#every extremists in every country is gonna take it as a call to do the same

[tenrose]

I don't get why these criminals want to control people with uterus so much. Why having an uterus does make us less of a human? Why so many patriarchal societies all around the world decided this shit? Hell, having an uterus is already a pain in the ass for a lot of us without having to deal with being considered second class citizens.

I'm so sorry for every American who don't get to decide what to do with their body. I'm sorry for everyone around the world that haven't had the right to do what they want with THEIR bodies. This shit is frightening. People like to talk about about how women have no right in the Middle East but really they are just jealous it's not in the name of Christianity. And it's spreading all across the world. It has already widely spread inside the EU too and we did NOTHING. And women rights are far from being the only human rights being violated right now.

This is CRIMINAL. Every law, in every country all around the world, having for only purpose to control another human body is a HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE.

It's absolutely terrifying to see that everytime women, people of colour, queer people and basically every minority have been gaining a little bit of more human rights that they didn't have previously, the violence against them get even more intense. It's dreadful how they don't want us to live as free and as equal as them.

And you know how the incels, the white baby boys supremacists, the ultra religious fringes always scream "uh uh women want to emasculate us"? And how I speak before thinking sometimes and then I'm like "maybe I shouldn't be this harsh" and feel guilty about it. And how many women spend time trying to nicely educate them and saying to them that we just want equality despite them insulting them, and howw even I, am like while scrolling "I don't want to be this harsh sounding to men like some extreme feminist groups". And how all of this is in vain.

Well fuck this. I think we should give those assholes reason for once and come for their balls and throats. They want to take away our rights? Get ready to be bitten back fuckers.

[anexperimentallife]

The US far right has been working on their plan since AT LEAST the 1960s, when I was a kid listening to evangelicals talking about their plan to take over the US, and eventually the world. It's called "Christian Dominionism," and it's a fascist ideology which goes hand in glove with the GOP's plans.

Although it was not expressed so much to the world at large, this plan was OPENLY and FREQUENTLY discussed in far right circles. We kids, if we asked about it, were told that it was "God's Will." Ask any exvangelical about it, and they'll confirm. (Part of why I know so much about these dangerous and deluded folks is I WAS ONE OF THEM in my youth.)

And where has that plan gotten them? Well, the GOP recently released a hundreds of pages long document filled with their intentions if they win--including a nationwide abortion ban and a repeal of anti-discrimination laws, among other things.

Trump has already signaled his intent to create a military dictatorship if elected, by repealing laws against using the military against US citizens on US soil sp he can deploy them against dissenters, etc., and if the GOP pick up a few more congressional seats, he can do it. The GOP has already pushed to repeal presidential term limits, and Trump has indicated he'd like to be president for life.

So I'm amazed at all the people who think withholding their vote and letting the GOP win is going to somehow fix things and "push the Dems left."

You wanna know how to push US politics leftward? You're not gonna like it, because it takes actual work beyond stomping your foot and pouting and performatively showing everyone how "pure" you are by refusing to vote.

You have to start the same way the far right did (and again, they've been OPENLY talking about and pursuing this plan since I was a kid in the 1960s, AT LEAST)--they started by getting the most extreme right wingers they possibly could into any position they could. Positions like school board member, police chief, sherrif, city prosecuter, city council member, municipal judge, mayor, governor, hell, fucking dog catcher.

They encouraged far right extremists to become police officers and military personnel and work their way up the ranks to the point at which even the famously-racist FBI reported that major city police departments across the nation were pretty much taken over by members of white supremacist organizations.

In formerly reasonable churches, right wingers pushed for the hiring and training of more and more right wing pastors and mire right-wing theology.

More affluent right-wingers bought local papers and broadcasters, and as their political power grew, they changed laws to make it easier for a single entity to control the news--until now a mere handful of entities own nearly every major media outlet in the US.

And then they used every victory as leverage for the next one, and worked their way up. I mean, there's more, like the capitalization on economic and social anxiety and their inentional exacerbation of same so they could take advantage of it, but that's intertwined with the rest.

Essentially, they got this far because they put the work in.

If the US left is going to turn things around (and if it's not already too late), we've got to do the same, but it takes RESEARCHING and PROMOTING your local and state candidates, attending city council and school board meetings, and shit like that. It's actual fucking work to fix a country.

And then, after you've done all that--and after you've shown up to primaries to try to get any non-authoritarian leftist candidate you can nominated--then you vote for the leftest folks you're able to in the general. If there are no remotely leftist candidates, you vote for the centrist or right winger who will do the least damage.

Again, that's what the US far right has been doing for decades. Taking action. Wherever possible, taking new ground, but when they couldn't do that, ceding as little ground as possible. If they couldn't win, they made damn sure to do everything in their power to try to keep actual decent human beings from winning.

Actually doing the work doesn't have the emotional satisfaction of a grand gesture, but it definitely shows who is serious about making a difference and who would rather let everything burn than sully their imagined purity by voting for anything less than perfection.

Listen, Trump is not going to end the genocide in Gaza--in fact he increased tensions between the Israeli occupation and Palestine. And the GOP will never be persuaded. Hell, they want to let Russia take Ukraine and declare open season on asylum seekers.

The Dems suck. But the GOP is far, far worse, and will do MORE damage, and kill FAR MORE innocents. And if allowed to do so, will make it even harder to change the system than it is now. They've already PUBLICLY ADMITTED that their only chance of victory is keeping people from voting. Don't play into their hands.

Under current circumstances, you know what the Dems are going to do if Biden and a bunch of other Dems lose for not being pure enough? You think they'll be all like, "Oh, no! The left sure taught us a lesson by handing the country to the GOP! We'd better shift to the left!"

No. They're going to sip champagne in their multi-million dollar mansions and have meetings about how they need to move FURTHER RIGHT to win elections, because the left doesn't vote.

And if the US becomes a military dictatorship, most of the high ranking ones will simply take their fortunes and leave.

Yup, it'd sure teach ol' Joe a lesson to force him to spend the rest of his days sipping cocktails on the Riviera.

Look beyond the single battle and think strategically. That's how the GOP keeps gaining power. And refusing to act strategically is why the left is losing. We cannot take the hill we want right now. But if we lose the hills we've already taken, we risk losing the entire goddamn war.

So fucking vote. Work to get every leftist you can in any office you can. And if you can't do that, support the one who will do the least harm.

And if it takes voting for that shitbag Biden to keep Trump and the GOP out, hold your fucking nose and pull the goddamn lever.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kyle Mantyla at RWW:

Far-right broadcaster Stew Peters is a racist, anti-LGBTQ bigot who regularly uses his nightly program, speeches, and social media accounts to promote white nationalism and virulent antisemitism while spreading wild conspiracy theories, bigotry, and open calls for violence. Peters has repeatedly called for violence against the government and his perceived political enemies, threatening time and again to deliver “extreme accountability,” by which he means public executions. Now, Peters appears poised to take his radicalism out from behind the camera and into the real with an “Extreme Accountability Event” to be held in October at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel and Casino in New Jersey. According to the website, the theme of the weekend will be “Nuremberg 2.0” and the event will feature “drinks and specialty cocktails all weekend like ‘The Retribution’ and ‘Bloody Bidens,'” as well as “a red-carpet ‘Gallows Gala'” and a “Gallows and Mimosas” brunch.

But the highlight of the event will be a literal book-burning, reminiscent of those that occurred in Nazi Germany, which Peters has repeatedly praised.

“If we demand that the classroom bookcases and school library shelves be cleansed of filth and perversion and pedophilic materials, then we’re called a bunch of book burners. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what we are, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Peters said during his Tuesday night broadcast. “It’s time for us to go into the public libraries, to go into these public schools, and rip the filth off of these shelves and destroy it. To remove it from the face of the planet for all of eternity. To turn it to ash. And every time it’s reprinted, we do it all over again. And eventually we’ll get ahold of the perverts’ hard drives, and we’ll burn those too. All of this filth will never again see the light of day and an army of Americans, an army of patriots millions of men strong, will make sure of it.” “We will not stop until we are victorious on all fronts,” Peters declared. “And when they finally have waved the white flag, they’ll be put on trial. And when they’re found guilty of grooming and mutilation and child rape and all of their other crimes against our kids and against our country and against humanity, they will face the ultimate punishment: Maximum accountability. Extreme accountability at the end of a rope.”

[...] “We will begin the national cleansing process right then and right there,” Peters said. “We’re gonna spend the summer going into our communities and removing all of the filth and smut and pedophilic and pornographic materials from the schools and the library bookshelves and everywhere it’s hawked onto our kids. And come October, we’re going to bring it all to Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey, and we’re going to kill it with fire. We’re going to vanquish it from the Earth.” “This will only be the beginning,” Peters promised. “This is an extreme event like no other. You want to call us extremists? We’ll show you extreme.”

Cuckoo right-wing extremist pundit Stew Peters plans a weekend of violent right-wing extremism called the “Extreme Accountability Event” to be held in October of this year.

From the 05.21.2024 edition of The Stew Peters Network's The Stew Peters Show:

[winds-of--fortune]

Pals, elections will be held in the Netherlands on the 17th of March. And we need your attention.

Cause these are gonna be the most important elections in a very long time. Maybe the most important ever. Contrary to popular belief, because Dutch people love to present themselves as sooo progressive, the Dutch parliament has been dominated by right-wing (extremist) parties for the past decades. Racism is so entrenched in our culture. We literally still have blackface parades throughout the country every single year. We still have colonies in the Caribbean. There are actual nazi's in our parliament. Poverty numbers are rising, homeless numbers are rising, and the covid measures are absolute shit. Our country is like heaven to multinationals because they can evade taxes so easily. The progressive image of our country is total bullshit. Shit has to fucking change. And we have the opportunity to do that.

One of the parties taking part in this election is an outspokenly intersectional anti-racist, anti-capitalist party. It is completely built up of activists. The party is called BIJ1

The candidates for this party are actual activists and revolutionaries.

Most polls are showing them getting a seat in the parliament. We need them there desperately. We need these voices to be heard. BIJ1 is growing every day, and we need to organise and mobilise the left to build resistance against our government. They are powerful, and they are dangerous. So please pay attention, and spread the word about BIJ1. We need your solidarity.

[aviya932]

I’ve been thinking whether to write it or not. On one hand this is super important, on the other hand people don’t really care and I’ll probably get hate for it. But this has to be said and I’m gonna do it. This is really long but if you really want to understand what is happening in Israel right now- this is it

I live in Israel, and for the last 48 hours we have been under rapid missile attack. Hamas, which is a terror organization, have been shooting constantly at civilian cities and houses, while at the same time there have been various riots in mixed cities- by which i mean cities that have both Jewish and Islamic population- that in normal days live in co-existence. You have to understand a couple things right now before you come at me:

I don’t talk about high tension cities such as Jerusalem. This is Lod, Ramle, Jaffa and Haifa among others. Those are cities that truly are peaceful 90% of the time and I will talk about Jerusalem and Gaza so just stick with me.

THIS IS NOT A POST ABOUT WHOSE LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT OR VALUABLE!! Living in Gaza sucks under normal circumstances but living in Sderot is not much better. There is no competition on misery and trust me as a person that actually live in Israel and knows what it’s like here on the day to day that we are well aware on how it’s like in Gaza.

this site REALLY likes to talk about experiences and how when you live through a unique event no one can talk for you about that because they don’t really know what its like. so right here right now it is my experience. You are welcome to ask follow up questions, you may send me a message to learn more or to disagree with a certain point. But if you don’t live here, even if you are from a neighbor country, then you don’t know what’s it like and i wish to god you will never know.

I don’t have all the articles right here with me, because most of the are in Hebrew and I’m writing this really quickly. So if there is interest I’ll give references and I’m really sorry for any typos here. 

Here is a brief timeline of Monday, April 10. I’ll try to stick to as many events without being partial, and for contest there have been two major events on that day:

It is still Ramadan- which means that religious Muslims were on temple mount.

It was also Jerusalem day- which I have no idea how to translate but  celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people and the old city from the Jordan army, and is an Israeli holiday in which it is custom to go to Jerusalem so there were a lot of Jewish people at the Kotel.

There’s a neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem called Sheikh Jarrah, in which there is an ongoing legal fight over ownership and governance. On April 10 there wad supposed to be a sitting in court about evicting Arab familiars. It was decided to postpone because of the tension but there has been many rallys over the topic.

During the Ramadan there has been a lot of tension, so the Israeli police have declared that no Jewish person will get on temple mount at that day. it made people mad, since it is a sacred location for us as well, and some groups have threatened to climb anyway. As far as I know no Jew have managed to get there, since things escalated quickly. Like i said, this month was very tensed, and when the cops hears that the Muslims in Al-Aqsa Mosque were hoarding stones they have decided to go inside. this was at about 08:30-09:00 AM. Since the mosque is right above the kotel this was very worrying but during the chaos there have been injuries- 21 cops and dozens of Palestinians. Stun grenades and stones.   Hamas have given an ultimatum- either the cops get off the mountain by 18:00 or they shoot rockets at Jerusalem, which at the time is filled with as much Muslims as Jews. During the day there have been terror attacks against Jews that came to the city for celebrations and for the flag parade that was planned to start at 16:00 and to end at the kotel. there was a lynch against 3 Jews at sha’ar ha’ariot (lion gate. a lynch that was depicted by the media as the drivers’ fault and as a running over. the truth is that the driver tried to escape the stoning, hit a cement half wall and continued to be hit until a cop came to his rescue) and a 7 month old girl was hit at the head by stones.

by 18:00 Hamas fired 3 barrages toward Jerusalem. And this is the part when i can tell you first-hand. because I was there, because I could not believe that they will shoot at their own people. There were SO MANY PEOPLE at the time from BOTH SIDES. this is a precedent- until then every single shooting was aimed at Jewish city and never at Muslims.

