#but still people vote for parties that will keep their middle class existence more comfortable in the short term

[swallows-are-for-hope]

.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Bad News

This country depresses the shit out of me.

A thing that’s been in the news lately was some lovely lady was growing vegetables in her allotment and giving them to the needy. Now, we probably wouldn’t have heard anything about this, except that someone else apparently took exception to this. Did they destroy the garden? Not quite in the way you’d think. They didn’t uproot plants that I know about; they salted the earth. I mean, I mostly grow herbs with the occasional strawberry and tomato; I tried some veg last year and it was only a partial success and I worked hard. I cannot imagine how that poor woman must have felt when she came to do some weeding and harvesting and found that. There’s no coming back from that. There’s no replanting until they can deal with the salination level of the soil. That’s just atrocious.

And then there’s Andrew Edwards, a councillor in Pembrokeshire. He has literally been recorded saying that “all white men should have a black man or a black woman as a slave” and “there’s nothing wrong with skin colour; it’s just that they’re lower class than us white people”. This is all still under investigation, because Edwards refuses to confirm or deny and threw it at an Ombudsman. I don’t really trust the Ombudsmen anymore, honestly, but ... oh, hell, I don’t even know anymore. I wouldn’t put it past any of them, honestly, either side of the political divide in this case.

Because there is no political divide anymore. Starmer’s throwing his entire party manifesto out the window to be in lockstep with Tory ideology, apparently trying to steal votes from them and ignoring the votes of people who don’t want any more of this shit. Recently backtracked on standing behind the Gender Recognition Act, instead saying he wants to “reach a consensus”. There is no ‘consensus’ to be reached here! Trans people just want to live as the gender with which they identify, and their allies want that for them; the other side wants them gone or dead! The only middle ground that exists there, if you want to call it that, is “They can exist but their lives have to be miserable and we have to be able to misgender them and force them into unsafe spaces all we want”, and that’s not existing! That’s not middle ground! That’s “Maybe if we make them unhappy enough, they’ll go away and / or die”, and that’s grotesque!

I cannot do anything about any of this. I live in what has been a fairly safe Labour seat (though I don’t know what’s going to happen in future given that Labour is just the Tories with a red tie now) but that means jack all when there’s an 80 seat Tory majority and a string of Prime Ministers we didn’t even get to vote for. We don’t get a vote for PM for another year at least anyway. I hate this country like you would not believe. I know it’s a vocal minority that’s being like this, but that vocal minority has the money and the power and the rest of us are stuck suffering for their comfort, all the way across the board.

So I may be ever so slightly depressed.

However, there are good things. My friends love me and I love them in return. My plants are thriving - my tomatoes sprouted already, and there’ll be pictures when the light’s a little less iffy (it’s been partly cloudy today, so the sunshine comes and goes). Somehow looking at my growing seedlings makes me feel better. And I still have a couple of days off and new House Flipper DLC, so there’s some Zen that should help. Though doing a farm DLC, and even looking at my plants, still gets me thinking of that poor woman with the allotment. At least her Gofundme to keep helping people is going well, but nothing will take away the sting of someone going that far to ruin so much hard work so completely. I hope they find that asshole and I hope they go to jail.

[dontshootmespence]

Through It All

Part 24

Summary: Now married, Spencer & Y/N navigate the D/s lifestyle. How will their relationship change?

Words: 2,765

Warnings: Voyeurism, p in v, threesome, oral sex (fem receiving), face sitting, pussy slapping, bit of degradation. I think that’s it.

A/N: My next entry for @cm-kinkbingo​ run by my beautiful girlfriend @heycasbutt. This fills my voyeurism square.

So much waiting. Before this all started, you knew there would be long periods of waiting, and it hadn’t even been that long, it had been about three weeks, during which time you’d been taking your classes, but the waiting still had you on edge so often and so intensely that Spencer made some secret plans behind your back.

When your parents show up at the door, you stare blankly, confused, but they take no offense and pull you in for a hug. “Spencer still hasn’t told you?”

“Told me what?” You laugh so loud Charlotte looks up quizzically from her toys, eyeing you with a smile before she sees your parents. Her little legs carry her quickly across the room and into your mother’s arms.

Grandma assaults her with kisses, which she can’t seem to get enough of lately, not that you or Spencer are complaining. “Dad and I are gonna stay here for a few days so you and Spencer can go on a little impromptu trip.”

“Really?” You ask in surprise, turning to see Spencer’s big smile. Reaching back behind the counter, he pulls out a bag. “I already packed for you.”

Your mind races with the thought of what this trip might be, relaxing and comforting or the sexy kind. Leaning in, you kiss Charlotte on the cheek and make her promise, in her 15-month-old way to be a good girl for Grandma and Grandpa. “I love you sooooo much, Charlie. Daddy and I will be back in a couple days.”

Spencer plants a big kiss on the top of Charlotte’s head, which makes her smile and lights up your world. “Be a good little flower, okay?”

“Ooo-kay,” she replies. She’s got a whole little voice now! It’s amazing and you almost get emotional leaving her, but you know in the long run, having a break from parenthood to focus on you and Spencer as a couple is what’s best for all of you.

After giving your parents a hug and kiss goodbye, Spencer takes your hand and shrugs the duffel bag over his shoulder. As soon as the door is closed, you can’t help but ask. “So what kind of a vacation is this?”

“Remember that party we went to?”

“The sexy one?” You ask as your voice goes up an octave. It’s a good memory; just the mere thought fills you with warmth again.

“I think it’s time for another.”

---

Instead of going straight to the penthouse complex the party had taken place in last time, Spencer takes you to the hotel first, checking you in and insisting you take a nap because you are ‘going to need your rest.’

With a beautiful threat like that, it takes 20 minutes of anticipatory tossing and turning before you can fall asleep. When you wake almost an hour and a half later, you glance toward the armchair in between the bed and wall and see an outfit laid out for you. Draped over the back of the chair is a tight, rouched, pink dress with a sweetheart neckline and nude pumps. Heat floods through you. It’s normally not your kind of outfit, but knowing Spencer picked it out, means he has a picture in mind.

From behind, you hear his voice low and gravely. “You won’t be wearing any panties. I want you open for me from the second we walk in the door. And don’t worry, there’s a built-in bra in the dress.”

“When do we leave, Sir?” The stark difference between headstrong mom and wife and docile sob is apparent, but it’s you, two sides of the same coin. You truly believe one couldn’t exist without the other. “Do I have time to put on some makeup?”

“We leave in a half hour. And I packed your makeup. It’s not waterproof. I plan to mess it up anyway.”

---

Before you leave, Spencer ensures that your limits and wants haven’t changed. He also asks if you have the mental energy for a bit of degradation (you do). Him asking is what makes him, him. It’s what makes him a dominant worth kneeling before. “It’ll be a lot of the same people as last time,” Spencer says as you stride out of the elevator and down toward the penthouse. “This time though, it won’t be a ‘show’ per se, so much as we’ll have our own room, I will do as I please with your beautiful body and anyone that wants to come in and watch can. Like a revolving door for people to witness what a little slut you are for me.”

Biting your lip, you move to kiss the underside of his chin. Wetness begins to drip down your leg. “Only for you, Sir. Forever.”

Taking your place, you stand slightly behind him and watch as he raps at the door three times. Each knock sends a jolt through you, anticipation building. “Welcome back,” your host says when he opens the door. “Married since last we saw each other, right?”

Spencer nods and guides you inside. There’s already a ton of people milling around with drinks and food. From the sounds of it, at least a few people are already getting into things. And out of the corner of your eye, you spy Christina. Floating across the room to greet you, she bats her eyelashes at you. “Nice to see you both. Will I be seeing you here? Or are you just here to observe?”

“We’re here to play,” Spencer says, voice low.

Your pussy clenches around nothing at his tone, soft yet forceful. After your host welcomes everyone to party, reminding you all to stay ‘safe, sane and consensual,’ the crowd disperses. Some individuals that you know for a fact aren’t in relationships, find each other and go off to have some fun. Other couples, like you and Spencer find empty rooms and prepare to provide the guests with an amazing show.

Once inside a room, Spencer focuses on you, ignoring the first few people that walk through the door. They’re familiar faces and although you can’t remember names, you’re almost positive they were viewers that last time you were here. “Ready?” He asks.

You nod.

“Word?”

“Red, Sir.”

Spencer pinches your chin in between his thumb and forefinger, responding with a condescending ‘good’ before addressing the growing audience. “Who here wants to see my wife’s amazing body? See how wet she already is?”

A few men have no problems grunting in approval, their hands floating over hardening cocks, the anticipation building. Without a word, Spencer grabs your arms roughly with both hands and turns you so that your ass is facing the crowd and you’re staring at the wall. Cool air quickly hits your heated pussy as he yanks the bottom of your tight, pink dress just above your ass. He places a finger on the middle of your back, so you pitch forward. He wants to show off what’s his and you’re more than happy to comply.

“See?” He asks them, directing their collective gaze toward your slick entrance. “She’s already soaking wet. Frankly, I think she’s been wet since I surprised her with this party this afternoon. Haven’t you, love?”

“Yes, Sir.” You remain still while he waits for you to elaborate. “I’m always wet for you.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I love when you use me. I belong to you.”

“That’s right.” Reaching to your shoulder, he applies the slightest bit of pressure and allows you to stand up straight again. “Now, should we get the audience involved with a little poll?” His eyes glance up and down your body quickly and you’re pretty sure you know where he’s headed.

“I think so, Sir.”

“What does my little slut think I’m thinking? What do I want to ask them?”

“Whether I should keep my dress on and have you expose my breasts or take it off all together.”

Spencer smiles proudly and looks toward the crowd. “Show of hands. Dress off?” A few hands go up. “Dress on?” Most of the room votes for dress on, the image of Spencer so taken with you that he can’t even bother to undress you, you so blissed out and fucked that you don’t care, so long as he fucks you.

As soon as you have your answer, you lie back on the bed and put your hands above your head, your dominant hand clenching around the opposing wrist.

“Legs open,” he says firmly as he peels his jacket off and lays it neatly on a chair at his side, kicking his shoes off nearby, piling them not-as-neatly as his jacket. Even in control, he’s losing bits of it. “We want to put on a good show, right? Show everyone what a wet little slut you really are?”

You let out a breathy, “Yes, Sir,” in reply, already feeling the urge to touch your breasts, rake your fingers around your nipples, pinch them for the sweet bit of pain.

Once Spencer’s unbuttoned his shirt and stepped out of his pants, leaving him in just a shirt and boxers, he steps to the edge of the bed and wraps an arm around each of your legs, pulling your ass to the precipice. He thumbs your clit and you whimper, moving gently down into his hand, but he quickly pulls away, laughing at your dissatisfied whimpers.

Even in a room full of people, he’s fixed on you. That’s your superpower. Something no one else can do for him. “Your pussy is needy, Sir.”

“I can see that,” he replies. “You’re glistening already. I think I’ll actually invite someone up for a closer look.”

Your heartbeat pounds in your chest and you wait excitedly for Spencer to pick someone. His eyes fall to someone standing above where your head is. “Would you like a closer look?”

The man doesn’t reply, giving you a small smile as he rounds the other side of the bed and comes to stand a few feet from Spencer.

“Isn’t she soaked?”

“Disgustingly so,” the man says.

Spencer laughs and immediately brings his open palm down on your clit. “And that made her even wetter. Why is that, love?”

“Because I’m your slut, Sir.”

“Good girl.”

Without dismissing the man, Spencer pulls his cock free from his boxers and lines himself up at your entrance, teasing you as your special viewer takes his former place on the opposite side of the bed.

As he pushes inside you, he takes a calf in each hand and pushes your legs back, leaving you open and raw for him. “Fuck, you take my cock so well, baby.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

With each thrust he swells inside you, the friction so intense that you’re begging for him to let you come within minutes, but he refuses, insisting you stave off your orgasm unless you want to be punished in front of the crowd. You kind of do, but you want to make him proud more, so you bite your lip and try to push your mind in a different direction - anything to push away the growing feelings in your core.

For a minute, you think to focus on the faces in the crowd, but most of them are watching with rapt attention, their hungry and jealous gazes doing little to tone down your growing need. Each thrust of his hard cock fucks you open so beautifully, your juices sliding down your ass and onto the sheets below.

When you go to beg again, beg for sweet release, Spencer pinches your clit in between his fingers, ripping the words from you. It’s time to be quiet. Every pinch, every scrape of his fingers, every pointed thrust gets you closer and closer to where he wants you, fucked so senseless you can’t form words or thought, his name the only thing that’s able to fall from your lips.

“Fuck!” You cry as he pulls out and slaps your pussy with the head of his cock and his hand in quick succession.

Spencer’s gaze falls on Christina, at least you assume so. All you’re aware of is Spencer’s voice claiming that your mouth needs a distraction. Sauntering over, Christina lifts her dress, climbs onto the bed and straddles your face. She’s pink and perfect and wet and now you have a mission of your own.

Your tongue hungrily laps at her wetness and you laugh to yourself as you feel it drip down your chin. She grinds down onto your mouth, begging for you to fuck her with your tongue as Spencer pounds into your pussy without any thought.

As Spencer bottoms out, you cry into Christina’s wet cunt and tear rolls down your face. “Spencer, she’s actually crying she’s so well fucked,” Christina teases.

“Tell her she doesn’t get to come until she makes you come.”

You hear that and grasp onto Christina’s legs, pulling her pussy back to your mouth so you can eat her out like your life depends on it. It does right now. All you want is to come. Your entire body is burning with need. Spencer’s purposely slowing his movements, drawing out each sensation so that you can focus on what you need to do before you get your reward.

When Christina shakes above you, you smile, watching her as she casually removes herself from the bed and returns to her place in the crowd. “Christina, did she do a good job? Should I let her come?”

Whining, you buck down into Spencer’s cock and pray that Christina was satisfied. It sounded like it.

“I think you should fuck her so hard she forgets her own name.”

Spencer chuckles and reels back, bottoming out so hard that your eyes roll to the back of your head. Without saying a word, he flips you over so you’re face down on the bed before pushing back inside. At this angle, you feel even fuller. It feels like both seconds and hours before you’re crying out, no words, just noise as your mouth hangs open.

Once you’re able to focus again, you see people leaving the room and feel Spencer’s hands turn you back to face him. “You okay, love?”

“More than, Sir.” You smile.

---

In a haze, you’re able to get dressed and get back to the hotel. You curl into Spencer’s embrace. “Did you have fun?” He asks, the lightness in his voice already giving you an answer of your own.

Nodding, you tighten your grasp around his waist and kiss his chest. “Yes, Sir.”

---

The following day, the two of you wake up at your leisure and Spencer takes you out to breakfast. It’s leisurely. There’s coffee. He takes charge when it comes to ordering and paying the bill. It’s amazing. All you have to do is smile and bask in the afterglow of the previous night’s amazing time.

After a little bit of swimming at the hotel pool, a nap and a quick, late lunch, you head home to see your mother in Charlotte’s room, her eyes hooded and near to closing as she smiles down at her granddaughter. Your dad’s already passed out on the floor next to them. How Charlotte hasn’t woken up to tell Grandpa to stop snoring is astounding. “Have fun?” Your mom asks softly.

Nodding, you give her a hug and thank her for giving you and Spencer the time to breathe. It’s refreshing. Your dad stirs awake so you leave the room to let Charlotte sleep peacefully. “Thank you again, guys.”

“No problem.” Both your parents understand the importance of time outside of parenthood. Your mom cranes her head back toward Charlotte’s room. “You two plan on another one of those anytime soon? I can’t believe she’s 15 months already. It feels like she was born yesterday.”

“It really does, and mayyyybeeee.” After assuring them you’re not pregnant, you confide in them about your adoption journey thus far. “We haven’t heard anything yet. Still too early. But we’re looking into it.”

Your mom begins to tear up and even your dad gets his congratulations caught in his throat. “We’ll be praying for someone to pick you soon.”

“Thanks, dad. You okay to drive? Spencer or I can drive you home.”

“No, kiddo,” you dad replies, resting his hand on your shoulder. “I’m good.”

“Okay, text me when you get home.”

“We will.”

As they make their way down the stairs of the complex, you and Spencer slip into Charlotte’s room, sleepy smiles painting their way across your faces. “Refreshed?” Spencer asks. “Ready to really dive into adoption?”

“More than anything.”

