#both nationally and internationally.

[deenbandhuchhoturamuniversity]

DEENBANDHU CHHOTU RAM UNIVERSITY (DCRUSM.ORG.IN) OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COURSE ADMISSIONS

The Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science & Technology is a renowned institution that is known for its excellence in the field of science and technology. With a strong emphasis on research and innovation, the university has been at the forefront of cutting-edge developments in various fields. Its state-of-the-art facilities and dedicated faculty provide students with a conducive environment for learning and growth. As a result, graduates from this institution have gone on to make significant contributions in their respective fields, both nationally and internationally.

Web Site:- www.dcrusm.org.in

[twilishark]

There's a certain charm to how Americans will pronounce my name with a s sound at the end, like with yes, when every other person I know pronounces it with a z sound.

It's very cute

[shatteredsnail]

so unfair of my body to give me intense anxiety over my final college decision coming today when it’s for a school i probably won’t even be able to afford

[txttletale]

I'm asking this genuinely, as a 19 yo with no education in economics and a pretty surface level understanding of socialism: can you explain the whole Bananas discourse in a way someone like me might understand? In my understanding it's just "This is just a product we can give up to create better worker conditions and that's fine" but apparently that's not the full picture?

alright so some pretty important background to all this is that we're all talking about the fact that bananas, grown in the global south, are available year-round at extremely low prices all around europe and the USA. it's not really about bananas per so--the banana in this discourse is a synechdoche for all the economic benefits of imperialism.

so how are cheap bananas a result of imperialism? first of all i want to tackle a common and v. silly counterargument: 'oh, these ridiculous communists think it's imperialist for produce to be shipped internationally'. nah. believing that this is the communist objection requires believing in a deeply naive view of international traide. this view goes something like 'well, if honduras has lots of bananas, and people in the usa want bananas and are willing to pay for them, surely everyone wins when the usa buys bananas!'.

there are of course two key errors here and they are both packed into 'honduras has lots of bananas'. for a start, although the bananas are grown in honduras, honduras doesn't really 'have' them, because the plantations are mostly owned by chiquita (formerly known as united fruit) dole, del monte, and other multinationals--when they're not, those multinationals will usually purchase the bananas from honduran growers and conduct the export themselves. and wouldn't you know it, it's those intervening middleman steps--export, import, and retail, where the vast majority of money is made off bananas! so in the process of a banana making its way from honduras to a 7/11, usamerican multinationals make money selling the bananas to usamerican importers who make money selling them to usamerican retailers who make money selling them to usamerican customers.

when chiquita sells a banana to be sold in walmart, a magic trick is being performed: a banana is disappearing from honduras, and yet somehow an american company is paying a second american company for it! this is economic imperialism, the usamerican multinational extracting resources from a nation while simultaneously pocketing the value of those resources.

why does the honduran government allow this? if selling bananas is such a bad deal for the nation, why do they continue to export millions of dollars of banans a year? well, obviously, there's the fact that if they didn't, they would face a coup. the united states is more than willing to intervene and cause mass death and war to protect the profits of its multinationals. but the second, more subtle thing keeping honduras bound to this ridiculously unbalanced relationship is the need for dollars. because the US dollar is the global reserve currency, and the de facto currency of international trade, exporting to the USA is a basic necessity for nations like honduras, guatemala, &c. why is the dollar the global reserve currency? because of usamerican military and economic hegemony, of course. imperialism built upon imperialism!

this is unequal exchange, the neoimperialist terms of international trade that make the 'global economy' a tool of siphoning value and resources from the global south to the imperial core. & this is the second flaw to unravel in 'honduras has a lot of bananas' -- honduras only 'has a lot of bananas' because this global economic hegemony has led to vast unsustainable monoculture banana plantations to dominate the agriculture of honduras. it's long-attested how monoculture growth is unsustainable because it destroys soil and leads to easily-wiped-out-by-infection plants.

so, bananas in the USA are cheap because:

the workers that grow them are barely paid, mistreated, prevented from unionizing, and sometimes murdered

the nations in which the bananas are grown accept brutally unfair trade and tariff terms with the USA because they desperately need a supply of US dollars and so have little position to negotiate

shipping is also much cheaper than it should be because sailors are chronically underpaid and often not paid at all or forced to pay to work (!)

bananas are cheap, in conclusion, because they're produced by underpaid and brutalized workers and then imported on extortionate and unfair terms.

so what, should we all give up bananas? no, and it's a sign of total lack of understanding of socialism as a global movement that all the pearl-clutching usamericans have latched onto the scary communists telling them to stop buying bananas. communism does not care about you as a consumer. individual consumptive choices are not a meaningful arena of political action. the socialist position is not "if there was a socialist reovlution in the usa, we would all stop eating bananas like good little boys", but rather, "if there's a socialist revolution in the countries where bananas are grown, then the availability of bananas in the usa is going to drop, and if you want to be an anti-imperialist in the imperial core you have to accept that".

