#don’t make america hungary

[lenbryant]

Never heard of their platform, but kudos for doing the right thing.

Pucker is a Communist Spin Whore.

[doromoni]

Not Over the Papaya | OP81

⊹ ｡•┈꒰ა ♡ ໒꒱┈• ｡ﾟ

Ships : Oscar Piastri x Popstar! Reader , Ex!Lando Norris x Popstar! Reader

Genre : Fluff Smau

A/N : I missed you all 🥺. Again I’m sorry this update took way too long~ Thank you for the people who wished me better (really, ily) . I’m devastated with the news about Logan 😭 poor boy just needed his confidence back I swear.

Face claim : Jennie Kim

Warnings : Cursing, Grammatical Errors

Summary : Y/N and Oscar cope with their own breakups by making the Heartbreak Club.

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

< Previous | Part 8 | Next >

f1wags

f1wags Y/N in the paddock! Welcome back Queen 👑

user1 She’s finally here 😭 We missed you Y/N!!

user2 She’s literally glowing , Oscar’s so lucky!

user3 Are they dating? I thought she was with Lando??

user4 Girl were where you? A LOT has gone down 🙂‍↕️.

user5 Honey let me catch u up. Lando cheated on Y/N with her friend during the winter break. Lando then posted a breakup post stating that the breakup was on both sides and they parted on good terms which Y/N has denied (it was MESSY). Then Oscar and Lily was rumored to have split (they did, Oscar later posted a shady breakup post; Lily was allegedly cheating). Then Y/N and Oscar started hanging out (sometimes with Logan). + After Oscar’s win in Hungary — He was then spotted in America for Y/N’s show the day after. Then they were spotted several times together after and they are now allegedly dating (not yet confirmed).

user3 WHAT.

user4 MESSY RIGHT?!!

user3 Is Lando still with Y/N’s friend??

user5 She’s also in the paddock rn 🤡

user3 wtf?? the audacity??

user6 lando FUMBLED so bad. SO BAD.

user7 Literally not thinking straight. I swear Lando.

oscarpiastri 5 min

story replies

Y/N. I guess soft launches aren’t our thing , Ok understood 🙂‍↕️

oscarpiastri Its not launching if we aren’t officially a thing yet, dear 🫶

Y/N. Oh right!! were only friends babe 🥰

oscarpiastri best of friends, Luv 😘.

Y/N. Ur so annoying , I love you 🙄. Have fun w/ ur interviews

oscarpiastri Thanks dear, Love you more!

charles_leclerc is this a hard launch 👀

oscarpiastri I don’t know, is it??😇

charles_leclerc don’t be smart with me boy . I didnt raise you like this

oscarpiastri you didn’t raise me at all! you were too busy flirting with the dutch boi .

charles_leclerc I—

oscarpiastri you are silenced old man

danielricciardo oi seat stealer, please tell Y/N to answer my messages. She keeps inboxing my messages! I need my cowboy hats 😩

oscarpiastri i prefer to call myself a mental health saver. I guided you back to Red Bull 🤓☝️

danielricciardo And got me my contract money 🤑. Back to the topic! come on pls tell Y/N! she promised me a cowboy hat from florida. pls pls pls

oscarpiastri Its in our luggage, calm down.

danielricciardo Damn “OUR” luggage. I still can’t believe you pulled Y/N from him. Cheers to you mate

oscarpiastri boi you still hold grudges with Lando huh.

danielricciardo him and the entire team can burnn 😀. Im saying this again, mate… watch your back.

oscarpiastri I know danny, you’ve warned me hundreds of times.

landonorris You little shit. You really brought Y/N here. You have the fucking balls huh

oscarpiastri I did, I do . What’s it to you?

landonorris You’ll regret this Oscar.

oscarpiastri Try me.

landonorris I’ll get her back.

oscarpiastri lmao sure you do.

Y/N. 3 min

story replies

oscarpiastri oh hello self! nice seeing you here

Y/N. He’s cute right? Such a pookie

oscarpiastri I’ve seen better 🤷‍♂️

Y/N. Really?? I haven’t. He’s the cutest to me 🥰🥰🥰

oscarpiastri So i assume that we’re ok with posting each other then 🫣

Y/N. Hell yeah! I ain’t hiding you boi. Ur mine.

oscarpiastri Possessive… i like it

Y/N. oh you’re FREAKY.

Y/bf. And Oscar has made the public ig 🥳

Y/N. I assume u approve of Osc then

Y/bf. Out of everyone you’ve dated he’s the most decent

Y/N. Decent 😖

Y/bf. That’s a COMPLIMENT

danielricciardo OI Y/N! don’t ignore my messages!

danielricciardo MY HAT WOMAN! MY HAT

Y/N. OK CHILL! I have it you crazy aussie. Osc will give it to you tomorrow before FP1.

danielricciardo Thank you 😇.

*Incoming call from Norris

Pick up or Decline

Pick up

“Hello?”

“We need to talk. Now”

“I didn’t unblock your number so you could disrespect me”

“I’m sorry… Can we talk in person?”

landonorris 1 min

*messages are disabled

Series Taglist : @champagneproblems17 @itsjustfranzi @cheriwritesig @forza-charles @awritingtree @sltwins @gr1mes-cc @hwalllllllelujah @btsfluffsworld @tillyt04 @landotd @booksandflowrs @czennieszn @thatsouthernblondewiththeass @tellybearryyyy @wobblymug @alittlechaotics-blog @bingussthirdtoe @mirrorball-6 @demandealalune @heartsforleclerc @yoongi-holland @maneskin-slave @alenix @forensicheart @bloodyymaryyy @stereading @hahahjej @youre-on-your-ownkid : closed

Maintaglist : @myescapefromthislife @peterholland04 @charlottef1 @fangirl125reader @mel164 @gnarlycore @chloelovesln4 @vickykazuya @merchelsea @ln4author @qzmef @nxk1309 @styl1shl1v @lottalove4evelyn @gr3yhues : closed for now

[girlactionfigure]

Worn and weary, balding, with sad eyes, Raoul Wallenberg looked much older than his 31 years of age when in 1944 he was assigned the responsibility of saving Jews in Hungary. The assignment came by way of the War Refugee Board, an American organization formed that same year with the goal of saving Jews from persecution by the Nazis.

Raoul, who had some Jewish lineage but was not considered Jewish, was born in Sweden to a prominent family of bankers, diplomats, and politicians. He was expected to follow in the footsteps of his family, but he decided to become an architect.

He went to study architecture in America, at the University of Michigan. During his time in college, Raoul worked odd jobs despite his family’s wealth, and hitchhiked across the US, Canada, and Mexico during holidays. He continued hitchhiking even after getting robbed and thrown into a ditch by four men who offered him a lift. In a letter to his grandfather, Raoul wrote of his love of hitchhiking, “When you travel like a hobo, everything’s different. You have to be on the alert the whole time. You’re in close contact with new people every day. Hitchhiking gives you training in diplomacy and tact.”

