#dash except this man is 100% korean

[taehyungsbabyygirl]

Socialità

Chapter 1

Genres: Light fluff, tinge of romance and wholesome(?)

Warning(s): The littlest bit of sexual tension if you squint

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Fortune, fame, beauty.

Those are the things that people had associated you with.

Who does not know Y/F/N Y/L/N? You're basically in every magazine cover, every Youtube thumbnail and news headline. Surpassing Kylie Jenner as quote unquote The World's Richest Young Businesswoman and even beating Ariana Grande as the most followed female influencer on Instagram.

Who really are you? Well, to explain it simply to people who are unaware of you, your businesses and socialite status, you are the owner of a multi-billion dollar brand.

What started with a small online business at 16 which sells nightwear for women with affordable, cheap prices had bloomed into a luxury brand known for their elegant, classy clothing line, ranging from lingerie to formal clothing such as glamorous dresses to charming suits and tuxedos for both men and women.

The brand name? After years of rebranding, it's finally official that the name is, Socialità. Fitting with your brand's target market which were rich socialites from across the globe. Of course there was a reason for that, considering that the materials were high quality, imported ones such as satin and silk from Japan, Egyptian cotton, and French lace, also the designing and productions team who were amongst the best in the art of fashion and exclusivity of everything that was made under the brand, without a doubt would result in a higher cost of production and simultaneously a higher price for the merchandise itself.

And all this success did not come easy, there were countless times when you wanted to hideaway and give up on everything you had invested on. At the age of 28, you finally got to where you are now, thriving with the business that you had built with your own bare hands from the confines of your own bedroom.

But, there was one thing that you were lacking in, the love department. Although you were pretty much well-known by youngsters to elders alike, luck does not seem to be on your side when it comes to romantic relationships. It's not that you weren't romantic or sweet enough, gosh you are a hopeless romantic actually, but you just somehow fall for the wrong person, time and time again.

All the people you had dated once you established a name in the fashion world were either self-centered jerks or gold-digging leeches who were only there for the fame and riches. It's as if you had dated way more men than Taylor Swift ever had, except, you don't call these people out in songs.

Aside from owning a lavish clothing brand and billions to your name, having to work with socialite circles, had granted you the socialite status too. You'd be lying if you say that no rich bachelor had tried to flirt around with you but, your previous horrible experiences with dating as a successful businesswoman made you put your guard up and in the end turning you into the most sought after bachelorette of the 21st century.

-----

"What??? The Bachelorette?? Gosh guys, that would be a horrible idea." You shook your head, swirling the red wine in your glass before sipping on it.

It was a normal weekend evening for you and your peers aka your personal management team which consisted of Selma, Carrie, Lulu, Trey and Giovanni. Sitting in the dining room of your enormous mansion in Calabasas while drinking cheap wine and munching on Cheeto Puffs.

You just finished ranting about how you are so unlucky in love and that you're almost turning 30, without being cuffed to someone. In your opinion, people in their late 20s had already met that person and having good balance in their work, social and love lives but you're here having a nonexistent love life instead.

Tired of constantly listening to the same rants over and over again, Giovanni proposed that you put yourself in a controversial yet exciting TV show, The Bachelorette.

"Girllll you should give The Bachelorette a try, I mean I know that the show is basically scripted but it seems exciting, no?" Giovanni chirped.

"Oh my god yasssss! I'd have the time of my life if I'm surrounded by a dozen of good-looking hunks!" Carrie joined in and daydreamed.

You snorted and put your glass down on the marble surface of the table.

"Yeah but the men on there are usually insincere and only in it for their 60 seconds of fame and the winner of the show is probably just motivated by money. What difference does it make with me going to a private party or nightclub and getting to know dudes there?" You retorted; brow raising to your two friends.

"Sis, the difference is, these men would have to submit a form regarding their background and audition for the show! If you want, we could even be your reps during the audition. We know who are the best people for you!" Selma answered your rhetorical question while pouring herself another glass of wine. She's your PA and bestie so she knew how to reply with the same energy as yours.

Sighing deeply with your fingers pinching your nose bridge, you thought once, twice, thrice and made your decision. Well, what's the worst that could happen right?

"Fine, fine! I'm in with the idea. But if this thing goes south, I.Am.Out." The dominant businesswoman persona in you presented herself whilst the others, especially Giovanni, cheered upon your agreement with their idea.

-----

After months of preparations for your big reality TV debut, it was finally the day for the first week of The Bachelorette. Although you're the one being the prize and the one being chased, you felt uneasy and nervous to meet the men who had passed the auditions to become contestants.

"Don't worry! Me and Giovanni made sure that we only let the best ones pass the audition. And when I say the best ones, I meant, socialites, doctors, businessmen and even kinsmen of royalty!"

"Only the best for our QUEEN!"

Those were the words that came out of Selma and Gio's mouths. Thankfully you have these reliable people to help filter through the applicants of the program. If you gave the show's producers 100% control over who comes in and comes out of the show, it'll be a hot mess and they'd probably choose the men based on their looks and bulkiness but not necessarily the brains and skills.

Throughout the audition process, all of the men's background and names were kept a secret from you by Selma and Gio, it'll be a surprise, they said and you trusted them with it.

Sitting at the back of a limousine alone, you started to fidget with the dangling diamond of your earring subconsciously; a habit that you developed whenever you had cold feet.

The vehicle was heading towards the villa where the first meeting would happen between you, the bachelorette and your suitors.

You and the production team had discussed about how the first meeting would be. You thought that the idea of having to stand in front of the villa's front door while the men arrive in limos were quite cringy and not to mention time-consuming and unnatural so you proposed the idea of having the men arrive in a first come first serve basis and sit in numbered rooms in the villa while awaiting you. In that way, you could see who was punctual and who was late. But the catch is, the contestants only have 5 minutes to chat up with you and leave a good first impression.

-----

Alas, you finally reached the villa and stepped out of the automobile. Your dress was a satin, rosé coloured one with a modified A-line, basque waist and halter neckline; glamorous yet not over the top, suitable for a socialite like you.

Not wasting any time, once the cameras started rolling, you entered the ginormous villa and headed upstairs to the rooms, knocking the door gently before entering the space.

The first man you met was Kim Namjoon, he introduced himself as an engineer, a sound engineer. He was confident from the get go and eloquent too.

"Hmm an engineer ay?" You propped your head with the palm of your hand; leaning against the couch's back pillows.

"Yeah.. My family insisted I do that. I wanted to be a musician at first, and that's why I took up sound engineering now." He gave out a dimple smile which you couldn't help but grin at. They're adorable.

You liked his presence and how outspoken he was but sadly the 5 minutes were before you knew it.

Next, you met up with a gentleman named Im Jaebum. A winery owner. He gave you a warm hug from the first time you entered the room.

"I heard that you're a wine conoisseur yourself Y/N? I'd love to take you to Napa Valley where my winery is. I'm sure we'll have a blast there." He smiled and acted a bit smug.

"That sounds like a plan.. I'm not a person who would say no to wine." You replied with a light wink, returning the smugness to him.

Continuing on, after Jaebum, you entered a room which looked bigger than the previous two you'd been in.

By the big window, there was a man with broad shoulders who introduced himself as Kim Seokjin, as he turned around, he greeted you and pecked your hand.

"Nice to meet you I'm Kim Seokjin, just call me Jin." He smiled softly, inviting you to sit down next to him.

"Nice to meet you too Jin.. So what do you do?" You asked carefully; quite intrigued by how good-looking he is with the slicked back hairstyle he has.

"Well I'm a professor of English and Korean Literature. Probably one of the most uninteresting jobs among the other guys." He timidly admitted; being quite humble.

You immediately disagreed with his statement, telling him that literature components are fascinating and that educating people about it is a magnificent job.

Afterwards you conversed with a man named Park Jinyoung. He was also extremely dashing and he's a car dealer. But not just any car, the ones he sells are top brands such a Lamborghini, Maserati, Tesla and Ferrari.

"My job is amazing. Good money, good image, but there was something missing and I think we both could relate to that, we both are looking for love." He half-bragged which didn't really impress you but you agreed nonetheless.

As you politely excused yourself to move on to the next room, where the man was leaning back and scrolling through his phone. Fair skin and contrasting ebony coloured hair.

This guy gave off a cold vibe to you but that made you even more intrigued to get to know him.

"Hi..." You sat on the couch with him and he gave a small smile as he put his phone the side.

"Min Yoongi.. Nice to meet you." He extended his hand out to shake yours. A pretty formal greeting despite the consequences you two were in at the moment.

You two kept the conversation going by talking about your jobs and background. Everything you asked, he answered in all honestly and you liked that. The push-and-pull game was a fun one to play but with Yoongi, the small talk you had was chill and relaxed, the most natural one you had the whole night.

Up next was a kind looking male, taller than Yoongi who seem to be nervous about meeting you for the first time.

"Hello!" You greeted him with a bright smile to ease his anxiousness.

"Hi, hi.. I'm Mark Tuan. I'm an artist.." He abruptly greeted you back.

"Ooh! Like musically or..?" You tilted your head.

"Visually.. I draw and paint."

You led the conversation with the man since he looked very hesitant and awkward the whole time.

The next room had a bubbly and energetic man who was basically radiating good vibes as you entered the room. His name was Jung Hoseok. As you peeked into the room, he immediately walked towards you and gave you tight bear hug with a huge smile plastered on his face.

"Well besides my job as a paediatric specialist, I also enjoy dancing. Do you like to dance?" He jumped off the seat and proceeded to pull you up with him to playfully salsa. His actions made you laugh happily.

"You're so spontaneous!" You hit his chest lightly, still laughing at you guys' actions.

After the exciting interaction between you and Hoseok, you had to calm down and lower your expectations again after it skyrocketed because of the doctor earlier.

That's when you met a muscular man, if Hoseok earlier had radiated good boy vibes, this one radiated bad boy vibes.

He was Jackson Wang, a well-known socialite who is the heir of Wang Co. Ltd. A company which sells electronics such as smartphones, tablets and computers.

"Hello.." You said softly, slightly intimidated by the man's comparably bigger size to you.

"Hello, pretty lady." He took your hand in his and kissed it just like Jin had but his way of executing it was different. The male kissed each of your knuckle and it got you culture shocked.

"Oh wow.. Okay.." You laughed awkwardly as you looked at the man kiss your hand.

The conversation went well with him despite you noticing that he was practically staring at your with those deep brown eyes while you spoke about yourself to him.

The sexual tension was there and you were hoping, praying that the next man would tone down a bit and let you relax, thankfully custom jeweler, Park Jimin did.

"I'm a jeweler.. And can I just say, I adore these diamonds. You have remarkable taste." He proceeded to run his hand gently through the diamond earring you were wearing.

"Thank you! And I absolutely adore this choker you have on.." You reciprocated his action which made him smile softly.

Next up was the room of a private jet pilot named Choi Youngjae.

"Nice to meet you Y/N! I hope we could create good memories here. I'd love to bring you on a helicopter and show you the aerial view of California." He mused but you're not entirely impressed but acted as if you were in order to not hurt his feelings.

"Aww I'd like that. The view must be amazing!" You cringed at your own words but smart enough to mask it.

Hmm, you foresee someone who's potentially going to go home first in this show. His words lacked personality and character and not well thought.

Come on, you obviously had rode a helicopter and saw the aerial view of California. You ride it to work whenever the traffic is congested. He could at least thought of another country or state but instead he settled with Cali, the state where you are based in.

Disappointed, you moved on to the next room, surprisingly, the atmosphere was different, the area was dimly lit and the man sitting on the chair had his legs spread.

"Hi.." He spoke with a deep, low voice that caused you to bite your lip.

