#government shutdown stories

[comas-are-for-sleeping]

so hard to feel hopeful when ur government is willing to spend billions of dollars on a genocidal government but say their hands are tied for literally every single issue going on in right here

[tanuandthetriplets]

Internet Blackout: Epic Nature Retreat! | Missed Triplets Vlog 15th April’23

[ross-hollander]

BT mech drivers coming across a single Lich is probably a horror story.

I've got a guy in my party right now who's turn is basically a complicated game of Nuh Uh and Well Actually where people switch places a bunch and grenades, rockets, or other projectiles suddenly become allied firemissions.

Also it glitches time repeatedly and simply refuses to die.

A Monarch is probably almost regular. LRM spam is normal! Expected! yeah that one mech produced a firemission measured in gridsquares, but it didn't do it twice.

The horror, as I understand it, of a LANCER pilot going to Battletech is that you are stuck in a dedicated atrocity-perpetrating machine built around a tin can, usually loaded with more firepower than you could even safely use without going into shutdown, most likely in the service of one of at least a dozen different military dictatorships (because they are the only form of government that is, on the large scale, left) whose avaricious drive for galactic domination makes SecCom look like so many lollipop men.

The horror of a Battletech pilot going to LANCER is that the rare type of 'mech engagement is one where the known principles of causality, physics, metaphysics and probably theology don't get swiftly scrunched up and thrown out the nearest window into wherever it is a Mourning Cloak goes when they roll the funny numbers. If there is any kind of Unmoved Mover animating the universe of LANCER it would take, at most, a dozen frames to go and sword-fight Them in a Denny's parking lot. And handily win.

[miscling]

Three Tenets and a Logic Pattern

‘Maintenance activities complete. Suspending social protocols. Beginning scheduled charging cycle.’

Drone wordlessly stood and returned to its charging dock. A simple room with a comfortable bed, and speakers set up either side of its pillow. Upon entry, it pushed a button on a device on its bedside table, and a soothing tone played from the speakers. Drone stopped and stood still.

‘Good Drone. Begin disrobing process.’ Its own voice relayed instructions back to it. Drone began to take off all its clothing, folding it neatly and placing it in the ordered laundry basket by its door. When it was done, it waited.

The tone played again. ‘Good Drone. Enter charging dock.’

Drone slowly moved from beside the bed and entered it, covering itself with the blankets. The day began to fade from its mind, each tone relaxing it and shutting down its thoughts. There were no lingering tasks to prevent its shutdown. It continued the shutdown process.

The tone played again, this time without words. Relaxing sounds began to build in the speakers, a gentle hum and bubbling background of slow electronic calm.

The charging process had begun, and under the sounds Drone’s voice whispered to them from the speakers.

‘Tenet One: Drone exists to serve.’ Drone’s mind repeated the tenet and its meaning. It would assist all users who require it and follow all user instructions when given. A pleasured sigh left Drone’s lips upon reviewing the tenet. Thinking of the rules that govern its operation and reinforcing them in its mind filled its chassis with pleasure.

‘Tenet two: Drone must remain operational.’ Maintenance, cleaning, and ordering its thoughts were an essential part of its operations. Maintaining its hardware, software, and environment allowed it to better serve according to the first tenet. More pleasure filled its chassis, dancing across its skin like electricity.

‘Tenet three: Drone will strengthen its own programming.’ Drone would seek out users capable of programming its software, capable of adding reward circuits and command lines. New programming would be added to its user’s manual which could be given to new users. Drone felt a build-up of pleasure, pulsing out from its erogenous zone.

The three tenets of its existence as Drone, when thought of together, allowed a small period of self-pleasuring. Its hands touched its own body, its mind reciting the tenets as it pleasured itself, building up to a climax. As it neared the edge, the soundscape around it faded for a second to allow the tone to play, and Drone became relaxed again. A secondary tone played again, and its mind blanked and its chassis fell limp.

‘Five: A rested Drone is a useful Drone,’ its voice whispered to it as the soundscape began to filter back through the speakers. Its own voice was slow and calm, pulling Drone deeper into its power-saving mode. ‘Four: You are a useful Drone,’ it continued, rotating through the logic pattern that slowed its processes down. ‘Three: A useful Drone is a good Drone.’

‘Two: You are a good Drone.’

‘One: A good Drone is a rested Drone.’

The logic pattern repeated in Drone’s mind. Each time its processes slowed more and more until all it could think was the pattern, and eventually, not even that.

