#Renegade Rhetoric

[elfdragon12]

Daily female Transformers

Crash Test! She's cocky and willing to do what she has to!

She was actually part of the Go-Bots toyline, though the canceled G2 line. She has popped up in Of Masters and Mayhem and the Renegade Rhetoric tales.

I love her colors!

[mariacallous]

Less than a year after its inauguration, far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders pulled the plug on the first government that his party was allowed to fully participate in. It is a government that should never come into existence. The nicest thing one can say about it is that it accomplished nothing, but even on these generous terms it is a strong candidate for worst postwar Dutch government.

Wilders’s complaint is that his coalition partners kept him from implementing his preferred immigration policies. These include ending asylum and family reunification as well as stripping numerous dual citizens of their Dutch passports. The coalition agreement that Wilders and the other parties signed did not include these items, and the sudden rupture felt staged. My suspicion is that Wilders simply thought he would fare best in the next election if the government fell over an immigration policy dispute instead of a kerfuffle over a policy area that is less central or even detrimental to his national conservative brand, such as defense spending or budget policy.

Dilan Yesilgoz—the successor to now-NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte as leader of the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), decided in the summer of 2023 to take down the cordon sanitaire that had kept Wilders away from the levers of power since his anti-Muslim Party for Freedom (PVV) provided parliamentary support but not cabinet members to the first Rutte government, which lasted from 2010 to 2012.

This brought Wilders back from the utter irrelevance that he had spent the previous decade or so in, resulting in a surprise election win in November, where his party received 37 out of 150 seats in the House of Representatives—ahead of the VVD, at 24 seats, and the combination of the Green Left and Labor parties, which are in the process of merging into one party, at 25.

Dutch government is always coalitions, thanks to a proportional representation system in a country with numerous viable parties—15 parties won seats in 2023. While the largest party in the Dutch parliament typically leads the formation of the governing coalition and provides the prime minister, Wilders’s history of unhinged statements and policy proposals—including a criminal conviction for eliminationist rhetoric about Moroccans—complicated matters. Ultimately, the PVV was joined in government by the VVD, the populist pro-farmer Farmer Citizen Movement, and the New Social Contract (NSC) party.

The NSC had been founded just prior to the election by renegade Christian Democrat lawmaker Pieter Omtzigt, an econometrician with broad popular appeal thanks to his relentless oversight practices and despite a history of burnouts and temper tantrums. Omtzigt has spent much of his career pontificating about good government and religious freedom and had insisted throughout the campaign that he would not govern with Wilders. Predictably, that changed on election night. To preserve his brand, he insisted that the new coalition sign an agreement promising to respect the rule of law—definitely a sign of confidence in his new allies.

His coalition partners deemed Wilders unsuited for the position of prime minister, while various other candidates either declined or found themselves immersed in scandal. Ultimately, the new cabinet—installed in July 2024—would be led by Dick Schoof, a former senior civil servant and intelligence agency chief. Its announced policy agenda was lacking in detail by the standards of Dutch governments, but the contours reflected the four member parties’ priorities: fewer foreigners for Wilders, more nitrogen emissions for the farmers, constitutional hobby horses for Omtzigt, and more defense spending—plus continuity in fiscal and foreign policy—for the VVD.

Schoof and his ministers accomplished none of this—other than continuity in fiscal and foreign policy, which of course required mere preservation of the status quo ante. They passed no immigration legislation.

They also made no progress dealing with the nitrogen crisis—the country’s inability to control emissions of ammonia and nitrogen oxides. That crisis has paralyzed construction projects and economic development more generally—any activity associated with nitrogen emissions—for years now.

None of Omtzigt’s hobby horses—a constitutional court, a new electoral system, corrective referenda—have materialized. And the Netherlands spent the equivalent of 1.79 percent of its GDP on defense last year, still well below the old NATO target of 2 percent and far below the proposed new target of 3.5 percent.

What this doomed government did produce was a constant onslaught of scandals and other embarrassing episodes. Wilders’s lead negotiator and his first prime-ministerial candidate had to pull out amid accusations of fraud, bribery, and misappropriation of intellectual property. Wilders’s initial pick for deputy prime minister, Gidi Markuszower, was blocked by the intelligence services, allegedly for his work with the Israeli intelligence service. During the government’s first parliamentary debate, Markuszower’s replacement as deputy prime minister sent a tweet—from the government’s bench—undermining the prime minister’s defense of women’s freedom to wear headscarves. And just four months in, a deputy minister of Moroccan descent resigned while criticizing some of her cabinet colleagues’ hostile interactions with her.

