#its actually been so long since i did a poll i have bee

[hold-him-down]

ok ive perused the febuwhump list and picked out my favorites which one do we want the top most?

[zoopzopp]

A post for some BAMF Izuku fics <3 (more of these will be added and the list will be updated as i read them)

Fics i've read:

The Secret Ingredient is Crime- Izuku only had a whole month to further prove himself worthy of Yuuei's golden acceptance, and he was going to do whatever it took to make it in. Yuuei would never truly know what hit them until it was too late. (The secret crime AU in it entirety is fucking amazing and what wouldn't i give to read more stuff with it)

Deku the Villain Hunter: Support Hero - We all know the story: After being told he couldn't be a Hero by All Might, Midoriya Izuku still wandered over to a supervillain attack where he could save Bakugou Katsuki. But what if he had made the other turn? The answer is a butterfly effect that would lead him on a path to paving his own future. A path of revenge, finding his own moral compass, and doing the impossible. (OKAY MANY THOUGHTS. Very cool story and aspects. I binged it overnight and lost a bit of sleep the next night as well.)

The Story of How Midoriya Izuku Asserted His Dominance (And Traumatized Japan) - The Sports Festival was supposed to be a break from stress. Shouta should have known there is no such thing as a break with his class.

making it right (for real this time) - - Izuku is a support course student at UA, and Katsuki's neighbor, best friend, and former bullying victim. After Izuku's performance at the sports festival, Katsuki realizes something. He has to make things right. -

Hero Fall (UA Civil War Exercise) - It's now the end of the first year of UA for our students. Nedzu had decided to bring back the annual Heroes vs Villain fight. The fight shall last 5 days and the villain leader is Izuku Midoriya, with the commanding officer of the hero team being Katsuki Bakugo. But, what happens when Izuku is left alone?

Hero Class Civil Warfare - Heroes lead by Bakugo. Villains lead by Midoriya. Seven days prep time. Three days for Izuku Midoriya to show why they should be glad he's not a real villain.

"I Didn't Know You Had It In You." - Midoriya goes feral rage mode in his fight against Overhaul. The beat down still happens, but with Eri no longer at his back, he gets more violent. One For All reacts in an interesting way and Midoriya commits a terrible and unheroic act - the cold blooded murder and maiming of Chisaki Kai. Shigaraki is there to watch it all unfold.

Plan C meets Plan A - Even if All Might is right and Izuku can't be a hero, Izuku refuses to be useless. So Izuku uses his analysis skills to develop Plan C: Consulting in order to help the heroes. Eraserhead is impressed by this mysterious new consultant but alarm bells in Deku's behaviour quickly have Aizawa recruiting help for Plan A: Adoption.

Q. A. B. - One month after @hawks_unofficial's initial viral post, the blog titled "Quirk Analysis Blog for the Future", otherwise known as "Q. A. B.", has gone from an average of 10 views per post to an average of 20,000 views per post. Midoriya Izuku does not know how to view the impressions analysis for his suddenly popular blog, and only notices that sometimes, people actually comment on his posts now. He does not google himself or his moniker and thus does not see the rise in online articles and speculation. He is unaware that the "kyuu-ei-bee" he begins to hear about in passing refers to his own blog. He does not have a Twitter account. At the time, Midoriya Izuku is 15 years old.

How to murder your father - It's dangerous to be a bad father when you have a life insurance. Just saying.

Negation - Passive Quirks are a bitch. Izuku is reasonably done with the situation.

Thanks For Your Support - Izuku has the talent and the intellect to be the first Quirkless pro hero, and everyone at UA knows it. Unfortunately, his desire to become a hero has long since been buried thanks to the words of his childhood friend and childhood hero.

Policed To Meet You - Izuku takes All Might's advice and becomes a cop.

Vigilante Work And Other After School Activities - Izuku is a vigilante, Aizawa likes cats and therefore kids who help cats, and sometimes breaks must be forced upon overachieving teenagers.

When the Commission Lost Total Control - The hero polls have a small part where one can suggest their own hero. This is done just because of the amount of heroes is to great to name them all. This creates a little problem for the commission because a vigilante is assumed to be a brand new hero by the public- and ranks pretty high. Because of that, this vigilante now is too popular to hide and they can't come out with their mistake either! Think of the chaos that would bring.

Izuku being Badass but like in not that grand of a way but still tearing-people-down-in-some-way kind of way

He Was Quirkless - Midoriya get's sick of discrimination against the quirkless and decides to do something about it. It leads to some interesting situations. A trilogy.

bloody, but unbowed- It's Advocacy Week for Yuuei's hero students and it gives Midoriya Izuku a lot to think about about what kind of hero he wants Deku to be.

Called Out - When Izuku is hit by a quirk that will cause him to call out the first person to be rude to him on the way to school with every mistake they've made in the affected persons presence or have otherwise effected said affected person, Aizawa is in for a rough ride. In other words, with some help from a quirk, Izuku rakes Aizawa over the hot coals until he gives out. (a great fic but i've got mixed feelings on this one because on one hand, izuku is badass but on the other its Aizawa bashing and really like him skhdskdb so yea! Read it as per your tastes!!)

The time when everyone learned that izuku respects Bakugo more than all might. - I didn't like how Bakugo was tied up during the sports festival and so izuku didn't. Badass izuku roasted all might and midnight.

Villainous Sunshine - After an innocent question, Class 1-A learns just how terrifying Izuku's analysis is. Nedzu's along for the ride.

Never understand ( and you can't ) - Midoriya is sick and tried of his classmates bias and prejudice against the quirkless community and finally breaks

Mastermind: Strategist For Hire - Izuku Midoriya never got the chance to save Bakugo from the sludge villain and impress All Might. With his dream crushed, Izuku becomes bitter and angry. It also doesn't help that he faces discrimination at every turn. All he ever wanted was to be appreciated, so when the villains are the ones to recognize his talents rather than the heroes, well, Izuku just can't resist. He might as well help those who actually want him around. Mistakes were made, and now society must face a villain of their own making: Mastermind.

Malignance - Deku is far scarier than anyone gives him credit for.

Fics in my to read list which has/probably has BAMF izuku

Young Midoriya - Izuku Midoriya couldn't help himself when he saw someone in trouble. Even at 12 years old, his instincts drive him to help those in need. So when he sees Kacchan and his goons about to ambush another student, he has to step in, right? It's not like this hasn't happened before. What is different this time though, is that he's never had an audience that consisted of the Number One Hero.

Heroics and Other Things That Don't Require Superpowers - Izuku doesn't have a quirk. That's the long and short of it. After being told his whole life he can't be a hero, General Education at UA is the best he can hope for, right? Wrong. Dead Wrong. So super wrong that his best friend from Gen Ed, all of Class 1A and a whole mess of Pro Heroes are going to prove to him how wrong he is. Izuku has the makings of a hero, and his lack of a quirk only throws those qualities into starker relief. After all, who wants to be as strong as All Might when you can be the cleverest hero in the business?

Cases of More Than - Izuku is known as Deku online. He's an analyst of quirks, sometimes even working with the local detective, Tsukauchi, on a case. He meets new friends, builds a few relationships, and slowly crushes on his best friend. But then he's thrown into the General Studies Course at U.A. It doesn't help that All for One is showing an interest in him at all.

No Regret - In this world there is no hard set villain or hero. No victim and aggressor. Everyone is at fault for something and Izuku, with his own villain group, will make everyone pay. Even the bystanders who did nothing. This is what society gets for abandoning it's people. Deku will manipulate everyone and be the greatest villain, all so the world can be a better a place. With the stakes so high there is no time for regret.

We Are a Different Kind - Mirio doesn’t think he can be a hero anymore now that he’s quirkless, Izuku calls bullshit.

Live a Hero - "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Or, you're raised a villain, rebel when you're nine, and fight against the odds to become a hero anyway. That's how it is in Izuku's case.

Prodigal - After being convinced to give One for All to Mirio, Midoriya Izuku must rebuild his shattered dreams with bloody hands.

Two Sides of the Same Coin: Vigilante - Izuku is orphaned at the age of four and is sent into the Japanese Foster Care System. After multiple failed attempts at finding a forever home and some unfortunate circumstance, he ends up on the streets. Eventually, the vigilante, Deku appears. Eraserhead must gain his trust to bring Deku back to the right side of the law. If he he does, however, the untrustful but pure-hearted boy may just be a bit more than Aizawa Shota can handle.

From Muddy Waters - - but the sleeve of his tracksuit was bulging, tearing and ripping and a mass of twisted flesh, nearly as big as the boy himself and nauseatingly familiar (the arm of the man that had torn a hole in his side with a grin and left him a frail shadow of himself) swung forward and slammed into the flat face of the giant robot. Izuku wants to be a hero more than anything.

Pieces are easily sacrificed when they're nameless - Nobody ever thought quirkless, weak, weird Midoriya Izuku was dangerous. This perception carried over to his first year high school class, because really despite the super strength Midoriya didn't have it in him to be dangerous. That was their first mistake. And the one that would see them fall.

Not exactly BAMF izuku but i just wanted to rec these fics <3

In the shade of a sunflower - Being biologically quirkless came more with an extra pinkie joint in the toes and a stunning lack of vestiges mutations. It came with smaller things, like extra teeth that did virtually nothing, exploding organs, and weird exposed nerves that weren't designed to feel pain.

Throat Punch - In which Aizawa attempts to teach Izuku how to use various battle tactics and it goes just about as well as you'd expect. At least Shinsou is there with his fantastic commentary. (just a fun lil thing where izuku is really stronk and trains with shinsou and aizawa)

So Be It - He could still do good. Midoriya could show them all what a hero without powers looked like. If he had to break a few rules to do it, so be it. So be it… (as stated not exactly BAMF but its a vigilante izuku so ye-)

Never Enter a Drinking Game with Bakugo or Izuku - Izuku walks in on Kirishima and Kaminari having a drinking competition (no alcohol involved). And it reminds him of an old story.

5 Times Midoriya Taught Class 1A about Memes and 1 Time they Found a Villain that Understood Them - After being diagnosed as quirkless, Midoriya gets into pre-guirk media and finds memes. He shares them with Class 1A. Aizawa doesn't get paid enough for this. (THIS FIC???? FUCKING AWESOME. LITERALLY WHAT I WANTED TO SEE)

Midoriya: JD Version - Nedzu has decided that a play should be put on so that the students can learn how to "go undercover", an idea which Aizawa thinks is utter bullshit. They're putting on Heathers and when Nedzu chooses to cast Midoriya for JD, everyone objects. Midoriya is a much better actor than they thought.

that is a lot!! I hope you have fun reading it!!!

[btssavedmylifeblr]

I forgot to send on my voting story. Ok so my brother and I both got mail in ballots, and let me tell you how we both forgot to mail it in so we just thought to bring them to our voting location. The lady there kinda yelled at us? She was confused and didn't know how to go about it. And honestly I just took it because we were the idiots who didn't mail in our ballots. We had to rip them up and they just us new ones to fill out in person and submit. Not exciting, but a story for void snippet. 👀

Anonymous said: Hi!! I'm so excited for void! I voted today around 30 minutes before the polls closed in my neighborhood because I had to wait for my dad and brother to get home from work since they wanted to go all together hehe. It was a pretty fast process! We just pressed buttons on screens (compared to last election where we had to bubble in everything by hand) plus, I got to keep the stylus that they gave us and it works on phones too! 🥰🥰 Thank you! I love your writing so much 💜💜💜

Anonymous said: I did mine through mail me and my husband did and we went to the post office a little while back and then he took us on a nice little date afterward and we got ice cream! Also I love void💖 keep up the good work

Anonymous said: VOTES FOR VOID??? I love democracy and I love VOID! So since May I've (temporarily) moved back home from New York to Indiana RE: covid; I've voted absentee for the both the primaries and presidential election (I'm still in IN rn...blah). I voted early and mailed in my ballot for the presidential election (about 3 weeks ago). Made sure my family was voting (brother mailed it in, mom dropped off a ballot, and dad did early voting) and encourage them to put up a Biden sign in our yard <3

Anonymous said: HI BEE! I ALSO VOTED TODAY! IM 21 SO THIS IS MY FIRST TIME VOTING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (my 18th bday didnt make the cutoff since im a december bday) im so happy to have done my part! I made sure to study up on the judges and policies and everything! Luckily the polling place didn't have a line so i was able to get in, get my ballot, and fill it in right away! I even dragged my mom and cousin to come with me. I made a joke on snapchat to encourage my friends to vote too. It was a pic of my "i voted" sticker with a caption saying "omg youre so sexy when you vote aHaha" -🦙

Anonymous said: this is my first time doing this so, so i hope i’m sending this correctly! i voted early in late september by mail! i live in a swing state, so it’s really important for me to vote and not waste time!! bc of my age, this is my first time voting so i’m really nervous 😅

Anonymous said: I voted by email! I'm overseas so I wasn't sure if my ballot would actually make it through in time, so I decided to go electronically. Had to sign a waiver saying I understand that my vote won't be anonymous but I haven't been given a reason to suspect voter suppression/fraud in my state, so I'm happy I think...!

Anonymous said: hi, i voted early on oct 24th. my absentee ballot didn't come in, so i had to travel back home to vote (~3 hour drive). when we got there, there was a ton of people outside the polling place, but no lines, so i was in and out pretty quick. it was my first time voting, so i had all the candidates i was voting for written down on a tiny receipt so i wouldn't forget 😅. my mom was with me, so she voted too. took a pic with my sticker (mask on for extra covid-ness) and went home. drove back the next afternoon!

whippedforkook said: Hi Bee. 💕 I voted in early October - nearly a month ago! 😱 It’s been really weird with all the lead up to the election because it felt like it should have been done once I cast my ballot! A lot of my friends have volunteered to get out the vote: writing postcards to voters, texting, phone banking, working the polls, curing ballots. I didn’t volunteer at all this year, but I hope that all of my friends’ hard work and everyone else’s is enough. I’m also hoping and praying that I will be in a better place mentally for 2022 so that I too can volunteer. Our work starts with 2020 not ends. 💕 Wishing you well. 💕

begineuphoria said: I went and voted last Friday as it was our last early voting day. No way was I going to wait until today with the crowds of people in my area that still act as if masks are somehow infringing on their rights. 🙄 It was a rather normal experience for the most part. Other than having to use a coffee stir stick to press the buttons on the machine to vote. In and out within five minutes.

Anonymous said: I voted down the street at this pretty park this morning. I got up at 5:30 and it was freezing. Luckily I wore like 30 layers and stood outside for 2 hours. Some nasty orange man supporters were rude but everyone else was pretty nice. A really cute older couple was playing soccer with pine cones and kicked it towards me to play too. Not the worst time tbh.

Anonymous said: Did mail-in voting in California! Extremely exhausting and took forever to research all the propositions - they are notoriously tricky in hiding their flaws and one side tends to outrageously outspend the other. But in the end I felt really good about my research and decisions! No need for you to post a snippet for this story - would like to save that to read sometime in the future ;) Thank you so much for doing this!

joonsgotthejuice said: Votes for void??? I am here! I went last Thursday and it was chaotic bc I kept going past the poll place but the line was soooo long so my mom called me and woke me up like "its pouring rain and the line is super short get up I'm gonna pick you up" so thats the story of how I got dressed in 5 minutes and dragged my ass to vote in the rain <3

Anonymous said: i voted early on thursday it was cold and rainy but i went in the late afternoon and thankfully the only waiting i did was a few minutes for an elevator i got very lucky and while waiting for the results is awful the relief that came from voting in general was just great

Anonymous said: Wheeew the polls just closed and I finally got to cast my ballot yayyy ( I was the one working the polls from earlier) it’s been a really really long day and we actually had surprisingly good turnout. I saw a woman try to vote for someone else who claimed to be “helping” and I saw a woman who I’m pretty sure was on some typa something 👀 Overall though I really I’m really thankful for people like you who encouraged people to get out and vote. I hope the odds are in our favor❤️🤞🏼

chelsea-chee said: Hello Bee! Today surprisingly my elderly father wanted to vote so I brought him out with me. He only cared about voting for Biden, which meant I got to help decide who he should vote for with the rest of the candidates and amendments! Say hello to baby bee for me as well! 💖

Anonymous said: Okay I gonna got a chance to vote today and the process wasn’t that bad actually. I went in just now and it wasn’t that busy( thankfully) so no lines. I’m from Texas and it’s gonna be almost impossible to turn this state blue, but every vote counts! I love that you are getting people to vote and also sharing your experiences as well!

owl-orgy said: Dropped off my mail in ballot at a polling location! I originally wanted to vote early in person because I was worried my signature wouldn’t match closely enough but ended up just turning it in and double checked today to make it said “ballot accepted and counted”!

Anonymous said: I voted in person this afternoon, better late than never I guess. I was gonna go last week but then I got cramps from hell. There was no one in line in front of me, I think my county early voted because it was packed everyday the last few weeks

Anonymous said: I voted early a couple weeks ago. Exciting thing though that did happen was I got both my parents to vote for their first time ever.

Anonymous said: I had a mail in vote. So, I filled it out and dropped it in at the ballot box at my library. (I also checked out books for the first time in years, so I had fun!)

bubblyjiminnie said: I literally just finished voting. Lucky for me, the line and wait wasn’t very long, and it was a nice enough day that the short amount of time I had to spend in line outside of the building wasn’t too bad. My social anxiety when it comes to stuff like this tends to be high but that’s what I get for waiting until Election Day instead of going the mail in route. This was only my second time voting, but I’m glad that I did 😊

Anonymous said: I turned my ballot in last week :) I’m not a big fan of crowds and I hate make spur of the moment choices but despite that the first time I was able to vote back in 08 my Mom pressured me into voting in person because “you’d have to experience it at least once in our life”. And ever since then I comfortably vote by mail. I take my time, do all of my research, listen to music, and best of all don’t have to deal with people.

Anonymous said: here in Washington state it’s super easy to vote. I dropped my ballot off in mid-October and it’s already been accounted for! Mail in voting and drop box voting is fantastic and provides equal opportunity and access. Sad to see some people in red states misinforming Americans about it! We also have a referendum for implementing mandatory sex ed, including teaching respect, empathy and consent as part of the curriculum so I was happy to vote yes on that too!

unionrox006 said: I voted about 2 weeks ago by doing a mail in ballot. The other eligible to vote members of my household did the same. We chose to vote by absentee ballot because both my mom and I have an autoimmune disorder, so we have to be careful going out in the pandemic. Tbh, the ballot layout was a bit confusing at first as was all the paperwork and required IDs and documents. But my dad explained it to me and we got them filled out and mailed off. Kinda mad I didn't get a sticker for it though

bluetostone said: Love this and so excited for the next chp of void! I early voted a few weeks ago and because I live in a pretty rural county I was in and out of my polling place in a few minutes. No sticker though 😢. I live in a swing state so it could go either way in terms of delegates. Just praying everyone is safe tonight as the results roll in...though, won't we not know for sure for a couple of days or weeks?

Anonymous said: My mom, sister, and I received our early voting ballots a while ago and I took the longest to fill mine out because it was making me anxious :,( but I did return it before it was due. I checked our ballot statuses and mine and my moms were accepted but my sister’s said they hadn’t received hers back. Then she got another ballot so she filled that one out too and I took it yesterday 👍👍 I think she got two because she changed her address late so they sent two?

vixsynsblog said: Non-interesting voter story: I'm paranoid and live in a highly divided area, so I filed mail-in ASAP, mailed it a few days after cause neighbors are nosy and don't understand boundaries. Was able to track my ballot through my credit company, which was nice. Only thing I was missing was my sticker. Never got one✊😔. So I had to improvise and write it in pen on my disposable mask. I'm working all this week so if riots break out from either side, I'll be at work. Prayers for the safety of others🙏

______

Waaah!!! Thank you all for voting!! You are all my heroes. I am so grateful and proud of you. I’m sorry I ran out of time to respond to you individually. I’m going to drop two big scenes from Chapter 7 in gratitude (one of which will be familiar to my patrons and one won’t). I’m hopeful I will have the whole next chapter out very soon. Love you all!

Void spoilers below the cut.

When you wake up in the morning, there are still no signed HR forms in your messages. Had you been a fool to think they were interested? How much time does it take to decide such a thing? Perhaps just by putting the idea out there explicitly, it had lost all of its taboo appeal. 

There is a calendar reminder waiting for you: Today is chili pepper pollinating day. At least this gives you an excuse to talk to Hoseok. 

You find the science officer in the lab as always, sitting with his knee up against his chest. Hoseok doesn’t look well. He’s got dark circles under his eyes.

“Hey, um…” You shuffle your feet. Want to fuck me? No wait…“You don’t look good. Were you here all night?” you ask.

He blinks at you, bleary-eyed. “Um, was I? Yeah.. I suppose. Lost track of time.” He rubs his eyes, before looking you up and down, then casting his gaze back to the floor. 

All you want to do is ask about the forms. Or the meeting. Or what he thinks of you now. But you don’t. “I need to pollinate the chili peppers today.” Usually Hoseok is the person who assists with that. “But I can get one of the other guys to do it if you need the sleep.”

“No!” Hoseok lurches forward, standing up a bit to rapidly and needing to put his hand back on the bench to steady himself. “I mean, I’m fine.” 

You should disgaree with him. He is exhausted. But you’d like more time to talk to him. 

Pollinating the chili peppers is both time-sensitive and time-consuming, hence why it took two of you to get the job done. There were no insects on your ship to do the job for you and if they didn’t get pollinated, they wouldn’t bear any fruit. Your chili peppers were your favorite crop. Not only a vital source of Vitamin C, but all your food benefitted from having a bit of spice added to it. 

You and Hoseok head for the greenhouse together. The intital set-up gives you something to talk about in the beginning. Hoseok gathers the pollen from one flower onto a paintbrush, then hands it over to you to paint onto the stigmas of each little flower on the next plant in the line.

Slowly the conversation dries up as you fall into a silent rhythm. Other than just enjoying the chili peppers, you must admit that this was one of your favorite tasks on the ship because of the high likelihood that the two of you would brush hands peridically. Always gave you butterflies. But today he seems extra intent on keeping his distance from you. Was he disgusted by you now? His hands are trembling.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” 

His hand twitches so hard that a little rain of yellow pollen cascades onto the floor. He curses in frustration before turning to face you. “Are you sure you’re okay?” 

“Um, yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“This, um, plan of yours…” he gestures to the vague tension in the air. “It doesn’t feel like you.”

“I’m trying to save the mission. That has always been my top priority.”

“Yeah, I’m still not clear on how this benefits the mission.”

“Yoongi said…” you start to say, but are cut off my Hoseok’s derisive snort. 

“Look, if you’re in love with Yoongi, just go date him, okay? Don’t feel obligated to include the rest of us out of pity.” 

You frown. “I’m not… I’m not in love with him. It’s just sex. Just biology.” 

“This isn’t you!” Hoseok argues back. “You hated the idea of anyone of us ever treating you that way. And now you just want all of us to… to… use you like that?”  He splutters out the end of the sentence.

“No one is using me! This is my plan! I’m in charge!”

He sighs. “Well, I can’t be a part of it. Excuse me.”

______

Taehyung finds you in the gym. It’s good to see him up and about, even if his arm is still in a sling. 

“Hey, so I need to talk to you about this, um, ape sex thing.” He fishes awkwardly into his pockets and pulls out his tablet.  Maybe Jimin was right. Is Taehyung going to be the first to take you up on your offer?

You pause your jog on the elliptical machine. You wish you weren’t so sweaty and gross for this conversation. Taehyung is such an intimidatingly attractive man with those strong eyebrows and that perfect skin. 

Taehyung opens up the tablet and flips to the form. It’s happening. He’s going to sign the form. Shit. Then what will you do? It’s one thing to say you want to have sex with your whole crew, but what if he’s hoping to go right now? You need a shower. 

Taehyung has really nice hands. Long strong fingers delicately navigating the touch screen. It seems totally improbable that a man this attractive would be into you, even if you were the only woman in the universe. It just adds to your suspicions that hormones are driving everyone crazy. Perhaps if you slept with him once, he’d lose all interest. 

He finds the form and then turns his gaze up to you, staring you down with those eyes. It’s a good thing that Taehyung rarely turns his full gaze on you, because it is almost too much to bear. Shit, is he just going to sign it? Is he waiting for you to give him some sort of signal?

“You can’t do this to Jimin,” he says.

“What?” Not what you were expecting. “Do what to Jimin?”

“This.” He gestures over the HR form. “Signing these forms with everyone. Having sex with everyone. You’re going to destroy Jimin.”

“Jimin’s the one who suggested this whole thing in the first place.” It’s a lie. You know its a lie. Or at least a gross exaggeration. But Jimin was the one who first brought up the idea of sharing. All for the benefit of the man in front of you now. 

“No way.” Taehyung scoffs, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “No way was it Jimin’s idea that you sleep with the whole crew.” 

“Well…” You can’t bear his gaze anymore and look down at the floor. “He wanted me to sleep with you.”

That surprises Taehyung. He puts down the tablet. “What? Why would he want that?”

This is awkward. “He, um, thinks you’re in love with me.”

“What?” There is only surprise on Taehyung’s face. It’s actually a relief to see that Taehyung is just as shocked by that idea as you were. “Why does he think that?”

“I don’t know…” You feel kind of dumb now. Of course, Taehyung doesn’t feel that way about you. Look at him. “Cause you told him you were jealous. Cause you can’t stand to be in the same room as us…”

Taehyung bites his lip. “Oh, um, shit, sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

If Taehyung isn’t jealous of Jimin... 

“Taehyung…” He looks up, biting his lip. “What did you mean? Who are you jealous of?” 

Taehyung’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he reaches for his microphone and mutes it. Out of respect, you mute yours as well. He glances toward the camera in the corner of the room, then stands up and begins unzipping his jumpsuit. 

“Um…” You are distracted by the golden arms that peak from either side of the tank top as the zipper reaches his groin. “What are you doing?”

“Need something to block the camera.”

“We have towels,” you mutter.  But he’s already stripping out of his shirt. The musculature of his back ripples. He hangs the shirt off of the camera to block the rest of the room from view. 

“Yeah, but this way anyone watching will think we’re having sex.” His chest is just as attractive as his back and you flush at the sight of it. Mercifully, he zips back into his jumpsuit as he returns to his position in front of the exercise machine. 

“You want them to think we’re having sex?”

“Don’t you? It plays right into your whole save the mission with bonobo sex plan.”

“I suppose.” Though the plan was also supposed to be that there would be no more secrets between the crew. “What plan of yours does it play into?”

“The one where Jimin doesn’t realize I’m in love with him.”

“You’ve never tried to tell him?”

Taehyung laughs wryly and shakes his head. “How would that conversation go? Hey man, I know we’ve known each other for years and I’ve already seen you naked and that you just think of me as a friend, but I’m in love with you. I know that’s awkward but now you have to spend the next twelve years with me, knowing that I’m attracted to you when you don’t feel the same way.” Taehyung sighs. “Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. If he doesn’t feel the same way, I’ve just ruined the friendship for nothing and then I don’t even have that.”

“Yeah… I get that.”  There’s something touching about realizing that Taehyung has been fighting the same battle as you for the last two years. 

“I couldn’t tell anyone before launch because what if they wouldn’t let me go then? You know?”

“Yeah, the director wasn’t big on sending anyone who might ‘complicate’ the mission.” The two of you share a sad knowing smile. 

“Yeah… And I thought it would be fine, you know? I like women too. I’d just date women until launch and no one would know. I wasn’t planning on falling in love with my roommate.”

“I don’t think any of us really knew what this would be like.”

“I knew it was going to be a problem. I should have pulled out…” 

Your mind flashes back to that moment of doubt when Hoseok talked you into still coming on the mission.

“But I couldn’t just let him go off into space without me. Even if he’d never feel the same way, at least he’d still be in my life.”

The emotion in Taehyung’s words makes your eyes begin to mist. “You really do love him.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung sighs again. “But he’s in love with you.”

“Well, he thinks he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“He only feels like that about me cause he thinks I’m the only option.”  You wonder if maybe he would feel differently if he knew about Taehyung’s feelings. 

Taehyung frowns and shakes his head. “You don’t give him enough credit.”

“Oh come on, you know him. How many women did he date while we were in training?”

“A few…” 

“And how many of them was he in love with before he found the next one?”  

Taehyung bites his lip. He can’t really argue with that. “So why are you with him then, if you don’t think it’s real?”

You shrug, rubbing your arm. “He wants me. It’s nice to feel wanted, I guess.”

“You know you could have that with any man on this ship right?”

You scoff. “They’re all suffering the same delusion. It’s only-available-vagina syndrome. I just want us all to fuck and get it out in the open. Maybe if we could get it out of our system, they would see I’m nothing special. And then we can get back to the mission.”

Taehyung eyes you up and down. “You don’t give yourself enough credit either.”

You shrug. “You wait and see. Jimin will get bored of me. They all will.”

The two of you both slump backwards in your seats, mulling over your shared woes.  Taehyung bends down and picks up the tablet again. “So what should I do with this?”

“Obivously, you don’t have to sign it. I should have realized that not everyone would be interested.”

“Jimin thinks I’m in love with you?”

“Yeah…”

“Is it okay if we let him think that for now? At least until I figure out how to tell him the truth?”

“Okay.”

Taehyung smiles and signs the bottom of the form, then sends it to you. Your phone lights up with a message. “Thank you,” he murmurs before he leaves. 

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 6 Review/Runthrough

I know I’m very late with this, but finals were hell. 

This chapter went from a middle ground of curious tension to the highest hype to the deepest dread and despair over the course of its roughly 16 minutes of run time and I hated that. And I love it. I hope y’all did too, but let’s take it step by step together.

It starts somewhat close to where chapter 5 left off, the riots in Mantle have been quelled and several people are in handcuffs, including three familiar thirsty moms. Guess the Happy Huntresses are popular with housewives, wish fulfillment of making a difference in the world yourself and all that. Robyn herself is being interviewed as we’re shown the riot aftermath and people getting in line to vote at electronic polling machines. And we get our first major surprise of the episode. There were two other candidates we never heard about, Ivy Brown and Pearl Wistier! So can we get some F’s in the comments for these two, who didn’t get any recognition or screen time and with the election ending probably never will? As Robyn talks about hoping voters will make the right choice and that the connection between her supporters and the riots is pure coincidence, we see Team RWBY and JNR training while Oscar watches. Blake and Yang are jumping around atop towers, Weiss is sparring with Winter again, Ruby is practicing her semblance, Ren meditates, and Nora and Jaune are bouncing a dodgeball back and forth to test his new shield. The Bees jumping around reminded me a little of the Chibi episode where they played tag, so I liked that. Weiss bounces Winter’s Beowolf around on black glyphs in a manner that made me think of a move Sans uses in Undertale, a very fun connection, and then she knocks Winter off guard by sending a small version of her knight to attack Winter’s ankle. Her playful smirk says she’s not sorry~ Ruby’s petal form splits into three parts to go around a pillar, and Oscar finally calls her out on that being a little unusual if her Semblance really is speed. The dodgeball keeps getting hit harder and harder as Nora puts her thunderous all into it until it dissolves against Jaune’s shield when he uses the Dust upgrades to better defend. He takes some damage to his Aura but recovers again very quickly, much to Oscar’s enthusiasm. Ren’s meditation seems to suggest he’s trying to unlock some kind of precognition or ability to sense other people like he had in Volume 4 when Tyrian was approaching to ambush them. But he doesn’t quite get it down yet and instead Ironwood and Clover enter.

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Ironwood is impressed by how hard the teens are pushing themselves, with Ruby affirming it to be necessary with the current state of affairs, and Ironwood seems to think the info on his Scroll is evidence of that. The poll numbers favor Robyn, which is undeniably better than Jacques winning even if the Happy Huntresses and the military are in a silent stand off, and the young heroes think the general should make more of an effort to be open with her about what they are doing since they’re all on the same side of wanting to help Mantle. Nora argues for the sake of Mantle quite vehemently, furthering my theory and probably many others’ that she was born here. Jaune seems to agree, but Ironwood says that kind of communication will have to be a two way street and by his tone of voice I’m guessing he doubts that will happen any time soon. Before Nora can offer a rebuttal Ren asks why the General is here. Turns out, with the election happening tonight and the teams having done so much work recently, they’ve decided the kids should get the night off before things really start changing once Robyn or Jacques is elected. Ruby doesn’t seem to like thinking about that, probably because everything  in Atlas will get very different once the Amity Project is complete and she still doesn’t know how that will go. 

Regardless, Team RWBY make plans for the evening. While Weiss stands around glumly looking at the news feed on her Scroll, Blake puts on some eye makeup that I’m too uninformed to know the name of and Yang stares longingly at her from her bed. At least, that’s how I saw it. The two of them are going dancing with Team FNKI, in a club where it will be too loud for Yang to be able to hear Neon’s voice. Just the way she likes it~ Meanwhile Ruby is going with Ren and Nora to meet up with Penny at a party in Mantle to celebrate Robyn’s surefire win of the election. Because overconfidence like that has never backfired in media before. Weiss is still mentally torn about her father’s big layoff stunt and how in the world he thought it would actually work out for him with what a cunning man he’s always been. Yang thinks it was just a power play that backfired, but Weiss worries there’s a grander scheme below the surface. Then she’s asked which group activity she would rather be a part of, so after seeing Blake’s adorkable attempt to do a dance move Yang is showing her she chooses the suddenly appearing third option: going to the movies with Jaune and Oscar. Volume 2 Jaune would be so impressed his older self got Weiss to agree to that kind of thing with minimal effort... but also be very upset by all the terrible things that happened to the guy up to that point. So it barely matters to our Jaune anymore. Still, hope it was a good movie cuz that’s the last we see of those three for the rest of the chapter.

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Ruby and Renora are next seen walking down the street as celebrating Robyn fans pass by in a truck. Ren admits he sees Weiss’ point about celebrating a bit soon but Nora tries to be an optimist about it, that the people should be allowed to enjoy this supposed surefire thing. Ruby admits nothing will probably be a sure thing anymore once the Tower goes up and Salem’s existence becomes known, with Ren and Nora affirming that they’ve spent so long worrying about the secrets they’ve been keeping they haven’t thought about how they would have no plan to face her even once they get past that. Afterall, Jinn said she can’t be beaten. Ruby reminds them the exact phrasing was that she told Oz he couldn’t destroy her, and Nora picks up on the specifics. If Oz can’t, then maybe someone else can. And with her Silver Eyed powers Ruby seems like their best gamble for that. Personally I’m still of the mind that the point Jinn was trying to make wasn’t that “Oz can’t destroy Salem” and was instead that “Oz can’t destroy Salem”. Redemption and the restoration of her kinder former soul may be the best solution to this. But who knows? Regardless, Ren is restless and thinks they should go back to training, that they don’t have time to waste with social gatherings and fun distractions, but Nora says they’ve done enough for now and they need to unwind otherwise they’ll snap. So they’re at odds now, unfortunately...

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The three reach the town hall/auditorium where the rally is taking place and meet up with Penny, who is very happy to see them but wonders why it is only these three. Nora explains what Weiss and the boys are doing and that the bees are off doing their own thing, and Ren comments that he’s relieved the two are back on good terms after everything that happened. But Nora sees this as an opportunity to be passive aggressive. See, the situation with Blake and Yang is very similar to her tumultuous “will they won’t they” with Ren. So she calls into question whether or not Blake and Yang are actually just friends or something more intimate and close after being through such deep bonding experiences, but we can tell she’s actually asking about where she and Ren stand. Ren picks up on what she means immediately and fires back how he feels on the matter while keeping up the pretext of this being about the others. It’s kinda funny to realize they’re being so indirect and also teasing how romantic things seem with Blake and Yang when the fandom has been having similar arguments. But it does offer insight into their actual feelings: Nora wants to take that step and has always worn her heart on her sleeve so she’s ready to show how she feels but she also wants to be sure Ren feels the same so she doesn’t misread the signs. But Ren is worried that with all the deep political stuff happening and the impending threat of chaos Salem’s reveal will bring, now isn’t really the right time for relationship stuff. Nora fires back that they can’t figure anything out unless they talk about it, and I do kind of agree. If there’s tension like this between the pair then it might affect their teamwork and trust.

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Ruby wants no part of this awkward conversation and slides over to Penny’s side, who also realizes the argument probably isn’t about the Bees. So the two head backstage instead, where Marrow is waiting and initially seems happy to see Ruby before getting back into a work mindset and says she shouldn’t be here since she’s still an amateur who wasn’t assigned to this job. But Ruby says she’s just here to be with her friend, and offers Penny a fistbump. Penny looks overjoyed to see this invitation, and eagerly gives Ruby a bump. Unfortunately, steel fists really hurt and Ruby’s hand starts throbbing red. Ouch~ Marrow just tells her not to get in the way, since they need to stay vigilant in case of any trouble. He is interrupted by the one and only... May Marigold, one of the Happy Huntresses we saw when they stopped the truck last episode. 

May is... a deep new kind of character, for reasons that have become clear in recent days and were first brought to my mind when I saw the cast list for this episode. May is voiced by Kdin Jenzen, a lovely woman who works for Rooster Teeth and is memorable for such feats as being able to handle super hot chips with ease on the last two RT Extra Life livestreams. She is also a trans woman. This does nothing to diminish my opinion of her and it should not affect yours. This fact also adds a layer of depth to the character, as the likelihood of May being trans as well seemed rather possible. And as of December 17, this is confirmed: May Marigold is RWBY’s first confirmed trans character. An extra layer of diversity to the world of Remnant is most definitely welcome, and it also adds some depth of character to Robyn Hill. Her group is comprised solely of women, and its a very good look for her that she sees May as one every bit as much as Fiona or herself. Because as we all know, TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN. Okay, tangent over for now.

May sasses Marrow a bit, saying the Happy Huntresses won’t be the ones causing any trouble and are there to make sure nothing goes wrong. So Marrow can scram, he’s not welcome. The poor pup tries to stand up for his faction, saying Ironwood just wants to help and the Ace Ops are there for good reasons. He’s interrupted by Robyn herself though, who accepts his presence as protective assistance as long as he stays out of the way. Clearly this isn’t what May or Joanna were expecting to hear, but Robyn says they need to learn how to get along if she’s gonna be on the council. Marrow tries to give her attitude by saying getting along will be easy as long as she stays within the law. Clearly her prior roadblocking activities make him think she hasn’t been. She tries to appeal to him and get through the strict military obedience, saying the law isn’t fair to everyone and he shouldn’t always have to obey it to the word. But he’s a Faunus in Atlas, it’s preaching to the choir at this point. She says all she wants to do as a council member is make Mantle and Atlas a better place for everyone, including the Faunus. But Marrow is unmoved, he still wants to guilt her about keeping her activities legal. But she matches his attitude tit for tat, everything so far has been totally legal and he can’t prove otherwise~ Their staredown is interrupted by the absolute angel that is Fiona Thyme causing feedback on the microphone and reminding Robyn she needs to get back to the party activities. Marrow backs off and tells Ruby to leave so he and Penny can do their jobs, so she sticks her tongue out at him behind his back and waves goodbye to Penny before returning to Ren and Nora... where things haven’t gotten any better. So she just turns right around to hang out at the front of the crowd.

Fiona has a very touching speech about how this victory has been a product of Mantle’s united effort to make things better, how this is their moment and they all know Robyn will do right by them. She even gets emotional herself, and then invites Robyn herself to come on stage and talk to the crowd a bit. The two seem to whisper to each other a little, likely encouragement by Fiona that she’ll nail her speech and reassurance from Robyn that the dear girl did a good job just now. Robyn opens with a joke that her difficulty with public speaking is a bad match for this career in politics, and Ruby seems amused. She always has seemed to sympathize with Robyn and think she’s a good person, and for the most part I would agree. 

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The speech proper starts with Robyn thanking her gathered followers for their votes and for thus putting their faith and belief in her. And she assures them the feeling is mutual, that she believes in the strength and change a single determined person can bring just as much as she knows there is unlimited potential to what people can do when they work together.

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And with that unity, it doesn’t matter if she wins or loses because they will all continue to fight for the sake of the city that brings them together. That earns a lot of applause and she leaves the stage, though she starts to show visible concern as the radio announcer points out how close the votes are as the deadline draws fatally near. The Happy Huntresses are still confident she’s got this in the bag...

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But she’s no less tense.

With all this talk of unity in mind, Nora tries again to try and address the tension between her and Ren, but deep talks like this really aren’t his thing. Ren has always been emotionally closed off, it’s just in his nature and with emotion being so important for his Semblance it’s clearly been ingrained in his mindset for a long time. Talking is not his love language, he’s always shown how he feels through acts of physical contact. Hugs, leaning on her, holding her hand at the end of Volume 4. So while she’s seeking verbal validation that it is something deeper between them, he’s not used to that and doesn’t really know how to articulate himself and express all his feelings how he wants to. That’s how I interpret it anyway. Nora gets her own read out of his attempt at an answer, and it seems pretty similar to my takeaway from it. Clearly it was encouraging enough for her to know he does like her back he just has so much on his mind he can’t figure out how to say it. Why? Because she literally says “screw talking” and kisses him!!! A KISS FOR RENORA, 7 YEARS IN THE MAKING!!!!! So the two get blissfully lost in the kiss and each other’s company for a little while, and I’m so happy for them.

Unfortunately, this is where we start to have a bad time. We cut to Watts hiding out somewhere booting up several Scrolls in front of a screen showing drone footage of the party as well as older video of Penny’s hero work in Mantle, and he’s activating tech in his rings as we see that Tyrian is in the party crowd in a cloak ready to strike on his partner’s command. The polls are about to close, Ruby is looking over at Penny happy as can be... and sees Tyrian’s tail. She moves to get a closer look, and eyes meet between former foes. She screams towards the stage to watch out, but it’s too late. The lights go out as the election countdown chant hits one, Ren and Nora are holding each other close unsure what’s happening... and Watts gives the order to begin.

He starts doing vague techno stuff with the Scrolls that‘s mostly theatrical hand waving, while at the party Robyn drops her microphone and Ruby gets knocked to the ground by the panicking crowd. Tyrian has started killing people in the audience, in an attacking style seemingly unlike his usual work. Penny activates her night vision at the prompting of Marrow (who SHOULD be able to see in the dark as a Faunus but maybe he’s in a bad position to see what’s happening or her tech optics can do more than ordinary eyes Faunus or otherwise?) and pulls out her swords before she tells Tyrian to surrender. But either that scorpion boy has some mad jumping skills to get to the rafters or Watts could hack Penny’s eyes, because in the time it takes a panicked person to run in front of her he is gone. Watt’s puppeteer act continues as he seems to lift Penny’s movements from one video and put them into the footage of Tyrian’s massacre over the image of his body. How terribly devious. And with a single tap of a district map on one Scroll he changes which candidate several entire parts of Mantle voted for. He may very well have been doing this little by little over the course of the night so the election fraud would look natural, or maybe a significant portion of people actually were voting for Jacques and Arthur just forced the final push. I think the former is a lot more likely.

Meanwhile, Marrow is calling for backup and Robyn calls her Happy Huntresses to her side so they can all keep each other safe. Fiona wants to get Robyn to safety, and at the last second sees Tyrian running across the stage to attack them. His eyes and right arm both glow purple, and he scratches a hole in Fiona’s Aura before slicing at the exposed spot with the blades on his other arm. Seems his Semblances is being able to tear through Aura and then attack a person’s body directly. Useful skill for a killer like him... Still, we know only his tail is poisonous so she probably won’t die. That was likely on purpose too though... If they found venom in her they would know Penny didn’t do it cuz she doesn’t have anything like that. Speaking of Penny, she flies up to tackle Robyn to the floor when it looks like Tyrian is going to attack her next, but he just jumps up to the rafters and giggles maniacally. This part was planned too, because when the lights come on Penny is the one standing on stage with swords drawn over an injured Fiona and confused Robyn. Much like Pyrrha and to a lesser extend Yang before her, Penny has been set up as a brutal killer. Worse yet...

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Jacques has officially won the election and gives a live acceptance speech that seems like a total slap in the face. And if we look more carefully at those lying dead on the floor, a few familiar outfits can be seen. The same thirsty moms last seen getting in trouble for taking part in the riots are now going to be orphaning their children... Whether he meant to or not, Tyrian has proven his ultimate villainous status above all others. Ruby, Marrow, Ren and Nora all rush onto the stage to help Penny and Robyn, but the latter doesn’t trust them at all and the former is in shock that such brutality is blamed on her, that she’s failed her purpose as Mantle’s protector when it mattered most. It’s not helped by the fact that a survivor loudly proclaims Penny did it, and refers to her simply as “Ironwood’s Robot”. Dehumanizing her, saying she’s just another machine that’s been taken over and used as a tool of evil. When the Happy Huntresses and angry members of the crowd charge to attack Penny and those that would try to help her, Marrow uses his Semblance for some literal crowd control, making all of them freeze in place. Ren and Nora are quite unnerved to hear Tyrian was the perpetrator, but they get Penny out the back door to relative safety while Robyn stops pointing her weapon at the girl long enough to shove Ruby out of the way when she was trying to help Fiona. Our dear sheepy says she’s gonna be okay, but Marrow still feels bad and offers assistance. Too bad that means he relaxed enough for his Semblance effect to wear off and Joanna starts shooting at him so he and Ruby leave too, though he does try to assure Robyn that Atlas had nothing to do with this.

Watts uploads his deep faked footage and packs up for the night, telling Tyrian their good work is done. Out in an alley, the good guys catch their breath and quietly panic how bad things just got while Penny just stands in despair and shock. Ruby reaches out a hand to try and reassure her before realizing it’s covered in Fiona’s blood. Marrow tells Penny she has to go back to Atlas, but she’s initially not responsive. She does fly off though,, just as the Grimm attack alarms go off and the others get ready for the long night ahead... with the girls not having their weapons unfortunately. As Manticores are seen flying over Mantle and into the streets, Jacques’ victory speech continues to lay faintly veiled dread into our hearts. 

So yeah. Hell of an episode, and one I took way too long to review. School was hell, just like this chapter.

[dispensaryca-blog]

The Largest U.S.-Focused Marijuana Deal To Date Has Closed -

It's truly incredible how far the marijuana industry has come in such a short amount of time. Just 24 years ago, Gallup polled adults in the U.S. 25% favored legalizing pot nationally. There were also no states that had legalized medical or recreational weed, and not a single country worldwide legally allowed adult-use cannabis.

Fast-forward to 2019, where now two out of three Americans in Gallup's annual poll want to see marijuana legalized. What's more, two-thirds of all states have given the green light to medical pot, with 10 allowing adult consumption. To our north, Canada has become the first industrialized country in the world, and second overall behind Uruguay, to legalize recreational weed.

That's one heck of an about-face in less than a quarter of a century. With the cannabis industry now considered a legitimate business model, it's moving on to the next logical phase of its development. Image source: Getty Images. To put things mildly, there are way too many marijuana companies in Canada and recreationally legal U.S. A large number of competitors means the possibility of grower overproduction, leading to long-term oversupply. We could also see aggressive pricing practices that could eventually weigh on operating margins. While competition is going to be a good thing for the consumer, we as investors would like to see a reasonable level of competition, rather than companies that rush the gates, so to speak, for cultivation and retail licenses.

As we move headlong into 2019, we're liable to see this consolidation in North America taking shape. This past week, the largest U.S.-focused marijuana deal to date officially closed, and it had vertically integrated dispensary iAnthus Capital Holdings (NASDAQOTH:ITHUF) acquiring MPX Bioceutical (NASDAQOTH:MPXEF). 630 million.

Each MPX shareholder is also receiving one common share of the newly formed MPX International Corporation, which will hold all of the non-U.S. 682 million, but this deal won't be completed for many more months. This makes, for now, the iAnthus acquisition the largest U.S.-focused deal in history to have actually been completed. Image source: Getty Images. The deal itself targets a push by vertically integrated dispensaries to enter new states as quickly as possible.

Not only is it costly and time-consuming to open dispensaries, but there are also the added costs of developing grow farms and/or processing facilities to control every aspect of the marijuana supply chain. Remember, weed is still a Schedule I substance in the United States, meaning interstate transport isn't allowed. That means dispensaries that want to internalize their costs and control product quality must be willing to also operate grow farms in the states where they're conducting business. In addition, applying for cultivation licenses, processing licenses, and retail permits can be costly and take time. If vertically integrated dispensaries like iAnthus can speed up this process by acquiring these licenses and permits, all the better.

Following closure of the deal, the company now has its footprint in 11 states, with 19 open dispensaries. However, the combination with MPX lifts iAnthus' dispensary license count to 63, providing an ample runway to expand its retail presence. According to iAnthus, the combined company has 210,000 square feet review of speed greens licensed grow space but is targeting 600,000 square feet. This near-tripling in capacity matches up well with the more than tripling in store count expected in the years to come. With iAnthus' operation increasing in size from six to 11 states, we plan to take advantage of this opportunity by unveiling unified national retail and product brands across the organization.

We realize that as the cannabis market continues to grow, the need for strong national brands only increases. With our ambitions to be the leader in the U.S. Image source: Getty Images. Which dispensary is next? With real consolidation under way in the vertically integrated dispensary space, the big question has to be, "Which company is next?" While this remains nothing more than an exercise in dart-throwing, one possible target is Trulieve Cannabis (NASDAQOTH:TCNNF). Arguably the biggest obstacle to consolidation is valuation. 1.3 billion market cap, Trulieve Cannabis would appear to look more like a buyer than a company to be acquired. In fact, Trulieve did recently acquire two businesses, one in California and one in Massachusetts, that'll allow it to expand into these recreationally legal states.

But Trulieve also has a dangling carrot that pretty much any dispensary would love to get its hands on: its laser focus on the Florida medical marijuana market. Trulieve also has ample grow farms within the state and is able to put more than 125 company-branded products in its dispensaries. It's worth noting that Florida has awarded cultivation licenses to just over one dozen companies, making the market especially exclusive, and therefore attractive to a potential acquirer. Once again, I'm no fortune-teller. But if consolidation is to continue as expected in the U.S., Trulieve Cannabis could potentially find itself as the next prime target.

What do you do? Where are you going? How long are you staying? And what is the purpose of your visit? When a Canadian enters the U.S., according to U.S. U.S. for a valid reason, says Green. While it is illegal to use cannabis in the U.S., so is presenting fraudulent documents or misrepresentation, which includes lying to a border official. "Never, never, never, ever lie to U.S. While a person who works for a cannabis company should not volunteer that information, if asked they are going to have to provide some kind of answer to satisfy the official, says Green. Leonard Saunders is a U.S. The Immigration Law Firm in Blaine, Wash.

He told Business In Vancouver that when asked about cannabis, if involved in the industry, the best thing to do is say nothing. Saunders says he knows of at least 12 recent cases of cannabis executives receiving lifetime bans. Once legalized, cannabis will be sold in government-run LCBOs in Ontario. Trina Fraser, co-managing partner at Brazeau Seller LLP, says U.S. LCBO cashiers in the same category as cannabis industry executives. Fraser says she spoke to Homeland Security officials about whether someone like her, who represents clients in the cannabis industry, would have trouble travelling to the U.S. "illegal purpose for entry" for which she could be denied entry.

Denial of entry for those connected to cannabis companies "is the exception not the norm," says Fraser. The problem is there is no clarity and so much discretion that people like her are subject to the whims of a random border agent. "It just seems to be so willy-nilly and so haphazard," she says. "If they happen to be in a really bad mood and have a bee in their bonnet, that could lead to questions being asked that you're not able to answer in a satisfactory way. On June 21, Bill C-45, which legalized cannabis, received royal assent. Bringing cannabis across the border into Canada will remain illegal once the law takes effect, however, even if arriving from a jurisdiction where cannabis is legal and if it is for medicinal purposes, according to the Government of Canada.

To safeguard their health and quality of life, patients with debilitating chronic pain require special accommodations and protections in society, a principle which the field of physiatry has helped to establish and champion in the decades since its founding. Following a year-long hospitalization at Walter Reed Army Hospital, 13 spinal surgeries, and a re-injury in a motor vehicle turnover collision, Mr. Tuck developed 'failed back surgery syndrome'. He suffered from severe daily chronic pain, a neurogenic bladder requiring intermittent self-catheterization, and chronic muscle spasms. He managed his debilitating symptoms with prescribed use of morphine and benzodiazepines. He reported that his morphine dosage had not escalated over 16 years of daily use because he had also relied on the palliative and proven analgesic properties of whole plant cannabis as an adjuvant medicine for pain relief.

This prospect terrified Mr. Tuck, and in the midst of worrisome legal proceedings in 2001, he fled to Canada and sought asylum following his arrest, as the medical utility of cannabis had recently been federally recognized there. I saw Mr. Tuck again at a hearing in the Federal Magistrate's Courtroom later in the day. I observed his slow and deliberate gait as he shuffled into the courtroom. One leg was significantly more rigid than the other. His facial grimacing was consistent with expressions of extreme pain and discomfort. The Magistrate scheduled a hearing for the following day. The next day, I returned to the Courtroom for Mr. Tuck's hearing.

Mr. Tuck again appeared to be in significant pain and discomfort. During the course of this hearing, the Magistrate asked me to address the Court briefly. I stated my name and home address and my affiliation as President of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. I told the Court that I would be able to serve as a liaison to Seattle's hospital system for Mr. Tuck. I committed to seeing to it that he would receive his needed medical care. The Magistrate bonded myself and Mr. Hiatt to the court, and Mr. Tuck was released into our custody with the understanding that he would receive medical care and then report to the jurisdiction where he faced charges in California. Due to AP media presence, news of Mr. Tuck's medical condition and his conditional release appeared in 50-100 newspapers across the country.

[yogaadvise]

11 Ways to Heal from Emotional Stress

If you have survived this world for some time, you have possibly managed a fair share of emotionally trying experiences. In contemporary society, most of us should discover how to manage a variety of stress as well as issues, but often it all could seem very frustrating, as well as not surprisingly so.

Unfortunately, around 26 percent of Americans surveyed for a poll performed by researchers for the Harvard Viewpoint Study Program said they presently cope with high degrees of tension. If you feel you fall into the 26 percent experiencing persistent tension, you may take advantage of the following coping mechanisms.

11 Ways to Heal from Psychological Stress

1. Talk about your feelings.

Too several individuals today think that sharing feelings makes them weak and also reveals they cannot handle difficult circumstances on their very own. Consider the other side of that debate. Suppose talking concerning your sensations really makes you a solid individual due to the fact that you really feel comfy when it comes to vulnerability, as well as recognize just how to swallow your pride to admit you need help?

Don' t ever before really feel bad for asking for aid or raising "unfavorable" feelings to others - many people really can't wait to give assistance whatsoever they can.

2. Approve your present emotions.

Have you ever listened to the saying "Exactly what you resist persists?" Well, that powerful phrase definitely uses below. If you continuously combat your sensations, you will just see those exact same circumstances and emotions repeating themselves over as well as over once again till you learn how to welcome them. Nevertheless, you should recognize that on some conscious level, you developed those very difficult situations, so you must grapple with exactly what you materialized accordingly.

After you have actually accepted that you played a part in developing the anxiety, you could knowingly work with setting up preferred outcomes.

3. Meditate.

Meditation could recover a lot of aspects of an individual's life, as well as can also help you run away difficult circumstances and simply hang around when it comes to yourself for a little bit. If you have actually been dealing with a bunch of psychological tension in your life, you possibly do not get to spend much time in recovery and relaxation.

Make time for meditation in your daily program-- most importantly various other organic remedies, meditation might simply triumph since it could re-shape your mind and place you in a state of deep tranquility.

4. Come to be friends with nature.

The more time you spend outside, the much more you could make use of all the organic elegance in the world. Cherish in the frustrating marvels of Gaia, as well as thank Mommy Planet for providing so generously for you. The sunlight supplies warmth and also sustains your life every day, the trees release oxygen so you could breathe, and also bees cross-pollinate the plants so they can grow right into foods for us to eat.

Spend a mid-day merely resting outdoors as well as enjoying life unfold before you, do this constantly, and you will certainly no doubt feel the planet's healing energy permeate your soul.

5. Treat yourself to something that makes you really feel good.

How long has it been given that you got a massage therapy, baked your favored covered, or taken a getaway? If you can't keep in mind the last time you did any of these things, book a vacation or massage, and visit the shop to obtain all the mendings for your cake. You deserve it, particularly after undergoing a distressing experience.

Show on your own some love and also become your personal friend, nevertheless, nobody on the planet can provide you enjoy the means you can.

6. Offer yourself consent to begin over.

If you feel you have withstood so much discomfort that you cannot possibly make it through it, after that merely clean your slate tidy as well as start throughout once again. That could mean transferring to a new city, obtaining a brand-new work, obtaining out of a poisonous connection, or merely changing on your own. You can't create your future if you remain embeded the past, so leave it behind and bear in mind that when it comes to each new dawn, you can become whoever and also whatever you desire.

7. Exercise regularly.

Emotional stress simply suggests that you have actually been directing your power in such a way that isn't really one of the most valuable to you. Reroute that power toward something much more advantageous, such as exercise.

Scientists have actually consistently found that workout may be just one of the very best natural tension relievers on the planet, so make sure to sweat at the very least 30 minutes a day for five days a week. Also, do tasks you enjoy-- make exercise appear like an enjoyable, satisfying task, not something that you definitely dread.

8. Attempt to remove the resource of tension from your life.

Spend time alone evaluating your life as well as considering just what you can alter in order to move some of the most significant resources of stress. You could have to make some considerable changes to your day-to-day routine, or let connections go that no more serve you. This could appear uneasy and uncomfortable, but you need to do whatever you have to in order to honor your spirit.

Letting go of major stress-inducers will allow you to concentrate on creating a happier life for yourself.

9. Forgive yourself and others.

Let's face it-- a lot of us are way also difficult on ourselves. We anticipate excellence and also can't understand why we require so much time to heal from our past. You require to permit on your own to go through the needed feelings and also phases of healing prior to totally relocating on. Additionally, forgive others that have caused you discomfort. You need to understand that their pain came to be undue for them to take care of, so they had to take it out on others. Love them anyhow, as well as love yourself for giving up the need to manage your quest towards psychological recovery.

10. Recognize all discomfort is impermanent.

Without suffering, we would not understand happiness. Without pain, we wouldn't recognize enjoyment. Possibilities are, you have felt all of these feelings in your life, and you most likely noticed that they really did not last permanently. You cannot have mountains without valleys either, so remember this example following time you really feel entraped by your discomfort. You could as well as will certainly get through it, but merely enable it to run its program, and also the tornado clouds will certainly roll by much faster compared to you 'd think.

11. Load your life when it comes to fun activities.

Do you take pleasure in paddleboarding, kayaking, yoga exercise, or treking? After that include these activities into your daily program. This method, you will certainly maintain your mind and body busy when it comes to activities that make your heart absolutely pleased, and also will not have as much time to concentrate on those stressors in your life.

[biofunmy]

Late Night in 2019: Trump, Trump and More Trump

“I don’t want to talk about Donald Trump every night. None of us do. But he gives us no choice.”

That was Jimmy Kimmel. In March. It’s safe to say he talked about President Trump nearly every night since.

Kimmel’s lament was emblematic of the fact that, in late-night comedy, 2019 was yet another year dominated by Trump’s tweets, gaffes, comments, decisions, hirings, firings and foibles. The Trump Administration so totally dominated late-night monologues and bits, it’s more useful to break up the year into mini-eras of Trump: The Mueller Report era, the whistle-blower era, the ongoing impeachment era.

And even when Trump wasn’t Topic A, politics still was, as more than 20 Democratic hopefuls entered the race to run against him in 2020.

Kimmel’s March complaint was actually prompted by a tweet from Trump agreeing with a former host, Jay Leno, who said in an interview that he found current late-night shows to be “one-sided.”

If Trump “sat in the White House all day quietly working on things, I would almost never mention him, because it’s not interesting,” Kimmel countered in his monologue. “But today — not even today, before 10 a.m. today, before 10 o’clock this morning, his former campaign chairman was sentenced to prison for the second time in a week, he called himself the most successful president in history and he tweeted to let people know his wife hasn’t been replaced with a body double.

“I’m not supposed to mention that?”

Mueller Fails to Excite

The long-awaited Mueller Report was finally released to the public in April, in the form of a heavily redacted 448-page document.

“Political analysts are going to try to read through these redactions like teenage boys trying to watch scrambled porn on cable in 1985.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

Mueller’s report was followed by his highly anticipated testimony in July, which Stephen Colbert called “the Super Bowl of things on C-Span at 8:30 in the morning.” But Mueller’s performance, full of references to “inconclusive” findings and subjects that were “outside my purview,” did not satisfy Trump’s opponents.

“What were you expecting? Did you think Mueller was going to smash through the wall in a monster truck called the DeTrumpulator?” — SETH MEYERS

Mueller was so widely described as boring on the stand, on “The Late Show,” Colbert joked that “he only got 35 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.” But Colbert also said he wasn’t interested in a government who cared about ratings, “because we already have that with Donald Trump.”

And while the president claimed he wouldn’t be watching any part of the hearings, Kimmel pointed out that Trump spent his entire day tweeting about them.

“He tweeted more than 20 times today, capping the tweetstorm off with this: ‘Truth is a force of nature!’ And we all know how much respect he has for nature, so.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

Any Way the Whistle Blows

While interest in the Mueller Report quickly faded, it was soon followed by a whistle-blower complaint with allegations that Trump required a quid pro quo from the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.

In April, late night made one of its earliest mentions of Zelensky, now somewhat of a household name. Conan O’Brien pointed out that the incoming president was a fellow stand-up comedian who’d spent some time on television.

“I looked up their Constitution: The order of succession in Ukraine goes comedian, juggler, magician, then secretary of defense. That’s how it works. After hearing about it, Elizabeth Warren signed up for improv classes.” — CONAN O’BRIEN

“Who would believe Volodymyr Zelensky would be his Monica Lewinsky?” Kimmel later joked of Trump in September, as details of the president’s July call emerged. In his statement, the whistle-blower said several U.S. officials confirmed Trump was hoping Zelensky would “play ball,” and Colbert couldn’t pass up a chance to poke fun.

“[Imitating Trump] ‘O.K., Ukraine. You gotta play ball, O.K.? And I mean let me get to second base, O.K.? Over the bra, under the Constitution.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

With the current impeachment hearings continuing, Trump is sure to be a focus throughout the holiday season, as late-night hosts wait for an opportunity to talk about something and someone else.

The President Would Like a Retraction

In October, Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s communications director, demanded Kimmel issue a retraction for suggesting the president was golfing during the Delta Force raid that killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. On air, Kimmel admitted he’d been wrong.

“Trump was at one of his golf courses for the 238th time since taking office,” Kimmel said. “But he finished the round, and was back at the White House by 5 o’clock. Whether or not they were waiting for him to finish the round — I imagine Delta Force sitting there in the choppers, locked and loaded going, ‘What hole is he on now?’”

Kimmel then called for Trump to retract “the weird detailed lie” the president shared at a 2018 rally in South Carolina. (Trump claimed Kimmel fawned over him when he appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”)

“And while you’re working on factual accuracy, your boss has now lied in public approximately 14,000 times since he took office,” Kimmel continued, in response to Murtaugh. “He should probably start the retracting and correcting soon because he’s 73.”

The only 2019 rivals to Trump’s screen time were the numerous democratic hopefuls for 2020. Some clear front-runners have emerged, with Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg consistently polling highest, though not necessarily in that order. These politicians prove a little more difficult to imitate than Trump, but it doesn’t mean Jimmy Fallon hasn’t tried on “The Tonight Show.”

“Nowadays, most of you recognize me from the rallying cries of hope and unity that I’ve stirred across the nation. But the rest of you know me from my hit series, ‘The Boy Who Became Mayor,’ only on Disney Channel.” — JIMMY FALLON, impersonating Buttigieg

As the candidates made their rounds on late night, no interviews were more entertaining than Desus and Mero’s. The Showtime co-hosts played basketball with Cory Booker, grilled Senator Sanders on his favorite rappers and challenged Senator Warren, who has a plan for everything, to help them complete an escape room.

Biden offered plenty of fodder for mockery, with his inappropriate touching, frequent gaffes and new campaign slogan: “No malarkey.” The former vice president was also ridiculed for his frequent name-dropping of President Obama.

“[Biden] spent eight years as America’s vice president and surprise masseuse, but before that, he had a whole career that you might not know about. You know, kind of like how some people only know Billy Ray Cyrus from Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ remix. And like Billy Ray, Biden was doing his own thing for decades before he was made cool by a young black man.” — TREVOR NOAH

Queer Capitalism

Late-night shows weren’t entirely focused on presidential politics. For example, in June, the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, a pivotal moment in the gay rights movement, inspired plenty of tribute, remote bits and satire. Much of it mocked the commercialization of Pride Month, “the time of the year where we all celebrate the L.G.B.T.Q. community and corporate America celebrates them by selling us, Rainbow Goodyear tires,” Colbert joked. “Yasss, traction!”

Both “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” and “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” sent correspondents on the road. In honor of the Stonewall anniversary, Jaboukie Young-White took “The Daily Show” to Pittsburgh’s Pride Parade, looking to find out if companies like Walmart are gay and if “queer capitalism is totally chill.”

In New York, the transgender comic Patti Harrison went to the Stonewall Inn for “Full Frontal,” exploring the history of gay liberation and Pride celebrations, which she joked was started by United Airlines, Citigroup, Postmates, Tesla, YouTube, Android and the Trump campaign.

In 2018, Harrison and the comic Julio Torres satirically pitched the idea of Straight Pride on “The Tonight Show,” and this year, someone actually followed through. A Boston-based group called Super Happy Fun America launched its own Straight Pride Parade this summer. “It’s so troll-y!” Trevor Noah said. “Especially a straight parade in Boston. The city has had six Super Bowl parades. What do you think that is?”

“If you’re wondering the difference between the Gay Pride Parade and the Straight Pride Parade, the Gay Pride Parade will have women at it.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

When Hosts Attack … Each Other

The mockery got intramural in September, when “The Late Late Show” host James Corden, best known for his star-studded “Carpool Karaoke” and “Crosswalk the Musical” segments, criticized Bill Maher for his comments about fat shaming on “Real Time with Bill Maher.” (Maher insinuated that overweight people should be shamed into losing weight.)

“So I sat at home, and I’m watching this and all I could think as I was watching was, ‘Oh man, somebody needs to say something about this,’” Corden said. “‘If only there was someone with a platform who knew what it was actually like to be overweight’ … and then I realized, ‘Aah, that will be me.’”

Corden, who follows Colbert on CBS, acknowledged that he and Maher, who shares HBO with John Oliver, have a lot in common — “We both host the second most popular talk shows on our network” — and that Maher has always been kind to him in person. But as for Maher’s comments about how overweight men cannot see their own nether regions, Corden responded: “Believe me, I can see a [expletive].”

“Bill, please hear me when I say this,” Corden said in conclusion. “While you’re encouraging people to think about what goes into their mouths, just think a little harder about what comes out of yours.”

The Best of the Rest

Some of the most memorable sketches of 2019 had nothing to do with Trump, particularly a few built around celebrity stunts. Exhibit A: the enviable “Day Drinking with Rihanna” on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

Brad Pitt and Fallon just couldn’t stop showing each other their gratitude in “Courtesy of the Gentleman at the Bar.”

Finally, a fictional political era — one that seemed comparatively less outlandish by the week — came to an end this year when HBO’s “Veep” wrapped up its seven-season run in May. Colbert offered a fitting send-off, hosting a very special crossover episode on “The Late Show.”

The bit featured some of beloved stars of “Veep,” including, of course President Selina Meyer, who laughed off Colbert’s suggestion that their actions had real-world consequences.

“Foul-mouthed president who tweets like a child. Blaming everything on the Chinese. Election interference. A completely moronic press secretary,” Colbert says. “Anti-daylight savings time laws, 700 measles cases and rising. You are killing my world!”

Meyer’s rather Trump-like response hit below the belt: “Another 85 pounds of generic white male mediocrity that shops at the lesbian warehouse.”

“Seriously,” she added, “you look like Letterman took the least funny dump of his life into a child suit.”

Sahred From Source link Arts

from WordPress http://bit.ly/375KyJN via IFTTT

[demitgibbs]

Why Trump’s White Evangelical Base Won’t Quit Him

Donald Trump is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad president. This is something that has been clear to the majority of Americans from the get-go.

Trump’s white evangelical Christian base, however, is largely sticking with him, though poll numbers show he is slipping with them, too. Grinding the government to a halt while he stomped his feet demanding his Great Wall of Racism be built, which tossed billions of dollars into the toilet was not a popular move it turns out.

Not that his base really blamed him for the shutdown. The media did a fantastic job of both-siding the story as if Trump, asking for something completely unreasonable, and Democrats, saying NOPE, were equally to blame.

Still, his base won’t quit him because Trump is always throwing them a bouquet blooming with bigotry. After all, when it comes to keeping the base happy, it’s all about hurting the right people.

Which is why it feels right to acknowledge the one-year anniversary of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division of the Department of Health and Human Services. If you don’t remember, the division was created to protect health care providers who have a religious objection to participating in sin-care like abortion or gender affirmation procedures.

Under George W. Bush, health care workers were given pretty broad protections for refusing to do something if they claimed God told them not to, but President Obama rolled back those protections because they were discriminatory and harmful.

But discriminatory and harmful is totally Trump’s wheelhouse, so the Department of Health and Human Services made “religious freedom” its top priority, protecting objectors and punishing places that aren’t totes cool with: say, a pharmacist refusing to fill a birth control prescription; a doctor who refuses to treat AIDS cases; or a nurse who won’t help transgender patients.  

This was “a significant shift for the office,” reported Politico, “which currently focuses on enforcing federal civil rights and health care privacy laws.”

In other words, a department that is supposed to protect people from discrimination instead protects the people who want to do the discriminating. So long as the discrimination is God-approved, of course.

“This is the use of religion to hurt people because you disapprove of who they are,” Harper Jean Tobin of the National Center for Transgender Equality said in 2018, according to Politico. “Any rule that grants a license to discriminate would be a disgrace and a mockery of the principal of religious freedom we all cherish.”

Tobin was on the money, though disgrace and mockery are also Trump strong suits, so I suspect there was never a chance he would be moved.

Now you might be asking yourself, “Does this really matter? Our health care system is free market based! If a doctor doesn’t want to treat you then just go to another one! Vote with your feet.”

If this is possible for you, then congratulations on your privilege. But this is, of course, not possible for a lot of people. For one thing, if you’re seeking emergency care for, say, a burst appendix, you can’t really shop around. Nor do you have much choice if you’re in a small town with only one pharmacy or if you’re having a miscarriage in an area of the country that is served only by Catholic hospital systems (“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” did an amazing segment on this issue in 2016. Google it).

The new and improved religious freedom rule was unveiled right before the annual March for Life in Washington D.C. where abortion opponents gather to protest abortion. This is not to be confused with March for Our Lives at which actual living children marched to protest being gunned down at their schools.

Trump’s religious right supporters see him as an instrument of God who will finally, by packing the Supreme Court with far-right extremists, undo legal abortion in the United States and give every child a chance to be shot at school. Like God intended.

These same supporters would also like to see marriage equality undone. And we’ve already seen the constant battering transgender and gender non-conforming folks have received at the hands of this president and his administration.

The creation of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division of HHS is one of the reasons I can’t watch the second season of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Mike Pence is another. It feels too much like a documentary.

A lot of damage has been done since 2016. And there’s a lot more to come. A right-wing nosedive into fascism is not inevitable. It doesn’t have to be like this. Keep fighting.

from Hotspots! Magazine https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2019/02/12/why-trumps-white-evangelical-base-wont-quit-him/ from Hot Spots Magazine https://hotspotsmagazine.tumblr.com/post/182765149690

[cynthiajayusa]

Why Trump’s White Evangelical Base Won’t Quit Him

Donald Trump is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad president. This is something that has been clear to the majority of Americans from the get-go.

Trump’s white evangelical Christian base, however, is largely sticking with him, though poll numbers show he is slipping with them, too. Grinding the government to a halt while he stomped his feet demanding his Great Wall of Racism be built, which tossed billions of dollars into the toilet was not a popular move it turns out.

Not that his base really blamed him for the shutdown. The media did a fantastic job of both-siding the story as if Trump, asking for something completely unreasonable, and Democrats, saying NOPE, were equally to blame.

Still, his base won’t quit him because Trump is always throwing them a bouquet blooming with bigotry. After all, when it comes to keeping the base happy, it’s all about hurting the right people.

Which is why it feels right to acknowledge the one-year anniversary of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division of the Department of Health and Human Services. If you don’t remember, the division was created to protect health care providers who have a religious objection to participating in sin-care like abortion or gender affirmation procedures.

Under George W. Bush, health care workers were given pretty broad protections for refusing to do something if they claimed God told them not to, but President Obama rolled back those protections because they were discriminatory and harmful.

But discriminatory and harmful is totally Trump’s wheelhouse, so the Department of Health and Human Services made “religious freedom” its top priority, protecting objectors and punishing places that aren’t totes cool with: say, a pharmacist refusing to fill a birth control prescription; a doctor who refuses to treat AIDS cases; or a nurse who won’t help transgender patients.  

This was “a significant shift for the office,” reported Politico, “which currently focuses on enforcing federal civil rights and health care privacy laws.”

In other words, a department that is supposed to protect people from discrimination instead protects the people who want to do the discriminating. So long as the discrimination is God-approved, of course.

“This is the use of religion to hurt people because you disapprove of who they are,” Harper Jean Tobin of the National Center for Transgender Equality said in 2018, according to Politico. “Any rule that grants a license to discriminate would be a disgrace and a mockery of the principal of religious freedom we all cherish.”

Tobin was on the money, though disgrace and mockery are also Trump strong suits, so I suspect there was never a chance he would be moved.

Now you might be asking yourself, “Does this really matter? Our health care system is free market based! If a doctor doesn’t want to treat you then just go to another one! Vote with your feet.”

If this is possible for you, then congratulations on your privilege. But this is, of course, not possible for a lot of people. For one thing, if you’re seeking emergency care for, say, a burst appendix, you can’t really shop around. Nor do you have much choice if you’re in a small town with only one pharmacy or if you’re having a miscarriage in an area of the country that is served only by Catholic hospital systems (“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” did an amazing segment on this issue in 2016. Google it).

The new and improved religious freedom rule was unveiled right before the annual March for Life in Washington D.C. where abortion opponents gather to protest abortion. This is not to be confused with March for Our Lives at which actual living children marched to protest being gunned down at their schools.

Trump’s religious right supporters see him as an instrument of God who will finally, by packing the Supreme Court with far-right extremists, undo legal abortion in the United States and give every child a chance to be shot at school. Like God intended.

These same supporters would also like to see marriage equality undone. And we’ve already seen the constant battering transgender and gender non-conforming folks have received at the hands of this president and his administration.

The creation of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division of HHS is one of the reasons I can’t watch the second season of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Mike Pence is another. It feels too much like a documentary.

A lot of damage has been done since 2016. And there’s a lot more to come. A right-wing nosedive into fascism is not inevitable. It doesn’t have to be like this. Keep fighting.

source https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2019/02/12/why-trumps-white-evangelical-base-wont-quit-him/ from Hot Spots Magazine https://hotspotsmagazin.blogspot.com/2019/02/why-trumps-white-evangelical-base-wont.html

[hotspotsmagazine]

Why Trump’s White Evangelical Base Won’t Quit Him

Donald Trump is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad president. This is something that has been clear to the majority of Americans from the get-go.

Trump’s white evangelical Christian base, however, is largely sticking with him, though poll numbers show he is slipping with them, too. Grinding the government to a halt while he stomped his feet demanding his Great Wall of Racism be built, which tossed billions of dollars into the toilet was not a popular move it turns out.

Not that his base really blamed him for the shutdown. The media did a fantastic job of both-siding the story as if Trump, asking for something completely unreasonable, and Democrats, saying NOPE, were equally to blame.

Still, his base won’t quit him because Trump is always throwing them a bouquet blooming with bigotry. After all, when it comes to keeping the base happy, it’s all about hurting the right people.

Which is why it feels right to acknowledge the one-year anniversary of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division of the Department of Health and Human Services. If you don’t remember, the division was created to protect health care providers who have a religious objection to participating in sin-care like abortion or gender affirmation procedures.

Under George W. Bush, health care workers were given pretty broad protections for refusing to do something if they claimed God told them not to, but President Obama rolled back those protections because they were discriminatory and harmful.

But discriminatory and harmful is totally Trump’s wheelhouse, so the Department of Health and Human Services made “religious freedom” its top priority, protecting objectors and punishing places that aren’t totes cool with: say, a pharmacist refusing to fill a birth control prescription; a doctor who refuses to treat AIDS cases; or a nurse who won’t help transgender patients.  

This was “a significant shift for the office,” reported Politico, “which currently focuses on enforcing federal civil rights and health care privacy laws.”

In other words, a department that is supposed to protect people from discrimination instead protects the people who want to do the discriminating. So long as the discrimination is God-approved, of course.

“This is the use of religion to hurt people because you disapprove of who they are,” Harper Jean Tobin of the National Center for Transgender Equality said in 2018, according to Politico. “Any rule that grants a license to discriminate would be a disgrace and a mockery of the principal of religious freedom we all cherish.”

Tobin was on the money, though disgrace and mockery are also Trump strong suits, so I suspect there was never a chance he would be moved.

Now you might be asking yourself, “Does this really matter? Our health care system is free market based! If a doctor doesn’t want to treat you then just go to another one! Vote with your feet.”

If this is possible for you, then congratulations on your privilege. But this is, of course, not possible for a lot of people. For one thing, if you’re seeking emergency care for, say, a burst appendix, you can’t really shop around. Nor do you have much choice if you’re in a small town with only one pharmacy or if you’re having a miscarriage in an area of the country that is served only by Catholic hospital systems (“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” did an amazing segment on this issue in 2016. Google it).

The new and improved religious freedom rule was unveiled right before the annual March for Life in Washington D.C. where abortion opponents gather to protest abortion. This is not to be confused with March for Our Lives at which actual living children marched to protest being gunned down at their schools.

Trump’s religious right supporters see him as an instrument of God who will finally, by packing the Supreme Court with far-right extremists, undo legal abortion in the United States and give every child a chance to be shot at school. Like God intended.

These same supporters would also like to see marriage equality undone. And we’ve already seen the constant battering transgender and gender non-conforming folks have received at the hands of this president and his administration.

The creation of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division of HHS is one of the reasons I can’t watch the second season of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Mike Pence is another. It feels too much like a documentary.

A lot of damage has been done since 2016. And there’s a lot more to come. A right-wing nosedive into fascism is not inevitable. It doesn’t have to be like this. Keep fighting.

from Hotspots! Magazine https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2019/02/12/why-trumps-white-evangelical-base-wont-quit-him/

[recentnews18-blog]

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/how-funny-or-die-billy-eichner-mobilize-young-voters-with-glam-campaign/

How Funny or Die, Billy Eichner Mobilize Young Voters With "Glam" Campaign

The initiative offered a “glam” approach to voting, launching in February with the aim of encouraging voters under 40 to fight for democracy and to vote in the upcoming elections.

With the midterm elections approaching Nov. 6, an array of Hollywood stars are encouraging voters to take to the polls. Though some may create PSAs, like Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio did, or create a mobile trivia game, like Samantha Bee did, comedian Billy Eichner took a “glam” approach to appeal to voters. 

Partnering with Funny or Die, Eichner launched the “Glam Up the Midterms” initiative in February with the aim of campaigning to encourage voters under 40 to fight for democracy and to vote in the upcoming elections. Earlier this year, Eichner teased the initiative in a promo where he previewed the “hottest event of the year. “Get ready for the hottest event of the year,” Eichner says in the promo video. “No, it’s not the Grammys, the Oscars, or the Golden Globes. It’s the 2018 midterm elections.”

Funny or Die kicked off its midterms initiative with Eichner with two events in California. In April, Eichner visited a San Diego high school with special guest Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell’s infamous character from Anchorman. A month later, Eichner encouraged voters during a patriotic panel in RuPaul’s annual DragCon. Throughout the year, Eichner has been vocal about the initiative, hosting events and enlisting celebs to help spread the importance of voting, such as releasing a mock-PSA centered on a Non-Voters Anonymous group that featured Mandy Moore, Randall Park, Kumail Nanjiani, and Darren Criss.

Despite Eichner having voiced his opinion on President Donald Trump, the initiative is recognized as being nonpartisan, teaming up with Headcount, a nonpartisan, nonprofit that works to promote participation in democracy by signing people up to vote at large events. The organization is best known for registering voters at concerts.

To further offer insight into their initiative and their plans for election day, Managing Director and executive producer of Funny or Die D.C., Brad Jenkins, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about their hope to break youth voting records, enlisting “trusted comedians” to encourage voters and making democracy “entertaining.” 

Can you walk us through how “Glam Up the Midterms” came to be originally?

Billy Eichner and Funny Or Die have a long history of working together with Billy on the Street. I met Billy when I was working at the Obama White House and we collaborated on the Emmy-nominated video with Billy and Michelle Obama for Let’s Move! So when he came up with “Glam Up the Midterms” to make this year’s election accessible, loud and urgent — Mike Farah and I jumped at the chance to collaborate with Billy again. We knew this was a campaign that would break through with young voters. 

What made Funny or Die partnering with Billy the perfect choice for “Glam Up the Midterms”?

FOD has been doing political partner campaigns with national organizations and advocacy groups for the past three years. So we were a natural partner to create a full campaign that lived both online and offline. Billy made very clear that it’s not worth doing unless we have a specific and measurable impact on the electorate. And that’s the work that Funny or Die does with some of the biggest organizations in the country like NRDC, which made “Glam Up the Midterms” possible. 

Stars such as Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel, Will Ferrell and John Oliver have all helped with “Glam Up the Midterm” events. Did you have anyone you specifically wanted to be involved and/or have other stars also expressed their interest in being involved? 

Young people’s faith in institutions are at an all-time low. We distrust media, cable news, fake news on Facebook, celebrities, etc. But polls prove that millennials still trust comedians, especially late-night comedians like John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, Wanda Sykes or Stephen Colbert. So we enlisted as many trusted comedians as we could. Many past youth vote programs sometimes blindly rely on random celebrities with the biggest followings. We prefer to work with talent who are trusted voices to communities. Comedians are always at the top of the list.

With the elections fast approaching, what “Glam Up the Midterms” events do you have lined up? 

We have done 10 events all over the country from San Diego to Las Vegas to Houston to Phoenix to Detroit to NYC. It’s been a wild ride. Also, worth noting that Billy was crisscrossing the country while working on three projects simultaneously: Lion King, American Horror Story and Billy on the Street. He is a great American.

While many have been vocal about the importance of voting, nonvoters still say politics are boring or that voting is tedious. How do you go about tackling that mentality with these events?    

We actually make the events entertaining. When leaving our first event with Will Ferrell (as Ron Burgundy) and Billy Eichner in San Diego, there was this high school senior yelling to her mom, “That was the most hilarious thing I have ever been to!” I have produced virtually every kind of political event — a campaign rally, a White House meeting with the President, voting events with celebrities, etc. But I have never heard anyone say something like that. Especially a young person at a get-out-the-vote event for a June primary for a midterm election. There is no reason why we can’t make democracy and citizenship more of an entertaining and inspiring experience. 

Despite Funny or Die being known for comedy, the website ventured into politically geared comedy even before the Trump presidency. What inspired this direction and what other initiatives would Funny or Die possibly want to tackle in the future?    

Funny or Die has always been political. Whether it was the Paris Hilton response ad to John McCain back in 2008 or Prop 8 the Musical. So, being funny and making an impact is in the company’s DNA. I joined Funny or Die after my years in the Obama White House and working on Between Two Ferns with President Obama. That video showed the world that Funny or Die can have an outsized impact with the youth vote. Since joining FOD, we have done over 40 campaigns with political organizations, foundations, PACs and brands. For the future, we are excited to jump into more international work with organizations like UNICEF and Amnesty International. 

What would you hope people take away from “Glam Up the Midterms?”? 

Only about 12 percent of millennials voted in the last midterms and they are the largest eligible voting bloc in the country. We have to do better. The goal of “Glam Up” is for young people to realize and seize their voting power. Billy has been able to make what is typically an under-the-radar midterm election feel urgent and exciting. There’s no one better than Billy Eichner at making people stop on the street and pay attention.

What do you personally feel is the best way to “glam up” elections? 

It’s all about the “I Voted” sticker selfie. It’s a big moment, millennials. Glam up, pull the lever, get that sticker and post that photo. “Glam Up the Midterms” and Billy will be retweeting all of your “I Voted” messages.

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/billy-eichner-funny-die-mobilize-young-voters-glam-up-midterms-1157692