#prime number magazine

[snicklefrit]

I Drink Rivers by Dante Novario

[evermoredeluxe]

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Grand Total: A Record $2 Billion

By Ben Sisario

For the last 21 months, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has been the biggest thing in music — a phenomenon that has engulfed pop culture, dominated news coverage and boosted local economies around the world.

Now we know exactly how big.

Through its 149th and final show, which took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sunday, Swift’s tour sold a total of $2,077,618,725 in tickets. That’s two billion and change — double the gross ticket sales of any other concert tour in history and an extraordinary new benchmark for a white-hot international concert business.

Those figures were confirmed to The New York Times for the first time by Taylor Swift Touring, the singer’s production company. While the financial details of the Eras Tour have been a subject of constant industry speculation since tickets were first offered more than two years ago — through a presale so in-demand it crashed Ticketmaster’s system — Swift has never authorized disclosure of the tour’s numbers until now.

The official results are not far from the estimates that trade journalists and industry analysts have been crunching for months. But they solidify the enormous scale of Swift’s accomplishment. Just a few months ago, Billboard magazine reported that Coldplay had set an industry record with $1 billion in ticket sales for its 156-date Music of the Spheres World Tour — a figure that is just half of Swift’s total for a similar stretch of shows in stadiums and arenas.

Every date on the Eras Tour was sold out, and spare tickets were scalped at eye-popping prices — or traded within the protective Swiftie fan community, often at face value.

According to Swift’s touring company, a total of 10,168,008 people attended the concerts, which means that, on average, each seat went for about $204. That is well above the industry average of $131 for the top 100 tours around the world in 2023, according to Pollstar, a trade publication.

The biggest single night’s attendance was in Melbourne, Australia, on Feb. 16, 2024, with 96,006. And Swift’s eight nights at Wembley Stadium in London, which she played more than any other venue, drew 753,112 people — about as many as live in Seattle.

As gigantic as they are, the figures revealed by Swift’s company are only part of the overall business that has surrounded the tour. They exclude her extraordinary merchandise sales, for example, a product line so in demand that Swift opened stadium sales booths a day early in some markets to sell T-shirts, hoodies and Christmas ornaments to fans, ticketed or not.

And they do not count the secondary market of online ticket resellers. According to StubHub, the Eras Tour was the biggest-selling tour in the platform’s two-decade history, and last year it outsold Beyoncé’s shows by a factor of five. Another ticketing company, Victory Live, said the average price for resold tickets to the Eras Tour’s three Vancouver dates was $2,952. (Swift earned nothing from resold tickets.)

Beyond its numbers, the Eras Tour has been a mega-event that elevated the already-super-famous Swift to a new level, making her an epochal symbol of cultural saturation on the level of the Beatles in the 1960s or Michael Jackson in his ’80s prime. Swift’s every onstage utterance, outfit swap or offstage sighting was thoroughly documented, on social media and in the mainstream press, with news outlets big and small rushing to capture Swifties’ clicks. Online, fans tracked every tweak to the three-hour-plus set lists.

As the story of Swift’s tour took shape, it seemed to contain its own eras within it. First, in November 2022, came the ticket fiasco, when Ticketmaster was overwhelmed by what it said were 3.5 billion online requests for tickets, many from scalpers’ bots. The furor over those problems led to a Senate Judiciary hearing in January 2023, at which lawmakers from both parties openly called Ticketmaster’s corporate parent, Live Nation, a monopoly. (This year, the Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against Live Nation, calling for a breakup of the company.)

Then came the tour and the folkways that developed around it, like fans trading hand-assembled friendship bracelets. After the tour’s stop in Kansas City, Mo., a public flirtation between Swift and Travis Kelce, the star tight end of the Kansas City Chiefs, developed into a full-on romance, with the pop star and the football hunk sharing a field-level smooch after the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers at Super Bowl LVIII in February. The photographers definitely did not miss it.

In October 2023, she released “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” a nearly three-hour concert film, released through a direct distribution deal with AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest theater operator. It sold about $93 million in tickets during its opening weekend, and ended up with $261 million in worldwide grosses, according to Box Office Mojo. The next step was a streaming deal with Disney+. A 256-page hardcover tour book, released last month through Target stores, sold 814,000 print copies in its first two days on sale.

As the tour moved to Europe in 2024, it narrowly avoided what could have been a major catastrophe when a terrorist bomb plot was uncovered before three planned shows in Vienna. Those events were canceled and never rescheduled.

Although Swift has largely avoided the news media during the tour, over time she has pulled back the curtain a bit to reveal some of how it came together. To prepare herself for the physical demands of the show, she trained for six months, with a cardio regimen that included singing the entire set list while running on a treadmill, she told Time magazine.

“I knew this tour was harder than anything I’d ever done before by a long shot,” the magazine quoted her as saying. “I finally, for the very first time, physically prepared correctly.”

The music video for “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” from her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department” — her third release over the course of the tour, including two rerecorded versions of older albums — has behind-the-scenes clips confirming some of the stagecraft mechanics that fans have carefully cataloged on social media, like how she “dives” each night through a “hole” in the stage (onto a soft cushion held by crew members) and how she is ferried backstage in a dummy janitor’s cart.

The tour concludes just as Swift celebrates yet another win: “Tortured Poets” has returned to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for a 16th week, with help from vinyl and CD sales of the 35-track “Anthology” edition of the album, which Swift released on Black Friday, also through Target. “Tortured Poets” is by far the biggest-selling album of the year so far.

Swift is up for six awards at the Grammys in February, including album of the year for “Tortured Poets” and both record and song of the year for one of its singles, “Fortnight.”

At a recent tour stop in Toronto, as the tour neared its end, Swift teared up as she delivered valedictory remarks to fans.

“My band, my crew, all my fellow performers,” she said, “we have put so much of our lives into this, and you put so much of your lives into being with us tonight and to giving us that moment that we will never forget.”

[scourgeofmyownbrain]

Good fucking day, Robot enjoyers! Gaze upon the updated semi-accurate height comparison of Bumblebee across the multiverse.

This is an updated version of a chart I made a few months ago. I had gotten some feedback and then TFOne came out and I kinda had to update it. I also added a Gen 1 Optimus Prime for scale, for fun... no other reason... (edit: slight adjustment made, just corrected a slight mistake in the order)

I am also working on at least two more character charts and one universe chart, so hopefully I can finish those soon (for some fucking genius reason I decided to do the characters that show up EVERY FUCKING UNIVERSE so I'm s u f f e r i n g)

*PST! Optimus, Megatron, Shockwave, Soundwave, Ratchet, and Ironhide ones are done now*

Master Post

Listed Heights, Explanations, and Justifications below the cut, bc you couldn't shut me up if you tried and I had shit to say.

Gen 1 - ~10 feet (TFwiki says greater than 3 meters so I rounded up to the first whole number because round)

Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~10 feet (He looks identical to Gen 1 so... the reason his photo looks weird is because I couldn't find a good full body photo with him standing straight up facing the camera so I put two images together to make the worst looking photoshop job you have ever seen)

Earth Spark - ~10 feet (There is no confirmed height yet, but using this screen shot (see below) of him standing in front of a barn door, I was able to make a reasonable guess, bc I'm so smart.)

One V1 - ~13 feet (I am well aware of what the TFWiki says: 26.429 feet. And I fully reject that number. A: These numbers are sourced from the Walmart Promotional AR Experience that came out before the movie. B: There are three decimal points, and that number does not convert into a whole number in meters (which is originally what I thought was weird about it). C: The director has said that this movie is both canon to the LA movies and its own separate canon, and Bumblebee in both sets of LA movies does not exceed 20 feet tall. Ever. So, for sanity's sake, I have used the KCV numbers as my baseline. Bee grows when he gets his t-cog so shrink this one down a few feet. Look, I'm working on the Optimus chart rn, and one of the numbers from Beast Wars on the wiki was very observably wrong, and if I can dispute numbers older than me, I can dispute numbers 2 decades younger than me from fucking Walmart. Also, yes, his picture is 3 images sandwiched together)

Animated - 13 feet 3 Inches (There is no actual given heights, but in the comments of the previous version, @phoenix-inanis told me that they had done their own analysis of TFA heights and, gonna be real with you, I am blown away by all of their work and how detailed it is. Go marvel at how much work they put in -> https://phoenix-inanis.notion.site/TFA-Height-Chart-f6ad2960ca8c4c5b859ee4958723aaa4?pvs=4 )

One V2 - ~15 Feet (Please see reasoning above. Since this is as tall as we see Bee get, he's the same height as KCV Bee. Sweet fuck, I have put way too much effort into this shit)

Knight/Capel-Verse - 15 feet (No actual numbers, but Mirage is stated to be 15 feet tall (TFWiki), and he and Bee are like the same height, so... Capel directed the ROTB movie if you're wondering why his name is there)

Bayverse V1 - 16 feet (TFWiki. This is like the first 3 movies minimum, I don't remember when he hits his growth spurt. Also mr bay is king, we have numbers for nearly every character in BV)

Cyberverse - 18 feet (I'm gonna be honest, the only info we have is from a really shitty screen shot of a magazine. SO if any one has a copy of this book from the video below, a high quality scan would be greatly appreciated and I will kiss the ground you walk upon. Yes I found the video where the screen shot comes from leave me alone)

Bayverse V2 - 18 feet (TFWiki. Movie 4-5 I can't remember which one, I'm not re-looking this up. I fucking love the bayverse tho, this is the only universe with concrete and consistent this-character-is-this-height info)

Aligned Cont. WF/FOC - 20 feet (TFWiki/Fandom. Video game info screens you godsend, kiss me sweetly)

Aligned Cont. TFP/RID15 - 21 feet (These two designs are canonically identical, like in ALC canon, Bee has not changed visually at all...Ok, yes I got this number from fandom and they give literally no source for where they got these numbers. But, I can fully believe these are accurate. Just by looking at these characters on the show I can verify these numbers in my mind. Here, let's Compare.

