#and plus the other candidates have a chance to win!

[gottoosillyy]

now that gegg is no longer a option for the elections i think im gonna vote either: elquackity, etoiles, or forever

[sugarnspice630]

Mr. Mingi - Mingi

“You poor thing. I would feel sorry for you, but I don’t really. You did this to yourself, remember?”

•pairing: wonka!mingi x fem!reader (ft. Hongjoong & Yunho)

•word count: 3.3k

•tags: aphrodisiac gum, mingi wonka, exhibitionism, slutty reader, horny hongjoong and yunho, pretty much follows the plot of charlie and the chocolate factory-iykyk...did I miss anything? probably

Summary: You're invited to Mr. Mingi's factory for the grand tour of the building and while you're exploring, he decides to test you and it ends with a good, not so good, consequence.

A/N: A long time in the making, but it's finally here. I gave up on the smut part and just decided to drop this fic cause I wanted to move on from it. If anyone wants to continue the smut for me, please feel free to do so, just make sure you tag me in the results. Please be sure to drop a like, reblog if you enjoyed it, and comment your favorite part! Happy reading!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆───

You were the lucky winner! You won the chance to tour Mr. Mingi’s famous candy factory. It had been a lifelong dream of yours and now it was finally your chance. Of course you weren’t the only winner; there were 7 other winners as well, making you the 8th winner, and the last person to have been announced as the winner too. It was public news that the lucky candidates got to tour his factory. You were beyond excited. You started to prepare everything you needed the week before the big day.

The day finally arrived and you showed up in the cutest outfit. Planned carefully and to taste, cause you knew how Mr. Mingi liked it. Plus being the only woman to win the prize, you had to stand out to him. Yes, you thought this crazed candy maker was attractive and the hopes of getting his attention thrilled you to death. You stood before the gates along with the other winners. Greeting and congratulating each other while you waited for Mr. Mingi to make his appearance. Their names respectively in the order you met them: Seonghwa, Jongho, Wooyoung, Yunho, Hongjoong, Yeosang, and San. The news broadcasters came by and interviewed you really quick for national TV. You made sure to put your charm on for the camera so you left a good impression on the people. The crowd starts cheering and you see the gates opening up. A huge smile plastered on your face as Mr. Mingi makes his way down the giant walkway to come greet you all before letting you into his factory. 

Mingi makes it to the gates you are standing near, his charm is undeniable. He gives his big introduction speech before making his way down the line to personally greet each of the winners. You were standing at the very end of the line. Anxiously waiting your turn and watching Mr. Mingi with the biggest of heart eyes. It’s finally your turn and he glides over to where you are standing. Glancing at you up and down really quick then reaching for your hand. He takes your hand in his, bows down slightly, still making eye contact with you and brings your hand towards his mouth.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss. Y/N. You look exceptionally good my darling.” He coos under his breath before gently kissing the top of your hand and letting it gently fall back to your side. You were stunned that the Mr. Mingi just kissed your hand and basically called you hot. You were certain you were blushing like crazy, but you smiled softly at him in return and thanked him for this amazing opportunity. He returned your smile before making his way back to the center of the group to continue his speech before letting you in.

–

The tour had been going on for a while now. Somehow you had lost some of the other winners along the way and there were about 3 of you left, including you. You’re not sure where they ended up, selfishly, they were the least of your worries right now. You were only focused on winning Mr. Mingi over, so you promised yourself to be on your best behavior the entire trip. The remaining winners were Hongjoong and Yunho. You had made your way into a room that was very spacious and had a bunch of different huge machines with bubbling liquid in the top. All the machines had a different color liquid.

“Mr. Mingi, I have a question.” You spoke up, curious about all the different colors and what they meant.

“Yes Y/N! Go right ahead.” He responded in a chipper voice and turned to face you, resting his hands on his cane in front of him. Distracted by your perverted thoughts on what he could do with the cane to you and the way he looked with the leather vest, accentuating every small detail about his chest and upper body. You snapped yourself out of your thoughts after you heard him clear his throat, clearly aware of your daydreaming.

“S-sorry! Got distracted. Um, what do the different colors in the machines do?”

“No worries for the distraction; it’s quite easy to get lost in a place like this. So as you can see, these machines all have a different color in them. These different colors all represent an emotion that humans can feel. For example, blue is obviously sadness, yellow represents happiness, and red is for anger.” He gestures to the different machines with the corresponding color with his cane. “I’m working on a new prototype actually! It’s a type of gum that can help humans feel emotions. There are a lot of people that have trouble expressing themselves in a way that is easier for others to understand, so with the help of this new invention, we can make the world a better place!” 

You were swooned by the enthusiasm in his voice. You could tell he deeply loved his craft and poured his heart and soul into everything he did. Oftentimes you find yourself unable to express how you were feeling, or just did not know how to feel a certain emotion, so this invention truly could help people like you, or even those who might unfortunately feel sad all the time, they can use the happiness emotion and their troubles will be lifted away. You caught yourself smiling like a fool at him and had to snap yourself out of it. 

“Feel free to look around and check out how it’s made!” He waved his arm towards the crowd and then towards the machines, allowing you to disperse. Hongjoong and Yunho took off in a hurry to examine the machines. You, on the other hand, took your time examining the room and all the different shades of colors. Not knowing what each color means or what they represent. Soon the sound of a machine roaring filled your ears and you turned around to see the machine that was behind you was starting to make something. You quickly walked over to it to watch it do its thing. The machine was roaring and shooting out steam as you watched the arm at the front swing out and dispense what looked like normal chewing gum, with a slight pinkish hue. You walked to the front of the machine and picked out the piece it just dispensed. Watching so intently, you almost didn’t notice that Mr. Mingi had walked over to where you were.

“I wouldn’t try that one if I were you” He said from behind you, causing you to jump slightly as you were not expecting him to be there.

“Why? You said we could check things out. What’s so bad about it?”

“Well, you can try it, just maybe not here right now.”

“Just tell me what it is then.” You couldn’t help the defensive nature coming out of you, but you truly just wanted to have it your way. You knew Mr. Mingi would not approve of this behavior, but curiosity was eating at you, and now that he told you not to, you wanted to. 

“See if you can figure it out, since you seem to be so smart. Don’t let me stop you.” His stone cold expression brought a chill to your spine, and you thought maybe you should lighten up on the bratty act, but you couldn’t help it. You felt yourself blush, slightly intimidated by how he was looking at you. Curiosity eventually took over and you popped the piece of gum into your mouth. You chewed it carefully, really trying to take in the flavor profile and decipher what this emotion or feeling was. He playfully hummed as he leaned closer to you and tilted his head to the side, staring deep into your eyes and with a soft smirk. You wanted to show up Mr. Mingi and get this right for him. He was watching you intently, monitoring your mouth as it moved around, then glancing up to your eyes to see if you had any idea.

“It might take a while to truly take effect. You’ll feel it, trust me,” He placed his hand on your shoulder and gave it a soft rub before leaning into your ear and whispering, “and I’m not responsible for the consequences.” He took his hand off your shoulder and left to go find the others. You shot him a confused look while you were still chewing. This gum had you all kinds of confused. There was nothing happening and you were feeling no change. Forgetting for a second, it was a prototype, so there could be some minor kinks he still had to work out.

“Alright dreamers, let’s move onto the next room!” Mr. Mingi had shouted from across the room and was near the next door to continue the tour. You made your way over to the door with the others, still feeling no effect from the piece of gum. Hongjoong took notice of your mouth moving up and down and shot you a surprise look.

“Ya, Y/N did you steal that?” He whispered towards you to not let Yunho hear.

“No! Mr. Mingi let me have it..sorta.” You whispered back to Hongjoong as you continued walking to the next place.

“He sorta let you have it?”

“I was watching the machine make it and he told me not to try it, but I was curious so I did it anyway. He told me to try to figure out what it does, but to be honest, it’s not really doing anything.”

“Hm, interesting. Seems to be a dud product anyway.” He softly giggled at the failure of this invention. You giggled back to not be rude, but you had hopes in it. Mr. Mingi was a crazy genius, but still a genius.

As you started to make your way towards the next room, your body started to feel extremely hot. You felt like you were sweating and your skin looked red. You assumed that it was just the hallway you all happened to be in, but when you looked around at the others, they seemed to not be bothered. You tried to dismiss the feeling, but the temperature only seemed to increase. Eventually you had to take your jacket off. It made your outfit, but at this point you would rather be comfortable than suffering. Thankfully you had a tank top underneath your jacket to cover you up. When you looked down to tie your jacket around your waist, you noticed that your nipples were protruding through your bra and the tank top. Embarrassed at the discovery because you were hot and not cold, so why were your nipples erect? In between your legs felt weak and wet. You figured it was the sweat from your body being so warm. Your heart was racing and you could hardly focus. As Mr. Mingi was talking about the next room, your brain was filled with all these dirty thoughts of him. How hot it would be if you were underneath him, begging him to please you, then he would take you by the hips and thrust himself inside of you.

“Y/N, you okay?” You were snapped out of your thoughts by Yunho’s voice calling out to you. You looked over at him quickly and tried to pass off that you were thinking perverse things.

“Huh? Y-yeah I’m fine w-why?” You bit your lip softly on the inside, the effect Yunho’s raspy voice had on you suddenly driving you insane.

“Um…well you’re uh-“ He cut his own sentence off and directed his attention towards your legs. 

You looked down at yourself and found your legs were crossed and you were rubbing them together, unknowingly. There was a small wet patch right in your crotch seeping through the front of your pants. Your face immediately got red and embarrassed was an understatement. Did you just piss yourself? Absolutely not! That would be humiliating to do in front of these people, especially Mr. Mingi. After looking down at yourself and using your hand to cover the wet patch, you looked up at Mr. Mingi and he was just smirking at you. His head tilted back and to the side, gazing at you through hooded eyes. His hands resting on his cane in front of him yet again, driving you up the wall. 

