#and he absolutely deserves all the support

[beesandwasps]

I am 100% serious with this: in the US we are not talking about it because it was bipartisan. If you go and examine the records of the vote for the AUMF (Authorization of the Use of Military Force) against Iraq in Congress in 2002 [House | Senate] you will see some very familiar names in the list of those who voted for it: Biden, Clinton, Feinstein, Lieberman, Kerry, Reid… pretty much the only Democrat who was in Congress at that time who was a major figure later who didn’t vote for it was Pelosi. (Obama was not in Congress at that time.) So right from the start the Democratic Party could not really blame the Republicans for the war, and were only halfheartedly interested in campaigning against it.

By 2006, it was obvious that the Iraq invasion had been a bad idea all along and the Democrats started to talk about how they had been misled by the Republicans. This was a hugely popular stance — so popular that in the 2006 midterms, the Democrats gained a majority in the House and a technical majority in the Senate (with Sanders and Lieberman, who by that time had split from the party and was nominally Independent; the way that the Democratic Party pandered to the creepy asshole Joe Lieberman is another major topic which deserves more attention), and almost immediately after the election, the Democrats announced that they weren’t going to take any action after all — impeachment was “off the table” (a favorite phrase of Nancy Pelosi) and funding proceeded.

Antiwar sentiment grew even stronger as the GWB administration failed to make any headway despite renewed funding. (It’s worth pointing out that there were no stated concrete goals for the US army in Iraq. The unofficial goal of the administration was to seize control of Iraqi oil for western oil companies — eyewitnesses report that they had a map ready to show which companies would get which oil fields — but officially there were no milestones by which one could say “okay, we’re done, time to go home”.) In 2008, the Democrats once again ran largely on an antiwar platform — and added in anti-Too-Big-To-Fail-Institution rhetoric when the economy melted down — but as soon as Obama got into office, he refused to follow up on either one. He asked Congress to fund another “surge”, and tried to negotiate an extension of the 2011 troop withdrawal deadline set by GWB.

(This is also worthy of note: the puppet Iraqi government created by the US signed an agreement not to accuse the US of war crimes. This agreement expired at the withdrawal date set by GWB in 2011. The government refused to renew this agreement, and that was the real sticking point which prevented Obama from extending the official US occupation. The US absolutely was committing war crimes in Iraq and the US government knew it and even planned them in advance, otherwise the agreement would never have been necessary and certainly would not have been negotiated beforehand.)

So… if you’re going to talk about the Iraq war, you really can’t do it without condemning it. But to condemn it means not merely condemning the Republicans for starting up — it also means condemning Obama for extending it and making it worse, Hillary Clinton for voting for it in Congress and then for extending it and making it worse as Secretary of State under Obama, Nancy Pelosi for refusing to take any action to end it early by defunding it or seeking impeachment, and Joe Biden for basically all of the above as a Senator and later VP. (The Democrats, incidentally, spent at lot of time insinuating, both in Kerry’s 2004 campaign and in Obama’s campaign and early administration, that the war was somehow “winnable” and that the only reason it wasn’t being won was that Republicans were too stupid and incompetent.)

Republicans don’t want to talk about it because it was their team’s idea. Democrats don’t want to talk about it because they enthusiastically supported it, and when they took it over they couldn’t make it work despite bragging that they would manage to do that. Since essentially all US media is partisan to one party or the other, there is no discussion.

I missed most of the Iraq war due to being a baby, but every time I read about it I start wondering why we aren’t all talking about it all of the time

[logar3]

Almost a year and a half ago, my friend @mr-crocodile asked me to draw some character designs for him for a crossover he was writing about two things I knew nothing about; RWBY and WarHammer Fantasy.

Turns out that I absolutely adored the character designs from the reference images I was being sent, and it got me into watching RWBY itself, and from there on, I have been obsessed... If my plethora of RWBY fan art and 6 RWBY fanfiction (so far) haven't shown that already.

Anyway, here are the designs for my friend's RWBYHammer story! These are the designs that the characters have during the PILOT ONESHOT and are not indicative of the actual fic... Except for Ruby and Weiss' outfits. Apparently, I nailed them so well that they stayed in the actual fic!

If you like these designs and the idea of an RWBY/WarHammer Fantasy crossover, check them out here! Croc is a dear friend and deserves all of the praise and support you guys can give him!

The Grand Company of the Shimmering Rose: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51401764

[writingdevil]

I am in desperate need of more Broken content... and you write such cute one shots💚💚

Can I please have some Smitten x Broken? They are eating my brain😩😩😩

(Yes, we could all use more Broken content, and thank you for calling my writing cute, I try very hard to get the voices and the ships right. Smitbrok is very cute, so here-food for your brain, enjoy!)