@heycasbutt @ultrarebelheart @katherineisagubler @proud-slytherin-ghost @randomwriter23 @fandom-queen67 @sixx-sic-sixx @xqueenofthecraziesx @aofay02 @groovyreid @criesinreid @jdougl-love @xreider @cringeemospntrashassbutt @prettyboyeffect @prettyboyreid @themanip @spencerreidsthings @augustgraceful @whollytaciturn @prisonreid @factualfic @jasmine-negron @snitchthewitch @ellabobella051419 @crazyforsstuff @kaatelyyynn​ @jane-dough @dreatine @bitter-post-millennial @adlerorzel-blog @hallieedrew @psychedelephantt @krisymccall996 @4ueijos @mclaujac @ray-likes-starwars @nurseemilyblog @slightlyvicked @she4567 @guesswhosback129 @princessdolan @happycreatorfangirl @fallwhisper @nyemadowell @sammy-jo1977 @sin-bin-and-tragedies @imsuperawkward @ahhahahaheehee @crispygiantsaladgarden @reputay-swift @pizzarollsfordayz @andiebeaword @timey-wimey-lovi @garbagecanfics @friedparadisetale @dereksbetaa @idontevenknow2 @holyfishloverfarm @nohemi2500 @typeshitbih @sadgirlhan @kmc217 @bigbuttsowhatuniverse @charmedfandomgal @im--blushing @dangerouspersonllamabagel @fichoe21 @yes-sir-hotchner @thefandomallrounder @mrsenos08 @walkerchick007 @letsdisneythings @winchesterqueenie @specialagentleigh @spn-wheresthepie @haileymew @bitchyoulied @geniusgub @urdicksmol @6lack6erry @slutlanna976 @downondilaudid​ @baileysb1tch @la-vie-en-amour1​ @letsdoit-tomorrow @eideticprettyboydrreid​ @lazynoodledragon​ @shybaby231 @aimzonicles97​ @grace-superpowers​ @softestlavender​ @ssa-dr-ladylock​ @drprettyboy​ @patricks-fabulous-face​ @tearosaria​ @shxdowofdarkness​ @marvels-gurl​ 

[apparentlynotreallyfinnish]

Imaginary Friend

So, this is a silly AU I’ve had in my mind for a while and I was thinking of doing a chaptered fic of it. But I think I'll probably never get to it since I have about seven other chaptered fic ideas that interest me more. I still wanted to bring it to life somehow. So I made it into a little fic. The pacing is horrible but I still kinda like it.

---

Link was a peculiar child. When other boys gathered in packs to run and play together, Link seemed to enjoy spending his time alone in his room or in the forests lining the Cape Fear River. For a long while, his mother tried to get him to make some friends. Link always made an effort to do so when his mother encouraged him, but after a while, he was alone again.

Although, according to Link, he wasn’t alone. He had a friend. A best friend. 

At first, his mother thought it was cute. An imaginary friend. That was perfectly normal and surely an indication of a vivid imagination. But as the years went on and Link kept talking about Rhett as if he was someone Link could actually see and talk to, Sue got worried. He took Link to a professional after another. When after the fifth one, Link stopped talking about Rhett, his mother didn’t take it as a win. She was sure that Link still saw him.

She was right. Rhett had been there Link’s whole life. He had no memory of a time when Rhett hadn’t existed for him. Rhett was always the same age as him – well, a year older as he always remembered to obnoxiously correct Link – but Link knew that he wasn’t the same as other people. Rhett couldn’t interact with the world around him. He couldn’t touch or taste or smell anything, and sometimes he just disappeared and when he came back and Link asked where he’d went Rhett couldn’t answer him. For the longest time, Link thought that everyone had their own version of Rhett.

When it finally dawned on him that his Rhett was an anomaly, it was too late. His mother had already carted him off to a psychologist. The first one was an old man with round glasses and deep frown lines on his forehead. He regarded Link over the thin frames of his glasses and asked him again and again: “But you do realize Rhett is not real, right?”

It made Link angry. Of course, Rhett was real. He wasn’t like other people, yes, but he was real to Link, and that’s what mattered to him. After the bespectacled man, there was a stern-looking woman in a suit. After her, a grandma looking older woman with a soft smile. Then a young man in jeans that tried to convince Link that they were buddies. And all of them wanted Link to say Rhett wasn’t real. So, eventually, he did. He didn’t believe it, but at least, his mom stopped taking him to shrinks.

Rhett was as real to him as other kids were. When they were little, they played together and kept each other company when Link’s mom was at work. They mapped out the forests surrounding Link’s home and swam in the river. They collected pretty rocks and built campsites. They ran around the pastures and jumped over cows. They stayed up late and talked about important things like whether they liked Link’s mom’s new boyfriend and what was the best Capri sun flavor – though, Rhett couldn’t really take part in the voting of that and he just agreed with Link’s choice.

Rhett was there for Link when he was afraid. When it was dark, and the stormy skies were torn open with the sound of the thunder – Link hated the sound of it, it made his skin crawl and his throat close up – they hid under Link’s covers, and Rhett sang to him in a low soothing voice or told him wild stories about aliens and astronauts. With Rhett, Link felt safe.

They fought too. Angry words were exchanged often enough and sometimes after their arguments, Rhett was gone for hours. But he always came back, and they apologized and were soon laughing about how ridiculous the fight had been.

When they grew up, and Link got his license, they spent most of their time in the car. They chose a direction at random, blasted the radio and just drove aimlessly. Rhett would sit on the passenger’s seat, his impossibly long legs propped against the dashboard, hand hanging out the open window with a wide smile on his face. 

Link kept stealing glances at him, feeling a strange fluttering in his stomach. And then Rhett would turn to look at him, eyes twinkling with happiness and the pure freedom of their world, and Link’s heart would ache from the need to reach over and touch his hair. Just once, he pleaded silently, let me run my fingers through his curls just once, and I will be happy forever.

When Link got his first girlfriend, Rhett teased him mercilessly, following them on their first date and whispering such naughty things into Link’s ears that he spent the whole date red in his face and hard in his pants. There was no kiss goodnight. Link blamed Rhett. 

“You were distracting me, man!” he moaned when they got back home.

Rhett just laughed and crawled into their bed. The barrage of filth continued after Link turned off the lights and the night ended with a panting Link with his hand around his cock next to Rhett who was egging him on in a low, honeyed voice. 

Link broke up with the girl soon after. It felt like too much of a hassle. He had Rhett. He didn’t need anyone else. Rhett didn’t say anything, but Link had an inkling that he was happy with Link’s decision.

After high school, Link got into his first-choice college. He was excited, couldn’t stop talking about how he wanted to immerse himself into the whole college experience. Rhett didn’t seem as enthusiastic. When Link asked him about it, he just shrugged and said it would be boring to sit at the lectures with him. That seemed strange to Link since Rhett had sat in all of his high school classes as well and never complained, but he put it out of his mind.

They moved into a dorm. At first, it was weird to share a space with a stranger, but Gregg turned out to be a great guy and quickly became Link’s close friend. The downside of it was that it became increasingly hard to talk with Rhett. He became quieter and quieter as the semester went on. He kept disappearing more often, and when he came back, he always seemed a bit dazed and confused. Later, Link realized he should have been more worried about that, but at the time he only had space in his head for classes and parties. And guys.

It had finally dawned on Link that the reason he hadn’t actually wanted to kiss his girlfriend was because she was, in fact, a girl. Guys instead… There were more than one of those in college that he wouldn’t have minded kissing – or more. 

When he told Rhett about his discovery, he just rolled his eyes and scoffed “took you long enough”. It irritated Link. It was a big deal for him. A revelation that made him feel more like himself – more comfortable in his own skin and more confident as well. And Rhett just shrugged and went on with his half-existence as if nothing significant had happened.

They fought about it. Link cried with anger and hurt at Rhett’s indifference. Rhett sneered at him and said things that cut deeps wounds into Link’s heart. Rhett was gone long after that – days. When he came back, he seemed changed somehow. Almost like he was more wispy, flickering at the edges. They apologized to each other and spent the day going on silly adventures around the city. It almost felt like the good old days and Link promised himself that he would make more of an effort to include Rhett into his new life.

But then Link got a boyfriend. He was a cute little brunette, the singer of a punk band and he made Link feel bubbly and ashamedly turned on at inconvenient times. The relationship escalated soon from kissing to all kinds of touching, and in the excitement of it all, Link forgot Rhett for a while. 

After one particularly heated date, Link came back to their dorm room and found Rhett pacing around the room. Thrilled to have someone to share all these new feelings with, Link immediately dove to a play-by-play of his amazing night. 

He was jerked back when Rhett stopped in the middle of the room, tugged his hair with both of his hands and screamed, “Shut up!”

“What the hell is the matter with you?” Link asked startled and annoyed. “You’ve been acting so strange lately…”

Rhett’s shoulders slumped, and his arms dropped to hang limply at his sides.

“Don’t you get it?” he whispered, agony in his voice so sharp it almost cut Link’s heart in half.

“What?” Link asked, terrified of the answer.

“I shouldn’t be here. I’m way overdue,” Rhett said with a deep sigh and sat on the couch. Link walked up to him and sat next to him. His legs were trembling, and a deep dark dread had settled into his stomach. 

“Don’t say that. Please. I need you.” 

“No, you don’t,” Rhett said with a hollow laugh. “That’s the problem. You stopped needing me ages ago. You wanna know why I’m still here, though?”

“Why?”

“Because I need you. Because I love you. Because I want to be the man you come home to. The man you imagine alone at night when you go to bed. The man who waits for you at the coffee cart before the morning class just so that he can walk with you for five minutes before you have to go your separate ways. I want to be the man to kiss you, to hold you, to make love to you. I wanna be yours.”

Link stared at Rhett through a film of tears. He lifted his feet on the couch and hugged his legs – a vain effort to keep himself from falling apart. 

“I want that too…” he whispered, swallowing down a sob. “Rhett, I love you, but…”

Rhett whipped his head back and let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob.

“But… Isn’t that the thing, though? Gosh. Our whole lives… There has always been that. But. But I can’t. But I’m not. But I won't. I love you but… I want you but…”

Link’s fingers dug into his legs. He ached all over. He had never in his life wanted to touch Rhett more than now. He wanted to gather him in his arms. Wanted to kiss his tears away. Wanted to pet his hair and kiss his temple. Wanted to make everything okay again.

“Rhett…” 

Rhett took a shuddering breath. “I need to go. I need to… Link, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I held on this long. It was selfish of me.”

“No, please! Please, don’t. I don’t know what I’ll… I can’t be without you! Who am I without you? Nothing. A half of something. Please, Rhett. Don’t leave me.” Link said crying with violent sobs that wracked his trembling body.

“You’re Link. You’re smart and funny and dumb as a doorknob but in the most adorable way. You flirt without even realizing it, and everyone who’s graced by your presence is enchanted by your energy and positivity. You’re perfect as you are. You don’t need me.”

“Please… Not yet.”

Rhett bit his lip and sniffled. He was silent for a long time before whispering, “Okay. I’ll stay for one more night.”

It wasn’t enough, but it was more than nothing. They crawled into bed and settled their heads on Link’s pillow, noses so close there was an illusion of them actually touching each other. They talked. They reminisced about all the shenanigans they got into as kids. They reminded each other of memories, of nights spent in Link’s room listening to records, of days spent on the open roads, of evenings at the river. They talked late into the night, and Link valiantly fought the sleep that hung heavy over him. 

“You’re barely conscious anymore,” Rhett chuckled when Link’s lids slipped closed once again.

“No, I’m fine. A little while longer.”

“Go to sleep, bo.”

“No.”

“I won’t be gone in the morning,” Rhett tried to coax him. Link scoffed.

“You’re lying.”

“I am,” Rhett admitted.

“Prick,” Link said with a smile.

“Jerk,” Rhett replied with a smile of his own.

“I love you,” Link whispered, voice cracking.

“I love you more,” Rhett said, eyes glimmering with tears. 

“Not possible,” Link mumbled before falling asleep.

---

Link was woken up by the irritating clangor of his alarm. His hand shot to silence it and then moved over the bed as if in search of something – or someone. The bed was empty. Link opened his eyes and a rush of worry crashed through him. He stared at the empty space between him and the wall and shook his head. Had he dreamt that someone was there?   

He dragged himself up and slowly started his morning routine. He felt tired as hell and had no idea why. He was sure he’d gone to bed on time. Why did he feel like he’d been up half the night? 

The rest of the week was strange too. Every once in a while Link would hear something amusing or exciting or just downright stupid, and he’d turn to his side and open his mouth as if he was about comment on it. The empty air beside him always felt like a slap to his face. Who was he trying to talk to? He had no idea. 

Eventually, that stopped happening, but what was left behind was a peculiar feeling of something missing. Link felt slightly off-kilter, unfinished and oddly sad as if he was missing something he’d never had. Despite the feeling, Link went on with his life, explaining it away as something every young adult felt. It was hard to figure out who you were and where you belonged in the world. Who wouldn’t feel a bit incomplete?

After Christmas break, Link was full of vigor and excitement for the new semester. He came to the first class of the year way too early, determined to get a good seat this time. There was only one other person in the room. He sat in the middle row, wearing a red hoodie, hair in perfect dirty blonde curls. The guy lifted his head when Link walked in and turned to look at him. Link’s heart skipped a beat, and he stopped mid-step.

“Hey,” the guy said with a curious frown.

“Hey,” Link answered. 

“Do I know you from somewhere?” they asked in unison and burst into amazed laughter. The guy was gorgeous: twinkly green eyes and a smile that took Link’s breath away. He got up and offered Link his hand.

“Hi, I’m Rhett.”

Link shook his hand and forgot to let go. They stood there for a while, holding hands, staring into each other’s eyes. Link felt warm all over - warm and safe. A door banged open behind Link making him jump and let go. 

“Link. My name is Link,” he finally muttered back.

“Wanna sit here?” Rhett asked and pointed next to his seat. Link nodded and settled down next to Rhett.

“So, that was strange,” Rhett said, sitting almost sideways, staring at Link with unabashed marvel.

“Yeah,” Link said, returning the gaze without making any effort to hide the blush that had turned his cheeks bright red.

“We should probably figure that out. Wanna get coffee after the class?” Rhett asked looking so hopeful Link almost kissed him right then and there. 

Link felt something shift inside him, like pieces of a puzzle moving and clicking into place. He felt complete again – somehow made whole by the smiling giant of a man next to him. It left him feeling faint and heated to his core.  

“Sounds good,” Link answered finally and without really thinking about it, took Rhett’s hand in his own, interlacing their fingers. Rhett stared at their hands for a beat, looking as surprised as Link felt. But then he smiled, and somehow Link knew that he’d be seeing that smile for the rest of his life. 

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Political Rant: Nothing To See Here

Literally, I just need to vent for a bit, just move along.  You didn’t see anything.  Go about your business.

I can’t keep pretending that I want Joe Biden to be president.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m gonna vote for him, but only because it’s a broken 2-party system, and I would literally rather die than vote for Donald Trump.

Joe Biden is at best a moderate centrist, and at worst a mainstream conservative who acknowledges what the people in his party want without actually doing it.  The Overton Window has shifted so far right in the last few years that people are hailing him as some bastion of liberal democracy; Democrats are acting like he’s the greatest politician they’ve ever nominated, and Republicans are calling him a communist.  He’s neither of those things; he’s store brand white bread, he’s a single scoop of plain vanilla with no mix-ins, he’s room temperature with 40% humidity so as not to be explicitly uncomfortable.

He very well could win in November.  I don’t doubt his qualifications, nor his popularity relative to the Gonad Lump we have now, but he’s not going to make any substantive changes if he takes office.  He’s not going to defund police, he’s not going to shrink the executive branch, he’s not going to raise the minimum wage, he’s not going to rejoin the Iran Nuclear Deal or the Paris Climate Agreement or the WHO, and he’s certainly not going to abolish ICE and close the actual literal CONCENTRATION CAMPS. He’s going to uphold the status quo so as not to alienate the Republicans who didn’t vote for him, while driving a wedge in his own party between the old guard moderate leadership and the up-and-comers who even so much as lean to the actual political left.

Republicans are united under a common banner of cartoon supervillainy, Democrats are a party of chickens running around with their heads cut off. 

Republicans are lemmings who will follow their leader off a cliff. Democrats are turkeys that look up and drown when it rains.

There are no progressive Democrats in any real positions of power; their voices are being drowned out by the career politicians who would rather compromise with the right than fight for anything they claim to want.  Democrats will bend over backwards to reach across the aisle for the sake of bipartisanship, but Republicans would never budge an inch in our direction.  This is demonstrably true, just look at the last 50 years of presidents; Democrats controlled the House of Representatives for Ronald Reagan’s entire presidency, and he still managed to get a shit ton of legislation passed which fucks over the middle class and minorities to this day.

Bill Clinton was effectively a Republican, and they absolutely HATED him.  Newt Ging-bitch’s Republican Revolution?  And Obama, don’t even get me started on Obama.  George W. Bush was so unpopular that BOTH parties ran candidates under the platform of “I am not George W. Bush,” and it’s no surprise that between Barack Obama and John McCain voters chose the one who was the least like Bush.  Obama was a perfectly competent president who pulled us out of the worst economic recession since the 1930s, and Republicans hated him even more than Clinton!  The Tea Party rose up less than a month after he took office, before he’d even DONE anything!  I don’t agree with everything he did as president, in fact I oppose a lot of it (drones), but I know that America was a better place under his leadership than it is now.

And now the Democrats are kowtowing to the Republicans AGAIN, nominating an adequate politician, Average Joe, that Republicans wouldn’t complain about if he wore a red tie instead of a blue one, but even now they’re complaining about it!  They’re acting like he’s a far-left socialist because they want the country to think that his middle-of-the-road policies are WAY too radical; they want to make people think that normalcy lies to the right of Joe Biden, they want to keep shifting the Overton Window until they pick a candidate in 2032 or 2036 that will make Donald Trump look like Bernie fucking Sanders.  Republicans never shift to the left, they never try to appeal to Democratic voters, they never think twice about alienating liberals, they won’t compromise, they’d rather shut down the government than spare a dime for any even remotely liberal talking points.

