#block voting controversy

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2007: The Scoreboards

After years of basic graphic design for the scoreboard, wowie. True fantasy indeed, and many of my fantasies do involve spreadsheets. It's clean, it's clear, it's crisp, it's colourful, fun and in HD.

There is a touch of mixed font meltdown, but I'll forgive it because the main font chosen for the year is clearly one that should never be used for information-heavy purposes. The contrast between the pastel background and the black bars for the country name is beautiful. Chef's kiss.

The spokespeople from their speech-bubble prisons in the top right were once again restricted to relating their nation's eight, ten and twelve point scores only and are obviously under instruction to cut down on the flap and banter. The EBU wants things to be sharp and to speed along. With so many countries singing, there's less time for scoring.

Not only do the semi-final envelopes remain in place, but this time they're snatched from the hand of Svante and express delivered by Finns on roller-skates to the presenters. The ridiculously telegenic presenters Mikko and Jaana look like they're having way too much fun with those envelopes. This new envelope based drama is something that may have been developed by chance, but is now so dramatic the EBU are truly wanting to play it up a little, and YLE are more than happy to co-operate.

It's 2007 spoiler time.

Through from the largest semi-final ever progressed:

Serbia - 298 points and beating last year's semi-final record

Hungary - 224 points

Türkiye - 197 points

Belarus - 176 points

Latvia - 168 points

Bulgaria - 146 points

Slovenia - 140 points

Georgia - 123 points

FYROM - 97 points

Moldova - 91 points

Just missing out were Portugal on 88 points and Andorra (Where Are Andorra?) on 80 points. It wasn't lost on many people that every single country through from the semi-final were 'Eastern European' (cue Slovenia, Serbia and Hungary complaining) or that they're non-traditional Eurovision countries (again Slovenia, Serbia and this time Türkiye protest). However that 'clean-sweep' at the expense of the lovely indie boys from Andorra, brought back the resentments that had been laid to rest for 2006. Block voting was apparent to many people, and to lots of delegations.

It didn't really matter that for the most part these ten songs were actually better than the other eighteen, and that with such a huge semi-final lots of countries were going to be disappointed. The semi-final results were going to resound for a year and bring consequences, up to and including questions being asked in national parliaments.

But first we've got a final to get through. Here the results were broadly similar and not at all tense. Although there was only a thirty point gap between the winner and second place, that gap remained consistent throughout the scoring. The order was set early on with little in the way of drama.

There were more countries from the prequalified nations who managed to learn from Romania and up their game, meaning the scoreboard wasn't so dramatically split between the semi-finalists and the prequalified as the previous two-years. But the winners were the winners of the semi, and the highest finishers of the 'Big Four' were Germany in nineteenth. Perhaps the biggest marker for the disgruntled was that highest 'Western European' countries were Greece in 7th and hosts Finland in 17th, and they're not even that far West.

It may be lost on us now, especially as there are so many classics and fan favourites near the top of the scoreboard, but this result was really controversial in 2007. The talk of fixes, diasporic voting and collusion between neighbours went through the roof. It all goes to show that not only is Eurovision political neutrality only skin deep, but that despite years of singing about European harmony and one-ness, there were still divisions, resentments, and scars from the past that were only healing slowly.

Here then are results of the Eurovision Song Contest of 2007 in full.

Serbia - Marija Šerifović - "Molitva" - 268 points

Ukraine - Verka Serduchka - "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" - 235 points

Russia - Serebo - "Song #1" - 207 points

Türkiye - Kenan Doğulu "Shake It Up Şekerim" - 163 points

Bulgaria - Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov - "Water" - 157 points

Belarus - Koldun - "Work Your Magic" - 145 points

Greece - Sarbel - "Yassou Maria" - 139 points

Armenia - Hayko - "Anytime You Need" - 138 points

Hungary - Magdi Rúzsa - "Unsubstantial Blues" - 128 points

Moldova - Natalia Barbu - "Fight" - 109 points

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Marija Šestić - "Rijeka bez imena" - 106 points

Georgia - Sopho - "Visionary Dream" - 97 points

Romania - Todomondo - "Liubi, Liubi, I Love You" - 84 points

FYROM - Karolina - "Mojot svet" - 73 points

Slovenia - Alenka Gotar - "Cvet z juga" - 66 points

Latvia - Bonaparti.lv - "Questa notte" - 54 points

Finland - Hanna Pakarinen - "Leave Me Alone" - 53 points

Sweden - The Ark - "The Worrying Kind" - 51 points

Germany - Roger Cicero - "Frauen regier'n die Welt" - 49 points

Spain - D'Nash - "I Love You Mi Vida" - 43 points

Lithuania - 4Fun - "Love or Leave" - 28 points

France - Les Fatals Picards - "L'Amour à la française" - 19 points

United Kingdom - Scooch - "Flying the Flag" - 19 points (joint 22nd)

Ireland - Dervish - "They Can't Stop the Spring" - 5 points

[barzfrommarz]

I’ve been seeing a lot of discussions/discourse on tumblr and twitter surrounding kamala/voting for kamala so I want to put my two cents in as someone who will have no actual influence towards the outcome of the election

(important parts with be in bold)

Let’s look at the hypothetical that trump wins because the vote was split or people simply just refused to and kamala didn’t gain enough votes to win.

In the scenario, I want every person who decided it would be better not to vote or vote for a random third party candidate who has no shot at winning who only comes up during election years to say all of the “not like the other guys” talking points to explain to not just me but every queer, trans, disabled, non white, AFAB person who is now at severe risk why you chose to not vote to help them have rights. I want to see your explanations if trump wins. you also cannot use Palestinians suffering to make yourself seem better than you actually are

My point is that if trump wins because your delusions lead you to believe that you can single handedly change the way elections work in this country by “sticking it to the dems” and trump wins and we become a facist state, I want to hear what you have to say when we all start loosing rights and palestine gets wiped off the map

“Well we won’t let that happen” Good fucking luck. In project 2025 im pretty sure there is a section about how we basically won’t be able to protest anything anymore, not only that im also pretty sure trump has talked about deporting pro palestine protesters specifically!

You cannot be a single issue voter in this election and in many elections to come. Change doesn’t happen overnight and you need to wake up and realize that kamala will be the start of actually getting more progressive candidates and policies even if it’s not enough right now at this very moment. We all have to actually start putting in the effort instead of sitting around on our asses complaining

If we get kamala in, we won’t have to worry about our country becoming a facist state therefore we can worry more about palestine and putting more pressure on the dems than there already is. That should be a no brainer to some of you

This post isn’t praising kamala or trying to idolize her in anyway, always be critical of politicians. This post is more of a message to the preformative leftists on tumblr and twitter who have zero knowledge on how the US government works.

It’s kamala or trump this november. We cannot change that less than 100 days away from election day

Should I repeat myself? I hope you can understand that.

