#Asia Monroe

[marvul-imagines]

Chapter One

Everything was black. Asia barely remembered closing her eyes. And then suddenly, it wasn't. She let out a gasp, air flooding her lungs, eyes rapidly taking in her surroundings. Her notably different surroundings. Her eyes started darting about, taking in everything. The room was dark and there was a spotlight on one item ; a giant, sleet and red Monolith, not unlike the one which swallowed up Jemma only two years ago. Her heart started to beat quicker in her chest and she turned to look for Leo, to reach for his hand, and she met only empty air. "Where's Leo?" She asked, the words coming out hoarse, as if she had been coughing. "Where's Leo?" She repeated when no one replied, unsure if anyone had heard her.

But before anyone could answer, the grey rock slipped into liquid, rushing towards them. She tried to turn and run, to liquify herself and disappear into the air, but it was too late. The liquid rock coated her and everything, once again was black.

And then it wasn't.

Everything around her was slowed, like moving in molasses. She lifted up her hand, which was an effort in itself, to look at her fingers. They appeared to have small, crystalline structures forming around them and grey lines streaming off of her hand as she waved her hand back and forth in front of her. What the hell was going on? She turned slowly trying to get a visual on her surroundings, trying to pick up any queues on where the hell that outer space rock had sent her. Before she could make a full turn, she was moving at full speed once again. Like her feet landed on the ground as if she had been on the downturn of a jump the entire time.

She was standing in a dark room, grey walls and floor, dimly lit by a few floor lights. So she was somewhere with intelligent life. Because wherever the hell she was, at very least, it was inside. She brushed off her pants that seemed to have a weird, grey residue on them and looked around. Her eyes lit up when they landed on one thing familiar: "Daisy!"

The brunette looked up, wide eyed, and met her gaze. "Asia, thank fuck!" She said, running to her friend and wrapping her in a hug. "Where are we? What is going on here?" The unspoken question of why the hell is this always happening to us? floating in the air between them.

"I think...we're in space," Asia said slowly, gesturing behind her friend. There was a small window, just tiny enough to look out of, that showed out beyond the room they were in. Out into an inky black like none Asia had ever seen before. And it was pinged dots of light every now and then, milky and silver and beautiful. Stars. The things her father had spent her childhood teaching her so much about. A place she never thought she would see in real life, but here she was. This was Shield after all. It seemed more and more that nothing was outside the realm of possibility.

"And, Leo isn't here," Asia whispered quietly as Daisy's eyes flicked to meet hers. "He wasn't in the room with the Monolith. When it swallowed us. So we're separated...again." There was a deep, aching sorrow in her tone. It seemed that no matter where she went, no matter what she did, the universe seemed to find a way to keep them from each other. Once, long ago, Leo had mentioned as if it felt like they were cursed, and in moments like this...it felt like he was right.

"We'll find him, Asia," Daisy said quietly, taking her friend's hand and giving it a quick squeeze. "But first, let's find the others who are stuck here." She glanced around the room for a moment, before nodding towards a door. "Also, while we're looking...is it just me, or did that Monolith look different than the last one?"

"It did," Asia agreed. "It had those weird red cuts in it, three of them. And while we're in outer space, we're...definitely not on a planet. So they clearly don't all go to the same place. Which is interesting, and terrifying all at once. If there's another one out there, how many more are there, and where do they all go? And why weren't we all displaced into the same room?" She reached forward and opened the door for her friend.

Neither of them would have any time to answer the questions, for once the door was open they heard the shouting and gunshots. The two looked at each other, eyes widening, and without another thought or word they took off running. Down the hall and around the corner, closer and closer to the sound of gunshots and familiar voices. When they rounded another corner in the dimly lit, metal halls, they saw something terrifying. An...alien? of some sort. Grey and scaled, yet catlike in it's leaps and bounds. If it weren't for the odd lizard appearance, Asia could have seen it as a leopard. And beyond the running beast was their team, or at least those of them who had made the trip.

Without a second thought, the two Inhumans thrust out their hands. Asia froze the thing to the ground, and Daisy quaked it to bits, some body matter splattering against the sheet-grey walls. Their friends looked up, wide eyed, before relieved smiles crossed the faces of Coulson, Jemma, Mack, and Yoyo.

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"What if we're still in the Framework?" Yoyo asked, and the small group broke into a frenzy as panic coated Asia like sweat. They couldn't be. They couldn't. But that would make more sense as to why Leo wasn't here either. But they had killed Aida, Framework or not, so she couldn't have come back for him. She used this thought to rationalize the question for herself. It wasn't possible.

