#they clearly dont have any idea how banners work

[sirenasmodeus]

Found this absolute gem on Pinterest

[antiloreolympus]

14 Anti LO Asks

1. The nepotism in LO is so bad, and also gets justified. Minthe is literally getting replaced by Persephone, despite literally being dependent on Hades for living. Hades is repeating the same cycle with Persephone, as well. The only difference is Persephone does zero work and gets everything, but Minthe actually does her job. The entire scene before Minthe turned into a plant just rubs me the wrong way and shows how possessive Hades is over his lover's lives. P is in the same state as M, but rich.

2. I’m curious to see if the later LO books will be honest and at least credit each artist who actually had to do the work for Rachel, because if not that will be really shitty to claim that’s all her work when it’s clearly not. I would also hope they’d get some residuals from the books sales too since that’s their work being sold at a much higher price, but something tells me Rachel isn’t going to do that, just off her history of low pay in working for her in general. 

3. My new fav defense of LO is claiming its actually diverse because “the whole cast is made of people of color”

Yes, they’re unironically claiming being pink and blue is now the same as being BIPOC, and Rachel is now the most diverse creator ever for it. I hate these white kids so much lmao. 

4. I just realized Persephone has told everyone about her trauma EXCEPT her therapist asfgjakdh WHY CAN'T RACHEL JUST FUCKING HAVE HER TALK ABOUT IT IN A SAFE SPACE WITH A TRAINED PRACTICIONER? THAT ONE SESSION WITH THE THERAPIST COULD HAVE SO MUCH MORE POTENTIAL AND INSTEAD IT WAS A ONE TIME THING.

But no, instead she's forced to talk about it with someone who she's known for a month, whose only reason to be attracted to her is his lust (anything aside from that is bullshit, there's no chemistry between them, and their "relationship" had literally no time to progress in any way that's healthy) AND SHE WON'T EVEN TELL HER MOTHER. DEMETER SHOULD BE THE FIRST PERSON SHE OPENS UP TO (if at all) NOT THE PINK GUY WHO DRUGGED HER AND PUT HER IN A STRANGER'S CAR, OR HADES WHO MEANS NOTHING TO HER COMPARED TO THE RELATIONSHIP SHE HAS WITH HER MOTHER.

5. It’s just wild to me that even ancient sources of mythology all made a point the gods loved and cared for humanity and mortals yet LO claims to be “modern” and “progressive” and has the gods not caring about them and even being openly ok with their mass murder and torture because of any little annoyance they may have. Even this trial is more focused on trying (and tbh, failing) to make you feel bad for Persephone over the thousands of innocent people she murdered! Only like three farmers were responsible for the nymphs who died, yet we’re supposed to be on persephone’s side for murdering countless innocent people? How is this “modern” with modern values? 

6. The sexualization in the early part of LO is ... odd, but not too offensive. It's post her being r//ped and she's still being sexualized to an extremes especially by Hades and even when she's alone, is what I take massive issue with. I'm not saying a victim can't be confident in their body, especially if helps them reclaim their autonomy, but Rachel even admitted Persephone has no idea she's being viewed this way, so it's just Rachel using Persephone's body as something to ogle at and that's it.

7. ok but the "rachel has put years in lo" is actually a worse excuse bc that means shes spent so much time on it and its still bad? like thats actually a negative, not a positive.

8. lo must be having slumping numbers or something if theyve kept it on banner for over three days now. they never do this unless LO needs a bump back up. dont they have other series that need the promotion way more than one with millions of subscribers?

9. webtoons is now forcing lo on banner for literal days now while completely ignoring hooky is getting countess award noms for being one of the best graphic novels of the year. go figure they need to appease the white lady's ego on her mediocre product thats still doing fine (are the numbers declining behind the scenes or something? why the promo out of nowhere?) while the mexican woman's comic is actually making huge strides without webtoons' help or them even mentioning it exists 😒

10. i absolutely hate that line of poseidon pointing out an emotional affair is just as bad as a physical one because not only is it immediately undercut as a "joke" by poseidon being dumb, but its literally rachel ADMITTING hades & persephone are cheating with each other but its ok and we're supposed to cheer it on because its against minthe? the woman who was actually trying to make the relationship work and was being exclusive with hades while he cheated on her with his teenage intern? no thanks.

11. at this point i just want to see what other gods rachel tears down for hxp. how much more stupid can she get with it. at this point even dionysus will be made evil to make them look better.

12. Btw I don't really understand what kind of punishment people want for Persephone like yeah she should get one for killing innocent people in the town, but the ones who picked the flowers were guilty? I'm just genuinely curious, bc in my opinion she should get therapy and controlling powers courses.

13. Hera is awful. Not only does she quickly stop worrying about the age gap of HxP, she's an elitist.  She is written like she never cared for Zeus and only about being Queen of Gods. She cheats on him with Hades too, which goes against everything myth Hera was, and is so stupid. It just makes her a hypocrite. She's also racist to nymphs and rude to lower class citizens. Any good she does it outclassed by selfishness and bias towards Persephone. Guilt tripping w/ Hebe is weird but she does it often

-----

From OP: This next ask mentions the Rittenhouse case so I’d recommend skipping if it’s triggering for you /srs

14. TW: //shootings

Nah, this trial makes total sense. Persephone is a spoiled little rich girl who Rachel casts as white, everyone from the media to the jury and even judge Zeus is being super lenient to her and making any excuse on the book to get her off while she cries on the stand she’s “so sowwy” and she gets away with literal mass murder and won’t suffer a day of actual consequence for the pain and suffering she’s caused so many. We just saw this exact circumstance happen with Rittenhouse, the problem is Rachel thinks she’s the progressive and feminist one because it’s a girl getting away with her mass murder over a boy.

From OP: I get where you’re coming from but I will say that the context make this way different especially since LO’s world has different rules and Persephone didn’t mean to kill (most of) the mortals. I do agree that she shouldn’t get away with what she did though.

[emeraldiis]

Mirrorball // I

A/N: there will be a part two!! dont worry!!

AO3 Link

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Word Count: 2.9k

Summary: Reader hides her insecurity under a guise of unwavering happiness, but Loki ends up finding out the truth. Meanwhile, Loki struggles with feeling worthy of love.

Warnings: suicidal ideation, insecurity, misunderstandings, angst

Loki wasn’t sure why you lived with the Avengers. Sure, you were one hell of a good cook, and you bartended at Tony’s numerous parties, but surely you could do that while having a place of your own. Normally, Loki wouldn’t have given a second thought to where somebody chose to reside--even if he couldn’t understand people’s willingness to be anywhere near Stark--but you were driving him insane.

When Loki had first arrived at the tower, it had been a cruel and unusual punishment. House arrest at the very place that he suffered a humiliating defeat, with the very heroes that had defeated him. Of course, not many people were very welcoming. He was permitted to roam about the tower as long as he stayed on good behavior, but that didn’t mean all residents were alright with it. 

Stark was the easiest to deal with; his jokes and quips about Loki’s unfortunate ventures to rule, well, anything stung, but the malice behind them faded with every passing day. After all, it had been a long time since New York. Banner and Wanda were another story. They treated him politely enough, but the fear behind their eyes whenever he passed by made something rotten stir in his gut. No matter how much he attempted to redeem himself, people still saw him as evil. A villain.

It seemed as if Steve and Thor were the only ones glad to have him there. The Captain’s open arms had come as a surprise, but Loki was intuitive, and very quickly realized that Steve saw him in the same light as he did the Winter Soldier, Bucky. And in a way, Loki could see the similarities. They had both done awful things--albeit under far different circumstances--and were now working on gaining the trust of the ones kind enough to give them a second chance.

So Loki found himself seeking out Bucky’s company far more often than any of his other acquaintances. It was a strange sort of companionship, but it worked; Bucky usually opted to listen instead of speak, giving Loki the opportunity to ramble on about whatever grievances he held that week. There were usually a lot, and Bucky was the only one who didn’t offer him useless advice. He simply nodded along, fixing Loki with that thousand yard stare until he had finished.

And then, of course, there was you. All smiles and playful energy, with a raunchy sense of humor and a sharp tongue. You were much smaller than him, in terms of height and stature, but he often felt dwarfed when you were in the room. You just took up so much space with that reckless attitude and need for everyone in the room to be laughing. In an odd sort of way, you reminded him of a clown. Not because you were goofy, or funny looking, no. You just...made people smile, held their attention and made it your dying goal to be there for entertainment. 

The first time Loki had seen you, he was quick to notice your easy beauty. It was rare that he found a Midgardian woman to be attractive, but he couldn’t deny that something about you just appealed to him. You weren’t a supermodel, nor were you drop-dead gorgeous in terms of Midgardian standards, but you had a very real-life grace. You didn’t look like those dolled up actresses he often saw on the television, you looked more natural, something that instantly caught Loki’s eye.

He had been reading quietly in the common room of the Stark Tower, having been forced out of his room by Thor to “at least be present, brother.” The other Avengers droned on about petty events while he attempted to tune them out. And then you stormed in, bringing a sense of excitement to the room with your very aura.

You greeted each person individually, making sure no hero was left out, until your eyes settled on him. Loki felt a heat rise in his cheeks under your intense gaze, and shifted uncomfortably. He brushed off the feeling as it simply had been a while since he had spoken to an attractive woman, not wanting to admit to himself the effect your presence had on him.

“New guy, Loki, psycho murderer,” you rattled off, still staring him down. Loki felt as if you were a cat, and he was the poor mouse that you had selected as your new plaything. “Which do you prefer?”

That caught him off guard. While he was still somewhat unfamiliar with Midgard’s social customs, he was at least sure that this was not a normal way to greet a stranger. That, and the disrespect warred with what he was used to: women on Asgard bowing to him, treating him with the dignity that a prince deserved. Despite the surprise, Loki’s aloof outer demeanor was not shaken, and he let the strangeness of it all roll off his back as he replied, “How about ‘God of Mischief?’ Or, if that is a bit too wordy, I would be open to ‘King Loki.’”

 Your eyes lit up, and Loki found himself having to fight back a smile. His unconscious reaction left him feeling confused and slightly frustrated. Why was this mortal girl sending his emotions in a whirl? Loki scrambled for some sort of reasoning that didn’t have him looking pathetic, and settled on the idea that it had been a while since he had bed a woman, and you were particularly attractive. It only made sense that his body would react in ways that he had not expected.

Lost in his head, Loki barely noticed you were speaking again. “I like this one!” You said, clearly excited that he had matched your banter with ease. “New best friend acquired.”

Once again, you had left Loki reeling. Best friend? He wasn’t sure if he had ever had one of those before, and certainly not with someone he had just met. In fact, he wasn’t entirely positive that he even wanted one. Especially in the form of some over-enthusiastic mortal. Before he could protest, you plopped yourself down next to him on the couch. It wasn’t a very big piece of furniture, so when you settled into your seat, you were only a couple inches away from touching Loki. 

He could feel the heat radiating off of your body, and once again, his heart fluttered. The urge to lean into you overwhelmed him, and Loki furrowed his eyebrows. God, had it really been that long since he had been with someone? The frustration at his stupid body for its stupid needs grew, and Loki made up his mind then and there. He would court you, then fuck you, and get over this silly little infatuation. With your earlier outburst at wanting to befriend him, Loki figured that it would be a breeze. With his silvertongue and charming good looks, he would have you squirming under him in no time. Easy.

But, of course, nothing was ever easy for Loki. You had managed to prove him quite wrong over the next few weeks. Your obliviousness to flirting was quite impressive, Loki found, despite even his most direct attempts. Every advance he made was thwarted by complete, and utter ignorance, coupled with the fact that you had probably not taken a single thing seriously in your entire life. 

Loki would compliment you, and you’d grin wolfishly and twist it to make his words sound insulting, then cackling madly. And then was the time he “joked,” about getting you into his bed, to which you burst into a fit of giggles and said, “No way! I don’t want to be the other woman to Bucky!”

Loki had recoiled in bewilderment, and decided that enough was enough. Obviously you weren’t worth the effort, considering you never actually listened to anything he said. He’d just have to find someone who was capable of holding a conversation without turning something into a joke.

But...he couldn’t deny that he was constantly having to fight back a laugh at your remarks, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself that you were annoying, not funny. And even when he had abandoned his plot to seduce you, Loki found himself gravitating towards you. Truth be told, he knew how to be direct, to really get what he wanted, but every time he worked up the courage to just lean in and kiss you...something stopped him. Deep down, he knew that if you actually rejected him, then the game would be over, and something about that just seemed devastating to Loki. So he continued with cat and mouse, letting you deflect his advances time after time, because at least you weren’t actually saying no.

He’d wander in the kitchen while you were cooking, sit down to watch your favorite shows and movies, and had even taken to sitting on the roof with you late at night when neither of you could sleep. Loki couldn’t avoid it anymore. It wasn't a simple attraction that he felt, it was adoration. You, a mortal of all creatures, had captured his interest. Maybe it was your wit. Maybe it was your unshakable happiness, the ability to keep everyone’s spirits up in any situation. Maybe it was the crushing need to protect you, to protect that pure soul from the viciousness of the universe. Whatever it was, you had actually ended up as Loki’s best friend. And somewhere along the line, he had fallen in love.

You sat in the living room alone, knees curled up to your chest on the couch. The four walls of your room had felt confining, like a prison cell that kept getting smaller. Your usual place of refuge would be the roof. But you didn’t dare venture up there like this. With your luck, Loki would find you there, and you weren’t sure if you had the strength to keep up your carefree persona.

Loki had never seen you upset before, never seen you weak. No one had, if you were honest. You fought hard to keep a smile plastered on your cheeks to keep up the appearance of a girl who never faltered with her high spirits. In a way, it wasn’t entirely fake. Joking around and being joyous was your real personality, but it was also a defense mechanism. If you never took anything seriously, nothing would ever hurt. At least, that’s what you kept telling yourself. The anxiety that wrecked your brain stayed constant, though, making your life a constant war with your own mind.

Your friendship with Loki was a fragile one, or at least it felt that way. You often felt as if you were walking on eggshells; every word that came out of your mouth risked driving him away. He had seemed to enjoy your wild and snarky personality when you first met him, so you didn’t dare try to be anything else. You were afraid that he would lose all interest when he discovered that you were just as fragile as all mortals were.

It was risky having your breakdown out in one of the main rooms, but the risk was better than dealing with the claustrophobia of your lonely bedroom. Besides, it wasn’t like you were going to sleep anyway. Better to just wait for daylight where you could at least feel some modicum of safety.

In your misery, you had forgotten that Loki was not an easy being to hide from. You were pretty sure that it was damn near impossible, actually. He seemed to...sense...your emotions, when you were in distress. And though you never showed it, kept that unwavering smile plastered across your face, he always appeared when you needed a friend to sit with. Tonight was no different.

Like a shadow, Loki emerged from the hallway in front of you, piercing eyes quickly landing on your curled up form in the darkness. He raised an eyebrow at you when you refused to even acknowledge him. “Dear, would you like to go up to the roof? Away from prying ears?” He offered.