I’m not trying to bash anyone for continuing to put pressure on kamala and the dems for being complicit in bombing children. That’s not who my post is about like I already said

I think that all the protests outside of the DNC are especially important because it shows we have not forgotten and will continue to put pressure on the dems to do the right thing for once

but like I already said, it’s kamala or trump. Third party candidates are either grifters who only are there to get money and trick gullible leftists or candidates who have never been in any lower level political positions who think they can automatically garner a shit ton of support to win when they can’t. Your other option is to not vote which is arguably worse

I’m not trying to be the one to change anyones mind but I hope this post can help you reconsider your options and start facing the reality of this election

You have an important choice to make this november. I hope you can make the right one

edit: im not trying to beg anyone to vote for kamala or make anyone who is against her because of her handling of Palestine vote for kamala, especially if you are Palestinian yourself. Im not trying to make anyone feel bad about it either. Thats not the point of this post. The point is that change needs to happen now and this election is a perfect start to do so. We cannot have good change under a second trump term. I know im just repeating myself at this point but I want to put this out there incase I come off wrong or offensive. Also, I dont like the dems at all. I dont align with their party but you shouldnt even care abt what party I align with most. Im not a pro activist whose been in the game for 10+ years, im just a trans boy who has essentially been forced to pay attention to the shit going on in the country because of who I am even though it shouldn't concern me nearly as much as it does.

second edit: check out this tiktok and this persons other tiktoks abt palestine and kamala

[grimandghoulish]

I shouldn't comment on Reddit posts because I always inevitably get some weird guy making an incredibly rude and disgusting comment to me. What gives go play with your cheesy unwashed dick I'm sure that'll be more pleasurable than whatever supposed justice you think you're doing because you're offended at whatever I said

[wilwheaton]

Reasons Trump is Unfit for Office, with Sources.

From this comment on Reddit:

Top reasons why Trump should not be president.

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Lost the election and lied about it.Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sent an armed angry mob to Congress and told them they need to fight like hell. Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Approved of the mob saying “hang Mike Pence”. Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Was found liable for sexual assault.Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Was found guilty of defrauding his university students. Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Was found guilty of inflating his assets to get favorable loans.Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Admitted to walking in on pageant contestants’ dressing rooms.Source

⁠⁠⁠⁠ Allegedly Raped and beat Ivana Trump. Source

⁠⁠ Stole from a kids’ cancer charity. Source

Received $413 million inheritance despite claims that he’s a self made man. Source

Blocked his chronically ill infant nephew from getting any of that inheritance. Source

Is the first president to receive votes against him from his own party during impeachment. Source

Led us into being one of the worst hit during Covid despite our head start and resources, leading to high inflation. Source

Said the Democrats do better with the economy.Source

Was ranked as the worst president in history by bipartisan presidential historians.Source

Pushed a plot to have fake votes created and then used to make him President despite losing the election.Source

Ordered republicans to block a bipartisan immigration billso Biden would not get a win before the election.Source

Is a convicted felon guilty of falsifying records to influence an election.Source

Told the Department of Justice to “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”Source

His VP, Mike Pence said Trump should never be president again, and that Trump asked him to put himself “above the Constitution”. Source

Got Fox News successfully sued for repeating/pushing his administrations election lies. A $787M settlement. Source

Said he’d be a dictator for one day Source

Trump lied to, or misled the public 30,573 times in the four years he held office. Source

Also, just regarding some of the Trump administration that have been convicted of crimes:

Donald Trump was charged, convicted, and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former campaign vice chairman, Rick Gates, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former adviser and former campaign aide, Roger Stone, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former adviser and former White House aide Peter Navarro, was charged, convicted, and is currently in prison.

Trump’s former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

The Trump Organization’s former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.

Trump’s former White House national security advisor, Michael Flynn, was charged and convicted.

Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was charged with wire fraud and money laundering, in addition to a conviction in a contempt case similar to Navarro’s. He’s currently awaiting sentencing.

Though he was later acquitted at trial, Trump’s former inaugural committee chair, Tom Barrack, was charged with illegally lobbying Trump on behalf of a foreign government. (Elliot Broidy was the vice chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, and he found himself at the center of multiple controversies, and also pled guilty to federal charges related to illegal lobbying.)

Two lawyers associated with Trump’s post-defeat efforts, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have pleaded guilty to election-related crimes.

Source

And if your vote is based strictly on economic achievements, here is a TikTok video comparing Trumps economy by the numbers. Tiktok link

[holyprincenerd]

yes yes rigged this cha cha that but please let’s not ignore this right now:

https://www.aftonbladet.se/podcasts/ab/episode/355975 Swedish “eurovision expert” Tobbe Ek (for those of you who aren’t Swedish, this is the same guy who accused Måneskin of doing coke on live tv back in 2021) and his posse of minions decided that it was time to spread some absolutely hateful rhetoric against the people of Finland by calling them shitty, idiotic, telling them they should be ashamed of not voting for Sweden (??? literally what???) etc etc, while also dragging in other contestants like Lord of the Lost and insulting them as a means of questioning why the Finnish public voted for them but not for Sweden. (You know. Because it totally doesn’t make any sense at all that a country known for having the most metal bands per capita in the world would vote for Lord of the Lost. Not at all.) 

As the cherry on top of this xenophobic shit cake, they started to go on about how “There’s no way there were ten contestants who were better than Sweden this year.” (Again. Not only disrespecting the other contestants, but them pretending not to grasp the concept of a country known for preferring heavier music choosing to vote mostly for bands this year... Yeah... Couldn’t be their preferences...)

Again, this man is considered a Eurovision expert here in Sweden, yet this is the type of behaviour he and his coworkers display over a nonissue like the Finnish public not voting for Sweden this year. If there’s something shameful here, it’s this.

To reiterate: These are three grown-ass well past 40-year old people having a genuine meltdown over one (1) singular country not voting for them.

Why are we giving Tobbe Ek (and his irrelevant coworkers) a platform, again?

EDIT:

Hoo boy, there’s more. Because of course there is.

ALRIGHT here’s an article from one of our tabloids using quite suspiciously colonialistic sounding rhetoric about Finland being “the kingdom’s previous eastern half”.

https://www.expressen.se/noje/finska-sveket-mot-sverige-gav-noll-poang-efter-uppmaningen-rosta-taktiskt/

The specific quote in Swedish: “Tv-tittarna i tidigare östra rikshalvan gav nämligen Sverige noll(!) poäng under Eurovisionfinalen på lördagen.”

Translation: “TV viewers in [our] kingdom’s previous eastern half gave namely zero(!) points to Sweden during the Eurovision finale on Saturday.”

Yeah, Johan Bratell (the writer of the article) is technically not wrong about Finland having been a part of Sweden. But why bring this up now? This was so clearly meant as a condescending insult.

The article also talks about a throwaway comment that the Finnish commentator Mikko Silvennoinen made about tactical voting (or more specifically, an anonymous comment he read out loud about tactical voting). From my understanding this was a joke reference to the previous elections which took place recently in Finland and forced a portion of the Finnish public to vote tactically as an attempt to block a far-right party from getting into the parliament. It’s embarrassing how much these people are reaching.

And even if they were voting tactically, so what? Sweden won. Why are we so focused on the public vote of one (1) country, Jesus Christ this is embarrassing.

