#i keep seeing shit about like federation workers

[m0nochromem0use]

also i have been watching charlie’s qsmp vods because i said if condi got on i would watch it and i’m not a coward or a liar (even if he’s not actually in smh) and i have to ask guys what the fuck is the federation

[grison-in-space]

worker uprisings are not an upside.

I see this rhetoric here all the time, and it drives me up the wall. So you're all getting a good rant here: a worker uprising is not good.

The worker uprisings that bought the NLRB paid for it in blood and lives, and another uprising means that we will have to find the price to buy it again. And there will be families, people, and lives blighted in the meantime. Worker uprisings are not upsides for anyone and they are not fucking consolation prizes. They happen when things go bad, horribly bad, and they generally only result in positive change insofar as they create so much chaos, bloodshed, and disruption that the overall situation has to change. In the mean time, people are still left dead, destitute, and maimed. If we can avert a worker uprising by using nonviolent means of pressure to force accountability, we should do that, because it results in vastly more stable outcomes for everyone. If this pissant, damn-fool shortsighted Supreme Court decision goes through and violence is the only remaining option to enforce change that anyone sees, that is a bad thing.That is not a flood gift. People will die fixing that bullshit. People did die fixing that bullshit!

You know how we got the NLRB the first time, back in 1935?

It took almost fifty years of labor unrest in the United States before we got the NLRB. Let's start with the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 (which was majorly disruptive but happened before labor unionizing was widespread). That's a great template for your fucking worker's uprising: there's no union leadership to coordinate fury and direct it properly, so when workers lose their shit after the third goddamn time wages get cut (not "fail to keep the pace of inflation," actually "you get less money now"), they all kind of do things on impulse without thinking much about long term strategy. The fury just erupts. In the case of the Great Railroad Strike, angry workers burned factories and facilities, seized rail facilities, paralyzed commerce networks, and existing power structures panicked and called out militias, National Guard units, and federal troops to forcibly suppress the workers. About a hundred people died.

Let me pop a cut down while I talk about what happened next. Spoiler: there's a lot of violence under the hood coming up, and like all violence, it absolutely sloshes around and hits people who aren't necessarily directly involved in conflicts.

You have continuing incidences of violence over strikes throughout the next several decades as nonviolent strikes are met with violence from pro-employer forces and workers resist with violence back. I can't even list all the violent incidents here that ended in deaths, because they were frequent. The 1892 Coeur d'Alune labor strike broke out into an actual shooting war and resulted in a number of deaths, not to mention months of detainment for six hundred protesting miners; the same year, you have another shooting war kicked off between hundreds of massed paid private Pinkerton security and striking workers in Pittsburgh through the Homestead Strike. Imagine how that's going to go down today.

And the thing about violence like this, and tolerance for violence, is that eventually you just get used to using it to get your way. You actually also do see quite a bit of violence conducted by striking labor workers, sometimes without recent provocation from management. For example, the national International Association of Bridge Structural Iron Workers embarked on a campaign of bombings from 1906-1911 that eventually culminated in a bombing of the office of the LA Times that killed 20 people. Do you want to live in a world where the only way to resolve conflicts like this is to risk someone bombing your office because your boss mouthed off at his cause? Even if he's right, do you want to risk losing your life, your arms, your friend, your sibs, to someone who thinks that the only option available to him to address systematic inequality is violence?

And you think about who really suffers when violence erupts, too. Look at the East St Louis massacre in 1917, when management tries undercutting the local white-run unions by hiring black folks who are systematically excluded by the unions. (If you think labor solidarity is free from the same intersectional forces that hit every other attempt to organize in solidarity for humans, you really need to go back and revisit your history books. We can do better and we should, but when we set up our systems and hope for the future, we have to be clear-eyed about the failures of the past.) Anyway, when labor tensions between white union workers and management's preferred use of cheaper, poorer, less "uppity" black people erupted, the white union workers attacked not management, but the black parts of town. They cut the hoses to the fucking fire department, burned huge swathes of East St Louis belonging to black homeowners, and shot black folks fleeing in the streets.

Money might not trickle down, but violence sure fucking does. The wealthy insulate themselves from violence by employing intermediaries to do all the dirty work for them, or even to venture into any areas that might be dangerous. When we resort to violence as the only way to solve our problems, inevitably the people and communities who pay the highest blood prices are the ones who have the least to provide. You think any of those robber barons are going to wind up on the ground bleeding out? They have their Pinkerton troops for that shit. The worst they lose is money; the rest of us have to stake our bodies and our homes.

No one should look forward to a worker uprising. If the Supreme Court is stupid and short-sighted enough to reduce avenues of worker redress to extra-legal means, the worker uprisings will come back around again, sure enough, and we'll all write our demands in blood once again. But the whole fucking POINT of the NLRB is that the federal government objects to having to sort these things out when they dissolve into open violence, so it sets rules about what the stupid short-sighted greediguts fat cats up top can do to reduce violence erupting again.

Anyway. Best thing I can think of right now is to get a Congressional supermajority in with the eye of imposing limits and curbs on the Court. Because look, I'll march if I need to, but I ain't going to pretend the thought puts a smile in my mouth and a spring in my step. Fuck.

[wackytheorist]

A love letter to qsmpblr because everyone's making one and I think appreciating your favorite pages is wonderful.

(I'm not the best at introductions but you guys really do mean a lot for me, so here's my story)

I never used to care about tumblr, I only had an account to check out the funny posts and maybe reblog them on my sideblog but this account was colorless. I was just wead(random text spam that I can't remember).

Why? Because socializing was(and still is) quite hard and handling a community online was way to much stress for me, an overthinker. Of course I made occasional vague posts in the heat of the moment but I never wanted to be considered a qsmpblrian.

But then came the qsmp reset, and wayyy to many thoughts in brain I began posting. Then came the ghosties arc and so I began liveblogging and theorizing and ignoring my overthinker thoughts because qsmpblr was a big community and no one cared for little ol' me right?

I was so wrong, and happy to be wrong because now, I regret nothing and this community is the 9th most important thing of my life.

You see I love appreciating people inside but when I try to talk about it, I stumble hence the weird wording

PEOPLE I'D LIKE TO THANK UNDER CUT

@ultra-raging-ghost You used to be my primary source of badboyhalo vlogging, thank you for catching me up to date. It was so fun go insane over badboyhalo with you, even if it was for a short time.

@kadextra I'm devouring your art oml, also loved to liveblog with your so cool omg.(I'm so so so honoured to be your mutual)

@alchemicaladarna Holy shit your brain please keep yapping if alchemicaladarna made a lecture on badboyhalo lore, you bet your ass I'd be there.

@q-starhalo , @rhiaarrow , @imferns , @pomme--bleuet and all the other bbh vloggers I couldn't mention for various reasons, thank you for your services o7

@iminyourbookshelf I loved chomping the heads of federation workers with you, your amazing and cool :D

@semifontos I've said everything I wanted to say everything in your reblogs but omg your writing is insane/pos

@tubborucho I didn't expect you follow back, your sosososososo very cool :D

@pommunist Thank you for your services to bringing us information about the qadmin situation(and for being the based af)

@ethertheaether The fanfiction on Omelete made my shitty month 2000x better.

@itsbebebrainrotting @faffodil @imnotasweetie @dotterelly @annimator @artistnerd24

@theroseyhues @lilghostlettuce @qsmp-extraordinaire Your reblogs make my day pippipipipipipipipipipipipipipipipi

@qsmpcryptid @insanitybl00m @adreamoverlife @etoilesbienne @sarcastictissy and a lot of blogs I can't all capture thank you!

@qsmpincorrect @qsmp-where-they-shouldnt-be @which-qsmp-egg-would and all the events that kept us entertained.

AND @YOU QSMPBLR USER!!

