#i don't care how hard you jack it to america: there's stupid people here. because there's stupid people everywhere.

[lea-andres]

Trash Roommate, in the middle of one of his sadly daily bigoted rants: All Americans are smart enough to not use dirty needles in the year 2024!

Me:

[brassandblue]

From here with @maroonhigh

CW mentions of drug rehab & mental illness

Arthur watched as Alfred touched, moved, and disturbed things that weren't his to disturb, then bring him tea and water, and-- Did he even know how Arthur liked it?!-- His nerves are frayed, and it is grating.

"Would you STOP for just ONE moment?!" he snapped, loud enough to startle George, who leapt off the couch and decided that these two in the same room was not a good napping environment, and so minced indignantly right across the threshold.

Even with the weight of impatience and authority in Arthur's voice, there was just a slight crack to his utterance that spoke of the strain of his nerves and brittle temperament.

Arthur did not give Alfred time to answer.

"I don't owe you an explanation on anything, but since I know you're going to be a stubborn, nosy prat about it-- No, I did not check myself out, I am on newly prescribed-- "

--Ah. He cut himself off and shook his head. America didn't need to know that Arthur was on medications for depression. Anxiety. Trying new drugs under a doctor's supervision was a nightmarish carousel of false hope, electric nerves, and days spent dissociating.

America-- Alfred...Did Not. Need. To know.

And just like that, what little fire and bluster he'd had was extinguished with no more spirit to fuel it. He didn't want to talk about being medicated, as though something was innately wrong with him-- he'd known that for millennia now, but never wanted to actually face the cold hard reality of it.

Arthur closed his eyes again and let out a pained, annoyed sigh.

"Jack is taking care of things," he adds, far more even-toned. Jack was taking care of him, too. Arthur wasn't sure where he'd be without his old friend, his capital, and it was a thought he had no desire to entertain.

"Not that it's your business. It's not like you ever visited," he said dryly. "And God forbid you have the courtesy to not fucking touch everything after barging in here, probably didn't even wash your hands! Can't even say hello, or ask me how I'm feeling."

And then, to the crux of Arthur's angst regarding his former protégé: "I know I am a washed-up failure, but the least you could do is stop and--and just-- listen."

Truthfully, he'd never actually asked for those things--at least, not directly. Because doing so would betray that England-- No, Arthur--himself longed for a friendship that did not leave him wanting. He dared not open his eyes, for fear that America would see his vulnerabiliity and the aching desire for a friend, despite feeling down t his marrow he didn't deserve one.

The problem was, Alfred was one of the very few people on the planet who could understand how stupid and tragic and complicated their lives were. But Arthur felt like too much of a coward to ever ask.

[maguro13-2]

HOW VENUS AND MARS PREDICTED CLIMATE CHANGE?

Venus : Okay, Mars. We're all inhabitant, we got fresh water, totally great, not a bit too shabby. We're all good, all good. So, what's become of this planet of me and Mars, all in this together.

Mars : Of course. There's nothing like two planets being inhabitable with all this fresh resource of ours. It's no big of a deal that we are all natural and beautiful!

Venus : You said it!

*SIZZLING*

Venus : Hey, Mars. I'm feeling hot...I'm being roasted...are you being cooked?

Mars : No, why tho?

*SAMURAI JACK SFX : Shine*

Earth : Oh God! My eyes! Venus! You're too bright!

Mars : What the-?

*Sonic 3/3D Blast Sfx : Flame Shield*

Mars : Oh no! I've turned red! Oh that stupid sun! Why does it do that! Climate change! We planets are getting climate change! They're volcanoes coming out of me!

Venus : So do I!

Mercury : Oh God! Why is everything so hot!?

Venus : This is not what I expected!

Mars : Damn you, Sun! You gave us the Greenhouse Effect! You gaves us, CLIMATE CHANGE!!! ["Climate Change" is echoed]

*scenario ends*

Minako : So you see, Rei. Venus and Mars you used to their natural beauties since the Sun has dashed it all away with heat that made them a barren wasteland and that's how the two planets got their climate temperatures maxed out.

Rei : Indeed a fascinating story, you got there. I'm impressed that how Venus and Mars got our climates together, it's not that I care about. I'm sure that Earth is fine without us dealing with the climate changes. It would even hurt a fly since the moon was born about over a year.

Usagi : Of course, guys! That's a great interesting story you got there, but I think you forgot that climate change on earth is happening right now in America!

*THUNDER CRASHING+STRONG WIND BLOWING*

Rei : What!?...Damn it!

Minako : No wonder America is being devastated and ordealing with storms! Talk about a huge misunderstanding about Earth's climate being a total wreckage by humanity's stubborness!

Ami : Hopefully, this would all feel better if America was ordealing with the storms that devastated it's own people and land! Just because's america is a opened land that has a storm-filled ordeal and people we're too stupid to realize that all farms, towns, and great cities on the east coast are being devastated and also floods, floods of bad wheather from the planet's climate.

Makoto : This is the real reason America couldn't be that strong if it has an ordeal with storms every single time! Does anybody told me that who doesn't believe in God, I think that's a theory!

Ami : You think!?

Usagi : Oh boy! This is going to get messy!

Minako : HERE COMES THE STORM!

*later...*

Usagi : Well, the storms may have devastated everything, but the farmers who raged against it had their crops saved. Also, the storm that tried to obliterate just mistakenly ate our clothes.

Minako : (scoffs) You think so?