Smitten chuckled lightly as Broken took a deep breath in, and then found enough courage to stand up on his tiptoes, grazing his lips against Smitten's.

Broken was attempting to get better at taking things that he wanted for himself, including affection that he wasn't sure if he deserved. Smitten absolutely thought that he deserved it, along with the rest of his flockmates, but Broken especially.

Usually Smitten was the one initiating any physical affection, including kisses and cuddling and the like, but he was pleasantly surprised when Broken came up to him one day, asking to let Broken be more assertive today.

Broken pulled away timidly, deep in his own head, working through his feelings on how to feel, all while Smitten just gave him a patient and support smile, rubbing a hand up and down his back as Broken held himself up over him on their bed.

After a few minutes, Broken's brows furrowed in determination, and then he whispered, "I really want to kiss you again," the same thing he's been saying for the last twenty minutes. Smitten swooned at how sweet his partner was, and said, "You can absolutely do that."

Broken's eyes lit up in excitement, and this time when he leaned down, Smitten felt this kiss be more firm, more greedy, and Smitteb found himself getting lost in the pleasure, until Broken pulled away, and Smitten was surprised to find that he was the one becoming breathless.

Broken seemed pleasantly surprised at that as well, and Smitten felt his fingers lightly brush the feathers near his face, and it left a trail of warmth in its path.

Once he had caught his breath, Broken lowered his lips so that they were inches from Smitten, but before they kissed, Broken whispered, "I think you're really sweet, Smitten.I-I really mean it."

That made Smitten go still.

"You-You give a lot of love, but I don't think you receive a lot of it, so-so I want to practice that for you as well-feeling the love that you make everyone else feel."

This time, Broken smashed their lips together, grazing his tongue over his lips, and Smitten's thoughts turned to pure sugar and heaven in that moment, as if his brain couldn't process the love Broken was showering him with.

But then again, practice makes perfect.

[timidsketch]

It's absolutely fucked up that "progressive" spaces have demonized anybody with an ounce of privilege so much that there are countless trans people, gay people, disabled people, fat people, etc. who feel guilty for being white men.

I just had to see a trans man who said his first thought after realizing he was trans was that he felt despair for now being a white man. Do people not understand how fucked up progressive spaces have become that a trans person's first thought upon coming out is that they're now some evil villain who doesn't deserve love, compassion, or to express their gender identity?

I've known incredibly kind and amazing trans people who have OCD, and their intrusive thoughts make them think their desire to be trans women is just a way for them to escape the demonization that white men experience in progressive spaces. Imagine feeling such intense guilt for the body you were born in and the gender you were assigned that your mental illness commands you to punish yourself rather than be the trans woman you are. And all of the rhetoric their OCD uses to punish them? It comes from "progressive" Tumblr, which they doomscroll to see the countless people who believe they're a monster.

I have seen popular people of color on this damn website who have literally claimed that white gay men don't experience any oppression, as if being white and a man means homophobia becomes nonexistent. I'm not keeping my voice down anymore. That is FUCKED. UP.

You want to know what else is fucked up? I have to tell the Tumblr void specifically about how marginalized people are negatively affected to get people on "progressive" Tumblr to care. That is how much we as "progressive" people demand generalization and demonization of billions and billions of strangers. "Progressive" Tumblr can say all it likes that we don't support terfs and radfems, but terfs and radfems are the people who made you all complacent with the harm we have been doing. Any hatred you have for masculinity and masculine people is a pill that radical feminists asked you to happily swallow.

What the fuck does "equality" even mean anymore when being born a certain way makes you an inherent demon in a space that claims to be centered on the values of compassion, acceptance, and inclusivity? I have to put quotation marks around the word progressive because these spaces truly are not progressive despite how many Tumblr posts wave around trans flags.

Why

do our values

have asterisks?

[jessicapendragon]

The Headboard

some nsft davrook late at night ;)

"You've got the biggest one." She gestures at the bed slotted perfectly into the cubby hole of his room. "Did you make it?"

Davrin makes a noise. "With what time? Dreamed of making something like that though. All the things here that keep appearing-actually, I don't want to think about it."

"Right, the Fade, you don't like it." She shrugs, the tone of her voice casual. "Would be hard to take anywhere. You'd think a Dalish Warden would travel extra light."

He sends her a sidelong look that ends with both of them grinning. "I enjoy a luxury every now and then."

"Everyone has their guilty pleasures. A...headboard? That's what you called it? Guess I don't get the appeal."