This is Sam compared to Bee from one of the BV movies, I'm too lazy to check which one. Sam is average size for a human and we know Bee is 16 feet tall in the first three movies. Checks out. Let's now look at a TFP Character who is also 16 feet tall.

Jack is average size for a human, and the size difference is about the same. Can you see why I can't question the Aligned heights, even if they don't have a source??!?! They specifically made this universe to be full of freakishly tall robots for some fucking reason.)

Not Pictured: Aligned Cont. Rescue Bots and Rescue Bots Academy Bumblebee - 21 Feet tall. Look, did you want to see all 5 versions of ALC Bee? No, you don't. They're all the same height anyway; the back row would have just been a wall of redundant yellow. 5 different fucking art styles in one universe, why is that one my favourite.

Here's the front row and the back row separated into their own jpgs. I know it's kind of hard to tell which Bumblebee is which when they're all together.

[pastorfutureletthembe]

Here we go again--

TRIP ABROAD TURNS INTO BUTTERFLY EFFECT

First thing worth mentioning is that the prime color in this artwork is pale blue. I feel like it's quite rare, most of INPLICK arts for Link Click have the same palette: burgundy red, shades of gray and black (except for the whole Surprise Beat thing which is splashed with flashy pink). All but this one:

(probably when they were 17 or sth)

For the sake of the argument, let's say it is a significant distinction to make. The reason is simple: the teaser taking place at the airport and the trailer prove that shit started three years ago, while CXS and LG's graduation trip. If this chronology is correct, then blue probably symbolizes Lu Guang's innocence or happiness. Blue used to paint Lu Guang but now he only sees the world in black, white and red. In the birthday official arts, blue is associated with his character. His flower is freaking Forget-Me-Not; Myosotis.

So yes, that's why I think the color palette here is relevant to the time period we're going to explore in the Yingdu Chapter.

The couch itself is blue when we're so used to the pair sitting on a brick sofa. The cakes and the flowers are the usual shade of red, though.

On the table: red roses in a vase. Petals are all over the place. Ominous. We actually see a roses bouquet in the PV of XETROverthink, held by Li Tianchen.

On the trolley: 1 bottle of wine, 2 CXS's feet, 3 glasses, 4 cakes, 5 individual desserts. The glass half full is Liu Xiao's, since it isn't on the trolley in the original artwork he is absent from. I said it in another post but the plate counts 4 portions, as in 4 antagonists, while the pudding might be Lu Guang's. The cakes are probably metaphors for timelines/curves, clocks dressed as desserts with a red fruit representing a dead Cheng Xiaoshi. V and VI are the only missing parts, just like Qiao Ling's one. CXS put his feet on the trail and I think it's both funny and tragic. I believe the correct saying is "put his foot in his mouth" but in french we say "mettre les pieds dans le plat", which literally translates "to put his feet in the plate" (to say something brutal with no tact or to do something stupid without thinking it through). He has both feet nearing timeline cakes and his head is five inches away from doomed flowers.

On the floor: 1 vintage phone. 1 camera. 2 envelopes, 3 pages of letters. 4 polaroids. Probably: 2 magazines and 3 pages of newspapers. The vintage phone could be relevant to THE TIDES, era-wise. The camera is taking polaroids and two of them are still dark, meaning they just took a shot and are yet to be revealed. The rest must be related to this chapter's plot. So much for holidays, guys (are they investigating CXS' missing parents?)

If you look closely, you'll see four different mentions of time:

Lu Guang's watch (hold this thought)

The polaroid: Big Ben

What looks like newspapers

The hourglass

We also have four mentions of information/communication

Letters

The polaroid: a public telephone box

Newspapers/magazines

Vintage phone (I was wondering why the phone had twelve numbers but after some research, I realized that some of them had # and *)

On another note, I don't know if their hands--

I mean, there's something definitely happening here but let's say for the sake of my sanity that what is supposed to be noticed are the sunglasses. If I'm being honest, this is the real oddity here and the teaser weirdly showed them off?? They're standing out because everything else is so blue for one thing.

They're pink-ish, which is close enough to magenta, so one of Lu Guang's colors (cf. Dive Back In Time). The color itself is weird for sunglasses. Lu Guang doesn't care about fashion, he wants practical. As a girl who loves pink sunglasses, I'll tell you: pink is shit at doing sunglasses' job. CXS told him to wear a cat hat, okay, but did he choose every other accessory?? My guess is that the pink served a purpose in connection with light.

And why is Lu Guang's watch on the other wrist in the artwork? I checked and LG wears it on his right wrist in the donghua and manhua. It can be the opposite for some artworks though... Or blocked from view for some reasons. It's almost as if we're not supposed to know which side is the actual reflection. 👀

Something else is reversed here, actually: the colors AND the pocket of Lu Guang's shirt. It could be a mistake, though.

>>>>> Basically, I think the artwork is telling us that the Yingdu Chapter is going to hurt and make us cry. If we're indeed about to see Lu Guang lose his humanity to try and save Cheng Xiaoshi for the first time therefore destroying worlds, I have no doubt it would be after Infinite Sadness™.

The real question this teaser isn't answering is either we'll go through the original timeline or a rewind. The last episode of season 2 makes me frown. How to be sure that the Lu Guang who dives exists before and not after the events we see unfold for two seasons? Is Yingdu Chapter a flash black or an actual dive itself? Lu Guang seems to be determinate and in a bad mood in the PV after all, could directly happen after one of CXS's deaths.

EDIT: someone mentioned that LG wears his watch on the left wrist when we get images of CXS getting stabbed. (It hurts right here in my meow meow)

[mariacallous]

According to the internet, I’m a “boy mum”. It’s not a term I’d heard until I gave birth to a baby boy. Suddenly, I was being bombarded with videos about the nightmare in store for me. This was footage showing the kind of destructive male-toddler behaviour that Jackass stars Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera would deem too risky. Meanwhile, their mothers were portrayed as longsuffering, harried, hard-as-nails veterans of the boy-toddler insane asylum.

My son is very physically active, but he’s also a gentle, cautious child, so this doesn’t resonate with me, or with several of the “boy mums” I know. (Meanwhile, some of the “girl mums” spend their days chasing their Tasmanian Devil-esque daughters like they’re in a Looney Tunes cartoon.) Yet it’s everywhere. Then, last week, I saw a report that found girls were playing outside less than boys, even at two years old – something that shocked the researchers, who hadn’t expected to see socialised gender roles emerging so early.

It didn’t shock me, sadly. Not when I’m regularly tearing my hair out in clothes shops trying to find something for my two-year-old son to wear that isn’t black or camouflage, like he’s a ninja, or a small soldier already primed for aggression.

“It’s not our fault, but we’ve all internalised that ‘boys-take-up-more-space’stereotype,” Kirstie Beaven, the founder of Sonshine magazine, a publication geared towards raising boys for a more equal world, tells me.

“Girls’ clothes are made for sitting still and looking pretty, while boys’ clothes are made for activity, even in the baby or toddler sections. Parents of babies tend to underestimate girls’ gross motor skills – expecting they will be less competent than boys at crawling or climbing – and we’re all more likely to encourage our sons to take physical risks, and expect our daughters to ‘be careful’.”

Beaven says that by the time our children are two years old, we probably don’t expect our daughters to need as much outside time. “Nor are they as comfy or confident when they are outside,” she says. “If your shoes are too flimsy to climb a tree or your T-shirt is cut uncomfortably short and tight, it’s not surprising you want to go home early.”

As a 90s tomboy kid raised in dungarees, this thought breaks my heart a little. A lack of outdoor physical activity will disadvantage girls from a young age, and these gendered expectations harm boys, too, as Ruth Whippman, author of the book BoyMum, tells me.

“The flipside of the ‘boys play outside more’ phenomenon is that parents as a whole give boys less of the kind of quiet indoor-type attention that they give to girls,” she says. “Wide-scale research across countries shows that from as early as nine months, parents spend more time with girls on activities such as learning letters and numbers, singing, drawing and telling stories. Girls now outperform boys at school and researchers believe these differences in parental time inputs account for a significant portion of the difference.”

What I loved about Whippman’s book was that it beautifully conveyed the internal battle many intelligent feminist mothers found themselves having when raising boys who may be conforming to certain stereotypes.

“When my three boys were small, people used to tell me all the time [that] ‘boys are like dogs – all they need is food and exercise, and just try to wear them out’,” Whippman says. “I used to absolutely hate it, as it seemed so dehumanising. But perhaps what I hated even more was the fact that in our case it was kind of true.”

Of course, like most mothers, she initially held herself responsible.

As with many of these questions, a complex interplay between nurture and nature is involved, and it’s stupid to deny biology any kind of role. Whippman highlights how male foetuses get a shot of testosterone in the womb that has been linked in other mammals to a tendency to play more roughly, while girls may be able to sit still and focus for longer at younger ages because the areas of the brain responsible for impulse control and emotional self-regulation generally develop earlier in girls.

