#i just put a lot of weirdly poetic effort into the first part

[kate-apologist]

hey guys!! i wrote a kate stewart/ace mcshane fic and you should go read it! 

[mirrorthoughts]

Obsessed - Steter - AO3

(On AO3)

(part of my How Steter Hijacked my NanoWriMo 2020 series)

(Teenwolf, Steter, obsessed character, delusional character, au-ish, Canon - What's Canon?)

Summary:

Based on the prompt "A vampire and a werewolf are secretly dating. The only problem is the annoying human girl who is in love with them both."I kinda turned it on it's head a bit xD

~*~

“He followed you again”, Peter growled when Stiles arrived at their meeting point at the edge of town just shy of the first trees of the reserve. Stiles sighed and nodded while simultaneously shrugging. “I tried losing him, but that guy is harder to lose than hemorrhoids. And he’s just as intelligent, too. He still thinks I’m a vampire.” He rolled his eyes when Peter laughed and reached for Peter’s hand. “Did you park your car somewhere around here?”

Maybe they’d be able to lose the dude somewhere so they could get to their nice evening for two. Peter's thoughtful humming made him wait for his boyfriend to speak while they walked hand in hand into the woods. Neither of them wanted to wait for their little stalker to catch up to them.

“So, how did he come up with vampire, darling? Have you collected blood sacrifices without me, again?” Stiles rolled his eyes at Peter’s amused voice and grinned. “Would never do that without you, honey! I know how much you love letting others bleed. Never mind that I’m not a noob. I’d never let anyone see me doing shit like that.”

He shook his head before ducking underneath a low hanging branch to follow Peter past the old trees of the reserve. Then he started wiggling his fingers to let himself and Peter blend into their surroundings. That was a lot easier in the woods with all the bushes and undergrowth than in the clear cut streets of the town. Especially in a town like Beacon Hills where the streets were a bit too straight and vanishing from the public without getting noticed wasn’t easy.

“Urgh. Give me a heads-up next time,” Peter grumbled when his senses got dulled by Stiles’ spell. Said spell had created a kind of bubble around them, mirroring the forest on its outer shell and keeping most sounds from leaving or entering the area. “Sorry.” Stiles looked at his lover with huge, innocent eyes. He got a snort for his efforts and grinned. “By the way, Matt thinks I’m a vampire, because - and I quote - my skin ‘is so ethereally beautiful that I have to be supernatural’. And he thinks me being a night owl and thus tired during my morning classes is a telltale sign, too.”

Stiles snorted and shook his head. Matt’s words definitely had burned themselves into his brain. They were the biggest bullshit he’d heard in a while, though he kinda was weirdly flattered at the same time. Who wouldn’t like to be called ‘ethereally beautiful’? Peter’s unhappy growl made him smile and he leaned over to his partner to kiss his cheek. The growling stopped. Peter’s frown stayed.

“That guy better keep his fingers off you! You’re my mate. Not his!”, the wolf snarled and Stiles felt Peter’s fingers twitch in his hand. Stiles sighed, released Peter’s hand and leaned into his side before Peter could get even more growly. His arm slipped around his boyfriend and he pressed himself against Peter. “And you are mine. Only mine,” Stiles answered firmly, being just as irritated by Matt as Peter, “Believe me, I like listening to him waxing poetically over your looks and wishing for you to turn up and ravish him about as much as you do. Namely not at all.” Stiles’ own voice had taken on a slight growl while talking and he pressed more against Peter’s side until Peter finally put his arm around him, holding him tight.

“That guy really is an idiot.” They could definitely agree on that. Stiles nodded and sighed. “Can you still hear or smell that idiot? Or did we finally lose him? As long as the spell is hiding us I can’t hear anything outside…” Peter hummed thoughtfully. “Wait a moment.”

They stopped walking and Peter looked back, listening closely, his head tilted a bit. Then he breathed in deeply and snorted amused. “He turned the wrong direction. I think he heard some rabbits and assumed them to be us. At least he’s walking directly towards a burrow.”