EDIT 2: WHY THIS MATTERS. A LOT.

For those of you who are not in the know about Swedish politics, these statements are reflecting some far-right political views that have their roots all the way back in the times when Sweden ruled over Finland. In recent memory, our far-right political party Sverigedemokraterna claimed that the Swedish minority group Tornedalians are not Swedish, because they may speak local dialects that blend Finnish into Swedish, or speak the minority language Meänkieli. Coincidentally, Meänkieli just so happens to be a minority language that blends Finnish and Swedish, as it is mostly spoken by people who live by the Torneå river, i.e. the Finnish-Swedish border. Here’s an article about this controversy (however you may not be able to read it unless you’re subscribed to said newspaper): https://www.dn.se/asikt/orimligt-att-tornedalingar-inte-skulle-vara-svenskar/?fbclid=IwAR33K_UVRhXlJhyPd3gY7GDXN_lotUdrtM1AeL-nRzWE26Tmq5BFE0lIUzw

Sverigedemokraterna also believe that the Swedish minority group of Sweden Finns should essentially cut their ties to their Finnish roots and that they should not be able to be citizens of both Finland and Sweden. https://aip.nu/sverigedemokraterna-och-de-dubbla-medborgarskapen/

This sort of rhetoric is ridiculously common here, and in situations like the ones that have occurred in light of the ESC, they almost never get called out. Because it’s common. Because it’s okay to call Finnish people names and to use colonial rhetoric against all Finns, both those who live in Finland and those who live in Sweden. Because this is “friendly banter.” Mind you, as someone who technically belongs to both of the aforementioned minority groups I’m completely fine with the actually friendly banter and piss taking that we usually partake in, because it is just that. Friendly. But this is not it. This is actually harmful. I have never seen so many Swedish people attacking Finns on social media as I’ve seen these past few days. The usual colonialistic and fennophobic insults have started to rear their ugly heads: People have started to insult the Finnish language (a fennophobic sentiment that goes way back to the days when Finland was under Swedish rule and the Swedish tried to get rid of the language), they have started to insult the way Finns look (goes back to fennophobic rhetoric of Finns essentially not being “white enough”), etcetera. For more information on how the Swedish government treated the Sweden Finns and Tornedalians (the fact that they tried to abolish both the Meänkieli language and the Finnish language from Sweden and have even done skull measurements as an attempt to prove that these minority groups are not equal to Swedes), here’s another article: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/norrbotten/regeringen-tillsatter-sanningskommission

For those of you who speak Finnish and are interested in the topic, the book Kansankodin pimeämpi puoli by Tapio Tamminen goes into both issues, with photographic evidence of skull measurement incidents among other things. Meanwhile, the Finnish media is mostly just reporting on the tomfoolery of these “journalists.” Sure, there are a lot of Finns who are acting out as well and spreading hateful rhetoric against Swedes, but the difference here is that one group is punching up, while the other is punching down.

Whether Tobbe Ek, Jenny Ågren, Markus Larsson and Johan Bratell meant to cause this does not matter. They’ve still done it, in the case of the former group, they’ve even dragged other Europeans (and Australians!) into this mess.

They’ve gone ahead and spread fennophobic rhetoric on huge platforms: Sweden’s biggest national tabloids. They should be held accountable for this.

To reiterate: ALL THIS OVER THE FINNISH PUBLIC “NOT VOTING FOR SWEDEN” DURING THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST OF 2023.

Edit 3: Just in case we need a bit of clarification:

I know this whole post may come across quite negatively. So let me make this clear: There is an issue with the Swedish culture and its normalisation of fennophobia, however, that doesn’t mean every Swede is maliciously fennophobic. It’s literally just so normalised here, that sometimes people don’t even notice when they’re partaking in it, and because of said normalisation, for many these fennophobic and colonialist insults have become a sort of knee jerk reaction to when there’s “actual beef” with Finland. (Which, obviously, is a fucking problem, because look who has to bear the brunt of that.) 

Moreover, many Swedes aren’t even familiar with their shared history with Finland, and the discrimination Finland was put through during the Swedish rule (not to mention the discrimination the Sweden Finns and Tornedalians have had to face and still face). That part of our shared history simply isn’t taught in schools here, so a regular person would have to know to go out and look for the information. Heck, the only reason I’m aware of this is because at the end of the day, despite having been born and raised in Sweden, I am ethnically Finnish, and grew up by the border with very strong ties to the Finnish culture because of it. But less about me, and more about this issue. Most Swedes (and Swedish journalists who have any sort of sense in them and who work for respectable publications) have expressed their dissatisfaction with this years results as well. There’s a reason Cha Cha Cha is charting so well on Swedish Spotify. There’s a reason for why the Swedish jury and the public gave Finland 12 points.

So, Tl;dr:

1. Swedish tabloids are trash.

2. We have an undeniable problem with how normalised fennophobia is here, and it’s absolutely bizarre that this is how it’s getting exposed.

3. Most regular Swedes aren’t happy with this either, and are in fact not Finland’s and the Finnish people’s greatest haters in the world.

4. Tobbe Ek should get fired. At the bare minimun, he and his coworkers should probably issue some sort of apology for spreading this, seeing how it is actually hurting a lot of people.

Anyway, please don’t hate on the Swedes because of this lol, think about what Jere from Vantaa would think about that. 💚

[questions-about-blorbos]

❝The pear of anguish, also known as choke pear or mouth pear, is a device of disputed use invented in the early modern period. The mechanism consists of a pear-shaped metal body divided into spoon-like segments that can be spread apart with a spring or by turning a key. Its proposed functionality as a torture device is to be variously inserted into the mouth, rectum, or vagina, and then expanded to gag or mutilate the victim; its historical use as a torture device is controversial.❞ — Source.

TAP HERE FOR THE VARIANT OF THIS POLL.

This request was sent to us and we made a poll in response to it. Send any Blorbo-related question you want to our inbox and we’ll make a poll on which people can vote with their own Blorbos in minds

[godfreythespider]

HEY EVERYONE THE KOSA ACT JUST GOT ENOUGH VOTES TO BE PASSED THROUGH SENATE!!! IT STILL NEEDS TO GO THROUGH A VOTE IN THE SENATE, BUT SUPPORTERS OF THE BILL HAVE CALLED THIS A MAJOR AMOUNT OF PROGRESS FOR THE BILL TO BE LAW. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS ABOUT THE CHANGES TO THE ACT AND OTHER RELATED INFORMATION ABOUT WHAT THIS BILL WILL MEAN.

The KOSA Act is a controversial bill that was proposed, known as the "TikTok Ban Bill," but affecting much more. The bill makes it so children under sixteen cannot go on the internet without some disturbing content being censored or outright blocked. Unfortunately, this means kids could be blocked from livesaving information on how to deal with abuse or similar topics. LGBTQ+ activists also worried that the way it was worded could make it possible for senators to censor gender or sexuality information, but in the newest revision this was corrected, although it would still allow federal and state officials to regulate online content for kids. It also would result in invasive age restrictions for apps that are unconstitutional, possibly needing birth certificates or IDs.