(this is where the second argument i see about this, 'oh what are you catholic you want me to eat dirt like a monk?' reveals itself as a silly fucking solipsistic misunderstanding)

and again, let's note that the case of the banana can very easily be generalised out to coffee, chocolate, sugar, etc, and that it's not about individual consumptive habits, but about global economic systems. if you are donkey fucking kong and you eat 100 bananas a day i don't care and neither does anyone else. it's about trying to illustrate just one tiny mundane way in which economic imperialism makes the lives of people in the global north more convenient and simpler and so of course there is enormous pushback from people who attach moral value to this and therefore feel like the mean commies are personally calling them evil for eating a nutella or whatever which is frankly pretty tiring. Sad!

tldr: it is not imperialism when produce go on boat but it is imperialism when produce grown for dirt cheap by underpaid workers in a country with a devalued currency is then bought and exported and sold by usamerican companies creating huge amounts of economic value of which the nation in which the banana was grown, let alone the people who actually fucking grew it, don't see a cent -- and this is the engine behind the cheap, available-every-day-all-year-everywhere presence of bananas in the usa (and other places!)

[psychotrenny]

I think it's very revealing that Apartheid South Africa's great project, their ultimate solution to the problems of Apartheid, was the Bantustan Policy. Because by giving the black population their own "Independent Homelands", the South African settlers were trying to establish the same relationship with Africans that the USA has with Latin America and Western Europe has with North Africa and West Asia. It was a plan to eliminate the problems of second class citizenship by removing their citizenship altogether, turning "black" labour into "migrant" labour.

Like South Africa already used an extensive amount of actual migrant labour from neighbouring colonies and nations, but the bedrock of South Africa's economy was cheap heavily exploited local labour; the maintenance of this relationship was the primary reason Apartheid as a system even emerged in the first place. As Apartheid began to crack apart from both internal and external pressure, attempts were made to change the system while still maintaining the fundamental basis of exploitation. And migrant workers from impoverished colonised nations can be every bit as exploitable, but without all the unpleasant international backlash. So they attempted to shift the policy of separation within a nation to separation between nations. It wasn't enough to save open White supremacy in South Africa, but it's still working very well for the nations who inspired it

Apartheid and Segregation are tremendous evils in the eyes of all but the most reactionary Liberals, but "Border Control" is perfectly acceptable. All the same atrocities could be committed, all the same wealth stolen from exploited lands and exploited peoples, but in a much more internationally "normal" manner. As far as most Liberals are concerned "Citizens" have rights that should never be violated but "Foreigners" are lucky to get privileges, even when the only difference between the two are a few lines they drew onto a map. Oppression is good as long as its sufficiently externalised, happening in the places and to the people that you're not meant to care about. The same systems behind Apartheid are still very much alive all over the world, just under more "acceptable" pretenses. A simple change of aesthetic is all your average liberal needs to be comfortable

[tamamita]

how is isis different from hamas?

Gonna make it easy and comprehensible:

ISIS or DA'ISH is a transnational terror organization consisting of Iraqi Baathists, former Syrian rebels or moderates, recruited fighters from all over the world, former US captives in Iraq, and oppressed and disenfranchised Sunnis. Wahhabi in nature, ISIS subscribes to the literalist tradition of Islam, based on a strict adherence to Tawhid (Islamic monotheism), rejecting the concept of intercession and saint venerations, seeing them as an act of idolatry. Their religious verdicts are based on the literal interpretation of the Qur'an and Sunnah, rejecting metaphorical exegesis. They aim to establish a global caliphate, seeking to eliminate anyone who opposses it regardless of religious or ideological differences. They see their cause as a hastening of various Islamic end time prophecies in their interpretation of Islamic eschatology. Like many Salafis, they reject Taqlid, which is to conform to one of the four schools of thought in Sunni Islam. On top of that, they reject religious innovations (Bid'ah), which is the idea that anything introduced to the religion without any religious basis is heresy. Whether it be practical or theological, they deem any Muslim who engage in Bid'ah to be an apostate or heretic. They are notorious for their intolerance of non-Muslims and application of Takfirism (excommunication) on Muslims, whether Sunni or Shi'a. Christians had to pay the Jizya (poll tax) in their territories, while in other cases, they were murdered, expelled and had their churches destroyed or converted. They have no tolerance for Shi'a Muslims and will kill them on the spot (see: Speicher Massacre), and have often targeted them with IEDs or suicide bombers. Non-Muslims, like the Ezidis or Ahlul Haqq, were often subjected to execution whereas their women and children were either married away, converted or used as sex slaves. DAESH is not interested in national liberation, seeing it as a blasphemous innovation. DAESH does not consider Hamas to be Muslims due to struggle for national liberation which is supported by Iran and various Shi'i proxies.

