#that first example is a shout out for you Cory

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

The ATSV fandom is dead! Everything is so slo-

The Hobie tag gets MULTIPLE posts a day. There's a least one Miguel fic published everyday, if not multiple. My favorite artist just posted hi-res Hobie art fully colored like a week ago. Ask 'you got one night with Miguel and a bottle of liquor. WYD' and watch you'll get like 45 responses saying the most smuttiest detailed choke-slam-into-a-train type BDSM in your inbox I PROMISE YOU

The Hobie and Miguel girlies DO NOT SLEEP.

'Dead' - Go hyperfixate on an anime that ended in 2002 who's only new material is Japan-exclusive one-off releases that have never been translated to English then get back to me.

'Dead' - You wanna hear dead? Go play around in the Big Hero 6 tags 💀💀

'Dead' - You remember Wednesday?? The biggest Netflix show of 2022?? Remember? Bet you don't!! Dead fandom.

'Dead' - Go watch all the seasons of Gossip Girl. Watch Vampire Diaries then go in the tags. THAT'S DEAD. That's MUMMIFIED. CREMATED at this point. Death Note and Buffy too.

Bruh you wanna know what my OTHER movie fixation is?

Bullet Train (2022). One off film adapted from a one off book. No sequel. No NOTHING. Go in the bullet train tag bro. We're STRUGGLING. There's like four of us in a huddle screaming about the movie Bullet Train.

We're not waiting for a next movie. Nothing's coming. Half the characters fucking die in the movie so there not coming back. We're just riding this sinking ship until our last goddamn breath 😭😭 ffs

If a character gets like 5 posts a day in their tag, that fandom is not dead girl count your blessings it ain't REALLY dead

Imagine not getting new art of Hobie for over a month. Imagine looking for Miguel smut you haven't read only to see the last one was written three months ago.

COULD YOU IMAGINE?

'Dead', girl this fandom ain't even on life-support and I'm GLAD

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Conspiracy fantasy

When we talk about conspiratorialism, we tend to focus (naturally) on the content of the conspiracy. Not only are those stories entertainingly outlandish — they’re also the point of contact between conspiracists and the world.

If your mom is shouting about “Hollywood pedos,” it’s natural that you’ll end up discussing the relationship of this belief to observable reality. But while the content of conspiratorial beliefs gets lots of attention, we tend to neglect the significance of those beliefs.

To the extent that we consider why the beliefs exist and proliferate, the discussion rarely gets further than “irrational people have irrational beliefs.” This is a mistake. The stories we tell one another are a kind of Ouija board, with all our fingertips on the planchette.

The messages it spells out don’t describe external reality but they do reveal our internal, unspoken anxieties and aspirations.This is why we should read science fiction: not because it predicts the future, but because it diagnoses the present.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/26/meaningful-zombies/#oracles

Sf is an ever-mutating ecosystem of fears and hopes, and readers apply selective pressure to those organisms, extinguishing the ones that don’t capture the zeitgeist and elevating the ones that do, a co-evolution of our fantasies and our narratives.

http://locusmag.com/Features/2007/07/cory-doctorow-progressive-apocalypse.html

This is why Alternate Reality Games are so central to their players’ lives. They’re a form of narrative co-creation, with the players throwing out theories and the game-masters actually changing the story to incorporate the best of them.

ARGs are an environment where your coolest and most deliciously scary ideas become reality. It’s a powerful way to galvanize collective action.

As anthropologist Biella Coleman writes in Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy, it’s the organizing principal behind Anonymous.

Anon Ops begin life as victory announcement videos. If the vision of success captures enough Anons, they execute the op.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-anonymous-ghost-in-the-machine

In other words, the degree to which a shared fantasy of victory compels its audience predicts whether the audience realizes its fantasy. Long before the alt-right, Anons were memeing ideas into existence (no coincidence, as both were incubated on 4chan).

On the Conspiracy Games and Counter-Games podcast, three left academics — Max Haiven, AT Kingsmith, Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou — analyze “conspiracy fantasies” (as opposed to conspiracies, e.g. the Big Lie behind the Iraq War) for what they reveal about late capitalism’s anxieties.

As leftists, they naturally focus on the relationship between material conditions and people’s behaviors and beliefs. This is an important part of the discourse on conspiratorialism that’s often missing from liberal and right-wing analysis.

Conspiracists aren’t just “irrational” nor are they just “racist.” They may be both of those things, but unless you look at material conditions, then the surges and retreats of conspiracism are mysterious phenomena, strange tides raised by unseen forces.

A decade ago, then-PM David Cameron — the architect of a brutal, authoritarian austerity — dismissed the Hackney Riots as “criminality pure and simple,” and demanded a ban on discussion of the relationship between austerity and unrest.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2011/aug/09/david-cameron-riots-criminality-video

But without that discussion, there’s no explanation. Even if you believe that “criminality” is a thing that is latent within some or all of us, what explains a rise or fall in that criminality? Is it like pollen that alights upon some of us, turning us bad? Or the full moon?

Likewise the “conspiracists are just racists” or “they’re just deranged.” Without looking at the material world, there’s no explanation for why that racism suddenly became more (or less) important to how conspiracists live their lives.

We can’t talk about conspiratorialism without talking about material considerations, and we have to talk about the form and substance of the conspiratorial belief. The ARG-like structure of Qanon is a hugely important part of its popularity:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/05/behavioral-v-contextual/#adrian-hon

Memeing things into existence in a game-like way is hugely compelling. You can tell when a D&D game is hopping when the players and the DM start co-creating the story, with the DM slyly altering the dungeon and the NPCs to match the players’ super-cool theories.

A recent episode of the CGACG podcast present a mind-blowing analysis of the interplay of the material conditions, mythology and structure of Qanon. It’s a two-part interview with Wu Ming 1:

https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/wuming-one-1?in=reimaginevalue/sets/unmanageablerisks

https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/wuming-one-2?in=reimaginevalue/sets/unmanageablerisks

Wu Ming 1 is part of Bologna’s Wu Ming Collective, the successor to the 1990s Luther Bissett net-art collective. Bissett did many wild, weird things,including publishing “Q,” an internationally bestselling conspiratorial novel in 1999 (!!)

https://www.wumingfoundation.com/giap/what-is-the-wu-ming-foundation/

The plot of “Q” involves a high-level government official, privy to top-secret info about a state conspiracy. It closely mirrors Qanon beliefs, right down to a call for a Jan 6 uprising (!!!!). The major difference is that “Q” is set during the Protestant Reformation.

In the interview, Wu Ming 1 talks about the proliferation of conspiratorial, ARG-like 4chan hoaxes that predated Qanon, and hypothesizes that the original Q posts were plagiarized from the novel.

The strange experience of seeing a novel turn into a cult prompted Ming 1 to write “La Q di Qomplotto” (“The Q in Qonspiracy”), a book that defines and analyzes “conspiracy fantasies.”

https://edizionialegre.it/product/la-q-di-qomplotto/

Ming 1’s interview digs into this in some depth, including setting out criterial for distinguishing conspiracies from fantasies (for example, a conspiracy doesn’t go on forever, while a fantasy can imagine the Knights Templar running the world for centuries).

I was taken by Ming 1’s discussion of the role that “enchantment” plays in conspiratorialism — the feeling of being in a magical and wondrous (if also anxious and terrible) place. He says this is why “debunkers” fail — they’re like people who spoil a magic trick.

Ming 1 and the hosts talk about replacing the enchantment of conspiratorialism with a counter-enchantment, grounded not in the conspiratorialist’s oversimplification and essentialism, but in the wonder of reality.

Ming 1 analogizes his “counter-enchantment” to the “double-wow” method of Penn and Teller: first they blow you away with a trick, and then they blow you away with the cleverness by which it was accomplished.

He describes how the Luther Bissett collective performed a double-wow during Italy’s Satanic Panic, creating a hoax satanic heavy metal cult and a counter-cult, promulgating stories of their pitched battles, then revealing how they’d faked the whole thing.

The action was taken in solidarity with actual Bolognese heavy metal fans who’d been framed for imaginary Satanic “crimes.” Luther Bissett wanted to demonstrate how a panic could be created from nothing, to reveal the method behind the real hoax with a fake hoax.

The double-wow method reminds me of Richard Dawkins’ manuever in “The Magic of Reality,” his excellent children’s book about the virtues of the scientific world, revealing how the numinous wonder of faith is nothing compared to the wonder of science.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_of_Reality

The idea that conspiratorialism is a leading indicator of capitalism’s anxieties is a powerful one, and it ties into other compelling accounts of conspiracy, like Anna Merlan’s REPUBLIC OF LIES, which discusses the importance of trauma to conspiratorial belief.

Like Ming 1, Merlan stresses the kernel of truth underpinning conspiracy fantasies — the real aerospace coverups that make UFO conspiracies plausible, the real pharmaceutical conspiracies to cover up harms from drugs that underpin anti-vax.

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/09/21/republic-of-lies-the-rise-of-conspiratorial-thinking-and-the-actual-conspiracies-that-fuel-it/

In the podcast, Ming 1 and the hosts stress the importance of identifying and addressing the kernel of truth and the trauma it produces in any counter-conspiratorial work — that is, a successful counter-enchantment must address the material conditions behind the fantasy.

I really like this approach because of its empathy — its attempt to connect with the conditions that produce behaviors and beliefs, not to be confused with sympathy, which might excuse their toxic and hateful nature.

It reminds me a lot of Oh No Ross and Carrie, whose hosts have spent years joining cults and religions and digging into fringe practices and beliefs in an effort to understand them; they laugh a lot, but never AT their subjects.

https://ohnopodcast.com/

But Ming 1 brings something new to this discussion: an analysis of the role that novels have played in conspiracy fantasy formation: not just the plagiarizing of “Q” to make Qanon, but things like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion plagiarizing Dumas.

The interview also brought to mind Edward Snowden’s recent inaugural blog-post, “Conspiracy: Theory and Practice,” which seeks to separate conspiracy practice (e.g. the NSA spying on everyone) from theories (what Ming 1 calls “fantasies”).

https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/conspiracy-pt1

Snowden connects the feeling of powerlessness to the urge to explain the world through conspiracies, relating this to his experience of revealing one of the world’s most far-reaching real conspiracies, and then becoming the subject of innumerable conspiracy fantasies.

Snowden’s perspective is one that has heretofore been missing from conspiracy discourse — the perspective of someone who has been part of a real conspiracy and then the central subject of a constellation of bizarre and widespread conspiratorial beliefs.

These different works, focusing as they do on the character of conspiratorial beliefs, the nature of conspiratorial practice, and material conditions of conspiracists, comprise a richer analysis of our screwed-up discourse than, say, theories about “online radicalization.”

As I wrote in my 2020 book “How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism,” the “online radicalization” narrative requires that you accept Big Tech’s unsupported marketing claims about its power to bypass our critical thoughts at face value.

https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

Claims to be able to control our minds — whether made by Rasputin, Mesmer, pick-up artists, MK-ULTRA or NLP enthusiasts — always turn out to be cons (though sometimes the con artists are also conning themselves).

But there’s a much more plausible, less controversial set of powers that Big Tech possesses. By spying on us all the time, it can help scammers target people who are ready to hear conspiratorial explanations.

By monopolizing our discourse, it allows SEO scammers to create default answers to our questions. By locking us in, it can keep us using a platform even if the discourse there makes us angry and anxious.

And by corrupting our political process, it creates “kernels of truth” for conspiratorial beliefs.

As with Scooby Doo, the monster turns out to be a familiar villain in a fright mask: a monopolist whose abuses and impunity create the anxiety that make conspiracy plausible.

[tangledinmdzs]

it’s us against the world - junior quartet hcs

a highly requested scenario: when the juniors are little jelly (very jealous) beans

Lan Sizhui

it would be quite hard to tell if he were jealous

because he’d like to keep things to himself

and honestly wouldn���t really know how to pinpoint such an emotion anyways since he’s well...

him lol

and also he respects your friend groups and knows that there’s other people besides him in your life

but...

sometimes it gets hard for him

like when you’re out with your friend groups

and some of your friends would still hit on you

despite the fact that he’d be there too

it’s make him a little self conscious

like was your relationship not strong enough?

believable enough?

that people had the audacity to try and test him

Sizhui would be #2 sulker (#1 is someone else a bit lower on this list haha)

but yea, he gets a bit self conscious and jelly when you interlock your arms with all of your friends 

and leave him to walk a few steps behind

and it’s not like you mean to

you and your friends have always just been touchy like that

but once you figure out what’s gotten his face in  a little frowny frown, you realize that the best way to remedy his jealousy is just for him to join in on the fun with you

and if that means all you, Sizhui and three of your friends, interlocking arms and taking up the entire side walk on your walk to the mall

then well, 

anything for Sizhui’s smile

Lan Jingyi

he’s very loud about a particular handful of his emotions

jealousy and anger are two of them

you hate it when he’s angry

because he’s the type to pick a fight with the problem

like for example, if you were at a party

and he’d see someone trying to make conversation with you

but going about it in a way that was way past the boundaries you set

and also just being obnoxious

Jingyi would throw hands with no hesitation what so ever

and when he’s jealous, it’s a just a little waltz over to anger

although those two emotions shouldn’t be connected

he can’t help it

especially since he’s never really ever grown up with something that belongs to him

so it’s hard 

especially��now

“Jingyi!” you’re yelling as you’re holding him back by the arms

his face is red and his eyes are ablaze and you really don’t think the fruit punch is going to stay in his hand for long

“what the hell!” your sleazy coworker shouts at Jingyi only to get pushed roughly again by your boyfriend when he manages to take his arm out of your grasp

“Jingyi stop!”