Peter looked over at Stiles, a satisfied smile on his lips Stiles just had to return. Then he leaned in and Stiles’ smile got wider as they kissed. “I think we finally lost him,” Peter murmured and Stiles pressed their foreheads together, keeping his eyes closed, listening to Peter’s voice. “Your spell worked beautifully, sweetheart.” Stiles smiled and slowly opened his eyes before stealing another kiss from Peter. He took a step back so they could continue their walk.

“Well then let’s get to your car. Else we might miss our movie! I don’t care for the ads but if we miss the beginning thanks to that douche I’ll unfortunately have to kill him. And you know what I’ll hear from my dad when I do that!” Peter just laughed and led them through the forest back to his car.

Date night always was a pleasant time. After the movie they’d driven to Peter’s apartment, cooked together and Stiles stayed overnight. The only problem Stiles always had the next morning was that he needed to get up very early if he wanted to be on time for his lectures. And more often than not he actually did want to be on time.

His studies in history and various languages assisted his actual work with magic. Even though no one really knew what kind of magic user he was - even his mentor assumed him to be just a very powerful mage who was dabbling in other areas of magic due to curiosity - he had achieved a certain kind of fame in the right circles just by word of mouth.

Him being a spark did give him an advantage here: as long as he created items with a certain intention and strong will, they would perform as promised even if he made mistakes while producing them. That worked for almost anything, amulets, protection spells, rune work and rituals. Though at the same time there was also a disadvantage: he never could be quite sure if he actually did a good job or if his magic just compensated for the mistakes he made.

In theory there might not be much of a difference but Stiles of course wanted to get the most out of his education and not substitute everything with his magic - no matter how strong it might be. Even his magic had limits and it was good to know how to tap into other magical sources for permanent spells or emergencies.

This is where his other study subjects came into play. They would help him so he wouldn’t have to gather knowledge about where the best chances of magical fields, sources and ley lines were or how to understand references and instructions written in foreign languages when he had no other informations in his own.

The only real caveat his study courses had, was a certain human who liked choosing seats near Stiles to stare at or - worst case - talk to him during their lecture. And of course today was the worst case.

“Hey, Stiles!” Stiles sighed and hid his face behind his cup of coffee before taking a sip. The indifferent, dismissive gesture sadly wasn’t enough to discourage Matt. Of course not.

“What?”, Stiles growled. To hell with manners. Matt’s obtrusiveness, which had been funny once upon a time, had just gotten incredibly annoying by now. “Nothing? Well. Maybe something.” Stiles glanced over to the other student, a bored look in his eyes. That guy just couldn’t decide, could he? Stiles stayed silent, waiting, unwilling to help Matt even just a little bit.

“Uhm… do you have time tomorrow evening? I’d like to-“ “No.” “Oh… then maybe another day? Maybe on the Weekend-“ “Nu-uh. I definitely don’t have any time for you, Matt.” This time, Stiles tried to be as clear as possible. Anything else didn’t seem to help anyway.

“Oh…” Matt seemed to hesitate and pressed his lips together thoughtfully. “Is it because of your,” he lowered his voice, “Werewolf friend?” Stiles narrowed his eyes but let Matt speak. At least for another moment. “I mean, if it’s about him, then, uh… he is welcome to tag-“

“No.”

Matt’s mouth closed with an audible click and he stared at Stiles with huge eyes. Ugh. That reminded Stiles of a bad version of Scott’s puppy eyes. And even those had lost their effect on him after all these years.

But before he could say anything else, the lecture started and their professor demanded their attention. Stiles eyed Matt from the side for a moment and frowned before concentrating back to the lecture while typing an update to Peter, who was about as enthusiastic about Matt’s efforts as Stiles himself. Maybe even less so, since he was a very possessive wolf, though that didn’t bother Stiles even in the slightest. After a childhood shaped by neglect of various kinds it was refreshing and comforting that the wolf showed Stiles clearly how desirable and important he was for him.