Raoul finished the University of Michigan with honors, even winning a medal for his scholastic achievements. Unable to find architecture work in Sweden after graduation, Raoul briefly lived in South Africa, soon moving to Palestine for a banking apprenticeship. It was in Palestine that Raoul first encountered Jewish refugees from Germany. The refugees made a strong impact on Raoul.

Upon returning to Sweden, Raoul went into the import/export business with a man of Hungarian Jewish decent. Once it became harder for his partner to travel to Hungary due to his being Jewish, Raoul started making the trips himself. He traveled frequently to Budapest, learned Hungarian in addition to his already knowing French, English, German, and Russian, and ultimately went on to head the international arm of the business, soon becoming a joint owner of the company.

In 1944 Germany occupied Hungary. At the time of the occupation, Hungary had close to 700,000 Jewish citizens. By the time Raoul arrived in Hungary on his mission of rescue, over 400,000 of them had been sent to Auschwitz.

Raoul wasted no time. He did everything he could think of to save Jewish people. He bribed, extorted, bluffed, and threatened to achieve his aims of saving as many people as possible.

With a fellow Swedish diplomat he created official looking protective passes to give out to Jews granting them Swedish citizenship and making them exempt from wearing the yellow badge that Nazis required them to wear. Sandor Ardai, one of Raoul’s drivers, recalled a time when Raoul came upon a train full of Jews about to depart to Auschwitz,

“He climbed up on the roof of the train and began handing in protective passes through the doors which were not yet sealed. He ignored orders from the Germans for him to get down, then the Arrow Cross [the Hungarian Nazi party] men began shooting and shouting at him to go away. He ignored them and calmly continued handing out passports to the hands that were reaching out for them. I believe the Arrow Cross men deliberately aimed over his head, as not one shot hit him, which would have been impossible otherwise. I think this is what they did because they were so impressed by his courage. After Wallenberg had handed over the last of the passports he ordered all those who had one to leave the train and walk to the caravan of cars parked nearby, all marked in Swedish colours. I don’t remember exactly how many, but he saved dozens off that train, and the Germans and Arrow Cross were so dumbfounded they let him get away with it!”

In total Raoul gave out tens of thousands of such protective passes, but the German government eventually caught on to the ruse and ruled the passes invalid. When Raoul heard of this, he called on Baroness Elisabeth Kemeny, the wife of the Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs in Budapest, for help,

‘’Raoul implored me to help. He was desperate. I talked to my husband and said he must do something. He told me ‘I can’t fight the whole cabinet.’ But after midnight word came that 9,000 passes would be honored. I can still remember Raoul’s elation, his happiness.’’ The baroness had finally persuaded her husband to help by threatening to leave him if he didn’t.

When the Germans abandoned the use of trains to transport Jewish prisoners, instead forming 125 mile death marches toward Auschwitz, Raoul began visiting stopping areas to save people.

“‘You there!’ The Swede pointed to an astonished man, waiting for his turn to be handed over to the executioner. ‘Give me your Swedish passport and get in that line,’ he barked. ‘And you, get behind him. I know I issued you a passport.’ Wallenberg continued, moving fast, talking loud, hoping the authority in his voice would somewhat rub off on these defeated people…The Jews finally caught on. They started groping in pockets for bits of identification. A driver’s license or birth certificate seemed to do the trick. The Swede was grabbing them so fast; the Nazis, who couldn’t read Hungarian anyway, didn’t seem to be checking. Faster, Wallenberg’s eyes urged them, faster, before the game is up. In minutes he had several hundred people in his convoy. International Red Cross trucks, there at Wallenberg’s behest, arrived and the Jews clambered on…”

In one of his final acts of rescue, Raoul intimidated the supreme commander of German forces in Hungary, Major-General Gerhard Schmidthuber, into not blowing up a Jewish ghetto housing 70,000 people. As the war was coming to an end and there was not enough time to send the remaining Jews to Auschwitz, Adolf Eichmann, a major organizer of the Holocaust, ordered the slaughter of all Hungarian Jews in one mass execution. When Raoul found out about this, he sent word to Schmidthuber that if he were to go through with the slaughter, Raoul would personally see that he was hanged for crimes against humanity after the war. Knowing that Hitler was close to defeat, Schmidthuber acquiesced and called off the massacre.

Raoul took such risks because his perspective on the work he was doing was simple, “I will never be able to go back to Sweden without knowing inside myself that I’d done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible.”

In total Raoul saved close to 100,000 Jews. He himself was captured by the Soviets on suspicion of being a spy and is presumed to have died a Soviet prisoner.

Historical Snapshots

[joblrcensus]

it’s time for the JOblr census results 🧡🙌

before we start i want to thank everyone who took their time to answer this silly little project, gathering responses from 203 baby boos!! it’s my first time doing this so hopefully i can bring some excitement with the results <3

so buckle up and let’s get into it

general questions

Which continent are you from?

Unsurprisingly, the majority is European with a total of 80.8% but it’s amazing to see that they’ve crossed the continent’s border and we also have 9.9% people from North America, 3.9% from Australia & Oceania, 3.4% from Asia and 2% from South America. No person chose the Africa option.

Which country are you from? (optional)

With this being an optional question, 162 respondents out of 203 opted to answer it. Let’s take a look at the top countries by number of people in JOblr (small note: I counted the few people who wrote England or Scotland as part of the UK answer)

Drumrolls 🥁…..

Finland - 29

UK & USA - 15

Germany - 11

Poland - 9

Italy - 8

Australia - 7

Sweden - 6

Austria, Spain, The Netherlands - 5

Croatia, Slovenia - 4

Czechia, France, Romania - 3

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Ukraine - 2

Bolivia, Brazil, China, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, India, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Russia, Switzerland - 1

How old are you?

45.8% of us are between 18-25, following by 23.6% between 26-30, 18.2% between 31-45, 10.8% under 18 and two people who are over 45 years old.

Are you part of the LGBTQ+ community?

Remember when they said Joker Out are for the girls and gays? 🏳️‍🌈

Well that was absolutely not wrong since 77.3% baby boos answered that yes they are part of the community, while 11.8% are questioning and 10.8% have answered no

tumblr activity questions

How do you participate on JOblr?

a majority of 98 people are mostly reblogging posts in the fandom but sometimes making posts of their own, 38 are only reblogging while 36 lurkers have stepped out of the shadow and made themselves known. The least amount of people (31) said to be active posters

Do you post any of the following?

It’s already known this fandom is mad talented and entertaining!! It’s always a joy seeing everyone’s creations and posts no matter the type. And the people who are only enjoying and supporting the content are just as important 🫶

Do you also post about Käärijä?