“no! i’m not letting you deal with this, and i’m not dealing with this,” Jingyi says, getting angry whenever he remembers the image of your co worker’s inappropriately placed hand on the very edge of your lower back

you try to just let everything pass

because it was your job

but as you let Jingyi hold your wrist solidly

lead you out of the company’s late party

you don’t regret it one bit

Jin Ling

#1 sulker

when he’s jealous, he’s petty about it

you get the brunt of his pure pettiness about a week into your new semester, where Jin Ling suddenly stops waiting for you after class

and it kind of stopped out of the blue

he’d just meet you at your dorms if you guys had a study session (or any session) planned together

but even then, the session that you see him,

he’s tense

“A-ling” you call to him when you’re sat next to him, trying to get him to look at you

but he won’t

actually, he turns fully away from you and leans on his arms

then use his back as a shield to you

and you don’t get it

and plus you’re kind of too busy for his childish nonsense today

so you go and text your friend from your previous class about the homework

he’s a fun guy whose passionate about the subject

and has a great sense of humor (from the in person and texting convos that you shared)

you’re grateful that you’ve met him

you’ve only giggled at your phone for a few seconds when you hear a very passive aggressive slam of a book

when you turn to look at Jin Ling, you’re surprised to see him packing up his stuff

“you’re leaving already?”

“yeah, so you can have fun talking to other people...”

“it’s Cory,”

“eh’s coreey” Jin Ling would mimic obnoxiously and you’d get it right away

he was totally jealous

of course he was

“you really have nothing to worry about with cory” you tell Jin Ling, when you wrap a solid hand around his bicep to hold him back

“all that he talks to me about is his boyfriend”

and it takes Jin Ling a moment

but when he gets it

he sits down beside you to actually study efficiently

pouts forgotten

Ouyang Zizhen

genuinely, would hate the feeling of jealousy

Zizhen is also a soft boi, but soft in the way that his heart likes to lean towards positive emotions rather than the negative 

and he doesn’t like jealousy, 

from you or from himself

which is why he’s surprised that he’s feeling even the tiniest ebbs of it now

when you’re at a dog cafe with him

aside from the fact that no one single dog has tried to approach him

(they all just corral you for some reason)

ever since one of the pups had managed to bully its way into your lap

you hadn’t even taken your eyes off of this chubby looking kind of puppy in your arms ever since you stepped in

b e a u, reads the name tag of the fluffy bichon frise 

meaning babe, or baby in some other lang 

Zizhen eyes the name tag with distaste

the dog stares back with black beady looking eyes, lolls its tongue

almost a small mocking symbol

Zizhen sighs, leans back into the chair and sips at his ordered coffee

though it takes a little funny from the first sip

Zizhen looks down and has to pull out a puppy hair or two from his mouth

Zizhen sends an alarmed looked towards you, to see if you have noticed anything

you haven’t

eyes solely focused on Beau and only Beau

stupid dog

Zizhen sighs

[absoluteindulgence]

How the Boys Give/Recieve

A/N: GOOD EVENING/GOODNIGHT Y'ALL IT'S 3AM WHERE I AM LOL. TAGS: @royaltywritesstuff, @burnedbyshoto, @ikinabi . I HAD ANOTHER NAUGHTY HEADCANON IDEA AND WANTED TO SHARE THEM WITH YOU GUYS. THIS HC IS LONG AF, SORRY IN ADVANCE BUT ENJOY THE FOOD. THE CHARACTERS ARE AGED UP (18+). THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT.

☀️🌞MIRIO🌞☀️

Give:

My baby is sweet and kind! Hella, eager to eat you like his last meal!

Will tell you to pee before and after sex (because he cares).

After you come out of the bathroom, there are towels for your body and pillows for your head. (He's always prepared).

He gets cocky when you get comfortable on the bed, telling you, “You’re gonna need the pillows big time.” You don’t even bother asking why, but your imagination roams. 

When he lays you down, he grazes your legs lightly. It’s therapeutic but also makes your senses aware and sensitive to his touch. Mirio is a little impatient to taste you, so he won't tease you longer than 30 seconds.

This dude will literally whisper "ITADAKIMASU" to your pussy. You're going to melt.

“Hey Sunshine, I’m sorry I lied to you. Remember how I told you I love to eat Ramen, it turns out that’s my second love. My first is you.”

Melt, reform, then EXPLODE.

His kisses are littered all between your inner thighs, reminding you how wonderful you are. Goes on to call you his Sunshine and Sunflower.

He's hella skilled because you taught him what you liked. He always pays attention to your body. From your breathing to the way your thighs shake.

His tongue on your clit is a signature of, many swivels, sucks, and spelling "I love you."

Receive

He’s a beefy boi, so imagine what’s underneath the underwear. Change your hero name from Lemillion to LePacking, honey

He's very enthusiastic, damn near antsy all from you just touching or staring at his piece.

He calls his cock "Your Love Rod" or "Man muscle" I'M CACKLING

It's really all jokes, but if you do say it while stroking him, dick gon twitch something crazy.

He gets all shy when you’re talking to him before placing your mouth on his tip. Jokingly tell him, “Your precum is enough to put in a cup, baby.” His face is gonna be RED.

Enveloping his cock in your mouth was trouble at first, but now you gobble him up like a thick ass banana. He’s always vocal, from light moans to deep groans. Very loud at times, groaning your name, telling you, “Damn, you’re so fucking good at this.” He’s usually out of breath.

He likes to grab your hair or the back of your head and apply a little pressure. He won’t always do it, but he knows you like the contact. Mirio’s eyes will occasionally be closed as his muscles tense. 

Sometimes you'll say, “Focus on me," and as soon as your eyes meet, you suck him off like a jolly rancher. His face is stuck in surprise and lust.

Bonus: Also, sidebar because thanks to @coconutnunnicorn​ , I will add that this fool does come home one day with that funny ass elephant hammock g-string, and it makes for a weird night. You spend an hour laughing, trying to breathe air back into your body, but that goes nowhere. He makes the noise, and you fucking lose it all over again. Imagine Mirio singing the chorus to Work It by Missy Elliot. We really love this dork lmao

❄SHOUTO🔥

Give:

His hands are so skilled, whether it's to massage your back, feet, or hands. So imagine how it feels when he massages your inner thighs.

Its the most sensual feeling imaginable. Shouto takes pleasure in pleasing you since you do for him in so many ways.

He doesn't just focus on your clit because that's not the only way of pleasure (he looked it up on google and tried new methods on you)

He likes to lick your inner and outer lips (labia majora and minora) since it shocks you, sometimes you'll hear a low chuckle and die on the inside from the heat of his mouth fanning over you.

His kisses to your clit are just as passionate as if he was kissing the lips on your face. He doesn't hold back from massaging your inner thighs, either.

He loves to squeeze and kiss them might leave a couple of hickies after stimulating you.

His thick fingers are always hooked inside you, waiting for your walls to clench around him.

Your moans are chaotic cries as you whisper or shout his name. 

Receive

So you pretend like you don't know what you're doing with him at times since his size is abnormally thicc. You tease him saying he can't fit in your mouth.

Shouto is so fucking sassy, so he looks at you like, "Oh yeah? And yet you called me during your break telling me to shove it down your throat."

You giggle while rubbing your hands down his chest, taking tiny licks at his shaft. They start gentle and rise to be longer. Your tongue circles his tip and boom, you’re deepthroating him.

His eyes shoot the deepest level of lust you can fathom as you give him eye contact. A cheeky smile creeps upon his face as he praises you.

“You take me so well” headass

Suck his tip like a Capri sun, and his toes will curl, but if you swallow his whole cock, he might lose control, and his quirk goes off. How do that D*ntyne Fire and Ice taste?

😈SHINSOU👿

Give:

Ultimate tease, swear to our lord and savior, cory in the house.

He likes to overstimulate you, lightly pressing his hands into your inner thighs, repeatedly saying that you're good enough to eat. Kissing your hip bones as he leaves hickeys and love bites from your belly button to above your knees.

"All of a sudden, I think I'm a cannibal" That line is gonna make you look at him with worry until his warm tongue meets with your awaiting bundle (compliments to Lyssa lmao)

Your moans make him suck and swivel faster until you release.

Your body heaves up and down fast as you try to regain your composure.

Shinsou is the type to close your thighs on his neck or face then ask, "You think we're done, Kitten?"

He gets back to business, and in between licks on your overstimulated clit, he says, "I - don't - think - you’re - loud - enough." His finisher move to end all your orgasms is spelling your name because you’re all he thinks about.

Waking up the morning after, your voice is gone, but he's already making you tea and your favorite breakfast.

Receive:

THICKY WITH THE STIFFY UH

He listens to 69 once, and that’s how he initiates head with you almost every time.

You wanna slap the shit out of him but take it out on his cock instead. Which he likes.

His cock is long with a decent girth. Like when you slap it up with your hands or lips, usually, he bites his own lips watching you do it. His dick twitches wild when you gargle him.

He likes to see how long you can keep eye contact, especially if he’s pulling your hair. I feel like he doesn’t mind your teeth grazing his skin because it’s a testament to how big he is in your mouth.

He’s disgusting in the sense where he likes you to spit all on his dick, “Wet it up nicely, Kitten.”

💥KATSUKI💥

Give:

Everything is a damn competition for this bastard. How many times can you cum? How fast will your legs shake? How many times will you pull his hair?

He pays close attention to your reactions.

He has a big mouth and knows how to use it.

So many times you'll tell him he's a shit talker and he grabs his junk saying, "And you know I can back it up. Now get on the fucking bed".

Sometimes he's rough on purpose because you react a little differently. And it's not the awkward way, but sometimes when you tell him to keep going, he goes beast mode on the pussy.

Grabbing your breasts or thighs, grunting as he eats. He licks your entire vaginal area. The first time he did it, you laughed because it tickled, but now it's become an overwhelming sensation for you.

You grab his hair with your thighs/legs tightening around his head, trying to push him away. But he grabs your thighs tighter, spreading you as wide as possible while holding them down.

You try to struggle, but he says, "Princess, I'm trying to eat. Are you going to let me?" After you nod, he says, "Then open your fucking legs, or I won't let you cum."

After you behave, he starts slow and but gradually gets faster and acts more ravenous than before.

He likes to spell out his (full) name fingers deep in you because, like I said, he fancies a challenge.

Receive:

He can be a real roughhouse at times

This asshole doesn’t care how you decide to suck him off, he’s a meaty big boi and loves threatening you with his dick.

EXAMPLE: “Bakugou, why the fuck did you delete the new episode of my favorite show.” “Because I’m tired of you fucking whining about you missing it.” “Well, how the fuck does this change what I’m going through?” “You’ll be quieter.” “Fuck you, Ratsuki” “Say it louder so that I fuck your mouth.” As you’re about to say something, he throws you DVDs of the whole fucking season. Before you can thank him, this entitled little bitch says, “You want an apology, you can suck it out the tip of my cock.”

Usually, you would get mad, but you happily oblige yanking his shit damn near from his body.

He curses you out, but you end up stroking him, a hand gripped tightly around his shaft with your mouth like a sturdy suction cup. He is surprised by your force as he adjusts while seated. He wants to hold your head down but wants to see how far you go without his help, shit-talking in the midst of it all, “Yeah, baby, I told you, you’ll be quieter.”

You roll your eyes and lick his tip gently.

Any other time he's not an asshole, you are a PRO with his THICC stick of dynamite. Sucking, Spitting, SLURPING (BECAUSE HE LOVES THE SOUNDS) HE THINKS HE'S BETTER THAN SPAGHETTI OR ANY POPSICLE YOU PUT IN YOUR MOUTH. You joke about how he's not gluten-free, and he will groan, making you laugh and making him nut.

Whether on purpose or accident, he says, "Here's your new skincare." If you know, you know.

Bonus: First, imagine your neighbors hearing this little argument, 0-100000 real quick. Second, imagine making Bakugou nut after you’ve over-stim him just because you laughed. Does that make him sensitive, or just hearing you laugh made him reach his limit? Also, I got the apology line from the artist ChuuRingo on Twitter!

🌋EIJIROU🌋

Give:

This man is so fucking gentle.

The first time he went downtown, he asked what you liked and wanted to know how you felt. The second time, did everything right/everything you wanted without asking.

Now every time after, your body is left in shakes and sweats.

He loves to leave you in a puddle.

Kiri loves to climb on top of you, kiss you all the way down to your sweetness. Breathy gasps escape your lips when his lips make contact with your neck, collarbone, the top of your breasts.

Sometimes he gets sidetracked playing with your nipples but still trails his kisses down your stomach till he reaches his right destination.

Kiri tries different techniques all the time, they all work wonders on you. He is so needy for your moans and touches. Rubs you wherever his hands will roam, his body worship coming into play.

He’s a little crazy because he loves when you squeeze his head between his thighs. Let him know you’re close to coming. There have been times where he almost passed out, he never told you. Kiri said that he would be happy to die between your legs, though. You jokingly tell him that’s manly but really apologize for having so much orgasmic strength.

