#significant political waves-- at least for a while

[applestorms]

Is there a panel in the manga where Kira’s kill count is outwardly confirmed as a certain number?

really good question!! from what i can remember they generally keep it pretty vague, but here's a few of the somewhat more direct references i could find. if someone can find something better pls pls pls add it i'd like to see as well owo

from chapter 60 (time skip after L's death):

in most cases where the narration talks about the effect of KIRA, they stick to talking about the reactions to the deaths rather than the exact number of deaths themselves. clearly though, the world has been drastically changed-- see the twin towers still standing in the DN universe as shown in the last panel.

from the same chapter, a couple shinigami comment about the worry that they might run out of people if humans keep dying at the rate that they are. this is almost immediately made pushed back against by the implication that these shinigami are particularly out of the loop when it comes to human populations, but the fact that it stood out at all to the point where they could have such a worry in the first place seems notable.

a bit later, in chapter 75 we also get this:

light calls KIRA an undeniable "mass murderer," and that public anonymous surveys show a majority of people are in support of KIRA. (where these surveys take place is not mentioned-- i'm assuming this is either for japan or worldwide.)

at the end, in chapters 103, 104, and onward, we also get a Lot of looks into what the pages of the death note look like themselves:

for that last panel in particular-- this doesn't even appear to be the full page, but from what i can count that's about 6 columns by 28 rows for this one page alone, making about 168 names a page. iirc mikami was writing about a page or two a night while he was at his peak as KIRA, so. you can do the math.

or, actually, if you don't want to-- the film theorists channel did a video on this exact subject. idk how trustworthy it is since i believe they take from the anime too, not just the manga, but it's a fascinating source regardless and i like how they break down each individual KIRA.

TL;DR: light definitely writes the most names as presumably he is Going At It during the time skip with basically nothing standing in his way for at least 5 or so years. misa also writes a lot, though her numbers potentially vary a lot depending on how much light was relying on her eyes during that same time. mikami also by far has the highest rate of kills, again packing All That Shit into one page on the reg, though he doesn't work as KIRA for very long.

[nesiacha]

I already talk about horrible movie about the frev. Today I will make a critic about the bad points about a good movie with a very good historical accuracy that I really like but it’s also important to criticize good historical films even if we liked them as a whole (I must say that I liked them personally and I continue to do so) . Firstly, even if it may not have been the intention, because it was not the theme of the show as the writers had planned several themes with the people, including the Night of Varennes, I didn't like that the politicians were seen prominently while the people were too much in the background (minor criticism because the show was discontinued after the success of 'La Terreur et la Vertu,' so maybe they intended to do it later).

Next, the women of the French Revolution are too sidelined, and Lucile Desmoulins is portrayed more as simply worried for Camille Desmoulins without showing Lucile's political side, which accentuates the sexism. Camille Desmoulins is depicted as more naive than he actually was, in my opinion, perhaps to absolve or infantilize him, I don't know.

I would have liked it if we briefly mentioned the retaking of Lyon by Couthon, even just in passing. We have 4 representatives of the indulgent faction (Fabre d'Eglantine, Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Philppeaux) compared to only 2 on the Hebertist side (Hébert and Chaumette). We only mention Vincent, Ronsin, and Momoro briefly, but I would have liked them to have the same amount of screen time. We should also see their trials and the fact that they were going to the guillotine instead of that, the topic is quickly dismissed.

Moreover, although Castelot and Decaux had a very good debate that I invite everyone to watch, there's something that bothers me. It is said that the CSP (Committee of Public Safety) is at fault for parodying justice against the indulgent, but as usual, we forget the parody done to the Hebertists and also forget that done to the Enragés like Jacques Roux when the CSP, the CSG (Committee of General Security), and the Convention relentlessly attacked him illegally to the point where he committed suicide. Double standard once again, and the parody of justice is justified a bit too much for my taste (which also executed many innocents like Lucile Desmoulins, Marie Françoise Goupil, even Chaumette who had, however, refused the insurrection of Hébert, Gobel, etc)...

Then to say that Barère is acting in good faith from Decaux's point of view? No seriously, I don't buy Barère's whitewashing, he's generally a weathervane (the only time the show mentions it from this side is when Danton says that Barère is for the tipping scale).

Another point is that I found Robespierre a bit too naive at times. In real life, he knows that deep down Danton is a dubious character, but he thinks that the Hebertist wave is more dangerous. It's a political calculation until he realizes that he underestimated the indulgent movement and will opt for a middle policy. There he is almost surprised by some of Danton's movements.

Finally, the end of 'La Terreur et la Vertu' is not bad and very emotionnal; there is an explanation that Saint Just did not move during the insurrection. But personally, I think that our five deputies certainly had scruples regarding the legality of the Convention, as has been said repeatedly, but they mainly hesitated because of it. If they were 100% against not moving against the Convention due to legality, they would have said so. My theory is that they felt exhausted and confused because 17 out of 49 sections had risen, which was a significant number but not enough to justify an uprising, not to mention they were at least somewhat legalistic.

Finally, I would have liked an explanation of why Hanriot was so loyal to Robespierre (we know this if we research the character a little, but a line or two of mention wouldn't have cost much), but I'm glad he wasn't demonized. Far from me the idea of wanting to put this excellent film on trial, but as I said earlier, it is also necessary to see the negative aspects of this film to have a better improvement of the content (although today it regresses even more).

I would have liked it if we also briefly saw Tinville refuse to prosecute Fleuriot Lescot; it would have added a little more humanity to his character (although I don't like Tinville at all, I find that he is always too caricatured to be believable. Fortunately, the TV movie shows his "human" side, but not enough).

The only problem is that I have the impression that they are telling the false message that the execution of Robespierre and his colleagues marks the end of the social revolution when in reality the coup de grace was not done for me. that with the execution of Romme and his friends (the episode of the execution of the Hébertists, Cordeliers, indulgents and of Robespierre and his colleagues was above all only a continuation of weakening between 'internal struggle') and the end of the frev was only after Bonaparte coup d'etat . After seeing that the show was suddenly stopped, perhaps the writers intended to rectify it.

A small gratuitous jab nonetheless from a line in a TV movie: Barras: You will take Robespierre and Saint Just.

Me: Wow, and does Couthon count for nothing, I guess? The poor has just been royally ignored."

[thegreeks]

An Affectionate Rebellion

Read Prequel Here (- can be read separately) Warnings: pregnancy, disapproving family

Synopsis: Lady Catherine de Bourgh comes to Pemberley to scrutinize the unity between you and her nephew

One evening, as the soft glow of the fire illuminated the elegant library of Pemberley, you and Mr. Darcy sat in a comfortable, familiar silence. He was engrossed in a correspondences, his brow furrowed in concentration, while you, a book resting in your lap, occasionally glanced up at him, feeling the quiet contentment that had settled into your life together.

A soft knock reverberated through the stillness, heralding the entrance of Mrs. Reynolds, your steadfast housekeeper. With a courteous curtsy, she delivered the news that made the air tense with anticipation.

“Master Darcy,” she began, her tone respectful. “We have just received word that Lady Catherine will be visiting Pemberley tomorrow.”

You exchanged a significant look with your husband. Lady Catherine de Bourgh—his formidable aunt, always a figure of both amusement and apprehension—had never been one to shy away from imposing her views. Her previous visits had left a trail of unsolicited advice on everything from estate matters to your very union, which she deemed beneath the established norms of society. That she would find fault in anything, even the smallest detail of your life together, was something you had long since accepted with equanimity.

“Thank you. We shall be prepared,” Darcy replied, his voice steady but with a subtle tightness that revealed his apprehension.

Once she had left, Darcy leaned back in his chair, a knowing smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I imagine she has come to remind me once more of my duties, no doubt to ensure the Darcy lineage is properly upheld.”

You couldn’t help but smile at his wry tone, shaking your head slightly. “And perhaps she will find some satisfaction when she learns of our second child.”

Darcy’s expression softened, his eyes lingering on you. “I care little for her approval,” he said quietly. “What matters is that our family is growing as we wish it to, not as she or anyone else might dictate.”

His words stirred profound respect within you for the man who had transformed into both a devoted husband and a caring father. Over the years, while he maintained his position as master of Pemberley, Darcy had grown into his role with a depth of care that far exceeded any obligation, and it was this that had made your bond so much stronger than you ever imagined it could be.

The sun rose and with it came the inevitability of Lady Catherine’s visit. Standing at the grand entrance by Darcy’s side, you braced yourself as her carriage took the winding path to your home, a marvel of opulence and natural beauty. The carriage approached with the pomp and formality expected of her, and soon she emerged. The sight of Lady Catherine unfolding from the carriage brought a mix of dread and determination swirling within you.

“Fitzwilliam,” she said curtly, her voice sharp as ever, eyes scanning the estate like a hawk seeking imperfections. As Darcy offered his arm with the politeness of a true gentleman, her gaze turned to you, her expression decidedly measuring.

“Ah, I see,” she remarked coolly, her tone laden with implications as she observed your form, swollen with new life. “You are indeed with child again. At least you are doing your duty in that regard.”

Darcy, with his usual unshakable calm, met her gaze. “Y/N is an excellent mistress of Pemberley, Aunt. You will find nothing wanting.”

You felt Darcy’s hand tighten ever so slightly around yours, an unspoken pledge of protection against her biting words. You remained composed, offering her a polite smile. “Indeed, Lady Catherine. We are to expect our second child. It is a joy that we both cherish deeply.”

There was a moment of silence as Lady Catherine surveyed you both, her expression unreadable. Then, with a dismissive wave of her hand, she turned to Darcy, launching into a litany of advice on estate matters, child-rearing, and all manner of subjects upon which she deemed herself an authority. Through it all, Darcy remained unruffled, redirecting the focus of their conversation back to you whenever her pointed remarks aimed to diminish your strength.

As the hours passed, and after what felt like an endless stream of comments and critiques, Lady Catherine finally took her leave, her carriage retreating down the long drive, leaving Pemberley in the comfortable quiet you adored. You and Darcy meandered into the rose garden, inhaling the fragrant blooms that swayed gently in the breeze. He seemed lighter now, shaking off the weight of his aunt's presence.

You glanced at him, an amused smile tugging at your lips. “I must confess, I feared for a moment she might stay indefinitely.”

“She is nothing if not persistent. I sometimes wonder how I endured her lingering influence for so long,” Darcy mused, his lips curving in a smile that lit up his usually serious expression.

His tone softened as he took your hand. “But I find it easier to endure her… advice when I know it means little in the grand scheme of things.”

You raised an eyebrow. “You’ve certainly grown more patient with her over time. It is remarkable what we can tolerate,” you laughed softly. “Especially when family is at stake.”

He halted, turning to you, his expression shifting into something tender, almost reverent. “Family,” he echoed, each syllable rich with meaning. “It is our family, built on love, that holds the greatest significance.”

In that moment, you saw a man unabashedly devoted to the life you both had crafted, a sanctuary where love triumphed over judgment. You took a step closer, feeling the warmth radiating from him, and grasped his hand tighter.

Your heart swelled with affection, and you squeezed his hand gently. “You are a far better husband and father than I could have imagined. And if that doesn’t satisfy Lady Catherine, then so be it.”

Darcy’s gaze softened even further, a warmth in his eyes that made your heart flutter. “Y/N,” he said quietly, his voice filled with a rare tenderness, “you are all I need to be satisfied. You, our children, our life together. That is enough.”

Together, you continued your stroll through the blossoming garden, each step resonating with a quiet affirmation of the life you shared. As the sun set, casting a golden glow over the expansive estate, you looked ahead with optimism, ready to face the future and the joy of the family that continued to grow around you.

In Darcy’s arms, you had found not just a home but a partnership, built on a foundation of respect and deep affection. With each passing day, the future you were building felt more secure, more certain. And as you glanced at your husband, his features softened by the evening light, you knew that whatever challenges or opinions might come from beyond your marriage, your love would endure.

And so, as the sun began to set, casting a golden glow over the estate, you and Darcy walked forward into that future together—one filled with the quiet joys of family, the certainty of love, and the unshakable bond between two hearts that had chosen one another above all else.

Perhaps, in time, Lady Catherine would come to see that her own definition of propriety was but a narrow view of the broader and infinitely richer character of family and love

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #4 – War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat

This is my first big history book of the year, and one I’ve been rather looking forward to getting to for some time now. Its claimed subject matter – the whole scope of war and violent conflict across the history of humanity – is ambitious enough to be intriguing, and it was cited and recommended by Bret Devereaux, whose writing I’m generally a huge fan of. Of course, he recommended The Bright Ages too, and that was one of my worst reads of last year – apparently something I should have learned my lesson from. This is, bluntly, not a good book – the first half is bad but at least interesting, while the remainder is only really worth reading as a time capsule of early 2000s academic writing and hegemonic politics.

The book purports to be a survey of warfare from the evolution of homo sapiens sapiens through to the (then) present, drawing together studies from several different fields to draw new conclusions and a novel synthesis that none of the authors being drawn from had ever had the context to see – which in retrospect really should have been a big enough collection of dramatically waving red flags to make me put it down then and there. It starts with a lengthy consideration of conflict in humanity’s ‘evolutionary state of nature’ – the long myriads between the evolution of the modern species and the neolithic revolution – which he holds is the environment where the habits, drives and instincts of ‘human nature’ were set and have yet to significantly diverge from. He does this by comparing conflict in other social megafauna (mostly but not entirely primates), archaeology, and analogizing from the anthropological accounts we have of fairly isolated/’untainted’ hunter gatherers in the historical record.

From there, he goes on through the different stages of human development – he takes a bit of pain at one point to disavow believing in ‘stagism’ or modernization theory, but then he discusses things entirely in terms of ‘relative time’ and makes the idea that Haida in 17th century PNW North America are pretty much comparable to pre-agriculture inhabitants of Mesopotamia, so I’m not entirely sure what he’s actually trying to disavow – and how warfare evolved in each. His central thesis is that the fundamental causes of war are essentially the same as they were for hunter-gatherer bands on the savanna, only appearing to have changed because of how they have been warped and filtered by cultural and technological evolution. This is followed with a lengthy discussion of the 19th and 20th centuries that mostly boils down to trying to defend that contention and to argue that, contrary to what the world wars would have you believe, modernity is in fact significantly more peaceful than any epoch to precede it. The book then concludes with a discussion of terrorism and WMDs that mostly serves to remind you it was written right after 9/11.

So, lets start with the good. The book’s discussion of rates of violence in the random grab-bag of premodern societies used as case studies and the archaeological evidence gathered makes a very convincing case that murder and war are hardly specific ills of civilization, and that per capita feuds and raids in non-state societies were as- or more- deadly than interstate warfare averaged out over similar periods of time (though Gat gets clumsy and takes the point rather too far at times). The description of different systems of warfare that ten to reoccur across history in similar social and technological conditions is likewise very interesting and analytically useful, even if you’re skeptical of his causal explanations for why.

If you’re interested in academic inside baseball, a fairly large chunk of the book is also just shadowboxing against unnamed interlocutors and advancing bold positions like ‘engaging in warfare can absolutely be a rational choice that does you and yours significant good, for example Genghis Khan-’, an argument which there are apparently people on the other side of.

