#u.s. negativity

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

@dr-reids-fidget-toy#omg I didn’t know that about comic bucky that’s rlly cool

Starting a new post because I have off-topic Thoughts. Comic!Bucky contains fascinating commentary on the Cold War, WWII, and the media representations thereof. MCU!Bucky is (by necessity) pretty watered down. In the Brubaker comics, Bucky isn't brainwashed, at least not in the classic Marvel sense. He's just this guy who believes in the absolute rightness of his country, and has been in combat to support the U.S. since age ~14... and then he gets blown up by a missile, loses his memory, and Department X tells him "his country" is the USSR. So now he's the Winter Soldier. Nothing else about his personality or his politics changes. The Winter Soldier we see in the Brubaker comics is definitely a villain — he kills indiscriminately, kidnaps civilians to get his way, murders Rick Jones out of petty spite. But his personality is basically the same from childhood.

This is Steve remembering Bucky as a kid during WWII:

Brubaker retcons Bucky's role, from "kid sidekick who rushes in first and gets kidnapped, needing Captain America to rescue him," to "kid agent who infiltrates bases first, so that Captain America can follow him." With the memory loss, Bucky goes from slitting throats and setting off bombs for Uncle Sam, to doing it for Mother Russia. He's always been as cold and as willing to kill witnesses as he is as the Winter Soldier. It just never made the news reals.

And that's the other half of his retconned role: being propaganda for other child soldiers (e.g. Toro) who join up in his wake. This is Bucky and Steve watching a Cap and Bucky recruitment newsreel:

As an adult, the real difference isn't that Bucky is Soviet now; it's that he doesn't have Steve holding his leash anymore. To be clear, comic Winter Soldier also isn't free to come and go as he pleases — he's kept in a freezer between missions, he's probably not paid, he's in Department X — but he also has far more agency within the latitude of his orders. He's not dead-eyed and tortured by guilt like we see in the MCU. He goes on side quests to kill other Buckies. He argues constantly with Aleksander Lukin (the comic equivalent of Pierce). He complains about the inconvenience of not just sniping Steve in the head to steal the Tesseract.

Brubaker's point, throughout the comic, is that we have been lied to about World War II being "noble" or "good" or the story of the U.S. saving the day. And that that lie is used to prop up everything from U2 spy planes built with 100x the budget for education, to the Patriot Act nullifying the Fourth Amendment. Because not only is "WWII was a noble war fought without atrocities" nationalistic bullshit, but "Soviets are fundamentally different from us" is too. Bucky's continuity of character reveals both at once. He's a walking Soviet superweapon. Why? Because he was a walking American superweapon first, starting before he was old enough to shave.

Anyway, I get why the MCU had to change his backstory. You have to a) remind the audience who Bucky is, b) show-don't-tell why Steve is sad Bucky is trying to kill him, c) get across the idea that Bucky doesn't want to kill Steve but feels he has to, d) use Bucky to develop Steve's character, and e) set up a way for Bucky to get un-brainwashed. All within the span of ~30 minutes this movie has for this plot, amidst all the other plots. MCU!Bucky plaintively asking Pierce who Steve was, only to get slapped in the face, is sort of like AniTV!Tom constantly pawing at his ear: it quickly gets across that this character isn't acting under his own volition, in a way that minimizes audience confusion.

Plus: it's a Hollywood movie. It wouldn't get funded if it was too critical of the U.S. military. Movies are always, by definition, more conservative than other media because of their need for funding. And the MCU makes a decent effort to incorporate at least some criticism of the U.S., having Zola be involved in Operation Paperclip and having him (while working for the U.S.) order Howard Stark's murder. But a computer ghost reciting dry facts about the CIA recruiting Nazis doesn't have the same gut punch as watching the "good guys" send the literal child to knife his fellow child soldiers during WWII would have had.

[neechees]

More bad-mom-sister complaining but not long ago my sister came to the house to scream at my mom for some incomprehensible shit at like 10 pm (basically taking out her frustration with her own choices & blaming my mom for it) which included getting mad that we didn't have the kids because they've been with the babby daddy this whole time (again, because my sister left them with him herself, because she didn't feel like being a mom, & my mom even told her to come take care of her kids & my sister replied "i don't want to". he's had them this whole time because she literally handed them to him and didn't want to get them back when she had the chance to)

[onthehighwaytomel]

I admit I haven't been super on top of the news lately (moving next week, work stress, recent birthday plans, protecting my mental health, etc.)

But isn't it a good thing that Biden stepped down? He's clearly not fit for four more years (or even one more election cycle) because of his age, health, and mental capacity. And he would be extremely unlikely to win against Trump, even more so after 7/13.