Kiri loves to spell your name and his, his tongue is exceptionally fast so you can only imagine that he’s been practicing to do that with you for a long time.

Receive:

He loves to look at your lips and reminds you that you're so beautiful while giving him the good old skippity mmmmmbop

He's so cliche at times that he will tell you, "Damn, I haven't activated my quirk, yet I feel unbreakable already."

Cornball city, Mirio, and Kiri put your clown wigs back on.

He's so confident in your skills as he lays on the bed you share, spread the fuck out while you crawl in between his legs.

You tease him a little, but he's patient. He knows you're building up suspense or staring at his huge cock. Knowing that you love his size, girth, and the color of his throbber.

There are times that after he finished making you cum through oral that your orgasms lubricate your throat and relax your jaw. So it leads to super happy fun times for Mr. Red Daddy Riot.

Now you, like a challenge. Challenging how strokes, how many sucks, how many times you can lick his balls before he nuts.

His body shudders no matter where you put your tongue.

If you swallow, he goes above and beyond for you for the next six-eight sessions, or even if you seriously tap out. If you spit, he's gonna cuddle you into oblivion as you guys have a cheat day date with ice cream.

Finished 2:30AM EST 1.30.2020

[latenightcinephile]

#898: ‘13th’, dir. Ava DuVernay, 2016.

This film is acknowledged by Ava DuVernay as having been seen more times than all her other films combined, thanks to its production by, and availability through, Netflix. The streaming platform’s move into content production has changed the scope of the list, expanding it into other areas that would have been considered too niche twenty years ago. This form of production also explains 13th’s familiar form - a talking-heads documentary that doesn’t push the stylistic boat out in any meaningful way. What is shows instead is the way in which ‘important film’ has become a calculated term.

This doesn’t mean that what DuVernay has created isn’t important, but rather that it is aware of itself as important. The film’s message is too urgent to DuVernay to be delivered in anything other than the most direct and confrontational terms. This is a documentary that knows its message, knows the breadth of the information required to convey that message, and knows how long it has to do it before an audience’s mind wanders. A 100-minute-long documentary about race in America is not a particularly easy film to promote, which makes its popularity all the more impressive (and partly explains Netflix’s perhaps-cynical promotion of the film with its cryptic title and thumbnail on its New Zealand platform).

In a sentence, the argument of 13th is that the subclause of the 13th Amendment, allowing indentured servitude and slavery only as punishment for a conviction, gave American society an incentive to criminalise black Americans at a much higher rate, finding a way to direct that population into effective slavery. While this was calculated based on race, it has frequently been justified under a ‘law and order’ platform. In order to support this argument, DuVernay calls upon interviews with leaders of black inmate groups, former activists such as Angela Davis, politicians as diverse as Cory Booker and Newt Gingrich, and academics from across the American tertiary spectrum.

Where this film does branch out stylistically is in its visualisation of language. Language is privileged in any talking-heads documentary, but DuVernay breaks the film into segments roughly equivalent to presidential tenures, and fills the gaps with kinetic typography renditions of black American music, from Nina Simone, Public Enemy, and Usher among others. This is an interesting way of sticking these texts in the memory, but each of these interludes feels like it runs too long, wasting time and breaking the momentum of the history lesson.

What does work really well, though, is the editing of the interviews. Each interviewee is stationed in an academic hall or industrial building, and their responses to the unseen interviewers are collected together as though they are in a direct conversation or, in many cases, a round-table discussion. Participants disagree on whether video footage of police brutality should be made public, or if the ubiquity of this footage is just depressing and defeating to contemporary movements. There are subsections of the film devoted to the role film plays in this discussion (Hi, Birth of a Nation!), and this feeds into the metatextual argument about how 13th has made itself broadly appeal to audiences to. It is both a summary and an example of film’s relation to race in America.

One of the film’s most effective sequences is when it discusses ALEC, a governmental lobbying group that writes blanket legislation, and has served as a way for private correctional facilities to criminalise wider and wider behaviours to increase profit. DuVernay pits two interviewees against each other: facing to the right, an academic laying out in precise detail the way ALEC has operated against immigration; and facing to the left, an ALEC representative defending the group in general terms. As well as the framing, which puts these two into a seemingly direct dialogue, DuVernay and editor Spencer Averick literally cut the ALEC representative off mid-sentence, shouting him down with more specific rebuttal. In addition, it’s clear that the representative was interviewed first, as the academic often refers to specific phrases from his interview, while he can only speak in vague overviews of the subject.

This is effective filmmaking, because we assume from its construction that the two interviewees are operating on a level field, even though we know that one of these interviews must predate the other. But effective filmmaking like this usually runs into fridge logic: you can see the strings if you look closely enough. Another chart in the film shows a spike in incarcerations between 2010 and 2015, but none of the interviews speak to this fact, and the documentary leaves Obama’s presidency out entirely. I don’t think there is a conscious bias here, because the film is regularly even-handed, but the trouble with being so ruthless in cutting out ‘extraneous’ information is that when you notice what’s been cut it can’t help but feel deliberate.

The trick of documentary filmmaking is giving the illusion of comprehensiveness, while acknowledging that actual comprehensiveness is impossible. 13th doesn’t always make this work, but it’s telling a story of race relations that is thoroughly persuasive. It’s telling that the only negative reviews of the film come from those who miss the point entirely - David Edelstein, for example, writes that the film pretends crime doesn’t exist, when the entire idea is that it does exist, but only because of a bias in determining what crime is. 13th is rare in that it’s a film so busy telling you its necessary truths that it doesn’t need to worry about persuading you. Luckily, it’s powerfully persuasive.

[readearly]

The story “The Rabbit Listened” written and illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld is a story about how a young child named Taylor had a bright imagination of building something big then ever imaginable, until birds swooped down and destroyed it.  Since that tragic incident, all this child wanted was a friend to express their emotions and feelings to.  Throughout Taylor’s quest to find that companionship with a friend, this character found that out all the animals included in this story, the rabbit was the only one who took the time to listen.  

What appealed to me about this book is that it gives children a broadened schema of real life lessons they can learn from and take with them through every milestone in their life.  For example, students may be in situations where there with their friends, and one of them is feeling down about something that has occurred in their life and they learn how to be that companion and “shoulder to cry on”.  Throughout the text, I notice how there is a continuing pattern of each animal coming in to try and help Taylor express emotions and why this main character was feeling so upset.  Each animal communicates a variety of different perspectives in which to try and help Taylor.  “The chicken was the first to notice.  Cluck, cluck! What a shame! I’m so sorry, sorry, sorry this happened!  Let’s talk, talk, talk about it! Cluck, cluck!  But Taylor didn’t feel like talking. So the chicken left.  Next came the bear.  Grarr Rarr! How horrible! I bet you feel so angry! Let’s shout about it! Garrr! RARRR! GRAAAAR! But Taylor didn’t feel like shouting. So the bear left” (Doerrfeld, 2018, 10-16).  Students will learn as they read along to the story, that each of the animals, weren’t the “listeners” and didn’t allow or give Taylor the opportunity to talk about what just happened at the beginning of the story.  

As I’m analyzing each page in the text, I notice how the author writes simplistic sentences or statements, ways in which students can understand, as well as illustrates pictures that corresponds to the description.  This will help students understand what the visual illustrations symbolize, which will enhance emergent reading and writing.  Teacher moves this would be supporting is “guiding students into helping them build a strong sense of understanding meaning” (Fantozzi, 2020, slide 2).  Teachers are also “supporting a child’s schema by adding their own language and experiences” (Fantozzi, 2020, slide 5).  They can also invite students to express their stories and add language about when they were ever that “rabbit” for a friend, whether it was for something exciting that happened to them or something they are having a hard time with.  The author illustrates each picture in the book distinctively, meaning that there is only one main character (Taylor) in the story and one protagonist (the rabbit).  This will help and support emergent readers, because students are learning step-by-step the main elements that make up a story (a main character, protagonist, and antagonist), as well as what each of them symbolize in the story, through the quality of what they’re saying.  

As I read through towards the end of this story, I come across this meaningful passage that I feel exemplifies the meaning and message of this book that students can really take away with them.  “In the quiet, Taylor didn’t even notice the rabbit. But it moved closer, and closer.  Until Taylor could feel it’s warm body.  Together they sat in silence until Taylor said, “Please stay with me”.  The rabbit listened.  The rabbit listened as Taylor talked. The rabbit listened as Taylor shouted.   The rabbit listened as Taylor remembered… and laughed.  The rabbit listened to Taylor’s plans to hide… to throw everything away… to ruin things for someone else.  Through it all, the rabbit never left.  And when the time was right, the rabbit listened to Taylor’s plan to build again.  “I can’t wait,” Taylor said.  “It’s going to be amazing”” (Doerrfeld, 2018, 23-32). 

[tasksweekly]

[TASK 066: THE BLACKFOOT CONFEDERACY]

Shout out to @olivaraofrph​​​ for helping compile this task in celebration of Native American Heritage Month! The Blackfoot Confederacy are one of the largest American/Canadian indigenous groups consisting of the Siksika, Kainai, Amskapi Pikuni, and Aapátohsipikáni people who all traditionally spoke the same language and had a vastly similar culture to each other. There’s a masterlist below compiled of over 80+ Blackfoot faceclaims categorised by gender with their occupation and ethnicity denoted if there was a reliable source. If you want an extra challenge use random.org to pick a random number! Of course everything listed below are just suggestions and you can pick whichever character or whichever project you desire.

Any questions can be sent here and all tutorials have been linked below the cut for ease of access! REMEMBER to tag your resources with #TASKSWEEKLY and we will reblog them onto the main! This task can be tagged with whatever you want but if you want us to see it please be sure that our tag is the first five tags, @ mention us or send us a messaging linking us to your post!

THE TASK - scroll down for FC’s!

STEP 1: Decide on a FC you wish to create resources for! You can always do more than one but who are you starting with? There are links to masterlists you can use in order to find them and if you want help, just send us a message and we can pick one for you at random!

STEP 2: Pick what you want to create! You can obviously do more than one thing, but what do you want to start off with? Screencaps, RP icons, GIF packs, masterlists, PNG’s, fancasts, alternative FC’s - LITERALLY anything you desire!

STEP 3: Look back on tasks that we have created previously for tutorials on the thing you are creating unless you have whatever it is you are doing mastered - then of course feel free to just get on and do it. :)

STEP 4: Upload and tag with #TASKSWEEKLY! If you didn’t use your own screencaps/images make sure to credit where you got them from as we will not reblog packs which do not credit caps or original gifs from the original maker.

THINGS YOU CAN MAKE FOR THIS TASK -  examples are linked!

Stumped for ideas? Maybe make a masterlist or graphic of your favourite faceclaims. A masterlist of names. Plot ideas or screencaps from a music video preformed by an artist. Masterlist of quotes and lyrics that can be used for starters, thread titles or tags. Guides on culture and customs.

Screencaps

RP icons [of all sizes]

Gif Pack [maybe gif icons if you wish]

PNG packs

Manips

Dash Icons

Character Aesthetics

PSD’s

XCF’s

Graphic Templates - can be chara header, promo, border or background PSD’s!

FC Masterlists - underused, with resources, without resources!

FC Help - could be related, family templates, alternatives.

Written Guides.

and whatever else you can think of / make!

MASTERLIST!

Female:

Beverly Hungry Wolf (born in 1950) Kainai Blackfoot - writer.

Beverly Johnson (64) African-American, Blackfoot (unconfirmed)  / Louisiana Creole (African, French, possibly other) - model and actress.

Faye HeavyShield (born in 1953) - sculptor and installation artist.

Grace Hightower (62) African-American, Blackfoot - actress and singer.

Galyn Görg (53) African-American, Choctaw, Blackfoot, Irish / German-American - actress and dancer.

Ananda Lewis (44) African-American, Muskogee, and Blackfoot - model and tv personality.

Gillian White (42) African-American, Blackfoot, Irish - actress.

Jewel De'Nyle (41) Blackfoot, English, Sicilian, Spanish - former adult actress and director.

Bianca Lawson (38) African-American, Creole (French, African), talian, Blackfoot, Portuguese, and English - actress.

Lily Gladstone (30) Kainai Blackfoot, Amskapi Pikuni Blackfoot, and Nez Perce - actress.

Chelsea Tail Feathers (19 as of 27 April 2008) Kainai Blackfoot - model and beauty pageant titleholder.

Stella Maeve (27) Blackfoot and Cherokee - actress.

Shayla Stonechild (23) Metis of Blackfoot and Cree descent - actress and model.

Kehlani (22) African-American, French, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Spanish, Filipino - singer.

Carrissa Lowhorn (26) Siksika Blackfoot - model.

Chandra Melting Tallow (Mourning Coup) (26) Siksika Blackfoot - musician.

Fivel Stewart (20) Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Scottish, and Blackfoot (Unconfirmed) - actress.

Tennille Day Chief (16) Blackfoot - actress.

Brandy McCallum (?) Blackfoot, Cree, and Metis - singer-songwriter.

Rulan Tangen (?) Metis of Blackfoot descent - actress and dancer.

Joleen Mitton (?) Plains Cree, Blackfoot, French, and Scottish - model.

Elle-Maija Tailfeathers (?) Kainai Blackfoot and Sami - actress and filmmaker.

Morningstar Angeline (?) Navajo, Blackfoot, Chippewa Cree, Mexican, and Unspecified European -  actress.

