#proposal 67

[menlove]

[renee-writer]

I Fought the Law Chapter 67 A Proposal

AO3

Her mouth opens and closes as he steps farther into the room. Kneeling, one one knee before her and their son, he meets her teary eyes with his own. “Claire Beauchamp, I love you with everything in me. There will never be anyone I love more. I love Fergus. He is my son as surely as he came out of my body. We are a family but I long to make it official. I long to tell the world that we belong to each other, the three of us.

Will you be my partner in this life. Will you take my name as I take my place always by your side? I vow to always be here for you, to love you more every moment we are together. I vow to be a husband you can count on, a daddy Fergus and all who follow, can always turn to.

I will be everything you need. Through good times and bad, through ever adventure and every blessed boring day. Will you take me to be there for it all? Will you be my wife?”

 

She is crying hard as she stretches out her left hand. From behind them, forgotten in the excitement, Elizabeth is doing the same.

 

He slips the ring on her and kisses her hand, the top of the baby’s head and then, her lips. Elizabeth slips away.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joan McCarter at Daily Kos:

With all this attention on the dangerous, radical plan, more and more people are trying to find out what it’s all about. Navigator Research, a consortium of progressive polling firms, has the goods on how we should talk about it with friends and family, and what Democrats need to be saying about it on the stump as the election heats up. On Wednesday, Navigator released the third and final results from its latest survey about Project 2025. Conducted June 20-24, the survey found that the most salient and message about Project 2025 is that it “is an unprecedented, extreme Republican plan that will fundamentally alter the American government making Trump even more dangerous in a second term by granting him presidential powers like no president before him has ever had.” 

According to Navigator, the most effective messages focused on the impact rather than on political consequences. The message that worked best for Democrats and independents was that Project 2025 would "roll back and eliminate Americans’ constitutionally protected rights and freedoms," while the message that worked best for non-MAGA Republicans—i.e., Republican voters who did not self-identify as supporting the MAGA movement—was that it would "hurt hard-working American families and seniors." “Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats (87%), 7 in 10 independents (70%), and about half of non-MAGA Republicans (48%) believed it would have a negative impact on them and their families after exposure to Project 2025’s policies and messaging,” Navigator found.  There’s plenty in the authoritarian plan to worry Americans. It seeks to end no-fault divorce and  restrict access to birth control—even condoms! It demands cuts to Social Security—raising the retirement age from 67 to 70—and wants to privatize Medicare. Then there are the proposals to curtail food assistance, eliminate Head Start, restrict help to disabled veterans, and roll back overtime pay requirements for hourly workers.

A new poll from Navigator Research conducted between June 20th and 24th reveals that many parts of Project 2025 are very unpopular with the electorate.

[reasonsforhope]

"For the first time in almost 60 years, a state has formally overturned a so-called “right to work” law, clearing the way for workers to organize new union locals, collectively bargain, and make their voices heard at election time.

This week, Michigan finalized the process of eliminating a decade-old “right to work” law, which began with the shift in control of the state legislature from anti-union Republicans to pro-union Democrats following the 2022 election. “This moment has been decades in the making,” declared Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber. “By standing up and taking their power back, at the ballot box and in the workplace, workers have made it clear Michigan is and always will be the beating heart of the modern American labor movement.”

[Note: The article doesn't actually explain it, so anyway, "right to work" laws are powerful and deceptively named pieces of anti-union legislation. What right to work laws do is ban "union shops," or companies where every worker that benefits from a union is required to pay dues to the union. Right-to-work laws really undermine the leverage and especially the funding of unions, by letting non-union members receive most of the benefits of a union without helping sustain them. Sources: x, x, x, x]

In addition to formally scrapping the anti-labor law on Tuesday [February 13, 2024], Michigan also restored prevailing-wage protections for construction workers, expanded collective bargaining rights for public school employees, and restored organizing rights for graduate student research assistants at the state’s public colleges and universities. But even amid all of these wins for labor, it was the overturning of the “right to work” law that caught the attention of unions nationwide...

Now, the tide has begun to turn—beginning in a state with a rich labor history. And that’s got the attention of union activists and working-class people nationwide...

At a time when the labor movement is showing renewed vigor—and notching a string of high-profile victories, including last year’s successful strike by the United Auto Workers union against the Big Three carmakers, the historic UPS contract victory by the Teamsters, the SAG-AFTRA strike win in a struggle over abuses of AI technology in particular and the future of work in general, and the explosion of grassroots union organizing at workplaces across the country—the overturning of Michigan’s “right to work” law and the implementation of a sweeping pro-union agenda provides tangible evidence of how much has changed in recent years for workers and their unions...

By the mid-2010s, 27 states had “right to work” laws on the books.

But then, as a new generation of workers embraced “Fight for 15” organizing to raise wages, and campaigns to sign up workers at Starbucks and Amazon began to take off, the corporate-sponsored crusade to enact “right to work” measures stalled. New Hampshire’s legislature blocked a proposed “right to work” law in 2017 (and again in 2021), despite the fact that the measure was promoted by Republican Governor Chris Sununu. And in 2018, Missouri voters rejected a “right to work” referendum by a 67-33 margin.

Preventing anti-union legislation from being enacted and implemented is one thing, however. Actually overturning an existing law is something else altogether.

But that’s what happened in Michigan after 2022 voting saw the reelection of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a labor ally, and—thanks to the overturning of gerrymandered legislative district maps that had favored the GOP—the election of Democratic majorities in the state House and state Senate. For the first time in four decades, the Democrats controlled all the major levers of power in Michigan, and they used them to implement a sweeping pro-labor agenda. That was a significant shift for Michigan, to be sure. But it was also an indication of what could be done in other states across the Great Lakes region, and nationwide.

“Michigan Democrats took full control of the state government for the first time in 40 years. They used that power to repeal the state’s ‘right to work’ law,” explained a delighted former US secretary of labor Robert Reich, who added, “This is why we have to show up for our state and local elections.”"

