#in celebration of Trump Conviction Day

[cbk1000]

Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Merlin (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin) Characters: Merlin (Merlin), Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Morgana (Merlin), Gwaine (Merlin), Lancelot (Merlin) Additional Tags: Social Media, Hey guess what the plot of this one is, Yep they're dumb and in love, They're not quite as dumb this time though, because they're together, Don't worry I'll still bring the stupid, If you've read the rest of my work you know you can have confidence in that, Sequel to Fools by Heavenly Compulsion Series: Part 2 of Fools by Heavenly Compulsion Summary:

Sequel to Fools by Heavenly Compulsion. In which Merlin plans a proposal, and there are shenanigans.

[sir-ballister-boldheart]

Late to this because I was sleeping when it was announced but Happy Trump Conviction Day to all who celebrate :D

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Hugh Dougherty at The Daily Beast:

Jeffrey Epstein described himself as Donald Trump’s “closest friend” and claimed intimate knowledge of his proclivity for sex, including cuckolding his best friends, according to recordings obtained exclusively by the Daily Beast. The convicted pedophile even boasted of his closeness to Trump and his now-wife Melania by claiming, “the first time he slept with her was on my plane,” which was dubbed the Lolita Express.

Epstein spoke at length about Trump with the author Michael Wolff in August 2017, two years before being found dead in his jail cell. Wolff was researching his bombshell bestseller Fire and Fury at the time. The recordings cast more light on Trump’s long relationship with Epstein, and will add to debate over the character of the Republican candidate, especially his attitudes and conduct toward women, just days before the election. The tapes tell Epstein’s version of the relationship between two former friends and their very different paths: One toward infamy, prison and suicide; the other toward power, the Oval Office and his own criminal conviction for paying hush money to a porn star. Trump’s camp referred to the tapes’ release as “false smears” and “election interference.” The tapes also offer unusual insight into the friendship of two wealthy, powerful men who frequently went out on the town together, prowling for women in New York and Atlantic City. [...]

Asked by Wolff, “How do you know all this?” Epstein replied, “I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.” Wolff shared the tape with the Daily Beast ahead of discussing it on his Fire and Fury podcast on Monday. Last Thursday he caused shockwaves by revealing a few seconds of a separate recording in which Epstein spoke in detail about the inner workings of the Trump administration. Wolff also said Thursday that the pedophile showed off photos of Trump with topless young women sitting in his lap. Wolff, a veteran journalist and author who was also the biographer of Rupert Murdoch, has long attracted praise and bromides. When Fire & Fury was published in January 2018, Trump tried to stop it with a failed cease and desist order, then threatened to sue. No case ever materialized, and it sold 5 million copies worldwide. Wolff, who appears regularly on his Fire and Fury podcast, wrote two more books on Trump after Fire and Fury, and about Epstein in 2021’s Too Famous.

Wolff says he has up to 100 hours of recordings of interviews with Epstein, including from using him as a source for Fire and Fury, and from years of meetings when the disgraced financier appeared to want Wolff to write a biography of him. Wolff said he decided to release parts of the archive after a new accuser, a former Miss Switzerland, alleged last week that Trump had groped her in 1992.

[...] Trump’s long friendship with Epstein, which spanned the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s has been well documented. In the 1990s, the two publicly partied at Mar-a-Lago and went to a Victoria’s Secret Angels show together. In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine of Epstein, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Epstein’s infamous leaked addressbooks had Trump’s own phone number as well as Melania’s, while Trump’s name appeared seven times in the passenger logs of Epstein’s planes. (The books and logs also included princes, politicians and potentates such as Bill Clinton, former British prime minister Tony Blair, former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, Prince Andrew and celebrities and billionaires including Mick Jagger and Les Wexner.)

[...] In 2022 Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who procured him underage girls, would be sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for the sex trafficking of minors. Upon hearing of her arrest in 2020, Trump, then president, said he wished her well. “Her friend or boyfriend was either killed or committed suicide in jail. Yeah, I wish her well… Good luck.” In 2004, Epstein and Trump fell out when they both tried to buy a Palm Beach estate, Maison de L’Amitié, out of bankruptcy. The next year, the FBI began investigating Epstein for child sex trafficking.

In 2019, on the day after Epstein’s arrest, Trump said in the Oval Office, “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you,” and that they had not been friends for 15 years. He said it “did not much matter” what the fall-out had been over. This September, asked about Epstein by the tech podcaster Lex Fridman, Trump said: “He was a good salesman. He was a hailing, hearty type of guy. He had some nice assets that he’d throw around like islands, but a lot of big people went to that island. But fortunately, I was not one of them.”

[...]

The Epstein tape includes an allegation—which is impossible to verify—that Trump had an affair with a politician while in the White House. Epstein offered no proof or sourcing for the claim. He also alleged that Trump cheated on both his first wife Ivana and second wife Marla Maples with “a Black girl.” At one section, Epstein used a Yiddish racial slur to refer to Black women and alleged Trump boasted to him, “I’m f---ing all these Black women.” The tape mixes sexual allegations with other aspects of Trump’s life. Early in the recording Epstein is heard to say, “You probably know he had a scalp reduction. He’s getting the same male pattern baldness that we all have. He had his scalp reduced. It’s hysterical.” Trump has long refused to release full medical records while his White House medical reports did not disclose any prior surgeries.

“He’s charming. In a devious way, he’s charming. To some extent it’s a typical tragedy where he believes his own bulls---”

— Epstein on Trump

And Epstein offers his eyewitness account of Trump Tower and Trump’s office where, he said, Trump had “fake honors” on the wall. Trump, he claimed, would yell at his personal assistant Rhona Graff, “who’s a loyal, perfect, secretary,” as well as Matthew Calamari Snr., his bodyguard, and Michael Cohen, his attorney who is now an enemy. Epstein compared Trump to “an emotionally challenged 9-year-old,” and said, “He screams and yells at Rhona more than anybody else. His screaming is how he treats people. He has a tantrum, not a temper. If you don’t understand him, it’s frightening. Once you understand him, it’s sort of silly.” Epstein also told Wolff he had positive things to say about Trump. “He’s charming. In a devious way, he’s charming,” he said. “To some extent it’s a typical tragedy where he believes his own bulls---. He has delusions of grandiosity, then he takes it on board.” He added that he had a “self-deprecating nature” and was “not vulgar.” “He’s funny,” Epstein said. “Self-awareness means you’re self-aware. He’s aware of that person, Donald Trump. He talks about The Trump, The Trumpster. ‘Trump’s getting laid.’”