"Hello.." You smiled amidst the tense situation, making your way towards him.

"Kim Taehyung.. Fashion designer and owner of TH Couture." He answered without you asking.

The male was quite blunt but his demeanor was alluring. There was a mysterious aura circling him, totally someone to keep an eye on. The conversation was as intense as Jackson's but the two of you had the same interest which was fashion so you didn't feel as awkward as when you were with Jackson.

After Taehyung, it is down to three more people, you were already losing momentum and excitement as you already had spoken to 11 men that night. Before entering the next room, you took a deep breathe and loosen up your shoulders.

In the room was a man, he looked the most different, he had a lengthy name, a Thai one.

"Kunpimook Bhuwakul, but just call me Bam Bam.. I know my name's quite long and I'm also more comfy with Bam Bam.." He bowed to you like a gentleman and smiled handsomely at you.

"That's an adorable name! Bam Bam huh?" You sat down and grinned at the latter.

"You think so? You're adorable-er" He winked at you and caught you off-guard.

As the five minutes of jokes and flirty pickup lines ended, you bid farewell to the Thai man, little did you know that the person you just talked to was related to the Thai royal family.

Entering the 2nd last room, there was a tall man, looking around the well-furnished room but as soon as you came in, his attention diverted to you.

He greeted you with enthusiasm, introducing himself as Kim Yugyeom, an app developer and gaming streamer.

"Gosh you're pretty." He said straight-forwardly while smiling brightly and hugging you snugly.

"And GOSH you're tall!" You replied with those words and the same smile as what he had on his face. At this rate, reciprocation is really your best friend when you don't know how to react or reply to a certain remark from the suitors.

You talked about the apps Yugyeom had developed and the variations amazed you. He had created tons of apps such as games, workout apps, e-commerce platforms, online stores and sorts. But when he started talking about games, you began to lose interest in the chatter. Games weren't your strongest suit but you were happy that he is passionate about them and sharing it with you.

Finally! The last room! Which meant that this person is the last person to arrive to the villa. You wonder who this latecomer is and when you got into the area, your eyes widened.

Jeon Jungkook? He was somebody you had worked with and still actively working with. He is the person in charge of the photography and videography for Socialità and seeing him on The Bachelorette is a huge surprise.

"Wait.. JK?" You didn't know how to react.

"Hey! There's my girl!" He walked towards you with his bunny smile and gave you a hug. You couldn't believe that this was happening, Selma and Gio must've put him in to pull a prank on you.

"One question. Why?" You laughed in disbelief.

"Can't a man try?" He questioned back cheekily.

You two continued the conversation casually without any awkwardness as the two of you had known each other already. That was when you got to know that he had taken a liking on you ever since you two started working together. Everything he told you had sounded sincere so far.

-----

After the first meetings were over, all the men were put in the lounge to get to know each other's competition while you were interviewed by the crew regarding your first impressions of all of your suitors.

"Well everyone was pleasant. But there were a few who didn't pass my vibe check. I guess we just gotta see how it goes." You gave an ambiguous answer to the camera.

"Who do you think caught your eyes the most?" Henry, the producer asked.

"Hmm.. I don't want to seem bias, I mean this is the 1st episode after all but... Hoseok was fun to be around.. Jackson came off very strong. And well Jungkook too of course!"

"You seem to know him.." The producer stated.

"Yes yes.. We actually work together.. I didn't know that he'd want to participate in this show too." You shrugged and flashed a pearly white smile.

"Do you see anyone who might be going home soon?"

"Oof.. That's a dangerous question. That'd probably be ..."

To be continued (3 March, 12 AM, KST)

Author's note: Sorry for the delay guys! I underestimated the length of this chapter but I hope you guys like it! Don't forget to like and reblog this to show support! Also follow so you don't miss out on updates! This chapter is more of an introductory chapter so we'll be seeing more action and interaction between Y/N and de boyzzz.

Who do you think would be eliminated first?

Tagging @aretha170

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 254: Who the Hell Is Bucky

Previously on BnHA: All Might welcomed 1-A back after the new year with a pun he’s probably been working on for the entire winter break, the poor man. Aizawa received a call :’) and drove down to Tartarus with Mic to meet up with Naomasa and Gran Torino. Nao and Gran were all “so you’ll NEVER GUESS, but we found out that Kurogiri’s quirk is apparently a FAKE QUIRK which was created from a bunch of other quirks -- AND GUESS WHICH ONE WAS THE ORIGINAL QUIRK?” and Aizawa was all (ಠ ∩ಠ), and Mic put a hand on his shoulder, and Nao was all “YEAH YOU DID GUESS, IT’S YOUR OLD DEAD PAL SHIRAKUMO, FROM CHAPTERS 59 THROUGH 65 OF VIGILANTES!” And okay, so (1) OH MY GOD, and (2) I originally thought this meant that Kurogiri is straight up a zombie!Shirakumo, but others pointed out that he might be some random other dude who just has Kumo’s quirk, among others. And like, okay. SO WHAT IS THE TRUTH.

Today on BnHA: Y’ALL HE REALLY IS A ZOMBIE!KUMO, AND NAOMASA AND GRAN BROUGHT AIZAWA AND MIC TO TALK TO HIM AND TRY TO RESTORE HIS MEMORIES SOMEHOW. Aizawa is all “this isn’t some fantasy world with happy endings, this is THE REAL WORLD WHERE MIRACLES DON’T HAPPEN!” but Gran is all “sometimes they do!” and Aizawa is like “!!” and so they sit down to chat with Kumo. Aizawa launches into a passionate speech about how great Kumo was and how he pulled him along and inspired him, and how he (Aizawa) is strict with his students now and -- get this -- FAKE-EXPELS THEM IN ORDER TO PUT THE FEAR OF GOD INTO THEM JUST ONCE LMAO, BUT IT’S BECAUSE HE CARES, and because he wants them to be great heroes and not hapless redshirts who get killed offscreen. And by the end of it he’s crying and imploring Shirakumo -- “if you’re still in there somewhere” -- to become heroes with him and Mic just like they always wanted. All of it is exactly as emotionally devastating as you would figure, btw.

you guys I have been playing hopscotch on my dash since yesterday trying to avoid spoilers about the popularity poll until I actually had time to write down my reactions! all I know is that of course Bakugou is #1 again, because this fandom always comes through lol. my other predictions are that the rest of the trio will receive lots of love again as well, and Hawks will once again be high on the list, and Aizawa too because of the Vigilantes flashbacks (at least HE BETTER), and probably the villains will get a big boost as well after their arc, Tomura in particular. and Endeavor might break the top 10 again too with the newest arc, although I can’t quite remember whether or not the poll was still going on by the time that started (ETA: actually I don’t think it was). but yeah. anyway so there’s a real possibility that most of the kids will actually be shut out of the top ranks because of these GROWN-UPS and VILLAINS stealing all their glory, smh. your time will come, kids

“more than anyone, you were a hero” oh is this chapter going to play with my feelings yet again. is this just going to happen every fucking week now. okay

HELL YEAH MY BOYS ON THE COVER

@unboundednamelessfuture, to answer your ask about whether I’m planning on watching Heroes Rising, the answer is a resounding YES, POSSIBLY EVEN MULTIPLE TIMES IN THEATERS IF I CAN SWING IT, because I’m pretty sure it’s actually just going to be All My Dreams Come True: The Movie. and yes I have seen some spoilers for it, although I’m not clear on whether or not they’re actual spoilers or just rumors. so because of that I won’t post my thoughts just yet, except to say that if it is true, see above re: All My Dreams Come True: The Movie, and also add a bunch more exclamation points at the end of the title omfg

anyway so my sons are famous now. they’re in Hollywood. good for them

AND NOW THE POLLLLLLLL YES

oh shit, I heard about “Deku & Bakugou Rising”, but is that out this week?? shit I’ll have to do a separate post if that’s the case. I’m assuming it’s more of a bonus chapter than an actual spinoff, kind of like the All Might chapter we got for the last movie. either way, to say I’m hyped would be a massive understatement, needless to say

(ETA: okay so I’ve seen Korean scanlations of this -- which I didn’t look at closely because spoilers -- but no English scans yet. so stay tuned!)

so I was wrong about the kids being shooed out of the top 10! I have never been so pleased to be wrong! so we have Kacchan at #1 (I love his face so much. ghlkhf), Deku at #2 (he beat Shouto this year! good for you!!), Shouto at #3 (wouldn’t be surprised if he and Deku were neck and neck again though), Kirishima at #4 (we stan one bright ray of sunshine), Iida at #5 (YOU DESERVE IT SO MUCH SWEETHEART. I’M SO GLAD FANDOM ISN’T SLEEPING ON THE ACTUAL BEST CHARACTER IN THE SERIES), Tomura at #6 (DID YOU NOT GET THE MEMO ABOUT WEARING A NUMBER ON YOUR OUTFIT? MAKING ME FIGURE IT OUT FROM THE PROCESS OF ELIMINATION IS A REAL BASTARD MOVE. THEY SHOULD HAVE PUT YOU AT #8 TO MATCH YOUR CURRENT NUMBER OF FINGERS YOU STUPID SEXY JERK), Aizawa at #7 (THANK YOU FANDOM, YOU’VE REDEEMED YOURSELVES FROM LAST YEAR), Ochako at #8 (I LOVE YOUUUU), Toga at #9 (LADIES!!!!!!), and Momo at #10 (YES GIRRRRRL)

I think this is the strongest showing of ladies yet in the top ten (ETA: actually no, the second poll was slightly better) and I’m all about it. also can they all please keep these costume upgrades because YES. I don’t care if Horikoshi would get sick of drawing them. THAT’S WHAT ASSISTANTS ARE FOR. KATSUKI HAS A FUCKING BULLET BANDOLIER, COME ON, YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS JUST A ONE TIME THING YOU ASSCLOWNS, THIS IS FOR THE PEOPLE

lol here’s the abridged version of the Shirakumo flashbacks, I guess. everyone was saying last week how Vigilantes was now required reading, and like, I get that everyone’s excited about the crossover, but they still have to make this comprehensible for people who only read the main series. I’m guessing we’ll get the short version here, but Vigilantes gets to provide the more in-depth story for people who want to know more about everything, which is more or less what Vigilantes’s role has been in general

anyway so here’s Kumo doing his usual Naruto impression and cheerfully dooming himself by being ceaselessly optimistic and tempting fate’s sense of irony

you sure can! just so long as that crisis doesn’t involve big, heavy rocks, or gravity. I’m sorry kiddo

“‘let’s all form an agency together.’ it happened just after he said those words.” well there you have it, the BnHA equivalent of “one week left till my retirement.” hero training should really include a mandatory course titled Death Flags: The Silent Killers. there are children’s lives at stake here

lol yeah this really is abridged

“once upon a time we all wanted to be heroes and then Shirakumo got crushed by some rocks the end.” yeah, so maybe not quite the full emotional impact of the original lol

OH SHIT SON

so it is his reanimated corpse, then! which means the potential for him somehow dramatically regaining his memories is very high. since this is a shounen manga, I’m gonna go ahead and put it at... 100%. is that too low

guys I don’t know what to do when Present Mic is making faces like this

when even the Comic Relief Guy is getting all traumatized and serious, you know it’s bad. sob who will I turn to now for comfort. Horikoshi’s really just gonna go full dark no stars here and leave me just stumbling around lost

OH IF IT ISN’T THE ORIGINAL PIECE OF SHIT HIMSELF!!

yeah it makes perfect sense actually, you bastard. you steal the bodies from the crematorium and then give the families fake ashes or something. holy shit you really will not stop until you find the lowest possible level to stoop to, and then grab a fucking shovel and start digging so as to GO DOWN EVEN LOWER. just. god everything about this is just so wrong

oh btw, now seems like a good time to bring up this ask I got last week!

