#heathers 88

[the-lion-guard-88]

It’s crazy how The Lion Guard ended 5 years ago 😭

Dear Diary….

Why do they hate me?

Why don’t I fight back?

Why do I act like such a creep?

Why won't mom love me?

Why did I bite him?

Why do I cry myself to sleep?

Somebody hug me!

Somebody fix me!

Somebody save me!

Send me a sign, God!

Give me some hope here!

Something to live for!

[arrow-jsy]

Here Are My 100 DBDA IDEAS

As some of you may know, i started a list of all my ideas expecting to reach maybe 40? And well i was at 40 by the time i finished going through some old tumblr posts. And then i kinda kept having an idea or two (or 3 or 5) a day and here we are. i dont think i will ever write all of these, lets be real the list is going to keep growing, but i have no intention of writing some of these but i had the thought so i wrote it down

this is a long post friends

IF YOU SEE AN IDEA YOU LIKE FEEL FREE TO TAKE IT AS INSPIRATION BUT PLEASE TAG ME WHEN YOU POST IT, not because i want credit but because id love to read it <3

The numbers are what they are on the list, mostly in order of when i had the idea but a few are old ideas i remembered. But for reading convenience i organized them a bit, categories are loosy goosey but there was an effort

Posted ideas

1. Ghosthunting AU

3. Mechanic AU

38. Charles gets a teddy bear

39. Charles under a love potion 100. (actually the first fic i wrote for this fandom but i havent thought about it in so long) Monty's first bit as a human 2. Charles gets stuck in a mirror learning to mirror hop

Kinda Canon Compliant

4. Gladys isnt a made up character for episode 6

5. Esther's Backstory

12. Post s1 with Jenny being able to see ghosts, she sees her parents

13. NN tries to teach Charles manners (hes so adhd)

14. The boys first night together (and as ghosts)

27. Mick takes Monty in after Esther dies

49. Edwin cant orb beacuse of his experience in Hell

Not Really Canon Compliant

46. Charles has never been on a date

57. Monty is a vulture instead of a crow

68. Esther is Edwin's mom

89. Edwin has glasses (with the little hanging chains)

Media AUs (musicals and movies)

11. Monty Tangled AU

19. Newsies (musical) AU

20. Wicked AU

21. The Grear Gatsby (musical) AU

24. LOTR AU

33. Huntchback of Notre Dame (musical not disney movie) AU

37. Princess Bride AU

45. Adjustment Bureau AU

51. Bonnie and Clyde (musical) AU

52. Palaski Howls Moving Castle AU

53. Paynland Les Mis AU

61. Tinkerbell AU

64. Beetlejuice AU

65. Spirited Away AU

66. Nonstop & Hurricane (from Hamilton) Edwin in Hell/with his journal au?

71. Payneland Heathers JD/Veronica (more movie) AU

77. Payneland Twisters (2024) AU

83. Bring Him Home (from Les Mis) Jenny as Valjean, Niko as Marius

84. Stardust AU

90. Coraline AU

92. HTTYD AU

93. Kimberly Akimbo AU

94. Palaski Dash & Lily AU

Other Conneted to Media AUs

8. Payneland Hades and Persephone Au

9. Edwin is Crowley and Azi's (good omens) son

56. Payneland Joker and Harley Quinn AU

58. Freaky Friday with Edwin and Crystal

87. Payneland Post Hadestown (they both get out) AU

88. Payneland Tale Tale Heart AU

91. Stardew Valley AU

97. Starwars fan Charles

98. Movie night boys watch Dead Poets Society

Other AUs

10. DND AU

15. Foster family AU

16. Jenny "The Butcher" zombie apocalypse AU

17. Coffee shop AU

18. College AU : poli-sci Edwin, social justice Charles

23. Journalist/reporter Edwin, military Charles

26. Highschool AU

31. Modern Charles using dead Edwin's poems in his songs (rock ballads)

32. Payneland musician and tour manager

28. Historical anatomist Edwin and grave robber Charles

35. Alien/hybrid AU

40. Chef Charles and food critic Edwin

41. Archeologist Edwin and Treasure hunter Charles

43. Nail tech Niko and makeup artist Crystal

44. Spy AU

47. Payneland actor AU

54. Formal fantasy's Gala

55. Serial killer Edwin just trying to keep detective Charles attention

60. Med student Edwin

62. Arranged marriage

63. Drag performance

67. If the boys were ghosts during the Blitz

69. Payneland gladiator fighters

72. They're bakers

73. Criminal Crystal with Edwin as her parole officer

74. Cyclist Charles and Runner Edwin

78. Payneland Scuba diver and mermaid

79. Drunk driving Charles meets Edwin in the ER after a crash

80. Edwin's a sniper

81. Prison Break

82. Payneland streamer AU (charles on camera edwin private)

99. Horse racer Edwin

Long Winded Explinations

36. Apprenticeship au (charles&jenny, niko&kashi, monty&mick,crystal&esther, edwin&maxine)

48. Football star charles leaving the sport after he meets clueless about sports edwin to who he is smart edwin and realizes how dangerous it is

85. Kashi is some prince or something imprisoned in angie.....mick is a pirate bounty hunter or something going to save him

86. Mick is going through his stock and finds a trinket thats muttering - its a sending stone and kashi has the other half, he keeps it as a companion

95. kashi is a sailor turned pirate who always takes home little treasures (small things like rocks and shells) back to mick on land

96. Edwin losses his parents to a car crash and refuses to use cars or buses and then meets charles whos some maniac racer or back street drag driver and Payneland and angst ensues

Named But Unwritten (unposted, living rent free in my mind and google docs)

6. Captain of Hell

75. Where the Road Meets the Roots

Everything Else

7. Tragic mick pirate captain

22. Charles brings a cat back to the office

25. Vigilante Edwin

29. Charles with a motorcycle

30. Werewolf Charles

34. Crystal and Esther witch rivalry

42. Kashi pulls NN away from work so they can go on a date

50. Alive AU snowday

59. Kashi/mick pirare au (general)

70. Zamboni Monty one shot

76. Pre (my) valentines fic, dead bride

if you made it this far thanks for reading, please tell me your favorite idea from the list!!

id like to thank @makemeimmortalwithahug @ahyperactivehero @genevievefangirl the most, for hanging out in the DBDA Haunt sever and being there when i come up with most of these ideas

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 88 (Bringing Home a Ghost)

After Ghost Night ended at the Salty Paw, Heather, Conrad, and their new friend Felix Psyded left Fisherman's Wharf and returned to their home on Sable Square. Heather entered first, finding Hazel on the sofa watching TV. "Hey, how were the kids tonight?"

"They were great! Ashy said you guys usually read him two bedtime stories but he fell asleep after the first one, and Lava hasn't woken up since I put her to bed. I got to watch Moonlight Massacre after all! How was your night?"

"It was nice! We went looking for a man we didn't find, but we met someone else while we were there..."

Conrad walked inside the front door as Felix floated in behind him. Heather stood, and Hazel looked up from her phone in quiet awe. "Felix Psyded, Esquire. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss."

"Hazel Moody-Nesbitt," she replied. "Heather's cooler younger sister. You're, like, really a ghost!"

"Since 1915." He warmly tipped his bowler hat. "May I say, you're stunning like your sister."

"You may say! But I'm married."

"Of course the lovely Nesbitt women would all be spoken for. Though I hope your husband is friendlier than Sargent Gordon."

Hazel laughed. "My wife is sweet, but Conrad's great! Are you the one guy in the world he doesn't get along with?"

Heather sighed, sliding over to make room for Conrad on the sofa. "They got off on the wrong foot."

"Well, why'd you bring him home? I know you love strays, but I didn't think that meant sims who've been dead for over a century!"

"They've promised me a plate of ambrosia in exchange for my services."

Hazel gaped. "When you guys said you were doing this challenge I just thought it was, like, a team building exercise. I didn't think you were really going to resurrect anybody!"

Heather shrugged. "Well, why shouldn't we? We went through all that to learn how to do it, so we might as well help someone with unfinished business while we're at it."

"So is that it, then? No one dies, they just get to live again with ambrosia?"

"Not everyone's unfinished business is to live again. Some die so old, with bodies so used and broken, living again isn't worth it. Even some of the younger ones. Everyone is different and fascinating in their own way, which is why I took to studying ghosts and their stories in the first place."