I'm no Harris stan by any means; I'll be holding my nose and voting for her, just like I did with Biden and Hillary. And I know it's not ideal to change candidates less than four months out. But at least she's not decrepit and seems to be mentally present and engaged enough for this kind of thing. It was the right decision, one that needed to be made for a while now. We didn't need Senator Feinstein 2: Electric Boogaloo.

The bar might be in hell, but I'd rather have the only actually viable candidate against Trump clear that bar.

[daydreamerdrew]

Avengers (2010) #4

[princesssarcastia]

alright its late, way past my bedtime, which means its fine if i release a bit of my top gun writing for the first time, right?  right. 

this is a snapshot from a sequel (that i haven’t written) to a story (i haven’t finished), because why should I follow time and behave in a linear fashion?

anyway.  thinking about Rooster attending Ice’s funeral as someone who’s not only estranged from the family, but was, up to this point, actively antagonizing and trying to drive away the person closest to him (i.e. Maverick).  thinking about Rooster as someone with a lot of anger and, on a normal day, nowhere to direct it but inward.  thinking about what being furious at the people you love most in the world for 20 years would do to you, as a person.

and also, as always, thinking about the Yearning™, even and perhaps especially from pov outsider.

(edit: now with an extended version on ao3)

...

No wife.  No kids.  No one to mourn you if you burn in.

Bradley knows it’s not true, even as he says it.  But they’ve all been living Uncle Mav and Uncle Ice’s lie for so long, it’s easier to spit out in anger than the truth.

That does nothing to relieve his impulse to choke himself out right now.  If he’d known Uncle Ice was sick again—

But he didn’t know.  No one knew.  Not even the rest of the Uncles, if he can still read their expressions right after years of distance and without the uncanny, graceless intuition of a child to help him.  Maverick…he can’t tell with Maverick.  The man could never be angry with Ice, not for anything, and he’d be no less devastated with forewarning than without.  His other uncles seem pissed as hell through the tears, though.

He feels like complete and utter shit for having said that to Maverick, because he might as well have been setting him down on an oil slick right before fate threw a match.  It’s not—he’s not unaware of the effect he has on Maverick.  Bradley knows what the distance between them does to his father; it’s just that normally he’s too angry with him to care.

Right now, he cares.  And it’s disgusting, grief clearing his eyes enough to show him what a bastard he’s been.  

If he’d known—

God, what he wouldn’t give for one last family dinner at the Kazansky house.  Uncle Ice and Aunt Sarah and Maverick, all his cousins, whichever of the Uncles were in town at the time…they filled out the dining room, filled it up with laughter and delight and love and it made the years after his mom died more than bearable; it made them worth living.  

[meruhenshoujo]

muslimintp-1999-girl: #seriously the issue is that capitalism has made single income households almost impossible/difficult and that's why people end up treating#each other like a burden when what they should be aiming for is an economic system that doesn't view people as disposables/burden & belief#that everyone should have basic human rights such as housing regardless of their financial status#it is so sad that owning a house these days is so out of reach for most people

Precisely!

Can we stop using "still lives with their parents" or "unemployed" or "doesn't have a drivers license" or "didn't graduate high school" as an insult or evidence that someone is a bad person? Struggling with independence or meeting milestones is not a moral failing.

[muddypolitics]

you have to be a really repugnant asshole to pull this off

[xtruss]

ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Wants To Know If You’re Posting Negative Things About It Online

ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Wants To Hire Contractors To Monitor Social Media For Threats. Those Who Criticize The Agency Could Be Pulled Into The Dragnet.

— Sam Biddle | February 11, 2025 | The Intercept

Supporters of immigrants’ rights protest against Donald Trump’s policies on Feb. 7, 2025, in Homestead, Florida. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Amid Anger And Protest over the Trump administration’s plan to deport millions of immigrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to monitor and locate “negative” social media discussion about the agency and its top officials, according to contract documents reviewed by The Intercept.

Citing an increase in threats to ICE agents and leadership, the agency is soliciting pitches from private companies to monitor threats across the internet — with a special focus on social media. People who simply criticize ICE online could pulled into the dragnet.

“In order to prevent adversaries from successfully targeting ICE Senior leaders, personnel and facilities, ICE requires real-time threat mitigation and monitoring services, vulnerability assessments, and proactive threat monitoring services,” the procurement document reads.

If this scanning uncovers anything the agency deems suspicious, ICE is asking its contractors to drill down into the background of social media users.

That includes:

“Previous social media activity which would indicate any additional threats to ICE; 2). Information which would indicate the individual(s) and/or the organization(s) making threats have a proclivity for violence; and 3). Information indicating a potential for carrying out a threat (such as postings depicting weapons, acts of violence, refences to acts of violence, to include empathy or affiliation with a group which has violent tendencies; references to violent acts; affections with violent acts; eluding [sic] to violent acts.”