anon you blew my mind, just so you know. you’re absolutely right. so that’s one mystery down! though the way that this is going, I’m not so sure I’m gonna like any of the other answers that the Noumu arc is gonna provide us sob

holy shit look at this fucking simile

dead children = leftovers. sure why not. just in case we all forgot how evil he is

and also, YEAH BUDDY THAT’S WHAT I JUST FUCKING SAID, PLEASE KEEP UP. and who even knows how many other times AFO has done this. I hope they’ve started investigating crematoriums, then. I’m just waiting for them to make some connection that leads to them finally finding out about Ujiko, but that might take a while still

(ETA: although if they actually can get Kumo to talk...)

and did he really just solemnly call Mic “DJ” because omfg. Gran, are you the comic relief. do you even know. are you even aware

oh hey look another dagger to my heart

ouch. that was cold. and... not necessarily true, though, is it? because he was kind enough to Tomura. idk, I know my villain mom has done some horrible things, but you’ll be hard pressed to get me to think of him as all bad, even so. he was the one keeping Tomura from going FULLASS MURDER MODE!! for a long time

HEY WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF COP-OUT IS THIS

well then WHY DID YOU EVEN BRING THEM IN HERE! DID THEY NOT SEEM TRAUMATIZED ENOUGH TO YOU?? “well idk they seem pretty shaken up already, but just to make sure they grasp the full repugnant horror of the situation why don’t we make them visit him face to face.” OKAY THEN YOU SADISTS

son of a bitch and speaking of twisting the knife, Horikoshi keeps showing us these increasingly wrecked glimpses of Aizawa lowkey falling apart and I can’t

at this point the shadows under his eyes have their own shadows. and god dude, I know you’re rational, but it’s really hard to watch you just outright dismiss any and all possibilities of hope just like that :(

what the fuck Gran

so you really are the one in this scene who’s trying to lift everyone’s spirits now. well all right then, just what are you alluding to

OH SNAP

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD NOUMU BACKSTORY AT LAST! jesus christ, do Nao and Gran just know everything already, and they’ve just been keeping it all to themselves for the hell of it?? how long before they casually swing by U.A. and are all “oh and by the way, the traitor is...”

ANOTHER AIZAWA FACE BUT THIS ONE IS SOFT OH GOD!!

HEY WHAT’S UP I’M GONNA CRY. SOMEONE TURN ON SOME SAD MUSIC. AND I WON’T GO, AND I WON’T SLEEP, AND I CAN’T BREATHE, UNTIL YOU’RE RESTING HERE WITH ME

AND I WON’T LEAVE, I CAN’T HIDE, I CANNOT BEEEEEEEE

hey Nao. you know what really would have helped with getting him to talk. NOT KNOCKING HIM UNCONSCIOUS. ??? move over do you need someone else to do your job for you or

-- OH THEY’RE TALKING TO HIM NOW LMAO OKAY

“go ahead and do your thing guys. don’t be afraid to make it real gay”

this would be even more dramatic if Kurogiri actually had a face. but even so... OH I AM WHAT I AM. I’LL DO WHAT I WANT. BUT IIIIIIII CAN’T HIIIIDE

oh my fucking god Aizawa is all “but what about his family?” and Naomasa is literally “if you two are unsuccessful, then...” like straight up acknowledging that the three of them were so fucking gay in high school that their odds of getting through to Kumogiri are stronger than that of his OWN FUCKING FAMILY. wow

chin up my sexy man. you got this

OH SHIT AHHHHHHH

LDSKFHL EASY THERE CHAMP, THAT’S TOO MUCH SEX TO BE CONTAINED IN A SINGLE PANEL, PLEASE TRY AND DO ME A FAVOR AND FUCKING HOLD IT TOGETHER HERE FOR THE KIDS WHO ARE READING THIS!! [frantically googles ‘can a shounen manga get you pregnant’]

so Aizawa is all “I’ll be damned if I let his family hear this sickening story” and like, I’m sure he means that in a “they don’t deserve that pain” kind of noble and principled way, but if it were my child I sure would want to know regardless. and aren’t they going to find out either way?? either you do get through to him, in which case obviously you would want the family to know “HEY, GOOD NEWS!”, or you don’t manage it and Nao has to call them anyway as we just established. but you go ahead and get all fired up then, Shouta

now there’s a panel of him staring at Kumo and Kumo is just a big shapeless blob of black smoke just sitting there lol. don’t tell me he’s still unconscious?!

oh

thank you

anyway so Aizawa, did you know that while you were off being an underground hero, Kumo was studying at Oxford to get his medical degree while bartending on nights and weekends to make ends meet. the two of you have so much to catch up about

Mic’s thinking that even with Aizawa using his quirk, the fog isn’t dissipating, so it means Kumo’s body is now made up of fog. well but then what about the metal neck thingy! huh??

and Mic’s opening his big mouth to complain that Kurogiri is far too polite and classically educated to really be their old pal, but before he can finish, Kumo is interrupting to ask about his son!!

he’s. uh. I guess you could call it “well”? maybe a little too well [marge simpson noises]

well Mic is clearly back to being the comic relief here. but Aizawa is keenly spotting those mom instincts that have remained in Kumo to this day!

yes Aizawa the core of your friend is still in there deep down!

OH MY GOD

LMAOOOO. “EMO PUNK... WHERE HAVE I HEARD THAT BEFORE -- !!” [AUDIBLY GASPS AND LOOKS DIRECTLY AT AIZAWA]

oh my lord. like, I don’t think this is actually meant to be funny, but just the fact that he immediately associates “emo” with AIZAWA FUCKING SHOUTA so strongly that it makes him go (•̪ o •̪) all knowingly has me fucking deceased right now good grief

so Kumo says he doesn’t resent his mission at all. some people like looking after emo punks, Mic. you should know

AND NOW MY FEELINGS ARE BEING TOYED WITH AGAIN!! JUST STRAIGHT UP OUT IN THE OPEN!! THIS ISN’T FAIR

heh. don’t mind me I’m just looking for some sort of emotional support to cling to here for my breakdown that’s about to happen about 0.2 seconds after Aizawa starts crying, if he indeed starts to cry. which it looks like he might. oh god I’m not ready for this at all. my hatches are not even remotely battened; my shutters are just gonna go flying right the fuck off

by the way what the fuck is up with the chairs at Tartarus. why do they look like swiss cheese

hmm, Nao and Torino are all “no reaction”, but to me it looks like there clearly is a reaction, though? he can’t even look Aizawa in the eye all of a sudden. it’s clearly getting to him. Nao seriously, do you need someone else to do your job

oh Aizawa

(ETA: Kumo really first-named Aizawa two seconds after meeting him. this man knows how to adopt his introverts.)

okay but Present Mic in a summer uniform is the most punchable version yet, SORRY I JUST HAD TO SAY IT I’M SORRY MIC I LOVE YOU. it was just gonna come bursting up out of me if I didn’t

anyway so Aizawa is gaying it up just as promised

him using his quirk is definitely making the scene more intense, but I’m not really sure why he actually is using it, since we’ve established it’s not having any effect. unless he’s trying to possibly undo some of the brainwashing somehow??

(ETA: so it occurred to me that just because his quirk isn’t dissolving Kumo’s mist body doesn’t mean that it’s not having an effect on his warp abilities. this way they can interrogate him without fear of him trying to use it and them having to knock him out again.)

so Kumo’s continuing to try and play it off all smooth while Aizawa unleashes the full force of fifteen years of pent up grief and trauma!

starting to think Aizawa never did go to therapy after that whole thing. typical U.A. “so you saw your best friend die suddenly and violently right before your eyes and subsequently suppressed it and hallucinated his voice talking to you to avoid facing that reality, huh? eh, you’ll be fine”

oh no a close-up of Aizawa that doesn’t show his face completely. this kind of thing never ends well

BECAUSE HE DOESN’T WANT THEM TO END UP LIKE YOU [sobs forever]

wait are we really going to talk about this?? omg

wait what. so do you mean to tell me he expelled them but then continued to guide them afterwards so they would have long, happy and healthy careers but more importantly would be safe omfg I’m not fucking ready for this shit

we’re cutting to U.A.’s class 2-A! Aizawa’s former class? does that mean he literally expelled EVERY SINGLE ONE of his students last year omg

so then. does every single standout characteristic of the Aizawa we know and love stem from his tragic past and his relationship with this boy then, or what? meanwhile the feelings continue to torrentially lash against my house while I huddle in the basement

I can’t fucking believe we’re actually getting a legit reveal about the “Aizawa expels all his students” gag holy shit

re-enroll!? what?? and “expel” in quotation marks?!?

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS -- HE DID IT JUST TO SCARE THEM!? AND THEN WHAT, WERE THEY PICKED UP AFTERWARD BY THE OTHER HERO CLASSES INSTEAD? SO HE TEACHES THEM A POTENTIALLY LIFE-SAVING LESSON AND THEN GETS TO LAZE AROUND THE REST OF THE YEAR, LOL WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. THIS MAN IS A GENIUS

(ETA: and by this logic, Deku really ought to have been expelled half a dozen times by now. don’t ever try and tell me that this man doesn’t play favorites.)

so Aizawa is taking his goggles off and saying that he’s strict with his students because he wants them to live long, fulfilling lives

OH NO

SOMEHOW HORIKOSHI MADE KURO’S FACE LOOK SOFT?! I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW, IS THERE ANYTHING HE CAN’T DO

AHHHHH

OH NO HE DID IT AHHHH THE TEARS, FUCK. WELL MY HOUSE IS FUCKING DESTROYED, I’M CLIMBING UP TO THE ROOF TO AWAIT RESCUE

wow. anyways that really did get gay as fuck at the end, didn’t it. given the meaning that those goggles have to Aizawa, can this be taken as a form of marriage proposal? no? well I’m taking it that way anyway, so. congratulations you two. I’m off to go sob into a pillow now

[stone-man-warrior]

September 24, 2019: 4:45 pm:

September 24, 2019: 3:27 pm:

I just returned from socio-terrific doctor appointment in Medford, #SAGClubMed central HQ.

As usual, people were sneaking around my home yesterday and today.

I killed an intruder yesterday, who entered my home while I was in the restroom, The man had gone to my refrigerator, and was telling someone else about the contents of my refrigerator. The man had a sword, I took his sword from him, and ran him through with it, escorted him to the front door, and shoved him out of the door.

The door was locked with two locks and another safety device. The man was able to come inside even thought the door had two locks, and something extra.

I closed and locked the door again.

I believe the man's name was Robert, or, Rodger.

If his name was Robert, there is a good chance he was Rodger Hunter, a SDA terror solodier associated with a terror cell called “Medical Democrats”, and at the location 598 “MyStreet” is where he is specifically known to have lived for about 5 years. Rodger Hunter no longer lives at 598, some other Medical Democrats terror cell members live there now, Cynthia and Rick Manning.

The man could have been Manning. I don't know. I thought I already killed Rick manning when he attacked me with a Pit Bull by my mailbox a few months ago.

The receptionist at the terror doctor office asked about “Rod”. That could be Rodger, or Robert, she may have said “Rob”.

On the way to terror ClubMed doctor, the usual terror soldiers were deployed from the corner of Three Pines Road, and Oxyoke Road, where a group waits for instructions to just drive around, go in the direction they are told, make observation, and report what they observe at a given location as they pass by. About six of them today on Three Pines going towards Russel Road, they passed by me, as I was going towards Monument Drive.

That happens every time I leave the house.

I usually encounter the same cars that pass by often. I only leave my home two weeks apart, so, seeing the same cars is not a condition of daily routine, they wait for me to leave and make observation, so that others involved in assassination attempt can be ready, at the place they need to be.