Of course all that value requires taking Gat at his word, which leads to the book’s largest and most overwhelming problem – he’s sloppy. Reading through the book, you notice all manner of little incidental facts he’s gotten wrong or oversimplified to the point where it’s basically the same thing – my favourites are listing early modern Poland as a coherent national state, and characterizing US interventions in early 20th century Central America as attempts to impose democracy. To a degree, this is probably inevitable in a book with such a massive subject matter, but the number I (a total amateur with an undergraduate education) noticed on a casual read - and more damningly the fact that every one of them made things easier or simpler for him to fit within his thesis - means that I really can’t be sure how much to trust anything he writes.

I mentioned above that I got this off a recommendation from Bret Devereaux’s blog. Specifically, I got it from his series on the ‘Fremen Mirage’ – his term for the enduring cultural trope about the military supremacy of hard, deprived and abusive societies. Which honestly makes it really funny that this entire book indulges in that very same trope continuously. There are whole chapters devoted to thesis that ‘primitive’ and ‘barbarian’ societies possess superior military ferocity and fighting spirit to more civilized and ‘domesticated’ ones, and how this is one of the great engines of history up to the turn of the modern age. It’s not even argued for, really, just taken as a given and then used to expand on his general theories.

Speaking of – it is absolutely core to the book’s thesis that war (and interpersonal violence generally) are driven by (fundamentally) either material or reproductive concerns. ‘Reproductive’ here meaning ‘allowing men to secure access to women’, with an accompanying chapter-length aside about how war is a (possibly the most) fundamentally male activity, and any female contributions to it across the span of history are so marginal as to not require explanation or analysis in his comprehensive survey. Women thus appear purely as objects – things to be fought over and fucked – with the closest to any individual or collective agency on their part shown is a consideration that maybe the sexual revolution made western society less violent because it gave young men a way to get laid besides marriage or rape.

Speaking of – as the book moves forward in time, it goes from being deeply flawed but interesting to just, total dreck (though this also might just me being a bit more familiar with what Gat’s talking about in these sections). Given the Orientalism that just about suffuses the book it’s not, exactly, surprising that Gat takes so much more care to characterize the Soviet Union as especially brutal and inhumane that he does Nazi Germany but it is, at least, interesting. And even the section of World War 2 is more worthwhile than the chapters on decolonization and democratic peace theory that follow it.

Fundamentally this is just a book better consumed secondhand, I think – there are some interesting points, but they do not come anywhere near justifying slogging through the whole thing.

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 2, Wave 1, Poll 7

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Viktor-Arcane

Qualifications:

Definitely disabled - walks with a cane and later a crutch and leg brace. Overwhelmingly considered gay by the fandom, very strong argument can be made that he is queercoded in the show (especially act 1)

Physically disabled and widely headcanoned (spelling?) as queer

Propaganda:

Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you just wanna go apeshit? Nice young scientist meets a hunky inventor and decends into mad science in persuit of a way to help himself and others.

why you should vote for viktor: 1. he has amazing cheekbones, just look at them, you could slice a brick with them 2. he is essentially the einstein of his era and jayce (his boyfriend and political advocate) would be nothing without him 3. he has the air of LGBTQness about him, you can smell it

Wei Wuxian-The Untamed / Mo Dao Zu Shi

Qualifications:

Goes through a somewhat unethical organ transplant (in that the person he is giving the organ to doesn't realize that's what's going on) where he gives up his "golden core." This is like his center of power and by giving it up, not only is he not able to do most of the more "magic" things he could do before, but he's also noticeably physically weaker and gets injured much more easily (and takes longer to recover) as well as faints more often (iirc he only faints once pre-golden core removal and that was after sustaining major injuries and going on for a significant time without any healing while also fighting and traveling). Like he finds ways around it and invents new methods so that he can still do some things that he did before, just via a very different method. In the show we don't really see any characters who aren't cultivators, or at least part of that world, so Wei Wuxian is like the only character we really get to see without a golden core.

Also gotta say that this boy is severely depressed. Like "I'm-going-to-ask-my-doctor-friend-to-perform-a-mutliple-day-long-surgery-on-myself-in-which-I-will-be-awake-where-she'll-rip-out-the-core-of-my-being-and-transplant-it-into-my-adopted-brother-who-I'll-make-sure-never-finds-out-what-happened-even-though-he'll-come-to-hate-me" depressed. he has no value for his own life other than what he can give to others, even if it's his own body. like I think some fans unfairly classify him as being insane when he's really just depressed as all hell and having the worst possible things happen to him one after another and every time he breaks down it causes more trouble and usually people end up dying because of him.

Propaganda:

https://youtu.be/swbXAVADjxY ^ok this clip kinda explains the whole thing better (and obvs spoilers)

https://youtu.be/2wO5nsnkSBk ^and this video is just for fun but it's a little thing about Wei Wuxian & Jiang Cheng because their relationship makes me unwell

[ausetkmt]

At President Trump's rally in Tampa last week, a familiar face made it back in the national news. Maurice Symonette, also known as Michael the Black Man, was front and center in a crowd hurling invective at CNN reporter Jim Acosta, waving a "Blacks for Trump" sign.

Symonette has been a regular at Trump rallies all over Florida and as far away as Arizona. Just last month, he popped up at the U.S. border to appear in a video with disgraced sheriff-turned-pardoned-Senate-candidate Joe Arpaio.

All that national exposure raises an obvious question: Who is paying the bills for Symonette, a former member of Miami's murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, to represent "Blacks for Trump" at Trump rallies? 

Since Blacks for Trump isn't a registered political organization with the Florida Division of Elections or the Federal Election Commission, there are no public records of any donations funding the group's operations.

It seems unlikely Symonette is fronting the cash for his travel himself because he filed for bankruptcy this past May. In federal court records, he reports that he's unemployed, generates no income, and has $0 in the bank. He also says four banks have staked claims on $2.9 million worth of property around Dade County. 

So how is he getting to Arizona and Tampa to stand behind Trump on national TV?  Reached on his cell phone, Symonette declined to discuss his group's financing. "You guys are horrible racists," he said. "You are lawbreakers and you're mean... God is going to punish you horribly."

Throughout the '80s, Symonette — then known as Maurice Woodside — was a devoted follower of Yahweh ben Yahweh, a charismatic preacher who wore white robes and called himself the Messiah.

Federal prosecutors later accused Yahweh, whose real name was Hulon Mitchell Jr., of ordering his followers to murder at least 14 people, including random white vagrants who were massacred as an initiation rite.

Symonette was charged in federal court along with Mitchell and 15 other followers in 1990; while the cult's leader was later convicted of 14 charges of murder conspiracy and served nearly two decades in prison, Symonette and six other cult members were acquitted.

In the decades since, Symonette has been charged with crimes including grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane, and threatening a police officer, but has never been convicted. (He does have a pending case on a municipal ordinance charge in Hollywood after police showed up to a really loud party he threw.)

Since Trump's election, Symonette has carved out an unlikely new niche as one of President Trump's most visible African-American supporters. He has a knack for getting prime placement directly behind Trump and has handed out hundreds of his "Blacks for Trump" signs.

They advertise his website, which is full of conspiracy theories about Cherokees running the U.S. banking system. (Really.)

Symonette was even featured at a Miami Trump rally that prosecutors later alleged had been funded by Russian nationals looking to disrupt the election.

Symonette filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on May 16, listing Washington Mutual, Homecomings Financial, HSBC Bank, and Indymac Bank as his creditors; each institution laid claim to one of four houses. Three are in North Miami-Dade County, and one is near Kendall.

In court docs, his only listed assets are clothing, watches, various household items, and a pool table. He does say that his live-in girlfriend, whom he doesn't identify by name, provides him with $2,000 per month.

Could that money from his significant other cover Blacks for Trump's various trips around the country to support the president on TV? Symonette wouldn't discuss that with a New Times reporter. 

Instead, he spoke at length about his belief that the banking system is corrupt. He added that "Trump being the president is the greatest blessing we have ever had."

In his bankruptcy case, he's repeated those allegations about the banking system being crooked to Judge Laurel M. Isicoff. He's also repeatedly sought to change hearings that overlapped with Trump events. Symonette suggested the scheduling conflicts are a sinister plot to keep him away from the spotlight at Trump rallies.

"Creditors know that I have a rally in Arizona on July 25 and deliberately set the hearing on that date to cause me and my musical band to miss the performance and the rally with the bus we rented," he wrote in a motion filed the same morning as the Phoenix rally. "The creditors overheard that at the house we are disputing... and set that hearing on the same date just to harm me."

That motion was denied, as was another he filed on July 30, just before Trump's Tampa rally. "As founder of Blacks for Trump, (I) have rented vans to go to Trump's rally. We need to make the country aware how the banks (FOREIGNERS FROM THE EAST) are illegally taking WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE'S houses away."

Maurice Symonette's story is baffling, to put it mildly. Symonette, who also goes by the name Michael the Black Man, somehow went from being part of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult to getting acquitted of murder charges himself to being a staple at Donald Trump's presidential rallies all over the country. Even among the rogue's gallery of rodeo clowns and Bond villains who make up Trump's core cadre of supporters, Symonette might legitimately be the weirdest person hovering around Trumpworld

.

After Michael the Black Man turned up at a Tampa-area Trump rally last week and led anti-press chants, it's worth taking note of all the bizarre places he's materialized since becoming a prominent Trump supporter:

1. At the original October 2016 Trump rally where he first popped up on TV:

Conservative Twitter is abuzz this afternoon with a trending hashtag: #BlacksForTrump. The spark is clear: Thousands have retweeted photos from Trump's rally in Lakeland, Florida, this afternoon showing a small group standing directly behind the Donald while enthusiastically waving "Blacks for Trump" signs. "Blacks are for Trump and the left can't stand it," writes @LawlessPirate, with another pic of the sign-waving man wearing a shirt reading "Trump & Republicans Are Not Racist." So who is this new face of Trump's elusive black support? He's none other than Michael the Black Man, also known as Maurice Woodside or Michael Symonette, who has made waves in Miami in recent years with protests against the Democratic Party and rallies for the GOP. He's also a former member of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, which was led by the charismatic preacher Hulon Mitchell Jr., who was charged by the feds in 1990 with conspiracy in killings that included a gruesome beheading in the Everglades. Michael, along with 15 other Yahweh followers, was charged for allegedly conspiring in two murders; his brother, who was also in the cult, told jurors that Michael had helped beat one man who was later killed and stuck a sharpened stick into another man's eyeball. But jurors found Michael (and six other Yahweh followers) innocent. They sent Mitchell away for 20 years in the federal pen. In the years that followed, Michael changed his last name to Symonette, made a career as a musician, started a radio station in Miami, and then reinvented himself as Michael the Black Man, an anti-gay, anti-liberal preacher with a golden instinct for getting on TV at GOP events. He's planned events with Rick Santorum and gotten cable news play for bashing Obama. Since 1997, he's been charged with grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane and threatening a police officer, but never convicted in any of those cases. 

2. At a Trump rally in Bayfront Park in Miami just before the election: 3. At a rally allegedly organized with the help of Russian agents:

A federal grand jury filed charges against 13 Russian nationals [in February 2018] for allegedly stealing identities, wiring money overseas, and staging a small series of flash mobs to help tip the 2016 election in Donald Trump's favor. It's unclear whether the social media campaign had any actual impact on voting, but the FBI alleges Russian money indeed affected one small group of Miamians who unknowingly used Russian cash to pay for supplies for an unnamed rally the September before the presidential election. There still seem to be online traces of that Moscow-funded rally. Only one publicized, pro-Trump rally appears to have taken place in the Miami area — #LatinosConTrump in Doral at 1 p.m. September 11, 2016. The event was pitched as an "anti-media" protest outside the town's Univision offices. The national group Latinos With Trump created flyers for the rally and noted that virtually all of Miami's most prominent pro-Trump groups — Cubans 4 Trump, Hispanas for Trump, Latinas for Trump, and the official Miami Trump Volunteers — would attend.

4. At a 2017 Trump rally in Phoenix, per the Washington Post:

And so it was Tuesday night before a crowd of Trump supporters in Phoenix who had come to watch another show. There was the president, whipping up the wildly cheering crowd, and then there was Michael the Black Man, chanting just beyond Trump’s right shoulder in that trademark T-shirt. The presence of Michael — variously known as Michael Symonette, Maurice Woodside and Mikael Israel — has inspired not only trending Twitter hashtags but a great deal of curiosity and Google searches. Internet sleuths find the man’s bizarre URL, an easily accessible gateway to his strange and checkered past. The radical fringe activist from Miami once belonged to a violent black supremacist religious cult, and he runs a handful of amateur, unintelligible conspiracy websites. He has called Barack Obama “The Beast” and Hillary Clinton a Ku Klux Klan member. Oprah Winfrey, he says, is the devil. Most curiously, in the 1990s, he was charged, then acquitted, with conspiracy to commit two murders.

5. With noted racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio at the U.S.-Mexico border just last week:

Via our sister paper Phoenix New Times:

Former sheriff Joe Arpaio filmed a video at the U.S.-Mexico border with a former Florida cult member who goes by the name Michael the Black Man. In the video posted on Thursday, Michael has his arm around Arpaio as the ousted former sheriff promotes his improbable race for Arizona's open Senate seat during a visit to the border fence in Naco, Arizona. Michael was a follower of the Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, a black-supremacist religious sect in Florida. In 1990, the feds charged Michael and over a dozen fellow cult members with conspiracy related to brutal murders in Florida. Alongside Arpaio and Michael in the video is an independent Senate candidate in Massachusetts, Shiva Ayyadurai, who shared the live video on Twitter. Born in India, Ayyadurai is a scientist and MIT graduate who claims that he invented email. He began his Senate campaign as a Republican before switching to run as an independent. Ayyadurai’s campaign uses the slogan, “Defeat #FakeIndian Elizabeth Warren,” as a derogatory jab at his Democratic opponent. “First of all, I’m from Massachusetts, so of course I’m supporting this great guy,” Arpaio says of Ayyadurai in the video. “He’s gonna win.” Michael says, “We’re at the border right here, between Arizona and Mexico.” He turns to Arpaio to ask if he has anything to say to the camera. The aging former sheriff brings up his law enforcement background. “It’s great to see the border again; I haven’t seen it in a while,” Arpaio says. 

If you've got any info on who's paying Symonette's travel bills to Trump rallies, email [email protected] or [email protected]

For a second, Donald Trump seemed to be backing off his vitriolic attacks on the free press. After five journalists were massacred at the Annapolis Capital Gazette, Trump briefly toned down his slurs. He even invited New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzburger to the White House to clear the air. But it didn't last.

Trump quickly returned to his Stalinist, enemies-of-the-people label for journalists and then lied about his meeting with Sulzburger to insist that truthful reporting is "fake news." Those insults have a real effect, and that fact was never frighteningly clearer than at Trump's rally last night in Tampa, where an unhinged-looking mob screamed insults and waved middle fingers at journalists, particularly CNN's chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

The scene left many political watchers deeply shaken, including Acosta:

Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018

But most national press watchers didn't notice who was right at the center of that mob hurling invective at Acosta and his colleagues: Yep, it was Michael the Black Man, AKA Maurice Symonette, a former member of Miami's murderous Yahweh ben Yawheh cult who once faced charges of conspiring in the group's murders.

