#exempt* not excerpt

[xumoonhao]

wtf is it abt hybe groups that just haves them just the Worst music man, like cmon……how is it every single one

[odinsblog]

This is an illegitimate and deeply corrupt Supreme Court

Today is a sad day in American constitutional law and in the lives of LGBT people. The Supreme Court of the United States declares that a particular kind of business, though open to the public, has a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class. The Court does so for the first time in its history. By issuing this new license to discriminate in a case brought by a company that seeks to deny same-sex couples the full and equal enjoyment of its services, the immediate, symbolic effect of the decision is to mark gays and lesbians for second-class status. In this way, the decision itself inflicts a kind of stigmatic harm, on top of any harm caused by denials of service. The opinion of the Court is, quite literally, a notice that reads: "Some services may be denied to same-sex couples."

Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class. Specifically, the Court holds that the First Amendment exempts a website-design company from a state law that prohibits the company from denying wedding websites to same-sex couples if the company chooses to sell those websites to the public.

The Court also holds that the company has a right to post a notice that says, "No [wedding websites] will be sold if they will be used for gay marriages."

Our Constitution contains no right to refuse service to a disfavored group.

—Justice Sonia Sotomayor; excerpts from the dissenting opinion

[blushingbubbles]

last-orgasm storytime -- sorry it took me a bit to write but it is...long

Sooo last night (1/31) was the last orgasm i’ll have for likely all of 2025, and i’m still fuzzy from it.

Still. It’s *checks clock* 6pm as im writing this. Still fuzzy. It happened like 18 hours ago.

The last free orgasm I had was on January 10th, and I didn’t even like it. It was rushed and short and unearned.

On February 1st, I entered long-term denial, and I wanted to cum one last time before it started.

In fact, I wanted to cum so badly that in exchange, I added 180 days to my denial. But because I added those 180 days, I started to fear that the orgasm wasn’t going to be worth it.

The last free orgasm i had sucked. I panicked that this next one would suck too, that I’d traded 180 days of denial just to regret it.

and hahahaha

i would trade 1800 days of denial for what i got on 1/31.

wc: 2600 (lol) | *exempt from forbidden words rules, and if u try to punish me for this post that i worked very hard on i will block you*

⊹₊⟡⋆ leading up ⊹₊⟡⋆

Sir & I talked on the phone for two days prior to the 31st. The first night we just talked, which got me used to his voice in my ear. The second night we talked a bit and played a bit, which made me more comfortable with his instructions & flow in a scene, which was wonderful. I would’ve had a difficult time relaxing with him if it’d been our first time speaking. But it wasn’t. It was our third, so I felt really safe & comfortable going into our call. 

The morning of the 31st I told him about my dream that centered around worshipping his cock. I told him how needy it’d made me. Sent him a picture of how wet I was. He praised me for it...and then told me I wasn’t allowed to touch until he called that night. At all.

Rude. (i kid)

To make matters worse, he sent some incredible nudes with an instruction to look at them once an hour every hour. This left my imaginative mind with some wild running fantasies. Excerpts from our messages started with “god im like whining” /  “you look so soft” end devolved to “it’d be so fuckimg easy for you to breed me” / “wanna be so full of ur cock i struggle breathing Sir” 

Believe it or not, I actually had no problem with not touching – it was like a given. He told me to not touch so even though I was feverishly horny, touching was out of the question.

The thing I had a problem with was the anxiety. It kept trying to convince me that he was going to forget or get distracted or cancel (he touched base about once every other hour to humor my feral messages, which curbed that anxiety well).

When I was making dinner though, the fact i was going to cum for the last time in 2025 that night started to get to me.

The anticipation became too much to sweep under the rug and I decided to tell him. The convo looked like this:

hi | my heart's beating really really fast In a good way I hope! i think im just excited but it does feel like anxiety It's a lot of anticipation. i dont knowwwwni dont know | It's a lot of anticipation Don't worry bubbles, I'm going take good care of you. | I'm adaptable | We'll get you what you need | You needn't worry about it, I'll be there with you and for you

 (i totally cried happy tears)

⊹₊⟡⋆ the beginning ⊹₊⟡⋆

im all fuzzy again lol. Sir called. We chatted about our days and how I was feeling. He asked what I’d laid out (a vibrating egg, a dildo, a clit suction toy). I made a joke about having a hairbrush on my bed, but it was strictly for brushing my hair before he called. He laughed and agreed there was no need for the hairbrush because we’re not in high school anymore.

First, he asked me to spread my legs to the corners of the mattress. Because of my anxiety, he knew without me asking to go really really slowly, and I'm grateful for it. He took time warming me up and talking to me in the first minutes.

He told me to repeat lines back to him -- repeating lines makes me very pliable, and that night was no exception. I might've repeated I like to show off for Sir 20 times. Afterward, Sir wanted me to spread my pussy for him too, so I did.

But then he said, "little more," which made me think he had cameras in my room. I told him this and he reassured me that he didn't. Instead, he's just inside my head. <3

The night is very hazy. I wrote this with a lot of assistance from him, but this is one thing I remember clearly: everything Sir said was a specific instruction.

He didn’t say “I want you to tease yourself” and then wait for me to explain how I teased myself. He said “take your left hand and drag it up the inside of your left thigh. Slower. I’ll give you the rhythm.”

There’s a time and subject for the “I want you to tease yourself.”

I am not the subject. So it's never the time. I’m always afraid I’m doing something wrong, so I ask clarifying questions – “like ___? Or should I _____?”

But each of Sir's instructions were to-the-letter. Because of that, I never had to worry about doing something right or wrong. There was no ambiguity, there was just the instruction.

I'd already surrendered to his dominance, but that wasn't enough. He wanted to turn my brain off entirely.

At first, he didn’t incorporate the toys. It was nails on thighs and fingers spreading wetness around.

In his words, he was playing with his food.

Eventually, eventually, I was allowed to focus on my clit. Even longer after that, I was permitted to insert my fingers. By this point, with the lengths to which he was dragging it out, I started to whine (which was exactly where he wanted me).

After that, the vibrating egg came into play.

⊹₊⟡⋆ the middle ⊹₊⟡⋆

I’d told him the day prior what countdowns do to me and why, and he incorporated them at every milestone of the night.

With the toy still off, Sir told me to run it up and down my slit. Then I had to hold it at my entrance, adding pressure without allowing it inside. He counted me down and allowed me to insert the toy, then counted me down again to turn it on.

I don’t know how it happened. I sincerely – I don’t know. After a while he gave me a break, and I checked my phone to make sure its battery was still alright and found that an hour and a half had passed. He thought my surprise was cute.

In his words: “I'm glad you're having such a good time, but this night is FAR from over."

Sir told me to get my clit suction toy out and lay it on the bed in front of me, as if to tease me. Keeping the toy turned off, he told me to press it where I usually liked it the most. Then he told me to lift it off. Then place it back on.

Once I had a grasp on exactly how to move, he told me once the toy was turned on, he would give me a number, and I'd have to hold the toy on my clit for that many seconds--but he had me do the counting.

We started on low -- the toy has like 8 settings, so the first setting is usually never enough for me to even really feel? But after all the teasing and build up, I thought for a while I might've been able to hit an edge with it.