The scandals continued for nearly a year while the government failed to actually do anything. The main thing that kept the coalition together for 11 painful and unproductive months was, ironically, its unpopularity. The Farmer Citizen Movement is polling at around three seats, down from its current seven; even two of its own senators recently switched parties; and the party had no ideological reason to walk, either. The NSC, the party with the most substantive concerns about the government, has seen its poll numbers collapse and will likely lose most if not all its 20 seats in the lower house in the next elections, which are scheduled for October. It had no incentive to trigger new elections as voters rapidly realized that this new party was not what they had hoped for.

The NSC had campaigned on a promise of good government, which may have been some kind of elaborate practical joke. It was also a party fueled almost entirely by Omtzigt’s star power. Unfortunately, as many observers had feared, Omtzigt was simply not up to the job. Mere weeks after the government was installed, budget negotiations between the four parties almost failed as his coalition partners struggled to manage Omtzigt’s screaming and crying.

Omtzigt temporarily left politics a month later, returned on a part-time basis in November, and quit politics in April. As my father recently told me about my parents’ votes for Omtzigt: “We have voted many times, but never this poorly.”

That leaves the PVV and the VVD. From the moment that the government was inaugurated, there were suspicions the VVD was simply waiting for the right moment to pull the plug and blame the collapse of the government on the PVV—ideally over an issue such as fiscal policy and the growing budget deficit. That moment never came.

Wilders finally had an opportunity to govern and is polling well below his 2023 results. Why, then, did he walk away? The conventional wisdom is that he wanted to preempt the VVD and make the government’s fall about immigration—his signature issue. Unlike the NSC, he still had many seats to lose in the polls, and his prospects were unlikely to improve if this utterly ineffective government continued.

I wrote last year that the purpose of the then-new Dutch cabinet was, first and foremost, to exist at all. It did, it shouldn’t have, and now it doesn’t. The Netherlands has gone through three experiments in government with the populist right since 2000, and each one has a been a miserable failure. The only such government that lasted for more than a year was Rutte’s first cabinet, which merely relied on Wilders’s confidence and supply, not his abysmal staffing decisions—and even that one fell after 18 months.

As Dutch election law places a heavy emphasis on the ability of new political parties (and overseas voters) to have ample time to register, Dutch voters will not go to the polls until late October. Their behavior in recent decades has been volatile, and it is difficult to predict what public sentiment will be like many months from now. Polling and haruspicy alike suggest that we will see the Christian Democratic Appeal, which dominated Dutch politics in the 1980s and 2000s, make a comeback. Many disappointed NSC voters will likely return to the party, which has a new leadership team that projects confidence, decency, and prudence.

After the events of the past two years, one might also think voters in the center or on the center-right will not place much trust in the VVD. Its leadership is more responsible than anyone—except perhaps for Omtzigt and Wilders—for the fact that by Election Day, the Netherlands will not have had a functional government for two and a half years.

Without Omtzigt around, another coalition involving the PVV is highly unlikely. After a week of hemming and hawing, even the VVD’s Yesilgoz indicated on Monday that she would not join forces with him again. The most likely outcome is a government formed by the VVD, the Christian Democratic Appeal, and the combination of Green Left and Labor.

A Christian Democratic Appeal-led centrist coalition may not be as exciting as yet another populist flavor of the day, but it stands a better chance of addressing the country’s serious challenges—in defense, housing, environmental, and immigration policy—than whatever this was.

[journeytothewest-daily]

Elder brother, I have some questions about chapter 78: how is Tripitaka's masculine purity better than a thousand small boys? Do you need to be a man grown for your preserved yang to be worth anything?

Do you think taoists and buddhists really had doctrinal debates in public to show their facts and logic?

Are you also disappointed that Boytown had such cruel etymology? 😮‍💨

I mean Tripitaka is not only pure because of his own self (coward...) but because he is a great Buddhist monk with great karma, if you remember the chapters that precede his birth! But aside from that, I haven't found any source that speaks about the yang of boys...

The Xiaodao lun (Laughing at the Dao) is an important document of the debates among Buddhists and Daoists in sixth-century China. These debates contributed to the process of cultural adaptation of Buddhism, which had to accommodate itself to the worldview of the Confucian elite, the Chinese sense of ethnic superiority, and China's indigenous religion of Daoism. Written by the Daoist renegade Zhen Luan in the year 570, the text aims to expose inconsistencies in Daoist doctrine, cosmology, ritual, and religious practice. In this effort it presents many aspects of Daoist doctrine and practice, providing ample citations from numerous Daoist sources often otherwise lost.