[eriophorumcallitrix]

ok so i wanna talk about my biggest gripe with the latest reason for disliking tubbo. this ended up accidentally being a more in-depth character explanation from my/tubbos pov. and boy do I mean the compulsive overexplanation really popped off on this one

(disclaimer: you’re obviously allowed to dislike any character you want, I’m not your mom and I’m just voicing my own view + experiences lol)

one of the biggest criticisms for him im seeing as of the moment is that he’s being annoying. and I completely agree. I think he’s being inflammatory at really awful times. but what I don’t agree with is the lack of discussion about why he’s acting this way. chalking his callousness up to simple neglect or lack of care is a disservice to his character.

my interpretation of tubbos current mental state and how he got here is like this:

tension has been high strung for weeks now due to the egg island workers showing up and harassing people. they’ve killed empanada, and there really does not seem to be shit they can do about it. the federation doesn’t give a shit, the workers are OP as all hell, and tubbo has tried everything in his power to keep sunny and her siblings safe. not even his busted set of armor kept him from getting three-tapped. like tubbo said: “why try if there’s no chance of winning?”

so already, he’s depressed and frustrated with himself for not being able to do a damn thing to keep the people he loves safe.

then we get into his relationships with the people around him. in tubbos eyes, pac and fit are forming a close relationship that he feels is going to leave him behind. pac, fit and Ramon have each other now. they’re family now in a way that tubbo doesn’t seem to be a part of now. I can’t remember if he said this exactly, but it was along the lines of: well now there’s not going to be any space for me [if they’re that close.] his closest friends are moving on without him, and there’s nothing he can do about that either.

now we have a depressed barely-adult guy whose self esteem has TANKED because he feels like there’s no use for him anymore. his friends are moving on without him and the only thing he’s good for is how useful he can be to others.

except for sunny.

it barely took a week for them to get attached to each other, and now it’s them against the world. sunny is all he needs, and tubbo is all she needs. they mean everything to each other, and would burn it all down if it made the other smile. and right now? it’s looking like it’ll be just them against the world until further notice.

but sunny has her friends. she has her siblings! she loves them to death and they love her to death too. she has her accountant bad, her bodyguard fit and driver pac! (if I remember correctly xd) and they’ve got her. sunny can trust them, and has them to stick around for.

tubbo does not have this. don’t get him wrong, he’s incredibly grateful that she’s got people on her side that love her other than him! but this doesn’t come without unspoken jealousy and resentment. not resentment towards sunny, obviously, but definitely some jealousy of her relationships with the others. and possible resentment towards the others for not sparing the same kindness towards him.

this is where I tie back to my original point. the difference between sunny and her pa is mostly communication and trust of others. sunny is willing to communicate and trust others, and tubbo is not.

to start with why tubbo isn’t communicating with others right now: i believe he’s reached the point of emotional shutdown. he has tried his damndest to do what he can to resolve the situation and nothing has worked. this is already something I believe is stressing him out really badly, thus taking up a significant portion of his emotional threshold.

and now he can’t even seek solace or help in his friends because he cannot let himself trust them.

he has tried to give out cries for help in ways that aren’t necessarily straightforward. and he’s also said some seriously worrying things lately under the guise of being jokes. i don’t blame the others for not getting that, but I still can’t help but wonder why nobody’s really thought to look any deeper into it? like don’t get me wrong, tubbo says some completely inane shit sometimes. but has the frequency of these “jokes” and his inflammatory behavior not tipped anyone off at all?

regardless, tubbo feels like he’s tried. he’s not that good at communicating, and even when he is, he may not come off as treating the situation with proper sensitivity. it’s already a struggle to communicate, not even mentioning trying to ask for help. this is a whole other layer to wondering why he even tries doing things “right.”

he already thinks people only keep him around for what he can provide, so thats the only thing he thinks he’s got going for him and he’s barely hanging onto it too.

so as a result of not knowing how to cope with the situations around him and pretty much being extended past his emotional capability, he acts out. he doesn’t want fit and pac together because they’re gonna leave him behind. so he tries to ruin it. it doesn’t work, and they are continuing to move on without him. so he constantly comments on how annoying it is, and in a way, tries to get them to push him away themselves. he just wants a resolution to this hurt he’s feeling, and he wants them to just get “the move away” over already. but obviously that’s not gonna happen.

so he makes insensitive jokes, says stupid shit and does stupid shit too. he lies and blames others. he wants his friends to push him away already and give him a good reason to finally run away with sunny and completely isolate. this is beyond his capabilities, and all he needs at this point is a solid reason for him to finally hit the ground running.

but each day he comes back to spawn, doing everything he can to not completely lose it for sunny. he’s trying his best to keep it together for her, and he can’t let himself be weak. admitting his feelings in the place he’s currently in would end up coming out as a breakdown. and he cannot let the people around him see that. it would be a fatal error to open up when he cannot trust the feds nor the egg island workers not to take advantage of his weakness. and he needs to be there for sunny, to at the very least protect her if nothing else.

so essentially: tubbo is past his emotional threshold and is barely keeping it together. the facade is slipping and the harshness/what people perceive as annoying is continuously slipping out from the cracks.

(with this next bit, this is just me recognizing autistic patterns of behavior in myself + some others in tubbo’s character. i dont actually know if he’s autistic this is just me drawing parallels from my experience. and how I have seen these behaviors be treated within the qsmp fandom. don’t say I’m armchair diagnosing him or whatever for the love of god please)

so tubbo cannot cope with the situations around him, which is resulting in his mask slipping. he’s fully aware that he’s being insensitive and kind of an ass, but he is quite literally past his capability of keeping up with social niceties at this point. and i do think the unnecessary jokes in bad taste are purposefully to get people to either notice something is wrong or to get them to push him away so he doesn’t keep hurting their feelings.

and people getting onto him about communication I think simply do not get how utterly difficult it is to communicate when you have reached the point where you’re struggling to mask. not to mention the danger he could put himself in by being vulnerable to others on top of that. so ultimately, brushing off his fears and character traits as a simple “he could do this but doesn’t want to/is just stubborn and annoying for no reason/for a reason that isn’t good enough for me” is kind of ridiculous. it also reminds me of some things I’ve been told in relation to my struggles with autism, but that’s just me. not that i think people are actually being ableist but i do think some of y’all’s arguments are slipping a little too close to ableist rhetoric.

once again you’re allowed to dislike whoever you want and think they’re annoying, but i would encourage you to think a little more in depth as to why you think they’re annoying.

(and I’m not saying some people don’t like autistic traits that aren’t cute n quirky but… it’s getting a little too close for comfort >_>)

[gunnrblze]

What jobs do you think the ghosts would have if they retired/ never enlisted? Including rorke plz 🙏

Ooh this is a thinker

Hesh- I definitely see him joining the military in some fashion regardless, but when he retired, I’d imagine he’d need some kind of hands on job to keep him busy. Blue collar type like construction or mechanic. I think not being physically busy would eat at him, so if not that, some kind of dog/K-9 trainer

Logan- if he hadn’t joined the military (which i definitely think he also would’ve regardless, following Hesh and Elias’ footsteps and all), I could see him doing some kind of forestry job, or being a firefighter lol. Something laborious and physical like that whether it’s from the get go or post service.

Elias- also cannot see him not being military lol, and he strikes me as the type to retire but not really retire. Talks about it for years, never does. Will carry out his service until the government tells him to gtfo. After that I think he’d actually retire and just live the rest of his life. It’d eat at him that he can’t work anymore, but I can’t see him doing anything else after his career, EXCEPT being very physically active. Could probably not sit still for too long lol

Merrick- another one that I can’t see not having enlisted, considering his father&grandfather were both big military career men. So I think similar to Hesh, he’d retire and need some kind of physical job to busy himself. Another blue collar guy, truck driver/carpenter/etc. OR he’d do some kind of private security contracting work in either scenario. He’d remain a ghost, just in a different way.

Keegan- whether he never enlisted in the first place, or did so after retiring, I also see him doing some kind of blue collar working job. Welder/mechanic/factory work is the vibe I get. OR, since I hc that he’s either a little southern/midwestern, I could see him being a rancher/farmhand (cowboy Keegan, yum)

Kick- since it’s implied he’s a tech specialist in the ghosts, and I hc that technology has been a big part of his life, I can see him going down that road either pre or post military service. Some kind of programmer/engineer/IT specialist/cybersecurity dude. Possibly would open his own tech business doing something along those lines

Rorke- I think if he’d never enlisted, he’d either be a police/security/correctional officer type dude, possibly on a big scale like FBI/CIA territory tbh. OR lol like a lot of these mfs, he’d be a blue collar worker, painting houses or some shit. However, after retiring from working with the Federation, I think he’d actually just retire and live the rest of his life somewhere in South America (most likely hiding from any remaining Ghosts🫣)

[anonymous-dentist]

Can you give me a recap. What's happening with Cellbit???

