#agents of value

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

[republicansaretheproblem]

[rejectingrepublicans]

[im-still-watching-anime]

trucy: hang on polly you have a hair on you—oh, it’s long and…blonde. again.

apollo, internally: oh my god they’re all going to think i’m STRAIGHT and that i’m sleeping with a WOMAN

trucy, athena, and wright all thinking: oh that’s for sure klavier’s :/

[the-potus-is-a-russian-asset]

The Alpha Male / Supreme Leader of the false MAGA movement. This messiah of hate and greed is on the verge of destroying our almost 250 year old constitutional republic. Over the last two days, your 401K was needlessly gutted as a direct result of a royal decree from this “stable genius”. What was the “Dear Leader”doing while vast amounts of your retirement funds evaporated? He was out golfing with his other oligarch buddies at Mar-a-Lago, on your dime. The cost to the US taxpayers is $18M a pop everything he runs away from his responsibilities and flees down to his billionaires boys club. However, I am sure that he actually really does care about the little guy.🤡🤡🤡

[jesncin]

The Potential of Asian Lois Lane: An extra addition

A bonus addition to my Asian Lois essay. I know Lois Chaudhari isn't technically a Lois since the premise of the comic she's from is where the Superman mythos is fictional and the characters in it happen to be named Clark/Lois etc. But since she's a Lois stand in and romantic partner to the Clark Kent of that story, I figured she deserves an honorable mention at least.

Here's where I position her in my Spectrum of Asian Lois Lane chart. And I'd like to talk about her!

Compared to American Alien, this Lois is actually specific and textually Indian in Superman: Secret Identity. Unlike American Alien Lois (that never specified what kind of Asian Lois was), she can't be replaced as a white woman because the text acknowledges her Indian identity (her name, lines of dialogue like this, etc.) hence she's not interchangeable with whiteness. So this take has that going for it.

Where Lois Chaudhari still falls behind Girl Taking Over (and what it shares in common with American Alien) is yet again a sense of missed opportunities narratively.

In Superman: Secret Identity, a man named Clark Kent from Picketsville suddenly has Superman's powers. After years of being made fun of for his namesake, he suddenly is what everyone has been making fun of him for- and as he lives through life he slowly understands why fictional!Superman is the way he is. It's a great story but where it misses the mark for me is its failure to recognize Superman as an immigrant. Secret Identity's Clark isn't an alien immigrant, or a human immigrant, and is instead ostracized because of his name. Government baddies want to do experiments on him so he has to hide from them too. But then he meets city girl Lois Chaudhari, and they connect because people keep teasing them for their names and Lois knows what it's like to keep secrets because she,,, committed a crime as a teen once.

"I guess we're both dangerous felons, then. Public menaces."

Being hunted by the government and being experimented on isn't really the same as being caught shoplifting.

It works well enough as a connection but to me is a huge missed opportunity to have an Indian American relate to your Superman stand-in as an immigrant. To connect on a deeper level other than "people make fun of us for sharing names with fictional characters". Later in the story, Clark and Lois have twin daughters who are visibly Indian. They too, have Superman's powers. While we're treated extensively to the narrative showing us why Clark would hide his powers from the government wishing to seek harm on him, we never get to see what Clark's daughters have to deal with on top of being visibly non-white.

Superman as an alien immigrant is an anecdote in this story. Because after all, that's not what a white American man from Picketsville would find relatable about him, is it? I have the same thing to say about Secret Identity that I did with American Alien: "Clark isn’t the only American Alien in American Alien, if you catch my drift."

I think this story is the perfect encapsulation of the limits of a white writer. One of my hottest takes on Superman is that the best and most holistic take on his character doesn't exist in the white imagination. Take a look once more at the Spectrum of Asian Lois Lanes chart that I made. All save for Girl Taking Over were headed by white men (MAWS may have Asian directors and writers on their team but ultimately its pitch and main ideas are the brain child of Jake Wyatt, a white man).

People have taken issue with me saying this and assume that I mean white people can't write a good Superman story, and no. That's not what I'm saying. I like Superman: Secret Identity. I even like American Alien. But it's been 80 years of predominantly white writers of all backgrounds getting the chance to write Superman- and already multiple attempts at an Asian Lois- and yet it took until Gene Yang (and artists Gurihiru) with Smashes the Klan and Sarah Kuhn (and artist Arielle Jovellanos) with Girl Taking Over that I felt Superman's themes as an immigrant finally took center stage and weren't just a mention or anecdote.

