#ap comparative government

[morisky]

chat AP exams are happening and I'm cooked. I thought I was cooking, but I was mistaken. Iam trhuly and thoroughly cooked. I have lost my title as chef.

I am no longer the rat.

I have become the ratatouille 😔

[n3wy0rkd011]

test is in 16 hrs but I just made this 🥶🔥

[solemntitty]

i need y'all to know i listened to this on repeat in sophomore year of high school while my anxiety ridden ass was studying my butt off for my ap european exam while also drinking a shitton of irish breakfast tea (super caffeinated for again, my anxious ass). i got a 5 on the exam but at what fucking cost

[what-even-is-thiss]

Speaking of politics, would you have any advice on becoming more politically aware? I've been trying to read the newspapers more and watching news and looking up stuff I'm not familiar with. Is that a good start? There's just so much I don't know. It feels like jumping in season 15 of Grey's anatomy without watching any previous seasons

That’s a great start! But if you want to be fully caught up on the previous seasons the first step is to make sure you understand whats going on right now is to understand the basics.

Make sure you understand fully the structure of all levels of government that have authority over you. How your national government works, how your state or provincial government works, how your local governments work.

Next, try to understand major political parties. What they say they believe in, what their opponents say they believe in, roughly what their history looks like and how they’ve changed over time.

The next step is to understand major media sources. Almost every media source has a place they generally fall on the political spectrum. Almost every media source also has someone funding them. Knowing how your sources are funded and where they stand politically will tell you what their biases are and help you more easily compare information.

Once you have an intuitive understanding of these basics then it becomes a lot easier to research stuff you don’t understand and more fully understand what proposed policies will mean if they’re implemented.

It’s also a good idea to roughly understand the governmental structures of countries that your country is allied with or your major trade partners with because they’ll often come up in the news. It’s not necessary to understand them as in depth as your own country but it’s good to have at least a rough idea of how things operate. Because international relations are also a part of local politics.

If you’re in the US, AP News is a good relatively non partisan news source if you only have the time to check one thing. A lot of local newspapers buy articles from AP News which themselves can skew left or right so they’re generally a trusted source by people on all different points of the political spectrum. But like anyone else they’re not totally free from bias so if you’re confused about something it’s always good to compare sources.

You don’t need to understand every single detail about everything. Having a rough idea of what’s going on in most aspects is good enough that you know where to look more in depth into things when they confuse you.

It’s great that you’re trying to become more politically aware! I encourage that! Remember to not rely on social media for your news.

[dalekofchaos]

Friendly reminder. Bruce Wayne hung up the suit and retired after THREATENING someone with a gun and this was his reaction.

And then his immediate reaction is to shut down and close the Batcave and his only words were. "Never again"

A truly tragic, but fitting way for Bruce’s career to end. Powerful stuff. Batman's career ended the same way it began: with a desperate man wielding a gun

Batman choosing not to be weak like Joe Chill >>>> Batman going on a killing spree because fighting crime is hard.

And by the way, since Zack Snyder says his inspiration was Dark Knight Returns, I got news for you, TDKR Batman doesn't kill either.

Zack Snyder is a complete blithering fucking idiot.

his statement on Batman just lines up with what I’ve seen from all of his work. He likes the idea of the comics he makes movies out of but he doesn’t actually understand their themes. A Batman that kills is pointless. An edgy Superman is not only the most boring way to write him, but doesn’t make any sense without the wholesome one. That’s why injustice Superman/brightburn/Plutonian/omniman/homelander kind of make sense in their own ways because the original exists to compare them to.(mostly also boring though) His take on watchmen was pretty much devoid of any of the actual commentary from the graphic novel, but instead was just a dark justice league that were pretty bad at their jobs. Rorschach was just framed as a kind of unhinged Batman, but still a badass that does good, which is wildly generous compared to the way he’s originally written. I can understand turning your brain off and coasting through an action movie, but his fans are delusional if they think he does any of these stories justice. I wouldn’t take any of his comments seriously if they would stop letting him make these mediocre movies.

Zack Snyder is all flash and no substance. His films are visually stunning but utterly lacking in compelling storytelling.

The point of Batman is he cannot 'stoop to their level'. He HAS to be better, he HAS to believe these criminals can be rehabilitated, because if he kills them, he becomes just like them. With his wit, his intellect, he could future proof the city against crime ever happening by just killing the criminals before they commit crimes based on probable statistics and similar themes. But a Batman who refuses to kill is a murderer by inaction. Every time he chooses not to put Joker in the ground, he's allowed him to slaughter dozens, hundreds more, just for a laugh. Batman is equally guilty for every one of those deaths, because he could simply kill the Joker, and stop him from ever killing again. But he doesn't. Snyder saying Batman can kill, Batman SHOULD kill, is to say that without batman doing so, or being able to, he is just as bad as the villians. Except dipshit doesn't even have his Batman kill The Joker. "Oopsie daisy, Joker got out and bombed a hospital full of people, sowwwwyyyy, I put him back in jail again dunt worry TeeHeee :3". And then next week we do it all over again. OR. You kill the Joker, and he never hurts another person again. Which is why Jason Todd works so well as a counter to batman, and SHOULD be what Snyder is looking into. The reason why Zod works so well as a villain is because Humans are flawed apes who cant be trusted to govern themselves and should be conquered, and Superman, a literal God, could fix all that, but doesn't, because of Hope. Its foolish, childish even, to consider that a solution. And when placed in the vacuum of a comic book it works because you have to suspend disbelief, and forget that Superman let a city full of people die while he punched Zod through skyscrapers.

