#americas promise alliance

[a-small-safe-place]

His Haven Pt. 2

Homelander x Psychiatrist!Reader

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

As the weeks passed, Homelander continued to integrate himself into your life, blurring the lines between patient and "friend." One evening, after a particularly intense session, Homelander broached the subject of spending more time together outside of the therapy room. "I was thinking," he began, his blue eyes searching yours, "maybe we could grab a bite sometime. You know, outside of this place." Your heart sank, torn between the genuine connection you felt with Homelander and the professional boundaries you knew you needed to maintain. With all your other patients, you had discussed boundaries, but not with the members of The Seven. The Deep, A-Train, and Queen Maeve viewed these sessions as a waste of time. Starlight and Black Noir had kept a very professional relationship. You weren't totally sure why Black Noir still came to the sessions since his sessions were spent in silence, usually with him drawing pictures of Buster Beaver and his little buddies. Starlight was the only one that used the sessions for what they were meant for.

You had not thought you needed to set boundaries with them, and that, since these were America's greatest heroes, the boundaries were obvious and unspoken. Oh, how that had bitten you in the ass now, having to turn down the offer. You let those boundaries slip by allowing Homelander to come to your house, but in that situation, there was not a lot you could do to stop him.

"I appreciate the offer, Homelander, but it's important to keep our relationship within the confines of our sessions," you replied carefully, trying to hide the conflict in your eyes, unaware that he could hear your heartbeat and smell your nervousness. Homelander's expression shifted from hopeful anticipation to a subtle disappointment that cut through you. "Right, professional boundaries," he said, a forced smile tugging at his lips. It is the kind of smile that does not reach his eyes. "I get it." You could not let his dangerous expression get to you.

The following sessions became strained. Homelander seemed distant, his usually confident demeanor replaced by an air of vulnerability and irritation. You should be thanking him that he is interested in you. He attended sessions less frequently, and when he did, the conversations were stilted. It was clear that your rejection had affected him more than either of you anticipated. Homelander was not willing to give up. You just needed a chance to come around.

One day, after a difficult session, Homelander lingered in your office. "Is there something you're not telling me?" he asked, his tone a mixture of frustration and hurt. Homelander knew you did not have a partner in your life. He had stopped by to do a thorough search of your home while you were out, and there was no evidence of you dating someone, not even the smell of a casual hookup still lingering on your skin. You sighed, maintaining the professionalism that defined your role. "It's not that I don't value our sessions, Homelander. But crossing the boundaries of a therapeutic relationship can be detrimental for both of us," you explained, your words hanging heavily in the air. "I want what's best for you, and sometimes that means maintaining a professional distance."

Homelander's jaw tensed, and he stood abruptly. "So, I'm just another patient to you, is that it?" His eyes bore into yours, searching for a hint of vulnerability that matched his own. "No, Homelander, you're not just another patient," you replied softly, your heart aching at the pain evident in his eyes. "But I have a responsibility to ensure that our interactions remain focused on your well-being." He stormed out of your office without another word, leaving you with a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. Homelander is a dangerous and unpredictable man. The once-promising therapeutic alliance had crumbled, replaced by an unspoken tension that hung in the air during each subsequent session.

Days turned into weeks, and the divide between you and Homelander deepened. He attended sessions less frequently, and when he did, the conversations were strained and unproductive. Of course, for Homelander, he still had his time with you even if you were oblivious to it. Though, he would much rather be in your arms than jacking off on the building next to yours while you participated in a similar activity in the warmth of your bed. 

One evening, after a silent session, Homelander was particularly grumpy in this session. He had expressed that he had a bad day. Homelander lingered at the door. "You should be fucking thanking me,” He pauses. “I am giving you the opportunity of a lifetime, and you're fucking throwing it away. Do you know how many people would leave their whole families just for one glance from me?”

The weight of his words settled heavily on your shoulders as he walked away, leaving you alone in the empty office. It made you wonder how dangerous Homelander really was and how desperate he would become if you continued to deny him. The once-promising connection had fractured irreparably, and the professional boundaries you fought so hard to maintain had come at the cost of a genuine connection with Homelander.

The weeks passed with a lingering tension between you and Homelander. The once-promising therapeutic alliance had crumbled, leaving behind an unspoken rift that seemed insurmountable. Homelander attended sessions less frequently, and when he did, the conversations were strained, devoid of the genuine connection that had defined your earlier interactions. It became evident that your rejection had affected him more deeply than either of you anticipated. Homelander, usually the embodiment of confidence, now wore an air of vulnerability and loneliness that tugged at your conscience. The sessions were marked by long pauses, resentful glances, and a palpable discomfort that neither of you could ignore. You couldn't shake the feeling of regret that lingered each time you saw him. The haunting realization that you had sacrificed something meaningful for the sake of professional decorum weighed heavily on your conscience. Late one evening, a knock echoed through your home. Homelander stood at the doorway, his usual confidence replaced by a vulnerability that mirrored the man you had glimpsed in the early days of your sessions. "I need someone to talk to," he admitted, his voice a whisper.

[pitchcom]

carcar survivor au, 2.2k

When Oscar received his new tribe buff, he knew that this was a chance for a fresh start.

The last vote had been…messy, to say the least. Daniel had approached him and Zhou with an idol and a plan to take out Pierre before he and Yuki could reach the merge and gain more control over the game. Oscar wasn’t naive enough to think that this meant any sort of alliance between them, but he had promised his sisters that he would do anything to try and win.

Yuki stood resolutely away from the rest of the tribe on the boat ride over. Oscar catches a glimpse of his hands, knuckles clenching white against the boat railing. He feels Daniel push past him, towards Yuki and raises an eyebrow at him questioningly.

Daniel turns back towards him. “Yuki’s scared of sharks.” he offers, as if they all hadn’t caused his face to crumple a couple nights ago as Pierre’s name was read over and over.

Oscar watches him walk next to Yuki, slinging an arm over his shoulder. Too soft, he thinks as he watches Yuki loosen his grip on the railing and lean into Daniel’s hold. He looks away towards the horizon as they travel to their new beach.

——

Oscar quickly finds himself escaping to the water well less than an hour after arriving on the new beach.

Strategically, he knows he should be at camp with everyone else. Should be talking to everyone, scouting out tribe dynamics, making first impressions that aren’t a stilted introduction before disappearing. But Oscar was never quite a social butterfly; still awkward at office parties despite working there for 2 years by now, never mind trying to ingratiate himself with 10 other strangers he had just seen briefly at challenges.

A voice interrupts his thoughts. “Huh. I guess you really were getting water. I bet George half a coconut that you were out idol searching already.”

Oscar startles and whirls around to come face to face with a shorter man with curly hair, crooked grin stuck on his face from tribe 1. Ah. He vaguely remembers him from the last challenge.

“Oh. Um. You’re the guy who kept falling off the balance beam, right?” Oscar kicked himself mentally. For all that first impressions mattered in the game, Oscar was failing miserably at them so far.

Balance Beam Guy’s mouth falls into a pout. “Alex already made fun of me for that at camp for three days! I thought that people would be over it by now.” he grumbles, moving next to Oscar to grab the water ladle from him.

“Sorry.” Oscar says, not particularly sorry. “I didn’t have a name for you, so.”

Balance Beam Guy sniffs. “It's Lando, so get that memory out of your head. I don’t need reminders that all of America saw me fail to walk in a straight line. You came over from tribe 3, right? Any deets on alliances, idols, advantages?”

Oscar shakes his head. “Nah, we’re kind of a mess. Daniel burned our idol at the last tribal, so if anyone was able to find it before we got on the boat I wouldn’t know. I’m uh, actually looking for some potential connections here.” And maybe it's a little desperate, a little shameless, but Oscar needed some kind of lifeline. So, even if he had to reveal his hand a little earlier then he would’ve liked, he was hoping the information would be interesting enough to make him worth keeping.