I’m sick to death of this country.  I’m sick to death of everyone pretending like what we see is not what it is!  Joe Biden is better than Trump, but the bar is so low at this point that I’d feel ore comfortable with a flaming bag of dogshit in the Oval Office than the racist date rapist we have now.  I will swallow my pride and vote for Joe Biden, but I will not be happy about it.  This man does not stand for the people’s best interests.  He will face overwhelming opposition, cave to the pressure from the right, then lose re-election because I know for a fact that he’s too proud to admit he’s too old to run again in 2024.  People keep pretending like his VP is going to get the nomination, but there’s no way on Earth or in Heaven that this man is going to just retire!  This year was a vanity run; he wants to be president because he wants to be president, not because he wants to do anything.  He’s wanted it his whole career; he’s a dog chasing cars, he doesn’t know what to do when he catches one, and no, I don’t means he’s like the fucking Joker, I just think he’s focusing more on himself than the country.  What would it look like in 2024 if the president retired because he’s TOO OLD to keep the job?  The Democrats would be even bigger laughingstocks than they are now; there wouldd be no way for him to retire with dignity without admitting defeat and giving the Republicans a political victory.

He’s going to run for re-election in 2024, and he’s going to have his ass handed to him because by that point he’s going to be stumbling over his words even worse than Trump is now, and the Democrats aren’t going to blindly rally behind him like the Republicans do for Trump.  Republicans will vote in line with Trump whether they like him or not, they know their career depends on it, but Democrats won’t get in line behind one of their own because they want to appeal to everyone, even if that means ignoring the people they claim to represent.

If Trump wins in 2020, America will go the way of the Soviet Union.  You know what, no, that’s not true.  America will never break apart, it’s too obstinate.  What will happen is America will go the way of the British Empire; once a global superpower, now just a bunch of isolationist racists who don’t know they’ve been irrelevant for the last 80 years.  America will continue to alienate its allies while sucking up to its enemies, the wealth gap will widen, life expectancy will drop, infant mortality will rise, and we’ll peak in the 2030s or 40s before losing our position as the de facto “leaders of the free world.”  Under normal circumstances I’d say that’s a good thing because we have no right to force the rest of the world to do whatever we want, but the resulting power vacuum will almost certainly be filled by China which is even worse than we are.  If Trump wins in 2020, democracy dies.  His handlers will find a way to skirt the 22nd Amendment so he can run for a third term in 2024.  They’ll just unilaterally amend the constitution so he can do whatever he wants; every right-wing dictator does that.  Hitler did it, Pinochet did it, Putin is doing it now.  IF the Republicans want to PRETEND that laws still exist, they’ll have him “retire” at the end of his second term, but then stay on as a top advisor to his successor, who will almost certainly be his daughter he wants to fuck, at which point he will be president-by-proxy, ruling vicariously through her until his brain melts enough for him to disappear into the woodwork like Reagan did in the 90s.

If Trump wins in 2020, the Trump dynasty will hold power for decades.  This regime will be no different than the fucking Saudi Arabia or North Korea.

If Biden wins in 2020, we’re just kicking the can down the road; Trump won’t let himself become irrelevant without a fight.  Carter and Clinton and Bush and Obama don’t pretend that they’re still president, they don’t make their voices heard, but you KNOW that Trump will.  He will try to stay in the limelight forever, and the media will let him; they’ll report on every snide comment and contrarian remark he makes on Twitter and compare him to Biden every single day because he’s a demagogue, and Republicans aren’t just gonna move on after they’ve invested so much emotional capital into him over the last five years.  They’ve doubled down in support of him, he can do no wrong in their eyes, he’s their golden boy, the Fuhrer is Always Right; they’ll follow him to Hell and back (though let’s be honest, he’d never lead them out of Hell once he brings them there).  They’ll treat him like an elder statesman and a genius political strategist/advisor until he dies.  He’ll basically get to pick the nominee in 2024 because Republicans will vote for whoever he endorses.  And he’s going to pick Ivanka or maybe, MAYBE, Tom Cotton because he’s a brown-nosing right-wing toadie.

FUCK.

[cainfm]

『BILL SKARSGARD ❙ NONBINARY』 ⟿ looks like CAIN ROMANOV is here for THEIR SENIOR year as a LITERATURE student. THEY are 25 years old & known to be RIGHTEOUS, TRUE, EVASIVE & GUARDED. They’re living in MORIS, so if you’re there, watch out for them. ⬳ JAMES. 21. EST. SHE/THEY.

hdsjnf hello all ... it is james again ... here with another ... replacing noelle with cain bt it’s fine im fine. i’ve hit muse limit u wn’t hear frm me again ... so hit tht like button .. this isnt the best intro ive done bt mostly bc im just kinda like ... taking an old one n rewriting it as i go

TW CULTS, HEROIN USE / ADDICTION, DRUG ADDICTION / USE, ABUSE, PSYCHOLOGICAL / EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION, PTSD, ANXIETY, TRAUMA.

aesthetics.

dangling limbs from tree branches, yellowed book pages, opened bottles of vintage wine, oversized sweaters and deep under eyes, bleached denim, worn leather gloves, cat hair against black cloth, fields of wheat, broken windows, descending staircases, tight-lipped smiles during public appearances, golden skies, light spilling from windows, stumbling over one’s own words, wire-framed beds, linens, wool scarves, making the wrong decisions; running, from others and yourself.

basic info.

full name: cain alexei romanov

nickname(s): n/a

b.o.d. - feb 19th, pisces :) happy birthday!

label(s): the connard (previously), the escapist, the facade, the fallen, the lothario (previously), the pariah, the phoenix, the puppeteer (previously), the sybarite, etc.

height: 6′4″ ... bruv.

hometown: stratford, connecticut

sexuality: bisexual uwu?

pinterest

stats

inspired by: i feel like i did ... have an inspiration for him but i don’t ... remember ... so ur not getting this one ... i might edit this later if smth pops into my head but. alas.

biography.

born to connecticut senator vaughn romanov and well known philanthropist adelaide romanov, they were born into a life of privilege in a very prominent new england family. they’re the eldest of five in a very nuclear, picture perfect, preppy chic family.

was brought up to be a class a, outstanding, perfect citizen. golden child to the all american family (willfully ignoring the fact that his father came from russian immigrants). cain listened, obeyed, never strayed outside the lines.

it was always intended for cain to take on after their father, to follow in his footsteps and become a politician too. there were several expectations for them, including joining model un, debate, deca, splitting time between soccer, track, basketball, lacrosse, becoming class president, and all while maintaining a valedictorian - worthy gpa.

even volunteered on the weekends at homeless shelters and food banks, proving to everybody in their community just how much of a gem they were, darling, perfect member of society.

always eager as a child, eager for approval, eager to impress and wow and dazzle authorities and adults alike - cain never really had a problem with any of it? always attended church on sundays and sometimes even wednesdays. participated in family dinners and christmas photoshoots and new years eve parties, easter egg hunts and family reunions.

born and raised in stratford, super close to lovell to the point where it’d always been expected that the romanov children would simply just go to radcliffe, as did their parents. their home in stratford is a big, fancy, seven bedroom eight bath house with two fireplaces and an expansive dining room. no pool, but a sturdy treehouse made by scratch.

however. their model citizen persona was just that, a persona - a charade. in the community and to his family, cain was a hardworking citizen who upheld standards, a leader. to classmates and peers, from elementary to college - cain was the devil themself.

arrogant, harrowing, an outright bully who tore down others when they felt like it, often unprovoked. they were the senator’s son, and a rich one at that - rules never applying because they simply never existed for them, the upmost privilege because of who their family happened to be and their place in society. tattlers of their behavior faced far more consequence than cain ever did, or would.

the sort of person who’d genuinely look down at someone if they had less than them - a narcissistic dickhead who cared about two or three people, tops, outside of their family. was never physically violent, nor did they raise their voice, but that’s what made them all the worse. made them all the scarier. spewed classist bullshit with ease and was addicted to the power high it gave them.

their only redeeming quality was their protectiveness over their family - never the best person, but family is family, and they thought it ought’d to be protected.

went into political science and business to please their father, mainly, every step they made - every path cain went down, every choice from the electives they took in high school to the brand of shoes they wore, was to build them into the ideal presidential candidate.

probably joined a frat though cain never participated in parties too often, known for keeping their composure even when others resorted to violence, or got too drunk, or caused any public commotion, because they didn’t like to leave a bad image for the press. did their drugs in private but left nothing to the imagination, publicly.

but alas. during college, two very important series of events occurred.

seeking thrills, searching for fun in all the wrong places - cain became a middle-man between dealers and producers. never dealt it, and never produced it, but simply transported it between one another; the less everybody knew about each other the better. it was always a very hushed operation. one that they could’ve profited much off of, though money was never the motive for them.

and then he met earl and may meyers, fellow volunteers at a thanksgiving food drive; an older couple immediately drawn to cain, reasonable considering just who their father was, and cain to them. they can’t tell you what about the couple was so appealing - the air around them was something else entirely; some called it unhinged, others would call it comforting. but they were kind folks, down to earth - very religious, and very warmhearted. liked his name, a lot - like in the bible, they’d say, and laugh, and pat his arm. they would say, on occasion, that they reminded them of their late son.

it’d happened towards the end of their junior year, a few years after they’d gotten involved in the drug business - and the meyers were volunteering more and more, always at the same places as cain. the same times, too, as if they were learning his schedule. in retrospect - it was odd, but cain’d never suspected a thing. they kept talking, and it became a genuine friendship - a secured vote in the next election.

it only took a few months into this that they’d begun to talk about religion more. the sin of wealth, and god choosing only a select few when he cleanses the earth. only the worthiest souls. they’d eventually get into the rhythm of telling cain they were special - that they could see they’d be selected, see it in their aura, in their dreams, god sending them messages, etc. most would find it to be absolutely ... bonkers.

but it was oddly appealing to cain - like, maybe i am being constrained by capitalism. maybe i am disappointing god - aren’t i a devoted follower? it felt nearly ridiculous, but it seeped into their mind. psychological manipulation, lasting over months and cain unsuspecting. as if they could ever be the one manipulated. but the meyers could ask cain to jump, and they’d simply say - how high?

soon enough, earl and may told them that they were moving. that there’d been so many more like them and that it was time to join them, time to prepare - to get ready for the rapture. cain held off at first, finishing up their first term of their senior year and their life planned right before their eyes. everything they’d ever worked for. their loyal companions and close-knit family, their side-business that’d only gotten stronger - a long-term girlfriend and the engagement ring that burnt in their pocket, made their heart beat twice as fast at the very thought. still the same as before, cruel without a cause, but still surrounded by those who loved them - who could find something in them to love.

but a month into their senior year, cain had a sudden change of heart. they were ready, now, if not now then never later. all because of a third event. a surprise. a shock. a betrayal.

they had discovered that they were not their father’s child - not at all, not even by an inch. they were someone else’s, completely. their mother had broken down and cracked, after a particularly straining christmas party. the discussion was long, and the heartbreak only grew. the anger only grew. the hurt - it grew. more and more, with each pitiful sob their mother gave them. it was a mistake - a one night stand in a fit of petty anger in the very early stages of their marriage. and only cain knew - like they had to carry this weight, now, that they never asked to have.

it was the kind of information that broke a person. cain idolized their parents, done everything they’d ever asked - ever expected, and beyond, let them mold them like putty into whatever form they wanted. only to find out that in the end, it didn’t matter. it never mattered, if cain wasn’t the blood child of vaughn. if their mother - a woman who hadn’t a bad bone in her body, was nothing but a cheat and a liar.

cain unraveled.

they spent the first week getting into an altercation with near anybody who looked at them wrong. physical, usually - though arguments arose frequently as well. with no explanation, only thrown fists - often drunk, or high, or sober too - it never mattered. they spent a night in county jail, it’d gotten so bad. it seemed to have no end.

right until new years, just after midnight, when cain had disappeared without a word. it was treated like a missing persons case, though there was no evidence of foul play or kidnapping, and not much could be done about it.

BEGINNING OF CULT / DRUG / MOST OF THE TRIGGER WARNINGS

the only people who knew of cain’s whereabouts were the meyers - because they had left together. a last minute decision that, if they had only waited a simple minute longer, would’ve never happened. a mistake they desperately wished they could take back. a mistake that led to another event - maybe the most important one of them all.

they’d gone only hours away from stratford, and lovell, the border between new york and connecticut and not as far as cain had initially thought, but deep, deep into the woods. that was where the cult’d been. they wore white linens and cotton, but never mixed. technology banned, prayers and daily chores. it was natural, at first. for the first three months, that was.

it could’ve been grand. it was peaceful, and mind-clearing, and they treated cain as if their birth was a sign from the angels. cain come to undo his past. a potential leader. but the longer they stayed, the more apparent it became that they weren’t all that the cult had wanted, so desperately, to believe. once they began to slip up, once members became displeased - that’s when the punishments began to occur.

sometimes once a week, but sometimes - and, later, much more so, multiple. the memories are suppressed, for the most part - but there are some things they simply can’t - the hands, they can’t forget. pulling, and tugging, and gripping - begging, asking him to repent, please, repent. their head held underwater, counting seconds until their vision’d eventually darken and go out, only to be pulled out gasping and sobbing. these memories stay - these memories repeat themselves, like a record stuck on repeat, days blurring into one another.

when they tried to fight back - they were subdued. heroin was the first step. little by little, everyday - enough to leave them in a high they wouldn’t remember; enough to burn a hole in their memory. and with these dimming memories, cain’d begin to sneak paper and pencil into their living arrangement, their room, writing everyday. wrote as much as they could remember from home - about their family, their life before it all - the people they loved. they couldn’t remember what they’d written, some days.

and when those notes were found, bound by thread taken from their own clothing to form a shabby book - that’d been the final straw. dragged, kicking and screaming - mind-numbingly high, into place. the twisted reenactment, retelling of cain’s demise. how exactly he’d gotten his scar. it would’ve been near perfect, if they had only stayed still and let them brand the mark into his forehead. but instead - they settled, eventually, for the chest. then - the left cain to die in the middle of the woods. in the middle of nowhere. no trails or campsites to follow, nothing at all. nothing but trees. nothing but his notes and the clothes on their back. they hadn’t even known what day it was - almost forgotten the year, too.

cain should’ve died there, but cain got up. and they ran. and ran. and ran. until they hit something, eventually. a road. it’d been pure luck that they’d found a car near immediately afterwards, whose driver wasn’t doubling as a murderer, who took them to the hospital - and who gave cain that chance to live. they were found on new years, a full cycle - a full year in the cult that’d changed their life.

END OF CULT / DRUG / MOST OF THE TRIGGER WARNINGS. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. STILL MENTIONS OF TRAUMA / MENTAL HEALTH / RECOVERY / ADDICTION BEYOND THIS POINT.

after being reunited with their family in the hospital - everything went by very fast. they couldn’t recognize their youngest sibling, but they also couldn’t remember why they’d left in the first place. couldn’t remember the name of their girlfriend, but the color of her hair and the way she smelled. they couldn’t give answers to their actions.

and after being put into therapy and recovery for their addiction - that’s when they find out that their father’s a presidential candidate, that they had been - that they used cain’s disappearance as a story for the press, one to garner votes. their return is national news, and their public opinion skyrockets. it’s supposed to be glorious, and a miracle, a blessing - but cain feels restrained. confined to the role they’d always been expected to play - expected to get up and continue with their life, as if nothing had happened. 

but nothing didn’t happen - everything happened, and cain’s different now, vastly so - no longer who they thought they were. they change their major to literature, abandon politics. they get some cats, start working at the library, and they put on some leather gloves - their method of staying away, of keeping a comfortable distance. they are different, now, and simply only wish to focus on their recovery.

personality.

they’re no longer who they once were. a year of trauma does things to a person - and with memory loss that weighs heavy on their mind, they are near completely different. they remember parts of their old personality, their old lifestyle - enough to know they want to be better. they’re convinced that it’s karma, what happened to them. for being who they were - acting the way they did. just ... a bunch of self-blame.

even with the massive ego, cain’s always been a quiet person. but now - now cain’s even quieter. kinder, if not a little sarcastic, like a relic from the past. they’re distant - but it’s one of fear, restrictive and tense - not one made out of their own comfort. 

smokes medical marijuana but rarely drinks ... as if that’d make a difference. in an effort to beat their heroin addiction, they’ve turned to prescriptions instead.

like i mentioned ... cain has four cats. it’s basically their entire personality. two of them were from before their disappearance, but two are new to their little (school-approved) family. there is: frank (big chungus when yelled. white and gray), brock (orange. fluffy. stoic. devours food), shoelace (black furred, missing an eye and half an ear), and crunchwrap supreme (crunch for short. calico with bent ears). yes, they have photos of their cats in their wallet.

cain’s memory is fucked - like, really fucked. they forget a lot of things. short term, long term. it’s a constant struggle. they managed to keep their notes from the cult, so those help - but not always. they forget dates and names and faces and events. sometimes they wake up and don’t know where they are. they don’t sleep often, anyways. with the trauma came night terrors, and in an attempt to avoid them they don’t ... sleep often. only a few hours a night if they can withstand it, because it’s frankly terrible.