If you want Batman to kill people, just go and read one of his 1784956th copies that kill people. Go read Midnighter. Go read Punisher. Go read Moon Knight. Go read Peacemaker. Go read Nighthawk. What is stopping you?

I'm sure all those characters have brought about the peace and prosperity and the crime-free society that a "killer Batman" was supposed to. "Punisher would clean Gotham in under a week", right, just like he cleaned Marvel's New York, didn't he?

It has to be Batman specifically the one doing the killing? The number of superheroes that kill is nowadays much higher than the number of heroes who don't. Remember how Hawkeye spent the better part of his existence being the most anti-killing Avenger? Nowadays he is known as a super-assassin that "never had a non-kill rule". Should heroes who don't kill go extinct?

I like that Batman doesn't kill people. I feel no need to turn him into something he isn't like it was done to Hawkeye. If I wanted a Batman that kills, I would go and read one of the thousand "Batman who kills" out there.

Batman should not kill and should never kill.

"Gotham would be better off if Batman just killed The Joker"

You. Miss. The. Entire. Point.

Bruce Wayne lost his parents to crime and Bruce Wayne is a child who died alongside his parents and was reborn as a creature dedicated to insuring it never happened to any other child. He made a vow never to reduce himself to the criminal scum’s level or to Joe Chill’s level. He never kills for a reason.

Batman not killing is what makes him so compelling, if he kills criminals, there is no moral conflict, he is no better than the Punisher, Wolverine or any other dark edgy hero. Hell, if he starts to take a life, Batman is no better than Ra’s Al Ghul.

In the Daredevil Netflix show, Frank Castle told Daredevil this “That’s not how this works. You cross over to my side of the line, you don’t get to come back from that. Not ever.” That alone is why Batman should not kill, not even The Joker. Bruce Wayne is not Frank Castle, stop trying to make him Frank Castle. I mean…Stan Lee was absolutely disgusted when someone called The Punisher a hero, Frank Castle is a murderer, not a hero. How is this so hard for people to understand?

I don’t want to hear that Batman killed in the old comics and I don’t want to hear Elseworld stories. It’s an established fact that Batman does not kill and it’s a big part of his character.

Guess what? We already got a Bruce who killed The Joker, it happened in the Burtonverse/Schumacherverse and he was disgusted with himself. “So, you're willing to take a life.” “Long as it's Two-Face.” “Then it will happen this way: You make the kill, but your pain doesn't die with Harvey, it grows. So you run out into the night to find another face, and another, and another, until one terrible morning you wake up and realize that revenge has become your whole life. And you won't know why.”

A huge part of Bruce’s character is that he doesn’t kill, no matter what. Same with Clark. But edgelord writers from the New 52, DCEU and the Injustice abominations think it’s cool to make heroes kill. Heroes should not kill. You can’t be a hero and a killer. IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY!

Guess what would happen if Batman kills The Joker? The Joker wins. The Joker and Batman are each trying to prove a point to society - and really to us, the readers. The Joker wants Batman to kill him because he perfectly embodies chaos and anarchy and wants to prove a point to everyone that people are basically more chaotic than orderly. This is why he is so scary: we are worried he may be right. If the Joker is right, then civilization is a ruse and we are all truly monsters inside. If the Joker can prove that Batman - the most orderly and logical and self-controlled of all of us - is a monster inside, then we are all monsters inside, and that is terrifying. The Joker is terrifying because we fear that we are like him deep down - that he is us. Batman is what we (any average person) could be at our absolute best, and the Joker is what we could be at our absolute worst. The Joker’s claim is that we are all terrible deep down, and it is only the law and our misplaced sense of justice that keeps us in line. Since Batman isn’t confined by the law, he is a perfect test case to try to get him to "break.” The Joker wants Batman to kill a person, any person, but knows that the only person Batman might ever even remotely consider killing would have to be a terrible monster, so is willing to do this himself and sacrifice himself to prove this macabre point. Batman needs to prove that it is not just laws that keep us in line, but basic human decency and our natural instinct NOT to kill. If Batman can prove this, then others will be inspired by his example (the citizens of Gotham, but again, also the readers), just as we are all inspired every day to keep civilization running smoothly and not descend into violence, anarchy, and chaos. This ability to be decent in the face of the horrors and temptations present all around us is humanity’s superpower, the superpower of each of us. The struggle of Batman and the Joker is the internal struggle of each of us. But we are inspired by Batman’s example, not the Joker’s, because Batman always wins the argument, because he has not killed the Joker.