Luckily, Lando’s face breaks into a wide grin as he finishes filling his canteen. “Well, you’re in luck! Don’t tell anyone, but-“ Lando ducks closer, voice dropping to a whisper. “I do happen to be a part of quite a strong alliance with George and Alex. We’re trying to keep it on the downlow for now, but we’re looking for a solid fourth to help us swing a majority. You want in, um-?” Lando trails off, hand reaching out.

“Oscar,” he finishes as he takes Lando’s hand. “And I’d be happy to work with you.”

Lando’s grin slides back into its crooked default. “Great! I’ll tell them about it, and in a little bit we’ll go down to the water and chat. See you back at camp, Osc!”

Oscar’s face twitches a little at the nickname, but he doesn’t say anything as Lando walks away. We’re not friends, he wants to call after Lando. It's just strategy.

Oscar waits 5 minutes after Lando leaves before returning to camp. He gives an awkward half smile when Lando winks at him. Possible strategic liability, he notes to himself.

——

Oscar already considered himself particularly lucky to have fumbled his way through the premerge after losing Logan, not to mention Lando choosing to approach him with the offer of an alliance. In all honesty, he was waiting for the other shoe to drop and hoping it wouldn’t affect his game too badly.

That should’ve been warning already when Carlos decided to approach him on the beach.

Oscar was stretched across the sand, letting the suns rays lull him into a sleep. Half the tribe was out getting a reward (Lando included) leaving the rest of them to sulk around camp and try not to think of all the food the others were eating. Oscar chose to ignore the gnawing disappointment by getting some peace and quiet. Unfortunately, Carlos had other ideas.

“Oscar.” Carlos called from across the sand

Oscar squeezed his eyes closed. Maybe, he reasoned, if he pretended to be asleep already Carlos would get the hint and leave him alone.

“Oscar! Hello?” The voice got closer.

Oscar groaned internally before rolling back over and opening his eyes. He was immediately met with an extreme close up of Carlos, frown painted on his face.

“Why are you sleeping in the sun? Your skin, it will burn no?” were the first words Carlos spoke to him, voice too loud and face still too close.

Oscar blinked at him. “What?”

Carlos’ frown deepens. “Your skin. You will not tan, like this.”

“Well, sorry that not all of us were born with perfect genetics.” Oscar wants to drown this guy and his stupid island beauty in the ocean. “Why are you here anyways? Aren’t you supposed to be plotting the next vote with Max or something?”

Carlos’ face lights up. “Ah! That is what I have come to talk to you about!” He says, ignoring the obvious dismissal as he takes a seat next to Oscar on the sand. “You see, I have noticed that you sit alone at camp quite a lot. So, I assume that you do not have an alliance yet!”

Oscar raises an eyebrow. “And what if I have a secret alliance with somebody else? Like Daniel, or Zhou?”

Carlos laughs, a cackle that sounds almost painful. “I have already talked to both of them, and they both say they have no tribe loyalty.”

“They might be lying, you know. Trying to lull you into a false sense of security and all that.”

Carlos grins, a big dopey thing. “Between you and them I think I believe them more. No offense, Oscar.”

Oscar wills back the growing irritation beneath his skin. He’s dealt with annoying over-confident and underestimating assholes before. He knows how to play this game. “You got me. Totally friendless and ally-less on this island. Probably the most boring castaway ever.” He drones, almost completely monotone.

Carlos frowns. “Do not say that, Oscar.” Ozz-car. “I am sure you are a very wonderful person. If you were not, I would not be here asking you to join my alliance.”

“You’re here to ask me to join your alliance?”

Carlos blinks, then snaps his fingers. “Ah! Yes! I have come here to ask you to join me, Charles, and Max at the next vote!” Carlos looks at Oscar eagerly, as if he should be jumping at his generous offer. “Since you have said yourself that you have no allies, we could help carry you farther in the game. It is a mutually beneficial partnership, no?”

Oscar snorts internally. “Beneficial for you, yes. For me? What happens when it comes down to me or Charles? Me or Max? Mate, I’m not stupid. I know there are hierarchies in alliances, and I’d be at the bottom. I don’t want to be just some fucking sheep you bring with you until the time is right.”

Carlos looks a little lost at this. Clearly, his plan to swoop in and grab a vote didn’t go as smoothly as he thought. Serves him right, Oscar thinks bitterly. It’d probably be the first time his stupid cow eyes and smooth accent didn’t get him what he wanted.

Oscar watches him wiggle his jaw for a couple of seconds, lost in thought. He sighs internally, before turning back over and closing his eyes again. “Look mate, I appreciate the offer, but I’ve got my own alliance. Find somebody else to be your number.”

Oscar doesn’t hear anything for a moment, then feels sand being kicked against his skin as Carlos gets up. “Fine. But I will not be so nice later after Tribal Council, when my alliance controls the vote. See you later, Oscar.”

Fuck that guy, Oscar thinks. He ends up staying out on the sand to spite him. He ignores the smirk Carlos gives him later as Lando laughs and pokes at his sunburned back.

——

Later, after Max wins the immunity challenge, George asks him who he’s thinking of voting tonight.

“I dunno, but I think Carlos is a good choice. Breaking up that alliance before they get a foothold in the game is probably a good idea. “ Oscar says, feigning nonchalance. It’s purely strategic, he tells himself.

George nods. “And you’re sure you can get Daniel and Zhou to vote with us?”

“Course he can!” Alex says, laying an arm around Oscars shoulder with an easy smile. “And even if he can’t, I think we’ll survive to another day. I mean, nobody even knows we’re allied. There's no way they think that a bunch of lanky and short guys are bigger threats than someone like Valterri or Fernando.”

Oscar nods along, a smile growing despite himself as he watches Lando shove Alex for calling him short. This is my endgame, he thinks to himself.

——

George is trembling on the way back from tribal. From rage or shock, Oscar doesn’t know. Lando is silent for once, white-knuckled grip on his pack and lips pursed into a sharp line.

Alex going home tonight was not part of the plan. They were supposed to have the numbers, with Lewis, Valterri, Zhou, and Daniel voting with them. I guess they found their number, Oscar thought bitterly and he watched Daniel and Max whisper to each other up ahead.

It was a good move. If Oscar were at home watching, he would be applauding them for identifying the threat within the tribe and dealing a significant blow to them. But now, as he was forced to trudge back to camp minus Alex, Oscar just feels a sort of sourness in his stomach.

This feeling is only amplified when they arrive back at camp, and Carlos turns to him with a big smile on his face. Oscar doesn’t think it's dopey anymore.

“I told you, Oscar!” Carlos sings to him as Oscar is trying to dig for his jacket in his pack. “I told you we would control the vote. Are you rethinking my offer now? Though, I think we are less in need of ‘sheep’ now.”

Oscar rethinks every post he’s ever made on Twitter calling out contestants for being butthurt for being on the wrong side of the vote. Tries to school his expression, tries to steady his breathing and refrain himself from punching Carlos straight in the face.

“Fuck off.” Is what he settles for instead, a shove that barely makes Carlos stumble. Oscar can hear his cackling laugh echo through the night air as he stomps down to the beach to meet with George and Lando.

“What the fuck just happened.” George starts. “We were supposed to be safe- We were not supposed to be the targets! It was supposed to be Fernando, or Valterri, or even fucking Lewis-“

”I just don’t understand how they knew,” Lando stresses, hand pulling through his curls. “We were keeping it a secret and everything!”

Oscar doesn’t say anything, because the sour feeling in his stomach has just curdled. Nobody said anything about an alliance, he realises, except for him. Except for that stupid throwaway line to Carlos on the beach. A throwaway line that he then latched onto, analyzed, and deduced a potential member from.

The guilt eats at him, in the silence. Nobody speaks for a bit. Oscar is about to open his mouth and apologize when Lando says “Franco.”

They both turn to look at him. ”Franco was in our old tribe, he voted with them tonight. He must’ve figured it out.” Lando continues.