You shook your head, and shrunk further into yourself when he crossed the room to sit next to you. Loki looked a little uneasy, as it was rare that you were silent. Usually, he had to fight to get a word in when you were on a tangent. Not that he minded too much. Though he liked to talk, he held a certain fondness for listening to you.

Loki tried again to engage you. “Why not? I know it’s a bit chilly tonight, but you’ve never minded that before."

It was clear that the god wasn’t going away until you gave him some kind of response, so you gritted your teeth and lied. “Sorry, bud. I just feel sick, that’s all.” You forced a laugh, but it sounded strained. “I’d rather stay close to the bathroom. I’m not sure Tony would be too excited if I puked on his roof.”

Blue eyes stared into yours, and you could literally feel Loki not believing you. Of course the God of Mischief would be able to spot a lie from a mile away. Still, he didn’t push the subject, something that you were grateful for. “Alright,” he said, leaning back into the couch. “Would you like me to sit with you?”

Fuck, you didn’t want to have to reject his company a second time, but you really needed to be alone right now. Loki seeing you have a meltdown would be the last straw, and you’d just end up throwing yourself off of the Stark Tower. No, it was better this way. “That’s okay, you get some rest. I’m not gonna keep you up for something so small.” You still hadn’t looked up, afraid that Loki would see the glimmer of tears threatening to spill out of your eyes. “Besides, you need your beauty sleep,” you tried to tease, but your voice came out flat and dull.

Loki thought for a second, then sighed. “As your king, I override your decision. I will be staying here until you’re feeling well enough to sleep.” He waited expectantly, obviously ready for you to make some bratty quip about not being one of his subjects, but it never came. You just didn’t have it in you.

Now that Loki had fully sunk down on the couch, his body was only inches from yours. You wanted so badly to lean into the heat of his side, to bury your face in the crook of his neck and let him cuddle your fears away. Instead of following your instincts, you squashed the daydream like a pesky bug. Nothing about Loki indicated that he was the cuddling type. Hell, he’d never so much as hugged you. He probably wasn’t a big fan of physical touch.

Deep breaths, you told yourself. Just keep it together until you’re on your own. That’s when you stiffened. Loki had stretched a long arm around you, and was looking at you intently to gauge your reaction.

“Is this okay? Humans are very social creatures, touch can help provide some comfort if you’re feeling ill.”

Loki’s scientific approach to the entire situation almost made you break out into laughter. Almost. Regardless, it was too hard to resist when you had such an open invitation. You scooted closer to the god and leaned against him, letting Loki hold you tight.

Before you could even try to stop yourself, you had burst into sobs. Something about being held had just broken the dam, and you were weeping uncontrollably into Loki’s shirt, sputtering out apologies all the while.

Loki shushed you and held you tighter, and you could’ve sworn that you felt an aura of possessiveness in his embrace. “It’s okay,” he murmured into your hair. “I’m here to help.”

You didn’t know how long you cried for, but when you were finally able to rein in the tears, you were horrified. Loki’s shirt was soaked with snot and tears, and your face was most definitely swollen and blotchy with red spots. And, worst of all, you had just proven to him that you were weak, and not worth his time. This was a disaster. 

Loki, hearing your sniffling come to a stop, pulled away to look at you, and bit his lip nervously before beginning to speak. “There’s something I must confess to you. Seeing you now, trusting me with your vulnerability-”

You cut him off by jumping up from your seat, knocking his arms away from you. Like hell you were going to listen to the rest of his rejection. You already knew what he was going to say. That you were weak, that he no longer wanted anything to do with you. “Listen, Loki,” you snarled, unable to mask the pain in your voice. “You don’t have to say it, I get it. I’m gonna go to bed, you don’t have to hang out with me anymore,” you said, rushing to get the words out before you died from humiliation.

Loki watched in bewilderment, his words of affection dying on his lips and you turned tail and ran out of the room. Rejected? By a mortal? He had never known such embarrassment. And you hadn’t even had the good graces to let him finish. His heart began to darken with rage and shame. Of course you ran away, of course you didn’t want to be with someone like him. No one did, he should be used to this kind of treatment by now. How foolish of him to think that you would be any different.

[dreamescapeswriting]

BTS Reaction | Boyfriend Tag [Request]

Seokjin:

You couldn't even remember how this all started but you were sitting across from Jin during a VLive eating noodles while he was asking you questions about himself to see how well you knew him. Army was going insane for it because you'd been together for so long they wanted to see if you really knew Jin,

"Which university did I go to?" He asked right as you took a mouthful of noodles into your mouth, you swallowed them and wiped your mouth staring at him,

"Easy, Konkuk University and then Hanyang Cyber University." You smirked at him as he ticked off that you'd gotten another one right that he had written down,

"Next one." You giggled looking at him as he frowned, you'd gotten everything right so far which was no surprise considering you'd been dating for a while.

"What do I tell people my favourites movies are but what are they really?" He always changed what he told people his favourites were so you were struggling,

"You've been telling people it's horror lately but we both know you hide behind me when we watch them and I know your favourites are anything with Disney princesses." He wrote down that you were right again making you laugh as you took a drink of coffee and watched him,

"Languages?"

"Chinese, English, a little Japanese and of course, Korean." You smirked over at the camera and saw that the comments were going faster as you were getting question after question,

"When did I join BigHit?"

"2010 and you trained for four years." You pushed noodles into your mouth and he threw the pen and pad down onto the table biting into his own food,

"Do I know you enough?" You giggled looking at him as he playfully glared at you,

"You know me too well." You poked your tongue out at him and he turned to look at Army to see if they knew the answers as well which most of them did but the rest of them were too busy laughing about how pouty Jin was being about everything.

Yoongi:

Though he would never admit it Yoongi was liking this a lot more than he was putting out to the camera, he loved the fact that you made Youtube videos and that he got to feature in them, he loved that you always asked him to do videos with you when he wasn't working because he got to spend more time with you. Right now was a fan suggested video and it was to do the Boyfriend Tag with him everyone knew that you were together since there was a release about it in the magazines and online about your relationships,

"Easy one, what else do I want to do besides produce and make music?" You looked at him and then smiled,

"Radio DJ, which is why you're always doing your little VLive Fm's." You smiled and he smirked at you, he adored how well you knew him.

"Okay next one, Why am I named Suga and Agust D?" You were thinking on it for a second, you'd had that conversation a couple of days ago.

"Okay, Suga is because the first syllables are from shooting guard which was your position and then Agust D is Suga backwards with DT Because of Daegu Town." He stared at you with a smile on his lips, he was just getting more and more impressed by how well you knew him.

"My ideal date night?"

"Either a night in together, movies, a walk and something to eat or taking a huge nap together." You said as you looked at him, remembering your most recent date which was literally both of you falling asleep on the sofa watching a movie,

"How many hours of sleep do I get?"

"Five, because you're fucking weird and can't sleep more than that." You grumbled looking at him and then over at the camera,

"He won't even lay there and just cuddle me either." You pouted causing him to lean over and kiss your cheek,

"Shut up." He mumbled against your skin making you giggle at him.

(yall dont understand the harships i go through when i see multiple gifs i wanna use)

Hoseok:

It was Jungkook's idea, you were all bored sitting inside of a hotel room since it was pouring it down with rain and none of you could go out. Now it was a test to see who knew Hobi better between you and Yoongi and you were currently winning which was surprising you since Yoongi and Hoseok had been hanging around together a lot longer than you had,

"What did I get a bronze medal for?" You looked at Yoongi who was still thinking on it,

"Tennis match," You said to Hoseok who smirked writing down a point for you on the whiteboard that they had,

"This is all fresh in your memory that's the only reason you know it." Yoongi chuckled looking at you as you pretended to be offended.

"What company did I originally audition for?"

"Jyp." You got out just before Yoongi did and the boys let out a chorus of 'Oh's' making Yoongi glare at them playfully, you giggled at them and then looked at Hobi.

"Make them harder baby." You whined looking at Yoongi who was already struggling enough he didn't need them to be harder.

"What school did I go to?" You and Yoongi fell into silence and stared at one another, you knew it it was right on the tip of your tongue.

"Collaborative point?" You questioned and Yoongi nodded as you tried to think of the answer together,

"Isn't it..." You leant over and whispered into his ear and he nodded,

"Academy for Rap and dance in Gwangju?" You both asked in sync looking at Hoseok who was laughing at you both,

"Yes, last one...Name of my old street dance team?"

"Neuron." You shouted out making the boys all laugh as you won the round and started dancing around the hotel room,

"They cheated!" Yoongi yelled at you looking at you and Hoseok as you started laughing together

Namjoon:

"Jin this is stupid, why do we have to see who knows him better it's clearly me." You laughed as Jin got ready for another round of questions from Namjoon who looked like he was getting bored of the game that Jin had arranged for all three of you.

"You're just saying that because you're losing." You stared at Jin and then at Namjoon who had a point sheet in his hands,

"She's winning actually...She's ahead by four points." Jin stared at Namjoon who was staring back at him,

"Next four questions are worth two points each." You agreed to the terms and got ready to answer,

"Where did I study?" You slapped your knee meaning it as your turn to answer first.

"New Zeland." You answered looking to your side to see Jin sighing and throwing his head back,

"I'll take one point for each one I get right, you take four if you get one right." You giggled and he pushed you softly,

"Deal."

"When did I release Mono?" You gave Jin a couple of seconds before you slapped your knees,

"October 23rd 2018."

"How do you remember the exact date?!" Jin yelled giving up and looking at you, you were giggling as he started to talk so fast he was rapping again.

"Last one!" Namjoon yelled making you both calm down,

"Ideal date?"

"No, new question. She'll know that easily." You nodded in agreement and Namjoon thought about another question,

"When did I change my stage name?"

"2017...November?" You said looking at him with a raised eyebrow he nodded, Jin threw down his pieces of paper and walked out of the dorm living room giving up and leaving you and Namjoon alone.

"You owe me ice cream!!" You screamed after him listening out as he slammed his bedroom door.

Jimin:

Jimin had been binge-watching couple videos all week and he decided that he wanted to do one like it on VLive with you and because Army loved you both together they decided to agree to watch it finding entertaining with how far Jimin had gotten into it, he'd made a banner for the backdrop, had a buzzer for you to push and even had helplines ready in case you needed them. He was treating it like a little gameshow but so far you were doing amazingly and hadn't used any lifeline, or needed help from Army because you knew him that well.

"Final four questions," He said to the phone looking back at you with a smile,

"What school did I transfer from and which one did I go to?" He questioned looking at you and glancing over at the phone to see Army already answering,

"You went to Busan High School of Arts and went to Korea Arts High School with Tae." He cheered and moved onto the next question,

"What are some of my hobbies outside of BTS?"

"Being with friends and family, reading comics and romance novels that you don't tell anyone about and staying on your phone for hours." He stared at you as you outted him about the secret romance book collection he was growing but moved on,

"What was my old motto?"

"Something like 'Let's keep trying till we can't do it anymore?" He nodded and moved onto the last question, all of them had been relatively easy...or for you at least they had but you had been together for a long time.

"What am I most confident about with myself?"

"Your eyes, but you should be confident about everything because you're perfect." He pushed a button on his phone which filled the room with fake clapping and cheering and you giggled as he brought you close to his chest and hugged you lovingly.

Taehyung:

It was all his idea, he'd been watching some videos online where he watched couples seeing if they knew each other well enough and now you were sitting on the sofa quizzing back and forth about one another,

"Who's my biggest role model?" He asked looking over at you with a smirk, he hadn't spoken about it much but you remembered him mentioning it once in front of the boys,

"Your dad, you said you wanted to be like him. Someone who listens and takes care of his children encourages them about their future and helps them." He smiled at you and nodded along with you telling you that you were right, he answered your question next and it was his turn again.

"Who are some of my closest friends besides the boys?"

"Park Bogum, Sungjae, Minjae, Baekhyun, Mark, and Minho....Tae you have too many friends for me to count." You grumbled looking at him while he laughed.

"Okay, okay...What would I do if I wasn't an Idol?"

"Photographer, or a painter...You've never said you wanted to be a painter but you should, you're really good at it." You complimented reaching across to the bowl of popcorn which was sitting on his lap, you put some in your mouth and he copied you.

"When did I get Yeontan?"

"2017 around December time." He stared at you as you fired off every question he gave you with a smile on your face.

"I just know you too well baby, now what's my reward?" You giggled looking at him, he slowly moved the bowl onto the table and kissed you roughly.

"Me. I'm the reward." You giggled at him as he continued to kiss you.

Jungkook:

Having a personal Twitter account to keep up with Army was fun, you spent a lot of time on there with Jungkook looking through accounts that you loved and showed him when you interacted with certain Army.

"What if Jungkook and Y/n did a twitter video asking questions about one another?" You read out looking at the phone and Jungkook stared up at you thinking it was a great idea,

"We should! It'll show how well we know one another." You stared at him thinking about it for a moment,

"Okay!" You got questions ready and he went first, sitting in front of you as you got the camera ready.

"Quickfire round, four questions each that's it." He told you as he took out the piece of paper he was holding with his questions already written down on.

"Okay, I'm ready." You told him looking at the phone and smiling,

"Favourite time of year?"

"When it's sunny but not too hot." He smiled and nodded moving onto the next one,

"What do I have a blackbelt in?"

"Taekwondo." He smirked and moved on,

"Do you know how many tattoos I have?" There were so many that kept appearing you were losing count,

"17?" You guessed looking at him and he nodded his head from side to side,

"About that yeah, okay why did I join BigHit?"

"You fell in love with Joonie and decided that was why you wanted to join." He chuckled moving over and kissing you on the lips, you'd edit it out later not wanting to get into trouble for having skinship online. Army loved it and started asking you to do more videos like that together, and it developed into a regular thing where you would film a video together every friday.

 Tagline: 

@yoongisdumplingcheeks @snowy-meowl @lynnthevirgo @jooniesdarlingdimples @kpopfanfictionhoes @lyoongx @btsiguess-kpop @callingmyangel @fan-ati--c @mitzwinchester @rjsmochii

[comicteaparty]

April 11th-April 17th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble  chat that occurred from April 11th, 2020 to April 17th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What sort of analytics/stats do you track for your comic/story and why?

Deo101 [Millennium]

I prefer to track trends instead of stats, and for views mostly. I like to make mental notes the differences certain things make. I don't really like to think of comments and likes as stats, even though they might count. I prefer just to look to views for trends, and honestly I check kind of rarely because otherwise I get a bit invested in them. If I'm only looking at views once a month it's a simple transaction of time and effort versus something I might delude myself into thinking I have control over.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I use the Jetpack plugin for Wordpress stats. Nice graphs and basic data -- how many hits, where readers are coming from, what pages get the most traffic. But it has limits...like, here's the graph of hits over the last month, there's clearly a big jump in the past week, and I have no idea why?