Batman not killing matters. Batman stories to me are the ultimate tale of turning pain and suffering into something positive. That is a story that everyone can relate to because let's be honest here. The world can suck. I've experienced and probably will always experience feelings of fear of depression of anger of angst. It's in my nature as a human being to experience those things. It's in all our nature it is what we choose to do with that pain that we all feel that defines us. Batman chose to turn all those negative emotions, he feels into a symbol that can bring people. Hope that Batman will save us from pain but more importantly hope that we can all be Batman. Why do we fall? And Batman Begins explains this best “Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

Yes, Bruce Wayne is a flawed crazy person. He is at times mean stubborn and even abusive but he is still good. He is still someone we can aspire to be. We can try our hardest to be Superman but no human being can fly, but we can still try to be Batman We can all try to turn our pain into something good when I see Batman killing people or fans saying he killed before and he should kill The Joker, It pains me. It actually hurts my soul. Batman is not about finding a way to kill evil. But try to redeem it. His mission is an impossible task. Maybe he should kill people. Maybe he should kill The Joker, but what makes him fascinating what makes him a hero Is the fact that he has that moral code and stopped himself from crossing that line That's why I always looked up to Batman even as a kid despite all the adult subtext or mature themes superheroes are for kids. And killing is not Batman and it is not Bruce Wayne. This is why I hated the portrayal in the DCEU and the Burtonverse and why I really hated the implication that Batman killed The Joker in Batwoman. A Batman who kills is certainly not Bruce Wayne, that is an interpretation of Bruce Wayne that completely misses the point of Batman. It's easy to kill. Batman does not make the easy choice… Batman does not kill.

[marisatomay]

Just found out my high school AP Comparative Governments teacher is in a Kamala ad

[bookishgalaxies]

Advanced Placement Credit Given to…

☾☼✧☽ summary: the ap classes these different characters would take

☾☼✧☽ type: headcannons, modern au

☾☼✧☽ warnings: n/a

☾☼✧☽ a/n: my ap classes are killing me-

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✧ albedo

chemistry and art history

I think the chemistry part is obvious, as an alchemist he would find this kind of thing fascinating. Obviously he would enjoy the rigor and fast paced layout of the class. CB requires 16 labs to be done throughout the year in ap chem and he would adore this as well. Definitely thinking he’s pulling an A in this class, actually an A+

Albedo’s an artist and a curious individual. I imagine he would find himself interested in the history of art and the different pieces. As a chemist he is always chasing after whys and hows; it only makes sense for him to look for this in art as well. He would also pull a high A I feel in this class due to his commitment to his studies

✧ amber

human geography

Amber isn’t much of an academic, but she appreciates geography I imagine. As an outrider who is exploring and navigating, she would find the history of places and maps fascinating. Amber also, or at least I seem to think, would have a hard time taking an intense ap class. This one is one of the easiest out of the ones CB offers. I think Amber would get an A in this class and I am firm believer that she unfortunately is the one who reminds the teacher when homework is due :/

✧ diluc

macroeconomics, microeconomics, and statistics

Macroeconomics covers the economic of wider areas like regions and nations. Diluc being someone who has a business that is known worldwide would I feel find value in knowing about the economics of not only his country but others as well.

Microeconomics is more focused on the economics of an individual thing like companies. This is a class that would give the insight on the business side of economics.

Business requires a lot of data. Most of the time when analyzing data statistics is involved. Diluc would use statistics I feel to see what kinds of wine tend to sell on what regions and what happens when prices increase and decrease.

Diluc I see passing all of these classes, I think the economic ones with an A and stats with a high B.

✧ jean

comparative government and politics and psychology

Government and politics I feel is self explanatory because of how Jean pretty much runs Mondstadt. She has to contact diplomats from all nations and make negotiations. I think she would also find it kind of interesting about different types of government and how things are ran.

Jean would have to on some level be a people person. To some degree she would have to know how people think and feel. She would find the makeup of the human brain fascinating I think.

Jean is not letting herself get anything less than an A, let’s be real-

✧ lisa

english language and composition, english literature and composition, and latin (or teyvat’s equivalent, maybe Khaenri’ah’s language..)

Tumblr deleted Lisa’s part like 3 TIMES kill me :/. Anyways, I think the language composition and literature composition are obvious. I mean…..she’s a librarian.

The language thing I feel would stem from her wanting to be able to read more books. Therefor she wanted to learn a new language to broaden her selection of books

She wanted to take ap chem but decide to just do general instead. I definitely think Lisa could get an A in all three classes. I just think she gets distracted easily and would need someone to help her focus.