Other people might roll their eyes over Peter’s possessive tendencies or see them as red flags for a violent relationship but they only knew the Peter Hale that protected his pack at all costs. Even if that cost was blood. Stiles himself knew the private Peter Hale. And this Peter was a loving, attentive marshmallow who cared for his partner and wanted to make sure that he was alright. He could stand behind that kind of possessiveness.

Matt’s stalking was something different though. As well as his “I’ll see you later!” he threw to Stiles when both of them left at the end of their lecture and Stiles turned to walk to Roscoe. The words made Stiles shiver, his intuition screaming that something was wrong. And when he turned around to look after Matt he had already vanished. Huh. Strange. Strange enough that he told Peter before getting into Roscoe and driving home.

Peter and him hadn’t yet moved in together even if Peter had made it clear he wouldn’t object to Stiles moving in with him. Quite the opposite. But even though Stiles spent a huge part of his time at Peter’s he wasn’t yet ready to leave his dad all alone. His dad needed someone to take care of him and as long as he wasn’t sure his dad was in good hands he just couldn’t leave him in their small but still too big house.

“He really said ‘Later’?” Stiles sat at home on the couch, his phone stuck between ear and shoulder and his laptop on his lap. “U-hu,” he confirmed and finished tipping a sentence before grabbing the phone properly and closing the laptop. “He said ‘I’ll see you later’. So, best case, he only comes over to stare through my window.”

Peter growled on the other end of the line and Stiles smiled at the warm feeling in his chest. He loved it when Peter was so protective of him. But still: “Peter, I’m safe here. He probably won’t even get over the fence. The house is warded to hell and back with spells and charms and no one who has bad intentions against dad or me will get through!” Peter grumbled, still not convinced, and Stiles had to smile.

“I love you, grumpy, do you know that?”, he said quietly and promptly the grumbling on the other side stopped. “I love you, too, Stiles. I’m just worried…” “I know. And that is one of the many things I love about you, Peter. But you do trust in my skills, right?” A sigh. “Of course, sweetheart. Always.” Stiles smiled, content. “And we both placed all the wards and protective spells around the house we know, right?” He could almost see how Peter’s grouchy expression vanished slowly as he surrendered. “We did.” “So you see I’m sitting here in the most secure house in all of Beacon Hills.” Another sigh. “You are. But you would still be even more protected in my arms!” Stiles’ smile widened and he closed his eyes. “I would never argue with that, love. But dad doesn’t have a late shift tonight. I want to eat dinner and just have a nice time with him. Do you really want to take that away from me?” “Of course not, darling… I just would feel better if you were with me.” “I know… you know what? As soon as I’m going to bed, I’ll call you and we can talk until I fall asleep. Or until you hang up. Deal?” A moment of silence. “Deal. And I’ll come over if you don’t call,” Peter grumbled and made Stiles laugh. “Of course, love. I won’t say anything against that.”

Stiles groaned quietly when he slowly regained his consciousness. The back of his head hurt like hell and the last thing he remembered was the call with Peter. He’d said goodbye to his partner, had put his phone aside and then - black out. Oh, that was not a good start after being conscious again. So not a good start.

Just in case he kept his eyes closed and tried to breathe as evenly as possible, even though he’d probably already given himself away if someone was watching him. But right now he first wanted to take stock on how he was doing.

He had no problems breathing and he didn’t feel any pain aside from his throbbing head. He sat upright on a chair and his hands were tied together behind his back. Probably with cable straps if the sharp edges he felt digging into his wrists were any indication. His legs were probably also tied to the chair’s legs with cable straps, making sure he wasn’t able to move at all. Everything was very cliché.

Done with analyzing himself he tried to concentrate on his surroundings. It was quiet around him, so that he couldn’t miss the second person breathing now that he was listening.

Eww.

Someone really was watching him the whole time. That was… unpleasant. He opened his eyes just a bit, peeking through his lashes to get a first glance at his enemy, possibly without drawing attention. Sadly, he wasn’t that lucky.

Right in front of him sat Matt on a box, his arms on his knees, staring at him intensely.

