#up election 2022 photos

[anistarrose]

Please don't tune out when you get to the non-partisan section of your ballot this November. First off, where state Supreme Court justices are elected, Republicans are trying their darndest to elect candidates who will destroy reproductive freedom, gut voting rights, and do everything in their power to give "contested" elections to Republicans. Contrast Wisconsin electing a justice in 2023 who helped rule two partisan gerrymanders unconstitutional, versus North Carolina electing a conservative majority in 2022, who upheld a racist voter ID law and a partisan gerrymander that liberal justices had previously struck down both of.

Second, local judicial offices will make infinitely more of an impact on your community than a divided state or federal legislature will. District and circuit courts, especially, are where criminalization of homelessness and poverty play out, and where electing a progressive judge with a commitment to criminal justice reform can make an immediate difference in people's lives.

It's a premier example of buying people time, and doing profound-short-term good, while we work to eventually change the system. You might not think there will be any such progressive justices running in your district, but you won't know unless you do your research. (More on "research" in a moment.)

The candidates you elect to your non-partisan city council will determine whether those laws criminalizing homelessness get passed, how many blank checks the police get to surveil and oppress, and whether lifesaving harm reduction programs, like needle exchanges and even fentanyl test strips, are legal in your municipality. Your non-partisan school board might need your vote to fend off Moms for Liberty candidates and their ilk, who want to ban every book with a queer person or acknowledgement of racism in it.

Of course, this begs the question — if these candidates are non-partisan, and often hyper-local, then how do I research them? There's so much less information and press about them, so how do I make an informed decision?

I'm not an expert, myself. But I do think/hope I have enough tips to consist of a useful conclusion to this post:

Plan ahead. If you vote in person, figure out what's on your ballot before you show up and get jumpscared by names you don't know. Find out what's on your ballot beforehand, and bring notes with you when you vote. Your city website should have a sample ballot, and if they drop the ball, go to Ballotpedia.

Ballotpedia in general, speaking of which. Candidates often answer Ballotpedia's interviews, and if you're lucky, you'll also get all the dirt on who's donating to their campaign.

Check endorsements. Usually candidates are very vocal about these on their websites. If local/state progressive leaders and a couple unions (not counting police unions lol) are endorsing a candidate, then that's not the end of my personal research process per se, but it usually speeds things up.

Check the back of the ballot. That's where non-partisan races usually bleed over to. This is the other reason why notes are helpful, because they can confirm you're not missing anything.

I've seen some misconceptions in the reblogs, so an addendum to my point about bringing notes on the candidates: I strongly suggest making those notes a physical list that you bring polling place with you. Many states do allow phones at the polling place, but several states explicitly don't — Nevada, Maryland, and Texas all ban phones, and that may not be an exhaustive list. There may also be states that allow individual city clerks to set policies.

You should also pause and think before you take a photo of your ballot, because even some states that don't ban phones still ban ballot photographs. But whether it's a photo, or just having your phone in general — in an environment as high-risk for voter suppression as the current one, you don't want even a little bit of ambiguity about your conduct. Physical notes are your friends.

[opencommunion]

Palestinians from several of the displaced communities described the same pattern to +972: Israeli settlers arrive with their herds and prevent them from grazing on land where Palestinians have grazed for decades; then armed settlers would proceed to harass them day and night, even entering houses, without the army or police intervening. Everyone described the same, overwhelming feelings of fear and distress under the shadow of these settler invasions. “It’s like 1948,” said Mohammed Hussein, a resident of Ein Samia — invoking the year of the Nakba (“catastrophe”) and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland during Israel’s establishment. According to the Palestinian residents, the situation grew worse following the establishment and growth of several grazing settler outposts in the area in recent years; settler violence and further expansion also noticeably escalated since the current Israeli government, led by extremist far-right parties, was sworn in last December. ... The Israeli authorities, along with the settlers, have played a central role in the displacement. For years, the occupation apparatus has banned the Palestinian communities from construction; demolished their homes; denied them connection to water and electricity; stopped them from paving roads; issued demolition orders for schools built with funds from the European Union; established and recognized Jewish settlements; and, of course, stood by during settler violence.  ... “We have always been under occupation, in a prison with checkpoints, but now we live in a prison van,” said Ali Abu al-Kabash, 60, sitting in a tent he had set up in an open area across the Allon Road. Abu al-Kabash, who is originally from a-Samu, near Hebron, moved to the Ramallah area in the 1980s, and to the area near Ras a-Tin in 1995. “Before the [last] election, the settlers would run away if there were a few of us [facing them]. Today, they attack because the government is with them. The police, the army, and the Shin Bet are all with them,” he added. “For 25 years we lived a normal life,” Abu al-Kabash continued. “In recent years, the settlers came and established two outposts [Micah’s Farm and Malachei HaShalom]. They blocked the road between us and Ein al-Rashash, and the one that goes down toward Fasayil. We would herd in the area, but they came to us in the name of the government and the Civil Administration and said that the land belongs to the settlers. They brought sheep to eat the food we grew for our sheep … They enter houses, sometimes with many soldiers, taking photos, even when there are girls, women, and old men present.” According to Abu al-Kabash, the violence increased after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in May. “They park at the entrance of the homes. Some of them are under 12 years old, under the age of criminal responsibility. They go in, look in the refrigerator, or at our phones. What can we do? They want Area C for Israel, to take control of the land through the settlers, but without war. But where will we go? The occupation is everywhere.” Ras a-Tin, which neighbors al-Qabun, was subjected to similar harassment and severe violence by settlers. On the day its residents fled, in July 2022, Ahmad Kaabna, the mukhtar of Ras a-Tin — who died suddenly in early August at age 60 — told a group of activists: “The settlers frightened the women, the children — everyone. They came to the homes at night in groups of 10-15 people … the army with them. If you talk to them and say ‘get away, get out of here,’ they call the army or the police, who come and arrest the young [Palestinians].”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Hugh Dougherty at The Daily Beast:

Jeffrey Epstein described himself as Donald Trump’s “closest friend” and claimed intimate knowledge of his proclivity for sex, including cuckolding his best friends, according to recordings obtained exclusively by the Daily Beast. The convicted pedophile even boasted of his closeness to Trump and his now-wife Melania by claiming, “the first time he slept with her was on my plane,” which was dubbed the Lolita Express.

Epstein spoke at length about Trump with the author Michael Wolff in August 2017, two years before being found dead in his jail cell. Wolff was researching his bombshell bestseller Fire and Fury at the time. The recordings cast more light on Trump’s long relationship with Epstein, and will add to debate over the character of the Republican candidate, especially his attitudes and conduct toward women, just days before the election. The tapes tell Epstein’s version of the relationship between two former friends and their very different paths: One toward infamy, prison and suicide; the other toward power, the Oval Office and his own criminal conviction for paying hush money to a porn star. Trump’s camp referred to the tapes’ release as “false smears” and ���election interference.” The tapes also offer unusual insight into the friendship of two wealthy, powerful men who frequently went out on the town together, prowling for women in New York and Atlantic City. [...]

