#attaining power

[tomorrowusa]

Katie Stallard who is a political writer from the UK points out in The New Statesman exactly where three of the six SCOTUS votes enabling Trump immunity came from.

Many observers will also view the ruling as the logical conclusion of the former president’s efforts, along with the then Senate leader Mitch McConnell, to pack the court with conservatives, adding three such justices – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – to the bench during his four-year term. Public trust in the Supreme Court was already at an all-time low, with just 28 per cent of Americans saying that they believed Supreme Court justices would be fair and impartial in a June poll by Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Along with the decision to overturn Roe vs Wade last year – which had protected the right to an abortion for half a century – this latest decision will only compound the perception among many that this is now an activist court with a conservative agenda. This is particularly concerning given the crucial role the court could play in determining the outcome of a closely contested election this year.

Rightwingers in this country have had a long term agenda which they have mostly stuck to. Almost immediately after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision they began their efforts to gain control of the Supreme Court. It took 49 years but the Court finally reversed Roe in 2022.

In that period some progressives behaved like the distracted boyfriend meme. When a politically sexy but ephemeral third party or fashionably lefty temptation appeared on the scene those distracted progressives foolishly embraced it and ended up empowering Republicans.

For gaining power and keeping power in the US it's necessary to put long term goals ahead of short term titillations. And part of that means educating folks on how government works in real life — not relying on things like simplistic stick-figure diagrams on how a bill becomes law or how presidents are elected.

Taking back SCOTUS and amending the US Constitution will take years and won't be easy. But if we don't start learning from the persistence and successes of Republicans then things will only continue to deteriorate for democracy.

[haze-of-hyperfixations]

a concept. to consider. what if. what if there was a Remember Them reprise after the Thunder Saga. "We are not to let them die in vain" except he's the only one left so it's "I am not to let them die in vain." and there's no backing chorus of his men. because. they're all dead.

and the line takes on a whole new meaning now that he's the one who chose to let them die.

(not in vain. it can't have been in vain, it can't have been for nothing. i have to see her. i have to see her, because if i don't make it home, those men died for nothing. the ends always justify the means. i can justify anything as long as it ends with Penelope and Telemachus both in my arms again. but if it doesn't-

but it will. it will. it has to.)

and our- ... -and my comrades will not die in vain...

[elspeth-tirel]

etrata -> elspeth-tirel

[skrunksthatwunk]

love like you / maternal pang

bonus under cut:

the first stephanie + the maternal pang tone destroyer i couldn't include bc it's a serious comic

[transhuman-priestess]

they should invent a trauma that makes your life better

[fauvester]

still losing my nut in the lost tomb akatsuki vers.. they’re even already paired up… itachi and kisame have the most typical necro cav relationship but with added morbid courtly love.. the weird suna/obito threeway…. and the zombie combo where kakuzu is also a necromancer, but the only thing he does is regenerate his body to stay alive for 200+ years only to continue to be kicked around by life and ending up as a cavalier to the prodigy orphan priest of the dying 9th house, who’s brilliant and stupid and violent and physically strong enough to be a cav in his own right.. and INCREDIBLY annoying

[themintyone]

More character portrait wip from my pf2e game

[thecraftyninjacat]

ohohohojshkjfhjkshfk *runs into an electric fence*

[absolutely-esme]

My Headcanon for Liminals

I've been having a lot of fun posting headcanons, and I'm starting to realize just how many I've built up over the years, so here's another one.

So I've stated before that part of the reason why Danny and Vlad are so different is because Danny was inside of a portal when it turned on whereas Vlad just got a face full of energized Ectoplasm and other assorted nastiness. The still human and already ghostly halves of Danny fused into a cohesive whole in order to survive the opening of the portal and continued supporting eachother. Vlad's human half forcibly integrated his resistant ghost half as it formed in an effort to survive. Rather than a cohesive whole, Vlad is two dischordant halves.

That said, I do not consider Vlad's state the default result of humans being exposed to ectoplasm.

Part of it is because the exposure was violent and his human body was so incredibly unwell that it made sense for the part of him with less emotional attachment to it to want to escape. This illness did not stem directly from the ectoplasm. We know this much because other people exposed to ectoplasm did not get ecto-acne, and figuring out the involvement of the cola was what allowed the Fentons to cure it.

