#daniel friend

[tomorrowusa]

Jimmy Carter's emphasis on human rights contributed to the fall of the Soviet empire.

President Carter had an almost instantaneous effect on human rights in Latin America when he became president. The Nixon-Kissinger policy of officially propping up dictators was replaced with one of supporting democracies. A majority of Latin American countries in 1976 were authoritarian. Within a decade, a majority were democratic or at least democratizing.

The Carter human rights policy had a more subversively indirect effect on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Historian and journalist Kai Bird said this at Washington Monthly:

He put human rights, that principle, as a keystone of U.S. foreign policy, and none of his successors have been able to walk back from that or ignore it completely. They’ve talked about some of the hypocrisy and impracticality of the policy, but you can’t ignore it. I make this argument in my biography, that human rights, the talk about human rights, and the focus on dissidents in the Soviet Union, and in Czechoslovakia, and Poland—all of that did much more to weaken the Soviet empire in eastern Europe than anything Ronald Reagan did by increasing the defense budget or threatening Star Wars. The Soviet Union was a weak adversary, not a strong adversary. It was falling apart, and along comes Carter, talking about human rights, and as Jon has said, ideas are powerful, and this idea remains powerful, and it really contributed monumentally to the falling of the Berlin Wall and people seizing power in the streets, and wanting to have personal freedom. That, in part, can be attributed to Jimmy Carter.

Michael Hirsh of the journal Foreign Policy (archived) was more emphatic.

Perhaps the least understood dimension of Carter’s much-maligned, one-term presidency was that he dramatically changed the nature of the Cold War, setting the stage for the Soviet Union’s ultimate collapse. Carter did this with a tough but deft combination of soft and hard power. On one hand, he opened the door to Reagan’s delegitimization of the Soviet system by focusing on human rights; on the other hand, Carter aggressively funded new high-tech weapons that made Moscow realize it couldn’t compete with Washington, which in turn set off a panicky series of self-destructive moves under the final Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. [ ... ] Although he was mocked for being naive at the time, it was in large part thanks to Carter and his more hawkish national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, that human rights issues later came to the fore inside the Eastern Bloc, acting like a gradually rising flood that eroded the foundations of Moscow’s power. Helped along by the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which authorized “Helsinki monitoring groups” in Eastern­ Bloc countries (perhaps most famously with Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, which set the human rights movement in motion with a 1977 petition), these newly formed dissident groups during the 1980s undermined the legitimacy of Warsaw Pact communist satellites—and thus the Soviet bloc—from within.

Daniel Friend, former US ambassador to Poland, has this to add at the Atlantic Council.

An implicit axiom of President Richard Nixon’s détente was that the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, marked by the imposition of the Iron Curtain, was a sad but by then immutable fact. Official Washington and most of US academia regarded the Soviet Bloc­­—communist-dominated Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea east of West Germany—as permanent and, though this was seldom made explicit, stabilizing. Talk of “liberating” those countries was regarded as illusion, delusion, or cant. Maintaining US-Soviet stability, under this view of Cold War realism, required accepting Europe’s realities, as these were then seen. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Final Act of Helsinki, a sort of codification of détente concluded under President Gerald Ford, did include general human rights language, and this turned out to be important. [ ... ] Carter’s shift toward human rights challenged this uber-realist consensus. It came just as democratic dissidents and workers’ movements inspired by them began to gather strength in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Poland. Carter, and his national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, put the United States in a better position to reach out to these movements and to work with them when communist rule began to falter as Soviet Bloc communist regimes started running past their ability to borrow money on easy “détente terms,” making them vulnerable. More broadly, by elevating human rights in the mix of US-Soviet and US-Soviet Bloc relations, Carter put the United States on offense in the Cold War and on the side of the people of the region.

President Carter's human rights policy was also popular among Americans of Eastern European descent.

[red-and-white-and-black-and-gold]

SORT MEEEEEE

Tea party! But also hug and trust you with my life. This is more impulsive than I typically am, as I haven’t known you very long and don’t know you super well, but idk you seem trustworthy 😋

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

[userarmand]

dubai trio + cunty glasses

[secretdazedragon]

[cloudabserk]

i watched the season 2 finale ! congrats on the divorce louis <3

[if-i-look-straight-look-again]

Daniel Molloy, 70 year old baby vampire: you know what would piss off both Louis and Armand and be very funny simultaneously?

Lestat de Lioncourt, queen of drama and biggest bitch in any room he walks into: what?

Daniel: if you and I fucked.

Lestat:

Lestat: tell me more.

[bisexualvampires]

“so did the vampire get the job?” actually the interviewer got the vampirism. yeah. yeah he’s having gay vampire sex and everything

[demonphannie]

[demonic0angel]

DC X DP: the Flash family keep messing with time travel. Clockwork keeps making the Phantom family fix time related problems. These two facts mean that whenever a Phantom sees a Flash, they immediately start throwing hands.

Part 2

Part 3

Bart was crossing the living room quickly when Dani spotted him. In an instant, she transformed and flew across the room to tackle him with a shriek. They both landed on the floor and then they were wrestling like a pair of tantrum-throwing toddlers. Thankfully, neither of them was out to kill, but Cassie stared at them in exasperation.

"C'mon, you guys, again? It's only 8 AM."

Kon flew into the room, pausing at the sight of Dani and Bart fighting on the floor. He had Tim slung over his shoulder as he slowly drifted back to the ground.

"Uhh... are they fighting again?"

