#America's warped priorities

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 30, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAY 30, 2023

“[O]ne of the things that I hear some of you guys saying is, ‘Why doesn’t Biden say what a good deal it is?’” President Joe Biden said to reporters yesterday afternoon before leaving the White House on the Marine One helicopter. “Why would Biden say what a good deal it is before the vote? You think that’s going to help me get it passed? No. That’s why you guys don’t bargain very well.”

Biden’s unusually revealing comment about the budget negotiations was actually a statement about his presidency. Unlike his Republican opponents, he has refused to try to win points by playing the media and instead has worked behind the scenes to govern, sometimes staying out of negotiations, sometimes being central to them.

The result has been, as Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf summarized today, historic. Biden has worked to replace 40 years of supply-side economics with policies to rebuild the nation’s economy and infrastructure by supporting ordinary Americans. The American Rescue Plan gave the United States a faster economic recovery from the COVID pandemic than any other major economy. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has already funded more than 32,000 projects in more than 4,500 communities in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and U.S. territories.

The Inflation Reduction Act made the biggest investment in addressing climate change in our history, and according to University of Washington transportation analyst Jack Conness, it and the CHIPS and Science Act have already attracted over $220 billion in private investment, much of it going to Republican-dominated states: Tennessee, Nevada, North Carolina, and Oklahoma have each attracted more than $4 billion; Ohio, more than $6 billion; Arizona, more than $7 billion; South Carolina, more than $9 billion; and Georgia, more than $13 billion.

Victoria Guida in Politico yesterday reported that the reordering of the economy under Biden and the Democrats has reversed the widening income gap between wage workers and upper-income professionals that has been growing for the past 40 years. The pay of those making an average of $12.50 an hour grew by almost 6% from 2020 to 2022, even after inflation.

Those gains are now at risk as pandemic measures end and the Fed raises interest rates to bring down inflation, although the wage increases are only a piece of the inflation puzzle: Talmon Joseph Smith and Joe Rennison of the New York Times today reported that companies raising their prices to “protect…profits” are “adding to inflation.” In other words, companies pushed prices beyond normal profit margins during the pandemic and the economic recovery, then maintained those higher profit margins with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and continue to maintain them now.

The fight over the debt ceiling is both an example of the different approaches to negotiation on the part of Biden and Republicans like House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and part of the larger question about the direction of the country.

On January 13, 2023, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned McCarthy that the Treasury was about to hit the borrowing limit established by Congress and that she would have to resort to extraordinary measures in order to meet obligations until Congress raised the debt ceiling.

On March 9, as part of the usual budget process, Biden produced a detailed budget, which was a wish list of programs that would continue to build the country from the bottom up. He told McCarthy he would meet with the speaker as soon as he produced his own budget, which McCarthy could not do because the far-right House Freedom Caucus (these days being abbreviated as HFC) wanted extreme cuts to which other Republicans would never agree.

On April 26 the House Republicans passed a bill that would require $4.8 trillion in cuts but was quite vague about how it would do so apart from getting rid of much of the legislation the Democrats had just passed. HFC members said they would not raise the debt ceiling until the Senate passed their bill. That is, they would drive the United States into default, crashing the U.S. and the global economy, until the president and the Democrats agreed to their policies. Even then, they would raise it only until next spring, with the expectation that it would then become a key factor in the 2024 election.

Biden insisted all along that he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling, which pays for money already appropriated under the normal process of Congress and which Congress raised three times under former president Trump even as he added $7.8 trillion to the national debt. Biden said he would happily negotiate over the budget. McCarthy, meanwhile, was out in front of the cameras and on social media insulting Biden and insisting that it was Biden’s fault that talks took so long to get started.

Late Saturday, the two sides announced an agreement “in principle” to raise the debt ceiling for two years—clearing the presidential election. As the Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell noted, it protects current spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; keeps tax rates as they are; increases spending on defense and veterans’ programs; leaves most other domestic spending the same; cuts a little from the expanded funding of the Internal Revenue Service; and tweaks both the permitting process for energy projects and the existing work requirements in the food assistance program.

As Rampell points out, “this much-ballyhooed ‘deal’ doesn’t seem terribly different from whatever budget agreement would have materialized anyway later this year, during the usual annual appropriations process, under divided government. To President Biden’s credit, the most objectionable ransoms that Republicans had been demanding are all gone.”

Now the measure has to get through both parties, with congressmembers back in Washington today after the holiday weekend. Freedom Caucus members are howling at the deal. Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) is threatening to bottle the measure up in the House Rules Committee, which decides what bills make it to the floor. The Freedom Caucus forced McCarthy to stack that committee with far-right extremists as part of his deal for the speakership (it has nine Republicans but only four Democrats on it). But Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo suggests that McCarthy’s alliance with Representatives Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) might pay off here, since the two have thrown their weight behind the measure.

Even if the measure does pass before the June 5 deadline when the Treasury runs out of money, it has had an important effect. As Rampell noted, it has weakened the United States. It has enabled both China and Russia to portray the U.S. as unstable and an unreliable partner. As if to prove that criticism, Biden had to cancel a trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, where he was strengthening the Indo-Pacific alliances designed to weaken Chinese dominance of the region. (And Russia continues to involve itself in U.S. politics: today Tara Reade, the woman who in 2020 accused Biden of sexually assaulting her, appeared on Russian television next to alleged spy Maria Butina to say she has fled to Russia out of fear for her life in the U.S.)

Writing in Foreign Policy, Howard W. French sees a more sweeping problem with the debt ceiling fight: it “highlights America’s warped priorities.” “[W]hen a rich and powerful country finds it easier to cut back on the way that it invests in its people, in education, in science, and in making sure that the weakest among them are not completely left behind than to curtail useless and profligate weapons spending,” he said, “there are reasons to worry about the foundations of its power.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[red-revival]

I see we are both irredeameably obsessed about our blorbo. I NEED to know who Alchemy Cowboy is

OK SO. I love him so much

Alchemy Cowboy(still unnamed, I have a bad habit of this. One o my pf2e characters didn’t get named until the campaign was starting because I just forgot) is an oc I’ll be playing in an alternate reality western campaign using Mutants & Masterminds. Basic setting lore is 1800’s western USA with weird dimensional portals and reality-warping phenomena that destroy much of the land. These phenomena can be stabilized only by anchors that The Church(not a Christian church but a separate entity) creates. This being 1800’s america, settler towns are a much higher priority for getting anchors and indigenous nations are frequently just not given anything.

Alchemy Cowboy is a native dude who’s nation(still not determined) was scattered when the land was destroyed by portal phenomena, after multiple meetings where the church wouldn’t get em an anchor no matter what they offered or did in return. He grew up with his mother, moving between stable settlements and frequently going into other dimensions through these portals to collect ingredients, as his mother was also an alchemist.

Dude’s got neat bullets he custom-makes for himself that are concentrated and solidified potions, so he has a sweet alchemy gun array. Nowadays still runs around into portals, sells potions and sends most of the money he doesn’t immediately use back to his mother so she can live comfortably. His best friend is his horse, Daisy, who he takes very good care of. A lot of his potions go to different communities and nations the church wouldn’t be likely to get an anchor to, so they have better chances of escaping the portal phenomena.

Now thing is. Man absolutely does not trust the church to distribute portals fairly, because he’s experienced firsthand the consequences of their prioritization of settlers. His main motivation isn’t the horse, or his mother, or potions, or any of that. His primary motivation is to find or create another way to stabilize portal phenomena so that people who the church would leave to die have better chances of survival. Dude absolutely hates the church which. Yeahs thats fair

For details that aren’t in-depth backstory/motive details or exploring themes. He’s also. Extremely cute(though I haven’t drawn him yet) and I am extremely homosexual and mentally unwell abt him. Trans, makes his own HRT(fuck yeah). Has cool beads he made outta potions and used those for beadwork on his vest for a weird alchemically enhanced kinda armour. And his music playlist has been admittedly kinds difficult because I’m not a big fan of country or similar genres.

[mariacallous]

Some conservatives in the United States have recently developed a bizarre tendency to uncritically consume foreign military recruiting propaganda. In 2021, Sen. Ted Cruz circulated Russian propaganda in an attempt to malign U.S. military recruiting efforts, and Fox News host Tucker Carlson is on the record complaining that the U.S. military is “more feminine” in comparison to the Chinese military’s “more masculine” nature. Most recently, Sen. Marco Rubio picked out an officer’s brief participation in a shipboard spoken word event as evidence that the U.S. Navy’s internal priorities are misplaced while the People’s Liberation Army Navy trains for war.

In an attempt to score points in a culture war, a select group of pundits and politicians—very few of whom have served themselves—appear to be interpreting these propaganda videos as indicators of combat effectiveness. Whether the videos feature shirtless men doing pushups or glowering paratroopers dropping from the skies, there’s a desire to see the United States emulate these warped displays of apparent masculine prowess—but this would be a mistake.

