#apparently what i reblogged on election day 2016

[pastelwitchling]

Reposting this here for any Brits who've read Red, White & Royal Blue because I'd love to get your opinions on this.

Keep in mind, RWRB is my absolute FAVORITE romance, I give it 5 stars every time, I'm currently on my 9th reread and thoroughly enjoying myself as always, I've watched the movie every single night since it came out, and twice on the actual day it came out. This is just something I've noticed, so if you can't handle any critique of the book, don't keep reading, but I was wondering...

I certainly don't think the book is flawless, I think it presents an ideal version of the American government (which in a fictional world definitely isn't a bad thing), but I feel like it then uses that to stroke America's ego on accomplishments it hasn't actually made, and then further uses it to kind of like…

I don't know, demean Britain for keeping a monarchy and how the royal family is so useless and does no good for anyone or, to quote the movie, has "any meaningful impact on people's lives" which I wouldn't personally know about, since I don't really follow the royal family that closely. But the book is very much "America deserves the golden throne because (in this fictional setting) we elected a woman and her mixed family into the presidency, and Britain sucks because (in actual reality) it stole this and did that and doesn't do this and doesn't do that."

Basically, it's very much congratulating America for things it hasn't actually done, while simultaneously beating down on the UK for things it has, and… I don't know, oversimplifying things like the monarchy and British contributions and stuff? …I have no idea what I'm getting at, I just feel very much like, "Okay, Casey, we get it, you love America."

For one thing, I feel like the movie (which I'm totally obsessed with, remember) erases all the good Henry did with his charity work and how involved he was, and I feel like the book not only glosses over the "genocidal empire" that America actually is (not that I want them to go into detail about that, not when I'm picking up a romance, but if you're going to talk about the actions of the monarchy, you can't just pretend America has an innocent past or present, you can't just dismiss all the bad it has done, too), but it also diminishes the good that Prince Henry does do.

There's a particular line in an email where Henry tells Alex that he has to go to Germany because "the monarchy has decided we care about sustainable energy, apparently--or at least that we want to appear to." Lines like that very much feel to me like an American taking jabs at the UK (which if written by a Brit, I wouldn't say anything about, but because it's written by an American, it feels a little high-horsey to me), and I'm not saying that "no, you can't say that because they genuinely care and how dare you imply otherwise?!"

But do you see what I mean about stroking America's ego and glossing over its own self-serving actions? When the US does something, it's because they genuinely care and want to help, but when the UK does something, especially the monarchy, it's because they want to "appear to."

This is strange to me considering Henry in the book spends almost all of the time he's mentioned doing some kind of charity work. Is that meant to be for show, too?

I don't know. It just makes me scoff a little bit given everything that's been happening in the country since 2016 (this was released three years later, by the way, and the jabs at 2016 in the book don't go unnoticed) whenever I read about Alex and Henry talk about the US government like it's just so much more well-intentioned and charitable and more accepting and it's like, Yeah, okay, sure.

Again, I want to reiterate how much I love this book and movie, how much I love Alex and Henry. A reason I don't reblog movie gifs or have talked before about the book is because I have the same problem with them that I have with Harry Potter and Tyler Blackburn, which is that I love them too much to talk about them, I cannot find the vocabulary to do my love for them justice, so I just don't say anything. (You know that one Emma quote? "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more"? That's my whole being.) I might share my tabs and annotations at some point because I've started annotating the book for the first time on this reread and I'm having the time of my life. But I did want to know if any UK bookdragons who've read the book, or even just US readers who've read it, have any opinions on this or felt a certain way about it.

[walks-the-ages]

Congrats on that little disinformation campaign you're running that a simple google search fact check would dispell instantly!

Did you know?

Since you can apparently only comprehend stupidily large text:

HILARY CLINTON WON THE POPULAR VOTE IN 2016 BY THE HIGHEST MARGIN OF ANY LOSING PRESIDENT IN US FUCKING HISTORY.

HILARY CLINTON WON THE POPULAR VOTE BY 2,900,000 VOTES! 2.9 MILLION VOTES!

TRUMP LOST THE ELECTION BY 2.9 MILLION VOTES!

TWO POINT NINE MILLION .

THIS IS THE EASIEST THING IN THE WORLD TO FACT CHECK WHEN YOU'RE NOT OBSESSED WITH SPOUTING WHATEVER LIES YOU WANT TO DEMONIZE THE PEOPLE WHO REFUSE TO SUPPORT THE ONGOING GENOCIDE BEING COMMITTED BY THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

[ID: Plain text: Hilary Clinton won the Popular Vote in 2016 by the highest margin of any losing President in US fucking history.

Hilary Clinton won the popular vote by 2,900,000 votes! 2.9 million votes!

Trump lost the election by 2.9 million votes!

Two point nine million!

This is the easiest thing in the world to fact check when you're not obsessed with spouting whatever lies you want, to demonize the people who refuse to support the ongoing Genocide being committed by the Democratic Party.

End plain text]

You say "I don't care how you feel about Palestine", which just shows you might reblog a few Pro-palestine posts, but as soon as it comes time to actually put your money where your mouth is and take just the smallest fucking action, you'd prefer to protect your own hide from The Boogeyman instead of actually listening to the actual victims of the ongoing Genocide who are begging and campaigning not to reelect the people who are commiting Genocide against them.

You say "you won't be able to protest if Trump wins" , as though Biden didn't give cops over $300,000,000, over Three-Hundred Million dollars in funding, as though peaceful protesters are not being beaten and mass arrested across the USA as we speak,

as though there haven't been over 500 people murdered by Police this year alone, and that's only the ones we know about !

"we can push democrats left!" Yeah, by continually reassuring them you'll keep them in power no matter what they fucking do, no matter how many atrocities they commit, no matter how many foreign coups they launch, no matter how many civilians they slaughter???

Hows that working out for you, considering it was promised four years ago that "Biden might not be perfect, but we can push him left!" And now here are, with him commiting Genocide with impunity, spreading racist disinformation to support his imperialist agenda, calling peaceful college protestors "outside actors" to justify their brutalization at the hands of militarized police, all while he's been going over Congress' head to send more weapons to Israel for them to commit crimes against humanity with without public oversight, and has arranged for Netanyahu, modern fucking day HITLER to the USA so he can speak to Congress ???

The only fucking way to get through to democrats is what got you this new "relief" in the first place: yank their fucking voter base out from under them until they're forced to change their stances if they want any support going forward.

Voting Third Party works even if it doesn't outright win an election! It tells BOTH parties loud and clear that if they don't fucking shape up, they're going to lose their precious voter base!

Voting for an Anti-genocide candidate means politicians get to see exactly how many millions of Americans are not going to blindly follow them to the slaughter anymore as soon as they point at Boogey Man In A Red Hat Of The Year!

there's no "splitting the vote" between

"genocidal candidate"

and

"candidate who believes in fundamental human rights of every human being even if they're not Americans"

If you put a fucking gun to my head and told me I had to pick between just Democrats and Republicans, Im at the point of see all you liberals genocide denial and apologism that I've reached the point where I'd probably vote for fucking Trump, just so you Liberal Fucks would at least pretend to care about the horrors going on in this country and around the world, that you sweep under the rug and downplay when its committed by a guy or gal in a blue hat!

Right now, actual Palestinians and Arab Americans are waiting to see what kind of statement Harris puts out IF she becomes the official Presidential Nominee in August:

As it currently stands, its been Nine Months of Genocide.

If Kamala Harris actually cared about Palestinians, she would be using her power as "potential Presidential nominee" to pressure Biden herself into halting the billions of dollars in weapons shipments to Israel right now, at minimum.

This isn't a book or a movie. Harris isn't going to burst into Congress tomorrow to heroically arrest Netanyahu herself for crimes against humanity as some long-con game of luring him into a false sense of security.

If Harris cares about Palestinians, she needs to be using her power as Vice President to show that support now, and not just with a "ceasefire deal" we all know Israel is gonna break in less than a week; we need the USA to actually start following International Law .... But considering this is the United States of War Crimes.... Do you really think so low of people who are able to face the reality that the US Government as it currently stands does not care about the little people in America, let alone anyone outside the US?

Do you know about Guantanamo Bay?

Have you heard a peep from any of our Democratic presidents about closing it?

Do you know about the embargo around Cuba that was enacted 62 years ago, that the UN has voted to end every year for the last 24+ years, and the US has vetoed the resolution for 24+ years in a row??

But sure, Democrats who have been in power for 3 out of the last 4 election cycles really do truely care about making positive change! They sure do spend their time wisely with a combined 12 years in office!

They definitely didn't use their time in office to continue bombing and murdering people around the world!

On January 23, 2009, just three days into his presidency, President Obama authorized his first kinetic military action: two drone strikes, three hours apart, in Waziristan, Pakistan, that killed as many as twenty civilians.

Two terms and 540 strikes later, Obama leaves the White House after having vastly expanding and normalizing the use of armed drones for counterterrorism and close air support operations in non-battlefield settings—namely Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia.

On May 22, 2013, the Obama administration "formally acknowledged for the first time that it had killed four American citizens in drone strikes outside the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq" since 2009

And you really expect people in 2024 who are finally seeing graphically in real time, to strangers, to friends, to family, to themselves, that the US Government as it stands is not a force for good? That Democrats care about humanity? As they give 300 million to murderous police? As they send billions of dollars towards genocide abroad and deny that genocide at home, while censuring any among their number who speak out?

But sure, you can totally blame the people fighting against genocide if Trump wins, after all, we all know random bloggers on Tumblr are to blame when Democrats lose the election, when its only because of the corrupt Electoral College that he won in the first place!

Whatever happens, two things remain true: 1. Trump might be distancing himself from Project 2025, but his Agenda 47, which is on his website, is basically the same thing. 2. Third party voting is useless without ranked choice voting; it's mathematically impossible to elect a third party candidate. DO NOT SPLIT THE VOTE.

[qqueenofhades]

Re: the post you reblogged about Bush. I'm 21 and tbh feel like I can only vote for Bernie, can you explain if/why I shouldn't? Thanks and sorry if this is dumb or anything.