“I know that you are awake, Stiles…” The smile on the man’s lips had something manic. Stiles chest constricted. Of course, Peter had to be right. Oh, if he was getting out of here, he would get an earful from his lover! He sighed quietly, dropping his - no longer working - act and straightened up, not taking his eyes off Matt. “Matt, what the fuck?!”, he growled, narrowing his eyes. “You do know that you kidnapped me? Serious crime and all?!” Not to mention that Peter would rip Matt’s throat out when he found them, if Stiles would allow him to do that.

“How the hell did you even get into the house?” That was what concerned him the most. Matt was not supposed to have been able to reach his front door. Or his back door. Not any door, actually. Or window. Not anything. Not while wishing to harm Stiles. Even less with the wish to kidnap him. How had that guy bypassed his wards?! Because he just couldn’t have broken through them as a normal human, surely not!

“Oh, that was pretty easy actually. You really should invest in safety locks, Stiles. It’s dangerous to be this careless! Someone could get into your house and hurt you!” Matt seemed genuinely concerned. Stiles just felt his eye starting to twitch in irritation. What the hell…?

“So… like you,” he answered with a dry voice and narrowed eyes. Matt looked at him, aghast. “I would never hurt you, Stiles! On the contrary! I took you to save you! I saw how you were doing this morning” Oh, good, he hadn’t been unconscious for long then. “You were so tired and worn-out. You need blood, right?”

Aaaand the twitch in his eye got stronger. How daft was that guy?! “I’m not a vampire, Matt. Never was one, never want to become one! No idea who shit in your brain to make you think that!”

Stiles flinched when Matt suddenly jumped to his feet and came closer. He crouched in front of Stiles and reached out to touch Stiles’ cheek. Stiles leaned back as far as he could. It wasn’t enough.

“Stiles… you don’t need to hide from me! Neither you, nor Peter. You can show me who you really are.” Matt’s fingers caressed Stiles cheek, making him grimace and shudder, appalled. Matt didn’t seem to notice or maybe he interpreted the shudder differently, because a second later Stiles had a wrist right in front of his lips. “Here, Stiles. Drink!”

Before Stiles could protest again there was a bang behind him, when the room’s door got torn from his hinges. The deep growl he could hear behind him made Stiles smile and close his eyes, relieved. Matt on the other hand backed away, startled, his hands raised placating.

“Is that you, Peter?” Matt asked, his voice tinged in surprise and delight. Stiles opened his eyes, watching Matt opening his arms invitingly. The growl behind him got louder, but Stiles didn’t bother to raise his voice. He knew Peter would hear him. “No killing, love. We’ll send that asshole to Eichen.”

The wolf behind him roared and lunged at Matt and Stiles just closed his eyes again, still smiling. He still felt dazed and slumped in his chair while he listened to Matt’s screams stopping as Peter knocked him out.

He knew he had to have dozed off when he started to slide to the side, his arms and legs free again, but the strong arms of his lover caught him. “I told you, you would have been safer with me around”, Peter’s voice grumbled quietly beside his ear. Stiles let his arms reach around Peter’s neck and didn’t even protest when Peter picked him up bridal style. Instead he pressed his face against Peter’s neck and smiled. “And you were right,” he murmured and pressed his lips against Peter’s skin. “Thanks for the rescue, my hero.”

[courtneytincher]