Anyone consuming these videos needs to understand what they actually are: a farce. Much like the U.S. Marines who slew a lava monster and battled chess pieces in recruiting commercials in the 1980s and ’90s, the soldiers in these videos are almost certainly paid actors. The real Russian military is a mostly conscript force typified by abuse, sexual assault, and working conditions that would make Upton Sinclair faint. Meanwhile, its fellow authoritarian, “no limits” partner, China, has a military that is rife with corruption, hidebound with Communist Party-driven structures that preclude original thought or tactical creativity, and that hasn’t seen actual fighting since 1986—and no full-scale war since 1979. In combat, many of its soldiers will die for the simple reason that they are not allowed to think.

This is not license to ignore the threat posed by either military, but it should be clear that neither is an organization that any Western force should look to emulate. Whatever faults the U.S. military may have, its training is envied, sought after, and emulated (often poorly) around the world. China and Russia rely on scripted training with limited combat value. Much of their training is used to repress their own people.

For U.S. politicians to hold them up as superior is to favor political point-scoring in a facile culture war over U.S. military effectiveness. This not only is dangerous to U.S. national security but also actively undermines Americans who have sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution and do so with dignity and respect for their fellow service members.

So-called emasculation features heavily in popular far-right criticisms of the U.S. military—in spite of the fact that women have served in and alongside the military since the founding of the United States, flown combat aircraft since 1993, and been formally allowed in ground combat roles since 2013. Thousands of women have earned Combat Action Badges during combat operations in America’s wars, and hundreds have been decorated for valor under fire.

I have personally served with women who flew into the hottest battles of Iraq to evacuate wounded Marines, tracked Chinese submarines in the Pacific Ocean, and conducted some of the most sensitive and dangerous intelligence missions in recent history. I have deployed with transgender shipmates who did their duty day in and day out in demanding and dangerous environments. I am not unique in knowing remarkable service members who are not heterosexual men; gay men, in particular, have been training and serving in the U.S. military since its founding.

The only time Russian forces have faced U.S. combat troops since 1920 was in a 2018 battle near the city of Deir Ezzor in Syria. A combined group of 500 soldiers, composed of Russian and Syrian combat troops and backed by tanks and three dozen other vehicles, advanced on a U.S. outpost containing less than one-tenth of their total strength. Over the course of a four-hour battle, which brought together the full spectrum of U.S. capabilities, from ground forces to electronic warfare and uncrewed weapons to combat aircraft, U.S. forces eliminated several hundred of the attackers without suffering a single loss of their own.

Strangely, the ability to do shirtless pushups or jump though flaming hoops did not decide the battle. Rather, professional and highly trained personnel of all states, communities, sexual orientations, and genders came together to form a devastatingly lethal response and kill their enemies.

We have seen this again in Ukraine, which has wisely taken in volunteers from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds to form a military capable of defending its interests. Again, some American observers elect to criticize the Ukrainians for releasing videos of young personnel dancing on social media while falling over themselves to praise the so-called manly Russian military and its cultural values. For starters, the idea that a force typified by mass crimes against humanity, including slaughtering mothers and infants in hospitals and waging campaigns of terror, rape, and murder in occupied zones, could be culturally admirable is shocking and should be rejected with disgust by every American.

In terms of combat effectiveness, Russia has again been shown to be shockingly inept. The Russian paratroopers slavered over by far-right pundits have suffered incredible losses in exchange for very few gains. The Russian government now deploying armor fit for a Cold War museum to fight against a diverse force of Ukrainian baristas, IT professionals, and poets who have embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces so completely as to shock the entire world. Neither heterosexuality nor the XY chromosome is an indicator of combat effectiveness or strategic acumen.

To recruit from a diverse population, the military needs to highlight that its culture accommodates and celebrates diversity. U.S. service members deserve to be proud of who they are. Their identities matter. We should not allow them to become embroiled in this absurd culture war, by either side. Politicians do not need to engage in saccharine “thank you for your service” hero worship, but they do owe those in uniform respect for their basic human dignity and for their willingness to serve.

Members of the military should not be held up as objects of derision, nor should they be singled out to highlight the imagined superiority of regimes actively pursuing genocidal campaigns against minorities and mass murder of noncombatants. Using the military like this is a gross abuse of power, taking advantage of the fact that active-duty personnel cannot publicly push back against this malign treatment by members of government.

It may shock some to learn that many of the most vociferous critics of an inclusive military never elected to serve themselves. It is hard to imagine that individuals who feel so strongly about who serves in the military somehow never managed to find their way to a recruiting office during the past two decades of ongoing conflict. Instead, this chickenhawk caucus prefers to spend their taxpayer-funded time tweeting feverishly about how letting women and LGBTQ+ personnel serve their country has somehow made the United States weaker.

Not only is this approach a poor cultural critique, but it is also a facile argument that ignores empirical evidence. The fact is, a more inclusive U.S. military has made the United States better. A modern military defined not only by physical strength but also by technical acumen and mental agility—including a diversity of viewpoints, backgrounds, skills, and abilities—makes the United States’ all-volunteer force the deadliest military in the world. Elected officials should have more important things to deal with than fetishizing authoritarian militaries, but if they must do it, they should leave U.S. service members out of it.

If there is something making U.S. forces less ready, it is the lack of ready platforms and materiel needed to face a peer military challenger—an issue squarely within Congress’s remit to rectify. Politicians should spend more time thinking about real war and less about culture war.

[richincolor]

Sometimes it's fun to revisit books you love. Today we're taking a quick look at three Latine books we loved so far this year! Have you read them, or are they on your TBR list?

Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie Feiwel & Friends || Group Discussion

A teen girl navigates friendship drama, the end of high school, and discovering her queerness in Ophelia After All, a hilarious and heartfelt contemporary YA debut by author Racquel Marie. Ophelia Rojas knows what she likes: her best friends, Cuban food, rose-gardening, and boys - way too many boys. Her friends and parents make fun of her endless stream of crushes, but Ophelia is a romantic at heart. She couldn't change, even if she wanted to.

So when she finds herself thinking more about cute, quiet Talia Sanchez than the loss of a perfect prom with her ex-boyfriend, seeds of doubt take root in Ophelia's firm image of herself. Add to that the impending end of high school and the fracturing of her once-solid friend group, and things are spiraling a little out of control. But the course of love--and sexuality--never did run smooth. As her secrets begin to unravel, Ophelia must make a choice between clinging to the fantasy version of herself she's always imagined or upending everyone's expectations to rediscover who she really is, after all.

The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes Balzer & Bray || Review

Seventeen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers drawing attention for her killer eyeliner, not for being the new kid at a mostly white, very rich, Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she's gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way. After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend, she could use the fresh start.

At Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: make her mom proud, keep her brother out of trouble, and most importantly, don't fall in love. Granted, she's never been great at any of those things, but that’s a problem for Future Yami.

The thing is, it’s hard to fake being straight when Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, is so annoyingly perfect. And smart. And talented. And cute. Either way, Yami isn’t going to make the same mistake again. If word got back to her mom, she could face a lot worse than rejection. So she’ll have to start asking, WWSGD: What would a straight girl do?

Told in a captivating voice that is by turns hilarious, vulnerable, and searingly honest, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School explores the joys and heartaches of living your full truth out loud. -- Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Our Shadows Have Claws: 15 Latin American Monster Stories edited by Yamile Saied Méndez Algonquin Young Readers || Review

From zombies to cannibals to death incarnate, this cross-genre anthology offers something for every monster lover. In Our Shadows Have Claws, bloodthirsty vampires are hunted by a quick-witted slayer; children are stolen from their beds by “el viejo de la bolsa” while a military dictatorship steals their parents; and anyone you love, absolutely anyone, might be a shapeshifter waiting to hunt.

The worlds of these stories are dark but also magical ones, where a ghost-witch can make your cheating boyfriend pay, bullies are brought to their knees by vicious wolf-gods, a jar of fireflies can protect you from the reality-warping magic of a bruja—and maybe you’ll even live long enough to tell the tale. Set across Latin America and its diaspora, this collection offers bold, imaginative stories of oppression, grief, sisterhood, first love, and empowerment.

Full contributor list: Chantel Acevedo, Courtney Alameda, Julia Alvarez, Ann Dávila Cardinal, M. García Peña, Racquel Marie, Gabriela Martins, Yamile Saied Méndez, Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, Claribel A. Ortega, Amparo Ortiz, Lilliam Rivera, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Ari Tison, and Alexandra Villasante. -- Cover image and summary via Goodreads

[the-hem]

"The Abishekam." Conclusion to the Bhasma Jabala Upanishad, "The Exploration of the Mysteries of the Son of the Ash Heap."

The Upanishad concludes stating the Abisheka, “religious bathing” a kind of Hindu baptism is the final stage of putting the burnt ashes of the past to rest.