On the tape Epstein, speaking in a New York accent, also mentioned the rich and powerful. (In a deposition released after his death Epstein admitted under oath that he dropped the names of people he had never met.) The names he mentioned on tape include: Former president Bill Clinton; Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner; then-Defense Secretary James Mattis; and the billionaires Carl Icahn and Tom Barrack, both of whom are friends of Trump. Clinton was a long-standing friend of Epstein but has denied any association after the pedophile’s disgrace in the mid-2000s. Mattis has no known association with him. Ivanka was photographed with him as a child but Kushner has never been known to be linked to him. Barrack appeared in a leaked appointment diary for Epstein from 2016, while Carl Icahn, a corporate raider and long-time Trump friend, was in Epstein’s 1997 address book. Startlingly for a man who became one of the world’s most notorious sex offenders, Epstein on the tapes offers a damning judgment of Trump, telling Wolff, “The moral compass just does not exist.”

The Daily Beast reported that Jeffrey Epstein was Donald Trump's closest friend for about 10 years, according to tapes obtained from the outlet that featured Michael Wolff interviewing the late pedophile.

[itsallpoliticsstupid]

The convenient timing of Taylor Swift's endorsement

I'm expecting to be lambasted for this one. But I can take it.

I have a hell of a lot of respect for @mishacollins. Anybody who stands by their convictions even when they are being criticized for them by their fanbase is basically a unicorn in my opinion. He's clearly very passionate about Politics, has his own views and won't bow to others if he's being shouted at, and I really respect him for that.

Which is what the original purpose of this blog was going to be. In essence, I was going to say how it's so important to have celebrities like him talking about their political views to change the narrative in this election, no matter how unpopular they are. And it's frustrating more celebrities can't use their platform like him to do good in this election.

But this morning I read his Facebook post gushing about Taylor Swift's endorsement and my initial thought was 'oh Misha. Why?' And it changed the direction of this blog.

Now whilst I appreciate it is a really important thing that Taylor Swift has thrown her endorsement behind Kamala Harris, can we just talk about the timing of her statement?

Taylor Swift is a woman with unimaginable wealth, and because of this she is able to hire a team of people around her that will be able to keep her appraised of anything in the media that is going to harm her image.

So I find it a little suspect that she claims to have only just found out about the AI images circulating of her endorsing Trump a couple of weeks ago. Yes, she has been on tour, and there have obviously been some horrific incidents associated with her name (the attack in the UK and the foiled terrorist attack), however I can't believe she only just found out.

Even if she mentioned in her statement she didn't want to speak out because of these incidents, that would have felt less disingenuous then saying 'I just found out.'

The second thing, is there has been some negative press surrounding her and the photos with Brittany Mahomes. Personally, I don't care who she's friends with. That's her business. But obviously it isn't a good look being friends with somebody who does seem to be in the Trump camp, especially when you are considered to be a firm friend of the LGBTQIA+ community and ultimately fans see you as a 'feminist icon.'

So to come out with her endorsement just a couple of days after people have been picking up on that, it's just incredibly convenient and feels like a way to get her fans, who were starting to question her back on side.

The third is, she could have endorsed Kamala right at the start. But let's be honest, she wasn't the most popular candidate when she first took over the campaign. It almost feels like she waited to see how popular she would be after the debate before going ahead and posting her endorsement.

One thing I will give her though, as a childfree cat lady, I did find her sign off quite good.

Anyway, those are my thoughts, and vote Kamala Harris in November.

[dalekofchaos]

Chappell Roan is right

Chappel rightfully called out her problems with the Republicans and the democrats and the choices we are given this election and people have a problem with it?

No one here had any issue with Macklemore outright saying he wouldn’t vote for democrats in the fall because of the genocide, and instead praised him for using his platform to speak out, but Chappell Roan says she can’t endorse Kamala but will still vote for her and she gets torn to shreds and “clearly doesn’t understand anything about politics.”

And then the white liberals and privileged gay men came out to smear her name and even began to question and police her queerness. I saw a looooot of progressive white gays side with Zionists in an effort to put a queer woman in her place for the last few days.... Ya'll are worse than the fucking MAGA cultists, at least their evil is obvious, ya'll act like condescending well meaningful bigots but dare to act better.

Notice how when a woman, especially a lesbian with strong convictions or morals stands up for what's right and calls out the hypocrisy of the democratic party, them funding a genocide and not doing enough for Trans people and the LGBTQA+ community in general, they all turn on her for not showing blind allegiance when they have shown nothing but broken promises in return?

Chappell Roan reasonably arguing that she would like better candidates, while clearly stating she thinks Harris is the better candidate. And then read endless comments from Harris supporters saying Roan is an idiot. This is cult behaviour. She's on your side, why demand absolute loyalty?

The people who support Kamala think a winning strategy is to belittle anyone who supports Kamala in the wrong way. Thereby driving away people who would otherwise support her. This, supposedly, is the grown up rational strategy.

And Chappell has a right to be pissed about how the Democratic Party's policies have failed Trans people and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.

These are the polices that are harming Trans people.

This article alone just shows how the LGBTQA+ community feel unprotected and unheard by the democratic party.

It also doesn't help that in the most recent debate, seeing how trans and queer rights were not even once a topic of discussion. Seeing how trans and queer rights were not even once a topic of discussion. It hurts, and its a terrifying reality we live in.

It’s not just debates. Feel free to check the Democrats 2024 platform’s LGBTQ+ section (pp. 56-57), there’s almost nothing in there for trans people.

So I don’t blame her for not wanting to put her name behind someone who represents a party that just is NOT doing enough.

The way Chappell Roan is just saying we need to hold politician’s accountable to higher standards and demand more from them instead of just accepting their actions, is completely logical and reasonable. The fact that some on the internet has bullied Chappell Roan for dare saying republicans and democrats have both done a terrible job as leaders instead of just blindly praising them is crazy. Like she's saying she's still voting blue, but she's not happy with them which that's valid, that's what normal people should do, question your candidates and request them to be better the same way people are demanding Chappel to be "better." it’s so refreshing to see a celebrity actually talk about and criticize politics instead of just making an instagram post once and pretending everything will be fine once kamala wins. Also a lot of the people who are questioning her queerness on twitter. Gross. idc if you're mad about her recent stances or not, but policing someone's queerness is honestly homophobic and it shows the internet only accepts someone's identity so long as they always agree with them.

Make no mistake about it. Trump, Vance and the Christofaasicts are a clear and present evil.

But how do you decide to fight that evil with Bush and Reagan era republicans to endorse you? Reagan and Bush DESTROYED this country. You think Trump is bad? Everything you think Trump did bad. Everything you know is wrong with this country. It all comes back to Ronald fucking Reagan and there is a goddamned fucking reason why people considered Reagan the Antichrist. On his best days George Bush was a worse president than Donald Trump. The Iraq war was worse than anything Trump did. 2,000,000 civilians killed and 37,000,000 were forced to flee their homes. Nearly everything terrible Trump did in office, Bush laid the groundwork for it. and the fucking democrats rehabilitated him.