Part of it is because Vlad has a superiority complex. This means that, in any given state, Vlad considers his current way of being superior. As a human, Vlad considers humanity superior. As a ghost, Vlad considers ghosts superior. This leads to a whole lot of clash between the parts of his psyche which each consider the other half to be lesser. Combine this with the fact that each half despises the illness and associates the illness with the other half, and you get a whole lot of internal toxicity.

For the average person with ectoplasm exposure, there wouldn't be so much of a clash. They would take on some ghostly traits (more and more over time, with continued exposure) and maybe start doing some prep-work for ghosthood, but they wouldn't be trying to leave their human lives early. They probably won't have insane healing factors like Danny, but they won't be tearing themselves apart like Vlad either.

They're preparing for the afterlife, but they wouldn't be so eager to discard the human life they are still living. If you've ever had a favorite hoodie that you wore all the time until you loved it to pieces and it came apart at the seams, that's kind of the feeling. It's not the end of the world when you can't wear it anymore; you can wear other jackets when you're cold, but you want to hold onto it for as long as you can.

The more someone is exposed to ectoplasm (in terms of both frequency and amount), the more ghostly they will become over time.

A random person who just happens to live in Amity Park on the opposite side of town from Fenton Works and and was somehow never at the sight of a ghost fight, will probably just experience a slightly increased awareness of ghost-related stuff and perhaps a slightly smoother transition when their time comes.

Other kids at Casper high, who attend school with Danny every day and get caught up in ghost attacks sometimes will probably start to form the wispy beginings of their ghostly self. Sometimes you just catch a glimpse of what sort of ghost they are going to be. They may also develop some slight powers while still alive.

You look at Paulina carefully shaping and lacquering her nails into something both beautiful and dangerous, and for a split second you just know that, someday, she's going to be all claws and glittering scales and passionate pursuit of her goals. She will transcend the human form and shape herself into a work of art of her own design and a powerhouse none can deny. Then she turns to her friend and giggles over a funny story, and the moment passes; she's just another kid steadily making her way to adulthood.

She's just another kid until some jerk at the mall oggles her a little too blatantly and her jewelry flashes brighter than the lighting should allow, blinding him so that he trips into a fountain, and Paulina smugly watches him sputter before turning to walk away with a satisfied spring in her step.

Sam and Tucker, Who hang out with Danny every day and frequently explore the ghost zone with him, will start forming more of the foundation of their ghostly selves and probably develop more powers sooner. They are more likely to develop to a point of being able to take on a ghostly form while still alive.

Typically, a halfa formed through extreme, prolonged exposure like this would have a bit of separation between their human and ghostly halves, but without much discord between the two. However, with Sam and Tucker spending so much time around Danny during their formative period (and having so much less contact with any other ghost than with him), it's entirely possible that they would subconsciously learn the integrated system approach, in much the same way people pick up habits of speech from the people around them.

[himedanshicult]

the lesson i walked away with after that wave of cisfeminists praising 4B (that individual was only a small part of it) is that for many if not [or lets be real,] most cis women and people CAFAB, when they talk about feminism needing to "get mean", they mean specifically at trans women and sex workers

[whetstonefires]

i mean i am not immune to the appeal of Feanor and the idea of him maybe not fucking it up so bad if he got another go, but also one of his most iconic lines is "no other race shall oust us!"

(spoken to a crowd of armed supporters) ((soon after this they fell ass backwards into stabbing the neighbors for their stuff)) (((feanor EMPHATICALLY did not return the stuff)))

so i try to keep my expectations grounded ykwim?

[mean-vampyre]

The tv shows should get cancelled because disgusting people don't deserve a legacy. "But it's my entire life I need--" fandom can outlive a cancelled show, go read fanfiction or wathever, let that man rot in the hell of being forgotten.

[akkivee]

OUGH

[sillverstreets]

i soo wanna say i told you so

[todayisafridaynight]

What do you think Mine’s reaction to Masato / Aoki be like?

tbh they'd probably be. amicable. at the very least.

[nyaskitten]

Crazy that all Lloyd had to do to stop the end of the world was lock in real hard!