Abisheka rinses away the thought debts of the past and unclean thoughts about the future and creates a state of mind that is firmly rooted in the reality God creates, not the one we warp with superstition. Our planet is frying because we have allowed persons with inferior intellectual capabilities to take over. They claim to follow a God who abhors violence and tyranny, who champions the poor and the homeless, but instead, they wreck everything everywhere they go, they cause hatred and ruin in every place.

Our governments turned their backs on us and let them do it. Now we have to face the utter truth, we are in deep trouble and have not grasped the implications of this negligence and thus we feel quite helpless.

We don’t know what to do or if anything can be done. A state of emergency needs to be declared and the atmosphere needs to be scrubbed of greenhouse gases so the heat that has accumulated over the United States of America has an opportunity to vent into space. This our word’s top priority. Instead, we pretend our problems are more like trouble with tribbles.

Persons who want to be free to live their lives, free of ignorance, delusion, oppression, tyranny, and all this heat should pray to God for an end to this incredible corruption:

By performing My Abhisheka, he attains My Sayujya state, communion with the Supreme Spirit. Nothing exists other than Myself. I initiate all with the Taraka Mantra, “Om Ram, Sri Ram.”

Those who want Mukti should live at Banares. I will take care of them. I am the Lord of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra.

The most corrupt man or woman will attain Moksha, if he or she dies at Banares. Other sinners will be fried in burning pits of live coals after death.

Therefore, everybody should try to live at Banares which is My Pranalinga Itself “source of life”.

Om ! O Devas, may we hear with our ears what is auspicious;

 May we see with our eyes what is auspicious, O ye worthy of worship ! May we enjoy the term of life allotted by the Devas, Praising them with our body and limbs steady !

May the glorious Indra bless us ! May the all-knowing Sun bless us ! May Garuda, the thunderbolt for evil, bless us ! May Brihaspati the god of prayer grant us well-being ! Om! Let there be Peace in me ! Let there be Peace in my environment !

Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !

Here ends the Bhasma-Jabalopanishad, as contained in the AtharvaVeda.

[genius-species]

What I Read in 2023

I read 54 books in 2023, the lowest amount in a long while. Mostly nonfiction (20) followed by romance (15). And while 2023 isn't over yet, I doubt I'll finish another complete book before the end of the year (no energy, little time).

Goals for 2024

Reviving a 2023 goal I did not accomplish: to improve my (very rudimentary) Spanish language skills by reading picture books en español.

Read more poetry. @allthefoolmine is a connoisseur of the genre. Poetry's such good stuff for packing maximal emotional devastation into minimal verbiage.

Read books about areas of the world in conflict or by authors from those areas - specifically Palestine, Ukraine, and Sudan.

Read more books in translation. Specifically, I intend read more by South American authors, particularly writers from Mexico and Columbia.

Highlights of 2023

The concluding novel in Freya Marske's Last Binding trilogy. Jack and Alan's book delighted, both from the romance perspective (snarky! steamy!) and from the plot perspective (an elegant conclusion, ripe with potential - hint, hint - for fanfic writers to develop the universe further).

Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers - as someone who has written letters for nearly three quarters of their life, I love a good epistolary novel or nonfiction anthology. This YA nonfiction book collects and contextualizes Vincent Van Gogh's letters to his beloved younger brother, Theo, and includes Theo's letters to Vincent. Added bonus: I finished it a month or so before visiting The Netherlands for the first time.

Traveling with the Dead has a marvelous, creepy vampire character in Don Ysidro. I do love when writers actually reckon with the ways immortality warps a character's priorities and perspective on the world. I definitely want to read more novels by Barbara Hambly in 2024.

I'm looking forward to reading KJ Charles's A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel - I thought it wasn't out until spring, but it was released this September. Huzzah!

Translation State, the latest in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch novels, was a marvel. Way to make aliens properly alien. If I say too much more I'll spoil the thrill of it but - if you liked Provenance and the Ancillary trilogy, run - do not walk - to your local bookshop.

My full reading list is below. What did you read and enjoy this year?

Nonfiction

Hints on Household Taste: The Classic Handbook of Victorian Interior Decoration by Charles L. Eastlake

Running While Black by Alison Mariella Desir

How She Did It by Molly Huddle and Sarah Slattery

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman

Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky

Run Like a Pro (Even if You're Slow) by Matt Fitzgerald and Ben Rosario

Until I Meet My Husband by Ryuosuke Nanasaki, translated by Molly Lee

A Cat Called Birmingham by Chris Pascoe

Beneath My Feet: Writers on Walking edited by Duncan Minshull

Samuel Pepys: The Man in the Making by Arthur Bryant

The Paper Solution by Lisa Woodruff

Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD by Susan Pinsky

Fair Play by Eve Rodsky

Nineteen Reservoirs by Lucy Santee

Fires in the Middle School Bathroom by Kathleen Cushman and Laura Rogers

Real Queer America by Samantha Allen

Wired for Love by Stephanie Cacioppo

The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg

Unraveled by Maxine Bedant

Poetry

The Tiny Journalist by Naomi Shihab Nye

Fiction

Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by You Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang

The New Life by Tom Crewe

SciFi / Fantasy

Traveling with the Dead by Barbara Hambly

Hard To Be a God by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

The Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

Translation State by Ann Leckie

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske

Childrens / YA

Midnight is a Place by Joan Aiken

Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

I Like Me Better by Robby Webber

Romance

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

The League of Gentlewomen Witches by India Holton

The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles

How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole

The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert

The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian

The Soldier's Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian

The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews

The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews

The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett

Pack of Lies by Charlie Adhara

A Thief in the Night by KJ Charles

Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian

A Duke in Disguise by Cat Sebastian

[thelistingteammiami]

Your Guide to Restoring a Storm-Damaged Home

While hurricane season lasts from June through November, severe weather can damage your home any time of the year. Having a restoration plan is essential when disaster strikes to ensure efficient repairs and get your house back to normal. What should be your course of action? What repairs can you do alone? Here are six steps to take when restoring a storm-damaged home. 

1. Review Your Insurance Policy

The first step should be reviewing your insurance policy. Home insurance will cover a fraction of the damage, and the policy will show what damage the company will pay for. While home insurance in Florida is the most expensive in America, having it is essential for post-storm repairs. Research shows Florida residents pay about $6,000 annually for home insurance — about four times more than average in America. 

After you review the policy, it’s time to document the storm damage in your home. Take as many pictures and videos as possible to ensure the insurance company gets a comprehensive view of what’s happening. Some insurance companies have applications letting you take photographs directly in the software, saving you time. Once the insurance company has pictures, the insurance adjuster can proceed with estimates.

While you can conduct the inspection yourself, remember to exercise caution when walking around a damaged home. The house could have loose roof shingles, broken glass, mold and other dangerous objects. Wear heavy-duty boots and personal protective equipment (PPE) like eye goggles and hard hats to protect your body from injuries.

2. Seek Emergency Assistance Programs

Repairing storm damage can be intimidating from a logistical and financial standpoint. However, you don’t have to tackle this problem alone. Florida and the federal government have resources to help those displaced by the storm and needing repairs. 

For example, the federal government has disaster relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). You can also find local resources, such as Red Cross shelters, emergency resource contacts and small business loans. FEMA’s current policy allows for a one-time $700 payment if you have Critical Needs Assistance. This program also brings fuel, water and food to those in need.

In Florida, you have a few opportunities for emergency assistance within the state. The Florida Department of Commerce disperses community development block grants for areas needing help after a storm. Apply for these state and federal grants to mitigate severe weather’s financial toll on your home. 

3. Complete Temporary Repairs

In some circumstances, your house may be uninhabitable as it stands. Waiting for the insurance company to send technicians is generally the best idea. However, you may need temporary repairs to ensure your safety. 

Stick to the smaller, more manageable tasks that don’t require expert knowledge. For example, let a licensed professional handle the electrical wiring so you avoid electrical shock and electrocution. The NIH says electrical injuries kill about 1,000 people annually, so leave it to the pros. 

More manageable post-storm home repairs include boarding up your windows, removing debris from your yard or stopping leaks. Leaky pipes are an easy fix, typically requiring hose clamps or slip-nut tightening. Plumber tape can be a suitable remedy if your home has older, worn pipes.

4. Restore the Floors

Some repairs may be more difficult than others. Still, they are necessary for stopping the damage in its tracks. The storm may have damaged your home with floodwaters, resulting in a damaged basement, garage or other flooring. If you have carpet or hardwood flooring, your home may be more susceptible to water damage due to the impact of floodwaters. For example, excess water causes distortion and warping in hardwood, making the floor buckle. 