HAMAS SHOOT AT CIVILIANS IN JERUSALEM, A CITY THAT IS CONSIDERS HOLY FOR EVERYONE, DURING THEIR OWN HOLIDAY. THEY SHOT MISSILES AT A CITY IN WHICH MUSLIM ARABS LIVE. THEY SHOT BECAUSE THE POLICE WERE TRYING TO STOP MUSLIMS FROM THROWING ROCKS AT JEWISH PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T EVEN TRY TO GET ON TEMPLE MOUNT. AND YOU KNOW WHAT THE WORST THING IS? THE FACT THAT INTERNATIONAL NEWS IMMEDIATELY STARTED BLAMING THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT AND POLICE AND COMPLETELY REMOVED ANY RESPONSIBILITY FROM HAMAS AND THE GOVERNMENT IN GAZA. It’s so so easy to blame Israel because Israel is more organized, because our government, while being mostly useless in the last year since we had 5 elections, is built by the peoples’ choice and not by fear, because Gaza is an underdog and we feel for the underdog- and for good reasons. Do not think for a moment that we don’t feel sorry for the people in Gaza. They live under a terrible government that cares more for the Palestinian agenda than their civilians, most Shekels that the Israeli government is transferring won’t reach the people and instead will be taken by Hamas to build bombs, guns, and tunnels. Hamas needs the people to stay underdogs. They will use them as human shields for as long as it gets them sympathy, they will take every opportunity they have to blame Israel and the media is giving them exactly what they want every single time- even Israeli media will twist facts and stories to sound more progressive and ‘woke’ and politically correct. so here are facts for all of you

while it makes me sound like a five year old it’s still true that this time Hamas shot first and unsolicited.

every country that has missiles shot at will, and has the right, to defend itself.

is it okay for civilian casualty? NO. Absolutely no. But don’t any of you dare to use that as a reason for Israeli cruelty. Hamas have sot over 1,000 rockets in the last 48 hours. IDF has attacked about a 150 locations. Hamas is shooting wildly at cities and homes without care who they hit. IDF is targeting senior Hamas figures only. Hamas is shooting from homes and streets. every IDF base that has weapons in will be located outside of civilian location.

IDF is using the “Roof knocking“ technique, and has been using for years. for those who don’t know it- IAF is dropping a non-explosive bomb- a smoke bomb that makes some noise- on top of any location they will hit to inform every single person inside that they need to get out. Only after a few minutes’ waiting will they hit for real. When Hamas is telling us when they will shoot it’s nothing like that. They don’t warn-they threat.

6 Israeli people have died so far. 2 of them were Muslim Arab-Israeli. They do not care who they hit.

the people in mixed cities have been rioting nearly nonstop for 48 hours now while attacking their neighbors, while burning synagogues, cars, homes and restaurants. One of my best friends lives in Lod. they have curfew from 20:00 today until 04:00 tomorrow. Her situations terrifies me more than any bomb because those are people who lived there for years.

not every Muslim and Arab is to blame, and blaming everyone is wrong. BUT ignoring what is happening right now is naive. Do not be blind and do not believe every single thing the media tells you. There are countless videos were Arabs fake death. where they dress as soldiers to fake scenes, where they openly teach their children hate and where their leaders openly lie on live television and get caught.

most of the time people lie because they really believe it, but that only serves the disinformation. Sometimes good intentions only cause more pain and hate.

Israel is not without blame. no one is without blame because life is not a book- there are no 100% good people and a 100% bad people. Life is complicated and so are people and political situations. You have to criticize your sources, and if they paint one side as good and one as bad then you should stop reading them. there are Israeli extremists as well, and far-right movements scare me as much as any Arab riots but no one is working in a vacuum.

the numbers are very different for many reasons. The death and casualties in Gaza is larger for many reasons, but I’ll focus on the most important ones. first, the IDF is more organized and so their bombs are stronger and more advanced. Second, Hamas is intentionally stationed in neighborhoods, schools and hospitals for human shields. third, Israel is using everything they can to protect its’ citizens and pays fortune on Iron Domes. Hamas does nothing to protect the people, and they have the money for that if they wanted since the receive money from Israel, the UN, and various different NGOs. If you don’t bother to protect your own how can you blame others? when people in Israel get hurt because they don’t have shelter they blame our own government.

right now everything here is a mess, and people from outside do not help when they only spread rumors and hate. You don’t live here? you have no clue what is happening. pray for all of us, but first educate your self and read more than one source of news for god sake. If you want the full picture you must read right-side news AND left-side news. Try to understand what is true, try to understand what is an exaggeration, try to understand what both sides are experiencing and don’t just assume that you are the smartest, most educated person just because you support the ‘right’ side. There is no right side. Only A side. So try to stand with us. Stand with Israel and have as much compassion for us as you have for Gaza. We are heading toward a civil war that will not hurt only one side, we have been living like that for years so trust me when i tell you that everyone is tired of how things are. We want peace but we don’t really see it happening anytime soon.

and for the love of god, don’t just send hate. I care about opinions, i want to think about stuff that i haven’t mentioned and to learn from others. Hate comments will not help either of us and will only keep us where we are now, and you trying to hurt me will honestly achieve nothing and will be kinda boring. Sorry for being so blunt but it’s the truth.

[with-love-anu]

Not meant to be (3)

PAIRING: Sirius Black x Reader

Series Masterlist

You sat in a quiet place in the library after collecting all the books you thought might be useful for the charms project. There was a tap on your shoulder and you turned to see Sirius looking at you.

“Sirius, oh hi! You’re early.” You said pointing at the time. Sirius shrugged sitting down beside you.

You looked down at the blank parchment. You didn’t know what to do. You couldn’t look at him for longer than two seconds. He made you nervous.

“(Y/n), I wanted t-“ Sirius started but was interrupted as Remus came in. Sirius clenched his eyes shut. Just the time when he had the courage to finally speak to you.

You three worked quietly on the project for the next few hours. You were mildly surprised when you saw Sirius giving in amazing ideas and you beamed at him. You realized what you were doing and immediately averted your gaze. You couldn’t. Not when he denied having a soulmate, not when he refused to acknowledge you. But would it be so bad? Forgetting about the whole thing for a moment? Your heart thumped in your chest as you continued to write down on the parchment.

Sirius heart swale when you looked at him brightly only to be deflated when you looked away. He wanted to you to look at him like that. It made him want to dance.

“So, today was productive.” Remus said as you all wrapped up.

“It was.” You said smiling.

“Care to join me and Sirius for a trip to the kitchens?” Remus said as your eyes widened slightly. In the kitchens with Sirius?

“Umm.”

“I promise it’s gonna be amazing. Please?” Remus said with such a face that you just couldn’t refuse. And Sirius’s eyes sparkled with hope too, but you didn’t want to admit that it was the reason you finally said yes. It definitely wasn’t.

“Okay.”

***

You all sat down on a small table as the cheerful elves asked what you all wanted.

“Have you ever been to another country?” Remus asked as you smiled taking a bit of the excellent sandwich the elves made.

“Yes, Bali. It’s so beautiful there. It’s calm and serene. The people there lead simple lives and well the trip was amazing.”

“Tell me more.” Remus asked

You launched into a funny story of having monkeys’ jump on your back in the forest at Seminiyak. And somewhere in between all the chat and the laughter you forgot about the whole soulmate thing. Sirius made you happy like no other. His jokes weren’t all childish but consisted of witty and cheeky replies. You couldn’t help the tears that fell as you rolled out grinning.

Sirius reveled in your laughter and everything you told about yourself. He loved that you opened up, if only a little. He realized all of a sudden how thirsty he was to know more about you, your laughter, the way you would wriggle your eyebrows after making a dirty joke. He felt… happy and… free.

“No, you didn’t” Sirius said in between laughs as you grinned.

“Yes I did. I may not seem to strong, but I am.”

“It’s not about strength per say,” Sirius said smiling at you. “It’s about how you didn’t think about yourself first and I think that’s a wonderful thing.”

Your heart thumped at his words. You couldn’t look away. His eyes shone like silver in the light provided by the fire and you felt yourself falling for them. You blinked and gave him a small smile looking away.

“It’s late. I should go now.” You said getting up.

Sirius nodded slowly. He wanted to whine like a child to stop you. He bit the inside of his cheek. He couldn’t.

“Saturday?” he asked looking at you.

“Saturday.”

***

The more you met Sirius, the more you liked him. His smirk, his laugh, the real one when his head would fall back and those stormy eyes would crinkle, when he looked as innocent as a child. You couldn’t help yourself. He was like a magnet drawing you near. You seemed to always almost forget about the mark you hid yourself each day. If this was the closest you could get to Sirius, maybe you’d take this. Because it felt better than nothing. Because you somehow couldn’t stay away. Because your days felt blue when he didn’t smile at you. Because of the unexplainable craving you felt to talk to him, to tell him everything that probed you.

Sebastian noticed this. Of course he did. He wanted to stop you, he really did. But then, he started seeing Sirius, the supposed ‘playboy’ constantly sneak glances at you. Having this huge loopy smile after you even so glimpsed at him. Not even looking at anyone except you. Sirius had stopped flirting around. And Sebastian couldn’t. Because maybe Sirius deserved another chance and maybe because you needed that too.

It was Wednesday. Your walk had a little skip to it and you went towards the library. You saw Remus but there was no sign of Sirius. Your face fell a little.

“Oh hi, (Y/n). Ummm… I don’t think Sirius would come today so it’s going to be just you and me.” Remus said and you frowned.

“Why?”

“He’s not in the right place.” Not in the right place?

“Why, what happened?” you asked and Remus sighed.

“Don’t tell anyone else, okay? Sirius has the shittiest of all parents. They are basically his biggest bullies. He got in a letter today. I could only imagine what filthy words it contained.”

You didn’t know that. You never knew he would be going through something like this. He was always this cheerful and lighthearted person.

“Do you know where he might be?”

“Possibly near the black lake.” Remus said and you gave him an apologetic smile.

“Can we do this next time? I want to talk to Sirius.”

Remus nodded and bit back a smile. “Sure.”

As Remus saw you go out of the library he sighed. Maybe there was still hope for you two after all.

***

You went towards the black lake and saw him sitting under a tree.

“Sirius.” You called out when you were near. He looked at you and you saw how red his eyes were. His face was pale and you felt all happiness suck out of you.

“(Y/n) I’m sorry but I am really not in the mood to study today.” He said and you nodded.

“Don’t worry, I wanted to just talk.” You said as Sirius shut his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m really not in mood for that too.” He quipped. You didn’t know what to do. You couldn’t possibly leave him alone. You sat down beside him noiselessly and looked over to the lake. Sirius looked at you in question and sighed when you didn’t say anything watching the lake’s water ripple. You did not know how time passed. The wind stroked your face and you could hear the distant mumbling of students. You did not want to force Sirius into telling you anything. You saw how he was depressed he was and wanted to offer him support and Sirius respected that.

“Am I really pathetic?” Sirius said out of the blue, sucking in a breath and you looked at him. “I’m sorry, I just-“

“No, you’re not. And I’m not saying this because I was compelled to, but because it’s true.”

“Well mother dearest, certainly doesn’t agree.” He said waving the letter and letting out a dry laugh.

“May I see?” you asked and he handed you the letter. You head zoomed as you read the absolutely disgusting letter you couldn’t believe someone could send, especially his parents.

“Sirius, you know that not a word of this is true, right?”

“According to you.”

“No, according to everyone. Every freaking person who may have met you, if only for a minute.” You gestured to the letter. “Not a word of this is true. This. This is something not meant even for the most gruesome of monsters. And you’re one of the most lovable people around.”

“Loveable, yeah.” He scoffed and you started to realize that maybe Sirius wasn’t the confident person he keeps up to be. You cupped his face and made him look at you. His eyes widened and his heart beat faster. He saw the soft expression you gave him and his heart melted.

“Sirius, you are. You really are. I have a hard time believing someone like that could be your parents. You’re intelligent, witty and an outstanding person overall. Just because they don’t acknowledge it doesn’t mean you aren’t. Stop trying to fit in their narrow structure of mind. You don’t need to. And I am not lying. I promise.”

Sirius bit back the tears. You looped an arm around his shoulder rubbing his side. He took in a shaking breath and looked at you.

“Thank you.” He whispered.

You shook your head.

“Why do you contain yourself so much? Why do you hide your emotions?” you asked and he let out a dry laugh.

“Because people don’t like seeing that. People don’t like seeing a sad broken person.” He murmured. You raised your eyebrows.

“Well, you’re not a thing to look at. You’re human and humans are allowed to have emotions. I would much rather have you full of life and the extremist of emotions than a puppet with none.” Sirius didn’t say anything just looked straight ahead. And yet again, you couldn’t decide what to do. He couldn’t possibly think that. You stood up.

“Come on, come with me.” You said giving him your hand.

“Where?” he looked at you questioningly.

“Just come.”

You took him with you to your favorite part of the forest. You smiled as he looked around in awe.

“This. This is my peace heaven. I come here to scream, to shout, just be an angry brat and vent.” You said and Sirius raised his eyebrows in question.

“It helps, you know, it really does, screaming out loud.” You said as you finally saw a small smile play on his lips. “And you’re gonna do just that.”

Sirius widened his eyes.

“No, no I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“(Y/n), come on I’m not gonna shout like a bloody maniac.”

“No, you’re gonna scream at the top of your lungs like a complete and utter idiot just like I do. Come on, together” Sirius looked at you as if you had grown two heads. He eventually saw that you weren’t kidding around. He took in a deep breath.

“Fine.” He uttered.

You smiled, performing some silencing spells and counted to 3. You shouted loudly but Sirius didn’t. His voice was hardly louder than for a normal conversation.

“Come on, Sirius you could do better.” You said.

He shouted louder yet, it wasn’t enough.

“That’s pathetic, Sirius. You need to scream. Together, yeah?”

You both shouted louder.

“Louder.”

“Louder.”