He made me hold it on for 3 seconds. 7. 15. Between every number, the toy hovered over my clit so I could hear it and feel a whisper of it, but it wasn't enough to give me any sensation or pleasure.

According to him: I demonstrated incredible self control. Despite how good the toy felt, I always put it down when he told me to, and only when he told me to.

He had me turn it up 2 notches, and I'm pretty sure this is where the last of my comprehensive thought left me.

I literally -- it's so hazy after this, I have no idea. I know he toyed with me just like that -- making me count up to 5, 12, then 7, then 3. He continually reminded me that I wasn't allowed to cum. He also reassured me I absolutely wouldn't be punished for pulling the toy off before reaching the requested number.

The most important rule was to wait for him to give me the orgasm--everything else came second.

There was a stretch of time that I was hitting an edge by 1 -- like the moment the vibrator got too close I was chanting I can't, I can't, I can't.

It felt like an eternity of me going absolutely stupid while teetering on the edge of orgasm.

He gave me a water break after the "I can't," chanting, and this was approximately our conversation:

"You can't?" no Sir, I can't "Why can't you?" bc i don't have permission "And you need permission, don't you?" yes Sir i do i need it "You need it because you don't have a choice, isn't that right?" yes Sir that's right, I don't have a choice "Say that again." i don't have a choice, Sir

That last line was repeated 10+ times

It was incredible. He had me edge myself for him. over. and over. and over.

and over.

and over again.

In his words: It was about 38 edges in just as many minutes.

I remember going nonverbal. I remember him telling me to be clear with the numbers, and I recall that being the hardest part -- because my lips and tongue no longer wanted to work. 

Babygirl, you're mumbling again! I need you to speak very clearly into your mic.Yes Sir, i understand

I started to get fuzzy. If you remember the old-school televisions -- whenever you would turn them off, that collection of static hovered across the screen. You could collect the static in your hands?

I felt like I'd swallowed it. That static blanketed my mind. My tongue was numb. My mind was buzzing. I was incoherent. I've never felt anything like it.

⊹₊⟡⋆ the end ⊹₊⟡⋆

From beginning of the call to the orgasm was over 2 hours. 2 hours he teased me. Denied me. Played with me until I was on the edge and made me wait there. I felt what was left of my brain disintegrate. turn to mush. slip out between my thighs.

(thank you Sir for helping me to recall this part)

Babygirl, you've been perfectly obedient for me tonight. (a long drawn-out whine) I'm very proud of you, of your self control. Are you sufficiently fucked out? Is your head all fuzzy now sweet girl? Can you even understand what i'm saying or are you too much of a brainless whore? (generally affirmative and giggly slut noises) I think you've earned your orgasm. *voice cracking* really? You have my permission to cum. We are going to change the rules of play now. Do you understand?  Yes Sir, I understand, thank you.

There was more in there, but I can't remember when -- he asked me if I still wanted it, and i didn't know the answer anymore. I wanted to say yes -- i wanted it so badly, but I was so fuzzy all i could think was only if you want me to.

Like I was no longer in a space that needed the orgasm - i only needed to make him happy.

it was the same game. hold the vibrator on the clit for the number of seconds he wanted. But the rules had changed. This time he would do the counting ( i loved the counting )

and this time, I was allowed to cum.

however -- the count didn't end when I orgasmed. the count ended when the count ended, and I had to keep the vibrator on until then.

he started with 3 seconds. Before this, I'd been hitting the edge in 3 seconds. But knowing I had permission to cum it felt different -- stronger of an edge almost?

The count ended.

Sir stressed again that I was allowed to cum. Then he counted down from 5 seconds? Or maybe it was 10?

The edge was right there, but the orgasm still felt so far away. The release was being stubborn. Maybe my body didn't feel like it was real?

He said again

Babygirl, you're allowed to cum. Sincerely.

Then he counted down from 20, dragging each number out to his liking.

Maybe I was scared of cumming too soon and overstimulating myself? I'm not sure. But my orgasm held and held and held. It did not want to release.

It sat like a boulder on a cliff, just one breath from falling off and giving me what he ordered. But it didn't budge, and there wasn't anything I could do. I was getting upset with myself by the time he hit 12.

When he hit 10, I discovered the issue.

It wasn't enough for him to give me permission to cum beforehand. I needed it while I was on the edge. The realization hit me so hard I would've fallen over had I been standing. With the time counting down, the pleading spilled from me. I don't even remember what came out of my mouth. He told me it was very very pretty though.

He had reached 6.

Please Sir i need your permission, I need you to give me permission again. I need it I need it.

Cum for me babygirl.

Relief was simultaneously like lightning and a flood through me, and it shoved the stubborn boulder right off the cliff.

There were 2 waves to the orgasm. The first wave was on the "5," the second was when he said "2."

After the second one I kind of blacked out a bit.

But I sincerely don't.....recall...all I know was it was (bar none) the most powerful and most perfect orgasm I've ever had <3

⊹₊⟡⋆ after/care ⊹₊⟡⋆

I cried. i had a feeling i would -- the anticipation + my anxiety + the orgasm was a huge release. my tears slipped into my headphones and they started to fizzle and crack out on me. He told me to stay in bed, but I wanted to find my other pair.

He was right to tell me to stay lying down -- I got dizzy when I stood up.  

He praised me for how good of a job I did which made me want to cry even more. I thanked him like a million times. He thanked me a million times, and he told me to drink my juice.

We talked about all 2 hours of the call. From the teasing to the egg to the counting to the vibrator to the permission to the begging. He filled in some hazy spots I'd already forgotten in my edged-out state.

I stressed that I wouldn't have changed a single thing about it. I had a lollipop, and i fell asleep talking to him on the phone. IT WAS PERFECT AND IM SO GLAD I TRADED 180 DAYS OF DENIAL FOR IT I'D DO IT AGAIN IN A HEARTBEAT.

[slyandthefamilybook]

...And here we come upon a problem as basic as the nature of knowledge itself: all of our prodigious cognitive and computational abilities are inadequate to a full comprehension of our complex world. As humans, we remain heavily dependent on certain tools of perception and conception that our cultural and biological heritages have taught us are useful. These tools–such as language, causal logic, religion, mathematics–are indeed powerful, but they are powerful precisely because they reduce complexity to intelligibility by projecting our mental concepts onto the world. One consequence of this is that our recognition of significance is always what some philosophers call "theory laden," meaning that it is shaped by what our theoretical framework and cognitive tools encourage us to recognize as meaningful. Anti-Judaism, as I have argued throughout this book, is precisely this: a powerful theoretical framework for making sense of the world.

...

After all, no matter how overrepresented the Jews may have been among the European "bourgeoisie," they remained a tiny minority of that class. How could that tiny minority convincingly come to represent for so many the evolving evils of the capitalist world order? More broadly, how could untold millions of Europeans (and not only Germans) come to believe–or act as if they believed–the claims of the Nazis (and not only the Nazis) that Jews and their conspiracies so threatened the security of the world that they needed to be excluded, expelled, or exterminated? According to Horkheimer and Adorno, the liquidation of the Jews of Europe was not grounded in "reality." It took place in the vast gap between and explanatory framework ("anti-Semitism") that made satisfying sense of the world to a significant portion of its citizens, and the complexity of the world itself.

