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saturdaysh0rts · 2 years ago

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One more propaganda push before the polls close

@homemadegirlbossbattle

Vote Chrysanta!!

Chrysanta’s peak girlboss years as a highway robber

Countin’ Cards

Chrysanta (age 29) playing cards with her pal Vincent Valentine (the artist’s very own PC in this d&d campaign). As the title would imply, she’s counting cards. And maybe proper cheating a little too.

All art credit to @shmungles

And one more (partial) chapter under the cut. More girlbossery and badassery from Chrysanta. TWs in the tags.

Simon was working a shift that night at the saloon, I knew, and Dot liked to go with him, so I headed right there. A drink might be nice, anyhow.

"Mama!" Dot's tiny voice squealed as I walked in.

“Hello, my little Sunshine!”

She ran up to me, holding up a large pink button for me to see. "Look! It's pink!"

I crouched to meet her and gasped in awe. "It is! That's beautiful, Sweet Pea. Where'd you get it?"

She pointed at Lars, who sat on a barstool at the long counter, ale in hand.

"Well that was awful sweet of them to give you. Did you tell them thank you?"

She nodded all proud of herself.

"Good job, Kiddo." I stood and walked with her back to the bar and took a seat next to Lars, lifting Dot onto my lap as she continued to gaze at her new button in admiration. Simon leaned over the bar and I leaned forward to meet him and give him a peck on the lips.

"How was the trip?" he asked.

"Just fine," I said. "Easy goin'. Nothin' too exciting."

It was a slow night at the saloon. The only other folks there were Heather and her husband, seated at a table along the wall opposite the bar. I ignored her and she returned the favor.

“What can I get for you, Beautiful?” Simon asked me.

I grinned. "Well, Handsome, I think I'll take a whiskey.”

“Coming right up.”

Lars, who I learned very quickly was five drinks in, struck up a conversation about how nasty they thought whiskey was while Simon poured my drink. No sooner had he set the glass in front of me than a couple folks I didn’t recognize wandered in. Lars and Simon didn’t bat an eye, kept on talkin’ about alcohol and how different types were made, but I didn’t take my eyes off the strangers. One look and I knew they were trouble. I was suddenly glad I hadn’t dropped off my weapons at home before coming here. Nothing they were doing was wrong, but it was almost like a smell they gave off. It was a man and a woman, both young, maybe early twenties, and both wearing warm, worn clothes. The man had long, light-colored hair tied behind his head and wore a tooth on a necklace. The woman’s hair was short and she had a piercing in her lower lip with a scar running from it to her left ear. They didn’t appear to be… no, they were both armed, just hiding it. The man had a shortsword stowed at his hip, almost covered by his traveler’s cloak. The woman almost certainly had her hand on a gun of some kind in her oversized coat pocket.

I wanted to get Dot outta there, but if these folks were here for trouble, they’d be trying to make sure nobody left.

"Hey Sweet Pea, I think I left a couple o’ buttons I was gonna give you in the storeroom behind the bar. Can you go find 'em?"

Her little eyes lit up.

"They might be lost back there, so you might have to look around for 'em real good, okay?”

"Okay!" She wiggled off my lap and ran back into the storeroom. Hopefully that’d keep her safely occupied and outta the way if shit went south.

Simon shot me a confused look as he stepped away from his conversation with Lars to greet the newcomers. The two strangers watched Dot run back into the storeroom and then approached the bar, stopping a couple seats down from me and Lars. I watched them real close from the edge of my seat. If they weren’t blocking the exit, maybe they weren’t here to make trouble. Or maybe they were just… yeah, they were just too stupid to block the exit.

The second the woman drew her gun on Simon, I was already directly behind the man with my sword over his throat. I was glad I was able to catch him off guard—I’d lost a lot of strength in the past few years. He gasped, and as he did, I got my revolver trained on the woman, too.

“Put that away,” I commanded before she had a chance to say a word to Simon, “and w-walk out now.” My goddamned stutter. This was exactly why Corvus always did the talking back when we was in these strangers’ shoes.

The woman turned to see me, and her face instantly fell. “Wh– Hey, we��” She faltered, caught by complete surprise. She didn’t lower her weapon, though.

“W-walk away now,” I repeated. “This is m-me askin’ nicely. I ain’t gonna do it again.”

Her eyes shifted between me and Simon, connecting dots in her head. "Are you really going to make me shoot your little girl's dad?" she threatened, but I knew it was a bluff. I had her beat and she knew it.

"Go ahead," I told her, pressing my blade a little closer to the man's throat. "Ain't neither of you gonna live to feel the guilt of it anyw-way."

Simon was frozen in the corner of my eye. I wanted to look at him, reassure him, see how he was doing, but I held eye contact with the woman. If my stutter was gonna screw me over, I could at least make up for it with composure.

After a moment, she lifted her hands in the air, gun still in hand, and backed off. “Fine, fine,” she relented.

“Gun on the c-c—-counter.” Fuck me.

She relaxed her arms for a second and scoffed. “You sure you have the balls to shoot?”

I pulled the hammer back on my revolver. “You’re fixin’ to find out.”

“Kiyori…” the man breathed from behind my sword, voice shaking.

“Alright, fine, gods…” She set her gun down on the bar.

“Honey, if you would?” I said.

Simon didn’t move.

“Simon, the gun.”

He jumped and shook himself, then took the gun, depositing it safely (I assumed) under the counter.

“Alright, will you let him go now?” the woman asked.

“You go out first,” I said. “He follows.”

The woman started backing toward the door.

“Mama?” Dot’s voice cut through the room, soft and afraid. Shit.

“Go to Daddy, Baby. Everything’s okay.”

In the corner of my vision, Simon swooped in and scooped her up from the doorway that led to the storeroom.

I watched the woman back out the swinging saloon doors all the way to the street, waited a good minute, then let the man go, shoving him away from me with the butt of my shortsword. “I see your w-weapon. Don’t try anything funny, just leave.”

He shot me an angry look before walking away, giving an indignant shrug on the way out. I watched them through the gap above the doors til they walked off down the road.

Every person in the saloon seemed to let out a breath at once.

“What the fuck was that, Chrysanta?” Lars half-shouted. “Holy hell!” They laughed.

I still didn’t take my eyes off the door. “Lars, please don’t cuss in front of Dot.”

“Shit, you’re right,” Lars said. “I mean, uh, dang… See this is why I drink here instead of in front of my own kids. Anyway. Cheers to you for all that,” he congratulated me, followed by the sound of a small splash. “Shit. Hey Si, you got a napkin back there?”

Simon didn’t move, and only then did I take my eyes off the door to look at him and Dot. They were also watching the door, or at least looking in that direction. Simon’s eyes had a far-off look, and it seemed like he was still holding his breath.

“Simon,” I said. “You okay?”

His eyes re-focused and he blinked when I said his name. He turned to look at me. “Yeah, I’m–”

I threw myself to the ground before I knew why, and as I did, I felt something graze my arm. Only after I moved did I register the BANG of a gunshot that came before it.

Dot shrieked and began to sob loudly. Lars tripped and fell trying to scramble off his barstool. Heather and her husband slid off their seats and crouched under their table, trembling. I scrambled back to my feet as the saloon doors swung open. The woman held a second gun, and the man had his shortsword drawn. He walked right at me as his companion scooted herself behind the bar.

"You. Money. Now," she barked at Simon.

Simon put Dot on the ground and kept her behind him as he backed away. She clutched his leg and kept sobbing. My blood boiled. Anger like I hadn’t felt in years took over, and I breathed deep to calm the adrenaline that rushed over me.

The man swung his sword at me and I dodged, ducking under it to pop back up and smack him across the face with my revolver in my right hand. As he stumbled, I jabbed my own sword deep into his right shoulder. He cried out at the impact and lost his grip on his weapon. Using my sword to keep him at arm’s length, I crossed my right arm over my left, and fired my revolver twice at the woman, quick as I could while having to pull back the hammer between rounds. She dropped.

Corvus was cut short by two quick gunshots that sent blood spattering from his face as he dropped straight to the ground.

The man grabbed at my hair with his uninjured arm and yanked, bringing my attention back to him. I kicked him in the balls, and he released my hair and doubled over. Using my sword in his shoulder as a leverage point, I threw him to the ground and then pulled my sword back, blood dripping from the blade. He made a move for his dropped weapon, and I kicked it away, leveling my gun at his head.

The realization hit him that he'd lost. He collapsed onto his back and stuck his hands up. “Don’t shoot!” he cried. “Please don’t shoot. Please, please don’t–”

“Lars, go get Doctor Murata if you ain’t too drunk,” I shouted over the man’s pleas for his life and Dot’s continued screaming.

“Yeah,” they said. “Doctor Murata. Yeah, I can do that.” They scrambled up from the ground and took off out the door.

“Heather, go find the sheriff.”

Slowly, timidly, she got up from under the table. She inched toward the door, glancing nervously between me and the man on the ground. Her husband followed.

“Hurry it up, please, I don’t w-wanna be here all night.”

They picked up the pace.

“Dot? Simon, Honey? You okay?” They was still behind the bar, but somewhere behind me. I knew better than to take my eyes off my prisoner to look.

“Yeah,” Simon said. “Yeah, we’re good.” He appeared in my peripherals, shushing Dot as he bounced her gently in his arms, trying to keep her from looking at any of the mess that was left. Her cries were becoming less screams and more sobs.

“Listen, the woman I shot,” I said to him. “Make sure she doesn’t move, assuming she ain’t dead.”

“I’ve got Dot,” he said.

“Yeah, and neither of us’ll have her if that w-woman gets up while we ain't lookin’,” I said. “I can’t take my eyes offa this fu… fella.” I narrowly stopped myself from cussing.

Simon left my peripheral vision, and Dot’s crying picked up again. She’d seen a couple dead bodies before, living in a monastery and all, but never that much blood.

“It’s okay, Sweetie,” Simon said softly. “Look at me. Eyes on Dad.”

I heard the splash of a small trickle of water. He was giving the woman a last taste of water, the first step in the death rites that also helped check if a dead person was actually, well, dead.

“I think… I think she’s gone.”

I sighed. More work for me and Aria tomorrow.

At Simon’s words, the stranger who still lived started breathing faster and shallower. “No. No. Kiyori?! KIYORI?!”

‘CORVUS!’ My own voice rang in my head. I shook myself. Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold. Keep it together. Least til the sheriff gets here.

I talked myself through every breath as the man broke down in front of me. He screamed and stupidly grabbed for my gun. I didn’t have to shoot him though, cause Simon appeared right then and pinned him down with a foot to his chest.

Dot was still crying.

“You should get her outta here,” I told him.

“I’m not leaving you alone with this guy,” Simon insisted.

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I have a gun. He doesn’t.”

“I–” Another scream from Dot cut him off. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”

He left, bouncing her gently in his arms some more as he went.

The man kept on shouting curses and throwing insults at me, but I tuned it out. I just kept breathing in, hold, out, hold, keeping my hand and gun steady til Lars got back with Doctor Murata. The man was too distraught to let her get close to him to look at his shoulder. Not too long after, the sheriff arrived, manacled the stranger, and hauled him off while the doctor followed behind. As soon as they was out the door, I dropped my weapons onto a table and collapsed into a chair. I tried to keep breathing evenly.

“Man, I need another drink after that,” Lars said.

“Bar’s closed, Lars,” I said. “You should go home.”

“Yeah, fair enough,” they sighed. “Hey, since when do you know how to fight like that?”

“Since always,” I said.

They nodded and started shuffling toward the door. “Damn. Well, Chrysanta, that was incredible, and I’m definitely gonna be way more fucked up about all this when I’m sober. Sorry. See you.”

I couldn’t get any words out in reply, but they left anyway.

My Breath was steadily getting out of control. I squeezed my eyes shut. A fire ignited on spilled liquor in front of me. I could smell gunsmoke. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. Corvus was cut short by two quick gunshots that sent blood spattering from his face… Another gunshot. My arm was sticky with my own blood.

“Chrys, you’re bleeding.”

“Huh?” I blinked and I saw Simon leaning over the bar to find a fresh towel. He found one, then crouched beside me and dabbed at my right arm where the bullet had grazed it earlier. The wound wasn’t deep, probably wouldn’t even need stitches. As he cleaned me up, I realized I’d taken Corvus’ bird stone from my pocket without thinking, and I was running my thumb over the carved design.

“Where’s Dot?” I asked.

“At home. Aria and Tsunayo are there with her,” Simon said. “Did you dodge that bullet?”

“I don’t… I don’t know. I guess so.”

“You ducked so fast, I thought for a second you’d been shot. It scared me.” He brushed all the hair away from my face and ran his hand gently down my torso, my arms, my legs, checking me all over for any other injuries. “I'm sorry I wasn’t much help," he said. "I froze up.”

I shook my head. “It’s okay, don’t be sorry. You looked after Dot.”

“I didn’t know you could do that,” he said.

“Do what?”

“All of that. I mean I knew you’d been in your fair share of fights, but seeing it was… Goddamn, Chrys. It was like you knew what was going to happen before it did.”

It never occurred to me til now that the closest Simon had ever been to seeing me in a fight was the couple times I went out with my revolver to check on a suspicious noise in the middle of the night. He’d never seen me do anything like tonight, or like I used to do before we met. “I been on the other side o’ that enough times in my life…” I trailed off.

Me and Corvus made our dramatic entrance into the tavern. I smelled blood as I shot the waitress, slit a man’s throat. Fire. Gunsmoke. Corvus was cut short by two quick gunshots.

“Can you hold me?” My voice was barely a whisper.

Immediately and without a word, Simon squeezed me to his chest. It had been a while since I’d had flashbacks like this, like nightmares in the daytime. Simon stroked my hair and gave me gentle kisses on my head while I took deep breaths to collect myself.

“Are you okay?” Simon asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I wanna go see Dot and go to bed.”

"Me too," he agreed, and tied the towel he was still holding around my arm as a temporary bandage.

Simon stayed behind to clean the saloon as well as he could that night before locking up. The whole ordeal had left a lot of blood on the floor. I carried the body of the dead stranger to the monastery and left her in the crematorium.

When I got inside, Dot was still sniffling as Tsunayo held her in her lap. As soon as I walked in, she started crying in earnest again and wiggled away from Tsunayo. I picked her up as she ran to me, and her cries subsided back to sniffles.

Simon hadn’t told Aria and Tsunayo much when he’d dropped Dot off with them, so I explained the situation a little more and thanked them for looking after Dot. Simon got home soon after they left, and he sat next to us in front of the fire and held us both close until Dot wore herself out crying and fell asleep. Simon put her to bed then went to bed himself, but I stayed up in front of the fire for a bit, promising to be in soon. I knew I wasn’t gonna sleep that night anyway.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the woman I shot—Kiyori, the man called her. I couldn’t get over the rage I still felt, seeing her point a gun at my husband and child. At my child. But if I really thought about it, had I been that different from her all those years ago? I never shot a kid, but I did shoot a few folks in front of their own kids.

I stared at the crackling fire. Tomorrow would be back to more of the same as it always was these days. And I’d have to figure out how to handle Dot. Shit, she’d just watched her Mama shoot a woman. Barely three years old and she’d already seen more violence than I had before I was twelve. I should’ve went with her to make sure she stayed in the storeroom. Or sent Simon or Lars or something. I was already messing this up. Messing her up like I'd got messed up.

What was I doing here? What was I doing trying to raise a kid? Who was I kidding? Even if I wanted to be here, I knew I didn’t deserve a quiet life with a loving husband and daughter. Kiyori sure didn’t, so why should I get one? And besides that, Dot deserved a better mother than someone so violent. She deserved better than a mother who was miserable living in her own home, who couldn’t even get out of bed half the time. Simon deserved a better partner than that, too. My heart ached for them, but it also ached for the desert, for watching the stars above me as I fell asleep, for the sweet relief of sitting in the sand after a hard day’s work. I was trying. I really was. But I was in pain here, and I knew it was only a matter of time before it started to affect Dot, if it hadn’t already. This was why I never wanted a kid in the first place. I’d never wish her gone, though. Never that.

Before I knew it, the fire had burnt itself out and the sun was rising. I stood. I had work to do. Those bodies wouldn’t bury themselves.

#Simon is a sweetheart #fun fact Chrysanta doesn't like nicknames #the only people allowed to call her by a nickname are Simon and her brother and Vincent #she very begrudgingly allows Vincent to call her Santy #anyway she has so many feelings #a few weeks or so after this she up and bails for seven months leaving nothing but a note #chrysanta propaganda #homemade girlboss battle #tw blood mention #tw violence #tw death #tw guns #also you should ask shmungles to see more art of vincent bc they have a lot of it and he's very sexy

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sail-not-drift · 3 years ago

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Stucky Fic Recs

I’m waiting for my hair dye to develop and have also lost my mind to these two, so here, have some recs. All are amazing. The ones that make me FERAL are bolded, the ones that made my soul ascend have stars.

Dedicated to @neversleepingever and @mygutsforgarters, you heathens.

Dishonor On Your Cow - Shrunkyclunks (but not really, sort of) where Steve and Bucky have a hate at first sight meeting during the Battle of Manhattan and Bucky eventually joins the Avengers for feelings and hilarity.

****He's All That - College AU where frat boy Bucky takes a bet to turn disaster Steve Rogers into the class president but catches feelings instead.

dance with a ghost - Shrunkyclunks where Bucky moves into an apartment and finds himself haunted by the ghost of Captain America.

Introduction to Fake Dating Your Best Friend 101 - Professors AU, Steve and Bucky are a pair of professors who have to fake date for academic purposes and are real dumb along the way.

Five times Steve kissed Bucky - Pre-serum “fight me” Steve Rogers to post TWS.

To Believe in Tomorrow - Shrunkyclunks AU; Bucky's mornings at the community garden get a little more interesting when the new guy shows up.

Blush Pink - Dirty talking, dom!Bucky PWP.

if all my mistakes (led me to you) - No powers AU, Steve has to scramble to find a plus one for Peggy’s big day after being spontaneously dumped. Bucky is his slutty neighbor.