Source

[ckret2]

A symbol had been illegal for centuries. So illegal that it wasn't even drawn or described in the very law that banned it. Many people knew the symbol anyway; rumor had it that from time to time someone would see it in their dreams and feel compelled to recreate it. From childhood, everyone was warned that it was strictly forbidden to recreate any symbol you'd learned in your dreams, just in case one was the symbol. Kids got detention for doodling odd shapes, in case they were lying about whether they'd seen them in a dream, even when the teachers themselves weren't sure whether any of the doodled shapes were taboo. Every once in a while some bold rebel would take a dream symbol and carve it into a bench or spray paint it on a wall—but how could one know which one was demonic?

The otherwise secular government claimed the symbol was banned because it invited in a "demon" that wanted to destroy the world. There were, allegedly, both monks and scientists dedicated exclusively to searching for a way to permanently block entry to the demon. And there was, allegedly, a high suicide and insanity rate among these monks and scientists. Until they succeeded in their work, the law remained.

Some people railed against the ban—calling it absurd, backwards, primitive—every other law rooted in religious belief had been abolished decades ago, why not this one? The controversy had most recently flared up a few years ago when a politician had campaigned for governorship on a platform of repealing the ban, along with several dozen other laws he said unduly restricted the people's freedoms and civil liberties. "Where is this demon," he'd asked in a televised debate, his yellowed eyes darting around the room. "Can anyone produce him? Can you prove he's real? Why are we deciding national policy based on superstition?"

When he'd lost the election, he'd called a press conference, railed against the ignorant voters—"what's so liberating about democracy if you vote against your own freedom?"—and then held his fingers in front of his eyes. All the cameras had cut within a couple of seconds, but not before catching his shrill, taunting laugh.

In rebroadcasts of his scandalous speech, his face was censored by a thick black square. The disgraced politician killed himself in police custody. He'd wrapped himself tight in his cloak and set it on fire. She thought about that a lot—what it would be like to feel flames crawling up your limbs.

Enough kids at school had happened to see the live broadcast that they could teach the symbol to other kids when they thought the teachers weren't looking.

And that was how Pyronica had learned the forbidden symbol: a single eye inside a triangle.

Today, she pulled out a can of spray paint she hadn't yet converted into a makeshift flamethrower and followed in the footsteps of countless weird little girls across the multiverse seeking a remedy for their rage:

She tried to summon a demon.

[itsbansheebitch]

!!!CALL YOUR LAWMAKERS!!!

Make it clear that KOSA is a controversial bill!!!

Lawmakers don't want to vote for controversial bills before people vote for them again!!!

KOSA would

Eliminate ANY queer content under their "duty of care" clause

Censoring of lifesaving resources

This IS NOT a privacy bill!!! This is a censorship bill!!!

There is hope!!!

Last week, Senators Schumer and Blumenthal took to the Senate floor to talk about their commitment to moving this dangerous bill forward. There are a few Senators keeping the vote from happening right now, but we need to make sure they keep up their opposition to block the vote unless it is fully fixed to stop it from becoming a censorship bill.

On the House side, the House Energy and Commerce Committee could consider the bill as soon as this week. If it gets voted out of this committee, the next stop is a full House vote. We still have the opportunity to win significant changes to get rid of the part of KOSA that would let government officials decide what content they think is “dangerous” for young people. And if we can’t, we need to keep raising opposition to keep KOSA from passing.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Script:

When someone answers, say your name, be polite, and then say, “I'm calling to urge you to oppose the Kids Online Safety Act. Because of its duty of care model, this bill would be a threat to free speech online and puts LGBTQ+ kids at further risk by incentivizing social media companies to censor lifesaving resources, in an already scary time for them. If you care about kids' experience online, Congress should pass remove the duty of care from KOSA completely and pass comprehensive privacy legislation that would actually protect kids.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The petition is below! If you can't call, sign!!!

Call Now!!! They will connect you directly to your lawmaker's office!!!

[akkivee]

hello vee.

@/twogallonhats on twitter made this iceberg, and now i am subjecting you to this. Explain to the best of your knowledge, good luck.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh okay sure

idk why rhyme anima is listed tbh it’s just a zany anime version of hypmic but that very well may be the reason lol like it gave us a man by the name of tom whisper weathercock lol

there’s always a prolific push for your fav to win the drb lol. iirc during the championship round in the 1st drb there was a fan?? fans??? who gave money to some guy with a following to post a video of him asking everyone to vote for mtc lol. jp fans for the second got together and made eng/kor/ch instructions on how to vote in the vr battles it’s a time can’t wait for that to kick off next year 😬

arb is technically not canon and therefore ooc lol

idk what hypmic tictok sounds mean. i can tell you of a few times hypmic was trending on tiktok tho lol

idk if they were even a soundcloud rapper, but some soundcloud rapper fell in love with hypmic and decided to make ichiro his oc/persona and put himself on a team with jyushi and samatoki and they were california division lol

back in 2018???? hypmic posted a christmas video except it was just champagne gold and base hifumi.png in a santa hat slid across the screen truly graphic design is hypmic’s passion lol

i mean there was a brief time there were rp accounts on twt so ig that’s what it

kimura loves black people so much and wants to be black so bad he felt the need to bl@ckface for one of his album drops. fandom asked he take down the posts, he didn’t, fans called him out on it, he blocked them

around the time when there was rumblings that gbr was exiting uhhhhh the eu i think, a dice cosplayer had a video of themselves popping mentos in a coke bottle go viral. someone in british politics used it as a metaphor for whatever stance they had on brexit lol

lol i’m lumping hypstage and hypnama together since i don’t think there’s a real reason they’re listed other than occasionally being points of discussion

hifumi was the original tbh creature

asmr tubers vibe with hypmic characters being their yandere bfs

idk if it’s more than memeing on hitoya but that hitoya card in the pic was clowned on so hard LOL

i couldn’t tell you a specific instance of it but hypmic jank includes frequent misspellings lol

lol i also don’t know if there’s actual controversy behind oridivis besides them getting thanos snapped