The was moderate traffic on the way to Medford.

Observations include a big rig carrying three very large fans. Commercial size ventilation units. About six feet tall each one. That truck & trailer were going Northbound at about 1:15 pm.

Another observation was a mobile home, in two parts, wide-load, going Southbound, at about 1:20 pm. Those wide-load trucks were all over the road, swerving and changing lanes all over the place.

Other than that, at the Medford Exit at Crater Lake hwy, there is usually at least three people who sit at the corner, at the exit, and one on the overpass, and another near the other on-ramp.

They were not there today, they are ALWAYS there, but not today. There was others at the Biddel Road interchange corner. One man sitting and watching the traffic, a watchdog, and another two with bicycles walking their bicycles, and a woman with a baby carriage. I have seen those exact people at the exact places doing the exact same things dozens of times. One of the bicycles is very strange looking, is rusty, tall seat, small wheels, big frame. The  woman with the bay carriage always stops walking, looks at me, and turns the baby carriage towards me, points at me, and tells the baby to look at me while I am waiting for the traffic light to change. I look at the bany, and the light changes, every time.

There were more people walking their bicycles. I saw about fifteen people with bicycles today, all were walking beside their bicycles except one. That one was a new, shiny, beach cruiser.

There was a toilet on the side of the road across the street from the terror doctor office.

I parked. I noticed a white van in the parking lot, it has been there for many months, maybe a year or more in the doctor parking lot. The hood is cracked open (“bee in your bonnet” SDA comm), the tags are 2018 ( State Police), the words “We went to Oregon” are written on the passenger window with white crayon (tourists died there), the front bumper is held on with bungee cords (Charlston Dodge Charger Crash at SAG terror demonstration connection terror advertisement) and there is a pamphlet about pianos (be quiet) on the dash board.

Inside the office was terror comm from the receptionist. She wanted me to be Robert or Rodger. I am not, so she advised others that Rod did not make it. I was given a paper that says prices are going up by $100 for lab work, that is more terror comm. I was asked if $1.03 means anything to me, when I said no, she charged me an extra $1.03.

There was more comm in the form of a nurse with an amputated arm. Also, when I go there, the people who come in are all fake patients, they are actors playing roles. They don't do health services there, it's a front. They are capable of  pretending to do health service, but that is not what they do. There is always at least one man who comes in dressed in a suit without jacket, dress shoes and pants, white shirt, always. Nit the same guy always, but the same wardrobe always.

The fake patients are SDA soldiers. They come in pairs mostly. If not in a pair, the solo ones always have some kind of prop, apparatus, thing with them. A wheel chair or oxygen tank or crutches or some bullshit item. The ones that come in pairs, do not usually have the prop, apparatus thing.

At the fake doctor, the fake patients, and me, are given a pain management questionnaire to fill out. The fake SDA in pairs are almost amusing to observe when they fill out the forms. It's always the same thing,each pair of fake people do the exact same routine as the other ones do. They sit down, and one SDA plays the “caregiver” role, while the other one plays the “patient” role. The caregiver asks the patient the questions in the forms. There are two forms, each one has eight pages.

The whole thing is so when real patients come in there, they will be distracted and concentrating on that form, not paying attention to the terror soldier with a sword and nitrous gas that is sneaking up behind them. So, those pairs of fake patients can be identified by the way two people sit down, and one asks the other the questions on the form. If you pay attention to what is happening, it's easy to see that it's all fake, they have been reading those same questions for years, and are only releasing nitrous gas while saying their lines, and waiting for opportunity to strike.

The fake doctor, Paul Leppert, always tells me a story about his time n Vietnam, or Korean war. Always. He never ever talks about my health conditions. He keeps saying I need to get a primary doctor, he is a specialist and I need a Primary Care Physician (PCP, Angel Dust). I always tell him there are no doctors. He always tell me I NEED to go to La Clinica.

If he wants me to go to La Clinica, that's how I know it's a bad Idea to go to La Clinica.

DONT GO TO LA CLINICA!

No one tried to kill me inside the office this visit.

On the way home, I saw the same things I usually see. A tow truck with a grey SUV on it parked in the right hand lane in front of the shopping center (where there is a Denny's restaurant sort of hidden, with only a very small sign, and part of a motel that I don't know what the name is.) and a Medford Police SUV. The Towing is “Dick's Towing” (dick's in the road).

On the freeway, not much to say other than a lot of bright red big-rig trucks with white trailers.

One white van caught my eye, a Caravan sized van, bright white, rear window whited out with vinyl, and the words “Arnold's Dental, equipment sales”, California license plate.

Someone from Dietrick's 601 came down “MyStreet”, and did a head on collision attempt, the swerved.

Lot's of watchdog terror soldier in vehicles.

All of this is valuable information to people who need it.

That's all for now.

[toasttz]

From the Tabletop #6

As of the end of the last session, where #5 left off, we've been doing alternating games, between D&D and a new Exalted campaign, swapping every Saturday. So, I'll start with D&D as there's a bit less to report on at-present. We're in an original world of the DM's design, with a design so subtle that the instant he described it to me, I was like "Wait, so the world is all on top of a giant, like Xenoblade Chronicles. Except this is a woman laying on her back?" The main town we operate out of literally has a name meaning "Belly Button". So, for context, a fellow of this party and I were inspired by JoCat's amazing "Crap Guide to D&D" video series and decided to take his advice, form a party of holy class heroes called the A-Men and rock the world around us. This never came to fruition as two of the supposed party fo 4 never showed up for a session. So this is how our party ended up with two clerics out of four players. I guess I'll go first this time. My character is Laga, a Half-Orc Solar Cleric, who follows St. Helbram, an original deity of the DM's. I decided to make Laga as an example to the other half of the party (the same half that was the problem half in Exalted in previous installments), to demonstrate how one plays against type and expectation - by playing a Lawful-Good version of a creature strongly associated with Chaotic-Evil stereotypes. It's a very different mindframe, as I play her as excessively goody-goody in her nature and a strong desire to use diplomacy to get by, rather than force. Our other cleric is Lucius, a Human Forge Cleric, who actually is quite openly racist against non-human characters. He acknowledges Laga, on account she's a lady of the cloth and also in that, despite being half-orc, she's still half-human too. He's been unable to join us for a few sessions, but already set himself up as quite the forceful personality, being the spear to Laga's olive branch. Next is Laguna, a male Drow (apparently those exist) wizard, who runs a pawn shop as a front for the mafia. I actually need to give mad props to his player on this one, as not only has he actually worked really hard to make the character interesting, but he also has very gracefully endured the ribbing the other characters give him. Apparently he is an incredibly beautiful male and, thus, is often mistaken for a woman. And lastly is Kaz. No, that's not his full name, but no one particularly cares. Kaz is the party's munchkin, who decided to play a Aarakocra Monk (and fuck you, where-ever you are right now, Kaz, for making me bother to look up how that stupid race's name is spelled). If you're not familiar, this means that he basically fudged it so he had 20 on Dexterity and then he tried to stack every movement he makes based on Dex. He even tried to argue that Natural Weapons (key word: WEAPONS) counted as unarmed attacks and, thus, should be based on dex. And he also really, really likes the words "BONUS ACTION", on account he's trying to just play himself as a living pinwheel of dex-based attacks. Seeing as he sucks at everything else he tries. So, taking a nod from Rising of the Shield Hero, in town, we find a countdown to the next disaster in town square - 7 days. The people of Belly Button (fuck you, DM-san, that's its name for the sake of these blog posts!) are honestly so used to this that they've become incredibly jaded towards the countdowns. This actually alarms Laga, who finds that the apathy worrisome, as one disaster being worse than the previous ones would be all it takes to cause untold harm. She meets with Laguna, who she has a brief history with (teasing him playfully that he should give up his 'sinful' pawn shop, due to the shady history some of the merch has) and they, more or less accidentally meet Kaz in so doing. Long story short, Laguna and Kaz agree with Laga's assessment, and they set off to try to learn what they can of the impending disaster and what they can do to deal with it. Long story short, they sign up to take on work at a sort of hunter's guild, resulting in a very impromptu battle against a freakin' dinosaur inside the test chamber. Due to... reasons I've honestly forgotten already, Laguna actually wasn't present for this. Laga, seeing this unarmed and unarmored idiot bird-man in harm's way, swiftly takes to the front line, shield and mace at the ready. For reference, Laga's AC is 18, between chain mail and a shield. Due to the aforementioned min/maxing, Kaz has 20. Kaz also wears just a karate gi, essentially. This ultimately results in Laga getting ragdollized as she attempts to protect said idiot bird-man. Thankfully, she has HP for days and, thus, took it like a champ as Kaz rolled 2-3 attacks in a row (this was before the DM and the rest of the party realized he was rolling his talons as unarmed attacks) and easily dropping the beast where it stood. Turns out, it was mechanical and the test was just to see how we'd react, but it was treated as a win, so we were largely satisfied with the results. Some faffing about later (the nature of each impending disaster seems to vary greatly between each instance of such, so information was sparse), so we decided to restock supplies before we leave. There, we meet Gunther, a stout fellow with a shop full of odds, ends, and everything inbetween. He even has wyrmstone, a magically-potent element semi-rare of this world, legendary weapons and tomes, and more. Laga purchased a book that, when united with the other Dragon Ba-- I mean -- copies of the same book, will grant the user a wish. She admitted fully that she wasn't 100% sure she trusted wish-granting magic, or that she could even phrase the wish such that there was assuredly no trouble from doing so, but the mystique won out and she bought it anyway. The entire time, Laguna, default rival of Gunther, kept attempting to... um... smooth things over between rivals. Or... trying to at any rate? On account that everything he said came off as a veiled threat, and it was only because Laga vowed to keep him on a short leash that Gunther relented and let us shop peacefully. Afterward, we ultimately headed to the bar to regroup. There, Laga spotted a proud hound in the corner of the bar. Squeeing like a small girl at a boy band concert, she asked permission to pet and feed doggo. Doggo approved. Turns out he was a mighty hound named Regnar, who the party would soon briefly recruit. I confess this scene made me irrationally happy, even out of character, as the idea of this large, thicc half-orc completely losing her marbles over a cute dog was too endearing not to enjoy. While at the bar, a girl from the DM-original race of Warcur, sought out our help due to a missing sister. She was last seen in the company of a noble, so our goal was clear: we needed to get into the ritzy part of town. No small fear due to us all being demi-human races in a town that really frowns on that. Ultimately, I was able to sweet-talk the guard, on my honor as a cleric. We then spotted the noble in question, and we devised a plan. ... Not... not a particularly SWIFT devising of plans, mind. While Laguna and Laga were largely on the same page, Kaz slowed deliberation down a bit and often confused the nature of the scheme. By the time we broke huddle and prepped to put it into motion, the DM joked that the man was already several blocks down the way, forcing us to race after him in a mad dash. After a brief, but ultimately fruitless, confrontration, the noble went on his way. But not without leaving a note behind. Laga was able to read part of it - something about "Four Sacrifices". Immediately, we put it together: the missing Warcur girl was likely to be killed off in the name of some dark deity! There was murder afoot and it was taking place just outside of town, beyond prying eyes, that very same night! We swiftly recruited Regnar, for his master tracking, and made way for the destined place. There, we saw goblins. Hundreds of them! We approached as stealthily as we could muster, well aware that one misstep would result in us being rushed by hundreds of the green menace, but also the deaths of four innocent maidens! Then, Laguna had a plan. Laga, due to her orc/cleric combination, actually spoke the most languages in the party - common, orc, goblin, and giant. This is important for several reasons, not the least of which was Laguna's plan was to mask Laga as the goblin's primary deity of choice, and then have her, speaking the goblin language, talk down this murderous army from their attempts at sacrificing maidens. His set up was masterful and I actually thought the plan was pretty concrete. We even saw the four girls in question, on a raised platform of some sort at the center of the gathering. Then I screwed up my charisma roll. Laga: You must not proceed with this! This is terrible! Warcur Girl: HEY! How dare you call our band terrible! We only just started playing! Laga: ... WHAT?! Y'ever... have your DM just pull a fast one on you? Well, ours sure as Hell did. And it all started because of a wry observation I made, out of character. In the D&D 5e manual, it lists the available languages and the alphabet they are written in. Turns out that dwarven, golbin, giant, and a few other languages all are written in the dwarven alphabet. DM-san then informs me that he fully planned the dwarves of this world to be very much akin to feudal Japan. Which is a pretty neat idea. And so he began joking that goblin language would be akin to Korean. And if you haven't put it together just yet, we had just walked into a multi-ethnic goblin-pop idol sensation band. G-Pop. And, due to the misunderstanding, Laga herself became something of a pop idol sensation, despite having yet to sing or dance yet. "The Four Sacrifices" was a band name and we had just inadvertently heckled their concert. When they returned to town, bootleg Laga merchandise had begun to make its round, much to Laga's deepest regrets. Not long after, Lucius joined the party, just in time for us to find a help wanted poster. When we sought out the interested party, we found a jilted lover situation - where a terrible witch had seduced and taken away her man! The client wanted us to steal something, which Laga admittedly had a hard time rationalizing away, up until Lucius clarified that liberating items from the witch and turning them over to the church would be a means by which furture generations could be better prepared against black magic - and that set Laga's indecision to rest. We agreed to break into the homestead and "liberate" the item in question. We entered using a magic doorway and this lead us to agreeing to always asking more questions about the nature of our work before we get underway. We were transported into an unsettling and otherworldly library, with strange entities keeping watch over things. Kaz attempted (and spectacularly failed) stealth, nearly knocking an entire bookshelf over on Laga and Lucius - the latter of whom was bopped over the head with a book that he would then claim as his own. We quickly made haste into the hallway, where we engaged with... God-damn Demons. The one race I decided would be fine for Laga to harbor a racial hatred of. The fight was brief, but brutal, as we easily laid them to waste. Then the puzzles began. Each door was guarded by an enchanted, speaking plaque which had a question about the lord of the manor. And, instead of using the... y'know, room FILLED WITH BOOKS AND KNOWLEDGE THAT CLEARLY WOULD'VE HELPED US... we decided to brute force the solution. One instance, when asked what the lord held in highest regard, this exchange actually happened: Kaz: Money? Plaque: No. Lucius: Gettin' laid? Plaque: No. Laga: Love! Plaque: I... y-yes, technically. ("It was actually his 12 wives. But, whatever." ~DM-san, after pointing out how fucking stupid we all had been.) Eventually, we get tired of guessing randomly and head 'forward' best we can manage. This results in our being prompted to roll for perception, which only Laga passes. I then get to be sole witness to a massive, gaunt, nigh-invisible figure approaching us. I desperately attempt to explain what's happening to the others as it nears, and it finally dawns on me (Huehuehue) that one of my basic cantrips is to make objects I touch glow. So, upon nearly getting strangled, I set the figure aglow and the battle begins in earnest, most of the damage being dealt via the two clerics and their divine powers (CoD of War indeed). Eventually we banish the killer and make our way to the safe, which Lucius pries open... only to then have a tiny, cat-like creature (which the DM informs us is called a Poogem) roll out and begin sounding the alarm. With its mouth. Too stunned to think straight, Lucius takes the gambit of the session: Poogem: I'm an alarm! WAY-WOO-WAY-WOO! Lucius: No, you're not! You're my best friend! DM: Roll charisma. Lucius: 20! DM: ... Poogem: I AM?! YAY! Then, we recovered the item and fled as quickly as we could, to the satisfaction of our employer. Afterward, the party split up as Lucius and Laguna went their own ways and Kaz and Laga went to the bar, met by bands of Warcurs. Kaz immediately humiliates himself by failing to understand cultural nuance more complex than "This race is typically NG" and spends 10 real-world minutes trying to fumble a name for his character's father (not a joke). Laga, meanwhile, sits with the female Warcurs and is offered a drink from one after hearing that they spent all day slaughtering demons. Now, due to meta-knowledge, I knew this drink was not safe for consumption. However, I throw my hands up and went with it, having Laga bottoms-up that tankard into her maw. DM: Okay. Roll Constitution. Me: 20! DM: ... Well, alright then. You enjoy it but it has a weird aftertaste. And, holy crap, this has gone on way longer than I expected so, join me next time as the D&D party undertakes a new mission and: Kaz is useless again! Laguna goes on one hell of a trip! Laga seduces a dragon and gets embroiled in TEEN GIRL SQUAD political movements! Laguna gets cursed by MegaSatan! Kaz nearly gets the party killed by offering a dragon a potato sack dress! And Laguna dies in boiling magma! See you there!