And it’s an out. An easy way to avoid blame, to explain away the sudden target of Alex. Oscar only feels slightly bad when he nods along. After all, it makes perfect sense.

They talk for a little more, discuss further plans of action. But there is only one fact repeating in Oscars head by the time they get back to camp:

Carlos Sainz is bad for his game.

[iww-gnv]

A hotly anticipated meeting Friday between the Writers Guild of America and negotiators for Hollywood's biggest studios ended not with a bang but with a whimper, it appears, as both sides confirm that the three-month-long standoff between screenwriters and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is set to continue, as will the strike that's left the entertainment industry at a standstill. Friday's meeting, the first between the WGA and the AMPTP since contract negotiations stalled in May, had been greeted with high hopes when it was announced earlier this week. The New York Times reported that conditions for an end to the writers' strike seemed promising, as a back-channel meeting last week between a “handful of executives” and “three members of the guild’s negotiating committee” led execs to believe that “there could be a path to a deal."  Following that shadowy meeting, AMPTP president Carol Lombardini reached out to WGA leaders to schedule Friday's official confab, but even as that news broke, the WGA remained cautious. In a message to members Thursday, the WGA's negotiating committee said that “we won’t prejudge what’s to come, but playbooks die hard. So far, the companies have wasted months on their same failed strategy. They have attempted, time and time again, through anonymous quotes in the media, to use scare tactics, rumors, and lies to weaken our resolve.” Variety reports that the two sides met Friday for about an hour, but that after the WGA stood firm on its expectations regarding “minimum staffing levels in episodic TV and a guaranteed minimum number of weeks of employment,” the conversation fizzled. 

[kattvez]

Heil Trump! 100 years on repeat.

This might make you pause and think, "No way—that could NEVER happen again!" But let’s look more closely, because the similarities are alarmingly real. Germany didn’t turn into Nazi Germany overnight; it was a slow descent, almost imperceptible at first. You may have heard the analogy of a frog in a pot of water, where the temperature rises so gradually that the frog doesn’t realize it’s being boiled alive until it’s too late. That’s what happened in Nazi Germany—and it’s what we risk today in the United States if we don’t pay attention to the warning signs.

In the early 1930s, many Germans, including Jewish citizens, dismissed Hitler as a passing phenomenon. They thought he was just a fringe figure—a "spook" who would fade away. They believed his extremist views wouldn’t gain traction. But Hitler’s appeal grew as he presented himself as a charismatic leader promising to restore Germany’s glory. His message was simple: make Germany great again. Sound familiar?

With the world reeling from the Great Depression, Hitler gained widespread support through his protectionist economic policies, offering a vision of economic relief and national revival. Many Germans, desperate for stability, ignored the darker, insidious rhetoric that came with his promises. Today, millions of Americans, feeling left behind by globalization and the rise of the tech economy, similarly turn to promises of economic revival and national pride. Like in 1930s Germany, the allure of quick fixes to complex problems can make people overlook the dangerous ideologies lurking beneath the surface.

One of Hitler’s key strategies was to undermine core democratic institutions, eroding public trust in Germany’s legal and political framework. We’re seeing echoes of this in Donald Trump’s actions. As both a candidate and a former president, Trump has repeatedly undermined the credibility of institutions when they don’t align with his interests—the courts, the electoral process, even the certification of an election. His rhetoric suggests that any institution not serving his goals is suspect, creating a divide in the public’s trust in these democratic systems.

A hallmark of Trump’s approach has been his relentless attack on the media, branding it as “fake news” whenever it criticizes him or his policies. The Nazis used a similar tactic, calling independent journalists the “Lügenpresse,” or "lying press." In both cases, this tactic seeks to sow doubt about any information that challenges the leader’s narrative. By discrediting the media, both Hitler and Trump attempt to shape reality to fit their own agendas, isolating their followers from independent sources of truth.

Scapegoating minorities has also been a disturbing common thread. Hitler blamed Jewish people for Germany's economic problems, stirring up public resentment against them as the "internal enemies" of the nation. Trump has similarly focused on specific groups, notably undocumented immigrants, portraying them as the root of America's economic and social issues. He has created a crisis around illegal immigration, expanding the role of ICE to target this group, often painting them as threats to safety, jobs, and stability. Today, similar tactics are being used against transgender individuals, who represent a tiny fraction of the population but have become a focal point of political and social resentment. Trump's rhetoric fuels these hostilities, using marginalized communities as scapegoats to rally support and divert attention from more complex issues.

Furthermore, Hitler relied on affiliated militias like the SA and SS to intimidate opponents and enforce Nazi ideology. Trump, while not formally organizing militias, has encouraged self-recruiting groups and militias, famously asking them to “stand by” during moments of tension, as seen during the January 6th Capitol riot. His cozy relationships with authoritarian leaders, like Putin, echo the alliances between Hitler and Mussolini, reinforcing the dangerous allure of authoritarianism.

The situation today may even be more dangerous because of technology. In the past, hateful rhetoric and propaganda required physical presence at rallies or the reading of pamphlets. Now, hateful content—whether anti-Semitic, anti-trans, or racist—finds its way to people’s screens, reaching millions in an instant. Algorithms amplify divisive content, pushing more extreme narratives into the mainstream, often without individuals even seeking it out.

It’s easy to believe that “it could never happen here,” but history shows that democracy is fragile, and small shifts in public sentiment, unchecked power, and targeted scapegoating can lead to devastating consequences. The parallels between Germany’s descent into Nazism and aspects of today’s political culture are a reminder of the importance of vigilance, empathy, and a commitment to protecting democratic values before it’s too late.

[aroace-spec-empire]

History of the AroAce Spec Empire (So far)

(Will update as I rummage through this blog and find posts/events that are considered as important history bits-)

2024

Note: At some point Luxembourg and the AroAce Spec Empire signed an agreement. Luxembourg would help with the invasion of Europe if they got Greenland

May 1 - The AroAce Spec Empire is founded during the Great Bot War Of 2024

May 1 - Almost immediately after being created, the Empire joins the Great Bot War of 2024 on the side of Aspecs

May 2 - The Empire hosts a vote to decide which European country to invade first

May 7 - The Empire reveals a map of Europe covered in dots + Promises to give Northern Ireland to Ireland

May 7 - A vote is made to decide which type of government the Empire should have

May 7-8 - The AroAce Spec Empire decides to not invade France, due to the founder Crystals la Bubble Tea (@/crystalsandbubbletea) being intimidated by them

May 9 - Draft of the AroAce Spec Empire Constitution is created

May 9 - Voting to decide which European country to invade first ends, with Denmark taking the overwhelming majority of the vote

May 13 - Czech Republic offers an alliance to the AroAce Spec Empire

May 15 - The Alliance between the AroAce Spec Empire and the Czech Republic is made official

May 16 - Canada and the AroAce Spec Empire form an alliance

May 16 - The King's Lomatia becomes the National Flower of the AroAce Spec Empire, while Garlic bread becomes the official food

May 16 - A poll just to be silly opens. The poll is for deciding if the Empire should be renamed to Peanut AroAce Spec Empire or Peanut Spec Empire after the Empire was called a peanut twice

May 17 - The USA and the AroAce Spec Empire form an alliance

May 17 - Luxembourg has to remind the AroAce Spec Empire about the agreement

May 17 - Ikea joins the AroAce Spec Empire

May 17 - AroAce Spec Empire and France open up discussions for a possible alliance

May 17 - Crystals la Bubble Tea thinks about making May 17 a national holiday known as "National Update Day", depends on the majority vote though-

May 17 - It is revealed that Crystals la Bubble Tea isn't a government official, due to the AroAce Spec Empire being an anarchy country. Instead they are responsible for polls and writing the constitution

May 17 - Antarctica and the AroAce Spec Empire become allies

May 17 - Arby's and the AroAce Spec Empire are officially chill with each other

May 18 - The Empire made a Discord server

May 20 - A new list of proposed alliances is made. The countries on the list are Germany, Turkmenistan, and Australia

May 20 - Crystals la Bubble Tea announces that they won't be in public as much for a while (AKA finals happening)

May 20 - Alliance with Australia has been confirmed

May 20 - Crystals la Bubble Tea goes out hunting for bots on the ace tags, they find none. This isn't enough for them, as who knows when the bots will be back?