God what isn’t happening with Cellbit

Basically, here’s a list of what the Feds have done to him, and his current response:

15 years ago, the Federation kidnaps him after he sees something he shouldn’t have. It seems like he was being held for observation. He escaped, but I think he was caught again? Idk I don’t speak Portuguese

He got shipped SOMEHOW to the Hunger Games with no memories of his childhood with Bagi and his parents

Time passes. He’s put in prison because people were “afraid of [his] potential”, aka probably because he was entirely too chill with killing the shit out of people

Time passes again, he crashes onto the island, and Problems Start

My guy gets chainsaw tortured! Aka he gets chased down a hallway and murdered by a laughing Cucurucho and then revived and chased down a hallway and shown his corpse by a laughing Cucurucho. After an interrogation, he’s elevatored upstairs to… Richarlyson’s old bedroom area, which was basically the Feds saying “Hey we’ll do this to your son too lol”

Felps aka Cellbit’s best friend get kidnapped

Bobby dies and so does most of Roier’s soul

Because of that, Cellbit joins the Feds to investigate secretly and shit. He then gets kidnapped and he ends up losing like three days’ worth of memories

He tells people about the chainsaw torture and they laugh in his face and/or ignore him. For MONTHS

The Feds try and murder him during the elections, but that’s fine, he ends up murdering himself

The Feds trick him into giving up a HUGE amount of information in a secret office under his house (this is a surprise tool that will help us later)

They keep making him go on jobs for them, and he’s pretty sure that they’re the guys threatening to kill his son if he tells anybody about the missions (that was probably the Resistance tbh, but he doesn’t even know they exist)

ElQuackity happens. Just. Everything about him tbh, but especially him threatening both Richas and Roier to the point of Roier Cubito legit being afraid for the literal first time ever that Cellbit has known him

Then the eggs get kidnapped, and the Feds aren’t doing shit to help

Then Forever and Pac are drugged

Then Forever is sent on a suicide mission into the Nether

And then the eggs aren’t back

And then there’s a Federation prison on the server

And then the eggs aren’t back and neither is Forever

And now Roier is even more of a broken man than he already was because the Federation isn’t doing shit to help find the eggs

And then Cellbit finds out that he’s missing 12 or so years of his life because of the Federation. That he had a HOME, and then. He didn’t. Because of them.

Tbh I think that last bit was the real final straw, but then:

The Mini-Me event was because Cellbit got intel from a rebel worker (kinda) who promised Cellbit information in exchange for the “goods” at the presentation

Cellbit didn’t feel Anything even after he won the day by all means necessary after stealing the Mini-Mes

So he went home and had a nervous breakdown and now he’s killing workers because like. Okay.

So why is Cellbit killing all these workers? Well, he isn’t thinking super clearly now, but he’s basically trying to get his family off the island safely. That’s his priority. They can’t leave until the Feds are gone, so he’ll make the Feds gone.

He’s tired of the complacency everyone else is showing. After all the shit they’ve been put through on the island, why isn’t anybody actually fighting back? Don’t they want to leave?

So. Yeah! :D

[mass-convergence]

About Shutdowns

Hi. It’s December 20, 2024.

If you’re in the US (or if you’re not but get blasted by news that happens in our country regardless because ‘Murica) you probably have heard about some stuff that’s been happening in regards to our budget.

Strap in folks this is a long one but bottom line up front: we shouldn’t be rooting for a government shutdown. It’ll fuck a lot of shit up and it’ll hurt a lot of people (and not the ones you’d want to “hurt” because Congress will still be getting paid through this shitfest).

Basically, in the most oversimplified way I can summarize: Congress every year has to pass a budget. Said budget allocates funds and such for the continuing functioning of our government - this is known as appropriations. This budget/appropriations (will just call it a budget from here on out) has to be passed before the fiscal year is up (so by the beginning of October). Sometimes Congress gets locked in some kind of back and forth over the bill - like in 2018-2019 it was over the stupid funding for the stupid border wall that Trump wanted to build. This tends to keep Congress from passing a budget. If Congress doesn’t pass a budget by the deadline, the government effectively shuts down because well … we don’t know where the money’s supposed to go. Sometimes Congress gets its shit together enough to pass something called a Continuing Resolution or CR - which basically lets them kick the can down the road for a bit so they can squabble more about what to do with the money. Sometimes Congress can’t even agree on the CR. And so the government shuts down.

Well, this is basically what’s happening right now in the US. There was a fight over appropriations back in September which lead to Congress passing a CR to fund the government through December. They had another CR lined up for vote this week to fund us through March. It was a behemoth of a bill that included stuff like disaster relief for the areas impacted by hurricanes this year, relief for the Maui wildfires, and funds to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. It wasn’t a popular bill but there was at least enough support that it could get through Congress and fund us through March.

Well. There was enough support until certain people interested in “government efficiency” decided to complain to their Twitter followers. That effectively torpedoed any GOP support for the bill. Which means we now are less than 24 hours from the government shutting down due to a lapse in funding.

This is not a good thing.

I’ve seen some people (including my own mother) who are frustrated with the current dumpster fire that is our political situation basically taking the “FAFO” stance. They’re essentially rooting for the government to shutdown because people need to see what they’re going to get because they voted for Trump (disregarding that half of the US didn’t even vote for the guy). I understand the frustration and I even understand the reaction of “you made your bed now lie in it”.

However we should not be rooting for a government shutdown.

On the larger scale - this would negatively impact our economy, which according to the last election was something people really cared about. The federal government is the largest employer in the US with around 3 million employees. If the government shuts down then a portion of those employees would be furloughed (hard for me to find exact numbers on this - most reports just mention a nebulous “hundreds of thousands”) which means they can’t report to work. Other employees like the military, law enforcement, etc. who are deemed essential for the protection of life and property would have to work but won’t get paid until the shutdown is over.

“Yeah but I hate the military and cops”

Yeah well other essential government workers include: medical staff, fire fighters, air traffic controllers, and meteorologists for the NWS (who work 24/7 putting out life saving forecasts and warnings). All those people won’t get paid either.

When you’ve essentially stopped paying 3 million people - that has negative impacts on the economy. Because if you’re not getting paid, you go to spending whatever money you do have on the bare essentials and nothing more. I don’t think I need to explain why that’s a bad thing for the economy.

On the more personal level:

A lot of government employees are paid on something known as the General Schedule or GS scale. It goes from 1 to 15. As of 2024: GS-1 employees earn ~$25k per year and GS-15 employees earn ~$144k. In terms of number of GS employees per grade - this Reddit post from a few years ago shows the breakdown (and I checked on FedScope and the data is about the same for 2024 so I’m just stealing this dude’s graph).

So we have a fair chunk of folks in the GS 5-9 range then another chunk in the GS 11-14 range. Makes sense, GS 5 is a common starting salary for a federal employee who has a bachelors degree. Depending on the agency you can progress to the next pay grade after a year (my job basically has a progression where you increase a grade each year until you get to 12). Base pay (so if you’re working anywhere in the US that’s not expensive as fuck to live in) GS 5-9 salaries are ~$40k to ~$60k per year.

For an 80 hour pay period that’s $1500-$2300, ignoring taxes. Again - you may make a bit more if you’re working somewhere expensive. Still, as someone who started out as a GS-7, that’s still a paycheck to paycheck existence. And I live alone and I don’t have any student loans to worry about. I could make ends meet but I had zero savings and if I missed a paycheck I would have been in trouble.

Now imagine if I had a family. And if I were the sole income owner for said family. Even as a GS-12 (-~$87k per year or $3,400 per pay period) I would be struggling if I had to support a family.

During these shutdowns? You’ve got federal employees who are lining up at food banks because they can’t afford groceries. You’ve got people like me who are essential workers and thus have to show up for their 40-hr (or more) per week job but since we’re not getting paid, we have to take on temporary side gigs like Uber drivers or whatever… on top of our full time jobs.

And it’s not just the employees getting screwed over by this. It’s also everyone who relies on the government programs that are going to have to push pause while the shutdown happens. Social security checks and stuff will still go out but things like WIC, SNAP, etc will be impacted. You still may get those benefits but depending on how long the shutdown lasts, those programs could run out of funding. Loans and stuff will also be impacted since the people who are in those offices processing the paperwork for said loans will go into furlough status and therefore won’t be working at all during the shutdown. Regulators and inspectors for agencies like the FDA and USDA may also be put on furlough, putting food safety at risk.