**Unusual Weather - Tony gives Bucky Asgardian drugs to chill him out while Tony fixes his arm. Steve is there to hold Bucky down. Then Bucky starts dirty talking.

a long way from the playground - Fake dating, no powers AU, Bucky needs to pretend he has a date to Becca’s wedding and blurts out his best friend’s name.

Something Borrowed - In-universe Sam POV AU where Sam, Steve, and Bucky go to Sam’s sister’s wedding.

Bucky Barnes: Sunscreen Assassin - In-universe AU; Steve refuses to wear sunscreen, Bucky takes that as a challenge.

winter wheat, sunflower peat - Powered AU where instead of re-meeting in TWS, Steve meets Bucky as a hitchhiker. ANGST AND FEELS.

**The Daily Rogers - College AU, exchange student Bucky meets Steve “fight me” Rogers, who classmates run a nasty blog about.

No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Pine - Secret Agent adversaries-to-lovers AU where the Winter Soldier keeps tying Captain America to walls and sticking around to chat.

Drive It Like You Stole It: A Bodyswap - Steve and Bucky get bodyswapped then go on a magical road trip with Peter Parker; extreme antics and harmless emotional torture for Peter ensue.

Your Lack Of An Answer Is Kind Of An Answer: Four Questions Natasha Asked Steve Rogers, And One Time Bucky Barnes Answered - Beautiful and painful Natasha POV, so many Steve feelings, SO MANY.

Achilles Come Down - You jump, I jump, pre-serum and after.

eros and psyche - Post-TWS, Steve and the Winter Soldier start an affair where the Soldier never lets Steve see his face.

Sparked Up Like a Book of Matches - Beautiful Steve-centric, post-TWS. Sometimes Tony gives him super alcohol in a sippy cup. Sometimes he sees Bucky out of the corner of his eye and wonders if it's real or if he's starting to lose his mind.

Itinerant - Nomad Steve goes wandering the world without the rest of the team to try and find himself while Bucky recovers in Wakanda.

Sweet Relieving - Pre-serum PWP, Steve cross-dresses, Bucky talks DIRTY.

4 Minute Window - Post-TWS, Bucky “kidnaps” Steve and they build a life together.

time on my hands (could be time spent with you) - Nomad Steve runs missions while Bucky recovers in Wakanda and everyone thinks they’re married.

My Working Week and My Sunday Rest - Steve's life after he throws down the shield and hides with Bucky in Wakanda.

Cat Nap - AU where Winter Soldier Bucky and Steve didn’t know each other; Bucky deprograms himself and Steve accidentally steals his cat.

The Size of Perfection - WWII, Steve is shy about how big the serum made his dick. But then there is extreme bittersweet beauty.

Ain't No Grave - Post-TWS (with a pre-TWS prologue) where Bucky accidentally adopts two homeless kids and tries to recover before finding Steve again.

So, You've Adopted a Fruit - Retired Steve and Bucky; Bucky rescues a stray kitten.

Bucky Barnes: on top of the Polls - Steve gets extremely unbalanced during American elections and Bucky both hates and lusts for it.

Together Forever and Ever - PWP, Bucky’s birthday.

Meet-Cute AU's - A gazillion different AUs, heaven on earth.

Lessons in Normality - Shrunkyclunks AU where Steve doesn’t know his normal boyfriend Bucky is a secret agent gathering information on him, Shield, and Hydra.

Pedantic Affectations - Shrunkyclunks AU, Steve is a vigilante badly undercover as a teacher, Bucky is the detective trying to bring him in. Steve in his brilliance decides to throw Bucky off his scent by dating him.

*That Ass (Property of James Barnes) - Bucky is loudly obsessed with Steve’s ass.

Strange Visitor (From Another Time) - Lois and Clark-esque Shrunkyclunks AU; Bucky is a reporter pissed at the new kid in the newsroom who ends up being Captain America.

Snapshots - Post TWS: Steve is trying to find Bucky. Instead, he finds the sexy Navy "propaganda" Bucky somehow never mentioned he modeled for before the war. Painful and profound.

The Roommate - Shrunkyclunks AU, Steve decides not to live in Avengers Tower and instead gets an apartment and finds a one-armed veteran for a roommate.

Side bitch out of your league - Shrunkyclunks AU, Steve misdials Bucky while on a mission. Then misdials him again. Then dials him on purpose.

(760): I literally cut myself out of my pants. Waste. Of. Money. - No powers AU, Bucky texts a random number on Sam’s phone for outfit advice.

Slide To Answer - No powers wrong number AU; Steve misdials Bucky for dating advice, then keeps doing it.

a line that goes all the way. - Recovery in Wakanda pining.

**********they're gonna send us to prison for jerks - Post-TWS, Steve and Sam are undercover and move in next door to a math teacher who looks just like Bucky, but Steve can’t be sure... MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FIC.

***Siege - Post-TWS AU where Bucky sticks around after pulling Steve from the Potomac and there are some painful and beautiful plot twists and some goddamn PROSE.

a blade with no handle - AU, the Winter Soldier joins the Avengers; identity porn.

Let's Fall in Love - Tony sends Steve and Bucky to a ridiculous fake speakeasy bar, feelings happen.

***Circling Back - Steve looks for Bucky, Bucky finds Steve, Steve tries desperately to put Bucky back together. Bucky tries desperately to let him. ULTIMATE POST-TWS RECOVERY FIC. Avenger family feels.

#TweetMeDaddy - Shrunkyclunks AU; Bucky works for Shield and tweets something that gets flagged as a death threat. It isn’t.

Good Boy - PWP, dom!Steve petplay; Bucky is still adjusting to life with the Avengers, and Steve is willing to do whatever it takes to make him feel comfortable.

#MCU #Stucky #Steve Rogers #Bucky Barnes #i spent a solid few minutes thinking about organizing these by genre #i might go back and do that later cause databases FUCK #but for now i'm sleepy #send me your address so i can visit you and explain my passions #otp: till the end of the line #otp: but i knew him #all I had to do was hold him #he ain't mine to love but i gotta love him #in every version of reality #we deserve a soft epilogue my love #fic recs

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qqueenofhades · 4 years ago

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Okay, y'all. Time to do this one more time. Let the fact that there are so many of these posts right now reinforce the point. Many of you already know this, and I see and love you, but for anyone still ~undecided about their choice, should they be an American citizen of voting age on November 3, 2020:

Time to not be. It was time a long, long while ago, but I am going to have to say it again.

Primary season is over. The endless fine-tooth combing of candidates' policies and positions is over. We are all deeply well aware that the candidates on the Democratic ticket, being human beings and establishment politicians, are flawed. "BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS POSITION FROM 19/ 20-WHENEVER AS JUSTIFICATION FOR WHY IT'S TERRIBLE TO VOTE FOR -- "

No. Stop. Just stop. Stop threatening to hold the rest of us hostage, in the middle of a pandemic, the Great Depression, and racial inequality and protests on a scale not seen from the 1960s, because you did not get Barbie Dream Candidate. That is the behavior of terrorists and toddlers. If your supposedly enlightened morally pure ideology does not involve any action to mitigate the harm that is directly in front of you, it isn't worth a shit as an ideology actually devoted to helping people. If your approach to politics is to shout about how Pure your ideas are on twitter and tear down anyone working within a system of flawed choices to do the good that they can: you're not helping, and frankly, your constant threats to withhold your suffrage as a punishment to us aren't convincing the rest of us that we really need to listen to you or that you have anyone's best interests at heart. The Online Left TM is as much a vacuous, self-reinforcing noise chamber as the Online Right TM, and can sometimes tend to be even more dangerous.

I was saying this in 2016. A lot of us were saying this in 2016. I am just about to turn 32 years old and have been voting in federal elections for almost 15 years. For what it's worth.

This is not an ordinary election. This is not a contest between two flawed candidates who respect the system and want to work to enact their policies in the ordinary way. One is a flawed 90s era Democrat who nonetheless has already been pushed CONSIDERABLY left in his policies and platforms since the end of the primaries (and his existing platform would already make him the most left president elected, even more than Obama). The other is a fascist dictator who has openly spoken about refusing to accept the election results, his desire to abolish term limits and serve for life, and complete the pillaging of any remaining fragile American public funds for him and his cult of cronies. He does not respect the system. He does not want to do anything for anyone that is not himself. 160,000 and counting needless deaths of American citizens have already happened. Will keep happening.

This is the last time Trump has to face voters. This is the last chance the country has to repudiate his entire poisonous ideology and its marching Nazi minions. IF he steps aside, which is already far from guaranteed, he can ride off into the sunset as a vindicated two term president and probably be rehabilitated like George W. Bush was within a few years of leaving office. American political memory is very short. It will happen. Again, if he even leaves.

RBG is 87 and has cancer again. She will NOT survive another four years. Stephen Breyer is 81. Their seats could both come up in the next four years. The Supreme Court could be a right wing rubber stamp for whatever time we all have left before climate change and coronavirus kill us all.

"But if people just thought for themselves and did their homework and didn't vote the party line like sheep, we could support a third party/write in -- " Stop. Just stop. Attend a ninth grade civics class and learn about how politics work in America. Yes, the two-party system sucks. Yes, the Electoral College is a hot steaming pile of absolute bullshit. Magical unicorn fairy dust fantasies WILL NOT change that.

Do not vote for Kanye (who has pretty much openly admitted he is trying to play spoiler to Biden on behalf of his buddy Trump). Do not vote for godforsaken fucking Gary Johnson or Jill Stein who appear on ballots just to give sanctimonious leftists the illusion of virtue-signaling. If you want any chance of fixing the mess that 2020 has left America and the world in, you need to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The end.

Biden is a flawed old man who was our last choice, sure. He is also a distinguished public servant who has already been in the White House for eight years under Obama and thus we KNOW what to expect. He is an empathetic man who connects with people's personal tragedy and picked as his running mate a younger Black/biracial woman who directly confronted and called him out on past behavior. While the pundit class was simpering and whining about how it was Disrespectful and how could he consider her, Biden did so, and that speaks well to me of the fact that he is willing to learn, to take criticism, and not just accept it from a former Black female rival, but make her his second in command and the potential first female president of the United States.

Can you EVER picture Trump doing that? Not in eight thousand million years.

As for Kamala, we are all aware of her previous checkered history as a prosecutor (and even then, she did plenty of good things as well!). Since joining the Senate, however, she has consistently become one of its most progressive members. She is the co-sponsor of an economic aid package designed to give every American $2,000/month, backdated to March (the start of the coronavirus pandemic) and continuing at least a few months after its end. A Biden-Harris White House could make that happen. Especially if they are put into office with a Democratic House and Senate (for the love of God, Kentucky, kill Mitch McConnell with fire). That is just one example.

Harris's nomination is obviously historic. And Biden didn't choose another Biden (or another Tim Kaine, the blandest white man imaginable). He chose another Obama: a younger rising star of an immigrant background, a person of color, a former lawyer and someone who represents the diversity of the country that the white supremacists and the Cheeto in Chief have tried to paint as its worst and most degenerate evil.

A vote for Biden and Harris means getting rid not just of Trump, but Mike Pence, Vladimir Putin, Jared Kushner, Betsy Devos, the Trump crony destroying the Postal Service, the rampant coronavirus misinformation and bullshit, the destruction of Social Security and Medicare, the spread of Nazi propaganda from the President's twitter account, the likely two Supreme Court picks that would be as bad as Brett Kavanaugh or worse... on and on. Biden and Harris would be elected by progressive voters and thus answerable to them in 2022 midterms and 2024 general. They can both be, and already have been, pushed further left. They are reasonable and competent adults who have demonstrated experience and compassion. I KNOW about their flaws and past actions I don't agree with. But I'm frankly done with any more counterproductive straw man bitching about This One Bad Thing They Did and how it makes it a terribad awful choice to vote for them. Open your eyes. Look at the alternative. LOOK AT WHAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED AND THE FACT THAT THIS IS NOT EVEN AS BAD AS IT COULD STILL GET.

Check your registration or register at vote.gov.

DO NOT LOOK AT POLLS AND DECIDE "EH BIDEN IS CLEARLY GOING TO WIN, I DON'T NEED TO VOTE." THAT IS HOW WE LOST LAST TIME.

Unseating incumbents is HARD. It is even harder when the other side has openly laid out their plan to cheat in great detail, and there is nothing really stopping them from doing it. The only thing, in fact, is massive, unfalsifiable results on an undeniable scale.

So:

Vote.

Vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Thanks a lot.

#hilary for ts #politics for ts #rant #long post #i will be reblogging this periodically as election day nears #haters/trolls will be blocked out of hand

657 notes · View notes

snkpolls · 5 years ago

Text

SnK Chapter 122 Poll Results

The chapter 122 poll closed with 1,472 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

RATE THE CHAPTER 1,428 Responses

This is one for the record books. Chapter 122 is officially the highest rated chapter since we started the poll. A whopping 85.2% of respondents gave it the top rating. The previous record holder was chapter 101 (79.8%) which featured the long awaited return of the Survey Corps.

5 out of 5 for the pig who seeks freedom! Fight For Freedom! Revolt! Revolt! Revolt!

Each chapter is becoming my favorite every time and this one isn't different. It's a fantastic read.

In a single chapter Founder Ymir became one of my top five characters in this series point blank.

I thought nothing could top chapter 100. 122 is the best one of the entire story.

A turning point. Very well executed. Congrats, Isayama, can't wait to see what you still have on store!

Yet another mind-blowing chapter, honestly one of my favorites in the series! Honestly, this was a chapter I have been awaiting since I started getting into SnK, and those feelings increased following the basement reveal chapters where we are left to wonder which parts of Ymir's story are true and which are false.

One of the best chapters of the series! Definitely gave me a new appreciation for Attack on Titan from a story telling standpoint.

I love how many questions this answers and also creates; I’m happy that there are still many things left a mystery!

Aamazing chapter, I fucking cried. Now give me Historia, Isayama. I need her.

I'm just so happy to see it finally coming together and not be let-down

If Floch doesn't die in the Rumbling I want a refund

Worldwide genocide, taking care of kids, get you a man who can do both

LEEEEET'S GET READY TO RUUUUUUUUUUUMBLE!!!

Damn, Isayama.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT? 1,439 Responses

You guys are almost as split on this question as Ymir’s Titan Powers are. Speaking of, she also happens to directly occupy the two most common answers, with 48.7% rating their favorite moment as either her backstory, or her conversation with Eren.The fall of the walls takes third place, followed by Eren’s revival and the cliffhanger at the end of the chapter.

WHO IS MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR 'STARTING THIS STORY?' 1,419 Responses

You started this story, didn’t you: pig who got freed? 45.1% feel that the earliest in story event makes for a good starting point. Just over ¼ of respondents felt the Founder Ymir Fritz is most responsible. 8.4% feel it’s Eren, and only 3.4% chose Grisha for whom the quote originally signified. The most popular write-in answer, King Fritz, overtook poor Grisha at 4.2%. Variations on King Fritz in the write-ins numbered almost 200.

People's greed. It started with the first King Fritz and it continued with the next generations

The Eldians (First Fritz)

Isayama. He started the whole story! If that wasn't him, the pigs would not run away.

Everybody has played their own part, it is not simply a matter of what single person is the most responsible.

The Attack titan

The Marleyean military higher ups that ordered Bertolt, Reiner, Annie and Marcel to breach the walls of Paradis Island

Those that blamed Ymir

The spinal fluid that was inside the three because if that wasn't there, titans would have never existed in the first place.

The cycle of violence/hatred/slavery. The King Fritz probably wasn't the first to be this way. The story has no true beginning because it's a cycle, but Eren will be the end.

King Dickz

The first King. Why isn't it an option?

WHO DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST CONNECTED TO/PARALLELS YMIR THE MOST? 1,422 Responses

Our current queen seems to resemble the first queen quite a bit, with almost half of respondents, at 46.8% saying Historia parallels original Ymir the most. 35% feel Ymir is most connected to, well, Ymir. 14.3% chose Eren, and a sliver of votes went to Zeke at 1.6%.

Though there are more parallels to Freckled Ymir, the pregnancy of Ymir Fritz can be a connection-foreshadowment of Historia's pregnancy plan. So I'll say that there are parallels to both Freckled ymir and Historia.

Mikasa is a lot like pre freedom ymir

Anyone who has been trapped in life

Connected to: Eren. Parallels: Freckled Ymir.

both Historia and freckled Ymir, obvs. And Mikasa, to a lesser extent

A lot of the cast parallel OG Ymir

Grisha

Definitely Freckled Ymir. She took the blame of all those people in the hopes of being useful or wanted through her sacrifice and then got the power of the titans.

Ymir has parallels to Historia, freckled Ymir and Zeke

Time will show.

I'd say both Historia and Ymir: the cult picked up Ymir, who was a homeless child, similar to how Founder Ymir was a slave without name or status; the two of them stood for their people even after they've been denounced out of cowardice and fought for someone else until their very end, out of pure selflessness. Historia parallels Founder Ymir by how she became a slave of her blood, and a tool to be used.

I was gonna say Oluo, but he never actually lost his tongue.

HAVE YOUR OPINIONS SHIFTED NEGATIVELY ON ELDIA? 1,421 Responses

In a conflict with no clear start, we get to see further back into the past! But did the revelations change your mind? The vast majority at 66.3% don’t give a flying fritz about who started it, they just want to see the bloodshed end. 12.7% say their outlook has changed but Marley is more in the wrong still; and only 5.3% had this chapter change their mind to the Eldians being most at fault.

All the men in power are as bad as each other

Both nations committed atrocities

Both sides are slaves to history, Eldia today is not responsible for the actions 2000 years ago.

Eldia in the past I always figured were some tyrannical force, I mean what else would happen with an ancient civilisation discovering the Power of the Titans. But Marley's propaganda having some truth to it doesn't mean they're justified in their treatment of Eldians in the modern day who had nothing to do with the original Eldia.