That's him with his instantly recognizable "Blacks for Trump" sign:

.@Acosta is trying to do a stand-up at #trumptampa and the crowd is booing and chanting “CNN sucks” behind him. pic.twitter.com/XiULajB1Li— Emily L. Mahoney (@mahoneysthename) July 31, 2018

Symonette has been a mainstay at Florida Trump rallies and over the past year has popped up at other Trump-linked events around the nation. Just last week, he flew to Arizona to film a video at the border with disgraced former sheriff Joe Arpaio. Trump's staff regularly gives Symonette front-and-center seats where he waves his black-and-white sign on national television.

Here's some background on Symonette from New Times' earlier reporting on him:

He's also a former member of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, which was led by the charismatic preacher Hulon Mitchell Jr., who was charged by the feds in 1990 with conspiracy in killings that included a gruesome beheading in the Everglades. Michael, along with 15 other Yahweh followers, was charged for allegedly conspiring in two murders; his brother, who was also in the cult, told jurors that Michael had helped beat one man who was later killed and stuck a sharpened stick into another man's eyeball. But jurors found Michael (and six other Yahweh followers) innocent. They sent Mitchell away for 20 years in the federal pen. In the years that followed, he changed his last name to Symonette, made a career as a musician, started a radio station in Miami and then re-invented himself as Michael the Black Man, an anti-gay, anti-liberal preacher with a golden instinct for getting on TV at GOP events. He's planned events with Rick Santorum and gotten cable news play for bashing Obama. Since 1997, he's been charged with grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane and threatening a police officer, but never convicted in any of those cases. 

In other words, he's exactly the kind of guy you might not want to drive into a blind rage at journalists who are just trying to do their jobs. Yet there he was in Tampa, right in the middle of the crowd screaming at Acosta — who, incidentally, took time to talk to the crowds who were so angry with him:

After each live shot, @Acosta would walk down and politely talk to the people who just heckled him. He talked to one group for at least 15 minutes. pic.twitter.com/J26nlxfD6k— Christopher Heath (@CHeathWFTV) August 1, 2018

There are two safe bets on this topic going forward: Trump won't stop throwing insults at the media, and wherever the president is whipping up that anger, Michael the Black Man will probably be there with his signs, happily taking the bait.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 3, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 04, 2024

The fallout from the New York jury’s conviction of Donald Trump on 34 felony counts last Thursday, May 30, continues. Trump’s team continues to insist that the guilty verdict will help him, but that’s nonsensical on its face: if guilty verdicts are so helpful, why has he moved heaven and earth to keep the many other cases against him from going to trial? And why are he and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) calling for the Supreme Court to overturn the convictions? 

As political consultant Stuart Stevens put it: “I worked in five presidential races and helped elect Republican governors or Senators in over half the country. I have never heard anything more transparently desperate than a party trying to spin that there is some non-MAGA pool of voters who can't wait to vote for a convicted felon.”

On Friday, Morning Consult conducted a poll to gauge how voters were reacting to the guilty verdict. It showed that 54% of registered voters approved of it, while only 34% disapproved. Perhaps worse for Trump was that 49% of Independents and 15% of Republicans thought he should end his campaign. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 10% of registered Republican voters and 25% of Independents said that his conviction made it less likely that they would vote for him for president. 

Then, on Saturday, there was what Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times called a plot twist. It turns out the state of Washington has a law on the books that prevents felons from running for office. But because a candidate has to be certified to be on a ballot before they can be challenged, the issue can’t be resolved until Trump officially becomes the Republican Party’s presidential nominee at the July convention. Westneat asked, “Republicans: You sure you want to go down this road?”

On Sunday, Trump appeared on Fox and Friends for his first interview since his conviction. The interview was heavily edited, suggesting his comments were problematic in some way, but what was there was still bad enough. He repeated his plans to fire generals who refuse to do his bidding and to deport immigrants by using local police to round them up. Notably, considering his own looming sentencing, he claimed he never said “lock her up” about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a claim that reporters on social media promptly shredded with video clips of him doing exactly that. 

Media figures are puncturing Trump’s image. The verdict buried a story by The Apprentice producer Bill Pruitt, who is now free of a nondisclosure agreement, explaining how he and others created an illusion that Trump was a successful businessman and alleging that Trump used the n-word on set. On Saturday, an image circulated on social media of Trump leaving Trump Tower and waving as if to a crowd, but there was no one there.

Also on Saturday, top sports talk host Colin Cowherd pushed back on the idea that the trial was rigged, telling his listeners: “If everybody in your circle is a felon, maybe it’s not rigged. Maybe the world isn’t against you.” “Donald Trump is now a felon,” Cowherd said. “His campaign chairman was a felon. So is his deputy campaign manager, his personal lawyer, his chief strategist, his National Security Adviser, his Trade Advisor, his Foreign Policy Adviser, his campaign fixer, and his company CFO. They’re all felons. Judged by the company you keep. It’s a cabal of convicts.”

Cowherd went on: “[Trump’s] trying to sell me an America that doesn’t exist.” “Stop trying to sell me on ‘everything’s rigged, the country’s falling into the sea, the economy’s terrible,’” he continued. “The America that I live in is imperfect. But compared to the rest of the world, I think we’re doing okay.”

This morning, Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica reported that Trump’s businesses and campaign committees have funneled significant financial benefits to at least nine witnesses in the criminal campaigns against Trump, often at crucial moments in the legal proceedings. The pay of one campaign aide doubled; another got a $2 million severance package that barred him from cooperating with law enforcement. The daughter of one of the campaign’s top officials was hired onto the staff and is now the fourth-highest-paid employee, with a salary of $222,000. Payments to the companies of certain witnesses dramatically increased.

Faturechi, Elliott, and Mierjeski note that it is not uncommon for bosses to find themselves defendants, complicating their relationship with employees who might have witnessed alleged crimes. In such cases, lawyers advise the defendant not to provide any unusual benefits or penalties, to avoid the appearance of witness tampering.

Trump’s attorney, David Warrington, sent ProPublica a cease-and-desist letter saying that if the outlet and its reporters “continue their reckless campaign of defamation, President Trump will evaluate all legal remedies.” He demanded that ProPublica kill the article, keeping it from publication.

And then, this afternoon, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, along with the U.S. Department of Labor and the State Department, unsealed an indictment charging Weidong Guan, also known as Bill Guan, the chief financial officer of the global news outlet The Epoch Times, with using the outlet to launder at least $67 million. The Epoch Times is affiliated with the ultraconservative Chinese anticommunist religious group Falun Gong and supports Donald Trump and other right-wing U.S. politicians with both press and cash. It was a major promoter of Dinesh D’Souza’s film 2000 Mules that claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen. A voter depicted in that film sued for defamation, and just last week the distributor settled with the plaintiff, issued an apology, and stopped distributing the film.

The allegation that The Epoch Times is a money-laundering operation comes on top of yesterday’s story by Joseph Menn in the Washington Post, reporting that the editor of another media site that pushes disinformation from both the far right and the far left, The Grayzone, has worked for Russia’s Sputnik as well as taken money from Iranian government-owned media. One of the people who retweets Grayzone stories is Senator Mike Lee (R-UT).

In the middle of all this bad news for MAGA Republicans, it felt like desperation today when the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic tried to resurrect Covid conspiracy theories against Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022, serving under seven presidents. President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., for his work on combating the global AIDS epidemic. 

Fauci’s position as NIAID director put him at the center of U.S. attempts to grapple with Covid-19, and for his work on developing a vaccine, Trump awarded him a presidential commendation. But first QAnon and then MAGA Republicans centered him as a villain who either started or covered up the pandemic, or forced people to mask or to get vaccines they told their supporters were unnecessary or even dangerous. QAnon conspiracy theorist Ivan Raiklin and convicted January 6 rioter Brandon Fellows were seated behind Fauci today; Fellows made pouty faces when Fauci was describing the death threats he, his wife, and his daughters have endured. 

Video creator and political commentator Michael McWhorter noted that Raiklin has made dramatic threats of violence against those he considers members of “the Deep State” and that he should have been nowhere near Fauci. McWhorter also noted that the two men were likely invited to the hearing and that it would be useful to know who invited them.  

Committee member Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has skipped seven of the last ten hearings and who has expressed sympathy for QAnon in the past, attacked Fauci by saying he should be prosecuted: “You know what this committee should be doing? We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity,” she said. “You belong in prison, Dr. Fauci.” For all the nastiness, the hearing turned up nothing.

Later, Greene told Manu Raju of CNN that Speaker Johnson should shut down the government over the Trump verdict and prosecutions. “We're literally a banana republic. So what does it matter funding the government? The American people don't give a sh*t.” 

While MAGA Republicans are insisting that a Manhattan jury’s conviction of Trump means that President Joe Biden has weaponized the Department of Justice and that they must take revenge, the trial of Biden’s son Hunter on federal gun charges, brought by a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney whom Biden kept on, started today. Former top Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann noted that Biden is “living the rule of law…in the most personal way. He is not telling DOJ to stand down…. He is not pardoning his son…. He is living what it means to have a rule of law in this country…. If you want to know if he believes it, you can actually see what is happening with his own son.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mariacallous]

For the past week, hundreds of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets in cities across the country, and the situation is escalating by the day. In the capital, Tbilisi, the demonstrators have been met with an increasingly forceful government response, with the use of tear gas and water cannons now routine. Social media is flooded with videos and photos that document police brutality targeting journalists, political activists, and ordinary citizens. Opposition politicians have been arrested from their homes.

Despite the heavy-handed crackdown, the protests show no signs of abating. On the contrary, the government’s aggressive tactics appear to have strengthened the demonstrators’ resolve, who view their cause as a fight for Georgia’s future.

The protests are driven by grievances that have been building for months, but the catalyst was the government’s recent announcement that it will suspend Georgia’s push for European Union membership until at least 2028. Joining the EU has long been a unifying aspiration for Georgians regardless of political affiliation, with polls consistently showing over 80 percent support. This decision has been perceived as a profound betrayal, even by many supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

There is also still much anger and frustration over Georgia’s October parliamentary elections, which many opposition leaders, civil society organizations, and international observers have labeled fraudulent. Since the elections, in which the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party declared victory, demonstrations have flared up intermittently. Similarly, protests broke out in May after the Georgian Dream-led government enacted the so-called “Russian law,” a deeply controversial measure that enables the government to launch Kremlin-style crackdowns on civil society. But the scale and fervor of the protests catalyzed by the EU announcement has not been seen since Georgia’s Rose Revolution in 2003.

What makes this wave of protests particularly significant is the diversity of participants. Past protests were largely fueled by opposition supporters, but the movement has now expanded to include a much broader spectrum of society. Dozens of diplomats and civil servants have resigned to protest the government’s suspension of EU accession and declared their support for the demonstrators. Even some Georgian Dream voters have joined the protests, reflecting a deepening national dissatisfaction.

A galvanizing figure for the protesters has been Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, a staunch Euro-Atlanticist and vocal critic of the ruling party who has joined the protesters and confronted riot police in Tbilisi. Her term ends later this month, but she has vowed to remain in office until “until a legitimately elected parliament is formed.”

Given the widening scale of the protests with broadening participation, Georgia appears to be in a pre-revolutionary state. While this wave of demonstrations is only entering its second week, the grievances driving them have been simmering for years. The situation is evolving rapidly, making it difficult to predict the next steps.

Four potential scenarios should inform Western policymakers as they navigate their response.

Compromise scenario: With enough internal and external pressure, the Georgian Dream government could decide to backtrack on some of its more controversial decisions. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a wealthy oligarch and former prime minister who is widely considered to be the de-facto leader of Georgian Dream, could decide that he and his allies have pushed too far too fast—and take steps to de-escalate. This might involve minor concessions, such as reversing the decision to suspend EU accession or repealing the Russian law. A more significant compromise would be an agreement on new parliamentary elections.

However, with each day that goes by and each new bout of government violence against the demonstrators, the possibility of a compromise that will satisfy the demands of the people becomes more remote. Already, the debate among the protesters has moved beyond specific grievances, such as the Russian law or election fraud. Many Georgians now see the standoff between protesters and the government as reflecting a civilizational choice between slipping back into the Russian world or deepening integration with Europe and the West. The fact that the debate has reached this point suggests that even a compromise on specific issues will not make the fight over Georgia’s future identity go away.

Belarus scenario: Georgia could also see a variation of what happened in Belarus following the fraudulent presidential election in August 2020, when weekslong protests were followed by brutal police-state suppression with Russian help. In this case, Ivanishvili and his Georgian Dream associates might refuse any and all compromise, leaning on Moscow to institute an authoritarian crackdown to entrench their power. This would involve the use of all state resources to rapidly suppress civil society, political opposition, and independent media. Russian support could take the form of assistance by its security services, similar to how the Kremlin aided the Belarusian regime.

If there is an increased presence of security forces in unmarked uniforms on Georgian streets, these will likely be Russians. The Kremlin could also provide the Georgian Dream government with technical support and advice on how to intensify the crackdown.

Cold-War Poland scenario: When the communist Polish government declared martial law in 1981 to suppress a national uprising, it argued that the measures were necessary to preempt a Soviet invasion to restore order. Similarly, Georgian Dream could scare Georgians into falling in line by pointing to the risk of a Russian military intervention. Moscow could encourage invasion fears with military provocations from the Russian-occupied Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Meanwhile, Georgian Dream would further remove democratic checks as it tightens its grip.

Fireworks revolution: The fourth and most dramatic scenario is revolution, perhaps named after the now characteristic use of fireworks by the anti-government demonstrators. If public pressure continues to build, international pressure mounts, and the government’s crackdowns become increasingly brutal, Georgian society could reach a tipping point. One key tipping point to watch for is segments of the police and security forces defecting to the protesters and shifting the balance of power. If that happens, Ivanishvili and his inner circle could be forced to flee the country.

The revolution could then take two distinct paths. One would be the appointment of an interim government—potentially led by Zourabichvili—as Georgia prepares for new elections in the spring, much like the situation in Ukraine after the 2014 Maidan Revolution. The revolution’s other potential course would be a chaotic power struggle reminiscent of Georgia’s turbulent post-independence period in the 1990s. The latter scenario would leave the country vulnerable to prolonged instability and violence.

Along either path, the possibility of Russian military intervention looms large. Even though Russian forces are stressed to the maximum in Ukraine (and now in Syria), Russian President Vladimir Putin may fight to keep Georgia in the Russian world as he has chosen to fight before. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, after the Maidan Revolution ousted a pro-Russian president who had, just like Georgian Dream, reversed course on deepening relations with the EU. In Belarus, Russian security forces helped stabilize the regime after mass protests in 2020. In Kazakhstan, Russia intervened in 2022 after several days of political violence. Given this pattern, it is entirely plausible that Moscow would try to take similar action in Georgia.

Georgia’s future geopolitical orientation now hangs in the balance. The outcome of this national struggle will determine whether the country aligns with the West or falls under Moscow’s influence. As they swing their blue-and-gold EU flags next to their white-and-red Georgian ones, the protesters also represent a broader European ideal: that each nation has the sovereign right to choose its own path and alliances, and that no outside power—least of all Georgia’s former imperial overlord—should dictate the country���s future.