To Take Down Trump, Take to the Streets

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastPARIS—From Algeria to Hong Kong, Sudan to Puerto Rico, people all over the world have been turning out in the streets this year to confront policies and regimes that previously seemed all but invulnerable. And through relentless, largely peaceful protests they’ve had amazing success.There is a lesson here. Americans disgusted by Donald J. Trump, disheartened by his control over the Senate and Supreme Court, demoralized by the consistent support he enjoys from two-fifths of the population, and appalled by his incitement of gun-toting racists, might want to take note. The examples of mass demonstrations that have taken on, and in some cases taken down, terrible leaders show there are formulas that can be applied in many places, including the mainland of the United States of America. There’s even an illustrative equation.In a study published this month by the scientific journal Nature, Erica Chenoweth and Margherita Belgioioso look at what they call “the physics of dissent” drawing on the simple law that momentum equals mass times velocity (p=mv). “When movements maintain mass and velocity, they maintain momentum,” the authors tell us, and momentum is what’s required to achieve results. They cite the example of Sudan. There, Omar al-Bashir had been in power for 30 years—and had lasted for a decade even after allegations of genocide in the Darfur region led to his indictment by the International Criminal Court for mass killing, rape and pillage. Nothing seemed able to bring him down. But as Chenoweth and Belgioioso point out in a blog post, Sudan’s opposition “used a combination of protests, marches, general strikes, and other forms of non-cooperation” to oust Bashir in April.In Algeria, a nation with a proud history of rebellions, gruesome experience with terrorism, and a fearsome record of repression, demonstrations followed a pattern similar to Sudan’s. Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets for peaceful protests—the Smile Revolution, it’s been called—and they ended the 20-year rule of the decrepit 82-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, in a matter of weeks after leaked text messages exposed Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s vengeful approach to partisan politics, as well as his sexist and homophobic slurs, mounting protests led to threatened impeachment and finally his resignation.In Russia, where activists opposed to President Vladimir Putin are routinely jailed and often murdered, cops beat protesters with grim savagery. Now they are threatening to separate arrested protesters from their children, and to jail opposition leaders for years on specious charges of corruption. Yet the protests keep growing, and Putin’s grip on power begins to be the subject of speculation.And in Hong Kong, the public rebellion against Beijing with mass protests week after week poses a growing threat to the authority there of Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose representative has been humiliated and forced to withdraw a controversial extradition law. To push back against the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party, as many as two million people—a quarter of Hong Kong’s population—went onto the streets in a single march.Again, there’s a formula. Not only are Hongkongers showing an instinctive understanding of “the physics of dissent,” they’ve added a bit of Kung Fu philosophy from the late martial arts icon Bruce Lee. When facing authority, “be water,” flowing where the power is weak or absent. The most active protesters tell each other, rather poetically, “Be strong as ice, be fluid like water, gather like dew, scatter like mist.”Why have we not seen this kind of concerted, continuous combination of mass and velocity in the United States?Maybe the American opposition to the Trump regime really isn’t as impassioned as many rants on Twitter might suggest. Or maybe those are just onanistic ends in themselves. There’s been a lot of obvious passivity: waiting for Robert Mueller to take care of everything, or pretending that the symbolic act of impeachment will squeeze the sleaze out of office.Certainly, by comparison with the demonstrators in other parts of the world there’s a hint of sloth and even of cowardice. When I broached some of these ideas on Twitter (where else?) one tweep complained impotently that “we” couldn’t even get Twitter to take down the president’s account, as if that would solve anything. More than one suggested fear of Trump supporters with guns acts as a deterrent.And another said things really aren’t so bad under Trump, and most people don’t see any reason to remove him, which suggests why his whining opposition doesn’t take to the streets in massive numbers.But of course that’s not quite right. There have been huge demonstrations since Trump’s election—some of the biggest in American history. Although, weirdly, the National Park Service is not allowed to count, the Women’s Marches of 2017 and 2018 and the March for our Lives after the Parkland school shooting all reportedly drew well over a million people. But, to go back to the physics of dissent, the momentum that changes things requires not only mass, but velocity. That’s what’s been missing. The protests have to be big, and they have to keep coming again and again–preferably weekly, even daily. Such demonstrations have changed the course of American history before, notably when the anti-Vietnam War protests of 1967 and ‘68 pushed President Lyndon Johnson to give up his bid for reelection.And since then we might also have learned some important lessons about mass demonstrations that go astray, because that happens, too.  