#there's probably a niche of people who will like this

[centrally-unplanned]

Anyway I wanted to write something a little more serious about the politics of the day - a trend many noticed in the 2024 election, and its aftermath, is all of these notable non-politicians jumping onto the Trump ship. You have certainly noticed the big ones doing it, the Musk-types. What I have also seen is the middle-road types - the podcasts slotting the admin into their current healthcare fad, the policy bloggers being like "Dear Trump, this is how to truly reform the government - my pet idea" and offering support. A sort of opportunistic bandwagoning. This does happen every election to some extent, but it is notable that it happened way, way less when Biden was elected.

Some view this through the lens of fear, of Trump's open willingness to tax or prosecute those who don't bend the knee. That is part of it, for sure. But the other part is that Trump doesn't really believe in all that much - and that is actually a pretty big asset in politics. If you are a "Progress Studies" blogger or a union rep or a tech CEO, does Trump disagree with any of your key issues? He might not! You can just "convince" him, that is actually on the table, and he might take up your cause. And the Republican Party - not always, absolutely not always, but sometimes - will be browbeaten into going along with his whims even if they contradict their previous ideology. If you are ambitious and play your cards right, the structure of the Trump admin can very much reward people along the lines of these pet issues.

This is something the Democratic party could not do. All policy from the Biden admin came from a decade+ process of being discussed within the party. There were absolutely, 100%, "factions" jockeying for influence, but it was insiders, pre-established orgs along known lines, who were doing that jockeying. Is there any big policy that the Biden admin pursued that truly surprised you? That you were like, "woah, where the fuck did Biden get this idea from?" Not really, right? Because the admin was in so many ways an extension of the party.

Now this can be a real strength when your political parties are strong. When the locus of politics is within parties, then naturally they should be informing directions, and your goal as an admin is to court them. But that is pretty much the opposite of the current US political landscape - political parties have never been weaker. Voters hate political insiders, primaries are completely open and people who openly oppose the party sometimes sweep them, voters don't get their political opinion or w/e from politicians or party orgs. Parties are downstream of where more and more political influence comes from (though ofc they are by no means powerless, this is all trendlines). If you are one of these political outsider types, the Joe Rogans or Progress Studies bloggers or crypto coalitions or whatever, the Democratic party is just not going to work with you? You will be "heard", but if you want influence you gotta put your decade+ into the party first.

But Trump? You just gotta show up and kiss the ring. For talented people, this is actually a much better deal. It probably won't work, but the odds are still better than the alternative. And the biggest looming wrinkle is that this strategy is being hamstrung by Trump being a total idiot and backstabbing asshole - imagine how effective these strategies would be if someone competent was doing it. His left-field ideas are not only "annexing Greenland", but also doing it in the most hamfisted way imaginable. The core idea here isn't that crazy btw! Greenland is pushing for greater independence from Denmark, but gets a ton of subsidies so is loath to lose them if they go solo. You can see how an intelligent operator charting some soft power politics here could maybe make something happen, but Trump is a fucking nob and can't do that. So he is often a bad vessel for your niche ideas. But at least he shows up to the game!

People sometimes really want politics to be ideological. They want a coherent political party with a unitary philosophy to implement a cohesive agenda. I get this appeal, but this just isn't how US politics, or democratic politics more widely, works. It is an endless process of factional recruitment for one-off reforms, and otherwise managerial policy (in)competence. Ideology is not elected, a "mandate" does not run for office. Some individual people win and then they invent a mandate afterwards. Democracy does not reveal consensus, it manufactures it. And the US is moving more towards that direction, not less.

My fear is Democrats, in "widening the tent", will focus too much on that internal party process, on trying to make the Democratic Party "coherently" something that is more appealing to the median voter. Valuable work, to be sure, but the other side is you need to make it more appealing to people of influence or talent. As others have commented, it is kind of baffling how the Biden administration committed itself to a policy of green electrification and banning foreign car imports, and somehow made an enemy of America's biggest domestic green electric car manufacturer. You need to be, on the margins, less committed to any specific ideology at all, and instead open to actually winning support from diverse factions. Otherwise the other side will always be more appealing to anyone not of your ideology, because they kind of don't care about ideology. The Dems are already the "bigger tent" party, this should be their wheelhouse. They just need to update their tactics for the modern era.