What is taking place in Georgia today is part of the larger geopolitical struggle between Europe and Russia. The sooner Western policymakers understand this, the faster they can develop an effective policy to counter Russia. The Georgians have proven that they are willing to fight for their future. Can they depend on their Western partners to back them?

[ask-healthy-light]

Though they were glad to hear that Starswirl was willing to try, even if only when they were there, and they had seen first-hoof how quickly his health had improved since the morning, the two Sisters were worried it was still too great a step; and they asked the Doctor if she was absolutely certain that Starswirl could try to walk again, especially since he struggled to get up just some time ago.

A small smile grew upon the Doctor's face as she admitted that it would take much longer before the Bearded got back to his former strength, but since he was steadily recovering, they would carefully build up his stamina again; so when they returned this afternoon, they would see if Starswirl could handle standing around, or sitting in a nearby chair, and they would gradually build up from there.

But even though they were starting slowly and safely, the Doctor continued, it would cost Starswirl a significant amount of energy, and he would require more rest after these periods of exercise; but when Starswirl took Celestia and Luna's hooves, and looked away, the Doctor sweetly told him he did not have to feel ashamed, as this was a part of his recovery, nor afraid, as he would not be alone.

When Starswirl dared to look up again, and he saw the kind smiles on his former Students' faces, he started to smile in turn, and he thanked the Doctor for telling him what laid ahead of them, before he turned back to the Princesses; and he indiscreetly asked them to bring him something to eat when they returned from their lunch at the Castle, whither he kindly reminded them they still had to go.

For a brief moment after Starswirl mentioned their lunch, the Princesses blankly stared in front of them, when they quietly gasped, thanked the Old Wizard for reminding them, and turned to Eclipse to ask them about the others; and they said they probably were at the Palace already, since Spike only had to fly upstairs to Lady Cadance, while Stygian ran to the Library, and they went to the Centre.

But they reassured the Princesses that there was plenty of food to eat, as they had even managed to send a couple of packages to their friends in the Dragon Lands, and it barely scratched the surface of the amount of baked goods made by Spike and Stygian; and they would be able to bring Starswirl a sizeable plate, even if they arrived later, though, it would be polite not to make the others wait.

After the Doctor promised the Princesses that she would keep an eye on the Bearded, and the Pillars on the other side of the Mirror called out that they would never be far away, either, they solemnly bowed to Starswirl, who nodded in return, before they left his room to head back to the Palace; and after he waved them goodbye, Starswirl leaned back, and said that he finally saw how tiring it was.

Back at the Palace, meanwhile, after Spike had let Lady Cadance and the Young Princesses know lunch was ready, he led them to the Great Hall, where he asked her if she knew whether Shining would like something to eat as well; but Cadance smiled weakly, and said that he would love to join them, even if only for a moment, but she knew he had barely any time to spare outside of commanding the Guard.

However, since she was busy keeping an eye on Flurry and Twila, she asked Spike if he could perhaps bring a plate to the barracks where Shining was, so he at least had something to eat for as long as he was there, which she expected to take a while; and Spike nodded to her with a warm smile, before he took one of the plates, and filled it, whereafter he asked her where he could find the barracks.

Fortunately, it was not far, which the Young Dragon greatly appreciated, as he swiftly realised how much he had put on the plate for his Older Brother, which he expected would still be too little for him; but in spite of his great struggle to keep the plate balanced, he reached the Barracks without dropping a crumb, where he slowly opened the doors, and found more Guards than he could even count.

To his surprise, despite his small size, the clamour around him stopped when he walked past…

(Thanks for reading! And if you enjoyed, please reblog! Thanks in advance!)

Send an ask or request! | Start at the beginning! | Next part!

Featuring: Solar Eclipse and Twilight Sparkle as Twilight Eclipse from @asktwilighteclipse

[gripefroot]

Crooked Ways [20/22]

Hiya! It's been a busy few weeks so I haven't gotten around to updating. I'm very sad to be winding down this story. I started it exactly one year ago and the writing process was so fun but also healing to me. I've been surprised and incredibly grateful at how many people have been reading and enjoying it. Thank you for every note and message. I treasure every single one 🫶

Just one night. 

Vegeta scanned the crowds of dancers without much thought, occasionally letting his eyes drift over to tables or the buffet line. No one with a significant power level. None that took a second look at Bulma after coming face-to-face with Vegeta’s best scowl. In fact, a few people that found themselves in their way scuttled like crabs, leaving the space clear in front of them. If Bulma noticed, she didn’t say anything about it, each toss of her head sending more of that delicious scent straight to Vegeta’s nose, making him feel stupid. 

Her usual perfume? Yeah, right, and he was the bastard child of the Supreme Kai. 

“Food first?” Bulma asked, leaning closer to murmur into his ear. Vegeta breathed in deeply, eyelids fluttering madly as he tried to clear his throat and square his stance. 

“It doesn’t matter to me,” he intoned, hoping she didn’t hear his voice crack on the final word. 

“I say let’s say hello to the people that’ll complain to Dad if I don’t,” she said with a sigh. He noticed her fingernails digging into his forearm, even through his suit coat. “Then our duty will be done and we can enjoy ourselves the rest of the night.”

“I thought you liked people.” Vegeta let her steer him towards a table, nonetheless. 

“Usually,” Bulma said. “I…don’t like people who treat me like I’m still a little girl. And I don’t like anybody when I just want to be home in bed.”

“In bed with me, I hope.”

She cast him a look, but he saw her lips quiver enough to know she was hiding a giggle. “I don’t think I know how to sleep alone anymore, honestly,” she told him, and he didn’t bother stopping his chest from puffing out. Any Saiyan would be proud to hear such a thing. 

Bulma may not know it, but her words (and smell) made Vegeta’s brain a fuzzy, pleased place to be despite being introduced to a mass of insignificant earthlings. He shook hands and nodded but never smiled. Not that it mattered. Bulma smiled enough for both of them. 

Vegeta wondered if anyone else thought her smile was as perfect as he did. 

If they did, he’d have to kill them.  

He sensed a higher power level and recognized it before the voice reached out to them, before Bulma pulled herself away from laughing with an elderly man to address the interruption behind them. Vegeta’s mind already on killing, he didn’t bother an attempt at polite overtures when they turned to see Yamcha’s stupid smile and wave. 

“Yamcha?” At least Bulma sounded more surprised than happy. 

“Bet you didn’t expect to see me here.” Yamcha wiggled his eyebrows. “How are you doing, Bulma?”

“I’m…fine. Why are you here? How did you get a ticket?”

Vegeta noted that Bulma’s hand on his arm had gone cold. If he weren’t perfectly still to assess this new threat, he might have covered her hand to warm it (better blood flow meant a better chance of surviving a battle. Not for any other reason.)

“Your mom offered me one a while back,” Yamcha said, awkwardly rubbing his neck. “I would’ve come as your date, but after last time…”

Finally the man’s eyes landed on Vegeta. Vegeta saw fear and apprehension, dashed with disgust. He grinned. The memory of decking Yamcha on the Capsule Corp compound lawn was still something he treasured, sometimes relieving the moments at nighttime before falling asleep with a smile on his face. 

“I think,” Yamcha said slowly, brows drawing together. “I think I don’t know what’s been going on at Capsule Corp since I left.” 

“Why should you?” Bulma asked. Her nails dug fibers of fabric into Vegeta’s skin. Not enough to hurt, but enough to keep him on edge. “You never call. Except to talk to my mom, apparently.” 

“She called me!” 

“What do you want, moron?” Vegeta barked. “We’re trying to enjoy ourselves.” 

“Sheesh! I only came to say hi.” 

“You said it. Now go.” 

The brisk dismissal seemed to incense Yamcha, whose stance squared against Vegeta as if he were actually a threat. Vegeta laughed. “You don’t get to order me around!” Yamcha said. Then, eyes flicking between the pair of them, he added on, “Aren’t you supposed to be training to beat the Androids, Vegeta? But you’re playing boyfriend?” 

“I’m strong enough to defeat the Androids ten times over,” Vegeta said softly, fists clenching in his pockets. “Naturally you wouldn’t know that level of power.” 

“Stop.” Bulma tugged on his sleeve. “Let’s go eat.” 

“I’m not hungry,” he said without looking in her direction. He only saw Yamcha, a face swimming in the crowd distorted with rage and hate. 

“Oh, are you that powerful, really?” Yamcha sneered. “Are you a Super Saiyan like Goku yet? Or could he still put you in the ground like he did the first time?” 

“Stop!” Bulma said again, this time louder. But now she said it to Yamcha, putting out an arm between them. “Yamcha, you jerk. Go away. If you won’t listen to Vegeta, who can break every bone in your body, listen to me.” 

Yamcha’s expression twitched, gaze dropping from Vegeta’s face to look at Bulma. The drooping, puppyish frown that appeared made Vegeta laugh again, the noise harsh and delighted. 

“Listen to the woman,” Vegeta ordered. “She doesn’t want you here.” 

“I can see that,” Yamcha said bitterly. “If she chooses the enemy over her friends.” 

“Now wait just a minute - ” Bulma’s exploding temper shut off when Vegeta clamped a hand over her mouth. It wasn’t worth it: Yamcha had turned tail the moment he finished his parting shot, disappearing into the crowd. Her fingernails dug into the back of his hand to pull it away from her mouth. “Let me at him, Vegeta! Let me make him pay for what he put me through!” 

She already took a step in the direction Yamcha had gone, and he was forced to pull her back. An unusual amount of aggression, even for Bulma, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it. She was pretty when she was furious; all sparking anger and brilliant flashes in her eyes. Her scent riled up, too, and it was all Vegeta could do not to squash his nose against her neck and breathe her in until she was no more. 

Interestingly, he’d forgotten all about Yamcha. 

“Ugh!” Bulma stomped her foot, drawing a few curious stares from around them. The urge to shield her from prying eyes rose in him faster than a tidal wave, and he stomped it down just as quickly. He sufficed the situation by putting his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to face him. 

“Bulma,” Vegeta said. A thrill coursed through his chest when her eyes landed on him; darkened and dangerous and gorgeous. “Now is not the time for a fight. For one thing, these clothes aren’t appropriate for combat.”

“I don’t care!” 

“And what about your father? If you ruin his company’s gala by murdering a guest?” 

Her lips protruded in a pout he was deeply tempted to catch between his teeth and suck until she was swollen and bruised purple. Swallowing, he dragged his eyes up to hers to soak in the beauty of her rage. 

“Fine,” Bulma snapped. “No murder. You’re no fun.” 

“It’s more than he deserves. You’re better than him.” 

Her face began to clear of aggravation. Now she simply looked annoyed, not murderous. 

“When you kill someone,” Vegeta went on, “it should be someone worth more than you so as to prove your power.” 

Bulma blinked several times. He couldn’t think of how what he’d said might be confusing or unclear, so he didn’t clarify. Finally she sighed. “Good to know you haven’t changed that much, Vegeta.” 

“Of course I haven’t changed. Why would I?”

“Never mind.” 

The evening had crested early. Guests remained to be greeted, food to be eaten, and an obligatory dance where everyone could see them that Vegeta thought would make a brilliant torture tactic in the Frieza Force were Frieza still alive. Every second was hell: the music, the steps, the stares, the whispers. 

Worse than that was how much he liked having his hands all over Bulma and her arms wrapped around him. And how bearable her presence made this otherwise torture. 

“Human dances are simplistic,” Vegeta grumbled. Cheeks pressed together, he heard her tinkling laugh right in the shell of his ear. “I’ve seen more backwards planets produce more intricate dances than this!” 

“Oh, honey. This is a social dance, not a professional troupe. I promise there are better dancers out there than the Capsule Corp employees.” 

“Tch.” He squeezed her hand tighter. 

“Don’t tell me you’d rather learn a more complicated dance!” Bulma pulled enough to laugh in his face, which made his cheeks feel hot. 

“No, of course not! I’m only saying it’s not a very impressive set of steps.”

“But it’s easy.” 

Vegeta grunted in agreement. Swaying in circles didn’t require much experience or skill, just a willingness to keep moving and to hold a woman in his arms. His woman. 

“Oh!” Her arm lifted from his shoulder. “My dad is coming to cut in.”

“Cut into what?” 

“The dance, silly. He’ll take your place to dance with me. You can go sit or stand somewhere, I’ll find you after.”

And just like that, Vegeta lost his woman to her father. Glad to leave the dance, loathe to release her. It wasn’t until Bulma flat-out tugged her hand out of his with a reproachful look that he managed, stepping aside for Dr. Briefs. 

“I won’t be long,” Dr. Briefs told him with a smile, already swinging his daughter into a more polished version of the dance. “You can have her back when I’m done.”

Saiyans had killed other Saiyans for less. 

Vegeta stuck his hands in his pockets, expertly missing the other couples dancing nearby to leave the floor uncontested. His stomach rumbled to remind him that that pathetic single plate of food he’d consumed between introductions wasn’t enough to satisfy him. But instead of walking towards the buffet line, which was significantly shorter as the party dragged on, he found a blank space on the wall, outside the dazzling light of the chandelier. Leaning his back against the wall in a semblance of perfect relaxation, he crossed his arms and let his eyes drift closed. 

Let the humans think him a miserable wretch. Rather that than talk to any of them. 

He didn’t belong here. He didn’t belong in any places like this on any planet. In fact, when he really dug his mind in to think about it, he couldn’t recall any time that he’d felt true belonging. Even in the field, performing massacres at Frieza’s every order or spending nights with the other soldiers he’d been apart. Memories of his earliest childhood at his father’s palace proved spotty and only produced feelings that jolted between sour arrogance, suffocating loneliness, and the intense need to earn the king’s approval. 

Vegeta had shuttered around the universe too much to call any place his home. Nor had he wanted to, when having a home proved to be such a target for a madman’s destruction. And now that Frieza was gone and Planet Vegeta was gone and Vegeta no longer part of an army: where did that leave him? 

Here. He was here. 

I have no ties to Earth, either, he thought to himself. The lie was acrid, burning beneath his skin as if his very blood howled in protest. So what if it was a lie? No one knew but himself. No one knew the roots growing from the cracks in his feet, from the arteries to his heart. 

Perhaps because Vegeta was so in tune to her tenor of voice, perhaps because her laugh was just that loud - his head jerked up at the sound of Bulma laughing. The music had picked up to a faster pace, her dad twirling her expertly around. 

This was her world. Her place. Her home. She belonged here in a way Vegeta would never, could never belong anywhere, because this had been her home since she was born. If he meant to honor her claim on him, to honor his claim on her - to take her away from this would be a cruelty beyond imagining. And for what? He had nothing and no place. No planet, no home, no people. 

He’d only ever been a smudge, unwillingly allowed across the brightness of her life for an indeterminable and finite amount of time. Time that was running out, and he’d done the stupid thing and all but made her his mate in the Saiyan way. 

For once, pride and blood tore him in different directions. One towards her, one away. Both with equal strength in his body, neither to be ignored. 

When the song ended, Bulma disappeared from the dance floor. Vegeta barely had time to sense her direction before she appeared in front of him with flushed, vibrant cheeks and a smile brighter than any sun in any solar system. 

“Told you I’d find you,” she said breathlessly. “Mom and Dad are going home, they said we can ride with them if we’re ready to leave.” 

“I’m ready,” he said at once. 