Oh boy. Okay, I’ll do my best here. Note that a) this will get long, and b) I’m old, Tired, and I‘m pretty sure my brain tried to kill me last night. Since by nature I am sure I will say something Controversial ™, if anyone reads this and feels a deep urge to inform me that I am Wrong, just… mark it down as me being Wrong and move on with your life. But also, really, you should read this and hopefully think about it. Because while I’m glad you asked this question, it feels like there’s a lot in your cohort who won’t, and that worries me. A lot.

First, not to sound utterly old-woman-in-a-rocking-chair ancient, people who came of age/are only old enough to have Obama be the first president that they really remember have no idea how good they had it. The world was falling the fuck apart in 2008 (not coincidentally, after 8 years of Bush). We came within a flicker of the permanent collapse of the global economy. The War on Terror was in full roar, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were at their height, we had Dick Cheney as the cartoon supervillain before we had any of Trump’s cohort, and this was before Chelsea Manning or Edward Snowden had exposed the extent of NSA/CIA intelligence-gathering/American excesses or there was any kind of public debate around the fact that we were all surveilled all the time. And the fact that a brown guy named Barack Hussein Obama was elected in this climate seems, and still seems tbh, kind of amazing. And Obama was certainly not a Perfect President ™. He had to scale back a lot of planned initiatives, he is notorious for expanding the drone strike/extrajudicial assassination program, he still subscribed to the overall principles of neoliberalism and American exceptionalism, etc etc. There is valid criticism to be made as to how the hopey-changey optimistic rhetoric stacked up against the hard realities of political office. And yet…. at this point, given what we’re seeing from the White House on a daily basis, the depth of the parallel universe/double standards is absurd.

Because here’s the thing. Obama, his entire family, and his entire administration had to be personally/ethically flawless the whole time (and they managed that – not one scandal or arrest in eight years, against the legions of Trumpistas now being convicted) because of the absolute frothing depths of Republican hatred, racial conspiracy theories, and obstruction against him. (Remember Merrick Garland and how Mitch McConnell got away with that, and now we have Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court? Because I remember that). If Obama had pulled one-tenth of the shit, one-twentieth of the shit that the Trump administration does every day, he would be gone. It also meant that people who only remember Obama think he was typical for an American president, and he wasn’t. Since about… Jimmy Carter, and definitely since Ronald Reagan, the American people have gone for the Trump model a lot more than the Obama model. Whatever your opinion on his politics or character, Obama was a constitutional law professor, a community activist, a neighborhood organizer and brilliant Ivy League intellectual who used to randomly lie awake at night thinking about income inequality. Americans don’t value intellectualism in their politicians; they just don’t. They don’t like thinking that “the elites” are smarter than them. They like the folksy populist who seems fun to have a beer with, and Reagan/Bush Senior/Clinton/Bush Junior sold this persona as hard as they possibly could. As noted in said post, Bush Junior (or Shrub as the late, great Molly Ivins memorably dubbed him) was Trump Lite but from a long-established political family who could operate like an outwardly civilized human.

The point is: when you think Obama was relatively normal (which, again, he wasn’t, for any number of reasons) and not the outlier in a much larger pattern of catastrophic damage that has been accelerated since, again, the 1980s (oh Ronnie Raygun, how you lastingly fucked us!), you miss the overall context in which this, and which Trump, happened. Like most left-wingers, I don’t agree with Obama’s recent and baffling decision to insert himself into the 2020 race and warn the Democratic candidates against being too progressive or whatever he was on about. I think he was giving into the same fear that appears to be motivating the remaining chunk of Joe Biden’s support: that middle/working-class white America won’t go for anything too wild or that might sniff of Socialism, and that Uncle Joe, recalled fondly as said folksy populist and the internet’s favorite meme grandfather from his time as VP, could pick up the votes that went to Trump last time. And that by nature, no one else can.

The underlying belief is that these white voters just can’t support anything too “un-American,” and that by pushing too hard left, Democratic candidates risk handing Trump a second term. Again: I don’t agree and I think he was mistaken in saying it. But I also can’t say that Obama of all people doesn’t know exactly the strength of the political machine operating against the Democratic Party and the progressive agenda as a whole, because he ran headfirst into it for eight years. The fact that he managed to pass any of his legislative agenda, usually before the Tea Party became a thing in 2010, is because Democrats controlled the House and Senate for the first two years of his first term. He was not perfect, but it was clear that he really did care (just look up the pictures of him with kids). He installed smart, efficient, and scandal-free people to do jobs they were qualified for. He gave us Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor to join RBG on the Supreme Court. All of this seems… like a dream.

That said: here we are in a place where Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren are the front-runners for the Democratic nomination (and apparently Pete Buttigieg is getting some airplay as a dark horse candidate, which… whatever). The appeal of Biden is discussed above, and he sure as hell is not my favored candidate (frankly, I wish he’d just quit). But Sanders and Warren are 85% - 95% similar in their policy platforms. The fact that Michael “50 Billion Dollar Fortune” Bloomberg started rattling his chains about running for president is because either a Sanders or Warren presidency terrifies the outrageously exploitative billionaire capitalist oligarchy that runs this country and has been allowed to proceed essentially however the fuck they like since… you guessed it, the 1980s, the era of voodoo economics, deregulation, and the free market above all. Warren just happens to be ten years younger than Sanders and female, and Sanders’ age is not insignificant. He’s 80 years old and just had a heart attack, and there’s still a year to go to the election. It’s also more than a little eye-rolling to describe him as the only progressive candidate in the race, when he’s an old white man (however much we like and approve of his policy positions). And here’s the thing, which I think is a big part of the reason why this polarized ideological purity internet leftist culture mistrusts Warren:

She may have changed her mind on things in the past.

Scary, right? I sound like I’m being facetious, but I’m not. An argument I had to read with my own two eyes on this godforsaken hellsite was that since Warren became a Democrat around the time Clinton signed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, she sekritly hated gay people and might still be a corporate sellout, so on and etcetera. (And don’t even get me STARTED on the fact that DADT, coming a few years after the height of the AIDS crisis which was considered God’s Judgment of the Icky Gays, was the best Clinton could realistically hope to achieve, but this smacks of White Gay Syndrome anyway and that is a whole other kettle of fish.) Bernie has always demonstrably been a democratic socialist, and: good for him. I’m serious. But because there’s the chance that Warren might not have thought exactly as she does now at any point in her life, the hysterical and paranoid left-wing elements don’t trust that she might not still secretly do so. (Zomgz!) It’s the same element that’s feeding cancel culture and “wokeness.” Nobody can be allowed to have shifted or grown in their opinions or, like a functional, thoughtful, non-insane adult, changed their beliefs when presented with compelling evidence to the contrary. To the ideological hordes, any hint of uncertainty or past failure to completely toe the line is tantamount to heresy. Any evidence of any other belief except The Correct One means that this person is functionally as bad as Trump. And frankly, it’s only the Sanders supporters who, just as in 2016, are threatening to withhold their vote in the general election if their preferred candidate doesn’t win the primary, and indeed seem weirdly proud about it.

OK, boomer Bernie or Buster.

Here’s the thing, the thing, the thing: there is never going to be an American president free of the deeply toxic elements of American ideology. There just won’t be. This country has been built how it has for 250 years, and it’s not gonna change. You are never going to have, at least not in the current system, some dream candidate who gets up there and parrots the left-wing talking points and attacks American imperialism, exceptionalism, ravaging global capitalism, military and oil addiction, etc. They want to be elected as leader of a country that has deeply internalized and taken these things to heart for its entire existence, and most of them believe it to some degree themselves. So this groupthink white liberal mentality where the only acceptable candidate is this Perfect Non-Problematic robot who has only ever had one belief their entire lives and has never ever wavered in their devotion to doctrine has really gotten bad. The Democratic Party would be considered… maybe center/mild left in most other developed countries. It’s not even really left-wing by general standards, and Sanders and Warren are the only two candidates for the nomination who are even willing to go there and explicitly put out policy proposals that challenge the systematic structure of power, oppression, and exploitation of the late-stage capitalist 21st century. Warren has the billionaires fussed, and instead of backing down, she’s doubling down. That’s part of why they’re so scared of her. (And also misogyny, because the world is depressing like that.) She is going head-on after picking a fight with some of the worst people on the planet, who are actively killing the rest of us, and I don’t know about you, but I like that.

Of course: none of this will mean squat if she (or the eventual Democratic winner, who I will vote for regardless of who it is, but as you can probably tell, she’s my ride or die) don’t a) win the White House and then do as they promised on the campaign trail, and b) don’t have a Democratic House and Senate willing to have a backbone and pass the laws. Even Nancy Pelosi, much as she’s otherwise a badass, held off on opening a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump for months out of fear it would benefit him, until the Ukraine thing fell into everyone’s laps. The Democrats are really horrible at sticking together and voting the party line the way Republicans do consistently, because Democrats are big-tent people who like to think of themselves as accepting and tolerant of other views and unwilling to force their members’ hands. The Republicans have no such qualms (and indeed, judging by their enabling of Trump, have no qualms at all). 

The modern American Republican party has become a vehicle for no-holds-barred power for rich white men at the expense of absolutely everything and everyone else, and if your rationale is that you can’t vote for the person opposing Donald Goddamn Trump is that you’re just not vibing with them on the language of that one policy proposal… well, I’m glad that you, White Middle Class Liberal, feel relatively safe that the consequences of that decision won’t affect you personally. Even if we’re due to be out of the Paris Climate Accords one day after the 2020 election, and the issue of climate change now has the most visibility it’s ever had after years of big-business, Republican-led efforts to deny and discredit the science, hey, Secret Corporate Shill, am I right? Can’t trust ‘er. Let’s go have a craft beer.

As has been said before: vote as far left as you want in the primary. Vote your ideology, vote whatever candidate you want, because the only way to make actual, real-world change is to do that. The huge, embedded, all-consuming and horrible system in which we operate is not just going to suddenly be run by fairy dust and happy thoughts overnight. Select candidates that reflect your values exactly, be as picky and ideologically militant as you want. That’s the time to do that! Then when it comes to the general election:

America is a two-party system. It sucks, but that’s the case. Third-party votes, or refraining from voting because “it doesn’t matter” are functionally useless at best and actively harmful at worst.

Either the Democratic candidate or Donald Trump will win the 2020 election.

There is absolutely no length that the Republican/GOP machine, and its malevolent allies elsewhere, will not go to in order to secure a Trump victory. None.