Hamas is a political and military resistance group that consists of Palestinians. After the failures of the Oslo accord, Hamas broke away from PLO and formed their own political party. They either subscribe to the Shafi'i school of thought or some form of Ikhwani Salafism (Salafism as envisioned by the Muslim Brotherhood). They're a semi-governmental power in Gaza and are responsible for upholding the social and civil institutions, such as hospitals, schools and etc. Hamas' specific aim is localized and seeks to destroy the Zionist entity in order to form a one-state solution under an Islamic emirate or Islamic democracy. Their only enemy is Israel and any of its allies. As of the Hamas charter of 2017, they do not have an intolerance for non-Muslims or people of different religious and ideological comportments, as seen by them holding ties with both Shi'a and Socialist militias, such as Hezbollah and the PFLP/DFLP. Hamas is concerned with the national liberation of Palestine and the Palestinians. Being an entirely localized resistance group, they do not engage in global jihadism like ISIS nor do they carry out attacks internationally.

[nyancrimew]

Do you think your race/nationality may influence on the consequences of hacking? Or like how far you can even get?

I'm asking because I very rarely see a "prominent" hackitvist that's not white European/USA

it is definitely a factor yes, especially with me, like the only reason im free rn is because switzerland doesn't extradite citizens. but another very big part of it is that to become a widely prominent hacktivist (and as with many other things) you either need to do things western media cares about or get in trouble with the law big time (in the west), which also usually implies being in a country that actively works together with primarily the US or other empires that actively and publicly work against hacking and hacktivists. there are lots of hacktivists in asia and latin america (specifically phineas fisher here also being a popular figure, who is believed to be in latam and has yet to be caught) as well especially (also elsewhere ofc but i dont know of as many), but they are either doing hacktivism within their communities which are usually not internationally that news worthy, or are out of reach enough for the US empire to never get unmasked.

in a lot of ways being a popular hacktivist as an individual is actually moreso a failing in staying safe from consequences by either you or people you work with (see in the history of lulzsec and most of the now well known anonymous figures in the US) or a conscious choice done out of the knowledge that you'll be relatively safe/recklessness. but i definitely feel like international (social) media bias towards western interests is also just a very big part of why you will mostly only ever hear of (assumed) white european/american hacktivists.

and also just as a quick closing note, i would not say that (even white) people in the US or the US sphere of influence are safe from consequences due to hacking in any way, the US is one of the strictest countries when it comes to persecuting hackers and goes to long ways to be as cruel as possible, and especially so with hacktivists. this goes so far that in the 2020 counterintel report the US government put hacktivists/leaktivists on the top 5 biggest threats to the US government, which is ofc both a honor (and shows it works and scares them) but is ofc also scary as fuck. it is this big spectacle they make out of persecuting hackers and making examples out of them that also leads to more of the very distorted prominence of western hackers.

[cobra-creampuff]

the ONLY ofmd characters who are into taylor swift more than passingly are alma, mary alamby, and edward fucking teach. and that's IT.

listen i like taylor swift generally speaking more than the next guy, but if i see one more person say frenchie ofmd would be a swiftie i might actually lose it

[lagomorphique]

TF2 in Historical Context: Spy's Background

It goes without saying that Spy is incredibly mysterious and we know fuck all about him, other than that he at some point had an affair with Scout's mother, and Scout was the product of that. However, I think we can extrapolate some stuff about his backstory nonetheless

Firstly, we learn in Comic 6, which takes place in 1972, that Scout is 26-27 years old. This puts his birth year at 1945 or 1946, right after the end of WWII. I say '26' bc uh. Babies gotta grow yk

This puts Spy's latest possible birth year at around 1927. Probably a little (but not much) earlier, for reasons we'll get into. It is fair to assume that Spy was already a spy by the time he met Ma, because there's no other reason for him to have been in Boston in 1945 really

I can't be the only one who was kinda surprised that Spy looks much younger than I expected without his mask - he's less noticeaby greying than Heavy and Medic too. He's either got an insane botox routine (which wouldn't be ooc lol), or he's younger than the two of them.