Back in the 1960s, the same movement that persuaded LBJ to stand down wound up ushering Richard Nixon into the White House. As White House insider Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote in Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, “Beneath their wild flurry of activity … the young dissenters lacked the sustained involvement of a radical cadre. Their dissent was coopted as the revolutionary leaders willingly sat on evening talk shows, and as participants in marches left early to look for themselves on the 6 p.m. news.”The Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 lost its focus and its impact amid constant internal disputes, and what is fatal in the American consciousness, a dearth of novelty.Here in France we have seen the way a popular movement that started out with  a reasonable cause, the gilets jaunes, or yellow vests, was quickly hijacked and eventually discredited by anarchists and vandals. Paris Riots Strike Home: Yellow Vests, Vandals — and Jihadists —Thrive on Such ChaosThe Arab Spring of 2011 saw the popular victories of the unorganized masses exploited by the organized Muslim Brotherhood, then taken away entirely by the cynical military. In Sudan and Algeria the struggle to keep that from happening continues, while in Hong Kong the threat of intervention by China’s army is poised above the protests like the sword of Damocles, and in Russia, Putin wants everyone to know that as bad as he’s done, he can do much worse. Nobody said nonviolent revolution is easy, and nobody should believe that the fall of a single person resolves the problems in a society that may have put him or her in power in the first place.But as things stand right now, if the economy’s sugar high continues through November of next year, Trump probably will be re-elected. No Democratic candidate has found an effective way to deal with the most fundamental truism of presidential politics: “It’s the economy, stupid!”Trump’s assaults on the fundamentals of American democracy—including language that inspires white nationalist terrorism and defends possession of assault rifles—will appear “vindicated” in the electoral college even if, once again, the will of the American majority is thwarted. And if that happens we will be more than halfway to the end of what we used to think of as truth, justice, and the American way. Any effort to remove Trump from office after reelection will be infinitely more difficult and dangerous. Tweets won’t avert that outcome. Nor by itself will the flaccid exercise of impeachment proceedings in the House.But p=mv, the E=mc2 of protest, might just do the trick.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastPARIS—From Algeria to Hong Kong, Sudan to Puerto Rico, people all over the world have been turning out in the streets this year to confront policies and regimes that previously seemed all but invulnerable. And through relentless, largely peaceful protests they’ve had amazing success.There is a lesson here. Americans disgusted by Donald J. Trump, disheartened by his control over the Senate and Supreme Court, demoralized by the consistent support he enjoys from two-fifths of the population, and appalled by his incitement of gun-toting racists, might want to take note. The examples of mass demonstrations that have taken on, and in some cases taken down, terrible leaders show there are formulas that can be applied in many places, including the mainland of the United States of America. There’s even an illustrative equation.In a study published this month by the scientific journal Nature, Erica Chenoweth and Margherita Belgioioso look at what they call “the physics of dissent” drawing on the simple law that momentum equals mass times velocity (p=mv). “When movements maintain mass and velocity, they maintain momentum,” the authors tell us, and momentum is what’s required to achieve results. They cite the example of Sudan. There, Omar al-Bashir had been in power for 30 years—and had lasted for a decade even after allegations of genocide in the Darfur region led to his indictment by the International Criminal Court for mass killing, rape and pillage. Nothing seemed able to bring him down. But as Chenoweth and Belgioioso point out in a blog post, Sudan’s opposition “used a combination of protests, marches, general strikes, and other forms of non-cooperation” to oust Bashir in April.In Algeria, a nation with a proud history of rebellions, gruesome experience with terrorism, and a fearsome record of repression, demonstrations followed a pattern similar to Sudan’s. Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets for peaceful protests—the Smile Revolution, it’s been called—and they ended the 20-year rule of the decrepit 82-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, in a matter of weeks after leaked text messages exposed Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s vengeful approach to partisan politics, as well as his sexist and homophobic slurs, mounting protests led to threatened impeachment and finally his resignation.In Russia, where activists opposed to President Vladimir Putin are routinely jailed and often murdered, cops beat protesters with grim savagery. Now they are threatening to separate arrested protesters from their children, and to jail opposition leaders for years on specious charges of corruption. Yet the protests keep growing, and Putin’s grip on power begins to be the subject of speculation.And in