"He's going to help us figure out if Conrad met a ghost out on Deadgrass Isle."

Hazel grinned as Conrad stood to shoo one of their chickens back outside. "You're fighting crime by day and paranormal activity by night? Holly was right, Conrad. You're basically a superhero."

He blushed, and Felix turned a dour look in his direction. Ending the tense conversation in the living room, Hazel left to return home.

Heather and Conrad left Felix on the sofa and headed to bed. But before they'd changed into pajamas, she blurted her question with concern. "What's going on with you? I've never seen you snappier with anyone than you were tonight with Felix. Like I brought home two ghosts tonight instead of one."

"He was kind of acting like a dick."

Heather nodded. "And you met him there. That's not like you. Is it George Brindleton again?"

"No, George has been quiet. He and his wife spend a lot of the winter in Sulani every year." He could see Heather found this insufficient and kept talking. "I'm just dealing with a lot. I know I wasn't really myself tonight. There's this one case I can't crack and it's making me a little crazy."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I do, but I can't say much about it."

"I know. Confidential. But I want to give you whatever you need to be able to keep your work life at work, and not take the stress home. Not even for me and the kids, because you're so good to us. That's not the issue. I'm worried about you, and I want you to talk to me. The night we got engaged, you promised you would always tell me how you're feeling."

Joining her on the bed, he held her hand against his chest. "When I've finally solved the case, I'll tell you everything. I promise."

She grinned. "Not every gory detail, I hope."

"Do I ever? I don't want to think about the case tonight. I don't want to think about the ghost in our living room. All I want to focus on the rest of the night is you."

They made love before Heather fell asleep in Conrad's arms, (at least temporarily) satisfied by their conversation. ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 1 Summary | Gen 1 Start

NOTE: I debated whether or not to bring Felix Psyded and his lore into this generation because there's a university generation much, much later in this challenge, but Felix was the first ghost that showed up to Ghost Night, sat right next to them and was immediately enamoured with Heather. So my mind spun with a bunch of possibilities for him and I went for it, even though he's mentioned in urban legends for UBrite students and those obviously won't be canon to my timeline anymore.

The In Bloom challenge doesn't have anything related to Felix in the challenge rules, even in the university generation, and Reaper Rewards didn't even require use of the ambrosia Heather made. But I wasn't going to do all that and not fully finish what they started. They're not really the type to lure sims into a cowplant just to test whether ambrosia works, no one in my save needed to die and be brought back, and I have a plan now for Felix! @pixeldistractions mentioned a possible prequel flashback and I'll never say never, but setting up an early-20th Century photo save will take a while if I do it, so no promises. I am invested in him getting a happy ending to his second life, however!

[jonathanbyersphd]

@faithfulcat111 Behold, this time it's a match

Heathers (1988):

Stranger Things 4 (2022):

U mean to tell me Nancy Wheeler has been driving the same color Volvo as the one in Heather's this whole time?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 20, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 20, 2024

Remember how American voters so hated Project 2025, the playbook for a second Trump term written by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing institutions, that Trump said he had nothing to do with it, and then one of its key architects, Russell Vought, told undercover filmmakers that Trump was only running away from the project as political cover? 

It appears Vought was right and the story that Trump had nothing to do with Project 2025 was, indeed, just political cover. Ed O’Keefe and Major Garrett of CBS News reported today that two sources close to the Trump transition team have told them that they expect Trump to name Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

Vought wrote the section of Project 2025 that covers the presidency, calling for “aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch” to “bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will” and identifying the OMB as the means of enforcing the president’s agenda. Vought was Trump’s OMB director during the end of his first term and tried to remove the civil service protections that have been in place since 1883 to protect federal workers from being fired for political reasons. That plan, known as Schedule F, would have affected about 88% of the federal workforce. 

One of the first things Biden did when he took office was to rescind Trump’s executive order making that shift.

Like that earlier attempt, Project 2025 leans heavily on the idea that “personnel is policy,” and that idea illuminates the choices the Trump team is making. Trump has refused to sign the official documents required by the 2022 Presidential Transition Act. Those documents mandate ethics commitments and require the incoming president to disclose private donations. They also limit those donations. Without the paperwork, Trump appointees cannot start the process of getting security clearances through the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the team says it is planning to do its own vetting of its candidates instead.  

Claiming they have a mandate, Trump’s people have said they are launching “a hostile takeover” of the American government “on behalf of the American people.” But as voting numbers continue to come in, Trump’s majority has fallen below 50% of voters, meaning that more voters chose someone else than chose Trump on November 5. These results are far from being in “mandate” territory.

The U.S. Constitution charges Congress with writing the laws under which the American people live, and the president with taking “care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Since 1933, Congress has created an extensive system of agencies that regulate business and provide a basic social safety net. Congress will say, for example, that the U.S. needs an agency to protect the environment (like the Environmental Protection Agency, established under Republican president Richard M. Nixon), appropriate money for it, oversee its leadership, and then trust those leaders to hire the personnel necessary to carry out its mission. 

Regulations and social welfare programs and the agencies that provide them are broadly popular—think how hard it has been for members to get rid of Social Security, for example—so Congress trims at the edges rather than abolishing them. As the U.S. budget has grown, they often bear the brunt of accusations that the government spends too much, although what has really caused the budget to operate deeply in the red is the tax cuts for the wealthy put into place by Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.  

Right-wing leaders who want to continue cutting regulations and taxes are newly empowered by Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, and they are turning to a quirk of the government to enable them to work around Congress. 

Since the first administration of President George Washington, agencies created by Congress have lived in the Executive Branch. If, as Vought and others argue, the president is the absolute authority in that branch, Trump can do whatever he wants with those agencies and the civil servants—the bureaucrats—who run them.  

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy laid out their plans for cutting the U.S. government. Neither of them has ever held elected office, but they see that as an advantage, not a downside: “We are entrepreneurs, not politicians,” they write. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees.” Trump has named them to the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE. Despite the “department” name, DOGE is not an official government agency—which would require ethics disclosures—but rather an advisory panel. 

Their op-ed begins by redefining congressional authority to create agencies to suggest that agencies are illegitimate. “Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren’t made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees,” they write, “but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.” This, they say, “imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers.” 

“Thankfully,” they continue, “we have a historic opportunity to solve the problem. On Nov. 5, voters decisively elected Donald Trump with a mandate for sweeping change, and they deserve to get it.”

While “politicians” have “abetted” an “entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy,” they write, they will work with the OMB to identify regulations that, they claim, Trump can issue an executive order to stop enforcing. “This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy,” they write. Should Trump want to cut things that Congress wants to fund, they claim that Trump will simply refuse to spend those appropriations, challenging the 1974 Impoundment Control Act that declared such withholding illegal. 

Musk and Ramaswamy reiterated their support for cutting programs that are not currently authorized, although budget experts note that such a lapse is a tool to permit adjustments to programs Congress has, in fact, authorized and have also pointed out that one of the top items on that list is health care for veterans. Cuts to all these programs will naturally mean extensive cuts to the federal workforce. 

“With a decisive electoral mandate and a 6–3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court,” they write, “DOGE has a historic opportunity for structural reductions in the federal government. We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington. We expect to prevail. Now is the moment for decisive action.” 

They conclude by asserting that “[t]here is no better birthday gift to our nation on its 250th anniversary than to deliver a federal government that would make our Founders proud,” which is one heck of a conclusion to a blueprint for taking the power of American lawmaking from the Congress, where the Framers put it, and delivering it into the hands of an extraordinarily powerful president acting on the advice of two unelected billionaires, one of whom wasn’t born in the United States.  

In the vein of getting rid of regulations, today the chief executive of Delta Air Lines said he expected the Trump administration would be a “breath of fresh air” after the Biden administration’s consumer-protection laws that he called government “overreach.” 

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Senate has been confirming President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, with the absence of Republican senators making the confirmations easier.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[talonabraxas]

Planet Mercury: Correspondences, Magick & Astrology

Mercury is the planet closest to the sun in our solar system. It is also the smallest planet in the solar system, assuming you accept Pluto’s recent demotion to dwarf planet.