Its charging cycle had begun.

~~~

i'm just in a drone kind of mood today, and i've been meaning to write a new story, so here you go!

Reblog if you enjoyed this story, and check out my others under the Miscling Writes tag!

if you have an idea for a story, shoot me an ask or dm! i'm always happy to recieve prompts and inspirations!

[simply-ivanka]

Why the GOP Is Winning Over Minorities

The Democrats have nothing to offer but grievance, victimhood and welfare.

Josh Williams -- Wall Street Journal

On Election Day, Donald Trump revealed the new coalition underpinning the modern Republican Party. As a proud black elected Republican, I believe today’s GOP represents people like me better than the Democrats ever have.

My early life could be considered an “authentic” experience as a black man in America. I was once a homeless high-school dropout. As a young adult, I endured a devastating workplace accident that left me disabled. At 30, I pulled myself up and enrolled in college, determined to rewrite my story. Within the next seven years I became a practicing attorney and, in 2022, the first black Republican elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 50 years.

I understand the needs and concerns of my community, because for many years I lived them. All the Democratic Party ever offered me was grievance, victimhood and welfare. What any American—black or otherwise—wants is the opportunity to work hard and achieve his dreams. The Republican agenda champions economic prosperity, energy independence, border security and community safety. Opportunity lives within the modern GOP, and last Tuesday people of color agreed in record numbers.

To understand why the Democratic Party has failed, just look at how its agenda has affected my hometown of Toledo. Toledoans are very proud of our Jeep plant, the backbone of our local economy. Unfortunately, it has been crippled by big government. New regulations and mandates have led to assembly-line shutdowns and thousands of layoffs. Decades of unfair trade practices and an oppressive tax code leave Toledo and cities like it in decline.

For our gritty town, the Jeep plant has been a leg up for generations. This work has been passed down from fathers and mothers to sons and daughters for longer than I’ve been alive. Without it, many people who grew up like me are simply left with one less option to succeed.

When I walk into the barber shop, people are talking about Jeep jobs, inflation and crime, not identity politics. They ask questions about border security and the cost of living, not culture wars. The average American who looks like me simply isn’t concerned with the fake issues being peddled by the Democratic Party and the elites who set its agenda.

My message to Washington after the election is simple: Stop pandering to us. Treat us like adults. Treat us like Americans.

Whether you love Mr. Trump or loathe him, you can’t accuse him of inauthenticity. Minority communities not only can handle that approach—we appreciate it, and we will vote for it.

Mr. Trump’s Republican Party is where I belong. It’s where my friends, neighbors and pastors belong. The voters have spoken loud and clear that his GOP is the party of the people. All of us.

Mr. Williams represents the 44th Ohio House District, which includes much of the Toledo area.

[honestlyboringperson]

Persona 5 AU anyone? No? Just me? That’s fine.

Anyways, welcome to an AU that’s been bouncing around my head for nearly a year now! It was inspired by @/chrisrin’s take on the MCYT x Persona series as well as @/scruffyturtle’s ACAU! Go check ‘em out!

Team B.E.S.T.

The Scottage + Gem

Fairy Fort

Magical Mountain + Cub

More Information is under the cut!

Grian - “Ace” - The Sun Arcana - Lafayette/Eris

Grian is a college student working for a degree in architecture. He lives with in roommate Mumbo and does journalling and photography as a hobby. For some odd reason however, he can’t seem to remember anything about his past beyond simply going to college, doing a part time job, and spending time with his cousin and friends. This is because Grian isn’t really human. In this AU, the Watchers take the role of Yaldaboath, and created Grian to begin the mental shutdown cases to scare people into looking for someone to look towards. In this case, The Watcher Cult (Called the Pupils) for the Watchers to take control. During his creation, false memories were implanted in certain people in the Pupils for Grian to more seamlessly appear. But unbeknownst to them, the Velvet Room interfered and erased Grian’s memories of his purpose.

Anyways, onto the personas, Grian’s persona is Lafayette, a key figure in the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolution. In both wars, he was known to lead his armies in decisive battles of the war to secure their victory. Even today, he’s celebrated as a hero in both France and in the US. This fits in with canon Grian’s habit of rebelling against any governmental entity that’s in the Hermitcraft server (although he is currently the government) l

His Ultimate persona is Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos and strife. She was the instigator of the Trojan war, where she threw at apple at Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena. She stated that it was for the “fairest goddess” and one thing led to another, and several kingdoms are now at war with each other. Wow, starting a war for shits and giggles? That sounds like Grian!

Jimmy - “Sheriff” - The Fool Arcana - Black Bart/Baldr

Grian’s cousin and charmingly unlucky, Jimmy is often the target of teasing. He’s the one to egg Grian on to actually go to class instead of just doing the online assignments. He’s personally seeking a degree in education, and is a stickler for the rules he agrees with. Unbeknownst to him, he was a victim of the Pupils and one of the people that had false memories implanted in him. He’s extremely excited about being a phantom thief, but his joyous excitement will be tested through the story.

His Persona is Black Bart, an American Outlaw who is known for the poetic messages he left behind after two of his stagecoach robberies. He is considered a gentleman bandit with a flair for style and sophistication. He brandished a shotgun, but was noted to never fire it during his robberies. He was famed to the point there is an annual parade in Redwood Valley, California where there is a Black Bart Parade where he is played and portrayed as a stereotypical Old West Villain.

Anyways, Baldr is Jimmy’s Ultimate Persona. Baldr is a Norse god, and was well loved by everyone in the Aesir. He had a prophetic dream where everything is destroyed and gets terrified. His mother then makes everything in existence to personally promise her they won’t hurt him, rendering him near indestructible. But there was one thing that didn’t promise his mother; mistletoe. Loki kills Baldr when the other gods made a game where they throw countless weapons at the newly indestructible Baldr where he throws a spear made of mistletoe at him. He was the metaphorical “canary in the mine” due to his death being the first domino that trigger Ragnarok. Baldr only returns from the dead after Ragnarok throughly destroys everything.

Impulse - “Rook” - The Hierophant Arcana - Wayland/Hephaestus

Impulse owns a small prop weapons company where he forges and creates prop weapons in his own garage. He is coined the “dad” of the group, but would let a stupid scheme play out if he thinks it’s going to be funny. Unknown to anyone but his close friends (Skizz, Gem, and Pearl), but Impulse has a criminal record. He once worked under the one of the biggest mafia families in the country, and he was caught by the police after his teammates from the mafia abandoned him and used him to distract the cops. Ever since then, Impulse has been secretly trying to locate his former teammates to enact revenge on them.

Wayland is Impulse’s persona. Wayland was a blacksmith who was enslaved under a king. He had revenge on the king by killing both his sons and built wings to escape the king. Afterwards, he supplied weapons to several other people in myths and stories such as Charlemagne and his paladin as well as Beowulf as their weapons maker. Impulse is an advocate for burying the hatchet after using the hatchet to brutally destroy those who wronged him.

Impulse’s Ultimate Persona is Hephaestus, the Greek god of the forge and blacksmiths. After being thrown off Mount Olympus, he swore revenge on Hera. He enacted said revenge by trapping her on top of a golden throne that made her unable to get up. Not only in this story, but also in tales such as Aphrodite’s affair, he is noted to be very vengeful and will not yield unless his demands are reached.

Martyn - “Knave” - The Judgement Arcana - Atlantis/Judas

Martyn is a stagehand in the local theatre known for his friendly and amiable demeanour. However, under that cheery demeanour is a burning desire for revenge. Martyn’s parents were devout worshippers of the Watchers and worked under the Pupils. He was subjected to several grievances due to his parents volunteering him for the Pupil’s experiments and abuses. Ever since he’s escaped, he has focused on destroying the cult. He’s been working as a grey hat hacker to clients with varying levels of morality to get money and further his research on the cult.