They set out to explore that gap in a philosophical history of modern thought they drafted in 1944 and later published as Dialectics of Enlightenment. Their final chapter, "Elements of Anti-Semitism: Limits of Enlightenment," suggested that what gave anti-Semitic ideas their power was not so much their relation to reality, but rather their exemption from reality checks–that is, from the critical testing to which so many other concepts were subjected. "What is pathological about anti-Semitism is not projective behavior as such, but the absence of reflection in it." In their terms, the problem is a heightened resistance to reflection about the gap between our ideas about Jews, Judaism, or Jewishness, and the complexity of the world. From their point of view, anti-Semitism provides adherents with a cognitive comfort: the fantasy that the gap between our understanding of the cosmos and its fearful complexity does not exist.

...

...[A]cross several thousand years, myriad lands, and many different spheres of human activity, people have used ideas about Jews and Judaism to fashion the tools with which they construct the reality of their world. The goal of my project, like Horkeheimer and Adorno's, is to encourage reflection about our "projective behavior," that is, about the ways in which our deployment of concepts into and onto the world might generate "pathological" fantasies of Judaism. And my choice of method owes something to Auerbach's conviction that the study of a given moment, problem, or even a single word in the distant past can teach us something about a much longer history, extending even to our own.

Selected excerpts from Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (2013 Nirenberg, David)

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Truthout:

Democrats just helped Republicans give President-elect Donald Trump the potential power to shut down nonprofits under the guise of fighting terrorism — while GOP lawmakers have quietly revealed a new blueprint for defunding organizations they disagree with.

Earlier this month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee laid out a plan to target environmental justice nonprofits and organizations working to transition the economy away from fossil fuels.

That report preceded a major House vote on Thursday in which Republicans and 15 Democrats passed legislation giving the Treasury Department the power to strip nonprofit news organizations, advocacy groups, and universities of their tax-exempt status.

The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act was originally proposed last year, ostensibly to prevent U.S. nonprofits from supporting groups like Hamas after widespread protests over Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Nicknamed the “nonprofit killer,” it gives the president unprecedented authority to go after political opponents. Advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union warned of the bill’s potential “to grant the executive branch extraordinary power… based on a unilateral accusation of wrongdoing.”

After an essentially identical bill failed to pass last week, the newly approved bill now goes to the Senate for a vote.

In the preceding weeks, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s report focused on the Inflation Reduction Act’s distribution of federal funding, offering a preview of how the new terrorism legislation could be wielded for political purposes. It also highlighted the kinds of organizations that could be targeted, including those that support clean-energy policies like committing investments to renewable energy, phasing out fossil fuel production and use, and expanding public land conservation.

Criticizing the Biden administration’s environmental justice grants for marginalized groups historically inundated by pollution, the report says, “Enriching nonprofit organizations to spread radical, left-leaning ideology is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.”

The plan singles out specific groups that the committee says have pushed a “radical rush-to-green agenda,” including Rewiring America, a nonprofit working on electrification, and New York City-based environmental justice group WE ACT. It castigated, for example, a blog post on WE ACT’s website “criticizing ‘Republican gas stove culture wars,’ and House GOP Members’ ‘preformative [sic], out-of-touch agenda.’”

Under the new bill just passed by the House, criteria for designations of “terrorism” are vague. If it passes the Senate and is signed into law, the Treasury Secretary would have broad discretion in the law’s enforcement and wouldn’t be required to share related evidence.

From Yahoo News:

Here’s a full list of Democrats who voted for the bill:

Colin Allred—Texas

Yadira D. Caraveo—Colorado

Ed Case—Hawaii

Henry Cuellar—Texas

Don Davis—North Carolina

Jared Golden—Maine

Vicente Gonzalez—Texas

Suzanne Marie Lee—Nevada

Jared Moskowitz—Florida

Jimmy Panetta—California

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez—Washington

Brad Schneider—Illinois

Tom Suozzi—New York

Norma Torres—California

Debbie Wasserman Schultz—Florida

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Interesting. Very Interesting. 🤔

"Get your news from people who have a track record of telling the truth, people who do so at significant personal cost like whistleblowers."-Bill Ackman, Democrat Billionaire Hedgefund Manager

"Billionaire hedge fund manager and longtime Democratic Party donor Bill Ackman has blasted the Democrat party and fake news mainstream media outlets for lying and misleading the country about Joe Biden’s health and mental acuity. The White House, mainstream media, and even Biden’s personal physician have continually defended the Biden, insisting he is in good health and fit to serve. DEI White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lashed out at conservative media outlets for circulating what she described as “cheap fake videos” of Joe Biden looking old, feeble, and senile. Joe Biden and Barack Obama appeared on stage together earlier this month at a fundraiser in Los Angeles, California. After the fundraiser wrapped up, Obama had to grab Joe Biden’s hand to lead him off stage. Biden was frozen. Barack Obama treated Biden like a nursing home patient and walked him off stage. Earlier this year, during a routine physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Biden joked about his health status. When asked about his physical examination and what his doctors had to say, he responded, “They think I look too young,” adding that “Everything’s great” regarding his health. Dr. Kevin O’Connor, responsible for evaluating the 81-year-old President, concluded that despite any perceived physical struggles, Biden is “fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.” Notably, the examination did NOT include a cognitive assessment test. The White House was probably scared of the results, knowing they would doom Biden’s re-election bid for good. However, big-time lefty and longtime Democratic donor Bill Ackman, who previously said he was open to voting for Trump, has publicly blasted the Democratic party and mainstream media for misleading the country about Joe Biden’s mental acuity and health."

@BillAckman

As much as last night was an indictment of the Democratic Party for misleading party members and the country about the mental acuity and health of the president, the media deserve far more derision and scorn. I and others were repeatedly criticized by the media for questioning the competency of the president. Among other false accusations, I was accused of spreading misleading videos which clearly showed Biden’s deterioration.

Do you remember the heavily excerpted and edited @POTUS Biden @60Minutes interview where the interviewer covered for the president by saying he was ‘very tired?’ @60Minutes knew. The @nytimes knew. @CNN knew. @MSNBC knew. Left wing media have had total and complete access to the president, his staff, and his administration. They all knew, but they told you otherwise. They outright lied to you. When Robert Hur, the special counsel who deposed the president, said that the president was not fit to stand trial and therefore chose not to bring charges, the media described him as a tool of the Republican Party and character assassinated him. When the @WSJ recently published a several-thousand-word, carefully researched, front page piece on the president’s mental and physical health, it was described by left wing media as outright propaganda. Now consider who has been feeding you propaganda. A favored technique of some of the most evil leaders in history was to mislead the people by constantly repeating the Big Lie. The Big Lie is so audacious that people accept it as truth because it is repeated so often that how can it be that something so important and material could be an outright falsehood? In this case the Big Lie was our president’s fitness for office, let alone a second term. A media organization is not supposed to be a branch of the Democratic Party. The media have a profound obligation to tell the truth to the American people, particularly about something as critical for the country as the president’s mental and physical health. People very close to me, my closest family and friends, trusted the media on Biden until the @CNN commentators finally owned up to the truth about Biden last night. For months I have been accused by many friends and family of being misled by an @X -based ‘right wing echo chamber.’ The sad reality is that one of our most important institutions, the so-called ‘Fourth Estate,’ fourth only after the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners, has destroyed any remaining credibility it has. Consider how your perception of @POTUS Biden and @realDonaldTrump has been manipulated. The media can no longer save itself. A suggestion. Rely on empirical data as much as possible. Listen to what someone actually said, rather than a headline summary or article about what someone said. Get your news from people who have a track record of telling the truth, people who do so at significant personal cost like whistleblowers. I follow broad constituencies on @X on multiple issues. That has led me closer to the truth. Citizen journalism has been a much more accurate representation of reality. Thank you @elonmusk for saving this platform. It gives us a fighting chance to save our democracy.