In my last post I concluded Heavy was around 52 in 1972, and 59 in 1979. If Spy is slightly younger, that would make him in his mid 40s in game, late 40s in Comic 6 and early to mid 50s in Comic 7.

So. Given Scout is 27, that means that Spy would have met Ma when he was in his early 20s. On a related note, given she already had 6 children before they met, she's also probably quite a bit older than him lol. Seems like both he and Scout have a thing for Moms

All this to say, I think 1924ish is a good approximate birth year for Spy. This would make him 15 years old when WWII broke out and just 16 when Germany invaded France in 1940.

Onto historical context: France was the first modern nation in Western Europe to introduce universal military conscription, which wasn't phased out until 2001. Conscription did take place during WWII (and WWI), but Spy was almost definitely too young to be drafted.

We don't know which region of France Spy is from, so we don't know whether he grew up in the zone libre, which was free from Nazi occupation, or in Vichy France, the puppet state headed by Maréchal Philippe Pétain established by the German occupying force.

Given Spy's age and the context of the Nazi occupation of France, I think it's most likely he entered the world of espionage by joining the French Resistance. Resistance fighters were highly diverse and came from different sections of society, but young people were esp useful.

After the war, a national myth arose in France that overplayed the size and breadth of the Resistance forces, whilst underplaying or ignoring the degree of collaboration of some parts of the country with the Nazi occupation. This came to be known as Résistancialisme.

Something I always think about with the European mercs is the question of how they ended up in the USA in the first place. Given Scout was born around ~1945, Spy must have left France after it was liberated in September 1944.

I feel like if Spy were a member of the Resistance, this shift in the collective memory of the resistance in France may have been one of the reasons he left the country. Either that or he found himself good at working undercover and fell into working internationally.

[trans-axolotl]

today is international whores' day!

"On June 2nd, 1975, over 100 sex workers began an 8-day occupation at the Saint-Nizier Church in Lyon, France. They demanded the end of fines, stigma, police harassment, and the release of ten sex workers who had been imprisoned a few days earlier for soliciting. This occupation was initiated to call attention to the increasing violence against sex workers perpetrated by the French government. It was widely reported both nationally and internationally, receiving support from labor and feminist organizations alike. On June 10th, after 8 days of occupation, the police forcibly removed the women from the church, but their impact marked the start of an international movement." - History, IWD LA

today (and every day) is a good day to learn from sex workers about decriminalization, our activism, and how to support us.

check out the Sex Work Syllabus from the Support Ho(s)e Collective and donate to their ongoing mutual aid campaigns.

read Girls do what they have to do to survive by the Young Women's Empowerment Project.

Donate to SWOP Behind Bars to support incarcerated sex workers.

get involved in harm reduction and decrim activism in your local community.

support the sex workers in your life!!

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Alcazar - Physical 2004

"Physical" was released in late 2004 by the Swedish nu-disco group Alcazar as part of the promotion of the Dancefloor Deluxe compilation. The song was based on a sample of Londonbeat's 1990 hit "I've Been Thinking About You". The song failed to chart Official Singles Chart in Sweden, but managed a #3 placing in Finland. The video was filmed in and around London's Soho area when the band were in the UK performing at G-A-Y Astoria.

Alcazar is one of Sweden's most successful music groups both nationally and internationally with a string of hits since their debut single in 1999. They had success globally in 2000 with their song "Crying at the Discoteque", having charted in USA, Brazil, Australia, Japan and most countries in Europe. Alcazar disbanded in August 2011 after a concert at Stockholm Pride. They reunited again in 2013 before disbanding again in 2018. They have since only reunited occasionally.

"Physical" received a total of 44,9% yes votes.

[thesiltverses]

Out of curiosity, just how unstable/stable would the Peninsula be following the Glottage Incident? Not going to go into specifics about it to avoid spoilers. I'm working on a thing for the RPG set after it, and wanted to see what the showrunners thought would happen.

Oh, that sounds really cool!

Personally - although of course this is no more canonical than any other bozo's opinion - this is what I imagined would happen to the Peninsula after the events of the show (spoilers below the cut)

Assuming that there are no wild cards from the stuff we deliberately left open-ended (i.e. that the polluted winds aren't going to sweep east across the entire Peninsula and render it uninhabitable)...

With Carson and Val gone, a whole lot of load-bearing lies are likely to come crashing down very quickly. The remnants of the CLS government will be able to publicly declare that the Peninsula only won the war with the help of a highly illegal rhetorical god who murdered civilians, committed countless war crimes, and threatened to unravel reality. Likewise, the High Adjudicator's sex coma was already on the verge of being an open secret, and his private plane flying out of Glottage then crashing in the west is only going to lead to more searching scrutiny about just what the hell was going on there.