How could we know? What was the relationship between eldia and Marley before Ymir turned into a titan? Was Marley in the wrong before they were overtaken by eldia/even before king fritz took Marley people prisoner?

King Fritz is the one to blame. Not all of Eldia and ESPECIALLY not the Survey Corps.

Marley is more in wrong because they are continuing to perpetuate the conflict in the present.

The current characters we love and want to end up happy have nothing to do with the past, they just want to be free.

EVERYONE IS IN THE WRONG BUT THAT'S HOW THE WORLD WORKS

There's neither bad or right in this story "Everyone can become a god or a devil, all it takes is for someone to claim that to be the truth"

WHO IS THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE IN THE MANGA THUS FAR? 1,433 Responses

In a story filled with lovable characters, there’s also tons of douchenozzles. 67.7% believe the original King Fritz is the worst of them all. 17.2% took the intellectual route and responded with “Yes”.

All of them are rotten, selfish and full of hatred people who only think about themselves and are ready to manipulate own children (or other people) for own benefits.

first king Fritz of Eldia and Eren

Gabi a.k.a. Garbage

I believe king fritz and gross deserve eatch other, they are the assholes of their times

I'm surprised Zeke finally got a rival in being the worst human ever in person of King Fritz.

No recognition for our very own Darius 'poo-chair' Zackly?

Most have a at least some humanizing (if not redeeming) qualities, but both King Fritz and Gross are evil to the core

King Fritz, but Flock is also an big asshole (it's never a bad time to point that)

Where's Zeke? To be honest I can't decide between Fritz, Floch, and Zeke.

Who the fuck put floch here, come here and fight

Why on earth are Karina and Alma here? They were horrid mothers to their kids; the others are guilty of murder, torture and genocide.

Ymir Fritz because she received godlike powers and decided to stay with a power hungry king; she was free and could have done anything but because of her slave mentality she decided to stay with him for 13 years! as uncle Ben said "With great power comes great responsibility"

The 145th king is the only one who did unreasonable bad things to his people, he literally allowed his people to be enslaved all over the world and he allowed the future genocide of his people. The worst thing is this doesn't do anything. It doesn't save the world from anything. Even the paradise he created was all for himself because he couldn't deal with reality. His logic is faulty, but even so he couldn't even do the job himself. The only one that can be worst than him is Zeke who's another evil man who wants to exterminate his own people. But, unlike Karl, Zeke is willing to do the job himself.

That goddamn pig

WHAT IS THE TREE YMIR FOUND? 1,424 Responses

In a chapter with so many answers, we still have vague origins! Starting from the start, what in the world is that tree? Over half of you, at 55.5%, think it’s Attack on Titan’s version of the Yggdrasil tree from Norse mythology. 24.2% say it’s the source of all organic matter we’ve heard discussed. 11.3% say it just grew out of what it’s housing, and 5.9% think it’s similar to the forest of giant trees.

A connection between a human and the Earth, hence the Devil of All Earth

A wellspring or hidden primordial lake

Yggdrasil but is the source of all organic matter somehow, and I think it's somehow related to the trees on Paradis being so big.

A hideout for that Hallucigenia thing left by the devil

It appears almost as a man and women embracing. Adam and Eve??

It doesn't matter. It was never about the origin of the titans, it was about the power of the titans and the moral implications of it. How the titans came to be is irrelevant.

The Great Deku Tree dungeon

Titan tree. It is probably the same species as the trees surrounding it, but has grown unnaturally large due to the parasite in it's water source.

Tree

WHAT IS THE THING IN THE TREE YMIR FOUND? 1,421 Responses

Another layer of mystery within the mystery tree! Two main thoughts emerged and are almost even in popularity. 46.9% believe it is the source of all organic matter; wheread 44.3% say it’s a parasite of unknown origin. 3.2% say it’s in fact the devil itself.

A connection to the earth, making her the Devil

A *Symbiote* of unknown origin

A root of the tree that connects whoever it touches with the paths realm

A root of the tree that's been soaked and absorbing the water; the water is the real source.

I've seen enough hentai to know that is an alien

It could be the very first living being on this planet, a sort of progenitor from which all genes and all variations of biodiversity came to be.

Just a spine in the water turning little girl to big girl. What's supposed to be special about that?

This world's version of Níðhöggr, the many legged dragon that eats at the roots of the Tree of Life.

The spine of the previous founder

The Great Deku Tree dungeon boss. Ymir lost.

A poorly designed shit-machine that can't get the job done

A L I E N S

DID YMIR TEMPORARILY DIE WHEN SHE FELL IN THE TREE? 1,425 Responses

When Ymir fell into the tree, did she drown? The majority of the fanbase doesn’t feel anything like that happened, whereas over a ¼ at 26.6% feel she died and was revived. 5% believe she died, and was thereafter controlled by the parasite type thing.

Dying and being brought back to life is meant to be Zeke's thing!!

I think she was almost dying but the parasite healed her.

It revived her and created a clone within the paths dimension.

I think Ymir's body as a child is still in that tree to this day, with the parasite still attached to her. It was deep underground, thus affecting the ground shared by its roots (assuming this is Paradis), and being the reason for all the giant trees. It also explains a little Titans being creatures of the Earth, and Ymir forming them with sand.

She became a Titan seconds before dying

She probably passed out for a few seconds after she drowned, and it was during that brief state of unconsciousness that parasite attached to her.

Ymir the human died, and Ymir the Titan was born. That's why Ymir the human is in the Paths and not Ymir the Titan. Ymir the Human sculpts the titan body for her Titan self, because time is infinite and strange in Paths.

A mix of both Yes answers - it revived her but also controlled her body so that she could only watch on as an observer. It makes her more of a slave without a free will as something else is literally controlling her body from within her and she can’t do anything about it

P A T H S

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST STANDOUT TO YOU ABOUT YMIR'S TITAN DESIGN? 1,429 Responses

We finally got to see the original founding titan in the flesh! The ribs sticking out stuck out to 39.7% the most. 29.5% of you found it interesting that the overall design was uglier than the goddess like depictions we’ve seen. 17.6% went for the skull face she has, and 11.8% simply went for the HUGE size.

All of above, just look at that atrocity

Her missing eyes

Everything, the ribs were the first thing I noticed with the face being next. It took me a 2nd read through the chapter to realize that she is bigger than the Colossal titan. Definitely one of the best titan designs from Isayama

How malnourished it looks

It's terrifying and it's the fusion of the 9 titans

The fact that it looks nothing like I expected or imagined

Everything about it - One can see exactly why the truth about her was easily manipulated.

ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5, HOW OFFENSIVE TO YOU IS THE FACT THAT THE ORIGINAL WARHAMMER TITAN HAD HAIR? 1,418 Responses

This question was for that one guy who absolutely could not deal with the original WHT’s hair. You’re in good company, but the results are about as polarized as global politics. 35% want Emma back immediately, 16.4% don’t really care about this egregious crime, and 32.4% are totally indifferent. Only 16% had slight feelings in either direction. The poll lawyers are telling me that I have to clarify that Emma is still only a fandom name for the previous Warhammer. Get on it Isayama.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE DESIGNS WE SAW FOR THE ORIGINAL TITANS?

You guys liked Ymir’s Founding Titan so much that it’s literally off the charts. The original Attack Titan got some pretty mixed reviews, but the general consensus is that you guys prefer an Eren and/or a Jaeger to be driving that thing. The scourge of the hair comes back to beat down the original Warhammer’s ratings as well, but the majority remain indifferent. Speaking of indifference, more of you were indifferent about the OG Colossal Titan than had strong feelings one way or another combined. We’ll see how that result changes when it ends up CGI in Season 4. The general consensus on the original Armored Titan is, “It’s alright, I guess.” The Female Titan was the second on the list to have a majority “Love” rating, though whether this is due to the design or severe Annie Deprivation Syndrome remains to be seen.

DID YMIR MANAGE TO GRAB THE 'MOST TRAGIC BACKSTORY' AWARD? 1,422 Responses

Another tear jerking childhood to add to the list, but does it top it? The overwhelming majority at 83.5% feel that she did earn that award of tragedy. 6.3% believe the classic sufferboi Reiner still tops the charts. 3.4% went for Levi, 1.8% for the other Ymir, 0.7% for Zeke and 0.4% for Historia.

Everyone has suffered uniquely in this series, how can I choose ?

First, I'm offended Grisha wasn't included here. Second, everyone's suffered too much. So they all win.

Her backstory definitely is the darkest and saddest one. Reiner, Historia, Ymir and the rest had their moments of happiness. They were surrounded by loving people. Ymir was always all alone; born as a slave, had full of sadness life and after death she was creating titans for 2000 years. She just wanted to be free and wanted be loved, yet she had none of that.

Homegirl is still living her 2000-year-long tragic backstory, she definitely wins

I don't think tragic backstories should be a competition

I think you forgot about Mr Yeager :) those guys are not even close to him

Is this Suffering Olympics or something?

Ymir and Mikasa the most sad tragic backstory

Ymir is always showed as a mindless slave, even at the start of her backstory, it is too hard to empathize with someone that never acted as a human being and lived her whole life without any emotion

Grisha easily has it for me. Ymir's circumstances were worse from birth, and Reiner's dissonance and misery is tragic, but Grisha's perceived misery throughout his cycles of perpetual tragedy shows that he easily suffered the most.

Give them all a hug.

P I G

WAS THE MURDERER OF YMIR HELOS? 1,408 Responses

Is Helos historical or completely fabricated? 10.7% believe the Marleyan who killed Ymir is in fact Helos, and 66.9% believe the character is based on him. 22.4% don’t believe the idea of Helos and this man are related in any way.

The one showing rebellion in this chapter is the figure serving as a role model for Helos. Unlike Ymir, he was powerless and only had his spear, but he took enough courage to show resistance to Eldia's domination and toss his spear at the king. He paid it with his life, but he fatally wounded Ymir in return, showing even the goddess of titans could bleed. I'm confident the myth of Helos is going to be relevant in the future chapters.

YMIR didn't die with the spear-throw..I think her conscious form was stuck in the paths before her body revived.

Helos? Really?? Helos???

WHICH OF THESE LIKELY TO BE CENSORED SCENES WAS THE MOST GRUESOME? 1,421 Responses

In a series filled with gore, this chapter was above average with violence. Ymir’s young daughters cannibalizing their mother was the most gruesome according to almost all of you at 89.2%. Second place is a bit behind at 3.5%, with centipede spine Eren.

All of the above

Everything but Centipede Eren

The guy getting his tongue cut out that was even censored for the manga.

We've seen lots of people being eaten so not that, and Erentipede is going to be stunning animated so not that. Maybe head on a pike.

The tongue cut from the beginning really horrified me, it put the chapter in a great atmosphere from the start

No mention about that slave getting his tongue cut out by those ancient Eldian soldiers? That was pretty grizzle. That panel implies that all people enslaved by the Eldians lost their tongues upon getting captured, which meant that Ymir likely lost her tongue as well. That really explains how she had no spoken dialogue in the past, and while the tongue may have regenerated following her first Titan transformation, the length of time she couldn't speak and her status most likely prevented her from speaking.

No need to be censored

WHAT DOES EREN MEAN BY 'PUT AN END TO THIS WORLD'? 1,419 Responses

Eren’s finally stated what he plans to do; but what does it mean!? 45.9% believe the world he plans to destroy is the paths realm, eldning titans that way. 25.4% think he just meant dismantling the status quo of the world. 14.4% say he’s just going to rumble enemies of Eldia, whereas 10.6% say the whole earth.

All options seem plausible

Destroy the PATHS realm and rumble the enemies invading Eldia.

He plans to rumble all life, destroy the paths realm, AND erase all the memories of the remaining Eldians on Paradis so they completely forget about the history of the titans, thus effectively making the past 2000 years seem like they never even happened. ANDHe plans to destroy the PATHS realm, putting an end to titans

He wants to destroy the world as it is now. He wants to create a world where none of the things that happened to Ymir can ever happen again.

I think he just needs a nap

I understand that fandom wants to see Eren as good guy who will not destroy the world, but I think that everything is simple - Eren is planning to use full rumbling; destroy the whole world, kill millions of innocent people, animals and plants.

IT ALL COMES RUMBLING DOWN RUMBLING DOWN RUMBLING DOWN

4+5

HOW DOES THIS CHAPTER RELATE TO THE SCENE OF EREN CRYING IN CHAPTER 1? 1,399 Responses

2,000 years ago, 2,000 years from now. The titles of this and chapter one parallel, but what else? Over half of you, at 52.7% believe Eren was sent Ymir’s feelings when she had her emotional epiphany. 33.5% say Eren was sent memories of what’s about to happen, and 11.1% don’t think anything from this chapter related to Eren crying in chapter one specifically.

1st Chapter name suggest it does, but it just make no sense as Eren at that point didn't had attack titan power, so he could not receive others memories

Eren crying will be due to the consequences of this chapter

Eren learns of Ymir's backstory

I don't think Isayama meant for it to originally mean anything this far in the story, but I think there could be some Paths tomfoolery going on.

Eren saw the memories of his death and literally everything until that moment

Eren was sent a message like a cry for help maybe? Strong, intense feelings of sadness and despair... Because in this chapter Eren says she'd been waiting for someone for 2000 years, so I am guessing 2000 years ago she started sending a message.

ON A SCALE OF "EH" TO "I NEED TO HUG HER, HOW DID YOU FEEL SEEING LITTLE YMIR TEAR UP? 1,417 Responses

Sad Girl Hours have officially been endorsed by Hajime Isayama himself. 73.7% of you guys are in full support, and an additional 15.2% of your mice slipped when answering. 6.9% of you guys kinda just wanna see something else happen, and the first one of you on Reddit to say “Nice.” about that is getting sent to Paradis. Lastly, a grand total of 60 of you defy all explanation.

I want to hug Ymir so bad :( mute babby

WHY WAS EREN THE FIRST TO OPEN YMIR'S EYES? 1,415 Responses

It took 2,000 years for Ymir to open her eyes and her heart, what about Eren got her to that point? 29.9% think he was the only person to ever empathize with her at all, 8.4% think it was simply Eren’s chadness, while 8.3% think it’s only because the previous royals viewed her as a slave. The majority at 41.1% feel it’s a mix of all available options.

Because he was born into this world

Because he is the protagonist

He embraced her and showed her compassion- something she never felt before

Defiance of old wills. He does, after all "just keep moving forward."

Eren didn't seek to use Ymir as a slave

Eren made her realize that she isn't a slave OR a god. She was enslaved and in later years worshipped, but just like Eren: from the moment she was born, she was free

He knew/experienced everything she went through.

He manipulated her to be able to use her powers

He was the first person to tell her she could make her own choices

He was the only one that put his ideals over his personal gain to the end. Ymir is a slave, therefor Eren frees her from her slavery. /The previous royals viewed her as a slave

TALK NO JUTSU 2 GOOD; Eren is good at manipulating kids when it suits his needs best + He was the only one to ever empathize with her

WHAT IS YOUR PRIMARY THOUGHT ON THE CENTIPEDE SPINE THAT SAVED EREN? 1,417 Responses

Eren’s alive! But what is that… thing? IT LOOKS AWESOME! 32.9% had that as their first response. It was nearly a three way split though, and 30.6% first thought of how it must look for those for whom only a moment has passed since his head flew off. 30.2% quickly made the connection that it looks like the parasite thingy Ymir Fritz found. Only 3.2% thought it looked stupid as hell.

CREEPY but COOL

DO NOT WANT

100/10, better than Kaneki

Ken is hiring a lawyer for copyrights lawsuits against Eren.

I am wondering, what if this is basically Ymir's renouncing of the power she had, finally freeing herself, and thus passing it on to Eren?

I thought that Eren was becoming Níðhöggr, the literal devil that causes Ragnarok (the apocalypse). He looks really cool and frightening at the same time, I love this young man!

It cant be stopped anymore and weird for whom only a second passed

It looks less like a centipede and more like roots to me.

My thought, "The hell is that?!"

Nothing personal Eren, but burn that thing immediately.

Oh thank goodness Eren didn't split into two.

pure "why is the boss music changing to MORE intense?", and that's great

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT EREN SURVIVING THE BEHEADING? 1,410 Responses

44.3% of you are really enthusiastic about Eren surviving his beheading, despite proclaiming that you knew it’d happen anyway. It takes the noggin for a joggin’, but I’m not here to judge. 27.1% of you guys are relatively indifferent about it, and 21.1% of you didn’t think you’d like it, but ultimately bent the knee before Isayama’s storytelling abilities.

Am I surprised? No. Are you surprised? No

Disappointed but not surprised...

Excited, but wondering how he is actually going to die.

GABI GANG BTFO

It was predictable but the revival still felt epic

It was predictable since he's the main character, c'mon anyone else would die like Porco did.

oshiete oshiete

THE WALLS HAVE FINALLY FALLEN! WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THIS MOMENT? 1,410 Responses

A moment that’s been built up so long, what feeling took over when it finally happened? Most of the fanbase, at 68.3%, were just in awe at how well Isayama pulled it off. 14.2% were filled with hope that Eren actually made it happen. On the opposite end of the spectrum 13.5% were filled with dread.

All of the above. This story is a rollercoaster.

Dread as the wall titans are facing into Paradis so Eren's plan may backfire!

Everything in the manga has led to this moment

I kind of thought/hoped the rumbling would be a red herring, but oh well. it'll still be cool

I want them do the colossal dance

I was hoping this chapter won't end with cliffhanger

IT ALL COMES RUMBLING DOWN RUMBLING DOWN RUMBLING DOWN

Looks very dramatic, will be momentous animated, still not surprising since I think a lot of us knew it was gonna happen eventually

meh, I want the story to advance, but the rumbling never grabbed me as an event I was waiting for

LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!