[mhsn033]

Best health Asia Today: SKorea arrests leader of church with big cluster

Best health

Best health South Korean prosecutors have arrested the elderly leader of a secretive religious sect as half of an investigation into allegations that the church hampered anti-virus measures after thousands of worshippers were infected in February and March

August 1, 2020, 2: 26 PM

5 min study

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean prosecutors arrested the elderly leader of a secretive religious sect Saturday as half of an investigation into allegations that the church hampered the authorities’s anti-virus response after thousands of worshippers were infected in February and March.

Prosecutors within the central metropolis of Suwaon were questioning 88-yr-ragged Lee Man-hee, chairman of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, over prices that the church hid some participants and underreported gatherings to retain a ways from broader quarantines.

The Suwon District Court early Saturday granted prosecutors’ seek records from to arrest Lee over concerns that he could possibly perhaps perhaps additionally mood with evidence.

Lee and his church have steadfastly denied the accusations, announcing they’re cooperating with health authorities. The church’s spokesperson, Kim Young-eun, stated the church will attain its finest in sigh that “truly clearly proved in courtroom.”

More than 5,200 of the South Korea’s 14,336 coronavirus cases were linked to the church. Its branch within the southern metropolis of Daegu emerged because the very best cluster after infections spiked in leisurely February.

Health authorities frail an aggressive test-and-quarantine program to have the outbreak in Daegu and interior reach cities by April, but the nation has seen a resurgence of the virus within the Seoul metropolitan dwelling since leisurely Will also unbiased.

In diverse trends within the Asia-Pacific location:

— India recorded its steepest spike of 57,118 unique cases within the past 24 hours, taking its coronavirus caseload cessation to 1.7 million, with July on my own accounting for nearly 1.1 million infections. The Health Ministry on Saturday additionally reported 764 extra deaths for a whole of 36,511. India’s Civil Aviation Ministry delayed resumption of worldwide flights by one other month except Aug. 31. Nonetheless this could occasionally seemingly possibly perhaps proceed to enable several worldwide carriers from the US, Europe and the Heart East to characteristic special flights to evacuate stranded nationals. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan stated Friday that India done bigger than 1 million recoveries with active cases finest one-third of the total. India is now conducting bigger than 640,000 tests in 24 hours, taking cumulative tests all over the nation to almost 1.9 million, he stated.

— The Australian direct of Victoria has recorded three more deaths from the coronavirus and 397 extra cases, a main descend from this week’s high. Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews stated he understood the most contemporary deaths were linked to feeble care, the build 1,008 cases are at display veil active. They exhaust the national death toll to 201, at the side of 116 in Victoria. Authorities warned that many of these infected were failing to self-isolate at dwelling. Andrews stated he was taking a perceive at whether or now not there wished to be adjustments in fines for these which have examined positive but were now not at dwelling when militia personnel and public health officials came knocking. “A mighty bigger handsome” by the courts is being notion to be, he stated.

— Japan’s capital recorded 472 unique coronavirus cases on Saturday, the third straight day of document numbers. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike issued a warning in an on-line video, urging of us to scrub their palms, wear masks and seek recommendation from these agencies that ticket the special metropolis-backed stickers with the picture of a rainbow, which indicates real social distancing. Most of us getting sick were of their 20s and 30s, highlighting how they could possibly perhaps perhaps additionally possibly be placing their guard down and going out partying, in step with officials. Nationwide, the day-to-day rely of coronavirus cases in Japan totaled a document 1,579 on Friday.

— China reported an even bigger than 50% descend in unique cases of COVID-19 on Saturday in a conceivable signal that its most contemporary main outbreak within the northwestern location of Xinjiang could possibly perhaps perhaps additionally possibly be waning. The 45 unique cases over the past 24 hours, 31 of them in Xinjiang, the build the outbreak has been all for the regional capital Urumqi, is down from 127 cases nationally on Friday, at the side of 112 in Xinjiang. The National Health Charge on Saturday additionally reported eight unique cases within the northeastern province of Liaoning, the build officials within the port metropolis of Dalian have serene nucleic acid tests on bigger than 4 million of us. One more six cases were introduced by Chinese travelers from overseas. In Hong Kong, infections proceed to surge with bigger than 100 unique cases reported day-to-day, bringing its whole to 2,273 as of Saturday morning, with two unique deaths for a whole of 27.

— Vietnam reported bigger than three dozen unique cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, while a third particular person died of COVID-19 complications a day after the nation reported its first-ever death from the illness. Vietnam had been seen as a global success story in combating the coronavirus, without a confirmed cases of native transmission for 99 days. Nonetheless per week ago, a virulent disease started at a Da Nang health center. It has unfold to 6 parts of the nation, at the side of three of the very best cities, forcing authorities to reimpose virus restrictions. Da Nang is Vietnam’s most fashioned shoreline vacation space, and thousands of vacation makers were within the metropolis for summer vacation. Correct by the nation, authorities are dashing to test these which have returned dwelling from the coastal metropolis. Of the 40 unique cases reported Saturday, 32 are from Da Nang hospitals and 6 are from plight of us transmissions within the metropolis. The diverse two are Vietnamese nationals getting back from Indonesia.

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[iota-news]

This article originally appeared in the Motley Fool. 

Since the beginning of 2017, no asset class has been more impressive than cryptocurrencies. Last year, the market cap of all digital currencies added together surged from less than $18 billion to $613 billion, representing a gain of over 3,300%. It would otherwise have taken decades for the stock market to deliver what virtual coins generated in the span of 12 months.

There have certainly been no shortage of catalysts pushing cryptocurrency valuations higher. For example, the rise of blockchain technology, which was thrust into the spotlight thanks to bitcoin, has been instrumental in vaulting virtual currencies to new heights. Blockchain is the digital, distributed, and decentralized ledger that underlies cryptocurrencies and is responsible for logging all transactions. It’s believed that blockchain could shorten transaction settlement times, lower transaction fees, and improve network security.

In addition to blockchain, cryptocurrencies have thrived off retail investors’ emotions, a weaker U.S. dollar, and an ample supply of news-driven events.

This man is deeply concerned about a sinking stock market chart Photo: GETTY IMAGES

These Cryptocurrencies Were Crushed In January

However, this parabolic move in digital currencies has also led to an exceptional amount of volatility. After soaring to the heavens in December, crypto valuations came back to Earth in January, with many large virtual currencies (those with a $1 billion market cap, or higher) falling by a double-digit percentage. While this list is by no means comprehensive, here are four cryptocurrencies that were absolutely throttled last month.

Bitcoin: Down 29%

There’s virtually no way we can discuss the worst-performing digital currencies in January without paying homage to bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap. As goes bitcoin, so goes the virtual coin market; and last month, bitcoin shed 29% of its value, which was nearly $65 billion in total market cap.