“Let’s go, then.” Bulma’s fingers wrapped through his, unraveling his uncompromising stance until he sulked after her bounding steps to the exit. Her exhilarating scent wrapped around him like a shroud, driving away his unhappy thoughts until his blood sang for her, and only her, and when she turned to beam at him, Vegeta grinned back. 

Sharing a car with her parents had been a bad choice.

The backseat had two rows of seats facing each other, meant for socializing. Instead of sitting in the seat beside Bulma, Vegeta was pushed aside to make room for a massive bouquet of flowers someone had gifted Panchy at the party. His nose itched at the scent, cloying and too sweet. Meanwhile the others chatted about who they’d seen and who they hadn’t seen, laughing at dredged up memories and so-and-so or this-and-that. 

Next time, they weren’t sharing a car. 

There won’t be a next time, immediately followed that thought, and he stiffened in his seat. A fist resting on his knee, flaring conflict building in his chest until he was sure he’d choke aloud. 

When the car finally stopped at the front entrance of Capsule Corp, Vegeta was slowest to start moving. By the time he climbed out of the car, squinting in the bright lights that bathed the front steps, Bulma had dashed around the car, holding her skirt in her hand. 

“It’s a full moon,” she said. “Did you see?”

“No.” He started up the steps. Dr. Briefs and Panchy were already heading through the doors inside. 

“Oh.” 

Halfway to the top he realized she hadn’t followed. Turning, Vegeta scowled at her still by the car, hands on her hips. “Don’t tell me you expect to be carried,” he said. “I know you didn’t have a single glass of champagne.” 

“You do get grumpy during full moons!” 

“I do not!” He stomped back down the stairs. Bulma’s teal curls were falling from the elegant hairstyle she’d had earlier, strands gracing the curve of her neck and cheeks so beautifully that Vegeta got even more frustrated. Without a word he bent to hoist her over his shoulder, jogging back up the steps a second time. 

“Why do you always do this?” she screeched. “I’m capable of walking, thank you very much!” 

“Because I’m sick of you taking your sweet time! You’re wasting mine, too, you know!” 

“I can waste whatever I want!” Bulma kicked out a few times, but Vegeta just jostled her until she stopped. Which was wise on her part, because otherwise he would have turned his head to bite her luscious backside. 

The further away from the front entrance, the fewer lights were on. Briefly he considered stopping by the kitchens or the pantry but he dismissed the idea in favor of a better one. They could always eat after they worked out their frustrations with each other behind closed doors. 

And that they did. It was her bedroom tonight, and after Vegeta tripped on two pairs of shoes and a tool belt he nearly howled, dropping Bulma onto her feet to start tugging at her dress with abandon. 

“I hate these clothes,” he panted a few minutes later. Buttons popped off his shirt to litter the ground, but from Bulma’s aggression, not his. He’d torn the straps of her dress from her shoulders until it hung at her waist, exposing her breasts. 

“You hate everything,” she said through gritted teeth. Having trouble taking off his suit coat when his head was buried in her chest. Vegeta didn’t bother correcting her, fondling a breast in one hand while he tried to kick off his shoes. Her scent was sharper and richer next to her skin. He hadn’t imbued any alcohol but he may as well have with how dizzy he felt. “Vegeta! Vegeta, just stop! It’ll be easier if we get undressed first.”

With a snarl he pulled away, wrenching open his trousers to add another button to the confetti on the floor. Bulma shimmied her dress down her hips. He stared, hopping on one foot to get out of his stupid trousers. Stupid clothes, stupid everything - he’d never wear this again. Only clothes that could be easily removed. 

“Ooh!” 

Her cry turned to a satisfied sort of moan after he grabbed her again, lifting her to straddle his hips while he made a clumsy path for the bed. Stepping on buttons and whatever else Bulma left lying around, all poking his feet. He didn’t care. He needed her like a dying man needed water; he needed to taste her and be inside her. Lips met in sloppy haste, Vegeta biting after her when she pulled away for breath, her fingers tight on his shoulders and her eyes opening and closing fast. 

“Why does it feel like this?” Bulma whispered. Cradled by the bed and pinned down by him, she still managed to rock against him, her neck craning. “Why is it different tonight?” 

“Maybe it’s the full moon.” Vegeta hadn’t thought himself capable of joking at a moment like this, but maybe it wasn’t a joke after all. A moment’s thought and he added, “It’s the way you smell. It’s making me…maybe it’s making you feel it, too.” 

“Then it’s going to be a good night.” A dazzling, kiss-swollen smile, and he felt her hand push his head down towards the junction between her legs. “I have a feeling I won't need to stop you tonight. Maybe I have Saiyan stamina now.” 

The words falling from his lips in response to hers weren’t in her language, but she didn’t comment on it. Vegeta’s teeth sank into her thigh, his hand tucked behind her knee to lift her leg so his mouth could reach more skin. He could taste nothing else for the remainder of his existence and it wouldn’t be enough. What was it that had turned her from enjoyable to intoxicating? Where did an addict slip over the line into insanity where he couldn’t control his muscles, couldn’t control his mind? 

Couldn’t control his blood, couldn’t control his pride. 

Here. He was here. 

“Bulma,” he murmured. Kissed the tendons that made her body, licked the skin, kneaded the muscles. She twitched and quivered with every touch, her head lolling on the pillows. Impatient for him to continue, no doubt. If she could hear him, she didn’t say so. Perhaps she was as senseless as him. Despite not having spoken the Saiyan language for years, it was easier to slip into phrases he thought he’d never say, feelings he’d never thought he’d feel, when he knew Bulma couldn’t understand. Couldn’t ask, couldn’t confront. It was just for him. Just for him and no one else. 

“Bulma,” he said again, his tongue swirling around her sex and she keened into the night, legs shaking around his head. “Bulma, you are my queen.” 

[bedlamsbard]

I for one would LOVE to hear about That Man's opinion on the Sokovia Accords, and any other blends of the real world into marvelverse as you have time and space for

Donald Trump is the horrifying combination of anti-Accords, anti-Captain America, and anti-Iron Man. I have THOUGHTS on this.

Okay, so CACW takes place in 2016, yes? which was a horrifying enough election year IRL, but in the Marvel Cinematic Universe we're looking at a scenario where I have postulated that Matthew Ellis is the Democratic candidate. Ellis was elected in 2012 after Barack Obama dropped out of the 2012 race post-Battle of New York as a result of pressure from the World Security Council; my best estimate is that Ellis takes Joe Biden's place as Obama's vice president in the 2008 election (apologies to our Irish Catholic granddad, we can probably safely assume he's still a senator in this AU) and coasts to electoral victory on a wave of post-BONY patriotism. (see my hard-hitting investigative journalism on who was president during the Battle of New York. George W. Bush was president during the events of IM1, we can assume that all real world presidents prior to Ellis served as usual, a.k.a. FDR was president during CATFA, Bill Clinton was president during Captain Marvel and the BW prologue -- actually, we know Clinton was president, because we see him in the BW credits, same with a few others.)

For better or worse -- worse, as it turns out -- Ellis's administration becomes closely linked to Tony Stark and James Rhodes, since Tony and Rhodey very publicly save his life during the events of IM3 and are responsible for his VP (Rodriguez, no first name that I'm aware of) being arrested for treason and probably other nasty stuff. Four months after that, the events of CATWS go down, and while Ellis is quoted in Steve's Smithsonian exhibit with the "Welcome Back" wall bannerand thus they presumably met, Steve is not closely associated with Matthew Ellis in the same way that Tony Stark is. Steve is also closely associated with a major blow to the American intelligence apparatus, the deaths of most of the World Security Council, the destruction of SHIELD, the "death" of Nick Fury, the disgrace and death of Alexander Pierce, and the arrests of a number of major American politicians, including Senator Stern of Pennsylvania. We know from CATWS that Ellis himself was a target of Project Insight; I have also postulated that the Hydra reveal had a major effects on his administration, including either the arrest or the resignation of his original Secretary of State. Thaddeus Ross got the SecState position not because he was Ellis's original pick, but because post-CATWS (or possibly post-AoU), he was able to leverage his previous experience with the Hulk and other recipients of the super soldier serum to be politically useful.

Ellis has to be in favor of the Sokovia Accords because his SecState is running the show -- in theory the Accords will be administered by a UN panel, in actual practice, as we see in CACW and BW, the intent is for either the American SecState in general or Thaddeus Ross specifically to have sole control over the Avengers. Less than ideal by anyone's standards. Pre-Accords, no one knows how this is going to shake out.

Let's go back to how Donald Trump hates Steve Rogers, like, so much. The feeling is mutual. I'm pretty sure Trump personally knew, or at least met, Tony Stark pre-Iron Man, because they would have been in some of the same social circles: those personalities are going to clash. That's not going to go over well. Trump probably made overtures to Steve because CAPTAIN AMERICA! we love America! what's more great for America than the Greatest Generation! only uh. it's Steve. and Trump pre- (and post-) 2016 is everything Steve Rogers hates. sure, he's a great piece of American propaganda, but he grew up as a poor second generation immigrant son of a single mother with significant health issues during the Great Depression. that didn't go away when he got the serum and it certainly didn't go away when he got out of the ice! so Steve probably rebuffed the initial overtures politely, but he did rebuff them, and Trump, hmm, doesn't handle that sort of thing real well. so then a big part of That Man's campaign turned into the "fuck Captain America" tour with a side of "fuck the Avengers," playing heavily into the damage done during the events of Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Which Ellis's campaign was probably also doing, but more circumspectly because Matthew Ellis is an actual politician and he's politically linked to two of the ten Avengers (Tony and Rhodey); Tony's also the one with the most obvious "pull." Steve's got some but Steve doesn't actually want to use it.

So on the one hand, if Ellis is pro-Avengers and pro-Accords, but in a "they should be controlled but we need them" sort of way, then his main opponent is going to not be in favor of either. In 2016 Trump does want the Avengers controlled (so he can have personal pull over the two Avengers he hates the most, Tony and Steve; he's probably also not fond of many of the others! like, Natasha and Wanda are both women and immigrants...). But he doesn't want them controlled by a UN panel, he wants them controlled by the United States of America. You don't let THE UNITED NATIONS give orders to CAPTAIN AMERICA. The Avengers are mostly made up of American citizens, they include some fine pieces of American engineering; this is America's business. So that's his focus on the Accords leading up to CACW.

CACW itself is a political disaster for Matthew Ellis and almost certainly flipped the election for him -- it goes so horrifically badly for him even if he got the "victory" of the Accords passing that there's basically no way to recover from it, though presumably he tried in the months between May and November 2016. The events of BW and the Raft breakout during those months put the nail in the coffin of Ellis's reelection campaign. Trump spends that time beating Ellis's failure to control the Avengers into the ground, along with personal insults about Tony's incompetence as a superhero and Steve's disloyalty as an American, etc. etc., along with all the other stuff from his 2016 campaign. Absolute disaster for everyone on every level.

(Ross manages to skate through into Trump's administration -- since we know he's there in IW in 2018; I think he's addressed as "Mr. Secretary" there but can't check rn -- because he's a slippery son of a bitch and probably manages to parlay his Hulk experience, his hardheadedness in going after Natasha Romanoff, and tbh probably the fact that his nickname is Thunderbolt Ross into a cabinet position. (We've all heard the speculation that Jim Mattis got the real world SecDef position because his nickname is Mad Dog Mattis, right?) It's possible that in IW he's no longer SecState and is in fact running that UN panel, but I think that table of people we see has U.S. military uniforms at it and Rhodey specifically refers to potentially being court-martialed.)

presumably there are no Avengers-level disasters between 2016 and 2018 (we know the events of Spider-Man Homecoming and Ant-Man and the Wasp take place then, but they're not "call the team out" big), which is probably the only thing that keeps the whole disaster from going up in flames before then. the fact that no one can catch Steve or the other rogue Avengers must be driving That Man crazy and he probably went on some vicious Twitter rants about that.

and then, in my heart of hearts, he gets snapped in 2018.

I am sorry for making you think about Donald Trump's political views but at least they aren't his actual real world ones (horrifying).

[lepartidelamort]

Well, Iran Definitely Hit Israel. So What Now?

This is the greatest thing that has ever happened.

You’re the man now, dog.

Mere hours after I posted a long piece pontificating about the situation in the Middle East, which included a segment bullying the Iranians over their reluctance to act against Israel, word came down that the Iranians were preparing a large strike on The Satan. The attack came shortly after the announcement.

I’m told that the Ayatollah made the decision after reading my piece, telling a government meeting, “Anglin is right, you guys are acting like fags – launch the missiles. Allah wills it.”

The show did not disappoint. In fact, it is the best thing that has ever happened, at least since the Holocaust.

Watching the Jews screaming as missiles lit up the skies over Tel Aviv and rained down on Jew locations, I could not remember feeling this level of childlike glee since… well, since I was a child.

I made a playlist and just kept watching the bombing supercut over and over, while calling in a champagne drop, Helldivers style.

I invited out the neighbors to drink and dance. The corks were popping across the room, mimicking the bombs over Jewland, with the playlist including ABBA, Starship, and Belinda Carlisle.

It was like the third act peak scene in a John Hughes movie.

I was as happy as these guys:

Regardless of what happens after this, the joy that I felt watching those bombs rain down will last forever. It is a moment of triumph seared into the fabric of eternity. No one can ever take that away from us.

Of course, what I would like to see is a lot more of what we all saw last night. I don’t want the party to ever end.

What Happened?

Bringing a printed copy of my article to the president and other government officials, the Ayatollah personally ordered the strikes, with the government stating that the attack was in response to the murder of Nasrallah, Haniyeh, and others. Clearly, dedicating the strikes to fallen heroes was symbolic, and the reality is that Iran was finally following through on the promise they made to defend Lebanon.

Though I’m joking about my bullying article being the impetus for the attack (although no one can prove that isn’t true), it is true that Ayatollah Khamenei himself, who is 85 years old, had to go in and order the strike personally because the political government of Iran is filled with fags and Mossad spies.

Titled “Operation True Promise 2,” which I’m sure sounds cooler in Persian, Iran used hundreds of ballistic missiles, including hypersonic Fattah missiles. Iran announced that this was merely the “first wave,” and did not elaborate. Let’s hope that’s true. I could watch videos of missiles raining down on Israel for the next 40 years and die a happy man.

Perhaps suspiciously, the Israeli defense systems did not appear to do very much. You have maximalist claims from both sides, so it’s difficult to determine the truth, but Iran claims that at least 80% of the missiles were not intercepted. Part of this might be the inability of Israel’s defense systems to stop ballistic missiles. The much-touted “Iron Dome” is actually only to protect from short and medium range missiles launched from Palestine and Lebanon (which it doesn’t do very well), with the US-made “David’s Sling” and Archer systems designed to stop much faster, long-range missiles. Those systems have not been tested, other than partially (but not really) during the April strike by Iran, which used much slower-moving missiles and drones and was telegraphed early and many of the missiles were shot down by US air forces.

This attack was not announced in advance, and Western state media announced it only hours before, presumably based on satellite indicators. It’s also been suggested that Iran may have called Russia to tell them of the coming strike, and that this call was perhaps intercepted. Regardless, the United States and Israel must have been aware that there was a significant chance of an Iranian strike, and you’d think they’d have been prepared for it.