May 21 - The Denmarks know about the plans to invade Denmark, causing Crystals la Bubble Tea to contemplate their life choices

May 21 - The Empire takes a bite out of the flag of Scotland and immediately regrets it

Aug 7 - The Empire faces increasing concern due to both France's losing their memories. Crystals la Bubble Tea goes into hiding

Aug 12 - The Empire gets their memories wiped. Crystals la Bubble Tea thinks about making the empire go into lockdown to prevent further memory loss

Some time between Aug 12 and Aug 19 - The Empire gets it's memories back

Aug 19 - The Empire and Communist America form an alliance

Some point in August - India and the Empire form an alliance

Aug 30 - The British Empire and the AroAce Spec Empire form an alliance

Sept 1 - The AroAce Spec Empire starts the invasion of European Countries

Oct 2 - The Great Bot was is presumably over

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 2

Book summaries below:

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

Welcome to Charon's Crossing. The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.

Fantasy, romance, cozy fantasy, contemporary, humor, adult

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

Dystopia, speculative fiction, science fiction, adult

[darkmaga-returns]

Vice President-Elect JD Vance has warned the European Union that any further attempts at censoring social media will result in the U.S. completely defunding NATO.

This warning was made during an interview with podcaster Shawn Ryan, where Vance relayed an incident involving a top EU official who threatened Elon Musk for allowing former President Donald Trump back on the platform.

Infowars.com reports: Vance highlighted the stark contrast between European and American values, particularly on the issue of free speech. “The leader, I forget exactly which official it was within the European Union, but sent Elon this threatening letter that basically said, ‘We’re going to arrest you if you platform Donald Trump,’ who, by the way, is the likely next president of the United States,” he reported.

Vance is likely referring to Thierry Breton, a pro-censorship crusader who was, at the time, European Commissioner for Internal Market. Bretton has since resigned.

In response to Breton, Musk promised a “very public battle in court,” and revealed, “The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us. The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not.”

The Vice President-Elect argues that America’s participation in NATO should be contingent on the alliance’s respect for free speech, a core American value. “So what America should be saying is, if NATO wants us to continue supporting them and NATO wants us to continue to be a good participant in this military alliance, why don’t you respect American values and respect free speech?” Vance questioned. He criticized the notion of supporting a military alliance that does not uphold free speech as “insane,” insisting that American support comes with prerequisites, such as respecting free speech, particularly among European allies.

President-Elect Trump, Vance’s running mate, has been critical of some aspects of NATO, having expressed a desire to pull out from the alliance and disregard the Article 5 collective defense clause.

[whencyclopedia]

Jay Treaty

The Jay Treaty, formally known as the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, was a controversial treaty signed by representatives of the United States and Great Britain in November 1794. It sought to resolve issues left over from the American Revolution (1765-1789) and establish trade between the two nations.

At the time of the treaty's signing, the United States appeared to be on the brink of war with Great Britain. Believing the United States to be reneging on agreements made in the Treaty of Paris, Britain refused to evacuate its troops from forts in the Northwest Territory and attacked American shipping in the French West Indies, seizing over 250 American merchant vessels and impressing their crews into service in the Royal Navy. Although many Americans clamored for war, President George Washington (served 1789-1797) believed the young republic was not strong enough to withstand another war with Britain. Instead, he dispatched John Jay, Chief Justice of the United States, to negotiate a treaty that would, hopefully, avert an armed conflict.

Jay succeeded in avoiding war, and even managed to strengthen commercial ties with Britain; the US was granted 'most favored nation' status at British ports, and American merchants were given limited trade rights in the British West Indies. However, the treaty came up short in many respects, as it significantly did not protect American sailors from future impressment. But the most controversial aspect was that the treaty created stronger political and economic ties between the United States and Britain, something that many Americans feared would lead to a re-emergence of aristocracy in the US. Riots broke out in many cities, and Jay was often burned in effigy. Even President Washington was abused in the press. A new political faction, the Democratic-Republican Party, emerged to combat the growing power of the pro-British Federalist Party. Revolutionary France, meanwhile, interpreted the Jay Treaty as an Anglo-American alliance and also began attacking American shipping, eventually resulting in the brief Quasi-War (1798-1800).

Background: The Threat of War

The Treaty of Paris of 1783 ended the American Revolutionary War, creating a state of fragile and uneasy peace between the fledgling United States and its former mother country, Great Britain. The treaty was generally regarded as favorable to the Americans: it more than doubled the size of the United States, whose borders now stretched as far west as the Mississippi River, and the British promised to evacuate their soldiers from these boundaries. In return for these concessions, Britain expected that all prewar debts owed by American borrowers to British lenders would still be paid and that state governments would stop confiscating the properties of Loyalists (Americans who had remained loyal to the British Crown during the Revolution). These were among the main components of the ten articles of the treaty, signed by American and British commissioners on 3 September 1783.

The ink on the treaty was barely dry, however, when troubles began to sprout. For much of its short existence, the United States had been plagued with economic difficulties; indeed, its recent attempt at a national currency, the Continental Currency, had failed after depreciating to the point of near worthlessness. State governments were imposing high taxes to begin paying off their own hefty war debts while Congress – under the terms of the Articles of Confederation – could not raise any taxes at all. Burdened by high taxes and inflation, many American debtors were unable to pay back their British creditors in a timely fashion. Additionally, many state governments were loath to take any pity on Loyalists, who were regarded as traitors; few were compensated for the properties that had been confiscated during the Revolution, with some states even continuing to seize Loyalist estates. Britain pointed to these two examples as evidence that the United States was not holding up its end of the bargain. In retaliation, the British maintained garrisons of troops in a series of forts in the Great Lakes region, which had been ceded to the US in the treaty. When the US complained, Britain promised that it would indeed evacuate these troops as promised – but only once the Americans had paid off all their debts.

Tensions between the two nations continued to simmer for the next decade. Then, in February 1793, Britain declared war on Revolutionary France. By this point, the French Revolution was in full swing; a French Republic had been proclaimed, King Louis XVI of France had lost his head, and hundreds of thousands of French citizen-soldiers were pouring into Europe to deliver liberty, equality, and fraternity at the points of their bayonets. Many Americans were quick to express their support for Revolutionary France, donning tricolor cockades, singing revolutionary songs, and opening political clubs called Democratic-Republican societies, in which they toasted the French Republic and denounced aristocracy. President George Washington, however, was more hesitant to offer support to the revolutionaries; such an act would certainly bring the US into conflict with Britain, a conflict that Washington knew they were not ready for. Instead, he issued a Proclamation of Neutrality on 22 April 1793, in which he promised to keep the United States out of the French Revolutionary Wars.

It did not take long for Britain to disregard this neutrality. Without offering so much as a warning, British ships began seizing American merchant vessels in the French West Indies, considering any ship carrying French cargo to be a valid prize. Over the course of the next year, around 250 American ships were captured and their crews were impressed into service with the Royal Navy.

Impressment of American Sailors into the British Navy

Howard Pyle (Public Domain)

At the same time, the British used their forts in the Great Lakes region to offer support to the Northwest Confederacy, a loose coalition of Native American nations currently at war with the United States. These were blatant acts of aggression that could not be ignored; many Americans, particularly those associated with the Democratic-Republican societies, began to demand war. Other Americans were not so hasty. The Federalist Party, a nationalist political faction led by Alexander Hamilton, was horrified by the chaos and bloodshed of the French Revolution and did not want the US to fall under the influence of Revolutionary France. On the contrary, the Federalists viewed Britain as the natural ally of the United States; they believed stronger ties with the former mother country were vital for the survival of the US. Influenced by these Federalists, and still desirous to avoid war, President Washington agreed to send an envoy to London to hopefully reach an agreement and pull the quarreling countries away from the brink.