Mercury orbits the sun once every 88 days. It is bright, but difficult to see because of its proximity to the sun. Look for it in the morning and evening twilight.

The earliest known mention of Mercury is in an astrological compendium dating from 14th Cen BCE Assyria known as the MUL.APIN tablets.

The Babylonians called Mercury Nabu, after their messenger God.

The ancient Greeks called Mercury Stilbon, meaning ”the gleaming” and later called it Apollo when it appeared in the morning sky and Hermes when it appeared in the evening sky.

The name Mercury was given to the planet by the Romans who associated their messenger God, Mercury, with the Greek Hermes.

The Planet Mercury in Magic

The planet Mercury rules communication, information and networking, travel, trade, merchants, and commerce. Mercury rules Gemini and Wednesday.

Herbs Associated with Mercury Almond Alyssum Anise Crocus Fennel Hazel Heather Honeysuckle Lavender Marjoram Mullein Parsley Pelargonium Southernwood

Mercury Minerals and Crystals Agate Aventurine Citrine Mercury Mica Muscovite

Other Mercury Correspondences

Colors: Yellow, violet, orange

Other symbols: Wings, feathers, reflective surfaces

Celestial Alchemy by Talon Abraxas

[novasintheroom]

150 Bullets masterlist

The first new "story" I've written in a while. Welcome!

As the author who inspired this work says in their first chapter:

This, is the list.

It was first put together by a user named Nemure from the now-defunct Lunaescence. I am inspired to try out this challenge for myself. The goal I'm setting is to write anywhere between 100-1000 words per prompt, twice a week until completed, telling the long story of yours and Vash the Stampede's relationship as it grows, wanes, forms, shifts, etc. This will hopefully help me get into a regular writing habit.

Stars by the prompt indicate a chapter already in the works. Check marks indicate completion. Feel free to suggest a scenario, prompt, etc. in the comments. If taken and used, I will put your username in the notes of the chapter!

✓ 1. Trust ✓ 2. Reluctance ✓ 3. Important ✓ 4. Sympathy ✓ 5. Simplicity ✓ 6. Appearance 7. Telephone 8. Kindness 9. Hatred ✓ 10. Jealousy ✓ 11. Quiver ✓ 12. Communicate ✓ 13. Recommendation ✓ 14. Tear ✓ 15. Black & White 16. Spill 17. Flesh ✓ 18. Race ✓ 19. Suffocate ✓ 20. Mentality 21. Sinister 22. Inception 23. Ignition ✓ 24. Found ✓ 25. Irresistible 26. Weight ✓ 27. Serious 28. Record ✓ 29. Justify 30. Snowflake 31. Volcano ✓ 32. Limb ✓ 33. Trampoline 34. Realize 35. Shatter 36. Heart Break ✓ 37. Waning ✓ 38. Temperature 39. Tale 40. Impediment 41. Parry 42. Topple 43. Cover 44. Duty 45. Beg 46. Success 47. Sky ✓ 48. Sunset 49. Cry 50. Impress 51. Laugh 52. Imprison ✓ 53. Emporium 54. Intelligence 55. History ✓ 56. Turn 57. Failure -fail to keep my secrets ✓ 58. Seduce 59. Time 60. Miracle 61. Test 62. Truth ✓ 63. Destitute ✓ 64. Tingle ✓ 65. Responsible ✓ 66. Irritate 67. Told You 68. Lie 69. Remember ✓ 70. Bird 71. Lolwut? 72. Doubt 73. Die 74. Resurrect 75. Irregular 76. Protect 77. Unreasonable 78. To Be Like Her/Him 79. Dream 80. How Come 81. Loved ✓ 82. Warmth ✓ 83. Blind 84. Fire 85. Waste 86. Opportunity 87. Anemone 88. Pink Carnation 89. Heather 90. Hyacinth 91. Yellow Tulip 92. Passion 93. Luck ✓ 94. Caring 95. Night View 96. Tar ✓ 97. Sinking 98. Trap ✓ 99. Kiss ✓ 100. Embrace ✓ 101. Smile ✓ 102. Hands 103. Intertwine 104. Cut 105. Nothing 106. False ✓ 107. Sigh 108. Gentle 109. Serene ✓ 110. Sunrise ✓ 111. Fondness ✓ 112. Meeting 113. Heart 114. Decision 115. Loss 116. Happiness ✓ 117. Never Let You Go 118. Temptation 119. Glibness ✓ 120. Climb 121. Persist 122. Tell Me ✓ 123. Desire ✓ 124. Bite 125. Scar ✓ 126. Enjoy 127. Home 128. Reunion 129. Pale 130. Hope 131. Shrug ✓ 132. Blush 133. Fun 134. Sealed 135. Never Again ✓ 136. Sleep ✓ 137. Bomb 138. Shadow ✓ 139. Bullet ✓ 140. Target 141. Bright 142. Affection 143. Avoid ✓ 144. Nervous 145. Heaven 146. Table 147. Deep 148. Outlook 149. Piece 150. Key

Deep breath. Let's do this.

[beardedmrbean]

Iowa parents who homeschool their children would be allowed to teach other people's children and charge tuition under a bill advancing in the Iowa House.

The bill, House File 88, would make a range of other changes to homeschool requirements and other education law in Iowa, including:

Exempting homeschooled children from disclosing their vaccination status or whether they've been tested for lead;

Doubling Iowa's tuition and textbook tax credit;

Banning teachers from teaching students gender-neutral forms of world languages; and

Removing the requirement that homeschooled elementary school students be taught science and social studies.

A three-member House subcommittee voted 2-1 Monday to advance the bill, sending it to the House Education Committee for consideration. Reps. Samantha Fett, R-Carlisle, and Dan Gehlbach, R-Urbandale, were in favor and Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny, was opposed.

"This bill allows good parents to be freer than they already are," Fett said. "So we will be moving forward with this bill."

Matson said "people can choose to homeschool their kids" but added that the state has an obligation "to make sure everyone is taken care of in some way."

"The right to homeschool doesn’t mean the right to bigger tax credits or a reversal on public health or to charge tuition to other families without having to prove that you’re qualified in every single subject to teach those unrelated children," she said.

Homeschool providers could teach unrelated children, charge tuition

The bill would strike a line in the law that says homeschool providers shall not charge tuition or fees for their instruction, and another line that says homeschool providers may instruct no more than four unrelated students.

Margaret Buckton, a lobbyist for the Urban Education Network and Rural School Advocates of Iowa, said the groups she represents are concerned about allowing homeschool providers to teach children they aren't related to and to charge tuition.

"I think there’s a point where it’s no longer homeschool and it becomes a third category of unregulated or less regulated private school," she said.

Lauren Gideon, a homeschool parent of seven and a lobbyist for Classical Conversations, a Christian homeschool curriculum provider, said allowing parents to charge tuition for homeschooling "opens up a great option for parents" who are already teaching their own children.

"I keep teaching the same content, but I’m able to receive compensation for my services and also have revenue streams that allow me to operate on my convictions in my home," she said.

The bill's author, Rep. Bill Gustoff, R-Des Moines, said his measure would give more flexibility to families in circumstances such as when a parent gets sick and can't homeschool that day.

"Nobody’s wanting to set up little schools of 20 or 30 kids in their homes," he said. "That’s an absurd notion, first of all, but that’s not the intent there."

The bill also says that a diploma or credential issued by a homeschool provider must be considered to be the equivalent of a high school diploma and that colleges and universities cannot discriminate against a student based on whether they were homeschooled.

Homeschooled children would not have to disclose whether they've been vaccinated or tested for lead

The bill strikes part of Iowa law saying parents of homeschooled children must provide school districts with evidence their child has received the vaccines the state requires, and that elementary school age children who are homeschooled have had their blood tested for lead.

Chaney Yeast, a lobbyist for Blank Children's Hospital, said the hospital opposes the bill because it removes the requirement that students share their vaccination status.

"Especially the lead test level, that is critical to children’s health. … We know that there’s lead in our homes in rural Iowa and in urban areas of Iowa," she said. "We know young children who are putting things in their mouths are often exposed to high levels of lead. That can impact their long-term ability to learn and be healthy."

Melissa Peterson, a lobbyist for the Iowa State Education Association, said vaccination status is helpful because homeschooled students can opt into some courses and extracurricular activities offered by public schools.