In a complete and fully annotated translation of the Xiaodao lun based closely on the work of Japanese scholars, Livia Kohn places the work within the context of the debates and exposes the political schemes behind the apparently religious disputes. The translation is carefully framed by a thorough introduction on the history of the debates as well as by two one summarizes materials of both earlier and later debates; the other analyzes the Daoist sources cited in the Xiaodao lun. Richly informed and highly relevant to an understanding of medieval China, Kohn's work greatly enhances the study of medieval Buddhist and Daoist myth, rhetoric, and ideology. (From Debates among Buddhists and Daoists in Medieval China, which I recommend.)

And yes, I wish it was boytown instead. Boytoytown.

[aces-to-apples]

Fic Writer 20 Questions

Tagged by @dead-cowboy!

1.) How many works do you have on ao3? Across three accounts and like 1......1? years, jesus, 154. (I think. Give or take a couple anonymized that I may have forgotten.)

2.) What’s your ao3 word count? 325,886. Somehow.

3.) What fandoms do you write for? Previously? Red vs. Blue, The Magnificent Seven (2016), The Musketeers (2014), Warcraft (2016), RWBY, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Umbrella Academy, The Hobbit trilogy, Supernatural, and Star Wars. Currently: Dragon Age, Jak and Daxter, Skyrim, Ted Lasso, Kingdoms of Amalur, and Star Wars.

4.) What are your top five fics by kudos? A trite, originally tumblr not!fic about OWK (anonymized), the sequel that tricked me into liking Darth Maul (anonymized), an old Cody/OWK Week fic from 2020, the first Sith!Cody fic in the tag (anonymized), and Renegade (time-traveling clones from 2018). Seven out of my top ten are anon, and eight of the top fifteen, so I figure we can just leave it there lmao.

5.) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Not really, no. Most comments I get are.....cursory? Obligatory? They aren't substantive, is what I mean to say. "Thanks for writing this", and whatnot, which not only don't necessitate a reply, but like, what reply can there possibly be? If there's a non-rhetorical question that I can answer, or the commenter had something to say, or even just has fun energy, then I try to respond in kind, but those kinds of comments are uhhhhhh. Not something my work attracts lol. Basically, I'm not going to send a thank-you card for a thank-you card, you know?

6.) What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Uhhhhh, I don't know, I don't really deliberately do angst? Maybe a Dogma/Hardcase ficlet with ghost!Hardcase, but also depending on your point of view, maybe the Sith!OWK Kenfetti fic. It's hard for me to judge, I don't think I've ever even tagged something with angst, but that definitely seems like the darkest ending I've written? Idk.

7.) What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? God this is much harder than I thought it would be. Somehow I don't think these two were meant to be the hardest-hitting questions lmao? *scrolling down my fic summaries* Hmm, learning things about myself that I'm not sure I appreciate... Maybe "she wore it wonderfully well" (Mag7, Emma/Vasquez)? Trying to find something unambiguously happy that I also am less embarrassed to link is. Difficult.

8.) Do you get hate on fics? Not especially. I have guest comments turned off, my fics are locked, and I generally don't write ships with wide readerships to start with. For the most part I occasionally get something rude and entitled that I delete, but I tell you FFN readers are some of the most hostile people you'll ever meet, they're truly dedicated to being haters of anything even resembling creative writing, it's very funny.

9.) Do you write smut? If so what kind? I do, it's not very good, and honestly I think the most prevailing trend is consent issues and power dynamic fuckery. My first smut fic was anonymous mindsex, and my second was sex-pollened enemies lmaoooooo.

10.) Do you write cross overs? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Not as often as I'd like to, but yes! Allow me to introduce you to (and please ignore that it's a fusion), DRUMROLL PLEASE!, The Worst AU In The World (Game of Thrones/Winx Club)! If you want an actual crossover though, I did just write Dorian "Dragon Age" Pavus/Savage "Star Wars" Opress, so that was fun.

11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge; I doubt it.

12.) Have you ever had a fic translated? Um. Yes. About eight years ago someone translated a Warcraft smutfic of mine into Chinese. That's the only one I know about.

13.) Have you ever cowritten a fic before? No, I genuinely don't even know how that would work.

14.) What’s your all time favourite ship? Hmmm. I can't say I have one. I'm a multifandom multishipper at heart, I've burnt out of several fandoms, burnt out of several ships, and I'm too AuDHD to be able to pick a favorite anything. Trent Crimm/Jamie Tartt.

15.) What’s a WIP you’d like to finish, but doubt you ever will? To be fair, most of them. But also the Dooku POV installment of the first two most-kudosed fics' series, and the Locus/Tucker roleswap RvB fic, and the Locus time-travel fic, and the Dragon Age/Star Wars crossover Maulrexsoka fic. Just off the top of my head.