✧ sucrose

chemistry, biology, and computer science a

Obviously she would take chem with Albedo. I think it would take her a bit longer to grasp some of the concepts and Albedo might have to help her out some but she does overall well in the class, I say an A-

She flies through biology without a problem due to her interest in life forms. Is definitely earning an A+

OKAY HEAR ME OUT! So Sucrose wants to study how to manipulate life to make it better and brighter. I think she would be all over the idea of being a bioengineer. Thus, she would learn how to code.

Sucrose would do well in the comp sci a course I believe. I could see her being a really good problem solver and understanding Java well (the programming language you learn in comp sci a)

✧ venti

music theory

Don’t come for my throat, I love Venti I swear. However, I do not think he would preform well in this class. Music theory isn’t really so much about composing music as it is about the rules of composing music. I think Venti would do wonderfully with dictation (where you hear notes/chords and have to identify and write them). As well as sight singing (where you are given a sheet of music and have a certain amount of time to practice and sing it).

We all know Venti is great at composing music…but he doesn’t really like playing by the rules (aka all the figured bass line shit), so I don’t think he’d do so good. Venti can read sheet music sure but he didn’t take the time to memorize all the special symbols when he just knows music.

I’m going to be generous and give him a C considering he can do the dictation and sight singing. Anything where he’s having to analyze and determine cadences or other conceptual stuff he’s kind of screwed

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kaeya does not take any ap classes however he relentlessly bothers albedo while he is trying to study. Also totally tries to convince lisa at least once to bail on writing a paper and come to some party or whatever.

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thank you so much for reading !

stay hydrated and safe !

[blueiscoool]

Greek Archaeologists Discover Mysterious 4,000-Year-Old Building on Hill Earmarked for New Airport

Archaeologists on the Greek island of Crete have uncovered a monumental ancient structure that threatens to halt progress on the construction of a new airport.

The structure belonged to the Minoan civilization and was mainly used between 2000 and 1700 B.C.E., around the same time that Crete’s monumental palaces at Knossos and Phaistos were built, per the Greek City Times.

But unlike these palaces and other feats of Minoan architecture, the purpose of the building remains unknown, and it’s now the subject of much archaeological attention and speculation.

The structure resembles “a huge car wheel from above,” writes Nicholas Paphitis for the Associated Press, with a diameter of 157 feet and a total area of 19,000 square feet.

According to a statement from the Greek Ministry of Culture, some of the structure’s features are comparable to Minoan tombs, including its circular arrangement of stone rings and its intricate layout. But a large quantity of ancient animal bones found nearby is complicating researchers’ understanding of the site.

“It may have been periodically used for possibly ritual ceremonies involving consumption of food, wine and perhaps offerings,” says the statement, per a translation by the AP.

While archaeologists further excavate and study the building, which sits on top of Papoura Hill, near the town of Kastelli, they must contend with the hilltop’s future function: a planned radar station for Crete’s new international airport.

Beginning in 2027, the airport will serve Heraklion, Crete’s capital and largest city, as well as a wealth of cultural and archaeological sites across the island.

Eighteen million passengers are projected to use the airport annually once construction is complete, the AP reports. Tourists want to visit Crete’s well-preserved historical sites, but they need convenient, modern infrastructure to take them there.

At times, rampant tourism threatens the integrity of ancient sites in Greece, prompting the government to take protective measures, like limiting the number of visitors to the Acropolis in Athens.

Per the statement, excavations in the area uncovered at least 35 other archaeological sites. As Greek authorities build Crete’s new airport and the network of roads needed to connect it with the rest of the island, they must continually strike a balance between innovation and maintaining cultural heritage.

In the statement, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni describes the structure as a unique find of great interest. She says the Greek government and airport officials will explore alternative locations for the radar station to ensure the preservation of this historically significant archaeological site.

“It’s possible to go ahead with the airport while granting the antiquities the protection they merit,” Mendoni adds, per the AP. Her comments offer hope that Crete’s past, present and future will once again be reconciled.

By Eli Wizevich.

[wildflowerandsage]

im sorry how does anyone like Mae/Nova from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes?

she refuses to let go of her close-minded, possessive claim on civilisation, even in the face of a global evolutionary reset, and still im seeing noamae shipping tags on tumblr glorifying the coloniser's approach to the culturing of noa through his apparent self actualization thats supposed to only have been brought about because of nova's first step- stealing the blanket? a literal reduction of base human instinct vs. somehow noa is the one being civilised?

not to mention how, the moment she starts talking (not gonna use the word communicate because she literally only speaks when shes fueling her own agenda), her countenance goes for a toss? somehow she's strapping up boots and operating heavy industrial machinery and flipping levers like there's no tomorrow. if i was a young woman who lives 300 Years after the end of the world™, i think even book reading couldnt help me know which button to press on a swotch board with the sort of confidence that she's unlocking blast doors and setting bombs with. the woman is feral, acts feral and has no comparative regard for other species and sentience. all she cares about is furthering the conqueror's dream of humanity

and to think, here i was, watching the zebra and human herd scene thinking that she was finally appreciating the poignant humanism of contentment and simplicity and the companionship of mankind and beast.

no, she's here mourning the fall of capitalism and government propaganda

[mariacallous]

WASHINGTON (AP) — There has been a doubling of petitions by workers to have union representation during President Joe Biden’s administration, according to figures released Tuesday by the National Labor Relations Board.