Asked by Wolff, “How do you know all this?” Epstein replied, “I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.” Wolff shared the tape with the Daily Beast ahead of discussing it on his Fire and Fury podcast on Monday. Last Thursday he caused shockwaves by revealing a few seconds of a separate recording in which Epstein spoke in detail about the inner workings of the Trump administration. Wolff also said Thursday that the pedophile showed off photos of Trump with topless young women sitting in his lap. Wolff, a veteran journalist and author who was also the biographer of Rupert Murdoch, has long attracted praise and bromides. When Fire & Fury was published in January 2018, Trump tried to stop it with a failed cease and desist order, then threatened to sue. No case ever materialized, and it sold 5 million copies worldwide. Wolff, who appears regularly on his Fire and Fury podcast, wrote two more books on Trump after Fire and Fury, and about Epstein in 2021’s Too Famous.

Wolff says he has up to 100 hours of recordings of interviews with Epstein, including from using him as a source for Fire and Fury, and from years of meetings when the disgraced financier appeared to want Wolff to write a biography of him. Wolff said he decided to release parts of the archive after a new accuser, a former Miss Switzerland, alleged last week that Trump had groped her in 1992.

[...] Trump’s long friendship with Epstein, which spanned the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s has been well documented. In the 1990s, the two publicly partied at Mar-a-Lago and went to a Victoria’s Secret Angels show together. In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine of Epstein, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Epstein’s infamous leaked addressbooks had Trump’s own phone number as well as Melania’s, while Trump’s name appeared seven times in the passenger logs of Epstein’s planes. (The books and logs also included princes, politicians and potentates such as Bill Clinton, former British prime minister Tony Blair, former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, Prince Andrew and celebrities and billionaires including Mick Jagger and Les Wexner.)

[...] In 2022 Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who procured him underage girls, would be sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for the sex trafficking of minors. Upon hearing of her arrest in 2020, Trump, then president, said he wished her well. “Her friend or boyfriend was either killed or committed suicide in jail. Yeah, I wish her well… Good luck.” In 2004, Epstein and Trump fell out when they both tried to buy a Palm Beach estate, Maison de L’Amitié, out of bankruptcy. The next year, the FBI began investigating Epstein for child sex trafficking.

In 2019, on the day after Epstein’s arrest, Trump said in the Oval Office, “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you,” and that they had not been friends for 15 years. He said it “did not much matter” what the fall-out had been over. This September, asked about Epstein by the tech podcaster Lex Fridman, Trump said: “He was a good salesman. He was a hailing, hearty type of guy. He had some nice assets that he’d throw around like islands, but a lot of big people went to that island. But fortunately, I was not one of them.”

[...]

The Epstein tape includes an allegation—which is impossible to verify—that Trump had an affair with a politician while in the White House. Epstein offered no proof or sourcing for the claim. He also alleged that Trump cheated on both his first wife Ivana and second wife Marla Maples with “a Black girl.” At one section, Epstein used a Yiddish racial slur to refer to Black women and alleged Trump boasted to him, “I’m f---ing all these Black women.” The tape mixes sexual allegations with other aspects of Trump’s life. Early in the recording Epstein is heard to say, “You probably know he had a scalp reduction. He’s getting the same male pattern baldness that we all have. He had his scalp reduced. It’s hysterical.” Trump has long refused to release full medical records while his White House medical reports did not disclose any prior surgeries.

“He’s charming. In a devious way, he’s charming. To some extent it’s a typical tragedy where he believes his own bulls---”

— Epstein on Trump

And Epstein offers his eyewitness account of Trump Tower and Trump’s office where, he said, Trump had “fake honors” on the wall. Trump, he claimed, would yell at his personal assistant Rhona Graff, “who’s a loyal, perfect, secretary,” as well as Matthew Calamari Snr., his bodyguard, and Michael Cohen, his attorney who is now an enemy. Epstein compared Trump to “an emotionally challenged 9-year-old,” and said, “He screams and yells at Rhona more than anybody else. His screaming is how he treats people. He has a tantrum, not a temper. If you don’t understand him, it’s frightening. Once you understand him, it’s sort of silly.” Epstein also told Wolff he had positive things to say about Trump. “He’s charming. In a devious way, he’s charming,” he said. “To some extent it’s a typical tragedy where he believes his own bulls---. He has delusions of grandiosity, then he takes it on board.” He added that he had a “self-deprecating nature” and was “not vulgar.” “He’s funny,” Epstein said. “Self-awareness means you’re self-aware. He’s aware of that person, Donald Trump. He talks about The Trump, The Trumpster. ‘Trump’s getting laid.’”

On the tape Epstein, speaking in a New York accent, also mentioned the rich and powerful. (In a deposition released after his death Epstein admitted under oath that he dropped the names of people he had never met.) The names he mentioned on tape include: Former president Bill Clinton; Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner; then-Defense Secretary James Mattis; and the billionaires Carl Icahn and Tom Barrack, both of whom are friends of Trump. Clinton was a long-standing friend of Epstein but has denied any association after the pedophile’s disgrace in the mid-2000s. Mattis has no known association with him. Ivanka was photographed with him as a child but Kushner has never been known to be linked to him. Barrack appeared in a leaked appointment diary for Epstein from 2016, while Carl Icahn, a corporate raider and long-time Trump friend, was in Epstein’s 1997 address book. Startlingly for a man who became one of the world’s most notorious sex offenders, Epstein on the tapes offers a damning judgment of Trump, telling Wolff, “The moral compass just does not exist.”

The Daily Beast reported that Jeffrey Epstein was Donald Trump's closest friend for about 10 years, according to tapes obtained from the outlet that featured Michael Wolff interviewing the late pedophile.

[motziedapul]

People comparing Kamala Harris to Leni Robredo need to remember that while Trump and Marcos have many similarities, Leni Gerona Robredo isn't actively committing a genocide and has never committed a genocide

So no, they're not the same.

Their only similarities seem to be their rich, fascist man child opponents, and the fact that they are non White women.

Leni Robredo recently waded chest deep through dangerous floodwaters to deliver aid during the typhoon just last month. No press organization took these photos, these were posted to social media by random people and they went viral. This isn't a campaign trail. She's not trying to run for president anymore.

In the very least, it's a good way to show people what real leadership looks like. Not telling protesters to shut up when they protest genocide.

She's only running for local office now, but people pay attention. Her election campaign and 15 million voters turned into an aid organization that everyone trusts more than the government.

I'll say this; it behooves Americans to pay attention to the politics of their former colony and current military slave the Philippines. This past election is pretty close to what happened in 2022, even if not identical. Even if I have no respect for Harris I do think people can learn something from the many similarities in the political climate and mass misinformation campaign that led to the Marcos/Trump presidency.

[bravest-notts]

Help a Trans Person Move to a Safer State

Hey folks, as some of you know I currently live in a red state (Iowa) that's trending even further right and I need out. While I have been saving up to move since the 2022 election, the rapid escalation of transphobic legislation here has left me unable to save up quite enough to cover my full move if I want to get out of here before the legislative session reopens in January. I have a job lined up in Minnesota already, I just need help to get there.

A longer explanation and cost breakdown is in the link, but the short version is that I need $1580 to cover moving costs and a pet and security deposit.

If you can't afford to donate anything, I entirely understand. Even just a reblog helps.

Thank you so much! <3

Here's a photo of my cat in gratitude.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

What were the highlights of the Royal tour to Australia and Samoa so far for you?