The point is, though, that parents often increase this divide by failing to correct their own unconscious biases and help their kids work on the areas where they could improve their skills. As Whippman puts it: “When it comes to gender, as parents, we end up turning small differences into big differences.”

Seeing how much my little boy needs me, how much touch, affection and reassurance he craves, has been one of the most educative experiences I’ve had since I became his mum. I’ve known many men whose feelings as little boys were neglected, often in contrast to the comfort and time any sisters’ emotional needs were given.

“If we don’t let boys express all parts of their personalities and emotional lives because they are just ‘wild monsters’, we are not only doing them a huge disservice, we are storing up problems in how they interact with others in later life,” says Beaven, who also says that the “boy mum” stereotype boiled her blood.

If we are to tackle the crises in violence against women and in male mental health, we need to be open about how damaging these stereotypes are for boys as well as girls. That starts with being honest with ourselves about how much we, as parents, are encouraging them. That’s why you’ll never find me identifying as a “boy mum”, no matter how much the internet wants me to.

[hussyknee]

Unrolled twitter thread by Progressive International (@ProgIntl)

30 Sept 24 • 4 minute read • Read on X

On 30 September 1965, the Indonesian military, working closely with the US government, initiated a coup that would depose President Sukarno and install the brutal, 30-year dictatorship of General Suharto.

In the dark years that followed, the dictatorship massacred over a million Indonesian communists, with the CIA and US diplomats drawing up “kill lists” for the Indonesian military. The operation would become a template for the US’s regime change operations for decades to come.

Major-General Suharto with Indonesian Army in 1966

In 1945, President Sukarno led Indonesia to independence from Dutch colonial rule. He championed the Non-Aligned Movement and hosted the historic Bandung Conference, a meeting of Afro-Asian states, in 1955.

First President of Indonesia Sukarno making a speech circa 1945

Opening the conference and forecasting what was to come, Sukarno said: “We are often told ‘Colonialism is dead’. Let us not be deceived or even soothed by that… Colonialism also has its modern dress, in the form of economic control, intellectual control, actual physical control by a small, but alien community within a nation.”

Leaders attending the Bandung Conference 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia. From left: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Ghanian Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah, Egyptian Prime Minister Gamal Abdel Nasser, President Sukarno, and Yugoslavian Prime Minister Josip Broz Tito.

By 1965, Indonesia possessed one of the world's largest communist parties, the PKI. The PKI had a mass membership and mobilized vast numbers of people in the battle against Indonesia’s ruling class.

Campaign of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in September 1955.

Terrified by the strength and organization of Indonesia’s people, the Indonesian military’s 30th September Movement began to purge the PKI.

Men suspected of being IPK members being transported under guard by an armed Indonesian soldier

In the early hours of 1 October, a group of military conscripts murdered six high-ranking generals. Blaming the deaths on the PKI, Suharto used the attacks as a pretext to seize power. CIA communications equipment allowed him to spread false reports around the country and begin a long campaign of anti-communist propaganda.

The US had tried to overthrow Sukarno for years; in 1958, the CIA backed armed regional rebellions against the central government. In 1965, they did all they could to aid Suharto’s murderous power grab.

The campaign soon became genocidal. On islands like Bali, up to 10% of the population was massacred — and luxury hotels soon began to appear over the killing fields.

One US embassy staffer told the US press that Suharto’s military “probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that's not all bad.”

Time Magazine referred to the killings as “the West’s best news for years in Asia”.

A cable from the US embassy’s first secretary, Mary Vance Trent, to the State Department referred to events in Indonesia as a “fantastic switch which has occurred over 10 short weeks”. It also included an estimate that 100,000 people had been slaughtered.

Cementing his power, Suharto became president in 1967. His ‘New Order’ policy allowed Western capitalism to exploit Indonesia’s cheap labour and plunder its natural resources. Civil rights and dissent were suppressed.

In one of the world’s most populous countries, any possibility for the emergence of a new, democratic political project was eliminated. Richard Nixon described Indonesia as “the greatest prize in Southeast Asia”. Suharto would not leave office until 1998.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan stands with Indonesian President Suharto in the White House South Lawn at the arrival ceremony for Suharto's State Visit. Oct 12, 1982

CIA officers described Suharto’s rise to power and anti-communist purge as the “model operation” and “Jakarta” soon became the codeword for anti-communist extermination programs in Latin America, where hundreds of thousands were massacred in regime change efforts engineered by Washington.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Hugh Dougherty at The Daily Beast:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[...]

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

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

— Epstein on Trump

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

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

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

[scotianostra]

The Pirate station, Radio Scotland began broadcasting in the dying embers of Hogmanay, 1965.

Radio Scotland was a Scottish pirate radio station which broadcast at various points off the Scottish coast between 1965 and 1967, with a mix of pop music and programmes of Scottish interest. It was conceived of and run by publicity and advertising executive Tommy Shields onboard a former Irish lightship, built on the Clyde, named The Comet. Radio Scotland's first broadcast was at 11:50pm on Hogmanay, 31st December 1965, on 1241 kilohertz, 242 metres.

After refitting for her new role in the Channel Islands she had been towed to a position four miles off Dunbar, in the Firth of Forth. Because of delays during the journey north, the ship didn't arrive at the anchorage until early on 30th December, giving the engineers only a few hours to set up the equipment. It was a frantic race against time but the station just made it on air before midnight, albeit at reduced power and with no opportunity to run tests. The first voice on the new station belonged to DJ Paul Young a former presenter of Scottish Television's Roundup programme who welcomed the listeners. He introduced the managing director Tommy Shields, who went on to detail their plans. Radio Scotland was on the air and open for business. The station also broadcast from water near Troon and Northern Ireland over its one-and-a-half years.

While navigating and planting the boat, crew had to be careful to avoid territorial waters, primarily due to the strict laws imposed on the pirate stations by the government of the day. Featuring everything from “modern” rock’n’roll to ceilidh favourites, the station soon became a sensation across Scotland as well as Ireland and northern England, where the signal was also picked up.

With its audience of one million listeners a week in its prime, Radio Scotland was very close to realising Shield’s dream of becoming a successful independent Scottish station.

Joining English stations such as Radio Caroline, Radio Scotland was the only pirate radio station to be formed north of the Border, and soon took its place amongst the big six pirate stations.

People could join the membership of the station and become Radio Scotland “Clan Members”. As a reward, the Clan had their own show every Saturday where they could send in requests, which, alongside Jack McLaughlin’s ceilidh slot, was one of the most popular programmes broadcast.

The station even had its own fanzine called “242” – named after its frequency. The 242 magazine featured interviews with the biggest stars of the day, including The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner, but station managers never quite tempted any of the stars on board the infamous boat.

The pirate station’s theme song was a jaunty wee number sung by folk band The Carrick Folk Four. Finishing off the upbeat ditty were the lines: “Oh Radio Scotland’s playing just for you/So beat the ban, and join the Clan, on station 242.”

Although they received many a plaudit, Radio Scotland was plagued with troubles from the very beginning. A poor signal and periods off-air led to a steep decline in advertising revenue and a frustrated fanbase, while fires on board the vessel and the hazardous North Sea conditions did little to help ease its problems.

In a piece in the Edinburgh Weekly just days after the station was laid to rest, Tony Mark wrote: “The death penalty in this country is supposed to have been abolished, yet here we are mourning the execution of what was surely the sound sensation of both 66’ and 67’ as far as Scotland is concerned.”

Although the station had a short life, as is often the case with such ventures, and was taken off the air in the 60s, Radio Scotland inspired a tribute station, which began broadcasting in the mid 70s.

Radio Scotland International, an independently run pirate station broadcasting to Europe from its base in Holland, started in 1975 and has been going ever since.

For around 20 months his modest little boat made huge waves and pulled Scotland into the "swinging sixties".

The first pic is Tommy Shields unveiling his pirate ship , the last is the stations first DJ Paul Young then, and as "Shug" in the BBC's Still Game.

[lucidlivi]

Chosen For Pleasure (I)

Series Masterlist/Warnings

"Actor turned business billionaire Jensen Ackles, is set to open up a new ale house here in Laredo Texas today. Plenty of stars are set to be in attendance including Ackles ex co-star and best friend Jared Padalecki. It should be a packed event!"

I listened to the reporter on the television as I adjusted the camera strap around my neck. I bit my lip as my bosses words replayed in my head.

"I really need you on this (y/n), get the picture for the magazine, and maybe we'll talk about a promotion."

I worked for a local magazine as a photographer, it wasn't my dream job by any means but it was a start. My boss Gray had connections, so if I impressed him, i'd have a better shot at getting my photographs seen by more people.

I was supposed to go to the grand opening of the new ale house by Jensen Ackles to get a picture of the ribbon cutting.

I don't know why I was so nervous, maybe because my boss made it seem as if my job depended on getting this picture.

Maybe it did.

"ugh you look gorgeous, I wish I could go with you." my roommate Stella said leaning against the door frame.

"I wish you were going too." I murmur giving her a small smile.

"here's the questions, even if you could just get him to answer one!" she said handing me a list of prepared questions for Jensen.

"I can't promise anything Stell, there will probably be hundreds of reporters there, I don't even know how I'll get a good picture. Gray will have my neck if I don't pull this off." I sighed nervously.

