#because ULTIMATELY she doesnt just want her reforms

[deathbirby]

Edelgard’s lack of interest in looking into the history of Fodlan beyond what her (dubiously reliable) father and (fantasy Nazi torture squad) TWSITD tell her is such a clear and glaring character flaw that so many of her “did nothing wrong” fans defend as Good, Actually. Like I can’t wrap my head around it, we know that there’s so much about the history of the continent that El either doesn’t or refuses to learn and while it’s understandable in some ways why she can’t it’s still like. Bad. It’s so clear that if her actual goal was liberation then she would’ve done more research, gone to the church and told them that hey, the Slitherers™️ are at it again and we need to do something. But she doesn’t, because that’s not actually her goal… it’s conquest of the other two nations and an overturning of the current system to favor her (mostly already privileged) friends, plain and simple. But people who either didn’t play any routes but CF or just didn’t pay attention/have poor media analysis skills love to say otherwise. Bluh.

I still can't get over how she was tortured and lost all her siblings to TWSITD and decided that the CHURCH was the biggest threat.

Edelgard 100% believes she is in the right and is the ONLY person who is right and thus is the ONLY person who can bring about change. And with "change" I mean "unify Fodlan and bring it under the control of the Adrestian Empire like it was in the past".

At no point does she consider that Wilhelm's history could've been tampered with, or simply been misunderstood after a whole millenia has passed. And why not? Because it's the only thing that drives her hatred for the church, and if it was disproven then she has no leg to stand on? Probably!

[joocin-thebox]

me: ranting about mlp g5 and its continuity errors and world building logistics

my friends who are subjected to my long winded complaints:

its too many thoughts too many tags i realize so they're going here YAY

complaints and spoilers for up to chapter 6 of make your mark below!

ND formatting bc i see walls of text and i die!

again: who cares if g4 is the history??

like whatever that is so cool i love that idea! made me so excited!! but the entirety of g5 is unintentionally undoing everything they allegedly set up between g4 and g5

im just confused as to why have 6 whole chapters of 'we are strengthening the magic twilight made!' and then 'well its all gone!'

i GET that its... you know... not the worst thing and its not bad on its own, that's totally fine, i just

personally i think it could have gone a better route with a better finale (not that chapter 6 is the finale) :/ opaline was a villain with lots of potential but horrible execution. reduced to comedic relief villain that randomly actually takes her motivations seriously! she was lazy for 6 whole chapters, until a halloween episode and suddenly!! she's a little less lazy! yay!? no depth to her character whatsoever. she was jealous of celestia and luna and apparently she wasnt even a fire alicorn to begin with???

i think having most of make your mark into a summarized exposition for the inital movie, would have set up something a bit better for opaline as a villain and our characters as heros! the "we did it mrs obama, we got rid of pony racism!" is so... stupid i think that idea was bad and that's okay bad ideas are fine to have, but imagine opaline being a villain in the movie instead of not being relevant at all!

we get introduced to all of our main characters right off the bat, and focus on opaline's peak and fall as a villain so we have our central antagonist, because the preaching of unity imo goes ultimately no where. i like the idea of "when you have friends, you're never truly alone", but at the same time... them splitting up to defend their own homes when they could defeat opaline together as a unit makes so much more sense and its the reason they lost! they were not as united as they claimed! they're not even symbols of unity, in the slightest!

in their defense, all bg ponies are dumb as rocks, so :/ go figure no one would actually stand behind the "keepers of the crystals" even in times of need

make your mark could have been about ensuring opaline didn't return, exploring new kinds of magic, deepening bonds within our main cast and with our main cast and their other relationships, creating character we can care about their success instead of expecting deus ex magica to fix everything for them! giving them a reason and a will to fight, give their friendship and confidence boost speeches weight. make ANYTHING mean something. and you can have "filler" and non-lore related episodes in that and still have a good story! i literally know its possible... g4 did it... but g5 main case dont really grow as characters, i mean, Zipp is allegedly supposed to be training to be queen or preparing for it, and yet we never see that. We know she doesnt want to, but we know she might have to. You could literally parallel a Frozen dynamic where the older sister gives up her reign just because she can!

We could see Pipp train to be queen, Zipp becoming queen like accidentally, or someone new entirely trying to take over Zephyr heights as a low stakes antagonist. (like sprout)

We could have a potential Opaline reform, or attempt at reform that ultimately fails and we seal her away for good! it would give her a chance because Sunny seems like the type to at least give anyone a chance.

I talked with a friend and was like 'oh instead of introducing sparky during mym, introduce him in the movie as a dragon egg opaline had captured and he had hatched DURING the movie, and hitch could have rescued him and maybe felt a greater attachment bc he SAVED sparky from possible death!! kids like drama and angst too! it doesnt have to be cushy, i mean shit chapter 6 pushes the envelope a little bit i think!

i could literally think up what kind of story beats and what we could have done all night for g5,

except for tell your tale.... 5 min youtube shorts that sometimes have an explanation for mym details is unforgivable and needs to just be gonezo. a lot of people have netflix. share mym clips on youtube if you need to so badly. or, if you have to tyt so bad, dont have them do things... that never get explained in mym... or have tyt be a sub product of mym, where something happened in this mym chapter, oh we will lightly reference it in tyt! but tyt is more focused on lighter character bonding or even background characters! like holy shit! the possibilites!!

watch me make a "what we could have done better: mlp:ang" video with my shitty mic and piss poor editing abilities! i stg.... im inspired... i have so much hope for this show but it has just... it falls a little flat where it could be greater!

and dont get me wrong! g5 has a lot of great moments! i like the relationship hitch and misty have, despite how they barely ever talk to each other in the show (sunny, zipp, and pipp are our REAL main characters, lets me real)

i love the sisters' relationship with each other, i love how izzy and pipp are creatives of different types, how hitch and zipp are sleuths of different types, how they're protective and reluctant in similar ways, i like how sunny always wants to inspire others and is kind of sassy and lowkey shades ponies when she's trying to give the good word. I love all that stuff. its not as bad as i tend to make it seem because im a world class hater but g5 is not BAD, i just think it could be BETTER

honestly i could even just put my ideas into an au... a fix it au... hmmm.... thinks?? thinks hard??

[bcneofmysword]

[kentaro sakuguchi | he/him] A new face takes refuge under Dark Skies. BEJO AN , an THIRTY FIVE year old TRIAD (UNTRIGGERED WEREWOLF) , is one of those from the PRESENT learning to navigate this changed world. People say behind their back that they’re VENGEFUL but the truth is that they’re really SENSITIVE . Their style can best be described as DETECTIVE WEAR WITH TRENCH COATS, and we’ll see how that helps them fit in. ( its min ). 

Content warnings: death, incaracarations mentions, coerced enlistment, (ill put cw by the bullet points so t*mble doesnt flag me again)

Bejo was born to a stern father and a reserved mother in Manila. A mother who made him swear up and down to not resort to violence 

That promise stayed until he was around 11 when he was involved in a fist fight. It was an insult bout his mother- what was he suppose to 

Ended up going to reform school and left to the United States shortly after his sentencing 

His parents began arguing more, he just need the escape so he got involved with the wrong crowds. Hotwiring cars, breaking curfews, and a few minor arrests. 

Bejo still found himself falling for a someone (wc). Something about them anchored him so well.There was a charm. The calm in his stormy life. Staying with her on the window ledge eating soup from a thermos and leaving when he was told to. 

He would have asked for her hand after college if everything went to plan 

cw But the group he was involved with get caught shoplifting and it was his last warning. He was given two choices: jail or the coast guard for 10 years. Naturally he was pushed to do the later.He tried his best to stay with her but ultimately he broke her heart and his in a dear john letter cw

The days in the coast guard were hell, but it wasn’t so bad briefly keeping contact with a fellow coast guard. He ignored the ramblings of the Triad

It was just him for a while, counting the days down. Maybe there was hope for him. Maybe he would come out unscathed 

Bejo was sadly wrong when a sonic weapon has used at sea, it was a loud pitched sound and then nothing. He couldn’t hear nothing. 

cwHe spent the rest of his time being the more administrative man at sea. The loneliness ate him whole. But the worst news was his mother falling ill. 

Bejo remembered being on her side, now with hearing aids, barely able to make out she was saying. Maybe if he did he would have able to hear beware of the wolf within/ 

Bejo could only stay to bury her, crying at her tombstone wondering how his life could come to this, when his mother died so did what was left of his good nature. cw

Bejo came out of the navy and his grief a closed off man. But for the sake of his mother, he decided to be a slightly better person. Going to law school, trying to maintain a steady job, He didn’t know why or how he was pulled by the oea, perhaps he had a way with words and his score at an archery range. 

For Bejo, the triadwere a means to an end for everything he lost, he wanted to regain it by being  the man that brings the hand of justice. Even if something told his mother wouldnt approve 

And whatever has been stirring inside him during the full moon but he might never know what it is…..he was a monster by his own standards anyway

Personality and Quirks: 

He is ambidextrous

Hes like a very closed of dick who doesnt belive in attachments because uhhh life sucks 

Has no clue about the werewolf thing because he literally couldn’t hear his mother say that and think he has some stress disorder because of the moon

He only likes, tolerates, or hates

Doesnt really flaunt he’s triad because its so much easier to be seen of the redeemable guy but he isnt , but makes a few exceptions

Because he’s deaf due to his accident he can talk and sign but he prefers to sign 

Hasn’t killed because his mom told him to and assumed it was because cultural so decided to obey 

More a guy who does distance shots then close combat because he feels like opponents can scream and also banshees freak him out 

Also frequents maid cafes because those are the only things open at hours that are allowed and reminds him of his mothers cooking and hes melancholic

So very impartial to mothers because of his own guilt taking his own for granted 

Of his family the more a black turtleneck wearer  at the beach if anything 

Connections: 

That one lover/ex fiancee/ person that got away (maybe second chance true anchor kinda thing)

Someone who sees past the act and sees hes hurting

Old high school friends that drifted apart

I guess people spelling out hes a furry (untriggered werewolf) 

Friends-very loose definition

Siblings

Someone to drive him deeper into the belly of the beat (the triad) 

Someone to pull him out of it 

Anyone to trigger his curse at some point- idk some of you seem like the sadistic types of uhhh bring it on. 

[ofsupernovcs]

[ sen mitsuji | he/him ] Another face is seeking safety in New Orleans. Make sure to welcome BEJO ARNOLD to the home of the resilient. Rumor has it that they are an THIRTY EIGHT year old HUNTER/UNTRIGGERED WEREWOLF, who is one of the SURVIVORS but we’ll keep that a secret. They are said to be CYNICAL, but that’s all a façade to cover up their PENSIVE nature. We’ve heard that they can be found listening to FIGHTING GOLD by CODA, which sums them up pretty well. Let’s hope that they can find a way to survive this harsh new world.

Content warnings: death, incaracarations mentions, coerced enlistment, (ill put cw by the bullet points so t*mble doesnt flag me again)

Bejo was born to a stern father and a reserved mother in Jakarta. A mother who made him swear up and down to not resort to violence 

That promise stayed until he was around 11 when he was involved in a fost fight. It was an insult bout his mother- what was he suppose to 

Ended up going to reform school and left to the United States shortly after his sentencing 

His parents began arguing more, he just need the escape so he got involved with the wrong crowds. Hotwiring cars, breaking curfews, and a few minor arrests. 

Bejo still found himself falling for a girl named Gabriella Garcia. Something about her anchored him so well.There was a charm to her. The calm in his stormy life. Staying with her on the window ledge eating soup from a thermos and leaving when he was told to. 

He would have asked for her hand after college if everything went to plan 

cw But the group he was involved with get caught shoplifting and it was his last warning. He was given two choices: jail or the coast guard for 10 years. Naturally he was pushed to do the later.He tried his best to stay with her but ultimately he broke her heart and his in a dear john letter cw

The days in the coast guard were hell, but it wasn’t so bad briefly keeping contact with a man named Rohan. His heart broke when he heard the news bout what happened to him. 

It was just him for a while, counting the days down. Maybe there was hope for him. Maybe he would come out unscathed 

Bejo was sadly wrong when a sonic weapon has used at sea, it was a loud pitched sound and then nothing. He couldn’t hear nothing. 

cwHe spent the rest of his time being the more administrative man at sea. The loneliness ate him whole. But the worst news was his mother falling ill. 

Bejo remembered being on her side, now with hearing aids, barely able to make out she was saying. Maybe if he did he would have able to hear beware of the wolf within/ 

Bejo could only stay to bury her, crying at her tombstone wondering how his life could come to this, when his mother died so did what was left of his good nature. cw

Bejo came out of the navy and his grief a closed off man. But for the sake of his mother, he decided to be a slightly better person. Going to law school, trying to maintain a steady job, He didn’t know why or how he was pulled by the oea, perhaps he had a way with words and his score at an archery range. 

For Bejo, the oea were a means to an end for everything he lost, he wanted to regain it by being  the man that brings the hand of justice. Even if something told his mother wouldnt approve 

And whatever has been stirring inside him during the full moon but he might never know what it is…..he was a monster by his own standards anyway

Personality and Quirks: 

He is ambidextrous

Hes like a very closed of dick who doesnt belive in attachments because uhhh life sucks 

Has no clue about the werewolf thing because he literally couldn’t hear his mother say that and think he has some stress disorder because of the moon

He only likes, tolerates, or hates

Doesnt really flaunt he’s oea because its so much easier to be seen of the redeemable guy but he isnt 

Because he’s deaf due to his accident he can talk and sign but he prefers to sign 

Hasn’t killed because his mom told him to and assumed it was because cultural so decided to obey 

More a guy who does distance shots then close combat because he feels like opponents can scream and also banshees freak him out 

Also frequents maid cafes because those are the only things open at hours that are allowed and reminds him of his mothers cooking and hes melancholic

So very impartial to mothers because of his own guilt taking his own for granted 

Rohan’s stepbrother but more a black turtleneck wearer  at the beach if anything 

Connections: 

I guess people spelling out hes a furry (untriggered werewolf) 

Friends-very lose definition

Someone to drive him deeper into the belly of the beat (the oea) 

Someone to pull him out of it 

Anyone to trigger his curse at some point- idk some of you seem like the sadistic types of uhhh bring it on. 

[iturbide]

Oh I don't doubt edelgard believes her cause is just. The thing with her is it doesnt stop with her reforms and her toppling of the church. Thats how we know her goal is conquest.

In 3 hopes she had her reforms made WHILE rhea was in power. And Even with Rhea dead and the central church dissolved she doesnt stop her war. At this point it is no longer about removing the church to make way for reforms. Because she accomplished both of those things and she's still not done.

Why isn't she done? Because thats not her ultimate goal. She wants all of fodlan under her control. Funnily enough, Claude says it too. His reason for killing rhea was because he foolishly believed that would remove edelgards reason for war. ( it doesn't).