“Y/N, what’s going on with you?” Hongjoong asked you as he walked over to you and placed the back of his hand on your forehead.

“N-no don’t-.“ As Hongjoong touched your forehead, you let out a small whimper. Your body was aching for someone to touch you. Hongjoong was shocked at your whimper and backed away softly from you. You tilted your head down in embarrassment.

“Well Y/N..have you figured it out yet?” Mr. Mingi called out to you in a deep tone, directing your attention to him yet again. His voice made you whimper again, feeling small at the way he was gazing towards you.

“Mr. Mingi, what did you give her?” Hongjoong looked at him confused and also worried for your well being. 

“Well my dear friends, the particular piece of gum that Y/N decided to selfishly take from my machine, was a special kind of gum.” He paused his sentence, really letting the humiliation set in that you decided to be a brat and do whatever you wanted instead of listening to him. “If you took notice of the color of the machine, you’d notice it was pink. You may ask yourself, what does the pink mean? Well my curious folks, the pink color is meant to represent sexual urges. That particular gum was mixed with aphrodisiacs.” Mr. Mingi finished this sentence with the cockiest smile on his face. You felt like you were going to explode. Your body is aching in ways it’s never ached before. The wetness is still pooling in between your legs. Your breasts felt extremely taut and full.

“Mr. Mingi, what is an aphrodisi- whatever you said?” Yunho questioned since Hongjoong was preoccupied looking at you.

“Hm, uncultured are we? That’s alright. An aphrodisiac is a substance alleged to increase libido, which is your sexual drive. Quite interesting isn’t it?” Mr. Mingi took this opportunity to walk over to you and get right into your face. You were beyond humiliated but incredibly turned on. He stared down at you with the same shit-eating grin. “You just couldn’t listen could you? I told you not to, and now look at you, so pathetic and miserable.”

“Mr-Mr. Mingi.”  You whine out to him, desperation in your voice. He made his way around you stopping at your back, placing his hands gently on your shoulders and leaning down.

“You poor thing. I would feel sorry for you, but I don’t really. You did this to yourself, remember?” As he said this, he traced the bottom of your chin with his finger and held onto your face softly. You were afraid to make any more explicit noise in front of the other guys, but the way Mingi was touching you mixed with the aphrodisiac just made it incredibly difficult. You whimpered as you leaned your head back into his shoulder, showing off your neck to him. He glanced down at you and the sight before him was truly an amazing one. You were practically panting against him, your face flushed red and your pupils dilated fully.

“This must be taken care of at once. Otherwise the side effects are just going to get…much worse.” Mingi turned towards the others, which were staring at you in shock. They seemed to also be interested in the soft sounds you were making as you noticed Hongjoong was biting his lip and holding his hands in front of himself, presumably to cover his hard on. Yunho’s face was flushed red and his eyes were glued on your form. You were still wiggling around in Mingi’s grasp, rubbing your thighs together to create friction and gasping for air in between the moans you were letting out.

“M-Mingi, p-please help me.” You exhaust gripping onto him for dear life.

“Begging for me to help you? In front of everyone? Are you that desperate?”

“Mmmhh, please!” You cry out, the pressure in your stomach building more and more. Mingi looked at you for a few seconds before returning a smirk back at you.

“Fine, but they only get to watch.”

With a snap of his fingers, his helpers appeared out of nowhere. You had hardly seen them the whole trip and now suddenly, a bed was wheeled out towards where you and Mr. Mingi were standing. Hongjoong and Yunho had chairs that appeared behind them that when they sat down, it strapped their legs and arms to the chair so they couldn’t move.

“H-hey! What the-?” Hongjoong exclaimed loudly, confused as to what was happening right now.

“Sorry my friends, just a precautionary measure so that I can take care of Y/N myself. After all, this is my experiment, so I would know the best ways to fix it~.” 

You heard one of the males mutter curses under their breath. Your eyes were only focused on Mingi. Mingi gave his cane to one of the helpers at his side and directed his full attention towards you. He started to walk slowly towards you and you backed away from him. Eventually bumping into the bed that was placed behind you and Mingi cornered you at the edge. 

“Get on it.” Mingi commanded and you quickly obeyed. You raised yourself up onto the bed, sitting on the edge and Mingi towered over top of you. He was much taller in real life than you had expected. You crawled backwards onto the bed and Mingi only followed you further onto it, crawling towards you as well. The two of you kept eye contact the whole time. Your heart was racing and you couldn’t tell if it was from the drug, or from the fact that Mr. Mingi was on top of you, getting ready to punish you. “You poor thing. You so desperately need to be relieved, don’t you?”

“P-Please-.” You whimper out, but you’re not sure what you’re begging for.

“I’ll take care of you darling, just relax for me~.” He took one hand and tenderly rubbed your cheek. You couldn’t see your face, but you knew you were looking up at Mingi with your pupils fully dilated. Biting the inside of your lip as he took his hand that was on your face and trailed it down to the tank top you had on. He slowly pulled the neckline of your tank top down, revealing your dainty bra you put on for the day. “Did you seriously dress up like a whore for this on purpose?”

“N-No I-.” You stuttered out, the effect of the aphrodisiac almost being too much to handle at this point.

“Don’t fucking lie to me Y/N. I know you wanted me the moment you walked into this building today.��� His big hand pulled the rest of your tank top off your body and snapped your bra clasp apart, letting your boobs fall free. “To be honest, I’ve been wanting a taste of you myself~.” He leaned down into your neck and softly nipped and kissed at the skin there. You moaned out at the sensation and wrapped your legs around his waist. Tilting your head to the side, forgetting about the two other people that were in the room, but the look on their faces was unforgettable. Their flushed faces, the way they were biting their lips, their poor bodies begging to be free so they could take care of their problem downstairs. You felt this hand grab your face and push it back.

“Are you seriously staring at them when I’m right here making you feel this good?”

“S-sorry Mr. Mingi- I-I won’t-.” Your words were cut off by Mingi shoving his hand down your bottoms and roughly inserting two fingers into your core. “Holy fuck!” You cried out.

“Now I got your attention.

Tags: @pre1ttyies@isiloiale@moongoddess1982@xuchiya@myloveforyunho @ywtfvs @meowmeeps @tinyelfperson @httpseungmxn @acupoftaewithsomesuga @tiredlittlevirgo @no1likevie @arki-sha @yeosangsbbg @skzooluvr @beabatiny @fireseo @peechypeach @lemon-sage17 @londonbridges01 @fixon-ash @strawlix @winklehwa @fancyglam24

[celestie0]

gojo satoru x reader | college au [18+]

kickoff ch. 4 a day in the life of a hot soccer player

ᰔ pairing. college au - soccer player! gojo x film major! reader

ᰔ summary. gojo satoru is the most popular guy on your college campus. he's tall, funny, hot, not to mention he's the most talented soccer forward the school has seen in years. but he's also a frat dude, which puts him in a world very different from your own, as he spends most of his nights partying & drinking while you spend most of yours working on your annoying film major assignments. but when he reaches out to you for a favor, you realize that helping him out might have something in it for you too.

ᰔ warnings/tags. 18+, fem reader, fluff, angst, smut, college au, fraternities, sororities, partying, drinking/alcohol, mentions of weed, romance, jealousy, pining, slow burn, opposites to lovers, friends to lovers, she falls first he falls harder, gojo being an idiot

ᰔ chapter. 4/x (probably 12)

ᰔ words. 3.4k

a/n. yay for gojo pov chapter! i originally tried writing this from reader's pov but it wasn't really working for some reason so i switched it up.

nav. masterlist

☾·̩͙꙳ moodboard no.1

♬.*ﾟplaylist

Gojo Satoru was never really the type of guy to be serious to just one woman. He had a sort of rotation of women that he'd go through every couple of weeks. Now wait, before you think he's an asshole, he once tried to have a serious girlfriend in college. But he quickly realized that it's really difficult to coordinate down time. When he's taking an exam, she's calling to ask if he's free. When he's off practice, she's got work. Once a week ended up being all he could really see her. And for a guy with a sex drive as high as his, that just wasn't enough. But having multiple women meant more chances of at least one of their schedules lining up with when he’s free, and bam, he was getting laid on a consistent basis. Okay, now you can think he's an asshole. 

He knew he was a bit of a slut, a manwhore, a player, whatever the girls in his Instagram comments liked to tease him about. But it felt good to be those things because for some weird reason it gave him confidence. It was just a stupid, primal, egotistic, caveman feeling that's probably carved into the DNA of every man out there. He can't help it.

Turns out he just really likes it when people rely on him. He likes it when his teammates entrust him with the winning goal during the final moments of a match, he likes it when women put their pleasure at his mercy during sex, and something within his stupid, primal, egotistic, caveman mind really liked it when you had that intent spark in your eye asking him to help you achieve something for your dreams. 

Gojo lay in his bed, ankles crossed and rested up on a pile of folded laundry at the end of the bed. One of his hands was tucked behind his head that was resting on a couple of pillows, and his other hand was scrolling through his phone.

This weekend’s party was a bit more exclusive with each member of the frat only getting two invites for the list. There were restricted parties like this in the past, and Gojo very rarely used his plus-ones/twos. Most of his friends were already from the frat, and most of the hot sorority girls would be invited by other dudes anyways. But this time, he was considering inviting you.

His mind wanders to that first night he met you at that party. You looked slightly different in person compared to your photos, a bit edgier than the soft persona captured by the candids on your social media that your friends took of you. Gojo scoffs at himself when he remembers how worked up he got over the belief that this random girl he Instagram DM’d was insinuating she would be down to fuck that night, some arrangement where he shows her a damn good time as a reward for bringing her roommate to his friend. It was a pretty sexy scenario in his head. Despite the hindsight he has now, for Gojo that kind of thing wasn’t an insane thing to assume. Excuse him for sounding a bit arrogant, but women tended to blatantly throw themselves at him pretty much everywhere he went. And besides, you were cute, so maybe a part of it was just his wishful thinking, too. 