they suffer from severe touch aversion. skin contact with anybody, of any sort, is enough to send cain into a full-blown panic attack. they were leather gloves more often than not in an attempt to combat this disadvantage, without hindering their dexterity too much. even with clothes, they’re not the biggest fan of physical contact. it won’t send him into a panic attack, but they visibly flinch away. they’re very clear from the get-go, if someone is too close to them, that they don’t like physical contact.

dealing with ptsd and attends therapy every week. their therapist recommended that they keep writing their notes, after reviewing them himself, so cain does. they keep an entire journal where they write, and sketch a little, because it helps them cope and de-stress. it means a lot to them, actually.

also dealing with ptsd and attends therapy every week - therapist recommended he kept writing after looking at his notes - so he does, keeps an entire journal where they write and like … sketch a little, because it helps them cope. means more to them than it would seem. but, unfortunately, part of their coping involves getting far too involved in their own mini-investigation of the cult they’d been part of. when the cult was tracked back to where cain’d been brought, they were already gone - and cain wants to know where. wants to know how to find them. wants justice, vengeance. wants nobody else to get hurt from them.

pretty blunt ... won’t go out of their way to announce that hey, they were part of a cult, and that’s why they’re gone and that’s why that’s the way they are now - but they also won’t lie about it, if the topic comes up in conversation. they don’t like delusions, don’t like secrets, nor do they like unnecessary attention.

being at radcliffe makes cain anxious because - well, they’re surrounded by people they’ve been doing wrong by for years now and they can’t even remember which ones. who, what, when, why - distant memories, if they’re even there at all. is constantly trying to figure out how to redeem themselves. they’d leave, if it hadn’t been their parents’ assistance that they stay there. so that someone always has an eye on them. 

but like ...they screwed over a lot of people when they left. from plugs / customers to their ex-girlfriend, who they are, undeniably, still in love with (you can’t forget that feeling) - to their friends. like. everybody, pretty much KBJNSDFKSNLD

is often pretty high ... i’d say it’s just the medical weed but. alas :/ take a guess :/

hates cars & swimming & crowds. hates feeling trapped and will avoid it whenever possible. doesn’t want to be seen as unsociable, but it’s difficult. 

they ... have a tendency to run away when they’re overwhelmed. likes to climb trees because they’re tall enough to. there’s a tree outside of their window that they climb out to frequently, even though it’s like a ~safety hazard~ or whatever. just really likes to hide out. 

used to be in perkins when they last attended radcliffe, but they gave their spot to someone else and that was like - 100% fine w/ cain tbh. lives alone in moris now.

feels the need to redeem themself ... to like, everybody. like, they want to avoid conflict and be a better person, but it’s hard, and they don’t necessarily like confrontation either - and not everybody believes that cain’s changed. it wouldn’t be surprising if people were suspicious of cain, for whatever reason, because they don’t ... really have the best track record anymore.

developed a stutter as one of the results from their trauma. their voice is damaged from screaming and they’re self-conscious about it, but they’re working on it because there’s more important things to worry about. in general, cain looks ... gaunt, too thin, and generally sickly.

repeating senior year ... fr obvious reasons ... and probably won’t graduate anytime soon because they’ve changed their major so late.

can still hold a conversation & they’re not really afraid of socialization. it just takes a toll on them. they’re pretty lowkey, as a person. soft, sorta. quiet but they won’t be an asshole (on purpose). they like people! just. very low energy.

so like ... tldr ... not an asshole anymore ... dealing with a lot of trauma ... trying to be a good person ... yes ...

wanted connections.

locals... people they’ve grown up with their entire life. people they’ve wronged, people who idolized him, envied him, despised him, etc. 

enemies... would love for a bunch of these just. a hoard of people who fucking hate cain. because it fits the bill. they could’ve bullied them, or wronged them, whatever. anything works. let’s make it happen.

exes... that they’ve dumped... old hookups, ex-friends, people they got into an argument with or fought before they disappeared last year...

ex girlfriend... that connection wld b rly neat!! i have it up as a wc rn but we can take that down ... will be holding intense american idol - esque auditions. remember that cain ws a fckn classist pig and probably only dated people who were also rich with influential families. (unless u present a very good case to me ... then maybe ... perhaps ...)

family friends... family rivals... people he knows mostly thru their family.

redeemable... people they’re trying to redeem themself to... trying to prove their worth, and that they’re a better person now, etc. etc.

old clients... :) angry clients. that they left in the dust.

perkins... people he knew from perkins ... old pals or maybe enemies idk he was pretty insufferable ... people he used to go to fancy parties with sometimes ...

angery... people so so so so fucking pissed at cain, for whatever reason.

reconciliation... reconnecting... used to be friends and we can be friends again :) and i will be better this time! i’m a slut for slowburns, especially slowburn friendships ... enemies to friends ... now THAT is sexy.

victims... of bullying ... :/ of their bullying specifically.

sof...t... wholesome content ... nothing but soft, understanding friendships ... or developing friendships ... make them feel welcomed again... forgive them...

an..g.st... friends to enemies. enemies to bigger enemies. miscommunication. betrayal. whatever u want.

no hookups!!! ... please only previous encounters. nothing in the present. because it just wldn’t make sense.

unless... eyes emoji. H DSJLFJKS just kidding! i’d accept MAYBE some kind of sexual tension but like ... the sort that hurts, because it just Cannot Happen (i will not let it happen). or maybe a fun, casual sexting thing but like. nothing physical. pleasthe.

fuck politics!... mayhaps, they hate mr. romanov and his politics or smth. he’s probably corrupt in some way, so! go at it!

aggression... i feel like a lot of the conversations between cain n other ppl start out rly ... angry bc theyre Mad. at them.

ok it’s bed time please plot with me. 

[cadenlucca]

welcome back to gallagher academy, CADEN LUCCA! according to their records, they’re a SECOND year, specializing in DRIVER’S ED + SEDUCTION & FLIRTATION; and they DID NOT go to a spy prep high school. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of (messy brown hair, the slightest bit of stubble, and eyes glazing over in the classroom). when it’s the (leo)’s birthday on 8/15/1996, they always request LOBSTER TAIL WITH BUTTER from the school’s chefs. looks like they’re well on their way to graduation. 

NAME: Caden Mateo Lucca

KNOWN AS: Caden

BIRTHDATE:  August 15, 1996

ASTROLOGY:  Leo sun / Virgo moon / Aries rising

HOMETOWN: Virginia Beach, VA

RESIDENCE: Philadelphia, PA & Washington DC

GENDER:  Cis male  ( he/him )

SEXUAL ORIENTATION:  Heterosexual

HEIGHT:  6'1"

HAIR COLOR:  Dark Brown

EYE COLOR:  Dark Brown

TATTOOS:  Latin quote in illegible cursive on his chest; Wolf's head on his calf; Sword with the name Amelia in the center on his forearm

KNOWN LANGUAGES:  English, Spanish, Russian, and a handful of others at a beginner's level

IMMEDIATE FAMILY:

Rodrigo Lucca (formerly Lopez):  Father, Senator of Pennsylvania 

Charlotte Lucca née Blythe:  Mother, former Gallagher Academy alum, housewife 

BACKGROUND.

Rodrigo Lucca had come from somewhat humble beginnings, moving to Pennsylvania from Venezuela when he was ten years old. A career in politics had always been the end goal for him, which is why he changed his last name from Lopez to Lucca at age eighteen  ( knowing people are far too racist to willingly vote for a Rodrigo Lopez ) .  He had met Caden's mother when he was a law student at Georgetown University. Charlotte had come from old money, and her family's money coupled with Rodrigo's political ambitions helped them make a comfortable home for themselves in Philadelphia.  

It was there that Caden was born, a few years into his father's law career, leaving him busy and often out of the house.  Though Caden wouldn't remember, his first few years were spent just him and his mother, with baby Caden refusing to be held or spend time with anyone else unless Charlotte was in the same room. It wasn't until Caden was six and his father joined the House of Representatives for the state of Pennsylvania that the care of the Lucca child was thrown to nannies.  They moved into a bigger house, and Rodrigo hired housekeepers and chefs to take care of it all, so his wife could become a socialite among the other politician's wives. It worked for a few years, but by the time teenage Caden would come home for the holidays, he'd find that his mother barely left her bedroom. 

The Lucca household had been a lonely one to grow up in, so when the opportunity arose for Caden to go to boarding school in middle school, he jumped at the chance.  His father had found him one in Washington DC, not far from the family's second home, so his parents could occasionally visit.  But they never did come, and boarding school turned out to be worse than having a house to himself.  It was an all boy's school full of sons of other politicians and dignitaries, and Caden didn't get along with any of them.  He begged his parents to let him go home, but after calling them every day for a week straight, his father told him the truth:  it was easier without him around.  Rodrigo had promised if Caden could get through the next year and a half at this school, they could find him a better alternative for high school.  So Caden learned how to play nice, developing an easygoing personality that helped him gain friends for the rest of his time there. In return, his father sent him to another boarding school for high school, without consulting his son about it.

By the time high school rolled around, the boy's rebellious side had started to grow. He was angry at his dad for lying to him yet again, so he took it out on the schools he was sent to. Caden threw parties on school property, snuck off campus, and willingly let himself get caught with drugs and alcohol.  But when his usual antics didn't work  ( because by the third or fourth school, his father strived to make sure his son didn't get kicked out anywhere else ) ,   he had to work a little harder.  He destroyed school property, keyed faculty cars, was caught having sex in public places. Grades weren't an issue for Caden, who was naturally bright and didn't need to try in any of his classes.  But it took him five years to graduate high school, and by the end of it he had been to seven different boarding schools from all over the country. 

The last thing both Caden and his parents wanted was for him to move back home with them, so he took the opportunity to take his father's credit card and travel the world for almost two years.  Though he was always on his own, Caden rarely traveled alone, either meeting up with an old friend or making new ones at the hostels and cities he stayed at. These years were spent mostly in bars and nightclubs, and always drunk, and he had convinced himself life couldn't get any better.  But it all came crashing down on his twenty-first birthday, when he went to buy himself a generous present and found his card had been declined. Rather than calling to wish their son a happy birthday, his parents had gifted Caden with cutting him off. His father said it was time for Caden to grow up, and until he did, he wouldn't have any part of his lifestyle.

Despite having very little options, his own pride refused to let him move back home and have his parents win.  Instead Caden spent almost a year couch hopping between friends, mooching off them as long as he could.  He tried working any odd job he could get his hands on, but a rich boy with no experience didn't have much to offer employers.  Jobs never lasted long with him, and he was beginning to lose friends because of his couch-hopping ways.  So Caden eventually moved back to Washington DC -- where his dad was now the Pennsylvania Senator for the Democratic party -- and swallowed his pride long enough to beg him for a job. The two Luccas working together lasted a whopping five months before Rodrigo approached his son with the option of Gallagher Academy.  Never had Caden planned on going back to school, but he had been so miserable working in politics, he couldn't complain;  for him, Gallagher was just another school he was bound to be kicked out of.

GALLAGHER ACADEMY.

It wasn't until he stepped foot in Gallagher Academy that Caden learned it was more than just a school for Exceptional Young People, but for future spies of America. He took the information unsurprisingly lightly, mostly because he preferred to think of it as a former all girl's school  ( women, women everywhere ) .   Caden had started out with an undeclared major, but throughout his first semester he actually found himself genuinely interested in the new world around him.  He had taken the initiative to find a tutor in combat -- a girl tutor -- and after the first semester, Caden decided to declare not one but two majors: seduction and flirtation, and driver's ed.  For a man who had expected to not last a full semester of college, he had actually found himself invested in his education.

It didn't hurt that Gallagher put him in touch with many people from his past, especially those he never thought he would see again.  Caden's always been a lady's man, especially throughout his travels, but meeting Amelia Taylor in Ireland when he was nineteen had been another story. He had always had a habit of falling for girls too similar to himself, but he hadn't realized how true that was until being reunited with Amelia at Gallagher.  Though they started a no strings relationship, Caden had wanted more, which Amelia didn't reciprocate… and Caden didn't appreciate. Spring semester had been spent mad at the blonde, until Amelia had been murdered on Valentine's Day. 

Caden turned to sex and alcohol to cope with his problems, per usual. It didn't help that Caden had learned that one of the Gallagher alums on campus was his cousin from his mother's side, a cousin he never knew he even had.  He had always assumed he had been accepted into Gallagher because his father was family friends with the Suttons, and as a Senator he had connections  ( though he didn't talk to his parents very often, so the jury was still out on whether Rodrigo Lucca knew if it was a spy school or not ) ,  not because he was a legacy.  Had his cousin not shown him a picture of his mother as a Gallagher student, Caden never would've believed that Charlotte Lucca had ever been anything other than the cheating, alcoholic housewife she was now. 

After one shocking death and one life-aftering secret being revealed, it took the rest of the semester and start of Caden's summer to carry on. A romance with a witness protection student helped, as well as breaking into where Amelia's found killer was held on campus and beating him to near death  ( Caden still doesn't know if they actually killed Cecil or not, nor does he care ) .   When the semester ended, Caden also had the pleasure of meeting his mother's side of the family that he had never been told about, and in return was given a glimmer of hope at the prospect of having a real family.  ( More information can be found here. )  He still has a long way to go, having not spoken to his parents since Christmas, but Caden isn't the same man he was a year ago -- and for once, he actually likes having direction in his life.

PERSONALITY.

Caden is extremely charismatic, very obviously the son of a politician.  He's a grade-A conversationalist from years of experience campaigning for his father and making new friends wherever he goes, but most opportunities never allowed for relationships to become more than skin deep. Back in high school, he developed a talent for arriving onto a new campus mid-semester and immediately surrounding himself with the coolest guys and hottest girls. While social media has made it easy to keep up with all these friends of his, usually once he'd leave a place, the friendship would cease to exist  ( unless he needed a place to crash ) ,   so lifelong friends aren't really something Caden has much experience with.

Not only is he good at charming his way into friendships, but Caden is also known to be well-versed in the ladies department.  He's an obvious, shameless flirt, and for whatever reason women seem to love him.  Monogamous relationships are few and far between, and tend to not be healthy or long-term. Friends with benefits are more his speed, setting boundaries right away so nobody can get mad at him for intentionally breaking their heart in the process -- though it's happened a few times anyway.

Though arrogant and sometimes smarmy, generally Caden is pretty easy to get along with and doesn't go out of his way to be an asshole.  Every so often his idea of a joke and the way he roasts his friends can go too far, but when it comes down to it he would do anything for the people he cares about.

Caden's no stranger to vices, but drinking is certainly his biggest; I put this under personality because he acts like enjoying alcohol is a personality trait. He's always down for a good time, which tends to be his detriment. 

MORE INFORMATION / HEADCANONS:

Caden knows fluent Spanish from growing up with it in the house, both because his father spoke it and because his parents made sure to only hire nannies who would speak Spanish to him. He doesn't like speaking it though, because it reminds him of his father.

His first tattoo ever is a Latin quote on his chest, which he had gotten specifically because his father had told him NOT to get a tattoo when he turned eighteen. Caden had been drunk when he got it, so the translation is completely wrong; thankfully he had chosen such a heinous cursive font that it's impossible to read, and he'll never tell anyone what it's supposed to mean.

Thanks to Mommy and Daddy he's not great with expressing his feelings;  his way of caring is shown through flexing his credit cards and doing something special for the important people in his life.  Expect ridiculously lavish birthday and Christmas presents.

Some of his favorite travel destinations include Tokyo, Reykjavík, Amsterdam, New York City, and Ireland.

During his boarding school days he was known for being a notorious prankster, though he retired the title once he graduated.  His favorite prank had been filling a teacher's office with condom balloon animals.  ( Okay I never said he was amazing, he was a sixteen year old boy. )

His seven boarding schools had been in Maine, Kansas, California, Washington, Michigan, and two in Pennsylvania.

Though he's not a movie buff, Caden is a slut for a good John Hughes move.  The Breakfast Club is his favorite of all time.

Caden's a closet Potterhead and 100% a Gryffindor.

TL;DR:  Caden is the son of the Pennsylvania Senator who he doesn't get along with  ( daddy issues hello )  and has spent most of his life acting out through getting kicked out of boarding schools, traveling the world instead of working, and finally landing on coming to Gallagher rather than working. His mother was a Gallagher Girl but didn't find out until recently. He's essentially a fuckboy with a heart of gold.

CURRENT & WANTED CONNECTIONS HERE

[mokkoriness]

GRIMOIRE Interview - SEVEN Vol.42

We ask them about "Uranometria" that was released last year on December 13th. First of all, what does the meaning of the title of the lead song "Uranometria" mean?

It is a Latin word derived from Greek, and has the meaning of "star atlas".

It has been about one and a half months since the release, but how have the reactions from the listeners been?

It's as we hoped it would be, or rather, it was how we expected it to be. It's like we were right on the mark thinking things like "It seems like all songs on the CD will be popular", or that we would get this kind of reaction.

This song leaves an impression, such as with the intro of the song, where we can sort of imagine what image the lyrics will paint, but were there any points you focused on, or arrangements, themes, or phrases that you were particular about during production?

RyNK: We mixed the mermaid and me together.

Kie: The feeling of Japanese music. We also placed emphasis on the arrangement to make one recall the movements of waves, flowing from right to left and left to right and becoming intertwined.