Sirius huffed. He wanted to do it, he took a deep breath.

“LOUDER.”

Sirius screamed. His cry pierced through your ears and your stomach twisted as you saw the tears that he finally let go. He screeched and cried and shouted you felt yourself tear up too. You saw how much pent up emotions he had. You went towards him rubbing your hands on his sides consoling him. He took in gulps of air as he finally stopped. He looked at you and snorted, sniffing.

“Why are you crying?” he asked and you blinked.

“Huh?”

He smiled a little and wiped away the tears you didn’t know had formed.

“Thank you, I needed that.” He said and you gave him a small smile.

The two of you spent the evening just talking and laughing. Sirius hadn’t felt this good in a very long time. He felt lighter. And the fact that you didn’t bring up his breakdown again warmed up his heart. He felt connected with you. He realized he had come to really like you. It was way more than just likeness, but he didn’t have the strength to admit that just yet.

A/N: My deerest peeps, we are getting closer, but don’t you for one moment think all problems are solved. Written for Riley’s ( @wreckofawriter ) Cliche Month’s Challenge. Feedback is very much appreciated, it makes me and my work better each day ;)

[artificiallyimplantedmemories]

[ ooc: ep 4 liveblog & opinions under the cut! this one got long winded because I had a lot that I was thinking about (and it took me twice the length of the episode to actually watch through it because I kept pausing to type oops) ]

yeeeesh that’s one way to start. thank you for letting bucky cry.

but also the look of pride on her face when she says “you are free” they’ve been working so hard and she’s so happy with the progress bucky has made ;_;

and now she’s so betrayed :(

but I’m also so glad Bucky learned xhosa that’s super important! <3 part of decolonization of the past involves respecting and learning and propagating languages and cultures that have been trodden over. Wakanda has been something of a safe place in that regard, and are now doing the outreach to help their continent and the world, but it takes the world of people within the majority putting in the effort and learning and embracing those cultures and languages (without appropriation, which I know is a fine line to walk sometimes) in order to really make progress. once it is no longer alien, it is also no longer scary, and can be held in proper esteem.

“sweet of you” shut your mouth Zemo xD

“she’s just a kid” thank you for your compassion Sam. and while she’s an extremist, I’m not sure whether Karli counts as a supremacist or just a terrorist? maybe she counts as genocidal if she’s truly trying to restore things to Blip conditions but it’s kind of unclear.

“the serum never corrupted Steve” “touché” YO EVEN HE ADMITS IT

Sam’s understanding of cultural habits (and there are many overlaps between various cultures and the ways they mourn) is such an asset here, and I’m glad that they’re pulling a contrast between the tech-driven, cold, calculating predictions made by certain people and organizations in other parts of Marvel and the general sort of soulful and instinctive approach here

Turkish delight. Excuse me but Narnia cemented the idea in so many people’s heads that it is this magical thing but it’s like superglue in your mouth. It is not irresistible, Zemo.

Legislation and social change as a result of violent action is nothing new. Every peaceful protest has been backed up by some kind of harm, whether it be economic, like a boycott, or physical, either damage to property or lives. I think instinctively people understand this, but it’s good to see it put in the spotlight.

Sam is “stranger danger” to these kids :/

“I know what happens when people say they’re going to help out... nothing.” Ouch.

The way Sam’s gaze falls at that too, because he knows theoretically that a lot of these injustices are happening and can empathize, but practically hearing it hurts. He doesn’t like not being trusted either, but I think he can probably understand why.

Zemo playing that psychology game! Kids love food and the idea that he must be a good person just for having a kid is dumb as hell but something that kids would gravitate towards. Smart man. Doubly smart for not telling them, Nat would approve if she didn’t hate him :P

Sam de-escalating is gonna be a trend I can just see it.

Cherry blossom tea? Interesting choice.

SHARON HI 

Nat vc: gosh it’s nice to see someone competent around here. 

ooooh they’re really reinforcing the idea of Captain America being a figurehead that inspires people

“heroes these days don’t have the luxury of keeping their hands clean” yeah well it’s because Steve had people like Bucky and Nat do do his dirty work, but sure

“all the people history just left out” OW

okay first of all Sam being the one who is insisting on reasoning with them because he knows what it’s like to come from an oppressed people !!! he knows grief and trauma !!! he can do this !!!!! I just know Walker is gonna fuck it up for them :P

second, Walker trying to emotionally manipulate Bucky? it’s a testament to how far he’s come that he doesn’t punch the guy immediately lol

Hoskins being the voice of reason as a foil for Walker again what?! this version of Lamar isn’t nearly as terrible as I expected.

Zemo calling that itty bitty girl his associate xD He really does understand the people here though... aaaand he’s getting handcuffed. Totally didn’t see that coming (he’ll probably break free anyway)

The conversation between Karli & Sam ;_; 

“you’re either brilliant or hopelessly optimistic” “por quo no los dos.gif”

Walker trying to guilt Bucky again god he’s so dumb. I appreciate the fact that he’s ruthless but he’s so narrow minded in how he approaches problems. oh no I have an issue let’s punch it until it dies! come on man.

Karli is so heartbreakingly naive and that’s becoming more and more obvious. I love Sam opening her up like this wow.

WALKER FUCKING IT UP AS ALWAYS

and the cuffs empty WHAT DID I TELL YOU

god we were getting somewhere ;____;

oh good just what we need, serum in Walker’s hands. he was already awful he doesn’t need to be more awful gdi

“we separate them and then we kill Captain America” ...yes, we’re listening xD

I know crazy because I am crazy... oh boy we got some internalized stuff, but let’s play it off

still a little blame game going in terms of where the shield ended up I see

THE DORA MILAJE ARE HERE -swoon-

pOINTY STICKS I cackled oh boy he gonna get his ass WHOOPED

Sam is enjoying the hell out of this

Zemo watching and drinking

“Looking strong, John!” “Bucky”

oooh dear they tangling and Zemo’s getting away.

your arm’s off! no it’s not

WAIT WHAT DID AYO SAY BEFORE SHE SAID JAMES

they all got their asses kicked ah well. also the look on Walker’s face says he gonna serum himself up, the lil fucker. oh no someone’s better than you how will your ego ever survive.

a lil Battlestar logo!!! shut up that’s cute. they’re really making him halfway likeable here.

“power just makes a person more of themselves”

ohhhh okay time to unlock Walker’s traumatic backstory. at least he feels bad about the things he did. at least he knows that those medals of honor are covered in blood. people are at least partly made by their circumstances, and I wonder what he was like before the war. the only indication we have of it is him being a football star, and while I may not have had the best track record with those in my youth, that doesn’t mean there aren’t decent ones out there...

Sarah’s “my world doesn’t matter to America, so why should I care about its mascot?” Oh, we’re speaking to the disenfranchisement of marginalized people hardcore today okay. if anyone’s gotten this far in my overly long commentary I want you to know that this is the realest alright? it’s hard to be proud of a country and its symbols when it doesn’t do right by you, when the majority doesn’t do right by you. am I glad I was born here? sure. are there worse places to be? sure. am I proud to be an american? oof, man, don’t ask me that.

Karli is not pulling her punches, she’s threatening the whole fam. Sam isn’t gonna like that... He sounds like he’s trying to suppress panic instead of being angry on the phone call with Sarah. I think he understands what Karli is trying to do, even though he hates how. And he’s worried, because he’s always gonna be worried. Poor guy. And there’s the confrontation.

Sharon got their backs!

Oof, seeing the gun with the shield.

Gunshot, run, oh, listening, he’s already got the serum, maybe? Given how deeply that shield is embedded in the wall I’m gonna say yes. YUP I WAS RIGHT.

Something about the water dripping and Lemar’s face makes me think he may have been waterboarded at some point :( but maybe he’s just in a lot of pain.

THE KNIFE CATCH. YES YES YES. THE KNIFE FLIP. Nat is so hearteyes.

Ooh, we gotta upgrade that wingpack with Stark repulsors pls go Sam go

oh no. Lemar. fuck. FUCK.

oh good now you’ve done it. killing a guy as Captain America. fuck.

the blood on the shield as the last shot! ~cinematography~

hoooo I’m chilled. I knew something along these lines was coming but oof. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Big Tech welcomes (some) regulation

You know how the Curse of the Monkey's paw works: a cursed object grants all of your wishes, but in the worst way possible: "be careful what you wish for."

That's what we're living through with Big Tech right now.

I'm all for regulating Big Tech, but not all regulation is created equal. Some regulation can dampen the power of Big Tech, while other regulation can make it permanent, even creating powerful stakeholders for monopolies within government.

Every monopolist's first preference is to be totally unregulated, but every monopolist's SECOND preference is to be regulated in a way that only a monopolist can comply with, thus foreclosing on the possibility of competition from an as-yet-nonexistent upstart.

Look at AT&T, or, as it was known in its monopolistic glory days, "The Bell System." From its earliest days, AT&T was a bully, pulling all kinds of dirty tricks on small carriers and rural telephone co-ops that grew out of the New Deal electricity co-ops.

Regulators and the DoJ often had stern words for AT&T, and at various times, the company was subjected to legal penalties and court-ordered conduct remedies to make it behave.

But this was as far as it all went: no one was going to break up AT&T, take away the power it was abusing. AT&T was too important, "too big to fail," part of the national emergency and security infrastructure.

AT&T leveraged the fact that cops or fire marshalls could (and did) coopt its infrastructure to argue for special rules to protect the Bell System, because if nefarious competitors were to compromise the system, America couldn't fight crime, fires, floods and other disasters.

Which is how it was that AT&T was able to get the government to ban connecting anything to the Bell System that they hadn't manufactured. It's hard to overstate how ridiculous and abusive this rule was, but here are a couple important court cases that give a taste.

Take the Hush-A-Phone, a plastic cup that fit over your mouthpiece to make it harder for people to listen in or reading your lips. AT&T argued that attaching a plastic cup to a phone handset put America itself in danger and must be banned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone_Corp._v._United_States

Or the Carterfone, a gadget that let you retransmit phone audio over short-range radio, so that ranch-hands could take calls when they were out on the range.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carterfone#Landmark_regulatory_decision

Hush-A-Phone and Carterfone represent the endpoint of AT&T's venality, the instances in which the company overreached so thoroughly that a court finally limited its power. But they are also emblematic of the costs AT&T exacted from its customers.

Before these decisions, AT&T customers had to rent phones, paying for them dozens or hundreds of times over. To make things worse, AT&T used its regulated monopoly status to block innovators, holding back the answering machine, the switchboard and (crucially) the modem.

By 1956, AT&T's conduct was so odious that the DoJ was  ready to break it up. But at the last instant, AT&T got a stay of execution: the Pentagon intervened to say that without AT&T, the US would not be able to prosecute the war in Korea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System#Kingsbury_Commitment

AT&T had been "punished" for its prior bad acts by being made a de-facto, privatized arm of the state, and now the state was intervening to keep AT&T intact. It worked. AT&T stayed intact for another quarter-century, during which time its conduct steadily worsened.

This is what happens when we "tame" monopolies instead of breaking them up: the monopolist makes some cosmetic changes to its conduct, coopts its regulators, and reverts to its wicked ways as soon as the attention shifts, using its monopoly profits to fight any consequences.

Today, there are many proposals to fix Big Tech, but far too often, these proposals start from the perspective that Big Tech is permanent and there is no need to consider the way that new rules would impact potential competitors, because they're already doomed.

Last year's EU Copyright Directive, for example, with its mandate for expensive copyright filters for online services (how expensive? Google spend $100m developing Contentid, a toy version of what the EU rule requires).

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/03/european-copyright-directive-what-it-and-why-has-it-drawn-more-controversy-any

Not only is this a disaster because filters are garbage and block all kinds of legitimate speech - it's doubly awful because it prevents competitors from entering Big Tech's markets that might be more respectful of their users - co-ops, EU-based SMEs, etc.

And it makes Google and FB and other Big Tech companies an arm of the state, part of the apparatus of copyright enforcement (not just copyright, the EU's Terror Reg makes them filter "extremist" content too).

And it prevents a future Hush-a-Phone moment for Big Tech: Youtube will say that if it is responsible for fighting extremism and infringement, it MUST block competitors who interoperate with its service to provide fairer, better alternatives.

Tellingly, while Youtube and Facebook started off as staunch opponents of a filter mandate in the Copyright Directive, they quickly switched sides and began arguing in FAVOR of filters - after all, they already had filters, and nascent competitors did not.

Big Tech's latest cursed monkey paw moment comes from Amazon, who, after losing key court cases over selling dangerously defective goods stop arguing that it wasn't responsible for its sellers' goods.

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/why-jeff-bezos-is-worth-200-billion

Instead, they started demanding that state legislative proposals, like California's AB 3262, be made FAR stricter, so that just making an ecommerce platform (like the scrappy Canadian Amazon rival Shopify does) makes you responsible for anything sold on that platform.

It's gonna be burdensome for Amazon to check out all of its sellers' goods, but Amazon is arguably the only company with enough excess capital to do that checking, and they've got a patent on forcing sellers to expose their entire supply-chain in machine-readable formats.

Which means that Amazon - who are under antitrust scrutiny for spying on their sellers and then knocking off their best products and driving them out of business - could be LEGALLY OBLIGATED to spy on its sellers.

Which means that if the DoJ or Congress decides to force Amazon to STOP spying on its sellers, they will have to override California's consumer protection rule that makes Amazon undertake this surveillance.

It also means that sellers who are worried that Amazon will spy on them in order to drive them out of business will have few (or no) alternatives to giving Amazon its data, because Shopify and other ecommerce platforms CAN'T comply with California's proposed liability rule.

Amazon is REALLY good at this kind of regulator monkeypawing. For a long time, Amazon maintained the fiction that all its European digital goods sales were consummated in Luxembourg, where there was no VAT. That let it sell ebooks for 20% less than, say, UK competitors.