I know Charles is a trooper, but he was looking a little faded by Samoa. I know it's to be expected considering his age and medical condition. I do admire his stamina though and he seems buoyed by the general reception! Have you noticed a changing PR line addressing this? What are some of the considerations in PR now for Charles' team?

So first, remember, I'm not a typical royal watcher in that I don't do the day to day. And second, I've been pretty offline these days (it's the politics and the politicking for the election...I'm so over it and I"m not even in a swing state!) so there's a lot I've missed.

Anyway, getting to the questions...as best as I can...my awareness of Charles's trip was just what I saw in Chris Jackson's and the BRF's Instagram...which is that there were some big rainstorms, everyone was happy to see Charles and Camilla, and they were happy to be there as well.

From the photos I did see, I got the sense that Charles missed (misses?) engaging with the public and being with them. But I'm not sure if that "he misses people" is due to his role as The King where he has more head of state/'room where it happens' duties than the charity work and community outreach he spent most of his life doing or if it's due to the changes he/his team had to put in place for his treatment. From a couple of the Samoa photos, I also got a feeling like maybe Charles was missing his mother, like maybe her legacy in the Commonwealth and at CHOGM was something he was thinking about or reflecting on - it's possible we could even be talking about the same photos! Where you thought he looked faded (which is absolutely 100% possible because those very long flights + the most "on" he's been since his diagnosis and treatment beginning in January), perhaps that's when I thought he seemed to be...longing, I guess? Wistful?

I'm not sure about the PR, because of how offline I've been (I'll definitely circle back to this in a couple weeks once the election is over - feel free to send me reminders if I don't pick this up again mid-November). But something I feel quite certain of is that we're probably going to see BP change their travel plans, like no more long journeys and more rest days. For instance - thinking specifically to this trip, a do-over plan might see Charles having a rest weekend in Singapore instead of a "pick up Camilla and change planes" layover, then flying onwards to Australia, having the scheduled rest day there to acclimate, then doing his Aussie itinerary, and a partial rest day before flying on to Samoa.

(I don't think there's anything BP can do about protestors, like the one Senator. Perhaps they can be more inclusive in any prepared remarks to address something like that in the future but then if you plan for protest and it doesn't happen, do you still say that in your speech? I don't know. I think that in part, the BRF just needs to accept that people are going to be more outspoken and direct about their feelings about the monarchy and they need to have...not a script but some kind of talking point to be able to address or respond to it.)

I also think the walkabouts and the public engagements did remind Charles and the BP team that there's a kind of magic that happens when the public interacts with the BRF. It feels very much like there was some trepidation or nerves about how Charles would do with the Aussie public, the same way there were nerves about how the British public would receive King Charles on September 9, 2022 (which reminded me quite a bit of the nerves about how the public would receive Queen Elizabeth in September 1997 on her return to BP). So I think there's a good chance we might see those kinds of community interaction put back into Charles's schedule once he's properly recovered and has the OK from his medical team.

PR-wise, I think the immediate focus for Charles and his team will be a need to address the limitations on travel. There's no way Charles can match The Queen's pace when she was 75, or even 85, so I feel like he's going to rely more on the Edinburghs and the Waleses to do the long-distance traveling (the latter obviously when Kate is back to full strength and performance). It needs a spin, but how do they spin that? Will it be barbs towards William a la "The Prince of Wales needs to become a better statesman"? Will it be a promotion for the Edinburghs a la "trusted confidants and ambassadors"? (I don't include Anne here because all signs point to her slowing down, whether that's by choice or by medical directive following her concussion and hospitalization, I don't know.)

Speaking only for myself, I think if Charles and his team went back to doing virtual events - for example, a diary that's 1/4 virtual engagements, 1/4 in-person engagements, 1/4 head-of-state work, 1/4 rest - they'll be able to strike a nice balance that gives Charles the ability to interact more with the public, which really does seem to energize and invigorate him. And I think picking up a virtual program again will also help with the outreach to the Commonwealth and the realms, integrating those charities and those peoples into more of the daily royal agenda will strengthen those bonds, vs interacting with them only for CHOGM or foreign tours.

(I would also love to see Charles and Camilla do train tours, like William and Kate did in December 2020. I think that would be a fantastic way for them to get out and see people/have those community interactions and being able to relax and rest on the royal train between stops and overnight.)

I think I've lost the plot here. I'll end with this: no matter how you consider the tour/visits went, no matter what your perspective was, probably the one thing that's very clear is that Charles and BP will be reevaluating how they plan his work. They did the best they could with the information they had and what they knew about Charles's condition, and it probably ended up being a little too ambitious.

[fatehbaz]

the very Sacred Oak Flat is in danger of becoming an open pit copper mine. turning a sacred site into a 1000-ft pit. Apache Leap, ancient petroglyphs, extremely important rituals since time began; these things are Oak Flat. the federal government is ignoring many legal protections as well, including 200 yr old treaty promising to protect the land forever, national park designation, and on the national register of historic places. this project is so, so evil. I want people to know about it. Please read, talk, care about it.

Nice, thank you. The impending destruction of Chi'chil Bildagoteel by the US government and one of the planet's most infamous mining companies.

Over the past 3 years, I’ve written here about defense of Oak Flat, also called Chi'chil Bildagoteel by Chiricahua Apache from San Carlos reservation. (A summary of the site’s importance and history. A summary of the legal challenges to the mine. A summary of Apache Stronghold and other Indigenous-led campaigns. A photo collection featuring Indigenous-led actions in February 2021.) But all of these posts predate the developments that have occurred from the beginning of 2022 until now (March 2023). And the legal case, the fate of the site, is about to be settled this very month.

Well, then, there’s Rio Tinto, the copper mining leviathan, despised across the planet, bane of Australia, so-called Rhodesia, Latin America, Papua, etc. They're the second-largest metals/mining company on the planet. For well over a century, open-pit copper mines have been infamous for the scale of their destruction and I like how you describe it: giant pits, gaping wounds. Oak Flat is destined to belong to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto. Just before widespread news of Rio Tinto’s interest in Oak Flat, Rio Tinto had earned an especially-notorious reputation for destroying Indigenous/Aboriginal sites in Australia. A summary of the news about the “atrocity” at Juukan Gorge, when in May 2020, Rio Tinto destroyed an important sacred cultural site containing Indigenous shelters over 45,000 years old, and Rio Tinto leaders apparently had foreknowledge of the area’s cultural importance. Here’s a look at what is perhaps the oldest surviving human art on the planet, some petroglyphs and shelters up to 50,000 years old, being destroyed by the truly astonishing scale and diversity of destructive mining operations in Western Australia. And here’s a look at many other ancient and modern Indigenous sacred sites being destroyed by mining in that region.

Sacred Land Film Project put together some informational graphics:

Anyway, a basic summary.

Originally, this mine was kinda known as, like, “the John McCain Land-Grab Deal” because Senator McCain sold out the state of Arizona and Indigenous people by basically promising a formal transfer of land and the creation of what would become a major mining site at Oak Flat. Mining in the Oak Flat area was technically prohibited decades earlier by an Eisenhower presidential/executive order, but in December 2014, McCain sneaked a hidden last-minute rider onto a must-pass defense spending bill.