Why such a miserable month? Aside from some likely profit-taking following bitcoin’s meteoric rise, speculation surrounding stepped-up regulation has weighed on the most popular cryptocurrency. For instance, South Korea is in the process of implementing new anonymity rulesthat require identity disclosure when linking verified bank accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges. Beginning Jan. 30, only individuals with verified accounts will be able to add funds. Considering the South Korean won was the second-most-used currency behind the U.S. dollar in global bitcoin trading last year, any major changes in trading rules regarding bitcoin are bound to shake the market. 

As icing on the cake, social-media giant  Facebook   (NASDAQ:FB)  announced at the tail end of the month that it was ceasing all cryptocurrency and initial coin offering (ICO) advertisements. In a statement, Facebook suggested that cryptocurrencies and ICOs are “frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.” That’s a perfect summary of bitcoin’s topsy-turvy January.  Among the very largest cryptocurrencies, arguably none had a worse month than Ripple, which lost more than half of its value. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Ripple: Down 51%

Among the very largest cryptocurrencies, arguably none had a worse month than Ripple, which lost more than half of its value. Then again, Ripple gained over 35,500% in 2017, so it’s not exactly as if investors are crying the blues.

Ripple’s big surge came on the heels of two major partnership announcements over a span of two months. Ripple announced that  American Express   (NYSE:AXP)  and  Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN)  were teaming up to test its blockchain in cross-border non-card payments American Express users made to Banco Santander’s U.K. accounts. Ripple suggests these transactions could settle instantly, rather than waiting days to clear.

The second deal involves  MoneyGram International  (NASDAQ:MGI) . MoneyGram will be testing Ripple’s XRP coin in an effort to expedite money transfer settlements and lower transaction costs. Quicker transfer and lower costs could give it a leg up on its rivals.

However, investors may have realized that Ripple still has a lot to prove. These partnerships represent mere tests or small-scale projects, and that simply didn’t justify what had been a roughly $100 billion valuation. Also, the barrier to entry among cryptocurrencies is very low, meaning Ripple’s blockchain may not remain the perceived favorite among banks for long.

January wasn’t too kind to IOTA or its investors, with the cryptocurrency tumbling 36%. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

IOTA: Down 36%

The IOTA Foundation made a name for itself toward the end of 2017 when it announced that it would be beta testing its Data Marketplace, a blockchain-based, transaction-fee-free service that would allow companies to sell their unused data that would otherwise go to waste. The project itself has no official partners, but there are around 40 participants that have agreed to assist IOTA with feedback during the beta process. The simple fact that many of these participants are brand-name or household companies created quite the stir with investors. 

Unfortunately, January wasn’t too kind to IOTA or its investors, with the cryptocurrency tumbling 36%. The biggest issue of late has been that the scaling of IOTA’s blockchain has caused its transaction processing times to drag (and I do mean drag). Though not exactly a firm news source, users on various cryptocurrency forums have expressed frustration about significant lag times in processing IOTA transactions, some of which were delayed hours or days. Remember, blockchain is designed to eliminate the lag time associated with the current banking system, so this would suggest that IOTA still has a lot of work to do.

It should also be noted that IOTA’s Data Marketplace, while a really intriguing idea, is nothing more than a beta test at the moment. Investors may have come to terms with the fact that IOTA is probably a ways away from launching its unique blockchain product.

Verge: Down 69%

But if there were a disaster du jour, it belonged to privacy coin Verge, which almost lost 70% of its value in a month. Yet it’s important to keep things in context. Last year, Verge rose by more than 1,100,000% (that’s 1.1 million percent), so investors in its XVG coin have done just fine if they’ve been holding for more than, say, eight weeks. 

Interest in Verge derives from the privacy-coin movement, which has grown in popularity. Privacy coins take the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrency transactions and turns it up a whole bunch. You see, despite not having to enter your Social Security number or other vital information when undertaking a digital currency transaction, blockchain analysis can still often lead back to a sender or receiver of funds. This makes traditional cryptos like bitcoin not nearly as anonymous as most folks believe. Digital currencies like Verge use extra protocols to obfuscate the sender and receiver of funds.

The recent downside in Verge looks to be a combination of two factors. First, I don’t think we can overlook profit-taking after its astronomical rise. Second, South Korea’s push for cryptocurrency trader transparency, as already described, is a potentially major blow for privacy coins like Verge, Dash, and Monero. These coins rely on the desire of libertarians to want to remain anonymous. But if global governments are going to step in and disallow this type of anonymity for fear of fraud, it could undermine Verge and its peers.

Sean Williams has no position in any of the stocks or cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook, but has no position in any cryptocurrencies mentioned.. The Motley Fool has the following options: long March 2018 $200 calls on Facebook and long March 2018 $170 puts on Facebook. The Motley Fool recommends American Express. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

This Post was originally published by the International Business Times.

The post From Ripple To IOTA, 4 Cryptocurrencies That Plummeted In January 2018 appeared first on IOTA News.

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[nothingman]

By Alfred W. McCoy | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – –

The superhighway to disaster is already being paved.

From Donald Trump’s first days in office, news of the damage to America’s international stature has come hard and fast. As if guided by some malign design, the new president seemed to identify the key pillars that have supported U.S. global power for the past 70 years and set out to topple each of them in turn. By degrading NATO, alienating Asian allies, cancelling trade treaties, and slashing critical scientific research, the Trump White House is already in the process of demolishing the delicately balanced architecture that has sustained Washington’s world leadership since the end of World War II.  However unwittingly, Trump is ensuring the accelerated collapse of American global hegemony.

Stunned by his succession of foreign policy blunders, commentators — left and right, domestic and foreign — have raised their voices in a veritable chorus of criticism. A Los Angeles Times editorial typically called him “so unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard, so untethered to reality” that he threatened to “weaken this country’s moral standing in the world” and “imperil the planet” through his “appalling” policy choices. “He’s a sucker who’s shrinking U.S. influence in [Asia] and helping make China great again,” wrote New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman after surveying the damage to the country’s Asian alliances from the president’s “decision to tear up the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade deal in his first week in office.”

The international press has been no less harsh. Reeling from Trump’s denunciation of South Korea’s free-trade agreement as “horrible” and his bizarre claim that the country had once been “a part of China,” Seoul’s leading newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, expressed the “shock, betrayal, and anger many South Koreans have felt.” Assessing his first 100 days in office, Britain’s venerable Observer commented: “Trump’s crudely intimidatory, violent, know-nothing approach to sensitive international issues has encircled the globe from Moscow to the Middle East to Beijing, plunging foes and allies alike into a dark vortex of expanding strategic instability.”

For an American president to virtually walk out of his grand inaugural celebrations into such a hailstorm of criticism is beyond extraordinary. Having more or less exhausted their lexicon of condemnatory rhetoric, the usual crew of commentators is now struggling to understand how an American president could be quite so willfully self-destructive.

Britain’s Suez Crisis

Blitzed by an incessant stream of bizarre tweets and White House conspiracy theories, observers worldwide seem to have concluded that Donald Trump is a president like no other, that the situation he’s creating is without parallel, and that his foreign policy is already a disaster without precedent. After rummaging around in history’s capacious closet for some old suit that might fit him, analysts have failed to find any antecedent or analogue to adequately explain him.

Yet just 60 years ago, a crisis in the ever-volatile Middle East overseen by a bumbling, mistake-prone British leader helped create a great power debacle that offers insight into the Trumpian moment, a glimpse into possible futures, and a sense of the kind of decline that could lie in the imperial future of the United States.

In the early 1950s, Britain’s international position had many parallels with America’s today. After a difficult postwar recovery from the devastation of World War II, that country was enjoying robust employment, lucrative international investments, and the prestige of the pound sterling’s stature as the world’s reserve currency. Thanks to a careful withdrawal from its far-flung, global empire and its close alliance with Washington, London still enjoyed a sense of international influence exceptional for a small island nation of just 50 million people. On balance, Britain seemed poised for many more years of world leadership with all the accompanying economic rewards and perks.

Then came the Suez crisis. After a decade of giving up one colony after another, the accumulated stress of imperial retreat pushed British conservatives into a disastrous military intervention to reclaim Egypt’s Suez Canal.  This, in turn, caused a “deep moral crisis in London” and what one British diplomat would term the “dying convulsion of British imperialism.” In a clear instance of what historians call “micro-militarism” — that is, a bold military strike designed to recover fading imperial influence — Britain joined France and Israel in a misbegotten military invasion of Egypt that transformed slow imperial retreat into a precipitous collapse.

Just as the Panama Canal had once been a shining example for Americans of their nation’s global prowess, so British conservatives treasured the Suez Canal as a vital lifeline that tied their small island to its sprawling empire in Asia and Africa. A few years after the canal’s grand opening in 1869, London did the deal of the century, scooping up Egypt’s shares in it for a bargain basement price of £4 million.  Then, in 1882, Britain consolidated its control over the canal through a military occupation of Egypt, reducing that ancient land to little more than an informal colony.

As late as 1950, in fact, Britain still maintained 80,000 soldiers and a string of military bases astride the canal. The bulk of its oil and gasoline, produced at the enormous Abadan refinery in the Persian Gulf, transited through Suez, fueling its navy, its domestic transportation system, and much of its industry.

After British troops completed a negotiated withdrawal from Suez in 1955, the charismatic nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser asserted Egypt’s neutrality in the Cold War by purchasing Soviet bloc arms, raising eyebrows in Washington. In July 1956, after the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower had in response reneged on its promise to finance construction of the Aswan High Dam on the Upper Nile, Nasser sought alternative financing for this critical infrastructure by nationalizing the Suez Canal.  In doing so, he electrified the Arab world and elevated himself to the top rank of world leaders.

Although British ships still passed freely through the canal and Washington insisted on a diplomatic resolution of the conflict, Britain’s conservative leadership reacted with irrational outrage. Behind a smokescreen of sham diplomacy designed to deceive Washington, their closest ally, the British foreign secretary met secretly with the prime ministers of France and Israel near Paris to work out an elaborately deceptive two-stage invasion of Egypt by 250,000 allied troops, backed by 500 aircraft and 130 warships.  Its aim, of course, was to secure the canal.

On October 29, 1956, the Israeli army led by the dashing General Moshe Dayan swept across the Sinai Peninsula, destroying Egyptian tanks and bringing his troops to within 10 miles of the canal. Using this fighting as a pretext for an intervention to restore peace, Anglo-French amphibious and airborne forces quickly joined the attack, backed by a devastating bombardment from six aircraft carriers that destroyed the Egyptian air force, including over a hundred of its new MiG jet fighters. As Egypt’s military collapsed with some 3,000 of its troops killed and 30,000 captured, Nasser deployed a defense brilliant in its simplicity by scuttling dozens of rusting cargo ships filled with rocks and concrete at the entrance to the Suez Canal.  In this way, he closed Europe’s oil lifeline to the Persian Gulf.

Simultaneously, U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, backed by Washington, imposed a cease-fire after just nine days of war, stopping the Anglo-French attack far short of capturing the entire canal. President Eisenhower’s blunt refusal to back his allies with either oil or money and the threat of condemnation before the U.N. soon forced Britain into a humiliating withdrawal. With its finances collapsing from the invasion’s soaring costs, the British government could not maintain the pound’s official exchange rate, degrading its stature as a global reserve currency.

The author of this extraordinary debacle was Sir Anthony Eden, a problematic prime minister whose career offers some striking parallels with Donald Trump’s. Born into privilege as the son of a landholder, Eden enjoyed a good education at a private school and an elite university. After inheriting a substantial fortune from his father, he entered politics as a conservative, using his political connections to dabble in finance. Chafing under Winston Churchill’s postwar leadership of the Conservative Party, Eden, who styled himself a rebel against hidebound institutions, used incessant infighting and his handsome head of hair to push the great man aside and become prime minister in 1955.