When the EU decided to fix this, Amazon enthusiastically cooperated, producing a harmonized VAT rule that only the largest companies could comply with: a rule that required sellers in the EU to gather and retain two pieces of address-confirming info from every customer.

Then sellers would have to calculate how much VAT to charge based in 28 different countries' VAT laws, and would have to remit that VAT every quarter, regardless of how small that remittance was. I was living in the UK then, and selling my ebooks online.

The VAT rule meant that if I collected EU0.01 from a single Polish customer in a quarter, I would have to pay to wire the Polish tax authorities EU0.01, and pay accountants to prepare the paperwork. The first quarter, I paid £750 to remit £17 in VAT.

Of course, there was a way to get around all of this! All I needed to do was shut down my independent ebook store and shift to selling on Amazon, and pay them 30% of every penny I brought in. Amazon has a whole building full of accountants and programmers to make that work.

(The issue became moot when I moved to the US and shuttered my UK Limited Company; today you can shop at my ebook store and I don't have to collect VAT at all)

https://craphound.com/shop

There are monkey's paw proposals everywhere, like killing CDA230, which shields tech platforms from liability for users' speech - sure, the Big Tech platforms wouldn't like to pay for more moderators and filters, but in return they'd get to wipe out all small rivals.

But the monkey's paw is not inevitable. There are plenty of ways to make Big Tech less powerful while encouraging alternatives, including co-ops and nonprofits. Instead of copyright filters, we could have blanket licenses that directly pay artists.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/05/plan-pay-artists-encourage-competition-and-promote-free-expression

Instead of moderation mandates, we could have interop mandates that let users choose what is and isn't allowed in their own conversations:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/27/cult-chalk/#eff-eu

And, as Matt Stoller points out in his article on AB3262, we don't need Amazon's extensions to an otherwise sensible consumer protection statute that would extend liability to Shopify - we can craft a rule that catches Amazon's bad conduct alone.

If we are going to tame Big Tech, let us tame them - by reducing their power, not by demanding that they exercise it wisely. If Big Tech has too much power, let's take some of it away - we'll never get them to use it for good.

We can (try to) fix Big Tech or we can fix the internet. Big Tech will either figure it out and survive or it won't. Their products are optional, but we NEED the internet.

[dailyaudiobible]

03/18/2021 DAB Transcript

Numbers 26:52-28:15, Luke 3:1-22, Psalms 61:1-8, Proverbs 11:16-17

Today is the 18th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's wonderful to be here with you today as we do what we do, which is take steps forward. Kind of hard…I don’t even know how we would take a step backward and read the Bible in reverse or something but we’re here to take steps forward. The only way is forward. So, let's dive in. We’re reading from the God's Word translation this week and we’re in the book of Numbers chapter 26 verse 52 through 28 verse 15 today.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Numbers today we have begun a transition and it’s gonna take us a while to get through this transition. But it's a major major transition, a transition of leadership, a passing of the torch as it were from Moses, who we've been traveling with so long…like a long time now - many many miles together with Moses, many trials and many of…of God's miraculous deeds and provision for His people. So, that transition is…is beginning. It will take us a minute to get there because we’ll conclude the book of Numbers less than a week from now but then we will enter the final book of the Torah, the book of Deuteronomy. And, so, we won't be leaving Moses. Deuteronomy really is the last speeches or discourses of Moses to the people, to the people that he's been leading before he dies. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll talk about that when we get there. But there is a transition beginning here now, where God is instructing Moses that he will leave…leave the scene basically, leave the stage, die, join his ancestors and then we will continue to move on without Moses. Joshua is being commissioned to take the place of Moses in the future when Moses is gone. Ironically, Joshua or Yehoshua, or Yeshua in Hebrew might sound familiar because it's the same name as Jesus and this name means God's salvation. And, so, we see connecting threads and ironically they’re very…they're very connected in our reading today because when we turn to the book of Luke we are at the very inauguration or consecration of…of Jesus who is at the Jordan River being baptized by John and he comes up out of the water and the Spirit comes down on him and says, “you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” The irony is that Joshua is being commissioned to lead the people forward. Jesus is God's son, leading the people forward and we have shared names with shared meanings with redemptive threads with stories of redemption kind of tying a thread between the two today. And we’ll be able to watch both of those stories unfold before us in great detail as we continue our journey forward.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all these connecting points that connect over centuries in the Scriptures of an ongoing redemptive thread that winds its way into our lives as well as we carry the story forward. And, so, come Holy Spirit into all that we've read today. Plant it into the soil of our lives. We continue to open ourselves to You fully inviting You to rearrange our lives, shape us, conform us to Your image we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that's home base, it’s where the Global Campfire is burning, it’s where we all come together in this virtual community. And, so, be familiar with that.

Check out the…the Community section. Of course, on the web or in the app you can do these things. So, on the web there's like, you know, a navigation up at the top and you’d be looking for the Community section. If you’re in the app you would just push the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and look for the Community section. But this is where the different links to get connected on social media are. This is also where the Prayer Wall lives. And, so, we are a community of prayer and we have done a really, really beautiful job of praying for each other over these years through…I mean…we have brought each other through some really, really difficult things over these years. And God has honored that and been in it with us. And, so, Prayer Wall is always on. You never have to be without. You got stuff going on, you can poste it on the Prayer Wall and brothers and sisters will pray.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage. If you are using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart or the top of my heart, from a full heart, from a heart that’s in awe that this is even happening. I’m grateful that we’re in this together. Thank you for your partnership.

And, as always, if you have prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

DAB family Kathleen Mount Zion IL I am calling today…I tried calling earlier on my way to work and for some reason I just kept redoing and redoing these recordings. So, I finally just stopped and said I will just wait till after work. But I just wanted to pray. I…I read something about Nigeria again and Nigeria’s always been dear to my heart. I have called in the past. It's been a couple of years at least calling for Nigeria and every once in a while, I call in about that. But I'm just asking you to pray with me right now because there was another recent kidnapping of Christian children right out of their school. They've done this before. The last time the girls came back many of them had children they had been forced into marriage with Islamic extremists. And, you know, I just…it's just awful. Anyway, just pray with me. Lord Jesus I pray for Nigeria. I pray for this country Lord. There are many many Christians in Nigeria. Lord you are the King of all, you are the one’s…with you we can walk on water we can move mountains and I pray that the people of Nigeria the Christians of Nigeria will bind together, they were bind together and they will force Boca Ram out of their country and they will first however retrieve what has been lost, their lost children, lost young Christians. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Hi this is Gloria calling from Florida. This call is for Tammy from the Adirondacks. She is in remission from ovarian cancer. I don't know what you're going through, but I want you to take comfort in a God who loves you. He has healed your cancer and He can also heal your heart and your mind in what you're going through right now. Jesus came to bind the broken hearted. Take heart that He has overcome. I pray that you would wear the full armor of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith and yield the sword of the Spirit of the word and pray. I pray that you reach out to those that are close with you, that you share your burdens with them so they can help you carry this burden. I’m so glad that you called so that we could pray for you. In Jesus’ name. Amen. We love you.

Hey DABbers, this is Keira from Denver I am so grateful to God for everything He’s done for me. And y’all I would like continued prayer for my son, Nish. Tonight…today was the second day this week that I had to call the police because…because I had concern for my own safety in regards to my son. The earlier one last Tuesday they took him to the hospital and they…he went to the psych unit but then he got released the next day. Tonight, they took him to the hospital again and this time they took him to this city detox place. And I know this place is not that great. It’s not a rehab and it’s not a lockup. He can leave anytime. But I pray that he stays till…until tomorrow and I pray…I pray and I would like for you…you guys to stand in prayer with me that he…everyone he comes in contact with…with is Spirit filled and Christ filled and can give him guidance. And I pray that maybe this is…this is the moment, this is the moment that Nish makes a decision to change and that he can actually go into a rehab and get the help he needs. And he’s had these issues of psychosis ever since 2012 but he’s continued using drugs this whole time. So, it’s just a compounding of problems. And please pray, please pray everybody with me. Thank you. I love you DAB…

Good morning friends and family this is Justified Smile I am a new listener from late last year and this is my first time calling. It is the morning of March 16th and I just heard C’s prayer request about her postpartum depression and her feelings of worthlessness. And also, just last night dear friend and sister of mine that I’ll call M texted me last night about suicidal thoughts asking for prayer. I’ve seen in the past year that a spirit of death haunts this world. So, I ask you all to join me in prayer. Jesus, teach us to pray. Lord You are King, comforter and shepherd. You are goodness and life. And in Your name, we repel death from the hearts and mind of C and M and all Your children who it attacks along with its every backup replacement and contingency. Let Your life and joy rule in the lives of Your children. Protect those who pray for retaliation and comfort, those who have been hounded and antagonized. Keep us good Shepherd. All this for Your glory oh God my sovereign King.

Hello everyone, I wanted to ask for some prayer today. Been listening for a while and this is…Daily Audio Bible’s really been an encouragement to me. Last year I had a…a pulmonary embolism and it’s kind of been…otherwise been really healthy but it’s kind of since last year seem to have gone downhill. So, I had this embolism and then about…about a month ago I started getting these really bad migraines and…and some double vision. Went to the doctor and he told me to get an MRI. It came back with a…a…a…s brain tumor that’s 3.4 cm. It’s called an acoustic neuroma that kind of grows in my ear next to my brain but it’s pushing against my brainstem. And, you know it…it…it…it…it would be pretty dangerous. They’re gonna have to take it out in the next couple weeks. So, I am praying for obviously as a successful surgery but I’m also praying…there’s…there’s two risks. They…they have already told me I’ll probably lose my hearing in my right ear but also the…the risk that…that…that is possible is kind of almost permanent, is Bell’s palsy because it’s right there on the facial nerve as well. So, just praying for that, praying for my family. I can’t drive right now because…because my double vision and so my wife’s having to take me around everywhere and we have three small boys. So, I really…I pray…I pray for the prayers. I have lot’s of people praying for me but if, you know, more…more people going to the Lord on my behalf would be amazing. The only last thing I pray well…

[tea-intheworld]

Ok so I've chosen to watch a movie to pass the time, one that I put on my list because the thumbnail looked impossible. It's called American Assassin and it stars Dylan O'Brien. Here is my ridiculous summary: Dylan O’Brien staring as himself is personally attacked by terrorists, he decides to take them out himself but the bad US gov stops him. Then they send him to train with a US sanctioned international militia (which makes the US gov ok) where this brat finds himself a daddy. But Daddy needs him to learn to take orders about not take things personally. Will Dylan save the day, his Daddy, and his country?

My reactions are below. It’s very long. Spoilers ahead.

Dylan and some woman just got engaged in Spain, I do not believe for one second that Dylan knows this woman's name. Not even 5 minutes into the movie and armed gunman are shooting up this resort, Dylan has been shot and is trying to get to fiance 🙄. Totally a fridging. 

Turns out that was all a memory?? Now he has a beard and a mop of hair which is curly. He somehow looks less grown.

In the last 18 months he has learned Arabic and infiltrated Muslim extremist recruitment squads to find the guy who did the shooting.

Not ten minutes in, he is boxing and get punched and he almost kills the guy in retaliation? He is v e r y traumatized. After getting kicked out of the boxing gym he goes to a gun range and absolutely destroys those targets! And he can throw knives?! Into a wall of pictures of Muslims?? All this is to tell us that Dylan has been very busy and takes his vigilante killing very seriously.

11 mins in and we see that Dylan is being watched by the government through his computer camera.

Scene change to Dylan in Libya because the terrorists have called him there. He is in colonialist tans, he comes across some terrorists in all black who head nod for him to follow them where they black bag him. The “terrorists” don’t trust him but he keeps saying “hey trust me”, this is not a meaningful plot point.

The terrorists are killed as Dylan is not getting them to trust them. He is distraught over this (slow mo, muffled sound, dust) so clearly we are meant to see his struggle as the right one and damn the gov for taking it.

Then he is taken to an interrogation room, sans beard (but tasteful stubble) and the gov is accusing him of extreme beliefs for wanting to kill a lot of people (bad gov) that he wasn’t going to take on all the terrorists by himself. We learn his sad backstory: his parents died in Tunisia but he had the privilege to be kicked out of three boarding schools.

CIA lady wants to recruit him (at this point I had to pause the movie and just breathe), apparently the rest of the CIA wants to throw him away in prison and CIA lady (one of the only brown people who isn’t a bad guy) who leads the counter terrorism task force wants to recruit him because she likes the cut of his jib and believes in him. How did the writers not see the obvious stereotype here and a problem with the line of the plot?? Also not even 20 mins in yet.

CIA lady drives him to a secret location (in Roanoke) blindfolded to train with some guy? That her daddy (her words) served with before. She says Dylan has taken tests and he’s off the charts! (What charts?? What tests??)

Daddy runs a secret school for (not spies and not black ops) but definitely vigilante peeps and it’s in the back woods but it’s ok because the gov sanctions it and they are doing it for the right reasons.

“Orion is about the mission” (who is Orion, the name of this weird camp??) Daddy just put a gun in his (own) mouth and pulled the trigger!!

We get like 20 mins of Dylan training with a bunch of guys who never get names but that’s ok because they end up quitting like babies when Daddy shocks them a few times. It’s here that Daddy sees Dylan has a problem taking orders.

Ok now we are in a big city market in the back of a van, a guy presents a clock and opens the back and surprise it’s plutonium. White boy with hair from the 70′s takes it from him to wire the money and the police show up?? and 70′s boy shoot everyone in the van?? then goes on a spree in the market??

Daddy is struggling to get Dylan to obey orders. He takes a break in his cabin to watch the news and the plot thickens. (I’ve got a bone to pick. What CIA type person gets their information from news programs? That seems like you’re behind the times on knowing stuff bub)

New scene of training Dylan to obey orders, he fails again. Daddy gives some advice “The enemy dresses like a deer and kills like a lion. And that’s what we gotta do.”