I peed

IN SUCH A BEAUTIFULLY DRAWN CHAPTER, WHICH WAS YOUR FAVORITE DOUBLE SPREAD? 1,412 Responses

Isayama’s art truly has improved over the years and this chapter showcased that. The final panel left the biggest impression on 33.7% of you. 25.1% felt a deep impact from Ymir’s emotional closeup, and the walls cracking and crumbling rounds out the top 3 at 14.8%.

All of them

Original 9 titans.

the one where Ymir was building thousands of collosal titans

not so beautifully drawn but still nice

The pages with Ymir alone in the Paths realm while Fritz tells his daughters to continue the reign of Titans and Eldia

Ymir’s children eating her

IN CHAPTER 86 GRISHA MANAGED TO QUOTE KING FRITZ WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO READ THE "HISTORICAL" DOCUMENTS. HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLE? 1,406 Responses

In this chapter King Fritz used the same line Grisha did when learning about Ymir much further down the line. Half of the fanbase at 50.6% don’t feel that anything’s at play and it was just Grisha making assumptions based on what information he had. Just about ¼ at 25.7% feel paths are involved but they don’t have to explain anything after that. 14.2% feel there was a chain of memory sending that led to the result we got.

Actually Grisha never deciphered the documentation. I thought it was obvious he was being portrayed as extremist at the point to show the other side of the coin. Both sides just make up facts as they want.

I suppose it being the exact wording as what the King said made people think there was memories shenanigans but Isayama does these kind of parallels all the time, with characters saying something word for word that they don’t have knowledge of.

"Grisha how did you understand this?" "Pretty pictures."

WILL THERE BE A RUMBLING? 1,413 Responses

The walls have fallen. What will happen next? In a near even split, 48.1% win out saying there will be a small scale rumbling, whereas 45% say it will be worldwide. Only 6.9% feel there won’t be any form of rumbling at all.

I WAS WAITING FOR YEARS FOR THE RUMBLING!!!!!!

AWESOME! But i really don't want a full scale rumbling

Eren is becoming more and more the last antagonist of this story and it's just scary how some people in the fandom understand and support Eren's plan. Hopefully Marley, Zeke and the SC will working together to stop the rumbling and Eren.

i really dont think eren is gonna go full rumbling or even in a small scale, hes gonna end the word dominated by titans by taking away the titan power from eldians

The rumbling isn't a metaphor people. Eren is planning to kill billions of innocents. Can't wait for the warriors and 104th to team up and put down that mad dog.

Zeke said it himself a few chapters back: Eldia would have no chance of fighting the entire World Army; the Rumbling really seemed to be their only way out, and launching those Colossal Titans now as a pre-emptive strike would be the best way to suppress the Army before they can even attack.

I have a feeling that the rumbling will turn out to be anti- climatic. Lots of people seem to be pinning their hopes on the rumbling being the cure-all to Eldia's problems, but the world of attack on titan is not that kind.

WHAT/WHO IS THE TITAN FORMING AT THE END? 1,412 Responses

The chapter ended with a titan forming, but what will it end up being? Barely over half, at 51.6% believe it to be Eren with a power up from Ymir Fritz. 20.5% think it’s Eren with Ymir attached in some way, and 14.1% think Eren has accessed a new form on his own.

Eren and Ymir combined, rather than attached. Could be a new Titan form, could be Attack Titan on Titan Steroids. Need to wait until 123 to maybe find out.

Eren in Warhammer, he is not in the nape

Centipide Titan that will die after getting out of energy

Eren with full power from the Founder, Attack and Warhammer

I'm thinking it's some sort of founder-unlocked version of Eren's titan. Maybe Ymir is giving him full control now.

Eren and Ymir fused. Ymen

It's Eren but I don't know how his titan will look like and I don't care about it, cause I'm more worried about Gabi.

Eren's founding titan form. He had it all along, but he could never use it, until now.

The last two sound so lewd without context

DEATH FLAGS! WHO IN SHIGANSHINA IS GOING TO DIE AS A RESULT OF IMMINENT EVENTS? 1,340 Responses

I was gonna ask for Fs in the chat for whoever led in the results for this question, but then I saw it was Floch, so… Fs in the chat for Magath I guess, because a lot of you seem to think Hulk Hogan is going to suplex him (and Floch) through a table at Royal Rumble DCCCLIV. That’s fancy talk for “die.” Pieck and Zeke are pretty high on the list as well. There’s a lot of information here, so I won’t give you all the specifics in this written part—take a look! Armin has 92 votes, which lands him at 6.9% don’t say it Reddit, and Mikasa has 117 votes, with only 8.7% of you suspecting death in her immediate future. For a brick, she flies pretty good!

I hope no one, but I'm sure everyone

Everyone without plot armor, in other words no main or supporting characters.

I think the named characters are still safe. For Now. But soon, not so safe.

Less people than realistically possible

literally no one because Isayama is a hack

For some reason I feel like Yelena will die soon

Pieck, Niccolo, I don't want it to happen but I feel like Nikolo's gonna go down protecting the Braus family! :(

None of the above

HOW WAS YMIR STRANDED IN THE PATHS REALM AFTER DEATH, BUT NO OTHER ELDIANS SEEM TO BE? 727 Responses

Because she sort of... disassociated there

I think her younger self was "recorded" and so a version of ymir was there ever since she fell down the tree. The tree itself being the physical portal to it or sth like that. No one else fell down that hole...

in order to create the other 8 titans, she gave up her soul and became stranded there.

Because she started it all, she's the only one who touched the whatever it was that gave the titan powers.

I think it's obvious, she was the original slave, the only one that King Fritz's evil targeted specifically. Damning her to an eternity in the hellish isolation only making titans to oppress mankind, because that was his goal.

After she came in contact with what I believe to be the silver branch from Celtic Mythology, her conscious was unknowingly split into two; one in the paths and the other in the physical word. Once Ymir finally died in the physical world, her conscious fuse with the paths conscious and became aware of it.

I think the paths realm takes place inside the mind or dimension of that worm/nidhogg/ancient god parasite and she was brought back to it after she allowed herself to die. The sand Ymir uses to build titans may be her tapping into the reservoir of liquid underneath that giant tree or something.

she's tied to it as a slave and never had the strength on her own to break free

SHE created the PATHS dimension. She is the first titan and has almost unlimited power

A combination of being the bearer of the Centispine and the long years of abuse she went through making her unable to disobey yet another order. Hers is pretty much the most heartbreaking case of learned helplessness. What keeps her obeying the commands of the royals is the fact that she doesn't even realise there is another possibility. Because nobody ever cared enough about her to show her there is one.

Another version of herself was created, when she came in contact with the thing, so that she could create her titan etc..

As the very first Titan, she is the conduit through which PATHS flows. The parasite had now host in the beginning so PATHS couldn't be conveyed until Ymir showed up.

Because with her started everything, i believe her “burden” was to be attached forever

Maybe it's because she's the only one that's physically attached to that weird, interdimensional organism. Maybe it's because her body was dismembered and consumed by 3 different people. Other titan shifters don't get stranded there because their spirits can in some way inhabit the one person who inherits their power. Maybe there is significance to Eren having gotten 3 titans, perhaps one from each lineage: Maria, Rose, and Sina, which now somehow allows Ymir's spirit to leave Paths. He certainly did work hard to get the War Hammer, specifically.

i think paths always existed and have always been there, but there wasnt someone to be in there, because no one discovered that spine under the giant tree. so, i think that ymir's soul somehow connected with the paths at the moment she gained the titan power, and when she died, her soul converted into the "ruler" of the paths

It was always her, she's the special one. There is nothing special about eldians, other than them being biologically related to Ymir. Ymir was always the one with the power, the only one. She was only limited by her slave mentality, if she wanted to, she could've ruled the world forever and she would've been the only one with titan powers. It seems she has given her powers and special function to Eren. That means that Eren alone will be the special one and he will rule the world forever with only him having titan powers.

She held all 9 titan powers, and as the only person in history to do so, she has the ability to view all of the other branches on the tree. Similar to how a shifter might be able to view the memories of a past shifter.... Ymir can view ALL of them, for all time.

The devil needed a host for his dimension

That's her curse. Possibly bound by her loyalty to the King Fuck-Face-Fritz

you know PATHS, i ain't gonna explain that

THERE ARE MANY THEORIES ABOUT THE CENTISPINE'S QUALITIES—WHAT ARE YOURS? 579 Responses

A number of responses here ranging from the hilarious to the creepy; The centispine. A great many of you (We can’t tell if you’re serious or not…) are talking about Aliens, whilst others postulate that the thing results in parasitic possession, ALA Sekiro.

A parasite thingy? Source of organic matter?

A power-bestowing parasite, hence why it needs to be eaten

Alien would be the easiest. But maybe the tree is actually Yggdrasil and its roots pass through other worlds. And the parasite is from another world.

alien/prehistoric being capable of phasing matter through dimensions

Aliens

ALIENS

Bruh its an organic life form/parasite, when bonded to a host ot provides them the titan ability

Don't think it's a biological, probably a mythical being inspired by Norse mythology

Eren will become the human centispine

For me the most plausible is the fact that it resembles a living creature from our world who is supposed to create the whole world 300 millions ago or so

I believe its power weakens the more it divides. The power of each of the 9 current titans is nowhere near that of how powerful Ymir was after she first got the power.

I don't think we'll get any concrete explanation, but it's some creature with fifth-dimensional qualities that unwillingly merged with Ymir. I think the 9 main spines on the bottom on each side doesn't necessarily represent the amount of Titans but how divisible Ymir's power is before it becomes warped (mindless Titans). I also think of some level the idea of the parasite being connected to the Titan power is an inherent correlation that only exists because of Ymir. The idea of power = giant big monster seems like a very childlike concoction, and an antiquated one too. Since we know willpower and manifesting a goal in mind are part of the Power of the Titans I don't think it's too far-fetched that those specific powers came from Ymir herself, and the parasite merely made them possible on her physical plane of existence. This would seem to be at odds with its connection to being giant existing before Ymir made contact with it, due to the giant tree and my inferred connection with it and the giant trees on Paradis, but remember this thing exists outside time itself, it's a frankly unperceivable organism.

I don’t fucking know

WHAT ARE YOU MOST HOPING TO SEE NEXT CHAPTER? 1,383 Responses

Next chapter starts off the the new volume, but what do you want to see in it? 28.1% want to see the full rumbling begin, 23.4% want to see how Eren’s titan transformation turns out, and 15.4% just want to see some action in Shiganshina. For those who want the scene to change, 11.9% want to catch up with Levi and Hange, 8.2% want Annie, 4.4% want Historia, and 4.3% want even more historical info dumps.

ALL OF IT BRING IT ON ISAYAMA

Armin transforming into the colossal titan

Death and suffering

Eren's master plan and more history hopefully

Full rumbling AND Levi and Hange.

i really look forward to see annie but what i really want to see is what is going to happen to the others (pieck, gabi, falco, reiner, etc etc)

Levi/Hange AND Annie. I feel like if Annie is going to ever return to the story, it'll be at a climax of some sort.

The hizuru lady piloting the boat-plane over Shiganshina

Lore, HISTORIA PLEASE I LOVE HER AND WANT TO SEE HER, Levi/Hange, Eren, and the immediate consequences of the Walls crashing down.

What the heck the plan actually is. For all we know, they could be uncovering the wall titans just to send the material that makes up their bodies back to Paths land. An Ymir/Eren hybrid titan could just have them hold still and spend the next years devouring them. We literally know nothing.

Somebody stopping Eren and bringing a sense of honor and morality(preferably Reiner, Armin or Gabi)

The ending Audio might be next chapter

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 1,309 Responses

Reddit continues to dominate the discussion field, comprising 52.4% of this vote alone. Tumblr, Facebook, and Youtube follow far behind, and 4 of you said Snapchat. That’s 0.3% of respondents, which is technically a low enough percentage to make sense, so maybe I should believe you guys, but I don’t.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER?

My thoughts on Eldia after reading this chapter: "Oh, so Marley really wasn't fabricating history with how ancient barbaric ancient Eldia was, especially with how ancient Eldia treated them. Can't blame Marley for putting that on the history books and using that as part of their propaganda. Considering that and what Marley is doing right now, it just adds to the moral grayness of the story.

Eyes have always told a story in SNK, whether it was the intention of a character (Zeke, Grisha, etc) or their true feelings (Levi). Eyes, and the lack thereof, in Ymir's backstory, told us that THAT was finally the real history. Until now we've always had someone else's warped perspective of history, but now we know how it actually was.

Eren's not JUST a murderer and teenage terrorist, look, he also hugs kids!

Ymir's backstory was a bit disappointing, I expected it to be more grey; Ymir is basically a poor girl who never did anything wrong and King Fritz is the big bad who seems to be the greatest jerk of the story; I don't think this fits with the ""the world is grey"" theme of the story at all, even Gross had at least something interesting to say

Amazing turn of events. Ymir deserves to be released from her enslavement. If the devil has to come out now that his plan is being foiled by Eren, I think Zeke can be a good host for him to incarnate as, justifying Levi killing Zeke as the final main villain of the story.

Definitely one of the best chapters of the overall series.

Annie...oh Annie... God knows how isayama is going to put her back into the plot now!

As much as I want to see Levi and Hange again, I really want to know more about Eren's plans. We still don't have a clear answer, but the part where Eren hugs Ymir makes this my favorite chapter.

Barely feels like the same series, but in a good way.

Brilliant payoff after having the action suddenly halted for multiple chapters. Shit is finally going down.

Eren and Ymir deserve to succeed and completely destroy the world. It’s already been corrupted too much for it to be fixed any other way at this point. This world was crafted by filthy, bloody hands and it’s about damn time for Eren & Ymir to break it down so it can be crafted by cleaner hands.

Eren and Ymir have done nothing wrong ever at all fite me

Eren best dad. I'd rumble a million worlds for him to hub me like that. Yelling right into my ear is just a bonus.

Possibly the greatest chapter. The last 3 chapters together could be the greatest side story in Attack on Titan. Isayama is just...I am at a loss for words. He's just the greatest. He just needs to finish the story on a high note and that's it. Even if he doesn't, this is one of the greatest manga and anime of all time.

People who have unquestioning trust in Eren aren't invited to my birthday party

Honestly, I loved it. It was so well executed and so goddamn interesting. I love how Isayama gives us *almost* all the information we need to piece the whole thing together and leaves just enough for us to have our own speculations. I just hope that they're all resolved at the end though considering there's probably only 4 chapters left at least.

I cannot wait to see the last 5 pages of this chapter animated, easily one of my favorite set of pages from the whole series

I couldn’t have ever thought this was going to be the content of this chapter but I’m so glad it came out the way it did

I cried so much, I love the story

I honestly didn't care much for Ymir's backstory. But hopefully the Rumbling will make things more interesting

I think this chapter might have benefited from being two chapters. There was so much information to absorb in a very short amount of time, I feel like a lot of questions weren't answered that probably never will be now like- why are there 9 human controlled titans? How did the mindless titans factor in? Why did Ymir die from the spear when Eren can have his head shot off? Why did the other slaves turn on Ymir in the first place? Where did she come from originally? Was she captured? Born a slave? There was I think a missed opportunity to develop her character a little more. I get the idea of even the narrator not really caring about what she's experiencing but getting a little more insight into her perspective would have been really interesting.

I read earlier that the closest creature of the devil are human beings .. but humans are more evil .. King Fritz represents the devil .. Thank you Isayama .. In our reality many demons already exist and I have one in my house .. In the corridor

I see a lot of people shitting on Zeke (even comparing him to that asshole king) for ordering Ymir around, but like.... he just heard Eren saying he will end the world (plus remember what Grisha said about Eren memories/intentions), he must be really panicking, so of course he would desperatly shout orders to Ymir and insisting he's of royal blood, that's basically at the moment the only way he could try to stop Eren. And yes, that's not nice to Ymir, but still that doesn't put him on the same level as King Fritz at all.

I thought Gross was the epitome of evil. Then came Fritz. HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT. Don't tell me Ymir doesn't deserve a little payback after 2000 years as a slave.

So Zeke endorses genocide, but not Total World Destruction? Whatevs, man.

Sucks to be Gabi after killing Eren only for this to happen a second later.

I was kinda shocked when Eren, given the shitty way he treated Mikasa in ch 112, started comforting Ymir and telling her she's not a slave. I never realized Mikasa meant that little to him. What a fucking asshole.

I'm glad the question "is Eren going to activate the rumbling as a part of his plan?" was finally answered. I also finally made up my mind about Zeke and I now know I don't like him due to how he acted towards Ymir. I love that we finally learned about Ymir, and that both Marley's and Eldian Restorationists' versions of history were partially correct. I love that the devil was actually King Shitz and Ymir wasn't a goddess but a slave to the devil, but she still helped the Eldians develop and thrive. Also, I love how most of my theories were proven to be true this chapter. Overall I really liked it.

IT CanNoT bE sTopPeD aNymOre

What is interesting to me is that Ymir's legend seems to be the opposite of what women in history usually get: Often great women are forgotten or their agency is reduced only to that of a mother, lover, wife or daughter of some man. Whereas Ymir is remembered even after 2000 years as the Founder and forebear of Eldia, but in reality she didn't do any of those things on her free will. She was just one of the many who were enslaved and used by Eldia, yet she is celebrated by Eldian rebels as a symbol of its former greatness. Heck, even her last name, Fritz, isn't her own, but her abuser's. Chilling and fascinating.

it was fucking amazing. holy hell, i’m in TEARS after reading this latest chapter. it was so beautifully executed and drawn, and the walls crumbling deadass made me cRY OKAY-

It was incredibly tragic but the final portion somehow combined sweetness and epicness

It's been over a week and I'm still reeling. This series gets better every month and I really don't want it to end

Ymir Fritz being presented as she is defied a couple of perceptions we've got from her: the books either implied she made a deal with the devil, or she was a benevolent goddess, when she was neither. Born as a girl from a ravaged tribe, she didn't have any voice, or agency, yet deep down she believed showing kindness was her way to make people happier after the damages of war. She accepted being fingerpointed if the other slaves could keep their eyes, she served the Eldian tribe with her newfound power, fought their wars, bore the king's children and took the final hit for him. Her spirit is then condamned to serve her line for eternity. Truly the most pitiable character of SnK so far.