Continue reading...

[liliann-exe]

bro trump supporters giving their entire life to make people not vote for kamala like.. black woman prosecuter or white rotting old felon lol like WHAT also everyone like shes gonna give money to israel like yes, but so will trump cuz america and israel are allies. also cuz he made alliances but i can promise no one could actually take him seriously hes not a smart man in disguise i swear

[szfiction]

What are your favorite ships in Dr. Stone? I love Tsukasen!💖💖💖

Tsukasen is my big favourite as well! I have a couple other more lowkey ships, but Tsukasen is the one that has absolutely corrupted my brain ever since I finished watching the second season.

It's because of how utterly star-crossed they are. Admiring each other from the start, but their ideals keeping them on separate sides of a war, even as they lament that in another life, they could surely have been friends. It's because when they finally do get the chance to be on the same side, it is ripped away from them so soon after it happens, making everything all the more tragic. It's because of how they are in-tune with each other's actions, able to predict what the other might be doing or thinking. It's because Senku was able to deduce what it was that truly motivated Tsukasa for all his life and use that to bring him over to his side, restoring what Tsukasa needed most back to him. Mirai, yes, but also hope for the future, belief that things can get better and there is some good to come from a civilization that looks forward using science. It's because when they fight side by side their strengths compliment each other, and they form the ultimate tag team. Because Tsukasa struggled to stay alive just so he can cherish his alliance with Senku for a little longer. Because they both say how much fun they're having and it becomes apparent they always belonged at each other's side and not opposing one another. It's because Senku promises Tsukasa he'll do anything to bring him back, and Tsukasa trusts him with his life (and is at peace even with the idea of dying as long as it's Senku who kills him). Because Senku's voice is so quiet and sad when he asks what's wrong with making small talk. And they talk afterwards about utter nonsense, because Senku can't bear to actually face the reality of this moment, and for the first time, they get a chance to be normal together. Because Senku breaks down into tears as Tsukasa breathes his last breath, and because he truly does do everything he can to bring the Medusa back for Tsukasa. The second he got his hand on that device, he knew exactly what the last of its energy would be going toward, and it had nothing to do with Tsukasa being an asset for their future moon mission. It's also because Tsukasa, when facing his worst fears coming to life in the America arc, did not revert back to his old mindset. Instead of feeling anger or sorrow, he instead found his mind lingering to how he could still be saved. He chose to have hope, believing in science and in Senku, and when he faced death he did so with a smile. I think they're like soulmates. I think they balance each other out and challenge each other and I think they're meant to be by each other's side even if it takes them a while to get there. I have rambled about them for several paragraphs now and I could keep doing it for even longer because this is how strong I feel about this ship, alright? I could go on forever, please @ everyone talk to me about Tsukasen.

[davidaugust]

“…the anti-anti-Trumpers, in order to justify the abandonment of their principles, are driven to poison the well of public debate for everyone else. They never expected having to deal with Trump for this long; they never foresaw themselves doubling and tripling and quadrupling down to the point where they now must politely look away from felonies, attacks on America’s alliances, and promises to pardon insurrectionists.”

Gift link: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/08/the-conservatives-who-sold-their-souls-for-trump/679623/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK38nWdgGJEJDaAV_aOdhRDAM&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=davidaugust.com

[tigerrsmn]

"I don't want to hear in another 25, that we have another Matthew Shepard, that we have another Nex Benedict. We need to protect our kids now."

Amelia Marquez (she/they), Thomas Edison High teacher, speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[My name is Miss Amelia Marquez, as I am commonly getting told I am now. Um, my pronouns are she and they and I apologize, I lost my voice last night, uh, screaming at somebody that said that educators are only worth a 3% wage increase.

(Crowd) You sound great.

(Crowd 2) Yeah, you sound great.

I see you. Um, as a teacher--as a trans and two spirit teacher--I want to offer all of my sympathies to my little cousin, Nex. Things like this should not be happening. But I can tell you, as somebody that grew up and is a trans refuge here in your lovely state from the state of Montana, that it continues to happen. I have students that I had to leave back in Montana that continued to beg, that I can help them, that their home was not safe for them, that they needed protection. But I needed to take care of myself. I needed to put my air mask on before I protected other people, and I promised them I would not stop fighting for them a single day of my life. My students are precious to me. Absolutely precious. They also get me to do wild things like this. I plea with each and every one of you, especially my cisgender friends and relatives, and in our lovely crowd tonight.

Please don't stop talking. Get out there. These kids should not be afraid to go to the bathroom in our public schools here in Minneapolis, in Saint Paul. It is necessary that our school districts start to look at the funding that was passed this legislative session, thanks to that fucking phenomenal queer caucus--sorry kids--and that we start to actually make change happen. Real change doesn't happen from the top down. Real change happens from the bottom up. And we need, we need for our school districts here in the city as a trans refuge area, to start to act, to start to make these schools safer, to make it so that those little babies back in Montana have a place when they get over here. Because I can tell you, many of them in conservative America are planning to come out here. Please make it a safe place for them. Make it so we do not have future situations. I don't want to hear in another 25, that we have another Matthew Shepard, that we have another Nex Benedict. We need to protect our kids now. Thank you.]

[fromchaostocosmos]

(Because I don't know if/when this article will get put behind a paywall I'm putting the whole thing here)

This weekend, Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Detroit, appeared at the “People’s Conference for Palestine,” where she called for the voters to punish Joe Biden at the ballot box. “It is disgraceful that the Biden administration and my colleagues in Congress continue to smear [anti-Israel demonstrators] for protesting to save lives no matter faith or ethnicity,” she exclaimed, “It is cowardly. But we’re not gonna forget in November, are we?”

Also this weekend, the Washington Post reported on plans that Donald Trump is sharing with donors to crush protests by deporting non-citizens participants. “One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country,” he promised. “You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave.”

In short, Tlaib is so angry at Biden for denouncing antisemitic rhetoric at pro-Palestine protests that she wants to elect the man who is promising to deport them from the country. (And while she phrased it coyly, telling people to punish Biden’s “disgraceful” behavior in November can only describe one kind of recourse, because November is when people vote.)

There is something irrational, at least on the surface, about this horseshoe alliance. Many progressives are already pleading with the anti-Israel left to reconsider its determination to punish Biden, whose campaign it has spent months attempting to disrupt or target with harassment. And some protesters surely do hope merely to move Biden as far left as possible and will climb down eventually.

But the position Tlaib revealed this weekend does have a real logic to it that suggests she may not merely be bluffing.

Tlaib, like the groups organizing the protests, opposes any two-state solution to the conflict and uses the slogan “from the river to the sea” to denote her demand for liberation of the entire territory controlled by Israel. Her speech this weekend confirmed the militant thrust of her position. It contained not even a word of condemnation of terrorism, any mention of the hostages, or acknowledgment that Jewish Israelis possess any rights to live under any future settlement. She treated criticism of antisemitic rhetoric at the protests — the extent of which can be debated, but the existence of which cannot — as nothing more than a smear.

She understands the conflict as one of pure good versus pure evil, with the side of good having no obligations and incurring no guilt, and the side of evil having no rights.

Trump has the same belief structure but in reverse. While Tlaib lambasts Biden for continuing to support Israel’s right to self-defense, Trump and his allies attack him for attempting to constrain its exercise.

David Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel and the leading candidate to hold the same position in a second term, told Marc Caputo that Trump sees the conflict as one of good versus evil. “It’s a far less nuanced approach,” he said. “Trump sees adversaries in two buckets: Are they people who are loyal to America or share American values? Or are they people who threaten America and hate American values? Not everyone fits cleanly in those buckets. But in the Middle East, they do.”