Look there’s a lot more stuff I can say on this - the federal government is a behemoth of an organization that has its hands in a lot of stuff necessary for the continued functioning of our country - but in the interests of not writing an entire novel about this I will conclude with this:

A government shutdown is bad and should not be rooted for. Please go yell at your representatives to get their heads out of their asses and pass a goddamn budget.

I’m speaking as a private citizen and not as a representative for the government.

[lazyscience]

so there's something I feel like young leftists are not getting at all when they rail furiously about how "we keep voting for Democrats but they keep just pandering to the right, what are we supposed to DO to get them to change OTHER than not vote for them?"

It has to do with fundamental assumptions about what "governing" is supposed to mean in the modern era, and this is a conversation that has to happen culturally in and around what is happening at the ballot box in a lot larger sense than it is. putting in a readmore because this gonna get long and also ranty.

It also means I'm taking another Tumblr break because I can not, I CAN NOT with the current political discussion any more and even with terms blocked I'm seeing it, and I don't want to spend my evenings alternating between rage and depression, I get enough of that from the news.

This conversation was happening even earlier than this, but the timepoint at which it was first coming to a head and when I became familiar with it was 1994 and Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America". Prior to this point, the ethos on both sides of the aisle (in public) was that in general, a congressperson's job (especially in the House, a little less so in the Senate maybe) was while you were under the umbrella of one of the two parties, you were mostly looking out for the particular agenda of your state and only secondarily working towards a national agenda. And secondary to this idea, most of them agreed on basic principles that gridlock was bad (wouldn't produce anything useful/re-electable for your state), civil service employees and appointees weren't supposed to be blatant political operatives (there were, of course, but that was considered more sleazy and corrupt than "elections have consequences, hurr hurr") and that for the stability of the country, things like the debt ceiling were best mutually avoided.

So for the better part of the 20th century, the Democrats were more the party of regulation, the social safety net and the reality and use of powers on a federal level; the Republicans were the party of "leave these decisions to the individual states" (this is obviously a grotesque oversimplification, people have literally written dozens, probably hundreds, of scholarly books about this shit). And Newt Gingrich, ambitious little shit from an at the time deep red Republican state, said "you know what, we need to embrace a national party and federal control the way the Democrats have--because until then, WE can't control it." So the Contract With America was born - and the goal became instead of "well, whatever, as long as I can weasel out concessions for my state/special interests that hired me" the game ALSO became "demonstrate that federal government doesn't work by MAKING it not work." By using all the procedural stupid dirty tricks that a reactionary old bunch of white dudes that had just been through a war put into place to make any point of settled law that had happened basically as hard to change as fucking possible.

Now, the Democrats couldn't/didn't WANT to play by those rules, because their biggest and most popular successes (qualified, imperfect, but still) - Social Security, Medicaid, the civil rights movement, antitrust, worker protections, environmental protections - are all contingent on a federal government apparatus that actually fucking works. And now that the Republicans can win either by getting what they want OR by yelling "look, this process is clearly broken and doesn't work!", the only way Democrats can make sweeping changes without having to fight tooth and nail every step of the way is to have a majority in both houses of Congress, control the Presidency, and the Supreme Court.

Because again, the reactionary old white men who had just lived through a butt ton of social upheaval wanted to make it hard for one group of (rich white, male enfranchised) people to control another - and they literally at that time could not have envisioned the way the country would grow into both a far more unified AND polarized place that would take these safety rails and exploit them to block every achievement their opponent might make, whether or not it was actually in the best interests of the people they're representing.

(I mean, they should have, political parties and all that toxicity were not new to the British Empire before the colonies even existed, but well, I think we all know by now there's a lot of things they couldn't have imagined. See also: the second amendment)

So here's the deal - if you punish Joe Biden for being a confused corporate-friendly war-hawkish atrocity-enabling weenus - which he totally is sometimes! - you are kneecapping any actually progressive congressional candidates you elect unless you can also deliver 67+ solidly Democrat/Green/whatever the fuck Angus King is votes in the Senate, and 290+ equally staunch Democratic representatives. Because otherwise, that Republican President's just gonna veto everything they legislate that isn't what he wants. And yes, the Senate has to approve any federal judges or Supreme Court justices he wants to appoint - but again, the Republican party sees the federal court system being slow, backed up and impossible to use as a totally acceptable compromise in return for being able to block any significant Democratic legislation from going forward.

Since 1789, do you know how many vetoes have been overridden by supermajority? 109, out of 1,484.

Now, if you could GET that supermajority in the Senate and the House? You could amend the Constitution! You could make mail-in votes mandatory, and/or mandated paid time off for voting. You could mandate ranked-choice voting, so that leftists could vote for the candidate they actually want without splitting up the bloc to the advantage of the fash/fash-adjacent. You could do things like mandate that a Presidential election isn't valid until a minimum threshold number of votes has been achieved that's actual a majority of eligible voters, not just whatever fanatical minority shows up that day, so some asshole who won with 20 percent of eligible voters can't claim to have "a mandate from The People."

BUT WITHOUT THAT SUPERMAJORITY, VOTING TO PUNISH ELECTED OFFICIALS FOR NOT DOING THINGS THEY CANNOT FUCKING DOOOOOO MEANS NOTHING BUT LOSING FOR ALL OF US!

Especially when the other fucking asshole candidate wants to make it legal for the National Guard to LIVE FIRE WITH ACTUAL MILITARY BULLETS ON PROTESTORS, and the Supreme Court has just made it possible for him if elected to order that and have it not be illegal! If he wants to start deporting all Muslim immigrants like he was trying to push for last time he was elected, or round up LGBTQ people and put them in re-education camps, if he gets elected, he could do that now! Because crimes committed as "official acts" are no longer crimes!

So you want to not have to regularly make shitty compromises in the voting booth any more? Great, neither do I. Here are the only ways I see this going forward:

Get 2/3rd of the states of the union to call for an Article V constitutional convention - and be willing to have the process potentially hijacked by fash nutjobs at the state level if those 2/3rds aren't all Democratic-controlled. It's possible - I mean, the system was specifically designed to work that way - but the fact that a) an Article V convention has not successfully been called in the history of the US, and b) the only people advocating for that in the year 2024 are the actual fucking Heritage Foundation of the infamous Project 2025, Ben Shapiro of "but pussy doesn't get wet" fame, Greg "the solution to Uvalde is arming teachers" Abbott and similar nutjobs make me think that's not the safest way to get the outcome we want here.

Hold your noses and get 67 Senators and 290 Representatives elected that are either Democrats or who will reliably caucus with them like Socialists or Greens and have them pass a law to require ranked choice voting for the presidency - there's a chance it'll get a constitutional challenge from the Supreme Court, but there's not a solid precedent either forbidding or encouraging, and by the time it's an issue hopefully we're back in 5/4 liberal court territory if Alito and Thomas either retire or get canned. That will mean a lot of mid corporatist conservative Dems who will make decisions you don't like and don't want to support, but with an endgame of someday getting to stop doing that. This is honestly probably the most achievable, so it is also the one Republicans are fighting against hardest with gerrymandering and voter suppression, and they have banned it on the state level in Florida, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee and Idaho.

Let Republicans get elected to prove a point. This will result in an unknown but presumably acceptable to you number of deportations, convictions, legal abuse and deaths among people the Trump administration declares undesirable, including Muslims, Palestinians, trans people, anyone working in gender studies or race studies, the unhoused, potential child labor, and people of childbearing potential among others. This is not a threat to get you to fall in line. It is a prediction based on the previous behaviorand stated policy positions of Mr. Trump, the Republican National Convention, and the decision of the Supreme Court allowing his administration to carry out what would otherwise be crimes but for a president are "official actions" now apparently. It will also at the very least make easier the capture of the Supreme Court for another two or three decades during which no effective challenges can be brought for voter suppression, gerrymandering, and violent suppression of protest.

honest question: how, exactly, if it becomes an illegal act to talk about racism, queer liberation or police reform, are you proposing to get your better, more leftist candidates elected? I am so serious right now, why do you think after another four years of Trump provided he doesn't just immediately declare martial law like he already almost did once, do you think people would be willing to stick their necks out to identify themselves as enemies of the state? Think about the stranglehold Joseph McCarthy had on this country from 1947-1957.