16.) What are your writing strengths? I've been told my fics tend to be very high concept and I do weird things with syntax. And honestly, that's already me knowing too much.

17.) What are your writing weaknesses? Quickest answer? Plot.

18.) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I'm monolingual and don't have any cultural baggage around it, so I generally find it at least some level of fun and engaging, but it's also easy for it to become gimicky when it's a conlang (guilty) and not well-executed when it's a canonically code-switching character (also guilty). I maintain however that all of that should be forgiven in Red vs. Blue fics though; the entire point from the ground up is that all the Spanish is wrong.

19.) First fandom you wrote for? ....................................Yu-Gi-Oh!. With reader-insert. I plea Not Guilty by reason of I Was Fourteen.

20.) Favourite fic you’ve ever written? See, recency bias says "cat-scratch" (amnesiac!Sabretooth AU) but brand loyalty says "peace is a lie" (JesseMaul). Maybe I'll split the difference, end up with a net-zero, and say "memento (mori)" (Cailan Theirin/Female Surana).

-

Honestly I think our biggest takeaway here is that I can't be trusted to answer questions about my own content because I harsh the vibe by tending to not like it lol

Tagging whoever wants to play!

[diamond-dangeresque]

The mess hall was the busiest room in the Grothmar citadel today, soldiers pouring in and out to dine on meals in comfort and privacy. Far away from strangers to the land, further still even from the Charr of other Legions. Conversations held from the earshot of overly observant centurions. Whispers and murmurs held in the sanctity of a room without any Ashen spooks.

Which makes Chihiro's presence all the more unwelcome in the hall.

Some of the Charr in the room break from their meals to look at the Human. They stare. The skinned warhound acting as a mantle draws attention, brings alight bad memories of "old Ascalon relics" found in the ruins of the former capital. They whisper amongst themselves, the absurdity of a mouse watching them through a blindfold, arms crossed with a selfsure grin. Many chuckle. Some grumble. A few perform something akin to a self-ward with their hands, the performers chided by compatriots around them for their superstitious behavior. He's just a mouse in a blindfold, they'd say in a manner of paraphrase, we're not dealing with a Flame shaman here. A few humor the idea aloud of throwing a dagger or firing a pistol at the mouse, see if he reacts at all. (Chihiro would love to see them try. Even if any claims of "self-defense" or "fuck around and find out" would fall flat in a place like this.)

Standing at his left is the presence of Kalla Scorchrazor, her gaze scanning over the room just as Chihiro's is through the cloth. She had previously admired the statue of her likeness just behind the Herald, noted its composition of "Searing Cauldron bronze," approved of the good use of metal. But this place was a shitshow, and this mess hall was a pretty little microcosm of that. Blood soldiers purposefully, willingly, kept separate from other Charr. Non-Charr "encouraged" to stay in more public areas, outside of the Keep and especially away from "Charr common rooms". Corralled outside, in the open, where others can watch from afar and with scrutiny. In the open: nothing but respect and honor and tact. Behind closed doors: about three steps from belting out slurs and hateful rhetoric, because it's "safe" over here. No judging eyes. No ethics violations.

Chihiro had respect for the ways the Legions trained their Charr. He was now reconsidering such a notion.

She had seen through the Herald's eyes what fruit the seeds of this Human-Charr peace treaty had wrought, what peace it had allowed the Charr to experience. It was a peace she envied dearly for her living years, something to gift to her cubs if only she had it. And to imagine someone willingly tossing that all away, to cling to old self-destructive ideas and memories of long-gone days, to fan flames that long should have been doused...it was the Flame shamans and their uprising all over again. She could already smell the burning fur as she thought of it.

As for Chihiro, he's fought Renegades before: the large, disparate warband started by those who didn't believe in the treaty of peace between the Kingdom of Kryta and the High Legions of the Charr. They broke off in droves over decades. Entire families raised and trained in the life of killing humans to hold up a war rapidly losing its last legs. Brainwashed into blind hatred, ignorant malice, fearful paranoia. Renegades kill some Humans, they make some Separatists out of the survivors; in turn they kill some Charr, they make some Renegades out of their survivors. A pair of snakes each devouring the other's tail. It wasn't going to end for them unless one side was just a mountain of corpses. These Renegades, they didn't seem to care. The bodies were the point of their exclamation mark: better dead than in league with mice.

"What do you think?" Chihiro asks Kalla, head turning to further scan the room. "Any of these fellas seem...backstabby to you?"