[thevoidstaredback]

Danny couldn’t tell you when he joined the team. The first time he’d met Zatanna, she’d invited him to join the Justice League Dark. He’d denied, but had decided to stick around anyway. Then, somewhere along the line, Constantine had given him a JL communicator and that had been that. There was no initiation, no paperwork, and no official title given. One day, Phantom just showed up.

The Justice League, according to Raven who heard from Red Robin who was told by Nightwing who’d been in the room when Batman had found out, had had a bit to say about not going through the official process.

Phantom still wasn’t an actual member of either team, but he wasn’t upset about that. Sure, he didn’t get any of the perks that everyone else did, but he wasn’t the slightest bit upset about that.

As far as legalities and technicalities were concerned, Phantom wasn’t a part of the Justice League Dark. So why, pray tell, was he in a meeting between the JL and the JLD? Again?

The threat was an unknown being of supernatural origin. At least, that’s what he’d been told. Deadman had contacted him half way through the meeting to tell him that they’d probably need his expertise on this matter. Which, Danny would like to point out, was a very niche area. But, Deadman is one of his team - whenever that had happened - as well as one of his people. He was inclined to believe him.

Turns out that showing up to that meeting when called was a good idea. It was a larger scale than when he’d first dealt with something like it, but he knew this particular pattern anywhere.

As King, the Infinite Realms fed him information about where his people were and what they were doing. If they were in one of the infinite realms, if they were in the in between they all called home. She even let him know when someone joined or rejoined their chosen afterlife, seeing as the Realm Between was first and foremost an Afterlife. What She told him most, though, is where Concepts and Gods were and what they were going. The Observants were supposed to keep track of everything, especially because he was dealing with Living business, but they were doing a horrible job.

“Comas.” Superman was explaining, “We don’t know the cause, and none of the people have anything obvious in common.”

“So we need to find the source and take care of it, yeah?” Constantine said. Superman nodded. The Brit turned to Phantom. “So, Phantom, you recognise this?”

Phantom sighed tiredly. He so needs a pay raise for this. “Yeah, I do.”

The heroes in the room straightened up. Deadman smiled, “See? I told you we’d need ya here!”

“Shut up, man, I was having a good break,” he whined. “Besides, I’m not even a part of either team.”

“No,” Zatanna nodded, “But you agreed to be a consultant for the JLD. Now do your job; consult.”

Groaning again, Phantom let his head fall to the table. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll go take care of it.” He stood, “C’mon, Deadman.”

“Me? Why?”

“Because I want ice cream after I’m done and I’m gonna make you buy it.”

“I’m dead!”

“And? So am I.”

“I-”

“Just go with him, Deadman. Unless you’d rather be stuck in the House?”

It was Deadman’s turn to sigh. “Yeah, fine, alright.”

“I told you I’m a younger sibling, right?”

“Gasp! No. My own King? The betrayal!”

***

Phantom thought he and Nocturn were on pretty good terms. The king of Dreams had been pretty chill since they’d first fought, never really stepping on any toes, but he just had to go pull shit like this!

Well, Phantom wanted to be mad at Nocturn. However, this wasn’t the king of Dreams’ fault. In fact, this wasn’t even the fault of any of his people! It looked like the work of a Realms Being, but closer inspection proved it to be a really good fake out.

“This isn’t Nocturn.” he said to Deadman, “This isn’t anything I’ve seen before.”

“So, it’s just a really good fake?” the ghost asked.

Phantom nodded. “Yeah. Sorry for doubting you, Nocturn.” There was no response, but he didn’t expect one. He knew the ghost heard, however.

“So, what do we do now?”

“We should probably report back and get a bigger team on this.”

“You’re going to willingly work with the teams?”

“I do anyway.”

“Fair.”

“C’mon, let’s go get ice cream and call Mister Battison.”

“I still can’t believe you don’t call him ‘Batman’. Have you called him that to his face yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Are you ever going to?”

“Maybe.”

As it turns out, being dead does, in fact, prevent you from buying ice cream. So, Phantom had to go as Danny to get ice cream for himself while Deadman contacted the Justice League. Can he call discrimination? Too much paperwork.

Someone has a huge pair of balls to copy Nocturn and blame him. How, was the question. How did they know how Nocturn operated? Was the copy on purpose, or was it a complete accident? How were they knocking these people out? How were they doing it on such a large scale? Was it one person? Was it an organization? Was it actually supernatural? He knew for a fact that it wasn’t the Realms or Her people, but that’s all he knew.

