littletart

[littletart]

the cycle continues :)

[littletart]

DeSantis and Abbot Engage in Human Trafficking to Own the Libs

So, this story broke yesterday but there’s so much else going on it’s not gotten much media coverage until this morning. You can find stories about this on CNN and in the Washington Post, but the best piece I’ve found about it so far–and the only one that interviews the victims–is on NPR:

Florida Flies Dozens of Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard

From the article:

“About 50 migrants arrived by plane in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., Wednesday on a flight paid for by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and that originated in San Antonio, Texas.The migrants touched down at about 3:15 p.m. local time. 

Later Wednesday, a spokesperson for DeSantis sent a statement to NPR and other news outlets confirming that the migrants were transported by Florida under a state program that was funded by the legislature earlier this year. The statement reads in part: “States like Massachusetts, New York and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration.”

The Florida statement refers to two planes, but local officials at Martha’s Vineyard say there was only one.“

Local officials in Martha’s Vineyard were given zero notice. The plane landed, the people got off, they were left stranded at this airport on an island they’d never heard of. The community scrambled to find them shelter, food, and other basic necessities for the night. Now, up to this point, it appears as if this is just Ron DeSantis trying to get a piece of Greg Abbott’s performative cruelty so he can set himself up to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Texas has been doing this for a while now, as this piece in Block Club Chicago reports:

Texas Governor Is ‘Sowing Chaos’ By Sending Migrants to Chicago Without Helping Local Officials

“Texas has sent hundreds of migrants in four groups to Chicago since the end of August, part of what Gov. Greg Abbott has called a protest of federal immigration policies. But local leaders have said Abbott and his administration refuse to communicate with them about what the asylum seekers need when they arrive or even when they’re going to get to Chicago, making it difficult to prepare.”

We’re used to the idea now that when it comes to Republican policies on immigration, the cruelty is the point. But it seems to be equally the point of THIS scheme to fuck things up for the destination states. Pritzker has given us, I think, the best summing-up of this situation: “This is all a political game for Gov. Abbott — and, frankly, it’s cruel.” 

 Pritzker, in that same interview, raises what turns out to have been a prophetic question:

“Let’s make sure these people want to actually go to the states they’re being sent to; otherwise, it’s kidnapping,” Pritzker said.

Well details will no doubt emerge as more reporting is done on this new story, but one thing seems clear: Nobody who got on that plane thought their destination was going to be Martha’s Vineyard.

From the NPR story:

“NPR was able to interview three of the migrants late Wednesday. “They (the migrants) told us they had recently crossed the border in Texas and were staying at a shelter in San Antonio,” NPR’s Joel Rose said on today’s Morning Edition.

The migrants said a woman they identified as “Perla” approached them outside the shelter and lured them into boarding the plane, saying they would be flown to Boston where they could get expedited work papers. She provided them with food. The migrants said Perla was still trying to recruit more passengers just hours before their flight.”

OK. This is what human traffickers do. They promise desperate people jobs, get them into their power, and then take them somewhere else and exploit them for gain. The only difference between what Abbott and DeSantis are doing here and human trafficking is that they are exploiting displaced and vulnerable people for political gain rather than financial gain. 

This is what the rising stars of the post-Trump Republican Party think is a good use of taxpayer money. Luring migrants into a plane and flying them through Florida and South Carolina up to Martha’s Vineyard. Human trafficking, to own the libs. 

How can this be legal? I do not think it can; but today’s Republican Party doesn’t care any more. We are very focused on keeping Buttercup out of the White House, but this story alone will tell you: a DeSantis presidency would be worse. This level of coordinated malice and premeditated cruelty is beyond the capacity of an impulse-driven buffoon like Buttercup. 