How do you look me in the eye and say Kamala getting that vile fucking goblin DIck fucking Cheney's endorsement is a fucking good thing? He should be tried for fucking war crimes, not endorsing Kamala Harris.

Not to mention a black muslim man was wrongfully executed two days ago and no one did a damned fucking thing. Not the so called "pro-life" Republicans and not the democrats. No one in the Biden admin fought for Marcellus Williams

It’s funny watching people go after Roan for having reservations about the Democrats on the same day that a report was released that Blinken knew Israel was starving Palestinians while the Biden administration pretended that it wasn’t happening so they could keep sending weapons.

People would rather smear Chappell Roan than hold politicians accountable. They would rather bury their heads in the sands. Unfriendly fucking reminder, THIS was liberals reaction to the names of Palestinian children being named at the DNC and wouldn't even invite a Palestinian to speak at the DNC.

THIS is the face of the democrat party and liberals. They have shown us time and time again that they are not on our side. They will defend white interests over the collective struggles of Black, Brown, poor and disenfranchised people around the world. This is what Chappell Roan is trying to tell us why she is unhappy with voting for Kamala Harris. Biden, Kamala and their ilk are funding and arming a genocide, not doing enough for LGBTQA+ rights.

They spend millions to billions of dollars on Israel's war crimes, meanwhile people still don’t have healthcare, access to affordable housing, affordable education, no clean energy, reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights are trampled on and disability benefits get denied to deserving applicants- and people wonder why I say I hate this fucking country.

I am so fucking tired of human rights being held hostage because YOU empowered the Republicans.

You had ages to Codify RVW and didn't fucking do it. You allowed the Republicans to kill it and you let them see what they can do and because of that we have Project 2025 on the horizon and you have completely and utterly fucked over women and the LGBTQA+ community just so you can hold our fucking rights hostage as leverage for us to vote for you.

Here's what's gonna happen. Either we get a straight up Christofascist dystopian nightmare or "nothing will fundamentally change 2.0"

UNFUCKINGFRIENDLY FUCKING REMINDER, WE HAD MULTIPLE UN RESOLUTIONS TO FREE THE HOSTAGES AND END THE GENOCIDE, BUT THE US CONSTANTLY VETOED IT.

So vote whoever you want for, but use critical thinking and for fuck's sake, if Kamala wins, don't act like this is over. Demand better. Hold Kamala and her administration accountable. If Trump wins, don't blame Chappell and don't blame leftists. Blame Kamala and the democrats for refusing to change. For refusing to fight for their voters interests. For refusing to stand AGAINST A FUCKING GENOCIDE!

“fuck Kamala, yet fuck Trump a bit more too. so I’ll vote Kamala if I have to, and nothing else. and will protest her everyday forever afterwards,” is *the* mainstream youth opinion, but white liberals and privileged white gays are too self-obsessed and self-absorbed to get that.

People have more expectations of 20 year old pop stars than of the government and I think that’s a major problem.

Chappell is a beautiful anomaly. Be like Chappell & demand more.

Chappell picks local drag queens as her openers, donates concert proceeds to charities supporting trans poc and palestianians, etc, wanted to read Palestinian poems at the white house when she refused to let them pink-wash her, constantly vocalizes what side of important issues shes on but the second she refuses to blindly endorse a candidate for valid reasons.

Her stance is the most punk rock thing I’ve seen from an artists since Green Day dropped American Idiot and since Sinéad O'Connor took a stand against the Catholic Church and stood up for Palestine. Truly, so eloquently put and she’s a rockstar and I need everyone to understand how much I love her.

It’s so refreshing to see a celebrity actually talk about and criticize politics instead of just making an instagram post once and pretending everything will be fine once Kamala wins.

I can't help but feel if a straight white male cis celebrity had said what Chappell said he'd be treated as some sort of political wizard.

This is from the same Chappell Roan who called out the incredibly parasocial relationships about celebrities is weird and dared to stand up for herself and put up boundaries and since then everyone has just been looking for a reason to be outraged by whatever she says/does

Chappell cares about Palestine. That's a huge thing with her. Right, like, right. And it's a huge thing with a lot of young people. Like, you're not really gonna get an enthusiastic endorsement from somebody who's very, you know. Anti-War in Gaza. You're like, "you should be settling." It's like, not your place to tell her what she does and doesn't value. Chappell's an artist. Chappell's not a politician. Chappell doesn't owe you a fucking thing.

So yeah, Fuck Trump and fuck Kamala and Chappell Roan, keep going because you are a star and an icon because for once we are seeing someone who won't spoon-fed propaganda and stands up for their convictions and morals. We are TIRED of the "lesser evil" So yeah Chappell is right.

[worlds-worst-ships]

Do you ship it?

Based on an idea by @yesneverno

You didn't leave your name which is unusual for regulars to the blog, but I've seen you around a lot lately so I thought I'd post your idea before I go offline all day tomorrow.

As you can see, I struggle to find good things to say about Donny.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Iam not usually one to offer diagnoses of people I’ve never met, but it does seem like the pundit class of the American media is suffering from severe memory loss. Because they’re doing exactly what they did in the 2016 presidential race – providing wildly asymmetrical and inflammatory coverage of the one candidate running against Donald J Trump.

They have become a stampeding herd producing an avalanche of stories suggesting Biden is unfit, will lose and should go away, at a point in the campaign in which replacing him would likely be somewhere between extremely difficult and utterly catastrophic. They do this while ignoring something every scholar and critic of journalism knows well and every journalist should. As Nikole Hannah-Jones put it: “As media we consistently proclaim that we are just reporting the news when in fact we are driving it. What we cover, how we cover it, determines often what Americans think is important and how they perceive these issues yet we keep pretending it’s not so.” They are not reporting that he is a loser; they are making him one.

According to one journalist’s tally, the New York Times has run 192 stories on the subject since the debate, including 50 editorials and 142 news stories. The Washington Post, which has also gone for saturation coverage, published a resignation speech they wrote for him. Not to be outdone, the New Yorker’s editor-in-chief declared that Biden not going away “would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment” and had a staff writer suggest that Democrats should use the never-before-deployed 25th amendment.

Since this would have to be led by Vice-President Kamala Harris, it would be a sort of insider coup. And so it goes with what appears to be a journalistic competition to outdo each other in the aggressiveness of the attacks and the unreality of the proposals. It’s a dogpile and a panic, and there is no one more unable to understand their own emotional life, biases and motives than people who are utterly convinced of their own ironclad rationality and objectivity, AKA most of these pundits.