Since these two fandoms are basically overlapping, sometimes even seen as one fandom, I was curious just how much

50.7% also post about Käärijä outside of Joker Out, while 35% don’t post about him at all (or perhaps very rarely). 14.3% are mainly coming from Käärijä’s fandom

joker out questions

How did you find out about Joker Out?

Another unsurprising result, with 89.7% of us finding out about them through Eurovision. But it was really cool to see that there are people who discovered them differently. Ten people found out about them through Tumblr or other social media, to four they were recommended by someone and one through a music platform. The “other” option was chosen as well and included:

finding out about JO through Käärijä

through a music blog review

on slovenian radio

Who from the current members is your favorite?

One of the hardest questions but it had to be done

So Tumblr’s top favorite members areee:

Bojan - 69 votes

Jan - 42 votes

Kris - 40 votes

Nace - 35 votes

Jure - 17 votes

Have you been to a Joker Out concert?

I did not expect this one to be so balanced but I am pleasantly surprised! 104 people have been to a JO concert, while 99 haven’t. It often feels like you’re the only person who hasn’t seen them live yet but it’s nice to see that you’re not alone, so if anyone feels the same don’t worry our time will come too 🥹

If you answered yes, have you seen them multiple times?

Out of the 104 people who previously answered yes, there’s still a balance between those who have been to only one concert and those who have been to multiple

If you’re into RPF, which one of the most popular ships (according to AO3) is your favorite?

Another optional question where 181 out of 203 opted to respond to.

Oh boy, ooooh boy this was a tough battle. It felt like I was watching a horse race. I can tell you that all three ships have been at some point in the first place, or even equal. Are you ready to see the most interesting result yet?

Drumrolls again 🥁…….

BoJere - 58 votes

BoKris - 57 votes

Jance - 56 votes

The “other” option was also chosen and the following ships were included:

BoMartin

Jan/Jure

Kris/Jure

Nace/Kris

Nace/Jere

poly!JO

aaaand that’s it, you made it to the end 🫶 hope you enjoyed and why not see you on the next census!!

[tf2occontest]

The Archeologist VS THE BUTCHER!

(Full matchup list here)

Alright team, here's a recap: This is a contest to determine who amongst you will take the top of the leaderboards and be hired at TFI! Simply put, whoever gets the most votes gets to move on, and whoever doesn't... Well. They'll be put down swiftly and cleanly. :}

So, mann your stations, because here are your next contestants! Vote for your favorite mercenary who you want to win the TF2 OC Contest! - P

OC INFO UNDER THE CUT!

We highly encourage you to take a peek to make your decision!

The Acheologist

@meet-the-archeologist

Image credit: @/the-depressed-comedic-relief

Why should you vote for the archeologists? They’re silly dino-hyperfixated nerds who just wanna be loved (and kill people in the meanwhile but. Don’t worry bout it) Archie has bagged two murderous boyfriends and Micheal one, but is simped over by like ten people somehow. They try their best to help people but sometimes unintentionally make things worse, and are your go-to source for questions about dinosaurs

THE BUTCHER!

@meetthebutcher

Image credit: @/junkbrainzart

The Red Butcher is only known as Butcher. He's bright and cheery, maybe to a creepy extent. He's whimsical, if you will.

Butcher is 50 years old and from Hungary, having come to America in his late 30's fleeing the police. His store at home, which was once his fathers store, had finally been caught for the decades of human corpses in their freezer, being sold as animal meat.

He set up shop in the United States, eventually falling back on murder and cannibalism. He was found out again, but not before catching the eyes of TFI.

He was later hired as a mercenary, forgoing his prison sentence and bringing him to what he considers a paradise.

Butcher is fold of the respawn machine because of his desire to kill. He's blood thirsty. Literally and metaphorically. He gets along well with Medic, but tends to creep the other mercs out.

Anyways, Vote Butcher. He's a fat hairy old gay cannibal what more could tumblr want

[eugenedebs1920]

When we look back at dictatorships, whether in fascist regimes, communist states, autocratic rule, and totalitarianism, ect. the philosophy’s don’t have all that much in common. One thing they do have in common is a “great leader” or an “emperor”, and more so nowadays a “strongman” who lords over the population with ”an iron fist”, a fancy way of saying they oppress thier people.

Let’s look at WWII. What did Germany’s leader (I heard we weren’t supposed to use the H word but you know who I’m referring to) and the emperor of Japan share in similarities? Not much, if anything at all. After Pearl Harbor America declared war with Japan and as a result of the treaty between Japan and Germany, Germany declared war with America (DUMB!!). What did germanys leader and the emperor of Japan have in common? Did they share any common ground other than the leader was almighty and the subjects were expendable? No. What they had in common is their oppressive rule and the fact that the free countries condemned their style of governance. So whether you have any similarities or not, as an oppressive regime, your only allies are other oppressive regimes. The idiom, your enemies, enemy, is your friend.

Fast forward to now and we don’t have the same style of fascism and dictatorships, in the more developed countries, as back then. Hence it’s not the same kind of harsh oppressive system. More of a soft autocracy. Orban in Hungary and Erdogan in Turkey are a prime example of the “soft autocracy”. Russia is an authoritarian state. Their sham government is a front for the pleasing of the world but, Putin rules Russia as a dictator.

The last thing these authoritarians want is their people to get any wild ideas of individual freedom and liberty. We did screw Russia over good after WWII, and I promise they didn’t forget, but beyond that, they want any democracy to fail. They don’t want their people to see that it is possible to have a thriving free nation. Who is the most power, wealthiest, freest nation on the planet? The United States of America.

China, Russia, Turkey, Hungary, North Korea, they would LOVE to see us destroy ourselves. All that they can do without invoking a military conflict, they will to undermine us, make us seem as if our system of government is feeble, flawed, corrupted, they will, and are. They want to rule over their citizens with fear and divisiveness. Making the population too scared to rise up against them.

This is why, in particular, Russia has been caught meddling in elections all throughout Europe and here in America. It is also why it’s so troubling that Republicans, and Trump in particular, are so keen on people such as Orban and not willing to help a democracy like Ukraine. Trump and Putin being “friends” is not a good thing. Trump is the easiest person to manipulate! All you have to do is complement him or offer him money and he’ll do whatever you want. Orban is an authoritarian! Why is he going and having private meetings with Trump directly after he met with Putin. This isn’t a Sherlock Holmes mystery here! It’s pretty damn easy to see!