You were like a deer in headlights at that party. He watched as you looked around the room at one point in the night, searching for something before you disappeared into a hallway. When he finally had you alone to himself in the kitchen, and he realized all you wanted to drink all night was water, the prospect of a casual hookup seemed to be slipping further and further away from his grasp. 

But his chest filled with a different, unfamiliar feeling when you mentioned what you really wanted from him, and he’s been chasing that feeling ever since. 

Right now, he just wanted to see you again. He hated how you seemed to just abruptly leave any time the two of you were together, which has only been twice so far, but still. He wanted to see you in something that wasn’t just a plain t-shirt and jeans (although that was definitely his favorite clothing on a woman most of the time). He wanted to know what you were like when you were a little bit tipsy, maybe even a little bit drunk. Were you talkative? Emotional? Touchy? Flirty? 

Gojo’s thumb hovers over the Instagram chat that had your name on it. He should really just ask you for your number at this point. 

When Gojo clicked on the chat and used it to go to your profile, he noticed you posted some more photos. Just a slideshow of your life recently. Some pictures of flowers you spotted on what looked like a bike ride judging from the shadow, a cake you baked recently for a friend’s birthday, a snapshot of a cat running away in an alleyway. The last picture was a black and white photo looking through a soccer goal net towards a tree in the distance, and Gojo quickly recognized it as the one on UTokyo’s practice field. 

His thumb double taps the post and then he’s back to the page with your messages. He had reached out to you again after Monday's practice saying that the team was doing another practice match on Thursday, which was yesterday, but you mentioned you were busy working on something for a club you’re in.

An iMessage notification pops up at the top of his phone from one of his frat brothers. 

|| 3:12pm ryota the GOATa: gotta finish sending out qr codes. you got the names/insta handles for your invites tonight? or you just not gonna invite anyone like usual? 

He sighs, wondering what to do, when he ultimately decides against inviting you. You were probably busy with something anyways, and he didn't want to experience the disappointment of you saying you can't come if he does ask, fearing that there might be a reason that didn’t have anything to do with an accumulating pile of class assignments. It’s a bit of a cop out, he knows that, but whatever. You very clearly told him that the two of you weren’t friends.

He types out a message that reads yea my homie @ThePope, pls. Also, your mom to which Ryota replies fuck off.

Even though there was no practice today, Gojo felt like he just needed to get out of the house for a bit. There were too many thoughts in his head, most of them about you, and he didn’t like it. He wants to be smooth-brained Gojo that just thinks about soccer and partying. He slides his legs over to the edge of his bed and sits up, inhaling and exhaling harshly, before standing up in resolution and heading to his closet. He pulls his soft cotton t-shirt over his head in favor of an athletic long sleeve and pulls on a pair of sweatpants over his SpongeBob boxer briefs (don’t make fun of him, please). 

When Gojo opens his door, he’s hit with the smell of food cooking and with the noise of two of his roommates, probably Sota and Hide, yelling profanities with video game sound effects in the background. He walks downstairs, pushing his left arm through the sleeve of his shirt.

“Hey, where are you going? We don’t have practice today,” Geto asks from the kitchen as he flips his quesadilla on the pan, spilling a bunch of its contents everywhere. “Shit.” 

“I know we don’t,” Gojo says, tilting his neck from side to side to loosen it up. “Just going for a run.” He extends his right arm across his chest, holding it in a stretch, and grunts a little. 

“Ah, yes, our star player,” Geto muses as he wipes the counter down.

Gojo twists his torso to stretch out his back and releases a slow exhale from how good it felt. “Gotta keep that stamina up,” he says, “for more reasons than one.”

Geto lets out an annoyed sigh from where he’s washing his hands at the sink. They both watch Hide almost chuck his controller at the TV before Sota stops him. By the entryway, Gojo slips on his running shoes and puts his airpods in his ears, then he’s out the door. 

The weather is nice. It’s pretty sunny, a bit hotter than Gojo was expecting, but he wanted to work up a sweat anyways. He taps at his smartwatch and realizes his running app isn’t working, so he shrugs and just decides to guess what running six miles feels like.

As he’s running, his mind wanders to you again. The last time he saw you out on the field, you had a strange expression on your face. It seemed like you were in a rush to leave, which is fine, but it was like you refused to make eye contact with him. Was it something he said? Or something he did? It probably was, he had a habit of fucking things up with people sometimes, but he doesn’t really know what he could’ve done for you to avoid him. Your messages back to him have been pretty curt and weirdly polite, too. 

Somewhere lost in his thoughts, six miles turns into twelve and he’s drenched in sweat by the time he makes it back to the house at around 6PM. Taking two steps at a time up the stairs, he gets into the shower and gets himself fresh, then throws on a black t-shirt, some black joggers, and non-cartoon-related underwear.

He finally checks his phone for the first time after coming home from his run and sees a bunch of new DMs and messages but none were from you. And the fact that he was still thinking about you after running nearly half a marathon had him annoyed. Which is why he’s grateful for the party tonight. Alcohol and sex typically made most things better. 

When Gojo runs into Geto in the loft and asks him about his plans tonight, Geto says he’s got an essay to write so he’ll leave for the house party probably closer to midnight. Gojo calls Nanami, who says he’s not going until Geto gets there because until then there would be no one to buffer Gojo’s fucking idiocracy throughout the night (his exact words). Apparently, Chosou’s still sick with food poisoning. When he checks with Hide and Sota, they say they’re going to go but only after pregaming at a sorority party, which Gojo has no patience for. Todo says he’ll be there from dusk ‘til dawn, of course. He sees a bunch of texts in the fraternity group chat that he has muted, as well as a lot of DMs from girls, asking when he’s going to show up but he doesn’t respond to anyone and decides to just go whenever he feels like it. 

He ends up leaving home by himself at around 11pm, the walk to the host house taking eight minutes. He walks by some other houses that were having incredibly crowded parties, probably for the people that weren’t invited out to this one, and the smell of weed in the air causes him to scrunch his nose. When he walks up the driveway of the house, he sees Ryota at the door, scanning people’s phones and ushering them inside.

“Hey, man,” Gojo greets Ryota with a solid grab of his hand and slap on the back. 

“What’s up, dude.” He returns the greeting.

“Did your mom make it?” Gojo asks. 

“Just get the fuck inside,” Ryota says, pointing to the entrance behind him with his thumb.

When Gojo enters the house, the flashing lights temporarily blind him until his eyes quickly readjust. The DJ had the bass-boosted all the way up to where Gojo could feel the music in his bones and his lips curl up into a smile at the excitement running through his veins. It was mostly dark inside, except for the sporadic lighting from the couple of light fixtures near the DJ’s console, and people seemed to move in slow motion as they were briefly illuminated every other second. 

Gojo hears some people call his name, but he makes it straight towards the back where he knows the drinks are and downs a couple of shots of tequila before he even considers talking to a single person. 

“Yo, dude, you’re here,” he hears Sota say from behind him and he turns around. Sota and Hide are both barely standing up straight with their arms around two sorority girls each. It seems somewhere along the night the two of them had lost their shirts. “Did Geto come with you?”

Gojo shakes his head, making eye contact with one of the girls that was tucked to Hide’s side. “Nah, he’s still working on his essay.” Sota mutters something like lame and Gojo notices the girl miming an obvious blowjob gesture while looking him straight in the eyes. He ignores it and turns around to face the drinks table again, working on mixing himself a drink. He was clearly not shit-faced enough to deal with anything right now.

There’s people yelling in the backyard and Gojo spots Yuuji through the window doing a keg stand outside. He’s about to make his way over there to bear witness too until someone’s grabbing at the back of his shirt.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Gojo fucking Satoru,” he hears a voice call and he sighs, turning around.

Shoko’s standing in front of him, wearing an extremely cropped shirt and a denim skirt, with a couple of her friends by her side.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Shoko fucking Ieiri,” he mimics her with a smirk on his face, “oh, and, uh, friends? Never met you two before.”

One of the girls beside her rolls her eyes. “We’ve fucked like twice,” she scowls, crossing her arms, and then she looks up at the ceiling to ponder something before looking back down at him again, “actually, I’m pretty sure three times.” 

“You’re not the only one with a busted memory, sweetheart,” he says and he’s about to continue towards the backyard when Shoko walks in front of him, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him backwards a bit, the movement causing some of the drink in his hand to spill. She’s standing up on her tiptoes and then clenching the fabric of his shirt in her hand, pulling him down towards her. 

“You in the mood to make out tonight?” she asks him, biting down on her lip, and Gojo’s eyes are quick to watch the action.

“Sure, but later,” he says casually. Again, not quite shit-faced enough to deal with any of this yet. He grabs her wrist and pulls her hand from his shirt then makes it to the backyard, exchanging greetings with some of his frat brothers on the way there, and makes work of the absolutely horrendous cocktail he’s mixed up for himself as he watches Yuuji entertain the masses. 

The night goes on, Gojo getting progressively more alcohol into his system until he’s worked up a steady buzz and finds himself about ready to do a backflip off the patio roof in front of a bunch of cheering people when Geto has to convince him to get down.

“Dude, I’ve literally been here for two minutes,” Geto grumbles. 

Gojo slings his arm around his best friend, half in camaraderie and half for support. “I missed you, man, where have you been?” Gojo drawls in Geto’s ears, clearly a bit drunk, and Geto doesn’t even bother answering him as he’s walking him back inside.

When the two of them spot Sota and Hide by a beer pong table, they make their way over. Gojo sobers up a bit when he realizes Todo isn’t there.

“Yo, where’s the king of beer pong at?” Gojo asks, his speech slightly slurred.

Nanami, who had his arms crossed and was leaning back against the wall, shrugs slightly. “He said he’d come later.”

“But he said he’d be here from dusk ‘til dawn!” Gojo’s whining loudly near Geto’s ear and the dark-haired man winces at the volume. 

