defines it as "real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms." The economy grew under Obama's second term, and tanked under Trump's first, so the average of the last two terms is either zero net growth or very slight shrinkage. If Biden can grow the economy at all, even a little, this key could flip in his favor. If he continues to do nothing, he's as good as gone.

Key 7 is a nonstarter; W turned the US into a police state, Obama slightly improved healthcare, Trump changed taxes from the ground up (and dismantled liberal democracy through a rigged judiciary and disintegration of federal authority over the states), but Biden and the Democrats have pretty much wasted the last 8 months, accomplishing zero of their campaign promises. They passed a neutered stimulus package, and might pass a neutered infrastructure deal, both of which gave major concessions to the Republicans even though they supported neither. Biden is Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush rolled into one.

Key 8 could very well lead us into another 2020 situation; not only have zero communities defunded the police, many of them have actually INCREASED funding. Republicans continue to dismantle our democracy by passing voter suppression laws, and are going to gerrymander their House into an unbreakable conservative majority despite only making up about 40-45% of the population. I expect to see major protests against Republican legislatures across the country, which will be quelled by both state and federal forces because Democrats never support active protests, only passive peaceful ones (ones that fail, but look polite on TV)

Key 9 could be real or invented; no matter what Biden does, whether he's squeaky clean or rotten to the core, the Republicans are going to impeach him in 2023. Hell, they'll almost certainly run in 2022 on the platform of "we will impeach Biden if we win." He'll be acquitted of course, but Republicans will control the narrative and gain popular support going into 2024. They might wait to impeach him until the election starts, or impeach him and hold a long protracted trial throughout the primaries and well past the national conventions. If they win the House, they'll almost certainly win the Senate too, which means they have all the power, even if they can't remove him.

Key 10 is a lost cause; there's no coming back from this, Afghanistan is an absolute failure, full stop.

Key 11 is very closely tied to key 10, so I don't see it flipping true because Biden doesn't really have any other major foreign policy objectives within his grasp.

Key 12 is a doubly lost cause because both Biden and his chosen successor are terrible candidates. Biden was picked by the establishment as a milquetoast "civility" candidate in opposition to Trump's extremism, and Harris is so unpopular she dropped out of the presidential race due to lack of enthusiasm before a single vote was cast. Biden was the lesser of two evils, and Harris is a lying centrist cop pretending to be a progressive. As I said in Key 3, the Democrats painted themselves into a corner; Biden/Harris is Carter/Mondale all over again.

Key 13 is safe now and forever because no candidate will ever have national appeal again. The creator of the 13 Keys gave examples like Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and Kennedy, as well as controversial picks like Reagan and Obama in 2008 (though not in 2012). Love them or hate them, these candidates resonated with the entire country in their day, but America has become too polarized for a member of one party to gain support from the other.

This is a disaster waiting to happen. It's unfolding before our eyes in slow motion, and we're unable to stop it. I feel trapped all the time, trapped in the world, trapped in the system, no agency,m, no control, no hope. I don't know what to do, because the powers that be are FUCKING EVERYTHING UP ROYALLY! This party is a laughingstock, and the alternatives are either pure evil or insignificant; I'd be a Green if they stood a snowball's chance in hell, but they don't, not even in a single district, neither federal nor state.

The system has to collapse in my lifetime, it's not tenable as is.

#2024 #2024 prediction #prediction #2024 election #13 keys #13 keys to the white house #politics #political #democrats #republicans #democratic party #republican party #i hate politics #i hate the government #the system will eventually collapse under its own weight #collapse of the usa

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