While it may seem like a tall task, some remedies mitigate the damage. Your priority should be removing the standing water from your home and any objects the water damaged. Sump pumps effectively remove large amounts of standing water, whereas dry vacuums may suit smaller areas. After removing the water, take time to clean the floor because the water likely contains contaminants. Plus, you don’t want mold buildup afterward.  

5. Replace the Windows

The past few hurricane seasons have brought torrential storms and strong winds to Florida. In August, Hurricane Idalia brought winds eclipsing 125 miles per hour, knocking out windows, power lines and other essential infrastructure. You only need a Category 1 hurricane to see shattered windows, so Floridians must care for their windows with solid replacements. 

Installing hurricane windows is excellent if you want to repair your home now and protect it for the future. These fixtures are ideal for Florida residents because they better protect your home from strong winds than typical windows. 

When searching for hurricane windows, track their durability by looking at the design pressure (DP). A higher DP rating means they’re more resistant to hurricanes as they increase from one category to the next. For example, a DP rating of 50 protects against Category 5 hurricanes — torrential storms exceeding 157 mph winds. 

6. Track Your Expenses

When the insurance company sends licensed professionals, they’ll handle your most complex jobs. Once they’ve completed their work, homeowners must keep every receipt or invoice they get for these jobs. You may get physical documentation through paperwork, while some companies have gone completely digital to reduce the risk of losing receipts. This paperwork is essential for getting the correct reimbursement from your insurance company.

If you own rental properties, your financial documents will be even more critical once tax season arrives. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says you can deduct repairs on your tax return to lower your yearly taxable income. This policy is helpful during storm repairs because you’ll have peace of mind knowing your tax bill will be lower once it’s time to file. 

Restoring Florida Homes Back to New

Living in Florida brings warm weather year-round, making it an attractive place for many. However, residents of the Sunshine State face the reality of severe weather, especially during hurricane season. Torrential storms damage homes and force many to rely on their insurance providers for relief.

While some repairs are doable, waiting for the insurance company to send licensed professionals is best — even if it takes a few days or weeks. Until then, apply for emergency relief through the state and federal government.

[harvestingwholeness]

5/7/2023 - 8 days until I own my house on 4 acres! I couldn’t be more excited and nervous. I’ve created so many Pinterest boards, Amazon wishlists, and Home Depot shopping lists. I know what I want and I can’t wait to jump in. With so many projects to work on, my ADHD brain is going to have a blast.

Most of my efforts this year will be transforming the interior of the home. Though I also plan to bring ducks into the mix this summer!

I considered getting chickens but to be honest, I’ve got a lot of chicken trauma. I cared for my family chickens from age 6 when we brought home our first chicks. At the most we had over 30 chickens and they were my full responsibility. Every rooster we owned was so mean. Like, jump on my shoulders mean. I know with care you can foster a kind flock, I just know I’d go in scared. Ducks though, no claws, rounded beaks, cute quacks, waddling. I’ll go in with love and I think that’s what matters most. Plus, my favorite farm in Belize serves duck eggs so I will get to pretend I’m sitting in the outdoor lounge eating my breakfast sipping coffee and reminiscing my great Belizean adventures. Or, that’s what I hope for anyway, I will see what happens when reality strikes.

I used to travel every week for work, Monday through Thursday. I had the added benefit that instead of flying home on weekends, I could go anywhere as long as the flights were cheaper than going home. I live on the west coast and for a year and a half I was flying to Boston. So many places around the world were cheaper than going home. I traveled to Belize over 20 times and it’s my greatest love. I spent a little bit of time in Europe, but Central America is really where my heart feels at home. If climate change doesn’t destroy the region, I would love to retire in Belize. Gotta have dreams, right?

While I feel my frequent international trips are no longer my greatest priority, I still have high hopes of traveling to Africa in my future. Egypt, Rwanda, Kenya ahhh I want to go so badly. The only reason I didn’t go while I was traveling for work, is that it would take the whole weekend just to get there haha the furthest I traveled was Australia, but I took two weeks off to enjoy that time. That was my craziest adventure yet, someday I share about my stranded with no water camping alone on an island experience while going through antidepressant withdrawals because I lost my luggage. Good times.

This morning I was thinking a lot about who I was before my childhood trauma hit me hard. When I was about 7 years old, I suppressed my memories of abuse and they began returning about 6 years ago. Last year one of my cousins was on trial for what he did to two younger girls. He hurt me as well, but until the week of the trial my memories were too foggy to report. However during the trial I panicked thinking if I was asked on the stand if I was a victim of this cousin, I wanted to have a clear and confident answer. That’s when my childhood memories returned full swing. I know I still have a lot more suppressed, but I now remember so much more. It was about two weeks where my memories we’re constantly returning, like I was watching a movie of my life. It sent me into a dark spiral and I ended up in a partial hospitalization program to recover. Anyway, I was such a confident person before the memories came back and before the abuse got to be too much. I was a bold adventurer, defiant, so much more social, and even though I was riddled with blights of deep depression, I felt solid. All of the abuse I endured as a child warped me into who I am today. I don’t know if I’m proud or depressed about that, depends on the day.

I have so much more to write but I think I will end for the day.

- Hannah

[verxsyon]

VERAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! first of all. i missed u >:[ <3 second of all. ur cyno theme is so elegant and pretty and he is just so majestic 🥹🥲🥲 third of all. HONKAI STAR RAIL!!! i scrolled a little and oh my god ur pulls are looking SOO GOOD SJFKMSMF

BOO!!! first of all, I MISSED YOU TOO! second of all, tysm he’s my everything. third of all, my hsr pulls have been godly so far. got bbg #1 gepard from departure warp and he’s one of the characters i wanted so bad, won wifey #1 seele in 79 pulls, and bailu in 59 pulls on standard (tho not a priority, she’s a broken healer and i love using her on my team she’s so cute fndndjnd). i’m waiting for jing yuan to come home.

heard you’re in america server? i’ll dm you my uid 👀

[socialistsephardi]

I need people to understand the Holocaust revisionism started in the west immediately after WW2 because America needed the craft a narrative where they were the real good guys of WW2 and the saviors of ~le helpless juden~ in order to set the stage for early Cold War attitudes and doctrine AND also because warping the memory of the Holocaust almost immediately after it occurred was a priority for all the Nazi officers and Nazi officials the west reintegrated into West German society and into key positions in NATO and all the fucking Nazi scientists America integrated into the domestic scientific pool.

[midnight-marvel616]

[SPOILERS] My Version of “Multiverse of Madness”

Sooo, I didn’t really like Doctor Strange: MoM. I think it had a lot of great elements but ultimately mismanaged its characters and story. So, for my own mental health, I want to try to put together the beats of what my version of Multiverse of Madness looks like! My priorities with this are to better allow the characters the opportunity to have their convictions challenged and to allow the multiversal sub-plot to have more immediate relevance to the MCU while preserving as much of the original movie as possible.

Opening Images: Marvel Studios logo sequence plays but with a slightly altered introduction song that feels familiar to the one we know but shifted into a different key

Opening Scene: Screen cuts to black. A mysterious girl’s voice echoes through the darkness. “Strange. Strange,” she calls “Strange, get up!” Cut to a close up of Doctor Strange’s face as his eyes shoot open while gasping for air. The mysterious girl, dressed in red, white, and blue, approaches Dr. Strange, lying dazed on the ground, and shakes him awake. “We have to keep going, she’s coming!” Doctor Strange stands and continues to flee with the girl. As they run, the walls and floor of the temple around them begin to warp and shatter (as if in the mirror dimension) as red and black smoke surrounds from behind. Strange, dressed differently than we’ve seen him before, urges the girl to use her powers. “ I can’t! I don’t know how!” she exclaims. Strange suddenly stops in his tracks. “What are you doing?!” the girl screams. Strange turns to look at her, “I’m sorry America. I hope the next is better.” Strange rears his arm back and thrusts his palm into America Chavez’s chest as if to summon her astral form. In doing so, America’s powers activate and a large star-shaped portal opens behind her. Strange pushes America’s body through the portal, but just as she falls through a dark silhouette emerges from the smoke, with a blinding red light behind it. Strange is suddenly surrounded by a twisting red aura. Cut to a close up of Strange’s face as he screams out in pain.