I found Ymir's story too strange to be attached to her and I was a little disappointed to see that there was basically nothing that had come from her own will. It would have been more interesting in terms of conflict to see if there had been reasons why she had done this, if there was something that prevented her from acting against the Eldians for any reason. But in fact she just let herself be guided by the flow again and again, and I do not feel it's a valid reason to let herself go for more than two thousand years.

Never thought I'd hate a character more than Floch and Sergeant Major Gross, but here we are…

The whole Ymir's backstory moved me a lot because I didn't expect it to be so sad and full of despair. Ymir is definitely the most tragic character in the whole story and one of the most tragic characters in the world of manga/anime. I hope she will finally get some love and will be surrounded by honest and loyal friends. Every tragic character in SnK deserves a hug but I think that she needs it the most.

this chapter's artwork really stood out to me. The way literally no eyes were present in the flashback, even the king's, and the expression of fury and agony on OG Ymir's face when Eren tells her she has a choice. Isayama just keeps getting better and better with his art, and some of his style choices really made me see the individual panels differently.

Predictable and necessary. About this poll and the fandom in general: is amazing how the mayority (or the loudest part) of this sub tends to take things in the most literal way possible while praising Isayama as a genius or something like that, or labeling as "subtle" things that scream "HELLO I'M HERE MY NAME IS BRIAN" at your face, or misread characters in the most extreme way

Ragnarok has started and I don't know if I should be excited or afraid

Read this together with Ch.121. Eren is such a well-developed complex character. You may not like him, but credit must be given to his amazing character building trip. GJ Isayama

IT'S HAPPENING! THIS MANGA MAY END IN LESS THAN A YEAR FROM NOW, AND WITH AN EPIC ENDING IF THE ENDGAME SO FAR IS ANY INDICATION. I DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS, HELP

nothing to add, just amazing job from isayama

#snk spoilers #snk poll #snk polls #poll results #snk 122

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warninggraphiccontent · 5 years ago

Text

29 November 2019

Manifesto destiny

What do this year's manifestos have to say about data, digital, open government and technology?

While we wouldn't expect them to get into the finer points of digital government and better uses of data in government - not in themselves the most doorstep-friendly of issues - there's a fair amount in there. Online harms, cybersecurity, citizens' digital rights, using data to better understand barriers to diversity (very Race Disparity Audit) and general references to technology across various sectors all make an appearance. There's not that much on open data or open government (beyond an eye-catching Lib Dem promise on a citizens' assembly on algorithms), or much detail on the Conservative promise to improve the use of data, data science and evidence in government (#classicdom). We've got a summary here, the Ada Lovelace Institute have one here, and Peter Wells has a thread on each here.

It's interesting to compare with the 2017 versions. The Conservatives apparently promised some new bodies on the use and ethics of data, and geospatial data - whatever happened to those? - while Labour promised to keep the Land Registry and all its data under public control (repeated this time around) and extend freedom of information to private providers of public services (ditto). No mention of Freedom of Information in the Lib Dem manifesto for the first time in a while.

There'll be some more on manifestos on this week's Inside Briefing podcast. We looked at, or rather listened to, prime ministerial tenure last week.

And in brief:

It was a real pleasure to chair Will from Full Fact, Liz from Digital Action, my old boss Martin from King's and the chair of the Electoral Commission, Sir John Holmes, on whether we can trust our electoral system in an age of rapidly evolving technology. All killer, no filler, as the kids say - well worth a watch or listen.

And if you liked that, you may like some of our other #IFGElection2019 events, including one next week on other aspects of our electoral system.

Another important event: on starting a career in public policy. Thinking about a career in public policy? Never thought about a career in public policy? Want to get started in thinktanks, or still wondering what a thinktank is? Come and have your questions answered on Monday 9 December.

To the Argentine Embassy for the launch of the Bennett Institute's new report on digital government in Argentina since 2015. Excellent discussion, excellent report, excellent empanadas.

No Data Bites next week - we're hoping to get started again in February. But as well as watching all the previous ones back, you can join us for some drinks on Wednesday - get in touch via Twitter if you'd like to join.

RIP Clive James.

It's easy to forget in the midst of the election campaign but it is nearly Christmas. Come and celebrate with my choir, the New Tottenham Singers, on Saturday 14 December.

Have a great weekend

Gavin

Today's links:

Graphic content

Let's talk about MRP

The key findings from our MRP (YouGov)

Election Centre (YouGov)

MRP election poll: Boris Johnson heads for big majority* (The Times)

Poll forecasts Commons majority for Boris Johnson* (FT)

How do pollsters predict UK general election results? (FT)

Manifestos

Where does the climate emergency first get mention in the party manifestos? (Tortoise)

A chart based analysis of the text in the Conservative and Labour manifestos (Daniel Tomlinson)

Manifesto word count (me for IfG)

#GE2019, etc

Top target seats in the 2019 general election – interactive (The Guardian)

Meet Parliament’s class of 2019* (The Economist, via Tom)

What happens if a prime minister loses their seat in a general election? (IfG)

A New Class Of Angry Partisan Facebook Pages Are Dominating The Online War In The British General Election (BuzzFeed)

Trust in civil servants/politicians (me for IfG)

Veracity Index (Ipsos MORI)

We're now three weeks without a Secretary of State for Wales (me for IfG)

Long term trend shows decreasing concern over economy, unemployment, rise of Brexit (Ipsos MORI)

Women in parliament (Alice for IfG)

Tax and spend

This is how marginal taxes work (Mona Chalabi)

Explaining progressive income tax (Matthew Armstrong)

Divided and connected: Regional inequalities in the North, the UK and the developed world – State of the North 2019 (IPPR)

Elections elsewhere

Hong Kong election results mapped* (New York Times)

A Staggering Number of Candidates Are Running for U.S. President* (Bloomberg)

Who is ahead in the Democratic primary race?* (The Economist)

Everything else

How Do You Find Good NFL Defenders? By Measuring What’s Not There. (FiveThirtyEight)

A kaleidoscope of river pollution (The ENDS Report)

Die letzten Mieter (Zeit Online)

Pope Francis, globe-trotting at an age when other popes have eased up, is trying to transform the church through his travels* (Washington Post)

Data and #dataviz

Survey of public sector information management 2018/19 (data.gov.nz)

Make your own UK General Election maps (Flourish)

Lowering the bar (Full Fact)

Reddit's Bar Chart Race moratorium is a good thing for #dataviz. Here's why. (Andy Cotgreave)

Meta data

Poll position

How YouGov's 2019 General Election model works (YouGov)

FAQs about YouGov's 2019 general election MRP model (YouGov)

MRP Estimates and the 2019 General Election (Anthony B. Masters)

Why you should take YouGov's MRP with a pinch of salt; Six thoughts on YouGov's MRP model of the 2019 election* (New Statesman)

Brexit didn’t cause all our divisions (UnHerd - although...)

Forensic polling analysis shows how Boris Johnson is on course to win—and how he can be stopped* (Prospect)

What to make of the polls? (Will Jennings)

The hidden predictor? Council control (Ian Warren)

Four Problems With 2016 Trump Polling That Could Play Out Again in 2020* (New York Times)

Election 2019: Can we trust our electoral system? (Institute for Government)

Manifestos

General Election 2019: manifesto tracker (Institute for Government)

Manifestos still matter even though their promises aren't being delivered (Institute for Government)

Tech/data in the 2019 manifestos (Peter Wells)

How will data and AI work for people and society after the UK General Election 2019? (Ada Lovelace Institute)

2019 Manifesto - 'Towards a Better Future' (techUK)

The Startup Manifesto (The Entrepreneurs Network/Coadec)

Future of the web

Contract for the Web (World Wide Web Foundation)

Tim Berners-Lee unveils global plan to save the web (The Guardian)

Read Sacha Baron Cohen's scathing attack on Facebook in full: 'greatest propaganda machine in history' (The Guardian)

Platforms don't exist (Ben Tarnoff)

Internet Harms: We need a Regulator, not a Censor (Martin Stanley for the Bennett Institute)

Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private equity firm, price caps axed (The Register)

Oil, data, data, oil

Oil is the New Data (Logic)

The Next Big Cheap: Calling data “the new oil” takes its exploitation for granted (Real Life)

Data, transparency, openness

Unlocking the value of London’s public sector data (Eddie Copeland)

What does transparency mean? (Understanding Patient Data)

Open government must be more than a commitment on paper* (Apolitical)

11 thoughts on Donald Trump, Transparency and Records (Ben Worthy)

Cabinet Office ignores court order to release secret fracking report (The Guardian)

Open Banking: Consumer consent frameworks around the globe (ODI/Equifax)

Thierry Breton to be in charge of leading new ‘EU data strategy’* (Politico)

Everything else

Better than ethics (Rachel Coldicutt, Doteveryone)

Help TheyWorkForYou make sense of Parliament (Crowdfunder)

Taiwan is making democracy work again. It's time we paid attention* (Wired)

Facebook’s only fact-checking service in the Netherlands just quit (The Verge)

OPSI Primer on AI for the Public Sector (OECD, via Marcus)

Opportunities

AWARD: 2020 Statistical Excellence in Journalism awards launched (Royal Statistical Society)

JOB: RESEARCHER/POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR, AI ON THE GROUND INITIATIVE (Data & Society)

JOB: Director of Standards & Interoperability (NHS England)

JOB: Senior Researcher: Court Monitoring and Open Justice (Spotlight on Corruption)

JOBS: 2020 US Election (FT)

JOBS (Luminate)

And finally...

Thanksgiving

The Ultimate Thanksgiving Dinner Menu (FiveThirtyEight)

9 charts to be thankful for this Thanksgiving (Vox)

Practice makes perfect: Carve this virtual turkey* (Washington Post)

Politics

How the UK are predicted to vote is... (@notstelfc, via Haydon)

Winning here. Hang on... (via Alasdair)

Medieval Catholicism nudged Europe towards democracy and development* (The Economist)

Irish parliament red-faced over printer too big to fit through doors (The Guardian, via Alice)

Fibonacci Day

Fibonacci Anonymous meetings this afternoon... (Moose Allain)

A poem (Brian Bilston)

Everything else

How Emojis Have Invaded the Courtroom (Slate)

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Day in the life of a data journalist. (David Ottewell, via Graham)

Warning: Reading the Wikipedia entry for the guy who invented the bar chart will give you multiple cases of serious whiplash (Tom Wilson, via Tim)

Hi, I'm Bill gates and today I will teach you how to count to ten (@OneDevloperArmy)

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morewritingforourcharacters · 5 years ago

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Two months lata

After two months of living as steward and steward’s wife, they had found a good rhythm. Lander would wake up first, always at some unholy hour. He didn’t get much sleep anymore, not since they’d learned that Queen Harper was plotting her return. He tossed and turned most of the night, sometimes waking up Maudine and sometimes getting pushed off the bed because of it. When that happened, he’d climb back in and hit her hard with his pillow. Then Maudine would shoot straight up in bed with angry eyes and crazy spaghetti hair. But if Maudine were to hit Lander back, Lander would call the guards on her, and neither of them would get enough sleep. So she’d wait for morning to spit in his tea.

But when Lander decided to get up and get ready, Maudine would stretch all the way out on their shared bed and listen to him pitter patter around the room for a while. There was talk of bringing a second bed into the room, secretly. But since their worthiness as rulers was already in question, nothing could be spared to keep up appearances. So it couldn’t be risked yet. Lander was at the point where he was considering getting a lapdog just to have a cage for Maudine to sleep in. He��d even spoken with the royal furnishers about designing a dog cage with pink and red bows, and a velvety dog bed. Once he’d even caught himself fantasizing about convincing Maudine that there were more perks to pretending to be his pet than pretending to be his wife.

This morning, Lander sorted through the official mail, grumbling as he flipped through several orders sent by council members. He’d been groomed for this position from boyhood, and thought he played his role well. But lately the council was tightening their grip about Lander’s throat. It seemed that if Lander so much as blinked wrong, he had to be called into a council meeting for reprimands. There was a tension among them with the prospect of Queen Harper’s return to claim her “rightful” place. If it was true, they didn’t know in what manner she’d be returning. She might march in with the Miger people on her left and the Termellow military on her right. Or she might be more quiet about it and send a man from the Kingsguard to kill their mascot, as they had tried to do to her. If only they could figure out where she was hiding, but it had proved an impossible task. They only heard news through whispers and snippets of intercepted transmissions.

A clean white envelope stuck out among the others, and Lander sliced it open and gutted its insides. It contained the results of his popularity poll, as administered by the council. They thought it would help to know where he stood with the people. Lander scanned it quickly and his fresh face went sour. It appeared his subjects did not have a high opinion of him , but even worse-

“Maudine,” he hissed. She blinked at him sleepily and smiled. “Public opinion hates you. I told you that you open your eyes too widely, they look like they’ve been taped open. Why do you insist on terrifying people wherever you go?”

She was still smiling, which made him even angrier. “That look there, that’s why! Wipe that smile from your face, you hideous clown. Are you even listening to me? Have you heard a word I said? Are you dead? You look like you’ve perished, what an awful fate, to be buried with such a vapid expression.”

Her vapid expression did not change, not a single conscious thought seemed to pass through her. “My lord, are you really dead?”

He reached out with his walking staff and prodded her side, and only then did she start laughing. Lander stood up abruptly and went to wash his face.

“Oh yes, the height of humor, master of comedy. You sicken me.”

Maudine slid from the bed and followed him into the bathroom. Neither looked at each other, Lander swished water in his mouth and Maudine started pulling out lipsticks and mascara.

“You poked me really hard,” she pouted.

“Shush, give me some peace this morning.”

“Why don’t you love me anymore?”

“I never-“ Lander stopped and glared at her for the absurdity of her question. He wasn’t going to play into this, whenever she started spouting nonsense she was just trying to get something out of him. Maudine leaned over the sink, her nose nearly touching the glass to put on her makeup. He glared harder as he watched her apply mascara with her eyes as wide as saucers. It was so disgustingly obvious why the popularity poll was at an all time low.

“We can rekindle that old flame we had two months ago, let’s run away together, Lander.”

“No.”

But the genuine tone of her voice did give him pause. He didn’t care about her feelings, not even a little, but sometimes he couldn’t tell if Maudine was truly invested in this marriage or if it was all part of her trickery. Sometimes he got the feeling that she wanted him to care, though he couldn’t fathom why. Some womanly weakness, probably. Maudine clipped her mascara closed and put everything back in the drawer. She left and Lander let out a sigh, relieved until she came back only a moment later.

“Fine, if you’re going to stay then you’ll need your laser-proof vest.”

For this, Lander actually relented. He put his hands out and Maudine slipped the tightly woven fabric over him. Her arms slid around his waist as she did the clasps. Lander glanced at the two of them in the mirror, thinking it was rather a pity he didn’t care for her. Maudine looked in the mirror too. Then she gave Lander an extra nuzzle, because his time in this world was probably about up.

They were always followed by two guards, wherever they went. Often the guards were faces they hadn’t seen before, since everyone had been replaced after the incident with the rogue who whisked off with the queen. Maudine walked briskly at Lander’s heel until they stopped in front of the Council’s conference room. Inside, Mr. Proteus was waiting at the center of the long table, and the two Agnes’ were seated on his right, Mr. Agnes being the closest, and both of them arguing quietly about who would sit get to sit next to Byron Proteus at the next meeting.

There were little dishes with galactic cheese and fine crackers placed at intervals along the table setting. The royal couple took their seats on the other side of their families in a way that was almost graceful. But then Maudine made a point of brushing some strands of hair behind Lander’s ear and he swatted her hand away.

“Lander,” Mr. Proteus snapped with a chastising tone. Lander looked at him with a hurt face, wanting to say something but thinking better of it. Mr. and Mrs. Agnes were both looking at their son-in-law, smiling from ear to ear. After that, several other council members filtered into the room, and Mr. Proteus commenced his opening statement.

“Welcome, fellow men and women of the venerable council. Take a seat, enjoy the refreshments. The servants are at your disposal if you should require anything more. Now, you all must know why I called this meeting this morning.”

“The results of the poll, I expect,” Lander cut in, his expression morose. Mr. Proteus remained in his calm and dignified pose, but his eyes darted to Lander lightening quick.

“No, I haven’t seen them. Did we meet expectations?” At once, Lander realized his mistake. Maudine hummed and looked around.

“Ah, modest..expectations, father.”

Bryon Proteus, whom nothing got past, knew what this meant. He also knew the right time to bring up a matter, and so brushed past this one.

“We must address the possibility of Queen Harper’s return. As you know, there has been talk that the rebel faction has prepared a violent attack with Harper at the lead. I believe our best defense relies on the loyalty of our subjects. Let them toss her back out before she even arrives to the palace.”

Turning the people against Harper was not out of the realm of possibility. Those living on the Alpha planet had reason to be pleased with their new government. Elpis was bringing in a surplus of resources from worker planets. Living wages were steadily increasing, and many of the minor planet rebellions were already squashed. From the vantage point of the Alpha planet, peace was on the horizon.

“So I’d like to open this up to you,” Byron continued, “Do I hear any suggestions from my illustrious peers?”

“We can start a propaganda campaign, spread messages that subtly chip away at her reputation.” Someone else immediately followed up on this:

“Lightbringers kept us in darkness.”

Mr. Agnes, the note taker, jotted the idea down quickly, and Mrs. Agnes snapped her fingers for one of the servant boys. A very nervous looking man hurried over to her, a tray and a towel in his hands.

“Aloysius,” she said, “Bring me some strong liqueur. I think better when I have some strong liqueur.”

“As..as..as..as you wish..” he gulped down and scurried off to fulfill her request. It took only a moment for him to return, and by then Byron had turned over this idea and decided it wasn’t what they needed. He looked back to his son; the news of the poll on his mind.