-via The Nation, February 16, 2024

[gothhabiba]

[ID: Map of the partition plan approved by the UN general assembly on November 29, 1947. It marks the "Jewish state" in green (all the border to the east with Syria, much of the south and the inland west including the southern half of the Dead Sea; and most of the northern coastline with the Mediterranean Sea) and the "Arab state" in orange (a strip on the western border with Egypt and southern part of the border with the Mediterranean, including Rafah and Gaza; and the mostly inland north including the area where the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea. In purple the "Jerusalem district" in the center of the country is marked. End ID]

But how fair, balanced, pragmatic, and practicable was the UN 1947 partition plan itself? In gross terms, the partition resolution awarded 55.5 percent of the total area of Palestine to the Jews (most of whom were recent immigrants) who constituted less than a third of the population and who owned less than 7 percent of the land. The Palestinians, on the other hand, who made up over two thirds of the population and who owned the vast bulk of the land, were awarded 45.5 percent of the country of which they had enjoyed continuous possession for centuries.

Looking at the situation in greater detail, Palestine was a country of 27 million dunams (4 dunams = 1 acre). Its population in December 1946 was just under 2 million (1,972,000): 1,364,000 Palestinians and 608,000 Jews. The partition plan divided the country into eight sections: three Jewish, three Palestinian, an international enclave (corpus separatum) including municipal Jerusalem and the surrounding villages, and an enclave for Jaffa that would be part of the Palestinian state, albeit completely surrounded by the Jewish state [...].

At the time, one of the arguments frequently raised by the Jews against a unitary state in Palestine had been the unfairness of Arab majoritarian rule over the Jewish minority. Commenting on this argument, the Pakistani delegate at the UN, Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, remarked: "If it is unfair that 33 percent of the population of Palestine [the Jews in the proposed unitary state] should be subject to 67 percent of the population, is it less unfair that 46 percent of the population [the Arabs in the proposed Jewish state] should be subject to 54 percent?" [...]

In terms of land ownership, despite over seventy years of intensive, centrally organized and internationally financed colonization since the early 1880s, Jewish-owned land on the eve of the partition resolution amounted, according to Jewish sources, to 1,820,000 dunams, or less than 7 percent of the total land area of the country. Now, at the bang of his gavel [...], the president of the UNGA [...] "awarded" the Jews 15,000,000 dunams for the Jewish state. Within the borders of this state, Jewish-owned land at its most inflated estimate amounted to 1,678,000 dunams, or 11.2 percent. [...]

But it was not only the extent of the land allotted to the Jewish state that was at issue. The best lands were incorporated within it—most of the fertile coastal plains (from Jaffa to Haifa) and all the interior plains (from Haifa to Baysan and Tiberias). These included almost all the citrus and cereal producing areas. Half of the former and the vast bulk of the latter were owned by Palestinians. Citrus was the main export crop of the country, accounting before World War II for 80 percent of the total value of exports. [...] As if this were not enough, a full 40 percent of Palestinian industry and the major sources of the country's electrical supply fell within the envisaged Jewish state.

[...] Jaffa [...], the historical Palestinian port and vibrant center of Palestinian cultural and social life, was not only confined within its municipal borders, with no living space for any growth or development, but was also cut off from the orange groves that bore its name and were its principal source of economic livelihood. Haifa—the main port of Palestine, the terminal of the oil pipeline from Iraq, the petroleum depot for the entire country, seat of the most active entrepreneurial sectors of Palestinian society [...]—fell squarely within the Jewish state. Many of the other major Arab towns included in the Palestinian state [...] were left just inside its borders but without their most fertile lands or economic hinterlands. The upper reaches of the Jordan River, and therefore control of the major source of riverine water supply to the Palestinian state, were vested in the Jewish state. The whole of Lake Tiberias and its rich fishing industry, traditionally in Palestinian hands, was incorporated within the Jewish state. The bulk of the Palestinian state, restricted to the central highlands, was landlocked with no direct access to the Red Sea southward or the Mediterranean westward. Its two other coastal towns (apart from isolated Jaffa) had no harbors or port facilities. The only airport (near Lydda) in the country with international connections went to the Jewish state, leaving the Palestinian state with no air access either.

– 1997. Walid Khalidi, “Revisiting the UNGA Partition Resolution,” Journal of Palestine Studies 27.1, pp. 5-21.

[ferg0s]

how writing about your favorite Blue Lock boy who can't deny how good his s/o looks in the Blue Lock spandex suit?

BAROU BAROU BAROU 🗣️🦅‼️ not so much s/o but trust me I have a vision…

I haven’t seen PNGlock season 2 😞 so mb for some inconsistencies

If you asked Ego which he liked better, woman’s soccer or men’s soccer, he would say which ever could win a gold medal. He was like a goblin, craving for the shiny smooth surface of a gold medal to glide across his fingers - and he would do whatever it would take to get it. When he had proposed the idea onto the board, they had laughed it off. But he didn’t understand why? Having a woman’s team meant that they had double the chance. More versatility. He didnt want to put his eggs in one basket. Besides he wanted Japan to be the best in the world - in every aspect of the sport.

Pink lock. That’s what the boys at Bluelock started to call the sister program. Even though it was literally just named blue lock. Thats until the practice match. Pink lock was started to look like pain lock the way they were making the boys run across the field. What the boys didn’t know was that the they had to fight harder, the threat of underperforming and having the whole program shut down was looming over them. An extra stress to add to the stress they already had of being kicked out. Their performances not only reflected them but everyone. Misogyny is the name of the blade that mercilessly cuts off the wings of angels.

Though there was one person that seemed to get on Barous nerve. Some girl who kept popping out of no where to block his shots, steal the ball and all in all make it impossible for him to have more then 3 seconds with the ball. He didn’t know her name, just the crazed look in her eyes as she would run past him. Number 67. Fuck her, he thought.

~

You didn’t know how tired you were until you got back to the dorms they had set up for you. The showers had a long line, and it seemed like everyone was taking Atleast a minimum of 30 minutes. The facility hadn’t given you the spandex suits they had given to the boys - the board said they didn’t have the Budget for it. Que another wingless angel. And it seemed like you wouldn’t get them for a while.

