#and now trump looks better than he has in a long time

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dan Pfeiffer at The Message Box:

Poring through the aftermath of a brutal defeat, Democrats are now in their worst position in at least 20 years. Republicans have the White House and the Senate and an excellent chance to capture the House. Trump is only the second Republican since 1988 to win the popular vote, and he made huge gains across the country, building a multi-racial working-class coalition.

For many of you, I imagine this is painful to read. Trust me. It is even more painful to write. Most of my career has been spent within the machinery of the Democratic Party. I worked in the White House and Senate leadership. I worked for Democratic governors and other party organizations. It pains me to see the party in this state of disfavor only eight years after Barack Obama left the White House. The coalition that Obama built has crumbled. There are millions of reasons why we are in this position — COVID, inflation, an unpopular President, several political miscalculations, and a failure to adapt to a changed media environment. Ultimately, I am less interested in how we got into this mess than in how we get out of it.

The press continues to second-guess and Monday-morning quarterback various tactical decisions of the Harris campaign. I am also not particularly interested in that debate. Two things can be true at the same time. Kamala Harris ran a great campaign in a brutal political environment under an impossible timeline, and Democrats just got their ass kicked by a failed President and convicted criminal who could have been sentenced to jail if he lost the election. Where Democrats go from here is a conversation that will be an ongoing part of this newsletter in the months to come. There is no singular or simple answer, and many strawman arguments are being offered up on Twitter and cable. The solution is more complex than being more left or centrist or less woke. I don’t have the answers. Like the rest of you, I am still processing what happened on Tuesday. As part of my personal therapy, I wanted to do a bit of brain dump on the road ahead for Democrats as we confront another four years of Trump.

1. Recognize the Scale of the Problem

On one level, Trump’s win isn’t that big. His popular vote margin will end up being lower than Hillary Clinton’s when she lost the Presidency. This was far from a landslide. It looks nothing like Reagan’s victories in 1980 and 1984 or Obama’s win in 2008. But we shouldn’t sugarcoat the size and scope of Trump’s victory. Trump improved on his 2020 performance nearly everywhere in the country and with every type of voter. There was a six-point shift to the right in the country from 2020. Trump did 10 points better in Democratic strongholds like New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. He gained ground with men, women, Latinos, Black voters, and voters under 30. If the GOP can maintain that coalition post-Trump, Democrats will have no shot at the White House or the Senate for the foreseeable future. We are in a deep hole, and because of that, it is essential that we contemplate radical solutions about how we communicate, campaign, and govern. Every option should be on the table and every prior should be questioned. Yes, it was a brutal political environment, but this failure was a long time in the making.

2. Understand Why We Keep Losing on the Economy

Post-COVID inflation is the biggest factor in this election. It’s why incumbent parties all over the world have been getting slaughtered in election after election. It’s almost impossible to win an election when, according to the exit polls, 68% of voters rate the economy negatively, 75% say inflation caused them harm, and only 24% of voters say their financial situation is better off than four years ago. But if Democrats just blame inflation for voter distrust on the economy, we will be whistling past the graveyard. Democrats have lost economically-focused voters in every election since 2012. Even in the 2018 and 2022 midterms, which saw huge Democratic gains, we lost the voters who said the economy was their top issue by an average of 36 points!

President Biden passed a bunch of very consequential and popular policies. Yet, his ratings on the economy worsened over time. While I think we should revisit our policy agenda to look for new, bolder ideas that better speak to people’s concerns, this is largely not a policy problem. It’s a brand problem. When you do a blind taste test, our policies are more popular. This is why ballot initiatives like raising the minimum wage and allowing collective bargaining often pass in very Red states where Democrats have no chance of winning elected office. On economic issues, Democrats have a cultural problem; regardless of our policies, voters in the toughest economic situations simply don’t think Democrats care about them, and they haven’t since Barack Obama left office. Republicans have done an excellent job — with some inadvertent help from Democrats — branding our party as the party of elites even though the GOP standard bearer is a wannabe billionaire who offers tax cuts to other billionaires in exchange for campaign contributions. There is little question that we would benefit from more full-throated populism.

3. Close the Communications Chasm

Democrats are losing the information war. Trump and the Republicans are relentlessly communicating their narrative to a wide swath of the electorate, while Democrats are mostly still playing by an old set of rules. The Right is dominating the information space. In the battleground states where Democrats could spend more than a billion dollars communicating to voters on TV and digital platforms, Trump gained three points over his 2020 performance. In the rest of the country, which saw no paid Democratic messaging, Trump gained six points. This means that Democrats got absolutely battered in earned and social media. An average American who just turned on their TV or unlocked their phone or tablet was getting much more pro-Trump and anti-Democratic messaging. This situation is not unique to the Harris campaign. It’s been a problem for Democrats for more than a decade. Democrats cannot reach the wide swath of voters who don’t actively consume political news. According to polling from Data for Progress, here’s the statistics showing how people voted based on the amount they paid attention to political news:

a great deal: Harris +8

a lot: Harris +5

a moderate amount: Trump +1

a little: Trump +8 -

none at all: Trump +15

If you read the New York Times or watch CNN, Democrats know how to reach you. The problem is that we already have those voters. It's very clear that most of Democratic communications is a circular conversation with the people who already agree with us on everything. The rest of the electorate can’t hear us. They are getting no countervailing information to counter the Right Wing caricature of Democrats. Because of Fox News and other Right Wing outlets, Republicans have long had an asymmetric media advantage. However, in recent years, Right Wing messaging has come to dominate non-political online spaces centered on topics like comedy, gaming, gambling, and wellness.

Most Democrats continued running the same communications playbook for the entire Trump era despite massive changes in the media ecosystem. We haven’t incubated our progressive political media enough nor have we been willing to go into the non-political spaces where the most critical segment of voters are getting their info.

Dan Pfeiffer has yet another home run column on how the Democrats can roar back from their shock 2024 losses.

[justagh0ul]

[imaginesig]

“If they call me a slut, you know it might be worth if for once”

Lewis Hamilton x singer!reader

SMAU

yourusername

liked by lewishamilton, user1, y/nhq, and 402,038 others

yourusername: my muse <3

tagged lewishamilton

lewishamilton its an honor love

user1 when will I find someone to call me love

lando.jpg your own jpg account when??

yourusername I'll stick to my day job

user2 anybody else bothered by how quickly she goes from man to man

user3 right? like I swear she's had about 7 "muses" in the past 3 years

user4 she's literally done nothing wrong?? how dare a women date more than 1 person in her life??

carlossainz55 so new music when?

Charles_leclerc the Ferrari playlist needs an update

yourusername update loading 🔄

user5 oh please be a new album!!

load more

lewishamilton

liked by roscoovescoco, yourusername, user6, and 183,829 others

lewishamilton: race weekend with my loves

tagged: mercadesamgf1, roscoelovescoco, yourusername

landonorris interesting order

yourusername we all know Roscoe is the real star here

roscoelovescoco listen to the lady 🙌

mercadesmhf1 we love having the Hamilton family in the paddock

yourusername ahhh love to be there!!

lewishamilton 💚

georgerussell63 always a good time with these two in the house

yourusername ahhhh Georgie 🫶🫶

user1 "Georgie" 🥹😭

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tmz_offical

liked by user9, user1, user3, and 937,273 others

tmz_offical: just days after the end of the season, f1 driver Lewis Hamilton is spotted out with young girlfriend Y/n L/n. The couple is notorious for keeping their privacy, making paparazzi pictures a rare instance. Click the link in our bio to see what else was taken during their night out on the town.

tagged lewishamilton, yourusername

user1 no wonder they keep private, I would too if ended up trapped in a relationship with a slut like her

user2 didn't she and Dylan O'Brian break up right before they got together? Didn't think he rebound guy would last this long

user3 I could never imagine dating someone that much older than me

user4 fr someone tell her to take it down a notch, her sluttiness is showing

User8 the one sided hate is mid boggling

user5 the negativity is DEFINING

user6 right, y'all can't stand to see a women happy, healthy, and unbothered

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y/nupdates

liked by lewishamilton, user5, user9, and 749,934 more

y/nupdates: Y/n seen outside the studio with her producer after radio silence all winter!!

tagged yourusername

user1 she's cooking

user2 she's entering her reputation era I can feel it

user3 fr, after that one tmz post blows up and her comments are flooded with negativity, she locked herself away with her love, and is now seen for the first time in awhile leaving the studio

user4 I CANT HANDLE THIS RN

user5 not the slut trying for a comeback

user6 how about you lead by example? Leave and don't come back 🫶

user8 you know the records gonna slap when @/producer sprinkled her magic

user9 I need them and Taylor+Jack to release something

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yourusername

liked by user5, lewishamilton, y/nhq, and 394,028 others

yourusername: "Slut!" out now on all streaming platforms!! The rest of the album, "Amor Omnia Vincit" out this Friday!

when I originally sat down to create this new album I didn't image I'd write half the songs that made the final cut, but I did. This has been a very therapeutic experience for me.

Thank you to this album, my amazing team, and my lovely muse for keeping me going in the difficult time <3

tagged: y/nhq

lewishamilton you are so Shawn Hunter coded

lewishamilton I love you dear

yourusername I love you too darling

user1 they are so domestic I'm crying 🤭😭

user2 lets all start a thread of our fav lyrics from "Slut!"

user3 "if I'm all dressed up, they might as well be looking at us" WE KNOW THIS COUPLE ALWAYS BRING FIRE FITS

user4 very obvious but "if they call me a slut, you know it might be worth it for once," just hits so hard, like this is an issue she's dealt with for so long but Lewis makes it all better bc their relationship trumps everything

user5 piggy backing off of @/user4 's reasoning, "the sticks and stones they throw froze mid air"

user6 "IN A WORLD OF BOYS HES A GENTLEMAN" 🔛🔝

user7 I'm still not very her admitting that all the negavity around her dating has affected her so bad that she told Lewis "I said it might blow up in your pretty face"

scuderiaferarri we will not apologize for the people we'll become when this drops ‼️

Charles_leclerc we've always been #1 y/n stans

lewishamilton you red fuckers can take two steps back that's my title

carlossainz55 I thought you were her muse?

lewishamilton I'm both

user8 ok possessive king

youruserame for me and me only 🥰

load more

lewishamilton

liked by georgerussell64, your username, user1, and 789,739 others

lewishamilton: SO, SO, SO PROUD OF YOU LOVE!! Watching you work through a rough patch with such grace was beautiful. Thank you for allowing me to be apart of it and listen to these songs+more. I'll be your muse forever if you'll have me <3

tagged yourusername, y/nhq

yourusername forever and always <3

lewishamilton <3

user1 that water look very ~aquamarine~ to anyone

user2 he def knew what he was doing

lewishamilton I had a message to send 🤷🏾‍♂️

user2 LMAOOO HES SO PETTY

yourusername sassy man epidemic isn't a joke

user3 I love that she left like people wanted and wrote a whole song to shut down the hater but also put her and Lewis's relationship on the pedestal it deserves

producer such a sweet album!! Some of the best love songs out there!!