Any talk whatsoever about “progressive values” or any kind of liberal activism, coupled with a course of action that increases the possibility of a Trump victory, is hypocritical at best and actively malicious at worst.

This is why I found the Democratic response to Obama’s “don’t go too wild” comments interesting. Bernie doubled down on the fact that his plans have widespread public support, and he’s right. (Frankly, the fact that Sanders and Warren are polling at the top, and the fact that they’re politicians and would not be crafting these campaign messages if they didn’t know that they were being positively received, says plenty on its own). Warren cleverly highlighted and praised Obama’s accomplishments in office (i.e. the Affordable Care Act) and didn’t say squat about whether she agreed or disagreed with him, then went right back to campaigning about why billionaires suck. And some guy named Julian Castro basically blew Obama off and claimed that “any Democrat” could beat Trump in 2020, just by nature of existing and being non-insane.

This is very dangerous! Do not be Julian Castro!

As I said in my tags on the Bush post: everyone assumed that sensible people would vote for Kerry in 2004. Guess what happened? Yeah, he got Swift Boated. The race between Obama and McCain in 2008, even after those said nightmare years of Bush, was very close until the global crash broke it open in Obama’s favor, and Sarah Palin was an actual disqualifier for a politician being brazenly incompetent and unprepared. (Then again, she was a woman from a remote backwater state, not a billionaire businessman.) In 2012, we thought Corporate MormonBot Mitt Fuggin’ Romney was somehow the worst and most dangerous candidate the Republicans could offer. In 2016, up until Election Day itself, everyone assumed that HRC was a badly flawed candidate but would win anyway. And… we saw how that worked out. Complacency is literally deadly.

I was born when Reagan was still president. I’m just old enough to remember the efforts to impeach Clinton over forcing an intern to give him a BJ in the Oval Office (This led by the same Republicans making Donald Trump into a darling of the evangelical Christian right wing.) I’m definitely old enough to remember 9/11 and how America lost its mind after that, and I remember the Bush years. And, obviously, the contrast with Obama, the swing back toward Trump, and everything that has happened since. We can’t afford to do this again. We’re hanging by a thread as it is, and not just America, but the entire planet.

So yes. By all means, vote for Sanders in the primary. Then when November 3, 2020 rolls around, if you care about literally any of this at all, hold your nose if necessary and vote straight-ticket Democrat, from the president, to the House and Senate, to the state and local offices. I cannot put it more strongly than that.

[carnationcomplex]

Person who I secretly think is very cool and funny @aspeneyes tagged me to answer 30 questions and then tag 20 blogs I want to get to know better (I definitely don't know that many but I'll try my best...)

1. Name/nickname: Chrissy which is actually already a nickname for Christine and I've been going by that since 4th grade. Got tired of people calling me Christina but now I get Christy so not much has changed lol

2. Gender: cis woman

3. Star sign: scorpio (not that I really know what that means but apparently it's sexy of me idk)

4. Height: 5'8" last time I went to the doctor

5. Time: 9:59 p.m. est (well it's 11:30 p.m. when I'm finishing this but that's when I started)

6. Birthday: November 10th

7. Favorite groups/bands: I'm a kpop bastard as we all know so you got bts, dreamcatcher, txt, and a.c.e as the main ones. I also listen to twice, red velvet, everglow, itzy, stray kids, etc. more casually. Outside of that I do listen to fob and patd (although almost exclusively vices and virtues or pretty odd) and also Daughter because I'm unwell <3 Also the musical Nevermore about Edgar Allen Poe it slaps

8. Favorite solo artists: There are less of these but for kpop you primarily got chungha and then you got hyuna and sunmi and such. Outside of that you mostly got hozier and sleeping at last (isn't he technically a solo artist?) and Marina.

9. Song stuck in my head: honestly it's how you like that by blackpink which I am annoyed about because I don't really like it that much but oh well (I don't dislike all their music just this one song in particular)

10. Last movie: I watched Jingle Jangle with my friends before christmas and a few days before that it was Klaus (which i liked better) with mck and willow

11. Last show: the last show I finished was The Untamed (thank you birdie for the worms in my brain!) and I'm now watching House M.D. because I need something to act like background noise when I'm unwell

12. When did I create this blog: uhhhhhh I think 2017? Or 2016? idk I was in high school probably sophomore year

13. What do I post: basically whatever Fandom I'm in so I used to post about voltron when I was watching that (yikes!) and now it's mostly kpop and then theres that destiel/election meme I made that got an inexplicably substantial amount of notes

14. Last thing googled: 'cat tortoise' (to check how to correctly spell tortie because I was talking to birdie about how my cat has tortie like patterning to some of her coloring)

15. Other blogs: this is the only one we die like men on main and all that

16. Do I get asks: I used to get 0 but now I'll get a few when I reblog ask games and stuff but nothing outside of that

17. Why did I choose this url: the girl I was tragically in love with in high school said if I was a flower I'd be a white carnation because of my 'pure love' or whatever and I've been sad about it ever since

18. Following: apparently it's 126

19. Followers: 109! (It genuinely used to be like 10 until the Meme got over 60k notes and I gained nearly 100 which side note why are you guys still here this can't possibly be the content you signed up for but thanks for being here)

20. Average hours of sleep: uhhh somewhere between 6 and 7, 8 if I'm on my best behavior

21. Lucky number: 21 (which is funny)

22. Instruments: guitar!! (both electric and acoustic but I've played acoustic longer)

23. What am I wearing: a navy blue sweater with thin horizontal white dashes and stripes and grey cotton trousers (also fuzzy light grey socks it's cold in my room)

24. Dream job: it's a fight to the death between being a poignant little actor in poignant little films/plays and being a LPC working with children and teens

25. Dream trip: well I was supposed to study abroad this year, Oxford in the summer with 2 of my friends and South Korea in the fall all by myself, which obviously didn't happen so I'd desperately like to still get to someday. Also a road trip with all my friends would be nice...

26. Favorite food: my mom's mac and cheese

27. Nationality: American

28. Favorite song: there are way too many songs to truly pick one but at the moment the answer coming to mind is the gambler by fun.

29. Last book I read: technically the last thing I read was the script for my university's first spring production (it's an adaptation of Three Sisters by Chekhov)

30. Three fictional universes I'd like to live in: When I was a kid I uses to roleplay being at camp halfblood with my neighbors in the woods so the percy jackson universe has gotta be one of them. I'd say the untamed because it would be cool to magically kick ass with a sword but I'm a woman so I'd probably die... Other than that idk

Alright so like I said I don't know 20 blogs but I'll tag @korimi4 @holdingthispain @waluigiapologist and @restinpeas since you're all newer mutuals of mine! (but obviously no pressure if you don't want to!)

[stormears]

Wish I could show videos like the last one I reblogged to my mouthy, ignorant mother but I’m not opening that can of worms with her. She’s not worth the argument. When she mentions it to me, I smile and nod and dodge and let her run herself out. 

Back when Trump got elected, she was pissed at me for not voting for him. When a relative of ours blocked her on Facebook, she was mad at me for not “defending” her. We had 20 or 25 ugly phone calls that fall/early winter where she called me names, hung up on me, called me again, screamed again, hung up on me. Fucking freak. I can’t remember a time I liked being around you. 

Anyway! I wanted to use her as a tiny example because she’s a big follower of FOX News, sometimes CNN, and Trump, though she “doesn’t agree with everything he’s done” and I’d say her vocal support of him has gone down 20-25% since the 2016 election. But all she has to say about the riots is multiple one-off stories of looting harming innocent people and businesses. Apparently some military veteran spent his life savings starting up a business (what business? She didn’t know) which just opened last month, and looters wrecked the whole place, stole his merchandise and he was left with nothing. Her work involves visiting old people in their homes for medical reasons and she’s afraid looters will break into her car or steal it or mug her to make her give them the keys. The looters are “scary” and they are paving the way for socialism, which is exactly what Antifa wants! 

She doesn’t say a word about police violence and I don’t know if she’s seeing it on TV and not caring to mention it to me, or dismisses it in her own mind, or hears nothing of it. She seems to want the violence to stop and for everyone to please shut up and go back to the pre-riot way of life. Doesn’t sound like she’s heard about the “Groundbreaking” story from a few days ago of the “Anonymous” group leaking court documents showing Trump was competing with some other party to take the virginity of a 13-year-old girl. Nor has there been any matching wave of acknowledgement or consequences for Trump about that, on twitter or anywhere. 

My understanding of it all comes from twitter and a little of tumblr which I consider much closer and more unfiltered sources than her favorite talking heads on OutNumbered or Greg Gutfeld or whatnot. They are imperfect and might be biased, too, but the footage is so much less likely to be faked and the incredible callousness of so many police officers on camera is fucking insane. 

I sort of want to watch Fox News and CNN myself and see what mainstream and populous news sources are saying that keep people like her in the dark. How the hell CAN the things I see on twitter be so blatantly hidden from people like my mother? Well, because she’s an older woman who doesn’t use social media but for Facebook which is awfully insular, and media can indeed pick and choose what it reports on. I used to be able to explain that in greater detail but I can’t right now because I’m not that educated about it, not a black person being directly hurt by the violence and the silencing, and keeping track of what violence is happening where, with so MUCH of it flying past at all times of day, is hard for one half-blind person with not much time. I hope this shakes out something positive in the end, lord please. 

[longwindedbore]

I thought the response by lib-and-learn was a good rebuttal to my original post and would spark conversations.

Not so apparently. Or even reblogs.

So let me try to respond

“Trump not charged in original case.”

Original 2018 Cohen guilty plea for the hush money portion involved charges of excessive and unlawful campaign donations ( how Federal law viewed the Hush money payment) and a bank fraud Cohen committed for a loan to pay the Hush Money.

Trump was indicted and convicted in State Court for Felony Falsification of Business Records by calling the reimbursements to Cohen for the donations ‘legal expenses’.

Link to website with discussion and similar Falsification cases 2009 to 2023: https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/survey-new-york-felony-falsification-of-business-records-just-security.pdf

“Trump would not have been charged with this crime if he were not Trump”

The precedent of the investigation of Presidential candidates, even in election years, has previously been established: {a} Hillary Clinton e-mail investigations in May 2016 and Oct. 28, 2016 (11 days before the election) as well as {b} the Republican led Senate investigation into Biden and the Ukraine concluding September 23, 2020.

Both those investigations concluded without any charges being filed.