[limerental]

claimed

a direct sequel to chained, my iorveth/roche slave caravan au

now with even more situations for these two to be weird about each other in!

summary

Though free of the slave caravan, Roche's poor health leaves Iorveth as his caretaker during his slow recovery. As they grow closer, it becomes less and less likely that they'll ever be free of each other.

excerpt

With dinner ladled out into shallow bowls, Iorveth lounges back to glean some amusement out of watching Roche struggle with the simple act of bringing the spoon from bowl to mouth with his shaky hands. He wonders if he will recover his dexterity in time or if the sickness has snuffed out something vital in him. Iorveth doesn’t like that thought. Of course, the simple fact of his humanity means that his strength and health and middling wits will all drain away from him in a matter of decades. But it seems unlikely that the man who had caused Iorveth such trouble, who had sparked his ire higher than any other, who had proven his equal in nearly every sense, would not be exempt from such unfortunate mortality. The amusement fades to frustration after the third or fourth time Iorveth watches a slice of potato bounce from the spoon into the dirt. It’s similar to watching a freshly-birthed fawn try to totter to its feet but lose its footing at the last moment over and over. The fawn at least would be visually appealing. Roche looks more like a miserable, ugly wretch the worse his hand shakes. “The food’s meant to go into your mouth, Vernon. Not the dirt.” Roche gestures with his middle finger. He has enough dexterity left to be vulgar at least.

[suisen-shira]

The undoing of Neil Gaiman once again spotlights the glaring issues with BDSM and the so-called 'kink community '.

In this excerpt from Lila Shapiro's searing expose of Gaiman's excesses, the premise BDSM is still framed as something tenable. As long as you don't trip over the jumble of wires (supposedly delineating the participants' no-go zones) - safe words, boundaries - you can pull if off with glorious results. It works like a charm but only theoretically and trying to navigate the emotional minefield only yields fleeting, if any, joy. The price it exacts is irredeemable, causing devastation and atavism, keeping you captive to whatever trauma led to your penchant for dissolution in the first place.

The practice overlooks the fundamental imbalance in heterosexual couples testing the forbidding waters of S&M kink, where, would you look at that, it's mostly women seeking the pain and surrender and men beating it to beating them. The problem with this is that the man can physically overpower her and violate her at any point and because the thrill of the 'game' is in the transgression, of 'trusting' someone so completely you let them brutalise you 'within reason.' When the exchange is, by definition, an unreasonable one. The blurring of boundaries to devastating and irreversible effect. Later, when you look back at the encounter with conflicted feelings, disgust, regret, you're left wondering if you have any grounds for objection, given that at the time you literally 'begged for it.'

These comments posted on a discussion about the Vulture article hosted by Reddit's Longreads community further highlight how convoluted the issue has become. Here, all of Gaiman's atrocities would be palatable if only they'd been inflicted on the many misguided women offering themselves up for degradation as Gaiman's 'sex slaves'.

Consent has now become a get out of jail free card, if you're an eager participant in your own debasement you're probably gaining something from it - money? To replace bad memories with new ones where you at least have the illusion of cosent/control? The malaise that drives these activities is cloaked under euphemisms such as 'Taking back control ', 'reframing your trauma'. Anything but call it for what it is, people so broken that they need to be mauled to derive pleasure from sex. As if the only determinant of the advisedness of an action is whether it gets you off.

The monsters who gourmandise those hapless souls whip around and say 'they expressly asked for it therefore I am completely exempt from the consequences of my own behaviour and entertaining their self-loathing blood lust.'

Indulging in 'kink' that is essentially about 'testing' boundaries impedes healing and the emergence of a healthy sexuality founded in self love and fulfilment. As long as we sell this depravity to young women packaging it as an edgy way of 'reclaiming' something that was taken forcibly from them, the scene will continue to be a wonderland for men who revel in hating and hurting women.

This glamourisation of sexual dysfunction that gives free rein to the most vile men needed to die yesterday. Men care about women's choices and enthusiastic participation only so long as the end result benefits them (the men), the women be damned.

[jayvik-big-bang-2025]

Guidebook Quick Guide!

Hello everyone. This is will have highlights from the guidebook I believe (Mod Chaos) will be important for everyone to know. As always you can check our pinned for the whole guidebook!

What is a bang?

A Bang is an event that pairs artists and writers together to create content for a series, ship, or theme. While there are different types of Bangs, the Jayvik Big Bang 2025 is a moderated event intended to portray a romantic relationship between Jayce Talis and Viktor from Arcane/League of Legends. 

The Jayvik Big Bang 2025 will feature two types of bangs running concurrently:

Traditional bang

Reverse bang

Writers may sign up for both the traditional bang and reverse bang. If a writer signs up for both they can do one traditional and one reverse. If they choose to only do reverse bang the writer can do up to two (2) reverses. If they choose to only do traditional the writer can only do one piece. 

Artists have more flexibility in their sign-ups: up to two (2) ideas for the reverse bang and/or any number of traditional bang pieces that they feel they are reasonably able to accomplish (keeping in mind the minimum requirements for both).

Since we want this to be a community event, we’re also looking for beta readers (those that proofread fics) and pitch hitters (backup content creators in case someone drops out of the event) for both types of bangs.

Traditional Bang?

Writers brainstorm ideas they wish to write for the bang and sign up for the traditional bang. After sign-ups close, Writers will submit summaries and short excerpts in accordance with the summary submission guidelines.

These summaries will be anonymized and made available to Artists and Betas, who will choose their partners based on the information provided in the summaries. Teams will consist of a Writer, an Artist, and optionally a Beta, who will then work together on their pieces for the duration of the event, including meeting their check-in deadlines together until final posting.

Reverse Bang?

Artists brainstorm ideas they wish to draw for the bang and sign up for the reverse bang. Once sign-ups close, Artists submit a very rough sketch and an idea in accordance with the sketch + idea submission guidelines.

Sketches will be anonymized and made available for Writers and Betas, who will choose their partners based on the information provided in the idea and sketch.

Teams will consist of a Writer, an Artist, and optionally a Beta, who will then work together on their pieces for the duration of the event, including meeting their check-in deadlines together until final posting.