[lxrd-ren]

(Fuck me man did I actually crack it-)

Hmm, what if q!Bad being effected by the soul vultures is inherently a good thing?

I mean looking at the wiki for both the soul vulture and the soul stealing potion, it is pretty fucking powerful. I mean you could theoretically suck the life out of someone and use their soul to better yourself. I feel like q!Bad would 100% use this to his advantage

I've headcannoned how q!Bad has very destructive powers to the point where he can't use them cause he'll hurt and destroy everything. Perhaps this whole soul steal potion is his plan to get powerful enough to destroy the federation without hurting anyone else

I've put some thought into it and I think it makes sense

Obviously he found out about these potions from Dapper. But from what we know (and could see) Dapper only ever made the potions by sacrificing his health to the soul vultures

Me thinks the blue spots on q!Bad is from him consuming the soul potion instead of making it. I mean, we didn't see any spots on Dapper right? Meaning the blue spots has to have come from something else. But the blue is so similar, it HAS to have come from the soul vultures in some way. It being a side effect of drinking the potion me thinks is logical enough, and it makes sense that q!Bad is drinking it as he knows from Dappers notes how powerful it is

It also kinda explains the worker in his basement. Sure q!Bad has questioned it and maybe even tortured it, but q!Bad phrased it as an 'investigation' or 'project'. Surely q!Bad knew the worker wouldn't have much information, so why take it in the first place? Well, I think he'd go to these extremes if he had an ulterior motive. Namely, investigating whether the soul steal potion would effect federation employees aka could q!Bad use it against the federation

AND THE TIMING WORKS. When we saw the worker last, it was caged and locked up in q!Bad's basement. Let's say during that time period, he worked out that the worker is indeed effected by the soul stealing potion. And so, seeing this success, q!Bad starts taking the potion. And look at that, the black patches appear the next fucking day. And not 2 DAYS LATER, the blue spots start appearing.

And nearly everyday since, we've seen him either go back to the basement or the soul vultures, presumably to either make the potions or consume it. Oh and look at that, the blue has gotten worse and worse over time, almost as if he's drinking more and more of it

Motherfucker even said at one point:

"All according to plan."

Plus, I remember seeing one post saying how they don't think q!Bad is torturing the worker but rather experimenting on it like Dapper would experiment on shit. I'd say testing if a soul stealing potion would work on the employee is definitely experimenting on it

But I think we should definitely keep in mind the uh, ahem, other side effects.

Such as q!Bad becoming more violent, more hysteric, less empathetic, aka, losing his humanity, almost as if he's losing his own soul by getting hurt by the soul vultures and instead is regaining souls through the soul vulture potion, but ofcourse the souls aren't the same so bit by bit he's becoming more like one such as looking like one (the blue spots all over him), acting more like one (being more violent), sounding more like one.. (those noises we keep hearing at the end + start of stream)

..just saying we might see some soul vulture wings on q!Bad pretty soon..

(K but holy shit imagine the fanart that would look so fucking cool)

[haloberry]

Watching Quackity’s vod, gotta say the fact mfer was struggling in character bc he canonically couldn’t write or read is extremely funny to me, especially when put in the scenario where the only form of communication was too read and write.

But again, love that all the workers seem to be really friendly with one another. Adds depth, ya’know?

But, it pops up more questions..

They all felt like fucking college floor mates that ended up working in the same company as one another. And how silly the B and C tier workers acted? Almost like younger co-workers in a sense, and it was really cute!

And their whole thing with ‘Fred’s’ feelings for Tubbo? Like, it genuinely was so nice to see them all care for, not only the health, but the feelings of each other! They acted professional when needed, but that was it! They were their own person outside of that!

But, tf was Fred’s deal with then? Are tiers of workers based on how much influence the federation has over them? Based on number of years worked for them?

It feels like Fred is the Castiel of the Federation workers. If you understand what I’m saying.

The Federation workers acting like regular people, but Fred being the weird one for being the only one not understanding/knowing of human emotion when clearly the environment shown differently??

Also, I genuinely was getting second hand embarrassment from the acting. Like Quackity was choosing every wrong answer on a true or false quiz type embarrassing. (Even when that happens to me, I mask pretty quickly so it was making me even more embarrassed that bro was not adapting to the environment.)

Ughhh, but why were they calling Cucurucho Cucurucho? Wasn’t it mentioned before that they didn’t know he was called that? I thought they only knew him as the Census Bureau? Or, was Fred the only bitch that didn’t keep up with Island news??

All this shit just made me question Fred’s character like??? It genuinely feels like he’s the Castiel of the Federation workers… where all the others had their own personalities outside of their roles while Fred is like “my role is my personality” even though proof shows he was pretty chill just more workaholic in the sense.

Idk bro, I’m just— idk like Fred is he’s own person but didn’t know that that’s what being human is? If it wasn’t clear, I’m talking about Fred Fred not q!Quackity’s abysmal role play as Fred.

[butch-bakugo]

" kamala was a cop don't ya know? She also supports Israel! Why is genocide not a deal breaker for you??"

Kamala was a DA, a district attorney. The district attorney is the government's lawyer. Cops are the governments body guards and personally killing squad. The person who stands in a court room and makes you pay a fine for graffiting the subway tunnel so the government can keep upkeep and the class traitor gay cop kicking a homeless man to death and setting their tent on fire with them in it is not the same shit. If your shitting on her for working in favor of the government (not even federal, state government), then you should also be shitting on the janitors mopping the floors of town hall. Not all government workers are equal.

As for the second point, call me a selfish asshole, but I would like to continue to be alive. I know, crazy thought, but I'm not willing to throw myself on your pseudo-moralistic holy blade as another point in the trans or gay or disabled or native death percentage so I can maintain that I didn't vote for someone with a slightly favorable leaning generally neutral opinion towards Israel. I can't fight Israel if I'm dead. I can't protect Palestine as a fuckin meat bag. I can't afford to put my rights on the line. I can't live to fight another day when I'm sacrificing myself.

Naw we writing this in the biggest text: I feel like all of you "protesting" voting to slightly improve our chances because you can't stand the thought that a candidate isn't perfect don't understand that voting is not something any sane minority with rights on the line would protest. I'm starting to think you all see voting as a public statement about how moral and pure and progressive you are and not what it actually is, a small act of many you should actively be taking to improve our situation.

I don't think some of you realize that some of the most successful changes in our government were constant and grueling actions taken slowly and by the book to garentee said right. The revolution will not happen over night and your ego is showing if you seriously think 2 terms of a great president will just suddenly get all our rights back and turn America into the progressive and accepting and diverse place it needs to be.

You are too busy fantazing about cutting off Mitch mcturtleforeskin's head when your local community needs you. Your spending too much time and energy posting a million links to gofundmes and never actually donate.

You may dress like an activist, talk like an activist and have amazing ideas like activists but you will never be an activist if you can't even volunteer at your local soup kitchen without agonizing for three weeks cause you have to call to set up your interview for it.

The reason garenteed rights like unions had stayed for so long is because unions organized and fought on the ground at the same time. Your no good to the movement if all you have is fantasies about punching terfs and Nazis and running in streets at protests screaming we will rock you and your not willing to sign up and get to work.

You work for the movement or the movement can't work for you.

[pjohoo-reclists]

Percy Jackson Criminal AU Fic Recs

Request: Looking for Percy Jackson fanfiction with criminal AU and preferably Percabeth.

Here's a few. They're all crossovers, but I don't think you have to know the other fandom to enjoy and understand the fics. At least, I haven't seen Brooklyn Nine Nine TV but I still really enjoyed reading those crossovers. Posted 14/8/23. Enjoy!

act natural by maverickk

G | 900 words | Complete

Percy Jackson & Tony Stark

Crossover (Marvel), Interrogation, Percy Jackson is a little shit

Percy and Tony might be in a little bit of trouble.

i'm an atheist by maverickk

T | 1.6k | Complete

Percy Jackson, Nick Fury

Crossover (Marvel), Interrogation, Sarcastic Percy Jackson, Nick Fury just wants to do his job

Percy finds himself in an interrogation room, and his best bet is to talk his way out of trouble.

Missing, Presumed Dead by Deerlie_03

T | 5.7k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace

Crossover (Brooklyn Nine-Nine TV), Conspiracy Theories, Humor

Jake Peralta brings the teenager to the precinct on a day that should be like any other. Then he spends the next few years trying to unravel the mystery that is Perseus Jackson. Why exactly does the kid know so many missing people?