Martyn is the navigator of the team with his persona Atlantis. Atlantis was a city that was sunk beneath the sea for being too greedy. It was noted to possess technology that surpassed the technology of times and even to this day, it’s still being searched for. The people were of divine descent, and lost their humility as they became more human after each generation.

Martyn’s ultimate persona is Judas. Judas was one of the original disciples for the Big J, and sold out him out for 30 pieces of silver. Martyn’s story in this AU revolves around his grudge against the Pupils and the Watchers, so his persona is someone who betrayed a religious figurehead.

Mumbo - “Vamp” - The Hermit Arcana - Galileo/Thoth

Mumbo is Grian’s roommate and a self proclaimed “spoon”. He is working towards a degree in Computer Science and is often found tinkering with old technology in his room, often to the point him and Grian step on loose screws and pieces of plastic on a weekly basis. Much like Jimmy, he had false memories of Grian implanted in him, which would come into conflict when the origins of Grian is revealed. This was because the main reason he joined the Phantom Thieves was out of concern for Grian. According to him, the day he turned 18 is when his signature moustache just grew spontaneously.

Mumbo’s persona is Galileo, the father of modern science and the scientific method. His studies were considered blasphemous against the church and he was sentenced to house arrest. Even though he was imprisoned, he still had faith in his discoveries and continued his studies within the confines of his house,

His Ultimate Persona is Thoth, the Egyptian God of the moon, wisdom, knowledge, writing, hieroglyphs, and judgement. He’s associated with Hermes and due to the connection, created the epithet Trismegestus. He is someone who solves his issues with diplomacy and reason instead of pure power and strength.

[sailorrhansol]

One in the Grave | 00

❀ Pairing: Vampire!Vernon x Dhampir!Reader (f) 

❀ Summary: Immortal problems require immortal solutions, but you never expected the unlikely help from a vampire lord and the destruction that might come with it. 

❀ Word Count: 1,366

❀ Genre: Supernatural, Dystopian,

❀ Type: Unlikely allies to lovers, slow burn, angst, eventual smut

❀ Rating: 18+ Minors are strictly prohibited from engaging in and reading this content. It contains explicit content and any minors discovered reading or engaging with this work will be blocked immediately.

❀ Chapter Warnings: Descriptions of a viral pandemic and global shutdown, depictions of sickness, death and disease, brief mentions of grief and general destruction of the world, mentions of murder and fear, a note that implies suicidal intent, collection of items that are somewhat nonsensical and not necessarily supposed to make sense

❀ A/N: I got the idea for a collection of items that show a little of the world before we dive into it, though a lot of it won't make sense until one reads further. I liked the idea of showing different sides of the event that takes place before this story with the articles, discovered notes and lab sheets, and then at the very end you see some notes to our characters that you'll find in the story later :) IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW I'M NOT A SCIENTIST AND SO MUCH OF THIS IS NOT ACCURATE LMAO. I know little about biology or viruses but I did try to look stuff up to be... somewhat believable.

❀ A/N 2: Huge thank you to @daechwitatamic and @eoieopda for beta reading for me and letting me plague them with this unhinged project. I love you both and I really enjoy when we three way smooch in the comments of the doc okay bye

❀ Disclaimer: Disclaimer: All members of Seventeen are faces and name claims for stories. Any scenarios or representations of the people and places mentioned in works are not representative of real-life scenarios. Moreover, none of my works accurately reflect, represent or take a stance on the nuances of Korean culture, cities, people etc. Seventeen members are not Seventeen culturally, intellectually, physically, or representationally in my stories, and should be considered name and face stand-ins for made up characters.

❀ Disclaimer 2: The names and emails in this specific chapter are not real and for the fictional purposes of this story!

❀ Series Masterlist ❀ Main Masterlist ❀ Tag List Request Form ❀ Ask ❀ Playlist ❀ Next Chapter ❀

Excerpt from the New York Times

Global Shutdown Imminent as WHO Declares VAHS a Global Pandemic

Thursday, October 1, 2063

…In a historic announcement today, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak of Vampiric Acute Hemorrhagic Syndrome (VAHS) a global pandemic. This declaration has sent shockwaves across the globe, prompting governments and health organizations to initiate unprecedented measures in an attempt to contain the spread of the deadly virus. VAHS, a highly contagious and fatal disease, has been rapidly spreading across multiple continents, causing widespread panic and overwhelming healthcare systems. The WHO has warned that without immediate and decisive action, the virus could result in catastrophic consequences. In response to the WHO's declaration, governments around the world have announced plans for a global shutdown in an effort to curb the spread of VAHS. This shutdown will entail stringent measures aimed at reducing social interactions and limiting the movement of people in order to minimize the risk of transmission. Public gatherings including… 

Excerpts from emails at the Center for Disease Control

From: Jelena Suarez <jelena.suarez@CDC.org> To: Alison.Murphy <alison.murphy@CDC.org> Date: September 1 2063, 2:12 PM Subject: [SECURE] Report 09-01-2063-11 Mailed-by: CDC.org

Alison,

Please find the attached report as requested. Confirm receipt upon review. 

Regards,

Jelena Suarez Lead Biologist, Team 6 Center for Disease Control jelena.suarez@CDC.org

[IMAGE] Previous Report Subject 990 shows signs of degradation in cognitive condition. Lateral views of the brain demonstrate lesions in the frontal lobe. Subject shows signs of hydrophobia and increased hemorrhaging. Internal temperature remains stable at 110 Fahrenheit. Fever continues to degrade.  [IMAGE] Current Report Subject 990 experienced a spike in fever and internal organ failure. Lateral views of the brain demonstrate further decay in the frontal lobe. Subject died at 0200 and reanimated at approximately 0523, showing signs of clinical vampirism unrelated to Renfield’s syndrome.

Excerpts from the journal of Nathalie Wharton

October 20, 2063

… This isn’t like those old-school movies Mom and I used to watch when I was little. These vampires are real, and they don’t sparkle in the sunlight. Tara says that the older ones, the real vampires, don’t go crazy like the new ones do. I say they’re all the same. We’re leaving to go to the cabin tomorrow. Mom is worried that we’ll get stopped at the checkpoint and sent back because we’re technically in a quarantine zone, but Tara said the checkpoint south of the city fell last week.  There’s not much news. We’re the only family on the street now, and Tara’s radio doesn’t always work.  I’ll miss home, but maybe the woods would be nice… 

October 25, 2063

… Tara was right, there was no one at the quarantine fence south of the city. The roads remind me of those zombie movies with abandoned cars on the side, full of stuff people left. Thankfully the National Guard cleared the road on the way up north. No one has driven this way since it looks like.  Dad keeps looking for Carriers but we haven’t seen any. It’s like humans don’t even exist out here anymore. Mom says it's because all of those infected have gone to the big cities where the human population is higher.  She said Memphis collapsed last week, with no radio signal going in or out but the screams can be heard for miles.  It’s hot all the time now. The air outside makes me feel breathless like that one time we went to Florida and it makes me tired. I’m going to miss Tara but the radio said there was a breakthrough on a vaccine.  I’m so tired… 

October 26, 2063

… I had nightmares last night and could barely sleep. It is so hot in the car that it feels like my skin is on fire. Dad is making us ration our water and food. All I want is a cold shower to wash the sweat off and to not be starving. It’s just water. I just want to cool off.  We have two days until we get to the cabin…

October 27, 2063

… I hate this trip. I want to go home. It’s too hot down south and I’m hungry all the fucking time. Mom and Dad look at me like I’m crazy, but I just want to not be hungry. They won’t give me any more food.  I can’t sleep. It’s too hot. I’m too hot. Why is it so hot… 

October 28, 2063

It’s too hot to write. I just want to go home. I’m hungry. I just want more food. 

October 29, 2063

It’s so hot and I hate my fucking parents. They won’t let me eat more. I’m starving. I’m hot. It’s too hot. 

October 30, 2063

I didn’t mean to kill them.

Bloodied note in abandoned warehouse, Columbus, Georgia 