"It’s important for us to know what immunizations that child has had," she said.

Homeschooled students would not need to be taught science or social studies until middle school

Homeschooled elementary students would not have to be taught science and social studies classes, if the bill becomes law.

The bill strikes language requiring science and social studies be taught to all grade levels. Instead, the bill says students must be taught to students in sixth to 12th grade.

Students at all grade levels would need to be taught math, reading and language arts.

Buckton said she's concerned about eliminating the requirement that students be taught science and social studies in elementary school.

"We have a shortage of medical professionals and kids can find that real excitement about science at the earlier ages," she said. "And social studies, we have all kinds of bills about the importance of civics and civics engagement, adding that into elementary levels, so it seems inconsistent."

Schools could not teach 'gender neutral' versions of world languages

The bill says, "the world language instruction shall not alter the world language to incorporate gender-neutral language if the world language being offered and taught utilizes a grammatical gender system."

Gustoff said he's heard from teachers in Iowa who claimed they were told to teach languages like Spanish by making up words to create a gender-neutral form, rather than the traditional articles of "el" and "la" or "un" and "una" to refer to nouns.

Keenan Crow, policy and advocacy director with the LGBTQ rights group One Iowa, said the group doesn't believe teachers are doing that.

"It’s kind of baffling in its current draft format," Crow said. "Because it seems to imply that teachers are being … required to make up words, like new words that don’t exist and aren’t in current usage already."

Berry Stevens, a high school freshman in West Des Moines called the languages portion of the bill "disrespectful to both teachers and students." Stevens, who uses they/them pronouns, said the requirement is "a blatant attack towards nonbinary and genderfluid Iowans, including myself."

"Iowa’s teachers are trained professionals who can and should be trusted," Stevens said. "They don’t need you to micromanage their curriculum."

Ryan Behn, a lobbyist for The Family Leader, said his group supports the bill.

"God created male and female, feminine and masculine," he said. "It’s okay if languages reflect that."

Doubling the tuition and textbook tax credit

The bill would double Iowa's tuition and textbook tax credit, which currently provides a credit of up to 25% of the first $2,000 that families spend on tuition and textbooks for K-12 students.

If the bill passes, the tax credit would cover 50% of the first $2,000 spent on tuition and textbooks, an increase of $500.

The tax credit is currently available to public and private school students as well as homeschool students.

[most-screwed-by-writers-tourney]

Already got a list of the ships for the ULTIMATE fucked up ship tournament done. Hopefully will start it in two weeks or so. This is a list of the ships:

1. The Darkling and Alina, The Grisha Trilogy

2. Batman and The Riddler, The Batman 2022

3. stu and billy from scream

4. Vriska and Terezifrom homestuck

5. light and l from death note

6. Dirk Strider and Jake English from Homestuck,

7. Vio and Shadow Link from the Four Swords manga

8. Emilio Murkmere x Tobias Schenien from Ghost Eyes

9. Oswald x Ed from Gotham

10. Anna Croft/ Yu Junghyeok (orv)

11. Dimitri/Edelgard - Fire Emblem Three Houses

12. Will Graham and Hannibal, Hannibal

13. yoonbum x sangwoo, killing stalking

14. Starscream and Megatron, from the Transformers franchise

15. Mukuro Ikusaba/Junko Enoshima from Dangan Ronpa

16. Ladd Russo and Lua Klein from Baccano!

17. Daida and Miranjo from Ousama Ranking

18. Shizuo and Izaya from Durarara!!

19. theresa x otto, honkai impact

20. dorian x fem! inquisitor, dragon age

21. renee x huey from baccano

22. nanami x touga, revolutionary girl Utena

23. madoka and homura, puella magi madoka magica

24. (Ronan Lynch x Joseph Kavinksy) - The Raven Cycle

25. Seishirou and Subaru from Tokyo Babylon/X

26. Misaki/Satou, Welcome to the NHK

27. Bakugou and Deku (My Hero Academia)

28. Akito and Shigure, Fruits Basket

29. House and Wilson, House MD

30. Scarlet and Chase, I’m the Grim Reaper

31. Jong-woo and Moon-jo, Strangers from Hell

32. Moon-young and Gang-tae, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

33. Medea and Helio, Your Throne

34. Celty and Shinra, Durarara

35. Akira and Ryo, Devilman

36. Yoshino and Kirishima, Raise wa Tanin Ga ii

37. Chateau and Ryang-ha, Love of Kill

38. Satoko and Shinpei, Hotaru no Yomeiri

39. Clarice and Hannibal, Silence of the Lambs

40. He Yan and Fu Shenxing, Who is the Prey

41. Cain/Owen from Promise of Wizard / Mahoyaku

42. Texas/Lappland from Arknights.

43. Jeongmin and Siyun, Dreaming Freedom

44. Han Chae-ah and Park Yunsu, Trapped

45. akane kurashiki/junpei tenmyouji from zero escape

46. Juri/Shiori (from Revolutionary Girl Utena)

47. Jackie/Shauna, Yellowjackets)

48. Cassandra/Rapunzel from the Tangled series

49. Damien and Elena from vampire diaries

50. Kristoph/Phoenix, Ace Attorney

51. Juice and Chibs, Sons of Anarchy

52. Utena/Anthy from the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena.

53. Cutthroat x Swindler, from Akudama Drive.

54. Yuno Gasai x Yukkiteru Amano from Mirai Nikki

55. Sal/Syakesan x Wadanohara from Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea.

56. Jeremy and the SQUIP, Be More Chill

57. Ian Grimm and Poppy Li, Mythic Quest

58. Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis De Pointe du Lac, Interview with the Vampire

59. fuuma and kamui from clamp's x/1999

60. Victor and Eli, Vicious

61. Elisabeth and Der Tod, Elisabeth

62. Rudolf and Der Tod, Elisabeth

63. Veronica Sawyer and J.D, Heathers

64. Akechi Goro × Persona 5 protagonist (Akira Kurusu/Ren Amamiya)

65. Hondomachi and Fukuda, ID: Invaded

66. Harley Quinn and the Joker, DC

67. Christine and Erik, Phantom of the Opera

68. Lisa Reisert and Jackson Rippner, Red Eye

69. Valeta and Reinhart, I Failed to Oust the Villain

70. Light Yagami and Misa Amane, Death Note

71. Sumire and Hakubo, Toilet Bound Hanako Kun

72. Mika Harima and Seiji Yagiri, Durarara!!

73. Emma Wilson and Yohan Lee, My Deepest Secret

74. Sarah and Jareth, Labyrinth

75. Addie LaRue and Luc, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

76. Ja Yoon and The Nobleman, The Witch, Part One: Subversion

77. Makima and Denji, Chainsaw Man

78. Kyoko and Katsuya, Fruits Basket

79. Mrs. De Winter and Maxim, Rebecca

80. Mutsuki Tooru and Urie Kuku, Tokyo Ghoul

81. Victor and Elizabeth, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

82. Constanta, Magdalena, and Alexei and Dracula, A Dowry of Blood

83. Ha-im and Geunhu, Never Ending Darling

84. Frank Cotton & Julia Cotton - Hellraiser (1987)

85. Yuki Cross & Kaname Kuran, Vampire Knight

86. Johann and Sasha, The Double Agent

87. Sian and Yul, Secret Alliance

88. Charlize and Dylan, The Taming of the Tyrant

89. Lin and Dosung, 340 Days

90. Makishima Shougo & Shinya Kougami from PSYCHOPASS.

91. Charlotte Willmore x Lizzie Wells, from The Perfection (2018).

92. “Hikaru”/Yoshiki from The Summer hikaru Died,

93. Dolph Laserhawk x Alex Taylor from Captain Laserhawk

94. Dolph Laserhawk x Rayman from Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix

95. Yuuji Itadori x Mahito from Jujitsu Kaisen

96. (luo binghe x shen qingqiu) from scum villain's self saving system.