“Perhaps our solution lies not in tearing down, but in building up. The people must love you more than they once believed they loved Harper. You need good publicity.”

“What about an official portrait, father?” He was long overdue for one, after all. But before anyone had the chance to respond, the small, sad voice of Aloysius spoke up.

“May I make a suggestion?” he asked.

“That depends,” answered Lander, his lip curling, “Does your suggestion include assassinating Harper two months ago?”

Maudine nodded. Of course, that is to say, she hadn’t stopped nodding since the meeting began. Lander glanced at her and put his hand on her head to cease the incessant bobbing, and it did the trick. His comment had elicited a few chuckles from the council members plus Aloysius retreated to the shadows, and that was enough to settle the old feelings of hatred that had gurgled back up like acid in Lander’s throat. He was rather witty, he thought to himself, and thought these meetings suffered without him taking the lead. He was the steward of a galactic empire, and yet he didn’t feel he was entrusted with the power that would normally come with his title.

The doors, discreetly shut and locked, resonated with knocking. There were three light raps, a pause, two more, then another pause, and one final knock, so everyone knew it was Commander Gen Ippo outside- undoubtedly waiting in polite and formal stance. Byron nodded to Aloysius and Aloysius opened the door to the man, inviting him inside.

“I must respectfully decline” he replied, “I simply came to say that one of my steward’s subjects requests his presence in the throne room. My steward asked that I inform him immediately when he was wanted?” He always called Lander my steward with such emphasis that it was hard to know if he was being sarcastic or especially respectful.

“I did, thank you Commander Ippo. I think you’ll find that there is no better way to win favor with your kingdom than to be always at the ready.”

It was obvious that Lander was pleased with himself, from the way he pushed out his chair and folded his hands behind his back, taking long and graceful strides from the room for everyone to admire. His original policy was to throw all his subjects out. But desperate times called for desperate measures, so now he welcomed everyone who wanted to speak with him. Maudine sighed and followed behind.

There were glossy transparent curtains that opened up onto the throne, and Lander tossed them aside with style and abandon. He sat in his great chair by crossing one leg over the other. When Lander gave his signal, the citizen was allowed into the room.

Lander’s knuckles went white as he gripped his chair. It was HARPER. She wore a tattered brown cloak and hood that obscured her face, but he knew it from the way she walked. The Lightbringer family all walked that way. Lander looked about him quickly, scrambling up in his chair, nearly frothing in his fury. He half expected an ambush. Had that Aloysius known all along? Ippo? The Guards? Traitors, all of them. The woman came forward, skipped forward actually, and threw off her great big hood, and then he saw that it was not Harper at all. It was that smaller one: the unimportant sister. So that was why she looked shorter than he remembered. He hadn’t thought anything of it, since he’d raised his throne on such a high platform that everything appeared small to him. But back to the point- why was she here? She looked like she was in some kind of frenzy.

“Lander, I had to come back to you!” she cried.

Now Maudine was the one fearing an overthrow.

“Get that girl out of here,” she ordered loudly and suddenly. Then, staking her claim on Lander, Maudine leaned over to kiss him, which he evaded several times, so she had to track his swerving face until she finally caught him. Unfortunately for all parties, Lee saw this and shrieked. The sound echoed through the hall, followed by the thump of her hitting the ground and bursting into tears, and shredding a paper upon which she’d scrawled her declarations of love. The pieces caught a breeze from the window and fluttered away in the most heartwrenching scene. Then-

“AUREILEE!” Another woman in the same exact disguise came running down the carpet, throwing off her hood in the same way. Except this time it really was Harper. She’d secretly chased her wayward sister back to Elpis, hoping to save her before it was too late. Lander gasped, his heart skipping its beat.

“Guards!” he called.

“Harper!” It was Caspen, throwing off his brown hood. He’d found out about Harper’s plan to chase Aureilee, and chased after Harper.

Maudine did nothing. She was just wondering what would happen next. Caspen skid over the floor, demanding that Harper haul back her sorry behind. Although where she was supposed to haul it to, it was hard to say. The guards finally stopped being stunned at the new arrivals and took action. Several of them converged, weapons drawn, and wrestled Caspen to the ground. But then suddenly, the tides turned again. A second pair of guards attacked their own kind, freeing Caspen from their grasp, with the queen and Lee in tow. As they would later learn- Eithna and Ferrand had arranged a rescue mission as soon as they’d realized Caspen had gone chasing after the queen. The loyalist guards were planted there that morning. Only Arcadius had noted how ridiculous this all was.

“Eat sparks!” said Caspen as he was being dragged away by his rescuers. He’d pulled out his gun.

“What is going on?” Lander shouted, pretty confused considering the whirlwind of emotions he’d just witnessed. Nor was it over. In the next second he flew back against his chair from the force of Caspen’s shot. It felt like he was always getting shot. Maybe he was. A daze came over him.

Finally, there was silence.

Why did his ambitions amount to nothing? He had every advantage in the galaxy. He pulled the right strings, didn’t he? And then these rebel criminals came along and humiliated him in one deft stroke. Lander was aware he was on the floor. The ceiling above him was white and heavenly and welcoming. Then Maudine popped into view.

“I don’t want thanks for this, let’s all just praise the miracle of a wife’s intuition. I’m glad I have it.”

Lander’s eyeballs, which had been sliding back into his head, rolled back into place.

“What?”

“You’d be dead if I hadn’t made you wear that vest.”

“Oh…” He groaned, suddenly feeling a lot less mortally wounded than he was a moment ago. He pulled himself up with a little assistance from Maudine and she tucked some strands of hair behind his ear.

“I still feel awful, and that buffoon from the Kingsguard got away with Harper. What does your intuition say to that?”

“We need to take some time off.”

Ugh, this again. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

“Yes…” Lander submitted, “I suppose we do.”

#maudinethinksshesalwaysright whatawaytogo sodidtheyescapeorwhat

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surfersofbole · 4 years ago

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Going to Fall: What will you do?

This is the fifth installment in my “Going to Fall” series, which is based on Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall.”

What will you do?

Here, your father must now mention if God has seemed unjust, unkind, then, have you paid him no attention? Our sins are many, of great kinds; punishment ‘s held with retention

not unlike the water vapor within the clouds above the world. All the clouds won’t harm a scraper, but rain upon a cardboard home turns the walls into soaked paper.

I can sense your apprehension, and I can sense your broken pride. Do you have some great dissension? Well, now, just take your small asides to relieve any contention.

Some of us find things enlightening when we must live in heavy dark. Lightning rods control the frightening and brightening flash of the short night. Umbrellas keep th’ tensions tightening.

You would think there’d be prevention - that God himself would take the lead. God wants no Earthly dimension and so he goes ahead, concedes rain must fall without suspension.

What will you do, my blue-eyed son? Somethings are hard to answer. Some… What will you do, darling young one? Think you that I should know this thing? Morning comes now with the bright sun.

Going back out before the rain starts falling

I wake up scared as hell that things are going wrong. Why? I was not quite sure of what was going on. My mind was in a cell. I lie down quietly. The motionless allure of a ceiling, empty...

A day begins anew. Will I ever arise? A thunder I have heard; the skies will be disguised. The rainclouds now accrue. I’m scared to leave this place; though, maybe I’m absurd, and I should go/make haste.

I’ll walk the beaten path; I know it will be short. All the small excursions other souls couldn’t afford... I'll face the wanton wrath because the world will fear I am leading an incursion with my mouth that all’ll hear.

The depths of the deepest, black forest

Electrified air climbs to clustered cotton fluff; screams turn to grumbles.

Some schwarzwald sunshine prawns prowl blister-black water - ice of a night sky.

Sharp whistles whittle brittle branch and bark, bitter for the burning blight.

Hollow trees topple. Then, forests from dying flames born of detritus.

The people are many, their hands are all empty

Xerotic mouths agape, facade of night entreats a dreamer thirsting not the light, "neglect a cleanly state and state that you ordain the rain to fall as it is due."

Disguising no intentions with delight, obsessed with obfuscating appetite, come cumulating nimbus clouds above haranguing with each lightning strike thereof.

In time, hard rains again will lift the plight and everyone will be an acolyte lest all the clouds they see move out of sight.

The pellets of poison flooding their waters

(The vending machine hums softly. A whirring and some clinking kick off a habit, and I press a button. A quarter? I try again. In the mechanism, it moves. Thunk. Mother's approval.)

Someone's swimming in the pool.

Crystalline medium with waving surface dances the light upon the ceiling.

Diving at the deep, he sinks into the bottom for the longest moment until he is diluted by the dark.

I sit beside the edge, staring.

No manacles bind us to the station we submit.

Someone's swimming in the pool, but I've a job to do. "Refill the canister with two chlorine tablets. Lock up and leave."

The home in the valley meets the damp, dirty prison

I walk to where the sidewalk ends en masse, past the concrete's blend with grass and the footstep-muddled pastures.

I found the last spot God had cried: an oasis that has dried in the desert of this life.

The rain is not the coldest where the trees have met the forest and the mountain meets the valley.

The executioner’s face, always well hidden

At mass, the priest, in his white, polyester robes, stood among pink roses.

"I say, precious Lord, look upon us and see not injustice; instead, find hope."

Among the heightened exaltations of the chorus, water came down upon us.

Back when crimes against the Lord and his people were punishable, men like Christ and Beckett, with their deaths, made leaders grovel.

King, bearing a new weight, shouldered a poor people's campaign; in his memory, we hid this struggle. In this new poor people's campaign, shall hidden faces make another man infamous?

"Do this in memory of me."

The word of the Lord makes requisite that we do things in memory of others that perhaps, through us, they could live on. Such a cause as theirs is worth perpetuating; such a love as theirs is the great communion.

"Mass has ended. You may go in peace"

Hunger is ugly, souls are forgotten

Oysters - pried apart with pearls squeezed from their soft flesh - are discarded shells that cleansed murky waterways. Layered nacre anchors banks.

Black is the color, none is the number

For the briefest second, worlds are colorful and palm fronds, like percussion sections, fill the wind with scratching sound. As raindrops themselves drive through darkness into broken asphalt, thunder-crash! The crack in night, it vanished while a youth in leather shoes and wetting socks went running to a covered walkway. Hole-filled pockets bore some grimed receipts, old notes, worn cards, and damaged pictures in a wallet that was drawn up. She inserted plastic; as the m'chine slow- processed four fast digits, vehicles blurred past and disappear until, at last, a menu let her check the balance. Black in text, a zero showed up. Buzzing lights then flickered; rain felt bitter/harder.

Tell it, think it, speak it, breathe it

False flags on steel poles; you find their real goals cause hard heads to feel soles as reeled votes steal polls. Loss is a hand that's doled to thoughtless card holders; well oiled, pristine political machines need propaganda's grist cleaned and shoveled on the screens. Greed - democracy's splotch - fills you with the scotch blues; when the night is botched, sit back up to watch news. Feel cold and say burr under a cedar tree, or passover seder with Sam Seder, see his angered, sabered tongue work hard/labor long; hundreds of lungfuls from racist uncles tapered off. Like flaming fungal masses on crumpled paper, scoffed arguments hindered turn to cinder; try not to join the splintered dense blocks of tinder, dry rot. "Freedom isn't free, son..." some person breathes on as a prison's breeze comes; truth in neon: "Freedom isn't free, and it isn't freedom." Jaime Peck 'n' Michael Brooks wait with bridled facts on homicidal cops and Congress' idled acts. The left's best anchors, hosts of the Majority Report, unveil the languor of neofascist authority.

Reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it

Guinness in my system at a Regal cinema; someone said, "I miss him." Liquor mixed with cinnamon makes my throat feel dry; is that why I'm stifled? "On everyone's behalf, when we heard you laughing at Dave Rubin's gaffes, all our sides were halfing." Why am I nervous before the final curtain? "He did the world a service, that I say with certainty." "I want to drink, alright, rather than think all night; pour shots until bar fight hour is a starlight tour." Drink my Tennessee whiskey and Hennessy briskly in backgrounds of dim-lit rooms. As this dim-wit reflects, chances look slim; the future's a grim skit. Pillow to my head and sink in like lead, a stone carelessly embedded in the river bed alone.

Stand on the ocean until I start sinking

When one recollects that the keystone oft sank in the sand before standing aloft among clouds on a mountain so solid of faith and devotion, it's then that a false step compels men, "Recover!" I noticed thrombosis had felled the calm warrior, that saint among saints that is Archangel Michael; the champion of men and proponent of justice inspires l'avant-garde to claim in it's crawling a victory not pyrrhic but won with empiric- al knowledge against an- tithetical sirens that draw men towards hatred with bigotry, envy, and greed. So, surrender your voice, but renounce not your thoughts, and remember the message borne by a colossus that called out to Lazarus, "Come forth."

Know my song well before I start singing

Cantos coming soon to a year near you!

Notes

This is the order in which the poems were written: 2, 1, 4, 3, 6, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. I plan for poem 13 to be a series of cantos based on my time walking through a park in my home town.

What will you do?

This poem was written months ago while I was still a Tumblr poet and is the introduction to the final section of the Going to Fall collection of poems I've written. The next poem will be posted when I figure out where I saved it.

The depths of the deepest, black forest

I thought I had a poem for this portion of the final section of my "Going to Fall" poetry collection, but I couldn't find it. Luckily, the haiku challenge issued for November prompted me to write this in place of the imagined poem.

The people are many, their hands are all empty

There were two prompts for this poem. The first is an obscure words poetry contest that I volunteered myself, in which I received the prompt "Xenodochial" (which means hospitable or kind to strangers). The second was from a challenge I made [for] myself [...] I had been stuck on this particular portion for months now, so I'm glad to have something appropriate and fitting.

The pellets of poison flooding their waters

Perhaps I put too much thought into a story about a guy closing up after a hallucination. The stuff in the parenthesis was typed last, but I only put it in because I could find no better way to add that the narrator is thirsty. I was going to write a twelve poem collection on this prompt, based on monthly news stories of people making the world a worse place, but the poems were scrapped. I do hope to revisit the idea under a different title.Perhaps I put too much thought into a story about a guy closing up after a hallucination. The stuff in the parenthesis was typed last, but I only put it in because I could find no better way to add that the narrator is thirsty. I was going to write a twelve poem collection on this prompt, based on monthly news stories of people making the world a worse place, but the poems were scrapped. I do hope to revisit the idea under a different title.

The home in the in the valley meets the damp dirty prison

I had the first two lines stuck in my head for a couple of days. This is the result.

Hunger is ugly, souls are forgotten

This is just a poem comparing oysters and people.

Black is the color, none is the number

October 11, 2020 corrections: *line 4 - "And" -> "As" *line 7 - "." -> "," *line 8 - "Thunder-crash!" -> "thunder-crash!" and line split. *lines 13-16 - "Hole-filled pockets - dirty, wet - hold paper/plastic cards and damaged pictures in a wallet. It is" replaced with current version. *lines 18-21 - "plastic; as the machine processed four fast digits, vehicles dove on past and then they disappeared. At" replaced with current version.

Three Poems for the Great Progressive

This poem came together from the following stanza that I spit out a couple of nights ago: Passover seder with Sam Seder under my cedar tree. Say burr, see his sabered tongue labor long. Hundred lungful's hinder cindered minds. The tinder finds a racist uncle's baseless tongueful like dry rot: the fungal waste is erased from space. Try not It includes one line I wrote a few years ago: "I drink my Tennessee whiskey and Hennessy briskly." The poem is basically about listening to the news all the time because you're sick, feeling restless, going out to the movies and bars, and finally going to sleep. July 20, 2020 update: Completed in honor of Michael Brooks. Also, I wrote the following poem soon after I heard the news, but did not put the time into it that I would have liked. The ground is dry and leaves grow thin. When the new moon is out the fuses trip, the grid's offline, and the world stands too still, I look to the sky as the gold flecks fly; ember is ash. A chill climbs up my spine; stomach can't dip lower. I cannot scout a star within the restless sky. August 11, 2020 update: I saw a contest early morning and wrote the first stanza of the third poem. The second stanza was written after I returned from work. The prompt was the first line from the Beatles' "A Day in the Life".

NOTE: This is the title for “Tell it, think it, speak it, breathe it,” “Reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it,” and “Stand on the ocean until I start sinking.”

#poem #original #spilled ink #poets on tumblr #writerscreed #Going to Fall #What will you do?#Going back out before the rain starts falling #The depths of the deepest black forest #The people are many their hands are all empty #The pellets of poison flooding their waters #The home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison #The executioner’s face always well hidden #Hunger is ugly souls are forgotten #Black is the color none is the number #Tell it think it speak it breathe it #Reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it #Stand on the ocean until I start sinking #Three Poems for the Great Progressive

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crookedmediatranscripts · 7 years ago

Text

Pod Save America - Episode 78 (Bonus Pod)

9.12.2017 “Hillary Clinton”

“What Happened.”

[MUSIC]

Jon Favreau: Pod Save America is brought to you by Stamps.

Jon Lovett: Dot com.

JF: Just says Stamps here. These days you can get practically everything on demand, like our podcast.

Tommy Vietor: True.

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JL: You can't- you can't people watch-

TV: [Laughs]

JL: Which is something that you can do in line at the post office. You can't do that at home that's true. But it's, you know.

JF: Okay, well that's- we'll put that in the con column.

TV: Yeah.

[Laughter]

JF: Buy and print official U.S. postage for any letter or package using your own computer and printer. And unlike the post office, stamps.com never closes. Two in the morning, you're hungry for some stamps, you know where to go.

TV: Stamps.com makes you more polite, you know. Often you're like, I should write a thank you note to this person, but I don't have a stamp so I’m just not gonna.

JL: Yeah, that's true.

JF: My writing is bad, so I don't do it.

TV: This eliminates that friction.

JF: Bad penmanship.

JL: I’m trying to be better. Ever since I’ve stopped being a writer I am more responsive, but I have some mistakes I need to make up for in time. Like some wedding gifts I should send via stamps.com to people that have, like 3 kids now.