In May 2020, Rio Tinto gets caught destroying those sites at Juukan Gorge.

So, in October 2020, Indigenous activists discovered that the supposed date of the land transfer finalization had been quietly and suddenly moved up like a full year, meaning that the site might have become a mine beginning in December 2020 or January 2021.

At this point, the Oak Flat mine was becoming known as, like, “Trump’s Rushed/Hurried Mining Deal,” since the Trump presidential administration seemed to want to quickly act on the mine before any potential presidential transfer of power might occur in January 2021, “just in case” they lost the November 2020 election.

So this is when Apache Stronghold and other Native advocates really started finally getting national recognition in headlines. They organized a Day of Action and statewide events around the Solstice in 2020, and by January 2021, they had forced the case into court.

In the January 2021 case of Apache Stronghold v. United States, an Arizona judge ruled against Native advocates, but advocates got the case heard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. While the case was being argued, in February 2021, Apache Stronghold also participated in a newsworthy relay from Oak Flat to the courthouse in Phoenix, when Native advocates held a candlelight vigil.

But in March 2021, the US Forest Service announced that it was temporarily withdrawing its environmental impact assessments for the land transfer, putting the mine on hold.

In October 2021, the three judges on the appeals court ruled against Apache Stronghold again.

Over a year later, in November 2022, the court then announced something unusual: The court was willing to rehear the case en blanc (before a panel of all 11 judges).

And now, “Biden’s attorneys” will be arguing against Apache Stronghold and for the land transfer.

Throughout this entire process, Apache Stronghold has consistently been vocal, active, and dedicated to stopping it.

Here are some headlines from the past couple of years:

And from March 2023, this headline, one more time, for impact:

So, beginning on 21 March 2023, the case is being heard, again, for what is presumably the final time, with US government attorneys arguing that the land will belong to the mining companies by summer 2023.

[timkontheunsure]

UK general election postal voters read this!

Edit: this was apparently part the election act 2022 law, that changed how long you can stay signed up for general elections postal votes.

The max now is only 3 years. If you've been on that long you Will have to reconfirm with the update from.

If you receive a update form please read it carefully, and if it says you need to send it back do so to stay on the list.

(People who have received these have been given less than 2 weeks to do so).

Sorry about the confusion, but this worried me and lot of my friends.

Left it below so people can see what this was about.

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

Hey heads up the UK post vote detail info update forms NEED to be sent back this time even if there's no changes!

If you don't you'll be removed from the post vote list!

This is awful as it's the accessibility option for most people & needs no photo ID.

This is a link to what types of ID are accepted if you don't manage to send it back in time.

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/voter-id/accepted-forms-photo-id

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Reading the headlines over the last couple of days, you would think the biggest political story about this election is Trump’s pathetic attempt to challenge Vice President Kamala Harris on the size of her rally crowds.  Look at this Truth Social post!  Trump says she used AI to create fake photos of her crowd at an airport in Detroit!  There was even a story in my newsfeed from a polling expert pointing out that you cannot calculate support for a candidate by crowd size.  If crowd size were what mattered, Bernie Sanders would be president by now, he reminded us.

Political narratives are strange beasts – at least they were until Trump came along and made them even stranger.  It used to be that fights over policies and personalities and the pasts of politicians drove elections.  When John Kerry ran in 2006, Republicans took his war record in the Navy in Vietnam and “Swift-boated” him by twisting his service into something it wasn’t.  They’re trying to do the same thing with Tim Walz right now, creating a fake story that he was somehow derelict in his duty when he retired from 24 years of service in the National Guard to run for congress not long before his unit in Minnesota was deployed to Iraq.

Then Trump showed up and proved that you can do it using lies alone.  That’s what his ridiculous story that Kamala Harris is using AI to fake her crowd size was.  Trump proved that if you tell enough lies again and again and again, something will stick, and then you can run with it. 

You will notice in the above paragraphs that the political narratives I gave as examples were all driven by men:  Men running for office; men’s careers being dissected and put on display; men using lies and misinformation to create stories about each other where there really aren’t any.  Even the political narrative about Hillary Clinton during her presidential run in 2016 was created by men:  Roger Stone interfacing with Guccifer II to get Hillary’s emails leaked to the press; Trump taking the fake “issue” about “her emails” and making it a central feature of his campaign.

But this week, a campaign narrative driven by women entered the picture in a big way.  On Monday, Arizona election officials announced that they had received enough signatures on petitions – in fact 50 percent more than was required – to put access to abortion on the ballot in November.  On Tuesday, Missouri officials certified enough petition signatures to allow a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine the right to abortion in the state’s constitution.

Both of these things are a big, big deal.  The drives to collect enough signatures to get the referendum measures on the Arizona and Missouri ballots were run by women.  Referendums on abortion have already been approved for a November vote in Florida, Nevada, Colorado, and South Dakota.  Petitions have been submitted in Nebraska and Montana for similar abortion ballot measures and await approval by election officials.  State constitutional amendments will be on the ballot in New York and Maryland that will guarantee access to abortion as well.  The New York Times reminded us in a story today that ballot measures guaranteeing a right to abortion have passed in all seven states where they have been put to a vote since Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022.  The red states of Kentucky and Kansas were among the states that passed abortion rights measures by referendum. 

Arizona and Nevada are crucial battleground states in the presidential election that will be decided in November.  Having the issue of abortion on the ballot alongside the decision to vote for either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, who brags about having appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe, is expected to help Democrats from Vice President Harris on down the ballot, including pivotal races that will determine control of the House and the Senate next year.

Abortion is not just a so-called “women’s issue.”  Until two years ago, the right to abortion was embedded in the language of the 14th Amendment which guarantees equal protection of the laws for all.  It was part of the central argument that established a right to privacy in Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965, which involved the right of couples to use birth control.  The fight over abortion rights, often framed as the right of a woman to control her own body, also involves the right to privacy for all of us.  Right wing lawsuit-factories such as the Alliance Defending Freedom have already stated their intention to sue to overturn Griswold, as well as other Supreme Court decisions based on the 14th Amendment involving same sex marriage and the right to love whoever you want in any way you want in the privacy of your bedroom.

With Kamala Harris running for president, Democrats will have the opportunity to emphasize that so-called kitchen table issues such as inflation and taxes are also women’s issues because our candidate is a woman, and that is a good thing.  It is definitely a good thing that abortion will be on the ballot in at least two key swing states, and it's even better thing that the person driving the political narrative for the Democratic Party this year is a woman. 

[posttexasstressdisorder]

GOP has gone rancid—and it isn't fair decent people have to keep cleaning up after them

D. Earl Stephens

April 23, 2024 5:27AM ET

People await the arrival of former U.S. President Donald Trump at a rally for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) at the Miami-Dade Country Fair and Exposition on November 6, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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I’ve heard more than enough from people identifying as Republicans to last for whatever is left of my life.

By words and actions, Republicans have proven they are not serious people, and most definitely do not love or care for our country. We have learned without any doubt during the past decade that there is no line they won’t cross, rule they won’t break, or lie they won’t tell to further their dirty causes, which have absolutely nothing to do with making America great.