My Corollary: Why only now that Trump is charged?

He could have been charged earlier except that Trump had the financial resources to fight against the release of any documents demanded in the State’s subpoena from 2020 to his loss before the Supreme Court in late 2021.

Link to Timeline: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/timeline-manhattan-district-attorney-case-donald-trump/story?id=98389444

Link to Supreme Court Appeal: https://apnews.com/article/manhattan-prosecutor-trump-tax-records-87f675d7ae8e24fbf2e8f33c480869d6

My Corollary: Was it Prosecutorial overreach to arraign Trump? OR would it be Prosecutorial Dereliction of Duty to not prosecute given the evidence?

Before deciding to arraign Trump the prosecutors had the following public and private records indicating sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction. {Which I think also addresses lib-and-learns ‘no proof’ paragraph items 1), 2), 3)}

Cohen’s bank fraud guilty plea for a home loan which gave him the money to pay the hush money campaign donation.

Trump’s April 28, 2018 admission that Cohen “…represents me like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me. And from what I see, he did absolutely nothing wrong,".

The tape of Cohen and Trump discussing the payment.

The checks to Cohen from an account for which Trump has the sole signing authority.

The phone records of the numerous times Trump and Cohen spoke before during and after the payment.

The invoicing, payment by Mr Trump and the entries into the company GL occurring 11 times in as many months.

The State’s investigation as to how the Trump organization sets up its General Ledger and pays bills.

Link to Discussion of Prosecutorial Discretion: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/how-prosecutors-decide-which-cases-charge.html

ISSUES NOT DISCUSSED

NO EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE?

The Defense was faced with the foregoing paper chain of evidence (plus more) as disclosed by the Prosecution in Discovery. Evidently the Defense could not provide any Exculpatory Evidence to mitigate

What other services Cohen might have be billing for (as Defense Attorney Bove suggested in the McConney cross-examination)?

Why Cohen would have committed bank fraud to get the hush money if he and Trump weren’t co-conspirators?

That it would be typical procedure that Mr. Trump would not ask Mr. Cohen nor Mr. Weisselberg about why he was paying these invoices and signing checks…not once during eleven months.

Who determined the bookkeeping process for the fraudulent accounting.

DEFENSE WITNESSES?

In Cross-Examination the Defense is limited to the Witnesses Testimonies in response to the Prosecution’s Direct Questioning.

Why did the Defense not recall any of the Witnesses and ask Direct Questions about exculpatory mitigation?

Why didn’t the Defense have a Forensic Accountant to challenge the Prosecution’s Evidence?

OBVIOUS DEFENSE MOTIONS?

Did the Defense challenge (I haven’t found online motions the Defense did probably file) to

The 34 counts instead of three felonies counts repeated?

Challenging the receipt of the Cohen invoices as 11 of the felonies?

I would suspect that these would be the subjects of appeal(s).

FELONY AVOIDANCE OPTIONS?

Absent exculpatory rebuttal why didn’t Trump plea deal the felonies down to misdemeanors, admit he was involved, and pay a fine?

Why didn’t Trump originally just pay Cohen to pay the hush money - then the payment wouldn’t have been a federal crime involving Cohen making a donation?

Why didn’t Cohen set up a PAC; find 52 Trump supporters to donate $2,500 each; gather $130K and pay Ms. Daniels - those 52 individual donations would not have constituted a Federal crime?

The Question of the Day: How was the Trump Hush money trial ‘politically motivated’ as the GOPee cultists screech -

- IF every one of the 34 felony charges involved demonstrable falsification of business records?

The GOPees never mention that ALL 200 documents entered into evidence were exclusively from the Trump Organization.

The witness testimony in the trial explained a prosecution narrative of why false documents were created.

It is always a Felony to charter a business in any State in the Union - or in any Developed Country- and create fraudulent business documents. To keep a ‘second set of books.

The GOPees have no explanation why the Defense team were unable to successfully dispute the factual nature of even one of the 200 Trump created documents that supported the 34 counts of felony falsification of business records.

The GOPees do not have from Trump or his Defense team an alternate narrative, in whole or in part, about the documents.

Media reports have ignored the nature of the charges and all 200 documents. Ignored the witnesses testimonies about the documents.

Instead focused on the bombastic theatrics of the Defense cross examination of Prosecution witnesses.

Implying that the Defense bombast was equal in effect on the jury as the Prosecutions far more boring-to-media direct questioning of the witnesses which created a connect-the-dots between each of the charges.

This media approach was better for the viewership numbers that bring in higher ad revenue to the six corporations that own 95% of USA news outlets.

To increase viewer ratings the media focused on the potential felony charges the Witnesses described; HOWEVER these are alleged felonies for which Trump was not indicted or charged in this case.

By pretending that these potential felonies were the included in the case was how the media created a false but far more exciting narrative.

The false media-created narrative presented what appeared to be a far more evenly balanced trial between contending sides. After all, Prosecution definitely can be seen not proving the non-existent charges.

This 🐴💩 approach wasn’t just Faux News. It was all of the media outlets including most of the ‘respected’ overseas outlets.

[caffinateef-studyblr]

Hey hey hey!

I've been wanting to start a studyblr for a while now and right now as i'm taking a break i thought i'd actually finally do it.

So introductions first!

About me :

I'm currently at the end of my 10th grade and we have the final exams in a month, so basically soon I'll be in the 11th grade

As for the 11th grade we have the choice of electives and I haven't decided on my subjects yet lol

Currently I'm studying - Mathematics, Science (Physics, chemistry and biology), Social Studies (History, Civics, geography and Economics) and two languages (English and Hindi)

I'm 15 years old, soon turning 16 (welp not too soon but okay)

I'm a proud ravenclaw

I don't really have a favourite color because I always get confused lol

I'm mostly a lazy bean but I love adventure sports

My personality type is INFP-T

My absolute favourite subject is English.

My Likes :

I'm low-key an art hoe

Anime and manga is life (I enjoy literally any and all genres of anime. Though there might be a few genres that I might lack some interest in)

Kpop and Kdrama. I had been into kpop since 2016 but the Kdrama phase is pretty recent (a year or something has passed since I've been into kdrama tho)

I listen to a hugely wide range of music so I don't have a particular preference in it lol

I play the piano and guitar. I'm at a really basic point of both of them but it's good enough for me to at least know a teeny bit of stuff.

I'm currently trying to learn a bit of Japanese by myself through online stuff

My first ever phase of fangirling was through novels. I'm a part of quite a few novel - related fandoms. Some of them being Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games, Divergent trilogy, The Mortal Instruments, The Maze Runner series, Harry Potter

I like food. There's no arguing about that. If it seems tasty I'll eat it.

Also I love sleep but I don't seem to get any

My goals to achieve through this studyblr :

First of all to get at least 93% in my finals

I also want to motivate myself to become not just a better student but a better human being overall.

I hope to regularly keep track of my Bullet Journal

I also wish to gradually drift towards a healthier lifestyle

At some point soon I'd love to to the 100 days of productivity challenge.

I'd like to keep track of my earnings and savings so that I can buy myself some art supplies and stationery

This one is a long term goal but I hope to study had and get that scholarship for the uni I dream of going to, which is University of Tokyo

(Unnecessary explanation but apparently the government of Japan has this scholarship exam called MEXT in which the students could get a crazy good scholarship with the tution fees completely exempted and a sum per month as stipend. Personally I find that very cool. The challenging thing is, that the nuber of people who are able to avail that scholarship is quite low so I'm gonna have to literally work on my studying a LOT, in which I'll hopefully succeed. )

What I'll be posting :

My notes which I'll be making soon (they're probably gonna be messy lol)

Study inspirations and tips

Pages from my bullet journal

A few illustrations from my sketchbook (this is gonna be rare tho)

Reblogs of study related post or stuff that might keep me motivated

A lot of studyblr accounts have got me riled up and inspired me to make this

@mathbymoonlight @hollstudies @thomastudies @adelinestudiess @studylightly @studialyssa @ultstudy @studejing @mal-studyblr @studyart @studywmmotivation @ilovewashitape-sideblog @teastudyblr @starduststudies @pianoandstudy @warmhealer @unityghost @kuroristudies @academc @studyingvenus @studyingjade @mystudy @katriennestudies @hadestudy @studywitharies @griver16 @iamstudyingblr @stannousnotes @studyflash @sunkingstudies @pechastudy

I hope I can meet my goals soon!

Glad to be a part of the sweet studyblr community!

I also hope that I'd be able to make a few friends!

[fatui-harbingers]

I try to stay away from people that say things like ”I try not to be racist” bc that tells you that they, more likely than not, are actually racist and just know it's not acceptable around you or wherever you live. Same goes for ”I try not to be sexist”.

And another thing that just bothers me is when people say ”I don't see color”. Like, I get they're trying to be inclusive and progressive (or in some cases just trying to win over young people) but it's so misguided! Of course, I would love a world where no one saw color but that's not really possible until poc are on equal footing with whites. I don't feel there's anything wrong with seeing color, but thinking/saying/doing bad things to poc bc of their skin color is wrong (duh, I mean, that's RACISM).

I was (and am) lucky as well as privileged. I was raised by a mother that made sure I didn't get brainwashed by the extremely racist and patriarchal society we live in so I had no idea there was such a thing as inequality for anyone! I didn't know about any types of oppression solely bc my mom didn't want me to treat people differently (bc she was raised by awful people).

My mom forced me to watch Iron Jawed Angels for history (bc we homeschool/homeschooled) which made me start researching women's rights (I already knew a little about civil rights but I went to public school for a while and we all know that stuff is whitewashed. It just never clicked that people were STILL being treated that way). I found feminism bc of the research I did but it was white feminism. I didn't have regular internet access then so I didn't get to look into much, which is why I was a white feminist for a while (I still feel so guilty for being a white feminist even though I didn't mean to be and I was like, 15?). But, one day, I came across an article from Teen Vogue that was explaining the difference.

It said that Black Lives Matter was a part of feminism and I just thought how is it a part of feminism? Feminism is fighting for women's rights and Black Lives Matter is fighting for racial equality and civil rights, so how do they go together? But then the article explained the difference between white feminism and intersectional feminism. I did more research to make sure I understood the term correctly and became an intersectional feminist now that I knew white feminism wasn't true feminism bc it doesn't stand for all women. I've been learning more and more since then and making sure I'm up to date on world news and politics bc that's what I feel a feminist should be doing in order to help everyone everywhere.