Charles_leclerc Vigilante Shit is my new pre-prix anthem

yourusername watch out @/maxverstappen1

maxverstappen this is where the dutch anthem falls silent 😔

carlossainz55 wasn't ready for Dress

yourusername but...

carlossainz55 its my fav

user4 I love that lewis posted for the whole album when Y/n didn't, but she's replying to comments in his section when he isn't

user5 they really are made for each other huh

roscoelovescoco amazing work mom!!

user5 I will never get over the mom

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yourusername

liked by landonorris, Charles_leclerc, user5, and 937,039 others

yourusername: surprise!! Since this album taught me what it was like to write and create in such an intamate space with very few people/outide influence I wanted to celebrate it with 3 small shows in Monaco, London, and Ottawa!

tickets on sale at 12 pm eastern this friday, see ya then ;)

tagged y/nhq

landonorris do friends get discounts??

yourusername everyone on the grid plus any serious significant others get VIP entry courtesy of me and my team 💖😘

y/nhq we'll be reaching out soon to select the show

lilymhe you don't understand how excited this makes me!!

yourusername well I couldn’t celebrate without my girls (and their men too ig 🙄🤚)

oscarpiastri thanks a lot y/n

alexalbon anybody else feeling loved??

lewishamilton completely 🫶

user1 this will start world war 3 I can feel it

user2 this is the eras tour all over again

user3 except that was selling stadiums, these are small venues

user4 any f1 driver want to link up for a show?? you'll never have to speak to me ever again

user5 I regret to inform you babe, but I think this is the reason she said serious significant others...

user6 official tour soon?? Please mother??

yourusername oh so very soon...

load more

lewishamilton

liked by your username, georgerussel64, landonorris, and 379,268 others

lewishamilton "got lovestruck went straight to my head" <3

tagged yourusername

user1 crying throwing up

user2 quoting her song?? that's about him?? I'll be resting my eyes on the highway if anybody needs me

user3 my toaster looks like a fun bath bomb

yourusername "got lovesick all over my bed" <3

landonorris beautiful show, beautiful couple 🧡

yourusername 🧡

scuderiaferrari maybe we're colorblind but that doesn't look like Mercedes green

mercadesamgf1 watch your back

georgerussell64 👀

georgerussell64 slayed so hard

yourusername an honor from the meme king?? I'm not worthy

load more

yourusername

liked by Charles_leclerc, user9, lewishamilton, and 930,393 others

yourusername thank you to everyone who came out to a show this weekend!! I had a blast sining new stuff, covers, and old pieces with you all- the love I experienced was unreal!! I cannot wait to see what happens in the future 💖

To all those close to me, our relationships mean the absolute world!! Special love to Lewis who held my hand through my darkest time, showed me what a true relationship was, and gave me a perfect little boy (I love you Roscoe). Darling, its been a wonderful experience being with you <3

tagged y/nhq, landojpg

lewishamilton love you so much angel <3

georgerussell64 definitely gave me and Carmen the night of our lives!!

alexalbon the show was so amazing I almost forgot you flirted with my gf in the invitation

yourusername stay mad

lilymhe 🥵

Roscoelovescoco can I come next time??

yourusername I'll see what I can do...

landjpg thank you for photo creddits and well as the opportunity to photograph these unique shows

yourusername you didn't not dissapoint 👏👏 thank you for doing it

Charles_leclerc I had an amazing time!!!

carlossainze55 you should hear him try to speak, voice complelty gone

yourusername that's the kind of energy we all need

comments have been limited

[bambamramfan]

HIVLI

I've seen in the rationalistsphere a lot of dividing people into binary personality models, that are useful and different from the more popular stereotypes (though obviously as simplistic as any binary model.) High decouplers vs low decouplers is a really big one, though also high agency vs low agency. (These descriptions are usually "high x vs low x" with implicit emphasis that the "high" group is better.)

I'm going to add one binary that I think has not gotten nearly enough attention, though you can decide whether I favor the high or low half.

High Impulsiveness

We are used to impulsiveness as just a straight up bad word, like someone who lacks the discipline to resist temptation. Really it's not even about people, but more about moods we can fall into and should be avoided.

I think that's bollocks - not only are some people more impulsive, but it's not even an entirely *bad* thing and has some real positive contributions.

An impulsive person acts on an idea without thinking about it a lot. It could be the decision to throw the first punch in a fight, it could be kissing someone without worrying if it will be reciprocated, it might be deciding to throw a giant party just because, it might be buying a cool new jacket from the leather store, it might be pivoting your business into an entirely new sector, and it very very often is tweeting something on the spur of the moment.

And let's be honest - we love some of the impulsive people in our life. We love how they drop everything for us in a moment of need, we love how they surprise us with a spontaneous gift, we love how they are the first to say I love you. This impulsiveness is hella charismatic because all of their actions feel genuine and powerful and they just do a lot more actions showing their affection than people who think about it too much.

A high impulse person never lies because they believe what they are saying at the time. It might contradict what they said in the past, or what they will follow through on in the future, or even what the state of the world actually is, but they could sure as hell pass a lie detector test saying it right now.

Elon Musk is famous as a high impulse person, boldly creating new companies and leading industries because he decided HE CAN DO IT and doesn't waste any time thinking about the reasons it's not feasible.

On a whim, he bought a $1 million sports car and this is what happened to it:

FWIW, this was on the way to signing a major deal with Thiel.

My contention is that it is no coincidence that the man who reinvented the electric car industry and private space travel, completely wrecked his uninsured million dollar car trying to impress another billionaire. These are two sides of the same coin.

Low Impulsiveness

I think of the epitome of High Impulse vs Low Impulse is Trump vs Clinton in 2016. If you ask a LI person something, they will want to pause and consider the answer - is it true, does it accord with the rest of the world, will it upset anyone, are there any necessary qualifications on this?

To the media viewer, this looks like a calculating liar who is choosing what truth you should get to hear. The more "honest" person was the one "shooting from the gut" and answering immediately and unambiguously. Which answer actually turned out to be "true" is something that would be lost until the question was long forgotten.

A low impulse person wants to plan out what they are doing, what are the risks, how to mitigate them, even if they succeed one time will they be able to consistently stick to replicating this. (Hillary and Obama have been married one time each, even as we both have seen the tribulations of those marriages. Trump and Musk have been married, what, 8 times total?)

Some people reading this will just say this is a new label on high agency vs low agency people. And there is *some* correlation - a lot of high impulse people (again like Trump or Musk) are very high agency, and many low impulse people can be depressed, defeatist and think nothing is worth doing (usually myself.)

But I don't think that's accurate, these traits aren't the same thing. You can be high impulse / low agency - that's usually a depressive that lashes out at everything around them. And low impulse / agency is the stereotype of the master planner who has figured out exactly how everything will go.

You might say that high impulse people have higher VARIANCE than low impulse people, and the effect we're actually measuring is variance. I don't think that's what's going on at the personal level, so it's not useful for describing the people involved and why they do things and causality.

But the point about high variance is that high impulse people fuck up a lot. They lead to ALL SORTS OF MISTAKES and costs that the low impulse people justifyingly grumble about. Which is why our prisons are mostly full of high impulse people (but then so are our performing stages.)

For a long time, what it took to get ahead at the highest levels of power, was iterated successes, and that weeded out a lot of high-impulse people. HI people would fuck up eventually, and they'd go to jail or lose all the money or piss off the wrong people or lose their reputation and they'd stop advancing. Which is how we got a stereotype of national leaders as wishy washy grey emotionless blobs - those were the only ones who could survive a gauntlet of potential mistakes in the press or gossipy political games.

We've clearly entered a new era where downsides are limited, and enough success can overcome any failure. If, as a business leader, you can get 10% of the people to LOVE you, they can buy your stock and buoy you, even as 90% of people hate every decision you make.

We're seeing its effects the most in politics - Trump can't do anything to lose the confidence of his people so long as the other people hate him, so "shooting from the hip" every second of every day works wonders for him, even as it leads to meaningless policy and complete denial of reality.

But we see its growth in the media with independent substacks and other influencer platforms. So long as you can never be truly knocked out, the strategy of "gamble everything, keep trying to get attention" beats out most of the planners and low impulsiveness.

I think this is a bad thing, but it's not because I exclusively prefer Low Impulse behavior. HI people are super fun. But our leadership needs some combination of people with "emotional spontaneity" and people doing "thoughtful engagement with reality", and drifting too much in the former direction has fairly obvious disastrous consequences.

[hoelandah]

This will probably be my most controversial Homelander take:

As a black woman, TV!Homelander is accidentally the most "black man" coded white male character I've ever seen.

My reasoning and analysis is under the cut.

Let me preface that I'm aware that the subtext and mirroring I'm about to explain is likely not intentional in any way, shape, or form. Take this for the speculation and art analysis it is. This is also not Homelander apologia.

Warning: includes discussion of racial violence and SA.

Okay so. I'm one of those people who thinks that the Trump comparisons aren't correct. It's dead wrong. It's the writers and marketing clumsily trying to advertise the show by lampooning the conservatives. So, just leave the Homelander = Trump shit at the door.

1. His Dehumanization

It's no secret how much violence and dehumanization minorities go through. I'm going to elaborate on the specific markers of black male dehumanization.

Throughout European history the depiction and treatment of the black man has been "animal" and all the connotations that come with that word.

Violent. Stud. Low intelligence.

Black men were literally seen as not human. The idea of a black man having personhood would have genuinely been laughable to consider to whites in earlier history. They were no better than bulls.

Made to work. Made to breed. Made to be owned.

Homelander, like black men, never got the keys to "humanity." He was dehumanized before he was even a thought. A product of a "bull" that was so called "good stock" (Soldier Boy).

He was raised in isolation and abused by his owners to be ready to make his owners profit. His body was never his own. He's an asset. A product.