They are incapable of good governance, and have settled into mob rule. The Republican-led House of Representatives is a complete and nasty joke, where members literally elbow and hiss at each other, and that is both true and terribly, terribly sad.

With help from our inept Justice Department and a bought-off Conservative Supreme Court, Republicans are making a mockery of the notion that our nation is protected by the rule of law. They know better than anybody, that this simply is not true.

They have exploited a system they have learned to eagerly spit on by refusing to allow nominations for Supreme Court Justices in some cases, while rocketing other Conservative nominees through the Senate in record time.

READ: Breaking our democracy is all part of the GOP plan

They call violent terrorists who attack our country hostages, and expect the press to keep swallowing it whole, because that’s what they do.

Cheating and underhandedness is in their DNA.

They are long past the point of no return, and will either pay for their felonious behavior, or will somehow be rewarded for it at the polls this November, in which case we are done with our Democratic experiment after 248 years.

It is now up to Democrats to once again save this nation from the sick arsonists eagerly trying to burn it to the ground, and that is helluva lot to ask, and isn’t remotely fair.

Here’s a damn truth we don’t hear near enough about: If the Democratic candidate for president was facing 91 felony counts, had been convicted of fraud, was a serial abuser of women, told a documented 30,573 lies in four years, spread a big, toxic lie about an election he lost, and praised dictators, the party and the people who support it, would drop him/her like a rock.

He or she wouldn’t stand a chance. They’d be banished to the nearest dumpster. No decent person would want to be associated with such obvious scum.

The people who vote on the Left and the Right in this country are not remotely the same, and I am way past sick and tired of hearing that they are.

Something as despicable and odious as Donald J. Trump could NEVER happen in the Democratic Party. We simply would not allow it.

That right there is an ironclad fact.

Democrats and left-leaning people are not perfect, because no person is, but we still believe in truth, decency and manners. ALL children are important in our world, which is why we believe feeding them and getting them the healthcare and the childcare they need is vital, and far more important than paying the taxes of filthy-rich, bloated billionaires. We still believe that how the United States projects itself to rest of the world and our children means something.

We love our country, warts and all.

We still believe that when we’ve made mistakes, or said stupid, hurtful things we should apologize for them, not recklessly double down like ill-bred maniacs.

We have not, and will not, surrender to the lowest form of life like Trump. It is simply not in us.

As of this writing, I am officially DONE listening to the unmitigated gall that “both sides do it” or “both parties are the same” because that’s a complete load of bullshit. It is brutally insulting to the tens of millions of people in this country who play by the rules, believe all people are created equal, and still know a damn lie, or attack on our country when they hear it and see it.

The people who populate the Left and Right in our country are wired differently, and it’s time this was said out loud, and repeatedly. It is also long past time our media reported this. Especially because they know it to be true.

In the newsrooms where I used to work, if something so obviously bad and as evil as Trump and his enablers had burst on the scene, we would have been sounding alarms and reporting on it 24/7. The man means us and our country harm. We know this because he is SHOWING US AND TELLING US THIS.

There is seldom a day that goes by without him saying or doing something revolting and egregious. The media doesn’t even bother asking his Republican followers in Congress to account for his larceny anymore. They just accept it as somehow normal when it most certainly is not and never can be.

There are two sides to the story that should be told in America right now. One is called, good, the other is called, evil.

The only reason our national press does not report on this legitimately and accurately is simply because they are pathetic cowards, plain and simple. They know they are failing, but are carrying on despicably, anyway.

I’ll always have ammo to burn addressing their egregious behavior these days, but for now, I want to continue unwinding this thread of how the Left and Right are completely different and how unfair it is that we have to deal with the never-ending recklessness on the Right.

Back in 2015, when Trump laughably announced he’d be seeking the Republican nomination for president, many prominent Republicans rightfully scoffed at the possibility. You’ll get no better example than Lindsey Graham’s evergreen tweet: “If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.” Graham went on to call Trump, “a jackass.”

The Bushes, Rubios, and other red-blooded Republicans all saw Trump for what he was: completely disgusting and ridiculous. That was before the big-mouth, lifetime loser started blasting them off the debate stage by imitating a slobbering, belligerent drunk at the end of the bar.

Instead of bouncing him from the party, they allowed him to play to the delight of the silent minority in America, who had watched him bravely fire people on his TV show, and lick his toilet seat by degrading President Obama with his putrid, racist, noxious birther blather.

These were the fine people whose tongues bled from self-censoring the bile that flowed from their broken brains, into their big, fat mouths, and had taken centuries to finally go out of taste in this country. It killed them that there were actually awful, hurtful things they could not say out loud anymore.

Now they were free to be themselves again, and let the sludge flow freely from their chapped lips.

Their freedoms had nothing to do with breaking free from any chains, or breaking glass ceilings. No, their freedoms meant having the permission from the very top to be just as disgusting and appalling as they wanted to be. It meant belittling the disabled, and dragging women into the gutter. It meant coddling Nazis and calling cities that terrified them with their sophistication, “s--t holes.”

Before we knew it Nazis and white suprematists were coming out of their caves everywhere and lighting their tiki torches. They were finally on the march to the point of no return, where their disgusting leader was waiting to tell them that he loved them.

Once you have coddled a racist, a traitor, a two-timer, a friend of our enemies, an environmental terrorist, a serial liar, and a sociopath, you are completely lost and broken. Done.

Now the mob rules the Republican Party, which makes it fitting they are represented by this two-bit thug, who is currently sitting in a court room for hiding campaign money he paid to an adult movie star he slept with named Stormy, while his wife was at home caring for a newborn.

Yeah, that’s good and wholesome and normal right there.

A few have broken free of the madman’s grip in the Republican Party, while others have tried, and have crumpled into a heap and back into the mud and slime.

In February, Trump’s very own attorney general, the morally corrupt, Bill Barr, stumbled into bravery and truth when he said that voting for Trump would be “playing Russian roulette with the country.”

By this past Wednesday he had once again devolved and said, but “I’ll support the Republican ticket” if Trump leads it.

Also in February, New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu said of Trump: “A--holes come and go. But America is here to stay.”

On Sunday, he admitted he had changed his tune and said: “Look, nobody should be shocked that the Republican governor is supporting the Republican president.”

That’s exactly right, governor: A--holes come and go, and apparently you will do everything you can to hang around for a while. You are a revolting person, sport.

Nobody should be surprised by these things anymore, because the Republican Party is irredeemable and incapable of surprises. They can ALWAYS go lower, and prove it literally every day.

This is what happens when you are morally busted and are not bound by any rules or self-control that guides the rest of us.

This is what happens when you surrender to depravity.

This is what happens when you rubber stamp abuse of women, lies, insurrection and support for dictators as anything in the vicinity of normal.

So what happens when standing by the truth and playing by the rules gets you nowhere as a political party and as a country? What happens when millions discover there is no justice and a depraved mad man once again has the keys to the kingdom?

Thanks to the Barrs and the Sununus, and the tens of millions of below-average, broken-down Republicans littering our country, we are terrifyingly close to finding out.

It is up to the Left to take out the garbage once again in America, because the Right has lost its damn mind, as well as its sense of taste and smell.

At what point can all this FINALLY be delivered as fact and shouted on Page 1?