There aren't any referral links that are generating a ton of new visitors -- unless it's a link from somewhere the plugin can't track. I don't know if it's a bunch of new readers arriving and reading bits at a time, or a small number of readers going through the entire archive very quickly. Or maybe a bunch of existing readers felt like it was time to re-binge the backlog? Maybe it's from people in lockdown who are all going through their "comics to read" bookmarks at the same time? Could be basically anything.

I also keep an eye on php script executions, because my hosting company limits those the way other places limit bandwidth. There's some "running automatically without doing anything essential" Wordpress scripts that I've found and disabled to keep the stats down, that I wouldn't even know existed if I didn't have to pay attention to it.

Oh, and ads -- I try to keep coming up with new banners for comicad.net, and then watch their stats and retire the ones that get the lowest click-through rate.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I‘m currently not tracking anything yet, because right now it would only serve to make me nerveous. It‘ll change as soon as I get around to advertising, I think.

Deo101 [Millennium]

It might be good to track a bit before adverising as well, though, so you can see how much a difference advertising makes for you? I get it being nerve wracking though

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

You‘re right, of course, but before I stopped tracking the majority of visits to my side are my own for testing purposes, and that‘s just de-motivating. I started at basically zero, because I have no pre-build social media presence.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Ahhhh yeah. It's never easy to see your stats before they've gotten where you want them

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I also use Jetpack, but I don't track things too heavily. But I do like seeing how site views spike when I share something on social media. I've been meaning to get a proper subscription service set up on my site - haven't made one yet. Tracking subscribers will be something concrete I can also do. As long as I see an upward trend while I'm not on hiatus, I'm happy.

AntiBunny

I haven't even bothered installing analytics since I moved my comic.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I don't really track anything except Twitter posts, I'm not very good at computer

kayotics

I track through google analytics. It’s used by the marketing agency I work for and easy to install, so I trust it. It’s a bit complicated to look at if you’re not sure what it’s saying, but it’s very robust. I usually just see if there’s an uptick in new users at all, and if there is, I try to see where they’re coming from. Google analytics is great for identifying where people are being referred from

Then in combination with that, I check page views to just see if they’re new users who have never read before, so there’s a big jump in page views if they are.

Phin (Heirs of the Veil)

I use jetpack and google analystics but I really try to not look at analytics TOO much

Eilidh (Lady Changeling)

I upload to ComicFury, which has built in analytics, but I don't really use them for anything too much. I try not to check them honestly, it gets me obsessive otherwise

Capitania do Azar

I use the jetpack ones and it's nice to see spikes when someone is going through the archive @Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn) you have a lot more pages than I do, so maybe it's hard to check and especially if you're getting a lot of views per day, but usually I can tell if someone is doing an archive binge when I see many individual pages in the hits, but each one has only 1 or 2 views

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I just recently figured out how to look at my website analytics

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

How is the best way to look at your site analytics? I usually see viewer and subs on the main Webtoon or Tapas. I've been considering getting a personal site

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My site hosting has a page for it in the control panel

varethane

I put google analytics on my personal site, so I can see that data

I dont check it much though lol

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

With Wordpress/Jetpack, it looks like the "top viewed posts" list only displays the top 500 -- so yeah, if someone does a whole archive binge, they'd hit hundreds of pages more than can fit in the pageview stats.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I did just check and see that a lot of pages from the Volume 1 storylines got 5-7 views apiece in the past week! Hopefully some of those are new readers who'll stick around through the rest of it

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I'm trying to find a method of scripting and I found one that works for me atm. I'm drawing scenes and writing outline as I draw. So that they match in sync with each other. My brain tend to go in different directions if I focus only on writing. I hope I can finally aline my mind story with my art scripting.

[bannerswife]

Mornings - Bruce x Natasha

Title: Mornings

Pairing: Bruce Banner x Natasha Romanoff

Warnings: none, except fluff. but if there is let me know!

Word Count: 2707

Summary: just a series of short stories of Bruce and Natasha’s mornings together.

Authors Note: okay kinda happy with this tbh ALSO there is a part where Russian is spoken and idk if its correct cause I don't know Russian at all oops. so I'm so sorry if its incorrect I only had google as my resource. but anyway, enjoyyy :))

Morning one:

“Are you awake, sweetheart?” Natasha heard the faint whisper of her significant other from behind.

She then felt his strong arms wrapping around her stomach, pulling her closer into him. The warmth spreading between each other, as he closed the gap between them.

“Mm,” She mumbled, hugging Bruce’s hands that were at her abdomen, pulling him as close in as possible. Knowing she was safe in his arms no matter what happened.

Bruce smiled softly, feeling her pull him in tighter as well as hearing her tired voice. Gosh she had such a beautiful morning voice, actually no- she had an amazing voice no matter what. He will never be able to get over the woman he currently had enveloped in his arms. It all was so surreal. He didn’t deserve a woman like her. He didn't deserve anyone. And yet here she was, currently head over heels in love with him.

Natasha rolled over to face Bruce, the faint morning light seeping through the blinds touching his face. Brightening his beautiful chocolate eyes and long curly brown hair. She noticed the soft smile playing upon her boyfriends lips and couldn't help but smile back.

“What?” She asked, her smile not leaving her face.

“Just thinking how I ended up with such a beautiful woman,” He replied, bringing his hand up to her face.

She couldn't help but lean into his touch, not wanting to be any further away from him then now. If only they could spend forever like this.

Bruce gingerly leaned in giving her a soft kiss on the lips, tasting the chapstick that she applied nightly on her lips.

“Come on, we should get up before Tony comes bursting in here blasting AC/DC,” Bruce chuckled at the thought, Natasha grimacing.

“If he tries i'll shoot him in the kneecaps,” She said, making the two lovers laugh at the idea.

“I would love to see that,” He stated, running his hands through her short red silky hair.

Bruce finally pushed himself up, hanging his legs over the side of the bed before letting out a massive yawn.

“Just lie with me for a little while longer, please?”

Bruce looked back into Nat’s needy eyes, feeling his heart melt at the sight.

“Don’t make me do it,” She threatened, pulling her hands up before twinkling them at him.

“You wouldn’t,” he dared, his eyes widening as a smile grew.

Before he knew it natasha lunged at him with incredible speed tickling at his sides. Bruce kicked and thrashed trying his best to evade the deathly tickles that Natasha was currently giving.

“O-kay, o-ookay, stoooop!” bruce couldn’t stop giggling as Natasha attacked every part of his body with playful tickles.

“I yield- i yield! We can have five more minutes,” He huffed, trying to compose himself after the fit of laughter.

Natasha smirked as Bruce layed back down next to her, feeling a rise of victory. She placed her head over his bare chest listening to his fastened heart rate slowing down, and couldn't help but humm in bliss as she then wrapped her arms his body. Him too humming back in response, as he hugged her back.

Those five minutes turned out to be half an hour.

Morning two:

Bruce awoke to the sound of the shower going in the room next to him, tiredly he looked over to the glowing clock on the bedside only for it to read 3:00am. He sighed, squinting at the direction of the shower, the door that was slightly ajar leaked a bit of light into the room that only just reached his eyes.

“‘Tasha?” He groggirly asked, rubbing his eyes to wake himself up.

He didn't get a response back and couldn’t help but get nervous. Was she okay? Did something happen? Did she always do this without him realising? Was something wrong? Was she planning on leaving without letting Bruce know? Before he knew it the door suddenly opened revealing Natasha in a oversized tee (that had actually belonged to Bruce but she loved it that much she stole it).

“Oh, i’m sorry i didn’t mean to wake you,” Natasha asked and bruce could immediately tell something was wrong simply by her voice as well as the red puffy eyes she now had.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” He asked, slowly getting himself up out of bed.

Nat shook her head, quickly wiping tears that fell from her eyes. God she felt pathetic. She hoped she didn't wake him up to deal with the humiliation.

“It’s nothing, don't worry about it. Just go back to sleep,” she softly smiled, turning the light off in the bathroom and hopped into bed.

“I love you,” Bruce said, breaking the silence that had filled the air after tucking himself back into bed.

Though Bruce couldn't see it in the darkness of the room, Natasha smiled.

“I love you too, big guy,”

And Bruce smiled back as well.

“Can you- can you hold me, Bruce?” Bruce couldn't help but break upon hearing her voice, she sounded so fragile.

“Of course, come here,”

Bruce held his arms out for Natasha to crawl in and held her close to him, making her feel protected like she always did every night.

And the two of them fell back into a beautiful abiss of deep sleep in each others loving arms.

Morning three:

“Natasha, honey?” Natasha awoke to the beautiful voice of her boyfriend as he currently stood above her, clearly dressed and fully awake.

“I’ve made breakfast for you,” He said, smiling upon her tired form as she wrapped her arms around her pillow.

Natasha smiled, opening her eyes to look up at Bruce’s soft features. She pulled herself slowly up, and raised her arms high over her head reaching out to Bruce like a toddler wanting their mother to carry them.

“You want me to carry you?” Bruce laughed, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head to the side.

“‘m tired, pleaseee,” Natasha muttered, giving Bruce her best puppy dog eyes.

It obviously worked because Bruce couldn’t help but cave in to picking her up. So, with strong arms he slipped his hands up from underneath her and pulled her into a bridal style position. With much ease (as she was extremely light) he carefully carried her out of the darkly lit room into the kitchen, Nat couldn’t help but moan in pleasure upon smelling the delicious meal.

“My god, what have you been cooking?” she asked, Bruce smiling with proudness at his work.

“Just a little something, for a special someone,” he replied, kissing her upon the forehead before settling down on a stool at the marble island bench.

Natasha smirked and looked at the beautifully prepared dish in front of her, the smell of it completely putting her in a happy state of mind.

What currently laid in front of the spy was an amazingly prepared stack of red velvet pancakes, shaped into hearts, it honestly was beautiful.

Natasha basically scoffed all five of the pancakes that her loving boyfriend had placed on her plate, not able to stop. Just as she was about to grab another she was carefully grabbed around her waist and pulled up only to be held by Bruce.

“я люблю тебя” He whispered into her ears as he held her close, nibbling softly on her earlobes.

Natasha couldn't help but giggle softly, looking up into his brown chocolate eyes.

“I never knew you could speak russian, doc.” She acknowledged, impressed that her boyfriend could speak her native language.

“There are alot of things you don't know about me Miss Romanoff,” he smirked, kissing her forehead once again.

“Happy valentines day, sweetheart,”

“С Днем святого Валентина, девушка,” Bruce’s eyes slightly widened in panic a small awkward smile playing upon his lips and Natasha couldn't help but laugh.

“And here i was thinking you actually knew russian, you just google translated that didnt you?”

“Uh yeah- i was hoping that was good enough,” He grinned awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“It was perfect,” She replied, giving him a peck on the cheek before stuffing the rest of the pancakes in her face.

Morning four:

Natasha couldn’t help but let out a tired sigh as she combed her beautiful silky red hair, barely even able to keep her eyes open any longer. yesterday the team had been on an extremely long mission and natasha couldn’t help but feel worn out and drained. She couldn't even imagine what was Bruce was going though, she knew how tired he was after being the Other Guy and normally needed a couple of days to find himself again.

Bruce stiffly walked behind Natasha and wrapped his strong arms around her abdomen, before resting his head in the crook of neck.

“Morning,” she announced, tugging at a few knots.

Bruce let out a deep ‘mm’ before nestling his head deeper into the crook. natasha smiled softly before taking bruce’s head and holding his head in her hands, looking into his tired eyes.

“You should be in bed, getting some rest.” Nat said, squishing his face together so Bruce looked like a fish. it made her giggle.

“Not without you,” he said through his squished cheeks.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” She replied before letting go of Bruce and smacking his behind as he groggily walked off, Bruce couldn't help but huff a laugh.

Morning five:

“Wakey, wakey, big guy you promised me you’d train with me this morning,” Bruce awoke to the hushed sounds of Natashas voice, waking him from his shallow sleeping state.

“C’mon, I'm not letting you off that easy. Your promised me, babe,” She continued softly shaking bruce trying not to scare him awake.

Bruce hummed in response, rubbing his tired eyes to try and awaken himself to conscious.

“I’ll meet you down there, give me 5,” He grumbled pulling himself up from bed, hanging his legs over the side.

“Alright but if you’re not there in 6-”

“You’ll kick my ass, i know dont worry,” Bruce stood slowly up and kissed Natasha on the cheek before hauling himself into a quick hot shower.

Natasha smirked happily to finally have won Bruce over to get him training with her. She was aware it was nerve racking for the doctor to do something that even remoted in using physical violence, but she knew he needed to do something other then locking himself up in his lab all day and night. And maybe with her help it could improve his control of the Other Guy.

Thankfully the training centre had been designed (courtesy of Tony) to be able to withdraw the strength of the Hulk, but still Bruce was still unsure.

In exactly 5 minutes Bruce anxiously walked into where Natasha was currently warming up, his hands nervously fidgeting with whatever he could to help ease the stress. He never liked doing things that may result in him changing but he knew the spy only wanted to help.

“Just on time,” Natasha called out, before standing up straight from lunging.

“I wouldn't risk getting my ass kicked by the Black Widow, i'm sure you’d even scare the other guy too,” He replied a small smile settling on his face as he looked his girlfriend up and down.

Seeing her in those gym clothes that accentuated her curves and hugged her figure beautifully made training not seem that bad after all.

Natasha chuckled, walking towards her tense boyfriend, her hips swaying with each passing footstep.

“Relax, you’ll be fine,” she told him, placing a reassuring hand on his arm.

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” He eyed the spy, trying to catch any piece of emotion that could remotely suggest that she was afraid or scared of what he was. but he saw nothing, just a soft loving smile that never failed to leave her damn beautiful face.

“Don’t worry about me Bruce, we’ll just do a quick warm up, come over here,” Natasha walked Bruce over to a boxing bag that hung from the roof.

“Punch it,” She told him, and so bruce struck the bag with such little force it hardly even moved in impact.

“You’re gonna have to punch harder than that big guy,” she chuckled, reaching bruce the correct stance and technique to properly punch it.

Bruce of course listened intently and followed his new training teacher.

As he began to punch the bag with the correct amount of force, he could feel the Other Guy swirl in interest around in his head.

he could feel the negative emotions he was currently pouring into the bag and the walls that he always kept up in his mind come crumbling down. he wasn’t focused and bruce couldn’t help for once feel free of not having to hold in such emotion.

The punch’s got heavier and heavier, bruce breathing quickening, turning into throaty grunts. natasha could see the glint of green glistening in his eyes.

“Okayyy, i think that’s enough of that.” Softly but quickly Natasha walked him away from the bag, rubbing her hands up and down his back. She didn't want him losing control just yet, she’d keep that for the part she gets to kick his ass.

Bruce’s quick shallow breaths slowly but surely calmed down after a few minutes of composing himself. He gave a serious look at Natasha, one that she easily read as the ‘i nearly changed and killed you’ look. She got that a lot.

When Natasha had asked Bruce to hit her, Bruce’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He could barely even form a straight sentences without stuttering.

“You want me to-,”

“Hit me, yes,” Bruce shook his head and put his hands up in defence.