Schedule:

All deadlines end at 11:59 PM Eastern Time Zone (New York) on the specified date:

Interest Check: January 11 - January 25

Mod Applications: February 1 - February 15

Mods Announced: February 26

Writer Sign-up: March 1 - March 15

Artist Sign-up: March 1 - March 15

Beta Sign-up: March 8 - March 22

Pinch-Hitter Sign-up: March 8 - July 19

Initial Submissions Deadline: March 29 - April 5

Writers in a Traditional Bang

Artists in a Reverse Bang

Claims: April 19 - April 26

Artists in a Traditional Bang

Writers in a Reverse Bang

Partners/Teams Announced: May 3

First Check-in: May 17 - May 24

Writer: Tangible ideas or a rough outline with ideas for your work

Artists, traditional: Idea written down or thumbnailed

Artists, reverse: Exempt

Betas: Exempt

Second Check-in: June 14 - June 21

Writers: At least 25% of minimum word count [traditional: 2,000 words; reverse: 1,750]

Artists, both: rough sketch

Betas: Exempt

Third Check-in: July 12 - July 19

Writers: At least 50% of minimum word count [traditional: 4,000; reverse, 3,500]

Artists, both: lined

Betas: Exempt

July 26th will be the drop deadline for the bang (see rules below)

Fourth Check-in: August 9 - August 16

Writers: At least 75% of minimum word count [traditional: 6,000; reverse: 5,250]

Artists, both: flat color

Betas: A brief description of what you have contributed to the team—spitball even more ideas, more editing, even art feedback, etc.

Final Check-in: September 6 - September 13

Writers & Betas: 100% completed story/reaching word count minimum

Artists, both: rendered with a simple background

Previews Submission: September 13- September 17

Writers: You will submit a small blurb from your story. It can be whatever part you want.

If it is NSFW we ask that you do not do something that would require a tag. 

Artists: You will submit a small cropped part of your drawing. 

If it is NSFW please be mindful of which part you are cropping. 

Preview Posting: September 27 - October 4

Posting: October 5- October 11

What is a pitch hitter?

In Bangs and other events, a Pinch-hitter is someone who picks up the assignment of any participant who has dropped and is unable to continue their involvement in the event. If you are unsure whether to join this event or not, signing up as a Pinch-hitter is a way to get involved. Pinch-hitters will be contacted as needed based on their availability and preferences. 

Artists and writers who do not wish to draw or write NSFW or Problematic content WILL NOT be asked to do so, even if the writer or artist they are paired with is creating NSFW or Problematic content.

Pitch-Hitter Artists will be shown the summary from the Writer, including ratings and tags. They will be asked to provide at minimum a piece of artwork following the requirements made for Artists. The requirements for Pinch-Hitter Artists are the same as regular Artists but will be given a one-week extension on all check-ins and communications.

Pitch-Hitter Writers will be shown the art at the time of the original writer’s drop. Writers ought to create a new piece based on the artwork and in discussion with the Artist. Depending on when the Pinch-Hitter Writer joins, they will need to coordinate with the Artist to make sure the new fic and existing artwork are cohesive. The requirements for a Pinch-Hitter Writer are the same as a regular Writer, but will be given a one-week extension on all check-ins and communications.

What is a beta reader?

Beta readers generally help proofread fics and look out for plot holes, spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. What Beta readers look out for will be dependent on what the Writer wishes to be evaluated.

Beta readers will have the opportunity to either:

A: Be paired up with a writer to help them with their fic

B: Be available to help as a general beta reader for any writer/fic when asked

Beta readers who are not working with a specific Writer and fic may choose to beta a fic when a Writer @’s their role in the Discord server.

Requirements Writers:

Writers are required to submit a new and original fanwork that must meet minimum word count and for whichever bang format they participate in by the submission deadline. As stated earlier, we ask that works for the Bang not be tied to any existing, published works. This would include prequel or sequel ideas for an already published piece—Bang pieces should be new and stand-alone when read.

Writers may create one (1) work for the traditional bang OR create up to two (2) works for the reverse bang. DO NOT sign up for both! This limit is in place to ensure a fair workload across teams! If you are interested in participating as both a writer and an artist, please DM a mod so we can work out something for you.

Fics must comply with the Jayvik theme and content must be tagged in accordance with the #content-warning-list within the Discord Server.

Other than these themes and ratings, writers are free to pursue creative freedom in their own fics.

Requirements for Traditional Writers:

The minimum word count for the Jayvik Big Bang 2025 traditional bang is 8,000

After sign-ups, writers will be asked to submit a summary of a fic they would like to write.

Requirements for Reverse Writers:

The minimum word count for writers participating in the Jayvik BB 2025 reverse bang is 7,000. Writers participating in the reverse bang may choose to create up to two (2) works.

General Art Requirements:

Artists are required to submit a new and original fanwork that must be completed by the submission deadline. Artists have flexibility in their sign-ups: they may opt to create for both the traditional and reverse bangs (however many pieces they feel they can comfortably manage). The maximum number of ideas for the reverse bang is two (2) pieces.

Artists must also comply with the minimum piece requirement as stated in the Minimum Requirements in accordance with the bang type they participate in. Multiple smaller pieces, digital, traditional, and comic-style formats are all welcome.

Artworks must comply and feature Jayce and Viktor and content must be tagged in accordance with the #content-warning-list within the Discord Server.

Artists assigned to NSFW Writers are NOT required to create NSFW illustrations; however, they have the opportunity to do so permitted that the Artist and Writer are both in agreement.

Other than the theme and rating, artists are free to pursue creative freedom in their artworks, as long as it’s based on a part of the writer’s story and complies with the rules.

Reverse Bang Artists:

Artists participating in the reverse bang must submit a very rough sketch or idea during the submission period.

Traditional Bang Artists:

A traditional bang artist will choose from anonymous summaries during the claim period.

[wangxianficrecs]

To Not Vainly Break Branches by ChilianXianzi

To Not Vainly Break Branches

by ChilianXianzi

M, 3k, Wangxian | One-sided Xixian

Summary: "It gets lonely in the Gentian Palace, Wangji," his brother says, something like a gentle rebuke in his voice, "You might remember it less clearly than I do, but Mother was always lonely too. I merely do not want the Empress to suffer the same fate." Lan Wangji does not remember much of Mother, only remembers the feeling of warmth and the soft hum of her songs, the gold of her eyes shining with what he now realises was longing. Unbidden, he remembers the shadow of a face behind a curtain of gossamer red, a face he never even unveiled. After three years of fighting a war and being away from the Imperial Palace, Lan Wangji finds himself falling for an Empress he's all but forgotten having wed. Kay's comments: There's just something about Emperor Lan Wangji/Empress Wei Wuxian stories that hits different, especially if it feat. the delicious angst and pining of Emperor Lan Wangji who totally ignored his Empress Wei Wuxian and left him lonely in the Gentian Palace and only turns up when it's almost too late to gain or re-gain Wei Wuxian's affections like in this story! Lan Wangji's POV in this first chapter was amazing, the way he seemed so detached and truly above everyone else like an Emperor is supossed to be, but then he immediately melted when he actually got to interact with his Empress, so good! Excerpt: It would seem that once Lan Wangji was reminded of his Empress' existence, he finds traces of him everywhere within the Cloud Recesses. Minister Herald Meng speaks of the Empress' help in making sure the delegations from the far South were served a suitably spiced fare, and Nie Huaisang flutters a fan adorned with golden finches that the Empress painted for the younger Nie. There is a strange feeling in the pit of Lan Wangji's stomach, like one does when one accidentally misses a step, at these small revelations of how much his Empress' life seem to intertwine with everyone else but himself. And the way things were going, he probably ought not be surprised that his own heir is not exempt to it.

pov lan wangji, royalty, canon divergence, arranged marriage, married lan wangji/wei wuxian, adopted lan sizhui, emperor lan wangji, empress wei wuxian, one-sided lan xichen/wei wuxian, xixian, possessive lan wangji, genius wei wuxian, inventor wei wuxian, prince lan xichen, pining, developing relationship

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[whatiwishfanfiction]

Wicked Rewrite Chapter 2 (Not Like Other Girls)

Didn't expect to continue this, but didn't expect to get 6 kudos that fast. Join us for a story about the Wicked Witch actually being wicked. A twist on the twist.