At what point can we quit pretending that both sides are even remotely the same?

NOW READ: What most assuredly happens when Trump sits down with the New York Times

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. Follow @EarlofEnough and on his website.

[beardedmrbean]

Swedish border guards will be given the power to search migrants’ smartphones to look for evidence of destroyed passports under a new law backed by the country’s Right-wing coalition government.

The law comes as part of a wider push to speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers to drive down migrant numbers amid fears they are being recruited by Sweden’s organised crime gangs.

Officials believe migrants entering Sweden may have used their phones to take photos or make digital copies of their passports and other documents before destroying them on arrival at airports.

Swedish officials said identifying migrants was vital if the person was to be deported after a failed claim.

‘They might keep a copy’ 

“Next week, we are going to receive a government inquiry on increasing the possibilities for the police to look into iPhones to find the documents that have been scanned there,” Anders Hall, state secretary for the ministry of justice, told The Telegraph.

“When you tear up your passport, you might keep a copy or a photo in your phone because sooner or later you might need it. This will give the legal basis to make it possible to look for them.”

The government expects the law to enter into force in 2025-26 after a consultation period.

Sweden now says there are more emigrants than immigrants for the first time in 50 years after toughening asylum rules since Ulf Kristersson took power as prime minister in 2022.

His conservative coalition is propped up by the hard-Right Sweden Democrats, which was partly founded by Nazi sympathisers and remains formally outside of government despite coming second in a 2022 election dominated by fears over migration and crime.

“We signed up for a very detailed agreement, both in terms of law enforcement and migration,” Mr Hall said.

“The Sweden Democrats have more or less full insight into what we are doing. We are constantly having meetings with them, telling them where we are implementing.”

He pointed out that despite the uproar over the cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, the opposition Social Democrats had not voted against a single migration measure brought forward by the government.

“There was much ado about nothing,” he said before adding that the Sweden Democrats were being encouraged to be more responsible through their brushes with government.

Mr Hall was in London this week to brief UK government officials on Sweden’s crackdown.

Other measures include boosting voluntary repatriation, as well as deportations.

Naturalised citizens and families of migrants could be offered money to leave the country as part of a voluntary return scheme that already offers refugees about £720 and travel costs.

As a rule, asylum seekers should live in reception centres or return centres rather than private housing. 

The government has also introduced rules making it possible to strip serious criminals or terrorists with dual nationalities of their Swedish nationality.

Accepted refugees are also no longer granted permanent residence as a matter of course. Instead, their claim is reviewed every three years.

Sweden is among EU member states calling for tougher rules to make deporting failed asylum seekers easier.

Increasing numbers of claims are being made by migrants arriving in the bloc legally in airports before destroying their papers.

In 2015, 13 per cent of all asylum claims in the EU were made in Sweden but that was down to 2 per cent in 2023. In 2023, Sweden received 12,600 asylum applications, which is lower than in 2020, and is expected to be the lowest since 1997.

[mariacallous]

One of JD Vance’s key policy advisers, Aaron Kofsky, has for years posted extensively on Reddit about using a variety of drugs, including cocaine and opiates, under the username PsychoticMammal. In the posts, which are as recent as three months ago, Kofsky wrote about experiencing withdrawal from and trying to “kick” tianeptine—also known as “gas station heroin”—and kratom; advised other users on how to transport drugs on domestic flights; and called Vance “a Trump boot licker.”

According to his LinkedIn profile, Kofsky, who is in his late twenties, has been advising Vance on financial policy since this past May, and has been working in the vice presidential nominee’s Senate office since March of last year. A recent Politico article on Vance’s “inner circle” described Kofsky as helping the senator “flesh out his opposition to some cryptocurrency regulation and his effort to introduce new banking regulations after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.”

Before working for Vance, Kofsky worked for the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and as a policy adviser to Securities and Exchange Commissioner Mark Uyeda. The crypto industry has seen Vance as an ally since he ran for Senate in the 2022 election and then disclosed that he personally owned more than $100,000 in Bitcoin. Kofsky has criticized SEC chair Gary Gensler’s heavy-handed approach to crypto regulation multiple times on X. Over the summer, Vance circulated a draft bill that would remove much of the authority the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have over governing digital currency. At the time, Politico called the bill one of the more “industry-friendly” pieces of legislation.

A WIRED investigation shows Kofsky is also the person posting as PsychoticMammal. The account has posted personal details that precisely match Kofsky’s résumé, and has linked to a little-followed Instagram account dedicated to photos of Kofsky wearing preppy outfits. A review of publicly available material from data breaches provided by Constella Intelligence shows that Kofsky’s personal email address was used to set up a “PsychoMammal” account on a photography site. Furthermore, the PsychoticMammal name was used on Poshmark by a user whose avatar is a photo of Kofsky. It was also used on Tumblr by someone who linked to—and claimed as his own—a Blogspot maintained by a user named Aaron Kofsky, who posted personal details that match details of Kofsky’s biography.

The posts made by Kofsky stand in stark contrast to Vance’s own statements related to drug crime. Since being elected to the Senate in 2022, he has positioned himself as a leader in preventing fentanyl trafficking and, as recently as August, has said the Trump–Vance administration would support use of the death penalty as punishment against drug dealers. Vance, who has spoken at length about fentanyl trafficking, rose to prominence as the author of a book that discussed his mother’s drug addiction, which he referenced during his Republican National Convention speech this summer. He also argued that Democrats are letting drugs cross the border from Mexico.

After WIRED contacted Kofsky for comment, some of PsychoticMammal’s posts about drugs were deleted, and their Poshmark avatar was changed to a picture of characters from the Star Wars movie Attack of the Clones. Parker Magid, a spokesperson for Vance’s Senate office, provided a statement from Kofsky.

“Like millions of Americans,” the statement reads, “I’ve struggled with drug use, which in my case was mostly an attempt to self medicate against the effects of epilepsy and epilepsy medication. I deeply regret posting these comments. I’m not proud of this and I’m embarrassed it’s being publicized in this way, but I am thankful to say that part of my life is behind me.”

For the past 11 years, PsychoticMammal has used Reddit to document their use of a variety of drugs including cocaine, tianeptine, kratom, oxycodone, Ritalin, and MDMA. In one post from eight years ago, they listed all of the drugs they had tried to that point, rating them on a scale of one to 10.

These drug-related posts have continued while Kofsky has been employed by the Senate. In May 2022, for example, PsychoticMammal responded to a post in the r/Cocaine subreddit, giving advice on how to smuggle drugs past airport security.

“Putting a bag in between pages of a book or in your wallet is also a safe bet,” they wrote. “TSA xray machines just show different types of material as different colors. What they’re looking for is metal. Since most book covers also have plastic in them, it’ll just all show up as the same color. I’ve never had an issue.”

In January, PsychoticMammal posted a video from a Senate committee hearing in which Vance questions a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent on the increasing use of nitazenes, or manufactured opioids; Kofsky appears in the background. They posted the video on several drug-related subreddits, including r/Opioid_RCs, r/Drugs, r/Opiates, and r/ObscureDrugs.