“I am not going to hit you-” Before Bruce knew it he was striked in the nose with brutal force, caught completely off guard.

The Other guy roared to life once again but this time way more vital. Before it was easy to maintain him, he wasn't in any kind of distress or bad mood, but now. The hulk sensed a spike of hurt and panic wash over Banner and knew he had to take the wheel.

Bruce put his hands on his knees sucking in deep breaths trying to lock the beast back in the back of his mind, he knew Nat was only trying to help but he couldn't help but feel angry at her for putting herself at so much risk.

“Y-you need to get out of he-here,” Bruce struggled to say, he grunted and twitched and felt his body trying- begging to change.

“No, you can fight this Bruce, you need to learn to control it. Stop letting it control you,”

Stop letting it control you.

Bruce would have scoffed at that if he could. It had been controlling him is whole life, it wasn't ever going to stop doing that.

“Hey, look at me,” Bruce felt the soft hand of his girlfriend touch his back and instantly flinched. He looked into her soft but strong eyes as sweat begun to bead at his forehead at the amount of effort he used to control the beast that was just seconds away from exploding from him.

Natasha looked deeply into Bruce’s bright worried green eyes, she felt horrible for punching him but she knew she had to help bruce control the Other Guy. And she knew even if he did change, that the Hulk would never hurt her.

“The sun’s getting real low, big guy, there's no trouble today,” Natasha crooned, looking beyond Bruce’s eyes to the Hulk.

In a very Hulk like way, that he’d do every single transformation back into Banner, Bruce flinched his head back and closed his eyes. Thankfully his rugged breathing soon turned normal and Bruce was back to his normal tense self.

“Nat- that was... way too close,” He huffed, stretching back up to face her.

“But it was progress, you did great,” she softly smiled.

“Now,” Natasha stood firmly and held her fists up.

“I want you to hit me,”

Thankfully that morning didn't end with Bruce changing into the Hulk.

[patriotsnet]

How Can Republicans Live With Themselves

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-can-republicans-live-with-themselves/

How Can Republicans Live With Themselves

Trump Is Still A Force In The Party

After the 2012 elections, prominent Republicans sharply criticized Mitt Romney and his campaign. Democrats did the same to Hillary Clinton after 2016 and sometimes included former President Barack Obama in their criticisms, too. For a political party to change direction, it nearly always has to distance itself from past leaders. 

Or put another way: For there to be an autopsy, there has to be a dead body.

Trump Slams ‘wayward’ Republicans For Capitol Riot Vote

US Capitol riots

Former US president Donald Trump blasted “wayward Republicans” after lawmakers made a rare bipartisan push to investigate the Capitol riot.

With the support of 35 Republicans, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted 252-175 to look into the events of 6 January.

Party leaders had urged Republicans to oppose the bill, with Mr Trump labelling it a “Democrat trap”.

The bill appears to lack the Republican support it needs to pass in the Senate.

It seeks to create an independent inquiry modelled on the commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The legislation establishes a 10-member body, evenly split between the two main parties, that would make recommendations by the end of the year on how to prevent any repeat of the Capitol invasion.

Trump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January in a failed bid to thwart certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in November’s election.

Wednesday’s vote was seen as a loyalty test to the former president for members of his party.

All 10 of the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the days after the Capitol riot for incitement of insurrection were among the 35 who voted for the commission.

In a statement after the vote, Mr Trump hit out at the “wayward” Republican group, saying, “they just can’t help themselves”.

“Sometimes there are consequences to being ineffective and weak,” Mr Trump added.

How Bipartisan Is Democrats Infrastructure Plan

All Videos

But Trumps continued popularity among key GOP constituencies prevents Republican insiders from undertaking a formal, public discussion about his political shortcomings and how the party should move on from him. Everyone in the GOP knows that irritating Trump could result in the former president attacking them, which would make them vulnerable to a primary challenge, with conservative activists likely backing their opponent. So there will be no autopsy of the post-Trump Republican Party, akin to the Republican National Committees report in 2013 following Romneys defeat, at least not in public. 

There Arent Real Forces Within The Gop Leading Change

There is some appetite for change within the GOP. In those 2024 polls, at least a third of Republicans either were supporting a GOP presidential candidate other than Trump or were undecided. 

In YouGov Blues polling, only about 40 percent of Republicans identified themselves as Trump Republicans. A recent survey from Fabrizio, Lee and Associates, a GOP-leaning firm that worked on Trumps presidential campaigns, found that about 40 percent of Republican voters didnt want Trump to continue to be a leader in the party. Those numbers dont necessarily mean that those voters want the GOP to change drastically. But there is a substantial number of Trump-skeptical/ready-to-move-on-from-Trump Republican voters. But that sentiment isnt really showing up in the Republican Partys actions during the last three months basically everything GOP officials in states and in Washington are doing lines up with the Trumpian approach. So what gives? 

related:Why The Recent Violence Against Asian Americans May Solidify Their Support Of Democrats Read more. »

It is hard to see Republicans changing course, even if a meaningful minority of voters in the party wants changes, without some elite institutions and powerful people in the party pushing a new vision. And its hard to see real anti-Trumpism forces emerging in the GOP right now. 

Democrats Return The Favor: Republicans Uninformed Or Self

The 429 Democratic voters in our sample returned the favor and raised many of the same themes. Democrats inferred that Republicans must be VERY ill-informed, or that Fox news told me to vote for Republicans.  Or that Republicans are uneducated and misguided people guided by what the media is feeding them.

Many also attributed votes to individual self-interest whereas GOP voters feel Democrats want free stuff, many Democrats believe Republicans think that I got mine and dont want the libs to take it away, or that some day I will be rich and then I can get the benefits that rich people get now.

Many used the question to express their anger and outrage at the other side.  Rather than really try to take the position of their opponents, they said things like, I like a dictatorial system of Government, Im a racist, I hate non-whites. 

Opinion:how Can Republicans Defend Trump Because Of The Clintons

Of all the desperate defenses that Republicans were forced to try as the impeachment hearings wore on, the strangest was that President Trump was just doing his job fighting corruption in Ukraine. Even his supporters have to concede that Trumps interest in corruption began and ended with one Ukrainian company.

After all, if Trump cared about family members using their connections to the presidency for personal enrichment, hed have been investigating son-in-law Jared Kushners family for wooing Chinese investors by playing up its familial ties to the Oval Office, or investigating his own administration for attempting to divert a major global summit to one of his properties. No one can reasonably believe the president cares about corruption, unless fighting it might help him win elections.

The latest updates in the Trump impeachment hearings

Unfortunately, Democratic outrage against political corruption, pretextual investigations and the use of vested powers to help your party win elections sounds a little hollow. For three years, impeachment, for many Democrats, has been an effect searching for a cause. Ukraine may have fit the bill perfectly, but anything else would have done just as well.

Read more:

Conservative Intellectuals Were Blind To The Truth About The Gop Hence Trump

The available evidence compiled by historians and political scientists suggests that 1964 really was a pivotal political moment, in exactly the way Roy describes.

Yet Republican intellectuals have long denied this, fabricating a revisionist history in which Republicans were and always have been the party of civil rights. In 2012, ran a lengthy cover story arguing that the standard history recounted by Roy was popular but indefensible.

This revisionism, according to Roy, points to a much bigger conservative delusion: They cannot admit that their partys voters are motivated far more by white identity politics than by conservative ideals.

Conservative intellectuals, and conservative politicians, have been in kind of a bubble, Roy says. Weve had this view that the voters were with us on conservatism philosophical, economic conservatism. In reality, the gravitational center of the Republican Party is white nationalism.

Conservative intellectuals, for the most part, are horrified by racism. When they talk about believing in individual rights and equality, they really mean it. Because the Republican Party is the vehicle through which their ideas can be implemented, they need to believe that the party isnt racist.

Its the power of wishful thinking. None of us want to accept that opposition to civil rights is the legacy that weve inherited, Roy says.

Beneath The Hood Of Trump’s Support Base

Trump’s victory in 2016 came on the back of a surge in voter turnout among white Americans without a college degree, a group he won by better than a 2-1 margin over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump won 6.5 million more voters over the age of 45, despite losing the national popular vote by almost three million.

But that “demographic blowback” which saw some older Americans cast a vote for the first time since Ronald Reagan was on the ballot, was never a long-term strategy they are literally dying off.

But they aren’t dead yet, and neither is Trump’s support base.

AP: Julio Cortez

A found 89 per cent of voters without a college degree and 74 per cent of Republicans want Trump to stay active in politics in some way. Almost half of Republicans want Trump to remain head of their party, while 11 per cent want him to break away and start his own party. It’s that final figure that probably worries Republicans more than any other.

Trump has already flirted with the idea of starting his own “Patriot Party” to rival both Republicans and Democrats, and provide a vehicle for a potential third presidential campaign in 2024.

The only time a former president tried to return to office under the banner of a new party, Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, he consigned his former Republican Party to a distant third place.

‘this Is Not A Political Campaign This Is Deadly Serious’: Cheney Speaks After Jan 6 Committee

Those Republicans were not in the room. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and his fellow GOP leaders decided not to appoint members to the select committee investigating the riot. They will neither defend nor condemn the Capitol riot in the historical annals of the Congressional Record.

They have chosen official silence refusing to defend the indefensible while signaling tacit and docile support for former President Donald Trump and the rioters who stormed the Capitol in his name.

Former Rep. David Jolly, who left the GOP in 2018, said the Republican leadership is trying to divert public attention away from the hearings.

“The committee is set up to get to the truth about Jan. 6,” Jolly said. “Republican opposition to its work is clearly an effort to obstruct that truth from reaching voters.”

Still, by threatening to punish fellow Republicans Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Kinzinger, McCarthy has made clear to Americans that in his House Republican Conference, it is better to back a riot than to buck Trump.

Choosing not to send Republican allies to sit on the committee McCarthy opted to abstain after Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected two of his picks because they have spread lies about the riot may be an act of political cowardice. But it is certainly a political miscalculation.

We may have our deep differences on other policy issues,” Kinzinger said. “But we are all Americans today.

The Social Media Effect

Social media platforms provide us a personalized way to receive news and commentary from anyone and everyone with whom we are connected. In theory, this could mean that users see a cross section of their community’s political views, representing the full range of perspectives within their network. Unfortunately, our study’s findings paint a less encouraging picture. First, only 26% of American report sharing social media posts about politics. Second, these Americans have higher Perception Gaps than the national average. While those who do not post on social media have an average Perception Gap of 18, those who do post on social media have an average Perception Gap of 29. The political content we see on social media is therefore disproportionately from people with a more distorted understanding of the other side, further adding to the problem.

The Partys Core Activists Dont Want To Shift Gears

This is the simplest and most obvious explanation: The GOP isnt changing directions because the people driving the car dont want to. 

When we think of Republicans, we tend to think of either rank-and-file GOP voters or the partys highest-profile elected officials, particularly its leaders in Congress. But in many ways, the partys direction is driven by a group between those two: conservative organizations like Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation, GOP officials at the local and state level and right-wing media outlets. That segment of the party has been especially resistant to the GOP abandoning its current mix of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, opposition to expansions of programs that benefit the poor and an identity politics that centers white Americans and conservative Christians.

You could see the power and preferences of this group in the response to the Capitol insurrection.

In the days immediately following Jan. 6, many GOP elected officials, most notably McConnell, signaled that the party should make a permanent break from Trump. an increased number of rank-and-file GOP voters were dissatisfied with the outgoing president. But by the time the Senate held its trial over Trumps actions a month later, it was clear that the party was basically back in line with Trump. 

related:Why Being Anti-Media Is Now Part Of The GOP Identity Read more. »

Sen Mazie Hirono Wonders How Some Republicans Live With Themselves

Even after being elected to the Senate in 2012, the Hawaii Democrat Mazie Hirono was, by her own choosing, a politician little known outside her home state. Then, around 2016 and the election of a particularly divisive president, Hirono, who was born in Japan and is the Senates only immigrant, decided that staying under the radar was unsustainable. She frequently made herself available to the national media. She publicly said President Trump was a misogynist and a liar and called for his resignation . She unabashedly punctuated her comments with salty language. And it wasnt just her unexpected transition that raised her profile: Senator Hironos forceful questioning during the Kavanaugh and Barrett Supreme Court confirmation hearings, as well as, more recently, calling on President Biden to nominate more diverse people for senior positions in his administration, have also been central to her earning national stature. Its not the easiest thing for political people to speak candidly with the national media, says Senator Hirono, who is 73 and whose memoir, Heart of Fire, will be published on April 20. Im not doing it for effect. I dont go out there and spew things. Ive thought things through.

Garland said that to you about the Garza case? No, I said that to Garland. He just kind of looked at me like, Yeah. I knew that he was astounded.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity from two conversations.

Republicans Are Trying To Rebrand Themselves As Working Class Heroes

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About a week after he was busted for taking a trip to Cancun amid a historic power crisis in his home state, Ted Cruz made a bold declaration: The Republican Party is not the party of the country clubs, he . Its the party of hardworking, blue-collar men and women. The GOP, he claimed at the yearly jamboree of right-wing nutjobs last week, was not a party for the mostly rich, mostly white men who represent it in Washington. On the contrary, he the Conservative Political Action Conference, where the cost of admission ranged from the mid-hundreds of dollars to , Republicans are the party of steel workers and construction workers and taxi drivers and cops and firefighters and waitresses.

These deplorables, the Texas Senator told big ticket CPAC attendees in February, are here to stay.

This characterization, of course, is ridiculous on its face; how can you claim your party is not the party of country clubs when its deified leader, Donald Trump, literally in a private club he owns. But its an aggressive branding exercise that Republicans have engaged in throughout the Trump years, and that they appear to be ramping up since he was defeated by Joe Biden in November, when the insurrectionist Senator Josh Hawley wrote that we are a working class party now.

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Making The Audience Laugh And Cry

It has become a cliché to declare that Republicans and Democrats live in two different worlds these days, but it turns out there is some truth to the observation.

New research on political behavior finds that most Democratic and Republican voters live in partisan bubbles, with little daily exposure to those who belong to the other party. For instance the typical Democrat has almost zero interactions with Republicans in their neighborhood, according to an by Harvard doctoral student Jacob R. Brown and government Professor Ryan D. Enos published March 8 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Theres a lot of evidence that any separation between groups has a lot of negative consequences. We see this in race; we see this in religion; we see this in all kinds of things, said Enos. And increasingly, we see this in partisanship in the United States.

Using geolocation data and the exact addresses of all 180 million registered voters in the U.S. as of June 2018, the two were able to precisely map, for the first time, where Democrats and Republicans live in relation to each other in every town, city, and state in the U.S. Then, rather than rely on the usual precinct or data aggregations, they used weighted measures and recorded the distance between voters to show how people are divided by geography and partisanship across the country.

The measurement of partisan sorting for 180 million voters,

Dont Miss Another Big Storyget Our Weekend Newsletter

Our most popular stories of the week, sent every Saturday.

It certainly might.