Long story shorter than it could be. Russia will be putting out all kinds of misinformation and deepfakes, false stories and made up articles. Check the source! Despite what Trump says, because he only says it due to them being critical of him and covering him appropriately, the established sources, your NBC’s, CBS, ABC, CNN, Washington Post, NY Times, ect. these are credible sources. Are they corporate money making organizations? Yes. Does the press situation in this country need an overhaul? Yes. But these aren’t fake news (I had to laugh while typing that because that’s LITERALLY what Trump calls them) their flawed news but they aren’t social media deepfake, made up, complete fabrications to throw our democracy into turmoil. They will tell you the story as it is happening. The first step in autocratic rule is to limit information to what suits your narrative. Thats why Trump calls them fake. I can’t believe I’m sticking up for the media so much right now but , for reals!…

Check your sources. Know that their is forces that want to see us fail. Want us to be angry and rioting and questioning if democracy works. It does. Trump is a Russian asset, that’s why all this nonsense is amplified the way it is. In 248 years, 60 presidential elections, only the three involving Trump has this whole fraud, stolen election, noncitizen voting bullsh*t ever came up. Just Trump being a traitor. Don’t let the country’s most notorious conman con ya.

[mitchipedia]

This is how nations decline. You don’t always turn into Nazi Germany. You turn into Russia, or Hungary, or other creaky and corrupt strongman states where everything is kind of a scam and everyone is hustling to please the gangster in charge. That, my friends, is the path we are on here.

America’s basic problem is that we have an economic system that concentrates great wealth in few hands and we have a political system in which money is allowed to buy political power in a straightforward way and now, on top of that, we have a President who fully embraces—who lives for—the opportunity to make the world bow to him by exploiting those systems. It’s a bit surreal watching this all unfold right in front of us. This is the script of imperial downfall, of a mighty nation that has been teeing itself up to crumble by having no moral scruples finally jumping onto the garbage chute with both feet. Watching all of the highly respected CEOs of America’s most powerful and respectable and, according to a widespread characterization, “liberal” companies donate millions of dollars to the Trump inauguration, unalloyed bribes paid for political protection, is just—it’s not subtle. Detecting the grand direction of America has never required less insight.

…

This is the final form of unregulated capitalism, where fantastically rich and often childlike titans run the world’s most powerful nation for their own pleasure, and what was once thought of as “civil society” cowers in the corner in an effort to avoid provoking the beast.

— Hamilton Nolan

[novodontia]

Do have question into a Hetalia AU that I have been stuck in my head…

Ever considered doing a Life series AU with Hetalia?

Because I swear it will be the most chaotic, funniest, and depressing thing in our entire hetalia fandom lives.

that’s actually SUCH a good idea dude omg

it could go a few ways but here’s a rough draft of who i think would be who + me rambling about it!!! (with help from my dude @angstygen !! thanks for giving me ideas :D)

(I accidentally wrote so much help, so it's going under the cut)

I put England as Grian cause i think he’d be the one to start the games. he’s a little bit of a control freak no offense

(also the fandom’s obsessed with him- what who said that)

Japan as Mumbo I think is actually so funny cause he’s like,, not as used to the game as everyone else.

he’s too nice at times but DOES have some chaotic energy. when he dies first in wild life he would absolutely go for blood as a ghost

Italy on the other hand um. He kinda sucks at the game

He’d be Skizz because he’s mostly really friendly and sucks at being mean

Romano on the other hand? GREAT at being mean

That’s why he’s Cleo. i could easily hear him saying “do me a favor and die for me"

PRUSSIA AS PEARL- the themes of lonliness?? the dogs?? the general vibe???

Both of them are awesome 💥💥💥

in the same vein, HUNGARY AS GEM!!

Prussia and Hungary being friends in secret life until prussia betrays her, and then him in wild life being like “how much do you hate me today 🥺"

also France as Scott works cause he’s like. someone you think is kinda a good guy until you realize “oh wait no he’s kinda a manipulator"

France and Prussia being ex-soulmates anyone??

Then you have the three Gs (Prussia, France and Romano) which they’d fight like all the time but they’re also besties so it’s okay

and then Germany as Impulse mostly cause i think it’s really funny that he always gets SO CLOSE to winning but then dies for the stupidest reasons

also i’d imagine when he’s paired with the GGGs in wild life he’s kinda just like🧍‍♂️girldad

Denmark as Bdubs i don’t really have a good reason for besides they have a similar vibe

I do like the idea though of him and Germany being besties in third life until the last episode when Den is like “they gave me a clock, Germany :)” and then kills him for no other reason lmao

Russia as Big B because he’s mildy unsettling and everyone's a teensy bit scared of him. like he’s also🧍‍♂️ but in a "i have seen The Horrors" way

Seychelles as Lizzie mostly cause they're both adorable and I can kinda see her and Romano having beef over the stuff from Last Life

no real reason for Sweden as Etho other than i think it’s funny and has good vibes (+ his dynamic with Denmark)

Canada as Jimmy because he would TOTALLY have the canary curse no doubt

America as Tango cause they’re both fast and also can be platonic ranchers with Canada!! Just a silly guy

He would totally try and make a Warden his bestie

UPDATES w/ MORE CHARACTERS!!

Austraila as Scar because his dynamic with England would be SO funny

also he’s The Shirtless Guy™

Poland as Ren because he’s ✨very dramatic✨ and has major red king energy

Lithuania as Martyn because he would do anything for Poland

and lowkey i can see him snapping and murdering France and Germany at the end of lim!life

(which would add to Germany’s thing of being so so close but always coming up short for the drama)

and LASTLY Finland as Joel because his drama with Sweden (Etho) in double life would be great

his personality isn’t the EXACT same but still.

also. his dog

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Thom Hartmann at The Hartmann Report:

Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is wondering out loud if “President Musk” will force “Vice President Trump” and Speaker Mike Johnson to shut down our government as Musk tweets his orders to the GOP. It’s all about raising the debt ceiling, Trump says, so they can roll out the next round of tax cuts for billionaires, paid for by average working people. It seems like a bizarre power play: The actual story is much more sinister. As Trump is in the process of teaching America, it’s impossible to disentangle democracy-ending authoritarianism from billionaire corruption of government. They require each other. And the way this will play out won’t need a crystal ball to see: Trump has already begun traveling a well-trod path that leads to the destruction of our form of government. While all authoritarians who take over democracies initially come to power on a wave of popular sentiment, presenting themselves as normal politicians bent on “shaking up the system,” once they begin their crackdowns against political opposition their popularity typically collapses. At that point, they need three things: — A compliant, financially, and politically dependent media; — subservient, terrified, or complicit politicians; — and a captured, corrupt judiciary loyal to the idea of oligarchy and beholden to wealthy sponsors (think Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito). With these three elements of democratic capture they can gaslight the public, shovel money to their oligarch buddies, and expand their own power in defiance of increasingly feeble popular, political, and legal challenges. This is nothing new; it’s a formula as old as republican forms of government. It’s how the Greek democracy ended, how Rome was brought down, and how every autocratic government on Earth that started out as a democracy got to where they are today. Russia, Hungary, Egypt, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Venezuela, Turkey, etc., etc.