Hong Kong, the public rebellion against Beijing with mass protests week after week poses a growing threat to the authority there of Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose representative has been humiliated and forced to withdraw a controversial extradition law. To push back against the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party, as many as two million people—a quarter of Hong Kong’s population—went onto the streets in a single march.Again, there’s a formula. Not only are Hongkongers showing an instinctive understanding of “the physics of dissent,” they’ve added a bit of Kung Fu philosophy from the late martial arts icon Bruce Lee. When facing authority, “be water,” flowing where the power is weak or absent. The most active protesters tell each other, rather poetically, “Be strong as ice, be fluid like water, gather like dew, scatter like mist.”Why have we not seen this kind of concerted, continuous combination of mass and velocity in the United States?Maybe the American opposition to the Trump regime really isn’t as impassioned as many rants on Twitter might suggest. Or maybe those are just onanistic ends in themselves. There’s been a lot of obvious passivity: waiting for Robert Mueller to take care of everything, or pretending that the symbolic act of impeachment will squeeze the sleaze out of office.Certainly, by comparison with the demonstrators in other parts of the world there’s a hint of sloth and even of cowardice. When I broached some of these ideas on Twitter (where else?) one tweep complained impotently that “we” couldn’t even get Twitter to take down the president’s account, as if that would solve anything. More than one suggested fear of Trump supporters with guns acts as a deterrent.And another said things really aren’t so bad under Trump, and most people don’t see any reason to remove him, which suggests why his whining opposition doesn’t take to the streets in massive numbers.But of course that’s not quite right. There have been huge demonstrations since Trump’s election—some of the biggest in American history. Although, weirdly, the National Park Service is not allowed to count, the Women’s Marches of 2017 and 2018 and the March for our Lives after the Parkland school shooting all reportedly drew well over a million people. But, to go back to the physics of dissent, the momentum that changes things requires not only mass, but velocity. That’s what’s been missing. The protests have to be big, and they have to keep coming again and again–preferably weekly, even daily. Such demonstrations have changed the course of American history before, notably when the anti-Vietnam War protests of 1967 and ‘68 pushed President Lyndon Johnson to give up his bid for reelection.And since then we might also have learned some important lessons about mass demonstrations that go astray, because that happens, too.  Back in the 1960s, the same movement that persuaded LBJ to stand down wound up ushering Richard Nixon into the White House. As White House insider Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote in Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, “Beneath their wild flurry of activity … the young dissenters lacked the sustained involvement of a radical cadre. Their dissent was coopted as the revolutionary leaders willingly sat on evening talk shows, and as participants in marches left early to look for themselves on the 6 p.m. news.”The Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 lost its focus and its impact amid constant internal disputes, and what is fatal in the American consciousness, a dearth of novelty.Here in France we have seen the way a popular movement that started out with  a reasonable cause, the gilets jaunes, or yellow vests, was quickly hijacked and eventually discredited by anarchists and vandals. Paris Riots Strike Home: Yellow Vests, Vandals — and Jihadists —Thrive on Such ChaosThe Arab Spring of 2011 saw the popular victories of the unorganized masses exploited by the organized Muslim Brotherhood, then taken away entirely by the cynical military. In Sudan and Algeria the struggle to keep that from happening continues, while in Hong Kong the threat of intervention by China’s army is poised above the protests like the sword of Damocles, and in Russia, Putin wants everyone to know that as bad as he’s done, he can do much worse. Nobody said nonviolent revolution is easy, and nobody should believe that the fall of a single person resolves the problems in a society that may have put him or her in power in the first place.But as things stand right now, if the economy’s sugar high continues through November of next year, Trump probably will be re-elected. No Democratic candidate has found an effective way to deal with the most fundamental truism of presidential politics: “It’s the economy, stupid!”Trump’s assaults on the fundamentals of American democracy—including language that inspires white nationalist terrorism and defends possession of assault rifles—will appear “vindicated” in the electoral college even if, once again, the will of the American majority is thwarted. And if that happens we will be more than halfway to the end of what we used to think of as truth, justice, and the American way. Any effort to remove Trump from office after reelection will be infinitely more difficult and dangerous. Tweets won’t avert that outcome. Nor by itself will the flaccid exercise of impeachment proceedings in the House.But p=mv, the E=mc2 of protest, might just do the trick.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

August 11, 2019 at 10:37AM via IFTTT