*rio voice* curry friday and the mtc seiyuu used to celebrate it lol

there was a collab with some instant curry company (probably called curry meshi lol) and they had the leaders rap a song for it. the songs’ are fun and what’s even funnier is that the song has the leaders sharing this curry and kuukou technically didn’t eat the curry bc it was all gone by the time the cup reached him (and jakurai ate most of it LOL)

i have no fcking clue what weenor busujima is lol

the fact hyprice is a thing is a damn good reason to be here lol. ogs know a hypmic series producer made the joke in 2018 during a hypnama that spawned the concept years later lmao

there was a typo on kuukou’s introductory bio that said he was 68cm LOL

akuma no hana is indeed a song about sex idk what else to tell ya lol

throwback to the hypmic bathtubs they had a live for crazy ass hypmic merch moments lol

the hangout streams are located in this building called mixalive. instead tagging that building’s twt for one of their events, hypnosis flava iirc, they mistakenly tagged a porn twt lol

there was an art trend a few years ago where artists drew their bde faves (and even real people got in on the trend) balancing a shampoo bottle on their big 🍆. ichiro was unfortunately the face of the trend

stage hitoya went viral for that pic used in the iceberg and i had to see randos calling him a two face ass character ONLY HYPMICS ARE ALLOWED TO BULLY HITOYA DAMN YOU

the seiyuu are always getting up to shit backstage lmao tradition is ishiya-san and amasaki-san prowling up on the mtc seiyuu menacingly lmao

if there’s drama or anything of relevance outside of yes stream discords exist, ion know about it lol

a few songs are inspired by/interpolate from other songs. this a normal thing in the music industry (let’s get physical by olivia newton john and physical by dua lipa comes to mind) but hypmic caught a lot of flack for ‘stealing’ from black artists. shinogi dead pools is kendrick lamar’s drank swimming pools bar for bar lol but again, it’s very normal lol the whole kendrick vs drake rap battle that happened this year literally was them using each other’s sound to diss them

some european(?) indie film had an actor wearing ichiro’s jacket

there was a brief trend in jp where they made snow sculptures of their characters as means of attractions and hypmic jumped in on it. it produced the ugliest kuukou known to man he was so unflatteringly scrunckly i loved him LOL

????? bat seiyuu family???? i’m sure what i have in mind is not what they have in mind lol but i mean yeah it’s a running joke that the bat seiyuu consider each other family lol shoutout to sakakihara-san randomly calling hayama-san his ‘onii-chan’ and both hayama-san and sakakihara-san bullying tf outta takeuchi-san by calling him ‘papa’ lol

ariana grande is based about samatoki and there’s proof lol

hypmic vs crsm rap battle was REAL and fumiya wanted to EAT THEM

kamio-san has taken to slapping kuroda-san’s ass and kuroda-san has taken to trying to murder him for it 😌

quite recently lol mtr’s album art was leaked ahead of the hangout stream in a post meant to advertise the fan meeting lol

british dice was a theory i didn’t pay attention to bc i kinda thought just the concept was dumb *wheeze* i think it had something to do with a mistranslation about dice’s father

the rest of that tier i have no fcking clue about lol

in a camera transition during the 9th live, someone’s desktop background was on screen instead of the yknow, livestreaming concert lmao

they got some ddb members to make choreography to move your body til you die!!! i tried i didn’t think it was too bad but the pace of the dance needed to be slowed down eventually lol

if this isn’t poking fun at sensei saying men should automatically know how to rap idk what that is lol

if there’s a trip the mtc seiyuu have taken that stands out from the others, i don’t know about it lol

the hypmic cafe that’s going on rn have these stickers??? standees??? for sale and someone stole all of samatoki’s LOL

[smashorpassobjects2]

Introduction:

Inspired by, but not affiliated with, the OG @smash-or-pass-objects!

FAQ:

1. How do I request an object?

Currently via inbox, although I may add a google form at some point. All polls will be posted anonymously but feel free to claim your submissions in the notes.

2. What objects aren't allowed?

I think the other blog had some pretty good rule for this: no objects that depict a minor, nothing from H*rry P*tter for sure and potentially other fandoms depending on their content/creators, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I also agree about avoiding products on the BDS boycott list for Palestine.

I also may choose not to include certain controversial objects at my discretion, particularly those involved in direct harm such as some military vehicles and equipment: I made a separate post about that here

3. Who can't interact?

This blog is 18+ so nobody under the age of 18. I can't stop you from voting in the polls but please don't reply/interact to the posts or follow this account. I will block any minors I see doing this.

Thanks!

[salvation-within-the-void]

The prime minister of the UK has just confirmed that he will change the law to allow the conservative party to forcibly deport immigrants to Rwanda.

The SUPREME COURT of the UK found this policy unlawful, the government were told they CANNOT do this.

Their response? Change the law

This policy is a threat to the lives of refugees who fled here seeking support and asylum, as a country we should be kind and welcoming. Instead these poor people are being sent straight back into the instability and violence they risked their lives to escape.

Rwanda has a history of being used to 'sweep refugees under the rug', having signed a similar deal with Israel. The supreme court found that Rwanda has previously violated laws protecting immigrant against refoulement, as it has sent people back to the nations they fled. Directly violating international treaties and violating the rights granted to refugees and asylum seekers.

Sunak also stated that he will not allow the European human rights court to block this policy and will revisit any treaties that may act as "obstacles" to this policy.

They are trying to get out of THE INTERNATIONAL BILL OF HUMAN RIGHTS! The refugge system in Rwanda is so unsafe that this is a human rights issue! And our government want to violate those rights for thousands of immigrants they are determined not to help.

These people are hell bent on making life miserable for refugees. The deputy chair of the conservatives stated the government should "ignore the law and start the flights anyway".

Rishi Sunak is also introducing "emergency legislation" in order to force this through parliament and the courts.

Where have we heard that before?

These are the same emergency powers that allow laws to be passed without parliamentary votes. The same emergency powers that enabled the "war on terror" so the UK and US could commit war crimes. The same emergency powers used by the nazis to legitimise the holocuase

This is facism! Plain as day.

I am very very worried for the future of my country and the future of this world. Facism is not on the rise, it is here. We must watch very very closely, at home and abroad, so that we can act accordingly and protect ourselves.

[chussyracing]

What has been happening in the world of motorsports lately?

this is very long overdue (at least 2 months worth of news), because i simply didn't have time to put it together. i tried to split it into categories that make sense, so you can only focus on what you are interested in. all mistakes are my own and there has been so much happening i probably forgot something as well :))

Women in Motorsport and F1 Academy

Alisha Palmowski was the F1 Academy wildcard entry for Qatar GP (and did amazing)

for the last race weekend in Abu Dhabi, it is Logan Hannah in a special F1 Academy livery

A bizarre situation happened in F1 Academy: the second race was cancelled in Qatar because of track reparations after a Porsche Cup crash into the barriers, then in Abu Dhabi, they added a third race but instead of taking the positions for it from the last quali in Qatar, they took a third time in Adu Dhabi’s quali and awarded two more points for it – therefore they stripped Abbi off her title that weekend and she had to earn it again which she did of course, so technically she became a champion of the same series twice within the same season

Michele Mouton got Lifetime Achievement Award at FIA gala

as a champion, Abbi gets full funded 2025 GB3 championship seat

Luna Fluxa became karting champion in Senior category of the Champions of the Future Academy Programme

there is also 400% increase of female karters in BIKC finals this years with the help of Discover Your Drive F1A programme

again, this is very late but here is a list of all drivers that took part in the Women's test in FE in Madrid: Marti and Chambers for Andretti, Buhler for Mahindra, Chadwick and Wadoux for Jaguar, Edgar and Visser for DS Penske, de Silvestro for Kiro Race, Koyama for Lola Yamaha, Gabča Jílková <3 and Garcia for Porsche, Pulling and Flörsch for Nissan, Bustamante and Lloyd for McLaren, Calderon and Schreiner for Maserati and Palmowski and Powell for Envision