PsychoticMammal also posted it in r/ResearchChemicals, writing, “Surprising! Politician knows about nitazenes. Ohio Senator JD Vance Asks Witness About Nitzenes. Is it just me, or is this super surprisng? Like I’m just confused how this guy had heard of zenes? I can’t imagine any of his colleagues know anything about them.”

A different user commented on the post, pointing out Kofsky and writing, “that dude on the right behind him looks high on something lol.”

PsychoticMammal then agreed with the user, writing, “Haha I didn’t notice that guy before. His eyes are def buggin. Maybe snorted some ole white girl beforehand? I’m sure half of congress rails lines.”

Later on in the thread, a different user accused PsychoticMammal of being Vance because the linked video was unlisted. “Unlisted? 21 views? Senator Vance, is that you?”

“Lol I wish! Would love to be rolling in the dough like him and his VC buddies,” PsychoticMammal replied. “Honestly when I first watched this the thought kinda crossed my mind that maybe he’s familiar because he is a fan himself, but I feel like that’s doubtful given his politics. I’m sure there are a few congressmen who indulge, but I doubt they’re using zenes or other RCs [research chemicals]. Seems like a coke kinda job.”

In the comments of a now deleted post on r/ObscureDrugs, PsychoticMammal, responding to a user claiming that nitazenes are not obscure drugs, called Vance a “Trump boot licker.”

“I just can’t believe that this Trump boot licker Vance is ahead of the curve here,” the comments reads.

PsychoticMammal described numerous instances of drug use in posts dating from the time Kofsky worked for then senator Pat Toomey and Vance. “I love coke on its own, mixed with benzos, mixed with opiates (my fav tbh), and even love a line or two after smoking a few bowls. I’d even say that coke is my second favorite drug behind opiates,” they wrote earlier this year. In May of last year, they wrote about “my latest tianeptine binge which has skyrocketed my tolerance” and “hoping to finally kick Tia”—references to an unscheduled antidepressant that produces an effect similar to opioids and which is banned in 12 states and commonly sold at convenience stores. In May 2022, they wrote: “Coke then opiates is always my go-to. I only speedball if I have enough opiates to redose when I’m out of blow.”

PsychoticMammal has repeatedly posted about suffering from an addiction to tianeptine. In a post from last year titled “ODSMT for Tianeptine Withdrawals,” they wrote, “I’m trying to figure out what the tianeptine to ODSMT equivalent dose conversion is. I have a few grams of ODSMT coming in the mail and hoping to finally kick Tia using it.”

PsychoticMammal has also repeatedly referenced using kratom, a substance sourced from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree that mimics the effects of opioids and is often sold at corner stores and smoke shops. Two years ago, in response to a Reddit user who was seeking pain relief, they wrote: “I’ve dabbled in every drug you can think of—kratom is the one drug that really tripped me up and I found myself addicted to. Not sure what it was about it as it’s like a much milder opiate, but man that shit was hell for me to quit.”

WIRED’s investigation shows that Kofsky appears to be closely tied to the PsychoticMammal username across the internet. In 2013, for example, PsychoticMammal wrote that they were a ski instructor at the same resort, Boston Mills Brandywine Ski Resorts, that Kofsky lists as a past employer on his LinkedIn profile, and which he spoke about to Cleveland Magazine in a 2014 profile of notable area students. In another post from earlier this year, PsychoticMammal referred to the resort as their “home hill.”

In a separate post from November 2013, PsychoticMammal replied to a post about a St. Vincent–St. Mary High School football game, suggesting that they went to that school and correctly listing the final score of the game. Kofsky’s LinkedIn account lists the Akron, Ohio–based school as his former high school, and he is listed as a 2015 graduate in the school magazine.

PsychoticMammal also shared a link to an Instagram account that has posted photos of Kofsky. In a post to the r/RalphLauren subreddit six months ago, the PsychoticMammal account linked to @notyourmotherspreppy, a men’s style account that shows Kofsky wearing preppy outfits. “Anyone know what sweater this is?” the post says. The image of Kofsky used in the August Politico article also appears to be from this Instagram account. He is wearing the same vintage 1989 Ralph Lauren Country Patchwork Sweater on the Instagram account and the image used in Politico.

Before WIRED asked Kofsky for comment, a Poshmark account with the username PsychoticMammal started in 2018 used a photo of Kofsky as its avatar and listed the real name of the user as “Aaron K.” A Blogspot user named PsychoticMammal wrote about being Jewish and going to Catholic school—experiences that match Kofsky’s, according to the Cleveland Magazine article. And a VSCO account registered with Kofsky’s personal Gmail account, according to publicly available material from a data breach, also uses the name PsychoticMammal.

As recently as three months ago, PsychoticMammal posted to the r/7_hydroxymitragynine subreddit asking for help locating one of the compounds found in kratom in DC, Northern Virginia, or Maryland.

[callsignspark]

Hello, yes. It’s me.

Tell me more about the frat boy Bob college AU!

this is one of my favorite AUs I have bubbling in my brain because frat boy Bob? he’s a sexy sweetheart 🤤 also this is like 80% @withahappyrefrain’s fault because she’s the one I originally word vomited this onto

it all started sometime last January when Rainey posted that photo of him on his birthday and his keys were in the photo, a gym membership tag on the chain. (and it’s a crime I can’t find it rn omg) but it really cemented my favorite thing about Lewis. which is how he’s so “just a guy” all the time. famous dad? just some guy with a gym membership tag on his keys. second tier character in 2022’s biggest movie? just some guy who does theater in his spare time. he has two hats, and three shirts, and one pair of boots. I like him so much because he’s Just Some Guy™ - just a simple man. I adore that about him. having said all that: I present my frat boy college!Bob AU

Bob feels like someone you would have gone to college with, had a huge crush on for all four years, then forget about after graduation. But not without a lot of work to stop those feelings and pining, but eventually, a few years later he floats away. Except for those few times he appears on a mutual friend’s social media. And every time you see him on social media, the crush reignites. Just a little tiny bit.

One day you run into him randomly and find out he’s moved to your city. He doesn’t know anyone else and you exchange numbers, you learn he actually did you know in school. He actually had a crush but didn’t do anything about it and would you like to go out now?

Because Bob was the cool nerd in school. Like he’s quiet and shy, so studious and freaking brilliant. But he’s also in a frat somehow and on the baseball team at a school that doesn’t care about baseball. So he’s absolutely in shape and at the gym in his free time but no one ever notices how big his biceps and how handsome and funny is his because they’re staring at the football players.

But our leading lady notices him.

She likes the quiet guy from her creative writing class (an elective for both of them) who has the same backwards baseball cap on every time she sees him at the gym. Bob also notices her at the gym when he goes in the evenings for him team workout. His morning workout is rowing in the river in town, and if the dock where he likes to start his mornings happens to go by the apartment building where his pretty classmate likes to do homework on her balcony while the sunrises? Well that’s just a bonus.

She’s part of the school’s dance ensemble club (a relaxed, just for fun, non-performance version of the dance team) and he loves the glimpses he gets of her through the studio door. Her smile is always so wide and bright as she moves to the music in the little studio. The studio which is conveniently next to the weight section he always ends his workouts in. They frequently end up leaving the gym at the same time and always give each other polite smiles. He eventually gets brave enough to open the door for her and it becomes a little tradition that he quick walks ahead to grab it for her. Eventually they get up to exchanging “thank you” and “have a good night” and smiles but they never talk more than that.