If the Peninsula was ending the war in a strong position, all of this might not matter - but with Glottage in tatters, a power vacuum, a decimated population, and the war's outcome looking less like a heroic victory and more like an internationally-condemned and chaotic embarrassment, I imagine the remaining Adjudicators would be pivoting frantically to become peace-loving, harmonious and sustainable-sacrifice types, with the condemnation for the war being unceremoniously heaped on Carson and the High Adjudicator's shoulders in their absence.

As a result, I can see Shrue (with their history of anti-war speeches) being quickly re-embraced and co-opted, maybe even actively canonised as a saintly figure by the newly-pacifistic political establishment - because after all, wasn't their speech really raging at the wastefulness, lies, and corruption of certain politicians? We should all have listened to them earlier.

I can't see the Parish being publicly acknowledged as the true perpetrators of the Glottage attack, however - it's far more politically useful to state that Val must have been responsible (because then the people of the Peninsula are also victims of Carson's lies and his horrific terrorist-saint run amok, we all suffered equally, and we can all just draw a line under this tragic affair.)

The lasting winners of the power vacuum are likely to be the major international faiths, which can quickly position themselves as neutral mediators and peacemakers between the leaderless CLS and Peninsula, while swooping in to play a more active role in both nations' governance.

All of that scandal and upheaval would also undoubtedly continue to energise the Woundtree / anti-sacrificial movement across the country which might even find a legitimate foothold in mainstream thought, but the ideological risks to that movement (being neutered or softened or co-opted) would be greater than ever.

So...definitely highly unstable, I'd imagine, but with no shortage of players rolling in from the wings, just as before, to try and transform all of this into a nice, simple, tutelary story of saints and scapegoats.

[231025]

are bts' future spouses foreigners? ✷

... because of the lack of content in the past days and weeks sorry i wanna talk about a very hot topic in the community: i will talk about were the fs might be coming from/what "vibe of nationality" they're giving off based on the past tarot & intuitive readings i've done. let's go~

• the only ones that give me strong korean vibes are seokjin's (probably from a traditional and more or less wealthy korean family) and hoseok's fs (from a normal middle class korean family). both typical korean facial features/skin tones and natural dark/black hair (but both color their hair in lighter colors, seokjin's in brownish tones and hobi's in more unnatural light colors)

• there is also a high likeability for yoongi's fs to be korean but they give me general east asian vibes, so they could also be chinese! or taiwanese but maybe living in korea! OR a korean who travels a lot and is more "internationally involved" (like having foreign family members etc). also east asian appearance, very fair skin, dark blackish hair, dark brown/black eyes

• i lowkey think namjoon's fs is asian or at least has such an ethinicity (because of their appearance) - maybe like singaporean or indian (etc) but it feels like they were raised in an english speaking country with colder weather and serious people - specifically the uk!! or maybe ireland. they surely have a lot of experiences with being abroad and/or with traveling! dark brownish hair (probably with bangs) + dark brownish/blackish eyes + natural warmer skin tone

• i find jimin's fs really interesting/surprising! they are very likely a foreigner. i strongly get a feeling that they could be slavic or just be from any of the balkans countries or like south/east european countries - ex. romania, albania, serbia, italy or turkey. also, i think that they'll already be involved with south korea somehow - like being able to speak korean, having studied in korea or just living there already. they have this slavic beauty look, naturally darker hair and darker eyes, lighter skin color but a warm skin tone (ex. olive), non asian facial features, piercing eyes, full lips

• for taehyung's, i also believe they're a foreigner. like jimin's also probably european but more so from one of the western or central european countries - specifically those that are known for their history with wars and are labeled as wealthy countries like france!, england, germany and austria. they really give off european chic vibes. they're probably from a (upper) middle class family. Brownish or dark blonde hair, normal to fair skin, green/brown/blue eyes

• and last but not least jungkook's fs: funnily enough his fs is the most difficult to define - the energy is not very clear. they are also foreigner, for sure. but from the vibes, there are three possibilities - west asian (arabic), south asian or maybe latin american - which is very broad (i know) but the following countries stick out to me: ecuador, colombia, venezuela, and saudi arabia, armenia, yemen, azerbaijan, and india. they have natural brownish/black hair, dark brown/black eyes and darker/tanned skin. they seem to have a strict/conservative family (strong cultural influence)

i hope you guys liked this :) i'll try to do more readings in the future but i'm still quite busy atm