He also said that if she doesn't stop her war, then that means her war is just blatant aggression. In their supports he calls it Conquest and edelgard doesn't deny it, she knows what this is ( shes much more honest about it in 3 hopes) and she actually tells him she wants the kingdom gone, not just the church.

villains don't need to be like "tee hee mass murder , war , conquest! Yay!" realistic villains are those who truly believe in their cause and theyll say this is for the good of all. what makes them a villain is how they will do absolutely anything to achieve their aims no matter how much blood is spilled and how much suffering it causes. No "sacrifice" is too great for Emperor Edelgard von Hresvelg.

this is how they justify conquest irl no? Western imperalism 101. We say It's for a just cause. We say Its for their own good. We say our way is the superior way and they will see that (or die) . Truth is we can make up any reason for it , the end is the same and they still hate us for it. And i can't say I blame them for feeling that way lol

I was never trying to refute that Edelgard is an imperialist. She's absolutely an imperialist. There's really no getting around that. But I'm pretty alarmed by this take, because it discounts a lot of things about her and her character in favor of a read that her goals are motivated solely by selfishness.

And this is coming from someone who has an entire tag devoted to Edelgard criticism.

It bears repeating out the gate: I haven't played Three Hopes yet. I don't imagine I will for a while yet, and news on Edelgard's route has been sparse coming to my inbox, so I'm not able to speak on Scarlet Blaze in any real capacity (not that I take it as any sort of canon, myself, though that's neither here nor there). But I can speak on Three Houses, since I have played through three of the four routes in their entirety, including Edelgard's -- Verdant Wind, Silver Snow, and Crimson Flower are complete; I've stalled halfway through Azure Moon. And in the case of Three Houses, while Edelgard is definitely chasing an image of the past now lost in the form of a Fodlan united under the Imperial banner, I don't think it's fair to say that she's only after that.

The fact is, she's not wrong that the Crest System is bad and needs to be reformed. She lays the blame on the wrong target, through a combination of misinformation and only partial understanding of the larger situation (likely for a number of reasons, including the unavoidable evolution of House Hresvelg's "true" history of Fodlan passed to its heirs, potentially influence from the Agarthans in manipulating information for their own purposes), but she's not wrong about the fact that the system is toxic and something needs to be done. And that system doesn't exist only in the Empire: its influence extends throughout all of Fodlan. So she sets her sights on tearing it out wherever it's taken root.

From a character and narrative standpoint, it does actually make sense that she'd target the Church of Seiros: the faith of the land gave rise to the System, even if Seiros herself had no hand in it, and so the only way to change the system is to raze the faith of the land and bring about something new. And because the Church has footholds in the Kingdom and Leicester -- both of which also suffer from a system that overvalues Crests -- she takes her campaign across those borders. Yes, she also believes that the Church was responsible for breaking up the Empire into the Kingdom and later the Alliance, thinking that it was a means of creating artificial divisions between people to keep them in conflict and unable to turn on the Church and its inhuman arbiters -- but ultimately her goal was to free all of Fodlan from the Crest System, rather than only Adrestia.

I don't say any of this to discount that she does horrible things. Because she does. There's a reason I will never play Crimson Flower again. But to flatly vilify her rather than acknowledging her as a complex character with justifiable goals is something I can't accept. Making the situation out to be a black-and-white, good-and-evil dichotomy flattens what makes Edelgard interesting and compelling as a character in favor of presenting her as Lady Walhart but with enough sense to not broadcast her intentions. And that's not fair to her, because there's a lot more to her, her situation, and her character overall than what your message implies.

[glorytoukraine2022]

For salty ask list-elena of avalor-4,22,23

4. I have three, actually, and yes, one of them is a popular OTP. My three NoTP’s in this fandom are Carla x Alonso, Carzel and Eleteo. Given that I’m a Carteo shipper, this isn’t unsurprising. Even before I started shipping Carteo though, I never shipped Eleteo. I love Mateo and Elena’s relationship, but I’ve never seen it as something that could go beyond friendship.

Carzel though? With Eleteo I can at least understand where people are coming from. We’ve seen Mateo and Elena interact several times throughout the series. Enough times, that if they fell in love it wouldn’t be completely out of the blue.

A lot of times when people tend to ship a couple, their fondness of the ship and the dynamic of the couple is based on their on Screen interactions, even if romance was never intended. We’ve never seen Carla and Marzel interact even once. And all of a sudden people are expecting them to fall in love and have a future together? I cannot even understand where people are getting a dynamic from. I just don’t see the chemistry. At all.

While this pairing doesn’t seem to be shipped as often as the two I mentioned above, I’m also not a big fan of the Carla x Alonso pairing either. Alonso is somebody who would spend more time staring at his reflection than paying attention to his girlfriend. Carla doesn’t strike me as the type of person who would be attracted to somebody like that. Especially reformed Carla. I don’t think many people in the fandom understand just how deeply Carla has changed (expect a post on this in the future).

Post reformation Carla is a very kind, sweet, selfless and caring person. She would not want to be in a relationship with somebody that self absorbed. I would also like to issue out a friendly reminder that Carla saw the falling out of her own parents’ relationship firsthand. A big part of the reason for that falling out is because of Ash’s egotistical, self absorbed nature. So I would like to think that Carla would be weary of somebody who exhibits those traits.

Now, I’m not comparing Alonso to Ash by any means. He’s definitely a better person than she is by the end of the series. He’s learned to care for his people and others beyond himself. He has learned to be humble and take responsibility for his own actions. Yet as I mentioned above, he is still somewhat self absorbed, so I still do not think Carla would be attracted to him.

I think I understand why people ship this couple. I think it’s because people Carla as a girl that’s super focused on her looks and appearance. I understand why people get that impression from Carla, but I personally never did. Yes, she wears jewelry, but she never struck me as the type of girl who overly invested herself into her appearance.

She doesn’t wear makeup, and if she does, and I just never noticed it, she clearly doesnt wear much. Her yellow dress isn’t particularly fancy or gaudy either. So she never struck me as the type. It doesn’t seem to match her personality either.

22. I…..honestly can’t think of any! Any characters I hate, you’re supposed to hate because they are villain. Sure, there might be some characters who I’m not as enthusiastic about as other members of the fandom, but I would never say I hate them. I still enjoy them and what they contribute to the show, just like everyone else. For me, any flaws the characters in the show have only add to both the characters and their arcs, and I wouldn’t want them any other way.

23. Victor Delgado-he’s one of my favorite characters in the series. He’s such a fun, entertaining character, with a great sense of humor. He’s also the best father to Carla and I love their bond like nothing else. He’s the best father in the entire show in my opinion. He’s always there for Carla and knows exactly what she needs and when. I love him❤️

However, I feel like he always gets a lot of hate from this fandom, especially in comparison to Esteban. He is always seen as the ultimate bad guy, because he worked for Shuriki in season 2 and was a villain for the majority of the series. It also stems from his untrustworthy depiction ever since his debut in “King of the Carnival.” Whenever I read pre Shuriki fan fiction, Victor is ALWAYS depicted as the untrustworthy one, the power hungry one, and the most eager participant in their deal with Shuriki, if not the one to contact her. I also hear people insist that he was a bad father to Carla growing up because they lived a life of crime.

I’ll admit, hearing all of this frustrates and even angers me at times. Hearing and seeing all of this makes it clear to me that there is a huge bias against Victor in this fandom. It is unfair to assume that Victor is the one who first came into contact with Shuriki and put more “heart“ into the deal. Esteban too agreed and wanted the power that Shuriki offered. Victor and his family suffered just as much as Esteban’s when Shuriki took over. Him and his family were banished from Avalor.

Also, let’s not forget that Esteban was the one who joined up with Ash, whereas Victor refused to go with her. Even after what happened with Shuriki, it took Esteban over 41 years to stop trusting people who promised him power. Trusting those who “pretend to listen” as Cahu correctly said. First he trusted Shuriki, then Ash, and then the Shadows of the Night. It took all of this to happen just to make Esteban realize the mistake that he kept making over and over. Victor wanted power because he was bitter. He was genuinely treated with disrespect. Once he realized that this life of crime was endangering Carla, he didn’t hesitate to back out of it. I swear, I love Esteban and am not trying to hate on him. But he’s not exactly a Saint either, despite the fandom constantly trying to depict him as the better person.

Though the one thing that makes me the most angry, is when I see people say that Victor isn’t a good father to Carla. Hello? Where have you guys been Throughout the entire series? He’s always loved and cared for Carla. She means EVERYTHING to him. If you didn’t understand it in the beginning of the series, than it should have been hammered home to you by the second half of season 2 and the beginning of season 3. Victor stood up to Ash to protect Carla! Yet you’re all saying he isn’t a good father to her?!

We don’t know enough about Victor and Carla’s past beyond the fact that they were mistreated. Victor was never evil, yet the fandom always tries to frame him as being the more “evil” of the two because they assume, that because he’s Carla’s father, that he must have been using and influencing her this entire time! In “The Lightning Warrior“, it is shown that Victor and Carla weren’t always criminals and for a moment, Carla’s childhood was quite peaceful. But at some point, Victor and Carla clearly fell on hard times. Did any of you consider that Victor was a single parent, who had to provide for himself and his daughter after his wife left them? Did you think that was easy and wouldn’t be stressful or challenging in any ways? He had to provide for himself and Carla. How do you know that necessity had nothing to do with Victor and Carla’s life of crime?

[creacherkeeper]

okay re: disability in pyre because im somehow not the only person interested in this 

first off disclaimer that obviously people get different dialogue in their games so im coming from what i got in mine about disabled!reader which was honestly NOT MUCH but some people may have gotten more that i dont know about. if you have more info about stuff, please respond! i’d love to hear it. or honestly just thoughts in general like im so up for a convo about this 

but its just so fascinating to me having a game that is built around physical competitions - sports for an easier term - where the basic concept is that this sport is how individual worth is determined and the status of citizen is restored 

and that game having an explicitly disabled protagonist who is unable to participate physically in those sports 

i’d like to clarify up front that i don’t think this is done badly in the game at all. my game didn’t talk about it much but i think this explanation in universe for why your PC doesnt play makes sense. i just want to chew on what this means. super ramble under the cut  

its explored multiple times how “right” the scribes actually are. obviously theyre held in high esteem, but were the rites really the correct or best way to go about things? are they a true test of worth or do they cause needless suffering and competition? is a workable option built in a corrupt system worth anything in the end? i think everything about the scribes & the rites is really interesting because its heavily coded as religion whereas it works more as a legal system. this is less about sin and more about societal exoneration. which brings us to the commonwealth 

we know the reader was exiled for being literate and is ALSO disabled. i think there’s a line in there that the disability is not new, which means being disabled is not in itself illegal in the commonwealth. which like. given everything that IS ILLEGAL thats like. honestly kind of surprising? even moontouched girl, who is heavily coded as autistic/ND, was exiled because no one claimed responsibility for her (i did not actually get her backstory in game though so i might be missing something there, again please let me know). there’s nothing i got in the game that says disability is really seen as a negative inherently. which makes it VERY STRANGE that the rites, the one way to regain freedom, is a test of physical ability 

we know from volfred (and possibly brighton too) that readers arent banned from participating in the rites. from what i got of volfred, it seems he filled both reader & participant roles at once. which means that truly the only thing stopping the player character from participating, and ultimately winning their freedom (from what we know up until the end) is that they are physically disabled. so what does that say about worth & value in the downside? the rites are how one is judged as worthy of freedom - does that therefore mean that those unable to play are not worthy of even being judged? does that mean that their worth is a complete nonfactor? or that they “deserve” to be in the downside without question? 

its really interesting that the rites weren’t introduced by the commonwealth themselves, the people who would be receiving those exiles BACK. if it was, i would be much more likely to say “this is their way of limiting the number & influence of disabled citizens”. but it wasn’t ... they were formed by the scribes, exiles themselves, in the downside. they were raised in a corrupt system, but ultimately they sought to reform it. so why then, in their process, would they make it MORE limiting? we see characters pushing themselves to compete way past the point where they should probably stop (you’ll live forever in my heart old dog man) and even that competing can cause illness. it’s obviously a strain on the body. it’s interesting too that the downside itself changes people physically - common folk turned into demons are bigger and stronger than they were before, but also much slower. im sure for just as many folk turned demons, who found themselves more powerful from their time in the downside, there were even more who found themselves disabled because of it. why did the scribes feel those people were not worth getting back? 

the one physically disabled character (from how i remember, please correct me if theres more!) that we see participating in the rites at all is sandra. obviously she’s not in the real things, but she does play & is good at it. however, sanda is a highly trained operative who received a lot of training even after she was blinded. so that does introduce the whole aspect of exceptionalism. physically disabled people are able to compete, but they have to work that much harder to “””overcome their disability””” to be on the same level 

and, obviously, its a video game, so the player character does have to be the “most important” and the one making decisions. but its also interesting that, because of that, in such a narrative heavy game, the character who cant compete is also the one holding the team together. did the scribes never anticipate a possibility like this? that a person unable to play could still be so important and influential? the very basis of the game is that people come together to form teams based on common values - did none of those values include situations of disability? or is that what the final rite is for? the 1 in 28 chance, with all the teams, that a disabled person could go free? that their team, again, would have to be the Very Best, and willing to choose the disabled member? and our player character is also A READER, one of the most vital things to have in the rites. would physically disabled people, with limited options for work and hobbies, not be more likely to turn to mental activities like learning to be literate? 

honestly this has no conclusion because its just a bunch of thoughts thrown at the page but i DID only finish this game yesterday. if anyone got more dialogue about this in their games please let me know!!! or if you just want to have a convo :0 brain is in Pyre Thoughts Only mode right now 

[akechicrimes]

Hey crimes, feel free to disregard this tangent but, do u ever feel like P5 inadvertently or otherwise implied Goro was right with his fake “vigilante justice operates outside and the law and thus must be brought to heel” opinion? What with the fact that the Yaldabaoth confrontation implies the thieves work perpetuated humanity’s sloth AND THEN after an entire game showing us the hundreds of people who were at the v least COMPLICIT in shido’s machinations, a system which is (1)

ohhhhh this one is fun!! this is a super neat question, ty for asking!!!

hmmmmmmmmm

im going to try and break this down into parts, partly because persona 5 is such a convoluted mess with its own lines of thinking, so tell me if i dont do it right. the issues are: (1) goro definitely did say that operating outside the law was bad just on principle that you shouldn’t operate outside the law, and (2) persona 5 did definitely go on to say that all of the phantom thieves’ operations outside the law didn’t come to anything in the first place anyway, because they were only targeting individuals instead of mass systemic corruption/their presence was enabling people to become more apathetic.

i think what persona 5 is trying to get at is that it’s not necessarily that acting outside the law is bad, but that, like you said, targeting only individuals doesn’t work as a tactic. so vigilante justice (e.g. batman style of taking down supervillains) cannot compare to societal reform through collective action.

when i say collective action, i mean that i think persona 5 is trying to point out that “systematic” corruption is really just a corruption of many, many, many individuals working in concert--and that “reform” could just be said to be the opposite, which is activism from many, many, many individuals working in concert.

obviously the ending cutscene where akira;s social link network gets together to protest his arrest is the best example of collective reform, but i think one of the things that i rly like about shido’s wide-spread conspiracy is that it does a rly good job of paralleling akira’s social link network, and pointing out that in the same way that shido’s conspiracy is a collective effort of many many many people that make up a “system,” akira’s widespread social link network creates the opposite effect of a collective effort of many many people that make up a force for change. 

which is why having the phantom thieves as a group itself just promotes more apathy--you get one group of people doing all the work for the rest of society, when if anything’s going to change, we need everyone on their feet.

which surprisingly correct, insofar as i’m aware. if society’s going to change in a substantial way, beyond just changing the hearts of a handful of abusers and letting the rest of the system remain untouched, everyone’s got to be involved. collective effort. do your part. wash your hands. stay indoors. don’t forget to vote. seriously, wash your fucking hands.

but when it comes to whether or not persona 5 says that you shouldn’t be acting outside the law... 

i think persona 5 really really really really really doesnt want to be caught promoting lawbreaking while also being You Should Break The Law: The JRPG.

part of this trouble, i think, is just because they need players to actually like the characters in the game, and therefore all the character have sympathetic reasons for breaking the law. because persona 5 has to sell marketable characters, too, persona 5 itself makes it pretty clear that people who operate “outside the law” are usually not evil dipshit criminals who love sin. the people in persona 5 who act outside the law are usually people who dont have enough power to operate inside the law in the first place. akira, the pt, and goro all seem to have resorted to what they did because they had no societal power at the start, wound up with a persona (aka fast and easy power source), and wouldnt have been able to do anything about their situation otherwise. characters who operate outside the law (like takemi with her vaguely illegal practice, or kawakami and her also vaguely illegal sex work, or iwai and his vaguely illegal gun business) are still supposed to be waifus you are sympathetic towards. 