+

Weeks later she listens to that headboard slam against the wall, the absolutely perfect rhythm of it matching every thrust of his cock as he fucks her from behind.

It's so loud, anyone could hear if they walked in. Maybe they can hear it echoing through the giant fucking hole in the other wall right now. It would make her cheeks burn if they weren't already on fire as she grips the sheets so tight.

It's lewd, and hard, and wild in a way she rarely gets to be.

It's hot.

+

The thing is sturdy too, much to Davrin's dismay. The wood creaks but never breaks as he pulls on the ropes tied around his wrists.

He groans when she stills her hand around him for the third time although her hips do not idle, slowly pumping the glistening crystal phallus in and out of his ass. Bless the wine that let this conversation ever happen.

"Come on, say it."

There's a pause, a frown, a smirk, as he finally meets her eyes and her demand. "Squawk."

"Ma serannas," she replies, hand moving once more.

+

"Oh...fuck!"

It's also supportive, she finds, as her legs begin to tremble. She doesn't want to come yet, gods, it feels so good, just a little longer...

The mistake is in looking down.

She can't see his mouth as she rides it, but she can see the smile in his eyes. The well deserved smugness of it, the hunger there, the drop of her sweat that lands on his forehead-

Her fingers latched onto the headboard are the only things that keep her up as she comes crying his name over and over.

+

Months and months and more weeks for some later they lay in a pile in her room. Sleep is finally beginning to win over everything else. He is so very good at tiring her out.

"Wherever I am, huh?"

There's a gentle kiss to her forehead. "As good as any oath."

"I wouldn't mind a place outside the Fade to stop every once in awhile. Like a house, maybe. With a giant bed. With a headboard."

"Is that right?"

She settles into his chest with a lazy, content smile. "Yeah. Guess they've grown on me."

[inkskinned]

"don't make it political!" .... what proportion of death and suffering must occur before politics are involved. if this isn't political, what is even the point of any politics, ever. of democracy. the words are "by the people for the people." if i am going to be left alone by my elected representatives to "figure it out" - to undergo damage, hardship, fear. what the fuck did i elect them for. what was their job. the entire point is that they handle this shit. this is why we were supposed to be electing leaders.

poverty is political. misogyny is political. gun control is political. climate change is political. how much aid a community gets is political. what the fuck are you talking about. it's been political this whole fucking time.

[tangerinecopper]

Agree so hard with Tubbo, Bad is one of the best streamers out there and I wish more people saw him that way. He is such a chill goofy guy and his streams vibes are so amazing. I can go on such a indepth rant about how he is one of best comfort streamers out there but let's save it for another day. He is one of the best streamers according to Tubbo and that already says alot.

Tubbo - Badboyhalo is the best streamer ever and it breaks my heart not everyone agrees

[drop-dead-dropout]

I've said it before but I really really really need everyone in the disco elysium fandom to like. look at themselves for a moment and make sure they're not being insanely ridiculously dehumanizing to addicts because I see it way too often. I'm not talking about saying that harry is a bad person, depending on your choices in your playthrough he could absolutely be described as a very shitty person, I'm talking about this weird insistence that harry as an addict/recovering addict/whatever doesn't deserve love or friendship or community because he's just That Bad and he will ALWAYS be That Bad and inflicting him on someone else would be cruel and unusual punishment. like... actually fuck each and every last one of you who says shit like that I'm not joking.

[lazylittledragon]

download festival dump bc it may have been the catalyst for the end of my relationship but i still had a GREAT time

[strryhaze]

bobby & david kennedy

“There was some level on which David tapped his father’s sensitivity. You would find him walking with David or with his arm around David. David just seemed to need it.”

— chuck mcdermott.

“If his father’s death hit David harder than the others, it was because there had been a special bond between them—both were the runts of the litter, sandwiched into the middle of a large family. He was the only one in the family who hadn’t been enthusiastic about the run for the presidency. For weeks after his father’s announcement, David had been plagued by recurring nightmares about Bobby’s death. Distraught over episodes that seemed premonitory, and missing the special attention his father had given him, David had gotten in trouble for throwing rocks at cars passing by Hickory Hill. The day of the California primary, he had joined his father in Los Angeles. The two of them had been swimming and he had felt himself being carried out by the undertow when his father grabbed him, scraping his own head on the ocean floor as he reached for David’s slippery arm. With a teenager’s melodrama, David had decided that he owed his father a life and would look for an opportunity to pay him back in the years ahead. That night as he sat in front of the television set in his room in the Ambassador Hotel and watched [his father] bleeding on the floor downstairs, one of the thoughts he had was that the debt would be forever undischarged.”