Cue graduation and real world starting. And bam then they’re running into each other at a gym. As he’s finishing his last cool down stuff he notices a familiar head and watches as she walks out of a barre class. He scrambles to open the door for her - his established way of flirting!!! - and our story begins. There’s nothing sexier than a courteous man. Especially one that has sweaty little curls poking out the sides of his hat!! And once they tumble into bed she finds out how much sexier those sweaty curls are when she’s the cause of them.

[9w1ft]

what do you think are some specific kaylor lyrics/verses that most suggest theyre still together? post-folklore ofc, & try to stick to songs most people agree are kaylor songs!

hehe i don’t know if this makes sense but i think if you try to stick to the songs that “most people” agree are kaylor songs, it’s not exactly the version of kaylor that suggests they are together because most people don’t think they’re still together!

but here are a few

“every bait and switch was a work of art”

“this pain wouldn’t be forevermore, evermore”

“and we live in peace but if someone comes at us this time i’m ready”

“i thought the plane was going down how’d you turn it right around”

“we survived the great war”

“karma is my girlfriend”/“karma’s a relaxing thought”

“on the way home i wrote a poem you say what a mind this happens all the time” where on the way home is a reference to the instagram photo of taylor and karlie at big sur captioned “on the way home” and the song you are in love, which incidentally taylor played in combination with Our Song, the day after karlie’s birthday, on eras tour

“it’s been 2190 days of our love blackout” when 2190 days from the release of midnights brings you to the last times taylor and karlie were photographed publicly as friends

also not a lyric but taylor’s explainer video for lavender haze where she talks about how she and her lover have had to dodge weird rumors for 6 years, wherein 6 years past from fall 2022 was fall 2016, precisely when taylor and karlie had to do the love blackout because of the election. this coupled with her saying that she got the term lavender haze from mad men, and if you look up the scene where don draper talks about lavender haze he’s talking about being in love with someone named betty and i think it’s become pretty popular to associate betty with karlie.

also not a lyric but, mastermind having all the chess references and taylor confidently displaying the chess visuals in her performance of it on eras tour, where the chess visuals are a direct callback to vsfs 2014

people please add stuff in the comments or reblogs!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Paige Skinner at HuffPost:

Before former President Donald Trump was set to take the stage Monday at a North Carolina rally, MSNBC cameras panned Dorton Arena, which seats 7,600, and showed empty seats and seemingly bored rallygoers. Five minutes after the rally was set to start, reporter Vaughn Hillyard said the arena in the battleground state was about 70% full. “For nine years we have talked about the enthusiasm and the masses that have come out for Trump rallies time and again, even at his politically lowest points, including in 2022,” Hillyard said. “But interestingly, and I can’t tell you exactly why, this final week, we have seen far smaller crowds.”

If the pollsters (and even astrologers) are correct, it’s because Trump is on a downslide as the exceedingly close race comes to a close. And at Trump’s Monday rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, it was no different. David Corn, the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine, shared a photo on social media and called the arena, which has a capacity of 8,800, “mostly empty.” The smaller crowd is probably a shot to the ego for Trump, who regularly brags about how big his rallies are. On Saturday night, he told a rally crowd in Greensboro, North Carolina, that he’s had “the biggest rallies in history of any country.” “Every rally is full. You don’t have any seats that are empty,” Trump said. As soon as Trump said that, a camera operator for NTD Television Network panned out to show quite a few empty seats at First Horizon Coliseum, which holds 22,000. That night, NewsNation campaign reporter Libbey Dean posted a video on social media of the arena an hour into Trump’s rally. The entire back of the arena was empty.

Donald Trump’s rallies have had smaller crowds this election cycle, unlike the previous two editions.

It is because his rallies that feature the greatest hits of whines and grievances with a few new remixes has gotten tiresome? I believe so.

[ilhoonftw]

Fjfjfjfjfjfjf what!?!?

let me explain the gyuri boyfriend lore

they started dating in 2019, broke up in 2021

he is the grandson of guy who was once in charge of major construction business so the whole family is rich

they were known for being a noona - dongsaeng couple bc of 7 years age gap.... officially. but then after his car accident he was exposed for ageing himself up 5 years because 'young people aren't treated seriously in business' so in reality they have 12 years age gap 🫣

you'll be the judge. him at 21:

the news about his age came out loong after they broke up, when he announced he's gonna take part in elections and... gyuri subposted him on ig story

On January 12th 2022, KARA Park Gyu-ri posted six letters with an ambiguous meaning on her Instagram story. What she wrote was “loss of humanity”. Some people speculate that she might have written this after knowing about the recent issue related to her ex-boyfriend Song Ja-ho. However, this is just speculation, and there is a possibility that it was written as she wanted to express an opinion on social issues or her personal matter.

june 2021 ... dui

According to media outlets, Gyuri’s boyfriend Song Ja Ho, also known as the eldest grandson of Dongwon Construction founder Song Seung Hun, was caught drunk driving in Cheongdamdong. He reportedly fled the scene after hitting another vehicle in the parking lot. At the time, his blood-alcohol level was high enough for the cancellation of his license. Song is also accused of confinement as he allegedly confined a woman in the car even when she requested to be dropped off.

september 2021 official breakup confirmation (to be fair a lot of korean celeb couples not rarely release breakup announcements late, to the point you have actors talk about their ex on variety shows like they are still dating bc officially they are... all while their new partener co-star promoting the same drama on the same show is watching 🫣 jiyeon's ex did that. there's a whole i think happy together episode that's super awkward to watch... later he married the co-star but they are now divorced and co-parenting)

official reason was 'oh we are both having busy schedules, it's hard to meet'

they both deleted all photos of each other etc from ig right away. and they were a very public couple, they did charity stuff together and were pretty known

before i start the fraud part, gyuri did post on ig that she was unaware of what he was up to 🧐

If I did something wrong, my biggest mistake was not ending things earlier. As I stated in my official position, I am not involved, so I hope everyone writes based on the facts that have been revealed. — Park Gyuri

so basically 2 weeks ago he was released on bail after 7 months of detention

The Seoul Southern District Court’s Criminal Agreement 12th Division granted Song’s bail application on February 5, setting the stage for a trial that involves nearly 14,000 victims and a scam amounting to approximately ₩33.9 billion KRW (about $25.5 million USD).

Song Ja Ho, who ran a shared economy art company, was arrested last July. The charges against him were severe, involving violations of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes. Song was accused of recruiting investors to put money into artworks that he had not secured and then manipulating the market price of a virtual asset known as PicaCoin. Alongside brothers Lee Hee Jin and Lee Hee Moon, Song is suspected of a massive embezzlement scheme that has left thousands defrauded.

The court has set stringent conditions for Song’s bail, including a 200 million won bail bond, a prohibition on leaving the country, the requirement to wear an electronic device for real-time location tracking, and restrictions on his residence. These measures reflect the court’s attempt to mitigate the risk of flight, given the gravity of the accusations. This case is particularly notable because of Song’s high-profile connections and ambitions. Prior to his arrest, Song declared his candidacy for the Seoul Seocho Gu National Assembly by-election, signaling his interest in entering the political arena.