(...i think i accidentally called iwai a waifu? hmm. on second thought, i’ll just leave that sentence as it is.)

and i really do have to point out that persona 5′s attitude of FUCK COPS is insanely strong. like. persona 5 HATES cops. and that doesn’t let up basically ever, at all, at any moment. for anything. persona 5 wants me to believe that makoto will become a good cop in the future, but if i wanted to find an existing good cop, i’d have to go all the way back to persona 4. like!! shit!! goro akechi is the closest thing we have to a good cop, and he has a pet guillotine for CEOs and his middle name is komaeda.

and that part of the big attitude with FUCK COPS is that it’s another way of morally exonerating the phantom thieves. i think... although the game ultimately concludes with “you should probably not break the law any more because the metaverse is gone,” it’s difficult to argue with the fact that persona 5 is a game in which it presents you with 10000000000000 reasons to break the law and feel Great about it.

(another tangent: i feel like one of the big undercurrents of persona 5, and especially the TV station, is that the phantom thieves are justified in their lawbreaking because the police aren’t doing their fucking job. like, someone’s got to keep people safe, and if the cops don’t like the phantom thieves, maybe they should get off their asses and actually get the criminals before the thieves do. akira literally was on live television and he was like ALL COPS ARE BAD and goro was like wow. anyone else think that was really sexy? @ the guy in the glasses in the back, call me later when you’ve leveled up your charm and knowledge.)

so atlus is in this place where they’ve pointed out that people break the law because they dont really have any other choice, and also persona 5 the game HATES cops, and also persona 5 the game cannot tell you that breaking the law is bad because it is literally A Game About Breaking The Law, but at the same time, they cant really go around promoting crime. from a doylist perspective i was 100% unsurprised that they came up with a fancy narrative reason to get rid of the metaverse and their change-of-heart abilities and just the phantom thieves in general, because all of those are a threat to the status quo. although the game might be right that relying on the phantom thieves to change society for the rest of the population makes the rest of the population lazy and apathetic, it’s pretty convenient that this means that the kids are now no longer able to break the law. so persona 5 really wants people to do things the kosher way, e.g. protesting and such. 

hhfmgmhfmghfmgfmghmfhgg. taking this all with a grain of salt, because again, i do think atlus is trying very hard to avoid saying that people should break the law:

i think atlus wants to say that it’s not necessarily acting outside the law that’s not right, but the fact that just loading the phantom thieves with a ton of power makes people apathetic, and changing the hearts of a few individuals is Not enough to get rid of something like shido’s conspiracy. so instead they say, you shouldn’t break the law because it’s not effective without collective reform. 

i think another thing that persona 5 wants us to believe is that for the most effective reform to be achieved, people both inside and outside the law/system have to be involved in the collective effort to improve society. 

e.g., toranosuke wants to be a man of the people--someone who speaks for the people who are outside of the diet, but toranosuke himself is someone inside the diet. sae’s the other good example; the phantom thieves protest akira’s arrest at the end of the game, but sae, as the insider in the justice system, has to be there to hear and work with them. and this might just be because i watched haru’s s link last night, but i feel like takakura is a really good example: haru pushes back against the company’s shitty policies with her “outsider’s” perspective (quoted because she’s technically the largest shareholder, she just hasnt ever been really involved in how the company is run), but takakura, as the company president and most powerful person at okumura foods, has to be there to hear her request and agree with her, and make company changes based on her requests. 

and it’s for this reason that persona 5 wants us to consider maybe lawbreaking isnt morally bad, just not effective.

i wish i could say that that’s more bad atlus writing, but it’s not. i’ve only really examined changing schools on an institutional level, but the best examples of institutional change in school administration have always been cases where the administration, parents, and community members all work together. in some cases, parents bring up requests for the school to accommodate their needs, and the administration listens and works with them. something something--everyone needs an advocate. the point of a lawyer is to advocate for you. the point of a politician/representative is to represent you and your interests. so on and so forth.

(and i also wish that it could be as simple as saying, “wow atlus said something right for once!” because that’s not true, either--acting outside the law can be outrageously effective. persona 5 trying to tell us that acting outside the law to get shit done isn’t effect smells like corporate trying to tell its workers that unionizing doesnt actually do anything.)

(and i also wish that persona 5 would have acknowledged that sometimes, it takes more than just an extremely moral person to change the world. take toranosuke, for example--i’m sure that if he gets elected, he’ll go out there and be a wonderful representative of the people, but at the same time, can’t we also simultaneously acknowledge that any politician who can make “politics” a career for profit will always be incentivized towards self-interest? in the same way that a military for profit will always be incentivized towards war?)

but insofar as whether or not persona 5 thinks that vigilante justice/acting outside the law is in and of itself morally bad--i’d say probably not. i think they want us to think that it’s not effective.

-

-

-

this is a slight tangent that kind of goes off the issue of whether or not persona 5 is concerned with whether or not breaking the law is moral or effective. i was going back through goro’s dialogue in the engine room--who knows if that’s going to be changed in royal--but i was trying to figure out exactly what the phantom thieves condemn him for. (fucking difficult as fuck considering how bizarre that dialogue was at places.) 

the first one is murder, which goro is unimpressed with (LMAO. KING). the second is that he operated outside the law, to which he replies that they did the same thing (valid). the third is that his form of justice was “selfish,” in that it only served his personal need for revenge. at that point, goro changes the subject--which is not really surprising, since goro admitted long before the engine room that his quest against shido was for his own personal satisfaction. 

that is to say, the phantom thieves can’t say that they don’t operate outside the law, because they do--however, if the phantom thieves can’t be legally exonerated, the phantom thieves are morally exonerated despite operating outside the law because they do it for the benefit of others. that’s actually not an incorrect statement from the phantom thieves, although i dont think they’re doing it for Society Writ Large. the phantom thieves in every single palace have taken on targets to help someone else: firstly ann and ryuji and shiho, then yusuke, then various shujin students being blackmailed by kaneshiro, etc, etc. i remember pretty distinctly that ann insists that she doesnt want to get involved with madarame just for drama or fame (whereas ryuji wants to pick a big target just for the sake of getting famous), but she agrees to get involved with madarame’s palace because she doesn’t want to leave yusuke to possibly kill himself like a previous student.

because the phantom thieves are not able to say that they haven’t operated outside the law in the same way that goro has, the dividing line between them is instead that the phantom thieves are doing so selflessly. but this is just an elaboration on the question of whether or not “is lawbreaking moral?” rather than necessarily “is lawbreaking effective?”

there’s an argument that nothing goro or the phantom thieves did was effective in the long run, and there’s an argument that sae is proof positive that working inside the system won’t be effective, either. 

anyway, unions are effective. so maybe we should agree to wash our hands and join a union.

[oleanderblume]

Going in from here

Sorry yall, I'm back on my bullshit but this time it's not fawning over my new favorite character.

Its PLOT.

K. So. I mentioned that in the Steven universe movie I really didnt like the way Steven was characterized, BUT I have a feeling that his characterization is going to be important for the future ie season 6.

So, if you haven't heard, rebecca sugar mentioned in an interview that spinel and the diamonds will be influential on the plot of season six, and I'm here to theorize WHY.

Normally, I would expect spinel to be a straight one off movie villian similar to tempest shadow in the mlp movie, but this is Steven universe and nothing is really done one off.

So back to Steven's character arch in the movie.

Steven has always been a compassionate person, and he definitely has grown, and grown very tired of dealing with his moms past mistakes. It shows in the movie, it shows in the series two years prior.

He is so obsessed with this idea that he can have a happily ever after and things will be normal for him for once, and he wont have to deal with his moms problems.

Throughout the movie I considered his actions very self indulgent, so to speak, understandably this is before his epiphany, but even afterward he is still a bit selfish.

Throughout the movie he is concerned, and rightfully so, in trying to fix the problem as quickly and easily as possible, he is so concerned with this that he loses his tact in very delicate situations.

Ie: "I need you to remember, if you dont something really bad will happen to me and my home" when spinel is on the verge of a mental breakdown.

the poor tact during spinel's relapse as well as essentially passing her off to the diamonds to prevent them from trying to live with him on earth. Potentially putting the four of them into an abusive relationship given the diamonds are not fully redeemed, and spinel is still heavily dependent on that approval juice.

What I'm saying is; this is older Steven. Not naive 13 year old Steven, or hopeful 14 year old Steven this is pubescent 16 year old Steven who is so done with everything that he has had to deal with that he has become slightly more self centered than he was in the past, I dont think his actions and characterization was unintentional.

In fact, I think it very much was intentional.

Steven as a character has constantly had to deal with his mothers poor decision making skills, and the fallout that came afterward. But I dont think he realizes that he can and will make bad decisions too.

And given that he is older, It doesnt necessitate that he is wiser.

I think, with his characterization, and his decision to pass off spinel a not fully stable gem to not fully reformed villians, his decision to rework the entire government if a galactic empire is going to really bite him in the ass in season six.

I think, in the future, he is going to be forced with the realization that he screwed up in a big way. And he is going to have to clean up his own mess for once.

And I hope, I really hope that is the case.

Not just because I want more spinel, but also character development. Steven isnt perfect, and he wont make all the right decisions, he will make the ones he thinks are best, and it's going to put him in his mothers shoes for probably the first real time in his life.

Rose/pink was a person who made bad decisions with good intentions. She has made rash, and impulsive, spur of the moment decisions that literally changed the fate of the galaxy. That had repercussions that lasted millennia without her even realizing it.

Rose, more than likely felt the weight of these decisions while she was making them, and specifically afterwards. I doubt that she never once thought about spinel, or returning to homeworld, or becoming Steven at length after she had already made those decisions and couldnt tread back on them.

Steven needs that too. He needs to feel the weight of his decisions and the repercussions they potentially and in all likelihood will have.

He made the decision to rework the gem government, he made the decision to be intentionally distant from spinel, and he made the decision to evade the diamonds despite them very clearly needing his direction when it comes to ethical governance and allow them to maintain the idea that gems are objects.

Those decisions will have repercussions, and he needs to know that, he needs to know that the full effect of his countenance is required for effective rule now, or at least for a long time.

And I really REALLY hope that's the direction the season goes. Because if it doesn't, I'll be severely disappointed in the writing.

This show is all about how your actions affect others, and the repercussions of those actions, it drives it into your skull that kindness and understanding is the most effective way to turn people to your side.

So I'm hoping that Steven has to face repercussions of his own doing, on a massive scale, similar to pinks decision to fake her death, and maybe even, he comes to the realization that pink/rose isn't a terrible person, but that she made a series of really poor decisions and had no time, or forethought to imagine the consequences let alone deal with them. And that he has done the same, but instead of running from them, he will turn and face them head on and mend his mistakes himself.

Thay in my opinion would be the ultimate character conflict. And I think, in my eyes, the stage is being set for such a thing.

[adozensinammonrolls]

Hi! Survivor of (non-antivax) medical neglect that could have easily turned fatal here! Medical neglect is no joke and it doesnt matter the intentions of the parent who refuses treatment, you should not support the neglectful parent and their feelings dont mean shit. Medical neglect is abuse, and its almost guaranteed to permanently harm the child.

Hey!

You make a really valid point, and I don’t mean to say that the mother in the context isn’t guilty of medical neglect. She absolutely is, but I also don’t think that is sufficient to ridicule her. Anti-vax and vaccine-hesitance are slightly different mindsets, and studies have shown that while to former is usually a lost cause to reform, they are also only a minority. Vaccine-hesitant parents can be convinced when they are approached with compassion and patience, and unfortunately that’s not what I am seeing in a lot of the responses to this story, both on tumblr and where I first saw this story on facebook. This mother sought care for her child and received the doctor’s recommendations for care, but was hesitant because she was scared and didn’t understand what she was given. So she turned to a facebook group where other people gave her the told her to ignore medical professionals and gave her the ultimately fatal advice. There are a lot of deeply-ingrained historical and cultural causes for medical mistrust that I absolutely do not have the expertise to explain, but they are factors that we have to consider when approaching how to address vaccine-hesitance and medical neglect. 

As much as we like to think we are rational creatures, we make a lot of decisions based on emotion. If we want to address this issue, we have to compassionate and welcoming of people who are confused, unsure, and ignorant, or else they will turn to communities that make them feel safer. We can’t just criticize those who make mistakes. I am sure this mother has learned her lesson, but there are so many parents out there who are on the verge of making the same mistake, and wouldn’t it be better to prevent another child from dying than to feel vindicated because we’ve made cruel comments about a stranger online? Sorry, this is much longer and much less organized than what I wanted to say, but hopefully I’ve gotten my point across. I also want to say that I am not trying to start and argument, just trying to spread solutions to a problem. 