Arlette Alcock (?) Metis of Blackfoot, Cree, and Nakoda Sioux descent - singer-songwriter.

Nalita Murray (?) Blackfoot - actress.

Kiela Bird (?) Amskapi Pikuni Blackfoot - actress and model.

Tailinh Agoyo (?) Blackfoot and Narragansett - actress.

Sara Tomko (?) Blackfoot, Cherokee, Polish, and Slovak - actress.

Makayah Crowfoot (?) Blackfoot, Navajo, Oneida, Irish, Armenian, English, and French - actress.

Cherish Violet Blood (?) Blackfoot - actress.

Nina Riley (Crystal Marie Hilyard) (?) Latvian, Belarusian,  Irish / Seneca, Shawnee, Cherokee, Blackfoot, Black Irish - singer, actress, and writer.

Fatima Kojima (?) Japanese, Crow, Blackfoot, Cherokee, African-American, and English - model.

Mary Griffin (?) Blackfoot - musician (Spirit of Thunderheart).

Jhane Myers (?) Comanche and Blackfoot - artist.

Valentina LaPier (?) Blackfoot - artist.

Male:

Douglas Cardinal (83) Metis of Kainai Blackfoot, Algonquin, and German descent - architect.

Kenny Scabby Robe (68 as of 6 July 2013) Blackfoot - musician (Black Lodge Singers).

A Martinez (68) Blackfoot, Apache, Mexican, and Northern European - actor.

Robert Taylor (born in 1951) Blackfoot, Cherokee, and Osage - artist.

Rickey Medlocke (67) Blackfoot, Lakota Sioux, and Cherokee - musician.

Benny Urquidez (65) Mexican, Spanish, Blackfoot - pro boxer, choreographer, and actor.

Gerald McMaster (64) Siksika Blackfoot / Plains Cree - curator, artist, and author.

Max Wolf Valerio (60) Kainai Blackfoot / Sephardic Jewish, Northern European - poet, memoir writer, essayist, and actor. - Trans!

Benjamin Dane (55) Blackfoot and Comanche - actor.

Steve Reevis (55) Blackfoot - actor.

Joe Hipp (54) Blackfoot - pro boxer.

TRUE (David John Riggins) Blackfoot, African-American / German, Russian - filmmaker, designer, and artist.

Thomas Jane (48) Irish, Scottish, possibly more distant German Jewish and Blackfoot - actor.

Stephen Graham Jones (born in 1972) Blackfoot - author.

Eugene Brave Rock (born 1978) Kainai Blackfoot - actor.

Algin Scabby Robe (39) Blackfoot / Yakama - musician (Black Lodge Singers).

Shaun Taylor-Corbett (39) Blackfoot / White (Unspecified) - actor, singer, and writer.

Armond Duck Chief (37) Siksika Blackfoot - singer-songwriter.

Cowboy Smithx (35) Kainai Blackfoot and Aapátohsipikáni Blackfoot - actor, filmmaker, and podcast host.

John Scabby Robe (35) Blackfoot / Yakama - musician (Black Lodge Singers).

Robbie Daymond (35) Blackfoot, Sioux, Cherokee, Apache, Black Irish, and German - actor.

Robin Big Snake (33) Siksika Blackfoot / Cree - pro hockey player.

Kalani Queypo (30) Blackfoot, Native Hawaiian, and Swedish - actor.

Winston Day Chief (29) Kainai Blackfoot - pro hockey player.

Matthew Scabby Robe (28) Blackfoot / Yakama - musician (Black Lodge Singers).

Booboo Stewart (23) Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Scottish, and Blackfoot (Unconfirmed) - actor.

Noah Watts (born 1983) Crow and Blackfoot - actor.

Gyasi Ross (?) Blackfoot and Suquamish - rapper and author.

Julian Black Antelope (?) Blackfoot, French, and Irish - actor.

Jason Grasl (?) Blackfoot - actor.

Lil’ Smokey (?) Blackfoot - rapper.

Jack Gladstone (?) Blackfoot - artist.

Sean Sprawling (?) African American, French, Portuguese, Blackfoot / Spanish - actor.

Carlin Black Rabbit (?) Siksika Blackfoot - drummer (No More Moments).

Quarthon Bear Chief (?) Siksika Blackfoot - vocalist (No More Moments).

Cory White (?) Siksika Blackfoot - bassist (No More Moments).

Brandyn Darko (?) Siksika Blackfoot - guitarist (No More Moments).

Darren Geffre (?) Blackfoot - musician.

DJ Keeps The Fire Burning (Kevin Kicking Woman) Blackfoot - musician.

Brad Crowfoot (Nutly) (?) Blackfoot and Navajo - radio show/podcast host and photographer.

Myrton Running Wolf (?) Blackfoot - actor.

Byron Chief-Moon (?) Kainai Blackfoot - actor, choreographer, dancer, and playwright.

Troy De Roche (?) Blackfoot - artist.

King Kuka (?) Blackfoot - artist.

David Dragonfly (?) Blackfoot - artist.

Charles Littleleaf (?) Tenino, Wasco, Paiute, Amskapi Pikuni Blackfoot - musician.

NB:

N/A

[cheshiregrincorvus-blog]

The Knave

“Nothing was ever simple, and even less so when your mind had made up all these reasons to dislike someone. For example, when you liked someone, loved maybe; did you ever just decide that someone was bad for them? Based on something silly like how they had little in common? Even if the same could be said for you and such person? Mhmm, precisely. You see, it goes a little like this--you find someone, someone that gets you. They understand just how you want to see yourself, just as you are, and maybe she’s a little crazy but she’s your type of crazy...” Rambling.

“It went a little like this.”

Corvus, Cheshire was still getting used to that name. It was odd, but fitting he thought. Much like the old saying of his dear friend Hatter. He reminisced over the thought as he served drinks at the bar. His job treated him well enough, and he could usually gain fair tips on a bad night and better on the good ones. He didn’t care much, there were other ways to get money and essentials--other ways like the ever beautiful Red Queen.

He wiped down a spot at the bar when there was a break out to the side. The Knave. Ches scoffed at the idiocy of the man. He’d been replaced, once again. But this time by his own self. Did Corie feel bad? Oh no, he was living in the lap of luxury. But as all bartenders do, he moved hastily to break apart the fight, taking an elbow to the face. Mild irritation bubbled through him and surfaced as he ripped the Knave off of the man he’d assaulted. He drug the kicking and fighting man a few feet away before a swing was made towards him. He’d barely moved and managed just a scrape past his jaw.

“Knock it off!” Corie shouted.

Typically he’d be the first to watch a fight go down and do little to stop it, but this was his turf right now, and he wouldn’t be caught in trouble for this sad sap.

“Get out. Back alley.”

The Knave growled and said something under a gruff and poison scented breath.

Corie would have checked on the other man but he was more than willing to take the moment to get in the face of the man who thought he meant something when he never would again. In the alley he stood near the drunken man with a smirk playing at his lips. “Do you think fighting the locals is going to help your stance with my Queen?” He taunted the man who only snarled and tried to hook a hit at him. “No no no, my friend. This is why she doesn’t want you. Look at yourself, you’re a mess. I know everything that you do, all you say, what you think. I know it all. I’ll tell her everything.”

The Knave made a pass and gruffly began throwing insults towards the cat as if Ches gave half a care. “She’ll hear about this, do you really think she won’t ask about the bruising on my face? You’re done, Knave. Best start looking for another job. Get out of my face, and stay out of my bar. If you come back it won’t just be tonight that I’ll tell your pretty little woman about. I have more on you than you think.”

Cheshire was good with information, and he got what he wanted.

Now, this wasn’t the last he’d see the man, from then on it would be shadowy figures outside his apartment at night, and in passing on Corie’s way out from seeing Red. Clearly the point just hadn’t gotten across.

[mortimers-cross]

Me: I need to hurry up and finish this story, it’s getting so stupidly long.

Also Me: Let’s have an entire scene whose sole purpose is to let Electra and Coricopat stand around sassing each other.

“My father sent for you, didn’t he? Didn’t he? I thought he might try smuggling me out one of these days, but to go behind my back and get someone else…”

 Electra had offered little resistance to the pair of matched felines who’d shown up and insisted she accompany them. Somehow, though she couldn’t explain it, she’d known just from looking at them that they were from that Junkyard place Macavity talked about as if it were Heaviside on earth. Which meant they were some of his friends. Which meant that she couldn’t let the henchcats notice them or there’d be trouble; for their own safety, she told herself, she’d go with them…but she’d come back, first opportunity she found.

 It didn’t stop her from loudly complaining once they were well away from the warehouse. “This is the most low-down, sneaky trick I ever…”

 “He did not send for us,” interrupted the queen.

 “Come off it, of course he—”

 “Young one,” cut in the tom in a much sharper tone, ignoring his sister’s disapproving glance, “kindly shut up.”

 That shocked Electra into silence for the moment. No one had ever said such a thing to her, as far as she could recollect. Oh, they all shouted at each other plenty, but no one dared shout at her or they’d be sure to get into trouble with the Leader. And his Lady was always watching to be certain they always treated Electra with respect.

 “We are friends of your father’s,” the queen explained more gently. “I am Tantomile, and this is Coricopat. We are…”

 “Twins, even a blind cat could see that,” Electra chortled. “You look even more alike than my mum and her twin!”

 “This is no time for silliness,” Coricopat glared. “I understood you had acquired more discipline in that…place, than you are presently displaying.”

 Electra waved a paw dismissively. “If you mean all the bowing and scraping and big words—that’s totally for the henches.” Her face grew horrified. “Or does everyone do that in the junkyard as well and get in trouble for nothing?”

 “Please, Cori,” Tantomile placed a placating paw on her brother’s shoulder, “she’s only a kit, remember, and we’re safe enough for the moment…”

 Coricopat blew out a long sigh. “I am concerned for the safety of your father and mother and our other friends,” he offered Electra by way of apology.

 “So’m I,” she shrugged, then frowned. “So…why have you taken me away?”

 “Safety,” Coricopat repeated, as if stating the obvious.

 “But it makes no odds if I’m safe when my parents are still in danger! I want to help!”

 “The best help you can give them is to keep out of the way,” he told her bluntly. The two stood toe-to-toe glaring at each other for a moment.

 “Anyway,” Electra resumed, “what makes you think the danger is that bad? True, I always figured the others would be mighty put out with Dad for abandoning the tribe, but it’s not as if he had no defenses. Besides, they won’t dare try anything too drastic, no matter what he does. You’ve heard of his powers, haven’t you? They’re all awfully afraid of his powers, and so they might protest a little, and some of’em might fight, but he’ll soon deal with them and walk away with no problem. And if they should think of following us to the ’yard and trying anything, why—he can just use his powers again.” She grinned. “Hope you all know that with my dad around, we’ll none of us have to worry about predators or much of anything else really. ’Course, he hardly ever uses’em—he’s afraid of ‘abusing his powers,’ whatever that means. So he and Mum have always made me be careful how I talk and what I say, in case any of the henches should get angry and try anything and make Dad have to kill’em. He hates killing. Actually, he never has killed, only threatened to—mostly he just locks people up when they’re bad and lets’em out later.” She shrugged, as if all this were the most normal thing in the world. Tantomile listened to her with a pained expression. Of course she had known Mack couldn’t fully shield his daughter from the henchcats’ ways, and there was only so much he could change without having a rebellion on his paws; even still, it was difficult to hear. “So, you see,” Electra concluded, “there’s really not anything much to worry about, maybe a small scuffle and that’s it. But I might have known my parents’d be paranoid and send me away anyway.”

 “Actually it wasn’t their idea at all,” Tantomile said carefully, exchanging a worried look with her brother. Then MacVitie hasn’t fully explained the nature of his ‘powers.’ Ought we be the ones to tell her?

 “Then why come and get me at all?” Electra exclaimed, stamping a paw. “Now they’ll think I’ve been kitnapped or…”

 “No, we’ve sent another of our friends to tell your father,” said Coricopat.

 “But why poke your noses in without even being asked?” fumed the queenkit, on the verge of simply turning and running back the way they’d come. “Shouldn’t I have some say in this?”

 Coricopat looked appealingly at his sister, as if at a loss how to proceed. Electra smirked, figuring she’d really stumped them now, and they’d just have to take her back and quit interfering.

 But then Tantomile told her, “There’s much more danger than you or your parents realize. The henchcats are divided as to their feelings about your father, and some of them plan to rebel, rather than wait for—”

 “And like I said, my dad can deal with it,” Electra interrupted. “Anyway, how can you know that?”

 Coricopat and Tantomile looked at each other. “Well…”

 “Don’t tell me,” Electra rolled her eyes. “You’re psychic.”

 “Yes,” Coricopat answered simply.

 Electra shook her head in disbelief. “You’re just saying that so I’ll go with you…”

 “Then how did we know your name? Besides,” Tantomile pointed out, “you believe in your father’s powers.”

 “Lightning powers are one thing, mind powers are completely different,” said Electra obstinately.

 “There is…no logic in that whatsoever,” Coricopat said, gaping at her. In some ways this queenkit seemed wise beyond her years; in others, she seemed a complete and utter dolt. Knowing Tantomile wouldn’t like it, but seeing no alternative, he reached out to the kitten’s mind. You just might want to start listening to us, unless you wish to end up dead.