"everything will be fine, you always make it happen, now go out there and take a picture of that beautiful man." she cheered pushing me towards the door.

"oh an (y/n/n) try to smile, you look better when you smile." she added.

I rolled my eyes tucking her list in my jacket pocket and walking out the door with a wave. It was a quick drive to the new ale house location, this was Jensen's fourth grand opening after all so he knew all about the prime locations for business.

I gasped as I pulled up to the spot, there were thousands of people waiting. I saw a lot of people in supernatural shirts proclaiming their love for Dean Winchester.

Damn these fans sure are dedicated.

I grabbed my media badge, making sure I had everything. I walked over to an area roped off with a velvet rope, this was where the media usually stands.

I glanced up seeing the overwhelming number of reporters and photographers. There was a make shift stage where Jensen would come out and give a few words before cutting the ribbon.

"uh hi, I'm (F/N L/N) for Texas Monthly." I said to the security guard showing him my press badge.

"of course Ms. (L/N), right this way."

I'm led behind the rope with the hundreds of other media workers.

Great, I couldn't see a thing.

I wasn't the tallest, standing 5"3 on a good day. I really needed this picture. I took a deep breath. I was just going to have to push my way through. I sighed as I started to forcefully push my way through the crowded bodies. I uttered apologies as people gave me dirty looks.

It finally got to where I could push no more. I was closer to the front but still a ways away. There was no way I was getting a good picture now. I blew a piece of stray hair that had fallen in my face when there was a clearing of a mic sound, followed by the girls in the crowd delivering ear splitting screams. I stood on my tippy toes and looked up at the stage.

Jensen Ackles walked over to the microphone standing clad in a black suit and a tie. He smiled showing his perfect teeth. He waved his hand at the screaming girls.

"holy.." I stared to say looking up at him.

I've seen pictures of him of course, but up close he looked even more mesmerizing, if that were remotely possible. His eyes were dark as he scanned the crowd. His jaw clenched looking as if the heavens chiseled it out of stone. He was intimidatingly tall, with muscles being accentuated by his suit jacket. He was undeniably gorgeous.

"thank you, thank you all." He said waiting for the screams to die down.

It just made the girls scream more. Hs voice was raspy, it dripped of sex appeal.

"I appreciate everyone coming today. I'm so grateful to be opening my fourth ale house in beautiful Laredo. I've always been a connoisseur of whiskey and rum, and I've been blessed to be able to work with some incredibly talented people and make my own. What started out as a hobby has now grown in to a full blown business and I couldn't be more grateful for each and every one of you that helps this business thrive. I'm not really a man for speeches so with that being said I officially declare Ackles Ale House open!" He says cutting the ribbon.

I sucked in a sharp breath, and started to panic. I was so focused on listening to his voice, I completely forgot the entire reason I came here! I brought the camera lens up to my eye trying to get a good shot. It was impossible as there were too many people in the way.

I started snapping, praying to the heavens that there was something front page worthy in the mix. Jensen smiled as the reporters started raising their hands for questions. I dug in my pocket for Stellas list but my hands were shaking too much I ended up dropping it on the dirt below.

Shit.

I bent over quickly to pick it up.

"I apologize but Mr. Ackles isn't taking questions at this time." A voice said making people groan in displeasure.

I grabbed the paper rising. As I did I saw Jensen walking past the rope that held the media. It was like something ignited in them. Everyone started pushing closer trying to get that perfect picture, or a quote from the man himself even though it was just said he didn't want to answer questions.

I grabbed on to my camera as elbows flew into my sides and people pushed against my back. I felt my breath get caught in my throat. I didn't like crowds to begin with, and people pushing in to me was too much. A particularly large man pushed against my side causing me to trip over and fall head first into the dirt. I tried to stand up but people were too busy pushing that nobody had noticed I was down here. I covered my head worried I was going to get trampled by media reporters.

"HEY GET BACK, EVERYONE GET BACK." I heard a gruff voice call loudly over the shouting fans and reporters.

I felt a relief in pressure as the bodies move away from me quickly. I uncovered my head and saw a hand being offered out to me. I looked up and was met with piercing green eyes, eyes that belonged to a Mr. Jensen Ackles. I gulped as I looked at his extended hand. No way was he in front of me right now.

"are you okay?" He asked.

I stared at him wide eyed, somehow his voice sounded even sexier when it was talking to me. I grabbed his hand giving him a slight nervous nod. He pulled me to my feet as if I were weightless.

"no you're not, your head is bleeding."

He put his hand on my face and with his thumb stroked a spot on my forehead. I winced in pain. I must've cut my head when I fell. It was just my luck that I would look incredibly stupid in front of him. I could hear cameras snapping as he looked at me. I prayed to god this didn't end up on any front pages I was embarrassed enough already. I realized I still hadn't said anything and was just awkwardly staring at him.

"I'm sure it's okay." I quietly murmur wiping my sleeve against my head.

I looked down seeing a little red stain.

"come on, let's get you some help." He smiled.

He grabbed my hand pulling me through the crowd of people and under the rope that was now being held up by his security guards. I could hear people gossiping but I was too focused on his large hand engulfing my small one. I felt my mouth go bone dry as he pulled me inside the ale house that had yet to let patrons in.

"Sit." He instructed pulling out a bar stool for me to sit on.

He disappeared somewhere else in the pub. I took the opportunity to look around. It was beautiful in here. The decor was nice but not too flashy. He reappeared quickly with a first aide kit in hand.

"I'm sorry about that, people can get kind of crazy." He said opening the kit.

I watched his hands work delicately opening an alcohol wipe and a band aide.

Oh god his hands.

They were large, but worked swiftly and were surprisingly gentle looking.

"this will sting a little." He said dabbing my head with the wipe.

I winced and out of reflex my hand flew up grabbing his wrist. He chuckled looking me in the eyes. My strength was in no way a match for him. I'm pretty sure my face lit up like a christmas tree as I removed my hand. I continued to stare at him while he worked at cleaning some excess blood from my wound.

"you don't say much do you.. Ms. uh Ms. (L/N)." Jensen said grabbing the press badge around my neck.

"It's just (y/n)." I chirped quietly.

He towered over me. It was rather intimidating, not to mention that but he's a billionaire television star and I'm just me.

"It's not deep enough to need stitches, just a cut but definitely keep it clean and covered." He ordered putting a band aide over my cut.

He stepped back giving me a once over. I couldn't help but feel incredibly insecure.

"uh thanks, you really didn't have to do all this." I said giving him a shy smile.

"of course I did, an injury is really bad for business." He says staring down at me as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

I felt the heat creeping up to my cheeks once again.

"oh yeah uh of course." I choked clearing my throat.

Gosh I'm an idiot.

There was a pause of silence before his laughter boomed in my ears.

"I'm kidding Ms. (L/N)." He said smiling.

"It's just (y/n). " I whispered again.

"so just (y/n), are you a reporter, you really don't seem like the cutthroat type." He asked gesturing to Stellas list that I still clutched in my hand.

"uh photographer actually, I was supposed to get a picture of the opening, my friend Stella is a reporter, she was supposed to come too but uh she has the stomach bug and wanted to see if I could get you to answer some of her questions for the article she's writing." I said afraid to meet his eyes.

"well did you get one?" He questions leaning on the bar so he was more relaxed and slouched down to my level."

I gave him a confused look.

"a picture." He clarifies, laughing at my confusion.

I don't know what it was about him, but it was causing my brain to get all foggy.

"oh yeah, uhm lets see." I blushed looking down at my camera.

I noticed the lens had a crack in it, and that the hatch where the sd card was inserted was open and the sd card missing.

" oh no." I said peering at my camera.

"everything okay?" Jensen spoke up furrowing his eyebrows in concern.

"uh yeah just my camera I must've cracked the lens when I fell, and my sd card fell out. It's fine though I'm sure uh there are other pictures we can use for the column." I said shaking it off.

I didn't want him to feel bad for my clumsiness.

I looked up meeting Jensens eyes. He was staring at me intently. I gulped nervously, feeling my cheeks heat up.

"well how about I answer some of your friends questions then." He offers with a smile.

"I uh thought you weren't answering questions." I said barely above a whisper.

Jensen leaned in close so we were eye level now.

"I think I can make an exception. I mean you got hurt for me after all." He said giving me a cheeky smile.

I could feel his breath fan over my face as he spoke. It smelled like mint and whiskey. I couldn't help the chills that shot through my body.

"uh great thanks, she'll be thrilled." I said starting to fiddle with the paper, of course in my nervous tirade I dropped it.

I went to reach for it at the same time as Jensen making our hands touch.

"erm sorry." I said quickly grabbing the paper and unfolding it the rest of the way.

Jensen sat leaning on the bar staring at me, waiting for me to ask him a question. I removed a pen from my pocket and quickly looked at the paper, my brain was so foggy I convinced myself I forgot how to read for a second. I took a deep breath reading the first question on the list.

"uh you went from being a successful actor on the hit show supernatural to now owning multiple businesses, to what do you.." I started but was cut off by Jensen.

"to what do I owe my sucess? is that really her question?" He asks raising his eyebrows.

I bite my lip nervously shaking my head.

"I think my success is owed to supernatural and how hard we worked to make the show what it was, it allowed me to make connections with some great people and build up my name." He said.

"maybe you just got lucky." I chirped still biting my bottom lip.

"that's funny Ms. (L/N), I found out the harder I worked the more luck seemed to come my way." He said ruggedly.