In no way do I want to imply that getting writers of color or Asian writers specifically will mean you'll be guaranteed a great Superman story. I'm against promoting the idea that diverse talent is infallible or tokenizing and essentializing them in such a way. What I am saying is that the best and most holistic story on Superman as an alien immigrant isn't even a goal in the white imagination. Immigrant Superman doesn't live in that mind. He doesn't pay rent there. He doesn't stop by to visit. And no, Superman creators Shuster and Siegel wouldn't have written that story either. Superman may have been the "Champion of the Oppressed" from another planet under their pen, but he would never have related to or have had immigrant solidarity with America's perpetual foreigners the way Smashes the Klan portrayed him as having. Superman's creators were too busy writing Slam Bradley to be able to write that kind of Superman.

The appeal of these cape characters for me, is the process of adaptation. Seeing them be handed off to someone else with different life experience. Seeing them bring a whole new perspective that surpasses even the creator's intentions on their character. That's what makes these characters rich and worthy of constant revisits. I just think that people of different backgrounds should be able to get as many chances as white men have with writing Superman and his cast of characters.

[rad-roche]

[magpie-trove]

I loooove when people undercut evils by simply taking care of the thing driving the person to do those things

[thieves-never-say-die]

“I’m glad things are back to normal” says Peter

“Me too” says Neal

While they are both LYING through their TEETH to each other!!!

[slyvester101]

You would think that Wash is the mom of blue team, right?

Wrong, it’s Tucker.

Tucker had to parent Caboose since he arrived at blood gulch, making sure he ate something other than candy, making sure he took his medicine that was often hidden in food, making a sleep schedule so Caboose went to bed on time etc etc.

And then he had Junior and you bet your ass Tucker is gonna be the best dad he can be to that kid. That is his son. His pride and joy. The reason why he keeps going even when things get tough.

Which means that by the time Wash has joined the team, Tucker is a practiced parent. He can cook, he can make schedules and (mostly) keep to them, he can have emotional talks and knows how to comfort, he remembers so much shit off the top of his head (birthdays, favorite things, etc), he always has snacks, and everyone in the blood gulch crew look to him to make the final call.

He’s their trusted responsible adult. He is the mom.

Wash is the stepdad trying his very best to earn the kids’ approval. He’s awkward around them at first as he learns how to insert himself into their pre-established dynamics.

He’s unbelievably patient and kind to them, mostly because he feels the need to make it up to them and to repay them for saving his life, but he still has to earn their respect. Even after he does get their trust and friendship, he gets sass and snark for any order he gives, but at least they listen to him (and he can snark back without it turning into an argument).

(Does this make Church the dad of blue team? Maybe. Does this mean Tucker and Wash are married? In the eyes of everyone else, yes)

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

This made my blood boil.

This was an embarrassment. Vance started a shouting match by screaming Republican and Russian talking points at Zelensky and demanding a thank you from Zelensky. Trump immediately got wound up and began hurling insults at Zelensky at length while Vance laughed aloud at the chaos his ambush caused.

Vance was so smug at this obviously planned ambush that was planned to discredit support for Zelensky in the US, which is what Putin expected of his White House puppet. Secretary of State Rubio had nothing to say, sitting there with his hands folded. Somewhere in Rubio’s pea brain he had to be thinking what have I gotten myself into.

Zelensky left the White House and returned to Ukraine without any deal being struck.

Trump’s America first agenda has made us into an international bad guy in just a few weeks. The MAGAt morons at home in front of their tv’s must have been thrilled by this performance art which was clearly red meat for the base.

🖕🖕🖕

🤬🤬🤬

[republicansaretheproblem]

[rejectingrepublicans]

☠️☠️☠️

[castingpods]

so i got the am archive notebooks in the mail today

and what i have to say is just

FUCK

[the-potus-is-a-russian-asset]

I wonder how many in the Cult of Trump even know that Putin was an officer in the KGB? Or, that this communist Soviet Union's foreign intelligence and security agency had an actual documented process for how to destroy a democracy from within? How was this accomplished? Just look around, you are living it right now. https://unintendedconsequenc.es/bezmenovs-steps/

[ducktracy]

there is truly a Daffy for every occasion. i've been obsessing over Oklahoma! for the past week and wouldn't you know it, the duck already beat me to the punch. but technically i beat me to the duck beating me to the punch since i was the one who saved this panel months ago with the caption of "Daffy is a fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma". turns out it is i who is a fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma. i am a fan of Daffy as fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma

i am also a fan of this. and i hope you are too.