Now and Then by Deerlie_03

T | 9.8k+ | Ongoing as of 14/8/23

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Crossover (Criminal Minds TV), POV Outsider, Aged Up Percy Jackson Characters, Future Fic

“Are we finally finding out about the new recruit?” Prentiss opened her mouth with every intent to continue but was suddenly cut short by a new voice. “Finally? Prentiss, have you been keeping me a secret?” “Nice to see you again, agent Jackson,” Ten years after "Lykaion" (part 1 of this series) Percy reunites with the BAU, this time as a new recruit to the team. This is the story of some of his first cases alongside them as well as the more important moments in-between.

Lykaion by Deerlie_03

T | 20k | Complete

Percy Jackson, Criminal Minds characters

Crossover (Criminal Minds TV), Outsider POV, Case fic

They were used to catching killers in the act, not listening to audiobooks and making strangely coloured cookies wearing gingham aprons but that hardly exonerated the kid. After all, there was a lot about him that just didn't sit right, that seemed far too close to the case to be a coincidence. In which Percy Jackson really isn't a serial killer, he just has terrible luck.

Long Forgotten Enemies by littlebear62007

Not Rated | 52k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Crossover (Criminal Minds TV), Murder Mystery, Police Officer Percy Jackson

The BAU is called in when teenagers across New York City are found dead and tortured. Joining the investigation late, after being held up by another case, the team is immediately overwhelmed by the unusual nature of the case. Both the families of the victims and the lead Detective Jackson seem to be hiding something. Why would these families keep critical information from federal agents just trying to find and rescue their children? Percy Jackson has been working for the NYPD, happy to live a normal life after years of war. When demigod children begin turning up dead throughout the city, Percy is torn between two worlds. How will he find the person responsible for killing his family while keeping their world a secret for both his fellow officers as well as government agents?

Heroes of the 99 by Dusana

G | 62k | Complete

Annabeth Chase & Jake Peralta, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Crossover (Brooklyn Nine-Nine TV), POV Outsider, Magic Revealed

After working with the squad of the 99 for almost a year, her colleagues start finding out that Annabeth Chase is more than an ultimate Detective (/Genius). One by one, they come face to face with the supernatural world their co-worker and friend grew up in. And just in time, because a new threat is looming in the distance...

The Wise Detective by Dusana

G | 79k | Complete

Annabeth Chase & Jake Peralta, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Crossover (Brooklyn Nine-Nine TV), Season/Series 07 Spoilers

A new Detective joins the squad of the 99th precinct. Her name is Annabeth Chase.

[sepdet]

Candidates' Different Views on Labor Day

Their contrasting social media posts, with bonus federal law violation and (I think?) AI generated fake workers from Trump, are illuminating:

Contrast that with Trump and Musk joking about firing striking workers a few weeks ago:

Under Biden, Harris chaired Biden's pro-labor task force assigned to "promote [Biden's] policy for worker power, worker organizing, and collective bargaining." Here is the plan they created with specific proposals.

As I've noted, my intro to Harris was at a 2017 rally for the ACA organized by SEIU Local 721. As VP, she's done a lot of union outreach, like this speech celebrating collective bargaining to honor the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas.

---

Meanwhile, Trump's Labor Day email to his followers is a shill for illegal merch:

US Public Law 94-344, the Federal Flag Code: "Out of respect for the US flag, never

place anything on the flag, including letters, insignia, or designs of any kind. [...]

Use the flag for advertising or promotional purposes."

The Flag Code was a big deal in the 80s, Trump's favorite decade. Congress passed a law with a big fine and/or jail time for knowingly violating it. The Supreme Court rightly struck down those penalties as a violation of free speech, but the code remains.

Trump followed this email with Labor Day posts on his social media platform:

Happy Labor Day to all of our American Workers who represent the Shining Example of Hard Work and Ingenuity. Under Comrade Kamala Harris, all Americans are suffering during this Holiday weekend - High Gas Prices, Transportation Costs are up, and Grocery Prices are through the roof. We can’t keep living under this weak and failed “Leadership.”….

Workers an afterthought. Every time he calls Kamala "Comrade," I remember Russian news btoadcasts calling him "Comrade Trump."

….In my First Term, we achieved Major Successes to protect American Workers by negotiating Free and Fair Trade Deals, passing the USMCA (U.S./Mexico/Canada), and giving Businesses and their Workers the tools to thrive. We also invested heavily in Education and Job Training programs for those who wish to expand upon their abilities, and be successful in an Industry that they love. We were an Economic Powerhouse, all because of the American Worker! But Kamala and Biden have undone all of that. When I return to the White House, we will continue upon our Successes by creating an Environment that ensures ALL Workers, and Businesses, have the opportunity to prosper and achieve their American Dream. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Dismantling Obama's trade deals and putting in his own which raised tarriffs and prices and killed supply chains, making shit up, and taking credit for Biden's job training programs, par for the course. Labor Day? All about ME ME ME.

Someone on the Trump campaign realized that he probably needed a picture of himself with workers, since Kamala had posted one shaking hands with them.

However, there's something off about this image posted to his social media site at 5PM:

The suit and tie are so unnaturally smooth, I did a reverse image search to see if it was a real photo. Zero Results. What are the chances? Any photo like this should already be on the web. And there's what look to be AI artifacts (Eg guy on left missing half of vest, fragments of orange stripes).

TL;DR: I don't think he found a group of workers or cosplayers to loom in front of; I think he's embraced the AI generated crowds he falsely accused Harris of using.

[bloodpen-to-paper]

Qsmp Lore Rant Chain

Given the Qsmp ending, I think its safe to say that the lore is over. This was a server we poured a year's worth of love into when it came to the stories these creators told with their characters, and through various retcons, cutoffs and the server overall ending, there were a lot of story elements we never got to see to completion. Therefore, I am summoning Qsmp loreheads to be part of this chain of ranting about story stuff they wish they got to see through, along with other hopes had for the server (cw: as a former fan of the ex-communicated members, there will be a portion under the cut all about their lore because fuck you I've been holding it in for months and I need this. Up to you if you wanna read it). Feel free to give your own rants cause god knows this community needs the space, so get to ranting and I'll start first!

-Maxo lore. He was the first to have their story cut and I'm still upset about it (granted he went out on his own terms but it was sad and we never got the original conclusion to the SOFIA arc). I also miss Casualonas.

-speaking of ^, the other members never fucking learned about Maxo's death. Do you have any idea how long I waited. Pierre never got to hold a funeral, Bad never got to reveal he was the one who took Maxo to the other side, the other spanish speakers like Vegetta and Roier who were close with him never learned, we never got a Maxo funeral. Yeah, still mad.

-Felps Square (anditsrelationshipwiththetubhole)

-The original resolution to the eggs' arcs (Tallulah's mental anguish never fully being addressed, Chayanne's trauma from being a child soldier, Ramón getting closer with Pac and Fit getting closer with Richas, Sunny learning to respect poor people, the Egg Island eggs' backstories getting revealed cause I know there was some shit happening there, etc)

- Felps. In general. I wanted more Felps

-Players getting to play more with inactive members (Foolish and Vegetta [we did get one final interaction :'], Roier and Rivers, Charlie and Mariana, Fit and Mariana [Fit would always reference Mariana to manifest him logging in], Quackity and Luzu, Philza and Luzu, the french and Kameto, the Brasilians and Felps, Bad and Mariana for some reason, Rubius and Foolish, others)

-Bagi and El Quackity beating the shit out of each other (their beef/frenemyship meant everything to me it was so funny)

-Fit and Madagio resolution. And it getting more time and the intended ending before they had to make one for the server closing. People learning about Fit's origins on 2b2t. Just Fit lore in general. I miss Fit

-Whatever the deal was with Antoine (he had so many secrets...)

-I wasn't really a lore ghostie but Bad started like two separate corruption arcs (the soul vultures and Purgatory radiation) and neither of them got resolved. Like they both happened and then they just went away. Lmao

-Whatever they were planning with the evil Cucurucho lore (I was dying to know if they were a Cucurucho clone who had been taken over with dark matter, and what their relationship to the Eye was. I grieve.)