97. Heaven Official's Blessing. Ships He Xuan and Shi Qingxuan.

98. Ives and Boyd from Ravenous 1999

99. Eve and Vilanelle, Killing Eve

100. Sephiroth/Cloud (FF7 Compilation)

101. Clary and Jace from the Mortal Instruments

102. Rika Sasaki/Yoshiyuki Terada, Cardcaptor Sakura,

103. Veralidaine Sarrasri/Numair Salmalín, from the Immortals Quartet

104. Eli/Oskar, Let the Right One In (2008).

105. Lavan Firestorm/Kalira, Brightly Burning

106. Lapis/Jasper (Steven Universe

107. PearlescentMoon/SMajor, the Life Series

108. Christine/Erik (Phantom Takarazuka)

109. The Brain/Julia (Animaniacs 2020)

110. Sterek, Teen Wolf

111. Jonathan Sims/Elias Bouchard, The Magnus Archives

112. Fyodor and Nikolai, Bungo Stray Dogs

113. Beatrice and Battler, Beabato, from "Umineko”

114. Father Paul/Riley Flynn; Midnight Mass

115. Edward Teach/Izzy Hands; Our Flag Means Death;

116. Batman/Joker

117. Cesare Borgia/Lucrezia Borgia - The Borgias

118. Dean/Sam Winchester from Supernatural

119. Vegas/Pete (Kinnporsche: The Series)

120. Hitori Uzune and Nanaki Kazuaki from Hatoful Boyfriends.

121. Lanze/Bluepool and Anan from Beauty and the Beasts

122. Blade and Dan Heng from Honkai Star Rail

123. Spike and Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

124. Isaac and Finn, I’m Dating a Psychopath

125. Lenore and Annabelle, Nevermore

126. Estelle and Khalid, From a Knight to a Lady

127. Layla and Matthias, Cry or Better Yet Beg

128. Hyuna and Luka, Alien Stage

129. Karuto and Lily, Dear my Living Dead

130. Andrew and Ashley Graves, Coffin of Andy and Leyley

131. Lydia Deetz/Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

132. Harrow and gideon from gideon the ninth/Locked Tomb

133. Cathy x Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)

134. Felix x Ollie (Saltburn)

135. Grace Chastity x Max Jaegerman, Nerdy Prudes Must Die

136. Mikoto and Haijin, Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoushi

137. Eucenielle and Tes, I Hold the Tyrant’s Heart

138. Claire and Balt, The East Wind of the Altas

139. Usui and Misaki, Maid Sama

140. Sebastian Michaelis and Ciel Phantomhive, Black Butler

141. Dabi x Hawks from My Hero Academia

142. Alice “Daisy” Tonner/Basira Hussain, The Magnus Archives

143. Naruto and Sasuke, from Naruto

144. Byleth Eisner / Jeritza von Hrym from fire emblem three houses

145. Akira x keisuke from togainu no chi (nitro+chiral game)

146. Lucy Gray Baird and Coriolanus Snow, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

147. Elias and Chise, The Ancient Magus Bride

148. Gendo and Yui Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion

149. Punpun and Aiko, Goodnight Punpun

150. Sang-hyun and Tae-ju, Thirst

151. Hawa and Adam, The Guy Upstairs

152. Satoru Fujnuma and Gaku Yashiro, Erased

153. Root and Sameen Shaw, Person of Interest

154. The Doctor and the master, Doctor Who

155. Juliette and Warner, Shatter Me

156. Ich and Mrs Danvers, Rebecca das Musical

157. Kokichi Ouma and Shuichi Saihara, Danganronpa V3

158. Roxy and Velma, Chicago

159. Griffith and Guts, Berserk

160. Creed and Train, Black Cat

161. Torso and Mutsuki, Tokyo ghoul

162. Vash and Knives, Trigun

163. Sweeney Tod and Mrs Lovett, Sweeney Tod

164. Kuroi and Mashiro, Thou Dhall Not Die

165. Amy and Nick, Gone Girl

166. India and Charlie Stoker, Stoker

167. Pig and Runt, Disco Pigs

168. Anakin and Padme, Star Wars

169. Chloe and Kairos, I Shall Kill That Sweet Devil

170. Jung and Seol, Cheese in the Trap

171. Anthy and Akio Ohtori, Revolutionary Girl Utena

172. Feyre and Rhysand, A Court of Thrones and Roses

173. Lelouch and Suzaku, Code Geass

174. Mikiya and Shiki, Garden of Sinners

175. Gatsby and Daisy, The Great Gatsby

176. Ivan and Till, Alien Stage

177. Sylar and Elle Bishop, Heroes

178. Helena and Demetrius, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

179. V and Rika, Mystic Messenger

180. Yukari and George, Paradise Kiss

[asinglestrike]

Allegiances Masterpost

This is my blog for my 4 ClanGen Clans! The main clan in this story is StrikeClan. There are 3 other clans as well, RiftClan, HollowClan, and ClawClan.

Updates are posted every Saturday at 10AM EST!

StrikeClan Backgrounds made by: https://toyhou.se/honeyshuckle

StrikeClan are considered level-headed and excellent at hunting.

RiftClan are known for being extremely skilled climbers.

ClawClan is easily the most bloodthirsty and violent.

HollowClan cats are generally seen as stoic and lacking emotion.

"A single Strike by a sharpened Claw will open up a Hollow Rift."

Allegiances (Updated every 12 Moons)

*Notes a trans character

StrikeClan:

Leader - Emberstar (80 Moons, She/Her, 7/9 lives) - A black/ginger tortie tabby molly with golden eyes

Deputy - Mistface (123 Moons, She/Her) - A dark grey molly with hazel eyes

Healer - Lightleaf (88 Moons, She/Her) - A pale tabby and white molly with cyan eyes

Mediator - N/A

Warriors:

Sparkfur (139 Moons, She/Her)- A long-furred unusually spotted ginger molly with golden eyes

Craneclaw (109 Moons, She/They) - A dark grey tabby and white molly with a torn ear, and scars on her back and legs, and bronze eyes

Deerstep (90 Moons, She/Her) - A dark brown ticked and white molly with cobalt eyes

Morelshade (69 Moons, He/Him) - A light brown tabby tom with dark blue eyes

Blazedawn (31 Moons, She/Her) - A long-furred spotted ginger and white molly with emerald eyes

Cloudfall (31 Moons, He/Him) - A long-furred white tom with emerald eyes

Mintstorm (23 Moons, He/Him) - A blue-grey tom with blue eyes and a lilac leather collar

Apprentice, Dovepaw

Stonedusk* (23 Moons, She/Her) - A long-furred dark grey molly with cyan eyes

Apprentice, Palepaw

Slatefur (19 Moons, He/Him) - A dark grey tom with green-yellow eyes

Ashheart (19 Moons, He/Him) - A spotted dark grey tom with hazel eyes

Apprentice, Rainpaw

Shadethroat (19 Moons, She/Her) - A black molly with hazel eyes

Apprentices:

Dovepaw (11 Moons, She/Her) - A speckled grey molly with blue eyes

Rainpaw (9 Moons, He/Him) - An unusually spotted grey tom with cyan eyes

Palepaw (9 Moons, He/Him) - A white tom with cyan eyes

Queens & Kits:

Elders:

Silverstorm (146 Moons, She/Her) - An aging long-furred speckled silver and white molly with sage eyes

RiftClan:

Leader - Russetstar (127 Moons, He/Him, 6/9 Lives) - A long-furred masked dark ginger tabby tom with grey eyes

Deputy - Cragwhistle (122 Moons, She/He) - A light brown cat with blue eyes

Healer - Evilface (116 Moons, She/Her) - A black molly with heather blue eyes

Emberblotch (19 Moons, She/Her) - A dark ginger molly with pale green eyes

Mediator - N/A

Warriors:

Cheesespeckle - (110 Moons, She/Her) - A spotted pale-grey molly with bronze eyes

Subaru (93 Moons, He/Him) - A long-furred dark gray ticked and white tom with hazel eyes

Pebblejoy (46 Moons, He/Him) - A long-furred dark grey tabby tom with dark blue eyes

Lilacbrook (42 Moons, He/Him) - A long-furred speckled silver tom with grey eyes

Floodbloom (39 Moons, She/Her) - A cream/black tortie molly with bronze eyes

Ripple (36 Moons, She/Her) - A long-furred cream molly with sage eyes

Weedstripe (19 Moons, He/Him) - A long-furred ginger tom with emerald eyes

Apprentices:

Queens & Kits:

Furzekit (0 Moons, He/Him. Kit of Cragwhistle and Russetstar) - A pale brown tom with yellow eyes

Pinnaclekit (0 Moons, She/Her. Kit of Cragwhistle and Russetstar) - A marbled molly with blue eyes

Buttercupkit (0 Moons, She/Her. Kit of Cragwhistle and Russetstar) - A brown and white molly with blue eyes

Elders:

ClawClan:

Leader - Sorrelstar (142 Moons, She/Her, 7/9 Lives) - A dark ginger/gray calico molly with copper eyes

Apprentice, Brightpaw

Deputy - Rosemaryclaw (132 Moons, She/Her) - A pale smoke molly with one amber eyes and one cyan eye

Healer - Boulderleaf (157 Moons, She/Her) - A long-furred dorsal-striped silver molly with bronze eyes

Mediator - Snakeblaze (138 Moons, He/Him) - A dark brown and white tom with pale green eyes and a scarred face

Warriors:

Nettleshade (93 Moons, She/Her) - A speckled grey and white molly with hazel eyes and a lavender herb behind her ear

Fawnflower (66 Moons, She/Her) - An unusually spotted light brown molly with emerald eyes and a scar on her shoulder and belly

Silverwhisker (27 Moons, They/Them) - A pale silver cat with amber eyes and a scar on their flank

Apprentice, Thistlepaw

Snowstorm (27 Moons, She/Her) - A long-furred pale molly with one dark blue eye and one emerald eye

Apprentice, Aspenpaw

Apprentices:

Thistlepaw (9 Moons, He/Him) - A long-furred silver and white tom with green eyes

Aspenpaw (9 Moons, She/Her) - A long-furred dorsal-striped gray and white molly with silver eyes

Brightpaw (9 Moons, She/Her) - A ginger and white molly with vitiligo and copper eyes

Queens & Kits:

Elders:

Russulaclaw (144 Moons, He/Him) - A pale-ginger and white dorsal-striped tom with pale yellow eyes

HollowClan:

Leader - Burnetstar (107 Moons, They/Them, 8/9 Lives) - A long-furred black cat with hazel eyes

Deputy - Pebblepelt (86 Moons, They/Them) - A long-furred light brown tabby cat with sage eyes

Healer - Plumvalley (29 Moons, He/Him) - A long-furred light brown tabby tom with sage eyes and a bluebell accessory

Swanspeckle - A spotted pale tom with sunlit ice eyes and a white flower bulb and purple herb accessory

Mediator - N/A

Warriors:

Saffronshade (117 Moons, She/Her) - A long-furred, masked brown tabby molly with blue eyes

Greyblotch (103 Moons, He/Him) - A silver tabby tom with green-yellow eyes

Apprentice, Shadepaw

Pepperfish (88 Moons, She/Her) - A black and white molly with dark blue eyes

Toadstripe (81 Moons, He/Him) - A long-furred, pale tabby tom with hazel eyes

Cindertuft (51 Moons, They/Them) - A dark grey tabby cat with dark blue eyes

Theo - (51 Moons, She/Her) - A white and black molly with heather blue eyes and a black bell collar

Rift - (48 Moons, She/Her) - A speckled brown molly with heather blue eyes

Peakfur (41 Moons, He/Him) - A cream tom with bronze eyes

Strawfern (37 Moons, He/Him) - A long-furred golden tabby tom with blue eyes and a maple seed accessory

Ganderdapple* (20 Moons, He/Him) - A pale tom with one emerald eye and one amber eye

Whisperclash (16 Moons, She/Her) - A tortie molly with hazel eyes

Cressheart (15 Moons, She/Her) - A dorsal-striped gray and white molly with dark blue eyes

Treerip (15 Moons, She/Her) - A black and white smoke molly with green eyes

Apprentices:

Shadepaw (11 moons, He/Him) - A brown tabby tom with copper eyes

Queens & Kits:

Scorchkit (4 Moons, He/Him. Kit of Burnetstar and Pebblepelt) - A black tom with dark blue eyes

Oleanderkit (1 Moon, She/Her. Kit of Rift and Swanspeckle) - A pale grey molly with cobalt blue eyes

Elders:

[detective-inspector-hardy]

have you ever watched Heathers? if so, who's your favorite character? if not, then say JD

I believe I saw the movie back when it came out? I'm not sure why, when, or how, but I remember it vaguely. Was that back in 89? 88?

I don't remember having a favourite character. (I don't remember any of the characters)

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

FROM THE "JAMBOREE" ARCHIVES OVER AT K RECS... 'TWAS A SCREAMING HAPPENING.

PIC INFO: Resolution at 1080x1350 -- Spotlight on a "Jamboree" era newsletter featuring 2/4 and 1/3 of Pacific Northwest grunge and indie bands, SCREAMING TREES (Gary Lee Conner & Mark Lanegan✝) and BEAT HAPPENING (Heather Lewis), c. late 1980s, c. 1987-'88.

EXTRA INFO: All songs on "Jamboree" we're produced by Steve Fisk with assistance from SCREAMING TREES members Mark Lanegan and guitarist Gary Lee Conner (who plays a brief guitar solo on "Midnight a Go-Go"). B.H. would later issue a split EP, "Beat Happening/Screaming Trees," that same year.

Sources: www.picuki.com/media/2831442646058406109 & Wikipedia.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Michael de Adder :: @deAdder:: All the King's men

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 28, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 29, 2024

On Friday, in an interview with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, Trump’s former attorney general William Barr brushed off the recent news that Trump, furious that the story he had taken refuge in a bunker during the Black Lives Matter protests in summer 2020 had leaked, called for the White House leaker to be executed. 

“I remember him being very mad about that. I actually don’t remember him saying ‘executing,’ but I wouldn‘t dispute it, you know,” Barr said to Collins when she asked him about it. “The president would lose his temper and say things like that. I doubt he would’ve actually carried it out.”

Collins followed up, asking if Trump would call for executions on other occasions. “He would say things similar to that on occasions to blow off steam. But I wouldn’t take them literally every time he did it,” Barr answered.

Why not? Collins asked. 

“Because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t be carried out and you could talk sense into him,” Barr said. “I don’t think he would actually go and kill political rivals and things like that.” Barr said he intends to vote for Trump. 

“Just to be clear,” Collins said, “you’re voting for someone who you believe tried to subvert the peaceful transfer of power, that can’t even achieve his own policies, that lied about the election even after his attorney general told him that the election wasn’t stolen.… You’re going to vote for someone who is facing 88 criminal counts?”

“The answer to the question is yes,” Barr said. “I think the real threat to democracy is the progressive movement and the Biden administration.”

The contention of the former attorney general—who had been responsible for enforcing the rule of law in the United States of America—that a man who has demanded the execution of people he dislikes is a better candidate for the presidency than a man who is using the power of the federal government to create jobs for ordinary people, combat climate change, protect the environment, and promote health and education, illustrates that Republican leaders have abandoned democracy.

In November 2019, in a speech to the right-wing Federalist Society, Barr ignored the Declaration of Independence, which is a list of complaints against King George III, to argue that Americans had rebelled in 1776 not against the king, but rather against Parliament. In the modern world, Barr argued, Congress has grown far too strong. The president should be able to act on his own initiative and not be checked by either congressional or judicial oversight.

That theory is known as the theory of the “unitary executive,” and it says that because the president is the head of one of the three unique branches of government, any oversight of that office by Congress or the courts is unconstitutional, although in fact presidents since George Washington have accepted congressional oversight. 

The theory took root in 1986, when Samuel Alito, then a 35-year-old lawyer for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, proposed the use of “signing statements” to take from Congress the sole power to make laws by giving the president the power to “interpret” them. In 1987, president Ronald Reagan issued a signing statement to a debt bill, declaring his right to interpret it as he wished and saying the president could not be forced “to follow the orders of a subordinate.” 

In 2004, when Congress outlawed the newly-revealed U.S. torture program at remote sites around the world, President George W. Bush issued a signing statement rejecting any limitation on “the unitary executive branch.” In April 2020, to justify his demands for states to reopen in the face of the deadly pandemic, Trump told reporters, “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total….” Now, in 2024, Trump’s lawyers are in court arguing that the president has criminal immunity for his behavior in the White House, possibly including his right to order the executions of those he sees as enemies. 