Likewise, Matthew Brooks, chief executive of the Republican Jewish Coalition, explained Trump’s position as a “blank check” to Benjamin Netanyahu. “He’s giving the Israelis a blank check to go in and do what they need to do to destroy Hamas and eliminate the threat in Gaza from Hamas. And what he’s also saying, which is actually true, he said ‘but do it quickly’ because time is not Israel’s ally right now.”

Netanyahu has always tried to maintain some balance between the demands of his right-wing coalition partners to maintain control over all occupied territory and the hope by American presidents to create a two-state solution. Netanyahu has putatively left the door cracked for peace while doing everything in his power to make it impossible: from allowing settlers in the West Bank to terrorize Palestinians with total impunity to shoveling money to Hamas in hopes of marginalizing any Palestinian figures who might want to negotiate peace.

Netanyahu is a one-stater. Trump is increasingly signaling his support for a one-state solution. Tlaib likewise supports a one-state solution. And while Trump and Tlaib obviously have opposing visions for how that single state should be governed, they share an incentive to discredit the forces of compromise that stand in their way and an unstated commitment to some violent future conflagration that will settle the struggle one way or another.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

Sept. 30, 2024

It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. He has proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks.

Those disqualifying characteristics are compounded by everything else that limits his ability to fulfill the duties of the president: his many criminal charges, his advancing age, his fundamental lack of interest in policy and his increasingly bizarre cast of associates.

This unequivocal, dispiriting truth — Donald Trump is not fit to be president — should be enough for any voter who cares about the health of our country and the stability of our democracy to deny him re-election.

For this reason, regardless of any political disagreements voters might have with her, Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president.

Most presidential elections are, at their core, about two different visions of America that emerge from competing policies and principles. This one is about something more foundational. It is about whether we invite into the highest office in the land a man who has revealed, unmistakably, that he will degrade the values, defy the norms and dismantle the institutions that have made our country strong.

As a dedicated public servant who has demonstrated care, competence and an unwavering commitment to the Constitution, Ms. Harris stands alone in this race. She may not be the perfect candidate for every voter, especially those who are frustrated and angry about our government’s failures to fix what’s broken — from our immigration system to public schools to housing costs to gun violence. Yet we urge Americans to contrast Ms. Harris’s record with her opponent’s.

Ms. Harris is more than a necessary alternative. There is also an optimistic case for elevating her, one that is rooted in her policies and borne out by her experience as vice president, a senator and a state attorney general.

Over the past 10 weeks, Ms. Harris has offered a shared future for all citizens, beyond hate and division. She has begun to describe a set of thoughtful plans to help American families.

While character is enormously important — in this election, pre-eminently so — policies matter. Many Americans remain deeply concerned about their prospects and their children’s in an unstable and unforgiving world. For them, Ms. Harris is clearly the better choice. She has committed to using the power of her office to help Americans better afford the things they need, to make it easier to own a home, to support small businesses and to help workers. Mr. Trump’s economic priorities are more tax cuts, which would benefit mostly the wealthy, and more tariffs, which will make prices even more unmanageable for the poor and middle class.

Beyond the economy, Ms. Harris promises to continue working to expand access to health care and reduce its cost. She has a long record of fighting to protect women’s health and reproductive freedom. Mr. Trump spent years trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and boasts of picking the Supreme Court justices who ended the constitutional right to an abortion.

Globally, Ms. Harris would work to maintain and strengthen the alliances with like-minded nations that have long advanced American interests abroad and maintained the nation’s security. Mr. Trump — who has long praised autocrats like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban and Kim Jong-un — has threatened to blow those democratic alliances apart. Ms. Harris recognizes the need for global solutions to the global problem of climate change and would continue President Biden’s major investments in the industries and technologies necessary to achieve that goal. Mr. Trump rejects the accepted science, and his contempt for low-carbon energy solutions is matched only by his trollish fealty to fossil fuels.

As for immigration, a huge and largely unsolved issue, the former president continues to demonize and dehumanize immigrants, while Ms. Harris at least offers hope for a compromise, long denied by Congress, to secure the borders and return the nation to a sane immigration system.

Many voters have said they want more details about the vice president’s plans, as well as more unscripted encounters in which she explains her vision and policies. They are right to ask. Given the stakes of this election, Ms. Harris may think that she is running a campaign designed to minimize the risks of an unforced error — answering journalists’ questions and offering greater policy detail could court controversy, after all — under the belief that being the only viable alternative to Mr. Trump may be enough to bring her to victory. That strategy may ultimately prove winning, but it’s a disservice to the American people and to her own record. And leaving the public with a sense that she is being shielded from tough questions, as Mr. Biden has been, could backfire by undermining her core argument that a capable new generation stands ready to take the reins of power.

Ms. Harris is not wrong, however, on the clear dangers of returning Mr. Trump to office. He has promised to be a different kind of president this time, one who is unrestrained by checks on power built into the American political system. His pledge to be “a dictator” on “Day 1” might have indeed been a joke — but his undisguised fondness for dictatorships and the strongmen who run them is anything but.

Most notably, he systematically undermined public confidence in the result of the 2020 election and then attempted to overturn it — an effort that culminated in an insurrection at the Capitol to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power and resulted in him and some of his most prominent supporters being charged with crimes. He has not committed to honoring the result of this election and continues to insist, as he did at the debate with Ms. Harris on Sept. 10, that he won in 2020. He has apparently made a willingness to support his lies a litmus test for those in his orbit, starting with JD Vance, who would be his vice president.

His disdain for the rule of law goes beyond his efforts to obtain power; it is also central to how he plans to use it. Mr. Trump and his supporters have described a 2025 agenda that would give him the power to carry out the most extreme of his promises and threats. He vows, for instance, to turn the federal bureaucracy and even the Justice Department into weapons of his will to hurt his political enemies. In at least 10 instances during his presidency, he did exactly that, pressuring federal agencies and prosecutors to punish people he felt had wronged him, with little or no legal basis for prosecution.

Some of the people Mr. Trump appointed in his last term saved America from his most dangerous impulses. They refused to break laws on his behalf and spoke up when he put his own interests above his country’s. As a result, the former president intends, if re-elected, to surround himself with people who are unwilling to defy his demands. Today’s version of Mr. Trump — the twice-impeached version that faces a barrage of criminal charges — may prove to be the restrained version.

Unless American voters stand up to him, Mr. Trump will have the power to do profound and lasting harm to our democracy.

That is not simply an opinion of Mr. Trump’s character by his critics; it is a judgment of his presidency from those who know it best — the very people he appointed to serve in the most important positions of his White House. It is telling that among those who fear a second Trump presidency are people who worked for him and saw him at close range.

Mike Pence, Mr. Trump’s vice president, has repudiated him. No other vice president in modern history has done this. “I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” Mr. Pence has said. “And anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again.”

Mr. Trump’s attorney general has raised similar concerns about his fundamental unfitness. And his chief of staff. And his defense secretary. And his national security advisers. And his education secretary. And on and on — a record of denunciation without precedent in the nation’s long history.

That’s not to say Mr. Trump did not add to the public conversation. In particular, he broke decades of Washington consensus and led both parties to wrestle with the downsides of globalization, unrestrained trade and China’s rise. His criminal-justice reform efforts were well placed, his focus on Covid vaccine development paid off, and his decision to use an emergency public health measure to turn away migrants at the border was the right call at the start of the pandemic. Yet even when the former president’s overall aim may have had merit, his operational incompetence, his mercurial temperament and his outright recklessness often led to bad outcomes. Mr. Trump’s tariffs cost Americans billions of dollars. His attacks on China have ratcheted up military tensions with America’s strongest rival and a nuclear superpower. His handling of the Covid crisis contributed to historic declines in confidence in public health, and to the loss of many lives. His overreach on immigration policies, such as his executive order on family separation, was widely denounced as inhumane and often ineffective.