And I wouldnt necessarily buy anybody who was selling that. But there are without question people in the administration who fit that criteriapeople who I know for a fact are just deeply disturbred by the president and his behavior, and some of his demagoguery, but feel as though walking away as a sign of protest would be counterproductive. Because the president needs people around him who are stable influences to help steer the ship. And if they were to walk away, maybe the ship sinks.

Theres a bit of a scarlet letter that almost everyone in the Republican party is going to wear.

The president is not oblivious to the fact that this administration is staffed with an awful lot of people who said some really nasty things about him during the campaign. Its not lost on Trump that he has a lot of staff members who were not fans of him once and probably not fans of him today. Look, if Trump was only to staff his White House with people who had never said a negative thing about him, he would be really hard-pressed to find anybody. His takeover of the Republican party was a hostile takeover.

Your book describes the Republican party in collapse. As far as establishment Republicans in DC are concerned, then, is the Trump takeover permanent?

They did this to themselves. And its way too easy ten years from now to lay it all on Trump. Theyre the ones who invited Trump in the first place.

Former Republican Voter After Capitol Riot: ‘i Want No Association With This Party Anymore’

Like so many Republicans, Im sick and tired of talking about saving a party that shows few signs of wanting redemption, which makes it increasingly hard to hold on to the tattered remnants of a once-proud party. Indeed, since the insurrection more than 30,000 Republican voters have dropped their affiliation with the GOP, with many echoing the words of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, I can no longer call myself a fellow Republican.

Despite my own pessimisms about the Grand Old Party, I believe its salvation can still be found in our guiding principles, which do not include putting kids in cages, spewing lies and conspiracies and fermenting deadly insurrections. For those Republicans who remain behind, its time to refocus on what it means to be a Republican. While former President Donald Trump spent four years trying to reshape as much of the Republican Party into his image as possible and, failing that, setting the rest on fire, I agree with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who said, There is a real split for the future of the party, and that epic battle has commenced. Bring it on!

My fellow Republicans must stop playing stupid.

The Religious Right Traded Morals For Supreme Court Seats Was Trump Worth It

Succumbing to the worst tendencies of ones party isnt new or unprecedented; weve been here before. Moral crises have repeatedly tested the will of our great nation. This country has battled through the dark days of slavery, segregation, McCarthyism and Watergate, and still we stand. Not because of magic pixie dust but thanks to brave patriots, willing to take unpopular yet principled stands because our social contract demands it.

And America has always managed to find its way back from the brink because of our ability to come together, in search of a shared purpose, when we as a country need it the most. We are edging toward a brink now, not of violence necessarily but certainly of near-intractable partisanship. Just look at the differing ways the impeachment inquiry is being covered. I may be foolish, but I still believe in our shared purpose. I still believe that, in spite of those who have turned their back on our motto, e pluribus unum, principled conservatives will find their way back home.

From Pig Hunting To Tea Party Meetings Former Npr Ceo Ken Stern Immersed Himself In Conservative Culture

Ken Stern did not expect to enjoy pig hunting in Texas.

As the former head of NPR, he did not expect to find common ground with the people of evangelical churches or eastern Kentucky coal mines. And he did not expect to renounce his Democratic membership.  

But after a year immersed in Republican culture, Stern learned life on the other side of the political divide is far from how it’s depicted a problem he pins on a polarized media landscape, and the very institutions he formerly called home.

‘Virtually everyone in the mainstream media is on one side of the political landscape and not the other.’ – Ken Stern

Widest Perception Gap At Political Extremes

In one of the largest national studies of Americas polarization ever conducted, More in Commons Hidden Tribes report identified seven political tribes:

The Hidden Tribes of America

The Perception Gap study builds on these insights. It finds that the most partisan, politically active Americans a group we call the Wings have deeply distorted perceptions of the other side. The two groups with the widest Perception Gaps are the Progressive Activists and the Devoted Conservativesthe most ideological and committed groups of Democrats and Republicans.

And which is the most accurate segment? Surprisingly, its the Politically Disengaged. They are fully three times more accurate in their estimates of political opponents than members of either of these Wing groups. The V-shaped Perception Gap shows that the less invested you are in politics today, the less distorted your perception of politics.

The Party Of The Country Club Tries To Embrace A New Egalitarian Economic Agenda

ILLUSTRATION BY AESTHETIC APPARATUS/MICHAEL BYZEWSKI

We are a working-class party now, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley tweeted at 10:53 p.m. Eastern time on election night in November. Thats the future. A few minutes later, Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden, beginning a string of for Donald Trump and pointing toward a future quite different than the one Hawley had probably imagined when he posted. Hawley arrived in the Senate two years into the Trump era, and since then has pitched an agenda built around the concerns of the common man and woman. Sympathizing with cultural grievances, as Hawley does in fighting internet pornography, is something at which Republicans have been skilled for decades. Addressing the economic disadvantages of the less-well-off has been a blind spot. While Hawley himself has resisted mandatory increases in the minimum wage, his political world has been heating up recently, and it is changing his politics. When he announced in December that he planned to challenge the electoral-vote tally in the Senate, a rogue Walmart social media staffer attacked him as a sore loser via the companys Twitter account. The company promptly apologized, but not before Hawley suggested to Walmart, maybe youd like to apologize for the pathetic wages you pay your workers as you drive mom and pop stores out of business.

Christopher Caldwell is a contributing editor at The Claremont Review of Books.

[statetalks]

How Can Republicans Live With Themselves

Trump Is Still A Force In The Party

After the 2012 elections, prominent Republicans sharply criticized Mitt Romney and his campaign. Democrats did the same to Hillary Clinton after 2016 and sometimes included former President Barack Obama in their criticisms, too. For a political party to change direction, it nearly always has to distance itself from past leaders. 

Or put another way: For there to be an autopsy, there has to be a dead body.

Trump Slams ‘wayward’ Republicans For Capitol Riot Vote

US Capitol riots

Former US president Donald Trump blasted “wayward Republicans” after lawmakers made a rare bipartisan push to investigate the Capitol riot.

With the support of 35 Republicans, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted 252-175 to look into the events of 6 January.

Party leaders had urged Republicans to oppose the bill, with Mr Trump labelling it a “Democrat trap”.

The bill appears to lack the Republican support it needs to pass in the Senate.

It seeks to create an independent inquiry modelled on the commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The legislation establishes a 10-member body, evenly split between the two main parties, that would make recommendations by the end of the year on how to prevent any repeat of the Capitol invasion.

Trump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January in a failed bid to thwart certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in November’s election.

Wednesday’s vote was seen as a loyalty test to the former president for members of his party.

All 10 of the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the days after the Capitol riot for incitement of insurrection were among the 35 who voted for the commission.

In a statement after the vote, Mr Trump hit out at the “wayward” Republican group, saying, “they just can’t help themselves”.

“Sometimes there are consequences to being ineffective and weak,” Mr Trump added.

How Bipartisan Is Democrats Infrastructure Plan

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But Trumps continued popularity among key GOP constituencies prevents Republican insiders from undertaking a formal, public discussion about his political shortcomings and how the party should move on from him. Everyone in the GOP knows that irritating Trump could result in the former president attacking them, which would make them vulnerable to a primary challenge, with conservative activists likely backing their opponent. So there will be no autopsy of the post-Trump Republican Party, akin to the Republican National Committees report in 2013 following Romneys defeat, at least not in public. 

There Arent Real Forces Within The Gop Leading Change

There is some appetite for change within the GOP. In those 2024 polls, at least a third of Republicans either were supporting a GOP presidential candidate other than Trump or were undecided. 

In YouGov Blues polling, only about 40 percent of Republicans identified themselves as Trump Republicans. A recent survey from Fabrizio, Lee and Associates, a GOP-leaning firm that worked on Trumps presidential campaigns, found that about 40 percent of Republican voters didnt want Trump to continue to be a leader in the party. Those numbers dont necessarily mean that those voters want the GOP to change drastically. But there is a substantial number of Trump-skeptical/ready-to-move-on-from-Trump Republican voters. But that sentiment isnt really showing up in the Republican Partys actions during the last three months basically everything GOP officials in states and in Washington are doing lines up with the Trumpian approach. So what gives? 

related:Why The Recent Violence Against Asian Americans May Solidify Their Support Of Democrats Read more. »

It is hard to see Republicans changing course, even if a meaningful minority of voters in the party wants changes, without some elite institutions and powerful people in the party pushing a new vision. And its hard to see real anti-Trumpism forces emerging in the GOP right now. 

Democrats Return The Favor: Republicans Uninformed Or Self

The 429 Democratic voters in our sample returned the favor and raised many of the same themes. Democrats inferred that Republicans must be VERY ill-informed, or that Fox news told me to vote for Republicans.  Or that Republicans are uneducated and misguided people guided by what the media is feeding them.

Many also attributed votes to individual self-interest whereas GOP voters feel Democrats want free stuff, many Democrats believe Republicans think that I got mine and dont want the libs to take it away, or that some day I will be rich and then I can get the benefits that rich people get now.

Many used the question to express their anger and outrage at the other side.  Rather than really try to take the position of their opponents, they said things like, I like a dictatorial system of Government, Im a racist, I hate non-whites. 

Opinion:how Can Republicans Defend Trump Because Of The Clintons

Of all the desperate defenses that Republicans were forced to try as the impeachment hearings wore on, the strangest was that President Trump was just doing his job fighting corruption in Ukraine. Even his supporters have to concede that Trumps interest in corruption began and ended with one Ukrainian company.

After all, if Trump cared about family members using their connections to the presidency for personal enrichment, hed have been investigating son-in-law Jared Kushners family for wooing Chinese investors by playing up its familial ties to the Oval Office, or investigating his own administration for attempting to divert a major global summit to one of his properties. No one can reasonably believe the president cares about corruption, unless fighting it might help him win elections.

The latest updates in the Trump impeachment hearings

Unfortunately, Democratic outrage against political corruption, pretextual investigations and the use of vested powers to help your party win elections sounds a little hollow. For three years, impeachment, for many Democrats, has been an effect searching for a cause. Ukraine may have fit the bill perfectly, but anything else would have done just as well.

Read more:

Conservative Intellectuals Were Blind To The Truth About The Gop Hence Trump

The available evidence compiled by historians and political scientists suggests that 1964 really was a pivotal political moment, in exactly the way Roy describes.

Yet Republican intellectuals have long denied this, fabricating a revisionist history in which Republicans were and always have been the party of civil rights. In 2012, ran a lengthy cover story arguing that the standard history recounted by Roy was popular but indefensible.

This revisionism, according to Roy, points to a much bigger conservative delusion: They cannot admit that their partys voters are motivated far more by white identity politics than by conservative ideals.

Conservative intellectuals, and conservative politicians, have been in kind of a bubble, Roy says. Weve had this view that the voters were with us on conservatism philosophical, economic conservatism. In reality, the gravitational center of the Republican Party is white nationalism.

Conservative intellectuals, for the most part, are horrified by racism. When they talk about believing in individual rights and equality, they really mean it. Because the Republican Party is the vehicle through which their ideas can be implemented, they need to believe that the party isnt racist.

Its the power of wishful thinking. None of us want to accept that opposition to civil rights is the legacy that weve inherited, Roy says.

Beneath The Hood Of Trump’s Support Base

Trump’s victory in 2016 came on the back of a surge in voter turnout among white Americans without a college degree, a group he won by better than a 2-1 margin over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump won 6.5 million more voters over the age of 45, despite losing the national popular vote by almost three million.

But that “demographic blowback” which saw some older Americans cast a vote for the first time since Ronald Reagan was on the ballot, was never a long-term strategy they are literally dying off.

But they aren’t dead yet, and neither is Trump’s support base.

AP: Julio Cortez

A found 89 per cent of voters without a college degree and 74 per cent of Republicans want Trump to stay active in politics in some way. Almost half of Republicans want Trump to remain head of their party, while 11 per cent want him to break away and start his own party. It’s that final figure that probably worries Republicans more than any other.

Trump has already flirted with the idea of starting his own “Patriot Party” to rival both Republicans and Democrats, and provide a vehicle for a potential third presidential campaign in 2024.

The only time a former president tried to return to office under the banner of a new party, Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, he consigned his former Republican Party to a distant third place.

‘this Is Not A Political Campaign This Is Deadly Serious’: Cheney Speaks After Jan 6 Committee

Those Republicans were not in the room. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and his fellow GOP leaders decided not to appoint members to the select committee investigating the riot. They will neither defend nor condemn the Capitol riot in the historical annals of the Congressional Record.

They have chosen official silence refusing to defend the indefensible while signaling tacit and docile support for former President Donald Trump and the rioters who stormed the Capitol in his name.

Former Rep. David Jolly, who left the GOP in 2018, said the Republican leadership is trying to divert public attention away from the hearings.

“The committee is set up to get to the truth about Jan. 6,” Jolly said. “Republican opposition to its work is clearly an effort to obstruct that truth from reaching voters.”

Still, by threatening to punish fellow Republicans Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Kinzinger, McCarthy has made clear to Americans that in his House Republican Conference, it is better to back a riot than to buck Trump.

Choosing not to send Republican allies to sit on the committee McCarthy opted to abstain after Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected two of his picks because they have spread lies about the riot may be an act of political cowardice. But it is certainly a political miscalculation.

We may have our deep differences on other policy issues,” Kinzinger said. “But we are all Americans today.

The Social Media Effect

Social media platforms provide us a personalized way to receive news and commentary from anyone and everyone with whom we are connected. In theory, this could mean that users see a cross section of their community’s political views, representing the full range of perspectives within their network. Unfortunately, our study’s findings paint a less encouraging picture. First, only 26% of American report sharing social media posts about politics. Second, these Americans have higher Perception Gaps than the national average. While those who do not post on social media have an average Perception Gap of 18, those who do post on social media have an average Perception Gap of 29. The political content we see on social media is therefore disproportionately from people with a more distorted understanding of the other side, further adding to the problem.

The Partys Core Activists Dont Want To Shift Gears

This is the simplest and most obvious explanation: The GOP isnt changing directions because the people driving the car dont want to. 

When we think of Republicans, we tend to think of either rank-and-file GOP voters or the partys highest-profile elected officials, particularly its leaders in Congress. But in many ways, the partys direction is driven by a group between those two: conservative organizations like Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation, GOP officials at the local and state level and right-wing media outlets. That segment of the party has been especially resistant to the GOP abandoning its current mix of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, opposition to expansions of programs that benefit the poor and an identity politics that centers white Americans and conservative Christians.

You could see the power and preferences of this group in the response to the Capitol insurrection.