Just a Dream: Screen cuts to Doctor Strange as he jolts out of bed in a panic. Strange, still catching his breath, turns to his phone which has a new message from Christine Palmer that reads “Thank you for coming <3.” Strange sighs to himself before getting out of bed. While dressing into a suit, Strange peers out the window of the Sanctum Santorum to look onto the streets below while the sound of church bells can be heard in the distance. Cut to the interior of a church as Strange makes his way through the crowd to find his seat. Strange sits down to realize Nic West, his former colleague at Metro-General Hospital, is sat next to him. The two make awkward conversation where West reveals that during the blip he became the new head of neuro-surgery. Strange congratulates West on his accomplishment but West responds distantly in thought, “You know Stephen? After everything that’s happened, after Thanos, I found myself asking what’s the point? When some mad, purple, alien can just snap away half of all life what control do I really have over my own life? Even the great Stephen Strange must feel his own limits too?” Cut to Strange with a perplexed and thoughtfully concerned look on his face. Wedding music plays. Everyone looks down the isle to see Christine Palmer in full gown. Stephen smiles. Cut to a conversation between Christine and Strange after the ceremony, where Christine once again thanks Stephen for coming. She looks down and grabs Stephen’s hand, turning it to look at his cracked watch. “You still have this old thing?” she asks. Stephen smiles, “It’s a reminder of what I’m protecting.” Suddenly, screams and car crashes can be heard in the distance. Cut to Strange and the rest of the wedding party rushing towards a nearby balcony. As Strange looks down onto the streets he sees vehicles being thrown around by a mysterious invisible force. Casting a spell, Strange reveals the force to be a massive demonic creature, bound in runes, which seems to be attacking a panicked America Chavez. Stephen, now in his traditional sorcerer's outfit, uses his magic to combat the creature and save America Chavez. Wong soon appears from a portal to assist Strange’s defense. Eventually, the two defeat the demon and focus on America as she attempts to flee. Strange casts his Cloak of Levitation to intercept America while he and Wong open a portal to close into her. “Do I know you?” Strange asks. “You don’t, but we’re good friends. My name is America Chavez” America responds. “Why was that monster attacking you?” questions Strange accusatorily. “I can explain back at the Sanctum, we’re safer there.” America answers. Strange and Wong look at each other perplexed.

From Westview to Witch: Cut to inside of the Sanctum Santorum where Strange and Wong order nearby masters to take America to a room until they can question her. America attempts to protest and insists that she’s here to warn him but she is cut off as she is ushered into another room. Strange and Wong both begin to question to each other. “Have you seen such a creature before?” Wong asks Strange. “No, but did you notice...” Strange begins as Wong interjects, “The runes.” “This is not sorcery then,” Wong suspects. “Witchcraft,” says Stephen. “Do you know of anybody who might be able to help?” Wong asks. “I do,” Strange responds. Cue WandaVision musical rift. Cut to Wanda Maximoff as she is tending to an orchard of blossoming apple trees. Wanda looks peaceful in her task until she stops and looks into the distance. “I know you’re here Mr. Strange,” Wanda speaks. “Doctor actually,” Stephen responds. “Then what do I owe for the visit of the great Doctor Strange?” Wanda jests inquisitively, “If you’re here about Westview I’m sorry. I was a bit lost, but I’ve set everything right now.” “Everything was put back in order, you’ve righted your wrongs. I’m not here about Westview,” Strange replies. Wanda, with an investigative look on her face, looks directly at Strange now. “I’ve run into a little bit of trouble and I could use an Avenger right about now,” says Stephen. “There are plenty of other Avengers that could help,” Wanda responds. “Not one as powerful a witch as you Wanda,” Stephen says. Wanda takes on a slightly defensive stance and once again focuses her attention on Strange. “We’ve had a bit of an incident which could use your expertise. Young girl was attacked by an invisible demon covered in dark runes, you know, the typical stuff.” Strange explains. “I’m sorry Stephen, but I’m done with the hero stuff. I think I deserve a little peace out here with my trees.” Wanda apologizes as she resumes to prune her trees. “For now we’re keeping the girl at Kamar-Taj but in the case of another attack we could really use your help.” Strange persists. “Like I said, I’m out. I’m sorry. I hope America stays safe though.” Wanda defends. Stephen turns to look at Wanda and stares. “You never mentioned her name, did you?” Wanda asks defeatedly. “No I didn’t,” Stephen firmly states. Wanda waves her hand and undoes the surrounding illusion, which reveals her Scarlet Witch outfit and an orchard of dying trees. “You sent the demon. What do you want from her?” Stephen questions. “That girl has more power than you could ever imagine Stephen. She has the ability to travel across the multiverse at will.” Wanda explains. “The multiverse? Wanda, the multiverse is a wildly dangerous force which we know frighteningly little about!” Stephen exclaims. “Somewhere out there, in a sea of infinite realities, is everything I’ve ever lost. My brother, my husband... my children.” Wanda trails off. “Wanda,” Strange interjects, “your brother and Vision are dead. And your children...” “Stop.” Wanda forcibly ejects. “Your children aren’t real,” Stephen persists. “They are! They were... Somewhere out there they still are. All of them.” Wanda explains, “Give me the girl. Let me use her power to find my family and you will never hear from me or see me again.” “Wanda, I can’t let you do that. Not only are talking about hurting an innocent person but you’re attempting to mess with powers that we know almost nothing about,” Stephen says. “And what about you?” Wanda questions, “What about when you let Thanos snap away half of all reality? When you let him kill Vision?” “That’s not fair. It was the only way.” Stephen attempts to defend. “Hmm.. it seems that when you break the rules, you become a hero. When I do it, I’m the enemy. That doesn’t seem fair.” Wanda responds. Stephen opens a portal to Kamar-Taj, “I’m going to stop you,” he warns. “You can certainly try, Doctor Strange.” Wanda responds. Stephen steps through the portal to Kamar-Taj leaving Wanda behind.

The Last Stand at Kamar-Taj: Upon returning to Kamar-Taj, Stephen tells Wong to grab the girl and to summon all of the Masters. Gathered within the center of Kamar-Taj, all of the Master Sorcerers, Strange, Wong, and America all gather to discuss the incoming threat. “We’ve got a big threat coming our way,” Strange begins. “The Scarlet Witch...” America interjects. “Who seems to know quite a bit about you.” Strange responds. “The Scarlet Witch?!” Wong interrupts, “Strange, the Scarlet Witch is an ancient prophesized force said to have been created by the first demon Chthon, meant to channel the powers of his magic. If Wanda Maximoff truly is the Scarlet Witch then we are all in far more danger that we expected.” Strange turns to America, “Tell us what you know,” he says. “I tried to tell you earlier but you wouldn’t listen. No matter which you you are, you’re always so stubborn!” America pushes back. “What do you mean, we’ve never met.” Strange responds. “Yes we have,” America pushes back “at least a dozen times. Wanda has been hunting me down across the multiverse. And you, or at least the other yous, have always tried to help me stop her...” America trails off, “But she always finds us. And you always die.” “My dreams...” Stephen utters to himself. “Yeah, dreams give you a glance into the lives of you from other realities. Those were all Stephen Stranges, all of whom died trying to protect me...” America explains. “What do you mean Wanda has been hunting you? Can she travel through the multiverse too?” Wong asks. “No,” America responds, “the Scarlet Witch is known as a nexus being. A being that is the same no matter what reality she is in. In every reality Wanda lost her family and in every reality she’s tried to hunt me to use my powers to find them. She’s been using a book called the Darkhold...” “The Darkhold! But that book was said to be a fable,” Wong interrupts. “It isn’t,” America explains, “and the Scarlet Witch is somehow using it to commune with herself from other realities. An infinite number of her all joined under a single mind.” “As Sorcerer Supreme,” Wong proclaims, “It is my sacred duty to protect all who seek refuge within the walls of Kamar-Taj. Masters, rally your students. Kamar-Taj is must now become of fortress.” Students and Masters alike all take arms and behind conjuring a series of enchantments to defend Kamar-Taj from Wanda Maximoff’s eventual assault. Soon, a massive looming dark cloud, made of red and black some, appears over Kamar-Taj casting it into a dark shadow. From the smoke, a silhouette revealed to be Wanda Maximoff appears. Doctor Strange flies up to meet her above the temple. Wanda offers Strange one final chance to turn over America Chavez. Strange refuses, “Wanda, the Darkhold has taken over you. It’s using you!” Wanda dismisses Strange and tells him it is his fault for what is to come. As a small army of sorcerers begin to cast their protection spells, the Scarlet Witch flies around Kamar-Taj attempting to look for an opening. She eventually locks her attention onto a young student who is trembling in fear. Cut to the visage of Wanda Maximoff appearing behind the student and whispering the word “run” into his ear. The student soon breaks his protection spell and flees in fear from Wanda, while knocking into other sorcerers along the way. Having found her opening, Wanda begins her assault on Kamar-Taj killing anybody she believes is in her way. After an unsuccessful defense from Wong, Strange, and their fellow sorcerers, Strange urges America to open a portal to another dimension. “I can’t, I don’t know how!” she responds. Strange then rears back his arm and thrusts his palm into America’s chest, as if to summon her astral form. In doing so, a large star shaped portal opens behind America. Just as Wanda is about to capture Strange, in yet another reality, Wong jumps in and saves Strange and America both. With what little time they have, Strange grabs America and jumps into the portal. Soon, the two are thrust through a variety of realities of varying styles until finally landing into a new reality all together.