Most recently, President Yoon tried it in South Korea, but he’d failed to consolidate his control over those three systems that can defend or corrupt democracy, so he failed. Trump and the oligarchs who brought him to power, both in Russia and the US, don’t intend to make the same mistake in 2025. — The first major roadblock to authoritarian capture is the press. As long as the public is well-informed about a wannabee autocrat’s antidemocratic efforts to dismantle government, he’ll encounter significant popular opposition. With a compliant, fawning, or terrified press, however, history shows it’s not that difficult. — The second biggest obstacle to authoritarian (or “fascist”) takeover of government is typically found within the institutions of that government itself. Bureaucrats and agencies protective of their own fiefdoms that have historically defended various aspects of the nation and its democratic government tangle up efforts at regulatory capture, and the senior management of these agencies refuse to go along with the new strongman, as Trump learned in his last term. To destroy a democracy, a strongman must neuter these people and seize control of their agencies.

— Finally, would-be fascist leaders must hobble the judiciary and dominate the police and legal systems of their nation prior to their final takedown of that country’s democracy. Trump learned these lessons in his first term, just as did both Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán in their first terms when Russia and Hungary were both still operating as democracies. Which is why it was only in their second terms that both Putin and Orbán changed their nation’s libel laws so they could use lawfare to cripple the Russian and Hungarian independent press. Reporters, commentators, and news agencies were sued into bankruptcy if they didn’t immediately bow to the Putin’s and Orbán’s demands for positive coverage, and those news agencies surviving were then acquired — as Musk did with Twitter — by friendly oligarchs. Then those two went after the agencies of government itself. During Putin’s second term as Russian president he abolished the direct election of governors, replacing it with a system where Putin loyalists were appointed by the Kremlin, effectively ending regional political autonomy and the ability of local politicians to stand up to him. Similarly, after securing a supermajority in 2010, Orbán's government passed a new constitution that centralized power, curtailed judicial independence, and reduced checks on executive authority. He also instituted term limits on judges so within a few years he was able to remake the Hungarian judiciary in his own image. Over the past 8 years, Trump has done much the same thing through the electoral primary process, purging the GOP of “RINOS” and endorsing MAGA loyalists at both the local, state, and federal levels, as well as in elected state judiciaries. He’s now solidifying that power and cowing any remaining opposition with his threats to persecute, prosecute, impoverish, and imprison Republicans like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Alexander Vindman who dared stand up to him. Although it’s rarely mentioned in the media, terror is today spreading across what’s left of the non-MAGA GOP at all levels.

Like Orbán and Putin in the early months of their second terms, Trump is also threatening prosecutors and judges, while his captive senators prepare to push through Trump-loyal judges. Just this week, Trump demanded that Republican senators do whatever is necessary to block any more of President Biden’s judicial nominees from ending up on the federal bench. And, like both Putin and Orbán, The New York Times reports that Republicans beholden to Trump are now openly discussing rewriting the US Constitution. Putin then purged Russian federal agencies of anybody showing any signs of independence, replacing senior management of all agencies with his own mostly incompetent and inexperienced toadies or employees of friendly oligarchs. They leaned heavily on Putin precisely because of their own lack of experience and expertise. His purge was particularly radical in Russia’s equivalents of the FBI and CIA, the keys to his seizing total control of the police and intelligence agencies that could be wielded as weapons against his opponents. Deeply corrupt loyalists in these positions were essential to his seizing total power. Trump is similarly appointing profoundly unqualified and incompetent nominees to federal agencies, including numerous Republicans who’ve lost elections and thus are doubly dependent on his good graces for both their political and personal economic futures.

[...] Once he’s crushed dissent and seized total control of state and federal governments, Trump will turn their agencies and powers to enriching himself and his oligarch buddies (including Republican governors), just as Putin and Orbán (and every other autocrat in history) have done. We saw the first indicator of this strategy when he told a group of fossil fuel executives that if they gave him a billion dollars he’d strip out federal environmental regulations that reduce their profits. The Senate Budget Committee, under the stewardship of Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, is currently investigating this naked solicitation of a bribe, but when that committee is taken over by Republican Chuck Grassley in early January that probe will end. That singular moment will signal the beginning of the end — at least for the next two years — of any meaningful congressional resistance to America’s morbidly rich oligarchs and their industries corrupting government to their own advantage while Trump pursues his fantasies of revenge.

Thom Hartmann wrote a solid report on America cannot afford to ignore the dangers of the descent into dictatorship under Trump.

[wisteriagoesvroom]

Re: second driver thing. Omg I need Oscar to get faster solely bc it’s narratively more entertaining. No fun if they’re not fighting

Tbh I didn’t even pay attention to Oscar at alll until after the season was over so imagine my shock seeing the discourse. I didn’t know there Oscar had that many haters. Is it even that serious… and the worst are the LN4 fans😭 I like Lando and he’s objectively faster but isn’t it in their best interest to somewhat respect Oscar’s skills so that it’s actually impressive Lando is destroying him🤷‍♀️ if Oscar’s as bad as they say (& I’ve seen several say he did nothing for the WCC like Jesus)— then Lando beating him isn’t that remarkable is it🤔

// wheel wank

this isn’t necessarily the point you were making, but i will say this: zak brown and co have done an incredible job with the mclaren rebrand because if you look at the historical record. like. this is not the “twinks hug it out and get along” team. this is a “we get the best drivers and they eventually fight it out for a championship because having two great people with extraordinary capabilities pushing each other to the limit is how we win” team.

the sport has changed since previous eras, absolutely! the way drivers navigate the PR side and inter-team relations of it too. there is no singular way of having a winning mentality. but i do think as oscar continues refining his skill and levelling up (which is not an entirely linear process but i believe he has it in him otherwise I wouldn’t be so oscarpilled), we may see more moments like hungary or challenging calls from the pit wall or a different kind of manoeuvring when it comes to affirming driver priority from the so-called oscarcamp, even if that changes from race to race etc.

hungary and baku etc, even singapore and other races towards the second summer break were, kind of, tests. portents of what to come or thrillingly exciting developments, in some ways it’s both. in a way, 81’s less even performance esp in the americas races mean we didn’t see that come to a head yet. like i don’t want the partnership closeness between 4 and 81 to end either, but it’s not professional sport without some level of rivalry and it will inevitably evolve and it probably already has, but that’s between them and that’s why im here writing rpf instead of idk like messaging them about it or whatever.

maybe these two will defy the narrative 🤷🏻‍♀️ i have no idea what that teammate dimension eventually looks like. but i will definitely be around to watch.

