#but Devoe nonetheless

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

...... Oh wait a fucking second....

A civilization based around science and technology. Their main goal is utilizing speedforce. Taking over planets and turning everything into machines. A never ending hunger for power and resources. An Empress, who is probably a hostage, with a convenient metal hat on.....

Holy shit. It's the Thinker.

I'll bet that fancy hat on the Empress' head is actually the Thinking Cap!!

And he probably kidnapped Iris for the same reason he got Linda last time! He needs leverage! He's smart enough to learn from his past mistakes and he knows that the speedsters can/will stop him. So he needs some assurance. I bet he went after Iris because she has a connection to everyone. That's probably where he got the twins from as well and he used them to develop his speedforce tech.

Devoe is a living computer. The last time he attacked he turned all of Keystone into a giant machine. Looks familiar, right?

He was obsessed with getting Wally because of Wally's speed. With Wally's brain the Thinker could process information at light speeds. This would make him unstoppable and he would be able to take over the world in seconds.

BUT! Wally kicked his ass!

Wally's brain moved too fast for the Thinker and Wally essentially shredded his data. They thought he was gone for good... but what if he had a backup in the cap? What if there is still a 'Fraction' of the Thinker left over?

He's learned his lesson this time. The speedforce is too powerful to hook up to him directly but it can still be used as a tool. He can make 'artificial conduits'. Conduits that can't fight back. He can take the 'organic' conduits and use them solely for power. No need to repeat the same mistakes! And using the speedforce as a tool he can slowly but surely turn the entire universe into one giant computer.

It's the Thinker!

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Running a paw over the many spines of books in the grand royal library, King Damien pauses upon one and tilts his head.

He reaches out and grabs it, flipping to its cover. 'Realm of the Dead'.

A eerie grins forms as he opens it.

Long before the people of Harmonia had the ten kingdoms they do now, villages and towns dotted the land. However, things were not as peaceful as history tells. Spirits and ghosts of the dead and damned roamed the lands, tormenting and causing chaos to all those around.

To cease the chaos caused by them roaming, the Muses each created a seal and placed them throughout the kingdoms. Then, with trickery and skill, the ghosts and spirits were lured to the Underworld, and sealed away for the rest of time.

The king slowly shuts the book after skimming through it more. There was no hint as to the locations of the seals, but it was a start nonetheless. He'd, of course, have to be careful. He was still weak after integrating and nowhere near what his usual power level was.

He flexes his paw before putting the book back.

Damien smirks. This would be fun.

○●○

"You should be around here somewhere.."

Under the guise of going around his kingdom to survey it, see what needed to be fixed, King Damien had left his castle. Dressed in a simple black tunic, brown pants, and boots, he walks around. He was nearing the eastern lake's edge, and it was nearly nighttime. He'd been going out for days now, at least looking for the seal in Devos.

"Nine Muses but ten kingdoms.." He mutters as he walks onto the short, sand crunching under his boots. "Maybe its to throw off anyone who wants to open them."

His fur glints in the moonlight, momentarily turning orange before something catches his eye. A rockformation, where water was completely still and the shadows seemed particularly large.

Grinning, Damien makes his way over, his body pricking uncomfortably at the water. He climbs up and over the small rock formation and kneels down, soaking his pants. Narrowing his eyes, he hums just so faintly and the water parts.

Beneath it, there's a swirling barrier. It's dark purple with specks of black, and the symbol of a black guitar was on it, though small.

Damien thinks back. Each of the Muses was said to have a signature instrument.. and the guitar was Unus'.

He grins widely, a shadow over his face as his eyes also narrow. "Jackpot."

[boydykedevo]

I think Devo telling Orlean to bring his family is a really underappreciated character growth moment tbh.

For a lot of the show, Devo characterized every person who hurt him as pure evil, especially Guidance and Orlean. And that’s pretty justified from his point of view; they were abusive and manipulative his entire life, and in order to escape that abuse, he kinda had to do a 180 like that. When we get introduced to them, they certainly come across as pure evil.

But there’s moments as the show goes on that prove that neither of them is one-dimensional. At the end of the Infinite Clam, Guidance seems to genuinely care for Devo in a misguided way, although it’s possible that’s purely manipulation. When Orlean appears in Shret’s swamp, he’s crying, and when Devo gets aggressive with him, he just wants to be left alone. At the beginning of the Menagerie, when Devo barges into Guidance’s office, she and Seldom chew him out and they have a point.

Then, when Guidance dies, and her suicide note calls him Devo, he’s sure it can’t be real because she wouldn’t have called him that. (He’s right, but he didn’t know it yet so shhh) Everyone else tries to tell him it’s real, and by the time he confronts Orlean again, he’s had to sit with that for a while, the idea that maybe Guidance did come around at the end and call him by his chosen name. He’s had to question his perception of her.

And then he learns about Orlean’s family, and it humanizes him. Devo definitely doesn’t forgive him, but he starts to realize that although Orlean is a bad person, he’s a person nonetheless, and he’s not a simple cartoon villain.