“Alright, let’s sit down,” Geto says and the two of them make their way to the set of couches in the center of the living room where some people were chatting, some were (hopefully) sleeping, and others were getting handsy. 

Gojo slumps down on one of the couches, relishing in the comfort, and when he spots Chosou next to him he’s convinced he’s hallucinating. “What the fuck, aren’t you supposed to be sick?”

Chosou shrugs and glances up at Gojo from the screen of his phone, leg bouncing up and down impatiently. “Nah, I was never sick. Just had an exam to study for and had to get out of practice somehow.” 

Gojo’s about to get angry at him but instead he just sinks further into the couch and throws his head back to look up at the ceiling, a sudden wave of melancholy washing over him. He was at this party, alcohol running through his veins, yet there was this feeling inside of him that he just couldn’t shake. It was some type of disappointment, an emptiness, like despite everything going on around him he was still missing something. 

“This seat taken?”

He tips his head back down and sees Shoko in front of him. His line of sight follows the direction of her pointed finger until he sees that she’s gesturing to his lap where he was very obnoxiously man-spreading. 

“Nah, but I was saving it for you,” he says with a grin and she’s rolling her eyes as she takes a seat on his thigh. She seems a bit tipsy herself, giggling at the pinch he gives her at her hip. Ah, yes, Gojo realizes the emptiness he was feeling was probably from the fact that he has yet to get laid tonight.

“Satoruuuu, take me upstairs,” she’s purring in his ear and he shakes his head.

“Jesus, Shoko, relax,” he hisses, already feeling arousal building up inside him. But he himself had no interest in putting any of this on pause. 

The details are irrelevant, but she’s gotten him up on his feet, her hand wrapped around his wrist, and dragging him along with her upstairs. Somewhere in Gojo’s hazed and horny mind, he swears he hears a familiar voice downstairs, one that makes his heart skip a beat in his chest, but Shoko’s busy pulling him into the dark hallway upstairs and eventually into the bathroom. 

Gojo closes the door behind him, watching as Shoko quickly hops up onto the counter, and it’s not long before she spreads her thighs for him to take his place in front of her and start kissing her. Her hands grab onto his shirt, impatient with the fabric, and he starts trailing kisses down her neck as she wraps her legs around his waist.

“Hey…” she sighs when his mouth reaches her collarbone, “d-did you lock the door?”

“Huh? Yeah, think so,” he mumbles against her skin, hand playing with the hem of her top.

Those were Gojo’s famous last words when the two of them suddenly heard the door open, hinges creaking, and in his periphery he sees that it’s opened almost half-way when the movement stops.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” a voice squeaks out and Gojo’s blood runs cold. He turns his head to face the entrance of the bathroom, and then he sees you. 

You, in your plain t-shirt and jeans, standing in the hallway with your hand wrapped around the doorknob, blinking as the recognition of his face registers in your mind. 

Gojo Satoru was never really the type of guy to be serious to just one woman. Yet for some reason, when he sees you staring at him with wide eyes, and with the faintest hint of hurt in your expression, what he was doing suddenly felt so wrong.

a/n. thanks soooo much for reading!

➸ take me to chapter five!

[mesetacadre]

Hello!

Firstly, Im USAmerican I’m not trying to be like “oh woe is me,” Im just trying my best to understand what would be the best option for everyone. I’ve heard so many varying things and this is my second time voting, so I just want wanted to know what other people think. This isn’t meant to be malicious or condescending in any way either! I know you can do multiple things at once it’s just that I worry that when I walk into that polling booth, that I’ll be putting more innocent people at stake.

I’ve seen people tell,call,email etc Kamala to say that she isn’t getting their vote unless she stops funding Israel and their assault on the Palestinian people. And I’ve seen some people say that there is literally no point in trying to reason/ransom with her and that she (like all other US presidents) is a monster no matter what.

I’ve seen some other people say that voting 3rd party or not voting at all is the only way to go. But I worry that a 3rd party candidate wouldn’t stand a chance so late in the game. And I also worry that not voting would be a waste of a privilege, especially since so many people don’t have the access to voting inside the US and out.

I’ve also seen people worrying about project 2025 being pushed into place and I’ve also seen other people say Americans are cowards for worrying about such a thing.

I know you don’t live in the US but I also know this election impacts people outside of the states so I just wanted to know your thoughts. I’ve asked this to another blog as well, so if any of your followers have thoughts Id like to hear them too! I just feel a little pulled in every direction and I figured asking around would be a good idea.

Thank you so much and have a nice day!

If I were in your position I would stop going back and forth about who to vote for and start organizing. Were social rights protected with Biden? Very clearly not, since people are already suffering from things that are in that think tank's document. Abortion is no longer protected, trans people are begin targeted across a good portion of the states, the border is going to keep getting bloodier regardless of who wins, etc. Sure, you might argue that these things are not in control of the president, like the Supreme Court or the individual states. So then, how are elections supposed to help? And this is just talking about domestic policy, but the imperialist cogs of the US hegemon will keep turning no matter who's in DC, and you really cannot fucking ignore the current genocide in Palestine, plus the US' entire history of foreign interventions and the suffering that has come from that. You all should really realize the scale of the situation and stop engaging with the US on its own terms. There are class interests to which every mechanism of liberal democracy are subordinated to.

It is extremely unique for you USAmericans to spend this much fucking time and energy on your elections, you can't overstate it. Practically every year is filled with election bullshit. Election periods in basically the rest of the world only last like a month at most, where I live it takes two weeks. Elections aren't even the only or most important way to participate in politics within the very basic framework of liberal democracy. But you're all constantly acting like it's a team sport, always with the election. Don't take this personally anon, I'm not annoyed at you specifically and I appreciate the effort in your ask, but it's so incredibly childish to every single time spend 2 years or more hueing and crying about the upcoming election. Do something about it then! stop hyperfocusing on a single day every 4 years! People were already talking about the 2020 election after Trump won in 2016, that's absurd!

Read Lenin and read decolonial theory, organize yourself and the working class, build political-revolutionary consciousness amongst your class, do whatever you can to strike at the stability of the empire which you live under without getting arrested or killed, and stop legitimizing this pantomime by making it the exclusive vehicle of your political thought. Voting is just a single day, and the run-up (not 3 years!) should be spent campaigning for your own interests, denouncing this bullshit system you all keep saying you also don't "like". "Surviving", which is what some left liberals keep saying they're trying to do (I know you did not say that, anon), looks like organizing yourself and everybody you can to stop relying on the scraps the managers of capitalism and imperialism sometimes throw at you.

Voting as an action and voting as a strategy are two different things. What you're worried about, as I understand it, is the action of going to a booth and putting your choice of ballot in the box. Voting as a strategy, is the decoration and structure so many people build around it. I can't recall exactly who I saw doing this, but a USAmerican mutual of mine who's also a communist got an ask about who they're voting for. This mutual laid out the options in their state, went over their policies, and explained why they'll vote for the candidate they disliked less (I think it was an independent but don't quote me on that). You know why none of us "election interfering foreign agents" jumped at them for this? because they understand the very limited potential for voting, spent a little bit of their time researching each candidate avaliable to them, and then spend the entire rest of their political energy focusing on other things outside electoralism.

Yeah, shit's fucked for social rights, so is basically anywhere else in the world right now. I also don't have good choices in my elections, half the parliament is talking about the islamization of Spain and plans to gut any public service, and the other actively anesthesizes and absorbs any social movement that could combat reactionarism. So I stop worrying too much about who I'm casting my ballot for and I dedicate all my political energy to militancy in my communist party, slowly creating class consciousness and setting up ways to eventually protect our own class from the inevitable strike. All of this while being the 12th economy in the world, and consequently, an integral part of the imperialist NATO and EU, facts that no sector of our liberal democracy even questions. And do you think our siblings in the countries victim of the imperialist doctrine of NATO have it any better? When entire elections and governments have been interfered with not by "social media bots", but by actual bloodshed and terror? They don't spend years yelling at each other about who to vote for, they also organize themselves and attempt to emancipate their own class

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

Hi, I was wondering if you could do one for who (other than Lewis) would run in a Pelican Town Mayoral Election, and who each townsfolk would vote for?

Hey hey 👋

I got a little carried away with the answer because it's a pretty interesting topic. 😅Thanks for the question, btw!

So...

Who would be a candidate for the position of Pelican Town Mayor besides Lewis?

_____________________________

The first candidate:

The first person who definitely has a good chance of winning a mayoral election is... us, i.e. our Farmer OC. Because we've been able to do in a couple of years what Lewis (and probably anyone else) couldn't do in decades. We have raised the image of the town as a whole, making it important both economically and touristically. The residents themselves will immediately notice this because we literally won a Stardew Hero Award by rebuilding the Community Centre.

However... when you think about it, our merits may play right into Lewis' favour because all of these improvements to the town happened during his very reign. Plus the fact that according to some residents' comments, no one really knows that we did it all (with Junimos help, but still). "Did you hear that, Farmer? The bus has been restored. It's a miracle!", "Somehow, the old minecart started working again" - key words is "someone" and "somehow", not our Farmer's name. Like... really, "a miracle"? It is a "miracle" that the town is still a town, not an abandoned unknown settlement.

If everyone knows that the building of Pam and Penny's new house, the rebuilt bus, the minecart and the Community Centre are to our credit, then the opinion of Pelican Town residents will be unanimous. Even Marnie and Robin will vote for Farmer. Not because they dislike Lewis, but because they think he deserves a peaceful retirement. Marnie also secretly hopes that after he retires, the two of them can finally stop hiding their relationship from the public.

The second candidate:

The second candidate who can take Mayor's place is Morris, the manager of the powerful and greedy Joja Co., which is the main antagonist in the game. But! This will only happen with the obligatory participation of our Farmer OC.