[littletart]

~ Tim O'Brien

[littletart]

Ok but I really love how the LOTR films use colors/costume design to show Denethor’s power over the other characters

Like: every character in LOTR has their own set of Characteristic Colors™. Denethor’s Characteristic Colors™ are desaturated black and grey:

. These aren’t necessarily Gondor’s colors (I’ll get to that in a minute) but they’re definitely his. In The Two Towers’ flashback scene, Gondor’s soldiers are dressed in Denethor’s black/grey, including Boromir:

But when Boromir leaves Gondor– and is free from needing to carefully Perform in front of his father– he starts wearing his own Characteristic Colors™ instead. These colors are royal red, gold and blue:

(Literally wearing your true colors)

Meanwhile Faramir, unlike Boromir, doesn’t wear Denethor’s colors in the flashback. He wears his own Characteristic Colors™, which are brown/green, bc Faramir does not do what Denethor wants him to do…

….until ROTK, when Faramir surrenders to his father’s will and exchanges his characteristic brown/green armor for black/grey armor. It’s like his identity is stripped away

Similarly, Pippin’s Characteristic Colors™ are blue/green:

But when he enters Denethor’s service:

No individual expression allowed

“But black and grey with no accents are Gondor’s colors–” Nahhh I don’t buy  Denethor’s anti-color propaganda. When Aragorn replaces Denethor, the first thing he brings back is colorful fashion

Aragorn doesn’t wear black and grey, like Denethor did. He wears things that merge the black/white of Gondor with the sort of royal red/blue/gold of Boromir’s characteristic colors

And so at last the tyranny of Denethor’s drab fashion sense was ended

[littletart]

Fanfiction Work-In-Progress Guessing Game

Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

[littletart]

Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast (1870) by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)

[littletart]

you can literally never go wrong with having diners in your story regardless of its genre. like they're false beacons of hope, they're safe havens for the lost and unwanted, they exist as a bridge between worlds, they're haunted by the memories of all the people who have been there before, they're both cozy and eerie, and they're literally always there. every town has a diner. every town knows what those flickering red lights mean. and stories about diners never fail to fuck severely.

[littletart]

Band of Brothers as Quotes I’ve Heard in School Part 8

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Liebgott: Calm down, DAVID

Webster: All right, JOSEPH

Speirs talking about Dike: He is dilapidated in the head, like there’s nothing in there

Luz talking about Toye: I met a guy at the gym but it was embarrassing cause I had the weight and I couldn’t lift it

Tab: I’m actually an angel sent from the heavens, that’s why I look like this

Nix: I hit my head on it

Winters: So you died is what I’m hearing?

Nix: Yes

Guarnere telling Babe about Easy Company: We have a thing on our birthdays where we beat the shit out of each other

Roe to Babe: Did you just say “the Paris state flag”?

Babe: I like your laptop

Roe: I got it from my grandpa after he passed away

Babe: ...Why so gloom

Literally anyone: *takes jacket off*

Sobel: Put your shoulder away!

Perconte: If these bitches can show ass, I can show ankle

Lip talking about him spilling the tea to Winters about Dike: I did send a passive aggressive email to Captain Winters

Nix, drunk: Don’t you work at Apple Jacks?

Welsh: Did you just say a cereal?

Nix: What’s it called, it’s like Apple Jacks

Welsh: Applebee’s

Luz: Don’t mistake my smile for happiness

[littletart]

another doc roe cuz I love him smmm

also, I'll try my best to draw the other men, just gimme some time ;-;

made on ibis paint bc i currently have no pc

[littletart]

all i can do is rotate a fictional man so fast in my mind he starts to get motion sickness

[littletart]

“Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven for many months.

The eyes of the world upon you.”

“Good luck!

And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”

[littletart]

I need you to take our wounded back to the beach

[littletart]

ever have a blorbo live in your brain for so long they become their own blorbo variant that’s no longer fully attached to their source material and your original blorbo is still beloved and dear to you but now you also have a mutant blorbo clone who is dear to you in a different way? 

[littletart]

Me: I’m going to write

My brain: Sorry, I’ve already got other plans for us

Me: Oh yeah, what are they?

My brain: *endless loop of The Flintstones theme song*

[littletart]

Rebecca Ferguson

[littletart]

— Parachute Infantry, David K. Webster

[littletart]

A vintage gay black G.I. couple, c. 1940s