 Electra jumped, letting out a small squeak. She glanced back and forth between the twins. Leaning over to Tantomile she whispered, “How…how did he…say that without moving his mouth?”

 “He said it in your mind,” Tantomile informed her, though looking disapprovingly at her brother. “Ordinarily we do not do that to cats without permission, unless they are enemies, but…he evidently saw no other way of convincing you.”

 “And…you can do that with anyone? Talk in their minds, or hear what they’re thinking?”

 “Only if they are open-minded—either from willingness to hear us, or simple innocent lack of awareness of any need to hide anything. Most cats have some barriers up. For example, we can catch the gist of the henchcats’ intentions, but cannot delve into their innermost thoughts—to the point of hearing or sending full sentences.”

 “I force myself not to say certain things out loud around the henchcats all the time,” Electra confided, awe-struck by this whole concept, “but I never thought about needing to guard my mind. What if one of them is psychic too, and is using that against my dad? Can you tell anything about that?”

 Can we tell you once we get to the Junkyard? Or do you still not believe us that there’s anything the matter?

 “Stop that, Cori,” Tantomile scolded.

 “I actually find it fascinating,” Electra giggled, albeit somewhat nervously. “Fine,” she sighed, “you’ve convinced me I should at least hear what you have to say. I’ll come with you. But,” she threatened, “if I decide my parents need me more than I need to be ‘safe’ at the ’yard, just you try and stop me going back…”

 “You’re the one who keeps saying they can handle everything,” said Coricopat.

 “And you’re the one,” Electra countered, “trying to convince me they can’t.”

 “Just listen to the pair of you,” Tantomile sighed. “Let’s get moving.”

[felassan]

Blackwall: 2, Solas: 1 and 3, Sera: 3, Cole: 2, Bull: 1, Vivienne: 3 and 5, Varric: 2, Dorian: 1 and 5, Cassandra: 4 and 5 and wow that's a lot of questions but I missed Gryff tbh

omg ♥♥ thankyou sm. me too tbh. she’s still my favorite of my children. I think maybe another run of DAI is due.

[msg refs this post]

cut for length.

Blackwall2. What did they choose to do with him and how did they feel about their choice? Were they guilty about leaving him in cell, if they choose to do so?

Blackwall joined the Inquisition and stayed until the Inquisitor could declare victory. Blackwall considered the Inquisitor a friend. Gryff strongarmed him out of prison using Inquisition resources and had him continue to fight as part of the Inquisition. ah, but his judgement specifics was a tough one. on one hand, she doesn’t care about what he did before she met him and things he did while outside the Inquisition. she doesn’t care about treason to a human kingdom, nor about the murder of nobles really. on the other, she values honesty and not being a coward, and more importantly, the betrayal of the loyal men under his command was unconscionable and indefensible to her - you protect your men, soldiers who trust you with their lives as their commander. to do otherwise goes against everything she believes in, she’d sooner die herself than betray her men. that was what she took most issue with really, over the general deception, lies or the murder of some people. if he’d done that or a similar thing as part of the Inquisition, while he was under her command, she would have executed him without a second thought. she had respected him as a warrior and as a Warden, but her respect for him completely nosedived and evaporated on learning what transpired between him and his men.

the first time around I had her free him and reveal his identity, but in hindsight I think it makes more sense for her as a character to opt to send him to the Wardens to undergo the Joining for real after Cory’s defeat. thank goodness for the Keep eh?

Solas1. Did your Inquisitor engage Solas academically with questions or were they uninterested in his experiences?3. If your inquisitor was told they were “unlike others of their race” by Solas, how did they respond? Were they angry or grateful? 

1. not at first, because she mistrusted him from the outset. she also has little interest in intellectual matters outside of theories of war (and definitely not in the metaphysical), and did not appreciate Solas’ criticisms of and comments about the Dalish. silly really, because they each looked down on the other for a time. it made for a bad combination initially - they had a strange, bitter and belligerent association for a time. the development into mutual respect, comrades-in-arms and eventual friends there is really interesting to me, maybe I’ll write about it to chart it out ‘on paper’ someday.. it doesn’t follow the game exactly.

she came to accept that he was an expert on the Fade, the anchor and the sort of forces she was dealing with when it came to sealing the Breach. consequently, ever the pragmatist, she sought his counsel on those subjects and had him join her in the field as she journeyed around closing tears. eventually her Dalish desire and drive to recover and relearn as much of the past and their culture/history as possible got the better of her pride and distrust, and she would ask him about what he’d seen in his travels through the Fade, about ancient elves, the ancient elven kingdom and what had been lost. then about other stuff, like spirits (her growing friendship with Cole helped springboard that one, she wanted to understand Cole better) and magic in general. and it went from there really. (I will say that I dooon’t headcanon or think of Solas and Gryff as having had a teacher/student or elder/child relationship, for me personally that’s an uncomfortable power dynamic. I think of them as two equals who just had different areas of knowledge and expertise, who learned from one another in a give and take sort of way. I think it’s possible to pick someone’s brain/knowledge banks about a topic without that kind of dynamic being present.)

he did continue to frustrate her sometimes with his occasional bursts of intellectual and general superiority, tendency to longwindedness, and especially over their clashing ideas on how to help the elves. I tend to think that some of the arguments Solas has with Disapproval Inquisitor still occur in a manner of speaking between Solas and Gryff. you know, like DA:I’s main basegame plot spanned a whole year or so and a lot can happen in a year, and Solas content was not as extensive as some of the other companions’ were, particularly as a romance compared to the others. a game is inevitably constrained by length, resources, simplistic axes like “approval” and “disapproval”, unrealistic mechanics like “touch all these orbs for bonus approval points”, etc. real relationships between people are obviously a lot more complex. ah sorry.. these 2 just fascinate me so much, 2 very different individuals who both deeply love the People but have totally different ideas about how to help them.

3. he did tell her that, and she was angry. smh Solas. Gryff believes the Dalish made her who she is, that she’s no different from the rest of them and that Solas misjudged them. she loves and respects the Dalish. there are the new pieces of information regarding portions of elven history and the Evanuris, and she has her newfound.. atheism? secularism? (the main change is that she no longer believes in the Evanuris as gods the way she did before) and has disdain for aspects of the upper echelons of ancient elven culture (ex. the keeping of slaves by an elite upper class), but she is still proud to be Dalish. she feels there is plenty of value and worth in modern Dalish culture and (still practises and takes part in) their traditions, and in what they have reclaimed and made their own. she will always be Dalish and culturally Dalish.

Sera3. How did your Inquisitor respond to the truth of Sera’s childhood (the cookie scene), if they received it? Did they empathize?

despite the differences and initial teething problems between Gryff and Sera, she received it. she did empathize and was angry at the notion of a human noble lying to a young elf and telling her that a baker hated her simply for being an elf. go figure. but she was initially a bit ? about what the hell they were doing on the roof with cookies, and doesn’t have a great interpersonal manner. Sera clarified that she was trying to say she liked it in the Inquisition, and share this with the Inquisitor. kinda ‘thats great and I’m glad, but this is a bit ?. I know! why are we yelling? because we’re friends now. oh okay. let’s go get drunk. :)’ by Trespasser they are good friends.

Cole2. What did your Inquisitor think of Cole’s ability to see into people’s thoughts?

she thought it was unnatural, but quickly realized the strategic value of and advantages to be gained from the ability and indeed, of Cole’s other abilities, both on and off the battlefield. later, she would come to love Cole as if he were a member of her clan.

Iron Bull1. Was your Inquisitor wary of Bull upon learning he was a spy?

yes, and she was wary anyway. it didn’t unsettle her though, and she understood where he was coming from and why - flip the script, and from a certain angle she was a bit of a spy for her own people for their own ends, among other races and cultures, at the Conclave. their early interactions were engaged on a level akin to two soldiers from opposing factions during a time when a temporary truce or ceasefire had been declared. I think they both recognized that. professionals.

Vivienne3. Did the feelings of your Inquisitor towards Vivienne change at all after completing her personal mission about Duke Bastian, if yes, in what way?5. How did your Inquisitor feel about Vivienne? Friends? Allies? Rivals?

3. Gryff got her the heart she requested. Gryff didn’t really know what to say when Bastian died, or in the aftermath, but she felt for her. this sad and unfortunate event showed a side of Vivienne Gryff had understandably not been privy to before.

5. initially she did not really trust her, but Gryff doesn’t trust many people at all early on. early on they had a bit of disagreement for example about the Dalish and mages, the Circle etc. but I think this was not great writing on the writers’ part regarding Vivienne here, as opposed to Vivienne herself. Vivienne is a formidable, compassionate, smart and wise woman of considerable ability and power. Gryff rejected the Game but appreciated Vivienne’s insights and political acumen, for often Vivienne saw what Gryff could not. they were definitely allies, and perhaps something akin to friends by the end - I think Gryff developed great respect for Vivienne, in time. they have some different views on some topics, but this is not a bad thing at all.

Varric2. How did your Inquisitor feel about Varric’s situation with Bianca? Who did they decide was right about what Bianca did?

Varric and Gryff are friends but she doesn’t really have opinions on his personal life. Varric tracked the red lyrium source. gryff thought Bianca was in the wrong with what she did, but at the time just shouted at them both to knock off the arguing.

Dorian1. How does your Inquisitor feel about Tevinter? Did Dorian change their feelings at all about the Imperium?5. Did your Inquisitor agree with Dorian’s decision to return to Tevinter? How did they feel about his choice?

1. dislikes Tevinter. dislikes what it did to Arlathan, dislikes it for its continued slavery and subjugation of elves. Dorian showed her that some Tevinter mages (later, Magisters, even) are different (they became good friends), and it is now of course known that the fall of Arlathan was more complicated than Dalish lore suggested, but she still dislikes the Imperium. she hopes Dorian and his faction gut it and reform it and burn away all the rotting corruption. she wishes them every success.

5. [bit of repetition here sorry] she wholeheartedly agrees with the need to reform the Imperium and remove the corruption, and with his desire to do so. she thinks there’s nobody better suited to doing so. she hopes he will succeed, and would render any aid she’s capable of giving, wolfhunt and clan-protecting duties permitting. she hopes he’ll be safe, be careful and that he’ll find success. she will miss him a lot though. they keep in touch via the sending crystal.

Cassandra4. Did your Inquisitor agree with Cassandra’s vision for the Chantry? Did they choose her as Divine?5. Does your Inquisitor know all of her middle names?

4. on balance Gryff doesn’t give a shit about the Chantry (dislikes it really) and didn’t really care about who the human grand clerics were favoring or not favoring to put on the sunburst throne, but is insightful and strategically-minded enough to realize that it was important to Cassandra, and, more importantly, that the belief structures of whoever ascended would most likely have far-ranging impacts on Thedas. by that point in the storyline she had been using her power and position as Inquisitor to help the People (Dalish and City alike) whenever, however and whereever possible. she supported Leliana for Divine because she agreed with the need for radical reform (specifically, Leliana’s ideas that all races are equal and that the Chantry’s tenets should reflect that). she had no desire to see elves be Andrastian and join the Chantry per se (if they didn’t really want to be that is - in the cases where ones do that’s totally fine), but Leliana’s ideas for how the Chantry should be were doubtless going to improve the lot of elves in southern Thedas in general. she also disagrees with Circles and Templars, and didnt want to lose her friend Cassandra to the Chantry throne, l0l.

5. yes. (♥ω♥ ) ~♪ there is a great affection between the two women, and they’ll always be friends. in turn, Cassandra knows the fabled deeds of the Emerald Knight Brocair, from whom Gryff’s name preserves her descent. its a love story for the ages tbh.

wew! there we go

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

The bumpiest social media moments of the 2020 campaign so far

We're only just getting over our 2018 midterms hangover, and now the 2020 presidential race is upon us.

That means any number of candidates are starting to hit the campaign trail — and some are already misfiring on all cylinders. From here on out, every single move candidates make will be scrutinized to the fullest extent that the grinding internet news cycle will allow. 

SEE ALSO: Brand Twitter, please stay away from the 2020 election

Some of the bumbles are minor, but there are others that could hint at further trouble ahead. Here, then, are a few examples of early missteps from candidates who are either already in on the race or are flirting awfully heavily with the idea.

Elizabeth Warren's cold beer and hot takes

It seems silly that a sitting U.S. Senator would be criticized over her choice of beer, but this is America in 2019. Nothing is safe. So when Sen. Warren followed up her initial 2020 announcement with an Instagram live involving beer, you knew it was gonna make somebody mad. 

Sure, Warren is trying to be relatable for the young voters to whom authenticity is incredibly important. There's even a cameo from her dog! But some of her detractors, including Fox News, were quick to take issue with either her choice of beer (Michelob Ultra) or her attempt to be, well, genuine.

So far, we have Warren cracking a beer in her kitchen, O'Rourke popping champagne in an igloo, and Gillibrand baking a berry crumble, all on Instagram live. How much of this shameless pandering will we have to endure? Thank goodness for Bernie, can you imagine him doing this?

— Laura L. Wilson (@ellewilson) January 2, 2019

Does a Michelob Ultra qualify as a real beer?

— Tom OKeefe (@tomokeefe60) January 3, 2019

Warren's already up against it after her controversial claims of Native American heritage, so she's got a tight line to walk. Voters won't give her much flexibility, whether it's her policies or her choice of beer. 

Beto's trip to the dentist

Like Warren's beer, this little blip for Beto O'Rourke gets filed under "Why?" 