[pixiesfz]

hey! could you maybe do a sam kerr x matildas!reader where sam and reader get into a huge fight before a game and refuse to talk to eachother, but then during the game reader gets hurt really badly and it absolutely terrifies sam causing her to just snap out of it and comfort the reader, feeling really guilty about their argument

when I saw this request I had just been dreaming of the best not cringe and actually like valid argument that doesn't put either reader or Sam in the right.

give up? s.k

plot: Though you and Sam play internationally together you play in Barcelona for the champions league but Sam casually brings up a contract for you in the WSL which leads into a fight and then a very messy game.

warning: angst, swearing, stubborn people, blood, injury, LONG

It was known that your contract with barca was coming to a close, many people thought you would stay and you would if it wasn't for girlfriend.

You're loving girlfriend Sam Kerr who isn't just your fiancé but also your national captain.

You grew up together as you were both called up to almost all ages of the Matilda's camps. "annoyingly slowly" Caitlin says you two realised your feelings for each other before you got your first signings out of Australia.

You were scared when she went to America that you would have to break up but somehow the two weeks of Australia camps every three months held you two threw it.

So Sam knew you were the one for her and you knew you could never imagine loving someone more than you loved Sam.

So last year when she flew up to Barcelona 'secretly' (mapi accidently told you) to propose you said yes immediately.

Jessie played in London and you in Spain it was an unspoken problem that the two of you rarely brought up but it hurt every time you had a bad game and couldn't crawl into Sam's arms.

A phone call wasn't enough.

So Sam started talking around to WSL leagues secretly and vouching for you, you didn't need vouching though managers would dream for a defender like you, you were clean and patient with Umpires.

You still gloated on how you had never received a red card ever.

You loved Barcelona and the girls that you played with you had many memories there, you helped Alexia with English sometimes in interviews when she was confused, she mainly picked you for partners when doing Media duties so you could help her with anything.

Mapi had even once convinced you to get a matching tattoo with her, just a small one under your boob of a cartoon like soccer ball with your number next to it.

Barca had been amazing for your career, you won a lot. Which you loved but you never had Sam to celebrate with as she was in London.

Moving to a different club would be a hard decision and Sam was at her high at Chelsea being one of the captains, you weren't a captain but you couldn't help the selfish intentions that came over you.

Sam had been having conversations with clubs such as Arsenal but also her own.

Emma didn't deny when Sam said you would be a great fit in the team and you and Millie defending together would practically be a brick wall.

But she didn't say anything until the first night of your last tillies camp of the year.

It was dinner and you were all sitting with the 'trio', Steph, Katrina, Hayley and her three children.

"What are you doing about your contract?" Mackenzie asked you as you looked down at your plate and played with your pasta "uhm-"

"Chelsea's keen on her" Sam piped up and you quickly turned your head to her, you went to say something but Steph beat her to it "I heard Jonas talking about how she's going to the WSL" she teased and you shot her a confused look which she didn't see.

Alanna made comments about man city as Mackenzie did West Ham but you looked down.

You hadn't made any choices.

You and Sam hadn't talked about it.

Did she expect you to just drop your career?

You were quiet for the rest of dinner before finishing quickly and going up to your shared room with Sam.

"Did I say anything bad?" Alanna asked as she was the last to speak "no" Sam said and looked at her food "I'll go check on her" she said before following after you.

You were in the shower when Sam came in, your thoughts were clouded by questions.

A knock sounded at the bathroom door when you got out "babe?" Sam called out "Can I come in?" she asked and you shook your head "no"

"why not?" she asked and you started to get changed "cause I'm naked"

"Oh c'mon I've seen you naked before"

"I'm not in the mood for jokes" you called before zipping your (sams) Jumper up and walking out, brushing past Sam's shoulder.

"Alanna thinks she said something, are you okay?" she asked and stepped forward to you.

"How did Jonas apparently know I was interested in the WSL if I haven't made any decisions yet?" you asked and Sam stopped walking "I- I don't know" she said and you rolled your eyes "you do know!"

Sam slumped "Okay I may have been telling teams in the WSL that-"

"That I what?, want to leave my team of seven years? Sam we haven't even talked about what I should do, this isn't something that you do alone" you said, using your hands dramatically, something Sam noticed you do when your serious.

"You never want to talk about it!" Sam shot back "every time I bring it up you talk about something else"

She was right but you were too angry to realize that at the moment.