2. False/Conditional Privilege

Cut now to him debuting as The Homelander. Homelander is shallowly privileged by his looks and celebrity the same way black performers, particularly athletes, are: as long as they do the job. "Shut up and play, boy."

These teams are usually "owned" by rich white men. The black athlete should never do anything else but what they're paid to do. If they just do their job they get the conditional keys to "white male privilege." But only if they perform and never cause a stir or "take a knee."

During this time Homelander is groomed, intentionally and unintentionally, into what he is by everyone around him who only see him as a tool. And Homelander tries to always be "valued" in the public because what else does he have?

3. The Predatory Black Man Trope and "Jeromes" and "Tyrones"

Note: this section is likely reaching a little, take it with lots of salt.

This next section discusses the whole Becca thing.

Let the record show that I know and understand that Becca was raped. Full stop. I have some thoughts as to how much Homelander is aware of the gravity of what he did since he's a giant toddler whose moral compass has been made to point straight down to hell but it's obvious he does not care about how much he hurt her.

The show just puts some weird ass ambiguity around the whole incident. They don't really go into the specifics, we can only guess his motivations based on other women he's "been" with. And considering he legit didn't understand that Stillwell felt nothing but fear for him and he has no understanding of relationships or boundaries and his love for dominance due to deep insecurity he could totally think, in his fucked up mind, that he didn't do anything wrong.

"She's just a human, who cares? They use me, I use them." - Homelander, probably.

I just want it clear that I'm not exonerating him or minimizing Becca's hurt in this next section.

Anyway, this Becca situation loosely mirrors the "black men, "Jeromes" or "Tyrones" as some racists call them, are predators that prey on or seduce white women and give their husbands mixed babies" stereotype. And Butcher's hatred for Homelander never seems to be for Becca's sake. It's selfish, singly focused and possibly includes guilt and a sore ego.

It's also bigoted.

Superpowers or not supes are kind of minority coded like the X-Men. Think of them as an intersectional category like minorities that are rich or people with disabilities that need less support than people with more severe disabilities. Like sure, they'll like fair better in the current system but

The rich minority is still a minority.

The disabled person with less support needs is still disabled.

Vought (the elites) more or less run supes and they are assets. Many of them were injected with compound V as children by greedy or hopeful parents coerced by capitalism so it's a systemic issue.

It speaks to Butcher's character that Becca ran to Vought of all places and didn't tell her husband. He hates supes that much.

Homelander is then kept from that son like black men have been separated from their families, even after black men were no longer forcibly taken as away as slaves they were forced away by welfare policy that would only support black women if they weren't married. It was more feasible to never marry your man and tell welfare you were single because he didn't earn enough to take care of the family.

And likely Vought would have continued the cycle of violence with Ryan if Homelander had not found him. Vought wasn't gonna keep Becca and Ryan safe for free, I assure you.

4. He'll Never Be A "Real Man"

Homelander also occupies that "never quite a man" category that black men are put in. They're painted as dangerous and virile. They're "men" when they're a threat. Yet also belittled and never afforded real manhood. A "boy" when they're being looked down on. "Boy" is a touchy word for black men for this reason. It has as much history and hurt to them as more obvious slurs.

Homelander is lied to and belittled by Vought ofc. He's denied true manhood like them but is made to perform it to a cartoonish degree that I would argue he's actually not happy with. If Vought exists, he will never be free and will never live in genuine peace because his crimes will follow him. Ruling the world would be his only option and that would only "fix" so much.

They made sure he has no real tools or skills to actually run things effectively (he's confused during board meetings and doesn't understand shit). He was purposely made too intellectually incurious and emotionally stunted to truly learn (he deflects and gets angry). He's actually surprisingly inept in some ways. His only skill is that he's scary and dangerous.

High intelligence and manipulation are usually put down as his skills and like sure, he's far from dumb and he's really sneaky. Everyone around him is the most morally fucked liar to ever exist...but I'm gonna be real: his manipulation is not that impressive. Most of it is just intimidation. Folks don't wanna get lasered.

So, he substitutes this denied agency and lack applied skills with hyper violence, materialism, flashiness, cockiness, etc.

A "thug," basically.

"Thugs" are usually just young black men clamoring for real manhood in a world that will never give it to them so they sometimes turn to these things in disenfranchisement. Sometimes they become cops for the same reason.

5. "The Boys," as A Phrase Makes Me Think of Lynch Mobs

This one is pretty subjective so take it with salt as well.

"The boys" is harkening to calling for one's group. And due to Butcher's hard on for killing supes because of his hatred with his group it kind of puts me in the mind of posses of white men that would be informally gathered (sometimes even aided by law enforcement) to enact "retribution" on black men and boys "who have stepped out of line." See Emmet Till.

"Round up the boys, we're gonna hang us a..."

You know the rest.

If Butcher was fully depicted as the morally fucked protag he is in the comics this wouldn't bother me, thematically it would fit. But they hedge on Butcher's morality a little, making him less of a genuine bastard and more like someone with lapsed judgment or faculties who's the "lesser of two evils" so it's just uncomfortable.

Anyway, that's it. I'm just fascinated by the unintentional mirroring. This is likely why, even though Homelander is who he is, women, queer people and POC have a complex love/fascination for him. The only thing that makes him so hard to sympathize with is that his crimes are particularly abhorrent and physically he's more powerful than anyone else and a genuine threat.

I've never been so afraid to hit "Post" in my LIFE.

[tani-b-art]

When representation is just an illusion.

It isn’t anything new to see that a Black face (or a person of color) in high places doesn’t always mean things will instantly be better. Not with centuries and decades of benign neglect from prior years and administrations before that have trickle down effect in perpetual cycle. And issues cannot be fixed with just one person or just within a term or with just one admin in office. We know that.

We know the history of this country (don’t have to go thru racism 101+the party ideology switch). We know that often times when we do get individuals in positions of authority that can make decisions that do represent you, it isn’t a 100% problem solver. But getting people in positions that do represent you at times actually does help to alleviate problems and makes a difference. Should.

With that being said, this is why we push to elect people in offices that share experiences, culture and community with us because they often better understand us. Simply put: that’s why we vote for the Black candidate. That’s why we admonish one another as Black people to get a Black doctor, or to get a Black therapist or to make sure, if we really can, to send our kids to schools with Black teachers to be taught by Black teachers and to have Black police officers that have a good relationship with our communities. That’s why we look to each other to be that representation. Shared experiences make for better understanding. It should work out that way. We’ll actually get results in our favor because of the shared background and that politician understands and has empathy and will use their power for our betterment. We understand that it unfortunately doesn’t always work out this way.

However, when we don’t have those in positions that represent us and reflect us, we do run into opposition and racism and bias and prejudice and discrimination that is detrimental and at times fatal to us because they don’t understand us. And the ugly side to this is that sometimes, even with those people in these positions that look like us, they can operate in the same way as those who don’t share anything with us. The “skin folk ain’t kinfolk”.

Now, it’s even deeper. It’s coming down to specific Black lineage based faces in high places. Because just Black in general is not holding weight.

The Democratic Party isn’t getting this.

We’ve had long periods of time where city and higher officials were never Black and there was absolute neglect. Not only neglect but also total gutting of what progress was made by Black Americans. On local levels to larger.

So, many of us have voted with all this in mind. Policies and representation matters. We haven’t gotten anything from non-Black politicians—at one point, Black people were outright not allowed to even participate in any civic opportunities to run for these positions.

We know Trump won’t do anything specifically for Black Americans. We know as a collective, one party won’t do for us at all. We know that. And that’s why we’ve turned to the other party knowing at least things will be opposite. Knowing that at least this party has more people who look like us. More often in the Democratic Party, they will do for us.

Now, that we’re allowed to also be active in civic duties with being political figures and also as civilians, we can vote, all the representation is supposed to matter.

At least we thought.

We thought 8 years of our first President that was Black would completely usher in change in our benefit! We had centuries of never having someone who wasn’t white …so yeah, finally somebody is elected that is Black that will actually do for us because he is one of us.

And.that.never.happened.

Barack Obama’s parental display with Black men the other day, the overseer-like mentality — nothing new. The party that we’ve collectively supported for 6 decades (you can’t get more party loyalty from a group more than us) keeps bringing out Obama to be this sort of proverbial disciplinarian to condemn us to cycle this party loyalty. And it doesn’t work anymore. It won’t any longer. Maybe it held some weight in the last cycle. Maybe it still will. But if they keep practicing this to reach any of us they lost, best of luck with that. And if he calls one more fictional Black man Pookie…

But, it’s a new era of that possibly not working anymore. Or not being impactful. I mean it’s never been the smart thing to do ever. But public chastising is not going to recover the waning votes. The party may never get it back.

The scolding strategy…that’s no way ever to sway your constituents who are possibly still indecisive. Reprimanding and shaming is the perfect plan to further gulf anyone. To add, those same Black men were probably just around early teenage yrs back in 2010 and when Obama said things like “I can't pass laws that say I'm just helping black folks. I'm the president of the United States” in regards to being asked what can he do about the high Black unemployment rate, they probably heard those conversations their parents had about those very remarks and as grown men, they remember that.

Or when asked about reparations:

The same can be said for Harris when she was a Senator back in 2019 when asked about reparations:

[how much lift Black folk gotta be a part of?! programs galore and zero policy. then when anything is even mentioned for Black folk, the and others get slipped in]

Both of the Presidential hopefuls (at the time, Obama) share the same views on reparations for Black Americans. Just about verbatim too. The only two non-white true hopefuls felt/feel the same way. We remembered. In Obama’s case, we still did not let that deter us from voting for him to a second term. However, it just may not be Harris’ case altogether. Even if it was simply a play on “yes, I’ll support reparations” pre getting elected but won’t actually support it when in office. The thing is they both outright rejected reparative financial justice for us at every turn.

I also won’t go into Obama trying to make comparisons of Harris’ background to ours. But I’ll say this — Kamala Harris does not represent my Black Indigenous American mother or my Black Indigenous American aunties. She’s white Indian by her mother and has Jamaican roots from her father based on what she’s said (nationality does not equal a person’s race—so simply saying a Jamaican father does not mean Black. Jamaican is a nationality only). My momma and aunties ain’t ever put no darn collard greens in a bathtub to clean them! Harris and I don’t share the same background and that’s okay. We have an upbringing and relationship with this country that is verrry much different from Harris. My mom has never said “20 acres and a mule” because she’s well aware of the fight our ancestors fought for which was 40 acres and a mule. Going to HBCUs do not equate to Blackness. Sharing Black skin alone doesn’t mean we share lineage either (Obama is Black yes but not Black Indigenous American, his father was a Black Kenyan and he had a white American mother). Another topic. All of this is Neither here nor there. To put out that it’s sexism in play too is just low-bar but I digress.