"We should focus on finding May," she spoke up, desperately trying to change the subject to something more barrable. "She was in the room with us when the Monolith sucked us all in, so she has to be here somewhere. We need to get to her before one of those aliens gets to her first."

"Monroe is right," Coulson said nodding. "We need to find May and get somewhere safe so we can figure out what the hell is going on here and where exactly here is. We should split up."

"Hell no, you did not just say we should split up," Mack said, crossing his arms over his chest. "We have to stick together. We don't even know what we're up against here. There were those people and now aliens too."

"It does cover the most ground," Daisy pointed out logistically. "If we want to find May, we need to be seeing as much as we can, and quickly." Asia nodded towards her friend, acknowledging her point. May was a badass, that was never in question. But aliens like that weren't exactly something you could go toe to toe with.

"Yea, yea, sure," Mack scoffed. "Clearly, none of you have watched enough movies. That's what the group always says before they get picked off, one by one. Which is exactly what will happen to us if we go through with this." He looked warily down the hall, as if he were expecting another creature to appear from thin air. For all they knew, they had the ability to do that.

Asia turned to Coulson before all of this got even further out of hand. "It's your call, Sir," she said calmly and evenly. He was, after all, without anyone even having to speak a word on it, back to being Director of Shield. If there even was a Shield to direct when they got back home.

So that was how they ended up all walking down the dimly lit halls together, V formation, with Asia and Daisy in the lead, hands already outstretched in preparation. Every sound caused the group to freeze, checking their surroundings, making sure no one and nothing was sneaking up on them in this foreign hallway. Foreign hallway in space with aliens. The thought still felt odd in all of their heads. So far, it had just been the settling of whatever this place was. It had to be a spaceship of some sort...right? Asia could wrap her head around no other way that the space outside the window would be so incredibly close.

When they reached a corner, Yoyo would dash down and scan the area, making sure that they weren't walking into a trap. After a while, they finally came across something. A flare, red, shining and fading in the hallway outside of a single door. With a nod, Mack kicked the door down and they all pushed in. The room was empty, except for several dead bodies and a trail of blood on the floor.

"Look," Daisy said, nodding towards a computer labeled 'Water acclimation.' She quickly moved towards it, tapping the English keyboard to life, the words in front of them also reading in the familiar language. "It looks like they're tracking debris fields, something they call 'frozen oceans,'" she said, a bit of a furrow in her brow.

"They're collecting water from ice in space," Jemma said suddenly as she looked over Daisy's shoulder. "There's people here. A colony," she turned to face Coulson, eyes wide.

"That means unless everyone on here came through the Monolith...we're close enough to Earth for anyone on this ship to travel here," Asia said quietly, staring down at the screen in front of them. They would know about a colony of humans in space, wouldn't they? Why were all these people up here to begin with?

"Just as importantly, it means if these individuals are collecting ice, then they have some sort of space shuttle," Jemma explained. "And if that's the case, then it would only be logical to assume they also have a laser based transmission system. If we can find that ship and fly above the debris fields..." She turned and looked at Asia, wondering if the brunette was catching on to what she was saying.

And she did. The brunette's eyes lit up. "Then we can send a message to Leo on Earth and let him know where we are." and that we're safe, she thought to herself. He would want to know they were okay, that they were all okay. And then, she wondered, not for the first time, why he wasn't brought with them to begin with.

"Sounds like the start of a great plan," Daisy said, continuing to click at the keys until suddenly a large, red box popped up before them. Human access denied. It read, followed by another line of text in a different language beneath it. Her brow furrowed and she turned to her team. "Coulson, Asia...either of you recognize this from one of those languages you seem to collect like trading cards?"

Both agents took a look and shook their heads. "That's...I don't think that's a human language," Asia said quietly, biting her lower lip. She recognized a lot of text, forms of text, and this didn't look remotely to resemble anything that humans had spoken or written over the last several hundred years.

"I think Monroe is right," Coulson nodded. "And I don't think people are the ones running this ship after all." As he spoke, there was a loud thudding on the door behind them, causing the entire team to spin around.

The door was thrust open and in walked three, heavily armed, Kree soldiers. One held up a large, blue, glowing gun which let a pulse echo throughout the room, knocking the group to the ground. Asia felt the impact as her body slumped downwards, her eyes starting to roll back into her head, black fading around her eyes like curtains closing on a stage.