[contemplatingoutlander]

Jonathan Pie (Tom Walker): 'It's 50 Shades of Beige.' Meet Britain's New Prime Minister. | NYT Opinion | July 5, 2024

Tom Walker does another satirical turn as "fictional newscaster" Jonathan Pie to report about how, after 14 years, Labour finally beat the Tories in a landslide. I wish Pie were a "real" newscaster, he'd be a blast to watch on the evening news.😉 Below are some gifs of select moments in the video:

Below the cut are some more gifs in which "Jonathan Pie" talks about right-wing populism, and why it was eventually discredited in the U.K. But this one gif sums up the major reason it lost favor in Britain:

See more gifs under the cut.

[edited]

[Obviously, I like to make gifs. But this video was so spot on, I just couldn't resist.🤷🏻‍♀️]

TRANSCRIPT USED FOR GIFS:

After 14 years of Conservative rule, the Labour Party have resoundingly won the U.K. election this morning, leaving the Tories with their worst defeat ever—  I’m sorry. I’m just going to do that again without a smile on my face. Sorry. I’m a professional. [PHONE RINGS] Well, the results are still coming in. Hey. Dum, dum, dum, another one bites the dust. It’s a bloodbath. It’s an absolute bloodbath. [...] But the people have spoken. Meet our new prime minister. Yes, it’s fifty shades of beige, Captain Whitebread, Sir Keir Starmer. […] Never heard of him? Don’t worry, neither have we. If he was a vegetable, he’d be a potato. But a little bit of dull and boring is exactly what the doctor ordered. […] [PHONE RINGS] Oh. This is brutal. This is like the opening of "Saving Private Ryan’." I’d almost feel sorry for them...if they weren’t seriously awful people. This morning’s Labour landslide bucks an international trend, a resounding rejection of right-wing populism...kind of. Yes. Whilst countries like Italy, Hungary, France, and Germany are having passionate love affairs with right-wing populism, and in America, you’re seriously considering a second helping, here in the U.K., we’ve been in an abusive relationship with it for some years. […]      The Tories took office in 2010. And prime minister David Cameron declared, "we’re all in this together," before implementing brutal austerity on the country’s poorest people.      Resentment and anger took hold. And populism thrives on little else.      Then Brexit, which gave all the fringe voices of British politics a mainstream platform with which to promise the world without fear they’d ever have to deliver.      That’s how populism works. It promises the moon, and instead, it hands you a DVD copy of ‘Apollo 13’.      Soon, the Looney Tunes who sold us the idea in the first place, were running the asylum.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 30, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Jul 31, 2024

On Friday, speaking to Christians at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump begged the members of the audience to “vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what: it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine…. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”

The comment drew a lot of attention, and on Monday, Fox News Channel personality Laura Ingraham gave him a chance to walk the statement back. Instead, he said: “I said, vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again. It’s true.” “Don’t worry about the future. You have to vote on November 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it. The country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore, because frankly we will have such love, if you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s OK.”

Trump’s refusal to disavow the idea that putting him back into power will mean the end of a need for elections is chilling and must be viewed against the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s July 1, 2024, decision in Donald J. Trump v. United States. In that decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court’s right-wing majority said that presidents cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of a president’s “official duties” and that presidents should have a presumption of immunity for other presidential actions. 

John Roberts defends the idea of a strong executive and has fought against the expansion of voting rights made possible by the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The idea that it is dangerous to permit minorities and women to vote suggests that there are certain people who should run the country. That tracks with a recently unearthed video in which Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance calls childless people “psychotic” and “deranged,” and refers unselfconsciously to “America’s leadership class.” 

The idea that democracy must be overturned in order to enable a small group of leaders to restore virtue to a nation is at the center of the “illiberal democracy” or “Christian democracy” championed by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán’s imposition of an authoritarian Christian nationalism on a former democracy, in turn, has inspired the far-right figures that are currently in charge of the Republican Party. As Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts put it: “Modern Hungary is not just a model for conservative statecraft but the model.”

Kevin Roberts has called for “institutionalizing Trumpism” and pulled together dozens of right-wing institutions behind the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 to create a blueprint for a second Trump term. Those who created Project 2025 are closely connected to the Trump team, and Trump praised its creators and its ideas. 

Today, The New Republic published the foreword Vance wrote for Kevin Roberts’s forthcoming book. Vance makes it clear he sees Kevin Roberts and himself as working together to create “a fundamentally Christian view of culture and economics.” Like others on the Christian right, Vance argues that “the Left” has captured the country’s institutions and that those institutions must be uprooted and those in them replaced with right-wing Christians in order to restore what they see—inaccurately—as traditional America.  

That determination to disrupt American institutions fits neatly with the technology entrepreneurs who seem to believe that they are the ones who should control the nation’s future. Vance is backed by Silicon Valley libertarian Peter Thiel, who put more than $10 million behind Vance’s election to the Senate. In 2009, Thiel wrote “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” 

“The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics,” he wrote. “Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women—two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians—have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron.” 

Thiel set Vance up to invest in companies that made him wealthy and touted Vance for the vice presidential slot, and in turn, the Silicon Valley set are expecting Vance to help get rid of the regulation imposed by the Biden administration and to push cryptocurrency. Trump appears to be getting on board with comments about how the tech donors are “geniuses,” praising investor Elon Musk and saying, “We have to make life good for our smart people.” In a piece that came out Sunday, Washington Post reporters Elizabeth Dwoskin, Cat Zakrzewski, Nitasha Tiku, and Josh Dawsey credited the influence of Thiel and other tech leaders for turning Vance from a Never-Trumper to a MAGA Republican. 

Judd Legum of Popular Information reported today that the cryptocurrency industry is investing heavily in the 2024 election, with its main super PAC raising $202 million in this cycle. Three large cryptocurrency companies are investing about $150 million in pro-crypto congressional candidates. 

On Saturday, Trump said he would make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world.” He promised to end regulations on cryptocurrency, which, because it is not overseen by governments, is prone to use by criminals and rogue states. That regulation is “a part of a much larger pattern that’s being carried out by the same left-wing fascists to weaponize government against any threat to their power,” Trump said. “They’ve done it to me.”

But the problem that those trying to get rid of the modern administrative state continue to run up against is that voters actually like a government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights. In recent days, Minnesota governor Tim Walz has been articulating how popular that government is as he makes the television rounds.

On Sunday, CNN’s Jake Tapper listed some of Walz’s policies—he passed background checks for guns, expanded LGBTQ protections, instituted free breakfast and lunch for school kids—and asked if they made Walz vulnerable to Trump calling him a “big government liberal.” Walz joked that he was, indeed, a “monster.” 

“Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own health care decisions, and we’re a top five business state, and we also rank in the top three of happiness…. The fact of the matter is,” where Democratic policies are implemented, “quality of life is higher, the economies are better…educational attainment is better. So yeah, my kids are going to eat here, and you’re going to have a chance to go to college, and you’re going to have an opportunity to live where we're working on reducing carbon emissions. Oh, and by the way, you’re going to have personal incomes that are higher, and you’re going to have health insurance. So if that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.” 