Orlean is dying, he can’t manage to speak into the past himself, he thinks he’s failed to save them completely, and Devo, a man who’s mainly driven by anger towards the church, who’s vowed to kill Orlean in particular, saves his family.

[tothedarkdarkseas]

hiya ! i just wanted 2 say that i adore ur writing & hav been following ur blog for a while, & idk anyone else so passionate abt studoc ! i love all ur meta & i wanted to send these 2 monsters of playlists i thought u might enjoy ? they were borne of a terrible hyperfixation starting like, 2 yrs ago, but i don't think anyone else could rly understand em haha. music & studoc enthusiast u are, i thought u may get a kick outta em ? inspired by rise of the ogre canon, obviously. old man core. canon compliant and then some. studoc undertones but mostly just a love letter 2 these guys..

and yea there's one for noodle & russ too, respectively, if u want..

let me kno what u think? im dying for gorillaz mutuals that operate on the same wavelength

anyway, hav a wonderful day!!!! gonna reread up the seething coast and feel things <3

Hi! I'm sorry that I couldn't get back to you yesterday; my work's been particularly hectic lately. Thank you so much for reaching out and for your kind words, that really means a lot to me! Passionate about Studoc, that's a very gentle way of saying I should be institutionalized, haha. I've definitely seen your username in my notes many times and took notice, and I want you to know that really does warm my heart and makes me feel like we have a little community here-- one of trousers stained with dirt and vom, but a community nonetheless!

You had me at Rise of the Ogre inspired & old man core & DEVO! Behemoth is right, these are some hefty playlists! They put my self-indulgent scattered selections to shame. I can tell that a lot of love and an attention to detail regarding their musical tube map and your own informed (but freer, more buildable, "canon complaint and then some") views on the characters went into these. I've thrown on some listens today and will follow the playlists so I can continue to make my way through! I admit, I'm a bit of a poseur music enthusiast, often more interested in the image and experience of "the rockstar" than all of their individual discographies, so there's a lot to discover for me here.

Thanks so much for sending these my way, and I'll publish this ask to the public so others can find them and your blog! Gorillaz is forever a fandom in flux, so those moments of connection with other fans who are drawn to the same flickering light can come and go-- and there are lean times, to be certain-- but I promise they do happen. Thank you so much for reading, it truly makes a big difference to me. Hope you're well!

[lilvvitchii]

I got tagged by @deep-space-tits to shuffle my music library and share the first ten songs that came up!

I admit this was slightly difficult for me, as my Spotify library is in tatters (and I save more albums than songs), so this doesn’t suuuuuper reflect my listening habits (I mostly listen to EDM these days, but I was a bit of a hardcore kid growing up, and a new wave/post-punk kid in my early twenties).

But nonetheless, here’s what I’ve come up with.

I’m tagging @did-you-hear-something, @satchel-of-bones, @abygailhobbs, @dem0ndayz, @littlemisschievous, and @cretaceousgal next! No pressure if you don’t wanna!

[thecrybabydiaries]

Congrats on 20 books! what have you read? Any good recs?

Oh goodness me, let's get started.

Bold are my favorites, fyi - These books are mostly thrillers and some have some dark themes (as most thrillers do) so please use caution and look into any and all trigger warnings. I really enjoy the look and feel of the Trigger Warning Database website.

Books crossed out I didn't enjoy for one reason or another (too many plot holes, unbelievable content, poor plot, etc.)

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

Eat Your Heart Out by Kelly deVos

Creeping Little Things by Chelsea Ichaso

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

Good Girl's Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

The Woods Are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins

Weird Ghosts by Joanne Austin, Mark Moran, and Mark Sceurman*

House Of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

The Roommates by Rachel Sargeant

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

Hold Your Tongue Deborah Masson

Things We Do In The Dark by Jennifer Hillier

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

The House Across The Lake by Riley Sager *Current Read

But my queue is loaded with

A Flicker In The Dark by Stacy Willingham

The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh

My goal is 20 by the end of December (I just started reading like this in August) and it's been a lot of fun. I hope you find something here to enjoy too! ♥

*This isn't so much a book like the others but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless :)

[vinceleemiller]

Navigating Family Feuds | 1 Samuel 19:4-7

Do you have a family member who is super irritating right now?

If not, that person is probably you.

Welcome to the Daily Devo. I am Vince Miller.

This week, we are in a new chapter, 1 Samuel 19. I've titled this chapter "When Enemies Pursue God Will Protect."

Let's jump into our text in 1 Samuel 19:4-7, which reads:

And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you. For he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?” And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, “As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.” And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before. — 1 Samuel 19:4-7

We need different types of godly friends—not just good friends, but godly friends who will have our backs and risk something to stand in the gap between. That is what David has in Jonathan. He has an ally, as we discussed in the last chapter. Still, we see he is also willing to advocate for him as a new member of the family, a warrior, and the one through whom the Lord worked great salvation in Israel, underscoring the importance of godly friends.