Now that I'm well informed on these matters, I nearly blow up when someone says something racist or sexist/misogynist. I'm very depressed by the fact that people are treated so badly for every reason but their actions. That's all that matters, someone's actions. Not their gender, sexuality, skin color, the amount of money they have in their bank account. These things are also why I get so angry about people not taking politics seriously or not caring at all.

And, I hate hearing people say ”its too political these days” (your privilege is showing!) and I HATE the term ”political correctness”. Like, you've got to be so privileged to not be affected by the outcome of any elections and just pretend politics aren't important. It's especially annoying to hear the same people that were whining about Obama ”ruining” everything and talking about how important our country's politics are turn around and just say ”not my problem, stop whining about it” to minorities when they talk about how the 2016 election is hurting them and has been hurting them.

Now, I'm white so my white privilege kept me from knowing racism was a thing bc I didn't have to (and still don't have to, obviously) experience every single day. I really don't know how y'all do it. You're all so, so strong!

Sometimes I even forget (usually not very long) that racism exists bc I just don't look at people that way. And I expect everyone to be the same, which is apparently really hard for people that ”aren't racist” or ”try not to be racist”. And, racists don't disappear when you suddenly ”stop seeing color” while trying to be progressive. They're still here, being hateful to poc and doing everything they can to keep them oppressed.

We whites need to use what privilege we have (even if it's just a little) to help rid of racism in whatever ways we can. That means you have to be quiet when poc are talking about their issues and listen so you can vote for the right people and try to talk to friends and family about how racism effects poc 24/7. It isn't that hard, especially if you actually care about these things. It's not that hard for poc and real allies to tell that you're just ”trying not to be racist” rather than actually not being racist.

Sorry about the rant, y'all. I just really needed to vent about this stuff. Especially racism considering I don't make many posts about it (I need to work on that) even though I reblog a lot of stuff regarding this horrible issue. I just needed to get my personal thoughts out here I guess!

[daxolotl]

On UK Politics, or, “The Absolute Shambles”

Christ, it’s been a week, hasn’t it?

I say that, but I know I have a lot of followers in the US and elsewhere, so...not everyone might know about exactly what’s been going on in the UK recently. So I thought I’d take a bit of time to cover everything that’s happened to lead us up to where we are now - and where exactly that is.

I’m not going to provide references to anything I say in this because there’s a LOT, but if you want references for anything I say, please feel free to send me an Ask or reblog this and I’ll find you references for whatever you’re interested in.

Cheat sheet:

‘Tories’ = The Conservative Party. Basically the Republicans. One of the two biggest parties.

‘Lib Dems’ = Liberal Democrat Party. Centrist, slightly left

‘Labour’ = Labour Party. Left-wing. One of the two biggest parties.

‘New Labour’ = A movement that happened in the Labour Party in the late ‘90s that created ten years of Labour government and saw them pushing from the Left towards...basically slightly-less-right-wing than the Conservatives. It was shitty.

‘UKIP’ = UK Independence Party. Far Right Assholes, want to leave the European Union.

‘SNP’ = Scottish Nationalist Party. Slightly left-wing from what I understand but I’m not overly familiar with Scottish politics. Mainly want independence from the UK.

‘DUP’ = Democratic Unionist Party. Far-right hyper-religious party in Northern Ireland.

‘Sinn Fein’ = Sinn Fein. In a deadlock with the DUP the Northern Irish Assembly which is the core of the Good Friday Agreement - letting UK Parliament govern them while the two parties remain deadlocked. Have a Thing about never taking their seats in UK Parliament.

Putting all the rest of this under a read more because...things are gonna get long. It’s a fuckin’ ride.

FLASHBACK - 2015

It’s a General Election year. There’s been five horrible years of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, during which time the Lib Dems (who were the minority) weren’t able to get any of their policies through, and were pressured into delivering ALL of the bad news that the Conservative government pushed through. As a result, their approval dropped to rock bottom between 2010 and 2015.

David Cameron, current Conservative Prime Minister in coalition, needed something to get a ratings boost and to ensure votes. So what should he do? Well, UKIP has been pushing for a referendum to leave the European Union for years - so he decides a good plan would be to boost his ratings by promising that Referendum if he’s elected, securing the rising UKIP vote for himself.

It works - just. The Tories get a 5-seat Majority (you need a minimum of 326 seats for your party in order to win a Majority), allowing him to form a Conservative government. The Referendum is arranged for 2016, and David Cameron gets to work campaigning...in favour of Remaining in the EU. He agreed to call a referendum about leaving when he personally is not in favour of leaving. What could go wrong?

Also in response to this, the heads of the Labour and Lib Dem parties stepped down. The Lib Dem leader was swiftly replaced by a man with the personality of dried toothpaste, while in the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn (a genuinely left-wing figure and socialist) was put into the running as a joke by several Labour MPs, and he proceeded to sweep the entire party leadership race in a flood of youth support.

The Labour party, still with much New Labour support, responded to that by immediately trying to backstab and oust their most popular leader in decades, which didn’t work particularly well.

FLASHBACK - 2016

The Referendum campaign was a mess. Lies and slander everywhere, Boris Johnson (a Conservative dick) becoming a prominent Vote Leave campaigner not because he wanted to leave but because he wanted to use it to boost his career against David Cameron. Theresa May (remember her name, it’ll be important later) siding on Vote Remain. UKIP and their leader being plastered on the front page of newspapers despite being a small party.

Oh, and Labour MP (and Remainer) Jo Cox being murdered in broad daylight by a white supremacist.

And then Vote Leave won. 52% to 48%. This was taken as a clear mandate, and David Cameron set to work starting the process of leaving the EU.

Oh wait, no he didn’t. He immediately resigned, causing a leadership race within the Conservative Party. Okay, Boris Johnson was prominent in Vote Leave, surely he’ll take this opportunity to...oh wait, no, he decided not to run for position of Prime Minister. Eventually, it got down to two candidates - Theresa May and one other. The one other proceeded to step down before members of the Conservative Party got to actually vote on the issue, meaning that Theresa May became Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party MPs, having failed to support Jeremy Corbyn up until now, decided this was the perfect time to try and backstab and oust their most popular leader in deca--wait, didn’t this happen already, last year? It doesn’t work, again, and he wins a second leadership race by an even bigger margin than last time.

However, two backstab attempts has left Jeremy Corbyn seeming, publicly, to be a weak Labour leader, while Theresa May appears to be strong.

FLASHBACK - 2017

Theresa May triggers Article 50 - which marks the formal beginning of our exit from the EU (”Brexit”). It can be cancelled at any time, but from when it’s triggered, we have two years to organise everything before we leave. Talks with the EU are set to begin on the 19th of June. Time for Theresa May to start preparing for talks, surel--

JUST KIDDING! SNAP ELECTION TIME!

Apparently, the Conservative 5-seat majority was not a “clear mandate” for leading Brexit, so Theresa May decides to call an early snap election, because politicians are allowed to do that for some reason. It’s definitely to get a stronger mandate, and not blatant profiteering by Theresa May to try and gain a larger majority due to the fact that the Conservatives are polling with a TWENTY POINT LEAD over the Labour Party.

The snap election is arranged to take place on the 8th of June - just 11 days before talks with the EU are due to begin. What could go wrong?

So Theresa May starts by talking about how the Conservative party is Strong and Stable, and that’s why she called an unexpected election after promising she wouldn’t, after taking control of the party after David Cameron stepped down after promising he wouldn’t. Strong. Stable.

It’s worth noting now that with a 20-point lead, Theresa May could have personally kicked all of her constituents in the kneecaps and she’d STILL get a majority government.

She follows up with the Strong and Stable argument by saying that she...will not attend any debates with any other parties. At all. She basically goes into hiding after calling the General Election.

Over time, she comes out of hiding. Jeremy Corbyn is campaigning publicly across the country, drawing huge crowds, so May counters him by attending private rallies in locked rooms with CEOs where the press aren’t allowed to attend. She also counters him by suggesting that he’s soft on terrorism and that he has past dealings with the IRA in Ireland, which...he doesn’t, other than as part of the peace process. She also counters him by suggesting that any Labour leadership would be a weak “Coalition of Chaos”.

Other parties slowly release their manifestos. The Labour party talks about their pledges, and the Conservatives jump on their most classic of attack tactics - that Labour is bad with money and the Conservatives are good with the economy. Their favourite is to talk about a “magic money tree” which pays for all of Labour’s pledges.

Labour responds by releasing a fully-costed Manifesto with clear detailing of where every policy will be funded from. This doesn’t actually seem to bother the Conservatives, who continue talking about how Labour uses magic money trees.

Shortly after this, the Conservatives release their own manifesto. It’s half the length of the Labour manifesto, and is...completely uncosted. In fact, the only costing in it is the fact that it would cost 7p to bring in free school meals. This, for obvious reasons, doesn’t sit well with a lot of people.

What sits even worse is one of their manifesto pledges, coined a “Dementia Tax”. Within it, anyone who needs a carer to help them would have to pay large fees for the carer provided they have money or property worth more than a £100,000. What this meant, essentially, was that any older person who, oh, happened to own any house at all, would be ineligible for the Council to pay for their social care, and would have to pay for their care from their own pocket. In practise, this would result in many older people being forced to sell their houses, even if they’re living in them, in order to afford the social care.

In a single move, she managed to alienate the largest, most reliable Conservative voters - old people with houses.

Following huge outcry and her approval rating in the polls dropping by another few points as Corbyn’s continued to climb, Theresa May announced that the Dementia Tax would NOT be happening. The “Strong and Stable” leader becomes the first leader in history to go back on a campaign promise DURING THE CAMPAIGN she’s running.

Election Day and Now

The 8th of June comes. The “unassailable” 20-point lead of Theresa May and the Tories has narrowed to just a few points.

Voting closes. The BBC Exit Poll releases, predicting...a hung parliament. It predicts that the Conservatives will be the largest party, but will NOT have a majority. If that happens, then they have to try and make a deal with another party in order to gain a Majority - either through smaller deals, or with an outright Coalition.