Though I have little idea about the technology at play, it seems likely that the Jews allowed more missiles through than would have otherwise gotten through, as Israel’s entire PR strategy is whining about what victims they are, and the scenes of missiles raining down on them help with that narrative, especially for Fatmerican boomers who are seemingly unaware of the scale of the slaughter Jews have perpetrated in Palestine and Lebanon.

Furthermore, Bibi is using the classic strategy of “bad people are trying to kill you” as his primary mode of governance, domestically. It’s logical that the Israeli government would want as many missiles to hit as possible. It doesn’t actually matter what is destroyed, given that the American taxpayer is footing the bill regardless.

There are wide-ranging claims about what the missile strikes did or did not do. Some Middle Eastern sources are claiming missiles hit – or even destroyed – a Mossad base, destroyed oil fields, destroyed airfields, destroyed billions of dollars’ worth of American fighter jets, and so on. The Jews are of course minimizing the damage. There’s no way to know. Based on the videos we all watched of missiles raining down – not being shot out of the air, but hitting inside of Jewish cities – something was surely destroyed.

The official story right now is that only one person died, a Palestinian. This seems unlikely. The Jews do have extensive bunkers that the Americans paid for throughout Tel Aviv and other cities, but in the videos, you can see people on the streets and cars driving around, so not everyone was in the bunkers.

American Reaction

I made the executive decision as the attacks were happening last night to not write any kind of serious commentary on it, given that I have a right to celebrate on such an evening, instead posting a couple of pornographic throwaway joke articles that included videos of the strikes and mocked American Republicans screaming about the innocence of the Jews.

Frankly, it is actual insanity to have sat and watched these Jews slaughter innocent people for an entire year and then start screaming about the victimization of the innocent chosenites as soon as they get a single drop of their own medicine. But this is indeed what every American politician is doing, with the Republicans of course being more bellicose in their rhetoric.

All of these people should be in prison forever. It is simply beyond the pale that a foreign country has this kind of stranglehold on our government. There is no other situation ever in history where a more powerful country was dominated by a lesser country. There is no reason for it, other than blackmail, bribery, personal threats, and other fundamentally Jewish methods of influence.

The replies to all of these tweets by government officials were encouraging, however.

The American people, at least younger people, are not buying what these government people are selling. That doesn’t actually mean anything, because America is a democracy, meaning the masses of people have no ability to influence the behavior of the government. However, the illusion is falling, and the people are seeing that America doesn’t even have a “government” in the traditional sense, but is instead a nation under a Jewish military occupation, with the cops as a standing army serving a foreign power, ready to cage or kill anyone who stands up against the Jews.

Lindsey Graham, a chief Trump surrogate, is of course calling for America to declare war on Iran and start a massive bombing campaign. That probably will not happen this afternoon (although it could), but it will eventually.

Trump himself, covered in Jewish semen, issued a statement calling for more Jews to ejaculate on his face (I’m sorry/not really that bukkake metaphors are the only thing I can come up with when addressing these kinds of statements).

Although no one actually understands the American electoral system, which is a black box, it now seems overwhelmingly likely that the Mossad will rig the election for Trump and Americans will head back into the Middle East with even greater fervor than they did after 9/11. Israel wants more than bombings, which wouldn’t actually end the threat any more than the bombing of Gaza stopped Hamas rockets. Jews want some kind of actual physical invasion of Iran, and you need healthy young white men to do something like that. Trump is going to be a whole lot better at marshaling these men than that Indian whore what’s her name.

In the shorter term, Israel will no doubt continue the bombing campaigns across the Middle East, and they may do their own significant bombing of Iran. Though the attacks last night were glorious, they mean little in the greater scheme of things. Iran has a limited number of ballistic missiles, whereas Israel has infinite resources, paid for by fat, gay American retards.

Iran’s only real chance at victory is in being able to sustain a US bombing campaign and physical invasion of their country in the long term, in the way the Taliban did, and drain the empire of its resources and morale while Russia and China act in their own spheres.

This is winner takes all. The US/Jews win or Russia, China, and Iran win. There is also a situation where both lose, maybe, but if the US empire falls, we’d have to call that a win for the other side, regardless of how they come out on the other side.

Both Russia and China should be on the phone with the Ayatollah right now asking him what he needs, because the focal point of this global war by the Jews has been decided. Iran is the first major front, following the proxy war in the Ukraine, in this bid for total global domination by the Jews and their American fuck-hogs. The more bogged down the US is in the Middle East, the more room Russia and China have to act, the fewer resources the US has, the quicker this satanic beast is drained and left a rotting husk on the graveyard of history.

Iran Should Bomb India as Well, Perhaps Even Make It the Focal Point

Reading Twitter last night during the attacks, the overwhelming majority of the tweets were from Indians, who are completely obsessed with the Jews. I don’t know why Indians are obsessed with the Jews, beyond the obvious (they also view themselves as at war with Islam), and I do not care to understand it. It means nothing to me what Indians think, and I’m not convinced that “think” is even a word we should associate with this despicable race of mutant fiends.

I suppose no one should be surprised that a race that specializes in scamming the elderly out of their personal savings also idolizes the Jews. The Jews scam the whole world, and the Indians want to learn those skills.

This is a meme that an Indian made and posted without irony last night:

That sums up thousands of tweets I saw.

It is absolutely absurd that one has to wade through an infinite swamp of Indian Jew-sucking while scanning breaking news on Twitter. They get included in the feed because they post in English, but Twitter needs to add an option to simply block all Indian accounts. There is not one single white person who is going to miss anything by not seeing the opinions of Indians. Although these are apparently real accounts, it is effectively spam. I do want to see what Jews are saying, I want to see what Jew-lover American politicians are saying, so I’m in no way against all pro-Jew content being on the feed, but I would say that 98% of pro-Jewish content on Twitter is from India, and it is all benign and repulsive.

India is unlikely to be a threat to the world at large, as they have no skills, abilities, or intelligence, and the Chinese will likely deal with them at some point. Their colonization forces in white countries will be forced to flee as soon as the Jews who imported them are dislodged from power. They’re not going to go to war on the streets. They are, however, a clear threat to the internet, and they’ve basically already ruined it.

If Elon Musk will not act to protect people from these Indian shit-spammers, Iran should consider a mass-bombing campaign against their country.

In this infographic, you can clearly see that Iran has that capacity:

There must be consequences for all those tweets these Indians posted.

Do I View Moslems in the Way Liberals View Ukrainians?

I stand accused of viewing Moslems as fighting a proxy war against the Jews on my own behalf in the same way that Fatmerican tranny scum views the Ukraine as fighting in the interests of gay sex.

Having considered this allegation, I believe it is more or less accurate. The difference is, I am not callously encouraging hundred of thousands of people to die for no benefit of their own in order to hurt my enemies.

There has been no explanation as to how this war in the Ukraine benefits Ukrainians. It is simply vaguely asserted that in a general sense, fighting an invasion of your country is naturally a good thing, but no specifics are given. When you consider the fact that the country has been decimated, half the population has fled, and virtually the entirety of the country has been auctioned off to American Jews, it is undeniable that the Ukraine would have been much better off to have avoided this war.

Conversely, the Arab and Moslem population of the Middle East:

Could not have avoided this war

Can win this war

Will benefit immensely from winning this war

So, although the general idea is similar, as I am not principally concerned with what is best for the people of the Middle East, and do primarily support them because they are fighting the Jews, I am not actively, knowingly harming the population of the Middle East, and in fact, the more support they have in their struggle from people in the West, the more advantageous their position.

Get Ready for Whatever Happens Next

There is no reason not to take a victory lap after seeing those missiles fall on Israel. Everyone should feel great about this.

However, I want to stress again that it doesn’t really mean very much in the scheme of things. Sadly, it means much, much less than the Israeli decapitation of the leadership of Hezbollah. I’m certain that the various cartoonish propagandists of multipolarism and whatever other buzzwords they advocate for will be claiming that these attacks mean that Iran could simply destroy Israel whenever they wanted, but that is obviously not true.

Just as the day before the attack by Iran, Israel remains in a very good position, and it’s arguable that their position is actually better now that they can whine about these missiles. Jews are always in top form while crying out in pain as they strike you.

The missiles were sublime. Better than sex or cocaine or enchiladas. But what has changed? Morale and really nothing else. The situation remains the same.

This is going to be a long slog that is going to last years, and it is going to significantly affect your life. The idea of a military draft in the United States seems extreme, but it’s certainly not out of the question.

In the end, we win. God wins.

But in the medium term, keep your expectations realistic, and don’t get too down if the fighters against the Jews suffer more setbacks in the near future.

Settle in.

This party is just getting started.

Andrew Anglin

[neutralgray]

A Synthesized History: An Amateur Comparison of the Perspectives between the "Patriot's," the "People's," & The "True" History of the United States - Part 18

Full Essay Guide link: XX

(Patriot - Chapter 21 | People - Chapter 23-24 | True - Chapter 35)

The "New Democrat" and American Moral Relativism

Since the end of the second world war, the United States enacted policies of foreign intervention that were wrapped in vaguely humanitarian notions while actually destabilizing 3rd world countries (often already struggling), and collecting any wealth worth taking. The Vietnam war helped highlight what did and did not work about these policies, aiding the U.S. in the efficiency of its questionable foreign intervention. During the Gulf War, under George H. W. Bush, the lessons the U.S. learned from Vietnam were clear:

Rather than go it alone and face scrutiny, the U.S. mobilized a massive international alliance that approved of the invasion

Rather than deploying troops gradually in waves, an overwhelming force was deployed from the start

A clear and concise objective aided in defining a clear exit strategy

Thomas Jefferson once called the nation an "empire of liberty," and that empire was always getting better at being one.

Opinions on Bush were favorable following the Gulf War, but the recession of 1991-1992 and the rescinding of his "no new taxes" campaign promise caused him to be alienated by his own party and lose voter appeal. Following the high deficit spending strategies of Reagan and Bush, people wanted to go in a new direction. Enter William (Bill) Clinton-- the next elected president of the United States.

Bill Clinton was the "new" democrat, a term which suggested significant change in the ideals of the democratic party. Due to the conservative renaissance recently experienced at this point in time, democrats began adopting more middle or right-leaning political takes in order to capture voter interest, such as unregulated freedom of trade, industry, and economic growth. Clinton won the election by lampooning the economy inherited by Bush, but applied policies that would have been fitting for a Republican presidency, such as his as answers to crime and social welfare programs.

Clinton's administration was dedicated to a balanced budget, which meant slashing "non-essentials," just as his republican predecessors had. Social welfare programs such the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) were stripped of their usefulness by new laws and policies such as the ill-named "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act" of 1996. This act reduced welfare benefits and outlined strict limitations, but did shockingly little to provide the "work opportunities" the name suggested. Some big cities, such as New York, had more people on unemployment than there were employment opportunities even available.

Clinton also wanted to appear "tough on crime." The Republican party had been understood as the "law and order" ticket since Nixon's appeal to the silent majority, and it continued to be a point of contention among voters and politicians alike. In 1993 a religious cult in Waco, Texas, known as the Branch Davidians gave Clinton his chance to be "tough." A failed search warrant for weapons led to a siege between the cult members and the FBI. After weeks of negotiations failed to make any progress, the FBI pleaded its case to the president who ultimately gave the FBI the green-light to storm the cult's compound. The unfortunate outcome was that the compound caught fire in the chaos and 86 people wound up dead: 4 federal agents and 82 cult members, at least 20 of whom were children. While negotiations had been failing, the result of the attack made critics question if the body count was worth the enforcement of order.

In 1994 Clinton and Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (often simply referred to as the "Crime Bill"), and two years later passed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. This new series of laws expanded the death penalty to a new range of crimes, limited appeals, and decreased the time between conviction and execution. New guidelines for narcotics (especially in regards to crack cocaine) had severe punishments, such as harsh mandatory minimum sentencing. Federal parole was eliminated and a new "3 strike" system was implemented for repeat offenders. A 3rd felony conviction would earn one life in prison. The bill also provided for over $8 billion in prison funding. Just as with social welfare reforms, though, this series of laws did nothing to address the potential reasons for those crimes or provide aid to communities in which crime might be more rampant. A disproportionate amount of Americans in jail became unemployed roughly a month before their arrest and with these laws in place, jail was an even more likely outcome for many.

Clinton also railed against immigration during his presidency. Immigrants had been an easy target to rally against because as non-voters, their interest largely didn't matter. Dismissing their interests allowed Clinton to emphasize his "America first" attitude and served as another way in which the "new" democrat was now identical to their Republican opponents. Welfare benefits were cut from immigrants, requiring them to be full citizens to continue receiving aid. Thousands of border guards were added to the Mexican/American border. A component of the Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act also allowed the deportation of immigrants convicted of a crime, regardless of the nature of that crime or the amount of time since the crime had been committed.

While Clinton generally targeted social welfare programs, he also reduced the military budget somewhat, with an extensive plan of continuing to reduce it over time. Despite this reduction plan, Clinton had the U.S. military involved in more combat hostilities than any peacetime president before him.

The United States intervened in a civil war in Somalia after an attack by the Somali National Alliance resulted in 25 dead United Nations peacekeepers. U.S. forces led attacks in the region to capture the head chairman of the SNA, General Mohamed Aidid. He remained uncaptured and would later be killed in 1996 by a rival group.

After war broke out in the Balkans among the fractured republics of what was once the nation of Yugoslavia, the U.N. stepped in to attempt brokering peace. The conflict was among Bosnia's Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, who were waging ethnic war against one another. When initial negotiations failed, the U.S. went with its standard tactics of aerial bombardment, backed by the United Nations. This killed in civilians in droves. In 1995 a peace agreement known as the Dayton Accords was reached, though there is doubt if the bombing strategy that led to the deaths of many non-combatants was a necessary step in achieving that peace.

Clinton's administration also continued heavy support of the nation of Israel in the middle eastern region. Israel asserted its "right" to exist, which put it in direct conflict with the region's fundamentalist militant Muslim groups. The support of Israel coupled with the U.S. deaths and failures in Somalia emboldened groups such as al-Qaeda to declare war on the United States. Osama Bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda, declared this war for three reasons:

Continued U.S. military presence near holy sites such as Mecca and Medina

One-sided support of Israel's occupation of Palestine, which lived on the land before the modern state of Israel had been formed

Strict economic sanctions on Iraq that had been held since the Gulf War in 1991, which were causing undue suffering

Groups such as this were already proving their ability to strike and destabilize, as demonstrated by the al-Qaeda connected 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, which resulted in 6 deaths and over 1000 injuries. Clinton's administration responded to terrorist attacks like this by considering it a law enforcement issue.

Even when the United States was not intervening in foreign affairs, weapons sales to smaller countries would often end up in the hands of warlords who engaged in systemic murder for their bids at power. This indirectly tied the U.S. to regional instability regardless of potential policy intent. In May of 1994, the Baltimore Sun reported that U.S. foreign weapon sales made the country over $32 billion dollars, which was more than twice the $15 billion those sales made in 1992. By 1997, the U.S. was selling more weapons abroad than all other nations combined.