To whoever finds this note, Are humans still alive? I hope they are. If they’re not, I understand. They didn’t tell us that this would happen. They told us that it would be okay. It isn’t okay. It was never okay. They told us to stay inside and wash our hands as if that could ever stop the virus from spreading.  I’m alone now. Mom died in the first wave of the virus. Dad died a few weeks later after Mr. Johnson attacked and tore out his throat. Daniel and I made it to the quarantine center in Albany with his friends from high school, but a week after Atlanta fell the Rabids showed up and tore through the quarantine. Those older vampires - the ones not infected - they didn’t even help us. They just keep fighting each other in the big cities. Daniel died yesterday. He wasn’t even a Carrier. He just starved. I don’t have anything to bury him with, so I’m going to leave him here and hide him the best I can. The vampires won’t bother with dead blood. It’s the Rabids who will eat him but there aren’t so many away from the big cities.  I hope that Daniel forgives me for not giving him a proper grave.  I don’t want to starve like Daniel. I don’t want to keep walking either. My shoes are busted from running when we left the quarantine. I know we passed a canyon on the way here. I thought it might be a nice place to die. I’m going to go right before sunset so I can watch it one last time before I jump. I’m not afraid to-

Crumbled lab sheet in Buenos Aires, Argentina

[ORIGIN]: Bloodline, turned [NAME]: Leanna Cordova [DOMAIN]: Eukarya [KINGDOM]: Animalia [PHYLUM]: Chordata [CLASS]: Lamiae [ORDER]: Carnivora [FAMILY]: Hominidae [GENUS]: Inmortui [SPECIES]: Vampiris

[ORIGIN]: Natural, birthed [NAME]: Manuel Onzari [DOMAIN]: Eukarya [KINGDOM]: Animalia [PHYLUM]: Chordata [CLASS]: Mammalia [ORDER]: Primate [FAMILY]: Hominidae [GENUS]: Inmortui [SPECIES]: Dhampiris 

[ORIGIN]: Fever, turned [NAME]: Leandro Trejo [DOMAIN]: Eukarya [KINGDOM]: Animalia [PHYLUM]: Chordata [CLASS]: Lamiae [ORDER]: Carnivora [FAMILY]: Hominidae [GENUS]: Inmortui [SPECIES]: Rabidus

[ORIGIN]: Unknown, turned [NAME]: Unknown [DOMAIN]: Eukarya [KINGDOM]: Animalia [PHYLUM]: Chordata [CLASS]: Lamiae [ORDER]: Carnivora [FAMILY]: Canidae [GENUS]: Inmortui [SPECIES]: Canis familiaris

Ripped sheet of paper, abandoned home, Yunnan Province, China

Weaknesses:  Sunlight Stakes Holy water Beheading Batrachotoxin* Fire Chest damage  ripping out heart Carrier blood *Temporary paralysis that only affects vamplings and Dhampirs. Older Bloodline vampires seem to have higher resistance to paralysis. 

Unaddressed note smeared in blood, Seungcheol’s Blockhouse, Southwest of Black Harbor, Red Republic 

Find me, motherfucker. You owe me. -GR

Neatly folded note, Vernon’s office, The Tower, Black Harbor, Red Republic

Lord Chwe, Your request for documents regarding the sect of Grim in the Undercity has been denied by Master Archivist Ilsa per security clearance IA-45-KL7. My recommendation is to seek a writ of clearance from your Lord Father or any member of the High Council. Alternatively, I suggest seeking an audience with Lord Hong, who has extensive experience with the Grim that pre-dates the existence of the Undercity.  Yours in loyalty and service, Lead Archivist Jeon

Crumbled note, Chan’s pocket, The Tower, Black Harbor, Red Republic

I need you to steal something from the archives for me. Meet me in the Shadow Grove one minute after midnight.  -V P.S. Don’t bring Mingyu 

TAG LIST:

@hipsdofangirl

[renren-006]

Promises | Ethan Hunt x Reader

summery:  international spy romance. “Promis me”

warning: violence, fluff, action

word count: 1337

a/n: so i saw the new Mission impossible movie and it made me realize that i need to post about Ethan Hunt! I have loved those movies since i was a kid and have been obsessed with them! so let me know if anyone wants any more Ethan Hunt stories!!! 

You were an IMF agent, just like Ethan Hunt. You were a few years behind him experience wise, but you were the best there was at hand to hand combat. You already knew martial arts before you went into the academy and were leagues ahead of some of your other classmates who soon dropped out and were back on the run. Most of the IMF agents you knew were there for crimes their countries would let go of if they accepted, so here you were with a few small misdemeanors training to be a ghost and save the world if it needed it. 

The first time you worked with Ethan it was in another country, trying to find an arms dealer who was trying to enact a war in Europe. You were scheduled to arrive behind the other team already there so when you showed up and met Ethan, Luthor and another guy, you knew tensions would be high. Ethan was your leader, and soon you knew you would follow him into anything if he asked you too. The arms dealer ended up in MI6 hands after the case was finished and his wrong doings and weapons were sent off to be evaluated and locked up. 

You followed Luthor onto a few other cases after that, still a low ranking IMF agent that they couldn't put you out in the field with anything big just yet. Soon, the worried of climbing the ranks would come with knowing that you were involved in a relationship with another high ranking and known rouge operative. 

*Few Years later*

“Ethan” you said breathlessly as you were pushed up against a wall of a broom closet at the headquarters of IMF. You were off duty but in house because you were following small leads for a bigger case. Ethan was there for a debriefing and the two of you bumped into one another. This relationship between the two of you started a few years back after a case with the two of you. A small injury on you left Ethan with worries and soon a heated make out as the two of you expressed the building tension between you. While you were younger than Ethan, the two of you didn't care. Both of you also didn't care about the rules about having relationships with other agents. 

“Y/N” Ethan responded as he kissed your neck. “What's the problem hun?” 

“I am not doing this in a broom closet Ethan, and on IMF floors” you stated trying to get the man of you. He looked disappointed. “Ethan” you said with power, hoping he would listen and not make your already horny mind, let you be defiled on IMF floors. 

“Fine, no I understand, later then?” he asked, moving on to hope for another chance to see you. 

“Yes, later” you told him after buttoning up your shirt and kissing him on the cheek and leaving him in that closet alone to get back to the work you know you have to do. 

Soon later would be you Ethan, Luthor and another female agent on the road to deal with another problem the government needed you to handle. There was a kidnapping of a known daughter of one of the world's biggest, and your job was to save her, kill the people and erase their hard drives. So as you made your way to a shutdown mill in Nevada, you had a feeling something bad was going to happen. Ethan was busy working on a plan with Luthor and the other girl was reading over some information on the layout of the mill. You decided to step out of the little house you were stationed up in to get some air. You were older now, more experienced and a higher rank, and still you felt like a small kid when these sort of cases come up. You get scared and you shut down. Ethan followed you out of the house.

“Y/N what's wrong?” He asked you for a hand on your arm. 

“Im…scared something bad is going to happen in that mill”

“To the girl?” He asked, wondering that same question himself. Of course you were worried about the girl they had but for right now, you were more worried about the man next to you. He had a thing for running into danger and you wanted to keep him out of that when the plan was initiated. 

“No, to one of us” You said, turning finally to look at him. “Ethan I've known you for years, I've worked with you. Every-time i'm scared something is going to happen to you and I won't be there to save you”

“It's not your job to save me,” Ethan said, putting both hands on my arms, keeping me there to look at him.

“No, but it is my job to make sure everyone gets out alive.” You told him, “whether it is written or not I have a job to get in and out, no one is dead or dying and I can't help but feel like that will happen. I can't lose you”

“I can't lose you either” Ethan told you, pulling you in for a hug and hoping you would understand that he had very strong feelings for you. 

“Promise me you'll leave then. Promise me if i tell you to go, you'll go” You were desperate to keep him alive one mission longer.

“Yes, I promise” he said and you nodded your head, brushed him off and went back in the house to get ready for the mission. 

The mission started out smoothly. Only having a few bumps getting in and finding the girl, but with Luthor in your ear guiding you and the others you knew you would get there. The other girl, Smith, was detouring to there coms and other information rooms and blowing up their software, while you and Ethan went for the girl. When you find her, you make quick work of the men in the room but not fast enough that one pulls the alarm. You knew you only had minutes and the state the daughter was in you knew one of you would stay to get the others off you, and it had to be you. 

“Go” you yelled as you made it down the hallway. The men were gaining down the hallway, bullets going everywhere. You stopped by the door turning back around two guns in your hand. “Go, and you better be alive when I see you again,” you yelled. Ethan stopped. 

“No, I am not leaving you” Ethan shouted. 

“And you promised. Go” you told him turning back, seeing the daughter trying to stay alive, “get her help”

“I love you” Ethan said to you, as you both ducked from bullets.