Obama also doesn’t understand nor does the Democratic Party understand that sending him out to chastise Black people post his presidency is not a good plan. The terms of his presidency has/had no real impact on us except symbolism and pride. More could’ve been done but he chose not to. So deploying him to talk at us is ineffective.

Of course not every candidate meets every bullet point we personally have as far as their policies. They’ll meet in one area and then the next is absolutely not in favor with our morals and needs. Everyone makes consensus for the areas that don’t meet. And there can be one singular policy a candidate we don’t particularly favor has that meets what we want and that alone can be the deciding factor. And a candidates stance and policy on these can be the dealbreaker. Reparations, women’s reproductive rights, and immigration are some of those top areas Black Americans have at the forefront. Of the two of them, neither really have an edge over the other. And many Black Americans are becoming more vocal with immigration because it is an issue. Immigration has a negative impact on Black Americans and neither candidate wants to have sensible laws on it. One is in favor of allowing more immigrants while the other isn’t that all more favorable but wants a certain demographic of immigrants. And we see the benefits and assistance many immigrants are receiving without any need for task force and studies (further making Black Americans realize that we will get no support from Harris and Harris is looking out for those she does share background with as a 1st generation American-her representation). Women’s reproductive rights is really the only solid area in which they majorly differ.

Neither are on board for just a study on reparations for BAs — here is where the break is. Harris has outright said she won’t and of the two, we’d at least think she’d be in support of. She isn’t. It’s expected Trump won’t. He’s a white man with racist views that side with white terrorists groups & have supported those groups but Harris, you aren’t either of what he is so for her to be so opposed to reparations for BAs is turning alot of Black voters away. Not to say every voter they don’t gain or regain from Obama’s days still won’t vote Harris but this party is making it easier and easier to look elsewhere. Losing votes to the Green Party or independent candidates and making their republican opponents have an easier time will be on their hands if they continue to operate this same, stale way.

Donald Trump’s Project25 is absolutely terrible and will be! Having this response to some Black voters is a very legitimate reason to absolutely gain any voters who were unsure. When anyone hears Back voters say, “…that seems to be hyperbole” in response to “If Trump gets back in office, we’ll go back to Jim Crow”…this is why some Black Americans feel somewhat grey to it because:

Black Americans are still being lynched in ‘24, still facing discrimination in banks with receiving loans, being denied loans and given higher interest rate loans for being Black, our wealth gap continues to widen between all groups (we are projected to be at $0 for household median wealth in 2053), Black homelessness is the highest amongst any group, devaluing of our home’s value when on the market, Black women still facing racism in hospitals and dying in care simply giving birth, environmental/infrastructure racism (Flint still has the same water issue and other cities too), Black communities are situated in what’s called cancer alleys, mass incarceration, police killings, stop and frisk, more funding for police, higher criminalization on offenses that disproportionately impact Black people (the decriminalizing policy is a bit ironic in many ways when one party pushed for extremely strict punitive consequences on it decades ago), still faced with school closures for our kids & underfunding and lack of funding and lack of employment, unemployment and under employment, massacres of Black people continue, police brutality is steady, voter restrictions, the lack of Black home ownership and red lining and sooo much more. We aren’t going back to anything when these new-age Black codes really haven’t gone anywhere in the first place. Under this current administration—the prior one. Both Democratic and Republican. Neither have done anything.

But when the Democratic Party is looking like nothing will edge over the Republican Party, you will see voter abandonment from Black Americans. And the abandonment does not mean it’s for Trump. Because that man is absolutely not what Black Americans want…again. We didn’t want him the first go round.

There are other candidates from other parties — but as we all know, those non-bipartisan candidates aren’t making moves unfortunately so voting for them is almost a null and void at this point in time. It’s a ghost vote because if I vote for Cornel West or Jill Stein, it won’t have effective impact at all. You can’t even write down West on the ballot in some states. Voting non dem or non pub means just about nothing with our system right now. And then again, you will have many Black voters who will vote directly against the Democratic Party and vote for Trump—which is why Obama came out wagging his finger in the first place. Which is ironic how we have yet to see any videos of him visiting Indian American or Jamaican American communities doing the same. Communities that are part of Harris’ background. But of course, the parental rebuke is reserved for us only.

Choices. Black voters have our choice (to participate or to sit out) and the blue party has been making their choice too. The Democratic Party keeps taking their definite solid Black block for granted and are now are at risk for losing them.

Like the dems refuse to realize that their continued benign neglect is pushing the Black vote towards everyone else except them. This party is opening the door for a repeat Trump in the future. I say future Trumps because I doubt he’s winning this 2024 election (he hasn’t run on a thing different last election or pretty much nothing at all—the fact again that he even was in office will never cease to amaze me) but the republicans have created clones of him that we will dangerously see in the future. With him winning again or not.

This is only the beginning of struggling to keep the collective vote from the Black demographic. If the Democrats keep with this only show up and castigate when we need your vote, expect future election cycles to be just like this. If the plan in the future is that this particular party won’t need the Black vote and can get a loyal block elsewhere, then they’re doing a great job at setting this in motion with their alienation. They’ve had voter allegiance from Black Americans for so, so many years…entire generations of households have simply voted blue no matter who and now, it’s looking like that won’t be automatic anymore. The Democrats have been benign neglecting for so long that a whole opposing candidate with dictatorship on the brain is still making voters unsure of which of the two they want. The Dems should have an easy win against the Republicans based on so many things this year and it isn’t. That speaks volumes.

If Harris|Walz don’t win, the dems can take full accountability for it.

“The Democratic Party realizes that the Black vote is dwindling because the Democratic Party has not delivered for the Black community in the way that the Black community has delivered for the Democratic Party in terms of votes.”

and once Harris gets in office, Black Americans, leave her and her admin alone on the reparations issues. you don’t get to ask her anymore once you vote her in — she’s already made her stance on it plain. the sense of urgency being only within this week is something else.

[guilty-pleasures21]

hellO IT IS I! First off I'd like to start by saying hi! I love your writings; you are my favorite long story writer, and I want to STEAL your creative abilities. Reading one of your series rn actually :D

Just wanted to say that before I tell you: if you aren't taking requests or something in this makes you uncomfortable to just discard. OKAY NOW I HAVE AN IDEA

It's another Miguel fic where reader is also spidey. She's actually one of the more techy ones! Imagine engineer from tf2 but not necessarily Texan and can make things so advanced they nearly trump Miguel's devices, plus she has her own office/shop in the society where she makes stuff for other spideys. Reader can make almost anything with enough time and materials. The funky part is: she's really clumsy. Not like "oh no I dropped this stack of papers" clumsy. I mean ENGINEER CLUMSY. She'll hit her head on things, fall, get hit real bad in battle, eat a not-fully-cooked chicken sandwich, and every time she gets back up like it was nothing because she has high constitution. I'm talking slung across a room in battle, Miguel is screaming her name in concern, and she just. Gets up. And brushes dust off her spidey suit. Or she'll be up somewhere, fall from really high, die for a sec, then get up like nothing happened and go on normally.

Thank you for hearing me, I bow my head to you. Apologies if this was too long. Respect to your efforts, and have a good day/night!

AHHHHH!!! I don't know if you'd believe it, but this is my first Miguel request 🤩!! I don't get a lot of requests, so I'm really happy to take them! It gives me a chance to practise my creative writing skills and also a boost whenever I have writer's block (which happens A LOT as you can probably tell by how up and down my posting is 😅).

Thank you for the compliments! I always get a little worried my writings are too long sometimes, but it's nice to know that people enjoy them!

Okay, so I'm not familiar with TF2, but I did a quick search and I hope I've gotten the general vibe of what you were imagining 🥺!

The engineer

ATSV Miguel × clumsy techie fem!reader

Warnings: None.

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     She leaned over Miguel’s arm to sneak a peek at whatever he’d been working on beside her. “You know, if you re-wired this connection here and took these ones out completely, you could increase the charge while using less power.”

     He turned to her, an incredulous look on his face.  But she just smiled. 

     “Just try it,” she suggested calmly. “You can always change it back if it doesn’t work.”

     “Hmm.” She did have a point; he didn’t have anything to lose by giving it a go. He did as she said, taking out a few of the wires completely, then pulled the trigger on the taser. The end lit up with a spark stronger than it had ever done before and his eyes widened, impressed. “Wow. Good job, arañita.”

     She rolled her eyes, but kept the amused expression on her face. 

     “I’m not your mentee, Miguel.” She turned to face him, then gestured between the both of them. “We’re on the same level. Just say ‘thanks’. Don’t talk down to me like that.”

     She shrugged before returning her attention to her own gadget and Miguel raised his eyebrows: he’d only had people respond to him with anger, meeting him head to head and chastising him for what they perceived as his condescending tone. But she just corrected him like he simply hadn’t known any better. He turned back to his desk, suddenly keenly aware of her warm presence beside him, and the two settled back into their usual comfortable silence. 

     He walked into the cafeteria, unable to ignore his rumbling stomach any longer. But the lunch rush should have been over, so the area shouldn’t have been too crowded by then. His gaze landed on X, seated at a table with Ben, Jess and Peter, and his heart fluttered unexpectedly at the smile on her face. He pushed it down, not wanting to look into it, and walked over to the group. “What are we talking about?”

     She shifted over on her bench, giving Miguel enough space to squeeze in beside her, and her stomach flipped when she caught his now-familiar woodsy scent.  

     “X somehow ate a raw chicken sandwich yesterday and now she says she’s fine!” Ben ousted her immediately. 

     “It was undercooked!” X insisted. But her correction did nothing to ease the thoughts of salmonella that flooded Miguel’s mind. 

     “¡Arañita! You can’t do that! Why didn’t you just come here?!”

     X paused, caught off guard by the rare concern on his chiselled features. 

     “Oh. I was at work! But then I got to go home early.” She gave him a playful nudge, flashing him a conspiratorial smile, and Miguel felt his heart speed up again.

     “¡Arañita!” he scolded her, trying to maintain his hard expression. But she just continued to fix him with that adorable smile and all he found himself able to do was hang his head and sigh. “What are you having for dinner?”