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"Good morning, darling," a smooth, Scottish voice tickled at her ears as she stretched out her arms, waking up between cool sheets and a warm comforter, both crisp and white. The voice was like honey in her ears, warm and comforting. She rolled and opened her eyes to see Leo Fitz, standing beside her in a warm bedroom with light streaming in through the windows. He was leaning over her, one hand reaching to tuck a strand of hair back from her face.

"How long did I sleep?" She asked, voice still thick with tiredness. "I had the weirdest dream. There was another Monolith and I went to space. It was weird. You were gone from me again." She blinked, the image of him growing fuzzy before her. She sat up, blinking rapidly. "Leo?" She asked in a worried voice, as his face blipped in and out like a glitch on a screen.

"It's time to wake up, love. Your team needs you," he said, his voice cutting in and out as he spoke to her. She leaned towards him, reaching out, fingers stretching as far as they could as she called out his name again.

Then she opened her eyes, waking up for real this time, sheets replaced by smooth metal as she took in the prison cell that surrounded her.

[old-movie-stars]

Sophia Loren, Queen of Italian Cinema

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Australian box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri)

The Australian box jellyfish is found in the waters of northern Australia and Southeast Asia.

(Image credit: Brett Monroe Garner via Getty Images)

[cutiepieloves131]

Ashlesha Sun

Ashlesha Moon

Ashlesha Ascendant

1st Row (Left to Right): Marsai Martin, Halle Berry, Asia Monet Ray

2nd Row (Left to Right): Lana Del Ray, Brandy Norwood, Amanda Seyfried

3rd Row (Left to Right): Alexa Demie, Marilyn Monroe, Blake Lively

[trojanteapot]

Obligatory Infinity Train Fanfic Plug I Guess

I have some new followers since I posted about my Infinity Train cosplay process so I guess now's a good time to plug my boring overly-long fanfics that are mostly sad and stuff.

SHIPPING FICS

RYMIN:

Ain't No Cure For Love: Ryan and Min-Gi perform their first gig in Montreal. Min-Gi wants to confess his feelings. (First fic I ever wrote probably a bit rough now and the only fic without any sort of theme besides "love wins" i guess) It Can't Be Helped: Takes place in the mid-2000s when Ryan and Min-Gi's band have become quite successful and are touring East Asia. Ryan has some cultural identity issues to overcome at the age of like, 40-something. (This one is much much better than the first Rymin fic, and is about more than just shipping. I did a ton of research into Japanese-Canadians and Korean-Canadians for it as well! Shout-out to my partner for his huge role in shaping this fic as he is Japanese-Canadian himself.)

GRIMON:

Raison d'Etre (PART 1) (PART 2): Post-Canon AU where Simon survives the Train. Grace and Simon spend about 4 years apart from each other living their own lives on Earth, but one day Grace shows up randomly in Quebec to pay Simon a visit. Traumatic wounds get reopened, things get emotional, philosophical, maybe even a little... sociopolitical? Also interspersed between Grace and Simon's little dates are flashbacks to the Train that explain exactly how Simon managed to leave the Train in this AU.

I separated it into two halves because the second half contains smut. However, the second half kind of needs to be read for there to be a complete story. The smut is entirely skippable and doesn't contribute to the overarching plot so I do encourage you to read both halves.

(Also of note is that this takes place not in the "present" but in the past (2018), because I am An Old Person(TM) and so I made Grace and Simon millennials. And I also didn't want to write about the pandemic. It's not that noticeable and you can ignore that timeline fuckery if you want.)

True Love Waits: (VERY VERY CURSED) Sort of not a shipping fic? But Grace gets pregnant here and we all know who the father is! So Grace needs to leave the Train before the baby is born. Canon complacent so Simon is dead. (TW: other than pregnancy there's also thoughts of self-harm and mentions of abortion)

Leave It In My Dreams: Grace's sad nightmare in Alma Mater but from Simon's perspective.

Shame On You, Blue-Eyed Fox: Grace lets her guard down and harassed by a rookie cop. Simon finally makes himself useful for once in his entire life. (TW: real world racism obviously.)

GENERAL FICS

Alma Mater: Post-Canon. Tulip starts college, is very typically Tulip about it, but she befriends an older student named Grace Monroe who helps her through it. However, Tulip comes to learn that she and Grace have more in common than they realized at first. Also Jesse and Lake get thrown into the mix and drama ensues. (Mostly canon complacent except for 1. time period, and 2. Grace is from California, not DC, but her parents work in DC.)