In the days immediately following Jan. 6, many GOP elected officials, most notably McConnell, signaled that the party should make a permanent break from Trump. an increased number of rank-and-file GOP voters were dissatisfied with the outgoing president. But by the time the Senate held its trial over Trumps actions a month later, it was clear that the party was basically back in line with Trump. 

related:Why Being Anti-Media Is Now Part Of The GOP Identity Read more. »

Sen Mazie Hirono Wonders How Some Republicans Live With Themselves

Even after being elected to the Senate in 2012, the Hawaii Democrat Mazie Hirono was, by her own choosing, a politician little known outside her home state. Then, around 2016 and the election of a particularly divisive president, Hirono, who was born in Japan and is the Senates only immigrant, decided that staying under the radar was unsustainable. She frequently made herself available to the national media. She publicly said President Trump was a misogynist and a liar and called for his resignation . She unabashedly punctuated her comments with salty language. And it wasnt just her unexpected transition that raised her profile: Senator Hironos forceful questioning during the Kavanaugh and Barrett Supreme Court confirmation hearings, as well as, more recently, calling on President Biden to nominate more diverse people for senior positions in his administration, have also been central to her earning national stature. Its not the easiest thing for political people to speak candidly with the national media, says Senator Hirono, who is 73 and whose memoir, Heart of Fire, will be published on April 20. Im not doing it for effect. I dont go out there and spew things. Ive thought things through.

Garland said that to you about the Garza case? No, I said that to Garland. He just kind of looked at me like, Yeah. I knew that he was astounded.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity from two conversations.

Republicans Are Trying To Rebrand Themselves As Working Class Heroes

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About a week after he was busted for taking a trip to Cancun amid a historic power crisis in his home state, Ted Cruz made a bold declaration: The Republican Party is not the party of the country clubs, he . Its the party of hardworking, blue-collar men and women. The GOP, he claimed at the yearly jamboree of right-wing nutjobs last week, was not a party for the mostly rich, mostly white men who represent it in Washington. On the contrary, he the Conservative Political Action Conference, where the cost of admission ranged from the mid-hundreds of dollars to , Republicans are the party of steel workers and construction workers and taxi drivers and cops and firefighters and waitresses.

These deplorables, the Texas Senator told big ticket CPAC attendees in February, are here to stay.

This characterization, of course, is ridiculous on its face; how can you claim your party is not the party of country clubs when its deified leader, Donald Trump, literally in a private club he owns. But its an aggressive branding exercise that Republicans have engaged in throughout the Trump years, and that they appear to be ramping up since he was defeated by Joe Biden in November, when the insurrectionist Senator Josh Hawley wrote that we are a working class party now.

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Making The Audience Laugh And Cry

It has become a cliché to declare that Republicans and Democrats live in two different worlds these days, but it turns out there is some truth to the observation.

New research on political behavior finds that most Democratic and Republican voters live in partisan bubbles, with little daily exposure to those who belong to the other party. For instance the typical Democrat has almost zero interactions with Republicans in their neighborhood, according to an by Harvard doctoral student Jacob R. Brown and government Professor Ryan D. Enos published March 8 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Theres a lot of evidence that any separation between groups has a lot of negative consequences. We see this in race; we see this in religion; we see this in all kinds of things, said Enos. And increasingly, we see this in partisanship in the United States.

Using geolocation data and the exact addresses of all 180 million registered voters in the U.S. as of June 2018, the two were able to precisely map, for the first time, where Democrats and Republicans live in relation to each other in every town, city, and state in the U.S. Then, rather than rely on the usual precinct or data aggregations, they used weighted measures and recorded the distance between voters to show how people are divided by geography and partisanship across the country.

The measurement of partisan sorting for 180 million voters,

Dont Miss Another Big Storyget Our Weekend Newsletter

Our most popular stories of the week, sent every Saturday.

It certainly might.

And I wouldnt necessarily buy anybody who was selling that. But there are without question people in the administration who fit that criteriapeople who I know for a fact are just deeply disturbred by the president and his behavior, and some of his demagoguery, but feel as though walking away as a sign of protest would be counterproductive. Because the president needs people around him who are stable influences to help steer the ship. And if they were to walk away, maybe the ship sinks.

Theres a bit of a scarlet letter that almost everyone in the Republican party is going to wear.

The president is not oblivious to the fact that this administration is staffed with an awful lot of people who said some really nasty things about him during the campaign. Its not lost on Trump that he has a lot of staff members who were not fans of him once and probably not fans of him today. Look, if Trump was only to staff his White House with people who had never said a negative thing about him, he would be really hard-pressed to find anybody. His takeover of the Republican party was a hostile takeover.

Your book describes the Republican party in collapse. As far as establishment Republicans in DC are concerned, then, is the Trump takeover permanent?

They did this to themselves. And its way too easy ten years from now to lay it all on Trump. Theyre the ones who invited Trump in the first place.

Former Republican Voter After Capitol Riot: ‘i Want No Association With This Party Anymore’

Like so many Republicans, Im sick and tired of talking about saving a party that shows few signs of wanting redemption, which makes it increasingly hard to hold on to the tattered remnants of a once-proud party. Indeed, since the insurrection more than 30,000 Republican voters have dropped their affiliation with the GOP, with many echoing the words of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, I can no longer call myself a fellow Republican.

Despite my own pessimisms about the Grand Old Party, I believe its salvation can still be found in our guiding principles, which do not include putting kids in cages, spewing lies and conspiracies and fermenting deadly insurrections. For those Republicans who remain behind, its time to refocus on what it means to be a Republican. While former President Donald Trump spent four years trying to reshape as much of the Republican Party into his image as possible and, failing that, setting the rest on fire, I agree with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who said, There is a real split for the future of the party, and that epic battle has commenced. Bring it on!

My fellow Republicans must stop playing stupid.

The Religious Right Traded Morals For Supreme Court Seats Was Trump Worth It

Succumbing to the worst tendencies of ones party isnt new or unprecedented; weve been here before. Moral crises have repeatedly tested the will of our great nation. This country has battled through the dark days of slavery, segregation, McCarthyism and Watergate, and still we stand. Not because of magic pixie dust but thanks to brave patriots, willing to take unpopular yet principled stands because our social contract demands it.

And America has always managed to find its way back from the brink because of our ability to come together, in search of a shared purpose, when we as a country need it the most. We are edging toward a brink now, not of violence necessarily but certainly of near-intractable partisanship. Just look at the differing ways the impeachment inquiry is being covered. I may be foolish, but I still believe in our shared purpose. I still believe that, in spite of those who have turned their back on our motto, e pluribus unum, principled conservatives will find their way back home.

From Pig Hunting To Tea Party Meetings Former Npr Ceo Ken Stern Immersed Himself In Conservative Culture

Ken Stern did not expect to enjoy pig hunting in Texas.

As the former head of NPR, he did not expect to find common ground with the people of evangelical churches or eastern Kentucky coal mines. And he did not expect to renounce his Democratic membership.  

But after a year immersed in Republican culture, Stern learned life on the other side of the political divide is far from how it’s depicted a problem he pins on a polarized media landscape, and the very institutions he formerly called home.

‘Virtually everyone in the mainstream media is on one side of the political landscape and not the other.’ – Ken Stern

Widest Perception Gap At Political Extremes

In one of the largest national studies of Americas polarization ever conducted, More in Commons Hidden Tribes report identified seven political tribes:

The Hidden Tribes of America

The Perception Gap study builds on these insights. It finds that the most partisan, politically active Americans a group we call the Wings have deeply distorted perceptions of the other side. The two groups with the widest Perception Gaps are the Progressive Activists and the Devoted Conservativesthe most ideological and committed groups of Democrats and Republicans.

And which is the most accurate segment? Surprisingly, its the Politically Disengaged. They are fully three times more accurate in their estimates of political opponents than members of either of these Wing groups. The V-shaped Perception Gap shows that the less invested you are in politics today, the less distorted your perception of politics.

The Party Of The Country Club Tries To Embrace A New Egalitarian Economic Agenda

ILLUSTRATION BY AESTHETIC APPARATUS/MICHAEL BYZEWSKI

We are a working-class party now, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley tweeted at 10:53 p.m. Eastern time on election night in November. Thats the future. A few minutes later, Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden, beginning a string of for Donald Trump and pointing toward a future quite different than the one Hawley had probably imagined when he posted. Hawley arrived in the Senate two years into the Trump era, and since then has pitched an agenda built around the concerns of the common man and woman. Sympathizing with cultural grievances, as Hawley does in fighting internet pornography, is something at which Republicans have been skilled for decades. Addressing the economic disadvantages of the less-well-off has been a blind spot. While Hawley himself has resisted mandatory increases in the minimum wage, his political world has been heating up recently, and it is changing his politics. When he announced in December that he planned to challenge the electoral-vote tally in the Senate, a rogue Walmart social media staffer attacked him as a sore loser via the companys Twitter account. The company promptly apologized, but not before Hawley suggested to Walmart, maybe youd like to apologize for the pathetic wages you pay your workers as you drive mom and pop stores out of business.

Christopher Caldwell is a contributing editor at The Claremont Review of Books.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-can-republicans-live-with-themselves/

[allbeendonebefore]

you've done the other two prairie bros, now its time for head/canons for sask! (only if you want to tho)

Ok today’s disclaimer is that the majority of what i know about Sask comes less from my 2 brief stays in Sask and more from my Saskatoonberry friends/roommate + additional stereotypes

- dont do the flat jokes they don’t like that

- How to find Sask in a crowded place: shout “GREEN IS THE COLOUR” and wait for the response (”FOOTBALL IS THE GAME”) and very shortly you will see him with a disembowled watermelon helmet

- ya you got any pil? grab me some pil bud

- literally just oscar on corner gas. plans Revenge brunch. Petty small town cranky grandpa.

- let’s go to the lb and get some pil [turns on the radio and blasts the Sheepdogs]

- “its SASKATCHE-WAN not SASKATCHE-WIN but also we’re winners”

- “see that orange blob on the horizon? thats the pumpkin festival. but if you hit that dark shadowy place you’ve gone too far, that’s winnipeg”. 

- the (physically) softest man. Like of all the province boys he is 10/10 the nicest pillow. Soft all over but can throw you like a pigskin

- well bud if there’s no pil i guess i’ll have a vi-co

- his house is Just Right sized but his property boundaries are LARGE and CLEARLY MARKED by roughriders flags and whatever

- Farmboy AF. But he’s hick >>> redneck ok, take this from a pseudo-redneck lmao. Like 100% You Cannot Take The Country Out of the Boy Because the Boy Is the Country

- Probably went to Vet school at some point, maybe multiple points as medicine improved. Has also probably helped stitch people/himself up while repeatedly saying ‘im a vet im not qualified as a doctor pls stop doing stupid crap’ to himself

- drives his combine down the road and laughs to himself as everyone pulls over and doesnt know what to do as he drives over them. Has once driven into town with his tractor because it was the only thing with enough gas to get there. 

- plaid shirt tucked into jeans up past his belly button and duck dynasty baseball hats + camo = high fashion. 

- outmigration to cities is a really sore spot with him. It means losing a lot of necessary people and sways his opinions to be older/crankier/more conservative the more people leave. Frustrated because he can’t provide all the necessities/that social safety net he worked so hard for if nobody friggin stays. 

- literally no patience for regina jokes until The Minute he is the one making them

- Not an impulsive person when he’s on his own. Takes either 10000 years to do something right the first time or doesn’t do it. This entirely depends on whether Bad Influence Bert is in the room or not jk (but Sask has sort of been trying to be more impulsive lately on get-rich-quick schemes and he Doesn’t Like It but because Bert admires independence he’s like LOOK HOW WELL SASK’S DOING Pshh you dont need libraries!!!) He was equally hard hit in the 80s as Bert so they like to be Angry about it together because this is like the 100th time they’ve been Shafted by central Canada. But they spend more time ranting at each other than thinking of better ideas lmao.

- When he doesn’t think things through they usually do end up badly even if they sound good at first i.e. hey big bro Mani really liked that Riel guy maybe I should just give him a shot and Do Whatever He Says Even If Its STupid

- like canonically his design is based on primarily scandinavian immigrants but despite being a settler in appearance he’s always been really close to local first nations people- back in the 1880s there was a lot more solidarity between white settlers/metis/FN than there is now but he’s doing his best not to lose touch with his roots... 

- Absolutely the hardest hit of anyone in the country during the Depression. Is really actually hung up on food/health/financial security and tends to hoard things sometimes. Was probably definitely motivated to haul himself up after to help big bro Mani (again)

- More soft spoken but also more persuasive than Mani so was almost solely responsible for Canada/Matt’s 180 on the rest of the country in the 60s etc. He gets crap Done - if Bert is all bark and some bite, Sask is some bark and all bite.

- Clams right up around strangers but if you’re his neighbour he will absolutely talk your ear off about Anything on his mind and will just follow you around with gossip and probably just shove cucumbers he’s grown at you because he’s got tons of them and just wants to get rid of them because he doesn’t want to see them go to waste please you can pickle them you can hide them in desserts just take them away

- Keeps pics of Tommy Douglas in his wallet and CCF propaganda under his bed. OTP Sask/Tommy Douglas = Saskommunism. Sits on his tractor shirtless and tanned gazing idealistically out at big sky country - a plane flies by with the banner THE FUTURE BELONGS TO SASKATCHEWAN - his bros start feeling Very Uncomfortable.

- canoes on the lake and goes fishing. Lays back in the boat with a hand on the fishing rod and stares up at the clouds until he falls asleep. When things are still and the sun is at the right angle you can pretend the whole lake is an extension of the sky. Swims in the Sask river in the summer and sinks his feet into the sand as far as he can go. Values his alone time the most of the prairie bros because he’s the glue that holds them together and that can be tiring. 

- like both prairie bros, the sort of person who won’t let you in his house again if you don’t eat something when he offers it to you. “No I’m not hungry,” you say. “You look thin,” he says. “You need to eat.” his voice gets more shrill “You’re skin and bones... I just made this this morning...” “No thank you” “how about you try this pie that my neighbour dropped off eh? you will like it!!” “I already ate” “I made you coffee, just take it!!!!” If you don’t eat something you will let the devil in the house. 

- [doing laundry with bert wearing his Laundry Day Bunnyhug] IT’S NOT GONCH ITS GOTCHHHH [towel whips him]

- everyone always says he’s afraid of heights as a joke and im like hahaha but what if..... he and bertie got their pilots licenses together :) as bros :))))) y e s

- the one yelling WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM at the top of his lungs when bert launches a potted plant through the window. 

- Extremely invested in the Sasktel commercial storylines

[livelongandpawsper-blog]

Creepypasta:The Return of Headmaster

A/N: I got this idea from another story I was writing, so I thought Id use it here as well. Please read by other story too! Its fun and angsty!

--- Meanwhile, Serenity Darkmoon Ravens mind was wondered back to the past. It was Ruzus hogmanay party, which everyone was invited too. The party was awesome as always, because Headmaster was hosting it.

Serenity Darkmoon Raven was pretty drunk that day. She had already punched a bunch of people. Serenity Darkmoon Raven a few times.Because She is stupid.Blood was spilled. But that was normal in this sort of party.As was the pile of bodies. If Serenity Darkmoon Raven was honest, She couldn't remember much that happened. Only something about a security gaurd,a goat and a pair of scissors.

There was one thing that stuck in Her mind though. Something She would never forget. Pip. Pip was wearing a Headmaster mask that night (it was a fancy dress party btw - A/N).