Another Reality: As Strange and America recover from their teleportation, they both look around to see a version of New York City that, while familiar, is clearly altered. Strange urges that the two must find their way to the Sanctum Santorum so that they can make a plan. Upon arriving to the Sanctum, the two are faced with a memorial statue to Doctor Strange who, according to the statue’s plaque, died in the fight against Thanos. The doors to the Sanctum then open, where Karl Mordo emerges. Mordo, seriously then warmly, embraces Stephen and tells him “It’s about time.” Mordo explains that before his Stephen’s passing, he expected that another version of himself and a young girl would appear in search of help. Mordo insists, however, that they may not find help in the Sanctum but somewhere else. Mordo then opens a portal and ushers Strange and America through. Cut to a large sprawling temple, fitted with futuristing looking technologies and filled with a variety of humans, non-human creatures, and Ultron drones. Mordo summons a nearby doctor and two Ultron drones to escort America to the medical station where she may checked out by doctors. After a brief protest by America, Stephen reassures her that it’s okay. As America is ushered away, Mordo leads him into a large chamber where he introduces Stephen to the Illuminati which is comprised of: Black Bolt, Namor, Riri Williams, Reed Richards, and Charles Xavier. The members of the Illuminati begin to explain to Stephen the truth of what happened to their reality’s Doctor Strange. They explain that their Wanda Maximoff began hunting Stephen in search of a girl, but when their Strange revealed he had no knowledge of the supposed girl Wanda began to attack. The Illuminati further explains that their Stephen stole the Darkhold from Wanda and used its powers to defeat and kill her. But Stephen had taken it too far and the Darkhold’s influence had eventually gotten to him. Deciding that their Stephen was capable of causing too much damage, the Illuminati killed Strange and fabricated a lie so that the people could still have their hero. Our Doctor Strange begins to persist that the Illuminati must do something about “his” Wanda who is on her way. The Illuminati downplays Strange’s concerns stating that their Wanda was already dead but that the greatest danger to their reality, or any reality, was actually Strange himself. Suddenly an explosive sound is heard from outside of the chamber; the members of the Illuminati, excluding Charles Xavier, rush to stop the threat. Before them stands the zombified corpse of Wanda Maximoff demanding that they turn over America Chavez. Swiftly and horrifically, Wanda dispatches and kills each of the members of the Illuminati as she makes her way to the chamber. Charles Xavier urges Strange to go save America Chavez and to find a way to stop her in all realities. As Strange makes his exit, Wanda enters. Xavier attempts to psychically control Wanda for as long as he can until she eventually overpowers Xavier and kills him. Cut to Strange who swiftly dispatches the surrounding Ultron drone guards and rescues America from captivity. Strange turns to America and pleads, “Maximoff is on her way. Surely there is some way we can stop her, but not just in this reality or mine but in all of them.” “One of the othe yous mentioned a book of light that could counter the Darkhold,” America answers. “The Book of Vishantii...” Stephen exclaims, “but that is supposed to be a myth.” “That’s what you said about the Darkhold.” says America. Cut to the original reality where Wanda has Wong captured. After struggling to maintain her control within the other dimension, stating that existing as a corpse has its limitations, she tortures Wong. The Scarlet Witch laments that there must be somewhere where she can extend her control. “And surely the Sorcerer Supreme must know where...” she jests at Wong while still torturing him. Wong eventually gives into the pain, “Wundagor Mountain... The tomb of Chthon... Where the Darkhold was transcribed.” Wong reveals that Wundagor Mountain is the source of the Darkhold’s origin and that that is where the demon’s power was greatest. Wanda opens a portal and transports herself and Wong to Wundagor Mountain. Looking around Chthon’s tomb, Wanda notices a series of dark runes and spells carved within the walls. But her attention is suddenly turned towards a figure with a striking resemblance to herself. Wanda realizes what the true purpose of the tomb is, “This isn’t a tomb... it’s a temple.”

A Sorcerer and a Witch: Cut back to Strange and America in the other reality. America attempts to explain that the “other Strange” believed that the Book of Vishantii was an antithesis to counteract Chthon’s dark magic and the prophecy of the Scarlet Witch. Strange theorizes that the Book of Vishantii does not exist in every reality but instead is hidden inside one reality destined to be used by a sorcerer to counteract the Scarlet Witch’s reach within the multiverse. Strange urges America to open a portal, but America protests claiming, once again, that she cannot control her abilities. America explains that her powers first activated when she was a child; she had slipped off a cliff while playing and opened a portal out of fear never to see her family again. Eventually, she explains, she ended up on the doorstep of a version of Doctor Strange who gave her a home until the first Scarlet Witch attempted to steal her power. Suddenly the possessed corpse of Wanda Maximoff bursts into the room demanding that Strange hand over America. Strange urges America once more, “Kid, you can do this! I’ve seen you punch your way through the multiverse like it was nothing! You’ve escaped the power of the Darkhold over and over again! Feel its magic, the dark and horrible nightmares it creates and find the one place in all of reality that feels like hope!” America closes her eyes and yells as she punches into the air, summoning a massive star-shaped portal. Strange and America jump through, leaving the zombified witch behind. The two find themselves at a temple that is vaguely reminiscent of Wundagor Mountain but instead of dark runes there are wards of protection and instead of a statue of the Scarlet Witch there is a statue of a large bearded sorcerer in its place. Stephen takes his place on the alter in the middle of the temple and begins to incant the spells etched into the walls. Before him, the Book of Vishantii appears glowing a soft white light. As Stephen opens the book, his eyes glow and turn white. Camera cut to a split shot of Wanda and Strange within their mirroring realities, each equipped with their ancient tomes of magic, facing each other. Wanda calls out to Strange with a twisted, deepened, and demonic voice, “You must be Vishantii’s avatar... Stephen Strange. We have killed many of you already.” “What are you and what have you done to Wanda?!” Strange pleads. “The Scarlet Witch has long been my avatar. Over the last billion years I have whispered into the ears of young witches who would all become my champion. But this vessel, motivated by grief, by pain, by loss has been more open to receive my powers than any before her. And her reach does not end in this reality alone for she is a nexus of all being. Through her, my influence may reach into all of reality.” the possessed Wanda explains. “Not as long as there is a Doctor Stephen Strange to stand in your way! I have faced dark lords and mad titans! I have seen through my own demise to devise a plan to bring half of all existence back into the world! I was once the Sorcerer Supreme, the greatest of all sorcerers! I will stop you!” Strange refutes, “America, now!” America Chavez then opens a portal between the possessed Wanda and Doctor Strange who commence an epic battle. The two unleash a litany of powerful magics in each other's direction. As Chthon/Wanda begins to overwhelm Strange, America Chavez yells towards them, “Hey! All this was for your family right?! If that’s what you want, then here they are! Take what you want!” America then opens another portal into the living room of a simple suburban home where a young Billy and Tommy scream in horror of the demonic witch in front of them. Wanda, briefly, takes control of her body once more and confronts her children who plead for their lives. “I’m not a monster! I would never hurt...” she trails off, “I’m so sorry...” As the portal begins to close, Wanda turns towards Strange and America and begs for forgiveness. “I can make this right! I can do better...” “Wanda, let me help you! With the Book of Vishantii I can...” Strange attempts to plea. “No! There are an infinite of me but only one of you Doctor Stephen Strange. Every version of myself made the same mistakes, so it is our burden bare.” Wanda defends. Wanda, struggling for control of her body, reaches towards the Darkhold. Grabbing the ancient tome, Wanda screams as she sets the book ablaze. Cut to Wanda, split amongst infinite realties, all screaming in pain as Wanda struggles to whisper one final sentence, “No more magic...” before both her and the Darkhold disappear in a red mist. Cut to Stephen in shock as he looks at his hands which begin to tremble.

Finale: Cut to Kamar-Taj where Doctor Strange is seen meeting with Wong and the other Masters. There is a solemn atmosphere in the air. Wong breaks the straining silence in the air, “Whatever she did, we will figure out a wa...” “No,” Strange interrupts, “there is no coming back from this. We lost. There is nothing left.” Strange clasps his shaking hands. From the corner of the room, America Chavez approaches and places her hands on Stephen’s, “Maybe not in this dimension. Luckily, we’ve got a few others to choose from.” America raises up one of her hands and closes it into a fist. Cut to mid-credits.

Post Credit 1: Cut to a simple shot in central park as people run/bike/play. Camera pans to a specific point within the park and zooms in as the background fades out of focus. A purple crack begins to form in the space seen. Cut to final credits.

Post Credit 2: Cut to Edwards Air Base S.W.O.R.D. facility. Cut to the shoulder of a person wearing a lab-coat walking through the facility as they mention a launch schedule. A woman, most likely an assistant, approaches the man, “Dr. Richards, your wife is on the phone for you.”