Initial State: A side story to Raison d'Etre. After Simon realizes he's wrong he works with the Cat to bring his number down and leave the Train. But this isn't as easy as he thought especially when he meets a denizen he's recently met before, but never expected to meet again (becausehekilledherlol).

Semi-Automatic Lonely Boy: Prequel to Raison d'Etre. Just a series of vignettes of Simon's life after returning to Earth. (TW: depictions of self-harm) Other than It Can't Be Helped, this is the other fanfic that I am the most proud of so far. Literally went and relearned French to write some of the dialogue in this.

I'll Get It Right Sometime (ongoing): Four years after Book 3, Hazel and Amelia have a pretty decent life on the Train. But this peace is interrupted when Hazel meets a passenger and decides to help him through the Train. How can Amelia keep Hazel safe? Who is this passenger anyway? Why is the Cat so interested in interfering? Why is Simon somehow involved?! Why is JESSE somehow involved?!?!??! (Note: I think Hazel ages normally, so she's 10 years old in this one.) This is also my most ambitious fanfic yet. I have an Entire Homestuck Reference chapter, a Reddit chapter, and I plan to have several Discord chapters.

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

america has spent the last several decades with its focus on the middle east. i'm hoping in the coming years we see a shift in focus to the americas (north and south) and asia.

monroe doctrine 2.0

[trippinsorrows]

when you get this ask you have to answer with 5 of ur fav songs and then send this ask to 10 of ur favourite followers :)

ahhhh, this question is always so hard cause ya'll know i love music lmao

in no order:

'the blessing' by elevation worship

'over it' by anneliese van der pol

'selfish' by asia cruise

'the one you call' by keke palmer

'marilyn monroe' by nicki minaj

[christinasaintmarche]

Sitt'n Pretty by Christina Saint Marche Via Flickr: I dressed in this exquisite Pengnoir set which I had sketched and designed. I saw this copper colored silk fabric a year earlier in Asia and bought it without any idea what I would use it for. One day, months before my anniversary, I sketched this gown and long jacket. I then shipped it off to Trashy Lingerie in Los Angeles which is the "Home of what else? Trashy Lingerie!" They really know how to make a gown and have been around for many years. This is a snippet from the world famous Robin Leach: Told by none other than the expert of The Rich and Famous, Mr. Robin Leach of the television show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. ...Where would all of Hollywood's most beautiful women be without the help of Trashy Lingerie? Its owners, Mitchell and Tracy Shrier opened the doors to the tantalizing Tinseltown store almost 25 years ago! With only one store located on La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles, Trashy Lingerie has worldwide name recognition for providing their rich and famous clientele with only the highest quality of lingerie and clothing. "Our Fantasy is Fulfilling Yours" is their slogan, and let me assure you that is EXACTLY what they do. On any given day you may run into Madonna, picking up another one of her famous Bullet Corsets which Trashy specially designed for her. Or perhaps you might see Pamela Anderson Lee coming in for a fitting for another one of those super low V leather corsets like the one she wore in Barb Wire. Many of Hollywood's stars have come to learn that the "Sky's the Limit", when it comes to Trashy! You may start by looking at one of the over 8000 designs to choose from, all of which are designed by Mitch and his extraordinary design staff. Everything in the store is produced right on the premises. There are 30 seamstresses, handsewers and pattern makers, which makes it easy for them to custom fit all the very different bodies to their original designs. Dolly Parton takes advantage of this free custom tailoring to accommodate the part of her body which is well endowed! Now let's face it, not everybody is comfortable walking into a store which caters to intimate undergarments that spice up your life. Which is exactly the reason that Trashy is not open to the public. It's a private, members-only store. To become a member, you must fill out an application and pay your yearly dues of $5.00. You will then be handed a pink membership card, which entitles you to all of Trashy's privileges. (My card is # 000,001-- I'm proud to let you know that I am one of Trashy's original members. I filmed for Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous and Entertainment Tonight and Mitch and Tracy have become good personal friends.) Today there are over 250,000 members from all over the world. If you were allowed to glance through the many rolodexes surrounding the guarded entrance, you would come across the names of such members as: Cher, (we filmed her lingerie closet in Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous), Traci Lords, Winona Ryder, Roseanne, Elizabeth Berkley, Demi Moore, Christina Saint Marché, Brigette Nielson, Julia Roberts, Goldie Hawn, Sharon Stone, Heather Locklear, Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Gwenyth Paltrow and Brooke Shields, just to name a few. If love is blind, why is there lingerie..? Everyone knows that women are not the only ones who buy lingerie. Men like to look at the ladies!! Trashy Lingerie's experienced sales staff can help any man figure out what will look good on his wife, girlfriends or mistress. Just ask Rob Lowe or Robert Downey Jr. Tony Curtis loves to dress his Marilyn Monroe-look-alike girlfriend in Trashy clothes. Trashy typically will only make clothes and lingerie for women, but occasionally a movie studio or record label will persuade them to make an outfit for such stars as Elton John, Mickey Rourke or Dennis Rodman. (In Rodmans' case it was a two piece bikini, which ended up on the cover of Sports Magazine.) Most of you know that I have seen and filmed some of the most beautiful and tasteful array of clothing from the closets of the most rich and famous people in the world. This is why you can believe me when I give Trashy Lingerie my highest stamp of approval. Trashy is the first place winner of excellence in achievement for the highest quality of design and manufacturing for lingerie and clothing. Silk-stocking wishes and lace lingerie dreams, Robin Leach