The practice test was more a presentation by ego to show the board to her more funding, which it had. After ego threatened to close the men program, the board rolled over and gave into his demands. But the official uniforms would have to wait. It took a while to make them with the same physicality monitoring sensors. Until then, you were stuck wearing frumpy soccer gear. The knee long shorts and over sized shirts. What you had assumed were the initial clothes for the men.

You seemed to pick up on the man who has been eyeing you with nothing but hatred pretty quickly. Having being divided into duos , of course you got stuck with him. It was temporary, ego said, to grow both players abilities, he said. While the other duos flirted and exchanged numbers, you and Barou did nothing but fight. The self proclaimed king didn’t like someone telling him what to do. Especially someone as annoying as you.

“-are you allergic to passing the fucking ball?” You ask as you walk up to him. “Not my fault you can’t keep up-“ he replied back. The other boys started to assume he didn’t swing that way based on how much the two of you fought, Barou seeming to resent the idea of even being on the same planet at you. But in reality, it was just two hard strong stubborn people clashing. Two unstoppable forces trying to merge into one, while also actively trying to avoid it.

You use the helm of your shirt to wipe the sweat off your forehead. It has been 20 minutes and you hadn’t even scored once against the hologram goalie. You look over at your partner, who was equally as tired as you. Both of you had been fighting for the ball rather than trying to figure out how to get past the goalie and score. You needed a minimum of 10 to leave and have dinner. And you were starving, and stuck at 0.

“What the fuck is your problem?” He asked, walking up to you. “The strategy is simple, hand me the ball and-“ “go fuck yourself princess-“ you spat back.

Barou didn’t need to come and taunt you after every missed goal. He didn’t need to walk up to you every time and stand way to close to when he was having another verbal altercation with you. But he couldnt help it. He liked the colour of your eyes :)

Yes. Barou had a crush.

On you.

Barou grew up with sisters so it wasn’t like he hasn’t been around women, but he still acted like it. His way of flirting with teasing and insulting, like an elementary school kid. As much as he bragged about being a womanizing bastard to the other guys in the locker room, he would rather eat cement than talk to a pretty girl alone. Which is why he figured insulting was a good alternative.

Even in the frumpy uniform, hair a mess and sweat covering your face, Barou saw you as someone akin to a model. You had a sort of fire in your eyes that drew him in, like a moth to a flame. Ego had made the duos based on compatible personalities, and you were just as stubborn, goal oriented and hot headed as him. If you had stuck around for longer instead of walking away in a huff to drink some water, you would notice how he seemed to zone out when you were yelling at him.

Out of everyone, you and Barou had the worst score. Leaving you one of the teams near the bottom.

It seemed to get worse when the spandex uniforms came. Landing the two of you at the bottom. He spent more time staring at you more than he did the ball. It should be a sin to look so good, he thought. His eyes would linger longer as you bent over to pick up the water bottle, drinking up the sight of you laying on the ground having from exhaustion. Or in the training room doing squats. It was entirely his fault that you two were at the bottom, which meant more verbal abuse from you. He tried his best to look into your eyes, wondering what specific colour they were on the colour wheel, hoping his years of discipline would stop his eyes from going down further.

It wasn’t until one day when you finally managed to score a point, in under 20 minutes with him, that you finally had a positive attitude towards him. In the midst of your joy, near tears for finally being able to cooperate enough to score 1 goal, you hugged him.

Shortly after that you somehow skyrocket to top 3. You didn’t know why he had Suddenly done a 180.

But Barou thanks who ever decided to put you in that stupid spandex uniform.

__________

kinda burnt out in the end 😞 Mbmb. Bit off more than I could chew

[leaping-laelaps-art]

The archeocete Perucetus colossus dives through a coastal bloom of jellyfish in the Pisco Basin (southern Peru), some time during the Eocene (with bonus multiview).

I originally intended to add epibionts to this reconstruction (reflecting the specialized communities found on many living whales, especially baleen whales). Yet, interestingly, it appears that most animal epibionts and ectoparasites of modern cetaceans, such as whale barnacles (Hayashi et al. 2013) and remoras (Friedman et al. 2013), only appeared in the Neogene or late Paleogene, or have a poorly known (co-)evolutionary history, like whale lice (Pfeiffer 2009, Iwasa-Arai & Serejo 2018) and pennellids (large parasitic copepods) (Hermosilla et al. 2015). So, no epibionts* for big lad Perucetus!

References and notes about the reconstruction:

*animal epibionts. Unicellular eukaryotes like diatoms were most likely present on early cetaceans, given their prevalence on modern large marine animals (Ashworth et al. 2022). Of course, it is possible that other animals (i.e., early, less specialized representatives of modern groups, or different taxa altogether) were also already exploiting the surfaces offered by these early whales; however, this remains entirely speculative.

The reconstruction of Perucetus proposed in its original description (Bianucci et al. 2023) includes some rather odd (if interesting) choices about soft tissues, including limbs with webbed and distinguishable fingers, and a manatee-like tail. While these choices might be defendable in light of the rather basal status of Perucetus among cetaceans, I opted for a more derived look based on the assumption that fully marine cetaceans like basilosaurids would have probably rapidly acquired hydrodynamically favorable adaptations, pushing them towards a more familiar Neoceti-like appearance (even though Perucetus itself was likely a poor swimmer (Bianucci et al. 2023), it seems likely to me that this was a secondarily acquired trait, given the less extreme morphology of other basilosaurids).

Reconstruction in the multiview scaled to ~18 m in length after the estimations of Bianucci et al. (2023).