The extremes of Project 2025 have made it clear that the Republicans intend to destroy the kind of government Walz is defending and replace it with an authoritarian president imposing Christian nationalism. And when Americans hear what’s in Project 2025, they overwhelmingly oppose it. Trump has tried without success to distance himself from the document. 

He and his team have also hammered on the Heritage Foundation for their public revelations of their plans, and today the director of Project 2025, Paul Dans, stepped down. The Trump campaign issued a statement reiterating—in the face of a mountain of evidence to the contrary—that Trump had nothing to do with Project 2025 and adding: “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should service as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign—it will not end well for you.” 

The Harris campaign responded to the news by saying that “Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country. Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real—in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding.” 

The reasoning behind the idea of a strong executive, or a “leadership class” that does not have to answer to voters, is that an extremist minority needs to take control of the American government away from the American people because the majority doesn’t like the policies the extremists want. 

When Trump begs right-wing Christians to turn out for just one more election, he is promising that if only we will put him into the White House once and for all, we will never again have to worry about having a say in our government. As Trump put it: “The country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[random-child-of-nyx]

This is for all my Hetalia fans out there.

If you don’t like this ship, you can just scroll, you don’t have to hate on this

I’m thinking about writing a story where America gets hanahaki for Netherlands/Switzerland. In this universe, if you get hanahaki for a country, it’s their national flower, an iconic flower they’re known for, or a flower only native to them, but never all three. Well, America coughs up tulips (Netherlands iconic flower) and edelweiss (Switzerland’s national flower). Due to tulips being toxic, he slowly is getting sicker and sicker. Prussia, Hungary, Belarus and the rest of the former Soviet Union (besides Russia), and the Nordic Five (+ Greenland, Sealand, Faroe Islands, and Åland Islands) find out and rush him to this hospital in the nick of time. He gets the surgery, but forgets the two, which makes them confused until Åland Islands spills the beans. They realize their feelings, which they pushed down, and before they know it, they have hanahaki (no it’s not roses, it’s coral honeysuckle). So they try to woo him, all while america is falling in love a second time.

How my hanahaki progresses:

1. Trouble breathing

2. Cough up small petals

3. Cough up petals and blood (taking Advil, ibuprofen, and blood replenishers [works like an iron supplement but also provides red and white blood cells, plasma, water, and oxygen] help with the symptoms)

4. Flowers start sprouting all over the body

5. Death. Person is found with flowers on their limbs and sticking out of the mouth and eye sockets.

I probably won’t make it because I don’t have the motivation to, but if enough of you want it, I’ll think about it (I’ll probably write it on ao3 so if I do, it’ll be there)

Little edit of a small part of the story

[girlactionfigure]

Worn and weary, balding, with sad eyes, Raoul Wallenberg looked much older than his 31 years of age when in 1944 he was assigned the responsibility of saving Jews in Hungary. The assignment came by way of the War Refugee Board, an American organization formed that same year with the goal of saving Jews from persecution by the Nazis.

Raoul, who had some Jewish lineage but was not considered Jewish, was born in Sweden to a prominent family of bankers, diplomats, and politicians. He was expected to follow in the footsteps of his family, but he decided to become an architect.

He went to study architecture in America, at the University of Michigan. During his time in college, Raoul worked odd jobs despite his family’s wealth, and hitchhiked across the US, Canada, and Mexico during holidays. He continued hitchhiking even after getting robbed and thrown into a ditch by four men who offered him a lift. In a letter to his grandfather, Raoul wrote of his love of hitchhiking, “When you travel like a hobo, everything’s different. You have to be on the alert the whole time. You’re in close contact with new people every day. Hitchhiking gives you training in diplomacy and tact.”

Raoul finished the University of Michigan with honors, even winning a medal for his scholastic achievements. Unable to find architecture work in Sweden after graduation, Raoul briefly lived in South Africa, soon moving to Palestine for a banking apprenticeship. It was in Palestine that Raoul first encountered Jewish refugees from Germany. The refugees made a strong impact on Raoul.

Upon returning to Sweden, Raoul went into the import/export business with a man of Hungarian Jewish decent. Once it became harder for his partner to travel to Hungary due to his being Jewish, Raoul started making the trips himself. He traveled frequently to Budapest, learned Hungarian in addition to his already knowing French, English, German, and Russian, and ultimately went on to head the international arm of the business, soon becoming a joint owner of the company.

In 1944 Germany occupied Hungary. At the time of the occupation, Hungary had close to 700,000 Jewish citizens. By the time Raoul arrived in Hungary on his mission of rescue, over 400,000 of them had been sent to Auschwitz.

Raoul wasted no time. He did everything he could think of to save Jewish people. He bribed, extorted, bluffed, and threatened to achieve his aims of saving as many people as possible.

With a fellow Swedish diplomat he created official looking protective passes to give out to Jews granting them Swedish citizenship and making them exempt from wearing the yellow badge that Nazis required them to wear. Sandor Ardai, one of Raoul’s drivers, recalled a time when Raoul came upon a train full of Jews about to depart to Auschwitz,

“He climbed up on the roof of the train and began handing in protective passes through the doors which were not yet sealed. He ignored orders from the Germans for him to get down, then the Arrow Cross [the Hungarian Nazi party] men began shooting and shouting at him to go away. He ignored them and calmly continued handing out passports to the hands that were reaching out for them. I believe the Arrow Cross men deliberately aimed over his head, as not one shot hit him, which would have been impossible otherwise. I think this is what they did because they were so impressed by his courage. After Wallenberg had handed over the last of the passports he ordered all those who had one to leave the train and walk to the caravan of cars parked nearby, all marked in Swedish colours. I don’t remember exactly how many, but he saved dozens off that train, and the Germans and Arrow Cross were so dumbfounded they let him get away with it!”

In total Raoul gave out tens of thousands of such protective passes, but the German government eventually caught on to the ruse and ruled the passes invalid. When Raoul heard of this, he called on Baroness Elisabeth Kemeny, the wife of the Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs in Budapest, for help,

‘’Raoul implored me to help. He was desperate. I talked to my husband and said he must do something. He told me ‘I can’t fight the whole cabinet.’ But after midnight word came that 9,000 passes would be honored. I can still remember Raoul’s elation, his happiness.’’ The baroness had finally persuaded her husband to help by threatening to leave him if he didn’t.

When the Germans abandoned the use of trains to transport Jewish prisoners, instead forming 125 mile death marches toward Auschwitz, Raoul began visiting stopping areas to save people.