[warsofasoiaf]

This is kind of a broad question, but what kind of foreign policy do you think the U.S. would have taken if it never entered the World Wars? Do you think it would have remained isolationist, or would it have involved itself more with the different countries in North and South America?

The issue with this question is not how broad it is but what the shape of the world looks like. While Nazi Germany cannot invade the United Kingdom, without Lend-Lease the Soviet Union will struggle immensely to actually achieve a breakthrough on the Eastern Front. I don't believe that the Soviet Union would actually collapse without even more lucky breaks for Hitler, the Eastern Front might devolve into a frozen conflict that eventually becomes a ceasefire that turns Eastern Europe into a hellscape of partisan activity and categorical extermination. That is a factor when it comes to seeing what the US would prosecute in the decades to come.

It's easy just to say - they enforce the Monroe Doctrine and reject any Soviet, German, Japanese, or British moves in the Western Hemisphere, but what does that mean for Africa or Asia? Particularly since by the time of the Second World War, Imperial Japan is going to come calling for the United States to challenge their naval dominance in the Pacific. So I don't see the isolationists winning out without a significant personality change for a lot of people involved. The First World War, possibly, the US maintains its status as an arms seller, but the Second? There's little chance of that.

Thanks for the question, Super.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[marvul-imagines]

Look at this amazing cover art by  @nataschalena2 😍

[mariacallous]

Every now and then, a narrowly framed news item offers up glimmers of pathways toward the possible resolution of much bigger problems. And so it was this week, with a New York Times story, briefly promoted with the red font label of “breaking news,” that heralded Mexico beating out China for the first time in two decades as the leading source of U.S. imports.

The long-term significance of this trade data may not be altogether obvious. And just how big a deal it could become will ultimately depend on concerted, long-term geopolitical strategy.

But Mexico’s fast-growing role as the chief U.S. trade partner could provide a treasure trove of solutions to some of the most difficult challenges facing the United States. These include successfully managing peaceful competition with China, defusing the political crisis surrounding immigration, and renewing America’s credentials as a positive-sum actor in the 21st century.

For a country that proclaimed virtual dominion over its hemisphere through the Monroe Doctrine, which dates to the first half of the 19th century, the United States has long been curiously indifferent to the economic well-being of the American world to its south. Putting the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement aside, one must go back to the Kennedy administration and its Cold War-driven Alliance for Progress to find a policy of engagement with Latin America with any real economic or political heft.

U.S. rivals have been far more strategic in linking their economic futures to neighboring regions. After experimenting with new models of globalization in Africa, in which it built infrastructure on a large scale, beginning in the 1990s, China followed up early in the last decade with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Many Western commentators were alarmed and befuddled by China’s grand entry into an Africa that they had long taken for granted, but the BRI was a far more ambitious scheme.

It aimed to lash Central Asia and much of Western Europe together with China via the construction of enormous railway, road, port, and telecommunications projects as a way of integrating China ever more deeply into the global economy—but also tying all of these now more highly connected countries together with China itself. In Chinese, China’s name means “central kingdom,” and that’s a pretty good summary of the BRI’s ambition: to make China more and more central to the rest of the world.

The BRI has lost a bit of steam lately as China’s economy has begun to decelerate. But Beijing’s slackening emphasis on infrastructure projects overseas did not occur before its attentions had reached the distant shores of Latin America, the putative backyard of the United States. By virtue of its economic structure and strategy, China has racked up year after year of bulging trade surpluses with the much of the world.