"What so you go behind my back?" you scoffed "Sam this is my career do you expect me to drop it so I'm with you!" you yelled and Sam stood back "well do you not want to be with me?" she asked softly and you groaned "of course I want to be with you but you don't seem to mind the fact that this change will only effect my career"

"I'm sorry I actually want to be able to sleep in the same bed as my fiancé for more than two times a month!" Sam yelled and you shut your eyes before storming towards your bag.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked "Grabbing my stuff and going to Steph's room before I say something I'll regret" you say as you packed your bag.

"What like maybe how we shouldn't get married?" Sam said sternly as the tears that you had been holding rose to your eyes, you froze, your back towards Sam.

You zipped up your bag before you turned to Sam who look defeated.

"yeah" you sniffed "exactly that".

You didn't mean it and neither did Sam.

When you left the room and closed the door you sobbed, your brain screamed at you to go back and to kiss Sam as hard as you ever had before and apologies.

You would move to any club for her.

You would do anything for her.

When you reached Steph's room, she didn't question why you were crying, just held you as you cried into her arms.

In the morning of the game you woke up feeling like shit, your eyes were puffy and red and there was a note on the door from Steph saying she would bring up breakfast up for you.

You smiled at your friends kindness and got dressed into your kit before going into the bathroom and trying to get rid of any signs of the tears that melted your skin the night before.

You wondered if Sam felt the same way.

When Steph walked down stairs for breakfast Sam perked up from the corner of the room, expecting to see you but Steph shook her head at Sam and instead grabbed two of everything so she could bring it back up to you.

"You look shit skipper" was all Mackenzie said as she patted Sam's shoulder.

When you and Sam finally saw each other in the morning was when you were getting into the bus but luckily Katrina's eager toddler was adamant on sitting with you on the bus.

"Why have you been crying?" Harper asked you in a sweet tone as you sat at the back with her "I said something bad to someone I love" you admitted and Harper snuggled into you which you accepted.

You didn't see how Katrina and Sam were watching you together at the front of the bus.

"What did you do?" Katrina asked and Sam crossed her head "I can't talk about it right now"

You fell asleep with Harper cuddling you pretty quickly as you lacked sleep from how long you had been up crying.

Katrina was the one to wake you and Harper as Harper cried up to her mum "No matter how many times I cry to you mummy I still love you!" Harper yelled as she snuggled into her shoulder, Katrina looked at you, a knowing look in her eye.

"That's okay bubba. People say mean things when they're upset sometimes, even to people who they loved."

You sighed as you smiled at the older woman 'silently' thanking her.

You didn't talk to Sam before the game started, you knew she didn't like to have big chats before going on the field even if her mind was screaming to go up to you and apologies.

You felt off, you didn't feel the butterfly's that you felt in the tunnel as you usually did but instead you felt dread.

You tried breathing in and out but nothing was helping and Sam was at the front of the line so you couldn't see her.

You needed her to tell you it was okay.

You were playing Canada and they were out for revenge because of the World Cup, they wanted to send off their captain with a win.

It wasn't until the 45th minute until it happened.

The ball was in Canada's square and Cloe Lacasse had kicked the ball as hard as she called as Mackenzie ran up and blocked it but the ball went past her fingertips and almost into the goal until you ran and jumped, your foot in the air as you kicked it into the opposite direction.

Well at least you hoped it did, all you could see was black.

The stadium fell silent as they watched your head connect with the goal post, players near you hearing the smack that had sounded out when you collided.

Sam was on the other side of the field when it happened.

Her breath hitched as some players looked at her in sorrow as she watched her fiancé, the love her life, the called 'princess' of Australia bash her head against the metal post.

She'd never felt herself move so quick in her life as she ran towards you, any memory of last night gone as she saw your body on the floor.

You were stirring awake when Sam reached for you "baby?" she asked, grabbing onto your hand as the medics arrived, you didn't reply your head was stuck in the air as your eyes travelled around frantically, you heard your thoughts too loudly.

'tell her you're okay'

but you couldn't.

So when the medics brought out something to cover the bleeding on the side of your head, Sam let her tears drop out "I didn't mean what I said last night" she said in tears but you only squeezed her hand before the medics took you off.

It wasn't until after the game, Sam didn't congratulate any of the Canadians and didn't interact with any fans, she went straight into her car and drove to the hospital that you had been taken to.

She waited in the waitiing room for twenty minutes which felt like two hours until a nurse walked out.