     She twisted in her seat, swinging her leg over the bench to straddle it and face him fully. Miguel ignored the curious glances he noticed the others shooting them out of the corner of his eye and instead focused his attention on X. “Oh, I have some leftover pizza from … two nights ago? I think? So-”

     “You are not eating leftover pizza, X,” he warned her, folding his arms across his chest and scrunching his brows together in a serious expression. X felt her stomach tighten at the way his muscles pressed against his suit, then she glanced away, embarrassed.

     “Um, but …” What were they talking about again? Oh, right! Pizza! She lifted her gaze back to his. “But they’re serving cheeseburgers tonight!” 

     “But you always have your chicken patty,” Miguel pointed out, confused by her response. A few of the Spider’s had different food preferences to the others, so the kitchen staff always made sure to keep a stock of different ingredients.

     “They ran out,” X told him, hanging her head in disappointment.

     “Oh.” Miguel let his arms fall back to his sides, trying to come up with a solution to her predicament. “Well, we can … we can always go out … somewhere … with properly cooked food.” He crossed his arms again as he fixed her with a knowing look and her features broke into a smile. She hopped out of her seat, delighted, but remained standing by his side. 

     “Thanks, Miguel! I’ll meet you back here at seven!” She bent over to press a quick kiss to the side of his head, then ran off before he could process what had just happened. 

     “Uh, what just happened?” Ben asked when Miguel remained frozen in his seat, stunned into silence. Hobie’s lips curled into an amused smirk. 

     “I think boss-man here just asked X out,” he replied. “On a date.” He leaned forward in his seat, wiggling his brows to punctuate his point, and Miguel frowned. 

     “No, I …” He hadn’t asked her on a date. Had he? He’d never explicitly used the word, but … he had invited her to dinner. With him. Outside of work. Ay, mierda, had he just asked her out on a date? 

     Hobie laughed at how flustered the large man had become by the tiny little spider, then he started getting up from the table as well. 

     “Well, you might want to get yourself cleaned up first,” he suggested, nodding at Miguel’s scuffed up suit, the bruise on his cheekbone and the faint trail of stubble dotting his jaw. “I’m not sure if X is into the whole ‘I’ve been awake for the past seventy-two hours wrestling different lowlifes and creeps’ look.” Miguel huffed in irritation. 

     “She’s never-” ‘complained about it before’, was what he’d been about to say. But that would only make it sound like he cared what she thought about him - like he paid attention to what she thought about him. And then they’d only tease him even more about it being a date. He turned away from them, sniffing in offence. “It’s not a date.”

     Jess snickered at his petulant attitude, her features twisted into a knowing expression. 

     “Okay, but you still have to look presentable, right?” she pointed out. “You’re not just going to drag her to any random restaurant in your Spiderman suit, right? Especially if she’s going to be all nicely dressed up.” 

     His body heated up at the thought of her being ‘all nicely dressed up’. What would she wear? He’d never seen her in anything other than her Spidersuit before. But she had some really nice curves - curves he’d find his gaze lingering on for a little too long at times. He shook the thought away, pushing his feelings of excitement aside. 

     “Uh, yeah. Fine. Whatever.” He waved them off, then stood up, shifting in position hesitantly before he walked away. “Message me if you need anything.” He marched away before they could tease him anymore on the subject, but his stomach flipped at the thought of seeing her again later that night. 

     He walked into the workshop, searching for the small form of his- of X. 

     “¿Arañita?” he called into the room when he couldn’t find her. 

     “Workshop!” she yelled from under the table, not knowing whether or not he’d already guessed where she was. “Ugh, where’s my- Ow!” She stood up and rubbed her head where she’d hit it on the underside of the table. And ay, Dios, she looked so cute in her little black dress, her hair neatly done, her features prettily made up. She gave him a sheepish smile as she walked over to him and Miguel felt his heart beat a little faster at the sight. 

     “Sorry, I was just- Whoa!” Her eyes widened in fear as she slipped on her wrench - lying on the floor in front of her - but Miguel shot a web at her, catching her before she fell to the ground. He tugged her towards him, pulling her into his arms, then he huffed in irritation. 

     “Be careful, arañita!” he chastised her. “You’re always … You need to be more aware of your surroundings, X.”

     “Oh! I …” She trailed off, her mind going blank when she realised how close they were now. She took in his long, dark eyelashes, the flecks of gold in his copper-coloured irises, the tiny scar on his cupid’s bow. She swallowed hard as her gaze fixed itself on his lips and Miguel raised an eyebrow, confused by her silence. 

     “¿Arañita?”

     “Huh?” She dragged her eyes back up to his, but her expression remained distracted as she looked up at him. “Oh! Sorry, I …”

     She curled up against his chest, suddenly shy, and his heart sped up as he realised how close they were now: her slender fingers brushing against his chest, her soft curves wrapped up in his arms, her silky hair tickling his neck. He released his hold on her, his body heating up at the feeling of her pressed up against him. Then he turned his gaze away from hers, unconsciously rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “Uh … Are you ready to go?”

     “Oh!” X turned back towards her desk and reached for her handbag. “Let me get my- Hey! I’ve been looking for this!” She picked her drill up off the floor and gave it a little rev to check that it still worked. She smiled when it did, then proceeded to begin shoving the machine into her bag. 

     “What …?” Miguel reached over to take the drill from her and place it down on her desk. Then he fixed her with an exasperated look. “You don’t need a drill on a date, arañita.” He froze when he realised that he’d just referred to it as a ‘date’, but X just grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck. 

     “On the contrary, I think drilling is the perfect activity for a date, Miguel.” He sucked in a breath at her naughty suggestion, his fingers gripping her waist tightly, and she bit her lip at the feeling. 

     “Uh,” he stammered out, his voice hoarse from all the dirty thoughts running through his mind at the feeling of her brushing up against him again. “Let’s … I …”

     X snickered at his nervousness and stretched onto her toes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Let’s go, amor!” 

     She giggled at the word as she began making her way over to the door and Miguel felt his heart skip a beat as he followed after her. 

     “¡Arañita!” Miguel called to her, narrowly avoiding Doc Ock’s outstretched tentacle as he swung between the buildings. “Use your bubble gun thing!”

     “I’m trying, amor!” X yelled back, hitting her gadget from where she stood on a nearby balcony. “Ugh! I need …” She searched her surroundings, trying to find a tool she could use to un-jam the damn thing. Then she spotted the glint of a coin lying on the floor. She cheered at the sight, then swung off the balcony to go get it. But Doc Ock caught her just as she leapt off the edge, swinging his tentacle at her and smashing her into a wall. 

     “¡Arañita!” Miguel screamed, flying after her as she began falling to the ground. He caught her just before she hit the hard floor, then set her back down on her legs, wrapping her up tightly in his arms. “¡Querida! I told you to be more careful!” 

     X shook her head, disoriented by the hit. “I’ll … I’ll be more careful, Miguel. I need that coin!” 

     She pointed at the shimmering object and Miguel shot a web at it to pull it over them. X flashed him a sheepish smile as he handed it to her, vividly imagining the exasperated expression he was probably wearing beneath his mask right that second. “Oh, right.”

     “Hmm.” Miguel squeezed her hand before swinging himself back up into the air and slicing one of the villain’s tentacles off with the blades attached to his suit. X gulped at the way his lean body twirled and flew through the air, then she fixed her gun and took aim. 

     “Take that, you- What?!” She groaned as she found herself trapped in the mound of sticky bubbles that had shot out of the gun and right at her - she’d accidentally aimed it at herself instead. “Shit!” 

     Miguel turned to his girlfriend when he heard her screech of frustration, then he sighed and pressed a button on his watch. The bubbles slipped off her suit immediately, freeing her and leaving her in a confused state. 

     “What? How …?” 

     “I made some adjustments to your suit, cariño,” Miguel informed her, swinging over Doc Ock to slice off another of his tentacles. “Just as a precaution.”

     X gasped, horrified by the thought of someone messing with her stuff. “You what?! You touched my suit?!!”

     “Well, yeah!” Miguel responded quickly, not knowing what the big deal was - he’d touched her suit many times before already. And she’d never complained then. “I knew you'd somehow get yourself into a situation like this!”

     X huffed and folded her arms across her chest. What if he messed up all her codes? Or altered the layout of her suit in some way? What if she pressed a button to activate one of her gadgets and it did something else instead? Ugh! Now she'd have to go back and remake her entire suit! How inconsiderate of her boyfriend! Were boyfriends supposed to be this inconsiderate? Or was hers just especially nosy? “Now I'm gonna have to go back and remake my entire suit!”

     Miguel landed in front of her, his confusion obvious even through his mask. “What? Why?”

     “Because!” she exclaimed, aiming her gun at Doc Ock as he took another swing at her. “How do I know you didn't fiddle with one of my settings?!” She pressed the trigger and this time, she reached her intended target. Doc Ock twisted his neck around, trying to free his appendages from the mass of gelatinous goo. Miguel crossed his arms, amused by the cute little glare his girlfriend shot at him. 

     “Oh, you mean like how you always do with my stuff?” he pointed out. X’s jaw dropped at the accusation. 

     “W-What?” she stammered out. “I'm not ‘fiddling’! I'm ‘improving’ …” 

     She sniffed and gave a little pout, offended by his dismissal of her enhancing his gadgets as ‘fiddling’ with them. But could he be right? Was this how he felt whenever she started playing around with one of his gadgets? But that was just a gadget, not his entire suit! But maybe she hadn't been so considerate either. She bit her lip as she peeked up at him, picturing the smug smirk on his face. She sighed. “Fine. I'll stop-”

     “No,” Miguel interrupted her, making his way over to the struggling Doc Ock. “Don't even pretend like you aren't just gonna keep on messing with my stuff, arañita.”

     X narrowed her eyes at him and frowned as she followed behind. “You're so mean, Miguel.”

     He walked into the workshop just as his girlfriend handed one of the Peter’s back his web shooters. 

     “There! It should be as good as new. Better, even! But don’t tell Miguel.” She grinned mischievously and Miguel felt his heart flutter at the sight. Peter shot a few webs at the ceiling, testing out the repaired gadget, and his eyes widened with admiration. 

     “Whoa! That’s great! Thanks, X!”

     “No problem!” She waved at him as he left the room, then her features lit up when she saw Miguel walking over to her. She ran over to him and he swiftly webbed away a stray screwdriver before she could trip over it. He should really look into putting motion detectors on her tools or something - programme an alarm to go off every time she got too close to one of them. “¡Querido! ¿Qué tal, mi amor?”