Speaking of coups, we’ve had a couple of late, which perhaps merit attention as we consider who is unfit to hold office. This time around, Trump is not just a celebrity with a lot of sexual assault allegations, bankruptcies and loopily malicious statements, as he was in 2016. He’s a convicted criminal who orchestrated a coup attempt to steal an election both through backroom corruption and public lies and through a violent attack on Congress. The extremist US supreme court justices he selected during his last presidential term themselves staged a coup this very Monday, overthrowing the US constitution itself and the principle that no one is above the law to make presidents into kings, just after legalizing bribery of officials, and dismantling the regulatory state by throwing out the Chevron deference.

Trump’s own former staffers are part of the Heritage Foundation’s team planning to implement Project 25 if he wins, which would finish off our system of government with yet another coup. “We are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” said the foundation’s president the other day. This alarms me. So does the behavior of the US mainstream media, which seems more concerned with sabotaging the only thing standing between us and this third coup.

“Why aren’t we talking about Trump’s fascism?” demands the headline of Jeet Heer’s piece in the Nation, to which the answer might be a piece by the Nation’s own editor-in-chief titled “Biden’s patriotic duty” that proposes his duty is to get lost. Sometimes I wonder if all this coverage is because the media knows how to cover a normal problem like a sub-par candidate; they don’t know how to cover something as abnormal and unprecedented as the end of the republic. So for the most part they don’t.

Biden is old. He was one kind of appalling in the 27 June debate, listless and sometimes stumbling and muddling his words. But Trump was another kind of appalling, in that almost everything he said was an outrageous lie and some of it was a threat. I get that writing about the monstrosity that is Trump faces the problem that it’s not news; he’s been a monster spouting lurid nonsense all his life (but his political crimes are recent, and his free-associating public soliloquies on sharks, batteries, toilets, water flow and Hannibal Lector, among other topics, are genuinely demented). He’s a racist, a fascist and a rapist (according to a civil-court verdict).

We are deciding whether this nation has a future as a more-or-less democratic republic this November, and on that rides the fate of the earth when it comes to acting on climate change. If the US falters at this decisive moment in the climate crisis, it will drag down everyone else’s efforts. Under Trump, it will. But the shocking supreme court decisions this summer and the looming threat of authoritarianism have gotten little ink and air, compared to the hue and cry about Biden’s competence.

Few seem to remember that Biden’s age and his verbal gaffes were an issue in the 2020 campaign. Biden is a lifelong stutterer, and the effort to keep his words on track means that he operates under an extra burden with every unscripted answer he gives, particularly under pressure (though he had a long, easygoing conversation with Howard Stern a couple of months ago, in which he discusses his stuttering at about the 1:13 mark).

Some speech pathologists have suggested he may (not does, just may) have a disorder that sometimes accompanies stuttering, called cluttering, which is not an intellectual deficiency but a sometimes hectic and disorderly translation of thoughts into words. In recent months, actual gerontologists have said in print that Biden appears to have normal signs of aging, not signs of dementia. Nevertheless, the amateur armchair diagnosticians have been out in packs, and their confidence in their ability to diagnose from watching TV is itself an alarming delusion. I am not giving Biden a clean bill of health; I’m saying that I don’t have a basis to render a verdict (and neither do the august editors of large publications).

Few seem to remember that Biden’s age and his verbal gaffes were an issue in the 2020 campaign

Although the Biden administration seems to have run extremely well for three and a half years, with a strong cabinet, few scandals and little turnover, a thriving economy and some major legislative accomplishments, the narrative the punditocracy has created suggest we should ignore this record and decide on the basis of the 90-minute debate and reference to newly surfaced swarms of anonymous sources that Biden is incompetent. Quite a lot of them have been running magical-realism fantasy-football scenarios in which it is fun and easy to swap in your favorite substitute candidate. The reality is that it is hard and quite likely to be a terrible mess. Nevertheless, this pretense is supposed to mean that telling a presidential candidate in mid-campaign to get lost is fine.

The main argument against Biden is not that he can’t govern – that would be hard to make given that he seems to have done so for the past years – but that he can’t win the election. But candidates do not win elections by themselves. Elections are won, to state the obvious, by how the electorate turns out and votes. The electorate votes based on how they understand the situation and evaluate the candidates. That is, of course, in large part shaped by the media, as Hannah-Jones points out, and the media is right now campaigning hard for a Democratic party loss. The other term for that is a Republican victory. Few things have terrified and horrified me the way this does.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility

[sleepynegress]

I'd love to be able to join the fray of those celebrating his 34-count conviction, but... for me, a Black woman, who never had any friends or family who ever thought even for a millisecond that Trump was in any way a man worthy of anything resembling consideration...

And watching white Americans twist themselves every which dishonest way to their souls to justify this man's uplift... and/or darkly acknowledge the discomfort at their family gatherings... I'm just going about my day.

[tomorrowusa]

House Republicans may be relieved that they finally have a Speaker after 22 days of infighting. But the rest of the country should worry that there's a far right extremist second in line to the presidency. "MAGA Mike" Johnson is even more extreme than Trump on some issues.

Election denier, climate skeptic, anti-abortion: seven beliefs of new US House speaker Mike Johnson

He tried to overturn the 2020 election In the modern Republican party, supporting Donald Trump’s lie about voter fraud in his defeat by Joe Biden is hardly an outlandish position. But Johnson took it further. After the election, he voiced support for Trump’s conspiracy theory that voting machines were rigged. Later, he was one of 147 Republicans to object to results in key states, even after a pro-Trump mob attacked Congress on January 6, a riot now linked to nine deaths and hundreds of convictions. [ ... ] He was a spokesperson for a ‘hate group’ Before entering politics, Johnson worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom – designated a hate group by the Southern Law Poverty Center, which tracks US extremists. According to the SPLC, the ADF has “supported the recriminalisation of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ+ adults in the US and criminalisation abroad; defended state-sanctioned sterilisation of trans people abroad; contended that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to engage in paedophilia; and claimed that a ‘homosexual agenda’ will destroy Christianity and society”. [ ... ] He opposes LGBTQ+ rights In state politics and at the national level, Johnson has worked to claw back gains made by LGBTQ+ Americans in their fight for equality. In 2016, as he ran for Congress, he told the Louisiana Baptist Message he had “been out on the front lines of the ‘culture war’ defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they’ve been under assault”. He has since led efforts for a national “don’t say gay” bill, regarding the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues in schools, and is also opposed to gender-affirming care for children. On Wednesday, Rev Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality, said: “Johnson has made a career out of attacking the LGBTQ+ community at every turn." His positions are out of touch with the clear majority support for LGBTQ+ equality in our country. His new leadership role is just further proof of the dangerous priorities of the GOP and the critical stakes for our democracy – and for LGBTQ+ Americans – in 2024.” [ ... ] He is stringently anti-abortion Johnson has maintained a relatively low profile in Congress but when last year the supreme court removed the right to abortion, Johnson celebrated “a historic and joyful day”. Though Dobbs v Jackson returned abortion rights to the states, Johnson has co-sponsored bills for a nationwide ban. And as he neared his position of power, footage spread of striking remarks in a House hearing. “Roe v Wade did constitutional cover to the elective killing of unborn children in America, period,” Johnson said. [ ... ] He wants to cut social security and Medicare As those comments indicate, Johnson wants to cut programs on which millions rely. Such cuts are widely regarded as a political third-rail – Trump has used the issue to attack Republican presidential rivals, saying only he will defend such benefits – but Johnson is far from alone in wanting to swing the axe. He is an advocate for ‘covenant marriage’ When he married his wife, Kelly, in 1999, the couple agreed to a “covenant” marriage: a conservative Christian idea that makes it harder to divorce. The Johnsons promoted the idea on ABC’s Good Morning America. [ ... ] He is a climate skeptic In 2017, Johnson told voters in his oil-rich home state: “The climate is changing, but the question is, is it being caused by natural cycles over the span of the Earth’s history? Or is it changing because we drive SUVs? I don’t believe in the latter. I don’t think that’s the primary driver.”

You'd really have to try hard to find somebody worse than MAGA Mike. But we're not without the power of the vote; we need to use that power every chance we get.

November 7th is Election Day in many parts of the US. Most notably...

Ohio's statewide ballot measure to restore reproductive freedom by placing a woman's right to choose in the Ohio Constitution. A YES vote on Issue 1 takes abortion out of the hands of the gerrymandered GOP legislature.

Kentucky's Democratic governor is up for re-election.

The Virginia legislature is up for election. If Republicans gain control of both chambers they will try to ban abortion; reproductive tyranny is part of the GOP agenda whenever they hold a trifecta in a state. There's also a special election to fill a vacancy for a US House seat in VA-04.

The state legislature in New Jersey is up for election.

There are judicial elections in Pennsylvania including for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. There's also a special election to fill a vacancy in the Penn House of Representatives which is currently tied 101 Democrats – 101 Republicans.

All state offices in Mississippi including governor and legislature are up for election. Surprisingly, polls show the GOP incumbent governor ahead by just 1% with 10% undecided.

Like Mississippi, all state offices in Louisiana are up for election.

Rhode Island has a special election to fill a vacancy for a US House seat in RI-01.

^^^ Those are just the highlights. There are elections of some sort in most states on November 7th.

Republicans may grumble at times, but they always turn out for elections. They have a disproportionate amount of power in the US because they vote while many of their liberal neighbors stay home or become too ideologically persnickety.

Allegedly "moderate" GOP House members ultimately fell in line and unanimously backed a far right Speaker.

Elections at all levels count. Speaker "MAGA Mike" Johnson got his start in politics in the Louisiana legislature. He is now the highest ranking GOP elected official in the US.

There's no such thing as an unimportant election. Vote in the November 7th election and actively encourage like-minded friends, family, and neighbors to do so as well.

Be A Voter - Vote Save America

[mercurytrinemoon]

Random observations: (Gemini-coded) celebrity edition part 3

💫 WILL SMITH RETURNS???

Well apparently Will Smith somehow made a comeback and somehow everyone's fine with him all of a sudden? Would be surprised but astrology backs that up.

Will is a Gemini rising. What planet just ingressed into Gemini? Jupiter. We all know that Jupiter, aside from bringing luck and sometimes fame, is the most forgiving and permissive planet out of all of them. It entered his first house of the self and suddenly he's the cool guy again that everyone likes. It does help that his Sun is in the first degrees of Libra so Jupiter is also trining it.

When I was discussing the Oscar slap gate, I was mentioning how he's going through a progressed New Moon, which will make him go into hiding for a bit or be "banished" somehow. Well the New Moon has passed (although it's still relatively close to the Sun) but the progressed luminary is at least not in Scorpio anymore.

Transiting Saturn is still in his 10th house though and when it leaves Pisces, his Saturn return will start so we'll see how that will go for him.

💫 TRUMP GETS CONVICTED AND ALMOST KILLED

There's a lot to talk about the most obnoxious Gemini to exist but today we'll focus on the latest events.

Trump got convicted for felony when Mercury and Uranus conjoined in Taurus right on his MC. Saturn was also t-squaring both of his luminaries at that time (and will t-square them again when retrograde). It's very fitting as Saturn digs up events from the past, judges them and brings potential restrictions. He's also in a Saturn-ruled profection year aaaand… his natal Saturn is in the 12th house - the house of secrets, fiddles and all forms of jails.

And again, Jupiter, which is transiting the sign of his Sun is too forgiving as his court sentencing has been postponed to September (Mars will be transiting his 12th house at that time so we'll see who's going to have the upper hand here - Jupiter or Mars).

UPDATE SINCE I WROTE THE DRAFT FOR THIS POST A FEW DAYS AGO: As it turns out, Trump's MC gets another hit in a form of a Mars-Uranus-Algol conjunction. Quite literally. The assasination attemp happened just one day before the nasty conjunction and was extremely close to sensitive points in his chart. His MC is at 24° Taurus, his natal Mars is at 26° Leo (that's a square) and his ascendant at 29° Leo. On the day of the rally shooting Mars was at 25° of Taurus - barely moving away from his MC and applying with a square to his natal Mars. Uranus sits at 26° as well.

Just as a reminder: Mars rules violence, sharp objects, war, hatred and accidents while Uranus is explosive, sudden and destructive. That's enough to cause shootings and assasinations but add the fixed star Algol to the mix, which signifies violence and… beheadings, we get an extreme version of the above (and unfortunately someone did die from a shot in the head).

💫 THE ACOLYTE = VENUS CAZIMI IN GEMINI (potential Acolyte episode 1 spoilers?)

This one is my favourite. I was watching the first episode of Star Wars Acolyte and something hit me: the show came out on a Venus cazimi in Gemini and the main protagonist is a twin (!) whose supposedly dead sister emerges from hiding and turns to the dark side. It's a show about twin (Gemini) girls (Venus)! And it shows the geminian polarities: in this case of good and evil. The re-emergence is also symbolized by Venus cazimi as after the conjunction, it starts coming out of the Sun's shadow and can be seen on the sky again.

But that's not all. The twins were separated at the age of 8 and the events of the show take place 16 years later. 8 is a Venus synodic cycle, 16 is, well, two synodic cycles.

You want more? Okay, the actress playing the main protagonist and her twin, Amandla Stenberg, was born just a few days before Venus cazimi in Scorpio.

💫 MARGOT ROBBIE EXPECTING A BBY

I've just read that Margot is pregnant! It's always interesting to me what transits accompany pregnancy (spoilers: it's often Jupiter).

Margot just entered her 11th house profection year, ruled by Venus. Her natal Venus is in the first decan of Gemini and the news broke around the time when Jupiter was right on top of it. I've been mentioning Jupiter quite a lot today in terms of luck and forgiveness but let's not forget that the great benefic also grows things as it signifies fertility. And Venus is one of the significators of womanhood.

The 12th house transit is not surprising either as some themes of the house do match carrying a child: the psychology behind it, sometimes having to draw back from the world in one way or another or just changing habits; being in labour is very much a 12th house thing as well.

💫 MESSI DOWN DURING A MATCH

We're changing areas to talk about… football (I know, shocking).

Lionel Messi just suffered a major injury during the Copa America final. Messi is a Cancer Sun and he just entered his 2nd house profection year in Pisces. As we know, Pisces is currently occupied by Saturn at 19° and is squaring his Gemini Moon exact (0°11’ orb on the day of the accident). Traditionally Moon is associated with body but in his case it's even more pronounced as it rules his 6th house of injury. It's important to add that with Sun, Mercury retrograde and Mars natally in the 6th house any damages to the body are very likely in general.

Transiting Saturn is also applying with a 3° square to his natal Saturn (his ascendant ruler) in the 11th house - this is not only a pivotal moment in his life but also in the sphere of his career as a teammate (11th house). Hopefully the recovery will be quick!

[squishsquishy]

⸝⸝ ‧₊° ⋅ ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ꒰ঌ ♡ ໒꒱ ⊹ ࣪ ˖⸝⸝ ‧₊° ⋅

˗ˏˋ ꒰ Jelly ꒱ ˎˊ˗

「 they/he 」「 24 y/o 」「Fluid TME Bi Lesbigay Sapphillean Polyam」「 Mexican (white passing) 」 ⌞audhd+disabled⌝ ⌞ENG⌝

DNI and About me on Carrd

˗ˏˋ ꒰ Main: @jellymosasaur ꒱ ˎˊ˗

˗ˏˋ ꒰ Side: @pokesanriostims Pokémon and Sanrio Stimblog ꒱ ˎˊ˗ ˗ˏˋ ꒰ Stim Archive: @sensoryarchive ꒱ ˎˊ˗

˗ˏˋ ꒰ My art: @jellydrawing ꒱ ˎˊ˗

˗ˏˋ Stim Requests are Open! ˎˊ˗

˗ˏˋQueue (#Offline): 2 posts daily, on shuffle ˎˊ˗

Disclaimer: there is weed and cuss words on this blog, blacklist #cuss words or #weed if you need to. Please block my main if you don’t want interactions. Blacklist #rant if you don’t want to see my vents.

quick dni: no proship, don’t reblog my content to kink blogs, no exclusionists

˖⁺‧₊˚₊‧⁺˖ ˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖ ˖⁺‧₊˚₊‧⁺˖

Dia de los Muertos is not “Mexican Halloween”, it’s marketed this way in many chain stores in the U.S. however the only similarity is that it’s a few days apart. (Halloween 10/31 and Dia de los Muertos 11/2) Dia de los Muertos is a time to celebrate those who came before you, those that are no longer with us. We honor them and make sure they are safe in the after life, have energy and know they’re loved. Always. (Dia de los Muertos education) (Halloween history)

I’ve had to relearn Spanish so my Spanish is like kindergarten Spanish. I want to relearn it for my kids so I’m doing my best to build it back up, however I haven’t really worked on much reading or writing

Tags: #my gifs #my stimboards #fam rq 🩷 stim inspo post #squish420

Archived Stim Gifs: #deleted #classic @sensoryarchive

Quick messages:

>> I don’t make gifs of animal breeders or animals that should not be kept as pets in houses. If I reblog this content tell me. I do my best to check.

>> Don’t use my content if you don’t credit me.

DNI (Do Not Interact)

Don’t use my gifs if you’re not going to credit them.

Homophobic, Transphobic, Queerphobic, Antisemitic, Racist, Xenophobic

abdl, ddlg,cgl, any “age play”

Tcc/true crime fan

Pedos, Anti-Anti, Proship (shipping pedo ships or incest ships)

Exclusionist: Aphobic, Anti-Mogai, Anti-Mspec Gays or Lesbians, Transmed, Terf, Swerf, Biphobic, “drop the t” or “drop the b” (in lgbtqia), if you’re someone who is blatantly disrespectful and ignoring intersex people, ignorant or bigoted toward polyamorous people.

if you tell other people what their labels should be. if you tell trans people they HAVE to be pansexual. If you tell cis people in relationships with trans people they HAVE to be pansexual. This is one example, but don’t interact if you tell others what you think they should identify as or who you think they need to be with.

Don’t interact with me if you hate kids. Doesn’t mean you have to love them or want to have them just don’t be a dickhole to kids.

if you’re a trump supporter or supporter of any type of dictatorship which he preaches. A supporter of anything he stands for or has been convicted of.

Request Rules

If you don’t want something tagged as kin/me please add that in the stimboard request.

If you have triggers or don’t want something on the stimboard please let me know and I’ll avoid them for you.

Feel free to ask for tw if something is improperly tagged or I don’t currently tag that tw.

Please add pictures of the flags (for pride boards) and/or characters so I use the right ones. (This is not always needed, don’t worry if you forget)

If I don’t feel comfortable with a request I won’t do it, I will answer your ask privately if it’s not anon. This is not about regression it’s about people or content I just don’t like and it’s cool for me to just say no sometimes.

Blacklist: swarms (of bugs, just a few is okay but not a swarm) and waterparks also goats. I’m super allergic to goats.

For whitelist, go to my about for my faves

I tag meats, but i sometimes don’t know there’s pork in a dish im reblogging so message me if you need a post to be tagged as pork.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joan E Greve at The Guardian:

Just one month after making the historic choice to withdraw from the presidential race, Joe Biden took the stage at the Democratic national convention on Monday to deliver a reflective and optimistic address, urging the nation to elect Kamala Harris to protect American democracy. Looking back on his one and only presidential term, Biden reminded Americans that he took office just two weeks after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, when the country was still in the early grips of the coronavirus pandemic. “Yet, I believe then and I believe now, that progress was and is possible. Justice is achievable, and our best days are not behind us. They’re before us,” Biden said. “With a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered, and now democracy must be preserved.”

Only a few weeks ago, Biden was expected to be on the convention stage this week to accept his party’s nomination for the second time. Instead, the speech came a month after Biden shocked the nation with his decision to not seek re-election. After weeks of mounting doubts about his ability to effectively campaign following a devastating debate performance, Biden announced that he would step aside. He immediately endorsed Harris.

[...]

On Monday, Biden described selecting Harris as his vice-president as “the best decision I made my whole career”, and he drew a sharp contrast between her and Donald Trump. Mocking Trump over his recent conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden said: “Violent crime has dropped to the lowest level of more than 50 years, and crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon.”

Biden landed other punches against Trump as well, attacking the Republican nominee for describing America as a “failing nation”. “When he talks about America being a failing nation, he says, we’re losing. He’s the loser. He’s dead wrong,” Biden said to loud cheers. Even as he promoted Harris’ candidacy, Biden took a victory lap of sorts to celebrate his own legislative achievements over his four years in office. He reminded viewers of the major bills he signed, including the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act. “We’ve had one of the most extraordinary four years of progress ever, period,” Biden said. “Just think about it. Covid no longer controls our lives. We’ve gone from economic crisis to the strongest economy in the entire world.”

Still, Biden made a point to credit Harris with helping to deliver change. When discussing his administration’s efforts to lower prescription drug prices, Biden said, “Guess who cast the tie-breaking vote? Vice-president, soon-to-be-president, Kamala Harris.” And when audience members repeatedly broke out in chants of “Thank you, Joe,” the president responded, “Thank you, Kamala!”

The speech was not without its moments of conflict. One group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators displayed a banner reading, “Stop arming Israel!” Other convention attendees attempted to rip the banner away from them, and the lights were then dimmed over that section in the United Center. There appeared to be isolated shouts attacking Biden over his response to the war in Gaza, but those protesters were drowned out by the president’s supporters chanting, “We love Joe!” However, the president did not shy away from discussing the war in Gaza. Nodding to the pro-ceasefire protests unfolding in Chicago this week, Biden said: “A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.” Of the recent ceasefire negotiations, Biden said, “We’re working around the clock, my secretary of state, [to] prevent a wider war, reunite hostages with their families and surge humanitarian, health and food assistance into Gaza now to end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people and finally, finally, finally, deliver a ceasefire and end this war.”

On the DNC stage Monday night, President Joe Biden (D) gave a barnburner of a speech that detailed his achievements over his Presidency and his pre-Presidency tenure while passing the torch onto a new generation with VP Kamala Harris leading the Democratic ticket.

[spade-riddles]

I'd love it if you were right about going nuclear on the bearding situation when it comes to JK but I can't see it. Out of interest, why would that be the red line for you to see taylor be a long-term step parent to a kushner child when karlie has been attached to and whitewashed this guy since forever?

Don't get me wrong, I don't like the guy, but it seems like they have come to an agreement. Taylor's own brother did a pap walk with him just before trump was elected. In the very same song where she told us she was having a child she was talking about her partner's 'brother' as chosen family...just saying he may well be around even post closet and it would be a shame to lose you here (but obvs totally your call to make).

I don't know that they will go nuclear on the bearding. I just think they will keep their children out of the public eye. So we won't hear anything about them for a long time.

The pap walk between Austin and Jerk was business, as all arranged pap walks are. TS and KK were going to glass closet, so they were making it look like Jerk was part of their friend group (hey look he is friends with Austin and Taylor, no one will think twice if KK and TS hang out). But days later Trump 'won' the election and their plans changed (they went dark and Austin never was seen near him again).

Karlie calls Derek her brother.

As to why Taylor step-parenting a Kushner child is my red line? Well since they are not his kids, it would be just bizarre for TS and KK to lend that kind of honor to him and his family (like are we seriously thinking she will allow convicted felon Charles Kushner to pretend he is her children's Grandpa?). I cannot even wrap my head around that.

But, also, ... why do we follow a celebrity or musician? Because they bring something positive into our life. We find them interesting, enjoy their music, etc. I unfollowed Karlie not to be an ass. I did it because I don't want to scroll instagram and see some toxic person (Jerk) on my feed on a random day. I despise him and his family. They are literally one of the worst families in our country. I would unfollow a friend if they were posting Trump stuff, or anything else I did not want to see. So why would I follow a celebrity who brought that toxicity into my life?

[myreia]

WIP Whenever

Been ages since I've had writing to share, so I'm dumping a bunch at once! Tagging @thevikingwoman @roguelioness @allaganexarch @impossible-rat-babies @galadae @hylfystt @lilas @coldshrugs @bearlytolerant and anyone else who would like to. I'd love to see what you're working on! 💖 ~ 1000 words from an endless FFXIV Wolmeric fic I'm working on, specifically a re-working of the dinner date scene in Heavensward.

“Forgive me if this is strange to say,” Aymeric continues, reaching for the decanter and finishes filling his glass. “But I would rather you come as you are, not what you think you should be.”

She pauses. “What do you mean?”

“The dress you spoke of. Frankly, I do not care what you see fit to dress yourself in, nor how closely you choose to follow Ishgardian customs. It would make my heart heavy indeed to see you forgo the very essence of yourself and trade it for traditions that are not your own. I would not argue we besmirch custom and culture wholly and throw them to the wolves, but rather I do not believe their sanctity should go unquestioned. One must take part in tradition out of choice, not obligation. Traditions are precious and deserve to be celebrated, but to embrace them blindly does not equate respect in my eyes. There will always be those for whom tradition fails, and those who tradition forgot.”

He exhales a long breath and lays a hand on the table near his glass. “Perhaps you count yourself among them, more at home amongst the good people of the Brume then the lords and ladies of the High Houses. I can lay no blame at your feet for preferring the Forgotten Knight to the Pillars when some here see your very existence as an affront to the fantasy they deem a civilized society. Regardless, you have notoriety and grand stories of your accomplishments precede you. To some, you are as much a fixture of this era of restoration as the House of Lords and the House of Commons, or the efforts of the good overseers and caretakers of the Firmament. But as wont as the people are to place the Warrior of the Light upon a pedestal, so too are they to forget there is a very real woman at the heart of those tales. I shall not. You cannot be anything other than yourself, and I will not ask it of you.”  

She raises her head and meets his eyes, her heart throbbing in her chest. Gods, why must he be like this? What has she done to deserve a friendship like his?

“Perhaps it is something we share, then,” she suggests, a quiet smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

He blinks, startled, and chortles to cover his surprise. “We do?” he asks.

“Aymeric, consider what you have accomplished. My hand may have brought an end to Nidhogg’s wrath, but it is you who had the conviction to pull Ishgard out of this war. Break down the walls this country encased itself in for centuries. Bring an end to the cycle—”

“It was not I who should be accredited with such deeds, but rather men and women far greater than myself. Lord Haurchefant and Estinien and Ysayle, to say nothing of yourself. I can still see you there on the Steps of Faith, striding fearlessly towards the wyrm. It is not a moment I will soon forget.”

“You place too much importance on it—”

“You think I say that as a commander commending his greatest general for feats in battle. It is not so rote as that. Ishgard held its breath that day and you—”

She exhales sharply. “Would you let me finish?”

He bows his head. “Of course,” he says, unable to hide his smile. “Consider me suitably chastised.”

Aureia pauses, twisting her hands together beneath the table. What can she say to get her point across? Whenever she pushes the importance of his political maneuvers, he seems keen on derailing the point to praise her actions in combat. Perhaps that is the soldier in him or the rhetoric of Halone, though in Ishgard, they are often one and the same. The fast and dazzling heroism of victory in battle will always trump the slow, tedious work of reform.

She turns her head, her gaze wandering the dining room as she gives herself time to think. Lights dance on the opposite wall, drawing her eye to the hearth and its crackling flames. A set of portraits hang above the mantlepiece, depicting a wise Elezen noble and his wife. Grey-haired, strong features, kind eyes… These must be his adoptive parents. The former viscount and viscountess. By all accounts they loved him dearly, placing no blame on him for his accident of birth.

He has spoken little of them. Considering her difficulties with her own family, she would never want to press the matter. But she can’t help to wonder how much of him came from them. He may have called Thordan Father in those final days, but his true father—the man who raised him—is remembered here, his memory hanging proudly upon the wall.

If there is anything she knows all too well, it is that family is a very different thing from blood.

“When the whole nation looks to you, what do they see?” Aureia says finally. “On one hand, the commander who did not come from noble stock. The bastard who stood in the face of bloody tradition and sought another path. The reckless fool who defies century of tradition. On the other, the viscount who has nothing but love for his country. A noble man and a man of righteous faith, for whom there is no sacrifice too great if it means bringing Ishgard to the dawn of a new day. Aymeric, you are as much an enigma to your nation as I am. If they forget the Warrior of Light is a living, breathing person with blood in her veins, then so it is true for the Lord Commander. You are an ideal to them, at once a traditionalist to be trusted and a maverick to be praised. A visionary.”

She takes a breath and forges ahead. “But the problem with ideals is that they are just that. Ideals. The work ahead of you will be longer and more grueling than fighting any dragon. My duty is done the moment my enemy is felled, but yours is just beginning. There will come a time when your people will see you not as the ideal they believe, but the man you are. And, in my experience, people do not like to see their fantasies broken.”   

His gaze passes over her, blue eyes piercing and stern. For a moment, she wonders whether she has upset him, but then his expression breaks into a blinding smile. “Eloquently put,” he says, running a thumb across the stem of his glass. “Are you certain you are not fit for public speaking?”

She rolls her eyes. “Fuck, no.”

[dertaglichedan]

Assassination Porn and the Sickness on the Left

If we were leftists and we were to use leftist tropes to editorialize the recent attempt on Trump’s life, then we would frame the assassination attempt in the following way:

We have witnessed for years blatant exceptions to the once common custom that we don’t normalize the imagined killing of any president or presidential candidate and thus lower the bar of violence.

But the Left constantly makes Trump an exception. Now, it as if the imagined killing of Trump had been mainstreamed and become acceptable in a way inconceivable of other presidents.

(Do we remember the rodeo clown who merely wore an Obama mask during a bull riding contest and was punished by being permanently banned by the Missouri State Fair authorities?)

So since at least 2016 there has been a parlor game among Leftist celebrities and entertainers joking (one hopes), dreaming, imagining, and just talking about the various and graphic ways they would like to assassinate or seriously injure Trump:

By slugging his face (Robert De Niro), by decapitation (Kathy Griffin, Marilyn Manson), by stabbing (Shakespeare in the Park), by clubbing (Mickey Rourke), by shooting ( Snoop Dogg), by poisoning (Anthony Bourdain), by bounty killing (George Lopez), by carrion eating his corpse (Pearl Jam), by suffocating (Larry Whilmore), by blowing him up (Madonna, Moby), by throwing him over a cliff (Rosie O’Donnell), just by generic “killing” him (Johnny Depp, Big Sean), or by martyring him (Reid Hoffman: “Yeah, I wish I had made him an actual martyr.”).

Or should we deplore the use of telescopic scope imagery, given that the Left blamed Sarah Palin for once using bullseye spots on an election map of opposition congressional districts, claiming that such usage had incited the mass shooting by Jared Lee Loughner?

Yet, recently POTUS Joe Biden was a little bit more graphic and a lot more literal.

In a widely reported call to hundreds of donors last week, Biden boasted, “I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump. I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”

"In a bullseye?”

At least, Biden did not go back to the full Biden beat-up porn of the past (e.g., “If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him"/ “The press always asks me, ‘Don’t I wish I were debating him?’ No, I wish we were in high school – I could take him behind the gym. That’s what I wish.”).

Then there is the question of the Secret Service and one’s political opponents. Given the tragic history of the Kennedys, why in the world did the Biden administration not insist that third-party candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. be accorded Secret Service protection? Because his candidacy was felt to be disadvantageous to Biden?

And why just this April would the former head of the January 6th Committee and 2004 election obstructionist Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) introduce legislation ridiculously entitled, “Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act” to strip away Secret Service protection for former President Trump and by this April current leading presidential candidate?

Had Thompson’s bill passed, would that not have been confirmation for a potential shooter to feel his task was just made much easier?

But in a wider sense, if the common referent day after day on the Left is that Trump is another Hitler (cf. a recent The New Republic cover where Trump is literally photoshopped as Hitler), then it seems reckless not to imagine an unhinged or young shootist believing that by taking out somewhat identical to one of the greatest mass murderers in history, he would be applauded for his violence?

So is their logic, shoot Trump and save six million from the gas chambers?

After all, The New Republic defiantly explained their Hitler-Trump cover photo this way, "Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, “He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.”

Well, New Republic, recently someone took you up on your argument that Trump was “damn close enough” to Hitler and so he likewise chose to “fight”— albeit with a semi-automatic rifle.

If ad nauseam, a Joy Reid is screaming about Trump as a Hitlerian dictator ("Then let me know who I got to vote for to keep Hitler out of the White House”) or Rachel Maddow is bloviating about studying Hitler to understand Trump, then finally the message sinks in that a mass murderer is about to take power—unless....

Finally, the idea, if true, that bystanders spotted a 20-year-old on a nearby roof with a gun, a mere 130 yards from Trump, and in vain warned police of his presence, is surreal.

Is it all that hard for the Secret Service to post a few agents on the tops of a few surrounding buildings closest to the dais, or at least coordinate with local law enforcement to do the same?

That is a no brainer. Whoever made the decisions concerning the proper secret service security details for presidential events should be immediately fired.

[owlcracker]

i swore i wouldn't ever get political on this blog but ive been thinking about this all day:

the fact that trump has won a 2nd time really shows what kind of country this is and it actually disgusts me. the fact that yall are celebrating even when ur hearing the words "first president to be a convicted felon" it baffles me. another thing that upsets me a lot is how many gen z kids are celebrating his victory and encouraging his words when I thought we as a generation could recognize and agree on what we need for the future.

for anyone reading who feels stressed or uncertain, I encourage u to go and watch harris' recent speech I believe it will make a lot of people feel better about this disastrous election.