[Laughter]

TV: I’m with you there.

JL: Congrats on your wedding and 3 kids. We were- guys, we were-

TV: That wedding in '07 was great.

JF: We haven't started out thank you notes yet and just- it's coming everyone.

JL: [scandalized] You haven't done your thank you notes yet?

JF: No, we haven't. It takes a couple months.

JL: You know what, that makes me feel better. That makes me feel better.

JF: Emily’s job.

TV: [drawn out] Whoaaaaaa

JL: [drawn out] Whoooooaaaa

JF: Just kidding!

JL: [drawn out] Whoa

JF: Just kidding!

JL: Leave that in!

[laughter]

JF: I have been informed that I am writing all of the ones to my side. Right now, use our code crooked for the special offer - a 4 week trial which includes postage and a digital scale. Don't wait. A digital scale?

JL: It's for measuring po- it's for weighing little items.

JF: I know, I know what it is. Go to stamps.com before you do anything else. Click on the radio microphone at the top of the homepage and type in “CROOKED”. That's stamps.com, enter code “CROOKED.” Stamps.com, never go to the post office again.

0:01:52

[MUSIC]

0:01:59

JF: We are here with Secretary Hillary Clinton at her home in Chappaqua, to talk about her book, “What Happened.” Thank you so much for being on Pod Save America.

HC: I am thrilled to here on Pod Save America.

[Laughter]

HC: And really happy that you all are here today.

JF: Lovett has been asking for this for so long.

JL: I mean I was not like begging [JF: laughs] I’m just glad it worked out.

HC: But I am so delighted that you're still asking.

[Laughter]

HC: And now, I don’t know what we'll do after we actually complete this podcast. We may have to think of something.

JL: We have other shows. We have live events.

HC: Yeah, we may have to think of something else.

JL: We have a lot coming down the pipe.

HC: Do you really?

JL: Yes.

HC: Yes, okay. I need to hear all about that, Jon.

JL: I do wanna let our podcast know that her guard is down.

[Laughter]

JL: Hillary Clinton’s guard is down.

HC: And I’m holding the Rottweiler with both hands.

[Laughter]

JF: Perfect. So, you write in the book about the challenges you faced running as a woman. One silver lining of 2016 is that a record number of women have now decided to run for office. What advice would you give them about how to grapple with the kind of sexism that you grappled with during the campaign?

HC: I’m so glad you started with that, Jon because you know, I wrote this book to explain what I think happened but also to raise issues that I think we have to deal with so that they won't have the same impact on the next election and the one after that. And I write a whole chapter called “On being a woman in politics” because I was really quite taken aback at the attitude and the behavior of my general election opponent.

JF: Yes.

HC: Because he made no bones about it, literally. He was so sexist and not just about me, but about you know, his Republican woman opponent, the women and reporters on TV and elsewhere. So it was really a part of the atmosphere and I want, not just women but men as well, to know this is endemic. Sexism and misogyny are still endemic. We've made progress but we can't allow ourselves to go backward. And as I point out in the book, it never was just about me. I happened to have the big bullseye on my head, but it was about women and in the months since, we've seen reports out of Silicon Valley and other businesses as well as politics, where distinguished women like Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris or Kirsten Gillibrand or, you know others in the media are being treated to a level of overt sexism that I thought we had at least diminished and maybe put a lid on. But it seems to have popped back up. So I’m hoping that everybody will read in my book, that chapter because I want everyone to think about it and be serious about it. And then I think we have to stand up and speak out, and men and women alike. So when Kamala Harris is basically told to stop talking or Elizabeth Warren is told to stand down, we need to say, “Hey, wait a minute, you know that is overtly sexist and we're not gonna put up with it.” And her colleagues and everyone else should say the same thing.

JF: So, the excerpts of the book that have leaked out so far have set off another round of Bernie versus Hillary recriminations. Everyone's favorite pastime. Now I know that elsewhere in the book you give Bernie a lot of credit. You say that the debate is overblown, that you actually agree on most issues. But it seems like there's still an important debate about what comes next for the party that we should talk about. So, from the spring, Washington Post poll found that 67% of voters think that Democrats are out of touch with the concerns of the average person, that includes 44% of Democrats. To turn this around, do you think the Democratic party needs to fundamentally change as an institution, with regards to policy or do you think it's about sharpening our message better technology in the party, and stuff like that?

HC: I’ve given this a lot of thought, as you might guess, because it is deeply distressing to me that we are painted like that. And I can only speak again from my own experience, which I try to relate in the book. I had such a different experience in ‘08, you know, as you all know because you were part of the Obama campaign. Once it was over, it was over. And I quickly endorsed President Obama. I worked really hard to get him elected. I was still arguing with my supporters at the Denver convention, telling people, “Don’t be ridiculous. You've gotta vote for Senator Obama, at the time.” And I was thrilled when he got elected. I didn't get anything like that respect from Sanders and his supporters. And it hurt, you know, to have basically captured the nomination ending up with more than 4 million votes than he had. But he dragged it out and he was so reluctant. But why would we be surprised, he's not a Democrat. And that's not a slam on him, that is just a repetition of what he says about himself. So what I’m focused on are people who are proud to be Democrats, people who wanna defend the legacy of Democrats, of our last president and presidents before, who have done so much to help so many Americans economically, in terms of civil rights, human rights. And I think we are facing a couple of very difficult obstacles. First, the other side has dedicated propaganda channels, that's what I call Fox News.

JF: Right.

HC: It has outlets like Breitbart and you know, crazy Info Wars and things like that. In this particular election, it was aided and abetted by the Russians and the role that Facebook and other platforms provide. We are late to that. You know, we did not understand how a reality TV campaign would so dominate the media environment. And I confess you know, I was trying to do everything I could to build on the success of president Obama’s campaign. I had a lot of people you guys know involved in the campaign. We were really proud of it. But boy it was tough to break through. So I think the Democrats can do a lot, but they are still going to face a very difficult media environment. And we've gotta figure out how we're gonna break through. I mean obviously more podcasts, more other ways of communicating so voices can be heard and real positions can be understood, is part of it. But we're still at a disadvantage.

JF: Well, so, what do you think of, recently Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren have signed onto Bernie’s single payer health care plan. Do you think that's a good idea? Do you think we need some of these bolder policies?

HC: Well, look, I’ve been for universal health care for many decades and there's a difference between single payer and universal health care. Under President Obama we got the Affordable Care Act, so we got to 90% coverage and one of the differences we had in the primary campaign was my very strong defense of the ACA and my strong defense of what President Obama had achieved and my recognition that we had come so far, that I was certainly not going to support ripping it up and trying to start all over again. But in terms of a political statement, to say we've gotta get to universal health care and maybe we should consider, you know some kind of single payer besides Medicare -- which is single payer -- and Medicaid -- which is largely single payer. We need to be looking hard at this. But I think that the more likely outcome, after we try to raise the attention of the electorate on what we could achieve, is the continuing struggle to expand health care, I said we need a public option. I was very clear about that. So I don't have any criticism whatsoever in staking a big claim on where we need to end up. But I also say look let's be realistic about how we're gonna get to where we need to be.

JF: So there was an internal debate within your campaign towards the end about whether to attack trump as divisive and offensive, or whether to emphasize your economic message, or to win back some of these working class voters. And your husband reportedly advocated for that. It seems like democrats are going to face this issue again and again. And we're gonna face it with trump, we're gonna face it with others. What should they do? Obviously you have to do both, but a campaign’s about choosing resources, ads, messages. How do you face that?

HC: Well we were trying to do both. We never stopped on the economic agenda and there's been lots of analysis since the election. I talked more about jobs than anybody else. We put forth a really detailed set of ideas about what would work. We did not get the kind of coverage that we needed. You know, I went back and looked. I say this in the book. You know, in the 2008 general election campaign, there were 200 minutes devoted to policy. By 2012, it was down to about 114 minutes. By 2016 it was 32 minutes. And so all of the work and effort that I did in this campaign and that I saw others do -- because when you run for president you should tell people what you're gonna do., at seems like a pretty straightforward idea -- were just not competitive with the reality TV show going on the other side. And we tried so many different ways to break through that and we did, of course, advertise what we saw as the threats that trump posed to the country. Because, frankly, we thought and I still believe, he's a clear and present danger to America. And I would've been less than responsible if I didn't talk about that. But we tried to do both. We tried to make the case for both. And I’d be the first to tell you, it was difficult to break through.

JL: I wanna turn to like realism, which is something you talked about now, you talked about in the book. I feel like the book is sort of a nuanced look at how these issues okay out and basically what caused this loss as well as the realization that you should not be in the same with James Comey any time soon.

[Laughter]

JL: Just for his sake, mostly.

HC: He's pretty tall, though.

JL: I think you'd take him. honestly, I think you have the passion.

[Laughter]

JL: But, so, I wanted to talk about realism cause, you know Jon brought up single payer. You said this, you said in the book Bernie in the race meant you had less space and credibility to run a feisty progressive campaign that won in 2008 in Pennsylvania a and Ohio. And I didn't fully understand that cause I didn't understand why Bernie’s presence prevents you from running that kind of campaign.

HC: Well, what I mean by that is -- cause we certainly were trying to run that kind of a campaign --is that his claims -- which he could not defend, really not even explain when pressed -- filled up a lot of space. You know when I was running against president Obama in 2008, we had differences, but they were -- this is my bias -- they were honest differences that we presented and we defended and you know, whether it was an individual mandate or not in healthcare, each of us was ready to say here's why or here's why not. That was not possible in this primary campaign. And you know, I point out that every time we made a claim on what we were gonna do, he would just say, “Okay, I’m gonna do more of it.” And so the argument was never adequately joined. And I spent a lot of time, you know basically defending President Obama in a Democratic primary.

JL: Right.

HC: I couldn't believe it. Every speech started with, “I don't think President Obama gets the credit he deserves for saving the economy, saving the auto industry, getting us on the road to universal healthcare.” And you know this is- I was running against somebody who publically advocated President Obama being primaried, right? So, it was difficult to have what I consider to be a fair-minded debate about, okay we have had a successful two term president, where do we go from here, with somebody who wasn't a democrat. Who criticized both President Obama and me. And it was much more challenging to have a kinda straightforward argument about, okay health care, what are we gonna do about healthcare? Cause he would say, “Oh, we're gonna do single payer.” And I’d say, “Well how are you gonna do it?” And then he wouldn't know. But the claim and the, you know laying down of the gauntlet of that made it harder.

JL: But one of the points you make it the sort of lessons from all of this, is that he has a point about the importance of universal programs, that arguing for a big universal college or health care or what have you, makes a lot of sense to people. First of all, it's clear and easy for people to understand. And also, it avoids the kind of stigma, that you have on things that are more directed, right. The problem that happened with the expansion of Medicaid, for example, under ObamaCare. So, it seems like, in a lot of ways - yes, in a moment in a campaign some of these big promises are more about vision. But in practice, you do see the merits of having done that, right. Because it seems like that's one of your recommendations for the party moving forward

HC: Well it's what I do recommend that we try to figure out, but if you're gonna do it you gotta be able to answer all the questions that are gonna be raised. And what was odd to me about this election, many things were odd about it, but one of the things that was odd about it is, we came forward with very specific proposals about moving toward universality, right. And I believe that to this day about how we can get from where we are. But I always believed, it turned out wrongly Jon, that there would be a moment of reckoning, cause I’d always seen it in a general election. I always saw that at some point, whether it was in a tough interview or in a debate, somebody would say, “Okay you've advocated for this. How are you gonna pay for it? How are you actually going to structure it?” That's what I was waiting for. It never came this time. It never came. So, yes, maybe I was a little more inclined in the primary since I won by 4 million votes to say, “Okay, look we're going to get there but we're gonna do it in a very, you know, careful thoughtful way.” Cause I really believed a lot of the Trump rhetoric was going to be, you know, finally punctured. And that I would be on a debate stage and somebody would say, you know, “You talk about this wall. What are you talking about? Where is the money gonna come from?” It never happened. He was never held accountable, so a lot of my preparation for those moments, cause I did think that in many ways the election would come down to the debates. They often do. It didn't happen.

JL: So, one of the other arguments you make for this kind of policy shop -- and I know these policy people, I worked with them. Jake Sullivan is one of the smartest human beings you can meet in your life. You talk about how these things had foot notes and they were sort of ready to hit the ground running. And you said one of the problems is, it wasn't about just the merits of these policies, but it was about the optics of it.

HC: Right.

JL: But at the same time, you recognized the need for a more expansive vision for democrats. I mean one arguments against this on the merits is - in a campaign you set a big goal, it may be unachievable, but you compromise when you're governing. I mean you make the comparison, say to welfare in the 90s and how President Clinton in the 90s held off on signing on several versions of the bill until he felt as if it reached enough compromise. And that's a pragmatism of governing. But isn't there a distinction between the pragmatism of governing and the vision and sort of overton window you open during the campaign.

HC: I think that's a very fair assessment. But remember, I was following a 2 term Democratic president. And I was really aware of how important it was to embrace that legacy and defend it. Because on the merits I thought it was really important. And I believed that if I had said, “Okay we're gonna have universal healthcare, single payer.” First question would've been, well why didn't President Obama do that? Well, because it was really hard and what he got down was amazing, you know.

JL: Yeah.

HC: See that's tough. Whereas Sanders -- who's not even a Democrat, who criticized the President all the time -- he could say whatever he wanted to say. I was not only running on my own, I was running to build on the progress of the prior 8 years. I was unapologetic about that. But I also knew the headwinds against somebody trying to run to succeed a 2-term president of their own party were pretty intense. I mean Americans get bored, they get tired, they want a change, they think somebody else can do something better even though they liked Bill Clinton and they liked Barack Obama, but they wanted a change. So, I was trying to be as honest as I could about, yes, we're gonna build on the ACA. We're gonna finish the last 10% of people who are not insured. We're gonna be able to do it because here are the fixes that will make it work. And yeah it put me in a bit of a strait jacket, but it was what I thought was called for, given the fact that, you know I wasn't going to be spouting stuff that then would be immediately contradicted, because why wasn't it done before? Immigration's another example, right. I mean DACA was a great accomplish. I’m for immigration reform. Sanders voted against it in 2007. And so I’m trying to say, we're gonna protect what we have but we're gonna try to go further. Now that is not as exciting as saying, you know throw them all out or whatever the alternative is. It was constant calibration and you know it was a tough line to walk.

JL: So one of the other debates- one of the other arguments you had during the campaign was over money in politics. And it's one of the things that Bernie levels against the Democratic party writ large. And I think it's important for moving forward, you know you say correctly, Bernie couldn’t in the debate point to a single instance in which you changed your mind because of donations. But you also said that you wanted to end the stranglehold that the wealthy have on our government and in your book, you talk about the danger of courting donors. Where is that danger? I mean you don't have to change your mind for this money to have some kind of influence. I mean, what do you think the danger of courting donors is?

HC: Well I’m for public financing. And I’ve put forth a very comprehensive set of changes. I voted for you know, McCain-Feingold. I mean I think the Supreme Court has so perverted out electoral system. And Citizens United is a gateway to corruption. And I think we've seen that over and over again. So, I don't have any problem with people donating to your campaign and neither does Bernie Sanders, by the way, because you know he takes money from people as well. What I wanted to do was say, look we need a whole different system, and so I said I was going for a constitutional amendment from day 1 on Citizens United. Cause there's no way to get to where I think we have to be unless we change the Constitution.

JL: But until then, we live with the system.

HC: Yes, we do.

JL: And one of the consequences of the system is raising huge sums of money and going amongst the financial industry and other industries and raising money, going to the Hamptons and raising money. And for people who aren't proud to be Democrats, who maybe could be Democrats, it looks terrible. And what they see is access and influence. And it's hard to argue that they're wrong. I mean, isn't there a price we pay for a system in which Democrats who are supposed to advocate for working people, spend a great deal of their time with rich people who have a fundamentally vested interest in the status quo.

HC: You know what's so interesting, I don't see it that way. I understand the argument, but anybody who donates to a Democratic candidate, who is on the record as I have been for decades, about what I wanted to do no everything from raising taxes on them to closing loopholes and speaking out when I was a Senator from New York. they in effect are putting aside their own financial interests to a certain extent, because they are donating to somebody, whether it was me or president Obama, who in ‘08 got more money from Wall Street than any Democrat had ever gotten, and yet imposed the toughest regulations that had been imposed since the Great Depression. We're not going in on bait and switch. I mean, I say to donors the same way I say on a public stage, we need to tax the wealthy and here's what I will do. I’ve been saying we need to close the carried interest loophole and here's what I intend to do. So if they're still going to give me money, they must have some other concerns about, maybe the future of our country and our position in the world. So I think it's an argument which superficially sounds like, oh yeah, okay. But on further examination I don’t think really holds up. We could solve all this if we get to public financing. And that's what I am still in favor of.

JL: So first of all, don't we pay too high a price for the optics of that? And then also, isn't there some effect on the access? That this group of people has a larger access to Democratic politicians.