Excerpt:

“I don’t read the same thing every day, you know,” Elphaba said, flipping a page. “That's the thing about books. Once you get all the information out of one, then you can get more from another. You should try it sometime."

"Oh, I like reading about poetry, philosophy, and architecture," said Glinda, feeling a stab of irritation at whatever stereotype her roommate was trying to pin on her. "Like I said, I got into Shzzz for my literary merits."

"I'm sure whatever references you made to nursery rhymes were very insightful. But I'm talking about actually familiarizing yourself with our politics and history," said Elphaba. "Tonight, I’m reading some of the speeches from the Codified Chronicles of Ozma’s Reign. I want to accomplish important things, like changing our outdated laws.”

“That sounds interesting," said Glinda. "What kind of laws do you want to change?"

Elphaba let out a long-suffering sigh, as if Glinda couldn't possibly understand the depths of what she was doing. "Well," she said, finally sitting all the way up, and turning to look at Glinda down her crooked nose. She adjusted her glasses. "I think that anyone with green skin should be automatically exempt from having to share a room with anyone. And we shouldn't have to go outside to any social gatherings. The sun, after all, makes us a walking target for sunburns and rain."

"I see."

"Furthermore, I think that anyone with green skin should be legally required to wear a crown. It’s only fair. After all, if we can't blend in, why shouldn't we stand out royally?"

Glinda nodded, only half sure Elphaba was making a joke. "I don't know what to make of what you say sometimes," she admitted. "Why should anyone treat you differently for being green?"

"I think it's actually a superior way of being," said Elphaba. "I'm not like other girls, after all. My brain works completely differently. I read actual books instead of wasting time gossiping about fashion trends or boys."

"We don't really talk about those things," said Glinda, but Elphaba wasn't listening.

"Other girls are too busy looking in mirrors, but I actually look at the world around me. You know, the real world, not just my own reflection."

"I don't think—"

"While other girls are obsessing over how to please people, I’m actually trying to make the world a better place. A bit more ambitious, wouldn't you say? I don’t waste my energy on frivolous things like popularity. I’d rather have intelligence and independence, qualities other girls wouldn’t even know how to handle."

Glinda's eyes fell upon the hat on her nightstand. "I have an idea," she said, going to pick it up. "I may not have a crown for you to wear, but how about this? You don't like flashy things anyway, right? This black hat ought to match the rest of your wardrobe."

"I couldn't wear that, it's not sensible at all!" Elphaba flipped her hair over her shoulder. "It's tall and pointy. Points are childish and shallow."

"You know," said Glinda, "you say you like to be sensible, but I don't think that's really what you want. A blanket that's thin and moldy isn't a sensible choice. Dark raggedy clothes aren't practical for fitting into a school. I think what you're really trying to be is different." She handed Elphaba the hat. "Take it. Then you can really stand out."

Elphaba stared at the black pointed hat in her gnarled green hands. She traced the brim with a long nail, and her mouth twisted thoughtfully. Slowly, she raised it, and set it on her shiny mane of black hair. She shook her head to adjust it, and walked across the room to the mirror.

"I must admit…" she said, after a moment. "I think it actually suits me."

Just then, a gust of wind crashed the window shut, and heavy hailstones banged into the glass. Glinda yelped, and ran to push a table in front of it. "The latch is broken," she said. "Hand me something to fasten it with, Elphie—It's alright if I call you that, isn't it?—Elphie? Elphaba?"

She turned to see Elphaba standing by the window, her eyes wide, hands raised in the air. The storm was swirling around her, but not touching her. She seemed to barely notice it. 

"Elphaba, are you—" Glinda started, her voice faltering as she caught sight of Elphaba's expression.

Her fingers twitched as the wind howled louder. A thick, dark cloud began to gather over her head. Little bolts of lightning crackled from it, raising her hair around her pointed hat, like eerie spiderweb threads.

Glinda tripped backwards as Elphaba's hand moved in a sharp motion, and the storm outside obeyed, growing stronger. It was no longer a natural force, but something pulled into motion by Elphaba herself. The wind howled more fiercely, answering her every movement. A flash of lightning illuminated her bright green face as the room started buzzing violently.

"Elphaba!" Glinda shouted, eyes wide. "What’s happening?"

"It's… It's working," murmured her roommate, staring at her hands in disbelief. "Everything I've read… everything I've studied… I can do sorcery." Elphaba lowered her arm, the wind outside dying down in response. The storm ceased, just as suddenly as it had started. She stood motionless for a moment, eyes wide, breathing heavily.

Glinda stared at her roommate, unsure whether to be terrified or amazed. "You did that? With your... your hat?"

"It wasn’t the hat," Elphaba said. "It just awoke something. That was... me."

"Oh…" Glinda covered her mouth with her hands. "I guess you're really not like other girls, after all."

"Quite right." A smirk crept up on her face. "I knew that since I was born." But just as her smugness was reaching unbearable heights, Glinda slipped on a puddle and threw out her hands.

The electric feeling in the room returned more intensely, and rainbows shot out of them, followed by blinding light.

[philhoffman]

I just stumbled on an article by film professor Caetlin Benson-Allott called "The Queer Fat of Philip Seymour Hoffman," originally published in the book Millennial Masculinity: Men in Contemporary American Cinema and it is FASCINATING. Here's an excerpt that lays out her basic thesis:

In these films, the actor manipulates his physical breadth and weight as well as his gestural scale to draw the viewer’s attention to how compulsory heterosexuality marginalizes certain lives and bodies. These physical techniques help Hoffman visually exceed the fat male stereotypes of his early career, stereotypes that coded his body as immoderate, less than masculine, and thus most suited for minor roles, comedic turns, and pathetic losers. In such cases, fat male stereotypes rely on stock meanings attached to the actor’s stockier build. Hoffman transcends these roles with nuances of movement and deft exploitations of gesture and in so doing illuminates the process through which overweight male bodies are made unintelligible by a filmic culture that denigrates fat genders even among the gender and sexual alterities that it occasionally exploits.

Hoffman’s physical acting exemplifies the gendered as well as sexual potential of gesture and performance, for he uses his corpulence to visually refuse the traditional masculine-feminine gender binary and dramatize orientations and physical expressions of the body otherwise excluded from heteronormative American cinema... In each [film], he offers another version of what has remained a pale, overweight male body... As James Lipton notes, these relentlessly physical performances suggest that “Philip Seymour Hoffman may be the archetypal sex symbol of our time” in that he gestures toward new approaches to representation for marginalized sexualities and genders.