The situation will be something similar to Lewis, which I described earlier: Morris will simply appropriate all the laurels and honours for himself. Despite the fact that it was Farmer who was the gold wallet the main sponsor, almost all the improvements and fixes in Pelican Town took place under the huge Joja.co logo. And since the town had become a more important part of the Ferngill Republic, the head of the corporation would definitely want near-absolute power here, so they could order Morris to take part in the election. He won't mind, because it will be a good cash flow, fame and recognition of his important persona by his superiors, and the rest of the routine and mayor duties can be dumped on the other workers.

When it comes to the actual voting, the people of Pelican Town are split into two sides - it's going to be a pretty heated debate. Pierre and his family will definitely be against it, because for them - it means the end of Pierre's little shop business. For the others, it also means not very pleasant changes: for Robin and Demetrius - cutting down trees for resources and disturbing the ecosystem; for Linus and Willy - more Joja trash in local waters; for Penny - constant discounts on beer in JojaMart, which her mother can't resist....

The other side will insist that Joja is the future and progress. Jodi will admit that it's very profitable to shop there, Haley will be happy that town will finally have more supermarkets and other delights like in Zuzu City. Shane and Sam will vote for Morris either because they were forced into it by Morris himself as still the current manager or after promises of a salary increase. The others who took a more or less neutral stance will be tried to be bribed by Joja co. As a last resort, Morris and his superiors will start influencing even the Governor, explaining what an perfect candidate Morris is. The decision is still up to the people of Pelican Town, but there will definitely be pressure.

The other candidates:

PS: In "Stardew Valley Expanded" mod, if Farmer chooses Joja path, Morris will just run for mayor, become mayor (with our help again), and settle into a new home in Stardew Valley. Morris himself in the mod appears as a misunderstood character who does want the best for Pelican Town, it's just that his concept of "best" is different. I decided to describe Morris the way I imagined him when I first played Stardew Valley, without mods (and there's no information about him in the vanilla version, so it's our guesses and headcanons).

About the other candidates... Frankly speaking, no one else comes to mind, because the others either lack the appropriate skills for management, or they are full of their own worries, and do not want to stress themselves with mayor's duties. The same Robin gives herself to the construction of farm buildings and houses, Marnie prefers the company of her cows and goats, without Willy there is no one to supply fish and seafood, etc. Even Pierre, who dreams of a successful rich life as owner of his stores, will not want to take such responsibility. All the bachelors and bachelorettes are busy with their hobbies and interests, other residents do not care about all these elections.

So, that's the answer: Farmer, or Morris!

[castiel-left-his-mark-on-me]

You know who I'm mad at-- almost as much as all the sexist, racist idiots who voted for Trump?

All the people who didn't vote for either two-party candidate.

Instead, they voted for Jill Stein, Robert Kennedy, Chase Oliver or "other". If this election was like the ones of pre-Trump, then I would probably be among that eclectic group of voters. I used to vote Independent myself, up until 2016 that is. But everyone with a pulse knew that this election was different. It was quite literally good versus evil. And I get not liking the two-party system. And I get having certain, less politicized causes (land preservation, the plight of of the refugees in Gaza ect.) take center stage in your heart; but those who voted for anyone other than Harris or Trump, had to know that they were essentially just voting in protest.

There is no way that any of those other candidates had a chance at winning. So by voting for them, a good two million plus people lessened the army against Trump-- a guy who for sure won't give a shit about anything that doesn't make him money or keep him out of jail. Harris might not have put an emphasis some specific things, but she wasn't threatening the individual rights and liberties of the American people and all they built.

Let me put it this way: We are all on a conveyor-belt heading towards a forest fire. There's a nearby lake that we could have used to put the fire out, however, it's surrounded by poison ivy. People who voted for the other candidates essentially said "I don't want to burn alive, but I also don't like to be itchy, so instead, I'll just put on this blindfold and hope for the best."

They might have been itchy for a few days but put they could have helped us put out the fire.

Instead, now we're all burning alive. Half the country was like "Oooh, fire pretty!" and then two million more thought being purposefully ignorant to the fire's destruction was the best way to go.

I don't know if Harris would have for sure won if those people had chosen to vote more wisely, I just know that she might actually have had a chance to stop the firestorm of hate that will now consume America.

[odinsblog]

I just found out about Jasmine Sherman and they look really cool. Like, the policies that they say they’re going to do? The fact that they have an audiobook option for people to listen to what the policies say on their platform? (If people don’t have JAWS or screen readers on their devices, JAWS for computers.) I really hope they get far enough in the presidential race. Although Cornel West is my next choice should he get far.

Yeah, sorry but Hell NO.

I’m all for audiobooks and JAWS readers, but I’ve never heard of Jasmine Sherman before and as far as I’m concerned, Ms. Sherman is just another throwaway vote. She has the same chance of winning the next election as a randomly picked name from a hat. Same goes for Cornel West and for 🤡 RFK Jr., and same for Marianne Williamson, and in fact, same for anyone who isn’t named (I honestly cannot believe that EYE am saying this, but here we are) Joe Biden.

Look, in 2020 I went through the same journey that I think a lot of voters are going through right now: I swore up and down that I wasn’t going to vote for Biden because he had (and still has, tbqh) a lot of conservative policies that I vehemently disagree with—LOL, don’t even get me started on Title 42, okay? But at the end of the day, I carried my Black ass into that voting booth and I begrudgingly did what I had to do.

All I know is, I do not want Donald fucking Trump in the White House. That’s it. Not “lesser evilism” not “he’s the next LBJ” not anything else, except for I’m voting for the person who has the best chance of beating Trump and keeping his racist ass out of the White House. THAT’S just about my only motivation here. Dassit. Periodt. I can deal with everything else later.

And I can live with myself with that vote.

But yeah, I’m Black and I gotta live not only with myself, but I also gotta live in this world and look other people in the eye. People who don’t even have my extremely limited level of privilege.

I’m not gonna go into detail about how a Trump presidency would make literally everything worse than it already is—and yes, sadly that includes Palestine, Ukraine, transphobia, homophobia, immigration, and whatever else is allegedly important to disproportionately ☭ white, online “leftists” 🙄 who keep telling people not to vote, or keep telling people to vote for candidates who cannot win.

As far as I’m concerned, Trump getting back into the White House is an existential threat to everything I hold dear. So no, anon, I will fucking not be throwing my vote away on some random ass person I’ve never heard of before, who has no mf chance of ever winning.

And yes, I still have problems with Biden. Like, a lot of problems. Like, a LOT, lot. But he’s the best chance we got at stopping Trump, and Trump needs to be stopped. That, plus I desperately want to see Trump pay for everything he’s gotten away with so far. Voting for Biden is the best way for me to give that a chance.

So yeah, I am deathly afraid of a second Trump term. And a big part of what is driving that fear is the fact that Joe Biden is vulnerable and super beatable. Like, his winning the next election is not a guarantee—did Hillary Clinton’s completely preventable loss teach you nothing at all??

Anyway, I’m not tryna write a book here. I think I’ve made my thoughts clear on Jasmine Sherman and whoever else is the flavor-of-the-day that can’t and won’t beat Trump. Biden is really fucking up and making himself even more beatable by unconditionally supporting Israel, and if he wins he might continue to fuck up, but I promise you that Trump will do unimaginably worse to Palestinians—and that’s not hyperbole.

Lastly, I really debated long and hard about whether or not to make this post rebloggable. PLEASE don’t make me regret that decision, OKAY??

Like, I know that a lot of people who unconditionally LOVE Joe Biden (that’s not me, btw) and the Democratic Party will be tempted to add, “VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!” to this post, but I am begging you to please resist that urge, okay? I don’t know how to precisely put it into words, but unless you’re already convinced and have decided to vote for Biden, there’s just something about adding that braindead slogan that is incredibly off putting. It’s like an annoying ad that you want to skip and ignore on YouTube; it’s vapid; it’s old + tired; it’s lowkey offensive, and it tells people that you haven’t really given a lot of thought to anything and you’re just another insipid Blue MAGA sycophant blindly hopping on the bandwagon. Please find a better more intelligent way to express your support of Biden, okay?

ALSO, if you just search for Jasmine Sherman on Tumblr, you get a lot of anonymous asks like this

And sorry, but having lived through the 2016 and 2020 interface elections, yeah, it just smells fishy af. Chipping away at Biden votes is another way to help get Trump re-elected. And Trump supports Putin and Netanyahu

[mwagneto]

hi non-european here. can you explain the election to me like im stupid 🙏 i tried googling ‘election hungary’ and uhhh i still don’t know what’s going on

answering this to avoid maniacally refreshing the election page. basically Hungary's government fidesz is insanely far right fascists + a delightful emerging nazi party and the opposition usually bands together to put 1 single candidate forward coz otherwise they stand 0 chance of winning

budapest is comprised of districts, each of which has its own mayor, plus the lordmayor who's basically the head of everything. budapest is also the only leftist place in the entire country and fidesz realised that THEY'RE the ones who have no chance of winning here unless the voters arent divided and there were 4 candidates: Karigeri the leftist we all love who's also the current lordmayor, a fidesz woman, a guy who's just a fidesz sockpuppet, and a nazi. and fidesz made the woman step down coz they knew that way the sockpuppet could stand a chance of winning

so we're voting for:

- village/town/city mayors in the entire country depending on where you live unless you live in budapest ↓

- if you're budapesti: mayor in your own district + lordmayor

- also some other bullshit but who cares

when they first started counting the votes the sockpuppet guy had 50%, karigeri had 42%

but karigeri's % has been steadily climbing up and it is LITERALLY. DOWN TO A FEW DOZEN PEOPLE. LIKE THE DIFFERENCES IN %S ARE LITERALLY LIKE 0.0001% SHIT IT'S INSANE. AT ONE POINT THE DIFFERENCE WAS 19 PEOPLE. they're almost done counting so. here we fucking go.

[stereax]

Was Hakstol a bad coach or do you think there are just personality/coaching style differences that lead to him being canned (hahaha get it?). Obviously this is speculative.

Both.

It's simple, and it's both.

A shorter Stereanalysis for you, under the cut!