It has to do something with these surpluses, and investment in Africa, the BRI, and its advances in Latin America form a major part of its strategy. Rather than merely parking fast-expanding trillions of dollars in wealth from trade in U.S. Treasurys, China has sought to make money from global infrastructure development as well. When this works well, it pays off in ways that go well beyond the balance sheet.

Much as Washington did after World War II, Beijing’s global building spree and lending programs have arguably turned it into the largest provider of so-called public goods. The United States often huffs and puffs about being the indispensable nation, but it has been a long time since that claim could be made in economic terms; for decades now, Washington’s main business has been as a broker and guarantee for some form of security. More and more, with most Americans seemingly scarcely aware of this, in economic matters large swaths of the globe think of their ties with China as being primary.

How does this all relate to the new Mexican trade data? In rational and objective demographic and economic terms, the ongoing American panic about immigration is groundless. The United States is in no way in danger of becoming an overcrowded nation. It has been enjoying some of the best employment data for half a century, meaning that immigrants are not taking jobs away from citizens. To the contrary, they are playing vital roles in an economy that would be hard-pressed to sustain recent fast rates of growth without them. This means jobs on farms, jobs in factories, and jobs in service industries of all kinds, from food preparation to health care and caregiving.

A continued renewal of the U.S. population through immigration is equally vital to the fiscal health of the country. As in most wealthy countries, fertility rates are suffering a sustained decline in the United States. The immigrant population trends young, and these young people are desperate for work. As they gain employment, they pay taxes, which is what finances the retirements of the many millions of American baby boomers who are cycling out of the full-time workforce.

Thinking of the United States and Latin America as totally separate spheres in which the movements of people from south to north can be effectively stoppered is a self-harming delusion. We live in not only a contiguous geography but a contiguous reality, and whatever this and any future administration might attempt to do at the southern border, people from Latin America will continue to make their way to the United States, where many of them already have established relatives, in large numbers.

Moreover, many studies have shown that encouraging, or at least tolerating, substantial migratory flows is the most effective known way of reducing global poverty and inequality. It is, in other words, a kind of public good and a way for the United States to continue to lead as a nation—doing well by doing good.

Finally, as Americans age, the U.S. economy will eventually scream for more immigrants and see contiguous Latin America as a big competitive advantage over even more rapidly aging China and Western Europe. Europe has become swept up in currents of anti-immigration sentiment that are more powerful even than those that exist in the United States. Much of this seems based on that continent’s parochial and anachronistic views of race and civilization, which drive fear of Black immigration from Africa and Muslim immigration from several neighboring regions. China is a long-term net exporter of people and has little experience with or prospect of large-scale immigration.

It may be hard to imagine today, but public opinion in the United States is likely to eventually come around to this reality, too. Why not be proactive now and get ahead of the curve?

The way to do that is through a major economic initiative linking the United States and Latin America. This needn’t involve the very same mechanisms that China employed with the BRI, but it should match Beijing’s recent ambition. Washington needs to come up with big new ways of engaging with the world to its south in economic terms in order to help boost prosperity in Latin America and turn the economies of Central and South America into places of much greater hope. This has to be innovative and persistent and must mobilize capital investments and encourage the spread of manufacturing and innovation among America’s neighbors.

There will be no overnight miracles. This can only work in a timespan measured in decades. Therein lies the best chance of moderating––not stopping––migration flows from south to north. The transformation of the economies to America’s south also means the transformation of their workers, through the development of much better education, much higher skills, and the kinds of high value-added activities that boost income levels. And as all of these things happen, something too will begin to happen with the immigrants who continue to flow from these countries. They will arrive with the ability to contribute more and more dramatically to the United States’ own economic growth and prosperity.

There is one further bonus here—a bank shot of sorts. Just as Mexico has been doing, an economically revitalized Latin America can make it far easier for the United States to de-risk its economic ties with China. This is not an argument for isolation or disengagement but rather a gradual and incremental diversification of the United States’ economic relations away from its biggest commercial rival.

Some possible objections come to mind. First among them is that it’s unrealistic. Those who wonder this, though, should ask themselves if the neglect and inertia that have characterized U.S. economic relations with much of Latin America in recent generations are realistic or remotely good for the parties concerned. The view here is no.

[littlemissidontcare]

"I'm this blonde, blue eyed woman who you can be fooled into thinking is quite safe but is actually quite dangerous"

'I like the idea that I come into a room and you think you're dealing with one thing, but the truth is I'm very layered,' she adds.