References:

Ashworth, M. P., Majewska, R., Frankovich, T. A., Sullivan, M., Bosak, S., Filek, K., Van de Vijver, B., Arendt, M., Schwenter, J., Nel, R., Robinson, N. J., Gary, M. P., Theriot, E. C., Stacy, N. I., Lam, D. W., Perrault, J. R., Manire, C. A., & Manning, S. R. (2022). Cultivating epizoic diatoms provides insights into the evolution and ecology of both epibionts and hosts. Scientific Reports, 12(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19064-0

Bianucci, G., Lambert, O., Urbina, M., Merella, M., Collareta, A., Bennion, R., Salas-Gismondi, R., Benites-Palomino, A., Post, K., de Muizon, C., Bosio, G., Di Celma, C., Malinverno, E., Pierantoni, P. P., Villa, I. M., & Amson, E. (2023). A heavyweight early whale pushes the boundaries of vertebrate morphology. Nature, 620(7975), Article 7975. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06381-1

Friedman, M., Johanson, Z., Harrington, R. C., Near, T. J., & Graham, M. R. (2013). An early fossil remora (Echeneoidea) reveals the evolutionary assembly of the adhesion disc. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1766), 20131200. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1200

Hayashi, R., Chan, B. K. K., Simon-Blecher, N., Watanabe, H., Guy-Haim, T., Yonezawa, T., Levy, Y., Shuto, T., & Achituv, Y. (2013). Phylogenetic position and evolutionary history of the turtle and whale barnacles (Cirripedia: Balanomorpha: Coronuloidea). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 67(1), 9–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2012.12.018

Hermosilla, C., Silva, L. M. R., Prieto, R., Kleinertz, S., Taubert, A., & Silva, M. A. (2015). Endo- and ectoparasites of large whales (Cetartiodactyla: Balaenopteridae, Physeteridae): Overcoming difficulties in obtaining appropriate samples by non- and minimally-invasive methods. International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife, 4(3), 414–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2015.11.002

Pfeiffer, C. J. (2009). Whale Lice. In W. F. Perrin, B. Würsig, & J. G. M. Thewissen (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (Second Edition) (pp. 1220–1223). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-373553-9.00279-0

[menlove]

paul having a breaking up w john breakdown and proposing to every woman on earth until one matched his freak enough to say yes who's doing it like him

[whateverisbeautiful]

Reveling in Richonne - Master List

TWD Season 3 - Season 7

Season 3

#1: The Fence Arrival (3.06)

Season 4

#2: The Rescue (4.08)

#3: The "It's For You" (4.09)

#4: The Claiming (4.11) 

#5: The “Hey, You Too.” (4.16)

#6: The “I’m Okay Too” (4.16)

Season 5

#7: The "You Ready?" (5.11)

#8: The Knock Out (5.15/5.16)

#9: The "I'm Still With You" (5.16)

Season 6

#10: The Rescue pt.2 (6.09) 

#11: The Domestic Intro (6.10)

#12: The Low Five (6.10)

#13: The "Want" (6.10) 

#14: The Toothpaste (6.10)

#15: The Listening (6.10)

#16: The "I'd Do It For You" (6.10)

#17: The Couch Conversation (6.10)

#18: The Mints (6.10)

#19: The Reveal (6.11)

#20: The "This Is Different" (6.11)

#21: The RV (6.11)

#22: The Shot Calling (6.11)

#23: The "Don't." (6.11)

#24: The "We’ll Win" (6.11)

#25: The Checking In (6.12)

#26: The East (6.15)

#27: The Concern (6.15)

#28: The Dread (6.16)

Season 7

#29: The Memories (7.01)

#30: The Look (7.01) 

#31: The Speaking Up (7.01)

#32: The Co-Leadership (7.01)

#33: The Dream Wedding (7.01)

#34: The Bed (7.04)

#35: The Watching Her Go (7.04)

#36: The Protection (7.04)

#37: The Request (7.04)

#38: The “Are You Going To Let Me?” (7.04)

#39: The Deer Drop (7.04)

#40: The Pallet (7.04)

#41: The Fight (7.04)

#42: The Disclosure (7.04)

#43: The "I'm Gonna Try" (7.04)

#44: The Grimes 2.0 (7.05)

#45: The “Good Luck” (7.05)

#46: The Kiss (7.05)

#47: The "Even If" (7.05)

#48: The Walkie Talkies (7.07)

#49: The Reflection (7.08)

#50: The “Me and You” (7.08)

#51: The Holding Hands (7.08)

#52: The Stepping In (7.09)

#53: The Holding Hands pt. 2 (7.09)

#54: The Side Eye (7.09)

#55: The Mow Down (7.09)

#56: The Smile (7.09)

#57: The Arm (7.10)

#58: The Push (7.10)

#59: The Collaboration (7.10)

#60: The Hug (7.10)

#61: The Enemies-To-Friends (7.10)

#62: The Cat (7.10)

#63: The Everything!! (7.12)

#64: The Montage (7.12)

#65: The "We Gonna Win Today?" (7.12)

#66: The "What's That Smile?" (7.12)

#67: The Pretzels (7.12)

#68: The "Just A Little More" (7.12)

#69: The Sleeping (7.12)

#70: The Owing (7.12)

#71: The Rounds (7.12)

#72: The “Think We Can?” (7.12)

#73: The Fall (7.12)

#74: The Candlelit Dinner (7.12)

#75: The Proposal (7.12)

#76: The “…Together” (7.12)

#77: The Wakefulness (7.12)

#78: The Eight (7.12)

#79: The Great Plan (7.12)

#80: The Flirting (7.12)

#81: The Deer (7.12)

#82: The Ride or Die (7.12)

#83: The Embrace (7.12)

#84: The Collecting (7.12)

#85: The Heart to Heart (7.12)

#86: The "I Can't Lose You" (7.12)

#87: The “I Can Lose You” (7.12)

#88: The “You Led Me Here” (7.12)

#89: The Cat pt. 2 (7.12)

#90: The “Few More Days” (7.12)

#91: The Package Deal (7.15)

#92: The Matriarch (7.16)

#93: The "We're Together" (7.16)

#94: The "You care?" (7.16)

#95: The Showdown (7.16)

#96: The “Somebody Important to You” (7.16)

#97: The Discovery (7.16)

#98: The Relief (7.16)

#99: The TLC (7.16)

[dedalvs]

NBA Realignment Proposal

This is Tumblr—a place where you can be who and what you wish to be. Today I take advantage of that to bring to you an idea that I think will solve a couple of dire problems the National Basketball Association (an American professional sporting association for basketball) has been struggling with in recent years. The problems are two-fold:

(1) Division championships are meaningless. In the old days if you won your division, you earned a top seed. When there were two division, the division winner with the best record got the 1 seed, and the other division winner the 2. It didn't matter if there was a second (or even third) place team that had a better record: winning your division meant you earned a top seed. A good example is the 1991-92 season, where the Chicago Bulls (67-15) earned the top seed, but the 51-31 Boston Celtics earned the second seed as winners of the Atlantic Division, despite the fact that the Cleveland Cavaliers had a much better record at 57-25. Winning the division was incredibly important. Now teams are seeded by record throughout the conference. Division titles mean nothing.

(2) Super teams. Since divisions are meaningless but winning chamiponships is still the most important thing in the NBA, successful players go to teams that can pay the most money. The ones that have the most money are the teams that are most successful. With only two conferences, this usually results in two teams—one in the east, one in the west—being stacked. Players can either join that team or try to form another super team to rival them. And the ones that can rival them are other historically successful teams. All in all, it's a lack of parity, and the same teams winning every single time.

Now, it is assumed, amongst fans and sportswriters, that the league will eventually expand to Seattle, regaining their former Supersonics, and Las Vegas—the latter perhaps when LeBron James retires (he's expressed interest in being an owner for a team in Las Vegas in future). If that comes to pass (and no other teams change locations), I propose a radical realignment of the divisions, and concomitant playoff changes. These changes were inspired by the changes the NHL made in recent years. They had six divisions, like the NBA has now, but then when they expanded, went backward, to four divisions, and the results have been impressive.

If you need to refresh yourselves of the current alignment, you can do so here. Now here's the realignment I propose:

These are the four divisions the NBA had before expanding to six. Most of the membership is the same, but I'll note the discrepancies. First, the most easterly western conference team, the Memphis Grizzlies, has been moved to the east (I always found it absurd that a team in a state one state away from the Atlantic Ocean was in the western conference). The Toronto Raptors and Charlotte Hornets have been swapped, which makes geographic sense, and the Atlanta Hawks have been returned to the Central.

This gives us four divisions with eight teams each. Currently, ten teams from each conference go to the playoffs—kind of. Four teams in each conference are forced into a mini-tournament called the play-in. For this play-in, the 7th place team hosts the 8th place team and the 9th place team hosts the 10th place team in a one game playoff. The winner of the first game becomes the real 7th seed. The loser of the first game plays the winner of the second. The winner of that game becomes the real 8th seed. Then the playoffs proceed as they always have. Very strange.

I propose something radically different. Same number of playoff teams—even the same number of play-in teams—but it's all done inside the division:

Each division has its own playoff. The 4th and 5th place teams play each other for the right to take on the top place team in the division in the first round of the divisional series. Then the 2nd place team hosts the 3rd place team in the division. The winners of each series face off, the winner being crowned the ultimate division champion. Then the western and eastern conference division champions face off, resulting in conference champions, who face off in the finals. The bracket looks like this:

This means that one team from every division will always make it to the semifinals. Division championships are suddenly very important, and there's incentive for good players to try their luck on teams in different divisions if they can't make it in the division they're in. It takes two very large pools (the conferences) and separates them into four smaller pools. It will also ensure you get some nice, exciting playoff matchups in the early going, because every matchup is all but guaranteed to be a rivalry, as the matchups are always interdivision matchups.

For the curious, if this had happened for last season, it would've looked like this (less the two expansion teams):

Same exact playoff teams! And the first matchups would've looked like this:

Some of the matchups are the same, but we get some good ones earlier. Mavs-Pelicans would've been a lot spicier than Thunder-Pelicans. In general, we've got a lot better shot at getting better matchups earlier on, and good matchups at each stage. This is the NBA I want to see!

Thank you for coming to the Dothraki guy's Tumblr account.

[thescarletwitchsapprentice]

I Am Your Destiny (Yandere!Rio Vidal x female!reader)

Summary: You had recently gotten engaged and you couldn’t be happier. But someone you’re close with has taken it upon herself to ensure that that will never come to pass, that you are hers and hers alone….

Prompts taken from the Yandere Writing List by @yandere-daze

67. " Nothing can separate us now."

38. "Only look at me with these pretty eyes of yours."

(CW: Kidnapping, forced kiss, potential murder implications, (kinda up to interpretation) restraint, (just on the ankle) possible drugging)

Author’s Note: I actually managed to get one of my ideas out of my head and into a story, holy shit!

Reader is, of course, 18+.

Your eyes shoot open as a soft breeze brushes against you.

“Where the hell am I?” you whisper fearfully as your eyes dart around. It looks like a clearing in the moonlight surrounded by a thick forest, but….it feels unnatural. 

The last thing you remember is preparing your wedding invitations. Your partner of seven years had proposed to you and you’d been nose-deep in preparations despite the date being far off. But there’s bigger fish to fry.

Your heart pounds, your breathing quickens; is this a kidnapping? You try to stand up, but something’s keeping you down on your knees. Looking behind you, you see a rope of green light surrounding your ankle, the other end tied to a tree. This escape clearly isn’t going to be easy.

Suddenly you hear a familiar chuckle from the forest.

“Finally, you’re awake, my love.”

Your blood freezes as a shadow slowly strides out of the forest, unveiling their identity; dressed in a black off-shoulder gown with a crown on her head, her dark hair flowing in the light breeze.

“R-Rio?!” you gasp out.

Hearing this, her smile grows.

“Ah, my little bird….how I love hearing you say my name.”

She glides closer until she’s hovering above you, like a hawk hovering over its prey. 

“What’s going on?” you choke out.

She doesn’t answer, instead slowly kneeling down in front of you. 

��What’s going on?” she repeats before shrugging. “Nothing much, just…..claiming what’s mine.”

The drop on her volume at the end sends chills through you. 

“Wh…what are you talking about?” you gasp out.

Rio coos in response. “Oh darling….don’t tell me you’re really this clueless.” Reaching out, she slowly tucks a bit of hair behind your ear. “It’s so obvious; you and I are meant to be together.”

Upon hearing this, you have to do a double-take. No….there’s no way you heard that right; Rio’s your best friend, the first one you told about your partner’s proposal, the one you told all your secrets to. Of course you know she’s Death, that she’s the original Green Witch, but you never considered her as anything more than your best friend. 

“Rio, don’t talk nonsense,” you chuckle nervously, praying that this is just a joke, just a terrifying joke.

“….Who said it’s nonsense?” Her face betrays no sign of deception, that just makes you feel even more horrified. “What’s nonsense is believing that you’re not meant to be mine, by my side for all eternity.”

“Okay, that’s enough, Rio,” you pant. “Just…..cut the bullshit and let me go.”

Hearing this, her eyes harden. 

“Let you go?” Her tone drops as she leans in close, her face only a few inches from yours. “Do you think I’d be insane enough to do that? When I have what I want here and now? Don’t make me laugh. Besides I’ve waited long enough for this moment, and when things arose, I decided to take matters into my own hands.”

Once again, you try to stand up, but within a millisecond, you’re back on the ground. 

“Don’t even bother, it’s cosmic-grade magic,” she huffs. “I can’t have you running off; besides, you wouldn’t even know the way out.”

A lump forms in your throat as you remember just how powerful Rio actually in.

“Why are you here?”

She doesn’t answer for a hot second. “Well….it’s pretty simple; I want to ensure this destiny is fulfilled, and one way to do that is soul-binding.”

“Soul….binding?” you gasp out.

“Soul-binding,” she repeats. “A ritual that connects the souls of two people to the point where the mere thought of being separate from them gives one a sense of absolute dread. It is a bond that nothing is able to sever.”

Gently she cups your cheek, brushing her thumb against it in a slow circular motion.

“Once the ritual is performed, our souls will become one. We’ll sense each other’s thoughts…feelings…desires…we’ll develop a deep desire to be with each other, a desire that will grow into a compulsion. We’ll sense each other’s wants and needs, we’ll be able to communicate telepathically, among many, many benefits; best of all…”

She slowly cups both sides of your face with one hand.

“….Our life forces will be connected,” she whispers. 

Your blood goes beyond frozen; Rio, being Death herself, cannot die. If you become connected to her…..

“Rio, you’re insane!”

She just grins and nods.

“Insanely in love, in particular.”

“This isn’t love, it’s obsession!”

Rio merely chuckles. “I see them as one and the same. Anyway, let’s not waste anymore time. Our souls will soon be one.”

You’re in the biggest panic of your life.

“Rio, you can’t do this; you know about the proposal!”

Upon hearing this, Rio gives a bitter chuckle. “Of course I know…..why do you think I’m doing this now? They don’t deserve you. They’re not your destiny; I am.”

“But…..they’re gonna wonder where I am!” you stammer.

She sighs. “Oh, my love…..you’re truly so naive. Did you think I wouldn’t be prepared for that? I’ve already taken care of the problem.”

All of your trembling that you’re trying to hide freezes at that moment. “….what did you do to them?” you gasp.

“Nothing to worry your pretty little head about, my little bird,” she says. “Enough diversions; it’s time to bind.”

In an attempt to avoid the ritual, you turn away, but Rio grabs your head and yanks it back to face her.

“There’s no use fighting it, my love,” she purrs. “This is what’s meant to be.”

“If you do this to me, I’ll hate you forever!” you snap.

However Rio just laughs. “Oh, I beg to differ, my love. Once the ritual is complete, you’ll be so enamored that you’ll only look at me with these pretty eyes of yours. I guarantee it.

Keeping her hands on both sides of your face, she leans forward and locks her lips onto yours. You try to pull away, but Rio’s grip on you is too strong. Her lips give off the taste of mint, one that’s almost….alluring….

You begin to feel your mind fog up and your muscles begin to loosen. But you know you need to get away…..right? The mint taste and scent is beginning to overtake you; at the same time, you feel a strange sensation enter your body, which brings back your alertness slightly. You sense yourself torn between the need to break out and the desire to succumb. However the more you’re exposed to this delicate but intoxicating aroma, the more you lean towards the latter. The strange sensation strengthens, but it’s strange in a euphoric way. Even as that little voice in the back of your mind tries to bring you back, the euphoria and mint both nearly have you. The voice is slowly fading away….until all there is is the euphoria and mint.

You reach up and grab Rio’s face, burying yourself deeper into the kiss. A deep primal desire awakens in you, a desire to be closer than humanly possible; and the more you two kiss, the stronger the euphoria becomes until it’s one of the only things on your mind.

After some time, Rio slowly pulls her lips away from you before giving a chuckle. The two of you lock eyes and you feel as though everything else has faded. As far as you’re concerned, nothing exists but your beloved Rio….

“There…. Nothing can separate us now,” she whispers. 

Reaching over, she places her hand just above your chest, the touch making you feel…whole.

“You can feel it too, can’t you?” she chuckles. “Our souls are now one, bound together eternally.”

You focus, and sure enough, you feel as though your souls have practically merged into one, and you love it. It just feels…..right. Seeing this, Rio releases the bind on your ankle and brings you in close. Her warmth immediately puts you at peace as your head settles on her chest. 

As you settle in, Rio whispers in your ear, her warmth breath caressing your ear. “You’re safe with me, my love. I’ll protect you, cherish you, treasure you as the precious gem you are. You will want for nothing. All you have to do is stay with me….can you do that for me?”

Without hesitating you nod, an enamored smile forming on your face, and Rio chuckles.

“That’s it. You’ll stay with me like the good girl you are. You don’t need anyone else. I am all you need…..”

As her warmth encompasses you, you feel your eyes begin to flutter shut, the echoing sounds of the waterfall, along with the rise and fall of Rio’s chest, lulling you into a peaceful slumber. Nothing can make this more perfect for you. You know you’re exactly where you need to be, where you want to be. You simply can’t imagine being anywhere else, except with your beloved Rio. And just before you drift off, you hear her whisper into your ear.

“I am your destiny….”