     He wrapped her up in a hug as she slid her arms around his neck, then she pulled back slightly and stretched onto her toes to peck his lips. Miguel bent over, resting his forehead on hers, and narrowed his eyes. “Mmm. Better than mine, hmm?”

     His girlfriend giggled and Miguel’s lips stretched wider at the sound. He slid his hands down her back, stopping when he reached her ass, and X sank into his chest, leaning into his touch. 

     “Oh!” She straightened, suddenly remembering something. Miguel kept his hands glued to her waist as she bounced over to her desk and grabbed her tablet. 

     “So, I've been trying to be more aware of my surroundings - like you told me to?” She twisted around in his arms and glanced up from her tablet, a proud expression on her face. “And my accident rate has dropped by seventy six percent in the last three months!”

     Miguel grinned, not pointing out that that was the same amount of time that they’d been officially dating and that he’d gotten familiar enough with her quirks to anticipate her clumsiness. Instead, he tightened his grip around her, pulling her back into his chest so she had to crane her neck back to look up at him. “What about the other twenty four percent?”

     She laughed at the way he murmured it against her lips, his voice smooth and suggestive. Then she pressed her lips back to his and smiled. “No one can be completely free of accidents, Miguel. I'm only human. I'm not perfect.”

     “You're perfect to me, querida,” he retorted. X let out another soft giggle and stretched onto her toes to shower her boyfriend with soft kisses. 

     “And you to me, cariño.”

[mrs-stans]

Sebastian Stan’s Crash Course in Becoming Trump

After a long tour of duty in the Marvel universe, the Romanian-born actor is conquering the festival circuit, with starring roles in “The Apprentice” and “A Different Man.”

Illustration by João Fazenda

By Alex Barasch

The actor Sebastian Stan glanced approvingly at the neon signage and old-school menus at the Pearl Diner, in the financial district, the other day. He’s lived in and near New York since he was twelve—around the time Donald Trump swapped his first wife, Ivana, for Marla Maples—and has watched the city evolve. “It’s funny. It’s changed, but it’s also the same buildings,” he said. “And then you’re, like, ‘The buildings are there, but you are not the same.’ ”

Stan took off a white ball cap and ordered coffee with cream; he was jet-lagged, fresh from the Deauville American Film Festival, where he’d received the Hollywood Rising-Star Award. “Rising” is a stretch for the forty-two-year-old, who’s appeared in a dozen Marvel projects, but Stan has lately reached a different echelon. In May, he went to Cannes for “The Apprentice,” in which he plays seventies-era Trump. In Berlin, he’d won the Silver Bear, an award whose previous recipients include Denzel Washington and Paul Newman. “Everyone was, like, ‘Oh, the Silver Bear!’ ” Stan said. “Then you go back and you’re, like, ‘Do we know what the Silver Bear is in America?’ ”

The prize was for his role in “A Different Man,” Aaron Schimberg’s surreal black comedy, which nods to “Cyrano de Bergerac.” Stan stars as a man whose lifelong disfigurement is miraculously reversed; the shoot included a grisly three-and-a-half-hour session spent peeling off chunks of his face.

“The Apprentice” demanded a transformation of a different sort. At the diner, Stan pulled out his phone and swiped through an album labelled “DT physicality”—a hundred and thirty videos of Trump, which capture his tiniest gestures and his over-all mien. Marinating in Trump content was, Stan said cheerfully, “a psychotic experience.” He watched the clips so many times that when the director, Ali Abbasi, asked him to improvise in a scene about marketing Trump Tower, he could rattle off the stats: sixty-eight stories of marble in a peachy hue chosen by Ivana, because, as the real Trump put it in a promo, “people feel they look better in the pink.” (It turned out that he’d also memorized Trump’s lie: the tower is actually fifty-eight floors.)

Growing up in Communist Romania, Stan had just an hour of TV news each night; New Year’s Eve was an event because it meant twelve hours of programming. His instinct for mimicry—he had a habit of imitating family members and neighbors—was the earliest tell that he might be an actor. After he and his mother fled to Vienna, in 1989, Stan got his first credit, in a Michael Haneke film—an experience that nearly put him off show business. “I stood in line with, like, a thousand kids, for I don’t know how many hours—which I hated,” he said. “If I could fucking meet Haneke now, it would be amazing!”

When the family moved again, to America, he experienced pop-culture shock. He binged every movie he’d missed—from “Back to the Future” to “Ace Ventura”—in a pal’s basement. Another friend roped him into the school play. “My high school was really, really small, so I didn’t have a lot of competition,” Stan said. “They were, like, ‘Please be in the play!’ ” Soon he was playing Cyrano himself.

After stints on Broadway, and on “Gossip Girl,” Stan was scooped up by Marvel. “I’ve been lucky to play a character for fifteen years,” he said. The blockbuster paychecks freed him up to explore edgier material. “I, Tonya,” in which he played the ice-skater Tonya Harding’s dirtbag husband, was a turning point. “It allowed me to see that a good director will bring out more in you than you can,” Stan said. It was also his first time portraying a real person—a feat that he repeated in “Pam & Tommy,” as the Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, and now in “The Apprentice.”

“It’s like learning a piece of music,” Stan said, of nailing an impression. “You’ve got to start out slow—it requires practice. Suddenly, you’re getting it more. You’re still making mistakes—but you’re playing the music. You’re playing the music every day until you can do it in your sleep. That’s when the fun starts.” He sliced the air for emphasis, then caught himself and grinned. “And sometimes it’s months later at a diner, and you’re, like, ‘Why am I doing that with my hands?’ ”

[shego1142]

Okay so… I don’t really want to make this post, mostly because I feel like I’m always the one wearing tin foil hats on tumblr

But listen… I understand being upset and sad and afraid right now

But yall some of these posts are going beyond doomerism

Some of these posts

A lot of these posts, actually

Look quite a bit like demoralisation

So many of these posts I’ve seen look very much like purposeful targeted demoralisation

And I do hope everyone can understand very quickly how bad demoralising people right now is.

I do hope everyone can very quickly understand just how much people in power stand to gain from demoralising us.

I mean, you know, not that I’m saying that there’s a psyop taking place on the website that has routinely had multiple proven right wing/conservative/white supremacist psyops take place or anything

You know, that would be bonkers.

But all of these blogs out here saying that everything is hopeless and nothing will ever get better and we are all doomed and we should just tear each other apart and play the blame game?

That’s a little fishy.

Especially given that now more than ever is a time to stand with one another and hold on to hope and start organising together.

All of these blogs just blind faith accepting the election results as they are and not even considering any bad acting is at play? Just rolling over without any hint of a fight and implying that everyone else has to as well?

That’s a little fishy.

Especially given that:

The election results are not certified until December 25th and the House and Senate do have the power to object to the electoral college votes (especially if enough pressure is put on them to do so)

Especially given that it took a long time before we were sure who won in the last presidential race and it looked like Trump had won that first week back then too

Especially given that Kamala Harris’ Concession speech is not legally binding, and if it is found out between now and December 25th that she has won, then that will still be considered a legal win.

Especially given that many states, including battleground states, are already doing a recount and many more states are presumed to follow (So far Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada are recounting the ballots and Arizona and Texas are considering)

Especially given that there has already been proven minimal forms of tampering with the election process including multiple burnt absentee ballot boxes, bomb threats at polling places, as well as just plain human error whether malicious or benign.

So… you know… anyone posting on here saying that hope is dead and that we should all hate each other and everyone should just fuck off and stop caring about everything and stop supporting each other?

That seems a little bit fishy, doesn’t it?

That seems a little bit fucking sus, doesn’t it?!

Especially given that, even after all is said and done, even if he 100% did win and there’s no doubt that it’s legitimate

He’s still being sued for multiple charges and violations of conduct, he could still end up in jail

Especially since even if he doesn’t, even if he is sitting as acting president one January:

We have 2 and 1/2 months to mobilise

2 and 1/2 months to organise

Sure would be convenient for Trump and the 1% and the right wing pundits to make everyone feel like everything is hopeless and tragic and to pit leftist against democrats and what not

Sure would be useful to them if we were all just sad and hateful to each other these next coming months

Like I’ve seen many posts tying to do.

You can feel your feelings but if you start advocating for us to attack one another, for women to fight and hate leftist men who voted for Kamala, for black people to fight and hate other people of color, for leftists to hate democrats for not “going far enough” and for democrats to hate leftists for “going too far”

And all this bullshit in-fighting

I’m just going to assume you’re a bad actor and block you

This isn’t the time for the blame game, there’s no fucking one to blame other than Trump and most likely Elon Musk’s money.

Now isn’t the time to give a shit about why the election results are what they are.

Now is a time to stand together, united, to make our communities better, safer, sanctuaries.

Now is the time to talk to one another, to not strive for perfection but for safety.

Call your representatives

Get your passport

Print out as many copies of books (especially banned ones) as possible and fill your local little libraries with them, fill it with zines about community building too,

Check out these links:

Talk to the queers and the people of colour and the disabled people in your community

Book a meeting room in your local library

Talk to your librarians, talk to your teachers and health care workers

Talk to your local conservationists.

Don’t just talk to leftist spaces either, remember:

There is Power in Making Friends, Not Winning Battles - reach out to your community and find out what the real issues are, it’s very rarely actually just hate, it’s usually fear and poverty.

Do nice things for your community in the name of Queerness - in some places you can adopt a road and make it beautiful, so this with a group of queer friends and get a plaque that says “This Road Was Adopted by The Queer Community”

Get together with your minority friends and figure out how to open a soup kitchen (easiest than you think and registering as a non profit is actually a great way to stay safe for many reasons)

Have your community see you as a part of it, not a threat to it.

Speak at schools

Fundraiser for the library

If you’re included to do so, you could partner with different religious groups as well, especially since there are in fact religious groups that are inclusive and welcoming and supportive.

Make your community know that the “threat” of the “lgbtqia” is non-existent

Don’t make yourself less queer, less a person of colour, less disabled, etc, don’t fade into the background

Become a shining beacon of positivity and goodness that everyone in your community can see as an asset to the community.

Give back more than you e ever gotten.

I know how difficult that can be but trust me, it will be worth it. Work with the leaders in your community to lobby for more rights just in your town and then you can lobby for more rights in your state.

Just like how many states have now said that if Trump tries to do mass deportations they will stop him, work to create that solidarity within your own communities.

Do not sit quietly in fear doing and saying nothing but hopeless things for the next two months.

Do not let anyone convince you that it’s over.

Do not become another statistic.

[odinsblog]

Do not read this if you don’t want to hear straight talk.