Beto, you may have heard, is at the center of speculation over a potential 2020 bid after his 2018 loss to Ted Cruz for a Texas Senate seat. He hasn't officially entered the race, but he's definitely acting like a guy who's interested in running. 

In other words, he's Instagramming everything. Specifically, he shared a January 10, 2019, trip to the dentist's office on Instagram Live. The reactions ranged from adoration to, well, "Why?"

Happening now on @BetoORourke’s Insta story: “I’m here at the dentist, and we’re going to continue our series about people who live along the border. My dental hygenist, Diana, is going to tell us about growing up in El Paso.” pic.twitter.com/WsGZ9c9IBD

— Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) January 10, 2019

Peak 2019. Shows that Beto’s got a sense of humour...and insists on listening to people even while getting his plaque removed. “If you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it” - Mr. Natural

— B.G. Pelaire (@bgpelaire) January 10, 2019

If Beto has one thing going for him, it's that many fans have already gotten used to his oversharing, be it on Instagram or Snapchat, where he often sends videos of himself talking to the camera while driving or chatting with Oprah.

If anything, it's possible Beto could suffer from overexposure — and he hasn't even announced he's running. Yet.

Howard Schultz gets roasted over candidacy

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz thought he had the big ideas necessary to bridge the political divide in the U.S., but, oh boy, did he learn the hard way that Americans are tired of white billionaires trying to solve everyone's problems. 

When Schultz announced he was exploring running for president as a centrist back in late January, he was met with a meager round of applause — and an avalanche of backlash, from people mocking his moderate position to liberals worried he'd siphon off votes from a Democratic candidate.

His initial tweet about running got ratioed pretty quickly and his subsequent tweets have suffered a similar fate.

When we said we needed someone woke at the top, a coffee CEO running is taking that a bit literally. https://t.co/VpHIEurYX1

— Ian Bowers (@iggdawg) January 28, 2019

Finally someone who can represent white male billionaires

— No More Billionaires 2020🔥 (@maxberger) January 28, 2019

Perhaps the reaction to Schultz was best captured by this heckler's yells at the former coffee magnate during an interview:

Here's the video. A heckler shouts at Howard Schultz during an event in New York: "Don't help elect Trump, you egotistical, billionaire asshole." Via CNN pic.twitter.com/oabwfNnsmp

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 29, 2019

It's only going to get wilder from here.

Bernie's backlash

Sen. Bernie Sanders has yet to even announce he's running in 2020, but it seems like a foregone conclusion. And he's got a stack of problems to solve, even before he's officially in the race.

Sanders has already had to apologize to several women who worked on his 2016 campaign who were sexually harassed by other campaign workers. Things got even more awkward ahead of Trump's State of the Union speech, when Sanders announced he was doing a rebuttal separate from the official Democratic one being given by Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams. 

Sanders, who endorsed Abrams in the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2018, faced backlash from many who saw his separate response as an attempt to take the spotlight away from Abrams.

It would be dope if Bernie was like I don’t need to do a SOTU response bc a capable Black women has got that covered but he couldn’t and didn’t and Black women see that and we won’t forget. #takingnote pic.twitter.com/9YldwWk37E

— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) February 4, 2019

Bernie Sanders to Stacey Abrams pic.twitter.com/rrk9JbbJ46

— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) February 4, 2019

2019 was the third straight year Sanders has done his own response. It didn't stream on social media until after Abrams was done, but the bad feelings lingered. (It's worth noting that fellow senator and 2020 candidate Kamala Harris also did a State Of The Union-related appearance, but streamed hers before Trump's speech.)

As popular as he is, Bernie may be treading on thin ice after this move. He'll have to do some delicate maneuvering to avoid alienating voters looking at a crowded field.

Cory Booker loves Hot Pockets

One of the biggest criticisms of Sen. Cory Booker points to the gobs of money he's received from Wall Street and big pharma companies. It's possible that microwavable food for stoners and college students will soon be added to the list of nefarious connections for Booker after this tweet, sent shortly after he announced his candidacy for president. 

My dad used to say to me: “Boy, don’t forget where you came from and the people who sacrificed to get you to where you are.” https://t.co/PqESzfPUYG

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) February 1, 2019

Cory Booker has already tweeted about Hot Pockets because, well, it was a whole story back when he was mayor of Newark, New Jersey, in 2012. As Newark (and the rest of the North Atlantic Coast) recovered from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, Booker tweeted moral support to a resident who really missed having Hot Pockets.

Hot Pockets responded by giving Booker's constituents coupons for free Hot Pockets, a microwave miracle.

Full letter from @HotPockets donating 100s of coupons for free Hot Pockets to Newarkers (PHOTO) pic.twitter.com/oVO2eYZk

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) November 7, 2012

So the fact that he gave Hot Pockets a shout-out upon making his presidential announcement could be seen as a cute bookend to the story of Booker's rise. But Booker's in the big leagues now, and any interaction with #brands on Twitter can lead to swift and sudden retribution from an audience that's ready to pounce on something that even hints at being inauthentic. 

Sure enough, people on Twitter were already using this Hot Pockets tweet as a chance to take shots at Booker.

Shout out to one of your corporate sponsors?

— Patrick Sherrill (@SirPatrickofMi) February 1, 2019

I love a candidate who is so down to earth that the first thing he does after announcing a presidential run is shill to a corporate brand online.

— Asthma Pimp (@coolthulu) February 1, 2019

And it's only going to get tougher for Booker from here.

Kirsten Gillibrand's fundraising tweet 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is already finding out that being a presidential candidate brings a lot more scrutiny, no matter how small your transgression may be. For instance, she recently experienced her first food-related road bump when she seemed to show she didn't know how to eat fried chicken.

Eventually the food is served & Gillibrand starts to eat her fried chicken with a fork. She looks around, sees other people eating with their hands and says “Um Kiki, do we use our fingers or forks for the chicken?” Kiki said to use her fingers, and use her fingers she did. pic.twitter.com/jYO8DgSiBD

— Jasmine Wright (@JasJWright) February 9, 2019

More problematic, however, was a now-deleted tweet that Gillibrand's twitter account sent out which showed a GIF of her yawning during President Trump's State of the Union speech with the message, "Agree? Chip in $5 so we can put an end to this."

Sen. Gillibrand's original tweet.

Image: Twitter/Internet Archive

Whoops. That appears to be a violation of U.S. House rules, as flagged by journalists. 

Broadcast coverage and recordings of House floor proceedings may not be used for any political purpose under House Rule 5, clause 2(c)(1). https://t.co/K19eXsxLyN https://t.co/9hTcPZ7w5o

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 6, 2019

It's highly unlikely this was Gillibrand's intent, hence its quick deletion. More likely, it was a mistake made while trying to quickly leverage a viral social media moment, something that pretty much everyone is doing and, as this list has shown, not exactly nailing.

Perhaps at her next social media workshop, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can go a bit deeper into the "what not to do" category.

WATCH: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is giving Twitter classes to fellow Democrats

[randomwankystuff]

Unpopular Opinion

I dislike Finn Hudson. Don't get me wrong, he had some great moments, and Cory Monteith was an amazing actor (RIP 😭), but even he couldn't redeem the character for me. Finn's original character concept - the kind, self conscious, music loving jock - was good, but the characterization he got was downright horrendous at times. The problem with Finn was that he was supposed to be a good guy. He was supposed to be a bit immature at first and then develop into the good person he always was at heart. To create this development, Glee tried to create arcs where Finn does something bad (usually done out of carelessness or impulsiveness, not malevolence) and then later on fixes it and becomes a better person. This is actually not a bad idea. However, several times, the Glee writers screw up this process. They make Finn mess up repeatedly to the point that it's tedious, or they make Finn do something particularly bad. This makes it difficult for him to redeem himself. Then, the Glee writers try to fix this by glorifying him. They emphasizing his kindness/leadership, make him some sort of innocent victim, or give him a free pass on whatever he did, all of which can make the storyline and his character seem unnatural and forced. This process of shoving "Finn is a good guy" down our throats ruins Finn's character development and occasionally makes him a very disagreeable character. Even though the show tries so hard to make him into a sympathetic hero, he often comes across as immature, arrogant, and self righteous. At some points, Cory Monteith's wonderful acting was the only redeeming thing about Finn. (Cory manages to exude a puppy-like innocence and goodness even when the Glee writers screw up) So to back this up, here's a list of examples of Glee screwing up and when I greatly disliked Finn's character. (This is long, ramble-y, and a bit nonsensical at times. Ignore the rest of this post if you want) 1. Sorry writers of Glee, you can't convince me that Finn is a leader just because you say so. Glee constantly tries to justify Finn's position as the "leader" of the group despite the fact that frankly, he was a really bad leader. Finn, being so easily manipulated by Rachel, was the cause of a good chunk of the Glee club's problems. Despite having an abundance of great singers (Mercedes and Santana are equal to Rachel; Artie, Rory, and Blaine are equal to Finn), Finchel hogged the solos, the duets, and the spotlight. Understandably, much of the club was disgruntled by this unfair treatment, creating a lot of problems such as when the Troubletones left New Directions. Despite being portrayed as the "leader" of New Directions, Finn never stood up for the neglected members of the club. Rather, he helped Rachel steamroll and even harass everyone else. (Example - the way he treated Blaine) Therefore, the "Finn is a leader" idea became extremely irritating and unrealistic over time. Also, Finn was never properly criticized or punished for his behavior, remaining Will's favorite. 2. The way he behaved at S2 prom. After annoyingly stringing along both Rachel and Quinn for a long time, he single handedly ruined a very important day for both of them. He knew how much Quinn cared about prom, and he could see that Rachel and Jesse were happy together. For no reason other than his jealousy, he attacked Jesse and ruined the entire prom experience for himself, Jesse, Quinn, and Rachel. In that moment, he was the jealous, possessive ex that everybody hates. Once again, he was barely punished. (Yeah, he was thrown out of prom, but compare this to Santana nearly being suspended for slapping him) 3. I've posted a rant about this before, but this is important I'm gonna mention it again. Finn's behavior in 3x06 and 3x07 was horrible. Santana was obviously completely out of line, but outing someone (maybe some of the Glee kids suspected Santana's sexuality, but she definitely was not out) is not ok. And yes, Finn was sick of Santana's meanness and retaliated in the only way he knew would hurt her. However, outing someone, especially a Hispanic girl in conservative Lima, is worse than Santana's bullying. Finn knew what outing someone could mean - relentless harrassment, physical attacks, losing family and friends. As Kurt's stepbrother, he should know this very well. And yet, he still outed Santana. Now this outing on its own is not unforgivable. He was angry and frustrated and did not think clearly. It was actually the reactions to the outing that was truly disgusting. Finn downplayed what he did (yes, he did out Santana. Shouting in a busy hallway is outing), showed NO REMORSE, continued to pester her by creating cheesy speeches/performances, and forced her further into the spotlight although she seemed uncomfortable and needed alone time to process what happened. Worst of all, he received absolutely no criticism for his action, rather, he was actually glorifed! Kurt, who kept Karofsky's sexuality a secret despite being harassed far worse than Finn, didn't rebuke him at all. Neither did Blaine. Will, showing his bias for the umpteenth time, tried to get Santana in trouble for (somewhat justifiably) slapping Finn, despite having let Finn kick chairs and even fight with Puck and Jesse in the past. Heck, even Santana seemed to appreciate Finn and his actions. Therefore, Finn gets portrayed as innocent-victim and hero-trying-to-save-evil-latina, despite his troubling actions. 4. Finn cheated with Quinn. After somewhat manipulating Sam to join Glee, knowing that he would be bullied for it, Finn stole his girlfriend. It was really shitty for Finn to hurt Sam, a genuinely good guy, in the same way that Finn himself had been hurt before. 5. Finn kissed Rachel during Nationals, making the entire club lose one of their only opportunities to feel good about themselves. It was another example of him being a bad leader - a good leader would not do something to jeopardize the team. 6. There's a lot of other smaller things such as calling Kurt's decorations faggy, not standing up to Karofsky, creating a kissing booth (what the hell), calling Brittany stupid, and using grilled cheesus to try to get it on with Rachel rather than help Burt. Finn messing up in these occasions was understandable and was pretty much resolved. However, when put together with what was mentioned above, it does make him an irritating character at times.

[marketerarena-blog]

Friday Faves

Hey friends! Happy Friday! I’m back in Tucson after a whirlwind trip to Santa Barbara for the CJ University conference.

It was my first time in SB, and I think we need to go back asap for a family vacation. It was insanely gorgeous with picturesque beach and mountain views, amazing food (#allthetacos), and all of the locals were so kind and friendly. It was a short but wonderful trip. 

 (With Tina and Nicole)

When Under Armour invited me to attend the conference and collaborate on a future post (so many amazing things on the way for holiday!!), I agreed instantly. CJ (Commission Junction) is a platform that I’ve used and loved for years now, and was really looking forward to meeting my CJ friends. I feel like I’ve *known* them this entire time, so it was so awesome to be able to hang out with them in real life. I also got to meet some other influencers that were invited to represent various brands, including Merrick, Cori, Elly, Nicolette, and Kim. I also spent a lot of time catching up with OG blog friends Tina and Nicole. 