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The city of Barrie, Ont., has backed away from proposed bylaws that would have made it illegal to distribute food, literature, clothes, tents and tarps to unhoused people on public property. At a meeting on Wednesday night, council decided unanimously to refer bylaws 67 and 68 back to staff. The matter is expected to return to a general committee meeting later this year. "There should be zero fear out there that a bylaw officer or a peace officer is going to come and ask you not to give water to someone who needs it," Mayor Alex Nuttall told council chambers. Coun. Jim Harris, who represents Ward 8, said the intent of the bylaws was not to prevent people from helping unhoused people. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[willowreader]

If Project 2025 goes ahead those with disabilities are in trouble. Wake up. This is bad for most US citizens.

Important meeting on project 2025. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the president has absolute immunity, it makes it much easier for him to implement project 2025

Project 2025 has some very concerning changes to disability programs, health programs for low income, people, and social Security.

Project 2025: Implications for Social Security and Health Policies

Social Security Implications

1. **Raising the Retirement Age:**

- Proposal to raise the normal retirement age from 67 to 69 or 70.

- Gradual implementation by adjusting the age by one or two months per year.

- Rationale: Increased life expectancy and improved health of older Americans.

- Criticism: Potentially reduces benefits for future retirees and seen as a regressive approach.

2. **Disability Benefits:**

- Proposals to cut Social Security disability benefits.

- Includes tightening eligibility requirements and reducing benefit amounts.

- Criticism: Could severely impact individuals relying on these benefits due to their inability to work.

Changes to Health Policies

1. **Medicaid Restructuring:**

- Proposal to convert federal Medicaid funding to block grants or per capita caps.

- States would receive a fixed amount of federal funding, regardless of actual costs.

- Suggests eliminating federal oversight of state Medicaid programs.

- Potential Impact: Reduced coverage and benefits, and decreased quality and consistency of care.

2. **Impact on Medicare:**

- Aims to reduce patient access to new medications by opposing Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices.

- Could lead to higher out-of-pocket costs for seniors.

- Proposals to transition Medicare to a system that may increase premiums for many seniors.

- Repealing cost-saving measures such as the $35 insulin cap and the $2,000 out-of-pocket maximum.

3. **Reproductive Health:**

- Imposes stringent federal requirements on reproductive health.

- Prohibits Planned Parenthood from receiving federal Medicaid funding.

- Restricts Medicaid coverage for abortion services.

- Potential Impact: Limited access to reproductive health services for many individuals.

Project 2025 proposes substantial changes to Social Security and health policies, focusing on reducing federal spending. However, there are concerns about the potential negative impact on vulnerable populations, including seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income individuals.

Sources:

[1] Social Security Could Be Upended Under New Proposal - Newsweek

[2] Project 2025 Blueprint Also Includes Draconian Cuts to Medicaid

[3] Supplemental Security Income Program FY 2025 Congressional

[4] Policy | Project 2025

[5] What a Trump Presidency Could Mean for Social Security in 2025

[6] Inside Project 2025 - Boston Review

[7] REPORT: 'Project 2025' Manifesto Co-Author Stephen Moore Has ...

[8] DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - Project 2025

[9] Adult OASDI Beneficiaries and SSI Recipients Who Need ...

[10] Project 2025: What is in conservative groups' plan if Trump wins?

[11] Statement by Commissioner O'Malley on the President's Fiscal Year ...

[12] The People's Guide to Project 2025 - Democracy Forward

[13] Social Security: Here's what

twitter.com/i/spaces/1lPKq…

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Now, here's an interesting property. You get a mid-century time capsule home- untouched since 1950 - plus a whopping 104.69 acres of land that includes a completely deteriorated private airstrip, (more like a mini airport), and a large hangar with a rotting plane inside. It's in Bryson City, North Carolina, 5bds, 3.5ba, $3.995M.

Looking at the home first, it has a classic MCM front door, and the popular pony wall planter (but this one's stone and the largest I've seen).

The living room is quite long and has a nice stone fireplace. Interesting how it's flat against the wall and outlined with picture frame molding.

This is a classic- a curved glass block wall. Woah, a lot steep stairs, though, and I don't like how they skimped on the railing posts.

Nice large dining room.

The kitchen is original- the cabinetry, linoleum on the floor, and look at the tiled walls.

Plus, there's a nice sized corner for everyday dining that looks like a sunporch.

Check it out. You don't normally see an original toilet still a'flushin'. All yellow plumbing fixtures with original gray tile.

The primary bedroom is pretty big. Do you the love the little door that opens to a storage cubby?

Huge finished basement rec room isn't used, but it has glass block windows and a big stone fireplace. There appears to be a ceiling leak issue, though.

The patio is looking a little sad. Needs some sprucing up.

The 104.69 acre property is gigantic. Here's a little picnic area by a pond.

You've got your own swamp, in case you want to have an alligator farm/petting zoo (the land is zoned for multi-use).

Your own country lanes to stroll or ride a horse.

The airstrip has potential for a drag racing strip. (The realty ad proposes other uses for the land like horses, a vintage auto dealership, but I'm proposing some cooler options.)

Look at this deteriorated setup. They really let this property go to pot. There's an idea- this could be a pot growing dispensary. Plenty parking, too.

It would cost a ton of money to repave all of this.

It's a lot of money, for a lot of land, that needs a lot of work.

https://www.redfin.com/NC/Bryson-City/67-Lakeview-Dr-28713/home/64845870

[ladykailitha]

Just some thinking thoughts.

I read or saw somewhere talking about Eddie's buzzcut and who and why someone would have done that to him.

Now granted this is all based on when you think Eddie showed up on Wayne's doorstep.

My thought had always been middle school. He still remembers how to hotwire even though it's a pretty sure bet he hasn't had to in a while.

And when he's talking about his dad I got the impression that as a kid he idolized his dad, but has long since been jaded by the man.

So young enough to still look up to his dad, but old enough to see an obvious difference between Wayne and Al (it's a dumb name, but it's the one we've got).

I've seen a lot of fics where Al shaved his head in punishment for *insert horrible parent reason here* and hurt Eddie in someway, prompting CPS (child protective services) to swoop in and take Eddie to Wayne's.