All stats, except where noted, are taken from MoneyPuck.

Dave Hakstol was a Jack Adams finalist last year. Generally, the Jack Adams and its finalist positions are given to those coaches who manage to engineer great one-year improvements in their team (see: Lindy Ruff [NJD 22-23], Darryl Sutter [CGY 21-22], Alain Vigeneault [PHI 19-20]). And often, these coaches cannot keep this level of success the next year and then summarily get canned (see: Lindy Ruff [NJD 22-23], Darryl Sutter [CGY 21-22], Alain Vigeneault [PHI 19-20]). (Trust me, half the Jack Adams candidates are out quick within 1-2 seasons after. These are just the more egregious.)

Seattle caught fire with an unsustainable 22-23 season. This is true. The 23-24 season was also slightly uncharacteristically bad regression from the team. It highlighted:

- They have one of the worst shooting% in the league. 7.68% 5 on 5 is fifth worst in the NHL, only above the actual bottom feeders (CHI, SJS, ANA) and, somehow, FLA. All situations, it's 9.11%, fourth worst (CHI, PHI, SJS are below SEA).

(Interestingly, they are the most blocked team in the NHL, with 30.82% of their shots being blocked in all situations. Additionally, 32.64% of their unblocked shots miss the net in all situations. This is fourth worst in the NHL, with only CAR, VAN, and SJS with more.)

- Tied into the last point, they cannot score. 2.57 goals for per 60 in all situations is fourth worst in the NHL (CHI, SJS, ANA are even worse). 5 on 5, this is 2.11 and fifth worst (SJS, CHI, ANA, WSH).

(Another thing that doesn't help is a 47.52% faceoff percentage. It's only eighth worst in the league, but winning faceoffs helps establish possession, leading to scoring chances.)

- They're also not generating high-danger or medium-danger chances. SEA is third worst in all situations high-danger shots for, at 252, tied with WSH (usual suspects CHI and SJS top the list). They're fourth worst in all situations medium-danger shots for, at 575, tied with DET (usual suspects CHI, ANA, SJS above). Sixth and eighth worst, respectively, at 5 on 5.

- Plus, they go on losing skids. A lot. I counted at least five separate 4+ game losing streaks. 2 were 8-game losing streaks. Outside of the 1 9-game winstreak, Seattle failed to string more than 2 wins in a row all season.

- Running Daccord dry does not help. 23 starts in 25 games is batshit.

There's a few other issues, too. Let's talk about those.

Seattle's success in 2022-23 was strongly due to their ability to "roll four lines". Generally, on a hockey team, your top two lines are offensive. Your third line is a "checking" line that shuts down other teams' top sixes while offering a few goals in a pinch. Your fourth line is an "energy" line that plays short sprint shifts to "disrupt" other teams.

Seattle had one of the best fourth lines last year with Donato-Geekie-Sprong, who were highly effective at their roles plus contributed meaningful offense (27, 29, 46 points, respectively). Seattle got rid of all three in the offseason last year (CHI-BOS-DET, respectively), which considerably thinned out their four-line assault. Replacements such as Yamamoto, Tatar, and Bellemare have struggled and been unable to find lasting success.

Additionally, Seattle's been having trouble developing its kids. When the entire team went through a points drought this year, its new-era star Beniers was hit severely, going from 57 points and a Calder last year to 37 this year. Wright, too, has not had meaningful NHL time yet, which is concerning for a former consensus 1OA. While Seattle's strategy was never to "contend now", and it did not anticipate looking like a solid contender in 22-23, it did not adjust to this newer timetable and thus took a massive step back. This is what got Hakstol canned.

Interestingly, the "character" remarks seem to be refuted by Ron Francis (the GM) as well as Eberle and McCann, all of whom went to bat for Hakstol and said nobody "threatened" not to play for Hakstol if he remained the coach of the Kraken. I'm sure there's some truth to it, but, at the end of the day, Hakstol just did a bad job coaching.

[moononmyfloor]

Dashing Youth Ep 22-25 Commentary

Ep 1-10, Ep 11-16, Ep 17-21, Ep 22-25, Ep 26-32, Ep 33-35, Ep 36-40

Ep 22

That's it. I've found my most favorite Cdrama character of the year. Do I love everything about him? No. Is he very relatable? No. Is he the best acting performance of the year? No. But heavens forbid if Master Li is written in a way that is just SO understandable and consistent for the setup of a sunny fearless youth who became an immortal and grew weary and bored with time, and decided to just stop with immortality and take one more chance at truly enjoying the mortal world so he could die satisfied. He's just so fucking intriguing to me I could write a 5 page essay about him! I guess I have already written about 2.5!

Dingzhi baby I wish you stop trying to hoard all your grievances and responsibilities in your heart all alone 😔 Tbh can't blame him, that's what happens when you were brutally stripped from your family and friends as a child and grew up with noone but an equally sad master, it stops occurring to you that you need to depend on other people sometimes. And it's not like Dongjun is the brightest bulb in the room to get a proper reading of everything Dingzhi is hiding behind his dazzling grins.

On the positive notes, Changfeng finally seems to be here to stay! Finally! They sleep seperated by a homophobic modesty table tho, boo

Ep 23

Presses play on Dashing Youth ep 23

*immeadietely spits tea out

Yeah I'm.... reading that dialogue.... bit differently. Cough

Help

me

What's going on 😭

Dude my bois were peacefully having their first time nobody asked you to invite yourself in huhu

That was so impolite to just crash and flash!!!

Oh my gods lol. Never make an enemy of Master Li. He will do planned cockblocking on you few decades in advance, AND make you and your partner the CEOs of his company, and sashay away to have his own honeymoon 🤣 You wouldn't have the time to say Jack Robinson.

I love how he developed a soft spot for Changfeng. I mean, who wouldn't

And Changfeng is like: I literally don't know how I got to this point of my life but boy I'm gonna have a good time

He's the underdog sidekick who ended up the ultimate winner and he wouldn't be able to explain how. He's so inspiring like all you have to do is being a nice person and mind your own business and treat your friends with honesty and the rest will work out by themselves.

Man I'm just so bloody uninterested in Dongjun/Yue Yao tho🤣

Dingzhi is that infamous bad boy in high school who is actually a doll and ends up winning over all the head-teachers to everyone's surprise

Ep 24

Ughh the wedding is going to take place I'm nauseous and I want to murder Wenjun's dad

Go, my boy. Even though you two will only get a pocket of happiness, you should get it. 😔

Ep 25

*screaming my head off

I fucking hate you so much. You are not a good guy but you aren't willing to full-on embrace that you are a bad guy either, which makes you a good politician and a good candidate for the throne and therefore the absolute worst scum. Bah.

Gods I think the last time I saw (and cared for) a het estranged couple (plus the girl being forced into a romantic/sexual arrangement she didn't want) was in Shaolin Wendao, but at least there was solace at the end of the story for the sheer agony the characters and the viewers went through. And I already know there will be none for Dashing Youth😭 Why am I doing this to myself.

I need to rewatch BoY just so I can see the younger gen stand up to the monarchy that their parents gen couldn't topple.

Grandparents: "For the greater good" let's downplay the corruption and raise our kids worry-free. If we close our eyes, the evil doesn't exist.

Parents: Dreamers, romantics, unprepared for the cruelty of the world, everyone gets heartbroken and traumatised for life

Kids: Fuck all this we can barely pay rent

[babybatss-blog]

PINKIE PROMISE

Johanna x reader, 900 words

Summary: you and Johanna are only 11, with your whole lives ahead of you. What if things don’t go as you both dream they will?

Cw: only hints of romance nothing clear, talk of murder, knives and slight swearing.

You may only be 11, but contrary to what your parents think, you are a pretty smart kid. In this world you have to be, living in a district far away from the capital, working for scraps and sheer survival. Plus, next year you have the chance to enter the hunger games, a fight to the death where the odds are never in your favour.

But sitting on the branch of a grand oak tree with your best friend Johanna all these troubles seem to float away, the world far under your swinging feet and innocent minds.

“Do you think that if I was sent into the games with Tobias, I would be able to kill him?” You ask, furrowing your brow in confusion at the prospect. You and Johanna are the complete antithesis of one another, complementing your counterparts at the best of times as the dreamer and steadfast pair, dulling out each other’s flaws and heightening each other’s strengths. Therefore, your question caused a scoff from her. “Of course. He’s as skinny as a twig, and even if you didn’t get him someone would after hearing his stupid nagging.”

You giggle. “I guess your right. I don’t like my chances winning against the careers though, they’re so strong and well trained. Like you!” Never being one to take complements well, she dips her head to conceal the growing blush. But she knows your right. Many of your days together have been spent with Johanna honing her skills while you sit idly by, watching the clouds float off into the distance. “I could always train you.” She shrugs. “I know you usually say no, but there’s no way I’m letting you just die out there and leave me all alone.”

Johanna pulls three tiny throwing knives from her boot, with leather handles and jagged ends. She plays with one in her right hand, mesmerizing you by how the light reflects and shimmers, just like how Johanna herself does with those deep brown eyes that you could look at all day. If that’s a normal way to feel about your best friend, you don’t know. Despite your reluctance you agree, grabbing two of the three knives as she presents a skilled demonstration.

Across from you two is another oak tree, bearing a thick branch to the elements and a prime candidate as a target. Her muscles flex as she sharply throws the weapon, piercing the bark just where she intended. “So, all you’ve gotta do is look where you aim to land, throw your arm over your shoulder and release when you’re at a ninety degree angle. It’s all in the bicep, okay?” Your lips curl into your mouth with concentration, squinting your eyes as you focus on the tree and bring your arm back. Out of the corner of your eye you notice Johanna staring at your figure, causing your focus to falter and the knife to weakly bounce off of the tree.

“Shit.” You huff, but Johanna just chuckles. “Oh well, guess your not cut out for the arena. Doesn’t matter though, neither of us are getting picked anyways.” “And we have a year! But still, I want to be able to do what you do Johanna! All the boys at school think your so cool, always beating them in games and scaring them.”