The most memorable moment of the conference for me was the keynote speech by Dan Heath. (Here’s his book, which I can’t wait to read!) He spoke about the power of moments and how certain special touches can take an experience from mediocre to profound. The best example was this hotel in LA. It’s the #2 hotel in ALL of LA and at first glance, it looks pretty forgettable. It’s an older hotel with very modest offerings, small balconies, and the rooms aren’t anything extravagant. The things that take it to the next level that keep people raving and coming back for more: a snack delivery menu with free snacks and candy 24/7, a red phone by the pool (the popsicle hotline! When you pick up the phone, someone answers and says, “Popsicle hotline. We’ll be right there” and then a man in a suit delivers popsicles to the pool on a silver tray), board game rentals, free laundry service, and movie rentals. It was an excellent speech – one part was a major tearjerker – and welcomed reminder to find extra ways to connect and create memorable experiences.

While we were at the conference, we attended some sessions and brand meetings, networked on the patio with blood orange champagne and desserts,

hit up a beach cocktail hour,

walked the Pier,

and one night… I slept for 10 hours. I definitely needed it after everything that’s been going on lately and woke up feeling like a new human. 

I’m back to unpack my suitcase, do some laundry, and then start repacking because we’re headed to Disney. I’ll be sure to report back with the adventures and share the fun on IG stories!

Now, it’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party! This is where I share some of my top finds from the week and around the web. I��d love to hear what you’re loving, too, if you’d shout out a fave in the comments below.

Fashion + beauty:

Express dresses FTW. I was looking for a dress to wear to the party and came across this one at Express. I love the color for fall and I’ll definitely wear it again with booties and hoop earrings. 

(Shoes in this pic are Steve Madden)

The Beautycounter lipgloss motherload. Arsy sent me the full Beautycounter lipgloss set as a celebration for hitting Director last month. She knows I’m obsessed and always have one with me, and now I have so many new colors to try. If you haven’t tried the lip glosses yet, I promise they’re the BEST. 

Read, watch, listen:

Won’t You Be My Neighbor. Is it ok to make this a fave even though I haven’t watched it yet? I feel like it will be because I <3 Mister Rogers and so wish he was still around. It will likely made me dinosaur cry on the airplane, but I’m ready for it. 

A friendly reminder to check those ta-tas. (It’s a video, just in case you’re at work!)

What are your simple pleasures? Some of mine: lighting a candle for the first time. little feet thumping to our room in the night, a handwritten note, chocolate-glazed donuts, new running sneaks.

What to ask yourself when you feel overwhelmed.

Food + recipes:

These pumpkin spice gluten-free waffles. They’re a little more crumbly than the gf waffles I usually get, but the flavor is just right. It’s not overwhelming with spices and they’re perfect with almond butter. 

I need these curry noodle bowls.

Sunshine smoothie bowl

Fitness:

This full HIIT and Strength workout video! It’s only 20 minutes and a serious sweat festival. 

My friend Jen launched some new strength training and running plans

Strength and cardio heavy lower body workout

20-minute power yoga flow

Updated Fit Guides are coming a week from Monday!! Get ready, friends

  Happy Friday! I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see ya soon. I’m continuing to send prayers for safety to all of my friends in the Carolinas and in Florence’s path. 

xo

Gina

The post Friday Faves appeared first on The Fitnessista.

https://askfitness.today/friday-faves-10/

[lewiselder]

the old couple at the airport

i’m well aware the first 2 entries to this were pretty extreme, fist in your face stories. not every one will be. some will be shorter. some will be boring-er. this is an example of one that doesn’t include a seance or hypothetical grisly butcher scenes. 

like i’ve mentioned, i live in Austin, Texas currently, but am originally from St. Louis. during Christmas time i flew back to see my mom and grandparents. i also spent a few days in new york with my homie Cory. shout out Cory. it was my first time ever seeing new york. shout out new money. 

i had my return flight from St. Louis back to Austin on like January 5th. it was snowing that day. i have always loved snow. idk why. anyway, i made it to the airport, through security, and to my gate. i was posted at the gate when an elderly couple sat down across from me. i was only paying half attention to them while i looked out the big ass windows at all the snow i don’t get in texas. the old man got up and went to a Ted Drewes stand in the airport. for those not from nelly’s home, Ted Drewes is a frozen custard place in the Lou. it’s pretty famous and actually delicious, so if you’re ever there, stop by. 

so the old guy gets the ice cream and brings it to his wife. i watch the lady try to scoop some out, but it’s rock solid. then, this macgyver mf pulls out a plastic knife and starts cutting the ice cream. no lie lol. dude was cutting the ice cream with a knife so his wife could have some. 

i think the beating shoe box where my heart should be grew a couple sizes in that moment. 

as i watch him slice and dice frozen liquid for his life partner of i’m assuming no less than 106 years, i’m thinking what a wonderful little couple they are. 

the end.

jk.

i decide to get up and go to starbucks. when i come back with my coffee, about to sit back down in my seat, the elderly woman, mouth full of knifed ice cream, says to me, “you know, i think it’s really great.”

i didn’t say anything right away and she continued, “i just think it’s great that you’re out here with your hand. you’re just....you’re doing it.”

“oh uh haha,” i say. “just gotta keep doing it yaknow”  - now idk if this is exactly what i said here, but it was something to that effect. (i really need to pay more attention to my responses to this stuff bc every story so far has had this disclaimer)

then knifecream nancy follows with, “do you know christ?”

aw come on man

i say, “uh kinda i guess, i’m definitely familiar.”

she goes, “well you’re my brother in christ, do you know that?” 

me, “oh haha, thank you”

her, “(again) you’re my brother in christ. god bless you.”

me, “thank you”

inner me, “girl.... >_>”

i watched her finish her benihana’d ice cream and made uncomfortable intermittent eye contact for the next 20 minutes. then i took my brother in christ ass self and boarded the plane in shoes that cost more than my ticket. i grabbed a window seat to watch the snow fall.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

idk if i should put like, another wrap up here. i feel they’re all basically saying the same shit. it’s just interesting to know that some people really think my dumb ass being at the airport is a feat of strength and a testament to the power of the human spirit. i lowkey just had work on monday. but w/e. she should see me bench. 

i’ll see ya’ll next time. 

a free scoop of protein powder if you read this far. 

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

“The […] pitch is a mix of idealism and a shouting anger about the system, but at its heart is a hard-nosed math: He’s the only candidate with a sizable chunk of the electorate that won’t waver, no matter what, so a field that keeps growing and splitting support keeps making things easier.”

As I’m sure you’ve probably guessed, this passage seems like it could be about Donald Trump’s campaign for the Republican nomination in 20161 — but it’s actually about Bernie Sanders’s quest for the Democratic nomination this year. It comes from an April 2019 feature by the Atlantic’s Edward-Isaac Dovere that I consider to be a lodestar for Sanders’s strategy since it contains a lot of on-the-record reporting from Sanders campaign.2

The article also reveals how the conventional wisdom about how primary campaigns have changed, in light of Trump winning the Republican nomination in 2016 and Sanders’s better-than-expected performance against Hillary Clinton that year. In particular, it reflects several common assumptions in media coverage of the race this year:

In a divided field, the goal is to have the largest, most enthusiastic base.

Reaching out to different factions of your party is not that important — and may even dilute your differentiation from the other candidates. As long as you’re winning the plurality of votes, you’ll win enough states and the rest of the party will eventually come around.

There is no need to make peace with the party establishment. In our populist era, nominations are won from the grassroots up. Voters don’t care about things like endorsements, and “party elites” are largely feckless.

Indeed, if you’d beamed down to Planet Earth from some alien civilization in January 2016 and only seen that year’s primaries, those might be the lessons that you’d take away about how primaries work. They’re a reasonably apt description of the GOP primary, where the Republican establishment belly flopped in trying to stop Trump. The Democratic primary was a bit more complicated. Clinton beat Sanders by a rather clear margin in the end.3 Still, Sanders overperformed expectations by enough as to at least not contradict the notion that 2016 was the new normal.

But focusing on only what happened in the most recent election is a dumb way to do analysis. The media and campaign professionals spend endless amounts of time trying to draw “lessons” from elections because they are so consequential, but you can’t escape the fact that presidential elections happen only once every four years. No matter how many lessons you might try to draw from any one example, you’re still dealing with a sample size of one.

Rather, the history of the primaries — both in terms of how the media covers them and how campaigns wage them — is often one of fighting the last war and overcompensating for perceived mistakes from four years earlier. I’m not claiming to be immune from this either. One of the reasons that I initially bought so heavily into “The Party Decides” hypothesis in 2016 — which implied that Trump’s lack of support from the Republican party establishment would eventually doom him — was because of the Republican primary in 2012, when a series of insurgent candidates (Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum) briefly surged in the polls only to eventually lose to the slow-and-steady (and establishment-backed) Mitt Romney.

But Romney’s win in 2012 was in line with the longer history of the primaries, which underscores that building coalitions across the different wings of your party (Romney tried to unite conservatives and moderates, for instance) is usually a good strategy for winning instead of relying on just one faction. And as you can see in the table below, the establishment usually does win out in the end:

The party usually does decide, after all

Endorsement leaders before the Iowa caucuses where no incumbent president was running for that party’s nomination, 1972 to 2020

Year Party Endorsement leader before Iowa Did they have a clear endorsement lead? Did they win the nomination? 1972 D Ed Muskie ✓ 1976 D Fred Harris 1980 R Ronald Reagan ✓ ✓ 1984 D Walter Mondale ✓ ✓ 1988 D Dick Gephardt 1988 R George H.W. Bush ✓ ✓ 1992 D Bill Clinton ✓ ✓ 1996 R Bob Dole ✓ ✓ 2000 D Al Gore ✓ ✓ 2000 R George W. Bush ✓ ✓ 2004 D Howard Dean 2008 D Hillary Clinton ✓ 2008 R John McCain ✓ 2012 R Mitt Romney ✓ ✓ 2016 D Hillary Clinton ✓ ✓ 2016 R Jeb Bush 2020 D Joe Biden* ✓ ✓

*Biden has not been formally nominated, but is the presumptive nominee.

Endorsement leaders from 1980 to 2016 are based on FiveThirtyEight’s 2016 system for calculating endorsement points. Endorsement leaders in 1972 and 1976 are based on “The Party Decides.”

Sources: “The Party Decides,” News accounts

Of course, a result like Romney’s win in 2012 that confirms your theories and priors can create its own issues — it can make you overconfident. You may mistakenly assume, for instance, that something is true 100 percent of the time when it’s actually only true, say, 80 percent of the time.

But while overconfidence is a serious problem, it’s probably better than assuming that an abnormal result (say, something that is true 20 percent of the time) is the new normal. You can see lots of this upside-down thinking in media coverage of elections since 2016. Because Trump won the general election as a (modest) underdog in 2016, a lot have inferred that underdogs not only can win, but that they usually win. Before the Virginia gubernatorial election in 2017, for instance, a lot of pundits predicted Republican Ed Gillespie would win despite being narrowly behind Democrat Ralph Northam in the polls. Northam won by 9 points instead.

It’s not just the media who makes these mistakes, however. It’s also the campaigns themselves. So while I don’t intend to do a long post-mortem of the Sanders campaign — instead, see my colleague Perry Bacon Jr.’s comprehensive analysis on what went wrong and why — I do want to take a quick inventory of the ways that the 2020 Democratic primary was different from the Republican primary in 2016.

Most of these problems were fairly predictable and known in advance. To ensure you that I’m not engaging in too much hindsight bias — because it’s always easier to say what went wrong with campaigns once you know who won and who lost — I’d point you toward this cautiously pessimistic take on Sanders from April 2019 and this cautiously optimistic one from just after the New Hampshire primary, which reflects how my thinking about the Sanders’s campaign evolved as it was happening in real-time. I started out thinking that Sanders’s factional, us-versus-them, screw-the-establishment strategy was a poor one. But it seemed to be going about as well as it possibly could after New Hampshire with the rest of the field divided.

So here are some potential flaws in Sanders’s strategy — and reasons why the precedent set by Trump’s win in 2016 might not have applied to his chances this year:

First, Democratic primaries and caucuses do not use winner-take-all rules, while many Republican states do. That makes it much harder for someone to be in a commanding position by narrowly winning primaries. Instead, in a multi-candidate race, you have to eventually broaden your coalition to avoid a contested convention.

In consideration of this, some elements of Sanders’s strategy simply never made a lot of sense. Here’s another key passage from that Atlantic article:

He’s counting on winning Iowa and New Hampshire, where he was already surprisingly strong in 2016, and hoping that Cory Booker and Kamala Harris will split the black electorate in South Carolina and give him a path to slip through there, too. And then, Sanders aides believe, he’ll easily win enough delegates to put him into contention at the convention. They say they don’t need him to get more than 30 percent to make that happen.

Sanders’s campaign was right that it could win around 30 percent of the vote with their base and that they could win early states with that amount … but it never really had a plan for what came after that. Dovere’s article makes it sound as though Sanders was actually counting on a contested convention, an awfully risky approach given that contested conventions are: (i) highly unpredictable and (ii) not likely to be favorable terrain for Sanders, given his lack of support from the establishment and that superdelegates would be allowed to vote on the second and subsequent ballots.