Clinton, once attacked as a "draft dodger" for going out of his way to be saved from service in Vietnam, now wanted to present himself as an unquestionable military man. Besides the various international conflicts under Clinton, the U.S. also had multiple opportunities to turn away from the militaristic, but the powers refused. An international agreement to halt the production of land mines became popular. Many advocates emphasized the dangers of forgotten land mines and the many who had been killed years or even decades after the mines had been left behind. The United States refused to agree. When the Red Cross organization (a humanitarian group) urged governments to prohibit cluster bombs in war, the United States refused. In 1999, the United Nations proposed a permanent international war crimes court. Fearing that some of their prominent military leaders would be culpable under this court, the United States refused.

With the many Republican leanings of the "new" democrat, it was difficult to tell just what distinguished this new center-right philosophy from Republicans other than the name. Clinton did attempt some key policy changes that may be described as "left," though. For one, Clinton did propose some measure of healthcare reform. At this point in world history, the United States was the richest country in the world but did not have universal healthcare benefits like many other industrialized 1st world nations. This attempt was killed off by Republicans, conservative democrats, and insurance lobbyists who all demonized universal healthcare. Potential flaws or shortcomings in a universal healthcare system were stuck under a microscope, but no serious revisions or changes to the current (lack of a) system were considered. Second, Clinton attempted to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military. This effort ended up resulting in the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" compromise, which was a policy dictating that a serviceman's sexuality would not be asked for or disclosed for any reason. Being caught in gay acts would still get one discharged, however.

While Clinton's goal to manage an effective budget was not a particularly original goal, Clinton was the only president in decades that left the office with a budget surplus. That surplus stood at $236 billion dollars by the year 2000 and he cut the federal debt by $500 billion by the time he left office. Other key variables also led to the relatively successful economy of the 1990's.

Computer companies and tech startups grew exponentially due to the public's increasing knowledge and use of the internet, and by 1999, traffic and internet bandwidth usage was doubling every 3 months. There had never been such a historically quick rise of an entire industry, even when considering the massive production and industrial growth of the early 20th century. International trade had also grown, with the U.S. extending into territories that had previously been controlled by the now-defunct Soviet Union. Low energy and oil prices were a consequence of the Gulf War in '91, which also contributed to factors of a booming economy.

Despite the wealth accumulation and production that would indicate a successful economy, that success was not felt by everyone. Wealth was unstable in this decade, with only 34 of the 100 top companies in 1990 still being on that list by 1999. There was also a 25% turnover rate in big multinational firms, which were often predominantly American. Wages increased in some areas but 80% of all income increases between 1980-2000 went to the top 1% of the wealthy. Thousands of jobs left the United States once the Clinton administration established the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA dissolved trading barriers among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and brought more wealth into the country. However, the wealth entering the country did not necessarily mean it was entering the economy, as is evidenced by the continued massive salary growths of company executives. Meanwhile, jobs that were previously American left for Mexico and the spending power of the middle and lower class was decreasing. People who were employed may have been making "more" in terms of the dollar amount made, but that money carried them less than it had in previous decades. In 1998, the Bureau of Labor Statistics wing of the U.S. Census Bureau determined that 1 out of 3 people worked at or below the poverty level. Between 1990-1998, there was a 95% increase in people filing for bankruptcy, with medical bills often being a frequent factor. For minority populations, these statistics were always worse. Economic suffering at different class and race levels led to compounded suffering among multiple metrics, with one morbid example being the infant mortality rate of black infants being twice as high as white infants.

The 90's, as many decades before it, saw frequent protest movements. These protests did not usually carry the national fervor of the 20's or the 60's, but they were a cry for help for people who felt the country was suffering. These movements culminated in a massive gathering of protestors in Seattle, Washington in 1999. Seattle was the meeting place for the World Trade Organization, which was convening to launch a new series of trade agreements for the next millennium. Protestors included independent consumers, religious groups, labor unions, environmental groups, women's' groups, and more. These groups all shared a common cause against the WTO, whom they saw as a figure for wealth and labor exploitation. The fear was that an expansion of WTO agreements would lead to further human rights violations and suffering. The protest crowds were an estimated 40000, dwarfing any economic organization protest in U.S. history before it and completely overshadowing the trade discussions. In response, officials of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund made declarations committing themselves to the wellness conditions of their workers and cited a general concern for the environment.

During this decade, changes in how Americans consumed and engaged with news also began to take root. For instance, politicians such as Newt Gingrinch found massive popularity on AM radio broadcasting, appealing to conservative voters who had since mobilized as a political force in the 80's. Gingrinch is often credited as the man responsible for breaking a 40+ year democrat hold on the House of Representatives. His success in radio spawned many imitators. Broadcasts like Gingrinch's were sometimes accused of creating an "atmosphere of hate" which was supposedly responsible for inciting disasters such as the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1993, which led to the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

The rise of the internet as an accessible digital social-scape also gave individuals the ability to report on events before "official" channels reported the news. This amateur reporting led to new communities that investigated news outside of mainstream media narratives. While often conspiratorial, these amateur reports sometimes forced mainstream media channels to cover a story once that story had gained traction online.

Clinton faced criticisms like any president had, but played to keep a moderate appeal. That mainstream appeal was the whole point of the "new democrat" image. To achieve this, Clinton made a career of straddling back and forth between policies associated with either the Republican or Democrat parties, and attempting to establish bipartisan support. His appointed judges to the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, were selected because they were considered moderates. Despite this attempted image, though, the president's own behaviors would reek controversy on his administration.

In 1994, Paula Corbin Jones filed a civil lawsuit against Bill Clinton, citing sexual harassment during an event in 1991. This suit led to a series of investigations into the Clintons', which illuminated more extramarital affairs. Another individual, Juanita Broaddrick, came forward and accused the president of raping her in 1978, when Clinton was the attorney general of Arkansas. Lastly, an affair was discovered between Clinton and a young adult intern at the White House. Clinton denied that the affair happened, but when his DNA was discovered on the dress of the intern, any plausible deniability the president had was gone. He addressed the nation and apologized, but the damage to his reputation was already done.

Impeachment proceedings began, with the president being accused of obstruction of justice and lying under oath. The impeachment trial died in the Senate, with neither charge reaching the required amount of votes to oust Clinton from office. He remained president for the remainder of his second term.

The crimes levied against the president were clearly no joke and, if presumed true, are crimes worthy of condemning Clinton's moral character. The absurdity, however, is highlighted in the fact that it was these accusations which ignited the media into a firestorm against the president. The bombings of civilians in other countries did not ignite media outrage. The manufacturing and continued selling of weapons to warlords did not ignite media outrage. The suffering of the poor and destitute which was made worse by Clinton's crime bill did not ignite media outrage. The blood and deaths of people in faraway territories had no bearing on average everyday American life. It was the potential of the president being a womanizer, though, that created a lasting controversy which overshadowed his terms as president. This is not to make light of accusations of rape and sexual exploitation, but to highlight the way in which the other barbaric crimes of this world leader were just accepted as "typical." The bombing of foreign countries and the advance of economic trade over the potential human rights that trade may violate were seen as part of the job.

Perhaps it's simple human psychology-- those foreign places were far away and thus not relevant to the average citizen's lived experience. They didn't have the necessary context to care. The resulting moral discrepancy, however, did not match the supposed religious and moral values of what the average American seemed to believe. In 1980, Gallup polls found that 80% of Americans believed in a religious "final judgement." Over 90% claimed to pray and 84% claimed to believe that Jesus was God or the son of God. There was a general rise in non-denominational Christianity across the country. Hispanic immigrants who came over were often Catholic. New youth ministries appealed to teenagers nationwide. These poll results emphasized that despite centuries of growth, the United States of America still had a strong Christian heart underneath the modern politics. The most common responses to Clinton's scandals seemed to undercut that, though. The humanitarian worries were dismissed in favor of the sensationalized, and the entertaining stories were reported over the factual. It was all morally relative.

One other point of national debate during Clinton's administration was the topic of gun control. The United States had (and has) a zealous fervor for gun rights and ownership. The second amendment grants the rights to "bear arms" and this topic was being re-examined in national discussions. The Brady Bill of 1998 required federal background checks for firearm purchases, and imposed a brief waiting period. This act came under some fire for putting restrictions on American rights but the overall relevance of this bill in the national debate was quickly swept away by something much worse the following year.

On April 20, 1999, two twelfth grade students entered their school, Columbine High, and massacred 12 other students and a teacher. Their motives were inconclusive but irrelevant for the larger discussion at hand. The Columbine High School Massacre ignited a fierce debate on whether or not the average person should have the right to easily access weapons with high fire power and significant destructive capabilities. The massacre is also often blamed for the rise of copycat shootings that would plague the United States for the following decades. Despite the national debate over this topic, little changed in the way of gun access. Policy responses to the shooting generally focused on school security and planned police responding to shooting situations.

The legacy of the Clinton administration is thus: a growing economy, bigger disparity between the wealthy and everyone else, more foreign death, and sex scandals that outraged American media more than anything else the president had done. When Bill Clinton left office in early 2001, the United States now found itself in a new millennium. The turn of the millennia invited optimism and the idea of a "new future" focused on progress and digital advancement. Unfortunately, for whatever promises that new future may have held, the consequence of decades of American foreign policy was about to make itself known, and cast a looming shadow on the remainder of American history to this day.

Final Thoughts:

It's surreal being at this point. Up to now I've been studying this history with the eyes of a learner wanting to contextualize how my country was shaped. I wanted to understand the nuances of centuries of politics and how those shadows still weigh on modern issues. But now I am at a point where I was alive for this history. I was born in 1994 so I was a child when most of this was happening, but yet I was here for it. I have reached my personal place in American history.

It's quite shocking to me just how much of the modern political landscape can be contextualized and viewed through the lens of all the history I've thus far absorbed. Even more shocking, I remember being a child and experiencing the shock of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I remember living through the myriad of changes that happened in this country as a direct result of those attacks. So much of modern political discourse echoes with these remnants of the past, and yet I've not even touched the most infamous and truly fundamental shift in the American empire.

For the actual text, all of the books were useful in compiling this narrative driven re-telling of American history in the 1990's. Maybe I'm being generous, but for the first time in a while, I believe all the text from all the books gave me an equally generous amount of angles with which to understand this decade of political change.

Howard Zinn had an odd chapter during these segments. Chapter 23 of A People's History breaks away from the narrative format and becomes more a political opinion essay. He emphasizes the importance of resistance movements, even when contained. He argues that for too long, our understanding of history has emphasized statesmanship and understated revolt. Class consciousness and rebellion have been the true driving forces of humanitarian change. Even when they fail, they prove the peoples' ability to mobilize and help each other when institutions fail to step in or step in only to make matters worse. I appreciated this perspective. If I were to review the book solely as a mechanical text, I would argue the placement of the chapter may be a bit strange. All of his points feel like they may have been better saved for the afterward-- that final point to emphasize the importance of examining a "grassroots" lens of history. But ultimately, it matters little. The placement may be strange, but the substance is poignant and hopeful.

I think I will save my continued political musings for my final final thoughts, which will come after part 19. I don't want to repeat myself too much, and I'm too close to end to slow down now.

[crystalis]

^ link to the report

(continuation of tweet and excerpt from the report under Read More)

"The human rights situation in the United States continued to deteriorate in 2023. In the United States, human rights are becoming increasingly polarized. While a ruling minority holds political, economic, and social dominance, the majority of ordinary people are increasingly marginalized, with their basic rights and freedoms being disregarded. A staggering 76 percent of Americans believe that their nation is in the wrong direction.

Political infighting, government dysfunction, and governance failure in the United States have failed to protect civil and political rights. Bipartisan consensus on gun control remains elusive, contributing to a continued surge in mass shootings. Approximately 43,000 people were killed by gun violence in 2023, averaging 117 deaths per day. Police brutality persists and at least 1247 deaths were attributed to police violence, marking a new high since 2013, yet the law enforcement accountability system remains virtually nonexistent. Taking up less than 5 percent of the global population, the United States accounts for 25 percent of global prison population, earning the title of a "carceral state." Political infighting intensifies as parties manipulate elections through gerrymandering, leading to "Speaker crisis "for twice in the House of Representatives, further diminishing the government's credibility, with only 16 percent of Americans trusting the federal government.

Deep-rooted racism persists in the United States, with cases of severe racial discrimination. United Nations experts point out that systemic racism against African Americans has permeated the U.S. police force and criminal justice system. Due to significant racial discrimination in the healthcare sector, the maternal mortality rate for African American women is nearly three times that of white women. Nearly 60 percent of Asians report facing racial discrimination, with the "China Initiative" targeting Chinese scientists having far-reaching consequences. Racist ideologies proliferate across multiple sectors such as social media, music, and gaming, and spill over across borders, making the United States a major exporter of extreme racism internationally.

The United States is witnessing intensified wealth inequality, with the phenomenon of "Working poor" becoming more pronounced, and the economic and social rights protection system is seen as ineffective. Long-standing disparities in the distribution of income between labor and capital have resulted in the most severe wealth gap since the Great Depression of 1929. There are 11.5 million low-income working families in the United States, but the federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009. As of 2023, the purchasing power of one U.S. dollar has declined to 70 percent of its value in 2009. Low-income families struggle to afford basic necessities such as food, rent, and energy, leading to over 650,000 people experiencing homelessness, reaching a new high in 16 years. "Working poor" has shattered the "American Dream" for hardworking individuals, contributing to the broadest wave of strikes since the beginning of the 21st century, occurring in 2023.

Women and children's rights in the United States have long been systematically violated, with constitutional provisions for gender equality remaining absent. The United States remains the only UN member state that has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In April 2023, the U.S. Senate rejected a constitutional amendment to guarantee gender equality. In the United States, approximately 54,000 women lose their jobs annually due to pregnancy discrimination. Over 2.2 million women of childbearing age cannot access maternity care. At least 21 states have enacted bans or strict restrictions on abortion. Maternal mortality has more than doubled in the past two decades. Sexual violence is rampant in workplaces, schools, and homes. Children's rights to survival and development are in jeopardy, with many children excluded from healthcare assistance programs. Gun violence remains a leading cause of child deaths, and drug abuse is rampant among youth. Forty-six states have been found to underreport around 34,800 cases of missing foster children.

The United States, a country that has historically and presently benefited from immigration, faces severe issues of exclusion and discrimination against immigrants. Practices of exclusion and discrimination against immigrants have been deeply ingrained in the U.S. institutional structure, from the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the internationally condemned “Muslim Ban” in 2017. Today, the immigration issue has become a tool for partisan gain and political blame-shifting, with politicians disregarding the individual rights and welfare of immigrants. Immigration policies are simplified into partisan positions of "If you support, I oppose," ultimately becoming political theatrics to manipulate voters. The immigration crisis falls into a vicious cycle, with immigrants and children subjected to widespread arrests, human trafficking, and exploitation. The hypocrisy of political polarization and the hypocritical nature of American human rights are glaringly evident in the immigration issue.

The United States has long pursued hegemonism, practiced power politics, and abused force and unilateral sanctions. Continuous delivery of weapons such as cluster munitions to other countries exacerbates regional tensions and armed conflicts, resulting in a large number of civilian casualties and severe humanitarian crises. Extensive "proxy forces" operations undermine social stability and violate the human rights of other nations. Guantanamo Bay prison remains open to this day."