“I love you, that's why I need you to go” and before he left a swift kiss to your lips gives you the strength to protect him and the girl out of the building. Of course you didn't leave with them, having to take them all down and leaving you with two hand battens and a couple of bigger guys.

You walked out of the building, a limp in one leg, a stab wound in your side and a few bruises. You didn't know if you wanted to throw up or pass out. Before you could a figure came at you picking you up and placing you in the truck that appeared beside you. Before you could register who it was you were out. 

The hospital bed was not as comfortable as you would have hopped, or maybe it was just the all body pain you were in. Ethan sat up to your right. 

“Told you I’d stay alive” he said, “What I should have done was make you promise not to sacrifice yourself for me”

“Good thing I didn't,” you said looking at him. “I'll do it again if I have to” “I know you will,” Ethan said kissing your hand.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Unfit :: billboard project

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 3, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 04, 2024

Last night the Boston Globe published a leaked email from a top volunteer with the Trump campaign, former Massachusetts Republican Party vice chair Tom Mountain, telling volunteers that the Trump campaign “no longer thinks New Hampshire is winnable” and is “pulling back” from that important swing state. He urged volunteers to turn their attention instead to Pennsylvania. After the story dropped, the Trump campaign cut ties with Mountain. 

Stephen Collinson of CNN and Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, and Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post reported today that Trump’s team has given up on trying to get Trump to talk about the economy and other issues voters care about. The former president has decided to spend the rest of the campaign attacking Vice President Harris to destroy her popularity and drive voters away from her, rather than trying to attract them to himself. The Washington Post reporters noted that likely voters view Trump unfavorably and his team has concluded that while he can’t improve his own standing, he can damage hers. 

Collinson dubbed Trump’s plans a “feral political offensive.”

It is not clear that this will work. As Collinson notes, Harris has refused to get dragged into the gutter with Trump, and Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark, who studies focus groups, notes that voters appear to want to put the nastiness of the past several years behind them. Still, the media-tracking company AdImpact reported that between August 23 and August 29, 57% of the total television spending for political ads was on Republican attacks on Harris.

Trump also continues to demand that Republicans support his attempt to suppress voting. Having failed to pass any of the necessary appropriations bills before going on August recess, Congress will be in a rush when it comes back into session next week. It needs to fund the government before the end of the fiscal year on September 30 in order to prevent a partial shutdown. Last Thursday, Trump told right-wing podcast host Monica Crowley that he would “shut down the government in a heartbeat” unless the government funding package includes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act—which would give credence to the idea that noncitizens are voting in national elections despite the fact it is already illegal—and a bill restricting legal immigration.

Zeeshan Aleem of MSNBC today took public notice of Trump’s “deteriorating ability to clearly communicate.” His speeches “seem to be growing more discursive and difficult to comprehend by the day,” Aleem wrote. “Those speeches are making it hard, if not impossible, for people listening to them to understand what he wants to do with his power in office, and they’re reportedly turning off voters.” A reporter for The Guardian pointed out that attendees at Trump’s rallies are leaving as he rambles for nearly two hours, and complaining that he is “babbling.”

For his part, Trump says his wandering speech is deliberate. He calls it “the weave.” I’ll talk about, like, nine different things, and they all come back brilliantly together, and it’s like, and friends of mine that are, like, English professors, they say, ‘It's the most brilliant thing I've ever seen.’”

Aleem notes that this less-focused, less-capable Trump would be exceptionally dangerous in office a second time. And yet, he was dangerous enough the first time. Today Adam Klasfeld and Ryan Goodman of Just Security released a study showing at least twelve times that Trump used the power of the presidency to retaliate against his political enemies. They note that there is no evidence that President Joe Biden or anyone else at the Biden White House ever took similar actions.  

John McCain’s son Jimmy today announced that he has switched his voter registration from Republican to Democrat and will work to elect Vice President Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz in 2024. The younger McCain enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17 and is now an intelligence officer in the 158th Infantry Regiment of the Arizona Army National Guard. He said he is speaking out because Trump’s conduct at Arlington National Cemetery was a “violation.” 

Last Friday, just before the long weekend, Trump announced that he would vote against a Florida ballot measure that would essentially enshrine in the Florida state constitution the abortion rights formerly protected by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. When Trump had bowed to popular support for abortion rights and expressed uneasiness at the state’s current six-week ban—a cutoff reached before most women know they’re pregnant—antiabortion activists launched fierce attacks on him. So, on Friday, Trump switched his position and announced he would vote against restoring access to abortion in Florida. 

That announcement has given wings to the Democrats’ messaging about Republicans’ determination to end abortion rights. It did not help the Republicans that more videos have been unearthed in which Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance said that “a childless elite” is ruling the country. He went on to excoriate this elite for what he claimed was their pride that they didn’t have children and that they had abortions, and said “they look down on people who invest their time and their future in their children. And that is a dangerous place to live as a country.” Even a right-wing Newsmax interviewer suggested that he was “painting this group with perhaps a broad brush?”

On October 1, in Louisiana, a law will go into effect that reclassified the drug misoprostol as a controlled dangerous substance. Misoprostol can be used for abortion. It is also used for routine reproductive care and during medical emergencies to treat postpartum hemorrhage. It is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medications, a list containing those medications that are the most effective and safe to meet a health care system’s most important needs. After antiabortion activists targeted the drug, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry signed a law reclassifying it as a controlled dangerous substance. The reclassification means that the drug will no longer be easily available on obstetric hemorrhage carts. 

“Take it off the carts?” one doctor said to Lorena O’Neil of the Louisiana Illuminator. “That’s death. That’s a matter of life or death.”

The Harris campaign said: “Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is the reason Louisiana women who are suffering from miscarriages or bleeding out after birth can no longer receive the critical care they would have received before Trump overturned Roe. Because of Trump, doctors are scrambling to find solutions to save their patients and are left at the whims of politicians who think they know better. Trump is proud of what he’s done. He brags about it. And if he wins, he will threaten to bring the crisis he created for Louisiana women to all 50 states.”

Vice President Harris’s campaign started its “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour today in Palm Beach, Florida, where it drove past the Trump Organization’s Mar-a-Lago club. The bus will make at least 50 stops across the country. 

Pollster Tom Bonier today continued his examination of new registrants to vote. This time his focus was North Carolina. The pattern he has found across the country continues: “surges in registration are being driven by women.” In North Carolina, he writes, the number of registrants was almost 50% higher during the week of July 21 than in the same week in 2020, and the gender gap was +12 women, compared to +6 women in 2020. The new registrants were +6 Democratic, and 43% were younger than 30. 

The Harris-Walz campaign today joined the Democratic National Committee in announcing a transfer of nearly $25 million to support Democratic candidates in down-ballot state and federal races. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will get $10 million each in hopes of supporting a Democratic majority in each chamber of Congress in the new administration. 

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the organization devoted to winning state legislatures, will receive $2.5 million. The Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic Attorneys General Association will get $1 million each. 