'I was never an ingenue,' she declares. 'I've travelled the globe, I've backpacked through South America, I've done conservation work in Africa. I was never the girl who knew nothing of the world.'

/ from the DM article

Girl no one see's you as dangerous or edgy because you have zero sex appeal, no charisma and not a single sliver of personality. A 'dangerous' woman is a bad bitch, not someone who's gone backpacking (which is practically a rite of passage for spoilt upper class Brits)

I know she's using 'safe' as in boring and 'dangerous' as in edgy but saying your blonde hair/blue eyes can fool people into thinking your safe sounds a bit....yknow. Also, in a world were blue eyed blonde icons, sex symbols, bombshells and controversial women like like Britney spears, Anna Nicole, Marilyn Monroe, Playboy models, Pam Anderson, Kat Moss, Paris Hilton were forefront of the media, who has ever stereotyped blue eye/blonde women as 'safe' or boring??

The ole 'i'm soooo worldly and interesting because i volunteered in africa and went backpacking' she thinks's she's soooo interesting and layered because of this despite the fact that volunteer work in Africa (always conservations or orphanages) and backpacking (in South America or Asia typically) is practically a rite of passage for every spoilt upper class Brit.

Her whole personality would be fine if she'd just accept it. This whole 'tom cruise is lucky to kiss ME' and 'im dangerous and layered' shite is so cringe. You're boring Annabelle, it's OK to accept it. I'm boring too. Lot's of people are.

[fucktalunyafucktugal]

🇪🇸 Durante los últimos siglos muchos historiadores anglosajones (británicos y estadounidenses principalmente) han fomentado y difundido la Leyenda Negra de España; Denigrado la obra de España en su Imperio Ultramarino Mundial.

Aumentando los defectos y silenciando los logros de la Hispanidad; Magnificando sus victorias y ocultando sus derrotas; Han tejido y difundido versiones historiográficas profundamente anti hispánicas, usando la Historia como herramienta de propaganda política, cultural y comercial TODO ELLO: con la finalidad de justificar sus ataques, saqueos y rapiñas de territorios y población hispánicos, y sus riquezas; Justificar el “Destino Manifiesto” (Doctrina Monroe), que atribuía a los Estados Unidos el derecho a gobernar sobre todo el continente americano. Justificar arrebatar a España diversos enclaves estratégicos; Justificar arrebatar a México la mitad de su territorio en 1848; Justificar arrebatar a España Cuba, Puerto Rico, Filipinas y Guam en 1898.

Imponer la lengua inglesa sobre población hispana, acomplejados y avergonzados de ser hispanos en territorios conquistados, gobernados y aculturados por ellos; Aumentar su mercado y sus grandes intereses comerciales y financieros, a través de la imposición de su lengua y cultura. PARA ELLO: a través de las universidades, publicaciones, y medios de comunicación, películas y series, se han presentado ante el Mundo como los “héroes y salvadores” de poblaciones nativas, frente a un pueblo depravado, ruin y opresor como los hispanos de Europa, América y Asia. Haciéndonos creer y asumir, a nosotros mismos, que la visión que tienen de nosotros es la correcta, denigrándonos como pueblo y como cultura, y, lo más grave, dividiéndonos. POR TODO ELLO: gran cantidad de historiadores anglosajones (incluso hispanistas) han demostrado no ser rigurosos, siendo poco científicos; No ser imparciales, siendo tendenciosos; Obedecer a motivaciones políticas, comerciales y de imposición cultural y lingüísticas en sus obras.

ASÍ PUES: ante los trabajos y versiones de historiadores anglosajones, y producciones audiovisuales anglosajonas, que traten acerca de la Historia de España o de los hispanos en la Historia del Mundo. "Desconfié "

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (5-11 Mar 2023)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊 The Home For The Holidays Job (aurora_atalanta) - 61K, Leverage OT3 AU inspired by that 'fake date' craigslist ad - Eliot-focused & cute

😊 Inside the River (yeaka) - 44K, Spirk, canon-divergent arranged marriage AU - loved the setup for this

😍👂‍The Return Of The King (The Lord of the Rings #3) (J.R.R. Tolkien, author; Andy Serkis, narrator) - I even did appendices A and B, with Andy reading it to me 😆

🥰 wanna hurt you just to hear you screaming my name (DotyTakeThisDown) - 57K, Steddie AU - Eddie's a professional Dungeon Master (of the kink kind) who takes Steve as a client - good stuff!

💖💖 +91K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

The difference between a poem and a love letter (thismomentintime) - Stranger Things: steddie, 5K - super adorable meet cute!