[nyxetoile]

BLACK WIDOW SPOILERS

Nyx! First off, the MOMENT i saw the pigs I thought about Amanda’s serum guinnea pigs 😂

Second, I would like to know your opinion on the two fake parents, specifically the fact that they were forgiven by Nat and Yelena. I know I’m reading a lot of my own abuse in them, but I’m finding that other people agree on the both of them being manipulative, without remorse and basically irredeemable. I hate the fact that they were forgiven, especially since the plot is to destroy the red room, only for the sisters to turn around and forgive the ones who sent them there 🤷🏻‍♀️ it’s the only thing I dislike about an otherwise excellent movie. What do you think about it?

I will say first off, that I really wish we'd had more time to spend on the girls' relationship with the Melina and Alexei to really dig into some of this. But I did not have a problem with the forgiveness or the redemption, despite my own history of abuse. Because I think, in their own ways, Melina and Alexei were also abused/manipulated.

This got really long so, more under the cut.

Melina specifically says, when they're bugging out of Ohio, that she doesn't want to go. I think those three years being a family were probably the best years of their lives too. They did clearly care about the girls and in many ways raised them. Melina kept the photo album and Alexei has a tattoo of two roses with Natasha and Yelena's names under them.

The did not send the girls to the Red Room, the girls were in the Room before, that's why they were put in as spies. Nat tries to protect Yelena saying "she's only six" and Alexei says "You were younger" (This also means Yelena was 3 when the Ohio job started) These girls are clearly taken by Dreykov as toddlers to start training. Nat knows how to fly a plane and disarm a guard at ten. One could argue, I suppose, that they should have tried to prevent the girls from going back in, by Melina was on a stretcher bleeding out and Alexei was clearly drinking the Soviet Kool Aid at that time. Even if he'd tried, he probably just would have been killed and maybe gotten the rest of them killed too.

So let's dig into what they know about the "parents." Alexei seems to have been, essentially, a patriotic Russian, who was disillusioned and fell out of favor and then sent to a gulag. He was experimented on and became a super soldier, so there is an obvious Steve Rogers parallel to be made. Westerners probably balk at the idea of comparing a Soviet to Captain America but hey, it was his country and he was being told this was how it would be saved and become a global super power. Maybe he's a little gullible. Maybe he was grateful for becoming a super soldier. He sees his youth as his glory days and is striving to be good enough to have them again. I think, when he refers to their time as a family as boring, it's because he's had to diminish it in his mind as a protection. If he remembers it fondly, as a time in his life he was happy, then he can't be satisfied with the other parts of his life. He defines himself as the Soviet SuperSolider and acknowledging that being a suburban dad was better than that is destabilizing.

When he sees the girls, he immediately slips into Dad mode, even if they don't really want him to. He tries to give them multiple pep talks and tell them stories, but they're all colored by the life he lived. A life that was filled with violence and following the party line else he gets sent to prison, which he eventually was. Basically, it boils down to, I think Alexei wanted to be/thought he was a good loving dad, he's just sort of bad at it. Because his morals and priorities have been warped by a very strong propaganda machine, both from the Soviets, and Dreykov, but also his own mind. He remembers Yelena's favorite song, 20 years later, enough to sing it with her. (A song with the word America in it!) How many times did he hum that to himself in prison, and think about the glimpse of a normal life he had?

Melina is both trickier and more straight forward. She's a Black Widow, from a very, very young age, like Nat. She tells her she'd done 4 rounds in the Red Room before Nat was even born. God knows how many different kinds of programming and re-programming she's had. Her and Bucky could probably trade stories. (And you have to wonder, why 4? Did she rebel a few times and need some refreshers?) She's also clearly a brilliant scientist. So eventually she learned to behave, do what she's told and maybe she'll get a smidgeon of freedom, a moment of peace. That's like, the definition of an abuse victim. Like she says, she was born in a cage and never saw a way out. She's a direct parallel/shadow to Nat. She's what Nat would have been if she hadn't met Clint and gotten out. A brilliant woman ground under the heel of an abuser until it was too late to see any other way. And the instant she learns that what she taught Nat mattered, that she had some small part in Nat being able to escape and have a life, she turns on the Red Room and risks her life to take it down.

At its core, Black Widow is about abuse victims - in different stages of abuse/recovery - taking down their abuser with extreme prejudice. Nat is out of the abuse, she's recovered, she's created a life and friends/family away from it, but is willing to put herself at risk to prevent him from hurting others. Yelena is newly out, just learning what that means and very much at risk of falling back in. Alexei had been abandoned by his abuser and is still so much under his sway he wants back in, because it's safe and familiar, but when the girls offer him a better way he takes it, for the chance to be free for good. Melina, Taskmaster, and all the current Widows are still in the abusers control, too afraid or institutionalized, or just plain tired, to fight back. In the end it takes all of them, in big and small ways, to burn Dreykov alive in a crashing helicopter. And that's really beautiful

[phroyd]

I’m not going to pretend that I know how to interpret the jobs and inflation data of the past few months. My view is that this is still an economy warped by the pandemic, and that the dynamics are so strange and so unstable that it will be some time before we know its true state. But the reaction to the early numbers and anecdotes has revealed something deeper and more constant in our politics.

The American economy runs on poverty, or at least the constant threat of it. Americans like their goods cheap and their services plentiful and the two of them, together, require a sprawling labor force willing to work tough jobs at crummy wages. On the right, the barest glimmer of worker power is treated as a policy emergency, and the whip of poverty, not the lure of higher wages, is the appropriate response.Reports that low-wage employers were having trouble filling open jobs sent Republican policymakers into a tizzy and led at least 25 Republican governors — and one Democratic governor — to announce plans to cut off expanded unemployment benefits early. Chipotle said that it would increase prices by about 4 percent to cover the cost of higher wages, prompting the National Republican Congressional Committee to issue a blistering response: “Democrats’ socialist stimulus bill caused a labor shortage, and now burrito lovers everywhere are footing the bill.” The Trumpist outlet The Federalist complained, “Restaurants have had to bribe current and prospective workers with fatter paychecks to lure them off their backsides and back to work.”But it’s not just the right. The financial press, the cable news squawkers and even many on the center-left greet news of labor shortages and price increases with an alarm they rarely bring to the ongoing agonies of poverty or low-wage toil.

As it happened, just as I was watching Republican governors try to immiserate low-wage workers who weren’t yet jumping at the chance to return to poorly ventilated kitchens for $9 an hour, I was sent “A Guaranteed Income for the 21st Century,” a plan that seeks to make poverty a thing of the past. The proposal, developed by Naomi Zewde, Kyle Strickland, Kelly Capatosto, Ari Glogower and Darrick Hamilton for the New School’s Institute on Race and Political Economy, would guarantee a $12,500 annual income for every adult and a $4,500 allowance for every child. It’s what wonks call a “negative income tax” plan — unlike a universal basic income, it phases out as households rise into the middle class.

“With poverty, to address it, you just eliminate it,” Hamilton told me. “You give people enough resources so they’re not poor.” Simple, but not cheap. The team estimates that its proposal would cost $876 billion annually. To give a sense of scale, total federal spending in 2019 was about $4.4 trillion, with $1 trillion of that financing Social Security payments and another $1.1 trillion support Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Beyond writing that the plan “would require new sources of revenue, additional borrowing or trade-offs with other government funding priorities,” Hamilton and his co-authors don’t say how they’d pay for it, and in our conversation, Hamilton was cagey. “There are many ways in which it can be paid for and deficit spending itself is not bad unless there are certain conditions,” he said. I’m less blasé about financing a program that would increase federal spending by almost 20 percent, but at the same time, it’s clearly possible. Even if the entire thing was funded by taxes, it would only bring America’s tax burden to roughly the average of our peer nations.

I suspect the real political problem for a guaranteed income isn’t the costs, but the benefits. A policy like this would give workers the power to make real choices. They could say no to a job they didn’t want, or quit one that exploited them. They could, and would, demand better wages, or take time off to attend school or simply to rest. When we spoke, Hamilton tried to sell it to me as a truer form of capitalism. “People can’t reap the returns of their effort without some baseline level of resources,” he said. “If you lack basic necessities with regards to economic well-being, you have no agency. You’re dictated to by others or live in a miserable state.”

But those in the economy with the power to do the dictating profit from the desperation of low-wage workers. One man’s misery is another man’s quick and affordable at-home lunch delivery. “It is a fact that when we pay workers less and don’t have social insurance programs that, say, cover Uber and Lyft drivers, we are able to consume goods and services at lower prices,” Hilary Hoynes, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, where she also co-directs the Opportunity Lab, told me.

This is the conversation about poverty that we don’t like to have: We discuss the poor as a pity or a blight, but we rarely admit that America’s high rate of poverty is a policy choice, and there are reasons we choose it over and over again. We typically frame those reasons as questions of fairness (“Why should I have to pay for someone else’s laziness?”) or tough-minded paternalism (“Work is good for people, and if they can live on the dole, they would”). But there’s more to it than that.