There were 3,286 petitions filed with the government in fiscal 2024, up from 1,638 in 2021. This marks the first increase in unionization petitions during a presidential term since Gerald Ford’s administration, which ended 48 years ago.

During Trump’s presidency, union petitions declined 22%.

President Joe Biden said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press that the increase showed that his administration has done more for workers than his predecessor, Donald Trump, the current Republican nominee who is vying to return to the White House in November’s election.

“After the previous administration sided with big corporations to undermine workers — from blocking overtime pay protections to making it harder to organize — my Administration has supported workers,” Biden said. “Because when unions do well, all workers do well and the entire economy benefits.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is relying heavily on union support to help turn out voters in this year’s presidential election. But Trump with his push for tariffs on foreign imports has a blue collar appeal that has for some unionized workers mattered more than his record his office.

Just 16% of voters in 2020 belonged to a union household. Biden secured 56% of them, compared to Trump getting 42%, according to AP VoteCast. The margin of support in union households in this year’s election could decide the outcome of potentially close races in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Workers have also become more empowered to report what they judge to be unfair labor practices. The National Labor Relations Board said its field offices received a total of 24,578 cases last fiscal year, the most in more than a decade.

[monstersdownthepath]

Like many of Paizo’s sweeping decisions, I’m of two minds with the recent news about them retconning the existence of the drow in their entirety, rather than renaming them cave elf/dark elf/darklands elf/etc and distancing them from D&D’s drow ideologically. I would have much preferred an exploration of them as... well, just a subspecies of elves, like forest elves, sea elves, and mountain elves, whose government happens to be a bunch of demon-worshiping maniacs. There are numerous splits between each of the ruling drow families because each has sworn themselves to a different Demon Lord, so each has different powers, beliefs, and technologies. There’s territory to be expanded into there, I feel, especially since it opens up opportunities to have the average drow citizens be disapproving of their government’s way of doing things (what with all the torture-murder, slave taking, and fleshwarping) but be unable to really change much... because, you know, insane government composed of demon worshipers. They’re not exactly a democracy. 

However, they’re going to be replaced as dominant life in the Darklands by the Serpentfolk, which I’m also somewhat excited for, because the Serpentfolk have been woefully underutilized. They’re supposed to be humanity’s oldest enemy, the rulers of Golarion for millions of years of its early existence, but they’ve basically been non-entities since the Serpent’s Skull AP, only rarely ever showing up as one-of encounters or in the occasional module... especially when compared to the drow, which pop up constantly whenever an adventure goes even slightly underground. The thought of them being given more prominence is enticing, even if it comes at the cost of the drow being Thanos-snapped out of the universe and the serpents taking their place.

I, personally, will not be removing drow from my games (as J. Jacobs himself recommends, knowing and acknowledging how popular they are), and am eager to see what the post-retcon Darklands looks like...

[ape-apocalypse]

Road To The Kingdom - Fall of Man Comics

The Fall of Man comic arc is the most recent comic series focused on the reboot trilogy. It is unique in that it doesn't feature Caesar and his troop of escaped apes at all. Some might find that a bit dull but I like to see the world building away from Caesar. It is set 4-5 years after the Simian Flu outbreak and follows a human soldier named Julia who is tasked with protecting and moving apes to Washington DC in the hopes of finding a cure. Along the way, Julia reflects on how the world has descended into chaos while fighting against a human militia, the Army of Man, who are killing apes and "monkey loving" humans alike.

The comic is a typical apocalyptic tale, though I feel like the large cast of apes and humans don't get much personality. Julia falls in love with a fellow soldier/scientist she's traveling with and I don't even remember his name, despite reading this a few days ago. Buster and the other apes get some good fight scenes but only Buster gets a name and I have a hard time figuring out what they want. When we first see the apes, Buster seems to ignore Julia's reassurance that she'll protect them and he signs to the others "ape protect ape". I thought it was setting up that the apes would leave the humans the first chance they got to take care of their own. But then they're willingly fighting alongside the human soldiers in DC, even when the apes could easily run off. I don't expect there to be a bond between Buster and Julia like Caesar and Will had in Rise, but I never understood how Buster felt about his human counterpart. Even in the very last panel, I can't tell if Buster is happy or having doubts about how the journey ends. If the story was meant to show humans and apes working together and forming a united front, I don't think the comic succeeded. It doesn’t feel like the apes care about Julia or the mission and I would have preferred Buster and his crew to just leave the humans behind.