Let’s get this straight up front: I am NOT a fan of Joe Biden. I don’t believe that he’s “the greatest most progressive president since FDR,” and I do not buy any of the other hype that DNC sycophants are selling. Biden has a lot of problems. On the border; and on immigration for Haitians and other non-white non-European immigrants; he fundamentally changed (for the worse) how and where asylum seekers can apply; he is absolutely positively deadass wrong on Israel, and he has even more issues than I’m willing to go into on this “short” post. A lot more.

That all said, I fucking hate Donald Trump and I do not want to see him in office again. Anything you can say about Biden you can say 100x worse about Trump. Everything gets worse with Trump. Everything.

If Democrats wanted another candidate, the 2020 primaries was the time for doing it. So now, less than four months before the election, we stick with the person who the DNC crammed down our throats when we very obviously had other viable options. It’s not only too late for changing horses midstream, but it’s just plain old stupid. Like the video said, what’s the fucking plan?

In contrast, look at how united Republicans are:

And all of those white nationalist, Christofascists are not only strongly united, they are all voting for Trump.

Meanwhile, Democrats are l i t e r a l l y out there using Trump’s biggest argument against Biden and arguing for a replacement as we approach the finish line. There is a reason the primaries are held so long before the general election - to give the public time to unite behind the candidate. Who is the public supposed to unite behind in less than 100 days? Because the Democrats can’t even agree on that all-important issue. Many DNC insiders don’t seem too keen on nominating a Black woman named Kamala Harris (and I’ve got issues with her too), but if not her, then who???

(SN: no, this isn’t the part where your favorite third or fourth party candidate with zero name recognition shows up and saves the day)

Not to mention, there’s a long ass list of legal challenges over who gets Biden’s war chest if he drops out now. Those challenges will not be resolved in 100 days.

So yeah, as far as I’m concerned the DNC didn’t listen to their base and stuck us with a clunker in 2020, and now they wanna get a new car? NO! What the hell happened to “be pragmatic”? What happened to “better than Trump”??

Look, I’ll wrap this up. I don’t like Biden very much. He IS too old and everyone knew he was too old in 2020, but right now, at this particular moment in time in this timeline, he’s what we got to beat Trump. And if Biden’s doctor pronounced him braindead and gave him five months to live, I’m exactly just petty enough to still vote for him anyway. My only motivation is to stop Trump, and if Biden is the last worst option for doing that, then so be it.

Finally, please try not to reblog this by adding, “Vote Blue”. That’s the annoyingly vapid rhetorical equivalent of saying, “shall not be infringed,” and it isn’t even an argument, it’s a slogan specifically tailored for people in your echo chamber who already agree with you — not something you would say if you wanted to convince people or to change their minds.

JFC, I can’t believe y’all really got me outchea actively advocating for Joe Biden.

[mama-qwerty]

Okay, I'm gonna get political here.

I've been seeing some alarming posts going around, in which people seem to think that Biden is somehow as bad as, or worse than, Trump. And a lot of the reasoning seems to come down to how he's dealing with Israel. He's not doing enough to stop Israel and is actively supporting them. Which, he has to, because the US is Israel's ally.

Is it ideal? Is it great? NO. It absolutely sucks, and we really should not be involved, and be doing more to stop them.

But that seems to be the single issue most people mention when talking about not voting for him. And my question to them is, do you seriously think Trump will handle it any better??

And let's put Palestine aside right now. I know it's terrible, I know it's my privilege to look away for a moment, but I implore you, I fucking BEG you to remember that the US president affects laws and policies here, which affects each and every American who lives here.

This post lists, in a convenient little checkbox format, what each candidate is for and against. As you can see, Trump will support Israel, too. Moreso than Biden. But he will also remove rights and destroy protections for countless other groups.

Both candidates are absolutely NOT THE SAME. Biden, while not perfect, has done a lot of good for the country, it's just not reported because negative things get more views than positive. He had A LOT of cleanup to do after Trump finally dragged his ass out of the White House. And he's done what he could.

I get that Biden isn't ideal. He's not who I would want, either. But he's the Democratic candidate, and we absolutely cannot afford to "send Washington a lesson" by abstaining or voting third party. We are a two party system, and with Trump on the ballot, we cannot, CAN FUCKING NOT afford to split our forces.

Every Republican will be out in droves, casting their vote for Trump. One vote for a third party candidate, is a vote for Trump. If you do not vote for Biden, you are essentially handing Trump the victory.

This country will not survive another Trump presidency.

I sincerely believe that. The damage he did the first time around was bad enough, when he didn't know what he was doing. But now? Now he's had 4 years to scheme and plot and work behind the scenes with his cronies so that when/if he gets back into office, he can go all in on gutting the government, stacking the Supreme Court, enacting whatever laws he likes, and simply declaring himself dictator and never leaving office again.

And the Republicans will help him.

Every one of those spineless bootlickers will be trailing behind him, nodding like a fucking bobblehead, agreeing with whatever asinine idea tumbles out of his third grade brain.

"For the good of the country," they'll cry, as they gut support for the poor.

"For the helpless little babies," they'll weep, eliminating health care services for women and removing any help for families.

"Make America Great Again," they'll chant as they send the military to drag children away from parents and lock them in cages because they dared come to the US--a country that was founded on the backs of immigrants--for a better life.

Republicans only care about keeping themselves rich and in power. They don't care about the poor. They don't care about women or minorities or LGBTQ+ rights. They don't care about YOU. They only care about themselves. They've proven it time and time again, yet they always try to convince their base that it's really the Democrats and radical Left who are the bad guys. Because they constantly want to *checks notes* make sure people are safe, healthy, and cared for.

And that's not the America the Republicans want.

I am begging all US voters to look past Palestine, for just a moment, and realize that choosing the wrong man in November will have very, very, VERY long lasting repercussions for this country. We can't afford to "send a message". We can't afford to simply not vote. We can't afford to throw out the old "they're all the same" line.

THEY'RE NOT.

Please, please, please. Think about the people who will be hurt under another Trump administration. Think of those who will lose their support, lose their aid, lose their protections. Think of those who can't protect themselves.

The only message we need to send to Washington this November is NOT TRUMP. NEVER TRUMP.

[lemedstudent2021]

4 years ago when the dumbfuck (biden) won, i was a first year university student, nodding along solemnly when my family briefly discussed foreign and internal politics over our tea, pleased to be finally old enough to somewhat contribute to adult conversations.

i still clearly remember my aunt saying "well, he isnt any better [than his predecessor] but at least he cant be worse". the conversation moved on from there, but my thoughts lingered. i didnt know if i wanted to be a cynic or an optimist, so i drank my tea in silence.

--

this past year has been one of the darkest in our human history, the scale of death and destruction and pure unadulterated depravity is unmatched. it will truly be long before the world can hope to recover from the atrocious damage that has been dealt, if it ever does.

i wont go into details mainly because i havent the time nor interest in doing so, but the world to no ones surprise is changing, fast and taking a turn for the worse. it has been for years perhaps even decades now. in the grand scheme of things i mean.

for many of us this is nothing new per se, merely a tangible extension of our worst nightmares and fears, but for many others its a reign of terror of the most potent kind. one that will herald further losses, but this time around very few will be spared.

--

despite myself i did think that common sense would prevail and wed see the the fucker (trump) behind bars and hopefully dead and not- as of writing- about to win another 4 wretched years in office.

theres a sort of grim satisfaction seeing the bitch (harris) getting a big fuck you to the face, but its devastating to think that she is losing has already lost? to the biggest fuck you to the planet. i truly dont want to imagine what the world is going to look like 4 years from now. if there is anything left of the world to look at.

--

there isnt much to say or add i think. nothing i can contribute at least for the time being. i would however like to point to what jon stewart bless his soul has to say about the matter

esp at 02:15

sounds hypocritical to say after having said nothing but the worst, but i mean it when i believe that this isnt the end. to give up now is to doom ourselves and the rest of the world (and perhaps the trajectory of humanity itself, whos to say) into eternal darkness.

ive said it many a time on this blog before and ill continue to say it for as long as there is life in me; power will always be with the people. weve seen it time and time again throught history and before our eyes. we are a force to be reckoned with.

we do hold the power to change the tides, look how many countries fought with everything they had for their freedom, how many times we arose from the ruins and started building anew and with just as much fervour, how much damage we can do to the institutions that dare to transgress.

war brings out the worst in some but the best in others. this is a war, one the corrupt wage on the sanctity of our lives and human rights, one were all on the front lines of, for ourselves and those around us.

--

as cliche as it is, and i admit to it being so, our chances honestly are better when we move and act as one. dont be fooled into thinking our differences will seperate us; those in power follow the age old rule of divide and conquer & thrive when we are scattered and lost.

show them that our spirit is one and whole, prove to them that we wont give into their unjust demands. look out for one another and dont hesitate to come to each others aid. be kind to yourselves.

humanity as a whole literally and metaphorically depends on it.

Godbless & Godspeed

[zealouscanonindeer]

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.

Book : Kali flame of samsara

Pairing: Ram Doobay x Devi Sharma

Warning: none

Rating: Teen

Flowers embroidered the high walls of the Doobay estate, clinging and spiralling down the pillars, gently swaying with the silent breeze as they hung in patterns from the arches. Delicious aromas invaded the senses the moment you walked though the stately double doors of the main entrance. The whole place was alive and buzzing with activity. the reason for this? Raj Doobay's upcoming wedding to Amrita Rai.

Yes, while the occasion wasn't the most joyous for certain parties all in all there were no real consequences,save the personal ones of this particular arrangement.

As the carriage halted,Devi hauled herself out , her body aching from the travel but she wouldn't miss it for the world. Amrita had, at one point been her closest, dearest friend, and although such was not the case anymore, she still cared about her and often times felt sorrow at her situation.

In that , it seemed Amrita had grown up faster than Devi. while devi still lingered onto notions of love and marriage coexisting , Amrita had long ago compartmentalised them, realising that what she wanted came at the price , a price she was willing to pay.

While their recent encounter had thrown both women off balance , it seemed devi had been once again reminded of the harsh reality. And now, this set up served to rub salt to a wound that in her estimation would never heal. She gathered her deep blue saree, pushing away the threatening emotions as she crossed the threshold. She was instantly hit by the social atmosphere. She was still taking it all in when a small body collided against her. She looked down to see Aditya Thakur staring up at her.

In recent times, he had accompanied Erit all the more often and back when Kairas was still managing the affairs of the sharma family, all the younger heirs would spend time together with nothing particular to do during the meetings.