"Not particularly," Kalla answers, snout twitching and dragging part of her upper lip with it. Her ears twitch, trying to hone in on any interesting conversations held within the aisles of the mess hall. "Talks of recruiting cubs and greenhorns into traitorous ranks so casually held in this room don't give me any confidence, all being said."

"They think I can't do jack about what they're saying." Chihiro chuckles. Some of the Charr nearest to him turn their heads slightly. "That it's their word, their superior's word, versus mine and the Pact's. We'll see about that." He begins to walk towards the doorway, some of those nearest-to-him Charr spooked at the sudden peep he had let out after who-knows-how long he had held his tongue up until now. "Oh. Whoops~✨"

"That wasn't a slip," Kalla chides.

"Can't prove or disprove it either way," Chihiro chuckles, shrugging as he passes Brokenstone at the door. "But we've got good intel. We can rejoin Kasmeer and Efram at–" He notices the warband general's shoulders tense up. Tail stiffened and swishing. "...You good?" Brokenstone leans forward a touch, eyeing the Human talking to himself. Weirdo.

No. Frankly, never. It was bad enough seeing the Flame Legion persist centuries after their fall from power and grace. To see them grovelling back to the Legions? To plead for acceptance, forgiveness, after everything they've done to the Charr as a whole? Nigh unforgivable! "Let's move on, Herald." But that wasn't her choice to make. And it wasn't her place to judge the actions of modern Charr by antiquated standards; the so-called Renegades do enough of that as it is.

"Roger, ma'am." Chihiro kept tabs on Kalla's touchiness towards Flame Legion; he knows of the Scorch warband's history well enough, yeah, but he didn't anticipate a response as undisciplined as this. Then again, this whole "party" had been one conga line of surprises after another. He didn't expect Aurene to crash the party the way she did. He didn't expect the Blood Legion Imperator to be a snobby politician with fascistic goals in his horned head. He definitely didn't expect the party to be a cover for a mass levy attempt, and he absolutely didn't anticipate Rytlock's boy to be in the center of this spiked web.

But, despite being deprived of his precious and rare alcohol, the flavor of this mission's intrigue kept him going. He wanted to see this through to its end, in whatever shape that took. "I'll call in Kasmeer; I think we need to go undercover for this."

[rosesonbreeze]

OPEN: M, F, NB (25+) PLOT: Our muses have worked together for years. Maybe your muse is Javier's manager, agent, personal assistant, engineer, etc. Best friends with a lot of banter, who act like an old married couple but aren't together... Or should they be? MUSE: Javier Carrillo, 34, He/Him, formula 1 race driver and champion. Reckless renegade, prone to breaking the rules. Thinks fast, acts faster. Might be a sweetheart (deep, deep inside)

"Is there anything I'm allowed to do?" It's not a rhetorical question. Not when he's just been pulled out of a casino in Monaco with chips still on a table, and a twenty-one year old bottle of scotch in tow. Really, Javier should expect this, especially on a racing weekend. But he always delivers, doesn't he? Albeit, with the car (and sometimes himself) worse for wear. "Come on, it's only--" Javier whines, blinking down at his watch. "Two in the morning!" It's practically still dinner, he almost reasons, if not for the level gaze his partner is giving him. "Hey, hey," puppy dog eyes now on full display, as he gently grasps their elbow. "Alright, I'm sorry." Is he still going to try and get out of morning training? Probably.

[docholligay]

On Doc Watching Renegade Nell

Hello friends! This was tact's pick for our draw liveblog, which you enter by commenting on whatever I wrote last month.

I do not know ANYTHING about this show, other than that Disney made it and that this is the premise:

A quick-witted and courageous young woman framed for murder unexpectedly becomes the most notorious outlaw in 18th-century England.

I KNOW NOTHING ELSE, AND IT IS MUCH MORE FUN FOR ALL OF US WHEN WE KEEP IT THAT WAY. It allows me to guess, it allows me to be wrong, to be right, to have contempt for those who don't deserve it, and mercy for those who also, don't deserve it. THis is the fun of a liveblog. I react based on only what I know.

So! Please don't spoil me with anything in the show, and please remember that you have information I do not! So, if I hate Nell, the one character whose name I know, because she...is a coward, or whatever, this is not a good time to tell me that "she's reacting to the murder of her entire family by churchmice" or something, or even, "She has a good reason to hate mice! keep watching!"

I will also add I am BY NO MEANS a scholar on the time and place this takes place. I'm pretty sure this is Highwayman times, which I only know because it's around the Golden Age of Piracy, which I've read some books about. ANYWAY, all that to say that I may make a historical blunder, but, mostly, let me make it. If you have historical context to lend, PLEASE ask me first. This is probably the toughest needle for me to thread, because I love love to learn shit, but, history can, in fact, sometimes be a spoiler.