Also featured is a French gorilla named Pug who is raising an ape army against the Army of Man, and killing anyone who gets in their way. This story is secondary to the main tale, with neither of them intertwining at all. I wish Pug's story had been the primary focus; though seeing the last bits of governments and civilization is interesting, I much preferred Pug. We get little of his background but see that he spares and feeds human children who were held captive by the militia. It seems he can even rally human adults to his cause. His tale is brief compared to Julia and her team but I really enjoyed Pug more. Plus it's great to see what's happening in another country that isn't the USA, where Caesar and his apes live. I think both stories suffered from feeling rushed by having to share the comic, rather than each getting their own arc but Pug's story was much more intriguing than Julia's in the long run.

The world building of humanity crumbling is always a good read to fans of apocalyptic stories and it makes sense to look at how the governments and health organizations fell apart. But my favorite parts were the small bits of hope seen amongst the chaos. I loved the glimpse of orangutans in Malaysia willingly working with human survivors. Pug was instantly fascinating when he took care of the human children his group freed. While a civilian army growing around the world to kill apes makes sense, it was nice to see pockets of people and apes getting along. All in all, not my favorite of the POTA comics but still a fun apocalyptic story for the apes series.

Intro / Previous / Next

[madamekaji]

nsft rambling && headcanon under the cut. talking abt abijahs sexuality i suppose? nothing graphic but still… informal language & such i did not care to make this a thesis statement LOL.

tl;dr: i think abijah’s gay. like barely skirting the bisexual label in terms of the fact that he has been with women/continues to be with women but i don’t think he’s actually attracted to women as human beings.

controversial take perhaps but i really don’t think abijah is into women outside of viewing them as a toy to sadistically use and then discard. like i don’t think he’s a kitty repulsed gay man but he literally only talks about women in sexual contexts in terms of bringing them harm and/or killing them. which is not to say he’s better with men because he’s a nasty nasty disgusting freak & degenerate of an ape but i truly think in contexts where just being exclusively with men was allowed & tolerated growing up that he would just be with men.

idk the fact that he’s so…. “fond”??? for lack of better word of men (“fondest heart”, “his pretty eyes”, probably more but im not rewatching rn so i can’t make a bullet point list rn) and the fact that any time he talks about women its something along the lines of comparing them to the government he’s about to violently overthrow, “your bones break like a woman’s”… as well as kaji’s statement about how he couldn’t “get off without making a woman bleed” (paraphrased)

like him being a misogynist is not news and it’s very evident by the aforementioned dialogue ^ as well as his treatment of women, such as his past tense baby mamas in his basement. bro is quite literally a human trafficker… but i think it’s notable that he uses “sweeter” (i hesitate to use that word) language with the men in his life then the women in it. to add, the men actually get to live & the women do not!!!

i don’t believe he’s “in the closet” by any means either. like especially not in japan where the VERY oppressive western standard didn’t really exist. he is a shameless creature and a BIG fucking dude so he could get away with a lot more back in europe. (not to mention years at sea without societal regulations…. pirate life, baby.) but i do believe his options in terms of escorts, as well as the.. again societal standard just normalized sleeping with women (makes him look and feel powerful to have a high body count, for example.) i believe he’d been with men back in europe (cough cough routley cough cough… as well as others) but it just wasn’t as easy && accessible as it would eventually be in japan. if he wanted to get his dick wet he just kind if had to settle LMAO

in short i suppose i genuinely believe he equates a human woman with something like a flesh light and nothing more, so i hesitate to call that an “attraction to women.” ppl aren’t attracted to their toys or whatever it’s used as a means to an end. (usually, anyways. agalmatophilia/objectophilia/etc. of course exist but i don’t think that’s what he’s dealing with here.) i feel like that’s what women have always been to abijah. a hole is a hole mentality. && i feel like he has to brutalize them to get anything out of it or else he wouldn’t enjoy bedding a woman.

he gives me the energy of men who are very clearly into men and would just be better off getting with their homeboy then continuing to yap on their alpha podcast about how they hate women in every sense including sexually because their standards are absolutely impossible, but how they praise and idolize men for fucking breathing LOL.

[ridenwithbiden]

STOP BLAMING MEN FOR EVERYTHING

it's a gross generalization, it's sexist, and it's wrong.

the gender gap was actually smaller in 2024 than in 2020 or 2016.

as one example, women between 45 and 64 voted for democrats

by 7% less in 2024 than they did in 2020, and under 30 years old,

women voted 2% less, that's right, even under 30 voted less. but,

both men and women over 65 the same in both 2020 and 2024.

most likely, because of social security, medicare, and medicaid.