Mission Impossible (AggressiveWhenStartled) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 20K - very funny

The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret (laiqualaurelote) - Ted Lasso: trent/ted, 20K - absolutely delightful post-s2 canon-divergent getting together fic

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Maine Cabin Masters - s7, e9

Schitt's Creek - all s1 & s2, e1-2

Ted Lasso - s1, e1-5

Hot Ones - Pedro Pascal

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

ICYMI Plus - The Internet Hates Hogwarts Legacy

Into It - Are the Oscars Into Blockbusters?

Endless Thread - Return of the Aunties

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Ouija Board 7-Eleven

Vibe Check - Everything Has Led to This

ICYMI Plus - The Internet Should Be Fun

⭐It's Been a Minute - Marilyn Monroe was more than just 'Blonde'

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Big Apple Inn

⭐Switched on Pop - How John Denver got huge in Asia

The Sporkful - Should Fine Dining Exist?

Song Exploder - Kenny Beats "Still"

Ologies with Alie Ward - Detroitology (DETROIT) with Aaron Foley

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Dedan Kimathi Post Office Tree

99% Invisible #420 - The Lost Cities of Geo Redux

Into It - What If 'Top Gun: Maverick' Wins Best Picture? And Other Oscars Predictions

Endless Thread - Owl pursuits

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - More Wonders in Your Backyard

Richmond Til We Die: A Ted Lasso Podcast - Ted Lasso S2E12: You Gotta Follow Your Bliss, Right?

Our Opinions Are Correct - Episode 125: Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction, Part I

You're Dead To Me - Vital Electricity

Off Menu - Ep 182: Joe Cornish

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

The Very Best Of Chicago (Only The Beginning) [Chicago]

Hair Metal Hedonists

Rob Zombie

Past Selves [Sub-Radio]

Heavy Industry

I ❤️ Heart

Iron, Wrath & Metal

The Essential John Denver [John Denver]

Presenting James Taylor

Godsmack

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Miss Congeniality

Rating: PG-13

Director: Donald Petrie

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Caine, Candice Bergen, William Shatner, Ernie Hudson, John DiResta, Heather Burns, Melissa De Sousa, Steve Monroe, Deirdre Quinn, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Asia De Marcos, Ken Thomas, Gabriel Folse

Release year: 2000

Genres: crime, comedy, action

Blurb: When the local FBI office receives a letter from a terrorist known only as The Citizen, it's quickly determined that he's planning his next act at the Miss America beauty pageant. Because tough-as-nails Gracie Hart is the only female agent at the office, she's chosen to go undercover as the contestant from New Jersey.

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

Your thoughts on John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Benjamin Harrison and William Howard Taft?

broadly adore them all but i'll break it down for each of them.

john q. adams: MY BOY. this guy is "goated" as the youths say. seriously. john adams raised him well. a fine example of america's "natural aristocracy." even before he became president he was still making history as monroe's secretary of state. he was the main author of the famous monroe doctrine which asserted america's entrance to the world stage. it was through his will that america first began /truly/ asserting itself. as if that weren't enough, bro went on to become president. just like his father. and he was arguably the most ambitious and visionary presidents we ever had. if it weren't for congress and its endless bickering we might be living in a utopia ruled by the immortal god emperor j. q. adams.

yeah, he's one of my favorite american historical figures.

rank: a-tier

henry clay: MY OTHER BOY. love this guy. he's the originator my beloved american system which brought so much prosperity to america (and the world). he sits firmly in the hamiltonian tradition. he spent a lifetime dedicated to serving this nation and he served it well. he was a shrewd statesman. he guided out country through war and averted national catastrophe on three different occasions. truly one of the greatest sons of america.

another favorite american historical figure. rank: a-tier

benjamin harrison: another visionary president. i think he's a highly underrated president. he loved tariffs, he loved spending, he modernized our navy, he believed in the "western hemisphere idea", he instituted meritocratic civil service reform, passed antitrust legislation, etc. nothing insane happened during his presidency so i think he's often overlooked but he did a good job of keeping the american machine chugging along. definitely one of the more favorable presidents in my opinion.

rank: b-tier

taft: i place him about where i place benjamin harrison. maybe a little more since he was /so/ effective at trustbusting. but yeah i think he was just a solid president. i like his expansion of us influence in the americas and asia. i like his tariffs. i like his income tax. regulated railroads. i'm not a fan of his making senators elected by popular vote. but no one is perfect.

rank: b-tier