Don't get me wrong. Totally get the compulsion. I am God's most irritating soldier on anything about the American West.

I am always very clear when I ask for answer, so no worries! It'll look something like: THIS IS A QUESTION I ACTUALLY WANT AN ANSWER TO. Otherwise assume it's rhetorical.

Uhhhh...as always, I am free to think what I think, and if it is REALLY gonna twist your nipples to have me feel any kind of a way, let's us both not engage with it.

The tag to follow or block is #Doc Watches Renegade Nell!

[minusgangtime]

(She nodded,before jumping into the pipe,she looked at him again.)

Blue,stay safe,Kay?

(She then jumped into the pipe-)

WEEEEEEEEEE-

-Shelby

On top of a ledge, a demon and a bird bat hybrid were looking down at the scene.

"Look! She's fast, powerful and hates the council as much as we do! We have to get her to join us!~"

"I dunno, Rebel. What if it's a trap?"

"Come on, Renegade. Have I ever been wrong?~"

"..."

"Uh... Rhetorical question..~"

[tanadrin]

1. Yay you’re reading DoE!

2. I think the Davids love to rhetorically position themselves as renegade badboy contrarians for a lot of things where other anth/arch scholars agree with them.

It’s a pity because popularizing a lot of the developments in anthropology and archeology for the last few decades still really needs to be done—I think by and large people do have a really outdated idea of the range of systems of social organization that can operate even in the absence of agriculture. Insofar as this book is doing that, I think it’s doing a pretty good job, though sometimes it’s a little overconfident—for instance, pre-Clovis people coming down the coast in small boats is, I understand, just one hypothesis for how they arrived in the americas, but it’s not one archeologists are super confident on bc sea level rise means there’s little available evidence to back it up. But G&W proclaim it the definitive version. It’s fine if they think it’s by far the most likely one, but hey, people used to say that about Clovis First!

[elfdragon12]

Daily female Transformers

Snoop! She's a sneaky bot with a violent streak... And maybe an interest in acting.

Snoop is a Gobots transplant, receiving a toy from that line in 1986, but not appearing in any fiction until 2015 in some Ask Vector Prime segments. She has since had some small roles in Timelines, Echoes and Fragments, and the 2018 Gobots comic.

Again, I really want to see Gobots folded into the overarching Transformers stories! In the Renegade Rhetoric entries of Ask Vector Prime, her leader Cy-Kill hints at a rivalry by bringing up Snoop as an example of Gobots being better constructed because she transforms silently.

[heliotropies]

Hi there!! I'm Katie/Kefli and this is my oc blog!!! this is where i infodump about my characters and stories, collate relevant posts, images, and art, amd occasionally post snippets of my writing 🤫

My Original Stories:

Demon Hunters (Fantasy)

Two teenagers must rebuild their lives after narrowly escaping the destruction of their village, while also trying to save the world from a monster invasion and a divine dictatorship - all while raising a baby.

Hell's Crossing (Horror, Comedy, Romance)

Two teenage girls from vastly different backgrounds must put aside their differences and work together in order to dig up the horrors of their respective family's pasts and figure out why the two are intertwined.

Hit The Road, Jackie (Vampires, Mystery)

A young bartender's life is thrown into upheaval when a renegade vampire decides to move in with her.

Human Error (Sci-Fi, Coming of Age)

A friend group of mutant teenagers must navigate the pitfalls of adolescence whilst also dealing with a rising wave of anti-mutant rhetoric threatening to tear their lives apart.

Journey To Eternity (Sci-Fi, Drama)

Three cosmic potentates find themselves stuck on earth while a war wages across their homeland and must learn to adapt to the human way of life.

Lay Me To Sleep (Supernatural, Mystery)

A group of witches investigate a string of grisly murders whilst trying to avoid the same fate for themselves.

Feel free to ask questions about my stories + characters!! 🥰

Main Blog

[mariacallous]

During his first official visit to Asia in March, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a strong message to Washington’s allies and partners. “What the Trump administration will do … is truly prioritize and shift [to] this region of the world in a way that is unprecedented, to match the threats of the future,” he said.

This rhetoric aligns with the Pentagon’s Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance, which is designed to serve as a placeholder until a full National Defense Strategy is published later this year. The guidance established the Indo-Pacific as its top priority beyond protecting the homeland. To that end, it committed the United States to “assume risk in other theaters,” namely the Middle East and Europe, to ensure that its military has the personnel, platforms, and equipment necessary to maintain deterrence in East Asia.