Amu: The title and release date. As we reduced distortion, we built up a variety of sounds and arranged it so people could hear the chords, also the interaction between the left and right channels of the guitars in the pre-chorus and bridge.

Lune: I kept in mind to not use the habits that I usually add to the arrangements.

Mel: What I put emphasis on was to not have noisy drums, and to have beats and phrases that were even more aware of the fact that there would be singing on top of it.

The Castor version includes the music video for "Uranometria". Please tell us the highlight of the music video, scenes that you were particular about, or any behind stories of filming or something you had trouble with.

RyNK: My clothes were fluttery.

Kie: The outfits were completed on the day of the movie filming. I was nervous.

Amu: The hand drawn sparkling effect when the song title comes up and the tearing up scene after the bridge.

Lune: Actually, we used a little bit of a gimmick to show the water.

Mel: I'm using an important drum set so I want people to look at it. Among the simple drum setting, I think another highlight is the cymbal that stands out in the back.

So the coupling song "Suisou no Umi" that is included on both the Castor version and Pollux version. Please tell us the theme or any stories from production, or things you were particular about with this song.

RyNK: I tried a little hard on the last part.

Kie: There was no place to put in a guitar solo, so I spent a whole day trying to put one in. When you look at your world, which you thought was the ocean (everything), from the side it's just an insignificant fish tank, and all it was was you being forced to swim there... I put the emotions I felt from that into the guitar solo.

Amu: I wanted to make it so that people could feel the story just from listening to the orchestral parts in the part from the intro to the twin leader guitar solo.

Lune: Since it was a song that we all made imagining playing it at a large venue, it became a song that is very nice to play live.

Mel: The difference between the quiet parts before the band comes in and the explosiveness after the band comes in.

About the coupling song "Hello & Goodbye" that is on the Pollux version. Please tell us the theme or any stories from production, or things you were particular about with this song.

RyNK: I worked hard at articulation.

Kie: The bridge after the break down. It's tension and relaxation!

Amu: The verse repeats many times, and because the guitars on the left and right channel are always the same, we changed the arrangement so that the delayed guitar phrases in the background match with the drums.

Lune: We were able to express the feeling of GRIMOIRE with the toy-like sounds in the intro and the sound of the metronome we purposely put in. We all listened to each and every tone, so they are refined.

Mel: With the phrase in the verses, I play something different the first and second time, and they are phrases that express this toy-like feeling.

A special show "Yurumoa-chan" will take place on February 9th at Shinjuku RUIDO K4. It will be a solo show with a completely different relaxed atmosphere from normal, and the setlist will be comprised of the 12 most voted for songs. What kind of show will it be? Also, are the votes what you expected? Were there any unexpected songs?

RyNK: It will be unleashed.

Kie: I can't imagine it. I hope it becomes a live that will be a comfortable time for the people who come.

Amu: I haven't seen the votes yet.

Lune: I wonder where "Mime Mime" is ranked... I'm a bit anxious about the space in between songs, but I would like to take on this challenge with a feeling of it being something new.

Mel: As it's a different feeling from usual I am a bit worried, but I think it would be nice if we could show another side of us. It would be nice if everyone could hear their favourite songs.

And about RynK's birthday solo show "Birthday Party" that will be held on April 22nd at Aoyama Tsuki Miru Kimi Omou. Although there is still quite some time until the show, but are there any things you have planned or things to look forward to?

As it's the first time to hold a birthday event, we want to make it a live with a special feeling. It would be amazing if not just RyNK himself, but also the fans got warm feelings from the show.

What is it that GRIMOIRE pays attention to at lives, or wants to show?

RyNK: I would be glad if they looked at the thing in the middle.

Kie: Entertainment.

Amu: Today only exists today. To let everything out. Whether it moves people's emotions or not.

Lune: It would be to enjoy it. If we ourselves weren't enjoying it, then the audience also wouldn't enjoy it, right? That they are at the venue means that they pushed aside other things and paid money to come and see us, so anyhow, I want to make it enjoyable.

Mel: The atmosphere, the dynamics and the story composition and development of the setlist. And to always enjoy it.

Please tell use a song you recommend and choreography for the people who will see GRIMOIRE live for the first time.

RyNK: "Seitan Devil". The "Eyeball" part.

Kie: "Gensou Syndrome". When you go from jumping, to raising your hands in the air and then small headbangs.

Amu: "Suisou no Umi". Without worrying about difficult things, I want them to feel our "stillness" and "motion".

Lune: "Boku to Tulpa". The clapping during the verses. Or what the wolf calls "The sheep dance".

Mel: "Nejire Inside". Where you cover your eyes to match with the lyrics in the verse.

Are there any fads or common hobbies shared with the members right now?

RyNK: None.

Kie: I don't think so?

Amu: Nothing in particular.

Lune: None!

Mel: Nothing in particular, but when we go on tour we go and eat hamburgers together.

February 3rd is the traditional last day of Winter. Are there any demons inside you that you would like to chase out?

RyNK: The one in my heart.

Kie: The troublesome one. I'm going to start eating breakfast now.

Amu: The extreme one. I won't think of things in extremes.

Lune: The isolating one. I will make more friends.

Mel: The forgetful one. I'll make a checklist of things to bring on tour.

It's almost Valentine's Day. Please tell us one sweet memory and one bitter memory from then.

RyNK: They came all the way to my place to give me chocolate. When I asked for chocolate and they said "No way".

Kie: Please let me keep them to myself.

Amu: None in particular.

Lune: When I got chocolate from a girl in another class who I had no contact with. That made me happy.

Mel: Being able to eat lots of delicious chocolate. Eating too much chocolate.

Please give a message to the SEVEN readers.

RyNK: It's cold so stay warm.

Kie: See you.

Amu: I hope we can see you somewhere.

Lune: This year GRIMOIRE may go to see you at places we've never been before. Wait for us.

Mel: We will be a band that will being you lots of wonderful songs and lives this year too and make you think that you're glad to be a GRIMOIRE fan. This year we're going to see you much, much more so wait for us.

[vhalyria]

Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump - a dangerous parity?

I’m worried. I’m so worried that I can barely sleep at night, and it’s giving me stomach cramps. Because we’ve been here before, and we need to talk about this. 

So, my unprofessional, biased ass sat down for a few hours and tried to collect everything it knew about Hitler and Trump, in order to see if it’s just a bad feeling that I’m having, or if my fear is justified.

As I said, I am not a journalist or anything else, I simply did some research alongside the stuff I still remembered from my history classes and books. Sources can be seen at the end, although many of them are in german, sorry.

I won’t go much into the reasons behind Hitler’s and Trump’s behavior, because I don’t care what turned them into the people they were/are. Also, I tried to keep this as neutral as possible, only relying on facts (and no, those aren’t alternative). There are probably a few things I’ve forgotten about, but feel free to add them!

1.) Where did they come from?

Hitler: Adolf Hitler was the oldest of three siblings, born in Austria in 1889. Growing up, he started to care less and less about school and eventually dropped out without graduation. After that, he applied for a place at an art school, multiple times, but got rejected every time. He has spent a few years in poverty until he joined the army in WWI. After that, he joined the NSDAP and eventually became their leader. The rest should be known.

Trump: Donald Trump was born in 1976, as the fourth of five children. His father, the son of german immigrants, was a real estate businessman. After graduating from High School, Trump studied economics and eventually took on his father’s business. He joined the Republicans in 1987, and became their candidate for the election in 2015.

2.) How was it possible for them to become so popular/get voted?

Hitler: Hitler made the people like him because he was using their anger and their fears for his own means. After WWI, Germany was financially and socially destroyed. The Treaty of Versaille asked them to pay a lot of money for reparation, they had to reduce their military force to an absolute minimum and due to the high sanctions and the new yorker stock crash, an inflation came over the country, causing many people to lose their homes and all their savings. The people were scared about their future and felt betrayed by the government, because it was them who had to pay for everything. Radical groups arised and Hitler not only recognized those fears; he built his policy on them. He promised to create many new jobs, that the countries that won the war will pay them back because they were the guilty ones in his eyes, that no one will have to be homeless and hungry anymore. He promised to take revenge on those countries, even if that meant starting another war. Hitler promised to “give Germany its pride back”, and people believed him.

Trump: The rich are getting richer, the poor are losing what little they have left. That’s how people in the US felt when Trump got voted. They didn’t trust their government, even having multiple jobs wasn’t enough to pay the rent anymore and on top of that, terrorists kill people all over the world. The citizens were afraid and worried, they wanted to find a way out of their misery and feel safe. And that’s what Trump promised to provide them; he promised to make “America great again”, to create work for the american people so that no one has to be poor anymore. He said he would lead the fight against terrorism, and his people wouldn’t have to be scared anymore. Trump promised “America comes first”, and the people believed him. 

3.) Personality traits that made people like them 

Hitler: The one thing that every history book and every documentation about Hitler never leave out; he was a great rhetoritian. He was able to inspire to people, to make them believe everything, to cheer for anything he says. He was confident and determined.

Another thing that made him popular, was that he gave his people someone else to blame for their misery than themselves or the government; the jews. According to Hitler, they were at fault for everything bad that has ever happened in Germany, and people felt comforted by that thought. It takes the blame from them by assigning it to someone else; it made living easier.

By that, Hitler also managed to make the germans feel like a community; united by hate towards a minority, but united, still. He fed them the illusion that he would lead them to wealth and happiness, and that everything will be turning out greatly for them, as long as they’re supporting him.

Trump: Trump is a rich man, someone who calls himself a successful businessman. He made it to the top, and that inspired the people. He makes the American Dream seem still alive, and on top of that, he promises that he will be the one to lead the United States into a bright future, with lots of work, wealth and unity. He is a confident person and by talking like the common people, he makes them feel like they could relate to him. Like Hitler, he uses the fear of the people and unites them in hate towards minorities; the mexicans are to blame, the people of color and the muslims. They are the reason for misery in the US, but he can change that, he can throw these people out of the country and “make America great again”.

4.) A list of the exact things they promised:

Hitler: 

- “Deutschland über alles” (”Germany above everything”)

- to overturn the Treaty of Versailles and stop reparation payment

- to “give Germany its pride back”

- to re-arm Germany and to enlarge their military force

- to create jobs (by expanding the army)

- a strong government and stability

- a better life for the lower and the middle class

- to make Germany “a power country” again

Trump:

- “America First”

- “Make America great again”

- to cancel Obamacare to reduce costs

- to build a wall to Mexico

- to send immigrants back to their countries so that american citizens can have their jobs

- to send troops back into war zones and to enlarge the military force

- banishment of muslims

- tax reduction

- to bring back manufacturing jobs

- to step back from several international trading agreements

- to lead the fight against ISIS

5.) Foreign policy

Hitler: Hitler wanted Germany to become a global leading power again and to expand the german territory. He worked on an intense connection to fascist Italy, while he had an anti-russia policy. Promised other countries freedom while already planning to take over Europe, Hitler eventually declared war to Poland, which led to WWII.

Trump: Trumps goals when it comes to foreign policy are to work together closely with Russia, to step back from several international trade agreements, to impose penalties on several branches of import, to fight against ISIS and to support Israel in their conflict with Palestine, to name a few of the endless plans he talked about

6.) The role and value of women

Hitler: Hitlers policy understood women as barely more than birth machines. His propaganda made it look like being mother to (the more, the better) aryan children is the best thing to ever happen to a woman. It was socially unacceptable for a woman to go to work, they needed to stay at home to look after the children and to keep the house clean for their husbands. Women were a thing to be owned, their opinion didn’t matter. Emancipation was seen as something “evil” that the jews brought into Germany.

Trump: Trump treats woman without respect and like a thing to be owned. According to him, a woman’s worth it determined by her attractiveness and they should feel honored when he gropes them or makes obscene comments about them. Trumps policy is anti-abortion, he wants to take the right to decide over their bodies and lives away from american women. 

7.) The treatment of minorities

Hitler: Hitler used the jews as scapegoats for everything bad that happened. It was their fault that people lived in poverty, that women wanted to have a say about their lives, that germany lost the war etc. His party supported and encouraged violence against jewish people (the ”Kristallnacht”, for example), and they got socially seperated from the rest of the society. Sad peek of Hitler’s anti semitism was the torture and killing of millions of jews, within Germany and from other countries, in concentration camps. Over six million jews had to die. 

Homosexuals and people with disabilities often got the same treatment.

Trump: Not only once did Trump say what he thinks about Mexicans; they are rapists, criminals, they’re bringing drugs and misery into his country. “Some sure are nice, though.”, he says. He’s using them the same way Hitler used the jews; he blames them for everything. They are stealing jobs from americans, they are endangering the public safety, all they do is create chaos and crimes.

 His opinion about people of color isn’t better; he stated that he doesn’t support the Black Lives Matter Movement. “If Black lives matter, go back to Africa”, is what he said. He also believes that racism would not exist anymore. On several occasions he has encouraged his supporters to verbal and physical attacks towards people of color. He also claims that the era of slavery was a good time for the US and ignores police brutality towards poc’s.

Trump wants to ban muslims from entering/staying in the US. As we all know he already tried to do that a few days ago, but fortunately, a court declared his action to not be legal. Trump also made fun of people with disabilities.

8.) How they deal with the media

Hitler: Adolf Hitler knew how to use the media for himself. “The press is an instrument for education to bring 70 million people to an unified world view”, is one of the things he said. The principle was easy; every newspaper or radio station that wasn’t supporting him by reporting what he wanted them to report about, got banned. Resisting journalists and leader of companies got fired and also arrested in some cases. Hitlers party used the media for their propaganda, freedom of speech and press didn’t mean anything anymore.

Trump: Trump hates the media. While he enjoys the attention given to him, he can’t deal with negative reports. He calls those journalists “liars”, claims that they are spreading “alternate facts”, that only his point of view is the truth. Trumps party sees journalists as “part of the opposition”, and says they should “just shut up and listen”. Apparently, there were already plans made to ban the press from the White House. During Trump’s inauguration, the first journalists already got arrested.

(Personal) Conclusion:

Their differences:

- Hitler knew how to make the media work for him, Trump doesn’t (yet)

- Trump grew up wealthy and with academic success, Hitler grew up poorly and dropped out of school without graduation

- Trump’s politic is pro-russia, Hitler’s was anti-russia

- Hitler wanted to expand the german territory while Trump want to build a wall

- Hitler’s policy aimed to start a war

And, most importantly:

Their similarities:

- Power hungry, radical, racist, misogynistic

- use prejudices against minorities, support violence against them

- “America First” and “Germany above everything” are the same damn thing

- Unite people through hate

- mainly voted by people who aren’t wealthy, scared for their future

- creating jobs by extending the military, taking “stolen” jobs “back” from immigrants/women

- wanting their countries to be the first in everything, don’t care what it takes

- against freedom of speech and press

- enforcement of military power, getting ready for war

- give their people a minority to blame for all the existing misery

- aggressive, short tempered, determined

- no respect for human life

I don’t know about you, but I think this is terrifying.

Like I said, I have probably forgotten about a lot. Feel free to add!

Sources: x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

With under two weeks to go until Election Day, the political universe is in full horse-race obsession mode. Who’s up, who’s down? Does fundraising matter? Who’s going to turn out on Nov. 6? What popular narrative that’s snaking its way through Twitter is the right one? WHO’S GONNA WIN???

FiveThirtyEight relies on forecast models to give a sense of where a race stands, and we base those forecasts on polls and what we call fundamentals — historic factors that help us predict the way voters will act. But even with the model, elections can be difficult to get your arms around. The Classic version of our model currently gives Democrats a 1 in 6 chance of winning the Senate1, but events in the last couple of weeks of the campaign and a lack of polling in some places leave our model with a couple of blind spots.

This lack of certainty in the last few days of campaigns means that partisans work overtime to slick the highest sheen of gloss onto races. They want the Twitter and media narratives to go their way — they want their party’s spin to work magic. With that dynamic in mind, I thought I’d ask a couple partisans to give us their best spin on the Senate map. Republican Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Sen. Mitch McConnell and who now runs his own political consulting firm, and Democrat Lauren Passalacqua, the communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, obliged.

What follows are their takes on a few key Senate races as the campaigns come down to the wire. Their remarks have been edited and condensed for clarity, and I’ve offered some fact checks and clarifications in the footnotes where appropriate.

Indiana

FiveThirtyEight projection: 2 in 3 chance the Democrat, Sen. Joe Donnelly, beats Mike Braun to win re-election

Holmes (R):

Obviously after what happened in 2016 with Evan Bayh, it’s more of a red state than it used to be, but it’s still very competitive. I think Joe Donnelly has run, up to this point, one of the better Democratic Senate campaigns, but I think he’s got his work cut out for him. I think it’s just a tight race. Who knows. In 2016, it broke very late and decisively toward Republicans.

Passalacqua (D):

There’s early voting already in Indiana. They’re already turning people out in the places we need them to be turning out in great numbers — Indianapolis, Marion County. We’re also seeing enthusiasm on college campuses. But what you’re seeing, too, is Joe Donnelly running just as a middle-of-the-road Hoosier — “I’m going to Washington to get stuff done. All that bickering back and forth, that’s not what I’m a part of, that’s not what Indiana wants to be a part of, so I’m just going to work with whoever I can to do the job that Hoosiers expect.”