Results roll in over the night. By 4am, it’s clear the predictions of a hung parliament are correct. By final results, the Conservatives have 318 seats out of the 326 that they need - losing 13 compared to last election. Labour, meanwhile, sit at 262 seats, having gained 30 compared to last election. (Percentagewise, the Conservatives had 42% of the vote while Labour had 40%). Most of that gain is ‘blamed’ on young voters who had a massive turnout.

The only possible majority is still Conservative - they just need to find a party who’ll work with them. Labour obviously won’t. The Lib Dems aren’t making that mistake again. The SNP in Scotland won’t. The Green Party won’t. Sinn Fein won’t. UKIP, previously with a few seats, earn NO MPs.

Then it comes to them. The DUP. They’re right-wing, and they earned 10 seats - just enough to push a Majority, if they can get a deal. A deal the Conservatives desperately need to avoid another election.

The DUP who have current links with nationalist militant groups in Northern Ireland. The DUP who compare homosexuality to paedophilia. The DUP who push to keep abortion illegal in Ireland. The DUP who believe the Earth is 10,000 years old. That DUP.

LGBT constituents and LGBT Conservative MPs are against it.

Sinn Fein are against it, because they claim any Coalition or deal would breach the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, prioritising one of Northern Ireland’s two parties over the other.

And most amusingly: https://twitter.com/AbiWilks/status/873691569504882689 THEY WON’T NEGOTIATE ON SUNDAYS.

It’s now one week until talks with the EU are due to begin. And the UK has never seemed weaker.

And it’s fucking hilarious. Theresa May tried to push for more power for herself, and instead, she’s seen a genuine appetite from the people of the UK for socialism and left-wing ideas. She wanted to create a huge Conservative majority from a 20-point lead, and instead she LOST her majority and is having to try for a chaotic coalition to desperately cling on to power.

The UK is in disarray. We have no government. The Conservatives announced a deal with the DUP which, https://twitter.com/skydavidblevins/status/873811317068627968 as it turns out, hasn’t been struck yet, and they’ll be meeting to try and reach a deal on Tuesday.

I, and much of the youth of the UK, is looking at all of this with delight. Logically, I know that long-term we’re probably still fucked in a lot of ways. But short-term? Short-term, Right-Wing power is disintegrating because of their greed and overconfidence, socialism earned 40% of the total vote, and we get to see the Government that has fucked us in the name of personal profit for the last seven years get forced to beg to hold on what vestiges of their power still remain. The Conservatives look pathetic, and even if/when a deal with the DUP is struck, they will have no authority in any negotiation with the EU. They have been humiliated.

David Cameron might have fucked a dead pig in the mouth, but the Conservatives have fucked themselves.

[lildovah24]

OKAY! So back from research. Apparently, according to several sources (at the bottom of this reblog) Germany claimed the US diverted 200,000 masks made by the American company 3M in a Bangkok airport that were originally ordered for the German police force. In france Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Île-de-France region, said she was outbid by American buyers (not the government which I would think implies private citizens or corporations) bid 3x the amount on a supply of masks and offered to pay upfront whereas Pécresse is using taxpayer money and needs to confirm the quantity of masks before payment.

Now back to the German masks. The US government claims there was no action to divert 3M supplies to Germany and says they have no knowledge of such shipment according to Jillian Bonnardeaux who is the spokeswoman for the US embasy in Bangkok. Now, a day after they claimed the masks were diverted the Berlin Secretary of Interior Andreas Geisel, and his office said it was "still trying to clarify the circumstances of how the masks, which were ordered from a German wholesaler, and not from U.S. manufacturer 3M [MMM.N], had been diverted." (in quotes because direct quote from the Reuters article below). 3M did tell Reuters that they had no evidence its products were seized or any record of the order, which originated from China, and Trump said there was no act of piracy.

HOWEVER, according to several sources (New York Post and BBC specifically) Trump said US authorities had taken custody of nearly 200,000 N95 respirators, 130,000 surgical masks and 600,000 gloves, but there's no details about where those medical supplies came from, which is a little fishy in my opinion. Now, there are differing reports on exactly which type of mask the shipment contained, the New York Post says it was N95 masks, the Financial Times (which you dont actually have to subscribe to read despite what the link says) and BBC says it was FFP2 and FFP3 masks )which i will admit based on the little bit of research into that topic seems like it's just a different name for N95 masks) and Reuters doesn't say anything beyond that it was a shipmemt of masks. The press release from April 3rd from the Senatsverwaltung für Inneres und Sport (Senate Department for Interior and Sports in english) says "We are currently assuming that this is related to the US government's ban on mask exports." (though i will readily admit, my German is rusty at best and i needed google translate for this, so it might not be a 100% accurate translation).

So if Germany's initial claims are true and the government did divert the masks, the US government is, as most Americans have known with this administration specifically since before the 2016 election, pretty much the worst and I would say actively screwing over our allies in an attempt to back pedal and mitigate the damage the Trump administration's lack of seriousness about the virus for 3 months caused.

[totally0random]

Porting this over from Pillowfort

AO3 won a Hugo!

I love us! I'm so proud to be part of this amazing group. I reblogged a post inviting people to talk about their work since we all together contributed to the amazing archive of fan content that won the Hugo. So I'm posting my reply separately here as well.

I read for years before ever writing. I was at a family reunion during Pride Month and saw this manip of Dylan O'Brien where someone had added the NOH8 image and then this a fic sprung pretty much fully formed in my head and I had to scramble for a notebook to write it out longhand. I figured it was one and done, but I ended up writing 3 stories in 2 weeks and it went from there. 4 years later, I just posted my latest this week! I read in several fandoms (it started with SPN and Sherlock, and Good Omens is my latest), but I only write Teen Wolf (mostly Sterek, some gen, and mostly canon-compliant).

Something He Could Deserve (Day of Silence) by totallyrandom

Fandoms: Teen Wolf (TV)

24 Jun 2015

Summary: After seeing this NOH8 photo manip of Dylan, I just really wanted a Sterek fic about it being Stiles’s senior year at Beacon Hills HS (when he’s 18) and they’re doing Day of Silence and Derek really sees Stiles, quiet for almost the first time.

Next Day of Silence: April 15, 2016 More info: http://www.glsen.org/participate/programs/day-of-silence

Series: Part 1 of LGBTQ Days; Part 1 of Silent Stiles

Words: 2,582

So here I am now, with 40 works posted, totaling over 180,000 words. I've done lots of kinds of stories, including Ace/Aro Lydia, trans Stiles (and Liam and Allison), Derek as a cop and Stiles in the FBI, truth pollen--and one really hard one that I used to process my grief over the Pulse nightclub mass shooting. I think that's when I was most grateful for fanfic. Some people were upset and saw it as grossly using a tragedy to get my characters together, but that's not what it was at all. It was using this new tool I had to process the tragedy that happened to my queer community (though it was not geographically local for me) in a way that let me get a little distance from the pain so that I could work through the grief and make it manageable enough that I could breathe. Through comments on my long WIPs, I made friends who helped me through the more personal grief of losing my mother and helped me find another way to support my queer community and especially trans friends who until recently have had a dearth of stories made for and about them. My latest fic was from a trans reader prompt from years ago that I finally got around to (it's been really hard to write since the last presidential election).

Give Me a Clooney by totallyrandom for terra

Fandoms: Teen Wolf (TV)

15 Aug 2019

Summary: For the prompt: Stiles gets his first masculine haircut 

Dedication: For terra

Series: Part 9 of Stiles is Trans, Dude; Part 10 of Trans Wolf

Words: 1,522

I have 2 incomplete WIPs (both over 45k, neither updated in 2 years--ack!). But my most popular is this silly miscommunication fic. A reader who was having a bad day asked for Steter, which I don't write. This was the closest I could let myself get to it:

I Wouldn’t Say I’ve Been Missing Him by totallyrandom for MisanthropicKitty

04 Oct 2015

Summary: Inspiration: #5: “You asked who I had a crush on and so I described you to a tee but apparently you’re the most oblivious person in the world because you just got kinda sad and nodded and HOW DO YOU NOT GET THIS.”

AKA: Peter is a Sterek-shipping Scooby-Doo villain. (Thanks to TARDISGirl97 for that summary!)

Words: 1,887

This was a fun look back!

[decoding1432]

second statement management lying without lying

Hello, i’m same anon who made the EPIC is genius theory. This is another theory I have about have management are messing with us There’s some things thats really been bothering me that no one has brought up from 5h second statement that i think validates the trademark timeline. In the statement they went of their way to mention they were trying to convince camila to stay from “her first solo endeavour” and they deserve one more album? If thats the case they technically got their one album which is 727 since it prolly wasn’t even recorded yet. As well this will confirm the LAND partnership for the trademark as that was done in december 2015 and IKWYDLS was release in Nov. 2015. Now that means they have known her decision since then (nov. 2015), they also stated they tried to convince her to stay? would this mean they were told she is leaving? if your trying to convince someone that means they have told something to the contrary? I also read somewhere that Camila can technically sue them for libel if they state something in the statement that is false and gives her a bad name, don’t know if this is true? but  I feel if it is then they put they were informed in November they purposefully didn’t include the year because if they were told that in November 2015 they technically aren’t lying and camila can’t sue them. This will also go towards the timeline of the trademark if she told them nov. 2015 when IKWYDLS was released. Sneaky, Sneaky how they worded it without actually lying. Every else could be true about the meeting and counselling if they were trying to convince but the not knowing is truly a bold face lie that they changed the narrative by not adding the year in the dates. Again perfect wording by management to set their narrative without lying.

Thank you anon for this submission. When I first thought of this, I was afraid I would be overthinking way too much the statement but the fact that someone else considers it, reassures me.

I find it this way cause it makes sense to me timing wise. Take a look– went through N’s tweets & found this:

Remember those interviews in Spain? Specifically that one where D said they MIGHT be doing some more music together… The day the fandom freaked out even she had to come through later with a fb post to cease the drama. When she ended the text “I’M OT5 AF”.

Well focus on these months Oct/ Nov….

Oct 2015:

As you can notice Normani RTed, therefore the assumption inevitably takes over me. While scrolling though the responses, I found a conversation in spanish between two fans… Basically it was discussed how apparently D in those days had her public tumblr & she was reblogging lots of sad stuff. Other comments were focused on asking to whom it was directed this. Some speculated a lover, some others hinted at a certain someone 👀

Nov 2015- (pay attention to the exact dates, MID-NOVEMBER)

Again, the fact that they were RTing each other tweets, in my opinion leaves a lot to wonder about…

Alright, the following one doesn’t convince me fully. At first I thought it refereed to “business” but now I believe it stands for being busy (sorry my english it’s quite slow at the moment) so maybe don’t pay much attention to it….