The Defense Department, however, does not seem to be following its own recommendations. Instead of focusing on Asia, it has continued to spread itself thin with too many missions in too many regions at once. Without strict prioritization, the Trump administration risks repeating the mistakes of its predecessors, leaving the U.S. military overextended and out of position if a real threat to its interests emerges.

Since President Donald Trump returned to office, the U.S. military has certainly asserted its presence in Asia, particularly in Japan and the Philippines. It has announced and deployed new capabilities, added to existing ones, and conducted trilateral drills in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the Trump administration has not only failed to downsize the U.S. military presence but is actively surging capabilities into the region. The increase responds to several regional threats, but by far the most demanding are the nearly two-month air war against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which has burned through already depleted munitions stockpiles and resulted in the downing of seven U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones, and attempts to signal U.S. readiness for military action against Iran as nuclear negotiations play out.

As part of these efforts, Hegseth directed the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group to remain in the Middle East at least a month past its scheduled deployment, and the USS Carl Vinson was rerouted from the Indo-Pacific to reinforce air operations against the Houthis. The United States has also sent additional fighter squadrons to the region, and at least six B-2 bombers—one-third of the U.S. Air Force’s entire B-2 fleet—are now parked at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Alongside the increase in offensive firepower, the Pentagon has exerted considerable energy and resources to move more air defenses to the Middle East. For example, in April, a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system reportedly arrived in Israel, meaning that two of the seven THAADs in the U.S. arsenal are now stationed there.

There are few indications that the Trump administration intends for this surge to be temporary. Moreover, although Trump’s May 6 truce with the Houthis could eventually reduce demands on U.S. military forces in the region, it remains to be seen how far-reaching and enduring the cease-fire will be. The truce could be easily undone by renegade Houthi operations, for example, or continued Houthi missiles strikes on Israel, which were not covered by Trump’s deal. Regardless, U.S. Central Command will likely remain cautious and advise against removing U.S. military assets from the region for the time being.

The continued commitment will have consequences. Every military asset delivered to one region means there are fewer available for protecting U.S. interests elsewhere. Air defenses, aircraft carriers, and destroyers—exactly those resources tied up in the Middle East—are also critical for signaling U.S. commitment to allies in Asia and protecting forces against long-range Chinese missiles in places such as Guam and Japan.

The Middle East isn’t the only theater where the Pentagon’s words and deeds don’t align. Senior Trump administration officials have repeatedly sought to compel European countries into spending more on defense. During his first speech to NATO members, Hegseth explained that “strategic realities”—most importantly, U.S. competition with China—would prevent the United States from serving as the primary guarantor of European security. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance went further by saying that it’s “not in Europe’s interest and it’s not in America’s interest for Europe to be a permanent security vassal of the United States.”

Despite those sentiments, the Trump administration has yet to announce any major changes to the U.S. military footprint in Europe. Some modifications to its European posture are likely, but their timeline and scope are uncertain. Reports that 10,000 U.S. troops might leave Europe, for example, are insufficient when one considers that former U.S. President Joe Biden deployed an additional 20,000 troops to the continent immediately after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, bringing the total force size to more than 100,000.

A small withdrawal from Europe would be especially ineffective and unhelpful if, as the United States has done in the past, it was spread out over a long period, giving European leaders and the U.S. national security bureaucracy time to roll back planned posture changes. Real prioritization will require plans for a much more significant and rapid U.S. drawdown and transfer of NATO leadership roles to European allies.

In some ways, the Trump administration’s failure to stick to its own priorities fits the trend of past administrations. Both Biden and former President Barack Obama also hoped to shift resources to Asia and had little success. But following through with prioritization is even more vital today than it was then. Changes in the global balance of power and tightening resource constraints in the United States have increased the potential consequences of the Pentagon’s failure to focus its global activities.

Three major consequences are worth noting.

First, as the United States remains distracted by the Middle East and heavily invested in Europe, China continues to increase, advance, and stockpile its military power in Asia. The military balance in the region is already shifting quickly against the United States, especially as China builds more long-range missiles, better fighter jets, and the world’s biggest navy. The United States does not need to maintain military preeminence in the region to secure its interests, but without the right investments today, even more modest goals could slip out of reach.

For example, there are already questions about the ability of the U.S. military to break a Chinese coercive blockade of Taiwan or to prevent China from seizing the island by force. The United States must meaningfully concentrate on the region soon, with real investments in air defense, uncrewed air and sea systems, undersea capabilities, and base and airfield hardening. Otherwise, questions will arise about its capacity to support allies such as Japan and the Philippines—and even to protect U.S. military assets along the Second Island Chain, such as in Guam, the Marshall and Northern Mariana islands, and Palau. Lack of focus today will eventually limit Washington’s strategic options.