[thefudge]

klaroline had chemistry and were both popular/beloved characters. i believe that's what attracted ppl to it... ur analyzying a hot vampire show too deeply. if the white girl thing mattered so much, he'd be shipped that hard with elena, hayley, that other white girl from the originals, etc. pretty sure klaus interacted with many white girls and none of it picked up

well, on the one hand i would say that klayley and klamille had/have pretty big fandoms on their own with a sizable impact, but i know what you mean that KC seemed special and out of the ordinary and that’s, imo, due to timing and convenience. klaus was due a “love interest” and this was the “first” girl that seemed to finally draw his interest. if there had been a white witch instead, or elena, under the same circumstances, (i’m gonna kill you, oops, i change my mind, cat and mouse game), it would’ve had just as much hype around it cuz ppl wanted to see klaus courting smb, cuz #klausthirst, i guess. 2012 was a gentler time. also, before KC showed up, there was speculation and klonnie and klena too, but since nothing concrete had happened, it did not seem to take over the fandom as KC did. 

i think KC’s big appeal is less about chemistry (more about that in a minute) and more about facility and self-referentiality. so for instance this ship could be teased in the last season of TO precisely because it’s not really reliant on any storyline or character beats, it’s somehow independent of the show, it has its own universe and it can pop up on tvd, TO, legacies etc because it’s more about this illusory dynamic where klaus is caroline’s weakness (he’s not) and where caroline reformed klaus in some way (she didn’t). in fact, KC thrives on “would-be”s and being these “imaginary soulmates”. if caroline and klaus had actually interacted more and had more to do with one another, the ship’s popularity would have been tested by a relationship’s natural progression. but since KC were never rly given a chance, it can live in that ideal place of “canon without consequences”. 

the best i can say about them is that they ended up as friends, which is rather more appropriate. (their TO scenes read like two exes who are content with having put their brief stint behind them. in fact, they have far more chemistry as friends)

as for the chemistry, the first KC scene is probably the best because there was a certain warmth and mystery to it that it never managed to equal after 3x11. the rest of the season caroline kept acting more bothered by him than anything else (and not in a fun hot way). their scenes are always a combo of caroline going like “gawd! i can’t believe you’re here!” klaus: you can’t get rid of me so easily, love x 100 but without much impact on the storyline or on each other as characters. klaus doesnt really grow as a person until his stint on TO, let’s face it (and his time with his family and cami) and caroline’s “ethical dilemma” about klaus is not really dealt with (tyler is vilified for it more than her - not that she should be vilified but you don’t get the sense of real conflict) because this whole thing was not thought out very well. hell, even caroline’s attraction to him is infantilized. i mean…. klaus literally comes back for a few scenes just to have sex with her….okay. their emotional scenes are always stunted by lack of good writing (the scene where he stabs her and bites her and then she’s like “you’re in love with me and every person who loves is worth saving” ….is tonally weird, because it has not been earned and it jars with the rest of their dynamic, because such intimacy is hardly ever brought up again). i will say KC had potential for smth interesting, but it’s precisely because of their “no narrative strings attached” policy and because this ship ultimately isn’t that challenging that ppl latched onto to it. and i don’t fault them for it, we all like fast food, i just wish we’d be more critical about it. 

(sidenote about whiteness: i feel like caroline was a much easier self-insert to project on than hayley and camille who challenged klaus in far more intimate and visceral ways. again, caroline could have potentially challenged klaus like that, but she never got the chance)

[cursed-to-be-a-sidekick]

DC Ladies and Why They're so Awesome

Barbara Gordan: So of course Im going to start of with a good part. Babs is probably one of the smartest people in the entire DC universe. She graduated high school early (at like sixteen) and went to college. She got her masters degree so she could be a librarian. In her 20's she became a congresswoman but apparently was too liberal to get re-elected. On top of this all she was batgirl. When the Killing Joke happened the DC universe thought they lost Babs. Not only did Babs stick around she became stronger. Babs used everything she had and built up the Birds of Prey using her quick thinking and computer knowledge to keep her team safe. Not only that but as Oracle Babs was the information keeper for the Justice League. She had every single superheroes number easily accessible and knows them all personally. Also Babs became a Green Lantern! Like thats awesome. Babs has been at war with the Calculator for forever and has won every time. You can not tell me Babs isnt one of the best DC characters hands down.

Diana Prince: Okay I bet you're all surprised I didn't start off with Diana. I love Wonder Woman so much and there's so many reasons why. First off Wonder Woman defied her Amazonian sisters and went out to the real world. She didn't know what was out there and didn't really care. She wanted to promote peace and be a diplomat and that's what she was at least for a while. When Diana killed Maxwell Lord she regretted it so much that she decided not to be Wonder Woman anymore. Even though everyone told her that her reasoning was just (cause like yeah it was). Wonder Woman has this huge sense of responsibility and like how can you not love her for it. Also the fact she's more powerful than most of the Justice League and the Justice League knows and admires it. Yeah that's definitely a plus.

Mary Batson: Okay I love Mary and honestly I don't know much about her but I'm going to take a stab. Mary carries this sense of responsibility, she wants to be a hero and she's damn good at it too. When she lost her powers around Countdown she was devastated. When she got them back and become "Black Mary" that absolutely sucked. But she came back became Mary Marvel again and built herself back up. Mary is a key part of the Marvel family and I don't know what Billy would do without her. She's also still a kid. Like an actual kid. A teenager and she's out helping save the world. Yeah I have respect for that.

Kara Zor-El: Of course Supergirls on this list. Why would she not be? Okay supergirl has an interesting story. She's the sole survivor of not one but to planets. When she arrived on earth she knew nothing about the planet at all. She had to trust her cousin knew what he was doing to help her. She wanted to build a whole life away from being a superhero too. She just wanted to be a normal kid. She has her ups and downs but ultimately Kara is probably one of the best characters because she's realistic. She's written to be an angsty teenage girl who is still trying to figure herself out. Sure she's chronologically 30 years older than Superman (depends on what story you read) but that doesn't make her any less of a kid. Also she fought Darkseid and Lex Luthor while still figuring out her powers, she single handedly took down the entire Justice League and she's more powerful than Superman. I think that's pretty cool.

Dinah Lance: The Black Canary's name has belonged to like three different Dinah's at this point. But that doesn't make her any less awesome. Dinah is trained in all forms of martial arts and is thought to be the second best martial artist in the world. Yeah the entire world. Dinah is hot heated and can be moody at times but she knows what she's doing. Even after losing her Sonic Scream she continued to kick ass with the Birds of Prey. She did get her Sonic Scream back later while in the birds but she never seemed to rely on her powers, she always just used her gut instincts and quick thinking. At one point Dinah adopts a child who was being trained to be an assassin. She kept this child and even stopped being with the birds to settle down with Oliver Queen and have a family. Dinah is undoubtedly one of the best ladies in the whole DC universe.

Helena Bertinelli: Okay not only is Helena a superhero known as the Huntress shes also a school teacher. Helena originally was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman but at some point during Crisis she became a vigilante who was the daughter of a mob boss. After her whole family is murdered in front of her she vows to end the underground crime ring in Gotham. Shes pretty good at it and almost succeeds. Sure her methods arent well liked by Batman but she gets her job done. She joins the Birds at one point and actually gets a family. Babs gets her a job as a school teacher and Helena is happy again. Towards the end of the original Birds run Helena manages to take over the underworld and Gotham and manages to (almost) take it down.

Stephanie Brown: Okay Steph is the daughter of some low class supervillain called the Cluemaster. She becomes Spoiler as a way to make up for all the things that her dad did. She literally built herself up from nothing and became an amazing superhero. Steph might have never had a major standing in the comics but she was there in the background spoiling everyones plans. Also Steph got pregnant as a teenager. Like thats really hard to deal with. And she did it mostly while continuing to be a vigilante. Steph maintained a good friendship with Cass and when Cass ditched the title of Batgirl Steph took it up. While Batman never approved of her actions Steph did everything she could to be an accepted member or the batfamily. Plus she was briefly Robin which is really cool.

Cassandra Cain: Okay daughter of assassins is already cool but the fact she can speak solely with body language is amazing. Cass never learned how to speak and was trained to be the worlds best assassin. When she did learn how to speak she spoke few words. Despite that she maintained a great friendship with Babs and Steph. Babs trained her to be the new Batgirl and Steph ended up being her best friend. Cass is even better at fighting than Batman and she took down the Joker her first time fighting him. Not only did she break the Joker out of Arkham she beat him and sent him back just as easily. Cass had a great character arc and I just love her character. She really brought the name Batgirl to mean something entirely new and when she dropped it and gave the name to Steph she did it with honor. Cass did at one point leave to go run the league of assassins but she eventually came back to Gotham.

Talia Al Ghul: I dont know much about Talia but I think I know enough to write a paragraph about her. Talia is the heir to the demon. She trained as a child to be an assassin alongside her father Ra's Al Ghul. She also fell in love with Batman. But thats probably the least cool thing about her. I mean she is an assassin who will potentially inherit a whole army of assassins and be immortal. Like I dont know about you but I think thats pretty friggin awesome.

Selina Kyle: Okay Catwoman is amazing. She trained to fight under Catman which is pretty cool. Also like she controls part of the Gotham underworld. Selina is an amazing woman who is a great thief and she also has morals. She doesnt do killing (most of the time) and shes even been a hero for a while. Catwoman became a hero alongside Batman but at some point she decided to return back to crime. She's worked alongside the Birds of Prey a few times and at one point was even a member. Selina also decided not to marry Bruce because she knew marrying Batman might give him a reason not to be Batman anymore and she knew people needed Batman more than she needs Bruce. Also Selina helps girls on the street. Like thats a major thing. Helping kids who dont have much. Like thats great. Lastly she feeds and takes in stray cats and thats just wonderful.

Harley Quinn: Okay while I wouldnt consider Harls a hero persay (shut up new 52 and rebirth) she is still an amazing character. Harley is a genius, she blew through med school and became a psychologist. She built herself up from working at Arkham from the bottom all the way to working with the highest class psychos. Harls was also an amazing gymnast and she had tons of medals. After falling in love with the Joker she did some regrettable things but the fact she managed to get herself and she started to redeem herself shows a lot about. Harley now just wants to help people she wants to fix what she did wrong. Harley has a big heart and wants to do right and while she knows her methods arent that great shes trying hard. She just wants to please the people she loves and cares about.

Pamela Isley: Okay Ivy is a tricky character. She doesnt really have a set backstory or anything that I really know of. Ivy was a scientist and something happened that changed her physically. She became connected to the green. Now Ivy isnt really sure who she is. She became the Batman villain known as Poison Ivy and became an ecological terrorist (at least thats what I think they call her). Ivy really just doesnt know her place in the world. Ivy is wicked smart and she has patented a lot of biotech stuff and she made Harley the antidote that made her immune to toxins. She does end up re-entering the field of science a few times and is genuinely trying to turn a new leaf and become a better person. At first she didnt really understand that what she did was wrong she just wanted to help out the plants because she saw all these terrible things happening to them. For the most part Ivy is a misunderstood person who is trying to find her humanity.

Kara Zor-El (Earth Two): Okay Power Girl is a tricky character to figure out because she has so many different backstories due to the destruction and then reformation of the multiverse. Anyways Karen Starr is from another Earth specifically Earth 2. When she arrived on Earth 1 she learned there was already a Supergirl. She took on the name Power Girl and founded a company that focused on software (I think.) Shes older than Earth 1s supergirl and is kind of like a big sister figure at times even though her and Kara are the same person. The two also didnt start off on the right foot with eachother. Karen for a while led the Justice Society of America which is really flipping cool. Karen knows whats right in her heart which is what makes her like Superman in a way. Because like her cousin (even if the two arent really cousins on earth 1) she wants to help people.

Donna Troy: The original Wonder Girl will always hold a special place in my heart but I kid of want to focus on her time as Wonder Woman and also as simply just Donna Troy. When Wonder Woman quit being Wonder Woman Donna took her spot and she made a pretty great Wonder Woman. She doubted herself a lot and didnt think shed ever be as good as Diana she pushed herself up to the top and did it. As Donna Troy she was an amazing Teen Titan and she even cheated death. Her spot in the multiverse has been looked over a few times but her Roy and Jason last I heard were all kicking ass together.

Rachel Roth: Ravens a weird character Im not going to lie. Shes kind of mysterious. Rachel was a key addition to the Teen Titans, her powers are unmatchable in battle a lot of the time. Also shes the child of the demon Trigon. Rachel herself never really knew what to do with herself but while growing up she knew she had to do something and that she has to save people. She spent her teenage years with the Titans and continues to be with the Titans even if shes technically supposed to have aged out by now.

Kate Kane: Kate is one of my favorite characters of all time. Batwoman adds so much to the story and it covers a lot of things Ive never even thought of. Kate was kicked out of Westpoint under Dont Ask Dont Tell. The story talks a lot about her experience with PTSD, being gay and also being in the army. Kate runs a major business and is Batmans cousin. Kate literally gives zero craps about what Batman says and she does what she wants even if he doesnt approve. Kate has a big heart and ultimately she just wants to save her sister. After being kicked out of Westpoint Kate became a party girl and an alcoholic becoming Batwoman changed all of that for her. She became the woman she was meant to be.

Maggie Sawyer: Maggie Sawyer is a badass cop. Shes also Kates girlfriend and shes a mom. Being a cop in Metropolis is one thing but since moving from Metropolis Maggie has joined the GCPD. Being a cop in Gotham versus being a cop in Metropolis are to completely different things. Maggie can do it all and she works well under pressure. Shes an amazing cop and deserves so much more credit that what she gets in the comics.

Renee Montoya: Renee Montoya started out as another Gotham City Cop well until she became The Question. Also one of Kates ex girlfriends Renee has taken up Vic Sage's mantel and become the Question. She's a cop turned vigilante who is trying to do everything she can to keep Gotham safe.

Zatanna Zatara: So Zatanna is a magician. An actually magician with real magic and also a performing magician for kids. She does a lot of volunteering and loves showing her magic to the kids. Shes part of Justice League Dark and her powers are probably some of the most powerful in the whole DC universe. Zatanna can literally do anything just by saying it backwards. She doesnt get as much credit as she deserves but Zatanna is a kid with a big heart and deserves a lot more than she gets. Also did I mention she once climbed Mount Everest?

Courtney Whitmore: Not many people know much about Stargirl but this teenage girl is a key part of the Justice Society. Stargirl is a nobody without her Cosmic Staff but with it she is one of the greatest members of the JSA. Courtney has befriended Supergirl and has run around on all sorts of adventures before she could even vote. Her friendship with Supergirl is strong even if it isnt seen too often in the comics. Stargirl is just another kid who wants to change the world and who does manage to do it.

Lois Lane: Supermans girlfriend has ring to it enough but pulitzer prize winner Lois Lane is so much more than that. Shes an investigative reporter who strives to find the truth no matter the cost. Time and time again she goes undercover and risks her life for her job. She has no powers and no fighting skills just faith and a keen eye for a story. So sure while she's Supermans girlfriend she so much more than that. She's a woman who's going places and will always be independent. (Bonus: the first time Clark meets Lois she's yelling at some guy at the phone for being sexist)

Lana Lang: Supermans other girlfriend. Lana kind of got abandoned for a while but trust me she's still great. Lana takes in Kara while Kara is still struggling to figure her life out. Lana is the most supportive and loving person there is. She really cares about Kara and treats her like a daughter and as a best friend. Her friend ship with Lois Lane is amazing and Lana had an amazing story arc when she became possessed. Moral of the story never mess with any of Supermans girlfriends because they will fight back and theyll fight back hard.