As Republicans have embraced unlimited power for the president, they have also turned against the right of American citizens to have a say in their government. Beginning with so-called ballot integrity measures in 1986, they embraced methods to knock voters off the voting rolls. That policy intensified after Democrats passed the so-called Motor-Voter Law in 1993, making it easier to register to vote. 

After voters nonetheless elected Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, the Supreme Court handed down the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, permitting unlimited donations to political campaigns, and corporate money flowed into them. In that same year, Republican operatives launched Operation REDMAP to elect Republicans to state legislatures ahead of the redistricting required after the 2010 census. Operation REDMAP resulted in extreme partisan gerrymandering that would make it virtually impossible for Democrats to win elections even if they won a majority of the vote. 

Then, in 2013, the Supreme Court decided Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That law had required states with a history of racial discrimination to get clearance from the Department of Justice before they changed their voting laws. The court said that preclearance was no longer necessary. Within hours of the decision, Republican-dominated states proposed new laws that discriminate against voters of color.   

In 2019, Barr explained to an audience at the University of Notre Dame the ideology behind the strong executive and weakened representation. Rejecting the clear words of the Constitution’s framers, Barr said that the U.S. was never meant to be a secular democracy. When the nation’s founders had spoken so extensively about self-government, he said, they had not meant the right to elect representatives of their own choosing. Instead, he said, the founders meant the ability of individuals to “restrain and govern themselves.” And, because people are willful, the only way to achieve self-government is through religion. 

Those who believe the United States is a secular country, he said, are destroying the nation. It was imperative, he said, to reject those values and embrace religion as the basis for American government. 

The idea that the United States must become a Christian nation has apparently led Barr to accept the idea that a man who has called for the execution of those he sees as enemies should be president, apparently because he is expected to usher in an authoritarian Christian state, in preference to a man who is using the power of the government to help ordinary Americans.  

Saturday night, journalists, politicians, and celebrities gathered for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an annual fundraiser for the White House Correspondents’ Association, which protects press passes for journalists who regularly cover the White House, assigns seats in the briefing room, funds scholarships for aspiring journalists, and gives awards for outstanding journalism. It is traditionally an evening of comedy, but last night, after a humorous speech, President Joe Biden implored the press to take the threat of dictatorship seriously. 

“I’m sincerely not asking of you to take sides but asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment; move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics; and focus on what’s actually at stake,” he said. “Every single one of us has…a serious role to play in making sure democracy endures….  I have my role, but, with all due respect, so do you.” 

George Stephanopoulos of ABC’s This Week apparently took this reminder to heart. “Until now,” he said in the show’s opener on Sunday, “[n]o American president had ever faced a criminal trial. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment for retaining and concealing classified documents. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment or a state indictment for trying to overturn an election, or been named an unindicted co-conspirator in two other states for the same crime. No American president ever faced hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments for business fraud, defamation, and sexual abuse….

“The scale of the abnormality is so staggering, that it can actually become numbing. It’s all too easy to fall into reflexive habits, to treat this as a normal campaign, where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power. But, that is not what’s happening this election year. Those bedrock tenets of our democracy are being tested in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[disorganizedkitten]

Hello! You've found The Blog! Welcome to the Masterlist!

Ao3 | Discord | Main Blog | Reblog Blog | Writing Archive

Links may be finicky, in the meantime, if something looks interesting ask me about it!

Coldest Girl In Coldtown

And I Loved You So Much I Turned Around

Behind Borrowed Blood

Bloody Phosphenes

By Definition, We’re Not Insane Yet

If Home Is Where The Heart Is, Where Do The Heartless Rest?

Infected Pearl au

No Pandemic Au

Pearl Bach And The Horrible Terrible No Good Very Bad (88) Days

Thorns and Tombstones

Time Loop

"1800s" au

Harry Potter

A Conspiracy Of Errors

A Week In A Day

And Salt The Earth Behind You

Antithesis / Charlie's Demons

Arial Anarchy

Cobra Lily

Dark As Dried Blood

Dark Magic For Dummies

Emotional Support Cookies

Gentle As Flaking Blood

Harry Potter Does Not Exist (A Presentation)

Hyacinth

I'm Gonna Kill Santa Claus (But Uno Reverse)

Incubus

It’s Only Right As A Math Problem

Judge My Carmine Fingertips (It Won't Make Them Clean)

No Rest For The Wicked

Not Every Open Wound (Is Simply Healed By Time)

Not (Our Parents’) Children 

Nothing Like A Trail Of Blood To Lead You Home

Obliviate

Seven Months Away

Swing a Scepter, Wear A Crown

The Potter-Riddle foundation for abandoned children

The Soul Feels Like The Universe / I Feel As Though I've Been On This Earth Before

There Is Magic In Every Living Thing

Three War Orphans In A Magic Castle

War Crimes Verse

Win Come Late

You Held My Heart In Your Hands

Miraculous Ladybug

A Bug To Bee Talk

A Day In The Life Of - Mafia Au

A Miraculous Mix Up

A Study In Friendship

ANJR

Be Still My Undead Heart

Bursting Bubbles of Bad Luck

Chronicles of Ladybug and Baset

Climbing the Louvre

Depth of Cold

Four is Quantic but five is too

G-day: a celebration of Girlfriends and Glitter

Going outside (for more than the view)

Is It Really Safe?

It's in the blood

I’m Literally Right Here

Luck of the claws

Miracle Fighters

Moving Places

My Safety Isn’t The Concern

No Longer A Villian

Paper Lanterns

Plume Reign

Red’s the Color Of Your Heart

Rena

Scarlet Swords

Shades of Warmth

Sharing is Caring

Skipped a Step

Sunshine and Roses

The Marinette Lucky Charm

These Hopeless Helpless Miraculous-Wielding Romantics

We Recover Only To Be Broken Again

You’ll Survive

Crossover Fics

#girlsupportinggirls

Carrying capacity

Circus au / Into The Mixing Bowl

Closer Than Friends

Exchange of blades

Feathers and Shells

Geronimo Weasley

Ghostinette

Gifts Between Girls

How To Live (When You've Long Been Dead)

Immortal Children

Ivory Shadows

Jaded eyes, stolen stories (Jaded eyes, poached prophecies)

Jagged Leaves

Life goes on

Location Soulmate au

Marinette's Guide To Adopting The Local Vigilante

Power he knows not

Princess Mara au

Queen, Devil, Champion

Recruiting Red

Robbery chatfic

Seven Faces over Seven Continents

Switching and Swapping

Tales of the Tacticional Twins

Talon mindshare

Tim Drake-Wayne vs Albus Dumbledore

Trained Together

Two Can Keep A Secret If One Of Them Is Dead

Wine Aunts Salt au

Wishes Fishes

My Hero Academia

Borrow

Hold Your Bloody Head Up High

How Long Can Someone Be Lost

Lost In Translation

They Call Them Feral

We're All Dead Here

Wingfic

Scooby-Doo

Eldritch Doos au 

Gang Soulmate au

Summer camp au

HTTYD

Dragonborn

The one where Dagur is a good brother

The one where Dragon Riders are their own tribe | Feral Hiccup au #1

The One where Dragons are actually Aliens

The one where everyone is secretly friends

The one where Heather and Mala pop in during HTTYD1

The one where Hiccup and his brother kill the red death before realizing they’re brothers | Feral Hiccup au #4

The one where Hiccup Gets Hurt in the ring

The one where Hiccup Runs Away (and meets the wingmaidens) | Feral Hiccup au #2

The One Where Stoick Suffers Despite His Best Efforts | Feral Hiccup au #5

The one with the human sacrifice except Dagur is a faithful husband and very offended | Feral Hiccup au #3

JCA

Hypermnesia

Reacquisition

Danny Phantom

Age Swap Au

Three Feet To The Left

Walk Beside My Corpse (It's the memory that decays)

Welfare Check

Other

In The Vacuum You Left Behind

Keep Me In Balance

Prerecognition

The Fuzzy Duckling

The Name of Frankenstein

The Paris Fic

We Dared Open The Door

Some fics did not make the list. Considering how many I have, that’s not a surprise. They can live in the docs for a little while longer.

If you wanna chat; ask box is always open, and otherwise there’s the shared discord (mostly HP but I WILL eventually get us an entire CGIC area).