When Nasser nationalized the canal, Eden erupted with egotism, bluster, and outrage. “What’s all this nonsense about isolating Nasser,” Eden berated his foreign affairs minister. “I want him destroyed, can’t you understand? I want him murdered, and if you and the Foreign Office don’t agree, then you’d better come to the cabinet and explain why.” Convinced that Britain was still the globe’s great power, Eden rejected sound advice that he consult fully with Washington, the country’s closest ally. As his bold intervention plunged toward diplomatic disaster, the prime minister became focused on manipulating the British media, in the process confusing favorable domestic coverage with international support.

When Washington demanded a ceasefire as the price of a billion-dollar bailout for a British economy unable to sustain such a costly war, Eden’s bluster quickly crumbled and he denied his troops a certain victory, arousing a storm of protest in Parliament. Humiliated by the forced withdrawal, Eden compensated psychologically by ordering MI-6, Britain’s equivalent of the CIA, to launch its second ill-fated assassination attempt on Nasser. Since its chief local agent was actually a double-agent loyal to Nasser, Egyptian security had, however, already rounded up the British operatives and the weapons delivered for the contract killers proved duds.

Confronted with a barrage of angry questions in Parliament about his collusion with the Israelis, Eden lied repeatedly, swearing that there was no “foreknowledge that Israel would attack Egypt.” Protesters denounced him as “too stupid to be a prime minister,” opposition members of parliament laughed openly when he appeared before Parliament, and his own foreign affairs minister damned him as “an enraged elephant charging senselessly at… imaginary enemies.”

Just weeks after the last British soldier left Egypt, Eden, discredited and disgraced, was forced to resign after only 21 months in office. Led into this unimaginably misbegotten operation by his delusions of omnipotence, he left the once-mighty British lion a toothless circus animal that would henceforth roll over whenever Washington cracked the whip.

Trump’s Demolition Job

Despite the obvious differences in their economic circumstances, there remain some telling resonances between Britain’s postwar politics and America’s troubles today. Both of these fading global hegemons suffered a slow erosion of economic power in a fast-changing world, producing severe social tensions and stunted political leaders. Britain’s Conservative Party leadership had declined from the skilled diplomacy of Disraeli, Salisbury, and Churchill to Eden’s bluster and blunder.  Similarly, the Republican Party has descended from the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and George H.W. Bush to a field of 17 primary candidates in 2016 who promised to resolve an infinitely complex crisis in the Middle East through a set of incendiary policies that included making desert sands glow from carpet-bombing and forcing terrorists to capitulate through torture. Confronted with daunting international challenges, the voters of both countries supported appealing but unstable leaders whose delusions of omnipotence inclined them to military misadventures.

Like British citizens of the 1950s, most Americans today do not fully grasp the fragility of their status as “the leader of the free world.” Indeed, Washington has been standing astride the globe as a superpower for so long that most of its leaders have almost no understanding of the delicate design of their country’s global power built so carefully by two post-World War II presidents.

Under Democratic President Harry Truman, Congress created the key instruments for Washington’s emerging national security state and its future global dominion by passing the National Security Act of 1947 that established the Air Force, the CIA, and two new executive agencies, the Defense Department and the National Security Council. To rebuild a devastated, war-torn Europe, Washington launched the Marshall Plan and then turned such thinking into a worldwide aid program through the U.S. Agency for International Development meant to embed American power globally and support pro-American elites across the planet. Under Truman as well, U.S. diplomats forged the NATO alliance (which Washington would dominate until the Trump moment), advanced European unity, and signed a parallel string of mutual-defense treaties with key Asian allies along the Pacific littoral, making Washington the first power in two millennia to control both “axial ends” of the strategic Eurasian continent.

During the 1950s, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower deployed this national security apparatus to secure Washington’s global dominion with a nuclear triad (bombers, ballistic missiles, and submarines), a chain of military bases that ringed Eurasia, and a staggering number of highly militarized covert operations to assure the ascent of loyal allies worldwide. Above all, he oversaw the integration of the latest in scientific and technological research into the Pentagon’s weapons procurement system through the forging of the famed “military-industrial complex” (against which he would end up warning Americans as he left office in 1961).   All this, in turn, fostered an aura of American power so formidable that Washington could re-order significant parts of the world almost at will, enforcing peace, setting the international agenda, and toppling governments on four continents.

While it’s reasonable to argue that Washington had by then become history’s greatest global power, its hegemony, like that of all the world empires that preceded it, remained surprisingly fragile. Skilled leadership was required to maintain the system’s balance of diplomacy, military power, economic strength, and technological innovation.

By the time President Trump took his oath of office, negative, long-term trends had already started to limit the influence of any American leader on the world stage.  These included a declining share of the global economy, an erosion of U.S. technological primacy, an inability to apply its overwhelming military power in a way that achieved expected policy goals on an ever more recalcitrant planet, and a generation of increasingly independent national leaders, whether in Europe, Asia, or Latin America.

Apart from such adverse trends, Washington’s global power rested on such strategic fundamentals that its leaders might still have managed carefully enough to maintain a reasonable semblance of American hegemony: notably, the NATO alliance and Asian mutual-security treaties at the strategic antipodes of Eurasia, trade treaties that reinforced such alliances, scientific research to sustain its military’s technological edge, and leadership on international issues like climate change.

In just five short months, however, the Trump White House has done a remarkable job of demolishing these very pillars of U.S. global power. During his first overseas trip in May 2017, President Trump chastised stone-faced NATO leaders for failure to pay their “fair share” into the military part of the alliance and refused to affirm its core principle of collective defense. Ignoring the pleas of these close allies, he then forfeited America’s historic diplomatic leadership by announcing Washington’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord with all the drama of a reality television show. After watching his striking repudiation of Washington’s role as world leader, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told voters in her country that “we must fight for our future on our own, for our destiny as Europeans.”

Along the strategic Pacific littoral, Trump cancelled the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact on taking office and gratuitously alienated allies by cutting short a courtesy phone call to Australia’s prime minister and insulting South Korea to the point where its new president won office, in part, on a platform of “say no” to America. When President Moon Jae-in visited Washington in June, determined to heal the breach between the two countries, he was, as the New York Times reported, blindsided by “the harshness of Mr. Trump’s critique of South Korea on trade.”

Just days after Trump dismissed Moon’s suggestion that the two countries engage in actual diplomatic negotiations with Pyongyang, North Korea successfully test-fired a ballistic missile potentially capable of reaching Alaska or possibly Hawaii with a nuclear warhead (though experts believe Pyongyang may still be years away from effectively fitting such a warhead to the missile).  It was an act that made those same negotiations Washington’s only viable option — apart from a second Korean War, which would potentially devastate both the region and the U.S. position as the preeminent international leader.

In other words, after 70 years of global dominion, America’s geopolitical command of the axial ends of Eurasia — the central pillars of its world power — seems to be crumbling in a matter of months.

Instead of the diplomacy of presidents past, Trump and his advisers, especially his military men, have reacted to his first modest foreign crises as well as the everyday power questions of empire with outbursts akin to Anthony Eden’s.  Since January, the White House has erupted in sudden displays of raw military power that included a drone blitz of unprecedented intensity in Yemen to destroy what the president called a “network of lawless savages,” the bombardment of a Syrian air base with 59 Tomahawk missiles, and the detonation of the world’s largest non-nuclear bomb on a terrorist refuge in eastern Afghanistan.

While reveling in the use of such weaponry, Trump, by slashing federal funding for critical scientific research, is already demolishing the foundations for the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower’s successors, Republican and Democratic alike, so sedulously maintained for the last half-century. While China is ramping up its scientific research across the board, Trump has proposed what the American Association for Advancement of Science called “deep cuts to numerous research agencies” that will mean the eventual loss of the country’s technological edge. In the emerging field of artificial intelligence that will soon drive space warfare and cyber-warfare, the White House wants to reduce the 2018 budget for this critical research at the National Science Foundation to a paltry $175 million, even as Beijing is launching “a new multi-billion-dollar initiative” linked to building “military robots.”

A Future Debacle in the Greater Middle East

With a president who shares Sir Anthony Eden’s penchant for bravura, self-delusion, and impulsiveness, the U.S. seems primed for a twenty-first-century Suez of its own, a debacle in the Greater Middle East (or possibly elsewhere). From the disastrous expedition that ancient Athens sent to Sicily in 413 BCE to Britain’s invasion of Suez in 1956, embattled empires throughout the ages have often suffered an arrogance that drives them to plunge ever deeper into military misadventures until defeat becomes debacle, a misuse of armed force known technically among historians as micro-militarism. With the hubris that has marked empires over the millennia, the Trump administration is, for instance, now committed to extending indefinitely Washington’s failing war of pacification in Afghanistan with a new mini-surge of U.S. troops (and air power) in that classic “graveyard of empires.“

So irrational, so unpredictable is such micro-militarism that even the most fanciful of scenarios can be outpaced by actual events, as was true at Suez. With the U.S. military stretched thin from North Africa to South Korea, with no lasting successes in its post-9/11 wars, and with tensions rising from the Persian Gulf and Syria to the South China Sea and the Koreas, the possibilities for a disastrous military crisis abroad seem almost unending. So let me pick just one possible scenario for a future Trumpian military misadventure in the Greater Middle East.  (I’m sure you’ll think of other candidates immediately.)

It’s the late spring of 2020, the start of the traditional Afghan fighting season, and a U.S. garrison in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan is unexpectedly overrun by an ad hoc alliance of Taliban and Islamic State guerrillas. While U.S. aircraft are grounded in a blinding sand storm, the militants summarily execute their American captives, filming the gruesome event for immediate upload on the Internet. Speaking to an international television audience, President Trump thunders against “disgusting Muslim murderers” and swears he will “make the desert sands run red with their blood.” In fulfillment of that promise, an angry American theater commander sends B-1 bombers and F-35 fighters to demolish whole neighborhoods of Kandahar believed to be under Taliban control. In an aerial coup de grâce, AC-130-U “Spooky” gunships then rake the rubble with devastating cannon fire. The civilian casualties are beyond counting.

Soon, mullahs are preaching jihad from mosques across Afghanistan and far beyond. Afghan Army units, long trained by American forces to turn the tide of the war, begin to desert en masse. In isolated posts across the country, clusters of Afghan soldiers open fire on their American advisers in what are termed “insider” or “green-on-blue” attacks. Meanwhile, Taliban fighters launch a series of assaults on scattered U.S. garrisons elsewhere in the country, suddenly sending American casualties soaring. In scenes reminiscent of Saigon in 1975, U.S. helicopters rescue American soldiers and civilians from rooftops not just in Kandahar, but in several other provincial capitals and even Kabul.

Meanwhile, angry over the massive civilian casualties in Afghanistan, the anti-Muslim diatribes tweeted almost daily from the Oval Office, and years of depressed energy prices, OPEC’s leaders impose a harsh new oil embargo aimed at the United States and its allies. With refineries running dry in Europe and Asia, the world economy trembling at the brink of recession, and gas prices soaring, Washington flails about for a solution. The first call is to NATO, but the alliance is near collapse after four years of President Trump’s erratic behavior. Even the British, alienated by his inattention to their concerns, rebuff his appeals for support.

Facing an uncertain reelection in November 2020, the Trump White House makes its move, sending Marines and Special Operations forces to seize oil ports in the Persian Gulf. Flying from the Fifth Fleet’s base in Bahrain, Navy Seals and Army Rangers occupy the Ras Tanura refinery in Saudi Arabia, the ninth largest in the world; Kuwait’s main oil port at Shuaiba; and Iraq’s at Um Qasr.