"Where have you been? I don't see you at meetings anymore?" He questioned.

How could she explain this to him? She herself couldn't comprehend her own reality, much less put it across to a eight year old.

She rolled her eyes, putting on a silly expression and tickled the boy while saying " Uh.. Boring stuff keeps me away from all the fun you're having. "

The boy giggled, pulling her hand to lead her to a game of cards he was currently playing. As they neared the seating area, she saw his entertainer was none other than the younger Doobay.

Ram locked eyes with her, neither one ready to look away and end the moment. His attention was pulled away as Aditya made himself comfortable on Ram's lap.

"I'm on Ram's team this time. Devi, he always wins. " He informed her.

"Oh really? Let me see how he wins this time around. "

"Please take a seat Miss Sharma, let me serve you your defeat. " He teased as he began handing out the cards.

Both stared intently at their draw, eyeing each other, hoping the other would give something away. As the game progressed, Devi began realising she was on the losing side, not one to back away she came up with a better way to win.

She looked at Ram, fluttering her eyelashes before mouthing something to him. He arched his brow, smirking. Discarding his Trump cards in the next few rounds, he let assured victory pass him by.

"Looks like Miss Sharma has been paying more attention to cards than her business affairs. What exactly does Kamal mentor you for? "

"Behave yourself or people might back away from their promises."

"Not when they want it more than me. "

Devi glared at him with his self assured smirk as he consoled the Thakur heir who was dismayed at Ram's loss.

"You know, how about some other game? I heard saraswati is really bad at chaturanga. You'll most definitely win. " Devi suggested.

As the young boy scurried off to find her, both welcomed each other's company. Ram slowly got up, holding out his hand for her which she readily accepted as he led her away. Once they reached a secluded spot, he turned to face her.

"Tell me. "

"What? "

He only gazed at her knowingly before her carefully constructed walls broke away and she shuddered from the emotions.

"It's only that this whole wedding has been making me feel like this" She trailed off not knowing how to explain it to him, that she was wavering from what they both already knew. It was becoming increasingly hard to accept reality. " Unsteady. " She finished.

Ram nodded. "It's making you question things.... About us. "

"Yes and no. If anything it makes me want this more but suddenly hope grows in my heart.. I.. I'm scared. Ram, I can't help but wonder how this is going to end. "

"Badly."

"Don't say that. " She knew him to speak the truth but for just this once she wished he would lie to her, tell her it was possible that they could exist beyond the shadows. But Ram Doobay would never be one to do that, she recognized that.

He walked over to her as she sat in the window, kneeling down and resting both his hands on her knees.

"Devi, I will do everything in my power to make sure this does not end..."

Her heart hammered so rapidly against her chest. Had he just confessed to her the possibility of a future, did he wish for what she ached too?

She got up suddenly, pulling him up with her. Her insecurities and the anxiety in her heart subdued. While she still couldn't fathom either of them belonging to someone else, for now it seemed enough.

She cleared her throat, wrapping her arms around his neck before adding in sotto voce.

"Enough of all that now. I believe I made a promise I must keep. "

"Oh you must. "

Their lips met, his warm arms enveloping her as she pushed into him, wanting to be closer than ever. She continued her affections as her lips attached to his neck, moving up towards the angle of his jaw. He gave her an appreciative groan as she smirked in pride at eliciting these sounds from him.

Finally breaking away, they gathered themselves and made their respective timely exits to make sure no one noticed their absence.

From her balcony, Amrita Rai stared in disbelief at her childhood friend and the man keeping her company. She realised now why Devi seemed so in anguish to hold marriage apart from love. She had after all been done the kindness of receiving requited love. After months of stoicism, Amrita, in her solitude, felt tears roll down her cheeks.

She laughed in mirth at the goddess's will. Devi and her both ached desperately for what the other had but somehow,even in their pitiful state, they both had received exactly what they needed.

*******

I want to start a taglist so if anyone is interested pls let me know☺

[simply-ivanka]

Biden Gets the Chicago Treatment

Barack Obama, an old-fashioned ward boss, orchestrates the president’s removal.

By Rod R. Blagojevich

Wall Street Journal

Democracy took a devastating hit on Sunday when President Biden withdrew from the presidential race. Along the way, he got it wrong. It isn’t Donald Trump who is an existential threat to our democracy. It’s Barack Obama.

In the old-school way of Chicago backroom politics, Mr. Obama was the conductor of the band that successfully orchestrated the removal of the presidential candidate chosen by more than 14 million Democratic primary voters—to be replaced by someone he and the party bosses choose instead. It’s classic ward-boss tactics.

I’ve known Mr. Obama since 1995. We both grew up in Chicago politics. We understand how it works—with the bosses over the people. Mr. Obama learned the lessons well. And what he just did to Mr. Biden is what political bosses have been doing in Chicago since the 1871 fire—selections masquerading as elections.

Mr. Obama and I know this kind of Chicago politics better than anyone. We both rose up in it, and I was brought to ruin by it when the Illinois Legislature impeached and removed me from the governor’s office in 2009 for conversations initiated by Mr. Obama himself. A common element in my case and now Mr. Biden’s is Mr. Obama’s involvement. He’s the central figure who played a behind-the-scenes role in both stories.

While today’s Democratic bosses may look different from the old-time cigar-chomping guy with a pinky ring, they operate the same way: in the shadows of the backroom. Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the rich donors—the Hollywood and Silicon Valley elites—are the new bosses of today’s Democratic Party. They call the shots. The voters, most of them working people, are there to be lied to, manipulated and controlled.

All along, Mr. Biden and the Democratic politicians have been claiming that this year’s presidential race is about “saving democracy.” They are the biggest hypocrites in American political history.

The party that says it is running to save democracy has already deployed the criminal-justice system against the leading candidate of the opposition party. And now they have successfully maneuvered to dump their duly elected candidate for president.

Mr. Biden’s withdrawal proves something even more sinister. They’ve been lying to us the whole time. The president’s unfitness to run for re-election today didn’t just happen. The Democrats have been covering it up for a long time.

They hid him in the basement when he ran for president in 2020, and they got away with it because of the pandemic. But when Mr. Biden’s cognitive issues were exposed during June’s presidential debate, Mr. Obama and the Democratic bosses could no longer hide his condition. The jig was up, and Joe had to go.

The Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month will provide the perfect backdrop and place for Mr. Obama to finish the job and choose his candidate, not the voters’ candidate. Democracy, no. Chicago ward-boss politics, yes.

Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, served as governor of Illinois, 2003-09.

[rarepears]

Concubine Shen Jiu AU

I just really really want to read a time traveling AU where Shen Jiu decides that he’s going to be a concubine instead of going (back) to Cang Qiong and how better to hide than being a concubine of some rich lord who’s not allowed out of the house without being covered and guarded by a dozen guards?

It’s turns out that he really enjoys this kind of lifestyle. The rich lord he's caught himself for as a husband spoils and pampers him very well and he’s the only concubine in the estate. It also helps that he’s the only lover of the rich lord period. He doesn't have to content with any officials wives and his husband's parents are surprisingly open minded, like him, and seem to have no plans on pushing proper ladies onto his husband to marry??

Turns out that the husband he's caught himself? Well, husband's father is the younger brother of the reigning emperor... ahahaha so that's how Shen Jiu never realized or recognized his husband's true status. He just thought he married a rich, somewhat lazy, nobleman with just enough influence and power in the imperial government to make any cultivator hesitate to annoy. You know, just in case anyone else also time traveled and really want to drag him back to Cang Qiong cough Yue Qingyuan.

-o-o-o-o-

As delighted as Shen Yuan had been about his transmigration journey so far - such as the fact that he more or less kept his name. Well, mostly kept his name since it's now officially Long Shenyuan - which is cheesy as fuck that the Long surname represents the heavenly dragon. But! He can insist on all his friends and family to just call him Shenyuan. (In Chinese, to call someone by only their first name is a very intimate thing.)

He has no plans on marrying a proper lady because the emperor - his fucking paranoid son of a bitch of an uncle - still has no sons, only dozens of daughters, so just in case, it's better that he and his father avoid having children any time soon least people start having wrong ideas about overthrowing the current emperor for another branch of the family... especially one that already has sons.

Luckily, his parents are on the same page - they were the ones to push him to get a male concubine or two and project the image of a cutsleeve. His father once had two concubines but both concubines died in the plague that rocked through the imperial city a decade ago; no children or born from either concubines. Shen Yuan's mother, his father's official wife.

Shenyuan's mom: You should pretend to be an idiot who thinks with your dick and falls for a male beauty. Shen Yuan: Sure can do. Better to pretend to be gay than end up getting executed for trumped up charges of trying to usurp the throne.

Shen Yuan: picks up a beautiful male literally off the streets because he looks kind of like the Shen Qingqiu merch he had in his previous life Shen Yuan: starts sticking like a burr to his new concubine Shenyuan's mom: NOT LIKE THAT Shen Yuan: wat- Shenyuan's mom: wait, actually I like this guy. He's got more brains and political acumen than my son

And that's the meet-cute story of how future emperor Long Shenyuan picked up his future political advisor and male Empress.

[More in the #Shen Jiu time travels and decides to hide from cang qiong by becoming a concubine AU]

Edit: now up on AO3

[laura1633]

wait now i need to know what zak brown has said because im a certified zak brown hater...

on a side note- someone needs to take the max tit gif away from me. that gif is like 50 hours long and i can't take this anylonger. i am no better than a man. Charles is god's strongest warrior because how is he able to talk to max straight in the eye and not look down at his chest the entire time. i know i would.

It's so awkward for me because I would love to see Oscar get a race win to go with his sprint race win but I know that that will simultaneously make Zak happy and that hurts me 😂

I tend not to read a lot about Zak Brown so I don't know if he's been making more comments but I have heard him talking about how there are 6-7 other drivers who could win the championship in the RB20 and how he doesn't think Max would win the world championship in anything other than a Red Bull. I should say he did also state that Max was one of the best ever but I don't know why he couldn't just compliment him instead of giving him a compliment with one hand and taking it away with another. Maybe I am too sensitive over how people talk about Max but I am just so used to people downplaying what he has achieved. Also, Zak just annoys me - amongst a long list of other things he is talking about how Toxic Red Bull is whilst inviting Donald Trump into the garage to hang out.

But on a happier note - Max's tits 😂 - yes, all those men on the grid are strong because how are they not constantly talking to Max's chest. Maybe it's because he also has such beautiful eyes and a cute smile ??!