And those were his wins. His tax plan added $2 trillion to the national debt; his promised extension of them would add $5.8 trillion over the next decade. His withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal destabilized the Middle East. His support for antidemocratic strongmen like Mr. Putin emboldened human rights abusers all over the world. He instigated the longest government shutdown ever. His sympathetic comments toward the Proud Boys expanded the influence of domestic right-wing extremist groups.

In the years since he left office, Mr. Trump was convicted on felony charges of falsifying business records, was found liable in civil court for sexual abuse and faces two, possibly three, other criminal cases. He has continued to stoke chaos and encourage violence and lawlessness whenever it suits his political aims, most recently promoting vicious lies against Haitian immigrants. He recognizes that ordinary people — voters, jurors, journalists, election officials, law enforcement officers and many others who are willing to do their duty as citizens and public servants — have the power to hold him to account, so he has spent the past three and a half years trying to undermine them and sow distrust in anyone or any institution that might stand in his way.

Most dangerous for American democracy, Mr. Trump has transformed the Republican Party — an institution that once prided itself on principle and honored its obligations to the law and the Constitution — into little more than an instrument of his quest to regain power. The Republicans who support Ms. Harris recognize that this election is about something more fundamental than narrow partisan interest. It is about principles that go beyond party.

In 2020 this board made the strongest case it could against the re-election of Mr. Trump. Four years later, many Americans have put his excesses out of their minds. We urge them and those who may look back at that period with nostalgia or feel that their lives are not much better now than they were three years ago to recognize that his first term was a warning and that a second Trump term would be much more damaging and divisive than the first.

Kamala Harris is the only choice.

https://www.nytimes.com/.../kamala-harris-2024.html...

[mariacallous]

Mexico is in the throes of its first presidential campaign with two women leading the race. Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and former Sen. Xóchitl Gálvez top polls ahead of the June 2 general elections, virtually guaranteeing that the country will soon inaugurate its first female head of state.

It is a milestone both for Mexico and for Latin America. Countries across the region have embraced mandatory gender quotas in public offices, and none with more fervor than Mexico. A 2019 constitutional reform mandated that elected and appointed positions at all levels of government must be gender-balanced. As a result, political parties looked to women to fill senior candidate slots.

Sheinbaum has at least a 15 percent advantage over Gálvez in most recent polls. But even the third-ranking, male presidential candidate Jorge Álvarez Máynez reflects the reach of Mexican feminism: He chose a veteran feminist politician, Patricia Mercado, to coordinate his platform for part of the campaign; Mexican magazine Quién called her the “third woman” in the race.

Although they stand for different political ideologies—Sheinbaum represents the governing left-leaning Morena party, Gálvez heads a more pro-market opposition alliance, and Álvarez fronts a centrist group—the candidates agree on many gender-related issues.

All three say they support the Mexican Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to decriminalize abortion in federal health centers. They also promise to launch a publicly funded system to provide different types of care work and pledge to reduce gender-based violence. In Mexican politics today, openly criticizing feminism usually leads to candidates “being canceled on social media and losing votes,” abortion rights lawyer Ninde Molina told Foreign Policy.

Still, Molina and many other activists are approaching the milestone election with a mindset of determination rather than euphoria. The fact that a politician is a woman “does not guarantee that she is a democrat or a defender of human rights” or feminist principles, Molina wrote for Este País this month.

According to Molina, the woman presidential candidates have shied away from offering detailed stances on abortion during the campaign, other than to support the Supreme Court decision. The same goes for Álvarez. That nuance matters because 19 of Mexico’s 32 federal jurisdictions have yet to decriminalize the procedure. Many public hospitals don’t offer abortions even where they are legal, Molina added, and Mexico’s public health care system is often short on abortion pills.

The candidates have been more specific about their plans to combat gender-based violence. All three pledged to create new violence prevention programs and strengthen prosecutors’ capacity to investigate femicides.

As Mexico City mayor, Sheinbaum carried out similar policies on the local level, Mexican doctoral candidate Ana Sofía Rodríguez Everaert wrote in a profile of the politician for Foreign Policy. These included staffing prosecutors’ offices with female lawyers trained to work from a gendered perspective. During Sheinbaum’s tenure, lethal violence in the capital fell by 32 percent, according to estimates made by feminist group Intersecta.

Plans for a national care system endorsed by all three candidates, meanwhile, have advanced in Mexico’s congress but not yet become law. Broadly, the program would devote more public money to funding care workers and facilities for newborns, children, the elderly, and disabled people. It would also reorganize existing day-care, disability, and pension systems to allow people without formal work contracts to pay for and receive care.

When it comes to feminist demands in Mexico, there is significant consensus—including on the ideological right, political scientist Mónica Tapia told Foreign Policy. The challenge is translating that agenda into results. “Our big lesson learned here in Mexico is that parity is necessary, but not sufficient” to advance progressive gender goals, Tapia said.

To help promote lasting change, Tapia helped co-found Aúna, a group that recruits and trains female candidates for political office who are committed to a range of policies intended to reduce gender and economic inequalities and boost environmental protection.

Aúna has coached candidates from both left-wing and right wing-parties; some have later cooperated on legislation while serving in the Mexico City government. Aúna is inspired by similar initiatives for women and nontraditional candidates in the United States, Colombia, and Brazil. Fifty Aúna candidates are running in the June 2 elections at the legislative and gubernatorial level.

While parity requirements have helped lead Mexico to its symbolic presidential election, Tapía said, “a wider ecosystem” of activists is moving feminist demands forward across the country.

[thesilliestrovingalive]

Updated: January 1, 2025

Reworked Group #6: Division 6

Overview

When General Morden established the Rebel Army, he formed various specialised divisions to operate globally from North America to South Africa. Two of the most notable divisions were the Japanese Infantry and Arabian Infantry.

Soldiers of the Japanese Infantry have undergone rigorous training that emphasises unwavering resolve. These soldiers are conditioned to fight relentlessly, never retreating from the battlefield, and to persevere until their final breath. Their approach is twofold: they either view combat as an absolute necessity in eradicating evil or as a high-stakes test of endurance. They’re experts in surprise attacks, dropping down from elevated positions to ambush enemies and utilising explosives from high vantage points. As a last resort, they often execute a Kamikaze maneuver, sacrificing themselves to inflict damage. Close quarters combat is another area of expertise, allowing them to swiftly engage enemies at close range with lethal efficiency.

During the Extraterrestrial Alliance Siege, General Morden appointed Abul Abbas, one of his commanding officers, to lead the joint operations of the Arabian Infantry and Japanese Infantry. Despite being ridiculed by his troops for his laziness, womanising, and cowardice, Abul Abbas saw this as a chance to redeem himself and prove his worth.

The Arabian Infantry was tasked with securing and holding a strategic position in Saudi Arabia, supported by unconventional assets, including bomb-rigged camels equipped with baskets of fruit that act as an armoured shield, as well as advanced units like the Keesi and Iron Nokana. They raided a pyramid containing the legendary Ajirabian Teardrop, exploiting vulnerable excavation workers and archaeologists, including Scott Amundsen Jr. However, their actions inadvertently broke the ancient curse of Anubis, awakening hordes of mummies from their centuries-long slumber.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Infantry launched an invasion of South America, but a lone division, Division 6, became lost in the vast Chihuahuan Desert. This unfortunate outcome was a result of deliberate miscommunication by other divisions within the Japanese Infantry, who ridiculed Division 6 for their excessive militarism and obsession with martial arts, particularly ninjutsu and karate. Furthermore, four members of Division 6—Nayutaro, Issenmantaro, Nanahyakumantaro, and Happyakumantaro—were biological relatives of the legendary Hyakutaro Ichimonji, which further fueled the scorn.

Fed up with being ridiculed and outraged by the Rebel Army's atrocities, they decided it was time to orchestrate a counter-rebellion. However, they realised that continuing to travel into the unknown would be unwise and that they needed a secure location to strategise. Thus, they began searching for a safe haven. Their search led them to the Oro Sol Ruins, which they transformed into a temporary hideout to stockpile their vehicles, equipment, and rations. Since the other divisions of the Japanese Infantry had ostracised them, denying them access to a radio station, they passed the time by personalising their makeshift base.