Missouri

FiveThirtyEight projection: 4 in 7 chance the Democrat, Sen. Claire McCaskill, beats state Attorney General Josh Hawley to win re-election

Holmes (R):

Claire McCaskill spent the better part of 2018 with the good fortune of an in-state governor scandal that she tried to muddy the water with and tie her opponent to. But once that was in the rearview mirror, there was an awful lot that went with it. In about June, Josh Hawley sort of hit his stride in engaging with McCaskill and started playing a lot of offense. I think that race now is in a very strong position. It’s one of the two that has broken [towards Republicans] most obviously since Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.

Passalacqua (D):

This is another place where we’ve seen the public polling neck and neck, which is what we expected, especially in a state that does trend more conservative. Certainly we’ve seen the attorney general back on his heels a bit with the kind of advertising he’s had to rely on, which fights back on this idea that he won’t protect pre-existing conditions, but obviously that ad is undermined by the lawsuit he’s on [challenging the Affordable Care Act].2 So what we see is a debate unfolding on the issues where Claire does have the upper hand.

North Dakota

FiveThirtyEight projection: 3 in 10 chance the Republican, U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, beats the incumbent, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

Holmes (R):

I’ve said since the middle of August I thought North Dakota was done with Heidi Heitkamp. It has become a much more conservative state in recent years, and, interestingly, Trump’s economic message resonates perfectly with the kind of historical prairie populism we’ve seen in places like North Dakota. And she finds herself down double digits pretty durably now, going on a couple months.3 Of the races where Republicans are playing offense, I would say it’s the only one where it’s totally off the board.

Passalacqua (D):

I do think it’s closer than people expect. It was always going to be one of the toughest states for Democrats. That’s historically a state that’s hard to poll. I think everyone remembers that famous photo of her with the newspaper that declared her opponent the winner.4 She has an advantage in spending on advertising5 and we know Republican groups like the Senate Leadership Fund continue to spend there, so that still, in our mind, is a place where we’re monitoring it and Heidi is closing it out.

Florida

FiveThirtyEight projection: 5 in 7 chance the Democrat, Sen. Bill Nelson, beats Gov. Rick Scott to win re-election

Holmes (R):

This race is a little bit of a black box to election observers, because of the hurricane and because it’s such a large and diverse state that you have a little bit of everything in terms of political-environment factors. The governor’s race has an interesting component, we’ll have to see. Democrats will tell you they’re hopeful that demographics that were inaccessible to Bill Nelson become accessible because of gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum [Gillum is black]. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Particularly in southwest Florida, there could be a whole bunch of retirees who are just getting down there who may react to the idea of governance that’s more liberal than they’re comfortable with.

Passalacqua (D):

Florida folks were very bullish on Gov. Scott because he brings a blank check and it’s an expensive state. It’s one of those places where you’ve seen the Scott playbook before: Spend a ton of money, get elected. When you dig a little further, there are a couple problems for Scott. His previous races were in 2010 and 2014, which were really good Republican years for Florida, yet he barely won by a single point both times and he underperformed the Republican ballot. I think the thing that works to Nelson’s advantage is that he’s a workhorse. He is someone who will keep his head down.

Arizona

FiveThirtyEight projection: 5 in 8 chance the Democrat, U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, beats U.S. Rep. Martha McSally to win

Holmes (R):

Sinema has taken on an awful lot of water in the last couple of weeks. She was very successful at using a Republican primary to rebrand herself as a moderate. And I think it has taken more effort than maybe Republicans would have thought to dislodge that. She has one of the worst oppo files in the Democratic recruiting class, and I think there were an awful lot of folks who thought that it would speak for itself. [Sinema’s past has been in the news — some reports have cast doubt on her stories of childhood hardship and some have questioned remarks she made as an anti-war activist during President George W. Bush’s administration.] Now, maybe it will, but it’s still a very tight race. Republicans, to a person, feel like we have a superior candidate with better credentials and a better fit ideologically for the state.

Passalacqua (D):

This is also an exciting race because this is the first election cycle where you’re seeing a lot of resources pulled into the state. Democrats closed the registration advantage that Republicans had. I read the reporting like everyone else, and what she said is what her parents said: She grew up in tough circumstances and they have helped shape who she is and how she approaches her work.

Tennessee

FiveThirtyEight projection: 3 in 4 chance the Republican, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, beats former Gov. Phil Bredesen to win

Holmes (R):

The electorate just isn’t the same as it used to be — it’s not in an elder-statesman mood. It’s in a change, drain-the-swamp, fight, represent-us type mood, and it’s just tough for guys like Bredesen who are in the middle of an electorate where there is no middle.

Passalacqua (D):

This is very much a pure toss-up, it’s incredibly competitive. Gov. Bredesen has run a race that’s solely focused on Tennessee. “Forget the noise, let’s talk about Tennessee.” In every one of his ads, in the events he holds, he’s applying for the job, and that’s really refreshing at a time when you’re overwhelmed by the punditry on television.

Texas

FiveThirtyEight projection: 4 in 5 chance the Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz, beats U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke to win re-election

Holmes (R):

I think Beto is a hell of a political celebrity, and if you’re running an underdog race in 2018, he’s laid out a perfect blueprint for how to get attention, how to raise money, how to become a national superstar. But I don’t think he’s given us a blueprint to win a red state. We’re living in an age of political celebrity, and there’s no question he’s become that, but in terms of putting votes in a box, he’s got positions that are far, far outside the mainstream of Texas.

Passalacqua (D):

I don’t know if there’s anyone who’s run up as many miles on a car driving around a state the size of Texas as he has. This comes back to something that we’ve seen is so important in all these states: Who’s showing up, and who’s listening? I think something has been a little shortchanged about Beto: He is putting in the work. I think this is going to be a high-turnout election, and I think that’s good. When more people vote, that’s good.

[lindawfowler101010]

Republican & Tea Party Racism: Facts & Myths

 The Democratic Party's Historical Racism The Republican Party begins pandering to Racism Richard Nixon & the Southern Strategy Ronald Regan panders to Racism Was Martin Luther King Jr a Republican?

Does the Social Safety net hurt minorities? Wealth Disparity Across Nations The small-government agenda of the party of racists The Free Market and Segregation Republican & Tea Party Sentiment

Updates:

RNC Attendees taunt and disrespect Puerto Rican woman

RNC Attendees Threw Nuts At Black CNN Camerawoman, Said 'This Is How We Feed Animals'

Mitt Romney's awkward “free stuff” comment regarding the NAACP

Racist Google searches highest in areas where Obama did poorly in 2008.

Cliven Bundy's racist remarks

The 2014 events with rancher Cliven Bundy and his refusal to remove his cattle from federal lands has reinvigorated the federal authority/state's rights debate. Recent “racist” remarks from Bundy have created a controversy.

Are Republicans Racist?

Most people who vote Republican no doubt vote out of belief that the Republican Party is the right choice (or at least preferable to Democratic Party).  And racist sentiments likely have absolutely no bearing on their decisions.  However, it is well established that the Republican Party began catering to racist sentiments in the late 1960's using tactics that still appear to be in practice (more on this below).  What's more: there certainly appears to still exist a racist Republican voting bloc, and this is largely displayed in the electoral map, where the south came to be dominated by the Republican Party as the aforementioned tactics came into play.

Republican/GOP Racism: The History

Something that's rarely mentioned is how the voting power of the modern Republican party is largely grounded in racist sentiments that grew out of racist disfavor toward:

A Democratic administration who passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964

A subsequent switch of African Americans who began voting Democrat due to policy changes in Republican circles intended to gain the 'anti-black' vote.

The Democratic Party's Historical Racism

It's no secret that historically, it had been the Democratic Party who had catered to racist sentiment.  Abraham Lincoln was himself a Republican  (as Republicans happily point out).  Martin Luther King was also a Republican in his day.  But what people generally overlook is this: After 1964, when the Civil Rights Act passed under a Democratic administration, America's racists switched to the Republican Party.  The history of the electoral map makes this quite clear.  http://www.270towin.com/

After the Act passed, the electorate in the south went to the Republican party.  The only exceptions to this are in 1968 when the South actually voted for George Wallace (who ran as an American Independent; a party that had very pro-segregation views) and Jimmy Carter, an evangelist from the South who unlike future Democrats, would have the backing of popular evangelists.  You can see the voting trends for yourself below.

Click to Enlarge

In other words, the Democratic party indeed used to be the party of racists, but this changed after 1964.  Those who attempt to tie the Democratic party to racism rely well into the past in order to claim that the Democratic party is the party of racism.

Not surprisingly, black Americans have tended to vote for Democratic presidents, with Ronald Reagan and George W Bush making minor inroads with black voters.

The Republican Party begins pandering to Racism As African Americans begin turning more and more Democrat, and the Democratic Party becomes more African American-friendly, and the Republican Party begins pandering to disillusioned racists who now switch party affiliation.  There exists no shortage of examples on this. Richard Nixon and the Southern Strategy

According Kevin Phillips, Richard Nixon's strategist at the time;

From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that… but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

From Lee Atwater, also a Republican political strategist;

You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nxxxxr, nxxxxr, nxxxxr.” By 1968 you can't say “nxxxxr”-that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes,and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me-because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nxxxxr, nxxxxr“.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

So much for subtlety!  Of course, unlike former Republican strategists, Republican politicians would proceed with caution, using the coded guise of “smaller federal government” to pander to those who despised the federal government's enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Ronald Reagan provides a perfect example.

“But it's the Democrats who supported the KKK”

In an attempt to ignore the eventual “party switch” on the topic of racism, some argue that it's the Democrats who supported the KKK(a recent PragerU video makes this case). This is true, but again it ignore the fact that in the mid-late 1960's, it would become southern Republicans who supported racist sentiments, and the Democratic party would move away from such support.

Ronald Regan pandering to Civil Rights Act Opposition

Just after the 1980 GOP convention, Ronald Reagan visited Philadelphia, MS, where sixteen years earlier, three civil rights activists were murdered. Reagan explained his support for states' rights, a rallying cry for racists opposed to civil rights laws.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan described The Voting Rights Act of 1965 as “humiliating to the South” in his open opposition to the act. http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Ronald_Reagan_Civil_Rights.htm

According to Bill Moyers, Lyndon B Johnson soon after made the following prescient observation: “we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.” http://presidentialrecordings.rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/essays?series=CivilRights

“But Martin Luther King was Republican!”

Republicans often cite the fact that MLK was Republican. While true, this avoids the simple fact that the political turning point happened in 1964.  It should be no surprise that MLK was Republican throughout his life.

Below is a video of Martin Luther King speaking about social injustices and the need for a radical redistribution of economic power (read more about this here). This hardly sounds like something from the Republican Party of today.

It should also be noted that Martin Luther King Sr, who had been a lifelong Republican, helped Jimmy Carter get nominated as the Democratic candidate for President in the 1976 election.

Last but not least, it should be noted, that the Drum Major Institute, founded by Harry Wachtel (and adviser to MLK Jr) and later relaunched by Martin Luther King III after years of inactivity runs the website TheMiddleClass.org, which quite often rates Democrats higher than Republicans on their voting record's effects middle class.TheMiddleClass.org rates Senators and House Reps on their voting records in regards to matters like public infrastructure, workplace & job creation, college tuition, and more. Does the Democratic Social Safety net “keep” minorities poor?

A common assertion made by Republicans is that it's the belief in a social safety net by the Democratic Party that keeps minorities depending on a social safety net instead of obtaining better self-sufficiency.   In order for this to be true, it either means that our social safety net some how keeps minorities from finding work (difficult to imagine since job placement assistance is one of the services offered) or that the existence of a social safety net leads minorities to choose assistance over seeking employment.  The latter seems a bit pessimistic and it can just as easily be said that dependence on any sort of government assistance is not something many of those users are proud of. Wealth Disparity Across Nations

One way to settle this is to look at the poverty data across countries to better understand poverty's relationship with our social safety net.  If a stronger social safety net somehow exacerbates or encourages perpetual poverty, the data certainly doesn't show this.  If anything, it's quite the opposite.  Not only is poverty worse here in the United States than our Industrialized counterparts with stronger social safety nets (in fact, it ranks closer to many developing nations in this area), but upward mobility is also lower.

Click to see full report (PDF)

 Some Republicans may object to this data, citing that the data pertains to poverty in general and not poverty specific to minorities.  However, it's difficult to claim that social safety nets encourage minorities to stay poor while their non-minority counterparts without coming off as a racist.  As Algernon Austin puts it in Three lessons about black poverty:

And consider crime. In 1992, blacks were arrested for 35 percent of all serious crimes.7 But even if you remove blacks entirely from the statistics, America still has the worst crime rate in the world, and by far! (It should also be emphasized that that these were 35 percent of all arrests; debate rages as to whether the police target blacks for arrest more than whites.)

The same generalization holds for all the statistics, but it is important to realize why minorities are not responsible for America's worse showing. And that is because society's most visible problems do not stem primarily from race; they stem from poverty. The poor, both white and black, share the same approximate rates of crime, welfare, teenage and single parenthood, substance abuse and other social problems. The rich, both white and black, share many of the same admired social qualities in the same general percentages. Race is only important in that discrimination against minorities has relegated a disproportionate number of them to poverty.

Read More:

Neighborhoods and the Black Mobility Gap (PDF)

A COMPARISON OF THE U.S. TO OTHER RICH NATIONS

Three lessons about black poverty

The small-government agenda of the party of racists

It's common-place to hear free market/smaller government/federalist advocates claim that allowing states (and not the federal government) to pass such acts as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would actually be better for society.  In fact, there appears to be a clear correlation between white supremacy and the free market/smaller government advocates.  Just as Reagan expressed opposition to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 citing anti-federal government sentiment, Ron Paul (quite popular among small-government advocates for his own small-government sentiment) cites the same reasoning for his opposition to The Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Ron Paul and His KKK, White Supremacist, and Neo-Nazi Supporters

The Odd Alliance Supporting Ron Paul

Ron Paul County Coordinator Is Ku Klux Klan Organizer

Ron Paul campaign keeps white supremacist money

White Supremacist Leader Insists Ron Paul Is Racist

Why Are White Supremacists So Attracted to Ron Paul?

Ron Paul: White Supremacist

A perfect example of why Ron Paul receives such a low score with The Middle Class webste is his consistent voting against measures which would help middle/lower income people/families, for example; Paycheck Fairness Act of 2008, Employee Free Choice Act of 2007, Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, etc (see entire list here).  These are measure which hurt people at the middle/lower end of the pay spectrum, and minorities are overrepresented here.  Note, I am not saying that Ron Paul himself necessarily votes this way for this reason, but rather, that there are those who would prefer to see minorities remain there would vote for him for those very reasons.

Click to Enlarge

  Myth: the Free Market would have weeded out Segregation

Another common myth repeated by many who oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (their stated reason being that it's unconstitutional and that it grants the Federal government too much power over our lives) is that the free market would have done a much better job of ending segregation.

This is no doubt true by today's standards.  Any restaurant that suddenly refused to serve minorities would result in an media frenzy which would lead to an outrage and boycotts that would likely end in bankruptcy for the restaurant.  The problem is: this was not the case in 1964.  In fact, under the ethos of 1964, barring African Americans from entering a restaurants would have been a wise business decision, given the number of white customers that restaurant would lose.  There would no doubt exist a niche for “black-friendly” restaurants that served African Americans and perhaps had a few “bleeding heart liberal hippy” (by the standards of 1964) white customers, but this would have been a limited market.  It took the size and scope of the Federal government to end this.

Since it's easy to overlook the progress that's been made over the last few decades and difficult to imagine an America where this was the ethos, let's take a look at the approval/disapproval of interracial marriages.  According to a Gallup poll, in 1958, 94% of Americans disapproved of interracial marriages and only 4% approved.  As of 2007 17% of Americans disapproved of interracial marriages and 77% approved.

   Even the 2007 numbers may seem a bit staggering.  But the same Gallup poll breaks these opinions down by age group.  The disapproval of interracial marriage is largely among older people in the US (who grew up under the pre-Civil Rights Act ethos).

What happens when we break these poll numbers down by geography and political affiliation?

Republicans are still less likely to approve of interracial marriage

The South lags in approval of interracial marriage

Tea Party Racism towards Obama?

While there are numerous of anecdotal examples of racism coming from Tea Party, this in of itself doesn't prove the entire movement is itself, racist.  So how about the Tea Party's claims that they are merely concerned with the size of government and taxes?  The problem with this is that studies have shown that the Tea Party is amazingly misinformed on both accounts. Oh, and it turns out that fifty-two percent of the Tea Party “believe too much has been made of the problems facing black people” compared to 28 of Americans overall.

Examples of Tea Party Ignorance on issues they are supposedly angry about

Read More:

The Misinformed Tea Party Movement

Ignorance Is Bliss for the Tea Party Crowd

New York Times poll reveals Tea Party ignorance, dishonesty and hypocrisy

Tea Party Supporters: Who They Are and What They Believe

GOP/Republican Congress Racism towards Obama?

While it's almost excusable that the Tea Party is highly misinformed regarding tax rates and the size of government (which they spend so much time railing against), no such excuse exists for Congressional Republicans.