Lady Shiva: If it wasnt for Lady Shiva Black Canary would be the best martial artist in the world. Lady Shiva is a long time Batman villain and not even Batman himself can beat her. Shes said multiple times that the only time he did she let him. She just wanted to know how worthy of an opponent he was. Shiva and Dinah trained under the same sensei together and have a mutual respect for eachother. For a short period of time Shiva even took Dinah under her wing to teach her new techniques no one else in the world even knew.

Mia Dearden: Speedy is hands down the best Green Arrow sidekick. And no Im not talking about Roy I really do mean Mia. Mia was living on the streets for the longest time and as a teenager. Constantly in the comics she talks about what it was like as a teenager being homeless on the streets, doing drugs and even selling her body just to stay alive. She became a great fighter while training with Ollie and Dinah and becomes the second Speedy. Mia is quick thinking and knows how and when to act. Later in the comics before she joins the Teen Titans she gets diagnosed as HIV +. That was the first time the DC universe made a character be HIV + and it hit hard for a lot people. Her backstory is really sad but its meaningful and really tells a lot about things that nobody knows anything about. Mia is a spunky kid with a lot of personality and she wants to help people.

Emiko Queen: Emi wasnt really around until she become the Red Arrow in Rebirth. She had her ups and downs but she stay devoted to Ollie throughout all of it. Emi is a tough character who really wants to be just like her big brother. She does at one point join a cult but then she breaks away from the cult to save her brother. Emi really admires Dinah and their friendship is great. Her story is still just starting to develop and its really cool to see where its going.

Zinda Blake: Lady Blackhawk has been no where in sight since New 52 hit. Im not really sure if theyll bring her back but I hope they do. Zinda is a hotheaded pilot who thinks more with her fists than she does with her brain. Shes a key member to the Birds of Prey and a true hero. After somehow re entering the continuity despite having to have originally been in WW2 Zinda has begun to fit right in with her weird accent and odd slang. I really hope she gets put back in soon.

Charlie Gage-Radcliffe: Misfits not really a well known character but shes a good one. Shes a spunky kid with an obsession with Batgirl. She takes on the mantel of Batgirl briefly before the real Batgirl, Barbara Gordan, stops her. Babs takes her in as one of her Birds and trains her. Charlie is just a kid and Babs knows it. Charlie doesnt get to see much action throughout the series but her character really grows a lot and she molds into this amazing character. Misfit is pretty impulsive and her mind (and body) tend to bounce all over the place. Charlie is just like any other teenager and she does everything she can to look on the bright side of every situation

Cassandra Sandsmark: Cassies Wonder Girl is what got me into Teen Titans. Cassie knows what she wants and knows how to get it. She can be short tempered but she had a really good heart. Her friendship with Supergirl is one of the best friendships in the whole DC universe. Cassie ultimately just wants to impress Wonder Woman. When she's not roaming around with the Teen Titans or on Paradise Island she's like literally every other teenage girl. Sitting at home argueing with her mom. Her power for her lasso comes fron her anger which she seems to carry a lot of. Shes still figuring out how to be Wonder Girl but shes become a valuable asset to the team. Cassie is a really relatable character and I love her for that. Her and Diana are a great pair and seeing them together is amazing. (Bonus: In New 52 Teen Titans she can put up a fight against basically anybody including Tim Drake and she hates the name Wonder girl)

There are more characters but this took me about two hours to write so Im going to cut it here. If anyone wants me to add any more characters let me know in the notes and I'll edit this. Also special shout outs to characters who I didnt have enough info on to put on here but are still equally as awesome: Martha Kent, Director Cameron Chase and Linda Park.

[tumblunni]

Headcanons for dr maddiman's son Cliff cos i have so many feelings

* ok first off his yokai name is dr nocturne and maddiman's hospital was called nocturne clinic so i guess thats the family surname? These poor guys were cursed to a ghostly fate with a name like that! But also doesn't that mean Cliff is literally using his dad's name as a yokai? Thats so fuckin heartwarming!! I like to headcanon that he kept his dad's old name badge from his job and he still wears it to remember him. Its kinda his "soul item" as a yokai, it stays stuck to his ghostly flame even when he's unconcious and if you damage it it does damage to him. But it also means its capable of magically reforming as he heals up, which is a huge relief! I think maybe he found this out after it got destroyed in a big fight one day? So he was shot down to 1hp but also buffed the fuck out in every stat from sheer rage and smashed the guy's head in. And then as he was crying over losing his treasure his tears touched it and it reformed back together...

* When he was very little he really loved his papa! They used to kinda be the childish duo playfully teaming up against serious mom, who'd go full ham playing the villain character in their goofy games. And he really looked up to his dad's super science smartness, and wanted to be just like him someday! Sadly, as he got older he realised that his dad's childishness also had its downsides, and he started wanting to be a doctor to "defeat" his dad more than to honor him. To be better than him and somehow prove him wrong. But also to try and connect to him now he was always so distant, and then to try and chase after his ghost when he was gone...

* i mean that metaphorically as i dont think Cliff ever worked with yokai like his father did. I think even when he became a yokai and started searching for his father he didnt really actually know his father was a yokai too, it was just sort of a distant hope of a second chance. Like "oh shit i guess dad's weird fairytale conspiracy theories were true, there's probably a very small chance he is also floating around somewhere right now". Just a very depressed dude with nothing else much to cling to. He didnt really believe he'd actually find his dad so he had no plans for what to do when they met, and thats why things ended up being all awkward and sad. Well, that and also he inherited his dad's inability to just talk about his damn emotions, gahhh!!

* Cliff's natural hair colour is red, althrough a more normal ginger instead of the blood red he has in his yokai form. He used to get bullied for it and everyone acted like he was a thug even though he was a straight A student. For a short time in his life (around when his dad became distant and he became disillusioned with him), Cliff used to dye his hair black everyday and try everything not to stand out. He did this even after his mum divorced his dad and they moved back to america where his hair colour wasnt as unusual. He had a lot of trouble adjusting and wasnt fluent in english so he still felt like he got judged as a dumb thug no matter where he was or how hard he tried. After his dad died he had trouble coping with his grief because he wanted to just be angry at him forever and not accept how much he missed him, cos it just hurt so much. So all this pent up anger kinda got channelled into self confidence?? Sorta "i have even bigger reasons to be depressed so its easier to deal with the bullying i suppose". He started experimenting with punk and dark styles, embracing his reputation as a "thug" and beibg like "if theyre gonna treat me this way no matter what then i may as well go ham!" So basically he looked 99% like he does as a yokai now, and he totally never turned back. But even though he dressed more bombastic and had more of a crass way of talking he was still continuing to be a straight A student prodigy and trying to defeat his dad in academic achievement and such. He literally never stopped being just a nice dude who was good at school, he just kept getting assumed to be the opposite cos people are judgy bitches... Poor kid...

* He was born with a heart condition that made his health very poor as a baby. He doesnt remember it much cos he was very young, but his parents were SO SCARED! He was constantly having close calls with death and as his dad was a doctor he was often arguing with his coworkers when they said the kid might not live to see his fifth birthday, and being all "let me do the opertion!" "No you have too much of a personal bias" etc etc. Basically it was really fuckin stressful and you can understand why Maddiman would get it into his head tht he was powerless to protect his family through legal means and had to pursue supernatural theories. The earliest thing Cliff can remember from the time he was sick is his dad making up wild stories about how he was gonna conquer the world to save him, lasso the moon to stop time, fight god with his goddamn bare hands, whatever could keep him from losing his only child! Hearing these stories through a feverish haze helped Cliff hang on to life, and onto his dad's warm hand as he sat by his hospital bed. Of course, he did actually survive, and he had multiple surgeries that helped him be able to live a fuller life as he grew up. He was still always quite frail and got exhausted easily, but from his perspective it seemed like nothing big and his parents were just coddling him too much, cos he didnt remember how close he'd come to death.

* Ultimately, this was what lead to his actual death all those years later. Similar to how Maddiman looks to be 20 or 30 in his backstory but as a yokai he acts like just a 45 year old almost-gramps or something instead of 90-100, i feel like if Dr Nocturne seems in his early 20s then maybe when he died as Cliff he was in his late teens? Like it seems that yokai do age and mature but just at a slower rate than humans. So i thought maybe what if Cliff tragically died in a very similar way to his dad? His obsession to become a greater doctor than his dad meant he was working himself too hard in his last year of high school, trying to get into a good university. And because of his weak heart this was risky, and well.. Yeah... Death by overwork. He just had an attack one day while studying and his mother didnt find him in time. He hates himself for this, he feels like in his desperation to not make his dad's mistakes he just made the exact same damn mistake and left her behind...

* As dr nocturne he haunts the nursing home where his mother is still alive, watching over her like a guardian angel. She's trapped in the delusion that he's still alive, keeps telling everyone how proud she is of her son the doctor even though nobody else can see him. The fact that she can see him probably means she doesn't have much time left... Itd be really great if hypothetically some player character could come along and reunite them all before its too late...

[patriotsnet]

Are There Any Republicans Running For President Other Than Trump

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/are-there-any-republicans-running-for-president-other-than-trump/

Are There Any Republicans Running For President Other Than Trump

Republican Presidential Hopefuls Move Forward As Trump Considers 2024 Run

2020 Election – 5 Republicans Who Might Run For President (Why Donald Trump will be the GOP Nominee)

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Less than three months after former President Trump left the White House, the race to succeed him is already beginning.

Trumps former secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, has launched an aggressive schedule visiting states that will play a pivotal role in the 2024 Republican primaries and has signed a contract with Fox News Channel. Mike Pence, Trumps former vice president, has started a political advocacy group, finalized a book deal and later this month will give a speech in South Carolina, his first since leaving office. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been courting donors, including in Trumps backyard, with a prominent speaking slot before the former president at a GOP fundraising retreat dinner this month at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort where Trump now lives.

Trump ended his presidency with such a firm grip on Republican voters that party leaders fretted he would freeze the field of potential 2024 candidates, delaying preparations as he teased another run. Instead, many Republicans with national ambitions are openly laying the groundwork for campaigns as Trump continues to mull his own plans.

Theyre raising money, making hires and working to bolster their name recognition. The moves reflect both the fervor in the party to reclaim the White House and the reality that mounting a modern presidential campaign is a years-long endeavor.

‘americans Will See The Current Two Options Are Not The Choice’

Jade Simmons is a multi-hyphenated woman. A former beauty queen, professional concert pianist, motivational speaker, rapper, mother, and ordained pastor.

As she puts it, she is an unconventional candidate, “but these are unconventional times”.

“This seemed to me to be a time when we couldn’t afford to do business as usual,” she says. “I’m the daughter of a civil rights activist, and the way my father raised me was that if you see voids, if you see injustices, you need to ask yourself if that might be you that needs to be leaning in.”

She says her goal is to create equal access to opportunity, through economic, educational and criminal justice reform. And in that spirit, she’s aiming to run “the least expensive campaign in the history of our nation”.

“We think it’s abominable that it costs now almost a billion dollars to run for president when the qualifications are that you are 35 years old, a US-born resident, and have lived here 14 years,” says Ms Simmons. “We’d rather spend that money on helping people.”

Full coverage of the US election

While the Republican and Democratic nominees will be on the ballot in all states, independents must meet an array of state deadlines and access requirements.

“I know it sounds wild, given the history of independents! We believe that if we stay standing long enough, there’s still some more disruption coming in – that most Americans are going to see that the current two options are not the choice.

Sen Mitt Romney Of Utah

A Gallup poll last March found Romney, 74, has a higher approval rating among Democrats than Republicans, so you might figure he doesnt have a prayer in taking his partys nomination again. A February Morning Consult poll, though, had Romney polling ahead of Republicans like Pompeo, Cotton and Hawley. So, youre telling me theres a chance? Yes, a one-in-a-million chance.

The 2012 GOP presidential nominee and his wife, Ann, have five sons. He graduated from Brigham Young University and Harvard Law. Romney is a former Massachusetts governor, and the first person to be a governor and senator from two different states since Sam Houston, who was governor of Tennessee and a senator from Texas. Romney is this years JFK Profile in Courage Award recipient.

Florida Gov Ron Desantis

DeSantis, 42, has quickly emerged as a Republican rising star. He finished second in the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll in February behind Trump, and some see him as the best positioned heir to the Trump mantle.

If Trump doesnt run again, I think hes the odds-on favorite to be the next president, Florida Republican Party chair and state Sen. Joe Gruters told NBC News of DeSantis.

DeSantis appeal is due in part to his combative relationship with the news media he regularly spars with journalists, interrupting or pushing back against their questions in a way Trump fans would appreciate and also because of his handling of the pandemic.

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, DeSantis wrote that Floridas less-restrictive response to COVID-19 bucked faulty intel from the elites and the state still ended up with comparatively low unemployment, and per capita COVID mortality below the national average. Floridas COVID-19 death rate per 100,000 people is similar to California and Ohio, and so far, about 33,500 Floridians have died from the virus. New research in the American Journal of Public Health suggests the state is undercounting COVID-19 deaths.

How Biden Won: Ramping Up The Base And Expanding Margins In The Suburbs

It brings the number of states Biden flipped from Trump’s 2016 column to five, including Arizona, which last voted Democratic in a presidential race when it backed Clinton in 1996.

Biden also flipped Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, three key northern industrial states that ultimately delivered the White House to Trump four years ago. Biden also won a single electoral vote in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which last voted Democratic for former President Barack Obama in 2008.

Electors from each state and the District of Columbia are expected to vote on Dec. 14. The new Congress will then count the votes and certify Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, two weeks before the inauguration.

But Georgia’s political activity is far from over. The state will hold two runoff elections on Jan. 5 for both its U.S. Senate seats, which are currently held by Republicans.

‘i Made A Decision To Live My Life In Service’

Brock Pierce is a former child actor who appeared in the Mighty Ducks franchise and starred as the president’s son in the 1996 comedy First Kid. But thanks to his second career as a tech entrepreneur, he’s also probably a crypto currency billionaire.

Why is he running for president? Partly because he is deeply concerned by the state of the country.

“I think that we lack a real vision for the future – I mean, what kind of world do we want to live in, in the year 2030? What is the plan? Where are we trying to get to, you know? You have to aim for something. And I see mostly just a lot of mud being thrown around, not a lot of people putting forth game-changing ideas. It’s getting scary. And I have a view of what to do.”

For the last four years, Mr Pierce has focused on philanthropic work in Puerto Rico, where his foundation recently raised a million dollars for PPE to give to first responders.

Asked what America’s priorities should be for the next four years, he suggests the country stops pursuing “growth for growth’s sake”, and measures its success by how well life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are upheld.

“I have many liberal tendencies, just like I have conservative tendencies,” Mr Pierce says. “And I think it’s time we take a collective breath and a brave step into the future, because all of these ideologies have something to teach us.”

‘We don’t like either candidate’

And if he doesn’t pull it off? Mr Pierce says he has offers.