Nov 2016:

Lauren’s wild month (we’ve established how all those events weren’t coincidences)

Official photoshoot as four

Rehearsals for AMA’s

If I’m not mistaken, the girls had the first weeks of the month off. They spent time with their families. Now by mid-november, it all seems too rushed to be truth. My point here is that paperwork + scheduling & arranging all the episodes listed above are not possible done in a period of time like such.

Contrasting November 2015 to 2016 we can tell that the girls spend a much lesser amount of time on SM. In my perspective, back in 2015 their indirect game was strong whereas in 2016 they solely logged in to greet fans once in a while & for the US elections. Also adding other aspects like D’s “goodbye” to C on the 7/27 booklet, tour emotional moments & the trademark deal... well of course they were informed long before. I normally don’t base too much my assumptions on just tweets however I pulled them to correlate what I consider recepits with anon’s main idea: “Mgmt purposefully didn’t include the year because if they were told that in November 2015 they technically aren’t lying and camila can’t sue them...they worded it without actually lying.”

[misssophiachase]

I'm back and reblogging because I forgot to add the link and have since changed the chapter FYI.  

Southern Comfort

Chapter 15: You Were Always on my Mind

July 31, 2016 - 100 Days until the US General Election

"You said you loved him?" Bonnie exclaimed.

"Shhhh! Geez, I don't think they heard you in New York, Bon," she muttered, looking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, this was Jefferson so Caroline wouldn't be surprised. At least Emma wasn't around, well she hoped so anyway because otherwise it would be all over town by lunchtime. They were currently decorating Matt's campaign office in anticipation of the big launch that afternoon. Lexi and a few of the other locals had all come out in support to help prepare for the big event.

Being a control freak, Caroline had taken on much of the responsibility herself and was pleasantly happy with the results. She'd invited people from far and wide and the extensive guest list was a good sign that Matt's popularity was growing in the region. They'd spent the past day travelling around to neighbouring towns and given their immediate recognition of the Democratic candidate, Caroline knew they were making serious headway. There was still a long way to go though.

"Stop changing the subject," she insisted. "So, it's really serious between you two then?"

"Well, yes, um, I mean no," she stammered, her face suddenly feeling hot as a telling blush spread across her cheeks. "I don't know. In my defence, I did say I thought I was falling in love with him, there is a difference."

"Mmmm, semantics. I'm glad you cleared that all up for me, Care," she drawled, sarcastically.

"Well excuse me if I was in a state of post orgasmic bliss when the words fell out of my mouth," she argued. "I mean that guy has talents; many, many talents, Bonnie."

"I figured, you know given you didn't emerge straight away," she chuckled. "But it's not like you to say something you don't mean Care, you're one of the most honest people I know even if you do work in politics."

"Hilarious," she groaned.

"Just answer me this then," she prodded. "Do you feel the same way as you did about Tyler?" Caroline was silent for a moment processing what her friend said. She was so young and naive when she was with her ex-boyfriend, she thought she loved him but there was intensity with Nik that had been missing with Tyler. Was it just physical or was it something much more? Caroline was pretty certain she knew but the answer scared the hell out of her. "That prolonged silence speaks volumes."

"Even so, I don't want to get hurt like I did with him, it would be too much to take, Bonnie."

"You grew apart, as devastating as it felt at the time your break-up was the best thing to happen. If you ask me Nik came along just at the right time."

"But he lives here and I live in LA," she bit out, the annoying elephant in the room rearing its ugly head. "It would never work so I have no idea why I'm entertaining something so impossible..."

"You can't help who you love, Care. Geography can be overcome if you really want to make it work."

"I think we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves," she murmured, thinking about Nik's feelings. "I mean he didn't really confirm or deny anything."

"He told you that if you continued to say you loved him then he might never want to let you go. If that isn't a confirmation of him reciprocating his feelings then I don't know what is, Care."

"You memorised all of that?"

"What can I say, I'm a sucker for a beautiful, romantic gestures and that's swoon worthy," she shared. "I'm thinking of using it in my erotic novel, do you think Nik would mind? Well, that and the naked seduction by cowboy hat. That was ingenious by the way." Caroline took the opportunity to look around again, that information she definitely didn't need to be made public. It was bad enough they tracked their every move in this town.

"Shhh," she hissed, before realising what she'd revealed. "Erotic novel?

"Everyone's doing it these days and if E.L James can make a profit from mediocre writing I figured why not, under a pseudonym of course."

"The things you find out about your friends," she commented. "Anyway, I'd prefer that stay between us, well and Nik. That is the last thing I want little Emma to be spreading around town as well as Los Angeles and London."

"Speaking of Los Angeles, have you heard from Katherine?" Bonnie had been immediately interested by the unfolding situation between her and Elijah, especially given their initial animosity and the mystery surrounding their current situation.

"Bits and pieces," Caroline replied. "Apparently she's showing him the sights."

"Does she mean the Walk of Fame and the Hollywood Sign or is that Katherine code for something more decidedly intimate?"

"Who the hell knows, she's been infuriatingly silent on the subject," Caroline scoffed. If she hadn't been so confused about her deep feelings for Nik she probably would have done more investigating but Katherine was a big girl and could take care of herself, well Caroline hoped so anyway.

"Maybe I need to pay a visit to LA and get some extra material for my novel from Katherine," she quipped. "But back to you and Nik, what are you going to do now?"

"I haven't seen him since the morning after, well you know," she replied another blush crossing her face unexpectedly. "I had to leave town with Matt so we didn't have time to debrief, if you know what I mean?"

"Oh, no wonder you're so skittish," Bonnie surmised. "You haven't had the talk about what this all means."

"I just wish I didn't say the love thing first, there's always so much pressure on the other person to return the sentiment."

"We already discussed the fact that he pretty much did," Bonnie shot back. "I think you need to stop worrying about that and..."

"You realise I expect all the gossip tonight right, Caroline?" Lexi interrupted, a knowing smile plastered on her face. "I had to put up with Mrs Downing telling me all about her new herb garden when I could have been revelling in some juicy Nik and Caroline goodness."

"Really Lexi?"

"Oh come on Caroline, it's the least I deserve," she begged. "Living vicariously through you is all I've got and I'm more than willing to repay you with those cooking lessons I promised, you know to surprise Nik."

"Good luck with that," Bonnie snorted. "Everything Caroline has ever cooked me has been either raw or burnt to a crisp. She doesn't do anything in between, just so you know."

"I'm willing to persevere if it means I can relive my pre-married love life before kids, a farm and an election," she scoffed. "You girls don't know how good you've got it."

"You might change your mind if you had to spend the previous few nights with Kol Mikaelson," Bonnie explained. "I can only take so much shameless attempts to throw himself at me."

"He's cute and British," Lexi offered. "You know, he can't be all that bad."

"He's also a successful stockbroker," Caroline put forward.

"Is there something in the water in this place? You have a drink with someone and suddenly you're soulmates and everyone is sitting there already planning your upcoming nuptials," Bonnie drawled. "Just so you know an accent, looks and a stable job isn't enough to convince me he's future husband material. We're just not suited, plain and simple. How about we leave the Mikaelsons up to Caroline and Katherine for now."

"Did I hear my name in vain?" A curious voice enquired. Caroline looked over and into his blue eyes, her chest constricting slightly from his arrival. All she wanted to do was pick up where they left off from but thought better of it given all their present and talkative company.

"We were just talking about how wonderful Kol is," Bonnie joked.

"Oh no what did he do now?"

"It's okay, that wild and enthusiastic persistence is strangely growing on me. He's kind of like a real life energizer bunny," Bonnie teased. "Where is he by the way?"

"Scarfing down a plate of Ruby's pancakes, he can't get enough of them," Klaus chuckled. "And here I thought he didn't like anything about the country. Plus he hates manual labour so I'm fairly certain when I mentioned I was coming here to assist he made other plans."

"How convenient," Lexi smiled.

"Hi Klaus," a familiar little voice interrupted, looking up at him adoringly with those big, brown eyes.

"If it isn't Princess Emma," he grinned, scooping the little girl into his arms. She was dresed all in pink as usual, her dark haired pigtails bobbing around her face. Caroline thought it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. "How are you today?"

"Dad said I could wear whatever I liked to the party."

"Oh let me guess, is it going to be pink?"

"It is," she giggled, obviously impressed he knew what she liked. "Have you kissed Caroline today? I mean that's what boyfriend and girlfriends do right? Tommy James tried to kiss me in the playground the other day but I wouldn't because I actually like Jamie Smith instead." They were all silent, unsure of what to say about that rambling comment but knowing the person it came from it wasn't that surprising given how direct Emma was. Caroline felt her cheeks flush, trust Emma to throw something out there right now.

"Uh no not yet, Emma," he uttered, finally finding words.

"How about I take little Miss Big Mouth now?" Lexi asked, grabbing her daughter from his outstretched arms. "Bonnie, there's actually something really important I need to talk to you about over there too." The three of them scurried away, Caroline's gaze firmly on the ground trying to hide her utter embarrasment.

"You know if you wanted a kiss, all you needed to do was ask, love," Klaus smirked, placing his finger under her chin and pulling her face upwards so their eyes met."You don't need to get five year-olds to say completely inappropriate things."

"You're hilarious."

"Well, I like to think so," he quipped. "So, about that kiss then?"

"I'd rather not given everyone is watching us right now," she mumbled, noticing the eager interest of all the onlookers. As much as they'd all love some PDA, Caroline didn't feel like putting on a show. He looked mildly disappointed and she felt bad but she couldn't deny the residual awkwardness after their first night together. "Maybe later."

"I'll hold you to that," he said. "Although Kol is still hanging around so I don't like our chances of privacy."

"I'm sure Bonnie can babysit if we need it," she grinned, her intial awkwardness being taken over by her overwhelming desire for him. She couldn't blame her urges, it had been a while after all.

"Meet me at my dam later, I know you've been there before so I doubt you need any directions," he suggested, raising his eyebrows. "Given the stifling temperature I'm pretty certain you'll be desperate for some cool relief later."

"That depends," she drawled. "Are you going to take my clothes again and hold me hostage?"