She goes into a deeper analysis of PSH's roles in Twister, Boogie Nights, and Mission: Impossible III, mentioning a few other performances throughout and focusing on how he used his body to challenge cinema's traditional ideas about fat male bodies and sexuality.

On his role as Dusty in Twister:

Hoffman must still perform the invisibility traditionally associated with fat bodies on-screen or risk violating Twister’s already tenuous verisimilitude. The genius of Hoffman’s performance is that he manages to do both by exploiting the cultural unintelligibility of obesity; he uses the spectator’s own tendency to dismiss fat men to camouflage Dusty’s narrative centrality. Because Hoffman is the only overweight actor in this film, his girth emphasizes Dusty’s position as the film’s fool, which helps disguise his formulaic responsibilities. Hoffman’s weight opens up a dramatic tradition through which he can exacerbate his character’s hedonistic qualities and conceal his intelligence and manipulative capacity. By making his body both overly visible and easily overlooked, Hoffman obscures Dusty’s generic necessity.

On Scotty J in Boogie Nights:

Hoffman orients Scotty’s physical expression of his sexuality around his belly. Because Scotty is written as inarticulate and suffering from unspeakable desires, Hoffman uses his body, specifically his largest and perhaps least mentionable feature, to communicate Scotty’s unmentionable orientation. Hoffman thus borrows a technique from gay male fat pornography and “displaces erotic pleasures [or their symbolic representation] from the genitals and disperses it to other parts of the body, thereby reconfiguring what can count as a pleasurable body.”

On Mission: Impossible III:

In contrast with Tom Cruise’s strong jaw and hard muscles, Hoffman’s relaxed flesh becomes a manifestation of his confidence; Hunt is tense, but Davian is at ease. This lack of visible affect exempts Davian from the tradition of fat villains whose bodies incarnate their overabundance of desire, appetite, or greed. His smooth contours and the reflection of light off the broad planes of his golden skin allow Davian to transcend associations of his body with appetite as he refuses to show interest in Hunt’s interrogation or subsequent threats to his mortality. Hoffman’s elimination of gesture thus helps Davian become a new kind of fat villain, one whose body suggests a lack of interest in the physical world rather than an excess thereof.

Pleaseee seek out this article if you have any interest in Phil's work and physicality—it's one of the most detailed and intriguing pieces I've ever read on him and I'd loveeee to talk about it, the good and the bad. You can download the PDF for free on academia.edu but if anyone has a problem getting it... just DM me lol. Wrapping this up with one excerpt from the conclusion bc I know Phil has taught ME a lot about "being in one's body," as the author says, so I love seeing that in print:

Hoffman’s body offers a new vision of male embodiment outside compulsory heterosexuality, an alternative use of the flesh we might even consider queer. Kathleen LeBesco has observed that the queer and fat liberation movements share many similar projects, but watching Philip Seymour Hoffman suggests that in some cases fat is queer... [Hoffman's] movements propose a new way of being in one’s body, for even within the highly structured heterosexual order of Hollywood cinema, Hoffman helps us envision the body outside normalizing gender strictures.

[bushdivingbushranger]

“Governments, companies, charities and media outlets now talk of ‘people who menstruate’, ‘pregnant people’, ‘abortion seekers’ and ‘birthing parents’, where they would once simply have said ‘women’. Here are a few indicative examples. The UK’s National Health Service explains that ‘the concept of virginity for people with vaginas has a complicated history’. Teen Vogue offers a ‘no-nonsense, 101 guide to masturbation for vagina owners’. Information campaigns from cancer charities tell ‘anyone with a cervix’ to get regular Pap smear tests. An ad for Tampax enjoins the world to ‘celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed’. La Leche League USA says it ‘supports all breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and human milk feeding families’. An American charity bemoans the frequency with which ‘black birthing bodies’ die in the delivery room. This language carves women up into pieces to be used for sexual and reproductive services. It is reminiscent of porn sites, where visitors are invited to search according to body part and activity of interest, or the surrogacy industry, where children are bought in bits – eggs from an ovary-haver, gestational services from a uterus owner and nutrition from a human milk feeder. Women become orifices, providers of genetic material, vessels for growing offspring and milch cows. This is not just dehumanising: it also obscures the fact that these body parts and functions come as a package. The same type of person ovulates, menstruates, gestates, gives birth and requires abortions, and possesses the physical features that heterosexual men desire to look at, touch and penetrate. It is the type of person who has been oppressed throughout history, precisely because men want to dominate and control the possessors of this type of body. Dividing women up like this attenuates their power as a constituency – at any one time, it is different women who are menstruating, pregnant, breast-feeding and post-menopausal, for example. How much harder it would have been to argue for the vote for women, or for paid maternity leave, or to end the exemption that allowed men to rape their wives at will, if the only way to refer to the beneficiaries of such policies had been to list bodily secretions and sexual organs.”

Excerpt from Trans by Helen Joyce

[andiatas]

VG: Royal duty to testify investigated in 1994 – this was the conclusion

The police will now decide whether Crown Princess Mette-Marit can be summoned for questioning or not. A similar issue was thoroughly considered 30 years ago.

Just over a week ago, the attorney for Juliane Snekkestad – one of the women in the Høiby case – submitted a request to the Oslo Police District to summon the Crown Princess for questioning.

The attorney, Petter J. Grødem, informs VG that he has not yet received a response to the request from the police.

Ever since Marius Borg Høiby (27) was arrested in August, questions have been raised about whether members of the Royal House can be, for example, questioned.

The constitution grants certain special rights to royalty, and opinions have been divided on whether [members who married into the family] also have immunity.

Two experts VG spoke to believe that the police can summon everyone in the Royal House – besides the King – for questioning like all other citizens. However, as a mother, Mette-Marit does not have the duty to testify.

She can therefore refuse because she is close family to the accused.

It is section 37 of the Constitution that is relevant here: "The Royal Princes and Princesses shall not be responsible for their persons to anyone other than the King or whomever he appoints as judge over them."

In 1994, Princess Märtha Louise was summoned as a witness in a divorce case in England and was listed as a co-defendant in the lawsuit.

The case was widely reported in the media, and the legal department of the Norwegian Ministry of Justice prepared a study of the issue.

Their conclusion was that Princess Märtha Louise did not have an obligation to [testify].

[...]

A key point for this conclusion was that the Princess had been made a party to the case:

"Section 37 of the Constitution prevents a Prince or Princess from being made a general party in a divorce case without the King's consent."

The following section of the study may be relevant to the current issue:

"On the other hand, the provision can hardly be interpreted in principle as exempting the Princes and Princesses from giving ordinary witness statements in a civil or criminal case."

Excerpts from an article by Marianne Vikås, Nora Viskjer, Morten S. Hopperstad, Bjørnar Tommelstad, Hilde Kristine Misje, Siri B. Christensen and Gordon Andersen for Verdens Gang (VG), published Nov. 4, 2024, at 18:28 and updated the same day at 18:38. The excerpt has been translated and edited for clarity by me.

[rjzimmerman]

The Flood-Protection Rule That Trump Rolled Back. (New York Times)

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

In the summer of 2017, Donald Trump stood in the lobby of Trump Tower and declared he would heal a “massive self-inflicted wound on our country” by eliminating red tape that he said was making construction in America an arduous, expensive process.