“Obama is spending us into oblivion…”

Much like the Tea Party, Congressional Republicans were amazingly silent when George W Bush was president and cutting taxes, sending us into 2 wars, and virtually ever using his veto power.  In fact, many of the more outspoken Republicans in regards to our debt (like John Boehner and Paul Ryan were happily going along and voting along party lines for said spending.  What's more is Republicans voted 19 times to increase the debt-ceiling (which they later held the economic recovery hostage over).

The huge leap in government debt happens in fiscal year of 2009.  Tea Party members can be excused for not understanding that the 2009 fiscal year started on October of 2008 and hence, the spending for 2009 was largely decided months before Obama would be inaugurated on January 20, 2009 (though one must ask themselves why these people would spend so much time and energy railing against something they didn't bother Googling).  But for Congressional Republicans, such an excuse does not apply.

So given that all of the “reasoning” for the GOP's constant battling with Obama (leaving him so compromise heavily on virtually every issue) is demonstrably incorrect, and that these Congressional Republicans by default should know this (especially since they were the ones who passed much of the legislation that's led us to this point), one must ask what the “real” reason for this unprecedented political divide.  It's difficult to “prove” that Congressional Republicans are racist (or are merely answering to racist constituents) but their stated reasons for their opposition to Obama simply doesn't hold (and nor can they reasonably claim ignorance on these matters).

GOP policies are the reason for the ongoing debt/deficit issues

GOP Senators and debt ceiling increases

Read More:

George W. Bush, John Boehner, Spending

How Republican House Speaker Boehner Helped Grow the National Debt

Republican Leaders Voted for Debt Drivers They Blame on Obama

Does Paul Ryan's Record Match His Rhetoric?

During Bush Presidency, Current GOP Leaders Voted 19 Times To Increase Debt Limit By $4 Trillion

The GOP's One-Sided War on Dems

Dogwhistles are for sissies

 Anecdotal examples of Racism fueling Republican votes and Tea Party Sentiment

“Good American” Holds Racist Obama / Monkey Doll At Palin Rally

FOX News is Blind to GOP Racism

Rachel Maddow Calls Out the GOP on Their Overt Racism

Read More:

 Republican Racism

Republicans are Racist

The post Republican & Tea Party Racism: Facts & Myths appeared first on Fact and Myth.

[theliterateape]

American Shithole #2 — How Deep Is Our Shithole?

by Eric Wilson

Ugh, what a week already.

I have entertained adding the occasional silver lining/ray of sunshine to a column that could likely depress more often than elate. This would require a subheading. American Shithole: Turds of Wisdom, or American Shithole: Kernels of Truth, perhaps.

Or, American Shithole: I Just Can’t, Today.

If I do include any rose-tinted hangover editions, they will be few and far between, because this country is a hot mess on a lost weekend. America has tossed its keys in the sewage drain, taken its shirt off, and is wandering around a Walmart somewhere with one flip-flop on, looking for paint thinner.

What’s worse is that when we survive this administration, a lot of our issues will still be here. They were here long before too many of us got drunk on fear, populism and stupidity.

So I watched the State of the Union, and if you had happened to be listening from the next room, you would have been privy to cackles, expletives, and you might have even heard an eye-roll. The President did actually address a few of the following issues that ultimately he will do nothing about:

Our infrastructure is indeed collapsing, as it has been for decades. Our interstates and bridges are in dangerous disrepair. When the Eisenhower administration — a republican administration mind you — set in motion a tax plan requiring the wealthy to shoulder significant expense for new infrastructure, the plutocrats in response undermined middle-class and poor families for three generations; in what has become an ongoing effort to maintain a conservative voting bloc by pitting Americans against each other.

We haven’t adequately invested in infrastructure since.

Public schools have been shortchanged at every turn by the ruling class. It only requires a reporter to shove a microphone into the face of a Trump supporter for evidence of an undervalued education. Or, if you are feeling particularly courageous, a Jimmy Kimmel street interview.

The only true danger to any aristocracy has always been an educated and well-informed populace. We’ve had nearly three generations now of Americans voting against their own self-interests, and the dumbing-down of rural America in particular seems to be worsening.

Healthcare is a joke without a punchline. If keeping the citizenry ignorant isn’t sufficient, or if you can’t keep them all dumb enough, then keep them scared for their lives. Nothing works better — if scaring the shit out of people is your intent — than the indifferent bureaucracy of insurance companies and America’s special brand of super-capitalism strip-mining human misery for market value.

The real danger posed by Obamacare is that it offered hope to the hopeless. It is as if the healthcare available prior to the Affordable Care Act — basically unaffordable access to bottom-of-the-barrel health services, and the crippling debt that still somehow followed — was expected to be taken as a blessing, a kindness from our benevolent benefactors, and not an insidious effort to leverage struggling Americans into quiet submission.

Powerful people like the Koch brothers were very angry that the poor and needy of our country were able to taste the merest hint of true freedom that Universal Healthcare would provide.

This too is the ultimate function of student loans, where America stands again as an outlier, saddling our best and brightest young people with an albatross right out of the gate. The only purpose of these enormous debt burdens on our youth is to create leverage and fear.  

Speaking of scholastic environments, as of January 23rd we have had eleven school shootings this year. This year that started, this month. Eleven. That’s more than the rest of the western world’s countries combined. Let that sink in a moment — if anything can sink in amidst this ceaseless maelstrom of fear, greed, lies, horrific violence, and profound stupidity.

“Where’d you get your figures, Librul?”

We have access to data for school shootings worldwide, for one, because these atrocities rarely happen anywhere else — I am assuming this is because in non-shithole countries, the images of your own dead children in classrooms is so fucking horrific, people actually do something about it.

Or we could just keep flooding our communities with bump stocks and military-grade assault weaponry, because you know, freedom.

We are one of the only western countries where opioids are only available from a physician, and somehow unrelated, we are the only country suffering from a catastrophic opioid addiction crisis. A crippling death sentence that has no geographical, class or racial barriers has already shuffled a few of my favorite artists off this mortal coil. I guess that song I wrote for Tom Petty “Running Down a Fentanyl Prescription” will have to remain unrecorded gold.

The situation is already so toxic in some smaller communities that literally no family has been left unchallenged and unchanged. Why are rural communities hit hardest? Infrastructure, in part. Everything is connected.

Drug distributors that saturated this small West Virginia town with 20 million painkillers probably sleep like kittens.

Weaving like a drunk on a highway throughout this quagmire of poverty, ignorance, poor health, drug addiction and despair, we have our embarrassing legacy of racism and prejudice. Thriving, it seems, in the basements of weary mothers everywhere. Along with a disgusting resurgence of misogyny that I was not expecting either — certainly not from those significantly younger than I am. Throat-punching these mongoloid fucks should be considered civic duty.

And then we have men, some once-revered, that turned out to be rapists — that have in some cases, systematically abused power and position over the course of decades. If the situation were normal, I would probably take weeks to unpack how disappointed; disgusted I feel by Charlie Rose, and others I admired. Or even linger over the Schadenfreude I have experienced for shit-bags I never liked in the first place. I’m looking at you, Matt Lauer.

We just don’t have the time to reflect, not these days.

Ultimately, in Machiavellian fashion, moderating and doling out most of this misery we have the billionaires, whose lives are so far removed from anything remotely representing normal human existence, it begs the question: who are these greedy fucking assholes? In my opinion, billionaires are the real dead weight for humanity. Dead weight created in a soulless economic construct gone haywire.  

A report in Newsweek recently shared some numbers that I find most troubling for a group of people I already despise. If the billionaires of the world were to share just 1/7th of what they earned this past year — not the billions they already horde, just 15% or so of what they accumulated on top of that this year — extreme poverty and starvation would end.

Instead, the Koch brothers will invest more than they ever have before in an attempt to win 2018 elections for the republicans that they have already pocketed long ago. All just to stay as rich as possible. That is what this has always been about. This is about obscenely overvalued gluttons staying obscenely overvalued, no matter the human suffering.

We — and by “we” I mean those of us that are influenced by generosity and compassion, and some sense of fucking decency — must truly resist. We must find ways to rise above our own instincts as Americans; with our seemingly ingrained worship of the ultra-rich. Look, I don’t want to have to keep breaking it to you, but these guys are fucking assholes.

These (547 or so) comically overvalued and overpowered individuals aren’t all evil, but the damage done by the worst among them (Koch Brothers, Mercers, etc.) is incalculable. There is also the stifling effect of having that much value out of circulation; even if they weren’t guilty of tampering with American politics — creating the Tea Party, for example — their greed manifested is strangulating the pursuit of happiness for nearly everyone else.

On top of the heap we have Trump — dumbest, luckiest douchebag of them all. Faux billionaire, if there ever was one. The Giant Orange Idiot is nearly universally despised by friend and foe alike — with the notable exception of his base, that bastion of intelligence worried about brown people coming to take their dirt piles. Hey Cletus, no one is coming for your fucking shitty dirt pile in Bumblefuck Nowhere, U.S.A.

Trump also has the support of the evangelicals, who as I have stated, are one rung above the flat-earthers in problem-solving and critical thinking capabilities.   

If we continue down this path, the United States is in danger of becoming this century’s answer to Nazi Germany, or at least an oligarchical, nationalist, modern-day version of it. And if you think that’s bombastic, then I suggest you review your history books, and perhaps take another look around you right now. This hollowed-out husk of an American Dream — is ripe to turn dystopian nightmare — and that is something to which I hope we will not silently bear witness.

Before this starts reading like a manifesto, or a really painful civics report, I think it’s time to wrap this one up. What can I say? Being forced to watch Trump speak for 90 minutes makes me chatty. Or barfy. Yes, by Thursday’s posting, I am sure that the memo has already blown up.  Be strong my beautiful brothers and sisters. Find your line, and fucking hold it.

I would like to close with a pleasant thought that came to me a year ago now:

There will come a day, perhaps you’ll be on a date or spending the evening with a good friend, you’ll be enjoying a quiet exchange over a comforting meal, and the conversation will turn. One of you will inhale sharply and say, “wow, we haven’t heard that name in a while.”

A moment of silence may pass with reflection. You’ll both sigh, perhaps grin, and that grin might broaden into a smile.

I don’t know what year it’s going to be. I don’t know if I will live to see it, but the collective ‘we’ are going to have this moment. It’s going to be a magical moment.

I hope this thought brings you some comfort, my fellow Americans.

Stay tuned next week for American Shithole: Skid Marks of Justice?

[secretfuneagle]

2019 intrigues and cynicism: Nigerians beware

There are two kinds of cynicism currently making the rounds in Nigeria. The first and arguably the most dangerous, comes from politicians (those under the PDP banner in particular) who believe that Nigerians are so gullible, so easily manipulated that they would vote back into power a party that was plagued by unresolved corruption scandals for most of its 16 years at the helm of affairs. I was disappointed, during a conversation with some young people, to hear that the standard is so low that some people don’t seem to mind that those who propose to lead them have little to no integrity and have been alleged to steal from them. The PDP can afford to be cynical because it knows that a sizeable portion of the population still doesn’t quite understand how corruption impacts the economy. There is still no resolution to the allegation that during former President Jonathan’s tenure alone 55 individuals allegedly stole over N1.34 trillion. Imagine what $6.2 billion could have done for this country if properly applied. Would we have known recession? Would the naira have crashed the way it did if such huge sums had been invested in our economy rather than wasted? The PDP’s recently concluded national convention seemed so detached from reality, it appeared to have been advertising the successes of some other party, in some other country. How dare the PDP gloat, when for 16 years it was incapable of giving Nigerians power, roads, affordable housing, decent education, running water or any of the social amenities taken for granted in countries as small as Ghana or Benin Republic. All of those suspected looters who initially fled to London or other parts of the world, or who kept a low profile out of fear of Buhari, are increasingly gaining their confidence back. Former Presidents who failed woefully and who seemingly presided over some of the worst looting this country has ever seen, still have the gall to comment, when the court cases and investigations surrounding their tenures are too many to number. This cynicism, this belief that Nigerians’ often bemoaned short-term memory will soon take over, shows they take us all for fools. The second form of cynicism, which I believe is the most dangerous of all, is the hopelessness of the average Nigerian, encouraged by some segments of the media and their backers whom the status quo profits. Nigerians were able to vote out an unsatisfactory leader, yet, the promised change still seems far off: the temptation to give up on ourselves and our country is the psychological premise that permits our underdevelopment. Politicians take advantage of our apathy, we mustn’t allow it. Interestingly, a form of naiveté seems to exist in the APC, in parallel with the PDP’s cynicism. Some of President Buhari’s aides believe that his “popularity” is enough to secure his re-election. They don’t seem to realise or understand that Nigerians today are different. The 2015 election did something radical for the voters’ psyche: he saw that it was possible for an incumbent to lose an election. It would be a grave mistake for anyone to take the Nigerian voter for granted, even when he or she is provided with an incentive. In today’s Nigeria, voters have been known to say they will take the money and vote as their conscience dictates. Moreover, without a resolution to the scandals which have plagued some of his appointees, President Buhari will find it difficult to convince Nigerians about the sincerity of his fight against corruption: first impressions count. Neither does it help that high profile cases were either lost, dropped or remain pending. His lacklustre cabinet, many of whom haven’t shown the zeal to perform which Nigerians expected, is also a foremost issue. All of these facts have given the PDP the confidence to speak out in public again, even after so many of its top members have been indicted or named in one corruption case or the other. What a sad day for Nigeria when those who brought it to its knees are comfortable enough to act like all is forgotten. One has to wonder just how much President Buhari’s illness affected his time in office. Otherwise, nothing makes sense. His cabinet failed him. We can only but guess why or under whose influence they were chosen, and then the question of how a man of Buhari’s stature could be influenced to that extent comes up again. We are living in a political climate where very little makes sense. The impression that nothing is working, that everything is at a standstill has been allowed to fester, the momentum and the good will from 2015 is gone. Buhari allowed himself to be used by people who it seems just needed another political job or appointment. They didn’t mean well for him or this country, they only saw him as the next phase of their career. Amaechi recently told the government to stop blaming Jonathan, Okorocha has rated the APC performance as low;so many have acted as if they weren’t a part of the APC and didn’t have a means of making a difference if they so wished. The PDP claims it is expecting more “returnees”, more former PDP governors etc., Buhari banked on the fickle nature of politicians rather than investing in his relationship with Nigerians, which he could have done with the right team communicating his achievements and the right people leading his key ministries. How terrible for him and for Nigeria. Atiku recently said the APC is the “enemy of Nigeria”, and called on all governors who left PDP to return so they can “rebuild Nigeria”. But wasn’t that why they all claimed they left PDP in the first place, to “rebuild” the country? Most of our politicians have proven that their actions are not in our interest: their self-serving nature is second to none. Nigerians are hopefully wiser now, more discerning. We expected miracles from APC, we hoped for wonders to be accomplished in four short years: we wanted to reap where we did not sow. We gave in to euphoria rather than focus on the certainties of planning. We’ve always given up at the wrong times, supported or made excuses for the wrong people, defended evil because it affected someone else. Now we’re paying for it: our finances are strained, we’re struggling to fund our budgets. What did we choose to do as a nation when the price of oil was so high? Where is all that money now? I perfectly understand the impatience of the many who are poor or disenfranchised and to whom the origin of our current situation is mere semantics. But that is precisely the issue: the masses have been encouraged to treat discussions of our problems as “big grammar”, something above their heads. We have little or no social activists capable of explaining why the fight against corruption is so important to our national life. When the poor were getting poorer because social services were collapsing and huge sums were leaving our economy, the middle classes looked away. We only began to care when we too were affected and the rich began to hoard their benefits and the poor were so ignorant of their rights that our leaders got away with murder. Nigerians are rightfully angry but let’s not succumb, yet again, to cynicism and manipulation. Population growth The Federal Government raised the alarm over Nigeria’s population growth which begs the question. What do we have to offer all these people? It isn’t enough to tell young people that they are the key to a corruption-free Nigeria: What sort of future is on offer? Without answers, people will keep migrating or committing all sorts of crimes. Abacha loot It’s tragic that the World Bank and the Swiss government believe that without supervising Nigeria’s use of the funds, they will be looted again. How did we allow ourselves, over the years, to be taken over by mediocre leadership? How were we bribed into silence? via Blogger http://bit.ly/2ATrPlx

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Greece is the Model for Globalist Plunder

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In Greece, globalism has led to social and economic problems which have fueled the rise of ethnic nationalism.The rest of the West is soon to follow.

by Ash Brighton

While things are moving quickly in the United States, I’m keeping an eye on Greece. As someone who pays closer attention than Nigel Normie to what’s happening in the world, you probably recall the economic turmoil in Greece and the protests surrounding it a few years ago. Since then the media hasn’t paid much attention to what’s happening there. Greece is important to our movement for two reasons: it’s ahead of Western political trends, and its current economic woes reveal the agenda and mechanisms of the globalist elite.

First, let’s have a crash course on the relevant portions of recent Greek history. Greece came out of a military dictatorship in the early 1970s, and the government re-formed as a parliamentary democracy. While there has always been a multiparty system in place, for decades there were two major parties swapping power: PASOK, a soft-socialist party and New Democracy, analogous in economic policy to the Democrat Party of the United States in the 90s and early 2000s.