"I think we both know that's a given, love," he smirked knowingly.

"You're on, Mikaelson."

Read the rest HERE

[monarch-moon]

Art Progress 2016

A year which I have learned how to step back and step forward at the same time. More details under the cut.

January- Pages of Hope- Side Quinn Good lord, I couldn't decide which art piece to showcase for January, stuck between the pieces MH!DL- Bnahabro In the Sky, New Year, New Life and the top competitor against the piece: Once Upon A Time. I ended up picking this piece because it fortold how this year was going to be. This was the month where I was most connected with the character, Quinn, who resembled hope...hope that would end up being crushed multiple times later this year. February- AS- Cutting Down Despair The time I remembered how to cell shade again lol. If I remember correctly, this month was when I was still trying out random things as well as going strong with my motivation for Digimon LinK. Behind the scenes, I think Februrary was the month where all I mostly did was random digimon designs and RPing on the forums. They were once my second home when all I have to currently call home is my own bedroom and nothing else outside of it. March- LinK- Ala the Walkuremon I personally feel like I never improve, but with almost every new full piece I dish out, somehow I get better with my shading execution and I don't know how. At the beginning of the month, both ZinyaWolf and FireReDragon came and visited me! The good ol trio got together and did some shit like go to the aquarium, chased geese and all sorts of shit. It was wonderful. A sweet momentary bliss in a life that was slowly getting darker... April- Take the Shot AKA "there was an attempt (to bring Shisenota back)". This was another month where I couldn't decide between several pieces to showcase here, trapped between LinK- The Awakening Storm, CM- Peaceful Nights Out and the simple-yet-beautifully executed LinK- Alternated Vision. I don't have other things to say about this month...other than more RPing, slipping into Mary Sue levels unknowingly, and of course...failed attempts to get a job. May- The first glimpse With certain events from LinK beginning to take ahold of my negativity and my love for the group, I was losing motivation fast. With yet another pitiful attempt to work on Shisenota, I felt that the best thing to work on were the backgrounds. It's not too shabby, to be honest. Can it be better now? Yes. IRL-wise, with LinK dying, we were gonna go back to what we were doing before, which that in itself was still in shambles. It wasn't looking good for us...until an idea began to conduct around the edge of May and June. This concluded the LinK days, and while the ending days were absolute shit, I will miss it. While another story ended up being unfinished, Quinn's main story was more finished than Hukaro's, so I can at least leave LinK without much regret. June- Sans Close-range Mode My official slip into the Undertale fandom of all things, and what did I have to present? A weird sci-fi Undertale AU known as Nextale, which was more or less a semi-Shisenota-esque version of Undertale characters with its own story and characterization that still sets the two series apart. My co-pilot being none other than FireReDragon  , we started out small, gradually gaining followers with interest, but we were still relatively unknwon in the fandom. It was something new, it was something interesting, and it was not only gonna help me improve in some way, it was also gonna help me figure out my own story. This began the Summer of Nextale. July- Nextale- The Crimson Soul Still unknown to most of the fandom, while Fire was busy in summer camp, forced to not work on Nextale, the fate of the AU depended on me. I kept working on concepts and an old set of comic pages in the background, also while attempting to make new friends in the fandom. This was, I believe, when we met some people such as TehRogue, who came to us asking if he could dub the comic when it comes out. Boy how I bounced all over the walls that day. August- Nextale- Page 9 Trashing the old pages and working on fully-colored ones, I finally released the first nine pages of Nextale onto the tumblr blog. I was worried about the reception of the comic, thinking it might be shit because I fucked up somewhere, wheher it would be the AU concept itself or in the storytelling department, and on the day Fire came back from summer camp...something completely unexpected happened. Whoever says that popularity can't happen overnight miiiight be wrong. A couple of bigwigs in the fandom, one being the benevolent Crayon Queen/loverofpiggies and hiimtryingtounderfell/Kaito, found us, reblogged us, and suddenly...we gained over 1000 followers in an hour and then some. Before we knew it....a good portion of the fandom knew what Nextale was. It was then that I found out that this fandom will help me out far more than I thought. To top off the good vibes this month brought about, I also FINALLY obtained a new job at Chipotle! Boy, it would be a shame if the good vibes ended so suddenly, ehhhhhh~? September- In a New Light As I had hoped, with Nextale's creation and progress, it's helped me out considerably with figuring Shisenota out, starting with Kotaru's major redesign! In regards of Nextale and it's evergrowing popularity, every day was like a god damned festival. We met so many new friends, united the entirety of the good side of the fandom to help one person out, GETTING OUR AU FEATURED IN A GAME THAT I'VE BEEN FOLLOWING, and so on! With balancing the two series out, it seemed like it was gonna go well....until I got fired from my job less than a month afterward for not being up to their standards despite giving it my all to keep it.... October- NT Yang Xiao Long With the result of getting screwed over and fired from my job, I had entered a severely deep and dark depression which I had never experienced before until then. As a result of that depression, I lost motivation on everything, Shisenota...Nextale...you name it. It put a severe strain between me and Fire and it also brought about another new demon that made me fear EVERYTHING. The popularity started taking a severe toll on my health, especially when the haters began showing up, despite being so low in numbers...this was the time when everyone truly became my enemy. Art-wise, I forced myself to do anything, and this was the best I could cook during then other than pages. This was a patreon reward back when I did raffles. November- Concerned Pupper During the first half of the month, I was still trapped in my deep depression, which was made even deeper for a while due to the elections, but I was also still figuring out Shisenota. When we reached a point where we can figure out the world and the general idea of the story, I was able to dish concepts out left and right. The depression ended when I got a call to what would be my new job at Dollar General, and even more so when the Underfell game dev wanted to make Shisenota into a game. Finally, I was also able to pinpoint the source of my issues that I later realized strained my friendships with literally EVERYONE ELSE, and that demon was none other than severe paranoia. I have yet dished out something brand spanking new, just some small shaded doodles like this one. December- SSNT- New World, New Sun This month...was the month of recovery, which I will make a journal about later. Upon realizing things left and right, I was also able to get my gears back together, art-wise, and I'm still trying to get a grasp on what I truly want. There's honestly so much I can say about this month, but I'll leave it be for now. All I know is that I think I'm beginning to find my true voice, and within the next month, it will truly be a new world and a new sun. Art wise, I learned how to "step back" on quality on certain things so I'm not either "always going all out" or "simple sketches", the fact made especially more apparent during the summer, but in regards of my style, my shading, and especially my backgrounds, I'm starting to go towards the right direction, I feel. The first few months started out REALLY strong, hell, I couldn't even decide which art piece I wanted to do in January, April and December. However, after that, especially after LinK closed down, all I did was kind of dragged onwards and remembered how to be half-assed and still look good with my art. December is when I've felt that I'm beginning to roar again. Life-wise...this is considered one of my more worse years, but not THE worst year (that goes to 2013). Cool things still happened, however, like getting to see Zinya and Fire physically (again. With Zinya coming over again on August lol), Nextale and Shisenota's revamp. Is it enough for me to not say "fuck 2016"?

Hell no.

I'm sorry, but as a person, 2016 has definitely made me degrade, causing everyone to be my enemy in my head, deep-ass pits of depression, my health issues resurfacing worse than ever, and boy do not get me STARTED on this god damned toxic household and what it did to me in the past year. OH and let's not forget how I was on the path of damaging SOOO many things! I am so glad that I was able to turn back while there was a path for me to. So everyone....with one last hurrah:

FUCK 2016!!

[misssophiachase]

Tagged by the awesome and most politely bossy person I know Enniekins @enniec123 Thank you, luv!

1: Why did you choose your URL?

Miss is clearly self-explanatory but it’s also my middle name and my first dog’s name, weird I know but think it sounds okay, I hope so anyway haha. 

2: Any side blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

Only an admin on a couple of event blogs but otherwise no. 

3: How long have you been on tumblr?

2014 but really only active around mid 2015 if memory serves me correctly

4: Do you have a queue tag?

What is queuing? Lol, I am NOT this organised, it is 99.9% chaos around here. But I have to agree with Ennie’s thoughts on @austennerdita2533 cool tags, they always make me smile.  

5: Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I was writing on FF.Net and some of my readers told me that tumblr was the cool place to be. Then I arrived and loved it. 

6: Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

It has changed over the years but the one constant is the main reason I’m here. Klaroline, duh. I love this pic of them from TO finale even if it didn’t end as we hoped (damn you, Julie - still salty). 

7: Why did you choose your header?

I have two depending on where you look. The first is because I wanted to champion some of our beautiful wildlife especially after the devastating bushfires last year (hence two kangaroos embracing). The other is the most beautiful Klaroline manip from the talented @romanoffsbite who created my entire tumblr design, not to mention all of her amazing covers for my fics. She’s pretty much the equivalent of a modern day fairy godmother (sister).  

8: What’s your post with the most notes?

I went to Vegas and saw Britney in concert. It was right before the 2016 US election and she had a huge sign on stage saying: “You better vote, bitch.” I posted it and it is now in the thousands of notes (I don’t even know how many at the moment).

9: How many mutuals do you have?

There are apparently 93, if I am calculating that correctly. 

10: How many followers do you have?

1529, probably a few bots too given all my time on here, haha. 

11: How many people do you follow?

129, but always looking : ) 

12: Have you ever made a shitpost?

Haven’t we all at some point? Pretty sure I have and if it was that bad no doubt deleted by now lol. 

13: How often do you use tumblr each day?

I scroll through it a couple of times a day on average I’d say. 

14: Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

Not that I know about. 

15: How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

I will reblog posts I think need to be reblogged, it is obviously a subjective thing on what you like and what grabs your attention.  

16: Do you like tag games?

I do, so much fun and great way to get to know everyone. 

17: Do you like ask games?

Of course. 

18: Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

All of them probably? What exactly is the definition of tumblr famous haha, someone tell me and I might be able to answer this one better. 

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?

Of course I do, probably quite a few for different reasons, but I’m not about to tell you that lol. 

Tagging, if you want @lilacsandorangeblossoms @carolineforbae @denielapple @fyeahklaroline @gooddame @queencarolinemikaelson @strongbeautifulfulloflight @these-dreams-go-on @clerdekattt @clichefangirldreamer @ginnyforbes @destellolunar and anyone else who wants to do it : ) x