HC: I can only talk for myself. I mean you know you were in my senate office. We saw every kind of person under the sun and we saw them on a regular basis -- filling up the day with people who wanted to see me on everything and, you know the vast majority of them had never given money to politics. Certainly not in any large amount. So optics is a problem. I’m the first to admit that, because I had some optics problems, which I admit in this book. But here's what we're up against -- and it's a devil's dilemma -- we're up against a very strong Republican party with allies who are taking advantage of every open door the Supreme Court has given them. When you have people like the Koch brothers, now on record saying they're gonna spend 400 million dollars in 2018, the Mercers, they are funding media, they are funding super PACs. And they are doing stuff that we have no idea, because there's no disclosure on what they do. So I’m in the camp which says, be transparent. Here's where I stand. Here's what I will do. If you guys, you know still wanna give me money when I say I’m gonna go after that loophole. Just know I’m going after that loophole. Because otherwise the money advantage is so demonstrably on the other side. And aided by the media advantage. I mean the new threat that's coming from Sinclair broadcasting -- 72%+ of the homes in America being given a steady diet of right-wing Republican politics. Fox doesn't even pretend anymore. They don't even cover stuff that is not going to promote the Trump agenda. So, you've got billions and billions of dollars coming at you from the other direction. And literally you're trying to keep your head above water and it's not easy. And we raised a lot of money, most of it from people giving me less than a hundred dollars, but did I go to fundraisers? Yes, I did. And did I say the same thing as I always say? Yes, I did. And would I -- if I had been you know, able to, you know withstand the perfect storm that hit me at the end -- be in office trying to do that, fighting the Republicans every single day and trying to reign in the disproportionate influence they have because of Citizens United, because of media monopolization. I really would be taking all of that on and I fear it's only gonna get worse. And the money that is gonna be coming from the right and the money we know that the Russians put in, which I think is just the very tip of that huge Russian ice berg, we are really at a disadvantage. So, optics, maybe. Reality, something entirely different as I analyze it.

JL: Inside the Russian iceberg are smaller Russian icebergs.

[Laughter]

HC: Yes.

JL: And an even smaller one. I’m done now.

[Laughter]

0:25:18

[MUSIC]

0:25:22

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TV: Hm. It's been a while.

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JF: Lovett is annoying.

TV: [Giggles]

0:26:41

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[Laughter]

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[Laughter]

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0:27:43

[MUSIC]

0:27:47

TV: You mentioned this huge structural advantage of the right-wing press.

HC: Right.

TV: There were also challenges in the mainstream media. Donald Trump's podium, empty podium, received coverage. Policy wasn't covered. But it's not the first election where stupid things became the focus, right? We had Obama’s flag pin, we had his birth certificate, for example. How do we adapt? What should candidates do with this onslaught of right-wing news outlets, but also this sort of inexorable path towards frivolity in the coverage of our politics and covering like a game?

HC: Tommy, thanks for asking that, because I’ll tell you I worry about this all the time and I’m hardly the person to ask. You guys are much more probably adept at understanding what we need to do. What we're doing right now is at least one way. We've got other outlets, we’ve got other ways of communicating with people. We have to make sure that the playing field is level. I mean what we're finding out about Facebook, the largest, you know site for news in the world, means we gotta figure out how that won't work to our disadvantage. I think- look, in this election there's always ups and downs, I mean I know that very well. But this was kind of unique because it was- I was running what I hope to be an effective presidential campaign based on all the lessons that you know, we learned from President Obama, both in ‘08 and 2012. We knew there were head winds, I mean, you know in October of 2012, President Obama was in political trouble, right.

JF: Right.

HC: Because of everything that was going on, which wasn't fair. It wasn't, you know, reflective of him as our President. So these are going to be close because of the hyper partisan tip that we've got in the country right now. You know at the end of the day I think Comey cost me the election, but I think also people with an ‘R’ by their name said, okay I want my tax cut, I want my Supreme Court justice, you know. So there was a calculation as well as an emotional reaction. So, what are we gonna do about it? Well I don’t understand why people who share our views aren't more willing to invest in media that can be competitive. Because what you've got is a right-wing advocacy, propaganda. And you've got a, kind of mainstream media that engages in false equivalency. And it's tough if you are a Democrat trying to navigate through that to get the coverage that is, you know, really going to reflect the reality that you're facing out there on the campaign. And anything we can do to point that out- and I have sympathy for the press. In this you know in this past election, you know you're right. I mean how many hours of empty podiums are you going to be looking at? Or for the first time a presidential candidate calling in and being put on the air. I mean, things that had never happened before.

TV: It is an absurd advantage to do that.

HC: It's an absurd advantage and I do think- look, I think that part of what was going on is the entertainment value. And I really, you know, I’ve tried to have some, you know, conversations about this with some people in the media. I think they're doing some soul searching now, but at the time they all thought I was going to win. They thought it was a free shot. They thought that you know, just covering his latest outrage, you know was good for ratings. You know people were tuning in. My gosh, what's he gonna do next? So they've got to understand, they carry this really solemn responsibility and we'll do our best and we need to do better to deal with message and everything else. But if you can't break through or if the show on the other side is so razzle dazzle, you know, say anything, do anything and, you know. Somebody is trying to be responsible, you know on our side, that is a tough, tough campaign.

TV: Right. Another complicating factor, to say the least, was Russian interference. You write about Putin’s grudge against you and the fact that he blamed you for protests in Russia back in 2011. How much of the interference do you think was motivated by personal grudge against you, or is this the new playbook for Russia when it comes to cyber-attacks in our elections and we need to get ready?

HC: It is much more the new playbook. But I think part of the motivation for Putin was I was the candidate. You know I was representing the United States. I mean I wasn't standing up in Lithuania saying, [deep, fake voice to pretend to be Hillary Clinton] Oh I, Hillary Clinton, think that, you know what's going on in the parliamentary elections in Russia is really troubling." I was saying-

JL: You sound just like her.

[Laughter]

HC: Yeah! Don't you think?

[Laughter]

HC: So I was saying the United States thinks it's really troubling. That was our policy. And I was a very avid proponent of that policy. But this is much more about the playbook he has adopted now. To destabilize western democracies. To disrupt the Atlantic alliance. And he has been using what are called in the trade craft, active measures, for years to destabilize, undermine, disgrace political leaders in countries that particularly in Europe or on his border or a little further beyond. So this is what he thinks and you know, there's a very telling piece that I reference in the book by a Russian general saying, look we used to have conventional weapons and nuclear weapons, but now we're going to have the world's best cyber weapons. And just recently, you know, Putin told a group of Russian school students, the future will belong to those who master artificial intelligence. So you know, look in the 19th century and before, we fought wars on you know, land and sea. Then in the 20th we added air. And now I have no doubt that the principle zone of conflict is cyber- between large developed countries like you know, the United States, Russia, and others. What I want people to recognize is, he got away with it this time because it was hard to imagine. You know, when we knew that he- that Russians had hacked into the DNC and then through their cutout to WikiLeaks was, you know, dumping this stuff. We tried to tell people and they were like, oh yeah, maybe, what difference does it make? And they didn't really understand either the criminal or political significance. You fast forward and you've got in August of 2016 -- early August, late July -- you've got Trump saying, oh go hack her emails. Which is an amazing thing for somebody running to be President of the United States to say. And then you've got Roger Stone saying, oh it's gonna be time for Podesta, you know, next. We knew there was stuff going on, but even we didn't understand the extent of it. And we saw it in real time. One of the kind of surprises to me in the analysis we went through after the election, was how effective the Russians, through WikiLeaks, were in weaponizing information against me and how they were getting really good political advice about placement, both geographic and platform, from somebody. And we'll leave it at that. But we didn't really see that. That was not clear to us, at the time in the campaign. And in retrospect, you know we saw how, if you analyzed Google searches, they were spiking in places that had been sort of swing, had ended up for President Obama, but were, you know, subject to being persuaded by the other side. WikiLeaks searches were off the charts. People were trying to understand and they were trying to make sense of some of the stuff they were hearing on their Facebook, you know, feeds or a friend telling them, which happened all the time. And you know I was talking to Susan Page, the, you know the reporter from USA Today and she said she'd go to these Trump rallies and people would say the most amazing things to her and she'd say, “Where did you hear that?” “Oh, I saw that on Facebook.” That's where people got their news and the Russians aided and abetted in some ways by people in the Trump campaign or associated with them, were very adept at targeting.

TV: Right. So Putin has been accused of killing journalists, imprisoning his opponents, killing his opponents. In the book, you say “Trump doesn't just like Putin, he seems to want to be like Putin. Put down dissenters, oppress minorities. He dreams of Moscow on the Potomac.” Should we take that literally? I mean, do we think that he is really someone who might crack down on free speech the way Putin has, or take further draconian steps?

HC: Yes. And I’m really happy to say that to the three of you, because you have influence and you have reach. Look I wrote this book to try to come to grips with what happened, but also to sound the alarm about what I think could still and may well happen. I think Trump left to his own devices, unchecked, would become even more authoritarian than he has tried to be. Also remember, the right wing aided and funded by Mercers, Koch brothers, et cetera, is very serious about calling a Constitutional convention. They need 34 states. Last I checked they were like at 28, 29. Part of their gerrymandering is to control state legislatures, elect Republican governors and to call a Constitutional convention. And if you really get deep into what they're advocating -- limits on the first amendment, no limits on the second amendment, limits on criminal justice. I mean, there is a very insidious right-wing agenda. So when I say that he doesn't just like Putin, he wants to be like Putin, I’m not saying he's gonna start killing journalists. But I am saying that he likes the idea of unaccountable, unchecked power. And we've never had to face that in a serious way, in our country. I mean, we've elected people we could agree or disagree with, but even in the pit of the Great Depression when Roosevelt went too far in packing the court, you know his hands were slapped, he was pulled back. But, what you see Trump doing is appointing nominating people for the court who are totally in sync with this right-wing agenda. U.S. Attorneys absolutely ready to carry out his bidding. It's a very clear agenda that is hard for Americans to really, kind of, wrap our heads around because we've never had to deal with anything like this before. But I am trying to, in this book and in interviews like this, to say, “Hey guys, this is serious stuff. We gotta pay attention to it because the one thing we can do to rein it in besides fulminating online or, you know, speaking or writing books. is to do everything possible to take back the House in 2018 and hold the line in the Senate.” There is no more important mission. And we are terrible at turning out in midterm elections. I mean, I saw it when Bill was President. I saw it when Barack was President. I mean, you get these young, dynamic Democrats. They do all this stuff and they get hammered the next time because our people go, “Oh, thank you very much!” And don't show up again. So in 2018 if we don't show up, and I won 24 congressional districts with a Republican Congress member. So we can start from there and we can try to figure out, let's field the best candidates. That's why I’ve got this new group called Onward Together, because I wanna support these grassroots groups, I wanna fund candidates. I’m gonna do everything I can with the most intense focus on 2018 that I possibly can bring to bear.

JL: So, wrapping up, but you know, this is a striking book and you make an argument. You really sort of try to understand as best you can what happened. And you discover a lot of complex causes, places where you take responsibility also places where, not to make excuses, but you look for the causes outside of yourself, and fair enough. A portal opens, it's right before your announcement speech, you have a minute with Hillary to tell her something. What do you got?

[Laughter]

HC: Great question, Jon! I would say “Okay. You're running a traditional but really well constructed presidential campaign. You've got great people working for you. But you're walking in to an unknown situation and you need to get a broader 360 degree understanding of what this campaign is going to look like. Because we've got to be ready for whatever they throw at us and what they're gonna throw is not what anybody else has ever had to confront. And I don't think you or campaign have really given that much thought. Because, why should you? It's never happened before. So, I’m telling you Hillary-“

[Laughter]

HC: “You better, you better get around a table and you know, blue sky this and brainstorm this and red team this. And who knows.” I was just reminded- I was reminded by somebody just today that I was doing an NPR interview about my last book, “Hard Choices,” and I was in the NPR studio here in New York -- this was back in 2014 I think -- and all the electricity went down for, you know a period of time. Unbelievably, in a radio studio. And so I- the engineer who was there running it, he said, “My gosh, what is that? The Republicans?” I said “Well, it could be the Russians.” That was 3 plus years ago and I always believed the Russians were more of a threat under Putin. But I never imagined that they would be so brazen as to interfere in our election. And I should have just made a long list, gotten smart people, called you guys and said, “Okay. Give me the weirdest things you think could happen [Boys laugh] and let's be prepared for it.”

JF: But was it-would you- would it be, “Go figure out some different policies? Go figure out some different messages?” Where would you-

HC: No. I think it would be, go figure out how you're going to be able to run a campaign in an environment where-

JF: Propaganda...

HC: You got propaganda, and you've got the media as confused as you are. And they're giving huge amounts of time to a guy who is...really antithetical to everything I think is right about American politics. I mean, look, if I’d lost to a Republican - a normal Republican - of course I’d be disappointed, and I’d be really upset with myself. But this is beyond anything I had imagined. And so it- I think, Jon, in a way it was a lack of imagination about what could happen. And once we saw it was happening- I mean, I saw the faces of the 16 Republicans he, you know, beat -- they were as confused as I was.

[Boys snicker]

HC: Because you know, some of them were supported by the Mercers and the Koch brothers and they had their own network. And all of a sudden-

JL: Well, Ben Carson didn't know he was running for President.

[Laughter]

HC: He didn't- well, that- he's a special candidate.

JL: So that was- he was just like, “What am I- what is this convention?”

HC: “What is happening? What is this convention?”

TV: Stumbling off stage.

HC: “And what is HUD?”

[Laughter]

HC: But it was, it- watching that, I think we should have understood that the media loved it, you know. Because it was a- you know it was like, his Apprentice show or some other reality TV shows. The more outrageous you are, the better the ratings are. And we did not compete at all in that arena. So, you know, I should have thrown some more insults or, you know, advocated some more crazy stuff. [Laughs]

JF: Secretary Clinton, thank you so much for sitting down with us.

HC: Aww…

JL: Thank you!

TV: We really appreciate it.

JF: For taking the time.

HC: I love seeing you all, and I’m so proud of everything I hear about how well you're doing. It's really exciting!

JL: It's great.

JF: Trying our best.

JL: We gotta get you to a live show, we're going work on that next.

[Laughter]

HC: Oh! Okay!

JF: [Laughing] He just keeps asking.

TV: Always be pitching, yeah.

[CROSS TALK]

JL: Why not?

JF: Oh my god.

HC: Oh, yeah.

JF: Sat down for an interview with us…

JL: I know, but I’ve been a journalist for about 6 months and it's very easy and this is what you do.

[Laughter]

HC: Well, I’m glad to hear that, Jon. I wanna know all the inside stories.

[Laughter]

JF: Thank you so much.

HC: Thank you! Thanks, guys.

JL: Thank you.

0:43:32

[MUSIC]

43:38

TV: So we are still squatting in Secretary Clinton’s basement.

JF: Yeah.

JL: We are still-

JF: We’re here.

JL: Her guard is still down, but it's elsewhere.

[Laughter]

JF: She's gone. We're looking for a route out to the woods.

JL: We have, again, our GORP.

JF: What?

JL: We have our trail mix.

JF: [Laughs]

TV: Our tear away pants.

JF: What'd we think, guys?

TV: I think that she was very honest about the parts of that election that still frustrate her. The thing that most surprised me in the interview was her response to my question of her description of Trump being like Putin. Because I thought-

JF: She was dead serious.

TV: She might- she might say, you know “Don't take that too literally.” But she is-

JL: Or she might have said it was a concern, but she just said yes.

TV: Yeah, I mean she means it when she says he is a clear and present danger to our country. And that is a pretty strong call to arms to winning back the House.

JF: It was interesting. I kept trying to get to- right, there's all these outside challenges that she faced -- sexism, Russia, propaganda, she talked a lot about-- it's like, we have to solve all of these in the long term. In the short term, we have an election in 2018. Those things aren't gonna be solved. What do Democrats do differently to get through those things? And I think she honestly- she doesn't know.

JL: I think she's- look we've been talking about this.

TV: It is unknowable.

JF: It's a- it is unknowable.

JL: We are all posing these questions to ourselves, over and over again, and she doesn't have special access to the answers. She has special access to what it was like to go through this thing. And I think the book is worth reading for that alone, even though it's much more raw and open than it had any business being. But, we're all trying to figure that out.

JF: Yeah. And she- she clearly does not believe it was a policy-

JL: No.

JF: It was a policy issue.

TV: Well, and- and I think, policy was a focus in the primary. Policy was absent from the general election.

JF: That is central.

JL: That was interesting.

JF: 100% true

JL: That was interesting that she, sort of, whatever- the responsibility gene on policy making during the primary, built on the assumption that she'd be called to account in the general and the fact that it never happened was interesting.

JF: Yeah.

TV: Just another subtle way that the rules were completely rewritten in this election. Everyone usually tacks back to the middle and Donald Trump tacked as far right as he possibly could get.

JF: Right, we have talked about this on this podcast many times before, but all of us -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the 3 of us, many of our friends -- we probably underestimated the level of anger in this country about people who didn't think that the economy was working for them and didn't think Washington was working for them. And they were really pissed-

JL: And I think- and this sort of cultural reaction-

JF: We all did that.

JL: The cultural reaction to an Obama presidency and the role that that played, and the anger and vitriol connected to race as well. I mean, we've all talked about it a million times but I think, you know, it was interesting that- I think she's struggling to understand what she'd do differently too.

JF: Yeah, that’s right.

TV: That was a very interesting interview.

JF: It was, and I’m glad she sat down with us.

JL: It was great, and I can only assume the ratings have been through the roof.

[Laughter]

JL: And that's also great.

JF: Okay, well we are going to stay in this- in this basement in Chappaqua=

JL: Until we're kicked out.

JF: Until someone- til we're forcibly removed.

TV: I’ve got my wheelie bag, so-

JL: It's nice down here.

JF: It is

JL: I could make this work. This is good.

46:36

[OUTRO MUSIC BEGINS]

JL: It's nicer than my house.

TV: Very sporty in this room…golf teams...

JF: Nice books on the shelves...

TV: See Seabiscuit over there…

JF: Bill Simmons basketball book is here…

JL: A lot of a- there's a lot of baseballs and boxing gloves.

JF: Excellent.

JL: Some golf memorabilia.

JF: We are now going to describe the basement for the next 10 to 20 minutes.

JL: There's a photo of Secretariat, the music is going, we are in outro.

JF: We're in the outro.

JL: The outro. Hey, all the reporters listening to this who are gonna tell us we didn't do a great job-

[Laughter]

JL: Did you make it this far?

[Laughter]

JL: I don't care.

[Laughter]

JF: Alright-

JL: That was a great conversation.

JF: We'll see you guys again.

TV: Bye.

JL: Bye.

47:17

#podsa #September 2017 #bonus pod #podsa transcripts

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