"of course, I didn't uh mean, uh I'm just going to ask the next question, you've recently started outsourcing some of your products from third world countries, is this a personal reason or.." I started but again was cut off.

"It's smart business, that's all." He said.

I scoffed looking down at the paper.

"what you don't think I'm making smart marketing decisions?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

"No it's not that, I just think your heart may be a little bit bigger than you would like people to believe. I said giving him a shy smile.

"you know many media reporters say I don't have much of a heart at all." Jensen said running his hand down his bearded chin.

"I don't believe that." I said quickly looking at him intently.

“well then you don’t know me very well Ms. (L/N), next question.” He says quickly changing topics.

I glance at the paper flustered. It seemed like this was something that he struggled with. He didn't want to answer questions to begin with and the last thing I wanted to do was make him uncomfortable with my questioning.

“Are you gay.” I spoke before my hand immediately flew over my mouth.

I'm going to kill Stell.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I just asked you that! It’s Stella she’s intrusive and since your almost never photographed with a woman, the media speculates.” I rambled feeling absolutely embarrassed.

Jensen looked at me with a stern face before laughing.

“no I’m not gay.” He said.

“I’m sorry it’s on the paper.” I blushed.

“forget the paper..” he said grabbing it from my hands and placing it on the bar. “is there anything you want to know about me?” He asked moving just a bit closer.

I bite my lip again looking down at my hands.

“you said I didn’t know you very well to believe you have a heart, is that because you don’t think you do or other people make you feel like that?” I whisper looking at the man in front of me.

He was so nice. How could someone this nice not have a heart? Jensen once again leaned down to my eye level, our noses were practically touching. I stared nervously at his gorgeous green eyes.

“I’m not who everyone thinks that I am Ms. (L/N).” He answered his eyes falling to the floor.

I was about to respond when a couple guys in black suits came in.

“Jensen we gotta get these doors open.” A middle aged man said looking to Jensen.

“yeah of course Cole, start letting the guests in.” Jensen said standing up and turning away from me.

I slowly stood up too, displeased that whatever moment we had was now over.

“just give me a minute guys.” Jensen said holding up a finger to the gentlemen in the suits.

He turns back around grabbing my chin to examine my band aide covered head. I felt electric pulse through my skin where his fingertips met.

“I’m uh really sorry you got hurt today, and that you didn’t get your picture. I hope I answered all your questions though.” He said offering me a small smile.

“I think you only answered three of them but, I uh should go, thanks again for the help I thought I was actually going to get trampled out there.” I joked biting my bottom lip again.

Jensen looks down at my lip before meeting my eyes.

“I wouldn’t have let that happen.” Jensen says seriously his eyes flicking from my lips to my eyes.

I got a nervous feeling in my gut when he stared at me. Almost as if I was nauseous but in a good way.

“I should uh go.” I whispered not wanting to delay the opening more than I already had but also wanting to savor every bit of this moment.

“I’ll uh walk you out.” Jensen says turning around and putting a hand on my lower back.

He leads me out the back door of the ale house where it isn’t overrun with people.

“I guess this is goodbye then.” I said turning to look at him one last time.

I can’t believe I actually had the chance to sit down and talk with him. My heart ached that this experience was now over.

“who knows Ms. (L/N). I might see you around.” Jensen says before turning around and walking back in to his business.

“just (y/n).” I whisper biting my lip, though he was already too far gone.

I couldn’t help the grin that spread over my face as I walked outside. The Texas heat hit me like a freight train, Jensen’s words playing in my head.

“who knows I might see you around.”

My smile didn’t falter as I quietly drove back to our little apartment. As soon as I pulled in my parking space Stella was out at my car.

“Oh my god (y/n/n) your all over the internet.” She screams handing me her phone.

I look down and there are pictures of Jensen jumping over the velvet rope to rescue me. I looked like a deer in headlights staring up at him.

God this was so embarrassing.

I just hope Gray doesn't see these. I gave her, her phone back getting out of the car.

“so…” she starts with a squeal.

“so…” I say rolling my eyes at her.

“tell me everything, what happened!?” she screams grabbing my shoulders.

“nothing really, he brought me inside to clean up my cut and we just talked for a little bit, I asked him some of your questions, I even asked him if he was gay, which thanks for that by the way.” I said pushing past her into the apartment.

“ooh yeah sorry about that, so what was he like?” She pestered.

“nice, polite, serious, intimidating.” I rattled off, my mind going to the towering man with the raspy voice.

“uh totally hot…” she added.

"I mean yeah if you're in to that type." I said glancing at her.

“so did you get your picture?” she asked looking at my camera.

I looked down at my camera again disappointed. I knew I was going to get shit for not doing the one task I was asked of, I’m just hoping Stella’s questions were enough to get me out of the hole I had dug for myself.

“no, when I fell my lens cracked and I’m missing my sd card.” I groaned taking my camera off from around my neck and tossing it on the couch.

“oh well you wrote down the answers to the questions right?” She said cocking her head to the side.

I shook my head, fishing in my jacket pocket for her list of questions where I'd scribbled his answers in pen. I didn’t feel them though. Realization hit me as I remembered Jensen grabbing the paper out of my hand and setting it on the bar. I never picked it back up. I was definitely screwed now. I remember all of his answers but still, I don’t know if anyone will believe just word of mouth.

“about that..” I started biting my lip.

“Gray’s going to be furious.” Stella says giving me a concerned look.

“you’re telling me.” I said crashing on the couch.

A million thoughts were running through my head, all of them leading back to one person in particular. He was definitely intimidating but there was also something about him that drew you in and hypnotized you. I shuddered remembering how close he was to me, the smell of his aftershave mixed with his cologne filled my nostrils. It was definitely the best day I've had in awhile despite not getting my picture and the hell I’m going to get for it. I grabbed a blanket off the back of the sofa, curling up and falling into a euphoric sleep, my dreams consisting of a certain green eyed man.

“I guess this is goodbye then.” I said turning to look at him one last time.

"maybe it doesn't have to be?"

Jensen came closer to me running a hand down the side of my face. He looked in my eyes intently while bringing his face closer. I bit my lip out of habit.

"what I wouldn't do to bite that lip." He groaned.

"What’s stopping you?"

He leaned in making my eyes flutter closed. I could feel his breath just a mere inch away from me. He got closer.....and closer.....

I awoke to someone violently shaking my shoulders.

"(y/n), get the hell up, we're going to be late for work." Stella yelled throwing a pillow at me.

I shot up from my position on the couch.

Shit. I overslept.

I quickly grabbed some clothes sprinting to the bathroom. I threw on black dress pants, a white top and a black blazer. I ran my fingers quickly through my hair, deciding this would have to do for now. I managed to have enough time to gargle with some mouth wash before running out the door.

"so what are you going to tell Gray?" Stella asked driving to the editorial office while I applied a thin layer of mascara in the passengers seat.

Fuck. I was so preoccupied thinking of Jensen I had no clue what the hell I was going to say to my boss.

"maybe he won't ask." I shrugged in defeat.

"yeah and maybe I'll be the next Queen of England." Stella joked.

She pulled into her designated parking spot, gathering her bag from the back seat. I opened the door moving at a sluggish pace. Maybe if I avoided Gray everything would be fine. He's a busy man after all, there are times where he can’t be seen throughout the day. I was praying that today was one of those days, just until I could think of what to say to him, or find something else that could potentially save our article. I walked in the building with my head down going straight to my desk.

Keep cool. I don't think he saw me enter.

I turn around unpacking my bag when I heard a hand slam down on my desk.

Of course. I just can’t win!

I hesitantly turn around, my boss Gray staring down at me.

"so did you get my picture?" He asked glaring at me.

I noticed Stella start to shuffle closer, knowing I'd need her for support.

"about the picture sir.." I started my voice quiet.

"you didn't get the picture!?" He asked, slowly starting to raise his voice.

"no, there were too many people, I fell and cracked the lens of my camera, and.." I rambled but was cut off.

"this was huge (y/n), you really dropped the ball on this one. I can't believe you're incapable of doing one small simple task, how are you ever going to make it in the big leagues if you can't snap a simple picture?" He yelled in disappointment.

I could feel the tears lace my eyes as he degraded me in front of the entire editorial office. I've never felt so small. Stella steps up beside me.

“now sir, let’s take it easy.” She tries to defend while trying not to cross a line.

"I'm really sorry sir." I apologized looking down at my feet, not wanting him to see my tear brimmed eyes.

"you're sorry, well sorry doesn't...." He started but was interrupted by a voice.

"I'm uh looking for a Ms. (L/N)."

I snapped my head up.

I know that voice.

Jensen stood at the reception desk, the receptionist too stunned to speak.

"holy shit.." Stella and I both said at the same time.

Jensen glances around, finally connecting eyes with mine. He smiles making his way to my desk.

“Mr. Ackles what a pleasure to have you here, I’m Gray Holland, chief editor.” Gray says putting on a big smile, which was different from his usual scowl.

Jensen ignored him, instead coming to stand in front of me and a very stunned Stella.

“you’re uh here, how, why?” I asked in shock.

“I believe you dropped this.” Jensen said.

He reaches in to his pocket and pulls out an sd card. He found it… but how? Did he go looking?

“Ah you must be Stella?” Jensen said turning to her.

She stands wide eyed nodding her head. He reaches in his other pocket pulling out a folded up paper… it was the list of her questions.

“I’m uh not gay but thanks for clarifying.” Jensen says handing Stella her list of questions.

She unfolded it with shaking hands, every question was filled out in his neat handwriting. I can’t believe he took the time to do that. Jensen gives me a smile before turning around to face Gray.

“Mr. Holland was it? I apologize sir, I didn’t anticipate the amount of people being there, therefore quality control was not the most efficient. It was my fault, Ms. (L/N) was shoved over and her camera sustained damages. I’ve written out a check that should cover the cost to replace the camera.” Jensen spoke pulling out a folded check.

My breath was caught in my throat. Nobody had ever stood up for me before. Gray was an intimidating man but looked small compared to Jensen.

“I appreciate your explanation and thank you Mr. Ackles, but (y/n) still didn’t get the cleared picture for her article.” Gray says pocketing the check.

I rolled my eyes. All Gray cares about is his stupid magazine.

“I know it’s not the same, but I’m free now for an original picture, as long as Ms. (L/ N) gets to take it.” Jensen spoke glancing back at me.

I could hear Stella shriek with excitement. Gray looks at me with judge filled eyes before agreeing.

“you girls go set up in the studio.” Gray orders me and Stella.

Stella grabs my hand sprinting to the studio while Jensen went to freshen up in the bathroom.

“Oh my gosh I can’t believe this is real right now!” Stella squealed.

“I have no idea how he found me, I never told him where we work.” I said scratching my head.

“He’s so totally into you (y/n) ! Must’ve made an impression if he tracked you down!” Stella fangirled.

“you’re delusional my friend.” I laughed starting to set up a backdrop and a ring light for some good lighting.

Jensen came back, dressed in his signature suit and tie.

“Ready?” He asked giving me a smile.

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to his smile.

I shook my head biting my bottom lip. Jensen walked in front of the backdrop and posed for the camera. It didn’t take me long to snap a couple good pictures of him. Let’s be honest, the man was incapable of taking a bad one. I brought the camera down from my eye sifting through the pictures.

“any good ones?” Jensen asked, his presence suddenly much closer.

“they’re all good.” I smiled turning my camera to show him the headshots.

I could feel his body heat radiating off of him as he stood close glancing down at the pictures.

“wow these are great, you’re really talented.” Jensen said looking down at me.

Hold up did he just call me talented!? I could feel the immediate heat spread to my cheeks.

“thank you and thank you for all this, Gray’s always on my case.” I said staring up at the tall man.

“I owe you one, and that guy is blind if he can’t see the talent right in front of him.” Jensen said reaching a hand up to stroke my cheek in a comforting manor.

Suddenly someone was clearing their throat. I completely forgot Stella was in the room too.

“I’m just going to go.” She said pointing to the door.

She started to walk backwards but tripped on her two feet causing Jensen and I to laugh. Once she was out the door Jensen turned his attention back to me.

“so any plans for lunch?” He asked.

I bit my lip shaking my head no.

“how about lunch with me?”

“I’d love too.” I breathed.

“then it’s a date.”

Author Note:

Hello!

I really hope you Jensen lovers are liking the first part of my new fiction. If you can show it with a heart, reblog, comment, or a follow!

Part (II)

[bnnywngs]

Shoyo is a famous actor/model, he's currently everywhere from the current popular drama airing prime time, to that big billboard in the city, he's also in some magazines covers and has a million followers on his sns.

He's also pretty infamous for his coming out during a live show earlier in his career, and his refusal to act in stereotypes/prejudiced works, and for calling out homophobic acts, talks and people.

Because of that, he's celebrated between the lgbt community in Japan, and his fans are not only loyal, but fiercely protective and active in protests online or in person, for many things - either lgbt, feminist, or just to get a better access for wheelchairs in the subway.

But recently, after years saying he was single, he came out saying he had a lover who was neither an actor or a model, but wasn't unknown. He didn't want to say who it was because it could be bad for them, as Japan still has a long way to go to accept lgbt couples.

People respected that, but not the paparazzi, as always, so they relentlessly followed Shoyo, who kept going from work to home, and home to work, with a few outings with his friends and colleagues, so the photographers were getting anxious and restless.

It all came down to one letter.

Every Christmas Shoyo sends a custom postcard to his parents and his sister (who's a famous volleyball player now in Turkey) before going back home for new years (if he didn't have anything in his schedule), and this year he decided to get a picture of him and his boyfriend in a Christmas setting as his postcard.

But it was intercepted by one of the paparazzi.

Shoyo's boyfriend was none other than number 1 japanese streamer kodzuken! It was a cute little postcard with a picture of both of them sitting in front of a big and full of ornaments Christmas tree, with matching sweaters and doing a heart with their hands together.

The leak was soon everywhere and Shoyo's radio interview was cancelled that day, together with all his schedule, so they could do a somewhat damage control and to write a handwritten letter to his fans not only explaining everything, but criticizing those who stole his family letter.

The truth was: Shoyo and kodzuken met each other in highschool, when they both played volleyball in their respective schools, and started a relationship early on, that kept going for years and years, both their families knew about it and accepted it, Shoyo's family loved Kenma and treated him as another member of the family, and kodzuken's parents are always inviting Shoyo to have family dinner with them and even going out together without kodzuken.

kodzuken just did a small update stream a week or so later, saying almost the exact same thing as Shoyo's letter, and also criticizing those who make money over these kinds of scandals, and that they wanted to come out some day as a couple but in their own terms and not like this - as kodzuken wasn't even out of the closet for his fans.

As the media was letting go of this and the fans were calming down (Shoyo's fans being more open and receptive of their relationship), a magazine with them at the cover was released, with a long interview where they shared one single picture of their teenage years, where they went a bit more deep into their relationship and why they gave up volleyball after highschool.

[cartermagazine]

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Today We Honor Phyllis Hyman

Phyllis Linda Hyman was an American singer-songwriter and actress, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania July 6, 1949. She was best known for her singles from the late 1970s through the early 1990s including: You Know How to Love Me, Living All Alone, and Don’t Wanna Change the World.

She performed on a national tour with the group, New Direction. Later she joined All the People while working with another group, The Hondo Beat. She made her acting debut in 1974 in the film Lenny. Hyman also led a group called Phyllis Hyman and the P/H Factor.

Hyman’s debut solo album named Phyllis Hyman was released in 1977 on Buddah Records. When Arista Records bought Buddah Records, she transferred to the new label and released four albums: Somewhere in My Lifetime (1979), You Know How to Love Me (1979), Can’t We Fall in Love Again? (1981), and Goddess of Love (1983).

She also performed on Broadway in the musical, Sophisticated Ladies, the tribute play for Duke Ellington. For that work, she received a Tony Award, nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, and won a Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer.

In 1983 Hyman recorded the song “Never Say Never Again” for the James Bond movie of the same name which starred Sean Connery but the song she recorded couldn’t be used for the movie soundtrack due to legal reasons. In 1986 Hyman released the album, Living All Alone, on the Philadelphia International label. She also appeared in the movies, Too Scared to Scream (1985), Spike Lee’s School Daze (1988), and The Kill Reflex (1989).

In 1991 Phyllis Hyman released the album, The Prime of My Life, on Philadelphia International, which was the biggest album of her career. It included her first number-one R&B hit as well her first Billboard Top 100 hit, Don’t Wanna Change the World. The album, her last released while she was alive, was certified gold by 1992.

Phyllis Hyman… One of the Greatest Artists of our Lifetime.

CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #cartermagazine #carter #phyllishyman #music #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #spikelee #schooldaze #staywoke

[ohsalome]

Again and again and again I see (mostly) westerners accusing Ukraine of "opressing russian-speaking minority" by our language law (without reading the language law itself, obviously). It really looks like people have some kind of pavlovian reflex to the word "minority", immediately jumping to the assumption that minority = opressed by the majority. But a minority by numbers does not automatically mean minority by power. Billionaires, too, make up a minority of population, does that mean that they are opressed by the majority class? Are gaelige speakers in Ireland priveleged in comparison to the English? Are Elon Musk's white emerald mine owning family opressed by the majority black African population?

For the 1000th time, the relationship between Ukraine and russia is that between colonised and coloniser. It is russian identity, russian language, russian culture, russian world that has been privileged on the territory of ukraine for at least last 400 years. It is ukrainian language, ukrainian culture, ukrainian identity that people have been repressed and killed for.

russian propaganda takes this assumption westerners have about how the world fuctions (minority=oppressed) and uses it to twist the reality. To make you believe that Ukrainians somehow "deserve" to be genocided. To make you believe that it's the best course of action for the West to abandon Ukraine to be raped and plundered by russia. But we can call it "peace", because russians won't allow western journalists to report on it, and we all know that if the west doesn't talk about something, it means it doesn't exist :))))

Here are statistics about the "opression of russian language" from 2012 - during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovich, russian puppet and a literal mafioso [source]:

More than 60% of the total circulation of newspapers, 83% of magazines, and about 87% of books (most of which are imported from Russia) are published in Russian in Ukraine.

In October 2012, only 28% of the prime time on the top 8 TV channels was devoted to Ukrainian-language programs, 44% to Russian-language programs and 28% to bilingual programs.

On the 6 top-rated radio stations, songs in Ukrainian account for only 3.4% of the total number of songs in prime time (last year - 4.6%). At the same time, songs in Russian account for 60% of the total number of songs.

Out of 290 restaurants in 29 cities, only 50% of them have signs in Ukrainian, 46% have menus in Ukrainian, and only 36% have employees who answer Ukrainian to Ukrainian-speaking customers (in another 11%, employees switched to Ukrainian during the conversation).

The "oppression of russian speakers in Ukraine" is nothing but the tyranny of russian chauvinism and imperialism losing its footing. Y'all had no trouble understanding how white ethnonationalists complaining about "the great replacement" is nothing but fear of losing the privilege. Y'all had no trouble understanding that "white cis male is the most opressed person" is a moral panic not grounded in the real power structure of the western society. But in this question, you've decided to ally with the opressor.

[scourgeofmyownbrain]

Edit: I MADE AN UPDATED ONE GO LOOK AT THAT ONE IT'S BETTER I CITED MY SOURCES AND SHOWED MY WORK AND EVERYTHING

Ladies and Gentlemen, Bitches and Bastards, Witches and Wizards, Mothers and Fuckers. Esteemed robot enjoyers, I present to you a semi-accurate height comparison of Bumblebee across the multiverse (as of July 2024). This really helps visualize the truly staggering differences between universes, at least height-wise. Also, three of these characters are Canonically the Same Guy; guess which ones.

I spent way too much time on the chart in the back it's not even funny. I will probably make more height charts for more TF characters and universes in the future. Don't expect it soon though, because when I make these, I am fueled by pure I-Got-Bored-At-Work-And-I-Have-Decided-To-Fool-Around-With-Robot-PNGs, and that fuel supply is inconsistent at best.

Hey Fun Fact, Did you know that Generation 1 Optimus Prime is around 19 Feet Tall? Bet some of you already knew that. I have no ulterior motives for bringing this fact up, what are you talking about.

My height explanations are below the cut, because you couldn't shut me up if you tried.

In an order:

Gen 1 - ~10 feet (the wiki says greater than 3 meters so I rounded up to the first whole number because round)

Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~10 feet (He looks identical to Gen 1 so... the reason his photo looks weird is because I couldn't find a good full body photo with him standing straight up facing the camera so I put two images together to make the worst looking photoshop job you have ever seen)

Earth Spark - 10 feet (There is no confirmed height yet but using a screen shot of him standing in front of a barn door I was able to make a reasonable guess.)

Animated - 12 feet (I have no genuine source for this, I think this info is just someone's guesstimate, but it seems reasonable. He's a tiny two door mini car, how big could he be)

New Live Action - 15 feet (The wiki hath declared. Also do we have a name for this universe because we need one I don't want to keep saying like 6 words to differentiate this one from bayverse)

Bayverse V1 - 16 feet (This is like the first 3 movies minimum, I don't remember when he hits his growth spurt. also wiki my love)

Cyberverse - 18 feet (I'm gonna be honest, the only info we have is from a really shitty screen shot of a magazine. SO if any one has a copy of this book from the video below, a high quality scan would be greatly appreciated and I will kiss the ground you walk upon. Yes I found the video where the screen shot comes from leave me alone)

Bayverse V2 - 18 feet (movie 4-5 I can't remember which one, I'm not re-looking this up. I fucking love the bayverse tho, this is the only universe with concrete and consistent this-character-is-this-height info)

Aligned Cont. WF/FOC - 20 feet (video game info screens you god send, kiss me sweetly)

Aligned Cont. TFP/RID15 - 21 feet (I do not know exactly where these numbers were found, but I fully fucking believe them. Just by looking at these characters on the show I can verify these numbers in my mind. They made specifically this universe to be full of freakishly tall robots for some fucking reason.)

And for any one who doesn't know, the three tallest are the same guy. Like the 20 feet tall one and the 21 feet tall ones, same guy. The ones in three wildly different art styles and designs. Let that sink in...

I fucking hate the aligned continuity why is that one my favorite.

[nerd-goes-blogging]

how did I get here?

('bout how I became a dedicated Tintin fan)

You know, there’s a reason I call Tintin and Snowy my favourite.

I met them when I was 12 years old, in a dusty corner of my school library. An instant connection developed between us and since then we had never been apart. 

On his birthday, 9th January, my thoughts turned nostalgic about the young reporter who brightened and inspired my teenage years. Well, back then I wrote a journal entry dedicated to him and his glorious adventures. While creating this blog, the first content that came to my mind was this journal entry.

So, why not?

Here's to all those amazing memories I’ve made so far with this reporter and many more to come.

Back in middle school days, I remember searching for a book series to follow diligently. There were many of them. Mostly fantasies and fictions and dark romance. Some were menacing and awkward. As a whole, not an ideal read for me, I thought. I didn’t (and still don’t) want my head to be occupied with weird thoughts which yield nothing. But I knew my search would end one day. And it did.. 

One day, rummaging through the junior library at school, I noticed some illustrated books, which resembled the comics’s style but quite refined. With the librarian's permission I opened the locked up cabinet which seemed to have jammed due to rust.

That was my pirate treasure, a bounty which I was lucky enough to stumble upon.

The first book which I read from the series was ‘The Castafiore’s Emerald’. The only adventure completely based in the Marlinspike Hall, gives a cozy kind of feeling. Not only did I appreciate Tintin's wits, but I was also amused by Captain Haddock’s funny curses and alliteration which were insulting enough to trash anyone. I really felt that I was where I belonged. I decided to stick to it and started to gather more information and facts about the young protagonist and his brilliant creator, Hergé . The internet, of course, helped me to a great extent as all 24 volumes of the adventures were available there. Also, that was my first year learning french. When Madame came to know about my new hobby, she encouraged me to carry it further and suggested that I'd get the gist of both, the language and the stories, if I read them in french. So, I did that, and how! By the end of middle school, I had read all 24 volumes, some in french as well.

Since then, I’ve read the whole series many times. I've lost count of the number of times I've ...

cheered when Tintin fought Bobby Smiles in Chicago in the book ‘Tintin in America’, 

gasped at the revelation of Rastapopoulos as an antagonist in ‘The Blue Lotus’ (who continued on to become the prime villain in the series), 

chuckled to see (or hear) Bianca Castafiore’s god forsaken singing and Tintin’s reaction in ‘King Ottokar’s Sceptre’, 

been amused at the introduction of Captain Haddock into the series in ‘The Crab with Golden Claws’, 

got my funny bone tickled as Captain Haddock grouched on Professor Cuthbert Calculus’ “hard of hearing” trouble, 

got thrilled with the hero’s treasure hunt in ‘The Secret of the Unicorn’

got terrified at the vengeance of Inca Rascar Capac and Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock’s quest to release the professor from the captivity of the Incas in ‘The Seven Crystal Balls’ & ‘The Prisoners of the Sun’ (this story is hands down my most fav :)

greeted the Emir and his son Abdullah (devil’s incarnation) in ‘Land of Black Gold’, 

followed the friends to the moon and back (literally!) 

visited Borduria and Syldavia, 

cried my heart out (when I first read it, I was so touched) in the joyous reunion of Tintin and Tchang, 

rolled with laughter on seeing the magazine cover of Paris Flash in ‘The Castafiore Emerald’, 

encountered all sorts of people (even aliens! in ‘flight 714’) 

and went to an extent of a military coup for General Alcazar. 

Oh, and not to forget the cliffhanger of the unfinished ‘Tintin and the Alph-art’ (left for fans to complete it with our imagination, I like to believe!)

 

Phew! The list is much longer than this & the memories are limitless!!

You might wonder why I'm so into Tintin's adventures and what makes him different from other comic book heroes? 

More importantly, what made me stay? 

You can find this out and more in my next blog.

Until then, stay nerdy ✨👩‍🎓

The Nerdy Olive :)

[mariacallous]

The Catholic Church in Hungary has been engulfed by a series of high-profile sex scandals and child abuse investigations. The situation isn’t just a crisis for the church, but also a challenge for Viktor Orban’s Christian-nationalist government.

“Perhaps we should not refer to these merely as ‘scandalous cases’, but rather as the painful, inhumane, traumatizing injuries suffered by minors, which go far beyond ‘scandalous news’,” read a statement on December 4 by the editors of the independent Hungarian religious affairs magazine Szemlelek, reflecting on a crisis that has recently engulfed Hungary’s Catholic Church.

Since September, a series of scandals relating to sexual misconduct, pedophilia and cover-up in the Catholic church has wrecked the public reputation of five high-profile clerics and occasioned the suspension of a rising, but as-yet unconfirmed, number of their colleagues. Some see echoes of the crisis in the US Catholic church sparked by the 2002 Boston Globe ‘Spotlight’ investigation into child abuse in the city’s archdiocese – a story (and later movie) that plunged American Catholicism into a crisis from which it’s still recovering.

The close government ties of the priests implicated heighten concerns about overlaps between political power, religious networks and child sexual abuse in Hungary. These concerns were first raised earlier this year in February, following the exposure of a successful intercession by Reformed Church bishop (and former Fidesz cabinet minister) Zoltan Balog with then-president Katalin Novak, a fellow Calvinist, to pardon a church member convicted as a pedophile accomplice. News of the pardon led to Novak’s resignation.

Attention is now turning away from the Reformed community and towards the Catholic Church.

From local to national

In early September, the storm started rumbling with the public disgrace of Father Gergo Bese, a priest of the Kalocsa-Kecskemet archdiocese and a prominent social media influencer identified with the governing Fidesz party via its satellite KDNP (Christian Democratic Peoples’ Party). In 2022, Bese conducted a ‘house blessing’ of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s office in the former Carmelite monastery beside Buda Castle.

On September 6, Hungarian outlet Valasz Online revealed that Father Bese, a vocal supporter of Fidesz’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda, had been living a double life as a gay porn movie actor. He was also (against church law) receiving a stipend from the KDNP for communications work without permission from his bishop. He is now under disciplinary suspension.

While Father Bese’s activities involved only consenting adults, their discovery, however, prompted revelations about other forms of misconduct by Kalocsa priests, including those involving minors. Two clerics – Gabor Ronaszeki and Robert Hathazi – both with strong ties to Hungary’s ruling parties, are now being prosecuted by secular authorities for alleged child molestation.

In 2023, Ronaszeki underwent a church disciplinary process during which he admitted the offences, and was removed from the priesthood. He’s understood to have offered money and gifts in exchange for sex to underage boys attending his Religious Education group over a three-year period.

Ronaszeki is the brother-in-law of former Fidesz MP and ministerial commissioner Monika Ronaszekine Keresztes, as well as being an associate of the KDNP leader Zsolt Semjen, who is currently serving as the deputy prime minister and minister for church affairs in the Orban government.

Hungarian media reported that Semjen had been a personal guest at Ronaszeki’s remote “recreational farm” near the small town of Janoshalma in Southern Hungary. Responding to the reports, Semjen claimed that “to the best of my recollection” he has not “visited the place in question”.

Handing matters over swiftly to police and prosecutors reflects improvements in practice following recent reforms across the Catholic world. Even so, the scandal has continued to grow numerically and geographically.

In a November 15 interview with Valasz Online, the archbishop of Kalocsa-Kecskemet, Balazs Babel, said public awareness of the two court cases had led to more complainants bringing allegations against other clerics.

“In recent months, the Archbishop’s Office has received many more reports than before,” he admitted, adding that several other Kalocsa priests have now been suspended pending investigation.

Major Pajor problem

The issue has morphed from a diocesan scandal into a national crisis. That’s partly because the outcry about Kalocsa was heard from early on in the national media, and partly because first central church institutions and then other dioceses became implicated in related misconduct stories.

First came the resignation on October 25 of the national Bishops’ Conference Secretary Father Tamas Toth, amid allegations of serious impropriety in mishandling communications relating to Kalocsa.

And then on December 5 the scandal reached the archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest, led by Hungary’s primate, Cardinal Peter Erdo.

On that day, news broke of canonical and police investigations into Budapest priest Father Andras Pajor, a prominent face of Fidesz’s ‘political Christianity’. In 2023, Father Pajor received Hungary’s Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit from Deputy Prime Minister Semjen for his “role in youth education”.

Father Pajor has repeatedly urged Christians to vote for Orban. He has also, latterly, become notable as a spreader of Russian propaganda, claiming in a YouTube video about the Ukraine war that, since 2022, some 35,000 Russian children had been kidnapped “for pedophiles in the West”.

Former altar boys from his parish, speaking anonymously to Valasz Online, tell a rather different story, however. They claim Father Pajor himself frequently made them strip naked, inspected their genitals intimately with his hands, and gave them full body massages.

Anticipating the next day’s announcement concerning Father Pajor, on December 4 the Bishops’ Conference finally acknowledged the pedophilia issue as a national problem in a statement: “The scandalous news concerning our Church in recent months has caused many to feel uneasy and disappointed… for sins committed, we must pray, fast and make atonement.”

The text continued: “The Catholic Church stands with the victims and communities affected. We pray for them and support their healing.”

Political reverberations

In a letter to fellow bishops obtained by the independent news outlet Telex, Archbishop Babel observed that the impact of the successive scandals was greater “because they are interwoven with politics”.

The political dimension magnifies the spotlight on the church, but the connection of religion and pedophilia is a huge challenge for Fidesz – a party that portrays itself at home and abroad as a protector of family values.

The party’s domestic alliance with historic churches long predates its international communication about Hungary as a bulwark of Christian civilisation against Muslim migration and rising woke-secularism.

Churches have vigorously supported government messaging regarding the supposed dangers that, Fidesz alleges, the LGBTQ+ community poses to children, especially ahead of 2022’s ‘child protection’ referendum, which was timed to boost turnout at that year’s general election. Around 75 per cent of Hungary’s state-funded children’s homes are run by churches.

“Orban’s government constantly seeks endorsement from the churches for its Christian credentials,” religious affairs commentator Janos Reichert tells BIRN. This is because, Reichert continues, there are three overlapping themes closely connected in the minds of many Hungarians: “Hungarian nationalism, anti-Communism and Christianity”.

These three motifs organically support each other such that, Reichert says, “criticism of any one of them cannot be tolerated by Fidesz for fear of danger to the other two”.

Thus, anyone who criticises even one of them is “attacking the ideological basis of the regime”, he adds.

Reichert’s take is shared by political journalist Balazs Gulyas. The government’s flagging support amid economic turbulence and the rise of opposition challenger Peter Magyar means that, in his view, Fidesz is paradoxically more, not less likely to double down reflexively on its traditional talking points, including political Christianity.

“Hungary’s governing parties are grappling with a sharp decline in popularity, making it politically expedient for them to cling to their (overstated) role as the primary political patrons of the churches,” Gulyas tells BIRN. “I find it highly unlikely that they’d abandon the program of political Christianity.”

Such views seem to be borne out by the government’s responses to the crisis to date. Far from distancing itself from the churches, Fidesz has rushed to their defence.

In November, the left-wing opposition party DK proposed a parliamentary motion calling for Hungary to follow the example of Ireland and Australia in establishing an independent enquiry into child sexual abuse in the church. The government used its parliamentary super-majority to defeat the proposal.

And addressing parliament’s justice committee on November 14, Deputy Prime Minister Semjen, speaking in his capacity as minister for church affairs, dismissed suggestions that the situation in the churches represented a particular concern. “The number of church cases is a hundredth of the number of secular cases, there is no reason to single out the church world,” he declared.

[thefisherqueen]

I came across the surname Baskerville in a text completely unrelated to Sherlock Holmes (in a book about wild camping), and it's gives some really interesting insight into the history and present state of UK inherited titles and landownership so thought I would share!

'William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 and then made himself king. It was like any other invasion of conquest, in any other time or realm. King Harold the Second was dead. Long live the King. Life goes on. But there was a difference. New laws saw all of the land seized by the Crown - a relatively unique development in the history of conquest. Sasxon barons were replaced by the Norman lords and their allies. The Domesday Book - the most definitive land registery document every devised - was produced on William's orders in 1086 to identify the new owners and their land holding and what they might owe, in tax, favour and loyalty, to the king: the sovereign Landlord.

Landownership had worked broadly in the same way ever since our ancestors abandoned the nomadic life, and took up the shovel and plough about 10.000 BC. What the Normans changed in Britain was the communal right of access over the land. That system of non-communal access is still very much in force today amoung the modern-day descendents of the Normans. Which is why William's 1086 census - the Domesday Book (and its modern version, the Land Registry) - remains so important. It serves as a legal document that established ownership by the legal holder of the title.

My research into where I could roll out a sleeping bag today meant looking at landownership. I discovered that very little had changed sinde the Norman invasion. Just 0,6 per cent of the population still owns 50 per cent of the British land, and most of this elite are the descendants of the 11th-century Norman aristocracy.

A report - "Who owns Britain?' - by Country Life magazine in 2010 was said to be the most detailed survey of its kind in over 100 years. The research claimed that just 1200 aristocrats and their families own 20 million of Britain's 60 million acres of land. The top private landowner in Europe was the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, who owned 240.000 acres in England and Scotland. Research by the London School of Economics in 2013 claimed that the Normans who conquered England - with surnames Baskerville, Darcy, Mandeville and Montgomery - still dominate the student rolls for Oxford and Cambridge universities, still make up a large proportion of the elite that holds the prime positions in professions such as medicine, law and politics. They also control a good number of the political agencies, public bodies and charitable organisations that oversee rules regulating land management and access.

But 1066 was about more than Saxon lords losing their holdings. It was how it affected the peasants that mattered most. The common rights over common lands like Sherwood Forest and the Kentish Weald were gone. Those rights included the right to roam over woodlands, marshes, moors and coasts of many common areas; to graze animals, collect wood for fuel, tools and buildings, to eat fruits, to collect water from rivers and streams, to catch fish and generally to do all the things that made it possible to live off the land."

From: Wild camping. Exploring and sleeping in the wilds of the UK and Ireland, by Stephen Neale, page 29

I've been to the UK several times for hiking trips, and I remember being puzzled by the system of access to nature at first. It is quite bewildering to be just walking on a perfecty good path, only to suddenly find it fenced off, with aggressive signs warning walkers to KEEP OUT!!! Why are hikers treated with so much suspicion even in areas famous for its good hiking? And what do you mean by Right of Way? How come there's major roads and motor cross terrains within a national park? (turns out they are largely privately owned). Myself, I've never been shy to climb the occasional wall or fence, and pitch my tent somewhere even on private lands. I consider it my own gentle way of resisting the very idea of private property, which creates so much inequality. I've never yet faced any trouble for it, by the way. Turns out land owners have little desire to actually hike on their lands, especially in rain or cold or darkness, and the people who work for them are usually not payed enough to care about a lonely hiker who is causing no disturbance or damage whatsoever xD