"y/n y/l/n"

[ireadyabooks]

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[psychotrenny]

It’s fucking insane to me how normal Yankee Liberals are about Hawaii. As in like the way they just treat it as an unremarkable fact that their nation controls the island. Like the annexation of Hawaii wasn’t just any old example of Settler-Colonialism, the subjugation of a decentralised non-urbanised people that could be just dismissed as mere “tribes” or what have you. Not to say that such forms of “typical” Settler Colonialism are any less abhorrent or disgusting, just easier to justify from a Liberal point of view. Easier to claim that they weren’t *really* using the land properly or that they were an hopelessly and eternally backwards who only really benefitted from their conquest or that they were doomed and dying anyway and their fate was a mere tragic inevitability not worth dwelling on or… Point is all these arguments are all wrong and stupid and cruel but they can serve well enough to downplay or justify such atrocities in the eyes of Imperial Core Liberals.

But like with Hawaii you don’t have that. The Kingdom of Hawai’i was a sovereign state that was internationally recognised as such by the Great Powers of Europe even at the very height of Western Imperialism. Literacy rates were high and compulsory education was introduced in 1841 (pre-dating the US by 77 years), healthcare was given to all Hawai’ian subjects free of charge, Christianity was dominant (so even the most ardent Imperialist couldn’t claim that the people were in the thrall of some “barbaric superstition” that necessitated the “civilising influence” of empire) and it had a well-developed Capitalist economy dominated by Sugar production.  Like even if we take the Western model of statehood as the be all end all of what separates the civilised from the savage (to be clear hear you really fucking shouldn’t, but many people do so for a second that’s the frame of reference we’ll employ) then Hawai’i was very much unambiguously the former.  But that didn’t stop the US from shamelessly interfering it’s politics Indeed those aformentioned markers of Western-Style “civilisation” and “development” came with the price of allow US missionaries and investors to settler in the islands and become very wealthy and influential. For decades the US used the threat of force to influence the policy decisions of the kingdom, going as far as to regularly send warships in a classic display of “gunboat diplomacy”. In 1887 a US settler militia called the First Honolulu Rifles staged a coup where they forced Kalākaua to accept a new Constitution that heavily favoured the interests of USamerican settlers who had grown very wealthy through their investment in sugar production on the island.  It stripped the Monarchy of much of its power and introducing requirements for voting that heavily favoured US settlers; re-introducing wealth/property requirements that were now higher than even, allowing resident aliens to vote and just outright banning any Asian immigrants from voting (which at that point had as much to do with plain racial hatred as it did to any acting threat they might have posed). This wasn’t enough for the Yanks and 6 years later a group of 13 US settlers known as the “Committee of Safety” outright overthrew the newly crowned Queen Liliʻuokalani when she refused to co-operate. It existed briefly as an “Independent” USamerican dominated republic before the US government decided to official annex it in 1898 (similar to what you saw with Texas or California).

While incredibly controversial at the time due to both strategic concerns with the annexation of ultramarine territories and some level of outrage at the shameless take-over of a sovereign nation (hence the time gap between the coup and the actual annexation), nowadays Yanks enjoy their control over the island without the slightest care in the world. They even turned it into a tourist destination, a heavily romanticised one that not only receives many millions of visitors every year but is constantly mentioned in the popular culture the US then proceeds to export all over the world, literally revelling in their land that is by literally any definition (even the most nakedly pro-imperialist) stolen. The land itself is severely exploited to the point of significant ecological damage, the indigenous peoples too are exploited as many of them live in poverty while US investors grow wealthy from their land and labour. Even their very culture is stolen and monetised, the most marketable parts bastardised into cheap kitsch and the rest of it left to rot, only kept alive through over a century of continued resistance from the indigenous peoples. It’s a very common story of course, but I think it stands out with how utterly ghoulish it is even under the most Liberal of consistently applied worldviews. It would be like if in say 2007 someone set up Disneyland in Bagdad. And yet by the vast majority of the US (and by extension the vassals states whose view of the situation is filtered through the lens of US media and propaganda) it isn’t seen that way. Hawaii is just the 50th state, the only state outside North America and in the tropics (hahaha ain’t that a neat little fact. Geography is so fun J), an island paradise perfect to visit with the whole family and yet still as American as Apple Pie. Even many self-described “progressives” talk about it in this way, at most mentioning the plight of the indigenous Hawaiians with minimal though as to how this situation came about. Like while the story of Hawaii is far from unique; even in terms of the US doing colonialism to Westernised peoples you examples such as the ethnic cleansing of the Five Civilised Tribes from the Eastern USA, it still stands out to me with the sheer level of international recognition and Western-style development that the Kingdom of Hawai’i possessed. Like it’s just such an obvious example of the naked greed at the heart of the USamerican empire, and how utterly bullshit talk of a “civilising mission” and “spreading democracy” is. No matter what they may claim, no matter what excuses they may trot out, Imperialist rapacity has no limits.