Jonathan is not oblivious to the situation in his family, and he is not going to sit around passively while this act of aggression and injustice takes place. He knows that his father's sinful progression toward David is ever-increasing. So he decides to step in to temper his father's spirit, advocate for his friend and brother-in-law, and bring peace to the men he cares about. Yet we all know this is hard to achieve in a family if the offended member cannot get beyond a past situation.

As long as I have lived, I have seen that most families have one member who harbors bitterness from past situations. There is usually also one member with emotional or behavioral issues. When these two attributes combine, this person plays the role of the angry, bipolar, grudge-holder. The problem in David's instance is that King Saul retains all the power in the family system, which is oppressive because his authority and decisions trump everyone else. Therefore, Jonathan steps in to play his role: the peacemaker. If you have read ahead, you will know that this is a mere temporary fix and that the next decade of David's life was a living hell running from the bitterness, anger, and aggression of his father-in-law. Nonetheless, David and Jonathan worked to honor God and Saul, his role, and their relationship through it all.

We all have difficult family members. My parents were challenging to love as a believer. But I also had to learn how to love and respect them even when our values did not align and remain faithful to biblical teaching to honor them as far as possible. Today, reflect on how you are doing with this in your family. Consider the person's role that irritates you, and then find a way to maintain peace and godly character as far as possible. We don't get to choose our family, but we are responsible for choosing to act in a God-honoring way.

Check out this episode!

[xys-fits]

A Modern Look at "Give to Caesar What Is Caesar's"

Another work-inspired message for this week's devo. A hard lesson I'm learning, but an important one nonetheless.

So the title of this post comes from a verse in Matthew 22 (verse 21 to be exact). Brief summary of the context here: The Pharisees were scheming again. They sent some of their disciples to trap Jesus by asking Him if it was right to pay taxes or not. Jesus was basically like, “…Baby Girl, I see right through you” and told them to give to Caesar what’s Caesar’s. I’m sure I’m not the only one who…

[leonbloder]

God's Amazing Grace

I've always struggled to comprehend God's grace, mostly because I struggle to believe that God's grace extends to me.

To be fair, I have no problem sharing with others that God's amazing and never-ending grace is always for them. I believe that with my whole heart.

But when it comes to believing that I am covered in that same grace, I have a hard time with it. This is partly because it's hard to shake the notion of a judgemental and angry God at times, but it's mostly because I know too much about myself.

Many of us have the same kind of struggle. We are quick to believe that God is all about showering other people with grace and that they should be filled with joy because of this fact. But when it comes to ourselves, we don't experience it the same way most of the time.

Novelist and public theologian Marilynne Robinson once wrote:

I experience religious dread whenever I find myself thinking that I know the limits of God's grace, since I am utterly certain it exceeds any imagination a human being might have of it. God does, after all, so love the world.

This quote resonated with me at a profound level. "Religious dread" is an apt way to describe the feeling I get when I struggle to believe that God's grace is big enough to envelop even me.

One of the most impactful things we can learn, if we are willing to learn it, is that even though we are not condemned by God, we tend to preemptively condemn ourselves.

I heard or read this many years ago, and it seems appropriate here: God doesn't send anyone to hell; they choose it.

Now, I could fill a great many Devos with my thoughts on hell, but suffice it to say, I believe that many of us choose to put ourselves through hell right here on earth instead of embracing the grace of God that is ours without condition.

And what does this look like when we struggle to believe God's grace is for us?

When we turn inward, condemning ourselves, it can manifest as depression, anxiety, anger, fear, dread, self-harm, and a host of other nasty things. It steals our joy and can render us bitter and sad.

But if we are willing to embrace for ourselves the truth about God's grace that we believe for others, it can change our lives. It's much easier said than done, but if we learn to practice self-compassion and mindfulness regarding how we view ourselves concerning God, we can take the first step.

Offer yourself forgiveness today when you tell yourself you don't deserve it. Choose to believe that for today, you have all the grace you need. You may have to remind yourself again tomorrow, but that's all right.

You may not deserve the kind of grace God gives freely, but it is yours nonetheless. Accept it. Be joyful.

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

[jhavelikes]

Scientific activities take place within the structured sets of ideas and assumptions that define a field and its practices. The conceptual framework of evolutionary biology emerged with the Modern Synthesis in the early twentieth century and has since expanded into a highly successful research program to explore the processes of diversification and adaptation. Nonetheless, the ability of that framework satisfactorily to accommodate the rapid advances in developmental biology, genomics and ecology has been questioned. We review some of these arguments, focusing on literatures (evo-devo, developmental plasticity, inclusive inheritance and niche construction) whose implications for evolution can be interpreted in two ways—one that preserves the internal structure of contemporary evolutionary theory and one that points towards an alternative conceptual framework. The latter, which we label the 'extended evolutionary synthesis' (EES), retains the fundaments of evolutionary theory, but differs in its emphasis on the role of constructive processes in development and evolution, and reciprocal portrayals of causation. In the EES, developmental processes, operating through developmental bias, inclusive inheritance and niche construction, share responsibility for the direction and rate of evolution, the origin of character variation and organism-environment complementarity.

The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions - PubMed

[seekdevotion]

*    𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐃    :     good  to  see you  'round  these devo parts,   eloise dawkins.   please  submit  your  account  within  twenty  -  four  hours.       olivia cooke  is now  taken    !

──    (    olivia cooke.  cis  woman,  she + her.    )    recently  seen  drinking  a  warm  cup  of  chamomile  tea,  eyes  closing  when  the  flavor  hits  her  tongue  and  the  gentle  breeze  caresses  the  strands  of  her  silky  locks,  a  hum  vibrates  deep  in  her  throat  at  the  serenity  she  always  finds  at  angel  peak:    enter  eloise dawkins.  twenty - eight  years  old    &    a  taurus,  usually  observed  in  long,  light  summer  dresses  dancing  softly  in  the  huffs  of  the  wind,  their  fabric  often  bunched  in  fists  of  ring-clad  fingers  when  it  gets  in  the  path  of  her  shenanigans.  white  socks,  fluffy  and  immaculate,  peeking  a  finger  above  the  border  of  well-kept  eight  eyelets  docs.  often,  also,  an  oversized,  cozy,  creme - colored  sweater  at  arm’s  length,  ready  to  fight  the  shivers  that  insurmountable  chilly  days  make  run  down  her  spine.    ;    eloise  is  a  devotion  local  known  within  their  circle  as  pleasant  +  resourceful,  a  perpetual  hum  of  dream  girl  evil  by  florence  +  the  machine  on  salted  mouth.  something  of  the  temperamental  +  mistrusting  follows,  regardless    …    something  to  do  with  the  nagging  need  for  loneliness,  for  a  break  from  questions  and  pleasantries  and  obligations,  from  the  voice  inside  your  head  that  only  gets  quiet  under  the  calming  sound  of  the  ocean's  waves,  perhaps    ?    strange,  what  a  witch can  get  up  to.  they’ve  been  heard  waxing  lyrical  about  a  dream  they  had  recently,  a  strange  tale  of  loving  kisses  waking  you  up  at  dawn  with  soft  hands  gripping  your  hips,  the  warm  of  lips  on  the  curve  of  your  neck  that  suddenly  gets  lost  in  a  fog  of  despair,  in  a  plea  crowned  by  the  sorrow  of  a  voice  you  don’t  recognize  —  it’s  a  memory  that  doesn’t  belong  to  you,  yet  it  cages  your  heart  nonetheless,  traps  it  in  an  ache  that  follows  you  beyond  the  realm  of  dreams.  pay  no  mind  to  fanciful  star  -  gazing,  though:  rather,  mind  the  tangible.  focus  on  gentle  hands  toying  incessantly  with  the  rings  adorning  their  nimble  fingers  when  the  mind  gets  restless  ;  the  glint  of  perversion,  joyful  and  indomitable,  shining  in  expressive,  doe - like  eyes  ;  a  lemongrass  scent  being  carried  by  the  wind  after  combing  swiftly  through  soft,  silky  locks.     /     committed  to  legend  by  awkan,  thirty-one,  she + her,  gmt - 3.  child abuse,  self - harm,  worms and related insects,  blood.

[suburbannostalgia]

video

[robertreich]

Accountability for the Attempted Coup

Call me old-fashioned, but when the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress, in order to remain in power, I call it an attempted coup.

Last week’ rampage left five dead, including a Capitol Hill police officer who was injured when he tangled with the pro-Trump mob. We’re fortunate the carnage wasn’t greater.

That the attempted coup failed shouldn’t blind us to its significance or the stain it has left on America. Nor to the importance of holding those responsible fully accountable.

Trump’s culpability is beyond dispute. “There’s no question the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame,” said Rep. Elizabeth Cheney, the third-highest ranking Republican in the House.

He should be impeached, convicted, and removed from office – immediately.  

To let the clock run out on his presidency and allow Trump to seek the presidency again would signal that attempted coups are part of the American system. If Senate Republicans can install a new Supreme Court justice in eight days, Trump can be removed from office within ten.

He should then be arrested and tried for inciting violence and sedition (along with Trump Jr. and Rudy “trial-by-combat” Giuliani).

Those who attacked the Capitol should also be prosecuted. They have no First Amendment right to try to overthrow the U.S. government.

Trump’s accomplices on Capitol Hill, most notably Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, should be forced to resign. Knowing Trump’s allegations of voting fraud were false, Cruz and Hawley nonetheless led an attempt to exclude Biden electors, even after the storming of the Capitol.

The United States Constitution says that “no Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress” who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against" the Constitution, “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

Both Cruz and Hawley are eyeing runs for the presidency in 2024. They should be barred from running.

Other abettors are now trying to distance themselves, but their conversions come too late.

Senator Lindsey Graham now says Trump must “understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution," and criticizes the White House for making “accusations that cannot be proven.”

Graham had been one of Trump’s key attack dogs, even bullying state election officials to change voting tallies. If Graham is not forced to resign, he should at least be censured and stripped of his ranking membership on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Michael Pence finally broke with Trump, but only after remaining mute as Trump lied and bullied his way through the last eight weeks, thereby signaling agreement with his preposterous claims.

McConnell should also resign or be censured and stripped of committee assignments. Pence should be barred from any future public office.

Some administration officials have already resigned in response to the attempted coup. Transportation secretary Elaine Chao said it was “entirely avoidable,” and education secretary Betsy DeVos told Trump there was “no mistake the impact your rhetoric had.” Other Trumpers are reportedly jumping ship, too.

Yet before Wednesday most of them defended Trump’s antics, lavished him with praise, and willingly did his dirty work. Their complicity should forever haunt their reputations and consciences.

Other accessories are Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, and Sundar Pichai,CEO of Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company.

For four years, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have functioned as Trump’s megaphones, amplifying his every lie and rant. When pressured to remove Trump’s fabrications about the election, they labeled them “disputed.”  

Twitter has now permanently suspended Trump, preventing him from sending messages to his more than 88 million followers “due to the risk of further incitement for violence.” Facebook has banned him indefinitely. YouTube should be next.

But why did it take an attempted coup for them to act?

Many business leaders who are now denouncing the violence enthusiastically bankrolled Trump’s re-election campaign, knowing full well who he was and what he was capable of doing. And they’ve had no qualms about advertising on his largest megaphones, including Fox News. All are complicit because they knew Trump would stop at nothing.

Fox News’s mendacious hosts and producers have no excuse. After repeatedly telling Trump supporters the election was stolen, they’re now saying the attempted coup was “understandable” because Trump supporters believed the election was stolen. Morally, if not legally, they share responsibility for this travesty.

All are all part of the ecosystem that led to Trump’s sedition. That ecosystem is still in place.

Those who say we should “look forward” to a new administration and forget or dismiss what occurred last week are delusional. Unless all who participated in or abetted the attempted overthrow of the United States government are held accountable, it will happen again. Next time it may succeed.

[transmissionsfromthebattlefield]

I tried to combine my favorite band (DEVO) and my favorite artist (Junko Mizuno) via DALL-E Mini because everyone’s doing it and I love a good AI art program to mess around with when I’m bored. It didn’t come out the way I expected and it barely looks like either entry, but I’m satisfied nonetheless.

[antoine-roquentin]

“The federal budget assumes the government will recover 96 cents of every dollar borrowers default on,” Mitchell wrote. This banker, Jeff Courtney, put that figure closer to just 51 to 63 cents.

Now, for a private lender, like a bank, this projected shortfall would indeed be a ticking time bomb. The bank might be in danger of insolvency (unless, of course, it was rescued by a federal government that could give the bank an emergency cash infusion and take those bad loans off its hands). But there’s no real danger of a federal Cabinet-level department becoming insolvent. The Treasury Department is already in the habit of making up the Education Department’s budgetary shortfalls.

So what is the problem again? Typically for a news outlet like the Journal, the story describes this potential shortfall as what “taxpayers” would be “on the hook for,” but obviously, we all know that that is not how federal budgeting works. Taxes could rise for certain people for certain reasons, but no one will receive an itemized bill for this uncollected debt. And as for that large, catastrophic number ($500 billion!) that might never be paid back, it amounts to less than one year of a national defense budget that “taxpayers” are similarly “on the hook for.” (The Journal’s editorial board recently complained that the Biden administration’s proposed 2022 $715 billion Pentagon budget, while an increase in real terms, nonetheless represents an unconscionable decline in the defense budget as share of gross domestic product. “Taxpayers” are not mentioned in the editorial.)

Democrats helped sacrifice a generation of students to the deficit god, in exchange for meaningless numbers in a report.

The story, then, is that the government might not collect some debt, even if it currently pretends, for budgetary reasons, that it definitely will, and, as a result, the deficit may rise to levels higher than the current estimates predict. For a committed conservative, such as DeVos, that situation is inherently scandalous. For everyone else, that could only ever become a problem in the future, and only if that future deficit has some negative effect on the overall economy, which is not very likely considering the entire recent history of federal deficits and economic growth.

That state of affairs may explain why articles like the one in the Journal so often invoke “taxpayers,” as if everyone would have to write personal checks to cover the Department of Education’s shortfall: because without imagining taxpayers as victims of government deficits, it’s hard to point to anyone actually harmed by a government department giving unrealistic estimates of future revenues.

Except in this story, there are actual victims: the people who hold debt that the government doesn’t realistically expect to collect in full but who are bled for payment regardless. As Courtney’s report found, because of the importance of these loans to the department’s balance sheet, the government keeps borrowers on the hook for the loans even if they will never be able to repay all of the money they owe, often by placing borrowers on a repayment plan tied to their income. (As the economist Marshall Steinbaum has explained, the “income driven repayment,” or IDR, program is framed as a means of helping borrowers, but in reality, it “exerts a significant drag on their financial health, to no apparent purpose” by forcing them to “make less-than-adequate payments for many years before their debt is finally cancelled.”) The victim of such a scheme isn’t taxpayers, it’s debtors.

There’s one particular portion of The Wall Street Journal’s story that the public should treat as a moral and political scandal (the emphasis here is mine):

One instance of how accounting drove policy came in 2005 with Grad Plus, a program that removed limits on how much graduate students could borrow. It was included in a sweeping law designed to reduce the federal budget deficit, which had become a concern in both parties as the nation spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and as baby-boomer retirement was set to raise Social Security and healthcare outlays.

A key motive for letting graduate students borrow unlimited amounts was to use the projected profits from such lending to reduce federal deficits, said two congressional aides who helped draft the legislation.

Each change was publicly justified as a way to help families pay for college or to save the taxpayer money, said Robert Shireman, who helped draft some of the laws in the 1990s as an aide to Sen. Paul Simon (D., Ill.) and later was deputy under secretary of education in the Obama administration.

But how agencies such as the Congressional Budget Office “score” such changes—determine their deficit impact—“is a key factor in deciding whether a policy is adopted or not,” Mr. Shireman said. “The fact that it saved money helps enact it.”

To explain this more plainly, Democrats helped sacrifice a generation of students to the deficit god, in exchange for meaningless numbers in a report, because CBO scores are more real to senators than flesh-and-blood people.

This is the sort of depravity that deficit obsessions produce. The Iraq War needed to be “paid for” with the future earnings of students who, lawmakers imagined, would eventually be rich, even as many of the same lawmakers voted to cut taxes on already-rich people. Now the debt of the still-not-rich students can’t be forgiven because of its importance to the federal government’s predicted future earnings. And politicians and commentators in thrall to deficit politics still paint the situation as a morality tale, in which the borrowers are irresponsible for having the debt and the government would be irresponsible to forgive it. After all, think of the poor taxpayers.

The early days of the Biden administration led some to believe we were finally free of this incoherent political mode, where dubious predictions in CBO reports dictate the limits of the politically possible and determine who will be arbitrarily punished for the sake of limiting the size of a program in a speculative 10-year budget projection. The proof that Democrats had learned their lesson was one major piece of legislation, the American Rescue Plan, designed to respond to a unique emergency.

More recently, the administration, and some of its allies in Congress, have signaled strongly that they’re returning to the old ways. The American Prospect’s David Dayen has reported that the White House is determined to “pay for” its infrastructure plans, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is apparently leading the charge to ensure the infrastructure spending is “offset.” This will have the likely effect of limiting the scope of the plan, once again sacrificing material benefits for the sake of estimates and predictions from the CBO.

The Biden administration seems to be determined to go about this without violating its pledge not to raise taxes on any American making less than $400,000 (a threshold meant to define the upper limit of “middle class” despite being comically higher than the Obama administration’s similar $250,000 limit for tax hikes). It has floated increasing IRS enforcement and raising the capital gains tax for the wealthiest Americans. Both are fine ideas. But the best thing about taxing the rich is not that you can use their money for infrastructure, it’s that doing so reduces their political and economic power. That’s also the reason why it’s so difficult for Washington to do it.

The complete incoherence of the current Democratic position on spending and deficits is summed up well in another Wall Street Journal story, where Montana Senator Jon Tester was quoted saying, “I don’t want to raise any taxes, but I don’t want to put stuff on the debt, either.… If we’re going to build infrastructure, we have to pay for it somehow. I’m open to all ideas.”

“Open” to “all ideas” but unwilling to tax the rich, and unwilling to allow a CBO report to show a larger deficit as a result of needed spending: This is more or less precisely the dynamic that led student loan debt to explode in the United States, and it’s the zombie worldview that threatens any chance of this government averting a multitude of political, economic, and ecological disasters.

[nationalharryleague]

The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing

Pairing: Harry Styles x Reader

Genre: TOOTH ROTTING FLUFF

Word count: 2.5K

A/N: Hi everyone! This is 2.5k of absolute tooth rotting fluff that was inspired by the Golden music video and the ultra talented @theharriediaries​!! Thank you to Soph and Lu (@meetmymouth​) for beta reading and giving me some direction when I needed it!! You can find more of my writing in my masterlist and I would LOVE if you could give me some feedback!! My requests are also open in my ask!! 

***

“The Italians drink a lot over dinner,” Harry told you in an informative tone, an attempt to order yet another very expensive bottle of red. “Wine is very important in Italian culture,” he tipsily explained across the table, dimples prominent from his cheeky smile. “I learned that in my Italian classes.”

“Oh, did you?” you teased back at him, feeling a bit floaty as you finished your third glass, only for Harry to fill it right back up, emptying the bottle on the table. You laughed and shook your head as you watched him make eye contact with the waiter, motioning for him to bring another bottle over.

“Vino, vino, vino,” he hummed under his breath, playing with the empty glass in front of him that was soon filled up again with the deep red liquid that had stained his pouty lips a deep red and his tongue purple. The two of you sat in the front patio of a small restaurant down the block from your hotel, under a giant and bright moon that made his eyes sparkle even more than usual.

He had a boyish flush to his cheeks, which could have been from the wine or the remnants of a scaldingly hot day in Italy; maybe both. You could still feel the summer heat radiating back up from the pavement below you after it had baked in the sun all day. The oppressive heat still hung in the air, just enough for a light sheen of sweat to be covering you both that seemed to make Harry glow on the dimly lit patio.

You two had found yourself in Italy while Harry had some time off because he insisted he needed to go and practice his Italian. “Devo andare per la mia istruzione,” he told you one day after he got home from his class. “I have to go for my education,” he translated a moment later after being met with a blank look from you. He practiced all day every day.  He struck up conversations with locals, spoke with every fan who came to say hi, and attempted to translate menus and order every meal. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but he was trying nonetheless.

Harry in Italy was a special version of himself. He was smiley and carefree and always trying to fatten you up or get you drunk. When he was here, he seemed to wholeheartedly become the H you always knew, abandoning the rockstar and becoming the mushy and emotional man that told you he loved you in every sentence and needed to be touching you at all times. His hair had lightened a tiny bit from your days outdoors,  his skin had grown tan and taken on a golden tone, a side effect of him constantly ignoring when you told him to put on sunscreen.

You drank and ate and talked until the restaurant was closing down around you, a common occurrence when you two had the opportunity to slow down and just be together for a while, trying to forget that there was anything else going on in the world outside this tiny town. If he hadn’t captivated the wait staff with his broken Italian and charming smile earlier in the night, you were sure you would have been met with eyerolls from those cleaning up around you. Eventually, you two walked hand in hand out of the restaurant and onto the sidewalk along the windy road, both of you full and drunk, and beginning the short walk back to your hotel.

He was smiling so wide his dimpled cheeks must have been hurting, a bright smile encouraged by the alcohol running through his system. His hair flopped over his forehead, curlier than usual because of the sea air and his lips were an even deeper purple than before. His beautiful mouth babbled, every thought in his head flowing past his lips in a slightly slurred mix of italian and english; a verbal expression of excitement and clumsiness.

You couldn’t help but giggle at the sight beside you, your fingers lazily interlocked with his, tugging him back when he moved too close to the street, hoping his wobbly legs wouldn’t trip on the uneven cobblestone sidewalk. You primarily didn’t want him to tear or stain his favorite light blue blazer if he took a tumble. He once told you it was his favorite because he thought the color looked like the sky on the day you had met. You remember blushing and pushing him away from you, telling him he was cheesy with a playful eye roll. “It’s my job to be cheesy!” he had defended himself. “Also, I’m not being cheesy, I’m a man in love.”

You were brought back into reality when he stopped in his tracks and pulled you into his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around your torso. “We should dance,” he beamed, eyes wide like it was the greatest idea he had ever thought of.

“There’s no music, H,” you regrettably informed him while pushing his curls away from his forehead. You couldn’t help but lean in and press a light kiss to his cheek. His skin was warm and slightly sweaty on your lips, a salty taste invading your mouth.

“We don’t need music. All the music is up here,” he winked while tapping his temple. “We're listening to classical.”

“Oh I see, music man,” you joked, unable to contain your giggles.

“Shh,” he attempted to quell your laughter, bringing his pointer finger to your lips. “Can’t hear the music.” A sarcastic seriousness played across his face, prompting another grin to sneak onto your lips. You pressed a kiss to his finger, before giving into his demand and falling quiet.

You could never fight the spell he put you under. You lived in a cloud of Harry, an intoxicating daze that made you unable to focus on the bad of the world when he was around. He had seemed to melt down the walls you had built before you had met, a fact that made him endearingly call you his ‘Ice Queen’ every once in a while. The charm and wit he carried with him wiped away your practicality, always knowing how to convince you to play along with his antics and throw your precious caution to the wind. He was your rose colored glasses. He made your heart jump all day long and unexpected bursts of joy were felt in your chest whenever he smiled, laughed, or said your name. You were enamored by him, an all consuming love you couldn’t escape from.

“What are you thinking about, pet?” he asked softly, breaking through your loving haze. “You have your thinking face on.” A light smile continued to play on his lips but it was softer now, taking on a gentle questioning quality.

“Just thinking about how much I love you,” you confessed.

His eyebrows perked up and so did the corners of his mouth into a delightful smirk. “I mean, who doesn’t?” His smart ass comment earned himself a playful slap to his chest, but your attempt to wiggle out of his arms was thwarted when he pulled you even tighter to him. “That’s no way to treat your dance partner, my love.”

“I want a different dance partner,” you taunted, sticking the tip of your tongue out at him.

One of his hands fell from your shoulders to the small of your waist, the other found one of yours and he began to sway with care side to side. “Too bad, we’re already dancing,” he spoke softly into your ear. You two moved in an easy rhythm to a song only Harry could hear, a more caring and tender tone taking over for your previously playful one.

His cheek pressed to your temple and your bodies pressed loosely to each other. If you tried hard enough, you could hear the man’s soft hum of a melody you couldn’t quite put your finger on. Your feet fell carefully, wary of the uneven pavement in your heels, but you reminded yourself even if you were to fall, the arm looped around your waist would be sure to catch you. Small kisses peppered your forehead and you were released from his grasp for only a second for him to twirl you around, the skirt of your dress splaying out around you before being enveloped in him once again.