Simultaneously, the light carrier USS Iwo Jima steams south at the head of a task force that launches helicopters carrying 6,000 Special Operations forces tasked with seizing the al-Ruwais refinery in Abu Dhabi, the world’s fourth largest, and the megaport at Jebel Ali in Dubai, a 20-square-mile complex so massive that the Americans can only occupy its oil facilities. When Teheran vehemently protests the U.S. escalation in the Persian Gulf and hints at retaliation, Defense Secretary James Mattis, reviving a plan from his days as CENTCOM commander, orders preemptive Tomahawk missile strikes on Iran’s flagship oil refinery at Abadan.

From its first hours, the operation goes badly wrong. The troops seem lost inside the unmapped mazes of pipes that honeycomb the oil ports.  Meanwhile, refinery staff prove stubbornly uncooperative, sensing that the occupation will be short-lived and disastrous. On day three, Iranian Revolutionary Guard commandos, who have been training for this moment since the breakdown of the 2015 nuclear accord with the U.S., storm ashore at the Kuwaiti and Emirate refineries with remote-controlled charges. Unable to use their superior firepower in such a volatile environment, American troops are reduced to firing futile bursts at the departing speed boats as oil storage tanks and gas pipes explode spectacularly.

Three days later, as the USS Gerald Ford approaches an Iranian island, more than 100 speedboats suddenly appear, swarming the carrier in a practiced pattern of high-speed crisscrosses. Every time lethal bursts from the carrier’s MK-38 chain guns rip through the lead boats, others emerge from the flames coming closer and closer. Concealed by clouds of smoke, one finally reaches an undefended spot beneath the conning tower near enough for a Revolutionary guardsman to attach a magnetic charge to the hull with a fateful click. There is a deafening roar and a gaping hole erupts at the waterline of the first aircraft carrier to be crippled in battle since World War II.  As things go from bad to worse, the Pentagon is finally forced to accept that a debacle is underway and withdraws its capital ships from the Persian Gulf.

As black clouds billow skyward from the Gulf’s oil ports and diplomats rise at the U.N. to bitterly denounce American actions, commentators worldwide reach back to the 1956 debacle that marked the end of imperial Britain to brand this “America’s Suez.” The empire has been trumped.

Alfred W. McCoy, a TomDispatch regular, is the Harrington professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of the now-classic book The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, which probed the conjuncture of illicit narcotics and covert operations over 50 years, and the forthcoming In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power, out in September from Dispatch Books.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, John Dower’s The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, as well as John Feffer’s dystopian novel Splinterlands, Nick Turse’s Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt’s Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

Copyright 2017 Alfred W. McCoy

[Note for TomDispatch Readers: In September, Dispatch Books will publish the next in our line-up of explorations of imperial America: Alfred McCoy’s remarkable In the Shadows of the American Century. Kirkus Reviews has praised it as “sobering reading for geopolitics mavens and Risk aficionados alike, offering no likely path beyond decline and fall.” Among the impressive range of comments we’ve gotten on it come two from Pulitzer Prize winners. Novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer, writes that McCoy “persuasively argues for the inevitable decline of the American empire and the rise of China… Let’s hope that Americans will listen to his powerful arguments.” And historian John Dower states that the book “joins the essential short list of scrupulous historical and comparative studies of the United States as an awesome, conflicted, technologically innovative, routinely atrocious, and ultimately hubristic imperial power.” As with all his work since the CIA tried to stifle his classic first book, The Politics of Heroin, back in the early 1970s, McCoy’s is leading-edge stuff and a must-read, so reserve your copy early by clicking here. Tom]

Via Tomdispatch.com

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Related video added by Juan Cole:

PBS NewsHour: “News Wrap: U.S. forces kill Abu Sayed, ISIS leader in Afghanistan”

via Informed Comment

[lodryons]

Madrid

Hola! They speak Spanish in Spain. Makes sense. Portuguese in Portugal. Man, these people are consistent. Everyone here is tan and beautiful too. Americans really were the undesirables. Murderers and uglies breeding for centuries really messes with a society. I’m just kidding, we have Kim Kardashian, she’s a real beauty (except for like everything on her body but it’s what is inside of her that matters, Mr. West!).

I flew with TAP Portugal or air Portugal TAP? Whatever. It was really nice. The seats looked crisp and felt new. They even had a universal outlet for each chair. This is luxury ladies and gentleman. My phone that gets 2G via shitty T-Mobile is now at 100%!

I met a man from NYC that moved here 3 years ago and he says he loves it. He’s finishing his Ph.D. here in psychology. It’s costing him 600 euros. I do wonder if the quality of education is comparable to our $50K/year system. Probably not. He was telling me they speak weird Spanish here (or maybe we’re the weird ones?) and in Barcelona, they speak something called Catalina which is even weirder. Apparently, the Spanish people have the best work-life balance. Generally starting work at 10 AM and working until 2 PM. From 2 PM - 4:30 PM they will eat lunch. From 5PM-9PM they will finish work and then eat dinner around 11 PM or midnight. He also mentioned that if it’s nice outside absolutely no one is inside. They must not have video games here.

I tried another latte and I’m getting closer to something latte-ish. You’d think espresso and milk would taste the same everywhere but the leche in Spain is weird I think. I’ll wait for Rome to get a proper one. Everyone drinks espresso here anyways. Gross.

Lost one of the tips to my $80 earbuds. That’s like $40 in tips lost. Luckily I got a free pair of the absolute worst earbuds from Delta and cannibalized its tips and they fit! I was just describing to someone how I absolutely hate everything about earbud tips. A new 1st world problem in my life!

Apparently, they love Fish here too. God dammit.

I keep thinking people are speaking Russian in my hostel when really it’s Spanish or Portuguese. I even asked a girl if she was from Russia and she was from Portugal. I was in Portugal. I didn’t ask anyone else that question.

A friend recommended I try out this great app called Lonely Planet. Found a great tapas place (read: snackys) last night and spent many euros on lots of great ham, veal meatballs, blood sausage and some potato ball things. An American from New York overheard us talking in English and was delighted to find someone to chat with. He’s here on business with a bunch of people from his company that’s in the Oil & Gas industry. It’s probably because I’m an Elon Musk fanboy but I felt like he had just told me he works for the Tobacco industry. It’s not a fair view. He seemed like a nice guy. Probably drives an electric car.

I slept 11 hours last night. In reality, the quality of sleep is about 50-60% since you’re woken up about every 15-30 minutes by someone snoring, rummaging through their belongings, turning a light on, speaking in their outdoor voice to one another or entering/exiting the room. There is a reason it costs 30 euros to sleep in these beautiful establishments.

I failed to secure a latte today. I was sure I was on the right track. The woman asked me if by latte I meant coffee in milk! Yes. This is progress. I said oh no, espresso in milk! I might have thrown out an “espresso con leche!” Which I don’t think is right because she just smiled and then said something slightly different. I didn’t specify the volume of milk and so I received essentially an espresso with a dash of milk. Still, this is progress. I’ll order an espresso con mucho leche next time.

I tried but couldn’t find a damn cafe that had both WiFi and an outlet. So I went to Starbucks. Within 3 minutes of being there, a group of 3 American girls (I think) sat near me and sounded basic as hell. I’m not judging but damn that’s impressive. They’ve gone worldwide at this point. I must say the internet & quality of latte at Starbucks in Madrid was quite good.

One of the most interesting things about sleeping in a hostel room is experiencing each person’s take on nighttime civility. Being American I will generalize this to how every member of their home country acts at night too. Everyone that practices Islam is a terrorist right? I’d say that Americans might be described as stupid and fat but in my opinion, we take the cake when it comes to nighttime politeness. We at least do that annoying “Shhh!” thing to each other.  From what I can tell most people not in America think that chatting at full volume to each other past midnight when there are 4 people sleeping around them is normal. I wish I understood what they were saying because perhaps it’s warranted. For example, “My mum slept with the neighbor again. Dad’s buying another boat to spite her.” I’d forgive that.

This morning I had 4 snorers and one guy sleep through his alarm for at least 20 minutes. I just left. How haven’t we solved snoring as a society? I think there should be a Richter scale for snoring and your rating is placed on your license. Then we can bucket people of similar ratings in rooms by law. I’m running for president on this.

I did a walking tour yesterday. Easily the worst and best tour I’ve ever had. The gentleman was quite nice and eccentric but his accent made everything rather hard to understand and he didn’t speak loudly at all. I met some cool Americans studying in Rome for the semester that were doing a vacation across a few cities in Spain. One of them is actually studying Computer Science at Michigan right now. Small world. We all had a laugh at how ridiculous our tour guide was. He basically asked us what we think we should do if President Trump were to visit Madrid and stay at the Royal Palace in the most awkward way. I can’t even recall how he phrased it but it took him several minutes for him to relay to us that he was actually joking and not trying to give us some interesting note on how foreign presidents are treated in general in Spain. He said we should put him the bosses room, lock and throw away the key. I found it hilarious that he thought this was a good joke (as did half the group).

Apparently, Madrid has bomb hot chocolate. It’s thick and you can dip churros in it. So I did at 1 AM last night with a nice chap I met on the tour named Brandon. An eccentric Italian man came in and started making lots of noises and questionable body language positions next to us. I found him quite funny and charming. He played the Clarinet really nicely too. I gave him 5 euros. He seemed like he was in his 60’s or 70’s. Feels bad man.

The South Korean guy’s alarm went off blazing this morning at 8 or 8:30 AM this morning. Shortly afterward the Brazilian guy adjacent to me got up for breakfast presumably and decided to turn the light on and start singing for 10 minutes while he packed his bag. I think my data is getting pretty damn good at this point. Other cultures don’t have a noise or light policy when others are sleeping. Animals!

Today’s my last day so I figure I’ll go to a museum or two. I’m sure it will be riveting.

I got to the Prado (famous paintings of kings and shit) and it was so nice and sunny that I decided to sit on the lawn right outside it and read for a couple of hours instead. Judge me and my fabulous tan all you like.

I had tapas with my girlfriend’s childhood friend and her boyfriend in a non-touristy area called Rosa Rosia (or something like that). Man, my girlfriend is so popular. I hope I have friends one day.

Slept a beautiful 6 hours last night (that’s about 3 hours less than I’m used to). I’ve written a lot about sleeping in hostels for this post but it cannot be understated how screwed you are if you think you’re going to sleep normally.

If you go to bed too late, you’re screwed because some animal will always be getting up at 5 AM for a flight or maybe 6 AM because he was a loser and wants to be a damn tourist all day, nice and early bird style.

No one has anything around the night before so they will spend 20 minutes purely on zipping and unzipping 3 bags as they dress themselves in a sleepy stupor (picture yourself putting pants on, zipping your bag shut, and then realizing you also need a shirt, repeat, and then you need socks, and then you want to wear that bracelet actually, etc etc).

Now, consider the other case, the loser going to bed early to avoid the early bird traffic case. You are absolutely screwed anyways. You go to bed at 10 or 11 PM and for the next 4 hours you will have someone come in or out of the room either to get ready to get drunk for the night, or they’re already drunk coming to sleep, or they need something in the middle of a drunk-infused night.

You might be wondering how I don’t add to this chaos? I pack my bag the day before and leave out only exactly what I need in the morning. Upon waking I grab it instantly and get the hell out of the sleeping vicinity and move to the bathroom area. No lights and zippers and shit.

I’ll never post about sleeping or hostel sleeping etiquette again.

Madrid was fine. I think I should have gone to Barcelona though. I didn’t really find the city interesting as a traveler. It would be swell to live there I’m sure. I also had the worst luck with my hostel roommates which is quite rare for me. It’s still nice to have visited Espana. Peace.