Half the job is detective work, which is why the Justice League operates as a team. The Justice League Dark keeps their information close to their chest, working with what they know because they already know everything they need to about the cases they work on. And if they don’t know something, the JL has someone find out for them while the JLD figures it out as they go along.

Danny’s never been good at investigative work. When he was a kid, all his heroing was punching the problem until it went away. And if that didn’t work, he got back up and punched harder. Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Valerie had always been so much better at the whole ‘gathering information’ aspect.

He worked well with a team, but he liked to work alone.

“Constainte,” he said as soon as the man answered his phone, “It’s not sourced from the Realms.”

“Hello to you, too, mate,” the magic user grumbled, “Deadman just finished telling the League. You enjoy your ice cream?”

“Would’ve been better if I didn’t have to buy it,” he muttered. “Are we sure this is a supernatural problem? It looks like Nocturne's work, but it’s got ‘human made’ written all over it.”

“Batman’s been looking into it with his team, minus Red Robin. He assures that it’s magical.”

“Well that limits exactly nothing. I can head to the Realms and see if She can tell me anything, but I doubt it. Maybe try asking the City Spirits?”

“Not every city has a spirit, Phantom.”

“No, but they all have graveyards. Try the protection spirits in the cities of the victims. Maybe even try seeing if the hospitals they’re staying at are haunted.”

“And talk to Hospital Ghosts? No thanks.”

“They’re not that bad.”

“You only say that because you’ve never had to deal with a pissed off Hospital Spirit.”

“Don’t piss off the Hospital Spirits and you’ll be fine!”

“Easier said than done, kid.”

“Send Z if you’re really that nervous about it.”

“She’s even less likely to.”

“Then go with Nightwing.”

“You’d trust a Bat to talk to a Hospital Spirit?”

“I trust Nightwing to talk to a Hospital Spirit. And a Graveyard Spirit. Besides, isn’t one of the victims from Bludhaven?”

A sigh. “What’d he do to get your trust so easily?”

“He’s just a little guy, Connie!”

“He’s a grown ass man. And don’t call me Connie!”

“Exactly!” Phantom’s grin was audible. “He’s just a guy!” His energy dropped a bit. “Seriously, though, take Nightwing and talk to some Graveyard and Hospital Spirits. Also see if Lady Gotham can help out. I’ll go see what the Infinite Realms can tell me.”

“Alright. You’ll be back for dinner?”

“If you’re buying.”

Part 14 Part 16

[mihai-florescu]

Reading your enstars instagram post and man. I am so sorry. I am glad you can still find comfort in the old stories, i know i do. (Atp enstars only exists in the internet archives to me lol). Like you said, not everything after !-era is bad but damn if it hasn't been getting steadily worse. Awful to see something you once loved and held dear morphing into something else entirely. Not gonna lie, i'm almost scared to keep up with any stories releasing after this considering how much they have already made it obvious that they don't care. I don't wanna see the story get butchered anymore than this.

Unfortuantely, they probably won't go eos until they've milked every last penny out of the franchise. By that point i think enstars will be unrecognizable compared to what it had been in the past.

My only hope is that i've seen people specualting that this event wasn't written by akira and if that's the case i do hope akira manages to fight back and get his story back.

Also hi this is cookie btw i just moved bc i can't look at my enstars blog for the mean time

Hii, ive actually been talking about this all day with various friends, some more some less involved in enstars... i think it's everyone's right to distance themselves from something that doesnt spark joy anymore and has let them down. I will focus my reads on mostly ! era stuff but until it shuts down i will keep an eye out on the releases. I cant imagine a world where enstars is still going and i dont at least know the overview of whats going on.

As youve been on twt too, im sure you mightve seen that some of the critiques people are bringing now just to jump on the Hating Everything Enstars are stupid. Im thinking about the buddhism and christianity tweet in particular coming from someone who genuinely seems like they havent read many stories lawl. Theres a difference between actual problems and personal dissatisfactions that things arent the way you want them to be for various personal reason. People should learn their singular experience isnt universal, and characters in a story dont aim to speak for a universal experience either. It's not bad writing for a hidden christian in japan to behave differently from a canadian one, or for eichi to joke around with his childhood friend who happens to be buddhist. Anyway. I will always defend the parts of enstars i think were genuinely good, even if im getting worse at expressing myself in speech.