Everyone had come as something or someone else.

RUZU WAS DRESSed as SERENITY DARKMOON RAVEN. SERENITY DARKMOON RAVEN WAS DRESSed as ZABBA. ZABBA WAS DRESSed as Aris. Aris was dressed as Headmaster. And Headmaster was dressed as a ming vase.

Serenity Darkmoon Raven was instantly attracted to Pip in Him costume. The way He moved. The way He talked.The way He flicked His hair. Pip was doing a Karaoke number. It was "i will survive". And He was awesome. He sung like they were possessed.The audience was transfixated by Pip. Underwear was chucked at Pip. Serenity Darkmoon Raven was soooo turned on. (and She didn't need that underwear anyway) Serenity Darkmoon Raven got up and sang too. When Pip was singing i will survive it was like the words spoke to Her. Pip seemed to be addressing each word of the song just to Her. The room faded away and it was just the two of them. No one else in the world. They gazed into eachother eyes as Pip put His soul into the last lyric. Then silence.

Suddenly, Serenity Darkmoon Raven was woken out of the flashback by current events! --- This is the story of a time long ago..... --- The next time they saw eachother Pip winked at Serenity Darkmoon Raven, remembering what happened at the party.Serenity Darkmoon Raven blushed. Some of the others giggled. Did they know? Serenity Darkmoon Raven didn't care. ---- Aris and her friends were killing

They always enjoyed killing to relax when things were getting stressful.(Things were a bit stressed at the moment due to a unhappy love affair between Headmaster and Serenity Darkmoon Raven) They thought nothing killing all the time - it was just a way of life. But things were different today. Someone was watching them enjoy killing, and it was starting to get creepy. "The creepy guy is creeping me out", said Serenity Darkmoon Raven. "Yes, me too. Especially how he keeps licking his lips and stroking himself as he watches us" Just then the man walked over too us. "I am a talent scout" "Owww...THAT explains it" "Aris, I have been watching you while you did some killing. Your skilled. VERY skilled." "Oh, yes, Aris is great at it" said SERENITY DARKMOON RAVEN.

"INDEED. maybe the greatest. Look at Ariss body. Her shoulder! Her torso! Her foot! Its like she is built for killing! Every aspect of her perfect physique built for that one divine purpose. " "I thought she was built for loving!" said Serenity Darkmoon Raven "I am thus going to officially invite Aris to the killing championship!" continued the talent scout.

"We are going to the championship!?" said Serenity Darkmoon Raven "Yes, the ticket has a +1. And you both go straight to the final!" "Awesome!" "But you will be fighting against someone else that made it to the final...someone you know well....Headmaster!" "Then its settled" said Aris. "We go. We cant let Headmaster win at anything. Even killing."

So they left for the stadium.

The next day, Aris was nervous. She was good at killing, some would say the best. But was she really the best? The best at killing on Netherrealms? Aris was about to find out, as the contest started soon.

Aris thought back to a few years ago.

Happy times, before all the the troubles with Headmaster got really bad. Breaking out of his deep thoughts, Aris decide to go to the Arena early, perhaps do a few laps as a warm up.

Aris casually strolled to the Arena while practicing killing. As Aris walked out she was surprised to see Headmaster already there! Headmaster was clearly upto something. Aris had to find out what it was! "What you upto Headmaster?" yelled Aris. "You will never find out!" yelled back Headmaster, who wanted to keep her plan a secret. Frustrated, Aris started practicing killing, never taking her eye of Headmaster as she did so. Ruzu joined them a few minutes later. "Hi Aris!" he said with a sexy wink. "..and hello.....Headmaster" with a even more sexy blink. "yes. Hello Ruzu. Good to see your in the contest too. For now" But before Ruzu could hear what villain had said, it was time to start!

They walked to the start line, and bent down ready. (A/N - but not for THAT. You have a really dirty mind!) The crowd was getting big. Many fans had banners saying stuff like 'Go Aris Go Aris Go Aris' or 'Go Go Go Headmaster your the best!'

The starter pulled their bazooka out and got ready to fire. Ruzu, Headmaster and Aris all waited with anticipation. 3 Ruzu started breathing heavily 2 Headmaster tensed. Ready to go. 1 Ariss skin glowed sexily with excitement 0. BANG! The starter fired the bazooka.....at RUZU!

RUZU COLLAPSED instantly. Headmaster started killinging, laughing manically as she did so.  

Aris was in shock, and raced over to Ruzu. "She shot you!" but why? "Owww...I am shot bad" The starter stared at their weapon. "I didn't mean too...my bazooka acted weird!" Aris looked at the  bazooka.

"Yes....this bazooka clearly has been sabotaged to shot at Ruzu." "Typical" said Ruzu. "What now?" said Aris. "You have to go on" said Ruzu, still bleeding blood and guts and other bits everywhere.

But just then the clack-son went off! It was half time! As Ruzu was carried taken to hospital by jaguar, Aris and Serenity Darkmoon Raven retired to the locker room.   Headmaster was already there, still grinning.

"Oh what a shame. Ruzu isn't going to compete any more. Even doing nothing I'm going to come second. You know...I might just let you win..out of my....generosity... " Headmaster sniggered again.

With that Headmaster left out the backdoor.

"Gosh darn-it" Serenity Darkmoon Raven said. "Headmaster drives me mad! " "You know, I think she had something to do with Ruzus accident "

Aris was thinking. hard.

"Headmaster is never generous. Lack of generosity is his number one defining characteristic. Well, that and evil" "That means..." said Serenity Darkmoon Raven, her slow cogs working. "...She wants to come second!" said Aris, thinkingly. "Do you think thats..." "....because she wants the second prize medal!" said Aris, winning again.   "It must be because the second prize is really sword " "Yes, now that Iook at the second prize I notice it now. Its clearly the sword" "That explains why someone would want to become second!" "Exactly!"

"So we have to beat Headmaster by being the best at coming second? How are we going to do that...you have never lost before! " "I know" said Aris. "I am not sure I know how" "You got to though. Just this once you got to come second!" "No I cant. But I have an idea....you could compete!" "Me?" said Serenity Darkmoon Raven, surprised. "Do they even allow girls like me to do killing? "Yes, its a modern contest, a few girls like me have already competed. I'll win the contest as normal, and you will come second. You can do this!" "Ok Aris, I'll do it. I'll do it for you"

Then the Gong went again, the final leg of the killing contest had begun!

--- Serenity Darkmoon Raven had some time before he had to do anything, so She decided to have another flashback.

It was just after the Karaoke. They had stepped of the stage to loud applause and were now looking at eachother. "Hi" Serenity Darkmoon Raven said, meekly. "Hay" Pip said, also meekly. Their confidence from moments ago had evaporated like alcohol. "Do you want too..." "maybe.." "ok then." So they walked to the cloakroom. It wasn't long before their lips were together. Serenity Darkmoon Raven couldn't remember who made the first move. She did remember the taste though. The taste of Pip. Pip tasted like honeydew on a summer noon. Refreshing and salty but also a bit sour. What had they been eating? Serenity Darkmoon Raven tried to work out it. It took much tung work. After a few minutes mouth to mouth pot holing, Pip guessed what Serenity Darkmoon Raven was doing. "I had satsuma for lunch." "oh" "you dont have to stop though" "oh. Good!" Serenity Darkmoon Raven said, with great relief. They finally drew away after what seemed a whole october but was only mere minutes. The taste of Pip's lips (and other things) still lingered in Serenity Darkmoon Raven's mouth as they finally looked upon each other with new eyes. Relieved sighs came from both of them as both embraced, Pip snuggling against Serenity Darkmoon Raven's neck as he snuggled upto Pip's torso.

Pip went further by clutching Serenity Darkmoon Raven with his fingers, pulling at the fabric of Her slacks to feel what was underneath.

The telltale shape in Her leggings stood out between them, especially with the weight it had against Serenity Darkmoon Raven's thigh.

Pip moved over Serenity Darkmoon Raven's body like a serpent and lovenly nuzzled at a peaked abbs. Serenity Darkmoon Raven liked this a lot and started making a lot of noise. Pip joined in. "Owwww...Ahhh...MAHAhhhEEkkk...aakk" It got pretty noisy from that point on. Both of them had a lot of fun and made a lot of noise!. Serenity Darkmoon Raven sounded like Bus ! Pip sounded like a heard of Rabbitss on drugs. They had a lot of..."fun". "My groinal area are hurting...can we stop? 12 times is enough surely?" Pip said, pleading. "No...MORE MORE MORE" said Serenity Darkmoon Raven, with apparently an insatiable apatite Pip finally head butted Serenity Darkmoon Raven to get Her to stop. "Sorry about that, I got a little carried away" said Serenity Darkmoon Raven. "Thats ok I.....enjoyed it." said Pip blushing in the way they always did. "Tomorrow?" "Yes" said Pip. "I'll bring some of my toys next time for us to play with" said Serenity Darkmoon Raven.

And with that they left the cloakroom and returned to the party. The months that followed were fun but eventually they broke up and became enemies.

---

Serenity Darkmoon Raven and Aris walked boldly into the World Championship Killing-ing Arena. It was time for the final part. But first Serenity Darkmoon Raven had to be registered.

"I, SERENITY DARKMOON RAVEN, WOULD LIke to compete!" she shouted proudly all ready for her big day. "I am sorry but afraid its not allowed" said the contest judge. Devastated Serenity Darkmoon Raven started sobbing. "But I have wanted to compete in a killing-ing contest all my life! " "Its not in the rules I am afraid." Aris took Serenity Darkmoon Raven in their arms. "I'm sorry I thought you would be allowed" "Its not fair...I have every right to compete." "Its probably just because you are a girl" "Probably. that's just typical!" Serenity Darkmoon Raven sobbed some more. The floor was quite wet now. "I know, I'll have to lose now" "Its so unfair, why should you have to lose? Why should you have to come second?" "I'll...be ok Serenity Darkmoon Raven, I can do this." said Aris holding back her emotions. "*snuff*" said Serenity Darkmoon Raven "Its so unfair on you! They will all make fun of you for coming second!" It was true, the other killing-ing fans would make fun of her. "I'll take it" said Aris manly. Serenity Darkmoon Raven was already so upset that Aris would have to lose, Aris didn't want to make her even more.

With that Aris stood up and went to the starting line next to Headmaster. "So its just you and me" "As it should be" "Lets end this" Headmaster gave the contest judge and nod and the contest started once more.

Aris and Headmaster did their killing-ing intensely. Aris tried to control himself but it was hard. Every instinct in him made him want to win. She could not be put on a leash.But She had to control it! Aris struggled "Could he do it?" "How could he not win?" "She Loved killing!" "This was not possible" "But he had too" "For the sake of the Netherrealms" "He needed too" "But how?" Finnally defeating his inner monologueing she overcame her bloodlust for killing-ing. She  could lose now.

Aris stopped. A calmness washed over her and they entered a zen-like state. They did nothing. Headmaster  didnt see this and rushed ahead killing-ing like Aris was still going. Before they could see what happened they had won! Aris had come second by default!

"I....won....?" said Headmaster confused. "Yes..you see we knew your plans to come second and get the sword as it was the prize. So Serenity Darkmoon Raven and me planned to come second!"

"But I won!!!" "Yes" "I never won anything before! I was always bitter and evil because I never won anything!" Suddenly Aris realized that Headmaster was a good person and they just did evil because they never won anything before. "Now they I have won this prize I feel all my evil thoughts leaving me, I dont need the sword now...I am sorry I did anything bad" Aris and Headmaster forgave eachother and the crowd cheered. "I forgive you!" "Yayyyyyyy!!!!! Horrrraaayyyyy" said the crowd.

And then everyone went home together and lived happily ever after and there were no more problems.

-The End

[patriotsnet]

How Can Republicans Live With Themselves

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-can-republicans-live-with-themselves/

How Can Republicans Live With Themselves

Trump Is Still A Force In The Party

After the 2012 elections, prominent Republicans sharply criticized Mitt Romney and his campaign. Democrats did the same to Hillary Clinton after 2016 and sometimes included former President Barack Obama in their criticisms, too. For a political party to change direction, it nearly always has to distance itself from past leaders. 

Or put another way: For there to be an autopsy, there has to be a dead body.

Trump Slams ‘wayward’ Republicans For Capitol Riot Vote

US Capitol riots

Former US president Donald Trump blasted “wayward Republicans” after lawmakers made a rare bipartisan push to investigate the Capitol riot.

With the support of 35 Republicans, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted 252-175 to look into the events of 6 January.

Party leaders had urged Republicans to oppose the bill, with Mr Trump labelling it a “Democrat trap”.

The bill appears to lack the Republican support it needs to pass in the Senate.

It seeks to create an independent inquiry modelled on the commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The legislation establishes a 10-member body, evenly split between the two main parties, that would make recommendations by the end of the year on how to prevent any repeat of the Capitol invasion.

Trump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January in a failed bid to thwart certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in November’s election.

Wednesday’s vote was seen as a loyalty test to the former president for members of his party.

All 10 of the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the days after the Capitol riot for incitement of insurrection were among the 35 who voted for the commission.

In a statement after the vote, Mr Trump hit out at the “wayward” Republican group, saying, “they just can’t help themselves”.

“Sometimes there are consequences to being ineffective and weak,” Mr Trump added.

How Bipartisan Is Democrats Infrastructure Plan

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But Trumps continued popularity among key GOP constituencies prevents Republican insiders from undertaking a formal, public discussion about his political shortcomings and how the party should move on from him. Everyone in the GOP knows that irritating Trump could result in the former president attacking them, which would make them vulnerable to a primary challenge, with conservative activists likely backing their opponent. So there will be no autopsy of the post-Trump Republican Party, akin to the Republican National Committees report in 2013 following Romneys defeat, at least not in public. 

There Arent Real Forces Within The Gop Leading Change

There is some appetite for change within the GOP. In those 2024 polls, at least a third of Republicans either were supporting a GOP presidential candidate other than Trump or were undecided. 

In YouGov Blues polling, only about 40 percent of Republicans identified themselves as Trump Republicans. A recent survey from Fabrizio, Lee and Associates, a GOP-leaning firm that worked on Trumps presidential campaigns, found that about 40 percent of Republican voters didnt want Trump to continue to be a leader in the party. Those numbers dont necessarily mean that those voters want the GOP to change drastically. But there is a substantial number of Trump-skeptical/ready-to-move-on-from-Trump Republican voters. But that sentiment isnt really showing up in the Republican Partys actions during the last three months basically everything GOP officials in states and in Washington are doing lines up with the Trumpian approach. So what gives? 

related:Why The Recent Violence Against Asian Americans May Solidify Their Support Of Democrats Read more. »

It is hard to see Republicans changing course, even if a meaningful minority of voters in the party wants changes, without some elite institutions and powerful people in the party pushing a new vision. And its hard to see real anti-Trumpism forces emerging in the GOP right now. 