“As the worst year of their young lives came to a close, they decided to surprise their mother at Christmas with a book comprised of letters about their father. David’s said: ‘Daddy was very funny in church because he would embarrass all of us by singing very loud. Daddy did not have a very good voice. There will be no more football with Daddy, no more swimming with him, no more riding and no more camping with him. But he was the best father there ever was and I would rather have him for a father for the length of time I did than any other father for a million years.”

— the kennedy’s, peter collier & david horowitz.

“David looked at himself in those pictures like they were a strange sort of mirror. He looked at them half a dozen times at least, mesmerized by them, and he kept asking me questions. There was a tremendous desire to know his father, to really know him.”

— john seigenthaler.

“David and Bobby were so close. They were inseparable. David was small, a runt like Bobby had been.” Ethel then explained to Noelle (her secretary) that David had always been a very sensitive youngster, very introverted, "not like the other boys. He and I would go and pick flowers while his brothers were killing each other with their crazy games", Ethel recalled with a smile.

— ethel kennedy.

“I think about death a lot. Time hasn’t erased the death of my father from my mind. My family thinks I’m no good and that I’ll never beat my problem. They’ve written me off. I’m trying to get it together, but it’s so difficult. I’m having a terrible time at it. And the thing I want most in the world is the approval of my family, but they want nothing to do with me. All I want is to be with my father.”

— david kennedy, april 1984.

“Like his family, his friends had all wondered at one time or another if he would kill himself; but when it finally came his death was nonetheless shocking. ‘I keep asking myself why. Why David? Why now? All I can come up with is that maybe his father was looking down from heaven and saw all the hell these people were putting him through and said, ‘Come on, You’ve suffered enough. It’s time you were up here with me.’”

— nancy narleski.

Years after David Kennedy’s death, his cousin, Patrick Kennedy recalled a haunting and heartbreaking recollection he had with his father, Teddy, sitting beside his cousin’s casket: “My father remembered Bobby telling him that, as a father, he needed to spend more time with David. He also recounted a story Uncle Bobby had told him just before his own death. On the day before the California primary, the Robert Kennedys had gone swimming in Malibu, to relax together. David had been knocked over by a wave and got caught in the undertow, and his father had come to his rescue. When Uncle Bobby told my father this story, he talked about ‘the undertow’ in broader terms, how there was an undertow in life and David, who was only then thirteen, already seemed vulnerable to it. And then, just hours later, Uncle Bobby was murdered as David watched the TV coverage in their hotel room upstairs. It was unbelievably poignant to hear my father tell this story. David was in the casket next to us. And I wasn’t that much older than David when his father worried whether he could survive the undertow.”

[momentomori24]

Yeah, yeah, Eva was insanely self sabotaging and was ultimately a very selfish and egotistical person who couldn't see herself as anything more than a victim without agency that was shunned for no good reason even in situations where she was undeniably in the worst of wrongs and blamed everyone but herself for the actions that have left her alone but have you considered that's why I love her?

[frameconfessions]

Fuck the Game Awards. Fucking Geoff Keeley or whatever his name is spelled snubbed them back in like 2016 when they were up for nomination and was like “oh well maybe next year huh." Then we never saw Warframe in the voting again because they now only use Warframe as a side piece for advertising so I guess they aren't even allowed for a labor of love or a long time beloved game award or something. I'm still salty about that shit, fuck Geoff and this rigged ass awards show for real! I'm just here for the drops and Warframe or Soulframe news at this point.

💯

Why the fuck does Fortnite get in but not Warframe? This shit sucks.

WARFRAME SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE IN ONE OR BOTH OF THESE!!

[asteria7fics]

I love writing for Cartman because nothing is ever truly ooc if you understand his intentions. Like sure, it seems weird to make him act nice, but when it will get him what he wants? It's perfect.

When it's a necessary step in manipulating another character then it's never ooc for him. My brother will always do whatever it takes to bring home the gold, and I support him.

[comraderaccoon]

I wish Steven Crowder’s wife a very happy life, and Crowder himself a very get wrecked.

[perilegs]

ok i might need to force myself to not romance astarion bc i don't want to know what it says about me to turn down karlach, the woman of my dreams, the character made to cater me personally, like, if she was real i'd bring the moon and stars down for the chance to see her smile, she's everything i've hoped for in a rpg companion, what does it say about me if i turn that down for someone like astarion

[yaz-the-spaz]

I can't believe we waited 7 seasons for Buck to kiss a man and it wasn't even the person he literally legally shares a kid with