Second, Trump’s ideological ambiguity may have helped him in 2016, while Sanders got stuck in a “lane” this year. Trump may not have done that much traditional outreach to different parts of the GOP, but Republican voters from several wings of the party, perhaps not being quite sure what to make of a candidate like Trump who was reactionary on some issues (say, immigration) and quite moderate on others (say, gay marriage), were nonetheless Trump-curious. And that range of appeal was reflected in the primary results. In the Michigan Republican primary for instance, Trump won the support of 35 percent of “very conservative” voters, 37 percent of “somewhat conservative” voters and 37 percent of moderate voters, according to exit polls.

By contrast Sanders ran further to the left in 2020 than he did in 2016, with a message that shifted from economic populism to a broader and more “intersectional” leftism. This shift was reflected at the ballot box, too. For instance, Sanders won just 24 percent of moderates in the Michigan Democratic primary this year (but 63 percent of “very liberal” voters) — as compared 44 percent of moderates and 59 percent of “very liberal” voters in 2016.

Third, the importance that Democratic voters attached to “electability” and to beating Trump may have made them more willing to take cues from the establishment. Electability is a whole subject unto itself that I’m not going to do justice to here. I do think electability may be a teensy, tiny bit overrated as a reason for why Sanders lost. While perceptions of electability probably hurt Sanders relative to Joe Biden, it also probably helped him relative to candidates who weren’t white men: most notably, Elizabeth Warren.

Still, electability was important. In that Michigan exit poll, 58 percent of Democratic voters said they preferred a candidate that could beat Trump to someone who agreed with them on the issues — and 62 percent of the “beat Trump” voters went for Biden.

Fourth, Democratic party elites had an opportunity to learn from Republicans in 2016, and this may have made them more aggressive in backing Biden after South Carolina. One reason to be careful of declaring a “new normal” in any trend involving human behavior is that humans have an opportunity to learn from what happened last time and change course. The establishment’s failures in 2016 may have made partly elites reluctant to weigh in early on in the race this time around. But once they perceived Sanders as the true front-runner after Nevada, and Biden began to gain a little bit of momentum as he surged to a lead in South Carolina polls, party elites got behind Biden at extremely rapid rates. It’s hard to know if this would have played out the same way if there wasn’t 2016 to learn from.

Fifth, Trump’s success in 2016 may have reflected an unusually weak field of alternatives rather than a new paradigm. I’m not going to spend much time on this one, because it’s rather subjective. Were Warren, Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, etc. better candidates than Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, etc.? I don’t know. But Democratic voters were certainly much happier with their field of candidates in 2020 than Republicans were with theirs in 2016, which is some indication that the field might have been stronger.

Sixth, Democrats are a more racially-diverse party, which makes coalition building more essential than it is among Republicans. Sanders didn’t do badly with nonwhite voters — winning Nevada largely on the basis of Hispanic support while also winning the support of many younger black voters. That definitely made him a more plausible nominee than Buttigieg, whose support was extremely white, for example. Still, nonwhite support wasn’t a strength for Sanders in a head-to-head race against Biden, who generally beat Sanders by wide margins among black voters and held his own among Hispanics in many states. And Sanders’s outreach to African American leaders didn’t always go smoothly, with many members of the Congressional Black Caucus backing Biden instead.

Seventh, relying on a fixed base of voters can leave you vulnerable to a turnout surge from other candidates. One rather explicit assumption made by the Sanders campaign was that it could turn out more voters than its opponents. Hence, the campaign believed there was not much need to widen their circle to include others. Even their outreach efforts to Sanders-skeptical party leaders focused on trying to browbeat them into explaining why they didn’t support Sanders rather than explaining why they should support him. Again, from that Atlantic article:

That’s the case Sanders and his aides have been making as they’ve undertaken an outreach effort unlike anything from the last campaign, spending hours on phone calls trying to talk political leaders down from being completely opposed to him. They have a basic script: Start out asking where the support for Sanders is among their constituents, then ask why they think those people support him, and then ask the leaders to explain their own skepticism.

One problem with this attitude is that turnout in an election isn’t fixed — especially in primaries and caucuses where participation is low. You may turn out a certain number of people, but your base will not be constant as a percentage of the electorate if turnout goes up. In Michigan, for example, Sanders got nearly as many votes in 2020 (576,754) as in 2016 (599,000). But Biden got 838,555 votes in 2020, as compared to just 581,775 for Clinton in 2016 — part of a general pattern where turnout surged more in Biden’s best areas. So Sanders went from narrowly winning Michigan to losing it by 17 percentage points.

Perhaps Sanders was a victim of his own success in 2016. That is, he did such a good job of turning out voters in 2016 that it was hard to improve on his performance in 2020. Still, there was never really any recognition that his base alone might not be enough to win — and there were never many efforts to expand beyond his base. Indeed, it’s interesting that Sanders doubled down even more on his screw-the-establishment messaging amidst his success in the first three states — rather than trying to pivot to a more inclusive campaign and unify the party behind him.

I've got news for the Republican establishment. I've got news for the Democratic establishment. They can't stop us.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 22, 2020

Maybe, if a few things had gone differently, it would have worked. Sanders did outlast more than two dozen other candidates, after all. Maybe if Michael Bloomberg hadn’t qualified for the Nevada debate and stumbled so badly there, moderate support would have remained divided between Bloomberg and Biden, and Sanders would have had a lot more wins on Super Tuesday. Maybe Sanders’s “60 Minutes” interview hurt him. Maybe he could have gotten Warren to endorse him. Who knows.

But the Sanders campaign was always pursuing a strategy that claimed to defy the odds, that assumed the old rules no longer applied, and that stuck its thumb in the eye of the establishment. It would have been remarkable if it had succeeded. But it’s no surprise that it didn’t.

[kacydeneen]

Where 2020 Democrats Stand on Gun Safety

Nine candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary are in Las Vegas on Wednesday to talk about gun control, two years after the city saw the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat elected after a gunman opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest music festival and killed 58 people, said the state was proud of what it had done after achieving that deadly distinction: It banned bump stocks, passed red flag laws that give courts the power to seize guns in emergencies and took other gun control measures.

The forum was presented by MSNBC; March for Our Lives, the student-led movement for gun control; and Giffords, the organization created by former Rep. Gabby Giffords after she was shot at a community meeting in Arizona and who appeared at the meeting to urge the attendees to fight.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders canceled his appearance after he had an emergency heart procedure for a blocked artery Tuesday night.

PETE BUTTIGIEG

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, said he sensed a shift in power away from the National Rifle Association, which has blocked major gun control measures for decades. Its influence comes not just from its donations but also its ability to mobilize voters around a single issue. Buttigieg said that voter influence is being challenged by groups like Moms Demand Action and March for Our Lives.

He also said that young people's moral urgency is supported by their parents and their grandparents, who are cheering them on.

“And I don’t think the NRA can match that,” he said.

The country knows which laws are needed, he said: universal background checks, closing loopholes that allow those convicted of hate crimes from buying weapons, red flag laws that permit courts to order guns be confiscated from those posing a danger, a ban on assault rifles. The issue now is to get them passed, he said.

Buttigieg, who served as a lieutenant in U.S. Naval Reserves in Afghanistan, wants a nationwide standard on gun licenses though said he would support it being administered at a state level. He said he thought that mandatory buy-back programs for weapons could distract from other efforts — Americans are split in their support on such programs, according to polls — while voluntary ones had mixed results.

JULIÁN CASTRO

Julián Castro, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development under former President Barack Obama, would focus as much on regulating ammunition as weapons. He would raise $600 million to $700 million from an excise tax on ammunition and guns — money he would invest in programs to prevent gun violence — and he would make ammunition easier to trace through unique markers. He supports a voluntary buy-back program of assault weapons, not a mandatory one.

He said he believed that the idea that more gun ownership makes Americans safer — that a good guy with a gun will confront a bad guy with a gun — is beginning to wane after shootings like those at the El Paso, Texas, Walmart in August that left 22 people dead.

“That shooter knew that he was walking into a place where a lot of people were carrying and that didn’t make a difference,” he said.

After another shooting 14 hours later in Dayton, Ohio, left nine people dead, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was met with a crowd shouting, “Do something.”

That is the message for the 2020 elections, Castro said.

CORY BOOKER

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, and a former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, said guns used to kill in states with strong gun control programs are coming in from states with lax laws, he said. Eighty percent of gun deaths in New Jersey are a result of out-of-state weapons, according to statistics compiled by the state.

“You should not be a nominee from our party that can seriously stand in front of urban places and say, ‘I will protect you,’ if you don’t believe in gun licensing,” Booker said.

Booker supports a mandatory buyback program of assault weapons, which he would ban, but said that did not mean federal agents showing up at gun-owners doors. 

“Do not let the fearmongers dictate our policy,” he said.

Booker choked up after hearing from a mother whose 15-year-old was accidentally killed by an unsecured gun belonging to a friend’s father. He said he would support federal accountability on the safe storage of guns.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Booker said. “I hear these stories a lot."

ELIZABETH WARREN

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said the lack of gun control, some forms of which most Americans want, exposed the fundamental corruption in Washington, D.C. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump and other Republicans are impeding Congress’ ability to pass such laws, she said, as she rejected Trump’s contention that the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry was getting in the way of legislation on gun safety.

“There is too much power in the gun industry and the gun lobby," she said. 

Ninety-three percent of Americans support universal background checks, according to a Quinnipiac University poll from August. 

Asked about her proposed cap of one gun purchase a month, she said it would prevent would-be killers from bulking up but also cautioned that the gun violence problem would need more than one piece of legislation.

“This is not going to be a one and done,” she said.

Warren likened gun violence to deaths on the highways in the 1960s. The country focused on bringing those numbers down — first with safety glass and seatbelts, then air bags and other innovations. She said she's committed to bringing the same persistence to gun deaths.

JOE BIDEN

Former Vice President Joe Biden defended his decision to suggest rather than require a licensing system. A federal registry might be possible down the line, he said, but he would not want disagreements over one to hold up other legislation.

Asked why he thought compromise with Republicans was not possible now as it has been in the past, Biden said: “Because we’ve got a president named Trump.”

He said he had beaten the NRA in the past — for example with the 1994 Brady Bill, which banned assault weapons — but acknowledged he and fellow Democrats failed to pass legislation after the murder of 20 six- and seven-year-olds and six staff members at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Democrats had lost control of the House of Representatives, he noted, and regulations that President Barack Obama did put into effect — licenses for gun sellers and increased mental health treatment, among them — were by executive order.

Now, he said, “This has gone from a cause to a movement.”

BETO O’ROURKE

Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, Texas, was adamant that a mandatory buyback program of assault weapons was the right policy and called out Buttigieg by name for not supporting one. It is the right thing to do, he said.

“The American people are with us on this issue,” he said. “It is time to lead.”

The Quinnipiac University poll at the end of August showed 46 percent to 49 percent of Americans supporting a mandatory buyback of assault weapons.

As for enforcement, he said he expected Americans to follow the law.

Young people have led progress in the United States, he said, integrating lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina, for example. The Parkland, Florida, students who started March for Our Lives after 17 were killed at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are continuing that tradition. The country would be moved by the moral compass they had shown, he told one of those students, Emma Gonzalez.

AMY KLOBUCHAR

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said the country had witnessed a sea change in the attitudes toward gun control, among them universal background checks, that she attributed to young activists such as the March for Our Lives organizers.

“When they stood up, they were icons,” she said.

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. have lacked the extraordinary courage that ordinary people have shown when the shootings occur, such as the El Paso mother killed while shielding her baby, she said. The 2020 presidential election is about showing that ordinary people are not going to take it anymore, she said.

Unlike some of her competitors, she would begin with a voluntary buyback program. She would focus instead on the bills passed by the House and blocked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, including requiring background checks on all gun purchases.

ANDREW YANG

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang of New York supports banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, but unlike the other candidates, he would enact a three-tier licensing requirement that distinguishes weapons by their power.

Yang, who has made a basic income of $1,000 a month for every adult a central part of his campaign, said the money would lessen help to reduce gun violence.

“And there are many reasons why I'm certain we should do this, but it even impacts the causes, the underlying root causes of gun violence, because if you look at the series of events that lead to gun violence, what are we talking about?” he asked. “ We're talking about the composition and stress levels in homes, in the family.”

He also would give all Americans $100 to donate to candidates or a cause, which he argued would weaken the NRA and a gun lobby that has prevented the country from treating gun violence for what it is: a public health crisis.

“When the NRA lobbyists or the gun lobby comes along and says, ‘I’m going to give you $100,000 to bury this legislation,’ you say, ‘I don't care about your $100,000.  I'm getting $1 million from the people.’ That's how we override the stranglehold,” he said. “We break the stranglehold that the NRA and the gun lobbies have over our laws.”

KAMALA HARRIS

Sen. Kamala Harris of California said the conversation about gun violence had to begin not with the criminal justice system but with the health of a community, and the resources being put into schools and mental health resources.

“Healthy communities create safe communities,” she said.

She would invest $100 billion in neighborhoods that had historically been redlined, or denied funds for mortgages typically because of race and ethnicity. Residents of those neighborhoods and of federally subsidized housing would receive grants for down-payments and closing costs so they could buy homes. Research has connected home ownership with lower crime.

Harris was a former district attorney in San Francisco and California’s attorney general.

“Growing up as a black girl in America, nobody had to teach me what was not right about the system,” she said. “And my point was, why do we always want to change the system from the outside? Let's also be on the inside.”

Photo Credit: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images Where 2020 Democrats Stand on Gun Safety published first on Miami News