Anyhow... i dont want to speculate on internal problems but i really do wonder how much of this current direction was akira's choice and how much was happyele. He is no longer one of the only 2 writers (and main one, at that), i wouldnt be surprised if he doesnt have as much influence anymore. We know that in the beginning of es2 he expressed concern that everyone in happyele is insane...lol. He's not a perfect writer but the soul of enstars was brought by him.

Well, as i said, i dont want to speculate anything. I wish to not see so much negativity even on things that dont deserve hate, but ive always had issues with other fans' uninformed reactions. That'll never change even as enstars self destructs more and more. I can hold contempt for both the company and such fans, while treasuring the meaningful parts of the story and its impact on my life going forward too♡ ah my dear story that shouldve been a niche vn with a cult following of few but passionate fans instead of a gacha game gone stale disappointing old fans in pursuit of new ones with gimmicky shock writing...

[officeobject]

Wait I did NOT expect you to ACTUALLY reply ... anyways, I have a niche personality, so I'm probably the best person :) ... to write "okay" to and never reply to forever! I also don't know what you mean by publicly shamed, due to it being so specific, and I also have no concept of death nor suicide, for better or for worse, but like, I do know, that they're then friends by title, and not ACTUAL friends - and like, I can only offer generic advice or make my own plan, and what I would do, as someone who could never be in that same situation ever due to the alignment of my personality and the obscure irrelevance I often fall under when it's the bottom line for people, is to get more bitches. Actually, maybe I'd even get new bitch and make him fight the other ones and watch or something - like I once had a friend who said he'd fight some shithead from my life and like, yeah, that's platonically attractive wow, and like, yeah, if possible then hit-able - but I shouldn't encourage violence, which allegedly isn't the answer, and I do not condone violence, and like, you're probably a teenager, so like - well first of all, I don't expect you to take what I write too seriously - like I don't expect you to actually see me as a human being all of the time, but also, like, just do whatever the feck other teenagers do to be happy and survive or whatever - I don't know, if I think about it for too long, I will hate myself, and possibly get into my addiction - lots of things in my life are about me I guess, and if they aren't about me or what I like for TOO long - or if not enough attention, brain will get mad.

And like, I'll TELL YOU, that what I really wanna say is how sad that is and that help exists, and like, sure, I do mean that, but like, I can only not-personality myself into someone nice, or make it all about me and my rambles and crappy advice.

Like I do NOT get people who can just give advice, or say they're here for someone, and then this just IS, in their personality - like, I'M just with a concern for humanity and a fear of unintentionally killing someone, and THEY, are just here, FOLLOWING THEIR PERSONALITY, WHILE, being all smoothly nice, or awkwardly helpful?! Like I could NEVER!

So over all: I'm sorry to hear that, have you tried talking to someone about it?

[ruii-cha]

rayllum + taylor swift

in honour of both speak now taylor's version and tdp s5 and that cute asf rayllum moment in the trailer, a list of lyrics from 4 speak now songs that match rayllum in my mind:

mine

made for them. the whole song. 'do you remember we were sitting there by the water / you put your arm around me for the first time' midnight oasis from season three. The Scene.

'i was a flight risk with a fear of falling / wondering why we bother with love if it never lasts' rayla. that's all. season four and also poor girl's family situation.

'you made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter' runaan's not really careless but like i'm JUST SAYING

'you are the best thing that's ever been mine' speaks for itself. 'what we had was something special' 'you are the best thing i ever had' RAYLAAAAAA

ok i could do a whole essay on that song by itself but like

go listen it's Them

2. sparks fly

'drop everything now, keep me in the pouring rain / kiss me on the sidewalk, take away my pain' ahem. if this isn't rayla to callum. i don't know what is. he dropped everything to help her return zym to xadia, they had that heartfelt moment in the rain with the lightning strike-

'get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down' self explanatory.

'gimme something that'll haunt me when you're not around' CALLUM. SEASON FOUR. NEED I SAY MORE?

'i'm on my guard with the rest of the world / but with you, i know it's no good' season four. callum asks /rayla/ for help with the whole 'if i'm possessed' thing and rayla lets down her guard to talk to him while he's asleep.

3. long live

'you held your head like a hero / on a history book page' 'it was the end of a decade / but the start of an age' end of season three. the way they hold hands and look so proud and zubeia looks at them like 'god damn how long was i asleep'

'long live the walls we crashed through / all the kingdom lights shine just for me and you' they crashed through the boundaries between humans and elves, katolis and xadia, and duren and katolis came through for them in the s3 battle.