Cassie nodded, chewing on her breakfast.

Kon sighed, dumping Tim onto a chair. Tim was snoring and with him still sleeping, Cassie gently placed a piece of waffle into his open mouth with a smirk.

Kon shook his head as he put his hands on his hips. "Why are they always doing this?"

"Something about time travel, missions, and rivalry? And the speed force?" Cassie answered.

Tim sat up, chewed on the piece of waffle that Cassie had put into his mouth, and then mumbled, "It's because when the Flash family use their speed force powers, they mess with the timeline and the Phantoms have to go fix it. It's happened so often that now there's an attack-on-sight for any of the Flash family."

Kon blinked. The other two were still fighting and it seemed as though Dani was winning because she was choking Bart with her elbow.

Everyone ignored it.

"Wait, how do you know about it?" Kon asked.

Tim reached for Cassie's plate for a piece of egg. "Her brother keeps attacking Wally every time they see each other when they visit Dick."

[soft-and-neat]

i can’t believe it’s been over fifteen years since actual y/n daniel howell got sold to his favourite youtuber by his mom on his 18th birthday

[danielsarmand]

honestly i feel for daniel in episode five because he had to stare at louis sucking on armand's neck for ten minutes straight. but i also feel for eric, the actor, the man who once said the biting is the hottest thing about vampires, who had to stare at jacob sucking on assad's neck for ten minutes straight,

[lgbtiwtv]

god it’s just like. what if your guardian angel was actually real and a vampire and he almost killed you but he saw your spark and your pain and himself in it and your beautiful messy human potential and he looked you in the eyes and he put the same hand he grabbed you with on your shoulder to comfort you and with the same mouth that almost drained you he said you matter. You matter. and you never even knew that the voice in your head was his all along. what if it saved your life more times than you can count. what if you’re finally in the position to return the favor. what then!!!!!

[saizun]

♥︎ᭂ‍ hello kitty and friends 𝜗𝜚 ࣪˖ ִ    

[eva-birdman]

I don't know why I bite

[bluerosefox]

Of Tiny Tots, Mistaken Identities, and Reunions

Seventeen year old Damian Wayne is dragged to a business deal outside of Gotham (along with his father and Drake), mostly to keep up appearances that the family does work outside of Gotham, networking, and because Damian does need to learn the ropes of the company, he decides to head outside the meeting with the Manson family to get a breather (mainly cause the Manson's were annoying him fully, it was like they were trying to suck up towards Damian and trying to push their daughter on him but at the same time he caught them almost insulting and hostile towards him before they would stop and correct themselves) when out of the blue a three year old toddler with black hair comes running over with a cheerful "Daddy!" and latches onto his leg.

Damian is stunned in place but feels frozen when he hears a voice, older and almost identical to his own but he can detect a familiarity in it, a voice he only hears in his dreams nowadays say.

"Ellie, no! That's not me Starlight! I'm so sorry dude-"

When Damian turned his head towards the voice he's meet with an near identical face, granted there were some minor differences, but very, very familiar pair of striking blue eyes staring at him. Eyes that were somehow full of life, which shouldn't be possible because the last time he saw those eyes they had been dim and milked over years ago. The speaker had become startled at the his sudden turn and the words that he had been saying had quickly died out when he too took in Damian's features.

"D...Damian?..." the name came out so soft and small that Damian almost didn't hear it but he did.

And before Damian could stop himself, he spoke a name he hadn't dared utter in years.

"Danyal."

His twin looked like he had just seen a ghost, and Damian was sure he looked the same. And given the last time they had last saw each other it was no wonder they both looked like death warmed over them for a moment.

After all... Damian had failed to protect his brother, Danyal al Ghul all those years ago on a botched mission.

His bother who... wasn't dead.

His brother who was looking like he wanted to run but was keeping himself rooted in his spot.

His brother whose eyes were glancing downwards and seemed so nervous.

His brother who knew the little girl, Ellie, still hugging his legs.

His brother who had... responded and corrected her mix up when she had called Damian 'Daddy.'

And oh, she's looking up at him and making grabby hands wanting to be picked up and she has Danyal's eyes and his nose and-

Oh... Damian.... Damian's an uncle it seems.

[ikiprian]

Clone’s Best Friend

“Cute dog!” the girl says. “What breed is he?”

“Uh,” blinks Kon. "Are you asking what breed Superdog is?"

“Uh, duh?”

Well. She’ll have to forgive him his stunned expression, ‘cause he doesn’t usually run into other dog walkers on this path. This is, of course, because “path” is used in the loosest sense, the one that connotates direction and not tread ground, and the “walk” bit is entirely inapplicable, with all of them currently flying one thousand feet above sea level.

“Cujo’s a rescue,” she continues, swinging her feet in the sky, “so we don’t know for sure, but my sister thinks part husky, part shar pei. Half-and-half, like me!”

Cujo is also, apparently, half green and half glowing. He wiggles happily in a play-bow. It’s very cute, except for the way he’s the size of a small house.

Krypto’s tough, though. He barks and chases his new friend through cloud cover. Gamely, Cujo flees. They frolic in the chilly condensation, occasionally poking a head out before diving back in, like a fox in a snowdrift.

Neither of them see anything surprising about this. It’s all good fun. And, well. Krypto’s always been a good judge of character.

Kon turns back to the girl and gives her a megawatt smile.

“He’s Kryptonian. Like me. But he looks like a white lab!”