Trump Remains 2024 Candidate Of Choice For Most Republicans Poll Shows

59% of Republican voters said they wanted Trump to play prominent role in party, but tens of thousands left after Capitol riot

If the 2024 Republican presidential primary were held today, Donald Trump would be the clear favorite to win big. That was the message from a Politico-Morning Consult poll released on Tuesday, three days after Trumps acquittal in his second impeachment trial, on a charge of inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

Among Republican voters, 59% said they wanted Trump to play a prominent role in their party, up a whopping 18 points from the last such poll, taken in the aftermath of the Capitol riot. A slightly lower number, 54%, said they would back Trump in the primary.

Tens of thousands of Republicans left the party after the Capitol insurrection, and a majority of Americans have told other pollsters they would like to see Trump banished from politics.

Though the 45th president will be 78 by election day 2024, he will be able to run again if he chooses, having escaped being barred from office after a 57-43 Senate vote to convict with seven Republican defections but 10 votes short of the majority needed.

Mike Pences life was threatened by Trump supporters at the Capitol, as the vice-president presided over the ratification of electoral college results confirming Trumps defeat by Joe Biden. He placed second in the Politico-Morning Consult poll, with 12%.

Key Votes: 115th Congress 2017

For detailed information about each vote, click .

Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

 Bill Passed on December 12, 2018

Proposed providing funding for commodity support, conservation, trade and international food aid, nutrition assistance, farm credit, rural development, research and extension activities, forestry, horticulture, and crop insurance through fiscal year 2023.

Voted Yea on: Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 )

 Bill Passed on June 21, 2018

Proposed providing funding for commodity support, conservation, trade and international food aid, nutrition assistance, farm credit, rural development, research and extension activities, forestry, horticulture, and crop insurance. It also proposed modifying the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as the food stamp program.

Voted Yea on: Securing Americaâs Future Act of 2018

 Bill Failed on June 21, 2018

Proposed funding a border wall, limiting legal immigration, a mandatory worker verification program, allowing DACA recipients to apply for legal status, and preventing separation of families at the border.

Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

 Bill Passed on December 12, 2018

Reauthorizes through FY2023 and modifies some Department of Agriculture programs.

Voted Yea on: Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

Voted Yea on: Kates Law

Voted Yea on: No Sanctuary for Criminals Act

Voted Yea on: American Health Care Act of 2017

Voted Nay on: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018

Georgia’s Republican Us Senators Call On Gop State Election Chief To Resign

GOP strategist predicts Trump Jr. will run in 2024: “He’s a flamethrower”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, himself a Republican, called the claims “laughable” and refused to step aside.

The early rancor and fighting over the presidential election results, which are headed for a recount despite Biden’s growing lead, is a preview of the intense fight to come over the fate of the two Senate seats. Vice President Pence told GOP senators that he plans to campaign in the state, and national Democrats are already pouring money and support to their challengers, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

The Georgia runoffs are slated for Jan. 5, after the Senate is scheduled to begin a new session. That uncertainty means the Senate will be unable to officially organize until the results of that election are finalized.

A Marine stands outside the entrance to the West Wing of the White House on Tuesday, signifying that President Trump is in the Oval Office. Evan Vucci/APhide caption

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A Marine stands outside the entrance to the West Wing of the White House on Tuesday, signifying that President Trump is in the Oval Office.

President Trump is set to visit Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday to mark Veterans Day and lay a wreath. Trump will be joined by Vice President Pence. This is one of the more traditional ceremonial duties of a president. .

Asked what the president has been up to, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Trump has been working behind the scenes.

None Of Them Can Win But They Could Play Spoiler

Remember when half of American white males over the age of 40 declared themselves for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016? There were so many candidates that they couldn’t fit them all on two packed debate stages. One guy stayed in after receiving a grand total of 12 votes in the Iowa caucuses; in New Hampshire, Jim Gilmore’s showing improved to , an unprecedented 1,000 percent increase. Reader: He didn’t withdraw for another six days.

Since Donald Trump is our incumbent president, and will thus almost surely be the GOP nominee in 2020, we should be spared a repeat, and really ought to be able to give our undivided attention to the approximately 437 mostly Social Security-eligible senators, governors, congressmen, mayors, and billionaire activists looking to run on the Democratic ticket in 2020. Unfortunately, Trump will almost certainly be challenged, either in the ostensibly meaningless Republican primaries or by one or more independent right-of-center candidates.

Stephen Bannon thinks 2020 will be a proper three-way race. #NeverTrumpers are already ferreting around for someone to challenge the president for the GOP nomination. “I just finished reading a book about the French resistance. It reminds me of that. People are meeting over their garages their ateliers trying to figure out who’s going to do it,” one of them toldNew York recently.

Here are five people who might just fit the bill.

1. John Kasich

Chance of running: 80 percent

2. Jeff Flake

Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger: National Gop Figures Didn’t Understand Our Laws

But Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, said on Wednesday that the system is working exactly the way it is intended.

“The irony of saying ‘fraudulent votes have been found’ â he has gained in the finding of these votes,” he said.

Raffensperger has said he’s been pressured by top Republicans to find ways of disqualifying ballots that hurt the Trump campaign.

“They say that as pressure builds, it reveals your character, it doesn’t change your character. Some people aren’t behaving too well with seeing where the results are,” Raffensperger told NPR’s Ari Shapiro on Tuesday.

“At the end of the day, I want voters to understand that when they cast their ballot in Georgia, it will be accurately counted. You may not like the results and I get that. I understand how contentious it is. But you can then respect the results.”

Poll workers check voters’ identifications on Election Day at the Orpheum Theater in Madison, Wis. The Trump campaign has announced it is filing for a recount in two Wisconsin counties.hide caption

toggle caption

Poll workers check voters’ identifications on Election Day at the Orpheum Theater in Madison, Wis. The Trump campaign has announced it is filing for a recount in two Wisconsin counties.

President Trump’s campaign announced Wednesday morning it is filing a petition to formally ask election authorities to conduct a recount in two Wisconsin counties. President-elect Joe Biden won the state by a little more than 20,000 votes.

If Trump Runs In 2024 Could Any Republican Beat Him

As we await the final results to come in from the decisive states, let us assume for a moment that this election ends in the way that now appears most likely. That is, Joe Biden wins, and a large number of conservatives are convinced that the only reason President Trump lost is that Democrats stole the election.

Given these circumstances, if Trump decided that he wanted to run for president again four years from now, is there a Republican politician in the country who would be able to stop him?

For sure, professional Republicans would want to move on from Trump. And many of the Republican voters who merely tolerated him because he was better than the Democratic alternative may be eager for other options. But those are the same groups of people that tried unsuccessfully to kill his candidacy in 2016.

Trump may decide that he doesn’t want to run again. Or his health may decline as he enters his late 70s. But let’s just assume he decides to run and that he’s in roughly the same mental and physical condition that he is now. How can any Republican hope to compete with him?

In defeat, Trump would be in a position unlike that of other one-term presidents. Typically, one-term presidents are written off as losers, and their parties run away from them. Think of Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, or George H.W. Bush. After 1980, nobody ran for office claiming, “I’m a Jimmy Carter Democrat.” Bush I was never a coveted speaker in conservative circles after his loss.

The This Sounds Crazy But Hear Me Out Wild Card

Mike Lindell

Donald Trump wasnt the first celebrity businessman without any experience in elective office who got traction in a Republican presidential primary. In 2012, it was former Godfathers Pizza CEO Herman Cain. In 1996 and 2000, it was magazine publisher Steve Forbes. Back in 1940, utility executive Wendell Willkie snagged the GOP nomination.

Today, who is the most famous, politically active Republican businessman? MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. That may sound crazy, but no crazier than what we experienced in 2016.

Lindell is a leader of the bitter-enders trying to overturn the democratic results of the presidential election. He claims to have spent $1 million on legal work and Stop the Steal rallies to support Trumps delusional cause. On December 19, he tweeted out a call for Trump to impose martial law in these 7 states and get the machines/ballots! though he soon deleted the post.

He became a conservative darling in part because he heavily marketed his pillows on Fox News; in the second quarter of 2020, MyPillow was Fox Newss top advertiser, spending more than double the amount of the second-place company. But now he accuses Fox News, and its early call that Biden won Arizona, of conspiring to defeat Trump

What to watch for in 2021:While Lindell has been thinking about a Minnesota gubernatorial bid, he has managed to visit neighboring Iowa several times in 2020. Lets see which state he campaigns in more in 2021.

Filed Under:

What Is A Voter

The , which took effect January 1, 2011, created voter-nominated offices. The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committees, or local offices.

Most of the offices that were previously known as partisan are now known as voter-nominated offices. Voter-nominated offices are state constitutional offices, state legislative offices, and U.S. congressional offices. The only partisan offices now are the offices of U.S. President and county central committee.

Former Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo

If the 2024 election turns into a foreign policy debate, the 57-year-old Pompeo is in a strong position with his background as former secretary of state and CIA director.

During Pompeos recent speech at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, Iowa, he gave a preview of some of the lines that might end up in his presidential stump speech. He said hes spent more time with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un than any other American, including basketball star Dennis Rodman, and talked about the threat he sees from China. His mention of the U.S. moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem during his tenure was met with applause.

Before serving in Trumps Cabinet, Pompeo blasted then-candidate Trump as an authoritarian. Pompeo made the remarks the day of the Kansas caucus in 2016, quoting Trump saying that if he told a soldier to commit a war crime, they would go and do it. Pompeo said the U.S. had spent 7½ years with an authoritarian president who ignored the Constitution, referencing former President Barack Obama, and we dont need four more years of that.

Pompeo served three full terms representing Kansas in the U.S. House before joining the Trump administration. He and his wife, Susan, have one child. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and Harvard Law and served in the U.S. Army.

Academics Journalists Authors Commentators

Reuel Marc Gerecht, writer

Michael Gerson, columnist and speechwriter for George W. Bush

Peter Mansoor, military historian

Meghan McCain, commentator, daughter of Senator John McCain

Charles Murray, political scientist and commentator

Ana Navarro, strategist and commentator

Tom Nichols, national security affairs scholar

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape; founder of Andreessen Horowitz

Mike Fernandez, founder of MBF Healthcare Partners

James Murren, Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International

William Oberndorf, Chairman of Oberndorf Enterprises

Whos Running For President In 2020

Republican Lawmakers Are Terrified Of Trump Running For President Again

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Trump in the 2020 race.

The field of Democratic presidential candidates was historically large, but all others have dropped out. Mr. Trump had also picked up a few Republican challengers, but they have also ended their campaigns.

Running

Has run for president twice before.

Is known for his down-to-earth personality and his ability to connect with working-class voters.

His eight years as Barack Obamas vice president are a major selling point for many Democrats.

Signature issues: Restoring Americas standing on the global stage; adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act; strengthening economic protections for low-income workers in industries like manufacturing and fast food.

Main legislative accomplishment as president: a sweeping tax cut that chiefly benefited corporations and wealthy investors.

Has focused on undoing the policies of the Obama administration, including on health care, environmental regulation and immigration.

Was impeached by the House of Representatives for seeking to pressure Ukraine to smear his political rivals, but was acquitted by the Senate.

Signature issues: Restricting immigration and building a wall at the Mexican border; renegotiating or canceling international deals on trade, arms control and climate change; withdrawing American troops from overseas.

Ended her campaign in March 2020 and said she would back Mr. Biden.

Views About The Publics Influence On Government

Overall, most adults see voting as an avenue to influence the government: 61% say that voting gives people like me some say about how government runs things.

However, on a more general measure of political efficacy, the public is more divided: 52% say ordinary citizens can do a lot to influence government if they make an effort, while 47% say theres not much ordinary citizens can do to influence the government in Washington.

On both measures, younger and less-educated adults are more skeptical about the impact of participation.

The view that voting gives people some say increases with age; while just 53% of adults under 30 say this, that compares with nearly three-quarters of those 65 and older . This age gap is seen in both parties.

Similarly, those under 50 are less likely than their elders to say ordinary citizens can influence government if they make an effort .

Education is also associated with a sense of political efficacy: 77% of postgraduates say voting gives people some say, compared with two-thirds of those with a bachelors degree and 57% of those with less education.

Political engagement is highly correlated with attitudes about voting. Highly engaged adults are considerably more likely to see the value of participation and the potential of ordinary citizens to influence governmental policy.

Sen Tom Cotton Of Arkansas

Cotton, 43, has been preparing for a potential presidential run since before the 2020 election even happened, visiting the first-in-the-nation primary state New Hampshire last year to campaign for local Republicans. I expect Ill be back to New Hampshire again in the future, he told Insider last October. The betting site PredictIt currently ranks Cotton alongside Pompeo, Rubio and Hawley.

Cotton represented Arkansas in the U.S. House for two terms before becoming a senator in 2015. His first brush with national prominence came in 2006 when he was serving in Iraq as an Army lieutenant. Cotton sent a letter to the editor at The New York Times criticizing their story about the U.S. terrorist finance tracking program. Cotton called for the paper to be prosecuted for revealing the program, and though his letter wasnt published in the Times, it was picked up by the conservative blog Power Line, which Cotton copied on his petition to the Times.

Another Cotton opinion piece did later make it into the Times. His controversial 2020 op-ed, headlined Send In the Troops about using the military and an overwhelming show of force against protesters and rioters following the death of George Floyd, led to the resignation of Times editorial page editor James Bennet. Cotton referenced the op-ed in January after the attack on the Capitol, and said in a statement that those involved should face the full extent of federal law.

[statetalks]

Are There Any Republicans Running For President Other Than Trump

Republican Presidential Hopefuls Move Forward As Trump Considers 2024 Run

2020 Election – 5 Republicans Who Might Run For President (Why Donald Trump will be the GOP Nominee)

Print

Less than three months after former President Trump left the White House, the race to succeed him is already beginning.

Trumps former secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, has launched an aggressive schedule visiting states that will play a pivotal role in the 2024 Republican primaries and has signed a contract with Fox News Channel. Mike Pence, Trumps former vice president, has started a political advocacy group, finalized a book deal and later this month will give a speech in South Carolina, his first since leaving office. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been courting donors, including in Trumps backyard, with a prominent speaking slot before the former president at a GOP fundraising retreat dinner this month at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort where Trump now lives.

Trump ended his presidency with such a firm grip on Republican voters that party leaders fretted he would freeze the field of potential 2024 candidates, delaying preparations as he teased another run. Instead, many Republicans with national ambitions are openly laying the groundwork for campaigns as Trump continues to mull his own plans.

Theyre raising money, making hires and working to bolster their name recognition. The moves reflect both the fervor in the party to reclaim the White House and the reality that mounting a modern presidential campaign is a years-long endeavor.

‘americans Will See The Current Two Options Are Not The Choice’

Jade Simmons is a multi-hyphenated woman. A former beauty queen, professional concert pianist, motivational speaker, rapper, mother, and ordained pastor.

As she puts it, she is an unconventional candidate, “but these are unconventional times”.

“This seemed to me to be a time when we couldn’t afford to do business as usual,” she says. “I’m the daughter of a civil rights activist, and the way my father raised me was that if you see voids, if you see injustices, you need to ask yourself if that might be you that needs to be leaning in.”