Sol Dae Rokker took notice of their presence and was prepared to attack, considering their intrusion a desecration of his temple. However, Nayutaro, Issenmantaro, Nanahyakumantaro, and Happyakumantaro explained their circumstances, and Sol Dae Rokker proposed a deal: in exchange for their worship and promise to respect the temple's sanctity, he would support their rebellion and bestow unique abilities upon select soldiers. Initially hesitant, Nayutaro and his companions recognised the potential benefits and agreed to Sol Dae Rokker's terms.

They began to pay homage to him, and in return, Sol Dae Rokker provided crucial guidance, advising them to seek a strong leader and sharing strategies to counter the Japanese Infantry's tactics. He would grant special abilities to Nayutaro, Issenmantaro, Nanahyakumantaro, and Happyakumantaro, transforming them into formidable fighters on the battlefield. Furthermore, he bestowed blessings upon some soldiers, leading to the creation of the Wrath Samurais and Grudge Soldiers.

After preparing, Division 6 departed the Oro Sol Ruins, embarking on a quest to find a formidable leader. Weeks later, they chanced upon Hyakutaro, who had escaped captivity and was battling a contingent of Japanese Infantry soldiers and Pipovulaj troops. Division 6 intervened, saving Hyakutaro's life, and together they successfully defeated their foes. In the aftermath of battle, Nayutaro, Issenmantaro, Nanahyakumantaro, and Happyakumantaro approached Hyakutaro, explaining their situation and expressing their desire to fight back against the Rebel Army. Without hesitation, they offered him leadership, which took him aback, but he eagerly accepted. He was overjoyed at the prospect of reuniting with his twin brother, Nayutaro, and three cousins after a long separation.

Once Marco, Eri, Tarma, and Fio arrived in South America, Division 6 took it upon themselves to aid them in the fight against the Japanese Infantry. With their support, the Regular Army successfully forced the Japanese Infantry to surrender, revealing crucial information about current enemy positions and the base of operations of the Rebel Army. Afterwards, Division 6 and Marco's team proceeded to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where they overpowered the Arabian Infantry, forcing them to surrender.

Following their impressive performance against the Arabian Infantry, Division 6 gained recognition from the Regular Army. The higher-ups saw the group of Rebel Army revolutionaries as a valuable asset and an opportunity to reorient Hyakutaro's efforts and recruit additional cadets. They also recognized Division 6's potential as a specialised force capable of addressing situations that other special forces units couldn't handle due to prior commitments or overwhelming circumstances. A mutual agreement was reached, and Division 6 evolved into a key branch of the Regular Army, reserved for emergency situations.

Insignia

It features a solid white circle with a safflower red crescent moon on the left side and the character “六” (meaning "six") in indigo beneath it.

Uniforms

Similar to the special forces units of the Regular Army, Division 6 soldiers don’t have a strict military dress code. However, they have distinctive clothing not found elsewhere in the Regular Army.

Many of them wear tropical caps in coquelicot or reseda green, which are paired with a single ivory white neck flap. Others don traditional straw Komusō hats, featuring a rectangular eye slit for unobstructed vision. They possess the same bombs and guntō-like swords as Division 6 from Metal Slug 3 and Metal Slug Advance. However, their swords are sheathed in scabbards made from Japanese woodsnake skin, and they carry their bombs and sticks of dynamite in brownish-red load-bearing backpacks.

When they were part of the Japanese Infantry, they wore the same clothing as the Rebel Infantrymen. However, upon joining the Regular Army, they continued to wear similar attire, including cargo pants, field tunics, and bandoliers, due to their previous association with the Japanese Infantry. Nevertheless, their field tunics now feature the Division 6 insignia embroidered on the back, along with a camouflage pattern of dark green, greyish-brown, and charcoal. Additionally, they wear brownish-red paratrooper boots with safflower red laces and silver-buckled belts in a variety of colours, including white, blue, yellow, orange, green, brown, and black

Vehicles

Type 95 Ha-Gō

Null Fighter

Crusty Legs

Division 6 Base

Chijō no Kakurega is a heavily fortified subterranean bunker situated beneath the arid expanse of the Chihuahuan Desert, its underground design eerily reminiscent of Division 6's hideout from Metal Slug 3. The bunker features an underground river and an extensive network of tunnels and chambers. Division 6 has a Borobune Slug that floats on the underground river, serving as a secluded retreat for members seeking solitude or a tranquil experience reminiscent of a cruise. They contain multiple facilities within the bunker:

A central intelligence briefing room for strategic planning, operational oversight, data analysis, and intelligence gathering with a dedicated radio console for encrypted communications.

A secure workspace equipped with eighteen workstation desks, high-performance computers, a water dispenser, and six secure file cabinets containing classified documents and sensitive historical archives.

A live-fire shooting range situated adjacent to an obstacle course and a secure equipment locker storing tactical gear and military uniforms.

A fortified storage facility for various firearms, ammunition and explosives with controlled access and intrusion detection systems.

A sleeping quarters located near five modern bathrooms and a fully equipped hospital and medical research facility.

A library filled with a diverse range of books and curated souvenirs sits adjacent to a state-of-the-art fitness centre.

The entertainment lounge is furnished with a sofa, six bean bag chairs, and Utan’s favourite vintage bentwood chair. A sleek television, mounted on a dresser containing board games, provides options for watching news, shows, and movies. The room also features a coffee table and four arcade cabinets: Splatterhouse, Q*bert, The Revenge of Shinobi, and King of the Monsters 2: The Next Thing.

A reinforced, blast-resistant dining area with seating for troops and staff, offering nutritious meals.

A kitchen with commercial-grade appliances, a food preparation area, a sanitation facility, and a dry goods storage.

A hardened, fully equipped maintenance area for specialised military vehicles, including repair pits, hydraulic lifts, and specialised tooling.

A parking area for military vehicles with a nearby storage room for vehicle parts, accessories, and maintenance materials.

Extra Information

Members of Division 6 are commonly known as "Divisioners" or "Regular Sixers”, which helps distinguish them from other special forces units.

Division 6 members utilise handguns similar to those used by the Peregrine Falcons Squad and S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. The firearms are allocated based on operative gender. Male operatives are equipped with semi-automatic Murder .50AE pistols, while female operatives carry double-action Classic Murder .38 revolvers.

They possess two elite units, consecrated by Sol Dae Rokker: Wrath Samurais and Grudge Soldiers. Wrath Samurais are fearsome warriors with burnt crimson flesh, infused with divine rage that fuels their unparalleled ferocity in swift and deadly attacks. Grudge Soldiers embody the vengeful spirits of their fallen comrades. Their appearance consists of whitened hair and pale, rotting bluish-purple skin. They can summon fiery blue pillars from the earth and hurl homing, explosive skulls at their enemies.

Despite being reserved for emergencies, they regularly engage with the Peregrine Falcons Squad and S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S., often collaborating with the elite operatives.

Unlike other special forces units, Division 6 doesn't rely on Rumi and Madoka as its main suppliers. Instead, Eri Kasamoto fulfills this role, providing a wide range of essential supplies, including food rations and firearms. Meanwhile, Tarma Roving and Tequila serve a different purpose, handling repairs for the unit's damaged vehicles. The reason behind Eri's role as supplier remains unclear, but rumours suggest that Sol Dae Rokker was dissatisfied with Rumi and Madoka's subpar navigation skills. Allegedly, he deemed them unworthy of interacting with his followers, prompting him to enlist Eri for the task instead.

Most of their recruits come from three primary sources: cadets from the P.F. Squad, S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. or Ikari Warriors. This is largely due to Hyakutaro's tendency to extend invitations to individuals who leave a lasting impression on him.