One policy he eradicated that day was a set of standards aimed at ensuring that anything built with taxpayer money — including hospitals, sewage treatment plants, bridges and libraries — could withstand flooding and rising seas caused by climate change.

Seven years later and in the wake of hurricanes Helene and Milton, federal officials and flood experts say Trump’s decision to roll back those federal infrastructure standards has had financial ramifications. Those are just starting to come into view as officials continue to tally the damage from the storms.

According to state and federal data, at least five water treatment plants in Florida that were in the path of Helene and Milton were exempt from tougher national building standards and sustained damage from the hurricane ranging from water line breaks to power losses. In total, they were funded with about $200 million in federal spending.

Another seven water plants across the Southeast that together received more than $100 million in federal funding were built to lower flood standards and didn’t receive damage during Helene or Milton. But the plants are considered at high risk for damage in the future, and what worries experts is how many crucial infrastructure plants are similarly exposed.

“We can definitively say that risk increased,” said Alice C. Hill, a senior fellow in energy and environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The federal government continues to invest in infrastructure destined to fail in the light of worsening climate impacts.”

“Hurricanes Helene and Milton are a stark reminder that catastrophic flooding, and the climate crisis more broadly, present ongoing and worsening challenges for America’s critical water infrastructure,” said Zealan Hoover, a senior adviser to the E.P.A. administrator, Michael Regan.

Hoover said policies like the flood standard “have real consequences for Americans,” including ensuring that communities can maintain access to drinking water in the wake of disasters.

The standards in question were created under President Obama in 2015, who made the case that climate change would make floods more common and much more destructive.

The rules called for building structures two or three feet above the 100-year flood level, or built at the 500-year level. Alternately, federal agencies could analyze future climate change scenarios like sea-level rise or expected heavier floods, and build according to those projections. But the policy ran into opposition, particularly from homebuilders who argued that new restrictions would lead to higher construction costs even outside federally funded projects.

[theinternetisaweboflies]

Jägermeister

Chapter Ten: Why We Fight

PPDC-17-CN-10964842412 OPERATION KEEPSAKE HKS GSM AUDIO DEVICE #12 LOCCENT  TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT ORCON Classified by: MSG-DAMI-ISH Dated: 2025JAN23 Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals

#86: I’ve finished mine, Hermann Oji-chan.

#44: Me too. 

#72: All of the names are on the board?

#13: That should be everything. You going to tell us what this is about now, brother? We've been going over this shit for hours, and nada. I mean, it’s awe-inspiring, if maybe a little bit unsurprising, to see just how unpopular Newt is with the other kaiju groupies, but what’s the point of listing them all out like that? 

PAUSE

#72: No? Yes! Oh, I do believe that's it!

#13: Are you listening to me?

#72: Yes, listen to me, Mr. Choi! While there has always been a surprising number of religious organizations that worship the kaiju, the largest of these by far is the Buenakai, correct?

#13: Correct? 

#72: The Buenakai originated in the Southern United States, but they have also established sects in China, Russia, Latin America, and some parts of Central Europe. Practices differ depending on local customs, and some sects are larger or more powerful than others, much like the different denominations of Christianity. 

The Hau Wong Buenakai have traditionally practiced out of the Hau Wong Temple, better known as Reckoner’s skull, in Kowloon. Their services ceased shortly after the events of January 12th and have not resumed since, which is highly suspicious in and of itself. While the double event may have been a factor, I find it quite difficult to believe they would lose their faith entirely just because the kaiju vanished. The American sects are doubling down. 

The Hau Wong Buenakai is also the only kaiju-centric organization currently claiming tax exemption for religious reasons that did not send Newton a death threat. 

He received threats from the Buenakai Baptists, the Texas Church of Our Lady Trespasser, the Santa Buenakai, the Hong Kong Kaiju Monastery, the Church of the Immaculate Kaiju, and so on, and so forth. 

Nothing from the Hau Wong Buenakai.

PAUSE

#13: Shit, you’re right. That's sus as fuck.

#44: It is?

#72: Indeed, Ranger Becket. Threats are promises, and promises are lies. Anyone truly committed to harming Newton would not telegraph their intentions with threats, despite how much irrationality they seem capable of on all other fronts. 

#86: The question is: How do we find them?

PAUSE

#72: Hannibal Chau.

#86: I thought you said he was dead. 

#72: Yes, he is. I don’t know why I- Though I suppose it has some-

PAUSE

#86: What is it?

#72: Hannibal Chau spoke to Newton of the Buenakai, unprompted. He was familiar with them. Perhaps even preoccupied with them. He was also a career criminal looking for a new line of work. 

#13: ‘Was’ being the operative word there, man. 

#72: I know, but I- I have a- Oh, lord help me, I have a hunch. Was the PPDC involved in the bone slum raids?

#13: That was local law enforcement. They just brought in K-techs afterwards to bag and tag. Why?

#72: I need to find out what happened to the apothecary, but the Real Estate Register in China is only partially public. I won't be able to get that information without going through a whole lot of red tape first.

PAUSE

#86: Should we ask the Marshal for help?

#01: Too late. 

#44: Her- Marshal Hansen! What are you doing here? 

#01: At ease, Raleigh. Dr. Gottleib, your new security officer told me I could find you here. Is there a reason he’s standing guard for you, instead of- I don't know. Guarding you? 

#13: To be fair, he's not really doing either. 

#72: Excellent timing, Marshal Hansen. I suspect Newton is currently being held at Hannibal Chau’s last-known base of operations by his former associates and the Hau Wong Buenakai. We require a full security detail to accompany us to the apothecary at the northeast corner of Fong and Tull at once. 

PAUSE

#01: Suspect? 

#72: I have no evidence as of yet, but I believe I could provide some with access to information on the current property owner.

PAUSE

#01: It was purchased on the 17th of January by a company established that same day called Napoleon Hung Far Low Enterprises.

#44: That was fast.

#01: Being Marshal has a few advantages. 

#72: Do you see, Marshal Hansen? Do you remember what Newton told us about Hannibal Chau’s name?

#01: My memory is fine, Dr. Gottleib. I’m not that old yet. I know you're about ready to break down the front door with your cane, but we don’t have jurisdiction in Hong Kong for anything outside a kaiju attack. We have to go through law enforcement channels. I'll alert-

#127: Marshal! Hermann- I mean, Dr. Gottleib- I’m sorry. Newt talks about you a lot.

PAUSE

#72: I beg your pardon? 

#127: I know I was only on his security detail for, like, one night, but we stayed up pretty late chatting, and I guess I got used to calling you by your first n- Not important. Right. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have something you should both hear.  

#72: It’s fine, Officer Stjepanović. 

#127:I keep telling you, it’s Deirdre, dude- I mean, Dr. Gottleib. You know, most people go out of their way to avoid pronouncing my last name. 

#72: Your message, Deirdre?

#127: Right! I’ve just been reassigned from your security detail. 

#01: On whose orders?

#127: The Secretary General. He, like, just ordered half the security office to raid a building in the bone slums. Does this have something to do with Newt? 

PAUSE

#01: Let’s go.

#127: I'll drive! 

...

@lastdaysofwar