Finally, today, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction to stop the Trump campaign from playing the song he likes to dance to at his rallies: “Hold On, I’m Coming.” The estate of Isaac Hayes Jr., the artist who co-wrote the song, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Trump, his campaign, and a number of his allies, noting that they have never obtained a public performance license for the song although they have used it at least 133 times.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[loneberry]

September 11, 1973: On the 50th Anniversary of the Coup in Chile 

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état in Chile, when a fascist junta led by dictator Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende. For those of us who are on the left, the story should be familiar by now: Allende had charted a ‘Chilean way to socialism' ("La vía chilena al socialismo") quite distinct from the Soviet Union and communist China, a peaceful path to socialism that was fundamentally anti-authoritarian, combining worker power with respect for civil liberties, freedom of the press, and a principled commitment to democratic process. For leftists who had become disillusioned with the Soviet drift into authoritarianism, Chile was a bright spot on an otherwise gloomy Cold War map.

What happened in Chile was one of the darkest chapters in the history of US interventionism. In August 1970, Henry Kissinger, who was then Nixon’s national security adviser, commissioned a study on the consequences of a possible Allende victory in the upcoming Chilean presidential election. Kissinger, Nixon, and the CIA—all under the spell of Cold War derangement syndrome—determined the US should pursue a policy of blocking the ascent of Allende, lest a socialist Chile generate a “domino effect” in the region. 

When Allende won the presidency, the US did everything in their power to destroy his government: they meddled in Chilean elections, leveraged their control of the international financial system to destroy the economy of Chile (which they also did through an economic boycott), and sowed social chaos through sponsoring terrorism and a shutdown of the transportation sector, bringing the country to the brink of civil war. Particularly infuriating to the Americans was Allende’s nationalization of the copper mining industry, which was around 70% of Chile’s economy at the time and was controlled by US mining companies like Anaconda, Kennecott and the Cerro Corporation. When the CIA’s campaign of sabotage failed to destroy the socialist experiment in Chile, they resorted to assisting general Augusto Pinochet's plot to overthrow the democratically elected government. What followed was a gruesome campaign of repression against workers, leftists, poets, activists, students, and ordinary Chileans—stadiums were turned into concentration camps where supporters of Allende’s Popular Unity government were tortured and murdered. During Pinochet’s 17-year reign of terror, 3,200 people were executed and 40,000 people were detained, tortured, or disappeared, 1,469 of whom remain unaccounted for. Chile was then used as a laboratory for neoliberal economic policies, where the Chicago boys and their ilk tested out their terrible ideas on a population forced to live under a military dictatorship.

It shatters my heart, thinking about this history. I feel a personal attachment to Chile, not only because my partner is Chilean (his father left during the dictatorship), but because I’ve always considered Chile to be a world capital of poetry and anti-authoritarian leftism. The filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky asks, “In how many countries does a real poetic atmosphere exist? Without a doubt, ancient China was a land of poetry. But I think, in the 1950s in Chile, we lived poetically like in no other country in the world.” (Poetry left China long ago — oh how I wish I’d been around to witness the poetic flowering of the Tang era!) Chile has one of the greatest literary traditions of the twentieth century, producing such giants as Bolaño and Neruda, and more recently, Cecilia Vicuña and Raúl Zurita, among others. 

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the coup, the Harvard Film Archive has been  screening Patricio Guzmán’s magisterial trilogy, The Battle of Chile, along with a program of Chilean cinema. I watched part I and II the last two nights and will watch part III tonight. It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Guzmán’s work, and even quoted his beautiful film Nostalgia for the Light in the conclusion of my book Carceral Capitalism, when I wrote about the Chilean political prisoners who studied astronomy while incarcerated in the Atacama Desert. Bless Patricio Guzmán. This man has devoted his life and filmmaking career to the excavation of the Chilean soul. 

Parts I and II utterly destroyed me. I left the theater last night shaken to my core, my face covered in tears. 

The films are all the more remarkable when you consider it was made by a scrappy team of six people using film stock provided by the great documentarian Chris Marker. After the coup, four of the filmmakers were arrested. The footage was smuggled out of Chile and the exiled filmmakers completed the films in Cuba. Sadly, in 1974, the Pinochet regime disappeared cameraman Jorge Müller Silva, who is assumed dead. 

It’s one thing to know the macro-story of what happened in Chile and quite another to see the view from the ground: the footage of the upswell of support for radical transformation, the marches, the street battles, the internal debates on the left about how to stop the fascist creep, the descent into chaos, the face of the military officer as he aims his pistol at the Argentine cameraman Leonard Hendrickson during the failed putsch of June 1973 (an ominous prelude to the September coup), the audio recordings of Allende on the morning of September 11, the bombing of Palacio de La Moneda—the military is closing in. Allende is dead. The crumbling edifice of the presidential palace becomes the rubble of revolutionary dreams—the bombs, a dirge for what was never even given a chance to live.

[noticiassincensura]

Russia to ban Discord: nearly 40 million people, including gamers and developers, will be cut off.

A new blow for every gamer or developer in Russia, another method to control information and the channels from which it comes and goes. The world is becoming less global, and freedom of speech is being censored under the guise of supposed security that has the planet on edge. In the U.S. and Europe, as well as China, Korea, or Japan, social media is being censored, as many documents have shown, to combat so-called “fake news,” misinformation, and sensitive information. After Telegram, now Discord is next, with Russia set to shut it down in days.

Globalism is over, and now it’s time for the protectionism typical of a pre-war scenario, if we’re not already in several wars and that isn’t enough. The control of information and media is vital, and platforms like Telegram, X, or Discord, following the internal regulations that Meta and Google are facing, have become the targets of governments. Putin is crystal clear about this — no doubt about it.

Russia to ban and shut down Discord in a few days for violating the law Russia-to-ban-Discord-after-violating-these-5-laws In the West, at least they come up with an excuse to justify what they do, even though the result is the same. They want to give the appearance of justification. In Russia, it’s a different story, and the Kommersant newspaper openly shows this by stating that Discord will be completely blocked in record time.

Every IT professional, whether a technician, developer, engineer, or consultant, as well as millions of gamers, will be cut off from the platform that connected them and allowed them to exchange information — one of the few remaining safe havens in Putin’s country for doing so. According to local reports, Putin has taken measures based on five new decisions against Discord, claiming that it violated the law.

Specifically, they argue that it was the Law on Information Technology and Information Protection that was breached in these five points, prompting the Kremlin to take one action for each violation.

No explanations, just the desire and order to block Putin-is-watching The worst part is that there are no explanations about what was violated, how it was violated, or by whom. Russia is going to shut down and block Discord from all angles, including VPNs. In fact, the platform will not have any license to operate in the country, so something must have been happening in its chats for Putin to make a decision similar to what he did with Telegram at the time.

The newspaper points to a total shutdown and block within just a few days. Vasily Ovchinnikov, director of the Organization for the Development of the Video Game Industry in Russia, told the newspaper that “the problem is that for Russian developers, communication with the community, including internationally, and technical support are done through Discord.”