Rei : Why did we even bother saying no to "Climate Change"? If only Venus and Mars had their land back that was natural beauty in the past, this planet's climate would never waste any preacious beauty in America, storms like this in the country has ruined everybody's lives and destroying those who worked so hard on the farms, and it's because of one thing that human stubborness has effected the planet.

Minako & Rei : [together] Greenhouse Effect! Jinx!

Ami : Okay...Well, I guess that the Solar System's temperature explains a lot.

Makoto : Gladly to agree.

Usagi : Hahahaha! Okay...Let's get out of here before anyone sees us naked!

Minako : Right.

(the girls sneakily escapes while covering their selves)

Usagi : Don't worry, it'll just go off immediately, their's fresh, tons of land to travel, nothing to see here, just doing our business!

Minako : Don't forget, you owe me that Greenhouse stuff from Venus and Mars.

Rei : Like that'll ever happen.

*Door opening*

America : (with a goofy voice) Hey, everyone. *door closes* I finally survived the chaotic storms that everyone has been ordealing with. I survived it all! Who's laughing now that humanity's an arrogant species, stupids!? I'm getting the last laugh now! (door suddenly falls on him, crushing him) Oww! I get everyone's point now! I'll make sure that I know how to stop this stupid ordeal of mine! Tell it to the West Coast! That'll make their life easier!

[yournintendogsaredead]

I've been thinking a lot about sports and how significant they are. The times in my life where I felt most /alive/ have been when something as silly as a game has hung in the balance.

I'll never forget the feeling of real heartbreak every time my hometown hockey team would come so close only to lose their steam too soon. We were St. Louis Blues fans so that feeling was familiar. So was the anger and disbelief of having a game or the season ended by a bad call or a blown play.

But more than that I'll never forget how powerfully happy I felt watching my emotionally stunted brother cry as our team made it to the finals for the first time in our lives. As two St. Louis kids on rival teams determined the game. And I'll never forget the elation we felt when our dad grabbed us both and our mom cried as our team WON the Stanley Cup. It was a culmination of two and a half decades as a hockey family. Of staying up late watching games and going to every player meet and greet. Of knowing every inch of a game we had dedicated much of our lives to.

In theory our hockey obsession was stupid. We were all staking our family identity on a silly game. But the game meant so much to us, and to lots of people like us.

Sports have always elicited stronger reactions than on the surface they should. And that's made them a hotbed for controversy. We see the best of us in the athletes we idolize. Maybe that's why seeing athletes have their own opinions that we may or may not agree with is so hard for some. You get paid to make me feel good, not examine racial injustice that I'll never experience.

I don't think anyone was surprised to start hearing "Shut up and dribble." After all Collin Kaepernick had publicly lost his entire career and became a right wing boogey man after he simply kneeled for an anthem in a sign of protest.

With every athlete who chooses any form of protest, no matter how unobtrusive, people will tell them that it's not their place. Sports are escapism and politics have no place in that arena. But because sports elicit so much passion, political issues have always been a part of that world.

Growing up Miracle was my favourite movie. It still is. I can still quote the speech by heart after a few drinks. And now because I'm an opinionated woman who spends a lot of time in hockey spaces, lately I've been arguing with people I've dubbed the hockey bros about the many NHLers who have chosen to protest in various forms since the death of George Floyd. These hockey bros all have the same arguments, always about how politics should stay out of hockey because it's their escape. Nevermind that the black athletes they're angry with don't get that option.

A day after one of these arguments the same page was hosting a debate on the best hockey movies. I was surprised to see that one of the bros I had been debating agreed that Miracle was the best. He went on to talk about the inspiring story behind it and how it's the greatest moment in sports history. I had to agree, but I couldn't wrap my head around his obvious blindspot.

The miracle on ice was inherently political. A semifinal game is more memorable than the gold medal game because of the politics of the time. Nobody truly cared about beating Finland. They cared about a bunch of scrappy college kids beating athletes that were technically CCCP soldiers.

But it's not just Miracle and it's not just hockey. Since Greece sports have been an outlet for social and political protest. Here some of my favourites.

The Dodgers integrating shouldn't have been a political issue, but it was. And at the time the same type of people protested having politics shoved into their escapism.

John Thompson took his own heat when he walked off a court to protest a new NCAA rule that targeted disenfranchised athletes.

Battle of the Sexes. Need I say more?

Arthur Ashe making a statement by choosing to play tennis in Apartheid South Africa.

Carlos Delgado famously refused to stand for God Bless America because he didn't believe in the war in Iraq.

The Syracuse 8. 9 black men who sat out of their 1970 season, some giving up NFL prospects, to bring equality to their program.

Peter O’Connor, an Irish long jumper had gone to Greece believing he was representing Ireland, but when he got there, he was told there would be no Irish team, just one from Great Britain. So as the Union Jack was raised for him, he climbed the flagpole as teammate Con Leahy stood guard and hung a smuggled flag with a gold harp, shamrocks and the words “Erin Go Bragh,” Ireland for Eternity.

And of course the one that everyone who has made it this far through my rant is thinking.

There you have it. Politics and sports have always been and will always be linked because sports are a cultural outlet for change. Athletes are real people, and sometimes we forget that their purpose is not our entrainment. Silly games that were created out of boredom are now some of the healthiest expressions of emotion our society has embraced. And because of that passions run high. It's okay to not agree with athletes or even how they choose to protest.

But it is not okay to reduce them. Athletes are not JUST guys who play a game well. They have life experiences to share and opinions to impart. It's part of why we love sports so much. Why we let them become our identities. And why we'll never stop arguing about them.