She says her goal is to create equal access to opportunity, through economic, educational and criminal justice reform. And in that spirit, she’s aiming to run “the least expensive campaign in the history of our nation”.

“We think it’s abominable that it costs now almost a billion dollars to run for president when the qualifications are that you are 35 years old, a US-born resident, and have lived here 14 years,” says Ms Simmons. “We’d rather spend that money on helping people.”

Full coverage of the US election

While the Republican and Democratic nominees will be on the ballot in all states, independents must meet an array of state deadlines and access requirements.

“I know it sounds wild, given the history of independents! We believe that if we stay standing long enough, there’s still some more disruption coming in – that most Americans are going to see that the current two options are not the choice.

Sen Mitt Romney Of Utah

A Gallup poll last March found Romney, 74, has a higher approval rating among Democrats than Republicans, so you might figure he doesnt have a prayer in taking his partys nomination again. A February Morning Consult poll, though, had Romney polling ahead of Republicans like Pompeo, Cotton and Hawley. So, youre telling me theres a chance? Yes, a one-in-a-million chance.

The 2012 GOP presidential nominee and his wife, Ann, have five sons. He graduated from Brigham Young University and Harvard Law. Romney is a former Massachusetts governor, and the first person to be a governor and senator from two different states since Sam Houston, who was governor of Tennessee and a senator from Texas. Romney is this years JFK Profile in Courage Award recipient.

Florida Gov Ron Desantis

DeSantis, 42, has quickly emerged as a Republican rising star. He finished second in the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll in February behind Trump, and some see him as the best positioned heir to the Trump mantle.

If Trump doesnt run again, I think hes the odds-on favorite to be the next president, Florida Republican Party chair and state Sen. Joe Gruters told NBC News of DeSantis.

DeSantis appeal is due in part to his combative relationship with the news media he regularly spars with journalists, interrupting or pushing back against their questions in a way Trump fans would appreciate and also because of his handling of the pandemic.

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, DeSantis wrote that Floridas less-restrictive response to COVID-19 bucked faulty intel from the elites and the state still ended up with comparatively low unemployment, and per capita COVID mortality below the national average. Floridas COVID-19 death rate per 100,000 people is similar to California and Ohio, and so far, about 33,500 Floridians have died from the virus. New research in the American Journal of Public Health suggests the state is undercounting COVID-19 deaths.

How Biden Won: Ramping Up The Base And Expanding Margins In The Suburbs

It brings the number of states Biden flipped from Trump’s 2016 column to five, including Arizona, which last voted Democratic in a presidential race when it backed Clinton in 1996.

Biden also flipped Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, three key northern industrial states that ultimately delivered the White House to Trump four years ago. Biden also won a single electoral vote in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which last voted Democratic for former President Barack Obama in 2008.

Electors from each state and the District of Columbia are expected to vote on Dec. 14. The new Congress will then count the votes and certify Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, two weeks before the inauguration.

But Georgia’s political activity is far from over. The state will hold two runoff elections on Jan. 5 for both its U.S. Senate seats, which are currently held by Republicans.

‘i Made A Decision To Live My Life In Service’

Brock Pierce is a former child actor who appeared in the Mighty Ducks franchise and starred as the president’s son in the 1996 comedy First Kid. But thanks to his second career as a tech entrepreneur, he’s also probably a crypto currency billionaire.

Why is he running for president? Partly because he is deeply concerned by the state of the country.

“I think that we lack a real vision for the future – I mean, what kind of world do we want to live in, in the year 2030? What is the plan? Where are we trying to get to, you know? You have to aim for something. And I see mostly just a lot of mud being thrown around, not a lot of people putting forth game-changing ideas. It’s getting scary. And I have a view of what to do.”

For the last four years, Mr Pierce has focused on philanthropic work in Puerto Rico, where his foundation recently raised a million dollars for PPE to give to first responders.

Asked what America’s priorities should be for the next four years, he suggests the country stops pursuing “growth for growth’s sake”, and measures its success by how well life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are upheld.

“I have many liberal tendencies, just like I have conservative tendencies,” Mr Pierce says. “And I think it’s time we take a collective breath and a brave step into the future, because all of these ideologies have something to teach us.”

‘We don’t like either candidate’

And if he doesn’t pull it off? Mr Pierce says he has offers.

Trump Remains 2024 Candidate Of Choice For Most Republicans Poll Shows

59% of Republican voters said they wanted Trump to play prominent role in party, but tens of thousands left after Capitol riot

If the 2024 Republican presidential primary were held today, Donald Trump would be the clear favorite to win big. That was the message from a Politico-Morning Consult poll released on Tuesday, three days after Trumps acquittal in his second impeachment trial, on a charge of inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

Among Republican voters, 59% said they wanted Trump to play a prominent role in their party, up a whopping 18 points from the last such poll, taken in the aftermath of the Capitol riot. A slightly lower number, 54%, said they would back Trump in the primary.

Tens of thousands of Republicans left the party after the Capitol insurrection, and a majority of Americans have told other pollsters they would like to see Trump banished from politics.

Though the 45th president will be 78 by election day 2024, he will be able to run again if he chooses, having escaped being barred from office after a 57-43 Senate vote to convict with seven Republican defections but 10 votes short of the majority needed.

Mike Pences life was threatened by Trump supporters at the Capitol, as the vice-president presided over the ratification of electoral college results confirming Trumps defeat by Joe Biden. He placed second in the Politico-Morning Consult poll, with 12%.

Key Votes: 115th Congress 2017

For detailed information about each vote, click .

Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

 Bill Passed on December 12, 2018

Proposed providing funding for commodity support, conservation, trade and international food aid, nutrition assistance, farm credit, rural development, research and extension activities, forestry, horticulture, and crop insurance through fiscal year 2023.

Voted Yea on: Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 )

 Bill Passed on June 21, 2018

Proposed providing funding for commodity support, conservation, trade and international food aid, nutrition assistance, farm credit, rural development, research and extension activities, forestry, horticulture, and crop insurance. It also proposed modifying the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as the food stamp program.

Voted Yea on: Securing Americaâs Future Act of 2018

 Bill Failed on June 21, 2018

Proposed funding a border wall, limiting legal immigration, a mandatory worker verification program, allowing DACA recipients to apply for legal status, and preventing separation of families at the border.

Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

 Bill Passed on December 12, 2018

Reauthorizes through FY2023 and modifies some Department of Agriculture programs.

Voted Yea on: Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

Voted Yea on: Kates Law

Voted Yea on: No Sanctuary for Criminals Act

Voted Yea on: American Health Care Act of 2017

Voted Nay on: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018

Georgia’s Republican Us Senators Call On Gop State Election Chief To Resign

GOP strategist predicts Trump Jr. will run in 2024: “He’s a flamethrower”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, himself a Republican, called the claims “laughable” and refused to step aside.

The early rancor and fighting over the presidential election results, which are headed for a recount despite Biden’s growing lead, is a preview of the intense fight to come over the fate of the two Senate seats. Vice President Pence told GOP senators that he plans to campaign in the state, and national Democrats are already pouring money and support to their challengers, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

The Georgia runoffs are slated for Jan. 5, after the Senate is scheduled to begin a new session. That uncertainty means the Senate will be unable to officially organize until the results of that election are finalized.

A Marine stands outside the entrance to the West Wing of the White House on Tuesday, signifying that President Trump is in the Oval Office. Evan Vucci/APhide caption

toggle caption

A Marine stands outside the entrance to the West Wing of the White House on Tuesday, signifying that President Trump is in the Oval Office.

President Trump is set to visit Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday to mark Veterans Day and lay a wreath. Trump will be joined by Vice President Pence. This is one of the more traditional ceremonial duties of a president. .

Asked what the president has been up to, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Trump has been working behind the scenes.

None Of Them Can Win But They Could Play Spoiler

Remember when half of American white males over the age of 40 declared themselves for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016? There were so many candidates that they couldn’t fit them all on two packed debate stages. One guy stayed in after receiving a grand total of 12 votes in the Iowa caucuses; in New Hampshire, Jim Gilmore’s showing improved to , an unprecedented 1,000 percent increase. Reader: He didn’t withdraw for another six days.

Since Donald Trump is our incumbent president, and will thus almost surely be the GOP nominee in 2020, we should be spared a repeat, and really ought to be able to give our undivided attention to the approximately 437 mostly Social Security-eligible senators, governors, congressmen, mayors, and billionaire activists looking to run on the Democratic ticket in 2020. Unfortunately, Trump will almost certainly be challenged, either in the ostensibly meaningless Republican primaries or by one or more independent right-of-center candidates.

Stephen Bannon thinks 2020 will be a proper three-way race. #NeverTrumpers are already ferreting around for someone to challenge the president for the GOP nomination. “I just finished reading a book about the French resistance. It reminds me of that. People are meeting over their garages their ateliers trying to figure out who’s going to do it,” one of them toldNew York recently.

Here are five people who might just fit the bill.

1. John Kasich

Chance of running: 80 percent

2. Jeff Flake

Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger: National Gop Figures Didn’t Understand Our Laws

But Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, said on Wednesday that the system is working exactly the way it is intended.

“The irony of saying ‘fraudulent votes have been found’ â he has gained in the finding of these votes,” he said.

Raffensperger has said he’s been pressured by top Republicans to find ways of disqualifying ballots that hurt the Trump campaign.

“They say that as pressure builds, it reveals your character, it doesn’t change your character. Some people aren’t behaving too well with seeing where the results are,” Raffensperger told NPR’s Ari Shapiro on Tuesday.

“At the end of the day, I want voters to understand that when they cast their ballot in Georgia, it will be accurately counted. You may not like the results and I get that. I understand how contentious it is. But you can then respect the results.”

Poll workers check voters’ identifications on Election Day at the Orpheum Theater in Madison, Wis. The Trump campaign has announced it is filing for a recount in two Wisconsin counties.hide caption

toggle caption

Poll workers check voters’ identifications on Election Day at the Orpheum Theater in Madison, Wis. The Trump campaign has announced it is filing for a recount in two Wisconsin counties.

President Trump’s campaign announced Wednesday morning it is filing a petition to formally ask election authorities to conduct a recount in two Wisconsin counties. President-elect Joe Biden won the state by a little more than 20,000 votes.

If Trump Runs In 2024 Could Any Republican Beat Him

As we await the final results to come in from the decisive states, let us assume for a moment that this election ends in the way that now appears most likely. That is, Joe Biden wins, and a large number of conservatives are convinced that the only reason President Trump lost is that Democrats stole the election.

Given these circumstances, if Trump decided that he wanted to run for president again four years from now, is there a Republican politician in the country who would be able to stop him?

For sure, professional Republicans would want to move on from Trump. And many of the Republican voters who merely tolerated him because he was better than the Democratic alternative may be eager for other options. But those are the same groups of people that tried unsuccessfully to kill his candidacy in 2016.

Trump may decide that he doesn’t want to run again. Or his health may decline as he enters his late 70s. But let’s just assume he decides to run and that he’s in roughly the same mental and physical condition that he is now. How can any Republican hope to compete with him?

In defeat, Trump would be in a position unlike that of other one-term presidents. Typically, one-term presidents are written off as losers, and their parties run away from them. Think of Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, or George H.W. Bush. After 1980, nobody ran for office claiming, “I’m a Jimmy Carter Democrat.” Bush I was never a coveted speaker in conservative circles after his loss.

The This Sounds Crazy But Hear Me Out Wild Card

Mike Lindell

Donald Trump wasnt the first celebrity businessman without any experience in elective office who got traction in a Republican presidential primary. In 2012, it was former Godfathers Pizza CEO Herman Cain. In 1996 and 2000, it was magazine publisher Steve Forbes. Back in 1940, utility executive Wendell Willkie snagged the GOP nomination.

Today, who is the most famous, politically active Republican businessman? MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. That may sound crazy, but no crazier than what we experienced in 2016.

Lindell is a leader of the bitter-enders trying to overturn the democratic results of the presidential election. He claims to have spent $1 million on legal work and Stop the Steal rallies to support Trumps delusional cause. On December 19, he tweeted out a call for Trump to impose martial law in these 7 states and get the machines/ballots! though he soon deleted the post.

He became a conservative darling in part because he heavily marketed his pillows on Fox News; in the second quarter of 2020, MyPillow was Fox Newss top advertiser, spending more than double the amount of the second-place company. But now he accuses Fox News, and its early call that Biden won Arizona, of conspiring to defeat Trump

What to watch for in 2021:While Lindell has been thinking about a Minnesota gubernatorial bid, he has managed to visit neighboring Iowa several times in 2020. Lets see which state he campaigns in more in 2021.

Filed Under:

What Is A Voter

The , which took effect January 1, 2011, created voter-nominated offices. The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committees, or local offices.

Most of the offices that were previously known as partisan are now known as voter-nominated offices. Voter-nominated offices are state constitutional offices, state legislative offices, and U.S. congressional offices. The only partisan offices now are the offices of U.S. President and county central committee.

Former Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo

If the 2024 election turns into a foreign policy debate, the 57-year-old Pompeo is in a strong position with his background as former secretary of state and CIA director.

During Pompeos recent speech at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, Iowa, he gave a preview of some of the lines that might end up in his presidential stump speech. He said hes spent more time with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un than any other American, including basketball star Dennis Rodman, and talked about the threat he sees from China. His mention of the U.S. moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem during his tenure was met with applause.

Before serving in Trumps Cabinet, Pompeo blasted then-candidate Trump as an authoritarian. Pompeo made the remarks the day of the Kansas caucus in 2016, quoting Trump saying that if he told a soldier to commit a war crime, they would go and do it. Pompeo said the U.S. had spent 7½ years with an authoritarian president who ignored the Constitution, referencing former President Barack Obama, and we dont need four more years of that.

Pompeo served three full terms representing Kansas in the U.S. House before joining the Trump administration. He and his wife, Susan, have one child. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and Harvard Law and served in the U.S. Army.

Academics Journalists Authors Commentators

Reuel Marc Gerecht, writer

Michael Gerson, columnist and speechwriter for George W. Bush

Peter Mansoor, military historian

Meghan McCain, commentator, daughter of Senator John McCain

Charles Murray, political scientist and commentator

Ana Navarro, strategist and commentator

Tom Nichols, national security affairs scholar

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape; founder of Andreessen Horowitz

Mike Fernandez, founder of MBF Healthcare Partners

James Murren, Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International

William Oberndorf, Chairman of Oberndorf Enterprises

Whos Running For President In 2020

Republican Lawmakers Are Terrified Of Trump Running For President Again

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Trump in the 2020 race.

The field of Democratic presidential candidates was historically large, but all others have dropped out. Mr. Trump had also picked up a few Republican challengers, but they have also ended their campaigns.

Running

Has run for president twice before.

Is known for his down-to-earth personality and his ability to connect with working-class voters.

His eight years as Barack Obamas vice president are a major selling point for many Democrats.