Lady CIA is meeting with Daddy about some missing plutonium and he shares his secret-got-from-the-news info with her; she is impressed. Turns out 70′s guy is someone they thought they killed, an old brat of Daddy’s. Now she wants him and Dylan to take down the 70′s guy who has (and I can’t emphasize this enough) WEAPONS GRADE PLUTONIUM. I’m not 40 mins in.

Daddy pulls Dylan in for a heart to heart about why he is alive. He shows Dylan the video of his engagement and shooting?? Then they get kinky with Daddy using a chord to choke Dylan but this is to teach him to stop taking this personally. Emotion makes you a bad killer Dylan, Daddy says.

To Turkey they go! And a pretty girl appears, I bet she will help heal his wounds

Some info on the bad guy (Sharif) who is like Santa Clause for terrorists according to Daddy, and Istanbul is apparently ready to blow??

Dylan shows Daddy that he is too cool for school by disobeying every order he gives him. Steals a phone from a target, going after a target without backup, killing the target. But he gets the job done. And somehow this job leads to 70′s guy, unsure how,

Daddy still isn’t happen because Dylan disobeyed his order and is a no good brat.

Rome-- Daddy is exasperated because Dylan is asking questions and he has to keep explaining what they do here (without actually explaining what they do). They are here to track a physicist who can make the bomb juice into an actual bomb. They find one and watch him all night long. Which means that girl and Dylan have the night to make her express her feelings and have him break down and care for her. Except bad guys (70′s guy) invade their room! Daddy comes in to save them and they murder everyone (not quietly and ruin the nice hotel room).

There is a sexy scene where the girl patches up Dylan’s wounds but then she mentions something that sparks Dylan’s spidey sense and he attacks her, tries to drown her because torture gets the job done, and turns out he wasn’t wrong.

Daddy goes to meet her handler and they both get shot. CIA lady shows up to deal with the mole, finds out Daddy got shot, Dylan gets sassy and decides (again) to go rogue but this time it’s for Daddy! (and the mole who is going to help him).

How is there still 30 mins in the movie!!

Daddy is with the bomb and 70′s guy, who is showing Daddy some scars his has from...now 70′s guy is doing the thing that Daddy did for Dylan with the gun in his mouth. Seems like Daddy’s old brat is upset that Daddy has moved on. Daddy is taunting 70′s guy as 70′s guy prepares to torture him...he is enjoying this too much. 70′s man has decided to take the bomb from the Iranian’s who he was going to sell it to.

The timer is set, 70′s is going to set off the bomb in 20 mins (which means the movie is almost over!) Dylan and girl are making their way to Daddy (and 70′s) to save him. It is so dark, I can’t see anything but the random hand holding up a gun. Girl gives away their position by shooting her enemy, Dylan decides to drive a can into this tunnel for...reasons and it blows up...for plot reasons. 

70′s guy has the girl and Dylan has to make a choice. Girl shoots herself but 70′s gets away. Dylan kills a nameless henchman as 70′s gets away on a boat. But wait, Dylan jumps on to that boat so now they must fight! Brat vs brat, who will win Daddy’s love. 70′s makes it personal and this gets Dylan revved (really milking that fridging for all its got). But he does it! Dylan wins the brat off, but the bomb is heading for a strategically placed fleet of navy ships and Dylan needs to take care of it. When Daddy finds out Dylan is gonna blow himself up, he realizes that Dylan is his favorite and needs to save him. “For once in your life take a goddamn order!” So he throws the NUCLEAR BOMB overboard and it explodes underwater just off the coast of Rome which the navy fleet is still near. But hey Dylan and Daddy get away and Daddy gets to call Dylan son unironically.

There are still 15 mins left 

The navy ships are blown around by the wind and then attacked by the tsunami the bomb creates. They spent so much money on this shot, almost all the money. There are hull breaches by the Officers on deck are like we survived! And CIA lady tells them her prayers are with them so they feel so healed.

Unsurprisingly this white boy receives no consequences for his disobedience and he finds the courage to visit a beach again. And he decides to kill the next President of Iran or the movie implies.

[hareofhrair]

question: is there a guide of how to get to the dark web? I’m curious

First of all, disclaimer, I don’t like or use “the dark web” and I don’t suggest you do either because it mostly sucks. The handful of legit cool things you can find there you can also find without slogging through a ton of garbage on a browser that chugs like you’re on dial-up in 1998. If you’re using it to organize direct action with your local Antifa chapter, that’s cool I guess, but that’s about the only good reason I can think of. So, needless to say, since I am not a regular consumer of “dark web” content, I am not an expert and the info here should be taken with a grain of salt. Better informed folks are welcome to chime in.

 Okay so. The term “Dark Web” sounds really mysterious and tv shows make it sound like some kind of cool sinister secret thing but it’s really not what you think it is.

The “dark web” isn’t a single place you can go like some weird exclusive club. The dark web is just the part of the internet not indexed by search engines. That’s literally all it means. It’s dark because google can’t see there. A dark web site just has its address encrypted so that its traffic and data can’t be collected by third parties, something that’s becoming increasingly necessary to protect private information. So the majority of “dark web” activity is completely legitimate and uninteresting-- just business moving client data on secure servers and such.

What you’re probably interested in is a darknet, which is its own thing. A darknet is a specific network hosting encrypted sites. Again, not just one big site, but a service supporting a bunch of them. The idea and the necessity behind these darknets is to allow people to communicate and host content on a genuinely free internet not at risk of censorship by any group or government. It’s a critical tool for people in countries where internet use is monitored and restricted. The high level of anonymity makes it difficult to impossible for governments to track and prosecute individual users.

Unfortunately, that anonymity does attract a LOT of illicit activity. In 2016 a group of researchers analyzed around 300,000 addresses on the Tor network and found over half of them were being used for shady shit, mostly drug trafficking and financial crime like using cryptocurrency to launder money and selling stolen credit card info. Previously, a site called Silk Road was the place to go if you wanted something illegal, but since its shutdown in 2013 (and again in 2014 after a brief resurrection) the FBI has become a lot better at squashing darknet markets like that. They keep popping up, but they get knocked down usually within a year, and it’s impossible to distinguish the reputable ones from the fakes set up by scammers. So you’re probably not going to find a Dark Amazon where you can bulk buy cocaine and hidden camera videos of public restrooms. And even if you did, they generally only accept payment in cryptocurrency, and there’s every Dark Jeff Bezos will just take your money and tell you to fuck off. What are you gonna do, call the cops?

And hey fun fact, the darknet is apparently a hotbed for extremism! In the research paper I mentioned earlier there were more sites classified as Extremism (“content espousing extremist ideologies, including ideological texts, expressions of support for terrorist violence, militant how-to guides and extremist community forums”) than there were sites for illegal pornography. And the paper goes out of its way to specify that pretty much none of that is islamic extremism. Which means it’s probably mostly nazis and paranoid unibomber anarchist types... who are usually also nazis if you look hard enough. 

(interestingly, there was still significantly less sites dedicated to extremist politics than there were for drugs and financial crime, which came in first and second by a significant margin. Now that’s an interesting hierarchy of needs if I’ve ever seen one)

So, to sum up - the dark web is overhyped and semi mythical. It’s got a sexy dangerous reputation, but it’s only dangerous in the boring shitty way where your computer gets infected with some crappy malware that’s constantly running in the background and slowing your computer to a crawl because it’s actually using all your memory to mine bitcoin. 

The real dark web is just a bunch of shitty hidden sites, most of which are full of scammers and nazis. At best, you’ll find a pdf library of rare books, maybe some cool research papers that are otherwise behind a paywall. At worst, you’ll find a bunch of gross porn and stumble into a white supremacist circle-jerk before someone infects your PC with ransomware. But most likely you’ll just find a few incoherent anti-government manifestos and a lot of people talking very seriously about bitcoin in the most boring fashion imaginable and then you’ll click a link you shouldn’t have and some jerk will steal your email password and use it to sign up to like a billion shitty dating websites in a scam to artificially inflate their apparent user base. 

Unless you’ve recently joined The Rebellion and they’ve given you a .onion link to the forum where they discuss revolutionary tactics I would seriously not bother with the dark web.

If I have not sufficiently killed your interest yet, here’s the actual how to.

To access a darknet you need:

 a web browser that can decrypt the addresses and maintain your anonymity. The Tor network is the biggest darknet, and has its own free browser. I’m not gonna link it, sorry.

 a VPN. This isn’t like torrenting where if you’re just grabbing a movie every once in a while a VPN isn’t necessary. If you don’t have a VPN you’re vulnerable to a lot worse than just your internet provider shutting off your service. Check out NordVPN or Tunnelbear. Both are paid services, but there really isn’t a free option that’s good enough here.

a site address. Unlike the visible internet, you can’t just type illegalstuff.com into the browser bar and go. The encrypted addresses of these sites are all just strings of nonsense letters and numbers. There’s not even a decent search engine for Tor, let alone a google equivalent. Your best bet is a link directory like thehiddenwiki but don’t get your hopes up. Darknet sites are constantly moving around, getting shut down and popping up again under a different address, which makes it difficult for directories to keep up. Which is kind of the point, but makes finding things a pain. 

And that’s it. You download a browser, you turn on your vpn, and you find an address. That simple. But dont come crying to me when you get a virus or see a gross penis or get indoctrinated into a doomsday cult.

[popculturebuffet]

Analysis of X: Maurader’s #1 “I’m on a Boat”

Ahoy Muties! I’m Jacob Mattingly and in moving to Tumblr and print, this is my first text review. As for this segment, welcome to Analysis of X, where I cover the dawn of x and onward as it happens. I will get to X-Men #1 as I wasn’t sure wether to review it late or not soon enough, but for now I felt it best to start with Dawn of X’s first non-hickman stab at greatness, Gerry Duggan and Matteo Lolli’s pirate themed Mauraders. Come aboard after the break. 

So Mauraders begins a few months back, with our book’s headliner Kitty Pryde, and her future teammates, close friend and surrogate mom Storm and ex-boyfriend and her best buddy, my faviorite X-Man and organizer for orgies on Krakoa: Nightcrawler, ready to head to Krakoa. For those two of you who didn’t read house of x or couldn’t afford it and powers, understandable the current status quo is simple: Mutantkind has formed it’s own nation on their former enemy Krakoa, the island that walks like a man but currently dosen’t because several people would fall off, and have planted gates globally so mutants can come to their new eden, finally done with all the racist genocidal bullshit mankind has put them through. Kitty tries to come along  But welll....

Instead of letting her in for some reason Krakoa instead says come on and SLAM and your not welcome to the JAM. Kitty takes it well. 

We get our character page, which is apparently NOT limited to Hickman’s work, but I find it a nice touch, and unlike the avengers books from other writers under his tenure not doing the same thing, unify’s things a bit. I also like this opening mystery a ton. Is it her powers? Or is it something else? And how will Doug Ramsey aka Cypher, her former best friend who had a crush on her in the mutant equivalent in high school and Krakoa’s translator factor into this. I hope he does because most Kitty Pryde centric stories kinda forgot he existed entirely, as did New Mutants and All-New X-Factor on the Doug side. Seriously it bugs me as they were incredibly close yet because him being single might get in the way of her and other ships the writers had planned, this was just ignored and hopefully with Doug being a bigger player Duggan won’t ignore him this time, and given how strong this book is I expect this to come up. 

Moving Right along after the intro page, with the wonderful welcome of ahoy muties and a cast page, showing this isn’t exclusive to Hickman’s book and something I like we get a captain’s log of sorts, with the reveal that, with no way to portal there, Kitty just stole a boat, said i’m the captain now (Because you can’t escape that refrence and why would you) and then .. muses a bit about how left behind she feels as seen above. And it’s an intresting dilema: without the portals, how can she ever REALLY feel at home on Krakoa when she’d basically be trapped there, alone amongst everyone else.. and not for the first time. 

Longtime fans or those who’ve binged Claremont’s run will recall this little scene: after taking the bullet for Rouge during Mutant Massacre Kitty was left basically a ghost. No tangeblity, no way to interact, just trapped in a world she could see. While it DID get better from here it was only marginally: she could speak, she could talk.. but for the early part of her days with Excalibur, basically the british X-Men and something i’ll save more for next week, her powers of phasing through objects had reversed. She had to concentrate to stay SOLID and it was hell for her. It eventually righted itself, somehow I haven’t read far enough into Excalibur to know, but it had to leave some scars. The fact it happened AGAIN after that time she made a bullet meant to destroy earth intangiable and was only saved about a year or so later in story, or month given the weird timescale for marvel but moving on, by Magneto.. and left like this AGAIN until right before Schism. So to me, wether intentional or not, and it feels intentional, Kitty’s been isolated and trapped, alone amongst those around her before.. and she probably dosen’t want that again but worse. So she sails to Krakoa unsure with logan’s grocery list in tow. Which gloriously, we get to see. 

And this also explains where the hell the beer used in the big party at the end of HOX and POX came from, though it’s equally likely Logan had magneto steal a beer truck for them and then spent a full day with him carting it all through the gate. But before this gloriousneess Kitty arrives and tries going through the other way. 

So before Kitty, or Kate as she prefers to be known now, gets down to a rousing round of killing a child, Bobby shows up. Kitty assures him her problem is be handled by top men, which your saved from the indiana jones refrence because I can’t find a picture for that, logan goes diving for booze.