It’s unclear how exactly any contractor might sniff out someone’s “proclivity for violence.” The ICE document states only that the contractor will use “social and behavioral sciences” and “psychological profiles” to accomplish its automated threat detection.

Once flagged, the system will further scour a target’s internet history and attempt to reveal their real-world position and offline identity. In addition to compiling personal information — such as the Social Security numbers and addresses of those whose posts are flagged — the contractor will also provide ICE with a “photograph, partial legal name, partial date of birth, possible city, possible work affiliations, possible school or university affiliation, and any identified possible family members or associates.”

The document also requests “Facial Recognition capabilities that could take a photograph of a subject and search the internet to find all relevant information associated with the subject.” The contract contains specific directions for targets found in other countries, implying the program would scan the domestic speech of American citizens.

The posting indicates that ICE isn’t merely looking to detect direct threats of violence, but also online criticism of the agency.

As part of its mission to protect ICE with “proactive threat monitoring,” the winning contractor will not simply flag threatening remarks but “Provide monitoring and analysis of behavioral and social media sentiment (i.e. positive, neutral, and negative).” This includes regular updates on the “total number of negative references to ICE found in social media” from week to week.

“ICE’s attempt to have eyes and ears in as many places as we exist both online and offline should ring an alarm.”

Such sentiment analysis — typically accomplished via machine-learning techniques — could place under law enforcement scrutiny speech that is constitutionally protected. Simply stated, a post that is critical or even hostile to ICE isn’t against the law.

“ICE’s attempts to capture and assign a judgement to people’s ‘sentiment’ throughout the expanse of the internet is beyond concerning,” said Cinthya Rodriguez, an organizer with the immigrant rights group Mijente. “The current administration’s attempt to use this technology falls within the agency’s larger history of mass surveillance, which includes gathering information from personal social media accounts and retaliating against immigrant activists. ICE’s attempt to have eyes and ears in as many places as we exist both online and offline should ring an alarm for all of us.”

Scanning online speech in the name of homeland security is a bipartisan initiative. The document soliciting contractors appears nearly identical to a procurement document published by ICE in 2020, which resulted in a $5.5 million contract between the agency and Barbaricum, a Washington-based defense and intelligence contractor. A new contract has not yet been awarded. ICE spokesperson Jocelyn Biggs told The Intercept, “While ICE anticipates maintaining its threat risk monitoring services, we cannot speculate on a specific timeline for future contract decisions.”

ICE already has extensive social media surveillance capabilities provided by federal contractor Giant Oak, which under both Trump’s first term and the Biden administration sought “derogatory” posts about the United States to inform immigration-related decision-making. The goal of this contract, ostensibly, is focused more narrowly on threats to ICE leadership, agents, facilities, and operations.

Civil liberties advocates told The Intercept the program had grave speech implications under the current administration. “While surveillance programs like this under any administration are a concerning privacy and free speech violation and I would fight to stop them, the rhetoric of the Trump administration makes this practice especially terrifying,” said Calli Schroeder, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Threats to ‘punish’ opponents or deport those exercising 1st Amendment rights combine with these invasive practices to create a real ‘thought police’ scenario.”

[minnesotafollower]

U.N. Human Rights Council Demands U.S. End Designation of Cuba as State Sponsor of Terrorism

On June 26, 2024, the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva Switzerland issued a declaration signed by 123  countries demanding that the U.S. remove Cuba from the list of countreis that allegedly sponsor terrorism. [1] Cuba’s President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, expressed his gratitude for this expression of support. He also pointed out out that the unjust accusation goes against the fundamental…

[crystalsandbubbletea]

My brother did it, so I had to as well-

(ID in the ALT thing and history lesson in the tags-)

[underestimated-heroine]

i just think white cishet dudes who have never and will never have any actual skin in the game personally should stop calling on marginalized people to die for their epic revolution, idk.

[mypatchworkreflection]

"The target of the latest consumer protection rule unveiled by the Biden-Harris administration's Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday is, as one journalist said, "one of those things that sounds minor but is at the heart of many of the frustrations of American life": The hoops people in the U.S. are required to jump through to cancel subscriptions or services they no longer want or need.

The FTC announced that its "click-to-cancel" rule, part of the agency's review of the 1973 Negative Option Rule, was finalized and will go into effect 180 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

Under the rule, sellers will be required to "make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up," said the FTC."