But may I offer a different perspective. Eddie got buzzed between CPS taking him from Al and dropping him off at Wayne's.

When I was growing up I had this friend who was the fifth child of EIGHT. Now, Dad had a pretty well paid job, but Mom was a SaHM and they could NOT afford the amount of children they had. Their house was always a mess and lice was prevalent.

Lice here is where I'm going with this. One of the things that parents, school teachers, and the like would do if it became too bad was just shave off the hair. All of it. To make sure there were any eggs left near the scalp.

So, I propose, that CPS found Eddie in absolute filth and shaved his head and probably burned his clothes, too.

So imagine this 11-12 year old kid showing up on Wayne's doorstep with a shaved head and nothing but the clothes on his back.

I was also thinking of Steve, too. We know so little about him. We don't know his parents' names, what they do, or where they are from. We know Sr has a business that often takes him away from home, that he most likely cheats on his wife and that's why she goes with him, and that they are neglectful at best, and abusive at worst.

Kids that underage drink and smoke, have parties all time and are considered the "bad boy" at school not very likely to have good parents. Yes, even in the hands off era of the 1980s.

I have always had this feeling, something not supported in canon, but just a vibe I get from Steve. The house that they use for the Harrington place was built in 1976, so if we use it's actual age that would make Steve ten (if he was born in the later half of 1966 and not the early part of '67) when he moved to Loch Nora.

Now it's true the Harrington's could have lived in Hawkins elsewhere, but it's more likely that Steve is a transplant to Hawkins.

So not only does Steve not have a connection to the people surrounding the Upside Down, he also doesn't have a connection to the town the way the others do. But he still chooses to fight the monsters, protect his friends and the town.

And I think that just speaks to Steve's character. And isn't that just beautiful?

[wlw-webcomic-bracket]

In my professional life offline, I work with community development programs funded by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). One of the most important of these programs is the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, or “HOME” (not an acronym for some reason). In the last couple years, my office has contributed HOME funding to construction of around 400 new apartment units reserved for low-income families, plus conversion of a former hotel to single-resident occupancy units for people exiting homelessness and security deposit assistance for renters moving into market-rate units. I have a secondary role in the HOME program (most of my work is on a different grant, although I’ve contributed to the environmental reviews for all of our current round of projects), but I am immensely proud of what our team has done with a limited resource in a horrifically expensive housing market.

In 2023, House Republicans proposed cutting HUD’s 2024 budget for the HOME program by 67%, from $1.5 billion to $500 million.

Their proposal didn’t make it into the final bill. The President and Senate (under Democratic leadership) proposed HOME budgets of $1.8 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively. The final compromise budget allocated HUD $1.25 billion for the HOME program, a 17% cut which was passed down to every local HOME jurisdiction.

I’m glad the budget cuts weren’t worse. But what this means, in practical terms, is that one out of every six people we could have helped this year gets nothing. One out of every six people who would have received rent assistance is facing eviction. One out of every six people that would have received an affordable unit priced at 30% of their income has to keep giving 50% or more of their paycheck to market-rate landlords. We’re doing what we can with local resources, but there’s only so much you can do at the local level when federal funding goes away.

House Republicans are trying to reduce HOME funding to just $500 million again in 2025. So far, the Senate has rejected this, but barring a miracle upset, Democrats are almost certain to lose control of the Senate after next week’s election. If Republicans keep control of the House, and especially if they keep the House and win the Presidency, there is nothing stopping them from gutting housing programs completely.

I understand why people are frustrated with our choices this election. I am frustrated with our choices this election. But at the end of the day, I have a duty to my community. With Democrats in office, I can keep fulfilling that duty. With Republicans in office, I will lose the best tools I have to make a material difference to the vulnerable people who live around me. The people I serve will lose their housing, or they will lose their best path out of homelessness. There is no way around it.

Please, give me the tools to keep helping. Vote for Democrats up and down ballot, and once we’ve got them in office, thank them for doing what they do well and pressure the hell out of them to do better on the issues where they suck.

Because of gerrymandering (and geographic issues in general), control of the House will probably come down to just a few dozen races. I’m not endorsing any of these candidates on a personal level - some of them are probably good, some of them definitely suck - but they are the only bulwark we have against a party that wants to dismantle everything good about this country and lean into all the most shameful parts of our history. Every election matters, but if you live in one of these House districts, your vote is particularly important:

Alaska: AK-01 Mary Pelolta

Arizona: AZ-01 Amish Shah, AZ-06 Kirsten Engel

California: CA-13 Adam Gray, CA-22 Rudy Salas, CA-27 George Whitesides, CA-41 Will Rollins, CA-45 Derek Tran, CA-47 Dave Min

Colorado: CO-03 Adam Frisch, CO-08 Yadira Caraveo

Connecticut: CT-05 Jahana Hayes

Indiana: IN-01 Frank Mrvan

Iowa: IA-01 Christina Bohannan, IA-03 Lanon Baccam

Maine: ME-02 Jared Golden

Michigan: MI-07 Curtis Hertel Jr., MI-08 Kristen McDonald Rivet, MI-10 Carl Marlinga

Minnesota: MN-02 Angie Craig

Montana: MT-01 Monica Tranel

Nebraska: NE-02 Tony Vargas

New Jersey: NJ-07 Sue Altman

New Mexico: NM-02 Gabe Vasquez

New York: NY-04 Laura Gillen, NY-17 Mondaire Jones, NY-19 Josh Riley, NY-22 John Mannion

North Carolina: NC-01 Don Davis

Ohio: OH-09 Marcy Kaptur, OH-13 Emilia Sykes

Oregon: OR-05 Janelle Bynum

Pennsylvania: PA-07 Susan Wild, PA-08 Matt Cartwright, PA-10 Janelle Stelson

Texas: TX-34 Vicente Gonzalez

Virginia: VA-02 Missy Cotter Smasal, VA-07 Eugene Vindman

Washington: WA-03 Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

Wisconsin: WI-03 Rebecca Cooke