 If you’re interested in other topics! Nino Lahiffe Appreciation Squad Discord - Ethereal Grimoire Discord - Maribat Insanity II (link upon request)

 Otherwise, a wild DK may be spotted but I don’t have rights to those links and I’d rather catch you by the throat from behind. ^~^

[offbookkeeping]

okay this is semi obscure but i will now be listing off my favorite off book episodes that you should absolutely listen to right now

(not in any particular order)

• 277. wine from the hospital floor with addie weyrich

• 165. one two tree with eliza skinner

• 146. bachelor quest with the 2 johnnies

• 118. barn of darkness with paul sabourin

• 87. what's in thrift store with sasheer zamata

• 13. attorney at love with nicole parker

• 4. curses curses curses with jamie denbo

• 283. all black everything with ross bryant

• 229. breadtime: who will survive with rachel bloom

• soap opera! with kelly marie tran

• 224. the other scottish play with katie berry

• 83. night at the natural history museum with janet varney and steve berg

• 247. a single pull up to save the president with peter benifaz

• 209. non stop socks! with lilan bowden

• 275. this book only happens when you read it with rashawn scott

• 270. PMS: perpetual mischief season with gilli nissim

• 196. get haim to the greek with shaun diston

• 189. anything goes: in montana with demi adejuyigbe

• 198. can i compare you to a cheese? with sherry cola

• 177. trashassic trash with nick mandernach

• 161. clear eyes, full hearts with arden myrin

• 114. billionaires and future children with carl tart

• 23. o little town of doggywood with paul f thompkins and nicole parker

• 21. murder on the picturesque express with scott aukerman

• 299. clueless: a paints mcspectrum mystery with scott aukerman

• 102. love island: normal edition with elliot glazer

• 29. reborn in the fire with rachel bloom

248. cowminal house (animal house where the animal is a cow) with brendan dowling

• 88. tacoma valley with douglas widick

• 213. moms, bombs, and dante's gone with laci mosly

• 271. kisses to my critics with tim murray

• 250. intermission! with alice stanley jr

• a seastar is born with jeff hiller

• 80. candy crushin' it with mark mcconville

• 81. sean cullen live at sketchfest

• 99. mirage à trois with lucas hazlett

• 102. the cat five and the bad boys with heather anne campbell and nick wiger

• 73. The Dr & the Beast with D'Arcy Carden

• 74. actually, love with matt rogers

• 291. every place i cry live at permanent records

• 110. keeping pace with pace with the cooties

• 75. a cup of christmas with paul f thompkins and nicole parker

• 66. we object to fear

• 228. mariah who are ya? with matt rogers

• 34. zigging through time with ross bryant

• 96. summer stock: the musical with joel kim booster

• 290. the podcast about a ride about a show about YOU with tony rodiguez

• 6. wolf/tuck:LIVE! with d'arcy carden and paul scheer

• 11. shift your north: LIVE! with griffen newman and michael cruz kayne

• 18. touched by a gabriel with ashley ward

[yourreddancer]

Heather Cox Richardson

November 20, 2024

Nov 21

Remember how American voters so hated Project 2025, the playbook for a second Trump term written by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing institutions, that Trump said he had nothing to do with it, and then one of its key architects, Russell Vought, told undercover filmmakers that Trump was only running away from the project as political cover? 

It appears Vought was right and the story that Trump had nothing to do with Project 2025 was, indeed, just political cover. Ed O’Keefe and Major Garrett of CBS News reported today that two sources close to the Trump transition team have told them that they expect Trump to name Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

Vought wrote the section of Project 2025 that covers the presidency, calling for “aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch” to “bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will” and identifying the OMB as the means of enforcing the president’s agenda. Vought was Trump’s OMB director during the end of his first term and tried to remove the civil service protections that have been in place since 1883 to protect federal workers from being fired for political reasons. That plan, known as Schedule F, would have affected about 88% of the federal workforce. 

One of the first things Biden did when he took office was to rescind Trump’s executive order making that shift.

Like that earlier attempt, Project 2025 leans heavily on the idea that “personnel is policy,” and that idea illuminates the choices the Trump team is making. Trump has refused to sign the official documents required by the 2022 Presidential Transition Act. Those documents mandate ethics commitments and require the incoming president to disclose private donations. They also limit those donations. Without the paperwork, Trump appointees cannot start the process of getting security clearances through the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the team says it is planning to do its own vetting of its candidates instead.  

(NOTE: THAT RIGHT THERE SHOULD PREVENT SHITHEAD FROM BEING ALLOWED TO ASSUME THE PRESIDENCY!!!!)

Claiming they have a mandate, Trump’s people have said they are launching “a hostile takeover” of the American government “on behalf of the American people.” But as voting numbers continue to come in, Trump’s majority has fallen below 50% of voters, meaning that more voters chose someone else than chose Trump on November 5. These results are far from being in “mandate” territory.

The U.S. Constitution charges Congress with writing the laws under which the American people live, and the president with taking “care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Since 1933, Congress has created an extensive system of agencies that regulate business and provide a basic social safety net. Congress will say, for example, that the U.S. needs an agency to protect the environment (like the Environmental Protection Agency, established under Republican president Richard M. Nixon), appropriate money for it, oversee its leadership, and then trust those leaders to hire the personnel necessary to carry out its mission. 

Regulations and social welfare programs and the agencies that provide them are broadly popular—think how hard it has been for members to get rid of Social Security, for example—so Congress trims at the edges rather than abolishing them. As the U.S. budget has grown, they often bear the brunt of accusations that the government spends too much, although what has really caused the budget to operate deeply in the red is the tax cuts for the wealthy put into place by Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.  

Right-wing leaders who want to continue cutting regulations and taxes are newly empowered by Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, and they are turning to a quirk of the government to enable them to work around Congress. 

Since the first administration of President George Washington, agencies created by Congress have lived in the Executive Branch. If, as Vought and others argue, the president is the absolute authority in that branch, Trump can do whatever he wants with those agencies and the civil servants—the bureaucrats—who run them.  

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy laid out their plans for cutting the U.S. government. Neither of them has ever held elected office, but they see that as an advantage, not a downside: “We are entrepreneurs, not politicians,” they write. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees.” Trump has named them to the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE. Despite the “department” name, DOGE is not an official government agency—which would require ethics disclosures—but rather an advisory panel. 

Their op-ed begins by redefining congressional authority to create agencies to suggest that agencies are illegitimate. “Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren’t made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees,” they write, “but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.” This, they say, “imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers.” 

“Thankfully,” they continue, “we have a historic opportunity to solve the problem. On Nov. 5, voters decisively elected Donald Trump with a mandate for sweeping change, and they deserve to get it.”

While “politicians” have “abetted” an “entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy,” they write, they will work with the OMB to identify regulations that, they claim, Trump can issue an executive order to stop enforcing. “This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy,” they write. Should Trump want to cut things that Congress wants to fund, they claim that Trump will simply refuse to spend those appropriations, challenging the 1974 Impoundment Control Act that declared such withholding illegal. 

Musk and Ramaswamy reiterated their support for cutting programs that are not currently authorized, although budget experts note that such a lapse is a tool to permit adjustments to programs Congress has, in fact, authorized and have also pointed out that one of the top items on that list is health care for veterans. Cuts to all these programs will naturally mean extensive cuts to the federal workforce. 

“With a decisive electoral mandate and a 6–3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court,” they write, “DOGE has a historic opportunity for structural reductions in the federal government. We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington. We expect to prevail. Now is the moment for decisive action.” 

They conclude by asserting that “[t]here is no better birthday gift to our nation on its 250th anniversary than to deliver a federal government that would make our Founders proud,” which is one heck of a conclusion to a blueprint for taking the power of American lawmaking from the Congress, where the Framers put it, and delivering it into the hands of an extraordinarily powerful president acting on the advice of two unelected billionaires, one of whom wasn’t born in the United States.  

In the vein of getting rid of regulations, today the chief executive of Delta Air Lines said he expected the Trump administration would be a “breath of fresh air” after the Biden administration’s consumer-protection laws that he called government “overreach.” 

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Senate has been confirming President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, with the absence of Republican senators making the confirmations easier.