[10bmnews]

Safe haven rush begins after Israel strikes Iran

Investors fled to safe-haven assets Friday after a series of Israeli airstrikes on Iran marked a major escalation of conflict in the region. The scale of the attack, which Israel said was targeting Iran’s nuclear program, took markets by surprise, pushing up prices of assets thought to offer protection in times of heightened volatility. “The news has led to significant fears about an escalation…

[vintagetvstars]

Leonard Nimoy Vs. LeVar Burton

Final

Propaganda

Leonard Nimoy - (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible) - actor, director, musician, writer, photographer and mensch whose hotness as spock CHANGED THE WORLD

LeVar Burton - (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Roots) - as well as his wonderful performance as geordi laforge in next generation, levar burton had his breakout role starring as kunta kinte in the 1977 miniseries roots which set records for television viewership (its finale was estimated to have been watched by 130 million+ viewers, more than half the U.S. population at the time). he also directed numerous episodes of tng, ds9 (including the one where rom unionizes quark's), voyager and enterprise, and promoted literacy with his beloved pbs show reading rainbow, which he hosted for 23 years!

- No Negative Propaganda Please -

Master Poll List | How to submit propaganda | What is vintage? (FAQ)

Additional propaganda below the cut

Leonard Nimoy:

This is the Spock website, come on

its leonard nimoy......

LeVar Burton:

[damnyousubdermalirritants]

UPDATE: NOVAVAX NOW AVAILABLE!!!

Hi everyone, it's been about a year since I posted about updated COVID vaccines and it's time for another update if you are in the US:

THE BRIDGE ACCESS PROGRAM IS ENDING!!!!

If you are uninsured or your insurance does not cover covid boosters, please schedule a new booster appointment before the end of August because the Bridge Access Program (the way the government will still pay for your booster) ends in September. The updated mRNA boosters from Moderna and Pfizer are available now. Go Go GO!!!

Shitty, I know! If you can call your congressional reps, the FDA, the CDC, whomever to tell them you want this program to continue/be reinstated, that would be great. Also, while you're at it, call the FDA to tell them to expedite the approval for the updated Novavax booster (3017962640).

The new Novavax vaccine is designed for the JN.1 strain which is one of the most recent mutations of the virus going around. If you have insurance and can afford to wait, I highly recommend getting the Novavax booster when it becomes available.

We are currently in the largest Covid summer surge since 2021

If you haven't had a booster in the past six months you are essentially unvaccinated. New strains with different spike proteins keep evolving faster than vaccine development and distribution can keep up. All that said, getting Covid is not a moral failing. If you do feel sick, take a rapid test! If it's negative, test again a day or two later. It is better to know than not to know. Here's a refresh on how to take a rapid test correctly:

If you do get Covid, it is worth getting on antiretrovirals within the first week of symptoms to reduce the overall viral load your body has to fight. If your insurance doesn't cover Paxlovid or Remdesivir, here are other low/no-cost ways to access it:

If you get sick, rest radically even after you stop testing positive on rapid tests. Avoid exercising for at least eight weeks after the fact to reduce the risk of developing long covid.

Regardless of your vaccination status, masking with a KN95 or N95 respirator (or equivalent standards in your country i.e. FFP2/3 in the EU) is the most reliable way to protect yourself and others. If Covid protections are a financial burden, there is likely an active Mask Bloc near you doing free distribution of respirators and tests that would be happy to help you. Here's a global map of them from covidactionmap.org

Some quick tips: if you're wearing a bi-fold mask, flatten the nose-bridge wire completely, then mold it to your nose on your face for a better fit. The best mask is the one that you will actually wear regularly to protect yourself. I really like the selection of styles, sizes and colors from WellBefore:

As school is starting, getting you and your family boosted is one of the best things you can do to protect yourselves. Masking is perhaps even more important. If you can advocate for updating and regularly changing the HVAC filters at your local schools to MERV-13 or higher to keep the indoor air cleaner, that can also make a big difference. Better indoor air quality in schools helps protect kids from illness, allergies, wildfire smoke, and more per the EPA's website.

These are steps you can take to improve air quality at home as well. Corsi-Rosenthal boxes are low-cost and highly effective for cleaning the air indoors.

Here's a map of clean air lending libraries for getting access to air purifiers for events from cleanairclub.org

[theonion]

According to an extensive 18-month study published by researchers at the University of New Mexico this week, Americans, despite their embarrassing behavior, general ineptitude, and countless other negative traits, are actually kind of endearing in some ways.

“Our initial data showed that Americans are impulsive and tend toward willful ignorance—findings that are consistent with past research,” said Professor Spencer Dixon, who led the study on U.S. culture and society. “But what we were surprised and, honestly, a little delighted to find is that Americans’ short attention spans, simplemindedness, and inability to articulate a coherent idea can actually make them pretty lovable.”

“It’s hard to describe,” Dixon continued. “It’s just all these little quirks they have. And after a month or two of observation, they kind of start to grow on you.”

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