-Whether Cucurucho and the Eye were fucking or not

-El Quackity's lore and what would come of him. Pretty sure it was implied he was a Federation spy who deals in disguises, and when the Eye recruited him we got some buildup to his return as a worker of Egg Island but it never happened

-The truth of what the Federation did to Quackity with all the brainwashing

-The retconned lore we were gonna have early on about english-speaking Quackity and Mexican Quackity being two different beings with potentially other cultural Quackities being added (the clone implications would've fit into this)

-Whatever was going on with Doied. I didn't keep up with that lore a lot but Roier's style of rp is very fascinating to me and I would've liked to see where it went (+potential Cellbit and Doied confrontation)

-BAGI AND CELLBIT REUNION BAGI AND CELLBIT ANGST AND THEIR BACKSTORY AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND CELLBIT ACCEPTING BAGI AS A SISTER I AM CLAWING MY FUCKING WALLS

-The truth behind how Dan and Spreen died (they canonically died cause the CCs weren't on the server anymore but this was a lore server so I know there was a canon reason for it that we never got to learn about)

-Jaiden meeting Empanada. Pol, Lenay and Charlie getting more time with Sunny. Rivers, Mariana and Carre getting more time with Pepito. Roier and Pepito in general

-Cellbit step-father arc with Pepito, and more big brother Richas mirroring Bobby

-We didn't get much time with them but I was so looking forward to Acau and Jungryeok being parents to Chunsik, all of them were so funny and the Koreans joining were a great addition

-The islanders being able to enact righteous vengeance upon Cucurucho and the Federation

-All the Qnpc arcs. Walter Bob's fate, Elena being imprisoned, Agent 18's crush on Foolish, fucking Fred

-The story behind the Capybaras, and why they were beefing with the Federation (and the potential for Foolish to start a holy war on the side of the capybaras. It would've been the funniest shit like imagine him going full Paul Atreides Dune but with capybaras)

-Whatever they were cooking with the bunnies. Ronnie you've only existed for a short time but you've stolen my heart (seriously I felt like there was gonna be a big moment of no Fed workers and only the bunnies before we get a dramatic reunion with Fred and Elena and whatnot, I was excited for it)

-CinePol lore (I really wanted CinePol lore)

-Tina lore. Tina lore. Her revealing more and more that she's a demon. Mouse helping her come to terms. Her telling Bad and Foolish and Cellbit outright that she's a demon. Her telling Bagi. God.

-The Ordo Theoritas. It wasn't really used after Purgatory. The medbay. Cellbit leading the charge. Philza becoming a Head. The meetings and post-lore group breakdowns. I miss it.

-Whatever the hell the deal with the Codes was (their existence, their relationship to the Federation and the Resistance, whether the Federation was experimenting with cloning and if the same science and tech behind the eggs was used for the Codes)

-Whatever the hell the deal with Luzu's computers was

-Whatever the hell was going on with the fucking dragon (I'm like 90% sure the eggs were created by the Federation but then WHAT THE HELL WERE THE DRAGON NOISES WE KEPT HEARING)

-The truth behind how all the islanders arrived on Quesadilla Island (and if the Qsmp really was a Danganronpa style simulation)

-Just how much of everyone's memories were wiped, and when. Why.

-Why Jaiden (and possibly Bad) were so special to the Fed. Why Philza, Baghera and Quackity weren't. The birds. The birds.

-The Bolas return from Purgatory. Dear god do I grieve this one. We had Foolish and Charlie awkwardly returning on their own and then the mother of all buildups with Baghera and Cellbit's Purg 2 cameo and rescue plan and absolutely delicious angst around them thinking their kids are dead while being used as pawns by the Eye... only for the server to reset and they just kind of ended up back on the island. I didn't get my Pac and Cellbit angst (ft. an angry Fit and probably confused Mike), or Cell and Baghera having to painstakingly reacclimate after being traumatized to the point of literal insanity, or a heartfelt reunion where they realize their kids are still alive, or the Roier and Cellbit reunion with Roier dealing with the fact that his husband who he thought killed himself is still alive and crazy, or Philza dealing with the burden of being their leader and having his heart break at what happened to his team, and him taking it upon himself (along with the other Bolas) to try and help Cell and Baghera heal and stop killing people. Goddamn did we miss some juicy stuff (I take solace in how fucking awesome the Purg 2 cameo was, I still think about it to this day)

-Honestly the Purgatory returns in general, I get not wanting to force CCs to lore their way into a return but god imagine how cool it could've been if each member who didn't make it onto the boat had to do a whole thing to explain how they survived the nuke, maybe even have a rescue mission for the players who were "asleep" during the final day. In my heart I am still in Purgatory.

-Who the Resistance was, why they contacted Maxo all those ages ago and what would've happened if the lore could've continues with Etoiles, Bagi, Pac and Fit being Resistance members (and potentially Philza being recruited)

-The secrets behind Egg Island. How the dark matter works. Who the Eye is and how dangerous they can really be. Luffy.

-The Federation lore. Who were they, why were they doing this, what happened 20 years ago and what led up to the current moment. Cucurucho. The duck. The fed workers. All of it. The real story behind Quesadilla Island and the Qsmp.

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There you have it, my lore rants~ Thank you for reading and being part of the chain, and more than anything thank you for being on this journey with me. Its been an absolute honor to have been part of this community, and to know that I was capable of loving a story as much as this. Love y'all, and keep lore-ing <3

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------------Part with the ex-communicated members' lore-------------

K y'all know the drill, my heart died the day q!Forever did and I would unironically sell my soul to be in an alternate universe where that shit never went down so here's my unresolved frustration with this character (and q!Wilbur)

-Dear god where to begin. I know people said it was a blessing that the CC got booted during his hiatus but like... dude... do you have any idea what it feels like to have your 7 month long hyperfixation be left on the cliffhanger of the century being trapped in a prison after being taken over by an eldritch monster with teaser trailers hinting at a return? Do you know what that feels like? Cause I do. I know what that feels like. I want to go into the world of the Qsmp just so I can jump off the wall.

-He was gonna have a whole potential arc around breaking out of prison and then who know what could've happened. We could've had an unwilling Forever being forced to share his body with Eve while on the run from the Feds. I've thought about for months. The potential. The potential. I could've won

-All the buildings that got purged cause of their relation to Forever. The president's office, his base. I haven't seen the favelas since the reset and it still hurts so damn bad that our cultural area on the server is gone

-No seriously we could've had it all. Forever on the run, clashing with islanders and Fed workers alike. Reunions. Political espionage. Interactions with the Eye. The moment when he finally separates himself from Eve. A healing arc.

-Just President Forever in general. I was so goddamn over the moon (house) when the guy I voted for won like there was still so much that could've been done there and I will never stop being disappointed over it

-God truly is cruel cause we still never got that damn Nether talk. Or the promised flying session once Philza's wings healed

-The N.I.N.H.O.

-We can't even talk about the Happy/Risus Pills arc anymore and it was such a damn good arc for everyone involved, like that shit was peak

-Edit cause my dumbass forgot: speaking of, god the Happy Pills arc had so many loose ends. No one ever learned that Forever was forced to take the pills. No one knows the reason he was forced to was because he went so crazy after the eggs disappeared that he nuked the entire island and forced the Feds to do a server rollback. The server rollback plotline was so juicy in giving us context on the Federation's abilities and limitations and we never got fucking answers.

-Not lore related but... none of the CCs talk about the IRL meetups much these days cause he was in all of them. I get why, I support them in it, just sucks to think about yknow?

-Forever x El Quackity crackship rest in piss

-And rip to my Qsmp Mafia AU that I deleted in the drafts after the news hit cause you-know-who was the don of the Brasilian faction and I lost motivation when it all went down

-Eve/Evil Cucurucho was hugely scrapped cause of how much their lore was tied to Forever's, I really wanted to know what their relationship to Cucurucho was

-I also wanted to know the details of how it all went down in the Nether (the fucking Nether talk would've given us that) What did Eve do to Forever during that time to torment him? How did Forever and Walter Bob survive? What the hell even happened to Walter Bob???

-Also the Judas plotline. I know things just didn't work out but holy shit we were hyping it up so hard with Judas by Lady Gaga and the looming threat of the book during Purgatory could've had such a cool payoff. Ah well

-The dynamic between Eve and Forever. We never really got to see them interact much, and I feel like we could've gotten that with them being trapped in the same body after escaping the prison. The possession arc of all time.