[kuiperoid]

Obligatory Autism Awareness Month Post;

or,

My Neurodivergent Experience

[previously posted here, as well as other platforms]

[Post I made on previous social media platforms in previous years, so some bits may be a bit outdated]

It’s April so I suppose I need to make some obligatory post about my experiences as a neurodivergent individual, either about how proud I am that it makes me so super special or how awful everyone treats me. I can’t 100% give either of those, so I’ll just go into my experiences more generally.

It’s hard to say when the signs that I was “different” showed up. I had a tendency towards all-encompassing interests very young, but that’s normal even for neurotypical children. I was very particular about food, but once again, I can’t say that I did that more often than neurotypical children of other ages. I suppose the first sign was that whenever adults would ask me questions, they would get frustrated when I didn’t answer, thinking I wasn’t listening, when really I was just thinking about a proper response. The idea of answering right away when I couldn’t provide them with the best possible answer just didn’t make sense to me. As I got a bit older, I suppose I had the opposite problem. I would talk too much, interrupting my friends and giving them an earful about ferrets or spiders or whatever my current big interest was. My mother kindly informed me of what I was doing and how it wasn’t polite. This I actually understood the reasoning behind and I tried then and still try now to avoid doing this. I found an outlet to go on as long as I wanted about my special interests uninterrupted in the form of fiction writing, a hobby I have to this day. I was incredibly uncoordinated and bad at sports, which led to the little boys making fun of me quite a bit during PE. I was advised by well-meaning adults to practice so I would get better or stand up for myself, but my skills did not improve and, whenever I tried to say something in response, I just froze up.

Unfortunately, as I moved on to middle school, the fact that something about me was unmistakably “off” was still quite obvious, which led to me being pretty severely bullied, albeit by my neighbors in the classroom rather than sports field. I acted weird, I talked weird, I dressed weird on free dress days, I listened to music that the other kids hadn’t heard of while finding theirs unbearable. I wouldn’t learn until much later the extent of my issues with auditory processing, which have played a big role in my taste in music. One of my long-term friends, whose taste in music I have long shared, also has issues with auditory processing. I find it very interesting that many figures of the new wave scene, one of the few music genres I like - Danny Elfman, Gary Numan, the guy from Tears for Fears, and more - are neurodivergent, as are many members of the music scenes that I have become involved in. Writing and music were a big escape for the unpleasantness of my adolescence, between bullying, the fact that my other mental health problems were starting to become more apparent (namely, my OCD, which maybe I’ll write a big spiel about during OCD Awareness Week in October if I’m in the mood), as well as some other puberty-induced self-realizations.

I suppose that brings me to the statistic about the prevalence of LGBT+ identities in the neurodivergent community. People have tried to present all sorts of hypotheses about this, usually in a way that derides at least one of those, but I will provide a few of my own: first off, aside from the fact that the numbers are not that much higher, these statistics refer to out-LGBT and diagnosed neurodivergent people, neither of which represents the entirety of either community. Secondly, consider that someone in therapy for one of those things is likely to uncover other things. Lastly, and this is the one that I think is the most significant to me personally, it is harder for neurodivergent people to hide parts of who we are. While it is a myth that neurodivergent people cannot lie (my apologies to any neurodivergent people who have been using this myth to their advantage with their parents, bosses, et al), fact is, when you don’t internalize social norms the same way, you don’t see a need to pretend or, in some cases, you just can’t. My mom noticed pretty early on that I seemed “obsessed with gay people.” I was always talking about LGBT-related things in the news or celebrities. I got incredibly excited whenever I met adults that were in some way LGBT, flapping my hands and giggling like a maniac. I wonder if some of them thought I was laughing at them. She likely also noticed a pattern among the pictures I chose to decorate the wall by my bed with. Unfortunately, I underestimated the bigotry that still existed and I may have come out a bit too young. Between my social awkwardness and initially referring to myself as “pansexuelle” (I still don’t know what that was supposed to mean), it is no wonder that so many people in high school wrongly thought I had crushes on them. I always struggled making and maintaining friendships, so sometimes the ways I would attempt to pursue friendships came off as overly enthusiastic. I see now why people thought that, but at the time, it genuinely hurt my feelings when people thought that I was trying to romantically pursue them when I just wanted friendship and “people who thought I had crushes on them” became a whole new genre of villains in my adolescent writings. It was very hard for me to make friends and my strangeness pushed people away further. I won’t say that I or anyone is entitled to friendship, but it was hard. Some people complimented me for “not caring what other people thought,” but that didn’t feel right either. I acted the way I did because I literally did not know how to act differently, but I still cared a great deal about how people thought about me.

As a result of the various issues I was dealing with, I struggled academically. I always had trouble asking for help until it was way too late. I started to pick up on the whole concept of “don’t be yourself, people don’t like that person,” but rather than doing the whole social-blending thing that neurotypical people can, I invented entire new personas. I had a massive inferiority complex and felt that I was just bad at everything. A lot of the people who I became naturally attracted to just so happened to be much more academically inclined and often had some special talent and I joked that I had a “genius fetish.” Though people were attracted to me, no one seemed to want me on an emotional level and I understood why. I honestly became convinced that no one even wanted me as a friend. I went into a spiral of self-isolation.

One of my early relationships was with a status-obsessed narcissist who simultaneously told me how cute and interesting I was, but also fed into my inferiority complex. They would deride me about my awkward social behavior around their friends or if I dressed in a way they didn’t deem acceptable. I hear it is a common thing among neurodivergent people deemed “cute,” people like you because you’re adorably “quirky,” but don’t understand that your “quirkiness” comes at a cost. They were among the first people that I liked who I didn’t put on a pedestal and yet they seemed disappointed by that. On the other hand, I remember asking them if they’d had crushes on a few people who they seemed to talk about in a way that was, well, reminiscent of the way that I spoke about my crushes. Rather than saying, “no, they aren’t my type,” or even “yes,” they often said something along the lines of, “no, I couldn’t, they’re too wonderful and amazing.” This both confused me, as someone who had been attracted to many people who I had considered too wonderful and amazing for me, but also didn’t do much for my self esteem, for being attracted to someone seemed to be a form of debasement in this person’s opinion. I sort of let it slide because I had similar admiring feelings towards one of these people - they were smart, nice, and accomplished, but I wasn’t attracted to them, though that had more to do with them not being my type then them being too wonderful for me to allow myself to feel attraction to. Had they been more of a dark-eyed waif, perhaps I would have felt that way (maybe the fact that they were the only one of these people that my then-significant other would gush about this way that I never felt jealous of is telling). This was perhaps a preview of some more unfortunate things that would happen as that relationship continued that I won’t detail here. The most confusing thing, however, was the aforementioned status obsession. For all the concern about how I behaved around their friends, they didn’t even seem to like some of these friends. Whenever they talked about these friends to me privately, they always seemed to be complaining about them or even making fun of them. I didn’t understand why someone would be friends with people for any reason other than simply enjoying their company. This partner of mine was very into the idea of gaining some sort of status from these people, an abstract concept that my neurodiverse brain simply could not grasp. I won’t go much further into this particular relationship, which could be another several pages on its own, but I will say that that story has a happy ending and that, after we broke up, that person went to therapy, uncovered the Freudian source of all of their problems, and the world has one less unkind person as a result. Of course, the PTSD I developed as a result of that relationship was not a fun thing to add on to my existing problems, especially considering that I decided to move to another part of the state and go to “real college” after that.

For the many emotional struggles that I had during college, I am glad that I finally had a therapist that I was honest with (as opposed to the one I had as a teenager who I simply told I was “stressed about homework”) and received formal diagnoses. Now as an adult in the real world, diagnoses and all, I can’t say if things are better or worse. I remember being told that all the issues I had in high school, with people thinking I had crushes on them and telling a significant other of mine (people I barely knew, mind you) not to date me because I was “weird” would end once I was out of high school. Come college years, people still found my enthusiastic attempts to befriend them odd and someone else was warned to avoid me because of my “weirdness.”

Now, being twice as old, I still have to deal with some of those things, but I think I have navigated it. I don’t like the taste of coffee or alcohol, but that’s alright because my brain wiring means caffeine and alcohol don’t affect me the way they do other people anyways. I don’t like most pop music, but the genres that I do like have close-knit subcultures of interesting people. I still sometimes have to deal with grown adults acting like they don’t want me sitting at their cool kid table. At this point, when I hear that some family-adjacent person thinks I have some especial dislike for them, somehow different from the rest of the family, when I’m the one who probably defends them the most when they aren’t around and the person they think is their True Ally is the person I’m usually doing the defending against, I just laugh. What else can you do? My life isn’t perfect and, in the society we live in, it would probably be a lot easier for me if I were neurotypical, but why would I want that? If neurotypical society means answering questions quickly instead of meaningfully, bullying people who aren’t like you, listening to music you don’t actually like, hiding your excitement, basing friendship off of abstract concepts rather than mutual enjoyment of each other’s company, and a lot of buying into each other’s lies, I don’t see the appeal.

[corvusalbus93]

Deals with Vulgrim

Strife visits Vulgrim after another successful mission, not long after the events of Darksiders Genesis +++

While it wasn’t technically warm in the Void, the snow on Strife’s armour began to melt, as soon as he stepped out of the serpent hole. Water began to drip from the pointy edges of his armour, leaving a trail as he went looking for Vulgrim.

When he found the merchant, he seemed to be in a hurry, hastily pulling sealed scrolls from the shelves. He didn’t even notice the Nephilim at first, too focused on his task, until Strife cleared his throat. The merchant turned around and gave his toothy smile. At least Strife assumed it was supposed to be one; it was sometimes difficult to tell with that almost skeletal face.

 “Ah, Horseman. As much as it pains me to say, your timing is a tad inconvenient,” Vulgrim welcomed him, trying to sound polite despite the edge in his voice.

“What’s the matter? You and the Scrying Eye had a falling out?” Strife joked, crossing his arms.

The demon ignored his quip. “Another matter requites my full attention at the moment. If you would excuse me for but a minute, I have another costumer.” Vulgrim clicked his fingers, the sound amplified by the metal covering his hands. Almost immediately someone materialized by his side in a puff of purple smoke and pink fire, another familiar face. “Dis, please tend to our guest.”

The curvaceous demoness smiled, eyes lingering on Strife. “It’ll be my pleasure.”

Without wasting another second, Vulgrim hurried off and disappeared through the serpent whole, leaving the two alone in his domain.

Strife frowned, looking after him. “What was that about?”

Dis hovered closer, two of her fours arms akimbo, while waving one of the others in a rather dismissive manner. “Oh, Vulgrim is just bargaining with a rather capricious demon lord at the moment.”

“So that’s why he’s on edge. Hope he isn’t taking it out on you.” For a demon, Dis was actually pleasant company, especially when compared to her employer.  Strife had always enjoyed their interactions, though he wasn’t naïve enough to think that she treated him kindly purely out of the goodness of her heart.  Pretty much everyone had ulterior motives for what they did, demons doubly so.

She gave him another smile. “Nothing of the sorts, though I’m touched by your concern. No, if Vulgrim isn’t sending me out on some foul’s errand this is actually a cushy job.”

“Don’t tell me that you like working for that floating corpse.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far, but we actually had quite an influx of business recently,” Dis told him as they walked downstairs to her little workshop. First thing to catch his eye was a massive caldron, standing on an unnatural fire, which matched the pink flames Dis had instead of hair. Whatever that concoction was, it was already bubbling over, but the demoness didn’t seem to mind. “Hell has been quite a mess in recent years.”

“Isn’t it always?” When the lords and masters of Hell weren’t marching against Heaven, they tended to fight amongst each other. Peacetime wasn’t exactly a thing in the second Kingdom.

“Well, since you and your brother killed the Masters, there has been a significant power vacuum, which has everyone all fired up. So now there are plenty of upstarts trying to fill that void,” Dis explained as she picked what Strife assumed was some sort of dried plant from a small drawer, and tossed it into the cauldron. “If I weren’t employed to Vulgrim, I likely would be forced to pick a side; unaffiliated demons usually don’t last long.”

Somewhat cautiously Strife stepped closer to the fireplace and peered into the cauldron, just in time to see the brew change colours into a glowing blue. “If those wannabe lords are waging war against one another, you wouldn’t have lasted long either way.” Entire demon armies were probably tearing each other apart as they spoke.

“My point exactly. So now I’m biding my time, let those fools sort this mess out, while I remain here in the Void, relatively safe. Besides, I still don’t have quite enough to buy my freedom yet. That reminds me; it there anything I can interest you in?” She added a rather suggestive wink for emphasis.

“Afraid not.”

“Such a shame,” she lamented, before she floated over to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. Strife needed to tilt his head to avoid her big horns, when she pulled a crystal from somewhere on her person. “But here; on the house. Don’t tell Vulgrim,” Dis purred, a finger pressed against her full lips.

“Hey, my lips are sealed.” She’d given him a pointy shard of amber colouration, so small and fragile looking that he dared not put any pressure on it, as he held the crystal between two fingers. Upon closer inspection, Strife saw small shapes dart back and forth on its surface, almost too fast for even his eyes to follow.

Just as he had put it away in one of his pockets, Strife heard a distinct sound from the serpent hole, telling him that the demon merchant had returned.

“Ah, Horseman. I hope you forgive the dalliance. And I trust Dis has been accommodating.”

“Very much.”

“Don’t be a stranger, darling,” she chirped, waving goodbye as Strife and Vulgrim left her workshop.

“Heard there’s a lot going on in hell right now.”

“Yes, so many demons squabbling, so many...opportunities.” Vulgrim chuckled, making the Horseman pull a face behind his mask. “But I must admit to being a little disappointed that you seem to be visiting empty handed. And I had so hoped you were able to recover a few of Mammon’s treasures.”

Strife shrugged. “Sorry; was ordered to destroy them. Wouldn’t look good if they showed up again in yours hands. Council might ask some questions and guess, who I would have to go after next.” Not that he would terribly mind. Vulgrim had his uses, but the gunslinger had never entirely warmed up to the demon.

Meanwhile, the merchant shook his head, a hand on his heart. “And there I thought we’d become such good business partners.”

“Well, this is all I got for you this time.” The horseman tossed him a small pouch full of boatman coins.

“Mhm. I suppose it will do,” Vulgrim conceded after a precise count.  “I’ll consider it your fee for continued use of the serpent holes.”

“Sounds like prices are increasing.” That much money should have afforded him at least one potion on top.

“Considering they get you almost anywhere undetected, connecting countless realms, I’d say you have yourself a real bargain.”

Strife sighed, dismissing the idea of threatening the demon. “My pockets would disagree, but it’s not like I have many alternatives.”

“None, to be exact,” the merchant pointed out all too happily. “But if you could bring me something a little more...exotic, perhaps we could adjust our arrangement.”

“What do you have in mind?” Hopefully not another artefact; this demon already had too many powerful ones stowed away here. Though come to think of it, some were likely in Samael’s possession by now, which was possibly even more worrisome.

“The wyvern glands you brought me some years ago for example. You wouldn’t happen to have anything like it in your possession; it’s so difficult to get my hands on goods from the First Kingdom sometimes.”

“What? Don’t tell me they don’t like seeing your pretty face there,” Strife mocked. “But no, haven’t been to any of their realms recently. Still, I can promise to keep an eye out. I’m sure I find something.”

“Excellent. I knew we would come to an understanding.”

+++

This takes place just after another excerpt from my discontinued Darksiders Pariahs-story, which I posted here.