The socialist years saw massive growth in the public sector. Public sector workers enjoyed lavish benefits such as twice-yearly bonuses, guaranteed annual raises, and pensions that, in some cases, could be inherited. This led to a social dynamic of most citizens aspiring to work in government and thus share in the abundance and “easy life,” while those remaining in the private sector found it incredibly difficult to navigate the bloated, stubborn bureaucracy to get basic things accomplished. The most ambitious and talented Greeks tended to emigrate to other Western nations, work in professional fields, and then return to Greece to spend their middle-age and elderly years as pensioners with their families. Greece’s tourism-based economy made such a strategy viable for many decades, and it likely could have been sustained were it not for the massive make-work government jobs system also in place.

Meanwhile, the 80s saw the return of the doctrinal Communist Party, “KKE,” and the overt nationalist party “Golden Dawn.” KKE made a splash in 1989 when it took 13% of the vote and joined the coalition government. Since then it has been relegated to an opposition party.  There were several other parties and sub-parties which rose and fell during that time. However, the public sector continued to grow, along with its massive financial obligations. This inertia carries to the present day, where hundreds of thousands of citizens who have built their lives around this public largesse continue to vote for the party which promises continuation of the benefits. This is a natural and predictable reaction, even if it’s ultimately based on an irrational notion in the face of financial reality.

Greece’s debt as a percentage of GDP crossed the 100% threshold in the early 90s, where it remained for about a decade before taking off again in the mid-2000s. In 2001, Greece joined the Eurozone, only to reveal a few years later that they had fudged their financial figures in order to enter the currency bloc. In the global recession of 2008, unemployment reached a historical low of around 5% before beginning a steady climb up to 25%. During this span, the debt-to-GDP ratio took a similar trajectory, leading to imposition of austerity measures by the European Union at the behest of Greece’s creditors.

A basic overview of Greece’s debt vs. GDP.

The austerity measures, which started in 2010, were initially mild, common-sense reforms. Salary increases for public workers were frozen and there were very limited cuts to a few other salaries. Nonessential work travel was halted and bonuses received 10% cuts. Protests started popping up immediately, as unemployment and other consequences of harsh economic conditions due to the global recession became widespread.

Unemployment numbers before and during the crisis.

In 2012, a new party named “Syriza,” best described as a radical-left party formed from a previously existing multi-party coalition, shot into power. A major part of its platform was reversal of the recently-imposed austerity measures, along with budgetary reforms to control the debt crisis. In 2015, Syriza took a majority of the votes and seats in parliament, as well as the office of the Prime Minister. Its logo features flags of three colors: green, purple, and red. The red stands for Marxist economics, the green represents environmental causes, and the purple is a nod to global social movements. The rise of Syriza was a major disruption to the Greek political dynamic, taking PASOK down to 4th place, halting the creeping resurgence of KKE, and leaving New Democracy and Golden Dawn as the other top 3 parties in the country by vote tally.

The leader of Syriza and current Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, is atypical for Greek leader. On top of being a lifelong Communist, he’s also an Atheist who broke Greek tradition by not baptizing his children or taking a religious oath of office in a country that has Orthodox Christianity as its official religion.

Subsequent austerity measures, however, became more severe and far-reaching. The Value-Added Tax (VAT) steadily rose from 4% to 24%. Additional taxes were levied on gasoline, vices like liquor and cigarettes, and phone and internet service. The income tax was increased, the minimum wage was decreased, and pension cuts took effect. A “temporary” property tax was imposed, and later doubled. As the measures grew more severe and living conditions of everyday Greeks were impacted, more people took to the streets. These were the “protests against austerity” which dominated the headlines. It’s worth mentioning that farmers, who got media attention for their creative protest actions, were hit especially hard. The property tax and VAT were a double-whammy, but they also had huge increases in taxes on very short notice, and had to pay the taxes in advance. Agriculture is a large part of the Greek production economy. These measures put many small farmers in a perilous situation.

In July 2015 Greece held a referendum on whether to accept more austerity. The Greek people voted “No” with the blessing of the ruling Syriza coalition. However, in a colossal political faux pas, this referendum was ultimately rebuffed by the members of the Greek Parliament, and more austerity packages were passed. The austerity bills culminated in the thirteenth package, a punishing set of measures that figuratively strip-mined the country of its assets. There are thousands of pages of legislation for this package, and I haven’t been able to find an acceptable translation, but Golden Dawn frontman Ilias Kasidiaris provided a good summary on the floor of the Greek Parliament:

By writing in special privileges and exemptions for members of parliament, foreign interests were able to pick at the scraps of Greece. Nothing was done to halt the exodus of the next generation of citizens or influence rock-bottom birth rates upward, leading to a present demographic calamity whose effects match or exceed that of a major war.

So that’s how Greece got to where it is today, and the situation isn’t any better than it was at the onset of the crisis. Greece is still carrying an unsustainable debt load that’s hardly eased. More bailouts are forthcoming, and now Greece must navigate this financial duress without the benefit of all its sold-off assets and a good portion of its talented youth, while contending with a crippling debt-payment regimen. Those youth who remain are facing unemployment numbers in the 30-40% range for their age groups. That same source shows that part-time employment has greatly increased, bringing unemployment numbers to the low-20% range, disguising a grim employment situation that is otherwise presented as a “turnaround.”

Not among those suffering in the wake of the economic crisis were the migrants, who lived in relative comfort. In 2016 alone, Greece claimed to have spent over 600 million euros on handling migrants. The actual figure is likely much higher. The migrants lived in relative comfort, while Greeks were putting their own children into orphanages in order to feed them, not getting paid for over six months, and abandoning their properties because of their inability to pay newly-imposed taxes.

The streets of downtown Athens are covered in Communist and Antifa graffiti (take a street view tour and see for yourself). The huge black market which has sprung up in response to the massive tax increases is dominated by foreign ethnic gangs each controlling its own sector. The few well-connected members of the Greek elite, who can make end-runs around the bureaucracy via bribery and personal favors, will manage fine from their many properties in the tourism economy. The members of the working and former middle class, not so much. In essence, the Greek people have been dispossessed and stripped of any power to resolve their financial situation via the sacrosanct democratic process. The most-talented of their youth can easily seek opportunities elsewhere in the EU or in other Western nations. Their elected parties have completely betrayed their promises and done nothing to alleviate the suffering or provide a feasible way out of the crisis. Greece’s means of production have been seized, not by the Greek state but by foreign governments and thousands of anonymous shareholders of international corporations.

Over a million migrants have passed through Greece on their way to Northern Europe, but tens of thousands have remained in addition to the hundreds of thousands of migrants from Albania, Turkey and other countries who were already residing in Greece decades prior to the migrant waves of 2015. These new migrant residents will provide an additional financial burden to a nation which already is staring into a financial abyss. The children of those migrants are now being introduced into the Greek public school system, which has been a source of national pride for generations. These schools will of course have to lower their high standards to accommodate these students, as has been seen countless times in American schools.

In short, everything about Greek life and Greece itself has changed in less than a decade. A generation from now, if things are left to the democratic process, Greece will be a land of alienated, impoverished people. Those who work will do so to fulfill Greece’s new raison d’etre: making massive interest payments to the nation’s various creditors.

But the tragedy currently playing out in Greece is merely the first step in a larger plan. Ill-advised, frivolous government spending led to an untenable debt situation, which has been leveraged in tandem with manipulation of the political process to rapidly plunder a country and leave its people with no hope for the future and no recourse against the demands of the globalist machine. Understand this, and what happens to other European countries in the coming years will be much easier to follow. Portugal, Spain, and Italy are on similar trajectories. It’s only a matter of time before the formula is applied to them as well. France and Sweden are close behind.

That’s not to say there’s no hope for Greece. For Greece to regain its sovereignty, it will likely require bold action by Greek patriots working on many fronts both inside and outside of the democratic process.  Golden Dawn hopes to gain on Syriza’s flagging momentum, but they will have to contend with a hostile media, pensioners who desperately want to maintain the status quo, and the remaining establishment party, New Democracy. Every once in a while, check in on Golden Dawn. There’s a lot to learn from their long, hard road to being one of the most powerful nationalist parties in Europe. Their struggle is ultimately ours.

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General Election 3: British Culture is the Problem

1. The Dark Side

One thing for certain about the upcoming General Election on 8 June is that for once we the voters have a choice.  While our piss-weak press went batty over the Labour Party manifesto even before it was released, the rest of us have the chance to see what a real political alternative looks like.  The present state of affairs that produces no improvement for the majority will be provided by electing Teresa May’s government into power.  

The Conservative election campaign is the epitome of the empty rhetoric of modern politics, all about appearance and no depth.  They have no real policies, no costing for their policies (because they do not believe there is a need to) and the few they have show contempt for the public. They stay ‘on message’, one of the most loaded phases in politics, that basically means repeat the same thing until people believe it (where did I read about that being effective?).

Instead of meeting anyone or debating anyone, Theresa May is toured around rooms full of supporters while drooling on about being strong and stable, making personal attacks and nothing else against the leader of the opposition and claiming Europe is out to get her.  The Conservatives are so desperate to keep money on side (their only real god) that they have even screwed over pensioners; the group most likely to vote Conservative.  There are a few reasons for doing this, but chief among them is outright disrespect for the people affected by their policy and arrogance that they can get away with it.

But we must face the fact the Tories believe they can get away with it because of our inaction.

The Labour Party have put forward a progressive and people-centred manifesto that seeks to bring equality to the country and address the severe damage done to many people’s lives by the Conservative austerity rule since 2010.  Many of the policies have been drawn up based on results from polls and public opinion, particularly the re-nationalisation of the railways, water and Royal Mail.

However, there is a rather familiar echo coming from many places that said these policies are what they want.  You have probably heard it, may have even said it; ‘I like the policies/ideas/whatever, but do not like Jeremy Corbyn’ for some unspecified reason; or ‘well there are some good ideas but can they really make it happen?’ or the truly repulsive ‘I don’t want to rock the boat/am too old to change’, etc.  

Most of these people I talk to also say they do not like Theresa May (and never mention Tim Fallon) but still have this almost in-built fear of change, of taking control of their own lives.  There seems to be a lack of understanding about what is actually on the line here.

Let me say this again; Mr Corbyn is willing to give people what they say they want, such as improvements to wages, saving the NHS and putting railways back into public ownership. What most of us often say we want. Now, do you really want these things?

Public of Britain – can you handle a real choice?  

I am afraid you may not be able to.  Years of conditioning and refusal to step out of your comfort zone means when you actually get the option you want, when the time comes to step up and make that choice, you back down.  Let us be honest, many of you are perfectly comfortable.  The middle class in particular have achieved the golden throne of ‘comfortable’.  You are comfortable in deterioration; comfortable in defeat and comfortable so long as no one comes and attacks you directly. You were scared by the financial crisis and surface-level disgusted at the way neo-liberalism-loving banks and their irresponsible staff were bailed out and never faced justice but now…well, everything seems alright again really and we do not want to upset business as some of them may leave and take their great jobs with them – so let’s just go back to being quiet.

Many working class people are just about comfortable too (although far less securely).  All of you however have never been good at coping with change, even when you had a backbone.  The economic changes of thirty years ago usually hit you the worse, but even the idea of ditching an economic system that turns you into little more than slaves is too much to imagine now.

I believe this is the result of a few things but the main one is the internalisation of the class war of the last thirty years.  It has made people weak, reactionary and prone to think too little of themselves and often overtly hateful to others.  You are not willing to stand up or stand out and hate anyone who does.  You people care more about your fucking flag than you do about the future for your children and grandchildren.  My greatest fear is this is the dominant way of thinking in our national psyche.

‘There is a battle of narratives. The working-class narrative is being erased. And as you erase that narrative, you erase truths with it.’ – Mark Thomas

My dad once told me a story about growing up in Camberwell.  He would listen to the adults around him complaining about the Conservative government of the time.  However, when election time came around, they voted Conservative.  ‘Well’ they would respond when dad asked why; ‘they know what they are doing’.  Although it was common during David Cameron’s government to agree that the lack of diversity of his cabinet – privately educated, posh background, never having a real job – was not good for government, it seems in practice many people think this set up is fine, because after all, they know what they are doing. They are well educated unlike us and have run businesses probably and were raised for this position.  The arrogance of their class is not something that really bothers you; if anything it provides a certain sort of security.

These are the elites that you say you hate, right?

No, since Brexit and perhaps before, it is the likes of me that are elitist.  With my aspiration for education and wanting to bring equality of opportunity to all.  Never mind all the shit jobs I have done through my life and the position I am in now; no, I am that London Liberal Falafel Elite.  Not them, who have thrived from the misery they inflict on so many, which they can do because we do not stand up to them.

They made you powerless; so now you want to make me powerless.

The present culture is one of receiving whatever is thrown at us and considering ourselves lucky for some reason.  I am not and never will be ‘lucky’ to have a job.  That is the thinking of the weak and defeated; the malleable and easily-controlled.  We give these people their money and their power; we generate that which they love and hold over us.  We owe them nothing.

There is a lack of hope because people do not want hope.  They are secure in defeat.  They do not want four more Bank Holidays because they do not think they deserve them. They do not want their children to get better access to education because they do not deserve it.  They do not want equality because too many of them fear it will take away what little they have (although they have far more than they admit) and no matter how big and tough the average bloke is, he will not take on his boss because at heart he is a coward.

Never mind who stands for election on what platform – if we do not address this cultural failure, we will never move forward.

We need to cut out this pretence of politeness that people are so obsessed with.  This is not to advocate being unkind to each other on public transport or in the street; or to people serving you food or similar services; but when it comes to politics, do not judge someone’s argument on criteria like dismissing them if they swear or get passionate.  Knowledge is something to care about.

The political elite have a horrible middle class notion of being polite to each other and many of us follow that without thinking. The problem with this is that ultimately it is an empty politeness that prevents anything worthwhile taking place.

We need to tell people when they are wrong and tell toxic people their opinions do not matter to us, then move on and leave them in the dust.  We can start with the anti-PC Brigade; consisting of the professionally insulted and screaming bigots who cannot cope with a world where women have opinions and gays have sex.

Many of these right-wing wing nuts would use language against us as a wind up; words like ‘snowflake’ to describe someone upset by the latest bigotry bile; or ‘triggered’ to someone who responds to suggestions Muslims should be put in camps or whatever. Strangely though, it is much easier to trigger a anti-PC bitch than it is anyone else – try saying Happy Holidays at Christmas time, or having an egg hunt at Easter.  Witness the latest antics of Kelvin McKenzie; who perhaps epitomises the inability to ‘get over it’ no matter how well you are doing. For a bunch of people ‘winning’, they act rather like the opposite. Permanently pissed off because they know that the fundamental parts of the culture war have been lost and they will never get it back.

These commentators and social media parasites have no such qualms of politeness towards the rest of us. They will attack anyone to the left of Genghis Khan, harass LGBT people in some cases to their suicide, plus just straight-up attack people (especially Jeremy Corbyn) on purely personal grounds. The overt Islamaphobia that comes from these quarters, with anti-Antisemitism usually not far behind, must cease to be as tolerated as it presently is within the mainstream.  These people often hide behind legitimate concerns and campaigns such as against FGM, but their reasons are nothing to do with concern for young girls being brutalised; they just hate Muslims and ‘outsiders’ and always have.

Their argument is not about political correctness or the attacking of any non-existent ‘indigenous’ culture; this is about rejecting equality.  These are the same people who have always hated the alternative, women, ethnic minorities or anyone not male, pale and stale like them.  Anti-PCers do not know how to co-exist and do not want to learn.  They will always hate anyone who does not agree with them and their out-of-date and fact-less view of the world.  They are the ones with integration problems.

The Conservatives have done and will continue to do horrible and destructive things to the people of this country and internationally and not only will I not accepts this, I will never forgive them for it.  I see no reason to be compelled to be polite when dealing with them or their supporters, even around a family dinner table.  If you vote for something, the result is partly your responsibility and you will be held to account.  

You cannot hide like your incompetent and careless leader Mrs May.

It is time to strike back and stop taking this shit.  If you are not my politics, you are not my friend.  We may be able to hold a conversation or even have the odd cup of tea together but the present political climate and the people who put us here are unacceptable to me and we will never bridge that gap.

I feel this way for one reason above all else – because the chummy nature of so much politics and culture clash shows me that you do not really have any skin in this game.  

Divisions between our political beliefs are good, they should be embraced.  For how can we evolve when being held back by the weak and jealous?  The Anti-PC Brigade are not just your enemy, they are modern Britain’s enemy and they must be crushed.  This should be a fundamental to our understanding of the world we live in and must navigate through every day.  But we do not.

How did we get to this point?  

The prevailing influence in British or certainly English culture is one of hopelessness.  Defeat and hating anyone, including within your own family, who even look for a second like they may do ‘better’ than you is more common than we might like to admit.  This in a genuine politics of resentment, not a fake Tory-defined one

Many people have drunk the toxic cocktail of hopelessness mixed with nihilism and a life-stripping horror that makes sure defeat is inevitable before you start.  This poison must be destroyed, or there simply cannot be any advancement for people, young or otherwise, in Britain.

The only antidote I can see is Labour Manifesto.

I hope we can turn this around but it may be too late to really change this downward spiral of self-destruction.  I hope for many things.  I hope because I can; because hope is a choice. You have it too.