"Vice President Kamala Harris’ potentially history-making bid to become the first woman in the White House did little to bring more women voters into the Democratic Party during the first presidential election after the loss of federal abortion rights, with seemingly one exception: women over 65.

These women were motivated by the same issues that were important to the overall electorate, like the economy, threats to democracy, immigration and abortion, something central to Harris’ failed bid for the presidency. They were, however, more likely to name priorities like caregiving, aging in place and preserving the government retirement savings program Social Security as decisive factors, according to an AARP analysis of an AP VoteCast survey of 120,000 registered voters.

The specific priorities of women over 65 could explain why they voted for Harris at higher rates than men their age and moved more in Harris’ direction than younger women.

“Social Security … is not an issue that people said was either first or second most important, but 70 percent of voters said that Social Security was an extremely or very important issue in their vote, and it was slightly higher among voters who voted Democratic,” Jeff Liszt, a partner at Impact Research, a Democratic polling firm, said during a post-election briefing hosted by the AARP.

“And then voters 50+? Eighty percent of voters 50+ said that Social Security was extremely or very important in their vote,” he continued.

Across gender, age and race, the electorate largely moved away from Democrats this year and the shift typically, though not always, benefited Republican President-elect Donald Trump. This happened even as a record-breaking percentage of voters said that abortion was their top issue and majorities of the electorate across all demographic groups said they trusted Democrats to better handle it.

Trump picked up support despite his role cementing the conservative Supreme Court majority that overturned Roe v. Wade, the dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct against him and his conviction last year for sexual abuse. He received more support from women across all age groups compared to 2020, except for those 65 and older, who swung in Harris’ favor by several points: 54 percent of them backed Harris while her support from men of the same age group was 44 percent, according to CNN exit polls.

A main takeaway this year is that a gender gap that many political experts predicted could be historic did not materialize, in part because the share of the women’s electorate that Harris won decreased across all age groups, except for women over 65.

A gender gap has existed in every presidential election since 1980, with more women supporting the Democratic candidate. This year, it was smaller than in the past two elections. Trump competed in both — winning the first, losing the second — though each occurred before Roe was overturned and the former president’s sexual abuse conviction. He has also since been convicted of 34 felonies related to falsifying business records to obscure payments to an adult film star during his first campaign.

The gender gap is typically considered the difference between the proportions of men and women who supported the winning candidate. In 2024, there was a 10-point gender gap. In 2020, there was a 12-point gender gap. In 2016, there was a 11-point gender gap, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

A smaller proportion of women overall backed Harris this year than did President Joe Biden in 2020, with 53 percent voting for her; 45 percent cast ballots for Trump, according to a CNN analysis of exit polls, an imperfect science that nonetheless provides an initial look at the electorate.  The same exit polls from the 2020 election indicated that 57 percent of women backed Biden and 42 percent backed Trump.

The CNN exit polls indicated that Harris lost support across all other age groups of women this year. The drop ranged from two points among 30- to 44-year-old women to seven points among 45- to 64-year-old women..

But women and men 65+ moved roughly equal amounts in favor of Harris as compared to 2020  — and women in this age cohort remained more likely than men to support the Democratic nominee.

Liszt participated in the briefing hosted by the AARP, along with Bob Ward, a partner at Fabrizio Ward, a Republican polling firm. The two pollsters analyzed AP VoteCast data across 43 of the most competitive U.S. House districts, most of which were also in presidential battleground states. As they layered gender across age and race, a fuller picture started to come into focus about why women 65 and older in these key areas seem to have defied the ideological shifts seen across other demographic groups.

The AARP analysis showed that abortion and immigration were the top issues overall that determined candidate choices this year, with about one in four voters naming each as the decisive factor. The economy and jobs ranked at a close second, though it became the top issue overall when expanded to include inflation and Social Security in the broader category of “personal economic issues.”

Voters 65 and older were also far more likely than those in other age groups to say “protecting democracy” was at least a “very important” issue to them. About 90 percent of 50+ women said that protecting democracy was very important, compared to 79 percent of men.

While women over 50 were less likely than men the same age to name “personal economic issues” as the most determinative, more of them specifically picked Social Security. Women in this age group preferred Democrats’ approach, with 59 percent of them reporting that Social Security is or is expected to be a “major source” of income for their household. Fifty-one percent of men the same age said the same, the AARP analysis showed.

The biggest gender gaps in 50+ voters were on the issues of abortion and immigration, with women prioritizing the former and men the latter, the pollsters said.

Voters caring for an elderly, ill or disabled adult were more likely to vote for Harris and more women than men over 65 reported being a caregiver. Women over 50 were also 10 points more likely than men to say they trusted Democrats more than Republicans to “help seniors live independently.”

AARP’s takeaways are supported by interviews The 19th did with 65+ women ahead of the November elections.

Take Kathryn Engelhard, 69. She said after a mid-October Harris campaign event in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, that protecting Social Security was her top concern, followed by health care, specifically the GOP policies related to reproductive rights and abortion.