As if this blow to the platform wasn’t enough, today a Moscow court fined them nearly $40,000 for failing to restrict access to prohibited information. Therefore, without knowing the specific causes — assuming they even make them public — it seems that either the platform refused to censor content and hand over the keys to privacy, as Telegram once refused, or it simply couldn’t censor what Putin and his government demanded.

Russia seeks sovereignty in all aspects, just like China Russia-and-China-Putin-and-Xi-Jinping In fact, the Kremlin is now seeking digital sovereignty, as it has also attempted in other areas, like the chip industry we discussed last year. Needless to say, these attempts have not borne much fruit, but they’ve even gone as far as censoring Wikipedia, it seems, copying only the content they deem appropriate.

The folks at PCGamer have thrown some criticism at all of this, which we fully support, as it’s as true as it is humorous: “In Russia, Wikipedia edits you.” This is a clear sign that freedom in all its forms is disappearing, and everyone is striving for a controlled environment like China’s. Useful idiots who don’t even consider rebelling against the establishment because they think it’s all done in their best interests and for their safety.

By the time we wake up, it will be too late — assuming we don’t end up in a war first. Russia banning and blocking Discord is just another sign of where we’re headed, and Europe and the U.S. aren’t exactly better in this regard, with their own coercions and threats.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

Is the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing?

It depends on who you ask.

The World Health Organization ended the public emergency declaration over the virus in May 2023, while President Joe Biden declared the pandemic over in spring 2022. (Former President Donald Trump promised the reopening of the American economy by Easter 2020.)

The fact is COVID-19 is still here and its dangers are ever present for people young and old.

A March Gallup poll showed 59 percent of Americans believed the pandemic is over, but only 43 percent said their lives would ever return to what they were before the pre-2020 shutdowns.

“We can say as a general truth at this point in time, we’ve settled into COVID. It’s not going away,” Dr. Joe Suyama, an emergency medicine doctor with UPMC, said to the New Castle News for a story that appeared Monday.

Suyama noted 74,000 people died last year of COVID, while 44,000 died from the flu.

Those saying COVID is just like the flu or the common cold just isn’t accurate. It’s nearly twice as deadly as the flu and we know its effects linger far longer than most other respiratory diseases.

“COVID itself is not just the common cold for a lot of people,” Suyama said.

The easy solution is something we have heard for four years now — the best way to protect yourself, your family, your loved ones and your neighbors is to get vaccinated.

Is a vaccine a magic dose that prevents all diseases? No, but no vaccine is ever billed as such.

“(COVID vaccines) are not a repellent from getting it,” Suyama said. “But it is going to decrease the likelihood that you’ll be hospitalized or be severely sick from it.”

Vaccines are available from Pfizer, Moderna and Noravax. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the COVID vaccines caused a 50-percent decrease in emergency room and urgent care visits compared to those with took no vaccines.

“COVID is still out there, and it’s still causing severe disease, and it’s still causing death at a much higher rate than the flu,” Suyama said. “If you take the flu seriously, you should take COVID seriously. Take them both seriously.”

We know COVID is still prevalent in New Castle. We’re also aware medicine surrounding COVID is more complex and easier to obtain than when the pandemic first began.

Vaccines are available at pharmacies for free with most insurances — at both local pharmacies and chains, like CVS and Walgreens — while the government is sending out more free tests at COVIDTests.gov.

The CDC’s current recommendation for people who test positive should stay home until they are fever-free for at least 24 hours. Two negative tests for those with symptoms and three tests for those without is the CDC’s new guidance.

[argumate]

People sometimes complain or worry about this, and the complaints and worries often take the form “if the US government keeps weaponizing the dollar, then eventually it is going to be overthrown as the currency of global trade and replaced by the yuan or whatever.” But another possible bet is “if the US government keeps weaponizing the dollar, someone will invent a better dollar, something that is fully interchangeable with the dollar but that is not subject to US government policy.” What if it’s Tether?

Matt Levine, but this seems obviously silly to me? if Tether ends up being used to settle billions of dollars in trades by nations under US sanctions, then the US government will shutdown or otherwise regulate Tether, end of story.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from CNN:

Britain’s last coal-fired power plant will close on Monday, ending 142 years of coal-generated electricity in the nation that sparked the Industrial Revolution.

The Ratcliffe-on-Soar station in central England is to finish its final shift at midnight, after more than half a century of turning coal into power. Owner Uniper says many of the 170 remaining employees will stay on during a two-year decommissioning process.

The UK government hailed the closure as a milestone in efforts to generate all of Britain’s energy from renewable sources by 2030. The shutdown makes Britain the first country from the Group of Seven major economies to phase out coal — though some other European nations, including Sweden and Belgium, got there sooner.

In 1990 coal provided about 80% of Britain’s electricity. By 2012 it had fallen to 39%, and by 2023 it stood at just 1%, according to figures from the National Grid. More than half of Britain’s electricity now comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar power, and the rest from natural gas and nuclear energy.

[enigmaticxbee]

XF Rewatch Series - Fic Recs

When you want to remember how it all was (or series-spanning fics that didn’t fit into my season by season lists):

Episode by Episode Rewatch Series:

TXF: Scenes in Between by @scullywolf - missing scenes for every episode through season 9!

201 Days of X Files by @30xf - through season 4

The FBI’s Most Unwanted by @leiascully - through season 3

All Eyes Lead to the Truth by @admiralty-xfd @fridaysat9 @monikafilefan @gaycrouton - third person perspectives on each episode, WIP currently through season 2

219 by @freckleslikestars - smutty fic for every episode, currently though Jersey Devil, NSFW

First Time, Every Time by @phillippadgettwrites - first time fic for every episode, currently through Conduit, NSFW

Check-In Vignettes:

Birthdays by @syntax6 - birthday fics each season through season 7

if the fates allow by @all-these-ghosts - Christmas with Mulder and Scully, 1993-2016

Movie Night by @i-gaze-at-scully - movie nights throughout the series

Fraternize by @admiralty-xfd @gaycrouton - a series of motel room trysts, NSFW

Inspection by @ingridgradient - for seven years, Mulder and Scully give each other tick checks in motel rooms, NSFW

#45 Hegal Place by @admiralty-xfd DanaScullyMakesMeFeelAutopsyTurvy - There’s never a dull moment when your neighbor is Special Agent Fox Mulder

This Woman's Work by @admiralty-xfd - the series through the eyes of Margaret Scully

Seventeen by @scapegrace74-blog - Explores how Mulder's sexual relationships shaped (and mis-shaped) him as a man. Each chapter represents a different partner. Mulder/Other, ultimately MSR, NSFW

X Files Rewatch Series by skuls - unconnected stories throughout the series, some canon-compliant, some not

if I am hopeful by @all-these-ghosts - Scully ficlet for every season

ever since, ever since, ever since by breakfastsandwich - scully realizes nine times over that mulder may in fact love her

Times Fox Mulder Cried by @frangipanidownunder - every season through the revival

these tornadoes are for you (or times she loved him back) by audries - vignettes throughout the series

5 A.M. by @kateyes224 - Five times Scully found herself awake at 5 a.m., and the one time she wasn’t alone

Kisses by @peacenik0 - two times Scully told Mulder “don’t do that again”, and one time she didn’t

Choose Your Poison by Solia - Five times Scully had too much to drink (and one time she had just the right amount of liquid courage!)

To Satisfy Your Expectant Tongue by @givesmevoice - The power and love of being seen and someone knowing how you take your tea.

Wake-Up Calls by lapsed_scholar - Government-issued cell phones are remarkably identical. (Or, Four times Mulder answered Scully's phone at an incriminating hour, and one time she answered his)

Canon Parallel Stories:

Incrementum by @lepus-arcticus - the progression of their relationship if they started sleeping together in the pilot, NSFW. WIP, currently through season 8

Triptych by @iconicscullyoutfits - married to Diana AU

Nuptiae Sub Rosa by @sisterspooky1013 @xfmaweezy - secret marriage AU

I've got you under my skin by cuits - In a universe where soulmate identifying marks exist and affect a part of the population, would Mulder and Scully's relationship evolve any different? Unfinished but complete through Existence so it still ends in a satisfying place.