Hitech is also joining F1 Academy as 6th team from 2025 onwards

Michelle Gatting officially became Porsche factory driver as a part of Iron Dames/Porsche collab

oh and Iron Dames have a new face joining: Celia Martin

Karen Gaillard won the national junior shootout as the first woman ever and became a part of Porsche Junior Programme

Doriane Pin appeared as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel (idk how to explain in F1 terms how huge this is)

All confirmed 2025 F1 Academy drivers so far:

Lia Block for Williams

Doriane Pin with Prema and Mercedes (and she will also reace in Freca as part of Iron Dames)

Chloe Chambers for Red Bull Ford

Alisha Palmowski for Red Bull Racing

Nina Gademan for Alpine

Rafaela Ferreira for Racing Bulls

Ella Lloyd for McLaren

Alba Hurup Larsen for Tommy Hilfiger

Courtney Cobe for Haas

Emma Felbermayr for Sauber

Rules, FIA and its president

After Red Bull’s protest, FIA banned protective skid blocks on the plank of the car which affected 7 out of 10 teams

The controversial McLaren rear wing with “mini DRS” is now officially illegal and new tests will be added from next season onwards to prevent other teams using it (because it wasn’t open when the car was still, only when moving and particularly at straights)

Mohammed Ben Sulayem wants to change up the rules/governing in FIA which comes down to him having more direct power and preventing him from getting backlash from it (update since the last time I wrote this down: he passed it through the voting and FIA moves even more towards autocracy)

Liberty Media might be in trouble for the MotoGP take over (let's wait for European Union to give more details)

FIA showed the new 2026 car concept after some clarifications

Sulayem said if drivers want paid full time professional stewards, they should pay for them (as their predicted operating result is 2,2m which is a big jump after -24m in 2021... it is a non-profit organization btw)

Pirelli is (as per usual) from the post season tyre testing when they found out the C6 tyres are essentially useless because they do not even hold on for a full lap

F1 st up a diversity and inclusion charter to help marginalized group into F1

Juniors

F2 and F3 will race in Madrid from 2026 onwards

Kimi and Ollie were meant to take part in Super Formula Suzuka test but Kimi had to pull out last minute due to illness (which forced him to skip the last race as well), from other names you might know Correa or Frederick too

Carrie Schreiner, Zane Maloney and Theo Pourchaire leave Sauber junior academy (Carrie will be their ambassador for 2025, Theo is development driver for Peugeot in WEC and Zane is in FE)

Williams signed karter Will Green for their junior academy

F2 confirmed line up so far:

HITECH: Luke Browning, Dino Beganovic

INVICTA: Roman Staněk (round of applause for my boy please) and Leo Fornaroli

AIX: Joshua Durksen, Cian Shields

CAMPOS: Arvid Lindblad, Pepe Martí

PREMA: Seb Montoya, Gabriele Mini

TRIDENT: Sam Meguetounif, Max Esterson

RODIN: Christian Mansell

MP MOTORSPORT: Richard Verschoor, Oli Goethe

ART GP: Ritomo Miyata

DAMS: Jak Crawford, Kish Maini

F3 confirmed line up so far:

MP MOTOSPORT: Alessandro Giusti, Tim Tramnitz, Bruno del Pino

HITECH: Joshua Dufek, Martinus Stenshorne, Gerrard Xie

PREMA: Ugo Ugochukwu, Brando Badoer, Noel Leon

RODIN: Callum Voisin, Roman Bilinski, Louis Sharp

DAMS: Matias Zagazetta, Nicola Lacorte

TRIDENT: Rafa Camara, Noah Stromsted, Charlie Wurz

CAMPOS: Nikola Tsolov (rip), Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, Mari Boya

ART: James Wharton, Laurens Van Hoepen, Tukka Taponen

VAR: Theophile Nael

Other racing series

Mick leaves the role of Merc reserve driver at the end of this year, but he got confirmed for Alpine’s WEC line up for 2025

Mitch Evans had technical issues in qualifying of the first race of the new season, so he was dead last on the starting grid and then he used up a bit of good luck and climbed up to P1 to win the race from the last place

Jamie Chadwick and Logan Sargeant will be driving LMP2 car number 18 in the 2025 European Le Mans Series with IDEC Sport

There is a rumour Toyota wants Ricciardo in Supercars or Nascar for next year

super old news i forgot to share: Ugo Ugochukwu won Macau GP (even with the 1000 red flags)

Jorge Martin won the Moto GP championship for the first time ever

Alpine will sponsor Pramac Yamaha in MotoGP from 2025 onwards

Andre Lotterer will continue with hypercar for Genesis

and Robert Kubica will continue with AF Corse

Iron Lynx switched from Lamborgini to Merc in LMGT3 WEC for 2025 onwards

Future of F1

Monza and Monaco both got extended till 2031 with Monaco moving places to let Canada come after Miami, also with some rumours about the hosting fee being significantly higher for Monaco after years of paying the least of all venues, Chinese GP got extended until 2030 and Zandvoort got one year extension till 2026 which will be the last edition of the GP for some time and as a “celebration” it will be a sprint weekend

General Motors’ application to join F1 from 2026 onwards came through and Cadillac/GM confirmed Mario Andretti as CEO? Whatever. And they also appointed Guanyu’s manager Graeme Lowdon as team principal

Cadillac will be using Ferrari engine for multiple years after they enter in 2026, they want to use their own engines by 2030 though

also Andretti Racing Limited changed its name to Cadillac Formula Racing Limited (objectively hilarious)

oh and Rob White will joing Andretti Global as chief of operations

With the FIA gala 2024 taking place there, Rwanda officially announced their bid to host an F1 race

Este will have the first female race engineer (or so everyone claims and i was too tired to check at this point but wasn't Ruth a race engineer at some point) in Haas next year with Laura Muller

Qiddiya circuit should host Saudi Arabian GP from 2027 onwards

James Vowles admitted that the crashes this year will probably negatively influence them in 2025 as well

Argentina wants to get a GP in their country but so far there is a lot of work and a lot of talks so it wouldn't be anytime near

Czech Republic would also like to host F1 gp after motogp is returning here, Masarykův circuit in Brno is in talks (but we are talking 5 years plan at least), there would be a lot of work done again BUT the owner (rights holder? idk the position) is good friends with Mohammed Ben Sulayem so there is that

this is also old but idk if i mentioned it in previous round ups: from 2025 the minimum driver weight is increased to 82 kgs to try to avoid drivers going throught extreme dieting as there is more talks about how big of a toll it takes on them

Andretti said that F1 is now open to 12th team as well

Teams and drivers

Jack lost the fight for race number 12 with Kimi for next year and will be racing under number 7 (but he raced under 61 during the last weekend)

Kimi also isn’t doing too well tho, he had to miss out both on the sprint race and the feature race this weekend as he has been diagnosed with food poisoning and the doctor advised him against racing)

Gabriel Bortoleto will be running under number 5 starting next year

Charles won the overtake of the month of November (and you can vote for his overtake in Abu Dhabi in the overtake of the month poll, which gives you opportunity to win 2025 Miami GP tickets)

Haas signed a new sponsorship deal with Chicago uni (wow)

Santander is leaving with Carlos meaning they signed a multiyear sponsorship deal with Williams from 2025 onwards

Yuki admitted he spent about 3 hours in interrogation room when he arrived to the usa (just days after fans got mad at Charles saying, “maybe try in Spanish” and calling it racist – you have to see the difference at this point and realize there are poc on the grid and Carlos is not one of them but alas)

George and Charles both confirmed none of the drivers were informed about the race director’s change before they saw it in the media

Checo apologized (or like. Tried to) for his father’s homophobic language towards Ralph Schumacher

Lewis will test F1-75 for the first time on 22nd January in Fiorano

Ferrari made a send off for Carlos by letting him and his father drive F1-75 together today (Charles came to watch over the cars)

Guanyu randomly participated in a gaming event (CS GO?)