When you said this, you expected Johanna to display a hint of pride, as she loves showing the boys up and loves even more proving her worth to teachers who think she will amount to nothing. But instead, her face drops, into an unsettling scene of dissatisfaction. “I don’t care what they think. They can go to hell!”

You laugh, throwing your head back and releasing that sound Johanna loves so dearly. Climbing down the tree quickly and nimbly, Johanna traces back her words in embarrassment. “I mean, I more care what you think. Not that I don’t care what they think, I just… Want to show you how capable I am. I guess…” It’s rare when you get to see her fumble in such a way, and it warms your heart to see the usually closed off girl break down her barriers every so often. So you join her on the ground, and place a soft hand onto her shoulder. “I know Johanna. And I also know how capable you are. If you somehow get into the games, I have no doubt you would win.” “Same with you.” She sticks out her pinkie finger, looking at you with a sincerity she only gifts to you. “But I promise I won’t.”

With a soft smile you intertwine your pinkie with hers, smiling with adoration. “And I promise I wont either.” The moment lingers, the warmth of your hands tingling up your arm and to your chest. But you break it, unaccustomed to the strange feeling.

Instead, you whip your head to the tree and throw the second knife with a dedicated strength. It sticks, which wasn’t hard due to your proximity but regardless causes you to jump up and down in joy. “I did it! I did it! Ha, Johanna Mason, looks like you’ve got competition now.” Deep down Johanna knows this is untrue, but she would never break the joy of her one bestest friend.

[mariacallous]

Recent elections have given Americans a refresher course on how our presidents are chosen. We have been reminded that the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, is decisive. We have learned that although nearly every state allocates its Electoral College votes to the electors representing the candidate receiving the most popular votes, the Constitution does not require them to do so. (Maine and Nebraska award some of their electoral college votes to the winners of each congressional district.) We have been surprised to learn that the Constitution does not specify the details of how the electors are to be certified and counted—and dismayed to discover that the law passed to do so more than a century ago was vague and outdated, which is why Congress came together across party lines in 2022 to rewrite it.

Now it is time to focus on the destabilizing possibility that some so-called “faithless” electors could disregard the will of the people and cast their votes for a candidate who did not win the most votes in their state. This has happened 90 times throughout our history, so far without changing the outcome of the presidential contest.1 But because we live in an era of close elections with a handful of swing states, the chances are higher today that such electors—indeed, just one—could do so, with potentially disastrous consequences.

Let’s see how this could happen in 2024.

Unless there’s a political earthquake, Joe Biden will comfortably carry 19 states, the District of Columbia, and Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district, for a total of 226 electoral votes, while Donald Trump will prevail in 24 states plus Maine’s 2nd district, with 219 votes. The remaining 93 electoral votes are controlled by seven swing states—the famous “Blue wall” (Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania), two southern states (North Carolina and Georgia), and two states in the southwest (Arizona and Nevada).

Although Biden now trails in all seven swing states, he is doing significantly better in the three Blue Wall states than in the others.2 Indeed, it is not unlikely that he could gain enough ground by Election Day to carry Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, with 44 electoral votes, while losing the other four. This would give him 270 electoral votes, just enough to win, leaving Trump with 268—or so it would seem.

But then an elector from a state Biden carried decides that they can’t in good conscience vote for the president and on the appointed day instead casts their ballot for Robert F. Kennedy Jr, leaving Biden one vote short of the needed majority.

What happens then? It depends on which state this elector represents.

Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution gives each state the authority to appoint its electors as it chooses. The result has been a patchwork of laws dealing with faithless electors. In 15 states, a renegade elector’s vote is voided, and a replacement is named. But in 19 others, their votes would count, including 11 states Biden won in 2020. Some of these laws specify enforcement mechanisms; others don’t. And some states—including Pennsylvania—have no laws bearing on this question. Chaos would ensue if a Biden elector from the Keystone State jumped ship.3

The Supreme Court offers only limited guidance on such controversies. In 2020, the Court ruled that states may enforce laws to punish faithless electors—if they have such laws. But the U.S. Constitution does not require any state to enact one, and a federal statute to that effect probably would be held unconstitutional.

It’s easy to predict that the campaign facing a razor-thin Electoral College loss—in this scenario the Trump campaign—would do everything it could to pry loose at least one vote from the winner. The Trump forces surely would target all the states that allow the votes of faithless electors to be counted—and those whose laws are silent on the matter—and probably those whose laws are vague about how to enforce their prohibition on faithless electors as well. With such high stakes, any campaign would be tempted to resort to unseemly tactics against vulnerable electors. As bare-knuckled combat raged across the country, a political system that is already under severe pressure would suffer an additional blow to its legitimacy.

There’s no chance that many state legislatures will act on this matter before Election Day, so if I were an election lawyer or a senior political operative working for the Biden campaign, I’d prepare myself for this issue. If I were working for the Trump campaign, I’d do the same thing. And if I held a leadership position in a state legislature with no law or a vague law on this matter, I’d be urging my colleagues to act now or, if it’s too late for this cycle, in time for the 2028 presidential election. 

[theomnilegent]

2023 Upcoming Sapphic Fiction I’m Excited For! 🏳️‍🌈

Here is my list of nine sapphic women-led fiction to look forward to in the coming year! Romance and redheads seem to be as popular as ever, and to my delight we have the debut novel from Lesbian Jesus herself, Hayley Kiyoko!

Below you’ll find titles, summaries, and Goodreads links for the above books. Every year, the number of stories with bisexual women and lesbian main characters grows, and I’m so delighted each and every time. This list is only a starting point - explore Goodreads and StoryGraph further and you’ll find so many more!

Just As You Are by Camille Kellogg Liz Baker and her three roommates work at The Nether Fields, a queer magazine in New York that’s on the verge of shutting down—until it’s bought at the last minute by two wealthy lesbians. Even though Liz is eager to leave listicles behind for more meaningful writing, she knows that she’s lucky to still have a paycheck. But it’s hard to feel grateful with minority investor Daria Fitzgerald slashing budgets, cancelling bagel Fridays, and password protecting the color printer to prevent “frivolous use.” When Liz overhears Daria scoffing at her articles, she knows that it’s only a matter of her time before her impulsive mouth tells Daria off and gets herself fired. But as Liz and Daria get thrown together more and more, Liz starts to see a softer side to Daria—she’s funny, surprisingly helpful, and actually seems to like that Liz’s gender presentation varies between butch and femme. Even as the evidence that Liz can’t trust Daria piles up, it starts getting harder and harder to keep hating Daria—and harder and harder to resist her.

You Don’t Have A Shot by Racquel Marie Valentina “Vale” Castillo-Green’s life revolves around soccer. Her friends, her future, and her father’s intense expectations are all wrapped up in the beautiful game. But after she incites a fight during playoffs with her long-time rival, Leticia Ortiz, everything she’s been working toward seems to disappear. Embarrassed and desperate to be anywhere but home, Vale escapes to her beloved childhood soccer camp for a summer of relaxation and redemption…only to find out that she and the endlessly aggravating Leticia will be co-captaining a team that could play in front of college scouts. But the competition might be stiffer than expected, so unless they can get their rookie team’s act together, this second chance—and any hope of playing college soccer—will slip through Vale’s fingers. When the growing pressure, friendship friction, and her overbearing father push Vale to turn to Leticia for help, what starts off as a shaky alliance of necessity begins to blossom into something more through a shared love of soccer...and maybe each other.

Margo Zimmerman Gets The Girl by Sara Waxelbaum and Brianna R. Shrum Margo Zimmerman is gay, but she didn’t know until now. An overachiever at heart, Margo is determined to ace her newly discovered gayness. All she needs is the right tutor. Abbie Sokoloff has her own gayness down to a science. But a flunking grade in US History is threatening her acceptance to her dream school. All she needs is the right tutor. Margo agrees to help Abbie get her history grade up in exchange for “Queer 101” lessons. But as they spend more and more time together, Margo realizes she doesn’t want just any girl—she wants the girl.

Something Like Possible by Miel Moreland On the worst day of her life, Madison is dumped by her girlfriend, then fired as said (ex)girlfriend’s campaign manager... plus she accidentally rear-ends the student government advisor—the one person whose good word might help her win a spot at a prestigious youth politics summer camp. But Madison is nothing if not a girl with a plan, and she isn’t going to let a little thing like heartbreak (or a slightly dented bumper) get in her way. Soon, she has a new junior class president candidate to back—although the two of them might be getting a little too close on the campaign trail. Between navigating her growing crush and corralling a less than enthusiastic election team, Madison has had it with unexpected changes to her carefully laid plans. But when she and a group of queer classmates discover a pattern of harassment within the student government, Madison's forced to shift gears once again.