“I love you, angel,” he murmured softly when you found yourself resting back against his chest. He had abandoned his joking tone, shifting to a gentler and more serious cadence, pouring his soul into every word that left his lips as they brushed against your forehead. “I am so happy that I get to spend my life with you.”

“I love you so much. This is a happier life than I could have ever imagined for myself,” you spoke after a thoughtful pause. You were still swaying calmly, seeming to move in time with the cool breeze settling over the two of you, but Harry’s humming had been abandoned for a reflective silence.

“What kind of house do you want us to live in one day?” he asked abruptly, choosing to move in a seemingly unrelated direction.

“It has to be big; with enough rooms to fill with lots of cats and dogs, and when the time comes, maybe a baby. And I want a big porch to sit on together and watch the world go by on.” You felt him nod thoughtfully and with a hum of agreement.

“Do you want it to be the only house we ever live in? Or do you want to try out different places to find your favorite?”

“I think I want it to be our one house. I want us to be the crazy old people who have lived in the old rickety house at the end of the block forever; the ones who always have stories to tell and grandchildren constantly coming and going.”

“Can we be the ones who brag about never having a fight?”

“Do you mean the ones who lie?” you asked with a chuckle, looking up to face him. He broke out into a high pitched giggle, your favorite laugh of his. It warmed you to your core knowing that you were the only one who could make him laugh like that.

“Exactly,” he nodded in confirmation, still chuckling to himself.

“We can lie and say we’ve never had a fight as long as we never stop getting wine drunk and slow dancing to no music on random streets while on vacation,” you quipped.

“Sounds like a plan, my love.”

“I know we’ve talked about doing it, but when do you want to get married? I don’t want to inconvenience either of our careers with wedding planning or anything like that. I don’t really care as long as we get to spend our lives together.” The words fell freely from your mouth, the wine still running through your veins blocking the inhibition that probably should have kept the words inside your head.

“Getting married to you wouldn’t be an inconvenience, darling.”

“I know. Wrong words,” you chuckled. “Well, I guess I should have asked when you want to get engaged,” you corrected yourself. “I suppose we have to do that first.”

“Why not now?” he asked, with a mischievous twang in his voice. You felt one of his arms slip from around you and start rummaging in his jacket pocket.

“What?”

“I said,” he began again, “why not now?” His hand emerged from his pocket, presenting you with a tiny red velvet ring box.  

Your mind went blank. Your usually rapid and incessant thoughts seemed to stop altogether in a mix of shock and awe. You knew this day, or night, would come eventually. You two had discussed a future together extensively and had agreed you didn’t want to spend your lives with anyone else, but you had never imagined the moment he asked you to be his forever. You had never imagined this moment.

His eyebrows slicked up, lips curled in a devilish smile, and he sank down onto one knee before you. Your hands flew up to your face and the wetness on your fingertips alerted you to the tears that had begun to fall down your cheeks, your heartbeat pounding loud in your ears.

“My dear,” Harry began as he settled onto the sidewalk, balancing carefully on the cobblestone ground. “I have been in love with you since the very first day I met you and that adorable little snort slipped out when you laughed at one of my bad jokes. You have been the first thought I have in the morning and the last thought I have before I fall asleep for longer than you know. You are kind and smart and funny and you light up every room you walk into. I do not want to spend another second of my life without knowing you’ll be by my side for the rest of it. Will you marry me?”

He looked up at you with hopeful eyes and you looked down at him through tearful ones. You began a furious nod, before choking out the only word he wanted to hear. “Yes,” you sobbed, holding out a shaky hand for him to slide the ring onto.

The ring was beautiful; dazzling under the light of the full moon and the dim street lights above you. It slid onto your ring finger with ease, sitting snugly like the ring was made just  for you. It was simple, which Harry knew was your style and it held one (large) diamond in a simple silver setting, no bells or whistles needed.

Harry grabbed you by the waist as soon as the ring was secure and picked you up in his arms and spun, twirling you around like the two of you had just slipped out of a rom-com. Delighted giggles fell from both of your lips before he finally stopped, your laughter pausing when your lips found his.

It was a salty kiss, due to the sheen of sweat still sitting on Harry’s skin and the tears that were still streaming down your own, but it just felt so right. He was warm and smiling, lips still tasting of the pinot noir you had shared. Your lips moved together in a perfect harmony like they were meant for each other.

“Thank god you said yes,” Harry breathed when you finally separated. “I’ve been carrying that ring with me everywhere we go for two months now.”

With a playful eye roll, you pulled the curly man to you and connected your lips once again, unable to get enough of him. His intoxicating cologne filled your nostrils and you had never felt more safe or happy. The love you shared felt like when the sun warms your skin under a golden hour sunset; bright yet soft, spectacular yet easy. And you were ready for it to never end.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING! FEEDBACK AND REBLOGS ARE SUPER APPRECIATED!!