Signature issues: Restoring Americas standing on the global stage; adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act; strengthening economic protections for low-income workers in industries like manufacturing and fast food.

Main legislative accomplishment as president: a sweeping tax cut that chiefly benefited corporations and wealthy investors.

Has focused on undoing the policies of the Obama administration, including on health care, environmental regulation and immigration.

Was impeached by the House of Representatives for seeking to pressure Ukraine to smear his political rivals, but was acquitted by the Senate.

Signature issues: Restricting immigration and building a wall at the Mexican border; renegotiating or canceling international deals on trade, arms control and climate change; withdrawing American troops from overseas.

Ended her campaign in March 2020 and said she would back Mr. Biden.

Views About The Publics Influence On Government

Overall, most adults see voting as an avenue to influence the government: 61% say that voting gives people like me some say about how government runs things.

However, on a more general measure of political efficacy, the public is more divided: 52% say ordinary citizens can do a lot to influence government if they make an effort, while 47% say theres not much ordinary citizens can do to influence the government in Washington.

On both measures, younger and less-educated adults are more skeptical about the impact of participation.

The view that voting gives people some say increases with age; while just 53% of adults under 30 say this, that compares with nearly three-quarters of those 65 and older . This age gap is seen in both parties.

Similarly, those under 50 are less likely than their elders to say ordinary citizens can influence government if they make an effort .

Education is also associated with a sense of political efficacy: 77% of postgraduates say voting gives people some say, compared with two-thirds of those with a bachelors degree and 57% of those with less education.

Political engagement is highly correlated with attitudes about voting. Highly engaged adults are considerably more likely to see the value of participation and the potential of ordinary citizens to influence governmental policy.

Sen Tom Cotton Of Arkansas

Cotton, 43, has been preparing for a potential presidential run since before the 2020 election even happened, visiting the first-in-the-nation primary state New Hampshire last year to campaign for local Republicans. I expect Ill be back to New Hampshire again in the future, he told Insider last October. The betting site PredictIt currently ranks Cotton alongside Pompeo, Rubio and Hawley.

Cotton represented Arkansas in the U.S. House for two terms before becoming a senator in 2015. His first brush with national prominence came in 2006 when he was serving in Iraq as an Army lieutenant. Cotton sent a letter to the editor at The New York Times criticizing their story about the U.S. terrorist finance tracking program. Cotton called for the paper to be prosecuted for revealing the program, and though his letter wasnt published in the Times, it was picked up by the conservative blog Power Line, which Cotton copied on his petition to the Times.

Another Cotton opinion piece did later make it into the Times. His controversial 2020 op-ed, headlined Send In the Troops about using the military and an overwhelming show of force against protesters and rioters following the death of George Floyd, led to the resignation of Times editorial page editor James Bennet. Cotton referenced the op-ed in January after the attack on the Capitol, and said in a statement that those involved should face the full extent of federal law.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/are-there-any-republicans-running-for-president-other-than-trump/

[eternaleve]

Hello, costume fiends! Sorry for missing a week – just been pottering about and the Henrican Reformation managed to slip through my mind completely. But not to fear, we’re back to the dense mess of 1530s politics.

Tears of Blood

As the Catholic Church struggles in vain to control Henry VIII’s demands for an annulment, the King appoints himself head of the Church of England; initial protests are stifled when Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham officially submits the Clergy to Henry. When Anne Boleyn insists Henry break all contacts with Catherine, the Queen is banished from court. The Reformation has begun; depressed by his failure to prevent it, Sir Thomas More resigns as Henry’s Chancellor. Charles Brandon’s growing hatred for the Boleyns- and his mistrust of Cromwell- causes him to abandon his alliance with them, losing him the King’s favor again. Anne is created Marquess of Pembroke before she and Henry visit France to present Anne as the future Queen of England and Henry’s future wife. After talks between both Henry and Anne with the French King to secure his support, in their chamber, Anne finally submits sexually to Henry, asking him to help her conceive the son and heir they both want, narrowly avoiding another encounter with the Imperial-hired assassin.

Time gets weird in this episode. It all takes place in 1532, yet we pass through a Christmas and a Twelfth Night festive season and then right through a summer and an autumn, then back round to winter. We pass through twelve months in the course of an episode, and yet it is still 1532.

Come on, show. That’s not good. I don’t know how you can shove around sixteen months into the space of one year. It’s an important year, but that doesn’t mean you can make it ridiculously long!

Henry + Anne 4eva

Things are moving along for Henry and Anne; after all, time is ticking on for the chances of conceiving a child and Henry needs sex really badly. Because there’s very little to their relationship other than sexual tension. No meeting of minds, no shared interests, no desires in their lives other than a need to pork each other.

Also, there’s an assassin on the loose.

And he’s doing symbolic things with playing cards, because how else could we think that he’s a serious threat. Do hitmen actually waste their time on doing dramatic nonsense for the purpose of nothing but empty symbolism?

Anyway, he’s not striking yet because it’s Christmas time! Even though this would be the best time to kill Anne because this is when court is busiest. Around two thousand people will be in attendance at court for this time, with the most connected and prestigious families will be attending to Henry, arriving with all their retinues and servants and guards. If I was going to kill Anne Boleyn, I’d do it when there’s a lot of unknown people at the palace and no one would question my presence.

Well, I guess he does one thing. He leaves a ‘book of prophecy’ in Anne’s chambers about how he’s totally going to kill her. A prophecy drawing of Anne with her head cut off was actually left in her chambers around this time, but it wasn’t some nonsense about playing cards and dramatic clues left by assassins.

Pushing on, Henry and Anne are working to secure support and an alliance with the French, a surefire way to stop the Holy Roman Emperor from launching an attack on England. This will be secured with a meeting between Henry and Francis in the English owned lands in France, and in order to make Anne suitable to greet a man like the King of France in any manner as an equal, she is made Marquis of Pembroke. In her own right, entirely, making her the second woman in history to be a peer and a lord by herself. It’s a highly symbolic gesture, as the Tudors come from Wales themselves.

The title also apparently comes with an income of ‘£100,000’ per annum, but I can’t help but think that’s nonsense. In the sixteenth century, that’s the budget for the entirety of government. And yes, I do mean ALL of the government. Privy councillors, clerks, staff, expenditure – that’s how much it all costs (going by the accounts for Elizabeth I, later on). So where in the blithering heck is Henry going to get that money to give to Anne? That’s some modern ideas for money going on there.

Henry also gifts Anne the incredibly ugly jewels of England and then is all ‘Don’t you have something to say to Daddy for this nice gift?’ because the romantic dynamic between the two is a bit ick for my tastes. Sorry, doesn’t do it for me.

It swings around to December again, and the English court travels to Calais to meet the French court. Anne arrives in some style to surprise Francis as I don’t think she could officially be presented to the King – after all, she’s the other woman currently.

And, lest you forget, she’s also a SLLLLLLLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTT.

The masque did really take place with Henry and Frances met. What did not happen –

Was that an assassin who looked conspicuously like an assassin was around her at this time. I mean, come on!

He finally makes an attempt, after waiting an entire year. But he can’t do it. Why? THE POWER OF BONING.

So confident in their own power and in the surety of their upcoming marriage, Henry and Anne finally have sex. In terms of historical opinion, 99.9% of Tudor historians believe that Henry and Anne finally had sex on their trip to France and that Elizabeth I was conceived there. Her birth date in September would back that up; however, you will find me unusually dissenting here.

To me, it makes little to no sense for Henry and Anne to have sex at this point. They will be married in a few short weeks, in early January. Their whole position has been defined by the fact that they are going to be married, and officially married as a wholesome and righteous couple. It is true that many couples in this period had premarital sex (with one third of marriages taking place with the bride visibly pregnant), but that is impossible for Henry and Anne. There is so much suggestion about them that to court and leave themselves open to such a scandal would fundamentally weaken their position.

It is also possible for a baby conceived in early January to be born healthily and successfully in September. Remember that children are born at full term now because of the advances in health and medicine; in fact, children tend to be born later now because of our understanding of prenatal health. Healthier babies tend to stay in longer. In times when women suffer from a lot of menstrual anaemia (as in, their bodies are not in a position to menstruate every month) and the diet and condition are not entirely conducive to the health of unborn children, nine months is not necessarily the point at which a baby will come to term. ‘Confinement’, the time when a woman goes away to await a birth, is a period of around three months. Not only does that speak to an certain level of uncertainty about conception and working out due dates, but of an expectation that a child may arrive early.

That is purely my opinion and idea, however, based on a little of my studies into women’s health of that era. It’s something that is overlooked by many historians and ultimately doesn’t really mean anything – we will never know when Henry and Anne first had sex, and it doesn’t matter, considering what will happen.

The Reformation Continues

1532 marks a key turning point in the Henrican Reformation. For 1532 comes the submission of the clergy, which the episode clearly deals with. In classic style with this show.

The battle is really a very old battle in English politics – that of who the church and the clergy owe their allegiance to. Technically, the church and the clergy works as a separate power within the country. The church answers to the power and authority of the Pope, rather than the King. They have their own legal system that works independently of the monarch and the crown courts, and their own system of finances. And that’s a big deal! The position of a monarch relies on obedience of their subjects. That obedience is expected and unquestioned, a demand and privilege of a monarch. And here is a body that does not stand automatically obedient to the King. They are obedient to a foreign power and they are standing in the way of a King governing the country in the manner to which he sees fit. He has a duty to his subjects on a spiritual and secular level, and the way which Henry thinks he can serve his people is not able to be done.

And so we see the rise of another law-making power in England. For the power of the church to be taken down, there must be another body to counter it. And here is where parliament comes in. For the first time, parliament is used as a deciding body in British politics. Parliament has existed since Henry III, but the use of parliament to enforce and create law has reached a point where it is almost modern. Henry requires the consent and power of the people – i.e. parliament – to enforce his laws. This is why divine right never takes hold in England, and what will ultimately lead to the English Civil War. In practical terms, Henry VIII is one of the most powerful monarchs in English history. But his power is allowed through the permission of parliament. And for every monarch after him, parliament has power over a monarch and the ability to influence and change policy. In many ways, medieval governance is over. The King, although he doesn’t know it yet, is no longer singularly in charge of the realm. He could be governed over by the men and lords of parliament.

This comes with the Supplication of the Ordinances. Henry has made an entirely new system. The Church will no longer have their own legal system and they cannot make canon law without consultation to the King. They recognise that Henry is the sole protector and supreme head of the English Church, that abuses of power took place, and they will no longer have independent legislative power.

Here, Cromwell talks of the need to create the ‘commonwealth’. Now, this term is loaded with other meanings – the countries that were formally controlled by the British Empire, or the government of Oliver Cromwell after the English Civil War. Here it talks of the political theory of the communal good and well-being of the peoples of England. This is not an individualistic society; here, actions are undertaking with the understanding that they provide a benefit for society as a whole. The rights of the individual do not exist in Tudor society. Instead, what is good for whole of the people is at priority. There is a social contract from the King to govern well and rule for his people, provide them with good government and the means to live well, and they, in turn, consent to his rule and obey him.

This is also tied in with ideas of absolute sovereignty and the body politic. If a country’s peoples are literally a body, with the monarch as the head, then actions must be taken to keep the body healthy and functioning. Actions which cause sickness and problems must be dealt with and prevented; we must all work together, as a whole, to provide good for all subjects.

It may seem strange, this means of thinking, when contrasted with how selfish Henry’s desire to push for change. But it is routed in the ideas of common weal and the consent of the governed. There’s a load of complexity here, and I’d suggest looking up Thomas Hobbes’s ‘Leviathan’ for further explanation of these ideas.

Who does the clergy serve – the people of England or the Bishop of Rome? When faced with the presence of their very close and entirely angry King, they chose to surrender and submit to the demands of their King.

Not that the clergy is necessarily happy about it, as this monk proves. He screams at Henry in a scene that makes no sense to me. For a start, why is he giving a sermon at court? That is the role of Henry’s chaplain, Thomas Cranmer. A monk is one who has chosen a private, contemplative religious life, so he shouldn’t be giving a sermon anyway. Why didn’t they check him before they let him start screaming that Anne Boleyn is a Jezebel? Where is the rood screen in this chapel? All very important questions.

Keeping Up With The Court

Not only is this episode full of boning and fierce legislative action, but everyone at court is furiously scheming away.

Charles Brandon, or as I like to call him, MC Turncoat. For as you see, his role is now to just be opposed and betray people. He’s now against Anne and the Boleyns because… it’s bad? He doesn’t really give a reason other than ‘they have to give Henry Cavil something to do’. He’s found out that Anne and Wyatt used to be lovers, and he’s warning Henry about it. Who, obvs, doesn’t want to hear it.

Cranmer, ever rising in Henry’s favour, is sent to the German states to appeal to the Emperor. Only he meets up with some Lutherans and gets married. Whoops.

Brandon is banished from court and is insulted by the presence of Cromwell. He’s a disgusting self-made man! Like Brandon is! But Cromwell’s the wrong kind of self-made man!

Meanwhile, Thomas More resigns as chancellor. He cannot support Henry’s actions, although he will never speak out against the king and aims to stay neutral. His opinion will be his own, and not to be spoken publicly.

Thomas Wyatt is sexing up one of Katherine of Aragon’s maids because… sex? I don’t really care about Thomas Wyatt.

In private, Thomas More asks his daughter to allow him to die. It’s his only comfort in life to die as a martyr, even though he is the wage earner of the family, and as a traitor and martyr all my worldly possessions would be forfeit to the crown and my entire family would be cast onto the streets, penniless, with nothing to their names. Death is a great joy to me, not you or any part of my dumb family.

This is why I’m no particular fan of Thomas More. He left his family destitute to prove a point to himself.

Mary Boleyn is back! She’s back to talk about sex, sex, sex, and oh yes, sex. And for Mark Smeaton to talk about wanting to have sex with men, openly, because I’m sure that in this society he would totally do that.

And now Charles openly declares himself to be against the Boleyns. Because reasons, I suppose.

I’m A Model, And I Do My Little Turn on the Catwalk

I like Anne’s little snow outfit as it’s very cute. Henry’s outfit is too slim fit, still. It’s a feminised, Elizabethan style of outfit. Henry’s clothes screamed about how masculine he was – this is too Tudor androgynous, and not right for him.

This dress is gorgeous and so out of left field. It is exactly right for the period and for Anne’s status. It has no ridiculous medieval style frills, and the sleeves are perfect. I love the rich brown, and this is easily the best outfit that Anne has worn over the two series. I don’t think we’re going to get another dress this accurate, for shame.

Henry VIII: Pirate King.

What the hell is that dress.

Hideous frumpy faux medieval dress, and weird headdress. There’s a coif at the back for her hair to go in. What’s the point of having it and then having her hair tumbling down? It’s horrible.

Nice lampshade there, Lady Brandon.

And that’s it for this week! Come back next time for more Tudor politics and horrible headdresses.

Unpicking The Tudors; S2 E2 Hello, costume fiends! Sorry for missing a week - just been pottering about and the Henrican Reformation managed to slip through my mind completely.