Aston Martin signed Dani Juncadella as a simulator driver

this is pure gossip at this part of the season but Guanyu is in talks to be Ferrari reserve driver (which to be fair. there are many signs poiting to this and f1 is always about the subtle signs so)

McLaren is apparently "taking brave risks" with the 2025 car

Ferrari will unveil their car on 19th February (the day after the London show) in Maranello :))

Silly season

There are some rumours Briatore is interested in Franco, and this is Jack’s one chance to prove himself but you know it is Alpine so…

Este wasn’t allowed to finish the season with Alpine or visit the factory to say goodbye to the workers he worked alongside for 5 years – all in exchange for the post season test with Haas (he posted the special helmet he had ready for the last GP though and he came to the usual drivers’ dinner in Abu Dhabi)

Helmut Marko said that Checo doesn’t have his seat guaranteed and they will meet with the board after the season to discuss the second seat

today multiple even more credible sources are reporting he is officially out of the seat and being replaced by Liam Lawson (which would probably include Hadjar in the second Racing Bulls seat)

also Hadjar was kinda speaking about this back in Qatar saying that he knows he doesn't need to stress about F2 anymore and hinting at an F1 seat

OK UPDATE: i will not be rewriting everything but Checo is officially out of red bull racing seat for 2025, expect the second seat to go to Liam probably and the announcement coming this week, probably tomorrow

Valtteri lowkey spilled the tea about Sauber, he was promised that the team would be built around him in Audi, but then it quickly became apparent they have no real plans, and any aims and targets Fred had went into the bin as he left

he should probably head to Mercedes as a reserve driver as per multiple rumours

he also said he turned down an Indycar offer

Frederic let Carlos go one day earlier than planned so he could do Williams filming day on Monday instead of just testing for Williams on Tuesday

a lot of noise about what "could have been" with Toto claiming he would get Charles if he knew sooner that Lewis is leaving, Max claiming he got an offer from Ferrari, Briatore claiming Fernando got an offer from Williams before signing to Aston and Carlos claiming he was 90% (or was it 99%?) sure he would re-sign with Ferrari again

Kevin Magnussen got confirmed as WRT's driver in WEC hypercar for 2025

lots of people have been speaking about Max potentially retiring after winning another championship, announcing the pregnancy and organizing a part for all Red Bull staff in Abu Dhabi where he appeared as a speaker (but it is unfounded for now)

Ted Kravitz thinks that Alex Albon has a Red Bull exit clause in his Williams contract

Michael Manning (Max's trackside control engineer since 2016) is leaving F1

End of the season

Based on reports, Lewis organized the dinner again and Valtteri paid for everyone (and someone poisoned Charles there rip)

To add to Charles’ misfortunes, his battery cannot be saved anymore so he missed a part of the FP1 with his brother Arthur, then they announced they are taking a new battery so he will get 10 places grid penalty, then he had a slight PU issue at the start of fp2 (and then Jean Alesi broke out he has food poisoning and almost didn’t sleep) and then they had to change his plank because of extreme wear and give him a new one, then his time in Q2 (which put him to provisional p1) got deleted for track limits (while two other drivers with the same track limits violation in the same turn got their laps reinstalled)… fastforward a few hours and he made it to the podium from p19

It wasn’t enough to get McLaren tho, so McLaren grabbed their first World Constructor’s Championship win in 26 years

Abu Dhabi was an outing for many juniors (Arthur in Carlos’ car to make history as first time brothers drove for the same team in F1, Luke Browning in Williams, Isack Hadjar in Red Bull, Felipe Drugovich in Aston Martin, Ayumu Iwasa in VCARB, Ryo Hirakawa in McLaren and technically also Jack Doohan in Alpine)

also arthur was displayed as LEL to avoid confusion with LEC

Many drivers did after season young driver testing in Abu Dhabi although there was a change: Kimi Antonelli still wasn’t feeling well after he got food poisoning so after withdrawing from the last sprint race and feature race, he had to follow doctor’s orders and also withdraw from the testing (so Fred Vesti jumped in)

Max served his community service at the FIA Gala in Rwanda with young drivers

oh Max also randomly tested GTP and Yuki indycar while in the US

fun fact, remember the punctures in qatar? pirelli believes they had nothing to do with the debris on track which just raises more question marks imo

Alex and Guanyu swapped their helmets in Abu Dhabi (also idk if i mentioned but Goerge made a special helmet for lewis and Charles made one for Carlos)

Other news

Formula E donated 250k to More than Equal and Wings for Life charities as part of the bet that Max will win the championship

Alex Jacques is ending as F2 commentator

Ollie will now has his own merch line with his bear logo

[this is actually very sad, illness TW] Eddie Jorden admitted he was diagnosed with cancer and urged everyone to get their checkups

Oscar's trainer Kim Keedle is leaving F1

Tyler the Creator's Gold and Lewis' 44+ partnered for a capsule ahead of Las Vegas GP

Ollie was fangirling over Jannik Sinner at ATP finals

Franco and Guanyu both had their respective magazine photoshoots (GQ Spain Men of the Year and Man About Town) slayed them

Sophia Flörsch tried to cancel Lewis for not investing into diversity or whatever (completely missed the mark there tbh)

Christian Horner received a CBE for his services in motorsport????

there is a bit of mess behind the scenes about the F1 75 event in London because the tickets famously sold out it minutes and the official F1 rules state that the only valid tickets are from them and people who buy them from resellers won't be let in, that didn't go unnoticed by viagogo that posted about ticket resale being legal in the UK and banning their tickets would go against the anti-monopol rules :)

Older gossips I forgot to share months ago:

Oakes has primary buying rights if Alpine were to sell, it has been a part of the deal to make him the team principal of Alpine – he is Hitech CEO (or team principal? I always get all these positions twisted) and played a crucial role into signing Paul Aron as an Alpine reserve since he was Hitech driver as well

Binotto has been desperately trying to gain staff from Ferrari, but not many workers are interested in the project that doesn’t seem to have a strong position among the upcoming new regs so far

Pierre was looking for a place elsewhere before he found out that he doesn’t have a chance anywhere else – due to history like with VCARB or other candidates already being on the list in front of him like with HAAS – so he did the only possible thing and signed contract extension with Alpine