It is true, of course, that some might use a guaranteed income to play video games or melt into Netflix. But why are they the center of this conversation? We know full well that America is full of hardworking people who are kept poor by very low wages and harsh circumstance. We know many who want a job can’t find one, and many of the jobs people can find are cruel in ways that would appall anyone sitting comfortably behind a desk. We know the absence of child care and affordable housing and decent public transit makes work, to say nothing of advancement, impossible for many. We know people lose jobs they value because of mental illness or physical disability or other factors beyond their control. We are not so naïve as to believe near-poverty and joblessness to be a comfortable condition or an attractive choice.

Most Americans don’t think of themselves as benefiting from the poverty of others, and I don’t think objections to a guaranteed income would manifest as arguments in favor of impoverishment. Instead, we would see much of what we’re seeing now, only magnified: Fears of inflation, lectures about how the government is subsidizing indolence, paeans to the character-building qualities of low-wage labor, worries that the economy will be strangled by taxes or deficits, anger that Uber and Lyft rides have gotten more expensive, sympathy for the struggling employers who can’t fill open roles rather than for the workers who had good reason not to take those jobs. These would reflect not America’s love of poverty but opposition to the inconveniences that would accompany its elimination.

Nor would these costs be merely imagined. Inflation would be a real risk, as prices often rise when wages rise, and some small businesses would shutter if they had to pay their workers more. There are services many of us enjoy now that would become rarer or costlier if workers had more bargaining power. We’d see more investments in automation and possibly in outsourcing. The truth of our politics lies in the risks we refuse to accept, and it is rising worker power, not continued poverty, that we treat as intolerable. You can see it happening right now, driven by policies far smaller and with effects far more modest than a guaranteed income.

Hamilton, to his credit, was honest about these trade-offs. “Progressives don’t like to talk about this,” he told me. “They want this kumbaya moment. They want to say equity is great for everyone when it’s not. We need to shift our values. The capitalist class stands to lose from this policy, that’s unambiguous. They will have better resourced workers they can’t exploit through wages. Their consumer products and services would be more expensive.”

For the most part, America finds the money to pay for the things it values. In recent decades, and despite deep gridlock in Washington, we have spent trillions of dollars on wars in the Middle East and tax cuts for the wealthy. We have also spent trillions of dollars on health insurance subsidies and coronavirus relief. It is in our power to wipe out poverty. It simply isn’t among our priorities.

“Ultimately, it’s about us as a society saying these privileges and luxuries and comforts that folks in the middle class — or however we describe these economic classes — have, how much are they worth to us?” Jamila Michener, co-director of the Cornell Center for Health Equity, told me. “And are they worth certain levels of deprivation or suffering or even just inequality among people who are living often very different lives from us? That’s a question we often don’t even ask ourselves.”

But we should.

Phroyd

[nxrcissamxlfoy]

for the fic title summaries ❤️: ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE + hansy

All Downhill from Here | Harry x Pansy | Muggle AU

Summer. 2004. Vans Warped Tour.

They’d done it, they were in. Pansy and her band had earned a spot on one of the biggest rock tours in America and they couldn’t be more  ecstatic. Pansy had plans. First priority was networking; she needed to get to know as many people there as possible, befriend them, endear them to her in a way that she and her band would never have a problem getting studio time, or gigs, or merch ever again.

Second up was writing. She wanted at least half a dozen new songs by the end of the summer. Or, the bones of them anyway. There was going to be a lot of time spent on the road, crammed in the van with Daphne, Theo, and Tracey and she was determined to make the most of it.

And yeah, sure, okay, maybe she had some slightly less important ideas on possibly hooking up with a few hotties now and again, especially if they were on a bus with a shower. But she wasn’t going to get tied down, wasn’t going to get distracted or derailed from her summer of dreams. And she most certainly wasn’t going to fall for a tall, dark, and scruffy roadie with the most borning name she’d ever heard.

Send me a title + pairing and I’ll write a summary!

[popolitiko]

What If 2020 Was Just a Rehearsal?

American democracy is in the midst of a waking nightmare, says Rick Hasen. And Democrats aren’t taking it seriously enough.

By ZACK STANTON 09/26/2021

Rick Hasen isn't getting much sleep these days.

One of the nation’s foremost experts on the laws that hold together democracy in America, Hasen used to be concerned about highly speculative election “nightmare scenarios”: the electrical grid being hacked on Election Day, or the pandemic warping turnout, or absentee ballots totally overwhelming the postal service. But now, what keeps him up at night aren’t fanciful “what if” exercises: It’s what has actually happened over that past nine months, and how it could truly blow up in the next presidential election.

For the first time in American history, the losing candidate refused to concede the election — and rather than dismissing him as a sore loser, a startling number of Americans have followed Donald Trump down his conspiratorial rabbit hole. The safeguards that ensured he left office last January after losing the presidential election may be crumbling: The election officials who certified the counts may no longer be in place next time he falsely claims victory; if Republicans take Congress, a compliant Speaker could easily decide it’s simply not in his interest to let the party’s leader lose.

“You could look at 2020 as the nadir of American democratic processes, or you could look at it as a dress rehearsal,” says Hasen, a professor of law at UC Irvine.To understand this fragile moment for American democracy, you could take a 30,000-foot view of a nation at the doorstep of a constitutional crisis, as Robert Kagan recently did for the Washington Post. Or you could simply look around you at what’s happening at the ground level, in broad daylight, visible to the naked eye, as Hasen has been doing. As he sees it, it’s time for us all to wake up.“I feel like a climate scientist warning about the Earth going up another degree and a half,” Hasen told POLITICO Magazine in an interview this week. “The rhetoric is so overheated that I think it provides the basis for millions of people to accept an actual stolen election as payback for the falsely claimed earlier ‘stolen’ election. People are going to be more willing to cheat if they think they’ve been cheated out of their just desserts.”Hasen has ideas about how to preempt some of this — they range from the legal to the political, and are the subject of a major conference that took place Friday at the Fair Elections and Free Speech Center, which he co-directs at UC Irvine. But even as he and other elections experts warn of a three-alarm fire, he’s troubled that Democrats in Washington seem to lack the same sense of urgency and focus.

“I think this should be the number-one priority, and I thought that Democrats wasted months on the For the People Act,” he says. “The Democrats’ answer … is ‘Well, the Democrats just have to win elections.’ There needs to be a plan B to that.”

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/09/26/trump-politics-american-democracy-threat-2021-2022-analysis-514180?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[fangirl94stuff]

Asking Alexandria: Ben Bruce

BEN

On a rare day off from the studio, I'd agreed to drive my close friend y/n to an interview since they didn't have their own car. I sat in the car outside the office block smoking, feeling very out of place amongst the suits and money. My band Asking Alexandria was set to release our debut album, and we were excited to be spending the summer in America on Warped Tour to promote ourselves and hang out with other bands.

As soon as I finish the third cigarette and toss it out of the window I take note of y/n rushing out of the building shaking their head. They get in the passenger seat and bury their face in their hands.

'Oh my god!'

'What?' I ask, confused and concerned.

y/n sighs, 'I fucked up so hard Ben. I need to go home.'

I reach over and pat their knee, 'what happened?'

y/n takes their face out of their hands and turns to face me biting their lip, 'well you know how I can be awkward sometimes, well the interviewer tried making small talk and I froze. And then I put my foot in my mouth stating he was only interviewing me because he knew my parents.'

I struggle to keep myself from laughing, 'that's bloody brilliant y/n and it's not like you were lying.'

y/n cracks a small smile, 'I guess it is very me Ben. But my parents are going to kill me, they want me to get a job now high school is over.'

I shake my head, 'I love your parents but they shouldn't put pressure on you to get a job you clearly don't want. I don't see you as a nine to five workaholic.'

y/n tilts their head, 'what do you see me as then Ben?'

I scratch the back of my head, 'well I was talking to the guys and the label, and it won't be much money to start with, but you'll be able to travel the world and gain experience--'

'Spit it out Bruce,' y/n interjects cutting off my ramble.

'We want you to come on Warped Tour as our photographer. You'll hopefully meet other bands who might hire you in the future, but of course, Asking Alexandria is your number one priority.'

y/n stares at me with wide eyes. Art and photography was their passion in and out of school, getting high grades and even selling some of their work online. It would be tough, to begin with, but y/n had the drive to go all the way and we'd help them every step of the way.

'You know my parents will say no.'

I shrug my shoulders, 'you're eighteen and can make your own choices y/n. Do you want to be a slave to the man, or have the freedom to make your own rules and money?'

y/n grins, 'okay, you've convinced me, Bruce, tell the guys and the label I said yes, while I go home and deal with the parents.'

I turn on the car engine and drive away from the snobby office blocks, this summer was going to be one to remember.