“‘You there!’ The Swede pointed to an astonished man, waiting for his turn to be handed over to the executioner. ‘Give me your Swedish passport and get in that line,’ he barked. ‘And you, get behind him. I know I issued you a passport.’ Wallenberg continued, moving fast, talking loud, hoping the authority in his voice would somewhat rub off on these defeated people…The Jews finally caught on. They started groping in pockets for bits of identification. A driver’s license or birth certificate seemed to do the trick. The Swede was grabbing them so fast; the Nazis, who couldn’t read Hungarian anyway, didn’t seem to be checking. Faster, Wallenberg’s eyes urged them, faster, before the game is up. In minutes he had several hundred people in his convoy. International Red Cross trucks, there at Wallenberg’s behest, arrived and the Jews clambered on…”

In one of his final acts of rescue, Raoul intimidated the supreme commander of German forces in Hungary, Major-General Gerhard Schmidthuber, into not blowing up a Jewish ghetto housing 70,000 people. As the war was coming to an end and there was not enough time to send the remaining Jews to Auschwitz, Adolf Eichmann, a major organizer of the Holocaust, ordered the slaughter of all Hungarian Jews in one mass execution. When Raoul found out about this, he sent word to Schmidthuber that if he were to go through with the slaughter, Raoul would personally see that he was hanged for crimes against humanity after the war. Knowing that Hitler was close to defeat, Schmidthuber acquiesced and called off the massacre.

Raoul took such risks because his perspective on the work he was doing was simple, “I will never be able to go back to Sweden without knowing inside myself that I’d done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible.”

In total Raoul saved close to 100,000 Jews. He himself was captured by the Soviets on suspicion of being a spy and is presumed to have died a Soviet prisoner.

Historical Snapshots

[pendragonsgallery]

@roszabell asked me to post this and I delivered

Hetalia Characters as things said by my college friend group:

America: “Just because I haven’t had sex doesn’t mean I don’t know the basic components of it! I wasn’t in the Revolutionary War but I still know what happened. I know how it started- I know the foreplay, and the aftercare is just the Constitution. It’s not that complicated of an issue.

Canada: “Yeah I could take down a moose. If I can dive quick and tap it in the nuts it’ll go down guys, trust me. I’m a moose expert.”

England: “You look like a guy in the 1940s being drafted for war. Why are you mad, at least I didn’t call you British. I held back just for you.”

France: “What if I want to be a rich bitch? Is that respectable?”

Spain: “If my parents had told me they were having another kid, I would just say no. I’m the princess here bitch.”

Romano: “vapes are so gross. If you’re going to be addicted to nicotine, at least smoke a cigarette like a real man.”

Germany: “How did I, as a twenty year old man become the mother figure. And why am I doing it so well?”

Prussia: “Just Dance? Bet. If I’m making money, I’ll twerk like there’s no tomorrow.”

Italy: *very confidently* “Some people like hard liquor and I like fruits in my yogurt! I see no difference.”

China: “I know how to tell if there is inflation. It’s determined by dip in dots prices”

Japan: “I’m just staring at the goldfish crackers… and they’re staring… back at me.”

Russia: “anything is possible if you believe in yourself and that if that includes you deepthroating your ice cream… then who am I to judge I guess.”

Austria: “I can assure you that people twerked and got down hard to Ode to Joy and absolutely should continue to do so. Shit slaps.”

Hungary: “I’m gonna beat you with my shoe out of love.”

Denmark: “Well you know what else bitch??? You’re mom- I mean my mom- your mom- my-your- fuck I-”

Lithuania: “I drink black coffee cause I need ✨validation✨.”

[hwsfemmephenomenon]

Check out our preemptive FAQ here!

Without further ado, here are the answers to your questions from the interest check:

☆ I would like to apply to be an art mod, but my Hetalia fanwork is a bit old and not up to date with my current skill level? Can I submit some non-Hetalia fanwork for my mod portfolio?

If this is the case, submit any work you're proud of, regardless of its relevancy to Hetalia!

☆ What does "spread" and "page" mean?

☆ Where do I sign up?

Contributor applications will be opening July 1, 2024. We’ll make a post with the link to the contributor apps at 3PM EST on July 1, but you’ll also be able to find a link to the apps on our Carrd when the time comes! Right now the button on our Carrd is a placeholder, but if you press it now, you’ll be rewarded with a cool and funky video :]

☆ Will page size/formatting guidelines be given?

Yes! At the moment, there are placeholder measurements in our info-doc. Proper formatting will be finalized before contributor apps open once we’ve onboarded our formatting mods and discussed what sizes are best!

☆ Can my contribution include multiple HetaGirls?

YES!!! Let them interact!

☆ Are ships allowed?

Yes! As of right now, our only restrictions are no Belarus x Ukraine and no NSFW content.

☆ How many contributors will you accept to the zine?

At the moment, we’re a bit unsure! This is both Soph and Arson’s first time hosting a zine so we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew. As of right now, we may accept up to ~30 visual contributors and ~10 writing contributors, but those are estimates. We’ve gotten a ton of support for this zine, but we need to find our footing first! Ultimately, the final number of contributors will depend on what the mod team feels they can handle and how many applications we get!

☆ Why are you putting limits onto how Nyotalia characters can appear in the zine?

This zine originally came to be with the canon women in mind. We want the zine to focus on Ancient Egypt, Belarus, Belgium, Czechia, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Seychelles, Taiwan, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Wy, as much of their canon material treats them as supporting roles to the male characters. We additionally would love to see submissions for Ancient Greece, Kenya, and Zimbabwe!

The Nyotalia characters are understandably very popular because they're a different take on the main cast. While we also love Nyotalia, we worry that very popular characters, like the main 8, will overshadow the characters we created this zine for in the first place. Nyotalia women are allowed in supporting roles because it would understandably be a little difficult for the writers if they were only limited to a specific set of 12-17 characters.

Some examples of work featuring Nyotalia characters would be:

A frying pangle fic where Hungary interacts with Nyo!Austria and/or Nyo!Prussia

A group illustration centering Vietnam’s interactions with Nyotalia ASEAN

An AmeBela illustration where Belarus interacts with Nyo!America

Some exceptions may be allowed on a case by case basis.

TLDR: You can draw Nyotalia women so long as they play a supporting role to one of the canon ladies.

☆ How many OCs will be allowed?

It depends on how many applications we receive! So long as they're a nation & aren't already canon to Hetalia, it's fair game. We want to see ladies from all over the globe!

☆ Why do you want more than one pitch?

We don't want to force people to make work they're disinterested in, but we also don't want there to be a disproportionate amount of material for one girl over another. As of right now, Hungary is in the most demand with 69.2% of responses, but Wy (34.6%) and Monaco (42.3%) have the least amount! We want to encourage more work for the more neglected ladies!

☆ Can I make more than one submission?

As of right now, yes! So long as everyone isn't doing more than one piece and if the contributor thinks they can handle two pieces during the time frame, we wanna see those HetaGirls!

More on this to come when acceptances roll out and we start working on pitches...

Got more questions? Submit them to our inbox!

Thank you all for the love and support you've shown the zine thus far!