The Fiancee Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur Tansy Adams’ greatest love is her family’s bookstore, passed down from her late father. But when it comes to actual romance… Tansy can’t get past the first chapter. Tired of her stepfamily’s questions about her love life, Tansy invents Gemma, a fake girlfriend inspired by the stunning cover model on a bestselling book. They’ll never actually meet, so what’s the harm in a little fib? Yet when real-life Gemma crosses Tansy’s path, her white lie nearly implodes. Gemma van Dalen is a wild child, the outcast of her wealthy family, and now the latest heir to Van Dalen Publishing. But the title comes with one tiny condition: she must be married in order to inherit. When Gemma discovers a beautiful stranger has been pretending to date her for months, she decides to take the charade one step further—and announces their engagement. Gemma needs a wife to meet the terms of her grandfather’s will and Tansy needs money to save her struggling bookstore. A marriage could be mutually beneficial, if they can fool everyone into thinking it’s a love match. Unexpected sparks fly as Tansy and Gemma play the role of affectionate fiancées, and suddenly the line between convenient arrangement and real feelings begins to blur. But the scheming Van Dalen family won’t give up the company without a fight, and Gemma and Tansy’s newfound happiness might get caught in the fallout…

Six Times We Almost Kissed by Tess Sharpe Penny and Tate have always clashed. Unfortunately, their mothers are lifelong best friends, so the girls’ bickering has carried them through playdates, tragedy, and more than one rom-com marathon with the Moms. When Penny’s mother decides to become a living donor to Tate’s mom, ending her wait for a liver transplant, things go from clashing to cataclysmic. Because in order to help their families recover physically, emotionally, and financially, the Moms combine their households the summer before senior year. So Penny and Tate make a pact: They’ll play nice. Be the drama-free daughters their mothers need through this scary and hopeful time. There’s only one little hitch in their plan: Penny and Tate keep almost kissing. It’s just this confusing thing that keeps happening. You know, from time to time. For basically their entire teenaged existence. They’ve never talked about it. They’ve always ignored it in the aftermath. But now they’re living across the hall from each other. And some things—like their kisses—can’t be almosts forever.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s Greatest Ally title locked down. She's never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There's Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen's biases in check. And then there's Lili—newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends. Imogen's thrilled for Lili. Any ally would be. And now that she's finally visiting Lili on campus, she's bringing her ally A game. Any support Lili needs, Imogen's all in. Even if that means bending the truth, just a little. Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: she's told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero—not even Lili’s best friend, Tessa. Of course, the more time Imogen spends with chaotic, freckle-faced Tessa, the more she starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with...

Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko It’s summertime and 17-year-old Coley has found herself alone, again. Forced to move to rural Oregon after just losing her mother, she is in no position to risk her already fragile heart. But when she meets Sonya, the attraction is immediate. Coley worries she isn't worthy of love. Up until now, everyone she's loved has left her. And Sonya's never been with a girl before. What if she's too afraid to show up for Coley? What if by opening her heart, Coley's risking it all? They both realize that when things are pushed down, and feelings are forced to shrivel away, Coley and Sonya will be the ones to shrink.

If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude Avery Byrne has secrets. She's queer; she's in love with her best friend, Cass; and she's suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to live: an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it. Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.

[deadpresidents]

I don't see any chatter about Tony Evers as a potential VP candidate - it seems like he would balance the ticket quite nicely...what do you think?

He would make sense as a demographic balance to the ticket from a midwestern, critically-important battleground state and he's a Governor (which I think is always a plus for potential Presidents or Vice Presidents) but Evers isn't well-known nationally and isn't an exciting, rising star in the Democratic Party. He's not exciting at all, in fact, and I think all of the names being mentioned most frequently as potential VP candidates would energize the campaign much, much more than Governor Evers.

With Evers or North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who are not dynamic speakers or exciting retail campaigners, what they would bring to the table is the potential to win their respective states. But picking them isn't a guarantee that they would clinch Wisconsin or North Carolina, so I think other candidates can offer more to the ticket. Cooper has the advantage of being friends with Kamala Harris -- they have a connection dating back to when they were both state Attorneys General -- but that isn't as important as you might think when it comes to building a solid, well-balanced ticket. Most Presidents and Vice Presidents barely knew each other before they joined forces, and what matters more is if their team gives them a better chance to win in November than any other two candidates.

[lizzydizzyyo]

Listen I'm not american I don't know shit about what you're going through, and to be honest, between the people who keep telling everyone to vote blue no matter what and the people who say both dems and reds are equally bad, idk who to believe anymore because I'm not there.

In perfect circumstance, you won't have to vote for either. The thing is, if you don't want to, you have to put in the work. You have to go down the streets and make your own grassroot movements to make sure you get enough people on board with an independent candidate. You need to do some sleuthing and deep research, quickly. Then stick with that.

I'm sure the "vote blue no matter what" people want to vote for a decent candidate too, but at this point, there isn't one that is feasible. Dems are slightly, marginally, microscopically better, so they latch onto that because there is nobody else. If you want independent candidate to be elected, you need to do more than just reblogging and writing tags about how "vote blue no matter what" people are fucking dense and evil and part of the problem.

These people latch onto dems because they don't know anyone else having good chance of winning, that is just not republican. Yes, you can argue all you want about how Biden is just as bad when it comes to immigration and Palestine genocide issue (although he was trying very hard to find ways to absolve student loan and codify gay marriage before everything went to shit, and for better or worse, he took US army out of Afghanistan in 2021). But you still don't know how much worse/better/similar it would be if Trump were in charge right now. It's not like when Trump held office, there wasn't any major Palestine/Gaza conflict or immigration issue either.

You need to convince these "vote blue no matter what" people to switch to your side, not with derision or insults or swearing or blaming, but by presenting them with an option who actually has a chance of winning. This candidate also needs a lot of backing because they're not just going against one party, but two parties.

You need to choose one independent candidate, at the very least by March, and do hardcore hands-on campaigning for this candidate until ballot day. Again, not with insult but with educating the plus points of this candidate and call for action. You need to be willing to be vocal beyond reblogging angrily on tumblr. You need to get over yourself and get the fuck off your high horse and start picking and sticking to your independent candidate you choose.

As someone coming from a country with upcoming election in 2024 too, who actually has three pairs of candidates to choose from (and mixture of parties, because there are over a dozen parties in my country and they can form coallition freely), it isn't the end-all-be-all that you think it is. It isn't easy or reassuring because the "good" candidate cannot rely on party backing or culture backing (one of the candidate is hardline syariah muslim campaigner so they have religious extremists' backing, and the other is the right hand man of my country's past dictator who reigned terror over the country for decades so they have the military's backing).

It's not the magical solution that you think it is. Some people simply plan to not vote at all because they have no hope that the "good" candidate will win and they don't want to give any vote to the other two either (Sound familiar? Anyone?). "But your country has popular/ranked voting!" Yeah, and guess what, when my country's dictator was the president, the "election" was by popular voting too.

Fact of the matter is, your country doesn't have it, and won't have it anytime soon. So be realistic.

If you want an independent candidate to win, you need to suck it up and be kind to the "vote blue no matter what" people. Present them with hope and solution instead of compounding their already deep sense of impending doom. You're doing yourself, your country, and the world (yes, hate it all you want as I do too, but USA unfortunately has quite a big influence globally) disservice by alienating them instead of inviting them to become your comrades in championing a decent independent candidate.

You need to make "vote blue no matter what" your allies, not enemies.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 10, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

“Good Lord, Who Among Us Hasn’t Paid For A Clarence Thomas Vacation?” David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo asked this morning. Kurtz was reacting to a new piece by Brett Murphy and Alex Mierjeski in ProPublica detailing Justice Thomas’s leisure activities and the benefactors who underwrote them. 

Those activities include “[a]t least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.” The authors add that this “is almost certainly an undercount.”

Thomas did not disclose these gifts, as ethics specialists say he should have done. House Democrats Ted Lieu (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), and Hank Johnson (D-GA) have said Thomas must resign. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who has led the effort to extricate the Supreme Court from very wealthy interests for years, commented: “I said it would get worse; it will keep getting worse.”

Thomas’s benefactors, Murphy and Mierjeski noted, “share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence.” That ideology made Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who has been in the news for the release of his December 6, 2020, memo outlining how to steal the 2020 presidential election, speculate that Thomas was the Supreme Court justice the plotters could count on to back their coup. “Realistically,” Chesebro wrote to lawyer John Eastman, “our only chance to get a favorable judicial opinion by Jan. 6, which might hold up the Georgia count in Congress, is from Thomas—do you agree, Prof. Eastman?” 

Last Saturday, Republican leaders in Alabama illustrated that their ideology means they reject democracy. After the Supreme Court agreed that the congressional districting map lawmakers put in place after the 2020 census probably violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a lower court ruling that required a new map went into effect. But Alabama Republican lawmakers simply refused. 

Alexander Willis of the Alabama Daily News reported that at a meeting of the Alabama state Republican Party on Saturday, the party’s legal counsel David Bowsher applauded the lawmakers, saying, “House Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy doesn’t have that big a margin, that costs him one seat right there. I can’t tell you we’re going to win in this fight; we’ve got a Supreme Court that surprised the living daylights out of me when they handed down this decision, but I can guarantee you, if the Legislature hadn’t done that, we lose.”

Paul Reynolds, the national committeeman of the party, went on: “Let me scare you a little bit more; Texas has between five and ten congressmen that are Republicans that could shift the other way,” he continued. “How could we win the House back ever again if we’re talking about losing two in Louisiana, and losing five to ten in Texas? The answer’s simple: It’s never.”

Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall added: “Let’s make it clear, we elect a Legislature to reflect the values of the people that they represent, and I don’t think anybody in this room wanted this Legislature to adopt two districts that were going to guarantee that two Democrats would be elected…. What we believe fully is that we just live in a red state with conservative people, and that’s who the candidates of Alabama want to be able to elect going forward.”

The determination of Republican officials to hold onto power even though they appear to know they are in a minority is part of what drove even Republican voters in Ohio to reject their proposal to require 60% of voters, rather than a simple majority, to approve changes in the state constitution. 

Meanwhile, today’s July consumer price index report showed that annual inflation has fallen by about two thirds since last summer, a better-than-expected number suggesting that measures to cool the economy are working without hurting the economy. Real wages have outpaced inflation for the last five months, and unemployment is at a low the U.S. hasn’t seen since 1969. 

At the same time, the country is ending one of the last pieces of the social safety net put in place during Covid: the rule that people on Medicaid could remain covered without renewing their coverage each year. That rule ended in April, and states are purging their Medicaid rolls of those who they say no longer qualify. In the last three months, 4 million people have lost their Medicaid coverage, mostly because of paperwork problems. (Texas dropped an eye-popping 52% of beneficiaries due for renewal in May.) 

Biden officials have tried to pressure states quietly to fix the errors—including long waits to get phone calls answered and slow processing of applications, as well as paperwork errors—but yesterday released letters it had sent to individual states to warn them they might be violating federal law. Thirty-six states did not meet federal requirements.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON