#maybe then we would fucking get as much weapons as the fucking israel

[petrow1tch]

my day be so bad then boom rusians are trying to break through Kharkiv oblast' and already taking civilians captive and escaped people are saying there were talks about executing the captive civilians and then my day becomes even worse but not as worse as the people in rusian captivity

[abstractpenny]

Okay, so I've been thinking about it and I don't think we're actually all that cooked with Joe Biden dropping out.

If you don't know, Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election. He is no longer running. BUT Kamala Harris, the current VP, is taking his place as the Democratic candidate for this election.

Looking at this, you may say something like "Oh no, we're done for. We're doomed." But if you think about it, this is actually an unbelievably intelligent and strategic move. In fact, this gives me a lot of hope that I didn't have before.

Obviously, this move is a last resort. They knew if they kept running with Biden they would lose. It means the Democratic party is pulling out a final weapon. But it's honestly a damn good one.

Before this happened, it seemed hopeless. Our two options were two old rich white men, one of which is an awful public speaker and the other is a literal criminal. And, because of that, you got people choosing not to vote or choosing to vote for Trump. Because which of the two evils is more appealing?

Donald Trump is a wonderful public speaker. He is charismatic and charming. He knows how to get people on his side. He's spent his whole life learning how to be a strong public speaker. That's what makes him scary. That's what made it so he won the 2016 election, so he almost won the 2020 election, and why he's still in the conversation today. He knows how to speak in an appealing way.

Joe Biden is honestly an awful public speaker. He struggles with gathering people to be on his side. Whether it's because he has a stutter/speech impediment or because he's dealing with dementia, he's still not good at public speaking. That makes him weak in things like debates and in politics. We saw that with our own eyes during the last debate.

Kamala Harris, while maybe not as strong of a speaker as Donald Trump, is very knowledgeable and self assured. She knows how to debate, she knows how to be a politician. She knows what she's doing. She's strong and confident. She may be our final hope.

A lot of why people aren't going in to vote is because it felt useless to do so, especially to people on the left. Donald Trump is out of the question for a lot of people, but Joe Biden isn't much better to many. They're both old as fuck, about 80 years old. They're both straight white cis men who have higher incomes. They're not aligned at all with what a lot of people on the left view.

Harris is significantly more relatable to a lot of people. She's a woman of colour. A good percentage of the United States population is one of those, either a person of colour or a woman. She's also younger than both Biden and Trump by almost 20 years. Yes, she's still 60 years old, but that's absolutely nothing compared to our other candidates.

Another thing that brings Biden out of favour with the left is how he handled and backed specific foreign wars (Ukraine and Palestine specifically). The Palestine Israel war is a very strong thing on the left, it's very talked about, and a lot of people view Biden as 'om the wrong side' of it. And, although Harris was the VP of the Biden administration, she's not very tied in to the wars from public view.

Harris is a great candidate other than a few minor minor minor things. She's leagues better than our dropped out ex candidate and our currently running candidate. One of the biggest hurdles for her, though, is going to be racism and sexism. It's always there. Oh, and the fact that her opponent had an assassination attempt on him, but that's a whole other can of worms.

Kamala Harris coming into this race may change things completely. We're not as screwed anymore. There's hope.

You. Whoever may read this. Go vote. It's crucial. Vote if you can. If you can't, get people to vote who can. This is the most important election in a long time.

We can win.

[tittyinfinity]

I still can't believe that this election year of all years isn't the deal breaker for a lot of people when it comes to the two-party system.

Not willing at all to organize for another candidate or even protest the fact that many states aren't allowing you to vote for anyone but Biden for the democratic candidate.

You won't even demand that the Democrats put forward a different candidate to vote for? Even though you know that the guy running is a lifelong conservative who only recently put on the liberal sheep's clothing?

Just put your head down and vote for him No Matter What under threat of violence from the other party? No matter who the candidate is? No matter how bad they get, until they come for you? "You'll always have my vote as long as you keep ME safe from the Actually Evil party. Damage control!"

As if telling a political party that they can be as horrible as they want & STILL have your vote is any kind of "damage control." Maybe it's short-term damage control for you. But why would dems be incentivized to give you rights and work for your vote if you tell them that you'll vote for them no matter what policies they have? How will that look years down the line?

Why would they even try to stop republicans if all they have to say is "vote for us because the other party is worse?" Whenever every time something bad happens under a democratic presidency, you say it's not really their fault? How in the hell does that "push the democratic party to the left?" Because I see a lot of "vote for them first, THEN push them to the left!" Well then how the fuck do you expect to do that? Just ask them pretty pretty please? Are you "pushing Biden to the left" right now? How does telling people not to criticize Biden "because it increases the chances of the other guy winning" push him to the left?

Biden is issuing executive orders to send weapons over to Israel but won't do that for Roe v. Wade or trans rights. He's threatening to take away some of our first amendment rights and cut us off from outside information. And if that isn't enough, you know what happened because of the weapons he sent to israel? And how it affects you personally? Look at what happened to Fall and Winter. So much progress towards combating climate change. Lost. The US military is the largest polluter in the world & the military industrial complex will eventually kill us all if we don't stop it.

NOT TO MENTION his fucking track record? If a lifetime of advocating for racist policies that have killed and continue to kill tens of thousands of people doesn't make him as bad as Trump, what does? Trump's shitty 4-year presidency somehow cancels the decades of lives lost to Biden? WHAT? The fuck do you MEAN one of them is the "lesser of two evils"?!?!?!?

It ultimately comes down to "I prefer the violence to be where I can't see it." You're not afraid for the people that the Democrats are currently killing and have been killing while lying to your face about it, you're not afraid for the people who have been watching their family members be blown to bits for months – but you're so terrified of a republican president that you'll put up with tens of thousands of people dying in another country in order to have better domestic policies. Instead of ever fighting for anything different.

"Well then what's your plan?" Are you not embarrassed to admit that you've been actively ignoring every person who's laid out clear options for you? You can't think of anything else yourself other than "vote blue no matter who?" Newsflash, literally anything is better than enabling TWO FASCISTS to run for office.

We stop BOTH of them. Not just one of them. Step the FUCK up.

[run-me-through-but-not-like-that]

The Gift That Keeps On Giving (NSFW)

Summary: When Izzy is invited to dinner with the captain of the crew holding him for ransom, he gets a lot more than he bargained for (much to his delight).

Word Count: 5904

Izzy was on a ship. That much he knew. Large, rough hands held him by the arms, hauled him onto the ship and the winds steadily changed. He was on a ship and he was moving. He was also blindfolded. He could hear the crew moving around him, idle chatter that he couldn’t quite work out as they took their ship out to sea. 

He was brought to a halt, his arms tugged against and forcing him to stand up straight. Footsteps approached, quality boots by the sound of it. The steps were mimicked by another pair of feet. Two people were approaching him. 

A clap of hands. “Alright lads, what did you get me?” The voice sounded pleased. Authority dripped from their tone but not necessarily cruel. 

“Blackbeard’s first mate, captain,” the man on his right spoke.

“Oh, come on now, show him some respect,” the first voice spoke again with a small tut. A few more approaching steps and Izzy could sense somebody standing in front of him. He held back a flinch when fingertips touched his cheeks, slipping under the cloth tied around his head.

He blinked as the blindfold was removed, adjusting to the late morning sun. His assumptions were correct. He was on a ship, sailing away from the port the Revenge had docked at last night, his arms held by two men and their, assumed, captain standing only a foot or two in front of him. 

“This right there, is Israel Hands. Best sword in the Caribbean. I’m impressed,” you grinned, looking the man up and down before tossing the blindfold to your first mate, who stood just behind and to the right of you. 

“Told you it was a fine gift,” your first mate preened, catching the cloth with ease and tucking it into their pocket.

“The best,” you agreed, flashing them a smile before turning your attention back to Izzy Hands.

He was dressed the way you had expected him to be, in all black and leather, his weapons having been removed when he was apprehended.

“What the fuck do you want?” Izzy demanded through gritted teeth.

You just smiled as he growled at you and your crew. You weren’t unreasonable, he was being held captive, you couldn’t expect him to be polite and pliant. It would have been a little disappointing if the infamous Israel Hands didn’t put up a fight. 

“Well, no reason to keep you out of the loop. You’re a valuable resource, First Mate Hands. I’m sure your captain and crew will be willing to pay for your safe return,” you informed him. 

“Blackbeard won’t pay a random, he’ll kill you,” Izzy scoffed. He sounded like he’s had this conversation before. 

“I have faith in my crew,” you shrugged, unfazed. “Anyway, you needn’t worry for your wellbeing, harming you won’t increase the ransom. Play nice and you’ll be treated fairly.”

Izzy just glared, figuring you were patronising him. Talking to him like a child in the hopes he doesn’t fight too much. 

“Where should we take him, Captain?” the man on his left asked.

You pondered it for a moment, looking him up and down again. The way you looked at him didn’t make him tense but it did make his spine tingle in an unfamiliar way, he decided it must be his body reacting to a threat. His biology had probably developed a sixth sense for it at this point. 

“Put him in the hold, next to the other treasure,” you decided, sounding completely genuine, not like you were mocking him. 

The crew didn’t seem surprised by this order, the two men apparently in charge of his captivity turning him around and marching him down into the ship. 

Izzy didn’t fight too much, he wasn’t stupid and he had been in similar positions before. He was alone, massively outnumbered, and in the middle of the ocean. He had no chance of taking them on and winning. Maybe if your crew was more akin to Bonnet’s skeleton crew, but your ship was obviously a more typical pirate ship. Properly manned and armed. Even from his short time on the deck, he saw more crew members than the Revenge had. 

He was escorted down to the hold and over to a well lit corner that was barred off like a cell. Izzy slowly took in the space as he was walked inside and released of his restraints. The cell door was already pulled shut and locked by the time he turned around. 

“Do you read?” one of the men asked. 

“What?” Izzy squinted at them, looking for the hidden meaning. 

“Can you read? The captain wants to know.” 

“...yes.” 

“Any preferences?” 

“...no.”

The two of them just nodded before leaving, the door to the hold closing behind them.

Izzy’s face scrunched up in confusion as he looked around his strange cell again. The corner cell was surprisingly…cosy, not a word he would usually use. There was a table and a single chair pressed against the wall. There was an actual cot rather than a shelf bed, with a stuffed pillow and a soft blanket. Fucking hell, this cot looked comfier than his one on the Revenge. 

There was some material hanging by the cell bars, held back against the wall with a hook. Izzy frowned as he examined it, unhooking the material and pulling it out. He was amazed to find that it acted like a curtain on the inside of the cell, offering him some privacy. 

What kind of brig was this?

“What the fuck?”

-

“First Mate Israel Hands?” you questioned your first mate as they followed you into your quarters. 

“You’ve heard the rumours about Blackbeard, found out they were true when we were docked in the Republic. Sent some of the crew after their First Mate,” your first mate informed you. 

“Brilliant,” you grinned, pouring you both a drink. “On the next raid, you get the first pick of the hoard. Take whatever the fuck you want,” you promised, handing them a glass.

“Thank you, Captain,” they raised their glass to you before taking a drink. “Knew you’d like him.” 

“Let’s hope Blackbeard takes him time tracking him down,” you smirked against the rim of your glass. 

Your first mate laughed, knowing you well. “Don’t go getting too possessive.” 

“Me? Never!” you gasped dramatically before shooting them a playful wink.

-

About twenty minutes passed, by Izzy’s estimation, before a crewmember came down to the hold. They didn’t speak to him much but provided him with a decent supply of water and a book. All the crewmember really said was that the book was selected personally by the captain. Then they left him again. 

Hours then passed before somebody else came for him. Hours that Izzy spent pacing the length of his cell and practically vibrating with confusion and stress. He had been in hostage situations before, plenty of pirates had, and he knew the average routine, he knew what to expect and how to react. 

He had only been aboard this ship for the better part of a day but he couldn’t figure out what game they were playing. This wasn’t the standard kidnapping for ransom like he had experienced before and not knowing what to expect was like torture.

All Izzy was certain of was that this was a trap, and he refused to fall into it. 

This time when somebody came for him, he recognised him as the person who stood behind the captain. Most likely the first mate. 

“The Captain wants to see you for dinner,” they informed him. He only glared back, cautious more than anything, knowing better than to show weakness. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic. They’re inviting you for dinner and Chef is rather proud of what they put together. Be polite, eat your fill. You’ll be back here to sulk before you know it.” 

There was snark in their words but a certain softness in their tone. Maybe soft was the best word to describe it but it didn’t sound like they meant him any harm.

Without any more prompting, the first mate opened the cell door and gestured for his hands. Izzy sighed and held his arms out in front of him, letting them cuff his wrists. 

“Just a precaution. You were rather hostile boarding the ship. Don’t worry, the Captain understands and won’t hold it against you,” they excused.

Neither of them spoke as they led him up to the captain’s cabin. They knocked on the cabin door and waited for somebody on the other side to call out for them to enter, then walked Izzy into the cabin. 

“Brought you your guest, Captain,” they announced, bringing Izzy to a halt a few feet away from the door. 

“Thank you. Treated him kindly, I hope,” you placed a drink down as you crossed the cabin, approaching them. 

“Of course, as ordered,” they nodded diligently. 

“Go and enjoy your dinner, I can take it from here,” you dismissed them. Your first mate nodded, leaving without another word. 

Izzy heard the cabin door close behind him and now your full attention was on him. All consuming but not oppressive. 

“Mr Hands, I hope your quarters are to your liking. I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to visit but I’m sure you understand how busy running a ship can be.” You were the perfect picture of a welcoming host, at least Izzy thought you were. 

It was probably similar to something Bonnet would say to a prisoner. However, unlike Bonnet, you didn’t sound condescending and there was something imposing about you. You were being welcoming and friendly, but you were dangerous. Izzy could see that, had no doubt about it. 

“That’s what you call a brig?” Izzy questioned with faux casualness. 

“Oh God no,” you huffed, waving your hand dismissively like he had made a common but silly mistake. “We have a brig, of course, for those who have wronged us. You haven’t done anything wrong, you’re simply a treasure we wish to trade. Therefore, you belong in the hold, not the brig.”

He supposed your logic made sense in some demented way but now the confusion was written all over his face. You couldn’t exactly blame him for his cautiousness, you knew you ran things a little differently to most, some might even say you're eccentric, and if the rumours about Blackbeard’s ship were to be believed, it was very different to what Izzy would be used to. 

“Now, I’m sure you’re hungry,” you clapped your hands together, pushing the evening on, not wanting the food to go cold. 

Finally, Izzy noticed the table set with two full plates prepared. “Come, sit.” You pulled out a chair for him to sit on.

Izzy slowly approached, you didn’t rush him, and sat on the chair. He should probably play along, how bad could it be?

You flashed him an honest smile as you sat in the chair opposite him. You told him to enjoy and began to dig into your own meal. With his hands awkwardly cuffed together, Izzy picked at his food, only because you had given him another signal to eat something.

During dinner, Izzy watched you, trying to make sense of his situation.

You seemed kind enough, the perfect host really considering the situation, but he could see under that. Nobody becomes a pirate captain without the capability for ruthlessness, without the ability to carry out violence unapologetically and not let it drown them. 

You commanded the respect of your crew without the use of threats, that told Izzy all he needed to know. They respected you, maybe even liked you, but trusted you would do whatever it takes to ensure they thrive. They might not fear your wrath, but they knew your enemies should.

Under the sincerity in your expression, he could see the darkness in your eyes, the look that told him his assumptions were right. You were kind and welcoming but would be able to be the exact opposite should you need to be, if Izzy gave you a reason to be. That tingle in his spine returned, making him sit up a little straighter.

You took your last bite and washed it down with some sweet wine. “You’ve barely eaten,” you observed, eyeing his plate.

He had managed some meat and potatoes but wasn’t much in the mood for a meal. “Not hungry.” Izzy expected frustration, a comment about how ungrateful he was. 

“I imagine today’s events have soured your appetite,” you hummed your understanding. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been held captive but I remember not eating much either. Then again, the little food they did provide was barely edible.” 

You finished your drink and stood from your seat. Walking around the table, you placed a hand on his shoulder. The light touch sent unfamiliar warmth through his body. “Come sit with me, Izzy,” you squeezed his shoulder gently before removing your hand and walking over to the little seating area.

Doing as he was told, Izzy stood and followed. You gestured to one of the two armchairs and he obeyed, taking his seat there. You sat in the armchair opposite him, a small table positioned between you both. 

“What do you want?” Izzy asked. So far you had been relatively forthcoming but that only made him more suspicious. Surely, you were lying, because it would just be too easy if you were telling him the truth. 

“I’ve told you. Ransom. A rather standard procedure,” you shrugged, lounging comfortably but authoritatively in your armchair. Your gaze never leaving him. 

“Blackbeard won’t pay. He’ll burn your ship down,” Izzy sounded tired, and he supposed he was. He’d gone through all of this before, everyone too stupid or too arrogant to listen to him. 

You sighed heavily, assessing him before standing again. You walked purposely around the small table between you both. He found himself sitting straighter as you approached, squaring his shoulders, lifting his chin, folding his cuffed hands in his lap. 

“For the last time, Hands, I’m not worried about that. Would you like to hear why?” The toes of your boots touched his with how close you were standing, your expression neutral and unrevealing as you watched him. 

“Enlighten me,” Izzy intended to snap, to snarl, to push and prod you. Instead, his voice wavered embarrassingly.

“Firstly, Blackbeard does not scare me. I don’t underestimate him, I know he is a brilliant sailor and tactician, but so am I. The Queen Anne’s Revenge is a ship and a crew to be reckoned with but, once again, so is mine. May I remind you that Blackbeard is no longer aboard the Queen Anne, instead he is sailing on the Revenge with the Gentleman Pirate and his less than experienced crew. My crew wouldn’t act without doing their research first, ensuring we had the upper hand. Blackbeard is a force to be reckoned with but he is still just one man.” 

Hands placed on the arms of Izzy’s chair, you lean over him. Your gaze hard and serious, tone steady but with a confusing underlying softness. This wasn’t a threat, it was an honest warning. You weren’t trying to scare him, you were just explaining yourself, sure and confident but not arrogant. Izzy remained still and silent under your stare. 

“Their ship will be on the seabed before they can fire their first cannon,” you ensured, if that was the right word to use. Your fierce protectiveness of your crew and your ship was palpable. 

You assessed the man beneath you, measuring his reaction. If you didn’t know any better, you would say that he seemed flustered. A warm pink flush creeping up his neck and over his ears.

“They will not touch my ship, they certainly won’t burn it down. You’re in safe hands, Izzy.”

Izzy squirmed under your intensity, a tiny broken sound escaping his throat when one of your hands landed on his knee. It was like your palm set his nerves on fire even through the leather of his pants. It was only then that he realised how uncomfortable those unforgiving leather pants had become.

“I won’t let anyone cause harm to my ship, just as I won’t let anyone lay hands on you.” The hand on his knee moved slowly but steadily, sliding up the inside of his thigh.

Izzy would curse himself for the way his hips shifted tellingly or the way his hands curled into fists, but he could barely put together a coherent thought. He couldn’t take his eyes off of you, couldn’t look anywhere but at your eyes. Dark with emotions he couldn’t name. His own eyes were wide and bright, unknown to him, you would even call them pleading. He didn’t even know what he was pleading for.

His eyes screwed shut as he threw his head back against the headrest of the chair, knuckles turning white as a moan slipped past his lips. His hips jutted up in surprise and pleasure, pressing harder into your hand that was now cupping his crotch.

You gave a small squeeze, drawing a gasp from him before still your hand completely. His chest rose and fell with a steadying breath before his muscles relaxed and his eyes fluttered open again. 

You removed your hand then, using the same one to run your fingers tenderly through his hair. You let a small smile slip as he relaxed further under your touch before gripping his chin between your thumb and forefinger, making sure he was looking at you and listening.

“Alright, Izzy. Listen up, now. Okay? This is the most important thing I’m going to say all evening,” your voice was softer now but with an edge that made him hang onto every word like it was gospel. 

“You were brought onto this ship for ransom, nothing more untoward. This will only happen because it’s something we both want. Doing it or not, nothing changes. If you don’t want this, you simply go back to that space in the hold with your leftover dinner, books of your choosing, and some fresh water. Your treatment here will not change. Nobody will hurt you. I am not interested in people who are not interested in me. I am not interested in taking advantage in such a way, the only reason I’ve put hands on you in any way is that you appeared interested.” 

Of course, you meant it. Your crew brought Izzy aboard your ship in the hopes that he will bring in a generous ransom. Of course, you admired Izzy’s reputation and thought he was plenty attractive, you wouldn’t deny that. However, even when you invited him for dinner, you had no goals other than conversation. You just couldn’t help yourself when you noticed the tightening of his pants, the obvious bulge of interest.

“But now I am asking and want an honest answer. Do you want this?” You watched him closely, holding him in place with a grip just light enough that he could easily pull away if he wanted. 

Letting his mind race and jump to catch up, Izzy found himself staring at you. His response didn’t come quick and when most would have snapped or demanded an answer, you waited patiently, your expression giving nothing away. 

“Yes.” Izzy felt his answer rise from his chest, heavy but as natural as breathing. 

“Yes, what?” There was a hum of approval in your question. 

“Yes…I want this,” Izzy answered again, sounding a little more cognizant. 

“Then you’ll have it,” you smiled as you released his chin, dropping your hand back down to his crotch. “Change your mind at any time, just say it and we stop. Yes?” 

Izzy nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat as you lazily began to undo the laces of his pants. 

“I must be very lucky, to just so happen to dock in the same port as Israel Hands,” you hummed as you pulled him out of his pants. “To have you aboard my ship, sitting so prettily in my cabin.”

You stroked, slow and languid. He might even call it lazy, except you didn’t seem like the type to do anything halfheartedly. Your touches were far from disinterested, they were just unhurried. Like you had all the time in the world and wanted to spend it doing this.

“There you go, just relax,” you brought your other hand up to his hair again, already able to see how he liked having it played with. “It’s just us, let it out,” as you watched his face, you could see him biting down on his bottom lip, silencing himself.

Thankfully, your encouragement, your order, had him releasing his lip and moaning softly into the space between you both. You just watched him like he was something precious, something worth cherishing, as you undid him with nothing more than your hand.

Izzy gasped as you stroked him through his high. Unable to resist his mouth, the hand in his hair came around the back of his head as you lent down and caught his lips with your own. He whined into the kiss and you took it as a signal to take your hand away, easing off as he became oversensitive.

As you pulled away from him, you nipped at his bottom lip. Izzy breathed heavily, watching you through hooded eyes as you pulled a handkerchief out of your pocket and wiped your hand clean. 

“Absolutely stunning, Israel,” you praised, true fondness written in your features. Izzy hummed, pleased, and let the rest of your praise wash over him as you, oh so kindly, tucked him back into his pants and laced them back up loosely. 

Taking in his blissed out expression, you felt a wave of fondness rush over you. You then dropped to where his hands sat in his lap. “Let’s get these cuffs off of you, they can’t be comfortable.” 

He just nodded, instinctively lifting his hands for you to assess the cuffs. “Promise to behave?” He nodded again. 

“Very good,” you rewarded him with a smile as you pulled a key out of another pocket. You unlocked the cuffs and removed them, placing them on the little table behind you. “I have no doubts you know how to behave, I have a feeling you can be just the sweetest little thing,” you held his wrists in your hands, stroking your thumbs over the insides of them. The cuffs hadn’t been tight enough to leave marks. 

Izzy stared up at you, the sensitive skin of his wrists tingling. He found that he wanted to be, for you. He didn’t think he was sweet, didn’t think himself capable, but he could follow orders. And if he happened to enjoy it, who was here to judge him for it? 

“I think you should thank your captain for their hospitality, don’t you?” There was enough authority in your voice for it to register as an order, but there was a look on your face that told him he could say no. Just like you had promised him earlier.

“Yes,” Izzy breathed.

“Yes?”

“Yes…yes, Captain.”

It should feel wrong, calling anyone but Edward his captain, he wouldn’t even call Bonnet by that title. Yet he was already finding it too easy to offer you that respect. It sent a thrill through him.

You have his wrists a gentle squeeze for dropping them and turning away from him. You returned to your own armchair, sitting back comfortably. When Izzy didn’t move, you spread your legs lazily and patted your thigh.

The order registered immediately and Izzy was on his feet, standing between your legs. You didn’t need to say anything, just raise an eyebrow, and Izzy sank to his knees.

You ran fingers through his hair as he rested his head against your thigh. “Just sit for a moment, darling.” 

He shifted, eyebrows pinching slightly, like he was feeling antsy or unsure. “Do you feel good?” you asked, giving a tiny tug to his hair to make him settle. His eyes fluttered shut and a soft sigh passed his reddened lips at the slight burn. He nodded, pressing his face against your thigh. “Then just enjoy it for a moment, we have plenty of time,” you promised.

It was quiet as the two of you sat like that. Your hand in his hair, gently running your nails over his scalp.

As Izzy knelt between your legs, head cushioned against your thigh, enjoying the quiet attention you gave him, he felt his thoughts drifting away. He couldn’t feel the hard floor under his knees, only cushioned by a rug. He felt like he was floating, a mindset he had never managed to fall into, never managed to maintain. 

Izzy didn’t know how much time passed but you never hurried him. You waited until he shifted, until he appeared to be getting agitated, until he blinked up at you.

“Want some more?” Izzy nodded, nuzzling into your palm when you caressed his cheek. “What do you want, sweetheart?” 

“T’make you feel good too,” he slurred and you knew for a fact he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol all day.

“You really are so sweet,” you cooed, leaning down to kiss his forehead. He whined softly at the feeling.

You undid your pants, lifting your hips from the chair as you tugged the material down. As the waistband reached your lower thighs, Izzy tentatively reached up to assist you. “Good boy,” you approved, taking your own hands away and letting him pull your pants further down your legs. 

Without prompting, Izzy shuffled closer, fitted between your legs like he belonged there. He kept his hands folded in his lap, looking up at you with hazy eyes, his pupils blown out like yours most likely were as well. 

“So eager, sweetheart. Aren’t you just lovely?” you lounged back, bringing a hand down to pet his hair. He melted into your touch, eyes fluttering shut. “Such a lovely pet,” you couldn’t help but coo at him, loving how he responded. 

Izzy nuzzled his face against the crook of your thigh, not touching without explicit permission. “Go on then, pet,” you permitted, letting your legs part a little more, as much as your pants would allow.

Izzy happily got to work, his lips and tongue hot and diligent. Izzy hummed to himself, unable to get close enough. He lost himself in the task, spurred on by your satisfied breaths and little moans. 

You were speaking, your tone soft and fond, praising him. He couldn’t focus on the exact words but he must have taken them in subconsciously because he was still preening and moaning against you. The sounds he was making made you think that he was enjoying this even more than you were.

The whole time, you pet and tugged at his hair, responding to his reactions until you knew just what he liked. And your praise never stopped.

He looked up at you through his lashes, flushed and eager, and that’s all it took for you. “Fuck,” you gasped, followed by various utterances of his name.

Izzy didn’t pull his mouth away until you pulled him off by his hair. You knew you were damned when you saw his tongue darted out to lick his lips clean. 

“So lovely, pet. You have some hidden skills, don’t you?” 

Izzy watched as your chest rose and fell, feeling a sense of pride that he was able to please you. You were still playing with his hair and he lent into it some more, his hips rolling against his will. 

Your laugh was warm, not mocking, when you noticed that he had gotten hard again. In all honesty, he was surprised, he wasn’t a young man anymore. 

“Oh, would you look at that,” you said, like he had done something wonderful, something worthy of attention and praise, like he wasn’t just some desperate dog. “Lovely,” you hummed as you slipped boot between his legs.

“Spread your knees, pet. Take care of yourself while I catch my breath,” you offered, slipping your boot forward as Izzy obediently spread his legs.

Izzy had already come this far so he didn’t need any more prompting to begin rutting against your boot. It was pathetic, his search for pressure, his face pressed into the inside of your thigh and moaning to himself. You didn’t seem put off by his desperation, just lounging in your chair, stroking his hair and caressing his face. 

Here he was, on his knees in the captain’s cabin. Not even Blackbeard, another captain. Moaning and tutting, pathetic and desperate. He was disgusting. He could hear the nonexistent laughter, could hear all the comments the people he knew would make.

Just as he felt the tears pricking in his eyes, you ran the pad of your thumb under his eye. “You’re beautiful, Izzy. Could let you do this all day. Perhaps a pillow under your knees next time, can’t be comfortable,” your voice anchored him back to where he was. Your cabin, having him serve you but focusing on his pleasure just as much. Speaking to him kindly and sweetly. Seemingly cherishing, dare he think loving, him.

“So good, pet. Absolutely perfect, Israel.”

It was like being shot, the orgasm that tore through it. It came out of nowhere, hurtling towards him and colliding like a cannonball. You cooed and shushed him, holding his face in your hands as his hips jutted against your leg without his control.

As the ringing in his ears stopped, he could process your words. “There we go, pet. You did so good, so pretty.”

Izzy whined without even realising it. Something within him was spiralling out of control, ruined by you. You offered the guiding hand that he always wanted from Blackbeard, and yet you gave him the attention and softness he always craved. He didn’t know those things could co-exist, could come from the same person. Yet, here you were. 

Izzy sighed softly as you cradled his face in your hands, leaning down to press your forehead against his. “You’re remarkable.” Izzy could sob with how sincere you sounded, like you really meant it.

Once again, Izzy wasn’t sure how much time had passed, the two of you just sitting in the quiet of the cabin. It was…peaceful, that floaty feeling coming back to him.

He hadn’t realised he had closed his eyes until he was opening them again. “There you are, love. Welcome back,” you weren’t taunting him, you were smiling and welcoming him back to his consciousness.

“C’mon, pet. Let’s stand up.”

You took his hands in yours as you stood from your chair, helping to pull him up to his feet on shaky legs. You dropped his hands and pulled up your pants, not looking even a little ashamed about how exposed you had been. You laced up your pants before taking in the flustered first mate in front of you. 

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” you offered, “I’ll have your clothes cleaned as well. I’m sure I can find something for you to wear in the meantime.”

Izzy just nodded, unable to find any words, before following you through the cabin. You led him into your bathroom and began preparing a bath. Izzy just watched as you prepared the bathroom for him. He wasn’t waiting for the other shoe to drop now, not thinking anyone would commit this much to a fuckery. For some incomprehensible reason, you were genuine about all of this.

Once the bath was ready, you began to unbutton his waistcoat. “Is this alright? I’ll leave you to wash up on your, if you’d like, or I can stay and help,” you folded the waistcoat, placing it down with care, not making a move to do anything else before he gave his answer.

“Stay.” It was selfish, Izzy felt it was anyway. He wanted you to stay, to help him do something as simple but as intimate as bathing, to take care of him.

You smiled at his answer before moving back to him. You helped him undress the rest of the way, not letting him lift a finger, folding each soiled item and placing them down with care. You took his hand as he stepped into the bath, a soft groan escaping him as he sank down in the warm water.

With a washcloth, you tenderly cleaned his skin. Then you moved to the head of the tub, washing his hair. Izzy found his eyes closing again, enjoying the feeling, smiling a little to himself when you began to hum quietly behind him.

Once he was clean, you helped him out of the bath and used a fluffy towel to start drying him off. He could only watch you, moving as you quietly told him to, wondering what you got out of this. For a second he wondered if this was some sort of strange humiliation tactic but that thought was quickly dismissed, because you were smiling at him adoringly.

Even now, that floaty feeling lingered in Izzy’s brain and, as you gently dried his hands, he realised that he felt safe. A ridiculous thing to feel, especially here, but it was true. You made him feel safe in such a short amount of time.

“Oh, sweetie,” you frowned, placing the towel down and bringing your hands to his face. “Are you alright? Is it too much?” He realised you were brushing away a couple of stray tears.

Izzy shook his head, quickly rubbing his eyes and sniffling.

He wanted to sob when you stepped away from him. He had ruined it. Anything about him you had thought was attractive or desirable must have disappeared now, now that he was crying other tenderness.

Then he felt something soft drape over his shoulders. “Come on, let’s get you covered up,” you spoke gently, helping him into a soft robe.

“Is something wrong?” You were in front of him again, tying his robe closed around him. 

Izzy just shook his head. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise, you’ve done nothing wrong.” At least the tears had stopped now. “You’re alright. I just have to ask you two things, okay? But I’m going to need you to speak.” He nodded.

“Do you regret what happened?”

“...no…”

“Good, just one more question. Do you want to go back to your space in the hold or would you like to stay here, where I’ll take care of you?”

Izzy blinked before letting his muscles relax again. “Stay here,” he answered, just pleased to hear that was an option. He couldn’t bear going back to the hold right now. Even if it was comfortable and warm down there, he didn’t want to be alone.

“Come on then, love,” you took hold of his hand and guided him back out into your cabin.

Izzy let you manoeuvre him. You changed into something more comfortable before showing him to the bed. You had him crawl in beside the wall before joining him. You asked if you could hold him and he nodded, he couldn’t remember the last time somebody held him as he slept.

Tucked up in your bed, under your sheets, Izzy felt right and safe in your arms. Whatever was to happen would happen and he’d worry about it later. For now, he wanted to just focus on this.

[stepfordgoth]

I know everyone is already sick to death of talking about this, so go ahead and ignore this post if you want. (This also ended up being a much more long winded post than I expected it to be, heads up.)

I've read a few polls and think pieces lately where the authors notice that young people are much more hesitant to vote for biden this time around, and they seem to be genuinely befuddled as to why that is. At first they thought maybe it was about the economy - "but the economy is great! The gdp is great right now, unemployment rates are down spectacularly, etc etc" - and so then they thought, maybe it's about the biden administration supplying weapons to Israel for Gaza. And it turns out, they've done more polls of young people who don't want to vote for biden and it seems that the genocide in Gaza is, apparently, only like the third most important issue to young people, or something like that. My point is, the people who are trying to figure this out are confused about why young people are turning on biden, but I think I have a theory that they haven't thought of:

Back in 2020 biden was touted as sort of a political savior. Remember? He was "the only person who could defeat trump". He promised to restore "decency and democracy" as president, to not get us involved in any more forever wars, to tax the rich, to solve the border crisis and make all of our lives easier and generally better. He promised to protect women's reproductive rights. And people, especially young people, bought into those ideas fervently. Remember? He even brought in a black woman to be his VP! For the first time in history! That's what progress looks like baby!!!

Except...... He was not really the political savior the young people voted for and believed they would get. The biden presidency really ended up being like a slightly more progressive George w Bush presidency. We're now involved in two forever wars that we weren't four years ago. He didn't solve the border crisis. He didn't protect women's reproductive rights. Sure, he fixed the economy, in the most political sense of the phrase - as mentioned, the gdp is up, unemployment rates are down, etc - but the thing is, the average person doesnt give a fuck about the gdp, the stock market, etc. They care about being able to afford to feed themselves and their families and to afford housing and to buy gas to get themselves to and from work to do so, and ideally to be able to afford to enjoy life as well. And all of that is harder for the average person now than it was four years ago.

My point is, it seems like the authors of the polls and think pieces that are so perplexed about why young people are more hesitant to vote for biden now than they were four years ago aren't considering the fact that the biden administration made a lot of promises they just didn't deliver. Biden was not the political savior that he was cracked up to be, and it's in plain sight for the average person. A lot of people are in a much worse place now than they were four years ago, and that, shockingly, matters to them! Of course young people aren't chomping at the bit to vote for someone who didn't save them as it was assumed that he would!

[canmom]

i wish i had some kind of convincing theory of political change, especially on the like 'world scale'.

my country 'the UK' is implicated in what is happening in Gaza. both historically for its role in overseeing Mandatory Palestine that led to the creation of the state of Israel, and presently for our economic integration (especially arms sales) and diplomatic positioning as a geopolitical ally. for that reason, it feels like actions here ought to be able to do something to push the direction of what happens out in Palestine - more so than if I lived in another country.

turnout at London's pro-Palestine marches is broadly declining from the looks of things. from the peak around 800k a month ago, now the organisers report around 150k - still sizable but a decline of about 80%. and like, I kind of get why: we marched, the politicians held a vote which came down decisively against calling for a ceasefire, they made some mouth noises about humanitarian this and that, Suella Braverman got booted for stirring the pot too much, fucking David Cameron of all people crawled out of the woodwork to get sent over there for some reason, and meanwhile as you know there was a ceasefire for about a week (to which the UK was at best irrelevant and at worst an obstacle) and then the massacre picked right up where it left off.

newsworthy events that provoke this kind of protest response have a kind of half-life - when the news is 'more of the same', and there doesn't seem to be much avenue to do anything about it, people will gradually resign themselves to the situation. other things will come up in their life, going on apparently ineffectual marches feels like less of a priority. the government's strategy with this, like most large protests, was essentially 'they can't do anything to us, let it blow over' and it seems to be working out for them.

what may yet come about is increased membership in groups like Palestine Action who are using sacrificial tactics, mostly aiming to make Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems unable to operate in the UK through actions that intentionally end in arrest and sometimes imprisonment. they've had some success there.

still. supposing they continue to find success, and eventually Elbit fully shuts down its remaining 10 sites in the UK. would that alone meaningfully reduce the military capacity of the occupation? maybe not much, but we could hope that if similar successes were found in other countries, and it came with a broader shift towards divestment, it might become significantly less viable to operate as an aggressive ethnostate or suppress insurgencies and so on. perhaps even 'end of apartheid' style dramatic change to the structure of the state(s) in the Levant might end up being possible, eventually.

what's the timescale on that? i have no fucking idea, but it's surely at least a lot longer than the time it will take for the situation in Gaza to resolve to either a semi-permanent ceasefire, full-on annexation, or escalation into a bigger, messier war.

which brings me back round to the question of like, what can be meaningfully done from here, in the role of some bitch in the critical industry of "making videogames", to try to stop the massacre that's playing out right now? what dominoes can i push that will result in net fewer deaths from bombing and starvation?

i've ended up writing fairly often to my politician, who's (in the justifying narrative of representative democracy) supposed to be my vector for political action, with the most persuasive rhetoric I can muster. today she writes back a boilerplate response to say what she's been doing about arms sales to Israel - speaking up briefly in a debate about arms exports seemingly the most concrete thing. so far as i can tell nothing much changed as a result: lots of politicians made speeches, the government spokesperson gave a fairly predictable reply. this is pretty much what I expected, I don't really expect results from a liberal politician, but it's not a lot of effort to spend on maintaining the pressure.

obviously, if it was so easy to stop this conflict that a 31-year-old game developer in London could do it, it wouldn't still be happening. maybe there isn't an answer. at the same time like - the logic is pretty clear: genocide is up there as one of the worst possible things. the Gaza genocide certainly isn't the only one happening right now, but it is the one which my country is most actively supporting. it seems indisputable that if there is an action that would help to curtail a genocide, I am obliged to find it.

i've seen articles say that Israel is 'losing the war', which is in some senses true in that their ostensible objective is essentially impossible, diplomatic sentiment has shifted pretty hard against them around the world, dropping all those bombs is really expensive, and Hamas seem to have stayed pretty well hidden from them. this could totally end in another embarassing failure for their image of safety and military strength, which will probably make the money really sad for a while. their 'victory' - in terms of annexation or depopulation of Gaza - would still be a big mess they're not well equipped to handle, and it might be a step towards state failure.

but the bulk of palestinians in gaza are also 'losing the war' in the very concrete sense they've had their houses blown up and they're sitting in a freezing refugee camp about the size of a postage stamp, hoping the Americans get cold feet and Israel runs out of bombs before they find out if they'll die of cholera or shrapnel. 'the insurgency wins as long as they do not lose' may be true - Israel fails to achieve their objective as long as Hamas, or some inevitable successor insurgency, can fight another day and delay Israel's 'normalisation' in diplomacy - but goddamn is that a pyrrhic 'victory'. if I was a palestinian in Gaza, maybe I'd accept the logic of that tradeoff and put my faith in the only people who seem to be able to stand up to the ones bombing me, I don't fucking know. regardless it's a catastrophic (and repeated) failure of this world system that anyone is left choosing between slow annihilation or a strategic hecatomb.

so what's left to do, fucken... post through it? "what did you do to resist the gaza genocide of 2023" "oh i made some real angry posts on my tumblr blog and walked with a cardboard sign in London, England, 2200 miles away from Palestine" lol get real! that's pathetic!

basically i feel very powerless here. there's a lot of exhortation to do something about this, but I am not sure what the something that should be done is. I guess that's the reality of like... trying to go against the gradient of power, the enemy lays out the field and you do what little you can to find some fault line to exploit. but there's this persistent nagging feeling that like, there must be something I'm missing here, that this is somehow 'on me', and if I was smarter or braver - or more willing to burn my life down as a sacrifice and abandon the people who depend on me - I'd have more capacity to save peoples' lives in Palestine. that's a delusion of grandeur. but 'there is nothing I can really do that matters, I just have to witness the horror or turn away' is the easy cop-out, and I don't trust it either.

the left in this country is really weak. because it's so weak, whenever shit like this happens, it is not in a position to do fuck all about it. even recognising that problem, I also know I'm not much of a movement-builder. I'm trying to get involved in shit again - in my own capacity, not as a satellite of my ex - but my perpetually-exhausted adhd ass is not someone you want trying to run an org, it would be a disaster. but there must be some optimal niche I can fill right? some duty that is mine to fulfil in the great project of bringing about the good future? I can't seem to let go of this feeling, that I'm being derelict in my responsibility to use the tools and talents I've been given by chance, but I can't figure out what exactly that responsibility is and how to know when I've finally met it.

[jyndor]

How will Biden stop Israel? He has no jurisdiction in Israel. It's a different country. As much as you USAmericans like to think you're special and other countries are countries in name only, Israel still is an independent country and the USA has no legal power to order Israel to do anything. Or are people saying the US should start a war against Israel? Because that's what it would be if Biden ordered a military intervention by the USA. He can call for a ceasefire just as much as any other world leader, but Israel clearly is not going to listen.

anon you do an amazing job of dressing up your heinous defense of us complicity in israeli occupation and the genocide of palestinians in the language of anti-us imperialism. the problem is you're not spewing your bullshit at someone who doesn't know anything about israel and the united states' history, and so i will not be falling for this latest bit of vomitous apologetics and propaganda that's doing the rounds. eat a dick, but in case anyone else wants to know why anon is full of shit and why the us actually does have SOME significant leverage with israel, let me explain.

when I say the united states and joe biden as president could actually do something to stop israeli war crimes, i am not talking about military invention. i've always been anti-war with very few exceptions and i'm not about to call for war that would result in utter devastation. the us military could easily and handily force by violence israel into submission (we are good at that unfortunately) but that's horrific and it would undoubtedly result in the deaths of millions and also probably further destabilize the entire region since we're very, very good at that, too. no that's insane and also would never happen, the united states needs israel to be right where it is and maybe just a little less insane for geopolitical hegemonic and capitalist reasons. so not only am i not immoral enough to call for the brutal murder of random civilians in israel (how would that help palestinians who of course would also be brutalized) but i'm also not delusional enough to even think that's a possibility. thankfully. israel is damn lucky to have the united states as a country-sized human shield that keeps the rest of the region from throwing hands, because clearly the rest of the region is showing a lot of restraint right now. and of course that's a good thing. i don't want a fucking world war to break out.

i'm talking about money. i'm talking about aid. i'm talking about the weapons grants we send to israel, the money that israel uses to fund palestinian ethnic cleansing. that is the leverage that the united states above every other nation has with israel. and yes, israel certainly might be able to buy their own weapons, but losing us aid would be a real hit to israel. and if the us withheld its aid, my guess is the us wouldn't be the only supporter of israel to withhold financial aid.

eisenhower threatened to end all us aid to israel if israeli troops didn't withdraw from egyptian territory during the suez crisis. that did in fact work. presidents ford, carter, reagan, and hw bush all used this leverage to get concessions from israel.

of course it wouldn't mean israel couldn't continue to do horrible shit, but if the us actually held israel to account financially, they'd have several billion reasons to change course. and that would mean an end to funding iron dome... and that would probably give israel a bit more reason to chill out.

there was an article i read recently that i can't find rn of an israeli official saying that of course israel depends on us aid but i can't find it so if anyone knows what i'm talking about, send me the link.

[internerdionality]

Rules: Be gay, do crime

Tagged by @dragonmuse (amen to you, that shade of blue is fucking gorgeous)

Relationship status: married since September 2019 (we didn't know that we were bringing on the apocalypse, I swear). We had a rainbow steampunk wedding at an amusement park on top of a cliff, it was fun.

Favorite color: I'm one of those scary fanatic purple-lovers your mutual warned you about

Song stuck in my head: Ooof, that's hard, there are several, you can check out my Current Earworms playlist for all of them, but in the past few months I've been listening to a lot of Stromae and Alec Benjamin, and then of course Lover, Lover, Lover by Leonard Cohen has been stuck in my head since I wrote a fanfic to it. The verse:

He said, "I locked you in this body I meant it as a kind of trial, You can use it for a weapon Or to make some woman smile."

has been, ahh, resonating with me a lot.

Last song I listened to: Darkside by Neoni (which I started listening to cause it has a Sandman fanvid set to it, you should watch, is good).

Three favorite foods: Duck confit, chocolate truffles, and my favorite restaurant makes these french onion soup dumplings that are ama... Kkay, look, I know how this sounds, but my mother was born in France, she got me started on this stuff early. I'm not a food snob, I swear. (A food domme, maybe, but...) Look, I literally had a fast food burger with extra cheese for dinner.

Last thing I google searched: A hamentaschen recipe (I'm late this year, I know. I was on vacation for two weeks over the holiday and then re-entry was difficult so I didn't really have baking energy until this weekend). I have always been devoted to Smitten Kitchen (who has my absolute favorite challah recipe), but her pastry skills are clearly better than mine because whenever I try her various hamantaschen recipes they fall apart on me. This time I used Tori Avey's no-fuss recipe and they came out much prettier (if, yes, less buttery and flaky).

Dream trip: My college bestie and I have always dreamed of taking two or three months and doing an eastern Mediterranean boating tour. Like, get one of those big catamaran yachts and visit Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt. One day when we win the lottery, right?

Anything I want right now: I'd really like a million dollars or so to buy the duplex next door so they don't tear it down and force my family to live next to a construction zone for however long (it'd probably be more than that, depressingly—housing prices are ridiculous here right now—but I imagine if I had a million in cash to put down I could get an offer approved). We just got the demolition notification about a month ago and... yeah. Gonna suck. Plus I've got ambitions of building (more of a) polyam spoonie co-op out here.

Barring that, a licensed contractor in the Denver who can build a wheelchair ramp, is willing to work with the mill levy funding process, and won't ghost me after our initial consultation would be super rad.

Per usual I blathered on here for far longer than the prompts demanded but that's me. Tagging @thetardigrape, @gement, and anyone else who runs across this post and feels like joining us.

[thoughtshobbiesdaydreams]

Kamala ran a bad campaign; blame HER

I don't know if trump is gonna win. It doesn't look good, but maybe it's gonna be better as ballots continue to be counted. I hate donald trump. Ever since I learned who he was, I've hated him. He's everything I despise in a human being, he's among the worst human beings in existence; he's evil, selfish, corrupt, arrogant, entitled, immature, racist, bigoted, a rapist, a pedophile, a fascist, a Nazi... in HIS words, he's admitted to all of those things in one place or another. I hate him, he's dangerous, he's unfit, the people who SUPPORT him are unfit... Which is why it was so important that whoever ran against him ran a good campaign. Spoke out in a way to energize people to vote for him or her, spoke out in a way to EARN our votes:

raise minimum wage

vow to go after abuses of power, not after the poor desperately trying to get by

speak out about what "Defund the Police" means, and talk about how you want to fund projects that will help US citizens; talk about how much police leaches tax dollars away from every other service; talk about how dangerous cops are because of how they abuse power, ie qualified immunity (breaking the law due to ignorance, or feigned ignorance) and civil forfeiture (stealing)

speak out against Israel's genocide of Palestinians

just actually show us you care about helping US citizens, not just yourself, that you want to use power to help US citizens, for instance, talk about how you will use your powers to pardon countless people in jail for crimes they obviously didn't commit, or for breaking laws that are unjust

talk about how the Supreme Court is deeply corrupt AND YOU PLAN TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

We all wanted trump to lose, we wanted whoever was trump's opponent to FIGHT to beat him. We gave Kamala the blueprint in how to earn our votes, we BEGGED her to use it. And she didn't. She was lazy, power-hungry, selfish... she wanted power only for herself. She decided she would rather lose than win by promising improvements she had no intention of fighting for. She decided to try to win by trying to steal voters away from trump rather than appealing to the vast majority of the country -

(literally every poll that pits "liberal" policies against "conservative" has liberal policies being overwhelmingly more popular. Kamala decided to back Biden instead; Biden, the "civil trump" who continues to enable Israel's genocide while saying "hey... okay, here's more weapons, but THIS TIME don't murder journalists, children, civilians, THIS TIME don't use human shields, THIS TIME don't use dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners", who continues trump's border policies, who continues to hold up the deeply corrupt Supreme Court as an institute worthy of respect, who tells us that "violence isn't the answer" only when it's peaceful protesters speaking out against genocide, or police violence, or the Supreme Court, but doesn't say a fucking PEEP when the police murder people, or the Supreme Court enacts harmful policies; he, and Kamala, only think it's "violence" when it makes those in power uncomfortable, not when it's harmful and damaging to those not in politics, those who don't have politicians in their pockets.)

then she crowed about how many Republican politicians supported her over trump, pieces of shit like Dick Cheney, as if earning Dick Cheney's vote was something worth celebrating! It's not over yet, maybe there's a path to trump losing, but right now? I'm fucking angry at Kamala for trying to win on vibes, for being lazy and complacent, for not actively trying to win by appealing to the vast majority of Americans, by vowing to be a President for US citizens instead of corporations... but no, she thought continuing to do things as they'd always been done would be enough. And if not... she doesn't fucking care. SHE will be just fine. So I DO NOT want to fucking hear people complaining about how those of us who BEGGED Kamala to adopt popular policies, who BEGGED Kamala to fight for those who need help, who BEGGED Kamala to fight to beat trump, are the problem. We desperately wanted trump to lose, and we were very vocal about how we feared Kamala's approach wouldn't beat him, and we very vocally spoke about how she COULD beat him... she ignored us, and now we're fucking angry. Not happy, not self-satisfied, fucking ANGRY. Because we saw this coming and desperately tried to prevent it. Don't be mad at us for wanting Kamala to win, and being angry at her for ignoring our pleas; it's Kamala's fault. SHE chose not to earn enough votes, SHE decided peeling off a few Republican voters would be enough, SHE decided she didn't need to appeal to the majority of Americans with popular policies. I'm so fucking tired of these "vote Blue no matter who" people for telling us to fuck off while we told her she should try to earn votes, and who are now angry at us because they pretend that we are happy to be proven right. We didn't want her to lose; if we did, then why did we loudly and frequently give her advice about how she could easily earn votes and energize voters? It's not OUR fault that, when we begged her to try to win the election, she ignored us.

Remember how she said she'd put a "Republican" in her cabinet??? Remember how she prioritized having the "Most lethal fighting force in the world"??? Maybe her priorities are absolutely FUCKED and her loss is HER fault???

[aeolianblues]

It feels so mad to me that I could give $20 for someone to try and rebuild their entire life. How far does $20 go? It may cover some food. For a few days, maybe. I could give $50. It would make a dent more. I could give $80 (I can't really afford to give $80). It will get converted to more powerful currencies and be less than $80. It will try to cover even just food for a week. It won't.

I could donate $100, $200, $400. Look at our own lives around us. Is that enough to rebuild your whole life? Is it enough to rebuild your entire family's lives Especially when you're not even out of danger yet: it has and could all come crashing down tomorrow! Already so much pain and suffering, and you're not even safe yet.

I could give $1000, $2000; I could give my whole paycheque and it would not! Be enough! It wouldn't even cover a single family. There are millions right now. I am one person. The ministers for foreign affairs and defence are also individuals. And yet, some of them opting not to arm militias, especially those in first-world and powerful countries, could do so much. They could instantly do so much for an entire population. For millions of people. Anything I could do, they could do so much better. Any damage I try to undo, they can stop it at the source. It's baffling to me. What is the fucking point?? From one human being to another, what is the fucking point in not stopping?? How can you have that kind of power—I'm going to say, responsibility—to human lives and choose not to act. Choose not to remove the source of the suffering. To end all that monstrocity? I feel like that's just as important, if not more important than grassroots aid.

I can't not think of just how long-term things like this will screw up a person's head, and the rest of their lives. They have to live with the consequences of egoistical decisions made by people who will never think of them. The terms of their living are being dictated by self-serving cowards who refuse to see that there's no 'opting out' of this. The way silence and time are fucking deadly: that is a choice! That is a very fucking definite stand, that's clearly them picking a side.

Historically we know that non-white people have never had the luxury (or dignity) of a Nuremberg trials. I don't think any of us lives under such hopes or delusions either. That would mean confronting racism: confronting root causes and not symptoms. But now is so important. The minutes that we allow them to keep enabling this to continue: that's important time wasted. I can't think about the future, I can only think about the now. Slowly, surely, a few countries have begun to halt weapons sales to Israel. I hate that anything of this importance must be slow. But by god we have to convince them, pressure them, force them to acknowledge that we want them to STOP. And as people with a say, they have to do it in our stead. And fast. Anything else is madness.

[ms-demeanor]

You know why that redfish graphic works so well?

It plays on both superiority and guilt.

Leftists generally speaking know that there is always some kind of awful bombing going on in the world. We know that there are drone strikes and flybys, we've read about the children who grow up afraid of a clear sky.

Yemen is actually a great example. Yemen is something that I see discussed almost exclusively in leftist circles, and Saudi Arabia's use of US-manufactured bombs against civilian populations in Yemen is one of the things that leftists have been yelling about for most of a decade. So on an abstract level, if you were a leftist and you saw that graphic, you probably felt two things:

1) Superiority: "I *DID* know, at least in a general and abstract way, about the other people getting hit with airstrikes yesterday. I *HAVE* talked about US imperialism in Somalia; god, does anyone remember when the military was getting all high and mighty about Somali pirates who were the result of a political environment the US helped to create? I remember! And we're still bombing them! And nobody cares! And Biden just said he's not going to do anything to get justice for Khashoggi so we know he's just going to keep selling arms to Saudi Arabia! Fuck! I'm going to share this so that other people remember too, because I didn't forget but I know my aunt Tilly on FaceBook wasn't talking about Syrian refugees last week like she's talking about Ukranian refugees this week."

2) Guilt: "Oh god, I was so wrapped up in what was going on in Ukraine that I *didn't* hear about the 37 airstrikes in Yemen in the last two days [that may or may not have actually happened in the timeframe described] or hear about Israel firing on Damascus. The eurocentrist media has an excuse but I don't, is this because of pro-white bias? Am I more concerned about what's happening in Ukraine than Somalia because the refugees are blonde, just like the reporters are saying? That's horrible! I'd better share this as a reminder to myself and to other people who maybe got caught up in the eurocentrism. It's important to remember that war everywhere is bad, this isn't especially bad just because it's white people on the TV."

I think this is actually a really interesting weaponization of identity politics. The graphic is suggesting that if *RIGHT NOW* you care more about an invasion that is creating literally millions of refugees overnight then you're forgetting about all the people around the globe who are suffering. It's why redfish is also responsible for one of the supercuts of journalists talking about white, blonde refugees. Those journalists absolutely said those things, and those things are repugnant, but you want to make sure you're not repugnant in the same way as the journalists in the clip so you share the clip, or the map with the other drone strikes, instead of possibly investing too much time into talking about Ukraine specifically. If you're talking about Ukraine specifically, you're not condemning war everywhere.

Anyway. This is your reminder that if an infographic or a video clip or an article makes you immediately feel rage or guilt or frustration it was probably *specifically constructed* to get you to feel that way so that you would share or react without taking a moment to think about the information being presented to you.

Also: this is a chaotic time. If you are sharing any news or information you ensure that it has at least one (though preferably all three) of the following visible somewhere on the post:

A clear source that you are familiar with

A date

A link

If a post sharing purported information about an ongoing crisis doesn't have any of those things, don't share it. If you want to share it and it doesn't have any of those things, go find those things for yourself before you hit the reblog button.

It *DOES* take a hell of a lot more effort to use social media when you're doing those things, but it also limits the reach of mis/disinformation and will help you personally to get better at recognizing when a clickbait headline is supposed to short-circuit your thought process or when an infographic is trying to prey on your guilt instead of your rational understanding of the world.

[tessatechaitea]

Justice League #2 (1987)

I didn't know Orgazmo was in this comic book.

Once again, I'm surprised by how quickly an old comic book I read years ago gets to some of the stories I think of as major story arcs. These pseudo-Marvel heroes on the cover are the precursor to The Extremists whom I remember as major antagonists to this team. I don't know if The Extremists appear any time soon though. First, the Justice League have to deal with these peaceniks. Only after they've become allies with Blue Jay and Bald Thor and Brown Scarlet Witch do the Extremists finally come to destroy Earth. The issue begins with Kevin Maguire going, "Look at these lips. You like these lips and this mouth. Well, you're gonna get lots of them! Even Maxwell Lord gets some lovely pouty face slugs!"

I'm sorry for referring to lips as "face slugs."

Batman's main goal is to get to the bottom of how Doctor Light became a member of his League. He'd already hired Black Canary so why would he need another woman in the group? Isn't a ratio of eight men to one woman good enough?! I'm counting Oberon in the number of men just to make it seem even more lopsided. Although Doctor Fate has already ditched (and will become a woman soon anyway, right?!) so, not including Oberon, that makes the ratio six to one! Getting better! Plus add Doctor Light since she was on the cover and has somehow forced her way in, a ratio of six to two! That's three to one if you reduce it! Which is practically one to one if you squint and put your fingers in your ears and go, "Nyah nyah nyah! Everything is already equal! Why are women fighting for more than they already have?!" Anyway, my point was: Fucking Batman. What a monster!

I wouldn't think a sleeveless vest with a wacky collar layered on top of a turtle neck with elbow length white gloves would look so cool!

I prefer to concentrate on Guy's outfit rather than his misogyny and lack of intelligence and terrible haircut. In this issue is an advert for the all new Dr. Fate four issue mini-series by Giffen and DeMatteis. So that solves the mystery of why he was sort of included in the first issue. He was basically a commercial. Jack Ryder's gossip television show has been trying to portray the new Justice League in a negative light because that's the kind of reporting that gets eyeballs and raises revenue. Maybe if people's lives weren't so boring, they wouldn't eat up all that hot take drama shit from people like Jack Ryder and Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. I suppose I shouldn't wonder how rational people watch that shit because most people, rational or not, are just looking for somebody to repeat their inner views back to them. And Fox News has honed that ability to a razor edge. Sometimes I imagine Sean Hannity doesn't believe the stupid shit he comes up with but then I remember my high school and college friend Soy Rakelson and I think, "Oh yeah. He actually believes that shit."

I recently found this letter by Soy from our college paper. It's been in my head since 1994 when I could not fucking believe he wrote it. Poor, poor discriminated Soy, self-declared "Defender of Western Civilization."

One small note about Soy: maybe a month or two after Trump became president, he quietly disappeared from Facebook for good. I won't speculate on why but I suppose if I spent some time trying, I'd probably come up with his actual reasoning. After Guy throws another tantrum that has to be quelled by Batman, Doctor Fate gets a scene of his own! I guess he didn't completely disappear from the comic book. At least not yet. Although, if Doctor Fate sticks around for a dozen or more issues, I'm going to feel even more shitty than I already feel about my memory. Doctor Fate visits some purple haired guy who sees everything as gray and warns him to take back up his destiny. I don't know who it is. The only purple haired character I remember is Pariah. But what is his destiny other than to watch worlds burn? Also, he has other selves across the world reaching into people's souls. Is he Jim Corrigan? I have no idea! Meanwhile, Blue Jay, Wandjina, and Silver Sorceress (whose costume is brown), from Earth-Marvel-Parodies (or some other new world, I suppose. In 1987, there was just one Earth left, right?), are busy dismantling Bialya's nuclear arsenal. Bialya is one of DC's evil countries. Sometimes you don't want to write a story that exists in a gray world; you just want pure black and white, good and evil. When that's the case, you have the heroes battle Bialyans! Blue Jay and friends are here to rid the Earth of all their nuclear weapons so as to save it from the fate that befell their homeworld. The leader of Bialya sees an opportunity for mischief and power and the destruction of America, so he greets them with open arms. Rumaan Harjavti, the leader of Bialya, teams up with Blue Jay and Friends to help guide them to other nations who have nuclear weapons that need to be disposed of. The first country he sends them to is Israel. Probably because it's close by and not because he has ulterior racist motives. Guy Gardner hears the news and is thrilled because he gets a boner imagining a world where only Ronald Reagan has control over a nuclear arsenal.

When he first mentioned Ronnie, I thought it was a mistake. I forgot how old this comic book is!

Batman is all, "We're going to stop these peaceniks from making the world a safer place!" Because if there's one story that can't be told enough it's the one where we all learn a lesson about how the ends do not justify the means, no matter how amazing the ends will be and how messy the means are. I suppose the ends justify the means if the means are compassionately thought out and done with respect for all parties' opinions! So maybe sometimes the ends justify the means? Or does the statement not work that way because the point is that you can't just make that blanket statement. Like, do you murder five million people to save one little girl's life? Probably not! Or do I have it completely wrong and everybody thinks the ends do justify the means? Anyway, Batman doesn't think world peace should be achieved through the destruction of other people's dangerous property. It's basically the same story that season one of Stargirl just told. The Injustice Society of America wants to make the world a leftist dreamscape but at the cost of 25 million lives or something. And the Justice Society is all, "Well, we really like your manifesto. We agree with all of these points. But maybe the cost is too high?" So in the end, I was left supporting the Injustice Society of America because I guess I believe the ends do justify the means?! Also, I'm fairly certain I don't like a quarter of the population so good riddance? But also maybe the entire season of Stargirl was some sort of anti-leftist parable about how you have to let people come to their own decisions about saving the world because forcing them to get on board is rude and it's better if climate change destroys the world than to force one person to believe that manmade climate change is an actual thing? I had philosophical whiplash by the end of Stargirl season one. One character is all, "Murder is wrong!" and then goes and murders somebody and another character is all "I need revenge because this monster killed my parents!" and then he gets all merciful and lets Solomon Grundy go so he can kill other parents and the Injustice Society is all, "We'll kill indiscriminately to make the world a better place for our rich white kids!" and then their all, "A lot of rich white people's kids are going to die from our plan but that's okay because they're not ours." Also, the worst part of the show, the part of the show that I cannot forgive, is how they introduced us to Doctor Mid-Nite's sad owl back at the abandoned JSA headquarters and Luke Wilson is all, "Yeah, he's just waiting for Doctor Mid-Nite to return. It's sad, right? He just hangs out here alone super sad." And then Beth becomes the new Doctor Mid-Nite and you keep expecting the owl to befriend her but the owl never appears, ever again. Every episode, when the sad owl didn't appear onscreen, I was reminded of the sad owl. So every minute of every episode, I kept thinking, "Is the owl going to befriend Beth now?" And nothing. The season ends with the sad owl still super sad and all alone and fuck the writers and showrunners for that. I suppose they couldn't afford a CGI owl after ejaculating all of their CGI money on the five minute Solomon Grundy fight. I just digressed so much I need to take a shower.

Guy and I are in 99.5% agreement about the dismantling of nuclear weapons. That last bit is where he thinks the U.S.A. should get to keep theirs.

Everybody treats Guy Gardner like his argument isn't even worth listening to but they're all wrong! They're just treating him like a dumb jerk! Sure, I agree that the Justice League just can't take it upon themselves to rid the world of all nuclear weapons. I mean, do I?! Hmm. I'm not so sure I do agree with that! If Superman really cared about Earth, shouldn't he martyr himself by becoming the biggest criminal in the history of the entire world by destroying all nuclear weapons against the will of every nation that has them?! There are plenty of other planets in the DCU that he could go live on after becoming a giant Earth menace! Can't he even make that small sacrifice for the safety of his homeworld?! And if his actions cause some kind of horrible repercussions that cause the world to spiral into chaos, he can probably just blame Batman. Silver But Really Brown Sorceress questions if what they're doing is right. Bald Thor says, "In the end they'll thank us. And even if they don't, at least they'll be alive to hate us." See?! That's what I just said about Superman! He should totally take that bullet! That was not a tasteless George Reeves joke and even if somebody read it that way, it's been like a hundred years since his death! Blue Jay and Friends tell each other their origin story as they remember how their world was destroyed by nuclear weapons and how they decided to interfere with everybody else's lives because of it. I think their origin was supposed to make me see their side of things and feel empathy for them but it totally made me rethink their position and now I totally think they need to be stopped. Because I was fine when I thought the argument was "Destroy all nuclear weapons to save Earth." But I dislike the argument, "Something bad happened to me and now I have to make sure it never happens to anybody else no matter how annoying I make myself!" It's like when somebody's dumb kid gets hit by a bus while riding their bike and then they have to get a law passed making it illegal for busses to run over kids and to name the law after their kid and to get politicians who support the law because it doesn't really change anything (being that busses running over kids was probably already frowned upon if not illegal) but it's good press and makes it look like they're doing something. Then after the dumb law is passed, the parents of the dumb kid can say things like, "My baby didn't die in vain!" Even if that's totally untrue and their baby did die in vain and the law never actually makes the world a better place at all. Guy rushes in to stop Blue Jay and Friends all alone but fails because writers can't reward brash arrogant heroes who are mostly just big jerks. It would be unseemly.

So far, I've liked the bits with Captain Marvel but I'm still weirded out that he's a little boy in a grown man's muscular body.

Blue Jay and Friends fly into Bialyan airspace and the Justice League have to back off. But they'll get another chance to stop Blue Jay and Friends next issue when Blue Jay and Friends try to disarm Russia! Justice League #2 Rating: B+. It gets too complicated when super heroes bump up against the wall of political conflicts. When Batman points out that the Justice League can't chase Blue Jay and Friends into Bialyan airspace without creating an international incident, some readers might start questioning how super heroes can act even within the borders of one specific country! Surely every time they commit their vigilantism, they're creating a domestic incident! Don't make me start asking questions about the fundamental nature of masked people doing whatever the fuck they think is justice without the consent of any kind of laws or political powers, comic book! This is too heady for my tastes! I guess the whole point is to eventually have the Justice League backed by the United Nations so that the reader can think, "Okay, right. So they have the authority to do whatever they want now if I'm willing to believe the United Nations has any real authority at all!" And then the reader goes on to prove the moon landing never happened and that Project Cloverleaf rains human excrement down on our heads on a daily basis for some kind of Nazi experimentation.

[dayna-scully]

ncis/tiva liveblog...the dregs

season 3  |  season 4   |  season 5  |  season 6  |  season 7  |  season 8  |  season 9  |  season 10

11x01

the real whiskey tango foxtrot is the writing on this show

at the moment, you

😖😖😖😖😖😖😖😖😖

want some company?

yes :-)

murder me???????

“this is good”

that fake typing though

you’ll always be an agent in her heart

is mcgee Abby’s Shannon

after what happened to secnav, how can I stay?

oh gut punch

clonk

I mean, someone’s gonna get a souvenir from Tony’s trip to Israel

a living, breathing, tiny human souvenir…

maybe it’s not the brightest idea, but we’re not coworkers anymore, so

Anthony!!!!!!

he was so happy

I’ll travel for good hummus

I didn’t know that “hummus” was, uh, some kind of new…slang

but all of their stuff is still there?

mid century mob hit

where’s ziva?

thank you dick

he reminds me of the terrible sweets clone bones got after sweets died

which was a terrible decision, btw

who would she trust

TONY

SHE WOULD TRUST TONY

oh tony

11x02

don’t worry tony, we will be okay

can you put the hammer down please

perhaps the him is you

baby ziva hadn’t yet been weaponized by the men in her life

gibbs absolutely knows who Captain Kirk is

why should she have the man that she loves

wow that’s really dark

and cruel

he looks good with some hair on his face

Tim does not

I can’t believe they’ve kept that goatee on him for multiple seasons

tony should have stayed in Israel

baby!!!!

“I meant to do that this morning”

HE DIDNT FORGET HE WAS JUST TOO BUSY GETTING BUSY

confession: I don’t think I’ve ever actually watched this episode

I didn’t watch s11 because at that point we (obvs) knew cote wasn’t staying

yeah dinozzo can sure feel somethin

maybe you could try saying what you’re saying

he already found her, dad

you know how hard that was

you did not have to do any of this

except???? He did????

her “old life” man fuck these writers

finally I found you here, of course

FUCK THESE WRITERS

the center of all this pain is me

I’ll kill whoever wrote that

I hate these people!!!!

this is what Eli made of her

bad adr

tony should have stayed

it’s a start

you don’t have to do this alone

ziva was a fantastic investigator, regardless of what she did for Mossad

she loved being an investigator

this doesn’t make sense

just come home

I remember after truth and consequences came out I sat down with a notebook and my iPod and whittled down a tiva playlist

it was a very intense project

I just want you to come home with me

oh tony

I can change with you

he should have just…stayed

that’s a very bad fake black eye

did he clip Tobias’ ass

you shot me in the ass!

I’m the one got shot in the ass for it

they done did it

I want to make him proud

😖😖😖😖😖 her daddy

alone

that’s horseshit

horseshit!

tony you are so…loved

I wanna be done with this

this hurts more than I remember

I am more angry about all this than I remember

then came tali

pick up the phone!!!

hey ziver

13x24

who made these terrible styling choices

why does tony look like an old man

I bet it’s the same person who thinks that goatee McGee has now was a good idea

I can’t stay here

surely she would have told gibbs

right??

he wouldn’t have told tony

maybe she wouldn’t have told him tony was the father

oh tony

ah, dinozzo

oh are you just fucking figuring that out now gibbs??????

ten years later??????

really???

I hate these writers

I need to know what happened

I’ll breathe when Trent kort is dead

are these writers fucking serious

his ziver???????

fuck

stop with the monologue

something about you running off with her father

friends don’t let friends get hit by mortar fire

you’re Mossad you know everything

like, this whole ass house was leveled to nothing but tali’s room just…survived intact

how convenient!!!!! Almost like ziva had planned this!!!!

tali girl

tali is ziva’s daughter

and your daughter, tony

what a clusterfuck

no doubts

that was not her decision to make

it wasn’t

it was, for once, in character

but it was a shitty decision nonetheless

she knew you wouldn’t be pleased/then she never knew me at all

we cannot lose sight of Anthony

daddy tony

tali’s aba

your mom always packed a go bag

because she was always one step ahead

and she would have been ahead of this

you’re a single dad now, tony

were you and ziva an item the whole time

because lbr of all of them, McGee would absolutely be the last one to figure it out

and he wouldn’t even figure it out, Abby would tell him

I loved her, Tim

ima and aba

ziva must have told her

tony must have always had that with him

I think I’ve decided against watching 16x13

I know the gist of what happens, I’ve seen the screenshots

I don’t read Hebrew, so the fantranslations are all I really need anyways

I don’t really want to watch them write gibbs badly again

how did he get his eyeball back

selective morality

she was my family

I’ve never been anybody’s everything before

abby knew

abby 100% knew

aaand I’m done

I don’t even really know how to summarize all of this.  I don’t understand the thought that will-they-won’t-they is somehow more exciting and fulfilling than consummation of slowburn.  Shows keep doing it over and over again, and sometimes they get it right at the last minute (see: josh and Donna, tww) but most of the time they get it wrong.  Like at least with something like Olivia and Elliot (svu) there was a reason that they couldn’t be together - he was married (though I think they could have and should have handled Chris leaving better than him just vanishing).

Bones kind of fumbled through it all - I don’t think that they would have put b/b together if Em hadn’t gotten pregnant.  Maybe eventually, but I think they had and would have made the same mistakes the ncis writers did.

Clearly that could have been handled better, but like b/b being together was so good?? They were happy, there was still drama, but god it wasn’t a poorly written tease (well, actually, let’s not get into the quality of the writing on Bones)

Cote is such a fantastic actor, and as horrible as MW is, he is (was??) a really good match for her (was if only because bull kind of sucks and I’m not sure if it’s shitty writing or him sucking or him not wanting to be there??).  There was so much emotion and intensity in all of their scenes, romantic or not, it’s absolutely astounding.  I really appreciate them for all the effort that they put into tiva, because they were really the heart of it.

How often do you have couples that are written but not acted? Couples with absolutely no on-screen chemistry, and actors who can’t or won’t put the effort in to make it work.  And they had that!  They could have done so much with it.  But the writers failed. Over and over again, they failed to deliver consistent characterization and complex plots beyond the same old.

Tony was so much more than a frat boy.

Ziva was so much more than a weapon and a perpetual victim.

I was trying to find good fanfic while I was watching (I…didn’t find much), but there was one where the author decided that Ziva, who was alive, had only put the message out that tali was Tony’s because she knew it would get his attention, and that tali was just some random guy’s.  And that really pisses me off.  Ziva (the writers) made some really poor choices in regards to Ziva’s impulse control, but that’s too far - Ziva wouldn’t intentionally hurt tony, and that would be the worst thing she could do.

Ugh.  I’m tired.

basically how I feel about the series:

[likorys-shimenawa]

[Sorry for trying to make you not be an ableist fuck to people who rely on text-readers, who definitely do not appriciate random asterisks. After reading your entire reply I see it's a doomed attempt, so do continue being ableist fuck.]

[Also bringing your personal family history into discussion of modern day genocide carried out by Israel is pretty manipulativ trauma dumping. Quite textbook 'look at me, I am a victim therefore I cannot do anything wrong ever'. Also known as 'but I have black friends'.]

You know, I was gonna get angry and even did for a moment.

Then I realized you are so absolutely clueless about my country, to the point you couldn't even be fucked to look up a wikipedia article about it, so it would be like being angry at a toddler for not knowing quantum physics.

I'm still gonna pick apart your limp attempt at 'reponse' though, because I am still bored.

Ask yourself why they are in Israel and not Poland.

Before I answer your question, do open a history book and try to find Poland on a map during WWII. Then we can talk.

The Polish didn’t want their Jews back. So they made Jewish life in Poland unlivable and told them to “go back to their country.” So they did.

For the record: Poland supports creation of Israel. We also supported Jewish militia groups and provided them with weapons. [We condemnd the 6 day warand cut ties then.]

Do you know WHY Jews left Poland so easily? Cause we were THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE BLOCK who allowed Jews to leave without a visa while also being A COMMUNIST STATE. How dense do you have to be to try and use 'this communist leader was Bad' is any more of a gotcha than 'this confederate politician was Bad'?

You really never saw a history book IRL, huh, cause if you did you would know end of communism also coincidentally meant much better relationship with Jews. Wonder why? Maybe because a coutry suffering communism and fighting for freedom of speech was kinda unsafe place period?

I did laugh at 'Poland made itself unliable to the Jews', if only because I wonder who was given back the stolen homes - enough of them to have it become a common complaint that we bitch about so much I literally adress return of stolen land and what to do with people living there in my answer before. Maybe ghooosts~!

[I really wasn't gonna open the whole 'there are no cats in america Jews in Palestine', but if you wanna shit over my country then bring up the fucking sources of shut the fuck up. :)]

Cause I actually studied it. I know exactly what my country did and exactly how much we fucked up and how easy it is for a traumatized population to take out their trauma on innocent people.

You clearly have no clue.

Otherwise you would know, oh, I dunno, the facts below? Which are so basic they are all in a wikipedia article?

Poland had the biggest population of Jews until 18th century due to religious freedom laws he had (until mother Russia came and fucked us over). We were even called 'Paradise of the Jews' by historians.

So much so that when the Black Plague was going on, Poland was this weird white spot where it didn't spread. One of the theorized reasons is that we literally had so many Jews, their religious practices (somewhat) kept the Plague at bay.

Since you like playing numbers: in 17th century, 3/4 of global Jews lived in Poland. When 3 million Polish Jews died in Holocaust, they counted for literally half of all the Polish deaths.

Poland came back onto the maps thanks to Polish Jews joinging the armies. More than any other minority iirc.

As much as I bitch about Poland having a boner for its own war history that's only shadowed by US's one... I studied for 10 years in Łódź - you know, the cite where the biggest ghetto existed - and every single semester half the eclectives was about Holocaust. I would bet I know more about it than you, given the complete lack of any knowledge you've alread shown.

What is happening in Gaza now would pale in comparison. This current genocide is a joke in comparison.

Please tell the class more about the slaughter and violence you personally plan to bring on people for no other reason than your own lack of historical knowledge.

Cause let me explain to you, you absolute idiot.

After WWII, the camps were opened and prisoners were let out. Germans were put there in their place to be killed off, because Polish people were not very happy after WWII. We also just put them in closed fields and killed them off across few days. You can read about that in a book called Mała zbrodnia. Polskie obozy koncentracyjne. I'm 100% seriousl when I'm telling you Israel might meet similar fate when it looses, cause thanks to the Internet we know everything and not even Nazis set up pizzerias in bombed houses while they were still bombing the very same region.]

[For the record: Poland did absolutely amazing things to aid Jews during WWII. We also got a huge antisemitism problem, because guess what - Nazis weren't stupid and when they took our country, they would set a Jew to guard the Poles and Pole to guard the Jew so nobody could trust anyone. There was also the propaganda of 'Hitler loved Polish people, it's just those dirty Jews' that gets to you when you watch your country literally stop existing.

If you think I'm joking, there are people legit thinking 'Hitler would come and sort them queer out' like we wouldn't be next on the chopping block. We're kinda idiots sometimes.

We have our own antisemitic legends the black Wołga car that goes around and steald children - to let off blood to send to Germans with leukemia.

Or Jews using it to make maca.

Or Russian mafia.

Or literal Satan if the car has 666 in the registration.

Like I said, Polish people are kinda idiots and really xenophobic. We're gonna bitch about it, but at least we don't kill people who try to say that, even if we curse them out for it. For all the fuck ups and the pathetic wasy Polish people deny our dirty history, at least we don't start a genocide to murder every journalist trying to publish information about it.]

BTW, you could also read about 10 millions German women who were raped in just 3 years after WWII, or the 2 million abortions performed on them in the same 3 years.

Or I can tell you about the way American soldiers would wave a gun at a women on a street and she would take off her underwear to make the rape quicker while still walking to their car.

We will never EVER allow another nation to kill us again. We will die fighting to the last Jew standing if that’s what it takes. Never Again, means NEVER AGAIN.

You know, it's funny how quickly you twisted 'never again' to be Jew-specific. How Nazi Zionist of you.

When South Africa dismantled apartheid, it did not end with the expulsion of all white South Africans. They became part of the new South Africa, just without the criminal discriminatory oligarchic powers the apartheid goverment had. When Bolivia recognized its indigenous heritage and became a plurinational state, it did not mean that people of European descent were expelled in masse. It meant the recognition of the previously discriminated indigenous and mestizo people of Bolivia and the beginning of a path of integration and revalidation.

What I mean is that it's ridiculous to think that decolonization inherently means mass suffering and relocation, that's what colonization does. Decolonization is recognizing the crimes of colonization, but more importantly, material, political and social steps to give power and self-determination to the exploited native people who were victims of colonialism and imperialism.

In multicultural societies, you don't go like in that Peter Griffin meme with a skin tone chart and saying 'well, you go back to Europe, you go back to Africa, you stay here'. You build a new society on the paradigm of dignity for exploited people and equality under the law. People are acting like this is some sort of fantastic utopia instead of real initiatives that were done in living memory, with successes and failures, as all such initiatives have. One must ask why are some so insistent that multicultural societies can't thrive, especially when for most of history, societies were indeed like that. Consider why you think like that.

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Denmark to Eurovision with a cute multilingual jingle

Dansk Melodi Grand Prix is... a NF I don’t really have anything to say about. Like, you expect me to rile up 3 big paragraphs about the pre-NF dramas and what-not, but honestly... what’s the point.

Well, aside from the fact people did not really get excited over the lineup this year. Me neither from the names alone, actually. Even last year was more interesting to look at despite with another lineup of songs you can’t give a fuck about and then move on - I noticed they had Sannie who used to be known as Whigfield (”Saturday Night” <3333 the duck quacks <333), Ditte Marie (anyone remembers “Overflow” from 2012?) and Albin Fredy (which seems to be the same Albin that brought me my one of the two DMGP 2013 favourite songs, “Beautiful to Me”???). This year was a big “WHO IS SHE?? WHERE DID YOU FIND HER???”, so I just left DMGP in the corner where it picked cobwebs until not too long ago when someone got chosen.

Well, this NF keeps being a NF where I don’t personally feel too emotionally fucked about any of them entries, so that’s a big plus in my book, which will mean that I won’t throw a “THIS WAS ROBBED!!!1″ post on Denmark NF-wise... at least this year and the last year because I really loved “Venter” in 2012 and the said “Beautiful to Me” and “Invincible” in 2013 (I also liked “Only Teardrops” but I was mad its victory was so obvious xD). As for why I like it when the NFs don’t toy with my feelings, A Dal 2019 is an obvious demonstration, but more on that on my Hungarian writeup, which is significantly longer than this one - that’s how much of a demonstration it is.

Anyway, let’s talk about the chosen song, shall we? Performed by a smol skater girlie Leonora (Jepsen), here comes “Love Is Forever”, which was co-penned by the ever-so-notorious Lise Cabble - the champ-mastress of writing Eurovision songs for the Danes (by that I mean she wrote their 1995 entry... and then none of her entries got chosen for ESC until 2011 lol). And this is a significally softer turn of hers compared to “Only Teardrops” - ever since Anna Ritsmar in 2018′s DMGP, she tends to write cute, acoustic tunes sung by young ladies with their lil cute and lil crispy voices. “Love Is Forever” is just that, tbh.

Well THAT and also it sounds like a lovely acoustic background song for those funny photos/student quotes/test answers/etc. compilation videos on Youtube (I actually am talking about the channel Scoop, because other kinds of compilation videos use Youtube Audio Library-like pop songs or something straight off NoCopyrightSounds). Or the theme song for a TV programme for animals. Or the theme song for a children's programme they show at hospitals. There's so many places you can insert it into, I guess. At the same time it feels like a cupcake with pink frosting that tastes nice. And a cup of warm cocoa with whipped cream and sprinkles. It's a delightful bite. Yum.

Realistically though, the song itself has an easy noddable-along-to rhythm, cute violin string plucks, the capability to melodically progress to sound even more joyful (I mean, the chorus just adds more and more layers of brass as it keeps repreating, just giving it a bit more of a typical Scoop channel background music material), the D flat major key of this song’s uplifts the spirits of this whole shebang and it also somehow includes lines in some more languages than expected in a Danish song ever, how odd it seems like??? And it’s especially given that we haven’t really heard Danish in a song since like what, 1997?? We only got “shout insh’allah” and “taka stökk til hærri jörð, taka” ever since then, and these aren’t remotely Danish lines. But this year we’re getting some Danish, and French, and even German. Feeling the love in multilingual. L’amour est pour toujours, y’all! Liebe IST für alle da!

There are also people that aren’t buying into the song all that much because Leonora looks way too creepy to sell a song about love love peace peace, like someone emerging out of a demented cabaret. I suppose that other people think that this song was forced onto Leonora when she didn’t really want it, and now has to pretend that we have to spread love to the world, make friendships with others, don’t get too political, and then act all supercool about it. The saddest bit that she does sound like that person that would sing a song like that... young, with a passion for skating, looks like a person that could probably hug you when you least expect it, the one that posts light purple sweater pictures with a glitter effect applied to them on Tumblr, the one who would wear white mittens with a giant red snowflake painted on/knitted into them... I don’t know if that’s all Leonora wanted to compete with in DMGP to make a breakthrough with her singing career after skating so darn much, and if she even believes in what is she singing (this is my rare reminder of the war situation in Israel that’s going on, and I’ll probably never have to speak of this again in any writeup, hopefully. Yeah sure, love is for ever...), but I somehow buy it, sue me. Those acoustics and that touch of brass instruments won me over.

So my final thoughts on this song is that it’s a joyball with that kind of song message so overused I cannot be angry on it because it’s not slapped on a dreary Russian peace ballad - it’s a singer-songwriter-esque small showtune, which makes it all seem a lot different because love is cute and this song is cute. So I guess I have no issues with it, whereas I can’t stand the aforementioned Russian peace ballads all that much because if you remove the good singers singing it, they’re cliché af; “Wars for Nothing” (Hungary 2015) sounded too innocent while having a full gun tree serving as a backdrop for them and if you looked too much into Boggie’s eyes, you could very well feel her penetrating your soul with war imagery; and Iceland last year was a knock-off Russian peace ballad that sounded too good to be unbearably dreary and the vocalist wasn’t even a belting girl. So yeah, I like it. More adorable songs about spreading love, less overdone ballads about world peace.

Thing is though, why did she really dress like a barista from a late-night-open cocktail club? I get that looking like a princess à la Maria Olafs won't cut it anymore as it would look way more saccharine, but Leonora is up like she's there to serve you your damn drink as soon as possible so she could go outside for a small smoke break, not to advertise love. Watch me make "when you have Eurovision at 9 and job at a cocktail bar at 11" memes on the night of the 16th. Seriously, her image barely even fucking suits the song!

Approval factor: Well, one of my faves won DMGP again, for the 2nd time in a row, so why wouldn’t I approve? ^_^ Love from me is forever!

Follow-up factor: For Denmark it kind of seems like a decent follow-up? For all those out here that remember Denmark as the nation that plagiarises every other entry, it would just seem logical for them to finally send a generic royalty free ukulele song for Youtube videos. Which is spectacular! No one knows which song did this one exactly plagiarize - the entire concept was ripped off! Jokes aside, it’s an interesting one after Rasmussen. After a song that urges you to lay your weapons down in a war and go find higher ground more peacefully, we’re now getting a morale on the fact that love is for ever and everyone. Isn’t it sweet. I’d rather these than a bland love song about laying down armours and guns. ^_^

Qualification factor: depends. For now I feel like writing it off because to the 1% of the people who’ve already heard this song beforehand and hate this song, the whole thing feels like “love :) is :) forever :) please love everyone you little shit :) :) :)”. To some others however, like Luke Malam from ESCXtra, it’s a song that definitely makes them feel the love being forever, just like “yaaaay we love each other and the world yaaaay!!! ^o^”, so it’s perhaps a bit of a mixed bag. I wanna see it through though, just as much as I want to see Lithuania, about which I will be talking next in these write-ups. But I see it very much so as a borderline because... idk, just a gut feeling. Sometimes songs that ooze loveliness just don’t quite get themselves across the other hand side of the viewer thus they don’t really qualify, for example, Finland 2012, another song sung by a lady better known as a sportswoman rather than a singer (but maybe that’s just because there was too much intimacy of hers with her and her celloist’s mom, and she looked too awkward to pass the intimacy to the viewers so they too could feel the loving bond and the life metaphors coming from a Finnish entrant singing in Swedish). For now from me it’s a positive borderline. Yes, I think that it probably will make it and we’ll see that large Ikea chair prop with many people swaying to the rhythm on it next to Leonora on Saturday as well.

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

Even with me not having much to say about DMGP, I will go ahead and cherrypick the favourite songs from the event:

• The big favourite of mine this year was brought by Julie & Nina, who served a bilingual schlager-like midtempo track, “League of Light”. Hats off to sounding properly Eurovision-y but without using a “rent-a-NF-songwriter” songwriter for to write this! It’s soaring, majestic, somewhat memorable and inclused Greenlandic. Yeah. Do you believe that this would have been a year where we could’ve gotten more exotic Language spins? Now we have lost both Aboriginal and Greenlandic out of Eurovision, hopefully just for this year so the languages can return again sometime. I’m proud of these women being so courageous and delighting some that really wanted schlager pop that still can click with some that are bored of Eurovision NF schlager cliches. Oh and this song is in A flat minor, probably one of my favourite keys in music. Not too bad, everything this was, although the aggression they transmitted through the song during their live DMGP performance kiiiiinda made them looked like pissed-off housewives imo?

• Them both and this guy below, Sigmund, were picked to the superfinal to compete against Leonora. What was Sigmund’s contribution and why did he deserve to be there so much? Well, I really love his colourful flamboyant electropop track that has piano influences, “Say My Name”, which lyrically reflects on the song’s protagonists big power that he will probably have if only the invisible force Sigmund’s singing to would just “say [his] name”. And I definitely think he deserved his spot over some really nice pop entries that the fandom definitely overrated. Oh and the song is in A flat minor too. Maybe I’m biased, maybe I’m not. You judge. >:)

• See, I don't feel like talking about the DMGP songs this year. It's a cool bunch of songs that some of them I like but nothing quite outstanding to talk about beyond those I already have paragraphs for. Well maybe you'd like to look up the entries by Humorekspressen (for to get a pub singalong song) and Jasmine Gabay (for to get yet another Latino-influenced Havana club track). But that's it. Here from me the last one you'll be getting is Simone Emilie with her teen-flavoured light radiofriendly dance-ish song "Anywhere". Why didn't it do better despite having the power to click with the Eurofans quite much? Well, maybe it's because her backdrop and the fairytale-esque dress went for another kind of atmosphere than it was required to have on the song.

• I don't know, I just find this particular winning reaction shot funny. Not sure if she's yawning or being like "yaaaazs bitchesss ;) 😄 ✨" in here. I gotta say - her lipstick was definitely on fleek that night.

That guy below her takes the cake at making this shot memorable too. Do you want the invisible meal Leonora is about to take a bite of too?

And besides that moment I don’t really have any on-show moments besides songs that were somewhat memorable. Why do Danes always have to be this vanilla in the Nordic country barrage, I will never get. That’s it. That’s their crime. Of being average. And being sued for plagiarism a lot in the past.

For now I’d just wish Leonora good luck in Tel Aviv and show ‘em that love can and will prevail before hatred does, if only people remember to love... ah wait, wrong kind of philosophy.

[hanzi83]

More Targeted Harassment

How many of these have I done that even start out with how many of these blogs I have done to get stress related shit off my chest and trying to convey it a calm manner no matter how much the employed social media trolls try to fuck with my mental illness more with the litmus of rumors of me having a weapon, which I don’t, stalking women, which I don’t, beating up gay couples in public places, which I don’t. I normally just shrug it off like I have the last few days but then the same fucked up shit goes down with them making their presence known, first by moving my cursor as I type in my personal journal, which isn’t personal because the people in charge are watching everything I do and no one believes it because I am the mentally ill conspiracy theorist from the Howard Stern Show and after perpetuating that image constantly and then getting rid of me when they needed to, they still continue to harass me and because I am outspoken about political issues they try to censor me as much as possible. Even when I was a part of other shows on You Tube like I have written about the last several months, and the anger that exists that I am not coming back and them needing me and even endlessly reporting my Face Book videos, so I have less platforms to talk about stuff, and then sending people to my periscope to fuck with me so I complain while they seemingly do nothing.

I believe these people invite others into their discord or private groups so they are recorded and then blackmailed into loyalty for something. These are just theories, but I have contacted several media outlets to investigate the targeted harassment they do to me and countless of others, either way whoever is doing it is doing it at the behest of people with power who want to fuck with me and the more I type it out I can get comfortable with that but I know to most people who know nothing about this will just think some delusional fat man is in his mother’s basement just having another melt down that you will find amusing because people love train wrecks and then when something happens to that person, they will pat themselves on the back and tell themselves they are good people because they wrote something on twitter about suicide prevention and it is insulting from these people in the industry who will never disclose what helps cause this mental illness get more deeper and disturbing but because any conspiracy gets lumped in with Alex Jones and the right wing which is done by tactful purpose to get the message misconstrued. That is why I keep pointing out that nothing will be done until something actually physically happens to me even though I have put out countless tweets, blogs, videos etc and still no one will take it seriously. I just know these people will profit off it when this becomes official and then act like they gave a shit and then put out a bunch of numbers on social media and pretend they care but then are complicit with moguls who have helped cause this shit. I will always blame Stern. I believe because my name was mentioned and threw him off, he even got my credit card hacked because I found it hilarious that he gets nervous when my name is mentioned and he doesn’t acknowledge other shows that try to imitate his shows and this line right here got at their mind frame because when I typed it out they moved the cursor again. So much for staying off the internet because even when I do, they find ways to torture me more and make me become even more paranoid.

I guess it teaches me not to be vocal about Israel and how people are flipping out about North Korea and were silent about what happened in Gaza and basically these supposed liberals play the Trump game when he said “Both sides were horrible people” shit with neo Nazis and the protestors, but this time the democrats do that with Palestine and Israel. And I guess because these people, especially certain industry types have cliques of employed fan bases and a bunch of other burner accounts they use it to harass certain people and because I have angered a lot of people, they keep upping their game into fucking with me. I have to constantly claim that the rumors about me are not true, but then these same people on social platforms making threads about profiting off my likeness for T-shirts being made, which exist on Amazon through some group called Public Tees or some shit and they know I don’t have resources to track this stuff down.

I can’t go to my friends or family because sometimes I think they have been scared into saying anything. People I know would rather do business with Zionist like and shit on anything really progressive because they think being ignorantly contrarian is the way to go because we don’t have enough of that, which has been normalized in society for the longest fucking time. These same people will talk shit about me in their private group chats and then pretend like they are peaceful with me and have love for me but then dismiss anything about Israel or any other theory like there is something I hit on. I don’t ever trust anyone and I wish I was dead so I never have to see how horribly these people sell their souls. I could be wrong, maybe people have my back but it is seems like it is just me. These people rather have their organized orgies rather than stand up for right, all the people who used to be outspoken politically have sold out and limit their narratives about certain things because they don’t want to rock the boat but they still need to use me and after I take the brunt of the mental abuse from these people in the higher positions, they have all profited off it for their fucking gain and then get uncomfortable whenever I bring up a topic that really takes guts to address. They think acting a fool and being ignorant is the way to go and then call other contrarians who are standing up for good in this world. They don’t ever vocalize their problems with me, they will do that on private podcasts or some shit.

This will anger them and make them fuck with me even more. They have fucked with everything of mine and you pretentious twats who show compassion about mental illness constantly stay silent while people are being bullied into an oblivion, don’t use me for click bait and profit off my fucking name when this eventually exposes itself because if you stood back and said nothing while knowing what has transpired so you can get a pretentious industry cosign, never fucking talk to me again. I mean that shit. None of these people are edgy, because they have designed the PC left to seem like they are the enemies because the democrats are corporately tied to corruption, the corrupted right wing think tanks have their internet trolls act counter culture so the cycle of ignorance continues over and over. People always want to appeal to the cynical and because the right wing has taken over the counter culture aspect online, you automatically think this is the edgy take and it isn’t. That is why they hate me because I expose that these people who take joy in the ignorance love that their side is seen as the edgier side and the side that people want to cater towards.

So just take this as another wasteful blog that will make the Stern Show trolls to put this on their platforms and still continue to attack me and make it seem like it is me under a fake account doing it so I can get my name there in a lame sub reddit that barely breaks 10 quality posts a month and then when I am brought up it catches a little more traction and while it seems harmless but because people are employed to do this, in my opinion, I feel like I need to address it because these people are trying to get me to kill myself from the stress and when people from these other shows have said their goal was to make me kill myself and destroy me but then plays it off like he doesn’t want to do that, it is scary, especially when I have seen this person show and him putting out people’s numbers or acting like he is concerned with someone being held hostage who is doing another show, encourages his people to call the landlord of that place, or calls grieving mothers and does it under the guise of entertainment because everyone wants to do 90’s Stern Show shit. This is where we are at. Even a college kid who has connection to the show and is followed on twitter by Stern Show people like Benjy, Baba Booey or Jason Kaplan, is a part of that clique and pretends to be peaceful and doesn’t partake in this meanness and evil shit but still associates with them. He probably got a good connection into a fancy university or something because he is helping with that dirty work. He is another closeted miserable dude who instead of addressing his issues, decides to get the frustration off his chest by trolling others.

So these people hacked my phone when I was doing my periscope and made the camera blurry for some odd reason and it can’t be fixed but as soon as I blocked that corrupted account, suddenly my phone was malfunctioning and it will continue to because these people are sociopaths who hate me for not wanting to go back to their fucking show. I hope the worst shit happens to these people and anyone who was complicit in not exposing this and waiting for the most opportune time to make money off the story or on your podcast, you are fucking trash.