Because let’s face it Logan without enough Booze to murder Bojack Horseman just isn’t Logan. Bobby heads into a gate to find out why it has no traffic, while Kitty.. gets a phone call from her good old buddy Emma Frost, white queen. As a refresher the two went from sniping at each other constantly to mutaual respect with still a good deal of pot shots during Joss Whedon’s run on the book. That has not really changed. For those of you just joining us Emma was, and now is again, the white queen of a hellfire club and the first evil mutant kitty ever met, so naturally, shit’s complicated. But the important takeaway is that Emma trusts kitty. And has a job opprotunity for her. Those who read HOX and POX probably know that the ruling council of krakoa has an open chair.. and Emma wants her to .  See these days Emma’s old running buddies in the hellfire club, which she’s now in charge of, are the Hellfire Trading company, a vital economic partner and thus were naturally courted by Xavier as a vital part of Krakoa and shipping the life giving plants Krakoa gives worldwide. Where Kitty Kitty Bang Bang comes in is that not everyone is happy about Krakoa or welcoming of their gates: HOX and POX outright showed some countries refused to partner with them, and even some that have agreed to soverignty have taken to some drastic measures to keep mutants from leaving. 

Yeah, and it makes sense. The Marvel universe was prejudiced against mutants on a GOOD day, and now they’ve outright declared superiority, strong armed their way into acceptance, and want to take all of the rest away to their eden. While they had every right to after multiple, and i’m not exagerating, attempted and two sucessful GENOCIDES, of course they have to play hard ball to get this and of course extremist anti-mutant groups wouldn’t stand for it. But it works because it makes sense: the portals are a big target and several assholes aren’t going to let mutantkind escape their service, or alive, without a fight. So that’s the mission Emma is offering: a seat at the table as Red Queen of Hellfire and a misson saving muties, getting drunk and fightin round the world. And she also, cleverly, juxtoposes her being a pirate with what pirates in the past did: the pirates and traders of old were slavers. Kitty and her crew would be liberators, saving mutants from Humankind, bringing the live saving drugs in even to countries who refused and the mutants out. Speaking of mutants who are out let’s check on Iceman. But first lockheed with a crab. 

Awww. So bobby heads to mother russia.. and finds a nice warm reception. 

Yeah naturally this dosen’t go well. Russia is , unsuprisingly, being a dick about the whole thing and it turns out the asshole’s armor can temporarily depower mutants, so bobby books it back and tells kitty.. who’s Mr. Lahey levels of plastered and gets Storm to tag along on her boat, with Storm likely doing so Kitty dosen’t start declaring that she is the liquor or something. 

We cut to china where a woman is claiming her husband disappeared.. but Bishop shows up looking into it, and claiming he never showed up. She refuses to talk to him and Bishop calls it a night, but like the audience can tell something’s not right, and given he’s on the cover but doesn't join the team this issue, we’ll likely find out soon enough. Meanwhile ON A BOAT. The future Mauraders are filled in that the people surrounding the portal aren’t with the goverment but an extremist group, and find they have a stowaway aboard. 

Yup it’s everyone’s faviorite aussie aronist Pyro, back from the dead after years of being dead, a quick ressurection that reset his character development, and then disappearing and being replaced by one of the very few intresting parts of X-Men gold. I wasn’t even aware he’d been ressurected which shows just how much they gave a shit. Duggan wisely gives him amnesia and reveals the tragic truth of how he came back. 

Yup, true to Xavier’s new regime being one part hope and compassion and another part cold detached dickery, which really isn’t that far from the old regime he’s just open about the last part now, Pyro was only brought back first so the “Important mutants” would be sure to be safe. Even with his actions post ressurection, going back to petty crimin.. even though his death, despite never having read the issue, is still a great moment in X-History. Pyro, having failed several desperate attempts to cheat death at the hands of the Legacy Virus, uses his last moments to save someone who fears and hates him: Senator Kelly.. and in the process until the man’s own death changed the man from Mutantkind’s greatest enemy to a great supporter. And after that great selfless sacrifice... all Xavier and Magneto think of him is a lab rat, an unimportant mutant to use first to make sure their plan works. A throwaway slab of mutant meat. Understandably he was about to slide right back into crime but is instead drafted by storm and likely thinks “Eh, what else am I gonna do. “ So with our roster complete for now, our heroes dive into battle with kitty suggesting they swarm the power suit asshole so she can take him out and it works, but leaves her with just herself, pyro and lockheed to fight back.. and we get one of the best marvel fight scenes in recent history as a result. I’m only showing what’s necessary, but I can’t resisit a few choice shots

The fight as you can see is fast paced, fun, and uses kitty’s powers in creative ways we haven’t seen in some time. It’s been a LONG time since her powers weren’t boiled down to “I can’t be hurt” and “I can disrupt tech by phasing through it” and it is GLORIOUS, with Lolli’s art utterly shining and promising more tasty action and creative fights to come. Also i’d be remiss if I left this out

KItty using lockheed to give pyro a boost and blow away the Calvary. Our heroes win the day, save the grateful mutants the group had been holding from the gulag, and send them home, with all three deciding to stick with her: Pyro because it’s fun and because as established he’s pissed at Xavier and Mags for using him as a lab animal, and Iceman  out of loyalty. With that Kitty has one of the mutants presence pull out her phone and gives one hell of a series, and team, tagline...

The issue closes out with a nice little scene where Kitty asks storm to join her. And while storm, understandably given the last mutant group of maurders caused aforementioned massacre, not crazy about the name, she affirms her loyalty to her old friend’s new cause.. and to her in this beautiful line of dialogue. 

And with that, Kate takes Emma up on her offer and we get a great group shot to close us out. 

Well okay not entirely. Like in powers of x we get some plot revant gossip from bar sinsiter. Mostly just foreshadowing for the future.. that emma may of asked someone before storm, a clan of racists in hoods, and some “red tides” at hellfire bay. nothing to dig into much.  Final Thoughts: An excellent start that I hope keeps going like this. Marauders is one of my faviorite kinds of comics: a quirky team, loads of laughs and great likeable characters. Pyro is an easy faviorite and the book took Kitty from creators pet for Benids and Guggenhiem into new territory while building on what Claremont, Ellis and Whedon started. It’s also a welcome breath of fresh air after the more plot based house and powers to have more character focused stories and reactions to Krakoa and see the world build as we see how the globe is taking the Mutants new status. An excellent addition to what hickman has built. If you liked this follow me for more as i’ll be reviewing X-Men #1 sometime soon, Excalibur #1 next week, and more fun stuff and if there’s something you’d like me to review you can slip me a fiver to commission me for it. Until we meet again my fair muties. 

[introvert-traveler]

Feminist Talk

I can’t believe there are still women out there who think there isn’t a gender bias, that there’s no sexism out there, and that there’s no need for feminism.

So far, there are at least three types of people who think feminism isn’t needed:

1) Sexist People: those who commit the sexism itself, who take advantage of it and want to continue doing it. Those who commit rape and think they should own women’s bodies.

2) Priviliged People: those who aren’t really affected by it, and because of it, they invalidate other people’s experiences.

3) Uneducated Non-Deniers: those who thing we shouldn’t center it on gender, and it should just be centered on who deserves’s being there. Those who think there isn’t a need for more female directors, that if they aren’t being given opportunities, it’s because they aren’t as good.

And then there are those who believe in the feminist causes, but are afraid of being called feminist. The ones that are confused due to the extremist feminists, the ones that think men shouldn’t be equal to women (the term for that in Spanish would be hembrismo -sadly, there isn’t a word for it in English- since they don’t believe in equality, and I don’t think that it’s real feminism).

So to anyone that it’s invalidating other people’s experiences, or that’s confused about why should they care:

I think the passion for this subject comes after a person experiences patriarchal or sexist situations, maybe in terrible ways, maybe in more subtle scenes, and discovers that it shouldn’t be normal or natural, and that they weren’t heard.

And maybe you are lucky, or you can just ignore it, or you are really privileged and never lived through that.

Maybe you aren’t saying that there isn’t a lack of equality, or that women’s are treated equally to men. Maybe you aren’t saying that Feminist are liars in that aspect, or you aren’t denying people’s experiences, at least not mostly, even if the problem is that the reason they aren’t given chances it’s because of the gender bias, which is why it’s gender centered fight.

I think a thing I should mention, defending why there is a need for feminism and a gender centered discussion: feminicidios. Feminicides in English according to google. Though the closest I could find is this description “Gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific gender. The term is related to the general concepts of assault and murder against victims due to their gender”.

In Argentina, last year, there were at least 290 feminicidios (female murders) by 25 of November 2019. 290 Women that were killed by a lover, an ex lover or someone rejected by them. That is one every 29hs or so, If I’m doing the maths right. (And If no other death occurred after the date or publication, which is the last public information I could find about it).

At least 3529 women were killed during 2018 in 25 latin countries. That’s 9.6 women per day. In Italy there has been at least 15 Female-gender-centered-Murder by today’s available information (12th of February of 2020). And there is so much more information available out there, all a person has to do is do a small google research, and millions of statistics will pop up.

I never mentioned that I was an administrative assistant for over a year and a half in a domestic violence office, when I worked for a public organization. While I was there, I saw how women were treated, how scared they were, and how the media, the police and the justice system handled those cases. I saw how women got killed for being women all the time.

For making choices, for standing up and saying no, for trying to get away. The cases of men being killed by their partners were so low, when it happened that one girl killed her boyfriend out of jealousy in Argentina, it made national news and people still talk about it today (Nahir Galarza), because it generally doesn’t happen -so they wanted to use it as a point against feminism, but unlike femicidios that were so many the list never ended, the male version of that list was way shorter. There is a gender bias against women, which is why it ends up centering on gender. Why we need to center on gender talk.

While I was in my birth country, I lived in fear of being kidnapped, of being raped, mugged or killed. I was scared of sexual harassment, of being catcalled, of being followed, drugged, groped, or any other situation. I was afraid constantly. I was paranoid, and I didn’t know ho much it affected my everyday life till I moved to Denmark, saw how safe it was, and a weight I hadn’t known how heavy it was, dropped from my shoulders. I’m not gonna say rapes and sexual harassment doesn’t happen here, it definitely does, I still need to be careful, but now I can walk down the street at night and feel safer. I can go out and hope reasonably I’ll get back home.

So when I say I get sad thinking about this, It’s because I know how scary it is, how victims aren’t listened, how numbers grow every year, and there is a gender disparity. I’m quoting the most brutal thing: being murdered because of their gender. But it happens in so many other ways, there isn’t just one way in which gender bias and discrimination (sexism) affects women’s.

In Argentina it’s harder to find a job if you are a woman because you can get pregnant, or because they don’t think you are smart enough. And Men constantly deny women’s experiences. When I was sexually harassed, my superiors didn’t think it was real harassment, they didn’t agree with my views and thought that I was just making a scene, yet I was lucky that my boss still defended me, when not everyone was. I had a colleague who had to quit after reporting a boss for harassment. So I was extremely affected by patriarchy and sexism all my life.

You can’t define something by calling it by it’s negative, you can’t construct a concept and make it know and believable if you only call it by “not-this”. The absence of peace is not “not-peace”, it’s war (and this is a concept from 1984 -which I might be translating it wrong-) “In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” wrote G. Orwell.

Feminism is needed, for as long as women have to prove their worth constantly in way men’s aren’t asked to do. For as long that we can provide at least 8 names of women who should have been nominated for an award, where no woman was. For as long as women are told that their stories aren’t true, that there isn’t a need for them. For as long as there is a lack of representation. For as long as men are also being affected by patriarchy. For as long as equality isn’t real. We ask to be given the same chances and opportunities. We ask to be considered for stuff and not be told no because of our gender.

We want to be given opportunities despite our gender. Maternal and paternal leaves, equally shared responsibility for a kid, equal chances at a job, equal reparesentation in media for all genders of all sexual orientations. We want trans rights and lgtbqia+ rights. We want ovarian-owner’s right to choose what’s best for their bothers. And to stop xenophobia and transphobic and any other kind of gender/sexuality/nationalities related phobia.

We want equality for everyone. And if you believe that, then you are a feminist.

TERFs DO NOT INTERACT.

[definitely-not-hosni-moubarak]

Yup, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got myself in this situation. Well, it all started 38 years ago when I was still known as Hosni Mubarak, Vice President of Egypt. At age 53, I came into the presidency days after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, I myself was lucky to miss the bullets.. And the next 6 assassination attempts. I was all like:

Yeah, I used to hit the gym every morning, nbd.💪🏽😌 

During my entire presidency, I kept the country under strict emergency law, giving me, the state, full power of arrest and basic freedoms. Why? Well, I argued that such a law was necessary to combat Islamist terrorism, for which the threat came in waves during my presidency. This draconian law allowed me to enact heavy punishments for even small offenses, like gatherings bigger than five people. “How could it go wrong?” I thought. I had established myself as a long-trusted Western ally, you should have seen the handshakes Bill and I had. Just look:

I was telling him how ol’ boomer here (why yes I am very well acquainted with your young hip slang) was gonna turn off the internet for my people in a few years.. We don’t need to talk about how that ended up. 

My relationship with the west was cemented as I played a heavy role in the negotiating of the 1979 Camp David peace agreement signing with Israel. They needed me as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestine conflict. But that sent all the Islamist extremists my way, and thus, my people’s way, insert emergency law. I had to imprison many of the Muslim Brotherhood members and whether or not torture took place in the jails…

(It did)

But that’s not all I did, to stay in power; I was also fighting powerful opposition movements back home by using my security forces to fight dissidents. Genius right? But for some reason, my citizens didn’t really seem to like that and started protesting my presidency. 

Inspired by the Tunisian revolution, Egyptian activists started using social media like Facebook and Twitter to raise their voice and spread their word. What was I to do? Use social media to my advantage and spread my own propaganda? No don’t be silly, I don’t know how to work that. Instead, in January of 2011, I decided to sever internet access for them and forced companies to send out pro-regime propaganda to my citizens. If media was how they were gaining power, then all I had to do was take it away, and my loyal followers had a better and more effective way of spreading their love and allegiance to me, they put out posters and flyers, they’re so smart and innovative. But the internet blackout only lasted 5 days and only seemed to make matters worse. More activist started taking to the streets and protesting.