If Max were to follow Newey to Aston Martin in the future if they somehow manage to nail the new regulations for 2026 for example, Lance is said to be looking at WEC options

Domenicali wanted Zandvoort to include other “entertainment measures” besides racing (whatever that may be to him) and the investors weren’t willing to do that so there was a mutual agreement to end the partnership

Checo does have a contract with red bull but not neccesarily to race with the f1 red bull racing team so expect something like "ambassador" role or 3rd driver etc.

most of the george/max beef is made up, esp the quotes because a photograph was present when they had a conversation in front of the stewards room (max told george that he will get him back the next day into t1) and as for stewards everyone goes there individually (only with team representative/representatives)

Ferrari was the last constructor (so along with their customer teams, although Sauber already changed it) to use push rod front suspension and they will be changing to pull rod for 2025 onwards

allegedly FBI was at Las Vegas GP as part of investigation into Andretti (i call bullshit)

you know how F1 told no to Andretti? apparently there is personal beef between the CEO of Liberty Media Greg Maffei (yes the one who is leaving the moment GM are confirmed) and Andretti

Yuki moved to Milan, he lives SUPER close to Pierre and they had a party when he officially moved in as a part of "housewarming"???

Random “fun” facts I learned recently:

Fangio was once KIDNAPPED so he couldn’t drive in a GP in Cuba (it was someone from Fidel Castro’s party that kidnapped him)

In the upgrades, you only need to announce changes that are visible (aka once you change something “inside” it is not on the list of upgrades for each weekend)

Charles can never tank a random number of liters into his car, it always has to be some nice round up number and he has “a huge car that drinks a lot, so he can fit 150 liters into it)

Gio got married!!! (they grow up so fast)

Ollie will race with number 87 next year and his father David Bearman raced in GT racing under the same number

this one's really not fun and pretty old news, someone stole a steel statue of Gilles Villeneuve from Canada

Las Vegas had a huge problem last year with many areas of the track being easily accessible by random bystanders for viewing the race for free and for this year they stepped up with different barrieres and coverage at places that were "vulnerable" last year - YET there was a part with escalators that had view of the track so some people spent hours going up and down those to see the race

[anyroads]

Hey, I know Gen-Z likes to joke about 9/11 but some of us were alive for it and it was legit traumatizing so just FYI if you post any jokes about it tomorrow I'm blocking you. I know no one cares and frankly it's kind of gross that I feel like saying this might be inviting controversy or whatever, but you're not an edgelord for making fun of dead people you're just disturbing.

No, the racist attacks on Muslim Americans were absolutely not even remotely OK. And yes, the government and military responses were disproportionate and very much about greed and oil. I know because I spent the entire war protesting and educating people about why it needed to end and getting people to vote in every election and standing up for Muslim people. I also walked past the crater left by the twin towers regularly for years and the fliers on the fence in little plastic protector sheets of people looking for loved ones who were still missing.

Civilians died. Regular people who happened to be on vacation, or had a work meeting, or their bagel and donut cart spot was on that corner, or they were on the janitorial crew, or their office just happened to be there, or they were a firefighter who ran to the scene and never made it out. Making jokes about 9/11 won't change how many civilians died in Afghanistan and Iraq and Guantanamo. And their deaths also don't justify making fun of the civilians who died in the towers and on the planes. It also doesn't justify the cost that rescue workers still pay to this day because of the damage to their lungs that they can't get help for because they don't have healthcare and the Republicans struck down the bill to allot funding for them until it was too late for a lot of them. Some of us saw saw the 9/11 attacks in real time. Our lives stopped completely along with the rest of the country. Some us watched for days on TV while nothing else was on as firemen and rescue workers and desperate civilians were out there in the rubble with literal buckets trying to dig survivors out.

So yeah, I don't like what I've seen the last few years from people who didn't live through it and have made it a joke and if I see you posting callous, soulless jokes on Sept. 11th I'm blocking you and hope you take a look at your choices as a human being.

[curiositysavesthecat]

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Additional, posted April 12, 2024

We won’t publish polls that have already been submitted and posted on other poll blogs word for word (not talking about polls about the same topic, but polls that were literally copied and pasted from other blogs word for word, questions and options), that would’ve been rude on our part (and quite frankly, copying polls from other blogs and submitting them to us is rude on your part too).

We do engage with other poll blogs and do see what polls they were given, copying those polls word for word and submitting them to us will get you blocked.

If you see us post polls that were originally from other blogs, again, not talking about polls about the same topics but polls that were the exact replica of other blogs, please know that we genuinely don’t know they have already been done by someone else, as we would never steal from anybody. Please also do let us know (preferably with the time stamp of the poll being posted before ours) and we’ll take them down immediately.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ed Pilkington at The Guardian:

The US supreme court has overturned one of its own most important precedents, the Chevron doctrine, that for the past 40 years has guided the work of federal government in critical areas of public life, from food and drug safety to environmental protection. In a ruling that the Biden administration has warned could have a “convulsive” impact on the functioning of government, the court’s hardline conservative majority delivered a major blow to the regulatory powers of federal agencies. Voting as a block, the six rightwing justices who wield the supermajority threw out the supreme court’s own 1984 opinion in Chevron USA Inc v Natural Resources Defense Council, which has required the courts to defer to the knowledge of government experts in their reasonable interpretation of ambiguous laws.

Writing the opinion, chief justice John Roberts bluntly stated that the Chevron precedent “is overruled”. He lambasted the legal theory laid out in the ruling, claiming it “gravely erred” and calling it was “misguided” and “unworkable” despite the fact that it has steered the functions of the federal government for four decades.

Roberts not only eradicated the Chevron doctrine, he turned it on its head. Under his ruling, the relationship between courts and federal agencies is reversed: in the modern era, the courts have shown deference to the expertise of agencies, but from now on the courts alone will decide. “The constitution assigns to the federal judiciary the responsibility and power to adjudicate cases and controversies,” Roberts wrote. “Agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do.”

In recent years, the Chevron doctrine has become a central target of rightwing groups that blame it for what they see as a proliferation of government regulations executed by unelected bureaucrats in the so-called “deep state”. A key group behind the supreme court challenge, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, was founded with seed money from the oil billionaire Charles Koch.

[...] Elena Kagan issued a withering dissent, which was joined by her fellow liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. She accused her rightwing peers on the bench of throwing out a precedent that had stood for 40 years as “a cornerstone of administrative law”.

Chevron had been applied over that period in thousands of judicial decisions and become “part of the warp and woof of modern government”, said Kagan. By casting out decades of settled law, the conservative supermajority had once again asserted their authority. “The majority disdains restraint, and grasps for power,” Kagan added.

The radical right-wing judicial activist majority on SCOTUS ruled 6-3 by Chief Justice John Roberts to overturn Chevron v. NRDC (aka the Chevron Doctrine) in the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo ruling that would adversely impact federal government functions and regulatory powers in many aspects.

SCOTUS Justice Elena Kagan said it best in her dissent in Loper Bright Enterprises: “The majority disdains restraint, and grasps for power.”