-Forever being able to enact vengeance against Cucurucho

-Forever and Pac. Family through heritage, brothers through struggle. No one knew that Pac went into the Nether after Forever. Pac never got to know for sure that Forever was safe because something new always came in and took him away. Just. Those two.

-Forever and Tallulah. God this one hurts me. He wanted to adopt her. We could've had such good angst regarding her being traumatized by what Eve did while wearing Forever's face. Them having to reconcile. Them healing together. Forever seeing the darkness in Tallulah and Tallulah seeing the darkness in Forever. Him helping Philza co-parent. Tallulah having someone to help fill the void left by Wilbur. The mushroom hat.

-Forever and Chayanne. Them starting off on the wrong foot but Forever proving himself to Chayanne and them bonding until Chay is running up to him for hugs every time they meet. Chayanne having a moment where he could finally give Forever a hug after so long of Forever being compromised and unable to hug back. The president with the weight of the world on his shoulders and the little warrior who's too young to be burdened with all this responsibility. The parallels. The bonding.

-Forever getting to reunite with Baghera and Bad. Him reuniting with Cellbit. Whatever the hell would've come of that, good or bad. Forever getting to learn that Maximus fucking died

-Forever in a coma part 2 electric boogaloo💯

-I hated how Tallulah's whole lore had to be retconned cause of Wilbur. She had such a beautifully crafted arc around feeling neglected and out of place in a server where the kids mirror their parents and the parent she resembled down to a T was never around. God it sucked

-I also hated how they changed her hair to like... fit Missa's? She was adopted by Philza, and her hair was her own, I didn't feel it necessary and I was so sad seeing her beautiful curly brown hair being changed

-I loved what they did with Lovejoy canonically funding the Federation. It was very clever on the admins' part and good lore should be recognized

-Forever and Richarlyson. I can't even put into words how incredibly crafted their story was, and how heartbreaking it was that we lost that. I know we don't wanna give props to bad people, but within the firm understanding of where we all morally stand in this community, I'm putting it out there... the story of Forever and Richarlyson was one for the ages

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[theculturedmarxist]

Every single "oh please OH PLEASE get out and vote they're so important 🥺" post I see just drips with idealist nonsense. They have no idea how politics work. They have no idea how their government works. They have no idea how political parties work.

Absent an overarching political program, none of this bullshit matters. You can vote and vote and vote, and it doesn't fucking matter one single fucking bit because as long as you're voting for a bourgeois party, you're never, not ever, going to get what you want.

The Republican and Democratic parties are political machines designed to generate outcomes favorable to their donors. Unless you're a millionaire, they don't give a shit about you or what you want, because what you want is diametrically opposed to what millionaires and billionaires want, which is to keep all the misery and oppression of society in place, so that they can keep on being rich and powerful.

Let me give you an example. The USA has some of the worst internet in the world. It's already dogshit if you live in a city, and outside city limits it drops off a cliff and gets worse the further out you go. This was supposed to be fixed when the federal government provided the telecoms with huge subsidies to go out and build rural internet. Instead they took the money and just didn't do that, because it's a lot more profitable to just take the fucking money and then pay whatever piddling penalty they might get slapped with.

Mount Airy, NC, decided to do something about it. They built their own municipal broadband. It was the cheapest and fastest internet in the state, and probably still is. Time Warner Cable got wind of it and did what they usually do: lobby the government to keep competition down. They got what they wanted. The shiteating state assembly passed a law basically making municipal broadband impossible, and the shiteating blue governor Bev Perdue did nothing to stop it, because she's a bourgeois whore just like everyone else in the party.

More recently, Charlotte tried to pass a "bathroom bill" giving trans people the right to use the fucking bathroom, and hardly a day later Raleigh overrode it with their own dick hogging law (which also prevented localities from setting wage requirements for contract workers).

The two parties aren't local, or regional, or federal, they're systemic. Voting for them at the local level, even if they're "progressive," just reinforces the entire rotten apparatus. Because when push comes to shove, those local "progressives" you voted for will do as they're fucking told, or else they'll get primaried by "their own" party. Even if you do manage to swing, say, a state with progressive candidates, they'll just get ratfucked by the party apparatchiks, like they did in Nevada where "progressives and socialists" won, only for party operatives to rob them, then quit.

The entire system is fucking rotten and it can't be reformed from the inside, by design. You can't use it to vote for a better world, because making sure that wasn't an option was the entire point from the fucking beginning.

You're going to either resign yourself to the fact that you need to get your fucking hands dirty, or vote yourself into your grave.

[penn-central-official]

can you give like a really shitty nutshell overview of what happened to penn central

Sometimes when a railroad is underperforming or in a disadvantages state in some way, they will look for a partner to merge with. In the 60s this was the New York Central railroad. The problem was, no other companies would merge with them. Except their direct competitor the Pennsylvania Railroad. This being a period of conservative government, of course, regulators said yes, but the Pennsylvania had to divest from the Norfolk and Western, which was partially propping up the PRR along with other buisnesses they were forced to divest from. The federal government also made them merge with the New Haven, which was entirely unprofitable.

Imediatly, the new northeastern megalith had problems. Both the NYC and PRR were known for their passenger trains, but passenger traffic was beings drained away. These trains were always money losing operations save for the us mail contracts, but that would be next to go. A lot of equipment was aging and worn down, plus deferred track maintenance following the elevated track use of the second world war left track railroad property in bad shape.

It is at this point I will briefly talk about what was done outside of the railroad to fix this. They tried to divest with increasingly unrelated buisnesses. Particularly funny, is that 6 flags amusements was once owned by Penn Central. There were others, but none were that funny.

As the problem got even worse, it should be noted that another railroad ran from the New York City area to the Midwest, the Erie Lackawanna (created in a merger between the Erie and the Delaware Lackawanna and Western. It was doing okay, particularly given a lot of Penn Central's previous traffic went there in order to ensure it arrives. Penn Central was losing customers and physically falling apart. It almost destroyed Maine's entire potato industry after loosing a shipment for long enough for the potatoes to rot.

All throughout this, Penn Central begged the government for help. Of course, conservative governments don't actually fix the problems they created unless they have to, so they didn't bail out Penn Central. Somewhere in this process, though, Amtrak is created and straddles with all of Penn Central's least profitable trains, the long distance passenger trains. Finally, after losing millions per day, Penn Central declares bankruptcy, becoming the largest corporate bankruptcy ever. Throughout the bankruptcy, employees are fucked over minimally, many continue to work and they get paid as normal. However, the company will probably have to liquidate, and with it remove the rails. This would be a problem, as the food supply is heavily dependent on the railroads, millions would starve if this happened. So, after allowing other railroads to take what they wanted (a section was given to the southern railroad, but that's the main one) the rest was merged with another bankrupt north eastern railroad, the Reading railroad (pronounced red-ing) into Conrail. A government funded private company to keep the northeast from literally starving and fix the railroad. A storm in 1975 would see the previously fine Erie Lackawanna also declare bankruptcy, while it wasn't a part of Conrail's scope, it was absorbed into the Conrail. Not the Rock Island though.

Conrail would of course become successful, and the railroads would weather the storm that the spiteful bastard Dwight Eisenhower had created (story for another time perhaps). Of course, Conrail also no longer exists. It became profitable, so the Regan administration (more bastards) decided to sell it. After the railroad union was the only serious offer they got (that would have been communism) that union would go on to try to buy several other companies including a worker owned railroad outside of Chicago. Finally, CSX made an offer. This would have destroyed Norfolk Southern (descendant of Norfolk and Western and current shit show) so they countered with an offer of their own. Conrail and it's equipment was split in half, with all equipment being given a "new" reporting mark in the run up: PRR for NS and NYC for CSX, because, I cannot stress this enough, everyone involved in this process from day one were foamers. That's why labor got paid through the bankruptcy, too.

Now, I may have oversimplified some stuff or gotten a few details wrong, so if you are still interested in this I have two recommendations: "The Men Who Loved Trains" is a recount of the entire life of Penn Central by a journalist, and "Well There's Your Problem" podcast covered Penn Central in a 3 part (10 hour) episode series of their podcast. Just skip the god damn news, since it's old god damn news now.

TLDR: fuck Dwight Eisenhower, fuck the freeways, fuck economics, god bless Conrail.