Protests erupted on January 25th, 2011 and Tahrir Square was being overtaken by protesters, claiming to be fighting “poverty, corruption, unemployment and autocratic rule.”  But did they have to be so mean about it? I mean just look at these signs:

.. 5’6” is a completely average height, that’s just rude and If they wanted me gone they could’ve just politely @ed me on twi- oh wait.

Furthermore, an activist group by the name of "We Rebuild" somehow connected to the Swedish internet, which was out of reach of Egyptian authorities and made an Egyptian Wiki that had step by step instructions on how Egyptian activists can get back online and stay connected. So my attempts were futile. 

Taking away the screen from their fingertips was truly the biggest mistake I made as president. On February 1st, 2011, after protests boomed through my lands, and military support was dissipating with my commander-in-chief leaving office, I very graciously, completely on my own accord, announced that I will not stand for re-election in September. But still, they were not happy, they demanded nothing less than my resignation. 9 days later I announce that I will give my presidency to my vice president, but still stay in power until the re-election. The next day Vice President Omar Suleiman announces that I’m giving the Military Supreme Council of Armed Forces full authority to run my country’s affairs and look how well that ended up for you.

And that’s how we get to me in this picture

As soon as I transfer my power, they’re trying to press all these charges against me like I ever did anything wrong in my presidency. They accuse me of horrendous acts (that I totally committed) such as conspiring with the police to kill 846 protesters during the revolution. “Negligence for failing to halt the killing of peaceful protesters”, they say. They sentenced me to life in prison, I mean if it was true (which it was) would they have later dropped the charges in January of 2013? And as if they haven’t put me through enough, in 2014 I get charged with

I mean they call it “embezzlement” and “corruption” for using public funds, I call it expanding my Cairo family estate cause I’m a good father and husband, you pick what you think sounds better. I was then later released on March 24th, 2017, and looking at the state all I can say is, some things never change. Citizens who fought for my overthrow, now numbed by the political turmoil, show little more than acquiesce. After all that, all those charges, still I stand here a free man, with my student now running the country, what more could the people really expect? Naive to think they’d make real change. 5 years after the uprising, the government had yet to fulfill the promises of the uprising. Egypt’s first democratic election, in 2012, which proceeded me, ended with a coup-d’état of the Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, who took part in the Muslim Brotherhood. General el-Sisi also suspended Morsi's 2012 Egyptian constitution, which attempted to further embed Islam into the constitustion, stating "The principles of Islamic law form the main source of legislation." Now, my former Director of Military Intelligence, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, stands as president. On the day of Morsi’s removal from office, el-Sisi cleared the Muslim Brotherhood protesters from central Cairo with his security forces. What would come to be known as the Rabaa massacre, lead to 817 documented death, with the estimated toll being over a thousand, signaling that no further uprisings will be tolerated. Unlike me, el-Sisi used social media to his advantage, he used it to crack down on journalists and dissidents. Oh, but he gets to stay in power. Anyways if you’re wondering where I am now, well, I'm in my upscale home in in Heliopolis, Cairo and I be chillin like a villain.

[nancywheelxr]

1 for the ways to say "I love you", with Winndox

Hey! Okay, this is by far my favorite prompt list, so thank you.

(  1 -  Holding their hands when they are shaking )

Winn knew from the moment he left that nothing would be the same when he came back. Like, he had no delusions thinking nothing would change.

But a country in the brink of a civil war is so not what he had expected.

Seriously, is no one worried about the whole Nazi vibe going on here?

And Supergirl being fired, what’s up with that?

There is so much going on, it’s terribly overwhelming in the worst possible way, and Winn feels like he’s always struggling to catch up before something bad happens. Except, it’s already kinda happening, isn’t it?

“As you all know, effective immediately, it will be tolerated nothing but full transparency from all government agencies,” Colonel Haley, or, as Winn prefers to call her, Colonel Umbridge, announces, and he sees Alex clenching her jaw beside her. “That being said, this is not a witch hunt. I do not want to fire any more agents, what happened with Supergirl is an exception, not the rule.”

Is she for real? Winn scoffs, rolling his eyes, because this is the definition of a witch hunt, okay? It doesn’t stop being one just because she went up there and said so, that’s not how this works. Alex glares at him, and fine, yeah, stay on the down low, he knows. But man, he saved the future, he fought Brainy’s evil family, okay, he should get more than a get back to work from Umbridge over there.

Talking about Brainy, Winn glances at him, standing stiffly beside him. He’s still using his personal image inducer, and his hands are clenched at his side like he’s trying very hard to keep them that way. Winn sort of gets why he decided to stay a little longer, why Brainy would want to see this through, Alex did tell him what happened at the pizza place, after all, but it doesn’t make it any easier to stand here and watch with worry nagging at him to do something.

( Something like maybe stay inside Winn’s apartment, locked safely inside with blankets and hot chocolate and anything else Brainy might possibly want, watching movies until the world goes back to normal. )

But that’s not the kind of thing Winn likes to dwell on.

Because here’s the thing, Winn doesn’t have exactly a great track with crushes. Or timing, for that matter. Look at this time around, he went to the future! While Brainy stayed in the past! Like some goddamn space odyssey, it’s ridiculous really.

“But,” Colonel Haley continues like she isn’t about to dig herself a deeper grave, “on the spirit of transparency and good faith, any and all alien employees must come forward until the end of the day. Your contract will not be terminated, you will only be required to wear this on your right shoulder,” she holds up a red patch for them all to see, “so the public can know what you are.”

Okay, this is just– they’re not even trying to hide it anymore! “Isn’t this dangerous?” And shit, right, he hadn’t meant to speak out loud, but now the Colonel is watching him like a particularly blood-thirsty hawk and the words are still spilling from his mouth because Winn has never been really good at being quiet. “For them, I mean. With this whole Agent of Liberty thing going on?”

Alex is fiercely glaring at him like never before, if looks could kill, Winn would be so, so dead by now. She glares some more, before turning to her superior, a not very good fake smile on her face. “What Agent Schott meant to ask, ma’am, is if we wouldn’t be encouraging extremist actions with things like this?”

That’s one way to put it, Winn supposes. Colonel Haley scoffs, dismissive, “not at all. With Agent of Liberty in custody, his organization is over. We cut off the head, now we let it bleed out on its own.” She smiles with a mouth full of sharp teeth that glint in the artificial light, “it’s a right of every citizen to know who is working on their government. Besides, it will be good press, won’t it? If they see an alien saving their life?”

The last sentence is said so flippantly that Winn can see Alex going through all five stages of grief and using up all her strength to stop herself from throttling their oh-so-dear superior officer.

“You’re all dismissed,” she waves them off, calling back before stalking to her office, “and remember– until the end of the day, agents.”

The door slams shut, echoing like a gunshot.

Everyone more or less scatters, going back to their stations like nothing’s wrong, and it makes Winn feel a tiny bit better when he glimpses Alex marching down after military Umbridge with hellfire in her eyes and brimstone on her steps.

A crashing sound beside him snaps Winn back to reality. “My apologies,” Brainy hastily throws his way, bending down to pick up a fallen– yeah, no, Winn has no idea what that is. He’s going with ‘random piece of tech’. “I seem to be a little clumsy today.”

Brainy isn’t very good at making up things on the spot, and even if his fingers hadn’t been shaking so noticeably as he places the cube-shaped thing back on his desk, his face would still be as see-through as glass. For someone who’s part-robot, Brainy has a terrible poker face.

Or maybe, Winn is just good at knowing him.

“Hey,” he says, sitting down heavily in the chair beside him, spinning until he can face Brainy and their knees are touching. “You okay, man?”

“What? Oh, yes. Yes, I am, thank you,” Brainy nods, but his eyes follow Winn’s gaze, darting quickly back up, and his hands wrap around the cube as if the anxiety wouldn’t exist as long as they didn’t see the shaking. “Now if you don’t mind, I have a few things I need to work on–”

“Brainy,” Winn starts, pausing to look around, check if anyone’s listening in, but no one’s paying attention to them. Still, he lowers his voice anyway. God knows these walls have freakishly good ears. “Look, I know things are scary right now, and Colonel Haley is really going for the whole fascist dictator thing, but you don’t have to be fine all the time, okay? No one’s gonna blame you for being freaked out.”

There’s a moment of silence where Brainy doesn’t say anything, looking down at the cube on his hands like it holds the answer for all of their questions. “I– thank you,” he finally says, clearing his throat before whispering back, “I will admit I have not decided yet on the best course of action, because, you see, I believe the Colonel got a hold of something to disrupt out personal image inducers. If this is true, then perhaps coming forward would be preferable.”

Shit. That’s– that’s fucked up on a whole new level. “What? Oh my– oh my god. Is that even legal? And didn’t Lena fix whatever bug it had to make it hacker-proof?”

“Yes,” Brainy nods, scanning the room again for eavesdroppers, and leans in closer, “she did, and we already went over the code twice since then. There is no way to bypass security. No, whatever this is, it must work in a different way.”

Winn frowns, ignoring the fluttering going on somewhere between his heart and his guts. “Maybe, if we figure out how this thing works, we can beat it, so you won’t have to out yourself. We let people know, so no one has to.”

Brainy blinks, looking at Winn with a surprise that would be kind of hurtful if it wasn’t so tinted with pride and adoration. It makes his heart go rabbit-quick and tastes a lot like hope. “Yes, why didn’t I– no matter, this could actually work. Winn, will you work with me on this? I cannot be trusted to act on the best of my abilities, I’m afraid the events of this morning have compromised me more than I’d initially expected.” A pause, “and moreover, I find that your presence is quite… enjoyable.”

His mouth dries in the time that it takes to process Brainy’s last words, and Winn can only nod in response. Around them, the room is nearly empty, as everyone leaves for lunch and the next agents haven’t arrived yet for the change of shifts, only a few scattered people still packing their things. Without the worry for evesdroppers, they could ease back a little, lean away from each other, but Brainy doesn’t seem to mind sharing his personal space in this case.

“It is settled, then,” he continues, “but we should do this somewhere else. The Colonel will already be on high alert until her deadline is over.”

“We could ask Lena, I’m sure L-Corp has a few labs to spare,” Winn grins, feeling victory drumming underneath his skin, “we have a little over six hours to figure this out,” and then, because Brainy still looks a little wavering on his certainty, Winn carefully extricates the tech cube from his white-knuckled hold, covering his hands with his own when they tremble without something to cling to. And then, because it’s so easy and Winn can’t think of a good enough reason not to, he entwines their fingers together, feeling the shaking echoing on his bones, his thumb brushing soothing circles on the back of Brainy’s hands. “Hey, don’t worry, okay? We will figure something out.”

Brainy nods, smiling a shaky sort of smile but with eyes shining with courage. He squeezes Winn’s hands back. “I know we will.”

[originaljediinjeans]

MCU Rewatch: “Black Panther” (2018)

Summary: *Deep thematic discussion,* “lol that thing is cute,” “I love Shuri”, “wait a minute, I’m white, am I the bad guy?” *Shameless Killmonger shaming* *Bucky angst* “Seriously what is up in Wakanda?” *more deep thematic discussion* “look at this and this random cute stuff” *more Bucky angst* “White Gary Stu is an important character, in this essay I will--” *tries not to get into discussing racial issues that I know nothing about* *fails*

Actually, Okoye and W’kabi already DO have a kid: it’s the rhino!!!!! XD

Young T’challa in the prologue asking his father about the story of how Wakanda came to be and why they hide from the outside world--that is a kid trying to understand why the world is the way it is. And that is something that T’challa is still trying to grasp when we fast forward to present day. Even then, T’challa’s experiences in Civil War have already opened his eyes to the struggles in the outside world and the suffering of innocent people.

King T’chaka is VERY imposing in that flashback scene

The issue of Bucky Barnes is palpable in the subtext of the conversation between Nakia, Okoye, and T’challa when they bring Everett back with them from Korea, if nowhere else in the film. Anyone seeing BP for the first time after CACW would be aware of the context. Obviously Barnes is not a concern to them at the moment because he is on cryo and has one arm. Okoye probably had an easier time swallowing T’challa wanting to help Bucky because he was a fugitive who would not be safer anywhere else and he was framed for a crime he did not commit, aka killing the previous king. She might have thought it was fair, in fact, for T’challa to make reprimands for attempting to murder the poor thing.  Everett Ross is a white man also but in completely different circumstances that Okoye very pointedly outlines: he is a foreign intel operative, and if they let him live and leave Wakanda then he will tell the rest of the world what they saw there (unless the Wakandans have some kind of brainwashing tech of their own--maybe they’re too humane for that but why wouldn’t they? Or just leave Everett unconscious in Shuri’s lab until he recovers and then when he’s ready take him outside the border and leave him there to wake up). Okoye is basically saying, “Look, T’challa, Barnes was one thing, helping this guy is a terrible idea because he is more likely to betray us if we let him live.” But to Nakia and T’challa it makes no difference: Everett is a human being, if they have the means and resources to help Everett recover then they should help. Is a person’s life really worth less than an entire country’s safety? Shuri’s jibe “another broken white boy” serves to burst the bubble of that tension.

No, seriously, T’challa put the kimoyo bead into Everett’s wound and offered to take him to Wakanda and Okoye’s face was like WHAT

I’m just gonna call him Everett to differentiate him from Thunderbolt Ross. Maybe Everett the Leveret.

Okoye doesn’t care who she kills. She serves her country and whoever in her mind is legally the king. Anyone who is a threat to the throne that she is sworn to protect she will kill--”Without question.” It’s not that she doesn’t value life, but she values her oath as a member of the Dora Millaje. Her country, her people, her monarch: those are her priorities. 

But would she have been happy afterward about if if she had been forced to kill her own husband? Clearly she was conflicted about working for Killmonger, and as soon as she found a loophole she broke ranks and took all the Dora Millaje with her. She does not want to support a monarch who will cause Wakanda to commit needless bloodshed in the rest of the world. The other Dora Millaje saw how ruthlessly Killmonger murdered Zuri and then threw T’challa off the waterfall: they are not here for it.