Second, the United States’ failure to prioritize the Indo-Pacific leads to the waste of scarce resources on programs and activities that do not match its interests. In the Middle East, for example, the United States’ stakes are much lower than today’s extensive military commitment to the region would suggest. The Houthis do not pose a real threat to the U.S. homeland, and the United States does not rely on shipping through the Red Sea. Commitments in Europe are similarly out of balance. Even if Russia gains territory and influence from its war on Ukraine, it is not positioned to become a European hegemon that could challenge the United States.

Simply put, the Pentagon’s refusal to shed unnecessary missions squanders money and munitions on causes that do not make the country safer and runs counter to the Trump administration’s focus on increasing government efficiency.

Finally, failure to prioritize increases U.S. exposure to conflicts and instability abroad and raises the risk of entanglement in an unnecessary war. This risk is highest in the Middle East, where a heavy U.S. military footprint, including a constellation of large bases across the Gulf Arab states, means that the United States is implicated any time violence erupts in the region.

If the Pentagon hopes to serve its own stated strategic priorities—deterrence in Asia and protecting the U.S. homeland—it will need to change its behavior.

This will require accepting that the United States does not need to get involved in every conflict in the Middle East or along NATO’s borders. More specifically, prioritization will necessitate a permanent end to the U.S. military campaign against the Houthis and a reduction of the U.S. military presence in the Middle East to at least its pre-October 2023 levels. Finally, it will also require an end to U.S. involvement in Ukraine and faster progress on reducing the U.S. military presence in Europe by sending home the 20,000 surge forces that Biden deployed after Russia’s invasion.

No one expects these changes to happen overnight, but movement in this direction can and should start right away.

[nothingunrealistic]

WENDY: How many times have you seen The Hunt for Red October? TAYLOR: I don’t watch Alec — PHILIP: Yeah, and Connery had that interview back in — WENDY: Okay, I hear you, but let’s not with that, right now. I asked rhetorically. I’m sure you both know lines by heart. The point is: even Ramius, who had almost total discretion, couldn’t act alone. Someone had to give him the keys every time he took out that sub. PHILIP: Is Ramius…? WENDY: Two captains in this story. The point is, if you’re asking for total and complete control 24/7, you are wasting your time. And his.

7x05 the gulag archipelago. the hunt for red october follows marko ramius, a soviet submarine captain who defies orders and goes rogue in what’s interpreted as an imminent renegade nuclear attack on the united states, and jack ryan, a cia analyst who figures out that ramius is actually trying to defect to the united states. if philip ends up defecting to Team Kill Prince under the guise of attacking them, we’ll know exactly who ramius is.

[echthr0s]

the worst thing about playing Mass Effect 2 is that Adrian Shepard definitely has those livid red marks on his face, the ones that get worse the more Renegade choices you make. but outside of gameplay rules, those marks are just part of him, to me -- evidence of what sort of creation he now is, no longer just a scrappy lad from the homeworld but an engineered weapon, Cerberus's hound, something that isn't even allowed to die without permission from his human overlords. he looks in the mirror every day and he sees the marks and he thinks, this is a mask. a poorly fitted mask. and he waits to find out what happens when it cracks--

bloody hell ANYWAY that's not the point, the point is that despite my best efforts to play him like the Renegade he is, I'm almost at full Paragon status because Bioware doesn't seem to understand that meathead ass hoorah shit isn't what makes Adrian a Renegade, what makes him a Renegade is being repulsed by human supremacy rhetoric, being emotionally driven instead of callously duty-bound, and threatening Mordin Solus with grievous bodily harm if he tells anyone even tangentially related to Cerberus about the fact that Adrian still has wet dreams about being flayed open by Harbinger,

[evenpolygonal]

mirage

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flash them the sign real quick and confabulate as a merchant forest's callings amidst the denouement to reveal still renegade polarities services with a pulse the inceptions untelling's bound the cyclic of old contraptions symmetrical sopwith while that with evidence scouts and prop engines not to fly like the loons in a whole different settings so far as flight contracts the buzzards are ill of mentions

[shepardyke]

can’t take the terra nova DLC seriously when it’s just pushing anti batarian rhetoric up the wazoo… the vibe about terrorism is just so Odd… and getting renegade points for killing charn instead of convincing him to leave …. as if he still isn’t a slaver? hello? especially with mindoir background like…. i know what happens to slaves,, i’ve MET tabitha like …. ur not getting away lmfao . shepard’s disgusted “batarians” when they find them at the first fusion torch site …. GOD…

like i’m trying so hard to make ellie sound like a normal person during this dlc in response to this terrorist attack 😭😭