'long live all the mountains we moved / i had the time of my life fighting dragons with you' not dragons, but like, they definitely had a very amazing journey and rAYLA SAYS HE WAS THE BEST THING IN HER LIFE OKAY I'M NOT OVER IT

'bring on all the pretenders, one day / we will be remembered' them against the world... they'll be remembered as the human mage and the last dragonguard... my heart...

4. back to december

or, rayla @ callum after season 4 i'm right and you know it. i don't even need to explain these lyrics.

'so this is me swallowing my pride / standing in front of you saying i'm sorry for that night' episode two.

'it turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you / wishing i'd realised what i had when you were mine'

'when your birthday passed and i didn't call' (eyes callum)

okay this one just makes me sad

i couldn't think of a 5th... if you can add it. pls. look i was listening to speak now taylor's version over and over again and then i realised it was Them

[the-sussy-imposter2]

I thought Will would like messing with louise sometimes. Louise doesnt seem to like his sense of humor, though.

(Characters are will and louise from @peachnewt 's story, getting in deep !!)

[wallbeatjournal]

what if i told you hiram lodge was a redditor?

i think he's catfishing and suicide-baiting posters on niche kink subreddits at this very moment

[duchessofostergotlands]

Never related to anything more than the scenes in Ghosts where Thomas reveals he's Scottish and is mortally offended people didn't know, even though he’s spent the last four and a half seasons talking in a posh English accent.

[milolovesbmc]

The Dream (The Angel's Kiss)

Based on the sculpture by Auguste Rodin (1905)

(Censored just in case even though it's nothing explicit, uncensored under the cut)

"I remember you, something about you... coming to me, and sinking into me, and giving me breath again. . ."

[agentark]

so long and good night 🫡

[cruelplatonic]

ruminating on 'the vees died despondent nobodies' thoughts

velvette interrogates vox after she hears him give various conflicting and bombastic accounts on air. a selection of these include: blew his brains out on live television, administered the death penalty for killing his "bitch wife," a tragic accident involving two shetland ponies, dubiously legal iranian yogurts, and a whole lot of cocaine. the actual cause was shockingly ordinary- a heart attack in front of the television, alone, his corpse only recovered after two weeks passed. he was watching a game show and his last mortal regret was never even learning who won, because he died during the commercials.

[megumismom]

last week I was swimming in the adriatic sea thinking about devil's minion and then telling myself how pathetic I am for thinking about devil's minion when literally this is my view

today i watched the first episode of hotel portofino and was like heyyyyy the setting looks really familiar, turns out it was filmed in croatia, so assad zaman may have also been swimming in the adriatic sea thinking about devil's minion and that makes me feel a little better 🖤

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

Tube sun, in my eda? More likely than you think

[aroaceleovaldez]

the other half to my “Piper has sectoral heterochromia” headcanon is that she also has hazel eyes alongside the heterochromia and the Argo 2 crew just also doesn’t know how hazel eyes work, because they’re teenagers and its funny and makes sense for them to be A Little Dumb about some things. And hazel eyes tend to confuse people anyways. They just think she has like. Special Eyes™ or something. They think her eyes change color cause they don’t know that hazel eyes just look different depending on the light. And also Percy’s eyes do change color so they figure if one person on the ship already has color-changing eyes then Piper can too.

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally finished all of one character's entire quests/optional dialogue/questions/etc.... 100,000 words... .... aughhh

[androcola]

Why monkees hiatus? ☹️

ive been feeling as of late that no one is interested in my content as a whole anymore. I feel like I was always Begging people to interact with it and I felt annoying doing that. I feel like people only really wanna talk about torksmith doomed yaoi and head timeloop anymore 😓

I feel like no ones really interested in my art anymore. I mean it gets like 20 reblogs and 15 of those will be me. also no one Comments on art anymore. I get more interaction on my private instagram than I do on tumblr and I think that's sad

ive been feeling like I've really overstayed my welcome. I mean ive been here for 5 years. it was about time I burned out. and also I've been kinda depressed and losing interest in Everything I like so that's a part of it too. im not saying I'm going away forever, but it feels like the spark is fading and while I still think about mike and micky all the time, I feel like everyone's kinda over me now.its better to burn out than to fade away