If the new king of Wakanda wants to get into international relief, then Okoye will stand by her king. 

*smh* T’challa and Nakia flirting on the job. I’m not saying they shouldn’t do it. By all means, continue.

Just putting this out there: a film or mini-series about Nakia or Wakanda’s foreign operatives would be pretty sweet

Also, it’s nice to see Lupita N’yongo and Andy Serkis in roles that aren’t motion-captured. They are both incredible actors and having them did so much for this film.

The assault and robbery at the museum in London must have taken at least weeks of planning. 

I like how Queen Ramona wears a full-length gown with a fuller skirt to T’challa’s coronation. It’s still African in decoration but it’s a little more “European” than what everyone else is wearing. I guess in Wakanda the queen has the luxury of wearing a dress with that kind of skirt. 

Dealing with the loss of close family members is a theme throughout the film. The main Wakandan characters put aside their grief for King T’chaka for T’challa’s coronation, and I assume it was healing for T’challa to see his father again on the ancestral plain. But learning about his father’s covered mistakes shakes his perception of what his father was and how he ruled--how all the kings and queens before him ruled. And he has to address his grief again. T’challa decides that the best way forward for himself and his county is to change how Wakanda does things with the outside world. 

I don’t really like Shuri’s upgraded suit for T’challa. The purple nano-energy is kind of unsettling, or maybe I just don’t like how it looks against the black. I also don’t like how it tears up whatever clothes T’challa is wearing. But I understand why she did it.

On that note, Shuri is a princess, and that is WHY she has the time to do whatever she wants, and I just think it’s fun that she used her time to further her education during her teen years and go into technology research. It’s kind of like how modern royalty are advocates for the arts and certain pasttimes, but on the next level.

Apparently, some of Shuri’s technological advances (esp. the trains in the vibranium mine) have been pretty recent.

Also, Shuri is a multi-tasker, and she’s probably always working on six or seven projects at a time. And she’s not afraid to do more. She starts on one, puts it aside to work on another, and while she switches between tasks she thinks about how to do the others. This girl is...way ahead of everyone. Especially me. But I’d love to be friends with her. IDK how to make her not see that I’m just another “colonizer” but I’ll figure it out.

“Shuri calling people “GENIUS!” when they get on her nerves. 

She’s territorial about her lab.

Another point about Shuri: other Wakandans’ kimoyo beads might have a certain set of functions, but Shuri probably programmed hers to sync to everything she touches

My dad commented while watching that the potion that strips away the power of the heart-shaped herb is “nasty stuff.” No shucks, Sherlock. 

Gosh, I hate Killmonger. He is so smug, he is so condescending to everyone he meets. He is so convinced that he’s right that when he first enters the throne room he acts like he’s already won the challenge and become the king. He only wants to build a “Wakandan Empire” to satisfy his own angst--how much does he even care about his “brothers and sisters”? He is convinced that every person in the world is his enemy. EVERY. PERSON. Including me. Including T’challa. Including the aunt and cousin he’s never met. Including the white guy in the fridge he doesn’t know about. Erik is next-level messed up. He’s just the worst.

(I’m white--am I supposed to take the discourse that “white people are evil” personally?) 

“Hey Auntie.” Every time I hear that line I want to break through the fourth wall and slap him.

I mean, only a really heartless person would not feel sorry for the trauma that Erik went through when he lost his dad. And deep down, I sympathize with Killmonger’s anger, and I have such a rigid way of thinking that I admit that I am tempted to wonder about righting the world’s wrongs with violent means. Is he right that white colonizers ruined the world for Africans? Yes. But no, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves the whole world blind and toothless.” Punishing the “class” of people who have “wronged” the “oppressed” only furthers the cycle of pain and suffering. And pain and suffering are not limited by wealth and status and nationality. Solving the world’s problems isn’t about putting others down, it is about pulling people up and letting them heal. That is why T’challa’s strategy of international outreach is the right one. 

Which is why the post-credit scene with Bucky is actually relevant to the film as a whole: he was the first person in need that T’challa and Shuri were able to give to. T’challa choosing to help Bucky paved the way for  deciding to share Wakanda’s resources with the less fortunate in the world. 

(I’m saying that to myself like I’m angry that Bucky is there at all. It’s called having a mental illness that wants to destroy the things I care about the most. Like there’s this demon in my brain that wants to agree with the extremists who think that Bucky and Everett were “valued” more than Killmonger. Killmonger let himself die because he had the same outlook that all white people are scum and refused to open himself to the possibility that he was wrong--unlike T’challa.)  

“This movie vilifies African-Americans and puts native Africans on a pedestal.” SCREW THAT CRAP. Killmonger was as much a victim as he was a villain. And T’challa and his entire country got called out for not helping other people of African descent across the world. Gosh *rrrgh* 

Having the heir to the throne available to be challenged by the heirs of the other tribal leaders was part of the inter-tribal agreement of how to govern Wakanda. It’s supposed to make it “fair” to the different groups, including the Jabari. That probably implies that the tribal council members are interrelated to each other and the royal family since the monarch has been chosen from different ruling families and they would have intermarried to keep their status--the fact that T’challa has an on and off relationship with the daughter of the River Tribe chief kind of validates that theory. Which tribes were Ramona and T’chaka part of? I’m curious.

I’m not sure how much contact the Jabari have with the rest of Wakanda but I’ll bet M’baku enjoys sending the reigning monarch passive-aggressive letters or something like that. 

I am a huge fan of T’challa’s black robe that he wears on his first day as king.

I really hope the heart-shaped herb grows in the wild

(I wonder if average Wakandans have access to the heart-shaped herb, maybe for medicinal uses)

It is interesting how falling asleep into the trance from the heart-shaped herb is depicted as having flashbacks to the death of the new king’s predecessor/father. It’s kind of like falling asleep IRL and your subconscious slowly takes over.

T’challa dragging M’baku to the edge of the waterfall during their fight was a gutsy move. But I still think T’challa is a Hufflepuff.

T’challa does not like to compromise. It’s kind of unsettling to watch him talking to Everett in their first two scenes: it’s like T’challa thinks he is dictating actual reality while Everett still insists on what is real. 

Yeah, Everett, I hate 80s music too. Klaue probably listens to some real garbage.

I hate that they had to kill off such a great villain and he was being so villainous, but I think the screenwriters felt like that was the only way the Wakandans would let Killmonger into their country, War Dog tattoo or not.

I am just...really soft for the border tribe rhinos, okay?

I’m not sure how much Ulysses Klaue is pretending to be crazy and how much he’s been actually off his rocker since Ultron tore off his arm but after this viewing I’m pretty sure it’s mostly pretending. It is convincing, though.

Did W’kabi ever get counseling after his parents’ deaths?

...actually, does Wakanda even HAVE psychotherapy/counseling like the rest of the world does? Or do they count on technology and medicines to fix all our mental health and emotional problems? You’d think they would have counseling. You’d think they have everything we have except better, but what if they don’t? You’d think that could have been an option for Bucky, except he was so afraid of being triggered by his own shadow. 

I have, like, a lot of questions just about how things are done in Wakanda in general

Like they have access to foreign films and the rest of the world’s internet. The world just can’t tap into them. They see us but we can’t see them. Wakandans know what the outside world is like but they don’t bother about getting on the same page.

T’challa and Shuri are a great team, I want to see them in action together more in the future

I like the jacket that Okoye wears in Korea

In all fairness, Everett Ross is used to being the man in charge, and T’challa is a challenge to his authority. From T’challa’s perspective, he is rude and abrasive, but that’s why he does what he does. Even though T’challa is the king of another country, that doesn’t change anything in Everett’s playbook. Everett acts the way he was trained: he tries to speak up because it’s his job to inform people about his interpretation of the situation, he helps out Okoye and Nakia during the car chase but that’s because he’s after Klaue too so he might as well. He volunteers to help overthrow Killmonger--”hey, you’re going to need all the help you can get”--because he knows as well as the others that if Killmonger can carry out his plan then it could create a global catastrophe. His background info on Erik Stevens informs T’challa and company that Killmonger was not a good person, nor did he have good intentions being in Wakanda.

I don’t really like how Shuri kind of puts Everett down: “broken white boy”, “colonizer,” “I know everything about you plus I’m smarter than you so you do as I tell you because you’re a stupid outsider”. I get it, it’s supposed to be justice for hundreds of years of white people treating Africans like this. So me being white, naturally, it makes me uncomfortable. But I don’t see why it’s nice, even if it is cute. It’s like she’s treating him like a pet hamster, or a rabbit or a hare...a baby hare...a leveret.

How am I supposed to know that Shuri doesn’t see Bucky Barnes as just another fun science project? Or just a favor she’s doing for her brother? That’s my jealousy talking, but I think those are questions worth asking.

I’m glad that Shuri recognizes Everett’s skill as a pilot. But she barely explains to him what he’s supposed to do when they arrive in the laboratory--and then she and Nakia hurry off to change into their battle costumes (and Shuri does her hair and makeup, too). Did they not go over the plan in detail and explain things to the noob beforehand?

Zuri had a lot of survivor’s guilt. I don’t blame him but it’s still really sad. You didn’t have to do that, sir.

Even if the Jabari did eat white people, Everett Ross would be just a snack to them.

I kind of like the casual button-up outfit that Everett wears for most of his Wakanda scenes. I think that’s the sort of thing I’d like to see Bucky wearing while he’s in Wakanda

My mom says that in the scene where we see T’challa reenter the throne room she saw M’Baku in there. Really? Was Everett Ross there too? 

M’baku is a much nicer person than we give him credit for being. But he really is kind of a drama queen. An he’s just rude. He’s cool but like, come on, man. 

Seriously, when he teases Everett about eating him, Ramona, Nakia, and Shuri all give M’baku a look like, “Dude, he’s with us, not now. This isn’t helping.” : /

I’m definitely sticking around for the Black Panther sequel to see how M’baku and W’kabi continue to complicate or uncomplicate things for T’challa

I love how T’challa was shown taking the time processing the news that his father had killed his uncle and how Nakia was helping him through it. It’s like Ryan Coogler understood something that the writers and directors of Captain Marvel did not...

The Queen Mother doesn’t do much in the film but she shines in the scene where she administers the herb to her son. She knows the ritual, she knows how to prepare the herb, she knows just what to do.

“We may be creating a bigger monster with M’baku.” I just LOVE that line. When I was in college I went to the English symposium, and I went to a panel on Frankenstein. One of the papers discussed the relationship between the creator and the creation, and one of the examples the author used was Iron Man 2 and the relationship between Tony Stark and the “monster” that his father created. And the theme runs through the entire MCU and here Ramona Says the Thing Out Loud and it’s amazing.

Golly, that must’ve been a fun hike, up steep trails and slippery ice to Jabariland with a white guy who has no idea what’s going on and thinks he needs to be in charge. While you’re suffering from the fact that your son/brother/ex is most likely dead. Were any of the ladies tempted to just push him off a cliff? Well, I’m glad they didn’t because that wouldn’t have helped their cause.

OR MAYBE: Everett, because he is a nice person, helps the ladies climb up the steep, secret mountain trails safely, he lets them lead the way because clearly he doesn’t know his way around; he and Shuri help Ramona out because she is older, even with Wakandan treatments for aging joints and arthritis she’s still a little stiff, and Ramona tells him “Thank you” and looks him in the eyes when she does so. He catches Nakia when she slips on ice, “Thank you, but I am sure I can take care of myself.” “I know you can, ma’am. Just watch your step.” Everett wishes he and the others had better hiking gear and warm coats instead of just blankets. Shuri and Nakia catch Everett when he falls at least twice: he’s still recovering from his gunshot wound, and the altitude is getting to him. Everett and the three women don’t talk that much while they are hiking, they hold hands and pull each other up while going up the steeper trails. Getting up the mountain takes a team effort and Everett is a part of it.

Nakia; “You know, Okoye wanted to just leave you to die.”    Everett: “That’s comforting.”

Of course I get the symbolism of Killmonger and T’challa fighting in the vibranium mine--that mine is literally everything that Wakanda is built on. 

“Please stay--I know a way you can still fulfill your calling.” Nakia is like, okay, I’m not sure I believe you, lemme just kiss you.” T’challa is so soft I can’t even.

It is so cool that there are so many female lead characters that are powerful and influential. AND they’re warriors, how cool is that? I respect Nakia, Shuri, and Okoye so much. I might have more in common with them than I realize. More likely, they’re the ideal I should work for. Goes to show how badly I need a sequel.

The reason I like Black Panther so much is because I am white and this film gave me a way to empathize with the black experience. One of the superpowers of fiction is to be a medium to help us discover empathy for others.

It’s like what T’challa says to Steve Rogers in the Civil War mid-credit scene: his dad and the man framed for murdering his dad were both victims of a greater evil. Skin color, wealth, political status--there is nothing that makes that commonality invalid. And T’challa knew that he and his long-lost cousin Erik had a lot in common in spite of a lifetime of not knowing about his existence.

Every character in this film has a story that is beautifully told and I am here for every single one. (Maybe not so much Killmonger and Klaue)

If it’s not too much to ask, though, please be kind to Everett Ross, he is doing his best. He didn’t have to help T’challa take back his country, but it was his job anyway and he knew what T’challa and Nakia and Shuri were up against. (Plus they needed a gosh-darn pilot). T’challa, Nakia, and Shuri refusing his assistance because he was an ignorant outsider would have defeated the entire point of the the story. He is a better person for his experience in Wakanda, and the world is a better place for T’challa having saved his life at all. Everett is, at the very least, a role model for stepping up.

Everett also reminds me of a smol and determined epaulette shark--but then again, he’s played by the same actor who played Bilbo Baggins. 

I GUESS some feedback on this post would be helpful. There are some parts where I need to be more blunt about my perspective in order to express my thoughts. Also my feelings about Bucky are kind of not in a good place right now.