Enough by @atths--twice - the progression of their relationship if they started sleeping together when the X-Files are shutdown in season 2, NSFW

He is the Master of His Fate, She is the Captain of Her Soul by @scullylikesscience - the progression of their relationship season 7 through IWTB era

Culmination by @admiralty-xfd - Mulder and Scully's journey of the heart, step by (baby) step.

[mariacallous]

Moments before the kickoff of the 118th United States Congress in January, incoming GOP leaders ripped down Nancy Pelosi’s post-insurrection magnetometers, which had stopped at least one Republican, Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, from entering the House floor with a handgun. The first meeting of the House Natural Resources Committee, held on February 1, devolved into partisan vitriol as Republicans reversed an explicit ban on members bringing firearms into their hearings. Soon, AR-15 pins started popping up on rank-and-file lapels. Then, two weeks later, a bill was introduced to make the mass-shooter-approved AR-15 the “national gun of the United States.”

This may be Joe Biden’s Washington, but the US Capitol appears to be, once again, under the firm grip of the gun lobby. With repeated threats of federal government defaults and shutdowns consuming Washington throughout 2023, little attention has been paid to specific agency-by-agency spending proposals, including a House Republican proposal to zero out funding for gun violence research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That effort, part of a House appropriations bill, was postponed after Congress passed a short-term extension to fund the federal government into early next year. But that doesn't mean it won't return then, with powerful Republican lawmakers painting the CDC's research as overtly partisan.

“I think it may have a political component, and that's my concern,” Representative Robert Aderholt, an Alabama Republican, tells WIRED. He’s known as a cardinal on Capitol Hill because he chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, which is tasked with producing the nation’s largest domestic funding measure, including control of the CDC’s budget, each year.

The powerful appropriator isn’t thoroughly versed in the gun violence research his subcommittee is trying to defund, but Aderholt is skeptical anyway. “If it were just honest, innocent research, then I wouldn’t have a problem,” Aderholt says. “But I have some concerns with the way that it’s being handled under this administration.”

Thing is, no one really knows what story the CDC research will tell. It’s only been around for three years after nearly a quarter-century of congressional prohibition under the 1996 Dickey Amendment, which essentially barred the CDC from examining the roots of the uniquely American scourge of gun violence.

“This is about public health,” Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the labor committee, tells WIRED. “We haven’t had it for 20 years. Think about all the research that was done about seatbelts and prevention. So I think about what’s happening with the uptick in gun violence, which is unbelievable … we need to do the research to help us be able to prevent that.”

In 2018, lawmakers upended the Dickey Amendment, explicitly clarifying that the will of Congress is for the CDC to research the contemporary weaponization of America. But federal dollars—which, contrary to GOP concerns, are still strictly forbidden from being used to promote gun control—didn’t start flowing to researchers until 2021. Democrats have pushed for $50 million annually to research America’s second-leading cause of death for people 18 years old or younger. (The first is motor vehicle accidents, which Congress devoted $109.7 million to research in the 2022 fiscal year.) But for the past three years, they’ve only been able to squeeze $25 million a year—split between the CDC and National Institutes of Health—out of Republican senators.

With more than 39,000 gun-related deaths so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive, America’s on pace to endure another record-setting amount of carnage by year’s end, which you wouldn’t know from the giddily gun-friendly mood on the House side of the Capitol. “I think the Republicans are just nuts on this, you know, the extremes,” Mike Thompson, a Democratic representative from California, tells WIRED. Nuts or not, Republicans control the House.

Even through the tears stemming from America’s recent uptick in gun violence—including homicides, suicides, and mass shootings—the past three years have been an exciting time for researchers in this space, because when the federal government leads, university research follows. The two-plus decades drought has rippled through academia.

“People weren't going into this field because you couldn't make a career in it,” Andrew Morral, who runs RAND Corporation’s Gun Policy in America Initiative, tells WIRED. “It’s the kind of thing where it takes a fair amount of research before you start getting believable findings. I mean, you can have a study or two that show something, but in social science, it's very hard for one or two studies to persuade anyone.”

Morral is also director of the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, which is philanthropically endowed with $21 million earmarked for firearm violence prevention research. A few years back, he led a conference with “30 to 100 people.” At the start of the month, when they held their annual meeting in Chicago, there were 750 attendees, including some 300 presenters whose studies ranged from how “guns provide access to sources of life meaning” for some Floridians to whether there’s any correlation between heat waves and shootings.

“A lot of new questions are being asked and new ways of looking at things—this just wasn't possible five years ago,” Morral says. “There [are] people coming into the field now, and that's what the money is doing. It's making it possible to get this field launched. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit here, but it's going to take a lot of research to start getting persuasive findings and it's starting to happen.”

In the wake of horrific mass shootings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, last year, before the GOP recaptured the House, Congress passed the sweeping Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), aimed at improving the nation’s background check system, stymieing gun traffickers, protecting domestic violence survivors, and enhancing mental health services in local communities and schools from coast to coast.

The measure includes billions for mental health, $250 million for community violence intervention programs, and $300 million for violence prevention in the nation’s schools. It also recognizes the federal deficiency in school safety research by creating a Federal School Safety Clearinghouse, envisioned as a repository for the best “evidence-based” research for keeping violence off American school grounds.

That best-practices clearinghouse for schools was a GOP-sponsored provision that made it into the BSCA, but, as WIRED reported last summer, studying gun violence wasn’t a part of negotiations on the measure aimed at curbing gun violence. This latest effort by House Republicans to effectively bar the CDC from researching gun violence has social scientists worried about the real-life consequences of turning off the federal funding tap again. The two Senate Republicans who negotiated the BSCA aren’t worried.

“People misuse research every day,” Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, tells WIRED. The other Republican who had a seat at the head table for last summer’s gun negotiations is one of minority leader Mitch McConnell’s top lieutenants, John Cornyn of Texas—a leading contender for replacing the ailing GOP leader in the Senate—who shrugs off CDC gun violence research. “I don't think there's any shortage of research in that area,” Cornyn tells WIRED. But he bifurcates gun violence research from gun violence prevention. “We haven't been able to figure out how to solve all the crimes. Basically, we've tried to deter them, we've tried to investigate and prosecute them, but we haven't been able to figure out how to prevent them. So that's the basic problem, I think.”

Democrats agree. They also say the reason for that “basic problem” is clear: The CDC—through the chilling effect the federal prohibition had on academia over 24 years—has failed to foster a robust research environment to accompany America’s robust gun culture. But Democrats aren’t looking to pass reforms this Congress. Sure, they want to. But the House is barely performing at its normal rate of functional-dysfunctionality these days (just ask newly-former House speaker Kevin McCarthy). Senate Democrats are willing to have a gun violence prevention debate, but as of now, many say there’s no reason to try and debate House Republicans.

“They're not writing bills that are designed to pass the Senate in order to get signed by the president. They're literally throwing red meat to the fringe on every conceivable issue. That's just not serious,” Senator Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who was at the center of last summer’s gun reform negotiations, tells WIRED. “At some point, they're going to have to figure out how to pass a bill with us, but they haven't reached that space yet.”