Democrats Return The Favor: Republicans Uninformed Or Self

The 429 Democratic voters in our sample returned the favor and raised many of the same themes. Democrats inferred that Republicans must be VERY ill-informed, or that Fox news told me to vote for Republicans.  Or that Republicans are uneducated and misguided people guided by what the media is feeding them.

Many also attributed votes to individual self-interest whereas GOP voters feel Democrats want free stuff, many Democrats believe Republicans think that I got mine and dont want the libs to take it away, or that some day I will be rich and then I can get the benefits that rich people get now.

Many used the question to express their anger and outrage at the other side.  Rather than really try to take the position of their opponents, they said things like, I like a dictatorial system of Government, Im a racist, I hate non-whites. 

Opinion:how Can Republicans Defend Trump Because Of The Clintons

Of all the desperate defenses that Republicans were forced to try as the impeachment hearings wore on, the strangest was that President Trump was just doing his job fighting corruption in Ukraine. Even his supporters have to concede that Trumps interest in corruption began and ended with one Ukrainian company.

After all, if Trump cared about family members using their connections to the presidency for personal enrichment, hed have been investigating son-in-law Jared Kushners family for wooing Chinese investors by playing up its familial ties to the Oval Office, or investigating his own administration for attempting to divert a major global summit to one of his properties. No one can reasonably believe the president cares about corruption, unless fighting it might help him win elections.

The latest updates in the Trump impeachment hearings

Unfortunately, Democratic outrage against political corruption, pretextual investigations and the use of vested powers to help your party win elections sounds a little hollow. For three years, impeachment, for many Democrats, has been an effect searching for a cause. Ukraine may have fit the bill perfectly, but anything else would have done just as well.

Read more:

Conservative Intellectuals Were Blind To The Truth About The Gop Hence Trump

The available evidence compiled by historians and political scientists suggests that 1964 really was a pivotal political moment, in exactly the way Roy describes.

Yet Republican intellectuals have long denied this, fabricating a revisionist history in which Republicans were and always have been the party of civil rights. In 2012, ran a lengthy cover story arguing that the standard history recounted by Roy was popular but indefensible.

This revisionism, according to Roy, points to a much bigger conservative delusion: They cannot admit that their partys voters are motivated far more by white identity politics than by conservative ideals.

Conservative intellectuals, and conservative politicians, have been in kind of a bubble, Roy says. Weve had this view that the voters were with us on conservatism philosophical, economic conservatism. In reality, the gravitational center of the Republican Party is white nationalism.

Conservative intellectuals, for the most part, are horrified by racism. When they talk about believing in individual rights and equality, they really mean it. Because the Republican Party is the vehicle through which their ideas can be implemented, they need to believe that the party isnt racist.

Its the power of wishful thinking. None of us want to accept that opposition to civil rights is the legacy that weve inherited, Roy says.

Beneath The Hood Of Trump’s Support Base

Trump’s victory in 2016 came on the back of a surge in voter turnout among white Americans without a college degree, a group he won by better than a 2-1 margin over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump won 6.5 million more voters over the age of 45, despite losing the national popular vote by almost three million.

But that “demographic blowback” which saw some older Americans cast a vote for the first time since Ronald Reagan was on the ballot, was never a long-term strategy they are literally dying off.

But they aren’t dead yet, and neither is Trump’s support base.

AP: Julio Cortez

A found 89 per cent of voters without a college degree and 74 per cent of Republicans want Trump to stay active in politics in some way. Almost half of Republicans want Trump to remain head of their party, while 11 per cent want him to break away and start his own party. It’s that final figure that probably worries Republicans more than any other.

Trump has already flirted with the idea of starting his own “Patriot Party” to rival both Republicans and Democrats, and provide a vehicle for a potential third presidential campaign in 2024.

The only time a former president tried to return to office under the banner of a new party, Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, he consigned his former Republican Party to a distant third place.

‘this Is Not A Political Campaign This Is Deadly Serious’: Cheney Speaks After Jan 6 Committee

Those Republicans were not in the room. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and his fellow GOP leaders decided not to appoint members to the select committee investigating the riot. They will neither defend nor condemn the Capitol riot in the historical annals of the Congressional Record.

They have chosen official silence refusing to defend the indefensible while signaling tacit and docile support for former President Donald Trump and the rioters who stormed the Capitol in his name.

Former Rep. David Jolly, who left the GOP in 2018, said the Republican leadership is trying to divert public attention away from the hearings.

“The committee is set up to get to the truth about Jan. 6,” Jolly said. “Republican opposition to its work is clearly an effort to obstruct that truth from reaching voters.”

Still, by threatening to punish fellow Republicans Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Kinzinger, McCarthy has made clear to Americans that in his House Republican Conference, it is better to back a riot than to buck Trump.

Choosing not to send Republican allies to sit on the committee McCarthy opted to abstain after Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected two of his picks because they have spread lies about the riot may be an act of political cowardice. But it is certainly a political miscalculation.

We may have our deep differences on other policy issues,” Kinzinger said. “But we are all Americans today.

The Social Media Effect

Social media platforms provide us a personalized way to receive news and commentary from anyone and everyone with whom we are connected. In theory, this could mean that users see a cross section of their community’s political views, representing the full range of perspectives within their network. Unfortunately, our study’s findings paint a less encouraging picture. First, only 26% of American report sharing social media posts about politics. Second, these Americans have higher Perception Gaps than the national average. While those who do not post on social media have an average Perception Gap of 18, those who do post on social media have an average Perception Gap of 29. The political content we see on social media is therefore disproportionately from people with a more distorted understanding of the other side, further adding to the problem.

The Partys Core Activists Dont Want To Shift Gears

This is the simplest and most obvious explanation: The GOP isnt changing directions because the people driving the car dont want to. 

When we think of Republicans, we tend to think of either rank-and-file GOP voters or the partys highest-profile elected officials, particularly its leaders in Congress. But in many ways, the partys direction is driven by a group between those two: conservative organizations like Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation, GOP officials at the local and state level and right-wing media outlets. That segment of the party has been especially resistant to the GOP abandoning its current mix of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, opposition to expansions of programs that benefit the poor and an identity politics that centers white Americans and conservative Christians.

You could see the power and preferences of this group in the response to the Capitol insurrection.

In the days immediately following Jan. 6, many GOP elected officials, most notably McConnell, signaled that the party should make a permanent break from Trump. an increased number of rank-and-file GOP voters were dissatisfied with the outgoing president. But by the time the Senate held its trial over Trumps actions a month later, it was clear that the party was basically back in line with Trump. 

related:Why Being Anti-Media Is Now Part Of The GOP Identity Read more. »

Sen Mazie Hirono Wonders How Some Republicans Live With Themselves

Even after being elected to the Senate in 2012, the Hawaii Democrat Mazie Hirono was, by her own choosing, a politician little known outside her home state. Then, around 2016 and the election of a particularly divisive president, Hirono, who was born in Japan and is the Senates only immigrant, decided that staying under the radar was unsustainable. She frequently made herself available to the national media. She publicly said President Trump was a misogynist and a liar and called for his resignation . She unabashedly punctuated her comments with salty language. And it wasnt just her unexpected transition that raised her profile: Senator Hironos forceful questioning during the Kavanaugh and Barrett Supreme Court confirmation hearings, as well as, more recently, calling on President Biden to nominate more diverse people for senior positions in his administration, have also been central to her earning national stature. Its not the easiest thing for political people to speak candidly with the national media, says Senator Hirono, who is 73 and whose memoir, Heart of Fire, will be published on April 20. Im not doing it for effect. I dont go out there and spew things. Ive thought things through.

Garland said that to you about the Garza case? No, I said that to Garland. He just kind of looked at me like, Yeah. I knew that he was astounded.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity from two conversations.

Republicans Are Trying To Rebrand Themselves As Working Class Heroes

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About a week after he was busted for taking a trip to Cancun amid a historic power crisis in his home state, Ted Cruz made a bold declaration: The Republican Party is not the party of the country clubs, he . Its the party of hardworking, blue-collar men and women. The GOP, he claimed at the yearly jamboree of right-wing nutjobs last week, was not a party for the mostly rich, mostly white men who represent it in Washington. On the contrary, he the Conservative Political Action Conference, where the cost of admission ranged from the mid-hundreds of dollars to , Republicans are the party of steel workers and construction workers and taxi drivers and cops and firefighters and waitresses.

These deplorables, the Texas Senator told big ticket CPAC attendees in February, are here to stay.

This characterization, of course, is ridiculous on its face; how can you claim your party is not the party of country clubs when its deified leader, Donald Trump, literally in a private club he owns. But its an aggressive branding exercise that Republicans have engaged in throughout the Trump years, and that they appear to be ramping up since he was defeated by Joe Biden in November, when the insurrectionist Senator Josh Hawley wrote that we are a working class party now.

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Making The Audience Laugh And Cry

It has become a cliché to declare that Republicans and Democrats live in two different worlds these days, but it turns out there is some truth to the observation.

New research on political behavior finds that most Democratic and Republican voters live in partisan bubbles, with little daily exposure to those who belong to the other party. For instance the typical Democrat has almost zero interactions with Republicans in their neighborhood, according to an by Harvard doctoral student Jacob R. Brown and government Professor Ryan D. Enos published March 8 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Theres a lot of evidence that any separation between groups has a lot of negative consequences. We see this in race; we see this in religion; we see this in all kinds of things, said Enos. And increasingly, we see this in partisanship in the United States.

Using geolocation data and the exact addresses of all 180 million registered voters in the U.S. as of June 2018, the two were able to precisely map, for the first time, where Democrats and Republicans live in relation to each other in every town, city, and state in the U.S. Then, rather than rely on the usual precinct or data aggregations, they used weighted measures and recorded the distance between voters to show how people are divided by geography and partisanship across the country.

The measurement of partisan sorting for 180 million voters,

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It certainly might.

And I wouldnt necessarily buy anybody who was selling that. But there are without question people in the administration who fit that criteriapeople who I know for a fact are just deeply disturbred by the president and his behavior, and some of his demagoguery, but feel as though walking away as a sign of protest would be counterproductive. Because the president needs people around him who are stable influences to help steer the ship. And if they were to walk away, maybe the ship sinks.

Theres a bit of a scarlet letter that almost everyone in the Republican party is going to wear.

The president is not oblivious to the fact that this administration is staffed with an awful lot of people who said some really nasty things about him during the campaign. Its not lost on Trump that he has a lot of staff members who were not fans of him once and probably not fans of him today. Look, if Trump was only to staff his White House with people who had never said a negative thing about him, he would be really hard-pressed to find anybody. His takeover of the Republican party was a hostile takeover.

Your book describes the Republican party in collapse. As far as establishment Republicans in DC are concerned, then, is the Trump takeover permanent?

They did this to themselves. And its way too easy ten years from now to lay it all on Trump. Theyre the ones who invited Trump in the first place.

Former Republican Voter After Capitol Riot: ‘i Want No Association With This Party Anymore’

Like so many Republicans, Im sick and tired of talking about saving a party that shows few signs of wanting redemption, which makes it increasingly hard to hold on to the tattered remnants of a once-proud party. Indeed, since the insurrection more than 30,000 Republican voters have dropped their affiliation with the GOP, with many echoing the words of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, I can no longer call myself a fellow Republican.

Despite my own pessimisms about the Grand Old Party, I believe its salvation can still be found in our guiding principles, which do not include putting kids in cages, spewing lies and conspiracies and fermenting deadly insurrections. For those Republicans who remain behind, its time to refocus on what it means to be a Republican. While former President Donald Trump spent four years trying to reshape as much of the Republican Party into his image as possible and, failing that, setting the rest on fire, I agree with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who said, There is a real split for the future of the party, and that epic battle has commenced. Bring it on!

My fellow Republicans must stop playing stupid.

The Religious Right Traded Morals For Supreme Court Seats Was Trump Worth It

Succumbing to the worst tendencies of ones party isnt new or unprecedented; weve been here before. Moral crises have repeatedly tested the will of our great nation. This country has battled through the dark days of slavery, segregation, McCarthyism and Watergate, and still we stand. Not because of magic pixie dust but thanks to brave patriots, willing to take unpopular yet principled stands because our social contract demands it.

And America has always managed to find its way back from the brink because of our ability to come together, in search of a shared purpose, when we as a country need it the most. We are edging toward a brink now, not of violence necessarily but certainly of near-intractable partisanship. Just look at the differing ways the impeachment inquiry is being covered. I may be foolish, but I still believe in our shared purpose. I still believe that, in spite of those who have turned their back on our motto, e pluribus unum, principled conservatives will find their way back home.

From Pig Hunting To Tea Party Meetings Former Npr Ceo Ken Stern Immersed Himself In Conservative Culture

Ken Stern did not expect to enjoy pig hunting in Texas.

As the former head of NPR, he did not expect to find common ground with the people of evangelical churches or eastern Kentucky coal mines. And he did not expect to renounce his Democratic membership.  

But after a year immersed in Republican culture, Stern learned life on the other side of the political divide is far from how it’s depicted a problem he pins on a polarized media landscape, and the very institutions he formerly called home.

‘Virtually everyone in the mainstream media is on one side of the political landscape and not the other.’ – Ken Stern

Widest Perception Gap At Political Extremes

In one of the largest national studies of Americas polarization ever conducted, More in Commons Hidden Tribes report identified seven political tribes:

The Hidden Tribes of America

The Perception Gap study builds on these insights. It finds that the most partisan, politically active Americans a group we call the Wings have deeply distorted perceptions of the other side. The two groups with the widest Perception Gaps are the Progressive Activists and the Devoted Conservativesthe most ideological and committed groups of Democrats and Republicans.

And which is the most accurate segment? Surprisingly, its the Politically Disengaged. They are fully three times more accurate in their estimates of political opponents than members of either of these Wing groups. The V-shaped Perception Gap shows that the less invested you are in politics today, the less distorted your perception of politics.

The Party Of The Country Club Tries To Embrace A New Egalitarian Economic Agenda

ILLUSTRATION BY AESTHETIC APPARATUS/MICHAEL BYZEWSKI

We are a working-class party now, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley tweeted at 10:53 p.m. Eastern time on election night in November. Thats the future. A few minutes later, Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden, beginning a string of for Donald Trump and pointing toward a future quite different than the one Hawley had probably imagined when he posted. Hawley arrived in the Senate two years into the Trump era, and since then has pitched an agenda built around the concerns of the common man and woman. Sympathizing with cultural grievances, as Hawley does in fighting internet pornography, is something at which Republicans have been skilled for decades. Addressing the economic disadvantages of the less-well-off has been a blind spot. While Hawley himself has resisted mandatory increases in the minimum wage, his political world has been heating up recently, and it is changing his politics. When he announced in December that he planned to challenge the electoral-vote tally in the Senate, a rogue Walmart social media staffer attacked him as a sore loser via the companys Twitter account. The company promptly apologized, but not before Hawley suggested to Walmart, maybe youd like to apologize for the pathetic wages you pay your workers as you drive mom and pop stores out of business.

Christopher Caldwell is a contributing editor at The Claremont Review of Books.