Sue Shomsky, a 70-year-old Michigan voter who backed Harris, said she was inspired to put up yard signs and go door-knocking for the first time this year because of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which she saw as a threat to democracy, as well as Republican abortion policies, which she considers a threat to her grandchildren.

“You know, after January 6, I said: ‘My God, we cannot let this man get back in the White House.’ I’m going to do everything I can to protect the rights of my daughter and my granddaughters. Whatever it takes, I’m willing to do it,” Shomsky told The 19th in late October.

The AARP analysis was based on AP VoteCast, which surveys more than 120,000 registered voters across all states and is conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for Fox News, PBS NewsHour, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press. These interviews, conducted in English and Spanish, took place in the final week before Election Day and reflect responses from registered voters who cast ballots in person, early, absentee, by mail or decided not to vote. It is a more expansive survey than the exit polls analyzed by CNN, which were compiled by doing voluntary interviews with about 23,000 voters.

The post Harris lost support from women overall — but not women over 65 appeared first on The 19th."

[starlightshadowsworld]

as if hamas wasn't the one to break the original ceasefire on oct 7

Original ceasefire?

Do you mean the 2021 ceasefire?

Which came after 11 days of conflict and occurred in response to Israel's actions.

Because they lead planned force expulsions of Palestinians from their homes, and attacked peaceful protesters in Al Aqasa mosque?

Leading to a conflict that resulted in 12 Israeli's being killed, 2 being children.

Which pales in comparison to the 248 Palestinians being killed, 66 being children.

And than even after the ceasefire, Israeli drones were still in the air.

A ceasefire Israel didn't even want and had to talked into by the US and the United Nations.

And on that same day Israeli police beat up an AP photographer.

Because of course they did.

Or do you mean the ceasefire in 2018?

In which the conflict began because Israel fired on 121 unarmed Palestinian protesters.

Who had gathered by the fence separating the two, demanding their right to return to their homes that Israel had expelled them from in 1948.

A ceasefire that Israel denies ever agreeing to, by the way.

Or do you mean the 2014 ceasefire?

A conflict that lead to 2251 Palestinians being killed, most of which were civilians.

While 66 Israeli soilders were killed, as well as 6 civilians.

There's no language on earth that makes these numbers comparable.

Also the ceasefire to this was one Israel broke within minutes.

I could go on but we'd quite literally be here all day.

These ceasefire agreements mean nothing to Israel.

They never have.

Why? Because Israel sees any kind of resistance against their illegal occupation of Palestine, as terrorism.

It doesn't matter if that resistance is peaceful or violent, Israel treats it all the same.

As a threat.

Prior to this year, they have displaced 70% of the indigenous Palestinian population in 2 of the most catastrophic displacement events in human history.

With the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 Naksa. All of which were committed against innocent Palestinians, way before Hamas was ever created.

And who created Hamas in 1987?

Oh yeah, Israel.

And who denies that fact because there seen as a threat to their control and occupation of Palestine?

Oh yeah, Israel.

Same people who treat the indigenous population of Palestinians as second class citizens.

Imposed an illegal blockade in Gaza for 16 years.

Encourage settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, where again Hamas ain't there.

And have openly said they want to wipe all Palestinians off the map.

Along with many, many other shit Israel has been up to.

That's not just limited to Palestine.

Jee I wonder why people would retaliate against this and not at all want to follow the tyrannical regime being forced onto them.

Heck, their wouldn't need to be a ceasefire if Israel didn't invade and settle illegally in Palestine in 1948.

Palestinians were doing a lot better than than before Israel showed up.

They've done literally all they can to reason with and peacefully protest against these tyrants.

But you can't expect an illegal occupation that's committing every war crime in the book.

Violating every international law and treats the Geneva convention like a checklist, to be expected to care for the suffering of innocents both Palestinians and their own civilians.

Given both the Israeli forces, the Israeli government and Israeli civilians have admitted that Israel has been firing on their own civilians on October 7th.

On purpose.

And continue to bomb Gaza, despite knowing their own civilians could be killed.

Israel can't be expected to follow any kind of law or agreement.

Because how else will the state of Israel go on if its not profiting the suffering of Palestinians.

Free Palestine, from the river to the sea.

For in our thousands and in our millions, we are all Palestinians.

[beardedmrbean]

NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that's often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.

It can get to be too much. Often, she'll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.

While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.

Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don't want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.

The 54-year-old Democrat said she's most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn't really happen.

“I feel like I'm being gaslit. That's the way to put it,” she said.Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’

Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.

Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.

“It's good to know what's going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it's a conversation piece everywhere, and it's hard to escape it.”

Media fatigue isn't a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.

But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.

It's easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.

“There's a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media

In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.

White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.

Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he's on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.

“If it pops up on my page when I'm on social media," he said, “I'll just scroll past it.”